On November 5, 1883, Pan Dingxin and Zhao Huaiye, who had retreated to Bantran, received a telegram from Beijing, and the above did not reprimand them for the loss of Vientiane, but made Pan and Zhao summing up the lesson, purging discipline, and then abandoning Zhongliao and retreating to Luang Prabang in Shangliao, obeying Zuo's command.

The two originally thought that punishment would be inevitable, and the heavy ones might order the military commanders to correct the law on the spot, and the light ones would at least have to wear the guilt and make meritorious contributions, but they didn't expect it to be such a result, and the two of them were both suspicious and happy.

On November 7th, Chao Paya. Surriwang led his army to capture Sichuan Khouang, so that the whole of Zhongliao was almost bloodlessly captured, and at the same time, the second wave of troops under the command of Prince Pannurangjisi also entered Vientiane, and Siam seemed to have won a decisive victory.

In Bangkok, tens of thousands of celebratory people flocked to Wat Phraya, the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok, built in 1793 by King Rama I. The people who were inspired by the victory, burning incense and thanking the Buddha for his blessing could make the Siamese men move forward indomitable and kill until the arrogant and unreasonable China, and even Chulalongkorn, who was staying in India to watch, could not help but move the idea of returning home, because according to the secret report, due to the smooth war, the prestige of Prince Jiti Yekorn of Chanthaburi, who served as the crown prince's supervisor, rose sharply in the government and the opposition, which made Chulalongkorn quite worried.

On November 11, two waves of Siamese armies began to advance in Xiangshangliao, and in front of them was Luang Prabang, which was garrisoned by Zuo Guigui, as long as this fortress was captured, the Siamese army could enter Phongsali, recover the territory occupied by China, and wash away all the humiliation.

They don't know that the "Lushan Jihua", which will determine the future fate of Siam, has already been activated.

According to Ding Yuntong's arrangement, the Second Guards Division was divided into three, Su Yuanchun's brigade was transferred to Korea, Major General Ma Jinxu commanded an infantry regiment and a cavalry battalion, which were placed in Jinghong Port in Yunnan Province, together with the river fleet commanded by Ye Zuqi, to become a rear assault Liliang, while Lieutenant General Zuo Guigui commanded a brigade, including a heavy artillery battalion, as a frontal interception force, was placed in Luang Prabang.

Whether Jihua can succeed depends on whether the left precious part of the front can block the Siamese attack.

Zuo Guigui is a native of the Hui nationality in Shandong, his parents died when he was a child, he was born in extreme poverty, he has always been the first soldier in battle, and he has both courage and courage, and has a very high prestige in the army. Now that the Siamese army was approaching, and the 16th or 17th was expected to be in the city, he felt a great responsibility and had to race against time.

First of all, the patrol army was reorganized, although the patrol army still had about 8,000 people, but there was a lack of weapons and ammunition, Zuo Guigui did his best to collect, from breech guns to breech guns, and even carry guns, arquebuses, bird guns, broadswords and spears, in short, all the weapons that could be found were used, and finally these people were re-armed, put them in the first line of defense, and sent a group of guards officers to supervise the battle, and anyone who dared to escape was corrected on the spot.

Then Zuo Guigui personally led the Guards Brigade, waited on the second line, and put the heavy artillery battalion on the third line, lining up 4 210mm heavy howitzers and 32 78mm light field guns, which was enough to be proud of the entire Siam Army.

On November 7, on the Lancang River in Jinghong, Yunnan, the huge red dragon flag was rising, the blood-red battle flag was waving in the wind, and with the sound of the whistle, the Chinese river fleet lined up in a neat queue also officially set sail.

The flagship armored gunboat Longwei took the lead, followed by five gunboats including Wan Nianqing, Meiyun, Anlan, Zhenhai, and Chaowu, and then three transport ships such as Yongbao, Chenhang, and Daya, full of soldiers and materials, and Zuihou was six gunboats including Ji'an, Feiyun, Fuxing, Zhenwei, Fubo, and Yixin, and the team went down the river mightily. Now is the flood season, the water is abundant, the navigation is smooth, it only takes ten days from Jinghong Port, and in mid-November, the troops can come to Vientiane City.

On November 13, 1883, the Japanese First Army finally arrived in the area east of the Datong River.

The Japanese felt a lot of hardship on this march. The North Korean government has repeatedly ordered the local government to organize the military and civilians to resist the Japanese army, but those local officials have long since cleaned up and slipped away, and the soldiers and civilians have also dispersed in a hurry. But even so, it had already made the Japanese army suffer a lot, and everywhere they went, ten rooms and nine were empty, all materials had to be transported from the country, and there was hardly any supply in the local area.

On the other hand, there were rumors everywhere in Korea that the Japanese army was massacring in Seoul, which made the Korean people frightened and frightened. Even if it were easy to find some North Koreans in the ravines and forcibly recruit them to work, they would always look for an opportunity to escape.

Therefore, the Japanese army suffered from a lack of supplies during the march, and ate no non-staple food except coarse rice, and often relied on a spoonful of salt for several days in a row.

On November 14, the 6th Division of the Japanese Army had also arrived at Maitiandian in the upper reaches of the Datong River. That night, the whole army camped on the east bank and prepared to cross the river the next day.

Late that night, a group of Korean men forcibly hired by the Japanese baggage team sneaked away with 53 pack horses and military rations, and were not discovered until dawn. Gu Zhi Zhenggang, the captain of the baggage team, blamed himself and committed suicide by caesarean section.

The Japanese army was divided into three routes, and the 1st Division attacked Funhashi-ri on the east bank of the Taedong River from the front, so as to contain and attract the Qing army and facilitate the flanking attacks of other troops in the northeast and southwest directions of Pyongyang;

The 2nd Division crossed the Taedong River from Yonggang, south of Pyongyang, and attacked Pyongyang from the southwest;

The 6th Division crossed the river from Maitiandian and attacked Mudandae from the northeast to cut off Pyongyang's railway line.

By 15 November, the Japanese units were in place, and the three divisions had a total strength of more than 50,000 men, excluding those non-combatants, while the defending Guards had only nearly 30,000 troops, which was at a great disadvantage in terms of strength. But the Guards also had their own advantages, that is, they had everything they needed, and the grain was piled up, enough to last half a year. Ammunition is plentiful, allowing the Guards to maintain a strong firepower. At the same time, it also occupies the advantage of terrain, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the city walls are tall and strong.

In the evening of the same day, the Japanese army began to mobilize, and Prince Arisugawa Miyashihito declared to the whole army: "If the battle situation is difficult, we will never be captured by the enemy, and we would rather die innocently, so as to show the integrity of Japanese men and protect the honor of Japanese boys!" ”

According to Jihua, the 1st Division was to attack the Funhashi-ri position first to attract the attention of the Chinese defenders.

Guarding the bridge is Fang Yousheng's brigade of the Seventh Division of the Guards, Fang Yousheng is a native of Changsha, Hunan, who joined the army in the last years of Xianfeng, fought in the south and the north, and has extremely rich experience.

At this time, the strategy and tactics of the Guards had been greatly improved. Not only did a number of high-ranking commanders study in Europe, but Ding Yuntong repeatedly stressed the need to look at war with modern thinking and the principle of putting firepower first in his tactics for the entire Guards from the very beginning of the formation of the troops. In battle, it is necessary to concentrate firepower at the right time and kill the enemy with maximum firepower, which can greatly damage the morale of the opponent.

Fang Yousheng made full use of this principle, he placed the main force of the infantry at both ends of the position, relied on the cover of fortresses and mine arrays, and used sophisticated Krupp 78mm field guns and Mauser guns to kill and wound the Japanese troops. And in the center of the position, no mines were laid, but a killer weapon was arranged.

Now, the equipment of the Guards has been newly upgraded, and the biggest change is the addition of a large number of Haqi Kaisi machine guns, with an average of one per company. Fang Yousheng concentrated all the more than 30 machine guns of the entire brigade in the center of the position, and under the cover of the fortress, a terrifying firepower network would be formed.

In the early morning of November 16, the 1st Division began to attack the position of Funhashiri on the east bank of the Datong River, and under the cover of dozens of field artillery and mountain artillery, thousands of Japanese infantry wrapped their heads in white cloth and shouted "Long live the Emperor!" ", launched a decisive charge.