On the morning of the third day, the heavy snow has stopped, the early morning mist has not yet dispersed, in the morning smoke, the handsome flag of the Qing army Dahonga on the Diao Dou flagpole in the Yamen of the Taizhou prefect was torn down, and the bright yellow and white-edged West Hall flag was rising, followed by the tsunami-like cheers of thousands of Taiping soldiers.

After two days of fierce street fighting, in the early morning of this morning, the officers and men of the 1st Regiment and 1st Battalion of the newly formed 1st Division of the Taiping Army conquered the Yamen of the Taizhou Prefect, the stronghold of the Qing Army.

After walking out of the gate of the Yamen of the Taizhou Mansion, Da Hong'a looked up in despair and saw the flag of the West Hall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rising, and his heart was full of bitterness. Dahonga's hair turned a lot whiter overnight, and the sweat on his forehead couldn't stop pouring out in this cold weather. He originally wanted to commit suicide, but was stopped by his subordinates, and then the soldiers of the Taiping army rushed in with lightning speed, and never gave him a chance to seek death. He glanced resentfully at the Taiping soldiers who were escorting him, but he didn't know how these long-haired thieves would humiliate him.

In the Yamen of Taizhou's political envoy, a huge charcoal fire was burning in the hall, and the light flame emitted heat to scorch the yamen hall very warmly, and more than ten senior generals of the Taiping Army sat in columns, and Lin Qirong and Chen Bushi, who had the largest official ranks, sat in the first place. The door opened, and Dahonga and the others were brought in.

All the generals looked at these Qing army generals with miserable faces viciously, and they all wanted to kill these people immediately.

Lin Qirong saw Da Hong'a and the others coming in, and asked slowly, "Who among you is Da Hong'a?" ”

All the Qing army generals didn't dare to speak out, but they couldn't stop looking at Dahong'a. Da Hong'a took a deep breath, stepped forward and said, "I am Da Hong'a, the chief soldier of Zhangzhou Town in the Great Qing Dynasty!" He held his head high, and his tone was very arrogant, not at all like a captive.

Lin Qirong and Chen Bushi glanced at each other. Everyone laughed together, and Lin Qirong said with a smile: "The confidence is quite sufficient, aren't you afraid that we will kill you?" ”

Da Hong's face twitched, and he said loudly: "If you want to kill, you will kill, the old man has been a horse all his life, and it is the duty of a courtier to be loyal to the country and the emperor. Disaster chaos in the world, you will be defeated sooner or later, your bones will be crushed, and you will never be at peace! ”

Lin Qirong's face sank, and he shouted at the escorting soldiers: "Let them all kneel!" What qualifications does a captive have to stand and speak? ”

Several butts hit Dahona in the leg. He immediately fell to his knees with a limp, but his face was still angry. Lin Qirong also stood up angrily and shouted: "The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been in the customs for two hundred years. How many Han people have killed me, how many sisters have been humiliated, how much wealth have been plundered of me, your dog emperor's family was originally just a slave of the border soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, how could He De steal my China for 200 years? We are here to pay the blood debt today! After that, Lin Qirong clapped his hands, and someone came out of the inner hall. When the Qing generals saw it, they all scolded angrily, and the person who came was Wang Youling, the former governor of Zhejiang in the Qing court.

Wang Youling didn't care about those scoldings at all, and immediately those Qing generals were beaten and scolded by the Taiping soldiers around him. Slowly it stopped. Lin Qirong handed a piece of paper to Wang Youling and shouted: "These are all crimes they committed in Taizhou, read them out, let them die and understand!" ”

Wang Youling took it calmly, and read out the evil things committed by the Qing army one by one, these evil things were actually Wang Youling's participation, which was nothing more than Da Hong'a conniving at the Qing army to harm the people in Taizhou City, indiscriminately killing innocents, slaughtering villages, forcibly pulling people's husbands, and looting people's property.

Although Dahong's face began to turn pale, he still straightened his upper body, without the slightest intention of begging for mercy. Halfway through the reading, the generals behind Da Hong'a began to beg for mercy, just the slaughter of the village and the destruction of the village, the Qing army in Taizhou did no less than 30 cases, and the people who died in each case were more than 1,000 people, and at least more than 100 people, all of whom were killed by them and took it as a military merit report. These generals naturally knew that these people had died unjustly, and the Taiping army would definitely not let them go.

Dahonga turned around angrily and shouted: "Those rebels who colluded with Long-haired will be killed and killed, if you don't kill them at that time, they will be anti-thieves as soon as Long-haired comes, what is it to kill a few anti-thieves for the peace of the country?" Are you still a military commander of the Qing Dynasty? Puff out your chest! Don't beg for mercy! ”

Lin Qirong said coldly: "Da Hong, I remember that you still have some backbone in the confrontation with the British back then, leave you a whole corpse, and someone will drag him out and hang him!" The rest of the people, etc., will be punished according to the law! ”

In this way, a cadre of Taizhou City was taken out, and in front of the Wudi Temple in Taizhou City, the Ming Dynasty was executed, and thousands of people came to watch, and when they saw Dahonga and other vicious Qing generals executed, they all applauded, and some set off firecrackers to celebrate. Many Qing generals were beaten to death with stones by the people along the way before they arrived at the execution ground, which was considered a cheap for them.

The soldiers and township soldiers of the Taiping Army besieging Taizhou withstood the test of severe cold, and after paying the price of more than 1,000 casualties, they successfully conquered Taizhou, the gateway of the Qing army's Wentai defense line, annihilating more than 30,000 Qing troops in Taizhou and more than 20,000 reinforcements in Wenzhou. The proportion of casualties was unbelievable, but when the battle report reached Xiao Yungui, King Xi said that the casualties were still too great. You must know how many people died in the subsequent Second Opium War, when the British and French troops invaded Beijing, it seems that there is still a gap between the Taiping Army and the British and French armies. And if Wang Youling hadn't opened the west gate and surrendered, the Taiping army's casualties might have been greater.

Two days later, Li Kaifang arrived with follow-up logistics troops and horses to establish a supply line to ensure the sufficiency of supplies on the front line. Judging from this battle, the strength of the Taiping army has been greatly improved, but it is inevitable to bring the common problem of the hot weapon army, that is, it is very dependent on logistics supply, and the demand for ammunition for the entire army is very huge.

After Li Kaifang's arrival, the troops on the southern front also sent soldiers and horses back to join the division, and Li Kaifang held a ceremony to enter the city, asking all departments to send soldiers and horses back to participate, and at the same time assign the next combat mission.

The southern front to block the Wenzhou reinforcements sent back is Zhang Wenxiang's cavalry regiment, Zhang Wenxiang's cavalry regiment this time can be described as a great achievement, they are the first batch of hidden south crossing the Lingjiang River water system of the Taiping army, but also the first in the field to defeat the Qing cavalry cavalry, give full play to the cavalry maneuver. was praised by Li Kaifang.

When entering the city, Zhang Wenxiang's cavalry regiment changed back into the military uniform of the cavalry, a red and white-edged military uniform, a light-colored shirt inside, blue breeches, black riding boots on his feet, a horse pistol on his shoulder, two crossed bullet belts on his chest, a saber at his waist, and an iron helmet with feathers floating on his head. At that time, when they went south to fight, they took into account the need for covert operations. So they changed into the camouflage uniforms of the infantry, but it turned out that the cavalry with high heads and horses could not camouflage no matter what, and Zhang Wenxiang and they still had to stick themselves all over the branches every time, so in the future cavalry battles. Camouflage gear was never used again.

After the ceremony of entering the city, Li Kaifang summoned the generals of various ministries to assign tasks. Zhang Wenxiang's cavalry regiment was sent to the south of Chuzhou. cut off the connection between Chuzhou and Wenzhou, while Lin Qirong led the infantry regiment directly south to Wenzhou. Li Kaifang's intention is to ignore the state, once Wenzhou is taken, the isolated north of the state will naturally be self-defeating.

Wang Youling and Hu Xueyan and other returnees were escorted back to Suzhou by Li Kaifang, and Taizhou had its own local officials appointed by Suzhou to take over.

……

When the Taiping army was fighting fiercely with the Qing army in Wenzhou, a new front was about to open up on the other side. Late December. In the meeting room of the British Consulate in Shanghai, important British and French figures in Shanghai, as well as important generals of the British and French coalition forces in Shanghai, are gathering for important meetings.

Bao Ling is wearing a tuxedo, and the bow at the neckline is very neat. He coughed lightly, and the people at the table slowly quieted down, only to hear him say slowly: "Gentlemen, our fleet recuperating in North America has returned to Shanghai, and the war with the Russians in the west has also reached a critical moment, and I have been authorized by the Council and the Cabinet to join forces with the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to fight north in the form of mercenaries. ”

As soon as these words came out, the thick sea lion whiskers of the British Navy Rear Admiral Hober trembled, and said very dissatisfiedly: "Is our British Empire reduced to the point where we need to cooperate with the yellow race to achieve victory?" "He was the commander of the last command of the Anglo-French combined fleet to attack the Russian military port in the north, but because of the defeat, he has been relieved of his post and only served in the navy.

Grant, the new commander of the British Far East Fleet, was wearing a red serge general's uniform, a flannel shirt inside, and a white helmet on the table, he looked at He Bo and said lightly: "The troops of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have been being trained by instructors from various countries recently, and I watched them a military exercise the day before yesterday, and their military quality is no worse than that of British soldiers." Major General Ho Bo would like to note that the Taiping Army is now an important potential ally of ours, and the Indian Army will be unhappy if it hears the general's words. "Grant has just taken over the British army in the Far East, and he has already negotiated with the French side, and the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-French alliance is still Grant, for the simple reason that in the Anglo-French alliance, the British fleet and personnel account for the majority.

He didn't speak again, he knew that Grant had been trying to weaken his influence in the army recently, and he wouldn't let go of the opportunity to attack him, so he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

Grant didn't embarrass Uncle He too much, looked at the huge map of the Far Northeast on the table and said: "Our defeat last time was mainly due to the fact that there were too few troops on land, and I don't know how many people the Taiping Army can mobilize to fight this time?" ”

Bao Ling said: "In yesterday's meeting with the King of the West, the King of the West has made it clear that he can send two standard infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment, a total of more than 3,000 people. ”

French Rear Admiral Rigaud? Derenuiri frowned and said, "Didn't you send artillery troops?" ”

Bao Ling shrugged his shoulders and smiled and said: "Xiwang's infantry regiment is equipped with an artillery battalion, which is enough to deal with the war, and the support of large-caliber artillery also needs a navy, and according to our current sea capacity, it is unrealistic to want to send more artillery regiments in the past." ”

Grant pondered for a moment and said: "Most of the military facilities of the Russians' military port can still be destroyed by our naval artillery, but we don't know if the Russians have other defense facilities, and everything will depend on the Taiping army after landing on the shore." ”

The British consul in Shanghai, who was silent, suddenly said, "Your Excellency, has the Council agreed to the request of the King of the West?" I'm referring to helping them build their navy. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked in disbelief, the British wanted to help the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom build a navy?

Bao Ling bowed slightly, and said: "Yes, the King of the West has accepted our shipbuilding, and our shipyard in Portsmouth will start building two sail-sailed, steam-powered cruisers for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and when the war is over, the five three-masted warships in the British Far East Navy will also be delivered to the Taiping Army." ”

He Bo was very dissatisfied and said: "If the Taiping Army has a navy, how will we maintain maritime superiority in the Far East in the future?" ”

Grant smiled faintly and said: "China will send six more steam warships to the Far East next year, and the Admiralty Jihua will replace these sail warships in the next few years, Rear Admiral He Bo does not have to worry." Moreover, according to the agreement, the naval personnel of the Taiping Army, including sailors, are also going to our England for training, are you worried that the students you teach will defeat the teachers? ”

He Bo didn't say anything more, and the French were not surprised, because Blombur also received a note yesterday from the King of the West ordering ships in France, and the French also wanted a piece of the pie, so Britain and France didn't care too much about the Taiping navy, they were very confident in their military liliang, and they didn't believe that the Taiping navy without the slightest background would bring them any trouble.

The meeting finally decided that after the end of the freeze period in the northern seas, the Anglo-French combined fleet would send troops north, and the first fleet would be led by Rear Admiral Rigaut of the French Navy. Under the command of De Genuiri and British Rear Admiral Hober, there were eight main battleships, 10 cruisers, and more than 100 gunboats, gunboats, armed merchant ships, transport ships, and supply ships of all kinds, plus more than 3,000 army units of the Taiping Army, and the Anglo-French Taiping Coalition Army totaled more than 5,000 people. (To be continued......)