Chapter 42: Smoke from beacons all over (1)

In Shanghai, in the General Command of the Alliance Army, Marshal Virginson faced a piece of letter paper, holding his beloved pipe in his hand, thinking about how to prepare the first battle report after he led his troops to China. In the past two months, the coalition forces suffered 20,000 casualties, defeated Guangzhou, fought Shanghai, and defeated Taipei, and all the battles were won. However, Virginson became even more anxious. The continuous victory did not wait for the Chinese government's request for peace talks, but instead put the 200,000 coalition forces in a dilemma. If all the battles had not ended with the victory of the coalition, Virginson would not know how to write this battle report?

Guangzhou suffered thousands of casualties, and Taiwan had more than 10,000. The most serious thing is that although Taipei occupied it, the Chinese army fled like a mountain and launched an organic war with the coalition forces, which made Taiwan's army unable to leave easily. Shanghai was wanted to attack Suzhou. Although Suzhou was close to Shanghai, in the eyes of the coalition forces, Suzhou seemed to be thousands of mountains and rivers away from Shanghai. The Jiangnan water network was crisscrossing, and the large troops could only rely on the existing roads, but all the roads had long been digging out, and there were no traps on the roads.

It is said that occasionally there are explosives that explode. For many days, there have been reports of soldiers exploring the way out and being killed and injured. Taking the countryside sales path is even more dangerous, let alone the trap. Even the Chinese have tampered on the ridge of the field. They either dug a pit to bury a few sharp bamboo sticks or put a clip against wild beasts. Yesterday, a soldier was injured by a clip. Virginson asked, "This clip is used to deal with wild beasts such as wild boars. The soldier's feet were considered useless and his tendons were broken."

As for Shanghai, it is still a safe place, but the Chinese have long run away without any food, let alone any grain. Now the 100,000-sea coalition forces are all maintained by sea transportation. If Taipei had not been taken down and the waterways were unblocked, Virginson really didn't know how to fight this battle.

Virginson's battle report was not written well, and an order from Britain made the marshal even more difficult.

This year is the British government's election year. The first joint war against China has caused great losses to the ruling party's prestige among the people. The opposition also took advantage of that opportunity to criticize the ruling party's ruling mistakes. The election is imminent, and the ruling party is eager to use the victory of this war to lay the groundwork for its re-election. However, two months after the coalition set out, there was no sign of victory. The ruling party, which paid huge expenses and started the war under huge pressure, became anxious. The Prime Minister decided to write a letter to allow Marshal Virginson to speed up the pace of the war and force the Chinese government to surrender as soon as possible, and demanded that the war must end before September.

Britain has difficulties with Britain, and France is not having a good life. Napoleon III's restoration was originally unpopular in France. It was entirely due to force to make the people surrender, and the domestic political situation was not stable. The purpose of launching a war against China was to gain more benefits and improve its prestige in front of the people. However, both countries underestimated China and believed that the Chinese government would surrender quickly under such a powerful attack by the coalition forces, but the war had been going on for two months, but the Chinese government had no intention of compromise at all.

Russian Ambassador Yakov also struggled with soft nails in Beijing. Although China seems easy to talk on the surface, in fact, Russia's diplomatic blackmail has not gained any substantial benefits. In addition, in France, in recent times, the emerging capitalist country Prussia has been constantly deploying heavy troops on the borders of the two countries. Moreover, the new Prussian Prime Minister Bethme is a tough guy who is determined to establish the image of a Prussian power through force. This is undoubtedly another threat faced by France.

The use of such a huge army to carry out the expedition was a heavy burden for Britain and France. What they hoped was that the war could end as soon as possible, and the fastest way was to force the Chinese emperor to surrender.

Faced with the government's decision, Marshal Virginson was in a difficult situation. The current coalition's arms reserves, according to the Chinese resistance momentum, can be fought for only one month, and food is also a big problem.

Marshal Virginson, Jean, Calmondo and others discussed and decided to use half a month to reserve strategic materials, and then use all their strength to go north to attack Beijing and force the Chinese government to surrender. This is also the only way he can reach the west, but this method is really a bit dangerous. If the coalition forces feel blocked in the attack on Beijing, the lack of supplies for the entire coalition is a big problem. Without food and ammunition, no matter how powerful the army is, it is a group of teethless tigers. Just as the coalition forces decided to plan, bad news came again. During the operation of the coalition's food outside of Britain and Germany, five thousand coalition forces were ambushed by the Chinese army and wiped out the entire army. This news was tantamount to the coalition command, and also made Virginson and others further realize the danger of this war and decided to launch an attack on Beijing in advance, end the war as soon as possible, and leave China as soon as possible.

What exactly happened in the direction of Yingde? It turned out that since the coalition entered China, grain supply has been difficult, and looting on the spot has become the preferred method for the coalition forces. The 30,000 French troops stationed in Guangzhou have undertaken such a arduous task. Since Guangzhou retreated, Chen Yucheng has been stationed in Yingde, and has always wanted to find an opportunity to deal with the coalition forces and make up for his achievements.

Chen Yucheng heard that the coalition forces were angry about the food everywhere, so he quickly thought of a way to deal with the coalition forces in Guangzhou. First, Chen Yucheng deliberately asked the coalition forces to leave some food for the coalition forces to snatch away many times in the direction of Yingde, and then sent people to spread the news that there were a large number of Chinese food hidden in Yingde County. After the coalition forces received the news, they first sent several small troops to test in Yingde. Chen Yucheng ordered all troops to retreat voluntarily.

A small number of troops were sent to defend the city of Yingde County. The coalition forces were indeed deceived, believing that the Chinese army had suffered a devastating blow in Guangzhou. Now they have no resistance in the Guangdong area and can only trap Yingde County. In addition, the amount of food hidden by the Chinese people is frequently found near Yingde, which further shows that there is a possibility of food hidden in Yingde County. Therefore, the coalition forces decided to increase their offensive efforts and sent a 5,000-man army to attack Yingde.

Five thousand troops left Guangzhou and were targeted by spies sent by Chen Yucheng. They rushed into Yingde. The Chinese in the city had already run away without any trace. Sure enough, they found countless food. The coalition forces were very happy, but they were soon in trouble. There was no one in the county town. How could they get away with so much food? The commander of the coalition finally decided to carry his soldiers. Fortunately, after the Chinese ran away, many carriages were left in the county town. It was not a problem to have no horses. The soldiers pulled themselves. Five thousand soldiers of the coalition forces stood on their shoulders and finally filled all the cars they could find. It was already dusk. After a lot of hard work, the coalition soldiers pulled the food out of Yingde County. Before they walked far, they found that the road ahead had been completely destroyed. Only then did they know that the situation was wrong. At this time, most of the coalition forces put guns on the carts, and people were pulling the carts. There was a burst of gunfire around, and the Chinese army came.

The coalition then woke up as if he had dreamt and knew the way of the Chinese army. The soldiers began to pick up their guns in a hurry to resist, fighting and retreating, wanting to retreat to Yingde County and stay waiting for assistance, but Chen Yucheng, who had planned it, could not let the coalition go like this? How could the fat meat from his mouth slip away like this? All the retreat routes of the coalition were blocked by the new army. Not to mention wanting to return to Guangzhou, there was no hope of returning to Yingde. Thirty thousand new army went down the mountain and tigers rushed to the coalition forces. In addition, the sky quickly became dark, and the coalition forces could not effectively organize defense in the dark. The new army launched a full-scale attack under the command of Chen Yucheng. After a fierce battle, the five thousand coalition forces ran away less than 300 people. As for the food, they still couldn't transport them away.

Chen Yucheng had just finished the battle. In the city of Guangzhou, the food that the coalition forces had worked hard was ready to be shipped on the dock. It was set on fire overnight. Most of the food that the coalition forces had made near Guangzhou was gone without using it.

On the coast of Guangdong, through intelligence, Liu Shiba and others knew that the main fleet of the coalition forces were all staying in Taiwan, so they decided to look for fighter jets in the sea area of ​​Guangdong. In terms of naval battles, Liu Shiba was not the opponent of the coalition forces. When it comes to fighting guerrillas at sea, it was the professionalism of the pirates. They fought and ran away. This is what pirates were best at. After leaving Taiwan, Liu Shiba and the others had no chance to do more votes, and their brothers had already itchy hands.

For a few days, Liu Shiba and his other coalition ships were not seen on the sea. Liu Shiba and Liu Yuan took their brothers to search carefully, hoping that another fat sheep would come to the door.

"Brother, I discovered the foreign devil's ship." The soldiers on the mast suddenly found the target and happily spoke the slander again.

"Where? Where? If you see it wrong, I will kick you into the sea." Liu Shiba was also excited, took out his telescope and looked in the direction the soldier pointed.
Chapter completed!