Master Yuan, start!

The Eight Banners captain now understood that Feng Guozhang was not here to ask for money, but to cause trouble.

He also learned the news of the fight between the Emperor and the Empress Dowager in the capital from the merchants who came and went. He also heard that Governor Yuan had returned to Korea and was going to lead his troops into the capital.

But he never expected that he could just go to Beijing and take a boat to get there directly, so why would he go to the northeast?

Could it be that we are entering Shengjing?

As for who he is loyal to, it goes without saying. As a garrison commander of the Eight Banners, he naturally obeys the imperial court.

It doesn't matter who is in charge of the court, he only follows the court's military orders.

The Queen Mother is in charge of the court now, and he certainly won't withdraw unless the Queen Mother lets him.

D Shujun9?6?69102

But if the Queen Mother were to say this, the person in front of him would probably shoot him immediately.

Thinking of this, he slid on his knees in the snow, looked up at Feng Guozhang and promised: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I am loyal to Your Majesty. My brother-in-law's wife's uncle is a distant relative of Your Majesty, so of course I am loyal to Your Majesty."

"Wrong answer!"

"what?"

Before the Eight Banners commander could react, Feng Guozhang shot him in the head with a bang.

The red paste scattered into the snow, and the white paste splashed onto people's faces, emitting bursts of heat.

"What about you? Who are you loyal to?" Feng Guozhang continued to ask the next Eight Banners who was kneeling on the ground.

"I, I, I am loyal to the Queen Mother!"

The Eight Banners thought there were only two answers. Being loyal to the emperor was wrong, so the empress dowager must be right, right?

"Wrong answer!"

Another "bang" of gunfire stunned the surrounding Eight Banners.

How do I answer this?

When it was the third one's turn, this Eight Banners was very clever and hurriedly shouted: "Your Majesty, I am loyal to Your Majesty, but I am loyal to Emperor Guangxu in Seoul, not the false Emperor Baoqing in the capital!"

Feng Guozhang looked up at the third Eight Banners. The man raised the corner of his mouth, thinking that he had finally got the answer right.

"boom"

Another shot was fired, and the Eight Banners also fell in the snow.

It was the fourth person's turn. When he saw that the first three were all shot, he was so panicked that he didn't know what to say.

"I don't know, I don't know!"

The fourth Eight Banners was so frightened that they dared not answer and just kowtowed again and again, as if this could save them from death.

"Bang", the fourth shot rang out.

Seeing another corpse appear, the Eight Banners behind were even scared to the point of peeing their pants.

The correct answer in Feng Guozhang's mind was China, but unfortunately, no one got it right.

Dozens of Eight Banners eventually fell in the snow.

Feng Guozhang did not think it was so cruel, because after seeing the records of the three massacres in Jiading, Jiangnan and the Ten Days of Yangzhou by the Qing army in the late Ming Dynasty, he only regretted that he was born 200 years too late.

And he was not killing people indiscriminately, this was what Yuan Xiangcheng conveyed to him.

"This time we march into Shengjing, we must destroy as much of the Manchu military power outside the Great Wall as possible. Civilians can be spared, but soldiers, especially those garrisoned Eight Banners who still did not go to Seoul after the notice to meet Emperor Guangxu was issued, must not be spared."

In other words, no matter what these dozens of people answered, they would eventually die.

In the past two years, they have extorted a lot of money from the people, and now is the time to repay them.

After that, Feng Guozhang put away his pistol and looked towards the southwest.

The Second Regiment of the National Defense Army led by Sheng Fei has been moving south along the Shengjing coastline, preparing to launch a surprise attack on the Lushun Fort from behind.

He led the Third Regiment of the National Defense Army and set out from the Yalu River along the railway line towards Shengjing City.

After finishing the aftermath of Zhenjiang Fort, in order to travel as quickly as possible, Feng Guozhang led his troops on a train and arrived at the foot of Fenghuang City an hour later.

Phoenix City is now considered the most important town in the Liaodong hills, especially after the opening of the railway.

However, even so, there were only more than 1000 Eight Banners officers and soldiers in Phoenix City.

When the defending Eight Banners saw the dense army appearing outside the city, they could only hurriedly close the gates and wait for help.

"fire!"

At Feng Guozhang's command, dozens of 60mm field guns imitated by the Incheon Machinery Bureau roared towards the city walls. Although the walls of Phoenix City were thick, they could not withstand the continuous attacks of the shells.

The volleys lasted for more than ten minutes. The loess city wall had already been blasted into pits and black smoke rose from the wall, making it impossible to see the situation clearly.

"General, we can't keep fighting like this. If we continue like this, we won't have enough artillery shells!" The staff officer on the side couldn't help but remind Feng Guozhang when he saw that he was enjoying the battle more and more.

Originally, they were the vanguard troops and could not bring much logistical supplies. More than 3 field guns fired 10 rounds per minute, which means more than 600 rounds in 4000 minutes. This time, they only transported more than artillery shells by train.

If we fire too many at once, we might not have any more cannons left to fire by the time we reach Shengjing City.

The Incheon Machinery Bureau produced only about 100 large and small artillery shells a day, and even fewer for the 60mm gun, only 40.

In other words, Feng Guozhang destroyed the Incheon Machinery Bureau's 60mm caliber artillery output of half a month in just over ten minutes.

"Let the infantry go, General!" The staff officer said without turning his head, looking at the smoke-filled city wall.

Feng Guozhang did not reply immediately, but stared at the staff officer's back.

The advisory system is another "three-member system" promoted by Yuan Xiangcheng at the middle and high levels after the "three-member system at the grassroots level"

4 The three grassroots members are soldier representatives, political instructors, and military commanders.

However, there were no soldier representatives at the middle and senior levels, only political instructors and military commanders, so the organizational structure had been unbalanced for some time.

The acting military commanders and the political instructors were at loggerheads with each other and often had different opinions on daily teaching and training. In the absence of a third party to mediate, they often got into big fights.

In view of the fact that this situation was happening more and more frequently, Yuan Shikai decided to implement the staff system at the top level of the army.

: Like political instructors, staff officers are half a level lower than military commanders of the same level, but they do not belong to the same organization, so they do not need to obey the command of military commanders completely.

The commanders of the Eighth Army belong to the Military Operations Department of the Red Confucian Society, the staff officers belong to the Military Staff Department of the Red Confucian Society, and the political instructors belong to the Political Department of the Red Confucian Society.

^In this way, a "three-member system" was formed at the middle and high levels, which effectively enabled Yuan Shikai to control the army and avoid losing control.

Novel 975-8+7424

Unlike the political instructors who were only responsible for ideological education in the past, staff officers need to participate in military discussions and the formulation of combat plans.

Therefore, many military commanders felt that the staff officers were there to undermine their power, and they were not very friendly towards them.

3 Feng Guozhang was naturally no exception.

Although the staff officer was right and the shell consumption was indeed high, he still retorted: "No, the artillery cover cannot be completely stopped!"

The staff officer refused to give in. He felt he was right: "Then let's keep four guns to continue the bombardment. The second and third battalions will take turns to cover and move forward to blow open the city gate!"

"6 doors!"

Feng Guozhang made a concession: "At the same time, move the artillery carriage forward 50 meters and raise the muzzle 1 inch!"

Chapter 130 The rebels captured Shengjing!

In the era of cold weapons, Phoenix City could still hold out for a while with its numbers, but in the era of breech-loading cannons, it could not withstand more than a few rounds of volleys.

The remaining 60mm field guns that were still firing were no longer aimed at the city walls, but instead they kept changing their positions and firing shells into the city.

In the end, they found that there was no one defending the city wall, so they simply bombarded the gate.

In more than an hour, Feng Guozhang captured this small town in the Liaodong hills.

That night, Yuan Xiangcheng also hurried to Phoenix City by train, and the sound of "woof" and "woof" could be heard from the following carriages.

"Chief Instructor!" Feng Guozhang saluted as he stepped forward. "The Second Regiment of the National Defense Army has successfully completed its mission!"

It’s more than perfect, it’s simply perfect!

During this attack, there was no death in the National Defense Forces. Only two unlucky guys accidentally stepped on empty air and fell off the city wall when they took over the defense of Phoenix City.

Fortunately, there was snow underneath, so his life was safe. However, his legs and feet were broken, and he needed to rest for a few months.

It can be said that they won a great victory. Of course, this was also due to the fact that the Eight Banners were poorly equipped and had low morale.

The Eight Banners outside the Great Wall had complicated feelings about the internal strife within the Qing royal family in the capital. Some felt that we were all the same kind of people, and no matter who was in power, they would most likely not treat us as human beings.

Some people think that it is none of their business, so they just stay out of it and do their job. They don't get involved in other things.

There were also a very small number of knowledgeable people who believed that Guangxu might bring a new turnaround to the Eight Banners outside the Great Wall, so they secretly worked but did not put in any effort when defending the city.

X Various reasons led to the extremely weak defense of Phoenix City, causing Feng Guozhang to regret firing so many cannons after entering the city.

"Nah, if I had known I would have just fired a couple of shots to scare them."

Feng Guozhang had reasons for regret. There was no railway beyond Phoenix City, and supply was a big problem.

At this moment he had to admit that the amount of artillery shells wasted in Phoenix City seemed to be a bit too much.

So as soon as they met, Feng Guozhang put the reality in front of Yuan Xiangcheng: "General Instructor, there is no railway further north. The extended supply line will put a great pressure on logistics. I am afraid that Shengjing City will be difficult to capture quickly."

3. A vigorous and rapid battle often only occurs when there is a huge disparity in strength, but the equipment of the National Defense Army is only half a generation ahead of the Eight Banners outside the Great Wall.

4 In the dead of winter, if you don’t want to be defeated by General Winter in Russia like Napoleon, the most important thing is to have adequate logistics.

But it was God who happened to be the best helper in Shengjing's city defense.

2 After passing Fenghuang, all supplies depend on food for people and horses, so it is normal for Feng Guozhang to have such concerns.

However, Yuan Xiangcheng had other plans: "There's no need to capture Shengjing first. As long as Liaoyang and Jinzhou are captured, Shengjing will naturally rush out to fight us."

Yuan Xiangcheng pointed to the Northeast map on the table and pointed at the middle and lower reaches of the Liao River:

"Hua Fu, our target is Beijing. Go west and attack Liaoyang, Niuzhuang, and Jinzhou first!"

: If someone else said this, Feng Guozhang would start cursing on the spot.

However, since the target was the Chief Instructor, he still patiently asked, "Chief Instructor, how can this be done? If the Eight Banners of Shengjing come out to rescue us when we attack Liaoyang, won't we be attacked from all sides?"

"Attacked from both sides? Not necessarily." Yuan Xiangcheng clapped his hands and laughed. He took out a pencil produced by the Incheon Pencil Factory and started drawing on the map.

Shengjing, Liaoyang, Jinzhou, Niuzhuang, Jinzhou and Xingjing were all surrounded by him one by one.

"In the Shengjing area, only these cities have garrisoned troops, and half of them are concentrated in Shengjing City alone. There is no need for us to confront them head-on in the middle of winter.