"Boom! Bang! Bang! ”

The fierce artillery fire was like thunder, one after another on the Taiping army's Touguan position, flames burst out, shrapnel raged, shock waves swept everything, blowing down the wall, igniting the fence, lifting all kinds of debris into the sky, and also turning the Taiping Army's Touguan position directly into an iron fire hell, surrounded by blue-yellow poisonous smoke.

No matter how elite the army is, it can't resist such fierce artillery fire, in the flames and poisonous smoke, the screams of the Taiping soldiers running around like headless flies come and go, and they are so miserable that they don't seem to be like human voices, and there are many Taiping soldiers who are directly burned by the bitter acid flames that cannot be poured with water, and they roll on the ground full of fire and scream, jumping into the water and struggling in pain, but they still can't escape the doom of being burned alive by the flames. Before the Wu Army's naval division launched a landing operation, many Taiping soldiers had already begun to flee from their positions, including many middle- and low-level generals.

It was already early in the morning, and in order to prevent the main army from coming ashore at night, the artillery fire had only been prepared for more than half an hour, and a sampan fleet of the Wu army broke away from the main force and began to charge towards the shoals of Touguan. During this period, some remnants of the Taiping soldiers also tried to shoot to stop them, but when they found that their batteries were completely silent and there were few companions in them, these remnants of the Taiping soldiers soon fled from their positions, not daring to stay on the beachhead and die in vain.

In order to alleviate the pressure on the landing fleet, the Wu artillery team on Jiangxinzhou was still firing at the maximum angle and doing its best to hit the picric shells at the positions still controlled by the Taiping army. However, the Wu gunners gradually found themselves wasting precious shells, because the Wu troop carriers loaded with Wu soldiers had already landed one after another, and there was still no one rushing out to stop the Taiping army's position, and it was obvious that there were no defenders on the position. Only an army came out of the main camp of the Taiping Army in Touguan, which could not be hit by Wu's artillery shells, and rushed towards the beachhead at a not very fast speed.

The reason why the Wu army chose to land on the beach at Touguan was that in addition to the main reason that the Wu army's artillery on Jiangxinzhou could easily cover the beachhead at Touguan, another reason was that the battle reports collected by the Wu army's spies showed that Liao Fashou's army performed poorly in the previous Yuhuatai battle, although it was not about to collapse at the touch of a button, but it was also directly killed and retreated by the southwest Wu army several times in white-edged battles, and the fighting spirit of fighting a tough battle was obvious.

As a result, after the real confrontation with Liao Fashou's army, the Wu army spies under Zhang Dejian quickly proved that their intelligence was correct, and the Wu army's landing force only launched a 100-person counter-charge, which directly curbed the advance momentum of Liao Fashou's army and forced Liao Fashou's army into a long-range combat battle.

Finding that the situation was not right, Liao Fashou, who was hiding in the rear to supervise the battle, yelled and shouted for the supervising team to come forward, forcing the front army to launch another charge, but the Taiping army of Liao Fashou, who was not good at fighting evil battles, did not rush far, and the Wu army landed on the shore just hurriedly fired a dozen grenadier shells, and the Taiping army that was forced to charge dispersed in a hurry, shouting and fleeing everywhere, including the same for the supervising team supervising the battle behind, Liao Fashou scolded, and killed a general who took the lead in escaping for his life. But it didn't work.

Thanks to the luck that Liao Fashou's army behaved more fleshily than expected, Wu's second troop transport fleet rushed onto the shoals almost unhindered, and as a result, Liao Fashou's army not only had no hope of turning over, but the Wu infantry that had already landed had been able to free up their hands to launch a counterattack and drive Liao Fashou's army to seize a broader land position.

Or after the third troop transport fleet of the Wu army also rushed to the shoal, the reinforcements of the first Taiping army hurried from the side of the Shangxin River, but the reinforcements of the Taiping army came too late and too late, and the landing Wu army has not only seized a large area of land space, but also has gathered more than four battalions of mobile troops, an elite battalion of the Wu army stepped forward and put out 32 grenadiers to fire only three rounds of salvos, which directly blew up the Taiping army reinforcements to the flesh and blood, a big mess, and the soldiers of the elite battalion of the Wu army fired one after another with a creature pin gun in a prostrate posture. The Taiping Army reinforcements who came from Shangxinhe were even more ghosts crying wolves, screaming and shaking the sky, "Why are the demon soldiers crawling and shooting?" How do you load ammunition when you shoot while crawling? That's not how foreigners fight?! ”

In fact, even the Prussian army, which has used the pin gun as the main rifle, has not yet thought that the pin gun can use the rogue style of volley fire in a crawling position, and the tactics of lining up and shooting with a pin gun and a prostrate posture are used to fight the tactics of the shooting in line. In order to avoid premature disclosure of this secret, even Wu Jun in Shanghai did not know.

To get back to the point, after the Taiping army reinforcements were also easily defeated, it was actually only a matter of time before the Wu army completely captured the Taiping army's Touguan position, and once the Touguan fell, the two armies of Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Taiping Army in Dashengguan had the possibility of being surrounded and annihilated by the Wu army on three sides, so Li Xiucheng, the commander of the Taiping Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, had only two choices left, one was to quickly abandon the position of Dashengguan, withdraw Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan as soon as possible, and lose the car to protect the commander to give priority to preserving the army. The second is to let Chen Bingwen, Hong Chunyuan and others fight to the death, forcing the Wu army to pay the price in the battle, and at the same time strive for a miracle to keep the big victory by luck.

"Chung Wang Chitose, whether you want to win a big victory or not, it's time to make an idea." Li Shuxiang also urged on the side: "If you don't make up your mind, it's too late, once you let the demon soldiers take the head and cut off the connection between Dashengguan and us, it will be difficult for Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan to withdraw again." ”

Li Xiucheng rubbed his fingers in pain and said secretly: "Isn't it a pity to give up like this?" Not to mention that there are so many food and arms in the city of Dashengguan, it would be a pity to throw away the camp that was built so hard? Also, Banqiao's side is still insisting, and at this time, let Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan abandon the pass and retreat, not only is it too sorry for the soldiers in Banqiao, but it is also too cold for the hearts of the soldiers. In addition, it is too hasty for the demon soldiers to take the initiative to give up the key to victory before all of them have landed, and the ambition of the demon soldiers is too long. ”

After thinking about this, Li Xiucheng finally made up his mind, slapped the table and shouted: "Give Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan an order, tell them to defend the Great Victory Pass with all their might, and without the will of this king, they are not allowed to retreat without authorization!" ”

"Chung Wang Chitose ......."

Li Shuxiang hurriedly wanted to remind Li Xiucheng of the dangerous consequences of such a decision, but Li Xiucheng waved his hand to interrupt his exhortation, and said in a deep voice: "Needless to say, I know that there will be a danger of being cut and surrounded by demon soldiers over there at Dasheng Pass, but it doesn't matter, anyway, the terrain is open, and if you can't hold it, you can still retreat, and you can still retreat, it's a big deal to send troops to respond." ”

Li Shuxiang reluctantly agreed, and arranged for people to give Chen Hong's second general an order, Li Xiucheng looked at the direction of Dasheng Pass with a gloomy face, and said in his heart: "Beyond the little demon, if you like to surround the Dasheng Pass, let you surround it, this king wants to take a look, how much does it cost you to win the Dasheng Pass!" The two armies of Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan are quite capable armies under the king's account! ”

Because of Li Xiucheng's decision, the two Taiping armies of Dashengguan also missed the opportunity to transfer the final formation, but the Wu army was unceremonious, after taking the first pass and landing, the first thing was to wave the division to the west, and cooperate with the sailors to cover the Dashengguan, and after the partial division of the Wu army Cao Yanzhong also took Banqiao, the Wu army also successfully surrounded the Dashengguan Taiping Army with a total strength of more than 30,000 people on three sides - although it had not had time to cut off the messenger contact between the Dashengguan Taiping Army and Li Xiucheng, but it also blocked the frontal road, It basically shattered the hope of retreating from the Taiping Army of Dashengguan.

In this case, Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan, who were forced by Li Xiucheng to stay at Dasheng Pass, had no choice but to fully turn to the defense to prepare for a bitter battle, fortunately, it was too late after the Wu army surrounded Dasheng Pass on three sides, and at the same time, the Wu army troop transport fleet protected by Xu Lai also needed to be transferred to Touguan to land, so the Wu army did not rush to attack Dasheng Pass that night, or in the morning of the next day, the Wu army, which had been decided, opened from the southeast and southeast roads to Dasheng Pass, At the same time, the main force of the Wu Army's naval division also entered the water battlefield north of Dasheng Pass, helping the land division to attack Dasheng Pass on three sides.

"The demon soldiers are coming! We are surrounded, don't want to run anyone, if you want to live, you can only fight to the death with the demon soldiers! ”

"Hold on to the big victory! The big victory is off, and we are here! If you lose the big victory, we will die! If you don't want to die, you can fight to the end for Lao Tzu and the demon soldiers! Wait for the reinforcements of King Chung! ”

I have to admit that Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan are indeed very good at boosting morale, even if the morale and fighting spirit of the Taiping Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are far inferior to the veterans of the Taiping Army in Liangguang, after hearing the encouraging propaganda personally issued by Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan, they have also come up with the determination to fight the Wu army to the end, and all kinds of slogans in the army have come and gone, up and down. However, it is a pity that when the Wu army really entered the position and prepared to attack, the Taiping soldiers of Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan still found that they were too naïve, and they wanted to keep the victory pass and the Wu army to fight to the end, which was by no means as simple as shouting slogans.

On the water, the six sail battleships of the Wu army were like six mobile batteries, and from the very beginning of the battle, they continued to pour artillery fire on the Dasheng Guanguan that was too close to the river bank, and the shells continued to bombard the Guancheng, and the Chen Bingwen army in the Guancheng was so frightened that there was almost nowhere to stay, and the only few land batteries were also muted under the artillery fire of the Wu army's naval division for two consecutive days, and they could no longer pose a threat to the Wu army's warships. Let the old Wu army's red single boat dare to drive to the riverbank to fire at the Taiping army's position, and the Taiping army on land was difficult to fight back after being beaten, so they had to abandon the beachhead and turn inland one after another.

The disparity on land is even greater, although the Taiping Army of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and several elite regiments of the Wu Army like to use guns and artillery to fight long-range warfare, and rarely fight in close quarters unless absolutely necessary, and they do not suffer losses in terms of tactics and habits. However, the Taiping army at Dashengguan did not even have many new artillery pieces capable of firing black powder shells, so how could they withstand the bombardment of hundreds of rear-loading rifled guns of the Wu army using picric acid shells? Therefore, only two hours after the land battle began, the Taiping army built several camps outside the Dasheng Pass had completely turned into a sea of fire, and the Taiping troops in the camp were either forced to abandon the camp fortifications and move outside the camp to rely on the trench and earthen wall to continue the battle, or they could only hide behind the sheep and horse wall and struggle to support, and they could be affected by the explosion of the bitter acid shells that fell at any time, and they were directly shocked and burned to death.

What made Chen Hong's second army even more desperate was the Wu army's grenadiers and mortars, these two curved weapons can not only directly attack the Taiping soldiers hiding in the trenches and behind the walls, but also have their own characteristics, a kind of fast and flexible can be transferred in a mobile way, if you want to hit there, you can hit there with a high hit rate, a kind of powerful terror once it falls, even the sheep and horse wall can be directly blown away, hit the crowd of the Taiping army, and it can directly blow up the Taiping soldiers who were affected to pieces, and die a miserable death. Therefore, even if the Hongchun Yuan Army, which was defending the outer positions, was already regarded as the elite of the Taiping Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it was also defeated and retreated in the face of the fierce offensive of the Wu army, and the position was repeatedly forcibly compressed by the Wu army, and gradually retreated to the bottom of the Dasheng Pass.

During this period, Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan sent people to Li Xiucheng several times, asking Li Xiucheng to allow his army to break through and retreat or send reinforcements quickly, but because two battalions of Wu cavalry had landed, the messengers sent by Chen Hong and the others were all robbed and killed by the Wu cavalry in the middle of the road, and the news was never delivered to Li Xiucheng. Finally, in the afternoon, a blood-stained messenger crawled into the Taiping position, bringing Li Xiucheng's order to Chen Hong's second army to hold out until it was completely dark before breaking through and retreating. Chen Hong and the others sighed helplessly, but they knew that Li Xiucheng was also kind-hearted, and knew that it would be difficult to succeed in breaking through during the day, so they still sent orders to each army under their command, so that the army could continue to grit their teeth and hold on, waiting for the sky to be dark.

Fortunately, the city wall of Guancheng, which was bombarded by the artillery fire of the Wu army, and the earthwork fortifications built in large quantities before played an important role at the critical moment, and finally helped Chen Hong's second army to hold out until it was dark, and Li Xiucheng, who had already repented of his bowels, also sent reinforcements early to help Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan lead the army to break through. However, when it came time to break through the battle, Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan found that they were still too naïve, and they had long expected that the Wu army, which would break through at night, was well prepared, relying on grenadiers and grenades, supplemented by Dana explosives planted in dangerous positions in advance, and successively repelled the deadly impact of Chen Hong's second army, so that Chen Hong's second army paid a heavy price and failed to break out of the encirclement. At the same time, south of Touguan, the Wu army only mobilized four battalions of infantry and one battalion of cavalry, and the reinforcements sent by Li Xiucheng were drawn all over the place, looking for teeth all over the ground, and did not dare to advance an inch.

In the second half of the night, Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan's armies still did not see any hope of breaking out of the encirclement, and when they had no choice, Chen Bingwen and Hong Chunyuan had no choice but to order the army to break through in all directions with tears in their eyes, and the remaining army was broken into pieces, so that the soldiers scattered and fled. As a result, although there were indeed many Taiping soldiers who escaped by relying on the open terrain, more Taiping soldiers were wantonly slaughtered by the Wu army without fighting back, and countless people were killed and surrendered, Chen Bingwen was killed by stray bullets in the chaos, and Hong Chunyuan, who fled in the clothes of a soldier, was even more unlucky and trampled to death by the chaotic crowd of his own defeated army. In the end, less than 30,000 of the Taiping army who escaped from the victory were less than 30%, and countless soldiers were killed and surrendered, and many Taiping soldiers simply fled directly to the direction of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and never dared to return to the camp to continue the battle with the Wu army.

When the sky was full of light, the bad news was transmitted back to the battalions of the Taiping Army, and the battalions of the Taiping Army that were still surrounding Yuhuatai were in an uproar, and their morale fell wildly again, and they had no fighting spirit and no fighting spirit, including the most optimistic ones, who did not dare to hold out any hope of victory. Li Xiucheng himself fainted on the spot, and after being rescued by his subordinates, Li Xiucheng cried loudly in public, howling in despair: "Brother Chen, Brother Hong, I hurt you!" I shouldn't have told you to continue to defend the Great Victory Pass, I should have told you to retreat quickly! ”