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Today's winter in Hanzhong comes and goes early. It's only been a few days after the Chinese New Year, and the weather has suddenly risen a bit.

As soon as they entered in mid-January, the Taiping army in Shiquan moved, and 200,000 people poured into Hanzhong. Chenggu, the New Year's joy that has not faded has not faded, like the leaves after the autumn wind, there is nothing left to be swept away!

On the eighteenth day of the first month of the second year of Tongzhi, the vanguard of the Taiping army approached Chenggu Xie Gong Town.

The Han River is so wide that in the past, ferries were needed to travel between the north and south banks, but now it is the first month of the year, and although the weather is not as cold as before, the river is still frozen, and you can travel freely without ferrying.

The baggage of the Taiping army was all pulled by the ice, and the long plough was full of goods, and the weight of the two horses on the ground could not be pulled, and one horse on the ice ran fast.

The spiked horseshoe made countless small pits and marks on the ice, and people rode on the climbing plow, which was simply a lightning speed.

"It's coming so fast! As soon as I received the news, the striker ......"

On the edge of the river outside Xie Gong Town, Liu Xian held a monocular on horseback and watched every move ahead. He was also a middle-level officer with a name in the Qing Army in Hanzhong, and finally got such a telescope from Chen Tianzhu.

Pondering inwardly, his face was extremely gloomy.

"Fifth brother, it seems that this Xie Gong Town is where the long-haired grain hoarding is located."

Qi Dalin didn't have a telescope at hand, but he could guess six or seven points just by looking at the dense Taiping army outside Xie Gong Town.

Liu Xian nodded in agreement with Qi Dalin's statement, Chenggu County is located near the Han River, and there are alluvial plains within a radius of twenty or thirty miles from north to south, east and west, and there is no place to find a dangerous place, the Taiping army has more than ten or two hundred thousand people, and food must be properly supplied, so all that can be relied on is the city.

In front of him, Xie Gong Town is the nearest big town in the east of Chenggu County, the area is not small, the town wall is more than one zhang high, and lives near the water.

On the 19th, the Taiping army's exploration cavalry appeared outside the Chenggu East Pass. For the next few days, every day there were a steady stream of horses from the Taiping army, sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands, galloping and roaring, wandering around the perimeter of the city.

It was also the second day after the arrival of the Taiping Army, and there were no more people pouring into the county seat of Chenggu. Although the flow of people was decisive, the temples, temples, and inns in the small Chenggu County were full of refugees, and the number of soldiers and civilians in the city exceeded 100,000. On the 22nd, the expatriate spies returned to the county seat for the last time to report the news, and after that, the county seat of Chenggu cut off contact with the outside world.

Everyone realized that the Taiping army, long haired and bandits, was really going to attack the city.

The young men in the county began to organize, led by the wealthy gentry in the neighborhood, and the government issued certain weapons and organized 22 brigades. The population of each brigade ranged from five or six hundred to four or five hundred, totaling 10,000 people.

They had their own flags, red scarves tied on their right arms, and armbands on their left arms that indicated their street brigades. Liu Xian didn't need to use them to defend the city, but he could help transfer supplies and patrol the streets under the leadership of the officials to arrest the fast, and the security in the city was okay.

Naturally, the yamen has to allocate a certain amount of grain, and at present, food is more important than money.

In Liu Xian's view, such a cost is far less than the role they play. Don't say anything else, it's just that the government controls the tens of thousands of young people in the city in the palm of their hands, which is difficult to buy.

Li Ying listened to Liu Xian's statement, and he didn't say a word, so he affirmed it all. As early as before the New Year's Festival, the rich gentry in the city had already listened to the greeting, and now although the Taiping army came urgently, the county town of Chenggu, which had been prepared for a long time, was not affected too much. The law and order are stable, the order is not chaotic, and the people's hearts are stable for the time being.

From the 19th onwards, after the internal and external refugees were cut off, the government also increased the efforts to build tents in the city, and offered rewards for the people to pay attention to abnormal inspections and spies.

On the 25th, the atmosphere in the city was sharply tense, because the large army of the Taiping army finally arrived. The black-pressed army could not see the head and tail at a glance, but the first-line infantry cavalry horses stationed outside the three gates of the southeast, north and south were more than 10,000 people.

"There are too many long-haired soldiers and horses...... "Zhou Junwei shouted.

In the telescope, the dense Taiping army was like locusts, and the black pressure covered all the land east of the city, and then this wave spread to the south and north of the city......

Zhou Jun knew that the army of Fuwang Chen Decai had more than 100,000 or 200,000, but this amount only shocked him like a turtle, and felt a lot. Zhou Junken, who had never experienced a real battle, could not imagine what an amazing scene it would be after the 200,000 horses were spread out, and how he would not be frightened when he saw it today.

Li Ying's face was equally ugly, and like Zhou Jun, he trembled when the 200,000 Taiping army turned from a number to a real reality. Although it is clear that the number of the Taiping army includes the old, weak, women and children, but the ants bite the elephant to death, and the small county town like Chenggu has a total of 5,000 soldiers, that is, he is very confident in Liu Xian, and Li Ying is no longer sure whether he can hold the city.

Feeling this overwhelming pressure, Xiang Fa and his two hundred soldiers on Dongguan were all pale, and Xiang Fa stood beside Liu Xian and Li Ying, pursed his lips tightly, and clenched his fists.

He thinks that he is not a cowardly person, he thinks that he is a person who dares to kill and fight, but after seeing the overwhelming momentum of the Taiping Army, his heart is also cold.

I only have 200, and the enemy has 200,000, is it still necessary to defend Dongguan? Guard, can you still hold it?

But fortunately, there are many veterans of the 200 people under Xiang Fa, all of whom have seen blood and defeated a large number of rebels. If it's the rookies in the volunteer camp, I'm afraid they should all be gone.

"Come on, come on! The Taiping Army could not pass this pass, and how could they pass the Manchu Qing, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia in the future -- "I am the one who wants to re-prosper China, and the team will not be tempered, but it will not work!"

Liu Xian took a deep breath and sneered secretly in his heart, the 200,000 Taiping army seems to be a huge army, but most of them are rabble, and there are 30,000 or 40,000 capable fighters who can fight against the sky, he believes that as long as he does not make stupid moves, he is not cowardly and cowardly, he can hold the city and block the Taiping army.

……

At that time, the main force of the Taiping Army camped in the east of Chenggu County, seven miles away, where there is a Chenggu landmark building - Qili Temple, so the distance is very certain. How many miles the camp stretches, the city is really not clear, you can only see the camp tents and shacks layer upon layer, and the north and south are more than ten miles away.

The Taiping army besieged but did not attack, and piled up bonfires at night, and the dense lights illuminated the huge camp of the Taiping army in the dark night.

The next day, Liu Xian, who climbed to the head of Dongcheng, saw a desolate scene, after a day of sweeping by the Taiping army yesterday, the villages and trees outside the Dongguan ditch were all swept away, and not even the slightest ruin of the wall was left.

Naturally, the fields are also in shambles, and even if the Taiping army leaves, these fields should not be expected to be harvested this year.

The horn sounded, and a black line spread across the sky, stretching from east to west.

The sound of gongs and drums sounding alarms, as well as the sound of running and stepping on the defenders of the city head and the wall.

The Taiping Army is coming!