The crushing defeat of the cavalry and the destruction of the artillery battalion made all the officers and soldiers of the German army aware of the danger of the situation, and they consciously accelerated the speed of the march without Hasler's order, and as soon as they arrived at Sanderton, they inexplicably fell into the encirclement of the Qing army, and suffered heavy losses one after another, and the morale of the entire army had fallen to the bottom, and they only hoped to escape from the encirclement of the Qing army as soon as possible.

Hasler, who was riding on a horse and following the troops, had a gloomy face and did not say a word, he could never have imagined that the Qing army would be so bold and dare to take the initiative to attack when the troops were at a disadvantage, and set a trap to annihilate his well-armed 6,000 strikers in one fell swoop.

Is it that the Qing army is so powerful that they don't take them seriously at all? Or did the Qing military get the news first and have already massively increased their troops in the Transvaal? If it is the former, at least there is still a chance, no matter how strong the Qing army is, after all, the strength is limited, and it is impossible to stop the 100,000 coalition troops, but if it is the latter, the situation of the entire expeditionary force is very dangerous, however, it is impossible to transmit information now, and the cable telegraph line has long been cut.

A hurried sound of horses' hooves came from behind him, and when he turned around his horse, he saw a dozen fast horses galloping towards him, and at the front was a rickety ensign, who reined in his horse, and planted his horse before he could say a word.

After asking the soldiers who followed, they learned the details of the destruction of the artillery battalion, the Qing army's artillery range was at least about 10 kilometers, and the rate of fire was fast, and the power of the shells was also very huge, a shell could cover at least a range of 50 or 60 meters, in addition, the artillery and cavalry cooperated very tacitly, as soon as the shelling was over, the cavalry rushed to the front, and the entire artillery battalion was wiped out without firing, and only a dozen of them escaped.

It seems that the artillery technology of the Qing army is also advancing by leaps and bounds, and it is still holding them down steadily, and Hasler's heart is heavy, and his face is even more gloomy.

Hou Degui rode on the horse and quietly looked at the long black dots that kept moving in front of him, more than 300 cavalry scattered around him in twos and threes, the cavalry in order to save the physical strength of the horses have been dismounted, with the soybeans they carry to feed the horses, a group of machine gunners are in the race against time to dig trenches, even the simplest trenches, can greatly reduce casualties, all the infantry have developed the habit of digging trenches anytime and anywhere, and the sapper shovel has also become a must-have for the infantry.

A horse galloped over, and Hou Degui's side whispered a few words, Hou Degui's tense expression immediately relaxed, and then turned the horse's head and said loudly: "No need to dig." Seeing the machine gunners, he raised his chin, "It's too late, we can't stop it with our manpower." The brigade commander ordered us to evacuate temporarily."

Hearing this, all the machine gunners breathed a sigh of relief, and threw away the sapper shovels one after another to breathe, but in fact, everyone knew in their hearts that it was impossible to stop the footsteps of more than 30,000 German troops with their firepower, but the military orders were like mountains, and no one dared to disobey them knowing that they could not do it.

"Don't rest, the enemy is already only three kilometers away from us, hurry up!" Hou Degui said and shouted: "Get on the horse!" ”

The main force of the German army rushed out of the encirclement as desired, but it was bitten by the cavalry of the Qing army, which ran on two legs over four legs, if the two cavalry battalions were still there, it was enough to expel them, and now there were only less than 200 cavalry left, and the other side had a new light machine gun, so they could only let the other party follow from a distance.

Hasler is also helpless about this, at this time they are like prey being targeted by a group of African wolves, there is no way but to flee desperately, try to drag until dark, only after dragging, they have a sustenance.

Two hours later, when he found that more and more large forces appeared behind him and on the right side, Hasler reluctantly issued an order to build a position on the spot, marching for days, and today it was in a state of marching and rapid marching all day, people were tired and tired of horses and horses were already down to the extreme, if they could get rid of the Qing army far away, maybe they could still escape in one go, when they found that they could not escape, the only remaining faith in their hearts suddenly collapsed, however, under the threat of death, all officers and soldiers still mustered up the last remaining strength to build a position and prepare for the final decisive battle.

Just after six o'clock, the 252nd Brigade had already caught up, and the brigade commander Chen Baicun did not rush to launch an attack, but called the headquarters to report to the headquarters first, in his opinion, the German army was already meat in its mouth, and could not run away at all, if it launched an attack because of greed for merit, and there were large casualties, the gains would outweigh the losses. Sure enough, the command command's order was also for them to wait on the spot.

When it was dark, the 251st Brigade also arrived, and several flares fell on the German position, reflecting the position of Nuoda as if it were day, and then several shells fell on the east side of the German position from far and near, and soon, there was a terrifying whistling of shells in the sky, and a series of explosions sounded on the east side of the position, and the dim sky was filled with a suffocating smell of gunsmoke.

Hasler quickly judged that there were at least 30 or more large-caliber guns, and the artillery position was at least 4,000 meters away, "The Qing army is a demonstration...... Frank's tone was full of desperation, and the word surrender rolled in his mouth, and finally swallowed it.

Hasler was like a mirror in his heart, how could he not know that this battle could not be fought, the army had been running for a whole day, from top to bottom they were tired like dogs, the cavalry was gone, the artillery camp was gone, in the face of such a powerful artillery fire of the Qing army, he could not muster the confidence and courage to resist at all, let alone resist, now he didn't even have the courage to escape, and he didn't have the chance to escape at all.

He even faintly regretted it, he knew that this was the result, he should have resisted on the spot at that time, at least there was a chance to fight with the Qing army in a dignified manner, even if the whole army was annihilated, it could consume some of the strength of the Qing army, and he could also find out the combat power of the Qing army, so as not to be like now.

The decision to surrender can only be made by him, Hasler did not dare to hesitate, he did not know how much patience the Qing army had, he did not dare to know that a round of artillery bombardment like Fang Cai would inevitably cause huge casualties, there was no need to increase casualties, and the Qing army had always treated prisoners of war quite favorably.

"We've done our best." Hasler said simply: "Send someone to negotiate with the Qing army and surrender!" ”

Shanghai, Zhennan Wangfu, Changle Book House.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Yi Zhizu walked into the study with his front foot, Zhao Liewen and Yan Yangtian followed in, and after seeing the salute, Yan Yangtian handed over a telegram with a smile on his face, "The Standton victory, capturing more than 5,000 German soldiers in one fell swoop, and the casualties did not exceed 100, which is really a rare victory." ”

"There are no dogs in Humen." Zhao Liewen said with a smile: "This battle has been a majestic ........ ”

After reading the telegram, Yi Zhizhi smiled and said: "This victory in this battle is Feng Zicai's ability, and it is just a name." After a pause, he continued: "Temporarily take the captives to Maputo for hard labor, the old rule, do not support idlers. ”

In response, Yan Yang said genius: "Feng Zicai reported that the German army has 77 mm rapid-fire guns, as well as machine guns that are not inferior to Makqin heavy machine guns, although they have lost 6,000 forwards, but their strength still exists, after this setback, they must be cautious, Standton battle, I am afraid that it will be difficult to win quickly, the Kimberley coalition army has been dispatched, and Fort John is afraid that it is dangerous." ”

"Fort John doesn't have to die." Yi Zhizhi said disapprehantly: "Call back, once you can't resist, allow you to evacuate." ”

Zhao Liewen hesitated and said, "The big treasurer intends to let the coalition forces capture Fort John?" ”

Yi Zhishu said slowly: "Fort John's reputation is very famous, and there are many newspapers in various countries to publicize it, but the reports in the newspapers are only numbers after all, let them occupy the real mining for a few months, and they will be desperate to increase their troops in South Africa." ”

Yan Yangtian's spirits perked up, "Execute Plan B? ”

"Yes!" Yi Zhizhi nodded, "Instead of fighting a painless battle, it is better to fight a ruthless battle in exchange for twenty or thirty years of peace, so that they will always be worried." After a pause, he admonished, "Block the news." ”

"Yes!" Yan Yangtian stood up and replied loudly.

Yi Zhizhi said: "Tell Feng Zicai that the German army is also good at artillery warfare, and when fighting with the German army, it is not only necessary to be good at taking advantage of the range advantage of artillery, but also to give full play to the advantages of flexible mobility of 20 mortars." ”

Stedton, Qing Army Battalion, Headquarters.

The first battle was successful, and he didn't get a good night's sleep for a few days, and Yi Zhengxing, who waited until the middle of the night last night, had a rare good night's sleep, and didn't get up until three o'clock in the afternoon. ”

Seeing him frowning, Yi Zhengxing couldn't help but feel strange, and when he took the telegram and looked at it, he couldn't help but smile, "General Feng doesn't understand why he wants to give up John's Fort?" ”

"Your Highness Mingjian." Feng Zicai said softly: "The main fleet will arrive in Maputo in a few days, and Maputo has a railway with Fort John, so it can completely hold the ....... Fort John." Speaking of this, he hesitated: "The main fleet will not be delayed, right?" ”

Yi Zhengxing smiled and didn't break it, "This is a good thing, General Feng doesn't need to worry." ”

Meddlesome? Feng Zicai was confused, what could be a good thing about the loss of John's Fort? The other party didn't want to say more, he didn't want to ask, don't care about the safety of John's Castle, he can fight the battle of Standton wholeheartedly, which is indeed a good thing.

Feng Zicai was confused, Frederick. Karl was frightened and suspicious, Hasler's six thousand strikers suddenly cut off communication contact, which was definitely not a good thing, realizing that the strikers were in danger, he not only ordered to speed up the march, but also personally led a division to break away from the main force and march to ask for help.

However, the more he moved forward, the more frightened he became, and when he arrived at a place about forty kilometers away from Sanderton, he didn't dare to move forward, but camped on the spot, it was really weird, there was no news or any movement from the six thousand forwards, and all the sentinels sent out had gone and never returned, he knew very well what it meant, the six thousand forwards had been wiped out!