With a simple face, Cao Kun, the town guard of Caozhou, who was called "Fool Fool" and "Cao San Fool" in the new army, gave the order angrily, and the officers under him saluted and dispersed.

Cao Kun, who was sweating with oil and sweat on his bright head, hoped to end this much more difficult attack in the afternoon than he expected. I thought that with my well-trained and well-equipped troops, it would be easy to eliminate a group of bandits trapped in Mengshan. But the actual battle situation far exceeded the worst estimate, in the battle of Zhangjiazhai, he lost nearly 100 people, and a complete infantry team was almost disabled! If it weren't for the engineer platoon, he would have lost his own adult. Yuan Shikai, who lost a complete infantry team and regarded the army as his life, had to withdraw him.

The battle of Zhangjiazhai also dispelled Cao Kun's contempt for the Mengshan bandits. This gang of bandits is more equipped than expected, dare to fight hard, and are definitely fierce enemies. Fortunately, the thieves did not take advantage of the situation to divide the troops, which was what he was most worried about. On the way to southwest Lu, Cao Kun carefully studied the terrain of Mengshan with the help of the local government and learned about this group of bandits who were "valued" by Lord Yuan. Shandong's Xiangma is as famous as the beard outside the Guan, and it is the most famous "specialty" in Shandong, especially in the area of Lunan Baoqigang. There are many bandit "families" who have been bandits for several generations

As soon as Lord Yuan came to Shandong, he ordered the suppression of the Mengshan bandits, and Cao Kun raised his hands in approval. Officers and soldiers suppressing bandits is a matter of course. It is a matter of the reputation of Lord Yuan and the Beiyang New Army, and the first battle of the New Army must not go wrong. Therefore, Cao Kun divided his more than 2,000 troops into two, half of the infantry was deployed in Mengyin to secretly assemble, and he himself took more than 1,000 infantry and the main artillery force to bluff and advance to Caozhou. After arriving at Pingyi Village, he stopped, suddenly waved his army eastward, occupied Maoyang Town, and used it as an advance base, preparing to attack the mountain from the west road along the avenue. However, as soon as the forward infantry team occupied Zhangjiazhai, the necessary starting point, they encountered a powerful night attack by the thief army.

Fortunately, the bandits did not take the opportunity to divide their troops to break through after the Battle of Zhangjiazhai! All the information proved that the main force of the thieves was in Mengshan, and even the small force that attacked Zhangjiabao had retreated up the mountain, which brought Cao Kun a very good situation. On the basis of careful analysis of the situation, Cao Kun believed that the battle had been basically won, and after carefully designing the encirclement, he turned to attack the rear of Mengshan on the western route, and if the thief army escaped from the eastern route, it would fall into the pincer net that he had arranged in advance.

Therefore, after turning to attack the mountain, Cao Kun became cautious and insisted on dragging the artillery team up Mengshan, no longer hoping that a single charge would kill the thief's lair. Fortunately, the next battle became much smoother, the attack on Louzi was very smooth, the two mountain guns fired more than a dozen shells to break the thieves' defenses, the prisoner's confession confirmed that the thieves suffered heavy casualties, the two infantry of the thieves were defeated, and the troops captured Louzi without suffering any casualties.

Cao Kun's confidence has been restored, that is, how can the thieves defeat the Western cannons? I'm afraid these bandits haven't even seen what a real cannon looks like. After adjusting the team, Cao Kun decided to conquer the Heavenly Gate in one fell swoop the next day, and Cao Kun's guide made it very clear that this was the last natural danger leading to the Bandit's Nest Guangming Temple.

However, the attack on the morning of the second day suffered heavy casualties, and the bandit troops who held the front line of Tianmen were determined and had fierce firepower. The first infantry to attack was withdrawn due to heavy casualties, and the second infantry was thrown up, but it was counterattacked by the bandits, especially the high ground on the left side of the road, which gave strong frontal fire support, and was captured by a roundabout bandit, and all the soldiers in one shed were killed or captured.

If the bandit army resisted so strongly, Cao Kun suspected that he would not be able to complete the task with less than 1,000 men.

He analyzed that there were at least 3,000 bandits on the mountain, and at least 1,000 rifles, although many of them were still old breech guns, but the proportion of breech foreign guns was not low. This figure has been repeatedly estimated by Cao Kun. Moreover, the bandit army is well-trained, and there is no shortage of elites. For example, in the battle of the small highlands in the morning, according to the report of the officers who attacked frontally, the number of bandits who took a detour was not large, that is, the strength of a shed or so, they skillfully avoided the possible fire blockade of the officers and troops, rushed to the high ground in one fell swoop, and smashed the shed guarding the high ground with ferocious hand-to-hand combat, and the officers and troops had no time to reinforce at all, and when they found out that the crisis was to send reinforcements, the bandit army had already solved the battle on the high ground, and then used accurate firepower to defeat the reinforced troops, and the shed for reinforcements became a vicious result of four dead and three wounded. This result shocked Cao Kun extremely much, if the front line reflected the facts, the bandit army could seize the position from the official army and defeat the reinforcements with the same force, indicating that they still had the strength to defend the high ground after annihilating their own shed! The combat effectiveness of the bandit army is not ordinarily high! Then this battle will not be fought!

Due to the firing range, the artillery in the open field of the building could not cover the high ground, and the morale of the attacking troops was rapidly declining due to the heavy casualties of the reinforced shed. Fighting a war is based on morale, and if morale is gone, there will be no way to fight.

The attack did not go well, so that Cao Kun calmed down after being agitated. At the same time, Cao Kun changed the attacking force and transferred the battalion he had brought up, determined to change his tactics, and made a bold detour while strengthening the pressure on the front, and completely routed the bandit army at the cost of casualties.

In the final general attack, he handed over the task to the battalion commanded by Ma Jianxun. Because Cao Kun was the pipe band of this battalion, after acting as the standard commander himself, he selected Ma Jianxun, the best team officer under him, to act as the camp pipe band.

This battalion suffered the lightest casualties in the attack some time ago, and Cao Kun hung a reward, and the officer who was the first to capture the Guangming Temple was promoted to the second rank and rewarded with a thousand taels of silver.

Ma Jianxun is a veteran officer of the Wuwei Right Army, and he is Cao Kun's absolute confidant. It is the old chief's greatest care for him to make contributions at the last moment, and Ma Jianxun knows this. So after receiving the task, Ma Jianxun immediately convened a meeting of the three team officers under him to convey the order. Ma Jianxun's battalion had four teams, among which the infantry team guarding Zhangjiazhai did not come up and returned to Maoyang Town to rest.

Because the mountain road is narrow and steep, the troops cannot be deployed, and all the captains compete for merit, and they all want to be the first to capture the gate of heaven and enter the Temple of Light. After the most rear, Ma Jianxun made a decision, the first team attacked along the mountain road, and the second team went up the mountain and detoured from the right flank. The fourth team followed the first team as a reserve. At the same time, a platoon of the second team was sent to try to suppress the fire of the bandits on that small high ground that had fallen into the hands of the enemy, so that it would not threaten the brigade attacking frontally.

When Ma Jianxun made a combat deployment, Cao Kun also participated in the military meeting, he agreed with Ma Jianxun's arrangement, emphasizing the importance of this battle, Cao Kun instigated, according to reliable information, Mengshan thieves accumulated a lot of gold and silver treasures in Guangming Temple, and everyone made a fortune in Guangming Temple!

The lure of wealth excites his old troops.

The biggest difficulty for the officers and soldiers was that they were not familiar with the terrain, and although they found mountain people as guides, they were not very clear about the terrain near the Guangming Temple. Mengshan thieves have occupied the Guangming Temple for more than ten years, which has become an authentic military forbidden area, and the interrogation of the prisoners, they all said in unison that there is no ready-made path to detour to the Guangming Temple, despite this, Ma Jianxun still hopes that the second team can find a new way, otherwise, only rely on the frontal attack.

The offensive began after the afternoon, first with an artillery bombardment, which lasted a long time, with at least fifty shells falling near the Tianmen. Dealing with a group of bandits, this treatment is already quite luxurious, and Cao Kun, who supervised the battle in Louzi, was even a little distressed, did he have to run out of shells he was carrying in the first battle of Mengshan? After all, not in Tianjin, it is not so easy to replenish.

The officers and men of the first team did not wait for the second team to set off on the detour of the mountain range, and after the cannon fire stopped, they launched an attack on the gate of heaven, the officers of the team were very brave, shouting and rushing to the front, they turned the hillside behind the most mountain and saw the burning gate of heaven, and at the same time, through the smoke, they also saw the bandits pouring out from behind the hillside in the southeast direction, and ran towards the position at a rapid speed. The officer who rushed to the front thought that the enjoyable shelling just now had almost blown away the bandits who were guarding the position, and it was probably the reinforcements of the bandit army who ran up. The team officer shouted, "Brothers, kill those bandits and rush into the Temple of Light to receive the reward!" As soon as he finished speaking, a bullet entered his gaping mouth and exited the back of his head, sending up a terrifying mist of blood. The valiant officer was killed instantly.

The soldiers of the first group hardly believed the facts before them and unconsciously slowed down, but the bandits who had already taken up their positions had already opened fire, and the high ground on the left side of the officers and troops also fired a deadly rain of bullets. The charging team on a relatively flat open ground was under firepower, and people kept screaming from bullets, and within a minute the first team suffered at least 13 or 4 casualties, most of them immediately turned and retreated, and a small number of people lay on the ground and fired back indiscriminately.

Cao Kun saw this scene from the German-made telescope, and was furious, and immediately sent people to stop the retreat of the first team, Cao Kun knew that the defeat of the first team was mainly caused by the death of the team officer, and immediately appointed a platoon commander to act as the team officer, and asked the first team to immediately turn to the attack.

The first team attacked again under the strict supervision of Cao Kun, but was again killed by a platoon of guns as they crossed the clearing, and the bandits crawled behind the breastwork and fired their bullets neatly under the command of their bandit leader, and it was evident from the rhythm of the bandits' shooting that they were extremely well organized, and the acting officer was killed again, and was shot into the socket of his left eye. A platoon commander was also killed in the attack, and the heavy casualties among the officers damaged the morale of the troops, and the first team was again defeated. To Cao Kun's chagrin, the losses of his own side in this attack definitely exceeded those of the bandits.

Cao Kun realized that there were sharpshooters among the bandits. Sometimes, a sharpshooter threatens more than one infantry. At present, sniper tactics have not yet been transmitted to China, and there are no special snipers in the Wuwei Right Army. Annoyed, Cao Kun, who cursed someone else, ordered the artillery to open fire, but he noticed through the binoculars that the bandits seemed to hear his orders and quickly retreated behind the hillside to the southeast. The cannonballs smashed into the seemingly empty position, and the rising flames and smoke mocked Cao Kun, who angrily whipped the tree beside him with his horsewhip, knowing that he had encountered a more formidable enemy than he had in the morning.

"Grandma," Cao Kun yelled at Ma Jianxun and the officers and soldiers who had retreated from the first team, "being beaten into a turtle grandson by a gang of bandits, you bastards are simply a shame for Lao Tzu!" Go down and see how I lead four teams to fight! ”