And in this case, Iktanga brought 5,000 men, all of whom were cavalry, and you must know that the food of war horses is several times that of soldiers, which immediately made the supply of food and grass for the third division even worse.

Although Katsura Taro was very polite to Iktanga, it was obviously impossible for the Japanese army to go hungry and save food to supply the Qing army, and they even took a fancy to the Qing army's war horses.

As a result, after the surrender of Iktang, his subordinates not only did not receive a grain of grain from the Japanese, but were dragged away thousands of war horses, some of which were good horses to supplement the losses of the Japanese cavalry, and some of which were slaughtered to improve their food, and their original owners did not even get a bowl of broth

When Iktanga found Katsura Taro, the latter thought he had come to protest and was thinking about how to get rid of him, but Iktanga said something he didn't expect, "Commander Gui, please immediately send troops to attack Mukden, there is food there!" ”

Katsura Taro couldn't help but hesitate a little, the third division did not launch an attack on Mukden, but the Qing army built a large number of trenches outside Mukden City (Yuan Shikai made great efforts to promote the trenches after returning from Korea), the defensive effect was much better than the previously commonly used breastophone, and at the same time, their forces also had an absolute advantage, not so easy to gnaw.

In addition, the bad news of the disastrous defeat in the naval battle of Jianghua Bay hit morale hard, although the Third Division attacked several times, but it never failed to break through the Qing army's defense line to the city of Fengtian, and after the Battle of Jinzhou Isthmus, almost one-third of the Third Division's troops were pinned down by the rebel army in the south, and there was not enough strength to solve the 100,000 Qing troops in Fengtian at once.

Although Iketanga has taken some of his men and horses to his side, but the only 5,000 men and horses are far from enough to change the balance of strength between the two sides, although Katsura Taro is brave, but the third division is now almost rear-free, and his tolerance for casualties is quite limited, unless he has no choice, he will not dare to risk all his family money.

Besides, although the food in Fengtian City is very tempting, if it is a layer of defense to break through, by the time the third division enters Fengtian City, those materials will have already been burned, especially now that the commander of the Qing army is Yuan Shikai, which is a rare ruthless character among the generals of the Qing army

Seeing Katsura Taro's hesitation, Yi Ketang couldn't help but be anxious in his heart, and shouted, "Although Yuan Shikai usurped military power by despicable means, but with his qualifications, it is difficult to convince so many people in a short period of time, if your army now goes west to attack Mukden, it is the rebel army that is currently panicked by the people will definitely collapse, although Yuan Shikai is vicious, he is still afraid of death, I don't believe that he will not run away when he sees that the general trend has gone!" ”

"As long as Yuan Shikai escapes, the rebels will no longer have the will to fight, and there will be no time to burn the materials, and the difficulty of your army's lack of food and grass will be solved, and then take advantage of the victory to enter the pass, and the army of King Qin of the world will definitely respond in groups, and the destruction of the rebels will be just around the corner." Iktanga waved his hands, his tone a little hysterical.

Katsura Taro was unmoved, shook his head slightly, and asked Iktang Adao, "If Yuan Shikai really can't control the scene, you can calm the chaos yourself, general, why do you want to come to me?" ”

Iktang'a's old face suddenly turned red, but he still cheekily relieved his doubts, "It is true that Yuan Shikai's troops are panicked, but the troops of the last general are also panicked, and the strength is far less than them, which can not be defeated, let alone scare them, is there any other way than to come to the division commander for help?" ”

"The key is that the rebels are not afraid, and if they are not afraid, they will not be chaotic, but the imperial army is different from us, after so many days of fighting, the Fengtian defense line can only be held by fighting ammunition and the consumption of human lives, in fact, everyone is very afraid of the imperial army, and now when the army is unstable, if the imperial army kills, they will definitely collapse!" Seeing that Katsura Taro still didn't say anything, Iketang couldn't help but feel anxious, "Commander Katsura, 'If you keep making decisions, you will suffer from it." If Yuan Shikai is given too much time to control the troops completely, and the rebel thieves in Zhili also send the elite to reinforce them, even if your army wants to return to North Korea, it will be impossible! I'm afraid that your army's current grain and grass reserves are not enough to return to North Korea, is it possible that you are still preparing to divide your troops along the way to collect troops on the way to withdraw your troops? ”

Iktanga's last words hit the door of Katsura Taro's fate, he closed his eyes and pondered for a moment before standing up, and ordered to the adjutant with a fierce look in his eyes, "Order the whole army to assemble immediately, yes, those from the south are also called, leave a cavalry squadron, no, a small squad to be on guard, gather all our officers and soldiers who can fight, and prepare to march west to Mukden!" ”

"Our third division went deep into the territory of the Qing Kingdom to fight for thousands of miles, and made great military achievements for the imperial country, but to this day, I will not hide from you that our army has fallen into a crisis of life and death." , Katsura Taro opened the military map, and unabashedly told all the officers above the brigade level that he had summoned the current situation of the Third Division, "Now our south is the Qing rebel army, and the strength is still unknown, but judging from the easy destruction of one of our cavalry brigades in the first battle of Jinzhou, they are enough to pose a major threat to our army, but their commanders are extremely cautious, and it is extremely difficult for us to even collect intelligence, let alone how to find an opportunity to annihilate it." ”

"With this strong enemy in check, our army cannot disperse too many troops to raise food, otherwise if it is suddenly attacked and the troops are scattered, the consequences will be unimaginable. However, the consumption of grain and grass for the 30,000-strong army is not a small amount, and now that the vicinity has been requisitioned by us, it is possible to get food at least a hundred miles away from the station, and it is not enough to send only a few thousand people to collect grain to meet the needs. In the past six months, our grain and grass reserves have been decreasing, and if we continue to stalemate like this, we will soon run out of food. Katsura Taro's truth-telling made all his subordinates gloomy, and the adjutant didn't understand why he was saying these discouraged words, but he didn't dare to disagree in public, so he could only look at Katsura Taro with an anxious face.

Katsura Taro, however, didn't seem to see the anxious look on the adjutant's face at all, and continued to say to the officers, "And that mysterious Qing rebel army has now captured Beijing and killed their emperor and empress dowager, so it can be said that they have overthrown the rule of the Manchu government." In other words, China today no longer has a widely recognized legitimate government, do you know what that means? (To be continued.) )