late Qing Dynasty arrest

In mid-November, Li Guolou marched with Liu Mingdeng, and the two arrived at the forward position of Xinlupo.

Fu Xianchu felt tired of Li Guolou and Liu Mingdeng going to the front line. The commander didn't like the commander to come to the front line to dictate. Apart from worrying about the commander's personal safety, he would also be robbed of the commanding power. Take Li Guolou and Liu Mingdeng to visit the forward positions and introduce the battle situation in detail.

On the surface, there is no contradiction between the officers. They are all comrades-in-arms in the same trench, and the filth in the secret is unknown to others.

Xinlupo has become a piece of scorched earth, and the Japanese positions along the mountain were destroyed by the artillery fire of the Qing army, and no piece of land is complete.

Some fortifications on some hillsides are already in the hands of the Qing army, but the main fortifications are still in the hands of the Japanese army. On the narrow hillsides, the fighting continues every day.

The tough battle turned into a war of attrition. More than 400 Qing troops and more than 1000 Fan soldiers died on this land. The broken limbs and remains witnessed the loyalty and bravery of Chinese men. The Qing army persevered in storming the Japanese positions. There is only a distance of 500 meters, but the higher you go, the steeper the mountain, and the Qing army's offensive stopped.

The Jianwu Army has many old-fashioned cannons. Fu Xianchu dispatched 40 powerful mortars to consolidate the position. The mortars fired thousands of lead bullets. It became a sieve, and the Japanese army who wanted to regain their position suffered a big loss.

The Japanese army did not recapture the position on the mountainside, and the Qing army did not break through the position on the top of the mountain. Xinlupo seemed to be in a deadlock, and the battle was in a stalemate.

But the Qing army did not stop digging the tunnels. The sound of explosives blasting was non-stop day and night. The Japanese army also knew the tricks of the Qing army.

The Japanese army hiding in the fort knew that the doomsday was coming, but there was nothing they could do. A powerful radio station sent out a telegram of "jade broken", letting people all over the world know how tenacious the Japanese army was.

A group of officers held binoculars and looked at the enemy's position. Li Guolou pouted and asked, "How many enemies are there in the enemy's cave? Do you know?"

Fu Xianchu heard that Li Guolou's dissatisfaction was on the verge of eruption. The commander got angry, and the consequences would be serious. He might have to replace the field commander. Fu Xianchu hurriedly said: "From the captured prisoners, the new road There are more than one regiment of Japanese troops on the slope, plus the Japanese troops who escaped from Lanhua City and some miscellaneous troops, there are about 500 people and more than 1000 bronze cannons. With less than 35 men, 800 Japanese bronze cannons were seized and more than [-] enemies were killed,"

Fu Xianchu peeped at Li Guolou's expression, but seeing that Li Guolou was silent, he hastily added: "I have used my troops carefully to minimize the casualties. Our army died less than [-] in battle, and the injuries are also within the acceptable range. within,"

Fu Xianchu didn't say anything about the casualties of Fan Bing, Liu Mingdeng understood, and hurriedly said: "That's good, step up the tunnel work, Fu Xianchu, you must strive to capture the main position of Xinlu as soon as possible."

"Yes, I promise to complete the task without any accidents. I have prepared five thousand catties of explosives, and I will be able to do it once within five days," Fu Xianchu swore once.

Li Guolou was not deceived by Fu Xianchu's words, so he broke the casserole and asked the end: "Fu Xianchu, don't lie to me, more than 800 enemies have been killed, have you verified it?"

Fu Xianchu smiled and said: "Commander Li, aren't you embarrassing me? It's roughly the same. Our army's cannons are not vegetarian, do you think so?"

"Fu Xianchu, don't be arrogant, the Japanese army is still very effective, especially guarding the Nidu River, don't let the Japanese army sneak across the river and escape back to Langqiao Port," Li Guolou coughed seriously, showing the attitude of a commander. Calm and stable, completely different from his original character.

"I also thought of this. 3000 troops were stationed along the Nidu River, and a deep ditch ten miles long was dug on the opposite bank," Fu Xianchu said eloquently, without letting Li Guolou catch him.

The environment changes a person's character. Li Guolou is mature and prudent. Among a group of senior military officers in their 40s and [-]s, there is no age gap. They are as cunning as an old fox. Li Guolou nodded slightly, and stood still through the telescope. Watch the Japanese positions.

"Fu Xianchu, you said that you dug a ten-mile deep ditch. I'll go to see it tomorrow morning. If you lose one mile, I'll settle the score with you." Liu Mingdeng didn't let his partner Fu Xianchu go. Careless, boastful.

"Liu Zhentai, don't you believe me? I have checked that deep ditch a long time ago. There are not ten miles, but nine miles."

As soon as Fu Xianchu winked, he asked the adjutant to check it first, and his subordinates would not mess around, but asked the adjutant to look at the deep ditch again, and solve any problems on the spot.

Fu Xianchu was whispering with the adjutant, Li Guolou and Liu Mingdeng knew what Fu Xianchu was talking about, the chief is a saint, don't see anything wrong, don't listen anything wrong, speak nothing wrong, don't move anything wrong.

Only the royal family and nobles don't understand the sufferings of the world. Li Guolou doesn't care about such small actions of his subordinates. All promoted officials have done such things.

On the top of Xinlupo Mountain, there are three sun flags, which are extremely dazzling in the sun and make people feel heartwarming. The tenacious Japanese army held their positions, and the sun flags were planted on the land of the Qing Dynasty, which made people feel ashamed.

Fighting with hot weapons changed the role of the commander. Li Guolou watched Xinlupo from a distance.

At this time, the Qing army was fighting on two fronts, the Northwest and Taiwan were fighting, and the war in Xinjiang was even more rotten. Northern Xinjiang had become an independent kingdom. Six cities.

What Li Guolou thinks most in his mind is to make contributions, he also wants to recover Xinjiang, and to compete with Tsarist Russia. It is too important to him that the Taiwan campaign has a perfect ending, which is his qualifications as a commander.

Therefore, Li Guolou strongly opposed to negotiating peace with the Japanese, and wanted to continue fighting, no matter how expensive the Japanese army was, he would also eliminate the Japanese army.

The Qing army has been fighting the Japanese army for more than half a year. They have a deep understanding of the Japanese army's tactics and dare not slack off. The Qing army used night battles to attack Xinlupo, and the Japanese army used the night to launch a charge. The blood flowed into the sea, everyone was desperate, and no one wanted to admit defeat.

In terms of willpower to fight, no one can compare with the Japanese army. If the Qing army had not occupied the superior force and had Fanbing to consume, they would have been defeated by the Japanese army long ago.

Fighting in the Northwest, the Hui people are a sturdy nation, and they have a unified belief. When the Hui army faces danger, they don’t have the determination to burn everything. .

The preacher "imam" will have another argument to justify his surrender.

However, the Japanese army seldom surrendered, and they were still very tenacious in their defense. Xinlupo fought for more than 20 days, and the position of the main peak was still planted with the sun flag.

Li Guolou couldn't go halfway up the mountain to check the position, it was too dangerous, unless the battle situation was critical and the flames of war had already burned to the brow.

Li Guolou has no dissatisfaction with Fu Xianchu, the old military officer. Let him lead troops to attack Xinlupo, that's all he can do. Cannons and bayonets are used together, and thousands of people can't rush. There must be a sea of ​​people. This is a test of will and quality. The Qing army has the upper hand in the hearts of the people, and they will win in a protracted war. Therefore, Li Guolou took the second best and led a group of officers to see the tunnel dug by the engineers.

Engineers need to be taught by veterans, so that recruits can understand. Officers also need to learn various skills in order to give full play to their advantages on the battlefield.

Usually the sappers were composed of miners. The Qing army liked to recruit miners who dug coal as sappers, so sappers had many customs of miners, and there were many particularities in digging tunnels. In addition to believing in Guandi, sappers also had a more important god in their minds.

The huge hole is dedicated to the "Kiln God", and there is a tablet of the Kiln God on the altar.

When Li Guolou entered the entrance of the cave, he paid homage to the kiln god, offered incense and kowtowed, and said something in his mouth: "The kiln god blesses the Qing Dynasty, and hopes that the first sound will wipe out the enemy. On the top of Lupo Mountain, build a temple for the kiln god, "

But I saw a one-foot-high kiln god made of sandalwood, worshiped by everyone, officers and engineers kowtowed and offered incense very devoutly.

There is a pair of couplets hanging next to the altar, which reads:

There are many things in the kiln, and it is safe to go down the well.

It turns out that the honor of the God of Kiln is a huge mouse, rich and lifelike. The chassis of the God of Kiln is also carved with a bunch of ears of grain, sorghum ears, corn cobs, and soybean pods. There are three dishes of tribute in front of the mouse, including peanuts. , ghee, rice.

This is the "Kiln God", the patron saint of the engineers and soldiers of the Qing army. Engineers would pay homage to the Kiln God at the entrance of the cave when they entered and exited the cave.

The ancestor of the engineer was a miner, and the miner lived with the rats in the well, and the rats lived on rotten wood, and the miners would not harm the rats.

There are mice in the mine, which is a good thing for the miners. It means that the people in the tunnel can move around. If the mouse escapes with the little mouse on its back, there will be danger in the mine. If poisonous gas leaks from the tunnel, the miners will immediately withdraw from the mine. In the eyes of the miners, the mouse is a "god" with predictive ability. Later, the mouse evolved into the "God of the Kiln".

The engineers and soldiers in the Qing army believed in the kiln god, and every time they dug a tunnel, they had to worship the kiln god. The grain scattered on the ground was used to worship the foraging mice.

Li Guolou just stopped at the entrance of the cave for a while, and did not go deep into the cave, but he asked his officers to take turns to drill the cave. This is the most direct experience, which cannot be learned in school.

Coming out of the dirty and filthy burrows, the officers were all turned into clay figurines, looking quite embarrassed.

No matter what the officers thought, Li Guolou was standing at the entrance of the cave. The officers knew that Li Guolou liked to punish people, so no one dared to complain, and no one dared to smear the mud on Li Guolou.

Li Guolou stopped casually, exuding a majesty from the inside out, which made all the soldiers respect. A group of officers stood at attention tremblingly, and no one dared to talk or move.

After scanning around, Li Guolou asked, "Do you know why I want you to drill a hole in the ground?"

Li Yunkai, like a mud monkey, replied loudly: "I know, this is for our own good, let us learn to fight,"

The others nodded one after another, unanimously agreeing with Li Yunkai's remarks.

Li Guolou said: "For your own good, of course, because the next attack on Guishan Mountain is either climbing the mountain or attacking the fortress on the mountain. There is no way for the bunkers, only to rely on digging tunnels to blow up the Japanese bunkers, and slowly encroach on and compress the Japanese territory. You are all generals who lead troops, and you must cherish your soldiers, so you must learn to fight in tunnels. Now do you understand,"

"Understood," many officers raised their heads vigorously, full of confidence, there is still a final battle waiting for them, and the mountain warfare will let these officers show their skills.

The Japanese army was as timid as a mouse, and the large Japanese army hiding in Guishan no longer dared to open up the battlefield and fight in a fair manner. They only dared to use fortress tactics to resist the Qing army's attack.

The arduous mountain warfare is the most test of the will of the soldiers.

Li Guolou seemed to be calm, but in fact he was under enormous pressure. Emperor Tongzhi was overjoyed and urged him to recover Langqiao Port as soon as possible. However, he revised the plan of advancing troops according to the actual situation in Xinlupo, and fought a protracted and tough battle in Xinlupo. .

Someone in the court said of him, "Support soldiers with self-respect and be full of ambition,"

"Arrogance and domineering, conniving Fan Bing,"

This is to add to the crime, there is no reason to worry about it, the barbarians never read the books of sages, they only value practical benefits, physiological needs are human nature, there must always be a place to vent, Fanbing is not a macaque grandson under the Five Fingers Mountain, only two only paws.

Li Guolou did not write a statement of defense, but went to the front line to supervise the battle, hoping to capture Xinlupo as soon as possible,