On the plain a few miles south of Xunqiao, Zhang Wenxiang and Zheng Yan rode their horses to inspect the battlefield, stopped in front of Li Haocheng's corpse, and looked at Li Haocheng's corpse that was almost cut in two, Zhang Wenxiang chuckled: "A very courageous man, but he is a lackey of the Qing Demon." ”

Zheng Yantuo looked at the soldiers cleaning the battlefield, and the banner of the West Hall of Hunting was waving in the wind, and said with emotion: "I didn't expect that we used to fight with the Qing Demon, and we always had to kill and injure many people, but now we can win so easily." ”

Zhang Wenxiang said with a smile: "The King of the West has spent so much money and kung fu to train us, if we still fight like before, we might as well die." He paused and said: "Now that the ammunition of the troops has been consumed by forty percent, I want a battalion to try to hit Daxi Town, south of Taizhou City, which is a key transportation point between Taizhou and Wenzhou. ”

Zheng Yantuo pondered for a moment and said: "The general idea of the staff is to attract the Qing demons in the direction of Wenzhou to come to help, let's intercept and kill the reinforcements halfway, this is a siege of the city to send reinforcements, if we do a dozen Daxi Town, will it make the Qing demons suspicious?" ”

Zhang Wenxiang smiled and said: "I mean to fight a dozen, not really to insert a pole between Wenzhou and Taizhou, our cavalry is to rely on maneuvering to deal with the enemy, if Daxi Town has our people appear, Li Tingyu will definitely not be able to sit still, and will only urge reinforcements to go north as soon as possible." ”

Zheng Yantuo nodded: "That's right, Li Tingyu wasted a lot of effort in running Taizhou, of course, it is impossible to be scared back by our stabbing, but if we fight a dozen and show a little weakness, he may still be fooled." ”

After the two of them discussed and gave an order, the three cavalry companies of the first battalion mounted their horses one after another, hurriedly ate some dry food, drank some water, and whistled on their horses. The flag of the west hall of the battalion headquarters was raised, and in the sound of a low military trumpet, more than 300 cavalry galloped south around Taizhou City.

When a battalion of cavalry galloped to five miles outside Taizhou City, the Qing cavalry who had fled back had spread the news of the arrival of the Taiping cavalry throughout the city. In the barracks of several dangerous places outside the city, on the artillery positions of the Qing army, the artillery of the Qing army was ready to fire. Taking advantage of victory to pursue is the usual method of the Taiping army, and the Qing army does not dare to slack off.

But strangely, the Taiping army did not follow, and the scouts sent later reported back. The Taiping army south of the Xunqiao had already retreated. But Da Hong'a no longer had the courage to send troops and horses to meet the Qing garrison at Xunqiao, he was frightened by the Taiping cavalry described by the deserters, and a cavalry force of more than 1,000 people could defeat his own 5,000 cavalry, even if the infantry went out of the city, how much advantage could they take? Moreover, fighting against the Taiping army, the Qing army has always been afraid of fighting in the field with the Taiping army.

In this way, the cavalry of the first battalion bypassed the south of Taizhou City. Zhang Wenxiang's cavalry regiment has been attacking and harassing the Qing army everywhere since it stole the Jiaojiang River. Specialized in fighting the Qing army's scout cavalry and squads out of the city. And watch the movements of Taizhou City. Today, Li Kaifang began to attack the Xunqiao, Zhang Wenxiang gathered the cavalry according to Jihua, blocked the reinforcements from Taizhou, and sure enough, it was a one-hit hit, defeating the Qing cavalry, and less than 2,000 of the 5,000 Qing cavalry fled back. Most of the rest of the self-staff generals Li Haocheng and below were killed in battle.

In the evening, Zhang Wenxiang led the second and third battalions of cavalry to attack a Qing army camp north of Taizhou City, on the south bank of the Jiaojiang River. After Zhang Wenxiang ordered someone to set fire to the camp here. He ordered the cavalry regiment to hide in the woods and have dinner.

After dinner, the reconnaissance company of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the newly formed 2nd Division arrived and joined Zhang Wenxiang's cavalry regiment. After the two sides exchanged information, Zhang Wenxiang immediately decided to send troops to raid the Qing army's camp on the southern periphery of Taizhou to attract the attention of the Qing army and provide cover for the infantry regiment. With the arrival of the follow-up troops of the third regiment and the artillery regiment directly under the division, the Taiping army outside Taizhou City became more vigorous, followed by the first regiment and the second regiment, and began to surround Taizhou City.

Da Hong'a only knew that the Taiping army began to besiege the city in the early morning of the next day, and the attention of the Qing army was attracted to the south last night, and several peripheral camps in the south were raided by the Taiping cavalry.

After climbing the tower to see the position of the Taiping army, Da Hong'a was very strange, the dress of the Taiping army on the opposite side was different from the previous Taiping army, and the tactics were not the same, they began to dig trenches around the city, and began to prepare to attack several peripheral camps, a strange iron line was arranged outside the trench, as if to prevent the Qing army in the city from breaking through, and then the second trench was dug after the first trench, and the Taiping army arranged an artillery position in the middle of the first trench and the second trench.

Da Hong'a is very strange that the artillery position of the Taiping Army is at least seven or eight miles away from Taizhou City, when did the Taiping Army have artillery that can fight so far? It wasn't until the Taiping army's artillery fire was in full swing that he learned that these cannons were originally used to destroy the remaining Qing army camps in the Jiaojiang River in the north

Da Hong'a still wanted to take a closer look, and under the afterglow of the setting sun, the artillery of the Taiping army began to bombard the Jiaojiang defense line. More than ten miles outside the city were burned into a white land by the Qing army, unobstructed, the Jiaojiang defense line is only seven or eight miles away from Taizhou, standing on a high place is unobstructed.

The people outside the city were almost cleared, the Taiping army had no scruples about firing artillery, and the artillery regiment directly under the Second Division concentrated more than 100 artillery pieces of various types, spitting angry flames, and the remaining nine camps on the defense line of the Qing army in Jiaojiang began to be shelled one after another.

Dahong opened the clairvoyant mirror, only to see the Qing troops on the Jiaojiang defense line in chaos, some wanted to defend the camp, some wanted to go out to fight, and some wanted to run. Da Hong'a smiled bitterly and muttered to himself: "Jiaojiang, who originally thought it was impregnable, is a plate of delicious food for the long-haired thief, and the long-haired wings are full, and it is no longer the original rogue who can only fight and leave." ”

The Taiping army unhurriedly cleared the Qing army's Jiaojiang defense line, and the next day more Taiping soldiers and horses crossed the Jiaojiang River to Taizhou, and followed the Taiping army to clear the outer camps on all sides of Taizhou. At this time, the Taiping army that crossed the river has reached tens of thousands, and the number uniforms are divided into two troops, one is dressed in colorful colors, and those soldiers lie down in the grass, you really can't see people, and the other is still the soldiers and horses who originally wore the Taiping army uniforms. The Qing army also found out. The long fur in the fancy green uniform is even more fierce and fierce, and everyone has a musket in their hands, and this musket can shoot far away.

Da Hong'a once sent troops and horses to prepare to go out of the city to respond, but was beaten back by the artillery fire of the Taiping army, and Da Hong'a only found out at this time that the artillery of the Taiping army could indeed hit such a long distance.

On the seventh day, the Taiping army completed the siege of Taizhou City, and arranged positions and trenches on all sides, as well as the kind of iron line to prevent the breakthrough. In the evening, it was dark. The Qing army withdrew to the city with a group of soldiers and horses on the periphery, Dahong Aji counted the losses of the Qing army, the Qing army outside the city lost more than half, and the remaining more than 4,000 people fled back one after another, and most of them were wounded. He still has more than 24,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, but there are 50,000 long-haired sieges outside the city.

Dahonga knew that the opponent's firearms were fierce. Plans to be after nightfall tonight. Went out of the city to attack the Taiping army at night. In the past few days, they have been pressed and beaten by the Taiping army, and their morale has dropped greatly, and Dahonga estimates that the Taiping army is completely controlled outside the city today, and may relax his vigilance, and at the same time, Dahonga also wants to take advantage of the night to offset the advantage of the opponent's firearms.

After making up his mind, Dahonga selected several fierce regimental training leaders as the generals of the night attack troops. After the supply of good wine and meat, and the large plate of salary and silver were moved out, several fierce regimental leaders who claimed to have a common enmity with the Taiping army boiled blood, clamoring to kill the Taiping army outside the city. These group training leaders were originally rich bullies in Ningbo. The family was suppressed by the Taiping Army, because he was extremely hostile to the Taiping Army.

After nightfall, in the city of Taizhou, several Qing army training leaders led more than 3,000 night raiders who dared to die, and came out of the city from three directions, east, west and south, and approached the front of the Taiping army's position, and they were blocked by a wire net. From a distance in the daytime, these wooden stakes seem to be wrapped with iron wires, but now that they are closer, the Qing army found that there are barbed hooks on these iron wires, densely wrapped like spider webs.

A Qing regiment training leader drew a war knife and slashed it, but unexpectedly, there was a jingling bell, and it turned out that there were bells on the barbed wire. As soon as the sound sounded, in the black trench opposite, the fire of firearms came out, followed by the crackling and crackling gunshots, and the Qing troops who were hugging the barbed wire were instantly hit in a large area.

Then more than a dozen things with sparks flew out of the trench, and the thing splashed around when it fell to the ground, and in a firelight, the leader of the Qing army asked a large smell of fire oil, and shouted loudly: "It's kerosene!" ”

The soldiers of the Qing army's night attack unit were all wide-eyed, the more than ten kerosene clay pots in front of the trench were lit, and the Taiping soldiers on the opposite side seized the opportunity to pour ammunition at the Qing soldiers outside the barbed wire.

In front of the barbed wire, the Grim Reaper wields a scythe, harvesting fresh lives. Several regimental training leaders shouted without giving up, ordering to cut the barbed wire and rush over. But a vain and stupid order, so many soldiers fell in front of the barbed wire. The infantry of the Taiping Army on the opposite side took turns firing projectiles, "Reload!" Fire! Back off! These repeated shouts seemed to make the Qing army feel desperate, the Taiping army played a loop bombardment, they could not have a chance to rush through, there was still a distance of nearly 150 paces behind the barbed wire.

Finally, the Qing soldiers could not endure this one-sided slaughter, and the bows and arrows and smoothbore guns in their hands could not hit the enemy at a distance of 150 paces, and their already unfirm will was loosened, and the Qing army began to retreat like a tide.

The Taiping soldiers in the trench jumped out of the trench one after another, and continued to ruthlessly pour ammunition at the retreating Qing army, sending them on a ride.

Dahonga's night attack lasted only half an hour, standing on the city tower, from the beginning of the large fire in front of the trench, Dahonga knew that the night attack had failed.

Three thousand night attack troops, back to the city, there are less than a thousand people, this is a completely one-sided massacre, the Qing army zuihou only has courage and life left, but courage and life can not be exchanged for victory, the blow to morale is extremely huge, Da Honga does not know how to comfort the soldiers, let it be fate, at this moment the Qing army in the city from Da Honga below, everyone knows that it is only a matter of time before Taizhou City is broken.

The sky is misty and shining, the morning sun shines on the earth, Taizhou City, the Xidian military flag on the Taiping Army position is still flying high, the front of the position is covered with the corpses of Qing soldiers, many wounded soldiers who are not dead have been wailing all night, it is a kind of torture for the soldiers of both armies, no one wants to be the next person to be abandoned in front of the position and howl to death, but there is no way, the war is so cruel. The soldiers who had howled all night had now fallen into a dead silence, perhaps with blood drained, and slowly dying.

In the bloody morning breeze, Da Honga muttered to himself: "Maybe today is the old man's Zuihou day......" (to be continued......