Guan Zhuofan returned to the military plane, and as soon as he entered the door, Wen Xiang, Cao Yuying, Xu Gengshen, and Guo Songtao, who had been sitting silently waiting, immediately stood up, and everyone's faces were full of inquiring looks.

"In the emperor's body," Guan Zhuofan's voice was hoarse, "there is no doubt that there is another evil poison at work, but what kind of evil poison it is, it is still being checked at the moment, and I don't have any more news here - don't come to ask me, I don't know more than the pulse case." ”

You know, there must be more than the one on the pulse case-this, everyone knows it, but before the water is revealed, Prince Xuan's "cautious words" are also reasonable, and several big military planes, although they are full of questions, but it is not good to really ask anything.

After a pause, Guan Zhuofan said: "In short, the situation should be clear soon--it will only take one or two days, everyone be patient, wait a little longer." ”

Several big military planes nodded.

"This morning's pulse case," Guan Zhuofan asked knowingly, "Did you send it over?" ”

Wen Xiang shook his head slightly: "Not yet." ”

Of course not, Wang Shouzheng has just left the Heart Cultivation Palace, and now, he and Wei Jien are busy preparing to give the mature women and Loli gynecological examinations.

"Military Aircraft Department," Guan Zhuofan said, "the various yamen below, the official affairs of the envoys, are handled as usual, and they can't be distracted, so they have been delayed." ”

"Yes."

Wen Xiang responded, turned around and picked up a white box from the table beside him, and said, "This is a telegram from Lanzhou, it should be a military newspaper from Xinjiang." ”

Opening the box and opening the fold, Guan Zhuofan glanced at the title of the seal and said, "Well, it's from Xinjiang - we have won the battle again." ”

Four large military aircraft. The eyes were all bright, but the expression was still "solemn" -- the saint was hesitant, and at this time, it was not good to show any obvious "joy" on his face.

Guan Zhuofan watched the twists and turns, and then watched the "clip". After reading it, he said: "Manas has been defeated - but this battle is full of twists and turns, but it is unexpected, so let's take a look." ”

*

*

Urumqi is not only the name of the city, but also the name of a large area centered on the city, the battle of Urumqi, recovered by the Western Expeditionary Army. It is only the central city of Urumqi -- which is divided into two cities, Dihua and Gongning. Although the rebels lost the city of Urumqi, they still had two important strongholds in the Urumqi area, one was Manas in the northwest of Urumqi City, and the other was Turpan in the southeast of Urumqi City.

As mentioned earlier, after Bai Yanhu's defeat, he fled south to Daban City. This Daban City is the barrier northwest of Turpan. To march from Urumqi to Turpan, you must first reach the city of Kadaban.

However, although the main force of the rebels in the Urumqi area fled to the Dabancheng-Turpan line, Zhan Donglu did not immediately raise troops to the south, and he and Liu Jintang agreed on the same opinion: Manas must be attacked first -- because Manas was on the back road of the westward expeditionary army. The back road is not quiet, and the soldiers are taboo.

After assessing the strength of the Manas rebels, Zhan Donglu and Liu Jintang both believed that there was no need for the whole army to go north, and the Xuan army remained in Urumqi. The southward threat to Daban City, the battle of Manas, was in charge of the Lao Xiang Army and Lei Zhengwan's department.

Lei Zhengwan's department went first, and the soldiers pointed out, the rebels in Changji and Hutubi cities along the way fled when they heard the wind, and Changji and Hutubi all went down without a fight, and the portal of Manas was opened.

Liu Jintang led the Lao Hunan army to arrive later, and Liu and Lei went out in all directions, pulling out the strongholds of Dadonggou, Xiaodonggou, Chaiwobao, Daxigou, Xiaoxigou, and Banfanggou on the periphery of Manas, and then launched an attack on Manas from the east and south.

Manas divided the southern city and the northern city, and when attacking the southern city, it was very smooth, and the defender Heibaocai only made a symbolic resistance, so he abandoned the city and fled, but when he attacked the northern city, he encountered unexpected trouble.

The combat strength of the defenders was suddenly strengthened, not only the will to fight was tenacious, but also the firepower was fierce and the shooting was accurate, and the first round of attacks of the officers and soldiers was blocked back, and there were quite a lot of casualties.

Liu Jintang noticed that the situation was different, and in the absence of sufficient siege heavy artillery support, he did not want to repeatedly attack and increase casualties, so he ordered the attack to be temporarily stopped, and the flying cavalry asked Zhan Donglu for help.

Zhan Donglu got the report, knowing that he had underestimated the enemy before, and immediately sent two artillery companies to gallop to Manas in the starry night.

Under the heavy bombardment of Krupp artillery, the defenders of the northern city of Manas finally collapsed.

After the official army entered the northern city, in the corpses of the rebels, a strange identity was found, and the prisoners were interrogated.

Liu Jintang was taken aback: Did the Rakshasa people roll up their sleeves and play? I haven't gotten any information on this, but a lot of the military rations we eat are bought from the Rakshasas!

Further interrogation of the captives finally made it clear: this Rakshasa soldier was not sent by the Rakshasa court, and it didn't even have anything to do with Agubai, it was a "mercenary" recruited by Bai Yanhu in the Rakshasa country through a Rakshasa merchant.

However, the recruitment process was not very smooth, and it took some time to barely "form an army"; The road is far away, hurry up and hurry, not only did not catch up with the Battle of Urumqi, but also the Battle of Manas, and only caught up with the second half.

After the battle, most of this Rakshasa army was reimbursed in the fire of the Krupp cannon.

In order not to hinder the "harmonious diplomatic relations" between China and Russia, Zhan Donglu and Liu Jintang did not include it in the formal compromise, but reported it to the imperial court and Guan Zhuofan through "clips" and personal letters.

Although there were twists and turns, the purpose of the battle of the Western Expedition -- "to strangle the troops in order to defend the troops, and to prevent them from being dragged along the southern road" was successfully achieved.

At this point, the power of the imperial court was connected in a vast area from Suzhou in Gansu Province in the east to Tacheng in Xinjiang in the west, which not only caused a strong deterrent to the self-proclaimed "sultan" Taranqi regime in Ili, but also obtained a firm base for going south. ”

As for Taranqi in Yili, Guan Zhuofan in Beijing, Zuo Zongtang in Gansu, and Zhan Donglu in Xinjiang, they all have a consensus that they don't have to deal with him for the time being, and they don't even have to surrender.

*

*

After reading the telegram one by one, several large military planes all had such a thought in their hearts: If at this moment, there is no "evil poison" in the emperor's body, then as soon as the "joy of smallpox" passes, he will receive the good news of the army of Xinjiang's western expedition, which is really called "icing on the cake"!

And now—alas!

Counting the days, the army of the Western Expedition should have begun to go south to the Bancheng-Turpan line, and some people thought in their hearts: I don't know the emperor's illness, can I hold on to the good news of recovering Turpan?

Cao Yuying said: "I don't know if we and Agubai will directly hand each other, and when the time comes, won't the Rakshasa people stop playing some new tricks?" ”

Xu Gengshen said: "What Zhuo Ru said is that the Rakshasa people have wolf ambitions, and they can't be guarded against!" ”

Guo Songtao said: "Tear the dough directly, it is estimated that the Rakshasa people don't have the guts yet, right?" Besides, there is no justification in the public law of all nations. ”

Guan Zhuofan smiled slightly and said: "Courage, the Rakshasa people may not have it; The Rakshasas don't necessarily care much about the public law of all countries, but the Rakshasas haven't eaten all of the Kokand country yet, and they have directly put their hands into Xinjiang, and they don't have this strength at the moment. ”

After a pause, he said, "Small actions under the stage are about to be inevitable, but-"

He sneered and said, "It's useless! The whole territory of Xinjiang, return to China, this is the destiny of heaven! No matter what stumbling blocks the Rakshasa people make, they are all mantis arms as cars! ”

Several big military planes are all hot.

"After the return of Xinjiang," Guan Zhuofan said, "the Rakshasa Kingdom has also swallowed the Kokand Kingdom, and we will directly meet with the Rakshasa country, and when the time comes—"

After a pause, Guan Zhuofan gritted his teeth slightly, "If he doesn't come to me, I'll go to him!" ”

*(To be continued.) )