Sure enough, the bandits' offensive became more fierce soon after. Han Baihang held on for a while, and then he withdrew from the city gate under cover. After withdrawing from the city gate, he quickly concealed himself into the night with his pistol, but he didn't go far.
He still paid close attention to the bandits' movements.
Just as Han Baihang feared, the bandits were not willing to withdraw from the city. After the pistol company withdrew from the city gate, the bandits occupied the city gate again. After gaining a foothold, they still wanted to enter the city and began to launch a counterattack against the defenders.
With the sound of fighting in the city, Han Baihang decisively ordered his troops to attack the city gate. The pistol company had gone through the baptism of war and became more skillful in commanding. There was a killing cry and they bravely attacked the bandits at the city gate.
Although the bandits relied on the city gate to fight and avoided the danger of their retreat route being cut off, the situation of the two-front battle remained unchanged. It took some time to switch from retreat to counterattack inside the city, but outside the city, under the excellent command of Han Baihang, the attack launched was powerful.
The bandits were restrained so that they could not devote all their strength to attack the city.
Han Baihang had long expected that the war would be stalemate, and he had made arrangements for this situation, so Ding and Zuopeng took the initiative to find Mei Changyuan, who was hiding in the county government office, and asked him to issue a recruitment order.
Although Yuan was not on good terms with Ding Zuopeng, he also knew the seriousness of the matter. He signed the order to recruit Ding without saying a word and asked Secretary-General He Ruiliang to recruit Ding on his behalf.
He Ruiliang and the police first called the land security guards together one by one, and then carried gongs throughout the city and shouted, asking every household to send one person to fight against the bandits.
Most of the people were kind and brave people. They had been scared by the bandits for a long time and had closed their doors and trembled. However, the screams of the fire in Dongguan reminded them that Yongcheng was in danger. Just to protect their families, property and lives, the men plucked up their courage.
, no need for local guards to practice Latin, and soon thousands of strong men gathered.
Thousands of men may seem like a lot, but they are just a bunch of sheep without claws. If they really have to fight against the wolf-like bandits, it will be much more useful to build up the momentum behind them.
With the strong men, there is no need for weapons. Most of the rifles in the city are in the hands of the wealthy gentry families. Naturally, they cannot be used by the strong men. However, due to the strong demands of Ding Zuopeng and Mei Changyuan, they gathered them one by one in the east and the west.
There were more than a hundred guns, and the other men could only use the broadswords and spears that had been replaced by the former city defense camp, so thousands of men rushed towards Dongguan with rusty swords and spears, shouting.
…
After many counterattacks, the bandits turned from defense to offense and reversed the situation of the battle. Xue Lin's militia were defeated one after another. Feng Guanglin just had a smile on his face and was about to give the order to rush into Beiguan in one go when he heard a sudden and earth-shattering noise from the west.
The killing cry made him jump up in shock, and he asked anxiously: "What's going on?"
Immediately afterwards, I saw a group of bandits retreating from the front, shouting: "It's not good, the defenders don't know where there are thousands more troops, and they are coming towards this way."
Feng Guanglin's surprise was not trivial. He never believed that the defenders could recruit thousands more troops out of thin air. He shouted loudly: "Brothers, don't panic. The defenders are bluffing. Fight back with me!"
The bandit army then followed him and fought back. After rushing a few hundred meters, they saw a dense crowd of figures rushing towards them from the other end of the street. At a glance, there were three to five hundred people, which proved that what the gangsters just said was true.
He was startled at first, but then he sharply saw the people behind the defenders wearing colorful clothes and holding broadswords and spears. He couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and shouted: "Brothers, there are strong men behind them pretending, there is nothing to be afraid of.
I'll hit you hard!"
The bandits calmed down and fired fiercely with their guns. The defenders there were a little panicked and they also fought back one after another. The strong men behind them raised their swords and guns to make a noise.
The bandits here have gained a firm foothold, but the bandits on other sides do not know what is real and are frightened by the defenders' momentum, so they retreat one after another. This makes Feng Guanglin become the front bulge, and the left and right wings are all defenders, attacking from both sides.
Feng Guanglin could no longer resist, and many of the bandits were killed or wounded and retreated.
The failure of this counterattack completely caused Feng Guanglin to give up the idea of attacking the county seat. He led the bandits to highlight the east gate and caught Han Baihang by surprise, who was attacking fiercely outside the east gate. He quickly retreated south for several miles before regaining his footing. Look again.
The bandits had already tied up a large number of meat coupons and retreated eastward.
The defenders in the city did not dare to chase after them until they reached the gate. They hurriedly closed the city gate and pulled up the drawbridge, and cheers of victory suddenly rang out.
Han Baihang led his army back to the city and was treated like a hero. The wealthy gentry who had not shown up all this time gathered in the county office with glowing faces and were quite happy to celebrate. Xue Lin was the number two hero. He made a decision tonight.
Second only to Han Baihang in terms of merit, Mei Changyuan finally gained the magnanimity of a county magistrate and removed his title of acting leader and officially appointed him as the leader of the vigilante group.
Just when the gentry were celebrating their success in resisting the bandits, Han Baihang walked in smelling of gunpowder smoke and said loudly: "Now is not the time to celebrate. The bandits suffered losses when they attacked the county. They will definitely vent their anger on other towns. We are now
We should pursue them to prevent the bandits from causing trouble to the place, and the bandits have also kidnapped a large number of people, so the people must be rescued."
As soon as his words came out, the gentry suddenly fell silent. Everyone looked at each other, but no one wanted to talk.
Mei Changyuan was so frightened by the bandits that he rushed to say: "Captain Han, the most important thing is that we defend Yongcheng. What if you lead people to chase the bandits and the bandits come back again?"
Han Baihang said: "I will never give the bandits a chance to come back if I chase them!"
Mei Changyuan nodded and stopped talking. He didn't have much military power anyway, so he simply sold Han Baihang a favor and said: "Since Captain Han is confident, I agree to pursue the enemy and do my best to eliminate evil!"
The gentry still did not speak, they were waiting for Ding Zuopeng to express his position.
Ding Zuopeng stroked his beard and smiled without saying a word. He seemed to be such a tyrannical man. He was very realistic. Han Baihang had been useful in many places before. But now that the bandits had retreated, how could he give Han Baihang another chance to gain military power?
In the battle, he finally experienced how powerful Han Baihang was in fighting, and he was extremely fearful, fearing that he would continue to gain power.
Han Baihang's expression changed slightly, and he asked Ding Zuopeng unceremoniously: "President Ding, when you were in your mansion, you promised to put all the troops in the city under my command."
Ding Zuopeng smiled slightly: "Yes, I agreed to Captain Han, but now I think that instead of risking going out of the city to chase the bandits, it is better to send the troops to Dongguan for rescue. The people of Dongguan are the worst harmed by bandits, so we cannot remain indifferent.
"
As soon as his words came out, they immediately attracted the echo of the gentry. They all said that President Ding was a wise and wise man who cared about the people and was really respectable and respectable.
Han Baihang was angry in his heart. Ding Zuopeng's words were mature and wise, but his own words were young and reckless. He immediately lowered his face and said: "The people of Dongguan need to be saved, especially the people who were kidnapped by the bandits. Since President Ding can't
If you agree with me, then I will lead my troops to pursue you."
Ding Zuopeng said calmly: "Captain Han, your troops have left the city a long time ago. Just now the gentry asked me to protect the courtyard. It just so happens that we should disband the pistol company at this time."
