Chapter 1076 - Refugee Group
Slinging the short-barreled Minié rifle onto his back, the cavalry corporal tossed his reins to a subordinate and trudged with difficulty through the snow toward a corpse. He flipped it over with the tip of his boot.
The deceased had a dark, coarse face weathered by the elements, age indeterminate. The body wore rough iron armor; a helmet had rolled some distance away. The corporal studied the dirty, worn uniform and equipment carefully—they seemed oddly familiar. Three years ago, he had served as a cavalryman in Guyuan Town. When the Tartars first breached the pass, he had followed the army to the Capital to "serve the King," then scattered to the Central Plains after a mutiny over unpaid wages.
The changing winds of fate had ultimately carried him across thousands of li to become a Fubo Army cavalry corporal in a cavalry cloak. The enemy had carried only a long sword, no bow and arrows—clearly not prepared for armed conflict. They had simply been out robbing.
The corporal surveyed the scene. His soldiers were gathering the horses the rebels had abandoned. The Chiefs valued horses highly; bringing back these few would count as adequate credit.
He removed the long sword from beside the corpse and threw it onto his horse. The blade still held some value. Cavalry weapons remained in critically short supply—Lingao had never manufactured cavalry sabers, so their equipment consisted of standard machetes. Though the blade quality was good, machetes were ultimately unsuited to mounted combat. Zhu Mingxia had therefore ordered special attention to collecting Ming army cavalry long swords.
After rescuing the first batch of refugees, the cavalry squad continued searching for the large group of refugees mentioned in their intelligence. Finding them was not difficult—in clear weather, the snow dust raised by a large mass of walking people could be seen from considerable distance.
Soon they located them. Their position had not shifted much from the initial reconnaissance. The immense, disorderly mass moved slowly, covering less than two kilometers per hour.
The scout cavalry paused carefully at a moderate distance to observe.
The refugee column was huge and chaotic. Though it appeared to be a gray, disordered crowd, certain organization existed within. Generally, with their own village or clan as the core, they formed a group-within-groups structure. Young adults walked on the periphery; old, weak, women, and children occupied the middle, interspersed with wheelbarrows carrying broken furniture and grain. Those who could no longer walk or were weak could sometimes ride the carts briefly.
Others had been marginalized—completely squeezed to the crowd's outer edge, receiving no rest or assistance. Except for the particularly strong among them, they gradually fell behind and became prisoners of the rebels or corpses in the snow.
The corporal was in no hurry to spur forward—a dozen men could not control so many refugees. If the crowd panicked and scattered, matters would become even more unmanageable.
At that moment, however, he suddenly noticed snow plumes raised by galloping horses alongside the mass. He shouted: "Situation! Observe!"
All soldiers straightened, scanning their surroundings. Through gaps in the crowd, cavalry could be vaguely glimpsed passing rapidly around the perimeter. Each time they swept close to the crowd's edge, shouts and screams erupted.
The corporal understood: rebels had entangled these refugees. The rebel numbers were too few—even with several thousand people gathered together, they dared not close in to drive them. So they harassed from the flanks, periodically launching raids to scatter refugees at the edges, delaying the group's speed, consuming their strength. They were waiting for larger rebel forces to arrive before slowly carving up this prize.
The two sides remained in this stalemate. The refugees understood perfectly that the longer they delayed, the more rebels would gather, the harder escape would become. Eventually, disaster would be inevitable. Some villages had once organized armed braves; with weapons in hand, they had organized attempts to drive off the roving rebel cavalry. But such loose attacks achieved little beyond sacrificing a few lives. They temporarily scattered the rebels, who would soon resume trailing them. The column could not move. Yet small groups breaking away to advance quickly could not ensure safety either—no single clan or village group could maintain cohesion under assault from fifty or sixty cavalrymen, even with several hundred people.
In this slow progress punctuated by occasional small conflicts, many had already exhausted their strength. Some simply sat on the ground, closed their eyes, and waited for death.
The scout cavalry immediately turned back to find the main force and report the column's precise location. Zhu Mingxia immediately ordered the entire force to seize favorable positions and intercept the refugee group head-on.
By the time the main force arrived, the refugee column had completely halted. Approximately a hundred rebel cavalry were now circling the refugees. Periodically, someone would loose an arrow into the crowd. Like wolves watching a flock of sheep, the situation looked extremely dangerous.
"Huang Xiong! Form ranks!" Zhu Mingxia shouted.
"Yes!" Huang Xiong sprinted out. "Two-row line!"
At his command, non-commissioned officers at all levels rapidly transmitted the order. One infantry company deployed a 75-meter-wide two-row battle line on the slope before a small hill. Two typewriters were positioned on the flanks. Though the 12-pound mountain howitzer was light enough, its ammunition was inconvenient to carry by manpower, so Zhu Mingxia had not brought it.
The village brave company and baggage company formed behind, guarding the work team and refugees collected along the road.
This formation was unprecedented in this era—especially the strange thin battle line. With contemporary firearms, such a weak formation could not be supported. Just as the gathering rebels wondered what sort of bullshit formation this was, Zhu Mingxia raised his SKS-D and fired the first shot. One round struck a rebel; the 7.62mm M43 bullet passed clean through and hit another rebel behind. This rifle, after modern modification, was remarkably comfortable to shoot. A Senator unfamiliar with military matters had once mistaken it for an AK-47. The semi-automatic firing mode also delivered sufficiently fierce firepower. In this era, automatic fire usually meant wasting ammunition.
After the first shot was fired, Huang Xiong immediately ordered a volley. The battle line discharged two consecutive rounds according to drill manual requirements. The massed cavalry instantly dissolved into chaos. Though the distance of more than two hundred meters significantly reduced accuracy, the rebels' concentration allowed the Minié rifles to exploit the advantage of massed target firepower.
Two waves of lead swept through the rebel ranks. Screams and horse neighs merged into a chaotic mess. Men struck and thrown from their mounts were immediately trampled to death by wounded and panicking horses.
"Fire at will!" At Zhu Mingxia's command, more than a hundred rifles erupted in competition. Subsequently, two typewriters also spat tongues of flame. Rebels were hit and fell from their horses one after another. Some who were not hit saw the situation turning and spurred their horses to flee.
Zhu Mingxia fired half a magazine continuously but dropped only one more man. Hitting moving targets at two hundred–plus meters relied heavily on luck; he did not waste more ammunition.
"Cease fire!" he ordered. "Cavalry—go collect horses! Move fast. Work team, village brave company—control the refugees!"
He had noticed commotion among the refugees during the battle—a tendency to move again appeared. The situation had to be controlled immediately; otherwise, if the crowd scattered, the objective would be lost.
His deployment of such a lavish lineup and imposing display just to drive off a few dozen rebels served two purposes: partly to stabilize the situation quickly, partly to kill the chicken to scare the monkey—routing the rebels through thunderous means to stun the refugees into submission.
After dispersing the rebels, the recovery team moved swiftly to control the refugees. Zhu Mingxia ordered soldiers to guard them with weapons. The massive typewriters also aimed menacingly at these wretched people. He did not believe these thousands would follow him obediently. To have walked this far, they had effectively become an organized armed refugee mass. He noticed many young adults carrying sticks and sharpened wooden spears; some bore farm tools serving as weapons. Too many variables remained on this road, the rebels' watchful presence being the most critical. He had to employ some tactics to complete the mission.
They were less than twenty li from the Huang County seat. If the main rebel infantry in Huang County moved out, they could arrive within two hours without delays. Cavalry would be even faster.
According to scout reports, however, the main rebel force in Huang County was still busy raping, looting, and enjoying their spoils inside the city. Outside the walls, only scattered small bands roamed—a large-scale pursuing force would not form soon.
"Huang Xiong—have people get ropes and tie these refugees up for me. Watch how I 'scatter beans to become soldiers.'"
After the cavalry fired repeatedly and killed several refugees attempting to escape in the confusion, the entire refugee column came to a halt. The work team and village braves roared through megaphones: "Everyone kneel down! Hands on head!"
Zhu Mingxia's "scatter beans to become soldiers" plan was simple. First, select relatively strong refugees from among them. According to his requirements, as long as a person was solidly built and alert, they were divided into groups of twenty—men and women mixed. Their right hands were tied to a rope at sixty-centimeter intervals. In this manner, they could only walk single file. A village brave then led the rope, controlling stride and pace. These village braves had all been carefully selected: physically strong, with excellent training results and developed formation awareness. Having them lead refugees effectively created orderly queues. With order in the column, they moved faster.
All items on the wheelbarrows except strictly necessary grain and cotton clothes were discarded. The old, weak, women, and children rode in their place. They were sandwiched in the column's middle. Because wheelbarrows were limited, some children had to be carried by relatively strong men and women.
The work team neither persuaded nor coaxed. With soldiers holding bayonet-fixed rifles behind, any refusal or delay earned a merciless rifle butt plus a gleaming bayonet. Consequently, the chaotic refugee mass was swiftly organized.
According to Zhu Mingxia's estimate, reaching the transfer point before dark would pose no problem. When they arrived, letting these refugees crowd together to rest would also provide some warmth. After daybreak, even if a large enemy force pursued, he could rely on the village stockade to fight a battle and repel the enemy without difficulty.
(End of Chapter)