It is equivalent to the slow progress of the Fourth Army on the Jiujiang side, and the Sixth Army in the north to Zhili is suffering from the severe cold weather, but the speed of progress is quite fast.

The Sixth Army brought together the two main forces of the Eighth Division and the Ninth Division, and it took only three days to conquer Cangzhou, which was pinned on by the Qing Army, and then the Ninth Defense Division and the First Division also defeated the place in front of them one after another, and continued to cover the main force of the Sixth Army to the north.

On January 13, the Sixth Army arrived at Tianjin, but they did not directly attack Tianjin, but stationed troops outside Tianjin on the one hand, and sent the Ninth Defense Division to bypass Tianjin and go towards Dagu Pass by the sea.

Because of the long journey north along the coastline, the naval supply fleet had already arrived outside the Dagu Pass, waiting for the army to enter the port after capturing the Dagu Pass and then unloading a large amount of supplies.

The Sixth Army set out from Dezhou, attacked the city all the way, and successively broke out large-scale battles with the Qing army in Cangzhou, Qingxian, Jinghai, Hejian and Renqiu in Tianjin Prefecture, and even more than 10,000 people.

In particular, the consumption of rifle bullets far exceeded the estimates of the Sixth Army itself.

The 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 8th, 9th, and 1st Divisions of the Sixth Army all used the 1858 Linde rifle, which certainly brought great tactical advantages to the Sixth Army, but its high rate of fire also brought a huge consumption of ammunition.

In the era of front-loading guns, each soldier fired seven or eight rounds of ammunition at most in a large-scale battle, but in the era of backloaders, this figure increased several times. In the battle of Cangzhou alone, the average soldier of the 8th Division fired at least 30 rounds of ammunition.

And more critically. In the era of pre-loading guns, even if it was a Mini rifle. The 1858 Linde rifle used a full load, and the soldiers could not make it on the front line, so they could only produce it on a large scale in the arsenal in the rear and transport it to the front.

And once there is a shortage of bullets, it is very fatal for the Sixth Army, a unit that uses rear-loading guns on a large scale, and it was forced to rest in Texas because of the shortage of ammunition such as bullets.

At the same time due to the severe cold weather. Beginning in mid-December, the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal began to freeze on a large scale, and the freezing of the northern section of the canal was already greatly reduced due to the diversion of the Yellow River, so it was difficult to rely on the canal alone to meet the operational needs of the Sixth Army.

On the one hand, it can only be transported by land on a large scale, and on the other hand, it relies on sea transportation.

After continuous operations, the Sixth Army's stock of war materials, especially rifle bullets, had dropped to a relatively serious critical value, so the Sixth Army had already decided to take down Dagukou before officially attacking Tianjin. Then get a supply of combat materiel from the supply fleet of the Navy.

Tianjin Dagukou is an important strategic place for coastal defense in the north, especially for the Ming and Qing dynasties, which set up their capital in Beiping and the coastal defense situation was relatively severe.

The time of the First Opium War. The Qing army had already begun to build forts at Dagukou, and after 1856, that is, after Lin Zhe's rebellion, in order to defend Gyeonggi. The Dagukou Fort was expanded.

At present, the fort has more than 50 large and small artillery pieces and more than 5,000 garrison troops.

The reason why the fort stationed at Dagukou is not as many as the 20,000 people in history. This is because the threat to the Qing army did not come from the sea, but from the land. If your Qing army stationed more than 20,000 troops at Dagukou, how many troops would be left on Tianjin's side? In that case, Shi Qingxuan will not die of laughter, it's a big deal not to fight Dagukou for the time being, and directly knock Tianjin down.

At present, Du Xing'a led the remnants of the Qing army under his command to strictly defend Tianjin, and only sent more than 5,000 people to the Dagukou side, and most of them were the old troops such as the Green Battalion and the Eight Banners, and the new army was only 2,000 people.

In this case, Shi Qingxuan only sent a Ninth Defense Division to attack Dagukou, and when the time came, it would not be difficult for the navy and army to cooperate, and it would not be difficult to take Dagukou.

And this is indeed the case, after the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division arrived at Dagukou, with the support of the ship's guns on the fleet, launched a large-scale attack on the Dagukou Fort, and the Qing troops defending the fort only symbolically resisted for a day, and then all of them fled.

In this battle, the Chinese army actually did not really kill or wound many Qing troops, and the Qing troops killed were not even 500 people, and most of the Qing troops fled directly.

After conquering the mouth of Dagu, the naval fleet entered the port directly, and then the supply fleet composed of dozens of transport ships also began to unload a large number of combat weapons, especially the bullets and shells urgently needed by the Sixth Army.

After receiving a large amount of supplies from the navy, the Sixth Army officially launched a general attack on Tianjin!

On 17 January, the Ninth Division of the Sixth Army captured Beicang in the north of Tianjin, officially cutting off the communication links between Tianjin and Beiping.

At this time, the Sixth Army had already completed the strategic encirclement of Tianjin!

In Tianjin City, Du Xing'a, Shi Rongchun and others had a bitter look on their faces!

"Tell me, what should we do now?" Du Xing'a looked at the large group of generals under his hands who didn't speak, and had to speak first: "Rong Chun, you speak first!" ”

Shi Rongchun heard Du Xing's name be named, although he didn't want to say it, but he could only bite the bullet and say: "It's not the best strategy to fight now."

Everyone is aware of the strength of the enemy's army, and the Sixth Army led by Shi Rebellion on the opposite side is an unusual rebel army, and all the units are armed with quick robbery and long-range artillery, which is stronger than the first and fifth armies of the rebel army we faced in the previous two years.

The defeat in Jinan and Cangzhou was not because the officers and men of our army were not brave, but because the gap between the enemy and us was too great, and the officers and men of our army could shoot less than 100 paces with one shot, while the opposing army could fire three shots as far as 250 paces. Our artillery is far less than 1,000 steps, but the artillery of the opposing army is 1,500 steps.

In this way, no matter how brave my Qing soldiers are, they can't get one step closer to the rebel army! ”

Hearing Shi Rongchun say this, Du Xing'a couldn't help frowning, nonsense, don't you know this? You still need to emphasize it.

But although I was dissatisfied, I continued to listen.

"Now Tianjin is surrounded on three sides, and our army has less than 30,000 soldiers, the new army is less than 20,000, and the rebel army has at least 30,000 troops. Shi Rongchun continued: "When we were in Jinan and Cangzhou, we also wanted to defend it, but unfortunately, Jinan was broken in less than a month, and Cangzhou fell into the hands of thieves in less than four days. The only way to do this is to retreat the word! ”

Shi Rongchun said a lot, and the result was one word 'retreat'.

What is Refund? It's just running away!

If it was the year before last, or even last year, if Shi Rongchun dared to say anything about running away or something like running away in public on such an occasion, he would have to dismiss him directly, what kind of joke, this Tianjin is the last line of defense for the point guard Gyeonggi, and you actually said that you want to flee without a fight.

But today, Du Xing'a didn't show any dissatisfaction when he heard this, because he was really thinking about whether to run away at this moment.

Not only Du Xing'a, but even the other generals were silent, and a few people even nodded their heads to express their agreement with Shi Rongchun's statement.

There's no way, it's not that they're afraid of the enemy like a tiger and don't want to fight to the death, but even if they fight to the end, it's useless.

At the beginning in Jinan and Cangzhou, they had already tried the strategy of strict defense, but as a result, they thought that the defense line that was like an iron bucket was stabbed by Shi Qingxuan in two or three strokes.

This can't be defended, and taking the initiative to go out to fight is even more looking for death, in this case, there is really no way to do it, and the only available thirty-six strategies in Sun Tzu's Art of War are the best plan.

After everyone was silent for a long time, Du Xing spoke again: "Even if you retreat, the road to Jingshi has been blocked by the rebel army, and it will not be easy to fight it!" ”

At this time, Shi Rongchun said: "Let's not go to Jingshi, go directly to the northeast, go to Tangshan, and then go to Shanhaiguan!" ”

"To Shanhaiguan?" Du Xing's face is puzzled!

Shi Rongchun continued: "If you give up Tianjin, with the strength of the rebel army, I am afraid that you will be able to reach the city of Jingshi in less than three days, and it will be difficult for the first town and other Beijing battalions on the side of the Beijing Division to hold the Jingshi, so it is better to take the initiative to give up the Jingshi and then retreat into the Northeast!" ”

Retreat into the Northeast? Du Xing'a's mind soon became active, Shi Rongchun's statement couldn't be clearer, this Tianjin can't be defended, and the Jingshi can't be defended, since they can't be defended, they just throw it away, and then transfer to the northeast.

If you retreat to the northeast, of course, you will give up Zhili, but after returning to the northeast, if you rely on Shanhaiguan to defend, relying on passes such as Shanhaiguan, then it is not hopeless to block the Chinese army under the gathering of heavy troops.

It's just that the only question is, will the imperial court be willing to abandon Tianjin and Jingshi to go to the Northeast? Will the emperor be willing?

You must know that even if the Chinese army has arrived in Tianjin and the Qing court is in a panic, Xianfeng has not fled, but has put on a posture of defending Gyeonggi.

In this case, will the imperial court abandon Jingshi and escape?

But what if you don't run away? Du Xing'a had already expected the result.

It is possible that his new army will be completely annihilated in Tianjin, and then it will not take long for the Chinese army to conquer the Beijing Division, and the court will be wiped out!

Thinking about all kinds of possibilities, Du Xing'a couldn't help but feel more and more bored, and after waving his hand to let his subordinates out, he stood alone in front of the window, looking at the snow in the courtyard outside the window.

After Du Xing'a brought it alone for more than an hour, he recruited many generals again, and the first thing he said was: "Let's go to Shanhaiguan!" (To be continued.) )