Chapter 120: The Sweeping Battle of Yuhang Town (Medium)

Time passed little by little in the tense preparations of the Shen family and the Chen family, and the legendary blue-faced and fanged thief finally approached Yuhang Town.

——In the early morning of the third day of the establishment of the group training in Yuhang Town, a sweaty hawker brought the bad news that the thieves were coming.

On the eve of the war, Yuhang Town was silent, and Chen Jinnan, a fifteen-year-old boy who had been selected for a day in the township, was wearing an old coat that did not fit well, holding the bird gun tightly, and trying to hide his body behind the small window of the watchtower at the entrance of the town, and his fingertips were slightly pale because of excessive force...... Looking up at Chen Jialuo, the clan uncle who was smoking a cigarette pouch with a calm face, he couldn't help but feel ashamed in his heart, and felt that he didn't seem to be a man.

Up to this point, no one in Yuhang Town had ever seen the thief with his own eyes, and he didn't know how many soldiers and horses the thief had—because of his lack of military experience, no one in the town had thought of sending a spy to the Qiantang River to take a look; I just heard from the vendor who came from Xianlin Town next door that there were not many thieves who entered their town yesterday, only about fifty people. But all of them have copper heads and iron arms, and they are invulnerable. Among them are the short and round-legged Wako, the red-haired and green-eyed Western oniyi, and the black-haired bald Yaksha.

At the beginning, the townsmen of Xianlin Town saw that there were few thieves, and the leading Wuju man wanted to pick up a bargain, so he pulled four or five hundred strong men, just like when he was fighting in the past, with bamboo guns, hoes, harpoons or something, and rushed out with a roar. As soon as the gang rushed out of the town, the thief's bird gun rang out, and it didn't finish ringing once, it sounded seven or eight rounds. After the seven or eight rounds of bird guns sounded, more than half of the group training in Xianlin Town was gone, of which thirty percent of the people were knocked over by the bird guns, and seventy percent of the people saw that something was wrong, so they simply ran away. There were still one hundred and eighty people left who didn't run, and they finally rushed to the thief's side, thinking that this time they should win, who expected that the thief's bird gun could be loaded with a sword, and a few rounds of stabbing down, but those village warriors were beaten to the ground, so that the thief chased his ass all the way into the town......

Right now, the old men of Xianlin Town have either left their wives and concubines and fled, or they are being hung by thieves on the beams of the house and swinging! The most unlucky big families even let their ancestral graves be dug up. Several old people in Yuhang Town shook their heads when they heard this, saying that the widows were not so mad back then!

“…… It seems that these thieves who kill a thousand knives are really fierce, but our Yuhang Town is not an idle forest town that doesn't even have firearms! As long as the thieves dare to come, let them taste the taste of our Chen family's firecracker! Well! They must be beaten until they tremble when they hear the name of Yuhang Town! ”

The young Chen Jinnan held the firearm made by his uncle Chen Jialuo, a "firearms master", with both hands, and muttered to himself to cheer himself up, but he didn't know that the "thieves" who had just wandered to the vicinity of Yuhang Town not far away hadn't even figured out where this place was......

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

“…… Steward's Hall? Kuramae Town? Yuhang Town? What the hell is that bunch of houses in front of you? ”

On the cold and barren winter fields, Li Meng, a former Jiaozhou salt lord, looked left and right at the map in his hand, but he was still deeply confused.

- With the development of the mainland strategy, the various union republics began to expand their armies on a large scale. Li Meng, a traverser who had organized an armed rebellion in Shandong and had rich experience in guerrilla warfare for the Ming Dynasty's official army and landlord regiments, was naturally arrested by the military, so he had to end his short career as a train salesman, and took several of his Shandong brothers and a miscellaneous army, and once again embarked on the journey to sweep Jiangnan with the rank of captain.

As a special treatment for the traverser, more than half of the 50-member team led by Li Meng this time are Han Chinese from Hainan Island, and the remaining half are also Japanese security forces who have served on Hainan Island for a long time, and they can speak some Chinese, so at least there is no big barrier in language communication...... The naturalized officers were unlucky, some of whom were even stuffed with black Swahili-speaking Africans, white Europeans who spoke Spanish, French, and English, Russian-speaking Cossacks, and Indian warriors who spoke unknown languages......

But even so, it still can't change the fact that Li Meng didn't go far from Phoenix Villa, and he was completely lost in the unfamiliar Jiangnan water town.

Facing the lack of heat like the sun, Li Meng stared at the map in his hand with an embarrassed expression, as if he could see some treasure from it. Undoubtedly, the satellite-based map was accurate, but it was also vague — it could show the location of a slightly larger pond, but it could tell him where he had been, only to provide a frustrating number of coordinates — east longitude xxx, north latitude xxx. This is of course very scientific, but what Comrade Li Meng wants to know more is which township and village he is in......

This was so sad that Li Meng couldn't help but feel a faint sadness in his chest.

But this is also a helpless thing, after all, no matter how clear the effect of satellite reconnaissance pictures is, it cannot catch up with the field survey...... And there is no way to directly copy the modern map of Hangzhou, because although Hangzhou is still that Hangzhou, but the subtle place names of the next level, the difference between ancient and modern times is amazing, and the location of many villages and rivers has also changed greatly - so in the end, I can only send an incomplete map, except for the "big places" such as Fucheng County and other "big places" have names, the names of the rest of the villages and towns are all blank, and users need to inquire by themselves......

Obviously, this kind of unreliable map like a guessing puzzle made Li Meng, who was not very good at the original sense of direction, confused as he walked.

What's worse is that the guide assigned to him is also an unreliable cargo, and he still knows the way near Phoenix Mountain, and if he goes farther, he will become blind.

At this moment, he was standing in a bare winter field, bewildered by the strange town at the end of the horizon...... So, Li Meng picked three soldiers who claimed to have horseback riding experience, plus unreliable guides provided by Phoenix Villa, to form a small reconnaissance team to find out what kind of place this was, and by the way, to see how the defense of the town in front of him was, and whether it was easy to take......

Since it was really difficult to get horses in the water towns south of the Yangtze River, the four scouts could only set off slowly on small donkeys.

On the other side, as the four "donkey riders" gradually approached, the villagers who were guarding the watchtower at the entrance of Yuhang Town suddenly had a small commotion - thieves! The real thief is coming! Although there are only four people, and they are not as green and fanged as in the legend, they do have the same short hair as the layman monk, and the one-and-a-half-foot-long sword, just like the legend, glows in the sun!

As soon as he saw the thief appear, the young and vigorous Chen Jinnan hurriedly raised the fire gun and was about to start fighting, but Chen Jialuo, the clan uncle who was a "firearms expert", hurriedly slapped him and stopped him: "...... It's too far away, and I can't hit it, so I'll patiently put them closer first, and then listen to my orders, and everyone will fight together! The Tiger Squat Cannon should also be prepared. This is a thief's detective, in order to kill chickens and set an example for monkeys, we can't let any of them go! ”

All the Yuhang Township Yong on the watchtower thought it was true, so they held their breath and did not mention it...... Sure enough, the four thieves riding small donkeys first walked around a few times in the distance, and then carefully looked at the boundary monuments erected on the side of the road, and found that there was no reaction on the watchtower, so they gradually came over with courage, and walked faster and faster, until they reached the foot of the watchtower. One of the leading thieves jumped off the donkey next to the watchtower, took out a piece of paper from his arms, and chanted something loudly to the people inside, but unfortunately the villagers in Yuhang Town basically didn't understand it - in the era when Mandarin had not been promoted, if Cantonese people communicated with Hangzhou people in dialects, it was basically equivalent to talking to chickens and ducks.

Especially Chen Jinnan, a young man who was in battle for the first time, didn't even listen to a word, but was so nervous that he was almost soaked with sweat.

At this time, Chen Jialuo, the uncle of the "firearms expert", suddenly stretched out his hand and slapped it on the wall, shouting loudly: "Fight!" ”

Hearing Uncle Clan's order, Chen Jinnan immediately subconsciously leaned out half of his body from the window, aimed at the leading thief and opened fire...... In the haze, he seemed to see the thief holding the paper shake twice, revealing an expression of disbelief, and then fell down without snorting,

Hit! Chen Jinnan, who had shot someone with a fire gun for the first time in his life, didn't have time to cheer with joy when he heard a series of crackling and crisp sounds around him—clan uncle Chen Jialuo and more than a dozen other Chen family disciples also fired bird guns one after another. At such close range, three of the four unsuspecting thieves were knocked over. Only the thief, who was furthest away, shrank behind the donkey and escaped for the time being.

Next, the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall's carefully collected four tiger squat cannons for nearly a hundred years were also lit one after another, and the sound of cannons followed by thunder was like thunder, blasting out of broken stones, broken tiles and scrapped lead bullets that did not fit the caliber like a storm...... But such a magic weapon failed to leave the last thief behind - after the smoke and dust cleared, this guy was still unharmed, but when he saw that the situation was not good, he left his companion and turned around and ran.

- Even in Qi Jiguang's era, the Tiger Squat Cannon was only an auxiliary weapon mainly used to fire shotguns, and the advantage was: any broken stones and broken porcelain pieces could be stuffed into it, and it could paste the enemy's face at close range. The disadvantage is: the firing range of this thing is very close, and the power is not enough when attacking the city, and when it is in the field, the gun position is fixed, which is inconvenient to move, and it is even more difficult to aim. In the Qing Dynasty, it was replaced by a similarly powerful, but lighter carrying gun.

(At least the weight of three lifting guns is enough to catch up with a tiger squat cannon, which shows that ancient Chinese firearms are still improving.) ）

But in any case, the villagers of Yuhang Town still won the battle and successfully defeated the thief, and the people on the watchtower let out a burst of cheers, and some people quickly reported the news to the squires in the town. Then stacks of "victory cakes" and cauldrons of white rice were served. The man who brought the bread also said that the pigs were being slaughtered in the town, and that everyone would be treated in the evening!

Hearing the news that there was a feast to eat in the evening, it immediately caused a greater cheer in the watchtower...... In this joyful and triumphant atmosphere, everyone was struggling to boast of their bravery and fearlessness, as if they had not repelled a few enemy scouts just now, but had broken the army, destroyed the withered and decrepit, and fought a great victory:

“…… See! I killed the thief who was leading the way just now! ”

“…… , I beat it to death! If you don't believe it, look at the piece of paper in his hand, it's full of holes I've punched! ”

“…… With the same bear as you, can you still make holes? I see you're digging holes in the ground with a bird's gun! ”

……

“…… Stop arguing, hurry up and find two of them to come over and pick up the foreign guns of the wreck! And the guns! Look at you guys like that! Is it time to drink celebratory wine? There were only four thieves here, and one of them ran away, and the brigade of thieves arrived in a while! This battle still has to be fought! ”

Chen Jialuo's gloomy face stopped the noise of the juniors, "...... The head was cut off and hung at the door! The donkey is brought back too! Hurry up! ”

With the roar of Uncle Chen Jialuo, the little characters in the town hurriedly moved, and the first foreign gun sent up naturally arrived in Chen Jialuo's hands. The villagers all surrounded him curiously, wanting to see how this "first person in Yuhang firearms" would fiddle with this strange foreign gun today.

Picking up a lever of the dragon's head with an open foreign gun, Chen Jialuo frowned and took it in his hand, and was surprised to find that this thing felt better than his most precious Furlong machine...... Next, after roughly figuring out the principle of this thing, with the attitude of trying the depth, Chen Jialuo raised the foreign gun, aimed the door at the body of the thief thirty steps away, and after pulling the trigger hard, he was surprised to find that the dragon head was motionless.

He muttered in confusion, "Didn't you break it just now"? He also took the other two captured guns, and concocted them in the same way, and these two guns were fired very smoothly - the first shot steadily hit the corpse, so that the headless corpse that had just died less than an hour instantly rose a burst of blood mist, and after the second shot out, it even broke a wooden board erected a hundred steps away in half

“…… This foreign gun is so powerful! The onlookers were speechless, and they also admired Chen Jialuo even more for being able to play with foreign guns so well.

And in the face of everyone's compliments and praises, Chen Jialuo just waved his hand indifferently, and then erected a gun, took out a gun from a seized cowhide box and stuffed it into the barrel, and the conspicuous little copper cap was also concocted in the same way, and then when he pulled the dragon's head, Chen Jialuo suddenly knew why the first foreign gun just now couldn't be hit: the mechanism of this thief's fire gun is really exquisite, and it can prevent misfire!

But...... Despite holding such a militaristic weapon, he still lost his life so easily, and it seems that this thief is nothing more than Erer!

Stroking the captured foreign guns, Chen Jialuo's mouth opened into a crumbly smile, and he was more confident in winning this battle......

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

“…… What the? Four people will come back to you? What do you bastard eat? ”

Looking at the unreliable guide who escaped with his life, kneeling in front of him tremblingly, Li Meng suddenly became angry.

The unreliable guide, who had escaped with a dirty face and fell off his shoes, was immediately frightened and wanted to lie on the ground: "...... Master, no, chief, I really don't blame me, those uncles saw that the town was running fast, and I couldn't keep up. By the time I get there, it's too late......"

So, with a sad face, he stammered to Li Meng about the experience just now—how the leading non-commissioned officer took the initiative to show goodwill, and read the Allied text to the townspeople in a gentle voice, and how the people in the town were despicable and shameless, attacking without telling them...... After this unreliable guide finished speaking, Li Meng had also roughly calmed down: he actually knew that the people under his command were either miscellaneous or recruits, although they looked quite robust in practice, but the actual combat experience was quite lacking, and it was normal for a person not to be careful.

In short, according to this guy's description, the Yuhang town in front of him had built a strong watchtower, and there were also "elite" township warrior regiments equipped with guns and artillery. Although I don't know how many enemies there are, but looking at the size of that town, there should always be six or seven thousand people in the whole town, and if the gentry and old men in the town can levy all the strong men, at least a few hundred people can be pulled up.

Although he was not afraid of fighting such a rabble in the opposition at the touch of collapse, the other party was obviously quite shrewd, and did not take the initiative to rush out to die like the regimental training of several other towns, but retreated to fight a defensive battle in a town with complex terrain, which was a bit of a scratching head...... Li Meng calculated that there were only fifty-three people in his team, two of whom had fallen behind on the road, and three more had just been killed, and now there were only forty-eight people left, all of whom were light infantry, and there was no heavy equipment except for rifles with bayonets and a small number of old-fashioned grenades.

With such a force, it is really difficult to bite a bunker equipped with firearms, and to suppress a town with a large number of people.

“…… Shoot flares and call for help from the surrounding squads. At the same time, contact the headquarters of Phoenix Villa and request heavy fire support for the battle! ”

Li Mengluo thought about it for a while, and then made the above decision. So, under the lead-gray winter sky, a red signal flare rushed into the sky with a piercing scream, and soon three green signal flares rose from all sides one after another - this means that three squads are about to arrive, and Li Meng's command will be able to gather 200 people...... Although I feel that the total number of people is still a little less, I can fight a battle in a so-so way.

After contacting the Phoenix Mountain Headquarters with a walkie-talkie, Li Meng also got a reply that made him overjoyed - for Yuhang Town, a "stubborn enemy" with fierce resistance, Zhao Yinggong Zhuang Zhuang attached great importance to it, so he personally escorted a batch of heavy equipment to Yuhang Town to help in the battle.

However, when this batch of "heavy equipment" was escorted by Zhao Yinggong, Li Meng was dumbfounded for a while:

“…… Gatling Rotary Gun? No conscience cannon? Hale rockets? What kind of outdated brass and rotten iron are these? Haven't all the troops begun to change their outfits since they got in touch with the central authorities? Even if you get a few mortars or grenadiers, it's better than these things? ”

“…… It is precisely because the troops are about to change their equipment that these backward ordnance that we used to produce ourselves are piled up in the warehouse and eaten with ashes. ”

Zhao Yingong explained with a wry smile, "...... I want to sell it, but I can't find a suitable market for a while...... Therefore, Lingao has allocated them all to waste use, and in a low-intensity security war like the current one, it should be enough to use these things......"