The boxers made a temporary camp in the wild, and the lights in the tent were kept on all night.
"The situation is not good!"
Tan Sitong's face was dark, his expression was extremely solemn, his eyes were full of worry, and he said depressedly: "The casualties are too great, brothers can hardly bear it anymore!"
Lei Hu remained silent. At this time, his naked upper body was covered with wounds. Some of them were scabbed, some of the flesh was rolled, and traces of blood were faintly seeping from the cotton cloth wrapped around the wounds.
But for some reason, Thunder Tiger not only doesn't give people the impression of being weak at all, but on the contrary is quite strong, like a wounded tiger, more dangerous and cruel than usual.
His own feeling was the same. His body was full of energy and blood. Except for the newly appeared wound where the circulation was not smooth, the rest of his body not only did not look strange at all, but was in unprecedented health.
For some unknown reason, Thunder Tiger's sensitivity to its own muscles, bones, membranes, and bone marrow has been strengthened, and it can even temporarily control the flow of Qi and blood, and at the same time, it can concentrate all its strength on one point to completely explode.
The strength is actually not a tiny bit stronger than when the war started.
Anyway, his current state has far exceeded the initial state of energy transformation. As for the specific level he has reached, he has no time to pay attention to it and has no reference target. He himself doesn't know.
It's just that he is more efficient in killing enemies. His methods can be both domineering and brutal but also concealable. At the same time, he is more sensitive to danger. Once he is pointed at a gun, he will react immediately. His body will instinctively dodge in time, even if he cannot avoid it.
It can get past vital points in an instant.
The high-intensity combat environment made his strength improve by leaps and bounds in just two months.
This is a gratifying thing, but the current situation is tense and dangerous, and the nerves are highly tense. Almost every day, I have to face the fierce artillery bombardment of the foreign army, and I really have no time to pay attention to the changes in my own strength.
That's right, more than a month passed in the blink of an eye. His Boxers and Dong Fuxiang's remnant soldiers joined forces to snipe along the railway line, fighting and retreating for hundreds of miles. The casualties among his Boxers were really heavy. They were almost
I can't hold on any longer.
On the one hand, they relied on trenches to resist, but in the face of the sharp artillery of the coalition forces of the great powers, the Boxers, who had not received any formal military training, were simply unable to master the so-called trench warfare. They could only create trouble for the advance of the coalition forces of the great powers, but they did not
It can stop the offensive steps of the coalition forces of the great powers.
There are no barbed wire fences, no criss-crossing traffic trenches, and no machine guns that can form a fire network. Even the number of rifles is seriously insufficient. If you play trench warfare under such circumstances, you have to face fierce artillery attacks from the coalition forces of the powers at all times. Until now, the Boxer Rebellion
It's a miracle that the boxers didn't collapse.
There were dozens of large and small battles in more than a month, with more than 5,000 Boxer casualties. In addition to the damage caused in the previous offensive and defensive battles at Jinmen and the Zizhulin Concession, Lei Hu's men had 11,000 Boxers.
There are still about 3,000 troops left.
Moreover, everyone is exhausted and has low morale, and their will to fight has declined to a very dangerous level.
Should we withdraw? Or continue to hold on?
There were only two options before Lei Hu. The capital repeatedly asked them to stick to it, but Lei Hu just thought they were farting and had no intention of paying attention to them.
Damn it, after fighting for such a long time, no one from the capital or the Zhili army took the initiative to support us. If the opponent hadn't been a coalition of powers, I'm afraid Lei Hu's boxers would have blown up the camp long ago.
It's just that after holding on for such a long time, it was really uncomfortable for him and his boxers to evacuate directly, so he kept hesitating and didn't know what to make.
As for the Boxer Brother, he let Lei Hu decide on his own and even revealed his intention of reinforcement, but Lei Hu declined.
Regardless of the lively fight between them and the allied forces of the great powers in the wild, the battle that really determines the outcome is still in the capital. Lei Hu does not want to weaken the power at hand of the Boxer Rebellion Senior Brother.
However, the situation was stronger than the people. Lei Hu's hesitation only lasted until the next morning. When he saw the Japanese troops coming in like a tide in the trench, he knew that if he did not evacuate, he would probably have no chance.
"Retreat, let's retreat quickly towards the capital!"
Lei Hu personally led the supervising team out, fighting in and out of the Dongyang army for countless rounds, and finally repulsed the fanatical Dongyang army. Looking at his core brothers whose faces were covered with gunpowder smoke and whose bodies were basically stained,
The decision was made directly.
When the Japanese army arrived, it was clear that the strength of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces had further improved. Coupled with its powerful firepower advantage, it was no longer something that Lei Hu's three thousand Boxers could intercept.
It's a shame that the bunch of losers in the capital don't dare to send officers and soldiers to fight in the field with the coalition forces of the great powers. Otherwise, even if the coalition forces of the great powers have an obvious firepower advantage, with the help of trench fortifications and home field advantage, the capital city has no chance of victory. It's just a pity for those powerful people.
I have lost my courage.
"I'm afraid it won't be easy if you want to evacuate safely, right?"
Dong Fuxiang has always been on the front line. Even though all the officers and soldiers under him were exhausted, he did not leave. He still insisted on staying on the front line, which attracted the favor of the core members of Lei Hu's men.
"Dong Junmen, have you forgotten that we have done a lot of tricks on the railway before? Now that the situation is critical, it is time to use those secret hands!"
Lei Hu smiled lightly and was confident. It was time for these hidden tricks that had been arranged in advance to take effect.
With the sound of several loud explosions, they retreated within a radius of more than ten miles, and several moving troop trains overturned. The coalition forces of the great powers suddenly lost a large number of soldiers, arms and ammunition, and the railway was blown up in several places. The originally aggressive offensive suddenly came to an end.
Slowly, Lei Hu led his three thousand remaining troops to retreat calmly.
Although heartbroken over the large number of casualties suffered by his brothers, the coalition forces of the great powers definitely did not get any benefits. The one-month battle in the wilderness and the casualties caused by the bombing of the railway totaled not more than 4,000 but more than 3,000. For the complex composition
It was definitely a big blow to the coalition forces.
More than half of the colonial troops participating in the war between Britain and France suffered losses, and Mao Xiong's troops also suffered considerable losses. Troops from other major countries also suffered certain losses. Their morale was also very low at the moment. Seeing that the railway had been blown up in several places, they simply stopped at
Make repairs halfway while waiting for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements.
Even if Lei Hu knew it, there was nothing he could do. He did not have enough men under his command to inflict heavy damage on the coalition forces of the great powers, so he had to retreat to the capital area and camped outside the city without entering the city.
"Let the capital provide more muskets and ammunition, otherwise we will threaten to withdraw from the capital. At this critical moment, we are not afraid that the powerful people will not agree!"
Seeing the Boxer Brother coming out of the city to greet him, Lei Hu said unceremoniously...