Just when Li Hongzhang was uneasy and hurriedly led people to the west city wall, outside the west city wall of Yangzhou, on the artillery position of the Chinese army, which had already been prepared, once again carried out intensive artillery bombardment in the direction of the city head.

Although it is said that the Chinese army has not stopped shelling Yangzhou since the siege of Yangzhou, except for the intensive shooting at the beginning to cover the attack of the First Auxiliary Defense Division, it will only fire one shot occasionally at other times, and one artillery will only fire one shot every hour or even longer, not that it will fire with all its strength all day and night.

But now, these artillerymen are already sweating and raining, struggling to carry the shells, putting the medicine bags in the barrels, and then putting the shells in.

I saw that under the order of the artillery commander, the muzzle of the artillery was a cloud of smoke and dust, and at the same time the artillery shook backwards because of the recoil, and the heavy twelve-pounder field gun, including the gun mount, fell backwards several meters, until it was pushed to a small dirt slope near the top of the rear, and finally stopped, and then came down again under the action of gravity.

The artillerymen hurriedly pushed the artillery to reset, and the artillerymen with the water-soaked running brush hurriedly trotted forward to clean the barrel, and soon another soldier loaded the gunpowder bag from the muzzle, and after compacting, another artillery stuffed the grenade with a wooden tray into it, and another soldier installed a pulling ignition tube through the guò fire door, tied the pulling rope, waited for the gun commander to check and finally pulled the pulling rope to fire.

And so on, with a rate of fire of about two shots per minute.

When dozens of artillery pieces burst out at the same time to bombard the western city wall with the largest rate of fire, the infantry in front also began to act!

This time, Shi Qingxuan did not send soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Force to charge as he did when the Chinese army attacked the city in the past, but directly used the infantry of the 3rd Division of the Royal Army to attack.

It was not easy to dig a tunnel and blow up the city wall of Yangzhou, Shi Qingxuan didn't want those cowardly soldiers of the auxiliary defense division to delay the fighter, after all, now Shi Qingxuan is now going to take advantage of the Qing army on the head of the city to be bombed, and the other Qing troops are still in chaos to immediately seize the gap in the blown up city wall.

Now what is up for grabs is the moment of every minute, and there is absolutely no tolerance for any failure.

Although the soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Army are very good cannon fodder, to be honest, they are very unreliable in this kind of critical battle, Shi Qingxuan can't trust them, if the soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Army are sent up, in case the first charge is repulsed, then the Qing army will react, and there will be no second chance at that time.

So at this time, it was not the soldiers of the previous auxiliary division who rushed to the front, but the Royal Army infantry wearing dark blue uniforms, holding mini rifles, lined up in a neat formation, and were able to run forward quickly.

I saw that the three infantry battalions of the 8th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division were lined up in three horizontal columns, running forward quickly!

Four hundred meters, three hundred meters, two hundred meters!

Closer, closer!

At this time, the Qing army on the west city wall also reacted, and some generals and military attachés such as the middle and lower-level generals and thousands of generals shouted and tried to make these green battalion soldiers shoot at the enemy.

And the new Jianghuai troops stationed behind the city wall were also driven by the officers to quickly climb the city wall or run to the gap that was blown up!

In the past, the officers of the Chinese army might have taken the initiative to stop the advance of the troops and then shoot at the enemy troops on the spot, but now, these officers of the Chinese army did not do this.

I saw an officer wearing the rank of colonel holding his command knife aloft and shouting on his horse: "Quick, don't stop, rush forward!" ”

Seeing that his troops had stopped a little and wanted to form a team, Colonel Lu Yingtao shouted: "Don't care about the formation, hurry up and rush over!" ”

Due to the influence of previous training and tactics, the infantry of the Chinese army paid great attention to the neatness of the formation when fighting, and once the formation was not neat enough during the combat march, the officers would let the troops pause and then organize the formation before advancing.

But now their task is not to maintain a dense formation and engage the enemy in a line battle, but to seize the gap that has been blown up with great difficulty.

So for them, a neat formation is no longer the first priority, the most important thing is to rush up and then seize the gap in the wall.

Two hundred meters, one hundred and fifty meters, at this time, the front battalion of the charging Chinese army was only one hundred and fifty meters away from the gap that had been blown up.

At the same time, the Qing army at the head of the city also braved the intensive artillery fire of the Chinese army to run to the head of the city, firing cannons, firing guns, and even many people bent bows and arrows.

With the counterattack of the Qing army, the 8th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division inevitably suffered some casualties, but for a modern line infantry, it was common to attack in the face of enemy artillery fire.

When the two sides were engaged in line battles, the infantry often had to line up in a dense formation, advance step by step in the face of the enemy's artillery fire, and then stand, ignoring the bullets and shrapnel flying in front and back, left and right, and reloaded, aimed, and fired on their own.

A well-trained line infantry can often ignore the external factors on the battlefield and mechanically and instinctively execute the inherent and rigid tactical movements.

The Third Division is a veteran unit of the Chinese Army, an elite unit that can be pulled out for a decisive battle on the battlefield, how can it be that these sparse firepower strikes of the Qing Army will stop their advance?

Impossible!

One hundred and fifty meters, one hundred and thirty meters, closer, closer!

At this time, Major Zhang Lubao, the commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion who rushed to the front, had already seen rows of Qing soldiers standing in the gap of the city wall that had turned into ruins.

The military uniforms worn by these Qing soldiers are light blue, and they are also single-breasted tops and pants.

Seeing that these people were loading, and they were preparing to meet their troops in a dense formation, Major Zhang Lubao snorted coldly, and said secretly in his heart: "I want to see how successful you Jianghuai New Army have learned from my Great China King Division!" ”

Immediately commanded the knife to be raised, and he said: "All of them, aim!" ”

As his order was handed down, the infantrymen who had already loaded their bullets before setting off raised their rifles one by one, and then gave an order with Zhang Lubao: "Fire!" ”

Hundreds of rifles rang out at the same time, and the crisp snapping sound was exceptionally loud on the battlefield!

In an instant, the more than 300 Jianghuai new troops on the gap fell as many as dozens of people!

Although the rifle equipped by the Third Division is still the old Mini rifle, that is, the 1851 Linde rifle, which is worse than the 1856 Linde rifle in terms of performance, this gap is limited, and it is not a generation difference, even if the performance is worse, this is also a Mini rifle, and its range and accuracy, especially the accuracy, are far from being comparable to the smoothbore foreign guns in the hands of the Jianghuai New Army.

This can be seen from the fact that the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 8th Infantry Regiment did not hesitate to shoot from a distance of 130 meters, while the Jianghuai New Army on the opposite side still did not shoot.

It's not that they don't want to shoot first, but the smoothbore foreign guns in their hands are far inferior to the Minnie rifles in terms of range and accuracy, and although it is theoretically possible to shoot from a distance of 100 meters, it is estimated that only God knows where the bullets will fly.

In contemporary times, troops equipped with smoothbore rifles often fire at a distance of less than 100 meters, and some are 50 meters, and some troops who are not afraid of death dare to shoot at a close range of about 20 meters from the enemy.

These Jianghuai New Army did not shoot first, but after being hit by the salvo fire of the First Battalion of the Eighth Infantry Regiment of the Chinese Army, they were suddenly staggered, and the Jianghuai New Army who rushed to the gap to deploy here was less than 300 people in total, but the volley of the Chinese Army just now killed and wounded at least 20 or 30 of them.

That is, after receiving a salvo hit, their casualty brigade was already close to ten percent.

And under the influence of the shooting on the other side, these soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army also shot one after another!

But most of the bullets they fired flew into the sky or on the ground, and only a few unlucky people in the Chinese army were hit.

After firing the bullets in the rifle in a panic, several Qing army officers wearing traditional Qing army generals in civilian clothes, wearing warm hats, and holding waist knives also shouted and reloaded.

At this time, Zhang Lubao, who was opposite them, had already given the second order: "Asymptotic shooting!" ”

Although he was sure that he could shoot at the enemy on the opposite side at a distance of 100 meters, the reality of the situation did not allow him to do so, because he did not need to think about it to know that the Qing army must be sending more troops to plug this gap at this time.

Moreover, more and more Qing soldiers are gathered on the city walls on both sides of the gap, and if they have been stupidly shooting at the enemy in the same place, they may be hit from three sides at that time, and it will be difficult to fight at that time.

So he adopted the mode of progressive shooting.

That is, while slowly advancing, while loading and firing, although this will affect the fire speed of the troops, it still maintains the continuous advance.

It's just over a hundred meters, and it won't take long for them to rush through, and at the same time, it can bring them a lot of casualties on the way!

The soldiers of the 1st Battalion continued to advance, and when they were only seventy meters from the gap, they paused again, and then aimed for a second volley.

Soon, the Jianghuai New Army in front also fought back against them, but due to the large casualties and the psychological pressure of the Chinese Army, although these soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army were elite soldiers that Li Hongzhang had trained for a long time, it would be good not to collapse at this time, and naturally they could not be expected to reload and then fire a salvo with an indifferent face.

So they were no longer able to organize an effective salvo, they could only fire in twos and threes.

When the first battalion rushed to a distance of only thirty meters from the gap, Zhang Lubao shouted again: "Shoot!" ”

As the gunshots passed, Zhang Lubao didn't pay attention to how many Qing troops had fallen on the opposite side, but continued to shout: "Charge!" ”

In the next moment, the soldiers of the first battalion were no longer clinging to the tight formation, but all of them quickly walked over with bayonets and rifles, and at the same time shouted different slogans in their mouths!

In the face of the bayonet charge of the first battalion of the eighth infantry regiment of the Chinese army, the Jianghuai New Army, which had only less than 300 people before, and then received more than 100 emergency reinforcements, began to shoot, although they also suffered heavy casualties, but they were still able to ensure the most basic battle, still loading, and then shooting, although because the smoothbore foreign guns in their hands were far inferior to the Mini rifles in performance, but still brought certain casualties to the first battalion.

However, now facing the charge of the first battalion, they were stunned for a while (to be continued). )