1890 King of Southeast Asia

"Your Highness, Your Highness!" In the Prince Chun's mansion, a young man dressed as a butler ran and shouted in panic.

"Why are you howling? This prince is not dead yet, you dead slave!" Zaifeng was depressed, and when he saw the flustered second butler, he was furious.

If this was not the slave who grew up with him, he would have been dragged down and chopped.

"The slave deserves to die, the slave deserves to die, Your Highness, the slave was also anxious for a moment and bumped into the prince..." The second butler knelt on the ground with a plop, kowtowed, and there was a dull sound with each kowtow.

"Okay, what happened? You are so flustered." Zaifeng waved his hand and asked him to get up.

The second butler did not get up, but stopped kowtowing. A trace of blood could be seen on the stone bricks, but he did not have time to feel pain, and only felt relieved.

The Qing Empire was a semi-slave and semi-feudal society. Slaves like him, no matter how arrogant they were outside, would be beaten to death by their masters.

"Your Highness, I don't know who leaked the news that Prince Ning was meeting with foreign envoys. Now students from all over the capital are rushing to Prince Ning's mansion, saying that they will not stop until Prince Ning retires." The second housekeeper knelt on the ground, crying and looking worried about Prince Ning.

Hearing that his own brother was in trouble, and it happened to be this incident, Zaifeng clenched his teeth.

"Where are the people from the patrol department? Let them catch the culprit! Severe punishment!" Zaifeng shouted sternly.

"Your Highness, calm down, Your Highness, these students cannot be arrested! At least the patrol police cannot be arrested, please think twice." The second housekeeper was stunned and quickly advised.

These days, there are few simple ones who can afford to go to school, especially new-style middle schools, especially in this capital.

Don't be fooled by TV dramas. There are poor students these days, but they are very few. Most students are at least landlords. Students in the capital are at least from gentry families.

Zaifeng was the regent, but even as the emperor, he did not dare to offend all the officials - unless he wanted to completely reshuffle the cards.

"What should we do? We can't just watch Zaixun being forced to retire, right?" Zaifeng thought about it and figured out this joint.

Even if he was stupid, he knew that he couldn't offend everyone, and he was not like a brainless person who declared war on eleven countries because of a disagreement.

"I dare not speak nonsense. The person who tied the bell must untie it. To suppress this matter, we must solve the source of the incident." The second butler said tremblingly.

"Source? Yuan Gongbao?" Zaifeng's first reaction was Beiyang, and the second butler knelt on the ground and said nothing.

"Okay, I know, let it go, the court has not reached any agreement with any country, Prince Ning will act as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and it is normal to receive envoys from various countries."

Zaifeng thought about it and knew what the source of the matter was. It just so happened that they didn't reach an agreement, and he could completely break this rumor with the court's actions.

The reason why Zaifeng was depressed early in the morning was that the negotiations failed.

No matter what conditions the Qing Empire offered, Britain, France and the United States remained motionless, as if they had changed their ways to become vegetarians.

Japan, Germany and Russia drooled over the conditions offered by the Qing Empire, but were unwilling to pay the price, and only verbally agreed to provide some weapons and equipment.

Especially Japan, the Qing Empire promised that the Japanese would build railways alone in the three provinces, and that immigration, business, mining, and factory establishment would not be restricted, and that political, economic, and military advisers in the three provinces would give priority to Japanese, etc.

Hearing this condition, the Japanese's eyes turned red, and they wanted to agree on the spot - if they hadn't seen the equally greedy eyes of the German envoy.

If the Japanese agreed, the British would not have enough position to drag people to condemn the Germans, and then the British would definitely make things difficult for the Japanese.

Japan now owes the British hundreds of millions of pounds in foreign debt, and they can easily bankrupt Japan without using military means.

"Beiyang, Beiyang! One by one, they have learned the Confucian classics to pieces, ugh!" Zaifeng thought about it and decided to wait and see the situation first.

What if the two towns put down the rebellion? Or the revolutionary army will have internal strife? - Like the long-haired.

...

Xiangyang, a place that has always been a must-fight for military strategists, ushered in another war.

In the north of Fancheng, Xiangyang, the Qin army that went out from the Three Qins set up camp less than 20 kilometers away from Fancheng.

There were more than 10,000 Qin troops on the expedition, including two infantry battalions of the new army, one cavalry battalion, and one artillery battalion, but no engineers.

There were 16 battalions of different sizes in the patrol battalion and the training army, totaling about 10,000 people, and five artillery teams, equipped with some small-caliber rapid-fire guns or old-fashioned artillery of different ages.

Admiral Song Tao controlled the entire army.

On the 10th, the Qin army set up its posture and advanced towards Fancheng.

A huge open carriage pulled by four horses slowly moved forward. A huge parasol was on top of the carriage. A man sat under the parasol, holding a fan with only five feathers in his hand and fanning it from time to time.

Nearly 10,000 people advanced until they were only five kilometers away from Fancheng before stopping.

"Does this group of revolutionary soldiers have no artillery?" Song Tao hid far away from the carriage, looking at the quiet Fancheng, extremely puzzled.

The carriage was such a conspicuous target, and it was not far from the city. Why didn't the revolutionary army attack? Did they look down on him, Song Tao?

Woo woo woo...

As soon as he finished speaking, a humming sound came from the sky.

Song Tao saw with his naked eyes that several black spots fell around the carriage, causing a huge explosion.

Boom boom boom...

"Did you see the rebels' artillery?" Song Tao did not pay attention to the fate of the carriage at the first time, but raised a telescope and observed the walls of Fancheng, hoping to find the revolutionary army's artillery.

That's right, the carriage was the target set by Song Tao, and all the way, he Song Tao really sat in this carriage, showing off his power, and only changed it today.

It was all because the Qin army was poor and lacked artillery. He also heard that the rebels had extremely strong firepower, so he could only use this method to attract the enemy's artillery fire and see if he could shoot down a few artillery first.

Boom!

The Qin army's artillery opened fire. They found several artillery firing on the city wall and opened fire at the first time.

Song Tao only saw a few flames rising on the wall of Fancheng, one of which was particularly huge, and then he heard the cheers of the artillery.

Song Tao could understand the cheers no matter how innocent he was, and knew that his strategy had worked, so he happily put down the telescope, drew his sword, and pointed at Fancheng:

"Pass the order down, the whole army will attack! The first to climb will be promoted three levels and rewarded with 100 taels of silver!"

This order was blind and did not conform to normal procedures, but this was exactly what Song Tao wanted.

"In a frontal battle, the enemy has strong firepower and sufficient supplies, while our army has come from afar and has insufficient supplies. Only by taking advantage of the situation can we have a chance to capture Xiangyang and go south to the three towns." Song Tao explained with a little frustration.

The surprise attack, his surprise, is to attack with the whole army as soon as it comes, more than 10,000 people attack on all fronts, and take advantage of the fact that the revolutionary army has not reacted, climb up a few people and open a gap.

"The general has an order! The first one to climb up will be promoted three levels and rewarded with 100 taels of silver!"

"The general has an order..." The cavalry conveyed Song Tao's order to the whole army.

"Kill!"

"Be loyal to the court!"

"Ennoble your wife and son today!"

"Glory and wealth are in front of us, brothers, the general will not treat us unfairly, kill!"

The officers were like chicken blood, urging the soldiers to rush forward.

Song Tao watched quietly from behind, and seeing that the distance was still far, he took out his pipe and smoked.

An hour later, more than 7,000 Qin infantrymen had arrived 500 meters north of the northern wall of Fancheng. After packing up their equipment, they were ready to attack the city.

…

Frontline Command of the 14th Regiment of the Revolutionary Army.

A unit composed of part of the 21st Brigade of the Chu Army and part of the original 3rd Regiment of the Revolutionary Army was recently pulled to Xiangyang to defend.

Xiangyang is divided into two cities, north and south of the Yangtze River, which are mutually supportive. The regiment headquarters is in Xiangcheng, south of the Han River. Fancheng, north of the Yangtze River, is the target of the Qin Army's attack, and a frontline command center has been set up.

"Captain, the enemy has started shelling again. The artillery has locked its position and asked whether to counterattack."

"No, let them wait a little longer and fire back when the enemy starts to charge." Jiang Yan shook his head.

I don't know how many shells hit the wall, making it bumpy, but the power of small-caliber artillery is just like that.

boom…

After the explosion stopped, the Qin Army began to try to rush up.

"The enemy is coming!"

"Come out! Get back to your posts!"

"Get back to your positions!"

"Get your machine guns ready, don't save bullets!"

Outside the city, soldiers ran out of the underground fortifications, hurried back to their positions, loaded their guns, and stared at the enemy who was "slowly" rushing up in front of them.

"Has the artillery stopped?" Jiang Yan ran up the city wall, picked up the telescope, and was stunned when he saw the Qin army charging less than 200 meters away from the position outside the city.

(The position outside the city spread out 200 meters from the city wall, and there were not enough people, otherwise there would be no need to defend the city.)

"Order the artillery to fire back and destroy its artillery position." Jiang Yan took out a signal gun and fired a signal flare.

Chirp~~

Boom boom boom...

The familiar sound of machine guns rang out, and the firepower network formed by dozens of machine guns was like an eraser, clearing the Qin army in one area after another.

Boom boom boom...

The artillery in the city fired, and the shells flew towards the Qin army's artillery positions.

In the Qing Empire's artillery training, the artillery warfare part is very weak. On the one hand, it is not used in domestic battles, so it is not taken seriously. On the other hand, Western teachers do not teach it carefully.

Therefore, the Qin army's artillery has been standing there carelessly, collecting shells and other metal materials at this time.

Bang!

"This damn place, there are so many mosquitoes." The only artillery commander of the Qin army cursed.

Woo~~

"Huh?" The commander heard the sound and turned his head to look.

Just saw a black shadow falling, and the commander who realized that something was wrong had no time to move before the black shadow exploded.

boom!

"What's the situation?" Song Tao looked at the sudden explosion and was a little puzzled. Shouldn't the revolutionary army's artillery be knocked down?

"General, the brothers suffered heavy casualties. Let them withdraw!" A lieutenant general, who seemed to be a training soldier, shouted sadly.

Song Tao raised the telescope and found that the Qin army soldiers were falling in groups, and his brain was suddenly congested.

"Sound the horn, withdraw the troops!" Song Tao sighed.

"Cavalry, please cover the infantry, send a message to the court, I feel blocked outside Xiangyang City, the rebels have strong firepower, our army lacks guns and artillery, and has suffered heavy casualties. We are unable to attack, and request support."

South, Yichang.

More than a dozen steamships are emitting thick smoke and heading upstream, while behind them, several steamships are emitting blazing flames and slowly sinking to the bottom of the river.

On both sides of the Yangtze River, the revolutionary army's artillerymen shot out the shells in the barrels, began to clean the battlefield, maintain the artillery, and wait for the next battle.

.