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 One: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 648: Out of Reach

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    Although the journey from Tongzhou to Beijing was short, the road was complicated and there were trees everywhere, so it was easy to get lost. The same was true for the retreat from Tongzhou to Tianjin through the North Canal. Therefore, the retreating coalition troops marched slowly and encountered considerable difficulties.

    The French army decided to stop in a village famous for firing glazed tiles. There were about 10 brick kilns there, supplying the capital with bricks and tiles for building houses.  It is said that these brick factories are owned by the palace.  General Montauban ordered the remains of the soldiers recovered from the French generals to be cremated in a centralized manner, preparing to take their ashes back to the mainland for burial, as an explanation to their families, while more French corpses were abandoned in Ma  On the battlefield in Komashi Town, there was no time to restrain himself.

    From the heights of the brick kiln, you can also see the capital city in the distance. This is an endless plain, so you can vaguely see the destination they wanted to reach on this expedition.  Everyone rushed up to watch, maybe just to watch, that mysterious country was so far out of reach!

    Montauban and Grant climbed to the top of the tallest brick kiln together along the spiral ladder. They were fascinated by the towers of Beijing and the unique Chinese gabled roofs. No one spoke for a long time, and finally Montauban broke the silence.

    "James, what do you think we are here for? We were abandoned by Ronglu's rebels, lost the opportunity to seize the capital and influence the political situation in northern China, and went to war with our original best friend in the Far East. Through this war, we  What did you get?" Grant's full name was James Hope. Grant Montauban would only call him James in private.

    Grant also looked worried, after Ronglu and Mianyu's rebels deceived the coalition forces by leaving some old, weak, sick and disabled.  They led the remaining more than 30,000 soldiers and horses not to retreat southeast to Tianjin, but to the northeast to Jizhou. The cunning Ronglu may have understood.  The Taiping Army must completely wipe out this British-French coalition. There will be no other end than being annihilated with the British-French coalition.  Therefore, this cunning Easterner parted ways with the coalition forces early and did not give the coalition forces any chance to take advantage of them.

    "I don't know. The combat effectiveness of the Taiping Army is not inferior to that of our coalition forces. They attacked Tianjin and Hexiwu Town with the purpose of annihilating all the troops we landed. This way, the Western King of the Taiping Army would have leverage to negotiate with the British and French governments.  ." Grant sighed and said: "Perhaps we joined this Chinese civil war at the wrong time, wrong place, and wrong opportunity. We failed to get any benefits from it, but it will affect our expansion strategy in the Far East."

    At this time Sir Elgin also came here, he was panting from climbing.  He looked very depressed, "Generals, your remarks have completely destroyed our last hope. The most pessimistic remarks I have ever heard came from our generals."

    Grant looked at the politician with some disgust.  One of the biggest mistakes of the coalition forces was before the military objectives were achieved.  He was busy trying to use political means to solve the problem. This can be seen in the time wasted in Tongzhou, and if Elgin hadn't repeatedly rejected the peace terms of Prince Gong of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and refused to give up Ronglu's despicable rebels.  , the coalition forces may not be as passive as they are now.

    Montauban said unceremoniously: "Sir Elgin, according to the current situation, we are likely to be completely annihilated. This represents a complete mistake in our policy towards China. Before the expedition, we failed to thoroughly evaluate  The strength of the Taiping Army. This is a very fatal mistake."

    Sir Elgin wiped his glasses and said: "It's too late to say anything now. Congress and the Prime Minister do not want to see a strong and unified country appear in the Far East, so intervention is necessary. It is a pity that the forces we sent to the Far East  Too weak." At this point, he paused and then said: "Generals, don't we even have a chance?"

    Grant smiled bitterly and finally said: "Maybe we should wait for news from Major General Michel. If we really can't break through Hexiwu Town and reoccupy Tianjin, then we can only break out in a scattered way and try to break through to the seaside. Let us be strong  The navy will try to withdraw the soldiers on land as much as possible, and then we will go south to threaten the Taiping Army's Jiangnan hinterland. Only by relying on the navy can we reverse the passive situation."

    As soon as he finished speaking, gunfire rang out not far away, and an officer shouted loudly under the brick tower: "The rear guard and the Taiping Army exchanged fire, and the enemy is catching up."

    Grant adjusted his clothes and said in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, it's time for us to leave. Let's talk to Major General Michel first before talking about anything else."

    The coalition forces continued to march towards Hexiwu Town. The morale of the soldiers was low. They came lightly. They had looted a lot in Tongzhou, but overnight they had to give up the loot that might slow down their journey and only carried ammunition.  and food in a hasty retreat.  And the coolies they brought from Southeast Asia and India began to flee on a large scale, and many of themThe coolies surrendered to the Taipings, and some were beaten to death on the spot by angry local civilians.  These people were more ruthless than the soldiers during the usual robbery, so they were regarded as enemies by the people in the Jintang area. There were almost no whole bodies of the lone coolies left.  Without the support of their foreign masters, they could only end up like this.

    It is almost more than twenty miles from Tongzhou to Hexiwu Town. After marching for 5 hours, the coalition forces barely arrived here. Major General Michel and General Colino who greeted them looked very depressed.  Grant and Montauban hurriedly held a military meeting and asked about the current war situation in Hexi.

    Major General Michel gave a rough introduction to the current battle situation. Starting yesterday, Major General Michel's 8,000 coalition forces began to continuously attack the outer positions of Hexiwu Town. However, the Taiping Army's defense was very tight, with barbed wire, trenches, and dense rifles and artillery.  The defense system became a nightmare for the coalition offensive.  On the Taiping Army's position, the two sides fought repeatedly, but the enemy was very tenacious. One batch of dead and wounded came one after another. The coalition attacked more than ten times, and several times occupied most of the positions, but soon  The Taiping Army sent death squads to take back the position.  There were no less than 3,000 corpses from both sides in the outer positions of the small Hexiwu Town.  In the end, the coalition forces had to suspend the attack due to heavy losses.

    The water battle on the canal was also very fierce. Although the four gunboats of the coalition forces returning from Tongzhou sank the gunboats captured by the Taiping Army in one fell swoop, the four gunboats of the coalition forces were also seriously injured and then ran aground.  , was completely sunk last night by a suicide squad sent by the Taiping Army from underwater installation.  This means that the coalition forces have lost the possibility of retreating from the canal waterway. According to the reconnaissance, the Taiping Army began to scuttle the coalition grain transport ships in the canal water section near Tianjin and block the river channel. This also prevented the coalition navy still at Tanggukou from sending ships into the inland river.  Come to the rescue of the coalition forces.

    Due to the Taiping Army's ambushes and cavalry searching for allied messengers, Major General Michel had no news of the Tanggukou Navy. However, Major General Michel firmly believed that the navy must have known about the fall of Tianjin and was organizing the dispatch of reinforcements.  Answer.

    After listening to Major General Michel's introduction, Grant and Montauban discussed for a moment, and Grant said in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, our current situation is very dangerous. We still have more than 15,000 soldiers on land. I  We hope to bring them back to the south to continue fighting against the Taiping Army, so we must be prepared to retreat. We cannot return to Tianjin from Hexiwu Town and then retreat from Tianjin back to the sea, because there are layers of defenses built by the enemy.  , we need to consider another retreat route. Gentlemen, do you have any opinions?"

    Major General Michel said: "But General, we are now starting to run out of ammunition. If we encounter the enemy again on the way back, after one or two battles, our soldiers will face a lack of ammunition and food problems.  The dry food we carry with us is only five days worth"

    Grant interrupted him and said: "As long as we can get back to the ship, nothing will be a problem. If we continue to stay and attack targets that cannot be captured in a short time, we will kill the troops."

    General Colino said: "Since the direction of Tianjin is impassable, there are two other ways to consider. One is to continue to the southeast from the direction of Jinghai, bypass Tianjin, and return to the Tanggu area under our control to board the ship. This way is slightly closer.  , but there are many Taiping troops here, and it is difficult to break through. The other way is to take the route where the Taiping troops came from, from Yutian, Qian'an, Luanzhou to Shanhaiguan to board the ship. The disadvantage of this road is that it is far away, with almost 140 people.  The journey of more than ten kilometers may also be pursued by the Taiping Army. And to retreat to Shanhaiguan, we must send someone to tell the navy in Tanggu about the retreat route so that they can prepare in advance to meet us at Shanhaiguan."

    Grant and Montauban looked at the map for a long time. The large swampy wetlands south of Tanggu were not suitable for large forces to board ships and retreat. Otherwise, the coalition forces would not have attacked Tanggu several times at that time. The route to Shanhaiguan was indeed too far, unless the Taiping Army did not attack Tanggu at all.  I didn't expect that the coalition forces would retreat here at the expense of the near and far away. Otherwise, during the retreat, the flat plain terrain would cause the coalition forces to suffer heavy losses.

    After a moment of silence, Grant and Montauban looked at each other and both decided. Grant said: "We are retreating to Shanhaiguan, but we need a force as a feint attack force to break out towards Jinghai to attract the enemy's attention and protect us.  The large forces can safely retreat from Shanhaiguan." Finally, Grant said painfully: "I need volunteers"

    For a while, the military tent of the Allied Forces Headquarters became quiet. Finally, Major General Michel bravely stood up and said loudly: "I am willing to lead the troops to break through the encirclement south and conduct a feint attack."

    Major General Michael was a very simple soldier who fought bravely. Grant was a little reluctant to let go, but at this time he could no longer care about so much. Finally, Grant nodded and said: "Go down and select volunteers. It is difficult for the coalition forces to move."??Heavy artillery is also under your command.  Montauban seemed unwilling to let the British become martyrs alone. He said: "You can also choose volunteers from the French army. The navy will still be waiting for you in Tanggu. If it is really difficult to break through, after completing the mission, we will  Surrender to the Taiping Army" (To be continued)
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