late Qing Dynasty arrest

In September, Li Guolou, who had just become a father, did not enjoy much love for his children. He left the capital as an imperial envoy and went to the Dagukou Fort.

Dagukou Fort is more than 40 kilometers east of Tianjin Wei.In the early Ming Dynasty, after Yongle Emperor Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, the strategic position of Dagu Haikou became more and more prominent. This is the only gateway to Beijing from the sea. Once it falls, the capital will be exposed to outsiders without any cover.During the Jiajing period, in order to defend against Japanese pirates, the coastal defense of Dagukou was increasingly prepared, fortresses were built and troops were garrisoned. In 1816, the Qing government built a circular fort on the north and south banks of Dagukou.The inside of the fort is made of wood, the outside is built of blue bricks, and it is grouted with lime. It is about one foot five feet high, nine feet wide, and six feet deep. This is the earliest fort in Dagukou, and it is built as solid as a mountain.After several years of operation, Dagukou Fortress has built 5 large fortresses, 12 earthen fortresses, and 13 earthen fortresses, forming the Dagu Fortress Group. A complete military defense system has taken shape.

In 1858, Seng Gelinqin, the imperial envoy, guarded Dagukou, renovated the fort, and built five more forts, three of which were on the south bank and two on the north bank. The five-character name means that the fort is majestic and guarded at the height of the gateway to the sea.Another fort was built on the stone wall on the north bank, named "Stone Seam Fort".Each fort has 5 cannons and 3 small forts.Each fort is 2 meters to 3 meters high, and the circumference of the base is 25 meters to 10 meters. sea ​​surface.Over time, the craftsmanship of the fort has been greatly improved. In addition to wood and blue bricks, it was rammed with more than two feet thick three-component soil. The shells hit it, at most it was only a shallow hole, and the height of the fort increased to three to five feet.

Now Dagukou has expanded the fort again, and bought iron-clad fast boats, bumper boats, and mine boats from Europe. At this time, Dagukou's ability to resist the enemy should not be underestimated.

Since 1840, foreign powers invaded Dagu three times in 1858, 1859 and 1860 in order to seize economic interests and political privileges in China.Three successive invasions were launched against the Dagukou Fort.Relying on strong ships and guns, the big powers put the Dagu area under the ravages of their iron hoofs, and even forced the capital, burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil, forcing Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty to flee from Beijing.

Dagukou Fort is known as "Humen in the south and Dagu in the north".Admiral Shi Rongchun led his troops to defend the fort and fought fiercely with the British army. Most of the patriotic officers and soldiers died heroically. This is known as the first defense battle of Dagukou in history.

The Yellow Dragon Banner, the unique national flag of the Qing Dynasty, flutters in the wind on the highest fort, and the hunting sea breeze makes the Yellow Dragon Banner whistling.The national flag, which was hastily designed on October 1862, 10 due to the influence of the national flags floating on Western ships, was still a teenager, showing its vigor and majesty.

Li Guolou won glory for the country, defeated the foreign boxing champion Orangutan Taishan in Tianjin, became a new generation of national hero in the Qing Dynasty, and was awarded by Emperor Tongzhi.So he was promoted again, and he was a civil servant of the third rank-the general political envoy of the Imperial Academy.

Those Jinshi who debuted with him have now become his students.Opening his mouth and shutting his mouth, that is, "Teacher!" He did not dare to go to the Imperial Academy, and he was treated so favorably that all Jinshi in the same year asked him for what he needed.

Li Guolou wears a sapphire glass top, nine pythons and five grasping python robes, and a peacock mending suit, but he has never ridden eight green wool sedan chairs.Instead, he stepped out of the carriage, with a solemn face and a pair of slender eyes, and glanced at the thousands of officers and soldiers lined up to welcome him.

The eight strong Mongolian bearers assigned to him by the Ministry of Rites were all changed into personal guards by him.Originally, he wanted to return the eight Mongolian bearers to the Ministry of Rites, but those eight bearers who spent money to come to Li Guolou's side, how could they go back to the Ministry of Rites?Swear and swear, willing to endure hardships, not afraid of death.Li Guolou also likes the Mongols. The Mongols are not as corrupt as the Manchus. They are good candidates for soldiers, so I will mention them once. Let the eight Mongols know how to read and write, and send them all away. I went to study.

Yulu, the admiral of Dagukou, was in his thirties, and his name was Shoushan.Manchurian Zhengbai Banner, the son of Hubei governor Chonglun.The root is Zheng Miaohong, and the admiral is a third-rank military officer, which is the same as Li Guolou in terms of grade, but in the Qing Dynasty, military officials were more expensive than military officials, and military officials were almost two levels lower than civil officials.Seeing Li Guolou get off the carriage, he hastily paid homage, and said loudly, "Your Majesty, Yulu, sees the imperial envoy."

Nowadays, the Manchus are extremely jealous of Li Guolou, a Han Chinese who was raised to join the Manchus. Li Guolou, who has no martial arts and martial arts, has an unbearable degree of promotion.Isn't it just to use silver to sell the official hats obtained by selling officials and nobles?So even though Yulu saluted, Li Guolou was extremely upset by the perverted look on his face.

Li Guolou smiled sinisterly and said: "The Yujun Gate is not very polite. I am an imperial envoy, following the emperor's order, to come to the Dagukou Fort for inspection. You have worked hard and lined up to welcome it in the hot weather. Hehehe!"

A burst of trumpets sounded, and Li Guolou, accompanied by Admiral Yulu, reviewed the formation of thousands of people.Now that the national fortune of the Qing Dynasty is going upwards, the soldiers of the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion are squeezed by the new army organized and trained by the militia, so that there is no living space.Become an unwelcome group of soldiers.So they are also very anxious, afraid that they will not even have the errands to eat. This is not a matter of one person, it is the job of smashing their children and grandchildren.Therefore, the soldiers of the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion have changed a lot since they realized their shame and acted courageously.The defense of the battle formation is quite organized.

Li Guolou held a monocular to watch the results of the firing, and all of them hit distant targets.A gust of sea breeze blows, and the pungent smell of gunpowder makes people think they are on the battlefield.

"Okay! Very good! But I want to watch each artillery team fire, and show me the 64 cannons one by one." Li Guolou nodded in satisfaction, but he was still not satisfied. Seeing is believing.An army is not composed of a few outstanding officers and soldiers, but a group combat capability. This is the military quality that a qualified army should demonstrate.

"Master Imperial Envoy, the target of this... target is gone, can you change it to another project?" Admiral Yulu, who was still arrogant and domineering just now, was stunned, staring at Li Guolou in a daze, I never thought that the imperial envoy would not be easy to fool, and the "little plum who is known as the god catcher" really wasn't confused by the appearance, and he wanted to find out the origin of the Dagukou Fort.Just now, I underestimated Li Guolou, a layman, and the imperial envoy who doesn't like oil and salt, where should I start to make friends?

Li Guolou put down the binoculars in his hand, and said decisively: "Yu Junmen, this imperial envoy wants to see 64 cannons, and shoot each one individually. I will give you an hour to prepare all the targets and shells, otherwise you will be punished as a slack military situation. "

Admiral Yulu was like thunder, with cold sweat dripping from his forehead. He turned over and bowed, bowed his head and said, "Zha! This subordinate immediately prepares." He already had a bad omen, and he didn't know how many cannons were unable to fire?Several forts with a radius of several miles, some of which are just for display, have not fired a cannonball for many years.

A small school said flatteringly: "Master Imperial Envoy, please sit in the lounge for a while, the gate of the Rongjun will have an hour to prepare."

"This imperial envoy won't sit down, so stand up straight for me. Soldiers should look like soldiers. Stand up straight for this imperial envoy. What do you look like?" All the officers scolded.

Li Guolou only used two rounds to make the officers in Dagukou feel like they were facing a big enemy. The imperial envoy had the power of life and death.All the officers raised their spirits and clustered around Li Guolou, climbed up the forts one by one, and checked the military installations everywhere, for fear that he would see something wrong with the forts at Dagukou.

At noon, Li Guolou boarded a fort and said, "Let's eat with the officers and soldiers here. Don't tell me that the soldiers here eat old moldy rice."

"Don't worry, Mr. Li. This is the gate of the Qing Dynasty. The officers and soldiers are treated first-class, and they all eat good rice. There is still big fat meat today. Tonight, every fort will have a jar of daughter red!" The officer made proper arrangements, so that Li Guolou could not find any loopholes, and a big meat lunch made everyone's mouth full.

Li Guolou wiped his mouth, pointed to a chubby officer, and said, "Hey, my dear friend, what do you do?"

The fat officer, who had been eating well, choked, rice grains spewed out of his nose, put down the big bowl, stood up straight, and said loudly: "Reporting to the imperial envoy, the name of the next officer is Hongdu, and he is a logistics quartermaster. Follow the example of Admiral Shi Rongchun, who is honest and honest, the fort is alive, and the fort is dead! Never take a step back!"

What can Li Guolou say?The chubby quartermaster standing in front of him was a corrupt official, so he could only praise: "Well, very good! You have ambition! This imperial envoy reminds you and transfers you to the Great Northwest to fight. Do you think it's okay?"

"Thank you, Imperial Envoy, I can't wait for the official, I have long wanted to serve the country faithfully!" Quartermaster Hong thought that Li Guolou was joking, he was not an officer of a faction, so he couldn't be transferred casually, so he pretended to be obliged to die, hoping to win praise .

"Okay! I will help you. Tianjin happens to have a batch of military supplies that need to be transported to Lanzhou. I will issue an order to let you accept this difficult task. The military order is like a mountain. If you miss the deadline, you will be beheaded." , Hongdu, don’t betray the trust of this officer.” Li Guolou entrusted the errand of transporting military supplies for thousands of miles to the quartermaster Hongdu, and let him suffer from the hardships of living in the open.

All the officers present were dumbfounded, and their eyes were focused on the quartermaster Hongdu. If he said a wrong sentence, he would be punished immediately.

"Zha! This officer promises to complete the task, and dare to issue a military order!" Quartermaster Hongdu admitted his failure, his voice raised an octave, and both misfortune and fortune came.The quartermaster has a term of office, and he is about to be transferred from the logistics post. Maybe he can get a more lucrative job by following Li Guolou.With so many soldiers around, Li Guolou fell in love with him, this is the fate cultivated in the previous life.

"Well, this is what our new generation of soldiers in the Qing Dynasty looks like. This officer depends on your performance."

Li Guolou just wanted to punish the corrupt elements in the army, and accidentally dragged a corrupt official into the camp of his cronies.Everyone looked at the quartermaster Hong with admiration. He was able to push back Li Guolou's tricks without leaking, and he had an awe-inspiring and inviolable military temperament.

The shooting range was rearranged, and the angle of view of the cannon was adjusted again and again. Most of them were a few marksmen, and the angle was adjusted.Li Guolou didn't understand these testing distances and angle adjustments. He thought that as long as the gunners on the fort were different, it was the average level of gunners.

The admiral Yu Lu had already made arrangements in a short time, and the only thing Yu Lu was worried about was how many cannons would fail to fire, or even whether they would explode, it all depended on God's will.

The forts are distributed on one side, and you need to ride a horse or a carriage to go from one fort to another. Since Li Guolou, the imperial envoy, rode a horse to watch the firing scene of several forts, and other officers also rode horses.Unexpectedly, some officers did not know how to ride a horse, and regardless of official etiquette, they lowered their heads and got into the carriage.

The admiral Yulu was still able to ride a horse, and he walked side by side with Li Guolou, defending his subordinates: "My lord, we are artillerymen, and we don't have horse riding in our usual training subjects. Horses and mules are used to transport military supplies. Therefore, the soldiers usually take good care of their livestock, and mainly walk and run fast."

"Oh, is that so?" Li Guolou glanced sarcastically at Admiral Yulu, who was marching slowly, and waved the horsewhip in his hand.The black horse galloped out with all its hoofs, like an arrow leaving the string, leaving all the officers behind to eat dust.

Admiral Yulu's original honor and self-confidence as a soldier were completely lost by Li Guolou, so he dared to show his qualifications as a senior in front of Li Guolou.Yu Lu pinched the horse's belly with his feet and urged the horse to run fast, but his unfamiliar horsemanship made him far behind by Li Guolou.Yu Lu was ashamed, he was going to embarrass the soldiers of the Eight Banners today, and the fact that several cannons at the Dagukou Fort became a decoration would definitely cause an uproar in the court, how would he justify it?The great crime of dereliction of duty is destined to be a tragedy.

( 1 3 Kanwanghai Pavilion )e