Liu Hai left the capital with his army and joined Liu Zhi's army outside the capital. There were more than 300,000 troops in total and marched westward in a mighty manner.
This time Liu Hai was determined to eliminate Empress Dowager Cixi and her group of stumbling blocks.
So this time Liu Hai pulled out all the weapons he could.
Like 155mm howitzer, 122mm howitzer, 105mm howitzer, Type 59 tank, and this time Liu Hai’s trump card is the Rainbow Four UAV purchased from Hyundai.
These drones are now being pulled by cars and following the troops. They are just waiting to release them into the sky as soon as they arrive at the combat area to let the enemy know the power of this modern weapon.
The army marched all the way at dawn and stayed overnight, and soon arrived at the parallel pass on the border between Shanxi and Hebei.
This pass is an important transportation route from Hebei to Shanxi, so the Qing army deployed nearly 10,000 troops here.
For the Empress Dowager Cixi, who is currently short of major generals, being able to deploy 10,000 people here shows that she attaches great importance to this pass.
Although Prince Li Shiduo had some military experience when he was young, decades have passed and his methods can no longer keep up with the changes of the times.
Prince Shiduo of Li was still stuck in the strategy of having a large number of people, so he believed that as long as 10,000 people were deployed at the parallel gate, Liu Hai could sustain the attack for a period of time even with tens of thousands of people attacking, so that he could hold on to the rear.
Tens of thousands of troops were trained.
When Liu Hai's army arrived at Pingxing Pass, he ordered his troops to set up camp outside Pingxing Pass. However, Liu Hai took dozens of senior officers and their escorts to a high slope and looked at Pingxing Pass with binoculars.
What caught Liu Hai's eyes was a shabby small town, not as tall and majestic as the legend said.
On the wall of this small city, some flags were wiped in twos and threes, and behind the flags many Qing soldiers were standing lazily.
Most of the weapons in their hands are old-fashioned flintlock rifles, and occasionally there are one or two new rifles, which are also in the hands of officers.
After reading this, Liu Hai smiled, pointed at Parallel Pass and said to the generals behind him: "It seems that Lafayette has no one available now. Such an important pass has actually arranged for these defeated soldiers."
Standing next to Liu Hai, Liu Zhi, as the actual commander-in-chief of this Western Expedition, was much more cautious. He looked into the distance with a telescope for a long time, and finally frowned and said: "Commander, don't take it lightly, even if you are old."
No matter how confused that old Buddha is, there's no way he won't deploy heavy troops here."
But Liu Hai said disapprovingly: "Don't worry about it, this small town can be conquered in one night with my army."
Liu Hai is now a little arrogant. He is pointing at Parallel Pass with a riding crop, talking and laughing as if the Parallel Pass opposite is just a small mound.
While Liu Hai was boasting, suddenly there was a burst of artillery fire in Parallel Pass, and then countless flags were erected on top of the city, and thousands of soldiers were waiting in formation. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits.
Bangs was slightly startled. This slap in the face must have come too quickly. Just after he praised him a few times, there were thousands of elite soldiers on the opposite side.
The person defending this city was General Song Qing who was training his army.
This man had followed Ronglu not long ago and resisted Liu Zhi in Jinan for a long time, but in the end Ronglu was defeated and died, but he escaped unexpectedly.
The Empress Dowager Cixi also knew that this man had considerable fighting ability, and there were not many generals she could use at the moment, so she entrusted him with an important task and ordered him to lead 10,000 troops to garrison Parallel Pass, an important transportation road.
After Song Qing arrived at Pingxing Pass, he discovered that the pass here was in dilapidated condition, and with 10,000 men under his command, it was simply impossible to withstand the attack of hundreds of thousands of troops.
But he had been loyal all his life, and he had no choice but to risk his life for the sake of the Qing Dynasty.
Song Qingsi thought about it and felt that if he just defended Pingxing Pass like this, it would definitely fall. He must give the enemy forces of the project a blow to boost morale and allow his side to hold on for a long time.
That's why Song Qing chose this move to scare Liu Hai.
Liu Hai was really shocked by Ping Xingguan's actions, but after he saw it clearly, he smiled indifferently.
"With just such a small number of troops, it is simply a fool's dream to think that we can stop hundreds of thousands of my troops."
"Liu Zhi, I will now order you to be the commander-in-chief of the former enemy and lead the army to attack Pingxing Pass tomorrow. I want to go to Pingxing Pass to rest before dark."
Although Liu Zhi was much more cautious than Liu Hai, he was also very confident in facing the small pass in front of him.
Therefore, Liu Zhi cupped his hands and said to Liu Hai: "I will definitely live up to the commander's expectations. I will give him a good look tomorrow."
The next night was silent, and early the next morning, Liu Zhi took over the command of the army from Liu Hai.
Liu Zhi's first order after taking over the command was to ask the artillery positions arranged in the left and right directions behind the camp to immediately start bombarding Pingxingguan.
Following Liu Zhi's order, nearly 1,000 large-caliber artillery pieces began a fierce bombardment.
You must know that there has not yet been a war, and the armies of various countries have never seen 1,000 cannons bombarding a target at the same time.
Even in the Battle of Jinan some time ago, Liu Zhi's army never bombarded the city of Jinan with 1,000 cannons.
But now Liu Zhi gave an order, and thousands of artillery fire were fired, and shells of various calibers kept falling on the small city wall of Parallel Pass.
This parallel pass is just a rammed earth structure, covered with a layer of blue bricks. This kind of defense capability is simply not enough to deal with the bombardment of large-caliber artillery.
Therefore, this small city only lasted for more than 20 minutes before the walls began to collapse.
Let's talk about Song Qing in the city. When Liu Zhi started the bombardment, he already knew that the city wall was undefendable, so he withdrew all his main forces from the city wall and then entered the homes of the people in the city. This was to fight Liu Hai.
A street fight.
When Liu Zhi started the artillery bombardment, he had already ordered the 1st Division of his direct First Army to start preparations for the attack.
It can be said that among all the armies under Liu Hai's command, the 1st Division of the First Army is the most elite, because this is the predecessor of the Marine Corps established when Liu Hai first came to this plane.
As Liu Hai's old subordinates, they naturally received extra preferential treatment. From now on, the 1st Division will be the first to equip any new weapons Liu Hai acquires.
This time is no exception. More than 100 Rainbow 4 drones purchased by Liu Hai from Hyundai are now handed over to this unit for operation.
As the bombardment progressed and the city wall on the opposite side collapsed, Ye Wencheng, the commander of the 1st Division, ordered hundreds of biochemical soldiers operating drones to immediately take off the drones and begin to pounce on the small town opposite.
Although these drones have a small load capacity, each aircraft is loaded with 6 to 7 50-kilogram aerial bombs. Coupled with their numerical advantage, they will definitely give them a good look whenever they find the enemy.
After the drone took off, Ye Wencheng ordered his men to start attacking.
The soldiers of the 1st Division formed a skirmish line and quickly approached the city wall under the cover of artillery fire.
Some people began to build simple fortifications one or two hundred meters away from the city wall, set up light and heavy machine guns and mortars, and began to fire support shots at the city wall.
However, these were just a waste of bullets, because there was no one to stop them on the city wall, so the soldiers of the 1st Division easily captured the city wall.
However, when they descended the city wall and attacked into the city, they encountered serious obstacles.
As soon as the soldiers of the 1st Division of the Hunan Army entered the streets, bullets of all kinds were fired from all directions.
The more than 100 people who rushed to the front were knocked down on the spot.
When the soldiers behind saw this happening, they immediately knelt on the ground and started shooting at the enemy in the dark with their rifles.
But this is just psychological comfort. The enemy troops are hiding in various bunkers in the dark, but these Hunan Army soldiers can only lie down where they are.
Therefore, this most heroic company was quickly wiped out on the streets that had just entered the city.
Song Qing, who was in the center of the city, stroked his beard with satisfaction after receiving information about the battle situation ahead.
It seems that my strategy this time is quite correct. As long as we and the enemy are mixed together, the enemy's heavy artillery will lose its advantage.
And relying on the intricate routes in the city's alleys, it can also cause a large number of casualties to the enemy.
Song Qing was not so arrogant that he thought that with these 10,000 poorly equipped Qing soldiers, he could withstand Liu Hai's hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers.
He had only one purpose, and that was to kill Liu Hai's soldiers on a large scale. In this way, even if he was defeated and returned to the Empress Dowager Cixi, he could have an explanation, and he could also show his abilities in front of the world.
However, his idea soon went bankrupt. After an attack was blocked, drones appeared in this area.
These Rainbow 4 drones quickly discovered the enemy's hiding position through high-definition cameras, and then a 50-kilogram aerial bomb fell.
This stronghold that I thought was well hidden disappeared in an instant.
After the drone eliminated this stronghold, it began to search forward, and successively discovered many Qing soldier strongholds hiding in alleys and residents' homes, and then a round of aerial bombs fell on them.
Using drones to search and attack from the front, a safe area was quickly cleared, allowing the soldiers of the Hunan Army to carry out repairs in this area.
Later, the Hunan Army used this place as a starting point to expand to four weeks. With the help of drones, it quickly occupied 1/4 of the city.
After the sudden bad news in the central streets of the city, Chongqing only felt that its hands and feet were cold.
Originally, I thought I could inflict a lot of damage to Liu Hai and go back to explain to the Empress Dowager Cixi. However, looking at this situation and the deployment I had arranged, I was afraid that I would be completely wiped out before noon.