Chapter 320: Blood in the Salt Pond (1)

Fortunately, Tang Qiuli made arrangements in advance for possible unexpected situations, and specially sent two detachments of the special operations detachment to be specially responsible for the task of protection, and the two special operations detachments had a total of about 400 people, but their equipment was tailored according to the nature of the troops, and there were only a few heavy weapons, and they did not have too much advantage in firepower.

The fighters of the special operations detachment have extremely strong individual combat capabilities, and this kind of defensive warfare in field positions is not their specialty, and the number of horse bandits far exceeds that of them by more than three times, and they still have to devote most of their energy to taking care of dozens of fighters, and the pressure on their bodies can be imagined.

Because it is the purpose of exploration, the special operations detachment does not carry much ammunition, but more supplies, instruments, and equipment, and if it gets into a bitter battle and runs out of ammunition, it will be the time when this priceless exploration team dies.

The horse bandits should all be cavalry, on the salt-alkali flats where there is no danger to defend, the cavalry is no less than a catastrophe for the troops lacking heavy weapons, as long as the horse bandits charge in a group, the soldiers of the special operations detachment can only fight to the death, but what about Ouyang Professor them? It can only be slaughtered by others.

Tang Qiuli's sweat came out, for so many years, he had never encountered a crisis that made him fearful, but he had no good solution, as the so-called is, far water can't quench his thirst, and there are no available soldiers in his hands.

He thought of asking the Red Army troops for help, but according to the innkeeper, the nearest Red Army was also a hundred and ten miles away from here, and once he went, half a day would be delayed.

There is no way, it can only be his own thirty-two people, to act as reinforcements, the funny thing is that he donated all the shell guns in the hands of the soldiers, the soldiers are now unarmed, and they can't let the soldiers deal with more than a thousand heavily armed horse bandits with their bare hands, right?

Tang Qiuli was so anxious that he walked around the room, and as soon as he gritted his teeth, he could only take a risky move.

He called the innkeeper in, got straight to the point, and asked him directly, in this town, can you buy guns, ammunition and horses, the boss hesitated, and said: "Guest officer, horses are easy to say, every household here is equipped with fast horses, it is not a problem, but guns and ammunition are not easy to say, since the Red Army arrived here, the weapons scattered among the people, all the weapons scattered among the people have been confiscated."

Tang Qiu left the boss to prepare thirty-two fast horses, the price is easy to say, as for the guns and ammunition, you have to think of a way, and then, he did not hide the danger encountered by the joint exploration team from the boss, and begged the boss to help find a way.

The boss was shocked when he heard this, and then he understood the reason why Tang Qiuli was in a hurry, and immediately agreed to help.

And told Tang Qiuli that before the Red Army arrived here, this area was often looted by horse bandits from Ningxia and Gansu, these guys, killing people and setting fires, robbing property, robbing women, all kinds of evil, their own father died in the hands of horse bandits, and the people in this area, the horse bandits hated it to the bone.

Since the arrival of the Red Army, it has dealt several heavy blows to the horse bandits who have infiltrated here, and driven these scourging beasts back to Gansu and Ningxia, so that the common people can live a stable life.

After the boss finished speaking, he hurriedly went out to ask for something from Tang Qiuli, and Tang Qiuli could only wait anxiously, and took advantage of this time to write a letter to General Xu Haidong, the commander of the Red 25th Army, explaining the reason why he could not go to the appointment on time.

Then he found a quick-witting young man, gave him two pieces of ocean, and told him to ride his horse to the Red Army garrison as fast as he could, and deliver the letter to their commander.

Seeing the young man beating the horse like flying, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye, his heart was a little comforted, it seems that the people in this place have grown up on horseback, and their riding skills are quite good, so there is no shortage of good horses.

The innkeeper acted quickly, the horses were ready, and he said that he believed the guest officer, and when you returned, the money for hiring the horses would be in trouble, and you should not be allowed to spend a lot of money on horses, right?

These words made Tang Qiuli very moved, he was just a flash of thought, he gave the boss some more money, in exchange for such a big help, the people in this place are really kind and simple, and it is not difficult to understand why their hearts are towards the Red Army, as long as anyone is good to them, they will get several times the reward.

However, the weapon that the boss got made Tang Qiuli cry and laugh, and he was shocked, looking at it and foaming at the mouth.

There are all kinds of weapons, all kinds of them, but none of them fit, there are shotguns with iron and sand, there are bird guns, but there are a few rifles, all of which are old, the rifling is worn out, and the bolts fall straight down.

There is still a special guard team captain who asks the boss if there are cold weapons such as bows and arrows and crossbows, and reminds the dream man that the boss pats his thigh, and every family has this thing.

After working for a while, the thirty soldiers of the Special Guards were finally fully armed, carrying bird guns, shotguns, bows and arrows, crossbows, and riding war horses of various colors.

Fortunately, the soldiers of the Special Guard have a habit of carrying eight grenades with them at all times, which is all Tang Qiuli's current strength, with 100,000 horses, but he has to use these ancient weapons to deal with the vicious horse bandits.

As soon as the troops drove out of the town, there was a noise of horses' hooves behind them, everyone reined in their horses' heads, turned around and looked, followed by a horse team, full of one hundred and seventy or eighty people, all of them were sturdy men, led by the innkeeper, holding a shotgun in his hand.

Tang Qiu was puzzled, the boss explained, these are all family members who have been harmed by horse bandits, some wives have been robbed, some daughters have been ruined, relatives have been killed, I heard that there is going to be a war with horse bandits, seeing that the guest officials are small, they all came voluntarily, that is not a belly of hatred.

There are also a few people here who are perennial in the Yanchi area, selling salt footmen to Yan'an, who are familiar with the land there, and can be a guide, there is a half-old man with a black and red face, but his body bones are very tough, and his voice is like a bell, and he said to Tang Qiuli that he can touch the ditch and ditch there with his eyes closed.

The innkeeper said that you are human, and you can't watch you people go to death, and it's not the rule of Jintang Town.

Tang Qiuli's throat choked, he couldn't mention money in front of these simple villagers, this is not to go to the market to join in the fun, it is very likely, someone will throw their lives on the salt-alkali beach, he really doesn't know how to express his gratitude, jumped off the horse, and bowed deeply to the villagers.

Then, he divided the villagers into eighteen teams in groups of ten, each team sent a special guard soldier to serve as the captain, and all qiē had to obey the captain's command, and the rest of the special guard soldiers formed the core attack force.

The strong team re-entered the road, facing the loess that was constantly blowing up outside the plug, and galloped towards the direction of the salt pond, leaving behind the dust that rushed to the sky along the way.

The sky gradually darkened, the wind rose, and the particles mixed with salt and alkali blew up, and the face was hot and painful, and on the galloping horse, he could only tilt his head sideways, his eyes were half-closed, and the green gradually became scarce, and what he saw was a puff of gray-red alkali bala grass, sparsely dotted with the desolate wilderness.

From time to time, the half-grown old man who was the guide jumped off his horse to check the terrain, and commanded these absolutely rabble horse teams, rounding the tall and low sand dunes, or the small seas covered with alkali flowers.

Tang Qiu left them along the remnants of the ancient Great Wall, heading towards the destination, the more desolate they went, the green finally looked like a shy girl, occasionally saw a little face, and what came into view was the boundless sand and the salt of white flowers.

The guide suddenly reined in the horse's head, he jumped off the horse, climbed a sand dune, listened quietly for a while, ran down from the sand dune with a rolling belt, and said to Tang Qiuli with a nervous face, not far ahead, the gunfire could already be heard, judging by the gunshot, it was only seven or eight miles at most.

Tang Qiuli immediately ordered that, according to the grouping in advance, each team approached the horse bandits from different directions in concealment, and after approaching, they must hear their own gunfire before they could launch an attack.

Climb to the top of a large sand dune, the battlefield below, unobstructed, in the dusk twilight, more than a thousand horse bandits are attacking, pouring bullets, rowing a dark red trajectory, shooting towards the target, the horse bandits are well equipped, at least three heavy machine guns, ten light machine guns, fortunately there is no heavy fire such as mortars, otherwise, the place that was attacked would have been razed to the ground long ago.

The two detachment commanders of the special operations detachment are veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time and have a lot of combat experience, and the sentry has just fired a warning gunshot, but he was shot by a sudden bullet, and before he died, the fighters of the special operations detachment fully showed their strong combat effectiveness, and one person, with wounds, blocked more than 1,000 horse bandits for more than 20 minutes, and at least 20 horse bandits, died under his gun, and finally, he pulled the grenade on his body, and the horse bandits who surrounded him died together.

The smoke and dust from the grenade explosion drowned seven or eight horse bandits, and the horse bandits who were blocked had to find a favorable terrain to hide from the deadly bullets of their guns.

The fighters of this special operations detachment used their precious lives to win more than 20 minutes of very valuable time for the brigade, which was enough to save the lives of all the personnel.

The two detachment leaders, who didn't have time to shed tears for their fallen comrades, immediately protected Professor Ouyang and more than 30 scientists and withdrew to a dirt enclosure closest to them.

As soon as he entered the earthen enclosure, the yellow dust behind him was pressed straight over, and the crazy and brutal shouts of the horse bandits sounded outside, and the snow-bright sabers, under the glow of the setting sun, flashed with a penetrating cold light.

Hearing the shouts of the horse bandits and the momentum of more than a thousand cavalry charges, Professor Ouyang couldn't help but look like dirt, especially the few young girls in the exploration team, huddled in the corner, their arms tightly clasped in front of their chests, and their bodies trembled.

The soldiers of the special operations detachment, the muzzle of the gun, silently aimed ahead, and the hideous faces of the horse bandits became clearer and clearer in the crosshairs, like the sound of horses' hooves, knocking on people's psychological defense.

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