The Fifth Army of the Taiping Army commanded by Lin Qirong is not a fully organized field army, the cavalry division and the third infantry division are not in the formation, and the more than 20,000 people in the two divisions are facing the strength of nearly 40,000 troops of the coalition army, which is not advantageous in terms of strength, and is slightly inferior in terms of artillery superiority, the Taiping Army has a total of more than 150 artillery pieces of various types, while the number of the coalition army is more than 250.

But Lin Qirong can only choose to paste it and drag the coalition forces back to Dongguan, otherwise the previous deployment will be wasted, once the coalition forces return to Dongguan, where there are hoarded arms, food and strong fortifications, it will be very difficult for the Taiping army to give a annihilating blow to the coalition forces. So Lin Qirong had no choice but to entangle the coalition forces, even though the coalition forces had twice as many troops.

However, the Taiping army also has some advantages, that is, the previous information is not clear, so that the coalition generals in Xiancun Town are slightly conservative, they do not know the real strength of the Taiping army copied from the east bread, although the scouts reported that the enemy can see is estimated to be more than 20,000 people, but this is the land of China, is the home of the Taiping army, the coalition commanders are not sure whether they will hide more troops in some unknown place, just waiting for the coalition to show flaws and give the coalition a fatal blow.

Moreover, the more than 20,000 people of the Taiping Army put on a posture of taking the initiative to attack, which made the commanders of the coalition forces even more confused. There must be some conspiracy of the cunning Taiping army, maybe this attacking force is just a tentative feint force, and the real killing tactics of the Taiping army are still to come.

Of course, Baron Sidon did not forget the Guangzhou behind him, where according to intelligence, a large number of Taiping troops were also stationed. Therefore, the deployment of the coalition forces should be strong, front, front, and left. But soon the Taiping attack confused the allied commanders even more, because their attacks were very sharp. It doesn't look like a tentative feint at all.

After launching a frontal attack on the coalition forces, the Taiping army sent a force of several thousand men to attack the right flank under the cover of artillery fire after half an hour. The twenty-four large-caliber heavy artillery of the Taiping army began to suppress the artillery of the coalition army, and the coalition army did not have heavy artillery in the formation, and their heavy artillery remained in Dongguan County, the reason is very simple, when the coalition army went north, the commanders of the coalition army did not carry heavy artillery out of caution, because once they went deep into the interior and were besieged by the enemy, it was difficult to carry the heavy artillery. It would bring trouble to the mobility of the troops, which still suffered from the loss of unknown intelligence, so they did not dare to carry heavy guns. The Taiping army was different, they had an advantage in manpower and material resources here, and the movements of the coalition forces were clear, so their heavy artillery always followed the artillery regiment.

The blow of twenty-four thirty-two-pounder guns was too much for the Allied artillery to bear, and Baron Sidon soon sent the British cavalry lieutenant general, Earl James of Cardigan. Thomas. The Queen's Guards Cavalry Corps and the French Cavalry, commanded by Brudenel, ordered them to attack the Taiping artillery positions, hoping that the speed of the cavalry would destroy the heavy artillery. Reduce the pressure on the artillery.

The British cavalry lieutenant general, Earl Cardigan, sent cavalry led by Major General Hawkens, together with more than 5,000 French cavalry, to launch a series of charges against the well-organized Taiping artillery positions on the mounds of Blue Mountain Village. The onslaught of five thousand cavalry was indeed unstoppable, and they came around from the flanks. Avoiding the charging Taiping infantry, viciously rushed straight to the Taiping position. But Lin Qirong remained calm, and he ordered the infantry guarding the position to form a phalanx in battalions. The phalanxes are staggered so that they can fight independently. There was room for maneuver again, and the Taiping gunners were ordered to hold out until the last moment. Then go to the phalanx for protection.

Within a hundred yards, the Taiping artillery fired, dense grapeballs exploded in groups in the coalition cavalry, rows of coalition cavalry were blown up flesh and blood, Hawkens's cavalry used all other methods except suicide to break through the Taiping position, they actually broke through the phalanx, captured a number of artillery positions, but the Taiping gunners quickly threw down the artillery and hid in the infantry phalanx, the coalition cavalry found that they could not take out the enemy's artillery, and then the Taiping infantry phalanx moved over, further squeezing the space of the cavalry, Grenades, platoon guns, and bayonets were the fatal blows of the infantry phalanx to the cavalry, and Hawkens's cavalry was thus embarrassed to return under the counterattack of the Taiping infantry phalanx.

More than 2,000 men returned from 5,000 cavalry, and Baron Sidon was very dissatisfied with this, because when the Allied cavalry retreated, the Taiping artillery returned to the artillery, still happily firing shells at the Allied army. Hawkens's cavalry destroyed only a dozen or so six-pounder guns, while the twenty-four heavy guns were unscathed.

The battle situation on the front and right flanks was very anxious, especially on the front of the coalition army, the first part of the Taiping army broke into the French position commanded by Colonel Falkenbeth, opened a breakthrough there, the coalition army launched two counter-charges but failed to recapture the position, the Taiping army relied on the coalition fortifications there to carry out a blow to the coalition forces on the flank, and the first line of defense on the front of the coalition army was precarious.

The right flank was a little better, the Taiping army's charge was limited by the terrain, but they did not retreat after they were repulsed, those fierce Taiping soldiers prostrate on the spot, still shooting towards the coalition position, and then their officers once again organized a charge formation, and so step by step to advance towards the right flank hill coalition position.

Soon the frontal coalition army raised its banner, and the heralds frequently came to ask for more troops, and Baron Sidon sent 3,000 French troops from the left flank to support. The 3,000 French troops, led by French Colonel Lübeck, formed a dense charge formation and charged fiercely towards the Taiping army that was advancing head-on. They hoped that a single charge would crush the enemy in the salient and thus recapture the position and close the breach in the defensive line.

Lin Qirong was a little sorry, if only he still had cavalry in his hands, then he could immediately send cavalry to break through the gap into the position of the coalition army after the infantry opened the gap, but he didn't have cavalry in his hands now.

At 3:15 p.m., he once again made a desperate move, together with the reserves on the position, a total of 5,000 people launched another attack on the frontal defense line of the coalition army, trying to break through the front of the coalition defense line, and he ordered the 5,000-strong Taiping army reserve to rush forward to support the Taiping army, which was still fighting hard in the protrusion of the frontal defense line, hoping to break through the coalition defense line at one time.

The 5,000 Taiping infantry troops soon joined the bloody battlefield and brought ammunition to the allies who were holding out in front of them. Lübeck's French army charged three times, advancing only 300 meters, and the Taiping soldiers' accurate marksmanship and skillful stabbing skills became a nightmare for the French soldiers. They even thought that the bayonets of the Taiping army were sharper than those of the Russians, and that before they died, they always liked to pull the last grenade they had strapped to their bodies, and then pounce on the place where the French soldiers gathered, exchanging their lives for more French soldiers' lives.

The soldiers of the coalition army were very unaccustomed to this kind of contempt for life, in their understanding, when the ammunition was gone, if they were wounded, they should withdraw from the battlefield, but the Taiping soldiers were not like this, they always used the same method to inflict greater losses on the coalition army, perhaps this is the biggest difference between the Western army and the Eastern army.

An hour later, the Taipings had taken the first line of Allied defense in the front, but the Taipings also seemed to be exhausted and unable to continue their gains, and they held on to resist the onslaught of the allied forces.

Baron Sidon couldn't sit still, he smelled a hint of danger, this bloody battle has been fought until now, and he still hasn't seen the new force of the Taiping Army appear, is the enemy really only this little force? So where did the rest of the enemy go? Could it be that the superior forces are concentrating on the siege of Dongguan County?

No, there must be no more time to be wasted here, Baron Sidon must quickly defeat the enemy in front of him, and then return to Dongguan in order to save the main force of the coalition army. At this moment, Sir Sir Sidon suddenly understood why Ergin's people who had stayed in the east and fought for a year had such a great fear of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and now their 60,000 troops were only less than 150 kilometers deep from the landing ground to the enemy's interior, but they were met with such fierce resistance from the enemy, the enemy's strategy of launching the whole people to fight was indeed very terrifying, and the thought of their hundreds of millions of people and vast land, Baron Sidon rushed to a sense of powerlessness.

Baron Sidon understood that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not a Qing court, not the Qing court that would surrender with only a few thousand army troops and a few warships at the doorstep, nor was it a Qing court where the local people would trade with the invaders when they started a war, and it was not the Qing court where the local people would resist and kill the invaders and be held accountable, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was using all the resources available to the country to fight them.

60,000 troops do not seem to be enough, but can Britain and France commit 300,000 or 500,000 troops to the Eastern Theater as they did in the European theater? This is obviously impossible, unless Britain and France do not want European hegemony and interests. At this moment, Baron Sidon understood that the defeat of his expeditionary force was only a matter of time, unless they no longer carried out landing operations, but the distant army did not conduct landing operations to capture the enemy's cities, so how could the enemy be brought to its knees? This is where Baron Sidon's sense of powerlessness comes from.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the climax of the battle came, and Baron Sidon made a desperate bet, he ordered all the allied reserves on all fronts to attack, he wanted to quickly defeat the enemy in front of him, and then leave the battlefield and return to Dongguan. The coalition army gathered all the reserve forces and stormed towards the Taiping army, and the Taiping army, which was still fighting on the coalition position, immediately fell into encirclement.

After being surrounded by the enemy, several Taiping squads in front of the sudden attack ran out of all their bullets and immediately raised the signal flag for firing at us without hesitation, and the artillerymen quickly covered the area with artillery fire with tears in their eyes. If the soldiers of the coalition army were usually hiding from artillery fire, perhaps the artillery of the Taiping Army would not be able to inflict much damage on them, but this kind of tactics is really unheard of when it is already entangled with the enemy, and the enemy actually covers it with artillery fire along with his own people.

When Baron Sidon saw his soldiers fighting with the Taiping army, one by one they fell under the enemy's artillery fire, and he muttered in a daze: "Aren't these people afraid of death?" Why did the enemy's artillery dare to fire at their own people? Are they all emotionless? (To be continued......)