Chapter 835: A So-So Victory

"Bastards! Bastards! Cowardly rats!" Shen Hu cursed furiously. From his position atop the small hill, he could see clearly that only a few dozen men had attacked from the seaside flank. A single spit from each of his men could have drowned them. Yet the thousand-plus men he had painstakingly organized were actually being chased away by these few dozen!

But cursing served no purpose now. Only twenty confidants remained around him. If he didn't run to gather his men immediately, his entire operation would scatter completely. He had to descend the mound and flee with his confidants.

Shen Hu's forces were plunged into utter panic. The marine platoon pursued relentlessly. The marines killed with gusto; when an enemy stood before them, a bayonet thrust sufficed—they didn't even bother reloading. The laborers pushed the mountain howitzer in pursuit, pausing occasionally to fire a shot, intensifying the chaos among the fleeing bandits.

Looking out from the watchtower, the scene outside Hongji presented quite a spectacle. A vast black mass of ant-like figures fled in panic ahead. In the rolling dust and smoke, a barely visible small cluster of blue-clad soldiers chased furiously behind.

"Damn, they really can't take a beating," Beikai remarked in surprise. During the defense of Bopu, the pirates had at least mounted several attacks. At some points, they had even engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the marines. This time, they had simply collapsed before even forming up.

The marines were chasing with abandon. Beikai, fearing they might suffer losses due to their small numbers, ordered a company of naturalized citizen laborers to leave the fort as reinforcement and capture prisoners along the way. They pursued for five or six li before the bandit main body had completely dispersed, then withdrew.

Many bandits had been walking since early morning. After half a day without a grain of rice, they were dizzy with hunger and couldn't even run. They simply lay on the ground awaiting their fate—either gasping heavily or lying prone begging for mercy. Some had curled up on the ground with heads in their hands, and had even soiled themselves.

Around Hongji Fort, the bandits' various rags, prostrate bodies, and corpses lay everywhere. The laborer company, spears in hand, drove all those still capable of movement together. They were gathered for counting. A total of over six hundred were captured. Bandit casualties, in truth, were not substantial—fewer than three hundred corpses littered the field.

Though the marines were panting heavily, their spirits soared. Such a thoroughly satisfying battle was simply a pleasure. Beikai was complacent—so it turned out he possessed military genius. As he contemplated how to compose the telegram to Lingao, he couldn't suppress a triumphant laugh, leaving those around him puzzled.

Bai Guoshi seethed with envy, jealousy, and resentment. Needless to say, credit for this great victory belonged to Beikai. He himself had neither commanded any forces nor exerted effort in combat, nor strategized from behind the scenes. He had been purely a spectator. When merits were assessed, he could only rank at the bottom, tied with Zhao Xue. Of course, Zhao Xue certainly wouldn't mind this—but when the time came to divide the spoils of victory, the one complaining about being a "useless person" would certainly also be her.

Dugu Qiuhun emerged from the laborer camp with blade raised—throughout the entire battle, he hadn't fired a single shot. The bandits had never even reached the earthen walls. This left Dugu Qiuhun, who had steeled himself for a passionate fight, profoundly disappointed. Gazing at the bandits strewn across the ground, each in rags with a detestable face, he acted on impulse, raising the GLOCK 17 in his hand and shooting the unlucky wretch nearest to him. The man's head was immediately blown open by the 9mm bullet. The bandits lying on the ground were scared out of their wits, and several immediately soiled themselves.

The prisoners were being counted and spoils collected. Just as the entire Hongji Fort was immersed in a joyful, relaxed atmosphere, Fan Hai Bao's fleet appeared.

Fan Hai Bao ran a local pirate gang. By the standards of the South China Sea coast, they were an extremely minor outfit—at most on the level of Gu Dachun's gang from the past. Fan Hai Bao also wisely never operated in deep waters, basically working along the Vietnamese coast and occasionally raiding the Hainan Island and Guangxi coast. When business was slow, they even went fishing. In short, in the Yalong Bay area, Fan Hai Bao was considered one of the minor overlords at sea. When Shen Hu had invited him to attack Hongji Fort jointly, they had hit it off immediately. Fan Hai Bao felt quite confident. After seizing those ships, he would send men ashore to assault the fort together; they would split everything fifty-fifty upon meeting.

When Fan Hai Bao's fleet materialized off the coast, the land battle had already concluded and the battlefield was being cleared. Fan Hai Bao remained unaware of the situation on land. He had originally intended to wait for Shen Hu's people to make contact, but after prolonged waiting, no small boat came. While puzzling over this, he observed the large ship moored at shore had already raised its sails, obviously preparing to set sail. He immediately decided that regardless of what was happening on land, he would first seize the ships at the shore.

"Everyone be careful!" Zhang Dabala had been watching the entertaining show on land for some time and had never gotten a chance to take action himself. Spotting pirates coming from the sea, his heart blossomed with joy. He hurriedly called to his men: "Quick! Battle alert!"

The battle between Fan Hai Bao's fleet and the Zhennan didn't last very long. Because the Zhennan was a solitary large ship, if it became entangled in a melee, it could easily be approached by the enemy for boarding combat—highly disadvantageous for the Zhennan. The Zhennan had no engine installed and possessed no advantage in mobility; its superiority lay solely in firepower and the organization and discipline of its sailors compared to the pirates. So from the outset, Zhang Dabala kept the Zhennan on the outer line of the enemy formation, never allowing the enemy ships to form an encircling posture. This way, he could exploit the range advantage of his artillery to continuously bombard the enemy from a distance without permitting them to close.

This tactic demanded exceptionally strong ship-handling ability. Zhang Dabala was obviously an expert—he had the sailors deploy four large sculls to provide additional propulsion supporting his steering.

This cat-and-mouse engagement continued for over an hour. The Zhennan, leveraging its superior firepower, struck Fan Hai Bao's ships multiple times, rapidly sinking two smaller vessels and forcing one ship that caught fire after being hit to run aground on the shore—the pirates who came ashore were quickly eliminated by marines and militia on land.

Fan Hai Bao lost confidence in continuing the fight. He simply led the fleet straight toward the Hongji Fort pier, preparing to make an all-out effort to seize the pier and let the pirates on the ships go ashore to grab some loot before departing—after all, the enemy had only one large ship and surely wouldn't dare come ashore to compete with him in numbers. But the moment his ships approached the pier, they were bombarded by artillery from Hongji Fort's corner bastions. The shells fired from the bastions caused great panic among the pirates. In the chaos, the pirates abandoned another grounded ship, and the remaining vessels swiftly turned and withdrew from the battlefield.

The naval engagement put a less-than-perfect end to the campaign. Given its unremarkable performance, expecting the solitary Zhennan to completely annihilate Fan Hai Bao's fleet was somewhat unrealistic. Though the naval battle results were limited, both land and sea engagements were essentially routs, so the overall results remained acceptable. After all, the only forces that could properly be called regular armed forces in the Hongji defense were merely thirty marines.

The prisoners were herded into hastily constructed pens, and the bodies were thrown into the sea. Not many spoils were captured in the battle. The bandits were dirt poor; even the things they had looted and dropped everywhere were regarded with disdain by the Senators—a pile of rubbish, simply.

The most valuable spoils of war left by the bandits were the bandits themselves. More than five hundred prisoners could serve as labor. Additionally, over a hundred local women captured by the bandits were taken in. Beikai instructed the translators selected from among local laborers to visit nearby villages, proclaiming and reassuring the populace, and for each village to come to Hongji to retrieve their women and property—building a good reputation among the locals and attracting more people to come to Hongji to work and trade goods.

Dugu Qiuhun suggested that Beikai should execute a batch of prisoners outside Hongji Fort as a warning. "Fully demonstrate to the monkeys how powerful we are, so they won't dare to covet Hongji again!" he declared passionately, continuing to wave his tachi.

Beikai hesitated and expressed opposition. "That doesn't seem right, killing prisoners for no reason." As an administrative leader, he instinctively regarded all living people as labor. Five hundred prisoners would prove very useful whether in the mine pits or for road construction. Killing them would be too wasteful.

"How can the monkeys know how powerful we are if we don't kill? Not only must we kill, but we must kill artistically!"

"I object! We can't slaughter the innocent!" Zhao Xue feared death most of all. During the battle, she had hidden in a house, not daring to emerge. Now hearing about executing prisoners, her sympathy was greatly stirred, and she firmly opposed it.

"Nonsense! What innocent? They're bandits." Dugu Qiuhun spat as he spoke. "If they had won today, wouldn't all our heads have been chopped off..."

Bai Guoshi felt there was no point in executing prisoners without cause and also voiced opposition. Dugu Qiuhun's proposed mass execution in front of Hongji Fort was not agreed upon, and the bandits in the prisoner camp narrowly escaped disaster.

The day after the first Hongji defense battle concluded, a reinforcement fleet arrived from Lingao. Six Type I patrol boats escorted Dabo Shipping's coal ship to Hongji. The ship brought two reinforcement marine platoons, additional grenades, and fifty Minié rifles. After receiving Skaed's report, the Executive Committee immediately convened an emergency meeting. Following discussion, they ultimately decided that the Navy would establish a patrol base in Hongji, with patrol boats permanently deployed at the base. Besides protecting Hongji and escorting fishing fleets, they would eventually form a grid patrol system over the Gulf of Tonkin with patrol boats deployed at various ports on Hainan Island.

The role of naturalized citizen laborer companies in emergencies was validated and taken seriously. In emergencies, the organized naturalized citizen laborer militia had played a critically important role. Therefore, it was decided to formally establish the Hongji Militia General Command at Hongji, appointing Bai Guoshi as Deputy Militia Commander and Beikai as Commander.

The person who brought these orders was none other than Skaed himself. He had come to Hongji to conduct research—of course, the primary purpose was to avoid questioning by the Senate Standing Committee, in what was termed "lying low."

(End of Chapter)