In September, the Northeast is already full of cold winds, and the cold air blowing from Siberia is raging in the Northeast. A few of the Sentinels at the head of Haicheng were hiding in the leeward, hushing in the hope of keeping some heat out.

"I really don't know when the military department will be able to send cotton clothes." A soldier complained in a low voice, but fortunately it was also cold, so he just tightened his clothes and shrank again.

"Hold on a little longer." Another soldier looked up at the sky that had just turned white: "When it's dawn and the people who change guards come up, we can go back to keep warm." After speaking, he glanced at the outside of the city, but glared fiercely: "Look, what is that?" ”

The soldiers followed the soldier's outstretched hand and saw a large number of figures like haystacks slowly approaching the sea city on the field in the distance.

"It's the Qing people, they want to attack Haicheng." As the words fell, a whistle sounded.

"Quick, get into combat position." At the urging of the non-commissioned officers, the soldiers who had just woken up from their sleep rushed to the city wall wearing military uniforms crookedly and holding guns. They all looked out.

"Poof." A burst of laughter rang out: "The Qing people are too stupid, where is this disguise." It is clearly a good target for the emperor [***] people. ”

The soldier in the summer yellow khaki cloth stuck a few weeds on the top of his head. Not to mention how clear the difference between the yellow uniform and the green field is, the weeds on top of the head don't even cover their heads. It's called camouflage. While laughing at the Qing people, the soldiers set up their guns, just waiting for the Qing people to rush forward and teach this group of cowardly Qing people a hard lesson.

The Qing [***] team was still moving slowly, but when they moved to about six or seven hundred meters, they suddenly all climbed down.

What are Qing people doing? This looks like a sneak attack, and it is clearly an order to attack but is afraid of death. Just when they were puzzled, a dense whistling of cannonballs sounded above their heads.

Boom, boom, knock, boom...... Qing artillery shells raged on the walls of Haicheng, and the collapsed houses and destroyed walls brought with them a splash of rubble. The severed limbs and stumps were also undulating from each other in the flying rubble.

With the artillery fire of Haicheng, the first counterattack of the Qing State on Haicheng began. To this end, Guangxu mobilized 56 artillery pieces to line up in front of Haicheng County. After a year of reserves for the sake of this war, the number of shells was abundant.

"Hide." The soldiers searched for what they thought were safe, but the stones falling from the sky smashed them into the head. With a bang, a huge stone on the city wall was thrown high by the explosion of the artillery, and then smashed the head of a soldier. Red and white splashed everywhere from the middle. Another soldier, who had run quickly to the hiding point, suddenly fell to the ground. Holding his left eye with his hands, he rolled on the ground in pain, blood pouring from his fingers. A flying stone hit him in the left eye. When the two soldiers saw this, they rushed up and tried to take him down. At this time, a shell fell among them, and when the smoke of the explosion began to fade, only a crater was left on the ground. ……

The artillery of the Japanese army began to fight back, but the damage caused was pitiful. The Qing army was too scattered, why couldn't they charge like warriors? The artillery that could counterattack was soon dumbfounded by the dense Qing artillery. When did the Qing army's artillery become so accurate?

Nonsense, this is the home of the Qing army. All positions have been measured on the spot, and with accurate shooting parameters, it can be inaccurate.

The artillery roared outside, but Nozu Michikan, who was in the headquarters at the moment, frowned.

Haicheng was a vital strategic support point for the Qing army on the Tianzhuangtai front. As long as the Qing army held Haicheng, even if Yingkou was lost, the second army could not boldly rush across the Liao River. After all, Yingkou is close to the sea on one side, and there is too little room for maneuver in strategy. But Haicheng is different, Yingkou, which lost Haicheng, is likely to be surrounded by interspersed in the case of being attacked from both sides. Moreover, Haicheng also controls the important passage north into Mukden. In Youpeng's plan in Shanxian County, after using a surprise attack to occupy Haicheng, he used Haicheng's important surname for the Qing army, relying on strong fortifications to consume the main force of the Qing army, and then counterattacking when the Qing army was exhausted. In order to defeat the Qing army at one time and completely destroy the Qing army's will to resist.

However, the Qing army retreated in a planned way in the previous battle of Haicheng, and it was clear that they wanted to take the initiative to abandon Haicheng. Moreover, the Qing army also built a large number of trenches in front of Niuzhuang, with the intention of relying on strong fortifications to defend and not attack, forcing the empire to consume a large amount of vital strength in the forced attack. When Nozu Michikan was ready to have a large number of casualties, the Qing army actually wanted to counterattack Haicheng?

If you want to counterattack Haicheng, then why did you give up in the first place? In the battle of Haicheng on the 17th, the Qing army retreated when it had full strength to launch a counteroffensive, so why wait until four days after the empire occupied it to launch a counteroffensive? Didn't the Qing people know that four days was enough time to repair all the fortifications? Could it be that the Qing people thought that it was easier to attack than to defend, and that there were fewer casualties? Or did the Qing army originally think that Haicheng was not important, but only a part of the Qing army's resistance, and now they found that Haicheng was important and wanted to recapture it? This shouldn't be possible, no matter how bad the Qing [***] team is, those generals can still understand. Unless the emperor of the Qing State forcibly ordered the abandonment of Haicheng, but after being persuaded by everyone, he remembered the importance of Haicheng and wanted to recapture it.

Thinking of this, Nozu Michikani figured it out at once. Qing Guo made such a low-level mistake, must it be that Qing Emperor who did not understand military affairs was commanding the army, he thought that he was omnipotent from above? A slight smile appeared on Nozu Michikan's face, since there is no need for the emperor's [***] team to face the strong fortifications, then the Qing people should face it, but the strategy of the general of Shan County in Haicheng was unexpectedly realized. Qing State, even if you have trained two strong armies, but under the leadership of the arrogant emperor, you can only go to ruin in front of the empire.

Five minutes later, the artillery fire of the saturation strike extended to the rear. The surviving Japanese troops under the raging artillery fire began to rush to their respective combat positions, because they all knew that the Qing army's charge was about to begin......

The Qing army in the distance began to speed up, but in his own eyes, it was no different from walking. He said that he climbed in front of the gun sight, only waiting for the Qing army to rush to the 400-meter position and open fire. But I have been waiting for a long time, and on the way from 600 meters to 400 meters, I said that I charged for a maximum of 25 seconds. But it took almost a minute for the Qing people to walk 500 meters. It swayed left and right on the march and moved like a duck.

It's 450 meters, and a captain is silently calculating the distance. But the scene in front of him made him dumbfounded again - the Qing army once again pounced. What are Qing people doing? Before he could figure it out, another burst of shells fell. Amid the roar of the shells, the troops who had just set up the blocking frame were once again blown up by the artillery fire. The captain crouched in the hiding spot, his eyes reddened. After these two rounds of shells, his brigade was completely finished.

After the artillery, he let the reserve troops into the blocking position while calling for help from the rear. The Qing army in front of him all stood up again and began to move forward slowly. Suddenly, one of the Qing troops climbed down again, and all the Qing troops climbed down at once. The captain hurriedly shouted: "All hidden." ”

But he waited for a while, only for a few cannons. The captain hurriedly stepped forward to look, only to see that the Qing army had already quickly run back to the position. It's really fast! This was the last thought of the captain in his life. Because a bullet fired from a sniper gun hit him accurately in the forehead.

What are the Qing people doing? The Imperial warriors were knocked out a large group by Qing artillery fire without firing a single shot. The city wall has long been destroyed by the artillery of the Qing people, and the old appearance has been lost, and the wailing emperor [***] team lies everywhere on the rubble and rubble. Enraged, Nozu Michikani and Katsura Taro risked their lives to the castle walls.

There was a cacophony of voices from the Qing position. In the binoculars, Nozu Michikani seemed to see the angry face of the man in the uniform of the Qing New Army, as if he was shouting something.

"Could it be that the Qing Kingdom is infighting again." Katsura Taro asked suspiciously: "Judging from the military uniform, the main force of this attack is the Feng army. The new army of the Qing State only assumed the role of command. ”

Nozu Michikani remembered Hirobumi Ito's words: Don't pin your hopes of victory on the weakness of the enemy, which in itself is a sign of cowardice. But the Qing State was still too big, and the Qing Emperor only conquered in person, and the Qing army had the courage to fight to the death with the empire in Haicheng. If there had been no internal strife in the Qing Kingdom, perhaps the fate of the empire would have to end up with the same hatred as Toyotomi Hideyoshi again.

Nozu Michikan replied in the affirmative: "The Qing people are too fond of infighting, and this is what gives the empire a chance. We want to take this opportunity to reverse the fate of the empire once and for all. Let the troops prepare, and the Qing State will attack again. ”

"How did you do it, why did you climb down one more time?" Shoushan was scolding the battalion commander who led the attack.

The battalion commander said aggrievedly: "Regiment commander, this is not when I turned around, I accidentally broke my foot and fell. ”

"Wei-foot-" Shoushan stared at the battalion commander in front of him with big lantern eyes: "Even if you break a foot, you can't fall." You are the officer leading the team, and all the soldiers are watching you. If you die, don't you have to attack? Substitution ...... below"

Not only the offensive troops, but even the artillery units. The veteran gunner scolded the recruits on the one hand, but taught the rookies hand in hand. The word rookie was invented by the emperor. For this shelling, the emperor organized all the literate soldiers in Tianzhuang Terrace into the artillery unit, so that the gunners in these new armies who could fire their guns every month taught these newcomers and "rookies" who didn't know anything.

Guangxu was quite satisfied with this attack. The skirmish line in the previous life, the saturated artillery attack, and the tactical action of the charge swaying from side to side. These New Army soldiers, who have already learned, are temporarily serving as instructors on the firing line, and they seem to be teaching well.

"Your Majesty, will it be too late to train the troops before the battle?" Michael, who had just come from Jinzhou, couldn't understand the emperor a little, in fact, he hadn't understood the country since he came to China. In particular, some of the emperor's seemingly bizarre ideas had high practical value in the army.

"There is an old Chinese saying that when you grind your guns, you will not be happy. It's better to train now than not to train at all. Moreover, practicing under enemy fire can lead to a faster grasp of various tactical requirements. ”

And Wang Shizhen's staff officers are gathering together to discuss some flaws in the previous tactics with encouragement.

"Your Majesty, the next wave of attacks is ready. Please give an order from the Emperor. Zhang Zuolin came forward to report.

Guangxu frowned: "I don't understand war, so why ask me why." You will see me as a lively one. In the future, this kind of tactical matter will be decided on its own. I don't interfere. ”

An hour later, the second charge of the Qing army began. Just like the first time, I retreated about 500 meters from the city. As a result, the Yue army saw in the telescope that there were constant quarrels among the Qing army. Regarding this strange way of attacking the Qing army, after consulting with Katsura Taro, Nozu Michikan came to the following conclusion: Although the Qing emperor personally conquered, he still failed to complete the unification of the Qing army. The empire still has a chance. (To be continued.) )