Pyongyang, the capital of Pyongan Province in northern North Korea, is an ancient city with a long history, according to legend, in 2333 B.C., Danjun "Wang Jian" established the Korean state, and its capital Asda is located in the current Pyongyang, so Pyongyang is also known as Wang Jian City. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

However, later historians believe that Danjun is just a mythical figure, and if Korea was really founded in 2333 BC, then its history is more than 5,000 years.

According to the mainstream historiography of later generations, the earliest establishment of the Korean Peninsula was the Marquis of Jizi around the 11th century BC.

The Marquis of Jizi, in Sima Qian's "Historical Records", it is recorded that after King Wu of Zhou's uncle Jizi moved to the north of Korea with his fiefdom subjects after King Wu of Zhou destroyed Shang, and established the Hou State, which was recognized by the Zhou Dynasty and known as Jizi Korea in history. It was not until the Han Dynasty that the Marquis of Jizi was destroyed by the Han Dynasty general Wei Man. Some of its remnants moved south, and Mahan was established south of the Han River.

At this time, there was also the 12th-century Tomb of Jizi at the foot of Peony Peak outside the north gate of Pyongyang, which was located under Emissidae. According to the "History of Goryeo", in the seventh year of the reign of Goryeo Sujong, "the Goryeo rite department played: the education of our country began with the Jizi, and did not contain rituals." begged for his tomb and set up a shrine to make sacrifices. ”

Since then, for hundreds of years, the tomb has been worshiped by successive dynasties.

However, it is very regrettable that the tomb was demolished in 1959. The purpose is naturally very simple, that is, the need for de-sinicization.

In 313 AD, Goguryeo, which had risen in northeastern China, took advantage of the weakening of the Western Jin Dynasty to move south to the Korean Peninsula and annexed the region of Lelang County, which had belonged to China since the Han Dynasty, that is, the area north of the Korean Peninsula to the Han River, and restored the ancient name of Pyongyang. Since then, Pyongyang has become an important northern city in the main periods of Goguryeo, Silla, Goryeo, and Joseon Dynasty.

Pyongyang is surrounded by mountains and waters, and the city walls are tall and strong. There are six city gates: Suzaku Gate in the south, Jinghai Gate in the southwest, Qixing Gate in the northwest, Xuanwu Gate in the north, Changqing Gate in the east, and Datong Gate in the southeast. Xuanwu Gate is built across the peony peak, the peony platform of hundreds of meters high only leans on the city wall, and can overlook the whole city on the peony platform, so it has become a place where soldiers must fight. The eastern part of Pyongyang is close to the Taedong River, which is a natural barrier to the east of Pyongyang, and has always been a dangerous place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

On the morning of September 2, the 20th year of Guangxu, that is, in the morning of September 2, the autumn air was crisp and scorching, and on the road from Seoul to Pyongyang in the south of Pyongyang, under the guidance of a red silk banner embroidered with golden swords and guns and a big five-pointed gold star in the wind, a team of horses came in the wind and dust.

It is not an exaggeration to say that there were more than 100 horses in this team, and there were about 60 riders at once, all of them sweating and dusty, and many of them were still wrapped in white bandages on their arms, legs, and heads, and all of them looked tired, wiping the sweat from their heads from time to time.

In addition to the 40 or so soldiers wearing blue-gray uniforms, brown cowhide armed belts with bullet boxes stuck around their waists, shell guns with the same brown wooden boxes straddled, and a sheathed knife shaped like a sword and long knives on their backs, and leggings on their calves, there were also more than 20 short soldiers wearing navy blue military uniforms and barrel hats with yellow cap walls. Almost all of the short soldiers in navy blue uniforms were bandaged, and except for those with wounded arms, the rest of their arms were tied behind their backs, and they sat on their horses dejectedly.

On the backs of the unmanned horses, there were more than forty brown cowhide backpacks and more than two dozen ammunition boxes, and several horses carried on their backs more than a dozen sacks of rice and flour and a dozen sheathed Japanese sabers tied in bundles on the back of horses.

The riders on the horses were tired, and the horses under their crotches were even more unbearable, and the figures of the horses, which were half a head shorter than ordinary horses, were not well received, and they all shrugged their heads, their hooves dragged, and their steps were vain, as if they could ambush the road at any moment.

The soldier in the horse team wearing a blue-gray military uniform was the reconnaissance platoon led by Qin Chuan. The short wounded soldiers in navy blue uniforms were all Japanese prisoners captured by the reconnaissance platoon.

It turned out that after Qin Chuan sent off Ding Xiang and other cadres who had negotiated with the International Trade Office with Aldington and Yuan Shikai, under the guidance of Jin Jiu, who was familiar with the situation in the Seoul area of the Japanese army, he first raided the cavalry squad of the 9th Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army stationed in Jianghua Bay at night, and then set up an ambush on the spot to ambush the squadron headquarters of the Japanese cavalry squadron and another cavalry squad stationed 10 miles away from the Japanese army who were stationed 10 miles away to check the situation.

Due to the dark night assault, the Japanese army was defenseless, and the reconnaissance company that poured a lot of effort into Qin Chuan was Qin Chuan's one in a hundred good hands trained according to the simplified version of the special forces, and under the sudden attack of grenades and dozens of shell guns at close range, the Japanese army's two cavalry squads of 30 men and a 10-man squadron headquarters were completely wiped out in more than 20 minutes.

Then, Qin Chuan crossed the Han River with the captured Japanese horses at night, and early the next morning, he rode Japanese horses to attack the Japanese troops at Incheon Port, who were still in ignorance.

Because the commander of the 9th Brigade of the Japanese Army, Oshima Yoshimasa, led the main force south to Asan and Cheng Huan to attack the more than 3,000 Qing troops led by Ye Zhichao, Nie Shicheng, and Jiang Zikang there, and there was only one Japanese brigade left in the huge Seoul area, and this brigade not only had to send troops to search and reconnoiter the area north of the Han River, but also was responsible for controlling Seoul. Although a large number of food and ammunition supplies from the mainland were piled up in Incheon Port, and a large number of troops needed to be stationed to guard it, in view of the fact that there were several Japanese warships moored in Incheon Port, the poor Japanese captain with limited strength only stationed one squadron of infantry in Incheon Port.

Although the Japanese troops in this squadron saw a fire on the other side of the river last night, they did not know what was happening on the other side of the river, and they thought that it was caused by the exchange of fire between the troops of Jiangbei and the scattered guards of the Joseon royal palace. Because there are no Chinese troops near Seoul, thousands of Qing troops in North Korea are now blocked south of Seoul by the 9th Mixed Brigade.

The Japanese army had long understood the combat effectiveness of the Korean king's guards.

When the Japanese attacked the palace on the 23rd, they scattered the palace guards of nearly 2,000 people with only one death, and captured not only more than 1,000 rifles, but also 18 cannons. Therefore, the Japanese troops at Inchon did not pay too much attention to the situation on the other side, and only waited for breakfast before contacting the naval ships in the port to check on them.

However, what they never expected was that the Japanese squadron of more than 100 people, who had just finished the morning exercise in the morning and most of them were empty-handed, was beaten and fled by more than 40 Chinese who did not know how to escape the sentry and broke in, riding their Japanese war horses, wearing colors that were very different from the Qing army, and wielding short guns and long knives in their hands, killing and wounding fifty or sixty people. And that's not even counting the fact that the Chinese used explosive packs to blow up a large number of ammunition and other military supplies piled up by the Japanese army in the port.

Qin Chuan was in Seoul, and Oshima Yoshimasa, the commander of the Ninth Brigade, who had already gone south, had no choice but to stop and urgently withdraw a brigade to return to Seoul, not to mention, the time for the main force to arrive at Chenghuan was also delayed for two days, and because the distance between the front and the main force was too far, after the encounter between the front and the troops of Nie Shi Chengwu Yijun, who had withdrawn from Asan to Chenghuan on the 29th, there were no reinforcements to send, and more than ten people were killed and wounded.

It wasn't until he figured out from Minister Otori that the Qing army wearing a blue-gray military uniform with a red flag was actually just a militia team affiliated to Beiyang in the Qing Dynasty, and the number was only more than 30 people, that Oshima Yoshimasa moved his army south again.

On August 1, the Japanese army captured Chenghuan, and after Ye Zhichao, Nie Shicheng, and Jiang Zikang retreated, Oshima Yoshimasa also did not dare to pursue the army because of the weak forces of Seoul, but hurriedly led his troops back to Seoul.

In order to show the martial arts of the Japanese army, the Japanese minister Otori built a triumphal arch in the southern suburbs of Seoul and forced a large number of Koreans to drum and play music in the suburbs for 30 miles. The 9th Mixed Brigade even held a white flag high in front of the team, which read, "The spoils of the Battle of Chenghuan; Evidence of the defeat of the Qing army. ”

Behind the white flag, there were vehicles loaded with captured Qing guns, as well as eight artillery pieces of the Qing army pulled by horses, and even a triangular yellow dragon flag was also planted on the cannon.

Just when the Japanese army was arrogant and showed off to the Koreans on both sides of the road, dozens of small iron lumps with black tails and green smoke suddenly flew out of the woods on the side of the road, and when they landed in the ranks of the Japanese army, they rumbled and exploded, and the flesh and blood of the Japanese soldiers were blown up in an instant, and even the mount of the brigade commander Yoshimasa Oshima was killed. When the Japanese army chased into the woods, they only saw a dozen war horses in the distance. A cavalry squad sent to pursue it was also ambushed halfway, and most of the dead and wounded fled back.

After that, Qin Chuan commanded a small unit of this platoon, under the guidance of Jin Jiu, in the vicinity of Seoul, gathering and scattering, constantly attacking and killing Japanese troops, making Oshima Yoshimasa tired every day, chasing and suppressing everywhere.

As soon as Qin Chuan made such a fuss, Jin Jiu also took the opportunity to gather hundreds of people from the Korean palace guards who had dispersed to the surrounding area, and made the trouble even more out of control around Seoul. It was not until the main force of the Japanese Fifth Division entered Seoul that Qin Chuan waved his troops northward, scattering nearly 1,000 troops gathered by Jin Jiu along the way near the road between Seoul and Pyongyang, in order to harass the Japanese troops advancing towards Pyongyang along the way. He himself led a reconnaissance platoon all the way to Pyongyang.

Because he met the Qing army scouts stationed in Pyongyang yesterday, and Qin Chuan carried his general document of the Yan Tuan Tuan signed by Zhou Fu, he did not encounter obstacles along the way.

The tall city walls of Pyongyang had already been seen from afar, and Qin Chuan, who was in front of the team, stretched out his hand to wipe the sweat on his forehead, turned around and shouted loudly: "Brothers, cheer up, we are about to go to Pyongyang, and let the troops from all walks of life in Beiyang who arrived first take a look at the demeanor of our salt group." ”

Qin Chuan shouted, and more than 40 soldiers of the Yan Regiment stood up one after another, and pulled their shirts and hats, and their expressions changed greatly after only a while.

"Commander, look. There seems to be someone by the river in front. ”

Xu Tong, who was following closely behind Qin Chuan, sat on the back of the horse, stretched his neck, and pointed to Qin Chuan with his finger in front of him.

Since the crossing, Qin Chuan's eyesight has become sharper than before, he has already seen a large group of people standing by the river, but it is a little far away, and he can't see the faces of those people clearly.

Xu Tong whispered behind Qin Chuan with a little excitement: "Commander, did you say that these people are here to greet us?" ”

Qin Chuan didn't answer Xu Tong's question immediately, but gently knocked the horse's belly with the spurs of the riding boots on his feet, so that the skinny and mentally exhausted pony who sat down barely sped up his pace before he laughed loudly without looking back.

"Commander Xu Dalian of the Tianjin Weiyan Regiment led a platoon of people under his command, and the lone army went deep behind the enemy, killing and wounding hundreds of Japanese soldiers, and the disturbing Japanese troops stationed in Seoul were in panic all day, not to mention these things, even those British, French, and German embassies stationed in Seoul had already sent the news back to Tianjin, so that the mighty force triumphed in Pyongyang, how could the officials here be unwelcomed? If we return to Tianjin, don't talk about the Yamen of the Governor of Zhili, maybe the emperor will issue a decree to reward you. ”

Qin Chuan deliberately raised his voice so that all the fighters could hear it.

Sure enough, although Qin Chuan's words were a little disrespectful to Emperor Guangxu, the content made these young soldiers excited, and they were even more energetic.

Although Qin Chuan encouraged these young people behind him, his eyes did not leave the group of people in front of him for a moment.

Qin Chuan didn't want to know who was coming to greet him, but he was worried about whether there was Gao Jishan in this group.

Because for more than a month, he has not received any news about the safety of Gao Jishan and the more than 1,000 officers and men of the Renzi Battalion who came to North Korea with him. (To be continued.) )