At the time of the fierce battle in the back mountain, the Qing army and the Taiping army were also fighting in front of the mountain gate in front of the Guifeng Pavilion in Qianshan, Qianshou Hall, Shuiyue Palace and other places.

Compared with the weak garrison force in the back mountain, almost all the capable soldiers of the rear battalion were concentrated in the front mountain, and the total number of men in several dangerous strongholds was as high as fifteen or six hundred. Among them, in addition to the remnants of more than 100 soldiers under Zhao Sihai, there are more than 400 security guards and more than 200 treasury soldiers, and the rest are old and weak men recruited from various battalions.

In order to effectively resist and kill the Qing army, Zhao Sihai distributed his forces and deployed three defense lines along the mountain gate of Yutai Temple to Daxiong Palace, the first line of defense was dominated by soldiers and security guards; The second line of defense is dominated by the Ku army; The rest of the men are concentrated on the third and last line of defense, once the square in front of the Daxiong Hall is lost, the resistance of the rear camp in Yutai Temple will collapse, and the remaining thousands of old and weak women and children will also fall into the hands of the enemy.

For several days in a row, Zhao Sihai and Song Xianggong mobilized all the active manpower in the temple, respectively, the three lines of defense were reinforced, all the roads that can pass through people were blocked by mountains and stones, and countless rolling logs and stones were placed on both sides, for which they demolished a few dilapidated halls in the temple, so angry that the old monk Qilin did not swallow a mouthful of water for several days, and the monks on the left and right could often listen to him chant what the catastrophe was not a catastrophe.

Because the first line of defense is built according to the steps up and down the mountain in front of Yutai Temple, and it is also the only passage in and out of Yutai Temple, once this line of defense is lost, the Qing army does not need to attack the mountain again, but can directly break through the mountain gate and attack the temple, so Zhao Sihai is equipped with the most troops on the first line of defense, and these troops are also the most elite manpower that the rear camp can take out at present.

When there was chaos in the back mountains, although the Taiping soldiers deployed in the first line of defense also felt panicked, they were obviously much calmer than the fear and panic of the old and weak women and children in the back mountains. Experienced the life and death of the breakthrough battle a few days ago, and experienced several battles to defeat the Qing army's attack. Whether it is the soldiers, the security guards, or the soldiers, they are not as afraid and nervous as they were before about the encircled Qing army. In the face of the Qing army swarming up the mountain, he was not half timid.

After nervously ordering Zhao Wu to lead a team of people to the back mountain to reinforce Song Xianggong, Zhao Sihai was ready for battle. All the soldiers of the rear battalion on the first line of defense are also ready for battle, and at this time, they don't need to be reminded by anyone, they also know that the Qing army under the mountain will definitely take advantage of the chaos in the back mountain to attack.

"Put out the fire on the mountain!"

Because the Qing army used archers when attacking the mountain several times before, and even gunners shot at close range, causing some losses to the queen, so after hearing the sound of the Qing army's horn under the mountain, Zhao Sihai immediately ordered someone to extinguish the bonfire on the mountain, so as not to prevent the soldiers from being shot by the Qing army with bows and arrows with the help of the firelight.

Compared with Song Xianggong. Zhao Sihai, who had served in Li Chengdong's army, had much stronger battlefield experience and command ability, and while he was lying there observing the distance of the Qing army up the mountain, he shouted to his subordinates: "Put the Qinggou closer and then let go of the rolling wood, don't rush to push it down!" ”

Rolling wood is in the hands of Zhao Sihai second only to the thunder of the earth-shattering weapon, on the narrow mountain road, the rolling wood thrown from a high place is definitely a sharp weapon to kill the enemy and block the enemy, in the first few battles, the rolling wood has made a great contribution to the successful defense of Yutai Temple in the rear camp. However, in the first few battles, because the soldiers were too nervous, the consumption of rolling logs was too large, and there were not many buildings in the temple that could be demolished. As a result, the number of rolling logs is already low.

After hearing Baihu's order, the soldier in charge of casting the rolling wood hurriedly adjusted his breathing and quietly looked at the Qing army from far and near.

Just like the previous times. The Qing army rushed to the front of the green battalion, and the Han army flag was behind, but unlike the previous times, this time the green battalion soldiers who rushed to the front were all dressed in cotton armor, and several generals were covered with iron armor.

"Shoot the arrows!"

When they were less than a hundred paces away from the Taiping army, the Qing army's archers shot arrows into the mountain, and almost every ten steps forward would be accompanied by a round of arrows from the Qing army.

In order to completely capture Yutai Temple, Wu Jinzhong transferred 200 archers from Xinhui City. Together with the original 150 archers in the army, a full 350 archers shot arrows at the mountain at the same time. Although due to the backattack and the darkness of the night, most of the arrows did not hit people. But the arrows that fell from time to time still pressed the soldiers of the rear battalion above to raise their heads, and more than 20 soldiers were shot by the arrows and screamed.

"Dog's day!"

Zhao Sihai scolded, but he could only lie there and didn't dare to move, there was no way, his subordinates said that it was iron armor, but he didn't even have a cotton armor. Without the protection of armor, whether it is a bow and arrow or a firearm, it will pose a deadly threat to the future. The only way to deal with this is to keep your body as small as possible, or to hide under a simple cover made of wooden planks.

Under the cover of bows and arrows, the Qing army had approached the defense line of the rear camp, if it were not for the fact that there was no moon tonight, and the Taiping camp and the Qing army did not use torches out of consideration for guarding against their opponents, I am afraid that the Taiping army above would be able to see the faces of those Qing soldiers clearly.

After silently calculating the pace of the Qing army, Zhao Sihai finally gave an order to the soldiers who had been waiting for a long time with sweaty noses: "Throw the rolling wood!" ”

"Throw!"

In an instant, more than a dozen large trees rolled down from the mountainside.

"Avoid wood, avoid wood!"

Rao is Qing army has long been on guard against the rolling logs of the Taiping camp, but at such a short distance, these rolling logs with countless strength still make them unavoidable. Rolling logs rolled over the bodies of the Qing soldiers, smashing them into crying fathers and mothers. Being hit by a big wood is not something that can be withstood with cotton armor, or even with iron armor, it is unbearable, and more than one Qing soldier was smashed on the spot and vomited blood.

After a round of logs, hundreds of Qing soldiers fell on the mountain road, and most of them did not die, but could no longer move due to various injuries, and lay there wailing.

The tragic situation of the Qing army made the soldiers of the rear battalion above cheer, and Zhao Sihai was also very happy, thinking that the Qing army would choose to withdraw after paying such a large number of casualties, but he did not expect that the Qing army not only did not retreat, but sent more troops to rush up.

After the second and third rounds of rolling logs, more and more Qing troops fell on the mountain road, people stacked people, people were killed, and I don't know how many casualties there were, but the Qing army's attack still did not stop, but continued, and this time there were many more Han army flag soldiers in front.

The rolling logs on the mountain have been used up and replaced by stones. However, under the cover of the wooden planks held above the heads of the Qing army, the stones did not kill them much. As the Qing army got closer and closer, all the soldiers in the rear camp on the mountain knew that the real bloody battle was about to begin.

The news from the front made Wu Jinzhong grit his teeth, and he suffered hundreds of casualties but did not break through the defense line of the thief soldiers, which made him very unwilling, but he did not have any intention of retreating, but instead ordered all the Han army flags to be pressed up, he didn't believe that the thief army on the mountain could hold up under the front and rear attacks! (To be continued)