Thinking of the Qing troops in red uniforms who inflicted great casualties on the Japanese army, Saigo Congdao actually fought a cold war. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

He had seen hand-to-hand combat between the Satsuma samurai and the red-clad Qing soldiers, and the Prussian-style assassination of Japanese peasant soldiers with their battles, in a bloody and brutal scene that was beyond his imagination.

And the result of the battle, without exception, was the defeat of the Japanese army.

When the soldiers of the Japanese army conquered Taiwan faced ordinary Qing soldiers, they could do it with one as ten, but when they faced these red-clothed Qing soldiers, it was difficult to win two against one!

Fortunately, the number of these red demons is not that much......

Saigo let out a heavy sigh from the road.

As for the outcome of the battle after dawn, he didn't dare to think about it anymore.

A feeling of despair surrounded him again.

Although he had repeatedly assured his soldiers that the emperor would not abandon them and that reinforcements would soon arrive, he himself did not believe it in his heart.

Although he still believed that Yamaguchi Yutomo would not abandon him, after Ito Yuma's fleet was completely destroyed, he already understood that there was little hope of getting reinforcements from home.

Unless a miracle happens......

At this time, Second Lieutenant Katsuka Tsukamoto came with two soldiers, one of whom was still sobbing, and his thin shoulders shrugged.

Seeing this soldier crying, Saigo would have been furious, but this time, he was surprisingly not angry.

Second Lieutenant Katsuka Tsukamoto first saluted Saigo, and then said with some embarrassment: "General, that's the case, you see-" He turned back and pointed at the crying recruit, "Matsushita Heiji of the Second Squadron has to be transferred to our First Squadron!" ”

"Why?" Saigo looked at them a little strangely. There is a war coming soon, and there are still people asking for a change of troops!

He looked at the two recruits brought by Second Lieutenant Tsukamoto, and realized that the two of them looked very similar.

"General, our brother begs you to fulfill our wishes!" The soldier who was not crying, who was obviously the elder brother, grabbed ahead of the younger brother and said, "My brother just wants to stay with me......"

"This is Heiichi Matsushita, his older brother, in our squadron." Second Lieutenant Tsukamoto said.

Matsushita Heiichi is similar to his younger brother Matsushita Heiji in terms of figure and appearance, but he has a little more shrewdness in his eyes. Saigo thought to himself: This person is the soul of the brothers, and the idea of changing troops may have been made by him.

Somehow, the moment he saw the two brothers, he thought of his brother Saigo Takamori again.

There are too many differences between myself and my brother......

"Why did you two move together?" Saigo asked Heiichi Matsushita from the road.

"We are brothers, generals," Matsushita said boldly, his eyes flashed, and it looked like he was about to cry, "We grew up together, we were only eight years old when my mother died, and she told me before she died, no matter where I go, I must be with my brother......"

The battle was about to start at dawn, and the two brothers still wanted to be together. At this time, Saigo still didn't understand why they had to be transferred to a squadron. At this time, Second Lieutenant Tsukamoto interjected and said, "General, you can promise them, this is not a big deal." Anyway, they're fighting everywhere. ”

…… If the two of them are together, maybe their hearts will feel more steady, right?

"Okay." Saigo agreed.

Second Lieutenant Tsukamoto took the Matsushita brothers away. Saigo went down from the road and half-lay down. The forest was completely silent. Deep in the roots and grass of the tree, a male cricket cries excitedly, loudly, and persistently, and is connected with the chirping of insects in front and back, left and right, far and near; Looking down the slope through the gap in the trunk of the tree, a crooked stream at the bottom of the stream was illuminated by the moonlight, and the sound of the rushing stream was unusually clear into his eardrums, but he felt the silence of the night more and more truly. A jumble of footsteps sounded from the edge of the forest to the south, and he could hear the return of the troops who had gone to reconnoitre. They did not come to him, but walked straight back to their camp. Soon after, there was the sound of digging earth.

Eventually, even the movement faded away. The night fell silent. He thought the soldiers might all be asleep...... In the nick of time, another man's footsteps sounded hoarsely in the woods, and he approached him straight. With the help of the wisps of moonlight that leaked into the trunks of the trees, Saigo saw clearly from the road that it was Li Xiande.

"General, you haven't fallen asleep yet?"

"Nope." Saigo replied as he sat up straight from the grass.

Li Xiande sat down on the grass next to him, took a cigarette from his jacket pocket and handed it to him.

"No, I don't smoke, thank you." Saigo refused. Since he was a child, his parents have warned him that this is a vice, and he has not touched it to this day.

"Take it." Li Xiande's voice was very soft, but very stubborn, and it also made Saigo hear some special feelings from the Tao. This feeling warmed Saigo's heart, and he was embarrassed not to take the cigarette.

Li Xiande put another cigarette in his mouth and lit a fire for Saigo Congdao and himself. Saigo tried to take a sip from the road, and immediately coughed repeatedly.

For a while, Li Xiande had been smoking silently. Saigo sensed that he wanted to say something to him, but he didn't say anything.

A cigarette was quickly finished, and Li Xiande seemed to be about to speak, but two more people walked towards them one after the other.

It was Mizuno and another American officer hired by Lee Than-tak, Hunter.

"I know you two didn't sleep either." Li Xiande pretended to be relaxed and laughed, and said to the two, there seemed to be a little undisguised happiness in his voice.

Mizuno and Hunter also sat down on the grass, took out cigarettes and let Li Xiande smoke each other. Later, it was Mizuno who spoke first and said to Saigo Congdao: "General, the decisive battle will start tomorrow." Tonight may be our last night together. Since we can't sleep, we might as well have a long night talk. ”

Saigo Congdao was slightly moved, and couldn't find the words to answer for a while. From Mizuno's words and the attitude of the two Americans around him, a certain sense of intimacy and security suddenly increased in his heart.

No one said anything. Li Xiande still bowed his head and pondered. Hunter lay on his back on the grass, chewing a cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

After a long while, Mizuno said, "General, since we came here, we have been very brave in battle, and we have won many victories, but it has fallen to the point where we are now, and it is not our responsibility. ”

"We had a very careful plan and a smooth operation at the beginning, but now we are in trouble, and I don't think it's the responsibility of the combatants," he said, looking at Lee as if asking for permission, "We've done our best." ”

He stopped and waited for someone to pick him up, but no one did.

Mizuno waited for a while, and then continued: "And everything we have done so far is worthy of the reputation of Japanese men. ”

Saigo suddenly became excited, and he understood that Mizuno was trying to comfort himself.

"General, what were you thinking just now?" After being silent for a while, Li Xiande sat up straight from the grass and asked.

"I'm thinking about tomorrow's battle," for a moment Saigo Congdao was a little flustered, he didn't expect Li Xiande to ask this question, "...... Oh, I was thinking about my parents, and my teachers, and my friends," he thought about it, but changed his words.

After a few more minutes, the atmosphere finally didn't come alive anymore, and Mizuno Zun glanced at Li Xiande with a little disappointment, stood up, threw away the cigarette butt, and got up to leave.

Mizuno and Hunter are both gone. Saigo stood up from the road, and suddenly realized that it was still a little inappropriate to say that sentence to the three of them.

Li Xiande also got up from the grass, followed Mizuno Zun and Hunter a few steps forward, and when the two of them were far away, they turned around and walked back, their eyes did not look at Saigo Congdao, looked at the place next to him, and asked in a low voice: "General, you ...... Did you write a suicide note? ”

"Suicide note? …… What suicide note? When Saigo heard Li Xiande's question, his heart tightened.

"I just turned around, and many of us have written suicide notes." Li Xiande said, staring at a small tree on the left that was brightly lit by the moonlight that had been leaked into the forest. "General, I want to tell you something. …… I also wrote a suicide note, which I hid in my shirt pocket. Tomorrow if I'm killed, take it out and take it away. …… I'll just tell you about this alone, and I hope you can keep it a secret for me. ”

Saigo heard the sound of his heart beating wildly from Michi. The dark clouds of death surged and gathered in the sky of his newly cleared mind. "What did you write in your suicide note?" Silent for a second, he asked.

"I don't want to talk about it at this point." Li Xiande glanced at Xixiang Congdao embarrassedly, and stopped talking. "General, the situation in my family is different from you, Mizuno-kun, and Second Lieutenant Hunt. I did this just in case. …… Of course, we won't necessarily die tomorrow. …… Okay, it's time for me to go back. ”

Li Xian had to leave, and there was an unspeakable sadness in his words, which Saigo heard from the Tao. He sat down on the grass again, realizing that a new subtle change was taking place in his heart, and he was eagerly awaiting something.

"Suicide note...... If you want to write a suicide note, what should you write on it? Saigo said to himself.

The moonlight in the woods dimmed, and Saigo eagerly hoped that they would be clean again.

The woods are silent. The sound of the stream flowing at the bottom of the stream was monotonous and loud. His eyes closed unconsciously. "What should I write? ......" he thought in his heart, wanting to fight the Sandman, but in the end he forgot about war, death, duty, dignity, and honor, and lay down on the grass and fell asleep.

It's dawn.

"Lord Lin, don't follow, once something goes wrong, brother, I'...... I can't afford it! ”

Seeing Lin Yizhe, who was carrying a sniper rifle and a long knife on his waist, looked casual as if nothing had happened, Zhou Shengchuan, the president of the Sheng Army, couldn't help but be anxious, and glanced at Tang Dingkui as if asking for help.

"Yes! Lord Lin, you are the boss, how can you personally get into danger? Tang Dingkui also stepped forward to persuade.

"Now that I have found out where the camp of the Japanese army is, I will go there myself. The two military men rest assured, Lin has also seen the scene of swords, and he will not cause chaos to the two military gates. Lin Yizhe said calmly.

After listening to Lin Yizhe's words, Zhou Shengchuan and Tang Dingkui couldn't help but secretly regret that they shouldn't have told Lin Yizhe the news of the location of the Japanese army headquarters.

After Lin Yizhe set off with the main cruiser fleet of the shipmaster, Zhou Shengchuan's Huai army landed smoothly under the cover of the shipmaster's artillery fleet, joined forces with Tang Dingkui's Huai army, and began to attack the Japanese army.

Like the situation that Tang Dingkui encountered at the beginning, Zhou Shengchuan initially thought that the Tang army's long-term battle against the Japanese army was not inferior but was seriously killed and wounded was a manifestation of "deep twilight", and he had the intention to show his hand in front of Tang Dingkui, so he led the army to attack the Japanese army, and as a result, like Tang Dingkui, suffered a lot of losses. In less than a day of fierce fighting with the Japanese army, more than 2,000 people from the forward of Zhou Shengchuan's department were defeated by the Japanese army, because the attack formation of the Qing army was too dense, although the Qing army was numerous, it did not play a full role, but instead confused the formation of the routed army, and the artillery was also misplaced, and it was not used at all in the battle. Thanks to the battalion officer Wei Rugui who stepped forward with the broadsword team to stop the rout, and the gunboats at sea to support him, the Sheng army did not almost drive him into the sea like the Tang army did last time. Even so, the Huai army lost 1,000 people and nearly 2,000 wounded in this battle, which can be said to be a great setback.

Eat a trench and grow a wisdom, this first confrontation taught Zhou Sheng a profound lesson. After reorganizing the troops, Zhou Shengchuan and Tang Dingkui, in accordance with Lin Yizhe's previous instructions, adopted the tactic of "combining points and lines, and acting as a battalion step by step", with the help of advanced artillery and machine guns, gradually advanced forward, and finally compressed and surrounded the Japanese army in several scattered positions.

Although the Japanese army had no way to escape, it was not easy for the Qing army to completely annihilate the Japanese army at once.

After completing the encirclement of the Japanese army, Zhou Shengchuan and Tang Dingkui did not rush to attack, they judged that the Japanese army's food and grass would soon run out, so they adopted harassment tactics to consume the Japanese army's combat effectiveness.

After days of fighting, the Japanese army was exhausted, and the Qing army also had a lot of attrition, Zhou Shengchuan and Tang Dingkui originally planned to launch a full-scale attack to annihilate the Japanese army in one fell swoop, but they were a little undecided, because these days, the two sides have been in a state of stalemate.

After Lin Yizhe led the shipmaster fleet back to Fuzhou with the captured Japanese ships, he immediately returned to Langqiao on Deng Shichang's cruiser "Princess Heshuo" and commanded the army in battle. After learning that Lin Yizhe had returned, Zhou Shengchuan and Tang Dingkui came to ask for advice on the strategy and reported in detail the recent battle situation.

After Lin Yizhe learned about the battle situation, he immediately ordered an attack. And what made Zhou Tang and the others feel frightened was that Lin Yizhe actually wanted to participate in the battle in person!

"I've made up my mind, and the two military men don't need to say it anymore." Lin Yizhe's face still had a calm expression, but his eyes were full of awe-inspiring majesty, and Zhou Tang and the others were unconsciously afraid, and they didn't dare to persuade again.

Although Zhou Shengchuan and Tang Dingkui are both veterans of the battlefield, they have already admired the military command ability of the youngest governor of the Great Qing Kingdom in front of them, and this young man has already erected a majesty in the hearts of the two of them, so that they dare not take their lives lightly.

Lin Yizhe took off the sniper rifle he was carrying, and after checking it again, he walked forward first, and a team of red-clothed ship masters and sailors followed behind him.

"You're all keeping an eye on him! If things don't go well, bring him out to me!" Zhou Shengchuan grimaced, lowered his voice and ordered to several battalion officers around him, "If he makes a mistake, I will cut off your heads!" ”

The battalion officers secretly complained in their hearts, but they couldn't say anything one by one, so they could only give up their orders.

"Let's fight!" Tang Dingkui looked at Lin Yizhe's back, turned his head to Zhou Sheng, and said.

Zhou Shengchuan nodded, waved his hand, and soon, a Qing soldier ignited the signal rocket.

The rocket drew a dazzling light in the dawn sky, and after a while, the roar of the cannon resounded through the sky, followed by the "dongdong" shooting of the machine gun and the "rush" of the Lin's machine gun.

A large tree was hit by a series of machine-gun bullets, and finally broke apart, smashing straight into a hiding place for Japanese soldiers.

Several Japanese soldiers jumped out of the position screaming and rushed to the side, but before they ran a few steps, they were beaten into a sieve by a stream of bullets and fires!

Looking at this frightening scene, Saigo's eyes widened in surprise.

Of course he knew, this was the damage that only the terrible Gatling gun could do!

But he couldn't understand how the Qing army transported heavy machine guns into the jungle.

You know, the size of the Gatling gun is about the same as that of a light artillery!

Several Japanese soldiers roared and got up, and with their rifles they fought to fire in the direction of the Qing Gatling guns, but they only fired a few rounds before they were knocked down by a barrage of machine gun bullets from the other direction.

After a short while, the Gatling machine gun stopped firing, and Saigo Congdao thought that the machine gunner of the Qing army had been hit by the rifle of the Japanese soldier just now, and just breathed a sigh of relief, the terrible machine gun sound rang out again.

A string of machine-gun bullets flew over Saigo's head, and a scream was immediately heard behind him.

Saigo didn't look back at his men who had suffered the terrible blow, he crouched there, raised his binoculars, and stared at the direction where the machine-gun bullets were coming.

He finally saw clearly the figure of a Qing soldier wearing a gray coat with a wrapping head and pushing a wheelbarrow in the forest.

On that wheelbarrow, there was a bright Gatling gun!

Saigo understood what was going on, and his heart instantly became cold.

He roared like crazy, raised his pistol, stood up, and was about to fire at the Qing machine gunner pushing the wheelbarrow, when a shot came from nowhere and hit him in the chest.

It was as if someone had punched him heavily in the chest, and Saigo felt a tightness in his chest, and then a mouthful of blood spurted out.