After sending more than 200 wounded to the troop transport ship on the Houjun Canal to recuperate and treat their wounds, the 1st and 9th Divisions of the First and Ninth Divisions joined forces, marched in unison, and turned to the west. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

By about mid-afternoon, more than 20,000 officers and men of the Second Division, the vanguard of the captured army, had already spread out from the side of the canal, passing through Qiaozhuang to Yuqiaoli, stretching for nearly three miles, and forming an offensive formation.

At this time, the Qing army on the city wall of Tongzhou also set up cannons, preparing to defend the siege army outside the city.

Feng Yunshan ordered that the warships of the naval division also step forward to protect the right flank of the captive army, while the officers and men of the Eighth Division, facing west, became the left flank of the captive army.

Half an hour later, the four artillery regiments of the 1st and 9th Divisions of the vanguard used mules to draw out cannons, aimed at the Tongzhou city wall, and began to bombard them two or three miles away.

Under the bombardment of 110 artillery pieces in turn, several artillery pieces on the south gate of Tongzhou City quickly fell silent, and after more than a dozen Qing artillery soldiers were killed, the rest quickly fled from the city tower.

Hundreds of Qing soldiers with full banners desperately opened fire with their guns on the city tower, but they were separated by two or three miles, where could they fight. Soon, after dozens of Qing soldiers on the city tower were killed and wounded, they scattered and fled.

The 1st and 9th Divisions advanced in turn, and the spearmen and musketeers continued to cooperate, and together with the artillery, they continued to approach the south of Tongzhou City.

At this time, a large camp of the Qing army in the southwest of Tongzhou City appeared in front of the First Division. Under the leadership of more than 20 Krupp rifled guns, more than 60 cannons fired in unison, bombarding the enemy formation, and the camp was in a mess in an instant, and thousands of Qing soldiers retreated backwards with rolling belts.

The two main infantry regiments of the 1st Division rushed into the Qing army camp, and at the same time captured more than 50 artillery pieces, as well as a large amount of gunpowder and artillery, and abandoned them without firing the artillery.

In the camp of the Qing army in the west pass of Tongzhou, Monk Greenqin listened to the report of the Qing army messenger on the front line with a pale face, and his cold face showed a trace of solemnity, and the worry between his eyebrows became deeper and deeper.

The Chahar cavalry to the east and south of Qiaozhuang was 5,000, and they were defeated in less than half an hour before they rushed to kill the vanguard of the Cantonese thieves. The Cantonese thieves' artillery and foreign guns were too sharp, which made Seng Lingqin completely helpless, and he didn't know how to fight!

The original Mongol horse team galloped on the side, and the Manchu cavalry charged, which was the most effective against the infantry, and the long-haired thief soldiers were defeated by his move, and they were forced by him to flee from the river to the Jinghai step by step.

But he didn't expect that how could he completely fail to deal with this Cantonese thief?

As for Tongzhou City, after knowing that the Cantonese thieves had sharp artillery, he knew that Tongzhou could not be defended. But Tongzhou is also a medium-sized city, and it is his plan to use the city defense to consume the troops of the Cantonese thieves.

But he didn't expect that the artillery of the Cantonese thieves would be so powerful that even a few cannons on the city wall were killed and injured before two rounds were fired, and the guards at the head of the city were hiding under the battlements, and they didn't even dare to come out, and they scattered and fled not long after.

"Inform the two lords, Gui Liang, the governor of Zhili in Tongzhou City, and Chonglun, the waiter of Kuraba, and let them lead the six thousand soldiers in the city to withdraw. The city defense of Tongzhou can't support it for long, so it's better to concentrate your forces and wait for the opportunity to fight to the death with the Cantonese thieves! Monk Grinqin ordered.

After a while, the outside of the tent reported that Gui Liang, the governor of Zhili, and Chonglun, the waiter of the cangba, had already withdrawn from Tongzhou City and had arrived at the camp tent of the Chinese army and came to pay a visit.

"King Monk, the two officials failed to hold Tongzhou City, so they have come to ask the King Monk for their guilt!" Gui Liang and Chonglun stepped forward to meet the monk Lingqin, and said with a bitter face: "I didn't expect the cannon of the Cantonese thief to be so powerful, and the lower officials are ashamed!" Before the two of them waited for Monk Greenqin's notice, they led their troops to withdraw from Tongzhou City, fearing that Monk Greenqin would impeach the emperor, so they hurriedly came to make amends.

Monk Lingqin didn't think about this at all, what he was thinking about was where to give the Yue thief a fatal blow!

"Gui Zhongtang and Lord Shirou are also dedicated! It's really that the thieves and soldiers are too strong, and the officers and soldiers have no combat power, so how can I blame you? Although Seng Lingqin was very disdainful of the two of them for their timidity and fear of war, he knew that most of the officials in the entire court were like this now, not to mention that the emperor sent them to supervise the war, so that they could help him manage logistics and help with military affairs, and he couldn't tear his face with them.

"Thank you for your compassion for the plight of the lower officials! Now that the Cantonese thieves are attacking like a tide, their artillery is too fierce and difficult to resist, what should we do? Kuraba waiter Chonglun saluted again and asked.

Monk Lingqin saw Gui Liang also heard with his ears sideways, and knew in his heart what the two were worried about, nothing more than wanting to know his next plan, whether to escape or fight to the death with the Cantonese thieves. But does it still need to be asked? The emperor entrusted the national fortunes of the Great Qing Kingdom to himself, even if he couldn't beat it, what could he do? There is only one death!

What's more, he hasn't personally led the troops into battle. Monk Lingqin believes that with his prestige in the army, he will command all the Mongolian iron cavalry to fight to the death, and he will be able to kill the bandits!

At three o'clock in the hour, a report suddenly came from the front camp army, saying that the Cantonese thieves were attacking in a big way, pressing step by step, and the monk Lingqin was furious, and the thieves actually bullied their own Chinese army camp. He ordered the Qing infantry hiding in the camp to shoot with guns, and mobilized cavalry from the left and right to outflank the vanguard of the thief army.

"The Cantonese thieves only rely on the sharpness of firearms, as long as our army can rush close to the thieves and fight with them hand-to-hand, they can win!" Monk Lingqin's idea is very simple, that is, to rely on the camp, organize the green battalion soldiers and Manqi infantry who retreated from Tongzhou to shoot at the thieves to attract the firepower of the thieves, and then, more than 10,000 Mongolian iron cavalry killed from both sides, outflanked the back of the Cantonese thieves, and impacted the two wings of the Cantonese thieves.

And as long as they fought hand-to-hand, the warriors of the Qing Dynasty were never afraid of any enemy. Monk Greenqin has reason to believe that if he does this, he will be able to defeat this group of Cantonese thieves!

However, then, the monk Lingqin, who was holding a clairvoyant mirror, was desperate to find that he was wrong, very wrong.

The Cantonese thieves did not aim their guns at the camp as he expected, but divided only one or two thieves from the front row to shoot at the camp sporadically with muskets. But he aimed most of his forces at the cavalry charging on both sides.

Only the dense gunfire rang out like fried beans, and the cavalry charging at high speed on both wings fell to the ground one after another, and many horses were frightened and ran back, but they disrupted the Qing army's charging formation.

The cavalry commanders on both flanks were furious, and after cutting down more than a dozen cavalry fleeing back, they once again organized cavalry to rush to both sides of the thieves, but again, dense gunfire rang out, and the cavalry suffered serious casualties, and once again lost nearly a thousand people, and finally routed.

Seeing this, Monk Lingqin was so angry that he smashed the clairvoyant mirror to the ground.

He secretly scolded the cavalry commanders on both wings for being pigs' brains, and seeing that the firepower of the thieves was so fierce, he couldn't charge the first time, and he even had to charge the second time. Hurriedly ordered to retreat.

A staff member next to him told him that this place was too empty, although it was convenient for cavalry to charge, but it was more conducive to the foreign guns and artillery bombardment of thieves. You should find a place where there is a bush and jungle where it is easy to avoid the guns of the thieves, and then use the cavalry to flank and rush close for hand-to-hand combat.

When Monk Lingqin heard this, he suddenly felt reasonable, and he thought of an excellent battlefield. He immediately ordered all the Qing troops in the Tongzhou area to retreat in the direction of the capital. Of course, he also fantasized about fighting hard.

In the evening of the same day, Seng Lingqin led more than 27,000 Qing soldiers to hurriedly retreat into the Bali Bridge, and gathered with the 4,000 Qing troops who were already stationed at the Bali Bridge to guard the road from Tongzhou to the capital.

At the same time, the monk Lingqin, who was in a heavy mood, wrote a secret fold and sent someone to send it to Xianfeng quickly. Gui Liang, the governor of Zhili, was shocked, thinking that Seng Lingqin must be scared to death to impeach him, and Chonglun, the waiter of the warehouse, was even more paralyzed on the ground, and hurriedly wrote a plea.

Fortunately, in the area of Bali Bridge, the basic fortifications have already been built. In the face of the enemy army advancing layer by layer and the firearms were fierce, Seng Lingqin was helpless, so he had to build earthen ramparts and trenches around the Bali Bridge, and at the same time distributed 31,000 Qing soldiers on the east, west and south roads, preparing to make the last struggle and resistance.

At this time, Monk Lingqin had no confidence, and the leaders of the Mongol tribes under him were also crying and sorrowful. No one expected that the Mongolian cavalry and the full-banner iron cavalry that galloped the world would be beaten so badly by a group of Cantonese thieves, whether it was defending the city or the dignified field battle that they were best at.

Monk Greenqin didn't dare to imagine what kind of situation the Qing Dynasty would fall into if he couldn't defend the Bali Bridge!

This Bali Bridge is the throat of Tongzhou into Beijing, once the Bali Bridge is lost, the capital is like a bamboo shoot that has been peeled off, fat bamboo shoot meat, and there is no trace of barrier in the Qing Dynasty The capital will be naked in front of the Cantonese thieves!

Therefore, no one knew better than Seng Lingqin what the defense of Bali Bridge meant to the Jingshi, and he had to lead the Qing troops to hold this position no matter what.

At this point, Seng Greenqin can be regarded as seeing clearly that the Eight Banners Army in Beijing is simply difficult to rely on. At present, the Qing Dynasty only has these Mongolian cavalry under his command and these Eight Banner Iron Cavalry facing the battle.

In any case, even if he knew that he was likely to fail, Monk Lingqin had to defend it desperately.

After thinking about it, Monk Lingqin had insomnia for the first time, so he simply got up and wrote a letter to the emperor: "The slaves are now supervising the officers and soldiers to retreat to the Bali Bridge to choke the road to Beijing." The minions are determined to hurry up and reinvigorate the hearts of the army, if the Cantonese thieves invade the Beijing division from the Bali Bridge, the minions and others can only fight to the death, in order to strengthen the prestige of the Qing Dynasty and repay the emperor's favor to the minions! ”

At this time, there were Feng Yunshan and Liu Shengbang and others who had not yet slept.

Soon after the 1st and 9th Divisions repelled the Qing army, the Qing army abandoned the city of Tongzhou. The two divisions effortlessly occupied the large camp of the Qing army in Tongzhou City and southwest of Tongzhou City.

Feng Yunshan, who learned that he occupied Tongzhou, was overjoyed, and followed him into Tongzhou City overnight, for this Manchu Qing Dynasty's "granary of the world", Feng Yunshan has coveted it for a long time, and he is eager to have a lot of captures.