"Luo Xuanmen is really a god and a man! He really expected it, and Long Hair really gave up the canal road! ”

After learning the news that the Taiping army on land marched from Dongguang to the west and entered the hinterland of Zhili, none of the Manchu military ministers headed by Devil Zi Liu did not scream in silence, nor did they not admire Luo Bingzhang's foresight, and even more than half a month ago, he had already predicted that once Shi Dakai's advance did not go well, he would inevitably give up the established plan of directly taking Tianjin to join the Taiping Army's naval division, and diverted his route to the west to enter the hinterland of Zhili to get food. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

The old fox Luo Bingzhang's cattle fork is not only like this, even Shi Dakai will inevitably send people to the Taiping Army Sailor, which was also expected by Luo Bingzhang early, and as a result, the Taiping Army who disguised himself as a common person and rushed to Dagukou to contact the Taiping Army Sailor was also just touched Lubeikou, and was captured alive by the Qing soldiers who were waiting for him, and intercepted Shi Dakai's handwritten letter to Yang Yuanqing.

The Taiping army who sent a letter to Yang Yuanqing for Shi Dakai was called Zeng Xiang, who was not the first talent in Anhui, and the Taiping army was put into Shi Dakai's account after the capital was Nanjing, because he could read and speak and gradually got Shi Dakai's appreciation and reuse, the reason why Shi Dakai sent him to send a letter to Yang Yuanqing was also to use Zeng Xiang's eloquence to explain to Yang Yuanqing as much as possible the reason for changing the plan of the division. After being captured alive by the Qing soldiers, Zeng Xiang, who was still loyal to Shi Dakai, did not say a word, and was psychologically prepared to be executed by the Qing army.

Contrary to Zeng Xiang's expectations, after he was escorted to the city of Tianjin, not only was he not beheaded on the street or executed by Ling Chi, but he was also personally received by Hengfu, the governor of Zhili, who was sitting in Tianjin. Then there was no need for Hengfu to ask, Zeng Xiang poured beans into a bamboo tube and explained the military situation of the Taiping Army that he knew, in exchange for the Qing army's more generous treatment of Zeng Xiang, and upgraded the beauties who served him overnight to four.

Of course, the Governor of Yipin, Hengfu Heng, is such a courteous corporal who is not the first to show talent, and his purpose is certainly not to take out Shi Dakai's military information from Zeng Xiang's mouth. Soon, a forged letter from Shi Dakai, a letter of appointment from the Manchu court to canonize Zeng Xiang as the prefect of Wupin, as well as a thousand taels of silver and ten pearls, were put in front of Zeng Xiang together, and then Hengfu smiled and told Zeng Xiang: "Zeng Xianggong, as long as you send this letter to Yang Yuanqing, the leader of the long-haired bandits, these things will all be yours." ”

The one who answered Hengfu did not categorically refuse, only Zeng Xiang's kowtow and kowtow, and he swore that he would eventually be loyal to the Qing court.

At the same time, the main land force of the Taiping army led by Shi Dakai was still deep in the hinterland of Zhili - although the Manchu court made the whole territory of Zhili strong, but still tried to transfer the wild valley outside the city into the city, the Taiping army had to spend time attacking the city if they wanted to seize the grain and grass, and the cavalry of the Qing army led by the Shandong New Army and Shengbao had been biting Shi Dakai's tail and trying every possible way to obstruct and destroy Shi Dakai's siege and grain seizure action, so after the westward march into the hinterland of Zhili, the food shortage problem of the Taiping army was only improved to a certain extent, However, he was still constrained by the lack of grain and grass, and had to continue to attack the city and seize grain, and he would not be able to pull out his hand to go east to meet Yang Yuanqing for a while.

Diametrically opposed to the embarrassing situation on land, under the protection of the Aspen fleet, which included iron-hulled steam warships, the fleet of the Taiping Army sailors led by Yang Yuanqing was unimpeded on the sea, and it was almost rampant and domineering, sinking or capturing Manchu ships that had no time to dodge many times, so that the Red Single fleet led by Wu Quanmei, a famous general of the Qing army, only dared to hide in Tibet in the east, and did not dare to engage head-on at all.

Yang Yuanqing must be praised here, although it is the first time to lead the troops to fight, Yang Yuanqing still knows how to be cautious and cautious, after successfully entering the Bohai Bay, Yang Yuanqing did not go directly to Dagukou with complacency, but now the Qing army has not taken precautions Qikou Sow Port is temporarily stationed, and sent people to land to inquire about the movements of Shida's army, so as to decide the next tactical plan.

It's still a pity that this point has also been expected in advance by the Manchu court, and in the case of not being able to block the news, the Manchu court simply came to an anti-guest, risking the risk of shaking the people's hearts to spread rumors in the coastal areas on their own, and constantly claiming among the people that Shi Dakai hit somewhere. Therefore, the Taiping soldiers collected all kinds of information, some said that Shi Dakai had already hit Tianjin, some said that Shi Dakai only hit Jinghai, and some said that Shi Dakai had captured Wuqing, and even the people heard rumors that Shi Dakai was attacking the capital, all kinds of false information, not to mention that Yang Yuanqing, who led the troops for the first time, could not distinguish the true from the false, and could not judge the enemy situation. is that Zhu Xikun and Zeng Yuxiu and other veterans of the Taiping Army are at a loss, and they don't know which one is true and which one is false.

At this time, Zeng Xiang, who suddenly appeared with the identity certificate of the Taiping Army, of course, became Yang Yuanqing's only guiding light, so he just saw Zeng Xiang, Yang Yuanqing didn't even have time to distinguish the authenticity of Zeng Xiang's identity, and asked, "Where did you go?" Where is Wing King Yachitose now? ”

"Yu Guozong, the Wing King is eight thousand years old, and he is now in Tianjin Military Grain City." Zeng Xiang wiped his sweat and said: "After defeating Jinghai, the Wing King Eight Thousand Years Old originally wanted to take advantage of the victory to conquer Tianjin, but the Qing Demon Heavy Army guarded Tianjin, and it would be difficult to conquer it for a while. ”

"Fortunately, Zeng Lichang and Prime Minister Zeng successfully defeated the military grain city and captured a batch of grain and grass of the Qing demon, and the Wing King 8,000 years old simply did not rush to fight Tianjin, and moved to the military grain city with the main force of our heavenly kingdom to confront the Qing demon, and prepared to wait for the arrival of the national emperor to send troops to Dagukou, and you to attack the Dagukou fort of the Qing demon before and after, open the Haihe River waterway, and then join forces to attack Tianjin."

Saying that, Zeng Xiang also presented the so-called Shi Dakai's handwritten letter with both hands, Yang Yuanqing, who barely knew a few words, quickly took it and read it carefully, and saw that the content of the letter was probably the same as Zeng Xiang's oral introduction, and he was immediately overjoyed, and said: "Okay! Now we can finally rest assured that we can play Dagukou! ”

Zhu Xikun, a veteran who became the tenth person in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after the establishment of Yong'an, was more careful, first verified the authenticity of Zeng Xiang's identity, and then carefully checked Shi Dakai's handwriting seal, until no flaws were found, Zhu Xikun asked Zeng Xiang about Shi Dakai's siege of the city all the way. But it was useless, Hengfu had already made up a set of almost flawless lies for Zeng Xiang, plus Zeng Xiang's eloquence was really good, and the so-called Taiping Army's process of taking Cangzhou and Qingxian was vividly depicted and reasonable, and even made up the story of Shi Dakai's several divisions of troops to attack various places in Zhili, explaining the reason for the many and different folk rumors. Therefore, Zhu Xikun finally believed it and believed the false information that Shi Dakai had hit the vicinity of Dagukou, and urged Yang Yuanqing to set off north as soon as possible, not giving the Qing army more time to prepare for Dagukou.

Finally, the Taiping fleet still went north to Dagukou, and sent a small boat to send Zeng Xiang to the shore, and asked Zeng Xiang to send a letter to Shi Dakai, agreeing to use the sound of guns as a signal to join forces to flank the north and south forts of Dagukou tightly guarded by the Qing army, and agreed to take the forts on the north bank of the Haihe River as the main offensive position, first take the north bank forts, and then hit the south bank.

A day later, when the sky was twilight, behind the Qing army fort north of the Haihe River, there was indeed a dense sound of gunfire, Yang Yuanqing heard the great news, did not carefully confirm the situation on the shore, immediately commanded the steamship fleet to launch an attack on Dagukou, concentrated firepower to bombard the north bank battery of Dagukou. At the same time, reserves were arranged early in advance, ready for landing operations at any time.

In the fierce artillery battle of the scorching gunpowder smoke, the Qing army at Dagukou, which had already undergone many actual combat exercises, used the strong artillery as a cover and manipulated the Western artillery purchased at a high price and the advanced artillery aided by Russia to bombard continuously, and successively damaged a number of Taiping steam gunboats, and the Tiantai, the second largest tonnage in the Taiping naval fleet, was also directly hit into the gun window by a shell of the Qing army, causing a fire in the cabin. During this period, although the officers and men of the Taiping Army also opened artillery to bombard the fort, they had no choice but that the Dagukou fort was too strong, and the fierce fighting for a long time only killed and wounded many Qing gunners, and dumb more than a dozen Qing artillery, but they were never able to severely damage and destroy the Qing army's fort position.

At the same time as the fierce battle, Leshan, the commander of the Qing army who was in charge of the front-line war, did not forget to act, and deliberately arranged for some soldiers with red cloths on their heads to attack the Qing army's Tanggu camp by land under the banner of the Taiping Army, and shot at the position of the Qing army in Tanggu, creating a false sense of attack. As a result, Yang Yuanqing, who was inexperienced, was also fooled, and in order to relieve the pressure of artillery warfare, he immediately ordered Fan Liande, a veteran of the Taiping Army who led the Marine Corps, to lead the army to land on the beach, and cooperate with Shi Dakai to attack the Taiping army in Tanggu.

Amid the deafening rumbling of artillery, more than 1,500 elite Taiping Army with well-armed weapons rode on troop carriers converted from civilian sand transport boats, and took advantage of the southerly wind in early summer, which was favorable to the self-army, to rush straight to Tanggu, with a very astonishing momentum. However, what no one expected was that when the troop carriers were about to approach the coastline, violent explosions suddenly occurred one after another at the waterlines of many troop carriers, and almost in the blink of an eye, they blew through the sides of many Taiping troop carriers, and the sea water surged into the cabin, and the Taiping infantry officers and men on the ships also suddenly exclaimed in amazement, and there were countless people who staggered from side to side.

"What's that?!" Yang Yuanqing also exclaimed.

"It should be a mine of the Qing Demon." Yang Fuqing, who was from the same sect, had a gloomy face and explained: "I heard that the Qing Demon and the foreigners have a powder keg that can float in the water, which will explode as long as the rope is pulled, and it is specially used to fight the sailor warship. ”

It was too late to know what kind of weapons the Qing army used, just relying on the sudden attack of the mine array, the Qing army in Tanggu sank and injured more than ten Taiping troop carriers without a single soldier, causing countless elite soldiers of the Taiping Army to fall into the water, and the sea was suddenly full of Taiping soldiers struggling for help, but the mines that the Qing army had previously arranged in large numbers still exploded continuously, and continued to hit the Taiping army's troop transport fleet.

Under such a fierce and sudden blow, the Taiping army's troop transport fleet was of course completely chaotic, either colliding with each other or scattering and fleeing, and a few Taiping troop carriers that were lucky enough to escape the Qing army's mine raid and successfully docked were even more unlucky, and were immediately hit by the crazy fire of the Qing army in Tanggu, and many loyal Taiping soldiers and soldiers had not even been able to get off the ship, and had already fallen tragically in front of the guns of the Qing army.

The fierce artillery battle continued, although the technical level of the Qing soldiers was not high, and the hit rate of hitting moving targets was very low, but with the absolute superiority in the number of artillery, the Qing troops at the Dagukou Fort still relied on luck to win many times, and severely damaged the Taiping Navy Sailor Guangshou, who had only retired from the British Navy last year, and directly hit the steam paddle wheel of the Guangshou, scrapping the steam propulsion ability of the Guangshou on the spot. In addition to the Tiantai and Guangshou, the other five wooden-hulled steam gunboats of the Taiping Army were also not lightly damaged, but only two iron-hulled ships were not lightly damaged, but these two iron-hulled ships were small gunboats with a displacement of only four or five hundred tons, and their firepower was too weak, and no matter how strong the defense was, they could not pose a fatal threat to the Qing army's Dagu Fort, and they only caused more casualties to the Qing defenders at Dagukou.

I didn't expect that the firepower of the Dagukou Fort would be so fierce beforehand, and Shi Dakai's main force could get reinforcements in time, of course, it was Yang Yuanqing's only last hope to win this battle, so even if the troop transport fleet was severely damaged by the Qing army's mines, Yang Yuanqing still did not order a retreat, and still let the flagship play the banner, ordering Fan Liande's army to resolutely seize the beach and land, storm the Qing army's Tanggu position, and respond to Shi Dakai's army, which once appeared near the Tanggu position.

Seeing that the Taiping army's troop transport fleet, which had been badly damaged, still insisted on landing on the coast of Tanggu, Le Shan, the commander of the Qing army's Zhili who was on the front line to command the battle, also showed a pleased smile on his face, because Hengfu knew very well that his tactics were about to succeed, as long as the infantry of the Taiping army landed ashore, Yang Yuanqing must continue to fight, and the battle continued, without the help of the Russian Far East Fleet, the firepower of the Dagukou Fort alone was enough to weaken the Taiping army's fleet and create a winning fighter for the Qing army's naval division Wu Quanmei.

"Letitai, look, the army of the monk is coming!"

The exclamation of the pro-soldiers shocked Le Shan's whole body, and when Le Shan, who had been smoked black by gunpowder and gunpowder smoke, hurriedly turned his head to look, he was also immediately stunned to see - the noble flat yellow banner of the monk and the prince of the county had indeed appeared in the west of the Tanggu position, and with the noble banner of the monk and the prince, there were also a large group of Manchurian and Mongolian cavalry who showed off their might.

Then, Le Shan also sat on the fort on the north bank of Dagukou, which was covered with gunpowder residues and stone chips, and looked at the corpses of Qing soldiers on the fort in a daze. After a long time, Le Shan shed two lines of tears, and cried loudly: "Monk Wang, you are a pockmark, not a pockmark, a pit man!" These brothers of mine died in vain today! ”

Expected by Le Shan, after seeing the appearance of the cavalry of the monk and the prince, Yang Yuanqing, who was already frightened, believed that Shi Dakai had been defeated, and did not dare to hesitate any longer, so he immediately ordered the troop transport fleet to stop landing, turn around and withdraw to the team, and at the same time hurriedly recalled the fleet of steam gunboats that had been beaten all over by the Qing army at Dagukou, and joined forces with the troop transport fleet, and did not dare to fight with the Qing army at Dagukou again.

"Smack!"

The matter was not over yet, the monk who hurriedly ran from the military grain city to grab the credit because of the small harvest, and as soon as they met, he gave Le Shan a slap in the face, and roared: "Waste! Useless dog minion! Why did you fight for so long and fail to trick the long-haired brigade ashore? Not a single long-haired steamer was sunk?! Idiot! The court's elaborate plan to lure the enemy is in vain, it is you who are harmed by this dog, wait to hear it! ”

Breaking and scolding, the angry monk and the prince also kicked Le Shan to the sky, and Leshan, who is also a Mongolian, has neither the monk and the prince's official high-ranking nor the noble bloodline of the monk and the prince, so he does not dare to fight back and refute - otherwise he will be made worse like Shu Bao. So Le Shan could only look at the corpses of the Qing soldiers piled up on the fort and wept, choking and crying......

"Brothers, I'm a waste, I'm a fool, I've killed you in vain, I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for you."