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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 631: After being captured

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    "Put down your weapons and don't make any unnecessary resistance!" A slightly broken English came into Lieutenant Schmidt's ears. After raising his head slightly, Lieutenant Schmidt saw clearly that there were seven people surrounding them, wearing Taiping uniforms.  They wore camouflage uniforms unique to the military and were covered with branches. Their faces were smeared with something dark, and they didn¡¯t know what it was.  ¡î¡ú

    Second Lieutenant Schmidt's initial panic slowly calmed down. He originally wanted to resist, but thinking of his wife who was far away across the ocean, he finally chose to put down his weapon like the other two remaining soldiers.  Squat on the ground with your head in your hands.

    "What are your names, positions and tasks?" After collecting the clean weapons, a Taiping Army officer began to interrogate, but Lieutenant Schmidt gritted his teeth and said to himself in his heart, you cannot betray your compatriots and comrades-in-arms, you cannot  , absolutely not.

    "Name! Position! Mission!" The shouts rang out again, and the other two soldiers reported their names and positions, but they also gritted their teeth and did not mention their missions. Finally, Lieutenant Schmidt gritted his teeth and said: "Shi  Mitt Lawrence, second lieutenant of the 1st Regiment of Dragoons, Royal Guards!"

    "What is your mission?! I don't want to torture you, but if I don't get the answer you want, you will suffer a lot." The Taiping Army officer squatted down and glared at Shi fiercely.  Schmidt, from his eyes, Schmidt saw the ferocity like poisonous snakes.  But Schmidt still gritted his teeth. He could not betray his compatriots and comrades-in-arms. He was ready to be beaten and tortured. He was ready to fulfill his beliefs.

    "Cut off their fingers and toes one by one until they can speak!" The officer's tone was cold and cruel.  It was chilling, but Schmidt still had to grit his teeth.  But the two soldiers behind him began to cry and beg for mercy. Both soldiers had only been in the army for half a year.  Having never experienced the Crimean War, Schmidt closed his eyes in pain, preparing to accept this cruel reality.  Two Taiping soldiers rushed up and held Schmidt down. They stepped on one of his hands under his feet and put a bright bayonet on Schmidt's finger. Schmidt trembled all over, and he almost couldn't bear the fear.  Just speak out.

    But at this moment, a Taiping soldier walked up to the officer and said, "Sergeant, I found this in their document bag." He said it in Chinese.  Of course Schmidt didn't know what they were talking about, but when he saw the letter with the seal of the Allied Commander, he felt bad. He just hoped that these Taiping soldiers couldn't understand the English on it.

    Sure enough, the officer seemed unable to understand the content of the letter, but after pondering for a moment he said: "Take them and the letter information back to the battalion staff!" Schmidt still didn't understand the Chinese, but he escaped  After suffering a severed finger, he and two other soldiers became prisoners.

    After being kidnapped by Wu Huada, the three Schmidts were escorted southward by five Taiping soldiers.  In the darkness, they could only be led by ropes. After passing through a sorghum field, they crossed the canal on a single-plank bridge.  Schmidt, who belonged to the reconnaissance team of the Dragoon Regiment, swore that he had never known that there was such a single-plank bridge leading to the south.  But the Taiping Army found this place as if they were familiar with the road.

    After walking about three miles, they came to another village, and the sentry in ambush in the dark spoke a code word.  After the Taiping army leading them answered, the group was released.  Schmidt was surprised to find that there were at least a dozen Taiping soldiers hiding in the farmland and woods outside the village.  It was only after Schmidt got closer that he saw them coming out of their hiding place.  Then more than ten people came out of the village and exchanged positions with them.

    They are all lurking masters, Schmidt thought secretly. At this moment, he suddenly began to worry in his heart. The Taiping Army troops were able to lurk so close to Tianjin City. It goes without saying what their goal is.  Yu, the ridiculous General Sutton actually said that there was no sign of any Taiping activity in this area!

    After entering the village, Schmidt was escorted to a village house alone. He walked through the small courtyard unique to the village. Inside, he saw two Taiping Army officers and several thick-looking soldiers.  With his arms stretched out, a raging fire burned in the room, which looked like a torture chamber.

    After the two officers read the letter that Schmidt was supposed to send to General Napier, one of the bearded officers asked: "Is your mission to deliver the letter to General Napier?"

    Schmidt knew as soon as he heard that they had understood the content of the letter. Although ordinary soldiers may not be able to understand English, the Taiping Army had deep contacts with Britain and France, and their upper-level officers must be able to understand it, so Schmidt acted like a leaker  He slumped down like an exhausted ball and nodded reluctantly.

    The bearded officer was very excited, spoke a few words in Chinese, and handed the letter to another officer. The officer hurried out with the letter. Schmidt guessed that they were passing the letter to a higher-level command.He also knew the value of this letter, which was the same as the letter to General Sutton. It mentioned the plans of Major General Michel and General Colino to reinforce Tianjin and Tanggu. Schmidt regretted not immediately  The thought of destroying these letters.

    "Second Lieutenant, it's a pity that you can't complete your mission. You will be sent back to our rear areas and will be prisoners there until the end of the war. Don't worry, you will not be mistreated." After the bearded officer finished speaking,  The soldiers were ordered to take Schmidt down.

    Second Lieutenant Schmidt and his two soldiers were locked in a dark and smelly woodshed. Schmidt could not sleep all night, and the three comforted each other until midnight.  At midnight, the three of them fell asleep in a daze. At this moment, the door of the woodshed suddenly opened, and several Taiping soldiers holding torches took the three out. A Taiping sergeant said to them: "  Three of you, we are ordered to take you back to Nanyuan Camp."

    Walking out of the woodshed, he saw many soldiers from the entire village gathering one after another, forming a neat line and heading northwest. Schmidt knew that they were heading towards Tianjin City.

    After passing through the village, they headed southwest. When passing by a stone hill outside the village, the sergeant pointed at the dozens of new graves raised here and said: "Second Lieutenant, look at these, they are the original village  The residents were massacred by your coalition forces, and the remaining people fled to the south and never dared to come back. This is the crime committed by your coalition forces!"

    Schmidt looked at these graves in stunned silence and hurriedly explained: "God, I'm sorry, I didn't know about these things. When I was in Tongzhou, I didn't know that these things would happen near Tianjin." The other two prisoners also expressed this  Their regrets and condolences for the victims.

    The sergeant snorted and said: "We know this. After we arrived, we found out that it was your British Indian soldiers who did it. We will settle the score with them."

    Schmidt breathed a sigh of relief. After the invasion, the Indian soldiers and some French colonial troops in North Africa went from robbing things to killing innocent people indiscriminately. Schmidt had heard about it. He felt that these people had lost their lives.  Human nature, perhaps because they have been suppressed in the colony for too long, or because the residents here are easy to bully.

    After walking in the dark for several miles, the sky became even darker. Schmidt was led by a rope and walked ahead of himself involuntarily. Suddenly, patches of bright light illuminated the sky behind him, accompanied by thunderous thunder.  The sound, the pieces of light polished the sky under the darkness.

    Several Taiping soldiers escorting them cheered, and the sergeant said to Schmidt excitedly: "Look, that's when our artillery began to bombard Tianjin. The general attack will begin soon after the bombardment. We will  I will take back Tianjin from you before dawn!"

    Schmidt and the other three looked back in shock. The dense light kept shining on the horizon in the distance, as if it was the fury of thunder from heaven. It could be seen and heard even from such a distance.  , indicating that the artillery fire of the Taiping Army was very intensive.  This scene seemed familiar to Schmidt. During the Crimean War, they also shelled the Russian Sevastopol Fortress at night. Schmidt was still a sergeant at the time. He also saw it from the cavalry camp far away.  I have experienced such a situation, but now the British army is the one bearing the artillery fire.

    The Taiping Army sergeant chattered like he was showing off: "We sent many reconnaissance teams here more than ten days ago. We have already clearly investigated the military deployment inside and outside Tianjin. Your General Sutton  Very good, residents in the entire Tianjin city can come and go freely, so our reconnaissance operation was successful, and the reconnaissance team you sent mainly targeted robbery and killing and knew nothing about our existence."

    Schmidt felt a burning sensation on his face, shame and humiliation welling up in his heart. The Taiping Army was deliberately preparing to wield their swords against the coalition forces. It was ridiculous that they were still rejoicing in the negotiations in Tongzhou. Damn greed, damn blind pride, damn it.  war!

    Schmidt cursed blindly in his heart, but it was useless. From the moment he was captured, he had withdrawn from the war. He had lost the glory and possible commendations. He felt that he was not worthy of the dragoon badge.  But at least he kept his life.

    After walking for another half an hour, the Satanic fire in the sky gradually dimmed. Schmidt didn't know what the fighting situation was over there. He could only silently pray in his heart that Tongzhou's reinforcements could arrive in Tianjin as soon as possible after dawn, and Tianjin's  General Sutton and his men could hold out a little longer.  Schmidt estimated the time just now. It should have been around three in the morning when the Taiping Army launched the artillery bombardment. This was when the coalition soldiers were sleeping. God knows how General Sutton could organize his soldiers during the night raid.  degree.  The cunning Taiping rebels chose a time to launch an attack when people were most likely to relax their vigilance., this has been planned for a long time, God knows what the war will turn into.  But Schmidt is sure of one thing, it seems that God will not be on their side this time (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!
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