After three days of intermittent fighting, the 16th Field Division finally got rid of the enemy's pursuit and fled to the mountains, and after a while, the 16th Field Division lost 6,700 soldiers and horses, and there were less than 3,000 soldiers and horses left, and only about 3,000 men were left in the three brigades, and the artillery regiment discarded some heavy artillery and advanced with only nine-pounder guns, and there were less than 400 people left.

There are more than 3,000 people with the people, the others are either killed in battle, or they have fled, or they have been captured by the Qing army, and there are still more than 10,000 captive soldiers, and the others are either killed in battle or have fled, and there are still more than 4,000 people left in the servant army, and the rest, needless to say, their total strength is still more than 20,000 people, but the combat effectiveness has dropped to the point that it is almost only five or six thousand Huaxia Army.

Several brigade commanders and regiment commanders sat in the main hall house of a rural landlord with Dongfeng Po in despair, staring widely, this was the most disastrous battle of the Huaxia Army, or their 16th Field Division fought.

There was a regiment whose strength did not break through, and the formed ones were annihilated, and even if there were still alive, they must have been captured.

Dongfeng Po knocked on the table of the Eight Immortals, and stepped on the Huanghuali official hat chair, "Don't be discouraged, how can there be a general who is always victorious and undefeated, let's talk about how we rescue the headquarters of the corps, they have also been fighting with the enemy for a week, the enemy has an estimated strength of 100,000 soldiers and horses, including 20,000 Manchu soldiers, 10,000 Mongolian cavalry, 30,000 Han army banners, 30,000 Goguryeo servant troops, and 10,000 Japanese servant troops."

You must know that the corps headquarters has a full 6,000 soldiers and horses, plus the baggage regiment, the engineer battalion, the cavalry regiment, and the servant army, at least 13,400 troops, and some young and strong people in the city to defend the city, and the strength is less than 30,000 troops. ”

He looked left and right, and the brigade commanders were all looking at him, and he continued: "With the reinforcements we sent earlier, nearly four thousand cavalry, the enemy will definitely not be able to concentrate on dealing with the corps headquarters, and now we are going to rush in and strengthen their forces, and this is another hard battle. ”

"Send someone to retrieve the soldiers and horses of the cavalry regiment,"

"The Third Brigade suffered heavy losses when your soldiers and horses were broken, and now there are only about 400 people, and you stay to protect the division headquarters, take care of the people, be responsible for transporting ammunition and supplies, and assist the artillery regiment,"

"The second brigade has more than 800 troops, and you are responsible for leading the servant army of more than 4,000 troops to serve as a diversion force. Hold back the enemy's attack on our soldiers and horses,"

"The first brigade has a lot of remaining troops, more than 1,900 troops, you are responsible for taking care of the captured soldiers, the sappers directly under the division headquarters, and the baggage soldiers will send 200 people to assist you, and you will serve as the main attack, open the enemy's encirclement, and support a protective net for the main force to enter the city."

"The cavalry company directly under the division headquarters is responsible for finding the cavalry regiment and asking them to return to the formation as soon as possible. Then take them to cover the withdrawal of the second brigade to the county seat. ”

Now Dongfeng Po doesn't have many troops to use.

And now the Huaxia Kingdom is adjusting its deployment, the second field division of the Feng Wuyu Corps has just arrived to take over the defense of the eighth field division, the two sides are still in the process of handover, the sixteenth field division sent almost a battalion of cavalry returned to Zhangjiakou County first, found that the county town has been occupied, and hurriedly broke through the encirclement and came to this side.

Dongfeng Po found out all the troops he could find, and the young and strong people who were captured, and the troops that had been incorporated into the servant army were transferred out again, led by the herald cavalry platoon of the division headquarters, with the wounded and some people who were sincerely obedient, as well as the baggage, and transferred to Cangzhou Mansion first.

The 17th Field Division of the Cangzhou Prefecture Baghyalu Corps had just defeated a counterattack by the Qing army, and sent a brigade of reinforcements to Zhao Hu's 1st Field Division, and the whole army advanced in Zhuozhou County, where Zhao Hu was located.

Now the battle line is frequently transferred, the carrier pigeon contact has long been interrupted, and the cavalry can only rely on the cavalry to send the letter, and the cavalry is easy to be intercepted by the enemy's cavalry, so this is not good on the ancient battlefield, the information is not smooth, and the parties do not know the information of other troops, so they can only guess, which tests the general's overall concept and strategic vision.

Zhang Qiang and the entire staff of the Huaxia Army actually didn't know the specific things that happened on the battlefield, and all the information was at least a week behind, because the eight-hundred-mile rush had to find the nearest safe point to the battlefield to transmit information, and the flying pigeon transmitted information was affected by the climate and natural enemies, as well as the flying pigeon itself, so that a lot of information would be lost halfway, and it took a few confirmation messages to ensure that the information was true and effective.

decided how to fight, sent troops, and Dongfeng Po had to wait.

Soon, the reconnaissance cavalry brought back the news that the cavalry battalion had returned, and that the 8th Field Division was about to enter Hebei Prefecture to fight.

This made Dongfeng Po very happy, and after he was ready the next morning, he rushed to the front line in person with all the troops that could fight at the division headquarters.

At this time, the Second Brigade had already launched an attack on the enemy in the middle of the night last night, attacking a town in the eastern part of Huailai County where the enemy was entrenched, where was the camp of the enemy's cannon fodder, and the Second Brigade chose this camp after reconnaissance.

With battle-tested servant troops to fight the enemy's cannon fodder soldiers, those undisciplined village braves, young and strong, and some demoralized green battalion soldiers, the 4,000 troops of the servant army almost maximized the combat momentum.

As soon as the six-pounder guns controlled by the Second Brigade of the Huaxia Army in the rear fired, they began to charge, and the crackling gunfire made the Qing army camp that had been fighting for a day suddenly bomb the camp.

So the battle went very well.

The two-hour battle ended in only half an hour, but it took an hour and a half to capture those village warriors and green battalion soldiers and young men, and captured 23,000 people.

The Japanese servants and the Goguryeo servants were very happy, they became the detainees, they became the main force, and the captured Han Chinese or Manchu people became cannon fodder, and they could also drive these people to attack the Qing army camp.

So without waiting for the main force of the second brigade of the Huaxia Army to arrive, they drove these soldiers and horses to attack a Qing army Han army flag camp more than ten miles away, tens of thousands of people were driven away, and the Han army's flag pipe belt was also blindfolded.

Suo Etu was dumbfounded, he heard the shouts outside, and one by one the generals rushed to his tent with disheveled collars and hats to cry that they were besieged by the enemy's army and couldn't resist.

Before he could react, several Manchu generals of the Qing army rushed in over there, who were also disgraced, their shoes were not properly worn, and some were barefoot, shouting: "My lord, my lord, my lord, the governor is coming, the enemy is coming, the enemy is coming, and there are enemies all over the mountains." ”

Suo Etu boarded the building car in the camp, raised the binoculars and looked around, it was true that the mountains were full of deserters, all enemies, all fire dragons, and he couldn't figure out how many troops the enemy had, Suo Etu was a little apprehensive, and he didn't dare to let his main force attack.

(End of chapter)