After some deployment, Li Xiucheng's army was still commanded by Li Shixian and began to attack Huzhou City again.However, this time, Li Xiucheng finally invested the capital and pulled out the only 50 small-caliber field guns in the army.Yesterday, because I was worried about the artillery of the Qing army on the city wall, I didn't dare to pull this artillery team out until the end of the war.Thunder drums burst out, and military trumpets sounded in unison.The soldiers of the Taiping Army launched an attack on the city of Huzhou again, but the momentum was obviously not as good as yesterday, and they rushed to stop one section with fear.Li Xiucheng listened nervously to the movement outside the military tent, and when he hit the city a mile away, there was still no cannon sound.Li Xiucheng's heart finally felt relieved, the Heart Dao Qingzi Army really ran out of ammunition yesterday, and today I want to let them taste the power of the shells.Sure enough, the artillery positions of the Taiping army were arranged, and the first shells were fired quickly.The attic on the east gate tower was also blown out of a hole, which scared the Qing army, and everyone never expected that the Taiping army still had this thing in their hands.Immediately after a series of shells exploded in front and back of the city tower, because the Taiping army's shells were scarce, so the soldiers did not go through a long-term live-fire training, and after hurriedly going into battle, they were a little rusty, after the first batch of bombs were fired, only two or three fell on the city wall, and the other shells hit the ground.But this still made the Taiping army fall into a cheer, slightly soothed the little fear in the hearts of the soldiers, and the pace of attack also accelerated a little.The urn city at the east gate of Huzhou City, just a few days ago, was intensively bombarded by the heavy artillery of the Qing army, although it was repaired by the people in the city, but after a round of artillery bombardment by the Taiping army, the repair place was still newly blown out of the gap.After firing three or four rounds in a row, the 50 guns of the Taiping Army had to wait for the barrels to cool down before they could continue to be used because the barrels were hot.At this interval, Luo Sanyuan hurriedly gave the artillery team an order to return fire, the field artillery of the Qingzi Army is the latest British-made breech guns, and there is a complete set of regulations and measuring means before firing the artillery, after the 100 guns on the east city gate are adjusted to the angle, the artillery battalion commander finally waved the order flag in his hand.The power of that kind of large-caliber artillery is far from being comparable to the small field guns of the Taiping Army, and the continuous range is long and powerful, and under the operation of the artillery, even the accuracy is only one or two meters of error.Sure enough, after a burst of shelling, the Taiping artillery did not make any sound.When Li Xiucheng heard the rumbling cannon on the city wall, the tea bowl in his hand suddenly fell to the ground, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but tremble with resentment, "How is this possible, how is this possible." ”As he spoke, he hurriedly picked up the binoculars and went out of the camp tent to take a closer look.Something that surprised Li Xiucheng even more happened at the same time, after the artillery of the castle tower returned fire, the gate of the urn city suddenly opened.A large group of cavalry rushed out from inside, and from a distance, it looked like a black sharp blade, rushing towards the troops besieging the Taiping army."
It's the cavalry, that Zhang Zongyu actually has cavalry," Li Xiucheng gritted his teeth and shouted with a distorted face, looking at the billowing smoke rising from the artillery position, his heart instantly fell to the bottom.At this time, the forward brigade of the Taiping Army had already stormed within a mile of the city wall, and it was still in the same scattered formation as yesterday, but it was holding a large number of foreign guns in its hands.The commander of this brigade is Wang Zuo, a good friend of Huang Wenjin, who strongly demanded revenge in Li Xiucheng's account yesterday.He is the elite of Li Xiucheng's lineage, so he did not participate in the siege yesterday.As soon as today's battle began, his brigade headquarters rushed to the front with fierce morale."
Brothers, draw your sword."
Zhang Zongyu straddled his horse and rushed to the front, and when he was two hundred meters away from the Taiping army, he swished out his bright saber from his waist.As soon as the words fell, more than 2,000 cavalrymen behind him flashed their sabers at the same time, constantly waving and roaring loudly.The saber shone with a sharp cold light in the sun, accompanied by the noise of the horse's hooves, instantly enveloping the battlefield in a thick killing intent.Only those who have experienced the scene can truly understand the thrilling sensation of the heartstrings, as if even the earth was shaken by the horse's hooves at this time.The Taiping Army's ranks are mainly Jiangnan children, and they have always relied on infantry to fight, and since the founding of the army in Guangxi, there has not been a cavalry team that can fight well, so most of the generals in the army do not have any experience in fighting cavalry.In the face of Zhang Zongyu's fierce cavalry, in the overwhelming crowd, none of the teams took the initiative to assemble to resist the enemy, and they still looked at themselves like rolling seawater, panicking and quickly approaching both sides.As soon as Zhang Zongyu rushed into the crowd of the Taiping army, it was as if he had returned to the eventful years of galloping across the horse, waving his saber and roaring continuously, and then rushed into the first wave of the Taiping army.The Taiping army suddenly seemed to be clothes, "quickly form a gun formation, form a gun formation" Wang Zuo finally calmed down from the panic, and pointed the foreign gun in his hand at the sky, and let out a "bang".But at this time, all the troops fell into a mess, except for a few commanders near him who quickly assembled the team into a square team, the rest of the soldiers were all in confusion, and the foreign guns in their hands were summoned like burning sticks, and they smashed the horses of the Qing army.However, there was no difference between the smoothbore guns and the burning sticks used by the Taiping army, and the guns had to be upright, in a half-squatting trend, and the gunpowder and lead pellets were stabbed into the barrel with a strip, and then the trigger was pulled to complete a fire.Moreover, it was impossible to aim and shoot when firing, because the smoke of gunpowder spewing from the tail of the gun was very easy to smoke the eyes, so it was necessary to line up in a gun formation and make up for the lack of accuracy with dense shooting.In the face of the surging cavalry, the Taiping army reacted quickly and fired a shot indiscriminately, and there was no chance to use foreign guns in the chaotic crowd.The cavalry led by Zhang Zongyu was a little hindered when they rushed to the front of the two or three pawns around Wang Zuo, basically in the crowd of the Taiping army, it was all the way through the thorns and thorns, and wherever the horse's hooves went was a bloody road of corpses.Wang Zuoqi's face was distorted, but watching the cavalry shuttling around in the crowd, he could only stare helplessly, chase and can't catch up, and he was afraid of accidentally injuring his own people.The already low morale of the Taiping Army was so troubled by Zhang Zongyu, and it was even more mournful, even if they didn't take their lives seriously, they couldn't withstand such a toss.Moreover, when the attack was near the city wall, yesterday's battlefield had not yet been cleaned, and it was densely covered with the corpses of their own people.At noon, the first wave of the Taiping army began to disperse, first the Taiping army outside the east gate retreated desperately, and then the soldiers of the other three city gates also seemed to be infected, and then also retreated back, Li Xiucheng scolded the rice bucket with the telescope behind his back, and slammed the telescope to the ground with a depressed heart, panting and returning to the military tent.Zhang Zongyu's cavalry was not yet satisfied, chasing the fleeing soldiers and slashing all the way, until there were three or two miles left from the Taiping army's camp, and then they whistled and withdrew to the city with their sabers.Until dusk, the deserters of the Taiping Army still could not restore the structure in a chaotic manner, because the Taiping Army did not have a middle-level structure at the level of "company" in the modern military system, and the 500 people led by a brigade commander only had a few commanders and commanders, so when the collapse occurred, it often took a lot of time to restore the entire brigade structure.Li Shixian lost battles one after another, and he didn't have the face to see Li Xiucheng again, until Li Xiucheng sent people to urge him several times, and then he hung his head and entered the military tent.Li Xiucheng was scolding his generals emotionally, and the generals in the camp were all dejected, and they didn't dare to gasp when they lowered their heads."300,000 people, let the 2,000 cavalrymen throw off their armor and flee like rabbits, and you still have the face to stand here for this king.Shame, shame, shame" Li Xiucheng gasped and scolded with a red neck, and slapped his palms heavily on the handsome chair."
Dashuai, that Zhang Zongyu used to be the elite of the Twist Army, and their riding skills were far inferior to the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry when the Qing Demon entered the customs, and the brothers suffered heavy casualties, so they were forced to retreat." ”Wang Zuo blushed and lowered his head and snorted, not daring to look at Li Xiucheng's eyes."
You really have the face to say it, your brigade is equipped with 500 foreign guns, not only does not organize a counterattack when it is in difficulty, but takes the lead in breaking up, and I will take you to strictly enforce military discipline today."
As he spoke, Li Xiucheng shouted at the Praetorian Guards outside the tent and waved his hand at the tent.The Praetorian Guards immediately erected Wang Zuo's body like a chicken."
The handsome man spares his life, the handsome man spares his life, his subordinates follow you to fight in the north and south, and there is no merit and hard work."
Wang Zuo desperately struggled to ask Li Xiucheng for mercy, but none of the generals in the tent stood up to speak for him."
Big brother, you can spare General Wang's life, tomorrow we will fight to the death and fight the Qingzi army, and my subordinates will not believe that we can't take the small Huzhou City.""
Please think twice."
Li Shixian stood behind the military tent, and hurriedly stood up and knelt down to beg Wang Zuo for mercy.All the generals also had the courage at this time, and they all knelt down with their fists clenched and begged for mercy for Wang Zuo.As long as someone takes the lead, the other person will stand up, and the one who takes the lead will stand up anyway."
Okay, let's keep Wang Zuo's head for the time being.In tomorrow's war, if anyone dares to disobey orders and retreat without permission, they will immediately rectify the law on the spot and will not tolerate it. ”Li Xiucheng scolded coldly, and then asked all the generals to retreat first.In fact, he didn't want to embarrass Wang Zuo, this old brother was promoted and appointed by him from his own soldiers, and he had always been loyal to him.Li Xiucheng's heart is also as bright as a mirror, and when he encounters danger, Wang Zuoneng desperately protects him.Just after Li Shixian pleaded, he walked down this step
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