It has been a year and a half since Liu Xian raised his army.

swept the whole of South China, and the Qing Dynasty spent an unknown amount of military spending, but it couldn't stop the decline at all. If it weren't for the constant blood transfusion of foreigners to 'my Great Qing Dynasty' and the loss of wealth, not only would the great drought of the past two years be ignored, but even the officials' salaries and the hardcore crops of the 12 million children of the Eight Banners would not be able to come up with real money.

After the mourning of southern Jiangsu, the transportation of water was cut off, and the price of coarse grains in Beijing was higher than the price of white rice two years ago.

At least half of the three million quintals of rice that Liu Xian persuaded Zeng Guoquan to surrender were shipped to Beijing, and the remaining half were scattered in the vast Central Plains, the Loess Plateau, and the Weihe Plain. Moreover, the price of grain is so high that the rice merchants in the two regions can have blood-red eyes after hearing this.

The Qin army exchanged it to the north at the price of one silver dollar and a load of rice, and when they arrived in Taiyuan, they could buy ten taels of silver and a load of gray rice mixed with a lot of sand.

This Zeng Guoquan's original wish was absolutely the opposite.

Wang Qing already had the real evidence in his hand, and Liu Xian didn't let him send it immediately. He had to wait until the dust of the Huai'an War settled, and then deal a heavy blow to the crumbling country of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Let the people of the world thoroughly recognize the hateful and hateful ugly face of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

After the shipping and investment promotion bureau represented by Zhu Qiang was included in the Qin army, it was changed to the steamship of the Beiyang Shipping Company, and it was necessary to go to Tianjin, Yantai and other places, whether it was the Huai army, the green camp, the Han officials, or the full staff, all of them greeted each other with a smile, and they were not once detained and pinched. Why? Isn't it because they are selling grain to the north?

In the past few months since Shanghai changed hands, the financial income of the Beiyang Shipping Company has been almost equal to that of the Nanyang Shipping Company, because the grain business is too big and easy to do.

During this period, the Huai army was a very important link in the middle. This time, Li Hongzhang raised an army to go south. All the silver is plucked, and the military is spent on the army. The cost of material food and straw is all borne by the Huai army. I didn't ask Beijing for a penny of silver, and I did a lot of credit to the grain business. Of course, no matter how much money is made by the grain voice, Huai Jun has only been doing it for a few months, and this time Li Hongzhang has dried up his own family.

Therefore, in this battle of Huai'an, since Li Hongzhang began to recruit troops and horses to the south, no one in the government and the opposition in Beijing City said that Li Er was a dog thief.

People didn't stretch out their hands to ask the court for silver, and they were a piece of unmatched loyalty.

In these years, the war was fought for silver. Li Er took out his own family to fight against the thieves, if this was not a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Kingdom would all be called sanctified.

The first shot of the Battle of Huai'an was fired on March 12.

The cavalry reconnaissance units on both sides bumped into each other on the shore of Gaoyou Lake. There was no close-range fighting, only shooting from a distance, the Qin army lost two horses, one was seriously wounded, the Huai army killed two people, and two horses were captured.

In the evening of the same day, the Huai army took the lead in launching a large-scale offensive!

The attacking force was the left flank of the Wuyi Army, led by the general soldier Wu Hongluo, and Nie Shicheng and Chen Fenglou led the troops to the end. This Wu Hongluo is quite unknown. Based on Liu Xian's understanding of the Huai Army, it was not Wu Hongluo who suddenly popped up, he didn't know that there was such a person in the Huai Army. But Wu Hongluo himself is indeed a fierce general of the Huai Army, and he is extremely brave in battle. At the age of twenty-two, he was ordained a Registered Soldier. After assembling the troops, the Qing army was soon dispatched.

The Qing army's target was the line of Gujiawan in Bishui Town. This is the forefront of the Qin army.

Niu Jianqi, the battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Brigade of the 4th Division, who was resting in Fanshui Town, was woken up by his subordinates and hurriedly rushed to the front-line position. Although his eyes could not see the movement of the Qing army, he could only listen with his ears. He didn't need to shoot a flare, he knew that the Qing army was going to make a move. Because the voices between the actions of the Qing army were not ordinarily loud. Niu Jian immediately ordered: "Go quickly and inform the artillery position." The whole army was ordered to prepare for battle. ”

At the same time, Feng Jingshan, the deputy battalion commander who stayed in Bishui Town, also climbed to the top of the main building of Bauhinia Garden, the tallest building in the town, and watched the movement in front of him with blazing eyes.

A flare rose at the right time, and the bright white and blue light shone on the earth, and the upcoming actions of the Qing army were clearly seen by the officers and soldiers on the front line positions of the Qin army. No wonder the sound is so loud that you can hear it clearly from afar. It turned out to be a cart.

"Tell the mortar squadron to knock out those cars. Artillery positions are not to be moved. Feng Jingshan naturally did not wait in vain for the Qing army to be ready to attack, and immediately ordered the mortar squadron outside the town to prepare to move, and at the same time signaled the artillery position to continue to conceal so as not to leak the position.

A lantern on the main building of Bauhinia Court was shining, emitting a signal outside the town. At the same time, the lookout also took advantage of this period of light to quickly predict the distance of the Qing army, and then transmitted the number to the artillery position outside the town, and the tools were also a horse lantern and a black cloth cover.

"Boom, boom, boom-" Just as the Qing army was pushing the shield cart full of sandbags and dirt bags into position, the mortar squadron at the rear of the battle line was the first to fire out shells.

At this time, the Qing army column at the back of the shield car.

"Brothers, listen carefully." A Qing army officer wearing iron armor tapped the iron armor on his chest with a scabbard, and the sound of 'bells' was heard immediately.

"It's all iron. After our team went to the battlefield, we didn't care whether the cannons and guns of the rebels hit or not, we just hid behind the shield cart and honestly hid. It's going to be slow, but it's still going to be able to move forward. The shield cart was loaded with so many sandbags and dirt bags, and the shells exploded, and it didn't necessarily kill everyone. So don't run around in a panic, and don't be able to find death, if you are hit by a cannon, the body will not recognize you even if your father and mother come. ”

"Let's save our lives, be smart!"

"Remember clearly, when the shield cart came to a hundred meters in front of the rebel line, it fired first, and after fifty meters, it began to throw grenades, and when it was the last thirty meters, one by one, they all used all their strength to rush forward and rush forward. Hold the handle of the knife tightly. Each of the surviving landers in this period has given you a credit, and each person who died burned two copies of the silver in the land. ”

"Before leaving, a bowl of Zhuangxing wine, I, Yu Qinglin, will respect the brothers with a bowl." This officer really didn't want to take on this errand at all, but there was no way, the battalion was selected from above, and even the battalion officers were in battle, so what else did he have to talk about as a small squad officer? With a wave of his hand, more than a dozen Qing soldiers who had been waiting on the side for a long time walked into the team of Qing soldiers in armor with a wooden plate full of wine bowls. Let Yu Qinglin take a bowl of wine first, and then disperse into the group of Qing soldiers in front of him.

One battalion and five teams, more than 500 people, with one repeating pistol and five grenades. Such equipment is definitely the first-class elite in the Huai army, but who could have expected that the Huai army gave this battalion head such equipment just so that more than 500 soldiers would have the opportunity to wear iron armor and carry large blades to rush into the defense line of the Qin army.

"It's done!"

"it...... Dry! ”

Then there was the sound of the bowl breaking.

The preparations of the Qing army were still very good, and Zaben was very large. In order to cover the advance of the shield car, more than 30 artillery pieces were directly pulled, divided into three positions, and fired. Before the soldiers of the armored battalion entered the battlefield, it was equivalent to saying that before the battle really began, there was a burst of artillery bombardment, and almost all the shells fell on the Qin army's battle line.

In the town, Feng Jingshan hated a lot, and the first round of artillery of the Qing army seemed to have leaked the target, but it made Feng Jingshan involuntarily think of another question - could it be that the more than 30 artillery pieces that leaked out on his own initiative were just a decoy for the Qing army?

There was only one infantry battalion in Bishui Town, plus part of the artillery battalion directly under the division, with sixteen three-inch breech guns.

If the Qing army fights so carefully, it will be very bad for our own army.

But such a situation could not allow the Qing army to continue. The artillery fire of the Qing army has begun to extend to the mortar squadron, and if it continues, it will be as the Qing army wishes.

"Order the artillery team, knock them out."

Feng Jingshan did not doubt the strength of the artillery position. The artillery position of the Qing army, which leaked out first, spewed out the fire in the dark night as bright as a lighthouse on the sea.

The artillery shells of the Qing army crossed the front-line positions, and still rained down on the north of Bishui Town, not only the mortar positions that may be stored, but also the fortified areas in the north of the town, and even the residential areas in the north of the town, all within the coverage area, it seems that the Qing army's plan tonight is not small!

"Damn, now the north end of the town is like a hot red soldering iron, constantly smashing with a heavy hammer. Every time the shell landed, there was a boom. ”

"I've done it all carefully. Fight for a triple shot and knock out two enemy artillery positions. And then at the fastest speed standard third-"

The artillery commander, a major, shouted loudly from the artillery position.

"Launch!"

When the gun emplacements were ready, the gunners looked at the commander standing at the front of the position. The commander slashed the red flag in his hand downward. The whole person squatted down.

"Boom, boom, boom......" A series of cannon sounds sounded behind him, and the flames from the sixteen cannons turned his head into a sea of fire.

"Whoosh-" A dazzling light pierced diagonally from the front-line position at the right time, illuminating the battlefield.

"Test again!" Feng Jingshan's voice sounded again. In fact, there was no need for him to repeat the command, and the lookout on the roof had already picked up the measuring instrument the moment the light was on.

The number was once again passed down from the roof, but not to the artillery positions, but to the transferred mortar squadrons. The artillery crews did another check, and then there was a continuous roar of cannons.

"Let the troops speed up the attack—"

Looking at the shining flares in the sky, a trace of solemnity flashed in Wu Hongluo's eyes, such a thing is really in the way. Although when he first heard that Qin Jun used fireworks to light up at night, he laughed happily.

This time and that time!

Wu Hongluo quickly got rid of the shadows, and his eyes stared at the battlefield again. The flares are not afraid, as long as the artillery team can make contributions tonight, then they should be able to take the lead and win the jackpot in this battle.

Although for this 'jackpot', the overall price paid by Wu Yijun is huge. But now the Huai army has this capital to squander, and Lord Zhongtang has gathered an army of 50,000, and he is not afraid of sacrifice, as long as he can achieve results. (To be continued......) R1292