The spring of the fiftieth year of Qianlong's reign was colder than previous years. It was already past March, but the heavy snow was still falling all over the sky. The cold current from Siberia is still controlling the land outside Shanhaiguan, trying to prevent the spring breeze from blowing from inside Shanhaiguan.
On March 15, a long transport team walked from south to north on the post road from Kaiyuan to Wula City in Jilin. The road, which was originally frozen by ice and snow, became muddy after the continuous grinding of wheels.
Two-wheeled carts pushed and pulled by people were loaded with various military supplies such as silver, grain, bean cakes, cloth, iron materials, copper materials, iron nails, gunpowder, etc. The general in charge of escorting the team became more and more anxious due to the time delay.
"It's already two days late. If we don't speed up, A Zhongtang and Marshal Fu will really kill people!"
The general who spoke was wearing a red gold chainmail, a thick black cloak, and a third-grade top hat; he was followed by a bearded attendant. The military commander's eyes were sunken and red from the days of rushing and being anxious. The originally shiny braid has become dry and astringent.
"Sir, please go to the tent and have a sip of tea. It's too cold here." The attendant leaned over and dusted off the mud on the general's cloak, then stood up and advised.
"How can you still be in the mood to drink tea! Marshal Fu is stationed in Jilin, reporting and urging us every day, just waiting for us to arrive and start casting cannons!" After the military attache finished speaking, he turned around and saw a truck pulling copper. The carriage carrying materials was stuck in the mud, and several peasants were pushing it forward with all their strength. The two horses kept neighing at the driver's shouts.
It doesn't matter if he is slow, all the carriages behind him will stop and wait. The general took a look, untied his cloak, left it on the ground, and strode over.
"Listen to my command and work hard together! One, two, three!" When the attendant saw it, he didn't care about the cloak and hurriedly ran behind the general to help. Everyone worked together to drive the carriage out of the mud pit.
"Hurry up and find rocks to fill this place! Otherwise you will have to sink in!" The general wiped the muddy water from the corners of his eyes and ordered his subordinates.
At this time, there was a sound of horse hooves coming from the post road to the south, and the mud water brought up by the horse hooves splashed all over the peasants.
"Six hundred miles, hurry up! Get out of the way!" As the shouts got closer, the people in the middle of the road moved out of the way. A courier wearing a cap tied with a cable tassel, wearing a war skirt, and a waistband that could not fit, and carrying a sealed bucket on his back, galloped past on a stagecoach.
The general stood on a high place beside the road, took a closer look at the stagecoach, and said dissatisfiedly: "Six hundred miles urgent?! Are the adults in the Military Aircraft Department crazy? It's only the middle of March, and the snow hasn't stopped yet. Yeah! I know how to push it all day long!"
The bells, saddles, stirrups, etc. worn by the post horses of the Qing Dynasty were all different from those of folk horses, and were uniformly made and distributed by the capital. The top of the stirrup is in the shape of a dragon's head, mostly with seven or nine eyes containing beads; the stirrups are all inlaid with gold or silver engraved silk. Generally, a horse race would take three hundred miles to deliver a memorial, and it would be based on a fire sign; if a chicken feather was inserted as an urgent message, it would be five to six hundred miles, and it would be based on the military compatibility. The messenger can only dismount and rest after completing one mile of horse racing.
The messenger just now set out from Kaiyuan Station and passed eight stations along the way. Because it’s a 600-mile express, we have to go all the way to Wula, Jilin.
When the post horse passed by, the peasants scattered on both sides of the post road took off their tools from the carriage and began to fill the mud hole just now.
At the end of the first month of the fiftieth year of Qianlong's reign, Agui and Fukang'an, who once again took orders, headed north to Jilin with two thousand soldiers and horses from the Beijing Firearms Battalion. Under Fukang'an's efforts, the Qing government dispatched a large number of troops from Shengjing and various banner camps in the pass, 70% of which were firearms troops.
This time Qianlong ordered a total of 1,071 Eight Banners soldiers and horses to be recruited from various places, including eight battalions of the Han Army's Eight Banners Firearms Battalion, four Manchurian Firearms Banners Four Battalions, one battalion of Four Forward Banners and four Banners, one battalion of Four Banners and Four Banners of the Forward Army, one battalion of the Defense Army and Xiaoqi There are two camps in each camp.
Because the battle was at the Longxing area outside the pass, Qianlong, Yongyan, Fukang'an and others did not want the Green Camp to get involved, so the Eight Banners were also deployed from various provinces to garrison the Eight Banners.
Shanxi, Shaanxi, Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Sichuan provinces will send 1,000 to 2,000 Eight Banners garrison troops northward. In addition, Fukang'an also asked Qianlong to dispatch 5,000 cavalry from the Six Banners of Horqin, the Left and Right Wings of Khalkha, and the Seven Banners of Ordos, which belonged to Nezasak Mongolia.
Even so, Fukang'an still felt it was not enough. He and Agui kept sending memorials to the Military Aircraft Department asking for continued troop deployment.
Yong Yan, He Shen and others from Beijing. Being overwhelmed by Fukang'an and Agui's big moves, most of the daily official duties were arranging the number of people going north from various places and urging the departure time.
In ancient times, the deployment of troops was actually the deployment of grain and grass. As the saying goes, "the troops and horses have not moved, but the grain and grass go first."
Without a supply of food and grass, the troops would not be able to dispatch. But the Qing Dynasty’s food and salary system was very strange! Because the Eight Banners troops are stationed in different provinces, if they want to mobilize troops across provinces, they need to raise their own military salaries, and then report to the Ministry of War after the war. When writing a memorial, you need to go to the Ministry of War for accounting, and when appropriating money, you need to pay 20% of the fire consumption silver first.
This is okay for wealthy provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but for the poor provinces in the northwest, there is simply no way to survive. Therefore, each province can only mobilize a maximum of 2,000 people for the expedition. It cannot afford any more.
As soon as Fukang'an and Agui arrived in Jilin, they ordered the shipyard to start building ships according to the clipper drawings provided by the British. In addition, Agui adopted the method used in the Jinchuan and Jinchuan campaigns and decided to build a cannon foundry outside Jilin City to make up for the lack of artillery by casting cannons nearby.
Beihai Town on the other side.
Since the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Beihai Town has issued a general mobilization order.
The Ministry of Security once again recruited 3,000 people from old refugees to form a force of 5,000 people. One-third of the soldiers came from the construction workers and lumberjacks under Chen Qingsong; the other two-thirds came from the 18,000 people who had just arrived a year ago.
Except for the two companies stationed in Ezo and the recruit training team, the rest of the original two thousand soldiers had been trained like crazy for more than a month. In the training program formulated by Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang, in addition to strengthening basic military skills training, trench defense tactics have become the largest part of the training. The most important things in this tactic are machine guns and artillery. For this reason, the company originally led by Lu Shoushan was all reorganized into an artillery unit.
At the hospital, Liu Siting led a large number of housewives to make a large number of battlefield first aid kits. A new batch of paramedics also started training. Since Fuldan City is too far away from Beihai Town, it is very necessary to build a medical station there, so Liu Siting will take A Miao and other 20 nurses to join the first batch of teams heading north.
Chen Qingsong has the hardest life. While he has to cooperate with the Ministry of Security to mobilize his workers to join the army, he also has to select workers from new refugees. At the same time, he also had to formulate a spring plowing plan for the fifty years of Qianlong.
Zhao Liang has officially named his imitation "Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver" as "Model 84 Revolver." This revolver uses 0.35-caliber round lead bullets, which are loaded with six rounds. The bullets and gunpowder are wrapped in nitrified paper to form a fixed load. When loading, the fixed-loading bullet needs to be stuffed into the chamber of the runner's cylinder, and pressed into the cylinder with the folding depressing rod provided under the barrel. Before firing, it must be installed on the anvil at the rear of the cylinder. A flash cap serves as a primer.
The two hundred Ainu people from Ezo Land can now understand the marching orders and can communicate in simple Mandarin. Zhao Xin decided to equip these simple-minded guys with well-developed limbs with Type 84 revolvers. Anyway, as long as the output of the fire hat is controlled, the Ainu will not be able to change the world.
Zhao Xin took advantage of the opportunity of purchasing arms from various places for more than a month and actually obtained a set of German position maps of World War I.
After careful study by him and everyone in the security department, they decided to do the same thing outside Fuldan City to deal with the Qing army's large-scale group firearms attack.
Zhao Xin also figured it out. Isn't it just a crowd tactic, queuing up and shooting! Machine guns and cannons are used to deal with all kinds of dissatisfaction in this era! Marshal Fu and Agui Zhongtang, come on!
On March 20, an advance team of three companies led by Liu Sheng and an engineering logistics team of 3,000 people led by Zhao Xin personally set out for Fuldan City under the leadership of the Serdan reconnaissance team. .
This team is equipped with a large number of horse-drawn sledges. The Mongolian horses previously captured and the heavy-duty draft horses bought by Zhao Xin were all used to pull the cart. Since all the construction materials and tools have been collected by Zhao Xin, the logistics personnel only need to carry food supplies, get on the sledge and follow them so as not to fall behind.
In mid-April, the vanguard arrived and set up camp three kilometers south of Fuldan.
In the green tent used as a conference room, Serdan, who had just completed his reconnaissance mission, was carefully reporting to Liu Sheng the situation of the residents and the inn in the city.
"Let me talk about Karen's situation first. Karen in Fuldan City is on the roadside under the old city. There are thirty households standing there, all of them are bannermen. Among them is a leader. There are ten horses in Karen. , are all tied up in the stables outside, and you can ride on them at any time. So what I mean is that we must first capture Karen to prevent the guards from escaping and reporting the news."
(The requirements of the Qing Dynasty for post stations in various places were that twelve fast horses must be available day and night, tied to iron rings outside the wall. When the messengers came galloping, they had to fight against the post soldiers even though they were far away. Shouting: Which paragraph of newspaper or memorial is this messenger sending?
When the postman heard the shouting, he immediately took off the horse's reins from the iron ring and led the horse to the post road to wait. As soon as the messenger arrived, the postman waited on the messenger to get on the new horse, and then watched the messenger whip his horse and drive away. As the saying goes, "Changing horses does not change people." Afterwards, the postman put the reins of the messenger's mount around the horse's neck, and the horse returned along the original road, walking through Tunchuan Street along the way. Neither the bannermen nor the people dared to interfere without authorization. )
"In addition to the post-houses, there are fifty households within the earthen walls of the old city. These include bannermen and Hezhefeyaka people."
Liu Sheng nodded and said to himself: "The weapons are nothing, the main thing is to prevent them from escaping and reporting the news." After speaking, he raised his head and said to Serdan: "Let you and Erlu each lead a platoon, and take down the inn first. .Is there any problem?”
Serdan thought for a moment and said, "Sir, I have only one request."
"Tell me."
"Sir, whether they are the postmen here or the border residents, they are all miserable poor people. What I mean is, if they surrender, can you not kill them?"
Liu Sheng smiled and patted Serdan on the shoulder and said: "We are not butchers. We just need to surrender and put down our weapons to ensure their safety."
The social status of Yiding in the Qing Dynasty was extremely low. Not only were their descendants unable to take scientific examinations to become officials or soldiers, but their marriages were also strictly restricted. Even though the Yiding were considered to be bannermen, they were still a class similar to official slaves. They could not marry with other classes and could only propose marriage to the same kind. As a result, the custom of intermarriage between Yiding households was later formed.
The life of these post boys is extremely difficult. It is said that "their families are extremely poor, they have no clothes to cover their bodies, no food to satisfy their hunger, their parents are cold and hungry, and their wives are separated. Although they have heirs, they are unable to marry and remain alone for the rest of their lives."
Seldan took a deep breath, stood at attention and saluted Liu Sheng: "Your Majesty, I will feel relieved. Let alone one inn, the entire Fuldan City, my investigation team, and two more platoons will be added tomorrow." We can get it before dawn."
"Okay! Take Fuldan City and I'll give you credit!"
When Liu Sheng arranged the task, Zhao Xin, fifty miles away, was in his tent, holding information and an old map, studying the terrain and roads in the Fuldan City area.
If you want to occupy the entire Jilin General Mansion in the future, then the post road must be controlled. During the Qianlong period, the transportation network under the jurisdiction of Jilin General Mansion took Jilin Wula City as the hub and radiated to all directions. Since the tenth year of Tianming, a total of seven post roads have been opened in Jilin, including: Jilin City-Kaiyuan, Jilin-Ningguta, Jilin-Boduna, Jilin-Sanxing, Ningguta- Hunchun, Ninggu Pagoda - Sanxing, Ninggu Pagoda - Yinggeguan (Yinggemen).
What Zhao Xin wants to cut off now is the line between Ning Guta and Hunchun. This post road starts from the southeast of Nanwoleng River in Ningguta and passes through Malehuliwoji, Saqikul Road, Gahali River, Gasun River, Detong'e River, Mukedeheng Ridge, The Mizhan River reaches Huichun; then it goes northeast, passing through the Abdalli River, the Shuba River, Fuldan City, the Niyarimbila River, and the Huya River, until it reaches Chengfu (pronounced Tongli) in the east of Xingkai Lake. As far as Telku Mountain.
There are only six Cullen outposts on this road. These Karen also take into account the function of the post station. As long as this line is controlled, the vast black land from Fuldan City to the east of Xingkai Lake will be fully owned. With this land, Beihai Town has the confidence to accommodate a large number of refugees from Henan.
Zhao Xin often has a headache for Beihai Town, which is currently dominated by refugees from island countries. On the one hand, he sympathizes with the tragic experience of the hungry people in the island countries, but on the other hand, he still hopes in his heart that the Chinese will become the mainstream here. To this end, he plans to take a series of administrative measures to naturalize the refugees from these island countries as Chinese after this year's battle.
"Sir, please warm your feet. You have been gone all day." The orderly Tian Guisheng came in from outside carrying a hot water basin.
"Guisheng, are you still used to following me?" Zhao Xin put down the information in his hand and asked with a smile.
"It's good! It's just that I'm not used to it in the military camp."
Zhao Xin took off his shoes and socks, soaked his feet in hot water, and said with satisfaction: "That is to refine you from an ordinary citizen into a good piece of steel. This is how Mr. Liu and Mr. Wang came here."
"Forget it, I still want to be your orderly."
"You kid, you don't have any lofty ambitions at all."
"Who said I didn't? The eldest lady asked me to serve you well. Serving you well is my ambition."
Zhao Xin shook his head dumbfounded. This kid was full of thoughts of master and servant, so he had to go back to the furnace and continue practicing!
At three o'clock in the morning, Serdan and Erlu set off with the reconnaissance team and two platoons of soldiers. He asked Erlu to lead two platoons to block the two entrances and exits of Fuldan City. He led the reconnaissance team towards Karen Station.
Although it was already April, the temperature at night was still cold. In this kind of weather, none of the station guards in Karen will come out to watch the night. The station guards in the barren mountains would never have thought that someone would attack a place as simple as theirs.
In the darkness, the team wearing white cold-proof clothing quietly approached the stable, which was still five hundred meters away. A dozen horses suddenly woke up from their sleep, snoring uneasily and raising their ears in the direction of Seldan and the others.
As Serdan slowly stood up, the team members on both sides also climbed up from the snow, arching their bodies and preparing to attack.
"superior!"
A dozen people ran quickly towards the stables, their boots squeaking on the snow.
"Who?" A weak voice sounded from the room next to the stable. It sounded like he didn't have enough to eat last night and didn't even have the strength to speak.
With a "bang", the wooden door made of worn-out pine boards was kicked open from the outside, and Serdan rushed into the house with a pistol in hand.
"Don't move! One more shot and I'll kill you!" Serdan shouted in Manchu.
"Ah?!" The man standing in the room looked surprised. He was only halfway through his pants.
"Who are you? You didn't sleep in the middle of the night, and you came here to make mischief. Are you fainting from hunger? I tell you, that bean cake is for horses, and no one can eat it, otherwise they will be whipped. Close the door quickly, Mrs. It's cold." Standing thought that Karen's companion was joking with him.
Seldan understood clearly that this man had no intention of being a prisoner at all. So he said to the soldiers beside him: "Tie him up and gag him."
"You've rebelled! Who are you? Let me know that I have to beat you to death. Hey, hey, what are you doing? Let go, let go of me! Wuwu~~"
The two soldiers went up and tied up the stationer's hands and feet with three strokes, and then stuffed a quick towel into his mouth.
After daybreak, the early-rising residents of Fuldan City were surprised to find that the entrances and exits on the east and west sides of the castle had been blocked by a group of people wearing strange clothes, all of whom held strange shotguns in their hands.
Wait until they take a closer look, be good! Why are these people wearing mourning clothes? But the mourning clothes looked particularly thick and warm. Especially the leather boots on their feet, which are black and shiny.
The residents in the fort were all stunned. Could these people be sent by the imperial court? But nothing has happened to us recently.
(End of chapter)
