Chapter 382: New Outlook of the Ministry of Rites (XVIII)
"Report! The commandos have broken through the second trench. Our troops have followed up!"
"Report! The artillery moved to the second trench and began to bombard the Qing army."
"Report! We have captured the Qing army's perimeter!"
"Commander! Our artillerymen have directly blasted away the Qing Dynasty's cannons with their cannons!"
The news was transmitted to the Hebei War Zone Command at a very fast speed, and the generals in the headquarters were surprised and happy. The bravery of the Henan boys completely exceeded the imagination of the generals of the Hebei War Zone, and even made the old brothers feel a little uncomfortable. After all, the tactics of the two sides were too different.
In the past, I would say something extreme: as long as you stand high enough, you can have a complete view of the battle of tens of thousands of people. The rows of advancing columns on the battlefield have a thrilling magnificence, a powerful force that can cross hills, plains, and rivers. Whatever stands in front of the columns will be completely destroyed.
The tactics of these guys were completely different. It was just a battle led by two regiments and followed by a division. When the commandos who had crawled through the shallow attack trenches and suddenly charged into the Qing army disappeared from sight, except for the messengers, no one could see where the guys had rushed to, nor how they fought.
However, judging from the results of the battle, the victories these guys had won were no less than those of the Chinese army in the field battles with the Qing army. What was even more annoying was that the horizontal column was struggling against the Qing army digging trenches. The guys, with only a small number of troops, easily broke through the enemy's trenches.
The generals looked at each other, and there was a question on their lips, but they couldn't ask, "How did those guys fight?"
As the elder brothers, they have always taught the younger ones. Now they have to ask the younger ones for advice, which is really hard to say.
But the guys on the battlefield were obviously thinking about how to kill the enemy. Intelligence came one after another. The commandos led the way, cutting into the weak points of the Qing army, and then the follow-up troops followed up and completely tore the gap. Then the artillery followed up, firing at the Qing army at close range, completely destroying the Qing army's formation.
The entire military operation was like a sharp steel knife inserted into the enemy's chest, and then vigorously stirred and cut, completely disrupting the entire Qing army.
As the commandos fought hard inside the Qing army, the Qing army's once indestructible camp began to disintegrate. A large number of Qing soldiers fled their positions and fled in all directions.
Now the old brothers had room to show their skills. The horizontal column attacking the trench would cause great damage, but the formation had a huge advantage against the defeated Qing soldiers who had escaped.
Sure enough, under the overall firepower attack of the musket platoon, the fleeing Qing troops turned around and fled back.
How could the old brothers miss such an opportunity? Without even informing each other, each division advanced at the same time, constantly tightening the encirclement.
From the perspective of deploying troops, the tighter the encirclement, the greater the density of soldiers at a single line of defense.
Some of the troops in the first trench of the Qing army who had stubbornly resisted the Huaxia army had not been disrupted yet, and they continued to resist stubbornly in this situation. But the number of these people was not particularly large. More Qing troops in the trenches were frightened by the internal chaos and chose to retreat after being hit.
The Hebei Huaxia Army, which once loosely surrounded the Qing Army, was a bit like a ribbon. As the encirclement became smaller and smaller, the strength of the ribbon became stronger and stronger, and it turned from a ribbon into a noose, and then from a noose into a steel hoop, tightly encircling the Qing Army that had resisted the Huaxia Army for nearly a month.
Even without seeing with his own eyes that the Chinese army on the periphery had blocked the Qing army, General Base in the Qing army's formation was already convinced that he had lost.
Facing the sudden attack of the Chinese army, General Basai continuously sent troops to fight back and also mobilized surrounding troops to try to annihilate the Chinese army. But without exception, they all failed.
At this time, General Basai gathered the last troops he could command. These people were genuine Eight Banners soldiers, the elite of the army. General Aixinjueluo Basai took off his helmet and adjusted the rat tail behind his head. The despair finally improved a little.
Although he knew that the general would die soon, Basai still felt sad when the day came.
All I could see were the Eight Banners Army soldiers wearing cotton armor, with their copper nails gleaming in the sun.
The general put on his helmet and shouted to the Eight Banners Army: "Follow me and kill the bandits!"
The Eight Banners Army did not follow the shouting, nor did they move. Every soldier in the Eight Banners Army had panic and even confusion in their eyes.
Basai was filled with shock and anger. What happened to these Eight Banners Army? Couldn't they understand the military orders?
Just as the general was about to curse, a cannonball flew in from a distance with a whistling sound, and flew directly into the open space in the core camp. Immediately, several Eight Banners soldiers were beaten to a bloody mess and fell to the ground.
It seems that the Chinese army has begun to attack the last core camp.
Someone from the Eight Banners Army who had not spoken before immediately shouted, "General, let us protect you and rush out."
"I asked you to follow me to kill the enemy!" General Basai shouted in shock and anger.
However, the Huaxia Army outside did not give the general time to mobilize. Perhaps because of the great regrets about the continuity of the last battle at the summary meeting, the Huaxia Army, which broke through the third trench of the Qing Army, launched an attack with extremely high continuity.
The demolition workers were in charge of blasting the earthen walls, and the artillerymen were not idle either. They aimed directly at the outer wall of the camp and fired fiercely without any shooting. The wooden fortifications could not withstand the artillery shells at all, and even the thickest wooden fences were shattered and fell to the ground after a few shells.
Without any cover, the shells flew straight into the core camp of the Qing army and began to destroy indiscriminately. Whether it was a tent, a person, or something else, any object that stood in front of the shells was mercilessly hit and destroyed.
The Eight Banners could no longer maintain their obedient formation. In the face of death, the Eight Banners of the Qing army, who claimed that the Manchus were invincible, fled in all directions. General Basai's personal soldiers ignored General Basai's angry curses at the fleeing Eight Banners. Several people came over and carried General Basai away, leaving behind a trail of curses.
Not only the general's men fled, but also Li Feng, the commander of the Han Eight Banners and the Bordered White Banner, who had previously believed that the Huaxia Army treated prisoners well and insisted on sending the wounded to the Huaxia Army, also secretly hid in a cat ear cave, took off his gorgeous and bright commander's uniform, and put on a soldier's uniform.
Li Feng's personal soldiers also took off their yellow vests and other clothes and changed into the clothes of the soldiers. They then smeared their faces with mud to cover their faces.
When they came out, the outer troops of the Huaxia Army had already arrived here, and the Qing troops fled in all directions. The Huaxia Army shouted the slogan "Raise your hands and surrender, and you will not be killed if you surrender your weapons", and shot and killed the Qing troops who dared to resist.
Among them, there was a unit that was specifically searching for the small caves dug by the Qing army, and they happened to see Li Feng. When the Huaxia army saw Li Feng, Li Feng and others quickly raised their hands high.
Although they had never practiced such an action, it was so natural for them to raise their hands and let the ferocious Chinese army see that their hands were empty. After all, the Chinese army did not kill prisoners, but they never showed any mercy to the stubborn enemies.
The battle lasted less than eight hours, starting around eight in the morning. By four in the afternoon, the Chinese army had eliminated all the stubborn Qing troops in the encirclement and began to transfer prisoners of war and clean up the battlefield.
The most important person among them is the Qing general Basai. Since the Chinese army fought against the Qing army, Basai is the only famous Qing general who escaped. At this time, whether he is a Qing general or not is not important to the Chinese army. In Shandong, Basai's evil deeds made many people swear to make him pay.
But when they found the general, they found that he had committed suicide. He was holding a revolver made by the Chinese Army Arsenal. The barrel of the revolver was stuck in his mouth. The bullet entered his mouth, penetrated the medulla oblongata, and shot out from the back of his head. He was dead as hell.
This method of suicide not only ensures that there will be no mistakes, but also ensures that the face will not be injured to a certain extent. After identification, it was confirmed that the deceased wearing gorgeous armor was undoubtedly Buser.
Since then, the main force of the Qing army in Hebei has been completely annihilated. Huo Chong likes to say that it is better to cut off one finger than to hurt all ten fingers. Although the Henan and Hebei routes of the four Qing armies caused a lot of trouble to the Huaxia army and brought many casualties, now these 200,000 elite troops have been completely annihilated.
When writing the war report, the old brothers suddenly remembered what Huo Chong had said, and ordered the clerk to write this memory in.
Huo Chong received the battle report and couldn't help but frowning when he saw this part. "Qing'er, did I say to kill 3 million Qing troops, 50,000 a year?"
Qian Qing was wearing loose and baggy maternity clothes at this time. She was sitting lazily on the soft couch next to Huo Chong, gently stroking her slightly protruding belly. When hearing what Huo Chong said, Qian Qing seemed not to hear it at first. After a while, she replied lazily: "It seems to be true. Yes, it is. I scolded that person that time. Remember to cancel out the units when doing arithmetic. Don't count 3 million, divide 300 by 5. Haha, at that time, everyone thought that killing 3 million backbones of the Qing Dynasty in 60 years was too radical. Now we have killed about 500,000 people."
Huo Chong felt a little nostalgic when he heard this. Perhaps, as the report said, this was what happened ten years ago, but over the years, Huo Chong felt that time had passed very slowly. He started counting on his fingers.
I started the rebellion in the second year of Yongzheng's reign. This is easy to calculate because a major event happened that year, and Nian Gengyao was sentenced to death by Yongzheng.
Hearing what Huo Chong said, Qian Qing burst out laughing, "Sir, you are too busy to remember. That happened in the third year of Yongzheng's reign. But we started the rebellion in the second year of Yongzheng's reign."
"Yeah. I'm old. I can't remember clearly." Huo Chong sighed. Then he counted on his fingers. In this time and space, Yongzheng died early, and the commemoration only lasted until the seventh year of Yongzheng. Now it is the fourth year of Qianlong in Hongzhou's reign...
Um... 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 1, 2, 3, 4
"Hey. Ten years have passed without me noticing." Huo Chong couldn't help but sigh when he confirmed that the number was indeed correct.
"Yes." Qian Qing said as she got off the couch. She walked in front of Huo Chong with her hands on her lower back like a pregnant woman.
Huo Chong was sitting at this time. Qian Qing stood in front of Huo Chong, lowered his head, and gently stroked Huo Chong's cheek with his palm. "It's been ten years, and you haven't changed at all, sir."
Although it felt good to be touched like this, Huo Chong was still amused, "What the hell is going on here!"
Qian Qing sat on Huo Chong's lap and hugged his neck, "Sir, after you conquer the world, you must take good care of yourself. I am still waiting to die before you in another fifty years. You can't let me down."
Huo Chong thought Qian Qing had always been a very rational woman, but now he found that her so-called rationality was forced. If possible, women just like to be in such a lazy and relaxed state. Even Qian Qing is no exception.
This warm and lazy moment did not last long, Huo Chong hugged Qian Qing who was leaning on him and continued to read the report. Huo Chong was very satisfied with the operations commanded by the young members of the Ministry of Rites.
The breech-loading rifle was supposed to be used in this kind of tactics. The reason why it couldn't be done before was not because of the poor equipment, but because of the poor military. Or it could be said that the old brothers were unable to exert such combat effectiveness.
Now that the younger generation has begun to enter a period of growth under a new organizational system, the older brothers, who can probably be described as Huo Chong's servants, have to keep up, otherwise they will be eliminated.
Once a strong organization is built, what Huo Chong needs to do is no longer to devote all his energy to promoting organizational construction, but to provide various progressive plans for this organization that has begun to take shape.
Putting down the documents, Huo Chong sighed. Although the hard days will never end, at least a phase of the work has been completed.
Huo Chong had just leaned back in his chair when he heard Qian Qing say, "Sir, don't chase the old brothers away. It's not easy for them either."
Huo Chong nodded, "Yes. I won't chase them away. But they also have to learn and improve."
Qian Qing's voice was no longer as gentle as when he talked about his old brother. Instead, it became stern. "Also, I always feel that those intellectuals are unreliable. They actually hate the land reform to their core."
"Haha. If I cut off their foundation for bullying, it would be strange if they didn't hate me." Huo Chong laughed. Literati, especially those "sentimental" literati, are like "untouchables" in the eyes of science and engineering men in the 21st century.
It is considered good to receive money from foreigners and do all kinds of propaganda for foreign countries. There are more spiritual foreigners who get nothing but lick the foreigners just to show that the masters they follow are more noble.
In contrast, the position of the science and engineering men is based on China's local industrial capital and their recognition of the socialist system. They are really incompatible with this group of sentimentalists.
If we put this opposition in the present, the old brothers under Huo Chong have a lot of room for improvement, but they are a little lazy. After all, they are moving from having nothing to mastering capital. In their rising period, they will of course firmly support Huo Chong, and also support the ideas proposed by Huo Chong.
However, the literati stood on the side of decline. Huo Chong's idea was to liberate the working people, distribute the means of production to them, and provide them with training and support so that they could master the ability to use these means of production as soon as possible.
Means of production such as land do not appear out of thin air. It was the Chinese forces headed by Huo Chong who used the violence in their hands to snatch them away from the previous ruling class.
Even if the literati did not become officials, they still considered themselves to be members of the former ruling class...
Thinking of this, Huo Chong took up the pen with some effort and began to write. Because Qian Qing had no intention of getting off Huo Chong's legs, Huo Chong felt very uncomfortable and could only switch from his right hand to the pen in his left hand and began to write a little crookedly.
After writing a few sentences, Qian Qing suddenly hugged Huo Chong tightly and said with a smile: "I just wanted to see if you can write. I didn't expect you can write like this. But it makes me embarrassed."
Huo Chong, with his head buried in Qian Qing's chest, couldn't see anything, so he could only say in a muffled voice: "What's the problem with you? I'm the one who's in trouble now, okay?"
"I just want to make things difficult for you. I want you to be so fierce towards me before." Qian Qing hugged Huo Chong without relaxing.
Huo Chong was helpless. It seemed that being a spoiled child was just a matter of whether or not you dared to act. Huo Chong, who had completely given up, could only speak sweet and silly words to Qian Qing. In the end, Huo Chong was forced to "admit" helplessly, "Qing'er, I used to take care of too much. I cared less about you."
"That's good to know! Don't do this to me again." Qian Qing said as he let go of Huo Chong, "Okay, you can write now."
After that, Qian Qing stood up and went to the next room to change into her military uniform. When she came back, she saw that Huo Chong had already written a lot, even the title. Qian Qing looked carefully and saw that it said "On the Current Major Relationships in China".
After all, Qian Qing had been reading since childhood, so he quickly read through it and finished the written part in a moment. Qian Qing was delighted. Huo Chong analyzed the major relationships, and the first one was the contradiction between the enemy and us. The conflict within the Chinese court was attributed to the contradiction among the people. Of course, Huo Chong also wrote clearly that those who supported private ownership of land and tried to destroy the current public ownership policy of land with private ownership of land were class contradictions. Although this was already a serious accusation, at least it was not classified as a contradiction between the enemy and us.
In Qian Qing's opinion, this was at least Huo Chong's sincere attempt to position the old brothers, and to protect the vast majority of them.
With joy in his heart, Qian Qing went to the military academy.
The military academy is now bustling. First, no one dares to make trouble. Second, the younger generation has found their direction and is desperately learning new tactics. Finally, the older brothers are still playing tricks and are unwilling to lose their status. They are all studying the battle examples honestly. They even made a simple model to study the course of the Battle of Hebei.
Seeing Qian Qing coming, all the old brothers quickly asked Qian Qing to take the main seat and deduce with them how this clean and neat encirclement and annihilation battle was fought so effectively.
Two days later, a batch of new content was delivered to the military academy. According to the system established by Huo Chong, theories, worlds, and regulations were to be openly discussed in various executive departments.
Among these discussions, the most embarrassing one is the briefing every Wednesday afternoon, where everyone is told about various rewards and punishments, letting everyone know what will be punished and what will be praised.
There was one thing in the content sent this time that made everyone smile. One of the quick ways to identify prisoners is to look at their feet. Those Qing officers who changed their uniforms often forgot about the boots on their feet. Compared with the worn-out shoes of ordinary Qing soldiers, the boots can really be seen at a glance.
Li Feng, the leader of the Bordered White Banner of the Qing Dynasty, was captured in this way.
