Song Feng rode on his beloved maroon Anglo-Norman horse, slowly slowed down, and walked with many of his companions from the Guards Cavalry Regiment on the official road leading from Shanhaiguan to Beijing City. The stunned young man had grown into a fierce general, Song Feng looked at his companions around him, and the excitement in his heart spontaneously arose.

The Guards Cavalry Regiment is a cavalry unit under the Xiwang Young Guards Regiment, one of the elite who followed Tan Shaoguang in the north and in a difficult environment to fight against the vicious Russians. They wore uniform uniforms, helmets symbolizing the Han family Yulinwei in the past, a pair of cuirasses on their chests, five revolvers with good ammunition on their horses, a Sesbian repeater on their backs, a sharp Gurkha cavalry scimitar on their waists, and then one man and two horses.

Song Feng was the commander of this thousand-man cavalry regiment, but his equipment was the same as that of ordinary soldiers, and he patted all the weapons he carried, which were old friends who had accompanied him through vicious battles again and again.

At first, the Guards Cavalry Regiment was not equipped with Sesbin guns, only five revolvers and scimitars, but it was with these equipment that they repeatedly defeated the Heilongjiang horse corps of the Qing army and the Cossack cavalry regiment of the Russians in the north. After Song Feng's Guards Cavalry Regiment was equipped with more advanced Sesbin guns last year, the Qing army and the Russians in the north were even less opponents.

Song Feng liked this gun when he first saw the Sesbin Bead Gun, and he was one of the new weapons sent back to China by Hu Xueyan sent by Xidian to do business in the United States. This Spencer M1859 0.52 caliber rifle was invented by Christopher Spencer, an American, who was originally a mechanic at Sharps, a famous gunsmith manufacturer in Connecticut, USA. As early as the year of the economic crisis in the United States, Hu Xueyan obtained a 40% stake in Sharps in the form of capital injection. became one of the shareholders of this arms company.

In fact, the appearance of the Sesbian serial rifle in history was a little later than two years, but at this time, because of Hu Xueyan's investment, the situation of the Sharps company was much better, and Sesbin used his spare time to build the first Spencer rifle, and received Hu Xueyan's full support, so this firearm was able to come out early. After the advent of this gun last year. The Sharps Company made 3,000 of them, all of which were purchased by Hu Xueyan in the name of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then sent back to China for trial. Historically, this gun was successfully recommended to the U.S. military through Sesbintonguò's continuous efforts, and the process was very tortuous and long, and it was only in the last years of the American Civil War that this gun really shined. But because Hu Xueyan was instructed by the King of the West, he paid great attention to the development of this gun. Therefore, this gun was also able to come out early and be installed in the army. This time, it was not the U.S. Army but the Taiping Army.

This repeater fires a 0.52 caliber metal cartridge with an edge-fire rifle that was patented by Smith & Wesson in 1854. Henry perfected it, and the reason why this gun was not made much was that in addition to the need for battlefield testing of new weapons, the bullet patent fee was also a reason.

But one way or another, more than a thousand cavalrymen of the Guards Cavalry Regiment were armed with such repeater guns, and then their long-range firepower received a terrifying boost. The use of the Sesbin Repeater is very simple, it only requires a rotary latching bolt. When the trigger retainer is pulled, the latching machine retreats to open the chamber. Pull out the empty cartridge case, while the spring in the butt automatically pushes the next round out of the feed tube; When the retainer is pulled, the locking machine advances, pushes the bullet into the chamber and locks the chamber at the same time. Shooting actions: pull down the hammer, aim, pull the trigger, pull down the trigger guard, pull the ring up, pull off the hammer, aim, and remove the supply tube from the rear of the butt when loading. The whole process could be done on horseback, so it became the weapon of choice for the Western Guards Cavalry Regiment.

Moreover, the parts of this Spencer are easy to manufacture, and the structure seems to be complex, but in fact there are not many parts, and most of them can be used with Sharp-style rifles, and it is the cheapest repeater on the market at the time. Of course, the cheapness is only relative, and the unit price of $40 is more than twice that of a regular front-loading rifled gun. And it was designed from the beginning as a military rifle, better in reliability and maintenance than the Henry, which was designed as a civilian rifle. The Spencer was also supplied with a new type of ammunition box containing 10-13 loaded barrels, each holding 14 rounds. When reloading, you don't need to load it in one round, just change the barrel, and the sustained rate of fire at this time can reach 21 rounds per minute.

As a result, the elite cavalry of this Young Guards Corps became the most elite cavalry regiment in the Taiping Army, and the cavalry divisions of the other eight field armies of the Taiping Army did not have such elite weapons as theirs.

Compared with other field cavalry divisions of the Taiping Army, the elite of the Guards Cavalry Regiment lies in other aspects of it, first of all, the selection of personnel. The soldiers of each Guards Cavalry Regiment must be more than one meter eight tall, this condition directly sent Song Feng's old comrade-in-arms Su Ji to the artillery unit, although Su Ji is one meter seven five tall, and this kid wore a pair of heightened riding boots during the physical examination, but it is a pity that the physical examination is to be stripped naked, and Su Ji went to the artillery unit.

As early as three years ago, the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom introduced nearly 10,000 French Anglo-Norman horses, most of which were used for breeding, and only more than 3,000 horses were handed over to the military for use. It is said that the King of the West has a soft spot for this kind of horse, and His Royal Highness the King of the West also rides this kind of horse.

Then there is the almost cruel and impersonal training and elimination mechanism of the Guards Cavalry Regiment. The Guards Cavalry Regiment requires a very high level of discipline from its soldiers, and in Song Feng's words, even if you are asked to charge towards a cliff during training, you must charge with indomitable courage! Moreover, the soldiers of the Guards Cavalry Regiment must be infinitely loyal to the King of the West, and in the eyes of everyone, they are all fanatical soldiers, and they are ready to sacrifice their lives for the King of the West. The more than 1,000 guards cavalry regiment led by Song Feng was selected from the 100,000 young Taiping army, and the war caused a large number of orphans, and the Taiping army children's camps and the Salesian Bureaus in various places in the early years had already expanded many times, Tan Shaoguang's subordinates were all composed of the young Taiping troops selected by the children's camps and the Salesian Bureau, and they were of course the elite of the elite selected from the 100,000 people.

That's why they were able to continuously defeat their opponents under the harsh conditions of the North, the Qing Army's Heilongjiang Horse Brigade, and the Russian Cossack Cavalry, they were all soldiers who were very suitable for fighting in the Northland, but they were all defeated by Song Feng and them, and the reason is here.

After coming out of Shanhaiguan, Song Feng led this cavalry regiment as the vanguard, galloping more than 400 miles in two days and nights, even Keqian'an, Qianxi, Zunhua, Jizhou and other places, I don't know what the reason is, the Qing army in these places did not resist at all, many places are after seeing the banner of the Taiping Army, the Qing army was dispersed, and the number of Qing troops is not much, Zunhua and Jizhou are big cities, and the Qing army in them is only more than 1,000 people.

Song Feng did not stop after conquering a city, he led the Guards Cavalry Regiment almost all through the city and then rushed overnight, eating, sleeping and even urinating on horseback, and when the horse was tired, he changed to another horse, they were all configured with one person and two horses. The soldiers of the Guards Cavalry Regiment fought on horseback all year round, and there was a joke in the army that if everyone were women, they might be able to have children on horseback.

This is a true portrayal of the Guards Cavalry Regiment's mastery of horsemanship and equestrianism, their perseverance and fanatical loyalty to the King of the West supported them, advancing towards the heart of the Qing Empire.

More than 200 years ago, after Wu Sangui opened the Shanhai Pass to lead the Qing soldiers into the customs, the Qing soldiers also entered Beijing along this road, and at that time, Li Zicheng's Dashun army was also like the Qing army at this time, and did not make the slightest resistance along the way. Regardless of the purpose of the Taiping army's attack on the capital, they have always been the gravediggers of the Manchus, and they have come to destroy this decaying and declining dynasty!

After the Qing army in the city behind them fled, there was a follow-up brigade to take over, because the Guards Cavalry Regiment had already left behind their peers, the cavalry division of the First Army, but their speed was not too slow, Song Feng believed that the city behind him would be taken over by the cavalry division's follow-up troops, and then they would wait for the brigade to establish a supply line and continue to meet the infantry and artillery of the brigade to follow.

The task of the Guards Cavalry Regiment is very simple, that is, to get ahead of the British and French forces and come to the city of Beijing!

"The front has reached Shunyi! There is no trace of the Qing army! The cavalry reconnaissance platoon sent out to explore the road came back, and Song Feng cheered up and roared loudly: "The whole army let go of the horses and gallop, we will pass through Guò Shunyi tonight, and arrive at the city of Beijing tomorrow morning!" ”

The whistle sounded everywhere, and the helmets of the entire cavalry swayed with the wind, like a forest of red maple leaves, and the flying dust could not hide the color of this mangrove, and they lined up in a neat queue to Shunyi, and could still maintain a rigorous cavalry formation in the high-speed gallop!

Sure enough, Shunyi was not guarded by Qing soldiers, perhaps the Qing soldiers had already fled without a trace, Song Feng did not enter the city, he continued to rush with the cavalry, and rushed to the north of Beijing with Shunyi City.

After galloping all night, there are stars and moons in the early morning sky, Song Feng and others set up their horses together, not far away an endless city wall appeared in their eyes, the city of Beijing under the morning glow is so vast and gorgeous, Song Feng raised his right arm and shouted: "Beijing City is in front of you!" Then came the shouts of the soldiers of the Guards Cavalry Regiment like a tsunami!

Beijing! Beijing! At the sight of this strange and magnificent capital, every soldier of the Guards Cavalry Regiment let out this exclamation from the bottom of his heart, no one had ever been here, but they had known it since childhood. Up to this point, its walls had been inviolable to the barbarians, and were now an obstacle to the Han Chinese army. (To be continued......)