But the wait was so long, Liu Chang vaguely watched the French herald finally run to the front line in the night, but he didn't know what fate would say.

The strength of the French army was unexpected, but no matter how strong the French army was, he was determined to be the final victory, even if he lost the battle today.

The gunfire suddenly intensified, and both the Hong army and the French army were fighting to the death, and then the gunfire suddenly stopped.

The battle is over!

"They retreated?"

"Yes, His Royal Highness King Yan!" Zhu Jinlei answered Liu Chang's question: "Strictly speaking, it's not a retreat, it's a truce!"

True, the French did not retreat, they still did not retreat a single step on the original front, but the whole battle stopped, and both sides restrained their emotions.

And then there are a few figures sheltering the wounded and corpses, although it is already dark, but no one dares to stop such actions, because only today is the best moment, if it is delayed until tomorrow after dawn, maybe many people will not live to that moment.

"What a brutal battle!" Liu Chang no longer considered why the French army suddenly stopped attacking, they were only one step away from today's victory, which may be a puzzle: "Why did they retreat!"

No matter what kind of mystery it is, it means that this is a good thing that cannot be better, the two sides have a truce, then the Hong army can reorganize the troops, Zhu Jinlei answered Liu Chang's question next to him: "It doesn't matter why the French retreated, how did Guan Jian seize these few hours." Rebuild the troops!"

That's right, Zhu Jinlei used one word, and that is "reconstruction". Today, the Rainbow Army has invested five infantry battalions and several directly subordinate units, with a total strength of more than 3,000 troops, but the casualties are also staggering. According to Liu Chang's estimates, there are at least seven or eight hundred people, and in this case, many units are on the verge of collapse.

Then it is necessary to seize today's night time to let the troops on the front line withdraw, and at the same time rebuild the rear guard troops, so Liu Chang directly ordered: "Order the troops, withdraw from Fengjing Town." Go back to Jiaxing Mansion!"

"Don't want Fengjing Town?" Nan Bohang was covered in blood, and he walked back with a body of dust: "Check, don't want Fengjing Town?" ”

"Don't do it, leave it to solve it next time, today at least one company of Russians broke into Fengjing Town, in this case, it will take too much time to deal with the enemy forces there. Let's go back to Jiaxingfu, that's our home field!"

That's right, unlike Fengjing Town, although Jiaxing Mansion has not been controlled by the Hong Army for much time, it is after all the area ruled by the Hong Army. Not only can it collect food, mobilize people, but even some local troops can use it, Liu Chang made this judgment without hesitation: "We don't have much time!" Zhu Jinlei!"

"In!" Zhu Jinlei had already straightened up and sailed towards Nan Bo with a military salute: "I will follow Nan Staff Officer in the future!"

"This is a good seedling!" Liu Chang didn't say anything: "You give me more pointers!"

The next question is how to organize the reconstruction at night, and now that there are five infantry battalions and a large number of wounded on the front, it must be a sleepless night.

For this battle of Fengjing Town, where both sides invested tens of thousands of troops, it ended in such an ending, and both sides declared themselves victorious in the future.

According to the French, they succeeded in capturing the town of Fengjing, dealing a heavy blow to these Chinese rebels' attempts to seize Shanghai, one of the greatest victories in the history of the French Expeditionary Force.

And according to the Rainbow Army, this battle bought time for the whole war and dealt a heavy blow to the French and Russians, but this was not the case. ..., but the French never attacked, and in the previous night, after making sure that they had not left behind the wounded or the corpses, they had retreated a full hundred meters.

The 100 meters had been captured by them with untold sacrifice and blood, but they did not hesitate to retreat, and if any officer dared to question this decision, the soldiers would not hesitate to kill him.

The French soldiers had already paid too much blood for this battlefield, and the French even suspected that the collection of this blood would completely fill a large lake, and it was for this reason that the French soldiers would retreat spontaneously.

In fact, the same is true of the Rainbow Army, who also retreated and regrouped, but in the early morning they had already begun to move back.

This is a large marching army, there are thousands of wounded in the queue, in order to carry these wounded, Liu Chang has ordered to abandon a part of the baggage and even the captured Qing artillery, and urgently mobilized a large number of people, mules and horses from Jiaxing Prefecture, even so, the speed of the march still seems very slow.

However, this is also a helpless thing, Liu Chang knew that he was in a hurry, he just ordered to Nan Bohang: "Tell the reserve brigade that in order to save Yu Lingdong's head, it is necessary to ensure that the whole army withdraws to Jiaxing Mansion in time!"

Although the reserve brigade had considerable casualties, among the various units, it was the one with smaller casualties and a more complete structure, and Zhu Jinlei said: "Keep your head? What does this mean? ”

Nan Bohang glanced at Zhu Jinlei, he could see that this Zhu Jinlei was a good seedling, but he was too expressive and too showy: "Brigade Commander Yu must be the old man of the teaching regiment!"

"I know that he is the old man of the teaching group, the old leader of the teaching group, can I not know!"

Speaking of which, this is also the usual style of the teaching regiment system, which can fight public security wars, but cannot fight field battles, Liu Chang said: "If you can ensure that the whole army withdraws, at least you can keep his head, if not, I can only learn from Zhuge Liang......"

And Zhu Jinlei put forward a suggestion: "His Royal Highness King Yan, this time our army dispatched more than ten battalions of infantry, although the siege of Changzhou Mansion was relieved, but the casualties were also large, and the battle with the Yi soldiers was equal, I don't think we can fight like this anymore, this will wipe out the blood of our Hong army......

"We can get in touch with the French!"

Get in touch with the French? This is the sign of an armistice, Liu Chang hesitated.

……

"That's the only one who has it?"

Meng Toban's face turned pale all of a sudden, and he glanced at the group of French soldiers standing in front of him, he remembered that there were at least eight hundred allied troops sent in the direction of Fengjing Town, and almost half of them were French.

But now, there were less than a hundred men standing in front of Major General Mentoban, and their commander was only a captain, who cried and said, "Except for the seriously wounded, all the ammunition that can move is here...... It's all here!"

He sobbed and said: "The major has been guarding us for nearly a week, we have fought with Chinese with bayonets countless times, and we have exhausted all means to wait for your arrival, but Your Excellency the Major died in a glorious battle, and there are only so many people who can continue to fight......"

Meng Toban took out a handkerchief and wiped the corners of his eyes, he didn't expect that a trip to the East would pay so many losses, considering the losses of the rescue force, he had a feeling that he couldn't fight.

Twenty-four hours ago, he had no such defeatist mood at all, and he had never thought that these Chinese rebel forces would have much combat effectiveness, even if they were armed with some European-style weapons and had some superiority in numbers.

But yesterday's battle made him see the possibility of defeat, knowing that five French infantry battalions were disabled, not a single company was unscathed, and the losses of the entire rescue force exceeded 800 people, of which as many as 170 were killed in battle. ..., if this were the Crimea, such a loss would be understandable, but it was just an expedition that did not receive much support from the domestic population at all, and considering the considerable losses, Major General Mentoban felt that he would be a sinner in a court-martial.

But soon, he put such a feeling of defeat in his mind, and he clearly knew that he could not have any more emotions of failure, and that the fate of the empire was decided by His Majesty the Emperor alone.

If he will be scolded by the citizens of France, then whatever, His Majesty the Emperor will not want to see a defeatist commander, so Montoban quickly shouted to these survivors: "Although there are many sacrifices, I have to pay my respects to you, this is another great victory in French history......"

"You faced more than 20,000 well-armed rebels, faced with extreme difficulties in the face of lack of ammunition and food, faced with ineffective friendly forces, fought to the last moment, killed and wounded more than 10,000 rebels, and forced the rebels to flee, this is the greatest victory......"

"But this is only the beginning of the numerous victories of the great Chinese expedition, and we will avenge you, and I promise you that I will put it into practice," said Major General Meng Toban, "but this is only the beginning of the numerous victories of the great Chinese expedition, and we promise to put it into practice......"

He told his poor men: "There are now four battalions of French soldiers who have landed in Shanghai, and the arrival of a battalion of Russian troops in Shanghai at the same time brings even greater good news, and in the next two months there will be six battalions of French troops, plus 2,000 Russian troops." ”

That is why Major-General Montoban stopped the attack yesterday, he had already estimated that the reinforcements numbered a total of ten French infantry battalions and five Russian battalions, and that he could get some reinforcements.

Moreover, His Majesty the Emperor had promised him to earmark 700,000,000,000,000 gold francs from the treasury to support the expeditionary force, and with so many resources, he would be able to completely conquer the entire Golden Country.

But before that decision, he had to think about a truce with the Chinese before the arrival of the army.

No problem, truce problem! (To be continued) RQ