Master Yuan, start!

They began to look for cover and exchanged fire with the Jiashen Right Army.

The sound of rifle fire rang out one after another. The Japanese soldiers lay down behind the bunkers and aimed steadily at the position of Jiashen Right Army.

After all, they were an army that had received Western education. After calming down, every minute of shooting by the Japanese army was accompanied by a wounded soldier in the Jiashen Right Army, fully demonstrating their individual combat capabilities.

On the other side of the battle line, as the tide rose, French warships slowly approached the shore. The cannons on the ships were not idle, trying to provide cover for the landing Japanese troops. They did not turn their guns until the artillery fire could no longer reach them, and then they continued to bombard the artillery positions on the shore.

8. As the battle progressed, the beach became a mess, with sand blown up into the air, forming small hills.

The originally peaceful jungle at the foot of the mountain was also ignited by the sparks of exploding artillery shells, illuminating the positions of both China and Japan.

7 However, despite the increasing casualties of the Jiashen Right Army, the soldiers did not retreat. Instead, they stubbornly held their positions and tried to stop the Japanese at the bottom of the slope.

"Lieutenant Colonel Kobayashi! We can't go on like this." A Japanese major came close to Taro Kobayashi and tried to persuade him.

"Who is this Qing general standing in front of us who is resisting so stubbornly?"

At this moment, Taro Kobayashi was in a difficult situation and was blocked by the Qing people. He could neither retreat nor advance.

These Japanese troops were the elite he had brought from Ryukyu and had participated in the Southwest War. Now they were being consumed here. If the casualties were too heavy, he would find it difficult to explain to his country afterwards.

Although the Qing army also suffered losses, compared with the Japanese army, this price was completely bearable.

Faced with the continuous pressure of the right army of Jiashen, Taro Kobayashi finally ordered a retreat.

After leaving behind more than 300 bodies, the Japanese hurriedly retreated to the beach.

Duan Qirui led his troops in pursuit, but when he saw that they had reached the range of French artillery fire, he slowly turned back.

They retreated all the way, and when they met Japanese soldiers who were still breathing, they did not show any courtesy and helped them escape.

After returning to the camp and taking inventory, it was discovered that the Jiashen Right Army had suffered more than 200 casualties, including the soldiers killed and wounded on the artillery platform. Most of them were injured in the shoulders by the Japanese because they did not pay attention to the cover.

"Brother Yuan, you are truly a pillar of the country! I will definitely send a telegram to my father to praise you." Seeing that all the Japanese had fled, Chenghou bravely stepped forward from the rear of the position to observe the situation.

Yuan Xiangcheng didn't mind getting along with the Chenghou brothers. After all, his father was still very useful to Yuan Xiangcheng: "Brother Chenghou, you are too kind. This was a deliberate plan. Japan fell into a trap to achieve such a victory."

"Brother Yuan, merit is merit, there is no such thing as taking shortcuts. The Japanese army was defeated as soon as we made contact. I think our Right Army is the strongest among the five armies of Jiashen." Chenghou put himself in the shoes of the others as he spoke, completely unaware that he had only been a soldier of the Right Army of Jiashen for two days.

Watching the French warships in the distance slowly sail away after destroying the last artillery position.

小说69?5?9?7?38;

Yuan Xiangcheng finally felt relieved: Fortunately, the French did not land, otherwise he really didn't know how to fight.

He really doesn't have the strength to challenge the top three armies in Europe with just a few thousand men.

On the night the battle ended, Yuan Shikai sent a message to the capital about the French army's movements, asking the capital area and Dagu Fort to step up their defenses, and requesting to go to the capital to defend the king.

Chenghou also sent Yuan Shikai's heroic performance at Lushunkou to his father, Prince Li Shiduo, the chief military minister.

At this point, the Battle of Port Arthur ended.

The Jiashen Right Army prevented the Japanese from attempting an exploratory landing at the cost of more than 200 casualties and the complete destruction of all artillery batteries.

Meanwhile, the French had accomplished their stated objective of destroying all visible ships and threatening batteries.

Only the Japanese, who tried to make a fortune but ended up losing more than what they gained, lost more than 300 people and nearly 1000 people were injured, almost half of whom were injured.

As the French warships sailed westward, only a few lights remained at Port Arthur.

Yuan Shikai also summoned the Tianjin Town of the Jiashen Right Army. Although many people died, the soldiers in Tianjin Town were still very happy.

This was the first real battle since the founding of the army, and the opponents were foreigners, so it was a rare victory.

Even though there were losses, valuable experience was gained. After this battle, the Tianjin Town of the Jiashen Right Army was no longer a rookie.

Yuan Xiangcheng also smiled, a rare occurrence.

Just wait for the right army of Joseon's Gapsin Army to meet up in Incheon Town, and then we can follow the French to land.

When the French and the Qing army in Beijing and Tianjin are fighting, he can appear from behind and catch the French army off guard!

Chapter 53: Joining the Society in the War

In the Grand Council of the Forbidden City, a eunuch passing by looked at the lights on in the distance and heard the sound of quarrels from time to time.

However, he could only pretend that he didn't understand or see anything. After serving the evening tea to the military officials, he quickly withdrew, fearing that he would hear something he shouldn't hear.

Ever since the news of the fall of Zhenhai was received, the Grand Council has never been at peace. The military intelligence reports and troop deployments coming in and out have touched the hearts of everyone in the council.

"What's the current situation in Lushun?" Prince Chun Yixun asked anxiously.

Li Hongzhang hurriedly set out south after receiving the news that the French had captured Zhenhai. He should still be on the road, so YiX started the conversation.

"Yuan Xiangcheng's telegram 8 said that Weihaiwei had fallen, the Beiyang Fleet had been completely depleted, and six French troops were currently storming the Port Arthur Fort.

"But didn't Zhejiang Governor Zhou Bingzhang report that we had repelled the French and recaptured Zhenhai? Why did the French flee to Weihai again?" Zhang Zhiwan explained the intelligence he had received.

"Hmph, Zhou Bingzhang only has a few hundred personal soldiers under his command, how could he have the ability to recapture Zhenhai City. Besides, the imperial court has ordered him to negotiate peace with the French. Isn't he disobeying orders by doing this?" Yan Jingming saw through the trick in the intelligence at a glance.

Yan Jingming had always been at odds with Li Hongzhang, and he showed no mercy to Zhou Bingzhang, who was from Li Hongzhang's faction.

The head military minister, Prince Li Shiduo, also revealed his source of information: "Yuan Xiangcheng, the commander of the Right Army in Jiashen, sent a telegram earlier, saying that the French had completely destroyed the Weihaiwei Fort and that they were now unlikely to hold Lushun and were about to march on Tianjin."

"The French also had several thousand Japanese on board. The Japanese wanted to go ashore and plunder, but they were repelled by Yuan Shikai and his men."

"What about the French?"

"Yuan Xiangcheng said the French were aiming for the capital, so he gathered the Japanese and sent them to the capital, and then headed west."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the hall immediately became panicked. Judging from the French's attitude, they would not stop until they reached the capital!

"Didn't the five armies of the Zongli Yamen, Yi Lie, Xing Gu Bao Hai Ba Bi Huang Wu, train for half a year in Jiashen? Can they hold on?"

"Except for Yuan Shikai's Jiashen Right Army which is temporarily unable to return to Lushun, the remaining four armies are already on high alert. Ronglu even led the Jiashen Central Army to Wuqing to take charge." Prince Li Shiduo said.

"Where is Li Hongzhang? Why not ask Li Hongzhang's Huai Army to come and defend?" Yili Zhisheng

Everyone in the hall fell silent after hearing this, lowering their heads and not saying a word.

It wasn't until YiX gave Yilie a signal not to ask any more questions that Yilin Liaoou came over.

The purpose of training the Jiashen New Army was to contain Li Hongzhang. If Li Hongzhang's Huai Army was still needed when something happened, then what was the point of training the Jiashen New Army?

"Don't worry. The Jiashen armies, even without counting Yuan Shikai's right army, have nearly 40000 men. Relying on the defensive fortifications near Tianjin, the French may not succeed." Shiduo encouraged everyone in the room.

In the telegram sent by his son Chenghou, Yuan Shikai praised him highly, calling him the only star general of the time who easily repelled several rounds of Japanese attacks.

Since the Jiashen Right Army is like this, the other armies whose training results are better than the Jiashen Right Army will not be much worse.

Zhang Zhiwan looked at everyone in the hall and said, "What about Li Hongzhang? He is on his way to Zhejiang. Should we recall him?"

"He should not have left Shandong yet. Send someone to send a telegram to stop him. When the French come, we still have to rely on him to negotiate." Yi X gave a solution.

"In that case, let's do it this way. Don't forget to submit the record of this meeting to the Empress Dowager for review." The head military minister Shi Duo spoke and ended the military meeting.

...

In Lushun, after welcoming 5000 new troops from Incheon, Yuan Shikai immediately ordered the abandonment of Lushun City and asked the residents of the city to take their gold and silver valuables and flee to the surrounding rural areas.

He himself decided to abandon Lushun, whose artillery batteries had been completely destroyed, and all his men boarded ships in Pulandian Bay and landed at the mouth of the Luan River near Yongping Prefecture, later known as Tangshan.

That was the meeting place he and Xu Shichang and others agreed to meet at.

After various military supplies were delivered to the ship, all the more than 10,000 soldiers of the Jiashen Right Army boarded the ship.

Yuan Xiangcheng also held another meeting with senior cadres of the Red Confucian Society in the cabin.

Yuan Xiangcheng told his subordinates who had traveled with him all over the country that the upcoming battle would be a tough one.

Whether they joined the Red Confucian Society because they agreed with its philosophy or were attracted by Yuan Xiangcheng's personal charm, they all gathered together, and dozens of people filled the small cabin.

"With the full force of the French army deployed, Dagu Fort won't hold out for long. The fall of Tianjin is almost inevitable. We can't confront the French head-on. We must leverage our home advantage and lead the French by the nose!"

Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui had already studied what would happen if the French landed. The road between Beijing and Tianjin was smooth and could be defended indefinitely.

As soon as Tianjin fell, it was only a matter of time before the French reached the gates of Beijing. The only way to stop the French was to sacrifice lives or prevent the French from finding their target.

What was the French goal? There was no doubt that it was to break into the Forbidden City and capture the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, so that the Qing Dynasty could have whatever it wanted from France.

Yuan Shikai would never let his Jiashen Right Army serve as a flesh and blood wall. If anyone needed to fill it, the other four Jiashen armies would go first.

As long as the other four armies of Jiashen suffered heavy losses, the Jiashen Right Army would surely be relied upon by the Manchu nobles, and there would no longer be any worry about anyone coming to snatch resources.

But before that, Yuan Xiangcheng had an important thing to do.

Just as more than 10,000 Jiashen Right Army soldiers were sailing on the Bohai Sea, Yuan Shikai decided to personally award medals to the soldiers who had performed outstandingly in the Battle of Lushun.

The medal was very simple, not even made of metal. Instead, it was a palm-sized red round cloth prepared in advance, with a "Ru" (Confucianism) printed on it.

Only those who hold the Red Confucian Seal are truly considered members of the Red Confucian Society. The rest of those who want to join are just active members and are still in the probation period.

Duan Qirui, as the oath-taker, led the crowd in reciting the oath: "We join the association voluntarily!"

"We join voluntarily!"

"Follow the rules and remain loyal!"

"Travel all over the world to find like-minded people!"

"Follow the will of Heaven and take the safety of the people of the world as your own responsibility!"

"Respect Confucianism and our ancestors, restore China, put the people first, and strive for social justice!"

Duan Qirui led the recitation sentence by sentence, and the others followed suit.

Under the witness of Yuan Xiangcheng, the Red Confucian Society recruited more than a dozen new members who had experienced the baptism of war.

The Battle of Dagukou also came to an end shortly after Yuan Shikai and others landed.

Chapter 54 Heading West

On midsummer nights, the French do not seem to be very adaptable to the weather in East Asia.

After arriving at Dagukou, the Franco-Japanese Allied Forces sent representatives to ask the Dagukou defenders to lay down their arms and surrender on the spot.

Courbet's request was naturally rejected, so the French warships began bombarding at 18: in the evening.

After a fierce battle, the French army easily broke through the defense line built by the Dagu Forts and eliminated the coastal forts one by one like playing whack-a-mole.

The artillery batteries on both sides of the Haihe River were forced to surrender under the attack of the French and Japanese forces after they landed.

After Courbet landed, he did not encounter any decent ground resistance. He even met the captured Dagukou Association deputy general Luo Rongguang at the mouth of the Haihe River.

After being tortured, Courbet learned about the defense forces in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and his expression unconsciously became a little nervous.

More than 3 people, nearly 4 people, seemed a bit difficult to deal with. He regretted his rash northward raid.