After listening to Colonel Volkov's speech, Colonel Otsu Yuki was the first to despise the polar bear in his heart.

Colonel Yuki Otsu was also a soldier who fought along the way. It was not an exaggeration to have experienced many battles. Naturally, it could be heard that Volkov deliberately exaggerated the number of enemy troops.

Because an army of about 500 people is definitely not a figure. The Eight-Nation Alliance captured Dagukou on June 17. It has been nearly three months since now. The Qing army has been disbanded. It is unlikely to maintain an army of about 500 people. Moreover, without stable logistics support, it cannot support such a long time. Of course, if the Qing army relied on looting, it would not be impossible to survive, but this would inevitably cause unchanged movement. Under the eyes of the coalition forces, it would be impossible to find out.

According to Otsu Yuki's interpretation of Volkov, the number of the Qing army is likely to be only more than one hundred, and it is absolutely impossible to exceed two hundred. Of course, it is normal to have a few Maxim machine guns. Because only in this way can this Qing army survive near Dagukou for such a long time without being discovered by the coalition forces.

However, Yuki Otsuki did not see the combat effectiveness of the Qing army, and did not believe that more than 100 Qing troops, or up to 200 Qing troops, could successfully ambush more than 80 Russian soldiers and kill more than 70 Russian soldiers. But Yuki Otsuki had his own explanation for this, that is, this Qing army must have received help from the people.

Unlike other countries, Japan and China can indeed be regarded as close neighbors, and their exchanges can be reversed to the Han Dynasty. Therefore, their understanding of China is much deeper than that of Western imperialism. Moreover, since Japan began the Meiji Restoration, it has regarded China as an object of conquest and plunder. Many Japanese scholars and soldiers have also made very profound research on Chinese history and culture, and Yuki Otsu is one of them.

Through the study and understanding of Chinese history and culture, some Japanese scholars, including Yuki Otsu, came to such a conclusion that they can look down on the Chinese emperor, ignore Chinese officials, and look down on the Chinese army, but they must not underestimate the Chinese people. Although the Chinese people are weak, cowardly, and bullied, they can only swallow their anger and accept it, but when they are suppressed and desperate, the power they burst out is extremely terrible. This has been reflected many times in Chinese history. Whether it is the extremely powerful Han Dynasty, the glorious Tang Dynasty, the invincible Yuan Empire, the predecessor of the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Empire, which once traversed all over the world and dominated the Ming Empire, they all died directly or indirectly in the peasant uprising in China, including the current Xiangqing Empire, which was almost lost to the peasant uprising more than 30 years ago.

In the Battle of the U-Mu War five years ago, Yuki Otsu personally experienced this terrifying power of the Chinese people for the first time.

The war between the end of the Sino-Japanese War can be regarded as the continuation of the Sino-Japanese War. After the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan. In addition to huge compensation, it also ceded Taiwan to Japan. However, this decision was strongly opposed by the indigenous people of Taiwan. Under the leadership of the general of the Qing army, Liu Yongfu, the commander of the Black Flag Army, and the indigenous volunteer army of Taiwan, they fought fiercely against the Japanese army. Because this war occurred in the end of the B after the Sino-Japanese War, it was called the war of the end of the B, and Japan called this war a war of strife in Taiwan.

However, in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, whether it was the Korean battlefield, naval battle, or Shandong battlefield, or the Liaodong battlefield, they were all powerful and invincible. The Japanese army, who had abandoned their armor and fled, faced a small number of Qing troops on the island of Taiwan, which was mainly composed of the original residents of Taiwan, and was spontaneously resisted by the last strong resistance.

On May 9, 1895, the Japanese army landed in Aodi (now in Gongliao Township, Taipei County) and encountered layers of resistance in Longenpu, Fenshuilun, Bagua Mountain, Douliu, Bazhangxi, Tainan, Buyuelou and other places. Finally, the Japanese divided troops landed in Tainan on October 6, attacking from north to south. At noon on November 6, the Japanese army attacked the Liudui Hakka Army base camp in Huoshaozhuang (now Changxing Village, Changzhi Township, Pingtung County). The Japanese army defeated the Liudui Hakka Army with relatively superior weapons and firepower, and set fire to the neighboring settlements. They returned to Ahou Street in the evening, which was the last battle of the Yiwei War. This was the case that basically quelled the low resistance of the Taiwan Volunteers and basically controlled Taiwan. But until now, the indigenous residents of Taiwan still continued to resist.

In the past six months, Japan dispatched two major divisions, namely the Guard Division and the Second Division, totaling about 7,000 people, more than 7,000 horses, nearly 100,000 military and logistics reserve troops, a total of more than 14,000 people were killed, and more than 26,000 injured, including the leading Guard Division commander, Lieutenant General, Prince Nokuhiro Kitashirakawa Miya, and Major General Yamane Nobunaga, commander of the Second Brigade. Whether it is the number of casualties or the generals killed, they are far more than the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. (Note 1)

When participating in the Battle of the U-Yi War, Colonel Yuki Otsu was still in the rank of lieutenant. He thought that on the Korean battlefield, the Chinese army easily defeated tens of thousands of regular Qing troops and annihilated the powerful Beiyang fleet. To wipe out the indigenous people on the island of Taiwan, it was not easy to win. The battle to conquer Taiwan was just an easy military walk.

But after arriving in Taiwan, Yuki Otsu realized that he was very wrong. On the way to the Japanese army, there were a large number of dense jungles and crisscrossing rivers and ditches. At some point, a large number of farmers would suddenly burst out from it. Their clothes were chaotic and there was no fighting formation. The weapons in their hands were also diverse, including new bolt rifles, old-fashioned flintlock rifles, homemade bird guns, and even local big knives, spears, and various strange farm tools. Sometimes they would use a few cold guns, or use primitive bows and arrows, as well as shuttle bullets or guns, and then they would rush up.

Although the young farmers fell in groups under the rainy guns of the Japanese army, they were endless. Time and time again, the Japanese army was forced to launch a battle formation and resist almost every few steps.

These six months of war left a very deep impression on Yuki Otsu. Until the end of the war, Yuki Otsu still couldn't understand it. Because before the battlefield began, the Qing government had completely abandoned Taiwan, and at the same time strictly ordered the governors and ministers from all over the country to prohibit the battles that supported the military and civilians in any form. Therefore, without the support of the central government, the resistance of the indigenous Taiwanese residents was simply a battle that was doomed to be impossible to win. But why did the Chinese people still survive and die? Why were the Chinese army, officials, and government so unstoppable? If the Qing** team participating in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 are so desperate, can Japan still win?

Yuki Otsu was different from ordinary Japanese soldiers. He was born into a family family and received a relatively good education. After joining the army, he went to Germany as a young officer to study for three years. He was not recruited by Japan until the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. Due to his high cultural level and exposure to Western culture, Yuki Otsuki's horizons broadened his horizons and had a certain international vision. Compared with ordinary Japanese soldiers who only knew how to shout "to be loyal to the emperor" when they came, Yuki Otsuki's thinking and insights were naturally much more open-minded.

Intuition made Yuki Otsu who believed that if the reason could be found, it would help Japan conquer China smoothly. So in order to find the answer, Yuki Otsu returned to Japan and began to seriously study China's history and culture, read a large number of Chinese books, and seemed to have found the answer.

Five years later, Yuki Otsu set foot on China's land with the Eight-Nation Alliance, and a similar scene was staged again, except that the tropical rainforest on Taiwan Island was replaced by endless green gauze tents, while the indigenous Taiwanese infidels with chaotic clothing turned into Boxer people with red turbans on their heads.

It was on June 10th. The coalition forces attacked Beijing for the first time. The train they took arrived at Langfang Station. The railway was destroyed and the train could not advance. The coalition forces were stopped by the road to repair the road. But at this moment, hundreds of shouts suddenly sounded from the green gauze tents on both sides of the railway. They were wearing red turbans and holding large knives, spears, wooden sticks, shovels, hoes, and earth guns and cannons. They rushed towards the coalition forces like huge waves.

Yuki Otsu saw the wonder that would be unforgettable for his life, and later wrote in his diary:

"There are oceans of flags everywhere. This colorful ocean rises violently with the low roar, like the surging waves when a huge storm comes. The sky suddenly becomes dark, because the hot sky is covered by the flying dust. In front of countless Boxers wearing various clothes, there are leaders in white or red clothes. They do not evade movements in front of the bullets, and do not even bend their waists, but instead hold their heads high, as if they eagerly hope that their bodies will appear more eye-catching at this moment when they should avoid bullets."

"And behind them, everyone imitated their appearance, and it was even more exaggerated. Everyone was twisting their bodies, like a dance of a tribal sacrifice. A strange sound was made in their mouths, and the rhythm was sometimes obvious, sometimes chaotic, from low to high, and finally became a sharp shout. A row of people fell down in the shooting of gunfires. The sharp sound only paused for a moment, but the sharper sound then rang again, and the people behind them were in a more fierce posture. Advance. These Chinese farmers fell like fallen leaves, but they were still charging forward. They could not imagine that there were people in the world who were braver than them. 'This is not a battle, it must be a ritual, a ritual like a burial ceremony held by this nation at a certain crisis.' A coalition officer later said when chatting with me, I told him, 'This is not a ritual, this is a Chinese farmers. This situation has happened many times in Chinese history.'"

Therefore, after listening to Volkov's speech, Yuki Otsu's first reaction was: This was done by the Chinese people.

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Note 1: After the Battle of the B, the official number of casualties announced by Japan was: 515 Japanese soldiers attacked Taiwan were injured, about 164 people died in battle, and 4,64 people died due to disagreement in the land. The military husband suffered 7,000 deaths. There were 6,094 people hospitalized. However, this number was obviously unreasonable. First, the ratio of deaths and deaths was too disparate, and second, the number of deaths did not match the time of the war. But no matter what, Japan's losses in the Battle of the B were greater than those in the Sino-Japanese War of the Sino-Japanese War.

Prince Noha Kitashirakawa (—) Japanese royal family, general, the ninth son of Prince Fushimi Miyaki, and the adopted son of Emperor Takaaki. He was born in Kyoto. He went to Prussia to study and served as the head of the Lieutenant General Konoha Division. Japanese official documents said: One week after the capture of Tainan, Prince Noha Kitashirakawa Miyaki returned to Tokyo on November 4 due to malaria infection (Yoksuka Guilu), and died of illness the next day at his home.

According to Taiwan's literary and historical researcher Huang Rongluo, Prince Noku Kitashirakawa was shot and killed in Niupu Mountain in Hsinchu. At that time, his brother Prince Shizui, Tsunai, just led his troops to Taiwan to support him. The Japanese army concealed the news of Kitashirakawa's death and went south with his brother Fumimikawa as a substitute. Prince Shizui was in danger again and was seriously injured in danger. In order to keep it a secret, the Japanese side continued to carry him on a boat as Prince Noku on a stretcher in Tainan, making Tainan witnesses think that Prince Noku returned to his country seriously ill. Prince Noku Kitashirakawa was declared dead after returning to the country after returning to the country with a famous comment.

Later, Japanese officials in Taiwan erected an imperial camping monument in Niupu Mountain, where Prince Noku's death in Kitashirakawa Palace was found. Unlike the monuments elsewhere, except for the full title of Prince Noku's Kitashirakawa Palace, there is a long inscription on the back. The last sentence is: "Dropping off the horse and looking at you, you will see the desolation of the country." The monument is shaped like a cemetery.

Afterwards, including Prince Noriki Kitashiragawa Norika Shimazu Tomoko and Nagato Takeda Miyaki Gokuhiro and others went to Niupu Mountain to worship Prince Norika many times. When the Japanese Crown Prince Hirohito (later Emperor Showa) came to Taiwan, they also sent attendants to the Hsinchu Shrine to worship. From the Japanese royal family's emphasis on the Niupu Mountain Monument, it can be seen that there are special places.
Chapter completed!