Chapter 42: Smoke from beacons all over (4)

Yang Yi's sudden arrival made Li Xiucheng very frightened. In addition, Yang Yi came to the frontier position alone when he was sleeping, which made Li Xiucheng even more uneasy, fearing that he had something not done well and that he would affect his position in Yang Yi's mind after being discovered.

Although Li Xiucheng is a talented person, his natural desire to pursue power is still very strong. This is the difference between him and Chen Yucheng. Both come from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Chen Yucheng doesn't pay much attention to these aspects. Maybe it is related to his personal origin. There is a fundamental difference between Li Xiucheng, who comes from a scholarly family and Chen Yucheng, who comes from a poor family.

Li Xiucheng quickly walked to Yang Yi and said, "I can't come with the adults to patrol. Please forgive me. I have already punished him for being imprisoned. Damn Guard, I will not inform you if you come."

Yang Yi quickly smiled and said, "Don't let you wake you up, it's my order that you should keep him from doing?" Yang Yi's trust and consideration for Li Xiucheng may be the most touching thing about Li Xiucheng. As a surrendered general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xiucheng, can achieve this today, and his gratitude to Yang Yi cannot be expressed in words. Although Li Xiucheng is enthusiastic about power, his loyalty to Yang Yi has not changed in his life.

Li Xiucheng accompanied Yang Yi to see all the positions outside the city. Yang Yi was very satisfied with Li Xiucheng's work. The barbed wire on the front line had been pulled out and the mines were buried. Li Xiucheng was very familiar with the situation, from a machine gun to a large one, and it was clear about the specific position of a cannon. Accompanied by Li Xiucheng, Yang Yi quickly learned everything he wanted to know.

Yang Yi left, and Beijing still has a lot of things to deal with. The intelligence department reported some time ago that the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu had frequent contact with the old powerful people in Beijing. This is what Yang Yi is most worried about at present. Recently, various domestic forces have begun to get ready again. Tibet is under the control of Britain, and some people have also started to clamor for independence. Xinjiang is not peaceful. Some Mongolian tribes have also begun to expand their power. All this shows that someone is manipulating behind the scenes. Yang Yi clearly knows that these are all the ghosts that the coalition forces and the Russians have caused trouble. As long as the master is beaten, these slaves should be honest. As for these guys in China, they are still obsessed with the power and glory of the past. Sooner or later, they will rebel. After finishing up the coalition forces, they will go back to deal with them.

It was time for Yang Yi and Li Xiucheng to say: "Tianjin is the gateway to Beijing. You must make full use of all your strength and force the coalition forces to retreat as soon as possible. The Russians have already taken action in the Northeast. Fortunately, the northeast is large and Nie Shicheng has enough strategic depth to fight and retreat, and it is entirely possible to support it until after the battle in Tianjin is over. Please give it to you."

In the northeast, the Russians could no longer sit still after they could not get benefits from diplomatic mediation. Russian ambassador Yakov jumped up and down in Beijing some time ago, but he did not get any substantial benefits and was rejected everywhere. Yang Yi met him several times, but no matter how Yakov threatened and tempted him, Yang Yi always practiced Tai Chi. Yakov talked about peace and Yang Yi agreed. When he said he had signed a treaty of stolen the country, Yang Yi immediately began to pretend to be confused and pushed him with Yakov. Today he said he wanted to ask the emperor, tomorrow he wanted the ministers to discuss it, the day after tomorrow he said he wanted to ask the empress dowager, the day after tomorrow......

Yakov finally understood that Yang Yi was playing with him, and the Russians who were angry and angry also lifted the veil of hypocrisy, and the dagger showed up. The 100,000 troops began to fight towards the northeast.

The Russian army suffered a loss when Nie Shicheng came up. Although Yakov had already passed on the situation of fighting between the Chinese army and the coalition forces back to the country, the Russian commander Pi Deluofu also received news about the British and French coalition forces' tenacious resistance in China. Since 1841, foreigners have been used to doing whatever they want in China. In addition, the Qing army is corrupt, which gives Western countries the impression that the Chinese army is backward in equipment, officers are afraid of death, have extremely poor training, and have little combat effectiveness. This has been formed in the West too early, so the Russian army does not take Nie Shicheng's new army seriously.

The Russian army led by 3,000 Cossack cavalry, and 100,000 troops rushed towards China. Nie Shicheng first showed weakness to the enemy and stepped back more than 150 kilometers. The Russian army was indeed deceived and thought China was scared by them. The Russian army commander Pi Deluofu even threatened to reach the city of Beijing within half a month. The Russian army commander Pi Deluofu also ridiculed the incompetence of the British and French coalition forces. He fought in China for two months but failed to surrender the Chinese government. He also suffered huge losses. After the Russians suffered losses from Britain and France in Crimea, they were not very convinced at home. They had the idea of ​​competing with Britain and France again. This time they sent troops to China was their best opportunity to regain their face.

The Russian army was as if they had entered a deserted state in the early stages of the war. Wherever the Cossack cavalry went, the Chinese army had already run away. At this moment, the Cossacks' arrogance suddenly rose. Without waiting for the follow-up troops to come up, they rushed towards China alone.

When the three thousand cavalry of the Cossacks distanced from the main force, Nie Shicheng's opportunity came. Under Fuyuan City, Nie Shicheng concentrated 30,000 main forces to set up his pockets, determined to eat the three thousand Cossacks in one bite, and give the Russian army a loud slap.

As soon as the arrogant Cossacks passed Qingyun Ridge, Nie Shicheng began to tighten his pockets. Ten thousand people cut off the retreat of the Cossack cavalry in Qingyun, and 20,000 people began to encircle and annihilate the Cossack cavalry.

On August 5, 1860, the three thousand Cossack cavalry relied on the horse's express bravery and quickly rushed to Fuyuan City, leaving nearly twenty kilometers away from the main force of the Russian army, and fell into Nie Shicheng's ambush circle.

On that day, the new army fired guns and cannons, machine guns, grenades, rifles, and mortars, shooting together, and the Cossacks were headless flies. After learning that the Cossack cavalry was surrounded, they ordered the troops to rescue quickly. In front of Qingyun Ridge, ten thousand soldiers of the new army braved the Russian artillery fire and stubbornly blocked the Russian army for one day. Under the city of Fuyuan, 20,000 new troops fought bravely to kill the enemy, and 3,000 Cossack cavalry were arrested. After Nie Shicheng won the first battle, he immediately arranged it in Fuyuan City to prepare for defense. The Russian army, who suffered a loss, was eager to retaliate and immediately killed Fuyuan City. Nie Shicheng commanded the troops, relying on the city walls and favorable terrain, fought fiercely with the Russian army for one day, and the Russian army suffered 600 casualties. After dark, Nie Shicheng took the troops to give up Fuyuan, retreated in big strides, and distanced from the Russian army.

In this way, Nie Shicheng commanded the new army, fighting and retreating, blocking during the day, and retreating to the next favorable terrain at night, setting up positions, and when the Russian army arrives, they will fight again. Sometimes they will block hard for a few days, and sometimes they will run away after a long time, which makes the Russian army have no idea what the Chinese army wants to do. Although the Russian army is frequently blocked, it is always advancing. However, sometimes it can advance more than ten kilometers a day, and sometimes it cannot move for a few days. It depends on how Nie Shicheng wants to fight.

After a few days of blocking, although it caused more than 2,000 casualties to the Russian army, Nie Shicheng's troops also suffered more than 1,000 casualties. After all, there were many Russian soldiers and artillery fires were still fierce. As the Russian army continued to deepen and the front line was too long, the problem was exposed. Nie Shicheng had long ambushed thousands of cavalry along the way. These local young men may not be the opponents of the Russian army, but they could fight and run away after relying on the familiar terrain and cavalry speed, frequently attacked the Russian army's supply line, which made the Russian army very worried and the speed of attacking forward slowed down.

Also on August 5, 1860, the British and French allied forces began to fight outside Dagukou, Tianjin. Li Xiucheng had no intention of blocking the Allied forces at the Dagukou Fort. The Dagukou Fort was empty, and the nearby residents had long since moved. Although the North China Plain outside Tianjin was flat, there was no danger except Dagukou. Li Xiucheng was determined to lead the Allied forces to the plain, avoid the threat of the coalition artillery fire, and fight to the decisive battle with it.

On the above. Although the Dagukou Fort was calm, the coalition forces carefully prepared artillery fire. After firing hundreds of shells, they found that there was no counterattack from the Chinese army, so they sent the landing troops. The landing troops quickly reported the actual situation to the coalition command, which made Virginson and others even more worried. Judging from the experience of Shanghai, this was not a good thing. But now, there is only one way to go black.

Although there was no blockage during the landing, it took two days for the coalition forces to fully land. Baihe had already let Li Xiucheng block it with mines. Not to mention that Li Xiucheng could also see the masts exposed by shipwrecks everywhere. Not to mention that Li Xiucheng used the method of sinking to block the river, but the coalition forces that could be seen everywhere, which were black and round and round, did not dare to drive the warship into the Baihe River at all, and could only dock near the sea. The battle on land was entirely up to the Army itself.

Tianjin is not far from Dagukou, but for the coalition forces, the road seems so long. Landmines were buried on the official road, and one of the coalition forces had to be caught every few steps. Although the mines that constantly exploded did not affect the combat effectiveness of the coalition forces, the shadow of the Tianjin inspection was not seen, and more than 300 people were killed and injured. Looking at the coalition soldiers who were missing their arms and legs, the other soldiers also felt the sadness of the rabbit and the fox. The morale of the coalition forces was severely hit. If you were determined to avoid the main road, the credit problem came again. The mines were gone, but the traps were constantly. I really don’t know what the Chinese thought, and dig so many pits on the ground. Isn’t this destroying the land and destroying farmland?

Virginson and his troops spent three days careful along the way, destroying countless traps, trampling dozens of landmines, and finally seeing Tianjin City. In three days, even the Chinese were not seen, and six hundred officers and soldiers had already caught in. What made the coalition army most trouble was that the road was difficult and the artillery was very slow. The coalition soldiers had to discover and destroy the trap first, and fill it in so that the artillery could advance. Fortunately, the two countries could already produce new types of artillery just now, and the artillery was much lighter than before. If they had made an 8,000-pound cannon, then there would be no way to fight this battle. The coalition army also had to thank China's backward industry, which did not have enough steel and equipment, and the new army arsenal was not even high in mine production. Only more than three hundred landmines were buried outside Tianjin City, which was already all the spot stock in Li Xiucheng's hands.

Tianjin City saw it, but the coalition forces were stunned by everything they saw. Virginson, Marshal Carmondo, was numb when he was watching the outer positions of Tianjin with a telescope.

Trenches, rows of barbed wire, and bunkers, making the outside of Tianjin City airtight. The trench coalition has seen it. This thing has obvious effect on reducing artillery fire, but the barbed wire and bunker coalition have no idea what it is.

Looking at the barbed wire and bunkers, Virginson shouted in his mind, what are the Chinese doing? What are these? The doctors were not sure about the coalition forces and their commanders in the middle of the meeting, and they didn't care about it. It was late, and the coalition forces set up camp on the spot, preparing to attack Tianjin the next day and open up the road to Beijing.

On the eve of the war, this may be a night that the coalition soldiers will never forget. The Chinese were all devilishly transformed. The whole night was very lively near the coalition station, with firecrackers, horns and trumpets ringing for the whole night. The coalition troops were not treated so well in Shanghai, and the Chinese seemed to have used all the musical instruments they could find. Fortunately, the coalition troops had already experienced such tests in Shanghai, so they would ignore them and concentrate on sleeping. With a bang, the unique mortars of the new army fired, and I didn’t know if they were sleeping in the garrison. The hellish night finally passed, and the coalition soldiers all started line up listlessly, preparing to start today’s pre-war preparations.

Faced with the defensive positions outside Tianjin, the coalition command made a careful judgment. After three days of accuracy and analysis, it also made preliminary judgments and corresponding countermeasures on various unfamiliar things outside Tianjin. Only then did it begin to prepare to kick off the battle.

The artillery fire began, and the 100,000 coalition forces equipped nearly a thousand various artillery pieces, blowing up the outer positions of Tianjin City. New soldiers hid in solid bunkers, waiting for the end of the coalition artillery fire to get on the position to clean up the foreign devils. The bunkers that appeared on stage for the first time performed outstandingly. The coalition artillery fire did not cause much damage to its smooth appearance. Only more than twenty bunkers built with hundreds of steel and cement were destroyed in the artillery fire. Many of the wooden stakes tied with barbed wire were blown off, but this did not affect the effectiveness of the barbed wire to prevent the coalition from advancing smoothly.
Chapter completed!