Chapter 431: Retreat

These indigenous troops had experienced this kind of scene, heavy artillery fire caused a large number of casualties, blood and limbs were scattered, looking at the horrific scene, the survivors were simply frightened, some began to vomit, some immediately threw away their weapons, desperately fled in the direction of Shiraz City. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Not only were the soldiers afraid, but even the officers had not experienced shelling on this scale, and besides, these units had not been formed for a long time, and they were still composed of personnel drawn from various tribes, and these soldiers were only loyal to their own tribes, and they had little respect for these officers at all, and the officers saw that they could not stop the soldiers from fleeing, and they also joined the ranks of the fleeing soldiers.

As they fled, they were again heavily bombarded by eight cannons from the left flank battery; These cannons are located on high ground, have a wide field of vision, and have the guidance of observers on the balloons, so that the shells can accurately fall into the dense crowd, causing more casualties.

"Boom, boom, boom....."

There was the sound of shells exploding everywhere, and every time a shell exploded, it would take the lives of many indigenous officers and soldiers.

At this time, the officers and men of these indigenous armies did not care about anything, but just blindly ran violently, as long as they ran out of the range of the enemy's artillery, they would be safe.

Seeing that the enemy was beginning to retreat, the brigade commander ordered a charge, with the cavalry in front and the infantry following behind.

The distance of 5 kilometers was not far and not close, and when the cavalry rushed forward, the enemy had already run away, leaving only a few corpses and seriously wounded who could not move on the battlefield, and the cavalry continued to pursue, and they all had to be driven into the city of Shiraz.

The defenders on the right flank battery saw that the defense line below was heavily bombarded, and the army was defeated and collapsed, and there was a collective rout, and they did not dare to continue to stay on the battery, and they were also ready to flee back to Shiraz City, otherwise they would be surrounded by the Xia Empire army that was catching up, and they did not have the courage to stick to this isolated battery.

When they saw the cavalry of the Xia Empire charge, the defenders of the fort didn't care about anything, and gave an order: "Retreat!" "The officer was the first to start fleeing.

The brigade commander and the chief of staff led the infantry to pursue the enemy's western defensive line and then stopped, and set up the headquarters on the western side of the defensive line.

The brigade commander gave the order, the 1st Wing immediately cleaned up the battlefield, the 2nd Wing built and strengthened the defensive line, the 3rd Wing sent 1 brigade to occupy the enemy's right flank battery, the remaining personnel of the 3rd Wing assisted the artillery battalion in moving the artillery position forward, and the reconnaissance company dispersed the soldiers to closely monitor the movement in the city.

It was only 5 kilometers from the defensive line to Shiraz City, and the artillery position was placed at the enemy's western defensive line to cover the entire Shiraz City.

The officers and men of the 3rd Wing successfully received the enemy's right flank battery, and the enemy fled in a hurry, not even having time to destroy, and was cheapening the mercenaries. Receiving a report from the 3rd Wing, the brigade commander ordered 10 artillery men to be sent, turn the guns and prepare for the shelling of Shiraz City.

Looking at the embarrassed appearance of the officers and soldiers who fled back, even the weapons were lost, and the big chief even had the intention of killing them, but seeing that the people who had fled back were less than half of the total number of troops, he could only sigh in frustration, wave his hand, and let them retreat.

Fortunately, the officers and soldiers of the northern and southwestern defense lines were able to evacuate safely, which gave the chief some comfort in his heart, but without artillery, this Shiraz city could not be defended anyway, and it must be evacuated immediately.

A meeting of tribal chiefs and army commanders was immediately convened to discuss the evacuation.

The Great Chief put forward his idea and was unanimously agreed by everyone, and all agreed to evacuate immediately.

The officers sent by the Russian Empire did not speak out to stop them at this time, even the strong defensive line was lost, and without the cover of artillery, this Shiraz city could not be defended, and it was not bad to save these troops, and they could fight back in the future.

As for the direction of the evacuation, there was a disagreement, and the chiefs meant to evacuate to the north, which was the fastest way to withdraw to the internal strife in the kingdom; However, the officers of the Russian Empire disagreed, and their opinion was that it was all mountainous and that the evacuation was too slow to close the distance between them and the enemy, and that the best way was to evacuate to the southeast, where the troops could march quickly, and that the inhabitants of the city could be left behind, and that it would have the effect of confusing the enemy.

None of the chiefs wanted to abandon their tribesmen, who were their property, and without them, they were nothing.

The chief thought to himself, perhaps the words of the officers of the Russian Empire were right, and in the present situation, with his men and a large number of baggage, he could not escape the pursuit of the enemy at all, and he would soon be overtaken, and another massacre; If these tribesmen are left behind, according to the tradition of the Xia Empire, they will also let these tribesmen live, and it is a big deal to be driven away, and these tribesmen themselves do not have much property, they can tell the tribesmen in advance the escape routes, and the army can wait for these tribesmen on these escape routes.

The Great Chief had made up his mind and spoke his mind, since even the Great Chief had given up his people, it would be difficult for the other chiefs to say anything, besides, this was their only chance to escape.

The supplies of the tribes were still loaded on the carts, and the horses were set up and set off; The wealth of the great chief had been secretly hidden for a long time, and he only brought a part of the grain, gold and silver, and the grain that could not be transported was directly distributed to the people in the city.

At 11 o'clock, the big chief and the chiefs of various tribes led the members of the direct family to set off, the cavalry in front of the road, the rear of the infantry hall, tens of thousands of troops set off, the sensation caused was not small, they just wanted to hide it and couldn't hide it.

In the beginning, the people of the city thought that the troops were out to fight to protect Shiraz, and they had the impression that the chieftain would not give up the great city under any circumstances, and they would not give up their people under any circumstances.

At 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the mercenaries made all preparations, and the brigade commander gave an order, and three artillery formations began shelling the city of Shiraz, and even the 65mm mountain artillery directly under the brigade also joined the ranks of the shelling.

Dense shells fell inside the city.

"Boom, boom, boom......."

The sound of violent explosions alarmed all the people in the city, and the shells overturned the houses, killing and wounding a large number of people; The explosion also caused a fire in the city, and no one bothered to put out the fire at this time, so the fire spread quickly.

At this time, there was no longer a single tribal officer or soldier in the city, and the residents of the city reacted that the chiefs had fled, no wonder the chiefs would be so generous, and would distribute food to their poor tribesmen, it turned out to be a cover for them, so that they could escape, these dignitaries were too insidious.

Ignoring the curse on the chiefs, the surviving inhabitants of the city began to flee south of the city along the route the chiefs had fled.

Huge crowds crowded the streets, scrambling to be the first to run; At the south gate of the city, people crowded together, fighting each other for the narrow exit, so that they could quickly escape from the place.

Occasionally, a shell fell in the crowd, and a large open space was immediately cleared, and the people around the bomb landing site were blown to pieces, and there would be a large number of casualties in the farther away; But at this time, no one cared about anyone, and the crowd immediately filled the empty space again.

At 12:05, a scout returned from the front and reported the situation to the brigade headquarters, and the brigade commander immediately ordered the shelling to stop; The cavalry bypassed the city of Shiraz in pursuit of the fleeing natives; The 1st Wing supported the cavalry in the direction of the advance of the cavalry units; The 2nd Wing launched a charge on the city of Shiraz and captured the city of Shiraz as soon as possible; The 3rd Wing protected the artillery battalion and brigade headquarters to advance towards Shiraz City.