In the defensive line set up by the Praetorian Guard outside the Beijing Division, a messenger who gave orders hurriedly rushed into the big tent of Colonel Sai Chong'a.

"My lord, Lord Sai, it's the exercise information from the Tang Army!"

Sai Chong'a didn't take the thin piece of paper before he scolded: "What drill? This Tang people have ill intentions, and they are simply ill-intentioned! Originally, it was to see that they were too proud in the past, and there was no one in their eyes, so it was up to us Praetorian Guards to give them a few colors to see. ”

This Sai Chong A is also a more famous military general of the Jiaqing Dynasty in the other side, and in this plane, due to the Jingshi Incident, hundreds of thousands of Eight Banner disciples were escorted to Guwei by Bai Nan, so there are not many Eight Banner generals who can be used in the Qing State. Sai Chong'a was lucky not to be in Beijing that year, and escaped a catastrophe, until Jiaqing waited for the position, and Fukangan and others entered Beijing to confirm that there was no risk, and he returned to Beijing. Just as Jiaqing formed the Praetorian Guard, the young Sai Chong'a became a low-level officer, and at this time, he became a colonel and led a town of officers and soldiers.

Sai Chong A is rude, but not meticulous, Jiaqing several times to assess the Praetorian Guard, the impression of Sai Chong A is good, although this person is not very good at reading, but it seems to be very loyal to Jiaqing, and is very courageous, favored by Jiaqing, so he is still young and appointed as the governor of one of the three towns of the Praetorian Guard.

He opened the piece of paper and saw a line of words on it: our unit will begin an artillery drill at coordinates XXX at 17 p.m., and we ask the friendly fraternal units to pay attention to evasion so as not to be injured by mistake.

Sai Chong'a was a little strange at first, and then suddenly reacted: "Damn, isn't this where we are?" ”

Sai Chong Ah became furious: "Tang Gou deceived people too much, in the name of the exercise, but he wanted to shell our troops, and he deceived people too much!" ”

He was already short of words, and at this time, he couldn't spit out anything other than idioms.

His subordinate Ban Qi arched his hand and asked: "Lord Sai, the Tang people are obviously prepared, I am afraid that this shelling will also be true, the Tang people have sharp artillery, if we really put the brothers under artillery fire, I am afraid that the loss of our town will be great!" ”

Sai Chong'a was distraught and waved his hand: "The Tang army is just a regiment of soldiers and horses, even if there are some artillery, how powerful can it be?" Moreover, he would have been personally assigned by Fu Shangshu to lead the army to sit in the defense of the Beijing Division, and if he left his post without permission, he would definitely be held accountable.

”

Ban Qi said repeatedly: "My lord, it's better to report this matter to Lord Fu, and see how his old man handles it, and he can also avoid the responsibility of the adult." ”

In the past, Sai Chong'a must have disliked it in every way, but today he also knew that the stakes were so important that it was impossible to move lightly, so he immediately broadcast the battlefield phone and contacted Fukangan in Jingshi.

After Fukangan learned about this, he was also a little shocked, the posture shown by the Tang Army was clearly not like an exercise, and his earliest Tang Army exercise was a show of force, and there would be no armed conflict, but Fukangan also knew that the Tang Army was now only a regiment of two or three thousand troops, and in the face of more than 20,000 Janissaries guarding, even if Sai Chong'a temporarily withdrew from the defense line, the Tang Army did not dare to rush over easily to seize the defensive position, because that would obviously put itself in a disadvantageous position on the defense. Squeezed by several Praetorian Guards, the situation is extremely poor.

With this judgment in mind, Fukangan ordered Sai Chong'a to withdraw about a Xie's soldiers and horses from the target area of the Tang Army's artillery drill, leaving a vacuum. Even if Sai Chong Ah was not very happy, but it was ordered by Fukangan himself, so he pinched his nose and recognized it half-pushed.

Sai Chong'a led the troops to retreat in a hurry, leaving the area in a mess, many things were discarded by the Praetorian Guards, and even some military hats, military uniforms, military boots and other things, and what was even more terrifying was that there were still people who left the weapons and ammunition in their hands. The orderly withdrawal of the army is the most test of the discipline and military quality of a unit, after the scouts of the Tang Army observed this situation, Xie Jinwu shook his head and said: "It is really a joke that the troops trained by the Qing court are not as good as our special corps. ”

Staff officer Liu Zhiyu sighed: "After all, it is not our Datang instructors who train the Praetorian Guard, and our ad hoc corps has a complete organizational structure and rules and regulations. ”

In fact, this situation is even in the hands of Bai Nan, who is far away in Los Angeles, and the Praetorian Guard, who is pinned on by Jiaqing, is not so reliable.

Bai Nan has the intention of annexing the Qing State, and when the time comes, he will naturally absorb hundreds of thousands of Qing troops, and at that time he may carry out some transformation of the new army, but for this Praetorian Guard, he thinks that there is no need for it to exist, and it is good to disband it directly.

Xie Jinwu saw that Sai Chong'a's troops had withdrawn from the "scheduled exercise area," and then said: "According to the original plan, we will give up the artillery training in the target area, and then give the Qing army an order, and we will carry out the artillery training in another target area." ”

As soon as Sai Chong Ah took a few breaths, he saw the communication soldier running in again, and this time he sent another piece of paper, and the content written on the piece of paper was similar to what he had just said, but the coordinates were changed.

Sai Chong's face was flushed, he took out a knife from his waist, and cut a case in front of him, he said angrily: "Tang people are playing with the general!" How can you swallow this breath?! ”

Ban Qi hurriedly came up to persuade Sai Chong Adao: "Don't be angry, don't be angry." Fu Shangshu told us not to start the war lightly, to the Tang people to give the truth, the Tang people are now entertaining us, but they are afraid of the power of our army, do not dare to rashly attack, if we can consolidate the defense line of the Beijing Division, protect the peace of the Son of Heaven, the adults will definitely make a great achievement, from then on it is even more prosperous, the career is smooth. ”

Sai Chong's thinking was simple, and he was persuaded by Ban Qi to be full of anger, although he was now very blocked by Xie Jinwu, but he really didn't want to fight the Tang army easily, even if the number of Tang troops in front of him was not much.

Sai Chong snorted and said, "It's already evening, and it's night if you toss for a while, I'll see how these Tang people still toss." ”

Sai Chong Afu soft and asked the Praetorian Guards in the second area to evacuate quickly, similar to the first retreat, this Praetorian Guard did not do better, it was originally the time to eat, this group of guys actually threw down the stove and utensils, and evacuated from there in a hurry.

When Xie Jinwu saw this scene again, he also felt sad for this group of Praetorian Guards, when an army loses the courage and determination to take the initiative to fight, then no matter how many of them are, it is impossible to achieve victory.

Liu Zhiyu said to him: "Brigade commander, it's getting dark."

”

Xie Jinwu nodded noncommittally and said, "Let's do it again." ”

The artillery battalion under the Longxiang Regiment is self-propelled artillery, which is easy to maneuver, and it is only a matter of time to temporarily set up an artillery position. He ordered a mechanized infantry battalion to follow the cover, and after the first position failed, he immediately moved to the second position, and this second position did not fight, and Xie Jinwu ordered them to go to the next position. In fact, this is not only a trick of Saichong's regiment, but also a little tired of the artillery on their side, but the Datang artillery has its own professionalism and will to fight, which is nothing to them. What's more, it is also very satisfying to know that the enemy is fleeing in a hurry under the muzzle of the gun.

At this time, the Tang Army was equipped with the first-generation self-propelled artillery Type 83 self-propelled artillery, which used the classic 105 mm howitzer and was also equipped with some basic fire control equipment, but basically did not have the ability to fight at night. Although Datang has developed a relatively primitive low-light night vision device, the cost is still relatively high, and it has not equipped the troops on a large scale. So basically, Datang's armored troops do not have the ability to fight at night. In fact, Xie Jinwu didn't care about the effect of the artillery at all, his front-line scouts were able to report the specific deployment of the Qing army, and Xie Jinwu only needed to use artillery to fight at the parameters, mainly to scare people.

For the time being, Xie Jinwu has no plans to fight a full-scale battle with the Qing army, but it is good to tear up the poor defense line of the Qing army, create a little opportunity, and have some fun for himself by the way.

When Sai Chong'a received the exercise coordinates from Tang Jun for the third time, Sai Chong'a was completely crazy.

"Shaft, I am inseparable from you!"

Ban Qi also pinched a cold sweat and asked, "My lord, shall we withdraw this time?" ”

Sai Chong'a looked at the already orange burning clouds, but still restrained some of his anger, and muttered: "According to what Tang Jun said, if they want to shell, it will be almost dark that day, let's not move, I don't believe that the Tang people can touch the black and shoot at us." ”

Ban Qi said worriedly: "If you are not afraid of 10,000, you are afraid of what if." ”

Sai Chong'a pushed Ban Qi away and shouted, "What are you afraid of? If the Tang army really dares to shell us, we will fight back. ”

Ban Qi said: "But the Tang army's position is twelve miles away from us, and our artillery can't reach them at all." ”

The artillery regiment of the second town of the Praetorian Guard under the jurisdiction of Sai Chong'a was equipped with 24 130mm howitzers produced in Datang North Industry, and its technical level was roughly in the same position from the end of the 19th century to the First World War, and the power was not particularly large, with a range of about five kilometers. This is already the best artillery in the Qing army, the Qing army uses mules and horses to pull artillery carts, launch artillery bombardment, if it is an ordinary enemy, as long as one or two salvos will be stunned. Even the current European professional army will be angry in the face of the 130-mm howitzer artillery regiment of the Qing Janissary Guard, and this kind of firepower can basically reach the level of the world, except for the Tang Army.

But the enemy they faced was the Tang Army.

Although the 18 self-propelled guns of the artillery battalion of the Longxiang Regiment are smaller in caliber than the foreign trade monkey version of the artillery produced in China, they are much better in terms of power and range.

Sai Chong Ah Yi gritted his teeth and shouted: "Order the artillery regiment to move forward three miles, put the Tang army under the blow, and if the Tang army moves rashly, it will return fire!" ”

Ban Qi was shocked, and hurriedly stopped: "My lord, no, the artillery regiment in our town is a treasure, and the three artillery regiments in the three towns of the Praetorian Guard are explained by the emperor and Fushangshu." If the artillery regiment is pushed forward, it will inevitably be under the attack of the Tang artillery, and if the Tang army shells it at that time, our artillery regiment will be destroyed! ”

Sai Chong'a was stubborn, he said: "Who told you that our artillery regiment will definitely lose? The Tang Army has few artillery artillery, and we have more artillery, and when the time comes, we will take advantage! ”

In his bones, Sai Chong Ah is still an old-style military general with a muddy brain, and he fights completely by patting his head and experience, although he has also been exposed to a lot of new tactics and theories, but he has poor digestion and absorption, and is still in the battle period of bravery, and he does not know how to properly use the weapons in his hands.

Sai Chong'a thought that if he pushed out the artillery regiment, the Tang army would inevitably rush to fear, so that he would not act rashly. However, Xie Jinwu saw Sai Chong'a's actions and was moved by Sai Chong'a's naivety, so he ordered his artillery battalion to further consolidate the position, and at the same time ordered the third infantry battalion to go forward, and the large number of infantry fighting vehicles quickly approached Sai Chong'a's artillery regiment under the cover of the armored battalion, and the distance between the two sides was only less than four miles.

The two sides have turned an action that says that a drill is not a drill and that a war is not a war into a game of chess. Xie Jinwu's cannon pointed at Sai Chong'a's pawn, and Sai Chong'a pushed out his own cannon to threaten Xie Jinwu's chess pieces, but Xie Jinwu was not threatened, and took out his car and put it in front of Sai Chong'a's cannon.

Even if Sai Chong'a put the cannon there, it would not be able to threaten Xie Jinwu's cannon, because Xie Jinwu's chess pieces were all on wheels, and after a round, Xie Jinwu could immediately remove the cannon, which was equivalent to acting twice on the chessboard. In addition, another stupidity of Sai Chong A is that he did not fully protect his chess pieces, and did not fully reconnoiter the enemy's situation, Xie Jinwu could touch the dark and then fight, but Sai Chong A could not be sure what kind of damage his artillery regiment would do to the Tang Army if he fought a few rounds in the dark.

Sai Chong'a actually felt bad when he saw Xie Jinwu pushing out the Jibu battalion, like a knife on the neck of his front artillery regiment, Sai Chong'a hurriedly mobilized two infantry targets, that is, the regiment, to come out to support his own artillery regiment, but he acted on two legs, and the main weapon was the infantry standard of rifles, even if he was fully superior in numbers, but it could not threaten the Tang Army's Jibu battalion at all.

Later, Xie Jinwu received his own reinforcements - the Artillery Regiment of the First Brigade of the Tang Army, the Fire Arrow Regiment. Unlike the artillery battalions of the Longxiang Regiment, which used self-propelled guns, there were two self-propelled artillery battalions and two 155mm heavy artillery battalions under the 1st Brigade Fire Arrow Regiment. Such an artillery unit is also the most powerful artillery of the Tang Army in North China. Due to the relatively slow maneuvering of the heavy artillery battalion, it arrived relatively late, and Xie Jinwu, after receiving the assistance of the fire arrow regiment, began to arrange artillery positions at more points.