March 1, 1861.

"The one who goes to the head of Lu'an City first will be rewarded!" Huaijun's second-in-command and Chun roared hard.

At this time, the Huai army had surrounded Lu'an City, and on the artillery position, the foreign instructor urged the Huai army artillery to fire fiercely at the head of Lu'an City. Flowering shells flew out of the cannon muzzle and exploded one after another at the head of Lu'an City. The defenses on the city walls were ignited by artillery fire, and billowing black smoke rose. Seeing such a battle with his own eyes, Kazuharu's eyes were red and he gave an order to boost morale.

Lu'an is Hechun's sad place, his troops are fighting against Wei Ze's troops in the Lu'an area, 20,000 people were annihilated by Wei Ze in one fell swoop, and Hechun himself escaped with a small number of guards in extreme danger.

He Chun had to flee to Jiang Zhongyuan at that time, and the imperial court put He Chun ready to be killed after he was dismissed, and Jiang Zhongyuan tried to protect him, and He Chun was pushed to the end and joined Jiang Zhongyuan's Huai army as a small soldier.

After that, Wei Ze led his troops to attack everywhere and defeated the Jiangbei camp, and Yang Xiuqing took advantage of the situation to defeat the Jiangnan camp. There are so many officers to deal with, and no one mentions Kazuharu anymore. Jiang Zhongyuan attaches great importance to Hechun, and Hechun, who is full of revenge, was promoted quickly, and now he is the second-in-command of the Huai Army.

There are wrong names, no wrong nicknames. Zeng Guoquan, known as Zeng Iron Bucket, led the Hunan army to besiege Anqing, and the Taiping Army north of the Yangtze River continued to send troops to rescue, but they were hit in front of Zeng Guoquan's iron bucket-like chain of camps. Wang Qinian, the alternate governor of the Huai army, imitated the fuse of the flowering shell provided by the British, and after the artillery imported from France was able to fire the flowering shell, the combat effectiveness of the Huai army doubled.

Li Hongzhang planned a battle plan, and the Huai army suddenly came out of Fengyang, as if it was going to attack Luzhou, but in fact it was a false shot, attracting the Taiping army to gather in Luzhou at the same time, with a small number of suspicious troops to contain the Luzhou Taiping army. The main force of the Huai army went straight to Lu'an. After Anqing was captured by the Huai army, the Taiping army south of Lu'an felt great pressure and did not dare to rescue Lu'an at all. The Huai army wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to seize Lu'an in one fell swoop.

Jiang Zhongyuan is also a bold and bold person, and he is very supportive of Li Hongzhang's bold plan. He had long lost patience with the long tug-of-war with the Taiping army on the Huai River defense line. The Huai army threw itself into this campaign.

If they could capture Lu'an with a surprise attack on Guò, the Huai army would be able to turn north and participate in the siege of Shouzhou, the most important stronghold of the Taiping army in Huainan, from the south. As soon as Shouzhou was broken, the Huai army completely mastered the Huai River Valley. Seven years ago, Wei Ze built the Huai River defense line with the strategic concept of "defending the river must defend the Huai", and this defense line has stood firm for seven years. It not only blocked the intention of the Huai army to move south, but also controlled the vast land of Huainan. It also shielded Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and provided a large amount of food and materials to Tianjing City, so that the Taiping army fighting south of the Yangtze River did not have to worry about pressure from the north.

Now, such good days will come to an end. The loss of Anqing has caused the Taiping Army to lose its strategic fulcrum, and it has also caused the Taiping Army to lose a lot of rescue elites. After the loss of Anqing, they were worried about the Huai army from the south, but they did not expect the Huai army to kill from the east with a force that broke the net. The Taiping army, which had rushed to meet the battle, was severely hit by flowering bullets, and after only one day of fighting, the defense of the city was greatly weakened.

He Chun is also experienced in the battlefield for a long time and has experience in commanding large armies in battle. How could he not see that? Therefore, he gave a heavy reward and asked the troops to strengthen the offensive and seize Lu'an in one fell swoop.

The starting position of the Hunan army was piled up with a high mountain of silver, and around the mountain, strings of copper coins were piled up in a large area. The officers also knew that if they could get it with one hit, it would be much easier for the fighters in the future. They shouted to the soldiers, "Brothers, these are all for you, take Lu'an, and immediately it will be money that will not be spent for several years." Not only can you be promoted, but everyone can go home to buy land and marry a daughter-in-law after taking the reward, how is it enough! Don't be afraid of anything, you don't have such an opportunity! ”

The soldiers had never seen so much money, and the flames of greed burned in their eyes. They had fought with the Taiping army for so long, and they could also feel that the Taiping army in Lu'an City was about to be unable to resist. Soon, the Huai army completed the rectification of the queue. The artillery of the Huai army frantically poured artillery fire on the head of Lu'an City, and before the artillery fire stopped, the Huai army completely ignored the danger of being hit by mistake, and they rushed out like a flood from both sides of the money mountain piled up with silver and copper coins. When they arrived at the city, the Huai army in formation fired fiercely at the head of the city with a dense series of shots, and the troops in charge of the siege stepped on a large number of corpses left by the Huai army after the failure of the siege, erected a cloud ladder under the city, and began to climb quickly along the cloud ladder.

The Taiping army was obviously frightened by the Huai army's flowering shells, and the Huai army's attack completely ignored the fact that their own artillery was bombarding the city with flowering shells, but the Taiping army hid under the city and waited for the shells to pass. In the past, it was too late to catch up with the city after the Huai army's shells stopped. This time, the Taiping army also took the same response, but it was only delayed for a short time. When the Taiping army rushed to the top of the city, they saw the Huai army outside the city wall also climbing over the battlements along the ladder. The two sides erupted in shouts of killing, each carrying a weapon and began to fight on the city wall.

The Huai army fought to the death and did not retreat, and along the ladder, more Huai troops climbed to the top of the city to join the battle. The bloody hand-to-hand combat lasted for nearly half an hour, and the Huai army finally gained a foothold on the northern city wall. The Huai troops who poured into the city expanded along the city wall to both sides, and on the other hand, they set up fire caps and guns, and condescendingly opened heavy fire on the Taiping troops who came to help. After another half an hour, when the Taiping army had almost all its forces to try to recapture the northern city wall, the Huai army began a fierce attack on the southern city wall. This time the southern city wall was easily captured, with the cheers of the Huai army. The south gate of the city slowly opened, and the Huai army, which had superior forces, swarmed in from the city gate, and the defense system of Lu'an City was finally breached.

Lu'an is an important land and water area, and a lot of grain is stored. After the Huai army conquered Lu'an, it replenished grain and grass, and then turned around and began to attack Shouzhou. Shouzhou was originally based on Lu'an, and as soon as Lu'an was broken, Shouzhou became a lonely city. After the Huai army arrived at the city of Shouzhou, they tightly surrounded the city. Shouzhou is close to the Huai River, this city by the mountains and rivers can only rely on the supply of food from outside, if the outside grain can not be transported in, the city can not hold on for too long.

The good news spread quickly, and the two great victories of the Hunan army and the Huai army captured two important cities. More importantly, the Taipings' defenses to the west and north began to crumble rapidly. The cities of Tianjing and Luzhou were completely exposed to the direct attacks of the Qing army.

Emperor Xianfeng, who was becoming more and more unwell, gave an order to Mao Hongbin, the governor of Hunan, to organize an army to fight back. Guangxi should not talk about it, at least try to recapture Yongzhou and Chenzhou. Blocking the passage of the Taiping army from Lingnan into the Yangtze River valley.

Of course, Mao Hongbin knew that he couldn't do it, but when the emperor gave an order, he also felt that he had to do something. Mao Hongbin hated the rebels to the core, and he wanted to take some military action, not entirely from pressure on the emperor. R1058