The next day, the wind was blowing, the weather was surprisingly good, and the temperature rose a lot under the warm spring sun, and the landing ground of the coalition forces outside the Temple Street Fortress was still a busy and unusual scene.

On the first night of the landing, more than 1,300 Taiping soldiers who had landed that day had spent time in high tension, and in the second half of the night, when they finally fell asleep for a while, the horses of the damned cavalry regiment rushed out of the makeshift stables without knowing what they were frightened by, causing the entire barracks to be thrown into great confusion. After getting the horses, the Taiping soldiers could finally lie down, and the Taiping cavalry who went to the rear of Temple Street to reconnoiter rode back again, and galloped in the camp in a noisy manner, which made the Taiping soldiers completely sleepless. However, they brought back good news, there was no trace of Russian reinforcements.

After Tan Shaoguang asked for the details repeatedly, a hanging heart finally let go, the Taiping army landed, they were not familiar with the terrain and geography here, the local people were slaughtered again, and there was no guide to be found at all, and the previous news that the Russians had 12,000 cavalry was too terrifying, although Tan Shaoguang said that he didn't care, he was still very careful in his actions.

He was most careful about the night of the landing, if the Russians sent a large number of cavalry to attack at night, it would inevitably bring huge losses to the Taiping army, and the Russians did not have the slightest sign of reinforcing Temple Street, which made Tan Shaoguang greatly relieved, it seems that the opponent is just bluffing, or the king of the West is right, Russia does not have large-scale combat troops in the Far East at all.

Since there were no reinforcements, Tan Shaoguang certainly would not miss the opportunity, after dawn, he ordered the cavalry regiment to continue to serve as a guard and reconnaissance mission in the north and west, and the troops that landed on the first day and the follow-up troops who landed one after another began to attack the Temple Street Fortress regardless of fatigue.

After receiving the order, the soldiers of the infantry regiment quickly separated from the linear array amid the loud shouts of officers at all ranks. They bent on their waists and began to approach the first trench of the fortress in a very distinctive wavy skirmish.

There was no artillery preparation, because on the first day the artillery fire of the coalition fleet bombarded all the targets that could be seen, and both Tan Shaoguang and Grant believed that there would be no results in shelling the first trench that was already in tatters.

Su Ji walked slowly on the straggler line in the second row, and the first battalion led by him walked in the front. There was no resistance before entering the first trench, and the entire fortress of Temple Street was still quiet, which made one wonder if the Russians had been repelled by yesterday's artillery fire. Yesterday's death squad of 500 people was the counterattack of the Russians Zuihou?

Behind the first trench was a large open field, and it was a long distance of three or four hundred meters to reach the second trench and the entrance to the fortress, and although Su Ji knew that the Russian smoothbore guns could not cause many casualties to the stragglers at this distance, he was still reluctant to be exposed to the open area, so he ordered his soldiers to speed up their pace and rush over.

Halfway through. The wooden gates at the three entrances of the Temple Street Fortress suddenly opened, and hundreds of Russian cavalry swarmed out, wearing gray furlock hats, gray military coats, and blue breeches. Shiny black cowhide riding boots with a carbine on his shoulder. Two crossed bullet belts on the chest. There was also a saber at his waist, and many people had thick beards, and they rushed straight at him with murderous aura.

After seeing this scene, Tan Shaoguang let out a long breath and said: "The commander Maozi on the other side is a fool, if this cavalry came to attack us last night, we might have to retreat to the sea." ”

Grant on the side frowned and said, "They are the elite Cossack cavalry of Russia. Although they are powerful, they are not many in number, and even less in the Far East. There were only more than 300 cavalry, and I think it should be Muravyov's trump card or his guard. Tan. Your infantry is going to suffer. ”

Tan Shaoguang understood what Grant meant, at this moment, the first battalion of Su Ji at the front was only two hundred meters away from those cavalry, and the artillery behind and the warships on the sea did not dare to fire at such a close distance, they were worried about injuring their own people by mistake, and the distance of two hundred meters was enough for the cavalry to rush up, and at the same time, in such a short period of time, it was impossible for Su Ji's infantry to retreat from the straggler line formation into a phalanx against the cavalry. Their only chance was to turn around and run back to the first trench and hold the trench, but could they outrun the cavalry? How will the officers of the Taiping Army on the front line choose? Grant is ready to accept defeat.

Surprisingly, the front-line officers of the Taiping army did not choose to retreat, and the more than 100 infantry of the first row of stragglers at the front stopped their tracks, followed their choice of the nearest partners, and began to form small phalanxes, with bright bayonets already erected, and then began to fire muskets.

Although the number of skirmishers in the first row was limited, they still caused some trouble for the charging Cossack cavalry, they specialized in cavalry mounts, and the huge horses fell to the ground to some extent affected the cavalry charge behind, so that the Cossack cavalry could not pick up the speed with all their might.

At the same time, the skirmishers from the second row quickly gathered together to form two large hollow phalanxes, and the arrangement of three rows of soldiers, the first row of bayonets was raised diagonally, the second row of bayonets was raised horizontally, and the third row of soldiers aimed and fired.

When the Cossack cavalry rushed in front of the small phalanx, the Taiping infantry did not panic, but chose to directly confront the cavalry. I have to say that the Cossack cavalry's horsemanship and combat knives are very powerful, and dozens of Taiping soldiers were cut or hit in the first shot, but their bayonets also caused a lot of losses to the Cossack cavalry.

Grant looked at Tan Shaoguang suspiciously: "The stragglers in the first row are all abandoned pawns? ”

Tan Shaoguang said expressionlessly: "When necessary, the vanguard is to be discarded." ”

Grant gasped, although he felt a little incredible, he knew that the choice of the front-line Taiping Army officer was already the choice with the least loss.

Sure enough, because of the first row of stragglers, the Cossack cavalry wasted some time, and the more than 400 Taiping troops behind had formed a hollow phalanx and began to fire muskets at them, and they suffered more casualties when they attacked the phalanx.

The collapse of the Cossack cavalry came a little later, and after paying two-thirds of their casualties, most of them began to retreat. The few Mongol Cossack cavalrymen who rushed in front of them were either killed by rifles or bayonets. Seeing that it was impossible to crush the enemy in front of him, the commander of the Cossack cavalry ordered to retreat. In the process of retreating, this Cossack cavalry remained fierce. Under the greeting of the muskets, there was no rout, and when the firing range was withdrawn, there were less than a hundred Cossack cavalry left, and the Taiping army also paid more than a hundred casualties, the vast majority of which were skirmishers in the first row.

When the Cossack cavalry retreated to the fortress, the artillery of the coalition shore and the guns of the ships at sea began to spray flames again, and the fortress of Temple Street was once again shrouded in flames and smoke. This cavalry may have been a counterattack from the fortress of Liliang, or the Russians had no courage to resist, and then it became easy to capture this relatively simple fortress. An hour later. The Russian double-headed eagle flag on the Temple Street Fortress was lowered, and hundreds of Russians chose to surrender.

At this moment, the sun has set in the west, the twilight sun is weakly shadowing the sparkling golden brilliance on the sea level, and the masts of the coalition ships at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River are still standing upright and upright under the afterglow, like an invincible god of war.

Grant sat on a stone on the high ground. He took off his leather shoes and poured out the mud and sand from his boots. Watching the landing dinghy still busy on the sea. On the huge beach, the sound of people and the neighing of horses were long, the soldiers of the Taiping Army climbed to the beach in groups and marched to the camp, the Indians gathered together to enjoy the meager food after a day's work, the cavalry horses ran around from time to time, the priests of the army were busy preaching and pacifying, and some reporters with the army set up their cameras to take pictures. Everything seems so chaotic and chaotic, will the Russians send troops to fight back tonight? The main force of the Far Eastern Fleet of the Russians, weishenme, has not been traced until now? Grant didn't know, but one thing was for sure, he wouldn't be able to sleep tonight anyway.

The night is quiet. Also unable to sleep was the Russian Governor of Siberia, Muravyov, who was far away in Nebuchu. He only received the news from the defenders of Temple Street at noon today, and the British and French troops had begun to land and besiege Temple Street.

Damn the communication was poor, Muravyov was confident that if he had known that the coalition had landed yesterday, he would have sent cavalry to raid the coalition camp last night and drive the coalition back to sea. But by this time the most opportune time had been missed, and Muravyov stationed his own Cossack cavalry guard on Temple Street, which he now only hoped would be useful or able to break through.

The British and French forces wanted to take the Temple Street fortress to close the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, and Muravyov did not mind giving up this place for the time being, he knew that the final goal of the coalition forces was the Petropavlovsk military port.

Petropavlovsk, the most important military port in the Russian Far East, the capital of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the largest city on the Kamchatka Peninsula, with a population of more than 50,000 people, is also the oldest city in the Russian Far East, founded in 1740, named after the St. Peter and St. Paul under the Bering fleet.

Petropavlovsk is built on a hill and surrounded by volcanoes, so the horizon cannot be clearly seen from any corner of the city, and the surrounding barriers can very hinder the performance of the coalition navy, and Muravyov believes that the Anglo-French forces can be stopped here. So he doesn't mind giving up Temple Street and some other ports, and as long as Petropavlovsk remains, the Far East will remain Russian.

At the same time, he was deeply worried, and the news came that the enemy was an army of yellow people, numbering in the thousands, and had landed on the ships one after another. Muravyov was very strange about where the British and French recruited this army, and if the number of the combined forces was more than 3,000, it would be a real threat to Petropavlovsk. But at this time he didn't think about it so much, he was going to leave for Petropavlovsk immediately, he was going to guard it himself, he only gave the Russian army on Temple Street an order to defend it. However, Muravyov knew that the only 2,000 troops on the temple street could not stop the coalition army, and except for the Cossack cavalry, most of them were just improvised militias. (To be continued......)