Chapter 12: The First Victory (New Book Seeking Attention)

  They started fighting without even waiting for orders, Chen Feng was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. Irregular troops were irregular troops after all, no matter how good their equipment was, they were still irregular troops. It seemed that it would take some effort to train these guys into the elite troops he had in mind.

  The guards around him were staring at him, Chen Feng scolded: "What are you all stunned for? Haven't you seen that the fight has already started? Open fire immediately and give our commander a good beating." After finishing speaking, Chen Feng himself picked up a sniper rifle and began hunting down the horse bandits hundreds of meters away.

  The mounted bandits were getting closer and closer to the ambush site of the security team, but as they approached the security team's position, the space available for the cavalry to maneuver became smaller and smaller. The 38 light and heavy machine guns of the security team had already sealed off this narrow space with crossfire, and a death defense line was laid out in front of the bandits.

  Bang! A gunshot rang out. Through the sniper scope, Chen Feng saw a knight's head in the distance explode like a smashed watermelon.

  Apart from Chen Feng himself, nearly 120 snipers from the special forces were lurking around the battlefield. Before the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, this was a rare opportunity for military training, and how could Chen Feng let it go?

  The distance between the two sides gradually shortened, 500 meters, 400 meters, 300 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters. However, the bandits' charge could only go this far, and a distance of 100 meters was already their limit. The security team's firepower was too strong, and the vast firepower network completely sealed off all the paths of the cavalry charge. Seeing people around her constantly falling down, the female bandit leader knew that she had kicked an iron plate today.

  With a mind to retreat, but seeing the enemy's position within reach, the female bandit leader was somewhat reluctant. As long as they charged into the enemy's position, with the powerful killing power of the cavalry, they could absolutely defeat the defending troops.

  Gritting her teeth, the female bandit swung her horse whip and led the charge forward.

  Seeing the female bandit leader with a flower-patterned mask, Chen Feng suddenly felt delighted. Just now, he had searched for her in the cavalry for a long time but couldn't find her, and he thought she had already been taken by others first. He didn't expect this woman to still be alive.

  Chen Feng was just about to take down the woman, but he discovered that her riding skills were indeed not to be underestimated. Her entire body was completely bent over on the horse's back, and she didn't expose even a bit of herself, leaving Chen Feng with no way to attack.

  Since we can't hit the person, let's hit the horse instead. Chen Feng aimed the crosshairs of his scope at the bandit leader's warhorse.

  Bang

  After the gunshot, the war horse fell to the ground. However, what surprised Chen Feng was that at the moment the war horse fell, the female bandit leader rolled on the spot and then quickly jumped up, jumping onto the back of a nearby unmanned war horse, continuing to charge towards the security team's position.

  "My goodness, this is too formidable. With over a thousand cavalry charging forward, once you fall off, it's harder to survive than climbing to the sky. If you don't get trampled to death, you'll be crushed into pulp by the horses behind you. A fully mobilized warhorse isn't like a car with brakes, able to stop at will."

  However, this female bandit chief opened Chen Feng's eyes and let him see what real riding skills were.

  Seeing that Ma Fei's cavalry had charged within 50 meters of the first line of defense, Chen Feng immediately shouted: "Order the troops to launch the projectiles!"

  Chen Feng was the first to throw out the hand grenade in his hand.

  The power of several hundred hand grenades exploding was indeed not to be underestimated, and the bandit cavalry was about to charge into the defending army's position when they were repelled by this barrage of hand grenades.

  As they watched the bandits retreat quickly, the warriors let out a huge cheer, with some even shouting "We won!" "We won!" "We've won!"

  The bandits stopped after retreating out of the defenders' shooting range. The female leader looked at the remaining cavalry beside her, which was less than three hundred people, and suddenly her face turned extremely ugly.

  She couldn't understand why the security team, which was established less than a month ago, had such strong firepower and high-quality soldiers. It was unbelievable that they didn't retreat in the first wave of cavalry charges.

  "Leader, let's retreat. The enemy's strength has exceeded our expectations. Continuing to fight is meaningless." A knight beside him advised in stiff Mandarin.

  The female bandit leader gazed at the entire battlefield for a full half minute before finally giving the order to retreat with difficulty.

  But just as the bandits were about to retreat, a loud rumbling of hooves sounded behind them, accompanied by the sharp and chaotic sound of gunfire.

  The female bandit turned around and found that a cavalry of several hundred people had appeared in her line of sight, with an estimated distance of less than one kilometer. The main force of this suddenly appearing cavalry was also wearing the same grass-green uniform, it seemed that the commander on the opposite side wanted to annihilate them completely.

  The crucial moment was when the cavalry regiment and the special warfare troops on the Daqing Mountain arrived, seeing that the bandits' retreat route had been cut off. Chen Feng immediately ordered the bugler to sound the charge, leading the security team to launch a charge.

  The outcome of the battle was already beyond doubt, and half an hour later, with the female bandit leader wounded and captured, the entire cavalry regiment was annihilated, not a single one escaped.

  After the statistics of the battle results, the security team annihilated 1374 cavalrymen who came to attack, among which 811 were killed and 563 were captured, including the female bandit leader. More than 1,500 long and short guns were seized, more than 2,000 intact war horses, more than 1,300 horse knives, and some gold and silver.

  Learning that the bandit lair was in a village just tens of kilometers away, Chen Feng ordered Li Wensheng to immediately lead a battalion and cavalry company as well as special forces, all riding horses to rush to that village, and bring back everyone in the village to the county seat.

  The security team won the first battle, annihilating the Sai Bei Ma gang that shook the two provinces of Wuyuan and Suizhou. The good news was quickly sent back to the county seat. When Chen Feng escorted hundreds of prisoners back to the county seat, Feng Kaisan personally led all the officials in the city to welcome the troops at the city gate, while the ordinary people in the city spontaneously gathered on both sides of the street to welcome the return of the troops.

  After the troops returned to the barracks, Chen Feng ordered that all wounded personnel be sent to the medical team for treatment, including all captured wounded personnel.

  In the evening, Li Wensheng brought his troops back as well. Several hundred prisoners also returned with them. These prisoners were mostly old, weak, sick, disabled people, women and children. However, they captured a large amount of gold, silver, treasure, grain, fur and other goods, which was not a small harvest.

  Chen Feng had just planned to let the cadres above Lian come to the command center for a meeting and do a battle summary, but he heard the system's intelligent spirit prompt in his mind: "The host successfully completed the branch task Ma Fei's provocation, the system reward function is enabled, does the host want to enter immediately?"

  "Wait a minute, let's start again in half an hour!" Chen Feng said.

  "Alright, data sealed, will resume in half an hour." The intelligent sprite continued to prompt.

  "Chief of Staff, order the troops to closely guard the prisoners and not let them escape, but do not allow beating or abusing the prisoners, and absolutely no innocent killing of prisoners. Also, have County Magistrate Feng report our victory to the provincial capital, exaggerating our situation a bit, saying that we've suffered over half casualties, including myself being injured. Have each battalion company platoon officer make a detailed combat summary, tomorrow afternoon at 8 o'clock all team leaders above platoon level will gather at headquarters for a meeting." After arranging these matters, Chen Feng hastily returned to the Chen family mansion.

  As soon as Chen Feng returned home, he found that both Chen Binggong and Wang Qingya were sitting in the living room, apparently waiting for him.

  Seeing Chen Feng come in, Chen Bing hurriedly got up to welcome him and repeatedly asked: "It's good that you're back, it's good that you're back, are you injured?"

  "No, isn't it just a few bandits? Your son will go fight the Japanese in the future, how can he be beaten by a few little bandits?" Chen Feng said with a smile.

  "What a few little bandits, do you really think I'm old and confused? If the Sui Bei Ma gang were just a few little bandits, would it be your turn to eliminate them? That's thousands of elite cavalrymen, even Fu Zuoyi, the commander-in-chief of the province, suffered a great loss at their hands. You're really something, you're the commander-in-chief, staying in the county seat is enough, why do you have to go to the front line? If anything happens to you, your mother will scold me to death." Chen Bing Gong said with dissatisfaction.

  "Ah, it's all right, Dad. I'm back safe and sound, aren't I? See, not a single wound." Chen Feng said with a smile.

  "I heard you've captured quite a few prisoners, what do you plan to do with them?" Wang Qingya asked.

  "What else can be done? Of course, it's just a matter of parading them through the streets and then beheading them. Are they going to be treated to good food and drink and worshipped instead?" Chen Feng replied, not knowing what this woman wanted to do.

  "How can this be? I've heard there are many women and children inside, do you want to kill them too?" Wang Qingya asked with a worried expression.

  "How can this be, they are bandits, and vicious ones at that. Not long ago, the entire security team of over 600 people was killed by their swords. Today, many of our men have also died at their hands, and we've killed more than 800 of them. This vendetta has already begun, so if we don't kill them now, are we waiting for them to grow stronger and come back to kill us?" Chen Feng retorted.

  "But those old people, children and women, they are all innocent, do they have to die too?" Wang Qingya knew that Chen Feng was right, but she was kind by nature, and when she heard that so many people were going to be killed at once, she couldn't bear it.

  "Of course, they will die. Among the people we killed today, there must be sons of old men, husbands of women and fathers of children. If I don't kill them, when they have the chance, they will definitely come to avenge their relatives and kill me. This is a dead end. Moreover, it was they who took the initiative to attack us, and we were just passive counterattacking. It's also their own fault that we killed them all in time." Chen Feng said.

  "But they are just children and women, shouldn't war be far away from them? What fault do they have to be involved in this?" Wang Qingya said again with a heart of compassion.

  "After some thought, Chen Feng said: 'It's not that we must kill them, as long as their leader is willing to accept the security team's recruitment, I will consider sparing all of them. However, I think that woman won't agree.'"

  "I can try, I think she wouldn't want to see so many people die on the guillotine either, as long as she's still a human being with flesh and blood, I think she'll agree." Wang Qingya said firmly.

  "Alright then, I can give you three days' time. If she doesn't agree after three days, I will send everyone to the guillotine, including those newborn babies."

  After finishing speaking, Chen Feng raised his head to look at the bright moon in the sky. Wars should indeed keep daughters and children away, but in this impending national self-strengthening war, women and children have become the biggest victims. Today you, Wang Qingya, speak for them, but who will speak for those poor souls in the midst of war tomorrow?