The convoy passed through Jiangyin, and news came from the front that signs of foreign naval activity were found. Faced with this situation, in order not to leak the news as much as possible, Hong Tiangui issued an order to get off the ship.

"Your Highness, we may be able to disguise ourselves as merchant ships to pass through!" Lu Shunde said loudly.

"Shunde, you lead the navy under your command to cruise above the river and wait for the opportunity, and this king rushes to Shanghai by land." Hong Tiangui shook his head, taking a boat is convenient, but it is also more dangerous. Once discovered by the Manchu Qing Dynasty's living foreigners, they could not even escape at sea.

Seeing Hong Tiangui's insistence, Lu Shunde didn't dare to say anything more. Originally, it took two or three days to go to Shanghai by water, but from the land, I am afraid that there will be no ten days to go back. The Heavenly King was also bold, and he was so relieved to throw the mess of Tianjing City to the Godlord to deal with.

When the 30,000-strong army went ashore, Hong Tiangui opened the map of the Kingdom of Heaven and saw that this place was still 80 kilometers away from Shanghai City, and with the advance speed of the new army, it would take two days to arrive.

Hong Tiangui is not in a hurry, his national defense army wants concealment rather than speed, he believes that King Zhong has more than 100,000 troops in his hands, and even if he can't attack a Shanghai city, there will be no big problems in a short time.

Therefore, he had to train his troops while advancing, and only a small part of the Wehrmacht had actually been on the battlefield, and their combat effectiveness was not strong.

The 30,000 National Defense Army looted the firearms of the Ministry of Industry of Tianjing City, and although the musket did not reach one person, the penetration rate of firearms in the whole army reached one-third, and in the end, Hong Tiangui was confident that the 24 108mm smoothbore guns newly cast by the Ministry of Industry were protected by the Central Regiment of the National Defense Army. Although there is a big gap between them and the rifled guns of the Western powers, they are much stronger than the seventy or eighty mm caliber earthen cannons that the armies of the Heavenly Kingdom have privately cast.

Hong Tiangui was well aware of the advantages of the concentrated use of artillery, and the 24 large-caliber artillery pieces were not dispersed among the various armies, and even in order to strengthen the firepower, Hong Tiangui transferred soldiers proficient in artillery from various armies to form an artillery brigade of the Wehrmacht. The Wehrmacht Artillery Brigade has three artillery units under its jurisdiction, with 24 108-mm guns as the core, and 36 80-mm guns and 110 70-mm guns drawn from the whole army. The artillery brigade is under the direct jurisdiction of the National Defense Forces Command, and all other armies, divisions, and brigades have no right to transfer.

At the same time, a new situation arose on the battlefield of Shanghai, and Li Xiucheng had a large number of catapults built, and then threw head-sized stones into the Huai army's position.

At first, Huai Jun didn't care, the stone is not a cannonball, as long as you are careful, it will not be harmful if you can't hit your body. Zhang Shusheng didn't care too much, and ordered the whole army to be on guard, so he hurriedly got some food, who knows when the Taiping army will attack, he must always maintain strong energy.

But what he couldn't have imagined was that this ancient catapult was not completely useless, and when the Huai army's position was full of such head-sized stones, the Taiping army attacked.

The Huai army quickly met the battle, but what frightened them happened, and the stones with large heads all over the ground turned out to be a natural obstacle, hindering the cavalry charge. The cavalry that had originally rushed up to help lost dozens of horsemen and retreated in disarray.

Kill!

The morale of the Taiping army was greatly boosted, and the fighters seized the opportunity to quickly break through Zhang Shusheng's position, and the Huai soldiers who had not had time to evacuate for a while were surrounded by the Taiping army, and after several breakthroughs, they could only surrender in horror.

Zhang Shusheng led the pro-guards to kill them covered in blood, before that, he led the pro-guards to charge the Taiping army, but the general trend has gone, and the inferiority of the army makes them powerless. In the end, Zhang Shusheng had to break through with blood. The 700-strong Huaijun Shuzi Battalion still had less than 50 people with him.

The first line of defense of the Huai army was completely lost.

Li Xiucheng ordered people to clean up the battlefield, and all the muskets and artillery captured by the Manchu Qing were distributed to Mai Dongliang. The young soldier Li Fei came to ask for it instead of the injured Li Rongfa, but Li Xiucheng refused.

Although the young army killed a lot of people in the battle, they did not capture the position, although Li Xiucheng is Li Rongfa's father, but in this regard, there is a clear distinction between public and private.

Mai Dongliang is a person who can be a man, and after cleaning up the battlefield, he immediately sent half of the captured muskets to the young army, and the young army naturally won't go to trouble again when they get the benefits.

The Taiping army advanced and approached the city of Shanghai again.

At the head of Shanghai, Zhang Shusheng, who crossed the second and third directions and entered Shanghai City, hurried to meet Li Hongzhang without treating his injuries.

"My lord, I am incompetent, and the first line of defense has been completely lost!" Zhang Shusheng's face was full of shame.

"It's okay, you've stopped Longhair for three hours, and you've done a very good job. What is the loss of Tree Word Camp? Li Hongzhang said in a deep voice. It was a matter of time before the first line of defense was lost, and Zhang Shusheng stopped Li Xiucheng's tens of thousands of people for three hours with six or seven hundred men, which was already very remarkable.

"The whole battalion is 708 people, plus the two teams of reinforcements left by the adults, a total of 927 people, and only 63 people came down from the battlefield alive except for the humble post." Zhang Shusheng's face was full of grief. Since the Huai Army was formed, it has suffered such great losses in a major battle, and Zhang Shusheng's confidence has been dealt a heavy blow.

"Shusheng, don't be discouraged, with these sixty-three people as the backbone, you can quickly restore the tree word camp. Just now, the sailor sent a message, they have transported a batch of strong men from the land of Jianghuai, you can pick first! Li Hongzhang helped him up and said.

Zhang Shusheng was overjoyed, he didn't expect the sailor to be so fast this time, you must know that a batch of strong men was just delivered last night, and now a second batch is coming.

"My lord, the tree word battalion, all the weapons and equipment were destroyed on the battlefield, I don't know where to start with this weapon?" Zhang Shusheng knew that the foreigners had supported a large number of weapons and ammunition to the Huai army, which was enough for the Huai army to equip tens of thousands of people, although these weapons were eliminated from the Western army, but they were still much better than the things produced by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. After all, the West has been carrying out the industrial revolution for 20 years, the quality of steel has risen substantially, and the production of weapons and equipment has naturally not only progressed, but the production of weapons and ammunition has been completely industrialized, the speed of upgrading has accelerated, and all kinds of obsolete armaments have naturally flowed into backward countries, and unfortunately China is the best battlefield for the Western powers to dump obsolete weapons.

"You don't have to worry about weapon preparation, this officer will solve all the problems for you, and you can train with peace of mind, and strive to restore the prestige of the tree battalion as soon as possible."

"Thank you, sir!" Zhang Shusheng said with a grateful face.

And Zhang Shusheng left, but the deputy marshal of the coalition forces, Wall, came in stride.

"Master Li, I heard that your people lost their positions and let the Taiping army come in?" Wall shouted in broken Chinese.

"General Wall, our army has only lost the first line of defense, and the Taiping army is not so easy to enter." Li Hongzhang said expressionlessly. For Wall, he looks down on him in his heart, but he is a broken family in the West, and he has only risen to prominence because of the formation of a foreign gun team, how can such a person be put in Li Hongzhang's eyes.

"No!NO! Your people can't do it, this Shanghai city should be handed over to our foreign gun team!" Wall said arrogantly. The foreign guns were expanded to 5,000 people, and a group of prisoners of the American Southern Army were sent to the Far East to join them as officers and soldiers, which made the foreign guns stronger and stronger, and also made Wall arrogant.

"General Wall, the Taiping Army is not easy to deal with, please don't change the pre-war deployment at will!" Li Hongzhang frowned and said unhappily.

"Master Li, our foreign spear team is here to ask for battle, not to quarrel with you. If you can't do it, you have to give up the opportunity, I will take the head of the loyal king of the Taiping army to Lord Li, and then personally send it to His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty! Wall said wistfully. It is not difficult to see from Wall's resume that this person is an official fan, and he crossed the ocean to the East to try his luck without a chance in the West, and now he has this opportunity, if the foreign gun team really defeats Li Xiucheng's Taiping army, everything Wall wants can be easily obtained in the Qing Dynasty. The temptation was so great that Wall couldn't hold his breath at all.

"General Wall, have you asked the commander of the coalition forces, General Steveri, about this?" Li Hongzhang asked in a deep voice. Wall's foreign gun team is much better equipped than the Huai Army, and the officers in the army are all Western veterans, and their strength is indeed not weak. But how strong is it to say that it is stronger than the Huai army? Li Hongzhang disapproved of it in his heart. At this time, Li Hongzhang did not have the determination of the city government like Li Zhongtang later, and the Huai army was built, and he also wanted to make some achievements, so it was not like letting Wall disrupt the war.

"I have already met General Steveri, and he has not objected to my plan! Of course, General Li, if our foreign spear team fails, I am willing to accept your command! "Wall is not a fool either, and naturally understands what this Chinese official wants.

Li Hongzhang glanced at him deeply, and said in a deep voice: "Since General Wall has such confidence, this official will naturally be fulfilled. This official will immediately give the order to open a gap in the two lines of defense for the foreign spears to pass! ”

"That's the best, Lord Li is waiting for the news of the triumph of our foreign gun team!" Wall left excitedly. Li Hongzhang's face was full of ridicule.

Wall's movements were fast, and it was clear that he had prepared for them, but he had not acted for fear of arousing opposition from the Huai army. Now that the relationship has been opened, the foreign guns team does not want to wait for a quarter of an hour.

Li Hongzhang watched Wall's foreign spear team leave, and went directly to find General Steveri.

"What? General, you said that you did not agree with the battlefield of the former king of Wall? Li Hongzhang's face was full of shock, as if he had suddenly discovered it.

"Wall, this idiot, there are tens of thousands of people in the Taiping army, and his five thousand people will be trampled to death if they are thrown into the battlefield, damn bastard!" Stevili's face was equally ugly. Westley was also taken aback by the Taiping army's breakthrough of the Shuzi Battalion, the Huai army was different from the Green Battalion they had attacked in the north before, they were well-trained, strict in military regulations, and brave in battle, although the weapons were as backward as the rest of the Qing army, but they were not without the strength to fight. Such an army was almost completely annihilated, which definitely shows the strength of the Taiping army!