Li Guolou received a telegram from Fu Xianchu and knew that more than 400 Beidong troops had revolted on the battlefield, and the 2,000 Japanese troops in Paijiaya had been surrounded by regiments.

This is a good news, boasting that Liu Mingdeng is well commanded, Li Guolou is very relieved about the combat effectiveness of the Jianwu Army, the corners of his mouth are slightly involved, but he can't laugh, and his mood is extremely sad.

Li Guolou led several armies to fight in Hualien Town on the Pingtung Plain, and clashed with the main force of the Japanese army led by Lieutenant General Saigo Congdao, and won a victory with a crushing victory.

Li Guolou successfully rescued the Changsheng army besieged by the Japanese army, but his own casualties were huge, the 2,000 main force Xinwu army led by him personally, more than half of the casualties, and the 5,000 Mingwu army led by Liu Mingchuan suffered more than 2,000 casualties, which can be described as wounded muscles and bones.

The barbarian soldiers of ethnic minorities also made outstanding contributions, killing more than 3,000 people in battle.

After Liu Mingchuan and Li Guolou converged, the two wept silently, without the joy of victory.

Nie Shicheng led a thousand partial divisions and finally rushed to the battlefield, and the powerful artillery battalion played the key and most useful role, so that the Japanese commander-in-chief Saigo Congdao was shaken and did not dare to fight.

Subsequently, the Japanese army withdrew from the position under the cover of night, and the battle in Hualien Town ended, Li Guolou had no spare strength to pursue the Japanese army, allowing the remnants of thousands of Japanese troops to safely withdraw to Guishan, and the Qing army won the victory with a crushing victory.

The casualties of the Changsheng army that stuck to Hualien Town were even heavier, 4,000 men and horses, and in the end there were only more than 800 people left, the commander Bai Langning was seriously wounded, and only 28 foreign officers survived, and the Nanyang Navy Division militia led by Huang Qiying finally left more than 50 people.

The Battle of Hualien Town was a battlefield designed by the Japanese army, and Lieutenant General Saigo Congdao laid a trap to let more than 4,000 Changsheng troops fall into the trap, and the Japanese army dispatched the main force and invested more than 15,000 people to besiege the Changsheng army.

Xixiang thought that he could settle the situation in a battle and wipe out the victorious army, but he didn't expect that the battle of annihilation would become a war of attrition.

The battle lasted for three days and four nights, every trench, every stream, every hill, could be a position for the enemy and us, the enemy and us used human lives to fill the position, the corpses piled up, the death squads came and went, and they did not give in to each other, and the Japanese army was very strong, fighting for three days and four nights in a row.

But the Qing army was even better, and was still increasing troops, and the Qing army was put into the battlefield, Li Guolou actually wanted to use Hualien Town as a decisive battlefield, and did not allow the Changsheng army to break through, that is, Bai Langning led the Changsheng army to drag the Japanese army in Hualien Town, and fight with the Japanese army.

Bai Langning saw the importance of the battle of Hualien Town, recognized Li Guolou's military deployment, fighting in the plains, better than mountain warfare, even if the Qing army suffered huge casualties, it was a hundred times stronger than attacking the Japanese army's military town, Guishan, Bai Langning personally supervised the battle, was hit by Japanese artillery, and was injured and unconscious.

But at this time, the Changsheng army had already fought bloodily, and Bolt, who took over the command, implemented Li Guolou's tactical deployment, still held his position, withstood the main attack of the Japanese army, and the main fortifications of Hualien Town were still in the hands of the Changsheng army, and every trench was filled with the corpses of the Japanese army.

Saigo Congdao finally couldn't hold it anymore, admitting that Li Guolou's command level was better, he didn't dare to read the death reports of each team, I don't know how many Japanese soldiers could survive, Hualien Town has become the grave of the Japanese army, and if the fight continues, the Japanese army will be in danger of being wiped out.

At this time, Saigo learned that Taiwan was not the territory of the Japanese, and the soldiers who defended the country would not retreat, and the "King of Beidong" Luo Yixin had become a loner, and the Japanese army had no supporters in Taiwan, and the most terrible thing was that the Japanese army was about to run out of ammunition.

The fighting power of the Qing army was strong, and there was no hope of exhaustion, and it was a war that was doomed to failure.

On the evening of the fourth day, the Japanese army withdrew from its position under the cover of night, fled in the direction of Guishan, and before leaving, the Japanese buried the dead comrades, blew up the damaged bronze artillery, smashed the redundant guns, and the remnants of the defeated army were less than 5,000 men, and the Japanese army did not get a bargain in Hualien Town.

The Japanese army deceived itself by saying that it was making a strategic retreat to Guishan, and that the Battle of Hualien Town had achieved the military goal of eliminating the main force of the Qing army, eliminating more than 10,000 Qing troops.

But Saigo knew from his heart that the Japanese army lost this battle, and this battle lost the confidence of the Japanese army, and the Qing army could afford to lose the battle of both sides, and Li Guolou had enough financial resources to support the Taiwan campaign.

The most unbearable thing about the battle of Hualien Town is that the Qing army continued to enter the battle, Li Guolou was not afraid of the battle of burning jade, and the Japanese army's bushido spirit death squad could not play a role in turning the tide, and he had no shame to explain to the emperor, and the Japanese army left more than 10,000 corpses in Hualien Town.

Turtle Mountain has a natural danger to follow, Xixiang Congdao is not afraid of the Qing army attacking Turtle Mountain, but Langqiao Port will be under the Qing army's troops, there is a huge Japanese navy on the sea, and he does not need to worry about sea operations, the Da Qing Shui Division has no ability to attack Langqiao from the sea, but the land route is Pingchuan, and thirty-eight fortresses have been built around Langqiao, and the strength is still too small.

Xixiang regretted it from the road, the result of the battle of Hualien Town, made him worry that Langqiao would fall into the hands of the Qing army, if Langqiao was lost, the Japanese army stuck in Guishan could only fight guerrilla in the mountains, how to configure the troops in this hand, Xixiang Congdao had a headache, carelessly, from the horse carried down, fell on a horse.

After the war, the Qing army counted the casualties, more than 8,300 people were killed, and more than 6,500 Qing troops were wounded.

Li Guolou won the hearts of the army and has been praised as the "god of war" by the soldiers.

The leaders of the minority soldiers have been clamoring to kill the hinterland of Guishan, and they no longer take the Japanese army seriously.

The casualties of the Japanese army can only be estimated, and the position where the Japanese corpses were buried was dug up by the Qing army, and various mutilated Japanese corpses can be seen.

In order to calculate the casualties of the Japanese army, and in order to boast of martial arts, the Qing soldiers cut off the left ear of the Japanese corpse, connected it with straw rope, and 30 ears formed a ring.

Under normal circumstances, the Qing army would not cut off the heads of the Japanese soldiers, unless it was a cold and snowy winter, because the heads were piled up together, they would stink, and the bed bugs would swarm and cause a terrible plague, and the ears would not cause so many sequelae, which was light and easy to count, which was the best way to measure the merits of war on the battlefield, and the army had been used for thousands of years.

You can see a string of ears hanging on the neck of the war horse, and many warriors also have this kind of "garland" on their spears to boast of their martial arts.

The gold and silver came to the joy of carrying two strings of "garlands", and regardless of whether Li Guolou liked it or not, he hung a string of garlands around the neck of Li Guolou's war horse.

A group of soldiers of the Beidong Army escorted more than 200 Japanese prisoners of war, about 100 people, to the station, and a thin soldier of the Beidong Army said: "I saw that the Japanese army cut the noses of the Qing prisoners of war in Guishan, and after the fortifications were built, they killed the Qing prisoners of war, so cruel." ”

This is a group of Beidong army who revolted on the battlefield of Hualien Town, it has only been two days since the Qing Dynasty returned to the Qing Dynasty, and now the Beidong army will collapse when it meets the Qing army, and surrender as soon as it shouts.

The officer of the Beidong Army was furious and shouted: "He was unkind and unjust, and cut off the nose of the Japanese prisoner of war for me." ”

The Beidong people are a cruel people, they obey orders, the commander speaks, and they do it immediately, and the soldiers actually cut the noses of Japanese prisoners of war with knives at the bottom of the hillside, and cut the noses of more than 200 Japanese prisoners of war, and there are bursts of screams under the hillside, and the officers of the New Armed Forces see this scene and deliberately turn a blind eye, and the officers of the New Armed Forces all take a detour, and no one is willing to stop this atrocity.

Lieutenant Colonel Li Yunchu happened to walk down the hillside, watching more than 200 Japanese prisoners of war screaming again and again, all kneeling on the ground and wailing, Li Yunzhu was dumbfounded, angry and ruined, the troops here are under his command, the Beidong Army actually did this kind of thing that violates human morality, but the responsibility is on the head of the Xinwu Army, Li Yunzhu is sober-minded, someone must always take responsibility, and quickly find a scapegoat, Captain Liu Guogai even epaulettes are also taken off, Li Yunzhuo personally whipped Liu Guogai 50 whips, reiterating battlefield discipline, no personal persecution.

After Li Guolou found out, he ordered all kinds of soldiers to restrain military discipline, but 250 Japanese prisoners of war had no nose, and Li Guolou was quite helpless, so he could only treat these 250 Japanese prisoners of war as slaves and distribute them to the leaders of ethnic minorities.

Zheng Hengdan waved his pen and counted these 250 Japanese prisoners of war on the death list, and Liu Guogai was released at night, Zheng Hengdan was gracious, and did not give Liu Guogai a demerit, Liu Guogai was reinstated and transferred to another unit as a captain, and a scandal was revealed, and no one mentioned the whereabouts of these 250 Japanese prisoners of war.

Hualien Town has been razed to ruins by artillery fire, and as far as the eye can see, there are soldiers carrying stretchers, carrying dead bodies, a choking smell in the air, faintly heard the cries of soldiers, and the sound of gunfire to pay tribute to their dead comrades.

Liu Mingchuan took the telegram from Li Guolou's hand, lowered his head, looked at the telegram, and made a voice in his hoarse throat: "This battle is worth it, this casualty is inevitable, Commander-in-Chief Li doesn't mind, fight to the death with the Japanese army, sooner or later, put it in Hualien Town, at least the geographical advantage is half of us and the Japanese army, the casualties of the Japanese army are not smaller than our army, and our army still won." ”

The morning breeze is blowing, the kite is flying in the sky, Li Guolou crossed his hands on his waist, proud of the blue sky and floating clouds, with a glance at the small mountains and small bearing, and said: "Yes, we won, and we are still standing on this blood-soaked land, this is a proud moment, and the Japanese army can no longer organize a large-scale battle in the future, so we must take this opportunity to conquer Langqiao before November and completely cut off the transportation line of the Japanese army in Guishan." ”

As the supreme military commander of the Qing army, Li Guolou's heart was as hard as iron and stone, this battle must be fought, no matter how big the casualties are, the arrogance of the Japanese army must be beaten down, and fighting on the plains is the hard fight of the large corps, and the victory is won at the cost of blood.

Liu Mingchuan glanced at Li Guolou, with a hint of worry in his eyes, the field battle was already so tragic, the Qing army had more than 10,000 casualties, attacking the Japanese army's important town, Langqiao, that was the bridgehead for the Japanese army to enter Taiwan, and it had been built into a large military fortress by the Japanese army, the battle of Langqiao would be even more tragic, Liu Mingchuan's eyes appeared with vivid faces, how many comrades-in-arms were buried here, and how many comrades-in-arms would die.

Liu Mingchuan was a little shaken, and hesitated: "Commander-in-Chief Li, our army's casualties are so large, we have to take a break, I think it is better to fight Langqiao in the spring of next year, so that the casualties can be smaller and the grasp is larger." ”

Li Guolou waved his hand and said: "Liu Zhentai, at this time we are in difficulty, the enemy is even more difficult, how can we let the enemy have a chance to breathe, no matter how many difficulties must be overcome, there is no time to rest now, you lead the Mingwu army to rest here for a day, the day after tomorrow to Langqiao, there is no need to worry about ammunition supply, Shen Baozhen has already come to Taiwan, and there are 4,000 Fujian troops coming, that is the old army trained by Zuo Dashuai himself, the commander is the deputy general Xu Wenxiu, you and he are old acquaintances, the troops will soon be able to run in, I will first add 2,000 men and horses to you." ”

Liu Mingchuan saw that Li Guolou was so firm, his chest burned with a raging fighting spirit, he saluted respectfully, and shouted: "Yes, I will make preparations immediately, you take care." ”

Li Guolou and Liu Mingchuan were originally irreconcilable, and in the Xinwu Army, they demolished each other, formed gangs, and fought to the death, Li Hongzhang acted as a mediator in the middle, and the two of them still cheated and ended in parting ways, and the Xinwu Army was also split into two, and no one obeyed anyone.

But the Taiwan War made the two comrades-in-arms, through the baptism of artillery fire, the comradeship of life and death came into being, this time the Mingwu Army regardless of casualties to rescue the victorious army, obeyed the command of Li Guolou, which made the Battle of Hualien Town end with the victory of the Qing army.

If Liu Mingchuan had the idea of preserving his strength, and if Yin and Yang were contrary, Li Guolou's tactical plan for a decisive battle with the Japanese army would become an empty talk, and the Battle of Hualien Town would end with the defeat of the Qing army, and the Changsheng Army would have been wiped out long ago.

Li Guolou couldn't help but stretch out his arms, and the two hugged each other.

"Take care."

"You also take care of yourself, there will be a period later."

Li Guolou and Liu Mingchuan walked and shook their horsewhips, accepting the respect of the soldiers, and with a complacent attitude, the commander had to set an example for his subordinates.

The battle of Hualien Town was a great victory, the Yellow Dragon banner marched forward in the wind on the Pingtung Plain, and as far as the eye could see, the huge Qing army was boundless, and the black oppressive team advanced eastward.