Chapter 70: Capture of Maqin (Seeking Collection)

  During the fierce battle between the 10th Brigade of the Western Sichuan Army and the Qinghai Ma Army, the 11th Brigade was also waiting for the order to attack Maqu City. Yesterday's bitter fight, although failed to capture Maqu City, at least caused two or three thousand casualties in Maqu City. The garrison of Maqu City has only four thousand people, almost half of which have been lost. The loss of the 11th Brigade of the Western Sichuan Army is less than one thousand. Almost everyone thinks that Maqu City can be captured today.

  "The journey is long, and all the brothers are asking for battle, when can we launch an attack?" Deputy Commander of the Eleventh Brigade Bai Meng walked into the military account and asked.

  Inside the military account, apart from Ma Qi and Ma Yun-tao, Wang Yuze's deputy officer Wang Wei was also present. Now, Wang Wei is Wang Yuze's liaison officer sent to the 11th Brigade, on the one hand conveying the orders of the Sichuan Western Army, and on the other hand also having a deeper role. The entire 11th Brigade consisted of surrendered soldiers from the Green Horse Army, although it was said that those who were used would not be suspected and those who were suspected would not be used, but this time with the Ma family army's great war, it was a matter of great importance, and there could not be any slight negligence. Therefore, Wang Wei's important role in the 11th Brigade was to make these people have something to worry about.

  Actually, Wang Yuezhe was overthinking. Ma Qi and others have no way to retreat now. Since they boarded the Chuanxi Army's ship and followed the Chuanxi Army to attack the Qingma Army together, how could they possibly return to the Qingma Army again? They can only go all the way down this road.

  "Lao Bai, wait a minute. General Shao and the Chief of Staff are leading the army to fight against the main force of Qing Ma in Dongqigou. General Shao ordered us to wait until that battle is over before attacking Maqu." Ma Yun Tao said.

  "What? General Xiao and his men are engaging the main force of the Green Horse Army in Dongqiu Gorge? How many men did they bring with them?" Bai Meng was hearing this news for the first time.

  "Not many, the 10th Brigade has only four battalions!" Ma Qi said. He and Ma Yun-tao were also just informed by Wang Wei a moment ago, that's how they knew about this news. However, Ma Qi had some mixed feelings in his heart. On one hand was his old father, on the other hand was his master, neither of whom he wanted to see defeated. But now, he no longer had any choice.

  "What? Four battalions? To fight against 16,000 Green Horse Riders? How is that possible?" Bai Meng exclaimed.

  Don't mention him, Ma Ke and others all think this is a crazy decision. A ratio of one to four! The Green Horse Army is not easy to deal with, and everyone has no confidence in whether the Chuanxi Army can win.

  At this moment, the scene in Maqin City was another one. After the fierce attack by the Sichuan Army yesterday, nearly half of the city's district had become ruins, and the casualties of the defending army were extremely heavy. The number of available troops in Maqin City now is less than half of what it was before the battle began.

  Lu Haoran and Wei Yuan stood at the broken city wall on the west side of Maqin City, gazing out at the Qingma Army across from them.

  "General, it's almost noon, why hasn't the Western Sichuan Army launched an attack yet? Are they plotting something?" Wei Yuan said with some concern. In yesterday's battle, his 15th battalion had been almost completely wiped out.

  "I don't know! However, if the Western Sichuan Army wants to take down Maqin, they won't need any conspiracy! As long as they continue their attack intensity from yesterday, Maqin City will definitely fall!" Lu Haoran sighed. Although Ma Haiyan ordered the troops to defend Maqin City to the death, there was still no sign of reinforcements until now, it seems that defending Maqin City before the arrival of reinforcements is impossible.

  "General, it's about time Admiral should be arriving soon! As long as the Admiral can make it, we still have a chance to hold on to Maqin. Once the reinforcements from Hezhou and Ningma arrive, we'll have a chance to win!" Wei Yuan said.

  "I hope so!" Lu Haoran sighed.

  The Western Sichuan Army stopped its attack, and the Qinghai Ma Army was happy not to have to send troops to their deaths. They were eager to maintain this situation. At noon, a team of logistics soldiers arrived, bringing in more than 20 horse-drawn carts loaded with weapons and ammunition to the camp of the Western Sichuan Army's Tenth Division. After the Western Sichuan Army captured Nangqian, the logistics troops on the Changdu front began transporting urgently needed weapons and ammunition to the front line. However, the roads on the plateau were extremely difficult to navigate, and it wasn't until now that they finally delivered the first batch of supplies.

  At 2:00 pm, a small cavalry detachment rushed into the camp of the 11th Brigade of the Western Sichuan Army from the north.

  "A great victory! General Shao and Chief of Staff led the army to fight against the Qing horse troops in Dongqigou, achieving a great victory, annihilating more than 10,000 enemies!" The cavalry shouted loudly as soon as they entered the camp of the 11th Brigade of the Sichuan Army.

  "What? A great victory has been won, and tens of thousands of enemies have been annihilated?" The entire camp was boiling with excitement.

  "How many men does the Green Horse Army have in total? We've already eliminated tens of thousands of them, and now we've killed tens of thousands more. How many are left?" The soldiers of the 11th Brigade were all discussing this among themselves.

  At this time, Ma Qi, Bai Meng, Ma Yuntao and Wang Wei, who had received the news, also rushed out to greet them.

  "Report to the commander, General Shao and Chief of Staff asked me to hand over the battle report to you!" A cavalryman dismounted, saluted Ma Ke after a bow, pulled out a battle report from his pocket and handed it over to Ma Ke.

  Ma Qi quickly took over and looked at it. There were only two or three lines of words on it, but the message recorded was extremely important.

  After reading the battle report, Ma Qi's face was filled with smiles. Although it was his old man who had been defeated, he couldn't care about that now. Now he was a member of the Western Sichuan Army.

  "Brothers, General Shao and Chief of Staff led the army to fight against the Qing horse troops in Dongqigou. With 4,000 men, they faced off against 16,000 Qing troops head-on and achieved a great victory! They killed over 10,000 enemies and suffered less than 500 casualties!" Ma Qi shouted loudly.

  "Wah!" The soldiers of the 11th Brigade exclaimed in surprise. With 4,000 against 16,000, they still managed to achieve a great victory. The combat power of the Chuanxi Army was indeed too powerful! The entire camp became an ocean of joy. For these former Qingma Army soldiers, they had always been worried that if they failed, they would be held accountable by the Qingma Army. Now that the Qingma Army had thoroughly failed, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

  The unusual movement of the 11th Brigade of the Kansai Army on this side has caught the attention of the Qingma Army inside the city, but they don't know what exactly happened, which makes them very suspicious.

  An hour later, a soldier from the 11th Regiment of the Kansai Army entered the city of Maqin with a white flag. However, in less than twenty minutes, he was beaten and chased out with a swollen nose and face.

  "Traitor, these people are too ungrateful! We kindly advised them to surrender, but they treated our envoy like this. Give the order, with just one charge, our men can take down Maqin City!" Bai Meng roared in anger.

  "No need to rush! Majin City is already in our pocket, there's no need for unnecessary casualties. Let's wait another two hours, if they still don't surrender then it's not our fault!" Ma Yunjian suggested.

  Ma Qi heard this and did not object. If he could take down Ma Quan City at the smallest cost, why wouldn't he be happy about it?

  In the city of Maqin, a gloomy cloud hangs low. Although they loudly declared their disbelief in the messenger's nonsense, in reality, each person had deep doubts in their heart.

  "General, Admiral, surely you can't have been defeated? Otherwise, why hasn't the relief army arrived yet?" asked the commander of the 21st Regiment of the Qing Ma Army.

  "Governor, you have over ten thousand elite soldiers and powerful generals, how can it be possible to be defeated by four thousand people?" Wei Yuan shook his head in disbelief.

  Lu Haoran didn't say much, but he wasn't quite convinced by the words of the messenger from the Western Sichuan Army. He thought to himself that this was just a trick used by the Western Sichuan Army to capture Ma Xian.

  However, when the time came to four o'clock in the afternoon, a loud rumbling sound came from the north of Maicheng. Experienced people all knew that it was the sound of a large number of cavalry gathering and rushing forward.

  The defenders of Maqin City were greatly encouraged, thinking that reinforcements from Qingma Army had arrived.

  However, upon closer inspection, those cavalrymen turned out to be from the Sichuan Western Army.

  When the tattered banner of the Ten-sided Green Horse Army was hung under the city wall of Maqin City, the morale of the defenders completely collapsed.

  "General, it seems that Admiral has really been defeated. What should we do?" Wei Yuan asked with a dejected expression. The other generals also looked at Lu Haoran with hopeful faces.

  "Surrender! The reinforcements are gone, how can Maqin City be defended!" Lu Haoran said dejectedly. However, after making this decision, he felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.