Lieutenant General Seymour has been trapped in the Xigu arsenal for more than ten days. Exhausted from the long retreat, lacking food and badly ill, General Seymour decided to hold on after capturing the Xigu arsenal and repelling a brave but reckless attack by the Qing army Nie Shicheng. During this time, there were always Qing army activities outside the Xigu stronghold, horses driving by, and dust. Previously, the officers and soldiers of the coalition were still vigilant against the Qing troops approaching from time to time, but after a long time, they became indifferent. As long as they don't get too close, the coalition forces won't shoot.

Although they are not short of ammunition.

On the last day of June, the Qing army again gathered tens of thousands of troops and launched another fierce attack on the Xigu stronghold, but failed like the previous one, leaving behind a large number of corpses, initially estimated at more than 700. However, the attack resulted in 41 more Coalition troops killed and more than 70 wounded. The casualties mainly came from the artillery bombardment of the Qing army, and they had another cannon that had been bombarding the Xigu stronghold, and although their artillery skills were very poor, the shells that fell into the stronghold still caused a lot of damage to the coalition forces. The helpless coalition soldiers called this cannon, which posed a serious threat to them, the "Cixi Cannon".

The soldiers who were wounded in the previous time have died one after another due to the lack of necessary medical treatment. Due to the hot weather, differences in eating habits, and especially the lack of vegetables, officers and men are getting sick more and more, and now the number of combat strength that can be relied on has been reduced to less than 1,300. The lack of vegetable butter is easy to endure, after all, they are soldiers, troops who have come to conquer enemy countries, not tourists. But the growing stench of corpses around the stronghold was unbearable for the coalition officers and soldiers. The officers and soldiers who died in battle were buried in time, but a large number of corpses of Qing soldiers who fell outside the stronghold emitted an increasingly strong smell of corpses in the hot summer. This is what the coalition soldiers can't stand the most. They could not run outside to bury the corpses of the enemy, so they had to cover their noses in the stronghold.

It was precisely because of this that disagreements and quarrels began to arise within the coalition forces, and it was the American troops who first proposed to break through and return to the Tianjin concession, but because of their small numbers, their opinions were not adopted. But later, the French and Germans also began to complain, which caused problems for Seymour.

Morale was not boosted by the availability of adequate food and ammunition, but rather Seymour determined that the morale of the troops was declining. The fighting spirit of 30 June was noticeably less resolute than the previous one. Fortunately, the courage of the other party is also declining. So. He successfully held the stronghold. But what if the Qing army mobilized more troops? What if the Qing army concentrated more artillery? Lieutenant General Seymour, who had insisted on holding on to help, began to waver.

The altercation continued until noon on July 4, when the sentry brought in a ragged Chinese. The Chinese who had his braids cut off said his name was Dai Dewang. He was the servant of Mr. Lawrence, a British colonel stationed in the Tianjin Concession. A devout Christian. On the orders of Colonel Lawrence, he came to deliver the letter. The letter had already been swallowed by him, because he was caught by the Qing army, and he could only chew and swallow the letter in a desperate situation.

"What does the letter say?" Seymour had a Chinese translator by his side. I don't worry about the communication with this surname Dai.

"The letter was written in English and I couldn't read it. But Mr. Colonel has explained that if you encounter a dangerous situation, you must destroy the letter__"

Seymour stared at this somewhat obscene-looking man, and suddenly muttered a string of English, and Tedson blinked, "General, do you suspect that I am a fake spy?" ”

As soon as this sentence came out, Seymour immediately dispelled his suspicions, Colonel Lawrence knew what he knew, but he had never met. Since this man said that he was Lawrence's servant, it was impossible not to know a little bit of simple English, and now, there should be no problem. After all, in the Qing army, there are too few of you who can speak English.

"The Colonel must have told you something?" Now it was simple, and General Seymour could communicate directly with the Chinese who risked his life to break into the stronghold in his native language.

"Yes, the colonel asked the general to break through immediately. Because, the war in Tianjin is unfavorable, and there may not be troops to meet you__" Dai Dewang stammered in English, replaced it with Chinese, and asked the translator to tell General Seymour about the situation in Tianjin.

"__Now, the coalition forces that have come ashore are under attack by the reinforced army of King Qin, and they are desperately defending the concession, and they are unable to divide their troops. It's not clear when the next batch of reinforcements will land__"

"Are you sure that the main force of the Qing army that surrounded us was transferred?"

"Surround and attack you is the former army of Wuwei Nie Shicheng, and most of their soldiers have gone to Tianjin. We have eyes and ears on the side of the Governor of Naoli, and the order was given by the Governor of Naoli, Yuro, probably thinking that the landed coalition forces are more dangerous. Maybe it's an order from the imperial court, but it's not certain__"

This is similar to the situation of reconnaissance, and there are indeed not many Qing troops outside Xigu. Seymour was not worried about breaking through, but worried about the next dozens of miles, after all, it was on enemy soil, and there were dangers lurking everywhere__

The news brought by Dai Dewang immediately spread throughout the army, and the officers were surprisingly unanimous in their opinions, and immediately went back to Tianjin! Enough of this damn place!

The military conference ended quickly, and almost no one wanted to stay here and wait for reinforcements. It's been more than ten days, and if the reinforcements hadn't been in trouble, they should have arrived a long time ago.

So, it was decided to set off in the early morning of the next day, and Dudwangwang naturally took on the heavy responsibility of leading the way. Seymour promised that if the troops returned to Tianjin, he would reward the loyal, brave and resourceful Chinese.

The allied soldiers who were ready to break through did not have a good rest, and the bodies of their fallen comrades had been buried in the open space in the camp, and the key was that they had to carry the wounded and sick numbers of three hundred people, of which nearly 100 were seriously injured (sick) who could not walk on their own. Preparing a stretcher rope for one night, it's busy enough.

But the morale of the troops was high because they were leaving this damn place. There were a lot of weapons and ammunition in Xigu, and they couldn't take it with them, so Seymour decided to destroy them. Mr. Dainwang, who had been with Seymour, said it was better not to do that because it would alarm the enemy. Seymour thought it was right, so he canceled the order, and he was satisfied that the enemy that Dudwang said was his homeland, and if China had more of them. It's much easier to conquer the country__

Had a simple breakfast, around six o'clock in the morning, and it was already dawn.

It was originally decided that five o'clock was the time for the breakout, but the actual operation was delayed by an hour. It's all because of the damn sick and wounded. But the situation did not allow for a patient to be left behind, it was a big morale issue, and leaving the sick and wounded would undoubtedly kill them.

Seymour took the British army as the vanguard and left the Xigu stronghold. The Germans were tasked with being the queen, as they were the two most powerful of the coalition forces he commanded. The Russian army and the US army were on guard on both sides, setting up a barrel-shaped formation to protect the Chinese army, which carried a large number of wounded and sick people. Begin their most rearmost march.

The troops are not facing south. Instead, it headed east. This was the suggestion of Dai Dewang, who persuaded the generals of the coalition army that the Qing army had many troops in the south and few in the east, and that he had come in from the east.

Soon after his departure, he was discovered by the Qing army. But the other side did not attack. Just block with sparse fire. General Seymour, who was following the British army and was following the American troops, rode on his horse and watched with a telescope. Seeing the sparse cavalry on the other side, he became more and more convinced that what Dai Dewang said was right. Well, just go around in circles. Take a few more steps and you can return to Tianjin safely.

Seymour concluded that at this point, the British Empire and other countries would never rest on their laurels. It's okay to establish your own merits in this vast but ignorant land. In the next war, he will still contribute, I don't know if Lu Dao can continue to serve as the commander of the coalition forces__He thought, it is really difficult, he is a vice admiral, not an army general__

Throughout the morning, the removal of a few insignificant forces of harassing cavalry caused some trouble for the vigilance troops on both flanks, and the rest went well. The biggest trouble came from behind, there was a Qing cavalry that had been not far behind the broken German army, which brought trouble to the German army. When the Germans stopped the counterattack, the cavalry of the Qing army retreated, the Germans set off, the Qing cavalry stuck up again, the cavalry had good marksmanship, and brought two dead and five wounded to the German army, so that the German commander Major Bork was extremely angry, and organized a tactical counterattack without consulting General Seymour, and the German counterattack caused a disjointed consequence to the retreating troops of the coalition army that was shrunk into a regiment. The distance between the Germans and Seymour's brigade was widening. However, the British brigade in front and the invading armies of Russia, France, the United States, Japan, Italy, Austria and other countries in the middle did not care about the trouble of the German army, it was just trouble, and they had guessed in advance that harassment could not be without. Now everything is going well, and it is good that we have gone more than twenty miles and have not encountered a strong interception by the enemy. The British troops walking in front could even hear the sound of artillery in the direction of Tianjin. In any case, I will definitely be able to return to the concession today.

Encouraged by this goal, the forward troops unconsciously accelerated the pace of the march, and led the coalition forces in the center to also speed up the pace, throwing off the rearguard about 400 German soldiers more and more distances, while the distance between the forward troops and the Chinese army also increased, and a gap of almost 200 meters appeared, after all, the coalition troops carrying stretchers were always better than soldiers carrying only weapons.

General Seymour did not recognize the problems that had been exposed. Walking in front of the American army and behind the British army, he called Dai Dewang, who had been walking in the front to lead the way, and asked about the road situation, and Dai Dewang said that as long as he crossed the small river in front, he could see the city of Tianjin, and it was estimated that there would be about ten miles away.

"Very good, when you return to Tianjin, I will reward you again. Lovely young man! The lieutenant general once again expressed his appreciation for this Chinese who are committed to the coalition forces.

The British had reached the river, a small river whose name even the guide Tade Tehman did not know. The rivers around Tianjin are crisscrossed by rivers and are estimated to be tributaries of a large river, such as the Haihe River or the Chaobai River. On both sides of the river are undulating hilly terrain with dense crops and not many tall trees.

The British vanguard stopped at the river, and Dythewang jumped into the river first, heading to the opposite bank. The river was not deep, and the British were relieved to see the small Chinese guide at the waist, and the British captain who led the group saw the guide clumsily climb up the river bank, waved at them, and signaled that they could cross the river.

The captain shouted, the British soldiers took off their shoes, tied the two leather shoes together with shoelaces, hung them around their necks, held their rifles, and began to wade along the road opened by Dainwang, the guide who boarded the opposite bank had already entered the fields and disappeared, and the first few British soldiers had also gone ashore, everything was normal, the captain waved his hand indifferently, and more British soldiers jumped into the river and headed towards the opposite bank.

At that moment, the gunshots rang out, so close that they seemed to be in front of them. The captain subconsciously shrank his neck, and saw that the soldier who was the first to board the river bank had already been shot, and a soldier fell off the river bank with a bone, a wave of spray, and sank directly to the bottom - he had been killed before falling into the water!

A premeditated ambush! The captain shouted, and he climbed down on the riverbank, and a dozen soldiers who landed on the bank ran back, and some of them were shot and fell to the ground or rolled into the river, and the river began to foam with blood. (To be continued......)