On the second day of the second month of the second month of the Tianli calendar (the 28th day of the first month of the summer calendar), Li Kaifang led the land army to enter Jiangning. On the third day of the first month, the advance of the navy approached Jinling, and the river surface of the area from Dashengguan to the Straw Shoe Gorge was divided. On the sixth day of the first month, the army and water Taiping army arrived and divided the troops to occupy Pukou and Jiangpu, cutting off the Qing army's reinforcement route in Jiangbei and completing the encirclement of Jiangning.

There are high mountains and passes outside Jiangning City, thirteen gates of the inner city, eighteen gates of the outer Guo, plus the Yangtze River natural danger, Qinhuai River moat, the city defense system is tight, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The total number of banner soldiers and green battalions defending Jiangning City was less than 5,000, and the number of brave men temporarily recruited was only 10,000. was supposed to do his best to defend the pass and block the Taiping army, but Lu Jianying was already frightened in Jiujiang, and actually ordered the inner city gate to be closed, in a vain attempt to hold on. He and Jiangning's general Xianghou guarded the north and south cities.

The Governor arranged it in this way, and the officials at all levels had no choice but to act in this way. Generals such as Huo Longwu, the deputy commander of Jiangning, Fuzhu Hong'a, the governor of Jiangnan, and Chen Sanguang, the chief soldier of Xuzhou Town, saw that the Taiping army was coming eastward and the boss was about to close the door.

The Taiping army was attacking around the city, Li Kaifang, the prime minister of the local officials, led the land division to gather outside the treasure gate, Lin Fengxiang, the deputy prime minister of the heavenly official, and Ji Wenyuan, the sixth commander of the right of the palace, camped outside the Yifeng gate, and Huang Yiyun, the general of the Jin Yi system, led the right army to attack the west gate. On the way, Zhu Xikun, the newly joined commander of the third commander of the palace, led the first four and fifth armies to besiege the Dadongmen and Chaoyangmen of Nanjing, forming a situation of siege on all sides.

In the middle of the night, since the Second Left Army got off the boat at Quarry Rock, it marched rapidly for a day and a night, and only rested in Banqiao Town, sixty miles southwest of Jiangning City. Zhong Liangxiang found two mule carts from the division commander Peng Yisong, both of which were used to haul the baggage of the whole pawn, except for Jiang Wan, who was weak and often rode it, everyone else was on foot, even if Lu Yaoling, who was over fifty years old, he was also walking like flying. Wang Jingyuan had never experienced a long journey, so he was a little struggling, but he also endured it, after all, only by sharing weal and woe, the holy soldiers would forget their lives and forget death when they started a battle. It was the first time he had come into this world that he felt tired, and it was painful. It's not an all-night surf, it's not a street walk, it's a real walk, and it doesn't fit his eyes for more than ten hours, but fortunately he held on.

On the sixth day of the first month, the second military from the left arrived at the camp outside Yifengmen, but they did not immediately get enough rest, but set up their own camps. According to the battalion system, Wang Jingyuan's pawn set up four tents, one for two and one for Sima. After finishing the work, Lin Shaozhang ordered to rest, and suddenly the whole army snored. 、

In the afternoon, the war drums in the camp sounded in unison, and Wang Jingyuan urgently gathered all the soldiers and horses, and followed Peng Yisong to the tent of Lin Shaozhang, the supervising army, to listen to the order. The Taiping Army, whether in peacetime or in combat, always uses the army as the highest unit. The commander is responsible for basic tasks such as training and marching and camping in peacetime. On the battlefield, the supervising army is dispatched and commanded, and the supervising army, the army commander, the division commander, and the two commanders, which is a set of operational command system, and the logistics supply system is formed with the various officers of the supervising army and their subordinate officers and bureaucrats. With fire, water, wood, metal, and earth corresponding to the front, rear, left, right, and middle armies, Zeng Chunfa, the commander of the second army on the right, is the commander of the second army on the right. He has been recruited by the East King to listen to the palace at the moment, but his position has not changed, so the second army on the left is currently what Lin Shaozhang said.

When Wang Jingyuan arrived, he saw that the division commander Peng Yisong was restraining his subordinates, sorting out the queue, and hurriedly leading his subordinates to join the sequence. Subsequently, the whole army rushed out and rushed to the Yifengmen battlefield, Lin Shaozhang fought in front, and the army commander Li Zhenhui followed.

Lin Fengxiang and Ji Wenyuan placed their positions in front of Jinghai Temple, and more than 10,000 troops stood solemnly in the wind, looking up at Yifengmen, or holding open fire, or holding knives and guns. The 2nd Left Army was not the main force of the assault and was placed behind the armies. I saw dozens of artillery pieces bombarding the city, and the iron-hearted live ammunition smashed into the city wall, and suddenly black smoke rose everywhere, and a few fell on the city's head, and everywhere they went, people were also turned on their backs. After bombarding in turn for half an hour, the city wall was still unmoving, and the sound of artillery gradually stopped. Here, the first five armies of the main force of the siege began to prepare, and every two people were issued a rattan card, and the weapons were mostly replaced with short knives, and there were forty or fifty ladders at the head of the row. First of all, the Taiping army launched five short and concise mortar cannons, after the cannon sounded, five flowering shells were blasted, and there were dead and wounded where they landed. The soldiers of the first five armies rushed out together, roaring wildly and rushing towards the city wall, and behind them, hundreds of holy soldiers each held birds and guns to follow.

When the holy soldiers of the first five armies were a hundred feet away from the city wall, the gunfire at the head of the city was loud, and the firearms of the Qing army forcibly suppressed it. The rear row of the Taiping army counterattacked on the spot, and there were many casualties on both sides. The holy soldiers of the first five armies quickly approached the city wall, set up ladders on all sides, and ascended the city on the edge of the ladder. The Qing army risked death to throw down the thunder stone and rolling wood, and the holy soldiers under the city could only use rattan cards to avoid it, and if they couldn't avoid it, they fell down in response. There were also many Qing soldiers at the head of the city who were hit by firearms and fell down from time to time.

Such a fierce battle situation, not only Wang Jingyuan saw it with his own eyes for the first time, but also the stroke was also shocking. The second and third CD on the left are recruits, who came from Anqing, rushed all the way, and had no drills, which is very different from the veterans of Guangxi. Whenever a holy soldier climbed up to the top of the city, there was a cheer in the array. However, later, the Qing army filled the gap again, and after fighting for an hour, the first five armies were no longer sharp, and only then did Mingjin withdraw his troops. The ladder seized the city, just to shorten the confrontation time between the two sides as much as possible, and quickly broke through the city defense, and the defending soldiers only needed to block a few waves of offensives, and the siege was convenient to retreat.

The sun was about to set, the Taiping army withdrew from their positions in turn, and the supervising army Lin Shaozhang and the army commander Li Zhenhui went to Lin Fengxiang's camp.

The next day, the second left army and the third watch cooked and moved to Shuiximen. It turned out that last night, the commanders selected the Yifeng Gate in the north of the city as the breakthrough point, and adopted the cave siege method to bury gunpowder under the gate. At the same time, they attacked each gate to confuse the Qing army. Ji Wenyuan led his troops to the east, and Lin Shaozhang's left second army was alone in charge of Shuiximen. Jiangning City is large, the Qinhuai River passes through the city, enters from the East Water Pass, and the West Water Pass comes out, and the West Gate of the Water is close to the West Water Pass.

Even if it was to confuse the Qing army, Lin Shaozhang would naturally not attack to the death, but he still had to do it, so he ordered the commander of the five battalions under his command to take turns to attack the city, and Peng Yisong's rear battalion was lined up on the 14th. With an order, the division commander Peng Yisong and the commander Wang Jingyuan were in trouble. Wang Jingyuan had never been on the battlefield because of the second pawn on the left, and he originally hoped to fight a few battles with the wind, and he would be tempered, but he didn't think that the first battle would be a tough battle to attack the city, and he didn't know how many brothers would die. And the division commander Peng Yisong is thinking about how to make meritorious service, five division commanders, he is the last to go into battle, the Qing army may be paralyzed by the feint attack a few days ago, if you are full of energy, maybe you will take the city gate, this can be a great merit. Now that the king of the east has spoken, he wants to build the capital of Jiangning, and he will be promoted when he enters the city. At that time, the position of military commander was also captured, and his promotion to division commander was also due to the last break in Wuchang. However, there are many recruits under his command, and their combat effectiveness is insufficient, which is what he is anxious about.

The combat power is insufficient, and the only solution is actual combat and drills. Peng Yisong personally supervised, gathered every day, first marched and ran, then practiced martial arts, and practiced recognizing flags and gongs and drums at night, and it was only over at night. In the past four or five days, the recruits of the whole division complained of misery, and the veterans were also miserable.

Seeing that the next day was the day of the Houying siege, he suddenly had a plan, and brought Hu Yongxiang and other more than a dozen holy soldiers who were familiar with the water to Xishui Pass that night. I saw that the water gate was three layers above and below, with three gates, two wooden gates in front and back, and an iron gate in the middle to prevent the enemy from diving into the city, Wang Jingyuan and Hu Yongxiang immediately dived into the bottom. The world has been peaceful for a long time, Jiangning has not heard the drums of war for nearly 200 years, and the defense function of Xishuiguan has long been weakened. Wang Jingyuan touched the bottom of the thick wooden gate, but it was soaked in soft silt, and immediately surfaced to discuss with Hu Yongxiang, dig up the sludge, and drill through the wooden gate. So the two alternated into the water, and in less than a quarter of an hour, they passed through the wooden gate. Then dive into the bottom of the iron gate, here is important, there is a gate cast by pure iron, weighing a thousand catties, there is a stone paved at the bottom of the water, but it is in disrepair, the stone has fallen off, and then a number of underwater good hands, several people work together to remove several sections, and there is a stone cave that only allows a single person to pass through. Passing through the stone cave, the last one is a wooden gate, and the mud is dug in again.

When Wang Jingyuan surfaced, he had already entered the city, and the Qinhuai River was full of canopy boats. There were no Qing troops around, but there were several sentry posts twenty or thirty zhang away. Wang Jingyuan made a look, and Hu Yongxiang rushed to the direction of Shuiximen to investigate. Half a moment later, Hu Yongxiang touched it back. Wang Jingyuan saw that he had figured out the enemy's situation, so he took Hu Yongxiang back the same way. immediately told the commander Peng Yisong, Peng Yisong was overjoyed after hearing this, and hurriedly took Wang Jingyuan to see the prison Lin Shaozhang.

After Lin Shaozhang was pleasantly surprised, he immediately ordered troops and allocated 200 people in the army who were familiar with water, and Wang Jingyuan led the team to attack from Xishuiguan. On the thirteenth, the sky was slightly bright, the spring fog was hazy, and the commandos of the Second Left Army were all naked and had short knives in their mouths. Wang Jingyuan and Hu Yongxiang took the lead in drilling into the icy Qinhuai River. Yuan Hongmo, who was eager to fight, was only left to stomp his feet by the river because he was not familiar with the water, and the Lianghuai Plain was good at riding horses, while Hu Yongxiang, a native of Chizhou who lived by the Yangtze River, was very good at underwater work.

The people of Jiangning City never thought that in this peaceful and prosperous era of the Qing Dynasty, they would suffer from the disaster of soldiers and horses, and they did not know where the long hair appeared outside the iron wall of Jiangning City, since the death of the Ming Dynasty for 200 years, the people of Jiangnan have forgotten what war, many people are confident in the strength of the Eight Banners and the Green Camp of the Qing Dynasty, and they believe in the iron bucket-like city, and blind confidence is always a minority. On weekdays, the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty, who were armed with two guns, were more than enough to bully the people, and if they were told to fight, I am afraid that they would lose more and win less. Faced with the unknown Taiping army, they were both novel and frightened. The conquest of the great army is never decided by the small people, and their doubts can only be answered by time.