At noon, when the sun was shining and the temperature was rising rapidly, the officers and men who had rested all morning sorted out their weapons and equipment, began to take out dried meat and water bottles, and ate silently.

Liu Wenhui swallowed the jerky in his mouth, and was just about to raise the kettle, when the black and thin company deputy quickly crawled to his side, pointed to the house under the mountain, and whispered:

"Company commander, the enemy is starting to sort things out, big bags and small bags, even the iron fork has not been spared, a few boxes of ammunition are being packed and loaded on horseback, it looks like they are going to slip."

Liu Wenhui hurriedly put away the kettle, turned around and crawled forward for a few meters, raised the telescope through the gap between the trees, observed nervously, and decisively ordered after a while:

"We can't wait any longer, the more than three hundred enemies gathered below will definitely run, if we let them go, these seven or eight days will be in vain! Zhong Xiang, you lead the second platoon and the third platoon, immediately move westward, occupy the two small heights on the mountainside to the west, and absolutely must not let the enemy escape, I will move forward with a platoon and a mortar platoon, and launch an attack in five minutes! Sniper team—"

"Here!"

The two team leaders responded in a low voice and quickly crawled over.

Liu Wenhui pointed to the bare weathered rock three hundred meters to the east: "The two of you, each with a group of men and horses, one left and one right to block the downstream of the river section, where the road is narrow, even if the enemy wants to escape, he can't put his men and horses to charge, you nail me to the top of the rock, one by one, one by one, and we must not let one enemy escape from the east." ”

The two team leaders quickly retreated into the dense forest and led their respective groups to the east.

Lian Deputy Pang Zhongxiang anxiously asked: "What if the enemy flees north along the river?" ”

Liu Wenhui said with a smile:

"There is only one way to the north, that is Zuogong, we can't kill more than 300 enemies at all, and we can't block them, it's better to let them flee north, I estimate that the enemy is going to slip away so soon, it is likely that the battalion commander led his troops into Zuogong, or is about to reach Zuogong, otherwise more than 300 enemies cannot be so panicked."

Pang Zhongxiang suddenly realized, turned around and left without saying a word, took two platoons and went into the depths of the forest, immediately raised his speed, and rushed westward.

Liu Wenhui waited for more than three minutes, decisively raised his hand, and gave an order in a low voice: "All listen to the order, crawl forward, and after reaching the edge of the woods twenty meters ahead, the machine guns are set up on the left and right, and the first platoon and the mortar platoon are distanced, and as soon as I hear the sound of my gun, I will immediately attack!" ”

About two minutes later.

"Smack-"

The rifle in Liu Wenhui's hand fired the first bullet, and the sound of "tom tom" mortar firing immediately sounded in the side and rear, and more than 10 60 high-explosive shells fell in the middle of the rebels' 50-odd horse team in the dense gunfire, and the frightened and jumping horses were torn apart at the moment of the flames, and more than 10 rebels who were desperately pulling the reins were torn apart by the shells, and several broken arms and half of a horse's head were mixed in the mud and rocks, and rose into the air, breaking through the thick smoke of gunpowder billowing up, and falling down to the river beach full of pebbles.

The dense rain of bullets fired by two light machine guns flew towards the rebels in a mess, the chaotic rebel ranks were filled with blood mist, screaming, dense 60 shells came one after another, continuous explosions, earth-shattering explosions drowned out all the shouts, more than 300 rebels were completely stunned, dozens of rebels rushed into two rows of houses in panic to hide, nearly 100 rebels subconsciously fled to the west intersection, only more than 20 rebels threw down their weapons and jumped into the icy river, Desperately fleeing to the north shore without fire or bullets.

"Don't blow up the house, don't blow up the house! Aim at the enemy on the east side of the river beach and fire—"

Liu Wenhui rushed to the side of the four mortars, shouted loudly, and the mortar gunner, who had just adjusted the firing range, adjusted the firing angle again under the command of the gun commander.

Everyone clearly understood the meaning of the company commander, which was to carry out artillery bombardment on the rebels rushing towards the river beach, drive the rebels into two rows of houses as much as possible, and finally come to a more labor-free one-pot end.

The sound of blocking guns at the western intersection had already sounded, and the five war horses that rushed in front of the rebels were beaten into honeycombs, and the dense machine-gun bullets fired at close range shattered the two rebels on the horses, and the rebels who tried to flee west screamed again and again, turned around and fled back, and more than 300 rebels who had lost their command were killed and wounded nearly half without the slightest resistance.

On the river path to the east, almost five steps to a corpse, dozens of rebels fleeing east hurriedly lay down under the accurate fire of the rifles of two sniper groups, but they became the best stationary targets, and the rebel leaders with short guns and shouting loudly died even earlier, and a person fell with each shot.

The severed heads and broken necks of the dummy bullets solemnly declared that this would be a bloody road to death, and the remaining rebels finally turned around and fled wildly under great fear, rushing to the smoke-filled and unrecognizable river beach again, following dozens of rebels who were screaming in terror and threw themselves into the river, risking their lives to cross the turbulent river and flee north.

Liu Wenhui, who was on the edge of the forest, saw that most of the nearly 100 rebels had successfully crossed the river in the rain of bullets, and climbed up to the other side of the river one by one and fled north quickly, and the more than 100 rebels hiding in two rows of houses seemed to have seen that risking death to cross the river was the only way to survive, and began to rush to the river in twos and threes.

At this time, Liu Wenhui could no longer care about any labor-saving encirclement and annihilation, and hurriedly ordered mortars to aim at two rows of houses and shell them continuously.

Four mortars responded in time, four rounds of shells fired non-stop in five minutes, two rows of houses collapsed and burst into flames in the sound of explosions, and only more than 30 of the more than 100 rebels in the houses escaped, and were soon knocked down one by one by the rain of flying bullets.

The gunfire finally stopped, and Liu Wenhui, who rushed to the river, was covered in gunsmoke, glared at the empty north bank, and unwillingly spit out a mouthful of mud and sand: "Almost two hundred people escaped, alas, it is better to let most of the enemy escape, if only Lao Tzu had ordered the charge earlier......"

Liu Wenhui's regret has also become the regret of the frontier army vanguard group.

As soon as he drove into Zuogong, he heard the sound of fierce fighting, and quickly issued a reinforcement order, and the reinforced three companies rushed to Guogang Mountain in one breath, and on the way to rush, they did not see more than 100 rebels hiding in the weeds on the side of the road, and when they rushed to the other side of the battlefield, they found that the enemy had disappeared, and at this time Liu Wenhui had already finished cleaning the battlefield and was ordering the brothers to collect the corpses and throw them into the fire to burn.

In this battle, 164 enemy men were annihilated, two French heavy machine guns, 35 British Lee Enfield rifles, and a batch of waist knives and machetes were captured, and not a single prisoner was taken prisoner.

Three days later, Xiao Yimin, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, who continued to inspect the people's situation in Kangding and appease the people, received two urgent reports at the same time, one was a good news from Zuogong sent by Zhou Daogang, deputy commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, and the other was an urgent report from the Chengdu headquarters that Yuan Shikai had died of illness.

(To be continued)