Early the next morning, the well-prepared Jingwu Army, no, it should be said that all the officers and men of the Second Division of the First Army of the Imperial Janissaries of the Chinese Empire, began to launch the Nanjing Campaign against the Taiping Army in accordance with the predetermined plan.

However, it was not the officers and men of the Second Division of the First Army of the Praetorian Guard outside the Chaoyang Gate who fired the first shot first, but the cruiser Zhenyuan, which had arrived in a hurry last night.

The cruiser Zhenyuan was actually one of the three clippers that Li Yongji bought with the Americans, and this ship was the youngest and best maintained of the three clippers, so it was sent by Li Yongji to modern society for modernization and refit. The other two clippers, named Weiyuan and Dingyuan, continued to train in the waters near the port of Jiaxing under the supervision of the American captain.

Three days ago, the Zhenyuan was all modernized and refurbished, and was teleported by Zhang Xinda, and then Li Yongji secretly went to Zhenjiang once, and took advantage of the middle of the night to spit out the ship in Zhenjiang Port, and after the ship appeared, he called Mo Haihu and others in advance and asked them to board the Zhenyuan.

Although there are a lot of modern modifications, it will take a while to fully familiarize themselves with the new equipment, but because there are some things that Mo Haihu and others have already used, such as night vision devices, such as communicators, such as propeller thrusters, etc., and even if they don't need to modernize, they can drive this ship away manually, after all, this is a sail warship.

And then there are the weapons, there are not many weapon systems on this Zhenyuan, only the front and rear two single-mounted Otto. Melera 76mm naval gun with a caliber of 76 mm, a maximum rate of fire of 120 rounds / min, an effective range of 9000 meters, and a maximum range of 20 kilometers.

This gun has an independent ammunition feeding system, automatic reloading, and an independent fire control system, which is easy to use and simple to operate. Moreover, it is highly adaptable, even if it is a wooden sailboat, it can be easily used after reinforcement.

In fact, at that time, Li Yongji wanted to install the Russian AK130 naval gun, and the Zhenyuan could also be installed, but the engineer advised not to install such a gun, because it can be installed, but the recoil is too large, and after a long time, there will definitely be problems.

On the contrary, Otto. The Melera 76mm naval gun does not have these problems. For this naval gun, which weighs no more than 8,000 kilograms, the Zhenyuan with a displacement of 2,000 tons is no problem at all.

Although there are only two single-barreled guns in the front and rear, and because it is a compact version, it does not look powerful and domineering at all, but in fact, whether it is the shooting distance, the rate of fire or the accuracy, all the naval guns at this time are completely destroyed.

In addition, this kind of naval gun is easy to use, simple to operate, and the attack method is a target on the opposite shore of the ship. So it's not difficult for Mo Haihu and others.

In addition to these two main guns, the Zhenyuan also had two Type 76F double-barreled 37mm naval guns as secondary guns.

This naval gun is domestic, needless to say, the performance is fully automated. The rate of fire is 800 rounds per minute, the maximum range is 9400 meters, the effective range is 3800 meters, and the ammunition box capacity is 1600 rounds. The sealed cabin plus optical sighting, which also shared the fire control parameters of the 76-mm Otto gun, was also quite good.

The same goes for it. This gun was chosen because it was light enough to be mounted on a wooden clipper ship without problems.

In fact, the caliber of naval guns is not the larger the better, on the contrary, the caliber of naval guns is often proportional to the tonnage.

That is to say, the caliber is about large, and the tonnage of the ship must also keep up, and it must be a large platform and a small caliber in order to maintain better shooting stability, otherwise it will not be possible to shoot accurately on the ship, which will waste the performance of modern artillery and modern fire control systems.

Because of this, Zhang Xinda accepted the opinions of professionals, and Li Yongji believed Zhang Xinda's judgment, so the Zhenyuan was equipped with these two guns.

Of course, in addition to the main gun and secondary gun, two Browning M2HB 0.50-inch, that is, 12.7-mm machine guns were installed in the front and rear for peacetime patrols.

With these weapons, coupled with advanced radar and sighting systems, as well as diesel engine thrusters that produce a maximum speed of 20 knots without sails, and composite armor plates hanging on the outside of the ship's side, the Zhenyuan is already a veritable NO.1 in this time and space, whether it is attack power, defense or mobility.

As early as yesterday night, the Zhenyuan secretly drove along the Yangtze River to the outside of Nanjing, and aimed at two fortresses outside the Taiping Gate of Nanjing City with 76mm guns in advance: Bunker City and Tianbao City!

The bunker city and the heavenly fort city are the fortresses added by the Taiping army in order to defend the Taiping Gate, which is very strong, of course, this fortification refers to the face of earth artillery, in the face of modern 76mm armor-piercing blasting shells, it is simply a pile of earth city.

When the attack began at five o'clock in the morning, the Zhenyuan was first on the Yangtze River, using 76mm guns at a rate of 60 shells per minute, to bombard the bunker city and the Tianbao city.

Due to the fact that the shelling parameters were checked in advance, basically no shells could miss, and almost all of them fell on these two fortresses.

The principle of armor-piercing blasting shells is to first break through the city wall with kinetic energy, and then blast inside the city wall, so the damage to buildings is particularly severe, especially the kind of buildings with thick walls, which are particularly destructive.

That's not all, just when the Taiping army in these two places was bombed miserably, they suddenly found a behemoth floating in the sky, this behemoth floated over like a dark cloud, and after floating all the way to the top of Nanjing City, leaflets were actually scattered on it.

When I picked it up, it was a red piece of paper with a few large black characters written on it:

"Four chapters of the law with the Nanjing fathers: Our army enters the city, and those who surrender will not be killed! The murderer dies, wounds and steals. The signator of the covenant, Li Yongji, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, admires this! ”

The text is concise and concise, and it is clear at a glance that although the Taiping army immediately reacted and collected these pieces of paper everywhere, there were still many smart citizens who secretly hid the pieces of paper, and even many Taiping soldiers themselves secretly hid them.

Without him, not to mention the monster floating in the sky, the meaning of this piece of paper alone can make people a guarantee for survival in troubled times.

Just when the airship began to scatter pieces of paper, the six ultra-light 155mm howitzers brought by Li Yongji had already been prepared, and these six guns fired the same armor-piercing blasting shells, and only five salvos came, which blew up Chaoyangmen, and blew up the Taiping troops who were defending nearby, and suffered heavy casualties.

Just as the cannon fire began, Zhang Wei came to the front line in person. The officers and men of the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Division trotted forward, lay down and hid 300 meters away from the bombardment range, and began to set up mortars.

As soon as the shelling of the 155-mm howitzers was over, the mournful trumpet of the charge sounded, and then the mortars began to fire three rounds of rapid fire at the already ruins of Chaoyangmen at a rate of 30 shells per minute.

The officers and men of the 1st Regiment shouted at the first moment the mortars fired, ignoring the fierce bombardment from the front, and under the personal leadership of Zhang Wei, they held Sharps rifles with bayonets on them. Roar and rush forward!

This is the basic infantry artillery coordination, and when the three rounds of rapid fire are finished, the troops led by Zhang Wei also rushed to the front, just rushed to the front in one breath, and quickly set up a ladder on the ruins, and then under the cover of the sniper group, the assault troops rushed directly one by one.

In fact, this is all redundant, because there is no resistance force in the ruins, and the artillery bombardment just now has already killed and injured the defending Taiping army. Even if they didn't die, they lost the courage to resist, and they just hummed there, powerless to resist the attack of the Praetorian Guards.

That's it. Zhang Wei led a regiment and occupied Chaoyangmen smoothly, and after that, he did not rush forward. Rather, it is to defend well in the vicinity and attract the attack of the follow-up troops.

Chen Yucheng is also ruthless enough, when he knows that Chaoyangmen missed. After the bunker city and the heavenly castle city also became a ruin, they immediately organized a counterattack force of 10,000 people to recapture Chaoyangmen.

However, the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Jingwu Army, which had already occupied the commanding heights and had a large number of Sharps rifles and 56 machine guns, blocked the opponent's attack to the death.

The counterattacking troops charged twice in a row, and after paying more than 3,000 lives, they finally knew that they could not do anything and began to retreat to the city to defend.

Slowly, all the officers and men of the 2nd Division of the 1st Army of the Praetorian Guard slowly moved to the strategic location of Chaoyangmen, and continued to occupy various commanding heights to consolidate this position.

What I want to say here is that Chaoyang Gate is the only east gate of Nanjing City, and then fight forward, it is the Tianwang Mansion, and if the Tianwang Mansion is defeated, Hong Xiuquan will be killed or captured, and the Taiping defenders will completely lose resistance.

In other words, Li Yongji doesn't need to bloom on all sides at all, he just needs to go all the way to the west and go straight to the Tianwang Mansion that the other party must defend, so he doesn't have to worry about the other party not coming over.

However, Li Yongji did not rush into the army, but asked the Zhenyuan to bombard the Yifeng Gate of Nanjing City at a fixed point to attract the attention of the Taiping Army, and at the same time, the 155mm howitzer began to attack the Taiping Gate again, and also hit five waves, and the Taiping Gate was blown open by a big hole.

Next, the second regiment began to attack the Taipingmen, and the same process as Zhang Wei's first regiment took only half an hour to capture the Taipingmen.

After the Taiping Gate was laid, the second regiment firmly guarded the Taiping Gate, and after that, the officers and soldiers of the guard battalion who had been rushed back and forth from Beijing by the airship troops continued to guard the Chaoyang Gate, and Zhang Wei personally led the first regiment and the third regiment to launch a surprise attack along the Chaoyang Gate to the Tianwang Mansion in Nanjing.

At the same time as the 1st Regiment and the 3rd Regiment were rushing forward, the 40,000 Type B Defense Army, which had already been mobilized, also followed one after another, following the assault trajectory of the 1st Regiment and the 3rd Regiment, holding Sharps rifles, and cautiously marching towards the city of Nanjing.

While attacking, they also shouted: "The emperor commanded, those who descend will not be killed!" The emperor decreed that those who descend will not be killed......"

It seems that these slogans worked, the sniper troops did not resist resolutely, and only hurriedly fired a volley of guns outside the effective firing distance, and began to retreat, while the Jingwu Army Assault Corps still called for mortars to attack the way first, blow up the obstacles, and then, under the cover of the machine guns, stepped on the explosive point to charge, and continued to play a round of infantry artillery coordination.

Of course, this stepping on the bombing point means that it is about 200 meters away from the explosion point, so it is not really a step and run coordination, but it is enough to deal with the Taiping army.

Keep rushing, keep rushing, encounter difficult bones, either mortar bombardment, or call for stronger 155mm howitzer bombardment, in short, in front of the assault corps composed of the first regiment and the third regiment of the Jingwu Army, the Taiping Army has no one at all.

Zhang Wei was also ruthless this time, although he was not on the front line in person every charge, but he was definitely with the front-line troops, firmly grasping the rhythm of the battlefield, and striving to open the way forward with the fastest speed and the most secure method.

Soon, the Jingwu army came to the Sun City in the outer city of the Heavenly King's Mansion, and hit the Tianchao Gate at the main gate, and then it was simple, the 155 mm howitzer and the 76 mm naval gun came to a salvo, and after only ten minutes, the intensive bombardment collapsed the Celestial Gate of the Sun City.

Then, the 1st Regiment and the 3rd Regiment advanced each other, covering each other, and the other second-level Wehrmacht troops followed, shouting and rushing into the Heavenly King's Mansion.

After rushing into the Sun City of the Heavenly King's Mansion, the fiercest battle broke out so far, because here, Chen Yucheng had already arranged 30,000 soldiers and horses in advance, and when the Heavenly Empire Gate was broken, he engaged in a confrontation with the other party.

It's a pity that although there are many muskets and artillery among the 30,000 soldiers and horses, in the face of the hot weapons of the Praetorian Guard, it is not enough to see at all.

The repeated bombardment of Sharps rifles, 56 machine guns, revolvers, and 81mm mortars inflicted heavy casualties on the Taiping Army's counterattack troops, and at the same time, the airships in the sky also confirmed the following situation, and began to spontaneously guide 155mm howitzers and 76mm rapid-fire naval guns to carry out intensive bombardment of Chen Yucheng's follow-up troops.

This bombing, Chen Yucheng's troops cried and shouted for their mother, suffered heavy casualties, and could no longer form a second or third attack cluster, watching the Praetorian Guards and the National Defense Army slowly press over, and calmly shoot or assassinate those Taiping officers and soldiers lying on the ground with the rifles in their hands.

The battle has reached this point, and it is impossible to fight. Because Li Yongji had absolute superiority in firepower, and airships provided artillery bombardment parameters in the air, once the Taiping army gathered too much, it would attract heavy artillery attacks, making it impossible for the gathered corps to make the trip, and the number of people gathered was small, and it was impossible to stop the arrows of the attack corps composed of the first regiment and the third regiment, and they were often defeated with one blow.

After the defeat of the blocking troops of the Taiping Army, the attacking corps will continue to advance, and the follow-up Wehrmacht will fill the gaps, and the entire operation will be almost like a cloud, with no dead ends at all and no loopholes to grasp.

In this way, the Taiping army retreated again and again, and finally retreated to the inner city of Golden Dragon City, but the result was the same as before, the airship learned the exact location, called for a saturation attack by heavy artillery, and the Holy Heavenly Gate in the inner city could not be blocked, and soon became a ruin.

By this time, the morale of the Taiping Army had plummeted, and many people began to flee secretly, while the Janissaries and the National Defense Army of the Chinese Empire were like rainbows, under the leadership of Zhang Wei, like precision instruments, little by little but not slowly, squeezing the opponent's defense.

Once broken, and then broken, when the officers and soldiers at all levels of the Chinese Empire broke through the layers of defense of the other party, they finally came to the mansion of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, but then, they found that there was a group of female soldiers in full uniform, rushing over like mad tigers.

Not surprisingly, these female soldiers, armed with cold weapons, were soon killed one after another under the musket fire of the Imperial Army, and none of them surrendered.

In the end, when the officers and soldiers of the First Regiment of the Jingwu Army cautiously entered the dormitory of the Tianwang Mansion, they found that Hong Xiuquan had already committed suicide by taking poison.

At this point, the Jingwu Army and other national defense officers and soldiers began to chant and cheer the news of Hong Xiuquan's death, and the other surviving Taiping troops immediately collapsed their fighting spirit when they heard it, and the Tianjing City of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came to an end in such a form and fell into the hands of Li Yongji again.

Although Chen Yucheng and Hong Xiuquan's children were not caught in the end, and Hong Renji and others were not caught, because Chen Yucheng had already escaped from the southwest gate with Hong Tianfugui and others.

Although these people fled in advance, Hong Xiuquan, the spiritual leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, had died, and Tianjing, the holy land of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, had also fallen, so it was already clear that the soul and faith of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had completely collapsed, and what remained was just some remnants of the remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, because the Taiping Army without faith would no longer be a threat, and it would be no different from the Liukou.

In other words, with the fall of Tianjing, the once-stormy Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is over! (To be continued......)