The infantry is the main force of the coalition army, the artillery is the new edge of the coalition army, and it is their elite cavalry that the coalition army is really proud of. Britain and France had vast colonies around the world, allowing them to recruit the most elite cavalry units from around the world.

The Queen's proud Dragoons, Napoleon's favorite French chasseurs, the ferocious Sipahi Cavalry of French North Africa, the warrior Sikh Cavalry Regiment of the British Punjab, and the Indian Cavalry Regiment of Finn, the Battle of the Finn Indian Cavalry Regiment from British India will see the best cavalry in Europe, the best cavalry in North Africa, and the cavalry of South Asia face off against the new cavalry of the East.

The British Guards Dragoons had previously sent about 900 men to follow Major General Michel, leaving 300 cavalry to follow Grant. The Punjabi Sikh cavalry and the Indian cavalry regiment remained in Tongzhou in the number of 500 men, and their large forces also followed Major General Michael. The French Cavalry Regiment of the Sipahi was fully formed, and they had a size of 800 men. Seeing their infantry being pursued by enemy cavalry, the allied cavalry unit charged, and the remaining dragoons, Sikh cavalry, Indian cavalry, and Sipahi cavalry, totaling about 1,600 men, divided into left and right flanks, charged at their enemy, the Taiping cavalry regiment.

This Taiping cavalry regiment is the cavalry regiment of the first division of the elite first army of the Taiping Army, with about 1,700 cavalry, after losing dozens of cavalry in the pursuit just now, in fact, the number is not much different from the cavalry of the coalition army, and they do not have the perverted immediate firepower of the Taiping Guards cavalry, so this should be a fair duel. A duel of willpower, discipline and courage.

Seeing that the coalition cavalry units pounced on two flanks, the 800 Sipahi cavalry of the French army was on the left flank. The British Guards cavalry and Sikh and Indian cavalry were also 800 on the right flank, and the commander of this cavalry regiment of the Taiping Army saw this scene. He also made adjustments immediately, he mobilized more than 300 cavalry to rush towards the French cavalry regiment on the left flank, and then concentrated the remaining 1,200 people to press the British cavalry. The intention of the cavalry commander of the Taiping Army was obvious, he hoped that more than 300 cavalry companies could resist the French cavalry for a while, and on the right flank he could concentrate his forces to form an advantage, intending to rely on the strength advantage of the right flank to first annihilate or defeat the British cavalry troops, and then turn around and attack the French cavalry.

When the infantry of the first and second regiments of the Taiping Army began to counterattack, the apricot yellow banner of the West King slowly appeared on the top of the hill, and Xiao Yungui sat firmly on the saddle under the apricot yellow flag. After watching the cavalry of the Taiping Army divide the troops in this way, he bowed his head slightly to express his approval of the command of the commander of the first cavalry regiment: "The cavalry regiment brought out by Zhang Wenxiang is worthy of being the first cavalry regiment in the army, and the British and French forces are also the best cavalry troops, so look at that cavalry is even more powerful." ”

The Taiping cavalry, though not equipped with the rifles and revolvers of the Guardsmen, were each armed with a well-loaded rifled rifled rifle rifle, and when more than 300 Taiping cavalry rushed towards the French, they fired the only bullet in the barrel of the French cavalry at a distance of 200 yards. The Taiping cavalry in the first row fired a salvo without much success. Only a few dozen men fell from the French side, which did not cause confusion for the French cavalry, but provoked the wrath of the fierce Sipahi cavalry, who formed a dense linear line of eight men. Rushing towards the Taiping army in a continuous manner.

The Sipahi cavalry inherited the discipline of the French cavalry and retained the ferocity of the Persian cavalry, which charged in a white-knuckle battle in a full line. After charging the enemy in each line, it did not fall into scattered one-man melee like the ancient cavalry. Instead, they forcibly withstood the enemy's fire or slashing and quickly withdrew. Re-form the formation and repeatedly charge in a neat formation. This collective assault method, which always relies on uniform forces and the close coordination of platoons and even regiments, can easily defeat all traditional forms of cavalry.

The cavalry of the Taiping Army is no stranger to this kind of cavalry tactic, and it is this tactic that is the most talked about in the cavalry class of the Shanghai Lecture Hall, but it is a pity that this kind of cavalry tactic is almost insoluble in cavalry confrontation unless the other side has strong continuous firepower. Since the advent of regular cavalry in the West in modern times, there has not been any example of irregular cavalry tactics defeating regular cavalry in a frontal charge, which is why the Manchu Mongol cavalry has repeatedly suffered heavy defeats to the allied cavalry.

The more than 300 Taiping cavalry also showed the same tactics as the French Sipahi cavalry, but instead of arranging in a line of eight, they were reduced to a line of four people, so that the number of line columns was similar to that of the French army, except that the width of a single line formation was smaller than that of the French army.

When the first row of line cavalry slammed together, the scimitars of the Persian cavalry and the Gurkha scimitars of the Taiping cavalry flashed dazzlingly in the sun, the limbs, heads and other body parts of the human body splashed everywhere with blood, and the screams of the horses and the screams of the soldiers drifted over the battlefield, a bloody and cruel battle.

When the first round of charging and slashing on both sides passed, the two sides quickly evacuated and redeployed, and found that the casualties on both sides were almost equal, and the commander of the French Sipahi cavalry, Lieutenant Colonel Leon, was secretly surprised in his heart, the enemy was less than half of their number, and each Taiping cavalry had to bear the blow of two Persian scimitars, but in this case, the enemy could also exchange the lives of the French cavalry in a ratio of one to one.

The commander of the cavalry detachment of the Taiping Army was even more worried, with more than 100 casualties in one face, which had never happened before in a battle against Manchu cavalry or infantry, and it seems that the King of the West was right, the British and French forces were indeed one of the most powerful armies in the world today.

"Change tactics! After the charge later, you don't have to retreat to regroup, form a formation with your closest teammates, continue to pursue the enemy, don't let them have a chance to re-array, fight with them, even if you are seriously injured and will die in the end, you must pull the glorious bullet and die with the enemy, don't be afraid of accidentally injuring your own people, the enemy is more numerous than us, and they are more injured if you want to be injured! The commander of the Taiping army immediately decided to change tactics, and as word of mouth passed the order, the Taiping army resumed the charge.

"Brothers. Rush forward and let these aliens know how good we are! See you in heaven! The commander of the cavalry detachment of the Taiping Army raised his sword. With a loud shout, he launched a tragic charge with his cavalry.

The Sipahi cavalry did not know that the other side was coming to find themselves desperately this time, and Lieutenant Colonel Leon optimistically swiped the scimitar and shrugged the wreckage darkly.

On the way to charge, Lieutenant Colonel Leon even thought of a later tactic, after destroying the enemy soldiers on the opposite side, he should still have about 500 people left, and then they would quickly outflank the right flank to help the British crush the enemy cavalry on the right flank.

Lieutenant Colonel Leon's line was located in the middle and rear of the entire French cavalry, and when Lieutenant Colonel Leon's line line charged into the enemy's line, he found that it was only a lone enemy cavalryman rushing in front of him, and a huge cut in his face. Visible bones, dripping with blood, his right arm hung neatly on the military uniform, this arm had already been cut off, and he was barely hanging on it only by relying on the military uniform, but he still firmly rushed towards his own line, his left arm was on his waist, and he couldn't see any weapons in his hand.

"What does he want to do?" That was the last thought on Lieutenant Colonel Leon's mind, when one of the Sipahi cavalrymen beside him beheaded the Taiping cavalryman. Lieutenant Colonel Leon only felt a huge flash of fire in front of him, and a huge shock wave flew through his body with shrapnel, and he fell headlong and died on the spot.

The charge of the Taiping cavalry was completely suicidal, and the Sipahi cavalry was about to withdraw and regroup. The cavalry of the Taiping army did not let them go, and they still rushed forward, or pursued and slashed and killed. Or pull the grenade on his waist and die with the enemy, and for a time the French Sipahi cavalry was in chaos. They were dealt a heavy blow by the enemy.

On the right flank, a mile away, the Taiping cavalry relied on numerical superiority and a near-one-to-one ratio. The Indian and Sikh cavalry were defeated first, and only the British dragoons were still struggling to hold on, but as the enemy struck more and more sabers, the elite dragoons could not withstand this impact, and after three rounds of charge, the dragoons were barely able to line up with less than two hundred cavalry, while the Indian cavalry and Sikh cavalry left more than three hundred corpses and withdrew from the battlefield.

Finally, before the fourth charge began, the British sounded the trumpet of retreat, and the dragoons turned and retreated to the rear as if they had been amnestied, and the Taiping army did not pursue them, but quickly outflanked the left flank.

The poor French cavalry was entangled by the Taiping cavalry, and then surrounded by the large cavalry of the right wing of the Taiping army, which was outflanked by the right flank, and the courage was finally overcome by the fear of death, and the Sipahi cavalry began to scramble for their lives, but was intercepted by the Taiping cavalry on the right flank, and finally the Sipahi cavalry of more than 800 people fled back with only a few dozens.

After a tragic cavalry battle, the British and French cavalry troops suffered heavy losses, the British dragoons lost more than 100 people, and only less than 200 people were left to fight, the remaining cavalry of the Sikh and Indian cavalry regiments in their early 200s escaped completely, and the French Sipahi cavalry was almost completely annihilated by the enemy.

On the side of the Taiping cavalry, the more than 300 cavalry on the left flank survived only 39 of the seriously wounded in the end, and the troops on the right flank lost more than 400 people, the Taiping army lost more than 700 people in total, and the coalition cavalry suffered more than 900 casualties, which seemed to have a slight upper hand in the Taiping army.

Seeing this scene, Montauban, an officer who was a cavalry commander, scolded the Indian cavalry and the Sikh cavalry for their cowardice, and if they could hold out for a few more moments, the French cavalry would not be completely annihilated by the enemy, and might even turn back to help them. But Montauban can't be too demanding, after all, the Indian cavalry also collapsed after losing more than half of its manpower, and it is already a very elite force.

After driving away the enemy's cavalry, the Taiping cavalry did not continue the pursuit, they were recruited back by the Taiping army's Xiwang for a short rest, while the infantry regiment that had already lined up pressed up.

Seeing this, Grant sighed and said to Montauban: "We should retreat, tell the remaining troops in Tongzhou, we must throw away all unnecessary things at once, and retreat immediately......" (To be continued......