Chapter 102 The protective commander fired the first volley with the fourth battalion, and nearly a hundred Taiping soldiers on the trench under the city wall a hundred meters away fell at once.

At the same time, it was not only the fourth battalion that fired, but also the first battalion that was supported by fire suppression in the rear, and their target was the Taiping army at the head of the city, and a large number of Taiping troops at the head of the city also fell after the shooting.

However, the fourth battalion that was inevitably hit by the double-layer fire of the Taiping army at the head of the city and the trench of the enemy army also fell a lot of people, although the power of the bird guns and bows and arrows used by the Taiping army was poor, the range was short, and the accuracy was poor, but they could not stand up to the large number of them, and thousands of people shot and shot arrows at once, which also made the fourth battalion fall at least dozens of people at one time.

Seeing that his fourth battalion had lost many people, Lin Zhe couldn't help but feel a tightness in his heart, these Taiping troops were very cunning, and they even hid in advance and knew to give themselves a surprise attack.

Immediately, he ordered: "Let the fourth battalion retreat first, and the second and third battalions will step forward to suppress the enemy's firepower at the head of the city!" ”

He didn't want the fourth battalion to lose too much under the city, and although it was important to take Guangde and annihilate the enemy, if the loss was too great, it would be worth the loss.

After the fourth battalion received the order to retreat, Shen Chiyun still let the soldiers fight a second salvo, and then retreated with the soldiers of the fourth battalion.

At the same time, in order to cover the retreat of the fourth battalion, the infantry of the first, second, and third battalions in the rear burst out with the highest rate of fire, and continued to shoot bullets at the Taiping army at the head of the city, causing a large number of Taiping soldiers to suffer casualties.

Now that the Taiping army took the initiative to fight back, it meant that they left the cover of the city wall and the trench, which could be regarded as complete violence, and under the firepower of Yu Shengjun, the casualties in a short period of time were extremely heavy, forcing Lin Chengting to give up his plan to continue to attack the fourth battalion of Yu Shengjun outside the city.

After just a minute or two, the Taiping soldiers disappeared into the city and the trenches as if they had never appeared.

"How's the damage to the Fourth Battalion?" Lin Zhe asked Shen Chiyun, who had just returned.

At this time, Shen Chiyun looked ashamed: "Back to the commander, my fourth battalion killed sixteen people and injured twenty-eight!" The department has the trust of the marshal, and I hope that the marshal will be punished! ”

Lin Zhe was ostentatious: "It's enough to figure out their routines, you don't have to blame yourself too much!" ”

This allowed the fourth battalion to go into battle, the purpose of which was to test the defensive deployment of the Taiping army, and it was natural to suffer certain losses during the trial operation.

Moreover, in the short engagement just now, Yu Shengjun did not suffer a loss, and in the first round of shooting jointly fired by the first and fourth battalions, and later in the process of the second and third battalions rushing forward to support the operation, it was visually observed that at least three or four hundred Taiping troops were killed and wounded, or even more.

More importantly, now that Lin Zhe knows, the Taiping army did not abandon the city wall and hide in the city, but hid behind the city wall and trenches, trying to launch a short-distance counterattack against their attacking troops.

Now that he knows this, then Yu Shengjun will naturally find a way to target it next.

"Since their main forces are behind the city walls, then your artillery units should concentrate their attacks and blow up their city walls for me, and the thirty-two pounder mortars we brought should also be put to use to hit their trenches!"

After a tentative attack, Yu Shengjun concentrated artillery again, this time they did not directly shell the city, but tried to concentrate the fire of eighteen twelve-pounder guns, trying to destroy their city walls, as long as the city wall collapsed, then these Taiping soldiers hiding in the city naturally lost their shelter, even if they barely hid between the rubble, but the sparse formation and firepower could not bring too much threat to Yu Shengjun.

As for the enemy in the trenches, they fired grenades through guò artillery, especially the two 32-pounder mortars, which fired more grenades than 12-pounder guns.

In the rumbling of artillery, this time Yu Shengjun did not save shells, but launched a long-lasting artillery bombardment, so that the shells were consumed extremely quickly.

In order to ensure the supply of artillery shells and gunpowder, Qu Shengchao's more than 1,000 people have been transformed into transport troops, and the relay transport of artillery shells from Huzhou and Changxing has arrived at the Guangde front.

In addition to some of the grenades, grenades and gunpowder that needed to be transported from Shanghai, they were transported by Yu Shengjun's Quartermaster Bureau, and in addition to calling some of the ships of Yu Shengjun's naval division battalion and the Jianghai Patrol Police Department of the commercial and trade zone, Lin Zhe also used Su Songtai's power to recruit a large number of Chinese small and medium-sized inland river boats to transport supplies.

In order to supply the combat needs of Yu Sheng's 5,000 troops, the Quartermaster Bureau mobilized more than 100 large and small ships.

The reason for the large-scale use of river transportation is naturally because the water network in the south of the Yangtze River is dense, and the Yusheng Military Quartermaster Bureau can use a large number of military supplies purchased in Shanghai and collected through guò boats to reach Taihu Lake and Huzhou through the Huangpu River and other water networks, and the remaining section of the land route will be carried by the Huzhou people under Qu Shengchao's command.

As for Yu Shengjun's own baggage troops, some of them were responsible for short-term transportation tasks near the front line, but more of them served as combat troops.

The baggage troops in Yu Sheng's army have always been unusual, although they are auxiliary forces, equipped with a large number of carriages and other logistical equipment, but the soldiers in the baggage troops are each with a rifle.

Since the appearance of the baggage troops transformed from the people in the First World War of Si'an was not good, Yu Shengjun's various treatments and requirements for the baggage troops in the later period have been improved a lot, basically no different from the infantry, and even the daily training is carried out in comparison with the infantry.

The baggage soldiers trained in this way can naturally be pulled up and used as infantry when necessary.

Lin Zhe used these auxiliary troops as combat soldiers, and the main reason was naturally that Yu Shengjun's own troops were too small.

The two baggage battalions together have more than 800 people, and it would be a waste to let them only be responsible for logistics and transportation tasks.

Under the support of the Quartermaster Bureau of the Yu Sheng Army, the Huzhou Minzhuang, and the baggage troops of the Yu Sheng Army in the rear, although the ammunition consumption of the Yu Sheng Army artillery unit was very large, it was still enough to continue the artillery bombardment, especially after a large number of grenades and grenade shots were delivered, so that the artillery of the Yu Sheng Army greatly strengthened the killing and damage of the long-distance living forces of the Taiping Army.

Yu Shengjun carried out artillery bombardment day and night, and at the same time sent troops to prepare to dig tunnels and blast the city wall from the ground.

In the next two or three days, it seemed that a qiē returned to calm, but this was just the appearance, how could Yu Shengjun's so many shells have no effect at all?

After many days of shelling, the east gate tower of Guangde City has long been reduced to ruins, and three sections of the eastern city wall have been destroyed, and more importantly for the Taiping army, their casualties are staggering.

"Marshal, today we have more than 200 brothers gone!" A commander of the Taiping Army said in a deep voice: "It's not okay to go on like this, since the defense of the city, our army has suffered more than 2,000 casualties, if we continue like this, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold it first without them attacking the city!" ”

Lin Chengting's hand grasping the armrest of the chair couldn't help but work harder, so that the green tendons were exposed.

Lin Chengting didn't have a good way to deal with the current situation, his original idea was to rely on the city head and trench to ambush, and then kill and injure Yu Shengjun at close range, and finally use this to lay the victory, but now it doesn't seem to have a big effect, that is, he fought once a few days ago, but after he only tried to fight once, he never came again.

Don't think that it's a good thing that Yu Shengjun doesn't come to attack the city, their infantry can't come, but their dozens of artillery pieces haven't stopped, firing day and night.

After their own artillery was destroyed, the Taiping army had no way to deal with the artillery of the Yusheng army outside the city, so they could only hold on!

But even if there are city walls and trenches as covers, they can't stand the non-stop bombardment of dozens of artillery pieces day and night, maybe there are not many casualties in a short time, but the cumulative result is an extremely terrible casualty figure.

Coupled with Yu Shengjun's use of rifle range to suppress fire, Taiping soldiers would be killed if they accidentally came out, which also added up to an extremely terrible casualty figure.

These cumulative casualties, combined with those inflicted by Yu Sheng's army during the siege of the city, have brought the Taiping army's casualties to more than 2,000.

If he continues, the remaining 10,000 people under his command won't last long!

recalled how high-spirited he was when he led more than 10,000 troops south and tried to find Lin Zhe Yixue's shame!

But he first reaped the setback under the city of Huzhou, and now he can't be beaten on the side of Guangde!

Could it be that this remnant army is really invincible?

Lin Chengting didn't believe it, even if Yu Shengjun could fight some, but he was definitely not invincible, and now he couldn't do it himself, just because he hadn't found a way to deal with it, as long as he found a way to deal with it, then he would be able to defeat Yu Shengjun and trample Lin Zhe under his feet!

After thinking for a long time, he ventured to the city wall again, looking at the tents of Yu Sheng's army camp outside the city, those cannons were fired at his side intermittently, and more and more siege vehicles also appeared outside the city, and there were more or less Yu Shengjun soldiers on the high platforms of those siege vehicles.

There are so many Yu Shengjun outside the city, I am afraid that this city will not be able to hold it, Lin Chengting sighed in his heart, although he has not said it to others, but at this moment he already has the idea of withdrawing troops in his heart.

This Guangde threw it away, and then he took the people and horses to southern Anhui, and then he tried the time, and then he made a comeback after he found a way to defeat Yu Shengjun, and he would definitely kill Yu Shengjun one day!

When Lin Chengting made up his mind to withdraw his troops and fantasized about defeating Yu Sheng's army in the future.

On the siege platform of Yu Shengjun outside the city, a soldier of Yu Shengjun saw Lin Chengting and his party secretly climb the city wall, and immediately shouted, and his seven or eight comrades-in-arms also reacted, and ten rifles of a platoon quickly aimed at them and shot.

With the crisp sound of gunshots, Lin Chengting only felt a huge thrust, and before he felt the pain, his whole body just fell backwards.

At the same time that Lin Chengting fell, the soldiers and other generals around him were all panicked!

"Protect the marshal!"

"Let's go!"