The first day of August in the twentieth year of Guangxu (August 31, 1**4 AD). Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty led the Second Division of the Imperial Army of the Qing Dynasty through Jinzhou, and after getting off the train in Goubangzi, he arrived at Tianzhuangtai. When he arrived at Tianzhuangtai, Guangxu immediately ordered to summon the Qing army generals who had retreated to Haicheng, Yingkou and other places in southern Liaoning, and they must rush to Tianzhuangtai before the fifth day of the first month of August to deploy the defense of the entire southern Liaoning.

At this time, the situation of the war has become quite serious. The armies from all walks of life came all the way, and when they saw that the Qing army retreated at the first touch, they all accelerated the pace of attack.

A line of pomelo rock. After the capture of Anton, the 3rd Division of the 1st Army of the Qing Dynasty pointed directly at Haicheng. The Qing army was defeated and retreated.

Phoenix Frontline. Due to the previous ambush by the 1st Division, the Oshima Yoshimasa Mixed Brigade was severely damaged. The Fifth Division of the First Army was forced to slow down the pace of the offensive. Prepare to gather all your forces to break through the first division first, and then directly take Fengtian of Longxing in the Qing Dynasty.

In southern Liaoning. The forward of the 1st Division of the 2nd Army of the Qing Dynasty in the mountainous area was close to Gaiping. Once Gaiping fell, Haicheng, Yingkou and other places were within the attack range of the Second Army.

If Haicheng and Gaiping are captured by the army. The first and second armies of the army were divided into the Liaohe River. The front line of the Grange Terrace will be attacked by the troops from both directions at the same time. The entire battle could collapse at any moment......

At this moment, the situation of the Qing army is not optimistic. On the front line of Lianshan Pass, Nie Shicheng and Tang Keyi's troops built a defensive position at Lianshan Pass, which was also the only two troops in Liaodong that could still be formed and maintain a certain combat capability. The 1st Division also became the main force on the front line of Lianshan Pass.

Regardless of Yuyan or Liaonan, the rout of the Beiyang departments is already shocking. Whether it is the Fengsheng A and Nie Guilin divisions that retreated all the way from the Yalu River defense line, or the Gong Zhaoyu and Zhao Huaiye divisions who retreated from Quanzhou and Lushun and fled without a fight. At this moment, they have already been beaten by the army, and they have reached the point where all the grass and trees are soldiers, not only is there no morale, but as long as they hear that they are coming, they will flee immediately. The rout has reached the point where the mountains are all over the country.

The better ones like Song Qing, Jiang Guidi, and Xu Bangdao, although it is a rout, at least it is a rout of the establishment system, and they can still hold on to it to some extent.

Now there is Zuo Guigui in Yingkou, and Song Qing gathers the remnants of the army in Haicheng and reorganizes it. Otherwise, if you want to rely on only 8,000 people of the Second Division to defend the front line of Tianzhuangtai, not only is the disparity in strength too great, but also such a long front cannot be held at all. The only way was to gather the Qing army units in eastern and southern Liaodong to fight to the death. And the biggest problem or the biggest difficulty at present is to arouse the morale of the various ministries.

But in the face of such a group of old fritters, they are either ruffians or recruits with no combat experience. Just relying on a few beautiful words and shouting a few slogans to fight for the country, it is undoubtedly a fool's dream to stimulate the morale of these people. Guangxu knows very well in his heart, even if he is the emperor of the Qing Dynasty today. As long as this battle is fought, if the army is distracted, these soldiers will only care about themselves and flee for their lives. As for him, the emperor, Guangxu was sure that these defeated soldiers, who had already been frightened birds, really dared to throw themselves, the emperor, to himself.

If you want these people to fight to the death and not retreat in the battle with the Yue army, the only way is to break the cauldron and fight against the water, and cut off the retreat of these people. Only when everyone understands that there is no way back can they fight back.

In the court, the emperor's personal expedition to Tianzhuangtai suddenly became unexpectedly silent.

Although the Qingliu of the imperial party such as Weng Tongyi and Zhirui are still not at ease with the emperor's safety, what if the emperor can really rely on the new army to turn the tide of the war. The people are hopeful, the world is in the heart, and the imperial party will turn over from then on. Weng Tongyong, who was also in charge of the household department, made every effort to supervise the military aircraft department to raise funds and raise food in various provinces. He poured out all the silver at the bottom of the household pressure box, and raised 30,000 taels of silver to prepare for the front line of Grange.

On the contrary, it was the Shi Duo, Sun Yuwen, Rong Lu and others of the Hou Party who showed unusual calm. On the bright side, after Cixi summoned Sun Yuwen and others for a few days, she spread the word. The emperor can personally conquer Tianzhuangtai for the world regardless of safety, and the imperial court will also do its best to support the front-line military supply of Tianzhuangtai. I want to show the world the appearance of a bloody battle with the Yue army. The Qing Dynasty has not yet reached the point of being defeated by the Rak Woko.

And in the dark. There was also a faint rumor from the palaces of the major kings in the capital. For example, several ministers on the military plane, whether they were civil officials such as Shi Duo, Yi Xuan, and Sun Yuwen, or military attaches such as Rong Lu, were not optimistic that Tianzhuangtai would be sure of winning the first battle. Therefore, several orders were issued on the military plane one after another, and nearly 30,000 troops from neighboring provinces were requisitioned to hoard Shanhaiguan. He also asked Liu Kunyi to use the identity of the minister of the Qincha to control the armies inside and outside Shanhaiguan to raise relevant defense and response to the enemy. And the most evocative thing is that Zai Yi took his brother Pujun into the palace many times to say goodbye.

In Guangxu's harem, Empress Longyu and Concubine Jin, that is, Concubine Zhen, who had been under house arrest for more than a year, took out silver from their palaces, collected more than 60,000 taels and handed them over to Weng Tongyong, and transferred them to the front line of Tianzhuangtai.

And in the eyes of the governors everywhere, the current Daqing is really messy. The emperor set up a former enemy combat headquarters in Tianzhuangtai and a logistics department in Jinzhou. These two places are all used by the emperor's own team, and a pair of small court shelves can be regarded as set up. In the imperial court in the capital, that is, the grand court composed of a set of teams of the queen mother. For a while, everyone in the world was a little dazzled. Especially the governors of the provinces, at this time, they were all 120,000 points of caution, and they were extremely careful to figure out which court to listen to. The emperor issued a decree to let the provinces send the raised grain money and other materials to Jinzhou. And at this moment, the imperial court issued another order to send the Jingshi. Who should I listen to, and how to grasp this measure is really sad.

Only the prefect of Hangzhou, Yan Fu, was like Erlenzi, ignoring Zhang Zhidong's advice, and designated the grain money raised to be transported to Jinzhou by Shunfeng Logistics. The entire Jiangnan officialdom was scolded.

The Emperor of Tianzhuang Tai camped

The so-called emperor's camp is nothing more than a nominal title. In Guangxu's opinion, isn't it just a bigger tent and more soldiers. But in these tents were almost all the staff of the staff. Guangxu was here, commanding the entire battle.

If you want to defeat Yuben, you can't rely on just two divisions of the New Army. How to improve the morale of the soldiers of the Beiyang departments has become the top priority. It's actually quite simple. The original intention of the retreat was to find a way to live, but if this road was cut off, even if the Beiyang departments were forced to the cliff, there was no possibility of retreating, so they could only rush forward. Therefore, Guangxu lined up the Second Division along the Liao River, and those who attacked the position of the Second Division without permission were all executed on the spot. But this order is only effective when the emperor orders it, try it again, these routs will definitely dare to copy the guy and fight you.

On September 5, according to Guangxu's will, those who arrived at Datianzhuangtai on time, the commanders of the various departments stationed in Haicheng, Yingkou, and Gaiping gathered in the open space on the bank of the Liao River in Tianzhuangtai. It's autumn, and the cold wind brought by the cold Siberian air to the south blows a little icy coolness on the body. Facing the Liao River, a high platform has been built a few days ago. At this time, the stage was full of kneeling more than 100 officials in official uniforms. Among these people, there are Ye Zhichao and Wei Rugui, who gave Pyongyang to themselves. There are Gong Zhaoyu and Zhao Huaiye who fled without a fight in Quanzhou and Lushun. There are Wa Heng who abandoned the Anping estuary. There is only Fengsheng Ah and Nie Guilin who only know how to escape. On both sides of the stage, all the corpses of these routs who were about to rush across the Liao River were placed. Directly below the high platform, Song Qing, Zuo Guigui, Liu Shengxiu, Ma Yukun, Xu Bangdao, Jiang Guidi and others, as well as people from Yijun, Shengjun, Fengjun, Mingjun and other battalions. Everyone looked at each other, looking at everyone from the admiral to the battalion officer, from the Manchu to the Han people, kneeling on the entire stage. Everyone understands in their hearts that the emperor is going to kill people.

"The emperor has arrived—" Immediately ahead, several loud military trumpets sounded all around. There was a thunderous sound of footsteps, and even the earth seemed to tremble, rolling in from a distance.

Three thousand soldiers of the Fifth Regiment of the Second Division, in company units, lined up in a neat phalanx, and the bayonets on the rifles on their shoulders were like a jungle of rows of bayonets, accompanied by the sound of neat footsteps like a person. Towards the various units of the Qing army gathered on the banks of the Liao River...... Young and sturdy officers walked at the front of the queue. Holding the command knife in his hand, when passing through the high platform. The command knife in his hand slammed upward. Then a deafening shout was heard. "Kill...... Kill...... Kill. ”

Suddenly, I heard this killing sound. Song Qing and the others couldn't help but shake their legs, and many people from various camps immediately sat on the ground in fright. It was not until the soldiers of the Fifth Regiment were arranged on both sides of the high platform in two parts that the emperor slowly walked up to the high platform.

"The imperial court spends tens of millions of taels of silver every year to support your army. In this way, when the country is in trouble and foreign enemies invade, you can stand up and defeat the invading enemies and defend the security of the country. But what did you do? Rout, rout, rout. Do you know why you lost? You don't understand, so let me tell you. ”

"One general is incompetent and exhausts thousands of troops. Starting from Admiral Ye Zhichao, he took the lead in escaping in order to save his life. The generals below followed suit, and they also left their troops and fled. The officials have all run away, how can they let the soldiers fight to the death. How undefeated is this battle. ”

"So Asan was defeated, Pyongyang was defeated, Yalu River was defeated, and Lushun was defeated. Now that the army is pointing at Tianzhuangtai, is it going to be defeated again? This defeat and defeat again and again, when is it a head! ”

"I don't understand. They are all generals with heavy troops. But he was greedy for life and afraid of death on the battlefield, ignoring the discipline of the country, France and the army. In order to be able to dodge my own bullet and save my life, do you think that you can dodge my guillotine ruthlessly? ”

"Kill, leave no one." With a wave of Guangxu's hand, ten big men with rifles on their backs walked up to the stage, lifted the first ten people like chickens and pressed them to the edge of the stage. He took a few steps back, took his rifle in his backhand and aimed it above the heads of ten people.

"Slow ......" Guangxu, who retreated to the side, stopped him.

"The emperor spares his life." Ye Zhichao, who was already scared by the gun, knelt down and shouted.

"Spare you?" Guangxu laughed: "Spare you, then who will spare the soldiers who died in Ashan and Pyongyang." Spare you, who will spare the 20,000 innocent people of Lushun. As a general of the army, he has tens of thousands of soldiers, but he does not know how to fight hard to defend his family and country. As a result, the country is at war, and your home is over. By the way, my home has been raided, and your wife and daughter are already in the prison escort. Walk slowly on Huangquan Road, and your family will soon be with you. ”

"The emperor spares his life, the emperor spares his life." More than 100 people begged for mercy.

"I told them to slow down to let them change their big knives. My bullets cannot be wasted on you wretched. Hang Ye Zhichao's head on the gate of the camp of the Chinese army, and hang the rest of the heads along the Liao River. Kill. ”

The executioner dropped his knife in his hand and kicked the headless corpse off the stage. Those generals and officials who were arrested by Zhou Qin at the emperor's will were executed by the emperor in this way. In an instant, the banks of the Liao River were silent. In the silence, only the sound of the wind in the sky and the rushing sound of the Liao River were heard.

This situation not only made the generals and officers in the audience open their mouths wide, but also shocked the officers and soldiers of various departments of the Qing army after the news came. Even the admirals don't even have the procedures to be escorted to the capital to pass through the court, so they will be killed no matter how they say this. What's more, it's a small creep.

"I'm scared, I know what it's like to die." Guangxu, who walked to the front of the stage, pointed to the corpse in the place under the stage: "This is a lesson from the past, whoever wants to repeat the mistakes of the past should try it." Tianzhuang Terrace, here is the last position of the battle, behind is Shanhaiguan is the capital. When I came, I said that the Qing Imperial Army would not be defeated or retreated. There is no way back for me, and there is no way out for you. From now on, if there are any more people who flee in fear of the enemy, they will all be killed. Don't be lucky, I have let Tang Shaoyi take my will to Jinzhou, and all the ministries that return to Jinzhou, regardless of the size of their official positions, will be executed. ”

"Now announce the order for battle."

"I personally led the Second Division to sit on the Grange. All the officers and soldiers on the front line of Lianshan Pass were controlled by Ouyang Zhenhua, and the Haicheng departments were controlled by Song Qing. The various departments of Yingkou are controlled by the left. I have the right to arbitrarily decide on the spot, and I can cut it first and then play it. ”

As soon as Guangxu stretched out his hand, Qi Yide handed a short sword to Guangxu.

"I swear to the sky today that I will fight a bloody battle with the army in Tianzhuangtai to the end, and I will not take half a step back. Either win, go out with dignity, or lose, bury the bones in the grange. If this oath is violated, it will be so. With that, Guangxu picked up the short sword in his hand and slashed it. In an instant, all the people were shocked and their faces were pale. They all knelt on top of each other with a bang.

On the bank of the Liaohe River, where the wind blows, Guangxu cut off the braid on his head with a sword. Raised his hand and said loudly: "Qi Yide, read out my will." ”

Fengtian transported, the emperor summoned and said:

Today, this is said to have invaded our country, and the front line has been shattered for thousands of miles. I have the will to die, and I vow to live and die with Grange. If I die in battle, the court can appoint a new king. However, the Qing Dynasty should use the strength of the country to fight to the end. If anyone dares to make peace with him, everyone in his family will be a traitor, and everyone in the world will be punished. I have made a curse to the Son of Heaven, and those who dare to speak out and surrender peace, I have cursed him to cut off his children and grandchildren, and I have cursed him to destroy his race.

Chin this

In a flash. All the people only looked at the emperor standing in the wind, holding up the braid in his hand. Standing tall...... (To be continued.) )