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Volume One: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 632: Furious

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    The moonlight is hidden in the clouds, and the reflected sunlight is sprinkled between the gaps in the clouds. When it is bright and dark, it makes the beauty of the night even more mysterious. Such a peaceful night sky is about to be broken.  ¡û

    At three o'clock in the morning on the second day after the Taiping Army declared war on the British and French allied forces, three infantry battalions of the First Regiment of the First Division of the First Field Army of the Taiping Rebellion slowly approached Tianjin City from the east, south, and north directions in the night, followed by  It's the division's artillery regiment.  After more than ten days of day and night marches, the Taiping soldiers had become accustomed to marching at night. Camouflage camouflage and strict marching discipline allowed the Taiping Army's covert operations to be successful.

    At the same time, a large number of people near Tianjin fled their homes to avoid foreigners, which also greatly reduced the chance of the Taiping Army's actions being exposed.  The small number of people who stayed behind chose to side with the Taiping Army because they did not disturb the people and distributed food. They heard that the Taiping Army was going to fight foreigners. Many people even volunteered to guide the Taiping Army and carry food and ammunition.

    After the three infantry battalions were lurking in place, the artillery regiments behind them immediately deployed. The artillery regiments that went south this time mainly carried light six- to eight-pound cannons. The ones that carried the most were Taiping troops to prevent the British Congreve rockets.  Type 1856 rocket.  As this kind of rocket shined in the southwest battlefield, its advantages such as easy portability and easy launch made it popular among the artillerymen of the Taiping Army. In this battle, Su Ji, the colonel commander of the First Division Artillery Regiment, ordered his men to  A total of five thousand rockets were carried, while the remaining lightweight six-pounders, eight-pounders, etc. were only carried in small quantities.  The lighter weight of the artillery also made the Taiping Army, which went south to raid Tianjin City, faster in action and more perfect in concealment.

    The night in the sky became darker, and the pointer of the pocket watch in Su Ji's hand pointed to three o'clock.  Several rockets soared into the sky from Shuangtang Village in the rear, where the headquarters of the First Division was located.  After seeing the signal, Su Ji shouted loudly to the artillerymen who were ready around him: "The war has begun. Brothers! War is a violent act to make the enemy obey our will! Through this war, we must make it clear to the foreigners  Understand the confidence of our Han people in the revival and rise! Let them know that we are not as weak as the Manchus and can be bullied! Let them get out of the land that we should have occupied! Attention all units! Fire at the intended target!"

    In the past ten days, the Taiping Army has dispatched many scouts to conduct reconnaissance in the Tianjin area. It is undeniable that the Taiping Army's scouts are people from this land after all. In terms of language, skin color, etc.  Has unparalleled advantages.  Therefore, their reconnaissance operations were more productive than those of the coalition reconnaissance teams.  Su Ji had a complete defense map of Tianjin's coalition forces, and artillery observers had more than once disguised themselves or lurked near Tianjin to observe targets.  Therefore, outside Tianjin, the coalition's forts and some peripheral positions had long been locked on the map by the Taiping Army's artillery.

    In the first round of artillery strikes, a thousand Type 1856 rockets dragged their long tail flames and flew towards the target one after another. The positioning of the copper tail fins made this rocket more accurate than the Congreve rocket. The improved thrust  The firing site can hold more propellant, allowing it to fly farther, and the changeable warhead realizes rapid conversion between incendiary bombs and explosive bombs.  Each soldier can carry several of these rockets, and the launcher is also very simple. These are the advantages of this rocket.

    When the Taiping Army's signal rocket soared into the sky, it had already attracted the attention of the British soldiers stationed in the three forts outside the city.  The lookout sentries of the British 15th Punjab Regiment saw three dazzling rockets. When these lookout sentries were still surprised, they were behind the canal embankment a thousand meters away.  A large rocket flying with tail flames alerted them!

    "Enemy attack! Rockets are coming!" Several sentries screamed in unison, because the sound of rocket launches was much smaller than that of artillery.  Therefore, the soldiers in the large fort did not hear the movement when they heard the warning.  Huge cannon explosions were heard inside and outside the fort.

    The three small forts withstood the attacks of more than 300 rockets within a few seconds. Su Ji used two types of rockets, explosive bombs and incendiary bombs, in the first round of artillery. Therefore, in addition to huge explosions, the British forts  Outside the explosion, it was quickly covered in flames, and the entire sky over Tianjin City seemed to be lit up.

    The explosion outside the city woke General Sutton from his sleep. In order to prepare for the arrival of coalition reinforcements tomorrow, he was busy until about one o'clock in the morning. Not long after he fell asleep, he was awakened by the explosion.

    General Sutton quickly put on his military uniform, picked up his gun and saber and ran out of the house quickly. Several British officers also came out of the house in disheveled clothes. The officer on duty, Major Winston, ran over angrily and said loudly: "General,  It was the three forts outside the city that were attacked by enemy fire!"

    General Sutton cursed: "Damn it, who is the enemy? How many people are attacking? Why were they bombarded without hearing the sound of artillery?!"

    Miss Winston? Said loudly: "It should be weapons like Congreve rockets. There are many of them, and there are continuous explosions!"

    "Gather the soldiers immediately and prepare for battle!" General Sutton shouted loudly as he ran outside the Chief Envoy's Yamen. "Winston, you stay here to convey the order. Major Samir and Major Belham come with me.  , let¡¯s go take a look at the city wall!¡±

    General Sutton and his party mounted their horses and rushed towards the south gate. Except for the panicked British soldiers on the street, the Chinese people seemed to be very calm. No one came out to watch the excitement. Every household closed their doors tightly. It seemed that the war had made them accustomed to this.  way of avoidance.

    The city wall in Tianjin first appeared 600 years ago. In the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Huang Fuxiu, Minister of Industry and Industry, was ordered to build a city for Tianjin Wei, and the city wall began to exist.  The wall was built using ancestral craftsmanship, which was known in history as "rammed earth to build a city".  Four earthen walls surround Tianjin into a rectangle that is long from east to west and short from north to south. It is like an abacus and is called "Abacus City".  Dense arrow stacks are set up on the city wall, and archers can release arrows from behind; there is a section of wall protruding from the city wall at regular intervals. Its shape is like a horse's face, so it is called "horse face", which can eliminate blind spots in defense.  Tall turrets were built at the corners of the city wall to keep a lookout for the enemy; towers and gates were set up on all four sides of the city wall to guard the four sides and connect the inside and outside; a pocket-shaped urn was also built inside the city gate to encircle and suppress enemies who breached the city gate.  .

    Different from later history, the first enemy the Tianjin City Wall effectively resisted was the Taiping Army. In later history, this Tianjin City once caused a lot of casualties to the invading Eight-Nation Allied Forces, so much so that the Eight-Nation Allied Forces later unanimously agreed  , the Tianjin city wall was demolished from a military and health perspective.

    At this time, General Sutton stood on the turret of the Guiji Gate of the south gate and looked out with a telescope. He saw that the two forts outside the south gate and a fort on the east canal bank were all covered in flames.

    "Damn Taiping Army, they attacked us!" General Sutton's judgment was very accurate. Major Samir said in shock: "The 15th Punjab Regiment is finished!" There were more than a thousand members of the Punjab Regiment inside and outside the three forts.  Indian soldiers were stationed, with more than 300 Indian soldiers stationed inside and outside each fort. Covered by such dense firepower in a small area, I believe the 15th Punjab Regiment should have lost its command and combat effectiveness in an instant.

    As if fearing that the outer forts still had the ability to fight back, the second round of rocket fire came. This time General Sutton saw clearly that the enemy was attacking from behind the embankment on the canal bank. He immediately shouted: "Where are our artillery?"  ?! Let them fight back over there immediately!"

    Major Belham responded awkwardly: "General, we don't have suitable artillery to fight back"

    "Damn it, let the cannons on the city wall fire! The Qing army can use it, why can't we use it?! Don't you know that those rockets will fall on our heads later?" General Sutton roared loudly  , the British soldiers on the top of the city all looked at General Sutton. At that moment, everyone felt that General Sutton was already furious.

    Soon, British soldiers began to play with the artillery on the city wall, but before they were ready to fire, the third round of rockets had already landed at the south gate. In an instant, explosions and flames fell on the heads of the British soldiers.

    "General, it's dangerous here, get down first!" Major Belham shouted loudly. The city wall was obviously the next target of the Taiping Army's artillery attack. Although the Qing artillery was placed on top of the city wall to scare the enemy and the British army had no intention of using it,  To Taiping scouts and artillery observers they posed as great a threat.  Therefore, unfortunately, every section of the wall with artillery in the south gate was attacked by artillery.

    General Sutton drew his saber and shouted to the surrounding soldiers: "Get down the wall quickly, the enemy is already targeting us! Damn it, get down quickly!" When he saw the third round of shelling, the enemy rockets landed so accurately  When the city wall section with artillery was placed, General Sutton knew that his military deployment was clearly controlled by the enemy, and the British troops in Tianjin City were like cattle and sheep on the chopping board.

    Stone chips were flying, shrapnel and steel balls were flying everywhere, and blood and flesh were covered above the head. General Sutton, escorted by two majors and a group of guards, left the blood-stained south gate wall. Hundreds of British soldiers frantically rushed toward the wall.  Cannon below, hiding from the artillery fire at the foot of the city wall.

    At the foot of the city wall in Tianjin, most of them were shacks and thatched huts built by poor people. Later, the Eight-Power Allied Forces demolished the Tianjin city wall because of sanitary problems. These walls provided cover for the dirty shacks and thatched huts, so the Eight-Power Allied Forces would take measures from the perspective of sanitation.  Choose to demolish the city wall.

    At this time, the shacks and thatched sheds under the city walls became the medium for igniting the fire. Soon the fireballs and sparks rolling down the city walls ignited them. The civilians inside fled in all directions, and the entire South Gate of Tianjin was plunged into a sea of ??fire  ¡­(To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!
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