The rise of the poor

Chapter 2153: Battle (1)

The next day, at the first ray of sunlight in the early morning, the Zhejiang Army camp and the Japanese pirates camp were facing each other across the river, with smoke rising from both camps.

"One, one, one, two, one, two, three, four."

The Zhejiang Army soldiers got up early to do morning exercises, marching in step, jogging, and drills, and they enjoyed themselves a lot.

In comparison, the Japanese pirates' camp was much lazier. They stretched lazily and pointed at the Zhejiang Army camp. The Japanese pirates in the camp could be roughly divided into two categories. One category was the defeated Japanese under the command of Mao Haifeng and Otomo Sadakawa. They looked at the Zhejiang Army camp with fear and dread. The other category was the reinforcements brought by Wang Zhi. This category of Japanese pirates looked at the Zhejiang Army camp's training scene with laughter, as if they were watching a monkey show. They didn't take the Zhejiang Army seriously and looked at them no differently from their previous officers and soldiers.

It’s not that the defeated Japanese pirates didn’t tell the reinforcements about the advantages and disadvantages of the Zhejiang Army, but how could the reinforcements believe it?

You, a bunch of defeated generals of the Zhejiang Army, say that the Zhejiang Army is powerful, but it is just an excuse for your failure.

In addition, the Japanese pirates are the law of the jungle. The reinforcements looked down on and ridiculed the defeated pirates, and the defeated pirates were happy to see them repeat the same mistakes. Everyone fell at the same starting line, so no one should laugh at anyone else.

Due to the combined effects of various factors, the Japanese pirate reinforcements did not take the Zhejiang Army seriously. In their view, the Zhejiang Army was just a stronger garrison soldier, and the garrison soldiers were a bunch of weaklings in front of them. The Zhejiang Army was just a stronger weakling, and no matter how strong the weakling was, it was no different in front of them, they were all a piece of cake!

The only difference is that the stronger weak chicken is chewier and tastes better.

During the morning exercises of the Zhejiang Army, the soldiers from the cook camp carried a large pot of steaming ginger soup to the river.

Then, a group of shackled Japanese pirate captives were driven over, carrying wood and other things in their hands.

When they arrived at the river, each Japanese pirate captive was given a bowl of hot ginger soup and then driven into the freezing cold river.

"What are they doing?" The Japanese pirates looked over curiously.

"Building a pontoon bridge. They are building a pontoon bridge."

Soon the Japanese pirates discovered what the Zhejiang army was doing with the Japanese captives.

"Are they building a pontoon bridge to attack our camp?" The Japanese pirates said worriedly after discovering that the Zhejiang army was building a pontoon bridge.

"Attack, have you forgotten? Yesterday, General Xue challenged the Zhejiang Army to a duel. It was agreed that after breakfast, the Zhejiang Army would send a thousand men to fight General Xue. They built the pontoon bridge to facilitate the battle."

Said a Japanese pirate who knew the inside story.

So that's how it is. The other Japanese pirates can rest assured, because they are fighting against the Japanese pirates under General Xue, not us.

It would be great if we could still watch the fun then.

Some Japanese pirates brought the news that the Zhejiang Army was building a pontoon bridge to the camp, and Mao Haifeng, Otomo Sadakawa, Wang Zhi and others all learned the news.

"Haha, the Zhejiang Army is afraid that it will be difficult to retreat after being defeated, so they built the pontoon bridge in advance to leave a retreat route."

Upon hearing this, Xue Tao laughed and said, not taking it seriously.

Xue Tao was happy about the Zhejiang Army building a pontoon bridge. The Zhejiang Army was admitting defeat before the battle even started, which showed that they had no confidence in this battle.

They themselves didn't even have the confidence to win. Before the battle even started, the Zhejiang Army had already lost half the battle.

"The Zhejiang Army is leaving a way out." Mao Haifeng said disapprovingly, "It's just a few pontoon bridges, let them build them. If they want to build them, then let them build them. This way, if the negotiations fail, we can build them when a big battle is about to break down."

Yesterday, Zhu Ping'an just sat there and watched us build a temporary camp. Now they are just building a few pontoon bridges, so let them build it.

Of course, he is different from Xue Tao.

Xue Tao believed that the Zhejiang Army built a pontoon bridge because they were worried that it would be difficult to retreat if they were defeated, so they built the pontoon bridge as a retreat route.

Mao Haifeng believed that the Zhejiang Army built the pontoon bridge because they were worried that after they won this victory, their side would fail to abide by the rules of martial arts and could not afford to lose, so they would send reinforcements to beat them up. The pontoon bridge was built to prevent this from happening so that they could retreat to the other side.

"Yes." Wang Zhi nodded and waved his hand. "Then let them build a pontoon bridge. If they dare to cross the river to fight, it makes sense to build a pontoon bridge to leave a retreat route."

As a result, the Zhejiang army successfully built a pontoon bridge in the river.

It’s not that there were no Japanese pirate captives who wanted to take the opportunity to escape. Not long after entering the water, two Japanese pirates tried to run to the Japanese pirate camp on the other side of the river.

"Help, help." The two Japanese pirate captives shouted for help while running.

But after running only two steps, they heard a few "bangs" from muskets, and the fleeing Japanese pirates were shot dead in the river.

Two pools of blood spread out on the surface of the river, just like the morning glow reflected in the river water.

The Zhejiang Army soldiers ordered the Japanese pirates captives in the river to pull the two bodies to the riverside. Two Zhejiang Army soldiers stepped forward and skillfully cut off the heads of the Japanese pirates with knives.

As a result, no Japanese pirates would think of escaping. No matter how fast they ran, could they be faster than the firearms in the hands of the Zhejiang Army? !

Better to die than live.

So, one by one, they obediently endured the freezing cold river water, and built a floating bridge in the river with a grimace.

The river was not very wide, and the timber had been cut down in advance, so building a floating bridge was not difficult.

Soon, when the Zhejiang army was having dinner, the Japanese captives had built six simple pontoon bridges.

The Zhejiang Army soldiers and supervisors verified and confirmed that the pontoon bridge was passable, so they allowed the Japanese pirates to go ashore.

The Japanese pirate captives came ashore trembling, and under the order of the Zhejiang soldiers, they lined up to drink another bowl of ginger soup. Then they were driven by the Zhejiang soldiers back to the shacks they had built in the camp.

There was a fire in the shack, as well as some thin rice porridge mixed with wild vegetables, to keep them from freezing and starving.

The Japanese pirate captives were excellent laborers, and they were responsible for doing all the dirty and tiring work. The Zhejiang Army did not want them to die so quickly.

Soon, the Zhejiang Army finished their breakfast.

One thousand Zhejiang troops have assembled.

"Young master, you just stay in the camp and don't worry, we won't embarrass you." Liu Dadao and Liu Daqiang assured Zhu Ping'an.

"Be careful and try your best to bring all the brothers back safely." Zhu Ping'an instructed the two.

"Don't worry, sir. Although we don't have the tiger squat cannon, each of us has two loaded muskets. When the two armies line up and fight, they can't get close to us." Liu Dadao said confidently.

"If the Japanese pirates do not abide by the moral principles of war and send reinforcements in addition to the agreed one thousand people, you must withdraw immediately. I will send people to meet you on the shore." Zhu Ping'an instructed again.

"We remember it." Liu Dadao and Liu Daqiang nodded vigorously. (End of this chapter)