Cen Yuying was reading an official document, and the war with the French made him feel haggard. Although he was only in his fifties, he looked about the same as a sixty-year-old. Now the Cen family has a big business, and it is also a famous family second to none in the south of the Qing Dynasty! His younger half-brother, Cen Yubao, was by his side, fighting against the French attack. However, his son Cen Chunxuan seems to worry him more, he was uninhibited when he was a teenager, and he was called "the three evils of the capital" together with Ruicheng and Lao Ziqiao. A few years ago, I donated a principal, and I will participate in the imperial examination this year, I don't know what the result will be.

Cen Yuying suddenly found that she always likes to think crankily in the recent period, is she forced by the war? Smiled helplessly and shook his head.

On March 23, 1885, more than 1,000 French African soldiers and a group of Vietnamese parishioners crossed the Red River from Xinghua and attacked the Shanwei Society in the southeast of Lintao. The joint military-civilian forces of China and Vietnam defending here held their ground camps and responded calmly. As the enemy approached, guns rang out in unison, and again a mine battle was fought, repulsing the attacking French army.

The French army attacked several times in a row, and the defenders relied on the fortifications, exerted their melee firepower, fought tenaciously, killed and wounded many enemies, and held their positions. In the evening, when the French army was in a dilemma, the Vietnamese rebels who were connected to Liu Yongfu planted black flags all around the village and shouted in unison in Chinese...... Well, here comes an ambush on all sides! It's a pity that there is no Chu overlord Xiang Yu, and there is no beautiful Yu Ji.

The French army thought that they were suddenly surrounded by the Black Flag Army, and they were frightened, so they took off their military uniforms one after another, used the legendary golden cicada to break out of their shells, and swam in the nearby river ditch at night, and secretly fled in the direction of Yuechi.

Unfortunately, it was too dark for the defenders to notice and not pursue.

The Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians defeated the French army near Lintao, killing and wounding hundreds of enemy soldiers and seizing more than 1,000 pieces of French red and white clothes and trousers, military hats, etc. The French lost a bit humiliating in this battle, and they had a fight with Cao Cao's beard and robes during the Three Kingdoms.

The defeat of the enemy at Lintao was a great victory on the Western Front. The most important reason for the victory in this battle was that the Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians worked closely together and fought bravely. In addition, the defenders made full use of the terrain to build field fortifications that were more suited to the combat situation at that time, which reduced the firepower advantage of the French and made up for their weakness in firepower, which was also an important reason for this victory. In the Sino-French War, the ground camp was a means of warfare that the Dian Army and the Black Flag Army always attached importance to. It was first invented by the Black Flag Army, and was later promoted by Cen Yuying throughout the army. "Where the camp is encamped, the soldiers are loaded with hoes, shovels, knives and saws, etc., digging and sawing wood", and the construction of the ground camp is basically equivalent to the covered field bunkers in later generations, and has received good results in various battles.

When the news came back to China, the capital was boiling, and he came at the right time, which somewhat alleviated the oppressive atmosphere of Pan Dingxin's defeat on the Eastern Front. But everyone knows that the real battle has not yet begun.

It is said that since Pan Dingxin ran away, the people in Longzhou were all panicked, and in order to prevent the persecution of the French, they reluctantly migrated inland. Ironically, however, it was not the French who caused the greatest danger to the Longzhou region, but the defeated generals who had lost the battle on the front line and came back all the way. They are now looting and murderous bandits.

The refugees went down the river, and the whole of Guangxi shook, and the shape was very strict.

On February 17, 1885, the Qing court finally telegraphed the septuagenarian Feng Zicai to assist in the military affairs outside the Guangxi Guan, saying: "He has served as the governor of Guangxi for a long time, and has been out of the customs three times. ”

However, it was not Feng Zicai who really played a role in gathering the hearts of the army at this time, but someone else, his name is Li Bingheng, a behind-the-scenes hero who should be remembered by the Chinese people.

Li Bingheng, Zijiantang. His ancestors broke into the eastern part of the country from Shuntian (now Beijing), and settled in Shizuizitun after Huangbaishu Village, Anzishan Township, Xiuyan Prefecture, Fengtian (now Zhuanghe City, Liaoning Province), taught farming and study, and became an official in politics until his father. To Li Bingheng, he donated officials to the office, and he knew the county, the state, and the prefect. In the tenth year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1884, when the Sino-French War was in full swing, Li Bingheng was transferred from the newly promoted Zhejiang to Guangxi at the same level as the inspector and began to paint a new picture of his life.

The Qing Dynasty's envoy was an official in charge of the judiciary of a province, but due to geographical relations, Guangxi became the rear of the battlefield of resistance against France in northern Vietnam, and the work of the whole province revolved around the Sino-French War.

On the basis of suppressing the anti-Qing struggle by force, Li Bingheng sent troops to strengthen the defense of Wuzhou, Nanning and other important cities, recruited brave soldiers to defend Shangsi, Longzhou and other border counties, and sent his own troops to guard the main passes, so as to create a stable social atmosphere for the anti-French front outside the Guan.

In order to ensure that the anti-French military supplies arrived on the battlefield in Vietnam, Zhang Zhidong set up two transshipment bureaus in Guangdong and Guangxi. Li Bingheng was in charge of presiding over the Guangxi Transit Bureau, which was located in Longzhou County, an important border town.

In order to better connect the military transportation work of the two bureaus, Li Bingheng set up a West Transit Branch in Nanning, which was actually a transit agency. The route was to procure arms from Guangdong and transport them to Nanning by water; The salaries raised from Hunan were transported to Nanning by land through guò. After the weapons and food were transported to Nanning, they were transported to Longzhou. The military supplies shipped from Nanning to Longzhou were divided into two categories: military rations were transported by water, and firearms were transported by land. Among them, waterways occupy a more important position because of their low freight.

There are more than 100 transport ships in the West Transfer Bureau, and the large ones can carry 11~12 tons of materials. These vessels were organized into several fleets, with dozens of ships departing at a time. From Nanning to Longzhou, you need to sail against the current, and the voyage takes about 13 days. In order to ensure the safety of transportation, the water warriors on board are arranged according to the sheds and whistles, and the monthly salary is slightly more than that of ordinary soldiers.

After the military supplies were transported to Longzhou, where the West Transit Bureau was located, they still needed to pass through two grain stations before they could be transported to the front-line officers and soldiers. These two grain platforms, one is 45 miles away from Longzhou City, and the other is located 15 miles from Yashui Beach to Pingxiang. Such a transportation process is difficult to be flexibly dispatched without a strict command and coordination system.

At that time, military rations were the bulk transportation business of the Western Transit Bureau, and they were necessary to maintain the lives of officers and soldiers on the front line. Li Bingheng shouldered this heavy responsibility and did not relax in the slightest. With regard to the transfer of military rations, he inspected all kinds of income and expenditure accounts on time and strictly put an end to loopholes. In terms of the storage of military rations, he regularly inspected the warehouses and often turned them over to prevent mildew.

It was an open secret in the late Qing Dynasty that officers ate empty salaries. How to fairly distribute grain and wages after they arrive at the border is an important link in logistics management. At that time, Li Bingheng distributed all the troops that drove to the border gates, regardless of their relatives or distances, in accordance with the regulations, and insisted on resisting all kinds of floating reports and fraudulent claims. As for the rewards for meritorious soldiers, they are not stingy, generous, and satisfying.

In addition to the transportation of military supplies, Li Bingheng also opened a medical bureau in Longzhou, which can be regarded as a field hospital. During the war, a large number of wounded were treated. Li Bingheng also formulated a system of equal medical treatment regardless of military rank. Anyone who comes to the hospital for medical treatment will be treated with medication for the severity of the injury or illness! Wang Yi also sighed very much when he saw this, and the hospitals in our later generations couldn't do it at all.

In 1885, Pan Dingxin was defeated and Lang Son was lost, and his old boy fled all the way. The rout scattered became a floating wanderer, looting along the way, robbing homes and houses, and suddenly becoming a public nuisance.

This mess has to be cleaned up by Li Bingheng, the logistics officer. First of all, he ordered the states and counties along the way to stop the rout, gather the remnants of the defeated army all over the mountains, and prevent them from infesting and harming people. He then distributed rations to the defeated soldiers, treated the sick and wounded, and stabilized their feelings. Subsequently, together with Feng Zicai, who was in charge of military affairs, he reorganized these defeated soldiers and trained them to become a new force to resist France.

Li Bingheng has four talents, the whole army, the salary, the generals, and the people. It was precisely because of his outstanding work that Peng Yulin, the secretary of the military department, and Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang, who came to supervise the army, jointly asked the Qing court to replace Pan Dingxin, who had disappeared, with Li Bingheng, and became the new governor of Guangxi.

Because Li Bingheng was self-aware and knew that he was not the material to lead the army to fight, he called a meeting of the generals.

"You are here, there are some things I have to say!"

"Please show me!" There were Feng Zicai, Su Yuanchun, etc., and the Xiang army, the Huai army, and the Gui army were all here.

"In the past, everyone always had opinions and kept their own regions. Although they are in the same army, it is difficult to cooperate with each other, and even fight each other! Now the situation has collapsed to this point, and the French have ruined Zhennan Pass! We are sorry for the Queen Mother, and we are sorry for the ardent expectations of the people of Limin. Now that the great enemy is present, everyone should put national affairs first, the French army will not be destroyed, the country will not be peaceful, and the family will not be at peace, everyone must work together to protect the family and defend the country. ”

"What your lord says is very true!"

"The purpose of calling you here today is to elect a coach who will win the hearts of the people."

Everyone was stunned, and their hearts said, "Isn't this what you should do?" ”

"Contemptible people are self-aware, sitting in the rear, requisitioning and transporting military supplies, I will be! But ...... fighting" Li Bingheng smiled: "Brother is a layman." ”

The other generals laughed when they heard this.

Su Yuanchun stood up at this time and said, "Since the adults said so, I will push General Feng to be the commander of the Western Route Army!" ”

"I agree!" It was Wang Xiaoqi who spoke.

Both of these people were from Gui Jun and were originally Feng Zicai's subordinates.

When the others heard this, they didn't have much opinion. Among them, Chen Jia and Fang Yousheng are both from Guijun, and they naturally look towards their old superior, Feng Zicai. Zhao Jichuan, Ma Shengzhi, Ye Jiaxiang, Dong Lugao and others of the Huai Army, because of Pan Dingxin's escape, their faces were also lost, and it was not easy to fight for power at this time.

However, some were not convinced, but Wang Debang of the Hunan Army said at this time: "I think it is better for Lord Li to personally command." ”

Wang Debang and Su Yuanchun did not deal with each other. In the battle of Fenggu, Su Yuanchun did not rescue Wang Debang's department in time, and when the French army attacked Su Yuanchun's department in the middle road, Wang also waited and watched passively and did not take the initiative to support. They were all beaten by the French, and they have since formed a bond.

Li Bingheng glared at this time and said, "I said, I won't command the war!" …… I also agree with General Feng to come out, do others have any objections? ”

You are the biggest, you have no opinion, and who else will find themselves uncomfortable.

Moreover, Feng Zicai went out of Nanguan three times, his prestige spread far and wide, and he did have the ability, so the generals agreed to recommend Feng Zicai to become the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front.