Chapter Eighty-Seven: Rescuing Song Qing

  Shan County has a friend's next attack, which is as powerful as a broken bamboo, and the various departments under Yiketang'a are defeated at once. Except for Zuo Baogui and Wei Rugui, who had some relatively deadly resistance, including his own Heilongjiang Town Border Army, they all ran mainly, and they ran across the Qingchuan River before barely stabilizing their footsteps and deploying defenses along the river.

  At this time, the county of Shan had no energy to pursue, and it was winter now. The cold climate in Korea was not suitable for them. With limited funds and soldiers' anti-cold measures, they encountered a blizzard, and nearly a thousand people were frozen to death or injured, so they had to stop their offensive.

  The defeat of the Northern Line was a severe blow to Cixi, who had been eagerly awaiting news of her Manchu heroes' victory. Instead, she received news of a disastrous defeat. Fortunately, this old woman was not foolish, and since Yikuang was incompetent, others were even more so. Therefore, it was only natural that she did not overly blame him. Apart from dismissing and investigating Fengshengge, who had fled the fastest, there were no severe punishments for others. On the contrary, she rewarded Wei Ruguigui, who had fought bravely despite his injuries, with a yellow jacket, and exhorted the various armies to fight valiantly and not waste the emperor's kindness. If they lost again, they should not blame the imperial court's laws.

  After all, this is not a big deal, and as long as we don't retreat to the Yalu River, it's not considered a defeat. The battle at Ya Mountain was won because of our superior equipment, wasn't it? So let's just buy more! We're short on cannons, so let's buy some! We're short on machine guns, so let's buy some! The orders kept pouring in and almost made O'Connor die from joy. Because the Empress Dowager had given her word, Master Weng didn't shout about being short of money anymore. Just for the Bergmann MG version alone, they bought 100 units. This news made Yang Feng quite happy, but he didn't know that soon he would regret this deal so much that he'd want to bang his head against a wall.

  At this time, it was not only him who was hiding and laughing at the excitement, Li Ergouzi was also watching the joke. Yang Feng suspected that Mingjun's one-touch collapse had some connection with him. To say that Liu Mingzhuan's direct line troops were so bad is absolutely abnormal. Liu Shengyou has been following his uncle since he started his career, and even Liu Mingzhuan praised him for being brave and strategic, otherwise he would not have handed over the Ming army to him.

  Of course, these internal affairs are unknown, and the looting of Osaka made him a small profit. Although the gain of less than 10 million taels of silver can only be said to be small money in his eyes, it is different for the mercenaries under his command. After deducting Yang Feng's investment and adding a small subsidy to the garrison troops, each of the participating naval and land soldiers could get more than 500 taels. Now they are all shouting to continue punishing Japan, especially those who stayed behind. It can be said that the situation is chaotic, although they also received 100 taels as compensation, but this cannot be compared with the combatants.

  Yang Feng yielded to the military's wishes and swapped out the garrison troops with some of the units that had fought previously, preparing to make a run for Sendai this time. That place was the old home of the 2nd Division, and who knows what kind of feeling the Japanese army would have when they found out their hometown had been raided? As for how to fight this battle, it's much simpler than landing in Osaka. The bay at Sendai doesn't have any fortifications, and even the Japanese navy can't reach there. The only thing that needs to be considered is that the Tōhoku Main Line isn't along the coast, so they'll need to move a bit faster.

  It would be great if there were bombers, they could blow up the railways first and then play slowly. However, it's a bit early to get planes out now. Airships can be played with, but time doesn't permit it now. Anyway, the Japanese army won't be able to arrive in one day from so far away, so time shouldn't be too tight.

  Although there are still a few small shuttles inside, and he can barely drive them, someone of Yang's esteemed status cannot risk his life for such a small amount of money. What if they crash halfway? It would be a tragedy. When operating underwater in the sea, there is always a shuttle to follow, so no matter what unexpected event occurs, one can escape in time. But once you leave the ocean, it's not possible. Otherwise, why would Yang always dislike activities on land?

  Just as he was about to set off, he suddenly received an unexpected job.

  "Song Qing?" Yang Feng was taken aback when he heard the name, and only now did he remember that he had almost forgotten about Song Qing and his 4,400-strong Yi army in Pingdu City. In fact, the White-Haired General was almost forgotten by everyone now, but he was the most critical one at this moment. The 4,400-strong Yi army had been defending Pingdu City for a week, which showed that the Battle of Pingyang in history was originally a tragedy - more than 10,000 people were driven out by the enemy in just one day. But now, Prince Abe no Kiyokazu of the Northern White River Palace had been besieging Song Qing and Ma Yukun in the city with his Fourth Division for a week, but he still couldn't drive them out, and it was said that the battle was not going very smoothly.

  Pyongyang was the rear base of Ikuta, with absolutely sufficient ammunition reserves. They also left behind in the city more than a dozen mortars that they thought were not suitable for carrying on an attack, as well as six Hakken mortar tubes. Now these things are playing a huge role in Song Qing's hands.

  Of course, he can't hold on for much longer. Now it's purely relying on the amount of ammunition to support itself. After the Daedong River froze, sea supplies have been cut off, and land supplies are not worth mentioning. The 4,000-strong Yi army is besieged in a lonely city. If the Japanese army hadn't been slow to attack and afraid of casualties, the city would have fallen long ago. But there's no way out, the only way is to retreat to the coast and take a boat, but the Japanese have surrounded Pyongyang on all sides, they can't even withdraw.

  Li Hongzhang had no choice but to come and ask Yang Feng for help, letting Yang Feng lead the troops to rescue Song Qing and others. Of course, if Yang Feng didn't go, he couldn't say anything, after all, this guy wasn't his soldier and had no obligation to listen to his dispatch.

  This request put Yang Feng in a dilemma. According to reason, he wouldn't do something that didn't benefit him, but seeing Bai Touweng die in Pyongyang seemed a bit too inhumane. Song Qing and his Yi Army were still worthy of respect, after all, 4,000 people managed to hold down Pyongyang, which was almost unbelievable.

  After careful consideration, I still decided to be a good person this time.

  "Alright, you go tell Li Zhongtang that I've taken on this task. Who made us both Han people anyway!" Yang Feng said to Xue Fucheng, with the last few words spoken particularly heavily.

  Xue Fucheng nodded silently, in fact, among these people, no one knew Yang Feng better than him, and this result was expected.

  Song Qing, inside the Pyongyang Castle, was indeed at a dead end. After a week of fierce battles, the remaining 4,000 soldiers were less than 3,000. Fortunately, they were all old comrades who had gone through life and death with him, fighting to the death without retreating, which is why the Japanese army did not break into Pyongyang. However, they could not hold on for a few more days. Now, General Bai was facing his trusted generals Ma Yukun and Jiang Guotie, worried and anxious.

  At this moment, a guard came in and reported that there was a foreigner asking to see him. Although it was unexpected, Song Qing still invited the person in.

  "Mr. Luo, you said that Yang will come to rescue us?" The news brought by this foreigner named Roy made Song Qing stunned. To say that he had also heard of Yang Feng, but the two sides were not related, and he actually sent troops to rescue himself, which was a bit unbelievable.

  "Of course, Mr. Yang's telegram said it very clearly, please hold on for one more day, wait for my news tomorrow night, when the Japanese army is attacked in the direction of Zhuque Gate, immediately gather all forces and head south, then don't care about anything and run directly along the Dajiang River to the seaside, where there will be a boat waiting for you." Luo Yi said, he was the business representative of Bofors Ocean Shipping Company in Pyongyang, and could also be said to be a spy, with a wireless telegraph machine in his hand that could contact Yang Feng directly.

  "But what if the Japanese army pursues us? The port of Zhenhai is not suitable for large ships to dock. Our Rong Army still has over 2,700 people now. Although I don't know how many brothers Mr. Yang will send, there won't be less than 3,000. It's likely that it will take a long time to transport 6,000 people with small boats. If the Japanese army catches up, the loss will be huge." Song Qing asked doubtfully.

  "General, Mr. Yang's landing ship can dock directly, so you don't need to worry about this issue anymore. Ah, also, I'd like to remind you that it would be best for your subordinates to prepare a wet towel each, preferably soaked in alkaline water. When going out, cover their mouths and noses, and try to cover their faces as much as possible. If they see yellow smoke in front of them, of course, it might not be visible at night, but if there is smoke in front of them, try to avoid it as much as possible, otherwise, it will be very dangerous." Roy said.

  Yang Da Boss naturally wouldn't let his soldiers come and fight the Japanese army to the death, why not use this good stuff called mustard gas? Now it's cold winter and they're all wearing cotton-padded jackets and pants, so there's no need to worry about getting contaminated on their bodies. Just cover their mouths and noses with masks and that's almost it. If they still get poisoned after doing this, then they can only blame themselves for being unlucky.

  Song Qing was initially skeptical of this good news, but after receiving a telegram from Li Hongzhang, there was no room for doubt. The next day, the Japanese army only launched some small-scale harassment attacks, and in their view, the fate of this lone army was already sealed. Now all they had to do was exhaust their ammunition as much as possible before launching a large-scale attack. It is worth noting that Song Qing lost over 1,000 men that week, and North White River Palace's losses were also nearly 1,000.

  It wasn't until late at night that the Garrison troops inside the city began to prepare according to Roy's requirements, one by one, waiting for news. It wasn't until nearly midnight that Roy rushed over with a strange-looking machine on his back and said, "Get ready, it's coming!"

  Song Qing's spirit was lifted, and the Yi army soldiers at each city gate quickly withdrew, while also loading up the piled-up weapons and ammunition that they couldn't take with them. Just as all this was being done, a dense barrage of gunfire suddenly erupted from outside.

  "Go!" Roy shouted, immediately turning over and mounting his horse, rushing towards the Vermilion Bird Gate that was opening.