Choi Hae-wol, the second-generation leader of Donghakkyo, led 100,000 followers to rise up in Jeolla Province in southern Korea, and these peasants took bamboo sticks and hoes in their hands and went straight to Jeonju Prefecture, and then captured Gyeongsang-do, and in less than ten days, they captured Chungcheong-do, and occupied three provinces in succession within a month, and the momentum was like a bamboo, and the entire southern part of Korea was murderous, and the followers of various provinces plotted to gather people to the north, intending to capture Seoul and change the dynasty.

Song Xiaofei knew that the Korean peasants had been fooled by the rulers of the Li Dynasty for hundreds of years, and a group of rabble, for some reason, suddenly became so fierce, he led 8,000 Huai troops to land at Incheon, and then ordered the deputy admiral of the naval division, Lang Weili, to command the "Dingyuan", the left wing commander Lin Taizeng commanded the "Zhenyuan", the central wing commander Deng Shichang commanded the "Suzhou", and the pipe belt Zhan Tianyou commanded the "Dongting", patrolling and blockading the Tsushima Strait.

As soon as Song Xiaofei came ashore, Tang Shaoyi brought people over, he looked ashamed, handed Song Xiaofei a report, and said: "Shaochuan is worthy of the trust of the adults, I thought that the people of the church are all farmers, as long as the corrupt officials in North Korea are severely punished and the land is distributed to them, they will naturally return to their hometowns to farm." No, according to the confession of the prisoners recently captured by our army, it is said that the deputy chief of staff of the army, Kawakami Koroku, secretly sent more than 1,000 ronin, led by Ryohei Uchida, to infiltrate the Togakujiao and instigate a rebellion. ”

Song Xiaofei said: "I said that these North Korean peasants, how can their combat effectiveness soar, and they have captured the three southern provinces all the way, it turns out that they are making trouble behind their backs!" He said that there are 8,000 expatriates in North Korea, and I think that these ronins are included. ”

Song Xiaofei asked Duan Qirui to receive the 2,000 Huai Army and 3,000 Korean New Army commanded by Tang Shaoyi, with eight Krupp heavy artillery, and rushed to Jeolla Province, Gyeongsang Province, and Chungcheong Province to quell the rebellion, and instructed him to capture the thief and capture the king first, first get rid of Uchida Ryohei and the Ronin, and kill them.

Song Xiaofei himself took 8,000 troops and stationed them outside Hancheng. At this time, he had already preemptively transported a number of army troops to Korea on the pretext of protecting overseas Chinese through four British and American warships leased, and about 5,000 elite troops were stationed outside Seoul in advance. There was no riot in Seoul, and North Korea did not invite the soldiers to come, so they did not let the soldiers into Seoul. China said that the two sides were stationed outside Seoul to confront each other, and no one dared to act rashly.

At this time, Ye Zhichao led the 29th battalion of the army led by Wei Rugui, the chief soldier of Datong Town, Zuo Guigui, the chief soldier of Gaozhou Town, Ma Yukun, the chief soldier of the Yi Army, and the guard Feng Sheng'a, a total of more than 20,000 people, entered the DPRK by land, and stationed in Asan outside Seoul.

Song Xiaofei was overjoyed, and immediately asked Ye Zhichao to lead troops into Seoul, on the grounds of protecting the Korean royal family, to control Gyeongbokgung Palace, as long as he could control King Li Xi and Concubine Min in his hands, once Duan Qirui quelled the rebellion of the Dongxue Party, he could justifiably let the king of Korea issue an edict and ask Yuben and Russia to withdraw their troops. Moreover, Ye Zhichao led the army into Seoul, and he could also protect the embassies of various countries in North Korea, killing two birds with one stone.

Ye Zhichao has always been arrogant and conceited, he is a "entrepreneurial" veteran of the Huai Army, at this time he is more than half a hundred years old, serving as the commander of Zhili, although this is also a military official, but he is responsible for Gongwei Jingshi, so he feels that his official rank is half a level higher than Song Xiaofei, plus he is much older than Song Xiaofei, and his military exploits are also prominent, Li Hongzhang did not plan to promote him further, but attached great importance to Song Xiaofei, a rising star, this time he even let Ye Zhichao obey Song Xiaofei's command, Ye Zhichao felt very aggrieved, didn't take Song Xiaofei in his eyes, although he also knew the strategic significance of stationing in Seoul to control the Korean palace, but because this idea was Song Xiaofei's idea, he actually ignored it, stationed troops in Asan outside Seoul, and neither sent troops south to help exterminate the Dongxue and Sectarian Rebellion, nor did he enter Seoul.

Song Xiaofei saw that Ye Zhichao was not moving, so he told him that he was responsible for containing the 5,000 troops of Keisuke Otori, the minister of the Ministry of Sayben in Korea, and he entered Seoul with 8,000 Huai troops, and immediately sent troops to protect the embassies of various countries, and also controlled the palace of Joseon, so that Li Xi issued an edict and clearly refused to send troops; In addition, let him issue the "Edict of Guilt": The current chaotic situation in Korea is caused by the king's immorality and official dereliction of duty [***], and the imperial court will promise to reform and meet some of the demands put forward by the rebellious people: 1. Stop the persecution of Donghak disciples, and those who voluntarily return to their hometowns will not be blamed for the past; 2. Corrupt officials and corrupt officials shall be found and severely punished; 3. Improving the treatment of untouchables; Fourth, Bai Ding is not forced to wear a Pyongyang hat; Fifth, young widows are allowed. remarriage of women; 6. Abolish all exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes that disturb the people; 7. Severely punish those who fornicate with their own people.

These are all reforms proposed by Song Xiaofei according to Tang Shaoyi's report, and after the release of the "Edict of the King of Korea", the people in southern Korea were greatly stabilized.

Duan Qirui originally performed well at the Beiyang Military Academy, and entered the Berlin Military Academy at official expense, studied artillery for one year, and interned at the famous Essenkrupp Arsenal for half a year. Uchida Ryohei saw that the situation was not good, this tiger was a hundred times more fierce than Tang Shaoyi, and the task of creating a riot so that the army had been completed, so he quickly withdrew with the ronin, and the remaining Dongxue disciples were all some ragged peasants, as soon as the court said that the past was not to blame, they went home with hoes, and the Dongxue Rebellion Party quickly collapsed, Cui Haiyue finally took 2,000 people to open the city gate and surrender, and the riot basically subsided.

Just when Song Xiaofei felt that the overall situation had been decided, there was a rumbling cannon sound outside Seoul, and Ye Zhichao's 20,000 Huai troops and the 5,000 troops led by Keisuke Otori, the minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Korea, fought.

At that time, the two armies were in close proximity to each other, and the terrain of Asan was low, so he said that he was actively preparing for war, and had built a fort early, and the nine heavy artillery pieces were condescending, occupying the advantage of artillery fire, and there was a burst of indiscriminate bombardment. Ye Zhichao didn't expect that Keisuke Otori, a weak minister, would dare to single-handedly challenge his 20,000 Huai army with 5,000 troops. He relied on Li Hongzhang and led the Huai Army to recuperate for more than ten years, and its combat effectiveness has greatly declined. In the face of the bombardment of Yue himself, Ye Zhichao was whimsical and sent 2,000 cavalry to kill him, in an attempt to seize Yue himself's position by lightning. Keisuke Otori was surprised, and ordered the army to concentrate artillery attack, and the cavalry of the Huai army ran halfway and was blown up into the sky, pitiful Huai army suffered more than 1,200 casualties, and lost all their spirit.

The Huai cavalry was defeated, but the morale of the army was high, and they continued to fire relatively lethal howitzer shotguns, which were thin-walled, filled with gunpowder and small steel balls or steel arrows and steel balls, and the warheads were equipped with timed fuses, which could explode over the intended target and kill and injure the enemy. Gaozhou Town Commander Zuo Guigui did not understand this new weapon, Otori Keisuke personally fired a timed grenade shell to his side, at first there was no explosion, he did not know it, continued to direct the artillery fire, and returned fire. As a result, the shrapnel exploded a while later, and the shrenchnel hit the left precious right eye, and he was seriously wounded and martyred.

If Ye Zhichao can lead the Huai army to hold the position, and Song Xiaofei leads the Huai army in the city to fight out, and the army will definitely be defeated. But as soon as Zuo Guigui died, Ye Zhichao faced the powerful firepower of the Yue army, and the psychological defense line collapsed, and he fled more than 100 miles with more than 10,000 soldiers and retreated to Ping'an Mansion.

At that time, it was raining heavily in the sky, Ye Zhichao was defeated with the remnants of the army, afraid that the army would intercept and kill, and did not dare to take the main road. The Yue army pursued and killed all the way, and the Huai army suffered more than 6,000 casualties, while the Yue side only lost 200 people.

Song Xiaofei took 5,000 Huai troops out of Seoul, Ye Zhichao had already fled, Wang Shizhen looked at Ye Zhichao's garrison in Ashan, and said to Song Xiaofei, "The terrain here is low-lying, lonely and helpless, Ye Zhichao actually stationed troops here, it is really useless to use common sense, the world's first-class stupid, no wonder it will be defeated!" ”

Song Xiaofei was silent, in order to avoid greater casualties, he decided to immediately take over Ye Zhichao's Huai army, so he led his troops to Ping'an Mansion overnight, Ye Zhichao actually sent a telegram to Li Hongzhang, lying about the military situation, saying that in the battle of Ashan, the Huai army won a great victory, the Huai army suffered 200 casualties, and the army suffered 2,000 casualties!

Song Xiaofei received the news, forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, and invited Ye Zhichao and some Huai army generals to the camp tent to discuss matters, after Ye Zhichao arrived, Song Xiaofei immediately ordered Feng Guozhang to take his own soldiers to tie up Ye Zhichao, Ye Zhichao resisted, shouting: "Lao Tzu is also a commander, why do you arrest me?" When Lao Tzu fought with Lord Zhongtang, you were still bare-assed! ”

Song Xiaofei's face changed suddenly when he heard this, and he pulled out the dagger sent by Feng Guozhang, the generals thought that Song Xiaofei was going to kill Ye Zhichao, half of them were silent, and some generals stood up to intercede for Ye Zhichao: "Lord Admiral, the enemy is current, killing the general may disturb the army's heart!" ”;