The rise of the poor

Chapter 2134: A Hearty Pursuit

It was truly a thrilling pursuit. The Zhejiang Army chased for thirty miles in one breath and defeated the Japanese pirates.

The Zhejiang army chased all the way to a big river. Zhu Ping'an ordered the troops to retreat and set up camp on the high slope by the river.

This pursuit was a brilliant achievement.

After pursuing the Japanese pirates for thirty miles, they beheaded 1,382 of them, captured 2,157, seized 130 horses, and seized all of their food and supplies, even the large banners of Mao Haifeng and Otomo Sadakawa.

"Sir, if we chase them another twenty or thirty miles, we will definitely gain more. We may even be able to capture Mao Haifeng and Otomo Sadakawa alive."

Liu Dadao said with some regret.

"Don't chase after desperate enemies. Mao Haifeng and Otomo Sadakawa have already gathered a lot of defeated Japanese and have a certain amount of strength to fight back. Besides, they are not famous Japanese chieftains. It will be useless to capture them alive."

Zhu Ping'an shook his head slightly and spoke slowly.

Through "bringing glory to the ancestors", Zhu Ping'an discovered that Mao Haifeng and Otomo Sadakawa had gathered about 4,000 defeated Japanese pirates, and the defeated soldiers they had gathered were lurking not far ahead.

Of course, Mao Haifeng and Otomo Sadakawa, who had already been defeated once, were not a concern, but a greater danger was imminent. Perhaps it was the Japanese pirates' rear army led by Wang Zhi, which was less than 40 miles away.

It would be dangerous if we chase further.

"It's just a bit of a pity." Liu Dadao said with a look of regret.

"Haha, don't feel sorry. Today's performance is already brilliant." Zhu Pingan smiled slightly, and then continued, "In addition, we have consumed a lot of gunpowder. In today's battle, we consumed more than 40% of it. And the firearms, the Tiger Crouching Cannon fired continuously, and the cannon barrels were all burned red. They must be cooled down. The same is true for the muskets. There is a risk of explosion if they fire again."

In fact, during the pursuit, some of the Zhejiang Army's firearms had exploded. Two muskets exploded, and the Zhejiang Army soldiers who used them suffered minor injuries.

Although the Tiger Crouching Cannon did not explode, one of the barrels was deformed. Fortunately, it was discovered in time, otherwise it would have exploded if it fired the next shot.

Another artillery piece had a crack in its barrel when it was being cooled with cold water, and it was directly scrapped.

There is no way. The quality of firearms in this era cannot be compared with modern ones. No, it cannot even be compared with modern ones.

This was a limitation of the times. There were major deficiencies in both firearms design and iron and steel smelting.

These all need to be improved slowly.

"Order the soldiers to cook and let the brothers have some hot drinks. They can take turns to rest and clean up the battlefield. They can continue to search for the Japanese pirates and fleeing soldiers in the rear."

Zhu Pingan gave the order.

The Zhejiang Army was in a hurry to pursue the Japanese just now, and there must be many Japanese who escaped the net. They were not discovered because they hid too well or fled to remote places. If they go back and search carefully, they will definitely find some big surprises.

"Yes, sir." Liu Dadao and others took the order and left.

Zhu Ping'an led his personal soldiers to inspect the camp and visit the injured Zhejiang soldiers. He personally bandaged several wounded soldiers and served each wounded soldier a bowl of fish soup, winning the hearts of the soldiers.

In this battle, a total of thirteen Zhejiang soldiers were unfortunately killed, and more than eighty soldiers were injured.

Fortunately, among the more than eighty wounded soldiers, only ten were seriously injured, and the rest were slightly injured. After recuperation for ten days or half a month, they will be full of energy again.

Zhu Ping'an paid special attention to visiting these ten seriously injured soldiers, expressing his condolences one by one so that they could rest assured and recuperate.

Zhu Ping'an asked the army doctor and learned that the ten seriously injured soldiers needed to recuperate on the spot. Zhu Ping'an ordered the conquest of a nearby village, personally explained the situation to the village chief, gave him 100 taels of silver and a cart of food, settled the seriously injured soldiers in the village to recuperate, and arranged for a military doctor to take care of them.

In order to ensure their safety, Zhu Ping'an also left a group of soldiers as their guards, and transferred them to Shaoxing after their injuries stabilized.

Seeing how Zhu Ping'an took care of the seriously wounded, not only the lightly wounded in the camp respected him, but all the soldiers in the camp also respected him doubly.

Now it is other people who are injured, but in the future we may also be injured. After all, swords are blind on the battlefield, and no one can guarantee that they will always be protected by the gods and will never be injured.

The adults took good care of the soldiers and the wounded, and never abandoned the seriously injured. Everyone was relieved that they were well placed.

Not afraid of getting hurt.

There is no need to worry about anything, because our adults will rescue and settle us down.

For a time, the morale of the Zhejiang Army camp, which was already high due to the great victory, became even higher.

Zhu Ping'an's prestige in the Zhejiang Army was at its peak. Not only the old soldiers, but also the new soldiers were vying to pay him respect and were willing to die for him.

Compared with the high morale of the Zhejiang Army camp, the defeated Japanese pirates in the woods not far away on the other side of the river were lifeless and full of corruption.

"Damn it! Why didn't Zhu Ping'an give up chasing? I finally gathered 4,000 soldiers and horses. I wanted to take advantage of their complacency to give them a fatal blow, but I didn't expect Zhu Ping'an to be so cautious and stop chasing after only 30 miles!"

In the woods, Mao Haifeng saw that the Zhejiang army had set up camp on the other side of the river and stopped pursuing them. He was so angry that he hit a big tree hard.

He finally gathered 4,000 defeated soldiers and set up an ambush, preparing to deal a fatal blow to the Zhejiang Army, which had become complacent after its great victory.

However, he never expected that the Zhejiang Army would stop pursuing, which made his plan fail.

He had wanted to strike a fatal blow, win a small victory after a big defeat, and save his reputation, but he didn't expect Zhu Ping'an to be so cautious that he didn't even leave him this chance! Mao Haifeng was so angry that a mouthful of blood stuck in his throat.

"Zhu Ping'an is indeed an extraordinary thief. This time I was really enlightened. I didn't know that firearms could be used in this way."

Otomo Sadakawa knelt aside, looking at the large flag flying high in the Zhejiang Army’s camp on the other side of the river, feeling filled with emotion.

Today, when he first saw the Zhejiang Army's long and narrow line-shaped gun formation that looked like a child's play, Otomo Sadakawa mocked Zhu Ping'an for his lack of military strategy and said his military formation was not even as good as that of a beginner.

However, he never expected that this phalanx, which was as playful as it was, would give him a hard slap in the face, which was such a slap in the face.

The bullets were like a rainstorm, the dense firepower, the terrifying killing power. The warriors under his command had no time to display their killing skills. They didn't even touch the trouser legs of the Zhejiang soldiers. They fell down one by one like wheat being cut.

And the artillery that only two people of the Zhejiang Army could lift was like the wrath of God, so terrifying.

The combination of muskets and artillery made the Zhejiang Army's combat power simply terrifying.

Unless he did not give the Zhejiang Army a chance to use their firearms and engaged them in close combat, Otomo Sadakawa had no idea how to defeat the Zhejiang Army.

"Why can the Zhejiang Army load firearms so quickly?" Mao Haifeng looked at Otomo Sadakawa with a puzzled look on his face.

"I am so ashamed, I didn't know." Otomo Sadakawa was also puzzled and shook his head in shame, "After this battle, I dare not claim to be good at using firearms. I have never seen anyone use firearms like the Zhejiang Army." (End of this chapter)