Dense shells and screams descended on the charging path of the Taiping soldiers, and the scattered shrapnel blew a bloody wind of death, and the power of the god of war was vividly reflected at this moment. One Taiping soldier after another fell on the path of the charge, and their successors continued on the bloody path they had paved with blood.

General Ran Man saw this qiē in the telescope, and he muttered: "The artillery firepower is still not enough!" Then he immediately turned back and said loudly to the herald: "Go to the headquarters and report, we need artillery support, otherwise we won't be able to hold this damn Bali Bridge!" ”

The herald mounted his horse and galloped away, while General Ranman rushed to Brigadier General Croton's artillery position with his adjutant and several retinues. It was a scene in full swing, with the allied artillerymen sweating under the scorching sun and repeating the firing action, pouring as many shells as quickly as possible onto the Taiping army's charging path.

"General, we need more artillery and shells." The first thing Croton said after meeting Ran Man was that reinforcements were needed, and Ran Man expressed his understanding, and Croton said loudly: "I see that the damned Taiping army is storming our defense line with thousands of troops, and your two light infantry battalions are entangled by them and left on the opposite bank, if our artillery can't block their follow-up force input, your infantry will be in danger." ”

General Ran Man nodded and said: "General Crotton, thank you for your timely artillery support, I have asked the command to mobilize more artillery, you have done a good job, but before that, we need to maintain firepower as much as possible, and at the same time you need to pay attention to the retaliation of enemy artillery fire." ”

The voice fell. Three shells of the Taiping Army flew from a distance, fell more than 300 meters behind the artillery position and exploded. Seeing this, Croton's face changed slightly. Those three shells did not cause any losses to the coalition forces. A moment later, three more shells flew, this time exploding more than two hundred meters in front of the artillery position.

By this time, Croton's face had turned pale, and he shouted: "Pay attention to avoid the cannon!" The enemy is calibrating the artillery! Then he immediately said to General Ran Man: "General, you get out of here quickly, the enemy's next shot will hit this place accurately!" ”

General Ranman hurriedly left the artillery position with his adjutant and entourage, and the British artillery on the position hurriedly adjusted the muzzle of the gun, or moved the shells away, a panicked scene. At this time, a heavy artillery fire fell on the British artillery position, as Brigadier General Croton said.

The huge wave of air lifted General Ranman off his horse, but fortunately there was soft grass on the ground, General Ranman was only slightly wounded, and Croton was covered by several British artillery and also escaped from the fire, but at least seven or eight British artillery pieces were blown up.

"I'm sorry General, I can't help you anymore, we have to shift our positions." General Croton had his scalp grazed by shrapnel in his head. Blood was all over the face. General Ran Man was helpless, the elite artillery of the Taiping army was not under the British army, they had experienced too many wars with the Qing army, and the British and other foreign instructors taught them how to use ballistics to calculate artillery positions. They are now using what they have learned to teach their former teachers a lesson.

The British artillery and Nanyang coolies risked their lives in the artillery fire to transfer several guns and some ammunition, they had to transfer their positions, and then calculate the Taiping artillery positions. It takes time to suppress enemy artillery fire before you can supply fire to the infantry. And the French light infantry battalion on the other side of the canal ran out of time.

After the British artillery fire stopped, more follow-up forces rushed forward. Soldiers on both sides have already engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat. Looking at the soldiers of the light infantry battalion desperately signaling for help on the other side, General Ranman was painful and difficult to choose, and finally he had to order another battalion of French soldiers to rush across the Bali Bridge to reinforce them.

Soon the reinforced grenadier battalion crossed the Bali Bridge and entered the battle, and the two sides fought fiercely on the other side of the canal, and the French, who claimed to be the best in Europe, had made another Russian, who claimed to be the first in Europe, suffer greatly, and now they had an even stronger opponent in the Far East.

As soon as the Taiping stragglers approached the front, they would immediately form a three-three system of stabbing groups, each group kept a certain distance from each other, covering and supporting each other, and the expression of discipline and courage was not in the least under the French, and both sides began to suffer a large number of casualties in this primitive hand-to-hand combat.

As time went on, the superiority of the Taiping army's strength was revealed, and General Ran Man was very anxious, and when he was about to send another battalion over, General Montauban appeared behind him: "General, let the boys retreat, don't get into the meat grinder-style scramble anymore, we just need to hold here." ”

General Ran Man looked back, slightly surprised, but he immediately said: "But General, our soldiers on the other side are entangled, and if we retreat, we will cause great casualties. Montauban said bitterly: "There is no way to do this, you can come back as much as you can, pay attention to intercept the enemy who is following our infantry rushing over." ”

General Ran Man was very helpless, although he knew that Montauban was right, but with his order, the soldiers on the other side of the river who could come back would be less than one-tenth, but at present, he could no longer use this kind of refueling tactic, and he could only break the wrist of the strong man and order the soldiers to withdraw first.

After the order to retreat was given, the French soldiers on the opposite bank fought and left, and nearly 200 French soldiers volunteered to stay behind to block the enemy, creating a chance for their comrades to escape. Although they were courageous, they were soon drowned in the grass-green camouflage color.

The French army who withdrew across the Bali Bridge was less than 500 people, and many of them were wounded, and the Taiping army that followed them was hit by intensive rifle fire on the French position on the opposite bank, and a bridgehead formed a bottleneck, the Taiping army could not rush through here, and after paying the price of dozens of soldiers' lives, the Taiping army chose to hide on the spot and shoot at the French army on the opposite bank.

At this time, a steam whistle sounded on the canal, and four British gunboats rushed to support, and the guns on the ships and the rifle fire on the side of the ship suppressed the Taiping troops on the opposite bank so that they could not raise their heads, and bursts of cheers broke out on the French position.

Montauban breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the battle line was stable, and he was very worried that once the enemy broke through here, it would inevitably stick to the coalition army, so that the coalition army would not be able to retreat smoothly, but fortunately, the French army blocked them.

Montauban said to Ran Man: "Defend until dark, prepare to retreat one after another, prepare for a hard battle, cover the retreat of the main force of Tongzhou, block the enemy on the opposite bank, and don't let them rush over, the enemy will not let us leave lightly." ”

Montauban was very worried, the enemy first launched an attack on the Bali Bridge, the intention was obvious, that is, to cut off the connection between the Bali Bridge and Tongzhou, and then form a pincer offensive with the enemy due west against the coalition forces, since the Bali Bridge formed a stalemate at this time, the enemy would definitely choose another breakthrough, and this breakthrough is likely to be in the Maju Bridge southwest of Tongzhou.

Sure enough, before Montauban returned to Tongzhou, a scout came to report that the Maju Bridge in the southwest of Tongzhou had also been attacked, and the enemy was organizing a forced crossing. Montauban's heart hung in the air, the enemy's chain of punches was very compact and dizzying, and there was only one company of allied soldiers on the side of the Pony Bridge, which was simply unable to stop the large army of enemy troops. Montauban immediately went to Grant, perhaps they could no longer retreat, they had to stay and fight a decisive battle with the enemy, and after repelling the enemy, they could leave here, otherwise they would be pursued by the enemy along the way.

Grant also received the news, and after meeting with Montauban, the two immediately decided to use their current forces to first inflict heavy damage on the enemy on the side of the Pony Bridge, and then retreat along the canal, while General Ranman continued to block the enemy at the Bali Bridge to prevent the enemy from breaking through to the south.

After the order to fight was given, the allied soldiers quickly abandoned their belongings and baggage handling, they threw away unnecessary baggage and quickly assembled, and a regiment of French troops led by French Major Buger took the lead, the British army was all on the left flank, and the right flank was the main force of the French army led by General Montauban himself.

When Major Buger led a regiment of French troops to the three miles of the Pony Bridge, he saw that most of the Taiping army had crossed the Maju Bridge and had set up a three-mile front in the open field near the canal, and judging from the enemy's attacking phalanx, the enemy had at least 10,000 men.

Major Bouger immediately ordered his soldiers to form a phalanx to prepare to meet the enemy, and more than a thousand French troops formed several double platoons in horizontal formations, at least temporarily securing their flanks, and they were stationed on a mound to await the arrival of friendly troops on the left and right flanks.

Major Bujie saw a huge apricot yellow banner in the Taiping army formation opposite, which was very conspicuous, and whenever that big flag reached a military formation, the Taiping soldiers there would inevitably erupt in a tsunami-like cheer.

"That must be the King of the West of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he is there!" Major Bouger had heard some of the legends of the King of the West, and he had never lost a battle, just like Napoleon, the French emperor whom he revered the most, and he had not lost a battle in the true sense of the word before Waterloo, and the failure of the expedition to Russia, which Major Bouger believed was the defeat of His Majesty's army to the weather, not to the Russians.

However, Major Buger did not have much interest in this king of the west, since this king claimed to have never been defeated, then this may be the Waterloo of this king of the west, and he vowed to teach this king a lesson here, so that he could taste defeat.

The Taiping army on the opposite side did not give Major Buger much time, and when they discovered Major Bujie's troops, the Taiping army began to attack, and more than 2,000 people pressed over from the left, middle and right directions, and they lined up in a horizontal formation, trying to eat Major Bujie's coalition army in one go.

The bugle sounded, and the enemy marched slowly in a neat line, with firm and steady steps, while the enemy's artillery began to fire at Major Bujie's line, and the distance was getting closer and closer...... (To be continued......)