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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 605: Before the Decisive Battle

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    Senggelinqin's active retreat invalidated the coalition's decisive battle deployment, but the coalition commanders were very optimistic. They believed that Senggelinqin could not avoid fighting forever. Behind him was the heart of the Qing Empire, and one day he would be unable to retreat.  He retreated and was forced to fight decisively.

    As Senggelinqin retreated again, the coalition forces easily occupied the small town of Zhangjiawan. The Qing allies who entered the city first began to loot. Then British and French soldiers spontaneously joined the looting, but the coalition commander did not stop it.  .

    There were a large number of gold bricks, silver ingots, and jewelry in the pawn shops in the small town, and they were all robbed.  Perhaps they had been suppressed for too long, but the most violent robbers this time were the British. Colonel Dupain had to say: "According to their habit of grabbing everything useful, they (the British) robbed the whole city.  All gone." Lieutenant Colonel Wu Shili described that after the British army looted Zhangjiawan, some Chinese also went to take away furniture and clothing. Consul Xi and some people with a sense of justice were indignant about this incident, although it was not the British who took the lead.  Robbery.

    Small shops selling sorghum wine or pawnshops were also robbed by coolies, but that was fine, because this was almost a law of war.  And those quaint old houses, with their carved beams and painted buildings, contained many artistic treasures. Those that could not be carried away were ruthlessly destroyed: This is tolerable, but what is intolerable!

    When Wu Shili and Ronglu passed by a house, they happened to see several Indian soldiers taking the stone lion at the door as an object to vent their anger. They wasted their efforts to smash the stone lion and burst into loud cheers.  Wu Shili wanted to step forward to stop him from drinking, but was stopped by Ronglu.  He looked at this Qing noble who could speak English in surprise, and said with a smile: "Let them smash it, there are many more." Wu Shili was speechless.  I don¡¯t know if this is his words of helplessness or words of bragging.

    In this collective robbery, the prostitutes and Hong Kong coolies in the Indian army and barracks were more powerful than the British soldiers.  Of course, the women and girls in the homes of the victims of robbery were respected by British officials.  However, many of them preferred to commit suicide by taking opium. A young woman jumped into the river from the height of the bridge and died. Only some of them survived with the help of military doctors.  Wu Shili didn't understand their behavior.  Ronglu explained that this was to protect his

    The philanthropic Father Mudge obtained the owner's consent and used a large house to receive those families who were threatened.  Xun He acted as translator and had to mobilize a fat woman and her daughter from the city to move in with 15 maids.  But it was all in vain.  The old woman said angrily that the foreign devils could not be believed because they had evil intentions, not to mention that she did not want to live anymore.  The British soldiers forced her and her daughter into the carriage.  And the servants followed "like a flock of sheep."  But.  Before the bus reached its destination, the old woman strangled her daughter to death, and then she swallowed a large amount of opium

    The British priest's charity was not repaid. He did bad things with good intentions, and he still regrets it. That night, all the women who stayed there ran away.  Unwilling to accept "foreign foreigners' care"

    Wu Shili concluded with one sentence, but this sentence made Ronglu unhappy.  "It turns out that the women here are more courageous than men. Although they look a bit retarded in doing so, they can only be respected by people!"

    While the robbery was ongoing, the coalition forces dispatched a large number of reconnaissance teams for reconnaissance operations.  This is very necessary. The Allied Forces Headquarters very much hopes to find the location of Senggelinqin's main force as soon as possible and quickly engage in a decisive battle with them. Once the Senggelinqin tribe is defeated, the road to the capital will be smooth and undefended.

    Because of the Qing allied personnel as guides, the coalition's reconnaissance operation was very effective.  Perhaps it was a joke about the last Baihe Waterway reconnaissance incident. This time the coalition reconnaissance operation attaches great importance to the cooperation provided by the Qing allies. Each reconnaissance team has Qing allied soldiers to cooperate with the operation.

    On the third day after the Battle of Zhangjiawan, General Colino arrived from Tianjin with 3,000 horses and three field artillery batteries. The horses were exactly what the coalition forces urgently needed.  At the same time, as for the British army, Grant also asked General Napier, who was still on the west side of the river, to bring two regiments to join him as soon as possible.

    Reconnaissance showed that the Qing cavalry of the Senggelinqin tribe was massing on a large scale along the canal from Tongzhou to the capital.  According to the intelligence provided by the Qing allies, there are two bridges on the canal. The one on the west is a wooden bridge and cannot be passed by artillery.  The second one is a single-arch stone bridge. It is a beautiful white marble old bridge built in the 17th century. It has animal stone railings. It is called Bali Bridge. Bali is probably the distance from there to Tongzhou City. Chinese people like to use distance as place names.  .  According to the description of the Qing Allied soldiers, the tall city walls of Beijing can be seen from the bridge.  However, due to the cover of woods and houses, the coalition reconnaissance team could not see the bridge, let alone its specific location. The distance units and sense of direction of both sides seemed to be wrong, and Wu Shili and others could not understand the Chinese map that looked like a landscape painting.  But one thing is certain, that is, the Bali Bridge must be captured by the coalition forces!

    With the deepening of the reconnaissance operation, the Qing army¡¯s deployment also began to emerge, and the Bali Bridge seemed to beIt was almost the place where Seng Gelinqin finally retreated. After passing here, there were no more dangerous places to defend on the way to the capital, but it seemed that Bali Bridge was not a dangerous place.

    But General Senggelinqin had already made up his mind to fight. In the past few days, the reconnaissance team found that a large number of Qing troops had gathered near Bali Bridge and set up barracks and trenches. They were preparing to prevent the British and French forces from advancing here.

    According to the Qing allies, this was a large encirclement. Ronglu believed that Seng Gelinqin must have made very careful arrangements to prepare for the decisive battle here. On this great plain, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army personally led an army of about 30,000 or more people to fight with  Allied forces decisive battle.  The plain is where a large number of cavalry play a role. Ronglu is worried about the large-scale detours of the Qing cavalry. After all, this is no longer the swamp-filled place in the Jintang area.  This also shows Senggelinqin¡¯s intentions. He just hoped to have a decisive battle with the coalition forces on the plains, so as to give full play to the advantages of his cavalry. Moreover, the Qing army¡¯s infantry positions must have been carefully arranged. Ronglu pointed out that Senggelinqin  The infantry must be hidden in bushes or villages and used as strongholds. There must be preset artillery arrays inside to provide artillery support for the entire battlefield.

    At the same time, as a reserve force, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army also had an elite force, the New Army of the Capital. This force was previously formed by him and later became a subordinate of Prince Chun Yiyi. These soldiers wore yellow mandarins with black borders for identification.  Equipped with a large number of firearms, Senggelinqin's tribe will fight decisively at Baliqiao. The new army in the capital will definitely provide reinforcements when the battle situation is unfavorable, and their number is about 20,000.  Moreover, the Qing generals were very familiar with the terrain, while the coalition generals were not familiar with the geographical environment except for the Qing allies.

    Ronglu fulfilled his obligation. He analyzed and described in detail the tactics and troop deployment that the Qing army might adopt. The Allied Command was very grateful for this. Therefore, the British and French allied forces prepared to fight. The Bali Bridge was a bridge they had to cross.  , they traveled across the ocean to get here just for this!

    General Montauban was very lucky this time. It was his turn to walk in front of the troops and determine the offensive position. In other words, Grant gave in and let Montauban command the entire campaign. This was the first time he set foot on Chinese soil.  Something like no other.  Grant's explanation for this was simple: the French army was the main force!  Colonel Dupin believed that Grant was afraid of being blamed for the defeat of the battle, but Grant's actions countered Colonel Dupin's remarks. He led the British army to follow the French army!  The Qing allies who might do bad things stayed to defend the small town of Zhangjiawan and ensure the logistics channel. At least they still had some methods and morale to defend the city.  Only a few Qing allied generals such as Ronglu and their elite guards followed the battlefield. The coalition cavalry was limited, and their Qing allied cavalry of more than a thousand people was organized into a cavalry reserve.

    Montauban checked the battlefield conditions as soon as he arrived at the front line. This place is 5 kilometers away from the Zhangjiawan coalition camp and is an important town in Tongzhou. The old granite road leads to Beijing.  In Baliqiao Village, the road crosses the canal and passes over the stone bridge.  The two commanders of the coalition forces have learned from the reconnaissance team that the front and back of the Bali Bridge are guarded by the Monk King's army.  Therefore, Montauban made his final determination and decided to capture the bridge in one fell swoop.  He and Grant agreed that once the Qing army's position at Bali Bridge was determined, the French army would be deployed in front of the bridge and then capture this strategic location.

    The day before the decisive battle, the mood in the coalition camp was exciting and panic-stricken.  Wu Shili wrote a letter to his family with excitement. Then he walked out of his tent. He saw Ronglu standing alone under the moonlight. He walked up to say hello, but Ronglu just turned back and nodded slightly.  Wu Shili curiously asked what he was doing here, and Ronglu's answer was intriguing: "I created the original history!" Wu Shili didn't know why, and Ronglu didn't explain anything. Wu Shili thought it might be a grammatical error.

    At dawn the next day, everyone got up early to get ready, had breakfast, and the coalition officers also drank a cup of coffee together.  At half past five, the signal to go to war sounded. Signal soldiers with red battle flags rode through the camp on horseback. When they saw the red battle flag, people took off their hats and cheered loudly.

    The weather was perfect, perfect for fighting, with no nasty rain or nasty wind.  A light infantryman of the second battalion wrote in his diary: "the morning was clear, slightly cool, and pleasant; there was a hazy mist floating on the river and in the fields After a while, the bright sunshine dispersed the morning  The fog shines on the countryside far and near, how intoxicating the earth is!"

    The cheerful war drums sounded, and the sound of Scottish bagpipes in the British army also floated. The soldiers of the coalition forces were ready to go, and the battle line spread from east to west.  General Ranman led his own officers and soldiers plus two artillery companies and staff on the right, General Colino led his one artillery company in the center, and the British troops that followed would spread out to the west.  The infantry and artillery are in the center, and the cavalry is on the left. This is the combat formation.  Among the vanguard troops, Britain and France each sent 4,000 troops, totaling about 8,000. The remaining soldiers gathered behind as a reserve team, ready to attack at any time.?Reinforce the front.

    With heavy and slow steps, the coalition soldiers marched towards Bali Bridge towards a goal!  (To be continued)
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