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Just when Tan Shaoguang, Yin Shangying and others took a bamboo row on the Lianjiang River to Yangshan, across the Lingnan Congshan Mountain, more than 200 miles away on the Wujiang River, there was also a team of people and horses, riding the same bamboo row, down the river, to the border of Lechang County, Shaozhou Prefecture. The pen & fun & pavilion www.biquge.info is the main force of the Eastern Route Army of the Taiping Holy Army to capture Liangguang, Luo Gang is the main general, Chen Yu becomes the deputy general, the Holy First Army and the Holy Fourth Army two soldiers and horses, nearly 20,000 Holy Army soldiers and soldiers, marching with difficulty.

Shaozhou is not as remote as Hunan and Guangxi, but is the northern gate of Guangdong, and is the most important land passage between the north and the Yangtze River basin and the Lingnan coast, and its strategic position is very dangerous. Therefore, Zuo Zongtang, who participated in the painting with the army, had already proposed to the holy king Feng Shaoguang that the Qing army had heavy troops stationed in Shaozhou Mansion, and the pass city was in danger, so it was recommended to carry more artillery and other heavy firearms to conquer it.

Zuo Zongtang offered to be a counselor with the army, and Feng Shaoguang knew that he was good at temporary military planning on the battlefield, so he agreed, and asked Luo Outline and Chen Yucheng to listen to his opinions. As for Zuo Zongtang personally, Feng Shaoguang knew that Zuo Zongtang was the most family-friendly person, and his wife, concubines, and children were all in the Taiping Holy Army, so it was impossible to do anything harmful to the Holy Army, but he could rest assured.

Luo Xuan and Chen Yucheng saw that the Holy King attached great importance to this Mr. Zuo, and although this Mr. Zuo was usually arrogant and indifferent, he was indeed a talented person, so they all gave in and listened to his opinions carefully.

This caused 15,000 Holy Army soldiers and 5,000 supporting tails to accompany them. Thousands of baggage trucks, more than 400 large and small artillery pieces, 5,000 quintals of rice, gunpowder, weapons, artillery bullets, and countless others. The mountains and mountains in the Lingnan area are the most difficult to walk, and Zuo Zongtang and Luo Gang are inclined to take the waterway.

Pingshi in the south of Yizhang, although it is already in Lechang, is very close to Yizhang. Pingshiben was stationed with dozens of Manchu local flood soldiers, and these flood soldiers had already fled after Yizhang City was captured by the Taiping Holy Army. The Taiping Holy Army took Pingshixun effortlessly.

It took a day and a half to search for and make bamboo rafts in Pingshi, and then it took another two days just to remove the baggage from the wooden wheeled cart and move it to the bamboo rafts to be tied and fixed.

Even so, in the upper reaches of this Wushui, the water surface is narrow and shallow, the bamboo row can not carry too many heavy objects, and encounters the reef shallows, it will be stranded and blocked, Luo Gang ordered three thousand holy soldiers to set up an emergency team, and run along the river.

On this day, the Taiping Holy Army had just crossed the Long Beach crossing in Wushui, and the current began to become more turbulent. Only two bamboo rows can be placed side by side on the water surface, resulting in the bamboo rows crowding the water surface and stretching for eight or nine miles.

Zuo Zongtang suddenly said: "Luo checkpoint, right now, the water surface is narrow, the water flow is fast, and the marching team of my holy army is getting longer and longer, and it has stretched for more than ten miles, which is a taboo for marching!" And Zuo checked the map, and then seven or eight miles down is the famous Lechang Gorge, this place is extremely dangerous, Zuo is worried that the Qing army will set up an ambush here, and wait for our army to attack after half of it, which will make the holy army suffer heavy losses. I suggested that the march by water should be suspended, and hundreds of soldiers should be sent along the mountains and forests along the river section to capture this place first, and then release the bamboo platoon to march. ”

Luo Xuan thought so, he actually felt that the line was too long, and he couldn't take care of the beginning and the end, so he said: "It's a shame for Mr. Zuo to remind you." Luo Mou will give the order according to what you say. After speaking, he ordered Chen Tianshi, the commander of the Holy First Army, to lead 1,500 soldiers of the Holy First Army to search along both sides of the river, seize the dangerous Lechang Gorge, and then send hundreds of soldiers to open the way forward to avoid the large army being ambushed. The rest of the soldiers rested on the spot and waited for news.

On both sides of the upper reaches of Wushui, bushes and thorns were overgrown, and there was no way out, so Chen Tianshi ordered 200 soldiers to take turns to cut down miscellaneous trees with machetes and split a path one person wide.

More than four hours later, Chen Tianshi and others came to a place where the river turned sharply, where the water flow was unusually turbulent, and the banks of the river gradually rose, and slowly became cliffs.

Presumably this is Lechang Gorge, which is really a dangerous place! Chen Tianshi was sighing, suddenly, a few cannons rang out, and on the canyon on the bank of the river, a large group of people and horses came out, and it was a group of Qing soldiers. At that time, it was condescending, and earth cannons, shotguns, rolling stones, bows and arrows were fired at the same time.

Chen Tianshi hurriedly shouted: "Be careful to dodge!" There is an ambush of the Qing Demon, retreat! He led the people to retreat back along the river.

But on the high ground on both sides of the riverbank, it was easiest for the Qing Demon to shoot at the Taiping Holy Army in the river in the canyon, occupying such a favorable terrain, how could he easily let it go, so he hurriedly shot and killed, and took Chen Tianshi and others back to the upper reaches of Wushui, and did not chase after them, still lying in ambush on the cliff, and it was as if they were going to defend the canyon.

Chen Tianshi's unit suffered heavy casualties, with more than 200 casualties in half an hour. Fortunately, as soon as they entered the canyon, the Qing army immediately opened fire, otherwise, if they waited for them to enter, they would intercept and shoot from a high place, and it was estimated that Chen Tianshi would be wiped out.

This is also because the various departments of the Qing army are not good at cooperating, and the Qing soldiers in ambush are nervous and open fire in advance, and they do not arrange troops to intercept them, so most of the holy army can retreat.

Chen Tianshi regretted it in his heart! The inspector and Mr. Zuo have already said that the Qing army is likely to ambush in Lechang Gorge, and he is stupid to go to the river, just because the mountains are more difficult to walk than the river, he takes it for granted that there will be no ambush, and chooses the easy riverside to explore the road. No, I have lost so many brothers, and I haven't completed the task of inspecting the adult, so I can't go back.

Chen Tianshi's eyes rolled and he ordered the remaining 1,300 Holy Army soldiers to follow him back three miles, then turn back to the river bank and walk towards the ambush of the Qing army. He just felt that the number of Qing soldiers in ambush here was not very large, only more than a thousand people, if it was a frontal battle, who were the Holy Army soldiers afraid of?

However, Chen Tianshi did not fight head-on with the Qing army. He went to set the fire.

Chen Tianshi observed the terrain of the ambush of the Qing army, which was a semicircular arc-shaped cliff jutting out towards the river. For a person like Chen Tianshi, who was born in Orion, the woods are the most familiar. After quietly touching the secret posts of the two Qing soldiers, he asked more than 1,000 soldiers of the Holy Army to form a larger semicircle towards the ambush of the Qing army, and collected dead branches and fallen leaves at the same time two or three miles away, and drew a fire barrier. Chen Tianshi asked everyone to use the dead branches and fallen leaves in the area of the fire barrier to set fire to the bushes. It was the height of summer, and there was no rain for half a month, the shrubs in the mountains and forests grew densely, and the ground was piled up with dead branches and leaves that needed to be thick, and everyone threw all the firewood and leaves into it, and the fire borrowed the wind, and the fire rolled for a while, and the fire spread to the ambush of the Qing army.

Without waiting for the Qing army to react, Chen Tianshi led hundreds of soldiers of the Holy Army to find a small part of the fire and lay an ambush next to it.

After a while, there were several explosions, but it turned out that the gunpowder of the Qing army on the edge of the cliff was ignited, and it is estimated that many Qing soldiers were killed. At this time, nearly 1,000 Qing soldiers covered their mouths and noses with their clothes or hands, and stumbled out of the small part of the fire.

Seeing that the time had come, Chen Tianshi roared angrily, "Kill!" ”

The holy soldiers were full of anger, and a burst of shotguns was fired, and more than 100 Qing soldiers fell to the ground with a cry of pain. Chen Tianshi was holding a long knife, and he was the first to kill, and all the holy soldiers followed closely behind, killing one after another, and the killing cries were overwhelming, impacting the Qing army who had long been shot stupidly by the shotgun. There was still a sea of fire in the back, and I didn't know how many enemy troops were in ambush in front, and they were killing violently, escaping from the fire without weapons, helplessly, some of the Qing soldiers desperately wanted to rush out of the ambush, and the other part of the Qing army knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

Chen Tianshi thought of the dead brother in the canyon in his heart, his eyes were already red, and he didn't see whether the soldiers fled or surrendered, as long as it was a Qing soldier, it was a knife to cut off, and after a while, the blood of the Qing soldiers splashed all over his body, and the blade of the long knife was also rolled, so he changed the stab. I don't know how many Qing soldiers he killed, and finally stabbed into the chest of a Qing soldier, and actually broke his long knife, he came back to his senses, looked up, and saw that there were Qing army corpses everywhere, and more than 200 frightened Qing soldiers were paralyzed on the ground and begged for mercy, so he ordered the holy army to collect weapons and detain the more than 200 Qing army prisoners.

Chen Tianshi ordered someone to report to Luo Xuan, and he sat down on the ground. Everyone rested for a while, the fire on the edge of the cliff became smaller, and when they went in, there were many Qing soldiers who were smoked to death by poisonous smoke all the way, scorched, and the most terrible thing was that there was a smell of roasted meat.

Chen Tianshi endured himself, covered his nostrils, and led everyone to the edge of the cliff, but saw several small cannons, sub-cannons, and some shotguns shooting bows, which were well there, and were not burned by the fire. Chen Tianshi asked everyone to weave a stretcher from tree branches and carry all the weapons away.