In the face of the onslaught of the Third Army of the Chinese Army outside the city, the defenders of Guangzhou City can resist it!

Although the total number of defenders in Guangzhou was quite large, and there were 30,000 or 40,000 people in total, there were only 1,000 new troops among them, and the second-class regular strength was the Green Battalion, and the old army of the Eight Banners was only about 5,000 people, and the rest were all local regiments and people, and these people did not even have cold weapons such as swords.

Such a defender can withstand the attack of the Third Army!

However, at this moment, the defenders in Guangzhou City could no longer make Qu Panyun pay attention, and now he surrendered his eyes to the British and French troops who set out from Hong Kong.

Judging from the information obtained, the British and French forces were coordinated by sea and land, and their land forces did not set out from Hong Kong on foot to Guangzhou through Xin'an and other places, but directly took ships to the city of Guangzhou, and their actions were quite rapid, although they were bombarded by Humen and other batteries along the way, but under the bombardment of hundreds of artillery guns on the huge British fleet, the Qing army batteries along the way were like paper paste, and they could not even stop the advance of the British and French fleets for half a day.

The day after the Chinese army launched a general attack on Guangzhou, Count Ergin had arrived in Guangzhou with the LinkedIn French fleet and about 6,000 soldiers of the two armies, and landed on the north bank of the Pearl River, about twenty kilometers from Guangzhou.

In the face of the foreigners entering the Pearl River and landing, Qu Panyun had no choice, who let his own fleet not cooperate, he could only watch the foreigners calmly land behind him.

Although the Third Army had the cooperation of the Third Gunboat Detachment of the Imperial Navy, the Third Gunboat Detachment had only two gunboats of 400 tons and a few gunboats of less than 100 tons. All the ships together were inferior to the tonnage and firepower of any cruiser of the British.

At the same time, in order to preserve its strength and avoid being wiped out by the British fleet in the naval battle, although it was very helpless, the third gunboat detachment was also forced to choose to avoid the battle.

Today, the main ships of the 3rd Gunboat Detachment, except for a few 80-ton gunboats, are still active outside the Minjiang River. The two larger gunboats have been transferred back to the Yangtze River Valley, and these ships will join other ships in the navy to either avoid the battle and save their strength, or collectively participate in the blockade operation and sink themselves in Jiangyin.

Therefore, when the Third Army went south to Guangdong, it could not get any support from the navy, and even its supplies could only be transported by land.

Now the fleet facing the foreigners sailed into the Pearl River and sent a large number of soldiers to land on the north bank of the Pearl River. Qu Panyun could only stare dryly, and even in order to avoid the possible shelling of the foreign fleet, he even ordered his troops to leave the river at least one thousand meters or more.

The fleet of foreigners is powerful. However, the firing range of the naval guns is only more than 1,000 meters, which is remarkable to fight three or four thousand meters, but in that case, the accuracy will definitely be much worse, as long as the Chinese army does not stupidly approach the riverside. The Anglo-French fleet could only stare dryly.

It is the power of the army that determines the victory or defeat of both sides!

Faced with the Anglo-French forces that suddenly appeared behind him. Qu Panyun didn't dare to take it lightly, almost after discovering that the British and French troops had landed 20 kilometers behind him, he transferred back the 10th Division that was besieging the city, and then began to rest and prepare for battle, and the task of attacking the city was handed over to the auxiliary defense troops.

"Now that the gap in the city wall has been opened, the follow-up siege is mainly to clear the enemy forces in the city, although the combat power of the Eighth Auxiliary Defense Division is not as good as that of the Royal Army, but it is enough to deal with those militia and strong regiments!" Fang Anyun, the commander of the 10th Division on the side, said to Qu Panyun:

"In addition, the 27th Auxiliary Defense Division is already intensifying the construction of fortifications in the southeast direction. It is expected that the initial completion will be completed by the evening, and by tomorrow the fortifications outside the city should be complete! ”

Qu Panyun said: "Hmm." Your 10th Division will not participate in the battle from now on, seize the time to rest and recuperate, and strive to meet any challenge in the best condition tomorrow! ”

Although the Third Army that went south to Guangdong had up to four divisions, namely the 10th Infantry Division, the 8th Auxiliary Defense Division, the 27th Auxiliary Defense Division, and the 30th Auxiliary Defense Division, there was only one real main force from beginning to end, that is, the 10th Infantry Division of the Royal Army.

Moreover, at present, among the three auxiliary defense divisions of the Third Army, one has been left in Huizhou and Chaoshan to continue to clear out the Qing troops in the rest of the places and expand the occupied area; when the Third Army marched westward, it went all the way in a straight line, and did not take care of other prefectures and counties that were not outside the marching route at all.

Only the 8th and 27th Auxiliary Divisions arrived in Guangzhou with the 10th Infantry Division, while the 30th Auxiliary Division was scattered to fight in Huizhou and Chaoshan.

The Anglo-French army landed behind the Chinese army, and although Qu Panyun made a timely response and transferred the 10th Infantry Division, the only main force, to deal with it, the Chinese army's offensive on Guangzhou did not slow down, on the contrary, it further accelerated the pace of the siege.

Today's Third Army is different from the Third Army of Chen Yuntao's era, Chen Yuntao is notoriously cautious in the Chinese army, if he encounters today's situation, it is estimated that he will give up continuing to attack Guangzhou, so as to fully prepare for the British and French forces.

But Qu Panyun is different, he does not have a very obvious personal combat style, but he is one of the more than a dozen senior generals in the Chinese army who are most urgent about combat achievements.

Although Qu Panyun also made a lot of military exploits in his early years, he has been in the rear since last year, serving as the commander of the Seventh Infantry Division for a long time, and the Seventh Division has been stationed in Shanghai, so he has not had the opportunity to fight.

Now that he was finally transferred to the front line by Lin Zhe as the commander of the Third Army, he also has the intention of performing well in his heart.

So now he adopted a slightly risky tactic, that is, while guarding against the British and French forces, he continued to attack the city of Canton.

The Eighth Auxiliary Defense Division had even been strictly ordered to speed up the pace of the offensive, although the progress of the clearance had been accelerated. However, casualties of the 8th Auxiliary Defense Division also began to increase.

The Eighth Auxiliary Defense Division, as one of the early auxiliary divisions in the Chinese Army, was formally established at the end of 1856. As long as its soldiers were surrendered soldiers from the old Green Battalion Army in Zhejiang Province, they also successively supplemented some of Fujian's Green Battalion soldiers when they went south to Fujian.

The replacement rate of soldiers in the Eighth Auxiliary Defense Division is relatively high due to the long period of fighting, and like several other auxiliary divisions that have been fighting on the front line for a long time, the cumulative casualties of the soldiers in the Eighth Auxiliary Defense Division are relatively high today.

But the frequent battles also gave this unit a rare combat experience, most of the soldiers of the auxiliary defense division who were able to survive the previous battles were veterans, and those officers were no longer rookies back then, they were all old fritters.

Such an 8th Auxiliary Division may not be able to defeat those Forces nouvelles. However, it is still not a big problem to deal with those old armies such as green battalions and regimental training.

Not to mention that the defenders in Guangzhou did not have many regular troops at all, and most of them were militia regimental training and people's strength. As for the very small number of troops of the New Army and the Green Battalion, they were annihilated by the 10th Infantry Division one by one in yesterday's and today's battles, and now those regimental training and people who are scattered all over the city are not regular troops at all.

As the time passed, it was late in the evening. The soldiers of the 8th Auxiliary Defense Division have already conquered the Yamen of the Governor of Liangguang and the Yamen of the Governor of Guangdong, and other important official strongholds in the city. The remnants of the Qing army in the city had completely collapsed, and they could not organize any effective resistance at all.

"Up to now, our army has basically cleared out the resistance of the Qing army in various parts of the city, and has killed more than 5,000 enemy soldiers, in addition to about 10,000 enemy soldiers who have been captured and surrendered on their own initiative, and the rest have been dispersed, in addition, our army has also captured more than 20 artillery pieces of various calibers, arquebuses, and flintlock pistols, a total of more than 3,500. There are nearly 100 high-quality war horses, and there are at least 1,000 or more service mules and horses. The rest of the swords, spears and other cold weapons, flags and other seizures have not been counted for the time being. But the number should be relatively large! ”

Liu Hetao, chief of staff of the Third Army on the side, reported the results of the battle to Qu Panyun.

Qu Panyun said: "Since we have already controlled the city of Guangzhou, then without further ado, immediately arrange for troops to enter the city, and mobilize the civil forces in the city to renovate the city wall overnight, and strive to build a complete city defense fortification before tomorrow!" ”

Liu Hetao said: "Yes, I'll arrange it!" ”

Qu Panyun glanced at Liu Hetao again, and then said: "The situation is not easy now, you and I have to work together to get through this difficulty, as long as we can bear it this time, a good future awaits us!" ”

Liu Hetao smiled: "Commander, don't worry, we will definitely be able to survive this time!" ”

Qu Panyun looked at Liu Hetao, who was full of confidence, and also explored in his heart, these juniors have not experienced the difficulties of the early years, and none of them know the difficulties ahead.

Liu Hetao is a special person in the Chinese army, especially among many senior generals of the Chinese army.

Why?

Because he was the first student in the second phase of the camp academy to be promoted to major general of the army!

At present, there are many senior generals at the level of major generals and lieutenant generals in the Chinese army, except for a very few of them, Wang Luyun and Khante? Except for William and other special people, all the others are students of the first phase of the Suiying Academy, but the only Liu Hetao is a student of the second phase of the Suiying Academy.

This title alone is enough to make Liu Hetao famous in the Chinese army, and when his classmates in the camp academy were still wandering in school-level positions one by one, he was already one step ahead of others to be promoted to major general of the army, and served as the chief of staff of the Third Army, this future can be said to be shining.

And the reason why Liu Hetao was promoted so quickly has a lot to do with his early years in the Auxiliary Defense Army, he was the first unit of the Auxiliary Defense Army in Yu Shengjun, that is, the first head of the early 'Yu Shengjun Auxiliary Defense Regiment', and it was also the kind appointed by Lin Zhe himself.

When he was transferred to the Auxiliary Defense Army, he was originally a little reluctant, but he soon became a prosperous worker in the Auxiliary Defense Army, and was later promoted to the commander of the First Auxiliary Defense Division, and then was transferred to the General Staff Department as the director of the Garrison Division, and this garrison department is the department in charge of the Auxiliary Defense Force and local garrison forces, and the Operations Department and the Strategy Department are at the same level.

When he was in charge of the affairs of the Auxiliary Defense Force, he put forward many opinions on the establishment and tactics of the Auxiliary Defense Force, which played a great role in improving the Chinese Army's auxiliary defense force.

This is Lin Zhe's principle of rewarding meritorious service, so soon after he was transferred to the Second Infantry Regiment of the First Division as the regiment commander because of his meritorious service to the Auxiliary Defense Army, and he was given the rank of colonel.

After working in the First Division for a period of time, in Lin Zhe's large-scale promotion at the end of last year, he was fortunate to be valued by Lin Zhe, so he was transferred to the Third Army as chief of staff, and his military rank was also promoted to the rank of major general of the army.

As a result, he became the first student in the second batch of students of the Suiying Academy to be promoted to major general of the army.

After Liu Hetao went out, he began to arrange for the rest of the Chinese army to start entering the city, which had a city wall to rely on after entering the city, so it was naturally better in the field.

Relying on the city wall to fight also means that Qu Panyun does not plan to play a field duel with the British and French forces, he wants to rely on the fortified city for defensive operations. (To be continued......)