Chapter 130: A Strange Victory (Part 1)

He then immediately switched to the public channel, issuing a combat alert to all working, bickering, or slacking personnel, demanding that all personnel immediately withdraw, and that the internal guard issue guns and ammunition to everyone. He ordered Xi Yazhou, who was supervising military training, to immediately disband the formations, and all new army personnel to reassemble according to combat organization and receive their firearms and ammunition.

Except for those serving in key departments such as power and communications, all able-bodied male transmigrators were organized into combat groups by dormitory. The internal guard instantly expanded from 20 to 400 men, occupying the defensive positions in the contingency plan. The personnel in the blockhouses were doubled, and at the same time, an internal guard platoon was sent to the riverside to protect the power station and water source. Xi Yazhou went to the command post on the city wall of Bairen City to specifically direct the battle.

Ma Qianzhu had Shaozong connect to Bopu’s communication channel. Although Bopu was protected by the navy’s fleet and had newly built several forts, it only had one company of men, and the army only had a small number of artillery there. If the enemy launched a joint land and sea attack, Bairen would probably not be able to provide support for a while.

“This is Ming Qiu,” the person who answered the phone was actually the navy’s advisor.

“This is Ma Qianzhu. Where is Chen Haiyang?”

“Reporting to Chief of Staff Ma! Captain Chen has gone on a fishing patrol.”

Still on a fishing patrol. Sweat dripped from Ma Qianzhu’s head. “Quickly notify him, the enemy has already launched an attack from land. The Bopu area is on alert.”

“Understood.”

Ma Qianzhu then called Dugu Qiuhun and asked him to immediately evacuate the crowd and stalls at Dongmen Market. He issued shotguns to the personnel of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, and the cold-weapon group composed of the police station patrolled the market. If there were any inside agents or people taking advantage of the chaos to loot, they were to be executed on the spot.

After composing himself, he calmed down. In fact, Bairen City now had more than 300 modern rifles, more than 300 new soldiers, and a dozen smoothbore cannons. Relying on the city walls and blockhouses for defense, they were not afraid of these few hundred enemies without cannons. Moreover, they had 1-2 hours to prepare. It was only then that he remembered that the intended purpose of all battles so far was to annihilate the enemy and capture prisoners. Passive defense was not an option. He had just been scared by himself. Calm, must be calm.

Ma Qianzhu switched to another channel and called the garage, asking them to refuel the farm vehicles. He dispatched four groups from the internal guard, with shotguns and cold weapons for self-defense, to get on the vehicles and wait outside the east gate. The northeast direction was a flat river beach. The transmigrators had no cavalry and had to rely on this to defend and counterattack. After a while, at Wu Nan Hai’s strong request, he sent another squad of the internal guard to assist in defending the farm’s fields.

At this time, Ma Qianzhu discovered a problem. Bei Wei’s reconnaissance team should have had a three-man team led by Ye Mengyan responsible for long-range security in the northeast direction. Why didn’t they send an alarm? Could they have met with misfortune? But he couldn’t be bothered with that now. He was just glad the enemy had no cavalry.

After all these arrangements were made, he still had to have Wu Nan Hai quickly prepare meals and send them to the city wall. All those with shooting experience could no longer come down to eat. There was also the medical team, ready to receive and treat the wounded at any time. Wu De assembled the commune militia, issued them cold weapons, and had them act as a reserve force. The laborers were organized and ready to carry stretchers and deliver ammunition at any time.

Finally, he notified Bei Wei’s reconnaissance team to arrange a few shooters, with sniper rifles, radios, and motorcycles, to go to the forward road and lie in ambush, preparing to snipe the enemy’s main leaders.

Everything was arranged properly, and the enemy’s column finally appeared on the horizon. Xi Yazhou estimated that there were at most 400 enemies. What could this number of people do? The prisoners of Zhu Cailao had been in the prisoner-of-war camp for a few days and should have seen a lot. They knew very well that the transmigrators had thousands of people, including laborers, and had very good firearms. Even if they were coming for revenge, wouldn’t it be a gift to come with only two or three thousand people?

The more he thought about it, the more suspicious he became. He quickly called Ma Qianzhu at the communication center: he suspected that the enemy had several other forces, and this one was just a feint.

“Well, it’s very possible. I’ll discuss it with Old He,” Ma Qianzhu had no idea what to do now. After all, he had never been a soldier and was a little flustered in the face of battle.

“It’s okay,” He Ming looked at the map. “The internal guard has enough firepower to control the key points. The enemy won’t be able to break through for a while. Let Battalion Commander Xi take care of this group first. We have an absolute advantage in mobility.”

“Okay, concentrate the artillery for the training battalion as well.”

The enemy gradually approached, their route unchanged, basically heading towards Dongmen Market. In front were seven or eight cavalrymen in a loose line, seemingly scouts. Behind them, the infantry was divided into 4 groups. The first group of about a hundred men was in a relatively neat formation, with some carrying flags, seemingly the “Zhu” surname flag. The next two groups were much more disorganized. Through the binoculars, they were all dark-skinned, rough-handed and large-footed ordinary people, holding various broadswords and long and short pointed weapons. Some held crude rattan shields, while others simply held sharpened bamboo poles—were they prepared to fight a war? The more Xi Yazhou looked, the more suspicious he became. Looking at the last group, there were fifty or sixty men, all holding steel swords, walking in a neat formation, looking a bit like a supervisory team.

Xi Yazhou was almost certain that they would directly attack Dongmen Market—which was understandable. After all, to outsiders, Dongmen Market, this commercial center, was the main place where wealth was concentrated. It seemed that “everything is under the control of the national army,” and the Transmigrator Group could quickly supplement a few hundred prisoners. Just then, the enemy stopped about 1 kilometer away, seemingly discussing something. Ma Qianzhu suggested taking the opportunity to eat. Once the battle started, it would not be over in a few hours, and the aftermath of a victory would also be very busy. It was better to give everyone a hot meal first.

The canteen sent fast food in stainless steel lunch boxes to the internal guard. Xi Yazhou’s training battalion had no lunch boxes to use, and it was not convenient to distribute food from a large pot under combat conditions. Wu Nan Hai made do with what was available and made a meal of bamboo tube rice using nearby bamboo. In each bamboo tube, besides rice and salt, he also added some lard to make the soldiers fuller so they could fight better.

After eating, the enemy was still dawdling there. Through the binoculars, it could be seen that some people were running back and forth in the ranks, some were sitting on the ground eating dry rations, and some were chatting in groups. It didn’t look like they were coming to fight, but more like they were on a spring outing.

“Damn it, there’s a conspiracy here,” Xi Yazhou muttered. He ordered, “Form ranks!”

Unexpectedly, a bizarre scene occurred. Before the company commanders could relay the order, the pirates 1 kilometer away suddenly launched a chaotic and disorganized charge. There were no front or rear ranks, and a group of people, waving swords, spears, and clubs, rushed forward. The brownish-gray crowd huddled together, seemingly rolling forward.

“Damn it, is this a pig rush?” Xi Yazhou quickly ordered, “Prepare for battle!”

The company commanders quickly organized their troops. At this moment, the sound of a Saiga-308 rifle was heard from the battlefield. It was the sniper team firing. Ma Qianzhu, watching from the city wall, was stamping his feet. In this chaotic mess, with everyone looking gray and dusty, who were the leaders?

The sniper team was very clear. Those on horseback were definitely of higher status than those on foot. After a burst of gunfire, all the horsemen were shot down, but the pirates behind them continued to run chaotically.

Something was wrong. The more Ma Qianzhu watched, the more he felt something was wrong. Who fights a war like this? Even if not a single shot was fired here, the infantry would be out of breath after running 1 kilometer. What kind of battle could they fight? Although Zhu Cailao was a pirate, he had been rampant in Fujian and Guangdong for a dozen years. He wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake.

He quickly called various places: any suspicious movements?

The answers were consistent: “no suspicious phenomena,” “everything is normal,” “no suspicious ships at sea.”

…

Ma Qianzhu was increasingly unable to understand the thinking behind Zhu Cailao’s attack this time. Was he sending these few hundred men to their deaths?

The snipers’ rifles fired continuously, and the pirates kept falling, but this did not make them turn and run. The power of the three Saiga-308 rifles was limited, and besides, these snipers were not skilled enough to kill with every shot.

Suddenly, they all turned east, their target seemingly the small hill where the few snipers were hiding. Everyone was greatly surprised, not knowing how they were discovered. There were only 6 people there, and they didn’t have much ammunition. Their mission was to eliminate the leaders, not to attack the enemy’s main force. As the enemy ran wildly to the foot of the hill, Ma Qianzhu had no choice but to let them retreat.

The roaring motorcycles startled the enemy. The pirates did not try to pursue but stopped at the foot of the hill. A dozen people went up the hill and looked around. Then they began to cut down trees and pile up stones. Were they trying to set up camp? It looked like they had at most a few days of dry rations and no baggage train…

“Artillery, destroy the enemy’s camp and force them to a decisive battle,” Xi Yazhou ordered. Obviously, the purpose of this group of pirates was to “drag.”

The artillery company immediately got busy. In front of the infantry line, 12 mountain howitzers were lined up. The gabions woven from rattan were also filled with earth.

“Distance 380 meters!” the rangefinder quickly reported the straight-line distance to the small hill.

“Target 380 meters, one round of solid shot, load!” Ying Yu gave the order. He only had two types of ammunition available: solid shot and canister shot. At this distance, he couldn’t use canister shot, so he would use the most reliable solid iron balls. In fact, the pirates gathering around the small hill was a good thing for the artillery. If they were scattered on the harvested paddy fields, the cannonballs would not have a ricochet effect when they hit the moist soil.

“Fire!” Ying Yu gave the order.

The thick smoke and flames spewed out by the 12 mountain howitzers at the same time made even the soldiers who had participated in the Baitu expedition feel the earth shake. The dark iron balls flew over a distance of 400 meters, smashing into the crowd with a slight arc, like an iron plow plowing through, with flesh and limbs flying in the air along with the trajectory of the cannonballs. The slightly compacted ground on the small hill caused the landing cannonballs to bounce up again, taking away more heads, thighs, and bodies.

The earth trembled, and the pirates ran around in all directions. The second round of cannonballs whistled in like the god of death again, smashing out bloody flowers in the brownish-gray crowd. The dying screams and terrified cries echoed through the sky. The pirates scattered and fled. The mountain howitzers roared continuously, and the cannonballs bounced on the compacted ground of early winter, quickly reaping lives.

The battle ended just like that, without any skill or tactics. After leaving a field full of corpses, the pirates fled eastward in a hurry. Xi Yazhou ordered the first and second companies to pursue, while the third company maintained its formation on the spot.

The battle scene turned into a duck hunt, with one side chasing all over the mountains and the other running for their lives. The training battalion was well-fed and well-rested. The pirates had been messing around for half a day, so they were naturally no match in a race. Before long, they all collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. Fortunately, Xi Yazhou had given an order to capture more prisoners, with rewards for capturing more. Only then did this group of soldiers not randomly stab people with their bayonets.

Only a few dozen ran fast and were almost close to the mountains in the east. Let them run, it didn’t matter if there were a dozen fewer people to use.

At this moment, everyone could vaguely see three men with rifles emerge from the woods in the west, blocking the road. With a heroic volley, they shot down the fastest few. The rest, who had long been scared to death by the cannons, saw that their path was blocked and, regardless of how many were coming, all knelt down and surrendered, crying “spare our lives”! It turned out that this was the Ye Mengyan team from the reconnaissance team, which had lost contact and was responsible for the long-range screening in the east. They had gone in the wrong direction on patrol and happened to run into the fleeing enemy. This mistake brought the entire battle to a perfect end. The Transmigrator Army’s losses were 0, and the enemy was either dead or had surrendered.