After some understanding, I finally understood what had happened.

It turned out that when the enemy attacked here, another French army moved to the flank of Huaide Province, and in the afternoon, launched a surprise attack on Danfeng County on the Ba River, and successfully broke through the Danfeng embankment, and more than 2,000 people of the Vietnamese Hoang Zuoyan Department stationed in Vietnam had been routed and retreated to Shanxi.

Liu Yongfu immediately understood the seriousness of the situation, and if he continued to hold on, he might be outflanked by the French army, and if he didn't get it right, the whole army would be wiped out. But if you abandon Huaide Mansion and retreat to Shanxi, without such a long-term fortification, I am afraid that Shanxi will not be able to hold it for long, what should I do?

Think about it, it's better to retreat first, stay in the green mountains, and don't be afraid of no firewood.

Liu Yongfu ordered the main force to immediately retreat and go to Shanxi. He himself took the guard company, Li Tang's fourth battalion, Liu Chengliang's artillery company, and two companies of Liu Wenqian and Liu Qiliang, a total of more than 1,000 people as the rear guard force to cover.

The French troops on the opposite side clearly felt the weakening of the Black Flag Army's firepower, and seemed to have predicted and strengthened the attack. Under artillery cover, Captain Fiasi, commanding a company, first rushed into the positions of the Black Flag Army, and the two sides again engaged in a white-knuckle battle.

The artillery company desperately fired its artillery to prevent the French follow-up troops from rushing into the position, but it was also taken care of by the French artillery, and the artillery went forward and suffered heavy casualties, and there were only two Grusen guns left.

In such a narrow space as the trenches, the single-shot rifles of both sides did not have time to reload, and they were completely caught in hand-to-hand combat.

Li Tang, the commander of the fourth battalion, threw off his shirt, fought hand-to-hand with the French army shirtless, brandished a bright broadsword, hacked two Frenchmen to death in a row, and shouted proudly: "Come on, try your grandfather's sword!" ”

Before he could finish speaking, a French soldier came from behind, stepping back and forth, and stabbed with a bayonet.

Xue Liang's bayonet penetrated from the left back waist and from the right abdomen, Li Tang screamed miserably, threw the big knife towards the enemy, and regardless of the spear stabbed in his body, he jumped over and hugged the opponent.

But he soon lost his strength, and lay dead on the ground with his eyes open, but he had a pair of enemy eyeballs on his fingers! The remaining French soldier covered his face and rolled wildly on the ground screaming!

The bloody battle lasted for a long time, and the French Zuihou was once driven out of the trenches, but the reinforcements rushing up from behind quickly flooded the trenches.

The Black Flag Army was on the verge of collapse, Liu Yongfu was covered in blood, and he didn't know if it was the enemy's or his own.

commanded the troops to fight and retreat, trying his best to buy time for the retreat of the main force, but after several charges, he was unknowingly surrounded by the French army in the chaos, and it was the French captain Faache who commanded it.

He apparently saw that Liu Yongfu was a commander, and muttered a few words in French, and the French troops surrounded him with bayonets and tried to capture him alive.

Liu Yongfu saw that there were only a dozen or so people next to him, and seeing that he couldn't kill the encirclement, he sighed in his heart: "I can't imagine that I, Liu Yongfu, will die here today!" Strike, strike, strike, I'd rather die than be humiliated by the ghosts! ”

Liu Yongfu pulled out the saber and was about to wipe it off his neck, as soon as he raised the knife, there was a burst of gunfire, and the surrounding French troops fell down, and Captain Fei Ashi was directly shot in the head, and blood splashed like a broken watermelon.

At this time, a black flag army came out and came to Liu Yongfu, the leader was covered in blood, his left hand was broken, and he was hanging under his neck with a bandage, it was Zhang Shentai, the commander of the guard company.

Zhang Shentai shouted: "Tuanzuo, it's no good, you run quickly!" I'll cover you! ”

Liu Yongfu no longer hesitated, and said: "Your mother, I will raise you as my mother." ”

Then with a few people, he escaped from the position and got into the bamboo forest next to him.

Zhang Shentai turned around and rushed towards the oncoming enemy, like a lonely boat rushing towards the monstrous waves, which were soon drowned.

In the evening, the killing noise in the entire Huaide Mansion finally quieted down, except for the occasional gunshot.

The positions were crisscrossed and covered with corpses.

Liu Rongmei, deputy commander of the fourth battalion, as well as Liu Qiliang, Liu Wenqian, and others, only had more than 20 people left, and they were heavily wounded and ran out of bullets. Zuihou was surrounded by French troops and had to lay down his arms and surrender.

The French, enraged by the heavy casualties, raised their bayonets with red eyes, and pounced on them from all sides, no matter how Liu Rongmei and others shouted and begged for mercy, and stabbed them fiercely, almost stabbing these two dozen Chinese into a hornet's nest.

Liu Yongfu, who escaped, took advantage of the darkness and his familiarity with the terrain to hide all the way and slowly escaped from the Huaide Fu area.

When he fled halfway, he actually ran into some of the people in the main force who had retreated before, and the leader was Zhu Bingqing, the deputy commander of the third battalion.

From Zhu Bingqing's mouth, it turned out that when the main force withdrew to Wangcun behind Huaide, it was actually ambushed by the French army, presumably from Danfeng, and knew that Wangcun was the only way to retreat to Shanxi, so he deliberately set up an ambush to wait.

The two sides fought chaotically, the Black Flag Army suffered heavy casualties, and the troops were all scattered, Zhu Bingqing himself led a group of people to fight a bloody way, and he didn't know whether the others were dead or alive.

Liu Yongfu snorted: "Our Black Flag Army has always sneaked up on others, and I didn't expect these French to learn quite quickly." ”

"Tuanza, what should I do now?"

Liu Yongfu smiled bitterly; "What else can I plan, I have to withdraw to Shanxi first. The French are not familiar with the roads, and it is getting dark, so many people will surely escape and retreat to Shanxi one after another. Let's see if we can regroup. ”

Zhu Bingqing sighed: "It has to be like this." ”

Liu Yongfu shook his head: "Over there in Huaide Mansion, our people are only afraid that they will ......, alas! ”

"Tuanza don't be sad, there are always dead and wounded on the battlefield, and remember this revenge, there is always a day to repay."

The two of them said as they burrowed into the forest.

In the next two days, the remnants of the Black Flag Army arrived in Shanxi City one after another, Liu Yongfu counted the number of people, this fierce battle, the eight main and deputy battalion commanders lost half, only Hu Kunshan, Huang Shouzhong, Wu Fengdian and Zhu Bingqing were left, and only Han Zaixun escaped from the artillery company, and all the artillery could only be lost. Of the five company commanders of the auxiliary company, only Ye Chenglin and Deng Yulin returned, and Liu Yongfu's son Liu Chengliang was also uncertain, and only about 1,000 people were withdrawn in total, and only half of them still carried guns.

At this time, Wang Xiaoqi, commander of the First Brigade of the Sixth Division, had already arrived in Shanxi, and after consulting with Liu Yongfu, Shao Youlian, and others, Shao Youlian reported the battle situation to the headquarters and asked for support.

In the report, Shao Youlian summarized the reasons for the defeat in the defense of Huaide:

The first was due to the rapid collapse of the Vietnamese army stationed in Dan Phong, which resulted in the loss of the protection of the flanks of the Black Flag Army. It was concluded that the Vietnamese army could not be trusted.

Secondly, the combat effectiveness of the French army was unusually strong, not only well-equipped, fierce firepower, especially well-organized, well-trained, and extremely brave in combat, which had never been seen before by the Black Flag Army, which had always been strong in hand-to-hand combat. This is also what the Chinese army must pay attention to in future battles.

The report analyzes the tactics of the French army: taking advantage of the characteristics of the North Thi region of Vietnam, which is densely covered with small rivers and streams, it is good at using small-tonnage gunboats to provide fire support to the army. The infantry had a breech-loading rifle and carried a large number of artillery pieces. After carrying out fire suppression, relying on the charge of the infantry, Zuihou often ended the battle with white-knuckle combat.

Zuihou of the report also appended Liu Yongfu's petition for guilt, saying that due to his unfavorable command, which led to the loss of Huaide Mansion, he was ashamed of his trust in the command and was willing to ask for punishment.

At the same time, fearing that the French army would continue to attack Shanxi, it was decided to speed up the construction of fortifications and send a large number of spies to reconnoiter the news of the French army.

At this time, although there were thousands of troops in Xishan City, but there was a shortage of ammunition, and the withdrawn Black Flag Army was even more out of ammunition and food. If this Shanxi city is lost, it will shake the entire overall situation, and there is really no way to retreat.

Thinking of this, all the generals couldn't help but be worried.

A few days later, Liu Yongfu's son, Liu Chengliang, actually survived, and came back alive with some people injured.

Before everyone had time to be happy, they heard Liu Chengliang say that Liu Rongmei, Liu Qiliang, Liu Wenqian and others raised their hands to surrender and were brutally killed by the French army.

For a while, the crowd was indignant, and no matter how Shao Youlian persuaded him, everyone still dragged the captured French Colonel Li Weiye out horizontally, dismantled eight pieces with a war knife, and packed the head, body, hands and feet in several wooden cages and hung them on the city wall of Shanxi City.

Shao Youlian had no choice but to acquiesce in this behavior, and posted a notice on the city wall, indicating that Colonel Li Weiye had been treated with dignity, but the torture and killing of Chinese prisoners by French soldiers led to his death.