The battle lasted for half an hour, and the young army's men rushed into the Huai army's position three times, but they were all beaten out by the Huai army. Before the position, Taipingju left a corpse in one place.

Li Rongfa fell down unwillingly, although he was fierce enough, but the excessive blood loss made him unable to stand. In the end, the adjutant general of the young army couldn't stand it anymore and gave the order to retreat.

The failure of the young army's attack affected the morale of the entire Taiping army. In this offensive and defensive battle, the young army killed more than 300 people and wounded more than 1,000 people, including 300 seriously wounded, including the army commander Li Rongfa. The newly formed Young Army lost half of its losses in the First World War, but it did not take the position where a battalion of the Huai Army was stationed.

Li Xiucheng, the king of loyalty, had already received the news of the young army, and he came in a hurry, with an extremely ugly look on his face.

"Father, the child is incompetent!" Li Rongfa cried loudly, and his whole face was pale and terrifying.

"Rongfa, you can recuperate from your injuries with peace of mind, you fought very well in this battle, and played the prestige of the Taiping Army!" Li Xiucheng held his hand and said.

Li Rongfa had tears on his face, and his heart was full of unwillingness. The first battle when I came back was a defeat, and this was the first battle to attack Shanghai City, so naturally I am afraid that I will completely lose my qualification to participate in the capture of Shanghai if I fall this time.

"Someone, send Rongfa to heal his injuries!" Li Xiucheng said in a deep voice.

Li Rongfa was carried away with unwillingness. Li Xiucheng called Li Fei, the deputy general of the young army. Li Fei was born in his personal guards, a veteran of the Taiping Army, and has been following Li Xiucheng, this time Li Xiucheng sent him to the young army, hoping that he could help Li Rongfa rebuild the young army. But he didn't expect that the young army would lose half of its men in the first war.

"Li Fei, the people of the young army are led by you, temporarily withdraw from the front line to recuperate, you must take care of the wounded soldiers and try to save them." Li Xiucheng said in a deep voice.

Li Fei nodded, he also had wounds on his body, but they were only skin wounds, and they were nothing in the battle.

After that, Li Xiucheng convened the generals to discuss the meeting and informed the whole army of the battle situation of the young army.

"Lord Wang, the enemy is much more tenacious than we thought, I have heard the news, this is the subordinate of Li Hongzhang, the new governor of Jiangsu, because most of his children are from the Jianghuai region, so they are called the Huai Army. And if I'm not mistaken, it should be the first battalion of the Shuzi Battalion under his command that blocked the attack of the young army, and the battalion officer was named Zhang Shusheng, and he was the one who had fought with us many times before. Chen Bingwen, a general under the command of King Zhong, said in a deep voice.

"Zhang Shusheng, he really has some ability, with only 500 people, he can stop my 2,000 people, this king is interested in his ability." Li Xiucheng said with a smile. Even if the first zhang fails, Li Xiucheng has nothing to be discouraged from, there are always winners and losers in battles, and where are there generals who have won and are undefeated. The only thing that made him unhappy was that Li Yongfa was injured. He is still extremely fond of this righteous son, otherwise he would not risk offending the king of heaven to let him return to his command.

"Zhang Shusheng has a favorable location this time, and in addition to the large number of firearms, especially artillery, they are much stronger than us, and the defeat of the young army this time is understandable." King Zhong's subordinates also thought that the general Chen Kunshu said.

"Lord Wang, I am willing to take people to attack Zhang Shusheng's position!" Chen Bingwen spoke in a deep voice.

"Don't worry, I watched Zhang Shusheng's camp before, and found that his position was built quite cleverly, coupled with the fact that the Qing army had many firearms and sufficient ammunition, and it was impossible for 5,000 people to capture it." Li Xiucheng said in a deep voice.

"There will be a way in the end!" Mai Dongliang, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.

"Oh? Dong Liang, what can you do? Li Xiucheng's eyes lit up and said.

"Lord, this is a plain, the soil is soft, there are no mountains and rocks to obstruct us, we can completely hide in the underground and lurk in the past. As long as we can send 2,000 people to within 20 meters of the enemy's position, even if the opponent's firepower is strong, there is not enough time to continue firing, and we will definitely be able to kill the opponent in one piece. Mai Dongliang said in a deep voice.

"The plan is good, Dong Liang, I think I'll leave this matter to you! This king walked a few places before, and found that the Qing army was defended by garrisons in all directions of the city gates, and perhaps we could find a breakthrough from other city gates. Li Xiucheng said in a deep voice.

Mai Dongliang nodded and left, preparing to arrange for people to dig trenches, and at the same time, the army prepared a large number of cloth bags to carry earth and stones as shelters.

Zhang Shusheng's location is the west gate of Shanghai City, which is the largest gateway into Shanghai inside, and there are also heavy troops stationed outside the other three city gates. On the sea, the spies of the Taiping army kept coming with news that the Manchu Qing Shui Division and the merchant ships of the great powers continued to transport a large amount of food, weapons and ammunition, and there was also a news that made the heart of the loyal king heavy, the Manchu court officially borrowed troops from the Western powers to suppress the Taiping army, and once the main force of the Western army arrived in Shanghai, it would be extremely difficult for the Taiping army to occupy Shanghai.

Li Xiucheng was ready to speed up the intensity of the offensive and attack the city from three sides. He doesn't need the main direction, he wants time.

"This king personally helps the battle here, Bingwen, you are responsible for attacking from the northern front, Kunshu, you are in charge of the southern front, and everyone will do everything to enter Shanghai City." Li Xiucheng said in a deep voice.

Compared with the same period in history, King Zhong gathered more troops on the battlefield in Shanghai, and because of Hong Tiangui's strong support, King Ying blocked the eastward advance of the Hunan army, so that King Zhong had no worries for the time being, and naturally did not need to divide his troops and return to Tianjing. Therefore, there were almost no major battles in the early stage to capture the county towns on the outskirts of Shanghai. After analyzing the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us, Li Hongzhang continued to shrink his forces, and finally chose to defend Shanghai City, trying to rely on the city walls of Shanghai City and the armies of the great powers to fight a decisive battle with the Taiping Army.

The three-front battle was not clever, but it was relatively advantageous for the British king, who had sufficient troops. What's more, their logistical baggage was not sufficient, and when the Qing army shrank its troops, it almost looted the grain in the surrounding towns, and the Taiping army could only draw grain and grass from Sufu Province. Now the foreigners and sailors are rampant on the Yangtze River and the Huangpu River, and King Zhong can only transport grain by land, so a long war is not good for the Taiping army.

The battles on the southern and northern fronts unfolded extremely rapidly, and the Taiping army rushed into the Huai army's battle line like a tide, although the Huai army repelled the Taiping army's attacks again and again with superior firepower, but its own losses were also increasing.

The frontal battlefield was strangely calm, and the Taiping army continued to dig trenches like digging rats, digging towards the Huai army's position little by little.

Zhang Shusheng disappeared and came to check in person, his face became ugly.

"Damn, Long Hair chose this method!" Zhang Shusheng punched in the air, his face was indescribably ugly.

"My lord, what should I do? In this way, in less than an hour, the furry trench will approach the position of our troops. Zhang Shusheng's adjutant said in fear.

"Don't panic, did I get all the bamboo you prepared?"

"Ready!"

"Immediately set up a bamboo spear array at the front, unless they have the ability to dig all the way to the city of Shanghai!" Zhang Shusheng's face was gloomy.