Bao Meiying's words were full of murderous aura, she had never had such an aura, at this moment, her eagerness to fight was probably better than anyone. 1――

It was not that Meng Toban gave up the disappointment of fighting against him, not because he had spent 100,000 man-days, a month and hundreds of thousands of silver yuan on the fortress for useless work, but a worry, an unforgettable worry.

Suddenly, Liu Chang rushed from Hangzhou to Jiaxing Mansion with only one infantry battalion to try to rescue Suzhou Mansion in crisis, should be in this mood, right?

Listening to the officers who participated in the war at that time, this was almost the most dangerous moment in Liu Chang's military career, Liu Chang was almost about to take more than a dozen of his guards and cavalry to go up to fight hand-to-hand in person, at that time he did not have any troops around him, and the guns and shells of the French army flew by Liu Chang's side like raindrops.

In such a scene, Bao Meiying felt that tears would slide through her eyes, and there were no tears, because she had to be strong!

Just as Liu Chang did for her at the beginning, she also wants to repay Liu Chang with a perfect performance.

……

"Damn the Chinese people, tell these damn Chinese people, hurry up, speed up the action!" Instead of riding a horse, Montoban took a cane and gave a loud order among the French infantrymen: "If they can't catch up, I'll give them a taste of the guillotine." ”

His adjutant said behind him: "Pan has urged his troops to speed up their movements, and the rest of the [Chinese] government forces, it is difficult to count on them." ”

Pan Dingxin's Huai army unit can be said to be the most trusted unit of the French army, so Meng Toban glanced back at the marching queue, only to see the same color of blue military uniforms and red breeches, one after another tricolor flags, artillery wagons and baggage in the middle, within a radius of more than ten kilometers are the French army's marching column.

The rain and snow came at an inopportune time, and many roads turned into mud after being trampled by a large number of mules, horses, carts, and infantry, and many red breeches turned into mud. And the most worrying thing is the speed of the Chinese government army.

Although they have never been big about these "Chinese" government troops, even if they are standing on their horses, they cannot see the uniforms of any "Chinese" infantrymen, and they are pulled far away. Only the Huai army, which has the strongest combat effectiveness, can barely keep up with the pace of the French army, and if the current marching speed is at this rate, it is only a matter of time before the Huai army falls behind.

Therefore, Mentoban felt that he regretted it very much, and that he should have left all these Chinese government troops to play with that lovely little girl, instead of allowing them to collapse on the march.

"It has to be accelerated, it has to be accelerated!" Montoban hammered hard with his cane on the muddy pavement: "I don't care if he's French or Chinese, Corsican or Lorraine. They have to speed up, and only if they speed up can we get a perfect game!"

An old colonel questioned: "It cannot be a perfect one, you have put the infantry battalion of Major Raymond Jr. in extreme danger, I do not think that he can withdraw without loss, we should throw our swords and top hats into the enemy's position, and then rush up to take it ourselves." ”

To this old colonel, whose mind was still stuck in the Napoleonic era, Montoban angrily pointed out the facts: "What do you say. You must know that in Suzhou Province, the enemy forces of two infantry brigades have built an extremely strong position waiting for us, even if we break through this position at a terrible cost, what is the use? The enemy's main force is in Jiaxing Mansion, and I came to China to destroy them!"

His tone was passionate and tragic. The old colonel felt that he could not organize a good vocabulary to deal with it, and he mentioned it anyway: "But Little Major Raymond ......"

"Enough!" Mentoban took his cane and said, "History will prove my classic ......"...,

It's just that as soon as he finished speaking, there was a sludge-covered fast horse behind him with the chill of the north that went straight to the heart of Major General Mengtoban: "Major Raymond reported that the rebels had seen through their disguise, and early this morning, first put in an infantry regiment to test the attack, and then put in four infantry regiments about ten infantry battalions. Organize the troops to break through to the west and join the Russians......" As soon as the old colonel, who was about the same age as Mengtoban, heard the news, his eyebrows fluttered, and his face showed the meaning of "I am not wrong at all", and his mouth also said: "Little Raymond is dangerous, he only has an infantry battalion and two artillery batteries that are not fully manned, while the enemy has two whole infantry brigades. Two infantry brigades!"

"Trust him!" Mentoban pulled out his cane from the mud and stepped into the mud with both feet: "Order the troops to speed up, we are advancing towards London, that's right, we are advancing towards London, soldiers, I stand with you!"

The morale of the entire French army suddenly became high, and some French officers and soldiers even shouted: "Your Majesty the Emperor!"

"Joan of Arc!"

"Long live Napoleon!"

……

With such shouts one after another, Montoban stroked his commander's cane and assured his men: "We only need to hold out for another day, and then we can easily break the main force of the rebels, and then we ......"

"Let's go home!"

At this moment, sporadic gunfire rang out in the south, and it was the vanguard troops of both sides that engaged in fire.

……

"Montoban is coming......"

First, the cavalry detachment told that there was a considerable force advancing southward, and then all kinds of intelligence began to gather to Liu Chang's headquarters.

It was indeed unexpected by most of the personnel of Liu Chang's command, but fortunately, the headquarters had prepared a plan to deal with it in advance: "Trying to find out the direction of the enemy's attack, and the scale ......"

In fact, when the headquarters had just issued this order, the light cavalry sent by Bao Meiying from Suzhou Mansion reported two identical pieces of information to Liu Chang: "The main force of the enemy, since yesterday, except for the infantry battalion to contain our army, the rest are all marching south, please be careful with His Royal Highness King Yan!"

Zhu Jinlei immediately shouted: "Reserves, reserves, it's time to use reserves!"

The reserve is the first division, although the Rainbow Army's offensive against the Russian army is like a thunderbolt, the first division, as the number one main force of the Rainbow Army, has not fired a single shot until now, which is also arranged by Liu Chang in advance, and the first division must be used at the most critical time.

Nanbo Hang, on the other hand, had a different view: "Do you want to let the attacking troops withdraw from the east?" ”

There are still gunshots in the east, which is tens of thousands of Hongjun attack troops and Russian troops fighting to the death, so far, at least two Russian infantry battalions have lost their combat effectiveness, and more than 300 Russian-made rifles have been captured on the battlefield, as well as a large number of Russian-made artillery, military flags and Volga, and many Russian prisoners.

It was only in order to save the crisis on the front line, that the Russian garrison also exhausted all means, not only sending all the troops at their disposal, but also sending out the Foreign Legion, the Far Eastern Volunteer Corps and even the escort of the Russian consul.

Now that the battle between the two sides has reached a white-hot level, the battle lines of many troops are confused together, so Liu Chang sighed, copied his hands and said: "Meng Tuoban's hand is so ruthless!"

Not to mention a ruthless word that can be described, even if you don't count the Qing army with the French army, the French army alone has more than ten infantry battalions, plus artillery, engineers, baggage soldiers and cavalry with them, this is almost a complete French infantry division, in the Far East battlefield, such an enemy army can definitely break through all defense lines. ..., "I propose to retreat!" Nanbo Hang has his own opinion: "It's still too late, there is at least one day left for the enemy to arrive, we can withdraw the troops, this time we have annihilated at least two infantry battalions of the Russian army, even if part of the equipment is abandoned, it still belongs to us!"

"It should be put into the first division as soon as possible!" Zhu Jinlei's view is completely opposite to that of Nanbo Airlines: "We must be prepared for bitter and vicious battles, avoid decisive battles, and fight against the Yi soldiers!"

Another operational staff officer put forward his own point of view: "If we retreat now, we will lose at least two or three infantry battalions, and we will have to consider the problem of abandoning the wounded and equipment.

Zhu Jinlei sneered: "Considering the speed of the French, I'm afraid that our front-line troops will engage the enemy!"

"It's not a fear, it's a fact!" It was Zhou Xiuying, commander of the cavalry brigade, who spoke: "Our cavalry unit has engaged fire at least ten times!"

Li Guanglei had fought many battles with the French army, and he put forward his own proposal: "At least one battle must be fought, even if it is retreated, it must be fought!"

"The question is who is going to fight?" Nan Bohang raised this question: "The troops that bear the brunt of the attack must not only be prepared to pay great losses, but also not easily withdraw!"

Liu Chang glanced at the map, and he directly asked the crucial question: "From the current point of view, which unit is the first to engage the enemy?" ”

Nan Bohang didn't need to look at the map, and directly reported: "In the northeast direction, in addition to the reconnaissance detachment of our cavalry brigade, the most likely first to engage the enemy is the northern advance team of the 1st Division, whose strength is about one reinforced company......"

"The troops of the 1st Division are trustworthy!" Liu Chang came to a conclusion: "What unit is behind?" ”

"The second battalion of the Zhejiang Independent Infantry Regiment is in the back, and it is also an old unit with combat effectiveness." It's just that Nanbo Airlines was a little hesitant in the next sentence: "It's just ...... behind them"

"What troops?"

"The main force of Yu Lingdong's reserve infantry regiment, they were originally responsible for covering in that direction, and there was no Meng Toban who would appear there, they ......"

Nan Bohang's tone was full of skepticism about the reserve infantry regiment. (To be continued)