Thanks to the blessing of the home battle, Xizuo had just confirmed that the Cao Yanzhong Corps of the Wu Army was coming towards Moling Pass, and Li Mingcheng, the younger brother of Li Xiucheng, who was guarding Moling Pass, received this news in less than three hours, and more than 30,000 defenders of Moling Pass also immediately entered a state of full alert, all the artillery was charged and loaded, all the troops on duty entered the defensive position, and all the troops that were not on duty also received weapons and waited for dispatch at any time, and the generals of each battalion rushed to the headquarters located in the city of Moling Pass to wait for Li Mingcheng's dispatch.

Unlike the middle-level and grass-roots soldiers who were nervously preparing for the war, Li Mingcheng, who was ordered to guard the Moling Pass, seemed quite relaxed, not only did he not show up until all the generals arrived, but also joked with the generals under his command as soon as they met, and said with a smile: "The demon soldiers are coming, are you afraid?" If you are afraid, speak first, this Wang Zong can let him enter the reserve team and go into battle last, but we have to invite all of us to drink, and we have to order our own food. ”

The generals laughed one after another, and the previous tense atmosphere was suddenly swept away, and then Li Mingchengcai smiled again and said: "Okay, let's get down to business, my brother Wang expected, the demon soldiers really took the risk of dividing the troops, and the Lu division came to fight our Moling Pass alone, wanting to cut off our connection with the rear of Suzhou and Hangzhou, which is definitely a good thing for us, at least we don't have to worry about the most intense fight with the demon soldier Lu Division, the demon soldier's sailor suddenly ran out and fired at our position, and the pressure can be much less." But we can't underestimate the enemy, we must hold the Moling Pass, and we must also taste the hardships of the demon soldiers, and make a good start for this Tianjing defense battle! ”

The generals agreed, and then the general Lin Zhengyang hurriedly asked: "Wang Zong, how can we fight this battle?" Will Chung Wang Chitose send us reinforcements? ”

"Of course there are reinforcements, but they won't be sent right away." Li Mingcheng replied: "In this battle, we first used the favorable terrain and fortifications to cover the demon soldiers of Cao Yanzhong, first dragged the demon soldiers to the exhaustion of the old man in the camp guard battle, and then when Brother Wang sent reinforcements to help us, we launched a counterattack to repel the demon soldiers." ”

The generals nodded one after another, indicating that they understood the operational policy arranged by Li Mingcheng, and then Li Mingcheng transferred troops and dispatched generals, arranged for the generals to lead the army to guard various positions, and arranged reserves to extinguish the fire at any time. As a result, just when Li Mingcheng was making arrangements in an orderly manner, an urgent report suddenly came from outside the gate, saying that after the Zhumen garrison abandoned its position and retreated to Jiangning Town, Cao Yanzhong's troops of the Wu army crossed Zhumen directly without any delay, and quickly approached Moling Pass while carrying a large number of heavy weapons, leaving only a small number of troops to guard Zhumen.

"So fast? Going to kill us by surprise? Thinking about it? Confidently guessing the intention of the Wu army's rapid advance, Li Mingcheng did not delay any longer, quickly arranged the long-brewing defense plan, and then immediately ordered the generals to return to their respective camps to prepare for the battle, and he personally led the general reserve to sit in Moling Pass, confidently and patiently waiting for the Wu army to attack.

Strictly speaking, the terrain around Moling Pass was not particularly favorable for defensive warfare, especially the lack of high ground to garrison troops, and the only large river, the Qinhuai River, was also located to the east of Moling Pass, which could not play a role in blocking the advance of the Wu army. However, these are not big problems for Li Mingcheng and the Taiping army under his command, relying on sufficient manpower can be used, Li Mingcheng's army has built four well-fortified strong camps on the battlefield of Moling Pass to protect the city, and there are more than 200 artillery pieces that can be used, and the ammunition is sufficient, of which more than 80 are still flowering bombers bought from foreigners at high prices, the firepower is fierce, and it is still on Jiuhuanzhou, another military fortress in the Nanjing battlefield, so even if you know that the strength of the enemy is still above the enemy in Yuhuatai, Li Mingcheng also had absolute confidence to let Cao Yanzhong break his head at Moling Pass, and let the Wu army team that dared to launch a frontal assault on Moling Pass suffer heavy casualties!

At noon, the Wu army first appeared in the sight of the defenders of Moling Pass, and the result was that Li Mingcheng was quite scorned that the first three battalions of Wu Jun did not dare to get too close to Moling Pass, and stopped when they were about ten miles away from the Taiping army, and then immediately sent a large number of scouts to investigate the surrounding situation, fearfully beware of the Taiping army hiding ambushes around Moling Pass, and also showed trembling in the scout outpost battle, and the scattered scouts retreated immediately once they encountered a large Taiping army patrol, Don't dare to risk it at all. So after seeing this in Guancheng, Li Mingcheng said contemptuously, "But that's it." ”

More than an hour later, the main force of Cao Yanzhong's army of the Wu army also moved to ten miles west of Moling Pass, joined the front team, and then immediately set up a camp under Li Mingcheng's mocking gaze, and did not dare to directly launch a frontal assault on Moling Pass when there was enough time. However, just when Li Mingcheng laughed at Cao Yanzhong's over-cautiousness, an accident appeared, and six battalions of Wu troops actually came out of the crowd, protecting a group of artillery pieces of different sizes and directly killing them directly towards Moling Pass, while the rest of the Wu army continued to build camps, and did not see any reserves assembled for orders.

"The demon general Cao Yanzhong wants to directly attack Moling Pass with 3,000 troops?" Li Mingcheng almost couldn't believe his analysis, and hurriedly asked the scout who had come to report the enemy's situation: "Who is the demon general here?" How is the equipment? ”

"Back to Wangzong, the demon general who came came under the banner of yellow characters, it may be Huang Yuanbao, the general of the demon soldiers." The scout reported truthfully, and said: "The equipment of this demon army is very good, at least four battalions are all equipped with rapid-fire foreign guns, and the number of artillery guns carried should be about eighty, it is not clear what kind of artillery it is, but most of the artillery is not large, it may be a mountain splitting cannon." ”

"Mountain Splitter?" The self-confidence returned to Li Mingcheng's body, and Li Mingcheng smiled contemptuously: "Come on, wait to see how this Wang Zong's flowering cannon will clean you up." ”

Soon, six battalions of the Wu army quickly approached the vicinity of the Taiping Army's Shilongshan camp, Li Wancai, the general of the Taiping Army who was guarding Shilongshan, did not hesitate, and immediately ordered to open fire, and the Taiping Army garrison Lin Zhengyang in Getang Village in the south also opened fire with long-range artillery, and cooperated with friendly troops to cover the Wu army with crossfire, and more than 30 artillery pieces in the north and south rumbled, and the momentum shook the sky, and the first round of salvo fire caused casualties to the Wu army.

There was no anti-artillery position built on the spot, and the five battalions of the Wu army just opened up space to reduce the possibility of being hit by the Taiping artillery, and the Wu army camp in the center quickly placed the artillery, and quickly arranged the artillery array at a speed that surprised the Taiping army, and then immediately loaded the charge, and after the flag was waved, the Taiping army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang fired the artillery together with a neat action that the Taiping army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang did not dare to imagine, and bombarded more than 60 shells into the Shilongshan camp of the Taiping army, and the more earth-shattering sound of artillery fire also quickly echoed in the Taiping army camp.

The truth was revealed, and the Wu Army's shells that were all blown up on the ground told Li Mingcheng a cruel fact, the small artillery brought by the Wu Army was not the original shotgun splitting gun, but a three-pound caliber rear-loading rifled gun, and the shells were all filled with picric acid gunpowder!

What made Li Mingcheng and the soldiers of the Taiping Army even more frightened was the accurate hit rate of the Wu army's artillery, the first round of salvo, more than 60 bitter acid shells fired by the Wu army actually hit the vicinity of the artillery position of the Taiping army's Shilongshan camp, and the flames burst out between the explosions of the bitter acid shells, igniting the four Taiping army artillery guns that were being charged, causing the explosion, and scrapping the four unlucky Taiping army artillery on the spot. At the same time, the flying shrapnel quickly overturned many Taiping gunners, and the Taiping army's artillery positions screamed continuously, and Li Mingcheng, Li Wancai and other Taiping army generals also exclaimed, "How is it possible?" The demon soldier's cannonball has eyes, how can it hit so accurately?! ”

The reason why the hit rate of the Wu army's artillery is so high is, of course, from the gunner, and the Wu army artillery battalion that fired the artillery was actually neither subordinate to Cao Yanzhong's corps, nor from the Wu army's Daye corps, but from Wu Chaoyue's directly subordinate corps! Every gunner has undergone almost cruel rigorous training, and every gunner has received strict training from British and French instructors, and is familiar with the most advanced positioning calculations in the world today.

The huge gap in the technical level of course doomed the Taiping army to a fiasco in long-range artillery warfare, and in the rumbling artillery, the bitter acid shells of the Wu army seemed to have eyes, and they quickly and accurately bombarded the artillery positions of the Taiping army, and the Taiping artillery who were filling and loading ammunition was bombarded into a ghost crying wolf, and the casualties continued, and the artillery of the Taiping army was silent like pulling nails, so that the artillery of the Taiping army had no power to fight back, and there was no ability to parry.

Then, something that made the Taiping army even more jaw-dropping happened again, just after basically suppressing the Taiping army's artillery, a battalion of Wu soldiers had already stepped forward quickly, directly killing the main gate of the Taiping army's Shilongshan camp, and the Taiping army's mountain splitting artillery arranged at the camp gate hurriedly opened artillery bombardment. As a result, although it temporarily blocked the pace of the Wu army's charge and forced the Wu army's officers and men to lie on the ground to avoid the artillery, they immediately brought a catastrophe to themselves - the Wu army, which was only a battalion, actually put out thirty-two grenadiers at once!

"How is that possible?! How could a battalion of demon soldiers have so many fast-firing demon cannons?! Could it be that they have a fast-fire cannon on one team?! ”

Li Wancai, the general of the Taiping Army who led the army to guard the Shilongshan camp, exclaimed that it was too late to discover this cruel fact, and the grenadier shells of the Wu army had already smashed into the Taiping army's newly exposed mountain splitting artillery position, smashing the Taiping soldiers who were extinguishing the remaining flames of the cannon barrels into a bloody and bloody air, and fell to the ground one after another.

After knocking out the Taiping Army's mountain-splitting artillery position, the Wu Army's grenadiers continued to fire non-stop, bombarding the bitter acid shells one after another behind the Taiping Army's sheep and horse walls and behind the camp wall, and then bombarded the Taiping Army officers and soldiers who were hiding behind the wall and preparing to shoot, screaming and screaming, killing and wounding one after another. At the same time, after basically dumbing out the long-range artillery of the Taiping Army, the rear-loading rifled guns of the Wu Army turned around and began to bombard the interior of the Taiping Army's camp indiscriminately.

It's not over, there is even more ruthless, after completely suppressing the long-range firepower of the Taiping army, fifteen thick and short Wu army mortar cannons slowly stepped forward, and gradually approached the main gate of the Taiping army's camp, but before the Wu army's mortar cannon was fired, just seeing the huge caliber of Wu army's mortar cannon from a distance, the Taiping soldiers in the camp were already scattered, frightened, and kept praying for the blessing of the Heavenly Father, don't let the terrifying cannon of Wu Jun fire at their position.

The super-large caliber Wu army's mortar cannon only fired the first salvo, and it directly blew down the camp gate of the Taiping army's Shilong Mountain, and the burning bitter acid flame turned the Taiping army camp gate into a sea of fire, but the Wu army's mortar still refused to give up, and extended to the camp walls on both sides of the Taiping army camp gate, and every shell was a sea of fire, blowing down the camp wall that the Taiping army had worked hard to build, blowing up the Taiping soldiers hiding behind the wall, and directly blowing up the Taiping soldiers who were hiding behind the wall. It also turned an unknown number of Taiping soldiers into burning people who rolled in the sea of fire and screamed and cried, and the blue and yellow poisonous smoke filled the Taiping army camp again, and the Taiping soldiers coughed painfully in the camp and kept crying, as if they were in hell.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Wancai, who was guarding Shilong Mountain, could only pretend to have the courage to send the army out of the camp and outflank the mortar positions of the Wu army from both flanks, in a vain attempt to prevent the powerful Wu army's mortar artillery from bombarding and destroying his own camp defense facilities, but Li Wancai soon found that he had done something stupid that was too stupid to do - he dared to send troops to fight a field battle with the elite of the Wu army equipped with a firing gun!

In the continuous firing sound of the "bang, bang, bang" firing pin gun, the Taiping soldiers who came from both wings fell to the ground one after another in rows, and at the same time, what made the Taiping soldiers out of the camp want to cry without tears was that the soldiers of the Wu Army who protected the two wings of the mortar guns actually shot in a crawling position! As a result, even if the muskets of the Taiping soldiers were fired hastily, it was difficult to hit the soldiers of the Wu army, and they were basically unable to fight back just by being beaten.

If it is replaced by the veterans of the Taiping Army, then the Taiping Army may still have the opportunity to rush to the nearest place to start a white-knuckle battle with the soldiers of the Wu Army, but it is a pity that the Taiping Army on the side of Moling Pass is Li Xiucheng's troops, and they are more afraid of hand-to-hand combat than the soldiers of the Wu Army! So soon, as the Taiping soldiers who fell under the guns of the Wu army gradually increased, the remaining Taiping troops gradually lost the courage to continue fighting, and in the end, I don't know who took the lead in shouting, the Taiping soldiers on the left flank were the first to retreat, and the Taiping soldiers on the right flank also collapsed, and the speed of escape was faster than that of the left flank.

It was also a coincidence that after the collapse of the Taiping army that came from the wings, the flames at the gate of the Taiping military camp were gradually extinguished, and Huang Yuanbao, who had been waiting impatiently, gave an order, and the soldiers of the Wu army of the two battalions immediately charged with their feet, shouting and killing directly at the gate of the Taiping military camp that had been directly blown down by the mortar. The Taiping troops in the camp hurriedly lined up to shoot, but they were directly blown up by the Wu military camp that had approached their camp before with a grenadier canister, and the casualties were very heavy.

The pure tiger entered the flock, and directly rushed into the Taiping Army's Shilongshan camp The soldiers of the Wu Army opened the way with grenades, and rampaged in the Taiping Army camp, such as entering no man's land, Li Wancai tried to organize the army to intercept several times, but the Wu soldiers and soldiers directly exploded with grenades and grenadiers, and the Taiping soldiers of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, who were not good at fighting hard battles, shouted endlessly, and some people kept escaping from the camp and fleeing to Moling Pass, and many grassroots generals were also the same. Only half an hour had passed since the Wu army entered the Shilongshan camp, and the Taiping army in Shilongshan had already shown signs of complete collapse, and the loss of the camp had become a foregone conclusion.

During this period, Lin Zhengyang, the general of the Taiping Army, who led the army to camp not far from the south, wanted to send troops to save Shilong Mountain several times, but looking at the Wu army that still had two battalions of reserves, and the main force of the Wu army's Cao Yanzhong Corps, which calmly set up camp in the west, Lin Zhengyang dispelled this idea every time, and quietly just prayed to the sky, "Heavenly Father bless, after the demon soldiers have conquered Shilong Mountain, don't come to fight Getang Temple again immediately." Anyway, let me survive this night, and wait for King Chung Chitose to send troops to save me. ”

Lin Zhengyang prayed in fear in the camp of Getang Temple, but his boss Li Mingcheng was pale and trembling in Moling Guancheng, and after putting down the binoculars tremblingly, Li Mingcheng also caught the captain of his relatives and soldiers again, and yelled at him: "Go to the bridge above to find my brother Wang and tell him that I have met the absolute elite of the demon soldiers!" Please ask him to send me reinforcements immediately, otherwise, I am not sure that I can hold Moling Pass! ”