Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Taiping blood

Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 647: Bluffing

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    "Master Yang will stay in Tongzhou with you all night, and then everyone can follow and go to Tianjin to eat foreign rice and noodles. There are also a lot of Yingyang rewards waiting for you" Mian Yu's fifteen thousand  Yu Ruijian's Qing army, encouraged by the officers' clever tongue, began to march towards Tongzhou City. Mian Yu watched silently from the official road not far away, without any regret in his heart.  ¡ò

    Ruijianying, an Eight Banners force, was established during the Qianlong period. After more than a hundred years, the establishment has continued to expand. Most of the current establishment is for raising soldiers. The men in Ruijianying have been soldiers for generations, and they have been children.  When he reaches ten years old, he is old enough to be a soldier. In other words, this child can start to earn his fair share of salary.  And where do these salaries come from?  The flag soldiers of Ruijian camp are not engaged in production, and they rely entirely on collecting taxes from the people to support themselves.  But the flag soldiers of Ruijian Camp have never experienced a major war since the Qianlong period. Their armaments are depleted, the soldiers and generals do not know how to fight, and most of them do not even understand that Tongzhou they are going to is a dead place.

    At 6:15 that day, the Qing troops of the Ruijian Battalion entered Tongzhou. In Tongzhou, they saw groups of British and French troops ready to go. The well-equipped and tall foreign soldiers gave these flag soldiers a reassurance.  With such powerful friendly forces, what else do they have to worry about?

    Grant and Montauban looked at the sluggish army and couldn't help but raise their minds. The two gentlemen did not expect that the cunning Qing rebels would send such soldiers to the front line to die. Montauban broke out on the spot. He thought angrily.  They wanted to go to Ronglu to settle the score, but the news brought back by the scouts left them stunned.

    "The Qing rebels have already headed north after receiving their weapons and equipment." Grant's eyes widened after hearing this.  He also didn't expect that the Qing rebels would cross the river and demolish the bridge so quickly, without even saying hello.  Ronglu's sweet words deceived the two gentlemen.  This also illustrates a problem. Foreigners attach great importance to credibility at this time, but Chinese people don't care.  Moreover, when discussing the dispatch of troops, the two sides did not clarify the issue of the quality of the troops.

    In desperation, Grant and Montauban had no choice but to discuss waiting until nightfall, and then the coalition brigade would cross the North Canal and withdraw to Xu Xinzhuang. Ran Man would withdraw to the bank of the North Canal to guard the final crossing. If the Taiping Army's offensive was fierce, Ran Man would  General Mann led the rear troops to retreat from here.  This plan also completely abandoned the more than 15,000 Ruijian camp Qing troops.  Then the entire coalition army rushed towards Tianjin and joined forces with the troops of Major General Michel and General Colino, because they received military information from Major General Michel in the afternoon.  They were blocked by the Taiping Army in Hexiwu Town and were unable to support Tianjin, so the coalition forces needed to open a road back to Tianjin as soon as possible.

    But the Taiping Army made a wrong plan due to errors in judgment.  After the two battles during the day, the Taiping Army rested for a few hours. At this time, they received reconnaissance information from the front, saying that the Qing rebels began to reinforce Tongzhou.  In view of the fact that there were more than 50,000 Qing rebels in the north of Tongzhou, the Taiping Army Staff Headquarters carefully formulated a night battle plan instead of immediately sticking to it and continuing to attack Tongzhou.  The staff's reasons are also very good, after the day's fighting.  The soldiers consume a lot of ammunition and need to wait for supplies from the rear camp. Although the Qing rebels are terrible, they still have tens of thousands of pigs there for you to kill.  You also need to have enough ammunition, right?  Moreover, if we continue to attack Tongzhou in the afternoon, the casualties will be heavy, and at the same time, the enemy will have reinforcements.  The defensive strength will also be improved, and the Qing army will give people the impression that it cannot fight in the field.  But they are still good at defending the city, not to mention that there is also a new army compiled and trained by Ronglu among the rebels.  So the staff formulated a night battle plan.

    Xiao Yungui originally wanted to take another risk and continue the attack, but the casualties during the day also gave him a big warning. In a head-on battle with the British and French forces, the Taiping Army did not have much advantage. Attacking Tongzhou during the day would indeed result in heavy casualties.  .  Maybe people are like this. When your family has a big business, you will be a little timid. In the end, Xiao Yungui hesitated and adopted the advice of the staff.

    But at 7:30 in the evening, Xiao Yungui received the latest reconnaissance information from the front. Instead of all the Qing rebels going south to reinforce Tongzhou, one group went south and the rest all ran north. At this time, Xiao Yungui and his staff  Only then did the officers of the Ministry realize that they had been deceived by the bluff of the Qing rebels.  At this time, there were only a few hours left before the night battle started. With a dark face, Xiao Yungui immediately ordered to adjust the deployment and launch an attack immediately.

    Although the Taiping Army adjusted and deployed quickly, it still took more than an hour to adjust the deployment of tens of thousands of people. The final battle officially started at nine o'clock in the night.

    The timing of the Taiping Army's attack was also difficult for General Ran Man. His troops had just withdrawn from Bali Bridge. Only one engineer company was left there to blow up Bali Bridge. The rest of the troops were stationed on the bank of the canal pontoon in the north of Tongzhou.  .  Grant and Montauban led the brigade to have crossed the North Canal, so General Ranman was the last one left on the south bank of the canal.A coalition force.  When the Taiping Army across the Bali Bridge launched a death squad charge, the engineers were in a panic and failed to detonate the explosives smoothly.  Just like the Long March troops in later generations who flew to capture the Luding Bridge, the Taiping Army suddenly launched an attack and successfully recaptured the Bali Bridge without allowing the coalition forces to blow it up.

    In the end, the French engineer company was surrounded and annihilated by enemies several times their own. Only a few people escaped and went back to report the news. General Ranman's troops at the pontoon bridgehead were still building temporary defenses. After hearing the news, General Ranman  We can only hope that the Qing army in Tongzhou can resist for a while and buy him some more time.

    And what are the Qing troops in Tongzhou doing?  When Grant and the Montauban Brigade pulled out of the city, the interpreter who accompanied the army told the commander of the Qing army according to the pre-arranged rhetoric that they would go further to defend the outer positions, and Tongzhou City would be handed over to the Qing army, and  Tell them that the supplies and food left by the coalition forces can be used by the Qing army at will.  The Qing army commander didn't know what was going on and was very happy. At that moment, the Qing army officers started to divide the spoils.  The coalition forces had hoarded a lot of food and supplies in Tongzhou, including a lot of bacon and ham, as well as a lot of alcohol. These were things that the coalition forces could not take away.

    So the coalition forces just left, and the Qing army started to reward the three armies. They ate and drank freely. Many of the cloth and property snatched by the coalition forces also became the objects of robbery by the Qing soldiers. No one noticed at all. After the coalition forces left the city,  He just went north and didn't go south to fight the Taiping Army at all.

    Therefore, when the third division of the Taiping Army from Majuqiao arrived to join the troops from Baliqiao and quickly arrived at Tongzhou City, Tongzhou City was still bustling with activity.  The Taiping Army captured Tongzhou City with almost no effort and shot.  The Qing soldiers guarding the city gate were so drunk that they didn't even close the city gate.

    Although more than 15,000 prisoners were captured, Xiao Yungui was furious. What did he want with these wine bags and rice bags?  Allocating precious troops to guard them is simply not worth the gain.  Xiao Yungui also thought about killing all these prisoners, but the pursuit of the coalition forces was so important at the moment, where would he have time to kill the prisoners?  Finally being forced into desperation, Xiao Yungui ordered a Taiping Army to escort the prisoners to the city walls of Beijing, drive them to Beijing and let them go. Then Xiao Yungui ordered the Taiping Army to continue the pursuit in the direction in which the coalition forces were fleeing.

    Judging from the things left behind in Tongzhou, the coalition forces retreated in a hurry. The Taiping sentry cavalry also captured several dragoons. They were sent by Grant to prepare to send the latest order to Parkes, who was still in Beijing. From Grant  This order, signed by Elgin and Elgin, shows that the coalition forces are preparing to join forces with Major General Michel and then fight back to Tianjin, and finally retreat back to the south from Tanggukou.  In the letter, Sir Elgin asked Parkale to stay in the capital. After all, he was a diplomat and there was no danger for the time being (foreigners always believed that diplomatic envoys were protected). He would wait for the war to calm down before looking for an opportunity to go south to join them.

    After reading this, Xiao Yungui became furious and cursed the British and French forces for their lack of chivalry. They actually left Tongzhou City undefended and then ran away in such a dejected manner, not even giving up a lot of supplies and looted things. What a courageous bandit!

    In anger, the King of the West ordered the Taiping Army to attack General Ran Man's headquarters overnight, intending to catch up with them and entangle them. At the same time, he ordered a Taiping Army to cross the Bali Bridge and pursue the coalition forces in parallel on the south bank of the canal.

    As a result, General Ran Man's pitiful rear troops of more than a thousand people became a place for the Taiping Army to vent their anger. The Taiping Army's artillery, regardless of whether they could see it or not, fired hard at General Ran Man's temporary fortifications in the dark.  Although many artillery shells failed to hit the target, a few artillery shells still caused serious damage to the temporary position after hitting the target. Then there was another unfortunate thing, that is, several artillery shells destroyed the pontoon bridge of the North Canal. General Ranman  The troop's retreat was interrupted.

    Although the French chasseurs under General Ranman were very brave, they could not withstand the Taiping Army's continuous charges that were several times their own. Moreover, night fighting has always been a shortcoming of the coalition forces, but the Taiping Army was used to fighting at night.  Most of the backbone officers of the First Army came from the army started by King Xi. These people were accustomed to night fighting, and the troops they brought out were also used to night fighting. So General Ran Man's troops were killed half an hour after the battle started.  He could no longer hold on and suffered heavy casualties.

    Seeing that there were fewer and fewer soldiers around him, General Ran Man calmly burned all the military documents he carried with him, then tidied up his clothes and gave the order to his soldiers to lay down their weapons and surrender.  That night, the Taiping Army successfully recaptured Tongzhou, and more than 300 French Chasseurs under General Ran Man surrendered. The Taiping Army's casualties were not large.

    Although Tongzhou was captured, the canal pontoon bridge was destroyed and time was wasted in re-building the pontoon bridge. Xiao Yungui looked very unhappy.  But fortunately, around twelve o'clock, news came back from Li Xiucheng's department in Tianjin that Tianjin City had been captured, and the troops from Tianjin City began to reinforce Hexiwu Town.  Seeing this news, Xiao Yungui finally relaxed his tight skin. Tianjin was successfully recovered, so what was left of the Taiping Army?What we have to do is to catch up, encircle the remaining troops of the British and French coalition forces with the Taiping Army in Hexiwu Town and Tianjin, and finally annihilate them!  (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report