After Ye Faguang's troops captured the Xining City Gate, they began to rapidly expand throughout the entire city, clearing out all the stubborn enemies in Xining City within one day.
At this point, Ye Faguang's goal has been achieved. The Shaanxi-Gansu region has been occupied by Ye Faguang, which has cut off the only way for Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu to escape westward.
After occupying Xining, Judge Ye notified Liu Hai via wireless telegram that his mission had been completed.
The bangs side has been getting ready these days, just waiting for Ye Faguang's telegram.
Now that they received a telegram from Ye Faguang, who had already surpassed the Empress Dowager Cixi, he immediately ordered Liu Zhi to lead the troops to advance to Xi'an.
After Liu Zhi received Liu Hai's order, he immediately mobilized a large army from Taiyuan City. Hundreds of thousands of horses and horses came towards the Yellow River.
This time, the vanguard was still Liu Zhi's direct descendant, Ye Wencheng of the 1st Division.
After these few days of replenishment, Ye Wencheng's troops were fully replenished, and now he was in high spirits, leading more than 10,000 troops at the forefront of the brigade.
Since Taiyuan has been captured, some states and counties along the way immediately surrendered after encountering the army without any resistance. This made the army move very fast. You have arrived at the Yellow River in three days.
superior.
On the opposite side is Shaanxi.
But when the army reached the Yellow River, there was a problem.
The Yellow River has been a natural hazard since ancient times, and it is not easy for a large army to cross the Yellow River.
Therefore, as a pioneer officer, Ye Wencheng can only collect various ships from the Yellow River ferry and wait until a certain number is reached before transporting his troops across the river.
However, his speed was still a little slow. Before he could find many ferries, ten or twenty thousand people appeared on the opposite side of the Yellow River.
This man and horse was specially sent by Prince Li Shiduo to defend the bank of the Yellow River. The leader was a Manchu Yilibu.
This Yilibu was one of the few distinguished nobles who fled to Xi'an with the Empress Dowager Cixi.
It can be said that the Empress Dowager Cixi has no one available in Xi'an now, so she lifted up all the sycophants around her.
This Iribu was one of them. He was originally just a flatterer beside Prince Shiduo, but now he has become the commander of 20,000 troops.
Although this Iribu is somewhat uneducated, he was very dedicated at this critical moment.
Therefore, after leading the troops to the Yellow River ferry, they sent troops to patrol the banks of the Yellow River day and night.
On this day, he suddenly received a report from a scouting horse. There were 10,000 or 20,000 horses on the other side of the Yellow River, and they were collecting ferries everywhere.
When Yilibu heard this, he immediately knew that the other side was about to cross the Yellow River.
So he immediately summoned all 20,000 of his troops and marched to the bank of the Yellow River to form an array, waiting for the opponent to give him a head-on attack if he dared to cross the Yellow River.
Ye Wencheng had just collected half of the ferry when he saw preparations on the other side, which made him a little troubled.
If you were to cross the Yellow River by yourself halfway, and the enemy would use guns and cannons to beat you randomly, you would probably lose a lot of men and horses.
You might as well strike first and hit him hard, scattering the people on the other side, and then cross the river again.
So Ye Wencheng immediately ordered his artillery units to deploy on the spot and bombard the enemy forces on the opposite side.
Ye Wencheng's troops are the direct descendants of the direct line, and are also the most well-equipped in the army. As a division-level unit, they are actually equipped with 12 155 mm caliber cannons.
This is simply not possible in other troops. For other ordinary troops, the division-level support firepower is only 122 mm caliber artillery.
Therefore, under Ye Wencheng's order, the artillery regiment of the 1st Division immediately deployed and formed an artillery position 1 kilometer east of the Yellow River.
The artillery regiment under Ye Wenchen used 12 155mm caliber howitzers, in addition to dozens of 122mm caliber howitzers.
Following the order, each of these artillery fires began to raise their barrels and modify their angles. As the red flag waved, these giant cannons began to roar.
But Yilibu on the other side was still there, triumphant.
He thought to himself, I had the foresight to block all the rebels on the other side. It would be harder for them to get over than to reach the sky.
As a result, before she could be happy for a long time, she heard countless whistling sounds coming from the sky.
If a veteran hears this sound, he will immediately understand that it is the enemy shelling, so he will lie down immediately.
But Iribu, he was originally a sycophant who had never been in the military. And the soldiers under him were all new recruits. They had no idea what the sound in the sky meant.
Now I heard strange sounds in the sky, and everyone stretched their necks to look up.
As a result, just as they raised their necks to look for targets in the sky, artillery shells quickly fell in the middle of these troops.
This time these troops were in bad luck. Because the formation of the platoon was too tight and neat, the number of troops could be reduced to one or two hundred with one shell.
This first round of shelling caused nearly 3,000 casualties to the opponent.
Iribu was lucky. This time, he stood at the front of the army in a majestic manner, so he was now on the periphery of the impact point of the artillery shell, thus allowing him to save his life.
However, Iribu's life was saved, but now he has played Liushenwuzhu.
Now Iribu no longer thinks about anything else, he only thinks about saving his life. Now he has forgotten all about loyalty to the emperor, patriotism, and serving the Empress Dowager Cixi.
At this moment, the second round of shelling came quickly.
However, with the lessons learned from the first round of shelling, now the tens of thousands of soldiers in Yilibu were either lying on the ground or running away in all directions. Therefore, the results of the second round of shelling were not as great as the first round of shelling.
However, this also caused them hundreds of losses.
The losses caused to them are not a big deal. The most important thing is that these rounds of shelling have scattered the Qing troops. Now these people are either running away, or they have thrown away their weapons and are lying on the ground to avoid the artillery fire.
Ye Wencheng, who was on the other side of the Yellow River, was overjoyed when he saw this situation and immediately ordered the troops to gather. Hundreds of boats carrying soldiers began to rush towards the other side of the Yellow River.
The troops led by Iribu, who were originally blocking them on the other side of the Yellow River, are now overwhelmed with how to intercept them.
Therefore, these 1,000 people were allowed to cross the Yellow River and reach the other side easily.
The 1,000 people who came to the other side immediately rushed forward for a certain distance with their rifles in hand after landing on the shore, and then lay down on the ground to find bunkers, forming a simple defensive position.
Next, these ferries began to transport Ye Wencheng's troops back and forth.
Although Iribu was lying on the ground, shaking with fear, he also found that some people had already crossed the river on the other side.
Iribu, who was still trembling with fear when he saw this situation, immediately woke up. If this allowed the opponent to gain a firm foothold and wait until the army crossed the Yellow River, it would be a disaster for them.
Therefore, this Iribu could only grit his teeth and pulled out his revolver, shouting to the soldiers behind him: "The time has come for you to serve the imperial court. I order you to charge immediately and drive these rebels down the river."
go."
Yilibu shouted a few times and looked at the soldiers lying on the ground one by one. No one paid attention to him.
This is also human nature. Now the cannonballs keep flying here, and he will be dead as soon as he stands up. Who cares about Iribu's shouting?
When Iribu saw this situation, he thought it was impossible, so he could only continue to shout: "Listen to me, as long as you drive these rebels down the river, I will reward each of you with 100 taels of silver."
This was because Yilibu sought medical treatment in a desperate situation. Now that the Empress Dowager Cixi in Xi'an is financially strapped, how could there be so many Yingzheng rewards for these people.
But Iribu can't care about anything else now, he will deal with the present first.
Not to mention that there must be brave men under heavy rewards. These 100 taels of silver could buy more than ten acres of good land in the Qing Dynasty.
For these farmers who have just left the land, it is a huge temptation.
Therefore, many people stood up hesitantly and began to charge forward under the gunfire.
These people have a herd mentality. When those lying down saw that some people were already moving forward, they followed suit one by one and began to brave the artillery fire to launch attacks on the simple positions of more than 1,000 people who had already landed.
charge.
The soldiers of the 1st Division who were defending on the bank of the Yellow River saw that the enemy braved artillery fire to charge, and they also admired the people on the opposite side.
Because he was charging under the bombardment of heavy artillery, the charging crowd would suffer serious losses every time they took a step forward, but these people were able to grit their teeth and continue to move forward.
The soldiers admired these people, but they didn't know that the group of people opposite had been blinded by money, and now there was nothing left in their eyes except money.
In this way, Iribu's men braved artillery fire and advanced several hundred meters, finally approaching the simple position set up by the First Division of the Hunan Army.
This time, it was Wang Bing, leader of the second regiment under Ye Wencheng, who took the lead in crossing the river.
This Wang Bing was an ordinary soldier who had taken refuge with Liu Hai early on, but after years of study and performance on the battlefield, he finally climbed to the position of regimental leader step by step.
Therefore, the leader is very anxious about his current status. He will never allow failure and never wants to leave any flaws.
Therefore, this time Wang Bing was also cruel. When the enemy was close to four to five hundred meters away, he did not let the soldiers open fire. Instead, he waited patiently until the Qing army was close to one or two hundred meters away.
Then he ordered to fire.
At this time, thousands of semi-automatic rifles were pouring countless bullets forward. In addition to these, the seven light and heavy guns deployed by their regiment also began to roar.
The most deadly ones are dozens of 60mm mortars.
Because these mortars are lightweight, they are very popular among Liu Haijun, and are also used by soldiers as front-line support firepower.
Now these mortars are firing at a rate of 20 mortars per minute, pouring firepower forward. It only takes a minute or two to form a fire net in the front.