Chapter 803: Evil

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Wang Qiao showed no fear, raised his bayonet, and began to fight the Mercenary commander.

As the bayonets clashed, he felt that this Westerner was stronger than the Shizu Army soldiers.

However, the Prince's Personal Army had always prioritized food and training; they were strong and equally unafraid.

The two men fought back and forth for five or six rounds in the narrow trench.

Wang Qiao deliberately exposed a flaw, and the Mercenary commander performed an upward parry, knocking the rifled musket from Wang Qiao's hands.

Just then, Wang Qiao lunged forward, tackled the Mercenary commander to the ground, drew the dagger from his waist, and stabbed the Mercenary commander in the chest several times.

The Mercenary commander cursed loudly, but Wang Qiao could not understand the other man's gibberish; he stabbed him once more with force, and the man ceased to breathe.

At the same time, the soldiers following him had also cleared out most of the enemy soldiers within the trench.

He glanced at the enemy corpses on the ground and shouted, "Pile the bodies in the passageway."

Under his orders, some soldiers first threw a few hand grenades into the passageway.

Then, the soldiers picked up the enemy soldiers and threw them into the passageway, blocking it off in a moment.

"Brothers, their offensive has weakened; if we hold on, we win," Wang Qiao shouted.

During the first few times, the soldiers who charged up from the rear trenches had red eyes, looking as if they didn't care about their lives.

But after repeated struggles, the morale of the soldiers charging up had clearly declined.

The soldiers charging over this time were clearly not as determined.

It was obvious that despite not having taken the first trench after a morning of fighting, they had inflicted far more casualties on the enemy than they had suffered themselves.

According to his estimates, their casualty ratio had reached at least ten to one, or even twenty to one.

That is to say, for every one Wangfu Army soldier lost, ten enemy soldiers were lost.

After Wang Qiao occupied the trench, more Prince's Personal Army soldiers rushed over from the beachhead,

to consolidate the first trench defensive line.

At the same time.

In the eighth trench on the riverbank, Wang Xie and Luse were exceptionally furious.

Right under their noses, the first trench, which had originally been as solid as a rock, had been occupied by the enemy just like that.

Now, the first trench was not only useless to them, but it actually provided defense for the Yanzhou soldiers.

Through the first trench, they were continuously advancing toward the second trench.

"Damn it, go and take the first trench back for me," Luse cursed.

Yesterday, five thousand of his Mercenaries had been killed or wounded.

In this morning's fighting, another three or four thousand had been lost.

They had paid such a high price, yet they had only held on for one morning before the first trench was taken by the enemy.

To him, this was simply a disgrace.

Yet in his heart, he also vaguely understood that the enemy was far superior to the Shizu Army in both firearms and soldier quality.

Even their Mercenaries were slightly inferior.

Because among the more than twenty thousand Mercenaries, less than twenty percent were Westerners, and the rest were indigenous soldiers from Dongtu.

During training, the treatment of these indigenous soldiers and the Westerners was still different.

Therefore, they were not as strong as the Yan Wang's soldiers; in hand-to-hand combat, Western soldiers could still trade blows with the Yan Wang's soldiers.

They rarely managed to win against the Yan Wang's soldiers.

Of course, in his view, the most important thing was the gap in firearms and Artillery.

Although the Flintlock had a range of two hundred meters, the enemy's firearms had a longer range, and they were often suppressed before they could even get within range.

Coupled with the Explosive Shells thrown by the enemy, they were suppressed and unable to perform at their full potential.

"You three, lead the reserves and go!" Wang Xie was equally anxious.

Hearing this, he issued orders to the three commanders beside him.

After Luse arrived in Wu, besides teaching them some tactics, he had also carried out some Western-style reforms on their army.

Leaving reserves behind during battle was one of them.

These reserves did not participate in the fighting but rested in the rear, conserving their energy, and were sent up immediately when the front became tight.

"Yes, General Wang," they replied upon receiving Wang Xie's order.

The three commanders, each leading two thousand men, split into left, center, and right flanks to charge toward the first trench.

Unlike the soldiers in the trenches, they did not carry Flintlocks, but each held a Long Blade in their hand.

The struggle for trenches was mostly hand-to-hand combat; carrying a Flintlock was not as good as carrying a blade.

There was more than one passageway in the middle of the trenches, and they each crept toward the first trench from the passageways.

Seeing that the ends of the passageways were blocked, they climbed up from the second trench and jumped into the first trench to fight.

But just as they were climbing over the trench, the Prince's Personal Army soldiers at the beachhead pulled their Triggers.

One by one, Shizu Army soldiers were hit and fell onto the trench.

Some Shizu Army soldiers also jumped into the first trench, but the Prince's Personal Army soldiers had long been prepared and immediately riddled them with holes.

On the Hot Air Balloon, Lv Chang and the others saw that the first trench was gradually being brought under control and immediately threw the message down.

"Let the second batch of soldiers cross the river," Zhao Xu said after seeing the content written by Lv Chang, and gave the order.

Chang Wei had been waiting for these words and immediately ordered the Troop Transport Ships to carry the soldiers toward the Nan'an.

Suddenly, the ships from Jiangbei headed toward the Nan'an again, covering the entire river surface.

At this moment, the Nan'an was mired in fighting with the Prince's Personal Army soldiers and was completely unable to stop these Troop Transport Ships from docking.

In less than two quarters of an hour, the second batch of Prince's Personal Army soldiers landed on the beachhead.

Compared to the first batch of soldiers, they were more orderly.

Because the first batch of soldiers blocked the enemy's counterattack, they bought time for them to reorganize.

The arrival of the second batch of soldiers immediately reversed the number of soldiers on the battlefield.

The soldiers entered their respective positions under the leadership of their respective commanders, coordinating with the first batch of soldiers to attack.

However, just as they went ashore, the situation at Niu Tou Tan changed.

They saw the Shizu Army and Mercenaries in the rear trenches continuously withdrawing.

Just as the Wangfu Army had observed.

Wang Xie and Luse were indeed retreating.

Leaving behind over ten thousand soldiers to cover the rear, the remaining eighty thousand soldiers headed toward Jinling one after another.

"This is a small, localized setback, but it does not mean we have lost," Luse said to the gloomy-faced Wang Xie.

He was comforting him to prevent these Shizu commanders from losing confidence right then and there.

Pausing, he said: "Our military strength in Jinling City is far greater than here; the value of this battle lies only in exhausting the opponent's forces. At the second trench, they will no longer have the support of Warships, and we still have a large amount of Field Artillery."

During the Battle of Niu Tou Tan, he realized they would suffer bombardment from the opponent's Sailing Warships, so he kept the Shizu's Field Artillery and their own Field Artillery in the second trench fortifications to avoid being destroyed by the opponent.

Furthermore, there was a river about thirty meters wide in front of the second trench, called the Yuntai River.

This would effectively block the advance of Yan Wang's army.

Wang Xie nodded; this was only the first battle in the Jiangnan campaign.

In the future, they might still have to fight ten or twenty more.

By fighting battle after battle, they would sooner or later drag Yan Wang down.

"As long as you pin down Yan Wang, once our fleet and army from the Western Lands arrive, Yan Wang will surely die," Luse added, a trace of cunning flashing in his eyes.

The reason the Shizu were able to muster the courage to fight Yan Wang was partly due to this promise.

Of course, this promise was a deception.

If the Shizu truly held their ground, this promise might perhaps come true.

But if they could not hold on, they would only deploy their forces in more important colonies.