"Whoosh......"

As a shrill whistle got closer and closer, the Qing troops at Dagukou had been blown apart, and when the shells weighing hundreds of kilograms flew straight towards the target, they made a sharp, whistle-like whistling sound in the air. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The sound was like a train whistle sounding in the air, which sounded shocking, and for the Qing army at Dagukou, the whistle was like a soul-inducing spell, so that every Qing soldier who heard the sound tried to avoid the sound as if their souls were scattered.

Suddenly, the sound of the air whistle stopped abruptly, and the violent explosion instantly became the only sound on the battlefield, and a violent explosion, a column of smoke up to 100 meters high and tonnage of dust rose at least half of the air at the same time, the Qing soldiers who did not flee near the fort were even torn to pieces of their military clothes, they fell down at the same time, their bodies did not seem to have any injuries, but their organs had been shattered by the shock wave, until they died, the face was still with heartfelt horror.

In the past hour or so, the 10-inch shells fired by the 10-inch fleet of the two ironclad cruisers, the Fenghai and the Pinghai, were undoubtedly the most terrifying existence on this battlefield -- the enemy within a radius of several tens of feet of its explosion, even if they were not hit by fragments, would be shocked alive and stunned, so that the enemy on the Dagu Fort was even blasted to the point of collapse -- and many gunners even fled directly from the battery. Even the Qing officers guarding the fort could not avoid the roaring rout of this battalion.

After all, compared to military law, the artillery bombardment of the fleet on the sea surface is devastating and difficult for them, and the artillery fire can not only destroy all resistance, but even blow up thousands of pounds of foreign iron artillery.

At the mouth of Dagu, when more than a dozen warships of the Han fleet were throwing shells at the Dagu Fort, between more than a dozen merchant ships, it would have been covered with white landing sampans, and those sampans were full of landing fighters, who rowed hard to row the boat slurry and rowed towards the shore, and at this time, the defenders of the fort who were struggling in the artillery fire did not care about them at all, and the whole landing process went smoothly beyond people's imagination -- during the landing of thousands of marines, they did not encounter any resistance.

As the Marines approached the battery, when the Navy stopped shelling, the Marines who rushed into the battery were stunned by what they saw - inside the completely destroyed battery, there were all stumps and severed arms as far as the eye could see, except for those who were struggling and crying in pools of blood, it seemed that there were only corpses left here, corpses everywhere.

Holding a rifle, Qian Fakui, who entered the fort, although he had long been accustomed to the war, was still stunned when he looked at the stumps and broken arms all over the ground, he didn't expect that the killing and wounding of the artillery would be so fierce that they didn't even have time to fight, and everything was over.

When they entered the fort, some Qing soldiers with gunpowder faces came out of the corner, their faces were all terrified, and when they saw these marines, instead of showing hostility, they showed relief.

"We surrender, we surrender, thousand, don't shoot again......"

Even when they mentioned the "cannon", those people trembled and looked at the sky in horror, for fear that the shells would fall on the battery again.

"Sergeant Qian, it's all over......"

When the battalion commander stuffed the pistol into the holster on his waist, he looked at the Qing troops who were surrendering, his expression was a little complicated, this artillery battle was different from the shelling of Beihai in the past, this time the naval shelling was more intensive.

This was undoubtedly devastating for the enemy troops defending on the fort - as far as the eye could see, there was nothing intact in sight on the entire battery, the entire battery was completely destroyed, even the parapet wall that was several feet thick was destroyed by the 10-inch naval guns, and inside the battery, huge craters, a door was blown off, and even the shore guns were blown into pieces, reminding him of the kind of disaster that the long shelling had brought to the battery, and even steel could not survive such a bombardment, let alone human flesh.

At his feet, a severed limb reminded him of what had befallen the defenders here, the most intense and devastating artillery bombardment ever seen by mankind - an hour-long naval bombardment that destroyed everything on the battery, both the battery and the people on it.

"yes, it's over!"

As he spoke, Qian Fakui looked at a broken tree between the forts, and there was a section of intestines hanging from the tops of the tree that had been blown up, and the bloody intestines were hanging there. You can even see blood dripping from above.

"We didn't even shoot ......"

Qian Fakui's tone was extremely flat, no one knew why he let out such an exclamation, after saying this, he walked towards the bombed fort, he walked to the front of a flagpole, on the flagpole, a red, yellow, blue, white, black five-color flag was fluttering in the wind, this is the national flag of the Chinese Empire.

A few hours ago, this flag, a symbol of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, had not been planted on this land, but now it has been recovered by the Han army, and soon, the whole north will be recovered by the Han army, and the Manchu Qing will become history, part of the country's darkest memories.

It's over......

Qian Fakui thought so in his heart, and he looked in the direction of Haikou, where more than a dozen merchant ships, escorted by small-tonnage warships, were sailing into the Haihe River.

In order to prevent accidents, most of the soldiers sat on the side of the ship, holding rifles in their arms, ready to fight at any time, while Liu Tao, as the commander of the regiment, was standing at the bow of the boat, carefully observing the banks on both sides with binoculars.

Puffs of smoke rushed into the sky, and from the wind came the occasional roar of naval guns - several small gunboats of the Navy escorted the fleet. Just ahead, on a naval gunboat, sailors operating machine guns can be seen.

Although the 43rd Regiment under Liu Tao's command was not equipped with machine guns, he had witnessed machine gun fire -- just a few hours earlier, he had spotted a group of Qing cavalry on the shore, and before the infantry on the ship could fire, the six-barreled machine guns on several gunboats opened fire first, and the dense rain of bullets instantly enveloped those cavalry. It didn't even take less than a minute for the battle to end, and at the end of the battle, the Qing cavalry were all turned into corpses without exception.

"How nice would it be if every infantry regiment was armed with such machine guns?"

While Liu Tao was muttering in his heart, the ship dropped anchor in the Haihe River, where more than 20 transport ships were moored, and here was very close to Tianjin, and the remnants of the fort could be seen through the telescope, which had been destroyed by the navy's gunboats.

The night was spent on the boats, and while the soldiers slept, above their heads, the sound of leather shoes as the sentries walked back and forth sounded all night, and looking out of the round window, they could see the calm plain outside the window, and not far from here, Tianjin was waiting for them.

By the early morning of the next day, more than fifty steamboats, including five or six hundred tons and fifty or sixty tons, had appeared in these waters, and these steamboats were crowded with soldiers of various infantry regiments.

As the steamboat moved on, it began to encounter attacks, but the enemy hiding in that corner on the shore only occasionally attacked with rifles, and the bullets occasionally hit the side of the ship, posing no threat to the soldiers on board. This attack was really just a spontaneous attack by stragglers, and it had no effect on the troops.

Almost an hour later, the troops began to land, but there was no expected battle, and the troops even found a horse, which Liu Tao, as the regiment commander, naturally rode on.

Riding on the horse, Liu Tao could see that in addition to marching along the official road, there were two companies advancing in parallel in the field more than 170 meters away from the two wings.

And at the front of the army is also an infantry company that acts as a sharp soldier, this kind of march is based on the experience summed up in the past exercises, along the march from the Napoleonic era, do not pay attention to the flanks and front guard, and in the exercises of the Han army, again and again with rear-loading rifled guns and mortars, the troops on the march are torn to pieces, and even without waiting for the other side to form a line, the battle has ended, and it is precisely because of this that the Han army will change its marching tactics and adopt the current marching tactics that can be described as extremely cautious.

Although it was known that the Qing army did not have mortars and breech-loading rifled guns, the tactics of the Han army, which used these weapons, were undergoing a fundamental change.

"It should be almost in Tianjin!"

When Liu Tao, who was riding on a horse, thought like this, the corners of his lips raised, and when he looked left and right, he couldn't help but think of another deviation in his mind - where are all the Qing soldiers dead? This unit is about to fight -- it should be said that they have gone to Tianjin, but they have not seen a single person.

Not to mention Liu Tao, even for the officials of the consulates of various countries in Tianjin, they were also stunned to see the sudden and sudden changes in front of them -- from yesterday to now, this concession, which was rarely entered, is now crowded with ordinary people who have come to take refuge, including the local rich gentry in Tianjin, and of course there will inevitably be many officials, and even some officials who know that they are military attaches at a glance.

Just like the rebellion of the Little Knife Society in Shanghai five years ago, the Tianjin Concession, which has been restricted to Westerners for three years since its opening, has become the best place for the people of Tianjin to escape the war.

At this time, the whole city of Tianjin was quiet, and the open city gate announced to people that it was a defenseless city, and the streets were full of discarded debris, and the doors of the shops on the side of the road were closed.

Empty Tianjin!

Tianjin, before the arrival of the Han army, seemed to have become an empty city!

It stands to reason that the Qing army that should be guarding here has disappeared, as if it never existed, as for the towering city wall, although boxes of shells and gunpowder were placed next to the foreign cannons cast by the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau, but the soldiers who operated the cannons were gone, and the soldiers became deserters, and as for those officials, this will also be gone.

Not only in Tianjin, but even in the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau outside the city, there will be no one in sight, and the soldiers who should be guarding the manufacturing bureau outside the door are gone, and as for those workers, most of them are hiding at home, and no one has gone out - the reason why this is so is because everyone knows that the Han army is attacking Tianjin, although it is still far from here, but the Qing army guarding here knows through various channels the tragic situation that happened in the Dagu Fort - thousands of fort soldiers, and they did not even have time to rush to fight the artillery. It was blown to pieces, and the fort was razed to the ground.

All kinds of rumors spread from the mouth of the deserters to Tianjin, and then were spread by adding fuel and vinegar, and finally the soldiers who guarded the city of Tianjin fled from the barracks at night under the influence of rumors.

For those soldiers, they knew that when the Qing Kingdom did not point out, who would pursue these deserters, and of course, no one would pay them military salaries. Escaping seems to be the only option.

Overnight, more than 20,000 Qing troops guarding Tianjin, except for a very small number of troops, most of them became deserters, and lost the entire city of Tianjin and the manufacturing bureau outside the city to the Han army, because they did not receive information, the Han army did not take a boat to the Tianjin dock of the Haihe River, but landed when there was still some distance from the dock, ready to storm Tianjin, but soon, they received information from the city - the Qing army was defeated!

"Hearing the enemy and fleeing is brave, seeing the enemy and fleeing is the brave, engaging the battle and routing is the brave......"

came to the empty Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau, looking at the empty factory, Liu Tao muttered in his mouth, once upon a time, this was an evaluation of the Qing army, and now it seems that this evaluation seems to be a bit high.

There is no "bravery" in their hearts at all! ”

Saying this, Liu Tao walked into a factory, this factory is Western-style, the factory is also Western-style, in the factory you can see the sky axis suspended in the air, as well as the neatly arranged machines, those machines are the world's first-class gun-making machines purchased from the United States, in the past year, tens of thousands of foreign guns, foreign cannons are made from here.

But what is the use of this army, which is armed with foreign guns and artillery?

Standing in the factory, looking at the rifles imitating the British Enfield P53 next to a machine, Liu Tao couldn't help but think of the Qing troops who raised their hands and surrendered, many of them surrendered without even firing a shot.

"I don't know, what does that Manchu emperor look like now?"