After only half a day of fighting, Chen Zhiting felt as if many years had passed, and he could no longer describe it as a year, it was simply a time like a year. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

His eyes were blood-red, and his heart was dripping blood as he looked at the messy battlefield.

It's not that the battle was bad, counting the corpses lying on the battlefield, there are definitely more foreigners than manhole people.

To be honest, the battle can be fought like this, thanks to Zhu Jinglun's teaching, Zhu Jinglun taught them to dig trenches, it's not that the manhole people can't dig trenches, it's just that they never thought of using trenches against foreigners, if it was themselves, they would prefer to build barriers, this is a traditional mindset, that is, the Hunan army that likes to dig ditches the most, and mainly uses barriers to protect themselves.

But the fighting style of the foreigners was different from that of the Qing army and the Taiping army, and the barriers that could block bows and arrows could not stop the shells of the foreigners at all, so they dug five trenches in a row outside the manhole ruins. The trenches they dug were deeper than those of the East Fort, and they also reinforced them with logs according to Zhu Jinglun's suggestion, and even built some tunnels to avoid the intensive shelling of the other side.

In this way, Shajing Xiangyong was almost unscathed under the intensive blows of the foreigners' naval guns, and when the British infantry attacked, their combat effectiveness was unharmed.

When the foreigners' infantry marched forward in a dense queue, if it was in the past, they could only fight with their lives, launch a savage charge against each other, exchange their lives for the opportunity to get closer, and finally kill each other through hand-to-hand combat.

But in the past, there were always huge casualties and few kills.

This time, with the protection of the trenches, their bows and arrows could continue to shoot foreigners. On the contrary, the foreigners risked their lives to exchange their lives for distance. By the time the foreigners finally rushed to the front of the trench, the villagers had already retreated to the back trench through the connected tunnel.

By this method, at the cost of abandoning five trenches, they killed and wounded four or five hundred British troops, with very little losses themselves. Originally, according to Chen Zhiting's understanding, after such a big loss, the foreigners would choose to retreat, but this time the attitude of the foreigners was extremely firm, and they did not retreat and continued to advance towards the manhole ruins.

Chen Zhiting, who realized that he had miscalculated, ordered Xiang Yong to fight with the foreigners for an hour in the last trench, but finally retreated, losing more than 300 people in the first battle.

Xiang Yong can't afford to die.

It's like the Hunan army can't afford to die. It's not that these people are dead, how high the pension is. Costs are not measured in terms of money at all. Zeng Guofan's Hunan army battled, according to Zeng Guofan's own words, it was called "fighting a dumb battle in a hard village", always advancing step by step with a strong barracks, rarely attacking and even less attacking cities. Later, when attacking Tianjing, the Hunan army did not hesitate to besiege Tianjing for half a year.

Because the Hunan army has a significant feature of this clan armament, that is, the composition is often clansmen, and the soldiers led by a general under Zeng Guofan are all recruited by the general himself, and they are all young and strong in their village.

Therefore, this kind of radical casualties cannot be borne by the clan forces, and the cost is immeasurable, because this is a moral cost, not an economic cost.

Now Chen Zhiting is facing this situation, this time the foreigners besieged the manhole, he mobilized all the villagers around the manhole, last time they had already died in Xin'an City, so this time in order to take the lead, the Chen family pressed all the young people, the last time Xin'an City was defeated, there was no harm to the survival of the family, this time these young people died every time, it may mean that a house of relatives cut off the incense.

Chen Zhiting really can't bear this kind of moral pressure. After leaving three hundred men in the last trench, he was ordered to retreat into the streets of Shajing Ruins. Fortunately, at this time, the cannon left by Zhu Jinglun rang off in the mountain behind the Hongsheng Temple, giving them time, and everyone retreated safely into the manhole ruins.

However, after that, the hill was covered by British naval guns, and soon the fire was muted, and even the manhole ruins became almost hell, and the Hongsheng Temple and the Tianhou Temple were destroyed.

After that, the British infantry opened the way with artillery and camped in the Shajing Ruins step by step, and Xiang Yong could not even find the opportunity to fight hand-to-hand, and was finally forced to withdraw from the manhole and retreat all the way to the east.

Every time they took a step back, Chen Zhiting's heart shed an extra drop of blood, and every time they took a step back, there was a village, and a piece of land was trampled on by foreigners. But can you watch the children drain their blood for the sake of these lands, can't, so they can only retreat again and again.

This is Chen Zhiting's village, not that he is reluctant to destroy his village, but because this has always been the place where the clan chief house lives, and the long house lives here to take care of the ancestral hall, and the Chen ancestral hall is here, so how can he retreat.

The Chen family cannot give up the land, let alone their ancestors, one is the fundamental guarantee of their survival, and the other is the happy hometown of their soul.

There is a ranking of ancestors in the ancestral hall, of course, you can't give up, if you give up the ancestral hall of Gangtou, then can the ancestral tomb of Xinqiao behind Gangtou still give up? So here is the final bottom line of their retreat.

With less than 800 clansmen who fled here, Chen Zhiting worshiped his ancestors and married Chen Menglong, the princess of Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty, who was also the ancestor of their Chen family, the origin of the Chen family, and then took the remnants of the clansmen to decide to fight here, die here, and finally be buried here.

The British army chased very closely, well-equipped, and the artillery fire was sharp, Gangtou Village could not be stopped at all, one by one the houses collapsed, and one by one the children were killed in battle, but whenever the British wanted to approach the ancestral hall, there were Chen children who risked death to charge them, and forced them back again and again with flesh and blood outwitting.

This time, Chen Zhiting mobilized almost the entire Shajing Chen family's young and strong, under the stove, in Zhoujia Village, across the stream, in front of the tower, in the back pavilion, no matter near or far, whether rich or poor, the sons and daughters of the clan who can come are coming, and they may all die.

The British army almost surrounded the ancestral hall of the horse house, and Chen Zhiting was already confessing to his ancestors, when suddenly he heard a dense sound of gongs, as well as shouts from far and near.

Then he heard his children report to him, "The Zeng family is here." ”

The Zeng family is a big family in Xinqiao, the ancestral hall of the Zeng family is in Xinqiao, distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, foreigners are approaching the ancestral hall of the Zeng family, and the Zeng family helped.

The child also reported: "The city bridge is coming!" ”

Shiqiao is still in Dongguan, close to the manhole, which is also a member of the Chen clan.

Soon someone said, "The one from Nanshan is here." ”

It is also said that the Zhou family, the Ma family, and the Li family came to help.

In the end, when he heard someone say "the ghost ran away", Chen Zhiting couldn't help crying, and kept chanting about the blessing of the ancestors!