After Duobi was forcibly dragged across the pontoon bridge by his subordinates, more than 2,000 Yangzhou soldiers who were still stubbornly resisting in the water camp had no intention of fighting again and retreated to the pontoon bridge.
At this time, there were still more than 1,000 Qing troops on the earthen dam east of the water camp in Guazhou with the help of the fort.
The earthen dam was originally the old embankment at the mouth of the canal, repaired in the Yongle period, two hundred years down, it has long been dilapidated, the dam is full of river reeds, because the river is soaked, muddy, it is difficult for people to walk on it, and it is not open, it is not conducive to the action of the large army, so the Taiping army did not choose to land from here, only the water division suppressed here with artillery fire, which made the pressure of the Qing army in the east fort far less than the water camp and the west fort.
After Duobi was taken to the other side of the canal by his subordinates, he immediately asked Erfu and others to destroy the pontoon bridge to prevent the Taiping army from attacking the pontoon bridge.
Erfu and the others did not dissuade anyone at the moment, and were busy being ordered to destroy the pontoon bridge.
On the other side, after the Yangzhou soldiers who were retreating towards the pontoon bridge found that the pontoon bridge was being destroyed in front of them, they immediately cursed again and again.
Some of the Yangzhou soldiers who had already gone on the bridge chose to save their lives, turning a blind eye to the Manchurian soldiers' actions of breaking the bridge, and only ran to the other side.
Some Yangzhou soldiers desperately stepped forward to stop the Manchurian soldiers from breaking the bridge, so that their fellow villagers and friends could escape.
One side wants to destroy the bridge, one side does not let it be destroyed, although the Yangzhou soldiers are taken in the majesty of the Manchurian soldiers, but at the moment the other party is only dozens of people, and their own side has hundreds of thousands of people, so under the leadership of a few bold Yangzhou soldiers, a scene of cannibalism was staged on the pontoon bridge.
In order to survive, those Yangzhou soldiers were also ruthless, cutting down more than a dozen Manchurian soldiers one after another, so frightened that Erfu and others did not dare to break the bridge again, and hurriedly fled to Duobi.
Seeing this, Duobi actually ran onto the battery on the earthen dam and ordered the defenders to turn the muzzle of the cannon and bombard the pontoon bridge with cannons.
The garrison of the fort did not dare to disobey the order, and did according to the order, just when the artillery was about to fire, the sound of hooves on the east side sounded, Duobi and others turned their heads to look, but it was the Manchurian and Mongolian cavalry with the banner of Xianghuang arrived.
"My lord, do you want to blow up this bridge?"
When the Qing garrison of the East Fort saw that reinforcements had arrived, he asked Duobi if he wanted to blow up the bridge.
Duo Bilian said not to bomb, just now he wanted to destroy the bridge, what he was afraid of was that the Taiping army rushed across the canal to seize the east fort and pursue them, and now that the reinforcements are coming, the bridge cannot be destroyed, because the Manchu and Mongolian cavalry will rely on this bridge to rush over and strangle the Taiping army on the shore and recapture the water camp and the west fort.
Otherwise, it would be a big trouble for the Taiping army to gain a foothold on the north shore.
Leading the cavalry of the Qing army to arrive was the first-class guard Tong Guogang, who was the eldest son of the first-class duke and the capital Tong Tulai, and his sister was Concubine Tong, who gave birth to the fourth elder brother for the current emperor, so the emperor was his brother-in-law, and he was the uncle of the fourth elder brother.
After receiving the emergency from the Guazhou water camp, Ao Bai, who had just returned from Yangzhou to meet his master, and Aobai, who presided over the Jiangbei camp, immediately ordered Tong Guogang to lead 2,000 Manchurian cavalry and 4,000 Mongolian cavalry to rush to reinforce Duobi.
Aobai, who had fought with Taizong and Prince Su Haoge for many years, knew that the water camp in Guazhou could not be lost, so after Tong Guogang led the cavalry to reinforce Guazhou, he transferred more than 20,000 infantry led by the Manchurian capital Dase and the Mongolian Ezhen Leheke as backup, and urgently drove to Guazhou.
At the same time, he ordered the remaining large battalion to be ready to send troops to reinforce Guazhou at any time.
When Tong Guogang came, he thought that Duobi was still holding on to the water camp, but he didn't expect that he had been defeated, and saw a defeated soldier on the canal pontoon bridge in front of him stabbing and scrambling there, Tong Guogang was furious, and waved his hand to order the cavalry to rush up, slash and trample on horses, and hundreds of routs stained the canal with blood, and the corpses were ambushed.
Then Tong Guogang led the cavalry to cross the bridge directly and attacked the Taiping army that was rushing to kill.
The arrival of reinforcements and the Manchurian cavalry boosted the morale of the Qing army, and Duobi lost no time in summoning the rout, and entangled more than 3,000 soldiers to follow the Manchurian cavalry to kill back again.
The two battalions of the Second Town A Brigade, which had rushed to the west bank of the canal pontoon bridge, were chasing and killing the Qing army's rout, and did not set up a defensive line in time in the face of the Qing cavalry that suddenly rushed over, so that they were swept by the Qing cavalry in an instant, with hundreds of casualties, and the C battalion was almost completely annihilated.
Qianhu Huang Sicheng was shot by the Qing army's bow and arrow on the spot, becoming the first senior general of the Taiping army to die in the battle of crossing the river.
The Manchurian cavalry won the first battle, and they were arrogant in an instant, roaring and beating horses and rushing to kill.
The remaining battalion of the A Brigade, under the leadership of Cao Shou, relied on the Qing army camp to hold on, and at the same time sent a rescue signal to the rear.
The "whooshing" Drill Dragon rocket rose into the sky from time to time from the shore, which was the most urgent means used by the Taiping Army for communication and communication, but when it saw this signal, either the whole army took action or the whole army was in an emergency.
When the sailors on the river saw the signal, they accelerated the transportation of troops to the shore and mobilized warships to spread along the river in a zigzag shape, shooting shells of different sizes onto the shore like flowing water.
Under the artillery bombardment, the offensive of the Qing cavalry was stalled, so De Tieyi led the B Brigade to reinforce in time, and delayed the Qing cavalry with firearms and earth-shattering thunder.
After Tong Guogang saw that the Taiping army on the river was still transporting troops to the shore and carrying war horses, he immediately ordered the Mongol soldiers to attack the Taiping army's defense line regardless of casualties, in order to repel them, so that he could recapture the West Fort and prevent more Taiping troops from landing on the shore.
The Qing artillery on the West Fort also fired again, but this time it was the Taiping Army who operated the artillery.
Dozens of artillery guns that had been reversed fired at the Qing cavalry, causing heavy casualties to the attacking Mongol soldiers.
Tie Yi gave a strict order, no one is allowed to take a step back, and death will die here.
Under the frantic attack of the Qing army, the second town suffered an unprecedented blow, and the casualties were even heavier than the Chaohui War that year.
The main reason for this is that the two battalions of the First Brigade were heavily damaged by the Qing army, and the second town undertook the two tasks of pursuing the Qing army and stabilizing the West Fort at the same time, resulting in the inability to concentrate the troops.
In addition, the Qing army was defeated and retreated too quickly just now, and the victory came too easily, so that the second town was a little careless, resulting in an unfavorable situation now.
On the river, small boats carried the second group of landing soldiers, and the officers and soldiers on board were all anxiously looking at the shore.
Zhou Shixiang's hand also held the clairvoyant mirror tightly, and the lens never let go.
If the second town could not stop the counterattack of the Qing army, then this attack was doomed to failure.
If he held on for one more second, one more soldier would die, because the limited means of landing in this era made this battle like a "refueling" tactic.
If the second town can hold on, then the soldiers added to it are the new force, and if they can't hold it, they will send the soldiers ashore in batches for the Qing army to slaughter.
When he saw a red figure rushing towards the Qing cavalry with a medicine bag in his sight, Zhou Shixiang put down the clairvoyant mirror and ordered the blind Li to go down to the boat with him immediately, he couldn't just do it, he had to go up.
Guo Xiong, Gui Yongzhi, Dong Changqing and others were frightened at that time, and they reacted and stepped forward to dissuade Zhou Shixiang from taking risks lightly, but Zhou Shixiang said: "My life is important, the lives of those soldiers are not important, I am a human being, they are not human Don't forget, Ben Shuai is also a blind man from the sea of corpses and blood, let's go" oshow7 t1706231537: