The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 172: Attack firmly and there will be a way!
"Boom boom."

Amid the roar, the two artillery carriages suddenly retreated, thick white smoke spewed out from the muzzles, and was immediately blown away by the howling north wind.

Two shells weighing two or three pounds flew across the stream at an extremely fast speed and slammed into two dilapidated wooden houses beside the large wooden bridge, instantly blasting two large holes in the wooden walls.

The gunners in charge of operating the two cannons cheered, then rushed forward, first pushed the retreating cannons back to their original positions, and then skillfully cleaned the gun barrels and loaded ammunition.

Of course, these two sudden shells didn't hit anyone. One of the two broken wooden houses that was hit was originally the house where Chen Picheng and his men were ambushing, but now everyone inside rushed out, leaving only an empty house. However, the two roars still "woke up" the musketeers of the Changsheng Yong Battalion who were stunned by Chen Picheng's grenade. These soldiers from the mountainous areas of Guangxi were really brave. They immediately put on their muskets, dropped their rifles, drew their swords, and rushed towards Chen Picheng's friends with a howl.

"Sword, shield and spear formation, the left two face west, the right two face north"

Chen Picheng had already jumped up from the ground at this time. He was stunned when he saw that the Qing soldiers on the opposite side did not blow up by his grenade, but he immediately reacted, howled, and gave orders.

Following his order, dozens of child soldiers armed with swords, shields and spears who had rushed out with him immediately stopped their attack and began to form a battle array on the spot. Soon they formed a sword and spear formation with two swords and shields in front and spears in the back.

One of the formations consisted of twelve sword and shield players forming a wide front, with twelve spearmen following behind, gradually approaching the Qing army's musketeers.

The other formation was facing the one hundred or so Qing army sword and spear soldiers led by Feng Zicai. They formed a front line of six people, just covering the street. Six sword and shield men advanced side by side, followed by twelve spearmen, and at the end of the team there were six sword and shield men rushing towards the reserve team.

This time, the child soldiers did not advance, but simply blocked Feng Zicai's retreat.

In addition, behind the two teams of Taiping Army boy soldiers organized into "two", there was a two Sima escorting each team. Chen Picheng took off a small hammer-shaped grenade from his belt, stood between the two teams of Taiping Army boy soldiers, looked left and right, as if considering who to blow up?
Feng Zicai's reaction was also fast enough. When he saw the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's child soldiers blocking his retreat, he immediately opened his throat and shouted, "Turn back! Turn back! Spearmen in front, charge for me! Shieldmen in the back, protect the retreat. I'll kill you!"

The Ever-Victorious Battalion under Feng Zicai were truly brave. They managed to reorganize themselves despite the continuous barrage of bullets fired from above, and with dozens of long spears as their vanguard, they charged towards the boy soldiers under Chen Picheng.

Seeing that this group of Qing demons were so brave, Chen Picheng quickly took out a fire starter and lit the fuse of the grenade. His Royal Highness the Angel had said in class a while ago that for a Holy Infantryman of Heaven, there was nothing that could not be solved by a grenade, and if there was, just use another one!
When Chen Picheng touched the fuse, the two Simas of the two boy soldiers shouted at almost the same time: "Charge!"

The boy soldiers howled at the same time, the spearmen laid down their spears, and the swordmen raised their heavy shields with all their strength. They all charged forward and shouted in unison: "God bless us!"

Although the dozens of musketeers under Feng Zicai were quite capable in hand-to-hand combat, they only had a sword in their waist after all. They could not withstand the spear, sword and shield formation of the boy soldiers at all. They were quickly defeated and fled to the wooden bridge.

But the more than one hundred infantrymen led by Feng Zicai were not so easy to deal with. A charge forced the boy soldiers in front of them to retreat step by step. The boy soldiers blocking the front fell one after another. Although the young soldiers behind filled in without hesitation, they still could not stop Feng Zicai's men.

Fortunately, Chen Picheng had finished counting and threw the grenade in his hand again. There was a loud "bang" and Feng Zicai felt a gust of hot strange wind sweeping from behind him. He fell to the ground without standing firmly and his face hit the ground hard, causing stars to appear in his eyes and dizziness.

Just when he was about to faint, he heard a chaotic shout in Hunan accent: "Kill the Qing monsters and divide the land!"

At the same time, he also heard a cry of surprise in a Guangxi accent: "Oh no, the boss is dead, the boss was blown to death."

"Sucks on you, I'm already dead, it's all over now."

After this thought flashed through Feng Zicai's mind, he gradually lost consciousness.

Although Feng Zicai fell, the battle in Jiangshe City did not end immediately. The Guangxi soldiers under his command were not ordinary "smoke soldiers", otherwise where did his Baturu come from? Now even though they lost Feng Zicai, the big brother, this group of veterans who followed him all the way from the mountainous area of ​​Yulin Prefecture in Guangxi did not give up the resistance, but they could not form a battle formation on the street, so they dispersed and retreated to the houses on the street and continued to resist.

The musketeers who had retreated across the creek bridge did not just leave. Instead, they guarded the bridgehead on the south side of the creek bridge and fired at Jiangshe City with their muskets. The two cannons mounted under the bridge also bombarded the houses on the opposite bank with one shot after another.

After the Taiping Army's "three-axe" attack, it seemed that it had lost its momentum. The child soldiers seemed to be frightened by the two cannons on the south bank of the stream and did not dare to approach the wooden bridge and the north bank of the stream. They did not have any long-range weapons, so they had to capture some prisoners, carry the bodies of their brothers and the wounded, and retreat into the town.

As for the "new brothers" who spoke with a Hunan accent, their fighting power was obviously limited. They rushed into several houses occupied by Feng Zicai's soldiers, but were beaten out. Then they had no strength to attack again, and they just held some nearby houses and fought off the Qing army.

As a result, the battle in Jiangshe City fell into a stalemate after the Qing army commander Feng Zicai "died". Now it depends on whose reinforcements will arrive first!
On the official road on the south bank of the noisy stream, a small group of cavalry hurried up. The leading officer showed a command flag, and the Qing army infantry who were sitting on the ground on the official road hurriedly made way for the small group of cavalry to reach Xiang Rong's central army.

"Xiao Hu, what's going on in Jiangshe City? Did Feng Zicai run into the Changmao Brigade?" Xiang Rong asked a burly and strong young cavalryman.

The young knight's name was Hu Kun Yuan Kun. He was the son of Hu Songlin, a lieutenant general under Xiang Rong. He served as a cavalry captain under Xiang Rong and was extremely brave, which was highly appreciated by Xiang Rong.

"General, I have already checked it out. We did not encounter a large group of long-haired bandits. Instead, we encountered a mob of dozens of child soldiers, a dozen lurking sharpshooters, and two or three hundred newly-joined bandits." Hu Kunyuan Kun said.

"That's it?" Xiang Rong couldn't believe it. "What does Feng Zicai do for a living? He can't even beat this?"

"General, Commander Feng Qian may have died for his country!" Hu Kunyuan Kun showed a sad expression, "Only 47 people from the Changsheng Yong Battalion escaped and are guarding the south bank of the Xishui River. The others are trapped in Jiangshe Town and are fighting with the Taiping rebels. According to the brothers of the Changsheng Yong Battalion who withdrew, Commander Feng Qian was killed by a bomb thrown by the Taiping rebels!"

"How is this possible?" Xiang Rong was shocked, and a very ominous premonition came to his mind.

"General, the long-haired man is very powerful. Why don't we withdraw to Yisuhe City first?"

The one who proposed the withdrawal was a sturdy man with a northwestern accent and a scar on his cheek, looking a bit fierce. He was Liu Changqing, who had followed Xiang Rong out of Sichuan to suppress bandits and turned the Sichuan North Town General into a "reformed General".

Although they looked fierce, they did not have much fighting spirit and retreated before they even encountered the main force of the Taiping Army.

Xiang Rong wanted to nod in agreement, but reason prevailed over impulse, and he rolled his eyes at Liu Changqing: "Sai Zhongtang asked us to come and rescue Cheng Zhijun, and now we've been ambushed and are retreating after losing less than a hundred men? We have eight thousand men!"

So the death toll is lower?

Liu Changqing was speechless.

"General, let's deploy the army, set up the cannons, and send the entire army to attack Jiangshe City. If we can take Jiangshe City as a stronghold, it will be easy to rescue Xiangtan County from siege."

The one who made the suggestion this time was a thin military officer with a smoky face. He was also a general, and a "real vacancy" general! He was the general of Yongzhou Town, not a candidate, nor a deposed one. It's just that there is no Yongzhou Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty now. Yongzhou Prefecture now belongs to Feng Yunshan.
"That's better!" Xiang Rong knew that this plan was not very good, but he still frowned and said, "Pass the order, set up the battle array on the south bank of the stream, set up all our cannons, and fire hard!
We will make dozens of rafts and prepare to cross the stream from both sides of Jiangshe City to encircle the Taiping rebels!
Pass on my order again, each camp must select the vanguard to reward them with five taels of silver, and provide them with plenty of foreign cigarettes, wine and meat. Anyone who has the merit of being the first to reach the summit will be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver!
Anyone who cuts off the enemy's head will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver!"

Finally, Xiang Rong glanced at the deputy generals and lieutenant generals who were lacking confidence, and tried to speak in an encouraging tone: "Everyone, now the government troops have gathered around Changsha, with a total strength of no less than 50,000, while the pseudo-angel Luo Nizhi has only 20,000 troops at most. 50,000 against 20,000, the advantage is on my side. As long as we attack firmly and fight bravely, the government troops will win!"

(End of this chapter)