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But he, Li Xubin, is not afraid of the red thief in front of him - yes, he is not afraid!

When did he Li Xubin ever be afraid of red thieves, he is not a rice bucket like Liu Changyou and Li Yuandu, but the most courageous Li Xubin in the Hunan army, from Yuezhou to Wuchang, he has always been an invincible existence, except for some small setbacks in the siege of Jiujiang and Wuchang City, he has never lost a battle.

What's more, he now has 6,000 strong divisions in his hands, food and equipment can be supported for a month, and he has painstakingly built a camp for half a month, not to mention the red thief, that is, the long-haired old thief in Guangxi came to attack, he Li Xubin still came to kill one by one, and to kill a pair of pairs, even if the red thief has many guns and many guns, it is just a talking point for his Li Xubin's conquest career.

Li Xubin's relief also made all the Hunan officers and soldiers in the camp settle down, as long as the commander is not confused, these Hunan mules can resist these red thieves outside the camp gate, even if they drag up a lot of heavy artillery towed by four horses or even eight horses in the past few days, they are not afraid, but when the red thieves drag up the siege heavy artillery that can only be pulled by twelve mules and horses, these Hunan officers and soldiers are shaken.

Even so, they still didn't think so, after a few days of fighting, they had figured out that the red thieves in front of them were only the second-class Huo Qiannanxi thieves among the red thieves, and they couldn't compare to the most elite dragon spear battalion.

Therefore, when another early morning came, although the footsteps outside the camp could be heard from time to time, except for the Hunan officers and soldiers who were at the forefront of the camp and the tulou fortification, the entire Li Xubin camp could still hear the chatter and laughter of the Hunan officers and soldiers and the long husbands.

The end of July is a scorching season, but the fiery sunshine has not yet spilled on, so the Hunan officers and soldiers seize the rare shady time of the day, or wash and scrub, or talk about topics of interest to them.

Recently, it has become difficult to send money and letters back to Hunan, and I don't know what Hunan's hometown looks like now, not to mention whether there is an accident with everyone's dependents, how the harvest is in the field, and whether there is anything wrong with the wife and children. However, the topic soon led to the men's concerns, either to say which prostitute in Nanchang City was the most flavorful, or to scold the camp officials for making money too hard, so that the recent food was difficult to eat.

Of course, there are good things. Since the war with the red thief, then the military salary is no longer in arrears, and there are all kinds of additions, which are more than double the usual, but there are also a lot of dangers, but as long as the village is firmly defended, everything is not a big problem. What's more, Li Xubin's battalion was in charge of the Ganjiang River, and there were naval warships to assist in the battle at any time, and even yesterday he sent out the letters that had been stored in the camp for several days.

The Hunan army was talking and laughing, and they didn't think it was a special morning when they were walking around, although there were footsteps and sporadic gunfire hundreds of steps away, but they didn't think it was worth interrupting their discussion: "Speaking of Cuiyan Building, the little lady there can be marked, although the value is more expensive." But ......"

Just as the Hunan officers and men were talking about their interest, they heard the sound of the cannon being discharged, but they were used to it. continued to talk in the sound of cannons: "Kung Fu is good, and the screaming is also good, everyone can cross the clouds together......"

Every morning, the Hong army would fire a few shells to fuel their momentum, but the Hunan army generals never took this as a thing, but at this moment, the Hunan army chief who said that he was in the head suddenly stopped talking, and he suspected that there was something wrong with his ears.

Call...... Call...... Call......

How many shots are this shots being ejected? He glanced up at the sky and saw countless graceful arcs, how much was that? One? Two shots? Three shots? …… Eight shots? Nine rounds? Ten rounds? …… Twenty rounds? Thirty rounds? …,

He couldn't count them, but one thing was clear to him. That's the trouble this time, he just threw down the towel and ran back, shouting, "It's not good......"

But the shells swept through Li Xubin's camp with a sharper sound, and they were no longer as civilized as before, but countless shells bombarded Li Xubin almost at the same time, perhaps one after the other. But in the eyes of the officers and men of the Hunan army, this is simply an endless storm.

Solid shells, incendiary bombs, grenades, grape shells, all kinds of shells at different heights and positions kept detonating, everywhere there were flying shells and the shouts of the crowd, and the Hunan officers and soldiers and their husbands who were chatting and laughing in the early morning had become victims of this round of shelling in the next moment.

The shelling did not stop, but became more and more intense, even those Hunan soldiers who had experienced the battles of Yuezhou, Jiujiang and Wuchang had never experienced such a baptism of artillery, although I don't know how many artillery pieces were bombarding Li Xubin's battalion, but many people suspected that it was the bombardment of hundreds of artillery pieces.

That's right, at least hundreds of artillery, and all of them are foreign artillery, what howitzers, rifling, smoothbore guns, field guns seem to be all on the field, and every moment there are falling shells in the battalion, and what is even worse is the caliber of these shells!

In the past, I thought that tens of thousands of catties of general artillery was already the ultimate in artillery, but now Li Xubin feels that there is a feeling of shaking the ground under his feet from time to time, and this kind of impact has far exceeded the power of 30,000 catties of general cannons!

How many pounds of Western siege artillery is this? Is it a sixty-four-pound or a hundred-pound cannon? Li Xubin didn't know, he only saw that it had only been a few minutes, and the entire camp had turned into a sea of fire and wolves, the cries of the officers and soldiers came and went, and the footsteps of the red thief were getting closer and closer: "Damn!" Sure enough, it was Liu Juehu, who was so cunning! ”

The red thief's artillery lasted for half an hour without stopping, although many cannonballs bombarded down without accuracy at all, but the power was amazing, as long as it was grazed by the shells, even if it didn't die, it would take half a life, and what was even worse was that this round of sudden stormy shelling made the command of the entire Li Xubin battalion almost interrupted, and now Li Xubin himself is just dozens of personal soldiers: "But even if the red thief is so fierce, he can't fight my Hunan people!" ”

According to his experience in dealing with the Taiping army, the red thieves will attack with a frenzied sea of people in the future, in which case the Hunan army has been carefully building fortifications for half a month, it will inevitably run into blood.

……

On the other side of the battle line, Huo Qiu was very satisfied with the effect of the ghost crying howl he created: "Yes, with this round of shelling, our infantry will be easy this time!" ”

"It's going to be easier!" Lu Ziyun next to him said with a smile: "The step of the attack // The fastest text update in the book fan building has no pop-up windows and no advertisements // There are only seven companies in the soldier company, but we have invested five battalions in the artillery battalion alone!" ”

That's right, the five artillery battalions, which can be said to be the most gorgeous artillery camp that the Hong Army has invested in a single front, include field artillery battalions, divisional artillery battalions, and two independent siege heavy artillery battalions that have just arrived, plus artillery companies affiliated to regiments and battalions, nearly 100 artillery pieces bombarded together, and the Hunan army was killed and wounded.

Huo Qiu said very relaxedly: "Don't worry, let the infantry brothers maintain perseverance, we have prepared 20,000 rounds of artillery shells, and we are ready to smash them on Li Xubin's head, and it will not take an hour or two to defeat Li Xubin's camp!" ”

That's right! The Hongjun has specially stockpiled 20,000 shells for Li Xubin, although some of the shells are temporarily homemade by the front line, but so many shells mean that Li Xubin will not want to live a good life in the future. …,

At this moment, the infantry company on the front line and the sappers who attacked with them had already begun to move, although before that, the officers and soldiers of the Hong Army thought that under such a fierce artillery bombardment, the Hunan army had been completely crossed, but as soon as the infantry operated, they formed a wall of fire in front of them.

Bird guns, guns, mountain artillery, foreign artillery, and camp artillery all began to bombard, and the so-called "hardened village and dumb battle" of the Hunan army really lived up to its name, even under such a fierce shelling, a considerable part of the fortifications still maintained their structural integrity, and the firepower began to revive.

It's just that now Li Xubin's face has become iron blue for the first time, and the Hong Army did not organize a crowd offensive as he imagined, which means that the next battle has become more difficult.

Indeed, as Li Xubin expected, the offensive of the Rainbow Army seemed to be small-scale, and the troops invested were as few as dozens of people, as many as two or three hundred, and they were divided into multiple attacks, but their offensive was very deadly, and it could even be said that they stabbed Li Xubin in the heart with a single sword.

It was only an hour or two after the battle began, and the Minnie riflemen of the Red Thieves had already penetrated dozens of steps into Li Xubin's camp, and under their influence, even if the watchtower was not destroyed by artillery fire, it stopped operating under the threat of sharpshooters, and the forward detachment of the Rainbow Army even penetrated deeper.

Under these circumstances, many of the originally carefully constructed artillery positions had to be abandoned in advance, and the next few counterattacks organized by Li Xubin were also shattered by intensive artillery fire, and the Hong Army still attacked at its own pace - strictly speaking, the rhythm of the entire battle was controlled by its own hands.

By noon, the Hong Army was still unhurriedly carrying out the offensive, and in the past several battles, the Second Division had rich experience in attacking the Hunan army camp, but Li Xubin was already a little unable to support it.

Although after a slight halt in the artillery offensive, he barely managed to control the 6,000 defenders in the large battalion, but from the beginning of the Hong Army's offensive to the present, the casualties of the entire Li Xubin army have exceeded 500.

In other words, this is equivalent to the loss of two infantry battalions, and until now, the second division has not fully strengthened, and Li Xubin has already shown signs of not being able to support it, so he has no time to ask for help from Zeng Guofan in the city - originally in his plan, how could his more than 6,000 people support ten days before asking Zeng Guofan for help.

And the artillery bombardment of the Hong Army was still continuous, even if it was far away, Zeng Guofan, who rushed to the front line, could still feel the power of the heavy artillery, and he asked: "Di'an is surrounded, the situation is very critical, what do you have to do to break the thief?" ”