Chapter 187 Flesh Mill

Chapter 187 Flesh Mill

Chapter 187 Flesh Mill

There are more than 280 densely packed fortresses in the northern part of Jinjibao, and more than ten of them have been knocked down.

There were frequent gunshots from the twelve forts to the north, as well as the sounds of rapid-fire guns and artillery.

These twelve fortresses were divided and surrounded by double trenches dug by the Huai Army, and twelve battalions of the Huai Army were besieging them.

Twelve days ago, Tongxin City had been besieged for nearly a month. There was still food and grass, but the morale was gone. Ma Wanchun led three thousand men to surrender, and all the southern fortresses were captured.

The fortress in the northern half is not so easy to attack.

The most determined and elite Gansu bandits are stationed here, and the tactic of feigning defeat from the south cannot be used a second time. They will not be fooled and can only be picked off one by one.

Ten days ago, the main force of the Huai Army was reorganized and Nie Shicheng was promoted to the new commander.

Twelve battalions of the Tian Xing Regiment, Nie Shicheng Regiment and Lin Bozai Regiment began to attack the northern fortress group.

Song Laosan's regiment was reduced to three battalions and became Shao Quanzhong's guard regiment. Together with two thousand reinforcements, it was responsible for monitoring the enemy in Jinjibao and preventing the enemy's main force from supporting the northern fortress group.

From that time on, the Huai Army's artillery had never stopped bombarding. Even though they could make their own shells, it was still a huge expense.

According to Grant's estimation, if the fighting continued like this, these guns would be scrapped faster. Shao Quanzhong had already ordered ten more companies of Armstrong guns in the UK.

Lin Bozi held a bandage on his forehead and stared at the small castle suppressed by his own firepower, "Charge again——"

"Report to the commander, enemy reinforcements are coming from other fortresses in the south."

The characteristics of the bandits are that they are numerous and not afraid of death. Hundreds of bandits roared and rushed towards the encirclement of the Huai Army.

Manual machine guns and rapid-fire cannons roared immediately, and more than 200 soldiers lay in the trenches and kept shooting.

While they were attacking Jinjibao and the outer fortresses, Shao Hengzhong, with a regiment and four battalions of troops, resisted two reinforcements from Didao and Hezhou.

When the reinforcements arrived, the enemies in Jinji Fort rushed out to support them. Shao Hengzhong and his 6,000 men formed two trenches to resist the combined attack of 8,000 to 9,000 men on both sides. They firmly held their positions, cutting off the enemy's external reinforcements and escape routes within the fort. Five hundred men were killed.

When Shao Quanzhong received the report, he immediately sent 500 reinforcements and also allocated ten machine guns and ten rapid-fire cannons.

When the enemy's reinforcements attacked for the third time, they suffered heavy casualties. Since then, no reinforcements have been sent.

There were only forty rapid-fire weapons left attacking the castle group in the north. Each attacking battalion was only allocated three cannons and three machine guns to take care of the enemies in four directions.

More than 200 bandits were quickly wiped out, but this was only the first wave of charge, and the second wave followed soon after.

With the cannon fodder bandits in front blocking the bullets, this time the bandits rushed to the edge of the trench after losing more than half of their men. The enemies in the fort rushed out to support them, and hand-to-hand combat began at the edge of the trench.

The Huai Army did not use bayonets in hand-to-hand combat, but instead used the engineer shovels carried on their backs.

The soldiers have been well-trained and have good teamwork, so their killing efficiency is much higher than that of the bandits.

But the bandits were numerous and not afraid of death. They would rather injure their opponents with a knife than be killed by the engineers' shovels.

After this wave of attack, all 600 enemy soldiers who rushed out from both sides were killed, 80 Huai Army soldiers were killed and 50 were injured.

Judging from the proportion, this is a victory, but the bandits are dying, and despite seven times the casualties, they still continue to fight.

The enemy was repelled. The lightly wounded bandaged themselves, the medical soldiers bent over and carried the seriously wounded away along the trenches, the logistics soldiers quickly carried the dead soldiers away, and the reinforcements held their guns and ran quickly along the trenches to the positions where there were few soldiers.

The Huai Army had always fought smart battles since its formation, but this was the first time they had engaged in a bloody positional battle. This chain of fortresses had become a meat grinder for both sides.

Shao Quanzhong stood not far from the line of fire, with his hands behind his back and a gloomy face.

The Huai Army soldiers who were carried down from the battlefield one by one were all carefully trained by themselves, and some of them were fellow Jiangyan folks whom they knew.

After ten days of attack, they captured more than a dozen fortresses and killed more than 10,000 enemies, but their own losses exceeded 2,000.

"Report, three thousand new reinforcements have arrived, escorting this month's food and fodder, as well as artillery shells, bullets, medicines and guns, a new batch of Hale rockets, and ten thousand new winter uniforms." Food and fodder slowly entered the camp, and there were less than three thousand new reinforcements, only two thousand four hundred left.

The grain transport troops were ambushed by bandit cavalry. Fortunately, the patrolling cavalry provided timely support, otherwise the losses would have been even greater.

Before they encircle Jinjibao, the enemy cavalry can attack at any time, and this cannot be stopped.

The Huai Army had an advantage in weapons, and in every battle, the casualties were greater than the losses. But the enemy had spiritual strength, and did not follow the rule of collapse when more than 25% of the elite troops were lost. Every battle was quite bloody, and losses were inevitable.

"Old Ge, is there any way to reduce the losses?"

"No, the ratio of our casualties to the enemy's is already quite impressive. The enemy is not afraid of death. They are not human beings, but demons."

"It seems that there is no other way but to ask Wu Ziyi to continue sending reinforcements."

At the current rate of loss, the casualties in taking down the northern bunker group would be over 10,000 - this is not a simple multiplication, the enemy is also suffering losses, and their forces are not unlimited.

The compensation for 10,000 dead would be close to 3 million taels. But if you don't pay, who will risk their lives for you in the trenches?

Moreover, the continuous death of veterans will gradually lower the average combat effectiveness of the troops...

"Report, Dong Fuxiang's troops are back."

When Dong Fuxiang's troops left, they had 25,000 men, and when they returned, they had 300,000 men.

"I am here to see you, Lord Zhongcheng. Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission. I have subdued Gao Wanyi's army and eliminated Zhang Gui's army. The large-scale banditry in Shaanxi and Gansu no longer exists."

Looking at Dong Fuxiang, who was wearing the official uniform of the Qing Dynasty and bowing on one leg to salute him, Shao Quanzhong smiled bitterly, "Xingwu, you have worked hard. It is a good thing that you are so good at fighting, but with these 300,000 hungry people, my military rations will be eaten up in ten days. You have given me a difficult problem."

"Sir, as long as you can feed these hungry people, the 45,000 soldiers I brought back are willing to fight for you."

"I don't have that many guns for you right now. Even if I did, it would still take several months of training. You've worked hard. Go down and rest first."

Dong Fuxiang did not rest but reported to Shao Quanzhong the process of subduing the bandits.

He led 25,000 Gansu troops to Gao Wanyi's territory in the far suburbs of Qingyang, claiming that he had been defeated by the Huai Army and came to surrender to Gao Wanyi.

Gao Wanyi was overjoyed and immediately appointed Dong Fuxiang as the third leader. When the two armies joined together, the number of soldiers reached 55,000.

Dong Fuxiang immediately suggested to annex Zhang Gui's troops. Gao Wanyi's bandit gang, which had strong soldiers and horses but poor food and equipment, marched westward and attacked Zhang Gui's troops fiercely.

Zhang Gui's army had only 10,000 soldiers, but its conditions were much better than Gao Wanyi's army.

Gao Wanyi, like Dong Fuxiang, maintains his independence.

Zhang Gui was a man who loved everyone and completely surrendered to the bandits. He took money, guns and food from them and became an accomplice of the bandits. He also had 700 bandit cavalrymen to help him.

He has few soldiers, is wealthy, and has a bad character. Gao Wanyi has been eyeing him for a long time.

In this battle, Zhang Gui's army was completely destroyed and Gao Wanyi's army suffered a loss of 10,000 men, which was a heavy loss.

After swallowing up Zhang Gui's troops, there was still not enough food, as there were too many hungry people. Gao Wanyi wanted to go to the bandits' residential area to rob food, but the second leader Sha Er disagreed and directly rebelled, beheaded Gao Wanyi, and became the leader himself. Dong Fuxiang was promoted to the second leader.

Dong Fuxiang suggested to Sha Er that they should accept the amnesty so that everyone could have food to eat. Sha Er hesitated for ten days and did not make up his mind. Zhang Jun, a close friend of Dong Fuxiang's subordinate, killed Sha Er in anger and promoted Dong Fuxiang as the chief of the stronghold to lead everyone to accept the amnesty.

This fight was actually welcomed by Gao Wanyi's former subordinates - their families were starving and could not hold on any longer.

After the report, Dong Fuxiang went down and discussed with Le Sen about providing relief to the disaster victims, reorganizing his new subordinates, and laying off the old and weak and giving them guns to form the Huai Army.

Not long after he left, Dong Fuxiang came back and said, "Master Zhongcheng, I think that my troops should not be dismissed in a hurry to join the Huai Army. I want to lead these people to join the battle to attack the fortresses and make meritorious contributions in return for your relief to their families."

(End of this chapter)