Chapter 90: Grabbing the fish belly and beating it
Chapter 90: Grabbing the fish belly and beating it
When Shao Quanzhong arrived at the battlefield, the situation was slightly different from what he had just seen.
Prince Gan and Prince Shi switched positions. Hong Renxuan's five thousand men led the attack on the city, while Li Shixian took command of the central army.
The two men agreed that there would be 500 people in each attack wave. After Li Shixian attacked ten waves, Hong Renxuan would take over, for a total of 20 waves. The maximum loss would be about 2,000 people. Each stall could withstand 1,000 people, and if they couldn't win, they would retreat.
Shao Quanzhong commented that Hong Renxuan led a group of cowardly soldiers, and it was really hard to tell when they were attacking the city.
The morale of the siege team, which consisted of 500 people in a wave, was high. Four ladders were placed on the city wall. The Taiping soldiers shouted "May God bless you and may God kill the Qing monsters" and kept climbing the ladders to the city wall, one after another.
When Shao Quanzhong said that Hong Renxuan's soldiers were bad, he was referring to their training level and organizational discipline. The quality of individual soldiers was still quite high.
King Gan has great power and can be selected first when recruiting soldiers. His subordinates are all strong and devout men, so there is no problem with their appearance.
Now that King Gan is personally at the front line supervising the battle, the soldiers are bravely fighting, steel knives in their mouths, climbing up the ladders.
On the city wall, Feng Zicai personally commanded the defense of the city. Gold juice was poured everywhere, logs and stones were rolled, and black powder pottery grenades fell like raindrops.
Occasionally, the Taiping Army vanguards who rushed to the top of the city were immediately besieged by Feng Zicai's personal soldiers and could not gain a foothold.
People on the city wall fired at the people below, with smoke from muskets billowing and arrows flying everywhere.
The reserve troops for the siege below the city also shot arrows at the city, suppressed the city with musket fire, and strong grenadiers threw grenades onto the city.
King Gan beat the drum himself. The battle was extremely fierce, with more than a thousand corpses piled under the city wall.
Shao Hengzhong asked, "Should we still attack the enemy's center?"
"To attack the enemy's front line, just attack Hong Renxuan's troops!"
Hong Renxuan was born into a rural family as a teacher, and later taught Chinese to missionaries in Hong Kong.
Not all teachers can become masters of strategy and military tactics. Hong Renxuan does not have this talent.
They know a little about domestic affairs when learning from the West, but they know nothing about fighting a war, and they are forced to lead troops.
Shao Quanzhong also employed his confidants, but he was very strict in selecting them when he was sworn brotherhood with them, and unqualified blood relatives were not allowed to lead troops.
His younger brother is old enough to join the army, but now he is only a platoon leader of the Boy Scouts. When he returns from training and succeeds, he will be of use. If not, Shao Quanzhong plans to let them do procurement or something like that.
I am the younger brother of the king of pop, so naturally I can do everything. Isn't this fooling myself?
Feng Zicai was on the top of the city wall and could see Shao Quanzhong's thousand men coming to help without a telescope.
He frowned and said, "Nonsense, if you are annihilated, won't it affect my morale in defending the city?"
He was not worried that if Shao Quanzhong's army was wiped out, Qiao Songnian would cause trouble for him. In fact, he didn't even know the relationship between Shao Quanzhong and Qiao Songnian.
This rough guy who used to sell powerful pills could become a general and rule a region, all by fighting with his sword and gun.
If it weren't for this chaotic world, he would never have made a name for himself and would probably still be performing tricks on the street to make a living.
Suddenly, white smoke was seen coming out of Shao Quanzhong's position far below the city, followed by fire and explosions in Hong Renxuan's army.
Three hundred Hale rockets exploded in the air, shrapnel flew everywhere, and King Gan's troops were immediately thrown into chaos.
Feng Zicai had never read any military books, but he had a talent for seizing opportunities in battle.
When he was a subordinate of Xue Huan, he fought side by side with foreigners. He had seen this thing and understood how they were defeated at Humen and Baliqiao.
The performance of the Huai Army was beyond his expectations. Feng Zicai immediately changed his prejudice against Shao Quanzhong and immediately gave the order, "The cavalry is ready! The reserve broadsword team is ready!" Hong Renxuan did not participate in the Jintian Uprising, but his generals had all seen the Hale Rocket in Jintian.
How could the logistics, talents and resources of the Qing army in Guangxi at that time compare to those of Jiangsu, a rich and prosperous place?
At that time, Ding Gongchen had to use the limited resources he had to make cannons, matchlock rifles, large lifting poles, and gunpowder. His energy was dispersed, and he only trial-produced dozens of Hale rockets.
Dozens of rockets that were impossible to aim at were completely useless, so the people around him reported to Hong Renxuan that the small force that came to harass from the flank had useless gadgets.
Who knew that this time they would send out 300 of them in one wave?
Hong Renxuan's men were cursing loudly and were trying to discipline their troops when another three hundred rockets exploded in the air.
The soldiers under Shao Hengzhong carried the rockets onto the launch pad. They didn't even need to aim, and it only took a few seconds to light them.
King Gan's troops still fought in the medieval style, with swords, spears, bows and arrows, and muskets, and they lined up to shoot people. The more concentrated the troops were, the better, and the queue was quite dense.
By the time the third wave of rockets exploded in King Gan's army, more than a thousand of the 4,500 soldiers in the front army, excluding the 500 soldiers who were attacking the city, had been killed, and more than two thousand were injured by shrapnel and lost their combat effectiveness.
The banners of King Gan were all burned, but King Gan himself - perhaps he was really blessed by God and his elder brother - was not hit by shrapnel, but his yellow satin embroidered with gold dragon robes caught fire and his beard was singed.
Hong Renxuan turned his horse around and ran.
The commander fled, and his men followed suit, fleeing in a disorderly manner, in completely disarray.
More than a thousand disorderly soldiers and more than two thousand wounded soldiers rushed into Li Shixian's team behind them, not even following the rule that defeated soldiers should go around the formation. Hong Renxuan's shortcoming of not being able to lead troops was magnified to the fullest.
Li Shixian still had 4,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and he was supporting the central army. He had already planned to retreat quickly as Hong Renxuan would not be able to capture the city. However, his formation was disrupted by Hong Renxuan's chaotic attack.
Li Shixian was quite good at fighting. He drew his sword and shouted, "Kill those who charge into the formation!"
Some of the rebels were killed, but you can't kill the King of Gan as well, right? It was a mess.
Hong Renxuan's team no longer needed to fight, as the last three hundred rockets hit Li Shixian's formation.
The effect was much worse. Li Shixian's soldiers were in chaos, but his generals suppressed the rebellion together and were restoring order.
The King of Attendants swung his goose-feather knife and said, "Kill! Destroy this harassing force!"
He personally led 800 of his personal guards who were not in disorder and attacked the Zhong camp.
Since the rockets were fired, the Zhong Camp had been trotting forward with guns in hand, shouting, "Capture Hong Renxuan alive," and lined up to charge towards King Gan's defeated soldiers.
Seeing Hong Renxuan fleeing into Li Shixian's camp, Li Shixian reorganized his troops to intercept him. Zhang Siwen heard Shao Quanzhong's order and blew a whistle. All the men in the Zhong camp lay down, white smoke rose, and sixty or seventy people around Li Shixian fell down.
The personal guards blew the horn, and five hundred soldiers from the Loyalty Camp jumped up and started charging with bayonets in hand.
After the soldiers from the Heng Camp behind him launched their rockets, they had no chance to fire their guns, so they simply pointed their bayonets and formed a second wave of attack.
Li Shixian still had a little over 700 personal soldiers left, and he had to fight hand-to-hand with 1,000 Huai Army soldiers with bayonets. It looked like a tough battle, but suddenly there was chaos behind Li Shixian, and his personal soldiers shouted, "Long live the prince, Feng Zicai has come out to kill us!"
Hong Renxuan's troops were defeated, and the soldiers attacking the city immediately lost all morale. They abandoned their ladders and turned around to flee.
The south gate of Zhenjiang City was wide open. Feng Zicai lived up to Shao Quanzhong's expectations and personally led 200 cavalrymen to rush out.
The main force of the King's Guards was attacked by Hong Renxuan's defeated soldiers and hit by 300 rockets, and had not yet recovered order.
Behind him were two thousand reserve soldiers with broadswords. On the battlefield, shouts of "Capture Hong Renxuan alive" were heard everywhere.
(End of this chapter)