My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

The defeated soldiers of Yang Shuzhuang were fleeing in all directions at this moment, but were suddenly surrounded by a large number of enemies. They had no desire to resist and they threw down their weapons and surrendered.

Jiang Li did not waste any time and quickly tied up the captives. He then left dozens of people to guard them and led the rest of the troops to Hui'an County.

At this time, Yang Shuzhuang had already conquered Ninghua County, and the soldiers also plundered the place thoroughly, and everyone got a lot of money.

But he couldn't be happy at this time because the people he sent had not brought any news.

After a difficult decision, he left a few hundred people to guard the prisoners and rushed back to his hometown with less than three thousand people.

The result was that half a day later, he and Jiang Li's troops collided head-on, and a skirmish broke out.

Because Jiang Li had cavalry to explore the way, they knew the situation earlier than the enemy and had some time to find cover, which gave them the upper hand from the very beginning of the battle.

After a fierce battle, follow-up artillery units also arrived. After several rounds of artillery fire, Yang Shuzhuang's troops were defeated, and he had no choice but to turn around and flee to Ninghua County.

Jiang Li would certainly not let go of this opportunity and immediately ordered a pursuit. It was now the turn of the cavalry battalion and the motorcycle battalion to take action.

They don't need to chase at full speed. As long as they stay behind and shoot continuously at a distance, they can greatly weaken the enemy both psychologically and physically.

He kept running in front and being chased behind. When Yang Shuzhuang and his men arrived at the city of Ninghua, there were less than a thousand people around him.

The others were either beaten to death or had already knelt down and surrendered, and the remaining soldiers around him had no will to fight at all.

Just as they were crowding into the city gate, the cavalry battalion and the motorcycle battalion had already followed behind them.

Thirty Maxim guns opened fire at the same time, and blood instantly flowed into a river at the city gate. In just one minute, hundreds of people fell.

The hundreds of soldiers who stayed behind, seeing this tragic scene, no longer dared to raise the slightest thought of resistance. They gave up their defenses and ran towards other city gates, hoping to escape from this hell on earth as quickly as possible.

They did escape, but how could the commanders of the cavalry battalion and the motorcycle battalion not know about their plans?

A small number of troops, horses and vehicles were left behind to block the city gate, while the others bypassed the county town and followed behind, constantly shooting and killing the enemy.

Finally, maybe it was because Yang Shuzhuang’s luck had run out, but he, who was running in the front, was hit in the back by a bullet shot from behind and fell to the ground.

At this time, an angry young man in the crowd put down his gun and kept shouting, "Marshal Yang is dead, lie on the ground and surrender!"

As his voice rang out, the number of people surrendering spread rapidly among the fleeing soldiers like a plague, and soon everyone dropped their weapons and lay on the ground begging for mercy.

When Jiang Li arrived at Ninghua County with his infantry, he happened to encounter the cavalry battalion escorting prisoners back.

When he learned that Yang Shuzhuang was dead, he immediately smiled and ordered his soldiers to attack the city. Naturally, the result was no surprise.

There were no defenders in Ninghua City anymore, and Jiang Li's soldiers captured the city wall without firing a single shot.

Seeing that Ninghua County was taken so easily, he left a few hundred people to clean up the mess and appease the people, while he himself led a large army and headed straight for Hui'an County.

In this way, he divided his troops into countless groups, but in just one day, he occupied Ninghua Hui'an County, as well as the two counties' affiliated villages and towns.

Seeing that Hui'an County was already in his hands, he took Yang Shuzhuang's head and led his army to Nanxi County.

With the heads of poplar stumps leading the way, people naturally surrendered wherever they passed, without encountering any resistance at all.

After all three counties were taken, he used a series of smooth moves to interrogate the local tyrants and evil gentry in the three counties, and confiscated a large amount of grain and land.

They also obtained a batch of much-needed funds, including 3.16 million yuan, 2,540 kilograms of gold, and various jewelry, jade and antiques worth 600,000 to 700,000 yuan. They just needed to wait some time for the purchasing staff to cash them in.

The battle report of this battle was also handed in. Due to the careful planning, there were only many casualties in the head-on battle with Yang Shuzhuang.

The rest of the time it was basically a one-sided hunt, so in this operation, the number of deaths or serious injuries added up to only 32 people, and due to various reasons there were some minor injuries, totaling 120 people injured.

However, the number of enemies killed was as high as 1,800, and the main casualties occurred at the gate of Ninghua County, where six or seven hundred people were killed in just one or two minutes.

As for the prisoners, there were even more. Including the wounded, the number of prisoners reached 2,700. This was the result after the soldiers who robbed Ninghua County were interrogated and more than 100 bastards who raped and killed women were shot.

Of course, they returned all the money and food they robbed from the people in the city, which made the people in Ninghua County welcome Jiang Li much more than the people in Nanxi County.

Even when trying local tyrants and evil gentry, they actively led the way without any hesitation or fear.

As for the weapons seized in the two counties, they are enough for 5,000 people to use, of course this is without taking into account the performance of the weapons.

In addition, because they had already had a fierce battle before and then fought another battle with Jiang Li, their ammunition loss was serious, and there were only 140,000 bullets left.

Moreover, the two warlords' armies had less than twenty light machine guns in total, and no heavy machine guns or cannons, which was extremely shabby.

This made Jiang Li curious. Where did they get so many rifles? Why didn't they get more machine guns? Wouldn't the firepower be much stronger?

But Yang Shuzhuang was already dead, and he would never get the answer to this question. As for summoning his spirit back to ask, he had never thought about it.

Firstly, the soul of a person who just died is in a daze and it is impossible to get anything out of him; secondly, he has no shortage of ways to get guns, what he lacks now is money.

Without thinking about all these trivial matters, after gaining a firm foothold in the three counties, he once again ordered the army to disperse with the captives and wipe out the bandits in the two counties.

With Jiang Youchi's intelligence support, this time the bandit suppression was as smooth as usual.

Moreover, because some deserters from the three counties fled to the mountains and became bandits during the battle, these bandits got the news that an elite army was coming to attack.

As a result, most of them surrendered voluntarily, and the few brutal ones were quickly defeated without causing any trouble at all.

When the bandits from the two counties were brought back, a count showed that there were as many as 2,100 of them. This really put Jiang Li in a dilemma.

Finally, after much thought, he made up his mind to interrogate them one by one.

Those who should be killed were killed, and those who should be sentenced were sentenced, but instead of being imprisoned, they were asked to build roads, yes, build roads.

When he was marching before, he found that the roads connecting various places were in very bad condition. If he hadn't brought so many people with him, it might have been difficult to even clear enough roads.