The sun never sets

With [Innate Superpower], you still say you don't know martial arts? It doesn't matter if you don't know martial arts. If you have a fist that can punch through iron plates, you can kill people with one punch. Another [Invulnerable to All Poisons] costs another 100 military points. I wanted to get [Martial Arts Prodigy], but I don't have enough points, so I'll have to wait.

Marshal Lin returned to Taiyuan and spent a lot of administrative points to exchange for a lot of information in the heavily guarded [Administrative Research Unit]. Those papers appeared out of thin air. They were not there before, and then they appeared on the table. At the same time, he also had a lot of knowledge about steel smelting in his mind. However, that knowledge was only stored in his mind and could be looked up at any time. If he wanted to master it, he still needed to spend time to study.

The southeast corner of Taiyuan City used to be a Manchu city. When the city was captured, the Jurchens who lived there were almost wiped out. Now it has been designated as a military restricted area, with [Administrative Research Unit], [Diplomatic Research Unit] and [Military Research Unit] built in it, as well as some other buildings.

Exchange the Night Raid Group from the system mall: Liujiu Sijiu, Sanlu① Sanwu. The knowledge gained will be stored in Lin Yongchang's mind. If you want to get text or other forms of information, you must come back here.

While he was busy setting up a small steel mill, he sent troops to attack Shaanxi. Wei Guangtao, the governor of Shanxi, was captured, and it was time to take advantage of the opportunity to move westward. Even if he couldn't take over the entire Shaanxi, it would be good to seize some territory as a barrier for Shanxi. In addition, Li Dayan was riding a horse and whipping in Henan, recruiting many generals, beating the local officers and soldiers and fleeing in panic, and led an army of 100,000 to besiege Luoyang.

Down vibration.

However, he fought very happily, and the consumption of ammunition and troops was also very high. He had asked Baoding for ammunition and troop replenishment several times. When Lin Yongchang was fighting in Shanxi, he counted bullets every day, but Li Dayan was different. Marshal Li fought with great vigor and energy. Bullets and shells were like water pouring down, killing officers and soldiers and soon running out of ammunition.

Wang Qi sent him 3 million rounds of bullets, more than 2,000 grenades and 600 shells, but Li Dayan still kept asking for more. He controlled most of Henan Province, and had no shortage of troops and food, but only guns and ammunition. But where could Wang Qi get rifles, cannons, bullets and shells? Baoding's production was only a little bit, and the steel plant in Taiyuan had just started construction. The amount of ammunition and guns bought from Andrei and his men was getting smaller and smaller, and the price was getting higher and higher.

After replenishing Li Dayan's ammunition four times, Wang Qi simply let him figure it out on his own. But what could Li Dayan do? Henan people were too enthusiastic. When Li Dayan came, it was like a spark falling into a frying pan. People were everywhere who had risen up to kill officials and rebel. Li Dayan's troops had expanded from 50,000 to 100,000, and then from 100,000 to 200,000. Now he himself didn't know how many people he had. Anyway, there were heroes everywhere who were carrying the banner of Marshal Li. Except for a few cities that were still in the hands of the soldiers, the whole of Henan had changed.

At this time, the governors and governors-general in the south were playing the game of "Southeast Mutual Protection", waiting for the court to be destroyed so that they could set up a new central government. The main forces of the court were either fighting foreigners, such as Dong Fuxiang and Nie Shicheng's troops, or mixing with the southerners, like the newly appointed governor of Shandong.

The previous governor of Shandong was dismissed by the imperial court because he supported the Boxers in fighting the Germans. Yuan Shikai took nearly 10,000 newly-established army troops to Shandong to take office, and after arriving, he invited the leaders of the Boxers to dinner. However, the banquet was not a good one, and Yuan Shikai arranged a Hongmen Banquet. After the leaders of the Boxers came, Yuan Weiting wiped them out in one fell swoop, which was actually learned from his predecessor.

If Xiang Yu had been as cruel and ruthless as Yuan Shikai, how could Liu Bang have existed later?

After Yuan Shikai killed the leaders of the Boxer Rebellion, he sent troops to carry out a bloody suppression, killing many people and blood flowing like a river. The Germans had few troops and did not dare to leave the concession to fight the Boxers. Yuan Shikai was different. He had 10,000 new troops, plus the patrol battalion, the Green Battalion, and the constables and runners of Shandong. He carried out a bloody massacre in Shandong and finally suppressed the Boxer Rebellion. At least no one dared to bother the Germans anymore.

As a result, Yuan Shikai received unanimous praise from the great powers, who thought he was a good man.

When Yuan Shikai was killing people in Shandong, did Zhang Decheng, who had tens of thousands of troops at the border of Zhili and Shandong, just stand there and watch? Why didn't he lead his troops to help the Boxers in Shandong? At that time, Zhang Decheng had already gone to fight the foreign devils with the Boxers in Cangzhou, and had no energy or time to take care of Shandong's affairs.

In mid-June, the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Dagu Fort, and the invading army advanced by land and sea, heading straight for Tianjin. At the end of the month, Zhang Decheng led the "No. 6 Group in the World" with 5000 people, holding high the banner of "Supporting Jin and Eliminating Foreigners", and marched into Tianjin. Then the Boxers and officers and soldiers launched an offensive against the positions of the Allied Forces in the concession. The invading army laid mines at the intersections, important roads and frontier positions leading to the concession. In order to clear the mines, Zhang Decheng sent the group members to find dozens of cows and use the fire bull formation as the vanguard. The group members launched a general attack, not only chasing and killing many enemies, but also destroying Mitsui & Co. and Sabao & Co.

Since Tian Dan used the Fire Bull Formation, no one has successfully used it for thousands of years. Then Zhang Decheng succeeded, which really surprised many people. However, the Boxer Rebellion failed to achieve a decisive victory and could only be said to have made a small profit.

Chapter 77 Question

The Boxers joined forces with the officers and soldiers, which really put a lot of pressure on the Eight-Nation Alliance. But soon, the cooperation between the Boxers and the officers and soldiers was no longer so close. On July 7, Song Qing, the assistant director of Beiyang Military Affairs, arrived in Tianjin. He believed that the Boxers were wild and unruly, so he ordered the destruction of the boxing arena and the killing of the Boxers.

Before Song Qing arrived in Tianjin, Nie Shicheng was outnumbered and died in Balitai. After Nie Shicheng's death, the attitude of his general Ma Yukun and others towards the Boxers had changed. Ma Yukun's troops let the Boxers serve as the vanguard, but shot and killed the Boxers in the back. For example, in the battle to attack the concession at night, "the Chinese soldiers were in the back, and the Boxers were in the front, attacking the concession together; the foreign soldiers fired volleys to resist, and stopped at dawn, killing more than 2,000 Boxers... The Boxers advanced with knives, and the foreign soldiers fired and fired, and those in the front row were already dead; those in the back were shot and killed by officers and soldiers. Therefore, there were so many Boxers who died that night, not all of them were killed by foreign soldiers."

On the 13th, more than troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Tianjin. Zhang Decheng led the militia and part of the Qing army to participate in the defense of the South Gate. Afterwards, Zhang Decheng led some militia to Wangjiakou to collect food and wages from the rich, but was attacked by the armed forces of the landlords and merchants in Wangjiakou. As a result, the food on the ship was intercepted, and Zhang Decheng was killed in the struggle, and his body was thrown into the Ziya River.

Zhang Decheng, who once dominated North China and had the highest reputation among the hundreds of thousands of Boxers, died in this way. Reality is so bizarre and unreasonable.

When Song Qing arrived in Tianjin, he adopted the policy of "killing all the militiamen he met". As a result, "all those who raised flags and set up altars inside and outside the city dispersed within half a day", which greatly weakened his own strength. However, the coalition forces launched a general attack on Tianjin after making full preparations. After a bloody battle, the coalition forces, under the guidance of the traitor, blew up the city wall and entered the city.

After the fall of Tianjin, the Allied Forces immediately established the "Tianjin Governor's Office" to carry out colonial rule over Tianjin.

After Tianjin was lost again, the imperial court asked the local governors and governors-general to "stop hesitating and wait and see, quickly raise troops and funds, and do their best to protect the territory" to prepare for war. On the other hand, it said that the declaration of war was out of "the last resort" and asked "the governors and governors-general along the coast and the river to strictly obey the repeated imperial edicts, do their best to do their duties, judge the situation and do their best to deal with it." In fact, it tacitly allowed the governors and governors-general of the southeastern provinces to "judge the situation and do their best."

In addition to begging the governors-general of the southeast to "take immediate action", the court had to take measures to appease Lin Yongchang, who occupied the entire Shanxi and most of Henan and Hebei. However, the court did not fully agree to Lin Yongchang's request, but only gave a price for the governor of Shanxi, and did not discuss Hebei, Henan, and Chahar at all.

After receiving the telegram from the court in Taiyuan, Marshal Lin sneered and ignored it. A mere governor of Shanxi wants him to send troops? The price he proposed before was just to paralyze the court and avoid being attacked by the Wuwei Army. If he agreed to his demands, he might have to think about it. What use is a governor of Shanxi?

Although Tianjin was captured by the Eight-Nation Alliance, Lin Yongchang felt that the situation had become better. Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi were full of heroes holding high the banner of "expelling the Tartars". After the rebels entered Shaanxi, they captured cities along the way under the leadership of the rebellious Shaanxi-Gansu Green Camp. The heroes in Guanzhong responded in unison, beheaded local officials, captured various Manchu cities, and killed all the Jurchens in the cities.

However, unlike Henan, there were still many officials and soldiers loyal to the court in Guanzhong. Since thousands of years ago, Guanzhong has been a place where elite soldiers and generals were born. The gentry and soldiers loyal to the court fought with the rebels on the land of Guanzhong. The battle was very bloody. Neither side had any idea of "human rights". After capturing prisoners, they never left them alive. They were also merciless to supporters of both sides. It was common to kill entire families. In less than a month, tens of thousands of people died in the war in Guanzhong.

Dong Fuxiang took the elite Gansu army to the capital, Wei Guangtao ruined the Shaanxi Green Camp, and even he himself became a prisoner. The officers and soldiers were a group of scattered sand, and they were ultimately no match for the large number of rebels. The officers and soldiers and gentry loyal to the court gradually lost their strength. The 50,000-strong rebel army surrounded Xi'an and attacked day and night. The sound of gunfire could be heard from miles away.

Lin Yongchang originally wanted to lead the artillery regiment to blast open the city wall of Xi'an, but he didn't expect that the officers and soldiers fought with the Boxers, and then they were defeated one by one by the Eight-Nation Alliance. A month ago, the number of the Eight-Nation Alliance was only more than 1, but now it has reached 3, and they have already captured Tianjin. There is no defense along the way from Tianjin to Beijing, and there are railways for transportation. It won't take long for them to reach the city of Beijing.

If we lead troops to besiege Xi'an, Beijing will be taken. But if we don't go to Xi'an, Shaanxi will be out of control. The local sentiment is very serious these days. Shanxi people are Shanxi people, and Shaanxi people are Shaanxi people. Although many volunteers were sent to Guanzhong to fight, the local swordsmen were very polite to the comrades from the east, but they had been ostracizing them. Before they took over, they had already established the Shaanxi Military Government.

Yan Feilong, Wang Gaiming, Guo Tuwa, Liu San and others supported Yu Youren from Sanyuan as the governor, and legitimately competed with Taiyuan. In the eyes of the people in Guanzhong, the cousins from Shanxi gave a lot of help, but Guanzhong affairs still had to be handled by the people in Guanzhong, so there was no need to bother Marshal Lin.

Alas, these people are still too narrow-minded. Lin Yongchang was helpless. The officers and soldiers collapsed too quickly, which forced him to make a choice. Xi'an or Beijing? A choice must be made. The construction of Taiyuan Iron and Steel Plant has also reached a critical time, and he needs to continue to provide guidance. Although he has purchased materials such as [Primitive Steelmaking], [Construction Plan of Small Steel Plants], [Casting Guns and Cannons], and [Simple Mortar Manufacturing Methods], there are too few engineers and high-quality workers in China these days. Even if a training school is opened after taking Taiyuan, there are not enough people to carry out the construction. Lin Yongchang must keep following up.

If he wasn't there, could the small steel mill complete the construction work as scheduled? It was hard to say. From a utilitarian point of view, it would be the best choice to let the Eight-Nation Alliance destroy the imperial court, then become an agent of the great powers, and then rapidly improve technology, develop for a few years, and then expand when Japan and Russia fight.

In addition to sending troops to participate in the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of North China, Tsarist Russia also sent troops to invade Northeast my country. Starting in July, the Tsarist Russian army invaded Northeast China in several routes. By seizing Northeast China, Tsarist Russia would be at the doorstep of Korea, which the Japanese could not accept.

As the world hegemon, Britain could not allow Tsarist Russia to expand in East Asia. On the one hand, containing Tsarist Russia has long been Britain's national policy. On the other hand, if Tsarist Russia focuses on East Asia, the balance on the European continent will be broken, which is not what the British want to see.

But... Lin Yongchang's eyes were on [Beijing] on the small map. After all, it was the capital of China. How could he just leave it to the foreigners? Although he knew what to do to be the most advantageous,... Lin Yongchang had always been decisive, but at this critical moment, he still hesitated.

Should we first capture Xi'an and take control of Guanzhong, or should we send troops eastward now regardless of the possible adverse consequences?

Marshal Lin is not Yuan after all

Shikai is not a traitor, nor is he Zhang Zhidong or Liu Kunyi. He cannot turn a blind eye to what is about to happen. His own forces are still too weak. Even if he sends troops eastward, will he be able to turn the tide?

Will we be strangled by the great powers and domestic reactionaries joining forces?

West or east? That is the question.

Chapter 78: Calling for Help

The second batch of students of Baoding Army School are undergoing intensive training. Several young men are pushing a cannon forward on the ground. They have to push the cannon onto a mound and then simulate firing. This is part of the exercise. Originally, the cannon should be pulled forward by large animals, but according to the judgment, all the draft horses have been killed. The poor artillerymen can only work manually to get the cannon weighing more than 1,400 kilograms to the commanding heights.

In the wooden shed in the distance, the instructor in gray military uniform and a homespun hat put down the telescope in his hand and said worriedly: "The cannon is too heavy. If something goes wrong..."

Wang Qi glanced at the instructor coldly, "During a war, will the enemy care whether your cannon is heavy or not?"

In the past, the "Hebei hero" was just a calm character. After being the garrison commander and vice principal for a period of time, Wang Qi's fierce aura became stronger and stronger. Not only was Zhang Decheng killed by the local militia, but after Li Dayan and Lin Yongchangxuan led their troops away, the gentry in Baoding and many places in Hebei launched several rebellions. Wang Qi personally led his troops to quell the rebellion, but the cadres and soldiers of the Farmers' Association who were killed could never survive again.

The killings were not just of the officers and soldiers. In places captured by the rebels, the families of the officers and soldiers were also killed. Wang Qi was once somewhat dissatisfied with Lin Yongchang's public trial and the killing of gentry. Now he is still dissatisfied, but the direction of his dissatisfaction has changed. Why did he kill so few people? Why didn't he kill all the families, friends, classmates, etc. of those people?

If they had been killed earlier, none of the things that happened later would have happened!

The "Hebei Hero" of the past was arrogant and tolerant, but the "Hebei Hero" of today still cares about the poor people, but the murderous aura on him is several times stronger, and he is no longer the silent and dull man of the past.

He carefully observed the exercise with a telescope, and after a long time, he turned his sight back to the Red Army artillery. Those unfortunate artillerymen dragged two cannons onto the mound, and after they were arranged, they were loading training shells into the barrels. The training shells were filled with sand, and the weight was about the same as the real shells, just a little less than ten kilograms.

The muscular artilleryman took off his shirt and ran towards the cannon with the shell in his arms. It was only ten kilograms, which was nothing to the trainees who had enough food every day and meat once a week. Their morale was high, and even though they were treated like animals, they still seemed to have endless energy.

Wang Qi was very satisfied with the students' morale, but he still wanted to point out some mistakes. "No anti-artillery barrier was built, so deduct two points!"

The referee on the side shouted: "Deduct two points from the red artillery!"

The sun gradually sank below the horizon, and the three-day exercise came to an end. In a few days, the students will graduate. Except for a small number of people who will stay in the military academy for teaching, the others will be assigned to various units. The first batch of students only had more than 100 people, and they studied and trained for one and a half months; the second batch of students had more than 200 people, and they studied and trained for two months; the third batch will have more than 300 people, and they will only study in the military academy for two months.

It is definitely impossible to finish all the subjects in such a short time, but there is nothing that can be done. The speed of military expansion is accelerating, and more and more officers are needed. There is not enough time to wait for them to finish learning everything. Study for two months, and then drag them to the battlefield for a walk. You will know whether they are a mule or a horse after taking them out for a walk!

When Wang Qi got home, before he dismounted his horse, he saw someone rising from the ground, shouting, "Brother Wang, you're finally back!"

"who?"

"Back off!"

"Brush!"

"Put your hands up!"

"Squat down!"

"Don't shoot!"

Because they had suffered several assassination attempts, the guards reacted violently and almost shot the man who jumped out on the spot. If Wang Qi hadn't been quick-witted and ordered the guards not to shoot, several impatient people would have pulled the trigger.

Wang Qi jumped off his horse and asked, "Brother Cao, why are you here?"

The man was Cao Futian, the leader of the Boxer Rebellion who was once as famous as Zhang Decheng. A few months ago, when Cao Futian came to Baoding with Zhang Decheng and others to ask for guns, he was still full of vigor and ambition. A few months later, Cao Futian seemed to have aged ten years, with many stains on his body and a scruffy beard. He did not look like a big boss with tens of thousands of soldiers, but rather a general who was hungry all day.

Cao Futian smiled bitterly and said, "Brother Wang, General Wang, I am here to ask for help."

"Let's talk inside." Wang Qi handed the reins to the guard and said to Cao Futian, "I'll ask someone to prepare some food, and we can talk while we eat."

Two guards approached with vigilant and scrutinizing expressions and shouted at Cao Futian: "Don't move! We need to search you!"

Cao Futian was stunned, and Wang Qi explained: "This is the rule set by Marshal Lin. Brother Cao, you know, there are too many assassins."

"I know, I know." Cao Futian was a little dissatisfied, but he had to bow his head under someone else's eaves. Now he was the one asking for help.

, she could only force a smile on her face and let the two young men grope her body.

Passing through the gate guarded by the guards and entering the courtyard, there were several sentries on the high ground and on the road leading to the inner courtyard. Those guards were carrying rifles with bayonets, which reminded Cao Futian of the foreign devils in Tianjin. The dissatisfaction he had originally felt suddenly disappeared. Cao Futian sighed and followed Wang Qi into the room.

The guards quickly brought over a few large pancakes and a bowl of soup. Wang Qi washed his hands with the water in the copper basin, then dried them with a towel. He then said, "I didn't know Brother Cao was coming, so I didn't prepare any good dishes. Let's just make do with what we have now."

Cao Futian was stunned again, "Is this what General Wang usually eats?"

Wang Qi smiled and said, "I'm usually too busy to have time to eat or drink, so I just eat whatever is available."

"Alas, Senior Brother Zhang was as simple as you, but he was unlucky and was hit by a stray bullet and lost his life in Wangjiakou." Cao Futian sighed, "Once he died, the world's number one regiment was finished."

The senior brother Zhang he was talking about was Zhang Decheng. Zhang Decheng once had tens of thousands of troops, the largest, strongest, and most influential force among the Boxers. After conquering Tianjin, he led his troops in a bloody battle with the foreigners at the South Gate of Tianjin, with brilliant results, but he unexpectedly died in an accident while collecting grain.

This was an accident, a fortuitous event, but there were also inevitable factors in the accident. There were too many Boxer soldiers, and even if they were not paid, they still had to eat. To eat, they had to collect food and grass from the rich families. Those rich families all had official connections, so how could they willingly hand over food?

Why did the Beiyang Army hate the Boxers so much that Song Qing started to massacre the Boxers as soon as he arrived in Tianjin?

Because the officers and generals of the Beiyang Army were all landlords and tyrants, the Boxers' grain collection was just cutting flesh from them, so Yuan Shikai and his group stood on the side of the foreigners without hesitation, and even turned a deaf ear to the orders of the court. Of course, the main reason was that they believed they could not defeat the foreigners.

Chapter 79 Road

"How many more of you are there?"

"There are still many people. I have more than 10,000 men under my command, but more people is useless." Cao Futian sighed, "Invulnerability is fake, and so is the magical power protection. Boxing can't beat foreign guns. If Marshal Lin hadn't given us a thousand foreign guns before, we would have lost long ago."

Wang Qi thought for a moment and said, "It is not up to me to decide whether to send troops or not. It is up to the Marshal to decide."

Cao Futian asked, "Where is Marshal Lin?"

Wang Qi stared at Cao Futian for a moment, then said, "I will send someone to tell the Marshal. Brother Cao, please stay here for two days. I will notify you when there is any news."

Cao Futian sighed again, "That's it."

Wang Qi was assassinated many times, and Lin Yongchang was assassinated even more times. If someone else asked where Marshal Lin was, even if they were not arrested on the spot, they would be put on the blacklist of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and be watched all the time.

After Cao Futian left, Wang Qi was about to send a telegram to Taiyuan when the guard came over quickly with the telegram. "General, there is a telegram."

After Wang Qi signed, he opened the telegram, took a look at it, and a smile appeared on his face, but then he became stern again, "Take it and file it."

The main force of the field army is about to return to Hebei, and various preparations need to be made here first. Ammunition and food and fodder are the most basic, and blacksmiths must be asked to prepare various things needed to repair horse hooves, as well as military uniforms, shoes, doctors, medicines, and so on.

Ten days later, the vanguard cavalry unit of the Second Division had reached Baoding, while the baggage train was still in Zhengding County.

At this time, the Eight-Nation Alliance had completely eliminated the resistance between Tianjin, Cangzhou and Langfang, and then crossed Langfang and continued to march towards Beijing. When a large area of land in North China fell, the Tsarist Russian army invaded the Northeast region in several routes, and finally captured Tieling, and the three northeastern provinces fell. Tsarist Russia also created the brutal Hailanpao Massacre and the Jiangdong Sixty-Four Villages Massacre, massacring a large number of Chinese civilians.

The total strength of the Eight-Nation Alliance in North China was only 4, but Tsarist Russia sent 17 troops to invade Northeast China, preparing to swallow up the three northeastern provinces in one go. The British expressed opposition to this, but the Germans were very supportive of the Tsarist Russia's move. If the Russians transferred most of their troops to the Far East, wouldn't the Germans have the final say in the European continent?

There were contradictions within the coalition, but the imperial court had no place to take advantage. After Nie Shicheng's troops were defeated, the entire northern China had no power to resist the Eight-Nation Alliance. Dong Fuxiang's Gansu Army carried out arduous resistance, but the Gansu Army was not equipped with foreign guns and cannons like Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army. The old-time army could not beat the modern army. Even a strong army like the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Camp could not resist the Eight-Nation Alliance, whose weapons and equipment were one era ahead and had more troops.

No matter it was the American army, the British army, the German army or the French army, they killed civilians and officials at will in the tunnels, robbed, murdered and raped. The foreigners not only did these things, they also filmed and recorded the scenes of killing and raping the Chinese. The German commander, Alfred von Waldersee, said proudly: We must record all these things so that the yellow monkeys will not have the thought of resisting for 500 years.

After the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Cangzhou, American missionaries used the excuse that a total of 680 missionaries from foreign powers had been killed in China, so they massacred 680 people in Renqiu, Cangzhou. But were there only 680 people who died at the hands of foreigners?

relatively

In fact, the Japanese army had the best discipline among the Eight-Nation Alliance. Although the Japanese army also robbed things, they did not carry out massacres or capture a large number of women to rape.

This really surprised Lin Yongchang. In his impression, the Japanese were the ones with sores on their heads and pus on their feet. The military discipline of the great powers was much better than that of the Japanese army. It seemed that a German missionary saved many Chinese people during the Nanjing Massacre? There seemed to be something like the Red Cross. In short, when the Japanese army was massacring, Westerners were saving people, but in 1900, Westerners were like beasts.

The Japanese wanted to "leave Asia and enter Europe". In order to show the high quality of the Yamato people in front of the great powers, they enforced strict military discipline. It's not that they were all good people, but they did behave well. However, for Lin Yongchang, both the Japanese and American troops were enemies, and the number of Japanese troops was the largest except for the Russian army, a whole division, more than 20,000 people.

The Russian army dispatched the most troops, but most of them were in the Northeast. The other powers just wanted to punish China and get a compensation, but only the Russians wanted to realize the "Yellow Russia" plan and turn all of China into a part of the Russian Empire. The occupation of the three northeastern provinces was just the beginning of the Russian plan, not the end.

After making up his mind, Lin Yongchang ordered the Second Division to set off for Baoding. He stayed in Taiyuan for five more days to arrange the affairs of the small steel plant. At the same time, he carried out a round of cleansing in Shanxi, throwing tens of thousands of people into the mines. When Wei Guangtao led his troops into Shanxi, many gentry thought that the king's division was coming back, and they all rose up to respond. Wei Guangtao's troops were quickly wiped out, and then it was time to draw up a list.

Previously, Lin Yongchang was thinking about taking the third path. It didn't matter if it was slow, but stability was the most important thing. But now he gave up the idea of taking the third path. In this era of great changes that had not happened in three thousand years, it was impossible to take the middle road. Either he would learn from Yuan Shikai, become a lackey of the great powers, slaughter the peasants, and stain his official hat with the blood and corpses of the lower-class people.

Or they could take another path and smash the old world with sickle and hammer. It was not that Marshal Lin wanted to take this path, but the situation forced him to take this path. Since he had taken this path, he had to accept everything on this path. Only by putting a lofty ideal in front of everyone can we mobilize more resources, make the army more powerful, and build more troops.

When he arrived in Baoding, he immediately summoned the generals in the army and the Boxer leaders such as Cao Futian, Lin Heier, Jing Tingbin, and Zhao Sanduo to discuss military affairs. Although the Boxers still had hundreds of thousands of people, they were strangled by the foreigners and the soldiers, and their defeat was obvious. The leaders who came to Baoding realized the power of foreign guns and cannons, and believed that only Marshal Lin could fight against the foreigners and the soldiers.

Lin Yongchang was not polite either. He asked people to unfold a map on the long table, use flags to indicate the number and location of the soldiers, and then began to analyze the current situation between the enemy and us.

"The total strength of the Eight-Nation Alliance in North China is 4. The 17 Russian troops in the Northeast will not enter the territory for a while, so we don't have to worry about it for now. These 4 are distributed in the vast land from Cangzhou to Beijing. As long as we hit the troops and form an absolute advantage in manpower and firepower on the local battlefield, it will not be difficult to eat up one of them!"

Chapter 80

Different from Cao Futian and others who had lost their temper after being beaten by the foreigners, Lin Yongchang was not afraid of foreigners. It was clearly shown on the [The Sun Never Sets in the Celestial Empire] system that in his eyes, the Eight-Nation Alliance was like the lines on the palm of his hand. He could only take advantage and would never suffer any loss.

"The foreign devils are nothing special to me, but in military affairs, success depends on one person, failure depends on two or three. There must be a unified command to fight a war. If you are willing to follow my command, then you must accept the reorganization, as well as the unified supply of troops and materials."

The Boxer Rebellion was a large-scale movement involving all classes, with landlords and tyrants like Cao Futian and Jing Tingbin participating. Women like Lin Heier also participated, leading thousands of women to fight against the foreigners. As soon as Lin Yongchang finished speaking, she immediately asked, "What if you don't accept it?"

Lin Yongchang looked at Lin Heier. This woman was not pretty, but she had big hands and feet and was very strong. She had fought in wars among foreigners and was not lacking in courage and bloodiness.