The cavalry of the Taiping Army on the opposite side were already curious when they saw the hundreds of Yu Shengjun Qing Demons in the distance facing the charge of nearly a thousand cavalry on their side, but instead lined up to meet them.

And the closer they got to some of them, the more they felt that something was wrong, and sure enough, when they rushed to within a hundred paces, suddenly a dense burst of gunfire came from the opposite side.

As the guns rang out, the charging Taiping cavalry seemed to pause for a moment, and the dozens of horsemen who rushed to the front fell to the ground, like waves on the beach, and instantly disappeared under the hooves of the horses behind.

"Quickly reload, all steady, don't panic, they can't rush!" After the first volley, the well-trained soldiers completely ignored the enemy cavalry rushing in front of them, and each one with their heads bowed and reloaded.

The soldiers in the front row of the phalanx were already crouching down one by one and pointing their rifles with bayonets pointed outward, while the soldiers in the second and third rows in the back continued to urgently reload.

When the soldiers were urgently reloading, the two four-pounder light infantry guns also opened fire, and with the sound of two cannons, a large number of steel balls and shrapnel were emitted after the two shots were fired, covering the front of dozens of Taiping cavalry.

After a round of guns and a round of shotshots, the Taiping cavalry galloping forward had already approached less than 40 meters away from the front of the 4th Infantry Battalion.

However, at this time, they found that the infantry of the Yu Sheng Army on the opposite side did not collapse directly like the Qing infantry they had encountered in the past, turned around and ran, but continued to stand in front with bayonets as before.

The rows of dense and dazzling bayonets not only made the rider feel cold, but also made the war horse refuse to move on!

War horses are also animals, and even well-trained war horses will not be alarmed by the sound of gunfire, but most of them will not rush towards the bayonet forest as if they were dead.

Before the cavalry ran to the bayonet forest of this infantry phalanx, most of them would instinctively go around to both sides, looking for weak points, and in the process, although a very small number of cavalry were not afraid of death, forcibly drove their horses to try to charge the formation, but were either killed by bullets or died under bayonets.

In addition, some cavalry began to circle to the sides, and then shoot with bows and arrows, although this move caused some casualties to the 4th Infantry Battalion, but after all, there were only a few who could bend their bows and shoot arrows at high speed, and they were soon shot down by Yu Shengjun's rifle fire.

As for the more cavalry, as if they had lost their goal, they could only run around the perimeter in a daze, trying to find the weak point where there was no zài before charging into battle.

And in the process, a large number of Taiping cavalry fell one after another!

The cavalry generals of the Taiping Army who led the army finally discovered that something was wrong, and when they roared back with the cavalry, they had already left at least nearly 100 corpses of nearly 100 horsemen in front of the phalanx of the 4th Infantry Battalion!

Fang Hanlin looked at the cavalry of the Taiping Army who were roaring back, and a sneer appeared on his lips: "These thief armies have fought for so many years, and they still don't have a good memory!" ”

He was wrong to blame the Taiping cavalry on the other side, although Yu Shengjun had fought with the Taiping Army many times, but he had only fought with Lin Chengting and Wu Ruxiao before, these two people knew how powerful Yu Shengjun was, so the cavalry under their command would never directly attack Yu Shengjun's infantry phalanx.

But it is obvious that these cavalry were not active cavalry in southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui before, they were part of the Western Expeditionary Army before, although they heard many times that Yu Shengjun was strong after returning to southern Jiangsu, but they were the same as Qin Rigang, and they did not personally fight Yu Shengjun once, so they would never believe that they could resist the impact of their nearly 1,000 cavalry with only five or six hundred infantry.

The retreating cavalry did not immediately flee away, but withdrew a few hundred meters away and stopped, one of the Taiping cavalry generals wearing armor and holding a spear with hatred on his face.

"I didn't expect to be tempted by the thousands of people in Lijiazhuang, and we failed to ambush with the cavalry, these Yu Shengjun are really the same as the rumors, they are fast and hard-headed, Marshal An, what should we do now!" A brigade commander on the side said so.

But the fierce An Junshuai who was the leader said: "Let the people of Lijiazhuang withdraw first, and we will find another opportunity later, this time it is broken, it does not mean that we cannot succeed next time!" ”

This commander of the An army was previously ordered to aid the east, because he came relatively late, and the Taiping army on the Changzhou side originally had a large number of troops and a lot of cavalry, so he did not continue to advance eastward, but was ordered to garrison the Danyang area, defend the logistics supply line in Changzhou, and block the northward advance of Yu Shengjun.

Since the scout cavalry found this Yu Shengjun yesterday, he has carefully arranged such an ambush, using thousands of cannon fodder soldiers to act as bait in Lijiazhuang to attract the enemy to attack, and as long as the enemy army attacks Lijiazhuang, he can launch a surprise attack from the flank position at that time.

It's just that what he didn't expect later was that Yu Shengjun only sent five or six hundred people to attack, and he originally thought that the results would be small, but what he didn't expect was that Yu Shengjun, who had less than six hundred people, could actually block the impact of his flank, and his reaction was so fast that his composure in the face of the enemy was almost beyond his imagination.

He could guarantee that when he led the cavalry to charge the enemy's flank, he would not dare to turn around and flee if it was either the green battalion or the cavalry or the Hunan army, so that he could easily pursue and kill

However, these remnant victorious troops, as if they regarded their own cavalry as nothing, completely ignored their own charge, and thus allowed themselves to return with hatred.

However, he doesn't believe that you Yu Shengjun can react so quickly every time, as long as Yu Shengjun makes a mistake, they will be able to completely defeat this Yu Shengjun.

With this obsession, he did not immediately run away, but kept appearing near the second mixed regiment of Yu Shengjun.

However, his behavior also made Xu Yanqing more cautious, knowing that there was an enemy army of seven or eight hundred cavalry following him nearby, and the various units of the Second Mixed Regiment were more cautious when marching and fighting, and this also made Marshal An unable to find the opportunity for a second raid.

After arriving in Danyang all the way that seemed dangerous, but he arrived safely, Xu Yanqing launched an attack on Danyang step by step.

In the following days, the 2nd Mixed Regiment, the 4th and 5th Auxiliary Defense Regiments, under the command of Xu Yanqing, fought fiercely with the defenders of Danyang.

After the third day of the siege, the Fifth Auxiliary Defense Regiment under the command of Xu Yanqing attacked the city under the cover of the powerful firepower of the Second Mixed Regiment, although in the end more than 100 people were killed and wounded and failed to take the city gate, and finally fell short and was driven out, and the Fifth Auxiliary Defense Regiment suffered many casualties.

But this battle did not disappoint Xu Yanqing, but made him more confident.

This time for the siege of Danyang, he did not rely only on the powerful firepower of the second mixed regiment to destroy the city wall as before, and then the soldiers lined up to attack the city through the gap in the destroyed city wall, but tried to use the second mixed regiment as a fire output covering unit, and the main force of the siege was those auxiliary defense regiments equipped with cold weapons such as swords.

Although this attempt caused a lot of losses to the Fifth Auxiliary Defense Regiment, it made Xu Yanqing see a way to better exert the combat effectiveness of the Auxiliary Defense Regiment.

In the past, the auxiliary defense regiment in Yu Sheng's army was only a very simple auxiliary force, equipped with cold weapons and arquebuses, and even smoothbore foreign guns were not equipped for cost control considerations, and their use was mainly to escort logistics supplies, stationed in rear cities, and rarely directly engaged them in front-line battles.

And now Xu Yanqing is trying to use these auxiliary defense groups as the main attack force to participate in the siege of the city for the first time, and this strategy has proved to work.

Although these auxiliary defense regiments were not equipped with advanced weapons and could only rely on cold weapons, under the cover of Yu Shengjun's regular and powerful firepower, they could easily reach the city wall, and then climb to the top of the city for hand-to-hand combat.

And hand-to-hand combat at the head of the city has always been avoided by Yu Shengjun, not that Yu Shengjun is afraid of such a battle, but because even if he wins hand-to-hand combat, his own soldiers will be killed and injured a lot, which is not cost-effective for Yu Shengjun, who has few soldiers.

It takes at least half a year for Yu Shengjun to train a qualified line infantry, and this half-year's salary plus weapons and training expenses costs costs fifty or sixty taels of silver, and it would be a big loss to exchange a soldier of Yu Shengjun for a soldier of the Taiping Army.

How to avoid the casualties of their own soldiers as much as possible and win the battle is a problem that many generals of the Yu Sheng Army, including Lin Zhe, need to consider.

Now in Xu Yanqing's experiment, the auxiliary defense regiment is a good casualty substitute, the soldiers of the auxiliary defense regiment are all from prisoners, no salary, no need to equip new weapons, even those cold weapons are captured, the only cost is those food.

This is destined to make the cost of raising the army of the auxiliary defense regiment extremely low, and it is a kind of army that can be consumed on a large scale without pain.

However, after the failure of the previous siege, Xu Yanqing also realized that the fighting will of these auxiliary defense regiments was still too weak, and the physical fitness of the soldiers was not enough.

It seems that it is still necessary to increase the supply of food to the auxiliary defense regiment in the future!

Anyway, although the second mixed regiment has traveled hundreds of miles north, its supply line has been very long, but there is no shortage of food, why? Because their food was taken from the Taiping army, they did not rely much on the supply lines in the rear at all.

As long as the 2nd Mixed Regiment can continue to attack the city, the ammunition may become more and more insufficient, but there is no need to worry about the shortage of military rations at all, because for Yu Shengjun, the Taiping Army is a very good transport captain.

The military food in his hand is sufficient, so Xu Yanqing doesn't mind letting the soldiers of the auxiliary defense regiment eat better!

The next day, Xu Yanqing let the soldiers of the Second Mixed Regiment in the rear really eat for the first time to launch an attack on Danyang again, with the support of the powerful artillery and rifle fire of the Second Mixed Regiment in the rear, the soldiers of the Fourth Auxiliary Defense Regiment in the future can eat enough every day, and under the promise of rewarding silver for killing the enemy, they hold swords and other cold weapons and carry long ladders to climb the city wall, and then engage in extremely cruel hand-to-hand combat with the soldiers of the Taiping Army.

As the soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Regiment fell off the city wall one after another, the area of the city head controlled by the Auxiliary Defense Regiment became larger and larger!

At this time, Xu Yanqing said: "It's time for you to go up, the fifth battalion will go to the city first, don't venture to stabilize the city!" ”

As the 5th Infantry Battalion also ascended to the top of the city, under their strong firepower, the remaining Taiping soldiers in the nearby city quickly broke down and fled.

Seeing that the Taiping soldiers on the entire city wall had all collapsed, Xu Yanqing smiled loudly: "Who said that Danyang is as strong as iron, haha, it's not like tissue paper that can be broken with a single stab!" ”

On April 26, Yu Shengjun's Xu Yanqing Shuailin's 2nd Mixed Regiment, 4th Auxiliary Defense Regiment, and 5th Auxiliary Defense Regiment attacked Danyang City.

The next day, they conquered many other important buildings in Danyang, exterminated thousands of remnants of the Taiping army, and more than 2,000 Taiping troops fled north.

And this is not the end, on May 1, Xu Yanqing led the headquarters to Zhenjiang City, at this time, in addition to the more than 2,000 soldiers of the Second Mixed Regiment Yu Shengjun brought from Huzhou, Xu Yanqing had forcibly recruited and coerced more than 6,000 prisoners of the Taiping Army, and organized into three auxiliary defense regiments.

He didn't wait long for the 8,000 army to garrison Zhenjiang City, and the next day after his arrival, he launched a large-scale siege, still using the same set of conquering Danyang, the headquarters of the second mixed regiment acted as fire support and supervising the team, and the main force of the siege was the captured soldiers of the auxiliary defense regiment.

Under the onslaught regardless of casualties, Xu Yanqing led his troops to conquer a number of Zhenjiang's outlying strongholds that day, and on the third day, he let the soldiers of the auxiliary defense regiment under his command attack the head of Zhenjiang City.

On the fourth day, Yu Sheng's army had occupied most of the city wall southeast of Zhenjiang, and in the afternoon of the same day, more than 7,000 Taiping remnants in the city began to withdraw from Zhenjiang.

On May 6, Yu Shengjun completely captured Zhenjiang!

Yu Shengjun went north for hundreds of miles with 2,500 partial divisions, attacked the city all the way, and finally conquered Zhenjiang in one fell swoop. (To be continued.) )