?
"Gully filler?" Vézé muttered.
In the past, Vézé had always been on the frontlines. This time, he was still on the frontlines, but as a commander, he did not join the battle directly. Vézé did not expect to sigh on the battlefield.
This sigh was not without reason. Just now, the hundreds of Qing Army soldiers had charged over, but within a minute, forty to fifty of them had been taken down. In front of Vézé's position, there was a small ditch. At this moment, the ditch was filled with corpses.
Within twenty paces, over two hundred people had fired at close range, and the Qing Army soldiers at the front were all knocked down in an instant. A few unlucky fellows had charged into Vézé's "barricade" and were stabbed to death by the Taiping army soldiers squatting on the ground.
The Qing Army soldiers at the back were so frightened that they jumped and fled. Directly behind them was a deep ravine. At least seven or eight fellows could not stop running and fell into the ravine. It was unknown if they were dead or alive.
Wei Changrong, the commander of the long spear formation, waited for Vézé to give the order to stop shooting, then led the spear squad to stab the Qing Army soldiers who were still alive on the ground. The corpses of the Qing Army soldiers who were close to the position were temporarily thrown into the ravine in front of the position. The thirty or so corpses not only filled the ravine, but also formed a mountain of corpses on top of the ravine. The thick smell of blood permeated the air, and not even the rain could wash it away.
Putting away his bemoaning sigh, Vézé ordered: "Spear squad, retreat!"
At this time, the flintlock squad had finished reloading. Vézé did not feel the need for the spear squad to stand in front of the flintlock squad before the other side continued to fight.
Not long after, a large number of Qing Army soldiers appeared opposite Vézé. Facing the hollow that Vézé and his men were defending, the Qing Army only sent over a hundred musketeers to line up with Vézé's men about forty paces away. Both sides raised their guns and aimed at each other, but no one opened fire.
The Qing Army used the musketeers to force Vézé back. Behind the musketeers, the retreating Qing Army soldiers ran forward on the ten-pace-wide path. Wei Changrong could not help but lean over. "Commander, this …, will we let Qing Yao escape?!"
Wei Ze originally wanted to drive Wei Changrong back to prepare for the attack, but then he remembered that he needed to cultivate officers who could take over the command, and Wei Changrong was undoubtedly the first among them. He explained, "The faster the Qing army runs, the more they get soaked in the rain, the less their guns will be able to fire. Also, the faster they retreat, the more the Qing Army will want to escape. We just have to wait for them … "
As he spoke, he saw a large flag with the word "Xiang" written on it run past from behind the Qing Army. Vézé did not have time to explain. He ordered Wei Changrong: "Return to your unit and prepare to charge!"
Wei Changrong obeyed and ran back to where the musketeers were.
Xiang Rong and his men were probably near the "Xiang" flag. Vézé did not want to engage in a life and death struggle with Xiang Rong. His current subordinates were all trained by Vézé. They would be the core of the future army, the seeds of the future. Therefore, Vézé was waiting for the moment when Xiang Rong and his men could escape. The loss of troops in pursuit and in a life and death struggle were completely different.
As expected, after the Qing Army's vanguard successfully escaped, the rest of the troops ran faster and faster. The morale of the Qing Army that was confronting Vézé was greatly reduced. Many of the Qing Army began to look left and right.
"Prepare to shoot!" Vézé shouted. The Taiping army, whose morale had been greatly reduced, tensed up again.
A minute later, Vézé saw a group of Qing Army trying to quickly pass through the "danger zone" in front of Vézé. Some of them bumped into the Qing Army from behind, disrupting the formation of the Qing Army.
"Fire!" Vézé swung his sword down.
Amidst the gunshots, the slightly disorderly formation of the Qing Army was immediately thrown into chaos. When the Qing Army heard the gunshots, they ran even faster, trying to escape the shooting zone as soon as possible. However, the narrow road could not accommodate so many people, so the formation of the Qing Army was pushed into a mess from behind.
Some of the Qing Army unconsciously fired at Vézé and his men. Vézé's men were wearing wet straw raincoats, bamboo hats, and straw hats. The bullets did not hurt them at all. When the Qing Army heard the gunshots at close range, they were even more disorderly.
At this time, the distance between the Qing Army and Vézé was less than 30 steps. After four rounds of gunshots, the Qing Army was already screaming. How could Vézé let go of such a good opportunity? He shouted, "Third Pawn, continue to reload! Second Pawn, switch to spears. First Pawn, charge! "
Wei Changrong had been waiting for this order. When he heard Vézé's shout, Wei Changrong shouted, "Brothers of the First Pawn, charge!"
This was a classic battle between a modern army and the Qing Army. When the Qing Army was unable to overwhelm their opponent with firearms, and the opponent dragged the Qing Army into close combat, the Qing Army was irrevocably defeated.
Wei Changrong led over a hundred of his subordinates and charged forward in a horizontal line. The Qing Army in front of them was instantly pierced through by a dense barrage of spears. The Qing Army that had not been pierced through retreated. With a series of screams, dozens of Qing Army soldiers fell into the valley. In just a moment, Wei Changrong had split the Qing Army in half.
Vézé led the Second Pawn, who had switched to spears, and followed closely behind Wei Changrong. Seeing that he had accomplished his goal with one charge, he ordered Wei Changrong to chase after the Qing Army that had escaped from the valley. The Second Pawn attacked up the mountain. Soon, the Third Pawn was also loaded. Vézé ordered them to follow Wei Changrong and kill their way down the mountain.
Roars, screams, screams after being shot, and screams after falling down the cliff. In just a moment, the battle had entered a white-hot stage. Vézé also wanted to rush to the front line and lead his brothers in battle. The Taiping army's spear formation was very orderly. Wave after wave of ferocious stabs forced the Qing Army to flee up the mountain.
At this time, the battle cries behind the Qing Army grew louder. The King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, had already annihilated the Qing Army in the Dadong Valley. The Taiping army was like a mountain torrent, killing their way out of the valley.
The Qing Army no longer had the heart to fight. One by one, they fled towards other paths in the valley. Those who could not find a path tried their best to climb up the mountain walls. Some of the braver ones began to climb into the valley.
Yesterday, Wulan Tai had not let any of the Taiping army off. Men, women, old, and young had all been killed by the Qing Army. Now, the Qing Army knew very well that if they fell into the hands of the vengeful Taiping army, only death would await them. All of the Qing Army were thinking of ways to escape.
The commander of the second pawn was Hu Chenghe. With great difficulty, Vézé managed to drag Hu Chenghe away from the fierce assault up the mountain. Hu Chenghe had long since thrown his straw cape and bamboo hat to some unknown place. His face, collar, and shoulders were splattered with blood.
"The second pawn will hold the fort here. I will lead the flintlock squad down the mountain to chase after Qing Yao." The earth-shattering battle cries echoed through the valley. Vézé had to shout twice before Hu Chenghe could hear them clearly.
Hearing this, Hu Chenghe immediately shouted anxiously: "Commander, let's throw away our flintlocks. Everyone only has long spears. We don't have any flintlocks."
At first, Vézé did not understand. After thinking for a while, he finally understood what Hu Chenghe was talking about. The second pawn was the flintlock squad. When Vézé said he would lead the flintlock squad down the mountain to chase after Qing Yao, he was referring to the third pawn, who was still holding a flintlock. Hu Chenghe's mind was muddled from all the killing. When he heard the flintlock squad, he remembered that his troops only had long spears.
Vézé shouted again: "You lead the second pawn and use your spears to hold the fort. I will lead the others down the mountain to chase after Qing Yao. Do you understand? "
"Yes!" Hu Chenghe shouted. Then, he pushed aside the brothers in front of him. Carrying his spear, he squeezed his way to the front.
Vézé looked at Hu Chenghe, who was in high spirits, and the second pawn with the long spear squad. On the mountain path, the long spear squad formed a dense formation according to their training. The first row thrust their spears fiercely, while the second row placed their spears on the shoulders of the first row. As long as the Qing Army approached, they would thrust forward regardless of the consequences. The formation of the Long Spear Squad was like a tank with dozens of cannons in front of it, rolling forward without stopping.
If the center of the Qing Army had not escaped to the foot of the mountain, Xiang Rong could have commanded the Qing Army to deal with such a dense formation of spears. However, Xiang Rong had already escaped down the mountain. The remaining Qing Army did not have a commander, so they had no fighting spirit to speak of. If not for the fact that the road behind them was blocked, they would have fled in all directions. Even though they were blocked on the mountain path, the Qing Army would rather jump into the valley than fight to the death.
Seeing that the Qing Army had no chance of turning the situation around, Vézé shouted to the captain of the third pawn, Ke Gongyu: "Lead the troops down the mountain with me!"
At Ke Gongyu's command, the brothers of the third pawn carried their flintlocks and began to chase after the Qing Army.
On the mountain path down the mountain, Qing Army soldiers were strewn all over the ground, all of them shot in the back. Vézé and the others hopped down the mountain path in pursuit. A fallen Qing Army soldier saw Vézé and the others rushing down and tried to get up to hide. The soldier had been shot in the thigh. He could only prop up his upper body, but he could not move.
When Wei Ze passed by that Qing soldier, he used the momentum of going down the mountain to cut off that guy's head with his saber. The bald head with the rat tail shaved off rolled down the mountain path, even faster than Weizeweizeweizeweizeweizeweize.
From afar, a group of Taiping army soldiers with long spears were chasing after a long line of Qing Army soldiers like ducks. It was the troops led by Wei Changrong. The path down the mountain was easier. Wei Changrong and the others still had to kill the Qing Army. After all, they could not run at full speed. After chasing for more than ten minutes, Vézé finally caught up.
The rain had stopped, and the mountain path was wet and slippery. Vézé and the others were wearing straw sandals on top of their military boots. Many of the sandals were broken. The sandals were soaked in water and were extremely heavy. At this point in the battle, Vézé had no idea where they had run to. However, as soon as they rushed into a new valley, Vézé saw many corpses in front of them. The valley was filled with the thick smell of blood.
Vézé was stunned. When did a battle happen here? But when he smelled it carefully, the smell of blood was not the smell of fresh blood. The smell of blood in this valley was already mixed with the smell of decay. Now Vézé understood that they had rushed to Longliao Ridge, where the bloody battle had happened yesterday.
Looking closely, the clothes of the corpses on the ground were indeed the uniforms of the Taiping army. Especially the long hair on the head of the man's body, it was definitely the Taiping army. No matter what, the Qing Army did not have long hair. Even if they did not have any special kinship with these Taiping army soldiers who died in the battle. But Vézé could not help but feel a little sad. Like Vézé, the Taiping army soldiers could not help but pay attention to these Taiping army dead. Because they could not bear to step on the Taiping army dead, they could not help but slow down.
But the Qing Army did not have such concerns. They knew that if they ran any slower, they would die. Regardless of what they were stepping on, the Qing Army ran forward crazily. Soon, the distance between them and the Taiping army was widened.
Seeing that the troops were running slower and slower, Vézé knew that they would not be able to catch up with the Qing Army. He ordered them to stop.
The troops slowed down and looked at the corpses of their comrades in the valley. There were men and women, old and young. At this time, the Qing Army had already run far away. Vézé and the others also stopped. The valley was very quiet. The corpses all over the ground showed how fierce yesterday's battle had been. Some of the Taiping army's dead brothers were lying face up on the ground, their hands clutching a stone tightly. Before they died, they were using stones to smash the Qing Army.
Vézé could not bear to watch any longer. He roared, "Retreat! Retreat! "
Wei Changrong was panting and could not continue. He ran over and said, "Commander, let's take a break before continuing."
Vézé shook his head. "No, let's retreat. This time, we will not take the mountain road. We will take the valley! "
"Why?" Colonel Zhang Yingchen also came over and asked, panting. Because there was no reconnaissance mission, Zhang Yingchen also joined the long spear unit with his brothers from the reconnaissance unit. They were temporarily under the command of Wei Changrong.
Vézé said fiercely, "Some of the Qing Yao soldiers jumped down the valley. The valley is not very steep. I am afraid that some of the Qing Army soldiers have escaped with their lives. We will search along the valley. Do not let go of any Qing Yao soldiers. "
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