Shanhaiguan.

Yama Prefecture Aritomo, Ogawa again, and a group of Japanese generals who were going to stay at the Shanhaiguan Pass, Yamaguchi Sutomi, Okubo Toshisada, Fukushima Yongzhi, Nakaki Noki, Kuriihara Tsuneyo, Oysaki Tomizaburo, Kobayashi Tatsunosuke, stood on top of the castle tower that returned to the customs.

Looking at the three cities outside the Guanwai in the north, as well as the Ludong army that was climbing the mountains and fleeing westward, and the corpses of the Qing army lying in the southern plains, all the generals were in great excitement.

"Our department is ready to take the main city of Shanhaiguan as the core, and then start from the blasts of the Great Wall on both wings, and establish a complete closed front along the east, west, and north sides of the three cities outside the pass, separated by a distance of 300 meters, and completely block the breakthrough route of the Qing army in these three cities."

The commander of the 3rd Brigade of the Japanese Army, Yamaguchi Sutomo, respectfully stood beside Yama Prefecture Youtomo and told him about the defense plan: "At the same time, the 19th Wing of Kurihan Osa, stationed at the mouth of the two rivers in the north fifteen miles, controls the eastward route of the Jiujiang River; If the Qing army in the mountains went around and south from other mountains, it could carry out a north-south flank attack with our troops and annihilate them. ”

"It's too far away;"

Xiao Chuan, chief of staff of the First Army, once again vetoed: "Once that group of mountain rats sneaks in, launches a surprise attack on the weak northern front, and unites the Qing army in the three cities to carry out a flanking attack inside and outside, the main city three miles away will not be able to react, let alone the two estuaries of the two rivers fifteen miles." ”

"The 19th Wing immediately withdrew from the mouth of the two rivers and was stationed at the East Battalion, which was connected with the northern defensive line."

Youpeng of Shan County said: "In the ever-changing battlefield, it is the most stupid behavior to correspond to the situation according to the changing situation, and to stick to the rules!" For the army in the mountains, leave them alone, the empire will not have time to play hide and seek with them. ”

"Hey!"

A group of generals answered loudly.

For the results of the Shanhaiguan Battle, Youpeng of Shanxian County is still very satisfied.

However, there are still many flaws.

For example, let Liu Kunyi escape into the three cities outside the gate with more than 2,000 Qing troops.

There is also the demise of the 17th Squadron under the East City Wall, the 12th Wing was killed by explosives in the river under Biyun Mountain, Kimura Shige's defeat and seppuku, and the Northern Detachment lost more than 650 foot knights.

In total, close to 1200 troops were lost.

For the rest of the troops in the battle, the loss of soldiers was only more than 400.

All this made Youpeng in Shanxian County more afraid to take He Changying and the anti-Japanese army in his hands more daring to take it lightly and attach great importance to it.

"Your 19th Wing and the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, these more than 1,700 remnants, are under the command of the Third Brigade; Remember the lesson of this blood, don't attack and entangle easily, the enemy is more cunning than you think, but stabilize the northern front and pay attention to the Qing army's internal and external attacks. ”

"Hey!"

Kuriihara Tsuneyo, Oysaki Tomisaburo, and Kobayashi Tatsunosuke all turned the order loudly with a face of shame.

"Now the strength of the Qing army in the three cities has exceeded 10,000 people, and this should be the last army that can fight in the Qing Kingdom except for Lushunkou; We must learn to face up to our opponents and admit that they are strong, so that we can destroy them! ”

After explaining to Kuri Iihara Tsuneyo, Oysaki Tomizaburo, and Kobayashi Tatsunosuke, Yamaguchi Youpeng said: "Your 5,000 troops, plus the 19th Wing and the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, I will equip you with a squadron of artillery, don't think about breaking the city, defend it, defend it!" ”

"Hey!"

Yamaguchi Suchen and Okubo Toshisada are also ashamed.

Until now, their 3rd Brigade, Kurihan's 19th Wing, has lost successive battles, and they are about to become the kind of Oshima Yoshimasa's 9th Brigade, to the point of being a second-rate defender of the city.

"Wait until the 10th Brigade of the 11th Brigades lands and completely annihilate them!"

Here, Yama Prefecture Youpeng gave the upcoming Prince Akihito Komatsumiya another trap, forcing him to pull out the nail of the three cities outside the Guanwai, hoping to win a few more precious days for the First Army's Yanjing attack.

After a while, the corpses of the Qing Dynasty Wenwu were carried up to the city tower and began to hang, and Youpeng of Shanxian sneered and said: "For the cheap bones of the Qing Dynasty, only if they are killed to make them bold, will they be obedient to the empire as a dog!" ”

Then, Youpeng of Shan County said to Xiaochuan again: "After entering the customs, it is all a smooth road, and there is no need for so many soldiers, but those soldiers of the Qing Dynasty and North Korea are enough; The remaining nearly 10,000 imperial soldiers who came all the way from Incheon are not soldiers, but they should be more than enough to fight those vulnerable Qing troops, and now the empire has captured tens of thousands of Qing firearms, which can just arm them. ”

Tamura Yozo furrowed his eyebrows, which was also where he and Yamaguchi had a disagreement.

The capture of the Nine Gates and the capture of Shanhaiguan, Tamura Jardine and Zao are very much in agreement.

Because in this way, the Imperial Army has achieved the absolute strategic initiative, and the next step is to carry out war blackmail to maximize benefits, and force the Qing Dynasty to pay reparations and cede land.

In Tamura Jardine's view, now that Shanhaiguan and Yongping Mansion have been captured, it is necessary to concentrate forces to completely solve the problem of losing the three cities outside the pass.

Even if the three cities outside the Guanwai were difficult to fight, and the losses of the Imperial Army were great, with the supplement of more than 10,000 troops of the 11th Brigade Regiment that arrived later, it could restore the absolute crushing pressure on Zhili Jinjing.

Just now, Tamura Yi and the euphemistic Youpeng of Shan County proposed that the first army of the empire now has a combat strength of 24,000 people, and then left a large number of troops in Shanhaiguan to besiege this Qing army. 、

If the army is boldly moved south, the weak military strength against the large number of Qing troops in Shangjin and Beijing is likely to become an irreparable disaster.

As a result, who would have expected that Youpeng in Shan County would actually come up with this idea.

In this way, he expanded the number of soldiers of the First Army in Shanhaiguan to nearly 35,000 at once, and even if 7,000 troops were left, the military strength of the southward march to Zhili reached 28,000.

"Commander, although the number of troops has increased significantly, the overall strength of the army is decreasing."

Tamura Jardine still wants to dissuade Yama Prefecture from having friends.

"It's very easy to do, this 10,000 new army is formed into a separate army, and 1,000 veterans are selected to fill it in the ratio of ten to one, and ten brigades are formed, the 12th, 22nd, 6th, 18th, and 7th wings, each with 2 recruit brigades as cannon fodder; In this way, it will not affect the combat power of the army. ”

Yama Prefecture Youpeng looked at Tamura Jarizo and continued: "Since nearly 400 war horses have been captured, let's transfer veterans who can ride horses, and reorganize the 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Brigades into a full cavalry brigade. ”

On the side, the new five cavalry captains Kobayashi Tatsunosuke had a blood-red face of shame.

Their cavalry brigade lost more than half of it in the battle of Jiguan Mountain, and with the cavalry squad that was originally stationed at the mouth of the two rivers, there are now only about 170 horsemen and nearly 200 war horses.

Tamura Yozao was refuted by Yama Prefecture Aritomo and had nothing to say, so he had to be silent.

"In this matter, your staff must complete the reorganization of the team tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow on the 4th, we will enter Yanjing City, the hometown of the Qing Emperor!"

"Hey!"

Major General Ogawa, who has always been closely united around Youpeng in Yama County, shouted in response to orders.

"Bang, bang, bang—"

As the corpses were hung up on the city wall, there was a commotion in the three cities outside the gate, and many angry soldiers raised their guns and shot at them.

"Smack, smack—"

Suddenly, countless stray bullets hit the city wall, causing the bricks and masonry of the city to splash in all directions.

"Commander is in danger, please go down to the castle tower immediately."

As the newly appointed commander of the Shanhaiguan Defense District, Yamaguchi Suchen hurriedly persuaded Yamaguchi Youpeng to go down to the city to avoid the bomb.