Before the vanguard of the new army reached Wuqing, the heavy rain had already poured down, and this heavy rain cloud rose from the Yanshan Mountains and then pressed all the way to the east, and the sky in the entire northern part of Zhili was leaked, and a heavy rain swept the heavens and the earth.

At this time, no one cared about the life and death of the people, and no one took care of the flood fighting and rescue, and almost all the officials in North Zhili got a terrible rumor from different channels that the descendants of the Empress Dowager of the East and West were about to start a war in the Zhili Plain.

In the past few days, the atmosphere of the entire Zhili officialdom has changed suddenly, no one drinks and visits the Qinglou, no one recites poetry to climb the mountain and enjoy the scenery, and even the mind of corruption and bribery is gone, and everyone's feelings have been tied, because they know that this battle on the plains will determine the political pattern of the Qing Dynasty in the next few decades.

"Obediently, the Empress Dowager Ci'an is only 29 years old this year, the Empress Dowager Cixi is only 31 years old this year, and the emperor is only 10 years old this year, so it's like this, the Qing Dynasty will be chaotic in the future, this is the age when you are in the prime of life and making trouble......"

This kind of problem is something that almost all officials have to consider, and it is not okay not to choose to take sides in the Manchu officialdom, if you are considered to be a wall-to-wall, then you are the enemy of everyone.

Every time there is a serious political incident, it is an opportunity for officials to line up anew, and if they choose the right one, they will naturally be promoted to an official and make a fortune, and if they choose the wrong one, they will lose their official positions and be dismissed, and if they are serious, they will lose their heads, which is not a trivial matter.

However, there are many officials in Zhili who are looking forward to Xiao Letian's victory, and the efforts of Tongguò Torture Hall are now forty percent of the county officials in Zhili who are taking Xiao Letian's secret salary, and the Zhili officialdom of the Qing Dynasty has made Xiao Letian's 'moths' gnaw on a thousand holes.

Xiao Letian is the same as Spiegel in his heart, money can never buy loyalty, even if they write a blood letter to themselves, it is not the most reliable, one qiē and one qiē rely on victory, it is a violent group of the army, as long as the victory does not stop, as long as the military luck continues, then Xiao Lotian can harvest the greatest loyalty.

Xiao Lotian wiped the rain from his face, and shouted to the Japanese sword drawing team who was walking quickly beside him, "Noheita, Hyotaro...... Are you tired, are you cold, can you still fight, answer me loudly......"

"Not tired...... Not cold...... Of course we can fight. More than 400 sword-drawing team members roared in the heavy rain.

Xiao Bingtaro raised his head proudly, "What is this, in our Japan, the typhoon blowing on the sea is more terrible, and we have never flinched, and we are used to volcanic eruptions, but it is just a rainstorm." ”

"Well done...... The Japanese sword draw team can still hold on, but what about my loyal Ryukyu warriors. ”

"We've survived Naha's blood, and we're scared of this bit of wind and rain...... Accelerated, hurried march. There was a shout in the ranks.

Xiao Letian smiled evilly at Sima Yun and Luo Huo, and shouted: "The brothers of Japan and Ryukyu can hold it...... So what about our good Chinese boys, can you hold ......?"

"Sacrifice Xuanyuan with my blood, sacrifice Huaxia with my life, and the new army accelerates...... Rapid march. The roar was like a loud thunder on the ground, and the frightened war horse screamed in a hurry, almost knocking Xiao Letian to the ground.

"Stinky boys, you know that you have a lot of strength, and you have that strength to use on the soles of your feet...... Let's go, the brothers go into Beijing to eat hot......" Xiao Letian rushed out first.

The old city wall of Wuqing County was left behind by the new army, Xiao Letian knew that there must be countless officials and gentry in the city who were secretly watching their demons, they didn't dare to fight with themselves, and they didn't dare to get close to themselves, all they could do was curl up on the city wall and watch timidly.

A master on the city wall hid in a temporary canopy and whispered, "Master, you really let go of the good opportunity to get on the boat, now if you send Xiao Letian a piece of information, this favor will be great, Li Hongzhang can deceive Xiao Letian, but he can't deceive us local snakes." ”

"Confused. The county magistrate glared and scolded, "Master, I am also a soldier, if there is no rain now, I will definitely sell it to Xiao Letian, but if you look at this day, even God will help that group of Huai soldiers...... What firearms are most afraid of, the most afraid is water. ”

"Definitely lose the situation, the fool only got on the boat, turned around and defeated Xiao Letian, let the catchers go out to catch some routs, we can also get some credit, isn't ......"

The master stopped talking, he listened to the confident tone of the county master, sighed in his heart and thought to himself, "Master, master...... You don't want to think about it, then Xiao Letian led the troops back from Europe in a circle, is there really nothing that happened, and things are abnormal and demonic......"

In the nineteenth century, information transmission was still backward, and even if Xiao Letian returned to the Qing Dynasty, no one in northern China knew what he was doing in Europe, except for a fast horse on the official road in Henan Province that was running north, which was the Lion City newspaper sent by Zeng Guofan to the imperial court.

It's just a pity that this newspaper came too late, and war is now inevitable.

The rain poured down, and in a drainage canal there were hundreds of Huai soldiers in robes, all of whom were motionless in the torrential rain as if they had no life, regardless of the rolling waves under their feet and the pickles on the mud floor.

In their hands, no one had a stiff bow with the string removed, and on the ground were hand-to-hand weapons such as spears and knives, and the bowstrings of the bows and arrows were wrapped in tarpaulins and hidden deep in their arms.

The commander's order made it clear that the bowstring would soon soak in such a heavy rain, and at most three arrows would be fired, and after three times, the bowstring would be useless, so it was necessary to wait until the enemy appeared before hanging the string.

"Listen carefully...... If you don't see the devil, you don't hang the strings. "In the eyes of these Huai soldiers, the soldiers led by Xiao Letian, the two devils, are ghost soldiers.

Any famous army in history, when he first became an army, was full of momentum, those grassroots officers who were trained by famous generals, and those veterans of a hundred battles who had experienced countless blood and fire, were the backbone of an iron army.

This is the case with the current Huai army, they are not the Beiyang after the expansion of the later generations, the Huai army strength of the pacification of the Twist Army is only 50,000 or 60,000, and the total strength of the Huai Army after the complete pacification of the Twist Army in history has not exceeded 70,000, and the Hunan Army at the same time has 500,000.

This is a moderately sized, extremely robust army, and the slightly smaller force allows Li Hongzhang's command to penetrate deeper, and orders can be issued without hindrance.

And it is easier to produce elite troops with fewer troops, especially with more than 3,000 iron troops in front of him, and it is Li Hongzhang's old foundation, and the elite Cheng can be said to be unparalleled in the world.

The rain was pouring down, the lightning and thunder were roaring, and the sky and the earth were as black as ink, and in such a bad weather, the three thousand Li Hongzhang's disciples did not flinch, and set up an ambush so quietly, without even complaining.

This is a group of wolves fed with silver, this is a group of township parties condensed by the blood of villagers, and this is an iron army brought out by Li Hongzhang who can change China's modern history.

At this moment, they met their fateful opponent, Xiao Letian's new army.

Without Xiao Letian, history would have rolled forward along his inherent trajectory, and Li Hongzhang would eventually become the leader of the Hanchen Dynasty and a member of the Western Army, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty under his influence carried out backward reforms, and finally even surpassed the small country of Japan.

If there was no Xiao Letian's new army, then the Huai army would still become the largest military group in the late Qing Dynasty, and it would not withdraw from the historical stage until the Republic of China, and the civil war between the Beiyang warlords and the National Revolutionary Army would not have been fought for 17 years.

Of course, Li Hongzhang and his subordinates didn't know what would happen in the future, nor did they know that Xiao Letian and his army would rob them of the glory that should have belonged to them, but there was a cause and effect in the dark, and Li Hongzhang and his Huai army hated Xiao Letian for no reason.

In the past two years, Li Hongzhang has been most unconvinced by Xiao Letian, and Huai Jun is even more sour when he sees the results of the new army, if you ask them why, they can't say one, two, three, but jealousy is jealousy, maybe this is the real enemy of fate.

"Silence...... Everyone was silenced...... Finding traces of the enemy...... "Countless drainage ditches are countless trenches, and the sound of low-pitched orders begins to rise one after another."

Sure enough, on the official road in the east, a group of soldiers in blue military uniforms appeared under the torrential rain, one by one with their heads lowered, and then the brim of the patent leather large-brimmed hat blocked the rain, barely maintaining their sight.

"Winding...... First quarter...... Everybody remembers, we only have three salvos...... Shoot along the direction of the wind, we are the upper hand, and we must shoot accurately...... Everyone is ready for battle......"

In a forest, there is Li Hongzhang's hidden command post, this marshal wearing a hat is not the slightest special, and he is also drenched in the rain with the soldiers, but when he needs to observe the battlefield with a telescope, there are guards who hold up an oilcloth umbrella to protect the marshal from the rain.

"It's coming......" When a bright blue flashed in the telescope, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but shout, "Sure enough, it's coming, as I expected, this Xiao Letian is really proud, doesn't he know in his eyes that he is in awe of heaven and earth, he really came against the rainstorm......"

"If it's a sunny day, maybe you still have a chance of winning, but now this rainstorm and mud is your burial place...... Pass the order down and prepare for battle according to the plan......"

Li Hongzhang's order is redundant, these veterans are extremely experienced in the battlefield, when Xiao Letian's vanguard has entered the ambush circle, the front ambush soldiers did not attack, they just used their bodies to protect the bows and arrows that had just been hung up, for fear that the rain would soak the bowstrings.

Three serrated wolf-tooth arrows are placed around each soldier, and once in the flesh you pull it out is a piece of flesh.

More and more new soldiers entered the pocket, and when the vanguard was approaching the bottom of the pocket, a sudden torrential rain rang out with numerous terrible roars.

"Projectile...... Triple Shot ......"

I only heard the trembling sound of a dense bowstring, and a black cloud and then the wind rushed towards the new army, and the vanguard troops who were caught off guard instantly screamed miserably, and the smell of blood in the air came to their faces.

"Enemy attack...... There is an enemy attack...... Prepare for battle, counter-charge...... The brothers countercharged. "This book was first published from, and the first time to see the genuine content!