SWDnovel Chapter 75 The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
Chapter 75 The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
Chapter 75 The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
"Wow, foreigners are so arrogant!"
Although the bandit cavalry was startled by the formation of the Cossack cavalry opposite them, they did not back down and charged forward with their swords drawn.
200 against 30, the advantage is in my hands!
They refused to believe that these 30 foreign cavalrymen could possibly cut down their 200 cavalrymen.
Just when they thought the Cossacks would also draw their swords and fight them, the bandits were surprised to find that the Russian cavalry suddenly pulled out two strangely shaped short guns from their waists and started firing at them in unison!
Although the short gun had a unique design, its firepower was truly fierce. With two revolvers firing simultaneously, the cavalrymen emptied all the bullets in the magazine in less than two seconds after repeated practice.
Under such heavy fire, almost all the bandit cavalrymen who were originally blocking the way were knocked down and fell off their horses on the spot.
The remaining few lucky ones quickly dodged away, desperately trying to get as far away as possible, not daring to continue charging at the Cossack cavalry, even though the Cossack cavalry had run out of bullets in their revolvers.
The two cavalry groups passed each other, and the bandits lost more than 30 riders to the Cossack cavalry in one go, while the Cossacks did not suffer a single loss!
After this round, the Cossacks didn't linger and quickly rode away.
The other bandits watched the Cossack cavalry gradually disappear into the distance, both shocked and furious. Although they wanted to give chase, they dared not let their warhorses run too fast.
The bandits were cunning; after witnessing the terrifying firepower, they dared not charge any further until they understood the situation, not even daring to increase their horses' speed.
After all, in this situation, everyone else is just pretending to charge forward, but if he suddenly charges forward with all his might, wouldn't he become the one who sticks his neck out?
To avoid becoming the first to charge, these bandits slowed their horses down as much as possible, afraid of being faster than their comrades. As a result, their charge quickly turned into a leisurely stroll, and they were not even as fast as anyone else charging!
The Cossack cavalrymen gradually ran away and soon disappeared, leaving only the corpses of the bandits lying on the ground still emitting heat.
Upon witnessing this scene, the leader of the Ge family army was enraged. He spurred his horse and caught up with the group of cavalry, shouting at them, "You bastards, I'll...!"
"What a disgrace! What a disgrace! How did you fight? 200 cavalry against 30, and you got utterly routed!"
After being thoroughly berated, none of the Ge family's cavalry dared to utter a sound, because they knew that they had truly lost this battle.
But to be honest, in their opinion, the reason why the battle turned out this way was not really their fault. Who knew that the foreign cavalry of the Luo family army actually had secret weapons, such as short-barreled muskets that could fire in rapid succession?
I originally thought everyone would just fight with knives, and that no one would be afraid of anyone. But who would have thought that those people would be so uncivilized and suddenly pull out short guns and start firing wildly?
The intense firepower they had just received made them feel as if they were charging into the former dynasty's Shenji Battalion. Even if they had charged straight into the foreign gun corps at Black Flag Ridge, they wouldn't have ended up like this!
For a time, the morale of the entire Ge family army cavalry plummeted, because they really couldn't figure out how to deal with those guys who would pull out their revolvers and fire wildly at the slightest provocation.
After Lang gave them a stern lecture, Ge Shouye didn't continue to lash out, because he had also witnessed the power of the previous short command.
Thinking of the scene from before, a burning light appeared in Ge Shouye's eyes. If he could equip all his cavalry with these short-armored cavalry, wouldn't that make his cavalry even more powerful?
But just as he was thinking this, Tie Liancheng, the leader of Black Flag Ridge, said without any politeness, "Brothers, I'll give in today. After we wipe out the Luo family army, all the other foreign guns are yours. My Black Flag Ridge only wants those repeating short guns!"
Seeing Tie Liancheng's smug smile, Ge Shouye retorted without hesitation, "Bullshit! You shameless old fool, do you really think we're stupid?"
Immediately afterwards, the two started arguing about how to allocate the short-range firearms. Judging from their posture, they were almost about to fight.
The argument only ended when Black Whirlwind, the leader of Erlong Mountain, arrived and forcefully restrained the two men.
"Stop the fucking noise, is this even possible?"
"If you're so capable, go and wipe out the Luo family army first. After you wipe them out, we can argue however we want. Right now, the Luo family army is still swaggering around, and you're already eyeing their property. Aren't you ashamed to say that?"
""
Seeing Black Whirlwind's words, the other two bandit leaders snorted and nodded in unison, saying, "Alright, Black Whirlwind, we'll give you face! We'll see how much effort you put into this battle and then distribute the spoils fairly!"
In fact, when the two bandits said this, the distribution was already unfair, because there was no scoring interface or anything like that when they fought. Everyone would just say their own thing, so how could it be said who contributed more?
In fact, there was another subtext to these words: after the war, whoever is the strongest and stronger than everyone else will get more spoils.
After all, they were all bandits; the law of the jungle was their nature, so there's nothing wrong with that statement!
However, expecting them to work together and fight the enemy in this situation is wishful thinking.
In the ensuing battle, the main force of these bandits continued to advance, but the Cossack cavalry sent out by Rock would occasionally suddenly appear and deliver a surprise attack on the bandits.
These cavalrymen, trained by the system, relied on the superior endurance of their warhorses, which were also taller and faster than the bandit cavalry. So, along the way, they made full use of the advantages of cavalry's mobility and flexibility.
The Cossacks were mobile and agile, but the bandits suffered greatly.
Ge Family Army's cavalry had to constantly patrol the perimeter of the main force, fearing that these incredibly strange cavalrymen would suddenly appear from nowhere and deliver a fatal blow.
However, constantly patrolling outside not only severely depleted the physical strength of the Ge family army's cavalry, but also caused many members of the Ge family army to complain.
It was so cold outside, making people shiver, yet they still had to rush out to patrol, and every now and then, a few of their brothers might be killed by Cossack cavalry that suddenly appeared.
After all this back and forth, the strength of the Ge family army has been severely damaged. If they continue fighting like this, they might as well exhaust their own men first!
Therefore, at Ge Shouye's insistence, the other two bandits also brought out their own cavalry to take turns patrolling with Ge's army.
After this incredibly arduous march, they lost another thirty or forty cavalrymen along the way, causing all the bandit leaders immense heartache.
The bandits breathed a sigh of relief when they finally saw the pass ahead, which had been buried by an avalanche.
These bandits were completely unaware that just as they were heading towards Luo's army, Qing troops in Kaiyuan City on the other side had also been mobilized!
Although Wanfu did not personally lead the team in this operation, he still had his trusted deputy general, Akdun, the Zuo Ling of Kaiyuan City, personally lead the team. He instructed them to take a detour and bypass the gold mine from the other end, where the Eight Banners guards were stationed, and launch a pincer attack on the Luo family army that occupied the gold mine!
For this battle, Wanfu took all 400 Green Standard Army soldiers with him, except for the 200 Eight Banners cavalrymen who remained in the city. Guo Xingye, the commander of the Green Standard Army in the area, also accompanied Akdun on the expedition.
Of course, in Wanfu's view, it would not be easy for these 400 Green Standard Army soldiers, especially 400 opium addicts, to take over the gold mine guarded by the Luo family army in one fell swoop.
Although he didn't know the true number of Luo Family Army members, and he thought that Luo Family Army only had 300 people and was currently being attacked by three bandit groups, he was still unsure and felt that this group of people was unreliable.
So after much thought, he simply contacted the wealthy families in Kaiyuan City and forcibly conscripted soldiers from them, demanding that they also send out their local militias.
Interestingly, although the militias under the command of these wealthy families in Kaiyuan City are just ordinary militias, in fact, their armed forces and fighting spirit are more reliable than the Green Standard Army soldiers under their command.
Because the wealthy families in Kaiyuan City were not honest and hardworking farmers. Most of them made their fortunes mainly by taking advantage of the local conditions and smuggling goods from the Mongols, such as the Khorchin tribe.
Therefore, these militias under their command were merely nominal; if one had to put it bluntly, these militias were simply guards they had armed at great expense, specifically for protecting their caravans.
During this period, the Mongols were not the kind of people who liked to do business honestly with others, so they naturally had to make sure their guards were highly skilled.
As a result, this guard force completely overwhelmed the local Green Standard Army, which was now utterly incompetent, in terms of both fighting spirit and weaponry. Even those high-ranking Eight Banner soldiers might not have a chance of winning if they were to face these local militias.
Since these people have adopted the name of a local militia and transformed themselves into a legitimate armed force, it is perfectly reasonable for Wanfu to draw on the militia to assist in the battle under the guise of a garrison commander.
So even though the local strongmen were not very willing, they still sent 300 militiamen to join the expedition team, and these 300 militiamen actually had a total of 200 bird guns!
Hehe, as for where these bird-shaped ornaments came from?
Wan Fu and Kuo Hsing-yeh, the leader of the pro-independence camp, felt they had the right to speak on this matter.