Vietnam, in a wooded area at the confluence of the Red River and the Nam Dinh River, afternoon.

Ye Jiajie stuffed cold glutinous rice dumplings into his mouth, wiped a flat ground on the ground with his feet, and then drew the general appearance of the French camp with a tree branch from memory.

"Jiajie, are you sure there are only twelve French devils?" Ye Chenglin asked.

"Yes, uncle. I stared until mid-afternoon, and I saw that after they finished lunch, there were twelve of them, yes! Ye Jiajie replied to his uncle affirmatively.

"Just twelve? Big boss, this is the opportunity God gave us, now copy the guy and go straight to it! A few anxious sentinels below Ye Chenglin shouted.

"Whatever you yell, shut up, let Lao Tzu finish asking first!" Ye Chenglin glared at his subordinates and continued to ask Ye Jiajie, "The French devils don't have things like fences, horse rejections, and antlers?" ”

"No, nothing, except here, here and here a few ditches dug here, and a few pits dug here." Ye Jiajie poked a few times on the sketch of the French camp on the ground.

"Ditch? The trench of the camp, dig it here, count it as the trench of the camp..."Hu Chenglin looked at it with a frown.

"Uncle, this ditch is not deep, I have seen it myself, and if they dig up to the French devils who can move forward, they will not dig it, at most they can allow two people to advance side by side, and the brothers with good skills can jump over." Ye Jiajie explained, "Here, here are a few pits that can allow French devils to lie in. ”

"The big boss, these things dug up by the French devils, no matter what they want to do, I think, that is, to guard against the north, east and west. But the south side is close to the Nanding River beach, they didn't bother to defend it, we can completely touch the Nanding River beach and kill them by surprise. A sentry commander under Ye Chenglin pointed to Ye Jiajie's sketch and said.

"The water is so fast these days, our boat is small, the boat is small and the waves are urgent, the guns on the boat are not accurate at all, the river beach is short and next to the camp of the French devils, and when we go up in broad daylight, aren't we being used as live targets by the French devils on the top of the hillside, which is not appropriate." Another sentry retorted.

"I didn't say that during the day, what our Black Flag Army is best at is night attack, and at night, four outposts feinted on the east, north, and west, and one sentry slipped up from the river and went straight into the camp of the French devils, which didn't cover them." The previous sentry retorted.

"Before I came, the general said that the French came here with hundreds of people, so I asked you, why are there only these twelve people here, and the rest of them are all dead?" Ye Chenglin glanced around at his subordinates, "I only know what the hell is, and when the fight is halfway, there will be hundreds of more people on the other side, and you won't eat us all alive?!" ”

Everyone didn't dare to speak, and after half a sound, Ye Jiajie whispered, "Uncle, I think that the hundreds of people you said may have left." ”

", I'm not blind, since I'm not here, of course I'm leaving." Ye Chenglin angrily reprimanded, "The question is where are they now?" ”

"Uncle, I mean they may have taken a boat and left, you see," Ye Jiajie drew on the ground again, "There is a small trestle bridge to the Nanding River on the southwest side of the French devil's camp, and there is a lot of garbage on the river beach next to this trestle and the road connecting the camp, as if it has been discarded indiscriminately. Moreover, the gate of Nandingcheng County has always been closed, which means that the French have not beaten down, and it is impossible for these people to be in Nandingcheng. ”

Ye Jiajie looked at his uncle, and then continued to preach cautiously, "If the French devils bypass Nanding and go north to Hanoi, then we will collide last night." If they had gone to Hanoi by boat, we would have met them during the day yesterday, but we didn't meet them, so it was only a possibility, and they would have gone back by boat. ”

"Big boss, what Jiajie said makes sense!" Someone agreed.

"Every time the French devils come to Hanoi, they come by boat, we didn't meet yesterday during the day, and we marched along the Red River last night and didn't hear the sound of the French devils' steamboats. Someone agreed, after obviously thinking about it.

"If the French are gone, not all of them are gone, what are you doing here with these few?" Someone questioned.

"Fuck it, why are you staying here for what! If you want me to say that there are only twelve people, we have more than 500 brothers in a battalion, Fei Na thing, just copy the guy and do it, it's not over! Someone shouted.

"The big boss, no matter why the French devils left this little person, but one thing is certain, they are a piece of meat in our eyes! If we don't hurry up, when the general comes, the other five battalions won't grab this piece of meat from us, and then we'll see it slip away in vain! "Someone reasoned with Ye Chenglin Xiaozhi.

"The big boss, the Vietnamese said, a Frenchman's head is seventy taels of silver! How can I say that the opposite side is also more than 700 taels! "There is a golden light in someone's eyes.

"Uncle, our Chengzi battalion is the firearms battalion of the Black Flag Army, and my post has just been replaced with a new gun, and there are twelve people on the opposite side, so our firepower can definitely eat them. If you don't fight this face now, and wait for the general's army to come, your face won't look good. Ye Jiajie also persuaded.

"If you don't fight, when the time comes, where will it be spread to other battalions, our brothers will have no face!" The crowd shouted again.

"Lao Tzu said he wouldn't fight! Less fucking fart here. Ye Chenglin stood up, grabbed the branch in Ye Jiajie's hand, pointed to the French camp on the ground and said, "From now on, the whole army will give me enough spirit, prepare for the battle at the ugly time tomorrow (two o'clock in the morning), set off at three o'clock in the morning, and attack at the right time (four o'clock in the morning)." ”

Then Ye Chenglin said while drawing, "Li Da, your sentry is from the north, Zhang Si and Liu Mazi, you two sentry are from the east." After they started, Chen San, your whistle gave me a boat ride from the river beach. Jiajie, your whistle is a backup, follow behind Zhang Si and Liu Mazi, as long as the French devil shows a flaw, you will plug it in for me. Remember, be fast, be ruthless, and be fierce! ”

"Order!"

Ensign Tyric stood in the setting sun, looking with satisfaction at his defensive position on a small dirt slope beside the bank of the Nanding River, a practical application of the latest knowledge of trench defense at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. After the Crimea and the Franco-Prussian War suffered a large number of casualties, the Saint-Cyr Military Academy actively promoted the reform of new military doctrine, although there were many brain-opening ideas, but the trench theory was a breakthrough in the direction of military defense skills.

The small trenches from north to east are simple but sturdy. Bunkers, firing points, entrances and exits and even drainage ditches are readily available, and the trenches follow the polygonal trend of the terrain, which can facilitate the soldiers to move in all directions to support on the one hand, and on the other hand, they can take good care of the shooting angles of all aspects, and the depth of the trenches is just enough to meet the requirements of the subordinates when shooting standing and kneeling.

Several foxholes were scattered on both flanks of the trenches, forming the fulcrum of fire on the flanks, and the tunnels were dug out to form a circular breastwall, and the drainage ditches were also meticulously prepared in accordance with the requirements of the French Army Soldier's Manual.

The hillside within the shooting range has been cleared of overgrown trees and overly tall weeds. It's the dry season in Vietnam, and the dry branches and overly tall weeds are collected, piled up under the hillsides and doused with kerosene for emergencies.

As for the south side of the hillside, in the direction of the Nanding River beach, he only arranged for a foxhole to deal with it. The main reason is that after he inspected the river beach on the spot, he found that the river beach on the north bank of the Nanding River is by no means as calm as it seems, in fact, this river beach is a black quagmire that can swallow people at any time.

Ever since he arrived outside Nanding County eight days ago, Teric has been actively preparing for the battle. After the outlaw mercenaries were disbanded and retreated to Saigon, Tyrek had a premonition of the storm before the war, he knew that he had been outside the city of Nanding for eight days, and it was impossible for the Black Flag Army not to know about his existence, and according to the experience of dealing with the Black Flag Army for two years, a death match between the two sides would be inevitable.

Taking advantage of the afterglow of the sunset, Terek and his men once again practiced how to deal with the enemy's possible attack methods and their own counterattack plan, and after assigning the combatants and reserves, and arranging the guard sentry, the Terric team rested early.

Night is falling and time is ticking.

Everything was as Ye Chenglin planned, Chengzi Battalion got up when it was ugly, and sorted out the equipment in the slight moonlight without igniting the fire, and after the soldiers of the Black Flag Army hastily ate a few cold glutinous rice dumplings in the cold water of the Red River, the whole army set off according to the predetermined plan.

Li Da's post went first, and the troop marched slightly to the northwest, detouring back to the north of the French along the city of Nandingxian County.

Ye Chenglin, Zhang Si, Liu Mazi and Ye Jiajie's sentinel later set off westward, heading straight to the east of the French.

Chen San's troops climbed into the boat smoothly, and after waiting for the gunshots to go down, they went down the Nanding River and penetrated into the heart of the French army.

At seven o'clock, the moon was still hanging in the sky, but when it was time to set off, the moonlight disappeared completely. Fortunately, the Chengzi battalion was accustomed to night raids, and the whole army felt dark and quietly walked on the road to the camp of the French.

Approaching the presidency, the outposts of the Chengzi battalion were finally approaching the French camp as planned. After walking in the dark with bated breath for nearly half an hour, he was about to complete the scheduled march plan, which made many people breathe a sigh of relief. Now everyone waited for the signal of the Chinese army to come later, and then rushed up together to kill the French.

The war was about to start, Ye Jiajie, a soldier at this sentry, pushed the bullet into the chamber of Lin Mingdeng's needle gun early as he walked, and then carefully touched his pocket, just caring about not letting himself lose any precious bullets, but he didn't pay attention to his feet at all, and suddenly the branch on the ground grabbed him fiercely, making him fall heavily on the ground with a gun.

A "pop" gunfire suddenly pierced the silent night sky outside Nanding City.