The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 456: Lying down to meet the enemy? What kind of tactic is this? (Please subscribe, please vote)
November 10, 1854, afternoon.

East of Banzhang Mountain and north of Qianshan waterway.

After a long march, the 14,000-strong Qing army led by Jierhanga and Ye Mingchen finally arrived at the battlefield from Xiangshan County, where they started early this morning. Then they began their early tactical moves. Four thousand Guangdong militiamen were deployed in battalions, forming ten square formations in front of the main force of the Qing army to cover the main force behind. Each battalion offered a special reward and recruited some death warriors to attack the Crusader positions with the cross flag flying in front.

These "death warriors" were still afraid to really die, and they all fired at the Crusader positions from a distance. The gunshots sounded sparse, just like a group of children playing with firecrackers, one after another, without stopping.

The magistrate of Xiangshan County was also not idle. He led two or three thousand militiamen and followed the Qing army group. They were close to the two villages of Tanjiawei and Xiaochangwei, and a small river that flowed into the Qianshan waterway. They helped the Qing army soldiers set up camp, make fires and cook. They were as busy as a group of nannies and old women.

As for the remaining Eight Banners and Green Camp soldiers, they were scattered like headless flies in the large paddy fields south of Tanjiawei and Xiaochangwei. They found groups of paths in the fields or drier places and lay there smoking opium. They looked like a group of drug addicts who had found paradise.

Jierhanga and Ye Mingchen did not have this "hobby". Under the protection of Goshha and several trusted generals, they sneaked close to the front line, like thieves, took out a Western telescope, and looked at the cross flag. When they looked at it, they were stunned because they did not see any enemies!
Ye Mingchen put down the telescope and asked Zhang Jingxiu, the leader of the militia and the provincial governor of Guangxi, who was beside him: "Depu, where are the enemies? Why can we only see flags but no people? Are they playing the empty city trick?"

Zhang Jingxiu, a middle-aged man as thin as a stick, was a big landlord in Dongguan, Guangdong. His Keyuan Garden was one of the four famous gardens in Guangdong. This guy had money but nowhere to spend it, so he bought an official position for fun. He was an old acquaintance of Su Sanniang and Luo Dagang. When the two rebelled in Guangxi, he happened to be an official there. He also relied on the trick of "multiplying merit by ten" to be promoted from county magistrate to prefect. Later, Su Sanniang and Luo Dagang, who were "suppressed" by him once, ran to join Hong Xiuquan and started the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Guangxi together. When he saw that Guangxi was in chaos, he used the excuse of his brother's death to go home to "mourning" - "mourning" for his brother. The brotherly love was really beyond words. Not long after "mourning" at home, he saw that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was about to leave Guangxi, so he quickly recruited 300 Dongguan fellow villagers, patted his butt and ran to Guangxi to make merit again. Because he "recovered" a lot of territory, he has now become the Guangxi Provincial Surveillance Commissioner and has a reputation for being good at fighting.

Ye Mingchen was beaten badly by the Taiping Army and the Red Army a while ago, so he seconded this local militia leader from Guangdong to command the Guangdong militia to help. A while ago, he also followed Jierhanga in a "great victory" in Shaozhou...

At this moment, Zhang Jingxiu, who could "report merits by multiplying ten", frowned when he heard Ye Mingchen's question. He thought to himself: I didn't see any enemies, isn't that a good thing? If there were only enemies ahead, how dangerous it would be!
"Reporting to the commander," Zhang Jingxiu did not dare to tell the truth to Lord Ye, so he pointed to a "low dam" in front of him that was built by someone unknown and said, "Do you see that low dam in front? It's very long and looks like a river bank. The cross-shaped rebels are hiding behind it! If you look carefully, there are two rows of things that look like fences in front of the low dam. They are chevaux de frise, specially used to prevent our cavalry from charging through."

"Really?" Ye Mingchen raised the telescope and took a look. It seemed to be true. But he felt something was wrong. "The dam looks too low. It's not possible for people to hide behind it. Could it be lying down and waiting for us?"

Jierhanga, who was standing nearby, was also looking through a telescope. When he heard what Ye Mingchen said, he burst out laughing: "How can you fight the enemy while lying down? Are you going to shrink your head like a turtle?"

Hardly had he finished speaking when several flashes of gunfire suddenly appeared from behind the low dam opposite. Two Guangdong militiamen who were firing blindly with muskets fell to the ground as if their muscles had been pulled out.

This time, Jierhanga was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. He put down the telescope and muttered, "There are people who actually lie down to fight the enemy! I am impressed by this fighting method!"

Ye Mingchen frowned: "The Crusaders are lying down and shooting, and our people can't seem to hit them. What should we do?"

"Hey," Gilhanga smiled, "How can you load bullets while lying down? Even if their barrels are shorter, you have to squat to load them. How can you load them while lying down? Even if you can load them, it will take a long time to load one round. It's a lot of effort."

As if to back up Jierhanga's words, the Crusaders behind the earthen dam fired a dozen shots sporadically. Although they were quite accurate and knocked down seven or eight Guangdong militiamen, their firepower was like tickling, and was completely incomparable to the Guangdong militiamen who were harassing them. The Guangdong militiamen fired four or five shots before the other side could only fire back one shot.

Jierhanga observed for a while, then turned to Ye Mingchen and said, "General Ye, is that enough? Tell the brothers to withdraw, push the cannons up, and bomb them to pieces... When we bombard the English Mi to occupy the Banzhang Mountain Heights, we will let the militia and the Green Camp brothers take turns to charge." He pointed to the two rows of chevaux de frise in front and said, "As long as the militia and the Green Camp brothers clear out some of the chevaux de frise and open a gap, my cavalry will be able to charge freely. Lying on the ground can't stop my cavalry!" Ye Mingchen didn't know much about fighting, so of course he listened to the Guangzhou general Jierhanga. He nodded vigorously and said to Zhang Jingxiu, "Liang Fu, tell your men to retreat first, defend the main formation, and cover the artillery team!"

"twitter!"

Following Jirhanga's order, it was as if a thunderbolt tore through the sky, and the artillery battle on the front line north of Qianjiang waterway officially started without any warning!
Twenty-one nine-pound foreign cannons that had been brought from Guangzhou with great difficulty were now being pushed onto the battlefield along the official roads and the roads in the fields. Each cannon was like a beast ready to go, with its muzzle pointing at the "low dam" in the south and the low mound behind it, as if it was going to raze it to the ground in the next second.

The Eight Banners and Green Camp gunners, who had already smoked enough opium, had crazy and excited eyes, and were all full of energy. With trembling hands, they quickly pushed round shells into the barrels, and then ignited the fire line at the end of the barrel without hesitation. In an instant, each gun muzzle was like a dragon spewing flames, and the roar was so loud that it hurt people's ears.

The Qing army's artillery was deployed at a close distance, less than two miles from the "low dam". They thought they had occupied an excellent position, but they didn't know that at this distance, the Crusaders' 1851 rifled guns could hardly threaten them, but their direct fire could also hardly reach the Crusaders squatting in the trenches. How could direct firepower hit the enemies in the trenches? That would require indirect fire cannons, but the Qing army didn't know how to operate that thing at all.

Therefore, although the 21 cannons roared loudly and the scene seemed to be full of vigor, most of the shells just whizzed past the heads of the Crusaders in vain. Only a few shells were lucky enough to hit the sandbags, but what was the use? The nine-pound shells hit the thick sandbags, like a stone sinking into the sea, and were directly "swallowed" by them, without even a bit of debris being blasted out.

The Qing army's bombardment lasted for about an hour, firing more than a thousand shells. In the blink of an eye, more than half of the ammunition they brought to Xiangshan had been used up. At this time, the artillery position was full of ammunition boxes printed with English, and it was a mess. Suddenly, a sharp and piercing gong sounded suddenly, and the sound of the artillery gradually subsided.

Zhang Jingxiu, the leader of the militia, suddenly waved his sleeves, and the movement seemed to carry a great force. Several strong men with green cloth wrapped around their heads immediately understood what he meant and quickly raised a huge "Zhang" flag. When the battalion commanders and team officers saw the flag, a trace of fierceness flashed in their eyes, and they all drew their swords and pointed forward. In an instant, the militiamen behind him surged out like a tide, rushing forward with great momentum.

At the front of the waterway, Luo Yaoguo and Maria were squatting together in a very solid artillery fort. This artillery fort was so strong that even an 18-pound smoothbore cannon, not to mention a 9-pound smoothbore cannon with twice the power, could hardly cause any damage to it.

However, at this moment, Luo Yaoguo carefully poked half of his head out from behind the sandbag, but his brows were tightly furrowed. There was almost no wind in the Qianshan waterway today, and the thick smoke produced by the Qing army's artillery bombardment was not easy to disperse. The entire battlefield was shrouded in smoke, and nothing could be seen clearly. All that could be heard was a series of shouts of "Throwing Thunder Mother" from the opposite side, like surging waves of people, and that sound seemed to shatter the world.

The Crusader infantrymen in the trenches ahead had already quickly climbed up and set up their rifles steadily. But they were strictly disciplined. Although the enemy's shouts were getting closer and closer, no one opened fire without authorization. The officers kept running back and forth on the battlefield, loudly reminding the soldiers below: "No firing without orders!"

Fortunately, the smoke gradually dissipated. When the Crusader officers and soldiers finally saw the enemy's formation clearly, they all couldn't help but gasp.

The number of enemies was beyond imagination! The vast crowd on the opposite side was full of Qing army soldiers wearing blue cloth and uniforms. Eight dense infantry squares were almost tightly pressed together, forming a terrifying "sea of ​​infantry". The entire battlefield was almost filled with these tidal soldiers. A rough estimate was that there were at least four or five thousand people!
Behind these militiamen, there were more Green Camp and Eight Banner soldiers who were ready to charge, and even hundreds of cavalrymen. They rode tall horses, with long swords in their hands flashing coldly in the sun, as if they would crush everything in front of them into powder at any time.

Luo Yaoguo stood inside the fortress, looking at the thrilling scene ahead, and couldn't help muttering in a low voice: "Wow, a one-shot deal is a guts!"

"Your Highness, look there!" Maria's voice suddenly sounded, revealing a hint of nervousness. Luo Yaoguo turned around suddenly and saw her pointing to Banzhang Mountain in the east. Above the mountain, groups of fireworks exploded one after another, appearing particularly eye-catching in the gray sky.

Luo Yaoguo knew that the British were launching their Confrig rockets! This meant that the Banzhang Mountain Heights had already fallen under the control of the British army!
(End of this chapter)