For the soldiers of the Fourth Cavalry Brigade, this may be the most unforgettable night in their lives. Near the Marco Polo Bridge, there are mountains of corpses and seas of blood. The closer they get to the Marco Polo Bridge, the more corpses of the Qing army. Today In this battle, the Qing army left at least 2,500 corpses. The corpses of dead Qing soldiers, abandoned artillery, shotguns, baggage, and the corpses of war horses almost brought the entire Marco Polo Bridge to a standstill.
In their fighting career, no battle was more intense than today, and the enemy in no battle was so tenacious, but the results of no battle were so brilliant. Therefore, the morale of the officers and soldiers was unexpectedly high, and they sang softly. , bid farewell to our heroic comrades.
"We will stop attacking tomorrow!"
Although Ren Zhu was brave, he had to admit that with such a level of casualties, the Fourth Cavalry Brigade had reached its limit. Both men and horses had reached their limit. In fact, most of the horses had already jumped, but these brave soldiers were Extraordinarily tenacious.
Liu Cangbin's 10th Cavalry Regiment was particularly brave today, but he had to admit this: "We rushed too far forward and must rest for a whole day. When the successor troops of our 10th Cavalry Regiment arrive, we can march towards Beijing. Attack!"
The existing combat strength is only 700 people. Even if one or two hundred cavalry from the 10th Cavalry Regiment are included, there are only 100 people. However, Ren Zhu can hear Liu Cangbin's vicissitudes of life: "I seem to have been there in my dream." Marco Polo Bridge, but regretfully went back, but this time is different"
In another time and space. In the final time and space when the Nian Army moved to war. Indeed, in order to rescue the Eastern Nian Army, Ren Zhu led the Western Nian Army to continuously carry out mobile operations throughout the North China Plain, and even once broke into the vicinity of the Marco Polo Bridge. He proudly said: "We have the entire cavalry army behind us, the entire First Army, We just need to take a day off"
"That's right, just take a day off!"
Facts have proved that what Ren Zhu and Liu Cangbin said was absolutely correct. At noon the next day, the Fourth Cavalry Brigade that rushed near Marco Polo Bridge had received two powerful reinforcements, one was the successor force of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. There were a total of 170 warriors, plus 180 horses. Their arrival greatly restored the combat effectiveness of the 4th Cavalry Brigade.
And half an hour later, another cavalry unit joined them. The flag of this cavalry made Liu Cangbin's eyes light up: "It's the First Division, the cavalry of the First Division!"
"Dragon Spear Camp?"
Ren Zhu had heard of the name of this unit a long time ago and asked, "Is it really that strong?"
"That's how strong it is!" The officer on the horse opposite had a very good ear: "We are the inheritance of the second company of Dragon Spear!"
What this officer said was not comprehensive. In fact, this cavalry company only has some inheritance relationship with the Second Company of Dragon Spear. When this cavalry company was established, it was formed by two squads of infantry from the Second Company of Dragon Spear and Taizhou recruits. However, the company has always regarded itself as the orthodox inheritance of the Second Company of Dragon Spear.
Ren Zhu could hear his pride and self-promotion, and he immediately said: "As long as you come up, we will rest for a day and continue to advance north tomorrow!"
"No need, leave it to us"
He glanced at the old battlefield that had been roughly cleaned: "It's very good!"
In Ren Zhu¡¯s eyes, it was the most proud battle in his life. But in the eyes of the cavalry officer of the First Division, there was only the comment "very good". Ren Zhu couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. He had already heard from other people that the First Division called itself Dragon Spear Camp. , ignoring other units at all, but he did not expect that the pride of the Dragon Spear Battalion would reach this level: "We fought hard for a day yesterday. We only have 1,300 soldiers and no more than a thousand horses. The enemy has as many as 60,000. We can fight with perseverance." . Like mountains and seas, after thirteen battles, they were finally defeated."
"It's very good!" The First Division had its own pride: "Leave it to us!"
Ren Zhu asked: "Where were you yesterday?"
He knew that although the First Division was the vanguard of the entire army, their cavalry was just a tactical reconnaissance team, which was very different from these strategic cavalry. It is very normal to fall behind the 4th Cavalry Brigade, but seeing the pride of the Dragonlance Battalion. He had to remind the other party that it was here that the Fourth Cavalry Brigade fought a miraculous decisive battle yesterday, defeating the entire Qing army that was twenty times larger.
But the other party¡¯s answer was beyond Ren Zhu¡¯s expectation: ¡°At this moment yesterday, we were with the infantry. Yes, we were with our infantry. We cannot be separated from our infantry.¡±
This sentence surprised Ren Zhu: "Infantry? Where are they?"
"There's still one hour!" the cavalry officer on the opposite side replied with a smile: "The important task of conquering Beijing will be left to us."
If the cavalry of the first division is better than the cavalry that travels day and night,The Fourth Brigade has been on a one-day trip. Ren Zhu thinks this is an acceptable thing, but he cannot accept such an answer now.
From the moment they set off, they traveled almost non-stop, crossing countless obstacles and engaging in at least fifteen or six battles every day. At most, the whole brigade participated in more than forty battles in one day. Only then did they arrive in Beijing with the mobility advantage of the cavalry. Under the city.
But they are the infantry of the 1st Cavalry Division! Yes, they are infantry. Although they have the assistance of this cavalry company, they are only one day behind the Fourth Cavalry Brigade. This is incredible!
Ren Zhu stretched out his hand: "How many infantry are coming?"
"A reinforced battalion!" the cavalry officer on the opposite side said with a smile: "There are also some attached units, lightly armed leap forward, we have organized it several times!"
Only then did Ren Zhu realize what the Dragonlance Battalion was. They almost caught up with his elite cavalry unit on two legs. It was indeed the First Division. He shook hands warmly with this cavalry officer who was born in the First Division. :"really not bad!"
¡°You guys are really good too!¡±
Upon hearing that there were 800 light infantrymen coming to join the battle, the Fourth Cavalry Brigade even stopped its planned rest. Ren Zhu told the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Cavalry Brigade: "The city of Beijing is right under your noses." , are you going to give this honor to others?"
In addition to the Fourth Cavalry Brigade and part of the First Division, by sunset on this day, many small units of the Hong Army appeared in Beijing. Some of them were military-affiliated reconnaissance brigades, and some were division or brigade-affiliated combat units. , and there are individual units derived from certain infantry regiments.
By noon the next day, the situation was very obvious. Some combat units of the Hong Army's First Division and Thirteenth Division had already arrived in Beijing. More importantly, the defeat on the Marco Polo Bridge made the entire Beijing The Qing troops near the city abandoned their flooded areas and retreated into Beijing.
However, the city of Beijing is still a fortified city that is difficult to conquer. The troops who rushed to the city were either cavalry troops or some light infantry. They may be the most elite warriors in the entire division, the entire brigade, and the entire regiment, but they lack Enough heavy firepower.
The Eighth Battalion of the Forbidden Brigade and the Green Camp soldiers in Beijing alone numbered more than 100,000 in terms of number of troops, not to mention the temporary mobilization of bannermen and civilians, not to mention the establishment of the capital in Yongle. After Yi Ding changed hands twice in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the city of Beijing had no history of being conquered. Moreover, the two changes of hands during the Ming and Qing Dynasties were only taken over in a completely peaceful manner, which is incomparable to the hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese in the city now. The foreigners defended the city firmly.
Therefore, the five to six thousand Hongjun troops under the city did not rush forward. Even if dozens or hundreds of people could rush into Beijing, they would not be able to occupy the entire city. Instead, they paid attention to clearing out the strongholds outside Beijing and building field hospitals and field battles on the spot. Warehouses, command centers and other attack starting positions. During this period, the Qing army in the city gathered some life-threatening Eight Banners disciples and fought out of the city. However, most of the Eight Banners disciples in this era could no longer ride horses, and the few who knew how to ride horses did not dare to ride. Mercedes-Benz, but was directly annihilated on the spot by the cavalry of the Fourth Cavalry Brigade in cooperation with the First Division. More than two hundred heads were chopped off in one go. The remaining Eight Banners soldiers ran back to the inner city in fear.
In view of the fact that the five or six thousand Hong Kong troops outside the city belong to five or six different organizational units, after communication between the various units, Ren Zhu, the cavalry brigade commander, temporarily assumed the command of the current enemy, and at the same time started to make preparations for both The preparations for the city of Beijing focus on both military and political solutions.
During this period, many representatives from all parties left Beijing, including some Eight Banners disciples. The military discipline of the Hong Army in several southeastern cities could be said to be very good. As long as the bannermen laid down their weapons and surrendered, most of the Hong Army would be released. In the Northland, at first Manchuria thought it was just a means for the red thieves to win over the people, but they soon discovered that the large number of Beilai bannermen had caused a serious political problem.
Logically speaking, these bannermen should have their own share of the hard-core crops, and Emperor Xianfeng also regarded them as fellow compatriots. However, the alarming number of Beigui bannermen soon put fatal pressure on the Qing Dynasty's already struggling economy. Said that they even promoted the benefits of the Hong Army everywhere, claiming that the Hong Army did not kill people, had excellent military discipline, and allowed the bannermen to return north freely, and even reimbursed their travel expenses.
These propagandas greatly reduced the ability of the Beidi banner people to resist the change of dynasty. Although they knew that after the change of the Great Xia Dynasty, the hard-core crops would be gone, but that was Aisin Gioro's country, and even Aisin Gioro was in extreme difficulties. The bannermen, a group of bitter people in Beijing, had to think carefully about their own families. They were not good at fighting, but they could still play and play. They could sing big songs and play with antiques. They had their own A way to survive.
When thinking of this, some smart bannermen in Beijing also went out of the city, hoping to win some benefits for the Manchus so as not to die with the Qing Dynasty.However, among all the representatives traveling to Beijing, the most active ones were Shanxi businessmen.
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