Chapter 166: The Fall of Jinling City
Chapter 166: The Fall of Jinling City
"Second brother, Shi Laosan's independent mercenary brigade has arrived here and has been equipped and sent to the front line.
Chen Cheng and Shi Laosan are both masters of military strategy. They can not only win battles, but also minimize losses. So far, the number of mercenaries we have lost is no more than half. "
This is good news. With the King of England and the King of Wings in charge, I feel quite relieved.
"In the early battles between the Confederate Army and the Northern Army, McClellan, the commander of the Northern Army, was an academic, too cautious, pursued perfection in preparation, and was afraid of losses, which led to the loss of many opportunities.
Earlier this year, McClellan was fired by President Lincoln and replaced by the radical General Sherman.
Sherman's men had poor discipline, and he was the only one who was cruel and murderous. After he became the commander-in-chief of the Union Army, the Union Army began to implement the strategy of "total war", burning all the buildings in the occupied areas and letting his soldiers kill and loot freely, in order to destroy the economic foundation of the Confederate Army and deter the forces that split America.
Originally, our mercenaries, except for Zhang Hanchen's troops, had strict military discipline, while Chen Cheng and Shi Laosan's troops had strict military discipline. But now they were ordered to rob, burn, kill and loot, and their military discipline was corrupted in an instant.
It is estimated that after the war, there will be hundreds of thousands of babies of Asian descent born in the United States...
I am deeply disturbed by this. This division and brigade are no longer suitable for recalling to fight in the country. This is a great loss for my second brother. I am trying to figure out where to send these mercenaries after the war, but there is no plan yet.
Brother Sven. New York, May 3, 1864."
Shao Quanzhong threw his military cap on the table and said, "Fuck you! These American barbarians are such a piece of shit. They corrupted the good soldiers of King Ying and King Yi and turned them into beasts. We are losing a lot of money."
Hu Liuniang was stunned. "The American barbarians are indeed beasts in human clothing. They look so elegant, but they don't care about human affairs. They even adopt a scorched earth policy in their own country's civil war?"
Shao Quanzhong shook his head. "The Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Army are in a very similar situation. Yangzhou has been massacred by both sides several times. If Zeng Guoquan didn't massacre the city after Nanjing was captured, I would have taken his surname. But our Huai Army can't follow suit. King Ying and King Yi are so good at fighting. We won't be able to use them in the future. No, I have to ask Heward for more money to make up for my losses."
Hu Liuniang covered her mouth and laughed, "Yuting, aren't you planning to fight the Japanese devils and the Russians? They are not needed in China, so it should be okay for you to send them to help you fight the devils, right?"
Shao Quanzhong felt a little comforted. "Sixth Lady, you have a good brain. It's OK to let them harm the Japanese pirates and the Russians. But the American-foreign civil war cannot be fought forever. I can't go to war with the Japanese pirates and the Russians for a while. How to deal with them is really worrying me."
"Report! Fifty Williams rapid-fire cannons copied from Hailing Arsenal and a large number of one-pound shells and propellant powder produced by Wen's Arsenal have arrived."
Finally, there was good news. Shao Quanzhong waved his hand and said, "Reduce the number of soldiers returning to Fengyang for rest by 200. Expand the establishment of two cannon rapid-fire artillery companies in the artillery reinforcement battalion and start training on the use of this new weapon immediately!"
The artillery position was filled with smoke and steam, and the sound of rapid-fire cannons "bang bang bang bang" was heard incessantly, marking the beginning of a new round of training.
Since the Huai Army joined the battlefield, many hot air balloons have been floating in the sky over Nanjing, which has become a landscape on the front line.
The Hunan Army could not detect the movements of the Huai Army. On the Huai Army's hot air balloon, scouts carried telescopes and had a clear view of the battlefield situation everywhere. Even Hong Xiuquan's harem could be seen clearly. The entire battlefield was one-way transparent to the Huai Army.
Zeng Guoquan asked the Huai Army for hot air balloons, but was told that the Hailing Arsenal had limited production capacity and no extra ones, and was unable to supply friendly forces. In short, they were not given any.
Without Shao the Butcher, we would not eat mixed-hair pigs. The Hunan Army had already ordered a hot air balloon from the French in Shanghai, but they did not know when it would arrive, and it was estimated that it would not arrive in time for the fall of Nanjing.
In the Huai Army's temporary front-line command post, the sound of telegrams was heard constantly, and intelligence from various reconnaissance units was continuously summarized in the hands of Shao Quanzhong and Zhang Zhidong.
"The Taiping troops in the city had run out of food, and Hong Xiuquan began to take the lead in eating 'sweet dew' grass balls to fill their stomachs."
"Due to lack of food, people in Jinling City are eating each other. It is extremely miserable. Soldiers on the front line have lost a lot of combat effectiveness. There are no more than 10,000 soldiers who can fight."
"The entire Taiping Army in Nanjing City is in mourning. Hong Xiuquan has passed away. According to analysis, he died of poisoning from poisonous grass. Li Xiucheng helped the young emperor Hong Tianguifu to succeed to the throne."
Shao Quanzhong and Zhang Zhidong smiled at each other. Nanjing was about to fall, and the time to reap the fruits of victory had finally come. Shao Quanzhong slapped the table and said, "Stop the rest of the troops. All of you should be on alert and ready to enter the city at any time!"
Zhang Zhidong chuckled, "Hong Xiuquan is dead, his head is worthless. After we enter the city, we have to choose our main target. My lord, you have to choose between money or official positions. We can't have both."
"Of course I want an official position."
"What if the money is 48 million taels?"
Shao Quanzhong was stunned, "Can we swallow so much money?"
Zhang Zhidong held up a stack of papers and said, "This is the external intelligence that Jiang Chunlin sent me earlier. I sorted it out from it. My lord, please take a look."
After reading the intelligence, Shao Quanzhong slid around several times with his hands behind his back and grabbed Zhang Zhidong by the collar, "You must give me a good idea. I want both money and official position!"
He turned around and ordered, "Go, call Lao Ge, and have him work with Chief of Staff Zhang to formulate a plan for after entering the city. The two of them are not allowed to leave the headquarters, and they will not be given food or allowed to go to the toilet unless they come up with a plan to gain both money and official positions!"
"My lord, my lord, there is no need to bother. I have a plan."
"Sixth Lady, give the Louis XIII that Military Advisor Kai Xihuade gave me."
…………
As the Taiping Army's combat effectiveness in the city was continuously weakened by food shortages, on May 30, the second year of the Tongzhi reign, the Hunan Army captured "Dibao City", also known as the "Dragon's Neck" after a bloody battle, and built dozens of artillery batteries on the mountain to suppress the firepower of the Taiping Army in the city.
At the same time, a large amount of reeds and wormwood were filled between the foot of Longbozi Mountain and the city wall, covered with sand, and made it as high as the city.
Half a month later, the Hunan Army was basically ready for the general offensive, with the goal of breaking through the city - Taiping Gate.
On the night of June 15, Li Xiucheng led more than a thousand of the last elite Taiping troops, disguised as Hunan troops, and rushed out of the Taiping Gate, intending to destroy the tunnels dug by the Hunan troops to blow up the city, but failed and retreated.
On June 16, the main force of the Hunan Army gathered outside Taiping Gate. At noon, the tunnel was completed, hundreds of thousands of kilograms of black gunpowder exploded, and Taiping Gate collapsed.
Zeng Guoquan led the Hunan Army to attack from both the city wall and the collapsed city gate.
The Taiping Army's 7,000 combat-capable soldiers gathered at the Taiping Gate, where they fought the final bitter battle with the Hunan Army.
For a moment, there was a burst of gunfire, gunpowder barrels flew everywhere, and the bodies of the Hunan Army and the Taiping Army were everywhere.
At Taiping Gate, the battle between the Hunan Army and the Taiping Army entered a fierce stage.
At the same time, Zhang Jigen, the commander of the Shence Gate, surrendered the city.
Except for Zhang Jigen's 3,000 loyal subordinates, there were no Taiping Army defending here, so the Huai Army was like a fish in water.
Lin Bozi, with a white cloth wrapped around his head, looked like a Japanese pirate. He held a command knife in his hand and led the Bo Battalion, the right wing of the Huai Army's infantry, and was the first to charge into the city of Nanjing.
(End of this chapter)