"Lord Yang will stay in Tongzhou with you for one night, and then everyone can follow and go to Tianjin to eat foreign rice and noodles, and there are a lot of Yingyang rewards waiting for you......" More than 15,000 Ruijian Qing troops under Mianyu began to march towards Tongzhou City under the encouragement of the officer's skillful tongue, Mianyu watched silently beside the official road not far away, and there was no regret in his heart.

Ruijian Battalion this Eight Banners Army began to be established in the Qianlong period, after more than 100 years, the establishment continues to expand, most of the establishment at the moment is to raise soldiers, the men in the Ruijian Camp are generations of soldiers, when the child grows to ten years old, it will be the age of raising soldiers, that is to say, the child can begin to earn his share of the silver. And where did all this money come from? The banner soldiers of the Ruijian battalion are not engaged in production, and they are completely supported by collecting taxes from the people. But since the Qianlong period, the banner soldiers of the Ruijian Battalion have never experienced a major war, the armament is lax, the soldiers and generals do not know how to fight, and most people don't even understand that Tongzhou, where they are going now, is a dead place.

At 6:15 p.m. on the same day, the Qing army of the Ruijian battalion was stationed in Tongzhou, and in Tongzhou they saw a group of British and French troops ready to go.

Grant and Montauban looked at this languishing army, and their hearts couldn't help but rise, the two gentlemen didn't expect that the cunning Qing rebels would send such soldiers to the front line to die, Montauban broke out on the spot, he was furious and wanted to go to Rong Lu to settle accounts, but the news brought back by the scout made them dumbfounded.

"After receiving the weapons and equipment, the Qing rebel army has already moved to the north." Grant's eyes widened as he listened. He didn't expect that the Qing rebels would cross the river and tear down the bridge so quickly, and they didn't say hello. Rong Lu's rhetoric deceived the two gentlemen. This also shows a problem, foreigners attach great importance to credibility at this time, but Chinese people don't care very much. Moreover, when discussing the dispatch of troops, the two sides did not clarify the issue of soldiers.

In desperation, Grant and Montauban had to negotiate until after nightfall, the coalition brigade crossed the North Canal to the north and withdrew to Xu Xinzhuang, and Ran Man retreated to the bank of the North Canal to hold the last crossing. This plan also completely abandoned the more than 15,000 Ruijian battalion Qing troops. Then the whole army of the coalition army rushed straight towards Tianjin, and joined forces with the troops of Major General Michel and General Collino, because in the afternoon they received the military information of Major General Michel. They were held back by the Taiping army in the town of Hexi and were unable to support Tianjin, so the coalition forces needed to open the way back to Tianjin.

However, the Taiping army made a wrong plan because of a mistake in judgment. After two major battles during the day, the Taiping army rested for a few hours, and at this time received reconnaissance information from the front, saying that the Qing rebels began to reinforce Tongzhou. In view of the fact that there were more than 50,000 Qing rebels north of Tongzhou, the Taiping Army Staff Department still cautiously formulated a night battle plan, rather than immediately sticking it up and continuing to attack Tongzhou. The General Staff was also well-reasoned, after daytime battles. The soldiers consumed a lot of guns and ammunition, and they needed to wait for supplies from the rear battalion, although the Qing rebels were very bad, even if tens of thousands of pigs were put there for you to kill. You need to have plenty of ammo too, don't you? Moreover, if the attack on Tongzhou continues in the afternoon, the casualties will be very large, and at the same time the enemy has reinforcements. The defensive strength will also be improved, and the Qing army will give the impression that it is not possible to fight field battles. But there is still a hand in defending the city, not to mention that there is also a new army trained by Rong Lu in the rebel army. So the General Staff developed a plan for night battles.

Xiao Yungui originally wanted to take another risk and continue the attack, but the casualties during the day also gave him a great warning, fighting head-on with the British and French forces, the Taiping army did not have much advantage, and there would indeed be great casualties in attacking Tongzhou during the day. People may be like this, when your family has a big business, you will shrink a little, and in the end, Xiao Yungui hesitated again and again and adopted the opinion of the General Staff.

But at 7:30 p.m., Xiao Yungui got the latest reconnaissance intelligence from the front, the Qing rebels did not all go south to reinforce Tongzhou, but one went south, and the rest all ran north, at this time Xiao Yungui and the officers of the staff understood that they were deceived by the bluff of the Qing rebels. At this time, there were only a few hours left before the night battle was launched, and Xiao Yungui immediately ordered to adjust the deployment with a dark face and immediately attack.

Although the Taiping army adjusted its deployment quickly, it still wasted more than an hour on the adjustment of the battle deployment of tens of thousands of people, and finally the battle officially began at 9 o'clock at night.

The timing of the Taiping attack was also difficult for General Ran Man, whose troops had just withdrawn from the Bali Bridge, leaving only one engineer company ready to blow up the Bali Bridge, and the rest of the troops stationed on the banks of the canal pontoon bridge north of Tongzhou. Grant and Montauban had already crossed the North Canal, so General Ranman was the last coalition force left on the south bank of the canal. When the Taiping army on the other side of the Bali Bridge launched a death squad charge, the sappers failed to detonate the explosives in a panic. Just like the later Long March troops flew to capture the Luding Bridge, the Taiping army suddenly launched an attack and successfully recaptured the Bali Bridge without letting the coalition forces blow it up.

In the end, the French engineer company was surrounded and annihilated by several times the enemy, and in the end only a few people escaped to report the news, and the headquarters of General Ran Man in the pontoon bridgehead was still building temporary fortifications, after hearing the news, General Ran Man could only hope that the Qing army in Tongzhou could resist for a while, and buy him some more time.

And what was the Qing army in Tongzhou doing? When Grant and Montauban's brigade marched out of the city, the interpreter of the army told the commander of the Qing army that they would go to the front to defend the outlying positions, and that the city of Tongzhou would be handed over to the Qing army, and told them that the supplies and food left by the coalition army could be used by the Qing army at will. The commander of the Qing army was very happy when he did not know what was going on, and the officers of the Qing army were busy and began to divide the spoils. The coalition army hoarded a lot of food and materials in Tongzhou, there were a lot of bacon and ham, and a lot of alcohol, which were all things that the coalition army could not take away.

So the front foot of the coalition army left, the back foot of the Qing army began to reward the three armies, wine and meat to eat and drink at will, many of the cloth and property looted by the coalition army also became the object of robbery by the Qing soldiers, no one noticed at all, the coalition army went north after leaving the city, and did not go south to fight the Taiping army at all.

Therefore, when the third division of the Taiping Army's Majuqiao arrived to join the troops of Baliqiao, and quickly approached the city of Tongzhou, the city of Tongzhou was still very lively. The Taiping army almost didn't have a phone bill, and captured the city of Tongzhou with a single shot. The soldiers guarding the city gate of the Qing army were so drunk that they did not even close the city gate.

Although more than 15,000 captives were caught, Xiao Yungui was furious, what did he want these wine bags and rice bags for? It is simply more than worth the loss to allocate valuable troops to guard them. Xiao Yungui also thought about killing all these captives, but at present, it is important to pursue the coalition forces, where is there time to kill the captives? In the end, Xiao Yungui was forced to be helpless, Xiao Yungui ordered a Taiping army to escort this group of prisoners to the city of Beijing, drove them to the city of Beijing and released them, and then Xiao Yungui ordered the Taiping army to continue the pursuit in the direction of the coalition army's escape.

Judging from what was left behind in Tongzhou, the coalition army retreated in a hurry, and the Taiping sentinels also captured a few dragoons, who were sent out by Grant to deliver the latest order to Pashali, who was still in Beijing, and it can be seen from the order signed by Grant and Ergin that the coalition army was preparing to join up with Major General Michael's troops and fight back to Tianjin, and finally retreat back to the south from Tanggukou. In the letter, Sir Ergin asked Pashali to stay in the capital first, after all, he was a diplomat, and there was no danger for the time being (foreigners have always believed that diplomatic envoys were protected), and then he would find an opportunity to join him in the south when the war was calm.

After reading it, Xiao Yungui was furious, and scolded the British and French forces for having no chivalrous demeanor, and actually let Tongzhou City not defend it, so they ran away in a gray manner, and they didn't even want a lot of supplies and looted things, they were really guts bandits!

Enraged, King Xi ordered the Taiping army to attack General Ran Man's headquarters overnight, intending to catch up and entangle them, and at the same time ordered a Taiping army to cross the Bali Bridge and pursue the coalition army parallel on the south bank of the canal.

As a result, General Ran Man's poor more than 1,000 palace troops became a place for the Taiping army to vent their anger, the Taiping artillery in the dark night whether they could see it or not, against General Ran Man's temporary fortifications is a cannon bombardment, although many shells failed to hit the target, but a few shells hit the target or caused serious damage to the temporary position, and then there was another unfortunate thing, that is, a few shells destroyed the pontoon bridge of the North Canal, and the retreat of General Ran Man's army was interrupted.

Although the French chasseurs under General Ran Man were very heroic, they could not withstand the continuous charge of the Taiping army several times their own, and night fighting has always been the shortcoming of the coalition army, but the Taiping army is used to night fighting. Most of the officers and cadres of the First Army came out of the troops started by the King of the West, and these people were accustomed to night fighting, and the troops they brought out were also accustomed to night fighting, so General Ran Man's troops could not hold out half an hour after the start of the battle, and suffered heavy casualties.

Seeing that there were fewer and fewer soldiers around him, General Ran Man calmly burned all the military documents he was carrying, then sorted out his clothes and gave orders to his soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender. That night, the Taiping army successfully recovered Tongzhou, and more than 300 French chasseurs under General Ran Man surrendered, and the casualties of the Taiping army were not large.

Although Tongzhou was captured, the canal pontoon bridge was destroyed, and it was a waste of time to rebuild the pontoon bridge, and Xiao Yungui's face was very unsightly. But fortunately, at about twelve o'clock, Li Xiucheng's troops from Tianjin came back with news that Tianjin City had been taken, and the troops of Tianjin City began to reinforce Hexi Town. Seeing this news, Xiao Yungui finally loosened his tense face, Tianjin was recovered, then all the Taiping army had to do was to catch up, and join forces with the Taiping army in Hexi Wuzhen and Tianjin to encircle the remaining troops of the British and French alliances, and finally annihilate them! (To be continued......)