I traveled through time, starting with two acres of land and a dog

When Li Long led his team to the county government office, Peng Huiyu had already forced the joint defense team back to a small garden inside the inner wall of the county government, where several hundred people were still resisting stubbornly.

"Listen up everyone inside. This is the count of three. If you don't surrender, no one will be spared," a loud speaker rang out.

"3...2...1...blow up!" Peng Huiyu saw that the joint defense team inside was still hoping for a lucky break, so he directly ignited the explosive packs, and dozens of grenades flew into the garden.

A series of explosions caused a gap in the wall to collapse and a pillar of the corner tower inside was broken, leaving the whole place in a mess.

"We surrender..." As expected, there are always some people who won't cry until they see the coffin. Only a fierce attack can make them see the situation clearly.

"Throw your guns on the ground, raise your hands above your head, and come out," Peng Huiyu said while commanding the surrender.

"All units, speed up and clear out the resistance forces in the city. There are still two hours until dawn. Clean up the battlefield immediately and retreat on time at 5 o'clock," Li Long glanced at his watch.

"Report, Captain Lei Jianqin, several top officials have been captured and retreated toward the northeast gate," a communications soldier reported.

"Report to the young master immediately and see how to deal with it." Li Long could not make a decision on such a big matter, so he could only report.

"Dismiss all armed guards of the county magistrate, let Peng Huiyu lead the team personally, lead 400 local guards, and protect the county magistrate and officials from various departments to evacuate the city smoothly. The Ning Qiang will need their cooperation in the future." Du Chenyu thought about it and came up with this strategy of holding the emperor hostage to control the princes. The original plan was to retreat after looting the Ning Qiang.

However, looking at such a vital transportation route and a place of contention among military strategists, Du Chenyu became a little greedy. He hoped to secretly control the important places on the Jinniu and Micang roads and the throat leading into the territory. This would be beneficial with no harm. If a large army attacked, it would be safe to retreat to the Daba Mountains and Qinling Mountains on both sides.

Since Peng Huiyu has openly gained control of Ning Qiang, cleaning up the battlefield will be much faster. 400 people are left in the warehouse, obeying Peng Huiyu's orders and starting to appease the people. After the war, Du Chenyu and the rest of the people escorted more than 700 prisoners and began to retreat.

They retreated all the way back to the camp in the southern mountains and began to count the losses and gains.

Du Chenyu ate some dry food. As he didn’t sleep well the night before, he couldn’t open his eyes, so he lay down in the tent and fell asleep.

After sleeping until noon, Du Chenyu called Li Long, Peng Huiyu and others in to summarize the battle and the next plan.

"Brother Long, you are the front-line commander of this operation. Please come and report the battle situation." Du Chenyu sat on a stone outside the tent, and the others sat around him.

"Yes, sir. We dispatched 3200 people for this battle. Although the battle went according to plan overall, the resistance of the militia and the city defense exceeded our expectations. Therefore, we suffered heavy losses in this battle. According to preliminary statistics, 296 brothers died, more than 100 were seriously injured, and more than 300 were slightly injured," Li Long reported a string of numbers.

I was very shocked. There were such heavy losses, which was somewhat unexpected. After all, the battle only lasted two hours.

"The harvest of this battle is as follows: 3 new and old heavy machine guns, 9 light machine guns, 6 mortars, 70 artillery shells, 15 grenade launchers, at least 800 other guns, and thousands of damaged guns, 15 kilograms of grain, and other confiscated property worth no less than 40 oceans. The heavy weapons were hidden secretly by the company commander of the Beiyang garrison, the other guns were seized from the joint defense brigade, and most of the grain and property came from the county government warehouse," Li Long gave a brief report on the harvest.

This was an unprecedented victory. Ningqiang was indeed a strategic location leading to Shu. Although the population was sparse and the land was barren, the wealth accumulated was even greater than that gained by conquering the Bazhou area.

Especially the acquisition of heavy weapons, which increased our strength by almost one third. It is true that fortune and honor are sought in danger. If we win this battle, our Du family army can basically gain a foothold in northern Sichuan. As long as we don't encounter group fights, self-protection will not be a problem.

"Okay, although there were huge casualties in this battle, we also reaped rich rewards, which instantly increased our strength by several percent. The following things need to be done immediately: first, we need to bury the fallen brothers properly and make sure the pensions are in place. Let's go to pay our respects together. Second, each participant in the battle will be given three dollars as an operational subsidy. Third, let's discuss the next action plan. We are currently short of personnel. Let's discuss whether it is still necessary to stop Li Bingzhi's team?" Du Chenyu said to everyone.

In this battle, everyone also saw the combat gap between the Beiyang regular army. There were more than 1000 elite troops attacking the arsenal, and there were more than 100 gun masters. The enemy was well-equipped, had strong firepower, and was well-trained. This was still the garrison team. Li Bingzhi had more than 1000 remaining troops. They were the elite troops left after hundreds of battles. It was easy for them to lose more than they gained, so everyone was thinking about it.

"Sir, I think we still have to fight. The mountains here are high and the valleys are deep, with ambushes on both sides. With more than 1000 people, they always have to look forward and not backward, so we can always defeat them. It will also be convenient for us to retreat," said Li Long.

"In mountainous areas, people won't be so stupid as to line up in a long snake formation and let you cut off a few pieces of the city and then slowly eat them. They must consider the possibility of an ambush and divide the team into several teams to take care of each other and march sporadically," Du Chenyu analyzed. Most marches in the canyon are like this, otherwise it is easy to be wiped out.

"Our main problem is that we don't have enough troops. Brother Peng has taken 800 men, and we have less than 2000 men left to fight. I was indeed a little careless at the beginning," Li Long was still very active and quickly figured out the crux of the problem.

"We still have prisoners," Lei Jianqin said, looking at the more than 500 prisoners in the distance.

"The loyalty of the prisoners needs to be verified. We usually assign them after training," said Chen Jinhu.

"We also have to be flexible on the battlefield. We can select a part of the troops and disperse them to various classes in an emergency. This way we can also make up for the losses. The combat effectiveness of the Ningqiang Joint Defense Battalion is stronger than ours in Sichuan," said He Chaowu.

"This is feasible. When we are blocking the enemy, we can also transfer the garrison troops from Brother Peng to here, so that we can at least triple the encirclement force. It's not far away anyway," said Chen Jinhu.

Chen Jinhu's fighting style has always been cautious, so his team has relatively low casualties. After all, this has something to do with his background. Caution is ingrained in his bones. This is also the reason why he was promoted all the way despite being a bandit. Du Chenyu has always admired him for this.

"Everyone's opinions are very good. Immediately select 400 people from the prisoners. 200 people will be assigned to Brother Peng. After all, the locals are familiar with management. The remaining 200 people will be dispersed to various companies. Li Long will be in charge of this matter. The screening will be completed today. In addition, we can also use our wits to stop Li Bingzhi. Our goal is not to kill people, but to get those cannons. If they dismantle the field artillery and carry them away during the march, what's the use of a few pieces of our guns!" Du Chenyu concluded.

"Sir, how do you think we can defeat them by strategizing?" Li Long asked.

Several people looked at him anxiously.