Looking at the golden canopy under the city from afar, the British King's eyes were cold.

Needless to say, the graceful and luxurious young man on the white horse was Jingxiang, the prince of the Great Qing Auxiliary State who made all the Taiping soldiers hate to eat his flesh.

"Pseudo-king! Surrender quickly to save you the pain of a hundred knives! On the side of the white horse, several officers and soldiers pushed a wheelchair cart, and although the big man with a tiger's back was in a wheelchair, he had the power of Ling Ran, and his voice was as loud as a bell, and he could hear it hundreds of steps away.

King Ying knew that this was Han Jinchun, one of the bravest generals under Jing Xiang.

A general beside the King of England was furious and scolded loudly: "The Qing Demon is rampant, my Heavenly Father will send down the heavenly soldiers and generals sooner or later, and the corpses will be broken into thousands of pieces!" ”

On the city tower, the Pacific Guns took aim one after another, but they were only a few hundred steps away, and the range was not reached.

The King of England did not speak from beginning to end, but looked at the powerful enemy who had beheaded him several times in his dream from afar, and this was the first time he had seen him from afar.

Finally, the young magnate spoke, his voice was not loud, but he could hear it clearly from the city tower, "King Ying, give you three days, I Jingxiang promise, except for the first evil and the most heinous crimes, I will not kill and surrender!" I hope you will avoid the suffering of life, and after three days, you will take Fuzhou! The city is broken, pity your thousands of soldiers who are brave and have become powder! ”

The King of England frowned, several generals behind him laughed, and someone laughed and scolded: "Jingxiang Xiaoer, I don't know that I am dying yet, I am talking nonsense, ridiculous, ridiculous!" ”

But seeing that the young magnate stopped talking, he waved his hand, and the soldiers bravely hugged the yellow cover and gradually retreated.

"Boom", an earth-shattering loud sound, dozens of steps in front of the city gate, the earth and rocks cracked, the dust was filled, and the city walls seemed to shake with it.

"What's going on?" Some generals were shocked.

Then I saw that in the camp of the Qing army, dozens of hundreds of earthen cannons were slowly launched, and the king frowned slightly, this kind of earthen artillery has already been configured by the Qing army, and the Taiping army has no one, called cannons, but in fact, it is not very useful in the siege.

"Boom" was another loud bang, and more than a dozen steps from the city gate, it was blown up to earth and rocks.

Chen Yucheng stretched out his hand, and someone next to him handed him a clairvoyant mirror, looking into the distance, his eyes suddenly froze, in front of a forest in the north, there were thirty or forty cannons, with different shapes, there were short-barreled cannons with huge calibers like mortars, and there were also cannons with long metal wheels with long barrels, and the powerful explosion in front of the city gate was supposed to be the masterpiece of these artillery.

"Boom", the loud noises in front of the city gate made the city tower dusty down, and the other party wanted to come to adjust and demonstrate.

The faces of the generals who were laughing at Jing Xiang changed, Qing Demon, it turned out that they had purchased so many powerful artillery pieces from foreigners, and this Fuzhou City was difficult to defend.

"What is the artillery afraid of! In the end, we have to fight to win! Are you scared? The King of England looked awe-struck and turned back and drank.

"Don't be afraid!" All the generals and soldiers were in high spirits and shouted in unison.

The King then strode downstairs.

In fact, during the Battle of Ningdu, Liang Chengfu led the crowd to break through and bombarded the North Gate to break through the city, but the battle of Ningdu was wiped out by the bandits, and the artillery battalion did not come in handy in the battles of Jianchang and Yuanzhou, and its reputation was not obvious.

The artillery in the artillery battalion, there are more than a dozen purchased by the British garrison in Hong Kong, and the rest are produced by the Guangzhou Arsenal, and the mortar cannons are all available, non-standard production, because Ye Zhao is not very clear about how many pounds of the artillery belongs to compared with the artillery of the Europa countries, although most of them are reinforced with steel pipes and steel wires, after all, they are still inferior, but the birth of domestic artillery with real modern technology still made Ye Zhao excited for a while.

If it is not necessary to break the city, in fact, Ye Zhao is unwilling to use this kind of mortar cannon, after all, it will hurt the innocent in the city, not to mention that these artillery technologies are still in their infancy, such as the Battle of Ningdu, but after firing dozens of shells, there are two or three artillery guns with broken barrels and self-damage.

…… Fuzhou 35th Pavilion.

In the wing room, several women are sitting around and cutting bamboo sticks, and one woman has been wiping away tears, her hands are full of blisters, and her heart hurts.

The beaded Wang is skillful, with a knife in his hand and bamboo crumbs falling.

"Sister-in-law, you rest for a while, I'll cut a few more, and your share will come out." The eldest girl looked at the blisters on Li's hands distressedly and said.

"It's fine." Li Shiqiang laughed.

"That is, people have Zhao Shuai in pain, what are you afraid of?" A fat woman said in a weird way.

Li's face immediately turned pale, and the eldest girl stood up and said angrily, "You say it again?" "The fat woman is her neighbor, and she usually has disputes over trivial matters.

The fat woman seemed a little afraid of the big girl, and muttered something in a low voice, but did not look up at her.

The eldest girl snorted coldly: "You still have to worry about your own business, when the city is broken and the officers and soldiers come in, can you spare your family?" ”

The fat woman is a family member of the Taiping Army, but the eldest girl is familiar with the female officers, and she is a member of the Taiping Women's Army, and the fat woman does not dare to provoke her.

A woman said with a frightened face: "Officers and soldiers, you can't break through the city, right?" "Most of the women in the women's hall have heard of the cruelty and tyranny of the official army after breaking the city, and they all know that it is difficult to die after the city is broken, so there are few who hope that the official army will break Fuzhou.

Li Shi sighed and said, "I heard, I heard that the official army has artillery, that thing is powerful." "Last night, Lvshuai Zhao sighed all the time, looking like a catastrophe was coming, and between the words, Li knew some about the situation of the officers and soldiers.

The frightened woman asked, "Cannon, is it the kind buried in the ground?" How powerful? ”

When Wang heard this topic, he came to his senses, and said disdainfully: "What you said is called firecrackers, the artillery of officers and soldiers, it is powerful, one cannon can collapse half of the city wall, the grandfather of the country said two days ago, he wants the king to surrender, and he gave a three-day limit, which is calculated, and the city will be attacked today." She is also well-informed, if it was a few days ago, she would not dare to open her mouth and shut up Grandpa Guo, but in the past two days, her courage has gradually grown. Then he said to the frightened woman, "What are you afraid of? Grandpa Guo said a long time ago, if you don't kill and surrender, we don't have to be afraid. ”

The fat woman's face was gloomy, and she was wondering whether to hit her with big-eared melon seeds, when suddenly there was a shock under her feet, and in the distance, there was a loud rumbling and thunderous sound.

The faces of several women changed sharply, each different, and Wang Shi looked happy and said excitedly: "Grandpa Guo has attacked the city!" "At this time, no one has the heart to worry about her anymore.

"Boom boom", Fuzhou North City, like the roar of ten thousand cannons, looking down from the hills, it is like countless soil flowers blooming under the city wall, on the city wall, and inside the city wall.

Ye Zhao rode on a high-headed horse, holding a telescope and looking quietly, and there were only a dozen pro-soldiers on his side.

Bakshi and the others looked at this scene excitedly, and said in their hearts that if they can capture and kill the puppet king Chen Yucheng, the master will really move the world and deter the ugly.

The roar continued for an hour, and on this small hill, it seemed to be on horseback, jolting endlessly.

Finally, with a "coax", a city wall that had already collapsed half of it slowly fell, and bricks rolled down to the ground.

Baksh immediately looked at his master, but saw that his master was just watching quietly and did not mean to wave the flag, so he couldn't bear the excitement in his heart and turned his head to look at the battlefield again.

Under the fierce bombardment of artillery, finally, there was an earth-shattering muffled sound, but I saw the city tower of Fuzhou Beicheng, slowly broken, like a huge earth and stone giant, slowly broken into two, dumped towards the doorway, and the heavy city gate, twisted in a very strange shape, was slowly pressed down.

Ye Zhao waved his hand.

Immediately, the murderous horn sounded.

"Kill!" In the earth-shattering roar, the tide-like red tasseled hats poured into Fuzhou City from all directions.

In the ruins of the North City Gate, countless red-haired bandits appeared like ants, colliding with the Cantonese army sword team that rushed to the front.

The sound of killing shook the sky, and the guns roared.

After Ye Zhao entered Jiangxi, the first real tough battle began.

Seeing that the sword array was about to attack the north gate, he suddenly saw a biao in the red scarf come out, each machete was bright, and he was extremely brave, and he overwhelmed the sword team in an instant.

The sword array offensive was immediately frustrated and slowly retreated.

The first big man in the bandit machete formation, like an iron tower, heroic and pressing, killed the officers and soldiers with swords, and sang loudly: "Fuzhou set, the fog is over, and you can't see the edge for hundreds of miles." Red flags and yellow flags are planted everywhere, and swords and guns are like straw. Kill the demons with knives and guns, and kill the demons so that they don't dare to go forward! Don't dare to go forward! ”

He took a sip of wine and laughed.

"Hey!" The blood knife bandits blocked the north gate, like tigers and wolves, showing off their martial arts in a thousand ways, and showing off their might! It was the Prince's sabre-bearer regiment.

"Bang bang bang", the guns roared, the bloody knife bandits fell down with cold guns, the red tasseled hat with a big "Han" flag poured up, and the shining bayonets poured into the north gate, the killing sound was like thunder, and it was extremely tragic.

"Coaxing" the east city gate slowly landed in the huge explosion, and the most elite Zhenhe battalion of the Harwich Department followed one after another in the rain of bullets, and finally climbed to the top of the city, and not long after, a big flying fox flag rose in the east city tower.

On the upper floor of Dongcheng City, there are the corpses of the bandit Yue Yong everywhere, and more than a dozen Yue Yong are guarding the banner and resisting the red scarves that are pouring up like a tide.

In the sound of gunshots, more and more Yue Yong climbed the city tower, and the red scarf was finally defeated, and the Yue Yong riflemen occupied the city tower, and the situation near the east city was reversed immediately, and in the gunshot, the red scarf fell down like a scarecrow and fled in all directions.

One by one, the news was reported to the British Palace.

The north gate was lost, and the five hundred school swordsmen of the pro-army were martyred in a dead battle, and the Korean flag entered the city.

The east gate was lost, and the third and fourth halls were slaughtered by fox hunts.

Beidacang was lost, the commander of the first brigade Zhao was killed, and the rest surrendered.

The King of England listened silently to this battle report, without a trace of expression on his face.

At the side door, a female officer hurriedly entered, with tears on her face, kneeling on the ground, choked and silent.

"Done?" The King asked quietly.

"Yes." The female officer replied sadly.

Just now, several British princesses who stayed in Fuzhou committed suicide under her coercion.

"Okay, there you go." King Huo Di stood up, raised the silver spear in his hand, and strode out.

…… At dusk the next day, Ye Zhaocai rode his horse into the city, there were not many sporadic battles in the city, only the British King's Mansion resisted fiercely, gathered hundreds of bandit musketeers, and even resisted stubbornly, and the British King personally supervised the battle, and there were dead soldiers with the heart of death.

The Cantonese army did not launch a strong attack, and the casualties of the strong attack must be heavy; Second, to capture such a meritorious service as the king of England, since there is this opportunity, it is a good story to wait for the marshal to enter the city to "point out the strategy".

Ye Zhao understood the intentions of Harwich and Han Jinchun, and although he didn't think that this was an earth-shattering achievement, he didn't have to say it.

When entering the city, Ye Zhao sighed: "In a few years, this city wall will no longer be the decisive force of defensive warfare." ”

Having seen the power of artillery, Harwich, who had followed Ye Zhao into the city on horseback, nodded in agreement.

"Bury them thickly, don't humiliate their corpses, the deceased is great." Passing by the corpse of the bloody knife bandit, Ye Zhao admonished.

Harwich introduced the situation in the city, in addition to the resistance of the remnants of bandits in the British Palace, there is also an East Street, that is, the street of the Women's Hall, where hundreds of female soldiers gathered, and most of the women in the city are hiding in it.

"These female thieves really dare to shoot, a few brothers were shot coldly, if it wasn't for the master's strict order, I would have been killed a long time ago!" Harwich said indignantly.

Ye Zhao said with a smile: "There is a Jizi battalion that has ruined the reputation of the officials and the army, and the people in these two rivers and one place are mostly confused by the bandits. ”

Harwich smiled and said, "That's right, these people are all the people of the master, and it is their blessing that the master loves them." ”

Ye Zhao didn't answer this and urged the horse to jog into the city.

At the entrance of the alley of the East Street into the women's pavilion lane, there are sand and gravel sacks piled up, and the muskets are set up, and the women's hair buns appear and disappear from time to time, and in the alleys, there are also women's figures dodging and haunting.

"Listen to the thieves, Grandpa Guo! Only punish the first evil! Forgive somebody's past misdeeds! You and other Fuzhou female soldiers, none of them have been in battle, except for the female officers on the list, the rest will all go home on their own, and they are all good citizens of the Qing Dynasty! ”

There are small soldiers of the Cantonese army, who take turns shouting these words, shouting until their throats are dry, and they are replaced by another one, and it is not so difficult to attack any city.

Finally, the female soldier over there responded, and a woman shouted: "You have no faith, who knows if it's true or not?" ”

The team was on fire and scolded loudly: "Damn, just a few broken guns from you, and you will drown you thieves with spit!" Tens of thousands of four-eyed dogs, like ants in front of Jing Shuai? You little are a fart! Damn Jing Shuai, his old man's words are more true than the holy decree, Jinkou Yuyan, no matter how grinding, Lao Tzu will fight his head and lead someone to kill you and cut you down! ”

Behind the sandbags, the female soldiers were silent, and they all felt that this big Han language was not rough, and it was indeed the case.

The female soldier who shouted just now was the big girl in the 35th Hall of the Women's Pavilion, blinking her eyes and whispering: "Don't believe it, the officers and soldiers are trying to catch us alive." ”

All the female soldiers were stunned, and they all felt that this was probably the case.

And outside the alley, the team was kowtowing in front of Ye Zhao, looking terrified, but he didn't want to be kicked just after he got on Niu Jin, and when he looked back, it was the sentry chief, and then he saw that Jing Gong and his old man were riding a horse and looked at himself and laughed, but the team was almost scared to death.

"Well, it's not a sin to talk about it." Ye Zhao waved his hand and pondered: "It's all dispersed, there is a secret post left on the street of this women's pavilion, if there are those who leave with weapons, they will be arrested immediately, and the rest will let them leave." Go and order the men in the city to bring their wives home. ”

"Wow!" The sentry commander and the management team were busy shouting orders.

Waiting for Ye Zhao's cavalry to gallop over, the team shouted: "Jing Shuai's command, you have to stay and leave, listen to your convenience!" Except those with ordnance, they will be allowed to leave! ”

said and scolded: "Damn, the thief's mother-in-law doesn't know good people, and she wants the old man Jing Gong to worry about it, just now Jing Shuai came to you in person, you know, a group of stupid old ladies, so I have to find a man for you, I'm sorry!" ”

Cursing and shouting, the soldiers dispersed.

The women hiding in all corners of the alley looked at each other.

Finally, Wang, who was hiding behind a stone lion, got up, threw the dirt on his body, and walked towards the entrance of the alley.

Li grabbed her and whispered, "You, be careful." ”

The Wang family is indeed bold, saying that it is the grandfather of Panguo who entered the city, but the soldiers of these two countries are red-eyed, and now the city is afraid of killing people one by one, even if the grandfather of the country has strict military discipline, what should he do if he encounters a ruffian?

was hesitating, and suddenly saw the heads of several men cowering out of the alley, one of which was her father-in-law.

"Ahh Wang screamed, couldn't care about it anymore, and rushed over, and the couple hugged their heads and cried.

After a while, men came to look for their wives in the alley one after another, and immediately cried, and some men knelt on the ground with their wives and kowtowed, and the old tears were rampant: "The sky has eyes, you and I still have to see each other." He kowtowed to the south again and again: "Grandpa Guo, your old man is Shengming!" ”

There was a lot of mourning and crying in the alley, and the last few female soldiers with foreign guns finally threw away their guns and went to the crowd to see if their husbands were coming.

The British Prince's Mansion was surrounded like an iron bucket, and all the rifles and guns were set up on the roofs of the houses, and I don't know who saw the yellow cover of Jing Gong first, and immediately thundered with joy all around.

An officer hurriedly came, knelt down on one knee in front of Ye Zhaoma, and said loudly: "Slave Zhenhe Battalion helps Zhang Changxun, command the main attack!" ”

Ye Zhao was used to his officers often calling him master, and he couldn't correct it, so he just nodded slightly and said, "Let's start." ”

"Wow!" Zhang Changxun kowtowed and stood up and waved his arms.

The horn sounded, and immediately, grenades rained down, and a large number of grenades from various battalions and sentinels were gathered, and at this time they were really pouring out.

"Boom, boom, boom", the British royal palace was full of explosions and miserable screams, and grenades rained in, which really had the potential to blow up the British royal palace.

Then, a large number of soldiers poured in, and the sound of killing in the British palace was everywhere.

Ye Zhao sat silently on the horse, not as excited as Harwich beside him, but remembered that he actually rode in front of the British King's Mansion and led his subordinates to attack the British King Chen Yucheng, and felt a little strange in his heart.

"Caught the King!" After more than half an hour, the gunfire gradually thinned out, and then there were shouts of ecstasy, and the sound of joy was like thunder.

After a while, more than a dozen soldiers came out with a person, covered in blood, his hair was scattered in front of his face, and he was tied up strongly, and he was in an embarrassed situation, but there was a pride that stood up to the sky.

"Get on your knees!" There were soldiers who pushed him.

Ye Zhao waved his hand and said, "Change his clothes, and come to see me again after freshening up." ”

"Wow!" All the soldiers rejoiced, pushing the puppet king away.

Harwich smiled and said, "Is the master trying to persuade him to surrender?" ”

Ye Zhao was speechless.

…… In the big tent of the Chinese army, the calm King of England sat opposite Ye Zhao, and there were two cups of fragrant tea on the table.

The king of England had a wound on his leg, and his heart hurt, but his face was as usual, Ye Zhao asked him to sit, he sat down, poured him a cup of tea, he also took it comfortably, tasted it, and said lightly: "If you want to persuade you to surrender, don't waste your efforts, I have been crisscrossing the two rivers for several years, and now I am defeated, but I am defeated by ordnance, not a crime of war!" ”

Ye Zhao nodded and said, "You and I have different ideas, even if you are willing to surrender, I can't use you." Today, I respect you as a good man, and I have no other intentions. ”

For the first time, the eyes of the king of England showed a different color, looking at this young magnate, a well-known opponent for a long time, graceful and luxurious, plain and bland, now he said that he was in his hands, and he could be said to be famous all over the world, and he made unprecedented achievements in the Qing court and the two dynasties. But he has neither joy nor arrogance, this is not a hypocrisy, it can be seen that from the heart, he really didn't take it seriously.

Ye Zhao said again: "You said that you were defeated by the ordnance, this is true, but it is a little superficial, your defeat, defeated by the concept, defeated by the idea of governing the army and the country, maybe you think that your department is brave and good at fighting, in my eyes, but the fierce and ruthless cowards, give you the same armament, within three years, I will break it!" ”

The words were calm, but domineering, so that the king of England did not feel discouraged, and at that moment, he seemed to feel that what he said was true. sighed in his heart and said: "The general of the defeated army is not brave enough!" "Suddenly born, defeated in his hands, but not wronged.

Ye Zhao nodded slightly and said, "I really don't know what you think in your heart, why did you do the opposite?" For glory and wealth? For the common people of the world? Or is it both? No matter what you think in your heart, I can tell you that in a hundred years, everyone in the land of China will live and work in peace and contentment, and your descendants will rejoice in your defeat today, because your peace will not give them the real peace in the future. ”

The King of England said coldly: "You can just say it." ”

Ye Zhao clapped his hands at this time, the curtain was opened, and a guard came in with a gold silk tea tray, and there were two wine cups on the plate, and the guards carefully placed the green wine cup in front of the king, and presented the white jade wine cup to Ye Zhao.

Ye Zhao raised his wine glass and said solemnly: "I will give you a ride today, your heroic name, there will be a book in the future." ”

When the king saw the wine glass in front of him, he understood, and was slightly stunned, thinking that even if he was not released to the capital, he would be cut by a thousand knives, but he didn't want that this young magnate would end his life with wine.

"Well, I didn't expect to meet such an opponent as you!" King Ying smiled, slowly picked up the wine glass, and said with a smile: "If you step on the Lingluo Palace, why shoot the wolf?" You have the ambition of Lingyun, I hate to be born twenty years later! ”

Ye Zhao gently clinked glasses with him, dried up, and then strode out.

The King looked at his back and slowly put the wine into his mouth...... In October 1857, the Guangzhou general Jingxiang besieged the city within ten days, then broke Fuzhou, sent more than 20,000 elite bandits to annihilate the whole army, captured and killed the bandit king Chen Yucheng, Yanjing and Tianjing were shaken, so far southern and central Jiangxi are determined.

In the same month, Jingxiang reorganized the three armies and organized the elite of the Guangdong army into four towns, with six battalions in each town, three rifle battalions, one artillery battalion, two knife battalions, plus the horse captain and husband team, etc., with 35,600 people in each town.

Jing Xiang asked for a decree, please Shen Bao, the chief soldier of the first town, Harich, the chief officer of the second town, Han Jinchun, the chief officer of the third town, Zhao Sanbao, the chief officer of the fourth town, and Ma Dayong, the chief officer of the Guangdong Navy Division.

After a few days, under the decree of the two palaces, "Jingxiang is loyal and brave, since he entered Jiangxi, recovered the state capital, repeatedly frustrated the thief's situation, and now captures and kills the puppet king, with outstanding achievements", "Fengduoluo Suzhi County King, Anyuan Jingkou General", "Prime Minister Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Southeast Zhejiang Military and Political Affairs Discuss Thieves", and so on.

When Yi Zhi went to Fuzhou, the Yue army heard about it, which one is legal? Immediately thundered with joy.

At this point, the general Wang Jingxiang, strong soldiers and horses, entrenched in Guangdong and Jiangxi, soldiers like tigers, soldiers like clouds, swallowing mountains and rivers, faintly appeared.

(To be continued)