The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 750: The Birth of Nicholas Zhao Siye, a Famous American General
The cold wind in the Bison Valley blew up heavy snow like goose feathers, which fell on the frozen rocks. Chen Yucheng spent a week to narrow this valley. The narrowest part of the valley was only 24 yards wide. On the snow slopes with an angle of more than degrees on both sides, the soldiers of Zeng Ke's Black Wall Brigade were using engineering shovels to dig out firing platforms. Twelve Armstrong guns and twelve -pound mortars were like hibernating venomous snakes, entrenched on the reverse slope position.

"Yucheng, you really are worthy of being a talented person brought up by His Royal Highness the King of Wu. This ambush location is well chosen. The Yankees have got in headfirst, and it will be difficult for them to get out!"

"You are too kind, Prince Consort Nanyi. It is easy to choose a good place to ambush, but it is difficult to lure the enemy in! Only you, Prince Consort, can come up with such a powerful strategy to lure the enemy in!"

Xianfeng was wrapped in a sable coat, munching on a piece of cold bread while flattering Chen Yucheng.

"Powerful? Haha, it's vicious, right?" Xianfeng smiled faintly and broke off another piece of bread and stuffed it into his mouth.

Chen Yucheng smiled awkwardly: "Look at what you said, a kind person cannot command an army! The most important thing in a war is to win!"

That being said, this was the first time Chen Yucheng had seen someone as vicious as Zhao Si.
At this time, Xianfeng saw Linshu leading two thousand black baoyi to dig a pit at the bottom of the valley. When the slave soldiers wrapped in tattered cotton jackets hit the frozen soil with iron picks, sparks could fly three feet away. One black baoyi suddenly dropped his tools and tried to run. The supervising black cavalry threw out a lasso and dragged him behind the horse and crushed him to death.

"Tell Linshu," Xianfeng gestured to the messenger, "If one more person runs away, the whole team will kill one out of ten."

When dusk fell on November 11, the dull roar of Mississippi cavalry rifles came from outside Buffalo Valley. Black Tom's more than 13 black cavalrymen seemed to be pulling hatred while retreating, leading more than 3 red-eyed officers and soldiers of the rd Division of the Union Army into a death trap. The thirteen white female corpses along the way played a role - the posture of those girls who were tortured to death curled up in the snow turned the most cowardly Union soldiers into beasts.

Brigadier General Joseph Blake's boots sank into the snow half a foot deep. He saw with his own eyes that the sixth female corpse had corn cobs stuck in her eye sockets and her hands and feet were cruelly broken! When the scout reported that there were three white female corpses in the carriage abandoned by the black soldiers, the commander who graduated from the West Point Military Academy completely lost his mind.

"All divisions charge!" Blake drew his sword and slashed at the entrance of Bison Valley. "No prisoners. Kill all these black people!"

Six thousand angry Union troops in blue uniforms poured into Buffalo Valley like a tide. Two thousand black coats had been waiting for this moment. With the command, they suddenly stood up from the trenches. The uneven volleys of Mississippi rifles knocked down the Union cavalry in the front row, but more Union troops rushed up, stepping on the bodies of their companions. Many black coats were stabbed with bayonets while still holding unloaded rifles in their hands.

The first round of hand-to-hand combat lasted for twenty minutes. The Union Army used bayonets to tear open three gaps in the black clad line of defense, but soon discovered that there was a second line of defense behind these slave soldiers - a line of defense made up of chevaux de frise and sandbags. When more than a hundred Union soldiers who broke through the first line of defense of the black slave soldiers were blocked by chevaux de frise, the soldiers of the first battalion of the Blackwall Brigade, who were ambushed on the snow slope, started the first round of volleys.

"put!"

Zengke's roar shook the snow off the pine branches. More than 300 Minié rifles fired at the same time, and bullets poured down like iron rain. The Northern Army who were dismantling the chevaux de frise fell in groups. After a lieutenant's military cap was blown off, his entire head was lifted up.

The Union Army, which was suddenly hit, was immediately deflated and temporarily defeated. However, the Union Army's Third Division, which had long been enraged, would not give up so easily.

"Fire!" Blake's furious voice echoed in the canyon.

Twelve Napoleon cannons that had just been placed spewed out tongues of fire, and solid bullets plowed deep grooves in the frozen soil. Five black jackets were swept into the sky by the whirlwind caused by the shells, and turned into lumps of blood and flesh when they landed.

Seeing that his twelve Napoleon guns had achieved good results, Blake once again ordered an attack. This time the scale was much stronger than the previous round of tentative attacks. With the rapid drumbeats, the blue wave of the Union Army poured into the valley. Six battalion-level columns followed one after another, and more than 2,000 bayonets drew a galaxy on the snow.

"put!"

The moment Chen Yucheng's flag fell, the 12 Armstrong breech-loading guns and 12 24-pound mortars deployed on the reverse slope roared at the same time. One after another, shrapnel was thrown at the Union Army crowded at the mouth of the valley. Orange flames suddenly rose in the Union Army, and picric acid shells exploded in green waves of fire in the dense formation.

"Hurry up and charge!" A Union Army battalion commander had just shouted when his head was shattered by a Minié bullet fired from the hillside. However, his soldiers, who had lost their command, rushed forward with red eyes, only to run head-on into the dense rain of bullets fired by the reorganized Black Packets and the more than 3000 soldiers of the "Black Wall Brigade" ambushed on the hillside. The front row of Union troops fell like straw under a sickle, while the ones behind continued to charge on the corpses.

Xianfeng was watching the bloody tug-of-war from the high ground, and finally a smug smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He turned around abruptly and said, "Order Linshu, Black Tom, and Yuanbao, it's their turn to appear!"

Suddenly, there was a thunderous sound of horse hooves at the mouth of the valley. Seventeen or eighteen hundred black cavalrymen divided into two groups, leading the four thousand soldiers of the Second Black Brigade, and followed the foot of the mountain to encircle the flank of the Union Army's Third Division.

Blake finally realized that he had been tricked, but it was too late. Twelve Armstrong guns had turned their muzzles and began to cover his artillery positions. In the green waves of fire from the picric acid shells, six Napoleon guns were overturned on the spot. Several gunners were stuck to the burning picric acid, and the yellow-green poisonous fire spread over them, burning them and rolling in the snow. "Cavalry. The black cavalry is coming!"

Someone shouted in Blake's ear, "Hollow square! Form a hollow square quickly!" Brigadier General Blake shouted while swinging his sword to chop down two deserters.

But the well-trained black cavalry gave them no chance at all. Lin Shu personally led a thousand elite cavalrymen to charge into Blake's left wing. The continuous firepower of the Colt revolver was extremely powerful at close range, and the chaotic Northern Army was beaten to a bloody mess.

Although Yuan Bao's Black Second Brigade was not as good as Zeng Ke's Black Wall Brigade, they had fought all the way from the First Battle of Manassas. They might not be as good at fighting tough battles as the Black Wall Brigade, but they were very good at surprise attacks and melees. There was no need for Yuan Bao to give orders. The black infantrymen in the front automatically dispersed into companies, like sharp blades piercing into the chaotic enemy formation, dividing them into small pieces.

When Black Tom's cavalry completed a major detour and appeared on the snow east of Buffalo Valley, the end of the Union Army came. Eight hundred horses formed a fan-shaped encirclement on the snow, and the black gunmen on horseback specialized in sniping officers. When Brigadier General Black himself tried to break out under the protection of his guards, he was shot in the head by a black gunman with a Minié rifle, which blew off half of his skull.

The final battle took place when the moon was at its zenith. Except for a few Union cavalrymen who broke out of the encirclement to inform General Grant, the 6000 Union troops under Brigadier General Black were almost wiped out, with more than 4000 killed. There were also several thousand exhausted Union troops who had run out of bullets and chose to lay down their weapons after being surrounded by blacks.
The gas lamps in the St. Louis Governor's Palace hissed in the cold night. Major General Ulysses Grant's hands were throbbing with anger as he clutched two battle reports.

"The 7000rd Division of the th Regiment of the th Division." His voice seemed to float out of an ice cellar. "Nearly people. Just gone like that?"

Chief of Staff Colonel Roslin watched General Grant tear the telegram into pieces. On the map table, the black, red and yellow tricolor flag representing Zhao Si's forces had been planted on the Missouri River - once they crossed the Missouri River and entered Nebraska, they would have a free hand.

Worse still, there was no city in Nebraska that could withstand their attack.

Suddenly, a whistle sounded outside the window. It was the officers and soldiers of the 15th Division who were loading the ship - they were originally going to the town of Hannibal to meet up with the 3rd Division. If they had arrived a few days earlier, the 3rd Division might not have suffered a disastrous defeat.

"Assemble the Fifth Cavalry!" Grant suddenly kicked over the oak chair. "I want to chop off that Chinese bastard's head myself!"

"General, it's too late. The Missouri River is starting to freeze!" Colonel Roslin hurriedly stopped him, "We should send more troops to Nebraska as soon as possible."

"We'll have to give it a try even if we don't have enough time." Grant gritted his teeth and said, "Maybe it's not frozen solid yet!"

The ice of the Missouri River shone golden in the evening sun. Xianfeng used his horse whip to poke more than 30 Northern Army prisoners kneeling by the river. They had been stripped of their uniforms and were only wrapped in thin shirts.

"Go!" Black Tom kicked a sergeant's back with his leather boots. "Let me see if the ice is solid!"

The prisoners stumbled onto the glacier, and the sound of broken bones came from under their feet. A corporal suddenly ran back like crazy, and was shot through the knee by Black Tom's revolver. Xianfeng looked at the bloody traces left by the soldier crawling on the ice, and his pockmarked face was nothing but indifference.

"Prince Consort, Grant's main force has moved." Chen Yucheng handed over the scout's report, which was still warm from his body temperature.

Suddenly, screams came from the center of the glacier. Three prisoners fell into the ice hole at the same time. The splashing water instantly froze into ice. Xianfeng raised his telescope and saw that the survivors were like elks being chased by wolves, running desperately on the ice of death, and finally all arrived safely on the west bank of the Missouri River.

"Send a message to the whole army," Zhao Si turned around, his mink coat rustling in the wind, "cross the Missouri River after sunrise tomorrow. By then the river should be completely frozen solid."

Black Tom was stunned: "Those Northern troops who were exploring the way"

"They are free," Xianfeng's eyes swept across the frozen river, "except for their freedom, they are left with only a single piece of clothing!"

The next day, when Xianfeng led his army across the ice of the Missouri River and arrived at the land of Nebraska, the more than 20 "free" Northern Army prisoners of war huddled together and all froze into ice blocks - this scene was later recorded by the army painter of Harper's Weekly, and became the most famous shameful moment in the history of the Northern Army, and also the background picture of Nicholas Zhao Si's glorious moment.

(End of this chapter)