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

So he thought hard and finally came up with a good idea, which was fire attack.

So he ordered his troops not to act rashly for the time being, so as not to alert the enemy, and he himself immediately arranged for a fire attack.

When the enemy reached the landing point and the landing was mostly completed, he gave an order for the upstream fire attack troops to begin action.

As the soldiers poured barrels of crude oil onto dozens of wooden boats that had been prepared in advance, people on the shore also began to pour it onto the river. After the crude oil formed a continuous mass on the river surface, the soldiers on the boats immediately went ashore on small boats.

After these "arsonists" came ashore, the people on the shore poured out dozens of barrels of gasoline. The commander in charge of this operation took out a signal gun and fired a flare at the river.

As the flare came into contact with the gasoline, a raging fire immediately broke out on the surface of the river, and this fire quickly ignited the black crude oil, emitting a large amount of thick smoke and flames.

The fire just flowed downstream and headed straight for the landing point where the Japanese pirates were.

The Japanese pirates were already panicking because of the sudden attack, and now they were faced with the overwhelming smoke and flames.

That would be even more chaotic, but the Japanese navy was elite after all. After the initial panic, they immediately began to command the retreat in an orderly manner under the orders of commanders at all levels.

However, no matter how elite they were, they were hindered by the sunken and damaged ships, and not all of their ships were able to evacuate in time.

Only three or four warships, under the enemy's fierce artillery fire and crazy machine gun shooting, found a way to survive and fled downstream. The rest of the warships were either engulfed in flames and smoke, or were destroyed and stranded.

As for the 20,000 land forces, except for those killed or injured by artillery fire, the rest either stayed on the shore or at the bottom of the river. In any case, there were really not many people who could get on those warships and successfully escape.

Wang Zhi did not feel sorry when he saw that he failed to wipe out all the Japanese pirates' navy. There were still a large number of troops ambushing downstream. Even if he could not wipe them out completely, it would be enough to give them a hard time.

And now what he is thinking about is how to entertain these guests who have come from afar.

He took out a signal gun and fired a flare into the sky. The troops ambushing on the shore immediately increased their firepower and launched fierce fire at the Japanese pirates on the shore.

These Japanese pirates were few in number to begin with, and they were stabbed in the back by their own navy, thrown into such a desperate situation, and burned in the water. Their fighting spirit was already greatly weakened.

Now that they were under such fierce firepower, they quickly chose to break out.

However, the bullets pouring down from the woods declared that it was a cruel place where people were eaten without leaving any bones, so they naturally chose to go downstream and chase after the departing warships.

But Wang Zhi had anticipated this and had soldiers lying in ambush along the way.

When these Japanese pirates went down the river along the river bank, they found that there were enemy ambushes along the way. These Japanese pirates fought back while they ran.

However, they have no cover, which means they are in the open, while the Anmin Army has a hiding place, which means they are in the dark. How can we fight when the enemy is in the dark and we are in the open?

Therefore, no matter how elite the Japanese pirates were, their morale was visibly declining, until they could no longer bear the pressure, and they chose to charge forward and die.

When Wang Zhi, who was leading the pursuit team, saw this scene, he smiled so hard that his teeth were showing. He was just thinking, if the enemy laid down their arms and surrendered, should he order his men to stop shooting?

But now it seems that the enemy will not surrender. After thinking this through, he immediately ordered his men to increase firepower, making sure not to let down the good intentions of these considerate Japanese slaves.

The final result was naturally no surprise. Although these Japanese were elite and well-equipped, they had no reinforcements and no way to retreat. They were surrounded and naturally had no choice but to be annihilated.

However, it must be said that the fighting power of these Japanese people is undoubtedly the best in the whole of Asia.

Even when surrounded by two or three times their number of enemies and suppressed by artillery fire, they still managed to fight to the end, and in the end killed more than a thousand Anmin soldiers, and the number of injured reached more than five thousand.

In this way, Wang Zhi basically completed his plan and wiped out the invading enemy.

Why do we say basically? This is because four warships escaped. Even though there were ambushes along the way, the enemy ships moved too fast and not all of them were able to survive.

After losing two more warships, two warships finally escaped. When the ambush troops on Jiang'an told Wang Zhi the news, he could only shake his head secretly.

But he didn't have any other thoughts, it was just a bit of a pity.

But at this time, he remembered one thing, that is, the crude oil was still burning, and it had caused many fires of varying sizes along the way.

So he immediately gave the order and sent 20,000 people to track the fire along the river bank. If a fire was found, it would be extinguished immediately until the crude oil flames flowed down the water to the sea.

After these people received the order, he began to order people to clean up the mess.

That is to say, cleaning up the battlefield, salvaging ships, weapons, corpses and so on. Of course, the most important thing is to salvage the weapons and equipment on the warships. Even the warships themselves are very valuable.

If it can be disassembled and salvaged, it will be of great help to the Anmin Army's own shipbuilding technology in the future.

After Wang Zhi arranged this matter, he immediately began to write a report to Jiang Li, in which he told him everything that had happened.

Including the number of invading enemy ships, the approximate number of people, and how many ships escaped in the end, as well as the fire attack he used this time and which troops performed best in this battle, all of which were clearly written down.

As for the specific number of enemies killed and the specific casualties on our side, they were deliberately left blank and will be filled in after the inventory is completed.

In addition, he also wrote about the damage caused by the fire attack.

Speaking of which, the damage caused by this fire attack was quite considerable. There are many fishing villages along the Pearl River. Although people were evacuated in time, many buildings were still burned down. A sum of money is needed for compensation and resettlement of the people.

In addition, the crude oil produced a large amount of toxic smoke and gas due to incomplete combustion, which killed many fish, shrimps, birds and animals along the coast.

In short, everything before and after the battle was written down in great detail, which also shows how contradictory this guy's personality is.

Let’s not talk about Wang Zhi for now, let’s talk about the Japanese pirates and Jiang Li and how they reacted to the news.

Needless to say, the Japanese pirates' navy this time wanted to transport the 20,000 land forces, their weapons and equipment, and logistical supplies to Guangdong.

However, a total of 32 ships of various types and 15,000 elite naval forces were dispatched.