Colonel Vassogne died an honorable death, and as he wrote to his wife before his expedition, I will shed the last drop of blood for the French Empire. He was hit in the forehead by a stray bullet and fell very unfortunate next to a dilapidated stable in Hexiwu Town, where his orderly Clive dutifully guarded him until the Taiping army completely occupied Hexi Town after dawn and captured Ccravor.

A regiment of Taiping soldiers and more than 1,000 Taiping soldiers from the Dalian Bay Special Marine Corps participated in the raid on the town of Hexiwu, and the careful plan of the sneak raid and the strict discipline of the elite units of the Taiping Army made the raid very perfect.

The two British gunboats, along with most of their members, were captured by the Taipings, who, as Lieutenant Bernard had guessed, infiltrated the Taipings from underwater, approached the gunboats and attacked the two gunboats. The Taiping marines, who breathed on wheat straw, approached from under the water and took out the gunboats' sentry posts and guardsmen, while the rest of the British naval crew were forced to take prisoners.

Then the three infantry battalions of the Taiping army raided the town of Hexi on three sides according to the plan, and although the second marine battalion of Colonel Vassone was elite, the number of enemies was too much, and finally the brave and good marine battalion of the French army was completely annihilated, more than 200 killed in the battle, and more than 200 were wounded or captured.

The losses of the Taiping army were not small, more than 400 casualties, and two company commanders who attacked the fortified positions were killed, and this was the result of the Taiping army's sudden surprise attack, which shows the elite of the French marines.

After the war, the soldiers of the Taiping Army commented on the French marines, believing that this elite unit of the French was very difficult to fight, even if it was alone. They will also quickly use the terrain to cover themselves, and then try their best to fight back. Then they did a perfect job of covering, cooperating and supporting each other, and the tactical movements and the coordination between the squads were also very tacit. They are a difficult force.

Lieutenant Bernard, who had been captured, wrote in his memoirs when he returned home after the war: "That night we were confronted by a terrible force, and a regiment of troops quietly came under our noses and launched a surprise attack, of which we knew nothing. Their offensive line avoided our minefields, and apparently they did a hundred times better reconnaissance than we did. Their marksmanship was accurate and morale was high, and the position on the pier hills, where Second Lieutenant Soberry led a platoon of soldiers, was blown open with grenades by several daring soldiers they sent, so our troops suffered a severe defeat there. Heavy casualties during the rout......"

The winner in the war will never be an ordinary soldier, the soldier saved by Lieutenant Bernard finally lost a leg, fortunately the military doctor of the Taiping Army saved his life, in addition, Lieutenant Bernard saw dozens of French soldiers who were rescued by the Taiping Army, which made Lieutenant Bernard feel better, at least the Taiping Army did not give up the knightly demeanor given by God.

After the capture of the town of Hexiwu, Lieutenant Bernard and several officers were left in the town, while the rest were transferred to the villages and towns in the rear for detention or treatment. Lieutenant Bernard noted. After the Taiping army occupied the area, they immediately began earthwork, building various fortifications and trenches. Bernard knew that they were here to block Major General Michael and General Collino, who had come from Tongzhou for reinforcements, and it seemed that the Taiping army still had some concerns about winning a field battle on the plains with the allied forces. They planned to first drain the coalition forces with strong fortifications and positions, and then go to a decisive battle.

Squatting outside a grass hut with several captured officers, Bernard was in no mood to talk to them. In fact, several officers were not in the mood to talk, they were praying for their fate. They don't know what the Taiping Army will do to them.

"Lieutenant Bernard, do you remember me?" The words are round in French. Bernard followed the sound and looked up, only to see a group of Taiping cavalry passing by the side of the road, and one of the cavalrymen broke away from the group and walked towards him.

It was a maroon Anglo-Norman horse, the cavalry on it was dressed in a fiery red and white-trimmed military uniform, a helmet symbolizing feathers, a pair of cuirass on the chest, five well-loaded revolvers on the horseback, a Sesbian repeater on the back, and a sharp Gurkha cavalry scimitar on the waist. Bernard recognized this person, Song Feng, a cavalry officer of the Taiping Army, who had fought against the Russians together back then, and Song Feng's French enlightenment was done by Bernard.

"Song, it's you." Bernard stood up and tried his best not to look so wolf, but the Taiping soldiers on the side of him fiercely slammed their bayonets in front of him and said, "Don't go forward!" ”

Song Feng jumped off his horse and stepped forward to say to the guarding soldiers, "I want to have a few words with him." The soldier's rank was only a first-class private, and he gave Song Feng a military salute and said, "I'm sorry, Colonel, he is a prisoner, and he can't come into contact with anyone without the consent of our commander." ”

Song Feng returned a military salute and said with a smile: "I know, I just said a few words to him, just say here, you see, this is all right." ”

The soldier looked at the two of them in embarrassment, and finally nodded, Song Feng lit a knife brand cigarette for Bernard, who liked this Chinese cigarette very much, it tasted better than a cigar.

"I can't imagine seeing you again in this situation." Song Feng said with some regret, and Bernard smiled bitterly: "I'm your captive, I really can't imagine it." ”

Song Feng comforted: "Do what we say, you can rest assured in the prisoner of war camp until the day the war is over, and then you can go home." ”

Bernard was silent for a moment and then asked, "Song, do you hate us?" Song Feng shook his head and said, "I don't know what others think, I don't hate you, I just hate why your army came to the Far East." You want to steal our interests and prevent our reunification, but in fact, you are afraid that we will become strong, right? ”

Bernard was silent, yes, in fact, the root of the Yiqiē was simply their fear that the Taiping army would become stronger. Song Feng said firmly: "Bernard, we will become stronger, this is something that no one can stop, instead of being our enemy, you should actually think more about how to be friends with us, just like before." ”

In the end, Song Feng rode his horse and left, Bernard got some food and tobacco, all of which were given by Song Feng, Bernard silently began to ponder, yes, can the strength of the Taiping Army be stopped? It's a pity that France and Britain are too far away from the Far East, and the strength of the Chinese Taiping Army is already very strong, and it is no longer something that France and Britain can conquer by sending a dozen ships and thousands of troops at will, and the Taiping Army is not as weak and easy to bully as the Manchus, maybe it is really a good choice to be friends with them again.

Just as Bernard was pondering, he suddenly heard a commotion of the Taiping army in Hexiwu Town, followed by cheers, and a news was passed from far and near, Bernard heard the soldiers guarding the loud and excited shout: "Tianjin City has been recovered by us!" ”

Bernard understood Chinese, and perhaps his colleagues were better off at this time, at least they looked dazed and didn't know what the enemy was cheering about. Bernard closed his eyes in pain, "God, Tianjin has fallen, 80% of the military supplies have fallen into the hands of the enemy, Tianjin and Hexi Wuzhen have fallen into the hands of the enemy, the canal transportation and supply channels have been cut off, and the main force of the coalition army in Tongzhou will face a very terrible situation." ”

"Lieutenant, what are those yellow-skinned monkeys talking about?" A captain officer asked in a low voice, and Bernard shook his hand weakly, "Some of them can understand French, be careful with your words." They were celebrating their victory, and Tianjin had been captured by them. ”

Hearing this, several French officers were in a commotion, and the guards shouted loudly, and a few of them were a little calmer, and when the guards turned their heads and cheered, the captain hugged his head and said bitterly: "God, are we going to be annihilated?" Damn the British, they are really vulnerable, you must know that there are more than 2,000 British soldiers on the other side of Tianjin. ”

Bernard sighed and said: "The enemy has been planning this attack for a long time, and it will definitely not be a small number of troops attacking Tianjin, and General Sutton, like us, lacks artillery and other heavy weapons." ”

The captain raised his head and said bitterly: "We can only hope that the command can wake up as soon as possible, and hope that Major General Mitchell and General Collino can recover this place in time and open up the transportation and supply channels as much as possible, otherwise we will ......"

Bernard and the others muttered to themselves, and after a while, they were taken into an ox cart, and the soldiers were escorted to the direction of Tianjin, it seems that the officers were taken to Tianjin for detention or handed over to the top for interrogation, it seems that the Taiping Army has set up a headquarters in Tianjin.

……

On the Tongzhou coalition side, Major General Michel and General Collino were ready to set off early in the morning, with a total of 5,600 French troops and 3,000 British troops in the two infantry brigades, including the 1st Battalion of the Royal Queen's Corps, the 2nd Battalion of the King's Royal Ryuke Corps, and the 1st King's Dragoon Regiment of the Guards.

However, before the troops set out, the defeated British troops from Hexi Wu Town came to report that Hexi Wu Town and Tianjin had been attacked, and the shape was very critical, and it may have been lost.

Grant and Montauban were very surprised when they got the information, this British defeated squad was a company belonging to Lieutenant Colonel Compton of the first battalion of the Essex Corps, they were ambushed on the way to reinforce Tianjin last night, Lieutenant Colonel Compton was missing, life and death are unknown, this team of more than a dozen people finally escaped from the enemy's ambush circle, and then they got lost, and finally finally found their way back to Tongzhou.

After hearing the description of the British soldiers, Grant and Montauban realized that the Taiping army was a long-planned sneak attack, but Tianjin was too important, and they had to take measures immediately, so Major General Michel and General Collino immediately led the prepared soldiers to set off for reinforcements, and the high command needed to hold a meeting immediately to unify an opinion, whether the whole army should immediately return to reinforcements and shrink the front to ensure the safety of the whole army. (To be continued......)