First of all, the scattered people came to the city under the leadership of some squires with a sense of justice, and came to the city in the great spirit of serving the imperial court. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Huang Zonghan knew that he was calculated again, he had no evidence, but he knew that Bai Gui did it. He asked a few squires, and they all received one or two hundred taels of silver, which was really a big deal, looking at more and more people, I am afraid that it cost tens of thousands of taels of silver.

People can't gather, once they start to gather, it's like a constant tide, and those who are behind see that the front ones go, nothing bad happens, and they are happy to have a good time, of course, they know that they are going to give the imperial army a strong momentum, and there is no danger, if they don't go in vain, if they really want them to attack the city, they are afraid that they will disperse in a hurry.

Huang Zonghan just had a big head, and he didn't use force to disperse these people at first, but as a result, the people gathered, and it was not so easy to disperse, so he had no choice but to let it go, but he sent people to warn those squires and clan leaders, and asked them to restrain their strength and not make trouble.

Not to mention the strong, without Huang Zonghan's township Yong to guard the Henan land is more lively, here and Guangzhou City is separated by a Pearl River, everyone feels safer, so there are more people watching the excitement, beating gongs and drums, performing social fire, dragon and lion dances, the enthusiasm that has been suppressed for so long seems to burst out in an instant.

The foreigners at the head of the city could not see clearly, only saw a large number of Chinese gathered in Henan, and they did not know what was happening. The first reaction was that the Chinese were coming to attack the city, and the Chinese army was coming.

At noon, the news that the imperial court had sent 100,000 troops to attack the city of Guangzhou had begun to circulate in the southern city, and not only the Chinese people were circulating these rumors, but also among the foreign soldiers that the Chinese had sent a large army, and the panic was spreading, and the soldiers who were already demoralized because of the retreat to the southern city had no morale, and they could only maintain their failure to collapse by relying on military discipline and some contempt for the Chinese's combat effectiveness.

When the rumors broke out, they could not be stopped, and in the evening, there were rumors that the French were in contact with the Chinese alone, saying that the French interpreters had gone to see the Chinese governor, and perhaps the French would make friends with the Chinese themselves and betray the British allies.

The French did not explain, and the British did not even verify it, because for the high-ranking officers, this was a complete rumor, not worth believing at all, and it was determined that this was a trick of the Chinese, so both sides issued military orders and told the soldiers that these were rumors.

The reason why rumors are believed is sometimes because people are willing to believe that for French soldiers, if they can really cooperate with the Chinese and let them get safe, it may not be a bad thing, and this kind of good thing is even more believable, so the rumors not only did not stop because of the clarification of the officers, but became more and more powerful and more and more bizarre.

There are more and more people outside the city, all of them are smart people, they are far away from the city wall, showing their bravery at a safe distance, beating gongs and drums and scolding loudly, the scolding foreigners can't hear, but they can still hear the gongs and drums, Zhu Jinglun said let Baigui set off 100,000 people, which has far exceeded 100,000, and there are bold people from afar under the series.

Although these civilians did not attack the city, they definitely made the British and French troops deeply feel that they were not safe outside the city, and the French wanted to break through much lower, which invisibly helped the British.

It's been three days, and seeing that it continues like this, the Anglo-French forces have become more cohesive.

There has been little movement on the side of Xiang Yong, they have captured the old city of Guangzhou, but they can't stand up. The reason is very simple, Guangzhou is so big, the shape is an irregular square, the length is fourteen miles, from the center of the city to any direction at most two or three miles, the highest Zhenhai Tower in Guanyin Mountain (Yuexiu Mountain) is a fort, where the foreigners occupy, condescending artillery fire can almost cover the whole city.

Therefore, the place that Xiang Yong can occupy is only a dead corner that some batteries can't cover, so most of the old city is in a vacuum, becoming a world of bandits, but Xiang Yong has gradually withdrawn from the ranks of evildoers, Huang Zonghan is an experienced old official, before coming to Guangdong, served as a governor in Zhejiang, and dealt with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he saw the signs of Xiang Yong's looting and chose to suppress it as soon as he saw it, killing dozens of people and finally curbing this trend.

But he can't do anything about the southern city where the British and French forces are entrenched, this is a new city, surrounded by four city walls, it is an independent area, Huang Zonghan selectively attacked the next day, but his artillery could not beat the infantry artillery of the British and French forces, and the most well-equipped group of Xiang Yong, who was equipped with muskets, was defeated by the British and French troops before they could get close to the city wall.

The fact that cannot be ignored is that the reason why the Qing army lost to the foreigners has little to do with whether they are brave or not, and the backwardness of training and management in all aspects is the root cause; the Qing army is not good, nor is the village bravery, and the village courage is stronger than the Qing army only in courage, and the training methods and management methods are even inferior to some green battalions.

Therefore, a strong attack is definitely not a no-go.

On the second day of Huang Zonghan's tentative attack, on the third day of the siege of the common people outside the city, and on the fourth day of the defeat of the foreigners in the south of the city, two warships came outside the city of Guangzhou, emitting rumbling black smoke, the whistle shook the sky, and the British and French troops on the city wall cheered loudly, and for a time they overshadowed the scattered cannon sound on the batteries outside the city.

After half a day, they couldn't cheer, the two warships were only armed merchant ships, and the cannons on them were not even as good as the infantry guns on the head of the Anglo-French army, but there were advanced fortress guns on the batteries, and after an hour of artillery fighting, one was wounded, and the other fled.

Looking at the warships fleeing in a hurry, the Chinese gunners on the battery cheered this time.

Zhu Jinglun did not have the heart to cheer, he was deeply worried, he knew that in June the British and French forces signed a treaty with the Qing court in Tianjin, and then began to withdraw their troops, and after resting in Hong Kong, the main force went south to Hong Kong. Two months have passed, and according to the time, it is possible to reach Hong Kong at any time, and once the main forces of the coalition forces reach Hong Kong, then they will definitely support Guangzhou. It doesn't take many people, as long as one or two thousand people come, Guangzhou City will fall into the hands of foreigners again.

These two warships may not be the main warships of the British and French forces, but they are likely to be the front station, which shows that the Hong Kong side has taken action against Guangzhou.

Therefore, in Zhu Jinglun's view, this cannon sound is more like a signal urging him to act.

The final offensive must be launched.