Chapter 145: The flames of war are in close combat
At a certain section of the railway from Jinmen to the capital, a large number of young and strong boxers from the Boxer movement cleared the area and did not allow people to easily approach the area within one mile.
"Quick, quick, move quickly, don't waste your time by dilly-dallying!"
A boxer with a red scarf on his head was ordered to move around while packages of explosives sealed in brown paper were carefully buried in a cave dug into the train embankment.
Such scenes occurred in several places along the railway line from Tianjin to Beijing.
"Thunder Tiger, isn't it appropriate to do this?"
In the house of Jinmen garrison general Dong Fuxiang, this Qing general who had no prejudice against the Boxers was speaking hesitantly.
"Isn't there nothing we can do about it? The capital won't cut off the train line, so we can only take precautions ourselves!"
Lei Hu sat slantedly on the Grand Master's chair, waved his hands and said with a smile: "Nie Junmen also strongly opposed it. It's too obvious that something is not going well!"
"I don't know what the capital is thinking. Foreigners are about to knock on the door, but they still don't allow the train lines to be cut off!"
On the side, Tan Sitong spoke with a face full of displeasure and said angrily: "If something really goes wrong and Jinmen cannot be defended, the foreign army will be able to rush to the capital quickly by train. Then..."
The following words were not spoken, but the meaning was expressed very clearly. If such a situation really occurs, it will definitely be a slap in the face to my Qing Dynasty, and my prestige will be trampled into the mud.
Dong Fuxiang smiled bitterly. He also felt that Beijing's decision was too fucked up, but the interests involved in that train line were too great for him to act haphazardly.
"Right now, haven't we placed explosives along some sections of the train route?"
He laughed and said: "If something really happens, just light it on fire and blow up the rails!"
"It's best to blow it up when the foreign troops are riding on the train. This will have the best effect!"
Lei Hu chuckled and said leisurely: "For now, let's keep an eye on the sea outside Tianmen. I don't know when the foreign troops will come from the sea. Or should we capture the concession first?"
"this……"
Dong Fuxiang hesitated and said slowly: "Although the Queen Mother has issued a declaration of war among all nations, if we take the initiative, will it lead to even worse consequences?"
"What are you afraid of? Let's start with the Zizhulin Concession in Jinmen, just in time to suppress the arrogance of the foreigners!"
Tan Sitong was full of energy. Looking at his gearing up, it was obvious that dealing with foreigners was very attractive and exciting to him.
"Dong Junmen, there is no need to worry about so much. Anyway, the imperial court has officially declared war on the foreigners. We are just following the instructions of the capital. There is nothing wrong with it!"
Lei Hu chuckled and said: "This time to deal with the Zizhulin Concession, does Dong Junmen want the army to take action, or does the Boxer Rebellion do it alone?"
Dong Fuxiang smiled bitterly. This feeling of being forced to express his position was really not good.
However, facing the glare of the two high-ranking Boxer Rebellion officials, he really didn't have the courage to agree to attack the Zizhulin Concession with all officers and soldiers. Didn't he know what his soldiers were like?
"Then there are brothers from the Labor Boxer Rebellion!"
After holding it in for a long time, he could not help but blush when he said such an embarrassing sentence.
…
Lei Hu didn't care much. Since he decided to attack the Zizhulin Concession, he used the Boxer Rebellion's intelligence system to do some research, and then formulated a plan and directly implemented it under the command of his militia group Qingzhuang.
In other words, due to the sudden increase in the number of 11,000 young and strong boxers under his command, for the convenience of management and the consideration of improving combat effectiveness, 500 young and strong young people from the Chancheng militia were urgently transferred to serve as the backbone of the young and strong boxers under his command.
Officer, after a short cooperation exercise, the combat effectiveness has been significantly improved.
The plan was actually very simple. The Boxers first set fire to the Zizhulin Concession and made a scene. When the attention of the concession's guardian force was attracted, two young boxers from the Boxer Regiment, numbering 500, rushed in.
The subsequent fighting was lackluster. Perhaps the concession authorities did not expect that the Boxers would dare to attack the concession. Not only were the number of troops used as a protective force pitifully small, but even the defensive awareness was very common.
After the Boxer Rebellion brigade stormed into the concession, the concession authorities had little will to resist, and they all surrendered after a short period of persistence.
The battle is easy and simple, but the rewards are huge.
There was a lot of money, food, grass and supplies, and what made Lei Hu even more happy was that there was also a small arsenal, which contained hundreds of muskets and corresponding ammunition, and even two small cannons and several basic shells in stock.
Stop the Boxers under their control from harming the captured foreigners. Of course, those guys whose hands are stained with blood naturally have a desire to avenge injustice, and the Boxers are not ambiguous about their attacks.
The news that the Zizhulin Concession was captured by the Boxers shocked the great powers in the Tianjin area.
At this time, several major powers were ready to send troops, and some of their troops had even taken warships to the sea off Tianjin, so they simply sent troops directly to Tianjin without doing anything else.
The war started instantly. The foreign warships opened fire first, blasting fierce artillery fire towards the Jinmen coastal defense fort.
What is even more unexpected is that the fort was captured by the foreign army before it could hold out for even a day. Then the foreign army stormed to the gates of Jinmen City.
"Trash, trash, they are all a bunch of trash!"
In front of Dong Fuxiang, Lei Hu cursed unceremoniously: "I couldn't hold a good fort for even a day. If I hadn't been prepared long ago, I would have been caught off guard by the foreign army that suddenly appeared outside the city."
!”
Dong Fuxiang smiled bitterly, the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers was so terrible, it was really speechless.
"Dong Junmen, I hope the officers and soldiers guarding the city won't be too diarrhoea. At least they have to hold on for a few days!"
Lei Hu was not polite at all and greeted directly: "The Boxers will defend the Zizhulin Concession. I hope the government and army will not hold back!"
After saying that, I didn't bother to talk nonsense with this guy, so I just got up and left.
The foreign troops were all coming to the door, and he had no time to waste his energy. He took the opportunity to show his boxers the strength of the foreign troops, and at the same time, he also gave the incoming foreign troops a good look.
As soon as we returned to the Zizhulin Concession, fierce gunshots and shouts of killing rang out. A group of foreign troops had already detoured and rushed towards us.
The dense bullets were whizzing in all directions, almost overwhelming the Boxers who were defending frontally, and it was difficult to raise their heads. The firepower was so fierce that the Boxer brothers, who had encountered such a density of firepower for the first time, were also stunned.
"Retreat, retreat, retreat into civilian residences, retreat into various roads, don't fight head-on with the foreign troops, close the distance and fight with them hand-to-hand!"
Seeing that the situation was not good and the casualties were quite high, Lei Hu immediately made a decisive order...