"Lay down your weapons and don't put up a senseless resistance!" A little lame English came to Lieutenant Schmidt's ears, and when he looked up slightly, Lieutenant Schmidt saw that there were seven people surrounding them, dressed in the camouflage uniform of the Taiping Army, and covered with branches, and their faces were painted with black things, and they didn't know what they were.

Ensign Schmidt's panicked mood slowly calmed down, and he wanted to resist, but thinking of his wife who was far away from the ocean, he finally chose to put down his weapon and squatted on the ground with his head in his hands, just like the other two remaining soldiers.

"What are your names, positions, and missions?" After the weapons were collected, a Taiping officer began to interrogate, but Second Lieutenant Schmidt clenched his teeth and said to himself, you can't betray your compatriots and comrades, no, absolutely not.

"Name! Posts! Task! Another shout rang out, and the other two soldiers reported their names and positions, but they also gritted their teeth and did not say their mission, and finally Second Lieutenant Schmidt gritted his teeth and said, "Schmidt. Lawrence, Second Lieutenant of the 1st Regimental Dragoons of the Royal Guard! ”

"What is your mission?! I don't want to torture you, but if I don't get the answer I want, you're going to suffer greatly. The Taiping officer crouched down and glared at Schmidt viciously, and in his eyes Schmidt saw the ferocity of a poisonous snake. But Schmidt gritted his teeth, he could not betray his compatriots and comrades, he was ready to be beaten and tortured, he was ready to fulfill his convictions.

"Cut off their fingers and toes one by one until they speak!" The officer's tone was cold and cruel. It's chilling, and Schmidt still has to hold his teeth tight. But the two soldiers behind him, both soldiers who had only been in the army for half a year, began to cry and beg for mercy. Having lived through the Crimean War, Schmidt closed his eyes in agony, ready to accept this harsh reality. Two Taiping soldiers rushed up and held down Schmidt, stomping one of his hands under his feet, and placing the bayonet on Schmidt's finger, Schmidt trembled all over, and he almost couldn't help but speak.

But at this moment, a Taiping soldier walked up to the officer and said, "Sergeant, this has been found in their Wen Jiàn purse. "It's in Chinese. Schmidt, of course, didn't know what they were talking about, but when he saw the letter with the seal of the commander of the coalition forces, he felt bad in his heart, and he only hoped that the Taiping soldiers could not read the English on it.

Sure enough, the officer didn't seem to understand the contents of the letter, but after a moment of silence, he said, "Bring them and the letter information back to the battalion staff!" Schmidt still didn't understand the Chinese, but he escaped the severed finger, and he and two other soldiers became prisoners.

After being tied up by the Five Flowers, the three Schmidt were escorted south by five Taiping soldiers. In the darkness they were led by ropes, through a field of sorghum, and then across the canal on a single-plank bridge. Schmidt, who belonged to the reconnaissance team of the Dragoon Regiment, swore he had never known there was such a single-plank bridge to the south. But the Taiping army looked for this place as if they were familiar with the road.

After walking about three miles, they came to another village, where the sentries in ambush whispered. After the Taiping army who led them answered, the group was released. Schmidt was surprised to find that there were at least a dozen Taiping soldiers hidden in the farmland and woods on the outskirts of the village. It was only when Schmidt got closer that he saw them come out of their hiding place. Later, more than a dozen people came out of the village and exchanged jobs with them.

They are all latent masters, Schmidt secretly thought in his heart, at this moment he suddenly began to worry in his heart, the Taiping army troops were able to lurk so close to Tianjin City, what their goal was naturally self-evident, the ridiculous General Sutton actually said that there was no sign of Taiping army activities in this area!

After entering the village, Schmidt was escorted alone to a village house, through the small courtyard characteristic of the house, where he saw two Taiping army officers and several soldiers of five large and three thick, these soldiers were shirtless, and the house was burning with a raging fire, much like a torture room.

After the two officers had read the letter that Schmidt was supposed to send to General Napier, one of the bearded officers asked, "Is it your task to deliver a letter to General Napier?" ”

As soon as Schmidt heard it, he knew that they had read the contents of the letter, and although it was possible that ordinary soldiers could not read English, the Taiping Army had a deep relationship with Britain and France, and their upper officers must be able to understand it, so Schmidt wilted like a deflated ball and nodded reluctantly.

The bearded officer was very excited, spoke a few words in Chinese, and handed the letter to another officer, who hurried out with the letter, Schmidt guessed that they were forwarding the letter to a higher command, and he also knew the value of the letter, and like the letter to General Sutton, it mentioned the plans of Major General Michelle and General Collino to reinforce Tianjin and Tanggu, and Schmidt regretted that he did not expect to destroy these letters in the first place.

"Second Lieutenant, it's a pity that you can't complete your mission, you will be sent back to our rear, where you will be taken prisoner until the end of the war, rest assured, you will not be abused." When the bearded officer had finished speaking, he ordered the soldiers to take Schmidt down.

Ensign Schmidt and his two soldiers were locked up in a dark, smelly firewood room, and Schmidt could not sleep all night, and the three comforted each other until midnight. At midnight, the three of them fell asleep in a daze, and at this time, the door of the firewood room suddenly opened, and several Taiping soldiers with torches took the three out, and a Taiping sergeant said to them: "Three, we are ordered to take you back to the Nanyuan camp." ”

Walking out of the firewood house, I saw that many soldiers in the whole village had gathered one after another, lined up in a neat line and headed northwest, Schmidt knew that they were heading in the direction of Tianjin City.

Passing through the village, they went all the way to the southwest, and when they passed a stone hill outside the village, the sergeant pointed to dozens of new graves that had risen here and said: "Second Lieutenant, look at these, they are the original residents of this village, they were slaughtered by your coalition forces, and the rest fled to the south and never dared to come back, this is the crime committed by your coalition forces!" ”

Schmidt looked at the graves in amazement, and hurriedly explained: "God, I'm sorry, I don't know about these things, I didn't know these things would happen near Tianjin when I was in Tongzhou. The other two captives also expressed their regret and condolences for the victims.

The sergeant snorted and said, "We know this, we have found out that it was your British Indian soldiers who did it after we arrived, and we will settle accounts with them." ”

Schmidt breathed a sigh of relief, after the invasion of the Indian soldiers and some French colonial troops in North Africa, from the beginning of the robbery to the indiscriminate killing of innocents, Schmidt had heard of it, he felt that these people had lost their humanity, perhaps because they had been suppressed in the colony for too long, or because the residents here were easy to bully.

After walking for miles in the dark, the sky became even darker, and Schmidt was led by a rope, and he walked ahead of his own accord, and suddenly above the sky behind him, patches of light illuminated the sky behind him, accompanied by thunderous sounds, and the patches of light polished the sky under the darkness.

Several Taiping soldiers who were escorting them cheered, and the sergeant said excitedly to Schmidt: "Look, that's our artillery has begun to shell Tianjin, and the general attack will begin immediately after the shelling, and we will recapture Tianjin from you before dawn!" ”

Schmidt and the other three looked back in amazement, and the dense light kept shining in the distant sky, as if it was the wrath of thunder from heaven, and they could still be seen and heard from so far away, indicating that the Taiping army's artillery fire was very intensive. This scene is familiar to Schmidt, who had shelled the Russian fortress of Sevastopol at night during the Crimean War, when Schmidt was still a sergeant, and he had seen it in a cavalry camp far away, but now they were on the side of the fire.

The sergeant of the Taiping Army chattered endlessly like showing off: "We sent a lot of reconnaissance teams over as early as ten days ago, and we have already detected the military deployment inside and outside Tianjin City, your General Sutton is very good, and the residents of the entire Tianjin City can come and go freely, so our reconnaissance operation is very successful, and the reconnaissance team you sent is mainly aimed at robbery and killing, and they don't know anything about our existence." ”

Schmidt only felt that his face was hot, shame and humiliation welled up in his heart, the Taiping army was deliberately preparing to wave their swords against the coalition forces, but it was ridiculous that they were still rejoicing in the negotiations in Tongzhou, damn greed, damn blind pride, damn war!

Schmidt cursed blindly in his heart, but to no avail, from the moment he was captured, he had withdrawn from the war, he had lost his glory and possible praise, he felt that he was not worthy of the dragoon insignia, but at least he kept his life.

After walking for another half an hour, the Satanic fire in the sky gradually dimmed, Schmidt did not know what the battle was like there, so he could only silently pray in his heart that the reinforcements from Tongzhou could reach Tianjin after dawn, and General Sutton and his soldiers in Tianjin could support it for a long time. Schmidt estimated the time just now, and it should have been around three o'clock in the morning when the Taiping army launched the artillery bombardment, which was the time when the allied soldiers were asleep, and God knows what kind of course General Sutton could organize his soldiers in the night raid. The cunning Taiping soldiers chose the most relaxed time to attack, which was premeditated for a long time, and God knows what the war would turn out of. But Schmidt is sure that this time it seems that God will not be on their side...... (To be continued......)