Chapter 47: Attacking the Camp

  The sky was not yet bright, and Li Mingfeng had already received a distress message from Li Xubin. In fact, before this, Li Mingfeng had already received the news that two sides had started fighting, one because Li Mingfeng had also sent out scouts to investigate, who had reported back, and another, the Wang family ancestral hall was less than twenty miles away, and the sound of cannons had already faintly transmitted over.

  Summoning the generals to the great hall, Li Mingfeng sat upright on a tiger skin chair, with over a dozen war generals standing on either side. On his left were Andrew, Adams and Cai Yiqun, Chen Xinghan, four officers of the foreign rifle corps; on his right were officers from Du Xinga's cavalry regiment.

  Li Mingfeng let the little school report the situation to everyone and asked what countermeasures everyone had.

  "General Li is a high-ranking official of the imperial court and a key figure in the Xiang Army. If anything goes wrong, we will be held responsible for failing to provide timely assistance. Please, General, quickly dispatch troops to provide reinforcements!" said Sun Handong, the commander of the cavalry unit.

  "Hmm... This matter requires careful consideration. Let me think about it." Li Mingfeng thought to himself, "Good grief, rushing to send troops is equivalent to rushing to send them to their deaths."

  "General, we can't consider it any more, or else the military situation will be delayed!" Sun Handong was also a Hunan army general. Now that he saw the Hunan army being surrounded, he was the most anxious.

  "Let's wait and see how things develop. As they say, 'know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be in peril in a hundred battles.'" Li Mingfeng said.

  "You'd better gather your men quickly and get ready, don't fight an unprepared battle!"

  Sun Handong was anxious, but he also understood this truth, and hurriedly went to gather his troops.

  After waiting until the gathering was complete, and then waiting for another half hour, Li Mingfeng still didn't show any intention of sending troops, which made Sun Handong so anxious that he couldn't wait any longer and repeatedly asked to go into battle. By this time, it had already become daylight, and it was probably around 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning.

  The scout reported that a thick fog had rolled in, making it impossible to see the battlefield clearly, but the fighting was extremely fierce. Although the outcome of the battle was unknown, the scout said that all those who entered were long-haired.

  Upon hearing this intelligence, Sun Handong clenched his fists and stared intently at Li Mingfeng. Li Mingfeng had no choice but to order the troops to march out. However, their target was not the Wang family ancestral hall, but rather Li Xubin's large camp.

  "Although General Li is brave, the long-haired rebels are too powerful. With General Li's wisdom, he will not dare to confront them head-on and will definitely retreat to a safe position to await reinforcements." Li Mingfeng analyzed for the other generals. In fact, Li Mingfeng still did not want to go to the front lines to get involved in the chaos, and would rather stay behind if possible, so-called "acting according to circumstances".

  Rushing to Li Xubin's camp, it was already noon. Seeing that the camp was empty and deserted, Li Mingfeng knew that Li Xubin had led the entire army out to fight for their lives. He ordered the whole army to enter the camp, each holding a key point, and reinforcing the defenses.

  By the afternoon, Li Xubin returned in defeat. Li Mingfang ordered the camp gate to be opened and let him in. Li Xubin originally thought that the camp had also been lost, but when he saw Sun Handong was there too, he understood that it was the foreign rifle squad that had occupied this place.

  Li Xubin's troops had just returned to the camp, when Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng led tens of thousands of soldiers to surround the camp, making it impossible to escape. Seeing this situation, Li Mingfeng secretly sighed, "It's bitter! Being cautious and delaying has still led to this outcome."

  Li Xubin gathered the remaining troops and found that only over 2,000 were left, with more than half of them injured. These were the elite of the Hunan Army, and after this battle, they had suffered heavy casualties. How could they face their parents and fellow villagers in the future?

  He was reviewing the troops on this side, while Chen Yucheng had already ordered an attack on that side. The long-haired rebels were densely packed and attacked with ladders. Li Xubin was quite capable as a general, and this camp was very solidly built, located on a barren mountain, backed by a large mountain, and adjacent to Xi Lake. Therefore, the numerical advantage of the long-haired rebels was restricted during the attack, and they could only attack from the west and south directions.

  Li Mingfang's foreign gun team, 1,400 strong, each with a key position, took turns shooting. One thousand cavalrymen dismounted and held bows, also standing on the camp wall. In this situation, the advantage of Western firearms became apparent, and the long-haired bandits were shot dead at a distance of 300 steps, unable to even approach the camp. A few who managed to slip through the net were immediately shot dead by arrows as soon as they reached the foot of the camp.

  After attacking for a while, the Taiping forces suffered two to three thousand casualties. Chen Yucheng saw that it was not working and ordered the attack to be stopped, and he consulted with Li Xiucheng and others on what to do next.

  Li Xubin also stabilized and led his subordinates to come and thank Li Mingfeng, who repeatedly said he didn't dare. Li Xubin ordered the remaining combat-effective Hunan Army to participate in guarding the camp, and then took everyone into the military account to discuss military affairs. The two sides introduced themselves and got to know each other, and this time they were considered to have gone through life and death together.

  "This battle is already lost, there's no use in talking more. Now that the Longhairs have besieged our camp, how should we respond? I ask all of you generals to come up with a good plan!" Li Xubin said.

  A military officer in his thirties said, "There are only two ways to go: one is to take advantage of the night and kill our way out, and the other is to hold on and wait for reinforcements." This person had just been introduced by Li Xubin, and was indeed his deputy, as well as Zeng Guofan's second brother, Zeng Guohua.

  Xiang Army ordered a general, Sun Shouxin, to say: "Where is the reinforcement within a hundred miles? The general must be busy at this time, and we can only rely on ourselves to break through."

  "The enemy's forces are too strong, if we try to break through and it doesn't go well, we won't even be able to turn back to our camp. At that time, we will all perish here. This is the worst plan, and we shouldn't take this route unless absolutely necessary."

  Li Mingfeng, who was listening on the side, was sweating profusely. Li Xubin's sentence "buried here" made Li Mingfeng cry out in distress. In his heart, he thought that if Sun Handong had come to rescue himself at that time, it would have been fine, but why did he also have to sacrifice himself? However, now that they were already in this place, saying anything was too late, and all they could do was think of ways to save their lives.

  While the crowd was still discussing countermeasures, suddenly outside the camp, guns and cannons rang out in unison. It turned out that the Longhairs were taking advantage of the night to attack the camp. In this era, torches could only illuminate an area of about 20-30 meters, thus greatly reducing the shooting range advantage of Western firearms. Chen Yucheng was attacking with this idea.

  However, at this time there were 4 to 5 thousand soldiers in the camp who still had combat effectiveness. The Taiping Army's attack was fierce but they could not break through the gate of the camp. As for the cannons, their power was limited and after all, they were made using traditional methods from three hundred years ago, so their destructive power was not great.

  Li Xubin personally climbed up to the gate of the camp, holding a flag to boost morale. The Hunan Army saw this scene and their morale greatly increased, becoming more courageous in battle. Li Mingfeng estimated that the foreign rifle troops' ammunition was almost gone, so he ordered them to stop using firearms and switch to bows and arrows.

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