The battle ended smoothly, and more than thirty special forces equipped to the teeth faced more than three hundred enemies without any suspense. The difference was almost a century of combat concepts, in which the enemy was attacked unguarded, and the only heavy firepower, the heavy machine gun, was placed in the warehouse and was not taken out for use until the end of the battle.

"Snipers, perimeter alert. The rest of the personnel maintained labor order and distributed food and other materials. Give them half an hour to sort out their meals, and then we move towards the W area. Lu Hua ordered. Point W is a assembly point more than 100 miles away from Mengzi, and according to the pre-planned plan, after the rescue of the laborers, they will be sent to Point W, and then taken over by other departments. What to do after arriving at point W is not something that the 5th Squadron needs to worry about.

The imperial court's presence near the construction site was very weak, and the sound of such a loud battle did not send anyone to check what was going on here until more than 5,000 laborers left the camp under the cover of special combat troops. As for the other construction site where the French soldiers lived, it was more than twenty kilometers away, and there were mountains to block it, so they could not hear it at all.

The Fifth Squadron traveled less than four days and more than 400 miles from the Guangxi border to Mongolia. Of course, it is impossible to go back so fast, Wangshan runs a dead horse, and the straight-line distance is not the same thing as actual walking. Moreover, the physical strength of more than 5,000 laborers was weak, and although the spirits were high, it lasted only for a while.

Five hours later, the army rested for a second time and had a little lunch—the laborers took all the contents of the camp warehouses, most of them grain and grass, and a few of them were armed with enemy weapons. Lü Hua did not advise them to carry the enemy's weapons, but the laborers rejected Lü Hua's kindness, and the humiliated days made them better understand the meaning of violence against violence.

The team walked for two and a half days without encountering any enemy, and after encountering some villages, they bought some supplies from them. Those tough villagers may have been frightened by this huge team, or maybe the special combat team was faintly targeting those villagers to make them honest, in short, there was nothing difficult for this team.

With the cooperation of the Yunnan branch of the Zhenguo Party, after more than half a month of covert construction, the W point became a large-scale secret supply point, which was built in the name of the mine and was surrounded by high walls, and hundreds of simple houses became temporary resting places for the laborers. A day later, a convoy arrived, and they arrived here via the improvised road from Baise to Wenshan. And the W point is exactly what Wenshan means.

The so-called improvised highway is nothing more than a level on the basis of a dirt road, a filling of potholes, and a certain widening in some places. As long as you can pass by truck, anyway, this road is not for long-term use, because the amount of manpower and work is not large. This is also for the sake of secrecy, and it is better to keep a low profile to engage in such activities in the enemy's territory.

More than 5,000 laborers, this batch of 100 taels of trucks could not be transported at one time, but this had nothing to do with the 5th Squadron. Because they had just received an order for the 5th Squadron to enter the construction site 50 kilometers south of Kunming and pick up the 3rd Squadron that had arrived there. There were a total of four squadrons of the special combat team that entered Yunnan, and because of the close distance, the fifth squadron was the first to complete the task and encountered the least trouble, but the other squadrons were not so lucky and encountered some trouble.

The labor rescue operation lasted for more than three months, until the rain in Yunnan became unbearable and the roads were completely cut off. In three months, the four squadrons made a total of 33 sorties to rescue 110,000 laborers. This made the Governor of the Viceroyalty of French Indochina, Du Mei, furious.

The detailed information is easy to ascertain, and from the traces of the movement of the laborers, it is possible to find out where they ended up - Guangxi, that is to say, the operation planned by the Provisional Government of Guangdong. Even if he knew who was behind the scenes, Du Mei was helpless, the military strength of the colony's army was not strong, and if a war against the Provisional Government was launched, it would be necessary to mobilize at least 100,000 troops from within the country, and Japan's fiasco had given many people a basis for reference, at least in the Far East, everyone knew that the Provisional Government was not easy to mess with, especially their army. It was not wise to start a ground war, and it was not possible to send a large army into Yunnan Province, so Du Mei had no choice but to send a telegram back home, hoping that the politicians would make a decision.

Telegrams from home soon returned, and the politicians made decisions with a speed rarely seen in normal times—this was not the right time to wage a large-scale ground war in the Far East, especially at a time when the clouds of war were gradually looming over Europe, and as France's neighbors continued to build up the Prussian army, all hoping to overcome the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War. For the Far East, it's simple, leave it alone as long as the colonies are not threatened.

This information was also obtained by the intelligence officers of the Investigation Bureau in France, and Lu Liang and others could temporarily relax and devote themselves to the upcoming Northern Expedition.

Beginning in May 1903, the smoke of gas in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Yunnan-Guizhou and other provinces gradually dissipated, and more than 200 companies sent by the Zhenguo Army rushed back one after another, and they became elite veterans of the battlefield for a long time, and enriched the original troops, becoming the mainstay of the Fourth Army and the Fifth Army.

The nearly five-month fighting has caused heavy losses to the comprador class, and the money accumulated over the years has been filled into the bottomless pit of the comprador group, and the investment in buying arms and building an army has given headaches to the compradors, who have always had deep pockets. And this kind of investment does not seem to see a return, under the joint attack of the Zhenguo Army and the local armed forces, more than half of the comprador regiment was wiped out, and the assistance promised by Wei Guangtao, the old fox, to the seventh and ninth towns of the new army is simply for show, without real contribution.

With the withdrawal of the Zhenguo Army, Wei Guangtao and the compradors breathed a sigh of relief. Wei Guangtao was actually very scared in his heart, and every night he was afraid that when he woke up, he would see the soldiers of the Zhenguo Army pointing guns at him, this was not that he was cowardly, the most dangerous time, a group of Zhen**** soldiers lurked into Nanjing City, assassinated more than a dozen compradors of secret gatherings, and retreated, which made Wei Guangtao triple the guard force in his mansion.

The imperial court and the compradors were exhausted, but they did not think that the Zhenguo army was the same as themselves, and there were still more than 100,000 troops in the three southern provinces that had not moved, just in the border area close to the north. The Liangjiang and Yunnan-Guizhou regions have achieved a rare calm, but everyone knows that such calm will not last long, and the war will be rekindled. For a court official like Wei Guangtao, such tranquility is suffocating, like waiting for death to come, not knowing if his spirit can carry it until that day comes.

As expected by the imperial court, the Zhenguo Army was in full swing preparing for the Northern Expedition. Army mobilization, logistics materials, factory adjustments, etc., just wait for the rainy season in Jiangnan to pass, and more than 100,000 troops will pour into Jiangnan and Yungui like a tide.

One of the most important preparations for the Northern Expedition was the formation of the Sixth Army of the Army, which meant that a large number of troops were needed to completely control these provinces. At present, the Zhenguo Army has five fully formed armies with a total of more than 220,000 troops, of which at least one division must be left on the border between Guangxi and Vietnam. Coastal areas, especially on the front line of Guangzhou and Huizhou, need to leave at least one division of troops. Fujian and Guangxi also need to leave at least one division of troops, so that only four corps and three separate mountain brigades are left capable of attacking and fighting.

There are not a lot of these troops, and if they are only offensive operations, they are sufficient, but they are used to stabilize the local area and consolidate order. After all, after the front-line troops entered Liangjiang, Yunnan, and Guizhou, they still had to guard against the threat of the Beiyang military bloc in the north, and it was impossible for them to all disperse in the localities to maintain law and order. This called for the Sixth Army.

The formation of the Sixth Army began in March 1903, with all the soldiers coming from the liberated laborers. After they were rescued, the provisional government gave them three routes: one was to let them go home after paying their travel expenses, the other was to work in factories, farms, breeding farms, construction sites and other places in the three provinces and regions, and the third was to enter the Zhenguo Army to join the army. Most of these laborers are young people, and only about 10 percent of them get their way home, and the rest half are willing to join the army. These people had a good foundation, much better discipline and obedience than those of peasant recruits, and they had a good physical foundation, and after a period of cultivation they regained their strength.

Compared with the high-spirited army, the navy and air force of the Zhenguo Army still seem to have no way out, they are dormant in the invisible sight of everyone, constantly accumulating strength, and only Lu Liang's orders can bring them into the sun.