As it turned out, the Taiping army did not have that patience and launched an attack when they were 30 meters away from the front line of the Huai army. The dense Taiping army rushed out of the trench, and then brandished broadswords and spears and launched a dense charge.

"Fire!"

Zhang Shusheng roared, and the Huai army's firepower broke out again. However, the distance was too short, and the Taiping army was too numerous, and many people rushed into the forward bamboo gun position of the Qing army.

Ahh

The terrible screams came, and the Taiping soldiers who rushed into the Huai army position were stabbed by sharp bamboo guns buried in the ground, and then their heads were ruthlessly cut off by the Huai soldiers waiting in the rear.

More and more Taiping troops and Huai troops strangled together, once the hand-to-hand combat, guns and artillery became unimportant, and both sides held broadswords and spears to start the most primitive bloody battle.

Mai Dongliang in the rear looked overjoyed and ordered all the brigades that were attacking to press up.

Li Xiucheng, who was watching the battle from the rear, showed a touch of joy on his face.

Even though the Huai army had sharp weapons, it had too few troops, and although it had geographical advantages, it still could not block the impact of the Taiping army. Most of Zhang Shusheng's position fell into the hands of the Taiping army, and the balance of victory began to tilt.

But soon, Li Xiucheng couldn't laugh anymore, and there was a roar of the earth in the distance.

"Not good, it's cavalry!" Mai Dongliang's expression changed greatly.

The Taiping army lacked war horses, and there were very few cavalry, even under the command of King Zhong, there were only about 100 war horses, and it was not enough to equip officers, let alone cavalry.

Boom, boom!

The artillery of the Huai army opened fire again, and a huge blood splash appeared among the charging Taiping troops. The explosion of artillery masked the charge of the cavalry.

In a few minutes, the cavalry rushed into the Taiping army like a torrent.

The weapons in the hands of the Taiping soldiers were no match at all in the face of the heavily armed Huai cavalry battalion, and they were crushed to death by the cold iron cavalry in an instant.

The attacking Taiping army collapsed in an instant, and then retreated like a tide.

Er Dongsheng was furious, he naturally saw that the number of this cavalry was not large, less than a thousand, but in this place of Ma Pingchuan, the combat strength was enough to withstand tens of thousands of people. Moreover, the artillery in the Taiping army was scattered into the army, which could not form effective firepower, and the threat to the cavalry was very small.

"Order the 2nd Brigade to charge, with spearmen!" Mai Dongliang yelled.

The soldiers of the 2nd Brigade were armed with spears, the tips of which were forward, and they advanced step by step in a neat formation.

The only way for foot soldiers to fight against cavalry is to fight in formation, it is to deal with cavalry, the Taiping army will be equipped with a certain number of iron spears, as long as the formation of a formation, the cavalry rushes up to find death.

The cavalry of the Huai army was not stupid, and they refused to attack the Taiping army's formation at all, but frantically pursued and killed the soldiers of the first brigade, and even drove the defeated first brigade in the direction of the second brigade.

Mai Dongliang's face was ugly, "Order the soldiers to go forward, and those who attack the formation will be killed!" ”

The Taiping Army, which collapsed in the First Brigade, also saw the banner of the commander, and their faces changed wildly, seeing the spearmen in front of them neatly pressing over, and then looking at the Huai cavalry roaring behind them, they gritted their teeth and turned their heads to rush towards the cavalry.

"Kill!"

There were Taiping soldiers shouting in despair, and the loyal king was extremely strict, and he would definitely die if he did not order to flee from the battle. Rather than die at the hands of your own people, it is better to turn around and fight for your life, and maybe there is still a chance to live.

The cavalry general of the Huai army also saw this scene, and with a wave of his hand, he stopped the cavalry from continuing to charge, and the cavalry troops returned in a circle. At the same time, the artillery of the Huai Army frantically bombarded the second brigade of the Taiping Army. Let the neat military formation cause great confusion.

And the soldiers of the Huai Army Shuzi Battalion are also constantly shooting, constantly reaping the lives of the soldiers of the First Brigade.

Seeing this scene, Mai Dongliang's eyes were split, and he was about to order the army to continue charging, but he received an order from Li Xiucheng to withdraw his troops.

This time the Taiping army failed in the overall attack.

"Lord Wang, the last general is incompetent, and he didn't take a small position of the Huai army!" Mai Dongliang's face was full of shame.

"Dong Liang, victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, although they did not capture it this time, but the Manchus are not comfortable, their troops are at a disadvantage, and it is not good for them to fight." Li Xiucheng said in a deep voice.

The battles on the northern and southern fronts also did not achieve good results, and the newly established Huai Army turned out to be a hard nut to crack, which greatly surprised Li Xiucheng's expectations.

Just when Li Xiu frowned when the war was unfavorable, on the surface of the Yangtze River, a huge fleet was going down the river, there were all kinds of ships in the fleet, it looked extremely messy, and there were many oilcloths on the boats, which looked like ordinary fleets, but inside the oilcloths, they were densely packed with hardcover men wearing Taiping army uniforms.

On the only steamship in the fleet, Hong Tiangui, who was dressed in military uniform, looked solemn.

"Your Highness, this Wehrmacht's operation is extremely secretive, our sentry ship is thirty miles ahead, and the foreign ** ship and the Manchu Water Division are on alert, and we will definitely not leak information." Lu Shunde, the new commander of the navy, said in a deep voice.

"It's the best, I wanted to go by land, because it's a long way and it's easy to leak secrets. I don't approve of King Zhong's attack on Shanghai, but once it is opened, it must not be lost, otherwise the situation of the Kingdom of Heaven will become extremely difficult. Hong Tiangui saw it very clearly. Now the situation in which the Kingdom of Heaven is still stable is not supported by him Hong Tiangui, but supported by the loyal king Li Xiucheng, Li Xiucheng swept through southern Jiangsu, established Sufu Province, pulled up more than 100,000 troops, and shook the Manchu Qing court. It was precisely because of King Zhong's successive victories that the Taiping army was able to hold out on other battlefields. If King Zhong's forces in Shanghai and his subordinates suffer big losses, the anti-heavenly forces will inevitably roll in, and even he will not be able to return to heaven. The 30,000 Wehrmacht is nothing more than a mantis arm in the face of the rolling general trend.

"The ability of the loyal king is extremely strong, and the Qing demon will not be the opponent of the loyal king." Lu Shunde was Li Xiucheng's old subordinate, and later as Li Shixian went south to fight, he knew Li Xiucheng very well, and he believed in Li Xiucheng's ability, not to mention that 100,000 people surrounded and suppressed Shanghai City, and the city was just around the corner.

Hong Tiangui smiled, Li Xiucheng's ability does not need him to say more, history has proven his ability, but Hong Tiangui understands that Li Xiucheng's opponent is a well-known late Qing big man Li Hongzhang who is more famous than him, this big man who founded the Huai Army single-handedly supported the entire Manchu Dynasty. So Li Xiucheng vs. Li Hongzhang, winning or losing is really two words. Even from a historical point of view, the city of Shanghai was not captured, and even became a logistics supply base for the Qing army and foreigners to attack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

After receiving the news that King Zhong had launched an operation, Hong Tiangui secretly led 30,000 national defense troops down the river on Lu Shunde's navy, and he wanted to participate in this attack and defense of Shanghai. He was looking forward to the results of the Wehrmacht's first real combat.