Chapter 136: Resolution

Guoba knew exactly how to win this battle: more troops, more artillery, and more shells. All the ship’s guns that could be removed from the warships were taken down—ranging from 65-millimeter gunboats to 90-millimeter main guns, along with Hotchkiss machine guns, along with their gunners. Shells were also transported in large quantities; though not as many as 3,000, there were still over 2,000. They intended to use the shells like machine guns, with the artillery firing in dense and precise bursts while the infantry launched successive attacks.

On the defensive side, Liu Yinggong’s mixed company also received its final reinforcements at dawn—a group of soldiers in grass-green uniforms, eager yet anxious to engage in battle. But after initial joy, Liu Yinggong’s face turned grim. He asked the commander of the reinforcements, “Is this all the help?”

“That’s all the reinforcements. Hopefully, they’ll be useful to you!” the squad leader replied solemnly. “There were 56 at departure; two deserted along the way. Now there are 54 in total.”

Liu Yinggong could only shake his hand and say, “But they don’t even know how to shoot.”

He noticed many unfamiliar faces among the reinforcements. Their grass-green uniforms were even makeshift, quite different from the standard uniforms of the Xiliu Camp. Still, half of them had weapons. He had some extra weapons left over from yesterday’s battles—left behind by casualties—but even arming them all seemed pointless. “Soldiers who can’t shoot can only serve as laborers.”

Among those 54 soldiers, there was only half a squad of true veterans; the rest were recruits recently gathered in Thanh Hóa. Most of them had Chinese ancestry, were young, and had little financial burden at home. Before departing, each of them left enough money at home for their families. It was their first time seeing so much copper money—bales of it handed to them by the Xiliu Camp—as they sold their lives to the Black Flag Army.

According to Liu Suiyun’s promise, once they completed this battle, they could choose to retire and receive another 20 guan from the Black Flag Army as settlement money. So despite the extreme difficulty and danger of the task, they still stepped forward.

Liu Suiyun also had few options. With insufficient troops, he could only rely on local recruitment. Even if these Vietnamese soldiers were unexperienced in combat, at least they could fill numbers. Moreover, the squad leader said to Liu Yinggong with a smile, “They’ve been trained. Everyone can shoot. Just now on the riverbank, I personally led them in their first rifle training session—each fired ten rounds.”

Beyond that, he could only teach them basic skills. Liu Yinggong could only say, “Have them fill in the gaps in each platoon and squad. Even if they can’t shoot, they can help dig fortifications or something.”

Two veterans would have to train the new recruits in actual combat. Without Ruan Menglian and the others to help, it would have been impossible to recruit even these fifty-plus new soldiers.

Just less than a day after these new recruits were added to the Black Flag Army, the French immediately launched their bombardment. This time, they doubled the number of cannons—twenty breech-loading steel guns fired relentlessly, plunging the entire village back into a sea of fire. Many houses were reduced to ruins under the barrage of shells, and from a distance, it was clear to see several soldiers running around in panic due to the shelling. The French were satisfied with the effect of their bombardment, unaware that those soldiers who died from the shelling were new recruits, while the rest hid quietly, ready to fight at any moment. Those new recruits had never seen such a scene before; they felt the ground shake and their hearts pound. All they could do was hide in anti-armor shelters. Some cried secretly, while others felt deceived, but they knew they must not retreat or back down. A few veterans warned them during the bombardment, “Wear our uniforms from the Xiliu Camp. If the French capture us, they’ll just bayonet us. Fight hard and fire back whenever possible.” The bombardment went smoothly, but the sniper who had hung himself from a tree continued to fight desperately. This time, he hung himself from a large tree at the top of the tree, using its thick branches to support his sniper rifle as he searched for targets. Unable to find a good firing position, the French artillery positions, though retreating, remained within his effective range. Bullets kept flying, and every minute or two, an artillery observer, gunner, or officer was injured. Yet to the French, this was their last act of resistance—the entire village had been completely destroyed, and no one could survive such bombardment. But the veterans who had fought yesterday knew well that even the fiercest bombardment wouldn’t completely destroy the enemy forces ahead. After yesterday’s battle, the French had also adapted to fighting in villages. They no longer operated in companies but in groups of ten to twenty men, launching waves of attacks against the defenders. Under the cover of artillery fire, they changed their tactics and launched their first attack. They progressed quickly, learning to use shovels to improve the terrain, leveraging artillery to suppress enemy fire and support infantry attacks. They also learned to use explosives for simple attacks. Their attacks were well-organized, leaving the defenders struggling to adapt. The French managed to enter the village from the south with minimal casualties, but the subsequent battles became even more intense. Even Liu Suiyun didn’t expect that this tactical change by the French gave the new recruits enough time to adapt. In the midst of blood and fire, their only chance to survive was to learn. They learned how to fire, and though still unskilled, they posed a significant threat to the French. Under the guidance of the veterans, they learned how to repair fortifications during lulls in artillery fire. Though their legs might still be trembling, they eagerly learned every combat skill.

The veteran soldiers were also willing to teach them all their combat skills selflessly. They just felt there wasn’t enough time to teach too much, but once this battle ended, if those remaining soldiers were gathered for another half month of training, they would become an excellent group of soldiers.

The fighting between the two sides continued. The French forces found that the harder they advanced, the more difficult the battle became, with increasing casualties. Although the defending forces numbered only 150, their fortifications were surprisingly strong, especially their counterfire tactics, which caused significant trouble for the French.

However, Gubao patiently deployed his troops, having enough reserves to exhaust the enemy forces ahead.

…

Liu Suiyun was busy preparing everything. He couldn’t abandon his comrades fighting on the front lines, but he really didn’t have much energy to attend to them.

Like the troops sent out to reinforce earlier, various units inside the city also recruited new soldiers, brought in through the connections of concubines such as Ruan Menglian. Some of them were wealthy families from Thanh Hóa. Through these connections, along with some ties to the Tiandi Society and the Huajian Sect, a total of 260 people were recruited.

In such a hurry, only 260 people could be gathered. Aside from the 56 sent to reinforce Liu Yingu, the rest were undergoing intensive training.

They were divided into two groups. One group assisted the Xiliu Camp in maintaining order in the city and prepared to requisition all supplies, aiming to transport away all the treasures stored in the imperial palace.

The other group was mixed with over a dozen soldiers. These veteran soldiers taught them all necessary skills and were ready to send them into battle at any time.

It should be noted that after a night of inventory, it was found that there was even more treasure than expected. Although most of these treasures were accumulated during the 27 years of reigns of Minh Mang and Thieu Tri, a period that was not one of prosperity but rather marked by frequent internal and external conflicts and political instability, these two emperors were extremely adept at amassing wealth.

In just 27 years, they plundered countless riches across Vietnam’s small territory. There were over two million taels of silver recorded in historical documents as being stored as imperial treasure, not to mention the gold.

Transporting such a large amount of wealth required significant resources. Using laborers to carry it was clearly the worst option—within an hour, hundreds of pounds of silver could be lost in the mountains.

Therefore, the Black Flag Army made great efforts to acquire vehicles and horses. They even offered large sums of copper coins to people in exchange for animals, taking them away as soon as payment was made. However, the owners of these animals often made substantial profits from such transactions.

Despite efforts to acquire vehicles and horses everywhere, Thanh Hóa being a tropical region meant there were limited numbers available. Moreover, considering the enormous appetite of horses, even with ample feed and water and backup horses prepared, there was still a risk of losing them along the way. Besides, at that time, only gold could be transported.

As for the rest of the silver, only a small portion could be taken away. Copper coins and lead coins, due to insufficient transport capacity, were already used by Liu Suiyun as funds for purchasing supplies.

He said to a company commander, “Hurry and find some horses! We need to think about the future of the Xiliu Camp.”

Over there, Ruan Menglian also stepped in to help negotiate: “As long as we have mules and horses, we’re willing to pay double the price.”
Yet the outcome was still unsatisfactory. Due to the urgency of the front-line battles, by near noon, Liu Suiyun had no choice but to send those 100 recruits, who had received less than eight hours of training, along with their instructors, back to the front line.
However, the logistics issue remained unresolved; mules and horses continued to be fed, and Liu Suiyun had to find a solution.
Besides gold and silver, he had many other supplies to take with him. After all, he couldn’t come to Thanh Hóa for nothing. Chen Tingqin had specifically requested to take some of the imperial archives of the Thanh Hóa dynasty.
It was she who accidentally stumbled upon records related to the imperial treasury among these long-sealed archives. In addition, several lesser-known but important figures also needed to travel north, including the families of several palace concubines.
It was a difficult task to have 500 soldiers escort 500 to 600 civilians northward. Moreover, how could the villages along the way support such a large number of people? Just the forage alone would overwhelm them.
But soon, Liu Suiyun came up with an idea. He remembered a negative example mentioned by Liu Yu in his course on military logistics, used as a critical case study, though it didn’t specify who had come up with such an impractical idea.
In fact, the example Liu Yu referred to was from the Kwantung Army during the Guandong Campaign. Since they couldn’t break through the Soviet forces’ strong defenses head-on, they decided to take a long detour through the dense forests. But because the supplies carried by the soldiers weren’t enough to sustain such a long journey, the Kwantung Army’s staff officers came up with a wild idea: using oxen.
Oxen are ruminants that can go three days without eating once fed enough grass and water. They can travel three kilometers per hour in forested areas. By the fourth day, the Kwantung Army soldiers could kill the oxen for food.
This was merely the staff officers’ fantasy, with no consideration for potential complications. If implemented, it would lead to another Imphal-like disaster.
But Liu Suiyun thought it might be feasible under the current circumstances. Although it wasn’t easy to gather mules and carts near Thanh Hóa, it wasn’t a problem to find water buffaloes. Vietnam is already a major producer of water buffaloes, and using them for carrying heavy loads was practical. A single water buffalo cart could carry an astonishing amount of weight. More importantly, even if some water buffaloes died or got lost along the way, it wouldn’t be a big deal, as there were Vietnamese villages everywhere along the route to replace them easily.
The only drawback of this plan was having to prepare for a large number of oxen dying or getting lost, which could severely impact agricultural production in Central Vietnam. But in the face of four million taels of silver, all of this seemed insignificant.
Besides, he also needed to buy himself some time.
It was for this reason that Liu Suiyun made his final decision.
……
Before noon, the French forces once saw hope of victory. After a morning of fighting, the casualty ratio between the two sides wasn’t as extreme as it had been the previous day. The French had captured a quarter of the villages, gradually squeezing the defending forces.

But after noon, the Black Flag Army deployed another infantry battalion, turning the battle into a stalemate. Although the Black Flag Army also suffered heavy losses, this battalion seemed to be exhausted quite quickly. Yet the battle remained deadlocked. Liu Yinguang gained confidence—these newly recruited soldiers, who had received more training, though still unable to adapt to combat right away, allowed his forces to exceed 200 for the first time. However, within just an hour, his forces dropped back to 160. Most of the veterans survived, and the newcomers were forced to mature through the trials of battle. Yet the orders he received were to hold on for another day and a half before retreating.