Northwest Army

  "Look, these people all starved to death collectively, probably committed a serious crime and were sent here. In ancient times, those who committed crimes were sentenced to death, of course, some people, in order to save time, let them fend for themselves. The bald man said in a hoarse voice, his face still twisted in pain."

  As I gaze upon this mountain of corpses, I deliberately ignore the terrifying expressions on their faces and examine their attire, thinking of a serious issue.

  "We've all overlooked a very serious problem, they're not ancient people." I pointed to the clothes on the bodies and said, "The clothes these people are wearing are like..."

  Late Qing Dynasty clothing.

  "My goodness, these people are wearing modern military uniforms." Xiao Shou's eyes were fixed on the corpses, and he was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

  The bald man touched his shiny forehead, and his eyes suddenly lit up. He exclaimed, "This is a military uniform! Look at this, it doesn't look like the Japanese devils' army, but rather somewhat like the Northwestern Army."

  "What's the Northwestern Army?" I was stunned and couldn't react, in junior high school, I had never heard of this army before, and there was no such army in history, not even when I spent my free time on various forums.

  Then the thin monkey snorted from his nose, looked at me and sneered: "When you were studying, where did those dog-fart textbooks have relevant information about the Northwest Army? They were all deceiving minors."

  The bald man also looked at me with a puzzled expression, then twisted his face and asked, "Then you should know about Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army."

  "Did the Beiyang Army just become the Northwestern Army after its collapse?" As soon as I spoke, I felt that my idea was wrong. I clearly remembered that the Beiyang Army split into various local warlords, namely the Anhui clique, Zhili clique, and Fengtian clique. The Anhui clique's Duan Qirui, with Japanese support, controlled Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian...

  The Beiyang Army will never become the Northwestern Army.

  Then, the thin monkey nodded slightly in my disheveled and affirmative gaze, holding his belly and laughing, saying very unkindly: "After the fall of the Northern Army, after Yuan Shikai's death, some scattered ones indeed became the Northwestern Army."

  "The Beiyang Army was divided into two stages. At first, the Beiyang Army led by Li Hongzhang was just to resist war." said Xiao Shou Hou with narrowed eyes.

  After the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing dynasty began to establish a new-style army to make up for the losses of the war. Initially, Hu Yufen trained ten battalions of the Dingwu Army in Tianjin's Xiaozhan area. In October 1895, Hu was transferred to be the director of the Tianjin-Lu Railway, and Yuan Shikai took over as the new director of the newly established army, taking charge of the Dingwu Army, which was later renamed the New Compiled Army. The main officers were composed of Yuan Shikai's friends and relatives, graduates of the Beiyang Military Academy, and old members of the Huai Army. In 1899, it was incorporated into the Wuyi Army and became the Right Wing of the Wuyi Army. This batch of troops participated in the Southeastern Mutual Protection Movement during the Eight-Nation Alliance War, preserving their strength, and therefore did not suffer heavy losses like other Wuyi Armies. The intact Dingwu Army became the only new military force left in northern China after the Boxer Rebellion. In 1902, it was renamed the Standing Army, planning to have two divisions on the left and right, but later expanded to three divisions. In 1904, it joined the national new army reorganization (planning for 36 divisions nationwide), and the Standing Army expanded to six divisions, renamed from the First Division of the Army to the Sixth Division of the Army. Originally under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of Zhili and the Minister of Beiyang, it was called the North China Six Divisions, also known as the Northern Army.

  These things are what I saw on the Tiexue Military Forum, about some related events of the Beiyang Army. It's probably like this, but whether it's true or not, I don't know.

  "How did it evolve into the Northwestern Army?" I asked Xiao Shou Hou.

  The thin monkey smiled and said, "You know Yuan Shikai, you should also know Chen Suan."

  I shook my head, Yuan Shikai was a bit of an intelligent person who knew this, but who was Chen Suan again? I searched hard through the knowledge in my brain, and there was no such figure.

  The thin monkey patted my shoulder, with a look in his eyes like a teacher looking at a student, and began to explain: "Chen is actually Yuan Shikai's trusted subordinate. He is not a talented person in troubled times, but was born poor and had been afraid of poverty for too long. As soon as he took office, he embezzled military pay, levied heavy taxes, forced people to grow opium, and indulged in sensual pleasures. Due to Chen's misdeeds, everyone turned against him."

  "It's said that the downfall of the Northern Warlord Army has something to do with Chen Suan," Baldy interjected.

  "After Yuan Shikai's death, most of the Beiyang Army lost their leader and eventually split into many factions, with the Northwestern Army being one of them. The soldiers of the Northwestern Army either died heroically for their country, became Japanese traitors, surrendered, or converted to Christianity, just like a chaotic game of cards where everyone is fighting each other.

  Little Monkey's eyes shifted towards the mountainous pile of corpses, his gaze slightly blurry, like a mouse's sharp stare fixed on the bodies, as if trying to find some clues through them."

  "So how did these troops end up here?" I asked.

  A collective death happened here, which is already very strange.

  "Do you know? Chen Suan is a local rascal, he's done all sorts of shady things, as long as it makes money, even if it's morally wrong. Digging up graves is nothing new to him, you should know that his ancestors were bandits." Xiao Shou Hou shrugged and smiled casually.

  "How could there be no record of it? The military mobilized on such a large scale, and the news couldn't be suppressed, it's unscientific." I stared at those bizarre corpses, feeling incredulous.

  If such a large number of troops were mobilized to handle the matter, passing through Guizhou Province, how could it be that there would not be any records at all?

  At this time, Xiao Shou Hou smiled wryly, his mouth corners twitching terribly, and his entire face was twisted into a somewhat ferocious expression. At first glance, it looked similar to the dead bodies' facial expressions, which scared me stiff, staring at Xiao Shou Hou's face without moving.

  The thin monkey found my expression extremely strange and subconsciously asked: "What's wrong with you?"

  He said this with a cautious look in his eyes, and was very careful, as if he feared I was a bad person, just like the previous hundred-handed creature that had turned into white bones. My heart felt a sense of vigilance - could it be that this kid still suspects me?

  I couldn't help but ask after Little Skinny Monkey's ancestors in my heart, and almost jumped up to fight.

  Before I could make any move, the thin monkey already had a Swiss knife in his hand. Seeing this, I suddenly lost my courage and didn't know whether to draw my gun or what to do.

  To be honest, I really don't have the guts to shoot at a face that looks like a small monkey's, and whether or not I should kill someone is something I just can't bring myself to do.

  Right after that, the thin monkey gave me a cold look with a hint of mockery in his eyes. Then, holding that brightly polished Swiss knife, he walked towards the mountainous pile of corpses. I let out a sigh of relief.

  It wasn't until then that I noticed Lao Gan had already walked up to the corpse and was solemnly flipping through it.

  "We can find some clues about how to get into the Bronze Gate from these corpses." Baldy said, continuing to rummage through the corpse.

  It seems that the corpse he was moving was pulled down from the top layer, and Xiao Shou also thought this method was suitable. From the top of his head, he used force to pull down a corpse and said: "You're just standing there stupidly, you have to find a way in quickly, they've all gone in for so long, by the time we get in, I reckon we'll only be picking up what's left over."

  After all this talk, it still comes down to money.

  "You said there's only one way in, didn't you?" I asked slowly as I moved my feet forward, full of doubt.

  The bronze door will not be opened again, because there is no Longevity Bowl. Even if we take a cannon to blast the isolated Longevity Bowl, it may not be opened with that crystal-clear isolation stone. Even if it's blasted open, those two bowls might shatter.

  "There's something." The thin monkey dug out some jewelry from the corpse, rings.

  He took the ring and examined it closely, finally bursting into loud laughter: "This thing is probably from the Han Dynasty."

  After finishing speaking, he put the ring into his own pocket, with a satisfied look.

  "Find some weapons, the road ahead will be more thrilling." Baldy found a few guns, tried them out, and they were still usable, better than going empty-handed.

  I held my breath, imitating their movements, and tightly grasped the arm of the corpse. The feeling was not at all like that of a dead person, but rather like the skin of a young girl. I didn't know what kind of thing in this mausoleum could keep these corpses from decaying. With all my strength, I pulled, and the corpse fell backwards towards me. Luckily, I reacted quickly, or else I would have been crushed. Just thinking about the smell of that sewer was making me want to vomit.

  "What the heck are you doing, trying to be rude? Even if you want to be rude, don't make such a big commotion." The little monkey pushed aside the corpse on its body and rushed over to hit me. As it ran halfway, it suddenly tripped and fell.

  "Blast the corpse..."

  The thin monkey let out a sharp cry, and his words made my neck tense up.