"Every day I say that the wolf is coming, and today the wolf is finally here!"

Li Zongmo, the county governor of Taiping, felt that his life was very bitter, he was a native of Huaihua, Changsha, Hunan, and it was not easy for the officials to be divided into counties, and he was assigned to a good place like Zhejiang.

When I arrived in Zhejiang, I begged my grandfather to tell my grandmother everywhere, and finally I was assigned to Taiping County, Taizhou Prefecture, and they all said that although Taiping County is not as good as northern Zhejiang, it is also a good place in Zhejiang, even if it is not a mission to make money, there can be thousands of taels of silver in a year, not to mention that the name of this county is auspicious, Taiping Taiping, and Mrs. Taiping Ping.

It's just that Li Zongmo only thinks that this Taiping County is not peaceful at all, he was in office in Xianfeng for two years, and there were changes in Li Daliu and Li Xiaoliu in Xianfeng in three years, and he personally braved Yashi and Zhang Shoubei to quell the rebellion together, and in the fourth year of Xianfeng, Jin Qingzha gathered thousands of people because of the dispute over the water discharge, and when he rushed over, he was almost scared to death by the sea of people.

But the miscellaneous servants of the same company told him that when did Jin Qingzha not have a dispute over the water discharge, and in the first year of Xianfeng, there was even an artillery battle with tens of thousands of people participating, which is really not peaceful in Taiping County!

But these chaos, how can they compare to this year's Yueqing Red Turban Thieves Rebellion.

The rebellion of the red turban thieves started in the month of last year, and Li Zongmo didn't care about it at first, but the soldiers sent by the Taizhou government to Yueqing followed one team after another, but few came back.

The Taiping military affairs are becoming more and more urgent day by day, although Li Zongmo has made a lot of money in the meantime, but in the face of the red turban thieves who may go north, he is really restless, and he can't sleep at night.

On the 21st of this month, the people of the county had a clear rumor that the red scarf thief Liu Jiehu led thousands of troops to attack Taiping County. He urgently asked for help from Taizhou Mansion and Huangyan Town. I invited fellow Hunan villagers to run around in Hangzhou, but I only learned about a false alarm afterwards.

Huangyan Town, which was sure to be a false alarm, finally took action, and immediately sent 600 reinforcements to reinforce Taiping County, but it was better to rush than to be in time, they only arrived in Taiping County yesterday, and today the Red Thieves' brigade really killed from the west.

Li Zongmo felt that his county magistrate was really not doing too much, he finally wiped the sweat on his forehead, and asked Zhang Shoubei on the side, "Zhang Shoubei." Will Zhentai and Futai send reinforcements? ”

Huangyan Town is stationed in Huangyan, Taizhou Mansion is stationed in Linhai, from the topography, reinforcements can be sent in a short time, but Zhang Garrison has partnered with him since the second year of Xianfeng, so he has no scruples when he speaks: "Zhixian, you don't have to count on the reinforcements sent by Huangyan and Fucheng, a few days ago they deliberately mentioned the lesson of the fall of Wenzhou Town." ”

What lessons are worth absorbing from the fall of Wenzhou Town, Huangyan Town and the senior officials of Fucheng have studied for a long time and come to a conclusion, that is, they must not go out of the city to fight. The defeat of Chi Jiangong Yongjia and Zhuo Dalin's rock was that he went out of the city to fight with the Red Turban Army without knowing the enemy's situation, resulting in the loss of the entire army.

And in the most critical battle of Chashan, Wenzhou Town should not have sent soldiers out of the city to rescue Ruian City, and only then did the white elephant in the south be broken by the red turban thieves. Instead, they should fight separately and defend strictly, so that the red turban thieves have no gaps.

Therefore, Zhang Shoubei continued: "Counting on reinforcements, it's no fun!" Zhixian, you need to prepare some rewards, how can we have 2,500 soldiers in the city. There is still hope to repel Liu Juehu in a desperate battle! ”

In terms of grade, the garrison is a five-grade official, which is much higher than that of the county, but in actual operation, the county governor is no problem to command a garrison, even to command a capital division, so Li Zongmo immediately promised: "As long as the county seat is guarded." This official does not hesitate! ”

As he was talking, Zhang Shoubei shouted out of the city: "The Red Thief Brigade is here?" ”

Li Zongmo looked outside the city, and saw red flags all over the mountains, but the red turban thieves under the city silently surrounded the entire county.

The red turban thieves under the city are not the same as Li Daliu and Li Xiaoliu who were suppressed by Li Zongmo, and the military discipline is solemn, although the brigade lurks behind the terrain, but Li Zongmo thinks of the scene of being besieged by thousands of peasants at Jinqingzha last summer.

It was a chilling feeling, and looking at the red turban thief in front of him, he thought of the scene of the riverbank being blocked and intercepted by thousands of peasants who demanded to dig up the golden sluice, and at that time he suspected that the next moment he would either be beaten to death with a hoe by the angry peasants, or squeezed into the rolling turbid waves.

But after a careful look outside the city, this Li Zongmo could only see more than 100 red turban thieves setting up shotguns and cannons, preparing to attack the county seat.

He breathed a long sigh of relief, but the cold sweat on his back disappeared, and he said after a while: "Next, this official and Zhang Shoubei will guard the city together, and the red thief will never go down the city wall if he does not retreat!" ”

……

"What's going on?" Liu Chang's expression was very serious: "Doesn't it mean that there are only more than 100 Taiping battalion soldiers and hundreds of militia groups in Taiping City?" Why are there so many demons? ”

Huo Qiu told Liu Chang: "Yesterday, six hundred reinforcements were sent from Huangyan, and they just entered the city, in addition to Niu Deshun's three or four hundred remnants, and the Qing Demon transferred the Taiping camp outside the city. ”

The Taiping Battalion is the head of the battalion directly under the jurisdiction of Huangyan Town, with about 700 soldiers, but there are less than 200 people stationed in the county seat, and the rest of the troops are stationed in various flood areas in the county.

"So there's something wrong with our intelligence?" Liu Chang's expression was still very nervous: "Now there are two thousand to three thousand Qing demons in the city?" ”

"Yes!" Lu Ziyun told Liu Chang the details of the battle: "But the combat effectiveness is not strong, the pioneer company took the lead in killing, the Qing Demon deceived them with only one company, and sent five or six hundred people out of the city to solve them, but it was a tie, and Pinghai Company rushed over to reinforce and directly beat this Qing Demon back!" ”

Liu Chang nodded, the Pioneer Company and the Pinghai Company are the weakest infantry companies in the entire Rainbow Army system, but these two companies can beat the Qing army back to the county seat, presumably the combat effectiveness of the Qing army in the city will not be too strong.

What can be worried now is that there are more than 2,000 Qing troops in the city, the strength is too strong, and they are equipped with a large number of artillery left over from the early Qing Dynasty, such as red-coated cannons, camp cannons, and mountain-splitting cannons.

"I repeat, the Taiping battle is not allowed to lose, no draw is allowed, only a complete victory!" Liu Chang took out his binoculars and looked at the configuration of the city, except for Ruian County, which had a little luck, it was the first time for him to storm such a county: "When the main force of Wanjun Company and Dragon Lance Battalion arrives, we will launch an attack immediately!" ”

It's just that as soon as he finished speaking, the two officers, Yun Tianzong and Lu Ziyun, who are known as "Nanxi Shuangyun", came up to ask for battle: "Check, although there are more than two Qing demons in the city, it is enough to use our Nanxi battalion!" ”

Lu Ziyun even assured Liu Chang: "We haven't participated in a major battle since the formation of the Ox Knife Company, but please rest assured, our company must be a real Ox Knife Company, let our battalion attack first!" ”

Huo Qiu also said beside him: "The dragon spear battalion wants to protect the baggage and heavy artillery of this team, and it will take at least time to come here, before that, let the Nanxi battalion try its skills!" ”

"Good! Your Nanxi Battalion will try it first! Liu Chang gave an order: "You must pay attention to controlling casualties!" ”

"Got it!"

Unlike the defenders in the city, which were equipped with dozens of large and small artillery, only the battalion artillery company of the Nanxi battalion and a Mini rifle squad as the backbone of the battlefield now arrived on the battlefield.

The four artillery pieces were originally placed in the west of the county seat, but after Huo Qiu's order, the artillery company began to move towards the small high mountains west of the city, and the company responsible for covering the cattle knife company walked in front.

The defenders quickly noticed this, they opened the city gate, and a Qing army of five or six hundred people quickly killed it, and the red-coated cannons and camp cannons at the city gate also began to bombard to the west, and soon the bird guns and raised guns also began to bombard.

"It's really a piece of tofu in our Nanxi camp!" Huo Qiu immediately gave an order: "The second company of Nanxi is responsible for guarding the inspection point, Nanxi Company, follow me!" ”

The advance of the artillery company was not at all stopped by the inaccurate shells in the city, but they spread out their positions on the spot: "Ready, ready!" Solid bullets, solid bullets! Get ready! ”

The Cattle Knife Company, which was responsible for guarding the artillery, also launched a firing queue, and the three infantry platoons spread out three straight horizontal formations on the spot, slowly advancing, forming a mighty square formation: "Fight again when you get closer!" Hit it again when you get closer! ”

The Ox Knife Company, armed with flintlock pistols, had many veterans who had participated in the uprising of the Shanghai Little Knife Society, and they said calmly: "Fight when you get closer, and fight again when you get closer!" ”

The Qing soldiers came so quickly that as soon as they left the city, they fired shotguns, and the bullets slid past Zhou Xiuying's side, and she carried the horse chopping knife to lead the entire cattle knife company to advance with a perfect rhythm.

"Kill!" About two or three hundred Qing troops killed them with a tidal attack, Zhou Xiuying didn't seem to see the Qing army in front of her who had twice as many troops as the Niudao Company, until she could clearly see the word "brave" on the Qing army's uniform, and then she swung her knife forward with all her might: "Aim!" Put! ”

"Put!"

The rain of bullets caused the first round of casualties in the formation of the Qing army, and the Qing army in the front row knocked down a large area at once, but the infantry still rushed loudly.

It's just that their formation was quickly shattered by the artillery company that followed the Ox Knife Company, and four solid bullets almost fell into the formation of the Qing army, knocking down two or three people one after another, and at this time the Cattle Knife Company had already begun to shoot freely.

With the advantage of flintlock pistols, the firepower of the Ox Knife Company overpowered the more than 200 Qing troops on the opposite side, but the two troops began to collide together, and the white soldier battle began.

"Knife Company! Get on the bayonet! Zhou Xiuying was the first to carry a horse chopping knife into the enemy formation: "Follow me!" ”

Carrying a horse chopping knife, she was like a bamboo in the fragile Qing army, and the horse chopping knife was danced by her like a silver ring lightning, and she cut down three or four Qing soldiers one after another.

The entire Niudao Company directly stabbed the formation of the Qing army with a bayonet, but the more lethal came from the back of the Qing army. (To be continued)