In such a sunny weather, standing on the peak, you can see the slopes and the situation below the mountain several kilometers away.

So he gave orders to his subordinates: "Send out a battalion of soldiers to defeat the support army, and another battalion of soldiers to reinforce the Miao people, so that they can deal with the militia as soon as possible." The army of one of the prince's towns will arrive here when it gets dark and besiege the county seat. ”

However, the companies of the elite militia brigades that went out of the city in camouflage were changing their clothes through the mountains and forests or valleys, and then went to other places, and then scattered and turned back to the county seat.

And those who were drawn out to reinforce the Phoenix Town ferry were from other mountains or towns that he could not see, and he might be able to see one or two troops passing by, but he didn't know what to do, so he could only guess that they were going to reinforce the villages and towns that were being disturbed by them.

Skyshadow led the cavalry and infantry companies quickly towards the slope.

The cavalry company reported after a while, "General, the enemy has more than one Miao tribe, there are some cavalry, about a hundred people, and there is also a part of the enemy's infantry nearby, where is it heading, the number is about three hundred. ”

Sky Shadow said to the cavalry company who reported the message: "Your cavalry company has divided thirty horsemen to drag that infantry, don't get too close, people also have muskets in their hands, not necessarily worse than ours,"

"Okay, General." After the cavalry company cavalry left, Tianying carefully studied the terrain with a telescope, that place was too open, and the enemy was a Miao man who was good at using the terrain, and the enemy also had cavalry, which was not good, thinking that the cavalry of the militia elite brigade was also defeated by the enemy, otherwise it could hide on the hillside?

The slope of the hill is not too high, sixty or seventy meters, the slope is more than forty degrees, there is a dense jungle on the hillside, just to resist the enemy's cavalry, can help those militia find cover, those Miao people are hidden in the grass below the hillside, they can be seen faintly, the enemy's cavalry does not know where, it is estimated that they are hiding in the woods on the other side of the hillside.

The two sides suppressed the enemy with muskets, and there were hundreds of corpses under the hillside, some in the costumes of the militia troops, some in miscellaneous people wearing Miao national costumes, and some brave soldiers in the uniforms of the Qing army.

"Come, send a soldier to the woods on the left to test the attack, and draw the enemy's cavalry out,"

"The cavalry company moved to the bottom of the flank hillside and waited for an attack, and when it saw the enemy cavalry company coming out, it immediately struck into the grass on the front of the hillside."

"Infantry company, move to the bottom of the hillside on the left side to be attacked, line up on both sides of the road, and after drawing the enemy cavalry out, shoot together to defeat the enemy cavalry, and then part of the charge to the hillside, part of the formation of blocking positions, do not let the enemy's cavalry reflexively engage."

Before he finished speaking, there was a fierce gunfire in the distance, and he turned around and looked behind a few hills in the distance with his binoculars, but due to the obstruction of the mountains and hills, where the gunfire became more and more intense, there was no human figure in sight, it was estimated that the cavalry of the cavalry company and the enemy's reinforced infantry.

He turned around and continued to mobilize his men, preparing to free the militia squad.

At this time, the enemy had already discovered something, and mobilized troops and horses to intercept the soldiers and horses he sent, and the two sides opened fire on each other at a distance of several hundred meters, and a group of shouts turned out from the nearby grass and behind the cliff, the scene was a little chaotic, but after the enemy cavalry ran out, the dense gunfire suddenly rang out, and the enemy's cavalry was knocked down one after another.

After ten or so minutes, dozens of cavalry also rushed down from the hillside, and the enemy appeared one after another, shooting at the cavalry rushing down the hillside with backward muskets, and the backward muskets used iron sand and stones, so they still caused a lot of damage to the cavalry rushing down the hillside, and they couldn't hit it accurately in the distance, but in the near distance, a dozen was a large area, and even the war horses were knocked down.

At this time, the cavalry attacking from behind suddenly rushed out and rushed down the hillside from under the slope of two hundred meters, flanking the enemy's infantry on both sides, so the enemy dispersed, because the infantry was not as mobile as the cavalry, and when their old muskets did not have time to reload, and the sparse bows and arrows of the archers could not stop the cavalry company that was assaulted from behind, the enemy collapsed and fled everywhere.

"Kill," there was a neat cry from the hillside, and the militia troops on that side also rushed down the hillside and swept towards the enemy.

Celestial Shadow sat steadily on his horse, observing the battle situation with a telescope on the hillside here, constantly issuing orders, directing his troops to outflank and compress the enemy's escape route from both flanks.

The battle was over in less than half an hour, and they successfully met with the militia squad, and the commander of a hundred companies of a garrison brigade over there rushed to him on horseback to salute him, and then reported that they were surrounded.

The militia squad lost 300 men and horses, and the cavalry company lost 100 men, all of which were lost when the enemy suddenly rushed out of the mountains and forests to ambush them, and then rushed to the hillside to hold on, and sent a team of cavalry back to find reinforcements.

In half an hour, the two cavalry routed the enemy's reinforcements and returned with the prisoners.

In this battle, a total of 300 enemy Miao people were captured, more than 300 were killed, and more than 400 escaped, the enemy's infantry was killed 120 people, more than 80 people were captured, and more than 100 people escaped, and the enemy cavalry captured more than 20 people and killed about 50 people, and I don't know how many others escaped.

Here, the loss of troops brought by the Celestial Shadow was more than 70 wounded, 30 cavalry losses were killed, and more than 50 people were injured, and the casualties were still not small.

However, the cannons, mules and horses lost by the previous militia squad were recovered, and nearly 400 enemy people were captured, and the enemy's old-fashioned arquebuses and countless three-eyed guns were captured.

After counting the troops, there were more than 900 infantry, 180 cavalry, more than 30 artillerymen, and more than 150 civilians.

Celestial Shadow was now thinking about what to do, whether to go back or continue to reinforce Tenno.

Thinking about it later, it would be better to go to reinforce Tianwang Town.

So he continued to go towards Dawang Town with the combined soldiers and horses.

After walking for half an hour, the cavalry sent earlier came back, "General, the siege of Dawang Town has been lifted, the enemy has fled, Dawang Town has lost a total of more than 100 militiamen, more than 50 people, and more than 100 civilian casualties, the enemy has killed and wounded more than 80 Gurton infantry, more than 30 cavalry, they have captured more than a dozen cavalry on their side, all of them are enemy cavalry who rushed into the town, under the joint attack of the militia company, the enemy retreated, and then peeped around the town, they did not dare to come out, but an hour ago, they found that the peeping enemy cavalry was gone. ”

The Celestial Shadow is very strange, what about the enemy?

A hundred-man convoy that looked like a caravan passed by them, and Sky Shadow asked the cavalry to intercept it, only to know that it was the reinforcement of the Phoenix Ferry sent by Wan Dou Ni.

After listening to the company commander who led the troops and told him some things, he also understood Wan Douni's plan, so he said to the company commander who was wearing makeup: "You continue to carry out the mission, and we will arrive later." ”

After the team left, they advanced to Dawang Town for another half an hour, and they could already see Dawang Town from a distance, only to see that there were still wisps of gunpowder smoke floating in the sky above Dawang Town, and there were still some burning fires in a few places, and some houses that were not in the town could be seen burned, and some corpses were lying in some places.

It seems that the garrison of Dawang Town did not dare to come out to clean up the corpses and clean up the battlefield.

Looking at the sky, it was already dark, at this time, a sound of horses' hooves sounded, about twenty cavalry chased from behind, they were wearing the uniforms of the militia company, they were their own people, and they heard those people shouting from a distance: "Ruicheng is besieged by the enemy, the strength is more than 10,000, the general has an order, all the troops outside rush back to the county seat as soon as possible to reinforce the county seat." ”

(End of chapter)