Chapter 69: Engaging in Battle (Part 2)

“Heishanggou? Heiniao Camp? We’ll take Old Ye as our first target today.”
After seeing Ye Chenglin’s deployment, Lu Zhiping’s men grew greatly confident. His defenses seemed paper-thin—just a few simple watchtowers and barriers, with a poorly constructed parapet.
“Charge! Charge! Stop this kid from acting unrighteously!” They cheered excitedly. “We have over seven hundred men!”
In terms of equipment, Lu Zhiping’s force was quite strong—over two hundred front-loading rifles alone. Some even suggested to him, “Why not capture that small hill nearby and fire rounds of rifles at them from above? That’ll surely send Old Ye running away in terror.”
Lu Zhiping agreed. “Exactly! With so many rifles and plenty of bronze cannons, we can bombard them from the hill.” He thought it was a great idea—the hill had few defenders, and it could be taken with a simple charge.
“Charge uphill! Charge uphill!”
At these orders, their mixed forces quickly formed up and charged toward Heishanggou’s UCamp Camp. “Take that hill—this…”
Before Lu Zhiping could finish speaking, a sharp “ting… ting…” sound suddenly filled the air—Ye Chenglin’s men had fired. “Don’t be afraid! Our British rifles can’t shoot that far. Old Ye’s guns are useless!”
Their British rifles were among the best in Tonkin, but at this range, they were no better than sticks. Firing from five or six hundred meters away—Ye Chenglin was getting worse and worse.
Just as Lu Zhiping was about to exclaim in surprise, the sound of bullets hitting bodies came from nearby. Then one of their leaders, who had followed him for years, screamed, “Help!”
Everyone was stunned. How could shots land from such a distance? It was utterly unreasonable!
Not just unreasonable—
With such a scattered formation, how did the enemy spot them so quickly?
As they hesitated, another sharp “ting…” sound rang out. One of their leaders stared in shock, unable to react before being blasted apart, blood spraying everywhere. “Ah…”
Once might be luck, twice an accident, but three times—it was definitely abnormal. “Retreat! Retreat! Old Ye is too cruel—firing at us from such a distance!”
Hundreds of men hurriedly retreated. They couldn’t understand how Ye Chenglin’s marksmanship had suddenly improved so much.
In their memory, Shizhou was extremely poor—there weren’t even decent rifles, let alone better ones. Ye Chenglin’s entire force consisted of just three hundred guns.
“What should we do?”
From four or five hundred meters away, though not perfect, the accuracy was terrifying! Ten shots, and one of their own was killed and two seriously injured.

That bastard Ye Chenglin—how does he have such great equipment? Someone with extensive experience recognized it from the sound of the shots: “It’s Remingtons. He’s got several Remingtons.” Being recruited by the authorities really makes a difference; before, he treated shotguns as treasures, but after being recruited, he somehow acquired these powerful Remingtons. Now, hundreds of men are waiting for Lu Zhiping’s orders. In Lu Zhiping’s eyes, this so-called Black Bird Camp suddenly became terrifying. He really didn’t know Ye Chenglin’s Remingtons were that powerful—capable of hitting targets with perfect accuracy from five or six hundred meters away. Should they risk lives in a charge? He hesitated for a moment before realizing their advantage lay in numbers and firepower; sacrificing lives would be a last-ditch measure. “Lure them out of their hole and see if Old Ye will come out.” Lu Zhiping had been fighting for over a decade and had tried every tactic possible: “Send a group of elite soldiers to charge, then draw some of Ye Chenglin’s defenders out so we can set an ambush and eliminate them.” As long as Ye Chenglin came out, he had great confidence in his own troops. After all, he had over two hundred foreign guns, including several rear-mounted guns. Such firepower was unmatched in Northern Vietnam. It would be highly effective against the Vietnamese army and the Black Flag Army, but useless against the Qing forces. “Set up our mountain howitzers!” he ordered loudly. “A few of their Remingtons aren’t anything—we’ve got cannons.” Though called cannons, they were actually highly portable 12-pound mountain howitzers. These main weapons from the American Civil War were far behind their time, but in Northern Vietnam’s terrain, they were lightweight and thus rare and powerful weapons, with considerable destructive force. “Daredevils, follow me!” Now, they no longer dared to charge arrogantly to face those terrifying Remington bullets. Everyone walked quickly with their backs bent, afraid of being hit. There were still only a few defenders on the enemy’s position. Ye Chenglin had switched to new guns, but his judgment seemed impaired—could those few people really hold out? Ye Chenglin’s men regained hope. The sound of Remington rifles could be heard again. This time, because the infantry was charging fast, the enemy riflemen had to account for lead time, resulting in lower accuracy. But the further they went, the more dangerous it became—the enemy’s marksmanship grew more precise. “Bang!” “Ah…” Another of Lu Zhiping’s men collapsed to the ground with a cry. Seeing this, his men became disheartened again. So far, they hadn’t even touched Ye Chenglin, yet they had already lost six or seven men. This battle seemed hopeless. At this thought, not only his men but even Lu Zhiping himself felt they had miscalculated. He still couldn’t understand—he had used Remington guns before, so how could they suddenly shoot so far and with such precision? Just as they were sighing, someone suddenly shouted, “He’s coming out! He’s coming out!” Ye Chenglin might be well-equipped, but his leadership skills had declined. Now, Lu Zhiping could barely see that his strategy of luring the enemy out had succeeded.

The troops from this Black Bird Camp had finally been drawn out in large numbers. At a glance, he saw about fifty to sixty soldiers leaving the camp and charging over here.
“Get ready! Get ready!”
“Prepare the grenades—blow them to pieces!”
“The long guns are ready! Don’t fire yet. It’s not too late to open fire all at once once we’re within range of the muskets.”
“Be careful—fire in three waves, and keep shooting nonstop.”
Yet he felt he was overemphasizing this Black Bird Camp. With just fifty or sixty men, he had seven hundred troops, over a dozen cannons of various sizes, plus more than two hundred muskets. A single volley of fire would surely wipe out those new recruits led by Ye Chenglin.
But seeing the crow flag they were carrying gave him an ominous feeling.
Ye Chenglin was praising Liu Yu: “Commander, Lu Zhiping has arrived.”
Huang Guilan was determined to separate the two outposts, placing one platoon in the east and one squad in the west. But ever since they fell out, Liu Yu ignored both Zhao Wo’s and Huang Guilan’s orders.
“As long as I don’t enter your camp, what can you do to me? I have the two best infantry regiments in Northern Vietnam—enough to take on anything!”
Moreover, he had the Black Flag Army behind him. Even if Huang Guilan or Zhao Wo wanted to deal with him, they’d have to think carefully.
Once he figured this out, Liu Yu stopped acting submissive. After Zhao Wo finally ordered them to be stationed separately, Liu Yu set up a simple camp, having the front camp guard it while he privately joined forces with Ye Chenglin.
Facing Lu Zhiping were the two infantry regiments of the Xi Liu Camp, along with some support troops, engineers, communicators, and artillerymen—totaling no less than three hundred men. Such an army could challenge any force in Northern Vietnam with fewer than a thousand men, except for the French. Even the Qing army, known for its advanced firearms, would suffer heavy losses in a fight against fewer than a thousand men.
Lu Zhiping’s first attack was repelled by the snipers’ test shots before it even came close to the Xi Liu Camp.
Thanks to the sniper scopes contributed by Jeken, each infantry regiment of the Xi Liu Camp had two snipers under its command, not to mention the Remington riflemen in each infantry squad. This time, as the two regiments carried out the mission alone, half of the snipers from other regiments were also assigned to them.
Four snipers were stationed on the hilltop Lu Zhiping’s troops wanted to attack. Before Lu Zhiping’s men could even see them, the snipers had already started shooting.
That long stretch of terrain became a death zone. Lu Zhiping’s second attack also failed. The snipers treated it as a live drill and easily repelled his forces.
Now, Ye Chenglin sent out one of his reinforced platoons to attack, based on the experience gained from the Red River outpost: “A single infantry platoon isn’t capable of fighting independently.”
Yet on both flanks, behind Lu Zhiping, more troops were in motion. There was one infantry platoon on each flank, and two more moving toward the rear. Liu Yu also had one platoon as a reserve: “Commander, let’s show Lu Zhiping what we’re made of this time.”
He was furious—Lu Zhiping was too unrighteous.

It’s one thing for you to attack my Crow Camp, but why attack without saying a word? After all, we’ve been friends for over a decade.
Now that fighting has begun, there’s no need for more words. He knew Lu Zhiping was capable of fighting tough battles and was a difficult opponent, and that their forces were twice as many, with many foreign rifles and cannons on their side—but none of that was a problem.
The real issue was how to win this battle cleanly.
On the other side, Liu Yu had already spoken: “If we can’t win this battle completely, it’s a complete defeat.”
At that moment, Lu Zhiping noticed another group of enemy troops appearing on his left side.
They were carrying double-leaf flags—two willow leaves.