In order to meet Hong Xiuquan's requirements and prevent this God-worshipping sect leader from jumping out to make trouble and stir up trouble and drag him back, Li Xiucheng, who was familiar with Hong Xiuquan's bearish temper, had no choice but to give up the steady tactics of only encircling and not fighting, and hurriedly began to formulate a plan for a strong attack, and at the same time commanded the Taiping Army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to adjust the garrison, and set up a semi-circular camp position around Yuhuatai, and cooperated with the Nanjing Taiping Army and Ye Yunlai, Wu Ruxiao and other armies to surround Yuhuatai on all sides, and completely cut off Yuhuatai and the outside world by land and water.

At the same time as setting up camp, Li Xiu organized 40,000 troops to hold Banqiao and Dasheng Pass to prevent the Wuhu Wu army from suddenly killing from behind; He also divided 20,000 troops to the north and stationed in Jiuhuanzhou to protect the north gate of Nanjing, so that the grain from northern Jiangsu and the grain from the rear of Jiangsu and Zhejiang could be transported to Nanjing in an endless stream for military use; At the same time, 30,000 heavy troops were also left to guard Moling Pass to prevent the Wu army Cao Yanzhong's troops from suddenly dividing their troops and rushing to Li Xiucheng's rear by land, and did not use all their forces on the Yuhuatai battlefield. However, even so, when the camp of the Taiping Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang began to take shape, the military prestige still made the Wu Army's Feng Sanbao Corps, which only had about 13,000 people, frightened and frightened before fighting.

We must not blame the Wu army officers and soldiers for being timid, the main reason is that the momentum of the Taiping army is too huge, from the east to the Qiqiao urn, west to the Sanxia River, dozens of miles of road are full of Taiping army camp garrisons, the military flag is like the sea, the crowd is like ants, and there are countless forts arranged layer by layer, surrounding the Yuhuatai, standing on the platform and looking at it, it is really the camp flag of the Taiping Army in all directions, densely packed with Taiping soldiers with red cloth on their heads. Being in such a heavy siege, not to mention the southwest Wu army that came out of the deep mountains and old forests, even the Wu Chaoyue pro-military camp led by Wu Dadao felt that their scalps were numb, and their confidence in whether they could hold Yuhuatai began to waver.

Under such circumstances, Feng Sanbao, who resolutely decided to garrison Yuhuatai, was naturally under great pressure, so nervous that he couldn't sleep at night and couldn't sleep, but fortunately, because the Taiping army was besieging Yuhuatai on all sides, the pre-war mobilization work of the Wu army was very simple and easy - the Wu army battalion officer of each battalion only needed to tell the soldiers one sentence, "If you want to go home alive, you have to defend to the end!" ”

The Wu Army's Feng Sanbao Corps trembled on Yuhuatai, but they didn't know that Li Xiucheng, who had built the Chinese army camp on the bridge above, had been secretly complaining about the incompetence of the Nanjing Taiping Army, so that the Wu army seized the opportunity to seize the military stronghold of Yuhuatai in advance, forcing itself to attack Yuhuatai 100 meters above the ground like a siege. - Don't underestimate this 100 meters, the highest section of the Nanjing city wall is only 26 meters.

In order to try to kill the relatively weak Wu army's Feng Sanbao Corps before the arrival of Wu army's reinforcements, Li Xiucheng could only work out a twelve-point spirit to formulate a strategy for attacking fortified positions, and aimed at the weaknesses of the Wu army's Yuhuatai camp before it had time to thoroughly improve and strengthen the Yuhuatai camp, and before the camp was completely established, he let the Taiping army's huge artillery team enter the battle in advance, and bombarded the Wu army's camp day and night with artillery, obstructing the work of retarding the Wu army's reinforcement camp, and also taking the lead to further attack the morale of the Wu army.

The prelude to the Battle of Yuhuatai was also opened, and in the rumbling of artillery, the Taiping Army's large and small artillery pieces, numbering more than 1,000 guns, opened fire in turn, bombarding all kinds of shells into the Wu army's camp day and night, constantly destroying the civil engineering camp wall that the Wu army had worked so hard to repair, and also constantly killing and wounding the Wu soldiers who were struggling to ram the earth to build the wall, and continued to cause casualties to the Wu army's officers and soldiers. Although the Wu artillery also fought back bravely, nearly ninety percent of the artillery equipped by Feng Sanbao's corps was old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore guns, which could only fire solid shells, and the shooting accuracy was also lacking, so it was difficult to pose a threat to the Taiping army's batteries, and a lot of gunpowder was wasted in vain, but the effect received was pitiful.

The counterattack of the Wu army's artillery also had the opposite effect, and found that the Wu army was nervous in its own harassing outpost battle, and Li Xiu, who had enough cannon fodder in his hands, decided to adjust his tactics, and while continuing to bombard the Wu army's camp with artillery day and night, he sent a large number of small troops to take turns to harass the perimeter of the Wu army's camp, luring the Wu army, whose supply line had been cut off, to open fire on a larger scale, consuming and wasting valuable ammunition. As a result, Wu Jun was really fooled, and when he saw the enemy approaching, he blindly opened fire, although he also killed and wounded many enemies, but wasted more ammunition.

In the end, it was only under the strict orders of Feng Sanbao and others who found that the situation was wrong that the officers and men of the Wu Army, who were too nervous, restrained the use of ammunition, and did not wait to shoot and fire as soon as they saw the enemy approaching, and tried to avoid meaningless artillery fire, and chose to dodge the enemy's artillery fire first, and no longer fantasized about suppressing the enemy's long-range firepower with old-fashioned artillery. At the same time, at the suggestion of Li Hezhang, Ding Baozhen and others, the Wu army built a large number of anti-artillery fortifications in the camp to resist the solid shells that the Taiping army continued to bombard the camp. - Fortunately, the number of flowering shells in Li Xiucheng's hand is not large, and he is not willing to use them in a large number of outpost battles, otherwise the Wu army may really be directly defeated by the artillery fire of the Taiping army.

The matter was not over, after discovering that the Wu army restrained the use of ammunition, Li Xiucheng, who was not greedy enough, continued to lure the Wu army to waste ammunition and reduce the pressure during the general attack, and arranged for more than 2,000 troops to attack overnight, sneak attack the outer camp built by the Wu army in the area of Changgang in the southwest corner of Yuhuatai, in a vain attempt to induce the Wu army to launch a counterattack, consume a lot of ammunition in the night battle, and even use picric acid weapons with flare effects. However, what Li Xiucheng, who played this hand perfectly on the battlefield in Shanghai, never expected was ......

"Night Raid! Night Raid! Long Hair is coming! Shoot! Shoot! ”

Not to mention, the night attack of the Taiping army did get the effect that Li Xiucheng needed, and after discovering that the Taiping army was suddenly attacking in a big way, the two dissatisfied Guizhou Wu military camps stationed in Changgang were very panicked for a while, and in addition to sending a signal to ask for help from the friendly camps in the rear, they desperately opened fire to block the incoming enemy. However, the sky was too dark, and the equipment of the Wu army in Guizhou was poor, and the mixed equipment of arquebuses, mini guns and flintlock pistols could not suppress the Taiping army at all.

If it was the elite battalion of the Wu army that encountered such a situation, it would definitely be bombarded with grenadiers first, and then dozens or hundreds of bitter acid grenades were smashed, but the equipment of the Wu army in Guizhou was too poor, even if the general of the Wu army in the Changgang camp was Zhao Bingming, the son of Zhao Dechang, an important general of the Wu army in Guizhou, there were not many grenades available in the army of the Wu army in Changgang, and Zhao Bingming's consent must be obtained first every time it is used. And when the deputy asked if he could use picric acid grenades, in order to save ammunition, Zhao Bingming hesitated and said: "How much long hair is outside, and whether it is a long-haired soldier or an auxiliary soldier who comes, we don't know, just use the grenade directly, I'm afraid it will be too wasteful." ”

"Young General, that's the old rule, draw lots." The deputy proposed.

Zhao Bingming was still a little hesitant, but considering that this war had just begun, and the fierce battle was still to come, Zhao Bingming still picked up the sign holder on the bookcase, selected four bamboo sticks and shook them, and then handed them to the four reserve sentry officers who were waiting in the tent, and said, "Brothers, I'm sorry, come on." ”

The four sentry officers did not speak, but each stepped forward to draw out a bamboo stick, the result was unfortunate, the sentry officer Chen Jin unfortunately drew a bamboo stick painted with red paint at the bottom, the other three sentry officers breathed a sigh of relief, but Chen Jin sighed quietly, and said: "Major General, brothers, if I can't come back, please give a message to my family, so that they can give me incense and burn some paper every year today." ”

"Brother Chen, don't worry, as long as any of us go back alive, we will definitely bring the words."

Zhao Bingming promised and bowed to Chen Jian to the ground, but Chen Jian turned around and left without saying a word, and strode out of the camp tent to carry out the mission of sending him to death - leading his sentry team of only seventy-eight people to attack overnight, launching a counter-charge against the enemy in the night, and charging to reconnoiter the enemy and the reality!

In a moment, the gate of the Wu army camp in Changgang suddenly opened, and under the leadership of Chen Jin, seventy-eight soldiers of the Wu army in Guizhou carried only a small number of firearms, and rushed out of the camp gate with machetes and short axes in their hands, and rushed to the enemy group in the dark night without hesitation, "The long hair raised by the dog, Lao Tzu is here!" ”

Bang bang bang, gunshots rang out repeatedly, several Wu soldiers were shot and fell to the ground, but after all, the Taiping army was not holding a Henry repeater gun that could be fired continuously and a firing pin gun that could be quickly reloaded, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Taiping army to change ammunition, more than 70 Wu soldiers still rushed to the vicinity of the Taiping army crowd as they wished, wielding knives and axes to kill the Taiping soldiers, and the roar of righteousness resounded throughout the battlefield, "Dog long hair, take your life!" ”

Blood splashed, machetes cut off the necks and arms of the Taiping soldiers, axes smashed the heads of the Taiping soldiers, brains burst out, the soldiers of the Wu Army in Guizhou, who had long been accustomed to fighting with simple cold weapons, seemed to have returned to the deep mountains and old forests of Guizhou, and when they encountered the enemy in the dense forest ravine, they first rushed and slashed, first took out the ruthlessness of the dead to deter the enemy and inspire courage, but completely ignored the possibility that the enemy's swords and axes could be cut on themselves, taking away their hands, feet and lives.

There are no advanced foreign guns and foreign artillery, even the primitive bird guns are pitiful, the Guizhou Wu army has always fought like this before, although a large number of muskets eliminated by the Wu army after being incorporated by the Wu army, but the habit of fighting with cold weapons, the hand-to-hand combat instinct of hitting the fist with a stone and biting the teeth, has been deeply engraved in the bones of the soldiers of the Wu army in Guizhou, deep into the bone marrow, and will never be forgotten!

"Brothers, kill! Kill! Kill one is enough, kill two and earn one! ”

Holding a plate axe in both hands, Chen Jin was like a black whirlwind Li Kui possessed by the Water Margin Liang Mountain, slashing and slashing endlessly in the dense crowd of the Taiping army, like a mad demon, and when he received the order, he was ready to send the other seventy or so Wu soldiers who were ready to die, and almost all of them were like this, following behind Chen Jin with red eyes and slashing wildly, ignoring all the circumstances, seeing the Taiping soldiers wrapped in red turbans, shouting just a knife and axe to ask Hou, like a madman, cutting down one Taiping soldier after another, chopping down the bones.

A miracle appeared, in the case of more than ten times the strength of the enemy, the Taiping army that came to Changgang to sneak attack not only failed to drown and swallow the Wu soldiers who only had about 70 people like a tide, but on the contrary, they were defeated and retreated under the impact of the death of the Wu army soldiers and soldiers, shouting and screaming into a mess, and the team was in chaos. And when the Wu army charged hand-to-hand and approached the general flag of the Taiping army, as the banner of the Taiping army's commander retreated towards the way it came, the Taiping army, which was numerous, suddenly broke out into a panicked and noisy voice, "Run!" Run! We lost! Lost!! ”

"How is that possible? We've already won?! ”

When countless Wu soldiers were dumbfounded and screaming in the Changgang camp, more than 70 Wu soldiers outside the camp who had already killed red-eyed soldiers started a pursuit under the leadership of the sentry officer Chen Jin, shouting and chasing the defeated soldiers of the Taiping army and slashing and killing, cutting down the enemy who could catch up like chopping melons and vegetables, but the Taiping army had no fighting spirit, only caring about running and fleeing for their lives.

Even more unbelievable is still to come, although the Taiping Army reserve in the rear found out about the situation and came up to respond in time, and also relied on the open terrain to avoid the crowd of defeated soldiers, and killed more than a dozen Wu soldiers with platoon guns, but after the red-eyed Wu army soldiers rushed to the front of the Taiping Army reserves, the well-prepared Taiping Army reserves were also defeated and collapsed in hand-to-hand combat, and in a blink of an eye, they were defeated and fled by the Wu army soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. There were less than 60 soldiers left in the Wu army, but the more they fought, the more brave they became, and they continued to chase the defeated soldiers of the Taiping army, slashing and slashing continuously, all of them were covered in blood, and they refused to give up when they were short of knives and axes.

The miracle continued, relying on the help of the defeated crowd of the Taiping army, the Wu soldiers of Chen Jin's post also easily took out a Taiping army fort that passed along the way, and used the gunpowder that the Taiping army did not have time to transfer to blow up a French howitzer that the Taiping army bought from foreigners. Then he was still chasing the defeated soldiers of the Taiping Army until he slashed in front of the enemy's camp, and was blocked by the stormy bullets of the Taiping Army, Chen Jin, who had just woken up from a dream, remembered to order a retreat, and hurriedly withdrew to the Changgang camp with more than 50 Wu soldiers who had been killed like bloody people, but the Taiping Army, who had been killed, did not dare to pursue at all.

Naturally, when he saw the blood-stained self-sergeants swaggering back to the camp, Zhao Bingming, who was in charge of the Changgang camp, was of course dumbfounded, and Ding Baozhen, who hurriedly led the troops to meet him, was also dumbfounded, and he couldn't believe his eyes and the introduction report of the Changgang garrison, or after a while, Ding Baozhen remembered to ask: "Officer Chen, what did you encounter the long-haired army?" ”

"I don't know, the last general didn't have time to capture the prisoners for interrogation." Chen Jin shook his head, suddenly remembered something again, and hurriedly said: "By the way, when the last general was chasing and killing Long Hair, it seems that he captured Long Mao's main general banner. Who holds that long-haired military flag? Take it out. ”

Hearing Chen Jin's request, there was really a Wu soldier with blood and brains on his face who presented the captured Taiping Army flag, and when Ding Baozhen hurriedly unfolded it, he saw that these words were clearly written on the military flag - Li Yongjin, the third inspection point on the left of the Zhongdian. Ding Baozhen was suddenly a little dumbfounded, and said suspiciously: "Li Xiucheng's direct army? How can it be? ”