Master Yuan, start!

The 10th Regiment under Tie Liang is nominally a national defense force, but in fact no one in our national defense force has ever regarded him as one of their own. As long as the 5th Regiment arrives in the capital, the 10th Regiment will not be able to cause any major trouble.

When the chief instructor finishes clearing up the miscellaneous matters in the north and then turns south, what will he think of us when he sees us hiding in front of Yangzhou City and not daring to move forward?

Everyone envies the tigers, wolves, cows, foxes and eagles in the National Defense Forces, but these nicknames are not given for nothing.

If we can capture Yangzhou before the Chief Instructor heads south, I can guarantee that the National Defense Army will have another commander with a title!"

Duan Qirui stared at the three people in front of him with sharp eyes.

"Comrade Zhongshan Cao Kun, Comrade Zichun Wang Zhanyuan, Comrade Jing'an Wu Changchun, who will be the sixth commander-in-chief of the National Defense Army? The siege of Yangzhou will reveal the truth!"

Chapter 261: Battle and Defense of Yangzhou (Part )

The rumbling sound of cannons occasionally fell on the moat outside Yangzhou City, causing ripples.

The defense forces of the 7th, 8th and 9th towns fired artillery shells into the city crazily as if they were free.

These three towns were established only after the Anti-Curtain Campaign, and missed the opportune time to make achievements.

So after receiving orders from their superiors, they quickly joined the siege of Yangzhou. The national defense army in blue uniforms kept running towards the city of Yangzhou, as if they wanted to submerge this important city in Jiangbei, Yangzhou, in the huge waves.

The Hunan Army in the defense line was not to be outdone. The sound of gunfire continued to ring out. When they compared the National Defense Army to the Taiping Army, they unconsciously put themselves in the role of the Qing army decades ago.

The Taiping Army's Qin Rigang and Chen Yucheng broke into the Jiangbei camp twice in three years and killed everyone in Yangzhou City.

These Hunan troops were well aware of the massacre that would follow after the Jiangbei camp was breached by the Taiping Army.

Under the cover of the rumbling artillery fire, countless national defense troops shouted slogans and launched a desperate charge towards the Sancha River on the Yangzhou city defense line.

In the sunlight, the blue military uniforms shone with a captivating light.

But often, after just a few moments, their uniforms would be torn into pieces, revealing bright red blood. The soldiers in the trenches would fire indiscriminately, leaving these charging Wehrmacht soldiers to sleep forever on the banks of the Grand Canal.

With a "boom", a cannon on the Yangzhou city wall was destroyed.

However, before the charging soldiers had time to rejoice, new cannons were pulled forward and continued to fire furiously towards the outside of the city.

Although the National Defense Army artillery fired more than a dozen cannons in a row, they could not stop the Hunan Army from supplying more. Facing the Sancha River defense line in front of Yangzhou City and facing Yangzhou City surrounded by water on all sides, they were still helpless.

At this time, Yangzhou was not only able to reach the Yangtze River through the canal. As it was in the summer flood season, Liaojiagou in the east of Yangzhou City could also reach the Yangtze River, and the river was wider than the Grand Canal.

With the French constantly supplying supplies through Liaojiagou water transport, there seemed to be no hope of Yangzhou falling.

But the stormtroopers didn't think so.

"Brothers, follow me! Don't be cowards, don't be useless, destroy these Hunan dogs who are colluding with foreigners!"

The grassroots military commanders led the charge, ignoring the sound of gunfire and cannons, and stepped on the corpses of their comrades to launch the charge.

Most of these national defense forces were recruited into the army in recent years. They can only recognize a few big characters and only know how to write their own names.

These people were not considered high-end talents even in the late 19th century, but their morale and conviction were far beyond the reach of the Hunan Army.

In the political education of the National Defense Army, the Hunan Army under Liu Kunyi was described as a traitorous army that colluded with foreigners.

As for foreigners, the Chinese people in the late 19th century had never had a good impression of them.

In order to arouse the hatred of the soldiers, Yuan Shikai even ordered people to compile the religious incidents that had occurred in various places in recent decades into operas for them to watch.

The performance focused on the Danyang and Wuhu incidents of child trafficking under Liu Kunyi's administration.

Before the division of the North and the South, Liu Kunyi struck hard at the people involved in the religious incidents, never showing mercy. He beheaded anyone he wanted and executed anyone he wanted.

As for foreigners, they often have to pay money and apologize in exchange for forgiveness.

Such actions have long caused dissatisfaction among the people.

After Yuan Xiangcheng compiled these stories into a song and sang it to his generals and soldiers, it naturally aroused their indignation.

This is one of the reasons why the National Defense Army was able to maintain its morale when facing the Hunan Army.

On the other hand, it comes from oneself.

Everyone says that the National Defense Army is the most powerful army in the world, but the word "powerful" only applies to the first six regiments of the National Defense Army.

It was they who captured the French chieftain and defeated the Japanese invaders.

The remaining national defense forces seemed to have always been following behind the first six towns to gain credit, and had never fought any decent tough battles.

So now, the defense forces of the 7th, 8th and 9th Towns are maintaining their glory in their own way.

"I'm not a coward, nor am I a loser who follows the 1st and 2nd towns to eat soup!" Perhaps because of the ridicule of friendly forces, a soldier from the 7th Town shouted out his true feelings.

He didn't want to be seen as a coward, so as long as his superiors were willing, he would dare to charge forward with a rifle!

"I'm not a coward. We're all from Xiangcheng. I won't bring shame to Lord Yuan!" This soldier was one of the soldiers recruited from various parts of Henan by the National Defense Army during its garrison in northern Henan.

"The Hunan Army is a traitor to the country, Liu Kunyi is a traitor to the country. There will never be peace in Jiangdong until the Hunan is eliminated!" This was the roar of the National Defense Army soldiers who came from Jiangnan.

Dozens of stormtroopers followed the military commander's lead and sprinted towards the trench in front of them.

The trench in front of Yangzhou City's defense line was not large, but due to the dense network of waterways in the Jiangnan region and the summer flood season, the cavalry was completely useless.

If you want to achieve victory in battle, you must pay with human lives.

The muddy ground was littered with corpses lying all over the place. These were the comrades who had attacked the city today, and there was no time to collect the bodies.

The military commander counted the number of people and ordered the assault troops to form several echelons, advancing towards the trench layer by layer.

However, just when the progress was making great progress, a shout left the team members at a loss.

"The commander has fallen, the commander has fallen!"

Although they had received military training, they were just rookies and could not compare with the veterans.

The military commander who led the charge was knocked to the ground by the Hunan Army. The charge team members were leaderless for a while and didn't know how far to charge. They could only find temporary cover to hide.

The stormtroopers lost their commander on the battlefield, which seemed to indicate that the charge would end in failure.

But immediately afterwards, someone rushed to the military commander who was spitting blood, quickly stripped off the red armband from his body, and put it on his own left arm.

"I am the temporary political instructor of the stormtroopers. All stormtroopers, listen to my command. Everyone, after 10 breaths, sprint forward. After 50 steps, seek cover!"

"Yes!"

Grassroots combat, led by military commanders:

After the death of the military commander, the command was immediately handed over to the political instructor;

If the political instructor unfortunately dies again, the soldier representative will immediately assume command authority and responsibilities.

The three grassroots members of the National Defense Force can ensure to the greatest extent that the National Defense Force does not lose its command power during battle and fall into blind escape.

With a backbone, the stormtroopers once again gathered their passion and charged towards the shallow trench.

Under the leadership of the political instructor, dozens of national defense troops shouting slogans quickly rushed to the trench and fired at the Hunan Army hiding inside.

Under the fusion of iron and fire, the bullets quickly penetrated the chests of the Hunan Army, making them lose the power to resist in an instant.

But the gunshots also exposed the position of the Wehrmacht soldiers.

The Hunan Army in the trenches reacted and fired back with their guns. Fortunately, they did not aim in panic, so the National Defense Army suffered few casualties.

But who would have thought that after the first shot missed, these Hunan Army soldiers drew their swords from their waists and swung them at the National Defense Army's stormtroopers.

How can a body of flesh and blood resist objects made of metal and stone?

White knives go in, red knives come out. Inside the trench, the Wehrmacht stormtroopers who rushed here in a hurry had blood splattered everywhere, and broken limbs were scattered all over the ground.

Seeing that there was no movement in the trench, the Wehrmacht organized a second batch of stormtroopers and rushed towards the defense line.

But at this time, the artillery positions on the walls of Yangzhou City finally came to their senses and stopped firing at the National Defense Army's artillery. Instead, they fired back fiercely in front of the trench.

This time, before the second batch of stormtroopers could get close to the trench, they were killed by the whistling artillery fire.

The Wehrmacht's initial charge failed.

As the military commander of the third assault team, Bai Lang lay quietly by the canal, silently calculating the frequency of artillery fire in Yangzhou City in his mind.

As the first infantryman to rush into Huai'an City, Bai Lang was directly promoted from a private to the captain of the company because of his merit in being the first to reach the city.

After giving the order to attack Yangzhou City, Bai Lang immediately stepped forward and expressed his willingness to be the vanguard to open a gap for the National Defense Army.

But when he really reached the city, he realized how difficult the situation was.

Thinking of this, Bai Lang stared at the calm canal passing through the city of Yangzhou, and made a plan in his mind.

...

On the other side, in Yangzhou City, Li Guangjiu looked at the fearless National Defense Army in front of him and couldn't help but yelled:

"Who told you to engage in a bombardment with the Wehrmacht? More than a dozen artillery pieces were blown up at once. Do you think you're setting off firecrackers? Damn it! I really want to kick you off the city wall!"

The artillery captain, whose face was covered in spit and had marks of blackened gunpowder, lowered his head and dared not say a word.

The field artillery on land and the artillery on the city wall were firing at each other. From anyone's point of view, the artillery on the city wall had the upper hand, but who would have thought that the National Defense Army would not hesitate to expose its own artillery positions in order to blow up the artillery positions on the Yangzhou city wall.

"Fortunately, you were smart enough to see the Wehrmacht take advantage of the situation and sneak into the trenches, aiming their guns at the death squads. Otherwise, the defense line outside the city would have been lost today.

Ling, guard Yangzhou City well. In the future, I will ask General Xian to guarantee that you will be promoted to the lowest rank three levels and rewarded with at least 500 taels of silver.

Lin, come on, stop engaging the Wehrmacht's artillery fire and get down there and defend!"

7 "Yes!"

As a veteran of the Hunan Army who had experienced the suppression of the Mao Zedong Rebellion and the Taiping Rebellion, Li Guangjiu was not polite at all to his subordinates, and his subordinates seemed to have long been accustomed to it. They did not dare to talk back and allowed themselves to be beaten and scolded.

Uncle: "General Li, he did the right thing, why did you scold him?"

After the artillery commander left, the sound of high-heeled leather boots was heard from inside the house, and a blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigner asked Li Guangjiu questions.

4 The Hunan Army was not the only one guarding Yangzhou City. The French also sent military advisers to command the defense.

The battle was fought because of the support of the French. Yangzhou, a city that was not considered strong, was so difficult for the National Defense Army to defend.

Under normal circumstances, how could the Hunan Army have so many artillery shells to fight against the National Defense Army?

"Colonel Riel, there are differences between China and France." Li Guangjiu frowned when he saw the person in front of him, but he still tried to appear calm and said:

"Cannons blasting against each other, from ancient times to the present, has there ever been a war fought like this?"

Although the French sent military advisers, Li Guangjiu did not fully obey their orders.

If it weren't for the supply of guns, ammunition and so on, who would be willing to listen to a foreigner giving orders?

According to Li Guangjiu's idea, he should have opened the city and launched a wave of attacks before the National Defense Army assembled, instead of foolishly withdrawing all the troops to the vicinity of Yangzhou City and acting like a turtle.

It is too frustrating to passively accept a beating like this. Besides, what's right about exchanging blows with artillery?