Tens of thousands of Taiping troops continued to go out of the city, and these Taiping troops did not rush up as soon as they left the city like last time, but continued to form a team.

The soldiers on Yu Shengjun's side also hurried to make the final preparations, placing the shells and gunpowder at the predetermined place, and the soldiers in the army carried big rice buckets and meat buckets to the chest walls and gun emplacements everywhere, and delivered the rice and broth to the soldiers.

When he saw the Taiping army marching out of the city before, Lin Zhe knew that this battle was either a big victory or a big defeat, and the enemy army pouring out of the nest was definitely not something that could be repelled by one or two rounds of artillery bombardment and salvo fire, and he must be prepared to continue fighting for an hour or even several hours.

Therefore, when the Taiping army first came out of the city, Lin Zhe had already asked the men in the army to prepare lunch in advance, and then distribute it to the soldiers who had already entered the combat post.

In addition, Lin Zhe also specially ordered to go down and add food today, not to mention the white rice that was full in the past, and specially prepared a large amount of pork, chickens and ducks and other meat, so that the soldiers could eat openly.

In the eyes of outsiders, this move can be said to be Lin Zhe's love for soldiers like a son, and it can also be said to let the soldiers have a good meal before they die in battle. But this is not the case, and Lin Zhe's reason for doing this could not be simpler: just to keep the soldiers fit enough to wait for the continuous battle.

And what does physical fitness depend on? Naturally, it depends on the energy obtained from eating, and you can't fight when you're hungry.

It is impossible for Lin Zhe to distribute high-calorie foods such as chocolate and candy to these soldiers, he can only use the simplest and most primitive method to ensure the ability that the soldiers need during the battle, ensure the supply of rice and increase the supply of meat!

Not only were the soldiers of Yu Shengjun able to eat meat openly, but even the prisoners of war soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Regiment were provided with some of the meat, so that many prisoner of war soldiers who had not tasted meat for several years could not believe that what they had just eaten was actually fat pork.

As time passed, the sun had gradually risen overhead, and the Taiping army, which had been grinding for at least an hour in the distance, finally began to move.

Unlike the last sortie, the last sortie had no formation at all, basically tens of thousands of people rushing forward in a swarm, but this time, the Taiping army, which roughly counted about 50,000 people in the past, was several small formations, roughly forming a phalanx between 3,000 and 4,000 people, and then a dozen dense phalanxes were scattered to the front several miles wide.

In front of them were still the cannon fodder soldiers who didn't even have decent weapons, and they were lined up in a loose formation, marching forward under the urging of the generals of the Taiping army.

Seeing that they had finally begun to move, and that their forwards had approached a distance of a kilometer, Lin Zhe finally gave the order for a large-scale artillery bombardment.

In order to avoid his own large-scale artillery bombardment, these Taiping troops fled back as soon as they left the city, so Lin Zhe has endured not letting the artillery troops bombard on a large scale, and only occasionally fired a few rounds to measure the shooting of Zhu Yuan, and now these Taiping troops have gone out of the city and have been lined up in a complete formation, even if they want to turn around and run, it is impossible to run into the city in a short time.

In this way, I don't have to worry about them taking the initiative to withdraw before they hit, and I can rest assured that I can carry out large-scale shelling.

With Lin Zhe's order, twelve twelve-pounder guns, two twenty-four-pounder mortars, and six eight-hundred-pound old-style guns on the artillery position began to fire continuously.

For a time, dozens of shells continued to fall into the crowd of the Taiping army, and brought certain casualties to the Taiping army.

However, the distance is still far away, the power of the cannonballs is limited, and the twelve-pound cannonballs cannot penetrate the Taiping army formation in a limited way, and there is often no kinetic energy after rolling for a distance, so the artillery of the Yu Shengjun shoots more grenades, using the power of the grenade explosion to kill and injure the enemy.

Yu Shengjun's long-range artillery bombardment could not stop the continuous approach of up to 50,000 Taiping troops, and soon their front approached from 1,000 meters to 800 meters and finally to 500 meters.

When the distance of 500 meters was reached, the speed of the Taiping army increased significantly, and the soldiers of the several phalanxes in front of them were already running, and several phalanxes detoured to the left and right, obviously intending to besiege from behind from all directions after approaching.

When they got closer, when they reached four hundred meters, the infantry of Yu Sheng's army on the breastwork and the medium-caliber artillery on the breastwork also opened fire.

Not only them, but in fact, those large-caliber guns on the batteries also abandoned the use of solid shells and grenades, and chose to use scattered shells with greater close-range lethality.

The infantry began to fire volleys, and although the hit rate was quite low at this distance, the salvo of thousands of rifles still caused a certain casualty rate.

It is difficult for a single Mini rifle to hit a target the size of a human being 300 meters away in actual combat, but the infantry of Yu Shengjun has not yet transitioned to the post-skirmish era, and they still use the tactics of line infantry, and the so-called hit rate is not based on whether a soldier can hit a single enemy, but on how many enemies can be hit by a collective salvo.

Mini's effective range of 500 yards refers to the effective hit against the target of the enemy group, so that thousands of rifles can still cause considerable damage to the enemy phalanx without any obstruction, although the distance is too far to guide many bullets to miss.

The Mini rifle can kill considerably, but in fact, the damage is even more terrifying when dozens of guns fire scattered bullets.

The distance of three or four hundred meters is almost the best combat distance for artillery to fire scattered shells, which can ensure sufficient range and power, and the steel balls and shrapnel in the scattered bullets are also large enough to cover the enemy forces in a larger range.

Therefore, when twenty or thirty pieces of artillery were fired together with scattered bullets, the situation was quite terrifying, and its lethality was even more terrifying than that of Yu Shengjun's infantry who fired a salvo with Mini rifles.

After just a volley of rifles and a round of shotshots, the Taiping soldiers in a phalanx in front of them suffered heavy casualties, and immediately collapsed without any accidents, and thousands of soldiers began to turn around and flee.

But it is obvious that Wu Ruxiao had expected this situation, and when he saw that he was in the middle of the army, he decisively ordered: "Let them go back!" ”

In the next moment, the archers and musketeers in the two Taiping army formations in the second row opened fire, and their targets were naturally not Yu Shengjun, who was still hundreds of meters away, but the thousands of soldiers in the Taiping army formation, which had collapsed.

Several Taiping generals in the collapse phalanx also shouted in time, trying to regroup and let the soldiers continue to charge forward.

But this was only in vain, those Taiping soldiers who finally stopped retreating and launched a second charge rushed up three hundred meters this time, but in the face of Yu Shengjun's firepower, they couldn't rush at all, so the second collapse came, and this time even the rear overseers could not stop their collapse

Just collapsing a phalanx was not enough to discourage Wu Ruxiao's determination, and this time he was determined to rush forward even if he used up all these cannon fodder.

As a result, the multiple Taiping military formations in the front rows collapsed one after another, and then the whole team rushed again, inevitably collapsing again.

Seeing that there are more and more dead and wounded cannon fodder soldiers in front of him, Wu Ruxiao can't bear it anymore, and it is not okay to continue to consume it like this, even if all the cannon fodder is consumed one after another, but it can't consume the fierce firepower of Yu Shengjun on the opposite side, and the continuous casualties will severely hit morale, and then those cannon fodder soldiers will refuse to continue to rush.

Now the only way is to charge the whole army directly, he still doesn't believe it, forty or fifty thousand people rush up and they can still stop it!

After taking a deep breath, Wu Ruxiao finally gave his order: "The whole army charges!" ”

With his order issued, more than a dozen Taiping soldiers in a phalanx, whether they were cannon fodder or those backbone soldiers, all charged forward in one go!

In front of them, Yu Shengjun's chest wall and artillery positions were already filled with gunsmoke, and because the smoke blocked the line of sight, the officers commanding the operation had to climb directly to a higher position in order to get a good line of sight.

At this time, Lin Zhe was standing directly on a wooden platform located a few meters behind the breastwork, and the height of more than four meters was enough to make the many gunpowder smoke on the breastwork wall below unable to block his vision, and he continued to give combat orders while observing.

"Let Fu Linyang's artillery aim at the right front and fire rapidly!"

"Mobilize the first company of the heavy battalion to support the auxiliary defense regiment!"

"Let the 1st Cavalry Company move to the rear of the 5th Battalion and support the 5th Battalion, there is a bit of pressure on their side!"

In fact, the battle has been going on until now, Lin Zhe and other senior generals have been difficult to control the development of the situation, and the battle in all aspects has entered the most intense moment, the Taiping army is constantly rushing up, and the artillery and infantry of the Yu Sheng army are firing with all their might.

At this moment, the orders of those grassroots officers of Yu Shengjun were much more useful than Lin Zhe's orders, because the grassroots officers had to command the soldiers to carry out round after round of volleys to repel enemy charges again and again!

After paying a heavy price, the Taiping army has rushed from 400 meters to 300 meters or even 200 meters, and in some places has already rushed within 100 meters.

"Reload quickly, hold steady, don't shoot without permission!" On the position where the fifth battalion was stationed, Song Yangqing, the commander of the sixth company, shouted loudly.

Facing the enemy gradually approaching, forty meters, thirty meters, Song Yangqing knew that he only had one last chance to fire a salvo, and after the salvo, he would enter hand-to-hand combat, so he had to choose the best time.

He took a deep breath, as if the rumbling cannons and shouts had disappeared, and all he could see was the Taiping soldiers who were rushing towards him, they were getting closer, and as time passed, they had rushed to a distance of less than twenty meters from his breastwork.

At this time, he raised the command knife in his hand high, and shouted loudly: "Aim! ”

On the breastwork, the soldiers of the Sixth Company, who had completed loading, put down their guns in unison, and stretched out from the breastwork, the bayonets in front of the muzzles glittered in the sunlight.

In the next second, Song Yangqing suddenly waved his command knife, and shouted at the same time: "Fire!" ”