Chapter 35 The First Battle

Chapter 35 The First Battle

Chapter 35 The First Battle
Tian Xing raised his thumb towards Shao Quanzhong and said, "Second brother, you are really good at using people.

I just heard that you let the third brother lead the battle, and I thought you were being careless and underestimating the enemy."

Shao Quanzhong smiled slightly, "There has to be someone who plays the villain. The new recruits have to have a ruthless person they are afraid of to enforce strict military discipline.

Once we win the first battle, the brothers will immediately become veterans, and they will have confidence in the next battle and will not panic. "

The recruits marched in a line, stopped a hundred steps away from the Dutian Temple, put their guns under their shoulders, used cleaning rods to poke Minié bullets mixed with black powder into the barrels, and marched with their guns held.

Fifty steps away from the Dutian Temple, most of the recruits stopped and forgot what to do next.

"Idiot, get down! Aim at the two dozing guys at the temple gate like you're shooting at a target.

Don't fire until I give the order, and remember to reload immediately after firing."

The recruits lay down obediently, aiming at two bandit sentries who were dozing off in the distance.

This time we were fighting real people, and most people's hands were shaking a little.

The Haiqing Yanling knife swung, "Fire!"

The soldiers fired subconsciously, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

They were not very well-organized, and none of the teams had a natural shooter like Song Lao San. Fortunately, ninety bullets were used to shoot two fixed targets, and the rifles were used to create the effect of a line-up shooting.

Two undisciplined bandits who were sleeping on guard duty were shot ten times each and fell to the ground without a sound.

"Are you stupid? What are you looking at? Load your gun!"

Hai Qing, holding a goose-feather knife, moved back and forth behind the ninety soldiers lying down, kicking them one by one in the buttocks.

Fortunately, the enemy was an even worse mob. Upon hearing the gunshots, a dozen bandits rushed out, holding knives, guns, sticks, and clubs, and a few holding boats.

The two small leaders went to see the fallen sentry, while the others looked around and after searching for a long time, they finally saw Haiqing standing fifty steps away and ten gendarmes with guns supervising the battle.

There are only a dozen enemies, don't panic - my God, there are nearly a hundred people lying on the ground!
The enemy was slow to react, and the new recruits here had difficulty loading bullets.

A skilled soldier with a muzzle-loading rifle can fire three shots in a minute, but here it takes a minute for everyone to load one bullet.

The bandits who saw the enemy shouted, "Boss, it's bad. We have caused trouble by pretending to be the Taiping Army. The government has invited foreigners to fight us!"

The small leader who was still looking down at the sentry who had been killed stood up and saw a large number of militiamen wearing the uniforms of the New Army. The idea that this kind of dress was foreign was deeply rooted in their minds, and they immediately shouted, "Hurry up if the wind blows!"

A dozen people turned around and ran back. Ninety rifles here finally opened fire. "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The timing of the shooting was a little late, and more than half of the bandits ran back to the temple, and six of them were killed.

After firing two shots, the enemy did not counterattack at all, and the soldiers stabilized immediately.

The third bullet was loaded in half a minute. I lay there for a long time, but no large group of enemies rushed out.

Hai Qing thought for a moment and said, "Dig trenches and prepare to resist the enemy's charge."

The soldiers took the engineer shovels from their backpacks and started digging the earth. They did the work quite quickly.

Before they had even dug a few shovels of trench, a member of the marching team came running quickly from the front side.

"Report! The enemy is pouring out from behind the temple and is boarding the boats. It looks like they are preparing to escape along the Taidong River."

Huh? There were more than 200 enemies and only 100 of us, so why did they run away?

We were wearing the new army uniforms and firing guns, so the bandits definitely mistook us for foreigners from afar. Oh my god, do we think we can defeat foreigners?

Hai Qing waved his goose-feather knife, "Scattered formation, chase!"

The enemy ran away, and the soldiers' morale was boosted. They crouched down and rushed to the Dutian Temple with their bayonets fixed. If the enemy had defended the temple, hiding behind the wall and shooting arrows, it might have caused casualties to the militia. As a result, the enemy was surprisingly cowardly. When the soldiers rushed into the temple, the enemy had already run away.

Bags of food that had just been looted were piled up in the temple, and before they had time to destroy it, the soldiers suddenly felt awe-inspiring, thinking that fighting was easy, and rushed to the back of the temple with their guns in hand.

Behind the temple is the Taidong River. The soldiers rushed out of the back door and found that the bandits were swarming onto the boats. The leaders' boats had already set sail, and the ones behind were fighting and pulling each other.

The soldiers knew how to fight and began to shoot freely at the bandits.

"Bang! Boom!"

The bandits finally got on the boats. Amid the sound of gunfire, the bandits tried their best to wave their weapons, and the eight boats quickly headed northeast along the Taidong River.

The soldiers chased the boat and shot, and bandits kept falling into the river. When Shao Quanzhong, with his hands behind his back, came to the Taidong River with his personal soldiers, the bandit boats had sailed away and the battle was over.

Hai Qing stepped forward, stepped on his heels, and saluted, "Reporting to the regiment commander, the battle is over. Eight enemies were killed at the temple gate, eleven were killed by the Taidong River, and an unknown number of bandits fell into the river. The battle was a victory, and no prisoners were taken."

Shao Quanzhong responded, "Okay! Clean up the battlefield, send people to fish out the bodies in the river, and chop off all the heads to claim credit.

Send someone to notify the people in the granary to come and carry the grain back, and also give them the job of burying the enemy's bodies."

The new recruits were new to fighting, but they were all good swimmers. After searching for a long time without finding a fishing net, they simply took off their uniforms and jumped into the river. They quickly fished out the bodies of eight bandits.

Half an hour later, the residents of the city heard the neat military songs again. The Shao militia had won a great victory in suppressing the bandits and returned triumphantly from the north of the city.

Hai Qing still led the military police on horseback, with twenty-seven heads hanging on the backs of the eleven horses.

The soldiers behind did not form a more orderly formation, but each of them had a determined look and had more confidence.

Amid the cheers of the people of Hailing City, a group of soldiers from the right camp returned to Shao's enclosure singing a triumphant song. It was just noon and the lunch was still warm.

Twenty-seven heads were hung on the city wall outside the weir. Shao Quanzhong stood with his hands behind his back and inspected the soldiers who had made contributions. "Everyone performed well today. We won the first battle. Each of you will be rewarded with one or two taels of silver!
Deputy Band Director, kill a pig tonight. The Marching Team, the First Team of the Right Battalion, and the Military Police will have some meat for dinner. Disband!"

The soldiers cheered and dispersed. Their departing backs began to become steady, and the way they looked towards the second team began to become contemptuous, with a bit of the arrogance of veterans.

Shao Quanzhong met Song Laosan who had not left after dinner in the kitchen. "Boss Shao, it's really unfair of you not letting me go to the battle this time. The next opportunity to attack must be given to our second team!"

"It's easy to talk about."

Shao Quanzhong agreed verbally, but shook his head in his heart. Where can I find such a rare and stupid opponent? In the next battle, who knows, maybe I have to fight alone.

"Report! Lord Qiao Songnian, the Lianghuai Salt Transport Commissioner, has arrived!"

"Line up to welcome you!"

Qiao Songnian, accompanied by a few personal soldiers and Shao Quanzhong, walked slowly into the weir.

Two hundred soldiers lined up to greet them and saluted together.

Qiao Songnian looked at Shao Quanzhong with a satisfied look on his face.

“I heard that your soldiers have only trained for half a month, but they were able to go to the battlefield and defeat the bandits. It’s not easy, not easy. You are indeed the young talent of Taizhou.

This time, I have brought you 30,000 taels of military pay, as well as 20,000 taels of silver donated urgently by the gentry of Hailing. Work hard, and I will not treat you unfairly. "

Shao Quanzhong saluted and said, "Thank you for your favor, sir!"

"Okay, if you have any other requests, just ask."

"Your Excellency, I would like to ask you to come forward and invite a great talent to help the militia."

(End of this chapter)