Outside the city of Songjiang Mansion, in the camp of the Huai army.

Li Hongzhang looked at the secret report in his hand, his face full of disbelief.

"You say the city of Shanghai has been captured by a group of our troops? In the vicinity of Shanghai, in addition to our Huai army and the foreign army, where are there friendly troops, have you ever seen who those people are? Li Hongzhang roared at the secret agent.

"My lord, the city gate has been sealed, and I only got this news through a dark line arranged before, and the specific situation cannot be known now." The agent said cautiously.

Li Hongzhang pushed him away, and said with a hideous expression: "Order all battalions to return to Shanghai immediately, and I will go to see the foreigners!" ”

After that, Li Hongzhang didn't care about sitting in a sedan chair, and rode a war horse with his personal entourage.

The first reaction of General Steveri who got the news was not to believe it, Shanghai was semi-surrounded by the Taiping army, except for the sea access, all the roads on the road were cut off, and a Qing army could only come in through the navy, and whether it was a Manchurian Qingshui division or a foreigner's warship, the other Qing troops would inform them in advance, and now no news has been received, but the city of Shanghai has been captured, how ridiculous is this result.

"Master Li, you may be sure of the authenticity of the news?" General Steveri still didn't believe it, although there was no main force stationed in Shanghai City, but there were 1,000 Huai troops and 300 coalition troops, and Shanghai Jiancheng was the foundation, and if they wanted to capture Shanghai, they couldn't do it without tens of thousands of people, and with their prior understanding, there would be no such force within a few hundred miles around Shanghai.

"General, I suspect that this army that captured Shanghai is not our army of the Qing Dynasty, but the Taiping army, for two reasons, if it were our people, it would be impossible to blockade Shanghai City at this time. On the other hand, according to the original plan, the second batch of logistics materials should have been escorted, but the scouts of our army never saw the logistics battalion, which also proved that something had happened in Shanghai. General, the importance of Shanghai to us is self-evident, and we should go back anyway, even if it may be a means of the enemy. Li Hongzhang said in a deep voice.

Compared with Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Army in front of him, Shanghai City is undoubtedly more important. Now Li Xiucheng is huddled in Songjiang Mansion, several attacks have not achieved decisive results, foreigners are not good at attacking fortified battles, there are too many new soldiers in the Huai Army, and it is not easy to capture Songjiang Mansion, which is heavily guarded by the Taiping Army. If Shanghai is stable, they can naturally deal with Li Xiucheng slowly, but there are changes in Shanghai, which makes them lose the confidence to fight again.

General Steveri is also a veteran, so he naturally understands that the key to war lies in logistics.

"Lord Li, we are thirty kilometers away from Shanghai City, and it only takes an hour to reach this distance from the cavalry troops, but your cavalry can't siege the city, so it's best to hand over the war horses to us." Steveri said in a deep voice.

Li Hongzhang's face changed, and he said in a deep voice: "General, we only have a cavalry force of more than 1,000 people, and all the war horses add up to only more than 2,000, so we can't transport your army at all. ”

"No, no, the war horses are not used to transport our soldiers, but our artillery ammunition, the siege war is not supported by artillery fire, it is looking for death, if Shanghai City is really captured by the Taiping army, do you think you can capture it back with the Huai army?" Steveri said with a slight contempt. Although the combat effectiveness of the Huai army was stronger than that of the Manchu Green Battalion, it was nothing more than a rabble in the eyes of Steverly.

Li Hongzhang's face turned dark, and his heart was extremely depressed.

"Okay, Lord Li, I am the commander of the coalition forces, and you must obey my orders." Steveri said coldly.

"Yes!" Although Li Hongzhang was reluctant in his heart, the combat effectiveness of the foreign army was indeed stronger than theirs, and he was also extremely skilled in the use of artillery fire. The city of Shanghai is extremely strong, and there is no artillery fire, so I am afraid that it will not be able to be attacked by the Huai army.

The cavalry of the Huai army became the transporters of the foreigners, and their horses were put on ropes, dragging one artillery cannon after another towards the city of Shanghai.

In Songjiang Prefecture, Li Xiucheng was wounded on his shoulder, which was scratched by shrapnel from the shell.

From the beginning of the siege of Shanghai City, Li Xiucheng finally saw the power of the foreigners' artillery, especially the last few giant cannons, as soon as the cannon went down, the whole heaven and earth trembled, as if the thunder god roared. The Taiping army was already ignorant, and under the repeated defeats, its morale was extremely low.

He was thinking about the withdrawal of troops, and the defeat under the city of Shanghai made him understand that with the current Taiping army and the foreign army, he was still a little tender. But he was not without gains, he had already made up his mind that he would do everything possible to make firearms when he went back, and once their Taiping army was equipped with firearms, they would definitely be able to come again to make a shame.

At this time, Li Xiucheng's personal guards hurriedly came.

"Lord Wang, the Qing army and the foreigners' troops have withdrawn!"

"What? That's impossible! Li Xiucheng doesn't believe that the foreigners have an all-round upper hand, and it is a good time to expand the results of the battle, how can it be possible to retreat at this time?

"Lord Wang, it's true, our people went to see it, the camp was empty, and they left for at least half an hour." The guard said with great certainty.

"Order all the scouts to go out and thoroughly reconnoiter the movements of the Qing army and the Western army." Li Xiucheng didn't believe it, he felt that it was a conspiracy of the enemy and wanted to lure him out of the city.

Li Xiucheng's military ability is beyond doubt, but it is a pity that information asymmetry makes it inevitable that his judgment will be wrong. If he knew about Hong Tiangui's existence, he would definitely leave the city immediately and restrain the enemy from leaving.

It's a pity that he didn't know that by the time he found out the news and took action, the battle situation was already completely different from what he expected.

In Shanghai City, Hong Tiangui's national defense forces have gathered all the supplies that can be taken away and are preparing to withdraw from Shanghai City. This operation has made them a lot of money, and the entire national defense force will undergo qualitative changes, and Hong Tiangui will naturally withdraw if he gets the advantage, so as to transform the benefits obtained this time into strength.

Soon, the Fifth Division of the Second Army, which was responsible for guarding the city gate, reported that traces of a large army of the Western Army had been found twenty miles outside Shanghai.

When Hong Tiangui received the news, he was first shocked, and then his face showed a ruthless look.

If you want to fall asleep, someone will bring you a pillow. The Wehrmacht is strong, with plenty of weapons and ammunition, and is just right to fight a good battle with the enemy.

"Order the Fourth and Fifth Divisions of the First Army to escort supplies away, and the other divisions assemble and move out of the city, and this king wants to fight a field battle with the foreigners." Hong Tiangui said in a deep voice.

Hong Tiangui's order made the generals' faces change greatly.

"My lord, we are ready to leave at any time, and we should not make any fuss at this time." Heavenly Sword Daoist said in a low voice.

"Good steel needs a heavy hammer, and there is no army in this period whose combat effectiveness can be compared with the British and French armies, and this king wants to see how big the gap between my heavily armed Wehrmacht and the foreign army is."