"Yaga! A bunch of cowards! Hyotaro yelled angrily, and then ordered a group of militiamen (servant officers and soldiers who had been eliminated from the Shandong battlefield) to shoot their bows and arrows in front of them - a group of soldiers who had suffered defeat were running back in a row dozens of meters away, many of them had a blue-gray face, and their expressions were mostly panicked and fearful, and most of them had lost their weapons and armor (leather armor), and it seemed that they had been defeated quite badly.

And with Hyotaro's order, the Ming soldiers who had mixed on the battlefields of Shandong and Hebei immediately shot the bows and arrows in their hands. Hearing a series of heart-rending screams resounding one after another, a burst of desperate cries immediately erupted in the ranks of the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners of these islands that had retreated, and many people stared blankly at the "Shangguo Army" that was lining up in front of the village to shoot arrows at them, not knowing what was really happening.

However, they were stunned by their own people, but the Sakarava people of the Manab Kingdom who were chasing them behind them were not stunned, only to see them excitedly slashing the iron knives in their hands on the unprotected backs of the fleeing enemy, and their bloodthirsty expressions made Ma Wanpeng, who was standing on the wooden wall nervously watching the battle for the first time, worry. Especially after a stray bullet (a smoothbore bullet fired by the Sakarava people) hit the wooden pillar on his side, he really regretted being on the front line, grandma's war is really not a fun thing, and if you are not careful, you will hang. Lao Tzu still has Wanguan family wealth in Xinhuaxia and the local area, and the wife and beautiful maid in the family are like clouds, and now if it hangs in the hands of these penniless natives, Wanguan's family wealth and beautiful wife and maid will suddenly be cheaper than others. Isn't it a pity!

Ma Wanpeng looked left and again, and found that Hyotaro on the left was jumping up and down to direct the battle. Under his command, the militia and garrison soldiers methodically fired their guns, bows and arrows in their hands, and beat any natives who tried to approach the walled city.

"What a idiot! With a tendon in his brain and a terrifyingly low EQ, don't you know that his superiors are in danger? Ma Wanpeng helplessly scolded Hyotaro who was trying to command the war, and there were words in his mouth, as if he was looking for an excuse for himself to quit the front line.

Fortunately, those who stayed by his side were not all as foolish as Hyotaro, but he saw Zhai Xiaoshan, a former officer of the Standing Force who had retired for several years and had just been promoted to the captain of the Cotton River Militia Brigade by Ma Wanpeng, rolled his eyes. immediately rushed to Ma Wanpeng and knelt half-there, and said "earnestly": "My lord." If you are in a hurry, please quickly avoid entering the village, and leave it to me outside. ”

"No, the soldiers are fighting. As the commander-in-chief, how can I leave the line lightly, it's not appropriate! Ma Wanpeng had automatically entered the pretending mode, shook his head and said: "The general is going to stand here, watching the soldiers break the thief army." ”

"These natives are not afraid of death, the offensive is very fierce, how can they throw it lightly, please sit in the Chinese army and coordinate the overall situation. Fighting and the like. I'll leave it to me. Zhai Xiaoshan stood up for such a master who could pretend, and suddenly felt powerless. I saw that he gave a few old brothers on the left and right glances, and a few of them understood. immediately rushed up, hugged Ma Wanpeng off the wall with all hands and feet, and said as he walked: "My lord, please sit in the Chinese army, the brothers have a family, and they are still counting on going into battle to kill the enemy to win fame and fortune, and I hope that Lord Ma will not compete with the villains." ”

And just when some of Zhai Xiaoshan's old subordinates surrounded Ma Wanpeng and retreated from the wall. Hyotaro looked at it with feeling, feeling as if he had done something wrong. But he quickly turned his head away. Carrying a katana, he walked around the wall without avoiding the arrows, constantly boosting the morale of the Polish musketeers and Ming spearmen. It was under their efforts to fight back that the Sakarava natives outside the city felt that the enemy was tricky, and after paying the tragic price of more than 100 deaths, they finally took the bodies of the war dead under the cover of twilight and quietly left.

The people on the east coast waited until dawn the next day to open the wooden gate. Escorted by a team of soldiers, Ma Wanpeng carefully watched the battlefield where the two armies had fought outside the city. Although the battlefield had been cleared by the Sakarava people, there was still a lot of mess left on it, and there was a lot of dark brown blood on the dry loess. Nearby, there are also dozens of corpses of the soldiers of the Eight Banners of the island, which are the masterpiece of yesterday's joint strangulation of the Sakarava and the East Coasters.

"In yesterday's battle, the casualties of the Sakarava people should have exceeded two hundred, and although they had cleaned up the battlefield, the officers who had participated in the battle unanimously estimated that the enemy's casualties were between two hundred and three hundred. Compared to the more than 2,000 troops they deployed yesterday (including 300 smoothbore gunners), this 10% of the casualties are quite large. Hyotaro, who served as the commander-in-chief of the battle, took a small notebook and reported to Ma Wanpeng at a glance: "But the casualties of our army turned out to be several times that of the enemy, and 1,500 soldiers of the Eight Banners of the island, who were filled by the Bezimisaraka people, were raided during the march and almost crushed in a battle, and in the end, there were only more than 800 people. This unit is not fully ordnanced, its morale has deteriorated, and it has basically lost its proper combat effectiveness......"

Ma Wanpeng suddenly had a big head when he heard this, and he didn't understand how a good thing suddenly evolved like this. A few months ago, in March, although the situation was tense and there were rumors everywhere that the so-called Manab Kingdom that had risen from the Unillahi River valley was going to attack the Dutch and the colonial strongholds on the east bank in the area of the Cotton River, after a few months of tense defense, Ma Wanpeng and others did not wait for the expected armed conflict, but instead waited for the envoy of this kingdom, saying that they wanted to reconcile with the people on the east coast, and the two sides started commercial and trade contacts.

This kind of thing was commonplace, so both the Dutch and the people on the east coast were suspicious of it, and the cotton in the fields also needed to be taken care of, and most of the people who had been gathered in a hastily built wooden city for a long time were prone to disease, so they agreed to the request of the natives, and promised to sign a non-aggression pact with them, and at the same time to start a certain amount of trade, and exchange what they had and what they could have.

However, just as the people on the east coast relaxed their vigilance, on June 15, 1,500 officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners of the island, which had been on their way to the plantations and reservoirs outside the city to deal with tribal disputes, were suddenly ambushed by the superior forces of the Manaper Kingdom on the march. This island Eight Banners army, which is usually pampered and can only bully and bully the unorganized natives, almost hastily resisted for a moment before being defeated by the fierce musket fire of the Sakarava people, and then was pursued by the enemy's cold-armed soldiers, losing nearly half of them along the way, and returning with a crushing defeat!

What a shame! Ma Wanpeng thought hatefully in his heart. It's not that he can't accept failure, but he really can't accept this form of failure. Isn't it? Only civilized people have ever played with the natives, how can any civilized people be played by the natives? What is embarrassing is that Ma Wanpeng, a self-proclaimed civilized man, was played by the natives, and he played a solid game -- first signed a verbal agreement on mutual non-aggression and trade (the natives had no written language), and then was raided, and the largest servant army under his command lost its combat effectiveness in a short period of time, and there was nothing worse than this.

"My lord, these natives are untrustworthy and shameless! Our army is in more than 100,000 acres of tuntian outside the city, and it is difficult to take care of it at all, and this attack is also a matter of time, after all, there is only a thousand days to be a thief, and there is no reason to prevent thieves for a thousand days. Now it is advisable to raise up a great army against the natives, and let them know who they are not to be messed with. Zhai Xiaoshan, a bandit who was accustomed to seeing colors, appeared on Ma Wanpeng's side again, exonerating Ma Wanpeng and hinting that he could take the opportunity of conquering the natives to regain the lost points in politics.

"Hmph, the natives must be conscripted." Ma Wanpeng quickly came back to his senses under Zhai Xiaoshan's reminder, only to see him look at the former bandit with approving eyes, and then at the demented and martial arts Hyotaro, sighed, and said, "Let's count the losses first." Focusing on the plantations outside the city, as well as our livestock, all losses are recorded, and sooner or later we will get them back from the natives with the profits. ”

After saying this, Ma Wanpeng turned around and walked towards the walled city, where he wanted to write a letter to Shi Qinjie in Xinhuagang detailing what was happening here. Ma Wanpeng is a sincere person, and he is a traverser, so he doesn't plan to hide what happened here, and naturally he won't use any spring and autumn techniques in the report, and he will report it truthfully to see how Shi Qinjie decides.

"You still can't act rashly now, especially when you are in a big defeat. What Manabar kingdom had heard of four or five thousand soldiers, about a tenth of whom were armed with arquebuses, and some officers who were familiar with firearms - God knows where they learned it, could it be that the French were doing the trick? Ma Wanpeng walked back, while secretly pondering: "There are only 300 Polish soldiers who can fight at hand, and the more than 1,000 old and weak soldiers and soldiers who have been eliminated from Shandong can also fight a good battle, as for the more than 800 officers and soldiers of the islands and eight banners who have been brought back, I am afraid that they will not be able to go into battle again in the short term, and they can only be masters." Alas, the strength is still insufficient, and the enemy situation is unknown, so it's better not to act rashly at this time. ”

After Ma Wanpeng returned to the village, he immediately spread out his pen and paper and began to write the report. And before that, he had sent a few messengers to the Dutchman's merchant house, intending to see what was going on with the Dutchmen. If the other party has any difficulties, within the scope of his own ability, Ma Wanpeng still intends to give some assistance, is it easy to do things with multiple friends! (To be continued)