Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Ambush in the River Valley (I)

Liu Changqing, who had not yet lamented that sitting in a sedan chair was more comfortable than riding a horse, fell out of the official sedan chair and fell to the ground, but he didn't react. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 The soldiers around info were in a mess and fled to the grass on the side of the official road to hide!

How so? Didn't the main force of the Cantonese thieves go to besiege Changsha, and these Cantonese thieves in Daozhou are not old and weak, women and children, waiting for the governor to exterminate them, why not only did they not escape, but they dared to come out to ambush the officers and soldiers of the imperial court?

For a while, Liu Changqing's mind had all kinds of thoughts. Although dozens of guards surrounded him in the middle, he still felt a panic for no reason! Could it be that this group of Cantonese thieves in Daozhou is also the main force? Or is it just a posturing to intimidate the Governor?

At the moment, he didn't have time to think about it, so he hurriedly ordered the soldiers to fight back.

The terrain is clearly not good for you. However, when he was in Guilin, he exchanged rice wine and bacon and dozens of sturdy village women from the subordinates of the dead ghost Ulantai for a batch of good firearms brought by Ulantai from Guangzhou, and now it is time to put them to use, first eliminate the ambushed thieves.

For a time, the guns and cannons rang out in unison between the valleys, the sulfur smoke was filled, and the two sides fought hotly.

On the side of the Taiping Holy Army, the backward weapons and equipment did suffer some losses, and the most fierce firepower was the bird guns, carrying guns and earthen cannons, and some soldiers were still armed with knives, spears and even sticks.

In fact, the battle formation arrangements of the Holy Second Army and the Holy Third Army were carefully calculated based on these mixed weapons and equipment.

More than 30 earthen cannons, led by Chen Defeng, the commander of the Second Holy Army, led more than 700 people, were erected in the woods on the east bank of the river valley, and each earthen cannon had two holy soldiers as gunners.

The Holy Second Army's total of more than 500 shotguns, all of which were brought out and concentrated in the hands of more than 800 Guangxi brothers led by Tan Shaoguang, were ambushed yesterday on the side of the mountain on the west bank of the river valley, less than 100 meters away from the official road, which was precisely the farthest lethal range of the shotguns. At this moment, more than 500 shotguns followed the earthen cannons on the opposite side and began to shoot freely at the panicked Qing troops below.

In front of the Shotgun Army, there were more than 3,000 swordsmen and spearmen who were densely guarded, led by Lin Fengxiang, the commander of the Holy Second Army, and the commander of the Holy Second Army, who were lined up along the official road, hiding behind big trees and rocks, along the mountain, condescending, ready to rush down at any time.

The last column is more than 100 guns and 20 newly cast guns, erected on the mountain beam more than 100 meters higher than the official road, at this moment, is led by the prison army Lu Qi more than 500 people, are Yaoshan recruited Orion and surrendered Qing army Yong Lian, Yong Lian skillfully half lying on the ground, with the back erection of the gun stick, the gun holding the end of the hunter towards the official road Qing soldiers gathering, constantly firing.

Here, the Holy Third Army led by Li Kaifang, the deputy general of Yanguan, was divided into three divisions.

As soon as they heard the sound of cannons, they quickly drilled out of the bushes, firewood, mountain beams, and soil, and thousands of people worked together to cut down the ancient trees on both sides of the valley, put the firewood piles and wooden planks that had been hidden on the side, and formed a fence to quickly block the north valley and block the retreat of the Qing army along the official road.

And Li Kaifang and the more than 1,400 soldiers he led, who were carefully selected, were still ambushed in an extremely dangerous and critical place, and at this moment, they still did not appear.

The remaining 2,500 or so men were ambushed at the exit on the south side of the valley, armed with knives, forks, spears and sticks, hiding in the bushes. Even the guns rang out in front of him, but he didn't move. This part of the army was led by Su Sanniang, the commander of the Shuiyi General System, and He Zhigou, the commander of the Holy Third Army, and the two were explained by Lin Fengxiang, the general of the local official, that they should not attack in advance, and they must wait until the Qing army was defeated and fled, and then quickly killed when they passed through the exit of the river valley.

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After a period of panic, the Qing army has stabilized its position. After more than 300 casualties, Liu Changqing, who has rich combat experience, has already begun to organize an effective counterattack! Taking advantage of the sparse guns of the Taiping Holy Army, he personally led more than 500 gunners to set up artillery to bombard the dense places where green smoke was rising from the trees.

Fifteen iron-cast cannons were lined up, with wooden handles mounted at the tail of the guns, the rear of which was bent downwards and attached to the gun carriage by iron wires. The length of this cannon is about one person's height, only weighs more than 100 catties, the dead Ulantai has a lot of research on firearms, and equips them on a four-legged wooden frame, which is equipped with iron wheels, which can be pushed and lifted. These gunners of the Qing army were much more trained than shotgunners, and skillfully put the sub-cannon into the opening of the rear abdomen of the mother cannon, fixed it with an iron latch, and then ignited the sub-cannon, and the bullet flew out of the muzzle of the mother cannon and shot at the Taiping Holy Army on the side of the hill. For a time, the artillery fire of the Qing army was fierce, and dozens of people of the Taiping Holy Army were killed and more than 100 were injured.

And a guerrilla general under Liu Changqing led more than 1,000 Guizhou Miao soldiers, armed with hardwood shields, to protect the shotgunners behind him.

The 1,000-odd shotguns and dozens of lifting guns were divided into two groups of fire, and they returned fire at the shotgunners of the Taiping Holy Army on the mountain. However, the limited range of the shotgun and the lush trees on the mountain did not cause many casualties to the Taiping army, but it also suppressed the firepower of the Taiping Holy Army to a certain extent.

When the guerrilla general saw that there were more than 1,000 shotguns, and that no more than 300 or 400 shotguns had been fired, he shouted and scolded the shotgunners with his horsewhip.

"Turtle grandchildren, hurry up and fire! Beat Lao Tzu, fight to death! ”

The Qing army was brave and generally did not dare to operate the shotgun that was in danger of being bore. At first, the soldiers tried to avoid being shotgunslingers, and when they became shotguns, they were reluctant to train with live ammunition. Generally, for the sake of safety, Qing army generals rarely conducted live firing.

For the relatively primitive musket of the shotgun type, not only is there a danger of bore explosion, but also 100% leaks gunpowder gas, and sparks will splash on the hands and face. Therefore, when the shotgunners of the Qing army fired, they all kept in mind the three magic weapons of "closing their eyes, turning their heads, and shrinking their necks". Of course, it is a miracle that such a shooting method can hit the target.

When the guerrilla general saw the three shotgunners huddled together, shaking off the loaded gunpowder bullets, but they had not lit the fire rope for a long time, he could not help but be furious and struggled to pass with two lashes.

Unexpectedly, when the whip was withdrawn, the tail of the whip swept past a shotgunner who was firing nearby. The shotgunner was worried about the explosion, worried and nervous, and was lighting the fire rope and closing his eyes and waiting for the gun to sound, but the whip swept the back of his neck, and he jumped up in fright, and the shotgun in his hand shook and rang out with a bang, and the bullet was sprayed out to the side and back, and the shotgunner covered his head with a scream, and then fell to the ground and rolled. He was followed by the less fortunate guerrilla general, who was hit in the face and thigh by the iron balls from the chamber of the shotgun, and cried out for help on the ground.

Similarly, among the shotguns of the Qing army, there were constant explosions. In this way, the already fearful shotgunners did not dare to shoot even more, but just pretended to be in a hurry, as if they had been filling the medicine slowly. For a moment, the gunfire gradually slowed down. In addition, the guerrilla generals under his command were carried to hide in hiding places, and the gunfire of the more than 1,000 shotguns of the Qing army was not as dense as the gunfire of the more than 500 shotguns of the Taiping Holy Army.