1890 King of Southeast Asia

"Haha! It's true, this is a replica of the Green Camp! Alas~" Hu Weijie stood on the city wall, watching a long line of prisoners wearing the new army system walk into the prisoner camp, laughing, and then sighing.

After receiving the attack order, Hu Weijie ran to the west of Zhenjiang as soon as possible, cooperating with the newly formed 13th Regiment of the 2nd Brigade in the east of the city to attack Zhenjiang.

The east of the city is the temporary station of the remaining army, which is of little value. The west of the city has the material transfer base, field hospital, warehouse, repair shop, etc. of the 8th Town, and the manpower inside is urgently needed by the revolutionary army.

Before the battle began, the artillery of the two brigades of the revolutionary army prepared for Zhenjiang. The east of the city received an hour of artillery fire, and the west of the city only had fifteen minutes.

Because the purpose of the east of the city is to destroy the enemy's resistance, and the purpose of the west of the city is to open a gap for the infantry to enter.

In fifteen minutes, the 105mm cannon broke through the city gate, and cooperated with the 152mm howitzer to open two gaps in the city wall.

It took only two minutes to knock down the city gate, and the remaining thirteen minutes were spent knocking on the city wall.

As one of the oldest cities and one of the important towns in the south of the Yangtze River, the city wall of Zhenjiang is seven to ten meters high and three and a half to seven and a half meters thick. The outside is stone bricks and the inside is rammed earth.

ps: Because I couldn't find credible specific data, I quoted the data of Suzhou's city wall. The British had a data of five feet thick, that is, one and a half meters, but this was the data in 1847, and the Taiping Army later changed it.

In thirteen minutes, the artillery knocked out two gaps about twenty meters long on the city wall. The soldiers of the 14th Regiment easily entered the city with the cover of firepower.

The artillery fire in the east of the city has not stopped yet, and the battle in the west of the city has ended.

After all, the number of guns owned by the thousand people in the west of the city is less than two hundred in total, scattered in various places and departments, and it is impossible to form an effective resistance.

So when the gunfire in the east of the city stopped, Hu Weijie was already standing on the city wall in the west of the city, watching the captives enter the barracks obediently.

"The battle in the east of the city is about to end." The chief of staff listened to the gunshots getting closer and closer, and simulated the retreat direction of the Qing Empire soldiers in his mind.

Boom, boom...

As he spoke, the dull sound of machine guns rang out.

"On the left, a position in the north, it should be the direction of the dock." Hearing the sound of machine guns, Hu Weijie said subconsciously.

As we all know, the Qing Empire does not use machine guns very often, because the firepower is too strong, more than ten rounds per second, and machine gun bullets are more expensive than rifle bullets, so they can't afford it.

"Report, the front line and the 13th Regiment have connected." The signalman hurried over.

"The battle is over... Order everyone to be vigilant and not be ambushed by the remaining enemies." Hu Weijie sighed.

When he joined the new army, he was thinking about defending his country. At that time, the Qing Empire's understanding of the new army was the word "new".

To adopt Western-style training, use Western-style weapons, and Western-style organizational structure, to put it simply, first of all, there are no officers, and there is no school for training officers.

The first batch of pioneers worked hard to explore, traveled to Germany and Japan for a long time, and finally created a group of new troops. It's only been a few years? They were all taken away by Mangui.

Although it is good news for Hu Weijie that these people have no fighting power, it still makes him feel uncomfortable. After all, this is the place where he once pinned his ambitions, but now he has to watch it rot with his own eyes.

At noon on the 29th, the remaining fleet of the Qing Empire was entangled with the gunboats of the Revolutionary Army's Yangtze River Fleet while heading towards Zhenjiang.

When leaving Jinling, only the Hairong of the Qing Empire's fleet sank, and when it arrived in Zhenjiang, the wooden gunboat also sank.

The Qing Empire fleet wanted to use the artillery and gunboats in Zhenjiang to deal with it, but was washed away by a wave of shells from the artillery. In the end, only one destroyer rushed out at a speed of 24 knots regardless of the risk of running aground.

At this point, the Eighth Regiment was cut off from behind, and its hometown was stolen, and it was in a dilemma of being unable to advance or retreat.

...

"Captain!" Li Zuowen walked leisurely into the temporary station of the 14th Regiment.

"Chief of Staff!" Hu Weijie stood still and saluted.

"Chief of Staff, how come you have time to come here? You should be very busy now." Hu Weijie said cheerfully.

"Good! I sent someone to you." Li Zuowen touched his nose and said.

"Send someone? Our regiment should be fully staffed, right?" Hu Weijie felt something was wrong and confirmed with the regiment chief of staff.

"That's not right. The combat establishment is full, but the logistics establishment is still insufficient. The transport team has insufficient transport capacity, and the hospital has no proper doctors. And..." The regiment staff spoke more and more quietly.

"Yes, there are also engineers. I know that our regiment lacks engineers. Don't say that I don't take care of the old troops. The 14th Regiment will keep a company of engineers, and give priority to selection. There are also captured mules and horses... Well, I'll make the decision. I'll keep two doctors and thirty medical soldiers for the regiment." Li Zuowen smiled and took out cigarettes and gave them to the two.

The rest doesn't matter. Although there is a shortage of professional engineers, the old revolutionary army basically has simple engineering skills, which can make up for this shortage.

Transportation force, as the revolutionary army expanded, transportation gaps appeared. The per capita firepower was reduced again and again. The number of artillery was not a problem, but there was a big gap in artillery and transportation force.

"Chief of Staff, there are only two doctors? Can we discuss it?" The regiment staff wanted to say something, but Hu Weijie didn't let him say it, just asked again.

"The brigade wants to build a field hospital, which is related to the next task of our brigade." Li Zuowen shook his head.

He came so anxiously just to make a call in advance, so as to avoid the opening and closing of the 14th Regiment Hospital, which would affect the morale of the soldiers.

Having never had it and having it before are two different mentalities.

As for the original infirmary? The difference between those medical soldiers and veterinarians is that they treat people. If the patients are replaced by animals, their steps are similar, but there is a difference in the amount of medicine prescribed - this difference is not big!

"The doctors have never been very cooperative. Will they be obedient?" asked the regiment staff.

"The next task?" Hu Weijie repeated Li Zuowen's words.

Jinling also has a hospital. Although there are not many doctors, the better choice is obviously to add these doctors, rather than rebuilding a field hospital, and it is only a brigade.

There is only one possibility, they are going to leave Jinling, not only the distance from Jinling to Zhenjiang, but a longer distance.

Li Zuowen smiled and asked this question, and the two agreed.

"These doctors are essentially captives. Now they are probably worried about their own safety. It will be fine if they are scared."

"As for the next task, we have received the order to move east." Li Zuowen said.

"Go east?" Hu Weijie looked at the map subconsciously. There are several prosperous cities to the east of Zhenjiang, but it is too far from Jinling. It is not very sensible to divide the troops at this time.

"Yes, go east, the target is Shanghai." Li Zuowen said in a flat tone.

"Shanghai?!" Hu Weijie was stunned, then stood up and gestured on the map.

"The straight-line distance is about 200 kilometers. Jinling also needs to guard against attacks from the north. Do we have enough troops to guarantee the transportation line?" Hu Weijie asked.

"Transportation line? The Qing Empire has not many noteworthy troops south of the Yangtze River. We don't have a transportation line this time. After taking Shanghai, we will transport logistical supplies through the Yangtze River." Li Zuowen said casually.

"But..." Hu Weijie wanted to refute, and suddenly remembered that the revolutionary army took Jinling in this way.

"This is the financial and tax center of the Qing Empire. If we take this place, the connection between the Qing Empire and the south of the Yangtze River will be basically cut off, which can greatly speed up the progress of the war."

"Shanghai has only a few thousand patrol camp green camp soldiers stationed. This is almost an undefended city. According to past experience, as long as we can reach the outside of the city, the enemy will be more than half defeated."

"Even if they don't collapse, it's okay. The patrol camp and the green camp have almost no combat experience and extremely poor combat effectiveness. After a few artillery bombardments, there will be deserters."

"What we have to do is to drive the army over... before the Qing Empire fills this gap." Li Zuowen said.

The revolutionary army was not clear about the specific deployment of the Qing Empire, and the uprisings in various places did not achieve much substantial results.

So the Jinling Command and the War Zone Command planned on the premise that the Qing Empire had discovered this gap.

The final result was to send an army with an overwhelming advantage in numbers, carrying heavy firepower, to arrive before the reinforcements sent by the Qing Empire.

"Chief of Staff, you are from our 14th Regiment. I want to ask you a favor. Don't worry! I will definitely not make it difficult for you." Hu Weijie suddenly became attentive.

"What is it?" Li Zuowen looked at Hu Weijie vigilantly.

"Well, doctors, mules, horses, etc., we all support the brigade and the artillery regiment, but you have to give this pioneer mission to our 14th Regiment, and then loan the engineer battalion to us."

"Don't rush to refuse. Our 14th Regiment will definitely not embarrass our brigade, and I promise you that when building the road, our regiment will set out in advance with the engineers, and we will definitely build the road along the way." Hu Weijie said.

"What am I talking about? I still have the right to give you the main attack mission. But I can't give you the engineer battalion.

This time we will take the railway to the south, and the engineer battalion will take over the railway together with the railway workers." Li Zuowen's tone was like talking about what to eat for lunch today, but Hu Weijie almost jumped up.

"What?! Take over?" Hu Weijie opened his mouth wide.

"Why?" Li Zuowen looked at him in surprise.

"But...but that's the British railway..." Hu Weijie spoke more and more quietly, but his heart was getting more and more heated.

"What British railway? It's just that the pseudo-dynasty has granted it a special license to operate. We are just taking back its operating rights based on actual needs."

"Besides, it's not that we won't give compensation. We will re-evaluate the railway price according to the market price and buy the railway. Of course, because we are a new regime and have no money, we will use bonds first." Li Zuowen said the idea proposed by Lin Pingzhi.

"Re-evaluate..." Hu Weijie took a breath, his eyes shining.

"Bonds?" The regiment staff was stunned, then shook his head.

They don't hold bonds from other countries or banks. This bond may be issued by the revolutionary army itself. How high can the interest be?

As for whether the British will intervene in this matter because they don't want to? That's unknown.

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