After listening to Colonel Volkov's speech, Yuki Otsu first despised the polar bear in his heart.

Yuki Otsu is also a soldier who fought all the way, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he has experienced a hundred battles, so it is natural to hear that Volkov deliberately exaggerated the number of enemy troops.

Because an army of about 500 people is by no means a small number, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army captured Dagukou on June 17, and it has been nearly three months now, and the Qing army has long been dispersed, and it is not very likely to maintain an army of about 500 people, and in the absence of stable logistics and supplements, it is simply not possible to support such a long time. Of course, if the Qing army lived by looting, it would not be impossible to survive, but this would inevitably cause a lot of movement, and under the noses of the coalition army, it would be impossible not to notice it at all.

According to Yuki Otsu's interpretation of Volkov's speech, the number of the Chun army is likely to be only more than 100 people, and it is impossible to exceed 200 people, and of course it is normal to have a few Makqin machine guns. Because only in this way can this Qing army survive near Dagukou for such a long time without being detected by the coalition forces.

However, Otsu Yuki did not overestimate the combat effectiveness of the Qing army, and did not think that more than 100 Qing troops, at most 200 Qing troops, could successfully ambush more than 80 Russian soldiers and kill more than 70 Russian soldiers. But Yuki Otsu has his own explanation for this, that is, this Qing army must have received help from the common people.

Unlike other countries, Japan and China can indeed be regarded as close neighbors, and exchanges between each other can be reversed to the Han Dynasty, so the understanding of China is much deeper than that of Western imperialism, and since Japan began the Meiji Restoration, China has been regarded as the object of conquest and plunder, and many Japanese scholars and soldiers have also made a very profound study of Chinese history and culture, and Otsu Yuki is one of them.

Through the study and understanding of Chinese history and culture, some Japanese scholars, including Yuki Otsu, have come to the conclusion that they can look down on the Chinese emperor, ignore the Chinese officials, and despise the Chinese army, but they must not underestimate the Chinese people. Although the Chinese people are weak, cowardly, and bullied, they can only swallow their anger and accept it, but when they are suppressed and cornered, the power that erupts is extremely terrifying, which has been reflected many times in Chinese history, whether it is the powerful Han Dynasty, the glorious Tang Dynasty, The invincible Yuan Empire, including the predecessor of the current Qing Dynasty, and the Ming Empire, which once crisscrossed the world and was once dominant, all died directly or indirectly in China's peasant uprisings, including the current Xiangchun Empire, which almost died in peasant uprisings more than 30 years ago.

Five years ago, during the Otomo War, Yuki Otsu experienced the terrifying power of the Chinese people for the first time.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, which ceded Taiwan to Japan in addition to huge compensation. However, this decision was strongly opposed by the original inhabitants of Taiwan, and under the leadership of Liu Yongfu, the general of the Qing army, the commander of the Black Flag Army, and the volunteers of the original inhabitants of Taiwan, fierce resistance was waged against the Yue army. Because this war took place in the last year of B after the first year, it was called the end of the second war, and Japan called this war the war of the Taiwan crusade.

However, in the First Sino-Japanese War, whether it was the Korean battlefield, the naval battle, or the Shandong battlefield and the Liaodong battlefield, they were all majestic and invincible, and the Japanese army, which had lost its armor and fled in defeat, faced the anti-Japanese volunteers who had only a small number of Qing troops on the small island of Taiwan, but were spontaneously formed by the original inhabitants of Taiwan, but encountered unprecedented strong resistance.

On May 29, 1895, the Japanese army landed in Aodi (now in Gongliao Township, Taipei County), and encountered layers of resistance in Longenpu, Fenshuilun, Baguashan, Douliu, Bazhangxi, Tainan, Buyuelou and other places, and finally the Japanese division landed in Tainan on October 26, and attacked from north to south, until noon on November 26, the Japanese army attacked the base camp of the Liudui Hakka Army in Huozhuozhuang (now Changxing Village, Changzhi Township, Pingtung County). The Japanese army repelled six piles of Hakka troops with superior weapons and firepower, and set fire to the neighboring settlements, and returned to Ah Monkey Street in the evening, which was the last battle of the Yiwei War. Only then can it be regarded as basically quelling the low resistance of Taiwan's volunteers and basically controlling the situation in Taiwan. But until now, Taiwan's original inhabitants are still resisting.

In the nearly half a year before and after, Japan dispatched a total of about 37,000 people, more than 7,000 horses, and nearly 100,000 soldiers and logistics reserve troops, with a total of more than 14,000 killed and more than 26,000 wounded, including the commander of the Guards Division, the lieutenant general of the army, Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Miya, and the commander of the Second Brigade, Major General Nobunari Yamane. Both the number of casualties and the number of generals killed in battle far exceeded that of the First Sino-Japanese War. (Note 1)

At the time of his participation in the Otomo War, Yuki Otsu was still a lieutenant. Originally, I thought that it was easy to defeat tens of thousands of regular Qing troops on the Korean battlefield and the Chinese battlefield, and annihilated the powerful Beiyang Fleet, and to sweep away the small natives on the island of Taiwan.

But after arriving in Taiwan, Otsu Yuki realized that he was very wrong, on the way of the Japanese army, there were a large number of dense jungles and criss-crossing rivers and ditches, and at some point, a different number of peasants would suddenly rush out of it, their clothes were messy and colored, and there was no battle formation, and the weapons in their hands were also varied, that is, there were new bolt rifles, old flintlock muskets, and homemade bird guns, and even homemade broadswords, spears, and all kinds of strange farm tools. Sometimes it was a few cold shots, or a primitive bow and arrow, and a shuttle or a throwing gun, and then the sound of killing shook and pounced.

And although the young peasants fell in pieces under the rain of Japanese guns, they were endless, and again and again, the Japanese troops were forced to form battle formations and resist almost every few steps.

The six-month war left a very deep impression on Otsu Yuki, and until the end of the war, Otsu Yuki still couldn't understand, because before the start of this battlefield, the Qing government had completely abandoned Taiwan, and at the same time strictly ordered the governors and ministers everywhere to prohibit any form of support for Taiwan's military and civilian battles, so without the support of the central government, the resistance of Taiwan's original inhabitants was simply a battle that was destined to be impossible to win, but why did the Chinese people still follow one another one after another and go to their deaths? But why are China's armed forces, officials, and government so incompatible? If the Chun troops participating in the First Sino-Japanese War were so desperate, would Japan still be able to win?

Otsu Yuki is different from ordinary Japanese soldiers, he was born in a world lord family, received a relatively good education, after joining the army, and as a young officer went to Germany to study for three years, until the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War was recruited by Japan to return to China, because of the high level of culture, and has been in contact with Western culture, so that Otsu Yuki's horizons have been greatly broadened, and have a certain international vision, compared with the general head of the tendons, only know that shouting "loyal to the emperor" of the Japanese soldiers, Otsu Yuki's thinking and opinions are naturally much more open-minded.

Intuition led Yuki Otsu to think that if he could find out the reason, he could help Japan conquer China. So in search of answers, after returning to Japan, Yuki Otsu began to seriously study Chinese history and culture, and read a large number of Chinese books, and seemed to have found the answer.

Five years later, Yuki Otsu set foot on Chinese soil with the Eight-Nation Alliance, and a similar scene was repeated, except that the tropical rainforest on the island of Taiwan was replaced by endless green gauze tents, and the Taiwanese natives with their clothes in a chaotic color became Boxers with red turbans on their heads.

It was on June 10th, the first time the coalition forces attacked Beijing, the train arrived at Langfang station, the railway was destroyed, the train could not move forward, the coalition troops were stopped by the road to repair the road, but at this moment, the green gauze tents on both sides of the railway suddenly sounded hundreds of earth-shaking shouts, wearing red turbans, holding high knives, spears, wooden sticks, shovels, hoes, and earth guns, rushing towards the coalition troops like huge waves.

Yuki Otsu saw a spectacle that he would never forget, and later wrote in his diary:

"A sea of flags on all sides, a sea of colors that rises and falls violently with a low roar, like the waves of a great storm when it comes. The sky darkened for a moment, as the scorching heat was obscured by the flying dust. In front of the countless Boxers dressed in various colors, there were leaders dressed in white or red. They did not evade the bullets, not even bent their waists, but held their heads high, as if they eagerly hoped that their bodies would be more conspicuous at this moment when they should be dodging bullets. ”

And behind them, everybody followed their example, even more exaggeratedly, and all of them writhed like some kind of tribal ritual dance. The mouth makes strange sounds, the rhythm is sometimes obvious, sometimes chaotic, from low to high, and finally into a high-pitched shout. A platoon of men fell in the firing of bullets, and the sharp sound only paused for a moment, but then the sharper sound sounded again, and the people behind advanced with more ferocity. These Chinese peasants are falling like fallen leaves, but they are still charging, and it is impossible to imagine that there are more brave people in the world than them. It's not a fight, it's certainly some kind of ritual, a funeral ritual performed by this people in some kind of crisis. One of the coalition officers said in a conversation with me later, and I told him, 'This is not a ceremony, this is the Chinese peasantry, which has happened many times in Chinese history.'" ’”

Therefore, after listening to Volkov's speech, Yuki Otsu's first reaction was: This is done by the Chinese people.

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Note 1: After the Battle of Omo, the Japanese official casualty figures were as follows: 515 Japanese troops were wounded, about 164 were killed, and 4,642 died due to water and soil adaptation. The military man had a loss of 7,000 deaths. A total of 26,094 people were hospitalised. However, this figure is obviously unreasonable, first, the ratio of casualties to disease deaths is too large, and second, the number of casualties does not match the time of the fighting. In any case, Japan's losses in the Second World War were greater than in the First Sino-Japanese War.

Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace (1847.4.1-1895.11.5) was a member of the Japanese imperial family, a general, the ninth son of Prince Fushimi Miyakuni, and the adopted son of Emperor Komei, born in Kyoto, who went to Prussia to study and served as the head of the Central Guards Division. Japan's official document said: A week after the capture of Tainan, Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace was infected with malaria, and after returning to Tokyo on November 4 (Yokosuka landing), he died of illness in his house the next day.

According to the research of Taiwanese literature and history researcher Huang Rongluo, Prince Neng Jiu of the North Baichuan Palace was shot and killed in Niupu Mountain, Hsinchu. At that time, his younger brother Prince Fushimi Palace Sadaai happened to lead troops to Taiwan to support, so the Japanese army concealed the death of Kita-Shirakawa Palace and used his brother Fushimi Palace as a stand-in to go south. Prince Zhenai was seriously injured in Changhua, Huwei, and Chiayi, and the Japanese side continued to carry him on a stretcher in Tainan as Prince Nohhisa in order to keep it secret, so that the people who witnessed it in Tainan thought that Prince Nohku was seriously ill and returned to China, and Prince Nohku of the North Shirakawa Palace was declared dead after returning to China.

Later, Japanese officials in Taiwan set up a royal camping monument on Niupu Mountain, the place of death of Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace, and the monuments elsewhere are different, in addition to listing the full title of Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace, there is a rather long inscription on the back, the last sentence is: "Dismount and look, you will see the desolation of the country", and the shape of the monument is like a cemetery.

After that, Prince Nohisa Shimazu of Kita-Shirakawa Palace, Princess Shimazu Tomiko, and the eldest man, King Takeda Palace Tsunehisa, and others visited Mt. Niupu many times to pay homage to Prince Nohisa, and when the Japanese crown prince Prince Hirohito (later Emperor Showa) came to Taiwan, he also sent attendants to Hsinchu Shrine to worship. From the importance that the Japanese imperial family attaches to the Niupu Mountain Monument, it can be seen that there are special places in it.

In addition, at that time, it was rumored that Prince Nengjiu of the North Baichuan Palace died at the hands of the rebels in the area, such as: Hsinchu, Miaoli, Dajia, Changhua, Yunlin, Dalin, Yizhu, Yanshui, Jiali, Shanhua and other places.

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