Without coolies and mules and horses, how could this two- or three-ton artillery cart move forward?

At this time, the commander of the Japanese heavy artillery wing, Sakurai Kuzaburo Osa, was furious, but there was nothing he could do. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Changshan Temple.

After receiving the battle report from the Bruce Division, the officers of the independent battalion were plunged into a huge surprise.

The Japanese army has 500 fewer coolies, and if they want to continue marching, they must use the army as soldiers, so the Japanese army's timely and capable force will undoubtedly be reduced by one level.

The situation is clearly developing in favor of the independent battalions.

Moreover, the five hundred coolies who escaped, since they were able to survive all the way from Yingkou to the present without falling, are obviously healthy men, as long as they come back with a few full meals, they are good seedlings to become soldiers.

While Luo Minglei felt sorry for the seventeen soldiers who died in battle, he was rejoicing at the next expansion of the independent battalion.

However, the cruel reality immediately woke up Luo Minglei, and more than 500 escaped coolies, about 200 of whom disappeared without saying goodbye.

The remaining 300 coolies, after eating enough rice from the independent battalion, thanked Dade one by one, and most of them kowtowed again and again, begging to go home.

This chilling scene made all the soldiers and officers of the independent battalion cold at that time.

Thinking of the comrades-in-arms who sacrificed to protect these coolies who could escape from the Japanese barracks, the soldiers of the independent battalion were even more angry.

In the end, only 69 of these coolies chose to stay, and 47 of them were Qing soldiers captured by the Japanese army in various parts of Liaodong.

Only 22 Liaodong men chose to stay and join the independent battalion, and at least half of them stayed after hearing about the treatment of the anti-Japanese army.

The people of the country are numb like cattle, horses and sheep, and they are enslaved to the end, so that some progressive soldiers in the independent battalion are pitiful and hateful.

At a time when the independent battalion was angry at the numbness and selfishness of the countrymen.

The Japanese camp was also bleak and gloomy.

The leader of the Japanese artillery logistics baggage squadron responsible for guarding the prisoners, Captain Otani Takei, shamelessly faced the predicament faced by the artillery team and chose to commit suicide to apologize.

In the face of a large number of sick mules and horses, the Japanese military doctors suffered from the lack of medicinal materials, so they had to helplessly watch these mules and horses lying on the ground and moaning and neighing.

On December 21st, the Japanese troops of Changshan Siwan decided to repair the temporary camp for a day, and set up a series of small defensive positions on the surrounding hilltops to monitor the mountains and forests from a high position.

On December 22, a large number of Japanese mules and horses began to die of illness, and on this day, the independent battalion and the Japanese army exchanged fire dozens of times in the surrounding mountain positions, and both sides suffered casualties.

On December 23, the Japanese army sent a team of more than 30 cavalry to try to find the 3rd Brigade in the south, but was ambushed by the independent battalion on the southern post road, and after a fierce exchange of fire, more than a dozen corpses were left behind and retreated to Changshan Temple.

That is, on the same day, the 3rd Brigade of the Japanese Army, which had been waiting for three days in Suizhong County, captured the Japanese prisoners who had fled south.

Yamaguchi Sutomi, who was shocked, immediately sent three infantry squadrons and one cavalry squadron to escort 600 coolies to Changshan Temple for reinforcements.

On December 24, after several days of fighting, the Japanese army roughly figured out that the strength of this anti-Japanese army would not exceed three infantry squadrons.

Tadazaburo Yamada left behind an infantry squadron, combined with the artillery of the Heavy Artillery Wing, to coordinate the defense of the camp, and the remaining five infantry squadrons were all dispatched during the day to try to find an independent battalion and fight it.

Luo Minglei will make a plan, while sending a small force to lure the five squadrons of the Japanese army away, and then concentrate more than 300 troops to sweep the Japanese positions in the mountains around the Japanese temporary camp like thunder.

The process was very short, from the outbreak of the attack to the withdrawal of the whole army, the whole process took less than 15 minutes.

When the Japanese troops in the camp at the foot of the mountain sent reinforcements, the Japanese troops who were far away from all directions woke up and retreated, and more than 30 Japanese soldiers were killed by the independent battalion.

Sakurai Kuzaburo and Yamada Tadazaburo, who ran to the mountains angrily, scolded for a while.

On the same day, the independent battalion received an urgent report from the scouts from the south, and about 1,000 Japanese troops were riding on foot and escorting a large number of coolies, and were coming in the direction of Changshan Temple.

After several days of gunfighting, although the independent battalion was killed and about 200 Japanese soldiers were seriously wounded, it itself was killed, and the number of seriously wounded soldiers reached 51.

Moreover, the ammunition and dry food he carried were almost exhausted, and all the soldiers and officers had light or severe frostbite on their hands and feet, including his left hand, which was already swollen like a steamed bun, and it was itchy to scratch the heart at the slightest heat.

In a word, it is no longer suitable for the troops to continue to fight here, otherwise they may face huge casualties if they are not careful.

It's just that, looking at the eighteen high-raised cannon muzzles in the Japanese camp in the distance, Luo Minglei's heart was filled with too much unwillingness.

"Withdraw, the warriors have reached their limit; These soldiers—"

Bruce was so cold that he drank to ward off the cold, and gave Luo Minglei a high thumbs up with his right hand.

Shanhaiguan.

On the winding mountain road, Nie Shicheng led a thousand Luyu soldiers to trek all the way.

From the beginning of the year to Seoul, during which he experienced the battles of Asan, Pyongyang, Hushan, and Motianling, and then retreated to Mukden, and then went south from Mukden to return to the pass, and the 3,000 troops at that time were now less than 40% left.

More than 2,000 soldiers trained and died in the guest country, and even their bones were gone!

This time, it won't take a few days to return to the customs, and Jinmen is full of Susu again, right?

Shame!

"Junmen, the brothers in Shanhaiguan will definitely kill the Japanese and avenge the dead brothers!"

Xia Qingyun, who was walking beside Nie Shicheng, had followed Nie Shicheng for many years, and when he saw the old general's face full of loneliness, he naturally guessed what Nie Shicheng was thinking, and hurriedly whispered comfort.

"I feel ashamed! When I returned to Tianjin this time, I didn't know how many orphans and widows I would have to face! ”

Nie Shicheng's official robe was already in tatters, his hands and face were full of frostbite, although there were more than thirty war horses in the team, but they were all used to carry the wounded and food, so he, like all the soldiers, relied on two legs to complete the eight-hundred-mile mountain road from Fengtian to Shanhaiguan.

"Junmen, the most important thing now is to tell the imperial court that the large force of the Japanese army has moved south, and it is less than two hundred miles away from Shanhaiguan; Since the transfer of Wu Heng to the Yalu River in Shanhaiguan, there was only one battalion of flag soldiers, which was not enough for a charge by the Japanese army. ”

Feng Guozhang, who was walking behind Nie Shicheng, had a cautious anxiety on his face: "And the army of Zhili has been evacuated one after another in the past few months; It seems that there are only four battalions of the Sheng Army, one battalion of the Renzi Army, and Luo Rongguang's army still has to defend the Dagu Fort. ”

"When the Japanese army landed at Yingkou, the imperial court should have thought of these possibilities and should have transferred troops from all over the country; It's just that Mukden is in danger! ”

At this time, Nie Shicheng didn't know that Fengtian had been easily captured by the Japanese army a few days ago, and Song Qing, Yi Ketang'a, Zhang Gaoyuan, Ma Jinxu, Wu Heng'e, these nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses, were all blocked north of Mukden.

"Who is the military number?"

At this time, at a post road pass about fifteen miles away from Shanhaiguan, on the low walls of the fortifications on both sides of the mountain range, two rows of rifles suddenly stretched out, pointing at Nie Shicheng and others on the post road.

And on the post road ahead, there are also five or six rows of horse-repelling stakes, which are inlaid with sharp blades.