Chapter Forty-six: Herding Sheep

  Sun Daoren felt something was amiss, and immediately sent someone to investigate. When the scout saw a field of corpses, he rolled over and ran back.

  "Everyone... everyone... is dead..." The scout stuttered and trembled.

  "Are they all dead? What's all dead?"

  "King Cheng and his entire camp were killed to the last man."

  "Dead?" Sun Dao Ren's jaw dropped in incredulity, and he cursed under his breath, "What a waste, can't even handle this."

  After a moment of contemplation, Sun Daoren decided to personally lead the 2,400 men under his command to attack the artillery positions at Dayang Mountain.

  At this time, Sun Daoren's artillery battalion had only six guns left, and he must strive to knock out the enemy's artillery in order to gain an advantage in firepower.

  ……

  Xia Jun heard the report in the command center that they had defeated the Qing army's artillery camp, and he couldn't help but feel relieved. It seemed that this cannon hadn't been bought in vain. Seeing that it was already late, and night battles were not easy to fight, he didn't give the order to attack.

  At 5:30 pm, the scouts of the 24th Regiment defending Dayu Mountain suddenly reported that more than 2,000 Qing troops were advancing towards Dayu Mountain, which was the Fujian New Army.

  "Commander, the new army of the 10th town has already gone to Dayang Mountain. At this time, if we seize the opportunity and launch a direct attack, we will surely defeat the Qing army." Chen Xuan Yu said to Xia Jun.

  Xia Jun glanced at his watch, only an hour and a half before nightfall, roughly two hours. Two hours to settle the battle, time was almost enough, but to annihilate the Qing army completely, two hours were a bit difficult. When night fell, it would be pitch black everywhere, making it hard to catch people.

  But it's indeed a great opportunity in front of us now.

  Among the 30,000 Qing troops, only the temporarily formed Tenth Division had any real fighting power. However, even the Tenth Division's fighting power was not that great. After all, the most powerful were still the Beiyang Six Divisions trained by Yuan Shikai. The other newly formed temporary armies may have been better equipped and received higher military pay, but their fighting power was basically just a reflection of those few pieces of silver. They may have had some training, but it couldn't change their original state.

  The 10th Regiment has now charged into the mountains to fight with the 24th Regiment, which means that once the attack begins, it will be easy to defeat those disorganized troops in the rear without any effort.

  As for Dayangshan, Xia Jun still had confidence in the 24th Regiment. After all, the 24th Regiment had a lot of ammunition and a machine gun platoon, which was just a token.

  "Order the vanguard to attack and try to end the battle within two hours." Xia Jun nodded and gave the order.

  ……

  The 1st and 2nd battalions received the order, left their positions, and marched towards the Qing army one kilometer away. The battlefield was relatively spacious, with mountains on one side, the Jianxi River on the other, and a wide riverbank and official road in between.

  Two camps had just broken out, and the Qing army on the opposite side got up.

  Those Qing troops were the Eight Banners Army, mostly Manchu and Mongol people. These Eight Banners Army followed behind the newly formed 10th Division during their march. The Qing was also on guard against the New Army, and these Eight Banners Army were used to defend against the New Army.

  The Manchu bannermen might have watched too many Three Kingdoms dramas, so the officers of the 3,800-strong army thought they could defeat the rebels in front of them because the two regiments of the security guards had only about a thousand men and were advancing in a loose formation.

  At this time, the distance between the two sides gradually narrowed, and the 01 camp and 02 camp launched a charge at a distance of 700 meters. The three thousand eight banner soldiers were suppressed after a while.

  Boom boom boom boom...

  A burst of gunfire, those Qing troops fired randomly at the Peace Preservation Corps, quickly exhausting their bullets, but unfortunately, they were too far away and didn't hit many people.

  The Qing army general drew out his large knife and shouted: "Kill!"

  "Kill!"

  "Kill him!"

  The three thousand eight banner soldiers shouted loudly, drew their big knives and launched a counter charge against the security team's soldiers in the distance.

  "Bang...... Bang...... Bang......"

  Five hundred meters away, the security team's squad aimed directly at the rushing Qing army and threw out grenades. The Qing army that had just rushed out saw black dots falling from the sky like raindrops.

  Rumble... rumble... rumble...

  This type of exchanged watermelon-shaped hand grenade (defensive type) has extremely strong power, with a blast radius of up to 8 meters. Within 8 meters, shrapnel flies horizontally, and if it doesn't kill you, it will leave you disabled. If it explodes in mid-air, the killing radius is even larger.

  Look closely, hand grenades are thrown with a launcher, not by hand. Those who loudly claim they can throw 500 meters by hand, go face the wall for me. They don't study seriously and just shout in the book review section every day.

  With the sound of explosions, a large number of Qing soldiers who rushed out were immediately blown to death. The grenades that came over were too numerous, with two in each squad, one carried by the deputy squad leader and the other by an ordinary soldier, while the squad leader was equipped with a Thompson submachine gun.

  One battalion has 54 grenade launchers, two battalions have 108.

  Grenades shot out of the grenade launchers continued unabated, soldiers holding grenade launchers advanced and threw grenades at the Qing army, which was destroyed as soon as they entered the range.

  They're packed too tightly!

  Sometimes a grenade can kill or injure thirty or forty people, the Qing army was directly stunned by this sudden attack. At this time, more than ten three-wheeled motorcycles equipped with Maxim heavy machine guns rushed out, and dense bullets poured towards the Qing army.

  These three-wheeled motorcycles were refurbished after their last battle, with the body extended on both sides, a steel plate welded to the front, and the two feet of the Maxim heavy machine gun installed on the steel plate, making it very convenient to fire. At the same time, it also solved the problem that the Maxim heavy machine gun was too long and had some difficulties in shooting.

  With this combination, such a three-wheeled motorcycle has some of the functions of a tank, but lacks the protective power of a tank. If facing an enemy with strong combat effectiveness, these motorcycles can be easily knocked down by the opponent's infantry with rifles.

  However, the Qing troops in front of them obviously did not have such conditions. After more than a dozen Maxim heavy machine guns opened fire, there were a large number of corpses on the ground within twenty seconds.

  Only a few hundred of the three thousand eight banner soldiers were left at this time, and these few hundred eight banner soldiers had been scared out of their wits.

  The two armies fought fiercely and within five minutes, the several hundred Qing soldiers were shot down to the ground one by one. The Green Standard Army behind saw this and was frightened, immediately turning around and running away.

  These green camp soldiers' flag was recognized by the security team, so they just casually fired a few shots from behind, like driving sheep, and chased them back. Machine guns were not even used.

  Those Eight Banners soldiers who were captured were also shot dead. These Green Standard Army soldiers were different, the commander's requirement was to capture as many as possible.

  The Green Standard Army was chased by two battalions and ran for their lives, causing the rear Green Standard Army to become chaotic. In the chaos, the Qing soldiers in the rear also joined the ranks of the defeated.

  "The security team is here, run quickly!"

  "We're going to be killed if we don't run!"

  Matsumoto's vehicle was also hit by the soldiers' impact, and Matsumoto thought Son Doren was in front of him. Suddenly, he saw the soldiers fleeing back, and he didn't know what was going on!

  ——————

  Third shift! Do you guys still have tickets?

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