The east slope of the Ji Canal, Shangwotou Village.

Nie Shicheng and Feng Guozhang, under the escort of one of his personal guard cavalry, stood on a snowy slope high ground on the riverbank, looking at the Japanese brigade that began to assemble in the snowfield four miles to the east.

"The Japanese army is just the advance force along the way, and the visual strength is no less than 9,000 people, and the main force behind it is more than 10,000 people, right?"

Nie Shicheng exclaimed in disgrace: "With so many troops, pointing at Dong Fuxiang's 1,000 Mauser guns, as well as 6 artillery pieces, and the rest of the soldiers are all outdated breech guns, how can this battle be fought!" ”

"The military gate, the withdrawal of the Gan army to Tongzhou to join the army, in order to give the Japanese army a certain amount of oppressive force and obtain more bargaining chips in the peace talks; Now you look at Dong Fuxiang's formation, what kind of messy and broken things are they, does he think he is still fighting bandits and chaotic people with kitchen knives? ”

Feng Guozhang saw that the Japanese army began to establish a defensive camp in the east, and stomped his feet anxiously: "If the Gan army is defeated on this road, it will be a long time, once the Japanese army is in Tongzhou with the victorious army, the imperial court will be even more passive." ”

"I am now a copy of Ye Zhichao and Song Qing, and I am not as good as them, at least they still have pro-soldiers in their hands! And our Wu Yi army has been wiped out from Asan to Liaodong and then to Shanhaiguan; Except for Lushun, the rest of our Beiyang have been defeated, how can we be qualified to point fingers at them? ”

Nie Shicheng said with a mouth full of bitterness, and sighed: "I can see it, except for Jiang Zikang, Jiang Guidi, Yunhe, who fled to Lushun, and Wu Yuren, who was recuperating with illness, the veterans of our Beiyang Department, including him Ding Ruchang, did not end well; After this war, I was beheaded and sent to prison, and I didn't run away! ”

Five miles south of Shangwotou Village, the camp of the Gan Army in Shangcang Village, and the artillery position.

Dong Fuxiang led a group of staff members to stand in the artillery position, looking at the Japanese position in the northeast.

"Whew! This group of blind things, I don't see Lao Tzu's handsomeness here, are these dogs illiterate? Even if you can't read, haven't you seen such a mighty cannon placed here, full of colorful flags? ”

Dong Fuxiang, who felt neglected, was very hurt in his heart, and ordered Zhu Yonghui, the artillery battalion officer under his command: "Give Lao Tzu, bombard his mother!" Give the eyes of these grandchildren a little water. ”

"Wow!"

The Gan army also had several small guns of 35 and 40 caliber in Urumqi, and this time they got these six 80 guns, and the officers and men of the artillery battalion were very precious one by one.

I heard that a cannon is worth tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the officers and men of the artillery battalion are usually reluctant to put it indiscriminately, for fear of wearing out the rifling of the cannon, and are ready to keep it as an heirloom of the Gan army.

Hearing the order of the military gate, Zhu Yonghui yelled with joy on his face: "Brothers, put on the cannonballs, bombard this group of dogs with no water in their eyes!" ”

"Wow!"

The artillery of the Gan army on the artillery camp position shouted in unison, and the sound was amazing.

When the Qing Dynasty purchased these 65 new 80mm caliber Krupp rapid-fire guns, the German Krupp Artillery Field bullied the Qing officials who did not understand the market and directly gave 65 guns.

As for the replacement parts that should be basically equipped, there are also a small number of high-explosive shells that are given away, which are not provided at all.

Li Hongzhang's defeat in Dadonggou of the Beiyang Naval Division was due to the fact that there were no high-explosive bombs imported from the West, so the imperial court purchased a large number of expensive large-caliber high-explosive bombs with a caliber of more than 120mm in addition to purchasing a large number of replacement parts for the warships of the naval division in the second batch of military purchases.

In consideration of the defense of Dagukou, the imperial court added 80mm caliber shells to the procurement list.

At the end of December 1894, all the large-caliber artillery shells that arrived in Qingdao were transported to Weihaiwei, and then Ding Ruchang loaded all the remaining ammunition onto the warship and transported it to the Lushun Fortress. ——This is also evidence that the Weihai Navy's remaining navy concludes that it is an outcast.

Except for some of the 80-caliber high-explosive bombs that remained in Weihaiwei, all the rest of Liu Kunyi were transported to the Dagu Fort, and none of them were given to the Lu Dongjun.

This is also one of the many manifestations that Beiyang continued to be filthy even if Liu Kunyi was replaced, Wang Wenshao was replaced, Li Bingheng, the governor of Ludong, and Beiyang were still filthy.

"Boom!"

The officers and men of the artillery battalion pointed their guns to the northeast, and the six guns exploded violently, spitting out long tongues of fire, and the entire hillside seemed to tremble violently, and the loud sound filled the earth, and the thick smoke and heat wave suddenly filled the entire artillery camp position.

"Whoa—"

"Boom, boom—"

The direction is good, but as the so-called mistake is a thousand miles, all 6 shells missed, and you can see a few clusters of snow smashed into the air on the northeast ground in the distance.

"Reload, adjust the muzzle, and boom!"

If he couldn't hit the enemy with a single bullet, Zhu Yonghui's face turned a little red, and he yelled: "There must be water in the eyes, there must be water!" ”

Under the large heat wave, the snow in the artillery positions melted layer by layer, revealing muddy ground.

"Boom-"

Three minutes later, 6 guns were fired one after another, and one shell accurately smashed into the Japanese position, although the effect could not be seen, but the damage must be very amazing!

"Good!"

Suddenly, the Gan army on the entire Jizhou Canal defense line shouted and applauded, thinking in their hearts about the tragic scene of being shot and the Japanese soldiers being torn apart and dripping with blood, not to mention how proud they were.

"Keep banging, scare these dogs!"

Seeing that under the tiger power of his cannon, the Japanese position was silent and did not dare to resist, Dong Fuxiang couldn't help but look proud, and thought that he must write this piece of artillery into the fold at night, so that the emperor and Lafayette know the majesty of their Gan army.

It's really thanks to this war that I tried to kill this bunch of stinky dogs in Beiyang!

——With such a sharp cannon and foreign gun, he was actually beaten to the point of losing his armor and fleeing all the way, what a shame for his ancestors!

If it weren't for this war, our Gan army wouldn't have been able to get these 6 giant cannons, and there are such sharp Mauser guns. - It's just a little too little, only 1,000!

"But when these Japanese soldiers are destroyed, our Gan army's guns will be enough, hehe, it's not enough!"

At this moment, Dong Fuxiang's heart was full of confidence.

Limingzhuang, the 10th Brigade of the Japanese Army.

After several rounds of bombardment, the Qing army's six artillery pieces gradually adjusted to the best bombardment elevation angle, and began to smash huge projectiles into the Japanese defensive positions.

The huge kinetic energy and good flexibility of the 80 iron projectiles made these shells not split after they landed, smashing the snow into deep mud and snow splash pits one after another.

And from time to time, he always smashed some unlucky Japanese soldiers, and instantly exploded into a burst of flesh.

"Order all the soldiers not to hide in fear, and to go on with their own business."

In the bluestone courtyard of a wealthy family in Remyongzhuang, where the people had long been empty, a map was placed on the generous table, and Naowen, Tomoyasu Nobuya, Tomioka Mizo, Yusaku Uehara, and Rintaro were watching.

"There is no problem in defeating this Gan army, including Tongzhou, only the 10th Brigade can complete it, look at the breech guns in their hands, are they still stupidly alive hundreds of years ago? - The only elite Beiyang in the Qing Dynasty, except for the Lushun part, the rest were lost under the iron fist of the empire, and these provincial armies were simply not enough for a regular charge of the imperial army! ”

Lijian Shangwen frowned and said: "The question is if the Jizhou defense line is broken, how will the emperor of the Great Qing Dynasty react, will he immediately flee from Beijing?" This is the most fundamental problem that Youpeng in Shan County has to face! ”