The Anglo-French troops stationed in Xinhezhuang and the nearby vegetable gardens and orchards after all the villagers were evacuated, and after the hellish life in Beitang, Xinhe looked like a small paradise. Food is plentiful here, as is fodder for horses. Unfortunately, as Captain Dunn, who did not like the French at all, said, the French GIs went on a robbery spree and took a very bad head. Large numbers of local women, children and elderly people took refuge in wooden boats and were protected by the British navy.

To Captain Dunn's surprise, the Qing rebel cavalry who remained in the coalition army instigated and even led the French to loot, shouldn't the soldiers of a country protect the civilians of their own country? Later, Captain Dunn realized that these rebel cavalry were all descendants of Manchu and Mongolian nobles, and in the eyes of these people, they only needed to rule the other people, not protect them.

Throughout the day, the Allied forces were scouting the road leading to the city and determining the plan for the march, with the British Army on the right flank and the French in charge of the center and left flank. With the participation of Nanyang coolies and others, the engineering units of the coalition army stepped up the erection of bridges across the canal and waterway, many of which were damaged by the Qing army, and the engineers had to rebuild bridges that could be carried by heavy artillery.

At the same time, General Colino also led his troops to Xinhe to assemble.

The efficiency of the sappers was very high, and two new bridges were built in one day, and the reconnaissance team also returned, consistent with the information provided by Rong Lu, the Qing army built several military camps on the periphery of the military grain city, and there were complete deep trenches and pheasant walls outside.

Everything was ready, and the French army, which was well fed, was in high spirits and ready to go. Captain Bezia, however, found a problem. What about ladders? Where is the ladder? The French suddenly realized that they had brought these wall-climbing tools that were indispensable for capturing the forts. In fact, the engineering team had already prepared these wooden ladders. It is said that he once reported to the commander-in-chief, but he did not expect that the cloud ladder fell in Beitang. So, on the night of the 13th and 14th, he hurriedly sent about 60 coolies to run back quickly to get the ladder. Captain Bezia recounted the story, wondering why he was so negligent at the time.

Early the next morning, the Anglo-French army marched towards the heavily defended military commissariat city. Right wing. The British took a new route along the river; In the center and on the left flank, the French army marched on the main road leading to the military food city.

Soon the Qing army discovered the movement of the coalition forces, and the British soldiers were attacked by artillery fire fired from the other side of the river. The Qing army tried to block the coalition forces or lure them back to Tanggu Town. Soon, however, the cannons were dumbfounded, and a team of 36 cannons followed the British. Among them, there are 4 Japanese horse-drawn double-line mountain guns of the French army and 8 Armstrong heavy guns of the British army.

The artillery team spent half an hour unloading the guns. Half an hour of intensive shelling, and then half an hour of loading, the Allied artillery covered the advance of the British army very well, but the speed slowed down.

The French arrived at noon three kilometers outside the city of military rations, and after lunch, the British had not yet followed, and the French felt the emptiness of the right flank. General Montauban was not afraid, and he ordered to strengthen several infantry phalanxes on the right flank. Line up in a hollow phalanx to defend against the Qing Tatar cavalry, and then order the remaining infantry to attack the Qing army outside the military grain city first.

After the artillery bombardment of the enemy battalion under the command of Colonel Benzman. It was the turn of the commando team led by Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz to act. The chief of staff had been sick with a fever for several days, and had been staying in Beitang, but General Montauban was very surprised to see him flying horses. The military merit was well deserved, and it was time for Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz to command the stormers to charge.

Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz rushed forward first, but accidentally fell into the trench and almost drowned, but was fortunately rescued by two non-commissioned officers, but after he changed horses, he continued to brave the rain of bullets and bullets. He ordered the light infantry and marines to charge the city gates, and set up ladders to climb over the deep trenches; Supervise the sappers and tunnel soldiers to use axes to smash open the camp gate of the Qing army's camp. Suddenly, Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz flew up and stood on the pheasant wall, waving the French tricolor flag, and the coalition troops cheered. French infantry stormed the camp. They stood on the wall of the pheasant moat, watched the Qing army flee in the desert, and hid in another battery, and at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the battle ended.

In the camp of the Qing army, the killing caused by the artillery fire of the coalition army can be seen everywhere. An officer's head in a gold-threaded silk garb moved; And under the beautiful military tent, there were two corpses of senior officials lying horizontally, apparently killing themselves.

Rong Lu, who came to identify the corpse, sneered after looking at the corpse: "The general soldiers, staff generals, and deputy generals of Tianjin Town are all here, these people don't know the current affairs, and it's not a pity to die." Du Pan did not understand the meaning of death, but he felt that they should be given the dignity of soldiers, and Colonel Du Pan asked several captured Qing soldiers to bring the bodies of several Qing generals back to another barracks of the Qing army.

The Coalition captured 24 iron cannons, and the French suffered very few casualties, only about 30 were wounded, some of them badly, including Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz, who was later found to have fallen into a trench and broken two ribs. Only one member of the French army was killed, and the unfortunate man was shot in the face with a lead bullet from his rifle and died instantly.

The British arrived in a hurry after four o'clock in the afternoon, and only three of them were wounded, but General Napier's mount was hit by a shell and fell to the ground, and his troops were sent to stay behind at Xinhezhuang. Even Commander Grant admitted that the hero of the day was Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz.

There was no movement in the other two camps of the Qing army, and the right flank of General Montauban was not raided by the Qing cavalry during the whole battle, perhaps the Qing army did not expect the coalition army to come so suddenly, or maybe they were waiting for the order of the monk Lingqin.

And Rong Lu smiled after reading it: "They are still arguing whether to fight or retreat, and the general of Seng Lingqin can't order those Chahar cavalry." "It turned out that the Qing army that was monitoring the perimeter of the military grain city was a mixed cavalry and infantry unit mobilized from Chahar.

In fact, the Qing soldiers were also very good at fighting, and General Montauban said after the war: "I don't know what else we will encounter in this war." But I think how they would fight if they were well armed. And while we are fighting them, we are also teaching them to fight. In other words, if they had the same weapons as the Taipings, they didn't know what the war would become. ”

Captain Bezia echoed this view, refuting the widespread European argument that the Chinese were despicable cowards, weak and vulnerable. On the contrary, Bezia paid tribute to the loyal and brave soldiers of China, praising the Chinese for their resourcefulness, fortitude, fear of hardship, and regard death as home. "From a military point of view, this army only lacks a good leader, and it needs to be scientific," he said. And their long-term rival, the Taiping Army, did better than them, and the Taiping Army had good leadership and science. ”

The next day, General Montauban wanted to continue the battle, completely annihilating the two remaining Qing army camps outside the general grain city and driving away the enemy in front of him. The weather was clear, the ground was solid, and the soldiers were not tired and their morale was high, which was very suitable for continuing the battle. He built a siege of the Qing army before it could receive assistance, and defeated two Qing troops. However, Grant refused, he listened to Rong Lu's Jianyi, and prepared to first get in touch with the army loyal to the Empress Dowager Dong in the military grain city, and then attract the main force of Seng Lingqin to rescue the military grain city, and finally the coalition army annihilated the Qing army of Seng Greenqin under the military grain city.

This is a very bold plan, now the total number of coalition soldiers in the military grain city is only more than 10,000 people, the rest of the soldiers are still in Beitang, Xinhezhuang and other places, the farthest is still floating on the sea, plus the army of more than 5,000 Eastern Empress Dowagers in the military grain city, if you want to completely annihilate at least 50,000 or 60,000 Qing troops of the monk Lingqin, this is indeed very bold.

General Montauban did not approve of this plan at first, he hoped to separate the main forces of the Qing army, so that the losses of the coalition army would not be too great, and there were at least 20,000 elite Tatar cavalry under Seng Lingqin's men, except for the Chahar cavalry, no matter which army, this feeling was not good in the face of tens of thousands of cavalry charges.

In the end, it was Rong Lu who persuaded General Montauban, Colonel Du Pan did not know how Rong Lu persuaded General Montauban that night, this Qing nobleman not only had extraordinary courage and strategy, but also had a clever mouth that could convince others.

As a result, the French army opened a passage to the military food city, and to their delight, the food and materials hoarded in the military food city were really piled up, in addition to all kinds of rice, wheat flour, a lot of dried meat and spirits, and several warehouses stored a large number of sheepskin jackets and other fur clothing, etc., the military logistics department decided to seize this batch of precious furs.

Since the "Clipper Queen" hit the reef off the coast of Shandong and sank and lost its military uniform, the French army now finally has winter clothes, although it is already March weather, but many times the weather is still relatively cold.

In addition, the pack horse post in the military food city was also unceremoniously occupied by the coalition forces, and the coalition forces got nearly 3,000 bantam pack horses and mules, and also got a batch of gunpowder, but the ratio was not right, and it could only be used for blasting or propellant use.

The day after entering the city, General Montauban promoted Lieutenant Colonels Schmitz and Levi to the rank of First Class within his authority, and he also awarded honors to Marines whose leg had been blown off by a shell. Elisson once wrote of the scene when the "poor ghost" was wounded:

"Ahh My God! My God! "The poor ghost was taken to his left leg by a Qing artillery shell, and then fell to the ground and screamed in pain.

General Montauban stopped right in front of him, leaned over and touched his pistol holster with his gun, and said with concern: "Look, friend, be brave! The cross will make you forget about this. ”

"Damn! I don't want it...... Medals, return my legs! He replied discouragedly.

The general was silent and quickly walked away, continuing to direct the battle.

With a bitter sense of humor, Erison added: "Since I have only seen battles in circuses or hippodromes, I would have thought that in such a situation people would stand up with that sound leg and shout long live the emperor!" ”

However, General Montauban kept his promise, and after the soldier underwent another amputation, he was awarded the Order of French Warrior on a stretcher, and the poor ghost did not complain anything more, he understood that his leg would not be able to come back if he complained again...... (To be continued......)