"Then, maybe we should let General Li continue to take the initiative to retreat, and not stick to the position and be beaten."

"No!" Xu Ping immediately vetoed this suggestion: "Don't be in such a hurry yet, after a new weapon is used, it will definitely be exaggerated, let's take a look first." ”

……

The fortress behind the ditch where Hu Chen was located was a large fortification, although it was also a wooden structure, but it was much larger than the previous one, and it was one of several fortresses that had been determined to be held before the war, and could accommodate thousands of soldiers. The war drums of the new army were heard from the opposite side, looking at the enemy getting closer and closer, and with Hu Chen's order, the soldiers in the trench began to fire a volley at the new army. On both sides of the trench there were short wooden ladders, which the commander of the fort had to climb up from the front if he asked for battle; If the commander thinks that the enemy is too strong, then retreat from behind. As for when the enemy began to influence their artillery fire, the time to safely leave the trenches was also judged by the commander.

Hu Chen clinged to the ladder with one hand, and looked back at the flag command on the fortress carefully.

The banner is to fight!

Hu Chen knew that the commander in the fortress had judged that the enemy army in front of him was only a feint and not strong enough to inflict heavy casualties on the defenders in the trench, so he immediately commanded his troops to fire a final salvo, and then climbed out of the trench from the ladder in front of him and lined up to meet him. The enemy troops in front did not press forward immediately, they scattered their formation and let the artillery bombard Hu Chen's troops, and at the same time, the fortress that broke into the camp was also firing fire.

Immediately on the edge of the trench, Hu Chen and the opponent on the opposite side had a short firefight, perhaps the enemy on the opposite side judged that there was no gap to take advantage of, or the new army in the direction of the main attack had been repulsed, so the containment here became meaningless, Hu Chen saw that the enemy quickly retreated.

"Retreat!"

Hu Chen shouted, and his subordinates hurriedly retreated along the short ladder to hide in the trench, at this time the infantry of the Ming army had retreated and vacated the firing range, and the artillery attacked violently, and when Hu Chen jumped off the trench, a shell grazed his head and whizzed.

"Has anyone been hurt?" After returning to safety, Hu Chen immediately ordered his subordinates to check on each other, fight in this weather, break into the camp and forbid anyone to act as a hero without permission, as long as they are injured - no matter how small or inconspicuous the wound is, they must immediately return to the warm barracks. But even with such an order, it was still very dangerous, because the soldiers' bodies became numb from the cold, and sometimes they could not even realize that they were wounded.

While Hu Chen was busy inspecting the troops, there was another sound of artillery shelling overhead, as well as the sound of hurried footsteps stepping on the snow, and the soldiers on guard signaled that Hu Chen was fine, and there was no new order.

- I guess reinforcements are coming.

A thought flashed in Hu Chen's heart, his team was responsible for defending this trench until the end of the first half of the night, so it would definitely not be a change of defense, it could only be that reinforcements were coming, or General Li was planning to launch a counterattack.

The rumbling of cannon could not hide the sound of approaching footsteps, and soon the sound was close to the trench, and four or five men hurriedly jumped from behind, bringing down a large cloud of snow and a puff of fresh cold air.

"Your Excellency." Hu Chen couldn't help but be stunned for a moment when he saw that the leader turned out to be Xu Ping.

"Brother Hu." Xu Ping gasped and greeted Hu Chen, who he hadn't seen for a long time, with a smile. I thought that it would not be very conspicuous with a few guards, but I didn't expect to be cared for by the artillery fire of the new army along the way, and I was relieved to run all the way to the edge of the trench. For the sake of the safety of the forts, the communication trenches between the various trenches have been removed, so unless it is an emergency, only use the flag to communicate, or wait until night to move between the trench and the fort.

After saying hello, Xu Ping immediately climbed the ladder, lay on the edge of the trench to observe the movement on the opposite side, and asked Hu Chen some questions from time to time. After looking at it for a while, Xu Ping jumped back into the trench, and after noticing that the new army seemed to be resting, Hu Chen immediately gave an order to his subordinates: "Work in pairs, rub your feet." ”

When his subordinates were sitting in the trench rubbing their feet, Hu Chen reported to Xu Ping: "My lord, the day before yesterday, a soldier under his humble command died suddenly, and before he died, he had a high fever all over his body and the medicine was ineffective, and he was obviously wounded. However, there were no wounds on his body, and it turned out that his toes had been injured after death. It was freezing on this day, and the soldiers were too lazy to take off their shoes, and their feet were cold, so it was difficult to detect even if they were broken, but once they started to have a fever, it was too late. Taking advantage of the fact that the new army would not attack for a while, Hu Chen asked everyone to check each other, and also moved their feet, a place where blood is easy to not circulate, to avoid severe frostbite.

"yes." Xu Ping nodded, the soldier may have injured his foot when he was running, or maybe a shell hit the ground nearby during the shooting, and the soil and rocks stirred up hurt him, in short, no matter what the reason was, it was a little painful because of the weather, and the soldier himself didn't care, and he didn't even feel it when he was inflamed in the early days: "Have you promoted this discovery to the whole army?" ”

"It has been reported to the team, and the team said it will report to the 1st Infantry Wing."

"Very well, I'll ask again when I get back tomorrow."

Hu Chen was stunned: "Aren't you going back today?" ”

"I'm not going back tonight," Xu Ping said with a smile: "Brother Hu is in the army, how do you feel?" ”

"Of course it's very useful, and there are a lot of practical situations in the staff team that I didn't expect at all."

"That's it, I've been away from the front line for too long, and I have to come down and take a look if I have the chance," Xu Ping shook the thick cloak on his body: "I deliberately dressed like this to spend the night in the trenches." ”

After the two of them chatted about the military rank system for a while, it was already close to dusk, and when the subordinates began to take turns to eat, Xu Ping asked again: "Why haven't you seen the two bronze bells of the new army shooting?" ”

"Your Excellency doesn't know, in the past two days, they have generally fired at night, mainly shooting at forts rather than trenches, and if they find out that our army is changing the guard, they may also fire two shots into the open field, but not many, mainly using ordinary artillery to attack us."

Xu Ping digested this information and asked Hu Chen, "What does Brother Hu think about this?" ”

"In the past, when I was in the staff corps, I remembered that if our army was strong, we would generally tend to attack during the day, so that it was clear that we could achieve victory quickly; If we are not strong enough, we will think of fishing in troubled waters at night. Hu Chen's view is that the actual effect of mortar artillery is not as good as its deterrent, and the New Army has a similar view on this, so they prefer to attack at night to destroy the morale of the intruding army: "In addition, there is another point, that is, maybe the New Army does not have enough shells, so they can't shoot as wildly as they did at the beginning, so they have to switch to night attacks or cover charges." ”

"That's a good point." Xu Ping couldn't help but be a little surprised by Hu Chen's improvement.

"My lord praised it falsely, and now when he is commanding a squad to fight, he can't help but wonder what kind of plan the staff team is going to achieve, and figure out what is the meaning of Shangfeng's order to the lowly position; At the end of the First World War, he could not help but think about the experience gained through the battle, and what kind of role it would have if it had been applied to the staff corps. ”

"It seems that General Li is right, all staff officers must have actual combat experience, and it is best for officers to familiarize themselves with the staff team as much as possible." Recently, Xu Ping felt that the ability of the staff team in the camp began to exceed that of the new army, and he thought that this might be because the staff officers of Zhendonghou were all promoted from the battlefield, and most of the staff officers of the new army were trained by the teaching team.

"There is an order that will be issued soon, I will blow the wind to Brother Hu first," Xu Pingcai and Li Dingguo discussed the recent battle situation just now, and this order is the consensus reached by the two just now: "All weapons seized in the future must be handed over, and no teams and squads are allowed to intercept the flow on their own." ”

In the initial defensive phase, the new army continued to occupy the positions of the camp, and although the losses of the camp were not large, the weapons lost were permanent losses. The trade route to the south was also affected by the season, and so far the ordnance base in Xuzhou had not been able to produce qualified flintlock rifles and could only repair partially damaged weapons, and this replenishment could not make up for the weapons consumption on the front line, so the four infantry wings and the teams below were complaining.

Although the units will permanently lose their weapons because they continue to retreat after the counterattack has just begun, the troops responsible for the counterattack may capture some of their weapons, so officers at all levels are reluctant to carry out the task of blocking the attack and prefer to undertake the task of counterattack. In response to this situation, Xu Ping ordered all units to surrender half of their weapons after they were seized, so as to slow down the blood loss of the defending troops.

"My lord, how do you do this?" Hu Chen was taken aback, he himself was looking forward to receiving the order to counterattack, and now compared to the beginning of the war, his troops had also lost a large number of weapons.

"Soon there will be staff officers to count your weapons, and when the counterattack is over, there will be battalion staff officers to check the number of weapons, and the excess battalions will be confiscated." Xu Ping smiled: "Brother Hu, you see, it's not completely unprofitable, at least I won't watch you lose your weapons." ”

"That's not good, if we don't allow us to keep the capture, who bothers to clean up the battlefield?"

"If this reason is not valid, is it because you can't get it, you will watch the gun lying on the ground and not go? If you do this, Brother Hu, then I will be so disappointed. Then Xu Ping told Hu Chen another reason: "There is another problem, that is, neither General Li nor I want you to be too active in cleaning up the battlefield, especially at the risk of sacrificing your subordinates to clean up the unsafe battlefield." The 3rd Infantry Wing was worse equipped than the 1st Infantry Wing, and this had happened several times, and before it was completely won, there were soldiers who were busy grabbing guns, and many soldiers braved the fire of the New Army to grab weapons, and the 15th Infantry of the 4th Infantry Wing, in order to grab a gun in the snow, a company of eleven soldiers were killed in the open field, and this kind of thing must not happen again. ”

"Humble duty understands." Hu Chen replied forcefully: "But my lord, I think it is best to explain the reasons in the briefing, so that the people below can better understand the order." ”

"Brother Hu is right, I will inform the whole army of my considerations and the reason for issuing this order in the order, Brother Hu doesn't know yet, this is also the habit of Hou Ye, I hope that my subordinates, everyone can learn this habit of Hou Ye, just start with me."

Xu Ping asked Hu Chen to arrange a subordinate for him to be a guide, and at night, Hu Chen continued to command the battle without being distracted to take care of himself, and Xu Ping also wanted to know the morale and mentality of the soldiers.

The person who was called to Xu Ping by Hu Chen did not wear a felt hat but a hat like the two officers, which indicates that he was an ordinary soldier, but this soldier held a spear in his hand instead of a flintlock rifle, which shows that he was a sergeant. The sergeant walked over here, and Xu Ping recognized him: "Brother Yue is here." ”

"Your Excellency!" Yue Mu straightened his waist and saluted Xu Ping solemnly: "General! ”

"Brother Yue's back injury, does it hurt when it's so cold?"

"It doesn't hurt at all," Yue Mu replied gratefully, "Thank you, Lord for your grace." ”

"Thank me for what? You are much more desperate than me, besides, I want to thank you Qin Tou for going. Yue Mu was also wrapped in a tight cloak, and Xu Ping couldn't see the military uniform on his body: "Brother Yue is now?" ”

"Sergeant of the Third Rank." Hu Chen, who was on the side, replied for Yue Mu.

"Oh." Xu Ping knew that this meant that Yue Mu was the assistant of the fruit chief Qin Dedong, and he looked around and didn't see the latter: "What about you Qin Tou?" ”

"Qin Tou's eyes are not good, and he can't see things clearly at night." Just now, taking advantage of the pause in the artillery fire on the other side of the new army's attack, Hu Chen had already asked some of the officers and soldiers who did not need to stay at night to withdraw back, and Qin Dedong was among them. The rest who were ready to leave had already left their posts, waiting for the night to fall. Yue Mu held his head high and reported to Xu Ping: "The eyes of the lowly are very good, and the brothers are called lowly night owls. ”

"Then I'll give my life to Brother Yue tonight."

"Don't worry, General." Yue Mu confidently agreed.

As the sun set, night enveloped the bastions, the trenches, and the camp of the New Army. Yue Mu leaned over to Xu Ping's side and buzzed in an inaudible voice: "General, from now on, you are not allowed to speak. ”

"Thank you, Brother Yue." Xu Ping replied in the same subtle voice that this order had been issued by him a few days earlier, and that any slight noise could make the soldiers the target of the Ming army's attack.

The moon moved out from behind a cloud and brought a glimmer of light to the dark earth, and Xu Ping's eyes widened, but he could barely see anything. Beside them were the guards and Yue Mu, and the blurred figures of several of them were shaking, and the light in their eyes seemed to be faintly visible, but Xu Ping was not sure. There was no sound in the whole world, as if they were all asleep together, but everyone knew, I don't know how many pairs of hidden eyes were searching for targets and opportunities in the vast night.

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