On October 10, Yongping Qiucao entered the final stage, and the two-day confrontation exercise kicked off.

Before the military exercise, Guangxu issued an edict: Pay special attention to Chinese and foreign newspapers. Domestic journalists are received by the visiting and care office, and foreign journalists are supplied by the foreign guest reception office in order to "be famous both at home and abroad and revitalize national prestige."

As the host, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, ordered local officials in Yongping Prefecture to work hard for military exercises. Each mile was equipped with 10 patrols, 10 imperial guards, and 10 Huai army cavalry, and cooperated with each other to conduct "circular patrols" alternately.

The "key figures" bad elements in the three neighboring and five villages around the military exercise site are strictly restricted to fixed areas, and it is strictly forbidden to go out and roam around. Otherwise, local officials and the baojia chiefs of the neighboring and five villages will be held accountable. At the same time, notices of the people are posted everywhere: "Officials and soldiers must not raise prices when shopping and refusing silver", "Idle and wandering people are not allowed to trespass the warning area", etc., and set up strict defenses to ensure that there is no accident.

Guangxu and Cixi were afraid of being disturbed by the exercise and did not dare to stay in the exercise area. They were surrounded by entourage officials and returned to the Kaiping headquarters to wait. Li Hongzhang led the Kaiping City Office, the road, the civil and military officials, the patrol and the road office, the dispatch team, the military band, the sports club, etc. to gather at the station to welcome him, and presented a respectful remark to thank the emperor for his great kindness.

The chief military exercise ministers were Prince Gong Yi, as well as Prince Li, Shi Duo, Prince Qing Yili, Minister Qing, Minister Han Qu Hongxi, Minister of Military Affairs, and Minister of War Tie Liang as the president of the confrontation exercise, Lieutenant General Walter Kerr, Commander of the British Hong Kong Fleet, General Alexey Kuropatkin, Commander of the Far East Amur Military Region, and Chief Referee of the Russian Army, General Alexey Kuropatkin, as chief referee consultant, German company Shiko, French minister Henry Bapisse, and American minister Tian Bei as consultant, ministers and consuls of other countries were also inspected, and Japanese minister Sutaro Komura was also invited.

The chief adviser was held by the British and Russians, which shows that the two countries are the strongest countries in the Far East, followed by Germany, France and the United States. Other countries are watching, and the overall arrangement is a symbol of the Far East strength level.

However, Japan was also invited by the Qing government, but it was because of the fact that it deliberately wanted to expose it, which had a significant deterrence effect. However, the real strong enemy was Russia. Unfortunately, the Qing government did not dare to target Russia publicly, so it could only be the least of both, so it was better to pick up Japan.

The Director Hall is an oval stepped layout with a huge sand table in the middle, which imitates the terrain simulation of the exercise area. Starting from the Great Wall in the north of Yongping Prefecture, it all the way to the sea in the south. Wang Chenhao's command is located in Funing in the north, and Zhang Xianzhi's command is located in Leting in the south. Both sides use the Luan River as the boundary, and it is stipulated that the victory or defeat of the opponent's commander's flag or annihilate the opponent's army within two days is the standard.

Li Hongzhang sat in the north of the sand table and Zhang Zhidong sat in the south. The two were responsible for marking the dynamics of the Zhili New Army and the Ziqiang Army on the sand table for judgment by the referee team.

Yi and the referee consultants from various countries sat on the high ground on the west side overlooking the entire sand table, while the east was the computing personnel. They took the second round of assessment results of the New Army of the North and South Oceans and converted them into the corresponding combat losses ratio. Then they calculated and estimated based on the actual combat situation of the exercise army, and then published the results as the basis for the sand table deduction.

At the Funing Northern Army Command, Wang Chenhao and his men were discussing combat plans around the table where the war zone map was placed. Not far away was a telephone, and there were several supervisors sitting next to him. They would directly inform Wang Chenhao of his military deployment to the Director's Hall.

"It's almost 10 o'clock, why haven't you started yet?"

"The Directors Hall must not serve the royal relatives and foreigners? A group of fat guys who can't walk should not be too slow for a while?"

"Or how can we act now?"

"Stop being angry, the emperor is not in a hurry to the eunuch."

...

Everyone talked about you and said it, because Wang Chenhao had already told them the battle plan, everyone knew it.

Wang Chenhao's tactics are aimed at the Ziqiang Army. Since the Ziqiang Army was at a disadvantage in the second round of assessment, the combat losses formulated based on the assessment results were very unfavorable to the Ziqiang Army. Therefore, if Zhang Xianzhi wanted to recover the defeat, he would definitely attack at any cost.

The Ziqiang Army definitely looked down on the new Zhili army, so Zhang Xianzhi must be anxious to attack and give Wang Chenhao a warning first. The more he did this, the less anxious Wang Chenhao was. For this reason, he formulated a tactic of defeating first and then winning.

It was almost noon that the phone ringed and the Director's Office finally issued an exercise order. At this time, half a day had passed since the two days of exercise.

At the beginning of the military exercise, the new Zhili army was departed from Funing, and the 123rd Regiment advanced simultaneously in the three directions of Lulong, Changli and Puhe. The artillery regiment and division headquarters followed behind to support the situation. The cavalry regiment quickly maneuvered between the regiments and carried out reconnaissance missions. The fourth Regiment was ordered to go on a fast journey day and night to rush to Jing'an Fortress at the Luanhe Ferry, intending to fight the enemy in the Luanhe River.

At the same time, the Ziqiang Army concentrated its forces, and the entire army marched day and night, and also rushed towards Jing'an Fortress. Both sides marched and practiced, with murderous intent and arrogant spirit.

On the evening of the 10th, the Ziqiang Army was close to the Luan River and marched quickly to Jing'an Fort.

Later, Ren Yongqing led the Fourth Regiment to Matuodian, ten miles north of Jing'an Fort, met with the vanguard of the Ziqiang Army and exchanged fire.

After an hour of fierce fighting between the two sides, the Ziqiang Army increased its troops to two regiments, forming a left-right attack. Ren Yongqing followed the plan in advance, and when the enemy continued to increase its troops, he kept withdrawing the front-line troops. When the referee announced that the Matuodian position of the Fourth Regiment was lost, Ren Yongqing had led his troops to leave the battlefield, leaving only one company to die on the position. Since it was night, the Ziqiang Army could not see the situation of the Zhili New Army on the opposite side, and the referee group only said that the soldiers who were shot were left and did not inform the other party of the situation.

The Ziqiang Army won the first battle and its morale rose sharply. Zhang Xianzhi ordered to continue chasing north. From that day and night until dawn on the 11th, six more chase battles were fought, and each time the Zhili New Army was defeated.

At noon on the 11th, the Fourth Regiment retreated to Changli. After Wang Chenhao informed Ren Yongqing that the mission was completed, the Fourth Regiment no longer retreated. Instead, it constructed defensive fortifications in Changli.

It takes time to build defensive fortifications. During the engineering assessment, the referee stipulated that it takes one day for the Zhili New Army to build large-scale fortifications. Another purpose of the Fourth Regiment deliberately delaying the Ziqiang Army for one day was to win time for the Zhili New Army Engineering Battalion to build defensive fortifications in Changli.

The Zhili New Army built a large number of heavy machine gun positions on the Changli position, while the artillery regiment calibrated the nearby landmarks, and a huge pocket was waiting for the Ziqiang Army to turn in.

At 1:00 p.m., the Ziqiang Army arrived. The Fourth Regiment had been running away before. Therefore, the Ziqiang Army Pioneer Battalion launched an attack step by step, but was subjected to a strong counterattack from the Fourth Regiment.

The Ziqiang Army Pioneer Battalion was stubbornly blocked during the assault, and the Fourth Regiment launched a counter-charge. The two sides broke out in hand-to-hand combat. The battlefield referee immediately announced that the Ziqiang Army Pioneer Battalion had been wiped out and withdrawn from the exercise.

After learning about the situation, Zhang Xianzhi guessed that the Zhili New Army was going to fight back, but he thought that the Fourth Regiment had just retreated to Changli for less than an hour and could not be repaired, so he was ready to take Changli down in one go and completely defeat the Fourth Regiment.

Zhang Xianzhi issued an order to attack the entire army, and the Ziqiang Army rushed to the Changli position. At this time, he found that the Changli position was empty, leaving only a large number of machine gun bunkers and other defensive fortifications.

Zhang Xianzhi was stunned when he saw this. At this time, the battlefield referee announced that the entire army of Ziqiang was wiped out and there was no need to fight.

If it is actual combat, Zhang Xianzhi may choose to stop the attack halfway. But this is an exercise. Both sides are not really firing. Artillery and heavy machine guns cannot be fired, they can only be simulated.

The subsequent simulation was: When the Ziqiang Army launched a charge, the Fourth Regiment of the Zhili New Army relied on the machine gun bunkers to block the enemy. At this time, after the Ziqiang Army rushed up, the Ziqiang Army immediately suffered one-third of the casualties of heavy machine guns to the infantry attack. The two sides were in stalemate, and soon the Ziqiang Army was transported to the subsequent artillery and bombarded the Changli position. However, due to the high survival rate of the machine gun positions and the castle built by the Zhili New Army, the Ziqiang Army paid a high price to capture it. Then the other three regiments of the Zhili New Army united to encircle Changli, and the Ziqiang Army could only capture Changli and stand firmly to wait for assistance. The Zhili New Army's artillery regiment had set a landmark for the Changli position. Under the attack of fierce artillery fire, the Ziqiang Army eventually ran out of ammunition and food and was wiped out.
Chapter completed!