As the army of King Zhong swept around Shanghai, the army surrounded on three sides, and Shanghai, the pearl of the Orient, became a lonely city.

At this time, the Western powers could no longer sit still, led by Britain and France, they pieced together a Western army of 3,000 people, and at the same time, they also took advantage of the advantage of shipping and used cheap weapons to supplement Wall's foreign gun team in large quantities, and the foreign gun team of only 700 people was expanded to 3,000 people in a short time, and in addition to Wall's foreign gun team, Li Hongzhang's Huai army was also greatly expanded. The Qing army's sailors continued to send Jianghuai's children to Shanghai by sea, and most of these people joined the Huai army, making Li Hongzhang's Huai army exceed 10,000 people again. Coupled with the local garrison in Shanghai, and even counting the fast patrol police, Li Hongzhang's troops reached 13,000 people. The combined strength of Chinese and foreign troops is nearly 20,000 people, which seems to be extremely different from that of the Taiping Army. The Taiping army claimed to be 200,000 people, even if there was enough water in it, but there were still 50,000 or 60,000 people, which made Shanghai extremely nervous because of the coming of the war.

Shanghai Governor's Palace, Li Hongzhang's face is ugly, among the three armies, Li Hongzhang's strength is the strongest, but the identity of the commander of the coalition army did not fall on him, but by the British general Stevelli, Wall and Li Hongzhang of the foreign gun team were appointed as deputy commanders, if Li Hongzhang is not the head snake, I am afraid he will not even be able to get the identity of deputy commander, which makes Li Hongzhang indignant but helpless at the same time.

This is the sadness of national strength, and it is also the result of the previous Eight-Nation Coalition and the Manchu Qing War.

"General Li, this time the Taiping army is coming, and you still need your Huai army to contribute, I think the remaining county towns on the periphery of Shanghai City will be handed over to Lord Li, and we will wait for work in the city and give the Taiping army a head-on attack." Stevili said in awkward Chinese.

Li Hongzhang's face changed, he gritted his teeth and nodded, he didn't understand the thoughts of the great powers, but he had no choice, if Shanghai fell, the Westerners could pat their butts and leave, because the Taiping army was very weak, and they were unable to attack the British and French troops on the ocean. But he Li Hongzhang can't do it, he is a courtier of the Qing Dynasty, once he loses Shanghai, he must apologize with death, because Shanghai is too important for the entire Qing Dynasty, if Shanghai is lost, then the Qing Dynasty will be cut off from the south, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

Li Hongzhang did not choose to divide the troops to garrison, because their troops were at a disadvantage, and once the troops were divided, they were likely to be broken by King Zhong one by one, and he would not have the slightest strength to resist at that time. He chose to defend under the city, and outside the city of Shanghai, Li Hongzhang ordered the Huai soldiers to dig trenches and build defensive positions. Originally, the Qing army was not proficient in cold and mixed battles, but after fighting for all these years, even a pig should have grown, not to mention that the Hunan army founded by Zeng Guofan is an extremely enlightened army, absorbing all kinds of talents, including retired soldiers from the West, and Zeng Guofan himself Although his ability to lead troops is average, he has been repeatedly defeated by Li Xiucheng, the loyal king, but this person is good at employing people, and he is not suspicious of people, and many of the Hunan army generals are not afraid of death, that is, their Zeng Guofan's Hunan army can definitely defeat the Taiping army, Put down the decade-long rebellion once and for all.

The training method of the Huai army was passed on from the Hunan army, but it was a little more changed than the Hunan army, and it was changed by Li Hongzhang imitating the Western army and then joining his own understanding. Some time ago, the Huai army continued to fight with the Taiping army, although there were more losses and fewer wins, but Li Hongzhang was cautious enough, and his sense of smell was also extremely keen, not only delaying the pace of King Zhong's step by step, so that King Zhong's plan to break through Shanghai in one go failed, and even made several beautiful blockades, delaying Li Xiucheng's footsteps.

After building a position, Li Hongzhang released all the scouts, and if the loyal king acted, he would definitely find out as soon as possible.

King Zhong's reaction was not unpleasant, as soon as he found that the Huai army was retreating, he immediately pressed step by step, and in the blink of an eye, he saw Li Hongzhang's position, and saw the continuous defensive position, and he also had a trace of admiration for Li Hongzhang. Although he was an enemy, Li Hongzhang's performance earned him respect.

"Rongfa, you take someone to rush up and have a look!" Li Xiucheng had the intention to cultivate this righteous son, and took the lead in ordering his general.

Li Rongfa was overjoyed, he came to the army and was reprimanded by Li Xiucheng several times, and it was not easy to reinstate the young army, although there were only 2,000 people, and the original 8,000 nearly 10,000 people were huge, but with 2,000 people, Li Rongfa's courage to disappear finally returned.

"Father, rest assured, the sons will definitely break the forbidden land and pluck the head of Li Hongzhang Lao'er in front of you."

Li Xiucheng smiled and nodded,

The war drums sounded, and Li Rongfa's men quickly rushed forward, with thick wooden planks in front of them one by one, and some of them were covered with a layer of iron sheets. This was learned by Li Rongfa from Hong Tiangui, and the thickness of the wooden board was two fingers, which was enough to make himself impenetrable. Wood boards, on the other hand, are easy to source and lightweight, so they can quickly become popular.

The 2,000 young army had less than a division, but they were all elite in the army, and their combat effectiveness was quite strong. It can be seen from this that Li Xiucheng loves Li Rongfa.

Bang Bang Bang!

The fierce gunfire came, the wooden planks in the hands of the soldiers kept crackling, and occasionally there would be a scream, which was the same place where the two bullets of the unlucky man were shot, and the second bullet pierced the body.

"Artillery ready!" Li Xiucheng's face was serious.

Since Napoleon became a leader with artillery, no matter which team he had, he was extremely concerned about artillery construction, and King Zhongwang was naturally no exception, but unfortunately most of the artillery in his army was privately cast by the people, and its combat effectiveness was not strong.

One by one, the artillery was dragged to the front-line battlefield, and then, under the command of Li Xiucheng, aimed at the positions of the Huai army on the front.

"Fire!" With Li Xiucheng's order, the shells poured down on the Huai army's position as if they didn't want money. Although the lethality of shells in this era was really limited, it was still enough to suppress it by virtue of their numbers.

Thundered!

There was a roar from the earth, as if something was flying in this direction!

"It's not good, it's the ship-based giant artillery of the Western powers, how could it be mixed in at this time. 、

Boom, boom!

The roar was getting louder and louder, and the great force seemed to be getting closer and closer.

With a bang, the cannon fell in front of Li Xiucheng in front of Buyuan. The people around him immediately let him fall to the ground, and there must be no similar situation.

"This king naturally understands that we are far inferior in terms of warships, but we can't sit idly by, this king has ordered the Heavenly Navy's sailors to dispatch, mainly to harass and pin down the navies of the great powers." Li Xiucheng said in a deep voice. He must not allow the Western powers to treat the kingdom of heaven as an object that can be kneaded at will.