Five days later, the casualties of the eighteen bandits in the bloody battle of the Vortex River were finally counted. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Fang Xianwu counted through the Qing soldiers and the people of Xiaojian Town by carrying corpses, and roughly counted that the number of bandits killed in Xiaojian Beach reached 11,000. The vast majority of the dead were killed by the sudden appearance of the 10 Maxim heavy machine guns, and in the 20 minutes of strafing, 120,000 rounds of ammunition killed more than 6,000 bandits on the spot, and nearly 1,000 to 2,000 were wounded or fell to the ground to die in the process of escaping. In the process of the Red Turban Army counterattack led by Chang Da, in the melee with the first standard of the infantry, there were only more than 900 people killed.

In the process of pursuing the bandits, more than 5,000 bandits were hunted down and captured, and then the Qing soldiers in northern Anhui joined them, and there were more bandits and unjustly killed. In the end, Fang Xianwu made a summary, judging from the route of the bandits' deaths and the distribution of corpses, its chaotic command system was the biggest reason for the defeat of tens of thousands of eighteen bandits, and the bandits were extremely brave. In hand-to-hand combat, the ratio between the officers and bandits killed in the stabbing was only 2:1, and if it wasn't for Gurry's timely machine-gun fire, I am afraid it would not have taken half an hour for the first standard to be killed.

Therefore, although Gurry's actions made the first standard grit their teeth with hatred, Wang Yongtai still praised him, believing that he was decisive, brave and resourceful, and was ready to entrust Gurry with important tasks.

The bloody battle of the Whirlpool River soon shocked the people of the imperial court and the Qing Dynasty, especially Wang Yongtai's order to throw all the corpses of the bandits into the Whirlpool River, which not only stained the Whirlpool River red and caused the downstream river to be blocked, but also frightened the people in the south and north of the Yangtze River, and many foreigners were too frightened to cross the river by boat after seeing the corpses floating on the Huai River.

In Yanji Village, Huaiyuan County, along the Huai River, several rural children are playing in the river.

One of the children suddenly said, "How about we compare and hold our breaths?" See who stays closed the longest? This suggestion was immediately supported by everyone, and the other boys, not to be outdone, wrapped their braids around their heads and shouted, "Start!" One by one, they hid their heads in the water, and some naughty ones splashed water on others, and soon some of them couldn't stand it and raised their heads and laughed.

The child who had been holding his breath for the longest time raised his head, and when he saw that there were still people holding their heads in the water, he couldn't help but say, "It's over, I lost." Several children looked at it and suddenly said in surprise: "There are seven of us, there are no less, who is this person?" Everyone looked at each other, and one boldly pushed the man who was still "holding his breath" in the water, and suddenly shouted: "He's cold." ”

The two children pushed the man, only to see the man's body turn over in an instant, revealing his swollen face from being soaked for a long time, and immediately all the boys screamed in fright, and ran to the shore one after another.

"How can there be dead people, who is dead?" Someone shouted, so they ran back to the village to call the adults to come and see, and soon the village was running to the river with forty or fifty adults, and at this time they saw a scene that made everyone feel terrible.

It's not a corpse, it's a corpse with no edge in sight, floating down the Huai River.

The old village was so frightened that he sat on the ground, and the people watching the excitement were screaming again and again, and even the small-footed old lady fainted, and was woken up leisurely by the children and grandchildren.

"Report ...... Report...... Report to the government, quickly, report to the government! The old village was instructing the young students in the village.

Wuyang County, Mengcheng County, Huaiyuan County, Fengyang County, Lingbi County, Wuhe County, Xuyi County, Huaiyin County, Huai'an County, Lianshui County......

The people along the Vortex River and Huai River valleys in northern Anhui and along the Huai River in Jiangsu Province witnessed this terrible situation with their own eyes, and some old people exclaimed, this dead are more than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who died in the battle with the Qing army when the Jianghuai rebellion occurred. Of course, at that time, the two armies were fighting, and the dead were thrown into the wilderness, where Wang Yongtai threw all the corpses into the river, and the people and the government along the river did not even dare to drink the river water.

Floating corpses are full of Huai River!

The county yazhou government reported layer by layer and reported the bloody battle of the vortex river to the imperial court. Some say that Wang Yongtai killed more than 20,000 bandits, some say that Wang Yongtai killed more than 100,000 bandits, and some say that Wang Yongtai killed more than one million people. However, this obviously brought an advantage, that is, the court did not dare to move Wang Yongtai anymore, and the name of Wang Yan was not only resounding all over the land in northern Anhui, but also famous in the Qing Dynasty.

The regent Zaifeng was stunned with the battle report, and didn't know how to reward Wang Yongtai, this Wang Yongtai not only killed all the bandits in northern Anhui, but also wiped out the remaining bandits in eastern and southern Henan, and the Central Plains of the Great Qing Dynasty could be stable for several years......

"The hero, he is definitely the hero of the Qing Dynasty, and such a fierce general must be used by me." Zaifeng paced back and forth at the military aircraft, and when the other military aircraft ministers arrived, he immediately said, "Everyone, how to reward Wang Yongtai?" ”

At this time, although the Prime Minister of the Cabinet was Yixuan, he was not in good health and no longer often participated in the Military Aircraft Division, and Zaifeng, as the Prime Minister of the Regent, had no role in the Military Aircraft Department. Another military minister is Shi Xu, he is the head of the Internal Affairs Office, and the Internal Affairs Office has an old relationship with the Cao Gang, Wang Yongtai destroyed the helm of the Yangzhou Cao Gang, and has become an enemy with the Shi Xu, so Shi Xu said: "The slave does things for the master, what reward do you need?" ”

"You can't say that, the public is the public, the private is the private, and the merit will be rewarded." Na Tong, Minister of Military Aircraft and Governor of Zhili, said that he was one of the three great talents of the late Qing Dynasty, although he was the most ugly in it, but he served for a long time in the Prime Minister's National Affairs Yamen, and once accompanied Li Hongzhang to negotiate with various countries, and at the same time signed the "Xinchou Treaty" with Li Hongzhang. Of course, the greatest contribution made by this person to future generations was to support the establishment of the Beijing Normal University Hall and nominate Tsinghua Garden, also known as Tsinghua University......

Shi Xu complained: "A small co-ordinate killed the Cao Gang boatmen appointed by the imperial court without permission, and also fabricated the charges of the revolutionary party, this person has wolf ambitions and cannot be reused." ”

"But it's not a fabrication, isn't there a letter between Long Peifu and Sun Thief." Lu Chuanlin hurriedly reminded. Of course, he didn't have any friendship with Wang Yongtai, let alone accept Wang Yongtai's money, but because Lu Chuanlin could see that Zaifeng admired Wang Yongtai very much, so he followed Zaifeng's words and gave Zaifeng the steps.

Zaifeng nodded and said: "No, no, reward three thousand taels of silver, give the top with a flower feather, and seal the Jiangbei Patrol Envoy, so be it." "The so-called patrol envoy is not actually a specific official position, but a kind of similar regional imperial history title, responsible for supervising the north of the Yangtze River, including Anqing Mansion, Bozhou Mansion, Yangzhou Mansion, Fengyang Mansion, Xuzhou Mansion, Haizhou Mansion, Huai'an Mansion, Sizhou Mansion, Tongzhou Mansion, Chuzhou Mansion and other areas north of the Yangtze River and south of the Yellow River officials corruption and bribery, public opinion and other inspection work, although it seems that the official is very large, but basically has no real power, even his own yamen, so it can only be concurrent. This job is similar to the eight circuit judges of the US government in later generations, although the official rank is large, but there is no specific job, after receiving the report, it is reported to the imperial court before the officials can be examined, but often the person who is investigated has already bought the court officials, and the patrol envoy has no right to supervise corrupt officials. (To be continued.) )