Major General Zhong Yilan trotted all the way with the Seventh Division under his command, and at this time they were only a kilometer away from the battlefield where the Second Army and the British and French forces were fighting.

Even if he hadn't arrived yet, he could see on his horse that the battle not far away had entered the incandescent stage, with a total of nearly 20,000 men on both sides, the infantry fighting with bayonets, the cavalry slashing with sabers, and many lives falling every second.

In this melee, he had already seen that the Second Army was supporting very hard, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that some of the Second Army had already been defeated and retreated, and the Second and Eleventh Divisions of the Second Army combined, the total number of infantry of less than 10,000 people was not even as good as those attacking British soldiers in terms of strength.

Unable to occupy a numerical advantage, and there is still a certain gap in the training quality of the two sides, it is very slim for the Second Army to win alone with its own strength in this situation.

But the officers and men of the Second Army are still struggling to support it, because they know that their reinforcements of the Seventh Division are about to arrive, and as long as they hold on until the arrival of the Seventh Division, then they don't know who will win and who will lose in today's battle.

"Quick, run, the friendly forces ahead are waiting for us!" The officers of the Seventh Division were actually more anxious than the officers and men of the Second Army, because the officers of the Seventh Division, including Zhong Yilan and others, knew very well that whether the battle would be won or lost today no longer depended on the Sixth Division or the Second Division, but on whether their Seventh Division could arrive at the battlefield in time and carry out reinforcements.

Listening to the urging orders of the officers, the soldiers of the 7th Division couldn't help but speed up their pace again, and many of them were already tired and a little out of breath after insisting on running for a long time. But they can't stop.

In addition to the urging of the officers, there was also the rumbling sound of artillery regardless of the sound. From time to time, shells fell and exploded.

Since a few minutes after the two sides entered the melee, in order to avoid accidentally injuring their own troops. Both the Chinese army and the Anglo-French forces invariably stopped shelling the enemy infantry, because now the infantry of both sides had been mixed up, and the probability of hitting the enemy and the friendly troops was equal in this artillery shot.

However, they did not fire on the infantry on both sides in the melee, which meant that they could free up their hands to shell other enemy troops, for example, the twelve-pounder guns of the Second Army of the Chinese Army had been turned to shell the positions of the British artillery units in the front farther away, that is, the positions of light guns such as six-pounder and four-pounder.

The field artillery of the Anglo-French army was at first shelling the cavalry units of the Chinese army, and then it was a heavy artillery bombardment of the reinforcements of the 7th Division.

The 7,000 men reinforced by the 7th Division cannot be said to have fled from the trenches. In fact, most of them were moving quickly on flat ground, which meant that the 7th Division was unprotected during the support process, and at the same time, the formation was relatively dense, which was very ideal for the British and French forces.

As a result, the 7th Division was subjected to intensive artillery bombardment by the British and French forces in the process of reinforcement, causing a large number of casualties.

If it was a normal time, when his own troops were subjected to such a fierce artillery bombardment, the front-line generals would have ordered the troops to hide, but Zhong Yilan did not. Instead, they continued to let the soldiers run forward, allowing the enemy shells to fall.

In the process of this reinforcement, under the interceptive artillery bombardment of the British and French forces, the 7th Division successively paid at least five or six hundred casualties.

And after paying such heavy casualties. They finally arrived at the area of scuffle between the two sides in front of them.

However, Zhong Yilan did not let the troops rush forward directly with bayonets at the first time, but ordered the company to let the various infantry battalions under his command form a phalanx. Then he went straight to the flank and rear position of the melee between the two sides, and he wanted to directly use the musket salvo mode to hit the flank and rear position of the British troops in the middle of the melee. And then gain a tactical advantage for the subsequent charge.

Ahead were friendly and enemy soldiers in the melee, while the infantry of the 7th Division walked in a standard and orderly pace under the orders of the officers. The most commonly used three horizontal rows have been formed!

"Aim!"

"Fire!" As the officers of the various fronts waved their command knives one after another and gave orders, the three infantry battalions on the right flank of the 7th Division were the first to fire.

The neat and dense salvo directly punched a gap in the rear phalanx of the British army about two hundred and fifty meters away!

"Progressive shooting!"

One by one, the soldiers began to slowly step forward and reload as they went, which made the reloading slower but allowed them to get closer to the enemy in the process of reloading and firing, and then launch a bayonet charge in the final stage.

"All of them, ready!"

"Aim!"

"Fire!"

When the three infantry regiments had gone within about eighty meters, they fired a second volley, but then the front-line officers did not let the soldiers continue to reload, but shouted one by one: "Bayonet!" ”

Therefore, at this time, about 1,000 British and French soldiers from the flank had already rushed forward with bayonets, and the short distance of several tens of meters between the two sides did not give them time to reload, shoot, and reload their bayonets to launch a counter-charge.

The only option is to go toe-to-toe and charge directly with the bayonet!

"Kill!"

"The Chinese Empire is invincible!"

"Invincible!"

Thousands of soldiers once again shouted slogans and rushed into the melee battlefield that originally belonged only to the Second Army and the Anglo-French forces, and directly launched a charge with bayonets.

One battalion, two battalions, six battalions, and finally the ten infantry battalions reinforced by the 7th Division all launched a charge!

At this time, if you look down from the sky, you will find that the entire battlefield has completely fallen into chaos, and the field artillery of the two armies has completely stopped shelling the enemy infantry, some of them are turning to fire at the enemy's artillery positions, and some are simply raising fire to lower the temperature of the gun chambers.

The cavalry of both sides also fought fiercely in the open space on the left flank, and the battle between these cavalry was more tragic than that between the infantry, because both sides were light cavalry, and they were trained according to the modern light cavalry. Although the cavalry of the Chinese army had a great disadvantage on the horses of both sides, the second cavalry regiment suffered heavy casualties during the first wave of hedging. But when the two sides fell into a melee, the cavalry revolver equipped with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment played an extremely important role.

Mass close-range kills through cavalry pistols. To a certain extent, it has reversed the decline in the early stage.

The infantry can still see the more obvious formations of the two sides at first, but the further back they go, the more chaotic the two sides become, often with the enemy in front of them, and the same enemy behind and on both sides.

Many infantrymen died in battle without even knowing who had hit them.

From behind, the attack from the side is more and more!

This situation was even more true after the 7th Division joined the melee, and in this area, which was only more than 1,000 meters wide in front and 100 meters in front and back, more than 25,000 infantry were gathered for the most primitive hand-to-hand combat!

When the battle came to this point. Any tactical strategy is no longer useful, and the only thing that can distinguish the victory between the two sides is the level of bayonet training and the comparison of troops on both sides, and of course, the more important competition of combat will.

In the face of this hand-to-hand bayonet battle of more than 25,000 men, the hiding-like confrontation of the 6th Division and 3,000 British and French troops was as dim as the stars under the bright moon, and even the bombardment of more than 200 guns between the fleets and batteries of the two sides could not attract the attention of the top brass on both sides.

Today, the only thing that can decide the outcome of both sides is the hand-to-hand combat of bayonets on both sides!

Through the binoculars, Bing Qusong had been paying close attention to the situation on the side of the Second Army, and when there was a hand-to-hand fight with bayonets between the two sides, he was even more nervous than he was on the night of the cave room. The victory or defeat of the Second Army is not only a matter of the Second Army and Xu Yanqing, but also a matter of his Bing Qusong.

As the commander-in-chief of Shanghai's defense, Bing Qusong is fully responsible for Shanghai's defense, which means that he is the supreme commander in today's battle. If he wins, it's all easy to say, but if he loses, he will undoubtedly bear the blame.

According to the domestic tradition of generals of the defeated army, he Bing Qusong did not even dare to guarantee that he would survive after the defeat. Going to court martial is light, and you may even be dismissed outright. Then he was questioned and imprisoned like the Qing court's monk Lingqin and other defeated generals.

After all, today's battle is not a small battle, but a gathering of two armies. There are only three of the seven veteran royal army main divisions in the Chinese Empire, and if this is defeated, it will be a big defeat for the Chinese Empire that will shake the foundation of the empire, even if Emperor Lin Zhe does not kill him, I am afraid that the civil and military high-ranking people of the empire will shout for him to die to apologize.

Putting aside these personal details or future issues, only from the perspective of the entire imperial strategy, if this battle is lost, then the fall of Shanghai is certain, and the subsequent important cities such as Hangzhou and Suzhou will also be 100% undefendable, and important places such as southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang will fall into the hands of the enemy, and the subsequent Chinese empire can only rely on the Jiangyin fortress to make the final resistance.

If this happens, it will be the deadliest blow to the entire empire.

Therefore, whether it is considered from the perspective of the empire or from his personal point of view, this battle cannot be lost!

It's just that everything that should be done has been done now, but victory or defeat is no longer something he can decide.

In fact, in this state of melee, not only Bing Qusong can't make any changes, but even Count Ergin, who occupied the initiative in the early stage, has no choice.

Count Ergin can only be the same as Bing Qusong, passively waiting for the melee troops in front to divide the victory and defeat!

Although I know that this kind of hand-to-hand combat will not last long, and it is usually a few minutes at most ten minutes to determine the winner or loser, but at this time, even a second makes people feel like a hundred years old, and this short time of waiting is not so easy.

When a dark cloud floated in the sky and blocked the sunlight overhead, the wind blew silently, and when the fine raindrops fell from the sky, Song Baicheng panted and stood up with the rifle in his hand.

But the pain in his right leg made it impossible for him to stand up, and the severe pain made him feel as if he had lost all the strength of his body, and after struggling for a moment he gave up his efforts to stand up, and sat down again, next to a British soldier who was still twitching.

This British soldier looked very young, probably eighteen or nineteen years old, his beautiful military uniform was already stained red with blood, the 1853 Enfield rifle in his hand was thrown aside, and the bayonet was still stained with blood, which was his Song Baicheng's blood.

Song Baicheng took the initiative to step forward with the rifle bayonet dropped by the fallen friendly soldier, although he blocked the opponent's bayonet and successfully stabbed the opponent's chest with a bayonet, but the strength of the opponent's soldier was greater than he imagined, although he was offset by the block, but the bayonet still slipped and stabbed him in the thigh.

However, the British soldier was stabbed in the chest by Song Baicheng's shot, although he was not hit in the heart, but it is estimated that it is not far away, after being hit, the soldier is directly soft to the ground, with the blood flowing out, the whole person convulsed, and carried out the final dying struggle on the verge of death.

Looking at the British soldier who was foaming blood in his mouth and his body was occasionally shaking and twitching, Song Baicheng, who sat down, directly picked up a saber from the ground that he didn't know who it was, and then stretched forward and stabbed the soldier's heart, and then the British soldier finally closed his eyes and stopped twitching.

Shaking his head hard, Song Baicheng grinned and pressed the wound on his thigh, the wound looked a little terrifying, but the blood that flowed out was dark red, obviously it didn't hurt the major arteries, otherwise Song Baicheng would have died a long time ago.

looked up to the side, and found that in addition to himself, there were few living people, there were corpses all over the ground, there were Chinese soldiers in dark blue military uniforms, there were British soldiers in red shirts, among the many corpses, there were countless wounded screams in various languages, which sounded more terrifying than the howl of ghosts and wolves.

Looking up a little farther away, there were still many soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat, but for Song Baicheng and the many corpses and wounded lying on the ground, their battle was over.

The eyelids are getting heavier and heavier, although Song Baicheng tried his best to open his eyes, but the continuous blood loss made him unable to continue to stay awake, and the whole person was already in a daze, as if he heard bursts of cheers, and as if he heard the shout 'The Chinese Empire is invincible' that he has heard countless times.

Is it a victory?

With doubts, his whole body fell into darkness! (To be continued......)

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