In the city of Yangzhou, Huang Zonghan, the governor of Liangjiang, had a sad face.

Below, Dexing'a continued: "Lord Huang, now the Chinese rebel army is less than 100 miles away from Yangzhou, once they arrive in Guazhou, then they will be able to meet the enemy of Zhenjiang to cross the river, and at that time, the rebel army will gather as many as 40,000 or 50,000 troops, and Yangzhou will be even more difficult to defend at that time, we can't continue to wait like this, we must send troops to the west to meet the enemy, stop them, and absolutely not let the rebel army from Nanjing and the rebel army from Zhenjiang merge." ”

Huang Zonghan didn't answer, but Zhang Guoliang on the side said: "Even if the enemy of Zhenjiang wants to cross the river, there is no way, the only thing we can do now is to rely on the strong city to defend it, and we must not fight!" ”

"Relying on a fortified city? When the main force of the rebel army comes over, it will not rely on the strong city to defend it, but will be trapped in the lonely city! Hmph, could it be that Lord Zhang is afraid of the rebel army and does not dare to take the initiative to attack! Dexinga said this, and Zhang Guoliang on the side was speechless.

Not to mention, Zhang Guoliang is really afraid of the Chinese army!

Zhang Guoliang was the main military general of the Qing army in the Jiangnan region, as early as when Xiang Rong was still the Jiangnan military affairs superintendent, he was an important general under Xiang Rong, and the Taiping army fought frequently, accumulating merit to the general army.

However, the longer he stayed in this place south of the Yangtze River, the more clear he became about the strength of the various troops on the ground in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, when the Taiping Army, which could not be defeated by itself, faced the Chinese army, it was beaten by the Chinese army, and in such a comparison, the gap between the Qing army and the Chinese army was very obvious.

At the end of last year, he was also under the command of Huang Zonghan, led the army to fight with the Chinese army in Jiangyin, although the scale was not large at that time, but more than 3,000 people did not even hold on for more than ten minutes, and they were defeated by a forward battalion, and it was this failure that made Huang Zonghan decide to directly abandon the bridgehead of Jiangyin, and instead cross the river to the north.

In the contemporary Qing army or the Taiping army, if there is a military general who dares to say that he can defeat the Chinese army in a dignified manner without occupying an absolute advantage, it is 100% arrogant.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was driven out of southern Jiangsu by the Chinese army, fought with the Chinese army for several years, and fought hundreds of small battles, including Qin Rigang, Wu Ruxiao, Lin Chengting, Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng, etc., and many famous generals in the Taiping army who made the Qing army helpless were defeated by the Chinese army.

These facts are in front of him, and Zhang Guoliang cannot deny them.

However, although Zhang Guoliang said that he was a little afraid of the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, he did not say that he was afraid of death or anything like that, but made a judgment not to take the initiative out of caution.

At this time, Huang Zonghan also raised Yang's hand lightly, and then looked at Li Hongzhang and said, "Gradually, you can talk about it!" ”

Li Hongzhang immediately brewed for a meeting before he spoke: "Although the lower officials have not led the army to fight against the Chinese rebel army, but looking at the many battles of the Chinese rebel army, then we can know that the strength of the rebel army is not a lie.

According to the report of the spies, there are more than 30,000 rebel troops attacking, and there are more than 10,000 rebel troops in Zhenjiang on the other side, and the combined troops of the two are as many as 40,000 or 50,000, which is at least more than 10,000 in the north of our Jiangbei army.

Our forces do not occupy much advantage, and there are many enemy soldiers who come to attack, so we must be cautious and cautious in this battle! ”

Li Hongzhang's tone was flat and calm when he spoke, but Dexing'a on the side snorted coldly in his nostrils, obviously disapproving of Li Hongzhang's words.

There is also a reason why Dexinga is dissatisfied with Li Hongzhang!

At the beginning of this year, the Qing court readjusted the command level of the Qing army that had been retreating in the Jiangbei region, appointing Huang Zonghan, the governor of Liangjiang, as the governor of Jiangbei and Jiangnan.

He also appointed Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu, Dexing'a, the minister of the Qincha, and Zhang Guoliang, the governor of the army, as assistants in military affairs.

Huang Zonghan has no opinion on being in the top position, because Huang Zonghan's powerful position is already a lot higher than him, but why can Zhang Guoliang and Li Hongzhang be on an equal footing with him?

You must know that when Dexing'a was still the minister of Jiangbei Military Affairs before, Li Hongzhang could only mix under him, and Zhang Guoliang was only a general soldier before, and Dexing'a had more general soldiers under him.

In addition to his power, Dexing'a, as a Manchu, was extremely disgusted with the Han ministers who had a large number of troops, especially after Lin Zhe, who was also born as a Han regimental training minister, led the army to rebel, the court, especially those Manchu magnates, were even more jealous of the Han regimental training ministers.

This can be seen from the fact that the imperial court has given up its vigorous support for Li Hongzhang since the end of last year and has instead supported the Gyeonggi and Zhili training armies, and there is no way to hide the precautions of the imperial court against these Han ministers, especially the Han regimental training ministers who control a large number of troops.

However, Zhang Guoliang and Li Hongzhang both said that they should be cautious, they can't fight in waves, and he has no way to do it!

After all, although there are more than 50,000 troops in the Jiangbei camp, more than 10,000 of them are Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army, and nearly 30,000 people are the old Green Battalion army belonging to Huang Zonghan, Zhang Guoliang and others.

After some discussion, the high-level generals of the Qing army in the Jiangbei camp finally came to the conclusion that they would not move and hold Yangzhou.

In other words, at this stage, do nothing, sit back and wait for the Chinese army to take the initiative to attack!

The Qing army did not move, but this made the first army of the Chinese army in the process of advancing eastward without danger, all the way to Guazhou, south of the capital of Yangzhou, and then cover the fifth army of Zhenjiang to cross the river from Guazhou.

In the process of crossing the river, it was naturally covered by naval warships, and the Qing army in Yangzhou City did not seem to have any intention of attacking out of the city.

The whole process of crossing the river is smooth and gentle!

After the Fifth Army also crossed the river, the Chinese Army had already gathered the huge strength of the two armies outside Yangzhou, with nearly 25,000 Royal Army troops under its jurisdiction of the First Division, the Third Division, the Fifth Division, the First Cavalry Regiment, and the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, as well as the Second Auxiliary Defense Division, the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, the Tenth Auxiliary Defense Division, the Twelfth Auxiliary Defense Division, and the Fourteenth Division, a total of about 20,000 auxiliary defense troops in five divisions.

Combined, the total strength of these two armies was about 45,000 men.

At this time, the Qing army in the city added up to only more than 50,000 people, which was only 10,000 more than the Chinese army, and the extra 10,000 people could hardly be said to have a military advantage, because everyone knew that the gap in combat effectiveness between the two was too great.

Therefore, the Qing army in Yangzhou City played the tactic of shrinking out, trying to drag down the Chinese army with a long time of perseverance, this tactic was used very much by the Qing army and the Taiping army before, and they rarely carried out large-scale field battles with each other, and generally fought long-term defense or siege operations.

But now the Qing army is not facing the Taiping army but the Chinese army, Shi Qingxuan and other senior generals of the Chinese army will not set up camp outside Yangzhou, and then besiege Yangzhou for several years, this kind of thing can only be done by the Qing army.

For the Chinese army, since Shun Lì arrived in Yangzhou, the next step is naturally to attack and attack!

On June 22, the well-prepared Chinese army officially launched a general attack on Yangzhou.

On the position of the Chinese army outside the city, many twelve-pounder field guns and large-caliber mortar artillery began to continue to shell the Qing troops inside and outside Yangzhou.

And when the artillery of the Chinese Army on land carried out a large-scale artillery bombardment of Yangzhou, on the Yangtze River, Lin Dabiao stood on the bridge of the Zhentai and looked north.

Although Lin Dabiao was a halfway monk as a naval general, in the past few years, he has worked hard to build the imperial navy from scratch into a large-scale navy with dozens of large and small warships and nearly 10,000 soldiers.

And now looking at the huge fleet under his command, Lin Dabiao's face is heroic!

After several years of development, the Imperial Navy is no longer the original sailor battalion with only 500 men and only two merchant ships converted into warships, and now the Imperial Navy has as many as six warships of more than 400 tons, and more than 30 offshore gunboats of less than 100 tons.

Among them, there were two of the earliest merchant ships purchased from outside, namely the 820-ton Zhensong and the 420-ton Zhenshao, and the remaining four were professional warships ordered from the Shanghai Shipyard.

The first self-built ship was the Zhenhu, which was still a hybrid of sail steam paddle wheels, with a displacement of 500 tons, equipped with four 32-pounder cannons and a 64-pounder mortar and a number of small and medium-caliber naval guns, but the ship, as the first self-built warship, squeezed too many guns on the small tonnage, the center of gravity was unstable, and the navigation performance was poor.

Although the performance of this class of ships is not good, as an imperial navy that is in urgent need of warships, it is better than nothing, so one was ordered later, which was for the Zhensu.

Then the Imperial Navy ordered two more warships, this is the Zhentai class battleship, the ship is still sail steam hybrid, but with a dark wheel, instead of the previous paddle wheel propulsion, which can be said to be a major technological progress in the Shanghai shipyard, the class of ships has a displacement of 600 tons, equipped with four 32-pound cannons, two 64-pound mortars, and a number of 12-pound, 6-pound naval guns, the navigation performance is much better than the previous Zhenhu, and its second ship is the Zhenjia

Then the Imperial Navy ordered a thousand-ton class, pure steam-powered, dark wheel propulsion warship, but the order for this class of ships has just been placed, and it is still unknown when it will be completed and put into service.

In fact, compared with these warships of several hundred tons or thousands of tons, the Imperial Navy currently needs those river gunboats that are only about 100 tons, which can be seen from the fact that the Imperial Navy has ordered a full sixteen Xingwu-class river gunboats in one go.

Because the Xingwu-class river gunboats are easy to use, and they are small enough to enter any small river, and the firepower of the twelve-pounder naval guns is not weak, the Imperial Navy is frequently used, and after ordering as many as sixteen ships, it also asked the Shanghai Shipyard to come up with an upgraded version to continue ordering.

For this reason, the Shanghai shipyard slightly expanded the design on the basis of the Xingwu class, and made a new type of river gunboat with a displacement of about 150 tons, which is also steam-powered and dark-wheel propulsion, but the steam engine horses used are larger, so although the hull is larger, the ideal speed can still reach 12 knots.

In terms of firepower, it was directly equipped with two twelve-pounder naval guns, which was twice as high as the previous Xingwu-class gunboats.

At present, the Navy has placed an order for four ships to the Shanghai Shipyard, and whether they will be added in the future depends on the actual combat table after service. (To be continued.) )