Chapter 186 Shao Quanzhong's Friend
Chapter 186 Shao Quanzhong's Friend
"Boom! Boom boom boom!"
Flames shot up into the sky in Lingzhou City. Within half an hour, the rocket troops poured nine thousand Hale rockets into the city.
The city was now ablaze with fire everywhere. Eight thousand bandit cavalrymen were fleeing in a panic through the smoke and fire from the city gates and gaps in the city walls.
When the bandits came out, they were faced with a hail of bullets from machine guns and rapid-fire cannons. They dared not fight back and fled in all directions.
The three battalions of cavalry chased for half an hour, but the results were not good. The bandit cavalry were better at riding than the Huai Army's cavalry, and they only killed a few hundred people in total.
The Huai Army attacked Lingzhou City and captured it in half an hour.
Lingzhou City was no longer habitable. The fire burned for two days and the city was completely destroyed.
This kind of fighting style was used in the civil war because the Han people in Lingzhou City had been killed and there was no need to worry about them.
More than a thousand bodies of bandits were found on the battlefield, and no one knew how many died in the city. It was difficult to distinguish between the bandit soldiers and the bandit civilians among the piles of charcoal.
However, the scouts who stayed outside Jinjibao reported that about 6,000 bandit cavalrymen had fled into Jinjibao. It seemed that not many enemies were killed in the Battle of Lingzhou.
This was because only four infantry battalions of Lin Bozai's regiment participated in the battle, the newly arrived infantry had not yet been reorganized, Tian Xing's regiment and Song Laosan's regiment were still besieging Tongxin City, and the Huai Army was eager to attack Lingzhou first, so they were unable to form a siege and most of the bandits fled.
There is no other way. We can't leave such a trouble behind to attack everywhere. We have to drive it away first.
There were originally 10,000 elite soldiers in Jinjibao, 3,000 of whom were sent to Tongxincheng. 9,000 Shaanxi bandits fled in, and 6,000 Gansu bandits came as reinforcements, so the city could no longer accommodate them.
"Report, nine thousand Shaanxi bandits are moving out collectively, breaking up into small groups and heading south to Xi'an. The Shaanxi bandits are returning to Shaanxi, this is a strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao, they want to disrupt Shaanxi and force us to return."
After Zhang Zhidong left, Le Xiucai, the fake Jinshi, was no longer suppressed by his rank as Tanhualang. He suddenly came alive again and began to bravely express his own opinions.
Shao Quanzhong waved his hand and said, "Let them go."
Shaanxi today is not the Shaanxi of half a year ago. They will know when they go there.
A month later, the Shaanxi bandits who went to harass Shaanxi without any artillery or cavalry returned in defeat, each of them was starving and staggering, with their number reduced by a thousand.
There are ditches all over Shaanxi now, and they cannot be taken down by cavalry. There is nothing in the fields in the winter, and these Shaanxi bandits have returned hungry.
…………
Hailing, Ren’s Arsenal.
Ren Jun came out of the arsenal and hurried into a small Thai courtyard next to it.
He walked through the courtyard into the main hall, and then into the dark room on the east side.
There was a smell of Chinese medicine in the dark room. It was not the first time that Ren Jun came. As soon as he entered the room, he asked, "Aunt, how is Uncle Shi doing today?"
Lying on the bed was Jacob Schneider, a foreign expert from Ren's Arsenal, and his wife was feeding him medicine.
My aunt's Chinese was not good. Before she could find her words, Schneider had already finished drinking the medicine and started talking. "Director Ren, I feel much better now. I feel full of energy. Eastern medicine is really amazing. My disease cannot be cured by surgery in the West. Your herbal medicine can actually have such a magical effect. My life is saved."
Ren Jun raised his head proudly, "Uncle Shi, I invited Doctor Fei from Wenji Fuyutang Pharmacy. He is the most famous doctor in China and has treated the late emperor's empress dowager. He said that your illness is caused by poor living conditions in the past, constant frustration, and excessive loss of vitality. His palace warming prescription is the most effective."
Practice has proved that the body structure of foreigners is the same as that of Chinese people. The miracle doctor's Chinese medicine easily saved this weapons expert who should have died of poverty and illness in London.
Historically, the British muzzle-loading rifle modification project was delayed for several years, and Schneider died without waiting for his modification plan to be adopted. His son also fought a lawsuit with the British modification committee for several years, but did not get the winning prize for the plan.
After leaving Uncle Shi's house, Director Ren hurried to the construction site next to Xiaoxiang Cliff. The groundbreaking ceremony had just been completed yesterday, and the foundation of the steam equipment was being dug.
He was not here to work in construction. Ren Jun's other identity was the manager of a telegraph cable installation company.
He discussed with the architect invited from the Ministry of Industry for a long time, submitted the conditions required for the concealed engineering of the pre-buried cables, and then left.
This is the site of Hailing University.
Hailing Bilingual Middle School has been in operation for four years. The earliest batch of junior high school students have been promoted to the first year of high school. In two years, they will need to go to university. The construction of Hailing University has already begun.
The planning and layout of Hailing University was done by Yung Wing, an amateur in the construction industry. A layman has his own way, and the architectural layout is a complete replica of Yale University.
However, the houses built by the experts from the Ministry of Works must have flying eaves and brackets. If they were built using the old method, it would take four to five years to complete.
Now with steam excavators and steam lifting equipment, the project will be much faster and will definitely be completed in two years.
The supporting facilities and carpentry work needed for the school were built simultaneously. The school sign was also completed, with the inscription written by Lord Qiao himself. Lord Qiao is also the honorary principal of the school.
Yung Wing once again accepted his daughter's commission to travel around Europe and America and began to contact teachers from various departments he was going to set up. The first step was to recruit people from his alma mater, Yale...
After leaving the school construction site, Ren Jun breathed a sigh of relief as all the important tasks for the day were completed.
Who could have imagined that I, a poor student from Lu Village, who was looked down upon as a useless jerk because I couldn't do the job as well as the regular farmers when I worked in the fields, would now be a busy factory manager dressed in a suit and tie all day long.
It's busy, but the Ren family's wealth is increasing rapidly. Well, I'll donate some money to the bilingual school and become a school director. My children have to go to school, right?
Ahem, I don’t think I have a wife yet. But several juren and jinshi families have asked people to propose marriages to their daughters through me, “Shao Quanzhong’s friend”, so I have to choose carefully.
Walking along the river bank towards the bilingual middle school, we saw boats sailing one after another on the river.
Half of it was filled with food and fodder sent by Mr. Qiao to the Shaanxi-Gansu front. Our Taizhou people on the front must be able to eat Taizhou rice, because they can't get used to eating noodles in the northwest.
Now that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been destroyed, the more than 100,000 Hunan troops have been disbanded, leaving only 20,000, and no longer need so much food. With the production capacity of the Jiangning Provincial Government and Anhui Province, it is enough to supply the 80,000 Huai Army troops on the future westward expedition.
The other half of the cargo on the ship was a bunch of strange-looking equipment. Ren Jun knew that these were products of Wen's Agricultural Machinery Company.
Wen's Agricultural Machinery Company originally manufactured pot-carrying machines and Lincoln plows. It was basically a public welfare industry that helped farmers and did not make money from ordinary people.
What is being produced now is a large-scale steam-powered machine, also known as a steam tractor.
This thing can carry sixty to seventy tons of cargo, and when it emits black smoke it looks almost like a locomotive.
This thing is useless in Taizhou Water Town. Now it has been dismantled into parts, sent to Longjuzhai by water, and then transported to Xi'an with great effort.
Well, once the railway from Longjuzhai to Xi'an is opened, it won't be so difficult.
Wen built a "steam tractor assembly factory" there. Shao Quanzhong prepared this thing to replace pack horses for use in the war in the northwest. After being assembled in Xi'an, it was to be driven all the way to Yili.
This thing is a bit unreliable. During the trial production, it couldn't be controlled and crashed into the fence of the agricultural machinery company and ran away, running around on the street, almost causing a death.
I heard that the British first used this thing in the Crimean War nine years ago. Well, the wide sandy roads in the northwest, where there is no one to be seen for a hundred or eighty miles, are just right for this thing to run wildly, so there is no problem.
The world is changing so fast that I don't recognize it anymore. Fortunately, I am now at the forefront of the trend. Hundreds of American machine tools in my factory are working overtime day and night, and more than 10,000 guns are delivered to the front line every month...
Hailing's hometown was peaceful and tranquil, developing rapidly and thriving. However, Shaanxi and Gansu were in the midst of war, and the battle of the Huai Army besieging Jinjibao had entered a fierce stage.
(End of this chapter)