Among the mighty Taiping soldiers and horses, the four-pole yellow flag fluttered in the wind, the flag was blood-red, and the flag gun was silver.

Under the banner, Fuwang Chen Decai, Zunwang Lai Wenguang, Qiwang Liang Chengfu, and Hu Wang Lan Chengchun rode their respective horses, full of spirit.

They are the deployment of the British king Chen Yucheng, Chen Decai is Chen Yucheng's cousin, and at the beginning of the first year of Tongzhi, he was ordered to go to the northwest to expand the army, and there were only 10,000 people at the beginning. However, the west expedition to Henan, the troops entered the pass, and the army of 10,000 soldiers and horses expanded several times in a few months, and approached Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, which was shocking for a while.

Chen Yucheng was defeated, Chen Decai returned to the division and failed to respond to the first aid, so he went west for the second time, marched into Henan, Shaanxi, and Hubei at the junction, and the trip to Yunyang was large, and now the main force has 200,000 soldiers.

As long as Hanzhong is taken, Sichuan is cut off from Gansu-Shaanxi, and the northwest is swept away, Shaanxi and Gansu are drastic, and the army is moving east into Shanxi, marching into Lianghe, forcing Beijing and Tianjin, and recovering the decline of the Heavenly Kingdom.

When the king of England sent himself and others to the west to expand his army, the most fundamental purpose was not this!

Chen Decai was wrapped in a yellow scarf on his head, a broad sword hanging from his waist, and his beard was bearded, and his eyes were staring at the Guancheng not far away, and his eyes were filled with a kind of resolute, composed, and wise divine light.

Behind him, four generals of the Western Expeditionary Corps gathered. Zunwang Lai Wenguang, Qi Wang Liang Chengfu, Hu Wang Lan Chengchun, and the deputy general manager of the Nine Gates of the Heavenly Dynasty Yulin Army, Yong Tian'an, and Ma Ronghe.

Although the weather has warmed up a lot at this time, and the cold wind blows in the face and is still cold, the passion and fiery fire in their hearts make them calm at the moment, like a spring breeze.

After looking at it for a long time, Chen Decai thoughtfully said to Lai Wenguang behind him: "Wenguang, you are right, this city is indeed a strong enemy, and you can't ignore it." ”

The ravines, the blocked slopes, and the bunkers outside the city walls, the 'solidity' of the city is stronger than that of Xing'an City. Coupled with the problem of mountain splitting artillery that Li Lanjun focused on, the city is small, but it is a hard walnut.

"But even if it's an iron walnut, I'm going to smash it too!" Confidence filled Chen Decai's chest.

Lai Wenguang was in charge of the general affairs of the Chenggu attack and plunder, and after breaking away from the Chinese army, he galloped to the front, and a Taiping army commander reported to him: "Zunwang, the last general has found out that the layout of the four passes in the southeast, southeast, northwest and northwest of Chenggu is the same, as Li Lanjun said." There is a breastwork wall fifty paces before the pass, a second one twenty paces before the pass, and a ravine one zhang wide and one zhang deep. The Qing demon has troops to defend in the chest wall, and if you want to attack any of the four levels, you must first break through the two chest walls, and there are artillery in the city, if you want to attack it, you are afraid that it will take some effort. ”

As soon as the marshal's words fell, Ma Ronghe's voice sounded. "We're here to siege the city, so how can we do it without effort? That Liu Xian's hands were stained with the blood of the rebel brothers, and he was a big name in Hanzhong, but there were only 2,000 people, and we had an army of 200,000, and one person drowned him with a mouthful of foam! ”

"Ha, Ma Hou said the arrogance, and he is right. A small city, my 200,000 army can be taken down overnight. Lai Wenguang laughed and didn't pay attention to Chenggu.

Thirteen years of fighting, from Jintian to today, how many famous city dangers have been trampled under Lai Wenguang's feet, and how many so-called famous generals have been killed by Lai Wenguang without leaving a piece of armor, how can he care about Liu Xian in a small city.

"Command, attack—"

……

In the telescope, the men and horses of the Taiping army seem to have been spread to the end of the world, and people shout and neigh, I don't know how many soldiers are in the middle. Just looking at the dense layers of turbans, Liu Xian estimated that the Taiping army was dispatched today, and there were probably 50,000 or 60,000 horses.

was attacked by so many soldiers and horses, this was the first time for Liu Xian. Even in the previous two battles of Liulin Town, the number of Lan Chaozhu's main force was only thirty or forty thousand, and they were scattered around, but a wave of battles that took place on one side like the one in front of them.

"Woo ......"

The horn sounded on the side of the Taiping army, and Xiang Fa looked awe-inspiring: "Changmao is about to attack, pass my order, and the whole army will be on guard." ”

There was a commotion of fifty or sixty thousand troops, and then several small military formations split off from the middle of the large formation, and Xiang Fa could estimate that they had at least ten thousand soldiers without looking through a telescope.

Liu Xian on the city tower sighed, he put down the binoculars, squinted his eyes and glanced at the Taiping army calmly, and then raised the telescope to watch carefully. That's right, he saw it very clearly, there were not only shield carts in the various formations of the Taiping army that were pressing, but there were also many people pushing multiple heavy artillery forward, and he was not mistaken.

"Fifth brother, there are a lot of cannons with long hair......"

Kong Lingren was surprised, his body was about to stretch out from the city tower, stared at the Taiping army, and carefully counted in his mouth: "One door, two gates, three gates, four gates...... There were twenty of them. Looking at the two or three thousand pounds of heavy artillery, this is a cannon that can hit three or five pounds, and it can hit a mile away. The mountain splitting cannons on our city are all in vain. ”

"What then? Could it be that Guancheng can only watch the cannon be fired? Zhang Shoushan, the commander of the Volunteer Battalion, exclaimed.

"It's not enough to just be shot. Guancheng is only a hundred steps away from the county seat, and my new cast iron cannon can reach a range of two miles, but there are very few iron cannons at the head of the city, even if you add the artillery fire in the left and right corner towers, there are only four guns that can counterattack, four against twenty ......."

Kong Lingren looked at Dongguan with some concern, in addition to the two hundred people led by Xiang Fa, there were also three hundred people in the volunteer camp. Don't mess around with these rabble.

Twelve Han and Yuan iron cannons were arranged, one for each of the four corner towers of the city wall, two for each of the four city walls, and a maximum of four cannons were gathered on one side without moving the artillery.

Zhang Shoushan went down to the city tower, and as soon as the war started, his main task was to enforce the city.

Seeing that Zhang Shoushan had gone down to the city, Liu Xian's eyes were struck, and a person came to him, "Send a message to Xiang, be stable and deal with it calmly." It's just that the goods in the volunteer camp are not messy, and if you dare to mess up, you will be ruthless to me. ”

"Yes." He turned around and sprinted.

"Lao Kong!" Liu Xian called Kong Lingren again, "How long Xiang Fa can last in Dongguan depends on how much help you can provide him." ”

"Understood, sir!"

After the battle began, everyone had to call Lord Liu Xian.

Kong Lingren was very accustomed to this title, but when he turned his head, his face had already sunk, and he shouted to the two observers beside him: "Ranging!" ”

The two observers immediately took out the cannon gauges, that is, the quadrant and the measuring ruler. Liu Xian didn't understand these things at all, and the only two instruments he knew about the cannon were the gun mirror and the gun watch.

The former is simply impossible to achieve in China at this moment, and it is even uncertain whether it can be realized in the world at this time. The latter, Kong Lingren, a professional artilleryman, knows better.

The lessons of the two ** wars, more than ten years of fighting with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the ability of the Qing army's artillery team has still improved. At least the equipment on the foreign object instrument is much better than before. At the beginning of Kong Lingren's helm of the artillery team, he did his best to lay a solid foundation for the artillery team.

"Seven Hundred Steps ......" reported by one person.

Soon the observer reported another distance.

"Six hundred and fifty steps."