After the clock struck zero, the heavy rain that was pouring at night gradually stopped, and the sporadic gunshots gradually began to sound in Shanghai.

Of course, the situation began to favor the Qing army, and then how not good at hand-to-hand white-knuckle combat, the Qing army brought by Xu Naizhao from the Jiangnan camp was also elite after all, and the courage and courage to operate the musket and the Taiping army at a long distance still existed, and the Qing soldiers who seized a large area of the city wall had a condescending advantage, concentrating their firepower on the Taiping army crowd under the city and shooting indiscriminately, Meng could also get a lot, and it was difficult for the Taiping soldiers who shot under the city to hit the Qing soldiers who were hiding behind the arrow buttress female wall and shooting. As a last resort, the officers and men of the Taiping Army could only voluntarily give up the counterattack charge, and were forced to enter the street fighting fortifications and find various bunkers to shoot, and the battle gradually turned into a musket fire.

The Taiping army still has hope to keep the city of Shanghai, as long as it can recapture the city wall position, then with the condescending shooting advantage, the Taiping army can calmly suppress the follow-up army of the Qing army, and prevent the Qing army from entering the city in large numbers and quickly. It was precisely because of this truth that the war in the city had just turned into a confrontation, and Zeng Lichang immediately concentrated his forces to storm the two wings of the Qing army's city wall position, and attacked the Qing soldiers on the west gate city wall from north to south.

It was too dark, the situation was too chaotic, Wu Chaoyue, who had just arrived outside the West Gate, couldn't grasp the key point at first, but the dense gunfire on the city wall quickly reminded Wu Chaoyue of what was the most important, Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate, and immediately sent a battalion to go up to the city through the flying ladder, and the soldiers were divided into two ways to protect the left and right wings of the Qing army's city wall position, and lined up multiple rows of dense horizontal teams to shoot in turn to meet the Taiping army. had to retreat to regroup the formation, and also lined up in a horizontal line to fight with the Wu army.

As long as the Taiping army has no fortifications to protect, of course, there is no need to worry about the loss of the army, the situation in the city has just stabilized, Wu Chaoyue immediately found He Chun to understand the situation in the city and discuss the next tactical plan, and He Chun directly told Wu Chaoyue, saying: "The long-haired resistance is very fierce, and the people of the Tiger General Soldier have never been able to open the situation, and they only control the position less than fifty steps near the city gate, and there are many dead and wounded, and I am also preparing to send troops into the city for reinforcements." ”

"Normal, Longhair has been preparing for street fighting from the beginning, and it's not surprising that we're making slow progress." Wu Chaoyue didn't care about the slow advance of the Qing army, but said to He Chun: "Hejun Gate, the only way to do it now, the best way is for us to build fortifications, get some soil bags into the city to pile up sheep and horse walls, hide behind the wall and fight with Changmao, expand the control area little by little, and also take the opportunity to defend the city gate, as long as we can hold on until dawn, it will be much easier to fight next." ”

He Chun applauded when he heard this, and then said in embarrassment: "But in a hurry, where do we go up there to get so many sacks?" ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled, and instructed the soldiers to bring the bundles of sacks, saying that they had prepared them a long time ago, and Chun was overjoyed, and he was busy ordering the soldiers to follow the plan, carrying soil into the city with sacks, and piling up walls at the intersection of the streets to build temporary fortifications.

Finding that the situation was not good, the Taiping army decisively launched a charge in a vain attempt to prevent the Qing army from building fortifications, and the Qing army shot desperately, showing rare courage to fight with the Taiping army while racing against time to pile up fortifications, and at the same time, the Qing soldiers on the city wall also shot frantically under the command of Qin Ruhu to suppress the Taiping army's charge, and the result really repelled this wave of attack by the Taiping army. And when the Qing army's street fighting fortifications gradually took shape, it became more difficult for the Taiping army to expel the Qing army from the city.

The situation began to gradually unfavorable to the Taiping army, and the fallen city wall position could not be taken back, resulting in the Qing army entering the city here at the west gate could not walk like a leper dog, and also built street fighting fortifications that were conducive to shooting, at the same time, the Qing army Liu Cunhou was also feinting to attack the north gate of Shanghai to contain the Taiping army's troops, and the artillery bombardment of the Qing army sailors on the east gate never stopped, and there were still the remnants of Liu Lichuan's remnants in the city resisting stubbornly, although the Taiping army was more than enough to protect itself, but there was no spare strength to organize a larger-scale counterattack, Drive out the Qing army that has already entered the city.

Dying and struggling, in order to keep the last glimmer of hope in Shanghai, at about two o'clock in the morning, Zeng Lichang tried his best to gather troops, organized the army and launched a large-scale counterattack on the Qing army's position in the city and the city wall, in order to ensure the success of the counterattack, Zeng Lichang not only withdrew the Taiping army team that was storming the remnants of Liu Lichuan, and handed over the few remaining remnants of Liu Lichuan to Pan Qiliang, who surrendered to the line of fire, to deal with, but also forced Zhou Lichun to join the counteroffensive battlefield with the army, fortunately, Zhou Lichun was quite able to take the overall situation into account, Without making any requests, he led his army into the battlefield.

The Taiping army's large-scale counterattack almost succeeded, and the Taiping soldiers who charged on the frontal battlefield sacrificed their lives and killed themselves at any cost to enter the Qing army's sheep and horse wall and start a white-knives battle with the Qing army, beating the Qing army to the point of crying wolf, holding their heads and running around, and constantly retreating, almost expelling the Qing army from the city.

However, it is a pity that on the more important battlefield of the city wall, the soldiers of the Taiping army were met with the crazy resistance of Wu Jun Lian Yong, and no matter how they rushed to the front of Wu Jun at any cost, the white-edged battle of bayonets still could not make Wu Jun Lian Yong retreat even half a step, and the fierce battle with heavy casualties could not make a breakthrough for a long time. As a result, it was precisely because of the stubborn resistance of the Wu army that the Qing soldiers on both wings were able to continuously shoot on the city wall, covering the street fighting battlefield with no distinction between enemy and enemy, and helping the Qing army in the city to maintain the already precarious defense line of the sheep and horse wall.

The battle also entered a white-hot stage, on the battlefield of the city wall, Wu Jun Lian Yong shot at every opportunity, and killed with bayonets when he didn't have a chance, and the guns roared one after another, and the Taiping soldiers who were charging frantically were inseparable. On the battlefield in the city, the position of the Qing army was even more intertwined with the enemy and me, the heads of people were like ants, knives and guns were constantly fighting, the bullets shot on the city wall were as dense as hail, and the soldiers of both armies were constantly being shot and wounded to death.

At this time, a new change suddenly appeared, an army with a white cloth wrapped in a white cloth on its head seemed to fall from the sky, suddenly appeared on the battlefield in the city, and was very vicious to raid the north gate of Shanghai, which was also attacked by the Qing army, the Taiping army Pan Qiliang guarding the north gate had to attack the remnants of Liu Lichuan, and had to resist the attack of the Qing army outside the city, the strength was already stretched, and was suddenly attacked by this mysterious army, and the city gate soldiers were scattered one after another, this mysterious army took the opportunity to cut the door latch to open the city gate, The Qing army Liu Cunhou also put it into the city.

Of course, smart friends must have guessed that this army is the Jiangyin Lianyong that Zhou Tenghu inserted into Liu Lichuan's army in advance, although there is not much strength and only one sentry, and there are quite a lot of deaths and disappearances in the melee, but dozens of strictly trained elite soldiers suddenly killed the weak point of the Taiping Army from behind, which still played an important role.

The Qing army that entered the city from the north gate dealt a fatal blow to the Taiping army both in terms of situation and psychology, and it was no longer possible to draw out excess troops to expel the Qing army at the north gate, and it became meaningless to continue to storm the Qing army at the west gate. As a last resort, in order to preserve the vital force, Zeng Lichang could only order the attack to be stopped with tears in his eyes, withdraw his troops and give priority to encircling and suppressing the remnants of Liu Lichuan in order to rescue Xu Zongyang, and at the same time immediately began to prepare to abandon the city and retreat.

One of the advantages of hot weapon combat for the commander is that he can judge the battlefield situation by the sound of gunfire, and finding that the gunfire on the side of the West Gate suddenly became sparse, Wu Chaoyue immediately understood that the Taiping army had given up the plan to expel the Qing army from the city, and also guessed that the Taiping army was likely to launch a breakthrough battle as soon as possible. Then considering that if the Taiping army was allowed to break through and escape to Suzhou, the vitality would still pose a huge threat to his Shanghai nest, Wu Chaoyue did not dare to release the water casually this time, and found Hechun early, and asked to lead the army to establish a defensive position outside the south gate to block the Taiping army's eastward escape brigade.

Fighting the battle and the Taiping army desperately, after entering the city, there is an opportunity to burn and loot, and Chun of course agreed to Wu Chaoyue's request, and Wu Chaoyue immediately moved to the south gate with three battalions to take over the siege fortifications built before the Qing army, and at the same time quietly prayed that Zhou Lichun would not be confused, and it was best to take Zhou Xiuying to the east gate to break through, so that Zhou Xiuying could hope greatly whether he fled west to Suzhou or north to the concession.

Moved to the position outside the south gate, the street fighting in the city naturally had nothing to do with Wu Chaoyue, Liu Cunhou and the Qing army led by He Chun also fought very smartly, and after entering the city, they did not rush to burn and loot, but chose to take the camp step by step, and gradually expand the position in the city to gain a firm foothold. The Taiping army, on the other hand, was smarter and gradually resisted with the street fortifications, gaining time to rescue Xu Zongyang and prepare to retreat, and the intensity of the battle with the Qing army decreased a lot.

In this way, the most unlucky is of course the remnants of Liu Lichuan led by Li Xianchi and Du Wenzao, the Qing army advanced too slowly to give them direct support, and could not withstand the fierce attacks of the Taiping army, and the soldiers and generals continued to flee anyway, during which Du Wenzao was also killed by a stray bullet, and then was dismembered by the angry Taiping soldiers. In the end, at nearly four o'clock in the morning, Li Xianchi and the last hundred remnants of the Liu army were surrounded by the Taiping army in the lobby of the Shanghai County Government.

In order to rescue Xu Zongyang, Huang Shengcai, the general of the Taiping Army who led the army to besiege the county government hall, personally came forward and promised to release Xu Zongyang in exchange for the lives of Li Xianchi and others. However, Li Xianchi could not believe the promise of the Taiping Army, and was greedy for the reward that Xu Zongyang presented to the Qing army, so he immediately categorically refused, and said loudly: "If you want me to release Xu Zongyang, you can!" But you have to let me take my brother to the official army first, so that we can join the official army, and then I will release Xu Zongyang! ”

"Fart!" Huang Shengcai was furious when he heard this, and roared: "Let you go to the Qing Demon, will you release Prime Minister Xu again?" Immediately release Prime Minister Xu, and we promise to withdraw immediately and not attack again! Otherwise, we'll shoot! ”

"If you dare to shoot, Lao Tzu will destroy Xu Zongyang with one shot!"

Li Xianchi threatened Huang Shengcai in turn, but what Li Xianchi didn't expect was that Xu Zongyang, who was dying, suddenly raised his head and struggled and shouted: "Huang Shengcai! Shoot! Kill me first, then kill these brutes to avenge me! ”

"Shoot! Shoot me! If I fall into the hands of the Qing Demon, I will only die even worse! Shoot me, it's an order! ”

Roaring with difficulty, Xu Zongyang struggled with his best efforts, and when Li Xianchi beat him in anger, Xu Zongyang also took the opportunity to bite Li Xianchi's wrist, which made Li Xianchi scream in pain, saying that he couldn't shake off Xu Zongyang's teeth, so he could only smash Xu Zongyang's head with the butt of the gun.

Bang, the gun went off, although Huang Shengcai's bullet accurately hit Li Xianchi, but did not let Li Xianchi die immediately, after being shot, Li Xianchi was still furious, fired several shots at Xu Zongyang's head, and killed this important general of the Taiping Army on the spot. The soldiers of the Taiping Army led by Huang Shengcai roared like thunder, and bullets rained down into the county hall. In the end, none of the more than 100 Liu Lichuan remnants in the lobby escaped alive.

After receiving the news of Xu Zongyang's killing, Zeng Lichang shed tears, and decisively issued an order for the whole army to abandon the city, and took the remaining Taiping soldiers and Pan Qiliang and Zhou Lichun, two friendly troops, to leave the city from the south gate and the east gate in two ways, and retreated to Suzhou overnight.

The main force of the Taiping army from the south gate was of course attacked head-on by Wu Jun Lianyong, and Wu Chaoyue, a small comprador whose hands were stained with the blood of the peasant rebel army, was poisoned and slaughtered the Taiping soldiers with all kinds of advanced weapons, successfully defeating the main force of the Taiping army, forcing the Taiping army to give up its baggage and break through in multiple units. Wu Chaoyue tried his best to hunt down and kill, and also tried his best to weaken the threat of the Taiping army in Suzhou to him in the future, and the Taiping soldiers suffered heavy casualties as a result, but Wu Chaoyue, who secretly sympathized, did not feel guilty - this was all forced by the Taiping army to do this.

During this period, Wu Chaoyue, who had already thought of a way out for the Taiping soldiers in advance, of course did not forget to take the opportunity to surrender, and during the pursuit, the soldiers kept shouting the slogan of surrender and not killing, and also forbade the killing of the wounded and captured Taiping soldiers, and as a result, a considerable number of Taiping soldiers were really captured - of course, most of these people were soldiers of the Xiaodao Society rebel army.

In addition, Wu Chaoyue did not forget to look for Zhou Xiuying's whereabouts, and what made Wu Chaoyue quietly relieved was that Zhou Lichun's army broke through the siege of the east gate of Shanghai, and was only intercepted by the Qing army's naval division Bo Chengsheng, and the loss was not too big, and the possibility of Zhou Xiuying being killed was very small. But in this way, Wu Chaoyue wants to get on the line with Zhou Xiuying, and through Zhou Xiuying's plan to tell Yang Xiuqing about Zhang Jigeng, naturally there is no chance to succeed.

Unwilling to give up, Wu Chaoyue took Wu Jun Lian Yong to pursue until Zhou Xiuying's hometown Huangdu Town before stopping, and then while organizing the team to search for the remnants of the enemy, he let the soldiers rest. At the same time, he also tried his best to search for Zhou Xiuying's whereabouts, but unfortunately, Zhou Xiuying did not appear in the area of Huangdu Town, but Xu Naizhao sent an urgent letter, saying that many Taiping soldiers had fled into the British and French concessions to seek protection, and asked Wu Chaoyue, who was proficient in foreign languages, to return to Shanghai immediately to deal with this matter, so that He Chun and Qin Ruhu and others could shoulder the heavy responsibility of pursuit.

Unwilling to go to Suzhou to fight a tough battle, Wu Chaoyue of course immediately accepted Xu Naizhao's request, and let the exhausted Wu Jun Lian Yong rest in Huangdu for a night, and the next day Wu Chaoyue returned to Shanghai with the army to deal with the thorny problem of Taiping soldiers escaping into the concession.

The problem is indeed more tricky, after the Taiping soldiers fled into the concession, although they were immediately disarmed, they were also able to temporarily stay in the concession under the protection of foreigners. Xu Naizhao's request to the consuls of Britain, France and other countries to hand over these Taiping soldiers was categorically refused, but he could not let them go, let them hide in the concession and continue to threaten Shanghai. With nothing to do, Xu Naizhao had no choice but to kick the ball to Wu Chaoyue and let Wu Chaoyue find a way to deal with this troublesome problem.

Of course, Wu Chaoyue did not dare to force the foreigners to hand over people, and after racking his brains, Wu Chaoyue could only ask the consuls of Britain and France to expel these Taiping troops from the Shanghai concession and let them go to Japan or Nanyang by boat. And Ali Guo, Ai Tang and others were also worried that these Taiping soldiers would affect the security of the concession, so they extorted Xu Naizhao a sum of money to deal with these Taiping soldiers, and forced Xu Naizhao to agree to expand the area of the British and French concessions, so they agreed to Wu Chaoyue's proposal.

Agreed on this traitorous plan with the foreigners, and when it was time to sign the traitorous treaty, the treacherous Xu Naizhao of course handed the brush to Wu Chaoyue, and said with a smile: "Wu Zhentai, this method was agreed between you and the foreigners, and you have to sign this treaty in person." ”

Wu Chaoyue was stupid to sign this treaty alone, and immediately shook his head with a smile and said: "Xu Futai, you are Xiaguan's boss, and this method was also decided after your personal consent, so please sign and seal first, and Xiaguan will be your deputy." ”

Xu Naizhao and Wu Chaoyue pushed each other around, Hui Zheng, who had just been rescued from prison by the Qing army, shrank aside and did not dare to say anything, Ah Liguo and others sneered on the opposite side of the negotiation table, and when they were deadlocked, a thin old hand suddenly stretched out next to them and took the brush, Wu Chaoyue looked up in surprise, but saw that it was none other than his comprador grandfather Wu Jianzhang. Then when he saw Wu Jianzhang writing on the treaty, Wu Chaoyue of course jumped up to stop him, "Grandpa, you can't sign it!" ”

With a smile and pushed away the precious grandson's thin hand, Wu Jianzhang's thin old face smiled extremely gently, and said softly: "Grandson, don't stop me, this time in the Shanghai thief chaos, the old man can't escape anyway, anyway, it's a black pot, and there is not much difference between one bite and two mouthfuls." You are still young, and you are so competitive, don't let this little thing affect your future. ”

Seeing that the comprador grandfather signed the three words Wu Jianzhang on the treaty that was about to repent of his career and future, Wu Chaoyue burst into tears, kneeling in front of the old comprador Wu and crying silently, but the old comprador Wu was full of smiles, patted the head of his baby grandson, and said gently: "Chaoyue, grandpa is old and tired, our Wu family will rely on you in the future." (To be continued.) )