Ni Fan, as the person in charge of the entire battle situation in Outer Mongolia of the Dingbei Army, under the construction of Hu Desheng, the commander of the Seventh Division, considered for a long time, weighed the pros and cons, and decided that the two divisions would abandon the city of buying and selling, retreat to the city of Darkhan in the back, and continue to block the Russian army.

So Ni Fan first gave an order to withdraw into the city outside the city and the position in his own hands, and then asked the troops in the city to start packing up their things and preparing to retreat.

On the 306 heights outside the city, although the strength of the defenders was increased several times in the offensive and defensive battles, the first fortification was captured by the Russian army yesterday, and the battalion commander Wang Yuwei, who was slightly wounded in two places, retreated to the second fortification on the top of the mountain with the remaining officers and soldiers of the first fortification.

Wang Yuwei, who was unwilling to let the Russian army occupy the first fortification, immediately organized a new reinforcement of 1 infantry company to carry out a counterattack, but unfortunately not only did not recapture the first fortification, but this company also suffered most casualties, so Wang Yuwei gave up the idea of recovering the first fortification, and honestly took the remaining less than 400 Dingbei officers and soldiers to guard the second fortification at the top of the 306 heights.

Since the 20th, at least more than 1,100 soldiers of the Dingbei Army have been killed on the 306 Heights, which are relatively prominent in the outer positions of the entire trading city, but their sacrifices have killed more than 10,000 Russian soldiers on the 306 Heights, and the gentle slopes of the entire 306 Heights are densely packed with Russian corpses, and in some places there are several layers of dead bodies.

The leper head and Guo Sibao also retreated to the second fortification, one of these two people has extremely accurate marksmanship, and the other can skim the power of a grenade into a mortar. As a result, the two eliminated a large number of Russian troops in several days of tragic offensive and defensive battles. Fortunately, the two retreated to the second line of positions, still unscathed, and continued to resist the Russian attack on the second line. And most of the comrades-in-arms beside them fell on the ground.

The two of them were reinforcing the trenches damaged by artillery fire with other Dingbei officers and soldiers, and Guo Sibao said to the leper beside him: "Lao Maozi attacked too fiercely, and he couldn't die." Brother Leper, can we still hold it? ”

The leper is also a little worried about whether the position can be held, there are not many defenders on the 306 heights, and I don't know if the superiors can send reinforcements to the high ground. If there were no reinforcements, the second line of fortifications was defended with less than 400 men. The leper didn't know how long he could last, he scratched his head and said uncertainly: "It should be possible!" ”

Such a tragic offensive and defensive battle was something that all the officers and soldiers of Dingbei did not expect, at the beginning of the war. The officers and men of the two divisions, including the two division commanders, although facing the Russian army, which had a strength advantage several times that of their own, were full of confidence in holding the city, believing that the Dingbei Army could cope with the attack of hundreds of thousands of Russian troops on the city by relying on sophisticated weapons and equipment and 70,000 well-trained officers and men.

I didn't expect that when the Russian army attacked hundreds of thousands of soldiers, regardless of casualties for 8 days, the defensive battle of Maimaicheng became so difficult. Even Guo Sibao and the two ordinary soldiers of the Dingbei Army were worried about the current battle situation.

At this time, the two people heard the battalion commander Wang Yuwei shouting: "Quick, no need to reinforce." Everyone packed up their weapons and ammunition, took the wounded with them, and the superiors ordered us to abandon our positions and withdraw to the city! ”

Wang Yuwei, who received the order to retreat, took more than 400 officers and soldiers from Dingbei before dark to withdraw from the 306 Heights and returned to the trading city. Fortunately, the retreat path was not cut off by the Russian army.

Before he could catch his breath, Wang Yuwei received another order to lead his troops to withdraw from the city.

There are more than 40,000 people in the 3rd and 7th Divisions of the Dingbei Army. On the 27th, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, the whole army withdrew from the city of Buying, retreating in the direction of Darkhan City, and encountered the garrison of the Russian 12th Cavalry Army on the way, this cavalry corps was the commander of the Russian army Kuropatkin asked them to bypass the city of Buying, came to the back of the city of Buying, and blocked the transportation channel of the Dingbei Army of Darhan City to the city of Buyingcheng.

Ni Fan discussed with Hu Desheng and decided to carry out a surprise attack on this Russian cavalry army, at least this cavalry corps must be severely damaged, otherwise the cavalry is still a very big threat to the retreating 2 divisions in the vast grassland, and if this cavalry corps pursues the retreating 2 divisions after dawn, then a very bad situation may occur.

The Dingbei Army of the 2 divisions concentrated the remaining less than 50 guns with a caliber of more than 75 mm, and at about 1 o'clock in the morning, the garrison of the Russian 12th Cavalry Corps suddenly began a 15-minute artillery bombardment.

The high-ranking officers of the Russian 12th Cavalry Army did not expect that the Dingbei Army would give up the city of buying and selling, and launched an attack on them in the middle of the night, so that they were defenseless, and what was even more unfortunate was that the commander of the Russian 12th Cavalry Army, Mark Koshakin, was killed by a 75-mm shell that fell in his tent in the first round of shelling, and the commanders of the 2 cavalry divisions were also in the shelling, one dead and one seriously wounded, and the high-ranking officers of the 12th Cavalry Army seemed to be cursed, and even 4 cavalry brigade commanders were killed 2, The Russian cavalry army lost an effective command system, making it impossible to stop the chaos in the camp quickly.

Some Russian war horses in the camp were frightened by the sound of huge shell explosions and broke free from the reins tied to the wooden stakes on the ground, and crashed into the camp, knocking many Russian soldiers into the air, and even aggravating the chaos in the Russian camp.

After the shelling, the two divisions of the Dingbei Army took the lead in attacking and attacking the garrison of the Russian 12th Cavalry Corps in the offensive and defensive battles, and the two divisions that did not lose any losses belonged to the cavalry regiments, wielding sabers and submachine guns.

Nearly 2,000 cavalrymen of the Dingbei Army, after roaring into the Russian garrison, strafed with submachine guns in the distance, and slashed with sabers in the near distance, rampage in the Russian camp.

However, the cavalry of the Russian army is worthy of the Cossack cavalry that has been famous for many years, and a small number of Cossack cavalry riding on war horses took the initiative to launch a suicide-like charge against the cavalry of the Dingbei Army, blocking the slaughter of the cavalry of the Dingbei Army on the chaotic soldiers in the camp, so that the chaotic soldiers can complete the assembly.

If there were no infantry of the Dingbei Army behind, perhaps these heroic Cossack cavalry would have been able to use their own suicidal charge to buy time for the other soldiers in the camp to assemble, thus making the surprise attack of the Dingbei Army fall short.

Unfortunately, after the cavalry of the Dingbei Army attacked the camp, nearly 10,000 infantry of the Dingbei Army also rushed into the camp of the Russian Cavalry Army, under the strong firepower of the Dingbei Army, the two cavalry divisions of the entire Russian 12th Cavalry Army collapsed, and finally after 2 hours of fighting, the Dingbei Army of the two divisions killed nearly 10,000 Cossack cavalry at the cost of less than 1,000 casualties, captured more than 3,000 people, captured more than 10,000 horses, and the other more than 6,000 Cossack cavalry fled.

The 2 divisions of the Dingbei Army ignored the fleeing Cossack cavalry, but simply packed up the battlefield, took the booty and prisoners, and continued to rush to the city of Darkhan overnight.

In the city of Haktu, the commander of the Russian army, Kuropatkin, who had fallen asleep, was woken up by the anxious shouts of his subordinates outside the room, and lay on the bed and asked unhappily: "What is the matter?" Could it be that the Northern Army launched a counterattack on the positions we occupied? ”

A few days ago, the tragic offensive and defensive battles caused heavy losses to the Russian army, although Kuropatkin was very calm in front of his subordinates, but he was also very anxious, he had not slept for a few days, and after today's attack, Kuropatkin was relieved.

At present, the Russian army has occupied at least half of the positions of the Dingbei Army, and perhaps tomorrow it will be possible to defeat the Dingbei Army outside the city and occupy all the positions on the front of the outside of the city, which made Kuropatkin finally sleep peacefully tonight, but when he slept soundly, he was woken up, and his mood can be imagined.

The soundproofing of the room is not good, outside is a staff officer of the Russian army command, hearing the question of the commander Kuropatkin, he immediately replied outside the door: "Commander, the Dingbei army has fled, and the trading city is empty!" ”

Kuropatkin got up as soon as he heard this, hurriedly put on his clothes and walked out of the room, and the staff officer of the Russian army saw the commander come out and continued: "Commander, the Dingbei army that bought and sold the city suddenly abandoned the city and fled at night, but it was ......."

Kuropatkin frowned and asked, "But what?" ”

The Russian staff officer replied: "However, the 12th Cavalry Army, which was responsible for the blockade of Maimaicheng City, was attacked by the Dingbei Army that fled from Maimaicheng, and the losses should be very large. ”

Kuropatkin came directly to the temporary command headquarters in front of his rest room, where more than a dozen commanders of the Russian army were already waiting for the commander.

Kuropatkin looked around the headquarters and asked, "What about the commander of the 12th Cavalry Corps, Mark Koshakin?" ”

Ivanov, the commander of the Russian 4th Army, said: "Commander, Mark Koshagin did not return, and a battalion commander of the 12th Cavalry Corps who fled back said that he seemed to see that the tent where Mark Koshakin lived was hit by shells. After the Dingbei Army attacked the 12th Cavalry Corps, it should have fled to the city of Darkhan. ”

Kuropatkin sighed in his heart, it seemed that Makkoshakin was less auspicious, and then asked: "Ivanov, how is the situation in the city of trading?" ”

Ivanov said: "I have asked the 31st Army to urgently assemble and enter the buying and selling city, and the Dingbei Army has left an empty city to us. ”

Kuropatkin nodded and said: "In any case, we also occupied the trading city, although we paid a certain price, but we also achieved a victory, and let people send a telegram to St. Petersburg to report the victory to His Majesty the Tsar!" ”

Ivanov said: "Okay, commander, I will send a telegram at once. Commander, are we going to continue our offensive on the city of Darkhan? ”

Kuropatkin shook his head and said: "Our losses are too great, so let's rest for a while, and I will ask His Majesty the Tsar to send European recruits directly to Siberia to replenish your damaged legions, and we also need more artillery." (To be continued) R466