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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 149: The First Battle in the South of the City

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    After the Taiping Army conquered Wuhu, they continued to advance towards Nanjing City. Along the way, the Taiping Army had strict military discipline and treated the people with kindness and justice. However, if the city was destroyed, half of the food and grass in the city's treasury would be given to the people. Even the beggars encountered on the street would be given a certain amount of money and food.  .  Therefore, when the Taiping Army set out, there were 50,000 soldiers and 30,000 civilians. Many troops were divided along the way, but more and more poor people came to join the Taiping Army along the way.  When they arrived at the gates of Nanjing, the Taiping Army in the West Palace had more than 25,000 veterans, more than 40,000 new recruits, and an astonishing 70,000 accompanying soldiers and civilians.  After the troops arrived in Nanjing, the poor people nearby heard about the arrival of the Taiping Rebels, and more and more people came to join them.

    Nanjing city was completely destroyed by two guys, Lu Jianying and Yang Wending. The famous city, which was impregnable and surrounded by dragons and tigers, was already in decline. It was only defended by more than 5,000 regular Qing troops. The population of Nanjing was said to be two million. Before the war,  After they fled, there were still 700,000 to 800,000 people.  Wang Shiduo, a scholar in Nanjing, recounted the number of people when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attacked Nanjing: "Climb the Sanshan Gate and look at it. From outside the city to Jiangdong Gate, you can see an endless stretch of more than ten miles across. All you can see are red-headed people Therefore, since there are many people, we can look at them.  It takes away the energy.¡±.

    "But after Li Kaifang's vanguard troops arrived in Nanjing, they suffered a big loss in the first battle.  The Taiping Army's vanguard did not encounter resistance from the Qing army outside Nanjing, but they encountered Lian Yong composed of rice porters recruited by the Confucian scholar Zhang Bingyuan, and a fierce battle broke out in the residential streets outside the city.

    The leader of this group of brave warriors is Zhang Bingyuan, who is also a very courageous and resourceful person. Behind him is Qi Suzao, the chief envoy of Jiangning.  Qisuzao's official position was Jiangning's chief envoy, so he naturally had some business on hand, with several rice and cloth shops and thousands of workers.  The Taiping Army marched towards Nanjing. Qi Suzao was naturally worried that after the city was destroyed, his own life would be in danger, and the businesses he was running would also be in vain. His Confucian scholar Zhang Bingyuan advised him to select strong men as a regiment to help defend Jiangning City.  Qi Suzao was naturally overjoyed. He issued an additional year's salary in one go and asked his men to join the team training.

    Qi Suzao usually treated these guys pretty well, but now he was heavily rewarded, so hundreds of guys were organized into Lian Yong. Zhang Bingyuan organized Lian Yong to be even braver than the Qing army. Although he had no weapons or uniforms, he  Relying only on the carrying poles and other tools provided by Mihang, the Taiping Army still started street fighting in the south of the city.

    Early that morning, the aroma of breakfast wafted out from the camp of Li Kaifang's troops, and groups of Taiping troops lined up in front of the cooks of each army to receive meals.  A veteran of the Taiping Army looked down at the broth and white rice in the bowl, and said with a smile: "Finally, I don't have to eat the spicy Hunan cuisine."

    Among the few recruits around them, there were quite a few from Xianghu. They all chuckled when they heard this, and they were secretly surprised. Their soldier commander was nothing to say in battle, he was very brave, but most of the Guangxi veterans were Hakkas from Guangdong.  The taste is mild and I am afraid of spicy food. When I was in central Hunan and northern Hubei, in order to take care of the large number of Xianghu children, the King of the West always instructed the military cooks to make some Hunan dishes. From time to time, he would open some small stoves for the Guangxi veterans to prepare some non-spicy dishes.  , but after all, it was difficult to reconcile everyone's opinions, and the West Palace Huotou Army could only accommodate the tastes of most people, so the soldier was a little happy to eat the light broth today.

    "General Chen Shanren, do you think we can break into Nanjing today?" A recruit who joined Anqing in northern Anhui asked with a bowl in his mouth and a northern Anhui accent.

    Chief Chen ate a few mouthfuls and said with a vague smile: "Qingyao is scared out of his wits. This Nanjing city looks like paper to us. Zhou Huaiying, you Anhui people  Northern soldiers, please remember that the King of the West has strictly ordered not to kill the people. When you enter the city later, you can show off your skills, but don¡¯t break military discipline and be beheaded. When I was in Wuchang, I had a brother who was wrong.  He killed a common man with his own hands and ended up losing his life. It was not worth it."

    Zhou Huaiying was stunned and said: "The good man's old brothers all fought all the way from Guangxi, and their military achievements must be considerable. Kill them just as the King of the West's military law says? This is too unkind."

    The captain Chen licked his lips and said: "Gong is merit, fault is fault. My brother broke military discipline and will naturally be punished. There is no complaint. Anyway, later the King of the West discussed his merits and awarded him a title based on his previous military exploits."  I think this is fair. The King of the West said, if we kill a common person indiscriminately, we will face the hatred of this common people in the future. How many relatives and friends will a common person have? It would be evil to kill a common person.  We have lost a group of people, so we must treat the people well. Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t come all the way to seek refuge with us.¡±

    Zhou Huaiying nodded and said: "It's true that Qing Yao Zhou Tianjue was killing us in northern Anhui. We all couldn't survive anymore, so we came here."

    The commander Chen laughed and said: "We will all be brothers when we get to heaven. It is the arrangement of Heavenly Father for you to be brothers with me, Chen Huizu."

    Zhou Huaiying asked curiously: "Does Heavenly Father even care about the affairs of small soldiers like us?"

    Chen Huizu said: "Of course, Heavenly Father is everywhere."

    After eating and chatting for a while??, the horn of the whole team was blown, and Chen Huizu ordered all the soldiers and horses to form a team. There were five soldiers and horses lined up together, all standing outside the camp.  When a brigade marshal waved the brigade commander's flag, the five soldiers and horses divided into battle formations and started to drive towards the streets and houses in the south area outside Nanjing City.

    The streets were deserted. The dilapidated wooden signs of several businesses were swaying in the wind. The streets were full of discarded debris, including pots and pans, flags and uniforms. It seemed that when the Qing army retreated into the city,  Some people still followed him into the city.

    Seeing no one around, the Taiping Army relaxed its vigilance. Chen Huizu waved his troops and walked at the front. When he raised his head, he could already see the flags of the Qing army on the city wall. Many Qing troops were looming on the battlements and shuttled back and forth. Chen Huizu shouted: "  Zhou Huaiying, take a few people to occupy the houses on both sides and prepare to build a fort, be careful of the Qingyao firing cannons at the top of the city!"

    Zhou Huaiying brought several card swordsmen and rushed forward. He pushed open the door of a residential house and was unexpectedly hit by a bamboo spear. Zhou Huaiying was able to dodge quickly. He blocked the rattan card in his hand and did not get hit. He took a closer look.  At that moment, several men wearing coarse cloth coats and gray cloths wrapped around their heads rushed out menacingly.

    These men had Ji Liang Mi Xing written on their chests. Zhou Huaiying and others thought they were Mi Xing porters hiding at home. The Taiping Army had orders not to kill the people. Seeing that they were not Qing troops, Zhou Huaiying hurriedly shouted: "Brother, we  They are the Holy Soldiers of Peace, they only kill pure demons and do not harm the common people."

    As soon as he finished speaking, several men rushed over like ferocious tigers and stabbed down two Taiping soldiers. Zhou Huaiying was furious, holding a rattan plate and stepped forward to block the bamboo spears and poles of several men, and forced the men back with a wave of a knife.  He and several other people picked up the injured two people and backed away.

    Throughout the streets and alleys in the south of the city, many such men emerged from residential houses and street corners and alleys. They all started fighting against the Taiping Army with carrying poles and bamboo spears.  The Taiping Army was caught off guard, and they didn't know whether these people were civilians or Qing troops, but they were afraid of killing the wrong people, so they could only retreat.

    When Li Kaifang heard the report from the brigade commander who was leading the battle, he was furious and said: "Tell the former army brigade commander that these bastard porters dare to swing knives at our Taiping Army, don't be f*cking polite to them, kill whoever deserves it,  If you kill me by mistake, it¡¯s me, Li Kaifang!¡±

    With the general's order, the Taiping Army finally let go and marched to the south of the city again. However, those men relied on their familiarity with the terrain in the south of the city to attack from street corners or hide in civilian houses to fight, which confused the Taiping Army.

    By noon, there was still no progress. Li Kaifang was furious and ordered three brigade commanders to advance with troops to attack. As a result, hundreds of militiamen appeared under Nanjing City to fight against thousands of well-trained and well-armed Taiping troops, while another  It was a spectacle of war with only regular government troops hiding on the city wall and cheering.  Finally, Li Kaifang asked from the captured prisoners that this group was a regiment training force organized by the chief envoy in the city. Li Kaifang immediately ordered the army to advance and suppress them.

    Since it was a close-quarters fight in the streets, large and small firearms were of little use in the narrow space. The Taiping Army all took the lead with swordsmen, and the spear archers stayed behind.  However, these brave warriors were elusive. When the Taiping soldiers were in large numbers, they would retreat in a swarm, and when they saw there were few Taiping soldiers, they would rush out in a swarm, causing the Taiping Army a headache.

    Although there were many new recruits in the Taiping Army, they were still brave soldiers who had fought all the way. They had excellent weapons. Although the location and spirit required to practice bravery, it was a pity that they did not have the weapons at hand. So they asked Governor Lu Jianying on the city wall for help, and asked him to "throw shotguns and gunpowder".  And asked for reinforcements and sabers to support the training of bravery under the city.

    Zhang Bingyuan's backstage boss Qi Suzao wanted to lead the defenders to reinforce the city. However, Lu Jianying believed that Lian Yong below the city was a traitor of the Taiping Army, and that the fierce battle was just a show to deceive the Qing army in order to deceive the city. He blatantly ordered the artillery bombardment of Lian Yong.  Lian Yong was killed on the spot by nearly a hundred people.  The rest of the people were heartbroken and fled to the mountains for refuge.  Lian Yong is the only strong force in Nanjing that is capable of fighting the Taiping Army. Once Lian Yong is gone, Nanjing's last line of defense is broken.

    Qi Suzao, the chief envoy of Jiangning, was the younger brother of Qi Junzao, the chief minister of military aircraft and a bachelor. When he saw that the Lianyong he had worked so hard to build had been shelled by his own people and there were piles of corpses, he immediately vomited several liters of blood and died shortly after being carried back to his official residence.  Lu Jianying, who wanted money rather than his life, did not know that he was about to die. He reported the bodies of hundreds of warriors who had been killed by him as Taiping troops and reported to the Qing court, and pocketed all the 300,000 taels of silver in stock.

    Later, there were rumors that the reason why Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, did not resist the Taiping Army's attack was because his son-in-law was captured by the Taiping Army.  The King of the West, a long-haired thief, wrote to Lu Jianying, saying that the Taiping Army had no intention of attacking Nanjing, but wanted to use the road to attack Zhejiang.  As long as Lu Jianying is willing to get out of the way, not only will he not attack the territory he is defending, but he will also return his son-in-law.  Lu Jianying therefore implemented soft resistance against the Taiping Army.  Yu Zhonghua, a native of the Qing Dynasty, wrote "Dang Kou Zhi" as a continuation of the Water Margin. There is a story about Song Jiang's captive Cai Jing's son-in-law threatening peace talks, which is an allusion to this incident.  There is also a record in "Miscellaneous News of the Generals of Xiantong" that Lu escaped and returned to Jinling and could not leave his house, or that his son-in-law and daughter were captured by the bandit army.The leader of the thieves sent a letter to the mainland, saying that they would not attack each other if they entered Zhejiang on the false road.  If they are willing to give way, their son-in-law and daughter will be released, otherwise they will be sentenced to death.  Lu Deshu was at a loss.  The team in front of the meeting died in the battle, so they fled in confusion.

    In the face of these rumors, Xi Wang Xiao Yungui and Zuo Zongtang seemed to have negotiated and kept silent about the matter. Whether they did or not has become a difficult mystery.  But Nanjing was the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties after all, and it was not easy to conquer. The collapse of Lian Yong in the south of the city only allowed the Taiping Army to attack the city wall directly, and a fierce battle was still to come.
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