"Division commander, the statistics are out, the brothers of our Fifth Infantry Division, there are only 5,800 people left, and more than 1,000 of them are injured and difficult to continue fighting, and nearly half of the brothers are gone!" The deputy division commander reported with a sad face, which surprised Luo Qiongshu, he guessed that the soldiers had died more in battle, but he still didn't expect that it would be so badly damaged.

"Brothers sacrificed their lives for the country and died as they deserved, there is nothing to say!" Although Luo Qiongshu was full of grief in his heart, he didn't show it at all in front of his subordinates, he knew that the more this time, the more he had to hold on, so he turned to the topic and said: "Have you collected all the muskets and ammunition of the dead brothers?" How much ammo is left in the city? ”

"Division, commander, everything has been packed up. There were only more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition, 14 more Congreve rockets, and not a single cannon was left. ”

Luo Qiongshu was not surprised by this extremely bad news, many days ago the army announced that there was a shortage of ammunition, and it was the result of repeated savings to be able to survive to this day. But he still sighed: "If only there were more bullets, so that at most, you can resist one or two attacks." The order was given to gather all the surplus muskets and field guns in one place, and to destroy them before the enemy could break through the city, and in any case, not to let the Kokand soldiers get them. ”

The deputy division commander tearfully agreed, he knew that the division commander's order was tantamount to acquiescing in the end of the annihilation of the whole army.

"Division Commander, we sent a messenger to Ili for help a month and a half ago, why didn't Division Commander Ili Liang send troops to the rescue?" The deputy division commander couldn't help but complain a little: "If half of the Fourth Infantry Division had come to the rescue, the brothers of the Fifth Division would not have sacrificed so much, and we might have been able to withdraw from this Kashgar city and return to Ili a long time ago." ”

"Shut up!" Hearing the deputy division commander say such a thing, Luo Qiongshu shouted violently: "Division Commander Liang will definitely not die without help!" There must be some reason for the delay, besides, I am to blame for this, it was too late to ask for help. When Division Commander Liang and the others receive the information, they will arrange to send troops here, and it will take at least a month and a half. Moreover, how is it that there are only those Kokand soldiers here? What about the Russian soldiers? I even suspect that Ili was also attacked by enemy forces. ”

The deputy division commander was silent, he knew that most of what Luo Qiongshu said was the truth, but he was really unwilling to let the soldiers of the Fifth Division be wiped out like this, "Division commander, there are still more than 400 war horses in the city, or take advantage of the ammunition, you can lead these staff officers of the division headquarters and the brothers of the guard battalion to rush out on horseback, and leave it to your subordinates here, if you want to break the city, you have to change your life to the death." ”

"Needless to say! Let someone abandon his brother and run away alone, this is impossible, I swear to death! Brothers of the 5th Infantry Division, die together! Luo Qiongshu said in a deep voice: "However, until the last moment, we can't give up the last hope." Four months ago, when the Han Kingdom of Nakokand began to send troops to the expedition, we had already sent someone to report to Shengjing, and His Majesty would certainly not ignore us when he received the news, and perhaps the reinforcements he sent were already on the way to Kashgar, and we must grit our teeth and persevere. What's more, my Fifth Division can't hold Kashgar, so how can I go back to Shengjing to see Your Majesty? ”

Although Luo Qiongshu said that he would not give up such words easily, he knew in his heart that Kashgar was definitely about to fall to the enemy. More than half of the soldiers have been lost, and the key is that the ammunition is about to run out. The enemies outside the city, especially the leader named Aguba, are extremely cunning and will definitely seize the attack without giving themselves a chance to breathe.

Luo Qiongshu was thinking like this, and the earth-shattering "moo moo" horn outside the city was loud and sharp, which meant that the Kokand soldiers were about to launch another attack. Rao is Luo Qiongshu used to seeing wind and rain, or his face has changed greatly. Can you hold this offensive? He didn't have much hope. I can only obey the destiny of heaven and do my best.

……

Under the tent of the Chinese army in Kokand, three miles away outside the city, Agubo held a horse whip and pointed to the city of Kashgar from afar, and his heart was excited: he could finally take this ancient city of the Vultures. This Kashgar was once the capital of several khanates, a famous oasis in Huijiang, and the foundation of the Han state. How many khanates took root and developed here, and now, it is finally their turn! Aguba couldn't help but laugh. He instigated the lord of the country, Kokand Khan Alimukul, to send troops to attack Kashgar, of course, not for the purpose of expanding the power of the Kokand Khanate, let alone for the original Kashgar nobles, the great-grandson of the great and Zhuopolonidu who died in battle, Saeed Zhangger, but for his own ambition to establish a khanate belonging to him Aguba!

However, to be more secure, he was not prepared to expose himself immediately. Anyway, the great-grandson of Yamato Zhuo in Nakashgar, Said Zhangger, had died in battle, and left a young brother Busuluk, so he pushed him out as a puppet and established a "seven-city khanate", and in the future, the seven major cities in southern Xinjiang, Kashgar, Yingjisha, Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu, Kucha, and Ushi were all occupied, and then the puppet was eliminated, and he came out to establish a great khanate, which will be passed on for eternity......

Thinking of this, Agubo was sour. He roared and ordered: "Hurry, press up, for the sake of our 'Seven Cities Khanate', for the sake of Yamato Zhuo, Busuluk Khan, break the city of Kashgar and kill all those Han people!" ”

Suddenly, more than 20,000 Kokand soldiers attacked the city of Kashgar like a tide, attacking from four directions, this time to break through the city of Kashgar in one fell swoop, and completely annihilate the defenders in the city. Agubai only left six or seven thousand Kokand soldiers who had been fighting for many days by his side, this is because the city wall of Kashgar is only so big that it cannot accommodate more Kokand soldiers to attack, and these Kokand soldiers have just experienced a hard battle and have not yet recovered, otherwise, he will take all the soldiers on board. Even so, it was enough, the defenders of the city were running out of ammunition, and he had been observing it for several days, and he was very sure of that.

The city is not broken tonight, it will be tomorrow morning! Speaking of which, this group of Han Chinese troops is really tenacious. If it weren't for blocking his way to the establishment of his country, Aguba really didn't want to provoke such an opponent. Well-trained, like his own subordinates, he is not afraid of death, and he heard that it turned out to be a disciple of what religion, and it seems that the demagogic power of this pagan religion is not small. However, even so, if you block your path, you will not be slaughtered. Aguba's mind was full of thoughts.

"All the gunners will go to the cannon, bombard me at any cost, and blast the wall open before dark!" With Aguba's order again, the remaining seven Russian-made cannons in the Kokand army were pushed to the west and south of the city in two places, and began to bombard frantically.

For a while, huge cannonballs slammed into the city wall at high speed, and the entire city wall seemed to tremble, and several defenders on the city wall were hit by the stones shattered by the cannonballs, and they planted the city wall before they had time to scream.

Just a few rounds after the cannon fired, 20,000 Kokand soldiers had already rushed to the city wall with a ladder, and at the beginning they had invested their greatest forces to begin the most brutal climb to attack the city. And not only that, this time the Kokand army made a reasonable division of labor, and while besieging the city, there were thousands of soldiers armed with muskets aiming upwards under the city walls, and as soon as the defenders on the walls appeared, they opened fire. On the castle tower, however, only sporadic gunshots rang out, but the most primitive bricks and stones were used to defend it, but they were completely in trouble because they were hit by muskets under the city.

It was slowly beginning to darken, and it was already night, but the Kokand soldiers had no intention of armisticing at all. Aguba ordered 3,000 Kokand soldiers to come forward to replenish the besiegers who had been killed and wounded, and continue the attack, and he was already holding his breath to capture the city of Kashgar.

At this time, a loud bang was heard, and the front-line soldiers came to report that a city wall in the south of the city that had been repaired after it had collapsed a few days ago could not resist the repeated bombardment of artillery and collapsed again. The defenders are desperately blocking the gap, but their own soldiers are attacking, and the opponent has more than 100 casualties, and they are still holding on with the last bit of ammunition, but they will definitely not be able to resist it, and it will not be long before they can attack the city.

Aguba was overjoyed and ordered to mobilize superior forces and concentrate fire on the gap in the collapsed city wall, striving to capture the city of Kashgar within an hour or two.

At this moment, two Kokand scouts galloped to report that they had found a large group of cavalry six or seven miles southeast of Kashgar, the number of which was unknown, but it was guessed that there were at least 3,000 horsemen from the sound of the horse's hooves.

Aguba was shocked when he heard this. The cavalry galloping in the middle of the night must be reinforcements from the enemy, needless to say. The cavalry of Kokand who could bring it out were already in the army. It's just that it's been so many days, more than three months, why didn't the reinforcements of those Han people come early or late, but they came when they were about to break the city? Could it be that the city of Kashgar, which he has attacked for so long and is about to be breached, will not be able to come back to life? No, no, he is the true master's blessing, and anyone who stands in his way will be punished by heaven. This city will be destroyed!

"The order was given to the rest of the two thousand troops from the west and east of the city, together with the four thousand troops on standby, a total of 2,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, to rush to the southeast to intercept that cavalry. You have to hold the other party for half a day! Half a day, enough to break the city and then encircle and suppress all the Han soldiers in the city! Aguba hurriedly ordered.

The adjutant was ordered to lead the troops away!

Aguba also let go, leaving only 500 personal soldiers to protect him, and sent almost all the Kokand soldiers around him, he did not leave room for himself, nor did he leave any chance for the enemy. This is your last chance to build your own business, and you can't afford to lose it! He waited anxiously.