Anshan Post Fort, across the Anshan River, the undulating hills of Camel Mountain are clearly visible. 【1】

A Gui, the deputy commander of the armed guard army and the former president of the wing, stood in the southwest corner tower of Anshan Post Fort, holding a telescope, and was watching the enemy situation in the south with a group of military generals.

The walled fort under his feet was originally built by the Liao Dynasty, and then built as a brick city in the Ming Dynasty, abandoned during the Liaodong War in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, and it was abandoned again because it lost its military value.

From the 20th year of the Holy Dao, as part of the Manchurian back road plan, the Shengjing general Yamen rebuilt the Anshan Post Fort, and formed a fortress line with Liaoyang, Haicheng, Niuzhuang City, Yaozhou City, and Tianzhuangtai [2]. Even if the Manchu court was numb, it also felt the changes in military strategy in this era, and Yinghua, with its strong maritime power, was very likely to avoid the line of the Liaoxi Corridor and land directly from Tianzhuangtai, and approach Shengjing from this line, after all, this line was the shortest and straightest.

The Anglia Northern Expedition, Han Zaixing led the Seventh Army into Liaodong to confirm this, Tianzhuangtai, Yaozhou City, Niuzhuang City, and Haicheng were broken one after another, and the Anshan defense line with Anshan Post Fort as the core became the last barrier of Liaoyang City, and Liaoyang went north to Shengjing for 100 miles.

To guard Shengjing is to guard Liaoyang, to guard Liaoyang must guard Anshan, this is already the consensus of the armed guards led by A Gui and others, there are thousands of mountains in the east of Anshan, there are Hala River in the west, there is Shahe River in the north, there is Anshan River in the south, and there are mountains such as Yufoshan Mountain between the two rivers, which is the most suitable to block the army.

Their Manchurian Five Tigers not only have a bloody bravery, but they are also calm enough militarily, knowing that the Yinghua Red Clothes are not a frontal enemy, and they must use the right time and place.

"This is the last battle, and our goal is to make a draw and play a peaceful ...... for a few years."

Ah Gui is not only the youngest among the five tiger generals, but also the calmest, listening to his subordinates discussing how to kill the red clothes to the point of blood, he lightly poured a scoop of cold water on everyone.

These words are exactly the same as the tone of the Queen Mother, and some subordinates can't help but ask: "My lord, do you also agree with the Queen Mother's thirty-eight articles!?" ”

The terms of peace that Ru Xi handed over to the Emperor of the Holy Dao through Gui's father, Actun, had been widely spread among the Manchu clan, and the reason why the Wuwei army was able to gather the spirit of bloody war. It was precisely the prospect depicted by these clauses that was so terrifying that they would rather die than accept it, even if the Queen Mother explained that it was just a delaying tactic, they could not swallow this breath.

Now Ah Gui is also talking about the "peace situation", obviously not optimistic about the future situation, and his subordinates naturally faintly classified him into the "Queen Mother's Party".

Some subordinates said indignantly: "Lord E was killed, and the Queen Mother will never be able to get out of it!" I think that rumor is true! ”

Ortai was killed by a "mob", which hurt the morale of the armed guards. If it weren't for the Queen Mother's full support for the Wuwei Army, these tens of thousands of horses would really be reversed. Even so, as the person said, everyone thought that the Queen Mother at least connived at this matter. There is another rumor that is becoming more and more cold in the hearts of the people.

This rumor is not a new thing, more than 20 years of ups and downs, a long history, boiled down to one sentence: "The Queen Mother is the Holy Dao Emperor put into the Manchu tribe of spies", of course, there are many forms of expression, Daoguang Little Emperor Yongqi's mouth "The Queen Mother has been vicious and has become a puppet demon" is one of the examples.

Ah Gui rebuked angrily: "Lord E used to ruthlessly control the Green Flag people of the Han Army, and the die-hard elements took advantage of Lord Hu's loss of power to poison them. This could not be clearer! The Queen Mother is ordering a strict investigation to the end, how can you speculate out of thin air!? No more gibberish and confusion of the army's heart, when I dare not march the military law!? ”

In the battle of Lianshan Pass, Ah Gui established a high prestige, and as soon as Ortai went, he became the new leader of the Wuwei Army, and he was angry. The subordinates hurriedly cleaned up their distractions and made a thousand responses.

suppressed the dissent, but Ah Gui's own heart was churning, Ortai was probably really killed by the Queen Mother, and the Queen Mother let go of the Wuwei Army to fight, I am afraid that the Wuwei Army will be regarded as a dissident who must be eliminated, and a victim of peace with Yinghua.

This is not what Ah Gui wants, and he is also full of resentment towards the Queen Mother. But he had to admit that without the Queen Mother, not to mention the rumored Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors who were retired in Yinghua, as well as the abolished Emperor Jiaqing who had just defected to Yinghua, Yinghua only needed to use the Prince to make the Manchurian surrenderers and diehards fight to the death. Therefore, the Empress Dowager is really a full person.

And in the current situation, the only way for the diehards to go is to prove themselves on the battlefield, force Yinghua to make concessions with their own strength, and force the Queen Mother to admit that the Manchus still have the power to stand on their own.

For Ah Gui, the battle in front of him is the last battle.

Just as his mind was rolling, he heard his subordinates exclaim: "Red clothes! ”

Everyone raised their binoculars to look at the south, two miles away from the walled fort is the Anshan River, the river is forty or fifty zhang wide, and sporadic red-clothed figures appear on the opposite side of the riverbank.

"It's finally here, so slow......"

The pressure of the crimson figure was too great, which made everyone breathe lightly in an instant, and some people even showed heroism like this.

Today is August 6th, since Emperor Shengdao issued the "Liaodong Military Edict" to restore the land of Liaodong, it has been more than half a month now, Haicheng is less than fifty miles away from Anshan Post Fort, a horse and a flat river, and the red clothes have not appeared.

"Han Zaixing is gathering troops to sharpen his ......"

Ah Gui's face was also quite heavy, he did not tell his subordinates in detail, when the spies sneaked to the Grange to investigate, almost thought that he had gone to the wrong place, a grand port and town replaced the original small fishing village, the steam engine roared and shook the sky, the black smoke condensed into clouds, the tide of soldiers and civilians was innumerable, and the sails on the sea covered the sky and the sun.

Yinghua actually did both military and civilian affairs at the same time, and built a new seaport, in the eyes of Emperor Shengdao and even Yinghua, the future of Liaodong is no accident.

"The red clothes don't dare to cross the river, ha, they are also afraid of our armed guards!"

Seeing that the scattered red clothes were hovering on the other side of the river, without any intention of crossing the river, the generals gradually became angry.

Then it was dark in front of them, but it was actually just a thing, but it was too unexpected, and suddenly attracted everyone's attention, and only then did they have the illusion of dark light.

"That's ...... Flying Eye ......"

Seeing a huge balloon rising on the other side of the river, Ah Gui's pupils constricted, and his mouth was slightly bitter. Everyone has heard of this thing, and the defeat of Gaoqi Kip Stone Pass is that the ambush was seen through by this thing.

The generals were numb, they pinched the binoculars, thinking that they could see each other clearly, but the other party raised such a flying eye, and the movement of the entire Anshan Post Fort was meticulous.

Ah Gui's face was unusually calm, and he ordered his subordinates to calm the army's mind, and a general suggested: "What comes must be only a small stream of red clothes." We should cross the river and storm and take their flying eyes! ”

Ah Gui was also moved, looked at the river again, shook his head and said, "It will take a lot of time to cross the river, I'm afraid it's too late." ”

The Anshan River in the south is forty or fifty zhang wide, and it is summer, but it is not easy to transport hundreds of people across the river, not to mention the defense plan. All the boats from Liaoyang to Anshan were towed ashore, and this plan had to be abandoned.

On second thought, this river is in the way of itself, and it is also in the way of the red clothes. The crowd was relieved again.

The defender of Anshan Post Fort, the commander of the front wing of the Armed Guards, Solne, arched his hand and said: "There is a river, there is a fort, there are people, and there are cannons, Anshan Post Fort is impregnable!" Now that the red clothes have come, please go back to Camel Mountain to preside over the overall situation! ”

The entire Anshan defense line is divided into two lines, one is the camel mountain and the Anshan post fort, and the two points are separated from the two sides of the Anshan River near the "Z" turn. Garrisoned by part of Ah Gui's front wing, relying on the Shahe River and Yufo Mountain, it gathered 40,000 elite soldiers of the Wuwei Army and nearly 30,000 Korean soldiers.

There are 1,000 soldiers and more than 10 general cannons stationed here in Anshan Post Fort, and 2,000 soldiers and a number of artillery pieces are placed on Camel Mountain, backed by Anshan River, and the two are echoing. It is said to be a defensive line, but in fact it is a strong stronghold divided into two places.

Ah Gui was not arrogant enough to rely on the few people under his command to block the entire tide of red. I only hope that this line of defense can be held long enough to disrupt the rhythm of the red clothes, and when the red clothes enter the second line of defense, there will be an opportunity.

What is the opportunity to take advantage of, that is, to fight with the red clothes, the art of war has been stagnant for a long time, and its momentum is uncontrollable, which is not only to say that the enemy is unstoppable. It's hard to control yourself.

Solne's confidence also infected Ah Gui, but he waved his hand and said: "The red clothes boast of their strength, and those who can walk straight will never take a corner, they should not bother to attack Camel Mountain, but only here." The usefulness of Camel Mountain is that it can only attack here from the south and southeast with a high deterrent. The main battlefield is here, I'll take a look at ......"

As soon as the word "look" fell, they heard the roar of artillery in the direction of Camel Mountain in the west, and everyone was shocked, and Ah Gui, who said that the red-clothed man would not attack Camel Mountain, turned even pale.

Carefully distinguished, in addition to the sound of the Wuwei Army's own cannons, there was also a brighter cannon, this was obviously a red-clothed artillery, everyone was puzzled, only red-clothed sentries appeared in the south, how could there be red-clothed artillery in the west? Could it be that the Redcoat Brigade came from the west by a small road?

Listening to the sound of this cannon again, when it sounded again after the intermission, it was getting closer and closer, and everyone looked at each other, what is the situation?

Thinking of a possibility, Ah Gui's face suddenly turned whiter, like paper.

After a while, a puff of black smoke came into view, and then a strange and inexplicable guy appeared from the bend of the river, from north to south, bypassing the camel mountain camp, and gradually approaching the Anshan Post Fort under the horrified gaze of A Gui and his generals.

"Boat!"

"No oars? Didn't masturbate? No sails!? ”

"It's a steamboat! But what about its wheels!? ”

The generals exclaimed, but Ah Gui didn't make a sound, but his heart had fallen into the abyss.

Damn, how did you forget about the waterway!?

Ah Gui hated to pull out a knife and slam his head, he should have thought of it a long time ago!

From Tianzhuangtai to Liaoyang can not only be a road on land, in the Qin and Han dynasties and even the Tang Dynasty, the Liaohe River can be used for big ships, and the Hunhe River that leads directly to Shengjing can also accommodate a thousand stone big ships to sail, and Sima Yi directly led the naval army from the mouth of the Liao River into Xiangping City (Liaoyang), and destroyed Gongsun Yuan who was entrenched in Liaodong.

After all, this is a thousand-year-old thing, and it is also a big river like the Liaohe Hunhe River, and Sima Yi also took advantage of the heavy rain and the moon to soar before the Liaohe River could go straight to Liaoyang. The current water level is far from being compared with the ancient times, and the Shahe River and Anshan River are not as deep and wide as the Liaohe River and the Hunhe River, but it is still possible to drive Liaoyang directly by light boats! Even if they can't transport a large army, transporting a partial division is enough to collapse the Liaoyang defense line they originally set.

Ah Gui and the others didn't think about the waterway problem, otherwise they wouldn't have collected all the boats, and the sentry detectives never reported that Yinghua was building boats and ships, and the strength of the red-clothed land battle was too strong, so this possibility was not left in their minds.

Now it seems that the red clothes are coming so slowly, not only sharpening knives, but also transporting ships and steamboats!

The boat on the river was getting closer and closer, close to the towering shipbuilding on the deck, and the red and white dragon flags fluttering on the ship's tower were clearly visible, and the shielded guns in the front and back of the shipbuilding were even more terrifying, and the muzzles of the guns were rapidly turning from the direction of Camel Mountain to point directly at the fort.

"Fire! Fire! ”

"Sink it!"

The generals shouted in horror, it turned out to be a gunboat equipped with a bee cannon!

The sound of cannon was incessant, and before the military order could be passed, the artillery on the northwest fort wall had already opened fire on its own, and the fort wall was full of small cannons such as Franc machines, and the water column on the river surface was everywhere, which had no effect on the advancing gunboat.

Tom tom ......

The clear sound of cannons resumed. The culprit who caused the shelling of Camel Mountain before was indeed this gunboat, and this quite different cannon sound just entered the ears of Ah Gui and others, and at the same time, two clouds of smoke and dust burst out in front of them, and large pieces of broken bricks and stones erupted from the west fort wall, which were sprinkled like raindrops.

Including Ah Gui, everyone subconsciously threw themselves on the ground, and at that moment, except for the dead people flying in the air. There are no living people standing in the entire Anshan Post Fort.

Two guns, just a small gunboat with only two guns, silenced Anshan Post Fort.

The gunboat was spitting black smoke and dragging a white tail behind its tail. Proudly passing in front of the Anshan Post Fort, the shield fort swayed, and everyone could see that this was a demonstration.

"Fire! Great general cannon, boom it! ”

In a panic, Ah Gui's shout sounded, which immediately cheered up the officers and soldiers in the walled fort, we also have cannons!

On the central fort of the walled fort, several twelve-pound general cannons roared. Thanks to the progress of materials and technology, especially the Yinghua artillery manufacturing technology that spread outward through informal channels, the artillery of the Wuwei Army can barely make a 3,000-kilogram cannon and fire 12-kilogram shells, and at the same time, it also has a simple shooting watch system, and the shooting accuracy has improved a lot.

Two miles away on the river, a huge column of water continued to rise, and the gunboats finally sensed the threat. Not only is it accelerating, but the artillery fire that fought back is also more intense, and the southern fort wall is also constantly spewing out columns of smoke, Ah Gui and the others are strictly guarded by the soldiers in the dead corner under the corner tower, feeling the endless tremor of the air and the ground.

I don't know how long it took to bombard, but suddenly cheers rang out in the fort.

"Hit!"

"Stranded!"

Ah Gui and the others climbed up the corner tower full of devastation. Seeing the river in the distance to the southeast, the gunboat did not know whether it was stranded or hit, so it stopped on the river, motionless, and the cannon on its tail did not move again, and the soldiers on the boat were in a mess. The towering chimneys were also gone.

"it!"

The morale of the generals was greatly boosted, and the fort was more diligent, when the gunboat, which was parked three or four miles away, was beaten like a water dog.

In the midst of the lively fighting, a hissing sound suddenly sounded in the air, and then a shell seemed to fall from the sky, constantly bombarding the fort, not only the fort wall was shattered like paper paste, but the fort battery continued to crack, a cannon was smashed by a shell and jumped on the spot, suspended in the air and disintegrated, and the fragments of parts that flew out almost swept away the living people on the fort.

"Cannon, where did the cannon come from!?"

Before, it was just a shock, but now it is chaos, and Anshan Post Fort is boiling.

"Over there! Another ship! ”

"There is more than one, where did Nanban get so many steamships!"

The shelling was so intense and concentrated that it was mixed with the sound of the shelling in the fort that everyone could not tell where it came from, and some people saw another steam cannon ship on the northwest river, screaming and screaming. Then someone saw more than a puff of black smoke, corrected it with a higher and sharper call sign.

"Stupid, it's South!"

Ah Gui saw with his own eyes a round solid cannonball coming from the south, grazing the female wall, as if it was a water drift, jumping slightly, smashing through the fort fort, penetrating the north fort wall, tearing at least a dozen people along the way, smashing two cannons, and opening two large openings in the fort wall.

This is twenty catties, no, the power that a thirty-pound cannon can have......

Ah Gui was about to raise his binoculars to observe the situation on the other side of the river to the south, but the scene was clearly visible through the frenzied smoke and dust, and he stayed on the spot, and even stopped breathing.

Red clothes, like a flush, spread out on the other side of the river, and countless small cannons were launched to cover both sides of the river. Dozens of strange carts leaned against the river, dumping boats directly into the river, connected by ropes between the boats, and the oarsmen rowed the head boats to the opposite bank. There are also large carts that are constantly unloading wooden planks like shutters, and when the boat reaches the shore, these planks are laid on the boat to become a pontoon bridge.

came, the red clothes not only came, but also came out with all their might......

Looking at the direction of Camel Mountain again, Ah Gui woke up, and the bitterness flowed all over his body, this line of defense, not to mention letting the red clothes fight out the fire, I'm afraid he can't even sweat, of course, he is already sweating at this time.

Two miles on the south bank of the Anshan River, on a hot air balloon at a height of thirty or forty zhang, the lookout post held a high-powered telescope, even if he exhausted his eyesight, he could not see the situation in the fort clearly, so he reluctantly turned to the river to check the gunboat that had stopped due to the failure of the steam engine and became a live target.

On the west side of the pontoon bridge, which was gradually taking shape, two gunboats slowed down and kept bombarding the artillery positions of the Wuwei Army on Camel Mountain at the bend of the river, and under the hot air balloon, more than a dozen 30-pound guns lined up, and the cannons rang out incessantly, sending shells into the already boiling Anshan Post Fort.

Behind the artillery position, the flaming red crowd pulled out a long queue and stretched southward, stretching for dozens of miles, and countless trucks carried artillery, bridge components and all kinds of materials, accompanying the crowd to the north.

On a hillside on the side of the long dragon, Pan Shiyu said leisurely on his horse: "I really want to know what the Manchurian Five Tigers will think when they come to such an army as ours." ”

Zhang Zhennan, the commander of the 109th Division beside him, said: "Bet with my knight's money, they don't have the time to think about anything except eating ashes." ”