At the end of November, the bleak cold wind came early, and the wind and snow came to Taizhou early beyond everyone's expectations, and after the first heavy snowfall, the temperature plummeted to more than ten degrees below zero. In the past, if such a change had occurred, it would have led to the collapse or serious attrition of the army for the ill-prepared army.

When Dahonga woke up and saw that it was snowing heavily, he was ecstatic and ran up to the castle tower to see what was going on with those long-haired thieves, and he said happily as he walked: "Look, this is God's punishment for the rebellious thieves!" ”

Although the sudden abnormal weather was also a big trouble for the Qing army defending the city, the Qing army was always in the city, and they had houses to keep out the cold, but the Taiping army was sleeping outside the city, and the trouble they encountered was several times that of the Qing army.

The Daoguang and Xianfeng years were at the end of the Xiaoice River period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, although the climate was no longer as abnormal as the end of the Ming Dynasty, but occasionally the weather in some areas would still become abnormal, and the people of Taizhou City said that this heavy snow had not been Yujian for decades, and many people were worried about the Taiping army outside the city.

It's a pity that after Dahong'a climbed the tower, he didn't see what he wanted to see, a busy scene on the Taiping army's position. The Taiping army had to cut down trees from more than ten miles away, and built many temporary shacks on the trenches of the position, which were warmer than tents and enough to withstand the invasion of the severe cold.

Lin Qirong, commander of the newly formed First Division of the Taiping Army, and Chen Bushi, a trainer of the First Division, wore thick winter coats, walked in the trench, visited the officers and soldiers of the various participating units, and saw many officers and soldiers hiding in the trench, covered with thick logs, and a bonfire was lit below, and it was still very warm inside. Moreover, the officers and soldiers wore thick winter uniforms, which made the two of them very satisfied with the logistics department.

Subsequently, the logistics department of the Taiping Army issued a special battlefield manual for winter operations to all brigades and regiments, and all kinds of cold protection and warmth, and all kinds of matters that should be paid attention to under severe cold were written down one by one, so that the socks must be kept dry so as not to suffer from trench feet, and they were also written in it, so that the Taiping Army avoided a large non-combat attrition.

Lin Qirong looked at the officers and soldiers, although they were a little tired, but their morale was still very high, and he looked at Chen Bushi with satisfaction and said: "It seems that the situation is better than expected, thanks to Li Shuai's patience." Let the logistics department thank you for the time to prepare the supplies. ”

Chen Bushi is a native of Wuchang, Hubei, and the Taiping Army who joined in Hubei was originally a teacher, and later achieved outstanding results in the military academy, and was also reused. He sighed. The exhaled hot air instantly turned into a mist, sticking to his face. White covered with a layer of hoarfrost. He frowned and said: "Yes, Li Shuai and his brothers from the General Staff Department and the Logistics Department are very thoughtful, and they have to think of all kinds of emergencies in winter operations. Now, our logistics department can send the supplies so quickly, so that we don't get frozen. ”

Lin Qirong smiled bitterly: "The King of the West may have done it intentionally this time, last year Luo Outline and they also chose to enter Yangzhou in winter. This year, the army was also sent in winter, and it seems that the king of the west wanted to familiarize the troops with the weather in the north in advance and make some preparations for the future Northern Expedition. ”

Chen Bushi looked at the city of Taizhou in the distance, which was really covered in silver, like an ice city, and said slowly: "Yes, we are all southerners, if there is a northern expedition one day, it is indeed very troublesome not to adapt to the climate in the north." To tell you the truth, I'm not afraid of the heat, I'm afraid of the cold. ”

Lin Qirong smiled and said: "Yes, as the saying goes, I'd rather travel thousands of miles south than go north for a day, the winter in the north is even colder, and the most important thing for the southern soldiers and the Northern Expedition is to adapt to the climate." Yesterday, Li Shuai came to order, Li Tingyu's reinforcements have been defeated, Taizhou City has no value in existence, we can close the net. ”

Chen Bushi frowned slightly and said, "I saw the battle of the General Staff this morning, do you have to choose to fight today?" Yesterday, the officers and men were very tired after a busy day of building shacks. ”

Lin Qirong smiled faintly: "We are not bringing young master soldiers, what kind of battle can we fight if we can't bear this hardship?" It's good today, just try our combat ability on a snowy day, there are not many opportunities for this kind of training. At noon, launch your first attack! ”

At noon, in a leeward col, on the artillery position of the Taiping Army, a huge fire pond was lit every few meters, and all kinds of artillery were lined up in the middle of the fire pool. The artillery of the Taiping Army was afraid that the artillery would freeze in the severe cold weather, and the artillery used this method to thaw, but fortunately, the range of the artillery of the Qing Army was not as far as that of the artillery of the Taiping Army, so the artillery of the Taiping Army dared to make a fire to keep warm, otherwise, the fireworks that rushed to the sky would definitely attract the greetings of the shells.

When the time for the offensive came, the loud military horn sounded throughout the four fields, and the Taiping Army concentrated more than 300 artillery pieces of various types of artillery regiments directly under the two divisions and began to prepare for artillery fire.

After more than ten days of fighting for the periphery, the Taizhou Qing army in Dahonga lost all the strongholds on the periphery. Dahona was initially happy with the sudden cooling of the weather, and he felt that no army could operate normally in such snowy weather, let alone launch a siege battle. But at noon, the first round of shelling reached the head of Taizhou City, when the shells poured down and broke out a huge fire at the head of the city, Da Hong'a opened his mouth wide, and he couldn't speak for a while, he thought that after the heavy snow, the long-haired thieves outside the city were busy building shacks to sleep, and he didn't expect that at this time the thunderous flames were shrouded in the head of Taizhou City.

Between the splashes of stones, dirt, and ice, Dahonga roared loudly, and asked his soldiers to quickly go to the various city gates to deliver orders, the orders were simple, dodge the artillery fire, and wait for the counterattack against the attack of Long Hair. Due to a mistake in judgment, Da Hong'a thought that the Taiping army would not go out today, and it was to withdraw most of the Qing army from the city to rest, but he did not expect that the Taiping army, which had been silent for more than ten days, suddenly launched an attack.

Half an hour of artillery preparation, so that Da Hong'a felt like a year, the Taiping army outside the city did not want to tilt the cannonballs into the city, the small Taizhou city wall was almost greeted by cannonballs, the heat brought by the explosion made Taizhou, the ice city originally covered with heavy snow, actually have signs of melting in this cold weather.

Da Hong'a cursed in his heart, they also have a few foreign cannons, but the shells are very expensive. It was as soon as the cannon sounded and the gold was ten thousand taels, Dahonga suddenly envied this group of long-haired thieves, and they shot as if they didn't want money.

Dahong's beard dyed with a thin layer of snowflakes kept trembling, judging from the preparation of artillery fire, the Taiping army was determined to break the city in a battle, but I didn't know that section of the city wall would not be able to support it first.

The sound of artillery fire gradually stopped, and Da Honga was pleasantly surprised to find that the crumbling Taizhou city wall did not have a major collapse, which made him feel very excited. Then came a loud trumpet sounded, a pesky trumpet that Da Honga had heard many times. This kind of trumpet always motivates the long-haired soldiers, and their own soldiers tremble when they hear it. But Dahonga is very strange, the city wall has not fallen, where are these long-haired thieves charging?

Just when he was wondering, a thousand general manager rushed to report with a face like a mournful exam: "An Shuai." The big thing is not good, Governor Wang opened the west gate to pick up the long-haired thief into the city! ”

"What?!" Dahonga only felt dizzy for a moment. Wang Youling actually reversed? Only then did he realize that he couldn't catch any of the people who were posting rhetoric in Weishenme. It turned out that someone was sheltering.

The shouts of the sky sounded outside the city, and the soldiers of the Taiping army launched an attack on the four gates of Taizhou at the same time, although the west gate was opened, but in order to prevent the Qing army from concentrating on blocking the west gate, the Taiping army of the other three gates also carried long ladders and various siege equipment to start attacking the city. They rushed in a line of skirmishers, seemingly disorganized. But it gave the Qing soldiers a headache, it was easy to hit the soldiers lined up in a dense linear array, but it was very difficult to hit the scattered soldiers, damn smoothbore guns. God knows where the bullets will go when they get out.

The soldiers of the Taiping Army kept releasing their guns while charging, and they finally thawed the firing pin of the musket in the trench, and wrapped a thick wrap to prevent water vapor from entering, and froze the firing pin again, so they kept putting the gun to keep the gun hot, but there were also many soldiers' muskets that were dumb, but these soldiers did not flinch, and after the shiny bayonet was loaded, they rushed to the front to cover the soldiers behind the gun that could still sound.

Several hidden artillery positions in the city of the Qing army began to fire, but the casualties of the Taiping soldiers who were attacked by the straggler line were limited, and after the Qing artillery began to fire, the artillery of the Taiping army began to roar again, and after a few rounds of artillery, the artillery of the Qing army was suppressed one by one, and continued to cover the charge of the infantry, which shows the high quality of the artillery of the Taiping army.

A group of Taiping soldiers rushed to the bottom of the north gate city wall, and the Taiping soldiers quickly placed huge explosive bags under the city wall, and under a few loud bangs, the already crumbling city wall collapsed, and splashes mixed with dirt and ice flew in the sky. Dahonga's face began to look ugly, and he shouted loudly, asking the herald to order the Qing soldiers in the city to block several gaps, and street fighting had begun on the west gate.

The Qing soldiers who hurried to the gap and the Taiping soldiers at the gap fired several rounds of muskets, the slow rate of fire of the muskets put the Qing army in a comprehensive disadvantage, and the Taiping soldiers did not seem to have much patience, when the Qing soldiers changed their guns and bullets, hundreds of Taiping soldiers rushed into the gap with bright bayonets, and the Qing soldiers guarding the gap started hand-to-hand combat.

As soon as the battle began, amid the shouts of fighting, many Taiping soldiers actually shouted: "Surrender and don't kill!" Surrender or kill! Under the impact of sharp bayonets and the seductive shouts of the Taiping soldiers, many Qing soldiers who did not have much training directly put down the messy weapons in their hands and surrendered at the gap.

In the cold winter, the two armies launched a fierce street battle in Taizhou City, compared with the temporary formation of the regiment training bravery, Da Hong'a's 3,000 elite soldiers and horses, these people are Da Hong'a's henchmen, they still showed the style of an army, except for the surrender of individual lone soldiers, there was no surrender like the regimental training brave.

Although they were completely inferior in weapons and tactics, they were still stubbornly blocking the advance of the Taiping army under the command of Qing generals at all levels, but their defensive positions were gradually shrinking, and in the evening, the positions in the Qing army were compressed to the area of the Yamen residence of the Taizhou prefect.

The sky gradually darkened, the Taiping army slowed down the offensive, and the follow-up troops all marched into the city, and surrounded the prefect's yamen and the nearby city on the third and outer three layers, preparing to carry out a zuihou attack after dawn.

After dark, Dahong'a organized several night raids in an attempt to break through the Taiping army's defense line, but under the Taiping army's tight defense, the Qing army did not achieve decent results, let alone break through.

After a failed night attack on Zuihou, one of Dahong's generals said in a trembling voice: "An Shuai, why don't we descend." "Sometimes people can say anything and do anything in order to survive, and this general actually said the words of surrender, but this is the voice of most Qing generals.

Dahonga roared angrily: "I will never surrender to the rebellious ministers and thieves, we will fight to Zuihou alone, in order to repay the emperor's kindness, who dares to say the word surrender again, will not be forgiven!" (To be continued......)