The coolness of late autumn was tinged with a hint of desolation, and flocks of crows hovered over the heads of the Qing army, croaking noisily.

The black crow seemed to say, "Meat, meat, meat." ”

During the war, the army had meat to eat, and it was to eat human flesh, crows were waiting to fall from the sky, and the Qing army was also waiting for bullets to rain.

The large army marched, and the Chinese army still looked like an army, with a neat appearance and a sound of footsteps mixed with the urging of officers.

The meandering and flowing army, with no end in sight, one by one artillery truck dragging heavy cannons, the artillery proudly held their heads high, sitting on the artillery carriages, the cannons are the backbone of the Qing army, and the Qing soldiers looked at the artillery with envy.

A large group of soldiers stopped to spy on the majesty of the artillery battalion.

The cavalry troops accelerated and swept past the eyes of the Qing army, the dust was flying, the horses' hooves were bursting, and the momentum of thousands of troops and horses made the Qing troops walking on their feet jealous.

The cavalry has a strong mobility, so that from the cavalry unit to Taiwan, the Qing army fought in the plains, taking advantage of the Japanese army, and the Japanese troops who looted in the villages were often surrounded by the cavalry units of the Qing army, and the Japanese troops who burned and looted suffered a catastrophe.

The cavalry of the Qing army liked to string the ears of the Japanese army into rings and hang them on the necks of horses, and you can see that many cavalry horses have garlands made of human ears hanging on their horses.

The outposts of the Qing army are scattered around, they are the clairvoyants of the army, as if they are moving forward freely, in fact, they are the bravest soldiers, and the scattered formation is in line with the way of using soldiers, and will not let the enemy end the pot.

The soldiers carried the banners of the tribes and scattered on both sides of the large army, and the sporadic sound of gunfire echoed in the wilderness.

Some of the enemies escaped from Orchid City and became bandits, hiding in the barren mountains and chaotic hills, and the bandits ran into the countryside to bring disaster to the villagers.

Some Qing troops who violated military orders would defect with guns, and Qing soldiers who deserted on the battlefield would also become bandits.

To deal with this kind of bandits, the Qing army adopted the method of large-scale search by the whole people, using a small group of Qing troops to surround an area with a small number of soldiers and tens of thousands of people, and then thousands of people combed an area together, and the same is true of barren mountains and mountains, so that bandits have nowhere to hide.

The power of the people is endless, and the villagers who are united are no longer weak and can be bullied, and in this way, the bandits that the people can also catch, those who think they can run faster than rabbits, are destined to end up in a tragedy.

The cool breeze blew through the green faces, and a large number of Qing troops approached Langqiao Port through Dadongxiang and Dong Yongshan.

Relying on rivers, jungles and other favorable terrain, the Japanese army built fortifications one after another to block the Qing army's attack, constantly released cold guns, and sent small units to cross from the sand mud to Hexi, attack the Qing army's grain transportation troops, and intercept the military rations.

A grain team of the Qing army was attacked, losing 300 people and sacrificing a team of Qing troops, Liu Mingdeng was very annoyed and shot a grain officer.

Liu Mingdeng concealed the truth from Li Guolou, and for Liu Mingdeng, this kind of loss was just a disease of scabies, and there was no need to find guilt for himself.

But Li Guolou soon found out, and immediately transferred 2,000 Hongyun rifle No. 2 long guns, 50,000 rounds of ammunition, and 20,000 grenades to arm the people.

Liu Mingdeng tacitly agreed, and both sides had their own scales in their hearts.

The Jianwu Army quickly made tactical adjustments, sending small detachments to lurk in dangerous places and build forts along the way to prevent the Japanese army from having strategic space to maneuver.

Twenty miles away from Langqiao Port, there are five Japanese fortresses, with the momentum of the corner, stand on the high slope, the new road slope is more than 1,000 meters high, surrounded by water on both sides, easy to defend and difficult to attack, this is the largest Japanese fortress encountered by the Qing army.

The Japanese army relies on the terrain, the excavated fortress is combined with the mountain, the fort is built in the tunnel, there are 25 holes, relying on the mountain wall and repairing, it seems to be a hard bone to gnaw, this kind of fort is the Japanese army after the previous battles, improve the original tunnel fortifications, specifically to deal with the Qing army's giant artillery.

The Japanese army suffered a loss, and all the trees on the slope of the new road were cut down, and the bushes were burned, turning into a bare hill, which looked very ugly, like a huge monster.

The river of sand mud flows down the hillside, like an iron tower, blocking the footsteps of the Qing army.

When the Jianwu army of the forward battalion encountered an obstacle, the battalion officer Liu Jinhua was eager to make meritorious contributions and wanted to take the new road slope in one go, and used mountain splitting artillery and small steel artillery to attack tentatively, and a sentry Qing army rushed up the hill with the tactics of a scattered line.

More than 100 Qing troops faced death, slowly climbed to the middle of the mountain, the Japanese army began to counterattack fiercely, the Japanese bronze artillery raged once, the guns and cannons rang out, after the smoke of gunpowder, a sentry Qing army died heroically on the hillside.

The black crow fell from the sky, overwhelming the sky, the sky changed color, the black crow feasted, enjoyed a sumptuous meal, the black crow croaked, as if making fun of the Qing army for not being able to do anything.

Liu Jinhua thought that the Japanese army's combat effectiveness was not strong, it was already a remnant of the defeated army, and the new road slope was not steep, so it could be captured in one go, Liu Jinhua underestimated the Japanese army too much.

Liu Jinhua's improper use of tactics caused more than 100 Qing soldiers to die on the hillside in vain, Liu Jinhua was full of remorse and slapped himself twice on the spot.

The Qing army became at a loss, and could only wait for the follow-up troops to transport the Knoob cannons, and the officers and men of the forward battalion dug ditches along the foot of the hill on the new slope of the road, and surrounded them with an iron wall, to trap the Japanese troops on the new slope to death.

The next day, the follow-up troops brought two Knoob cannons, and the adjutant general Fu Xianchu came to command.

Because the Jianwu Army had been sparse for a long time and had no experience in attacking fortified positions, Li Guolou sent more than a dozen officers of the Xinwu Army, Zheng Hengdan, Su Yuanchun, Fang Zhiyong and others, to serve as staff officers for the Jianwu Army.

After seeing the terrain of Xinlupo, the deputy general Fu Xianchu sent a team of death squads to attack tentatively, and after that, the Qing army sounded the trumpet of retreating.

Su Yuanchun and Fang Zhiyong had experience in fighting with the Japanese artillery in Dawu Mountain, so Fu Xianchu, the deputy general, first consulted the opinions of these two people.

Su Yuanchun said: "Fu Xiezhen, the new slope of the mountain is up to 45 degrees, it is not difficult to break through the Japanese position, the casualties of the attack during the day are too large, or it is necessary to fight at night, with grenades and pikemen, it can be captured in one night, the Japanese bronze artillery has shortcomings, it must be cooled down for a long time, and the protracted battle will be won." ”

Fang Zhiyong said: "Fu Xiezhen, the death squad first sent a team to build a martial army, and then asked the Tusi of each department to send a death squad to form thirty death squads, constantly taking turns to attack, fighting this kind of cave fortifications, using Knoob cannons is useless, or to use small steel cannons, mountain splitting cannons, firing at close range, and blowing up the Japanese artillery with grenadiers, in order to destroy the Japanese batteries, before dawn, to be ruthless." ”

Zheng Hengdan was a little worried, and said: "In my opinion, it is too far-fetched to capture Xinlupo in one night, we don't know how many troops the Japanese army has, there may be thousands of Japanese troops in the Xinlupo fortress, and the Japanese army will build the uphill road into a pocket formation, which is to deliberately let us drill into it, rush and fight, the troops cannot be expanded, and the casualties will be very large, so it is better to be safe, let the sappers blow up the road on the hillside, blow up the boulders that block the advance of our army, open up a few more roads, and it will not take three nights to rush straight up, hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese army is not an opponent." ”

Fu Xianchu had a decision in his heart, nodded and said: "We can win the battle by working together, Taiwan is our territory, and it is our duty to recover the territory, but the Japanese army is good at tunnel warfare, and has built the new road slope into a strong fortress, then, we must skillfully use our troops, not to compete with the Japanese army for a while, more than 1,000 meters of the hillside, 100 meters a day, within ten days, we can go straight to the top of the mountain, we fire artillery day and night, let the sappers dig a tunnel, blow up a tunnel, and then let Liu Zhentai come to see what it means to raze the ground." ”

Zheng Hengdan shook his head and said: "Fu Xiezhen, you miscalculated, the enemy is not a fool, he will soon know our tactics, the higher you go, the more difficult it is, it will take at least a month to dig a tunnel, but according to your thinking, our army has the smallest casualties, I agree with digging a tunnel, just after a comfortable year, put a salute." ”

Fu Xianchu felt a trace of warmth, fortunately Li Guolou is the commander-in-chief of Taiwan, military decision-making can be flexible, and perfect military operations can avoid a disastrous victory.

If you meet a hot-tempered commander, the military order is like a mountain.

Originally, the Qing army formulated a plan to capture Langqiao Port on the 30th, but it could not be changed, so the Qing army would have to use human lives to fill in the new slope, and at least thousands of soldiers would have to die on the hillside.

Liu Mingdeng is a very stubborn commander, but in the overall situation, Liu Mingdeng still has to listen to Li Guolou's orders, and several officers of the Xinwu Army are in favor of slowing down the attack on Xinlupo.

Fu Xianchu said with relief: "Then report to Commander-in-Chief Li first, and set the 25th to capture Xinlupo, the bottom line in my heart is 20th, you must plant the Huanglong banner on the top of Xinlupo, do you have confidence." ”

"Yes." The generals responded with a bang, and their resolute eyes ignited their confidence.

Fu Xianchu redeployed his troops and secretly dispatched two teams of engineers to carry out tunnel operations.

Digging two tunnels is just in case, which is a common trick used by the Qing army in combat, like when the Qing army attacked the city, bombing the city wall, that is, choosing multiple locations and carrying out fixed-point blasting together.

Under the slope of the new road, two Qing army sappers relied on artillery cover, digging in the night, the sappers began to be very smooth, because the surface is mud, no need for explosives, can be dug up, the hole is dug a big hole outside a zhang, the sappers are still increasing the reinforcement of the hole, this is because the air in the hole is thin, in order to make the air in the hole circulate, the hole must be large, more than 300 Qing soldiers together to carry the burden to dig the soil, slowly the gravel in the basket is getting more and more, and the speed of the sapper digging is getting slower and slower.

The mud monkey-like sappers burrowed out of their burrows, took a breath of fresh air, and looked up at the new slope.

Under the cover of night, artillery fire rang out, military trumpets were bursting, and Qing army death squads climbed along the mountain, attacking the Japanese position.

The death squad risked the corpses of their comrades-in-arms on their backs, carried the Qing troops who died in the battle on Xinlupo down the mountain, and could not capture the Japanese position, so they took back the bodies of their comrades-in-arms, and never let the bodies of their comrades-in-arms be eaten by crows.

The night was deep, the bright moon hung high, and the sound of gunshots like popping beans pierced the night sky.

The sky was dark, the Japanese artillery was extremely accurate, and the Japanese artillery, who was familiar with the terrain, mastered the essentials to suppress the charge of the Qing army, so that the Qing army returned with a feather.

In the early morning, the Qing army stopped attacking, and cooking smoke rose from the trenches, and the curling smoke was like incense to commemorate the dead comrades.

After a night's work, the Qing army built the prototype of the fort and the barracks, and the tunnel operation was very smooth, digging more than 100 meters of tunnels.

Fu Xianchu stayed awake all night, looking up at the new road slope, as expected, the Japanese army hid its troops, and the Japanese fortress on the new road slope was a difficult bone to gnaw, he had received a call back from Li Guolou, and was determined to fight a beautiful battle on the new road.

"A group of rats, just dare to hide in the nest and wait to go to hell." Fu Xianchu put down the cruel words and turned back to the command post.

"I'm right, the Japanese army deliberately showed weakness, I expected that there were a large number of Japanese troops hidden in the cave, not to mention thousands of people, it is very likely that there are two corps of troops, and the Japanese army has bet on Xinlupo." Zheng Hengdan listened to the sound of Japanese artillery fire, and had already expected that the Japanese troops on the slope of the new road were sufficient.

"Well, we're getting less and less brave to fight, but that's fine, so that the enemy doesn't have a chance to take advantage of it." The two walked back to the command post side by side, the headquarters built by the Qing army, half of it was on the ground, and the outside was a house built with trees, and the outside of the trees was rammed with earth and decorated with shrubs, and from the outside, it was a mound, Fu Xianchu walked along the tunnel, the tunnel was very deep, and there were compartments inside, with tables and chairs, maps, and bedrooms.

A group of officers were holding a meeting to make a summary of the battlefield, Fu Xianchu nodded slightly, sat gracefully and elegantly among the officers, listened to the officers' speeches, in addition to fighting bravely, they should also be good at figuring out and summing up lessons and lessons.

5,000 Xinwu troops and tens of thousands of soldiers were consumed by the Japanese army at Xinlupo, and the Qing army did not force the mud to cross the river.

The Qing army could directly cross the mud river and attack Langqiao Port without attacking the Japanese army on Xinlupo, but there would be endless consequences in doing so, and the consequence would be that the transportation line would be completely exposed under the noses of the Japanese army.

After the Qing army occupied a military advantage in Taiwan, the Qing army no longer made mistakes, but used troops step by step, even if the enemy expected his tactics and guessed every step of the Qing army, there was no way to crack it.

Li Guolou walked all the way to the black, that is, he used cage tactics to trap tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers alive.