Dongfeng Po didn't know that the enemy had become a mess, and Hu Kui, who had also been besieged for a week, didn't know that the Qing army had almost collapsed.

The shouts of killing outside shook the sky, but he didn't dare to send people out to kill them, but only dared to sit on the city gate tower and watch the battle.

The periphery Dongfeng Po met the cavalry battalion cavalry looking for cavalry troops, and got that the cavalry had chased the Qing army in the other direction, and there was basically no enemy here, so he took the soldiers and horses of the division headquarters to Huailai County, and encountered a fleeing Qing army on the way, the two sides fought in the middle of the night, defeated the enemy, and Dongfeng Po continued to arrive at Huailai County with the soldiers and horses of the division.

Hu Kui knew that outside the city was the 16th Field Division, immediately opened the city gate to let the division's soldiers and horses in, personally greeted Dongfeng Po, the two people were ashamed of this battle after meeting, a battle to annihilate the last resistance of the Qing army in a good situation, but both soldiers and horses were surrounded by the enemy, Dongfeng Po struggled to break through, Hu Kui They did not have many soldiers and horses, the combat power was too small, except for the artillery brigade directly under the corps and a regiment with good combat effectiveness, the other troops were heavy logistics, reconnaissance and other soldiers and horses.

"How many soldiers are left?" Hu Kui asked Dongfeng Po.

"There are probably more than 3,000 soldiers and horses, if you add the cavalry regiment's possible 6,000 soldiers and horses, or maybe more than 4,000 soldiers and horses, it can't be said that the cavalry regiment came to rescue you, and they didn't come in, I'm really ashamed that they didn't rescue you."

Dongfeng Po blamed himself very much.

Hu Kui patted his arm, "What do you say, they are all old brothers, and you are also surrounded, you can send people and horses to rescue us, brother, I am still very grateful to you, your cavalry regiment did a good job this time, if they were not contained on the periphery, we are afraid that the enemy would have broken through the city," Hu Kui said as he walked, "You don't know, the Qing army learned that we use the people as cannon fodder, charge with green battalion soldiers, and attack the city day and night, from last night to the first half of this evening, they have been attacking for thirty-six hours in a row, Less than half an hour after the withdrawal, you called and caught them off guard. ”

Dongfeng Po asked, "What do you lose?" ”

Hu Kui shook his head helplessly, "More than 6,000 Han regular field army soldiers and horses, even cooking, blowing trumpets, my orderlies count, a total of more than 4,000 dead and wounded, slightly less artillery, those young and strong people in the city killed and wounded more than 20,000 people, captured soldiers killed more than 8,000 people, others into the servant army, the servant army killed and wounded more than 8,000 people, if you don't come again, I have no troops here, counting the newly recruited people, but more than 6,000 soldiers and horses." ”

"It's so severe, I thought you could hold on for a little longer, and I was thinking of going back to the rear to find soldiers and horses to rescue you, but fortunately I personally led the troops here tonight. Otherwise, this would have been the first victory of great significance for the Qing army, which successfully annihilated our corps headquarters. Dongfeng Po laughed.

Hu Kui punched him, "You kid, curse me to death, aren't you good to be the commander of this corps?" ”

The two of them made a few jokes, and then turned back to the topic, "Why do you say our people are so slow to respond this time?" We've been holding on for almost half a month, and the soldiers and horses who rescued us haven't come over yet? Dongfeng asked suspiciously.

Hu Kui said: "We are surrounded, carrier pigeons can't fly out, the Qing army plays this better than us, there are eagles in the sky, hunting dogs on the ground, and Mongolian cavalry around them, whether we are walking from the sky, or the enemy sends people to break through and report the news, they are intercepted by the enemy, so the messenger can't get out, I can't see it, the Qing army plays this set is very good." ”

"Report, there is a cavalry force in the south of the city that is surrounded, and it is our soldiers and horses who are surrounded according to the situation," a major staff officer ran over and reported loudly.

Dongfeng Po hurriedly rode to the city gate tower, Hu Kui took his personal guards to follow, the two people hurriedly went up to the city gate tower, the city gate tower has been destroyed by the enemy's artillery, but it is still higher than the city wall, the two people stood on the ruins of the city gate tower and raised their binoculars to look at the place, in the morning light of the dawn that gradually turned white, the two people saw that there was a small group of cavalry over there, surrounded by hundreds of Mongolian cavalry, and there were swarms of Qing infantry around where to go.

Hu Kui hurriedly said to the guards beside him: "Order the artillery to open artillery to support where." Fight the surrounding Qing soldiers. ”

Dongfeng Po's attention was not there, he saw that in the faint light of torches around him, the Qing army was in chaos everywhere, and there were cavalry of the Huaxia Army or small groups of soldiers and horses of the Huaxia Army fighting with the Qing army everywhere, and the Qing army was fighting with the Huaxia army, there was no organization at all, he hesitated for a while, and then said to Hu Kui: "Commander, how many soldiers and horses can be mobilized here?" ”

Hu Kui thought for a while, "There are about two thousand soldiers in battle, what is the matter?" ”

Dongfeng Podao: "I want to take people out to kill and rescue the troops outside the city, my three brigades are still fighting." They have not yet been given the order to retreat. "This is also because Dongfeng Po was too anxious to meet with the corps headquarters, so after entering the city, he forgot to send troops to notify other combat troops to come back.

Dongfeng broke the inventory of the division headquarters and the wounded soldiers and civilians who withdrew with the division headquarters, and he was able to come up with 1,500 troops.

"Go and order all the soldiers of the field division who can fight to gather here, be sure to hurry." Dongfeng broke his own personal defense.

The small force of cavalry, after fighting the enemy, finally broke through the encirclement and fled in the other direction, but the Mongol cavalry pursued them in the same direction, but seventy or eighty men, and the Mongol cavalry pursued them closely.

Hu Kui said to Dongfeng: "Brother, think twice, we have this little strength left now, if we put it in, even if we can kill and injure the enemy a lot, it will also lose the last soldiers and horses defending the city, the gains outweigh the losses, with our soldiers and horses, at least we can hold for a day or two, I see that the General Staff is slow to react, and now the rescue soldiers and horses should also be on the way, before being surrounded, I sent five waves of cavalry back to find rescuers." ”

Dongfeng Po's words shattered his dream, "Over there in Zhangjiakou, we fought with the Qing soldiers led by Duolong for more than a week, killing and wounding more than 100,000 of them, but they still have more than 200,000 soldiers and horses, and the real casualties are actually the people nearby, as well as the village courage and regimental courage of those Han landlords and squires, as well as the green battalion soldiers and horses that they don't pay attention to."

The casualties of the Han army were not too serious, and the Mongolian cavalry would not have suffered many casualties if they had not been attacked by our artillery fire several times, and the Manchu soldiers were only killed and wounded by our several raids on the camp, but their main body of soldiers and horses were still there, and there were almost no injuries, why were they able to gather so many soldiers and horses this time?

Because they learned from us to catch artillery fire, that is to say, when we have a small number of troops, even if we bring a servant army, the dead and wounded are our real combat effectiveness, and the others are all cannon fodder, and the regular soldiers and horses of the Qing army are actually not many, our 16th field division has more than 15,000 soldiers and horses, plus more than 6,000 soldiers and horses in your corps headquarters, the regular soldiers and horses are actually only a little more, and the servants are only more than 100,000 soldiers and horses.

And how many enemies are there?

They can use the nearby people and village warriors at any time, Tuan Yong to form a hundred thousand soldiers and horses, we will always be consumed, we are attacking now, now the Qing army is in chaos, in fact, they can't organize how many cannon fodder to participate in the war now, what we kill now is their regular soldiers and horses, they are more dead and wounded, we can survive one more day. ”

"Okay, I'll lend you more than a hundred of my personal guards, take care." Hu Kui was convinced.

(End of chapter)