The Chinese army has a fine tradition of using auxiliary units such as baggage as infantry, and as early as the era of Yu Shengjun, it frequently used baggage units to directly participate in infantry line operations.

For example, these baggage soldiers are carrying mini rifles, and in terms of training, in addition to the inherent training of the baggage troops, they also have to participate in some training of the infantry.

They may not be as good as regular infantry in terms of combat effectiveness, but they can also be used as infantry when necessary.

In the case of line battles, officers may also worry that the morale and tenacity of these baggage troops will not be comparable to that of regular infantry, which will lead to a large-scale collapse in line battles.

But now fighting in Guangzhou, what they want to carry out is a defensive battle, Qu Panyun does not plan to directly engage the British and French forces in a field duel outside the city, he wants to use the city wall and the trenches and other fortifications at the foot of the city wall to fight a defensive battle.

In defensive warfare, the morale, training and resilience of the soldiers are relatively low, and the soldiers of the baggage troops can be used as ordinary infantry, and even the musketeers in the auxiliary defense army can be used as regular troops.

In modern and ancient wars, it is very common to rely heavily on ordinary people for defending cities.

If it is a duel out of the city, Qu Panyun can only use a mere 10th Auxiliary Defense Division, but if it is a defense battle, the hot weapon troops that can be used under his command can reach about 15,000 people. In addition, there are at least more than 10,000 cold weapon auxiliary troops and a larger number of strong people to use.

It would be foolish not to use such a big advantage!

When the Qing army and the Taiping army faced the attack of the Chinese army, why did they like to defend so much? It's because the defender of the city will take a big advantage.

Bai Gui, who was quite clear about the defenders in the city, was quite confident that the Chinese army could hold Guangzhou, and for this night, he showed the most active work enthusiasm in his career. From the evening onwards, he traveled all over the city, contacting the gentry and wealthy merchants in the city, so that those who had money could contribute money, and those who had food would pay for them, and those who had families and healthy servants would have to send out people.

In order to make those gentry and wealthy businessmen obedient, Qu Panyun also specially sent an infantry battalion of the Auxiliary Defense Army to Baigui to obey his dispatch, and directly issued a military order, if anyone obstructs the plan to defend the city, he will be executed on the spot!

This translates to this, if these gentry and rich businessmen are quite iron-clad and have nothing to offer. The Chinese army will directly kill it and take it themselves.

Although the Chinese army rarely dared to massacre cities and loot such things, it can only be said that it was not done on a large scale, and there were still small-scale looting, especially organized looting by troops.

For example, since the Third Army marched into Guangdong, since it was impossible for military rations to be transported from Jiangsu and Zhejiang all the time, the grain needed and some other daily supplies had to be requisitioned on the spot.

This kind of expropriation depends on the situation, if it is a control area that has been conquered, then it will be more standardized, and sometimes money. If you don't have the money to give, you will make an IOU, which will give the local officials in the back a headache. But if it's in a war zone, such as the current city of Guangzhou, these rules are rarely followed. Small-scale looting is largely counted as part of the normal process of loot capture.

The reputation of the Chinese Army is not very good, at the beginning of its establishment, it was famous for extortion and extortion in Huzhou, and the excerpts of the impeachment of Lin Zhe and the Chinese Army in the early years could almost fill Xianfeng's desk.

Now the Third Army is doing quite well. He politely asked you to donate one or two, and didn't say that he would let you take out all your property and food. If you don't pull out a dime, then the Chinese army will not be polite and go straight in and rob it yourself.

Although the gentry in the city of Guangzhou said that they had encountered the first opium war more than ten years ago. But to be honest, the British army at that time was relatively kind, they only asked the official for compensation, but did not loot the entire city, but now when they meet the Chinese army, it feels worse than the first opium war in the Daoguang period.

In order to save their lives, or for other reasons, these gentry and wealthy merchants began to contribute money and food one by one, and in less than one night, the gentry and wealthy merchants in the city actually made up as much as 800,000 taels of silver for the 'army silver', and another batch of grain, which was not much, but enough for 30,000 or 40,000 people to eat for at least half a month.

That night, Bai Gui's job was not only to let the gentry and rich merchants pay for food, but his more important job was to mobilize the people of the whole city, and then go to repair the city wall and other fortifications overnight, you must know that those British and French troops were only formed in one day from Guangzhou, and by tomorrow, the British and French troops would definitely arrive in Guangzhou even if they walked slowly.

Therefore, this night is very precious time for the Chinese army, they need this night to repair the wall that they have broken down, and at the same time build a large number of fortifications.

On this night, almost the whole city of Guangzhou was brightly lit, and the ordinary people in the city were driven out by the Chinese army that filled the streets, and all men over 12 and under 70 years old, married, and women under 60 years old had to get up overnight, and then go to the city wall or other places to work under the supervision of those bald soldiers.

Some good people have counted that this night, the Chinese army at least drove more than 100,000 people to repair the city wall, build city fortifications and other labor, just this night, the Chinese army initially repaired the broken city wall, although the gaps can not be restored as before, but have accumulated a large number of mud and sand stones, can not be used as the city wall, but can also block the enemy from breaking through the gap.

On the city walls, the batteries for the twelve-pounder guns and the twenty-four and thirty-two-pounder mortars were erected in a short time, and at dawn all the guns were installed, and the mere installation of these cannons drove away at least five thousand men in one night. These cannons, which were more than a ton high, were carried to the city wall step by step by these people, and those shells were also carried by hand one by one.

In addition to the restoration of the walls themselves. Naturally, the city wall fortifications built by the Chinese army could not be as simple as a simple section of the city wall, and they installed anti-artillery holes on each pheasant wall on the city wall mountain. Wooden stakes were erected and then covered with planks, which were used to protect against grenades and grenades in the Anglo-French forces.

On the periphery under the city wall, the Chinese army also urgently dug a trench about seven kilometers of the main factory, the trench is at least one meter deep, the soldiers can bend down to pass, and when they are fighting, they still need to step on the high place, because the front loading Mini rifle is still used, so in order to allow the soldiers to be able to load smoothly, in fact, the trench is two meters wide. When fighting, they do not say that they fight directly close to the trench, but stand in the middle of the trench to fight, otherwise it will affect the battle, and the trench also has anti-artillery holes built at intervals to prevent the bombardment of grenades and grenades.

In addition to the ditches outside the city and the fortifications of the city wall, the Chinese army also planned to build barrier fortresses on the inside of the city wall, that is, in the urban area near the city wall, so as to prevent the ditches and city walls outside the city from being breached by the enemy, so as to retreat to the city and fight.

Of course. The fortifications in the city were not something that could be done last night, but could be left for the next few days.

On this night, the entire city of Guangzhou was almost brightly lit, and the light was to prevent these people who had been forcibly driven to work overnight from working hungry. The Chinese army almost provided a supper and breakfast for more than 100,000 people.

Of course, there is no salary!

This night can be said to be a great leap forward in the history of modern city defense construction, and the Chinese military has done something almost impossible with various means. That is, it took only one night to complete the initial repair of the damaged eastern city wall of Guangzhou, and the preliminary construction of the outer moat defense system. Moreover, this was established under the condition that the main forces of the Chinese Army, namely the 10th Infantry Division and the 8th Auxiliary Defense Division, did not participate in the work. These main forces need to rest well and regain their strength, and strive to face the British and French forces in the best condition tomorrow.

But behind this near-miraculous project, there are bloody figures!

In order to collect money and grain, the Chinese army, under the guidance of Bai Gui, the head snake, killed at least 20 rich gentry and merchants who refused to pay for food!

In order to drive the people of the city to repair the walls, they shot at least 500 people on the spot in the process who refused to work!

On this night, more than 1,000 people were killed and injured in the city!

The Chinese army led by Qu Panyun laid the foundation of Guangzhou's city defense with the same cruelty as any army of this era!

When the sun rose the next day, the people who had worked all night had withdrawn from the trench defense system outside the city and descended the city walls, except for nearly 10,000 able-bodied young men who were still working, and the rest of the people were allowed to go home.

Although these people did not sleep all night and were forced to work at high intensity for more than 12 hours in a row, in fact, except for the so-called Diao people who refused to work and were shot and whipped, most of the people were not treated at all except for being tired, on the contrary, the Chinese army also provided a supper and breakfast.

And this supper and breakfast are not porridge or anything like that, but real white rice, which is actually a relatively cost-effective way for the poor family in the city, which is a night's work in exchange for two full meals.

You don't see that they can't eat this white rice at ordinary times, let alone eat white rice to their heart's content.

As the people evacuated the city wall one after another and returned to their respective homes, Qu Panyun also called Bai Gui, who had not slept all night and stared at the red bloodshot eyes!

"Kashiwa-sama has worked hard!" Although Qu Panyun didn't have a good impression of this Baigui at first, he saw him running all night, and finally assisted the Chinese Army to mobilize more than 100,000 people in the city to participate in the construction of the city fortifications.

Although Bai Gui looked tired, he didn't dare to make any expressions like he was tired in front of Qu Panyun, so he could only force himself and said: "General Lao Qu is worried, hundreds of officials in the city ran together last night, and they finally lived up to the military order!" ”

Qu Panyun said: "At this time, I will definitely report to Nanjing, the empire has always had clear rewards and punishments, since Lord Bai made the credit last night, I am afraid that it will not be long before His Majesty's reward arrives!" ”

Hearing Qu Panyun say this, Bai Gui also took a reassurance, he has been working for more than sixteen hours in a row from yesterday to now, what is this for, isn't it just to make a contribution, and then strive for a foothold in the system of the Chinese Empire. (To be continued......)