Inside the telegraph room of the Shanghai Affairs Times

The ticking sound rang through, but everyone's attention was focused on a telegraph that hadn't been ringing in two days. This telegraph was specially designed to receive telegrams from the Grange, and the telegraph operator on duty only crawled for a while when he was tired, and never dared to leave the telegraph machine. This is the only news in the whole of Shanghai that can directly receive news about the emperor from the fierce battle.

Suddenly, there was a sound from the telegraph, and it was the sound of a telegram coming in. All of a sudden, the whole telegraph room fell silent. The telegraph operator looked around at his colleagues, turned on the telegraph and began to receive. As soon as he received the first paragraph, the telegraph operator said excitedly: "It is a telegram sent by the emperor of Tianzhuang forwarded by Jinzhou." ”

The whole newspaper was boiling, and the emperor had news, and he couldn't help crying with joy.

The sound of the newspaper hall boiling spread outside, and the crowd that had been waiting anxiously outside the door for two days was all gathered outside the gate, and Sun Jianai, who was standing on the second floor and was explaining the righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Period, also stopped and turned to look inside the door.

The door was slammed open, and the telegraph operator rushed out, standing in front of Sun Jianai, and solemnly handed over the telegram: "My lord, I just received the telegram from Tianzhuang Taiwan forwarded from Jinzhou. ”

Sun Jianai took the telegram with trembling hands, then turned around and read loudly to the crowd outside the gate: "The emperor of the Qing Dynasty is still fighting, the army is still resisting, and the position is still in our hands. After speaking, he held up the telegram and waved it.

"Long live the Emperor—" I don't know who started shouting, and then the crowd boiled. Five minutes later, the telegraph operator handed Sun a telegram again.

"Reinforcements have arrived, and the First Division of the Qing Emperor's Army has defeated the invading army on all fronts. The emperor is already under the protection of our army. ”

Less than a minute later, another telegram came: "The main force of the Second Division of the Imperial Army of the Great Qing Dynasty broke through the encirclement of the Yue army, and the Yue army completely retreated. So far, in the battle of the Liaohe River, our army has won a complete victory. ”

"Long live the emperor, long live the emperor-" Shanghai is boiling, Guangzhou is boiling, Tianjin is boiling, Beijing is boiling, and the ministers of the Military Aircraft Department finally put down the stones in their hearts and let out a long breath.

In the imperial study, the telegraph operator jumped up happily: "The emperor is safe, we won, the Qing Dynasty has won......" The telegraph operator excitedly held up the telegram.

A "hum" came out of Cixi's nose. The emperor has just been out of danger, and a small telegraph operator is excited, so the subjects of this world have paid it back! In this way, the emperor easily gained huge popularity through the Qing War, so what is she, the queen mother?

"What kind of system is shouting in front of the Queen Mother?" Sun Yuwen on the side saw that Cixi's face was not good, and hurriedly stopped him.

The telegraph operator sat down unhappily. didn't think about it, but the telegraph operator who had already sat down muttered: "It's the emperor who won." ”

This sentence reached Cixi's ears, and Cixi was not happy. Slammed it on the dragon case, then got up and walked out. When the emperor was trapped, Cixi was worried. Once the emperor is really killed in battle or captured, how should the Qing Kingdom deal with it? So he asked Zai Yi to take his brother into the palace to say hello, in fact, to leave a way back for the Qing Dynasty. Now that the emperor has been on the battlefield and won the battle in the Liao River, when life is no longer worry-free, Cixi is even more worried. Once the emperor returns to Beijing with the soldiers of a hundred battles, this court in the world really wants to return to Guangxu? If she doesn't pay it back, what should she do?

Now that the emperor is safe, Cixi no longer has to stay in the imperial study. She returned to Zining Palace sullenly, but before she could sit down, Prince Li Shiduo came in a hurry.

"Empress Dowager Qi, Li Hongzhang Tianjin urgent. Shandong's army had forcibly crossed the Yellow River and was slaughtering all the way to Tianjin, and Li Hongzhang's Huai army was powerless to resist. ”

The frightened Cixi said in a panic: "Hurry up and send a report to Tianzhuangtai, and send a report to the emperor quickly." Immediately transfer the Liaodong troops to the south to block the army. ”

Big Mill Village

The gunshots were still ringing out, but they were getting farther and farther away from the village. In the courtyard in the center of the village, the five-star dragon flag hunted in the cold wind. The remnants of the 6th and 7th regiments of the 2nd Division, the 418 last living people have all gathered under the banner, and almost all of them can only rely on each other to stand up. Blood was visible everywhere on their faces and bodies. The tiredness on his face couldn't hide the perseverance in his bones. Under the dragon flag, Guangxu held the flagpole with his right hand, and the strip of cloth wrapped in the wound was still oozing blood.

"We won—" Guangxu looked at the wounded soldiers who had been fighting on the battlefield with him for five days, and couldn't help but snort for a while. Suddenly speechless. The body that had been fighting fiercely suddenly relaxed, and his whole body was out of strength.

There were no triumphant cheers, only a whimper. Then the whimpering grew louder and louder, and finally turned into a cry, all beyond blame. For five days, in the face of dozens of times the siege of the enemy, they did not fear. It was they who personally handed over the explosive packets to the soldiers who could no longer move, it was they who saw their brothers pull the explosives packs and cut them off for themselves, and it was they who carried the wounded soldiers who had been sent to the back to the fiercest positions with their own hands, and then watched them die one by one. It was they who pushed the body of every brother who had died in battle onto the broken trenches, so that the brothers who had died in battle could use their bodies to block the enemy's bullets for the brothers who were still alive......

They did not rejoice in victory, but wept for the brethren who had already departed. No one has the right to accuse them, let them cry happily, and after crying, they are a tough guy again.

Guangxu himself also shed tears in his eyes, recalling that there were more than 1,500 soldiers from the Seventh Regiment who came out of Tianzhuangtai, including the Seventh Regiment that was stubbornly guarding Nianfang Village, and now there are less than thirty percent left. Look at the team full of wounded soldiers in front of you, how many of them are already doomed to return to the battlefield after the battle. Wait for the next time the troops are assembled again, how many people will be able to walk into the queue in military uniforms.

"Heroes don't cry." Guangxu finally spoke: "It was your bravery that held back the enemy army and laid a solid foundation for the final victory of the main force. It is the glory of your fearlessly guarded military flag, so that it flutters in all directions on the land of the Qing Dynasty. So the hero doesn't cry, because it's you who have the last laugh. ”

Haha, one laughed. Hahaha...... Everyone laughed. "We won—" The indulging cheers resounded in the sky again, and the smile on the face still stained with tears was a bleak beauty, but the fortitude on the face never changed. This made all the other officers and soldiers present in awe.

"Salute-" Wang Shizhen said loudly: "Salute the heroes who still haven't given up in the predicament—"

"Return the gift. We are still on a military mission. ”

"Your Majesty, Weichen's rescue is late, and it is a capital crime." Outside the gate, Ouyang Zhenhua, the commander of the first division, was carried in. Ouyang Zhenhua got up from the stretcher and knelt on the ground.

"All of them, stand up-" Guangxu did not step forward to help Ouyang Zhenhua, but stepped back and let all the wounded soldiers line up. After the wounded soldiers finished lining up, Guangxu turned around and ran in front of Ouyang Zhenhua, who was kneeling, with both hands bent in a standard running posture. snapped his feet together, raised his right hand and saluted: "Report to the commander, the acting commander of the Second Division of the Qing Royal Army, Aixin Jueluo Zaiyan, was ordered to lead his troops to hold the position and wait for reinforcements, and the task has been completed, please instruct." ”

The scene fell silent, and they all looked at the standing emperor and the kneeling Ouyang Zhenhua.

"Bang" The flash sounded, and a foreigner just ran into the yard to see the scene in front of him, and he didn't have time to set up the camera to take a picture. Guangxu frowned, he knew this foreigner, it was White of the New York Times reporter in the Far East. When Guangxu personally conquered Tianzhuangtai, it was he who asked for an interview with the army. Guangxu did not agree to let him enter the front-line combat unit, because he was afraid that he would have an accident and the Americans would find some excuse, so he let him stay in the rear of Jinzhou. Now that the war here is a foregone conclusion, I saw that there was no danger, so I came up by myself.

Guangxu didn't take down his saluting hand, but just said softly: "If you are a soldier, you can only die standing and never kneel to live." ”

Ouyang Zhenhua stood up at this time. Guangxu looked at Ouyang Zhenhua's eyes and said again: "Report to the commander, the acting commander of the Second Division of the Qing Imperial Army, Aixinjue Luo Zaiyan, was ordered to lead his troops to hold the position and wait for reinforcements, and the task has been completed, please instruct." ”

Ouyang Zhenhua returned a military salute: "Because of your perseverance, you have won the final victory." Order: Return to the team. ”

"Yes." With Guangxu's standard turn back: "All have, turn left, return to the team, and run forward." After speaking, Guangxu let out a long breath, which spit out the burden that had been pressed on his heart for five days, and also spit out the strength to persist for five days. Guangxu, who had been sleepless in the war for five days, couldn't hold it anymore, his feet were soft and his eyes were black, and the whole person fell down like this.

"The Emperor's ......" highlighted the changes that had come, so that more than 400 soldiers who insisted on it with Guangxu rushed forward with a nervous face.

"Stand back, stand back, stand back...... I only heard a bolt pull, and the four hundred guns were staggered in front and back, and the emperor was surrounded tightly, and the muzzles of the four hundred guns were all facing the outside. Not only were the doctors and nurses who were called out of the way, but even Ouyang Zhenhua was pushed aside. They don't understand and don't need to understand why the emperor suddenly fell, they just know to protect the emperor.

"Brothers, don't be nervous." Ouyang Zhenhua saw a kind of fearlessness and determination in these veterans of the bloody battle with red eyes, and they wanted to protect the innermost part of the envelope, the emperor who had never taken a step back after fighting with them for five days. Ouyang Zhenhua approached cautiously, so as not to irritate these soldiers: "This is Lin Lianhui, the doctor who is on the Grange Terrace to see everyone's injuries, and this is the emperor's maid Liu Mei, you all know each other, right?" You don't want the emperor to lie down like this, let them go over and show the emperor. ”

The soldiers carefully moved out of the way, letting Lin Lianhui and Liu Mei pass. Lin Lianhui checked it, stood up and said: "The emperor is fine, but he is overworked from the battle, and he lost a lot of blood so much that he fainted. It only needs to rest for a few days, and there is no danger to life. After speaking, he motioned for the emperor to be carried down on a stretcher.

"Soldiers, look up, here are all my soldiers of the Great Qing Kingdom. He said that he had been repulsed. Put down your gun and rest, the emperor and you are safe. Ouyang Zhenhua dared to say loudly.

It's safe! More than 400 wounded soldiers all sat on the ground, and everyone's eyes suddenly became hollow, and they looked at one place blankly. Some people fell asleep, and some people fell asleep and never woke up.

"Lift them all down." Ouyang Zhenhua signaled, but the person shook for a moment.

Lin Lianhui hurriedly supported the swaying Ouyang Zhenhua: "My lord, you can also go down and rest." ”

"I'm afraid we'll have to wait a while." Wang Shizhen stepped forward and handed over a telegram: "Shandong said that the Third Army of the Qing Dynasty has crossed the Yellow River, and the imperial court requires us to transfer troops south to block it. This is a telegram from the imperial court. Liaohe was victorious, but the war was not over. (To be continued.) )