The development of the war was as Peng Yulin expected, after the Taiping Army and the Dali Righteous Army met, the Taiping Army mainly attacked the southeast and the Dali Righteous Army attacked the northwest. The Tuanshan, Dapuji, and Xiajiayao areas in the northwest fell one after another, and the Dali Righteous Army stormed Bijiguan, Liangjiahe, Gaoyao, Puping Village and other places. Immediately afterwards, the Taiping Army's Southern Route Army captured Yimen, and two days later, the Southern Route Army defeated Jinning and other places. Li Mengqun's troops were already crumbling in their defense of Biji Pass, and the Taiping army surrounded the provincial capital Kunming City from three directions.

On the 18th of January, Li Mengqun's troops were forced to abandon Biji Pass, and led the remnants of more than 3,000 people to retreat into the city, and Biji Pass, Liangjiahe, Gaoyao, Puping Village and other places fell into the hands of the Taiping army one after another. In the following days, the Taiping army successively captured Dashiba, Xiaoshiba, Dabanqiao, Xiaobanqiao, Guandu and other places in the north, and then captured Jinma Temple and Dashuying in the suburbs of Kunming, and the retreat route in the north was completely blocked. Following the Dali Righteous Army to draw troops to the north to capture Yiliang, the Qing army in the direction of Qujing was unable to protect itself and was unable to aid in the south. At this point, the Taiping army realized the encirclement of Kunming City, and the Qing army in the city had no way to retreat except for the Dianchi Lake waterway.

There was nothing to mention about the outer battle, and the only bright spot was the use of artillery and lightweight Congreev rockets by the Taiping army to carry out saturation shelling of various positions on the periphery of the Qing army. In this battle, Kanglev rockets were widely used by the infantry of the Taiping Army, and the rocket artillery squad was temporarily assigned by the artillery regiment to the company to cooperate with the infantry company to launch an attack. Rockets can be seen flying towards the Qing army's positions at any time on the battlefield with long tail flames, burning flames and scattered lead bullets on the bursting rocket warheads. Rockets became a nightmare for the Qing army.

After the capture of Biji Pass, the Taiping army really seized the Longmen of Xishan and set up an artillery position on the mountain. On the same day, more than 50 ships of the Qing army's sailors transporting grain and ammunition to and from the waters of Dianchi Lake were destroyed, so that the Qing army's sailors did not dare to act rashly.

The next night, the Taiping Army took advantage of the night to attack the Qing Army's naval camp Luosi Bay, located at the end of the Panlong River and on the edge of Dianchi Lake. Only half of the ships of the Qing navy escaped, and the rest turned into piles of black wood burning with embers.

The defeat of the Qing army was even worse than Peng Yulin expected, and Peng Yulin was very sad to find that the Taiping army had perfected the artillery skills. The long-range, medium-range, and short-range Taiping Army all have corresponding artillery and supplementary firearms, coupled with the range and accuracy advantages of the Taiping Army's rifles, a large number of Qing troops equipped with bird guns and guns have a feeling of being abused.

There are no reinforcements outside. In addition to the thousands of Hunan soldiers who followed Peng Yulin and Li Mengqun, the local Qing troops in Yunnan, as well as the regimental training and Tusi soldiers and horses in the city, were all in panic. Although Peng Yulin can put on a strong city defense. Roads and bridges can be destroyed by all means. He could set up the streets as an ideal environment for street fighting, but he could not change the decline of the Qing army.

On the 21st of January, the Dali Righteous Army officially began to divide its troops to other prefectures to conquer, and the entire city of Kunming was handed over to the Taiping Army to attack. Although the newly formed Fifth Army of the Taiping Army was a newly established unit, the officers and men were all the elite of the original East Hall and North Temple, and they were all people who crawled out of the sea of corpses and blood, and the whole training was only a training in new tactics, new drills, and the use of new weapons, and the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Army was on a par with that of the First Army, which had supplemented a large number of village soldiers.

On the morning of the 22nd. The Taiping army began to attack the city of Kunming, amid the rumble of 10,000 cannons. The Qing army defending the city was about to collapse at the first touch, and Huiqing, the governor of Yunnan who guarded the east gate, first ran back with people, and the Qing troops who withdrew from the defense line of the city wall were crowded on the streets to the city, but they destroyed Peng Yulin's street fighting obstacles to the point that they could not be seen, and the scattered Qing army was like a tide, and even Peng Yulin's law enforcement team could not stop it.

Peng Yulin, who was sitting on the top of Wuhua Mountain, saw this scene and couldn't help but sigh and said: "There is no strong city that cannot be attacked, only the hearts of people who cannot be attacked. ”

Li Mengqun hung his arm all the time, and his right arm that could still move was holding a knife in his hand, and he looked at Huiqing's rout angrily and said angrily: "This Huiqing cannon will run away as soon as it sounds, and the collapse of the entire defense line is his fault, when I lead the troops to suppress it, if he runs again, I will kill him with a knife!" ”

Peng Yulin shook his head weakly and said: "The matter has come to this point, it is useless to kill more, let him go, gather the soldiers and horses, and prepare to defend Wuhua Mountain." ”

Most of the Qing deserters surrendered to the Taiping army that invaded the outer city, and only a few thousand ran back to the mountaintop strongholds such as Wuhua Mountain, where they were in danger of defending it. After the Taiping army took control of the city gates, they also set up artillery at several commanding heights to engage in artillery battles with the Qing troops on the top of the mountain, and at the same time sent dozens of companies to clear the remnants of the enemy in the streets and alleys piece by piece.

On the morning of the second day of the invasion of the city, a search company of the Taiping army found Huiqing in an alley near Jinmafang, and the admiral was disguised as a Taoist priest to escape, but the careful soldiers of the Taiping army found that he was still wearing official riding boots, and was captured on the spot. Huiqing, who was captured, begged for mercy again and again, and was taken to Chen Yucheng's base camp in Jinma Temple to meet Chen Yucheng.

When he saw Chen Yucheng, Huiqing knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, saying that he knew that a small road could go up Wuhua Mountain and Yuantong Mountain, and he could capture the two mountains along the way, and he was willing to lead the way to the Taiping army.

Chen Yucheng looked down on Huiqing quite a bit, at this time the Taiping army had begun to prepare to sweep the country, and the Manchu officials and soldiers who were captured were no longer treated harshly, except for those who had committed major crimes to kill, they all needed to be tried by military courts, because he did not embarrass Huiqing, but ordered someone to take him down to take him to the custody, as for the trail that Huiqing said can lead to the top of the mountain, Chen Yucheng is not interested at all, the city has been broken, and the ordinary people in the city who know the trail do not know much, just find a local and ask it, why do you need Huiqing to invite credit?

After a day of artillery battles, the Qing artillery was gradually not suppressed, and by the next day, most of the artillery was destroyed, and the remaining artillery was extinguished because there was no ammunition. The Taiping army was not in a hurry to attack the mountain, and fired a few cannons at the top of the mountain from time to time, while the rest of the infantry stepped up to control the remaining streets and alleys.

On the fourth day, the Qing army in all parts of the city was basically cleared, and only Wuhua Mountain and Yuantong Mountain were still in the hands of the Qing army. The Qing army on the mountain was very miserable, there was not much food, drinking water was also a problem, and the wounded soldiers had no medicine, so they could only die slowly in the miserable howl.

Peng Yulin wore a tattered military uniform and took Li Mengqun and other generals to patrol the mountain, and when he arrived in front of Wuhua Academy, he saw that the plum blossom outside the academy had been destroyed by the artillery fire of the Taiping Army, and Peng Yulin said with a bleak face: "It seems that this is the place where Peng Mou is buried." ”

Li Mengqun gritted his teeth and said: "Xue Shuai, stay in the green mountains without worrying about no firewood, tonight Xue Shuai can lead people to disguise the people down the mountain, mix out of the city, and his subordinates will defend here to attract long-haired troops, and in the future, Xue Shuai will raise troops to avenge us." ”

Peng Yulin shook his head and said, "How am I the kind of person who is greedy for life and afraid of death? Don't mention this again! ”

While he was talking, among the several screams of monsters in the academy, a wounded soldier of the Qing army lost both arms and ran out like crazy, shouting in his mouth: "Give Lao Tzu a good time!" Lao Tzu is better than dead now! Hairy thief! Give grandpa a treat! ”

Peng Yulin and the others were taken aback, and before they could come back to their senses, they saw that the Qing soldiers rushed to the edge of the cliff in the academy mountain, and jumped off the cliff, and their companions were not in a hurry to stop them. When Peng Yulin and others rushed over to see, there was no trace of the Qing army.

Peng Yulin sighed, turned around and saw that the remnants of the Qing army surrounded by him were all numb, and there was no life in their eyes.

"Is it too cruel to drag these thousands of soldiers to die together just to fulfill the name of our loyalty?" Peng Yulin didn't say anything to those Qing soldiers, and after walking more than ten steps, he asked Li Mengqun beside him in a low voice: "Now it's just for death." ”

Li Mengqun gritted his teeth and said: "Xue Shuai, martyrdom and horse leather shroud is the best destination for soldiers, I would rather die than be a prisoner of the long hair!" ”

Peng Yulin sighed lightly and didn't say anything more, and only after a moment did he say slowly: "Send someone to send the wounded soldiers down the mountain, hoping that there are still some people in Longhair who can take them in." ”

Li Mengqun hurriedly said: "Long hair is inhumane, and it will definitely kill and wound soldiers, Xue Shuai must not do this." ”

Before Peng Yulin could say more, a personal guard came to report angrily: "Qi Yu Xueshuai, Lord Li, Li Suzhen, the sister of Lord Li, Miss Li took more than ten female soldiers down the mountain to find Longhair to fight alone!" ”

Li Mengqun was shocked, and said with a pause: "What is this dead girl making trouble at this time?" Didn't she go to die? ”

The soldier hurriedly said: "When the girl went down the mountain, the villain couldn't stop it, she said that instead of starving to death on the mountain, dying of thirst, and accidentally being killed by artillery, it is better to go down the mountain and kill a pain when she can move." ”

Peng Yulin hurriedly said: "Immediately lead someone to pick up a thousand people and go down the mountain to snatch Miss Li back!" ”

Li Mengqun closed his eyes in pain and said loudly: "Xue Shuai, no need, let her go, the rest of their women's camp will inevitably be humiliated if they fall into the hands of Changmao, it is better to die in the battle." With that, he turned his head and left, but after only a few steps, he tripped under his feet in despair, fell to the ground, and was finally supported by his own soldiers.

Peng Yulin couldn't bear it, so he had to turn his head not to look at Li Mengqun's bleak and rickety back, but just looked at the blackened plum blossom and muttered: "It's the last time, maybe we'll see you under the yellow spring in a while." ”

Peng Yulin stood at the gate of the academy for a long time, and he didn't know how much time had passed, when a personal soldier next to him stepped forward to report: "Xue Shuai, the former mountain Cheng Shen will report that there is a long-haired messenger who went up the mountain and asked to see Xue Shuai, saying that he captured Miss Li alive, and asked to see Xue Shuai, whether Miss Li is dead or alive, Xue Shuai will not see him." ”

Peng Yulin smiled slightly bitterly and muttered, "It seems that it is persuaded to surrender." Then his face turned cold and he said loudly: "Bring him up!" (To be continued......)