Hetao area, Yikezhao League, Ordos Left Wing Central Banner.

An astonishingly large migratory procession slowly marches across the endless savannah.

Their total number exceeded 100,000, and they stretched out in a long formation of more than a dozen kilometers and displayed along the curvy road.

At the head was an army of 5,000 men. Their uniform black uniforms, all equipped with Chinese-made imitation Mauser rifles, fought a few kilometers away with hundreds of cavalry, and the large army was divided into four columns to occupy the entire road, and they walked weakly behind.

The cavalry was walking slowly, and each knight had a layer of dust on his face, and his messy hair came out of the brim of his military hat, and he was so oily that he didn't know how long it had not been washed. The braids hanging from the back of his head were barely knicked and formed, hanging limply like dead snakes. Those horses that have not been washed much are dirty and can't see the primary color, and they don't know if they are not adapted to the climate of the grassland, or they are really tired, and every step they take, the horse's head has to go down a little harder, and the neck drives the horse's back to rise and fall like waves, and the knight above the arch keeps shaking, staggering.

The infantrymen shuffled their heavy steps, wore their hats crookedly and drooped their shoulders, and all of them looked spiritless. A rifle weighing less than ten pounds was like a thousand pounds of burden to them, and the hand on the shoulder could not hold it back, and it slipped down after taking two steps.

Some are hanging behind them, and they don't even bother to drag their gun belts? Stop, let the wooden butt collide with the crook of the leg, and knock the already upright posture into twists and turns.

What's more, they simply grabbed the barrel of the gun and used the butt of the gun on the ground as a crutch. It's just that the crutches are a bit too heavy. Even if it's grabbed with two hands. It's the same that they can't lift their arms. I had to lean forward halfway.

Thousands of troops, dragging tired steps messy, perennial wheels and horses' hooves crushed and trampled out of the road dusty, from a distance, as if there is a soil dragon rolling against the surface, but the speed is outrageously slow.

Staying in this environment all the time, you can imagine how wolf they look. The May sun was blazing their scalps viciously overhead. There seemed to be no end in sight ahead, which made them even more discouraged.

Finally, someone couldn't hold it anymore, and flashed from the queue to the side of the road with a crooked body, threw away the rifle indiscriminately, sat on the ground and shouted: "No! Not really! I really can't walk! ”

It didn't matter if he fell, it caused a chain reaction, and dozens of people in front and behind sat down and lay down on both sides. If they weren't worried that they might be trampled to death by the people behind them, some even wanted to sit directly in the middle of the road, and they didn't want to move a step forward after being killed.

Officers on horseback to maintain order on the side hurried over. He scolded in a hoarse voice: "Who told you to stop?" Hurry up, get up. Keep moving! ”

The soldier who sat down waved his hand weakly: "It's really boring!" Such a hurry, I want my lord's life! Take a break, you have to take a break! ”

Dozens of people did not listen to the shouting. The officer was furious, waved the whip hanging on his wrist in the air, and exploded above the ruffian's head with a crisp "pop", and shouted at the same time: "Bastard bastard! Why don't you go out and enjoy the waters? Resting if you want to? We're on the march! Without a military order, you stopped indiscriminately and blocked the Luan driving behind, can you bear the sin? Hurry up, get out! ”

"What a bullshit march, what a special thing is to run for your life! Do you need to say that it is so literary? The soldier tilted his head and looked confused, "From the capital to Shanxi, from Taiyuan to Xi'an, and now from Yulin to this pass, where are you going?" Uriya Sutai? Or Tangnu Ulianghai? You don't need to take two legs to turn the earth around! ”

"That's it! I've never suffered this sin when I've grown so big! Go down in Teh, and the two legs are not their own! If you don't go, it's a big deal to let the wolf come and eat the master, and you can still turn into three bubbles of and fatten this grassland. If you run further north, you may venture into the desert to dry your ....... ”

I'm bored to walk, and I'm talking back to the top of my mouth. The gossip and shouting made the officer's mouth dry, but there was nothing to be done.

He actually took out the revolver he was wearing and shot them one by one, but he just wiped the handle of the gun and reluctantly let go. He can't do it, and he can't do it!

This entire team is the core team of the current imperial court - Wuwei Zhongjun. Most of the members are banner people, and a very small number of them are clothed minions and recruited soldiers, each of whom is loyal, but they are also all powerful, and their relationships are wide, and they can be related to the nobles of the banner owner.

Everyone is from an extraordinary background, and when you become an officer, you may not be able to really be greater, and when it comes to death, the order is really not very easy to use.

The officer gritted his teeth in hatred, rolled up his whip and pointed it at their heads, and scolded loudly: "Dogs, you really want to die here!" The revolutionary army may catch up at some point, and how do you plan to be taken prisoner? ”

The soldier sneered: "Ye is going to be a prisoner, what's the matter?" The revolutionary army treats prisoners preferentially, manages to eat, drink, and live, and teaches children to learn how to read and write! Maybe in a few months, the master will be able to get a serious job of eight hundred, which is eight hundred times stronger than this immortal! Brothers, isn't it so reasonable? ”

"That's right! Yes! We've all heard it so well! ”

"I've heard them say a long time ago, the revolutionary army doesn't kill innocents indiscriminately! We haven't harmed anyone in our previous lives, and we used to be obedient to the people, which is good! ”

The officer's angry face was distorted, and he felt a breath in his chest, as if he was about to explode at any moment.

At this moment, I suddenly heard someone shouting coldly from afar: "The prisoners of the revolutionary army still have to serve hard labor, I am afraid that you waste will be exhausted to death in less than three days!" Have you ever figured this out? ”

The voice was as hard as iron striking copper, and it rushed over with a bang, like a steel knife cutting through the face, and immediately suppressed everyone's nonsense. Turning his head to follow the voice, he saw an officer in a yellow coat galloping on horseback, his eyes trembling in the wind. He is a high-ranking officer with status!

"It's Tieliang's hard guy! Get up. This kid is really capable of black hands. Don't suffer a big loss, you can't cry anymore! ”

The soldiers who shouted to kill and didn't move just now, just saw his black face, and immediately got up from the ground like clockwork, beat the dust and straightened their hats, put their guns on their shoulders, and squeezed each other's eyebrows and made secret signals - we will be unanimous with the outside world later!

Tie Liang was personally promoted by Rong Lu, the Minister of Military Aircraft, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, and the President of the Armed Guards. The head of the military who was appointed as the president of the Wuwei Zhongjun was the backbone of the promising young Zhuang faction who was handpicked by the Empress Dowager Cixi Lafayette and was appreciated.

Since Yang Hao raised troops against the Qing Dynasty and took Nie Shicheng and Song Qing in one pot, the Qing court further strengthened its control over the remaining Wuwei army. Not only was Rong Lu in charge of the whole army, but he even personally served as the president of the Wuwei Zhongjun at the beginning. After going to the West Hunt, Yuan Shikai judged the situation and took the opportunity to resign and return to his hometown, but he left his trusted backbone to control the most powerful armed Wuwei Right Army and vacated his position.

Empress Dowager Cixi and Rong Lu were both shrewd people. I can see how much its intentions are, but of course I can't believe that this is the army pattern of the Han people. So after arriving in Xi'an. He began to mix sand into it.

One is that the Wuwei Central Army, which is dominated by banner people, promoted Tie Liang to command; Rong Lu personally assumed the post of president of the Wuwei Right Army. The second is to stuff several young elites of the banner people into it, serve as the main officers, and promote and win over those who are not firm in their positions, and use their hands to control the overall situation. For example, Jiang Chaozong, the superintendent of the Staff Battalion Office and the Military Officer Academy, was promoted to replace the position of General Staff Office of Yuan Shikai's old brother Xu Shichang.

In addition, there is Baylor Aixin Jueluo? Yu Lang was the president and reorganized the Wuwei Left Army; Will flag people love Xinjueluo. Liangbi was stuffed into the Wuwei rear army led by Dong Fuxiang and thought he was in control.

Not to mention the level of leadership of these people, at least in terms of information flow, it is undoubtedly much better than before. In addition, in the past two years, they have reorganized the armed guards, and re-expanded the total strength to more than 100,000 people, including quite a few bannermen gathered from all over the world, as well as servants from various Mongolian banners.

Seriously speaking, after the expansion and mixing of sand, the combat effectiveness of the armed guard army not only did not improve, but also plummeted. Those bannermen who have been fleeing from the coastal provinces are not usually good at themselves—those who honestly accept their fate have been turned to civilians for several generations to do small business and support themselves.

At least hundreds of thousands of bannermen went to Shaanxi, and as a result, they turned it into a miasma, and the anointed land of Guanzhong, with Xi'an as the center, almost turned these people into a poor mountain and bad water.

The more we reach the end of such dynasties, the more crazy the ruling class becomes when they feel that the future is bleak. Relying on the military and the psychological coercion formed over the past 200 years, the bannermen wantonly plundered the property of the people in Guanzhong and wantonly seized it, so as to satisfy their bottomless extravagant consumption. Millions of Guanzhong people have become their slaves and are once again living in the dark.

Guanzhong people have always had the spirit of resistance, and of course they will not let the flag people bully. But they don't have weapons in their hands, and just relying on their blood to confront the banner man with a gun in their hands will only be a sacrifice in vain.

But these blood debts have been accumulating, silently waiting for the day of reckoning.

The bannermen and ruffians who usually oppress the good-natured, when it is really time for them to fight, they are all sloppy and ugly. The Empress Dowager Cixi saw the true face of these people clearly, and did not expect them to withstand the attack of the revolutionary army.

The Wuwei Central Army, which is dominated by banner people, seized the opportunity and took the initiative to ask to be a vanguard officer. It seems to be heroic, but in fact it can run ahead of the large army. One moment they find that something is wrong, they can easily get rid of everyone without much effort, and they can run away!

The problem is that the journey north is not smooth. From Guanzhong to the Mongolian steppe, it is necessary to pass through the vast area of the Loess Plateau, which has the harshest environment. Even if in the past two years, the Qing court has requisitioned almost half of Shaanxi's manpower and tried its best to build a road leading to the Hetao, but it cannot be compared with the national highway built by Yang Hao with huge investment in cash machinery.

Fleeing, then don't expect to be able to take it calmly and gently, with the two palaces Luanjia as the core, after hundreds of thousands of people are transferred into the large army, they can't walk dozens of kilometers a day. All the princes, ministers, bannermen, and masters can't even carry the house. A family has to occupy dozens of large trucks and 100 labor, which is not too little. They have not developed a strict concept of transportation, and there is no strong command and guidance from the center. So the whole process of fleeing. The roads are always packed. The inefficiency is outrageous.

Just walked down slowly for hundreds of kilometers, and the Wuwei Zhongjun, who was running lightly in front of the horse burden at first, couldn't bear it. Finally, after passing the desert Gobi in the north of Yulin, and arriving in the middle of the Ordos grassland, my eyes saw green, and my mood was not so irritable.

The tense strength of the bannermen and ruffians was finally completely discharged.

Tie Liang was one of the few capable generals among the banner men in the late Qing Dynasty, and he always refused to lower his standards for himself and his troops, even on the way to escape. Still maintain a strict and serious style.

He rode a jujube red horse, condescendingly and coldly glanced at the soldiers who were not standing, and a dry fire burst out of his heart, and he almost rushed over to trample these bear things into pulp!

But the anger that filled his chest had just swelled, and his face was black and red, and a green tendon rose on the back of the hand that grabbed the reins, and he was immediately forcibly controlled by his calm mind. Because he could see that the soldiers were indeed tired enough to continue to support them.

Among the uncontrollable military guards, there are too many smokers.

The soldiers and ruffians stole a look at President Tieliang with trepidation. For fear that he would pull out and cut people when he grabbed the imperial saber in his right hand. After waiting for a while, he heard Tie Liang shouting sullenly, "Pass my orders." The horse team spread out the vigilance, and the foot team rested in place for an hour! ”

With that, he turned his horse's head and galloped briskly towards the rear, and in the distance, he saw that the chariot with its umbrella cover had slowed down.

In the middle of the migration procession, which stretched for more than ten kilometers, was the chariot driven by Lianggong Luan. Escorted by more than 2,000 cavalry on both sides, hundreds of Ouchi guards in yellow coats surrounded the two carts at the core. The cart was made from custom-made parts bought from the east, with the same steel plate shock absorbers, large axles and tires as the steam bus. It was rebuilt from precious wood to create a super-large structure with a maximum width of four meters and a length of more than eight meters.

Such a big guy is wide and heavy, and if he runs, he can block most roads in this era.

However, the Empress Dowager Cixi refused to let herself be wronged after all, she expected that she might have to flee in the future, and she would never take those chariots that could turn people's intestines out, and ordered Li Lianying to personally watch and complete the construction of the two carts.

The decoration inside is luxurious and extravagant, and all kinds of treasures brought out from the capital are inlaid and displayed everywhere, which is simply a mobile super luxury villa. If the contents are taken out and auctioned, they will be worth at least tens of millions of taels of silver to get by.

The construction of the highway from Xi'an to Yulin is compared to the standard that these two large vehicles can pass. All narrow bridges were widened, and the bumpy roads were filled in and compacted. There were all kinds of machinery from the east, and the local people were requisitioned on a large scale, and it was finally completed in two years.

However, even in such good conditions, walking hundreds of kilometers still made her tired.

The cart, which was dragged by sixteen horses, slowly stopped with a reprimand from the emperor in front. The commander of the inner guard, who was not far from the side, hurriedly urged the horse over, approached the chariot and asked respectfully about the situation.

Li Lianying bent her back, pulled the door open from the side of the car, coughed lightly at the other party, and said slowly: "Lafayette sympathizes with the hard work of the big guys, and orders to come down and let the team rest for a while." ”

The commander of the guards dismounted in gratitude, knelt on one knee, and thanked him in a loud voice, then got up and turned his head to convey her edict.

Li Lianying didn't look back immediately, just stood in front of the car door, her dirty old eyes looking at the grassy wasteland from afar, and there seemed to be a thick column of smoke rising from the horizon as far as her eyes could see. He sighed in his heart: "It's all here, why bother to create those sins!" ”

However, these words were not his turn to speak after all, just a silent sigh and a secret worry. It's not good, he can only bury his bones in his hometown in this life, and he can't go back to his hometown.

After a while, I heard Cixi's dry voice in the carriage calling: "Little Lizi, let them open the windows to disperse the turbidity in the car." ”

"Huh." Li Lianying agreed, turned around and went back with a flick of the dust, and went down with a few simple instructions, and the accompanying little eunuchs and palace maids quickly pushed the glass windows open halfway, allowing the outside wind to filter through the screen and blow in.

Li Lianying walked in with a hunched waist, and in the innermost part of the chariot, the Empress Dowager Cixi leaned on the pillow sickly, and looked at the little emperor sitting in front of the side table with blank eyes, grabbing a brush and writing big characters seriously.

In the past two years, Lafayette, whose skin has been moisturized and smooth, has aged a lot all of a sudden, wrinkles not only crawl all over her face, but her hairline has receded a lot, revealing a big forehead, which is what she dislikes the most. Although the hair that was almost completely white had been using hair dye from the east, the white roots of the hair were getting longer and longer day by day. The whole person no longer has the honor of being forty years old, but he has almost regained the appearance of a sixty-year-old lady.

After the team stopped, the trampled sand and dust were quickly blown away. The fresh air with the smell of grass swept away the turbidity in the carriage, and the spirit of the Empress Dowager Cixi was actually a little better because of this.

Li Lianying hurriedly stepped forward a few steps in front of the bed, so that Cixi could take his arm and slowly get up and down, move step by step to the window outside, and look at the grassland from a high distance.

After being silent for a while, she suddenly asked faintly: "Xiao Lizi, you said that if you left today, can we come back in the future?" ”

Li Lianying lowered her head and replied: "With Lafayette here, you will definitely be able to come back." ”

Cixi narrowed her eyes, looked at the world behind her from a distance, and squeezed out a few words in a low voice: "I'm afraid, I can't." ”

A thin layer of goosebumps appeared on the back of Li Lianying's neck, and a chill spread throughout her body. He knew what he was asking.

Just a few dozen kilometers behind the migration team, where the Yulin border pass is located, an army is setting fire to all the houses in a town, and the thick smoke column caused by the raging fire is swaying like a black dragon in the wind and soaring into the sky! (To be continued......) R1292