The Imperial Chinese Navy has now barely entered the steam age, and the embarrassing thing is that although the warships used are steam-powered, but the coal stations along the way are pitiful, taking the Yangtze River as an example, if the naval warships want to get coal supplies, they can only get coal supplies in Shanghai, Jiangyin Naval Base, and Nanjing Naval Base, and then Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Dangtu, Anqing, these cities along the river also have private coal supply stations, However, because most of the coal in it is not imported British anthracite for the navy, and the power is small when burned, it is easy to damage the shipboard steam engine, so unless it is a last resort, the navy's warships generally will not choose low-quality coal for civilian use.

If it is along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, it can only obtain relatively sufficient coal supply in Huai'an and Xuzhou, and then although the navy has set up a coal supply station in the Taiqian area south of Liaocheng and adjacent to the Yellow River, the stock is quite small.

In fact, it is better along the Yangtze River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, if the mission is carried out in some small and medium-sized rivers, it is impossible for the navy's gunboats to be replenished with coal.

This is so troublesome in the coal supply of inland rivers, if it is out of the Yangtze River estuary to the coast, this coal supply is even more troublesome, so considering the difficult situation of coal supply, the navy in the design of new ships, often pay more attention to endurance, so as not to run halfway because there is no coal and lie down.

In addition to its relatively high endurance, its armament capability has also been improved, and its main gun is a 24-pounder front-loading smoothbore cannon, and there are also three 9-pounder naval guns.

Originally, the navy also wanted to equip the Dangtu-class gunboat with rear-loading rifled guns, but due to cost problems, it could not be done, and the price of this 120-mm rear-loading ship gun had to be several thousand, and how much did the hull and power of this Tu-class gunboat add up? The Shanghai shipyard offered only 28,000 yuan, if it was to be equipped with the most advanced breech-loading rifled guns. It just can't be drawn.

And if the cost is too high, it does not conform to the Navy's positioning of these inland river gunboats, that is, cheap and large number of river support ships.

Those high-priced breech-loading rifled guns are only matched by those capital ships of the cruiser class and above of thousands of tons, and other small ships are wasted.

However, it is naturally impossible for the navy to use these backward front-loading smoothbore guns all the time, and now they are ready to order a part of the medium- and large-caliber front-loading rifled guns to replace the front-loading smoothbore guns and use them as cheap guns in the navy. It is mainly assigned to inland waterway vessels and some non-main vessels.

One was a Dangtu, with two Xingwu-class gunboats all the way to the downstream with a faint white smoke, and they were going to Changqing and Jinan to carry out their missions.

The three gunboats were gone, and there were still a large number of ships on the side of Xigu Village, and several auxiliary steam ships of the navy did not stop for a moment, they were busy hauling the unpowered pier ships as predetermined locations, and then together with the army's engineering troops, these ships were anchored and fixed, and then many wooden planks were laid on the piers of the ships, and they were fixed.

With the mutual cooperation of the naval and land armies. The pontoon bridge stretched quickly to the opposite bank at a speed visible to the naked eye, and when night approached, although the sight was not good, the engineering troops and navy still lit many torches and continued to work.

When it was not yet dawn the next day, many soldiers who had only rested for five or six hours just got up, hurriedly ate breakfast, and then started work again.

Continuing the project that they did not complete yesterday, the main project of the entire pontoon bridge has been basically completed, and the engineers are mainly carrying out bridge deck reinforcement and inspection. Avoid any quality problems, if the army is crossing the river when the pontoon bridge comes to a break or something. That's a big problem.

At about eight o'clock in the morning, the troops of the Sixth Army were arriving in Xigu Village, with a cavalry company coming first, followed by an infantry battalion.

In fact, these two units arrived in Xigu Village yesterday and provided cover for the construction troops, and the pontoon bridge was completed today. They were also the first troops to cross the river, because they needed to cross the river in advance, and then open up the forward positions for the subsequent troops to cross the river, so as not to be attacked by the Qing army.

After all, even if you are not a military strategist, you know this kind of thing, and everyone knows that the army is relatively vulnerable when it is crossing the river. Therefore, before the army officially crosses the river, it must be prepared in advance, and it is also very necessary to send the vanguard to cross the river in advance and provide cover.

This cavalry company and infantry battalion did not stay long in Xigu Village, and soon became the first unit of the Sixth Army to cross the river, crossing the Yellow River through the pontoon bridge that seemed to be still ricketering, and then arrived at the south bank area, after arriving at the south bank, the cavalry company quickly dispersed, and then reconnoitred the outlying areas, as for the infantry battalion, it dug fortifications on the spot, ready to wait for the arrival of the main force of the Sixth Army.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the second batch of troops of the Sixth Army also arrived one after another, this is an infantry regiment of the Ninth Infantry Division under the Sixth Army.

At about twelve o'clock in the afternoon, the rest of the main forces of the Ninth Division began to cross the river one after another, and in fact, at this time, the main force of the Sixth Army had all arrived at Sigu Village, but there was only one pontoon bridge, and this pontoon bridge was not too big, and it could not accommodate too many troops to cross the river at the same time, so it had to wait slowly.

The crossing of the river by the Sixth Army lasted for a whole day, and the crossing of the river by pure infantry was relatively fast, but the crossing of the river by those baggage troops was more troublesome, and it was not easy for so many artillery and ammunition vehicles and horses to pass quickly.

This artillery plus the ammunition truck towed by the back, and then the more than a dozen mules and horses pulled by the cannon and the cart, this weight is not light, and the pontoon bridge of the Chinese army is also relatively small, and the load capacity is relatively limited, if the artillery and so on are crowded together, maybe it will have to sink the river directly, so the crossing of the river by the baggage troops has to be spaced apart, and this will slow down the crossing time even more.

Strictly speaking, the Sixth Army began to cross the river in the morning, and then waited until night approached to complete the crossing of the main force, and then the engineers began to dismantle the pontoon bridge that had been erected with great difficulty.

Because if this pontoon bridge crosses the Yellow River, the ships will be cut off. The Chinese army of the Northern Expedition now mainly relies on inland river transportation for supply, and this army is still followed by batch after batch of fleets, if the pontoon bridge is not removed, the navy's gunboats will not be able to go back and forth is still a trivial matter, and it will be a big trouble if the supply fleet cannot pass.

As a result, the pontoon bridge, which took more than 2,000 officers and men of the Navy and Army to build, took only one day. Then the center of the river was demolished to ensure the navigability of the river, and the remaining two sides were left for later use.

After the Sixth Army crossed the Yellow River, it was less than twenty kilometers away from Changqing!

And this is not enough time for the normal marching speed of a large army.

The Sixth Army successfully crossed the river and was only less than a day's journey away from Changqing, which made Duxing'a, who was in Changqing, even more depressed.

Since yesterday's failed attack, Duxinga has once again led his army to attack today, although today's attack is smoother than yesterday's. even once conquered a section of the Chinese army's breastwork, but in the end it was repulsed, resulting in a day of hard fighting except for heavy casualties among the soldiers on both sides, there was no gain.

Looking at the brightly lit position of the First Division of the Chinese Army in the night, Du Xing'a sighed deeply!

Then he turned around and said, "Let's go!" ”

After two days of hard fighting in Changqing, Du Xing'a failed to completely defeat the first division of the Chinese army as expected, and if he continued to stay, it would not be long before Shi Qingxuan's main force would arrive in Changqing, and it would be difficult to reach the enemy's main attack with the imperfect fortifications in the small county town of Changqing. So he wants to go back to Jinan.

He has been operating in Jinan for more than half a year, and he has already built a relatively complete defense system. When the time comes, if you come to defend Jinan, even if you can't hold Jinan in the end, there is still hope for three or five months, what if there are other turnarounds in these three or five months?

Duxinga is leaving!

Naturally, it is impossible to hide from Song Xiangtang on the other side!

"The enemy has already begun to evacuate, and it will be too late if they don't chase them now, once they are allowed to flee back to Jinan. It's going to be more troublesome to fight later! ”

Song Xiangtang listened to the words of his subordinates, and also hesitated.

Pursue? It's still a big night to pursue, and this one is very easy to capsize in the gutter.

And after two days of hard fighting, although the position was finally held, the losses of the first division were not small!

Two days of fierce fighting. Du Xing'a almost mobilized all the troops that could be used to attack, and Song Xiangtang also used all the troops that could be mobilized to defend, and to this day, even the baggage soldiers of the baggage regiment have already picked up their rifles and entered the front line to be used as infantry.

In the two days of fierce fighting, the 1st Division also killed and wounded at least more than 15,000 enemy soldiers, of course, most of them were green battalions and regimental training that were used as cannon fodder by Duxing'a, but among these 15,000 people, there were at least 3,000 or 4,000 enemy New Army soldiers.

The losses of the First Division were not small, with nearly 1,500 men before and after, and the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, which was an auxiliary force, also suffered relatively large losses, almost more than half of them, and only more than 2,000 of the 4,000 men remained. Combined, the 1st and 9th Divisions lost at least 4,000 men.

Although the battle loss ratio is not bad, and it can reach three to one, in fact, the current 1st Division and the 9th Auxiliary Defense Division can be regarded as large losses.

Under such circumstances, it would be quite difficult to actively pursue the enemy army.

However, seeing that his subordinates were all leaping and trying, and then hearing them say that if Du Xing'a escaped back to Jinan, it might be even more difficult to fight later, Song Xiangtang also hesitated.

The risk of chasing this is not small, and if you don't chase it, you can run back to Jinan the next day, and even if the Sixth Army successfully arrives in Jinan and joins you, then you will have to gnaw on Jinan's fast bones, and the casualties will probably be greater.

After thinking for a long time, Song Xiangtang finally stood up and said, "Order, immediately pursue!" ”

He can't watch Duxing swagger back to Jinan! (To be continued......)