"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" In Prince Chun's palace, a young man dressed as a butler ran and shouted in a panic.

"Why are you howling? I'm not dead yet, you damn slave!" Zaifeng was feeling depressed. When he saw the panicked second housekeeper, he felt very angry.

If it weren't for the slave he grew up with, he would have been pulled down and chopped off by now.

"My servant deserves to die, my servant deserves to die, Your Majesty, my servant was also impatient for a moment and bumped into Your Majesty..." The second housekeeper knelt down on the ground and kowtowed with a muffled sound.

"Okay, what happened? You're in a panic." Zaifeng waved his hand and asked him to get up.

The second housekeeper didn't get up, he just stopped kowtowing. Traces of blood could be seen on the stone bricks, but he didn't have time to feel pain and just felt relieved.

The Qing Empire is a semi-slavery and semi-feudal society. A slave like him, no matter how arrogant he is outside, will be beaten to death by his master.

"Your Majesty, I don't know who leaked the news about Prince Ning meeting ministers from various countries. Now students from all over the capital are rushing to Prince Ning's Mansion, saying that they will not give up until Prince Ning becomes an official." The second housekeeper knelt on the ground and burst into tears.

He looked worried for Prince Ning.

When he heard that something happened to his own brother, and that it happened to be this, Zaifeng gritted his teeth.

"Where are the people from the patrol department? Let them catch the culprits! Punish them severely!" Zaifeng shouted sternly.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Your Majesty, we can't catch these students! At least we can't let the patrol police arrest them. Please think again, Your Majesty." The second housekeeper was stunned and quickly advised.

These days, there are not many simple ones who can afford to go to school, especially new middle schools, especially in this capital city.

Don't be fooled by the TV series. There are poor students these days, but they are very few. Most of the students are at least landlords, and the students in the capital are from gentry families at worst.

Zaifeng is the regent, but even the emperor would not dare to offend the entire official body - unless he wants to completely reshuffle the situation.

"Then what should we do? We can't watch Zai Xun being forced to become an official, right?" Zai Feng thought about it and figured out this joint.

No matter how stupid he is, he still knows not to offend everyone, instead of being like some idiot who declares war on eleven countries over a disagreement.

"I don't dare to lie. To untie the bell, the person who tied the bell must be tied. To suppress this matter, the source of the incident must be solved." The second steward said tremblingly.

"Source? Yuan Gongbao?" Zaifeng's first reaction was Beiyang. The second housekeeper knelt on the ground and remained silent.

"Okay, I understand. Let's let it go. The imperial court has not reached any agreement with other countries. Prince Ning is about to act as Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is normal to receive ministers from various countries."

Zaifeng thought about it and knew what the source of the matter was. It happened that they had not reached an agreement. He could completely break this rumor with the actions of the court.

The reason why Zai Feng was depressed early in the morning was because of the lack of agreement.

No matter what conditions the Qing Empire offered, Britain, France and the United States remained unmoved, as if they had switched to vegetarianism.

Japan, Germany, and Russia drooled over the conditions proposed by the Qing Empire, but they were unwilling to pay the price and only verbally agreed to provide some weapons and equipment.

Especially for Japan, the Qing Empire promised that the Japanese would independently build railways in the three provinces, and that there would be no restrictions on immigration, business, mining, and factory establishment. The political, economic, and military advisors in the three provinces would be given priority in hiring Japanese.

Upon hearing this condition, the Japanese's eyes turned red and they wanted to agree on the spot - if they hadn't seen the same greedy look in the German minister's eyes.

If the Japanese agree, the British will not have enough position to persuade people to condemn the Germans, and the British will definitely put small shoes on the Japanese.

Japan now owes the British hundreds of millions of pounds in foreign debt, and it can easily bankrupt Japan without resorting to military means.

"Beiyang, Beiyang! One by one, the Confucian classics have been learned in the dog's belly, bah!" Zaifeng thought for a while, but was ready to take a look at the situation first.

What if two towns put down the rebellion? Or what if the revolutionary army breaks into civil strife? - Like Long Hair.

…

Xiangyang, a place that has always been a battleground for military strategists, has ushered in another war.

In the north of Fancheng in Xiangyang, the Qin army, which marched from the land of the Three Qin Dynasties, set up camp less than 20 kilometers away from Fancheng.

There were more than 10,000 Qin troops on the expedition, including two infantry battalions, one horse battalion, and one artillery battalion of the New Army, and no engineering troops.

Patrol Battalion and Military Training There are sixteen battalions of different sizes, totaling about ten thousand people, and five artillery brigades, equipped with some small-caliber rapid-fire cannons or old-fashioned artillery of different ages.

Admiral Song Tao controlled the entire army.

On the 10th, the Qin army set up its posture and advanced towards Fancheng.

A huge open-top carriage pulled by four horses advanced slowly. The carriage was covered with a huge parasol. A person sat under the umbrella, holding a fan with only five feathers in his hand and fanning it from time to time.

Nearly ten thousand people advanced until they were only five kilometers away from Fancheng before stopping.

"Don't these revolutionary troops have cannons?" Song Tao hid far away from the carriage, looking at the quiet Fancheng, extremely puzzled.

The carriage is such a conspicuous target, and it is not far from the city. Why don't the revolutionary army attack him? Are they looking down on Songtao?

Woo woo woo...

As soon as he finished speaking, a whine came from the sky.

Songtao saw with his own eyes several black spots falling around the carriage, causing a huge explosion.

Boom boom boom...

"Did you see the rebel artillery?" Song Tao did not immediately pay attention to the fate of the carriage. Instead, he raised his binoculars and observed the walls of Fancheng, hoping to find the artillery of the revolutionary army.

That's right, the carriage was a target set by Songtao, and along the way, he, Songtao, actually sat in this carriage, showing off his power, and he only changed it today.

This was all because the Qin army was poor and lacked artillery. He also heard that the rebels had extremely strong firepower, so they could only use this method to attract the enemy's artillery fire to see if they could shoot down a few artillery pieces first.

boom!

The artillery of the Qin army opened fire. They found several cannons firing on the city wall and opened fire immediately.

Songtao only saw a few flames rising on the walls of Fancheng, one of which was particularly huge, and then heard the cheers of the artillery.

No matter how innocent Songtao was, he could still understand the cheers and knew that his strategy had achieved results, so he happily put down his telescope, pulled out his sword, and pointed at Fan Cheng:

"Send the order, the whole army attacks! Whoever gets there first will be promoted to the third level and will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver!"

This command is very blind and inconsistent with normal procedures, but this is exactly Songtao's purpose.

"In a frontal battle, the enemy has strong firepower and sufficient supplies. However, our army has come from afar and lacks supplies. Only by winning by surprise can we have a chance to capture Xiangyang and march south to the three towns." Song Tao explained with a hint of frustration.

To win by surprise, his surprise was to attack with the entire army as soon as he came up. More than 10,000 people attacked across the board. Before the revolutionary army could react, a few climbed up and opened the gap.

"There is an order from the military gate! The first person to reach the rank will be promoted to the third level and will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver!"

"The military gate has an order..." The cavalry conveyed Song Tao's order to the entire army.

"kill!"

"Be loyal to the imperial court!"

"Seal your wife as your shadow, today!"

"Glory and wealth are right before our eyes. Brothers, the military will not treat us badly. Kill us!"

One by one, the officers urged the soldiers to move forward, as if they had been given a shot of blood.

Songtao watched quietly from behind. Seeing that he was still far away, he took out his cigarette rod and started smoking.

An hour later, more than 7,000 Qin infantrymen had arrived 500 meters north of the north wall of Fancheng. After packing up their equipment, they prepared to attack the city.

…

Frontline headquarters of the 14th Regiment of the Revolutionary Army.

One force was adapted from the 21st Association of Chu Army and the 3rd Regiment of the original Revolutionary Army. It was recently moved to Xiangyang and was responsible for the defense.

Xiangyang is divided into two cities, Jiangbei and Jiangnan, which are at the corners of each other. The regiment headquarters is in Xiangcheng, south of the Han River, and Fancheng in the north of the river is the target of the Qin army's attack, and a frontline headquarters is set up.

"Commander, the enemy has started shelling again. The artillery has locked its position and asked whether to fight back."

"No, let them wait and wait until the enemy begins to charge before firing back." Jiang Yan shook his head.

I don't know how many rounds of artillery shells hit the city wall, making the wall pockmarked, but the power of the small-caliber cannon was only about this.

boom…

After the explosion stopped, the Qin army began to try to rush forward.

"The enemy is coming!"

"Everyone come out! Return to your posts!"

"Get back to your place!"

"Machine gun ready, no need to save bullets!"

In the position outside the city, soldiers ran out of the underground fortifications one by one, hurriedly returned to their positions, loaded their bullets, and stared at the enemy who was "slowly" rushing up ahead.

"The sound of artillery has stopped?" Jiang Yan ran up the city wall, picked up the telescope, and was stunned when he looked at the charging Qin army less than 200 meters away from the position outside the city.

(The position outside the city spreads out 200 meters from the city wall. There are not enough manpower, otherwise there is no need to defend the city.)

"Order the artillery to fire back and destroy their artillery positions." Jiang Yan took out a signal gun and fired a signal flare.

Chirp~~

Dong dong dong...

Jiang Yan's familiar machine gun sound rang out, and the firepower network formed by dozens of machine guns was like an eraser, cleaning up the Qin army in one area after another.

Boom boom boom...

The artillery in the city fired, and the shells flew towards the Qin army's artillery position.

In the Qing Empire's artillery training, part of the artillery battle content was very weak. On the one hand, it was not used in domestic battles, so it was not taken seriously. On the other hand, Western teachings did not teach it carefully.
To be continued...