The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

It was impossible to attack Shaanxi with only one regiment. In fact, when Wang Yingkai's Second Regiment was dispatched to attack Shaanxi, the Sixth Regiment had already entered Henan, supporting the Second Regiment. It was necessary to ensure that the Second Regiment could attack and defend. However, Zhang Feng and his men simply abandoned Huayin and Huazhou, resulting in the Second Regiment being isolated and deep into Shaanxi, giving Zhang Feng the opportunity to encircle and annihilate them.

Ma Long's troops are now guarding Tongguan to prevent the Beiyang Army from entering Shaanxi from Tongguan.

"Hide them all. After the artillery shells are fired, it's time for the infantry to charge. Everyone, get ready. When those bastards arrive, beat them hard. Damn it."

Ma Long's troops, commanding the high ground, were well-armed. Zhang Yinghao, knowing that Shaanxi would be a major force in the future liberation of China, had early on sent a batch of weapons to Shaanxi, including over half heavy machine guns. These machine guns were known to consume a large amount of ammunition, requiring caution in their use. However, as luck would have it, the People's Liberation Army intercepted the Beiyang Army's supply lines, finding ammunition within them, sufficient for the troops.

Yuan Datou was now furious. He only had a few regiments under his direct control. But seeing an entire regiment surrounded by the Beiyang Army—his most elite troops, and the Qing court deliberately ostracizing Yuan Datou's influence—the Beiyang Army, while still his own, held only a small portion of its forces. So, he sent a telegram demanding that Wang Shizhen rescue the second regiment.

Unfortunately, Tongguan was not so easy to capture. If it were so easy, Wang Yingkai's second town would not have turned back halfway and relied on a surprise attack to capture Tongguan. Zhang Feng immediately ordered the reinforcements to rush to Tongguan. If nothing went wrong, there would be no problem in holding Tongguan.

It was already noon, but the sky was overcast and icy rain still drizzled. Zhang Feng, now on the front lines, looked toward the village where Wang Yingkai had taken refuge and smiled faintly. In the previous night's battle, fewer than three thousand Beiyang New Army soldiers had fled into the village with Wang Yingkai. The People's Liberation Army had captured over ten thousand. A few New Army soldiers had taken advantage of the chaos to flee in other directions, but were now being hunted down by the cavalry. Even if a few Beiyang New Army soldiers had escaped, they would have been harmless by then.

The weather was freezing cold, bone-chilling. Wang Yingkai hadn't eaten a single bite since the breakout last night. Worse still, he had a high fever. The Beiyang New Army soldiers were left with very little food. Their logistics hadn't been able to move quickly during their escape last night, and most of them had been captured. The few who survived had to carry very little with them, desperate to escape. A force of over two thousand wasn't too many, but it wasn't too few either.

Zhang Feng asked the kitchen staff to cook several large pots of porridge nearby, and then nodded to the comrades who were trying to persuade them to surrender. The comrades who were trying to persuade them to surrender immediately picked up a large iron loudspeaker and started shouting. The hungry Beiyang New Army heard the voices of the Forward Party trying to persuade them to surrender: "Brothers of the Beiyang Second Regiment, you have been surrounded. Tongguan and Huayin have also been recaptured by the heroic People's Liberation Army. You have no hope of breaking out. Surrender now, and we in the People's Liberation Army will treat prisoners well. I will now announce our prisoner policy to you. First, we will not beat or scold prisoners, nor will we kill prisoners, and we will guarantee your personal safety. Second, we will only confiscate your weapons, not your personal belongings, and we will guarantee the safety of your property. Third..."

Wang Yingkai knew someone was shouting outside, but it seemed like there was something wrong with his speech processing. He couldn't understand what they were saying. His head was in a daze and he just wanted to get a good night's sleep.

Wang Yingkai didn't know it; this was his brain's way of protecting him. He'd traveled a thousand miles from the capital to Shaanxi, but how many days had he been there? Less than four days, and nearly 20,000 soldiers had been nearly annihilated. He simply couldn't accept this fact. Even in the First Sino-Japanese War, Wang Yingkai hadn't suffered such a devastating defeat. From beginning to end, he couldn't understand how he'd been defeated.

Wang Yingkai even suspected he was having a nightmare, and that if he could wake up, all this would disappear. He was still the commander of the Second Town, commanding over ten thousand elite troops, and they were now advancing towards Xi'an with unstoppable force.

Wang Yingkai touched his burning forehead with his cold right hand. He wanted to hear clearly what the red bandits outside were shouting, but even after slapping himself twice, he still couldn't understand what they were shouting. He immediately stood up and wanted to go outside to see, but suddenly, he felt dizzy and fell heavily to the ground.

The Beiyang officers present first saw Wang Yingkai repeatedly touching his forehead, then slapping himself. Just as everyone was puzzled, Wang Yingkai stood up and then fell heavily to the ground. The officers immediately hurriedly carried Wang Yingkai to the bed, and then the officers looked at each other in confusion. What should they do next? This was a question.

The People's Liberation Army now has a lot of experience in siege warfare and has fought countless earthen forts and enclosures. When the Beiyang New Army entered this small village, it no longer had any chance of escape.

After the PLA soldiers finished shouting words of persuasion, they said: "Come out and surrender within ten minutes. The brothers who come out will have a mouthful of hot porridge. If you don't surrender, we will immediately start shelling you with artillery. All of you inside will be killed. It will be too late for you to surrender..."

The Beiyang New Army knew the situation very well. Even if they wanted to break out again, they didn't have enough ammunition to launch an attack. Both sides were soldiers, and they knew what it would be like to be under PLA fire in such a small village. It was no exaggeration to say that there were no bodies left.

However, surrender requires someone to take the lead. Without a leader, the silent majority will not surrender. At this time, the comrades of the Progressive Party who were hiding in the area played a big role. After about five minutes, two comrades of the Progressive Party who had hidden in the area encouraged the new army soldiers in two tents to come out and surrender. They ran while shouting: "Comrades of the People's Liberation Army, don't shoot, we surrender, don't shoot..."

Someone took the lead, and immediately followed by a group of Beiyang New Army soldiers who did not want to die. The silent majority also took action at this time, raised their guns and walked towards the People's Liberation Army.

At this moment, a group of officers appeared in the crowd's sight, carrying Wang Yingkai. They all shouted, "Don't shoot, we surrender. Please give us medical treatment for Wang Tongzhi."

Zhang Feng glanced at Wang Yingkai lying on a stretcher and waved his hand. The military doctor immediately stepped forward to examine Wang Yingkai. Looking at the surrendered officers before him, Zhang Feng felt that the battle was finally over. Zhang Feng felt that he was not a qualified commander. All his actions were based on the telegram written by Chairman Zhang Yinghao. Even if he had acted on his own initiative to trap and kill the Beiyang Second Regiment, the battle still ended according to Chairman Zhang Yinghao's prediction.

Thinking of this, Zhang Feng shook his head gently, chuckled and said to himself: "It's incomparable!"

After the battle is over, it is natural to hold a battle summary meeting and commend outstanding comrades.

"The Beiyang New Army's tactics are rigid and they don't know how to fight. They always have the same few tactics against our positions: artillery fire, infantry charge, and then the infantry charge, and then the artillery fire..."

"The Beiyang New Army would panic if attacked from the flank. In the final pursuit, as long as we attacked them from the flank, they would immediately collapse. They were braver in frontal combat and were also skilled in bayonet use..."

As Zhang Feng listened to his comrades' speeches, he recalled the words on the wall of the military academy: firm and correct political direction, hard-working work style, and flexible and maneuverable strategies and tactics.

There is no harm without comparison. The People's Liberation Army itself did not fully understand these things, but when compared with the Beiyang New Army, the gap became apparent. After Zhang Feng said these words, many comrades had a deeper understanding of these words.

After Zhang Feng had dealt with the Beiyang New Army, he immediately sent a telegram to Zhang Yinghao to report on the process of annihilating the Beiyang New Army and asked what would be done with the Beiyang New Army prisoners.

Zhang Yinghao was not surprised by the complete annihilation of the Beiyang New Army. As long as Tongguan was blocked and the Beiyang New Army's retreat was cut off, the Beiyang New Army would not be able to fly out of Shaanxi unless it had wings.

Zhang Yinghao immediately discussed with his comrades the issue of how to deal with the prisoners of war. The question of whether to release the prisoners was not a problem for Zhang Yinghao at all; of course, no one should be released. The problem now lay in how to publicize the results of the battle. He preferred to settle public grievances to private vengeances; this was Zhang Yinghao's consistent attitude.

People generally accept public grievances. Why? Killed in battle, in simple terms, that's fate. Just like the Shaanxi incident, if the Beiyang New Army hadn't attacked, wouldn't this have happened? Therefore, the families of Beiyang New Army soldiers generally don't treat this as a personal vendetta. If these families want to seek revenge on the People's Liberation Army, they will choose to join the Beiyang New Army.

However, once a personal grudge arises, such as personal insult or even death due to abuse, people's thinking will become extreme and they will retaliate by any means necessary, so they would rather settle a public grudge than a personal grudge.

Zhang Yinghao believed he now had the power to speak to the Qing Dynasty on equal terms, and none of the prisoners he had previously captured would be released. However, the results of his discussion with the Military Commission were completely beyond Zhang Yinghao's expectations: after receiving a lecture, all the officers and soldiers were released.

The reason was even simpler. The main enemy of the PLA and the Qing Dynasty would be the Beiyang New Army. If the Beiyang New Army disappeared without a trace, and the Qing elite vilified the PLA, future battles would become infinitely more difficult. After all, it was highly likely that the PLA would initiate the offensive. If the Beiyang New Army refused to surrender, that would be a very troublesome situation.

If these Beiyang New Army soldiers were released, taught how to surrender, and treated prisoners with respect by the People's Liberation Army, then these 20,000 prisoners would be worth a hundred thousand troops. Furthermore, many people currently misunderstood the Sichuan Forward Party, and releasing these prisoners would also serve as a propaganda tool. Ultimately, Zhang Yinghao was persuaded, and all the officers and soldiers were to be released, in order to dismantle the Qing court and the Beiyang clique from within.

So the content of the telegram Zhang Feng received was: All Beiyang officers and soldiers will be released after education.

After reading the telegram, Zhang Feng was very confused. There is construction everywhere in Shaanxi now. If these 20,000 young laborers can join the construction, it will definitely greatly accelerate the pace of construction, especially the Sichuan-Shaanxi Highway under construction, which also requires a large number of laborers.

However, Zhang Feng didn't rush to send a telegram to inquire, knowing that the central government would certainly give him an explanation. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the telegram contained the content that required education. Zhang Feng nodded after reading it, immediately realizing that releasing these Beiyang New Army troops would indeed be more beneficial than harmful. Completing infrastructure a few days earlier or later wouldn't be a big deal, but fighting a war would result in casualties. Releasing these soldiers could be equivalent to a 100,000-man army, so naturally, releasing them would be beneficial for the future unification of the country.

Since all of them were to be released, Zhang Feng immediately arranged for the political commissar to go among the prisoners to provide them with training. The People's Liberation Army also had to make a list of those who died in battle and clean up their belongings. It was necessary to find out whether all the new army soldiers were alive, dead, or missing. This was another huge project! Zhang Feng rubbed his forehead and sighed.

By this time, the PLA had separated officers from soldiers and placed them under guard. After receiving his orders, the political commissar held a preparatory meeting and then went to the prisoners to spread propaganda. The commissar's primary target was the soldiers, who all knew about the PLA's blood donations and the effectiveness of the propaganda. As for the officers, the political commissar focused on explaining the concept of nation and ethnicity, teaching them that the army's loyalty lay with the nation, not the Qing Dynasty.

Early the next morning, a simple notice appeared on several streets in the capital. It contained only a few words: "The Second Regiment of the Beiyang New Army, which attacked Shaanxi, was completely defeated by our heroic People's Liberation Army. Families of the Second Regiment of the Beiyang New Army can go to Tongguan to claim their members or bodies." These notices were posted by comrades lurking in the capital after receiving information via telegram.

Chapter 351:

The notices posted by these Forward Party comrades quickly filled with people, each one a messenger of news. The news of the complete annihilation of the Beiyang Second Regiment spread throughout the capital in record time. Although the notices were quickly torn down, the Beiyang defeat could no longer be concealed. Teahouses, taverns, and neighbors were buzzing with discussion. Some gloated, some were worried, some were indifferent, and some lamented.

The Ministry of the Army and the police station are now facing countless visitors, all of whom are the family members of the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Second Regiment in Beijing. All the relevant people are showing off their abilities. They are now trying to find out the specific details of the Second Regiment's defeat and the specific news about their families.

The emergence of Zhang Yinghao has profoundly altered history. Zhang Yinghao's brief liberation of Sichuan and subsequent annexation of Shaanxi sent shockwaves through the Qing court. However, the problems facing the late Qing dynasty grew even more acute during this period. Instead of uniting to confront the Sichuan revolutionaries and overcome the difficulties, the Qing's Westernization factions and conservative factions engaged in increasingly fierce internal struggles for power, engaging in ever-greater debates and intensified struggles.

After Sichuan swallowed up Shaanxi, the Qing court, unwilling to be outdone, borrowed foreign debt to massively expand its military in preparation for war. A key feature of this expansion was the early appearance of the Six Beiyang Regiments, and the rapid expansion of Beiyang's military strength. Consequently, the struggle between the Beiyang Group and the Qing court intensified over the issue of military power, which was essentially a struggle between the Manchus and the Han Chinese.

The princes and nobles of the Qing imperial family naturally wanted to completely control this military power. However, Yuan Shikai, as a powerful figure, naturally knew where his interests came from. So he eliminated the Manchu influence in the Beiyang New Army, hoping to turn the Manchu soldiers into his own private army loyal only to Yuan Shikai. Thus, the contradiction between him and the Manchus became acute.

In the final days of the Qing dynasty, the vast majority of Manchus had essentially become parasites on society, constantly corrupting the nation. This included the princes in Beijing, who were only interested in walking their birds, attending operas, cockfighting, and horseback riding. The bannermen, who had once thrived through bloody battles, had become a privileged class, their fighting spirit and valor fading.

What kind of person was Cixi? She was a narrow-minded, selfish woman who valued her own interests above all else and would do anything to achieve them. The foreign powers and local lords demanded that Cixi return power to Emperor Guangxu, undermining their own interests. At the same time, the Boxer Rebellion was rapidly spreading. Cixi wanted to use the Boxer Rebellion to punish the foreign powers and weaken them. So, she boldly declared war on them. Although she ultimately backfired, she achieved her goal and consolidated her position.

She mastered manipulating the balance of power among her close associates and high-ranking officials to maintain her absolute authority. To protect her position, she appeased the Westernization Movement's reformists with high positions and generous salaries, while secretly encouraging attacks from conservative factions to keep them in check. Using these tactics of mutual restraint, Empress Dowager Cixi successfully maintained her position. However, these political tactics were no longer suitable for the rapidly changing times, and her personal success proved a disaster for the Qing dynasty and the nation. Under her despotic rule, the Qing dynasty failed to recover, and China fell deeper and deeper into the despair of foreign imperialism.

Even before her death, Cixi finally betrayed the Qing Dynasty by installing a young emperor, allowing the court officials to continue fighting among themselves. One of her purposes was to ensure a peaceful burial after her death. However, just three years later, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown. As the extremely conceited French Emperor Louis XV said: After I am gone, who cares about the flood?

Some people in later generations whitewashed Cixi, saying that she was not opposed to the Reform Movement and was not a conservative. In fact, for Cixi, it didn't matter whether it was reform or conservatism. All she wanted was to hold on to the power in her hands, and she would do whatever could help consolidate the power in her hands.

Cixi looked around and found that there were not many talented people among the Manchu nobles. It was not that there were not many, but that there were basically none. Even the relatively outstanding ones were only Pu Wei, Zai Feng, Shan Qi and others. They were all royal relatives and very close in blood. However, these people had one thing in common, which was that they were very good at small things and handled things quickly, but their ability to see the big picture was not good enough. Compared with Han ministers like Yuan Shikai, they were far behind! They were also not capable of dealing with the current complex situation.

Since the Manchu royal family was not available, they had no choice but to look for distant relatives and clans with more distant blood relations. There were many buried talents, but after searching for a long time, they were greatly disappointed. The Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were all useless. They were good at smoking opium, visiting cellars, playing with birds and playing mahjong, but they knew nothing about national affairs.

Are the Manchus truly extinct? No, there are still a few who strive to forge ahead, excel, and do their utmost to save this crumbling dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi's extravagant and licentious lifestyle, all of which consume a great deal of national resources, is a wise woman. She knows she won't live much longer, so she must quickly cultivate Manchus who can counterbalance the Han officials and the Sichuan Revolutionary Party. Otherwise, the Qing dynasty will be shattered in an instant.

Among the short men, one man caught Cixi's eye. He could rival Yuan Shikai, often holding his own. Who was he? Murcha Tieliang. Tieliang, a self-proclaimed "military expert," had served as an aide to Ronglu and later as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War.

The Qing court established the Military Training Office and the Ministry of War to train a modern army for the imperial court. Under the unified leadership of the new army, Prince Qing Yizhu served as the Prime Minister, Yuan Datou as the Co-Minister for Military Training, and Tieliang as the Assistant Minister, assisting Yuan Datou in all training matters and secretly monitoring him. Prince Qing Yizhu was solely responsible for the military pay. However, Yizhu and Yuan Datou had a close relationship, and Yizhu always followed his orders. As a result, the majority of the military pay originally sent to the imperial court by the provinces came to Yuan Datou's possession.

After Tie Liang returned from his stay in Japan, he was promoted to the Minister of Revenue. The court was ready to put more pressure on Tie Liang. Where should they start? They should start from the military aspect. Military power is the lifeblood of any regime. If the military power is controlled by the Han people, what the court says is generally nonsense and useless. Therefore, Tie Liang must firmly grasp the military power. To grasp the military power, they must start from the two aspects of money and personnel.

To raise funds for military expenses and to secure funds for extravagance, the Qing court dispatched Tieliang to Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuhu, and Wuchang. He seized the "local taxes," the most important source of revenue for these eight provinces, and brought them to the central government. The armed forces of governors such as Zhang Zhidong and Wei Guangtao were either reorganized or disbanded. He also seized substantial funds and personnel from the Jiangnan Arsenal. This significantly weakened local power and temporarily strengthened central authority. Upon returning to Beijing, Tieliang submitted a detailed and concise memorial to the emperor, which earned the admiration of Empress Dowager Cixi.

Tie Liang was subsequently appointed Minister of Revenue. Having intended to cut off the financial system, he finally achieved his goal and immediately began to curb Yuan Shikai's expansion by reducing food and wages. He then began to conduct a thorough investigation of the Beiyang Army's finances. He initially rejected Yuan Shikai's request for a stamp tax, forbidding him from using pretexts to collect taxes and creating false charges. He also set up checkpoints everywhere, causing the Beiyang Army's finances to dry up.

In the military, Tieliang was determined to build up his own power in order to compete with Yuan Shikai. At this time, Liangbi, a son of a noble family, had just returned from studying military in Japan. Tieliang tried his best to win him over and recruited many non-commissioned officers from the military training department to be placed within the Beiyang Group, in an attempt to break Yuan Shikai's monopoly and to compete with Yuan Shikai's direct line, which greatly displeased Yuan Shikai.

Every time Yuan Datou fired a note, he would use some tricks to instill in the Beiyang New Army the impression that "the salary was provided by Yuan Gongbao". In this way, in the minds of these soldiers who had no concept of nation-state, the Beiyang New Army gradually became Yuan Datou's private army.

In reality, it was the Qing court, not Yuan Shikai, that provided funding for the Beiyang New Army. The Qing court was wary of a minister in charge of military training, especially one of Han descent. Furthermore, Tieliang's control over Beiyang military pay was resented by the Beiyang New Army soldiers. However, Yuan Shikai, upon receiving orders to train the Beiyang New Army, had already prioritized control over its military. The cadre of officers he selected for this army consisted primarily of his personal confidants, former subordinates he had acquired through generous payments, and those who had risen through the ranks and been promoted by him. This selection of officers not only dispelled suspicions among the Qing imperial family but also ensured that the Beiyang New Army was filled with his own capable personnel, making it easy for Yuan Shikai to maintain control of the army.

Yuan Datou used the central government's financial support to pay the Beiyang New Army much higher salaries than the officers of the old army, which made the soldiers of the new army grateful to Yuan Datou. As early as the beginning of Yuan Datou's establishment of the Beiyang New Army, he drafted a military camp system and salary regulations for the army and submitted them to the court, which greatly guaranteed the military salary of the Beiyang New Army.

These soldiers received far higher salaries and public funds than other officers in the old army. With deep roots, the Six Beiyang Garrisons became Yuan Shikai's personal army, with all officers trusted by him. To prevent officers from withholding pay, Yuan Shikai established a very strict pay system. As a result, the lower-ranking officers regarded Yuan Shikai as their breadwinner and followed his lead without hesitation.

Therefore, although the Beiyang New Army did not instill in soldiers the practice of "the salary is paid by Yuan Gongbao" when distributing it, the saying that officers should work hard for Yuan Gongbao because they eat Yuan Gongbao's food has long been circulated in the Beiyang New Army. This also established Yuan Datou's supreme and great image in the minds of lower-ranking officers.

Although the Qing court was unwilling to let the empire's most elite new army be controlled by Yuan Shikai, the corrupt and decadent Qing court had no ability or sufficient means to completely control Yuan Shikai's Beiyang New Army. They could only watch the Beiyang New Army and new armies from all over the country slide step by step into the revolutionary camp and watch their own death.

From the perspective of interests, the soldiers naturally preferred to let Yuan Datou represent their interests rather than become a tool for the Qing Dynasty to suppress the people. However, Yuan Datou's tactics eventually harmed the Beiyang New Army, because after his death, the Beiyang New Army soldiers changed their loyalties and worked for the people who paid them, thus starting a fierce struggle within the Beiyang.

This was the old-fashioned political maneuvering: he divided his subordinates into factions, causing them to fight among themselves, with himself acting as referee. However, in the turbulent times of the new era, these old methods were no longer relevant. Furthermore, if Yuan Shikai could wield political tactics, then his generals naturally knew how to employ them as well. By leveraging this shared belief in loyalty within the Beiyang New Army, he easily gained control of soldiers previously loyal to Yuan Shikai.

During this period, the Beiyang New Army, thanks to a series of reforms in weaponry, officer composition, and logistics, significantly improved its combat capabilities and military thinking. This was due not only to Yuan Shikai's outstanding political and military talents, but also to his generosity. This led to the popular saying, "We only know Yuan Shikai, but not the imperial court."

Tieliang was unlike other Manchu nobles. Despite his considerable talent, he was deeply prejudiced against ethnic groups and was particularly wary of Han Chinese in power. He believed that Han Chinese holding military power for an extended period was not a sound strategy for preserving the country's foundations. Tieliang's lifelong creed was to maintain Manchu rule, which was clearly what the court desired most.

This was the height of the fiercest struggle between Tieliang and Yuan Datou for control of the Six Beiyang Military Regions. Tieliang had already gained the upper hand in the Yuan-Tie dispute. Yun Baohui, Tieliang's former aide, remarked, "Tieliang's courage to act was due to the support of the imperial court." Empress Dowager Cixi was a sinister yet resourceful woman, able to combine kindness and authority with Manchu and Han ministers, ensuring that power remained intact—a feat unmatched by any other woman.

In fact, Cixi was also afraid that Yuan Shikai would become too powerful, so she assigned the first, second, third, and fifth regiments of the six Beiyang regiments to Tieliang, creating a "balance" between Tieliang and Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Datou had a notice in front of him, his face livid. Although the Beiyang Second Regiment was now under the command of Tieliang, officers and generals such as Wang Yingkai, Wang Zhanyuan, and Wang Huaiqing were all his direct Beiyang troops. This meant that they were under the command of Tieliang and the Army Department, but in reality, they were under the command of his private army. Even if it was not complete,

All of them obey his orders. As long as he gives the order, this army will be invincible.

The Second Town was completely wiped out by the Red Bandits, which was a huge blow to Yuan Shikai's power.

The blow severely weakened the power of Yuan Shikai and the old Beiyang. It can be said that he hated Tieliang to the extreme at this time. He had to find out the specific situation of advancing into the second town in Shaanxi, which was consistent with Tieliang's goal. However, it was very necessary to take this opportunity to report to Tieliang.

Yuan Shikai then met with Empress Dowager Cixi and, along with Yi Zhu, reported Tieliang: "If Tieliang is not removed, the new policies will be hindered. Tieliang has no military knowledge and will surely bring all the previous efforts of the Beiyang armies to ruin..."

Yizhu also made an effort to slander Tieliang, saying: "If Tieliang is allowed to continue to lead the army, I am afraid that the court's years of hard work will be destroyed in an instant..."

Tieliang naturally knew that, with the exception of the First Regiment, which was composed of Manchus, the remaining five were all personally organized by Yuan Shikai, and their officers were also trained by Yuan Shikai. In this era of strict respect for rulers, ministers, fathers, and sons, betraying Yuan Shikai meant betraying one's teacher and ancestors, and would lead to immediate social demise. Reclaiming the so-called military power of the four regiments did not grant the imperial court full control. Orders from the Ministry of War, and even from the imperial court, were largely ineffective within the four Beiyang regiments. Cases of lip service and disobedience were common, a major headache for Tieliang.

Tieliang wanted to reform but was unable to do so. He also wanted to exclude Yuan Datou's faction but was unable to succeed. To make matters worse, the Manchu Prime Minister Yizhu, because of his love of money, became accomplices to Yuan Datou. Tieliang knew Yizhu loved money and wanted to bribe Yituan with money, but Yizhu was a man with a huge appetite. Even if Tieliang gave him everything, he would not be able to satisfy Yizhu. Surprisingly, Yizhu would accept money from everyone except Tieliang, which put Tieliang in a difficult situation.

Listening to Yuan Datou and Yizhu's accusations against him, Tieliang offered no rebuttal. He had no idea what he was thinking. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind, yet it seemed as if he had no thoughts at all. He simply knelt respectfully and shouted, "Empress Dowager, the Second Regiment of the New Army has been completely annihilated. I am responsible. I deserve death. Please punish me, Your Majesty."

Listening to Yuan Datou and Yizhu's collusion, and watching them go along, Cixi, already worried about Yuan Datou's ambitions, became even more worried. This backfired, and Cixi's intention to transfer Tieliang, which she had already drafted, vanished. Yuan Datou and his companions' behavior immediately changed her mind.

Cixi thought about it and decided to transfer Tieliang. No one else might have Tieliang's ability. At least Tieliang was loyal to her. Cixi strongly supported Tieliang in order to check Yuan Shikai and suppress the Beiyang government. If Tieliang was removed now, who else could check and balance the Beiyang government?

Thinking of the current situation of internal and external troubles, and her own age, Cixi sighed inwardly. If she were still young, she would still be so bold as to delegate power. Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang were also powerful at the time, and even half of the governors were Han officials. But what about now? Hadn't all that power been basically blown away by the wind and rain? Power given away is not something that can't be taken back. Thinking of the Eight Banners children of the Qing Dynasty who were engaged in cockfighting and bird-walking, Cixi sighed inwardly again.

Thinking of this, Cixi said coldly: "Tieliang! This is a good job you have done."

"This slave deserves death."

When Tieliang heard Cixi's cold words, he shuddered, put his head to the ground and shouted again.

Seeing Tieliang like this, Cixi was a little furious and really wanted to order someone to drag him out and chop him off. But Cixi knew she couldn't do that. The Beiyang was expanding too fast at this time, and the situation outside was too chaotic. Tieliang was still a knowledgeable military man and could compete with Yuan Datou. If Tieliang was chopped off, then only Yuan Datou would be the only one in power. If the military power was not handed over to Yuan Datou or even Yuan Datou was beheaded, who would defend the precarious Qing Dynasty?

Cixi could only suppress her anger and asked, "How did the Sichuan-Shaanxi Red Bandits defeat the elite troops of the Qing Dynasty?"

Hearing this question, Tieliang felt a surge of grievances and wanted to express himself, but he couldn't just stand there. He couldn't mobilize the Beiyang Second Regiment. Wang Yingkai didn't listen to him, and they barely exchanged telegrams. That would make him look incompetent. However, there was a standard answer to defeat. He could just blame it on the frontline generals. After all, he hadn't liked Wang Yingkai for a long time.

"Empress Dowager, Wang Yingkai advanced alone and was captured by the Red Bandits at Tongguan. Their retreat was cut off, causing great disarray in their army, which was then surrounded and annihilated by the Red Bandits."

"A lone army advancing recklessly? Then how do you explain the repeated defeats of the Yunnan and Guizhou armies? Did the imperial court spend so much money supporting them just to let them lose? An army financed with so much money can't even defeat a bunch of bandits?"

When Cixi thought of the hundreds of millions of taels of silver, her heart ached. It would have been great to use so much money to build a garden for her or hold a birthday banquet, but it was just given to the army and wasted. Thinking of this, Cixi was furious.

When Cixi scolded him like this, she was actually blaming someone else. Yuan Datou and other ministers immediately knelt on the ground and shouted, "Empress Dowager, please calm down."

The problem with Cixi was also a problem for Tieliang, Yuan Datou, and others. The intelligence of the Forward Party was not a secret that the Qing Dynasty could not grasp, and they were all familiar with Zhang Yinghao's name. The so-called Forward Party founded by Zhang Yinghao fought against local tyrants and distributed land in Sichuan. In just over a year, it had gathered a team of over ten thousand people, secretly established its own government, and quietly developed.

Then, taking advantage of the Boxer Protocol signed between the Qing Dynasty and the foreign powers, they launched a sudden attack, capturing cities and territories, sweeping across Sichuan. After defeating the Qing's initial encirclement and suppression campaign, they again sent troops to engulf Shaanxi, dispatched troops to resist British imperialist aggression, and then engulfed Yunnan and Guizhou. The imperial court's elite New Army was powerless against such a horde of Sichuan bandits. Even such a rebellious force was beyond the reach of the foreign powers. Now, even the Second Regiment of the Beiyang New Army had been utterly annihilated by the Red Bandits. Cixi, Tieliang, and Yuan Shikai were baffled.

Seeing that Cixi didn't deal with him immediately, Tieliang knew it was time to show his determination and loyalty, so he immediately shouted: "Empress Dowager, I have failed your trust. I will personally lead the troops and mobilize the entire nation to fight the Red Bandits to the death. I will not withdraw my troops until the Red Bandits are wiped out. I will also carry the coffin to the battle. Either the Red Bandits die, or I die."

Tie Liang's statement was very firm. He immediately said that he would also follow Zuo Zongtang's method of carrying a coffin to send troops to Xinjiang, and vowed to fight the red bandits to the death.

After hearing this, Cixi was speechless. The army today is not as simple as it was a few decades ago to eliminate the Taiping rebels. The cost of sending troops is too high. This time, only one regiment was sent to attack Shaanxi, and another regiment was sent to support in Henan. Isn't it because the cost of sending troops is too high and the military expenditure is insufficient? There is no money to send troops! Tie Liang's firm statement is just a statement. Without money, no one can mobilize the group of arrogant soldiers and generals of Beiyang.

"Let's first investigate the true strength of the Red Bandits in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou!"

The wild land of Xz was directly ignored by Cixi. After hearing this, Tieliang felt relieved and immediately shouted: "I obey your order."

The fact that Shaanxi had cleanly and efficiently eliminated an entire Qing army gave the Qing officials much cause for reflection. Upon hearing Cixi's order, they immediately exclaimed, "No one is more wise than the Empress Dowager."

Posting this notice in the capital would, on the one hand, inform the Qing that the People's Liberation Army had won. On the other hand, it would also largely resolve personal grudges. Of course, the PLA's direct and efficient dismantling of a Beiyang town's forces immediately silenced those who wanted to fight them, even temporarily silencing the entire capital. The PLA's victory over the Beiyang New Army had already proven its combat effectiveness. So, how long could the Qing Dynasty maintain its rule? This was a question that countless people had to consider.

Western countries strongly believe in the domino effect and the butterfly effect. Since the Sichuan Revolution, especially after Sichuan's first victory in the anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, the Qing Dynasty's chain reaction has become increasingly pronounced. In fact, the leaders of these regions have also strengthened their own power, and uprisings and rebellions have never ceased. Many people across the country believed that if the Qing Dynasty could lose Sichuan and Shaanxi, could it also lose Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang? Could it also establish its own separatist regimes like Sichuan and Shaanxi? Therefore, the struggle between the Qing Dynasty and these local lords has never ceased, and the struggle between the local lords and the rebel forces in various places has never ceased.

The annihilation of a Beiyang New Army town solidified the PLA's military position in China. It forced all the major powers to reconsider their interests in China. Once the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, would the Sichuan revolutionaries still recognize the special interests of other nations in China? Every country would be forced to reconsider its policies toward China.

Just as all parties were taking action, Shaanxi had already begun preparing to release these prisoners. In the cold winter, the weather was so cold that the bodies of the soldiers who died in the battle could be preserved for a long time. In the notice, the Forward Party made it clear that the People's Liberation Army would take all the people and property involved in the attack on Shaanxi to Tongguan. If anyone came to claim them, they could go directly to Tongguan to claim them. If no one came to claim them, the Beiyang New Army prisoners would be asked to take the personal belongings of these people back, and the bodies would be cremated and buried near Tongguan. So it wasn't long before the families of these soldiers came to Tongguan, intending to see if their family members had died in the battle, and if so, to claim the bodies of their family members who died in the battle and take them back.

After learning that the Beiyang Second Regiment had been completely annihilated, Wang Shizhen did not attack again, but chose to retreat. After all, the people he was trying to rescue had already been annihilated, so there was no point in rescuing them. When the People's Liberation Army sent the Beiyang prisoners to Tongguan, many of the Beiyang New Army's family members had already arrived in Tongguan.

Now Wang Shizhen was in front of Tongguan, and all he had to do was hand the soldiers over to him. Of course, he still had to give them the necessary lectures. What were they supposed to say? Naturally, they were supposed to tell these soldiers how to save their lives when fighting the People's Liberation Army.

Surrendering with your hands raised high and kneeling is a matter of awareness and learning. If someone never knew how to surrender, they would either fight to the death when outmatched or flee, rarely allowing themselves to fall into the hands of their opponent, unsure whether they would be brutally slaughtered. This was especially true for armies like the Beiyang New Army, which suppressed peasant uprisings and certainly slaughtered captured bandits more than once.

Besides teaching these new army soldiers how to stay safe, the second priority was to publicize the reactionary nature of the Qing Dynasty. You have to understand that the Beiyang New Army was trained in education, so many principles were readily understood. The Progressive Party didn't require them to understand anything immediately; they simply needed them to learn to think. In this era, a person who has learned to think correctly is the most formidable.

Such people will either explode in silence or die in silence. In this cruel era, the more one sees reality, the more painful it becomes, and the more one feels the weakness of personal power. The more one understands the reactionary rule of the Qing Dynasty, the more one will think about how to overthrow it.

What is the general trend? Just like globalization in later generations, some people oppose globalization, but everyone is promoting globalization actively or passively, unless you do not use anything produced by modern means and do not provide any raw materials to industrial countries. Otherwise, as long as you are still consuming industrial products and providing raw materials to industrial countries, then you are promoting globalization.

Now, the Qing dynasty's demise is inevitable. With the exception of a handful of diehards, everyone else is contributing to its downfall to varying degrees. Some may feel that the overthrow of the Qing dynasty is irrelevant to them, while others may not be able to see the path forward after overthrowing it, and therefore don't know what to do. However, these people may not understand that it is precisely these very beliefs that are driving the Qing dynasty's demise.

Wounded Beiyang New Army soldiers attacking Shaanxi were meticulously bandaged by PLA doctors before being sent to Tongguan. Many Beiyang New Army soldiers, upon witnessing the meticulous care the PLA doctors provided to the wounded and learning that many of their dying soldiers had been saved by blood transfusions, were instantly moved to tears of gratitude.

The Sixth Beiyang Regiment was currently outside Tongguan. To prevent any unforeseen circumstances, the PLA troops did not leave the city. Instead, they prepared a large number of simple stretchers for the new Beiyang troops leaving the city to carry the bodies of the fallen soldiers. If not for the large number of bodies being transported, the sight of a 20,000-man column leaving Tongguan would have been a truly stunning spectacle from afar.

It was freezing cold, and there was no need to worry about the corpses breeding plague, so they found a flat area outside Tongguan. They wrote a name in front of each corpse, and thousands of corpses were lined up on a large area of ​​ground.

Wang Shizhen looked at the bodies scattered on the ground, then at Wang Yingkai, lying on a stretcher with a face full of shame, and signed the handover documents with a dark face. The handover staff immediately handed over all the captured soldiers and bodies to Wang Shizhen outside Tongguan. After explaining the issue of some missing soldiers, the staff quickly returned to Tongguan.

Outside Tongguan, the scene was now in complete chaos. Some family members, upon seeing their loved ones safe and sound, burst into tears of joy. Others, upon seeing their loved ones missing limbs, cried out in agony. Some, upon seeing their loved ones' bodies, burst into deafening sobs. Fortunately, the crowds weren't particularly large, but even so, the situation was nearly out of control.