The soldiers of the coalition army had prepared their individual equipment before they set out, each breech flintlock musket, received enough ammunition, plus military bayonets, aluminum water bottles, standard blankets and individual shovels, and brought enough dry rations for five days, each carrying about 40 kilograms. After a tiring day's march, they arrived at Sanjie Village, three miles from Hexiwu Town, and after a short rest, they began to build their barracks and positions.

After Major General Michel returned, he exchanged views with General Colino with a solemn face, judging from the deployment of the Taiping Army, it took them only one morning to complete the fortifications in Hexi Town, which shows that the plan of the Taiping Army is to block the eastern reinforcement of the coalition army here. Major General Michel, who had seen the trenches and barbed wire with his own eyes, thought that the Coalition forces were unlikely to take it quickly, and that the Coalition forces needed to prepare to camp out in the field at night.

General Collino agreed with Mitchell, and they ordered the soldiers to begin arranging their camps and fortifying their camping positions in the wilderness in case of a surprise attack by the enemy at night. At the same time, General Colino first sent a detachment of light infantry to tentatively attack the town of Hexiwu with artillery cooperation to test the enemy's firepower and troop deployment, and at the same time let the scouts expand the range to see if there was a road to Hexiwu from the north and south.

The tentative assault was given to the 102nd Regiment under the command of Colonel Omalay of the French Army, and two artillery squadrons had already set up artillery positions and prepared them for artillery fire, while two engineering companies followed suit, and they tried to erect several passages with wooden planks on several trenches that would allow them to quickly pass to Guò.

At about 3 p.m., the allied artillery fire opened fire on time, and two artillery squadrons of 16 9-pounder rifled guns and four 5.5-inch 24-pounder howitzers began to bombard the Taiping army's fortifications on the outskirts of Hexi Wu Town at the same time. In a flash. The Taiping army's positions on the outskirts of Hexi Wu Town were caught in a sea of fire.

The effect of the shelling was observed from the telescope, except that some trenches and barbed wire fences were destroyed. It is rare to see the Taiping army lose troops, and it is not seen that the Taiping army fires back. There was no Taiping artillery firing back. The artillery fire reconnaissance failed to work, and the Taiping troops on the opposite side just silently endured the artillery fire without the slightest action of returning fire. In an instant, Major General Mitchell almost believed that the Taiping army had raided the town of Hexi with light infantry without bringing a single artillery. Thinking about it, it was okay for the Taiping army to make a detour to the east to raid Tianjin with light infantry, but if they still carried heavy artillery, it would be impossible to escape the detection of the coalition army.

Probably after negotiating that the Taiping Army had no artillery, General Collino was even more relieved, thinking that the French army of the 102nd Regiment should be able to suffer fewer casualties. General Collino shared the same thoughts as Colonel Omarai, who commanded at the front. He ordered a battalion of the 102nd Regiment to strike first, and immediately after the artillery fire had been extended forward, a tentative attack began.

Hexi Wu Town, narrow from north to south, long from east to west, from the east gate to the west gate is a three miles away not too straight main street. The town has no city walls, and there are 8 city gates built at the intersections on all sides, the north: Yaowang Temple Gate; East: Lao Ye Temple Gate, East Gate; South: Chicken Market Gate, Main Gate, Wood Market Gate; West: West Gate, West Burning Gate.

There are many temples in and around the town, such as Yaowang Temple, Lao Ye Temple, Chaoyang Temple outside the East Gate. the mosque in front of the main entrance; the small temple in the gate of Mutou City; Gongde Zenlin Temple outside the West Burning Gate. Gongde Chanlin Temple is the core position of the Taiping Army on the periphery of Hexi Wu Town. The dense trenches and barbed wire fences outside were built on its backing and center. The main direction of attack of the 102nd Regiment was the Gongde Chanlin Temple, and it is believed that the headquarters of the peripheral troops of the Taiping Army was also here, so when the artillery fire was extended, it was quickly covered by artillery fire.

When the allied artillery basically blew up the Gongde Chanlin Temple. The artillery fire extended into the town. Colonel O'Malé was a little disappointed, having been stationed for a few days in the town of Hexiwu, and the streets of the city were very impressive. On the street, there are large and small shops, one by one. Plaques and signboards are dotted. There is a store for the production of daily necessities. The town is also a bit bustling, and the second, fourth, sixth, and ninth episodes are even more lively. Many of the most prestigious shops are still fresh in our minds, crowded in the center of the main street, from Narrow Street to Dongheng Street to the west. Such as: Wanhe, Tianlixing, Dejuyong, Dechang, Zengshengji, Yijulong, Sanyihe, Fuhaiju; Hengyuan Hotel, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Yongyang Photo Studio in the west of Narrow Street; There is an Orchid Kee pharmacy in the back street. Yihe Cheng iron shop; The pot of Hengyuan Hotel in the West Burning Gate. It's a pity that after this qiē is covered by artillery fire, I believe that there will be nothing left.

The charge of the 102nd Regiment was very firm, and the soldiers advanced quickly, and they were already running in the path of the charge while the allied artillery fire was still raging in the town. From the small steps at the beginning to the quick charge later, the experienced commander of the 1st Battalion, Major Delaty, knew that they had to quickly capture the outlying positions while the artillery blocked the Taiping reinforcements from the town, so that they could occupy a foothold before the enemy launched a counterattack.

When there were still a hundred meters from the first trench, Major Draty's premonition became worse and worse, even if the soldiers of the Taiping army were suppressed by artillery fire, it was impossible that not a single soldier fired back at such a close distance, and there was also an explanation that the Taiping army did not deploy many troops in the outer positions.

As the distance got closer, except for the sound of coalition shells exploding in the town in the distance, there was still a deathly silence on the outer positions of the Taiping army, and Major Drati became even more nervous, his palms sweating.

Just fifty meters away from the first trench, a crisp gunfire from behind the trench pierced the entire position, followed by the nearest trench, countless muzzles came out, and the dense volley fire was no less than the dense fire of the line array, and at such a close distance. Major Drati was pained to see the soldiers in front of him being scraped down like wheat stalks by enemy bullets, and in an instant, more than a hundred soldiers fell on the way of the charge.

"Spread out and keep rushing!" Major Drati did not order the soldiers to stop and return fire, at this distance, the enemy could aim and shoot unscrupulously, but the 102nd Regiment's fire would not be too lethal, because the enemy was hiding in the trenches, they could not suppress the enemy's fire, and the artillery did not dare to provide any fire support at this distance, and the best situation was to rush over and fight with the enemy in the trenches.

"Damn, the enemy has grenadiers!" Dozens of swarthy grenades flew out of the trenches, and since the Napoleonic Wars, countries have not paid much attention to the improvement of the small bombs dropped by the grenadiers, but have heard that the Taiping army has greatly improved them. Previously, because most of the explosives were black powder, the power of the explosion depended on the sufficiency of the charge, so the grenade thrown by the grenadier was actually equivalent to a small cannonball, which was very heavy and required a soldier with considerable arm strength to become a grenadier.

However, later the arsenal of the Taiping Army introduced advanced explosive formulas, and took the lead in using a large number of picric acid explosives as grenade explosives in 1771 by P. Wolf of the United Kingdom. Although picric acid explosives were invented early, they were really widely used in the late nineteenth century, when they were initially used as yellow dyes, and in 1885, they were used in France to fill artillery shells, and they were used in military affairs, and the Taiping Army's use of this explosive changed the course of military history of this explosive.

Under the fire and grenade of the first trench infantry of the Taiping Army, the French soldiers of the first battalion of the 102nd Regiment suffered heavy casualties, and the last thirty meters could not rush through, Major Delaty decisively ordered a retreat, and the French army was not prepared for the Taiping army's firepower, and the soldiers on the Taiping army's peripheral positions obviously did not lose much manpower under the artillery fire of the coalition army, and they kept themselves well.

After seeing the French soldiers of the 102nd Regiment fleeing back with more than 200 corpses, Major General Mitchell did not speak for a long time, and finally sighed and said: "We don't know enough about the Taiping Army, in the past, we thought it was a retrogression from their practice of some non-traditional tactics in the military academy, and it seems that they have found a solution." ”

General Collino did not say anything, he knew that Major General Michelle was referring to the grenade tactics of the Taiping Army, and all countries had foreign teachings in the Shanghai Martial Arts School, and they also reported some tactics of the Taiping Army, but the British and French armies both claimed that they were one of the best armies in the world today, and they disdained the tactics of the Taiping Army of digging trenches and throwing small grenades, and how lethal a fist-sized grenade explosion could be? How can hiding in a trench crush the enemy in a bayonet charge? This is a tactical conservatism, a retrogression of offensive tactics, but now the British and French forces have suffered for this.

It's not that the Anglo-French forces are incapable of developing grenades, it's not that none of them have thought of trench tactics, just as the British and French were not prepared for the innovation of this tactic when the German armored forces were first introduced in World War II, the army is both the place of innovation and the most conservative place, and no army will change its tactics lightly, unless they have learned a lesson in blood.

The 102nd Regiment suffered heavy casualties in the tentative attack, with more than 200 soldiers killed and many more wounded, but fortunately the wounded soldiers returned to their starting positions, followed by the first line of trenches by the coalition retaliatory shelling.

At the same time as the defeat of the 102nd Regiment, the reconnaissance teams from the north and south came back, and there were still three old big stone bridges on the avenue leading to the north and south of Hexi Wu Town, and the Taiping army had blown up three stone bridges, and there were no bridges on the canal, and there were also soldiers of the Taiping Army guarding the opposite bank, and it was estimated that it was difficult to pass through the sappers to build bridges to pass Guò. This meant that the coalition forces had to take the position of five trenches outside the west gate, and Major General Michel and General Collino looked at each other, feeling a sense of powerlessness, and it seemed that there was no better way than to storm it. (To be continued......)