In order not to give the main force of the Wu army the opportunity and time to go north to reinforce the important town of Xiangyang, early the morning of the second day after arriving in Xinye, Tuo Ming'a hurriedly led the Qing army to continue south, and went straight to Xiangyang City along the official road on the east bank of the Baihe River. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info and at this moment, the Wu army reinforcements sent by Nie Shicheng from Suizhou have not even been able to arrive in Zaoyang.

The total strength of the Qing army under Tomina is about 12,000 people, of which the well-equipped cavalry of the Eight Banners accounts for more than 5,000 people, and the rest of the army is a local army that Tomina and Henan Governor Yinglanpo requisitioned and cobbled together from the state capitals of Henan, but they are all local strong soldiers who have been fighting on the front line of suppression all year round, and they have seen blood on the battlefield, and their combat effectiveness is guaranteed to a certain extent. In the field battle, there is absolutely no problem for this army to eat the two thousand troops under Shu Bao's command in one bite, and Tomina even dares to end the battle in less than half a day.

During the Tianjin War, the crazy momentum of Wu's soldiers marching in line in the rain of bullets and bullets still makes Tuo Minga still have some lingering palpitations when he thinks about it, so Tuo Ming'a repeatedly asks the Qing army to advance at full speed, in order to gain time, he does not hesitate to give in and out of touch with the cavalry army, in order to break Shubao and seize the important town of Xiangyang before the main force of the Wu army arrives in Xiangyang.

Fortunately, the good news has been continuous, as early as when he first arrived in Nanyang Mansion, there have been several Manchu generals in the Shu Bao army sent secret envoys to get in touch with Tomin'a, in addition to expressing their willingness to defect to help Tomin'a break the enemy, and reported countless secrets in the Shubao army to Tomin'a, so that Tomina knew that the military power in the Xiangyang area had already been controlled by Wu Chaoyue's brother-in-law Nie Shicheng, and the army that Shu Bao could directly control was only about 2,000 Xiangyang garrisons with Manchu and Mongolian banners as the majority. At the same time, he also let Tuo Minga know that Liu Qi, the prefect of Xiangyang, had always proposed to let Shu Bao's army withdraw to the city and station, or let Shu Bao be stationed in Fancheng, north of Hanshui, and his precautions and distrust of Shu Bao's troops were almost obvious.

In addition, Tomin even knew that Wu Chaoyue not only never sent reinforcements to Shu Bao, but also did not even have a letter promising to send reinforcements to Shu Bao. As a result, the Manchu and Mongolian soldiers under Shu Bao's command who did not want to give Wu Chaoyue their lives were even more dissatisfied, and they wanted to return to the warm and open embrace of the Qing court, and the army's heart was shaken.

Noon was approaching, when crossing the provincial border into Hubei, the latest report finally came from the front, and what made Tomin laugh wildly was that more than 2,000 people from the Shengbao Department were actually crossing the Baihe River east at the mouth of the two rivers, and it seemed that they were preparing to take the initiative to go north to meet the Tomina army. And after laughing, Tuo Ming'a didn't dare to be too negligent, and hurriedly asked Xizuo again: "Has the Wu thief army sent reinforcements to Shu Bao?" ”

"Yes." Xi Zuo replied truthfully: "Accurate news in Xiangyang City, Wu thief general Nie Shicheng sent 2,000 reinforcements to Shubao from Suizhou, but it is estimated that he will only be able to arrive in Zaoyang today, and he will arrive in Xiangyang as soon as tomorrow evening." ”

"Send reinforcements to Shubao from Suizhou?" Wu Qing, the assistant of Tuo Ming'a next to him, was a little surprised and said, "Nie Shicheng is crazy? If the army in Zaoyang is not mobilized, it will send reinforcements to Shubao from Suizhou, which is hundreds of miles away? ”

Of course, he didn't know how to answer this question, but Tomin smiled and said with a sneer: "What's so strange about this? It is clear that he wants Shu Bao to die in vain, and he can't trust Shu Bao at all. ”

Wu Qing and the other generals suddenly realized, and Tuo Minga said proudly: "If Ben Shuai's expectations are not bad, Shu Bao's dog slave took the initiative to cross the Bai River and go north, either forced by the Wu thief, or knew that the reinforcements were hopeless, and he was angry and brought the army to fight with us desperately, and wanted to fight with us alone to show loyalty to Wu Chaoyue the dog thief, and let the Wu thief know that he was sincerely obedient." ”

"Tuojunmen is clever, it must be so." Deputy General Hui Cheng hurriedly slapped a sycophant, and said with a cruel smile: "But it doesn't matter much, whether Shu Bao's dog slave was forced to come, or whether he came to show loyalty to Wu Thief desperately, it doesn't matter." If he knew how many Manchurian generals under his tent had secretly contacted us to surrender ......, hehe, his face would have been very ugly. ”

All the generals under the command of Tomin laughed wildly, and Tomin also smiled proudly, and then ordered: "Order the front army and horses, and the cavalry to dismount and walk on foot, and save horsepower." Then Chen Jinshou and Ju Dianhua of the rear team continue to go south at full speed, and before this evening, they must go to Fancheng for the night! ”

The generals of the Qing army cheered and sang promises, and immediately followed the order, while Tomina looked at the south proudly, as if he had seen the wonderful picture of the generals of the Shubao army rushing to the battle.

The two armies, one north and the other south, worked hard with each other, and just after noon, the Shu Bao army and the Tomin'a army met on the east bank of the White River. As a result, the Shu Bao army, which was mixed with infantry and cavalry, immediately arranged its troops and prepared for battle, and the Tomina army, which was full of cavalry, did not immediately charge, but while quickly preparing for battle, he sent an envoy to the south with a white flag and ran to the Shu Bao army formation to surrender.

"Traitor Shu Bao, my family is magnanimous and generous, and I will give you one last chance to rein in the precipice! Lay down your arms and surrender, spare you from dying! If not......! ”

Shouting this, the Qing army envoy paused, and then shouted: "General Hui Chenghui wants me to ask you, do you remember the treasure knife of the Yunyang general Qu Tenglong?" After General Qu was killed by Long Hair, General Hui caught that Long Hair and used General Qu's treasure knife to dig out the Long Hair's heart for revenge! That treasure knife has always been worn on General Hui's body, and if you are obsessed with it today, General Hui will use that knife to dig out your heart with his own hands, just like last time! ”

"Phew!" Shu Bao spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm and shouted: "Go back and tell Tuo Ming'a, that old miscellaneous man of Monk Greenqin colluded with traitors in the court, killed Su Zhongtang, and destroyed the coffin of the former emperor, Lao Tzu will kill him with his own hands to avenge the first emperor, and Lao Tzu will suffer from it!" You rebels and thieves are aiding and abusing, and sooner or later you will all die without a place to be buried! If you are smart, put down your arms and surrender immediately, otherwise Lao Tzu will give an order, and everyone will be in a catastrophe! ”

I don't understand how Shu Bao's 5,000 iron cavalry with 2,000 cavalry to fight Tuo Ming'a still has such self-confidence, the Qing army envoy can only carry out the second task, shouting at the Manchu and Mongolian generals under Shu Bao: "Good men of the Eight Banners, Wu Chaoyue committed a rebellion, and sooner or later he will die without a corpse!" Shu Bao dog slaves forced you to rebel with Wu Chaoyue, is to lead you to death, now the army of the military gate has arrived, no need to be polite, immediately hack Shu Bao to death, lead the army to surrender, the military gate is not to blame, but also rewarded! Rewards! ”

The scene that the Qing generals such as Tominga and Huicheng were expecting did not appear, and the Manchu and Mongolian generals in the Shu Bao army, who should have rushed to surrender, as if they had not heard the surrender of the Qing army, all looked ahead, and their expressions were firm and solemn, as if they had all forgotten their intention to hack Shu Bao to surrender as soon as they saw the Qing army--they did not dare to look at the Smith revolver in the hands of the cavalry of Shu Bao's headquarters, as well as the grenadier in the army of Shu Bao's confidant Mulaki.

In the end, a Manchurian general who had presented a letter of surrender to Tomina in order to show his loyalty, he simply rushed to the front of the battle, and hacked the Qing army envoy to death with a knife in his hand, in exchange for the cheers of the Shu Bao army, and Shu Bao's nods again and again.

Seeing that the envoy was killed, the furious Tomin immediately ordered Hui Cheng to lead the army to charge, and hit the front infantry of the Shu Bao army head-on, and Hui Cheng, who had a very obvious psychological advantage, immediately swooped up with two thousand cavalry, howling and killing the front of the Shu Bao army. Tomin proudly raised the binoculars, smiled cruelly to observe the effect of the charge, and once again appeared in his eyes the wonderful picture of the generals and soldiers of the Shu Bao Army rushing to defect. However, the sinister smile on Tomina's face quickly froze......

When Tuomina was in Tianjin, he not only saw the grenadiers used by the Wu army, but also touched them with his own hands and looked at them carefully, and he also had the cheekiness to ask Wu Chaoyue for it, but because the Wu army only had a total of eighty grenadiers at that time, he failed to do so. So after seeing Shu Baojun directly swing out a full fifty grenadiers in one go, of course, Tomina was immediately dumbfounded, and blurted out: "How is it possible? Most of Shu Bao's army is Manmeng bannermen, and Wu Chaoyue will be willing to equip him with so many grenadiers? ”

In addition to being shocked, Tomin'a, who reacted quite quickly, quickly came back to his senses, and quickly shouted: "Quickly strike the gong and tell Huicheng to withdraw immediately!" Don't die in vain! ”

It was late, Wu Chaoyue's Wu army technical soldiers specially sent to Shu Bao had already loaded the shells into the grenadiers that had been improved many times, pulled the bottom belt to fire the bottom fire, and in the slight explosion, fifty small picric acid shells flew out in a parabola into the crowded place of the Qing cavalry, and at this moment, the front team of the Qing cavalry had just rushed to two hundred meters in front of the Shu Bao army's formation, and they couldn't even shoot the Wu gunners.

Of course, the sound of violent explosions sounded one after another in the ranks of the Qing cavalry, shrapnel flew horizontally, flames were everywhere, people turned on their backs, the screams of the Qing cavalry and the long neighing of the war horses came and went, and two or three hundred people lay down almost in the blink of an eye. The technical soldiers of the Wu army were expressionless, and loaded the shells into the cannon body like a machine, pulled the rope and fired, and the shells flew out one after another, and more explosions and the screams of the Qing soldiers quickly resounded in the sky.

In the continuous explosion of bitter acid shells, the Qing cavalry splattered flesh and blood, fell forward and backward, the ghost cried wolf, and the war horse under the crotch either neighed to the ground, or the flesh and blood galloped quickly, escaping everywhere. Seeing this scene, the cavalry of the Qing army watching the battle in the rear were of course colorless and their teeth chattered, and many Manchu and Mongolian generals and soldiers under Shu Bao's command here were also frightened, and they were all glad that they were in the right position and followed the right person -- otherwise these shells might have hit their heads.

Faced with the density of the Wu army's artillery fire, which they had never dared to imagine in their dreams before, the 2,000 Qing cavalry that took the lead in the charge of the Qing army of course collapsed in an instant, and the frightened war horses fled in all directions, and most of them turned around and rushed directly to Tomina's rear. In order not to be trampled into meat sauce by the horse's hooves of the startled horse, he could only turn around and run back and forth to flee for his life, and the generals of the Qing army led the army to follow suit, and Shu Bao did not hesitate to lead the only more than 1,200 cavalry under his command to launch a pursuit, leaving the infantry to his cronies Muraqi to lead the trail.

At this time, it was naturally the turn of the Smith revolver equipped by the cavalry of the Shu Bao Army to show its skills, and in the pursuit of the cavalry, the Shu Bao headquarters equipped with metal cartridge rifers was purely invincible. The rest of the cavalry of the Shubao army looked at the cavalry weapons in the hands of their companions with envy, and howled and fought a good fight, carrying a saber like chopping melons and vegetables.

In the end, after fleeing north to meet the infantry brigade that followed, the Qing cavalry relied on the cover of the infantry to get a respite.

Of course, Shu Bao, who was experienced on the battlefield, was not stupid enough to take the cavalry to rush the Qing army's infantry formation, and after reining in the horse's head and collecting the army, Shu Bao first observed the battlefield situation, and then decisively ordered the bombardiers to move forward and take turns throwing grenades at the Qing army's infantry position to blow up the Qing army's infantry defensive formation. And then, when he saw the cavalry of the Shu Bao army smashing a large number of grenades into the infantry position of the Qing army as if they didn't want money, Tuo Ming'a also immediately howled with a crying voice, "Shu Bao is Wu Chaoyue's brother-in-law? How can he have so many good things in his army? ”

The only trick for the infantry phalanx to resist the cavalry charge is to form a dense formation, the denser the better, but in front of the grenade bullets smashed by the Shu Bao army one after another, the dense formation naturally became a nightmare for the Qing infantry, almost every grenade bomb exploded on the ground, and it could directly overturn a large number of people, with the lives of seven or eight or even a dozen Qing infantry, the Shu Bao army cavalry only used three rounds of bombs, and the infantry anti-horse formation carefully arranged by Ju Dianhua, the general under the command of Tomin A, was blown to pieces. The soldiers of the local army in Henan, who had never seen grenade bullets on the battlefield before, were terrified, and rushed to flee for their lives, and in the blink of an eye, the front team was in chaos.

When Shu Bao gave another order, more than a thousand cavalry charged together, just like a red-hot knife inserted into cheese, easily piercing the Qing infantry position, and then directly killed the Qing cavalry who had just finished the whole team, without saying a word, he threw a wave of grenades first.

"How is this battle fought? Can't fight! ”

Finally realized the mood of the Taiping Army, which had been repeatedly abused by the Wu army with advanced weapons, Tuo Ming'a could only continue to flee north, throwing down the infantry and countless grains and grasses and fleeing to Xinye, Shu Bao led the cavalry in hot pursuit with red eyes, and kept yelling, "Qingjun side!" Kill the monk Grinqin dog offal! On the side of the Qing monarch, kill the monk Greenqin! Dog offal! ”

In the end, after fleeing back to Xinye City in embarrassment and closing the city to protect himself, Tuo Ming'a, who even lost the banner of General Jiangning, finally found a foothold, and hurriedly gathered the remnants of the defeated army and prepared to defend the city. Shu Bao was also blocked by the city wall and it was already dark, so he had to retreat to join the infantry, giving Tomina a chance to catch his breath.

However, soon, Tomina began to regret that he did not flee north of the city immediately after Shu Bao withdrew, because it was only noon the next day, and the infantry army of Shu Bao's army had already made a comeback, and quickly set up camp outside Xinye City, building siege weapons and preparing to launch a siege on the city. As a result, Tomina was immediately forced to the point of a dilemma, he would definitely not be able to fight out of the city, run away, Shu Bao, who was red-eyed, would definitely chase and kill with all his might, even if he couldn't eat Tomina's defeated soldiers, he could at least kill Tomina and hurt his vitality. In desperation, Tomina could only choose to continue to defend the city, preparing to see the opportunity to lead the army out of the city and flee north.

After only two days, Tomin repented of this decision, and finally understood why Wu Chaoyue did not transfer the garrison in Zaoyang to help Shu Bao, but instead transferred troops from Suizhou, a few hundred miles away, to reinforce Shu Bao - because Wu Chaoyue personally ordered the 2,000 troops transferred from Suizhou, not only two battalions equipped with firing pin guns, but also five rear-loading rifled guns and five curved mortar guns, as well as twenty siege heavy artillery!

Therefore, after seeing the weapons and equipment of the Wu army's reinforcements with a telescope on the city wall, Tuo Ming'a also wailed with tears in his eyes again, "Shu Baogou minion, haven't you heard that your sister and your sister are married to Wu Chaoyue?" That dog thief trusted you so much yesterday? Giving you so many good weapons? ”

"Tuojunmen, what should I do? Do you want to continue to defend the city? ”

"Guard your mother's head! Can you hold it? That dog slave in Yinglanpo, and there are still reinforcements sent to us? Stay in the city and wait to die?! Order the whole army, prepare for retreat, and abandon the city to break through tonight! ”

Contrary to the desperate wailing of Tomin'a, Shu Bao was of course overjoyed to welcome the arrival of the elite of the Wu army, and Liu Shengxiu, Nie Shicheng's right-hand man who commanded the Wu army, did not say a few words of greeting, and proposed not only to take Xinye, but also to take Nanyang Mansion in the north while the iron was hot, so as to construct a stronger northern barrier for the Wu army.

"Go north and fight Nanyang?" Liu Shengxiu, who was trained by professional soldier Nie Shicheng, hesitated a little and said hesitantly: "The generalissimo gave us an order, just to take Xinye, didn't say that he would also take Nanyang Mansion?" ”

"But the generalissimo's order didn't say that we were not allowed to take the opportunity to take Nanyang?" Shu Bao, who is also an honest person, will take advantage of some loopholes in this regard, and patted his chest and said: "Brother Liu, don't worry, go north to Nanyang, my brother will be the vanguard, and you will be in battle!" ”

"General Liu, don't worry, we will be the vanguard!" The Manchu and Mongolian generals under Shu Bao's command also rushed to say: "Your infantry is only responsible for transporting grain and grass in the army, and when you are the vanguard to fight in the field, you can just leave it to us!" ”