This is a "sky-high price", and several foreign adults look at each other. It is not impossible to provide ordnance, but if the officers and soldiers are about to collapse at the touch of a button, it is not only equivalent to throwing guns and cannons into the water in vain, but also tantamount to giving them to Long Hair, turning them into "helping the rebellion". Yesterday's rout of Li Hengsong's troops in Jiading seems to have specifically confirmed this point.

But now it's Xuanjun, after all, it's different. They have always had great expectations for this army, and when they heard that it was "fighting extremely well," they had to ask first what kind of good method it was.

"The morale is very good, and the battle has been won greatly!" Yang Fang added fuel and vinegar to explain how the Xuan army dug trenches and defended them, how they killed and injured thousands of Long Hair, how they repelled Long Hair several charges, and how they fought bravely with Long Hair.

Foreigners are not stupid, they know very well about the habits of Chinese officials, and they know that it is common for them to turn defeat into victory and to say that small victories are big victories. But in such a grim form as now, even if there is some vanity about the achievements, it is not too much to say, and they are old acquaintances with Wu Xu and Yang Fang for many years, so they also have a trust in their words.

From this point of view, the Xuan army not only did not lose, but also more or less won the battle. Thinking about it like this, his face was different, and the French consul Ai Tang looked at everyone and spoke: "In order to support the Xuan army, it is completely okay for the concession to provide ordnance, and we just need to recover the cost price." ”

"To defend is to work together." Wu Xu shook his head and took out Yang Fang's words and said, "You still have to charge the cost price, it's just that it's not profitable, how can you calculate your strength?" It should be provided free of charge. ”

This sentence is very powerful and measured, and it is not easy to refute. Several consuls discussed, but it was the French consul Ai Tang who spoke: "Wu Daotai, we admit that what you said is reasonable, in order to show the greatest sincerity, we are willing to give the price of the weapon to eighty percent of the cost price." ”

"It should be provided free of charge!"

"Seventy percent!"

"It should be provided free of charge!"

From then on, the two sides began to argue, and the two sides were entangled for a while. When the consuls conceded the price to forty percent, Wu Xu and Yang Fang glanced at each other, and they already intended to accept it, but at this moment, Guan Zhuofan sent a telegram from the county government Pegasus, which brought the controversy to an abrupt end.

"Rank Ding Shijie, Ixan, Forrestal, and then break the long-haired striker under Songjiang City, burn 17 big shield cars, and kill more than 1,000 enemies."

Wu Xu finished reading the telegram aloud, his eyes narrowed with laughter, and he passed the telegram to everyone. Several consuls and He Bo looked at each other with a look of surprise on their faces.

At this moment, Yang Fang was full of confidence, and he suddenly changed his hexagram and said loudly: "It should be provided free of charge!" ”

“OK！” Encouraged by this news, the consuls finally made a decision, "All the weapons that are replenished for the Xuan army can be provided by us free of charge." ”

"Great, the Xuan army will definitely be able to win the battle." Wu Xu and Yang Fang felt that not only did they not fail in their mission, but they also got such an unexpected result, and they were both proud, "Let's go back and ask Guan Yixuan to make a list." ”

"Hmm...... Wu Daotai, I would like to make a special statement," Aitang felt that there was a sentence that needed to be added, and hurriedly said, "This agreement will be terminated until the war in Shanghai is over." ”

*

*

The shield wagons dispatched by the Taiping army were spliced together on the bases of four carriages, on which thick logs were crossed and erected shelves, firmly riveted, and wet cloth bags filled with sand and soil were hung on the wooden frames, and then wrapped in wet cowhide on the outside, which could protect dozens of people on and behind the cart against bows and arrows from above, in front and on the sides.

Each shield cart is pushed forward by seven or eight soldiers, and once it advances to the city, it can either cover the car and hit the door, or it can cover the soldiers to dig holes and blast, which is a great weapon when attacking the city. The shield car is not afraid of guns, only cannons, but it is difficult for one or two cannons alone to hit so accurately, so when they saw that after a round of artillery battles, there were only two cannons left in Songjiang City, Tan Shaoguang and Gao Yongkuan immediately thought that the time had come.

The shield carts dispatched, a total of seventeen, were roughly lined up in a rough line, and slowly pushed towards Songjiang City. There were more than a dozen large sandbags piled up on each car, and behind the car were forty or fifty Taiping soldiers, with big swords and spears, and the target they had to deal with was not the city wall, but the Xuan army in the long trench.

As long as the shield cart advances to the edge of the trench, the foreign guns of the Xuan army are useless, if the Xuan army in the trench does not escape, it will become the target of beheading, if you want to escape into the city, then the Taiping army will fill out more than a dozen passages with the big sandbags on the car, and follow the city. Therefore, behind the car formation, there were about 3,000 Taiping troops, resisting twenty or thirty ladders, ready to charge at any time.

The cannon in the city never sounded, and when the shield cart advanced a little further, it entered a dead end, and the cannon in the city could not hit even if it wanted to. The strange thing is that the Xuan army in the long trench did not fire a single shot, and I don't know if they were so frightened by these behemoths that they had no claim.

Gao Yong was overjoyed, and with a wave of the small red flag in his hand, the three thousand Taiping soldiers who were ready to go rushed forward with a shout, and the shield cart in front of him also suddenly accelerated and rushed towards the trench. When the shield cart was still about a dozen zhang away from the trench, Xuan Jun still did not shoot, but suddenly threw out two or three hundred iron cans the size of sea bowls from the trench, and many of them rolled under the shield cart, and when they landed, they exploded one after another, with a muffled bang.

The canisters weren't bombs—after the muffled sound, a lot of smoke began to come out of each canister, and some Taiping soldiers turned and ran out from behind the shield carts, crying and coughing. Soon, more and more Taiping troops fled backwards, and some of them shouted while running: "Qing Demon Demon Magic!" ”

In fact, it is not a demon law, but a thing called "stinky crockpot", invented by the French, which is probably the originator of biological and chemical weapons. This is a new thing, but Wall has some understanding, at the military meeting, specially suggested that Guan Zhuofan buy 3,000, thinking that this thing is probably useful to deal with the shield cart of the Taiping Army, but I didn't expect it to be as effective as a god after trying it.

The stinky crockpot is similar to the tear gas of later generations, but the effect is far less intense than the tear gas, as long as it is skipped in the wild, it will actually be dissipated, but for the Taiping army who have never seen this kind of thing, the panic caused is fatal. The Taiping army, who were desperately retreating, ran head-on into the 3,000 people who were charging head-on, and they were in a mess, and the northeast wind behind them also slowly blew the smoke towards them, causing even more panic.

At this time, the Xuan army opened fire, and the salvo in the trench and on the city turned a battle into a one-sided massacre, and the Taiping army's fear of the "demon law" was still spreading, and the soldiers who broke down from the battlefield spread this fear in the formation again, as if there were some demons and monsters in the smoke that slowly drifted in the distance, so under the uproar, the whole army retreated and retreated to Baishagang, where the camp was formed. Tan Shaoguang's attack on Songjiang City that day lost nearly 2,000 people before and after, and it ended in nothing.

Ding Shijie, who was ecstatic, sent people out of the west gate, sprinkled gunpowder on the frame of each shield car, and set fire to it, and sent people to Sijing at speed to send a telegram to the boss. Jia Yiqian, the prefect of Songjiang in the city, and Liu Xunjiao, the same governor of Haiphong, celebrated each other, first instructed Liu Wenshen, the prefect of Lou County, to organize the gentry and the common people to "labor army", and then sent a militia out of the city to collect guns and ammunition abandoned by the Taiping army, and prepared to use the collected ordnance to equip Jia Yiqian's "government soldiers" and Liu Xunjiao's militia.

Li Xiucheng's troops, for every 1,000 people, had about one or two hundred foreign guns, and another two or three hundred shotguns and guns, which was higher than that of ordinary Qing troops. Ding Shijie was a little embarrassed when he heard this, because in comparison, Xuanjun's equipment was really sophisticated.

"This is as it should be, even if we have equipment like Xuan Jun, we will never be able to fight as well as Xuan Jun." Liu Xun was very calm, "Brother has opened his eyes today, the first time I see a battle, I can still fight like this, Songjiang can hold it, it all depends on the Xuan army." ”

"That's also relying on the two supports," Ding Shijie said humbly, and when he saw Liu Wenshen, the magistrate of Lou County, who was standing aside, he remembered one thing, "Liu Zhixian, when it comes to the labor army, I have to bother you with one thing - find someone to cook more hot soup, so that the brothers in the trenches outside the city can have a sip and warm up their bodies." ”

Liu Wenshen agreed. Lou County is the "first county" of Songjiang Prefecture, and the prefecture and county are in the same city, and these things should have belonged to him on errands.

"Jia Taizun, there are still two cannons in the Kezi battalion, and tonight, they will also be hoisted to the west city wall." Ding Shijie said to Jia Yiqian again, "In the past two days, about Changmao will come to attack." ”

So this night, the preparation for war was done very well, two field guns were hung on the city wall, the missing soldiers were made up by the reserves, and the soldiers who had fought hard for a day were well fed and drunk, and they all got a good rest, just waiting for the long hair to come to attack the city again.

However, Ding Shijie misjudged this time, the Taiping army did not attack Songjiang again, but the next morning, there were suddenly bursts of fierce gunfire from the direction of Qingpu. Ding Shijie hurriedly sent people to investigate, but in the morning, news came that Qingpu County, which was 15 miles away from Songjiang and was defended by the Xianzi Battalion, had fallen.

*

(Xie Lu Xie ybch, rainbow, book friend 13122, book friend 13120 reward, Xie Lu Xie Sanren's update ticket.) ）

http://www.biquge.info

http://www.biquge.info

The starting point Chinese the http://www.biquge.info of the net

www.biquge.info welcome the majority of book friends to come and read, the latest, fastest, and hottest serialized works are all original at the starting point! For mobile phone users, please read it on m.biquge.info.