The Haihan army was able to make such a careful deployment, and these means were obviously not adjusted after the battle, but had been arranged accordingly a long time ago. The two coalition generals couldn't think of what went wrong for a while, so that the Haihan people had countermeasures in advance. But now is not the time to pursue these details, it is not too late to preserve the strength and withdraw to the country, and then slowly figure out what happened. However, since the opponent has deployed interception means on the back road of retreat, it is unlikely that there will be peace on this road.

As they expected, the guerrilla interceptions launched by the Haihan army were launched almost all the time, and they did not emerge from their hides in the forest to engage the coalition forces head-on, but constantly fired cold guns to slow down the march of the coalition forces. Its small units are very flexible in their movements in the forest, often firing a few shots and immediately changing positions, making the coalition forces completely defenseless.

The pursuers were even more difficult to deal with, and Hogg could clearly feel that the rifles used by the opponent were superior to his own troops, and they would often shoot outside of their own range, using the range advantage of their weapons to launch a one-sided attack on their own soldiers. In this situation, Hogg did not dare to fight at all, so he could only command his troops to fight and retreat. However, the main force in front seemed to be constantly changing its marching route, and did not follow the road from which it came all the way to the north, which also brought a lot of trouble to the evacuation of the troops behind the line.

Hogg knew that the main force in front was constantly being blocked and harassed by the ambush army in the forest, so he could only change the route to avoid a battle, but in such a twist and turn around the forest, it was inevitable that some people would gradually break away from the large army or actively or passively, and could only try to break through to the north on their own. On the way to retreat, the queue became more and more dispersed, and after marching for about twenty miles, the formation was completely lost, and the soldiers only subconsciously marched towards the north or in the direction of the crowd, and the command system was basically abolished.

Under such circumstances, the Haihan Field Army, which was responsible for delaying their march, basically only needed to carry out the established battle plan step by step, constantly interspersing through the forest, cutting the enemy's formation, looking for its weak point to strike, and then quickly withdrawing to carry out the next penetration.

In terms of tactical proficiency alone, the jungle warfare strength of Roger's army was far inferior to Qian Tiandun's special operations force, which was famous for mountain and jungle operations, but it was more than enough to deal with this panicked enemy army. Under the repeated interspersed cutting, the panicked opponent has no measures to deal with it at all, and the orderly retreat has gradually turned into a separate escape.

In the process, the coalition forces were more and more left behind, lost, killed and captured, and although Hogg and Bapon knew that something was wrong, it was difficult for them to organize a decent resistance in this chaotic situation, and they could not even regroup their troops, so they could only bury their heads and desperately flee to the north. Although it is not known what other means the Haihan people have deployed in the north, this is the only way for them to escape, and they can't think about the lurking crisis at the moment.

A dozen miles away from the landing, the fleeing troops were confronted by scattered soldiers fleeing from the north, and the bad news was even more terrifying to Hogg and Papon, who had raided the landing this morning and had already captured the docks and camps that the coalition had just set up in the area. In other words, the only way for them to escape back to Johor seems to have been cut off in advance by the Haihan.

This news also finally confirmed their previous suspicion, that is, Haihan had already sensed this movement before the coalition forces launched the offensive, and made corresponding arrangements in advance. The coalition forces arrived in the south of the island yesterday afternoon and launched an offensive against the village of Haihan, but their fleet circled the Straits of Johor early this morning and accurately attacked the landing site of the coalition forces at Sing Tao, which was undoubtedly consciously creating a time gap. The Haihan people were well aware of the coalition army's operational plan, and gave up launching an anti-landing operation when the coalition forces were carrying out the sea-crossing operation, and then waited for the main force of the coalition forces to leave the landing site and move south, and then they came out to cut off the coalition army's rear route, and the sinister nature of their intentions was also completely exposed.

The entire Star Island is a huge trap, waiting for the coalition forces to automatically drill into it, and then slowly tighten their pockets. Hogg and Bapon now understood why the Haihan did not use their artillery yesterday when the battle situation was tight, just to keep the coalition forces with a hint of "I can do it" and to give the fleet that was outflanking the rear route enough time to act. As soon as the war started today, Haihan decisively used artillery to demonstrate, so that the coalition army lost the courage to continue fighting, and deployed men and horses in the field to block layer by layer, gradually dividing and stripping the coalition army. After this whole set of combination punches, the coalition forces basically had no resistance at all, and could only blindly flee.

But now that the back road is cut off, where should we flee? This is a huge problem. Although the area of Star Island is not small, it is surrounded by the sea, and there are no villages and towns on the island that can be supplied, and the Haihan army has been chasing after the ass, where will the team of 2,000 people flee to find life?

Although those in the know knew that their situation was nowhere to escape, they still subconsciously continued to march north, after all, their only way to survive was in the north, and if they found that the situation was not right on the other side of the strait, they would definitely send another ship to rescue the coalition forces on the island. Although the troops have now been scattered, it may be possible to regroup the stragglers when they reach the coast, and then establish a position to defend against the Haihan army catching up.

But what they didn't know was that Mushapa's fleet had already repelled three waves of Johor fleets that were trying to cross the sea to fight back. These civilian ships with small tonnage had little chance to perform in front of the Haihan warships, and they were often crushed to pieces as long as they were shot, and even if they could get close, they could not easily climb to the high side of the ship. A few of the British armed galleons, though slightly stronger, were at a significant disadvantage in numbers and firepower, and after watching the battle between the Haihan and the Johor ships from afar, they slipped away with great amusement. At present, in the waters near the landing site in the Straits of Johor, no of their ships dares to approach the coastline.

Of course, the coalition forces did not have a contingency backup plan, but before that, they also had to make sure that there was no chance of escape near the original landing site before activating another plan.

Before sunset that day, after confirming that the coastal camp had been replaced with the Haihan two-color flag, the coalition forces finally gave up on the idea of returning to Johor from here, regrouped and turned westward. The Haihan army did not pursue it overnight, and only sent a small number of scouts to observe its movements.

Tan Juren's rear was not idle during the day, and after the enemy retreated, he organized men to clean up the battlefield and accept prisoners. According to Roger's instructions, Tan Juren asked the migrant workers to urgently set up a temporary prisoner of war camp to house the prisoners in the open space outside the village, but the camp was really rudimentary, with no cells, no walls, and not even a gate.

Tan Juren's design is very simple, which is to lay a number of wooden stakes in the ground, and then connect them with barbed wire, enclosing a large open space, leaving a gap as the entrance. This is more concise than the "horse circle" that Roger said, and the construction speed is also faster, hundreds of migrant workers entered the site at the same time, and it took less than an hour to build a temporary detention site that can accommodate 1,000 people.

Prisoners were soon brought back one after another, and with the exception of a few high-ranking officers with intelligence value and Europeans with remarkable physical features, the other ordinary soldiers were thrown directly into the open space after a simple body search. By noon, more than three hundred prisoners of war had been received.

As for how to manage the hard labor camp, this is already one of the subjects that the exiled officials must learn, although Tan Juren has no practical experience, but after seeing all the way in the colonies, combined with the theoretical knowledge he has learned, the current situation is not difficult for him. He had the soldiers distribute materials and tools to the prisoners of war, to organize their own awnings in the open field, to dig latrines, cisterns and other public facilities in designated places, and to announce that they would not be able to obtain food and water until these tasks were completed. It didn't take long to observe those who were active and had strong organizational and command skills, and then appoint them as temporary foremen and leaders to lead the captives in their labor.

As for the senior officers and the British, they were treated relatively better, at least without having to build their own cells and living facilities. Tan Juren temporarily requisitioned several barracks in the army and imprisoned these prisoners of war, who had greater use value. However, how to deal with these guys, Tan Juren has to wait for Roger to come back before making an idea due to his lack of relevant operational experience.

By the time it was dark, Haihan had collected his troops and returned to the camp, and the number of prisoners had exceeded 500, and there were more than 10 high-ranking officers and Britons captured. Roger was also very happy after coming back to check, ordered to reward the three armies, and then pulled Tan Juren to have a few drinks together.

Tan Juren asked a little worriedly: "Aren't you going to continue to chase down the Johor army tomorrow? Don't drink too much and delay your business!"

"Don't worry, it's not so easy to escape!" Roger said confidently: "Tomorrow it will be enough for a company to stay here, and Lao Mu and I will slowly clean them up." In three to five days at most, the island will be able to return to normal order. As for those prisoners of war, you can arrange labor assignments for them as soon as possible, whatever you do, and don't let them sit idle anyway. ”

Tan Juren nodded understandingly: "I understand, let them build the place where they want to live first!"

Roger said: "You can arrange these things, but you have to remember that they are not Han Chinese, and they are not in touch with our culture, if you meet a restless guy, don't be merciful." I still say the same thing, kill some dishonest people, and the rest will be obedient. Don't be distracted by the minutiae, for we these prisoners of war are just mere consumables. ”

Tan Juren said: "What about the officers and the British?"

"Raise them for the time being. When I'm done dealing with the enemy forces on the island, we'll deal with them together. Roger said fiercely: "If you dare to go against us, you have to pay some price, and they can't remember the lesson if they don't suffer pain!"

Early the next morning, Roger set off again with his troops. The troops he led began to search the island in fragments at platoons and about half a mile apart. In fact, it is not difficult to find the traces of the enemy, there are only a few fresh water sources on the island, and even fewer near the Straits of Johor, the enemy army has at least more than 1,000 people wandering in the wilderness, their range of activities should not be too far from the water source, as long as the general direction is determined, it is only a matter of time to find the other party. What's more, yesterday a small group of elites was sent to track all night, and when the large army got close, they could naturally find the guiding markers they left.

The remnants led by Papon and Hogg had arrived at the alternate landing site last night, but it is unknown whether the visibility was too poor at night or the reinforcements on the other side of the strait had been discouraged by the Haihan warships, and no ships took advantage of this opportunity to pick up people on the south shore of the strait. They waited all night until dawn and did not see their ship appear. Soon after dawn, it was not the rescue ship coming from across the strait that first appeared in the field of vision, but the Haihan warship flying the two-color flag.

"The location of the place may have leaked out, so it was better for us to get out of here as soon as possible. When Ba Peng saw the appearance of the Haihan warship, he immediately had a bad premonition in his heart. Although this prepared place to cross the sea was hidden, it was not difficult to obtain this information as long as it was known that some of the officers who knew this reserve plan had already been captured by the Haihan. At that time, he was blocked on the coast by the Haihan army, and with his current morale, he couldn't fight hard with his opponent.

Hogg suggested, "Why don't we go back to the south, the Haihan army must have gone out to search for us on the island by now." At this time, if you go back to the south, you may be able to step into the gap. If we're lucky, it's not impossible for us to take their lair directly. ”

"If we're unlucky, we might be stopped on the way!" Bapon did not agree with Hogg's adventurous plan, in fact he thought that it was more likely that the Haihan people would be in the stronghold, because they had cut off the route for the coalition forces to withdraw to the country, and there was no other place on the island where they could get supplies, even if they were allowed to escape, how long would they be able to survive on this island? There is no need for the Haihan people to rush to clear up, as long as they delay for a few more days, these people under their command will not be able to get out and return to China, and they should slowly choose to surrender on their own initiative.

For the first time after the expedition, there was a major disagreement between the two generals, and neither could convince the other. However, the two armies of the Haihan Army marching from east to west along the coastline of the Strait of Johor and the two troops led by Roger from south to north were getting closer and closer to their position.

(End of chapter)