The Chinese army has besieged Anqing for a long time, although the Taiping army in the city said that it had prepared in advance, hoarded a large amount of food and ordnance in the city, but also could not withstand the huge consumption of the army and people in the city, in order to hold on to the siege for a longer time, in fact, as early as September, the Taiping army in the city of Anqing began to withhold the rations of the people in the city.

In September, among the Taiping soldiers and civilians in the city at that time, only the backbone soldiers who participated in the battle could only get a ration of three hemi rice per day, while the auxiliary soldiers and the strong laborers who participated in the fortification work in the city could only get a ration of two hemi rice per day, and the ordinary people who did not participate in the defense of the city could only buy a half of grain per day.

And one hehe rice is only 0.1 liter, only 75 grams by weight!

By October, the defenders of the city had once again reduced their food rations, and the backbone soldiers maintained the ration of three hemi, but the food rations for the auxiliary forces and the conscripted laborers who did not participate in the battle were only one and a half, and the ordinary people in the city could only get less than one grain per day.

By the end of December now, near January 1858, the food of the defenders in the city could no longer meet the needs of the soldiers and civilians in the city, and the backbone soldiers of the Taiping Army could get less than two taels of food, and as for the auxiliary troops and young men, there was only one pair of rice per day.

As for the people in the city, the Taiping defenders had officially stopped their food rations in late December, leaving them to fend for themselves!

This was originally a small ration, and the people in the city were already hungry, but although they could only eat some porridge before, they finally barely hung for their lives. But now that food rationing has been completely stopped, there has been an immediate wave of mass starvation.

And once there is a mass starvation to death. Some scenes that go against human nature will appear, and what is easy to eat. It is nothing to cook a wife and a daughter, because the people in the city are completely sealed, and they wander like wild beasts, and then when they see whether they are living or corpses, they will rush up and bite like crazy, you bite me, I bite you, you eat me, I eat you.

Hungry humans who have lost their human nature are more terrifying than the zombies of any apocalyptic scenario!

In the face of this turmoil in the city. Instead of stopping it, the Taiping army itself joined the ranks of preying on the people, although the Taiping army still had a small amount of food and did not starve to death, but even the backbone soldiers who received the optimal ration were still grumbling from hunger.

Before the Chinese army launched an attack, the people in the city had already begun to die on a large scale, and this situation lasted for more than a month, that is, when the Chinese army launched a large-scale general attack on Anqing.

Except for the soldiers of the Taiping army, there were no ordinary people in the city, and those residents in the city either starved to death or were eaten as food.

The people had finished eating. The Taiping Army, which has already eaten red eyes, is already planning to set its sights on those auxiliary forces!

If the Chinese army has been on the outskirts of the city and does not attack, it is estimated that after a month or two, the Taiping army in the city will have to eat nothing left.

It's a pity that the generals of the Chinese army besieging the city outside are not immortals. The spies couldn't go deep into the confrontation between the two armies, but when they found the chaos in the city, they thought that the Taiping army in the city still had enough food to support more than half a year.

After the Chinese army launched an attack on Anqing, the Second Army, which had received the support of the general headquarters in terms of troops and combat materials, pressed it in one go. In addition, more than 2,000 warships of the Royal Army and Navy sent by the Fourth Army were cooperated.

The Taiping army in this city is naturally unable to resist!

When the soldiers of the Chinese army broke through the walls of Anqing and walked into the city, they did not find a large number of corpses as they imagined. Only many broken white bones and cauldrons that still smelled of meat were seen all over the city.

The lieutenant of an infantry company on horseback looked at the cauldron that was still steaming, and there were many pieces of meat in the cauldron. Next to the cauldron was a cutting board, on which there were several bone chopping knives, and on top of it was a corpse with only its torso remaining, its hands and feet in the cauldron next to it.

Rao is this lieutenant company commander has participated in many battles, and there are not a few dead soldiers he has seen, even if he sees the corpses that have been hit by shells and become several pieces of loose flesh, he will only frown slightly at most, but he will not panic like the recruits, and even vomit.

But now, the lieutenant company commander who saw these scenes couldn't help the stomach rolling, and then he vomited while he was still on the horse.

It was not only him who behaved like this, but many soldiers were also shocked, and there were more than ten soldiers who vomited.

The attack on Anqing City did not cause too many casualties to the soldiers of the Second Army, but after entering Anqing City, the soldiers of the Second Army were greatly stimulated, and countless soldiers would replay what they saw over and over again in their dreams.

In the words of later generations: these soldiers have been traumatized on the battlefield, and it will be difficult for them to recover in the second half of their lives.

When Xu Yanqing entered the city, the tragic situation in the city was still there, and the more he listened to the report of his combat staff, the more angry he became.

"The current situation shows that none of the ordinary people in the city have survived, there should be only these Taiping thieves left in the city, we have killed more than 20,000 people in the siege battle and the subsequent purge operations in the city, and nearly 10,000 people have been captured by us, and the rest are scattered, and we are further purging them!" The performance of the major staff officer beside him was much better than that of most soldiers and even Xu Yanqing, and he spoke calmly and coldly, as if he was not talking about cruel things, but just ordinary things.

Xu Yanqing asked, "Is there not a single person left in the city?" ”

The major staff officer said: "No, not even a corpse!" ”

Xu Yanqing's face finally began to change, and he took a deep breath and said, "Order, we won't take prisoners in this battle!" ”

The major staff officer said: "What about those who have been captured? ”

Xu Yanqing said: "They are not even people, so naturally they are not prisoners!" ”

When the major staff officer heard Xu Yanqing's words, his face finally changed. But this change is not because Xu Yanqing wants to order a mass killing of prisoners, but because Xu Yanqing's actions may cause internal shocks in the Chinese army.

Since the establishment of the Chinese Army. There has never been a mass killing of prisoners, and the treatment of prisoners is generally favorable. will choose to be incorporated into the Auxiliary Defense Force.

But today, Xu Yanqing was desperately reprimanded by Lin Zhe, and he also had to do something that he thought was right, that is, the Taiping Army in Anqing City, and he didn't plan to stay at all!

He's going to slaughter a city, a city where no one but wild beasts are left!

As soon as Xu Yanqing gave the order, the prisoners who had surrendered and thought they could live a life without cannibalism were immediately stabbed to death by the bayonets of the Chinese soldiers one by one, killing tens of thousands of prisoners. Xu Yanqing didn't use bullets, but bayonets.

I saw that the soldiers of the Chinese army used ropes to help rows and rows of Taiping soldiers, and then waited for them to go to the big pit they had dug outside the city, and then stabbed them with bayonets one by one, and then the rows of prisoners rolled into the big pit.

Some of these captives screamed loudly for mercy, and some just waited silently for death without saying a word, but there was only one result waiting for them, and that was death!

More than 10,000 Taiping prisoners were summarily executed by the Chinese army, plus more than 30,000 Taiping soldiers were killed in the battle. More than 50,000 Taiping soldiers in Anqing City were killed, and not one was left!

When the Taiping army in the city was killed, it also means that there is no one alive in the current Anqing City except for the Chinese army.

Before the war, none of the 200,000 soldiers and civilians in Anqing City survived, not a single one!

Anqing City conquered by Xu Yanqing. It's just a dead city with no living people!

However, no matter what purpose Xu Yanqing was in, it was a fact that he killed more than 10,000 Taiping prisoners who had surrendered, and this matter was soon reported to Nanjing. And for this reason, it also caused a lot of comments, and Xu Yanqing received a lot of accusations.

But this accusation is not how many people he killed. Rather, it is said that his actions have had a bad negative impact on the subsequent acceptance of prisoners by the Chinese army, and if it is said that the generals of the Chinese army are like him Xu Yanqing, they have killed prisoners on a large scale. So will there still be Qing and Taiping troops who will surrender to them?

In this regard, Xu Yanqing also personally wrote an excerpt and sent it to Pingrentang to explain to Lin Zhe, the emperor, his motives and reasons for killing prisoners on a large scale.

Xu Yanqing's reason is very simple: not killing is not enough to soothe the souls of more than 100,000 people in Anqing!

Lin Zhe was a little dissatisfied with his defense!

Who are you Xu Yanqing? Is it a saint who went to save the people of Anqing? No, you are a conqueror, what you have to do is to conquer Anqing, not to say that you are going to save Anqing.

However, this kind of thinking can only be imagined in his own heart, and it is definitely not possible to say it directly and publicly, as the emperor of the empire, he needs to maintain his image, whether he wants it or not, he must conform to the so-called benevolence, some things cannot be said, and some things cannot be done.

So his approach is more ambiguous, he deducted Xu Yanqing's fold, and was silent on this matter!

Although the Anqing City incident had a great impact on the officers and men of the Second Army, and even caused a small upheaval in Nanjing, it was still only a small link in the strategy of the Chinese Empire.

After Xu Yanqing took Anqing, the headquarters didn't even have the time for him to feel nostalgic, and directly ordered him to lead the army to the east along the river!

In this way, on the north and south banks of the Yangtze River, the Second Army and the Fourth Army marched in unison, and there were signs of launching a large-scale westward expedition thoroughly, but this was only the appearance.

In fact, for the war in the west, the Battle of Anqing is the starting point and the end point, and in the strategic planning of the Chinese army in the coming year, except for the capture of Anqing, there is no plan to advance westward on a large scale at all.

After taking Anqing, according to the established plan, the attention of the command quickly shifted to the direction of Guangdong!

In order to cooperate, the Military Training Department sent 3,000 recruits recruited from southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian to Fujian, half of which will be used to replenish the 10th Infantry Division, and the rest will be used to form an independent infantry regiment.

The Chinese army's large-scale strategic operations have always been carried out in advance by preparing all kinds of military materials and replenishing troops, and large-scale military operations will be launched only after preparations are made.

Now the operation in the direction of Canton is no exception! (To be continued......)