Chapter 52: Fame

Wei Jichen sighed and was about to return to the camp, but he saw Li Yunfei, Mengzi, Huzi, Xiaosi and other brothers who had escaped from Jiulian City with him, hurried over.

Seeing Wei Jichen, Li Yunfei first had a worried expression on his face, and then he was about to say something.

Wei Jichen stretched out his hand and interrupted him, saying, "Yunfei, if you are here to persuade me to rest, there is no need to say more. I am awake, neither in a trance nor out of my mind."

Li Yunfei thought for a moment, then his expression became serious, and he said in a resounding voice, "Now that things have come to this, I will not say much. I just want to tell you that no matter what the result of the bet tomorrow is, I, Li Yunfei, and my brothers will always be by your side, Zijie."

The rest of the people nodded and said in unison, "Weiying, we have already discussed it. We are your people in life and your ghosts in death. If Liu Shengxiu takes back Weiying tomorrow, we will come back to follow you and continue to be our soldiers."

"Good brother!"

Wei Jichen's eyes were filled with tears, and he was deeply moved. People's hearts are revealed in times of crisis. When everyone thought that his future was bleak, there was still such a group of people who supported him regardless of anything.

Thinking of the people who were still trying to build relationships with him and were very enthusiastic at the banquet yesterday, Wei Jichen felt that it was even more precious. Those people said beautiful things, but none of them came to visit him tonight.

Didn’t any of them know about the bet between him and Liu Shengxiu?

But why didn’t these people come to see him!

The world is fickle, and this is not the first time that Wei Jichen, who comes from the modern era, has experienced it.

Because they think Wei Jichen is finished and no longer worth making friends with and investing in.

For people who have lost their value, they naturally don’t bother to pay attention.

Fortunately, there are still this group of brothers who have always followed closely around him no matter whether he is up or down.

Maybe, I came here not only to upgrade and earn merit points, but also to have other responsibilities, that is, to take these brothers to avoid the Sino-Japanese War of Jiawu.

Wei Jichen, who had always looked down on others after crossing over, finally felt that he was slowly integrating into this era. People in this era have become living, flesh-and-blood people, not props for him to upgrade one by one.

Looking at the smiling faces, Wei Jichen's mood became much better. He smiled again and said jokingly: "You are my people in life and my ghost in death. Why does this sound so awkward? It sounds like a young wife saying it to her husband."

Retracting his smile, Wei Jichen's expression became solemn. He swept his eyes across everyone's faces one by one and said solemnly: "Brothers, you treat Zijie like this. Zijie has nothing to repay you for, and he will not say empty words. He can only lead all the brothers to survive in this cruel battlefield."

Yes, survive on the battlefield!

It was already late at night. In the Xianliang Temple on the north side of Bingcha Hutong Road, the political center of the Qing Dynasty and the important place in the capital, Li Hongzhang, the Beiyang Minister who was over 70 years old, had just laid down to rest.

But there was a hurried knock on the door outside.

Li Hongzhang sighed and had to get up and open the door. Li Hongzhang, who was over 70 years old, was already very old and his energy was not as good as before. Moreover, the war on the front line was getting worse day by day, which made this Zhongtang exhausted and wanted to quit.

Could it be that there was another important change in the war on the front line?

Li Hongzhang put on his coat, coughed twice, and spat a large mouthful of thick phlegm into the spittoon, then he staggered and creaked to open the door.

Outside the door, several of his trusted aides, Wang Kaitai, Chen Nai, Zhang Peilun, etc., were standing.

The faces of several people were very strange, and even the experienced Li Hongzhang could not tell whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

Zhang Peilun took a step forward first, holding two telegrams in his hand, and he didn't know which one to give to Li Hongzhang first.

"Give me the bad news first." Seeing this, Li Hongzhang, who had lived in the power circle for most of his life, would not understand what was going on. There must be both good news and bad news, so several people would have such expressions.

Zhang Peilun extended his left hand forward, handed it to Li Hongzhang and said, "Zhongtang, this one is from Dalian City."

Li Hongzhang nodded, but did not read it immediately. Instead, he walked into the room with a few people. After sitting down one by one, Li Hongzhang unfolded the telegram on the table and read it carefully.

"Jinzhou was occupied by the Japanese army. Zhao Huaiye requested to withdraw from Dalian and retreat to Lushun to fight the Japanese army again." Li Hongzhang slapped the telegram on the table with a strong slap, raised his eyebrows, and said angrily: "Zhao Huaiye is making a fuss. Jinzhou and Dalian are lost. Lushun has become an isolated city. Defense will only be more difficult. Doesn't he know?"

Chen Nai thought for a while and said, "Last time, Zhao Huaiye asked Lushun for support because of his weak military strength, but the Lushun generals all refused because Lushun could not afford to lose. It seems that Zhao Huaiye has to do so this time."

There are seven major commanders in the Lushun area, about 13,000 people, and no one paid attention to Zhao Huaiye's request for help.

Zhao Huaiye was chilled. He thought that if the Japanese army attacked Dalian and the generals still did not help, he would definitely not be able to resist. So he decided to do it once and for all. After sending a telegram to Li Hongzhang requesting retreat, he hurriedly led the army to flee to Lushun.

"Where is Song Qing?" Li Hongzhang asked, holding back his anger.

Zhang Peilun immediately replied: "Song Qing is still on the way and has not yet arrived in Lushun."

Li Hongzhang hurriedly took two steps in the room, thought for a while, and then stopped and said seriously: "Let Song Qing hurry up and rush to Lushun as soon as possible to coordinate the overall situation, and send a telegram to Gong Zhaoyu. If the Japanese army attacks Lushun, any general who retreats will be killed without mercy!"

Gong Zhaoyu joined the Beiyang Manufacturing Bureau in 1871, and donated money from the students to become the Tongzhi, Zhifu, and Daoyuan. In 1890, recommended by Li Hongzhang, he was the general manager of the Lushun Dockyard Project and the co-manager of the Lushun Dockyard Camp Office.

From his experience, we can get some clues. The reason why Li Hongzhang asked Song Qing to speed up is that Gong Zhaoyu was a civil servant who was promoted by donations. He was an amateur in commanding wars, combat, and training. Perhaps his qualifications could command the generals, but when facing the attack of the Japanese, he must be in a mess and had no countermeasures.

After Li Hongzhang issued an order to kill without mercy, he felt a little relieved.

Zhang Peilun wrote them down one by one. Seeing that Li Hongzhang had no more to add to the Lushun front, he handed over another telegram with a smile on his face and said, "Zhongtang, this telegram was sent by Nie Shicheng from Dagaoling. I didn't expect it to arrive at the same time as Zhao Huaiye's telegram."

Li Hongzhang saw that Zhang Peilun looked relaxed and estimated that there should be no major chaos in the war on the eastern front.

When he opened it, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but be happy.

"It was really a great victory. The troops on the eastern front not only resisted the crazy attack of the Japanese army, but also killed more than a thousand Japanese soldiers, including the major of the 10th Division of the Japanese Brigade, Takeda Hideyama, the captain of the artillery, Saito Masaaki, and dozens of other officers below the captain level. It was the biggest victory since the war began."

The deadline for his telegram was the time when Naofumi Tachimi retreated in shock. Naofumi Tachimi's subsequent attack and the loss of a large number of officers in the 18th Regiment had not been counted by even Nie Shicheng, let alone reported to Li Hongzhang.

If Li Hongzhang knew that he had won another great victory, I wonder what he would think.

In the telegram, Nie Shicheng mentioned other generals only briefly, but he mentioned a single sentence: Wei Jichen and Wei Zijie from Tianjin were sentinels in our Luyu Army. They killed Saito Masaaki, killed Takeda Hideyama, offered advice on digging trenches, and repelled dozens of attacks by the Japanese alone. They were truly great and could not be surpassed.

After reading it, Li Hongzhang was shocked. Why? Because most of the merits reported by Nie Shicheng before were done by this Wei Jichen.

"This Wei Jichen is amazing." Li Hongzhang had to admire it. Nie Shicheng dared to report Wei Jichen, a small sentinel, while others had nothing to say. This shows that Wei Jichen's merits were real, and it is possible that some of them were shared with others.

Li Hongzhang knew that this was a critical moment in the war, and that merits must be rewarded and mistakes must be punished to motivate the soldiers of the three armies. Otherwise, how could these soldiers fight to the death?

Li Hongzhang picked up the teacup on the table, rinsed his mouth with tea, then picked up another teacup, took a sip, and said with a smile: "Youqiao, please verify the military merits first, and those who should be promoted will be promoted, and those who should be demoted will be demoted."

Zhang Peilun replied yes, and then asked: "Zhongtang, this Wei Jichen, should be promoted to?"

Li Hongzhang thought about it and said: "Promote him to Lieutenant General!"

Lieutenant General is a third-rank official in the military position, and there are guerrillas, commanders, and garrisons below him. Their subordinates are called camps, which are under the jurisdiction of governors, governors, admirals, and generals. For example, Nie Shicheng is a nominal admiral, but he is actually granted the title of general of Taiyuan Town.

Wei Jichen was promoted from a lowly official to a lieutenant general after jumping several levels. This would be impossible in normal times, and it would only happen during wartime.

But with his merits, this is nothing.

Of course, it is not that Li Hongzhang said he would be promoted to a lieutenant general. He still needs to report to the Ministry of War and obtain its consent. However, with Li Hongzhang's current status, it is naturally easy to get it.

After a pause, Li Hongzhang said, "Tomorrow morning, I will report to the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, and ask for merit for my Huai Army soldiers. Let's see who dares to say that I, Li Hongzhang, have preserved my strength and the Huai Army is useless. Youqiao, please polish this battle report after you go down."

The so-called polishing is to add some more people. Nie Shicheng reported to the higher authorities that he killed more than a thousand enemies, but in fact, it would be good to have seven or eight hundred people.

After Zhang Peilun polished it, it is estimated that there will be more than five or six hundred people.

Finally, when the battle report reached Guangxu's desk, it was estimated that more than 1,500 Japanese were killed.

However, no matter how much he polished it, Zhang Peilun did not dare to make a fuss about how many Japanese lieutenants and above were killed. Those were all well-known figures among the Japanese, and it was easy to find out.

Zhang Peilun obviously understood Li Hongzhang's meaning and nodded in understanding. Then the few of them discussed other battles on the front line, and then left peacefully with a little relief.