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"The war is not over yet! Everyone, don't give up! "Vézé shouted at the young men and women.
This group of recruits had already accomplished their mission of luring the enemy out. As the saying goes, the children of the poor matured early. This group of soldiers marched for several kilometers, and their speed was no slower than the adult Qing Army. But Vézé couldn't let them rest like this. They had to enter the next phase of the battle.
In Vézé's army, there were at most 800 strong men, about 800 teenagers, and the remaining 400 were the old, weak, women, and children. Facing Liu Zhangqing's troops against the Qing Army, Vézé's forces did not have an overwhelming advantage.
In the military council meeting, everyone agreed that Liu Zhangqing was an annoying dog skin plaster, and that he had to be eliminated. Vézé had always adhered to the philosophy of "rather than injuring ten fingers, it is better to cut off one finger". Although the other Qing Army troops had their own strengths, they could not escape the feudal nature of the army of this era. They were all one-off troops.
Liu Zhangqing's troops were able to stubbornly appear in front of the Taiping army even after suffering several small defeats. Even among the Qing Army, they were an oddity. Their stubbornness and accurate judgment of the outcome of the battle were enough to prove that Liu Zhangqing was either a very lucky man, or a very smart man. These two types of people were the last people Vézé wanted to deal with on the battlefield.
Under Vézé's command, a mixed group of more than 500 men and women began to mobilize. The strategy formulated by the military council, after being adapted by the General Staff Department, was a rather simple and straightforward battle process.
After Vézé led his troops to lure Liu Zhangqing into the encirclement, the Taiping army would launch an attack from the side and rear. Relying on the quality of the military and the willpower to fight, Liu Zhangqing's troops would be driven in the direction that Vézé's troops retreated. What Vézé wanted to do was to use his own troops as the final anvil, while the rest of the troops would act as the hammer and smash Liu Zhangqing's troops into pieces.
The army at the very front was made up of old and weak scholars and a few young and strong men. Liu Zhangqing's cunning had become his Achilles' heel at this time. Seeing such a large number of enemies, Liu Zhangqing and his subordinates could not wait to avoid them. Naturally, their investigation power was greatly reduced. He actually didn't see through the truth.
At this time, this unit had already turned back and met up with Vézé's troops. The 1,400 soldiers in the middle army were relatively weak, but their overall military strength had already surpassed Liu Zhangqing's. On a relatively open plain, Vézé led his troops.
The old, weak, women, and children who were unable to participate in the battle were naturally arranged to a safe place to shout and create a ruckus. Moreover, they were protected by the recruits who similarly lacked combat strength. At this moment, the advantage of not having a combat training department was fully demonstrated. After the combat evaluation of troops had a unified standard, it was still impossible to determine who was stronger, but it was effective to determine who did not meet the requirements for combat and who was weaker.
After arranging the 'vocal troops', Vézé arranged the remaining troops in a simple formation. Of the 900 soldiers, two female soldiers who could fight, a total of 200 were arranged in the center of the formation. On the left and right were two male troops. These two troops were arranged with the elite troops at the front and the juvenile troops at the back.
After these arrangements were made, the troops had just stabilized their breathing when the Qing Army 'retreated' along the road. This direction was originally the direction of the Qing Army's attack. However, Liu Zhangqing was clever enough to try and retreat the moment he felt that something was wrong. However, the General Staff had prepared for so long, how could they let Liu Zhangqing escape so easily? The battle immediately began.
The one who commanded the retreat was Wei Changrong. He had originally thought that Liu Zhangqing would flee after being attacked like last time. Unexpectedly, not only did Liu Zhangqing not flee, he even commanded his bodyguards to mount a tenacious resistance. In any case, this was Guangxi. Both sides of the road were ridges and ravines that were difficult to climb. Otherwise, Liu Zhangqing's desperate attempt to break out of the encirclement might have been realized.
Wei Changrong had originally thought that he was the attacker, but he saw Liu Zhangqing's elite troops bravely attack. Fortunately, the troops were well trained. First, a volley of gunfire weakened the fighting spirit of Liu Zhangqing's bodyguards. Then, the spearmen fought hand to hand. After two successive waves of attacks, Liu Zhangqing's bodyguards were finally defeated and the battle turned into a pursuit.
Once the pursuit began, the momentum could not be reversed. Originally, Liu Zhangqing's troops had lost their organization in the process of plundering and pursuing Vézé's troops. Without an officer to take the lead, the Qing Army could only follow the 'crowd effect' and flee along the relatively easy roads.
Even so, the Qing Army did not foolishly run for their lives. At several crossroads, they tried to disperse and escape. However, Zhang Yingchen had already sent scouts to investigate the terrain and roads. When the Qing Army neared these crossroads, the Taiping army's spearmen immediately blocked the crossroads. The flintlock squad began to open fire, forcing the Qing Army back onto the main road.
Along the way, the Qing Army left behind a number of corpses. Reluctantly, they were chased into the final battlefield. The Chao Yong saw that blocking their way was a troop of women.
Even though they were defeated soldiers, the Chao Yong did not care about an army made up of women. Even though there was a forest of guns in front of them, the Chao Yong still shouted and charged forward. Very quickly, the Chao Yong came closer and closer to the women. They could even clearly see that, one or two steps in front of the neat formation of women, there were several men and women standing. They did not hold guns in their hands, but raised swords high.
No matter how unexpected this action was for Chao Yong, who was running at the front, what he cared about was that the women had not fired their guns. This made Chao Yong feel emboldened. On either side of the women were men. Chao Yong, who was running away, naturally did not want to run into these hard nails. As long as they could charge past the formation of women in front of them, they would be able to escape.
After all, they were women. All they had to do was pretend. When the distance between the two sides was less than 30 steps, the Chao Yong could clearly see the women's faces and the bags on their backs. Just a few more steps and they would be able to collect both wealth and beauty. The Chao Yong's mind was filled with this thought.
When they were still 15 steps away from the women, the female officer standing at the front shouted, "Fire!" The flintlock started to spit out metal bullets. Within 15 steps, as long as the muzzle of the flintlock did not shake, the success rate of the line up shooting was extremely high. This was a four-part attack formation. In the blink of an eye, the Chao Yong were shot down row by row.
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