That's right, whoever rushes to the front stupidly, the loss is their own clansmen and subordinates, and the consolation money is all for them to pay by themselves. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info However, if all his subordinates are dead, he will have no status as a prince. Therefore, the Mongol cavalry, which had suffered a little loss, quickly dispersed, waiting for the arrival of the main force of Seng Lingqin, and then fought a decisive battle together.

Qin Rigang ordered to continue to move forward, but as soon as he marched his army, the Mongol cavalry attacked again. This time, he learned to be obedient, not to charge head-on, but to sweep from both sides, and when he approached, a wave of arrows struck. The Taiping army had to stop their advance and defend with shields while returning fire with shotguns and cannons.

In this way, Qin Rigang led the main force of the Taiping Army to stop and go, and after half a day, it was less than three or four miles.

Just when Qin Rigang wanted to continue to fight steadily and move forward, a probe horse was bloodstained and escaped the pursuit of the Mongolian cavalry, bringing a bad news: Duliu Town, which was garrisoned on the left flank, was broken by the Qing army, and more than 6,000 Taiping soldiers on the left flank, most of them were killed in battle, and the remaining half were defeated, wounded and captured or chased by the Qing cavalry on the way to escape, and almost all the troops were wiped out. Even Ji Wenyuan, who had never dealt with him very well, was killed on the spot when he led his troops to break through.

It turned out that Shengbao led more than 10,000 cavalry to ambush in the woods next to Duliu Town, and waited for the monk Greenqin to order the siege of the city, and the Jianrui Battalion and the Outer Firearms Battalion approached the Taiping military fortifications in Duliu Town step by step, and sent hundreds of artillery pieces to bombard in unison, blowing up the Taiping military camp and the wooden fence fortifications to pieces, and even the soldiers were killed.

Moreover, Seng Lingqin also deliberately let the other forward battalions, the Eight Banners Guard Battalion, and the Fifth Patrol Battalion be far away from the firearms battalion, and could not take care of them, luring the Taiping army to attack. Sure enough, Ji Wenyuan saw that the garrison was also waiting for death, and saw that the artillery battalion of the firearms battalion had no one to help defend it, so he thought that he could take advantage of the opportunity, so he led all his soldiers out of the camp and rushed to the Qing artillery team.

Unexpectedly, the Shengbao cavalry hiding in the woods was divided into two teams, one team quickly rushed out of the back road that blocked Ji Wenyuan's retreat into the camp, and the other team of cavalry rushed out of the woods and killed the Taiping army.

Ji Wenyuan, who was tripped by the cavalry, knew that he had been ambushed, and it was impossible to retreat to the camp. He turned around and prepared to retreat to Jinghai City in the southeast, but tens of thousands of Qing troops were surrounded by layers, how could he withdraw?

In particular, the firearms battalion, under the protection of the cavalry, attacked step by step, and wrapped the left flank of the Taiping Army in dumplings. Despite being in a weak position, the Taiping soldiers under the leadership of Ji Wenyuan fought bravely until they died, although the whole army was annihilated, but also killed more than 3,000 Qing infantry cavalry.

Monk Lingqin and Shengbao immediately sent people to rush to Beijing to report to Xianfeng the good news of killing the long-haired thief chief Prime Minister Ji Wenyuan and nearly 10,000 long-haired thief soldiers, although they both mentioned each other, but with their different words, the credit is naturally very different.

Hearing the news of the victory in Duliu Town, how could Xianfeng, who was so happy, tell so much?

Shengbao's good news arrived early, naturally, it was Shengbao's first credit. This made Seng Lingqin depressed, and naturally he didn't have a good face for Shengbao.

And Qin Rigang on this side also immediately sent a scout horse, dressed up as a Qing soldier, and wanted to get out of the encirclement, report to Tianjing and inquire about the news of reinforcements, but was soon recognized by the Mongolian cavalry, and was killed by random arrows after a period of pursuit.

The message is cut off!

Qin Rigang was afraid that the right flank of the Taiping army would also be broken by the Qing army, so he sent an additional 4,000 men and horses to Yekouzhuang to strengthen the defense, and desperately built trenches and dug traps.

Fortunately, Yekouzhuang is very close to Jinghai County. The Mongol cavalry harassed several times from the middle, but they were scattered by the artillery at the head of Jinghai City.

Immediately afterwards, the Qing army, under the dual command of Seng Lingqin and Shengbao, attacked several times, but was blocked by the desperate Taiping army relying on firearms and trenches and other fortifications, and the two sides suffered casualties on each other, becoming an out-and-out war of attrition.

After several battles in a month, the Qing army lost more than 7,000 infantry cavalry, and the Taiping army also added nearly 5,000 casualties.

The Qing army knew that the Taiping army was surrounded by groups in Jinghai and Yekouzhuang, and there was no way to escape, so the commanders of each battalion of the Qing army had their own careful thoughts, worried that the long-haired thief would be forced to jump over the wall in a hurry, so they didn't want their subordinates to confront them, and they all wanted other battalions to fight.

It was precisely because of this psychology that the Taiping army took a breath and entrenched themselves in Jinghai City.

And Shengbao and Seng Greenqin, the two of them also have each other's thoughts, and it is too cost-effective to attack by force, and whoever proposes to attack will definitely have to take the lead and send more troops, so it is obvious that they will suffer.

So the two also tacitly agreed with each other to only open ditches and set up camps on three sides, besiege Jinghai and Yekouzhuang to the death, and even sent more than 1,000 cavalry to inspect back and forth to prevent the Taiping army from escaping.

As the weather became colder and colder, the two sides were at a complete stalemate.

Although most of the people in Jinghai City have fled, there are still more than 1,000 people left. As a result, more than 1,000 people suffered. All of them were forcibly pulled into the men's and women's halls, and the men's halls, young and old, went to strengthen the fortifications, demolish the houses in the city, use bricks and stones as defensive weapons and build fortifications, and chop wooden beams to use as fuel for fires to avoid the cold.

Qin Rigang also ordered the Taiping soldiers to take off all the clothes of the soldiers who died outside the city, and handed them over to the women's hall to be re-pulped and sewn to make new clothes for the soldiers defending the city on the city wall to resist the cold.

At this time, Xianfeng's commendation decree came to Jinghai.

Xianfeng was awarded the title of squire of the Shengbao Army, with a bounty of fifty taels; And Monk Lingqin only rewarded one hundred taels of silver, which made his Mongolian princes indignant and scolded.

In fact, it's no wonder that Xianfeng, he really can't take out the money: the silver he borrowed from the Jin merchants last time was paid to Shengbao and Seng Lingqin's soldiers, and the officials above the fifth grade in the capital still owe half of it.

Xianfeng also ordered the two to break through Jinghai City as soon as possible and annihilate the long-haired thieves of the Northern Expedition.

Helplessly, although the two were not in harmony, they had to discuss the siege together. Monk Lingqin proposed that the two of them concentrate their artillery together to deal with Jinghai City and break the city in one fell swoop. But Shengbao disagreed, and his calculation was to first eliminate the right wing of the Taiping army stationed in Yekouzhuang on the periphery, and then repay the merit and receive the reward again. Finally, conquer Jinghai, so that you can ask for credit again and again, and maximize your benefits.

The two disagreed and parted unhappily.

The next day, Sheng Bao ordered his green battalion soldiers, as well as the regiment formed by the gentry in Tianjin Prefecture and Henan, to train the people, pulling more than 100 heavy artillery, with even two 8,000 jin and two 10,000 jin heavy artillery such advantageous weapons, plus sufficient gunpowder, Yekouzhuang is a burst of bombardment.

Although the Yekouzhuang fortifications were bombed one after another, the Taiping army, under the leadership of Zhu Xikun, the old man of the Heavenly Kingdom, relied on the wooden city and the trench to resist stubbornly, and immediately dug another trench after the trench was blown away, so that the huge heavy artillery of the Qing soldiers could not pass through.

Although the Shengbao army attacked fiercely, the Taiping soldiers all hid behind the trenches, and the casualties were not large. Moreover, Zhu Xikun led the Taiping army to often seize favorable opportunities to counterattack the Qing army by sneak attacks at night, and successively killed one of Shengbao's clan brothers and Xie Zicheng, the commander of Tianjin Zhuangyong, and others.

In desperation, the disgraced Shengbao finally had to attack Jinghai according to the advice of Seng Lingqin.

Escorted by cavalry, Katsuho's artillery and the artillery of the Monk Greenqin Firearms Battalion besieged Jinghai and finally blew up the Jinghai city wall. Seeing that the Qing army was preparing to send infantry and cavalry to attack the city, a local citizen of Jinghai came up with an idea, the weather was very cold, and the city wall was quickly repaired by splashing water and freezing.

Qin Rigang was overjoyed, and immediately promoted Minzhuang to the commander of the Taiping Army, led thousands of Taiping troops to put weeds, broken wood and city wall stones, etc., and then splashed with water, and soon, the weather of more than ten degrees below zero will freeze the water into ice, entwined in the weeds and wood, and it will not take much time to completely repair the entire city wall.

At this time, most of the gunpowder of the Qing army's artillery had been consumed. Helplessly, Shengbao and Seng Lingqin urged the local government to collect gunpowder and send it, but at the same time, they withdrew their troops and could not capture Jinghai City, so they attacked Yekouzhuang again.

This time, under the steady encampment of tens of thousands of troops from both sides, Yekouzhuang finally failed to hold it. However, because Yekouzhuang was very close to Jinghai City, Zhu Xikun led the remaining more than 3,000 Taiping troops to fight a bloody way, and successfully withdrew to Jinghai City under the guidance of Huang Wenjin's army.

At this point, the outside of Jinghai was completely occupied by the Qing army, and Jinghai also became an isolated city, besieged by tens of thousands of Qing regiments.

At this time, the Taiping military house in Jinghai happened to rain overnight. More than a dozen Hui people mixed in the city among the Han people in the men's hall, because the Taiping army burned mosques and scriptures along the way, beheaded imams, etc., with extreme hatred for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, acted as spies of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, secretly infiltrated the grain depot of the Taiping army, and set fire to the grain depot.

Although the Taiping army found out in time, it was still too late to put out the fire, and thousands of stones of grain were burned, and suddenly, the Taiping army began to run out of food.

Although these more than ten Hui spies were dismantled into eight pieces and the sky lanterns were lit, they still couldn't calm Qin Rigang's anger and fear!

He knew that the remaining food might not last more than two months.

And even if the Tianjing side immediately sends reinforcements now, it will not be able to attack Jinghai in two months, and it will be too late in time. What's more, the news is cut off, who knows if Tianjing has sent reinforcements? And he also knew that the combat strength of the Qing army near the Qing Demon Lair was much stronger than the green battalion soldiers he encountered, and even if he sent one or two thousand reinforcements, he might not be able to rescue them.

The entire Northern Expeditionary Army, as well as himself, was in a desperate situation! (To be continued.) )