The signboard in front of the former British Governor's Building in Shanghai was replaced with a sign with black letters on a white background for the Third Division of the Northern Expeditionary Army. The sign is very eye-catching, and a sentry stands straight in front of the door. At this time, the headquarters of the Third Division was holding a military meeting, and the faces of the generals present were full of excited smiles, and it was obvious that Chen Jitang, deputy commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army, had already told everyone the good news of the establishment of a military government in Guangzhou, so the atmosphere at the meeting was very warm.

Chen Jinyu glanced at everyone's faces and became serious and continued: "Our troops have been expanding for more than two months, and at present, the third division has grown to 20,000 horses, and we already have the conditions to fight abroad. The Qing army has never moved, and since the defeat of the Yangtze River Naval Division, the Qing army seems to be dormant. Commander-in-Chief Deng decided that our troops should be sent to occupy Hangzhou to create conditions for the next step of occupying Zhejiang. Yesterday, Shang Hu's independent brigade had already moved north from Fuzhou, with the aim of forming a north-south attack on Hangzhou, quickly opening up the railway line, and then connecting Fuzhou and Shanghai. ”

Chen Jin's face became majestic and shouted, "Nie Fengwu! "Here!" "You led the 1st Brigade, the 1st Cavalry Battalion, and the 1st Battalion of the Artillery Regiment to the south, and the task of your unit is to capture the city of Hangzhou." "Subordinate Order!" According to intelligence, the Hangzhou general almost gathered the green battalion of the Qing army in Zhejiang to Hangzhou, with a strength of about 40,000 troops. Therefore you must not be paralyzed and despised. How to take Hangzhou City at the lowest cost, this is my request to you! "The subordinates resolutely complete the task!" Nie Fengwu assured loudly.

Before leaving, Wan Chuan, the intelligence chief, recommended a subordinate to Nie Fengwu, and said that there was someone in Hangzhou City, and if he needed to cooperate, he could let this person enter the city to contact. Nie Fengwu was a little unimpressed, but it was difficult to excuse himself in front of Wan Chuan. But Nie Fengwu didn't expect that it was precisely the subordinates recommended by Wan Chuan who played a decisive role in the capture of Hangzhou City when the battle situation was unfavorable. On the same day, Nie Fengwu led his troops to set off, and after the expansion of the troops, one old man led two new, that is, one regiment of the original team led two new regiments.

The momentum of the expedition was majestic, the cavalry regiment opened the way in front, the 1st artillery battalion horse-drawn 10 artillery pieces followed, and the Zuihou side was the infantry regiment brigade. The troops hurried through the stars and arrived at the city of Hangzhou in the early morning of the next day. The troops were very tired from the night's march, and Nie Fengwu ordered the troops to rest for a day and attack at night. On the forward position, Nie Fengwu observed the majestic city of Hangzhou while formulating a fortified position.

"It's the first time I've seen such a majestic city, and it's very emotional. If cold weapons are used, I am afraid that tens of thousands of people will not be able to break through this strong fortress," a combat staff officer couldn't help but sigh. Nie Fengwu looked at the tall and majestic city walls of Hangzhou City, and was secretly surprised. Another combat staff officer said, "Brigade commander, Hangzhou City is different from other cities. Since the establishment of the capital in the Southern Song Dynasty, it has been continuously repaired and strengthened by war, and it can be said that there is no city comparable to Hangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River with the strongest city wall, the most complete function and the tallest city. ”

"You're right, but no matter how strong the city is, it can't stop the pace of my Northern Expeditionary Army." Nie Fengwu was full of confidence. The staff officer continued: "Brigade commander, the city wall of Hangzhou is not only tall and strong. There is a hiding hole above him to hide from artillery fire. The city gate is 60 meters deep outside the city gate and the inner city gate, there are hidden openings on the walls on both sides of the city gate, and the urn city is also formed inside the inner city gate, even if you break through the city gate, you have to face the urn city ・・・・・・. "Okay, don't make any noise, I decided to storm Hangzhou City at 8 o'clock tonight." Nie Fengwu interrupted the staff officer's conversation with some irritability.

It was night, the artillery fire roared and deafened, and the flames of the explosion kept flashing on the faces of the officers and men. Half an hour later, the artillery fire extended, and the brigade commander gave the order to attack, so the officers and men of the 1st Regiment took the lead in the attack, and two new battalions and cavalry battalions were on standby. The cavalry battalion is preparing to use its own characteristics to develop rapidly in depth after the city gate is opened. In the darkness of the night, the soldiers had white towels wrapped around their arms and shouted forward to attack. However, things are often not as simple as imagined, the green battalion of the Qing army includes the Hunan army and the Huai army, and their military thinking has long been defensive operations.

It is the norm of the Qing army to attack the weak and defend the strong, so the Qing army is quite experienced in defense. The artillery fire of the Qing army began to return fire, although it was all old-fashioned artillery, and the shells were basically solid shells, but they still played a significant role. The speed of the attack began to slow down, and about 60 meters from the city wall, suddenly terrifying stones fell from the sky. Unexpectedly, the Qing army actually used the primitive stone thrower, and many cloud ladders were directly hit by stones, and the soldiers who carried the cloud ladders were smashed and dodged in all directions, with heavy casualties.

The first round of attack was forced to die, and Nie Feng screamed angrily, but there was no way. The key is that the Qing army used the stone thrower in the dark night to play a miraculous effect, and the stones from the sky could not be seen clearly at all, so the soldiers had no time to dodge. Nie Fengwu immediately canceled the attack that night and decided to launch another attack during the day the next day. Nie Fengwu asked the combat staff to estimate the location of the Qing army's artillery fire and stone throwers, and use their own powerful artillery fire to destroy them.

The operational staff officers were highly efficient and quickly came up with a new plan of attack. At 8 o'clock the next day, the attack began, and the artillery bombardment extended directly, and the target was the location of the Qing army's stone thrower. After 20 minutes of artillery shelling, the attacking forces began to attack again. It seemed that the power of the artillery had worked, and the attacking troops encountered a small number of stone blows, and since they could see clearly during the day and dodge, the soldiers quickly rushed under the city walls. Suddenly, a cloud of smoke fell from the walls, and stones fell from them.

It turned out that the Qing soldiers sprinkled lime from the city wall, which not only blocked the line of sight of the shooting, causing the covering group to be unable to effectively hit the Qing soldiers on the city wall, but at the same time, the Qing soldiers on the city wall could calmly throw stones to hit our attacking troops, and the attack failed again. For three days in a row, the brigade commander Nie Fengwu's eyes were almost red, and he launched round after round of powerful offensives, but he was still repulsed. In three days, nearly 600 people were killed and wounded. On the 4th day, Nie Fengwu sobered up, and it was extremely stupid to fight so hard.

The Qing army continued to resist the attack, and its morale became more and more vigorous. Despite this, the Qing army still paid the price of 3,000 casualties in three days. Because the distribution of defensive forces of the Qing army was extremely unreasonable and the personnel were too dense, they paid a large number of casualties. Most of the casualties paid by the Qing soldiers were caused by artillery, but the Qing army was strong, and this loss was simply insignificant in the eyes of the Hangzhou general.

In order to defend the city, General Hangzhou made a bloody investment. It not only concentrated 30,000 horses in the city of Hangzhou, but also made careful preparations for defense. The general of Hangzhou knew that the city of Hangzhou had been lost badly, and he actually gave everything he had to reward the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty. Officers and soldiers who have made meritorious contributions to the war are given silver, large amounts of smoke, and even women are rewarded. There must be brave men under the heavy reward, so the Qing soldiers broke out with strong combat effectiveness, coupled with the strong city, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Northern Expeditionary Army's repeated attacks were in trouble.

In the evening of that day, the troops stopped attacking. Brigade Commander Nie Fengwu almost vomited blood when he heard the casualty figures. "Brigade commander, we can't afford to be accompanied by such consumption. The city of Hangzhou is strong, and the Qing army is overwhelming, so we must change the way we play. Nie Fengwu's eyes were red, and he was forced to give the order to stop the attack. One of the combat staff officers said to himself: "If the inside and the outside are combined, we will definitely succeed!" Nie Fengwu was inspired, and suddenly remembered the person Wan Chuan recommended to him before leaving.

After a while, a capable man in civilian clothes appeared in front of Nie Fengwu. "How many of you are in the city?" Nie Fengwu asked. "Report to the brigade commander, we have about three hundred people in the city!" The capable man replied. "Is there a weapon?" "There are 50 short guns, 50 long guns, about 500 grenades!" Nie Fengwu groaned and said, "Tomorrow morning, you enter the city and organize the people in the city, I plan to ・・・・・・." ”

In the daytime, the able-bodied man entered the city. In a mule and horse inn, a large crowd gathered. The capable man faced the crowd: "The army launched an offensive outside the city for three consecutive days, but failed to break through the city. Raising troops for a thousand days and using soldiers for a while, now we need to cooperate, and we should cooperate with the outside to take Hangzhou City. I decided to ・・・・・・ at 8 p.m. tonight. ”

At 8 p.m., artillery fire roared, and the offensive continued. The 2nd Recruit Regiment launched a powerful offensive to attract the Qing army in the front, and after the offensive began, the brigade commander Nie Fengwu ordered the cavalry battalion, the old 1st Regiment, and the 3rd Recruit Regiment to move to the east. After the battle began, the capable man led his subordinates, all disguised as Qing officers and soldiers, and swaggered towards the east city gate. Their mission was to capture the eastern city and cooperate with the army to quickly break through the city.

The specific tactics were as follows, and the 2nd Regiment of Recruits continued to launch a strong attack in the south to attract the attention of the Qing army. After the men and horses in the city seized the east city gate, the cavalry battalion first launched an attack and quickly assaulted into the city, and the old regiment and the new regiment 3 followed up and took Hangzhou in one fell swoop.

At about 9 o'clock, the capable man led his troops to the east city gate. They pushed large carts and small carts, in the name of giving supplies, and did not arouse the suspicion of the Qing army. After all, there were many Qing troops in the city, and the Qing troops were not familiar with each other. In the darkness of the night, the brethren waited for orders. At 10 o'clock, the operation began.

The Qing army defending the gate was unsuspecting and was soon beaten to pieces. With the sound of gunfire and grenade explosions, the eastern city was quickly controlled, and then the city gates were opened, and three bonfires were lit to give a signal. At this time, the artillery fire from the south roared and the offensive was like a tide, covering up the operation of seizing the east city gate. The cavalry regiment found the signal and immediately set out, and for more than ten minutes, the war horses rushed into the city with a roar. It was too late for the Qing army to find out. An hour later, the old regiment and the new regiment 3 also entered the city.

"Broken city, broken city!" The shouts blended with the sound of gunfire and grenade explosions, like a spell in the dark night, and the Qing army quickly lost resistance. At about 12 o'clock, the Qing army, which had lost its will to resist, completely collapsed, and the 2nd Regiment of Recruits took advantage of the situation to attack the city from the south. After dawn, the brigade commander Nie Fengwu entered the city. The fighting continued until the afternoon, when the gunfire gradually subsided.

Two days later, Nie Fengwu and Shang Hu met in Hangzhou City. Then the two sent troops separately and quickly occupied the large and small cities in Zhejiang.