Chapter 134 Scored twice
Fan Zhu chose to retreat in the face of the mountain fire, which was understandable. However, the retreat quickly turned into a rout.
After all, there were no walkie-talkies, telephones or other tools in that era that could effectively command the army. A team of 20,000 people faced the fierce fire.
From the moment the retreat order was given, this team was no longer an army, they were a group of beasts eager to escape.
Crowds of people were jostling and jostling on the mountain paths, and the mountain fire behind them was getting stronger and stronger. No one wanted to be swallowed up by the mountain fire.
So some people chose to go directly into the woods and escape from a place with few people.
Once one person does it, others follow suit.
Soon these Vietnamese soldiers disappeared without a trace in the woods like dragons returning to the sea and monkeys returning to the mountains.
The wildfire did not last long, and a heavy downpour fell only two hours later.
Fan Zhu looked at the gradually extinguishing fire and asked his men to reorganize their troops. However, there were corpses everywhere in the mountains and forests. Some of them died in traps by mistake, some were killed by poisonous insects and beasts, some were beaten to death by their own people, and some were trampled. The only ones who died were those who were not burned to death.
The generals of the Vietnamese army tried to gather the troops, but only 6,000 people were gathered in one afternoon, which was less than one-third of the number when they set off.
Fan Zhu picked up a stone and threw it at the deputy general next to him, but when he heard a bang, the deputy general's head exploded.
This is of course not Fan Chu's natural supernatural power, but the sentry of the Skitarii trying to gather the generals of the Vietnamese army.
How could the Skitarii sentry miss this opportunity?
As soon as the fire was extinguished, Skitarii scouts came out looking for valuable targets.
They used rifle guns to shoot at a distance of three hundred paces. Anyway, matchlock guns at this distance could not hit the opponent at all. Besides, it had just rained heavily, so whether those matchlock guns could be used was still a question.
As long as you fire one shot and run away, it's impossible for the opponent to catch up.
The sentries of the Skitarii had this mentality in mind and decided to try their luck.
Fan Zhu, who was wearing a second-grade crimson general's robe, naturally became the main target of the sentinels.
Among these sentinels, in addition to the Zhenla people selected from the Skitarii, there were also many Austrian chasseurs.
It is instinct for hunters to hunt high-value targets. In addition, because the church has learned about Vietnam's military system and officer ranks all day long, Fan Zhu, a second-rank general, has become the hunting target of many sentries.
The first reaction of the Vietnamese officer who was attacked was not to command a counterattack, but to pull someone with a lower official rank than himself to stand in front of him.
Ordinary soldiers try to find a valid reason to flee the battlefield, for example.
"There's a monster!"
"The mountain god is angry!"
"Buddha appears!"
"The general has been punished by God!"
"Go home and collect clothes this afternoon!"
The remnant soldiers that Fan Zhu finally gathered dispersed in a hurry, while the surrounding generals each held a soldier or a low-level officer in their hands and were slowly evacuating.
Soon gunshots were heard again from the burned forest land, and blood spurted out from the bodies of several Vietnamese soldiers.
After all, Fan Zhu was a second-grade Vietnamese general, and he immediately stopped the soldiers by drinking.
"Come back, it's not a monster, it's those Zhenla people who are beating us with guns. Hurry! Raise your guns and fight back."
At this time, Fan Zhu's soldiers drove back those soldiers who had not had time to escape with knives, gave them matchlocks, and asked them to shoot at Kampong Som's sentry.
Why didn't this group of Fan Zhu's soldiers use their matchlocks to shoot at the sentries of the Skitarii?
The answer is that Vietnam's matchlock guns during this period were mainly purchased from the Qing Dynasty.
As you know, the military industry of the Qing Dynasty was very rough in workmanship, unstable in performance, and would often misfire.
Even the Qing Dynasty deliberately tampered with the firearms sold to Vietnam in order to weaken Vietnam's strength. Therefore, Fan Zhu's soldiers had to use knives to force the temporarily captured strong men to use matchlock guns to shoot with the sentries of the Skitarii.
Of course, the sentries quickly retreated back to reload and prepare for the next round of shooting, but two-thirds of the Vietnamese army's matchlock guns could not be fired.
The distance is three hundred steps, and even if it is launched, the hit rate can be imagined.
After a round of shooting, not a single sentry was hit. The loading of the old matchlock gun was not only troublesome, but also slow.
Before the Vietnamese gunners had finished loading, the second round of shots from the Skitarii sentries came over.
After three rounds of fighting, the gunners had already fallen a large area.
One of the soldiers suggested that the sword players should charge once, but he couldn't find the general no matter what.
Seeing the big fish slipping away and the increasing number of Vietnamese troops, the Skitarii scouts picked up their guns and retreated to the camp.
Seeing that the guys in Western-style military uniforms who fired cold shots had left, the Vietnamese officers and soldiers cheered as if they had won a great victory.
At this time, General Fan Zhu, who had been missing before, suddenly appeared and began to slap each officer in the mouth one by one.
"A bunch of losers, even a few petty thieves can't deal with them! When we get back to the country, I will kill all the nine tribes of you!"
"General, please calm down. Those demons are too cunning. They are also on this mountain and are detrimental to our Vietnamese army. It is not a crime of war." said a deputy general.
"Who suggested taking the Xiangshan road? I'll chop off his head," Fan Zhu roared.
Someone whispered, "It's Vice General Hu..."
"Bring him here, right here, I'm going to chop his head off!"
The man pointed to a corpse on the ground, "Vice General Hu is right there, his head has been smashed."
Fan Zhu looked at Vice General Hu's body and spat.
"You're getting an advantage!"
Fan Zhu stood up and walked down the mountain, and then said to the deputy general next to him.
"Pass my general's orders to set up camp at the foot of the mountain. Tomorrow we will gather our troops and prepare to attack the city."
At this time, there were still 3,000 people around Fan Zhu, and the fleeing Vietnamese officers and soldiers were rushing back one after another when the fire was extinguished. After all, if the general died, their whole family would have to finish playing.
At night, Vietnamese troops continued to find the camp with torches. Of course, no one would admit that they had escaped. They only said that they did not hear the gunshots from behind, so they seemed to only follow the general's orders, so they stayed away from the battlefield.
In the middle of the night, most of the Vietnamese army had fallen asleep, and only a few sentries were breathing heavily against the big trees.
Suddenly, a fire broke out in the woods again
Fires were everywhere in the dark night, and the Vietnamese soldiers were awakened from their sleep by their companions. Some of them didn't even bother to put on their clothes, so they followed the large troops and ran to places where there was no fire.
"Damn Austrians, they are so cunning, I swear I will destroy them!"
In the early morning, Fan Zhu roared angrily as he looked at the camp that had been reduced to ruins.
After some counting, he found that the number of soldiers around him was not less, but increased to 5,000. However, compared with the 30,000 when he first set out for the expedition, it was nothing to mention.
At this time, Fan Zhu had no way out. If he couldn't win and go back, what awaited him would be the confiscation of his family and the extermination of his clan.
Fan Zhu now not only wants to win, but also wants to win big! As for the lost soldiers, as long as they defeated Kampong Soun and brought back more strong men, he didn't care about such small things.
However, two fires caused heavy losses in his baggage, leaving only 800 muskets.
It would be difficult to attack Kampong Som with the five thousand men at this time, but soldiers could be had as much as they wanted in Chenla. He decided to go to Kampot first to replenish his troops.