The west city wall of Yangzhou City, the gap.

A new Jianghuai military camp officer who was brandishing a waist knife and kept shouting to reload quickly and shoot looked at the opposite side After a row of guns fired, the soldiers under his command fell down in large pieces.

You must know that the distance between the two sides is only sixty or seventy meters, and even a smoothbore foreign gun can cause a lot of damage at this distance, not to mention the more accurate and powerful Mini rifles.

It was only a volley of fire from the Chinese army on the opposite side, and as many as fifty or sixty of his own soldiers had fallen, and the soldiers in the first row were only about a hundred in total, and half of them were lost at once.

In the face of such casualties, even if it is replaced by modern infantry in Europe at the same time, it is difficult to support it, not to mention that although the Jianghuai New Army is an imitation of Yu Sheng's army, but to be honest, the Chinese army itself is learning the tactics of the British, and at most it has learned seven or eight points.

And this Jianghuai New Army learned Yu Shengjun, and only learned an appearance, not to say that the whole version is copied, so that although this Jianghuai New Army looks like a modern army, it is still an old-fashioned feudal army in its bones, and it is generally similar to the earliest Yu Shengjun.

When they did not suffer a large number of casualties, they were able to fight in a neat formation, and when they fought with the Twist Army and the Taiping Army in the past, they also unilaterally bullied people, and the fight was smooth.

But as soon as there were a large number of casualties today, it was immediately unbearable.

Just like the hundreds of Jianghuai New Army who had closed the gap before, where could they hold up under the heavy casualties, those surviving soldiers immediately left their officers, dead and wounded comrades-in-arms and fled.

Let those few Jianghuai New Army officers wielding waist knives shout and scold loudly, and they don't care!

As soon as the Jianghuai New Army, which was the backbone and main force, retreated, the other hundreds of old troops of the green battalion who played soy sauce ran away in a swarm, and a Qing army garrison general shouted angrily.

Seeing that the nearly 1,000 Qing troops who came to counterattack retreated like a tide, Zhang Lubao was also relieved, he gave them two ruthless blows just now, and now he is finally safe.

Although the retreating Qing troops did not say that they would directly throw down their weapons and take off their uniforms as routs, they fled to the streets of the city hundreds of meters away, and seemed to want to gather manpower to attack again, but when they gathered enough manpower to launch a counteroffensive again, their own reinforcements would have already come up.

Sure enough, the Qing troops hundreds of meters away were regrouped under the orders of the leaders and generals of the Qing army, and at the same time, more Qing troops rushed up from the hinterland of the city to support.

Reinforcements from the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 8th Infantry Regiment also passed through the gaps in the walls of Guò and then arrived in the open space inside the walls to line up.

The troops of the second and third battalions were not only the first battalion after the gap, but they also sent troops to climb up from the ruins on both sides of the gap, trying to control the walls on both sides of the gap, and then really expand the Chinese army's occupying advantage.

While the 8th Infantry Regiment was fighting, the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division and a hand-to-hand infantry regiment of the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division also rushed through the distance of hundreds of meters outside the city wall when the attention of the Qing army was attracted by the 8th Infantry Regiment.

A hand-to-hand infantry regiment of the Second Auxiliary Defense Division in front of them was equipped with cold weapons, holding swords and shields one by one, carrying a long ladder for climbing the wall on their shoulders, and after they rushed to the foot of the city wall, they put down the long ladder, and then climbed up quickly one by one, rushed to the head of the city and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Qing army.

Before this, the 9th Infantry Regiment had lined up at a distance of 100 meters, and then used the rifles in its hands to suppress the Qing firepower at the head of the city, so as to cover the cold weapons troops of the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division to land on the city.

This tactic of the auxiliary defense division charging is responsible for climbing the wall and hand-to-hand combat, and the regular army is responsible for fire cover, which is the standard siege tactic of the Chinese army in the past two years.

Of course, this tactic will inevitably lead to a large number of casualties among the soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Army, especially in the hand-to-hand combat stage after the soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Army climb to the top of the city.

However, as long as the Allied Defense Army climbs to the top of the city and occupies a certain position, then there will be nothing to do with the soldiers of the Allied Defense Army, because at that time, the soldiers of the regular army will go up to the city with rifles and use firepower to completely crush the enemy's defenses.

This tactic, which is coordinated by the Royal Army and the Allied Defence Force, has been very effective against an enemy with weak long-range firepower for the past two years, effectively attacking the city and avoiding a large number of casualties in the Royal Army.

The 8th Infantry Regiment was responsible for attacking the gap opened by blasting, and the 9th Infantry Regiment was responsible for directly attacking the head of the city, which had been greatly reduced in strength.

"Now, it's time for the Seventh Infantry Regiment to come up and take them down in one go!" Shi Qingxuan, who had been closely following the development of the battle situation in the rear, saw that the offensive of the Eighth Infantry Regiment and the Ninth Infantry Regiment was going well, and immediately decisively sent the last infantry regiment of the Third Infantry Division out.

At the same time, not only the 7th Infantry Regiment was dispatched, but also the remaining troops of the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division!

At the same time, he also sent orders to the 1st Infantry Division and the 9th Auxiliary Defense Division in the northwest corner of Yangzhou, asking them to cooperate with him and launch a companion attack.

The Fifth Army, which was returned to the eastern city wall of Yangzhou, also urgently reported the situation, so that Shen Chiyun's Fifth Army also quickly launched an attack.

He wanted to take this opportunity to launch a general attack on the scale of the whole army in one fell swoop and completely capture Yangzhou City.

As his orders were issued one after another, the other units of the Chinese army also moved quickly, and the first to act was naturally the relevant units in charge of the western city wall, especially the 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division.

When besieging Yangzhou, tens of thousands of troops of the Chinese Army were stationed on all sides of Yangzhou, among which the Fifth Army was responsible for the eastern and southern city walls, and the department had the Fifth Infantry Division, the Tenth Auxiliary Defense Division, and the Twelfth Auxiliary Defense Division.

In charge of the west and north walls was the First Army, which gathered the main forces of the West Wall in great stride, including all of the Third Division, two regiments of the First Division and the division's heavy artillery units, the Second Auxiliary Defense Division, and the Fourteenth Auxiliary Defense Division. As for the other regiment of the 1st Division, that is, the 1st Regiment was stationed in the northwest corner of Yangzhou with the 9th Auxiliary Defense Division.

Now Shi Qingxuan has sent out the 7th Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division, which means that he still has two Royal Army Infantry Regiments, a cavalry regiment and an auxiliary defense division left.

The reason why there is no single force is because all the troops cannot be sent out, and when any rational general commands a battle, he will leave a reserve force in his hand, and he will never shoot the last reserve team until the moment of life and death, and now the remaining two infantry regiments of the first division are the reserves in Shi Qingxuan's hands.

As for the 14th Auxiliary Defense Division, the combat effectiveness of this unit was originally weak, and the soldiers were the surrendered troops of the Taiping Army that surrendered in Zhenjiangli at the beginning, and the thousands of people who had surrendered in this batch of troops had already been selected and added to the existing auxiliary defense divisions such as the First and Second Auxiliary Defense Divisions, and only the 12th Auxiliary Defense Division, the 13th Auxiliary Defense Division, and the 14th Auxiliary Defense Division were established respectively, and the 11th Auxiliary Defense Division was the lowest combat effectiveness among the 15 auxiliary defense divisions.

However, when the 11th Auxiliary Defense Division was transferred to southern Anhui and the 13th Auxiliary Defense Division was transferred to northern Anhui for continuous operations, replacing many young and strong prisoners of the Qing Army and the Taiping Army who had been captured in southern and northern Anhui, and after the combat effectiveness of these two auxiliary defense divisions rose to the average level, only the 12th and 14th Auxiliary Defense Divisions were left with the weakest combat effectiveness.

As for the 15 th Auxiliary Defense Division, which is even further backward, the number of soldiers in this unit is rather special, and it is the soldiers recruited by the Chinese Army on the spot in Jiangning Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture; although the equipment and treatment are as poor as those of other auxiliary defense divisions, they are not those old and young weak prisoners of war, and after several months of training, the combat effectiveness of this auxiliary defense division stationed in Nanjing is actually quite objective.

The combat effectiveness of the 14th Auxiliary Defense Division was weak, and Shi Qingxuan did not plan to send them to participate in the brutal battle for the city, lest they collapse before they could fight, so they have always been placed in the back as auxiliary troops, such as building batteries, building camps, transporting ammunition and supplies on the front line, etc.

There must be a certain amount of reserve troops in hand, and the 14th Auxiliary Defense Division is not available, so the 3rd Division and the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division that Shi Qingxuan is now sending out are actually the largest siege forces he can use in the western city wall of Yangzhou.

However, correspondingly, Shi Qingxuan can not invest all the troops in the west city wall, but it is impossible for the Qing army in the city to pile up all the troops on the west city wall.

Otherwise, the Chinese army will not be able to break through the west wall, but from the east city wall or the north and south city walls, the effect is the same, so Huang Zonghan and others can only focus on the west city wall, send more troops, but absolutely cannot put all the troops here.

The entire Yangzhou offensive and defensive battle is actually carried out around the entire Yangzhou City, and the west city wall is just one of them!

With the influx of the Eighth Infantry Regiment of the Chinese Army and the control of the blasting gap, the Ninth Infantry Regiment covered a regiment of the Second Auxiliary Defense Division to climb the city, and now the Ninth Infantry Regiment has sent troops to climb directly to the city, and once the infantry of the Ninth Infantry Regiment with Mini rifles rushes to the city on a large scale, relying on their firepower is enough to sweep any enemy troops on the city.

And the next battle situation did not disappoint Shi Qingxuan, although the Qing army that reacted gathered a large number of troops to try to counterattack the gap that was blown up, and at the same time tried to reinforce the city, trying to drive down the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division and the 9th Infantry Regiment that climbed the city wall.

However, if the Qing army's reaction had been more than ten minutes faster, there would have been this possibility, but now the Eighth Infantry Regiment had firmly controlled the gap and the surrounding city walls.

On the other side, the 9th Infantry Regiment and a hand-to-hand combat regiment of the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division had all climbed the city wall, and while they advanced towards the city walls on both sides, they even sent troops down the city wall, and then rushed into the city, one of the infantry battalions even went around behind the gap in the city wall, and the first battalion of the 8th Infantry Regiment flanked back and forth, crushing nearly 1,000 Qing troops who tried to counterattack the gap.

When the 7th Infantry Regiment also rushed into the city with a hand-to-hand combat regiment and a musket regiment of the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division, it already meant that the Qing army's defense system on the western city wall of Yangzhou had completely collapsed.

Although it has not been able to completely take Yangzhou City at this moment, the Chinese army has pried open the turtle shell of the Qing army in Yangzhou, and the next Qing army will either flee from the road, or they will be dying in various places in Yangzhou City, relying on various buildings!

So when the 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Auxiliary Defense Division occupied the west city wall of Yangzhou, Shi Qingxuan was already smiling, thinking about how to write a report and send it to Nanjing. (To be continued.) )