When Major Fanner led more than 400 cavalry of the 1st King Dragoon Regiment of the LinkedIn Guards to the battlefield, the morale of the Indian Sikh cavalry, which was on the verge of collapse, changed slightly, and they gritted their teeth and held on. Major Fanner learned of the battle from a handful of defeated Indian Sikh cavalry, and it was a surprise to Major Fanner that the enemy cavalry was able to deliver intensive fire on horseback.

There had been some skirmishes between the cavalry of the coalition army and the cavalry of the Taiping army in the pursuit of the defeated Manchu Qing army in Tongzhou, and at that time Major Fanner had heard of the Taiping cavalry firing on horseback. At that time, the Allied Command believed that this was a small number of elite cavalry of the Taiping Army following the tactics of the Swedish Chasseurs, or perhaps the cavalry of the Taiping Army at that time deliberately preserved some strength, and the allied army made a mistake in judgment. In short, the coalition forces believed that the Taiping cavalry was just a special type of light cavalry in which the tactics of the hunting cavalry were well used.

But at this moment, it seems that the Taiping cavalry is a perfect combination of chasers and heavy dragoons, they can skillfully load, aim, and shoot on horseback, and they can also launch a deadly and powerful charge against the target like the heavy dragoons or cuirassiers. They perfectly combined horseback shooting with horseback fighting, and the cavalry of the Taiping Army were generally more than 1.8 meters tall, regardless of physique and height when facing the cavalry of the coalition army, plus they rode on tall Anglo-Norman horses, Major Fanner found that the cavalry of the coalition army had no advantage in front of them.

"We still have courage and discipline!" Major Vanna gritted his teeth secretly, and he cheered himself up in his heart, and he knew the judgment of a short time. Major Fanner believed that the dragoons should join the group as soon as the enemy had already begun hand-to-hand combat with the Indian Sikh cavalry. In order to counteract the superiority of firepower on the enemy's horseback, Major Fanner did not hesitate to give the order to blow the trombone of the attack. The British Guards Dragoons rushed towards the chaotic battlefield.

The 1st Guards King's Dragoon Regiment under Major Fanner were elite heavy dragoons, armed with brass helmets with beautiful feathers, well-loaded flintlock rifled rifles on horseback, two short guns each, and scimitars now raised high in their hands.

The scimitar of the British cavalry is a Mamluk cavalry scimitar, which is different from the early British cavalry, after the Napoleonic wars and the advancement of the times, the British cavalry finally gradually abandoned the traditional broad-edged straight sword, and replaced it with a variety of standard scimitars that imitate the excellent cavalry knives of other countries. More than 400 Mamluk cavalry scimitars in the sun. It shines brightly, but it's so wonderful. The sharpness of this scimitar combined with the tremendous momentum on horseback allows it to easily cut through any part of the human body, and the perfect curve of the scimitar allows the British cavalry to better display their superb fighting knife skills. Major Fanner believed that they would be able to crush the cavalry of the Taiping Army, which was more than 300 men in front of him.

The commander of the Taiping cavalry apparently noticed the arrival of the British dragoons, and he decisively gave up the fight with the Indian Sikhs.

Seeing the retreat of the Taiping cavalry, the Sikh cavalry, who had just been held down and taught a hard lesson, raised their eyebrows and exhaled. Without waiting for Major Fanner's order, they launched a fierce pursuit, and as in the past when pursuing Manchu cavalry, they were equipped with spears that could easily pierce the backs of fleeing enemies.

It's a pity. They pursued a fierce group of enemies, and their equestrian skills allowed them to turn and gallop while still pulling out their rifles. At the nearest distance, strike at the Sikh cavalry that pursued them behind.

The Sikh cavalry, caught off guard, after losing dozens of men in pursuit. They no longer dared to pursue, and this group of Taiping cavalry seemed to be covered with spikes. No matter what they try, they can't give each other a powerful blow, and it is always themselves who are injured in the end when they reluctantly act.

When Major Fanner led the dragoons to join the battlefield, most of the enemy cavalry had already left the battlefield, they only surrounded the enemy cavalry who were charging too deep, and dozens of Sikh cavalry were still fighting with them.

"I noticed a Taiping cavalryman who was being attacked by five Indian Sikh cavalry at the same time, and he bravely fought this unfair battle, and one to two minutes later he stabbed an enemy in the throat and thus killed an opponent. His battle with four other enemies continued for about five minutes. Then, at that moment, the Taiping cavalryman's backhand slash struck his opponent, causing the Indian cavalryman's headbag to fly along with the head inside. The horses galloped away, the headless rider still sitting upright in the saddle, blood splattering out of the arteries like a fountain. Taking advantage of this gap, the spear in the hand of an Indian Sikh cavalryman pierced the body of the Taiping cavalry, the great pain made his blood-covered facial features even more hideous, the scimitar in his hand and his arm were cut off to the ground by another Indian Sikh cavalryman, at this time I noticed that he used his remaining hand to pull the fuse of a grenade on his waist, and the green smoke immediately came out, and the remaining Indian cavalry around him were red-eyed, and they did not know the situation, they swarmed up to capture the Taiping cavalry alive. Before I could alert them, a violent explosion erupted, and a huge wave of air sent my mount upright, almost knocking me off......," Major Vanna recalled years later in his book "Elegy for Dragoons."

Although the dozen or so Taiping cavalry did not escape in the end, they detonated the only grenade on their bodies, and Major Fanner, who was captured after the battle, learned from the Taiping cavalry that this grenade was their glorious bullet, and the Taiping Guards cavalry were not allowed to take prisoners.

The Taiping cavalry fled quickly, and they did not fall in love with the battle at all, and Major Fanner wisely gave up the pursuit in order to rein in the Indian Sikh cavalry, which was almost crumbling, knowing very well that once the firing distance was widened, the pursuit would not be fruitful, and their horses did not seem to be able to catch up with the enemy easily.

When cleaning the battlefield, the British found only the remains of more than 70 Taiping cavalry, and there were no prisoners, not even wounded survivors. More than 250 corpses of Indian Sikhs were the cause of damage, and several British dragoons were killed or wounded in the final defeat of their opponents.

Major Vanner found Major Probin's body among the remains, a deep stab in his chest that nearly cut him off to the chest, his face facing up, his eyes wide open, his mouth wide open, and his expression of astonishment frozen on his blood-stained face.

In this brief cavalry outpost, the Taiping army had a clear upper hand, and the Allied Major General Michel and General Collino felt a little nervous when they received the news, what if the enemy's cavalry attacked the infantry following behind? For the first time, Major General Michel was not sure if the coalition infantry hollow phalanx would be able to hold back this group of fierce cavalry, let alone form a hollow phalanx on the march before the enemy cavalry rushed to his side. After consulting with General Collino, they decided to slow down the march of the army in case of a surprise attack by the enemy's cavalry.

Soon after the order of Major General Michel was issued, the French infantry regiment on the left flank was raided by the Taiping cavalry, but fortunately the losses were not large, the enemy only fired at them from a distance, and when the French infantry formed a phalanx, the enemy cavalry quickly left, and when the allied cavalry heard the news, they were nowhere to be seen.

Repeatedly, these cunning and elusive Taiping cavalry were always roaming around this coalition force of more than 8,000 men, and they seemed to be fully equipped with ammunition, always able to harass the coalition in unexpected places while it was marching. The allied infantry could not bear this provocation, and whenever they lined up in a phalanx, the enemy always left immediately. If they did not listen, the enemy cavalry assumed a position to charge, and the cautious officers had to organize infantry formations.

The coalition cavalry came in and carried out several expulsion pursuits, but they were always ineffective, and each time the coalition cavalry lost manpower, while the enemy suffered almost no losses. Major General Michel was so annoyed that he wanted to stop and set up a sophisticated trap to lure the cavalry into charging, and then the infantry and cavalry would work together to kill the pesky flies. However, General Collino felt that they did not have much time, and if they could not recapture Tianjin or Hexi Wuzhen before nightfall, the allied army would be forced to sleep in the wilderness, which was a very dangerous thing, and the Taiping army was also an army that was good at night warfare. As a result, Major General Michel had to accept the reality that the troops were moving slowly and the soldiers were very tired.

Along the way, more than 30 kilometers of the road, large and small harassment no less than dozens of times, the most dangerous one is a group of Taiping cavalry rushed into the artillery convoy, fortunately the coalition cavalry support very quickly, the enemy just cut a few horses with artillery and left, they did not have time to attack a few ox carts carrying shells, otherwise the excitement would be big.

This harassment slowed down Major General Michel's march, which was still a few kilometers away from the town of Hexiwu near noon, and had been marching for six hours from six o'clock in the morning to twelve o'clock, and Major General Michel decided to stop and rest, let the soldiers have a full lunch, and then take a short rest, and then start the attack on the town of Hexiwu as much as possible.

Major General Michel set up a lot of temporary positions to guard, he was still worried about the harassment of the enemy cavalry, but fortunately the enemy cavalry seemed to have gone to eat, and the coalition forces were not disturbed during the lunch break.

At 1:40 p.m., after resting, the coalition forces continued to advance towards their goal. When it was two kilometers away from Hexiwu Town, the infantry and cavalry, artillery, and baggage units of the coalition army began to be deployed, the logistics baggage, command headquarters, and field hospitals were set up, the combat units set up positions, and reconnaissance teams were dispatched to reconnoiter the enemy's movements.

Major General Michel set out with a reconnaissance team as early as one o'clock to conduct a reconnaissance in advance, and when he came to a small hill outside Hexiwu Town to observe, he was stunned to see that the entire Hexiwu town was densely packed with trenches and barbed wire...... (To be continued......)