On the morning of April 23, Liuheng Island in the East China Sea. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although both the coalition command and the Sanlin Gang had ordered a truce after nightfall yesterday, the two gangs on the island, who had already killed the red-eyed, engaged in several skirmishes in the night, during which both sides were killed and wounded. The two groups have also engaged in several armed clashes in the past over turf, but fearing that other forces will take advantage of the situation, both sides have invested very limited troops, and the casualties are not serious. But yesterday the two gangs were in a situation where there was no way out, and after the fight, there was no room for the slightest, and by the time dawn was counted, the casualties on both sides were in the triple digits, even if you look at the entire East China Sea, it is a fierce conflict rarely seen in recent years.

The coalition fleet sent a ship loaded with several military doctors and medicines early in the morning, and Lin Si took them to the land of the Sanlin Gang in the west to help treat the wounded. The staff also went to a few people to ask the Sanlin Gang about last night's battle and the current situation of the Haisha Gang. Takahashi Minami led two companies of the army and two expedition-class warships to the area, preparing to meet the Sanlin Gang, who were said to have suffered heavy casualties.

Linde, who was commanding the battle here, did not show any joy after seeing the second brother - yesterday was a great victory for the coalition fleet, but it was an unusually tragic battle for the Sanlin Gang. Even Linde himself was drawn in yesterday's engagement.

"I was beaten by the fire guns of the Haisha Gang, but fortunately I didn't hurt the vital ones!" Lin De pointed to the place where his arm was wrapped in gauze and said: "The fire guns of the ghosts are indeed powerful, I let my brothers rush three times, but they didn't break through their line, but I was injured a lot of people in my own house. Now we can only hold this pass and prevent them from continuing to flee westward. ”

The pass that Linde refers to is located at the eastern end of Liuheng Island, where it is cut off by a hill called Shuangtangling, and there is only a flat pass on the northern coastline that is 100 zhang wide. In the past, the area east of this pass was under the complete control of the Haisha Gang, but now it is being squeezed by the coalition forces little by little, and the escape route by sea has completely blocked the coalition fleet, so the remaining Haisha gang personnel can only try to escape westward into the territory of the Sanlin Gang.

Although Shuangtangling is not high, it is not too difficult for scattered people to climb over the past, but it is not easy to transport the baggage over. When the Haisha Gang withdrew from the port area, they also took a large amount of gold, silver, money and valuable goods with them, and they were reluctant to throw all of them away and cheapen their opponents, so they still confronted the Sanlin Gang here, hoping to seize this pass, and then quickly transport the baggage to the west - now the only escape route left for them is to rush to the land of the Sanlin Gang and grab the ship and leave, and before that, it is necessary to break the defense line of the Sanlin Gang.

Lin Si sighed: "That ghost's fire team is placed in the entire East China Sea, and it is also first-class powerful, and it is not easy to hold this night." The Haihan Army then arrived, and the Haisha Gang was going to end here today. ”

Lin De didn't see the scene of the coalition fleet breaking through the port of the Haisha Gang yesterday, and asked in disbelief: "Are the Haihan people really so powerful?"

Lin Si nodded heavily and replied, "Yesterday, I saw the Haihan fleet enter the port of the Haisha Gang, and it was as simple as chopping melons and vegetables. The Haihan army is almost all firecrackers, I don't know how many times more powerful than the Haisha Gang, and after you see it, you will know why the eldest brother insists on taking refuge in them. ”

At the same time, the atmosphere in the camp of the Haisha Gang to the east of the pass was even more bleak. More than a third of the Sand Gang had lost in the first round of naval battles yesterday, and by the time the three leaders decided to abandon their territory and retreat to the interior of the island, the Sand Gang had consumed almost half of their combat strength. The only thing to be thankful for is that Gomez's musketeers have preserved most of their strength, otherwise they probably wouldn't even have had a chance to stabilize their position and organize a counterattack when they were intercepted by the Sanlin gang on the way to retreat.

The Sanlin Gang didn't have many long-range weapons, but even so, Gomez's musketeers were still unable to break through the defense line laid by the opponent in the pass ahead, which made him very unhappy. The other party trapped the Haisha Gang here by virtue of its geographical advantage, obviously waiting for the Haihan people to form a siege after finishing the southern cuisine, and there was not much time left for the Haisha Gang to escape.

At present, the Haisha Gang still has about five or six hundred combatable soldiers, of which about one-third are musketeers under Gomez, and if he can't break through the defense line of the Sanlin Gang this morning, then Gomez will really have to consider giving up useless resistance and surrendering to the Haihans.

But Li Luotou and Motegi Shinobu have a deeper grudge against the Sanlin Gang, and the strength of the Haihan people is too different to fight, and the Sanlin Gang quietly colludes with the Haihan people at some point to do this robbery while the fire is hot. Shinobu Motegi had already gathered a group of outlaws from Dongying, preparing to directly kill the Lin brothers' lair after breaking through the blockade and attack him by surprise. Gomez felt that the feasibility of this plan was extremely low, but he had no intention of dissuading the two men from taking risks - if they could attract the attention of the enemy army with this action, they would have a better chance of escaping.

Before the operation, Li Luotou ordered people to open several silver boxes and gave ten taels of silver to each of the personnel who were about to go into battle to boost morale. This move was really customary, and many people became as excited as if they had been beaten with chicken blood, completely forgetting the tragedy of yesterday's battle with the Sanlin Gang. However, the three leaders knew that at this time, these people under their command were already in a state of being strong and strong, and they fled too quickly yesterday, and the supplies they carried were extremely limited, and some of them had not eaten a few mouthfuls of food since yesterday, and staying in the wild without bedding at night greatly affected their physical condition. If they don't break through this line of defense today, even if the opponent doesn't tighten up the encirclement, these guys will soon not be able to hold on.

At 9 a.m., the two companies under the command of Takahashi Minami arrived at the shore behind the Sanlin Gang's defensive line, and because the beach here was too shallow to land directly, the participating troops had to land in small boats with shallow draft. However, the Sanlin Gang did have many ways to do this, and under the orders of the Lin brothers, they quickly mobilized more than a dozen small fishing boats to the near shore, and then used a gangplank to build a simple trestle bridge.

Linde finally met the legendary Haihan Army, most of whom came from the southern regions, who were generally dark-skinned and not tall, but with a rather strong body, wearing a uniform gray cotton combat uniform, lace-up mid-top canvas combat boots on their feet, and a gray sunshade hat. Each carried a musket about four feet long, a bulging canvas bag, and some officer-like men had a short musket nearly a foot long stuck in a belt around their waists. After landing, these Haihan soldiers assembled in an extremely orderly manner, and no one except the officers spoke up, and the silent atmosphere contained a murderous aura that sent chills down the back.

Lin Si stepped forward to introduce his brother Lin De to Takahashi Nan, and Takahashi Nan cut to the chase with two greetings: "I heard that the brothers of the Sanlin Gang had suffered a lot of casualties before, so we will take over the position here first, please Lin San and lead his subordinates to the back to rest and recuperate." ”

"There is work!" Lin De had long been looking forward to being able to remove his family, and hurriedly ordered them to make way for them to make way so that the people of Takahashi Minami could enter the field.

In order to defend against the Western-style musket team of the Haisha Gang, the Sanlin Gang built a breastwork here yesterday as a temporary bunker. In addition to the bamboo and wood horses, deer bars, there are also gravel, door panels, large tree branches, and even a few tattered small sampans in the middle. Although the shape is not very neat, it did successfully cover the Sanlin Gang to survive yesterday's attack, and the effect is still quite good.

Takahashi Minami ordered a few gun emplacements to be cleared from the middle, and the few artillery pieces brought with him were deployed in place, while the others rested on the spot and waited for the opponent to appear. Linde was very curious about the battle of the Haihan people, and he also deliberately came to a close place to watch how Takahashinan arranged his troops.

Takahashi Minami and his men didn't wait long, and the sentry spotted in the telescope a group of armed men in the distance approaching this way. As the short and powerful brass whistle sounded, the Haihan soldiers, who were originally sitting on the ground in squads behind the defense line, immediately grabbed their weapons and got up, and entered the combat position under the command of the officers. This process is still busy but not chaotic, reflecting the extremely high military quality and combat experience of the Haihan Army.

In order to achieve better results after the start of the war, the Haihan militia did not rush to waive its own flag on the position today, but just arranged the position and quietly waited for the opponent to take the bait on its own.

Sure enough, the Haisha Gang did not expect that the opponent behind the fortifications had changed, and it was still the same as yesterday, Gomez's musket team was in the center, and the Daming pirates under Li Luotou and the Dongying Japanese pirates under the orders of Motegi Shinobu were separated on the left and right, pressing towards the defense line little by little.

"There were about 20 musketeers in a platoon, about 200 people, and more than 100 scattered armed personnel on the left and right. ”

Before the other side was within the range of the infantry muskets, Takahashi Minami had already finished listening to the military reconnaissance report. For the Haihan militia, which was armed with guns and a few artillery pieces, there was actually no essential difference between this level of armament on the other side and bare hands. Before the war began, it was destined to be a one-sided slaughter.

Gomez walked at the front of the group at first, but the more he walked, the more he felt weak, because he didn't see the flag behind the Sanlin Gang defense line in front of him. He distinctly remembered that when he attacked this place yesterday, there were at least three or four "forest" flags on the defensive line—one of the few Chinese characters he knew. If you can't see your own flag, the soldiers are likely to be psychologically loose and afraid of war.

Li Luotou happened to walk past Gomez at this time, and Gomez quickly stopped him and told him what he felt was wrong. Li Luo blinked his head and replied, "Could it be that the surnamed Lin knew that he was invincible and withdrew overnight?"

"But there are still figures moving behind the line. Gomez reminded.

"Withdraw the main force, leave a little skirmish to scare us, and take the opportunity to delay time, but this surnamed Lin is calculating!" Li Luotou thought in the direction he had speculated, not understanding what Gomez wanted to say.

But Gomez himself couldn't tell the truth of the opponent, and seeing that Li Luotou was going to insist on attacking, he didn't dare to speak out against it, and if he was still afraid of fighting at this time, the fighting desire that his subordinates had finally stimulated with silver would completely collapse. Thinking that there were still millions of baggage to be transported out of this pass, Gomez no longer insisted, but quietly changed his position to the back of the musketeers.

After entering the distance of 100 paces, Gomez saw that there was still no movement in the opponent's position, so he relieved himself and ordered the musket team to stop and start lining up to load ammunition. The skirmishers next to them had to wait for the musketeers to disrupt the opponent's position before charging together.

However, just as the musket team had finished marching, they heard a sharp whistle from the opposite position, and a row of people stood up behind the breastwork, and the weapons that showed were no longer the swords, guns and harpoons of the Sanlin Gang, but the muskets of the brushes. Then the enemy moved away from several places on the defensive line that were covered by tree branches, and behind them appeared desperate artillery.

"The Seasand Gang is coming to an end!" Gomez had just turned around when the cannon on the opposite side rang out.

Adult fist-sized cannonballs burst out of their chambers, whizzing through the air and crashing into the dense crowd of the Seasand Gang Musket Team. The flesh and blood could not stop the huge kinetic energy of the cannonballs, and the screams of the musket team could be heard. Before the pirates could figure out what was happening, they ate the lead that flew in rows. At this distance, the bullets fired by the Haihan rifle were enough to penetrate the ordinary iron armor, so although the people at the front of the line had some protective measures, the iron armor and the rattan shield did not play a role, and they were shot and fell to the ground.

"It's an ambush! It's an ambush set up by the Haihan people!" Seeing this formation, Gomez finally understood what was happening, and shouted loudly, but his own camp was already in chaos at this time, and the survivors of the musket team began to change from the rear team to the front team, turning around and running back, while Li Luotou and Motegi Shinobu's team was even more chaotic, some wanted to charge for their lives, others wanted to flee back. Gomez saw Li Luotou and Shinobu Motegi yelling in the chaos, but it was difficult to achieve the command effect.

The shooting of the Haihan infantry was not delayed by the chaos of the Haisha Gang, and the order they received was to first carry out ten rounds of rapid shooting, and each soldier was under the command of the officer's whistle, and completed a series of tactical actions such as loading, raising guns, aiming, shooting, and giving way with stable movements, forming a killing machine with extremely high efficiency. (To be continued.) )