In the troops of the 2nd Regiment, 1st Division of Guangxi Army, there was a probationary officer named Huang Xuchu. Although he was short and thin, he had a broad nose, pointed ears, and piercing eyes. He was only twenty years old and from Yong County, Guangxi Province. Not long ago, he graduated from the first term of infantry department of Guangxi Army Speed-up School and was assigned to the 1st Division as a probationary officer with the rank of junior lieutenant.

  If humans really have a sixth sense, Huang Xu might be a real case in point.

  Today's march was indeed arduous, everyone trudged along the riverbank covered with cobblestones, walking shallowly and deeply for an entire morning. Because the commander did not allow cooking, they could only endure hunger and wait until they left the valley to have food.

  But the law that a person's body must rest after prolonged exercise will not be invalidated by an order from a superior.

  The soldiers were dissatisfied with the order to delay dinner, and the negative emotions made everyone's body even more exhausted.

  But Huang Xuchu remained vigilant, he felt the thick killing intent on both sides of the valley. However, when he looked up, there were scouts from their own side standing on the mountain heads on both sides. If there really was an enemy attack, they should have fired warning shots. Most people thought so too, but Huang Xuchu still felt uneasy in his heart.

  He boldly found his squad leader: "Squad leader, I think there's a problem with this place"

  The mustachioed captain looked at the young probationary officer with disdain: "What's so special about this place, is it spiritual energy or demonic energy?"

  The big-bearded battalion commander himself burst out laughing, and the officers around him also followed suit, ridiculing him. Huang Xuchu did not give up his judgment because of the ridicule: "Battalion Commander, there are too few guards on both sides of the mountain. In this situation, we can easily be ambushed."

  The big-bearded captain laughed even more scornfully: "Do you know what kind of people are on guard at the top of the mountain? They're our old Guangxi army's scouts, all of them are battle-hardened men, not some beardless, impoverished, short and puny scholar like you."

  From Huang Xuchu's division to this unit, those veteran officers have consciously attacked and excluded these student officers who graduated from military schools.

  Huang Xuchu naturally understood this and could only shake his head, then went to find his classmate Tao Jun. This kid was luckier than himself, assigned to the headquarters as a probationary staff officer, while he became a platoon leader directly.

  "Taoyou, trust me this once. If I were the enemy commander, I would definitely ambush our troops in this valley. Look at the terrain on both sides, is there a more suitable place than here? Quickly bring your men and follow me to occupy a advantageous position first!" Huang Xu shouted hastily to Taoyou.

  Tao Jun shook his head and said, "There's no order for me to do this. If I were to be ordered by that big-bearded battalion commander, I'd be shot dead. Besides, old classmate, it's not that I don't trust you, but you're just going by feeling and having me lead the troops to occupy a high point. To others, it would seem like you've gone mad, and I'm just accompanying you in your madness. Moreover, you also saw that the hilltop is fully occupied by our patrols. Even if we really wanted to ambush them in this river valley, we should have been discovered by now."

  Huang Xu also felt contradictory, but the feeling in his heart shouldn't deceive himself. But where did the problem lie after all?

  "We're all almost dead from exhaustion, and you still believe in those patrols? Even if I'm willing to help this old classmate of mine, my younger brothers below definitely won't listen to me. Climbing mountains is really tiring, okay?"

  "Patrols"... Huang Xuchu suddenly realized where the key to his inner unease lay - it was these patrols.

  His eyes immediately looked towards those standing on the mountain top as sentries, and he saw a scene that made the entire Guangxi First Army stunned.

  A red and white tiger flag appeared on the mountain, followed by a burst of gunfire. A shell whizzed in along a clear trajectory towards our side.

  The famous ambush battle in history started at 2:45 pm on October 2nd. The attack order was issued from the vanguard ridge, several hills away from the ambush battlefield.

  The battle began with the Xiangxi defenders of the 3rd "Mighty Tiger" Division unhesitatingly pouring cannon fire down on the Guangxi First Division.

  The river valley is only about 300 meters wide, and from the very beginning, the First Division of the Guangxi Army was in a very unfavorable position.

  Chen Bingkun, although he was thrown off his horse in a sorry state due to the horse being startled, fortunately dodged the sharpshooter of the Ferocious Tiger Troop and the first round of cannon fire.

  Fortunately, this fall did not hurt a single hair. After the event, Li Zongren, the commander of the 3rd Division of Xiangxi Army, sighed: "If we had eliminated Chen Bingkun from the beginning, the Battle of Bantang would have been absolutely easier to fight."

  Coincidentally, Chen Bingkun, like Xiaoqiang, not only didn't die but immediately revived with full health after falling off the horse and is now actively directing his subordinates to launch a counterattack on the spot.

  But there are some things that can't be changed by individual efforts, for example, the current position of Gu Jun is not just a little bit bad but extremely bad.

  The entire unit was pinned down on the wide, open beachhead, taking heavy fire from both sides of the mountain, suffering mounting casualties and plummeting morale.

  Compared with the entire battalion, the second team of the Gui army was in a relatively good position. They happened to be near some large boulder groups, so they didn't suffer much loss in the first round of attack.

  Logically, the best way to deal with an ambush is to immediately organize troops to attack both sides of the mountain and seize favorable terrain, then successfully break through. However, the second regiment was completely trapped in chaos and could not organize any effective counterattack.

  Huang Xu patted Tao Jun's shoulder: "Gather all the people you can gather and follow me to find the captain."

  Tao Jun now regrets not listening to Huang Xu's advice, so he naturally executes Huang Xu's requirements without any compromise.

  Huang Xuchu bravely picked up the military flag and rushed towards the headquarters. Many Guangxi soldiers who had lost their command were like finding their backbone, immediately following the flag to rush towards the headquarters.

  The most mysterious thing is not the military flag, but the blessing of heaven that is responsible for ambushing the second battalion of the Gui army. The newly formed 303rd Infantry Regiment of the Xiangxi Army's Third Division, led by Liao Xue, was in charge of this section. Liao Xue, who was good at grasping the battlefield situation, also noticed that the originally suppressed Gui army suddenly appeared to be active, not only with high morale but also starting to follow the moving military flag and making a centripetal movement.

  "Yes, that's the red flag. Liao Kai suddenly grasped the key to the movement of the entire battlefield. He turned his head and shouted loudly: 'Sniper, take down that military flag!'"

  The captain gave an order and the three sharpshooters following him immediately loaded their guns, took aim at the target and fired "bullets of justice".

  The first bullet of justice hit a brave soldier of the Guangxi army who suddenly rushed up to Huang Xuchu's side, shooting him in the neck and killing him instantly. The other soldiers of the Guangxi army had no time to pay attention to their fallen comrade and stepped over his body to continue chasing after the military flag.

  The second bullet shot out just grazed Huang Xuchu's eyes, giving him a big fright. His footsteps slowed down instantly. As a result, the third bullet that was originally heading straight for Huang Xuchu's head hit his left forearm instead.

  As a result, the three bullets not only failed to knock down the military flag but also made the injured Huang Xuchu furious. This little guy roared and rushed into the team's hiding place in a few steps.

  Liao Yue looked through the telescope and saw what had just happened, except for scolding the god gunner next to him as a waste, he could only sigh that the little guy who raised the flag earlier was too lucky.

  Huang Xuchu only found out the root of the chaos when he rushed into the team headquarters. That damned mustachioed battalion commander was sitting still behind a stone, not moving at all. It's said that in the just-ended first round of artillery fire, the mustachioed battalion commander's brother-in-law and several main confidants were ruthlessly shot dead by a mortar shell right in front of him. This bloody scene actually scared this battalion commander who usually bragged about his bravery and fearlessness to death. Huang Xuchu clearly remembered that when he first arrived at the Second Battalion, this mustachioed battalion commander had beheaded more than 20 captured bandits with his own hands just to intimidate these newly assigned officer cadets from military school, and even laughed loudly after killing them.

  It's really unimaginable that the extremely brutal person at first would be so afraid of death. Huang Xu couldn't help but shake his head, thinking: "It seems that what is called bravery and cruelty are not one thing after all."

  Huang Xuchu gave a disdainful glance at this cowardly captain, his behavior was an insult to his own great beard.

  "If you want to stay alive, all of you listen to me!" This was Huang Xu's first angry roar.

  It was this angry roar that made the officers of the Second Regiment of the Guangxi Army, who had never encountered such a large-scale armed attack before, suddenly wake up. They immediately threw away all their qualifications, foundation, and backing, and everyone asked: "What to do?"

  At the age of twenty, Huang Xiu saw everyone and immediately let out a sigh of relief: "The formation has been disrupted, but we still have soldiers. Although there is no heavy firepower support, we have bayonets. There are 22 officers here in total. Each one of you go out and organize 20 soldiers for me. Don't worry about anything else, just charge towards the mountain head opposite us. Tao Jun, you're in charge of leading your squad to gather scattered soldiers as a supplement. If you don't want to die, act immediately! Also, everyone take off their coats and use white shirts to identify yourselves, otherwise the enemy's sharpshooters will personally greet you."

  The officers of the Tuan Department rushed out as soon as they received the order, gathering those soldiers who were hiding behind rocks and didn't dare to show their heads, then launched a counterattack.

  Huang Xu finally let out a sigh of relief, only to discover that his left forearm was in great pain. Tao Jun hastily applied medicine for him: "Brother Xu, what's to be done? What are our chances of winning?"

  Huang Xuchu shook his head and said, "I don't know what the current situation is like, but if we don't resist, then we really won't have any chance of winning."