On an evening in the beginning of May in the eighteenth year of Guangxu, the sun that had burned for a day hung on the western horizon, and the afterglow of the setting sun burned the vast land of eastern Liaodong, and the red and purple sunset looked extremely sad. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Tranquil fields, verdant hills, and tranquil rivers make for a beautiful rural landscape. In the blink of an eye, there was a roar of cars and horses, and this peaceful pastoral beauty was broken.

On dirt roads, in the fields, on the hillsides, there were teams and clumps of gray, dusty armies, winding their backs to the sun and fleeing to the northwest. This is a team that knows at a glance that it has suffered defeat, there is no so-called formation, and there is no trace of life even with the soldiers who make up the team, the head that droops on the chest is so heavy that it cannot be lifted, and the strength of the past is long gone.

Even with the single-shot Mauser, this would seem to have become a superfluous burden in their hands, carrying, carrying, and carrying, with different postures and looking like they were going to be thrown away at any time.

The ragged coat was covered with mud and blood, making the dullness even more exhausting. The dust raised by the horse's hooves engulfed the brave soldiers. But no one dodged, just moved forward numbly. There was a depressing and dead air throughout the ranks.

On the vast plains of eastern Liaodong, this tide of rout is surging everywhere.

A mud-stained war horse ran along the official road. Riding on the horse was Ma Yukun, the governor of the rear camp of the Yi Army, at this time he curled up in the saddle, staring blankly at the rout soldiers rolling like a tide beside him, at this time his heart was bitter, quite unpleasant.

Defeated!

The defeat was so neat. After learning the news of the attack on the Port of Arthur. He was stationed in Dalian Bay and tried to organize an infantry battalion to recapture Lushun. But under the bombardment of the Lushun Battery, the 4th Battalion Horse Infantry Team actually did not block the blow of the North Korean army, and it was not its opponent at all.

Under the setting sun, the plains dyed golden by the setting sun left only a faint background in his eyes, which did not give much comfort to his wounded heart.

The horses marched slowly. Ma Yukun still sat in the saddle in a daze, not saying a word. The subordinates on the side looked a little unable to sit still. As soon as he hit the road today, the adult's mood was extremely low, and the big guy knew what he was thinking, but he couldn't find the right words to relieve his heart that was tightly entangled by pain and resentment. Now, seeing that the adults still can't hold back their spirits, the subordinates on the side can't help but find words.

"My lord, although this place in Liaodong is located outside the customs, this scene is also very beautiful. Although it is not as good as our hometown, it is better than the vast and sparsely populated area. The small ones have no other thoughts, and they will be able to reclaim thousands of acres of land here in the future. I was satisfied. ”

Silence, Liu Jinfa's words were still exchanged for Ma Yukun's silence, if it was usual, maybe he would have laughed, don't say anything about thousands of acres, even if it is ten thousand acres of land, if you want to reclaim it, you can reclaim it.

"Hey, I just don't understand, my lord, you said that in such a fat place, why have people only started to farm in the past few years, especially in Fengtian, Fang Yuan is wasteland for hundreds of miles, my lord, you say, in the future, we can make a request to the imperial court and open tens of thousands of acres of land there?"

Or silence.

Zhou Wende couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. This wasn't the case with adults in the past. Don't look at the adults like a vicious tiger, but to the big guys, especially the subordinates from the township, it has always been extremely close, everyone talked, and there have always been no scruples, if it is said that Liu Jinfa is speaking for himself, and Zhou Wende is for the big guy, thousands of miles to be an official only for money, if you can open up more than 100,000 acres of land here, the big guy will be divided, then you will not worry.

But now, no matter what his subordinates say, Ma Yukun can't lift his spirits, and the adults handed over the four battalions of infantry horses to him, not only did he fail to recapture Lushunkou, but he lost a battalion of half-infantry horses, and even lost Dalian Bay, this matter ...... How do I explain it to an adult?

Just as Ma Yukun was thinking about how to explain to the adults, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves over there.

"Report ......"

But he saw the herald on a horse rushing over, jumped off his horse and knelt on the ground, and said.

"My lord, we met Mr. Jiang and his party in the village in front!"

"What? Where is Lady Jiang? ”

As soon as Ma Yukun heard that he had found Jiang Gui's question, he hurriedly asked, how did this Lushunkou be lost, and who did it fall into, until now he only learned from the rout that the Korean army was defeated, but there are different opinions about how the Korean army got to Lushunkou.

"Quick, lead me!"

"Jingshan ......"

As soon as he saw Ma Yukun, Jiang Guidi's bearded face was hot, and there was no one else around him except for a dozen personal guards, in other words, the four battalions of soldiers handed over to him by the boss, he was all lost in Lushun/

"Hanqing, this, how can this be!"

Looking at Jiang Guidi, who was embarrassed in front of him and wearing only a shabby civilian clothes, Ma Yukun couldn't believe his eyes, although the person in front of him was an illiterate rough man, but he was very brave, how could he be so embarrassed at this time.

"Jingshan, I, I ......"

Jiang Gui couldn't say anything for a long time, and the old face was even more red, until he jumped on the horse again and walked for almost half an hour, and he didn't tell the reason under Ma Yukun's repeated questioning.

"The North Korean army is a trick, they first sent a team of elite soldiers to pretend to be a sailor, mixed into the Lushun Pass, and then took the city by night, captured the artillery, and when we knew, the Lushun Pass and the fort were almost taken down by them, after the capture of the Lushun Pass, the North Korean army directly entered the port by boat, the fort was occupied by the family, and there were dozens of artillery in the barracks, how to fight?"

Although the character is upright, Jiang Guidi did not tell the truth, the truth is very simple, the reason why the five battalions of the Qingjun army in Lushun surrendered without a fight is not because the fort was captured, but because the officials are not in the camp, and the general is normal, the officials and Zuo stay in the city of Lushun instead of the palace, when Lushun was attacked, the officials in the city were just eager to flee for their lives, as for the leaderless barracks of the dragons, they were naturally easily captured by the North Korean army, and even more infantry battalion officers and soldiers were immediately fled to the hinterland of the back peninsula after being shelled.

Although I knew that Jiang Gui's inscription was concealed. Ma Sankun didn't ask. After all, everyone is from Qingjun. It's better to pretend not to know about some things.

"It's good to keep your life, it's good to keep your life, this North Korean army is really treacherous, today's defeat is not a crime of our war, it is really ......"

It's really that the North Korean army is too treacherous, and it's he Tang Ziran who is too shameless!

Yes, that's it!

"Alright. Don't say it's okay, we have to withdraw quickly, pass the news to Lord Zhongtang, and let the court deal with it in a hurry, this Tang Ziran went down to Lushun in one fell swoop, this kid is too wild! If he can't keep it, he doesn't necessarily want to take Liugong Island when he turns back......"

Tang Haoran, who is far away in North Korea, would have laughed out loud if he knew that someone would think that he would seize Liugong Island. At least for the time being, he has no interest.

"Won Lushun?"

"Lushun and Dalian Bay have all been taken!"

In Li Guangguang's excited words. Tang Haoran took the telegram and glanced at it slightly, and then ordered.

"Alright, it's time to meet the Consul General!"

Because of the secrecy, Tang Haoran has never met with the British Consul General, but has only conducted some kind of trial through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and although the response is a little vague, the Consul General has expressed a certain degree of "support" for the Unified Supervision Office, and for Tang Haoran, what he needs is to use victory to make Britain on his side, not on the side of the Manchu government, at least, to keep the British neutral for the time being, and then to make the British in the next month or two, they are all in contention, Thus buying time for yourself.

It is precisely because of this that Tang Haoran chose to meet with Zhu Erdian, the British consul general in Korea, because of the relationship between the Unified Inspectorate taking over the diplomatic power of North Korea and the relocation of the envoys or consulates of various countries in the DPRK from Seoul to Incheon, Tang Haoran even came to Incheon an hour or two in advance, just for this meeting.

"Part of the artillery of Lushun is dismantled and used to strengthen the defense of the Incheon Fort, and the artillery of the Dalian Bay Fort can also be dismantled, and the artillery of Incheon and Zhenwan Bay is needed......"

On the way to the Consulate General, Tang Haoran instructed his attaché that although Lushun will become a place for the fleet to anchor in the future, and even in Tang Haoran's plan, Dalian will become the "Northeast Governor's Palace", but he has no intention of strengthening the defense of the two places, at least for now, the forts in the two places are too falling, even if they are strengthened, they should also use new rapid-fire guns, mortars and machine guns, after all, according to historical experience, the batteries in Lushun and Dalian do not need heavy artillery, Instead, machine-gun bunkers and a ring of defensive trenches were built around the fort to defend against infantry attacks.

As for the old large-caliber erectional guns, some of them can be adjusted to Incheon and Jinbay to strengthen the coastal defense capabilities of the two places. In fact, Inchon now needs Lushun's shore artillery more than Lushunkou to defend against sea attacks, after all, the Beiyang Naval Division may pounce from Taiwan at any time......

Ten minutes later, in the British Consulate General in Incheon, compared to Tang Haoran's enthusiasm, after the warm reception, Zhu Erdian, as the consul general in North Korea, looked at Tang Haoran in shock.

"You, you, there's really no room for redemption?"

The DPRK did not have so-called diplomatic relations with Britain, and Britain had always recognized China as the suzerainty of Korea, and Britain only sent a consul general in Korea to Seoul, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the minister in China. Because the foreign powers had been watching Korea for a long time and were dissatisfied with China's suzerainty over Korea, and Yuan Shikai's arbitrary diplomacy in the past, Japan, Russia, the United States and other countries had further deteriorated their relations with Yuan Shikai. Only Britain had a close relationship with Yuan Shikai. At that time, the British Consul General Bedlu and Xi Zaiming had a very good relationship with Yuan Shikai, and Tang Haoran's resolute withdrawal of Korea's diplomatic rights after taking charge of Korea was supported by Beiyang and forced Japan to make concessions with military superiority, but in fact, it was understood by Britain, and the British Consulate General first moved from Seoul to the British Concession in Incheon, thus marking Britain's support, of course, just as Britain supported China's suzerainty, it was also out of Britain's own interests -- to ensure Britain's interests in Korea. Britain will not accept Japan, Russia, the United States and other countries to control Korea.

Thanks to Britain's practice of securing North Korea as part of the Qing Dynasty and thus securing its own interests, it also greatly contributed to Tang Haoran's policy of strengthening control over North Korea. Zhu Erdian, who was promoted to consul general in Incheon last year, met Tang Haoran during this period, and Zhu Erdian himself was full of expectations for Tang Haoran, who presided over the "new policy" in North Korea, believing that he was the greatest figure in East Asia after Li Hongzhang, and also the figure most likely to influence the situation in East Asia in the future.

How could Zhu Erdian not be shocked when he heard that he actually raised troops on the "Qing Jun's side", how could he not believe that Tang Haoran actually dared to use tens of thousands of troops to challenge the Qing Kingdom, which had millions of troops, so that his voice even trembled slightly because he was too nervous.

"Now, my troops have captured Lushun and Dalian Bay, and as we speak, 100,000 elites have crossed the Yalu River and launched an attack on the hinterland of Liaodong......"

This is a half-truth, the so-called "100,000 elites" are just claims, as for crossing the Yalu River is also a fact, but the real fact is that the first division did not attack from the land, but used the sea route to launch an attack, before the Beiyang Naval Division was transferred back to regain control of the Bohai Bay, in order to strive for the Qing army to react, control Liaodong, grasp the initiative on the battlefield, of course, more importantly, use a quick knife to cut the chaos, end the battle outside the pass, so as to approach the capital, in order to end the war.

"What! How is this possible! ”

Widening his eyes in surprise, Zhu Erdian stared at Tang Haoran, as if he wanted to find a trace of lying from his face, he was no stranger to Lushun, in the eyes of many naval officers, it was almost equal to the "Gibraltar" in the Far East, and now it was actually taken by him, how did he take that fortress.

"If nothing else, well......"

Looking at the pocket watch, Tang Haoran looked at Zhu Erdian with a smile, he liked to see this shocked look on his face.

"In two or three hours, my friend, you'll get a telegram from Peking, and it's going to mention all this, and I, my friend, ......."

After a slight pause, Tang Haoran stared at Zhu Erdian and said in a slightly low tone.

"Now, what's most important to you, and to the UK? Is it to help Beijing? ”

After this rhetorical question, Tang Haoran walked straight to the window, glanced in the direction of the industrial area, and then looked at Zhu Erdian and said.

"My friend, what is in the best interest of the British Far East? Now Japan is powerless to stop Russia, and in the Far East, the Qing state seems to be the only option, but my friend, do not forget that I tore all this apart with only a few tens of thousands, so what about the Russians? ”

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