mountainous jungles, which facilitate the movement of light infantry and small detachments to carry out guerrilla warfare; It is convenient to defend against danger, curb key points, and save troops; It is convenient for covert assembly and covert engagement of the enemy, and the suddenness of the battle is achieved......

The Revolutionary Army probably didn't know it all, and there were no books dedicated to mountain and jungle warfare. However, the backbone personnel of the revolutionary army were trained in Qiongzhou, and the climate and environment were relatively similar, and the adaptability was relatively strong; In light of the general environment in which the enemy is strong and we are weak, we have also carried out targeted study and drills such as raids and harassment and guerrilla attacks. Since the uprising, the recruits have been mostly local natives, and they are very familiar with the terrain and climate. There are also stragglers such as Huang Mingtang who have no teachers to fight guerrilla warfare, and they can operate in the gap between the Qing army and legal persons on the Yunnan-Vietnam and Guizhou-Yue borders, so they naturally have their tactics and ways of survival.

To sum up, when the revolutionary army was pressed by the enemy's troops, it still had preparations, foundations, and many favorable conditions for adopting tactics such as raiding and harassing and guerrilla attacks.

And the mines used are even simpler, they are grenades buried in the ground, and the firing ring is drawn away with a rope and controlled by people. Although this is somewhat dangerous for the manipulators, it is not particularly difficult to get out of the dense grass and the fact that there are comrades not far away to cover them.

Although there were not many such mines, they were extremely deterrent weapons for the Qing army, and of course they did not know the number of mines planted by the revolutionary army, so they had to be more careful and move slowly.

…………

The muzzle of the black hole slowly stretched out of the grass, moving slowly as the Qing army marched. Behind the quadruple scope is the cat's squinted eyes.

The sniper technique has unconsciously improved again, and although there are no sensational results in actual combat, he has already killed a lot of people. He may not have realized these growths, but his eyesight, his calculations. His stability, his adjustment...... The distance of more than 500 meters is already quite a remarkable achievement.

A valuable goal, the little shrimp is no longer something that a cat can satisfy. He and more than a dozen carefully selected sharpshooters were not only fortunate to receive Chen Wenqiang's guidance and training in Qiongzhou, but also because of Chen Wenqiang's arrangement. Enjoyed special treatment in the revolutionary army. They do not need to participate in ordinary battles, let alone rush into battle like ordinary soldiers, and even have a great degree of freedom in their actions, and do not have to accept too detailed orders from officers.

Of course, this is not disorganization and undiscipline, but the maximum development of the sniper's initiative under relatively relaxed conditions.

The cat is motionless, can even hear its own heartbeat clearly, and can smell the fresh smell of wild grass. Even the breath of the earth. He was well hidden, with branches and grass on his head and body, and strips of cloth wrapped around his gun, so much so that he could not tell the difference from such a distance.

He Xifan, this guy on a horse, wearing a pistol and a saber, attracted the attention of Ah Mao. He moved the muzzle of his gun slowly. Finally, the time came for a one-hit kill.

Slowly pulling the bolt, the gun slammed back. The bullets had already come out of the chamber, and before the enemy could hear the gunshots, He Xifan on the horse was slammed with a heavy fist and fell to the ground. Blood clots and foam poured out of his mouth, and bullets went into his chest, shattering countless alveoli. He was speechless and would soon be consumed by death.

The gunfire was furious, and bullets flew in the air and screamed. The Qing army did not find the attacker, but it was certain that the attacker was around. But the revenge of anger cannot damage the cat that has been hidden in the slightest.

……………

Completely unfamiliar environment. The completely unfamiliar tactical style of play made the new army extremely uncomfortable and made the patrol force tremble.

Occupied? Pushed forward? After the large group of men and horses, why are there still enemies attacking and harassing? Messengers and communications corps were intercepted and killed, baggage transports were ambushed and destroyed, and officers were killed and wounded one after another by cold guns......

He Xifan, the leader of the new military camp, was killed, and Ruan Rongfa, the leader of the baggage battalion, was seriously injured; Wang Zhengya, the commander of the patrol army, was killed, and Fang Honglun, the commander of the Ami patrol army, was seriously injured. The rest of the officers and men below the pipe band were killed and wounded nearly 100.

After successively "recovering the sea" and Shiping, the Qing army stopped advancing. Battle damage was very small in terms of the number of personnel; But from the perspective of the rank of the personnel, it is shocking. Because the so-called Kefu did not go through any fierce battles, but the revolutionary army took the initiative to give up. And it is this armed parade occupation that has killed and injured many middle and high-ranking officers.

"The terrain is complex, the mountains are dense and forested, and the rebels have sharpshooters, who are good at concealed sneak attacks, but our army is not familiar with this kind of cold gun assassination." Standard commander Zhang Jingliang frowned and touched his chin with some distress.

"Riding on a horse, carrying a command knife at his waist, anyone knows that he is an official." Yang Kaijia, the standard commander, sighed and said, "How did Tie Liang die?" There is a master like Chen Sheng in the chaotic party, can he train more sharpshooters? Supplemented by dense forests and grasses, a cold gun assassination hundreds of meters away, it is impossible to prevent it! ”

Snipers in the true modern sense of the word first appeared in World War I, when the Germans selected soldiers to form free-moving snipers, most of whom had a background as hunters and forest rangers, and inflicted heavy casualties on the British and French armies and Russians on both the eastern and western fronts.

There are two theories about the origin of snipers: one is that during the American Revolutionary War, a Major Sharp of the American Volunteer Army discovered that if bullets are wrapped in deer oil, they can not only be easily loaded, but also improve range and accuracy. He led an independent and mobile team of gunners, shooting with incredible long-range accuracy, shooting many high-ranking British officers, and repeatedly winning great victories at very small cost. As a result, people call the shooter who shoots accurately and calmly as SharpShooter.

Another theory is that the name Sniper first appeared in the British Army in World War I to refer to a person who shot from a concealed fortification, and later people often referred to shooters who had been specially trained to shoot accurately, camouflage, and reconnaissance skills as snipers.

In other words, there is no accurate definition of the term "sniper" or "sniper", except for Chen Wenqiang, in the mouth of Zhang Jingliang and others, it has become a cold gun assassination or assassination.

"The morale of the military seems to be fluctuating." Zhang Jingliang looked up at Yang Kaijia and said uncertainly: "Is it because the climate and environment are not adaptable, or is the propaganda of the chaotic party playing a role?" ”

Yang Kaijia groaned. Ambiguously said: "Maybe it's both, right?" Anyway, I don't want to bury my bones in a foreign land. ”

Although both the Hubei New Army and the Beiyang New Army were established earlier, it seems that they can become a model for the New Army of the North and the South. Although there are commonalities between the two, there are significant differences.

In terms of the cultural quality of the officers of the Hubei New Army and the Beiyang New Army, there does not seem to be much difference. The officers of the Hubei New Army are mainly students who have graduated from the Armed Forces Academy and military students who have returned to China. Although the officers of the Beiyang New Army were born in the imperial examination and the army, most of them were also born in the military academy.

As for the soldiers. Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai's requirements are different. Yuan Shikai's criteria for selecting soldiers in his "Essentials for Military Training" are: "The length limit is more than 4 feet 8 inches, the strength is limited to 100 catties, and the distance between 20 and 25 years old is to walk 20 miles at any time."

Zhang Zhidong paid more attention to the cultural quality of soldiers. He believes that Western armies "have their own generals and Ben, and no one does not fail to read; Self-defeating soldiers, no one is illiterate. No one doesn't know how to calculate, no one doesn't practice gymnastics, no one doesn't understand drawing." Therefore, the first article of his "Essentials of Military Training in Hubei" is that "half of the soldiers entering the camp must be literate." After an autumn drill ceremony, the evaluation of the two armies was: The Beiyang New Army "won with courage" and the Hubei New Army "won with knowledge".

From the point of view of the control of the army, the degree of privatization of the Beiyang New Army is far greater than that of the Hubei New Army. Although Yuan Shikai demanded in the "Essentials of Military Training" that "soldiers must be loyal to the country and love the people as their top priority", he stipulated that in addition to the two articles of "loyalty to the country and love the people", there are also two purposes for teaching soldiers "to be close to the country and love the people". So. The degree of privatization of the Beiyang Army's "soldiers for the generals" is comparable to that of the Hunan and Huai armies.

On the other hand, Zhang Zhidong, although he has worked hard in Hubei for many years, has trained a considerable new army in Hubei. Of course, this also had some influence on his position in the late Qing political arena, but this influence, like the influence of his enterprises and schools, was only one aspect of his entire New Deal career, and it was by no means crucial. Therefore, Zhang Zhidong's control of the Hubei New Army is far less tight than that of Yuan Shikai.

The Hubei New Army, as a local force, was less controlled by the Qing court. Although Zhang Zhidong and other Hubei authorities also paid attention to preventing revolutionaries from infiltrating the new army, in order not to arouse the imperial court's accusations and interfere in Hubei's affairs, they often adopted a calming attitude towards the activities of the party. In addition, Zhang Zhidong is not a warlord-type figure after all, and he is not diligent in building the Hubei New Army into a private army.

At that time, most of the standard battalions of the Hubei New Army were stationed in Wuchang City and its suburbs. The new ideological and cultural information brought by the three towns of Wuhan as a modern metropolis can be quickly transmitted to the inside of the barracks. This is very different from Yuan Shikai's six towns in Beiyang where he was stationed in the countryside.

Literate and literate, with loose control and easy to accept new ideas...... It is not surprising that all this made the Hubei New Army a good hotbed for the revolutionary movement in the late Qing Dynasty.

And Zhang Jingliang's worries were not unreasonable at this time, because just two months ago, there was a sensational "Bingwu Zhihui Rebellion Case," and Liu Jing'an, Li Yadong, and other key members of the Japanese Zhihui were arrested and imprisoned by Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang. However, the Japanese Notification Society was established in 1905 and carried out revolutionary activities mainly in the New Army and the student party. The backbone was arrested, and who knows how many fish that slipped through the net are still in the army?

On the one hand, the worries of the revolutionaries in the army were the reasons why the Hubei New Army was unwilling to continue to penetrate into southern Yunnan, as well as the inadaptability to the tactics of the revolutionary army and the injuries and illnesses of the soldiers caused by the lack of adaptation to the soil and water. More important was the contempt and distrust of the patrol forces, as well as the equipment and combat strength of the revolutionary army as known from the information obtained.

The Hubei New Army has a total of 1,000 men and horses, and the number of combatants is only 5,000.

There is such a saying in later generations: If you are not afraid of an opponent like a pig, you are afraid of a teammate like a pig. What kind of virtue the patrol army is and how much combat power it has, the Hubei New Army still knows better. Lack of success, more than failure. If you act alone, such as as flank and rear flank cover, you are not afraid that the patrol army will be routed and surrounded by the revolutionary army? If the battle is mixed, the patrol force will be weak to attack, and the code will not be firm, and it can only be a role of waving the flag and shouting. even disturbed each other, but it messed up the position of the new army in Hubei.

Compared with this "recovery" of Shiping, tens of thousands of patrol troops did not dare to form a single group all the way, and insisted that the two standards of the Hubei New Army be separated to give them courage.

The division of troops is weak. Zhang Jingliang and Yang Kaijia both studied in the Hubei Military Academy, and also went to Japan to study military affairs, how can they not understand this military truth? With this group of burdens, a lot of grain and grass materials have been consumed, but it makes people feel uncertain when they really fight.

"The further south you go, the longer the supply line, the more likely it is to be cut off by the rebels." Zhang Jingliang looked at the map and said without concern: "It is really difficult to rely on the patrol army to ensure the transportation line. The purpose of the rebel party to take the initiative to retreat may also be this. Intelligence shows that the rebels are not only brave in battle, but also have a large number of machine guns. If it is a match, the victory or defeat is still between the two sides. ”

"There must be a conspiracy." Yang Kaijia nodded in agreement: "This is not an ordinary civil unrest, and it is not comparable to the gang of Jianghu Guild in the Pingliuli riot. The Governor has worked hard to train a new army of one town and one association, and we must not risk losing here because of our negligence. ”

Zhang Jingliang thought for a while and said: "I plan to stop the army in Shiping, saying that the officers and soldiers are not adaptable, and there are many injuries and illnesses, and I will ask the governor and the court for machine guns. What do you think? ”

"I also want to ask the imperial court to transfer the new Beiyang army to help in the war." Yang Kaijia looked at Zhang Jingliang with a smile, "Our army is in Yunnan, and the Beiyang New Army enters Guangxi, so it is not difficult to break through the chaos of the party and the other." If only our army attacks, the strength will not be enough, and the chaotic party will flow, which will make the disaster even more serious, and it may be difficult to succeed in destroying it. ”

Zhang Jingliang blinked his eyes, slowly showed a knowing smile, and bowed his head repeatedly, "That's right." The chaotic party has entered western Yunnan, but the chaotic party in Yunnan Province has been exterminated, and our army has not been able to catch it, let alone Guangxi. If the new Beiyang army is transferred to Guizhou by sea, the chaotic party will die. ”

Compared with the Hubei New Army, the Beiyang New Army is the difference between the central army and the local army, and in many respects it has incomparable advantages over the Hubei New Army. For example, the Beiyang New Army can get financial support from the state in terms of salary, treatment, and equipment, while the Hubei New Army can only rely on the hard support of Hubei Province, which is not rich.

It's normal for differences to be dissatisfied. Why did the Beiyang New Army eat and drink spicy, but it was not their turn to fight; Why is it that the new army in Hubei is not even equipped with machine guns, but it has to go to remote places to fight. Even Zhang Zhidong complained about the dispatch of the Hubei New Army to fight in Yunnan and Guizhou, and he told these two commanders to be cautious and cautious, and to cherish the new army units that had been established with great difficulty. It is not unusual for Zhang and Yang to be afraid of difficulties and pause.

………………… (To be continued......)