Master Yuan, start!

The scholars were already shocked that the governors in the south did not obey the imperial edict, but they did not expect Yuan Shikai to join in the fun.

How come he was also asked by the Queen Mother to come to the king's defense?

The scholars flipped open the single page and saw eight large characters written on it:

"Enter the capital and obey the emperor's order!"

Chapter 131: The Northeast Peasant Uprising

In the moonlight at three or four in the morning, Feng Guozhang led more than 5000 troops of the Second Regiment of the National Defense Army to bypass the winding northeast snow trail and launch a fierce attack on Dongjing Fort east of Liaoyang City.

The defense system of Liaoyang City consists of one mountain, one river and two cities.

The Taizi River runs through it. To the west of the river is the main city of Liaoyang, to the east of the river is Dongjing Fort, and further east of Dongjing Fort is a low hill.

"Pull forward, pull forward, adjust the angle, and be ready to aim at any time!" Cao Kun, the captain of the Second Regiment Artillery Team of the National Defense Army, commanded the two artillery battalions that had made a long-distance raid to get into position quickly.

For this forced march, Feng Guozhang borrowed half of the cavalry's men just to pull these dozen or so cannons.

Speed ​​is of the essence in war. Since we have already guaranteed a quick attack on Liaoyang, we must do so at all costs.

Seeing the artillery carriage stuck in the snow, Cao Kun encouraged everyone to lift it up while stepping forward to pull and tug at it.

"Captain, do we really have to use all the cannons to attack Fort Tokyo?" Several soldiers asked worriedly as they watched more than a dozen cannons gradually move into position.

"What else can we do if we don't attack? Should we bombard Liaoyang City? The walls are so thick, when will they collapse?"

Cao Kun took off his dog-skin military cap and looked firmly at the closed gates of Liaoyang City on the other side of the river.

"If we attack the enemy, we must rescue them. The people in Liaoyang don't want to give up Dongjing Fort, so they will definitely go out of the city to support us. Only then will we have a chance.

Otherwise, they would have stayed in Liaoyang like a turtle, and the battle would have ended indefinitely."

The commander of the Second Town, Feng Guozhang, has already led his men to ambush on the eastern hillside. As long as the people from Liaoyang City dare to come out, they will be severely punished!

Seeing that the captain stopped talking, the people around him began to get busy. After dozens of cannons were in place, they kept firing at the small Tokyo Fort. The rumbling sound of the cannons resounded along the banks of the Taizi River.

Cao Kun watched the cannons fire one after another, and the walls of Tokyo Fort were crumbling, but his mood became increasingly heavy.

There are fewer and fewer shells!

"Chief Instructor, where are the supplies you mentioned?"

Although he spoke very nicely in front of his subordinates, he was still a little unsure in his heart.

The gains and losses of Liaoyang City are related to the ownership of the Liaodong hills. Today's Liaozhong Plain is not yet the era of the two cities of Anshan and Liaoyang in the later industrial society.

Anshan is now just a small village and has not yet been developed on a large scale.

Liaoyang was built over 300 years ago, and is located in a key position, connected to Shengjing and Shenyang in the north, Niuzhuang and Yingkou in the south, Jinzhou in the west, and the mountains in the east.

After occupying Liaoyang, the Eight Banners in the Liaodong region became a loose sand and there was no possibility of them uniting with each other.

If you want to quickly enter the pass and capture the Forbidden City, you must take Liaoyang and keep a retreat route.

More than 5000 people abandoned their excess supplies and set out from Phoenix, carrying only four or five days' rations and necessary combat guns, artillery and ammunition.

This means that Liaoyang must be quickly captured within a few days.

However, as he watched the number of shells piled on the ground continue to decrease, Cao Kun's heart gradually became gloomy.

"Where are the people? How can these Eight Banners be so patient and not come out to help?"

"They're coming out! People are coming out of Liaoyang City!" several soldiers shouted happily.

Cao Kun looked towards Liaoyang City on the other side of the river. Hundreds of cavalry had appeared out of nowhere and were patrolling along the river bank. It seemed that they wanted to interfere with the siege, but did not dare to get close.

Hundreds of people leaned against the river and fired cold shots at Cao Kun's artillery team on the opposite bank.

"Stop shooting and retreat!" Cao Kun mobilized his subordinates to retreat together.

Sure enough, seeing the artillery moving away, this group of Eight Banners cavalry equipped with muskets could not help but want to move forward to harass them.

The leader whipped his horse and rushed to the other side, stepping on the ice on the Taizi River with his horse's hooves.

"Took the bait!"

The moment all the cavalry reached the other side of the Taizi River, the cannons were no longer aimed at Tokyo Fort, but instead fired fiercely towards the Taizi River.

In an instant, the river ice exploded, and the Eight Banners who had crossed the river never returned!

Seeing this, the Eight Banners were both shocked and angry. They galloped on their horses, trying to surround the infantry from front to back.

"Brothers, hold on! Commander Feng will be here soon!"

Cao Kun shouted, loaded the Type 88 Hanyang rifle with good bullets, and fired at the Eight Banners cavalry around him.

Seeing that the shelling had stopped, more than a hundred cavalrymen rushed out of Dongjing Fort, and after joining forces with the Eight Banners in Liaoyang City, they pressed forward towards Cao Kun's troops step by step.

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No matter how bad the Eight Banners' marksmanship was, there would always be times when a blind cat would catch a dead mouse, and some National Defense Army soldiers were accidentally shot and fell on the snow.

More than 1000 infantrymen were surrounded by hundreds of cavalry, and the encirclement was constantly shrinking.

Seeing that their artillery shells were running out and they were surrounded, the soldiers, who were unaware of the battle plan, had already lost their hearts and thought they were going to die.

Just as they were praying for help from heaven, a great earthquake was heard in the distance.

"Captain, support is coming!!"

The soldiers next to him roared excitedly and pointed to the east, where yellow horses appeared on the white snow.

Feng Guozhang led the cavalry of the Second Regiment of the National Defense Army down the mountain!

"Brothers, charge!"

"Separate the north and south and surround these Eight Banners!"

In order to achieve the greatest results, Feng Guozhang did not wait for the Eight Banners to cross the shore before going down the mountain. Instead, he waited until Cao Kun's troops were almost surrounded before leading his troops to support him.

The hundreds of Eight Banners were originally relying on their cavalry advantage to bully the infantry. When they saw Feng Guozhang attacking with more than a thousand cavalry, they immediately gave up the encirclement and began to flee along the upstream and downstream of the Taizi River, trying to find the ice that had not been blown up by the artillery shells to run back to Liaoyang City on the opposite bank.

Feng Guozhang was not polite either and directly divided his troops into two groups to pursue and kill him.

However, it is easy for cavalry to win, but it is difficult to achieve results.

The National Defense Army in the north followed the rebels into Tokyo Fort and successfully captured the position on the east bank of the Taizi River.

However, the national defense army in the south was not able to outrun the Eight Banners, and was forced to flee back into the city, where they were bombarded by the city defense artillery on the top of Liaoyang City.

It means that their plan was only half successful. They took Dongjing Fort and the Eight Banners in Liaoyang City came out, but Liaoyang City still stood there.

"Commander, what should we do?" After cleaning up the battlefield on the east bank of Taizi River, Cao Kun asked Feng Guozhang.

"Liaoyang City must be taken. No matter what, continue bombarding it with your artillery. Hit as many as you can."

"We're out of ammunition. We can only fire a few dozen more rounds before we're completely wiped out!"

"If it's gone, send someone up and take it down!"

At this time, Cao Kun missed Fenghuang Railway Station very much. There should be ammunition stocks there, but it was so cold that he couldn't move them there.

Just when he regretted not bringing more ammunition, he heard the sound of intensive dog barking from the ice of Taizi River behind him.

"Wang"

Cao Kun looked closely and saw countless dogs with different fur and colors pulling iron plows galloping on the ice.

On the sled were piles of army green ammunition boxes.

In front of each iron sled were a dozen dogs about as tall as an adult's knees, panting as they stopped on the ice.

It looks like they are also very tired.

"Hurry, hurry, what are you standing there for? Get these shells ashore!"

After a while, looking at the dense pack of dogs, the soldiers of the artillery team finally reacted and hurried forward to carry down boxes of artillery shells.

Box after box, the delivered shells were piled up next to the gun carriage and were even taller than a person.

In addition to artillery supplies, musket ammunition, dry food for people and fodder for horses, everything was pulled to the foot of Liaoyang City.

A man got off the iron sled at the front, Feng Guozhang, and walked towards Cao Kun with a grin on his face.

"Wang Shizhen, commander of the quartermaster battalion of the Second Regiment of the National Defense Army, has successfully delivered the supplies!" Wang Shizhen raised his red, frozen right hand and saluted Feng Guozhang and Cao Kun with a standard military salute.

Seeing that the gates of Liaoyang City were closed and the attack was hopeless, and they were about to sacrifice their lives, the baggage camp suddenly delivered supplies.

As the commander of a town, Feng Guozhang could still barely suppress his emotions, but Cao Kun had already put his arms around Wang Shizhen's shoulders and hugged him tightly.

"Good, good! Now that we have enough ammunition, Liaoyang City will be captured today!"

Watching the shells being disassembled and stuffed into the barrel, Cao Kun shouted excitedly.

...

After Shengjing City changed hands, the National Defense Army did not kill innocent people indiscriminately. They simply detained the Eight Banners soldiers in one place, and then began to knock on doors all over the city, looking for the dog from house to house.

Shengjing City is not small. There are more than 10 people in total, including the families of the Eight Banners and Han people. Due to the harsh geographical environment of the Northeast and the Manchu tradition, almost every household has a dog.

After searching for a long time and eliminating dogs that were of unsuitable size or old and frail, the Wehrmacht still found more than 50 medium and large dogs with a shoulder height of about cm.

There are various breeds, such as the Northeast Hound, the Northeast Chow Chow, and the Korean Pungsan Hound, all of which are dog breeds that can adapt to the bitter cold climate.

After lunch today, Yuan Xiangcheng took Mingye, Yiktang'a and dozens of guards, sat on a sled and held a dog leash, and walked on the ice of the Hunhe River south of Shengjing City.

In the Northeast in winter, especially outdoors, the temperature is indeed low enough that the surface of the Hunhe River is frozen solid.

However, under the thick ice, there was still black river water flowing, and the fat Hunhe carp were staring at Yuan Xiangcheng on the ice.

"It's really a paradise for fishermen!" Yuan Xiangcheng muttered.

"Sir Yuan, what did you just say?" Yiktang'a asked in confusion.

"It's nothing, sir. Look at this dog-drawn sled. Isn't it a useful means of transportation in the cold winter?" Yuan Xiangcheng pointed to the iron sled under him.

This was the inspiration he got from the dog sledding project in the three northeastern provinces in later generations. North Korea has a lot of dogs, so why not give it a try too?

He got down to work right away and asked the Pyongyang Iron Works to try to produce small iron pipes, and then assemble and splice them with wood.

A simple iron and wood sled was made.

The reason why dog-pulled sleds in later generations looked tiring for the dogs was that one dog often pulled multiple people, and it was very difficult for it to pull the sled.

The correct way to do dog sledding is to have more than a dozen dogs pulling a large sled.

The National Defense Army had difficulty in supplying in winter and had to cross mountains and ridges in the Liaodong hills.