The sun never sets

Chapter 84 Mei Ziming

Mei Ziming sounds like a Chinese, but he is not. Mei Ziming is a real foreigner, an American with blond hair, blue eyes, and a high nose, and looks completely different from the Chinese. This American who speaks fluent northern Chinese is a Congregationalist missionary who has studied in college and seminary and came to China to preach 20 years ago.

When the Eight-Nation Alliance reached Renqiu, Mei Ziming randomly picked 680 Chinese people and executed them, claiming that the Chinese had persecuted 680 missionaries over the years. When Lin Yongchang led his troops to attack, he was preparing to go to Anding Town, west of Langfang, to serve the Eight-Nation Alliance as a guide and translator.

But the Mongolian cavalry came too fast, and Mei Ziming was captured before he even set off. Falling into the hands of the barbarians, Mei Ziming struggled and shouted that he wanted to meet the leader of the Boxers.

Lin Yongchang asked the soldiers to build a high platform in the city. While waiting for the platform to be built, he had nothing to do. After hearing the report from the guards, he asked someone to bring Mei Ziming in. As the saying goes, "If you listen to both sides, you will be enlightened, but if you listen to only one side, you will be confused." He wanted to hear what a veteran missionary had to say.

Mei Ziming was brought in, looking miserable, obviously beaten, with bruises on his face, looking painful. But it doesn't matter, the pain will go away soon.

"I heard that you wanted to see me?" Lin Yongchang could speak English, and he spoke it very well, but he was speaking Chinese now, because Mei Ziming also spoke Chinese very well and could even understand classical Chinese.

Mei Ziming raised his hands, and the shackles rattled.

"General, you can't do this to me!"

"Oh, why?" Lin Yongchang asked with interest, "Give me a reason."

"I am a child of God and a citizen of America. Aren't you afraid of the wrath of the great America?"

"I really like the United States and hope to be friends with the United States. But if you kill someone, you must pay with your life. Otherwise, where is justice and morality?"

Mei Ziming swallowed and asked, "You want to kill me?"

"Yes, do you see the wooden platform outside? It's for you Americans."

Mei Ziming's legs were shaking. He thought that the Boxer general was willing to see him, which meant that things had turned around. He never expected that he would still die. But soon, he climbed up again, "If the general wanted to kill me, why would he want to see me? If you have any request, just ask."

Despicable Tatar, do you think you can scare God's people like this? He made a sign of the cross on his chest, your trick has been seen through!

"Oh, I just want to ask, why don't you stay in the United States and travel all the way to China?"

Mei Ziming felt more confident and was no longer so afraid. He raised his head and said, "To spread the glory of God!"

"God? Do you mean Haotian or Jehovah?"

Mei Ziming glared at him, "God is Jehovah, and Jehovah is God! The so-called Haotian is just a false god!"

Originally a fanatical religious person, Lin Yongchang was not that interested in religion. He was interested in Mei Ziming's experience in college. Because there was a great shortage of engineers, Lin Yongchang was very interested in all talents in science and engineering. The main purpose of this expedition was to rob arms, and secondly to kill the active forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance. In addition, it was to plunder various materials and recruit various talents needed.

Wang Hu pushed the door open and came in, "Marshal, uncle...General Wang is here!"

Wang Zuolin had just arrived with two thousand men. He had waited in Zhangjiakou for several months, but the imperial army had not arrived yet. So he cleared out the foreign churches and shops in the area, and then brought his troops here, ready to join the battle to attack Tianjin.

Although he was Marshal Lin's sworn brother, Wang Zuolin did not gain much benefit from the rapid expansion of the rebel army in the past six months. Now Li Dayan is the King of Henan, with 200,000 to 300,000 brothers under him. Wang Qi also manages millions of people in Hebei and can mobilize tens of thousands of elite troops at any time.

Wang Zuolin, however, remained in Zhangjiakou, in charge of three to five thousand people. How could he be willing to accept this when he considered himself a hero?

After receiving Lin Yongchang's letter, Wang Zuolin thought for a moment and rushed over with his elite troops. After rushing, he finally caught up. Wang Zuolin's troops had more than 500 foreign guns and more than homemade guns and hunting rifles, which was considered to be a relatively strong force among the Boxers. However, they had not fought any battles before, just burning a few churches, so it was hard to say how they would perform on the battlefield.

"Big brother!"

Lin Yongchang was still very enthusiastic towards Wang Zuolin. He came up and shook his hand, sighed for a while, and then said, "Let the troops rest in the camp outside the city for an hour and eat something. Big brother, come with me, let's talk, and then we will go fight the foreign devils together!"

Wang Zuolin nodded heavily, "Okay!"

Lin Yongchang then ordered: "Come here, take Mei Ziming out!"

Mei Ziming was stunned, and then he shouted, "You can't do this to me!"

Wang Zuolin showed a surprised expression on his face, "This foreign devil speaks Mandarin so well?"

"This shows that the foreigners have ulterior motives!"

Lin Yongchang walked out. The wooden platform outside had been built. More than a dozen American prisoners of war had their hands tied behind their backs and were pulled under the platform. Mei Ziming was also pushed over and stood with those people.

"Be quiet, be quiet!"

After purchasing [Innate Superpower], Lin Yongchang not only became much stronger, but his voice also became louder. He held a wooden trumpet and yelled a few words, and the people around him were shaken to the ground, with their heads buzzing.

"These people have committed many crimes in China, and they should have all been beheaded, but God has mercy on life. I, Lin Yongchang, the chairman of the United Front to Resist Foreigners, the general who commands Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, and Guanzhong, have decided to give these people a chance. As long as someone comes forward to give a reason why they don't deserve to die, I won't chop off their heads today!"

Lin Yongchang spoke a few words loudly, shocking the people around him, and then repeated them in English to the people below the platform. Mei Ziming and the American prisoners were pale. They were not all cowardly people, but they were surrounded by thousands of angry people and hundreds of enemy soldiers with live ammunition. They felt like animals waiting to be slaughtered.

"Oh God, help me!"

“Woo, woo…”

"I don't want to die," Forrest Gump choked with tears and said, "Jenny is still waiting for me at home. She said she would go back and get married after the war!"

"Father, Father, are we going to hell?"

Mei Ziming's hands kept shaking, but he still comforted everyone, "We will all go to heaven. We will die for the Lord, and the angels will lead us to a heaven flowing with milk and honey!"

Chapter 85: Cross

Mei Ziming is a missionary who can cross the Pacific Ocean to

He came to China to preach and stayed for decades, which shows that he is still very pious to God and is not the kind of adventurer who came to the Far East to make a fortune. Although he knew that he was about to see the earth, he was not as scared as others, just a little scared.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..."

Mei Ziming was reading the Bible when suddenly a scream came from the side. It was A-Gump being dragged up to the platform. Seeing the foreign devil being dragged up like a dead dog, the noise around them immediately got louder.

"kill him!"

"I recognize him. He raped several women and killed the Li family's one-year-old son!"

"Kill, kill, kill!"

"Death by a thousand cuts!"

Lin Yongchang gathered all the energy in his Dantian and shouted, "Silence!"

"Hua La La", the people around the platform rose and fell like wheat ears, and many people were knocked to the ground and couldn't get up for a long time. Lin Yongchang shouted again, "Silence! Those who say he shouldn't die, come up and speak!"

The people looked at each other, and gradually the noise started to rise again. But they all wanted to chop the foreign devils into pieces, dismember them, behead them, skin them, and cut them into pieces. Lin Yongchang waited for a while, but when he saw that no one came up to speak well of the foreign devils, he lowered his head and asked the captives, who looked like a puddle of mud, in English, "Would you rather be beheaded or hanged?"

"I...I..." Forrest Gump burst into tears, with snot and tears running down his face. "Mom...Mom...I don't want to die...Wuwu...I don't want to die......"

Lin Yongchang raised his head and shouted, "Behead him!"

"Wow!"

"Behead!"

"Master Lin said he would chop off the foreign devils' heads!"

"Long live!"

"Lord Lin will be a noble for generations to come!"

Amidst the clamor, two soldiers pressed Forrest Gump onto the chopping board. When the executioner with a ghost-headed sword came over, Forrest Gump struggled frantically, "No... No... Jenny......"

The executioner was a soldier who had never been to the battlefield or killed anyone. The executioner was big and strong, and looked very strong. He didn't understand what the foreigner was shouting, but he didn't care. He wiped the blade with his clothes, then swung it down with all his strength.

"Crack!"

A-Gump's head fell off, rolled on the ground for a few times, and stopped in front of Mei Ziming and the other prisoners. Blood oozed from his wide-open eyes. Several prisoners were frightened to the point of shitting and pissing. Mei Ziming shook his body a few times and continued to read "Nerve" loudly.

"If your enemy is hungry, you shall feed him; if he is thirsty, you shall give him a drink. For by doing this you will heap coals of fire on his head, and you will ......"

Forrest Gump's head was picked up and stuck on the tip of the gun, and then another American was pulled up. Without exception, none of these American devils said anything good, so they were beheaded by the guest executioners who came up one by one.

Mei Ziming could no longer recite. Everyone else had their heads chopped off, and he was dragged to the platform. Two soldiers pressed his head on the chopping board, and the new executioner was wiping the ghost-head sword. At the last moment of his life, the fear of death overwhelmed his belief in God, and he shouted in horror, "God... God save me!"

The executioner raised the ghost-head sword, and Mei Ziming's trouser legs were wet by the sprayed liquid.

"and many more!"

The executioner put away his sword, took two steps back, and saluted, "General!"

Lin Yongchang stepped forward and said with a smile: "Mr. Mei, you believe in Jesus, so I will give you a death like Jesus. Well, maybe you will be alive again in three days? If your God really exists and will bless you, then let you be resurrected after death."

In fact, he didn't know whether Mei Ziming believed in Jesus, so he just assumed that he did.

"Come on, crucify him!"

The cross was easy to make, just nail two wooden boards together. Mei Ziming's palms were nailed to the wooden boards with iron nails, and his bare feet were also nailed to the boards. Then, the cross was erected, with more than a dozen long spears inserted on the side, and each spear had an American's head hanging on it.

Lin Yongchang stood beside the cross, looking at Mei Ziming who was COSing The Passion of the Christ, and couldn't help but whistled, exclaiming: "This is very similar. Mr. Mei, you found a random excuse to kill 680 innocent Chinese people. According to our Chinese rules, you should be cut into pieces, but that is too cruel. So, let you die in this way. I'm sure you will like it very much."

Mei Ziming was frightened and in pain, and had fainted several times. At this time, he could not hear what Lin Yongchang was saying, but only made intermittent groans. Lin Yongchang looked up and down at the modern Jesus and felt that he was very similar, but there were still some imperfections. After thinking for a while, he realized where the imperfections were.

He snapped his fingers and said, "Take off his clothes... but don't take off his pants."

When Mei Ziming's upper body was stripped naked, Lin Yongchang was satisfied. "That's right. That's what Jesus was like. If you can be resurrected in three days, I might be interested in your God.

"

He turned to Wang Zuolin beside him and said, "Okay, now that we're done here, let's go to Tianjin!"

Compared to before, Wang Zuolin's appearance and voice had not changed much, but his attitude had become much more respectful. He said with a serious expression: "Yes!"

Chopping off a dozen American heads was just an appetizer, the main event was in Tianjin. The army stayed in Renqiu for a few hours, and after resting, they moved forward again, sweeping away all the foreign devils and traitors along the way.

When Lin Yongchang arrived in Tianjin with his infantry and artillery, Meng En* Borjigin used the same old tricks and led his cavalry into Tianjin, killing many foreigners, blowing up many foreign buildings with explosive packs, and stealing a lot of things. Wuyun Qiqige's brother was still in the front line, beheading many foreign devils, but this time he was not lucky and was hit in the shoulder by a Japanese soldier's bullet.

After being shot, Meng En* Borjigin fell off his horse and was trampled several times by the horse's hooves. Fortunately, he was not trampled to death. His subordinates rescued him under the hail of bullets. More than a thousand Mongolian cavalrymen charged and killed more than 200 people. They also lost 100 to 200 people. The exchange ratio was not bad, but the idea of using cavalry to attack Tianjin was definitely not something that Marshal Lin came up with.

It was fine to steal the city before, because the enemy troops in Renqiu and other towns were not many, so they would win as long as they rushed in. But there were more than 4,000 defenders in Tianjin City. Although there was no city wall, it was not something that Meng En's cavalry, which lacked guns and ammunition, could take down.

"Ah, I told you not to rush to the front when you are a team leader."

It is very encouraging for a general to lead the charge, but if a general meets with an accident, it will be a huge blow to morale. Lin Yongchang could not say much, so he could only send Meng En* Borjigin to the field hospital in the rear.

To deal with a strong city like Tianjin, it is ultimately necessary to rely on a head-on battle between infantry and artillery.

Chapter 86: Comparison

After defeating the Gansu Army in a field battle, the Eight-Nation Alliance successively captured Yangcun, Beicang, Tongzhou and other places, completing the semi-encirclement of the capital, and then set up more than 200 cannons to bombard the walls of Beijing. Although there was bad news from the rear, everyone was dazzled by the glory of capturing the capital of the Far East's big empire and the wealth in the city. From generals to officers, to the lowest soldiers, they all launched rounds of attacks on the capital as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

Everyone knew that there were endless treasures in the capital. The looting of Beijing by the British and French forces decades ago inspired these latecomers, making them ignore everything else and turn a blind eye to the Boxers behind them.

All the Westerners rushed to Beijing, and only some Japanese stayed in Tianjin to guard the port. Japan is not yet regarded as a great power. Although the Japanese army has the largest number of troops in North China, it is still at the bottom of the discrimination chain in the Eight-Nation Alliance. Hard, dirty and tiring work are all thrown to the Japanese army.

When the Boxers came back and were about to surround Tianjin again, the Japanese army did not notice it at first. It was not until they were suddenly attacked by the Mongolian cavalry that they woke up and sent messengers to the main force of the Allied Forces outside Beijing. They could have made a phone call, but the telephone lines along the way were cut off, and the Allied Forces did not have portable radios. There was no reliable portable radio telegraph in those days, so the Japanese army left in Tianjin could only use the most primitive method to pass on the message.

However, there were Mongolian cavalry everywhere outside the city. There were tens of thousands of Boxer demolition teams tearing up the railway from Tianjin to Beilangfang. It was a question whether the Japanese cavalry riding on Oriental horses could rush to the main force of the Allied Forces.

After encircling Tianjin, Lin Yongchang relied on his large numbers to directly order his soldiers to attack everywhere. He had long thought that China was now poor and backward, with nothing but a large population. If he could not take advantage of the large numbers, what could he use to fight the Eight-Nation Alliance?

It is not okay to be afraid of death. Once you have embarked on this path, you are destined to advance through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Not only will many enemies die, but many of your own people will also die.

The sound of gunfire enveloped Tianjin again. The city had changed owners several times in just a few months, and now it was once again caught in the flames of war. After the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Tianjin, they established the Dutong Yamen and demolished the city wall of Tianjin. When Lin Yongchang led his troops to attack, there was nothing left of the city wall that had defended Tianjin for 400 years. Otherwise, Meng En* Borjigin would not have been able to ride his horse directly to the inner city.

After the cavalry withdrew, the rebel infantry successively occupied Haiguang Temple, Machinery Manufacturing Bureau and other buildings, and then advanced step by step into the city. The rebels launched attacks from the west and south at the same time. The cavalry cruised outside the city and monitored Tianjin from a distance. Some rebel soldiers crossed Tianjin and headed towards Tangshan, Leting and other places. There were also many lone foreigners there, and there were also many factories run by foreigners.

For example, the Kaiping Coal Mine was originally an industry supervised by the imperial court and run by businessmen. It not only had a lot of machines and skilled workers, but also had railways connecting all the mining areas. However, after the war, the Kaiping Iron Mine was seized by the Americans and the British. As a Chinese with a conscience, Lin Yongchang certainly could not sit idly by and watch such a thing happen, so he decided to dismantle all the rails and machines of the Kaiping Coal Mine and transport them to Shanxi.

Shanxi also has coal mines and needs railways. The existing equipment can be used, which not only saves time and effort, but also saves money on purchasing machines. This is a win-win situation. The so-called win-win situation means that Marshal Lin won twice, which is simply a win. The workers, managers, and foreign shareholders in the mining area will also be taken to Shanxi.

The 11th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Fifth Division stationed in Tianjin had more than 3000 soldiers. This unit had participated in the First Sino-Japanese War. Although its equipment was not very good, it was well-trained and had strong combat effectiveness. After being attacked by the Mongolian cavalry, it quickly reacted and drove out the Mongolian cavalry that had entered the city.

In addition, there were many wounded soldiers of the Allied Forces in the city, plus the logistics and other troops, the total number was close to 6,000, and the combat-capable force was more than 4,000. Because there was no city wall to protect them, the Japanese army quickly lost many defensive positions under the attack of the rebels who were several times their number, and retreated all the way to Jinhua Bridge, which was one of the most important places in Tianjin. If Jinhua Bridge was lost, the rebels could directly rush to the core area of Tianjin.

"Line up!"

"Kill him!"

The sergeants shouted wildly, and the soldiers either stood or squatted, shooting at the Boxers.

At this time, the Japanese army had not yet changed into khaki uniforms. From the outside, they looked very similar to the armies of the great powers, and their tactics were also similar. The sergeants roared with all their might, punched and kicked the soldiers to line up in a neat and tight formation, and then kept firing at the other side of Jinhua Bridge.

The Fifth Division was a permanent division of the Japanese Army. The 11th Infantry Regiment came from Hiroshima, the city that was hit by a nuclear bomb. The soldiers were of good quality, lined up quickly, and fired volleys quickly and accurately. The rebel soldiers were chasing the retreating Japanese soldiers, and were hit by a volley of gunfire, killing and injuring dozens of people. They had to retreat temporarily, hiding behind the building and firing at the Japanese.

The soldiers of the Type A Regiment had received more advanced tactical training. When the Japanese lined up in neat rows to play the line-up shooting game, the soldiers of the Second Regiment fired at the Jinhua Bridge in a skirmish formation while dragging machine guns and cannons over. The Japanese also pulled out cannons, and the two sides fired at each other across the bridge.

Bullets flew and shells fell to the ground, blowing away several Yijun soldiers hiding in the street corners. The soldiers of the Type A Regiment responded with heavy machine guns, and the Gatling guns and Maxim machine guns fired from the side, turning the neatly arranged Japanese soldiers into a mass of meat paste.

"over there!"

"Artillery, kill them!"

"Despicable Chinese!"

The Japanese officers at all levels encouraged the soldiers loudly, giving them the courage to continue firing. The well-trained 11th Infantry Regiment had their own pride, and even though they were being killed by heavy machine guns, they still lined up in neat rows and fired at the enemy.

"Da da da da da!"