Five hundred? According to the battles between the Taiping army and the Qing army in recent years, as long as these 500 people are the regular main force of the Taiping army, then it is completely enough to defeat the Qing army several times more head-on.

Although Lin Zhe is conceited that the training, equipment and battalion system of the Yuyao County Yong Battalion under his command are beyond this era, but after all, they have not experienced real battles, and no matter how good the training and equipment are, they are just a group of recruits.

However, he was worried, but Lin Zhe quickly issued an order for the troops to do a good job in city defense.

The Taiping army not far away is coming straight to Changxing, and he can't say that he won't fight and run away, it's a small matter to lose Changxing, anyway, he doesn't care much, the key is that if you don't fight, fleeing will greatly affect the morale of the troops.

There was a Taiping army coming straight to Changxing, this news could not be concealed at all, and Lin Zhe did not plan to hide it, and a large number of people in the city began to leave the city that day, or hide in the countryside or flee further.

Lin Zhe did not stop their escape, after all, he himself planned in his heart that if he really couldn't defeat the Taiping army, he would definitely turn around and flee with his troops, and then these people who stayed in the city, especially the gentry families, would be very tragic.

However, although he did not stop all the residents in the city from escaping, but he took this opportunity to extort another sum, he ordered the soldiers guarding the city gate to check everyone who went out of the city, those who were afraid of the Taiping army to fight the rich people in order to get out of the city in advance, naturally they had to give Yuyao County Yongying some benefits, some people in order to flee for their lives, and even dozens of taels of silver and hundreds of taels of silver smashed over.

At the same time, Lin Zhe ordered to recruit young people in the city to assist in defending the city.

Although it is impossible for these young men to be used in face-to-face battles with the Taiping army, they can still be used to dig chest walls, throw huge trees and stones to pour hot oil, well, if necessary, they can also be used as cannon fodder to block the footsteps of the Taiping army, so as to cover the retreat of the main force led by Lin Zhe.

With the arrival of the Taiping Army, the small county town of Changxing was in chaos in an instant, and even Hou Bingqu found Lin Zhe in a panic.

"Lord Lin, how can this be, I heard that there are no less than a thousand thieves!" Hou Bingqu was trembling when he spoke.

I can't help but be afraid, as the county commander of Changxing County, if the Taiping army breaks through the city, Lin Zhe can pat his ass and escape with the troops, but he, Hou Bingqu, is 100% dead.

Either committed suicide or was killed by the Taiping army, and if he escaped, he had to die, because once he fled, the Qing court would definitely not hesitate to ask him for his guilt, but absconded, and the court would also ask his family for the crime.

Looking at Hou Bingqu, who was greatly disfigured, Lin Zhe actually had a trace of sympathy for him in his heart, but this trace of sympathy quickly disappeared.

"Lord Hou, now our top priority is to do a good job in city defense, as long as we do our job well, what can we do with a mere 500 thieves?" Lin Zhe knew that at this time, he had to appease this Hou Bingqu, after all, he was the county commander of Changxing, and Hou Bingqu's cooperation was also indispensable to keep Changxing.

"I have already ordered the recruitment of young people in the city, and these things also need to be appeased by Lord Hou, and you also need to take care of all the logistics matters, Lord Hou!" Lin Zhe looked at Hou Bingqu as he spoke.

After Lin Zhe's words, especially Lin Zhe's self-confidence, he was also infected to a certain extent, he was thinking, Lin Zhe, who was in charge of the war, was not afraid, it seemed that this city should be able to be defended.

He didn't know, Lin Zhe's idea was to try it first, in case he really couldn't beat it, he Lin Zhe must have smeared oil on the soles of his feet and fled with people directly, Changxing's safety, Hou Bingqu's life or death is his business.

Hou Bingqu naturally didn't know what Lin Zhexin really thought in his heart, he thought that Lin Zhe, like him, wanted to defend Changxing County.

After saying goodbye to Lin Zhe, Hou Bingqu also took action, don't look at him in front of Lin Zhe, but in the end, he is an old fritter who has been in the officialdom for many years, and this surface work is still good, in the face of the people of the county government and the gentry, he said many words to reassure everyone, and at the same time arranged for people to carry materials for the soldiers and young men of the city defense, cook rice and boil water.

With Lin Zhe's order in front and Hou Bingqu's cooperation, the chaotic situation in Changxing was initially stabilized, although many people still tried to escape out of the city on this day, but on the whole, Changxing County was still making defensive preparations in a steady and orderly manner.

The next morning, Lin Zhe saw the Taiping army for the first time, and the first to arrive was dozens of cavalry of the Taiping army, which did not rush up directly, but stopped far away, obviously the forward reconnaissance force of the Taiping army.

After another hour, a large number of infantry of the Taiping Army slowly arrived, although there were only about five hundred people, but they slowly approached from outside the city in formation, which still made Lin Zhe feel a burst of pressure.

As the Taiping army slowly approached, Lin Zhe also took out a monocular to observe, in the telescope, this group of Taiping troops should be their formed troops, at least in terms of clothing, they are not as mixed as ordinary homeless troops.

However, the costumes are relatively uniform, but the weapons used are a little messy, some with swords and shields, some with spears, some with muskets, and all kinds of things.

Among them, the proportion of musket troops is not small, at least the scale of nearly 100 people, and the musket model, although it is not clear from a distance, should be a bird gun, that is, an arquebus.

Whether the domestic army is the Taiping Army, the Qing Army or even the Huai Army, the muskets used by them are basically arquebuses, and the domestic army regards Western-style foreign guns as standard equipment for the Huai Army, which has not yet appeared.

Regardless of the equipment first, but looking at the formation of this Taiping army, you can know that this is not a homeless army!

At this time, the two armies faced each other, and there was no such thing as the main generals of the two sides going out to fight or shouting, and soon the Taiping army outside the city began to advance slowly, approaching the city wall step by step with a steady pace.

As the distance got closer and closer, Lin Zhe could clearly see the costumes and even expressions of those Taiping soldiers from the telescope, he didn't see those Taiping soldiers showing any scared or nervous expressions, maybe for these battle-hardened Taiping soldiers, this siege is not once or twice, and a small county like Changxing may only need to charge the Qing army in the city once to escape.

It's a pity that what they encountered was not an ordinary Qing army, but Lin Zhe's Yuyao County Yongying.

As the Taiping army got closer and closer, the soldiers of the Yong Battalion in Yuyao County at the head of the city also showed more and more nervous looks on their faces.

And the officers' expressions are no better, but in the end, the officers who have attended the camp academy, listen to Hunter? William had been teaching for several months, and they also knew that they must not be shaken lightly at this time, and if the officers could not be stabilized, the soldiers below them would be even more unstable.

Not to mention, those soldiers of the pro-guard are still staring at it!

Half of the guards are the original Lin family's nursing homes, so it is naturally not good for them to line up to fight, but they are all skilled, but they dare to follow Wang Luyun to play a ruthless role in the battle with a sharp knife in hand.

Especially those five or six people who were born as bandits, they killed people without blinking.

Such a pro-guard team not only protects Lin Zhe's safety, but also plays roles such as reconnaissance and supervising the team.

Therefore, although these officers looked scared and might be shaken in the fight, they still managed to maintain their composure before the fight.

As for the psychological state of the officers and soldiers under his command, Lin Zhe didn't have much to pay attention to now, he paid close attention to the Taiping army in the distance and slowly approached.

And he paid close attention to the movements of the Taiping Army, and Khante? William!

As the Taiping troops outside got closer and closer, from one thousand meters to eight hundred meters, and then to five hundred meters, seeing that those Taiping troops, especially the Taiping troops carrying ladders in front, were about to charge, Hunter? William finally put down the binoculars, and then leaned over and whispered to Lin Zhe: "General, you can let the soldiers shoot!" ”

Lin Zhe immediately pressed his hand lightly: "The whole army shoots a salvo!" ”

The heralds behind him saw it, and immediately waved the flag in their hands, and the officers everywhere in the city saw Lin Zhe's order flag move, and immediately shouted in unison: "Fire!" ”

In an instant, the soldiers of the three companies deployed on this wall pulled the trigger in unison.

Loud gunshots rang out, and along with the gunshots, a white mist also floated on the city wall.

As the gunshots rang out, some of the Taiping soldiers outside the city sneered at the corners of their mouths: these Qing troops are really vulnerable, how can they shoot so quickly, the range of this bird gun is only about 100 meters, and even if it is 100 meters, the hit rate is low and scary, and now they are firing at a distance of four or five hundred meters, can the bullet come over?

Soon, those comrades-in-arms around them gave them the answer.

Just one round of guns, and at least four hundred and fifty meters away, nearly a few people fell.

Although there were only a few people who fell, it still caused the horror of many Taiping soldiers, they were all veterans, and they knew the range of the shotgun very well, they originally thought that they would not be able to be shot by the platoon guns until they were under the city wall, but they did not expect to be shot by the platoon guns now, and they really killed and injured many people.

How is this possible?

That's at least four or five hundred meters, how can they hit that far?

Could it be that their blind cat bumped into a dead mouse? Just shit luck?

Soon, they knew that this was not the luck of the Yongying camp in Yuyao County opposite, but the fact.

The Taiping army continued to advance, and the fall of a few people was not enough to stop them, and under the command of those leaders, the Taiping army continued to advance.

But soon, the second round of salvos from the Yongying camp in Yuyao County came again!

Shortly after the second round, the third round is here!

Although the hit rate was not high because of the long distance, the salvo of more than 200 was still enough to cause about a few casualties each time, and the salvo of several salvos combined had hit more than 20 Taiping soldiers.

Seeing that more than 20 people fell, the Taiping army generals who led the team finally sensed that something was wrong and quickly issued an order to retreat.

Seeing that the Taiping army retreated, there were bursts of cheers immediately from the city, and those soldiers were even more excited, they hadn't even seen the faces of the Taiping army on the other side, they just followed the instructions of the officers and shot according to the queue of the Taiping army, but those Taiping soldiers fell one after another, and now they retreated directly.

It turns out that fighting a war is not so terrible!

And after Lin Zhe saw that the Taiping army had retreated, he also smiled, the war was simpler than he imagined.

But soon he will learn that the war is more difficult and cruel than he imagined!