Seeing this scene, the faces of the two commanders of the Qing army were not very good-looking, of course, in comparison, Zhang Biao's expression was more shocked, although he did not regard this expedition as an easy event, but he did not expect that he would encounter such a blow, and Li Yuanhong was with a few shames, after all, it was his troops who suffered the first defeat, and Li Yuanhong usually regarded himself quite highly, and had some ambitions, but he did not expect to plant a big heel here.

However, at this time, he could only clean up the mess first, so Zhang Biao immediately ordered to rest in the camp on the spot, bury the dead soldiers, treat the wounded, and contain the fleeing soldiers to count the losses.

By dusk, the loss statistics had come out, and the Qing army in Hubei had 127 killed and 213 wounded, of which 41 were seriously wounded and could not participate in the battle in the short term, and 37 were missing, with a total loss of more than 200 people.

Although the losses in this battle were not large, after all, it was the first battle after the conquest and suppression, so it was a big blow to the morale of the whole army, and listening to Li Yuanhong's speech, the enemy bandits were not only well-trained, but also extremely brave in battle, in addition to being well-armed, and carrying a large number of artillery, absolutely not to underestimate the enemy, Li Yuanhong even doubted that this was simply an army sent by overseas Chinese.

After Zhang Biao heard this, he couldn't help frowning, this is troublesome, if it is really an army sent by overseas Chinese, it is really difficult to deal with, so after everyone consulted, they decided to rest here for a few days, and sent spies to explore the movements of the enemy bandits, and then make plans.

After the retreat of the volunteers, after checking, 77 soldiers were killed, 157 were wounded, 26 were seriously wounded, and more than 100 people were reduced, but 22 prisoners were captured, and 162 rifles and more than 2,500 bullets were captured, so although the battle was won, the losses of the volunteers themselves were not small, and it was obviously not good for the volunteers to fight like this, after all, the volunteers now have only one regiment of troops, even if they add the militia, they are less than 3,000 people, of course, they can't afford to spend.

However, the Qing army was stationed on the spot, which was good news for the volunteers, after all, the task of the volunteers was only to contain the Qing army. So Liu Hexing also changed his tactics, sent a company-based combat unit, constantly harassed the Qing army, but did not get too entangled with the Qing army, often only exchanged fire for a few minutes and immediately retreated, as a result, on the next day, the volunteers launched three surprise attacks on the Qing army, and each raid lasted no more than 5 minutes, the Qing army killed 12 people, wounded 20 people, although the loss was not large, and the Qing army did not dare to pursue too much, so it was made a lot of noise, panic.

While the battle on the southern front entered the stalemate stage, the battle on the northern front entered the moment of Guan Jian.

Although the Qing army in Henan was not the main force in this campaign, Zhang Renjun, the governor of Henan, also did not dare to slack off, after all, most of the base areas were in Henan Province.

According to the military system of the Qing Dynasty, the highest military official in each province is the commander, followed by the commander-in-chief, and each province has a commander, a number of town commanders, and in the coastal areas, there are also naval commanders, and Henan Province has a total of two town commanders, namely Hebei Town and Nanyang Town.

Although Xie Baosheng is only a town of soldiers, but nearly sixty years, 35 years of horses, very senior, as early as the Tongzhi years to join the army, Guangxu two years (1876), with Zuo Zongtang to Xinjiang to quell the rebellion, even Urumqi, Manas castles, accumulated merit to the capital. In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894), since the First Sino-Japanese War, Xie Baosheng went out of Shanhaiguan with his troops to fight dozens of fierce battles with the Japanese army, in the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu (1900), the Boxer Rebellion arose, and the military guard of the Beijing Division was Rong Lu, and Xie Baosheng was invited to serve as the front and rear battalion management belt, and stayed in Henan Province.

It is precisely because Xie Baosheng has such rich military experience, and at this time Xie Baosheng has been stationed in Henan for more than 4 years, treats his subordinates well, cleans himself and self-discipline, and is quite popular with the army, so Zhang Renjun appointed him as the commander of this expedition against Henan bandits. However, the strength of the Qing army in Henan is obviously much worse than that of the Qing army in Hubei, although Zhang Renjun pieced together left and right, and collected about 7,000 troops, but the equipment was extremely poor, and there were only more than 5,000 people equipped with rifles, most of which still used Mauser 1874 rifles, which could only be single-shot, and less than 1,000 people were equipped with Hanyang-made 88 rifles.

But this is the case in Henan, and there is also a Qing army in Hubei in the south, so Xie Baosheng didn't care about anything, and led the army to Linying County in Xuzhou.

Like the Qing army in Hubei, the Qing army in Henan also marched for three days without encountering the enemy, and it was less than 20 kilometers away from Linying County at this time. However, the quality of the soldiers of the Qing army in Henan is much worse than that of the Qing army in Hubei, and it has been raining continuously in the past few days, although the rain is not strong, but it has also brought trouble to the march, because it is the Qing army has always been marching in the countryside, mountains and forests, the road is rugged and muddy and difficult to walk, not to mention, there are several villages encountered on the way, and the houses are empty, and the Qing army has not caught anything, so the soldiers are also complaining, complaining.

On the fourth day, it was a sunny day, the sun was shining, and the Qing army in Henan was also free to cheer up, and slowly walked along the road of Nining, Wang Deqian, the commander of the outpost of the Qing army, rode on a horse, and dozed off listlessly, and at this moment, I saw a group of people coming in front of the avenue, about 10 people, and pushing two carts.

Wang Deqian immediately perked up, and finally encountered the crowd, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to catch up and arrest all the people. One of the generals immediately swarmed up and immediately surrounded the group.

After a short time, the general came back and said to Wang Deguang: "Lord Commander, they said they were here to greet us, and they also brought a lot of wine and meat!

Hearing the words "wine and meat", Wang Deqian's eyes couldn't help but brighten, since the army, for 3 or 4 days, due to the continuous rain, not to mention wine and meat, even a few hot meals were not eaten, every day can only gnaw dry cakes, I didn't expect to go deep into the area controlled by the bandits, there will be someone to labor the Qing army, so Wang Deqian immediately said: "Quick, call someone over, I want to ask." ”

After a short time, I saw a middle-aged man about 40 years old come to Wang Deqian's horse, bow down and salute: "Xiaomin has seen the military master." ”

Wang Deqian nodded and said, "Who are you?"

The man said: "The villain's name is Chen Guangyi, and he came to greet the prince of the court on the order of his father. ”

Wang Deqian snorted and said: "This place is already controlled by bandits, and the untouchables have already been subordinated to thieves. ”

When Chen Guangyi heard this, he was also taken aback, and hurriedly said: "Returning to the military master, wronged, really wronged, although we are in the bandit area, but we have always been concerned about the court, my father is still from a human background, and he was also an official of the court back then, and now his brother Guangli is on an errand in Kaifeng Mansion, how can he be loyal to the bandits?" It's just that the bandits are powerful, and we and the common people are invincible, so we have to succumb to the bandits, but I don't remember the court for a moment, and I don't look forward to the court sending the king to fight the rebellion and restore the situation. ”

It turned out that not far ahead, there is a village called Taishantun, there are more than 400 households in the village, it is a big village in this area, and the Chen family is a big landlord in the village, the owner Chen Zhizhong is a person from a high background, has been a few governors of the county, and now he has returned to his hometown after old age, has 4 sons, the third son Chen Guangli was also admitted to the lifting of people 5 years ago, and now he is a warden in Kaifeng Mansion.

The Chen family is a big family, 8 percent of the land in Taishantun belongs to the Chen family, and more than 300 households in the whole village are hired farmers by the Chen family.

However, Chen Zhizhong is a former official after all, and he knows very well that a good man does not suffer immediate losses, so he naturally does not dare to go against the government of the base area, and honestly hand over all the land. Because the attitude of the Chen family is still good, and there is no evil behavior in the township on weekdays, the Chen family was not liquidated, but only took away the land, and let the Chen family retain a lot of wealth. However, the Chen family is a large family, and the whole family was divided into more than a dozen families, and enough land was also allocated according to the system.

Although the Chen family ostensibly obeyed the government of the base area, in their hearts they always hoped that the Qing army could fight back and drive out the volunteers, so that the Chen family would be able to restore its previous status and land, and the original title deeds were still hidden. After the news came that Henan and Hubei had sent troops to requisition and suppress the base areas, the Chen family thought that the opportunity had come, so when the government of the base area mobilized the villagers to evacuate, the Chen family insisted on not leaving, and under their leadership, some villagers did not leave, leaving a total of 37 households in the village.

After the other villagers moved away, the Chen family immediately began to act, Chen Zhizhong sent people to find out the whereabouts of the Qing army, and arranged wine and food to prepare for the arrival of the Qing army. Of course, Chen Zhizhong is not blindly loyal to the Qing court, he has served as several governors, and naturally knows that "bandits are like combs, and soldiers are like grates" Chen Zhizhong is a retired official, his son is still serving in Kaifeng Mansion, and the officers and soldiers generally dare not go too far, the Chen family has received several official and military crossings before, each time it is nothing more than spending some money, and there is no harassment to it, although most of the land of the Chen family has been divided, but the money over the years is still there, and it will be okay to scatter some of it, so Chen Zhizhong has this base in his heart, and he also hopes that the Qing army can succeed in recruiting and suppressing.

Knowing that the Qing army had arrived nearby, Chen Zhizhong hurriedly ordered his son Chen Guangyi to take two carts of wine, meat, food, and 100 taels of silver to meet the Qing army.