Since the Jinggang Water Battle, the battle of Banbishan is definitely the most dangerous and vicious battle fought by the Hunan Army Naval Division, although the strength of the Taiping Army Naval Division is not comparable, and the tactics also have their own strengths, but the timing is not coincidental, when the Taiping Army Naval Division arrived at the battlefield, the Hunan Army Naval Division, which is dominated by bulky ships, is turning around and forming a whole team, and the formation is not to say that it is strictly organized, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a chaotic formation, and it is in the most vulnerable time period. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Qin Rigang, who is good at water warfare, will certainly not miss such a God-given opportunity, and he can't care about retracting the two fleets that had just been defeated by the Hunan Army's naval divisions in front of him, and directly issued an order to raise the flag, and the combat fleet dominated by small pulling boats immediately attacked the whole army, inserting it into the gaps between the ships of the Hunan Army's naval division like a fragmented arrow, and constantly interspersed and interspersed in the Hunan army's naval division fleet like loaches and swimming fish, like an ant colony swallowing an elephant, quickly completely submerging more than 100 large ships of the Hunan army with a sea of small boats, shooting and throwing fire-starters. Attacking the Hunan ships in a race against time created more chaos for the Hunan army's naval division, which was already in a state of chaos, forcing the Hunan warships to fight separately, and could no longer give full play to the strength advantage of the ship's heavy artillery.

If it weren't for Zeng Guofan's most of the valuable grenades that the disobedient students had aided twice, most of the valuable grenades that had been aided by the disobedient students would have been given to the equipment of the Hunan Army's Naval Division, and the Hunan Army's Naval Division would have been almost certain in this battle. Regardless of the stinginess of consumable weapons, the generals of the Hunan Army Navy Division ordered their own soldiers to throw grenades to launch a counterattack, and the explosion power of the largest bitter acid grenade in this era exploded in the Taiping Army fleet, and the Taiping Army Navy officers and soldiers screamed and fell into the water to die, and then the bitter acid flame burned on the Taiping Army's small pulling boat and on the water, effectively striking the combat strength of the Taiping Army Naval Division, and also created a lot of chaos for the Taiping Army fleet, and the Hunan Army Naval Division with reduced pressure also hurried to seize the time to turn around and form a team. While fighting fiercely, it is difficult to adjust the formation.

In order to seize the high ground of Banbi Mountain and open artillery to cover the Hunan army's naval division, Liu Kunyi, who had recently defected to Wu Chaoyue, led the Zhuangzi battalion of his descendants to storm the commanding heights of the mountain, and the soldiers of the Taiping Army, who had taken the lead to climb to the highest point, relied on the advantageous advantage of the condescending to resist stubbornly, and desperately shot and threw stones to attack Liu Kun's army who feintmed. At the same time, more Taiping army boats were also loaded with soldiers to land on the shore one after another, gathering in a team to kill this side, and cooperating with the friendly troops on the top of the mountain to flank Liu Kun.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Liu Kunyi also did not dare to be stingy with precious weapons and preserve strength, while ordering the soldiers to throw a large number of grenades to open the way, while forcing the front army to charge and feint at any cost, Wu Chaoyue sent Liu Kunyi as a technical guide The soldiers of the Wu Army Artillery Battalion also did not hesitate to sacrifice grenadiers to accurately hit the Taiping soldiers who were hiding behind the soil and rocks and shooting. Relying on the huge superiority in weapons and equipment, after about 20 minutes of fierce fighting, Liu Kun's army finally rushed to the high ground of Banbi Mountain, stabbed to death all the wounded soldiers of the Taiping Army on the high ground, and while rushing to repair the fortifications, he raced against time to move the only five breech guns to the high ground, and at the same time, the rear team of Liu Kun's first army had already exchanged fire with the reinforcements of the Taiping Army at the foot of the mountain, and the battle was so fierce that it was a mess.

Without waiting for the heavy breech guns to go up the mountain, the Wu gunners had already taken over the Taiping army, leaving a few artillery pieces, adjusting the anti-aircraft firing angle charge and filling the shells, and firing at the dense places of the Taiping army's naval divisions. When the shore artillery fire descended on the Taiping army, the officers and men of the Taiping army were also in an uproar and their morale was frustrated, while the officers and men of the Hunan Army were greatly encouraged, and their hearts were determined to speed up their actions, and their mistakes were greatly reduced.

Of course, this degree was far from enough to force the Taiping army to retreat and put all the water combat forces into the battlefield at any cost, while Qin Rigang sent more troop transport ships to land on the shore, and swooped down on the highlands of Banbishan with murderous violation, saying that he would take back control of the highlands. Liu Kun's 1st Army, which was fully equipped with firing pin guns, calmly responded to the battle, constantly firing under the cover of grenadiers, and with the advantage of high rate of fire, the soldiers of the Taiping Army who were screaming and attacking were beaten to the point of crying wolf, and people were lying down in rows on their backs, and at the same time, the armed men of Liu Kun's 1st Army also took the opportunity to use ropes, wooden sticks and other tools to push and pull the five rear-loading guns up the high ground of Banbi Mountain, and arranged them in place one by one under the guidance of the technical soldiers of the Wu Army.

And when the breezed rifled guns also joined the battle, the pressure and blows suffered by the Taiping Navy sailors also increased sharply several times, and the high rate of fire and high-precision rifled guns shot one by one into the Taiping Army fleet, even if most of them missed, the shock wave generated by the explosion and the waves still blew the main warship of the Taiping Army to the side, colliding with each other constantly, and then the bitter acid flame ignited a large number of the sail hull of the Taiping Army's small boat, burning the Taiping soldiers on the ship are skin and flesh, and the hair is burning, The battle formation was in chaos.

It was also under the cover of artillery fire on the shore that a large number of Hunan Navy ships gathered on the surface of half of the mountain to win the adjustment time, first the big ships turned around with thick smoke and flames, and the heads and tails were connected to form a huge horizontal formation, and the sampans were also assembled in place one after another, gradually driving away the small Taiping army boats in the fleet, and then extinguishing the fire on the ship, while opening artillery bombardment of the Taiping army fleet in the distance. The Qing army's amphibious artillery fire gradually flourished, and the Taiping army, which could only be equipped with small artillery or earth cannons, broke its mast and suffered extremely heavy casualties.

In fact, when the Hunan army was adjusted and the power of artillery was exerted with the 'T' tactic, the Taiping Army's naval division, which was too weak, had little hope of winning, but Qin Rigang still refused to give up, first ordered the fleet to retreat and regroup, and then asked the landing army to temporarily retreat and regroup, preparing to launch a full-scale attack again, desperately recapturing the Banbishan position! However.......

However, with the gradual arrival of night, the gradual increase of the night wind, the wind direction advantage of the Banbishan position is gradually reflected, in the face of the cold southeast wind, the Taiping army's small pulling boat did not dare to open sail in the charge, increasing the speed of the ship depends on manpower and a little downstream advantage, no matter how hard the soldiers work hard, the charging speed can not be raised how fast, the leeward battle of the Hunan army naval division is one after another, with intensive artillery fire to cover the slow Taiping fleet, sinking and destroying the Taiping army's small pulling boat, At the same time, after the bitter acid shells knocked down on the high ground of Banbi Mountain fell into the water and burned, the fire also burned to the fleet of the Taiping Army with a tailwind, and no matter how the officers and men of the Taiping Army sacrificed their lives to charge and raid, they were still unable to break through the tight firepower network jointly organized by the Hunan Army and the Wu Army Artillery, and paid a heavy price but did not see the slightest hope of victory.

And the same on land, when the Jiangning War, Li Kaifang, Ji Wenyuan and Wei Changhui and other Taiping generals under the elite army under the command of the elite army were helpless with the Wu army's high-fire rate firing pin guns, now Liu Kun's army is not only equipped with firing guns, but also has the advantage of condescending terrain and grenadier cover, Qin Rigang's ordinary main soldiers are naturally more helpless to take Liu Kun's army, three charges were repulsed three times, heavy casualties, the soldiers are very cowardly and dare not rush again, only dare to hide in the distance and shoot, Liu Kun's army only took out less than half of its strength to easily hold the position of Banbi Mountain.

The night wind became stronger and stronger, and the charge of the Taiping Army's sailors became more and more difficult, the number of casualties gradually and rapidly expanded, and the physical strength of the soldiers became more and more exhausted -- the ships were too small to carry fewer troops, and the soldiers of the Taiping Army's sailors could not take turns to rest and eat like the soldiers on the big ships of the Hunan Army's sailors. During this period, although no general dared to persuade Qin Rigang to give up the attack, Qin Rigang still knew very well in his heart that the Freedom Army had no hope of taking the vital Banbishan position today.

After hesitating and thinking for a long time, Qin Rigang finally made a painful decision and ordered: "Raise the banner, withdraw the troops on the shore, withdraw the troops, and rest on the water surface of Wuwang Temple for the night." Then send someone to give Zhong Tingsheng an order, asking him to find a suitable position to be stationed temporarily, to contain the main force of the Qing Demon Lu Division for me, and to buy time for me to recapture Banbi Mountain. ”

…………

Expecting the land division led by Zhong Tingsheng to temporarily contain the land division of the Zeng and Wu coalition forces, Qin Rigang's daydream was inevitably too beautiful, after receiving Qin Rigang's order, although Zhong Ting stiffly ordered the Lu division to suspend its advance, and hurriedly set up defenses in the Makou area, in a vain attempt to rely on the remaining ground-breaking enclosures in Makou Town to deal with the Zeng and Wu coalition forces for a long time. However, as soon as he received the news, Wu Chaoyue immediately ordered: "Order the whole army, speed up and advance, don't give Changmao a chance to establish a defensive position in Makou!" ”

"Wait!" Zhao Liewen, the dog-headed military advisor next to him, suddenly spoke, smiled at the Wu army herald who received the order with his fists and said, "This order is canceled, and our army continues to advance at a normal pace. ”

"Huifu, what do you mean?" Wu Chaoyue asked more puzzled than the herald.

"Weiting, what are you anxious about?" Zhao Liewen smiled even more treacherously, and said in a low voice: "If you rush to the Wuwang Temple east of Tianjia Town an hour late, your teacher's sailor will be a little more dangerous." In that case, why should you be more anxious than him, so that our soldiers will fight less hard battles and have more opportunities to rest, isn't it better? ”

Wu Chaoyue suddenly laughed and gave Zhao Liewen a thumbs up, but the result was not what Zhao Liewen expected, and soon, the Taqibu battalion of the Hunan army, which was the forward task, really accelerated the speed of its march, and rushed to Makou at a speed exceeding the speed of the rapid march, and at the same time, Zeng Guofan also sent someone to send a message to Wu Chaoyue to inform him of the situation in Makou, and asked Wu Chaoyue to speed up and move forward quickly, and go to Makou to cover the Hunan army with artillery, and it was also explained early that the Hunan army was responsible for the heavy task of attacking the fortification. Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen looked at each other and smiled, just ordering the artillery battalion to speed up, while the main combat soldiers continued to maintain the original speed, reducing the physical wear and tear of the soldiers as much as possible.

The barber teacher really liked to preserve his strength before, and finally corrected this bad temper, the Hunan army finally showed their true strength, Zhong Tingsheng had not yet gained a firm foothold in Makou, Taqib had already taken the tower battalion to the front, and did not hesitate to attack the Taiping army position, the Taiping army was forced to build fortifications while facing the battle, and the progress of fortification construction was greatly affected, until the main force of the Hunan army and the Wu army artillery battalion with advanced artillery to kill close, The Taiping army has not yet completed half of the anti-artillery and bulletproof fortifications.

Then, first, the Wu artillery poured bitter acid shells with incendiary effects onto the Taiping army's position, destroying a large number of Taiping army's defensive positions and killing and wounding the Taiping army's living forces, and then without waiting for the flames to be extinguished and the Wu army's artillery fire completely destroyed the Taiping army's position, Zeng Guofan, who was in a hurry to reinforce the water division, could not wait to order an attack, and invested three battalions of troops directly into the Taiping army's position in one go. After a fierce battle, the stubborn Taiping Army Lu Division finally could not resist the repeated charges of the Hunan army with red eyes, and was forced to abandon the horse's mouth and retreat to Wu Wangmiao.

Finally, on the evening of the second day of the fierce battle of Banbi Mountain, the land division of the Hunan army took the lead in arriving at the area of Wuwangmiao across the river from Banbi Mountain, and saw that the flag of the Qing army was still fluttering on the half of the mountain on the south bank, Zeng Guofan of course breathed a long sigh of relief. And seeing the main force of the Hunan Army's land division, which was killed quickly, Qin Rigang was bitter and worried.

The situation did make Qin Rigang desperate, stationed in the area of Wuwangmiao without the advantage of the wind, in the headwind position of the naval division, and always had to face the artillery threat of the Zeng and Wu coalition forces, as long as the land division could not parry the shore attack of the Zeng and Wu coalition forces, let the Zeng and Wu coalition troops move the artillery on the high ground on the north bank, and condescend to the next artillery bombardment, the Taiping army sailors in the area of Wu Wang Temple will never have a peaceful day, and they will never have a peaceful day again. Without Wuwangmiao, a harbor suitable for a large number of ships, the Taiping Army sailors could not gain a foothold in the throat of Tianjia Town, let alone hold this throat for a long time, and blockaded the Qing army in Hubei Province.

The only way for the Taiping army was to quickly recapture Banbi Mountain, seize the advantage of the upper hand, and take advantage of this to maneuver with the Hunan army's naval division, so that the Zeng-Wu coalition army on the north bank could not cross the river in a big way. However, after the Hunan Army's naval division seized the position of Banbishan, it refused to take a step forward in this position, and set up a defensive position early in the head and around it.

If you can't fight, you have to fight, when the generals of the water division were summoned, Qin Rigang still announced his tactical plan in public, and decided to take advantage of the fact that the Zeng Wu coalition army had not yet controlled the Wuwangmiao Heights to set up artillery, and preemptively dispatched all the water divisions to fight a decisive battle with the Hunan army's water division. Then Qin Rigang said to the generals: "Generals, the situation has been made very clear to you, we will win this battle, we can only fight to the death, seize this only hope of victory, and the battle will be decided!" What do you have to say about Ben Hou's decision? ”

The answer to Qin Rigang was death-like silence, and all the generals of the Taiping Army maintained a silent posture of looking at their noses and noses, and their noses and hearts were silent, and no one would open their mouths even if they said a word. Qin Rigang was very dissatisfied when he saw it, raised his voice and said, "Why don't you speak?" Don't you have any faith? Speak, speak to me! ”

The generals of the Taiping Army still refused to say anything, and the more Qin Rigang looked at it, the more angry he became, and when he saw Shi Dakai's fellow Shi Fengkui's mouth moving, he shouted at Shi Fengkui: "Shi Fengkui, what do you want to say?" Say! ”

After hesitating for a moment, Shi Fengkui arched his hand and said: "Ding Tianhou, the last general wants to say, attack Banbi Mountain with all our might, our hope of winning is very slim, the wind direction is unfavorable to us, the Fushui River estuary slightly downstream of Banbi Mountain, and interferes with the flow of the Yangtze River, which has a great impact on our small pulling boat, our only offensive route is to attack against the wind in the northwest of Banbi Mountain, and we are at a disadvantage from beginning to end in launching a decisive battle." As long as the Qing Demon Sailor Division maintains its current formation and bombards our fleet attacking against the wind with heavy artillery, we will ....... ”

Speaking of this, Shi Fengkui gritted his teeth and said simply: "Of course, if the Marquis of Ding Tianhou must attack against the wind, the last general will just obey his fate." The head has a scar the size of a bowl, and eighteen years later, he is a good man again! ”

The other generals of the navy nodded in agreement, saying that if Qin Rigang must order an attack, he will receive the order himself, and it will be great to die on the battlefield and serve the kingdom of heaven with his life. As a result, after Qin Rigang heard these words, not only did he not give the order to send troops, but on the contrary, he fell silent, and then after thinking about it for a long time, Qin Rigang still lowered his head and said in a weak voice: "Withdraw from Hubei, if the Yiwang wants to be investigated, I will bear it, don't let the soldiers die in vain." ”

Hearing this, the Taiping army was first relieved, and then expressed their willingness to share the crime of disobedience with Qin Rigang. Qin Rigang sighed quietly and said secretly: "The Wing King is six thousand years old, it's not my order to resist you, it's the current situation, and if you continue to fight, you will only be sent to death in vain." It is better to save the lives of the soldiers and the vitality of the sailors first, and then come to take revenge later. ”

In 1855, on the second day of the sixth month of the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in view of the dual reasons of the critical situation and insufficient strength, the Taiping Army's Western Expeditionary Army Qin Rigang was forced to abandon the strategic Tianjia Town and retreat to the east, retreating to Jiujiang to avoid the Qing army. The army division Zhong Tingsheng, who fought with Qin Rigang, boarded the ship and withdrew together, and the Taiping troops in the neighboring counties of Xingguo and Huangmei were also forced to abandon the city and retreat to Jiangxi and Anhui by land because of their isolation and weak strength. Wu Chaoyue's Hubei Qing army and local regiments took advantage of the situation to recover the lost land, officially recovered the entire territory of Hubei, and nominally completely expelled the Taiping army from Hubei.

After repeated tug-of-war, the southeastern part of Hubei is full of devastation, with starving corpses everywhere, villages and villages are on fire, towns and towns are smoking, and hungry people who are waiting to be fed are in groups and wandering around. At the same time, the Hunan army, which made great efforts in the war to recover the land of Hubei, also asked Wu Chaoyue to force his life, forcing Wu Chaoyue to fulfill the military salary, grain and grass promised before, and scraping the bones and flesh of Wu Chaoyue, who was already thin as firewood.

Fortunately, Hubei was only completely destroyed in the southeast, the central part was seriously damaged, the state capitals in the west and north were barely peaceful, and the Manchu court had already agreed to take a cent to help the army's salary, relying on the local officials' knocking on the bone and sucking the marrow, Wu Chaoyue finally gathered the money and grain extorted by the Hunan army in the summer season, and handed it over to Zeng Guofan's hands. And Zeng Guofan smiled and accepted the money and food offered by the disobedient protégé, and said to Wu Chaoyue with a more cordial smile: "Weiting, in the same year as the teacher, Jiangxi Chen Qimai learned that after Hubei Changmao was purged, he had already sent two letters to ask for help from the division, and the situation on the battlefield in Nanchang was very critical, so he wanted to lead the army into Jiangxi in a day or two and go to Nanchang to reinforce Chen Futai. After the teacher leaves, Hubei will have to ask you all. ”

Knowing that the barber teacher didn't want to give himself too much time to prepare, Wu Chaoyue still had a swollen face and was fat, and said to Zeng Guofan: "Don't worry, the student will definitely not pull your hind legs, after you leave, the student will definitely try his best to keep Hubei safe!" ”

His face changed slightly, Zeng Guofan was about to continue to be hypocritical with his disobedient protégé, but he never thought that Zeng Guofan's staff Liu Rong rushed in in with an emergency, and shouted as soon as he entered the tent: "Big handsome, Wu Futai, something is wrong!" The Yellow River bursts! The Yellow River broke more than 80 zhang on the north bank of Lanyang, the water potential could not be contained, and the flood had invaded Shandong! ”

Zeng Guofan and Wu Chaoyue's faces changed greatly at the same time, and they also stood up at the same time, and then, since the unscrupulous teachers and students met again in Hubei, they also said in unison for the first time from the bottom of their hearts, "The world is going to be even more chaotic again!" (To be continued.) )