Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 650: One-shot deal
"Hoo~Hoo~" After a burst of snoring, Cromwell suddenly woke up from his sleep: "I actually fell asleep? This wine is too strong, right?"
Then he suddenly wondered: Why is the light around so dim? What time is it now?
He quickly lowered his feet from the table, fumbled in his arms, found the pocket watch, and looked at it in the dim light: it was already past eight o'clock in the evening.
"guard!"
"Sir, what are your instructions?"
"Did someone attack our camp?"
"No."
"Tsk! This should the case. Once Zhang Xianzhong was sure that the surrounding area was safe, he would attack quickly and fiercely. How come there is no movement at this time?"
As for Zhang Xianzhong's option of retreating without attacking when he discovered the camp, knowing that there were no enemies nearby, Cromwell did not even think about it: after seven or eight years of fighting, they knew each other too well.
"Not good!" Thinking of this, Cromwell suddenly slapped his head: "Could this yellow-skinned monkey have discovered my backup plan and gone around behind me?"
Although he couldn't understand why the enemy could still discover him even though they were 20 kilometers away, Cromwell had no intention of taking any chances: "Messenger!"
"Your Mightiness?"
"Notify the commanders of each battalion and have them come to me within ten minutes to discuss the battle plan. Anyone who is late will be shot!"
"yes!"
Following Cromwell's order, the entire Western Army camp began to become noisy and busy. Where did Zhang Xianzhong's troops go at this time?
After receiving the report from the head of the regiment below, Zhang Xianzhong and Xia Yunyi had a brief discussion and decided: do something big!
There is no doubt that the enemy's camp was deliberately set up as bait. It can be imagined that there may not be many soldiers in this camp, but they are definitely elite, and the defense measures inside must be extremely complete.
The rebel army had just been reorganized, and the political commissar's appointment had boosted the army's morale. However, Sun Chuanting had not yet had time to send officers from the Ming Army Division for tactical training. Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong's 30,000 men still lacked the ability to attack and fight head-on. It was not a big problem to sneak attack the enemy's baggage camp, but it was beyond their ability to attack the enemy's well-prepared solid defense system.
Therefore, this bait cannot be taken. Otherwise, the main force of our side will be attracted here, and the enemy's front and rear armies will attack from both sides. If Zhang Xianzhong has worked hard for seven or eight years to lead this army, it will be completely wiped out.
But the Chinese have a magical saying: Since you are here, you are here.
We have come all the way from the comfortable coastal plains of Lima and crossed the Andes Mountains with great effort. How can we just go back without doing anything?
So Zhang and Xia decided after a brief discussion: bypass the enemy's camp and attack the enemy's rear team: there is no doubt that the enemy's rear team must have more people. But on the one hand, the original task of the rear team was to wait for the front to fight before outflanking, so the enemy's rear team must be preparing for attack rather than defense. The Ming army did not attack the camp at this time, but directly attacked the enemy's rear team, which would definitely catch the enemy off guard. On the other hand, Zhang Xianzhong and Cromwell had fought for many years and knew very well the composition of Cromwell's army: the army from Europe did not exceed 13,000 at most, and the five or six thousand people in the camp should all be Europeans, otherwise the bait would not be strong enough. In this case, there must be enough mixed-race people, Indians and black slaves in your rear team-these people are okay in a favorable battle, but if they are attacked, hehehe...
This arrangement is of course dangerous: what if the enemy is far away, or even non-existent? What if the enemy is a trap, using the rear army as bait... But in war, there is no such thing as a sure win? If you are really sure, why would the enemy fight with you in a battle that is bound to lose? Doesn't he know how to run?
In short , on the afternoon of that day, Zhang Xianzhong led the main force and plunged into the dense Amazon rainforest: the rainforest is a place where it is indeed dangerous for a small-scale team to enter. If tens of thousands of people really go in, the instinct for survival will make the animals run very fast!
However, even without the disturbance of animals, it is not possible to walk 20 kilometers in the rain forest in one day. So Zhang Xianzhong arranged that the 9th regiment would be the vanguard to conduct a large-scale reconnaissance, and the 1st and 2nd regiments, which were originally in his hands, would be the last. After entering the depths of the rain forest, these two regiments began to dig pits and set traps in order to deal with Cromwell's pursuit.
Yes, as an old rival for many years, Zhang Xianzhong was also very sure that his trick would not last long.
He did not hide it from Cromwell for long: at 1 pm, the 9th regiment entered the rain forest first. At 3 pm, Zhang Xianzhong also led his team into the rain forest, but they had not walked 5 kilometers in five hours. At 8 pm, after Cromwell woke up, he immediately understood his situation and responded quickly.
"Bang, bang, bang~" Looking at the sky behind him, red flares rose into the sky one after another. In order to prevent his side from exposing the target, there was a long distance between torches. Zhang Xianzhong, who was basically advancing in the dark, showed his big yellow teeth and grinned: "It seems that this Cromwell is very quick to react."
"Commander, now is not the time to praise the enemy. The flare has been raised, and it seems that there is no doubt that there is an enemy rear guard ahead. But what if the enemy is prepared for this?"
"Hahaha, Political Commissar, don't worry. If this flare is raised in the open Pampas, the information can be transmitted 20 kilometers away. If the enemy is on a high mountain, even if it is raised in the rainforest, the enemy can see it. Unfortunately, this is a rainforest, and the enemy is also in the rainforest, so they can't see it."
"Oh, I see. But Commander, when we chatted with each other, I felt that you thought highly of Cromwell. How come there was such a loophole in his arrangement?"
"Two points." Zhang Xianzhong stretched out two fingers slowly and said, "First, although this guy from England has been in America for eight years, he has never entered the rain forest. Although my main battlefield in recent years has also been on the grassland, I have to go to the old camp in the Andes for meetings in recent years . On the way, I must cross a section of the rain forest. Therefore, when it comes to the geography of this battlefield, I am more familiar with it than he is. Second, this guy thinks too much of me, Zhang, and is afraid that I will not be fooled. So he deliberately put his backup plan far away."
"I see." Xia Yunyi, who had just put his mind at ease, thought for a moment and then became nervous again: "But if Cromwell arranged it this way, how would he contact the rear team if we really went to besiege his camp?"
"The fact that the political commissar can think of this shows that the military strategy is promising." He patted the other party's shoulder with great satisfaction: "There is a contact point between the two groups of Western bandits. Unfortunately, I ordered the 9th Regiment to spread out and advance in a fan shape, and we have already knocked out three of the other side's contact points."
…
The night passed as the Ming army advanced vigorously and Cromwell was restless: for Cromwell, he would never lead 5,000 people directly, leaving the solid camp and rushing into the rain forest rashly. There was no way to contact the rear team, but he still contacted the more than 10,000 people in the front team that night. No matter how urgent the military situation was, he had to wait until dawn and reunite with the more than 10,000 people in the front team before entering the rain forest.
At noon the next day, Zhang Xianzhong, who had already penetrated 17 or 18 kilometers into the rain forest, finally received a report from the 9th Regiment in front: "Division Commander, our scout team has discovered the enemy's camp about 2 kilometers away from here. This camp is much larger than the one we saw yesterday!"
"Hahaha, good! Order, the fifth to eighth regiments move closer, and then charge directly with the ninth regiment!"
"Okay!"
After the messenger hurried away, Xia Yunyi asked, "Does the division commander want to fight chaos with chaos?"
"That's right." Zhang Xianzhong, who had been crawling all night but didn't look tired at all, whispered, "Having come here, no matter if there is an ambush ahead, there is no need to conduct a careful reconnaissance. We crossed the Andes and marched directly in the rain forest for a whole day without any rest... These soldiers have followed me for many years, and I know that they only have a little bit of strength now. So, this is a one-time deal!"
Following Zhang Xianzhong's order, the soldiers of the Fourth Division of the American Volunteer Army, who had gone through so much trouble to carry the ten mortars from Lima, were assembled. Following the order of the commander of the front line, ten artillery shells accurately fell into the huge camp of the rear team of the Western Army.
Ten shells would naturally cause minimal damage to a large camp of more than 20,000 people. But in this camp, the officers were all Spanish, but more than 90% of the soldiers were not Spanish!
Even the Spanish officers here received the order that after the signal flare was delivered, the whole army would move forward and then encircle and annihilate the enemy together with Lord Cromwell's troops. So in the past few days, they were indeed as Zhang Xianzhong expected, and they were not prepared for defense at all.
As a result, with only ten shells landing, the entire Western Army camp exploded like a boiler with extreme pressure!
"Tick-tick-tick~" The iconic charge of the Ming Army sounded. The yellow-skinned Indians held the Ming Dynasty's Yanhuang Sun and Moon flag and the red, white and red national flag of the Inca Kingdom, shouted "Victory" in stiff Chinese, and launched a charge towards the Spanish camp!
