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Just as Shenai was mobilizing all his forces to prepare for the upcoming defensive battle, the hundreds of remnants of the Holy Cult Army cavalry that had escaped by luck also joined up with his main force twenty miles away from Partridge Pass. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Seeing that the 5,000 elite cavalry who were in high spirits when they set off now actually fled back like a lost dog, and there were less than 500 men and horses left, Mao Neng, the commander of the Holy Sect Army, was shocked and angry at the same time, and at the same time, he also had great suspicions, the information obtained by the scouts before was an empty city, why did the situation change drastically in just two hours? If we did not find out what the problem was, this battle would not be able to be fought at all.

While sending scouts to reconnoiter immediately, Mao Neng and his deputy, another captain of ten thousand and one of the ten thousand cavalry, carefully questioned the hundreds of remnants who had escaped. Due to the suddenness of the encounter at the beginning, neither side was prepared, and the inexperienced Taiping cavalry only cared about the battle in front of them, until the rout, and they did not know how many men and horses the other side had and what the composition of the troops was. But with the narration of so many people, the three main generals soon had a unified understanding, that is, the opponent's strength was not too strong, otherwise they would definitely follow, and they did not find the appearance of the enemy's infantry, which means that the other party is also likely to be the vanguard to seize the fortress.

But how many follow-up troops did the enemy have, and how far were they from Partridge Pass? This made the three of them quite puzzled, after all, they had not yet experienced a real battle, and lacked experience in judging the enemy's situation, so the three commanders finally decided to send more scouts to understand the situation on the one hand, and on the other hand, immediately advance to Partridge Pass, but in view of the role of cavalry, all three felt that it was better to let the cavalry and infantry maintain a normal marching speed and march towards Partridge Pass together.

The inexperience of the three of them and the conservative idea of cautious and stable led to the loss of the best opportunity for the Taiping army to seize the Partridge Pass, because it turned out that at that time, the cavalry led by Shenei was less than 2,600 people, plus the number of old and young women and children in the whole city was less than 4,000, and the lack of necessary defense facilities, it was difficult to play a big role with only some bows and crossbows, but at this time the Taiping army had the strength of 25,000 people, and the follow-up troops in Shenei were still far away from forty miles。

However, history does not have ifs, and it is difficult to predict how much impact this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will have on the Taiping army, but it is certain that the Taiping army will pay an extremely painful price.

The three wings of the 2nd Division of Reading Force, which received an urgent order, immediately accelerated their march, and marched as quickly as possible according to the order, "even if they ran only one breath left, they would go to the Partridge Pass and take a breath" (the language in the order of the Shenai), and it took only more than an hour for forty miles to reach the west gate of the Partridge Pass, and at this time the Taiping army had just come to the east gate of the Partridge Pass to set up a position.

The commander of the Taiping army quickly saw the reality of the army stationed on the city wall, and there were some civilians in civilian clothes mixed with the bloodstained robes, even so, the soldiers on the city wall still looked sparse. Without much hesitation, the main general, Mao Neng, threw a 10,000-strong onslaught with a wave of his hand, and in his opinion, perhaps only one or two charges would be enough to crush the weak defenders on the city walls.

Seeing that the soldiers of the Taiping Army holding the ladder swooped up, the soldiers of the three thousand salvos opened their bows and arrows at the same time, and there were bursts of arrow rain, suppressing the soldiers defending on the city wall so that they couldn't raise their heads at all. While dodging the whistling arrows, she secretly complained in his heart, he didn't expect the enemy army to come so quickly, and there were so many of them, far beyond his own speculation, how long his side could hold out in this situation, he didn't know the bottom in his heart, should he consider taking the initiative to evacuate to preserve his strength? This thought crossed the mind of the house like lightning, and it was immediately denied, not to mention whether it would be pursued and eliminated by the enemy army, I am afraid that Lord Li alone will not be able to surpass, and it should be killed according to the law if he escapes!

Abandoned other unrealistic ideas, the house is more relaxed, except for death, you have to die a look, don't lose the face of the Northwest Army, take a long breath, the house is covered with an iron shield, the cat waist to the city wall battlement, groups of Taiping soldiers have approached the base of the wall, the ladder slowly erected, step by step towards the city wall. The defenders kept firing arrows or crossbows in their hands, but that didn't do much, and the people hiding by the battlements already had desperate looks on their faces.

sighed softly, and there was nothing to be done about it, this is the cruelty of war, how his own side is proud of the horse's hooves, this is not only a while, but he immediately turned upside down, but he became a water dog.

As the shouts approached, the ant-like enemy soldiers finally began to launch the final attack, and Shenai cheered up a little, raising the nine-ring knife in his hand, and the eyes of all the soldiers fell on the glittering blade of the commander, with a sad look on their faces, waiting for the last moment to come.

"Division commander, look!" Suddenly, the soldiers around him pointed behind him in surprise, and turned around in a daze, only to see countless soldiers on the two wall ladders swarming up, and after a while, they had already entered the battle position on the city wall.

"Division commander, we didn't make a mistake, right?" The three panting men came down to the house and made a salute in front of the house, which made the house have mixed feelings, for a while, there were no other superfluous words, just a wave of the hand to let them enter the position, and a heart really fell.

The soldiers who didn't have time to rest immediately caught up with the first wave of attacks, countless ladders were raised and erected on the side of the city wall, and wave after wave of bow and arrow attacks began to slow down, so as not to cause accidental injuries to the siege soldiers on their own side, and at this moment only a real face-to-face white-knuckle battle began.

Unexpectedly, the other party's reinforcements would be replenished at this critical moment, and the Holy Cult Army, which was still attacking according to the original plan, immediately suffered a heavy blow. As you can imagine, the defensive force, which originally had only about 3,000 people, suddenly increased to 16,000 people, and the offensive and defensive forces were greatly unbalanced, and the consequences were also disastrous.

One after another, ladders were smashed or pushed, boulders fell like hailstones, and corpses were soon strewn all over the walls, blood spilling everywhere to form a moat. The Taiping soldiers who were lucky enough to rush to the head of the city wall were immediately surrounded by superior forces and fell under the chaotic knives, and the archers who were already ready also spread out according to the formation, and began to carry out long-range strikes on the Taiping soldiers under the city wall.

It wasn't until the archers were subjected to the counterattack from the opponent's archers from a high place that Mao Neng, the commander of the Taiping Army, found that his judgment seemed to be wrong, as if the enemy's strength was far from being as weak as he had just observed, and the opposing soldiers on the city wall seemed to have increased several times at once, endlessly inflicting heavy blows on the soldiers on his side, causing great damage to his own troops.

The other two 10,000 (cavalry) commanders also found the problem, but at this time it was already more than an hour later, and the 10,000 people who had invested had lost nearly seventy percent, but there was no response, and if they were put into the attack again, it was difficult to say how much effect would be achieved. The three main generals also had differences because of the follow-up attack, and the commander of the Wan cavalry advocated continuing to strengthen the attack, not losing the fighters, once the enemy had a firm foothold, it would be more difficult to deal with it, and believed that the remaining 10,000 troops should also be put into the attack, and strive to conquer the Partridge Pass in one fell swoop, while the other commander was resolutely opposed, believing that the current situation between the enemy and us was unclear, and it would only bring greater losses if it continued, and it should retreat first, and make a decision after receiving accurate information about the other side.

Mao Neng fell into a dilemma, retreat, the loss is so big but the gray back, it is really difficult to explain, attack, there is no powerful equipment, some simple ladders alone can not achieve good results, not to mention that now the enemy has obviously been strengthened, he even suspects that the previous opponent's performance is an illusion, it is very likely that he set a trap to lure himself into the bait, relying on the city wall as a support to consume the vitality of his side.

Just when Mao Neng was still having a headache about taking that opinion, the scene on the battlefield changed dramatically.

Schöne had never been a good man accustomed to being beaten passively, and after three infantry wings had taken over from his cavalry as a temporary defensive force, he had already begun to plan a frantic counterattack. With three wings of infantry as the backbone of the defense, the enemy's rudimentary siege weapons and instruments were so weak, so how to unexpectedly deliver a fatal blow to the opponent became a matter of current consideration.

The opposing commander was clearly inexperienced in combat, and a squad of 10,000 infantry lined up in front, while a few thousand archers lined up in the front without any cover, and the cavalry was in the rear. While organizing the defense, the house ordered the replaced cavalry to hurry up and rest and be ready to enter the battle at any time.

With the passage of time, the enemy's 10,000-strong squad of 10,000 people was already at the end of its strong crossbows, and with the sudden opening of the fortress gate, the cavalry, which had long been ready to stop, rode out and plunged straight into the opponent's central army.

In the face of the cavalry swept by the rolling tide, the unprepared siege infantry was engulfed in the iron cavalry tide in an instant, and even the bow and arrow camp that had no time to react was also rushed to pieces.

When the opposing commander ordered the infantry to form a defensive formation with a hoarse voice, the unstoppable cavalry had already pressed the panicked infantry defense line with a overwhelming momentum, only a few small waves were stirred, the infantry defense line completely collapsed, the soldiers who lacked combat experience were scattered in an instant, and the entire battlefield was like an avalanche of rout, there were Taiping soldiers running and fleeing for their lives everywhere, the officers could not find the soldiers, the generals could not find their subordinates, everything was disrupted, and as far as the eye could see, there was only a large group of headless flies left in the eyes, and even the five cavalry thousand people who still maintained a neat formation were about to be rushed by the soldiers who were crazy to retreat, Mao Neng, who was quite calm, immediately ordered the cavalry to retreat immediately after the front team, and he personally organized the infantry to resist in formation, in order to win some time for the retreat of the cavalry.