The weather was very cold in the early winter morning, and the Taiping army, who had set up camp in Hutouling, got up early in the morning to find that the withered yellow weeds were already covered with layers of autumn frost. Not far away, Xiangtan City was shrouded in thick fog, and only the outline of the city wall could be faintly seen.

The breakfast was very rich, and each Taiping Holy Soldier was given a bowl of broth, some dried vegetables and dried meat, and enough rice and noodles. Su Ji sat silently on the ground eating his meal, looked at the twenty or so teenagers around him and said, "Eat enough, you will have the strength to fight later!" ”

After Su Ji followed Li Yiwen to conquer Changsha, like other Taiping soldiers who participated in the Battle of Changsha, he was rewarded with a third-level promotion, from a tail card to the position of two scout soldiers, and was in charge of twenty-three boy soldiers. These teenagers in front of them are all newly joined the army in Changsha, the oldest is only seventeen years old, the youngest is only fourteen years old, they are all from Liuyang, they lost their parents when the Qing army plundered Liuyang, zuihou was the Taiping army took them in.

After more than ten days of training, Su Ji didn't know how many things he could give them, strictly speaking, he himself was a recruit who had only been in the army for a month, but he had experienced several actual battles and killed eight Qing soldiers, and he was already a qualified Taiping Army soldier.

The horn and war drums sounded, the command flag of the whole team was erected, and Su Ji shouted loudly for the boy soldiers to line up. The boy scouts were extremely obedient, and soon formed four rows of queues, standing straight in the cold wind. They were wrapped in red scarves on their heads, wearing newly haired cotton jackets, covered with adult Taiping Army oversized coats, the smaller ones looked very funny, ordinary gray cloth cotton pants, straw sandals under their feet, and their feet were a little cold and blue.

They were dressed in new uniforms before departure, and the army was ordered by the King of the West, and all winter coats were given priority to supply child soldiers and recruits, for the simple reason that many recruits were almost unclothed when they enlisted. The old longhairs in the army didn't have many complaints, they were still wearing the original shabby uniforms, but the weapons they were issued were the most haode, especially the firearms, which were almost all concentrated in the hands of the old longhair.

Most of the boy soldiers had some messy weapons in their hands, and some even carried bamboo guns, only Su Ji carried a steel knife around his waist, which was a decent weapon. If Su Ji wants to say, he would rather go to the adult Taiping army to be a small tail card than lead a group of boy soldiers like now, because he has never commanded others, and he feels that the burden on his shoulders is very heavy, and he doesn't want to fight down, no one is gone, whose hand is gone, and who is killed in battle. But Li Yiwen asked him to be the two horses of this boy soldier, saying that he was not born to lead soldiers, and he always had to be responsible to grow faster.

The flag was held high, Su Ji led his team of child soldiers to occupy the position, standing on the Hutou Ridge, only to see that thousands of Taiping troops had finished the formation, looking down from the ridge, the foot of the small Hutou Ridge was densely packed with red turbans of the Taiping army. After hearing only three horns, the artillery team at the front of the Taiping army began to fire artillery at the Qing stronghold on the periphery of Xiangtan City, and several teams of Taiping troops began to move to the camp of the Qing army in the dangerous place outside the city under the guidance of the banner.

Deng Shaoliang, an old fox, relied on the houses outside the city and dangerous places to set up many Qing army strongholds and barracks to prevent the Taiping army from directly attacking the city wall, and at the same time, more than ten mountain splitting cannons of the Qing army set up at the head of the city could bombard the front line of these strongholds and barracks, causing heavy damage to the Taiping army. The mountain splitting cannon was in the Ming Dynasty, the name was called "Qianzi Thunder Cannon", mainly to fire shotshots, the shotshots are generally made of lead, mainly to bombard the dense soldiers in the battle, Deng Shaoliang in Xiangtan City has a total of 12 400 catties of mountain splitting guns, all of which were arranged by him in the north of the city, and planned to kill and injure the Taiping soldiers when the Taiping army rushed to the city intensively.

Xiao Yungui of the Taiping army brought a lot of artillery from Changsha this time, mainly 20 500-pound mountain splitting cannons, 8 800-pound cannons, and two thousand-pound general iron cannons, all of which were Qing army iron cannons dismantled from the Changsha city wall, and a 500-person artillery team was specially set up in the West Hall for this purpose. Before the attack began, the artillery of the Taiping army began to bombard, and the sound was like thunder, and the sound shook all over the field.

As soon as the cannon sounded on the Taiping army's side, the Qing army in the stronghold outside the city suddenly panicked, most of them were new soldiers and Xiangtan green battalion soldiers who had never seen a fight, they still felt more comfortable staying behind the city wall, but they were driven out of the city by Deng Shaoliang to be cannon fodder. When the first round of shells fell, the Qing troops in the houses and barracks were immediately scattered.

Looking at these scattered Qing troops, Xiao Yungui shook his head secretly, they were all people who had not experienced actual combat, and they ran around in panic as soon as the cannon sounded, and they didn't know how to avoid artillery, no wonder the Qing army always suffered heavy casualties against the armies of the great powers with artillery superiority. Sure enough, the Qing army that ran wildly suffered heavy casualties under the artillery fire of the Taiping army, and they all gathered at the gate of the city and shouted to enter the city.

The Taiping army's two thousand pound cannons have a long range, and the Qing army's 400 pound light artillery placed on the head of the city can do nothing against them, Deng Shaoliang scolded Luo Bingzhang for why he wanted to concentrate all the heavy iron cannons in Changsha, but he couldn't hold it, and these newly cast iron cannons have become the Taiping army's current weapons for attacking the city. But scolding bitterly, Deng Shaoliang had to stand at the head of the city under artillery fire and shout, shouting that the Qing army under the city would go back to defend it, otherwise the city would also open fire.

The Qing army under the city cried incessantly, Deng Shaoliang did not let them enter the city, and they did not dare to turn back, and crowded under the city in a chaotic manner. The Qing army in the city did not dare to open the city gate at all, but was afraid that the Taiping army would take advantage of the situation to attack the city, seeing that the Qing army under the city still refused to go back, Deng Shaoliang ordered the artillery and arrows at the head of the city to fire together, and killed dozens of Qing soldiers under the city.

Deng Shaoliang breathed a sigh of relief, and said that this group of soldiers turned around and went desperately, who knew that these soldiers would scatter and flee when they turned back, and even one of them pulled out a piece of white cloth from nowhere, made a white flag and shouted surrender, and led his soldiers to surrender directly in front of the Taiping army.

The front of the Taiping army has been stopped in front of the artillery team, and did not step into the range of the Qing army's artillery at the head of the city, seeing the Qing army coming to surrender with a white flag, the former army Ji Wenyuan hurriedly ordered someone to report to Xiao Yungui. Xiao Yungui also saw it from afar, so he ordered the front to allow these Qing demons to surrender.

The Qing army that fled to the front of the battle became prisoners of the Taiping army, and the rest of the Qing troops who were still fleeing were either killed by artillery or fled to the west and south of the city, and the three hundred Qing troops outside the city died in this way.

The Taiping army was in the front line Ji Wenyuan counted prisoners, and when more than 100 Qing troops surrendered, they were all tied up and taken to the barracks.

Deng Shaoliang at the head of the city was furious and ordered the Qing army in the city to prepare, and the Taiping army must be attacking the city next.

But what is surprising is that after breaking up the Qing army outside the city, the Taiping army built a fortification at the front and defended it, and was not in a hurry to attack the city, and also divided several teams of men and horses to continue to seize the dangerous places outside the city, but they were not in a hurry to attack the city.

On the other side, the Taiping army outside the east gate also adopted the same tactics, but attacked the stronghold of the Qing army outside the city, and after clearing the perimeter, the Taiping army stopped to consolidate its own camp.

After the Qing army on the periphery was swept away, Deng Shaoliang lost nearly 600 people, although most of them were opium ghost green battalions in the city, and they had little combat effectiveness, but they lost so many people in vain, Deng Shaoliang still had a pain in his flesh, so he had to urge the local officials in the city to force the people to go to the city to help defend it.

In the afternoon, the weather warmed up slightly, Deng Shaoliang looked at the avenue leading from Liling to Xiangtan, only hoping for news of reinforcements from Liling, but there was no trace of reinforcements. The Taiping army outside the city was in a hurry to consolidate the camp and was in full swing.

It was already early winter, and it was dark early, just when it was dark, the sentry of the Taiping Army on the official road in Liling was suddenly chaotic, and the sound of gongs and horns rang out, Deng Shaoliang raised his eyes and looked, the Taiping Army sentry on the official road had lit piles of bonfires, and by the light of the fire, he vaguely found that the Taiping Army there was suddenly chaotic.

After looking at it for a while, a thousand general managers beside Deng Shaoliang shouted in surprise: "It's our Tanma who has come back." ”

Deng Shaoliang looked fixedly, and sure enough, he saw several Qing soldiers galloping towards him, and dozens of Taiping soldiers were chasing and killing behind him.

Deng Shaoliang hurriedly shouted: "Prepare the rope basket and pull the people up!" Artillery courage is ready to fire! Prepare your bow and arrows in the city! ”

The Qian general hesitated and said: "Lord Xietai, I can't see clearly when it's dark, I'm afraid I won't be able to hit the long hair." ”

Deng Shaoliang scolded angrily: "It's just to scare the long-haired thief and take our people into the city!" ”

After several Qing soldiers approached the edge of the city, the Qing army at the head of the city opened fire and fired arrows to stop the Taiping army chasing behind.

Several Qing army scouts were pulled into the city by ropes and baskets, one by one leaning on the battlements panting, Deng Shaoliang rushed to take a look, sure enough, it was the messenger sent to Liling yesterday, and hurriedly asked: "What did Zhang Guoliang say?" ”

The leading Qing army Tanma took out a letter from his arms and handed it over, panting and saying: "Lord Zhang said that he does not have many soldiers and horses, and there are also long-haired thieves near Liling, but I am afraid that after sending troops to help, the long-haired thieves will also take advantage of the situation to attack Liling, so Lord Zhang refused to send troops, and he also sent a messenger to the brigade for help, just let the adults stay for a few more days, and the Hengzhou brigade is about to arrive." ”

Deng Shaoliang angrily scolded: "This thief who has been cut by a thousand knives! The old man will definitely participate in his sin of not saving him from death! ”

The thousand general on the side persuaded: "Lord Xietai is angry, and there are only 2,000 people in Lord Zhang's department, and the long hair is powerful, and it is unknown to divide the troops to attack Liling." Speaking of this, Mr. Qian took a few steps and lowered his voice and said: "The lord is not a guard here, nor is he a parent official here, and Lord Qincha has not issued a clear order, asking us to defend Xiangtan, even if the city is broken and lost, the court will not blame, but if the adult loses the battle again, and his soldiers are all lost, the court will cure the adult's sin." In the opinion of the young general, it is better to go out of the city and don't go, tonight take advantage of the darkness to go out from the west Zhanyue Gate, cross the Tongmu Bridge, and rush to Ningxiang all the way to Shanshu Lane, Mapoli, and Taling. If Shangfeng asked, he would say that we should rush to Changsha as soon as possible to suppress the thieves according to the intention of Lord Qincha. ”

Deng Shaoliang sighed, frowned, and said, "But how to explain to the officials in the city?" ”

The Qian general smiled and said: "Let's just say that we go out of the city to attack the enemy, what can they say?" ”

Deng Shaoliang looked at the endless Taiping army camps outside the city, gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! Secretly ordered all armies to prepare, let's leave the city at the second watch! ”