Lin Qirong stared at the battlefield with a stiff face, the Fifth Army had no reservations at the beginning, and now there was no reserve around him except for the soldiers of the artillery regiment and his own guard battalion. The commander of the first division came to the headquarters to see him in person in a hurry, and the words of the division commander made Lin Qirong's words still in his ears: "Lin Shuai, if you fight like this, the elite of the Fifth Army will be wiped out like this, and the infantry regiment under me will be exhausted in less than an hour, and the other two have been crippled, do you really want the brothers to die here?" ”

Lin Qirong's answer was cold and ruthless, he grabbed the division commander's collar and scolded viciously: "What is the fifth army fighting out? What is the end of the entire Guangzhou Legion Headquarters? Even if the entire Southwest Military Region is exhausted, it is nothing! Our friendly forces in other military districts can still defend the whole country! You can still bring your enemies to their knees! You can still defeat the enemy! You remember, now I don't want casualty figures, I just need time! ”

Yes, now the Taiping Army and the coalition army are competing for time, to see who can not shake and collapse first, once Lin Qirong's troops are defeated earlier, then the coalition army will have time to calmly return to the division.

But the division commander also cried loudly unceremoniously: "Lin Shuai, you let Hu Linyi, the Hunan army guy, command the Sixth Army, they will not arrive in time, he just wants to watch our Fifth Army die!" ”

After Lin Qirong heard this, he silently let go of the commander of the First Division, and said slowly: "I believe that Hu Linyi will lead the Sixth Army to arrive in time." After a pause, Lin Qirong ordered: "You take my guard battalion up, and then go up to stabilize the battle line, even if the two divisions of our Fifth Army are all explained here." We're going to hold back the enemy too! ”

The division commander stomped his feet and left with Lin Qirong's guard battalion in tears. Lin Qirong looked at the west and muttered, "Hu Linyi, Hu Linyi, don't let me down." ”

Meanwhile. In Gangwei Village, more than ten miles away, Hu Linyi looked at the map with red eyes and said loudly to several divisions of the Sixth Army: "The enemy has thousands of people in front of us, but you charged three times but told me that you couldn't rush?!" ”

A division commander said with a guilty face: "Commander, we marched here in a hurry, the artillery is still behind and has not caught up, the enemy occupies the advantage of the terrain, and it is difficult for us to charge......

Hu Linyi interrupted him unceremoniously and said angrily: "Don't say it's difficult, it's five kilometers away." The brothers of the Fifth Army are desperately entanglement with the enemy, they are facing an enemy twice as large as themselves, and you are embarrassed to say that it is difficult in the face of thousands of people?! No matter what you think, let me rush through the enemy's blocking position, half an hour later, we haven't rushed over, Lao Tzu personally went into battle to lead you to rush! ”

Hu Linyi's eyes were also red, and more than 4,000 people of the rearguard of the British and French troops set up a blocking position two kilometers outside Gangwei Village, where there was a river on one side. On the other side was the Gangwei hills, where the coalition forces had taken advantage of the position, and the Taiping artillery was still on the way, so the Taiping army failed to capture it in three charges. And it was blocked here. Hu Linyi knew very well that once his Sixth Army could rush through here and join the battlefield in Xiancun Town. Then the tide of the war will be a major reversal for the Taiping army.

The Sixth Army began to organize a fourth charge, this time regardless of casualties. The battalion company commander led the charge, while they were guarded by the British 93rd Highland Rifle Regiment, which had gained notoriety in the Crimean War. The Anglo-French forces deployed more than 4,000 people here, with the 93rd Highland Infantry Regiment of the British Army as the main force. They were all elite troops who were good at defense, among which the British 93rd Highland Infantry Regiment was the most famous, and in the Crimean War, it was this infantry regiment that blocked the charge of the superior cavalry of the Russian army with two rows of infantry, and received the nickname of the thin red line.

But today their commander saw an army that was even more tenacious than the Russians, and the former commander of the British 93rd Highland Infantry Regiment and now the commander of the British 2nd Guards Regiment was in charge of this rear army. Campbell's hands trembled a little when he saw the fourth enemy charge, "God, they still have the courage to charge, if it were the Russians, they would have broken up in the first two charges." ”

Campbell's concern was justified, the first three blockades, the three Highland Infantry regiments of the Anglo-French army were only barely completed, the soldiers were exhausted, the ammunition was about to run out, and most importantly, they began to fear the spirit of the enemy who was not afraid of death, at least more than three thousand corpses fell in front of them, but the fourth enemy charge also came, and like the first three charges, the enemy's charge became more and more determined and fearless.

In the shouts of the sky, the fourth charge of the Taiping army soon began, they hit the defense line of the coalition army like a wave, the 93rd Highland Infantry Regiment of the British Army assumed the center of the defense line, they were under great pressure, the grenadiers of the Taiping Army were very powerful, and dozens of people often threw grenades together at the same time, giving the 93rd Highland Infantry Regiment great damage.

Twenty minutes after the start of the fourth charge, the thin red line of the 93rd Infantry Regiment began to show signs of collapse, and Campbell was extremely anxious, his reserves had been exhausted by the first three enemy charges, and they had all been sent to plug the gap, and now he had no troops with him except for a few civilians, staff officers, and guards.

Sure enough, the herald of the 93rd Infantry Regiment brought a depressing message, "General, we can't hold it, Commander Stirling asks to retreat." ”

Campbell knew the fighting style of the 93 Infantry Regiment, and their commanders would not ask for a retreat if it was not at the last moment. Just when Campbell wanted to order the herald to take the order to defend to the death, more than ten screams broke through the air, and more than ten shells accurately landed on the defensive positions of the coalition forces, Campbell hurriedly raised his binoculars to look, only to see the smoke of gunpowder rising from the village of Gangwei occupied by the Taiping Army, he saw that the artillery regiment of the Taiping Army arrived in the smoke of gunpowder, some small field guns began to fire first, and heavy artillery was still unloaded from the carriage.

Campbell put down his binoculars painfully and said: "Retreat, we have done our best, the enemy's artillery is coming, retreat on all fronts, tell the soldiers at the front, if they can't retreat, allow them to surrender to the enemy after firing bullets......"

At 6:45 p.m., the Sixth Army of the Taiping Army broke through the blocking position of Gangwei Village of the British and French Coalition Army, and defeated more than 4,000 British and French Coalition Rear Guard troops led by the 93rd Highland Infantry Regiment of the British Army, and the cavalry division of the Sixth Army began to pursue and kill after the infantry regiment broke through the enemy's position, and the corpses of British and French soldiers fell everywhere along the road less than three kilometers from Gangwei Village to Xiancun Town, and more than 1,000 Allied soldiers finally knelt on the side of the road and begged to be spared, and the troops of more than 4,000 Allied troops finally fled back less than 500 people, More than 1,300 people, including Campbell, became prisoners.

After Hu Linyi's Sixth Army broke through the enemy's position, the sky had already darkened, but he did not order the soldiers to rest but continued to press forward desperately, at this moment the situation of the Taiping Army attacking the main force of the coalition army on the east and west sides has taken shape, and the fate of the coalition army's defeat has been doomed.

After receiving the news of the coalition soldiers who had fled back from Gangwei Village, Baron Sidon knew that the main force of the Taiping army in Guangzhou had pressed over, and there was only one way to retreat in front of him.

That night, the coalition army was constantly raided by the Taiping army on the way back, but fortunately, the bravery, tenacity and steely discipline of the coalition soldiers ensured that they did not break up, and the night protected them well, after dawn, the main force of the coalition army retreated to Daoyao Town, west of Dongguan County, where the coalition army gathered soldiers, reorganized the organization, and found that there were only more than 20,000 soldiers left. In the first battle of Xiancun Town, there were at least more than 7,000 allied soldiers killed in the battle, plus the loss of more than 3,000 people in Gangwei Village, and in the last night of retreat, more than 20,000 soldiers did not return to the large army, they may have been annihilated by the enemy, or they may have been scattered, or they may have lost their way, or they may have surrendered.

After a day and a night of fierce fighting last night, the 3,000 baggage troops guarding Dongguan lost Dongguan County, and the mountains of ammunition, food and various military supplies piled up in the city became the trophies of the Taiping army, and the coalition army lost their most important supply base.

The bad news came one after another, and the reconnaissance team reported that the enemy's cavalry division, after capturing Dongguan County, then moved south, following the path of the coalition army's advance after landing, sweeping all the way south, cutting off the connection between the coalition army and the Jinzhou landing site, and the remaining more than 20,000 coalition troops were in danger of being trapped inland.

Baron Sidon and the generals of the coalition army gathered around the map and quarreled, and they were now discussing not how to continue the invasion of Canton, but how to bring the remaining coalition forces back to Hong Kong safely.

An hour later, a group of marines came here by water and found them, the news of the fall of Dongguan last night was already known to the navy, Admiral Dundas brought a suggestion, suggesting that the coalition forces should advance in the southwest direction, and then board the navy's ships at Humen to withdraw to Hong Kong, because there were no other Taiping troops in the southwest except for the more than 3,000 Taiping troops stationed at the Humen Fort, and the coalition forces should be able to escape back smoothly. And if they want to return to Hong Kong, all they need to do is to destroy the 3,000 Taiping army in Humen, and Admiral Dundas believes that under the situation of the navy and the army, the Taiping army in Humen should be easily annihilated.

Baron Seadon didn't think about it for long, he agreed to Dundas's suggestion almost immediately, and the rest of the commanders didn't have much objection, because it was already their best choice so far. So at eight o'clock in the morning of the same day, the remaining 20,000 people of the coalition army began to march in the direction of Humen. (To be continued......)