In the face of the fact that the British and French forces did not take the initiative to attack the east gate of the inner city, but went south to attack the outer city along the river, Qu Panyun had no way to do this, he could not risk a large number of casualties and send a large number of soldiers to the outer city wall to resist the enemy.

Regarding this situation, Qu Panyun did not hesitate to transfer back the small number of soldiers who were still in the outer city, anyway, since he no longer planned to defend the outer city, there was no need to continue to keep the precious troops there.

With the active withdrawal of the Chinese army in the outer city, Count Ergin made the first breakthrough in the Battle of Guangzhou, and his two infantry battalions climbed the eastern wall of the outer city along the river almost without the slightest obstacle, and then quickly advanced towards the outer city.

At noon on the same day, when the Earl of Ergin wrote another letter to the Hong Kong side, he said that a key breakthrough had been made in the battle of Guangzhou, and he optimistically estimated that within three to five days, his soldiers would be able to completely capture Guangzhou.

But he didn't know that Qu Panyun's choice to give up the outer city did not mean that he was ready to give up the inner city.

In the afternoon of the same day, when nearly 1,000 British and French troops tried to attack the inner city from the outer city, they encountered fierce resistance from the Chinese army at the southern wall of the inner city.

Since the south wall of the inner city is outside the residential area of the outer city, although the density of buildings in the outer city is not as good as that of the inner city, it is still an urban area, and there is no large open space to play like the outside of the east wall, so the battle between the two sides is carried out in a small area.

At this time, a large number of soldiers in the Chinese Army played their only value, that is, to use the terrain to try to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

At dawn the next day. Under the cover of nearly 1,000 Royal Army soldiers of the 10th Infantry Division, the 8th Auxiliary Defense Division launched a local counteroffensive on the southern city wall. During the battle, the Royal Army opened fire on the city to attract the Anglo-French forces. More than 2,000 hand-to-hand soldiers of the Allied Defense Army took the initiative to attack the Anglo-French army.

In the short hour-long battle, although the soldiers of the 8th Auxiliary Defense Division fought bravely under the high pressure of military law, they were still unable to break through the battle line of 1,000 soldiers of the British and French coalition forces, and in this battle, more than 500 soldiers of the 8th Auxiliary Defense Division were killed and wounded.

The 10th Infantry Division, which was responsible for covering, also suffered nearly 40 casualties.

However, they were not without success, and in this battle, they killed and wounded at least nearly 100 British and French soldiers, forcing the two battalions of British and French troops to suspend the attack on the southern wall.

"Although the proportion of losses is somewhat large, these are still within an acceptable range!" Liu Hetao, chief of staff of the Third Army, took the battle report to Qu Panyun's side.

"This time, there were not many casualties on the side of the 10th Division. The main reason is that the Eighth Auxiliary Defense Division suffered a lot of casualties, but it was a casualty exchange ratio of 5 to 1 or even 6 to 1, and we did not suffer a loss! Liu Hetao's words did not feel frustrated at all by the heavy casualties of the Eighth Auxiliary Defense Division, on the contrary, he still felt excited.

There are only a few British and French troops on the opposite side, and they are only about 6,000 at the top, while their own Third Army has more than 30,000 people, and the Royal Army that can fight head-on is more than 8,000 people.

If it was a six-to-one casualty ratio between the Royal Army and the Anglo-French army, it would definitely be a loss, but if it was replaced by an Allied Defense Force soldier. Five for one, that's a big profit.

The soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Force are consumables and cannot be counted on in a head-to-head battle, and now being able to take advantage of the terrain to launch hand-to-hand combat on the side of Nancheng is also an aspect that can only play its value.

It's a pity that even if you use the terrain to get close, you can start hand-to-hand combat. However, the hand-to-hand combat ability of modern troops still far exceeds that of these traditional old-style armies, and soldiers with various cold weapons such as swords, shields, or spears cannot occupy an advantage in the face of the bayonet phalanx of modern infantry. On the contrary, it will be at an absolute disadvantage.

This kind of thing didn't just happen in the Battle of Guangzhou, but in the past when the Chinese army fought the Taiping army or the Qing army. It was also the hand-to-hand infantry that used bayonets to directly defeat those old armies many times.

After reading the battle report, Qu Panyun said: "Well, this morning's battle is still okay. However, it is also necessary to control the scale and duration of the battle to avoid excessive casualties, although our auxiliary defense force has more troops, but it is not unlimited! ”

This tactic of killing a hundred enemies and losing five or six hundred oneself is good once or twice, even if it is earned on the surface, but it still has too much impact on the Third Army, and the 10th Infantry Division still needs the assistance of the Auxiliary Defense Army in the follow-up battle.

At the same time, Ergin, who was outside the city, frowned when he heard that the two infantry battalions attacking the outer city had been counterattacked, resulting in nearly 100 casualties.

Although a mere 100 casualties were nothing for the total strength of the Anglo-French army of 6,000, it was a very obvious signal that the Chinese army on the opposite side had the strength to inflict large-scale casualties on their own troops, so that the follow-up battles had to be more careful.

The first attack on the inner city was frustrated, and the Count of Ergin also put aside his plan to capture Guangzhou in three or five days, but adopted a steady and steady way to advance gradually.

On the one hand, the artillery bombardment continued outside the eastern wall of the inner city, and at the same time, several small-scale siege battles were launched, but they were all repulsed by the Chinese army at the head of the city.

At the same time, it is also for the fleet to strengthen the artillery support for the city, but limited by the distance and the obstruction of the buildings in the city, it is difficult for the fleet's artillery fire to directly aim at the support, as for the use of curves for artillery support, the long-barreled grenades of this year have not yet appeared, those mortars can but the range is too close, and the cannon is difficult to hit the curved trajectory, even if it can barely hit, but the accuracy does not need to be counted on.

In this regard, the British and French fleets adopted the old method, that is, to remove some light guns from the ship, and then transport them to land for shelling, those more than 12 pounds of artillery to get off the ship is naturally difficult, but the British and French fleets are not all those heavy naval guns, some small and medium-sized ships also have 12 pounds, even 9 pounds, 6 pounds of light and medium naval guns, in addition to some medium-caliber mortars are also relatively light. It can be carried up and used.

Despite the difficulty of carrying these guns removed from the ship, and the absence of a stable platform for the ship. It was very inconvenient to fight on land, but it took a lot of time and manpower. It is still possible to carry part of the artillery to the army, and then launch an artillery bombardment of the inner city of Guangzhou.

Qu Panyun was also a little helpless about the continuous intensification of the enemy's artillery bombardment, and there were only so many artillery forces under his command, as the main force, there were only three companies of 12-pounder artillery, a total of 18 guns, and two companies of 32-pounder mortars and a six-pounder artillery company, and the artillery force of the Third Army, that is, the divisional artillery regiment of the 10th Infantry Division, was only 36 guns.

In addition, some old artillery pieces were captured from the Qing army. The main thing is that the heavy artillery on the original Guangzhou city wall, the weight of each cannon varies, from 1,000 catties to 5,000 catties, if converted into the pound specifications of the Chinese army, there are about nine pounds of three, 12 pounds of the standard of seven, and there are two of 18 pounds of caliber.

Although the caliber of these guns is not small, the quality is really unsightly, not to mention some old guns. Moreover, they are all iron cannons with poor casting quality, and there is a danger of exploding every shot fired in this minute, so not to mention that it can burst out with a rate of fire of two or even three rounds per minute like the standard artillery of the Chinese army, and it cannot even maintain one shot per minute. It often takes two or three minutes to dare to make a shot.

In order to carry out continuous shelling, it is often necessary to fire at intervals of five or six minutes or even ten minutes, otherwise it will not take long to explode. And what makes the people of the Ordnance Department of the Chinese Army depressed. These cannons turned out to be all iron cannons, and none of them had the same value as the old inferior bronze cannons.

Guangdong was the main base for iron production and artillery manufacturing in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Especially in the past ten years, Guangdong has undertaken a considerable number of artillery manufacturing tasks for the Qing court, mainly because Foshan is a traditional iron-producing area in Guangdong. However, these iron cannons cast by the Qing court and the iron cannons cast by the Linde Machine Factory are two different things.

Although the iron cannon cast by Linde Machinery Factory is slightly different from the bronze cannon in terms of performance, it also has a strict quality control system, and the cannon can be used normally, but it will not be said that it will explode after a few shots, but the quality of these iron cannons cast in Guangdong is really not good, although the caliber and weight are large, but the amount of charge will explode if it is too much, and if it is according to the normal one shot per minute, it will also explode.

For these artillery pieces that cannot be returned to the furnace and the quality is worrying, the Chinese army is pinching its nose and continuing to use it, and it cannot be said that it is still there in vain.

Compared with the British and French forces, this large-caliber artillery is at an absolute disadvantage, especially after the British and French forces have brought a large number of naval guns ashore.

As for small-caliber artillery, such as four-pounder or even smaller-caliber artillery, these artillery pieces generally belong to the ranks of infantry artillery, for example, the Chinese army is directly equipped with two four-pounder infantry guns in each infantry battalion, with a firing range of only a few hundred meters, and usually does not fire solid shells or grenades, grenades and other common bullets, but directly pushes the line to fire scattered bullets at the enemy infantry phalanx.

Therefore, don't look at the small caliber of these four-pounder guns, but if they are used well, this cannon can kill and injure dozens of people.

However, these small-caliber guns can only be used when the two sides are in close combat, and they are of no use in the current artillery battle at medium and long distances.

This artillery can't fight, Qu Panyun can only put his hope on the infantry troops, no matter how fierce the enemy artillery is, but if they want to attack the city, they always have to let the infantry come up, and the hope of the Chinese army is to directly kill and injure a large number of enemy infantry when the two sides are in short combat.

The large-scale artillery bombardment by the British and French forces lasted for four or five whole days, and the Chinese army, which had endured many days of heavy shelling, was uncomfortable, and the artillery unit had already destroyed a small half of its artillery, and the artillery suffered very heavy casualties, and the 10th Division had to transfer ordinary soldiers to serve as artillery.

The city wall as the main body of defense is even more full of holes, the east wall of the inner city was once blown down dozens of meters of large gap, the British and French forces took the opportunity to launch an attack, but in the city defenders sacrificed at least nearly 1,000 people and nearly 100 Royal Army soldiers under the resistance, it can be regarded as barely blocked, and the gap with sand and gravel is re-plugged.

Against this backdrop, the Anglo-French forces finally launched their first large-scale general assault on the already crumbling inner city! (To be continued......)