Black Flag Army

On the morning of February 15, 1913, the bald Mongolian bandit Song Muyan led more than 2,000 Mongolian cavalrymen into Suiyuan again.

Originally, the news that Zhang Shaozeng's patrol brigade defeated the Jin army reached Outer Mongolia. Song Muyan heard that Zhang Shaozeng had received three aircraft support and one brigade defeated four brigades. He was frightened and gave up the invasion plan, but the commander Prince Wutai forced him to attack Suiyuan. Because the puppet government of Outer Mongolia was almost too poor to hold on. Since independence, it has lost the relief of the Beiyang government, driven out a large number of Han people, cut off trade, and spent money to support a large number of Russian military advisers and instructors, some of whom knew nothing and were just here to eat. Ezhen Khan had no choice but to discuss with Prime Minister Hangdaduo and Commander Wutai and decided to use the survival method passed down by their ancestors: robbery. Not only did they rob Suiyuan, but they also divided their troops into multiple routes to rob Rehe and Chahar, and even Xinjiang was not spared. In fact, as early as the Xiongnu period thousands of years ago, the nomadic peoples in the northern desert began professional robbery. Thousands of years have passed, and they have changed many names, such as Xianbei, Rouran, Turkic, Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongolian. In fact, the races are still the same, but when a certain tribe becomes strong, that tribe is used as the name of the entire alliance, just like the Central Plains dynasties changed their country names. They only have two professions: animal husbandry and hunting, and robbery is the main means of hunting.

Song Muyan cried to the commander Wu Tai, saying that he only had more than a thousand people, and that was the number after the remnants of the deputy brigade commander Nasun were merged. Wu Tai gave him a thousand new soldiers, and fearing that he would not work hard, he also sent Ivanov, the chief adviser of the First Division, to supervise him. Ivanov also brought a team of more than 30 advisers.

Song Muyan said to Ivanov: "The front is Urad Middle Banner. The banner chief De Wang and the security commander stationed here are both Mongolians, but they have joined forces with the Han people to deal with us."

Ivanov is a Russian. He is not interested in the struggle between the Mongols, but he does not want the Han people to interfere in the Mongolian issues. It is enough for Mongolia to always be a vassal state of Russia. This is why he supports Song Muyan this time. After hearing Song Muyan's introduction to Urad Banner, he casually responded: "The Mongols there are just stubborn fools. They really think that the Chinese can give them much benefit."

Song Muyan continued to introduce the history of Urad. It is said that during the Warring States Period, King Wuling of Zhao built the Zhao Great Wall, which stretched across the country from east to west. The southern part of the Great Wall was called Beijia. Urad then belonged to the Jiuyuan and Anyang city areas under the jurisdiction of Yunzhong County; to the north of the Zhao Great Wall was the activity area of ​​the Xiongnu nomadic tribes. In the fifth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty organized the Urad tribe into Urad Front Banner, Middle Banner, and Back Banner. The location of Song Muyan's brigade was not far from the Middle Banner.

In fact, Song Muyan was not very sure about this operation. After all, he heard that Zhang Shaozeng had a plane, and he was outnumbered. He planned to make a quick buck this time, so he had sent three groups of scouts before approaching Urad. The reason why he kept talking to Ivanov about local history was to wait for news, hoping that the other side would not have too many people. At this time, a team of scouts came back, and one of them said to Song Muyan: "Sir, we have checked it out. There are only about 500 Mongolian militias in it. I heard that there was a rebellion in Urad Front Banner recently, and the Han people were sent by the banner chief to quell the rebellion."

After listening to this, Matsukihiko said to Changchak: "It seems that this time it is the blessing of Eternal Heaven that has given us a rare opportunity. Order all troops to set up camp ten miles away from the central flag, rest until the afternoon, and then attack the city directly to let the brothers grab more!"

Soon, Song Muyan's troops set up camp near Urad Middle Banner, polished the siege equipment, and waited for the siege to begin. Urad Middle Banner is equivalent to a county in an inland province. Due to its poverty and sparse population, the city walls are low and dilapidated, far less tall than those in inland counties. Both Song Muyan and his soldiers are confident in conquering this broken city.

In the afternoon, with an order from Matsuki Hiko, more than a thousand recruits of the Mongolian Brigade began to attack the city wall. Only sparse gunshots were heard in the city, and incoherent "bang bang bang" sounds came from the tower. The figures of militiamen appeared on the tower, but these people had very poor marksmanship. A burst of gunshots caused casualties of more than a dozen people in Matsuki Hiko's brigade. The people carrying explosive packs and siege ladders were already close to the city wall. Matsuki Hiko, who was sitting on a mound, listened to the gunshots and judged that the other side had only dozens of guns, and they were all hunting rifles and firearms, so he ordered the cavalry to cover the recruits in the siege. A large row of cavalry instantly mixed in with the infantry, shooting to cover while rushing to the city wall. Matsuki Hiko's brigade set up siege ladders and lined up to the tower under the cover of the cavalry. Seeing the soldiers climbing to the tower, Matsuki Hiko was overjoyed and felt that opening the city gate was just a matter of feet. Suddenly, there was a deafening cry of killing on the city wall, the sound of weapons clashing was endless, rows of new recruits suddenly fell off the city wall, siege ladders were also pushed down one after another. At the same time, the loose soil in the two holes under the city wall was pushed open, and suddenly two machine guns were set up. Machine gun bullets poured out with "da da da" sounds, and a large number of cavalrymen and demolition experts were instantly killed or wounded. Large grenades were also thrown from the city wall, causing multiple explosions in an instant.

Just as Matsugi Hiko was still in shock, there was a sudden explosion behind him. More than a dozen cavalrymen were blown to pieces. An officer covered in blood rushed to Matsugi Hiko and said, "Sir, we have fallen into a trap. Some Han cavalry are attacking us from behind. We are being trapped."

At this time, the commander of the new recruits rushed to Matsukihiko, holding his abdomen with blood, and yelled at him: "You bastard are harming us. The people wearing militia clothes on the city are Han people. Almost half of my brothers are injured or killed."

As soon as he finished speaking, a shell landed near them. Matsukihiko was so scared that he quickly lay down. The new recruit commander and Naxun beside him were blown to pieces. Matsukihiko, who had escaped, quickly rode on his warhorse, picked up the whip and slapped the horse's butt while shouting, "Retreat!" The soldiers of Matsukihiko's brigade were immediately in chaos and fled in all directions.

The people on the city wall were none other than Zhang Shaozeng's troops disguised as Mongolian militia. Zhang Shaozeng had brought two regiments to Urad Middle Banner in the early morning of that day. They cooperated with the local militia and disguised themselves as militia to lure Song Muyan to attack. The ones who attacked Song Muyan's rear were none other than the patrol regiment led by Zhang Zhenyang and the local militia. The patrol regiment had been marching for many days and was already exhausted, but it was more than enough to deal with Song Muyan's brigade.

At this time, the battle situation had turned into a large-scale pursuit by the patrol regiment. The Urad Middle Banner militia joined the pursuit as soon as they saw the favorable situation. The Songmuyan Brigade had already fled in disarray. The chief of staff Changchak's horse was blown down by a shell, and he immediately fell to the ground, and the soldiers around him directly abandoned him. Changchak struggled to get up, and was immediately shot in the head by a patrol regiment cavalry. Ivanov's advisory group did not panic. They fled north on Don River horses and exchanged fire with the pursuing cavalry. After more than a dozen people were killed, they shook off the pursuit and ran away.

Song Muyan was still quite panicked at this time. There were only a few soldiers following him, and the shouts of the pursuers were getting closer and closer. Soon, several patrol cavalrymen caught up with him, and the soldiers quickly drew their sabers and fought with them. At this time, Song Muyan was the only one who continued to escape. He ran for a while, and the shouts gradually faded away. Just when he thought he could survive, a stray bullet hit the head of his warhorse. A Urad cavalryman caught up with him. Song Muyan immediately fell off the horse and broke several ribs. It hurt so much that he couldn't get up at all. This is the disadvantage of riding a horse. It's fun to ride on a horse, but it's very heavy to fall off. He saw the cavalry getting closer and closer to him, and he sighed in his heart that he was dead. Suddenly, there were several gunshots behind Song Muyan. The pursuer was hit by several bullets and fell off his horse and died on the spot. Song Muyan looked at it and saw that the people who fired the gun were Fei Bao and Gou Zongwei.

The two of them hid at the back of the siege force from the beginning. When they were attacked, Fei Bao and Gou Zongwei were the first to run away on horseback. However, they did not expect that Song Muyan had unknowingly run behind them. Fei Bao saw that Song Muyan was in danger and only one person caught up with him, so Fei Bao and Gou Zongwei shot and saved him. Fei Bao saw that Song Muyan was struggling on the ground and was unconscious, so he quickly rode forward, lifted Song Muyan's clothes from the back and put him behind him. The two of them rode on one horse and continued to go north with Gou Zongwei.

After the battle, Zhang Shaozeng counted the casualties and found that his side had lost less than fifty people. More than two thousand two hundred enemies were killed or captured, and less than three hundred escaped. Matsukihiko's troops were basically wiped out.

Although a victory was won at the front, Di Xiong encountered trouble in the rear. The three experimental aircraft were forced to fly out for combat, and they all encountered malfunctions on their way back. When the first aircraft landed at the airport, black smoke came out of the engine. When the second aircraft landed, there was a problem with the balance system, and it swayed violently from side to side. Both wings were broken when it landed. The third aircraft crashed directly when it was still 500 meters from the runway. Two pilots died heroically, including Wu Shao, the flight captain most admired by Feng Ru. This young man seemed to be a natural pilot and learned very quickly. He surpassed Feng Ru in flying skills after only learning for half a month.

When the planes were dispatched, Feng Ru had been busy the night before to test the new engine and slept until noon. He didn't know that it was the deputy director Zhu Zhuquan who obeyed Di Xiong's order. Feng Ru, who was always gentle, rushed into Di Xiong's office and yelled at Di Xiong with a red face: "You are giving blind orders! Blind orders! Do you know how much effort I put into making these three planes? How much hard work did Zhu Zhuquan and others endure? Because of your words, one plane crashed and two planes were damaged. Wu Shao, a young man with such good flying skills, lost his life in vain!"

Di Xiong threw the teacup on his desk to the ground, smashing it to pieces. Even Di Xiong's four guards were startled and ran in to see what was going on. They were stunned to see Feng Ru going berserk. The two female guards had already drawn their pistols, and Di Xiong waved them to get out.

Di Xiong did not explain, but took out a list of casualties from the Fourth Battalion of the Patrol Regiment and handed it to Feng Ru.

"More than 180 people died? How could so many people die? The Jin army attacked so fiercely?" Feng Ru was also surprised after looking at the list.

Di Xiong said: "If the planes hadn't joined the battle, the 4th Battalion would have been wiped out, and the two elite brigades of the Jin Army would have continued to attack. We would have suffered even greater casualties, and we might even have lost Baotou City. I didn't want to send planes to join the battle, as this would have exposed our strength too early, but we had no choice at the time."

Feng Ru calmed down and bowed his head to Di Xiong and said, "I'm sorry, boss. I was too impulsive, but I should have told me at the time. If I had explained the engine problem to Wu Shao, Wu Shao wouldn't have had to die."

Hearing the noise, Tian Mengxue walked in from the next office and said, "I told Zhu Zhuquan not to wake you up. After all, you stayed up late the day before. Do you mean to blame me?"

In fact, it was Wu Zhong who said that, and Tian Mengxue took the responsibility on herself without hesitation.

Feng Ru quickly said, "You are doing this because you care about my health. How can I blame you?"

Tian Mengxue said angrily: "Then why are you showing off in Mr. Di's office? You even broke a teacup. It's only Mr. Di who is generous. If it were another boss, he would have dragged you out and beaten you to death. Why don't you clean up the floor?"

Feng Ru obediently went to get a broom to sweep, but Di Xiong snatched it away and said, "I'll sweep it myself. You're so busy at work, don't waste your time on such a small matter. If you have nothing else to do, hurry back to the aircraft factory. Those two broken planes are still waiting for you to repair them!"

Feng Ru quickly said goodbye and left. Looking at his back, Di Xiong smiled at Tian Mengxue and said, "This guy is very capable, but he has a bad temper. Only you can control him."

On the evening of April 1, 1913, after receiving news of a disturbance, Lan Jinping hurried to the hotel and saw that the hall was in a mess, with tables and chairs toppled over, many bowls and plates smashed to pieces, and all the guests had fled. The manager Du Yongzhong and several waiters were lying on the ground with bruised faces and noses. There were bloodstains and footprints on their snow-white uniforms, and it was obvious that they had been beaten. A young man in a suit with a cane was sitting on an intact chair drinking tea, with a group of bodyguards in black shorts surrounding him.

Lan Jinping angrily said to the young man in the suit, "Master Yuan, why are you causing trouble again? Not only did you hurt people, but you also smashed so many things? Is there any law here?"

Young Master Yuan was nicknamed Yuan the Cripple. He once fell off his horse and broke one of his legs. Although he hired a German doctor to treat him with all his strength, he still became a lame man and had to use a cane when walking.

Yuan Bozi sneered, "The law? In Beijing, except for my father, my words are the law! Now Lu Jianzhang has gone to Henan to fight the White Wolf. No one is here to protect you. Hurry and hand over your sister, or I'll call the police to put you in jail. Those old prisoners will let you know what it means to be unable to live or die."