Chapter 100: The Battle of Baopang Mountain

The troops set out after dark, force-marched through the night, and entered the Baopang mountainous area to conceal themselves. After a full day of rest, they continued their march at night. With the help of detailed maps and night vision equipment, they suddenly arrived at Dang Na Men’s mountain stronghold in the morning.

The stronghold stood on a small earthen hill, surrounded by sturdy walls made of a mixture of stone and wood, and watchtowers. The defenses were quite good and could withstand a general attack.

Looking through the binoculars, the terrain around the stronghold was not precipitous but quite complex. A stronghold that was easy to defend and difficult to attack was good, but once surrounded, it would be very difficult to break out. Therefore, bandit strongholds were generally not built on particularly treacherous, dead-end paths, so that they could quickly escape in unfavorable situations. If they had come in a grand procession, Dang Na Men would have had plenty of time to abandon the stronghold and use the terrain to scatter and flee. But now, He Ming had already directed his troops to quickly seize the three main access routes near the stronghold before dawn, blocking the escape routes—all thanks to modern maps and night vision equipment.

“The troops have all arrived at their designated positions and are constructing fortifications!” the intern staff officer reported.

“Order all units to pay close attention to the enemy’s movements,” He Ming said, lowering his binoculars and glancing at the map. All the possible escape routes had been assigned troops to block them.

“Hurry up, everyone!” Pan Da urged his engineers and the education soldiers assigned to him. They were lying on the ground, struggling to dig pits and lay simple anti-personnel mines. Another group was building parapets for shooting with mud.

Apart from the main road into the mountain, there were three other routes the bandits could use to escape. Of these, Dataipo was the most difficult to block. The other two were mountain paths, where twenty soldiers could build a temporary low wall of mud and bushes and hold off the bandits with volley fire and grenades.

But Dataipo was not a small path; it was a wide slope. If the bandits were allowed to rush through this place, they would have countless mountain paths to choose from.

Pan Da had no choice but to intercept the bandits on this open ground.

His forces were second only to the troops directly under the command post, consisting of one infantry platoon, one engineering squad, and thirty “education soldiers.” The education soldiers were not yet equipped with firearms, only bayonets and temporarily issued pikes. They were good for waving flags and making noise to fill out the numbers.

Fortunately, he had brought the engineers’ standard weapon: landmines.

Of course, these landmines were not of any familiar type. Although someone had grandly named them “Claymore” directional mines, they were actually primitive and simple anti-personnel directional mines. So simple that they didn’t even need a casing. As for the directional angle, only heaven knew.

The entire equipment consisted of a bag of black powder, a fuse, an iron plate, and a pile of scrap metal. They would dig a shallow pit by the roadside, place the explosive charge, cover it with an iron plate for direction, and then pile on a layer of various fragments that could cause head injuries. Of course, since all metals were strategic materials at the moment, the mines Pan Da had brought did not have iron plates but hardwood planks. According to test results, the scrap metal used as shrapnel was replaced by crushed stone—these stones were carefully selected from the quarry and were of basically the same size.

At every possible escape route, Pan Da’s engineers were laying these landmines. Originally, the mines could only be detonated with a fuse, which made it difficult to control the timing of the explosion. Laying the fuse so that it was both concealed and reliable was a challenge. Since the chemical department had developed white and red phosphorus, the technical problem of the pull-igniter had finally been overcome. Although this technology mainly facilitated artillery firing, the engineers also benefited from this improvement.

The entire width of Dataipo was about 60 meters, and each directional mine could cover a distance of about 5 to 6 meters. Pan Da had set up three groups of mines across the slope in a staggered pattern, with fifteen mines in each group.

“Everyone, listen to my command. Set your sights to 100 meters,” Yang Zeng said, laying out the battle plan for his soldiers. “We will form two ranks and fire in volleys on command. Understood?”

“Understood!” the soldiers answered in unison.

“Good, fix bayonets!”

The soldiers drew their gleaming bayonets from their leather scabbards and fixed them. Yang Zeng inspected the soldiers’ bayonets, firearms, and ammunition, and then spoke a few words to the education soldiers behind them. The new recruits, on the battlefield for the first time, were all trembling a little, not even knowing how to hold their pikes.

Yang Zeng said a few words of encouragement. Although he had no military experience to speak of, he knew that in an emergency, he couldn’t rely on them. He had to rely on the veterans—and these so-called veterans had only been training for a few more months. Their combat experience was limited to one battle during the pirate attack. Some had only ever stood in formation and hadn’t even had a chance to fire at the pirates.

Seeing Chief Pan directing the soldiers with shovels to dig pits everywhere, Yang Zeng couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy. Although he had learned about “landmines” during his officer training, he was not sure how effective they would be. If only they could have a cannon here, he would have no worries, he thought.

Pan Da himself was not very confident either. He checked the pull-igniters, fuses, and pull-cords of the directional mines everywhere, and even did a few test pulls to ensure there were no obstacles and that they would ignite effectively. Whether they could stop the bandits’ fierce charge depended on how powerful this “heavenly maiden scattering flowers” was.

If the bandits were truly fearless and dared to “pig rush,” using their bodies to clear a path through the minefield, then Pan Da had one last resort—the grenade launcher. The engineers were setting up this simple “small cannon.”

This was a cheap and simple weapon developed by the weapons design group of the mechanical department. Since the invention of the “handheld grapeshot cannon,” the weapons group had been in a frenzy of designing disposable, simple support weapons. This grenade launcher was a product of this frenzy.

It was a cast iron tube, loaded with a gunpowder charge, and then a cast iron No. 4 grenade—the chain-shot grenade that had once terrified the New Army soldiers and created the army’s first martyr. With the throwing cord removed, it could be launched by black powder at a 65-degree angle to a distance of over 50 meters, though the accuracy could only be described as generally in the right direction.

The fuse of the No. 4 grenade would be ignited simultaneously with the explosion of the propellant charge—similar to the way a howitzer shell was ignited in a smoothbore cannon. However, the problem with howitzer shells also existed here—about one-third of the No. 4 grenades would not detonate, a much lower detonation rate than when they were lit by hand and then thrown.

“Even if it doesn’t explode, it will still crack a man’s skull if it hits him. Let’s just treat it as a solid shot,” Pan Da was not very picky about this weapon. He had brought twenty of them for testing.

All the ammunition was pre-loaded, the muzzle sealed with waxed paper, and the rear had a wax-sealed ignition port. To fire, one only had to insert the pull-igniter and pull. The grenade launcher was equipped with a simple stand and base plate. If one was not afraid of the danger of the barrel exploding, it could also be fired from the shoulder.

This grenade launcher could theoretically be reloaded on the battlefield, but for safety reasons, the military industrial department recommended that the troops recover them after firing and return them to the factory for refilling.

If this last resort also failed to stop the enemy, they would have to rely on rifle fire and melee combat. Although Pan Da had absolute confidence that the professional soldiers, trained to a high degree of organization and discipline, could defeat the bandits in a bayonet charge, he couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive.

The sudden arrival of the bandit suppression force at his doorstep shocked Dang Na Men, who had just woken up. He had his own sources of intelligence and knew that this group of Australian pirates was recently planning to clean up the greenwood. At first, he didn’t take it seriously. After all, the mountains and the sea were two different worlds. And the “Thirteen Villages” under his control had also shown their submission to this group of Australians, giving them everything they were supposed to. There was no reason for them to attack him.

He climbed the stronghold wall to look. On the hillside a li away, there were dense formations of Australians in gray, tight-fitting short jackets. Some carried muskets, some carried pikes, all gleaming in the sunlight. He couldn’t tell how many men there were at a glance.

That such a force could march through the mountains at night and arrive at his stronghold without a sound, the thought of it made him shudder. The Australians had arrived fully armed and unannounced; their intentions were surely not good. He had long heard that the Australians’ firearms were very powerful, and their cannons were invincible. Defending the stronghold was certain death. He immediately summoned his subordinate leaders.

“Don’t panic!” he said, scanning the somewhat panicked leaders. The sudden and secret arrival of the enemy had greatly shaken the bandits. “The short-haired bandits have powerful firearms. We can’t fight them head-on. Prepare for a ‘flowing water’ escape!”

“Flowing water” was the term for dispersing and fleeing to various secret camps in the mountains, waiting for the trouble to blow over before reassembling. It was a common tactic of the bandits.

“Boss Dang!” said Zhao Haiqing, one of the Four Great Heavenly Kings. “Escaping is easy, but what about the women, gold, silver, and grain in the stronghold…”

“Why worry about that?” Dang Na Men, though reluctant, was a man of decision. “As long as the green mountains are there, we won’t have to worry about firewood. Gold, silver, and women can be had anytime. What’s the point if we lose our lives! Let’s go, quickly.”

The other leaders saw the logic in this and dispersed to inform the bandits to prepare for the “flowing water” escape. The stronghold was instantly thrown into chaos. The bandits were unwilling to abandon their wealth and stuffed their bodies with large ingots of silver, foreign coins, and jewels. Everyone was bulging with their loot. Dang Na Men knew this was bad, but the chaotic bandits ignored his commands. He had no choice but to take his seven or eight trusted followers and make his own “flowing water” escape.

“Set fire! Burn down the stronghold!” Dang Na Men ordered.

“Boss!” Although they knew these things would no longer be theirs, the few trusted followers were reluctant to burn down the stronghold they had occupied for many years.

“Don’t be sentimental!” Dang Na Men spat fiercely. “If we don’t burn it, it will just be a gift to these short-haired bandits. Burn it all, and we’ll all be clean!”

Actually, Dang Na Men had another plan in mind. Once the fire started, the Australians, who had come for the wealth and grain, would be busy trying to put it out and wouldn’t have time to chase them. It would be easier for everyone to escape.

“Fire! There’s a fire!” someone shouted at the command post.

“The enemy is starting to run,” He Ming said, raising his binoculars.

In an instant, the stronghold gate swung open. Through the binoculars, the bandits, carrying large and small bundles and holding knives, axes, and spears, fled in all directions in several groups.

He Ming watched their direction, confirming that his side had not missed any roads.

A moment later, gunshots rang out in the distance, and puffs of white smoke rose among the green mountains and clear waters, a rather beautiful sight.

“The left mountain pass is engaged!”

He Ming adjusted the focus of his binoculars, trying to see the battle, but he couldn’t see anything clearly. The large amount of smoke from the rifle fire obscured the battlefield.

He frowned and turned his lens to another mountain road where the bandits were breaking out. The terrain here was slightly more open, and the smoke was quickly carried away by the wind. He saw forty to fifty bandits, their clothes bulging, carrying bundles, charging up the slopes on both sides of the mountain pass. White smoke spewed from the positions above from time to time. Bandits who were hit rolled down the hillside. Some were wounded and fell to the ground, struggling desperately.

“Strange, are they wearing some kind of armor?” He Ming was puzzled. He had never heard of bandits having armor.

A man who had been hit was struggling in his death throes. Several gleaming silver ingots rolled out from his torn clothes.

So the bulging clothes were filled with valuables. Everyone suddenly understood. Someone said, “Truly, people die for wealth. With so many burdens, they can’t even escape properly. If they didn’t carry them, they might have been able to get away.”

“Not necessarily—” someone had just retorted when an explosion sounded in the distance. A cloud of white smoke rose from the mountain pass, with stones and dirt flying everywhere. Faintly, they could hear someone screaming. This was the earthen Claymore mine being detonated.

“It’s detonated! It’s detonated!” came the excited voices of the staff officers behind him.

The directional mines were detonated one after another. Nothing could be seen through the binoculars anymore. He Ming lowered his binoculars and asked, “Any new developments in the stronghold?”

“Not yet. The fire is burning fiercely. They’ve probably all run out.”

“Order the first platoon to advance towards the stronghold gate and seize it when the opportunity arises. Don’t rush to put out the fire,” He Ming ordered. “Reinforce them with the cannon.” The top priority was to annihilate the bandits. Whether there was any wealth in the stronghold or not was no longer of great importance to the overall situation.

The bandits who were preparing for a “flowing water” escape were driven back from every route. They had never dreamed that the enemy would have set up ambushes in these places, waiting for them to charge. Several groups of bandits who had attempted a “flowing water” escape were beaten back at the passes with heavy casualties. Many of them ran back.

Dang Na Men’s mind worked quickly. He knew that hesitating now was a dead end. He quickly called out to everyone:

“Don’t panic! Drop the silver on you! If you have your life, you’ll have money! Let’s break out through Dataipo together!”

With his repeated shouts, he gathered more than a hundred men around him again. They were all terrified, staring at Dang Na Men, waiting for him to come up with a plan quickly.

[Note: The account of the Dang Na Men bandits is based on historical records of bandit activities in Lingao during the Republic of China period.]