The spring of the 50th year of Qianlong's reign was colder than previous years. It was already past March, but the heavy snow was still falling all over the sky. The cold current from Siberia was still controlling the land outside the customs, trying to prevent the spring breeze from blowing from inside Shanhaiguan.
On March 15, a long transport team walked from south to north on the post road from Kaiyuan to Wula City in Jilin. The road that was originally frozen by ice and snow became muddy after the continuous rolling of wheels.
The two-wheeled carts pushed and pulled by horses were loaded with various military supplies such as silver, grain, bean cakes, cloth, iron materials, copper materials, iron nails, gunpowder, etc. The military commander in the middle of the team who was responsible for escorting the transportation was delayed due to time delays.
And became more and more anxious.
"It's already two days late. If we don't speed up, A Zhongtang and Marshal Fu will really kill people!"
The general who spoke was wearing a red gold chainmail, a thick black cloak, and a third-grade top hat. He was followed by a bearded attendant. After days of traveling and being anxious, this man
The general's eyes were sunken and red. His originally shiny braids had become dry and astringent.
"Sir, please go up to the tent and have a sip of tea. It's too cold here." The attendant leaned over and dusted off the mud on the general's cloak, then stood up and advised.
"How can you still be in the mood to drink tea? Marshal Fu is stationed in Jilin, reporting and urging us every day, waiting for us to arrive so that we can start casting cannons!" After the military attache finished speaking, he turned around and saw a truck pulling copper.
The carriage carrying the materials was stuck in the mud, and several peasants were pushing it forward with all their strength. The two horses kept neighing at the driver's shouts.
It didn't matter that he was slow, all the carriages behind him had to stop and wait. The general took a look, untied his cloak, left it on the ground, and strode over.
"Listen to my command and work hard together! One, two, three!" The attendant took a look and didn't care about the cloak. He quickly ran behind the general to help. Everyone worked together and drove the carriage out of the mud pit.
"Hurry up and find rocks to fill this place! Otherwise you will have to sink in!" The general wiped the muddy water from the corners of his eyes and ordered his subordinates.
At this time, the sound of horse hooves came from the post road to the south, and the mud water brought up by the horse hooves splashed all over the peasants.
"Hurry up for six hundred miles! Get out of the way!" As the cry got closer, the peasants in the middle of the road moved out of the way. A messenger with a hat tied with a cable tassel, a war skirt, a waistband that could not fit, and a bucket on his back was riding a stage horse.
Speeding by.
The military general stood on a high place beside the road, looked at the stagecoach carefully, and said dissatisfiedly: "Six hundred miles urgent?! Are the adults in the Military Aircraft Department crazy? It's only the middle of March, and the snow hasn't stopped yet.
Yeah! I know how to push it all day long!"
The bells, saddles, stirrups, etc. worn by the post horses in the Qing Dynasty were all different from the folk horses, and were uniformly made and distributed by the capital. The top of the stirrup was in the shape of a dragon's head, mostly with seven or nine eyes containing beads;
They are all inlaid with gold or silver engraved silk. Generally, a horse race is used to deliver memorials for a distance of three hundred miles, and the fire sign is used as a proof; if a chicken feather is inserted as an urgent message, a journey of five to six hundred miles is set, and the military department is worthy of being accepted as a certificate. The messenger runs a horse race.
After walking a distance, you can dismount and rest.
The courier just now set out from Kaiyuan Station and had to pass eight stations along the way. Because it was a 600-mile rush, he had to go all the way to Wula, Jilin.
When the post horse passed by, the peasants on both sides of the post road took off their tools from the carriage and began to fill the mud hole just now.
At the end of the first month of the fiftieth year of Qianlong's reign, Agui and Fukang'an, who once again took command, headed north to Jilin with two thousand soldiers and horses from the Beijing Firearms Battalion. Under Fukang'an's efforts, the Qing government moved from Shengjing and Guannei to
Banner camps from various places deployed a large number of soldiers and horses, 70% of which were firearms troops.
This time Qianlong ordered a total of 1,071 Eight Banners soldiers and horses to be recruited from various places, including eight battalions of the Eight Banners Firearms Battalion of the Han Army, four Manchu Firearms Banners, one battalion of the Four Forward Banners and four Banners, the Defense Army Battalion and Xiaoqi
There are two camps in each camp.
Because the battle was at the Longxing area outside the Pass, Qianlong, Yongyan, Fukang'an and others did not want the Green Camp to get involved, so they also transferred troops from various provinces to garrison the Eight Banners.
Shanxi, Shaanxi, Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Sichuan provinces will send one thousand to two thousand Eight Banners garrison troops northward. In addition, Fukang'an also asked Qianlong to send troops from Neizhasa
The Six Banners of Horqin, the left and right wings of Khalkha, the Seven Banners of Ordos and other units belonging to Mongolia dispatched 5,000 cavalry.
Even so, Fukang'an still felt it was not enough. He and Agui kept sending memorials to the Military Aircraft Department asking for continued troop deployment.
Yong Yan, He Shen and others in Beijing were overwhelmed by Fukang'an and A Gui's big moves. Most of their daily official duties were arranging the number of people going north from various places and urging the departure time.
In ancient times, the movement of troops was actually the movement of food and grass. As the saying goes, "before the troops and horses move, food and grass go first."
Without a supply of food and grass, the troops could not dispatch. But the Qing Dynasty's food and salary system was very strange! Because the Eight Banners troops were stationed in different provinces, so if you want to mobilize troops across provinces, you need to raise the military salaries yourself, and then report to the Ministry of War after the war.
Sales. When reporting sales, you need to go to the Ministry of War for accounting, and when appropriating money, you need to pay 20% of the fire consumption silver first.
This is okay for wealthy provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but it is almost impossible for the poor provinces in the northwest. Therefore, each province can only mobilize a maximum of 2,000 people for the expedition. It cannot afford any more.
As soon as Fukang'an and Agui arrived in Jilin, they ordered the construction of a cannon foundry outside Jilin City to cast cannons nearby to make up for the lack of artillery transportation.
Beihai Town on the other side.
Since the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Beihai Town has issued a general mobilization order.
The Ministry of Security once again recruited 3,000 people from the refugees to form a force of 5,000. One-third of the soldiers were construction workers and lumberjacks under Chen Qingsong; the other two-thirds were from those who had just arrived a year ago.
of those eighteen thousand people.
Except for the two companies stationed in Ezo and the recruit training team, the rest of the original two thousand soldiers were trained like crazy for more than a month. In the training outline formulated by Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang
In addition to strengthening basic military skills training, trench defense tactics have become the largest part of the training. The most important in this tactic are machine guns and artillery. For this reason, the company originally led by Lu Shoushan was replaced by Lu Shoushan.
All were reorganized into artillery units.
At the hospital, Liu Siting led a large number of housewives to make a large number of battlefield first aid kits. A new batch of ambulancemen also started training. Since Fuldan City is too far away from Beihai Town, it is very necessary to build a local medical station
, so Liu Siting will take A Miao and other 20 nurses to join the first batch of teams heading north.
Chen Qingsong had the hardest time. While he had to cooperate with the Ministry of Security to mobilize his workers to join the army, he also had to select workers from new refugees. At the same time, he also had to formulate a spring plowing plan for the 50th year of Qianlong's reign.
Zhao Liang has officially named his imitation "Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver" as "Model 84 Revolver." This revolver uses 0.35-caliber round lead bullets and is loaded with six rounds.
The gunpowder is wrapped with nitrified paper into a fixed-loading bullet. When loading, the fixed-loading bullet needs to be stuffed into the chamber of the runner's bullet nest, and pressed into the bullet nest by using the folding depressing rod under the barrel. Before firing,
It is also necessary to install a flash cap on the anvil port at the rear of the cartridge as a primer.
The two hundred Ainu people from Ezo Land can now understand the marching orders and can communicate in simple Mandarin. Zhao Xin decided to equip these simple-minded guys with well-developed limbs with Type 84 revolvers.
Anyway, as long as the output of the fire hat is controlled, the Ainu will not be able to change the world.
Zhao Xin took advantage of the opportunity of purchasing arms from various places for more than a month and actually obtained a set of German position layout maps from World War I.
After careful study by him and everyone in the security department, they decided to implement such a scheme outside the city of Fuldan to deal with the Qing army's large-scale group firearms attack.
Zhao Xin also wanted to understand, what nonsense "Nine Advances and Ten Chains" is, isn't it just a crowd tactics, queuing up and shooting! Machine guns and cannons specialize in dealing with all kinds of dissatisfaction in this era! Marshal Fu and Agui Zhongtang, come on!
On March 20, an advance team of three companies led by Liu Sheng and an engineering logistics team of 3,000 people led by Zhao Xin personally set out for Fuldan City under the leadership of the Serdan reconnaissance team.
.
This team was equipped with a large number of horse-drawn sledges. The Mongolian horses captured previously and the heavy-duty draft horses bought by Zhao Xin were all used to pull the carts. Since all construction materials and tools were collected by Zhao Xin,
Therefore, the logistics personnel only need to carry food supplies, get on the sledge and follow them so as not to fall behind.
In mid-April, the vanguard arrived and set up camp three kilometers south of Fuldan.
In the green tent used as a conference room, Serdan, who had just completed his reconnaissance mission, was carefully reporting to Liu Sheng on the residents in the city and the situation at the Karen outpost.
"Let me talk about Karen's situation first. Karen in Fuldan City is on the roadside under the old city. There are a total of thirty households, all of whom are bannermen. Among them is a leader. There are ten horses in Karen.
, are all tied up in the stables outside, and can be ridden away at any time. So what I mean is that we must first capture Karen to prevent the guards from escaping and reporting the news."
(The requirements of the Qing Dynasty for post stations in various places were that twelve fast horses must be available day and night, tied to iron rings outside the wall. When the messengers came galloping, the post soldiers would have to fight against them when they were far away.
Shout out: Which paragraph of newspaper or memorial is this messenger sending?
When the postman heard the shout, he immediately took off the horse's reins from the iron ring and led the horse to the post road to wait. As soon as the messenger arrived, the postman waited on the messenger to get on the new horse, and then watched the messenger whip his horse and drive away. As the saying goes, "You can't change horses."
"Replace the person." Then, the postman put the reins of the messenger's mount around the horse's neck, and the horse returned along the original road, walking along the Tunchuan Street, and neither the bannermen nor the people dared to interfere without authorization.)
"In addition to the post houses, there are fifty households within the earthen walls of the old city. These include bannermen and Hezhefeyaka people."
Liu Sheng nodded and said to himself: "The weapons are nothing, the main thing is to prevent them from escaping and reporting the news." After speaking, he raised his head and said to Serdan: "Let you and Elu each lead a platoon, and take down the inn first.
.Is there any problem?”
Serdan thought for a moment and said, "Sir, I have only one request."
"Tell me."
"Sir, whether they are the postmen here or the border residents, they are all miserable poor people. What I mean is, if they surrender, can you not kill them?"
Liu Sheng smiled and patted Serdan on the shoulder and said: "We are not butchers. We just need to surrender and put down our weapons to ensure their safety."
The social status of the standing men in the Qing Dynasty was extremely low. Not only were their descendants unable to take the civil service examinations to become officials or soldiers, but their marriages were also strictly restricted. Even though they were bannermen, the standing men were a class similar to official slaves.
They were not allowed to marry other classes, and could only propose marriages to people of the same class. Later, the custom of intermarriage between standing households was formed.
The life of these station workers is extremely difficult. It is said that "their families are extremely poor, they have no clothes to cover their bodies, no food to satisfy their hunger, their parents are cold and hungry, and their wives are separated. Although they have heirs, they are unable to marry and remain alone all their lives."
Serdan took a deep breath, stood at attention and saluted Liu Sheng: "Your Majesty, I will feel relieved. Let alone one inn, the entire Fuldan City, my investigation team, and two more platoons will be added tomorrow."
It can be taken down before dawn."
"Okay! Take Fuldan City and I'll give you credit!"
When Liu Sheng arranged the task, Zhao Xin, fifty miles away, was in his tent, holding information and an old map, studying the terrain and roads in the Fuldan City area.
If you want to occupy the entire Jilin General's Mansion in the future, then the post roads must be controlled. During the Qianlong period, the transportation network under the jurisdiction of Jilin General's Mansion took Jilin Wula City as the hub and radiated to all directions. Since the tenth year of Tianming
, a total of seven main post roads have been opened in Jilin, including: Jilin City-Kaiyuan, Jilin-Ningguta, Jilin-Bodune, Jilin-Sanxing, Ningguta-Hunchun, Ningguta
——Three surnames, Ning Guta——Yinggeguan (Yinggemen).
What Zhao Xin wants to cut off now is the line from Ninggu Pagoda to Hunchun. This post road starts from the southeast of Nanwoleng River in Ninggu Pagoda and passes through Malehuli Woji, Saqiku Road, and Ga
Hali River, Gasun River, Detong'e River, Mukdeheng Mountains, Mizhan River to Hunchun; then northeast, passing through Abdali River, Shuba River, Fuldan City, Niyaringbila
The river, Huya River, ends at Futeleku Mountain in the east of Xingkai Lake.
There are only six Karen posts in total on this road. These Karens also serve as post stations. As long as this line is controlled, the vast black land from Fuldan City to the east of Xingkai Lake will be fully occupied.
. And with this vast plain, Beihai Town has the confidence to accommodate a large number of refugees from Henan.
Zhao Xin often has a headache for Beihai Town, which is currently dominated by refugees from island countries. On the one hand, he sympathizes with the tragic experience of the hungry people on the island countries, but on the other hand, he still hopes in his heart that Chinese people will become the mainstream here. For this reason,
, he plans to take a series of administrative measures to naturalize the refugees from these island countries as Chinese after fighting this year's battle.
"Sir, please warm your feet. You have been gone all day." The orderly Tian Guisheng came in from outside carrying a hot water basin.
"Guisheng, are you still used to following me?" Zhao Xin put down the information in his hand and asked with a smile.
"It's pretty good! It's just that I'm not used to it in the military camp."
Zhao Xin took off his shoes and socks, soaked his feet in hot water, and said with satisfaction: "That is to transform you from an ordinary citizen into a good piece of steel. This is how Mr. Liu and Mr. Wang came here."
"Forget it, I still want to be your orderly."
"You kid, you don't have any lofty ambitions at all."
"Who said I didn't? The eldest lady asked me to serve you well. Serving you well is my ambition."
Zhao Xin shook his head dumbfounded. This kid was full of thoughts of master and servant, so he had to go back to the furnace and continue practicing!
At three o'clock in the morning, Serdan and Erlu set off with a reconnaissance team and two platoons of soldiers. He asked Erlu to lead two platoons to block the two entrances and exits of Fuldan City. He led the reconnaissance team towards Ka.
Lun Station touched it.
Although it is already April, the temperature at night is still cold. In this kind of weather, no one in Karen will go out to watch the night. The guards in the wild mountains will never think that someone will attack.
A place where birds like them don't poop.
In the darkness of the night, the team wearing white cold-proof clothing quietly approached the stable, which was still five hundred meters away. A dozen horses suddenly woke up from their sleep, snoring uneasily, and raised their ears in the direction of Serdan and the others.
rise.
As Serdan slowly stood up, the team members on both sides also climbed up from the snow, arching their bodies and preparing to attack.
"superior!"
A dozen people ran quickly towards the stables, their boots squeaking on the snow.
"Who?" A weak voice sounded from the room next to the stable. It sounded like he didn't have enough to eat last night and didn't even have the strength to speak.
With a "bang" sound, the wooden door made of worn pine boards was kicked open from the outside, and Serdan rushed into the house with a pistol in hand.
"Don't move! One more shot and I'll kill you!" Serdan shouted in a low voice in Manchu.
"Ah?!" The waiter in the room looked surprised. He was only halfway through his pants.
"Who are you? You didn't sleep in the middle of the night and you came here to make mischief. Are you so hungry that you fainted? I tell you, that bean cake is for horses. No one can eat it, otherwise they will be whipped. Close the door quickly, too.
It's cold." At this time, Standing thought that Karen's companion was joking with him.
Serdan understood that this man had no intention of being a prisoner at all. So he said to the soldiers around him: "Tie him up and gag him."
"You are so disobedient! Who are you? Let me know that I have to beat you to death. Hey, hey, what are you doing? Let go, let go of me! Wuwu~~"
The two soldiers went up and tied the hands and feet of the standman with three strokes, and stuffed a towel into his mouth.
After daybreak, the early-rising residents of Fuldan City were surprised to find that the entrances and exits on the east and west sides of the castle had been blocked by a group of people wearing strange clothes, all of whom were holding strange shotguns.
Wait until they take a closer look, darling! Why are these people wearing mourning clothes? But the mourning clothes look very thick and warm. Especially the leather boots on their feet, which are black and shiny.
The residents in the fort were all stunned. Could these people be sent by the imperial court? But there has been no trouble here recently.