In the camp of King Zhong, King Zhong's expression at this time was quite ugly.

After leaving the city of Jiading, the Anglo-French army marched step by step, although the pace of advance was slow, but it was extremely cautious. Li Xiucheng's people couldn't get close at all. Moreover, the opponent's rifle has a long range and great power, and the troops of the loyal king can only monitor from a distance, and they can't figure out the enemy's reality at all.

And the tranquility of the large army did not mean the stability of the entire battlefield, and the scouts of the Taiping army and the scouts of the British and French forces engaged in fierce exchanges.

King Zhong occupied Shanghai and looted a lot of weapons and ammunition from those forces in Shanghai, and these weapons and equipment were naturally supplied to the reconnaissance troops first, which made the firepower of Li Xiucheng's scout equipment no worse than that of King Zhong.

In just five days, the scouts on both sides fought no less than 100 battles, the most one the two sides invested hundreds of people, and the main force was dispatched.

"What's the news from the King's side?" Li Xiucheng was a little depressed, the enemy shrank his forces and advanced steadily, and he only advanced fifty miles in five days, judging from the direction of the enemy's advance, the target of their attack was Suzhou City, and although Suzhou was not Li Xiucheng's logistics base, it was a barrier in Wuxi, if Suzhou was not protected, Wuxi could not be defended at all, and Li Xiucheng could not let Suzhou fall into the hands of the British and French forces under any circumstances.

"Lord Wang, the Servant King and the Huai Army Li Hongzhang fought fiercely, and there were three large-scale battles between the two sides, and in general, the Servant King was at a disadvantage. The king has urgently dispatched 10,000 troops from the south to the north, vowing to share life and death with Li Hongzhang. General Chen Kunshu said with a wry smile.

"The king is angry! This Li Hongzhang is not simple, the newly established Huai army was not only not defeated by the king under his leadership, but also took advantage of the weakness of the king of service to fight several times, and almost surrounded the king, this ability is not weak. "Li Xiucheng does not look down on the enemy, Li Hongzhang is definitely an enemy no less than Zeng Guofan, and his Huai army is even more difficult than Zeng Guofan's Hunan army in terms of potential, because Li Hongzhang is not only standing behind the Manchu Qing, but also the support of the Western powers.

"From the battle report of the king, it can be seen that there are some generals in the Huai army that cannot be underestimated! How we have fought against that Zhang Shusheng, with the strength of a battalion of a few hundred people, we can block our tens of thousands of troops for two hours, this record alone is enough to explain the problem. Chen Kunshu is also quite convinced, soldiers and politicians do not understand, they advocate the strong, and advocate the strong who can lead them to victory. Li Xiucheng is undoubtedly such a person, Li Shixian and Li Hongzhang were not such people!

"Although the king's side is hot, but we are the henchmen here, the goal of the foreigners is very simple, that is, our Suzhou City, if we can't think of a good way to stop the enemy's footsteps, I'm afraid we will have to fight a decisive battle with the enemy in Suzhou City." Suzhou is not Jiading! Li Xiucheng was quite anxious.

"The foreigner's heavy artillery is annoying! If the battle really topples Suzhou City, then the enemy's heavy artillery regiment must be eliminated before the battle of Suzhou City begins. Mai Dongliang looked at the map and said in a deep voice.

"Maybe we need a large-scale operation!" Chen Bingwen also agreed that it was not possible to make such a small fight, and it was only the Taiping Army who would suffer such losses.

Li Xiucheng frowned, groaned for a while, and finally made up his mind.

An hour later, the messenger of King Chung left the barracks.

That night, after a fierce attack, the army of the king quickly got rid of the entanglement of the Huai army, and the army marched towards the city of Shanghai.

In the face of the sudden change of the king, Li Hongzhang could not figure out the truth and the truth, but the order of the foreigner was sent to his camp, asking him to intercept Li Shixian's attack and be sure to compress the war to the Songjiang area.

Although Li Hongzhang couldn't figure out Li Shixian's fiction and reality, he didn't dare to slack off and led the main force of the Huai Army to pursue along Li Shixian's tracks.

After a day of advance, Li Hongzhang suddenly found that the Taiping army had disappeared. Silently, the 20,000 Taiping troops seemed to have evaporated all of a sudden.

"Send out scouts immediately and expand the search area."

Soon, Li Hongzhang got the news that the banner of Li Shixian, the king of waiting, appeared in the north twenty miles, and at the same time, a baggage team escorted by the Huai army was attacked.

"Chase!" Li Hongzhang ordered in a cold voice.

By the time they arrived at the battlefield, the Taiping army had already lost its trace, and the attacked baggage team was in a mess, but it was not completely solved by the squire Li Shixian as before.

Soon, the scouts came to report that they had discovered Li Shixian's banner in the north, and the other party's target was a small city controlled by the Huai army.

"Zhang Shusheng, you lead ten battalions of troops forward, everything is safety first, I feel that the anti-thieves are probably going to make a big move." Li Hongzhang instructed in a low voice.

Not long after Zhang Shusheng's soldiers and horses left, news of scouts came from the south, and the banner of Li Shixian of the Taiping Army was discovered.

"Damn it!" Li Hongzhang's expression became gloomy. False and real, true and false, Li Shixian actually gave up frontal combat and played guerrilla warfare with him.

"Wu Yulan, you take ten battalions to the south, everything is careful." Li Hongzhang continued to divide his troops. It is superior to the Huai army. Moreover, as long as the strength of the ten battalions is cautious, even if Li Shixian's main force is encountered, it will be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive.

Li Hongzhang released the scout and worked out a new contact method. At the same time, in order to compress Li Shixian's living space as much as possible, he successively divided into two ten-battalion armies to search in all directions. With the main force led by Li Hongzhang as the center, and the four separate armies as the support points, the road from Jiading City to Shanghai was completely in the hands of the Huai Army.

Li Hongzhang's vision is also quite vicious, although the Huai army can compete with Li Shixian, the most important task in fighting them is to ensure the logistics supply of the British and French forces. Therefore, although Li Hongzhang is eager to eliminate Li Shixian, he is not a person who does not distinguish between important and important people.

The four teams all sent battle reports from the Taiping Army, but they couldn't be sure whether the other party was the main force of the Taiping Army, so naturally they wouldn't send people to ask for help.

"Damn, where did Li Shixian hide? Immediately let people inform Shanghai City of the situation here, and let them be vigilant, especially the sudden appearance of the main force of the rebel Li Shixian. For the sake of safety, Li Hongzhang moved the main force of the Huai army to the east to ensure that the Huai army could respond to Li Shixian's attack on Shanghai in time.

Where did Lee Se-hyun go? He didn't attack Shanghai at all! Instead, after making the illusion of going east to Shanghai, he immediately made a detour to the west along the remote place. and disguised Li Xiucheng's main force to attack the rear flank of the British and French forces.

The bravery of the Taiping army was undoubted, but it did not benefit in the face of the Anglo-French army, which was completely cautious.

In less than half an hour of the offensive operation, Li Shixian's two brigades were crippled, and although the artillery fire of the British and French forces was seriously consumed, it was far from the time when it lost its power.

Li Shixian realized the strength of the firepower of the British and French forces. But he did not flinch, and when the two brigades were disabled, he threw in two divisions, and the overwhelming offensive was enough to make the British and French forces understand that this was the main force of the Taiping army. And in this area, who else can the main force of the Taiping Army be besides the loyal king Li Xiucheng?

The commander-in-chief of the coalition forces made this decision and immediately mobilized the main force to attack Li Shixian, and the Indian army opened the way, and the artillery fire followed up the whole process. The three-stage attack resulted in heavy casualties among the Taipings.

"Lord Wang, it's almost! We've attracted all the enemy's firepower! Huang Wenjin hurried in from outside, and in order to maintain the attack, all three divisions under his command were put into it, and it only took a long time to lose nearly half of it.

"No, order the whole army to hold out for at least half an hour! Except for the king's personal guards, all the other armies are engaged in battle! Li Shixian gritted his teeth and said.

Huang Wenjin was stunned for a moment! Lose your marbles! Crazy, the squire is completely insane.

But the military order fell like a mountain, and the Taiping army faithfully carried out his order. The overwhelming offensive was difficult to contain even the sharp artillery fire of the foreigners.

"It's Li Xiucheng's main force, and he wants to fight us in a decisive battle! That's great! That's great! "When General Stevei received the news that the pressure on the front line had increased greatly and that the Indian army had suffered heavy losses, he was not angry, but became overjoyed.

"It's almost time!" French General Gro spoke.

"Yes! The main force to solve Li Xiucheng in World War I, let's go to Suzhou! General Steweili excitedly gave the order for the whole army to attack.

"Order the artillery, shoot all the shells for me at all costs, as long as the enemy's main force is defeated, the artillery can easily travel next!" General Stewi ordered excitedly.

The frenzied attack of the Taiping army lasted for half an hour, and the corpses of the Taiping army were everywhere on the road from the foreign position in the distance.

"Order the army to withdraw and take the wounded as far as possible! Also, let the troops not leave the troops to block the attack, and make a posture of the rout of the whole army, our task is completed, and we will regroup according to the original plan. Li Shixian finally gave the order to retreat.

The armies of the front breathed a sigh of relief, immediately got rid of the enemy's attack and led the wounded to evacuate in disarray.

The British and French troops, who were suppressed by the frenzied offensive of the Taiping army, were greatly boosted and began to charge with rifles.

"The enemy is defeated, order the whole army to pursue, be sure to kill them as much as possible!" The French general, Baron Groh, waved his arms and roared. The French soldiers were even more of a howling charge.

The original decisive battle turned into a pursuit battle due to a one-sided battle. The Taiping army ran fast, so that the British and French forces could only pursue with all their strength.

"Order the artillery to pull out the battalion to follow up, although the enemy is defeated, but the main force is still there, and the artillery is still needed for the last battle." General Steweili gave the order in high spirits.

Sure enough, after the Taiping army fled the battlefield for twenty miles, they used a low hill to build a defensive position. The one responsible for sniping the enemy was the first division of the rebel army, which was the most elite of Li Shixian's subordinates, and the commander of them was Fan Ruzeng, the commander of the rebel army.

The allied pursuit force hit an iron wall here, and the first division under Fan Ruzeng can be said to have the highest firearms readiness rate in the entire Li Shixian department. Because Fan Ruzeng defeated the Huai cavalry battalion and captured many elite firearms of the Huai army. In addition, they did not participate in the previous war, so they naturally dealt a blow to the British and French forces.