After the British and French forces established a stronghold in Beitang, they were not idle, and tested the city defense of Jinkou, and they decisively gave up.

Moreover, the Dagu Pass side was blocked, and without the landing site of Dagu Pass, the importance of Jinkou City dropped a lot, and the gains in attacking Jinkou outweighed the losses.

In addition, the British and French forces also reconnoitred the surrounding terrain, the military grain city, which was abandoned by Yang Meng, is a good garrison location, and the sporadic battles in Zhangjiawan are also reminding the commanders of the British and French forces that they still have a group of compatriots trapped near the Qing Jingshi!

Now, the Anglo-French army to which Elgin and Grant belonged has also come to the end of the road, a few days ago, the food in their barracks was eaten, and these days they have eaten leather boots, bullet belts, belts, and other leather goods, and in a few days, these things will also be eaten!

The Qing army's attack also began yesterday, and now the hungry army is already difficult to make an effective counterattack, if it were not for the Qing army's offensive is not fierce, Zhangjiawan's position would have been lost long ago.

Gro was lucky enough to die of illness a month ago, and at that time, Ergin and the others were able to eat a decent dinner, but now they can only eat boiled belts.

In the past few months, Ergin, Grant, and Gro have surrendered countless times under the white flag, and even sent some wounded soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender, but these were rejected by the Qing army on the opposite side, and the wounded soldiers who went out were also cut into several pieces and sent back.

Many soldiers. They are already mentally abnormal, and the number of suicides is increasing exponentially. During this time, Erjin was also summing up his meetings with Yang Butang of the Qing Kingdom. With the assistance of Grant, a military general, Ergin discovered a huge conspiracy, and Yang Butang, the Qing state, wanted to stop not only the British and French forces, but the whole of Europe.

Yang Butang's purpose in establishing the shipyard of the Five Nations was very sinister, he wanted to control the Pacific shipping lane, he wanted to cut off the sea routes between Europe and Asia, the Americas, and Australia, once this Yang Butang's plan came true, the British Empire would lose nearly seventy percent of its colonies. Starting from India to Canada and Australia, that Yang Butang's ambition is too great!

As long as he can defeat the Anglo-French forces in the Far East and kill and injure the Anglo-French forces on a large scale, the Far East strategy of the two countries will have to be postponed. Little by little, the British Empire invaded its colonies in the Americas and Australia.

When Britain and France want to attack the Far East again, they will know what a terrible beast they have cultivated in the Far East, and Tsarist Russia will be able to dominate Europe. By what means? A vast land and a large population!

And the Qing State is another Tsarist Russia, as long as he is given time, he will rise. If the Qing State wants to rise, it is bound to trample on the interests of the British Empire, and there is no peace between the two countries!

For the rescue of the homeland. Elgin and Grant are also convinced, as long as the time comes. The local rescue will naturally come, calculate the time, the local rescue, it's almost time to come, Ergin and Grant want to bring these analysis results back, but now the combat strength of the coalition forces is impossible to complete this task.

The biggest reason for the limitation of combat power is food, as long as there is food, in just a few days, more than 10,000 of their allied troops will recover their combat effectiveness.

"Grant, for the sake of the Empire, there are some things that have to be done, we should let the soldiers eat some meat these days."

Decision, must be decided, Ergin is a politician and a nobleman of the British Empire, in his eyes, those ordinary soldiers are just lowly and humble subordinates, who eat meat, eat their meat.

"Count, is there a final battle?"

What is Ergin talking about, Grant knows very well, eating meat, Grant, who has experienced many colonial wars, has seen a lot, Ergin is right, in order to break through, the soldiers should eat meat!

"Hmmm! The Final Battle! We have to break through! ”

Unlike the madness of Ergin and Grant, the headquarters of the Anglo-French forces in Beitang was silent, not because of anything else, but because of the combat strength of the Qing army and the weapons they used.

"This is not the Qing Kingdom of fifteen years ago!"

Is this Charlie? Yilu said that the Qing soldiers who did not dare to fight hand-to-hand in the past were gone, and it was because of his mistakes that the Anglo-French army lost more than 10,000 people.

And the reason why the French commander does not question the law of righteousness is also simple, that is, the muskets used by the Qing army, these muskets are not objects from other countries, they are the firing rifled guns in active service in France, how these things came from, McMahon also knows a little bit about it, but if you say it, it hurts feelings!

"The combat strength of the Qing Royal Guards is not inferior to the army of Tsarist Russia, but in terms of tactics, they are still the same backward, and the weather is also favorable to the coalition army, and after about twenty days, the mercenaries of Tsarist Russia will arrive, and at that time, the coalition army will directly launch a general attack on the Qing army.

During this time, in addition to consolidating our forward positions, it was also necessary to transfer a batch of artillery from the battleship!

And Grant's army, too, needs reinforcements, and until the arrival of the Russian mercenaries, this is our responsibility! ”

Allied Navy Commander William? Bhaga's words were a little flickering, but in his opinion, it was the best way to go.

"Transfer artillery from battleships again?"

McMahon actually wanted to ridicule Baga, but when he thought of the importance of artillery, he only questioned it without any force.

"What else would you do? The walls of the capital of the Qing Kingdom are at least ten meters thick, how can the city be attacked without heavy artillery? And this time we have a forward position, the warships are also in the deep water, and there are also vigilant troops on the ice sheet, and the tragedy at Dagukou will not happen again! ”

Speaking of this William? Baga was also a little annoyed, Grant, this bastard, lost the face of the British Imperial Navy in the first battle, and parked the unsuspecting warship at a small shallow water dock, which is really stupid!

The command of the Anglo-French forces made a decision, and the Anglo-French forces also moved. Artillery, supplies came ashore continuously, and continuous snowfall. It also gave the British and French troops the convenience of transportation, and had cavalry horses. With the makeshift sled, a few days of hard work, enough materials for hundreds of thousands of troops, were hoarded in Beitang Haikou.

In response to the constantly testing Anglo-French coalition army, Shi Dakai's side is also responding positively, five times the number of Anglo-French coalition troops, Shi Dakai's Zhilu militia can only barely block seven or eight thousand Anglo-French troops in the field, once the French blue-clothed soldiers account for the majority. Shi Dakai will take the initiative to choose defeat.

If the Anglo-French army sent the English Red Shirts, Shi Dakai would hold on for a little longer, and the decline of the English army embarrassed the Yilu brothers and Baga very much, while McMahon was constantly sending secret information to France itself.

For more than ten days, the snow has not stopped, sometimes heavy and sometimes small, and there is snow in some places in Beijing and Tianjin. It is already knee-high, which has also caused a lot of pressure on the new army to which Yang Meng belongs.

Neither the new armies in the southwest nor the south had experience in fighting in the snow, and the cotton shoes rationed in the army were not waterproof. In just a dozen days, about 10 percent of the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed near Jingshi were frostbitten.

"Find a way! A tarpaulin made in Yunnan. Ready-made skins, paraffin, and tree wax are all for Lao Tzu to try! As long as it can make the cotton shoes waterproof!

Men and horses in the army. One person is given one pair of cotton shoes and three or five pairs of cloth socks. In addition to frostbite cream, you also need to find some quick prescriptions for frostbite!

Let Yunnan's ordnance factory, Xishan, and Minghu make every effort to develop waterproof and warm military boots! ”

It's not that the new army can't endure hardship, but the snow is too heavy, and these cotton shoes will get soaked in about a quarter of an hour when they walk in the snow, and they will be better when they wear soaked shoes and socks during the march, and once they stop, their toes will soon be frostbitten.

Fortunately, the frostbite of the army is not too serious, but Yang Meng knows that this is just the beginning, once the battle in the snow continues, many people are afraid that their feet will not be saved.

Now Yang Meng just wants some plastic bags, if he has this thing, put a set on his feet, and many people's toes or foot boards can be saved.

The biggest loss did not come from the British and French forces, but from the heavy snow, which Yang Meng did not expect, most of the marches of the new army were in the field, clearing the snow while walking, which was.

A pair of waterproof military boots is what Yang Meng wants the most, but the production of military boots in Yunnan is limited, and it is a luxury to match the army with military boots in the blink of an eye, let alone waterproof military boots!

Now Yang Meng can come up with the only urgent moves, such as tarpaulin, leather and upper waxing, some things may not be able to be thought of, and thinking may not be able to do it.

Frostbite attrition, although it was expected by Yang Meng, but in more than ten days, fifty or sixty thousand toes were frostbitten, and this number is still expanding rapidly, which Yang Meng did not expect before, once the mercenaries of Tsarist Russia landed, the real war, more than 100,000 people will be frozen off their toes or foot boards.

"Third master, it's already trying, the men and horses on Wei Huozi's side, don't move, it's okay to let Seng Lingqin's horse team deal with the Anglo-French forces in Zhangjiawan?"

The army is frostbitten, this is also a very helpless thing, the militia in the north is better, the key is that those southern soldiers and horses who have not experienced heavy snow, their shoes are wet and do not know to take off to warm their feet, unconsciously, the surface of the feet is frostbitten, and when it is found, the entire army, there are already fifty or sixty thousand people frostbitten, which directly affects the combat effectiveness.

"Hmmm! Let Seng Lingqin and Zhang Luoxing's men annihilate Ergin's Anglo-French army, inform the two of them, and lay a triple encirclement before the war, and not a single Anglo-French army can be let go!

Let's go and see how the wax oil works? ”

A large number of tarpaulins and leather materials need a certain amount of time to be sent to Beijing, and paraffin wax, tree wax and foreign wax these things, Yang Meng can raise some in a short time, if the cloth cotton shoes have a waterproof effect after waxing, this is undoubtedly a good emergency method.

"The third master's method should be easy, now that the war is on the top, small things like shoes should be delayed!"

"How is this delayed? The brigade of the Anglo-French army is about to arrive, and now 50,000 or 60,000 people have frozen their feet, and we will wait a lot more, even if we win like this, how many disabled people and horses do we have in our hands?

This winter battle is either frozen hands or frozen feet, without hands and feet, these people are a burden, and the cost in the future will be even greater!

Hurry up now, not only will they suffer less, but we will also spend less money in the future, by the way, get some lime powder to try, this thing absorbs moisture, although it will burn the feet, but it is much better to lose a few layers of skin on the feet than to freeze off the soles of the feet! ”

To do Yang Meng's position, you have to look at a few more steps, compared with the war death, the cost of disabled personnel is greater, not to say that Yang Meng doesn't want to take this burden, but the meaningless burden, Yang Meng doesn't want to take it, and he doesn't want many people to become disabled, it's not good to eat this bowl of rice for the disabled!

"I'll go down and make arrangements, Third Master, the Russian mercenaries in the west are about to arrive, you better study countermeasures! As for the shoes, just let Li Xianming and them do it! ”

"Let them hurry! Then it is to collect the furs in the hands of the people in Beijing, deal with it first, and then talk about it, the soldiers and horses of the major battalions, if there is no war, they will go elsewhere to practice, and they will stay in the camp for a few days! (To be continued......)