At noon on May 17, I finally followed the first batch of troops to Lushun and landed at Nanfeng Port in the Lushun garrison area.

After a few months, tens of thousands of kilometers have been formed, spanning the northern and southern hemispheres, and I have once again set foot on the land of Liaodong, which I have dreamed of.

The day of arrival happened to be the day off of the first regiment. Although the vanguard of Jiannu has arrived in the city of North Jinzhou, due to the existence of the Jinzhou defense line, the peninsula from Nanguan to Lushun is still firmly in the hands of our army. As a result, although the number of soldiers in the city increased significantly, most of them maintained a relaxed attitude.

Before returning home, I took the Marine Corps stationed in Lushun. When they heard that I was coming back, they sent representatives to meet me, including Lieutenant Chen Shangqi, whom I had met in North Bay City. Lieutenant Chen set off with me, but I was delayed because of the Nanyang indigenous incident, and I was sent to Japan halfway, but I arrived more than two months later than Chen Shangqi.

Chen Shangqi was wearing a summer military uniform, and his short-sleeved shirt fluttered slightly in the sea breeze, full of young people's exclusive vitality. Seeing me coming out of the port, he hurriedly walked up and took the suitcase, and said with a smile: "Lieutenant colonel, will you go to the barracks now?" ”

I smiled and nodded, shook hands with seven or eight other cadres who came to greet me, and followed Chen Shangqi to the square in front of the port.

As he walked, Chen Shangqi introduced me to the current situation of the Marine Corps -- of course, he knew that I was now mainly engaged in the Army -- a total of two specialized Marine Corps battalions, and two Navy and Land battalions transferred from the Army. Compared to the land and sea battles when I left, which consisted of only two battalions, not only has the number of men doubled, but even the number of field artillery has increased considerably, which can be regarded as the size of a reinforced regiment.

"Who is your current commander?" Sitting in the chartered cab, I asked.

"It's your previous adjutant, Major Liu Chaoen, who became a regular after you went to Japan, and I heard that he may be promoted to lieutenant colonel next year."

"Oh, Chaoeun." I nodded, remembering the matter of my former adjutant, "He is also a very conscientious commander, and he will definitely be able to lead the Marine Corps." ”

By the time we arrived at the Marine Corps barracks, several soldiers in gendarmerie uniforms had been waiting there for a long time. Seeing that I got out of the carriage, they immediately trotted over and saluted with their feet in front of me: "Report, General Qi Wu has an order, please Comrade Li Ruchu go to the port immediately!" Urgent! ”

I was stunned for about a second, then reacted immediately, took an order from their hands and quickly skimmed through it, grabbed the pen in my pocket and signed it at the end, then took the small suitcase from Chen Shangqi's hand, and followed the gendarmes as they walked while turning their heads to Chen Shangqi and shouting: "Put the other salutes here first, I'm fine, wait for me to come back and get it!" ”

The gendarmes brought a few horses, and I led one of them to turn over and get on the horse, and under the leadership of the gendarme, I shouted "Ride!" In the blink of an eye, he galloped away, leaving Chen Shangqi who was still stunned in front of the camp gate.

Liu Chaoen, who was dressed in a strict uniform, came out of the camp a little nervously, and while subconsciously adjusting the position of his tie, he asked, "Lieutenant Chen, why are you the only ones coming back?" What about the lieutenant colonel? ”

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Off the coast of Lushun, one after another the transport ships were entering the port under the command of the navigator, while the battleship Zhenyuan, which was the flagship of the Chinese detachment, anchored on the sea, waiting for the transport ships to vacate their positions.

I rode with the gendarmes all the way from the path outside the garrison to the sea, then turned a sampan and finally returned to the flagship.

The leaders of the Liaonan Group Army were all meeting in the conference room of the ship, and the rich aroma of cigars and the smell of tea passed down the windows to the corridor, and they could be smelled from a distance of more than ten meters.

Fang Hai was waiting for me on the boat, and he had already explained the situation to me on the way to the conference room with me.

Huang Sitong's headquarters, which went deep into the land along the Shahe River, were besieged by Jiannu, and the defenders on Changsheng Island saw that the situation was not good and sent people along the Liaonan Peninsula to ask for help, and came to Lushun an hour ago, and met Major General Qi Wu on the Zhenyuan.

When he walked into the conference room, the middle-aged man with a tired face, but his eyes were still tough and sharp, suddenly came into view.

"Wu Jianzhong?"

Wu Jianzhong turned his head to see me, and immediately bowed deeply: "Lieutenant Colonel, please be sure to rescue General Huang." ”

I hurriedly arched my hand at him, and was called by Qi Wu to the hanging map.

"There's not much time, Li Ruchu, you just said, do you have the state to carry out combat missions now?"

I thought for a few seconds and saluted, "Guaranteed to complete the task." ”

Qi Wu nodded slightly: "Very good, you are the person we know best about the area of Immortal Island." Now you follow Wu Jianzhong and set off directly, your adjutant knows the situation, and he will tell you. ”

I nodded, I didn't expect the battle situation to be so urgent, and I was going to leave without more than ten words.

A clipper boat was already waiting beside the Zhenyuan. I boarded the ship on the other side of the Zhenyuan when I came and didn't see it. This boat took Wu Jianzhong from Changsheng Island to Lushun, and then took Wu Jianzhong and I back to Changsheng Island.

The wind is good at this time, and if everything goes well, we can reach our destination before dark today. Immediately after boarding, the clipper boat puffed up its sails and headed west in the warm sea breeze, preparing to round the Arthur Peninsula and turn north. Wu Jianzhong disappeared after boarding the ship, and I took the time to lie down in the cabin and sleep. On a speed-racing vessel like a clipper, the quality of sleep is not guaranteed. Fortunately, the time spent on the ship since the service was almost the same as the time on land, and it was barely able to adapt.

Fang Hai brought the known information before. This time the situation was urgent, and it was too late to organize troops from Lushun to go to sea, and all I could command was an infantry battalion in the 1st Regiment that had not yet landed, numbering about 500 people. They changed to a couple of clippers at sea, and they set off before me and should be able to meet them on the way. There are also cavalry units under the command of He Baodao, the commander of the cavalry battalion, on Changsheng Island, which has good field combat capabilities.

In addition, a cavalry unit that had departed from Dengzhou Town before it was heading directly to Changsheng Island, and should arrive this morning or noon. I only hope that they will not go to the rescue directly, but wait for our reinforcements to arrive before setting off together, so as not to add fuel to the fire.

At this moment, in the Shahe River Valley, hundreds of kilometers away in a straight line, Huang Sitong's department, which had been under siege since the early hours of the morning, is now also seizing the time to rest.

After they had finished preparing last night, they took a few transport ships and quietly went upriver under the protection of gunboats to sneak attack Jiannu's baggage. As a result, the baggage camp on the north side of the Sand River was a trap, and when the vanguard attacked, a fire was immediately ignited, accompanied by bursts of explosions, and most of the companies that rushed into it were killed in an instant.

At the same time, a large wave of more than two meters high suddenly appeared on the upper reaches of the Sand River. More than a dozen wooden boats rushed in by the waves, crashing into the ships of Changsheng Island anchored on the shore at high speed, and immediately smashed and sank them, making it impossible for the troops ashore to evacuate from the waterway. Later, we investigated and found that Jiannu had built a dam upstream a few days earlier to store water, and had tied up a large number of boats, waiting for Huang Sitong's troops to come and attack and destroy their vehicles in one fell swoop.

However, the Jiannu did not expect that after Huang Sitong realized the ambush, he did not try to evacuate along the Shahe River on foot, but directly began to extinguish the fire, occupy the camp before the arrival of the Jiannu army, and defend it with the help of the wall built by Jiannu.

The two sides fought fiercely in the early morning and morning, and Jiannu, dressed in various colors of cotton armor, leather armor, and chain mail, lay on the periphery of the camp. The wooden wall on the east side of the camp was destroyed in many places, wooden blocks shattered by shells were scattered on the ground, and in a few places there were still bursts of black smoke from flames that had not yet been extinguished. In the gap, rows of fire-fighting battalion soldiers and the invading Jiannu lay together, maintaining their last posture before death.

Huang Stone held a piece of hard corn tortilla and walked slowly through the gap. When the soldier sitting on the ground saw him coming, he stood up with his rifle and saluted, and his chapped lips trembled a few times: "General Huang is good." ”

Huang Stone looked at each other, his young face had been blackened by the gunsmoke, and only a pair of eyes were looking at him enthusiastically. He grinned at his equally thirsty lips and returned the salute, "Hello, corporal." ”

The young soldier nodded and sat down again. He needed to hurry up and regain his strength, and it had been half an hour since Jiannu last attacked. If Jiannu on the other side was still as desperate as he was in the morning, he would have to start fighting in a few minutes.

Huang Stone bypassed the soldiers who were sitting down and dozing off, and continued to patrol the camp with his own soldiers. After taking a few steps, he stopped and looked at the corpse at his feet in silence.

It was an Immortal soldier with a dagger in his right hand, and the gray feathers on his helmet indicated his identity as the Rock Battalion. The soldier locked his left hand around the neck of a Jiannu, and with his right hand he was grasping the dagger, stabbing the tip of the knife into the left waist of Jiannu beneath him. Na Jiannu also grabbed the soldier's neck with both hands, and the fingers of his right hand ran up the soldier's cheek and cut into the soldier's eyes.

Huang Stone pursed his lips tightly. The soldier's expression was very painful, his nose wrinkled together, his mouth fighting, and he seemed to be screaming. He had a knife stuck in his back, presumably killed from behind by another man during the fight.

"The fighters fought hard." Huang Stone whispered.

The soldiers behind him whispered: "My lord, the fire battalion has killed one hundred and twenty-six people, seriously injured seventeen people, and lightly injured twenty-one people; One hundred and forty-nine men were killed, 20 were seriously wounded, and 11 were lightly wounded. ”

Huang Stone looked up and sighed, but didn't say anything. Such a disparity in casualty ratio can in itself reflect the heroic tenacity of the soldiers of the Immortal Army.