There is no way to describe the panic of the Qing army in Shanhaiguan, although they did not dare to say that they had a chance of winning, but they could at least stand in an invincible position and compete for victory, but they never thought that a powerful mysterious Wu army fleet was suddenly opened on the sea, while firing artillery at the Qing army's position, while rushing into the Shihe River to cut off the Qing army's retreat, and at the same time sending troops to land to show amazing field strength, which completely reversed the entire battle situation at once, the tension and panic of the Qing army in Shanhaiguan are naturally beyond the description of pen and ink, and the heavy blow to the army's morale, morale and fighting spirit, It is by no means something that words can reflect.

Fortunately, the Qing army also had a more reliable front-line commander Wang Zhankui, after the sudden reversal of the battle situation, the experienced Wang Zhankui did not panic, and was very calm on the side immediately mobilized reserves to return to the Shihe Bridge to protect the retreat of the army; On the one hand, he commanded the front-line troops to withdraw from the battle in turn and calmly withdraw from the front-line battlefield; At the same time, they also divided their troops to obstruct the landing of the Wu army's fleet, and did not give Wu army reinforcements a chance to raid the flank of their own army. The command was orderly and orderly, and the battalions of the Qing army were able to continue to maintain their establishment, basically not giving the Wu army a chance to counterattack by taking advantage of the situation, and they were quite famous generals.

It is a pity that Wang Zhankui, the rising star of the Qing army who has been trained in actual combat, is destined to have no hope of becoming a real famous general, although his command is correct, the battalions of the Qing army are also executed quite effectively and quickly, but it is a pity that Wang Zhankui and the Qing army in Shanhaiguan are very unlucky to encounter a group of open enemies, the strength of the two outposts can beat the Qing army of two battalions, and the Qing army guarding the bridge can directly damage the Shihe Bridge without letting the Qing army defend the bridge find any abnormality, and then concentrate firepower to bombard the Shihe Bridge that has cracked on the bridge deck, the road for the Qing army to return to Shanhaiguan is also in jeopardy.

"Quick! Withdraw to the north bank of the Shihe River! Bring the artillery! Bombard the Wu thief gunboat on the river with artillery! Keep the Stone River Bridge! Be sure to keep the Shihe Bridge! ”

The reaction and judgment of Wang Zhankui, the general of the Qing army, is still very correct, knowing that the key to tonight's battle is not to what extent it can fight with the Wu army, but the only Shihe Bridge that can allow the Qing army soldiers to return directly to the city of Shanhaiguan, and even whether the Qing army can rely on Shanhaiguan to block the footsteps of the Wu army's Northern Expedition, the key to success or failure is already on that damn stone bridge! Therefore, even if he retreated urgently, Wang Zhankui did not dare to let the Qing army bring the more than 30 Russian-style artillery pieces that could directly kill and injure the Wu army's gunboats, and personally commanded his own battalion to help carry the artillery.

Under the cover of night, the battalions of the Qing army hurriedly walked in a hurry, trying to maintain the formation and retreating towards the way they came, and the shouts of pushing and pulling artillery came and went, almost running with heavy artillery. And just as Wang Zhankui expected, Zhu Hongzhang of the Wu army, who noticed the appearance of the fighter plane, really hurriedly dispatched the army to launch a pursuit, and the two Wu army battalion teams that were still fighting the camp battle just now did not care about the formation of the queue, and they just shot at the Qing army in a mess, trying to cause the Qing army to collapse and chaos, and the other Wu army camp teams hurriedly assembled and lined up, and went out of the camp in turn to launch a pursuit, and the slogan of killing the dog and the party resounded in the sky, directly overpowering the dense gunfire on the battlefield.

When the Qing army hurriedly arranged the artillery in place, the front team of the Wu army's chasing troops had already rushed to the near place, and the Qing army could only line up to protect the artillery, while desperately opening artillery to bombard the Wu army's warships on the river. The warships of the Wu army, which also knew how to make trade-offs, ignored the enemy on the shore at all, and concentrated their firepower on the Shihe Bridge, not only giving the Qing army brigade a chance to escape back to the north bank, but also striving to directly bombard the bridge, completely cut off the enemy's retreat, catch the enemy in the urn on the south bank, and fight with the Qing army on the shore.

Wang Zhankui, who lacked experience in water warfare, soon found that he was too naïve, because the distance was not far away, and there were enough manpower, the Qing army miraculously quickly transferred the artillery to the bank of the Shihe River to continue firing, but the difficulty of hitting the water moving target in the dark night greatly exceeded Wang Zhankui's pre-war imagination, and he bombarded the Wu warship for about 20 minutes, and more than 30 Qing artillery pieces hit the Wu warship only five times, and failed to make a Wu warship stop the shelling, let alone sink the Wu warship. On the contrary, the main force of the Wu army had already gathered five battalions of troops, and they could rush to the shore to participate in the battle in a blink of an eye, making it more difficult for the Qing army to withdraw across the Shihe.

"Wang Junmen, there is no time, do you tell the brothers to hurry up and cross the river? How much can you keep? ”

The generals asked similar questions one after another, but Wang Zhankui's face was pale, and he didn't dare to make up his mind immediately - the black light was blind and the Wu army artillery fire blocked the bridge deck, and the chaotic crossing of the river was purely looking for death! Even if some people can escape back, they will definitely all flee back to the north bank of the Shihe River by stepping on the flesh and blood of their companions! Don't dare to make this decision, there is no way, the Wu army's brigade has been getting closer and closer, but the Qing army's artillery has never been able to quickly deal with the Wu army's warships on the river, there is no choice, Wang Zhankui gritted his teeth, or shouted: "Cross the river immediately!" ”

"Cross the river! Cross the river now! ”

The brutal slaughter unfolded at the same time with Wang Zhankui's order, in the cold wind and biting night, the Qing soldiers began to line up and rush to the Shihe Bridge in turn, stepping on the bridge to charge the opposite bank, but the Wu army warship only used a few shells to make the Qing army's formation completely chaotic, causing the Qing soldiers to push and shove on the bridge deck, colliding with each other, and once they fell, they basically had no chance to get up again, either being trampled by their companions who hurriedly crossed the river or were trampled to death, and many soldiers screamed and fell directly into the river, Even if they were lucky enough to escape to the north shore, most of them had their feet covered in the flesh and blood of their comrades, and the terrible screams and desperate cries rose one after another on the bridge deck, which made people unbearable to listen.

Another battalion of Qing soldiers rushed onto the bridge in the dark night, and the bridge road covered with corpses and seriously wounded stumbled, and more Qing soldiers fell directly into the pile of corpses before they could see the situation clearly, and then they were immediately trampled by their companions behind and could no longer stand up, and there were Qing soldiers falling into the water one after another, and the shells of Wu warships came to make trouble from time to time, once hit, they could split a bloody road in the Qing army crowd, and directly took away the lives of many Qing soldiers At the same time, it also created more chaos for the Qing army crowd. As a result, the Qing soldiers fell into the water more often in the panic, and the situation of trampling on each other became more serious.

At the same time, the Wu army's pursuit brigade also exchanged hands with the main force of the Qing army, and directly used the grenadiers brought by the army in the fierce battle, and the shells fell to the ground and exploded one after another, and the queues of the Qing army's battalions, which were originally quite neat and orderly, gradually became chaotic, and many extremely timid Qing soldiers took the opportunity to escape from the brigade, or swam across the river, or fled to the dark distance, and even rushed directly to the already chaotic Shihe Bridge. What's worse is that Li Hongshou's division of the Qing army, which had previously gone to block the landing force of the Wu army, also fled to the vicinity of the Shihe Bridge at this time because it could not withstand the counterattack of the landing army of the Wu army, and the position of the Qing army was even more chaotic, and the signs of complete collapse quickly appeared.

Seeing that the defeat was decided, the desperate Wang Zhankui did not use his identity as the front-line commander to force the Qing soldiers to give way, and let the soldiers protect him to escape from the Shihe River first, on the contrary, in order to cover the escape of more Qing soldiers, Wang Zhankui also resolutely chose to take his own direct battalion to launch a counter-charge to the Wu army's position, and used the sacrifice of himself and his direct battalion to fight for the opportunity and time for the friendly army to escape.

There is no doubt that the suicidal charge, in front of the guns and grenades of the Wu army's soldiers, Wang Zhankui's directly subordinate battalion soldiers continued to fall in rows, even if they barely rushed to the vicinity of the Wu army's position, they only restrained a small number of Wu soldiers, and more Wu soldiers were still shooting at the panicked Qing army's defeated crowd, retaliating for the Qing soldiers who were still fighting around the Wu army's camp more than an hour ago. And with Wang Zhankui's death by being shot, his handsome banner soon fell, his direct battalion was directly dispersed, and the Wu army brigade strode forward, slaughtering the Qing soldiers who had not yet escaped Shihe more quickly and effectively.

The corpses of Qing soldiers were already floating on the river, and the corpses of Qing soldiers on the bridge were stacked on top of each other, piled up more than half a person high, but there were still many Qing soldiers who could not escape the Shihe, and finally either broke up and fled, or were forced to lay down their arms and surrender to the Wu soldiers on their knees. The Qing soldiers who escaped to the north bank of the Shihe River by stepping on the corpses of their companions were not in a better situation, either with wounds or running away from their weapons, and when they fled to the city of Shanhaiguan in a mess, there were still many people still crying and weeping, and many more were lost like walking corpses, and could no longer muster up the courage to fight the Wu army head-on.

Seeing this scene, Zai Ling, the commander of the Qing army who led the rank of governor of Zhili, shed tears again, but no matter how painful Zai Ling was, he still couldn't change the cruel fact that the main force of the Qing army in Shanhaiguan was annihilated by the Wu army on the south bank of the Shihe River, and he couldn't save the Qing army's partial division Zhang Mingjin, who was isolated on the battlefield of Qinhuangdao - there were no heavy weapons, no reliable foothold, and even no rations for the next day, and the only fate of the Qing army's partial division Zhang Mingjin's division was, of course, the annihilation of the whole army.

It was only in the afternoon of the next day that Zai Ling learned that the Wu army reinforcements that suddenly appeared turned out to be the legendary Wu army expeditionary fleet that went to Japan, and he was even more horrified to learn that there were four battalions of Wu army's first-line elite on the Wu army's expeditionary fleet, which was not only experienced in the battlefield, but also well-armed to the point of outrageousness. At the same time, Zai Ling was extremely desperate to find that the Qing army in Shanhaiguan, which had suffered heavy casualties, no longer had enough strength to defend the city and resist the attack of the Wu army.

Many civil and military officials suggested that Zai Ling should abandon the city and flee to Ningyuan or Rehe to regroup, but Zai Ling once sternly refused, but when the Wu army quickly killed the Qing army's partial division that was alone in Qinhuangdao and turned around again to point at Shanhaiguan, Zai Ling, who had a cracked heart and gall, changed his mind and handed over the city to his civilian deputy Qi Chengyan, and fled to Ningyuan City, the only city that was not attacked by the enemy and the army remained intact. As a result, as soon as Zai Ling's front foot ran, Qi Chengyan opened the gate and surrendered to the Wu army on the back foot, and the Wu army easily took Shanhaiguan, and then drove to Ningyuan City from both sea and land at the same time.

The winter snow in Shenyang, which came earlier than the previous year, once made the Manchu court see hope again, but coincidentally, it happened that on the same day that the first winter snow fell in Shenyang, the main force of the Wu army led by Jiang Zhongji also successfully blew down the Jinzhou city wall with tunnel blasting tactics, the soldiers of the Wu army flocked into the city, the city gate was blocked and there was no way out, many Qing soldiers including Jinzhou General Wei Rugui were forced to lay down their arms and surrender, the commander Rui often committed suicide in despair, Jinzhou, an important town in western Liaoning, fell into the hands of the Wu army, and Ningyuan became an isolated city, It was also only a matter of time before he was destined to be recovered by Wu Jun.

The complete loss of the western Liaoning corridor is a foregone conclusion, the strong Northern Expedition Wu army will definitely launch an attack on Shenyang in the spring of the next year, which even does not understand the military Ci'an, Cixi and Guizi Liu, can see, in the case of having completely no way out, in order to keep the last ray of hope, the Manchu court had to announce the change of banner on November 11 of the third year of Qixiang (Tongzhi), officially established the Manchu state, changed the year name to Kant and the Wu army to fight against the court, and the Tsarist Russia announced the recognition of Manchukuo at the first time, It established formal diplomatic relations with the puppet Manchukuo and actively lobbied the Western powers to recognize the puppet Manchukuo and completely split the Chinese land.

When the news spread, China was furious, and Wu Chaoyue also declared the puppet Manchurian state an illegal regime at the first time, resolutely refused to recognize it, and declared Northeast China and Mongolia to be China's inseparable land, vowing to recover the occupied territory at any cost. It is worth mentioning that after a long period of repeated ideological struggles, the Mongolian monk Gelin Mi, who once hated Wu Chaoyue to the bone, finally chose to surrender to the Wu army, and continued to stand up as the king of Korbi to call on the Mongolian princes to oppose the separatist crimes of Ci'an and Cixi and others, and obey the orders of the Wu army, which also successfully prompted many Mongolian princes to choose to surrender to the Wu army, shattering the dream of the puppet Manchurian state and pulling Mongolia to split together.

It is precisely because of the need to win the hearts of the people that Wu Chaoyue once again rejected the joint persuasion of Hubei Wenwu, insisted on refusing to be the emperor, continued to respect Qixiang as the emperor, and always regarded himself as the regent of the Qing Dynasty. However, even so, Wu Chaoyue still couldn't stop the persuasion concerts that flew like snowflakes from all over the country, and some of these persuasions even came from Mongolia and Northeast China, as well as Chinese vassal states such as Ryukyu, Vietnam, and Burma.

In the end, there was really no way, Wu Chaoyue had no choice but to say to the Zhongwen Wu who were anxious to establish the Gong of the Dragon: "Let's talk about it when Shenyang is defeated, and when Shenyang is recovered and Emperor Qixiang is returned, we will discuss this matter again." ”

After capturing Emperor Qixiang and then forcing the Wild Boar Skin X Zen position to himself, Wu surpassed this little abacus that even the blind could see, and how to recover Shenyang as soon as possible has therefore become the first major event of Wu Jun in Qixiang for four years. In this regard, the Western powers have chosen to ride on the wall and watch the wind, ready to wait for the Wu army to fight this battle before deciding whether to recognize the puppet Manchukuo - directly recognizing the puppet Manchukuo without any benefit, such a stupid thing that the Western powers will not do. Only Tsarist Russia was resolute, making it clear that it would defend the puppet state of Manchukuo at all costs, and had put together an army in Siberia early on, ready to go south to fight.

Of course, the reaction of Tsarist Russia was expected by Wu Chaoyue, but Wu Chaoyue was fearless, because with the gradual subsidence of the domestic war, the elite of the Wu army stationed in various parts of the Central Plains could already take out to go north to participate in the war, and the ammunition and materials could also be prioritized for the northeast battlefield, and the Russian army in Siberia would be consumed to death by consumption alone! And in the absence of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Tsarist Russia really could not afford to fight a war of attrition with the Wu army in the northeast.

In addition, in the Daye Industrial Base of the Wu Army, with the personal help of Wu Chaoyue, the new weapons of the Wu Army developed by an American are also infinitely close to success, and if nothing else, there will be a great possibility that the Wu Army will recover Shenyang in the battle!

Of course, it is not only Wu Jun's secret new weapon that is infinitely close to success.