Like the Pengze battlefield, the Anqing Taiping army also established two field defense lines outside the city, the second line of defense was directly established under the city wall, almost fighting side by side with the defenders of the city, and also directly established a defense line with the moat far away from the city wall as a barrier, and at the same time, thanks to the help of the adjacent Wanshui Linghu Lake, the moat of Anqing was also more than three zhang wide on average, more than half a zhang deep, and extremely difficult to cross. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition to the fortification wall is stronger than the first line of defense, it also builds more dense bunkers and anti-artillery fortifications, which can effectively offset many of the Wu army's artillery superiority.

But it's still a pity that when Lin Fengxiang personally presided over the construction of this defense line outside the city, he still seriously underestimated the intensity of the Wu army's artillery fire, and he didn't know that the Wu army under the command of the genius spy Zhang Dejian had already reported the fortifications of the Taiping army to Hubei, and the Wu army had already repeatedly tested such fortifications and developed and researched countermeasures, which were specially used to attack Anqing and Suzhou, Hangzhou and other cities like Anqing. So......

THEREFORE, THE SOLDIERS OF THE TAIPING ARMY GUARDING THIS LINE OF DEFENSE WERE DESTINED TO END IN TRAGEDY, AND AFTER COMPLETELY SUPPRESSING THE DEFENDERS OF THE TAIPING ARMY CITY WITH FIERCE LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY FIRE, THE WU ARMY INFANTRY FIRST STEPPED FORWARD WITH THE DOOR PANEL, AND QUICKLY BUILT A SIMPLE FORTIFICATION NEXT TO THE MOAT, AND THEN THE SUPER-LARGE CALIBER WU ARMY MORTAR STEPPED FORWARD, ADVANCED TO THE BACK OF THE FORTIFICATION THAT COULD AVOID BULLETS, AND CALMLY OPENED FIRE, AND THE 210MM CALIBER GIANT SHELLS WERE SHOT OUT IN A PARABOLA, AND THE CURVED FIRE BOMBARDED THE TAIPING DEFENSE LINE ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE MOAT.

THE WEIGHT OF A 210MM CALIBER SHELL IS SIXTY-EIGHT POUNDS, AND THE LARGER THE SHELL, THE STRONGER THE IMPACT, AND AT THE SAME TIME, THE MORE EXPLOSIVES CAN BE CONTAINED IN IT, AND THE GREATER THE POWER GENERATED WHEN EXPLODING. After such a shell hit the dense place of the Taiping army's bunker and exploded, the huge explosion power not only swept away the Taiping soldiers on the surrounding ground immediately, but also often directly collapsed the neighboring Taiping army bunker and buried the Taiping soldiers directly in it, and at the same time, the flames and poisonous smoke produced after the explosion of picric acid explosives also covered the shooting holes and vents of many Taiping army bunkers, either forcing the Taiping soldiers in the bunker to abandon the fort and fleeing, or suffocating the Taiping soldiers in the bunker to death.

Never-before-seen terrorist explosions came to the second line of defense of the Taiping Army one after another, like thunder and fire, leaving huge craters one after another on the second line of defense of the Taiping Army. The Taiping soldiers in it could not hear the explosion, because their eardrums were either bleeding or had been directly broken, all they could see was flying dirt and flames, as well as yellow-green smoke and comrades who fell in pools of blood, their desperate screams were also completely drowned in the explosion, many Taiping soldiers fled from the fortified defense line and escaped from the bunker because of too much fear, and the position was full of panicked soldiers, The bridgehead position, which was heavily attacked by Wu's mortar artillery, quickly fell into a dilemma that no one dared to defend.

Or after the fire of the Wu army's mortar artillery extended to both sides of the bridgehead position, there were some Taiping soldiers who were lucky enough to escape the shelling to return to the bridgehead position under the punches and kicks of the superior generals, but this was destined to be useless, the Wu army's assault team had already rushed over with a rattan shield that could resist round bullets, and directly seized the bridgehead position with grenades, protecting the follow-up army's road across the river, and the Wu army's infantry brigade crossed the river one after another, and the Taiping army started a battle for position.

During this period, the Taiping army on the city wall reached out in time to help, and shot on the city wall to suppress the Wu army's charge, but the Wu army's long-range artillery fire also arrived, risking the danger of accidentally injuring friendly troops to cover the head of Anqing West Gate, effectively suppressing the firepower of the defenders on the city. The soldiers of the Wu army under the city wall took the opportunity to scatter left and right, and quickly launched the operation of uprooting the Taiping army's bunker under the cover of the dilapidated fortifications left by the Taiping army.

Liu Guanfang, the general of the Taiping Army who volunteered to defend the main battlefield of Ximen, has been risking his life to stay in the city to command and supervise the battle, and Liu Guanfang originally hoped that the second line of defense could cause many casualties to the Wu army, but after seeing the terrifying power of the Wu army's super-large caliber mortar and the seemingly inexhaustible bitter acid grenade of the Wu army's soldiers, Liu Guanfang's dream was completely disappointed. However, Liu Guanfang still refused to give up the position under the city, not only categorically rejected the suggestion of letting the defenders of the position under the city return to the city to hide, but also ordered to shoot the deserters of the own army, and made up his mind to use the defenders under the city to consume the strength and ammunition of the Wu army as much as possible.

Liu Guanfang's cruel decision did bring a lot of trouble to the Wu army, in view of the Taiping army's stubborn defense, the Wu army officers and soldiers could only blast one by one to uproot the remnants of the Taiping army under the city of Anqing, in addition to consuming more ammunition, it also inevitably increased casualties, and the fight was much harder and more difficult than expected.

But fortunately, Liu Guanfang was willing to exchange the defenders of the position under the city for the strength and ammunition of the Wu army, the Taiping soldiers guarding the second line of defense were not so generous, with the passage of time and the rapid increase in casualties, could not bear the fear of death, the Taiping soldiers still began to flee on their own one after another, and then abandoned the position in pieces, and the Taiping army in the city could not stop shooting and shooting.

The victory or defeat of the battlefield under the city on the west gate side is a foregone conclusion, and the commander of the Wu army, Cao Yanzhong, also turned his attention to the second-important South Gate battlefield, and the result is okay, the advance of the Wu army on the auxiliary battlefield of the South Gate is also quite smooth, and there is no big problem in clearing the remnants of the enemy outside the city before dark, and the plan of the Wu army to attack the city at night can basically be guaranteed to be carried out on time.

"It's up to the evening."

Although the progress was quite smooth, Cao Yanzhong was still a little worried in his heart, because Cao Yanzhong could see that the Anqing Taiping Army did not bet too much on the fortifications on the periphery of the city wall, and there was still enough spare strength to guard the city wall defense line, and at the same time, the Wu army scouts also found that the Taiping army on the side of Linghu and Jixian Pass was actively preparing for a night battle, and the real test of the self-army was still ahead, and whether it could take Anqing Jiancheng in a battle was still a huge unknown.

Cao Yanzhong could only order the front army to clear the remnants of the enemy outside the city as soon as possible, remove the obstacles to the siege, and at the same time start to arrange a night battle, and he was also mentally prepared for a bitter battle early.

At nearly six o'clock in the evening, the Wu army successfully cleared the remnants of the enemy outside the southwest two gates, forcing the enemy guarding the second line of defense to flee to the camp of the northeast two gates, and at the same time, the main brigade of the Wu army was basically ready for night battle. At the same time, the Wu army's artillery and naval divisions also seized the time to do the final pre-battle inspection, preparing to bombard the head of Anqing City with all their strength after dark to cover the infantry attacking the city.

At the same time, taking advantage of the interval when the Wu army withdrew from the front team to rotate the siege army, the Taiping army on the city of Anqing also seized the time to arrange preparations for night battle, and also withdrew the tired army that had been guarding for a day, rotated the main army to go to the city, inspected the equipment of the city defense, and prepared for the real decisive battle at night in the same orderly manner as the Wu army.

"Quick, quick, check your weapons, dry food water hyacinth, water hyacinth is all full, tonight will definitely fight all night, don't expect to sleep and rest."

"Check Liu, Prime Minister Lin Cheng is here."

In the busy time, taking advantage of the afterglow of the sky, Lin Fengxiang also seized the time to visit the West Gate City again, personally inspected and inspected the preparations for the night battle of the Taiping Army at the West Gate, and Liu Guanfang, who was urging the soldiers to prepare for war, stepped forward and saluted, saying: "Prime Minister Lin, I will not have a problem here, the city is too dangerous, please go down to the city quickly." ”

"It's okay, I'll take a look and I'll leave immediately."

Lin Fengxiang waved his hand, thanked Liu Guanfang for his kindness in worrying about his safety, and insisted on inspecting the city wall, but what made Lin Fengxiang very satisfied was that the night battle arrangement of the self-army was quite well prepared, and there were almost no omissions.

The situation is not critical, Lin Fengxiang and the others went down to the city, of course, they wanted the steps near the city tower, but when Lin Fengxiang was hugged by people and came to the vicinity of the city tower, there was a sudden loud noise in the Wu army formation in the distance, and the accompanying soldiers also said that it was the Wu army who suddenly opened fire, and hurriedly used his body to protect Lin Fengxiang, while forcing Lin Fengxiang to squat down to avoid the cannon.

However, strangely, no shells flew then, but the Taiping soldiers next to the arrow stacks shouted gloatingly: "The gunpowder of the demon soldiers exploded, killing their own people." ”

"Is this a good thing?"

Lin Fengxiang was of course overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly went to the side of the arrow stack to check the situation, but raised the telescope to see that sure enough, among the crowd on the Wu army's position in the distance, there was indeed gunpowder smoke filling the air, and the Wu soldiers who were gathering in that position to prepare for war were in chaos, and there were several Wu soldiers lying on the ground.

"Heavenly Father willing, good signs." Lin Fengxiang gloated with a smile, and was very happy that such a mistake could occur in the Wu army's formation before the decisive battle began, and he could hit the morale by himself.

"! Unlucky! What does Huang Yuanbao eat? How did this happen?! At the same time, Cao Yanzhong, the commander of the Wu army, was scolding, because the Wu army that suddenly made a mistake was not only the army that undertook the main attack task, but also the direct army brought by Huang Yuanbao from Daye.

The picture turned back to Anqing City, gloating that Wu Jun had made a mistake and lost his morale, Lin Fengxiang of course also delayed a little bit by the arrow battlement, and by the way, he observed the situation under the city that he couldn't see before-he was blocked by his own soldiers and couldn't get close to the arrow battlement, and under the city wall was of course Lin Fengxiang's previous sight blind spot.

The situation under the city wall shocked Lin Fengxiang, in addition to being filled with many terrifying craters, there were also corpses of soldiers on both sides everywhere, as well as broken fortifications that were bombarded by Wu army's artillery fire, and ......

and two small groups of sudden firelight, which were even more shocking, so that Lin Fengxiang couldn't help but think of the past - that night was dark and windy, he personally took the scouts to inspect the enemy's city defense layout, and on the city wall, there was also a small ball of firelight suddenly blooming......

Bang! Bang! Lin Fengxiang first heard two sounds, and then Lin Fengxiang first felt as if something had penetrated his neck, and then something had penetrated into the socket of his right eye, and the blood-red liquid flew over Lin Fengxiang's left eye.

"It's the same as that year." This is the last consciousness in Lin Fengxiang's life.