The moon was dark and the wind was high, and in the cold trenches of the Taiping Army, the dog baby was wiping the rifle in her hand, fiddling with a few paper-shelled guns in her hand.

The handle of the gun is carved with patterns, as if it is a foreign letter, the hammer of the dragon's head, slightly rusty, full of metallic, now the Taiping Army is equipped with this kind of rifle is not a few, the dog baby cherishes his gun very much, holding it always reminds of the three girls in the countryside with pigtails.

When will I be able to go home and marry my wife? The dog baby knew that he was whimsical, but he couldn't suppress the thought.

Some people say that the demon soldiers of the white-faced demon king do not kill prisoners, as long as they lay down their weapons, they can go back to the countryside to marry a wife and have a son, and they also say that few people in the south will starve to death now; Some people also say that the white-faced demon king's demon soldiers "sky lantern" and "disemboweled" are all secretly bowed down, and when you return home, maybe when you wake up, your intestines and stomach will be gone, and then you will die of pain.

The dog baby still believes in the latter statement, otherwise, how can there be such a cheap thing in this world? If you have a good meal, you will be able to eat? Dog baby from birth, has not eaten a few full meals, a few years ago famine, grabbing Guanyin soil to eat, almost swelled to death, and then believed in God, because the Father said, as long as you listen to the words of the king of heaven, kill all the demons, then everyone has something to eat.

But a few months ago, I heard that Lin Lvshuai surrendered to the Qing Demon with a large group of people, aren't you afraid of being beheaded?

The dog baby couldn't figure it out, but he knew that the white-faced demon king was God's opponent, the evil dragon that the Heavenly Father said, and he could be God's opponent, was it three heads and six arms? The dog baby really wants to see him, but the demon soldiers and demon methods under his command are so powerful, if you look at him, will you be blind?

The dog baby was thinking wildly, and there was a slight snoring sound next to her, and when she turned her head to look, it was the eldest brother and the second brother who were swearing and half leaning on the ditch and napping.

The dog baby felt a little cold, pulled the cloth coat, leaned against the cold lumps, and slowly closed her eyes.

Suddenly, "bang", there was a loud noise in the distance, the dog baby was excited, and the swift servant fell down on the ditch, the rifle was raised, the probe went to see, in the dark night, next to the loess slope closest to the demon soldiers in the east, faintly saw thousands of meteors like rain, the sound of killing was loud, looking at the flashing almost fleeting Mars, the dog baby's hair stood up, because he knew that after this seemingly weak Mars, it was the indestructible bullet rain, pouring down, overwhelming, The unstoppable impact of death is only known to be shocking when you have faced it on the battlefield.

Suddenly, the trenches, which had just been silent, suddenly moved, and rows of spears were mounted in the trenches, and shiny broadswords and spears danced in the faint light of the fire.

"Prepare to kill the demon soldiers!" The Red Turban Commander shouted hoarsely.

The dog baby numbly aimed ahead, waiting for the demon soldiers to attack...... At the end of April 1859, the Pingyuan Army adopted the tactics of attacking the enemy's weakness, secretly dug the trench in front of the Taiping Army's No. 009 position, and selected an elite post to raid, but was discovered by the bandits, and a skirmish opened the prelude to the Nanchang Campaign.

The Pingyuan Army gathered the soldiers and horses of the three towns and began to bombard the Taiping army positions at night, while the third town, Han Jinchun, set up an ambush in the area of Yuyang Town to block the Taiping army reinforcements in the Jiujiang and Raozhou areas.

Under the city of Nanchang, the armed forces of the Southern Dynasties poured from all directions one after another, the headquarters of the Pingyuan Army set up a transfer office in Quanling, and a group of militia groups mixed with rifles, knives and spears were distributed in Quanling, and most of them were sent to Yuyang and dispatched by the third town.

Horse-drawn carriages full of supplies are like a long queue in the small town of Quanling.

"Kill the longhair! Kill the longhair! "Whenever a soldier passes through the town, it will attract a burst of applause from the women and children watching the bustle on both sides of the street, and the militia soldiers will also hold their heads high at this time, as if they are really going to do something earth-shattering.

More than 40,000 people from the infantry regiment, patrol regiment and militia regiment of the Pingyuan Army under the city of Nanchang are densely covered with flags and camps on the banks of the Ganjiang River.

The main attack on the position of the Taiping Army was naturally the infantry regiment of the Pingyuan Army, and in the trenches where the dogs and teeth were staggered, there were fierce battles everywhere, and the battles for positions everywhere, the fighting of trenches one by one, and white-knuckle battles had almost become the theme of the war.

The trench warfare not only greatly slowed down the advance of the Pingyuan Army, but also greatly weakened the firepower advantage of the Pingyuan Army.

The beacon flames were rolling, and within a radius of several miles, the shouts of killing soared into the sky.

By the beginning of May, the Pingyuan army swept the surrounding area, occupied Laoshukou, Wuyang Town, and Fushan one after another, and gradually pushed the battle line to the outskirts of Nanchang.

The command post of the Pingyuan Army is a temporary brick house, and the furnishings inside are also very simple, with only a wooden table and a few chairs.

Ye Zhao put his hands behind his back and looked at the military map hanging on the wall, on which a ravine and a creek were marked extremely clearly.

In the command post, in addition to Harwich and Shenbao, there were also several staff officers from the military room such as Feng Zicai.

Looking at every battlefield with a red cross on the map, Ye Zhao could almost imagine the tragedy of the two armies strangling in this inch of land.

In trench warfare, many times it is necessary to rely on night battles, sending elite troops to sneak up and storm the enemy's weakly defended trench positions, and break through the opponent's defense line with points and areas.

Although the Taiping army has now been suppressed to the Jingkou area, the muskets are more dense, and the batteries can already support its operations.

Clicked a red fork, it was a village, less than a mile away from the gate of Nanchang City, Ye Zhao said lightly: "I must take it tomorrow." ”

Both Jimbo and Harwich were in good spirits, which almost signaled the beginning of the general offensive.

"Wow!" The two agreed in unison, and Shen Bao said in a loud voice: "The infantry team of the minions will not be dishonored!" ”

Harwich smiled and said, "Bao Shuai, wait for you to make a contribution." "His second town is mainly attacking the east gate, but it is actually a feint. Although he was not convinced, he still smiled and showed no traces.

Ye Zhao smiled slightly: "Lao Ha, don't be idle, the artillery will be transported to you and knock out the fort at the east gate." ”

Harwich was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed, and knelt down on one knee: "If the slave can't break through the east gate, this head is at the disposal of the master." ”

Ye Zhao nodded: "Let's go." ”

beckoned Feng Zicai and a few other staff officers, and studied the map again.

In the area of Mazhuang, there are red turbans everywhere in and out, and the residents of the village have long been driven away, and several artillery pieces have been erected next to the big willow tree in the center of the village.

The village is close to the Yudai River in the west, and there are several mountain passes in the east, and sandbags and barbed wire trench fortifications are built in front of the village, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Pingyuan army engineers tried to dig the trench secretly several times, but they were either defeated by the artillery fire in the village, or they were killed by the snow knife team.

The commander stationed in Mazhuang is Li Shixian, the cousin of King Zhong, and he is a first-class general of the Ministry of King Zhong, although he is only in his twenties, he is "young and strong", and his subordinate snow knife team is the elite of the Taiping Army's West Route Army.

This time, he led thousands of elite sons and daughters to guard the defense line of Mazhuang, and Li Shixian issued a military order with his head, and people must be in Mazhuang.

In addition to the victorious sword team, its brigade was equipped with two thousand foreign guns earlier, and the weapon was fierce, riding a horse and walking in the village, the young and heroic Li Shixian inevitably gave birth to the intention of underestimating the heroes of the world, and repelled the attack of the Pingyuan army several times, Li Shixian rubbed his hands, and heard that the white-faced demon king came to Nanchang in person, and really wanted to fight with it, and see what is terrible about this demon king!

In the trench outside the village, after rows of foreign guns were mounted on the fortifications built with barbed wire sandbags, this was the first elite soldier of the first brigade equipped with foreign guns, and the guns were skillful, which made the Pingyuan army suffer losses again and again.

"Brigade Marshal!" In front of the trench, the forward commander Zhang Zhicheng bowed down to salute, he carried a British made on the battlefield, this is the Pingyuan Army Infantry Regiment standard gun, copper bullet rear loading, fast rate of fire, slightly longer range, the Taiping Army also has a small amount of equipment, all as a baby, I heard that the Shanghai black market, thirty taels of silver is not very easy to buy, but also rely on the nine dragons to sell friendship.

Li Shixian dismounted, took the clairvoyant mirror and looked at the Pingyuan army position hundreds of steps away, under the morning light, the Pingyuan army position was unusually quiet, and there was no movement in the nearest trench that was secretly dug by its sappers, and this trench was only more than 200 steps away from his own position.

Zhang Zhicheng followed the brigade marshal's gaze, knew the brigade marshal's intentions, and said with a smile: "Brigade marshal, the last general has an idea, simply ask the demon to dig the trench over, let's set up an ambush to block him, hum, in this ditch, but they can't help it, come and kill one by one, come and kill a pair, keep and kill the demon crying father and mother." ”

Li Shixian bowed slightly, and instructed: "Don't be careless." "Although there seems to be a raging fire burning in my heart, if I despise the demon soldiers under the demon king, I will inevitably suffer a big loss.

"The last will know." Zhang Zhicheng smiled, and a long scar on his face looked extremely weird.

Li Shixian looked at him, his gaze gradually gentle, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Be careful." The scar on Zhang Zhicheng's face was left to save him when he attacked the Jizi camp of the Hunan army.

Suddenly, the sound of artillery fire and gunfire sounded in the Dongfang Mountain Pass, and Li Shixian smiled: "The Qing Demon went to touch Lao Jiu's ass again, but he couldn't please him." ”

Chen Jiunai is a general under Li Shixian who is known for his stability, leading a foreign gun team and a few artillery, and the Pingyuan army is afraid that it will be difficult to take advantage.

As he was talking, suddenly under the morning sun, countless figures in gray military uniforms jumped out of the trenches of the Pingyuan army, the horn sounded, and the sound of killing was loud, like a tiger rushing towards the Taiping army's position.

The red turbans immediately fired their guns, although they didn't expect that the Pingyuan army would charge during the day, and those who had been guarding all night were napping, but they were all veterans of a hundred battles, and soon the gunfire became intensive.

Li Shixian smiled: "What are you doing?" ”

I thought it was just another attempt by the Pingyuan Army to attack the surname, but one by one the gray military uniforms were shot and fell, but no one stopped, and in the shouts, one after another.

There was a loud "bang" sound, and the gray military uniforms that rushed to the front jumped into the trench where the red turbans gathered with cluster grenades.

Li Shixian's face finally changed, more than two hundred steps, it seemed to be extremely close, but under the dense row of guns, the soldiers of the Pingyuan Army fell like sorghum, and the corpses of the gray military uniforms were immediately lying all over the yellow earth, but finally, the fragile barbed wire was broken away, and the first few gray soldiers in military uniforms twisted grenades and jumped into the trenches, "boom, boom, boom", thick smoke rose everywhere, and the soldiers of the Pingyuan Army who were broken were lying on the loess, and they also threw grenades one after another, and what they didn't have in their hands touched from the corpses.

Li Shixian looked at this scene in amazement, looking at the gray soldiers in military uniforms who were beaten with blood holes all over their bodies, watching them shouting and charging for their lives, and he didn't know how to rise unspeakable emotions in his chest.

In the trenches of the Pingyuan Army, the sentry officer Jia Youzhi cried, rushing to the front was his first outpost, the person was almost dead, his leg was injured yesterday, although he couldn't hold on to the line of fire, he didn't have anything to do with the charge today.

With tears in his eyes, he shouted, "Fuck your mother's grandson!" You have to avenge Lao Tzu and Lao Tzu's soldiers! ”

The two sentinels have never been harmonious, shouting and scolding all day long, Sun Laosan didn't return his mouth for the first time, with red eyes, picked up the bayonet, and shouted: "Rush to Lao Tzu!" ”

Countless gray uniforms leaped up from the trenches again.

The sound of trumpets and trumpets of the charge, at last, the gray military uniform rushed into the position of the red turban with a bright bayonet, and the soldiers met each other.

Zhang Zhicheng's face was cold, and he slashed the soldiers of the Pingyuan Army who rushed up with a knife, and shouted: "Kill all the demons!" ”

Snowy blades flew, and hundreds of red turbans rushed up like tigers.

Rows of rushing bayonets and red turbans are getting closer and closer, getting closer and closer, and then, in the jingle and muffled sound, countless bayonets and snow blades collide in high-speed movement, the first wave of impact is inevitable, and the red turban snow knife hands brush down a row, but then fall into a close melee, the steel knife can no longer suffer, but short and short, more room to play.

Hand-to-hand combat, the competition is will, maybe you will not be afraid of the charge in the rain of bullets, but under the cold weapon, the cold blade pierces the chest and belly of your companion, beckoning to you at once, the screams everywhere, the feeling that makes people tremble from the heart is the greatest test of a person's will.

In fact, in many cases, the casualty rate of the victor is not high, because soon one side will break down, scatter and flee, and be chased by the victorious side.

But next to the trenches of Mazhuang, it was a fierce battle, no one side retreated, the corpses of both sides piled higher and higher, and the shouts of killing became louder and louder.

A ** seems to be a never-ending impact.

A few hundred steps away, Li Shixian, who was organizing the foreign gun team to lay down the second line of defense with the cover of houses and trees, was stunned by this scene, he imagined that the fierce snow knife team under his command would be destroyed one day under the artillery fire of the Pingyuan army, but he never thought that the snow knife team would be submerged by the sea of bayonets of the Pingyuan army, and would be killed by the soldiers of the Pingyuan army for their lives.

At this moment, the word "demon soldier" was involuntarily forgotten by him, and he only felt that it was a blasphemy against the army in front of him.

Attack! Attack! Attack!

The soldiers of the Pingyuan Army will never stop launching a death charge again and again! No matter how many soldiers fell, the cold bayonets soon gathered into a sea again, tireless! Fearless to death!

Look left and right, all the foreign gunners are as earth-colored as dirt, Li Shixian sighed in his heart, I know, it's over!

At this time, everywhere on the southern front, the sound of killing was everywhere, from a bird's-eye view of the sky, dense gray uniformed soldiers poured up all over the mountains, in the streams, in the trenches, everywhere there were tragic battles.

How can the tragedy of this white-knuckle battle that shocked future generations be shown on the screen in later generations?

"The sea of bayonets of the Pingyuan Army destroyed the will of the rebels in a overwhelming manner, and the southern Chinese army, and in its brutal form, announced to the world that they were the most decisive force in the Far East."

A few months later, the Times used that statement when it reported on the campaign.

…… In the study room of Zhongwangfu, Li Xiucheng had a gloomy face.

Although there were still tens of thousands of troops and horses in the city, Li Xiucheng knew that these temporarily summoned people went to the battlefield to fight with the Pingyuan army, which would only lead to a greater rout.

Defending the city? Outside the east gate, the ground in the city, which seemed to be shaking with never-ending artillery fire, seemed to shake for a while, which was disturbing.

"What about the army in front of the palace? Why hasn't it arrived yet? Li Xiucheng paced, his heart was irritable, and in front of the bookcase, there was a long-bearded and elegant old man, extremely calm.

"Why is the gentleman teaching me now?" Li Xiucheng looked at the old man.

The old man said lightly: "Abandon the city and go west." ”

Li Xiucheng smiled bitterly: "Do you want to go to Jiujiang?" I'm just afraid of ......" sighed, quite disheartened.

The old man said lightly: "No, for today's plan, if the prince wants to make a comeback, the only way to go west is to go to Qinghai." ”

Li Xiucheng was stunned and looked at the old man, the leader of the Fairness Party, known as Lu Yueting, the leader of the Fairness Party who was followed by 100,000 party members.

Lu Yueting came to vote a year ago, Li Xiucheng didn't care at first, but because he had a lot of relationship with Su Hongniang, who was powerful but renegade, Li Xiucheng met him, and after talking, he was immediately invited as a guest, and he began to disagree with the old man's refusal to cut his braids, but the old gentleman said that the parents of the body hair and skin, go to stay at will, cut or not is freedom, but there is no need to be too strict, the future society, what you want is this freedom. What's more, he is mostly active in Qingjing, so he doesn't have to cut his braids.

Digging trenches was also Lu Yueting's idea, and it really limited the combat power of the Pingyuan Army to the greatest extent, although the defeat has now been achieved, but the Pingyuan Army must have suffered the most serious attrition since the resistance to Britain and France.

It is said that this tactic is to read Su Hongniang's military book.

Li Xiucheng admired it in his heart, and couldn't help but be even more leisurely fascinated by Su Hongniang, Mr. Lu is just Su Hongniang's staff, and he has experienced such a talent, so what kind of character is Su Hongniang? It's just a pity, beautiful woman, why be a thief?

And Mr. Lu also said early that Nanchang cannot last, sooner or later it will fall, and it will be difficult to return to the sky if the river is overturned.

But now, where do we go from here? Qinghai, what kind of place is it?

Lu Yueting twisted his beard and said lightly: "The old man traveled to Qinghai a few years ago, where the land is vast and sparsely populated, the terrain is strange, the desert grasslands are deep and the mountains and dense forests are dangerous, the Qing people's power is extremely weak, and there are twenty-five tribes, who do not return to education, and disobey the Qing people, and have their own side of the world. ”

"Heaven is located in a prosperous place, now into the north and south of the country, the defeat has been achieved, although regretful, but also unable to return to the sky, the loyal king must not care about the success or failure of the moment, the west into Qinghai, the twenty-five tribes, and the twenty-five tribes and the southwest Tibetans have many grudges, the prince can use it, get the heart of the twenty-five tribes, Xu Tu development."

"Once the Kingdom of Heaven falls, sooner or later there will be a war between the Qing people and the North and South groups, even if they know that the prince has infiltrated the western frontier, the north and the south will have no time to take care of it, and the prince can take the opportunity to recuperate, just wait for the world to change, and then enter the Central Plains."

"I see the Southern Dynasty as strong and prosperous, but I am afraid that sooner or later there will be disputes with the Western countries, and the prince only needs to endure the anger for a while, and there will be a comeback."

Saying that, Lu Yueting said with a smile: "The 20,000 soldiers in front of the palace are equal to the orders of the loyal king, and the loyal king has 20,000 elites, and he will be able to march all the way to break the obstruction of the Qing people, as long as he reaches Qinghai, the big thing will be done." I know many leaders of the twenty-five clans, and the prince doesn't have to worry about guests entering a foreign land. ”

Li Xiucheng frowned slightly, it turned out that the army in front of the palace had not entered the Nanchang battlefield for a long time, but it was he who pretended to pass on his own order to prepare for the westward expedition.

Lu Yueting could see that he was displeased, and sighed: "Lord Wang, even if the army in front of the palace enters Nanchang, it will not add a few more wisps of loyalty. ”

Li Xiucheng was silent.

Lu Yueting said: "Although Qinghai is barren, it is not without merit, the people are fierce, as long as you have the hearts of the twenty-five clans, it is not a problem for the prince to come from soldiers, not to mention that the old man has some like-minded Western friends, and he will support the prince." The Southern Dynasties valued commerce and paid attention to the circulation of goods, so if we purchased military supplies from Hong Kong and smuggled them across the border, it would not be too difficult, and perhaps we could build some guns in Qinghai. ”

Saying that, he took a sip of tea, and said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is as dangerous as a pill, the King of Loyalty is marching westward, the kings of Tianjing may still have a glimmer of life, and when King Zhong has a foothold in Qinghai, he will plan how to solve the crisis of Tianjing." He knew that Li Xiucheng was worried, and every word of advice was a knot in the heart of the king.

Li Xiucheng listened, slowly picked up the teacup, and after a while, he finally nodded and said, "I'll listen to you." ”

On May 16, 1859, the Taiping army entrenched in Nanchang City for several years was recovered, the king of the bandits was nowhere to be found, a few days later the Northern Dynasty found the traces of the Taiping army in Hubei, I thought that it wanted to meet with the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Wing King, and immediately surrounded it layer by layer, who knew that the bandit shook a shot, and then disappeared, half a month later, it broke several state capitals to grab grain, and soon, it was accurate to draw its intention to move westward along the border of Sichuan and Shaanxi, but at this time, the Northern Dynasty no longer had time to take care of the remnants of the bandits who fled to the barren land in the northwest. I want to die in the vast desert sooner or later.

The Pingyuan army entered Nanchang and sent Mi Anmin, and there were always 30,000 or 40,000 prisoners and bandits, some of whom had never been in the battle formation, and were dismissed on the spot, and the rest were sent to build railways for labor service, and the period of three years was naturally to brainwash their propaganda and education during this period.

The dog baby was sent to labor, but he finally saw the white-faced demon king with his own eyes, in the square, the graceful and luxurious young prince told them a word, persuading them to work with peace of mind, three years later, willing to be a sapper, welcome to stay, want to go home to marry a wife, also listen to respect, not to mention that he Jingxiang did what he said, there is no lie.

The dog baby unconsciously believed it, he had seen the king from afar, but in this comparison, he felt that the king had become a hillbilly, and the regent Chrysostom said that it was right.

What's more, everyone sent a salary of silver in advance on the same day, it turned out that this labor, there was also silver, and even ate cabbage stew, although there was no trace of meat stars, but compared to the numb life when the rebellion was terrified, this is simply the heaven that the Father said! Bah, what a heavenly father, the dog baby immediately spit out several mouthfuls of saliva, but it is a foreign devil and evil god, I bah!

What about Ye Zhao, this period is naturally very busy, Nanchang is one of the important towns where the bandits have been entrenched for the longest time, and it is imperative to quickly win the hearts of the people in Nanchang, and it can also send the most friendly message to the various realms where the bandits are deeply affected, even if the bandits are the most vicious place, Ye Zhao does not want to be like Zeng Guofan, a Nanjing Massacre.

Ye Zhao personally sent rice and grain, walked the streets to visit households, and met with the squire, and even followed the example of the American presidential campaign, gathering the people to give speeches in the square and personally explain the policies of the Southern Dynasties, which really set a precedent for China.

And the photo of Ye Zhao holding the little boy and smiling Yin Yin was also on the "Cantonese Daily", and even the entire first page had two big characters and a punctuation, "Long live!" ”

Various newspapers sent messages to congratulate the Pingyuan Army on its victory in Nanchang and congratulate the regent on his recreation.

Immediately, Su Hongniang's department entered Jiangxi, and on May 20, the regent ordered the ministries to rest and expand, and the towns were expanded to about 10,000 people. At the same time, the regent issued a general mobilization order for the whole army to all towns of the Pingyuan Army, calling on the whole army to fight bravely and launch a final attack on the strongholds where the bandits were entrenched, join the army in Nanjing, and exterminate the rebellion!

(To be continued)