Tianjin Wei, early in the morning, a round of fiery red sunrise rising in the east, the golden sunlight reflected on the dew drops of trees, grass branches and leaves, making the dewdrops shine with a crystal luster, like a crystal clear pearl shining with shining light. With the breeze blowing, the glittering light on the branches and leaves of the trees flickered in all directions, and the whole world seemed to be decorated with the brilliance of pearls, making this peaceful morning full of vitality and vitality.

It's just that the atmosphere in the backyard of Qinchuan Dyeing Factory on Weidong Street in Tianjin is a little out of place with this peaceful and vibrant morning at the moment, and it is full of murderous atmosphere.

Qin Chuan was dressed in military uniform, and his body stood upright on the stone steps in front of the barracks building like a javelin, and on the playground paved with bluestone slabs below, more than 7,000 officers and soldiers of the Sichuan battalion who were heavily armed with loaded guns and ammunition solemnly arranged neatly in battalion and company units. The steel guns in their hands, the copper cockades on their uniforms, and the buttons all shone with a shiny and cold luster, making the huge barracks playground shrouded in a solemn and murderous atmosphere.

Qin Chuan, it's been three days since I returned to Tianjin.

On the night of the fall of Pyongyang's Peony Terrace, Ye Zhichao, who felt a heavy responsibility, once again convened all his generals to discuss the retreat, because Zuo Guigui died in battle, and the Qing army's ammunition was insufficient, and Ye Zhichao made it clear that as the main general, he alone would bear the responsibility for the loss of Pyongyang. Therefore, no one raised any objections to Ye Zhichao's choice to retreat. All the generals drooped their heads, some looked depressed, and more were relieved.

For abandoning Pyongyang, Qin Chuan knows how serious this consequence is, Pyongyang lost, and provided a powerful cannonball to the Qingliu in the DPRK, which not only destroyed Guangxu's last trust and support for Beiyang, and even Li Hongzhang, but also ignited Guangxu's anger in Beiyang. In anger, Guangxu criticized the previous mistakes that he had left in the middle and impeached the Beiyang generals that they did not believe in.

What Qin Chuan remembered the most was that the "culprit" Ye Zhichao was imprisoned, and he was finally sentenced to be beheaded. And Wei Rugui is a decisive decision.

If Qin Chuan hadn't personally experienced the first battle of Pyongyang, it would have been fine, but after this battle, he knew that Ye Zhichao and Wei Rugui had been treated extremely unfairly. Although Ye Zhichao is not said to be exhausted, at least he is also painstakingly managed, at least he has preserved his strength for the Qing Dynasty. It is difficult to say how Wei Rugui's military discipline of the Sheng army will be removed, but Wei Rugui is by no means a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death, fears the enemy and avoids war, and the first battle of Pyongyang is even more remarkable.

Looking at Ye Zhichao's tall body, which was obviously a little rickety, and the gray braids on Wei Rugui's head, Qin Chuan made up his mind that he wanted to do everything possible to help Ye Zhichao and Wei Rugui reduce their guilt, and at least leave the lives of these two people.

Ye Zhichao's retreat deployment made Qin Chuan very unkind, and even a little disdainful.

Since two o'clock in the afternoon, it has been raining heavily, which has caused both the Chinese and Japanese armies in Pyongyang to choose a truce.

In order to paralyze the Japanese army, Ye Zhichao proposed to first pretend to negotiate with the Japanese army to surrender, and then in the middle of the night, under the cover of the rainy night, all units quietly withdrew from Pyongyang one after another. Qin Chuan knew that Ye Zhichao's "bad idea" did not deceive the Japanese army, but let the Japanese army judge the Qing army's attempt to retreat at night, so the Japanese Yuanshan detachment and Shuoning detachment set up an ambush overnight, causing the Qing army to suffer a big loss.

Qin Chuan, who did not belong to Beiyang's combat sequence in Pyongyang, originally had no say in this military meeting, but at this time he had to stand up and resolutely oppose Ye Zhichao's retreat deployment.

Qin Chuan suggested that a small force should first be used to take advantage of the favorable conditions of poor vision in the heavy rain at night to feint and harass the Yuanshan detachment and Shuoning detachment of the Japanese army in Mudantai and Jiziling, so that they would not dare to leave their positions. At the same time, he led a battalion of Loped to carry captured Japanese artillery, and under the cover of a cavalry of the Prosperous Army, sneaked out of Pyongyang to the vicinity of the main force of the Japanese Fifth Division, shelled it in the rainy night, and at the same time made a feint as appropriate. There was only one purpose, which was to disrupt the judgment of the Japanese army and cover the quiet withdrawal of the main forces in Pyongyang from outside the city and return to the north.

Ye Zhichao, who was a little overwhelmed under the pressure, quickly understood Qin Chuan's intentions, knew that Qin Chuan's methods were better than his own, and immediately agreed to arrange according to Qin Chuan's plan. The cavalry of the Sheng army that cooperated with Qin Chuan was led by Sun Xianyin.

Qin Chuan's meaning was originally to ask Wei Rugui to personally lead the cavalry of this covering artillery team, but Wei Rugui didn't have any opinion. Because, Wei Rugui now admires Qin Chuan very much from the bottom of his heart, and he does not resist Qin Chuan's requirements. However, this incident made Ye Zhichao resolutely stop it, and finally changed it to Sun Xianyin.

Qin Chuan insisted at the beginning, but he quickly understood Ye Zhichao's thoughts. Wei Rugui is a general of the Qing army, although it is a rainy night, it is also very dangerous to sneak out and shell thousands of Japanese troops, in case of a mistake, then Ye Zhichao will add another crime.

According to Qin Chuan's plan, the Qing army moved vigorously inside and outside the city before dark, and at the same time, the Qing army began to shell the Yuanshan detachment and the Shuoning detachment, preparing to recapture the position.

At night, the Qing army had a full meal in advance, and several troops and horses were prepared lightly, except for weapons, ammunition and a small amount of food, everything else was discarded. Although the Japanese troops were ready to fight, in the heavy rain, they only heard gunfire everywhere, so they had to fight back indiscriminately against the darkness, and for a time the guns rang out in the north, southwest, and south of Pyongyang, and the guns and cannons rang out until the end of the day.

Qin Chuan blew up the cannon only after the end of the day, and took Sun Xianyin and Lopet and his party to brave the heavy rain on the muddy road to Huajinli in the west. There he went directly to his surprise number, and the sentry cavalry who arranged for Loped and Sun Xianyin to board a dozen or so fishing boats prepared in advance.

Qin Chuan told Sun Xianyin and Lopet that their fishing boats must stick to the coast to the north and land at the mouth of the Yalu River.

Qin Chuan did this because he knew that in a few hours, a sea battle between China and Japan would break out on the sea not far from Dadonggou, and only by walking close to the coast would it not be affected.

Qin Chuan himself also tried his best to suppress the urge to participate in that naval battle, and in Gao Ying's stunned gaze, he ordered to abandon the strange torpedo and go straight to Tianjin.

As soon as he returned to Tianjin, Qin Chuan immediately asked Gao Ying to send the "Record of the Sino-Japanese Battle of Pyongyang," which he had hastily written on the ship, to the "Oriental Times," and demanded that a special issue be issued tomorrow, not only to increase the number of prints, but also to distribute it free of charge.

Qin Chuan wrote a lot about Ye Zhichao and Wei Rugui in "Record of the Sino-Japanese Battle of Pyongyang", just to create public opinion for these two people first.

Qin Chuan just returned to the dyeing factory to change his clothes, and hurried to Zhou Fu's house. Because he heard Li Mingfang say that Ye Zhichao led the Qing army to Uiju and the news that Pyongyang was on sale had been transmitted back by telegram, and in order to prepare for the big war, Li Hongzhang had appointed Zhou Fu as the general office of the former enemy's camp office and the premier of the rear road grain station, and he was about to leave the customs and go to the northeast.

Seeing Qin Chuan, Zhou Fu was very happy, and simply listened to Qin Chuan's account, and took Qin Chuan to see Li Hongzhang.

Although Li Hongzhang has never met Qin Chuan alone, Qin Chuan can often see Li Hongzhang in public, and when he saw Li Hongzhang this time, he obviously felt that Li Hongzhang had aged a lot.

After inquiring in detail about the situation in Pyongyang, Li Hongzhang was much better and even a little excited, and immediately ordered his staff to send a telegram to Guangxu according to Qin Chuan's account.

Qin Chuan understood that this was Li Hongzhang's anxiety and exhaustion from the attack of the Qinglius, and he suddenly found an opportunity to counterattack under the heavy pressure, and the telegram to Guangxu was to tell Guangxu that what those Qingliu were talking about were chasing after the wind and shadows, and he Li Hongzhang and his Beiyang army were not as unbearable as those Qingliu who talked about misleading the country.

In particular, this is from the mouth of Qin Chuan, a hero who sank the Japanese ship Qiujin Prefecture and made trouble in Seoul, which made Li Hongzhang feel even more excited.

After sending the telegram, Li Hongzhang personally invited Qin Chuan, and in addition to Zhou Fu, Li Hongzhang's son-in-law was also his staff Zhang Peilun and Li Jingfang. During the banquet, Li Hongzhang asked Qin Chuan to give a detailed account of the Korean war, the advantages and disadvantages of the Chinese and Japanese armies, and Qin Chuan's views on the war. It's just that not long after the banquet began, Guangxu's telegram came.

In the telegram, Guangxu asked Qin Chuan, Li Hongzhang, and Zhou Fu to enter Beijing as soon as possible, and he wanted to inquire in person.

Although the military situation in North Korea was urgent, Guangxu recruited each other, and Li Hongzhang and Zhou Fu did not dare to slack off, and the three of them immediately set off for Beijing. The most pitiful is Qin Chuan, from the time he came ashore until this time, his ass was not hot, and he rushed to Beijing again. And just when they were still on the road, they were being tossed by the galloping carriage and their bones were about to fall apart, and they received the bad news that the Beiyang Naval Division had lost the Battle of the Yellow Sea.

After seeing Guangxu, Qin Chuan didn't wait for Li Hongzhang and Zhou Fu, who were rushing back overnight, as if he was burning his buttocks, and after asking the two of them, Qin Chuan just took Gao Ying and a few other guards, and ran back to Tianjin overnight.

Qin Chuan is very uninterested in Guangxu, and Guangxu, who is pale and thin, is just a rich kid with no opinions and great ambition and talent in Qin Chuan's opinion, and he is not suitable to be the emperor who is in charge of hundreds of millions of people in the world. After the defeat of Korea, the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Beiyang Naval Division suffered heavy losses, obviously the blow to Guangxu was not light, after reprimanding Li Hongzhang, he praised Qin Chuan, and even added the rank of general soldier to Qin Chuan on the spot, and specially allowed Qin Chuan to immediately recruit ten more battalions and immediately rush to the Yalu River.

It's just that Guangxu obviously didn't listen to Qin Chuan's suggestion to Li Hongzhang that the imperial court should actively prepare for war along the coast and prevent the Japanese army from landing in Lushun and Shandong, and even Weng Tonggong and others were full of disdain in their eyes.

Qin Chuan didn't care about these anymore, he knew that he hadn't turned things around, at least until now. What he urgently needs to do now is to quickly rearm and fight.

After returning to Tianjin from Beijing, Qin Chuan was busy almost non-stop, in addition to summoning Li Mingfang and Jin Lisan to arrange the logistics of the Sichuan battalion to go out of the customs and fighting, and also summoning Zhou Dajing, Xu Tong, Chu Yunfei and other officers to study and arrange the expansion and reorganization of the army.

Fortunately, though, these people are quite capable, and it wasn't until last night that all of this was roughly sorted out.

Although Qin Chuan had already "foreseen" the recruitment of two or three thousand auxiliaries, but when added together, it was only a little more than six thousand, and there was no way, Qin Chuan urgently recruited more than 1,000 victims and peasants in the suburbs of Tianjin, and finally made up more than 7,000 people. It's just that the newly recruited more than 1,000 people can't go to the battlefield, these people have not undergone any training, and they haven't even touched a gun. For the time being, they can only train personnel who serve as baggage troops.

Although the distant water could not quench the thirst of the near, Qin Chuan still arranged for people to recruit troops, of course, the soldiers recruited again would not be able to catch up with him. These people recruited in the future, Qin Chuan asked to be brought to the manor in Jinzhou to train quickly.

Because Guangxu allowed him to increase the number of ten battalions, Qin Chuan no longer had any scruples.

Qin Chuan officially incorporated all the former auxiliaries into the combat unit. All units are battalion units, but there are fewer personnel, but this will need to be slowly replenished in the future. Of course, the auxiliaries mainly supplemented the combat forces, that is, four infantry battalions and reconnaissance, cavalry, artillery. After the reorganization, the four infantry battalions of Chu Yunfei, Wang Xiping, He Ruhuai, and Fang Weijun were all expanded to the eight-company system, which was basically four reinforced battalions. The artillery brigade was expanded into two artillery battalions, which were all under the command of Qiu Qinghe, the former commander of the artillery brigade.

Because he had received instructions from Li Hongzhang and Zhou Fu last night, the Sichuan battalion was going to set off this morning, and after Qin Chuan sorted out his belongings, he had been standing silently on the stone steps, watching the officers under him reorganize the ranks.

"Report."

Zhou Dajing trotted in front of Qin Chuan in an already standard military posture: "Commander, the whole army of the Sichuan Battalion has been completed, please instruct." ”

Qin Chuan looked at the solemn and awe-inspiring thousands of subordinates in front of him, he was already excited, he had worked hard to manage this army for several years, and today he was going to the battlefield, and he was going to throw his blood for the glory and rise of the nation, which made Qin Chuan's mood difficult to calm down for a long time, and he forgot all the agitation sentences that he had thought of in his heart and swore to send troops.

But the troops are about to be dispatched, and if you don't say anything, you will always be a little worse in momentum.

Qin Chuan took a deep breath: "Brothers, what do you say, what do soldiers do? ”

"Fighting." Thousands of people who had been aroused by the pre-war atmosphere shouted in unison.

"Wrong."

Qin Chuan shouted loudly: "Soldiers do not fight for the sake of fighting, soldiers fight for the sake of defending the country, for the rise and fall of the nation, and for the glory of the nation." Now, Japan, a small island country in the East Ocean, has not only brazenly sent troops to Korea to seize our borders, but also secretly attacked our Beiyang Navy Division the day before yesterday. Then we will take possession of our land and kill our people, you say, can we agree? ”

"Can't! No! No! ”

More than 7,000 young soldiers blushed with anger and shouted in unison.

"Yes, no."

Qin Chuan shouted: "We are fighting a national war with the Japanese, a war for national prosperity. The so-called national war, that is, once the war starts, there is no distinction between the old and the young, the land is not divided into the north and the south, and everyone has the responsibility to defend the territory and resist, not to mention our soldiers. ”

On a whim, Qin Chuan actually brought out the chairman's speech on the Anti-Japanese War decades later.

"Now, it is the time when the country and the nation need our soldiers, the day when we need to fight for the nation-state, and we need to defend the dignity of the nation with bullets and our blood."

"Brothers, if you are a man, follow me Qinchuan to Liaodong, and go to the white mountains and black waters to kill the little devils."

"Kill the little devil!"

"Kill the little devil!"

"Kill the little devil!"

Thousands of officers and men of the Sichuan Battalion roared in unison, and the shouts were not only spread throughout Dongjie, but also into the concession, and even faintly heard in the city of Tianjin.

"Good! Set off, the goal is Liaodong. ”

With Qin Chuan's order, a fiery red Sichuan-shaped battalion military flag was unfurled, fluttering in the wind, and the swords and guns on the battle flag flew in the wind, as if they were about to break away from the battle flag and fly up.