After the leaders deliberated overnight, it was decided that Zhou Huanan, the fourth leader, would lead the second and fourth teams to build fortifications around the building to resist. At the same time, Sun Deming led the auxiliary troops to build a second blocking line at Tianmen, which was less than two miles away. But Long Qian did not hear the news of the breakthrough of the whole army.

After breakfast, the second and fourth infantry teams gathered in the square in front of the Guangming Temple, and the big leader Sun Dewang personally lectured the brothers of the second and fourth teams, which was considered to have boosted morale, and Zhou Huanan led the team to set off.

Half an hour later, the auxiliaries gathered in a mess, took tools, and followed Sun Deming on horseback to Tianmen.

Long Qian's eighth team has no task for the time being and is still resting. In the first battle of Zhangjiazhai, the eighth team killed 17 people and wounded 27 people. Four more died when the wounded returned to the mountain. Now there are less than 100 capable soldiers in the eighth team. However, the condition of the weapons has improved, and as a result of the seizures, the eight teams now have 76 spears of various colors, with an average of 45 rounds of ammunition per gun. As soon as the war started, the cottage did not take back the captured bullets.

Considering that his eight teams would definitely be involved in the defensive battle below, Long Qian concentrated the eight teams in the mountains south of the aggressive village, explained the essentials of the drill resistance battle, and personally dug a single anti-artillery hole for the soldiers to demonstrate. Considering that almost none of the officers and men of the Eighth Brigade had ever understood the power of artillery, Long Qian pulled out the cotton from his old padded jacket and rubbed it into earplugs to prevent panic and loss of order in the deafening sound of the shell explosion. Small tricks, such as being sure to open your mouth to relieve pressure on your eardrums during enemy artillery bombardment, were patiently taught to the soldiers.

Although the terrain of Tianmen and the building is steep, it is mostly rocky, and it is unrealistic to dig all the anti-artillery holes. Long Qian considered that once his infantry team was pulled up, he decided to adopt the tactical principle of "the front of the troops is light and the rear is heavy, and the firepower is heavy and the rear is light", and the front line should be as little as possible, and the reserves should be placed behind, but it must quickly achieve a powerful counterattack. Therefore, the rifles are all equipped for soldiers with good marksmanship and strong will. Moreover, he repeatedly emphasized the essentials of counterattacks and the importance of white-knuckle combat when counterattacking. Anyway, everything that comes to mind is said. As for those silver taels and flower tickets, Long Qian put them all away, at this time, no one is allowed to go to the brothel to seek fun, the silver, wait until the war is over to make distribution.

The Eighth Team of the Battle of Zhangjiazhai captured more than a dozen hand-thrown bombs, and Long Qian decided to use these grenades himself in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Long Qian's drill lasted for a morning, and then brought the eighth team back to the barracks. Long Qian noticed that his soldiers were in a stable mood, and even talked and laughed during lunch. The battle of Zhangjiazhai further consolidated Long Qian's prestige in the team, and the team leaders and chiefs completely trusted their captains.

Long Qian did not rest after lunch and went to the Guangming Temple to visit the wounded soldiers in his team. There, fierce gunfire was heard from the northwest, marking the official start of the blockade battle. Long Qian, who had seen the wound, immediately hurried back to the village with the escort Jiang Yun, and heard a dull loud noise on the way, which made Jiang Yun scream in fright, and squatted on the ground with his head in his arms.

"It's a cannon." Long Qian listened attentively, "It's okay, it's far away from here." They were bombarding the building. ”

"Oh my god, it's so loud." Jiang Yun was dragged up by Long Qian, and he still had palpitations.

"The sound is not scary, what is scary is its lethality." Long Qian stared in the direction of the building and began to worry about Zhou Huanan's second and fourth teams.

In the middle of the afternoon, Long Qian was summoned to the old camp of Guangming Temple, and learned that the first line of the building had been breached, the captain of the fourth team was killed, and the second and fourth infantry teams were completely dispersed under the fierce bombardment of the official artillery. In desperation, Sun Deming and Zhou Huanan had given up the dilapidated position of the building and retreated to Tianmen.

The sun had set early, and the officers and troops had stopped after occupying the front-line positions in Louzi. Because of the absolute superiority in firepower, the officers and troops will not fight at night.

The position of the building held by two infantry teams only lasted for an hour and a half.

Because Sun Deming rushed to the Louzi position at the beginning of the war, witnessed the power of the artillery of the official army, and testified with him, Sun Dewang did not blame Zhou Huanan for the defeat, but convened the captains to discuss the suddenly tense situation.

"The danger of Tianmen is worse than that of Louzi, and the cannons of the officers and soldiers are not easy to move, so they must attack all the way up. As long as we are not afraid of death, the official army will not be able to break through the heavenly gates. Liu Yucai said loudly.

The meeting has always been in the main hall of Guangming Temple, the candles have not been lit, the light in the hall is very bad, Long Qian stood by the door and looked at the big leader sitting on the main seat, and felt that Sun Dewang seemed to be much older in one day.

"Shameless dog, you have the ability to do it with a real knife!" Sun Deming was wrapped in a white cloth around his head, and he probably suffered a slight head injury.

"Don't talk about those useless ones, there's a fart!" Sun Dewang's voice was gloomy, "Third brother, do you think if the official army drags the cannons, how long can we support it?" ”

"Those cannons must be destroyed, and I'll kill them tonight!" Sun Deming said hatefully. Not long ago, the explosion scene of the landslide in the Louzi position seemed to be still in front of him, and when a cannon hit, several brothers were suddenly gone.

"The officers and soldiers must be on guard tonight." Liu Yucai muttered, "I'm afraid it's not easy to sneak attack. ”

"That can't sit still!" Sun Deming made up his mind, "I will lead five teams and three guards to attack, and I will catch them off guard." ”

Sun Dewang did not object, and his face was cloudy under the candlelight. He didn't say what he thought, he already regretted it in his heart, it would be good to withdraw from Mengshan earlier, eight hundred miles of Yimeng, the space is very large, and there are thousands of soldiers in hand, can't you get there? Now that it is targeted by the officials and the army, it is not so easy to withdraw.

"It's okay, the third child, you pay attention to safety, if you can't do it, withdraw it, don't fight hard. Stay in the green mountains, not afraid of no firewood. Sun Dewang admonished.

At this moment, the unitary time has passed, and the leaders have decided on a plan, and they have dispersed. Sun Dewang left his younger brother Sun Deming and told his true thoughts. Since the officers and troops gathered on the West Road, there is only one result of hard fighting, and the family foundation accumulated over the years is exhausted, and it is not easy for us to accumulate this little capital, so we can simply withdraw, highlight from the East Road, and then transfer to Fei County, avoid the sharp spirit of the officers and soldiers, and wait for them to withdraw and see the situation before coming back.

Sun Deming was full of toughness in front of several other people, but the two battles of Zhangjiazhai and Louzi had already wiped out his arrogance, and he no longer dared to underestimate the combat effectiveness of this group of elite officers and soldiers, if the threat of cannons could not be destroyed, it would be a matter of time before Tianmen was lost, and his brother's decision was right in his opinion, so he said, "This is good, I think the second person will be arranged in Tianmen, even if we withdraw, someone will break the queen." ”

"So you're right to propose a night attack tonight, don't leave our brothers to save their strength and let them feel desperate with the official army. But be careful, guns don't have eyes. I will ask Nong Mengfu to prepare for the evacuation. There you go. ”

Not to mention that Sun Deming gathered the fifth team to prepare for a night attack on the officers and troops occupying the building, Sun Dewang immediately sent Qiu Zhicheng, the captain of his guard, to find Nong Mengfu.

"Old Five, I'm afraid we're going to avoid the limelight this time, don't make a noise yet, I'll call you Qiu Zhi, hurry up and prepare. Only bring the important things, and the rest can be divided among the below, and burned if you can't. Never leave it behind for the officers and soldiers. Be careful not to spread the rumors, as soon as the people's hearts are scattered, things will be in trouble. Sun Deming explained.

Qiu Zhicheng's cavalry guards have 100 people, all of whom are Sun Dewang's most confidants, well-equipped, and skilled in marksmanship, and are the private armed forces in the private horse team of Mengshanzhai. This is also the characteristic of the army under China's thousands of years of feudal system, for the generals always like to raise private soldiers who are absolutely loyal to themselves.

This side began to secretly make preparations for the evacuation of the cottage, and over there, Sun Deming gathered the fifth team, which had not been used since the launch, to carry out a sneak attack on the officers and troops who occupied the front-line positions in the building. Sun Deming's purpose was to destroy the artillery that the official army posed a huge threat to the cottage, so he collected all the gunpowder from the cottage and handed it over to the fifth team. The fifth team waited until midnight, and then set off from the old camp and went to the building through Tianmen. Cannonballs had already fallen on the road down from Tianmen during the day, and the burned trees still emitted a scorched smell, which increased the tension of the soldiers. The scene of the fierce battle during the day had spread throughout the mountain, and the soldiers of the second and fourth infantry had suffered heavy casualties and still did not hold the building, which made the soldiers of the fifth team more worried about tonight's attack.

The mountain road was crooked, hundreds of people were crowded on the mountain road, I don't know who was too nervous, the rifle knocked on the mountain rock and went off, and the gunfire was heard far away in the silent night. Sun Deming, who was detained, scolded, "Who went off? Lao Tzu cut him! At this time, it was less than 200 steps away from the building, and there was still a big turn, but the gunfire on the hillside from the turn suppressed Sun Deming's angry scolding. Someone in the team was immediately shot and let out a sharp scream, and the bandits in front immediately crawled on the mountain road, and someone began to blindly return fire.

Not a well-prepared sneak attack, it was hastily soaked.

At that bend was a guard post set up by the officers and soldiers, which was originally only a guard post to buy time for the main position to be guarded, and two fast guns suppressed a 100-strong infantry on the mountain road.

Sun Deming saw that the sneak attack had failed, coupled with his brother's decision to withdraw from Mengshan just now, his fighting spirit ejaculated prematurely, and seeing that the sneak attack failed, he simply issued an order to retreat, and the fifth team dropped three corpses and retreated to Tianmen in a panic.

At this point, the battle between the bandits of Mengshanzhai and the right army of Wuwei has been divided, and thousands of rabble can still fight against the already corrupted and powerless green battalion soldiers, but they are by no means opponents against the new army of the imperial court, which has been trained and equipped with modern weapons after several years of training in small stations. For example, tonight's sneak attack is not without merit from a strategic point of view, but from a tactical point of view, it is out of order. First of all, there is a problem in the selection of troops, and the number of people to attack must be determined according to the situation, and not all tasks are carried out in a complete formation. The second is the choice of the route, which must be taken by surprise, if the elite are selected, the main road is abandoned and the mountains are crossed, and the attack from a direction that the officers and troops do not think of may have some certainty of success. Then there is reconnaissance, from ancient times to the present, the left and right of scouts are indispensable on the battlefield. Sun Deming rushed to attack without even figuring out the location of the enemy's artillery, and defeat was inevitable.

That night, several leaders gathered again to deliberate and unanimously approved the decision to withdraw from the cottage to avoid the enemy's edge. Because it would take time for thousands of people, especially the female dependents of the old battalion, to reorganize, it was decided that Liu Yucai would personally command the Tianmen defensive battle tomorrow to win at least one day for the retreat of the old battalion.

The time for the retreat is scheduled for the early hours of tomorrow.

Several of the chieftains studied the route of the retreat and decided to descend the mountain from the eastern road, which, although not as easy to walk as the western road, was also passable for carriages and horses, and was more familiar. The order of the breakthrough was that Sun Deming led the seventh team and the fifth team as the forward, followed by the cavalry team, followed by the old battalion guards to protect the old battalion's family, and then followed by the first, second, third, and fourth infantry teams that had suffered heavy casualties and retreated with the wounded. The sixth team that left the complete and the eighth team with Long Qian's strength was still complete to serve as the blocking after the break, and the order was the sixth team in the morning and the eighth team in the afternoon. The eighth team must hold out until tomorrow night before evacuating.