"What, Jintan has been captured by the Qing Demon?" After listening to the words of the messenger in front of him, Qin Rigang's face was incredulous.

"There were more than 2,000 heavenly soldiers in Jintan, and more than 5,000 people from Yixing transferred in for reinforcements, and the total army of 7,000 couldn't stop a regiment in the Yusheng Military Region?" Qin Rigang was a little upset by the news of the fall of Jintan.

When he first arrived in Changzhou, he heard Lin Chengting and Wu Ruxiao say more than once that Yu Shengjun was strong in combat and could not be treated with the attitude of an ordinary army.

Originally, Qin Rigang scoffed at this, what kind of person is he Qin Rigang, he has fought for many years and the Qing army and the Huai army and other regiments I don't know how many times, although there are victories and defeats, but on the whole, victory occupies the majority, before the eastern aid to southern Jiangsu, he just fought with Shi Dakai in Jiujiang, Jiangxi and other places to beat Zeng Guofan's Hunan army.

As far as he knows, Yu Shengjun is also the same as the Hunan army, it is a local regiment training, even if the combat power is strong, it should not exceed too much, since the Taiping army can defeat the Hunan army, then it can also defeat Yu Shengjun.

But when Yu Shengjun really came over, he knew that what Lin Chengting said was not a lie, and that Yu Shengjun was really different from any Qing Demon Force he had seen before.

Especially in the first few days, Yu Shengjun's artillery bombardment brought him a great shock, his soldiers who were originally deployed in the city were killed and wounded on the first day, and finally had to abandon the city and hide in those trenches, but even so, Yu Shengjun's large number of artillery fired grenades and grenades and caused great damage to the soldiers hiding in the trenches, and every day a lot of corpses had to be moved out of the trenches outside.

After seeing Yu Shengjun's fierce artillery, he knew why Lin Chengting was reluctant to go out of the city to take the initiative to fight.

With the intensity of the artillery bombardment of the remaining victorious army, if you go out of the city and take the initiative to meet them, I am afraid that before you can get close to them within 300 paces, your own troops will collapse due to the fierce shelling of the enemy.

If he only saw the fierceness of Yu Shengjun's artillery fire in Changzhou, then the loss of Yixing and Jintan made him truly realize Yu Shengjun's strong combat power for the first time.

According to a lot of information, the Taiping army can already determine that the second mixed regiment under the command of Yu Shengjun is attacking from the direction of Yixing, and it is commanded by Xu Yanqing.

And how many people are there in this mixed group? There were only about 2,500 people, but only 2,500 people. However, it only took three days to conquer Yixing, which was defended by more than 8,000 people.

Then, after the ministry arrived at the foot of Jintan City, it took only two days to take Jintan.

This kind of thing is almost beyond Qin Rigang's imagination!

"Now Xu Yanqing has led his troops to leave Jintan and go straight to Danyang, and now we are empty of troops in Danyang and Zhenjiang. I'm afraid it's not easy to keep! On the same day, Qin Rigang found Lin Chengting and Wu Ruxiao and said this, I have to say that he was frightened by the strong combat power of the second mixed regiment of Yu Shengjun, and what he said was full of fear.

However, Lin Chengting said: "The loss of Yixing and Jintan is expected, but it is easy for Xu Yanqing to take Yixing and Jintan." But if you want to conquer Zhenjiang, I'm afraid you will break his teeth! ”

"We have nearly 10,000 soldiers in Zhenjiang and 5,000 soldiers in Danyang, if the troops are strictly defended, it should be able to be defended, after all, Zhenjiang has been operated by me for many years, and the fortifications of all parties are quite perfect, and Xu Yanqing is only more than 2,000 people, just dragging them down, it shouldn't be a big problem!" Wu Ruxiao also said this next to him.

It's just that the current Wu Ruxiao, Lin Chengting and others don't know that after taking Jintan, the troops under Xu Yanqing's command have far exceeded 2,500 people, except for the headquarters of the Second Mixed Regiment. Two auxiliary defense regiments were also formed from among the captives.

Before deciding to send troops, Lin Zhe was worried that the 2nd Mixed Regiment from Huzhou would have a thin force when it fought alone, but Lin Zhe did not have any extra reinforcements to send to the 2nd Mixed Regiment, so even if he planned to let the 2nd Mixed Regiment follow the previous example and form an auxiliary defense regiment in the process of marching.

And for this reason, a number of officials of the Supervision and Training Department were dispatched in advance to take charge of this matter.

After the Second Mixed Regiment took Yixing, it was inevitable that many prisoners were captured, and immediately these officials of the Supervision and Training Department selected the best soldiers and recruited more than 1,000 people to form the Fourth Auxiliary Defense Regiment in Yu Sheng's Army.

After taking Jintan, more than 1,000 people were selected from the captives to form the Fifth Auxiliary Defense Regiment.

This is despite the fact that the combat effectiveness of these auxiliary defense regiments is extremely limited. But in any case, it can be regarded as an army, and it is still possible to be responsible for some auxiliary combat missions.

So if these two auxiliary defense regiments are counted, the troops led by Xu Yanqing are already more than 5,000 people.

These 5,000 people were enough to play a considerable role in Zhenjiang Mansion, where the Taiping army was empty.

And Lin Zhe learned that the second mixed group had already won Jintan. And after marching towards Danyang, he smiled, this Xu Yanqing really lived up to his expectations.

At the beginning, he transferred Xu Yanqing to replace Lin Anfei as the commander of the Second Mixed Regiment, because he took into account that the Second Mixed Regiment was located in northern Zhejiang, and the combat operations could not be supported by the main force of the Yu Sheng Army Headquarters, so the requirements for the commander were quite high.

Logically speaking. The most suitable person is Shi Langyi, this person's ability is not said in Yu Shengjun's senior generals, whether it is training soldiers or attacking or defending.

But although it was said that Shi Langyi had married Lin Zhe, Lin Zhe was still a little defensive of him in his heart, so he didn't let him go.

As for another suitable candidate, Shi Qingxuan, Shi Qingxuan was in charge of the training of the Third Mixed Regiment and couldn't leave, so in the end, Lin Zhe transferred Xu Yanqing to serve as the commander of the Second Mixed Regiment.

And this Xu Yanqing did not disappoint him, after leading the second mixed group to fight, he won a success, and it took a very short time to hit Jintan, which can be said to have exceeded Lin Zhe's psychological expectations for him.

"It seems that this person can be focused on cultivating!" Xu Yanqing didn't know that he had already entered Lin Zhe's list of key cultivations.

At this time, he was leading the army to Danyang!

Like the other officers in Yu Shengjun, Xu Yanqing wore a dark blue double-breasted top, the same dark blue straight-leg pants with red trim, long leather boots, and a command knife and revolver around his waist.

Yu Shengjun's military uniform is not unique in contemporary China, since Yu Shengjun's successive victories in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, it has become the template for the Taiping New Army and the Qing New Army.

And at any time, do not underestimate the ability of the Chinese people to copy and learn, whether it is the Qing court or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, when they imitated Yu Shengjun to establish a new army, because they themselves did not understand why Yu Shengjun was so able to fight, so in line with the mentality of learning first and then talking about right and wrong, they almost copied Yu Shengjun to organize and train the new army.

Lin Chengting directly copied Yu Shengjun's military uniform, and even the epaulette system was copied, but the color of the military uniform was changed from dark blue to blue-gray.

Not only Lin Chengting, but in fact, the military uniforms of the new army of the Qing court are also directly imitated from the military uniforms of Yu Shengjun, such as the Jianghuai New Army led by Li Hongzhang, who was pinned on by many bigwigs in the Qing court, and its military uniform is roughly copied from Yu Shengjun's military uniform, but the color of the head cloth is changed from white to light blue, the color of the military uniform is changed to light blue, and the epaulette logo is changed from Yu Shengjun's five-pointed star to the epaulette of blue beads.

In addition, the Eight Banners New Army and the Green Camp New Army trained in Beijing are modeled after the Jianghuai New Army in their military uniforms, so they are naturally similar to the military uniform system of Yu Shengjun, in addition, the costumes of the Eight Banners New Army are more special, and most of the officers' military uniforms are more gorgeous, and the epaulettes are bordered with dragon patterns.

With the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing court successively organizing and training new armies, this set of military uniforms from Yu Shengjun has spread all over the country.

Xu Yanqing, who was riding on a horse, looked at the marching columns that stretched for miles in front and back, and he felt a sense of pride in his heart.

Now that the main force of Yu Sheng's army has been attacking Changzhou for a long time, whether he can change this strategic disadvantage depends on whether his army, which is deep in the hinterland of the enemy, can turn Zhenjiang upside down, which shows the great pressure he is under!

Just when Xu Yanqing was thinking about how to lay down Zhenjiang, a scout in front rode a horse to Xu Yanqing: "Tell the head of the regiment that a Zhuangzi six miles away has found traces of the thief army!" ”

Xu Yanqing said: "How many people?" Is that part of it? ”

"Since we haven't been able to get too close, we haven't yet identified the enemy's flag, but from a distance, we find that the number of thieves should be in the size of a thousand!"

Hearing that it was only a thousand people, Xu Yanqing immediately said to a major beside him: "Long Yun, you take the fourth battalion to take this Zhuangzi down!" ”

Immediately, a young major with a young face with a young face rode out of the ranks: "The rank is commanded!" ”

More than half an hour later, Xu Yanqing heard a dense explosion and gunfire in front of him, judging from the sound of the cannonball, it should be the sound of the four-pounder infantry gun of the Fourth Infantry Battalion firing shells, and the gunfire was naturally the sound of his own Mini rifle.

At the same time, Fang Hanlin was riding outside a small village, and the soldiers of the 4th Infantry Battalion in front of him were advancing towards the small village based on each company, and the two four-pounder infantry guns in the middle were firing one shell after another.

"Battalion commander, the thief army in the village has begun to retreat!" An ensign adjutant on the side said this beside him, with a hint of disdain on his face: "These thieves should have retreated from Jintan, and their will to fight is very poor, and they have already retreated as soon as we rushed!" ”

Fang Hanlin nodded: "Let the companies speed up the attack, and deal with them before the regiment leader arrives!" ”

But as soon as his words fell, suddenly a few of his own scouts rushed over on the right side, and they hurriedly rode their horses to Fang Hanlin's side and lowered their voices: "Battalion Commander Fang, the thief cavalry has been found in the front right!" ”

Hearing their tone of voice, Fang Hanlin felt a little uncomfortable, and immediately said, "How far is the distance, how many people are there?" ”

"It's only three miles away, and there are at least eight hundred horsemen!" (To be continued.) )