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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 652: Turtle in the Urn

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    Grant looked at the bloody battlefield with red eyes. One brave soldier fell down one after another, and the enemy took their lives in the most rogue way of exchanging lives for lives. The dragoon's charge was completely destroyed after encountering the enemy's feathered cavalry.  At a standstill, the enemy cavalry's continuous and ferocious firepower on horseback tore the honor and discipline of the dragoons to pieces. Perhaps it was time to commit the final reserves.

    Montauban's heart was also very heavy. Although the French army had suffered heavy losses in the previous battles, today's battle was completely dominated by the British army, but it seemed that the British were not feeling well either. The casualties were very heavy, but for  After being able to break out, he had no choice but to step forward and suggest: "James, we should send the reserve team up. If the dragoons fail, the enemy cavalry will disrupt the infantry formation."

    Grant also felt that it was time to make a last-ditch effort. Sending a new force might change the situation on the battlefield. Unfortunately, before he could issue an order, the messenger from the rear guard came in panic to report that the enemy's Xiwang Brigade was pursuing troops.  It's less than three miles away.

    The distance of three miles is almost 48 kilometers, which is about ten miles. According to the rapid march of the troops, the Taiping Army commanded by the King of the West will soon charge the coalition forces from behind, and the coalition forces will lose the time to make a last stand.

    After Grant let out a long sigh, he painfully ordered the reserves to come forward to meet the attacking troops, then ordered the attacking troops to retreat, and finally the entire army retreated north.

    When the retreat bugle sounded, the coalition infantry retreated one after another. The fastest ones were the British servant infantry.  The Indian and Punjabi infantry were the fastest, while the dragoons were still fighting, but were soon surrounded and annihilated by the enemy's cavalry.  Many Indian cavalry dismounted and surrendered, and finally dozens of dragoons also dismounted and surrendered and became prisoners.

    The two thousand British soldiers in the reserve team fought and fled. They withstood the counterattack of the Taiping Army. After a day of fierce fighting, the coalition forces, including the reserve team at the rear, with less than 7,000 soldiers, were forced to retreat to a village in the north.  The Taiping Army of Li Xiucheng's department, which blocked the coalition forces head-on, and the Taiping Army of Xiwang's Department, which followed in pursuit, followed them one after another like sharks smelling the smell of blood, and the Guards Cavalry even outflanked them on a large scale.  At dusk that day, the coalition forces were surrounded in this village called Huogezhuang.

    Due to the defeat in the field battle, the coalition forces lost almost all their pack horses and fallen horses.  After losing all their baggage and artillery, the envoy managed to escape with the troops, but lost almost all their decent luggage. Even some confidential documents carried by Sir Elgin and Sir Gro were left on the battlefield.  Their Indian servants and Nanyang coolies fled without a trace in the chaos, taking with them a large amount of personal loot from the two knights.

    In Huogezhuang, the coalition soldiers robbed the villagers of their food and some livestock, and the villagers were driven away from their homes. Then the tired and hungry coalition soldiers finally got a temporary rest in Huogezhuang.  They arrived at Hexiwu Town overnight from Tongzhou, where they did not rest for long. Then they continued marching to Baodi the next night, and then there was a big battle in Baodi. The soldiers of the British and French allied forces only felt that it was extremely hard.  So I waited until I arrived at Huogezhuang.  None of the Union soldiers could move anymore, so they stopped to rest.

    Grant and Montauban had no choice but to lose their artillery and a large amount of baggage.  They became a group of light infantry, and the soldiers were exhausted from marching for three days and nights. The soldiers were in urgent need of rest, so they had no choice but to let it go.  As a result, after dawn, the coalition forces discovered that they were surrounded by tens of thousands of Taiping troops from the east, west and south, 15 miles east to west of Huogezhuang.  Within the narrow village of only one mile from north to south, there is the Ji Canal with long rivers to the north.

    Ji Canal leads directly to the Bohai Sea.  In order to find a way out, Grant once imagined that he could find a group of Qing army ships transporting grain and grass, so that some of the coalition soldiers could escape. Unfortunately, the reconnaissance team sent by the coalition came back in frustration and reported that they found nothing. The only  The consolation was finding a boatman.  The boatman told Grant that in the middle of the night yesterday, two teams of more than a thousand people from Changmao attacked the two docks in the upper and lower reaches of the Ji Canal, collected all the ships, and at the same time sent troops eastward to capture the entrance of the Ji Canal.  The Qing army fort has gone.

    Grant was speechless for a long time after hearing the news. He didn't understand. The Taiping Army and the Union Army soldiers continued to fight. Why were the Taiping Army soldiers able to catch up all night?  The glimmer of hope has been cut off. Are all Taiping soldiers made of iron?

    Although Grant thought he knew the Taiping Army well, he didn't know what kind of war experience the First Taiping Army had experienced. They were the first to form an army, and their first battle was to attack the Qing army's Wentai defense line, and then  The heroic troops went south to Fujian and fought continuously for three months in the typhoon and rain in Ningni. Later, they went south to Guangzhou and swept across Guangzhou in one month.East, and then pursued the Qing army in Guangxi. The soldiers of the First Army were already very experienced in long-distance raids and continuous operations. The iron feet of the officers and soldiers of the First Army of the Taiping Army were the same as that of the heroic army that liberated the country in later generations.  They are already comparable, which is one of the reasons why Xiao Yungui dared to lead the first army alone into the capital.

    In a mountain temple a mile outside Huogezhuang, Xiao Yungui sat on the top spot, with many generals of the First Army gathered on both sides. The generals of the Taiping Army were all beaming, although they were also  It was tiring, but that smile came from the heart.  Facts have proved that the Taiping Army can defeat the elite troops of Britain and France, and can also defeat their opponents in frontal field battles. Although the Taiping Army has always had a good relationship with Britain and France, since Xiao Yungui reorganized the army, the imaginary enemy is no longer that decadent and backward force.  The Manchu Army of the Qing Dynasty, their imaginary enemy has always been the country of their former instructors and teachers.  At this time, starting from the night when the war was declared, after three days and three nights of continuous fierce fighting, the Taiping Army relied on surprise and numerical superiority to win at various battle points from Tianjin to Tongzhou, although they lost no troops.  Small, but still less than the British and French allied forces.

    Xiao Yungui was not too happy. He was still waiting for news of the troops continuing to advance eastward. He was worried that if the Taiping Army could not quickly raid the Qing fort at the mouth of Ji Canal, the Allied Navy would send ships north along the Ji Canal.  If they come up to support the coalition forces, the Taiping Army's encirclement and suppression campaign will be in vain. If a large number of coalition army soldiers are released to go south, the battle in Jiangnan will be difficult to fight.

    After dawn, the Taiping Army had taken control of the docks on both sides of the Ji Canal and gathered the ships. The more than 6,000 remaining coalition troops trapped in Huogezhuang would have been almost a turtle in a urn without foreign aid, but the only variable was whether the entrance of the Ji Canal could go smoothly.  Closed issue.

    While waiting anxiously, at dusk, several Guards Cavalry finally rushed back to report that the Guards Cavalry Regiment, which raided the Jiyuan Canal estuary, successfully captured several Qing army forts at the Jiyun Canal estuary. This news shocked Xiao Yungui.  They breathed a sigh of relief, and the few Guards Cavalry fell to the ground and fell asleep after completing their tasks. They were really too tired, and their horses screamed sadly and fell to the ground with foam at the mouth.  , exhausted to death.

    Where Ji Canal enters the sea, the water is deep, the terrain is complex, and there are many twists and turns. The intersection of the river and the sea is blocked by the tides, forming a rapid whirlpool. It is called a small "Bermuda" and is a battleground for military strategists of all ages.  Taking advantage of its natural advantages, the ancestors of their hometown built forts on both sides of the river as early as the Ming Dynasty to defend against the invasion of Japanese pirates.

    That is to say, due to the complicated water flow conditions where Ji Canal enters the sea, the British and French coalition forces did not choose this as the landing site in the first place, but chose Dagukou as the landing site.  When Seng Gelinqin was in charge of the defense of Jintang, he rebuilt two large forts five feet high and two small forts here. An iron cage was submerged in the middle water, and various types of traps were wound with thick steel wire cables and iron rods.  and various shapes of points, hooks, chains, etc. to prevent British and French allied ships from going north along the river.

    When Grant and Montauban led their troops to retreat northward, they sent several groups of messengers in the hope of bypassing the Taiping Army's defense lines to deliver news to the navy in the Tanggu area. Perhaps with the blessing of their biological mother, Maria, two messengers finally made the detour successfully.  Returned to Tanggukou.

    In the Beitang Fortress, the messenger met the British Navy Commander Admiral Massimogli and the French Navy Commander Rigode Genouili. Massimogli replaced the injured Admiral Hobo who returned to Shanghai to recuperate.  continued to command the British Navy.  After the two navy commanders received the news from the messenger, they were very surprised. They did not believe that the coalition forces would be defeated so quickly.

    The coalition navy and local garrison troops in the Tanggu area received the news of the declaration of war a full day late. It was not until the morning after Tianjin was captured that Massimogli and Rigo de Genouiri escaped from Tianjin.  The coalition soldiers learned the accurate news. The courier sent by the coalition forces, Lieutenant Schmidt, was made a prisoner of the Taiping Army. Therefore, when the navy learned the news, it was already too late.

    After receiving the news of the fall of Tianjin, the two naval commanders discussed with the French General Napier who was staying in Tanggu, and decided that General Napier would transfer one thousand British and French troops to guard Beitang, Junliangcheng and Dagu Fort.  More than 500 people formed a westward reinforcement regiment in an attempt to recapture Tianjin, while the navy sent out as many shallow-water ships as possible for support.

    But this operation soon failed. According to the investigation, it was learned that there were more than 10,000 Taiping troops occupying Tianjin. General Napier sent 1,500 people from the 2,000 Tanggu garrison to go there and almost died.  , and among the remaining ships of the Navy, the gunboat USS Clinton, which has the shallowest draft, has also been stranded in the river. This means that in addition to the shallow-water gunboats already in Tianjin, Hexiwu, and Tongzhou, the Navy no longer has suitable ships to pass through the waterway.  Reinforcement of the coalition forces inland.

    After the reinforcement operation failed, the navy and Napier in TangguThe U.S. Army spent two anxious days. They had no news, and none of the messengers and orderlies they sent could come back. That day, they finally received a messenger from the main force of the coalition forces, but the news turned out to be that the main force was forced to  To transfer from Shanhaiguan in the north, the navy needs to be supported from the north.  (To be continued)
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