The fog grew heavier and heavier, and the people who were close at hand couldn't even see each other clearly, let alone in the distance. The sky gradually brightened, and the fog only lightened a little.

"It seems that there is no need to worry about the demons appearing to us." Zhang Yingchen said in a low voice. Zhang Yingchen would not have chosen to send out a reconnaissance post several miles away in such weather. Not to mention how to present the enemy a mile away, even if it is, it is very difficult to run out a few miles in this fog to report the news. At this time, I could hear the sound of the Qing army marching in the distance, even if the fog was light, it was hazy for a few miles, and I couldn't see anything at all. The sound of marching, the noise, and all kinds of echoes make it impossible to tell how many Qing troops there were.

At 10 a.m., the Qing army's march finally ended, but it suddenly began to rain. The rain dispelled a lot of fog, but in the distance, there was a thick layer of rain in the distance, and there was nothing to be seen.

Weze's troops hid in a recess under a cliff, and the battle was about to begin, and the warriors either wiped their spears or took out their arquebuses tightly wrapped in cloth and carefully wiped them. This is the basic essence of the modern army, even if it is a weapon that cannot be hit accurately, it must be maintained and wiped. It's not that wiping it down will improve the hit rate, but it's about getting familiar with the structure of the weapon and ensuring that the weapon is ready for battle.

The sky was brighter, and Wei Ze estimated that it was about between ten and twelve o'clock in the morning, when he suddenly heard a huge sound from the direction of the Dayuan Valley, a huge dull and continuous sound, and when I heard it carefully, it seemed to be the sound of countless shouts, guns, and cannons.

"It's a fight!" After Wei Changrong said this, Teng stood up.

Weeser gave the order, "Hurry up and pack up, get ready to go out at any time!" After saying that, he also stood by the rain curtain and listened quietly. Like thunder, like the tide of the sea, the valley reverberated with an indescribable sound. Wei Ze listened carefully, and the sound lasted for a while, and then became clearer and clearer, and it was actually rushing towards the mouth of the valley of Da Yuan.

At this time, Sima and the army commanders had already ordered the soldiers to put away their equipment, Wei Ze looked at his subordinates, and ordered: "When it's time to go into battle, brothers, follow me!" ”

Five or six miles, Wei Ze and they walked in the rain for a while. Zhang Yingchen was only worried that Wei Ze would pull his brothers to block the retreat of the Qing army, but he didn't expect Wei Ze to go straight to the back of the Qing army, but to go in the direction of staying away from the Qing army. At this time, the rain was still very heavy, although there were still three or four miles away from the Qing army, Zhang Yingchen could only see the shadow of the Qing army vaguely. The attention of the Qing army was obviously concentrated in the direction of the Dayuan Valley, and they didn't even notice that a group of guys wearing robes and straw hats were quietly moving behind them.

Weser finally made it up a small slope and breathed a sigh of relief. There is a half-person deep ravine between the small slope and the official road, and the distance in a straight line is more than 40 steps. Weser lined up two pawns and two musketeers in four on the slope. The pikemen are placed after the musketeers.

The main combat strength of the Qing army is still the green battalion, and the green battalion was not allowed to use firearms in the early Qing Dynasty, let alone artillery, not even arquebuses. However, not long after the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners became decaying, and the Qing court had to give the Green Battalion firearms, and the Green Battalion, as the main force of the army in the middle of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, began to be firearmed. These firearms were later known as the three treasures of the Hunan army, "carrying guns and birds and splitting mountain cannons".

The lifting gun was a firearm with a length of more than two meters and a weight of about 30 catties, which could shoot a large piece of lead at a time, although the Manchu generals boasted that it could shoot up to 100 paces. But whoever really believes it is true is a fool. After eighty paces, the lead used as the black powder for ejaculation floated all over the sky, and nothing could be hit. A seasoned general would give the order to open fire when he was about thirty paces away from the enemy, and this was the time when the damage was at its most effective. Because of the size of the gun and the difficulty of reloading, it usually sounds once or twice in a battle.

Although the gun is not a creation with complete intellectual property rights, it is also a newcomer in the firearms industry of the Qing Dynasty. The main force of the green battalion's bird gun and the mountain splitting cannon are old guys who have been in service since the Ming Dynasty, the bird gun is the arquebus imitated by the Ming Dynasty, and the mountain splitting cannon is also called the Qianzi thunder cannon in the Ming Dynasty. It has been used for more than 200 years without improvement, which is really hard work.

Wei Ze already knew a lot about the weapons in the green camp town, and in such a heavy rain, if the three weapons advanced slowly under the cover of rain shelter, it would be of some use. But once exposed to the heavy rain, once the three weapons are rained, there is no need to consider that they can still fight normally.

Now Wei Ze has no way to contact the East King, even if he wants to destroy the Manchu Qing again, even if he is moved by the heroism of the East King, Wei Ze has no intention of sacrificing his life and forgetting death for this heavenly cause. In this situation of completely cutting off communications, directly working with the Qing army will only directly expose the Qing army to firepower. The choice of this place, which seemed to pose a small threat to the Qing army, was the result of Wei Ze's careful consideration.

Wei Ze and the others had just occupied that position, and the Qing army also appeared Wei Ze and others. In charge of guarding the valley mouth is Xiang Rong, the commander of the Northern Battalion. After getting the news, Xiang Rong was shocked.

As early as March 24, Cezanne received an edict from Emperor Xianfeng, which wrote very harsh words, to the effect that "since the rebel is surrounded, the rebel must not be allowed to flee again." If the thief escapes, I will find out where the thief ran from, and I will definitely punish him severely. ”

At this edict, Cézanne was also frightened, and he continued to send troops to carry out a diversion attack on Yong'an in the following days. But Cezanne did not expect that in the early morning of March 6, the Taiping army would highlight Yong'an in the most difficult rainy and dark night to march, thinking of Emperor Xianfeng's edict, Cezanne immediately sent Ulantai and Xiang Rong to pursue the elite together.

On April 7, Ulantai gave fierce pursuit, surrounded the rear of the Taiping army in one fell swoop, and killed 2,000 people. Ulantai, who finally made great contributions, consciously relied entirely on meritorious deeds to pass Xiang Rong, and did not take Xiang Rong in his eyes at all. He was even ready to pursue and destroy the Taiping army on his own.

Early in the morning of April 8, Ulantai was rebelling, but saw a small force of the Taiping army on the opposite side, and it seemed that this small force was actually an outpost that was returning to the head to prepare for the attack. At this time, Ulantai, who had already eaten breakfast, thought that he could replicate the victory on March 7, and without waiting for his troops to have breakfast, he led his troops into the Dayuan Valley. This can frighten Xiang Rong, who is 6o years old this year and has been in the killing field for a long time. Ulantai's move was too reckless, and it was obvious that the Taiping army was only afraid of an ambush in Dayuan. Xiang Rong couldn't catch up, so he could only lead his troops to defend the mouth of the Dayuan Valley and prepare to meet Ulantai.

Sure enough, as Xiang Rong expected, the Taiping army ambushed men and horses in the Dayuan Valley and suddenly stormed the Ulantai Division. Ulantai's forces had been crushed, and now the defeated troops were fleeing towards the mouth of the valley. And the Taiping army chased fiercely.

was about to line up to respond, and suddenly learned that a Taiping army unit occupied his rear, and Xiang Rong was scared out of a cold sweat. He didn't think about it and said, "Line up and kill the rebels in the back first." ”

Xiang Rong is responsible for protecting Ulantai's back road, but if Xiang Rong's back road is cut off, both armies will be wiped out.

"Father, I'm afraid that Ulantai's defeated army is coming." Xiang Rong's son Xiang Jixiong hurriedly reminded. In fact, there is no need to remind Jixiong, just the shouts that are getting closer and closer, and the shadows of the crowd that can be seen in the rain, Xiang Rong knows.

"Take five hundred men and kill the thieves first." Xiang Rong said to his son with a straight face.

Xiang Jixiong also felt that his father Xiang Rong's order was more reasonable, and he took a battalion of Qing troops and went straight to Wei Ze and them.

The closer he got to Wei Ze's troops, the more surprised Xiang Jixiong's heart became. I saw that the Taiping army on the opposite side was wearing thick robes and a hat on his head, and the hat was covered with straw things. They were neatly lined up behind the rocky slope, with only their upper bodies exposed. And every soldier in the front row had an arquebus in his hand. The fire caps are all under the hats, and although rain is constantly falling on the edges of the hats, there is no water leaking in the cracks of the grass-covered hats.

What made Xiang Jixiong feel even more dangerous was that these soldiers stood firmly in place in the face of the swarming Qing army, neither shooting, nor running away in fright. Xiang Rong is very proficient in musket chain shooting. Xiang Jixiong naturally learned his father's skills, and when he saw the formation of the Taiping Army, Xiang Jixiong knew that if he rushed forward so recklessly, he would only hit the muzzle of the gun.

Running to a distance of about 8o paces away from the Taiping Army, Xiang Jixiong's uneasiness became stronger and stronger, and he no longer dared to continue to move forward. stopped the Qing army, and ordered Jixiong, "Fight!" ”

There was a burst of gunfire, and the arquebuses of the Qing army opened fire. The smoke of gunpowder mixed with the fog immediately obscured the sight of the Qing army. Xiang Jixiong didn't care so much, he learned from his father Xiang Rong's tricks, and the serial muskets began to fight non-stop. Half of the arquebuses were fired in three stages, and Xiang Rong's chain shots were non-stop shots. It's equivalent to a seven, eight, or even a dozen shots. The advantage of this approach is that it can frighten the enemy with non-stop fire, and it can also carry out continuous strikes against the enemy who are approaching. The disadvantage is that the density of fire is greatly reduced.

The arquebus is a front-loading weapon, which is loaded in heavy rain, either the barrel gets water, or even the arquebus is extinguished by the rain. After such a series of shooting, Xiang Jixiong really couldn't organize a second round of shooting. Coupled with the smoke of gunpowder, he couldn't see clearly at all, and he could only stop shooting.

Xiang Rong has been fighting in the north, and he is very unaccustomed to this kind of rainstormy weather, and the bullet loading in the rain is to hide under the huge umbrella that moves with the army. The filling degree is not fast on a sunny day, and it is several times slower on a rainy day.

By the time the rain had probably cleared the smoke, the arquebus, which could be fired again, failed to fit eighty.

When Xiang Jixiong looked at the camp of the Taiping army opposite, he was surprised that the Taiping army on the opposite side not only did not return fire with muskets, but the array was still as neat as it was at the beginning.

At a distance of 8o paces, it was still raining heavily, and the shooting of the arquebus was of no use at all. Even if a few bullets flew into the Taiping army's array, the heavy rain-soaked coats and grass-covered hats were very effective in defending against lead damage.

Seeing that this round of shooting was useless, Xiang Jixiong also understood what the problem was. Not only on rainy days, but now that the humidity is so strong, the effectiveness of gunpowder is also greatly reduced. If you want to effectively kill the Taiping army, you can only rely on a distance of 4o steps, or even 3o steps.

Gritting his teeth, Xiang Jixiong ordered the Qing army, which had already been loaded with ammunition, to continue to approach. Through the rain curtain, Xiang Jixiong heard someone in the Taiping army on the opposite side shouting something, but he couldn't hear it clearly.

It was Wei Ze who shouted, and the content was simple: "Listen to my orders!" to be able to shoot. ”

Not only that, Wei Ze was already standing in the first row of the musket team, but now he pulled out his single knife and took two steps forward, and he actually stood at the front of the line. Wei Ze's right arm was stretched out, and the single knife shone in the rain. Although there was only one person, all the Taiping soldiers were in high spirits when they saw that Wei Ze, the brigade commander who was originally standing in the first row, was standing at the front.

After more than a month of training, everyone learned to follow orders before shooting, but when the Qing army stood on the opposite side and fired, the soldiers couldn't help but get nervous. Seeing that the brigade commander Wei Ze was closer to the muzzle of the Qing army than the soldiers, everyone held their breath and left the Qing army's ones aside, just waiting to listen to Wei Ze's orders.

Wei Ze's momentum seemed to be felt even by the heavens, and the rain turned smaller.

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