The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Edo is the old name of Tokyo. At that time, it was still the territory of the Shogun, while the nominal supreme ruler of the Japanese, the Emperor of Japan, was hiding in Kyoto.

At this time, a great battle was taking place outside Kyoto, or to be more precise, a one-sided massacre.

Rows of Tang army musketeers wearing red cotton armor knelt on one knee at the forefront of the battle formation, raised their muskets and fired at the same time!
Flames spurted out from the muzzles of guns, and a group of Japanese soldiers who were fleeing with flags hanging behind them were knocked to the ground one by one.

Screams and cries came one after another!

Tang Jun, kneeling on one knee on the ground, skillfully pulled down the trigger guard, causing the locking bolt behind the chamber to fall, revealing the chamber. He then took out the loaded bullet from the ammunition box at his waist, loaded the bullet, pulled up the trigger guard, raised the gun and fired.

The Japanese who were surrounded in the center of the battlefield fled around like headless flies. It was not that they did not want to fight back, but the gap between the weapons of the two sides was too big. They were simply products of the same era. The matchlock guns in their hands were like fire sticks and were useless.

As for why the Tang army had to kneel on one knee to shoot, there was no other way. The Japanese were too short and they couldn't hit anyone if they stood up.

Under the banner with the Chinese character "Tang" on it, the mighty general Feng Tang put down his telescope and shook his head slightly: "How can this be called a war? This is clearly a massacre. No, it is the slaughter of animals!"

Liu Xianglian also put down the telescope and said with a smile: "Don't insult the animals. The animals can eat, but can they eat?"

Feng Tang was stunned when he heard this, it seemed to make sense.

Liu Xianglian: "I don't think there will be any more reinforcements. Let's just attack the city. Take down Kyoto City, pack up the Japanese royal family and load them onto the ironclad ship. Send them directly to the sea near Shanhaiguan and use fishing boats to bring them ashore. This will save a lot of time."

Feng Tang smiled and nodded.

In order to send the Japanese royal family to the capital to perform a dance for Li Hu before the Spring Festival, after clearing out the Japanese forces on Kyushu Island, they took a direct sea route, landed at the place closest to Kyoto, and attacked Huanglong directly.

A month ago, the Tang army wiped out 15,000 shogunate troops who had come from Edo near Kyoto, and then surrounded and attacked the reinforcements, successively annihilating several Japanese reinforcements that came to support Kyoto. The largest had about 1,500 people, and the smallest had less than 300 people, not enough to withstand a round of volleys from the Tang army's musketeers.

It can be seen that the battle in Liaodong did indeed cause great damage to the Japanese, leaving them with no ability to resist.

This group of Japanese troops flying under the banner of Choshu Domain was the largest Japanese reinforcement force seen recently, with nearly two thousand people, enough for the Tang army's musketeers to fight several rounds.

Feng Ziying, who was chewing beef jerky out of boredom, suddenly felt a chill in his nose. He looked up and saw large flakes of snow falling from the sky covered with dark clouds.

"Snowing."

Feng Ziying stretched out a palm to catch the falling snowflakes, looked at them carefully, and then said with a smile: "The snow in Japan is exactly the same as that in our Tang Dynasty."

Hearing what he said, Feng Tang stretched out his palm as big as a palm leaf fan to catch the snow falling from the sky. A large snowflake landed in his palm. He exclaimed, "It's exactly the same!"

Liu Xianglian smiled, they are indeed father and son!
At this time, the sound of muskets on the battlefield gradually became sparse and then stopped.

Liu Xianglian immediately ordered the two generals beside him: "Go to the artillery position, order all artillery to continue firing, and smash the Japanese turtle shells for me!"

"Yes!" The two generals immediately rode their horses towards the artillery position.

Feng Ziying smiled: "We will definitely be able to capture Kyoto before dusk."

Feng Tang shook his head: "It won't take that long. We can probably take the city in an hour or two."

Liu Xianglian nodded. After more than ten days of fierce bombardment, the walls of Kyoto City had become riddled with holes and some places had collapsed. As long as they concentrated their artillery fire on one place, they could quickly break into the city.

The artillery fire that shook the heaven and the earth rang out!
After an unknown amount of time, cheers were heard from the front lines: "The city has been broken! The city has been broken!"

Feng Tang took out his pocket watch and checked it. It was not yet noon. He smiled bitterly and said, "Times have changed!"

Feng Ziying continued: "Not to mention the capital, important cities like Xuzhou, Luoyang and Jinling still need to be attacked like ants, with piles of human lives."

Feng Tang couldn't hold back his expression: "What are you talking about! Why don't you just go and massacre the city?"

Feng Ziying drew the long sword from his waist, swung it with a cold light, and led his troops to charge towards the gap in the city wall.

At this time, the Mongols had already rushed in!
Liu Xianglian looked at the gap in the city wall and asked: "Why did the emperor issue such an imperial decree?"

Feng Tang also looked at the collapsed part of the city wall and said: "Whether it is to vent anger or to kill a chicken to scare the monkey, we should just obey the order. There is no need to cause trouble for ourselves."

Feng Ziying nodded, and Li Hu gave them an imperial decree to attack the Japanese capital and leave no one alive in Kyoto except the Japanese royal family.

At this time, the capital was still clear and blue, and the sky was beautiful. Luhe Posthouse is located outside the east gate of Tongzhou City, on the west bank of the canal. It is also called Luhe Water Horse Posthouse.

From the northeast to the capital, after entering Shanhaiguan, one would pass through Luhe Posthouse before entering the capital; and from the capital via the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to the southern cities along the canal, one would also pass through Luhe Posthouse. In addition, foreign envoys and vassal states who came to the capital to pay homage to the emperor would also stay here first, and be greeted by officials from the Ministry of Rites and accompanied to the capital.

This shows the importance of Luhe Post Station.

At this time, there was an extra railway track in front of Luhe Post Station, with no end in sight, like a giant black dragon lying across the ground.

Both sides of the railway tracks were densely packed with imperial guards holding breech-loading rifles with bayonets.

The perimeter of the cordon was already filled with ordinary people waiting to watch the excitement.

Today, Datang's first train will be officially tested and unveiled.

Not only did all the people from Tongzhou come, but many people from the capital and surrounding areas also came.

Li Hu also came and was standing in front of Luhe Posthouse talking to Jia Baoyu.

Jia Baoyu ran away from home and was captured by Zhou Rui and his men. On the way, he met Li Hu, who followed him shamelessly.

Li Hu looked at him and smiled: "You are really good, you won the prize in one try!"

Jia Baoyu's face turned red.

The little fat man smiled secretly. After all, the truth could not be hidden. The Shi family soon knew about the incident. Fortunately, Lady Jia's face still worked, and Miss Wang would enter the family as a concubine, so the Shi family swallowed their anger.

But who would have thought that Miss Wang was pregnant. The two wives of the Shi family could not swallow this breath, and they did not care about Lady Jia's face, and they went straight to the door and demanded an explanation from the Jia family, causing chaos. Not only did Lady Jia faint from anger, but Jia Zheng was so ashamed that he hanged himself, and almost caused a death.

In the end, Jia She came out to mediate and promised that whether it was a boy or a girl, they would be adopted by the Wang family to continue the bloodline and inherit the family business. Only then did the Shi family give up.

In fact, it is no wonder that historians would react so strongly. The two families had an engagement, but Jia Baoyu gave birth to a illegitimate son, which was a slap in the face of historians.

Jia Baoyu was afraid of being beaten, so he wanted to run to Qi Guan's farm to avoid the spotlight.

Li Hu: "What are your plans for the future?"

Jia Baoyu just opened his mouth but no sound came out.

Li Hu smiled, it was indeed the same Jia Baoyu.

"You should go to the Imperial Academy to study first. When your father's anger has subsided, you can come back and admit your mistake."

Jia Baoyu was silent for a moment, then nodded.

Li Hu: "If you have achieved honors, your father won't be able to beat you."

Jia Baoyu's eyes lit up: "Really?"

The little fat man spoke: "The court has regulations that scholars with honors must be respected. If you pass the imperial examination, you are eligible to enter the government." At this point, he smiled and said, "Second Master, your father is now a commoner."

Hearing this, Jia Baoyu's eyes brightened even more!

Li Hu was slightly stunned. Would this kid go to take the imperial examination to avoid being beaten?

Wang Daniu said softly, "Here it comes."

Li Hu looked over.

In the distance, black smoke billowed, followed by bursts of clear whistles.

Amid the exclamations of the onlookers, a black locomotive spewed black smoke and slowly approached, dragging several carriages.

Li Hu's eyes flashed. The new locomotive test was successful. Railroad tracks can be laid between major cities. (End of this chapter)