Master Yuan, start!

On the other hand, he also wanted to listen to different voices.

As the National Revolutionary Army continued to advance into the south, the Republican government ruled more and more provinces, and the Socialist Revolutionary Party's tentacles penetrated deeper and deeper into various industries.

The voices of flattery are also becoming more and more numerous.

Yuan Shikai himself did not want to become a president who lived in "good news" all day long. He still remembered the incident in the parallel universe where Yuan Shikai was fooled by his son's newspaper.

However, when one is in a high position for a long time, it is inevitable that he will be slow to respond to social problems. Yuan Xiangcheng also knows that for some things, the lower levels will even deliberately cover up and keep the upper levels unaware.

This is a common problem in all bureaucratic systems and cannot be changed by any doctrine.

Therefore, Yuan Xiangcheng believes that before the arrival of the information age where everyone can shoot videos and post them online, it is better to maintain disunity in the public opinion circle.

Therefore, even though there are some opposing voices in the newspapers now, Yuan Shikai has no intention of banning them.

Let’s have a war of words, the truth will become clearer the more we argue.

However, Yuan Shikai ignored all public opinions on the Battle of Lianzhou for the time being.

Because he has more important things to do.

After receiving the news, he immediately turned his attention to the National Revolutionary Army soldiers who died in the battle.

...

Lingnan, early morning, outside Guangzhou city.

The spring breeze blows across the Lingnan land, but it does not bring vitality. Instead, the banks of the Pearl River south of Guangzhou are filled with a bleak scene.

In the south of the city, around Wuxianmen, there are rows of sails and ships of all sizes moored on the shore. Whether they are advanced steam ships or backward wooden sand ships, they are now slowly floating with the water.

What is going on on the banks of the Pearl River is a funeral without a corpse.

The river bank, which is more than ten miles long, is filled with people, mostly young people. They all have solemn and serious expressions at this moment.

Not far from them stood one after another of the National Revolutionary Army who had come from the north and were about to go to the battlefield.

"beep"

Several ships of the Sihai Shipping Company sounded their whistles, and there was even a hint of coolness in the sea breeze.

The yellow sun and twelve-star national flags of the Republic of China on the three ships were lowered halfway.

Of the more than 2 people in the 6000nd Brigade of Lianzhou City, only more than 1000 escaped in the end.

That is to say, nearly 5000 people lost their lives in the French attack.

2 Generally speaking, this kind of funeral held when the body cannot be found is mostly called "clothing burial".

That is, only the deceased's clothes and hat are buried, and a cenotaph is set up after the funeral as a memorial.

However, today's funeral is not even worthy of the name "burial of formal attire".

After Lianzhou City was captured, it fell into street fighting, and most of the bodies of the National Revolutionary Army soldiers who died in the battle were left near Lianzhou.

The French had no intention of practicing any gentlemanly principles of warfare against the Chinese, resulting in the bodies in Lianzhou City remaining uncollected to this day.

Since there were no clothes for the dead, they finally took out more than 5000 "enlistment records" with the names, hometowns, and dates of birth of the soldiers who died in the war and burned them.

"Liu Erhu, a native of Cao County, Caozhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, was born on March 1878, 1898, and died on February , , in the year of Wuyin.

Liu Daniu, a native of Xian County, Hejian Prefecture, Zhili Province, was born and died on February 23rd of the Wuxu year.

Zhao Li

Each of these names is basically a very common combination of "numbers + livestock" among the people. Perhaps in the eyes of some intellectuals, these names are not even considered serious names.

At best, it can be used as a childhood nickname or a nickname.

However, these names, which were casually mentioned by the recruiting officers when entering the information, have now become martyrs of the People's Republic of China.

Every time the eunuch read out a name, Yuan Shikai waved his hand and threw out a soldier's information, letting it burn in the bonfire built on the bank of the Pearl River.

The National Revolutionary Army soldiers present trembled all over and breathed rapidly when they saw this scene. Every time a piece of document was burned, their fists would clench tighter.

It took the eunuch half a day to finish reading the lists.

At this time, the sun had already risen to the center of the sky.

After taking a look at the densely packed crowd by the river, Yuan Xiangcheng took out the eulogy he had prepared long ago and said loudly:

"…As soon as the call for justice was raised, all the people united in one heart, rushing a thousand miles to recapture Lang Son. The spirits of heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, rivers and seas, and our ancestors are truly here!

Xiangcheng rose up to carry the Tianma, and for decades, they worked together to call for the rise of China. This was achieved in an instant. This was not the achievement of one person, but the result of the concerted efforts of 400 million people.

The National Revolutionary Army fought fiercely in southern Guangxi, and five thousand heroes shed their blood and died. We must not let these brave warriors return home without a home. We have established the Guangzhou National Cemetery and the Martyrs' Monument to comfort the souls of those who fought against France!

Yuan Shikai announced in front of everyone that a monument to the soldiers who died in the war against France would be erected on the banks of the Pearl River.

In the future, whether you are going down the Pearl River or up the Lingdingyang, when you pass through Guangzhou City, you must pass by here to pay tribute to the martyrs who gave their lives for the cause of the Republic.

After the memorial was read, a military order was heard from a ship anchored on the shore.

"Everyone in the National Revolutionary Army present here!"

"Hats off, salute!"

Upon hearing this, all the soldiers loosened their clenched hands, took off their blue military caps, and saluted the empty cenotaph in front of them.

The people in ordinary clothes also took off their hats and bowed.

Looking at the moved expressions on these people's faces, Yuan Xiangcheng showed a gratified expression.

The reason why he went to so much trouble to gather all the people in the city and use the news of the Battle of Lianzhou to hold a memorial service for the soldiers who died in the battle.

This is because Yuan Xiangcheng intends to gradually implement the "military-first politics"

If we want to implement the military-first policy and put soldiers before the three major classes of workers, peasants, and intellectuals, we must first create an atmosphere of military greatness.

Since the founding of the Republic, more and more people have joined the army to serve the country.

However, this cannot completely change the idea that "good men do not serve in the military" that has permeated the entire society for more than 200 years since the early Qing Dynasty.

Even after so many changes, being a soldier in this era is still just a profession, not a noble choice.

In the late 19th century, when China was surrounded by wolves and powerful countries, nothing was more suitable for it than the policy of "military-first politics".

Chapter 448 Visitors in the Stalemate Picture 7

If we count the battles of Qinzhou and Lianzhou together, it took only more than 20 days from the time the French army lost the important city of Lang Son in Tonkin to the time when the French navy and army joined forces to successively occupy three prefectures and four cities, including Qiongzhou, Leizhou, Qinzhou and Lianzhou.

In more than 20 days, a beautiful counterattack was fought, and nearly half of Vietnam's Tonkin land was taken from the Chinese.

In the eyes of French public opinion, this represents that the French army has finally "woke up" and is a victory of turning point significance.

Some newspapers in Paris have begun to openly discuss how to send troops to occupy Guangzhou. Some people even claim that they want to set up hundreds of miles of land along the Pearl River as a French concession, and even station troops there if necessary.

However, what they did not expect was that France's rapid advance came to an end from the moment it captured Lianzhou City.

In the Qinlian area of ​​southern Guangxi, after the French army occupied important local towns, they planned to move north immediately. However, they were immediately blocked by the Yulin defenders moving south.

Although the French army had a stronger combat capability than the National Revolutionary Army due to its firepower advantage, they could not cross the wide Yongjiang River without annihilating the National Revolutionary Army.

Taking advantage of the geographical location of Yongjiang River, the defenders of Yulin used their guerrilla warfare skills to harass the enemy repeatedly, but they did not send out their main force for a head-on confrontation.

As a result, the Chinese and French sides were in a stalemate in Lingshan County and Hengzhou County, north of Lianzhou and south of Yulin.

The same is true of the fighting in Tonkin, Vietnam.

The National Revolutionary Army used Lang Son as its base and held its position, while the French army, with Hanoi as its center, frequently launched attacks to the north.

In the eyes of French public opinion, it is understandable that the French army was unable to break through the defense line in Tonkin as Lang Son was blocking the way.

However, in southern Guangxi, the "China Non-derogatory Task Force" that landed with great momentum was silenced after a period of fierce attack, which was really embarrassing.

As for the French Far East Navy, which was highly expected by the French public opinion, it was completely invisible on the battlefield.

The infantry had already penetrated deep into the land, and the cannons that the navy ships were proud of had become useless. They could no longer provide artillery support to the friendly forces on land.

Unless the rear command agrees to open more coastal landing areas.

However, everyone knows that this is not realistic, and France’s military strength in the Far East is somewhat stretched!

In 1898, the French army had reorganized more than 30 armies, with a total of about 50 people. It seemed that it could easily crush the National Revolutionary Army of only 30 people.

However, among the 30 French armies, only the 21st Army was stationed in Algeria, the 22nd Army was stationed in French West Africa, and the 23rd Army was stationed in Indochina. Apart from these three places, the remaining troops were all stationed in the mainland.

The so-called "French Indochina Expeditionary Force" was not an army with a fixed number of troops, but could be increased or decreased at any time based on the 23rd Army of the French Army according to the circumstances.

Before the war between the People's Republic of China and France, the expeditionary force could be roughly divided into several infantry brigades and artillery regiments as well as cavalry, engineering, and communications units, totaling about 2.5 people, of which 2 were stationed in Indochina and 5000 were stationed in Taiwan.

In other words, in East Asia, the initial military strength between China and France was 30 to 2.5, and the advantage was definitely on my side.

Even after the war broke out, the Paris government urgently dispatched more than 1 people to support the Indochina colony, but it was not enough to change the overall situation.

Not to mention, these reinforcements had just landed in Saigon in Cochinchina after a long journey.

Now, excluding the vassal armies, the French army has about 3.5 troops, which is the maximum force that France can deploy in Indochina in 1898.

For the Indochina colony, 3.5 people was a lot based on past experience.

You have to know that France fought a war with the Qing Dynasty and conquered the entire Indochina region with less than 2 people.

The French Governor-General of Indochina divided the Indochina colony into five parts:

"Directly governed Cochinchina South Vietnam"

"Protectorate of Annan Central"

"Semi-protected Tokyo Tokio"

"Protectorate of Cambodia"

Laos as a protectorate

As the name suggests, the Cochinchina area was the top priority of French colonization of Indochina.

If too many troops are sent to land on the Chinese coast, resulting in a mishap in Cochinchina, the result will be more harm than good.

After all, the anti-French movement in Vietnam was becoming increasingly fierce. Although the uprisings in several major cities had been suppressed in time, small-scale rebellions in rural areas continued to emerge.

The French army could not ignore these rebellions. In addition, Siam was also mobilizing troops on the Cambodian border, which made the French army even more cautious.

The French headquarters in the rear had not yet decided whether these 1 troops coming from the mainland would stay in Cochinchina to protect the essence of Indochina, or be transferred to Tonkin to fight the Chinese.

Unable to attack or retreat, the Governor-General of Indochina kept sending telegrams to Paris, asking them to send more troops for support.

On the other hand, they could only sit back and watch the Sino-French war, which was temporarily deadlocked.