Chapter 23: Night Raid, Su Changqing's Fierce Counterattack from Defense!

"Snap!"
"Snap!"
Two whips lashed fiercely across the faces of the two commanders of the Ma Family Army’s 1st and 2nd Cavalry Brigades, leaving behind a pair of blood-red welts.
Yet, facing the man who wielded the whip, neither commander dared to utter a single word of protest.
The man holding the whip was none other than the leader of the Ma Family Army, the most brutal and ruthless of the three "Ma" warlords of the Northwest.
"Two brigades!"
"And you couldn't take a tiny place like Baizhang Pass? You’ve thoroughly disgraced the Ma Family Army."
Watching the leader berate his subordinates, Commander Hu said nothing. He simply stared quietly at the battlefield as it was swallowed by the twilight, remaining silent.
"Commander Hu!"
"I apologize for the spectacle; these subordinates of mine are truly useless. After an entire day, they haven't even managed to take a small pass like Baizhang."
The Ma leader said with a smile.
"Commander Ma!"
"To be honest, the fact that the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Brigades have pushed to this point already shows they have done their best. After all, they are facing my former junior from the fourth class of Whampoa."
"The Old Man himself once praised him as the 'Dragon of Whampoa.' Always competing to be at the forefront of every battle, victorious in every engagement, conquering everything he sets his sights on..."
"Back in the Northern Expedition, this junior of mine was already showing his brilliance. At the Niuxing Station in Hongcheng, he used a single regiment to single-handedly hold off the full-scale assault of two divisions from Sun’s warlord army."
"The only reason the Old Man was able to withdraw safely from Hongcheng was because of him; otherwise, the Old Man wouldn't have tried to keep him by offering him the command of the 1st Instructor Division."
"It is a pity, though."
"Different paths, different goals."
Commander Hu’s admiration for Su Changqing was evident in his every word. He was resourceful and capable of pushing his limited forces to their absolute limit. Even in a position of weakness, he could rely on his own strategic planning to turn the tide. If Su Changqing had not left, the position of commander of the first German-equipped division in Jinling would undoubtedly have gone to the Old Man’s "white moonlight."
"Even if this man has a brilliant record and is cunning beyond compare, he is ultimately just part of a group of Red bandits that will never amount to anything."
"Commander Hu!"
"Today, I make a military pledge to you right here."
"We let the Western Route Army slip through our fingers."
"But as for these Red bandits at Baizhang Pass, even if it means exhausting the entire Ma Family Army, I will not let a single one of them escape alive!"
"Hahaha, with those words from Commander Ma, I can rest easy."
"Come, come, Commander Hu. I have prepared some light wine to welcome you."
"Since it is already late, let the boys rest and regain their strength."
"How about we capture the enemy commander alive tomorrow?"
Commander Hu laughed upon hearing this. "Hahaha, that is easily done!"
"However, Commander Ma! My junior is exceptionally cunning; even though night has fallen, we cannot afford to let our guard down."
"Naturally!"
Although the Ma leader was a warlord-tyrant of the Northwest, notoriously cruel, he spared no effort in fawning over this commander sent from Jinling. After all, the Ma Family Army had already defected to Jinling, and Commander Hu was a favorite in the inner circle of the Old Man.
Soon, the Ma leader and Commander Hu were walking with arms around each other, becoming increasingly chummy.

On the other side, before nightfall, Su Changqing had once again adjusted his defensive deployments.
Of course, given Su Changqing’s personality, defense could never be purely passive, waiting for the enemy to attack. In his view, a true defensive battle was one where a counterattack was launched from within the defense—seizing the moment when the enemy was most lax to strike them hard in the kidneys. This was what he called "defensive counter-offense."

"Tick, tick, tick..." The hands of the Swiss mechanical watch made a crisp sound in the silent night.
The time between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM is the period when the human body is at its lowest state of physiological alertness. Particularly between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM, vital signs like heart rate and blood pressure drop to their nadir, and brain activity decreases, leading to the deepest sense of exhaustion. This is when deep sleep cycles most frequently occur as the body undergoes repair.
After a day of high-intensity combat, the enemy troops were utterly exhausted and far more prone to fatigue. This, then, was the perfect window for a counterattack.
Under Su Changqing’s training, the 24th Regiment of the Hong Army was exceptionally skilled at night fighting. Of course, this time, facing the Ma Family Army and the Qingtian Party troops who had come from afar, Su Changqing did not intend to send out the entire 24th Regiment.
As the saying goes, "Victory lies in quality, not quantity." The more troops dispersed, the harder it is to coordinate a counterattack in the dark. A elite force of fewer than a hundred men, fully equipped with submachine guns and pistols, and carrying plenty of hand grenades, could inflict the greatest damage and psychological terror while preserving their own strength.
This was why Su Changqing had summoned the entire guard company of the 1st Column. These guards were battle-hardened veterans with outstanding combat awareness and high tactical proficiency. Their seamless cooperation would unleash immense power in the darkness.
"Zhang Zixiong!" Su Changqing patted the shoulder of the guard company commander.
"Present!"
"Come back alive!"
"Yes, sir!"
As the hands of Su Changqing’s mechanical watch pointed to "two," Zhang Zixiong and the guards vanished into the night.
At that moment, the Ma leader and Commander Hu, stuffed with food and drink, had already collapsed into their beds, snoring loudly.
Using the cover of darkness, Zhang Zixiong and his men crept to the perimeter of the Ma Family Army's encampment. Outside the tents, bonfires burned, and only a few sentries patrolled, struggling with drowsiness.
Zhang Zixiong signaled, and soldiers armed with crossbows aimed at the patrolling sentries.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
In the darkness, aided by the light of the fires, the bolts struck the sentries dozens of meters away with lethal precision.
"Move!"
Zhang Zixiong waved his hand, and the guards split into two teams, charging into the camp with lightning speed.
More than a hundred soldiers with submachine guns infiltrated the camp. They eliminated numerous Ma Family soldiers along the way until one sentry, left unchecked, managed to raise an alarm.
Their position was fully exposed.
At that moment, the guards stopped hiding. Exposure was only a matter of time anyway.
"Action!"
"Comrades, kill them! Wipe out these sons of bitches!"
Submachine guns roared; the "rat-tat-tat" of gunfire began reaping the lives of the Ma Family soldiers before they could even react. In close-quarters combat, the advantage of the submachine gun was fully realized. Bullets punched precisely into the chests of the enemy. Even those who managed to react and reached for their bolts lacked the time; at the rate of fire of the submachine guns, they were turned into bloody sieves before they could fire a single shot.
The two assault squads pushed deeper and deeper. Grenades were primed with a bite and tossed toward the tents or clusters of enemies while the men advanced tactically.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
"Boom, boom, boom!"
"Rat-tat-tat!"
"Rat-tat-tat!"
The explosions of grenades and the rhythmic fire of submachine guns composed a magnificent symphony. Chaos began to spread throughout the camp. The guard company moved like two dragons, relentlessly carving through the enemy lines.
The panicked Ma Family soldiers had no idea how many Hong Army troops had broken in. In their confusion, how could they organize any resistance? One by one, they chose to flee in terror. Under the bright moonlight, the battlefield turned into a one-sided massacre.
"Comrades, charge!"
"Avenge our fallen comrades!"
The submachine guns raged. When magazines ran dry, they drew their pistols, picking off the fleeing soldiers one by one. The ground was littered with the bodies of the Ma Family Army.
At this moment, the entire camp bore a striking resemblance to the scene from *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* where Gan Ning raided Cao Cao’s camp with a hundred cavalrymen. This was the calling card Su Changqing had prepared for the Ma leader and his senior from the Academy.
Even when facing an enemy that far outnumbered him, Su Changqing would never choose to hole up and wait for his death.
Amidst the chaos and slaughter, the hundred-man guard company had fought their way to the Ma Family Army’s stables, posing a grave threat to the very quarters where the Ma leader and Commander Hu were sleeping.