The Qing soldiers deployed at Bali Bridge were as many as 20,000 to 30,000 people, many of whom were cavalry, and they were all deployed by Seng Lingqin on the plain, forming a large arc formation, with a battle line of about 5 kilometers and strong wings. In the center of the Qing army's front, on the axis of Baliqiao, the Qing army relied on the village of Baliqiao as a strong support point, and a large number of infantry equipped with artillery were left behind the village as reinforcements.

On the left flank, General Collino personally led his men and horses to advance, including 1 company of engineers, 2 companies of light infantry, 1 company of artillery and 2 companies of Indian Sikh cavalry, with General Colino in the center. General Ranman followed the left flank, with 1 battalion of light infantry, fuses, the 12th Artillery and the 101st Battleregiment.

At the beginning of the march, Collino's vanguard was slightly disjointed, and they marched much faster than the left flank, so that their central force became the salient. Monk Grinqin seemed to have quickly discovered this detail and reacted, with a large group of Qing horses swarming up and outflanking from the left flank. At that time, the British army had not yet arrived, and seeing such a situation, General Ke ordered the troops to stop, form a hollow phalanx, set up artillery, and prepare for battle.

The Qing soldiers opened fire first, with great momentum, but their muskets could not reach far, and the artillery lacked accuracy, and the shells flew behind General Colino's phalanx. Immediately after, the Qing cavalry galloped in a dense formation until it was only about 50 meters away from the forward position of the French army. This qiē was completely silent, and no command was heard, and the scene was indeed surprising and tense. Elisson said in surprise: "The movement of Qiē is all signaled by flags swaying up and down, left and right. It's like a sea signal. ”

The coalition soldiers opened fire quickly, and they were commanded by a number of excellent junior officers, most of whom were veterans of the Crimean War. They were experienced in combat and knew how to crush the superiority of cavalry, just as they did against the Russian Cossack cavalry.

In an instant, the cavalry of the Qing army was attacked by fierce fire, and one by one fell to the ground, but the teams of men and horses behind them still came one after another. They are outnumbered. To drown the French outpost led by General Collino.

The shape is severe, and the danger is imminent. Around the coalition lines, there were bursts of rough shouting. I saw the enemy's war horses galloping towards me. Clouds of dust were kicked up everywhere, sometimes as if they were going to surround the coalition soldiers, and sometimes as if they were constantly stepping over them. Thanks to the fierce shelling of the coalition artillery, the enemy positions were in a panic. General Collino was able to retreat.

General Colino's troops retreated a little later. Let the coalition front loosen. The Qing army discovered another weak link on the Allied front, namely the gap between the French Colino and the British Sutton Brigade. As a result, the Qing cavalry flocked into this vacancy, and the British army under the command of General Sutton laid a tight matrix hollow phalanx early, although there were many gaps, but the hollow phalanx was arranged in a staggered manner, and the passage in the middle was an excellent area for artillery and infantry bombardment, and the Qing cavalry that was scattered and failed to form a formation could not break through the bayonet array of the coalition hollow phalanx. As a result, the invading Qing cavalry was besieged.

But General Sutton knew that this move was a bit risky, if the Qing army increased the investment of manpower. Several hollow phalanxes may also eventually collapse without being able to withstand the crowds, and the scattered infantry will be chased by a medieval cavalry, so the battle is delicate.

On the right flank, Montauban was tempted to come to the rescue of Colino, but the Qing soldiers were suddenly outflanked from his right flank, and he was forced to counterattack. The Qing cavalry on the right flank swooped down and tried to surround us, their purpose was clearly to contain Montauban. Seeing that the advance guard of the coalition army was outnumbered, the cavalry of the Qing army became more daring, shouting rudely, and the fierce Tatar cavalry leaned over and rode their horses, hiding their bodies on the sides of the horses without falling off their horses, so as to avoid bullets, and after getting close to the coalition front, they wielded swords and guns, opened bows and arrows, and played a majestic ......

General Ran Man, who had already followed the middle road, received an order to attack the right flank, but the Qing soldiers also rushed towards him, General Ran Man could only stop and return fire, and soon the Qing army gave full play to their numerical superiority, and the Qing army was stubbornly attacking the coalition front on all fronts.

Lieutenant de la Grande wrote: "The artillery shells seemed to be unable to defeat the Qing soldiers: they seemed to have risen from the dead, fought stubbornly, and sometimes even rushed thirty meters in front of our artillery. However, our artillery fire became denser and more intense, pushing them back one by one and fleeing in all directions...... "The artillery of the coalition army has always supported the entire front, and without the fire support of artillery, the coalition army may have collapsed long ago."

Colino and his subordinates have been in front, and the Qing soldiers have launched offensives one after another, and General Colino even led his subordinates to fight with bayonets three times, which crushed the opponent's many charges.

On the left, General Grant finally arrived with an artillery unit, and he immediately ordered the artillery to open fire to relieve the pressure on the French. In this force led by Grant, there are also elite British cavalry, the Queen's Dragoons!

But the Queen's dragoons did not attack, their numbers were too small, and several Armstrong heavy guns in the artillery unit brought by Grant played an important role, albeit late in time. The allied artillery completely suppressed the Qing artillery in terms of accuracy, range and power, and soon the Qing cavalry was intensively bombarded by modern artillery, and the army was crushed and fled backwards.

Seeing that the Qing army began to flee, Grant immediately dispatched the dragoons led by Fanner and Probin to rush over and pursue the Qing cavalry.

In the face of the Qing artillery, the Ranman brigade showed its majesty, and the accurate allied artillery dumbed the Qing artillery positions one after another, and the shells of the Qing artillery never hit accurately, and the advantage of rifled artillery was revealed at this time.

On the far right, the 101st BattleRegiment was attacked by the Qing troops, also relying on the intensive fire of bayonets and rifled muskets, the coalition forces held their positions, and soon the French artillery returned fire fiercely, and the Qing soldiers were hit by Yan zhòng, and they were in a dilemma.

At this time, the follow-up coalition troops arrived one after another, taking advantage of the chaos of the enemy formation, and General Montauban ordered the entire line to charge. The Collino's troops drove the Qing troops to the Bali Bridge, and the Ran Man troops attacked forward, and Colonel Purge led the 101st Regiment to kill, preparing to capture the village at the core of the Qing army's position.

The generals of the Qing army waved the military flag and gathered the soldiers at the Bali Bridge. The banner of Monk Lingqin is still flying high on the bridge. So, General Ranman led his troops to advance there. For the French army, it was at the Bali Bridge that the "most outstanding feat" of the war was shown. Because, as long as this last obstacle is overcome, there will be nothing to stop the victorious advance towards the capital of the Chinese Empire.

Soon, the Bali Bridge and its exquisite marble carvings were displayed in front of the eyes of the allied soldiers, and the Qing army had withdrawn across the Bali Bridge. Across this exquisite stone bridge, the elite division of the Qing Empire is still high in morale and will defend this bridge to the death.

From the left, Colino led his troops through the woods that sheltered the Jingya cemetery, when suddenly there was a burst of gunfire, and a Qing ambush opened fire on them, and the coalition lost more than a dozen men, but soon they organized an effective counterattack, and the Qing army seemed to lack the courage to charge, and the Qing infantry was quickly dispersed in the counterattack of the coalition army.

General Colino immediately ordered his men to leave the woods, fearing another attack by the Qing army, and soon they were on the bank of the canal. Upon reaching the bank of the canal, General Collino immediately ordered the artillerymen to set up their cannons to fire diagonally at the bridge, while Colonel Benzman led another artillery to fire longitudinally at the bridge, and told the 12th Artillery Company to aim at the enemy battalion's positions with large-caliber artillery.

Ten thousand artillery fired in unison, the sound burst, the bridge railing was blown horizontally, the enemy camp and the artillery positions in the village on the opposite bank soon fell into a sea of fire, the Qing artillery tactics were backward, the response was slow, in front of the elite artillery of the coalition army seemed so powerless and helpless, so the Qing army was defeated under the artillery bombardment, and the Qing artillery was very different from the surface of Dagukou. After this battle, the answer was obtained from the captured Qing army generals, the well-trained artillery of the Qing army was wiped out with the fall of the Dagukou Fort, and the manpower training of the subsequent substitutes was insufficient, so although the Qing army artillery was also a lot, it failed to play its due role.

The battle continued, and General Colino, still wearing the big straw hat on his head, led a small group of men and horses to rush up to the Bali Bridge, which was blocked by dead and wounded soldiers and overturned cannons, and their road was blocked.

The coalition soldiers watched as General Colino rode his horse and whipped forward, and his men could not follow closely. When he single-handedly rushed to the top of the arch bridge, the other soldiers joined him. The heroes of the Battle of Malakov, who were the first to brave the hail of bullets and rushed to the enemy's camp on the other side of the canal, inspired all the soldiers present with his bravery, and the French charged with bayonets, as the British praised, "a white-knuckle battle".

In this way, the Bali Bridge was captured by the coalition forces, but the Qing army did not give up resistance, and they put up a stubborn resistance in the bombarded camp. While the coalition engineers ventured to clear the way for the follow-up troops, General Colino was held back by the enemy camp on the other side of the river, and after crossing the bridge, they set up a bridgehead and held it there, answering and covering the coalition forces that were crossing the bridge one after another.

Captain Charles, the son of General Montauban, entered a temple to set up a temporary headquarters, but was miraculously spared by his leader Usman and a platoon of light infantry. Later, a soldier of the 2nd Regiment told this little story: Montauban and the Ranman Brigade had just crossed the bridge, and when they learned that their son was in danger, they pointed to his nose and threatened: "If you want that, I won't bring you here again!" The son replied, "That's it, maybe you're not as good as me!" ”

The coalition army continued to cross the river to expand its front, the Qing army was crumbling, and the victory of the battle seemed to be close to the coalition army, and at this time, there was a shocking cheer from the Qing army camp, General Montauban raised his telescope and looked, only to see countless flags and men and horses appear in the field of vision, he could not understand the Chinese characters on those banners, Colonel Du Pan said after reading it: "It is the emperor's personal soldiers from the capital of the Qing Kingdom who have arrived ......" (to be continued......