On September 29th, Lu'an, which is close to the Mid-Autumn Festival, has gradually cooled, after an autumn breeze last night, although the sun is shining the next day, it is not as hot as midsummer, and the autumn breeze makes people feel cool.

This time, after besieging Lu'an for a long time, the Chinese army finally gave up its previous siege strategy, and instead set up a posture to launch a large-scale general attack.

Judging from the posture of the Chinese army outside the city, careful people can find that the Chinese army outside the city is a little different from the past.

In the past, the Chinese army had not fought Lu'an City, but only the auxiliary defense army went into battle, and most of the royal troops wearing dark blue military uniforms swept the formation behind, acting as fire cover and supervising the role of the battle team.

But now, instead of the soldiers of the Aldefence Force in the past, the Royal Army is wearing dark blue uniforms.

Chen Yucheng at the head of the city also noticed the strangeness of the Chinese army outside the city, and his face was a little suspicious.

Since Chen Yucheng led the northern Anhui region at the beginning of the year, it can be said that it has been a smooth ride, all the way from the Qing army to conquer the city, enveloping the young and strong people along the way, and in just a few months, he has gathered an army of more than 200,000 people.

However, since the First Army, the main force of the Chinese Army, turned around and marched westward after taking Yangzhou, his army of hundreds of thousands of people was like paper paste in front of the First Army of the Chinese Army, which only had tens of thousands of people, and quickly collapsed.

On the Hefei side, the loss of troops was lost, and the loss of at least 30,000 or 40,000 people before and after, Chen Yucheng saw that Hefei could not be defended, and decisively led the army to retreat westward.

But the Chinese army followed closely behind, and fought with the Chinese army several times along the way in order to break off, which made Chen Yucheng feel desperate. In several battles before and after, the army under his command has not won even once.

In the end, Lu'an and Huoshan had to rely on the Dabie Mountains to be each other's horns. Gathering the army to resist desperately, it was not that Chen Yucheng wanted to sit in the area of Lu'an and Huoshan. is because he has no way to retreat, this is Hubei in the west, and now Hubei has become the only territory in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom since it was taken by Shi Dakai.

Shi Dakai's order to Chen Yucheng was to block the Chinese army's westward offensive no matter what.

In fact, Shi Dakai not only gave this kind of order to Chen Yucheng in the western part of northern Anhui, but also gave the same order to the defenders of Anqing and Jiujiang.

As a result, the Taiping army on the Anqing side has been completely surrounded, but it is still stubbornly holding the lonely city. The Jiujiang side faced the dual threat of the Zhenhu Army and the Chinese Army, and it was very difficult to defend, but it still did not retreat.

In order to block the westward offensive of the Chinese army, Chen Yucheng deployed all his troops, totaling more than 150,000 people, in the areas of Lu'an and Huoshan, and suffered heavy casualties in the two months of fighting.

Huoshan was breached a month ago, and after losing Huoshan, Lu'an became an isolated city, and even had a tendency to be vaguely surrounded by the Chinese army.

Chen Yucheng, who was trapped in the lonely city, was not like this, he also thought about leading the army to evacuate on his own initiative, but the reality did not allow him to do so. So no matter how difficult it is, he has to grit his teeth and keep going.

But how long can it be kept?

Chen Yucheng doesn't know!

Looking at the Chinese army outside the city, which was no more than 10,000 people, Chen Yucheng sighed!

He had an army of more than 200,000 before, but he couldn't defeat the 30,000 people of the First Army in Hefei. Now on Lu'an's side, he still has 100,000 troops in his hands, but he is still pressed and beaten by tens of thousands of Chinese troops.

Fight against the Chinese army. The superiority in the strength of the troops that he is proud of is useless at all!

According to Chen Yucheng's experience in fighting with the Chinese army many times, the young and strong homeless people under his hands are useless. On the contrary, it will also affect a small number of elite troops under his command.

Chen Yucheng did not give up before, and tried to defeat the Chinese army with his absolute superiority in strength. Before the Chinese army marched into Lu'an, nearly 100,000 troops were gathered in Linjiazhuang, twenty miles east of Lu'an, in an attempt to ambush the advancing Chinese army.

But now that I think of the battle of that day, it still makes Chen Yucheng unbearable, when he commanded an army of 100,000, the momentum is not small, but the battle of the day did not wait for himself to open the position, that is, the whole army of the army broke the left flank, and then turned around and went straight to the Chinese army, forcing himself to flee in embarrassment and retreat to Lu'an City with the remnants.

For the battle that day, Chen Yucheng's biggest feeling for the Chinese army was not their sharp firearms, but their overall formation.

Tens of thousands of people were divided into a huge phalanx, and each phalanx was either in a column or in a horizontal formation. With the order of the military flag, advance or retreat, or turn right or left, there is no confusion at all.

When the two sides were about to fight, the soldiers of the Chinese army on the opposite side wearing dark blue military uniforms completed the transformation of the offensive formation in less than ten minutes, and then launched an attack directly on their left flank, while Chen Yucheng's troops did not even complete the formation at that time, and many troops were still behind and ready to enter the battlefield.

The neat formation, coupled with the extremely sharp Mini rifles of the Chinese army, just let the family rush up and fire a few rounds of guns, the 30,000 troops on the left flank have completely collapsed.

In this battle alone, Chen Yucheng completely gave up the idea of fighting a field battle with the Chinese army, and instead relied on Lu'an and Huoshan to hold on.

And the facts have also proved that Chen Yucheng's idea is right, only in terms of the degree of weapons and soldier training, there is no other unit in the country that can conduct an upright field battle with the Chinese army in the open flat land.

Lin Chengting's Zhenhu Army is not good, the elite veterans of the Taiping Army led by Li Xiucheng and Wu Ruxiao and others are not good, Zhang Guoliang's Green Camp Old Army is not good, and Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army is also not good.

If they want to stop the advance of the Chinese army, there is only one way, and that is to rely on the fortified city to defend it, and use the city walls to counteract the suffocating neat formation of the Chinese army and the range of the Mini rifles.

Lin Chengting did this in Changzhou, Wu Ruxiao did the same in Zhenjiang, Li Hongzhang still did this in Yangzhou, and the current Taiping Army in the direction of Lu'an and Anqing also did this.

It's just that the opponent is more and more fond of shrinking from the turtle, which also forces the Chinese army to gradually change its tactics, such as a large number of co-opted defense forces. Another example is the development of large-caliber field guns, heavy mortars, and nine-pounder light mortars and even grenades against the enemy in walls and trenches.

And at the time of the Battle of Yangzhou. The Chinese Army once again changed its previous siege tactics and put the Royal Army at the forefront for the first time. Undertaking the task of the first wave of siege, although the third division of the siege suffered a lot of losses at that time, it successfully conquered Yangzhou.

And now, Shi Qingxuan is ready to do it again, put aside those weak combat effectiveness of the auxiliary defense division, and directly use the elite Royal Army to undertake the most difficult tasks.

On the 29th, after a large number of Chinese troops were ready, Shi Qingxuan did not sit in the rear and watch the battle situation as before, but took a group of senior officers to personally go to the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division.

This time it was the 7th Infantry Regiment that was on the forward combat mission. Compared to the Aid Army, which had swelled to eighteen divisions, there were now only five full divisions, two were not yet fully established, and a Royal Army was a small but veritable pillar of the Empire.

In order to accumulate tens of thousands of Royal Army soldiers, Lin Zhe spent tens of millions of military expenses over several years.

For those troops of the Auxiliary Defense Army, Shi Qingxuan did not blink an eye if there were thousands of casualties, but if these soldiers of the Third Division were killed or injured by a few hundred, it was enough to make Shi Qingxuan's heart ache.

Soon after the 3rd Division arrived in Lu'an, it was trapped by a large-scale disease. As a result, hundreds of people died of illness, and thousands of people were lying on the sickbed, which made Shi Qingxuan's heart ache, and the Third Division at that time could be regarded as a heavy blow, which directly affected the Chinese army's attack on Lu'an in the direction of Lu'an.

Now, it is hard to wait for the military training department to replenish nearly a thousand recruits. The 3rd Division was restored to full strength, and this is the general attack of today.

In order to boost morale, in order to show the importance that they attach to this combat mission. Shi Qingxuan took a large number of generals to the front of the Seventh Infantry Regiment in person.

He said to Lieutenant Colonel Liang Qiushi, commander of the Seventh Infantry Regiment: "Today's battle is related to the imperial plan of northern Anhui, and you don't need me to say more about it, you also know it!" He said. He glanced at the commanders of the other three infantry battalions of the 7th Infantry Regiment and the company commanders of each company, and continued:

"All of you are the sons of the empire and the outstanding talents of the army. Naturally, I can understand the meaning of this battle, so I won't say much, just one word! ”

Speaking of this, he raised his voice and said, "Today, it is time for us to fight to the death for our emperor's loyalty!" ”

"The Chinese Empire is invincible!"

The many officers below shouted one by one: "The Chinese Empire is invincible!" ”

As the slogan was shouted, even the ordinary soldiers shouted the slogan of the invincibility of the Chinese Empire, and the scene was extremely exciting.

Seeing the high morale of the soldiers, Shi Qingxuan nodded to the staff officer beside him: "Let's start!" ”

With Shi Qingxuan's order conveyed, two loud noises suddenly came from under the Lu'an city wall in the distance.

However, in the smoke of gunpowder, Shi Qingxuan, who used a single-pass telescope to observe the blasting situation, frowned, although the blasting momentum just now was very large, one of the blasting points did not blow up the city wall for some reason, but opened a big hole in the open space outside the city wall, it was obvious that the placement of the explosives was not accurate enough and could not be placed under the city wall.

Another blasting point, although it was blasted under the city wall, but obviously the power estimate was inaccurate, although it caused the collapse of the city wall above, but it was only a small section, and it was a huge distance from the expected gap of tens of meters.

At this time, a colonel beside him also approached and asked Shi Qingxuan in a low voice: "General, the blasting failed to achieve the expected effect, did it make the Seventh Infantry Regiment retreat?" ”

Shi Qingxuan looked at the Seventh Infantry Regiment that was already setting off, and after taking a deep breath, he shook his head: "No, all units continue to act according to the predetermined plan!" ”

The colonel next to him hesitated, but he didn't continue to speak!

At the same time, the soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment in front of them were carrying rifles that had been loaded in advance, and each battalion was marching in a traditional three-row horizontal formation.

And among them, there are also a large number of soldiers of the Allied Defense Army carrying long ladders!

There are more than a dozen siege high-wheeled vehicles in the back, which are pushed forward by many soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Army!

Directly behind the attacking troops, dozens of 12-pounder field guns and large-caliber mortar guns were firing shells one after another under the operation of the artillery.

Unlike the many solid shells fired to hit the city walls before, this time, whether it was a twelve-pounder field gun or a mortar, it fired grenades and grenades.

Therefore, now look at the head of Lu'an City, from time to time you can see a cloud of smoke and dust rising from the city, and from time to time you can see the explosion of fire and white tobacco over the city, if you look closely, you will also find that these grenades exploded in mid-air after a burst of fire, there will be a large piece of dense marbles flying diagonally towards the city, most of the iron balls hit the stones at the head of the city, but there are also some marbles shot into the Taiping soldiers who could not dodge.

For a time, the Taiping army at the head of Lu'an City suffered heavy casualties, but these Taiping troops did not retreat, because they still had to block the attack of the Chinese army outside the city.

Moreover, there are many people who have been shelled, and these Taiping soldiers have also learned to be smart, for example, to hide under the pheasant wall of the city wall, so that they can theoretically dodge half of the grenade bombs, and as for the other half, it can only be seen whether God gives face.

In addition, they also built a number of hidden caves at the head of the city, to be precise, very primitive anti-artillery holes, supported by bricks and wood, and then laid thick planks or simply earth and stones, which were enough to kill and injure with iron beads that were effective enough to kill and injure grenades.

When the artillery of the Chinese army carried out a fierce artillery bombardment of Lu'an City, the troops responsible for landing the city had already crossed a distance of 300 meters or 200 meters, and it would not be long before they could meet the defenders at the head of the city.

A battle related to the belonging of the western part of northern Anhui has been carried out at the most critical moment! (To be continued......)