1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 375 Great Victory

This leading force of the Taiping Army, which went to Yangzhou to attack the Jiangbei camp, advanced lightly and did not carry heavy weapons.

As for the cavalry, Wei Changhui brought more than a thousand cavalry.

However, these cavalrymen were the treasures of Wei Changhui and Wei Jun, and they were reluctant to use them.

Therefore, the first wave of troops attacking Yueyong were all light infantry.

These attacking Taiping soldiers were dressed in a variety of clothes, armed with weapons such as knives, guns, nails, rakes, pitchforks and axes, as well as a small number of muskets captured from the Green Camp soldiers. Under the leadership of two division commanders, they slowly approached Yue Yong's position.

The march of more than 4,000 people gave the soldiers of Shanzi Camp a great sense of oppression. This was their first time participating in actual combat. They had never seen such a formation before.

Almost everyone's heart was in their throats, including Liang Shaoqiong.

The one with the best mentality was the artillery team. The mercenaries of the artillery team didn't take these medieval armies-like enemies seriously at all, believing that it only took a few rounds of shelling to destroy the morale of the enemy on the opposite side.

"1500 meters!"

"1400 meters!"

"1300 meters! Fire!"

Artillery Captain Jorgensen estimated the distance between the Taiping Army and their position.

The two types of Sacramento rifled guns they equipped have a maximum effective range of 1,300 meters to 1,500 meters.

After the Taiping Army entered the effective firing range of 1,300 meters, Jorgensen ordered to open fire without hesitation.

20 cannons fired at almost the same time.

20 explosive bombs drew a beautiful curve in the sky, and finally landed in the Taiping Army formation and exploded.

Since it was the first round of school firing, and the opponent was at the maximum firing range, Jorgensen thought the hit rate of this round of shelling was not only satisfactory, but only 3 to 4 explosive bombs hit, and one of them seemed to

It misfired and did not cause large-scale damage to the attacking Taiping Army.

The hit rate is only relative. Jorgensen felt that the accuracy of artillery fire was not satisfactory, but from the Taiping Army's perspective, it was incredible that artillery fire from 2 miles away could still hit.

"Don't panic! After this round, when Qingyao is reloaded, we will rush to these Qingyao formations! Qingyao won't be able to fire more rounds!" said the Taiping Army commander who personally pressed the formation.

The firing of the Yue Yong Artillery Team actually made the Taiping Army generals breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, the opponent was a country warrior. He fired a cannon two miles away. He was so impatient that when he rushed to their formation, he saw that these country warriors were beautiful. These country warriors were simply military merits sent to them by Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother.

The two Taiping Army commanders who were responsible for commanding the attack were secretly happy.

The commander-in-chief of the Taiping Army was not happy for a long time. Accompanied by a piercing scream of artillery shells, the Guangdong Yong Artillery Team had launched a second round of shelling.

This time, more than half of the artillery shells accurately landed in the advancing Taiping Army and exploded among them.

Due to the limited fragmentation capacity of the early explosive bombs, they only caused at least 60 to 70 Taiping casualties.

But this was already a considerable casualty, and there was quite a commotion among the Taiping troops. Fortunately, many of these Taiping troops were veterans, and they still withstood the bombardment and still maintained their advancing formation.

However, the two Taiping Army brigade commanders who commanded the attack couldn't help but feel a little bit in their hearts, with a vague premonition.

Wang Shu saw through the telescope that the Taiping Army withstood the second round of bombardment, and he was also impressed by this Taiping Army.

Judging from the current situation, the performance of the Taiping Army is stronger than that of the Japanese Shogunate Army, but it is not known whether these Taiping Army can withstand several rounds of bombardment.

As the Taiping Army continued to approach, the number of casualties of the Taiping Army rose sharply.

After five rounds of shelling, the Taiping Army's casualties exceeded 400 people.

However, this time the Taiping Army committed only more than 5,000 troops in the attack, and the casualty ratio was close to 10%. Wei Changhui and Wei Jun had to send cavalry to supervise the battle from behind, killing deserters before they could barely stabilize their position.

When the Taiping Army, which suffered heavy casualties, was only about 150 meters away from Guangdong Yong's defense line, Wang Shu, the battalion officer of Shanzi Camp, blew his whistle.

Fifteen hundred muskets fired at almost the same time.

A burst of thick gunpowder smoke suddenly rose in front of Shanziying's formation, obscuring the sight of the soldiers of Shanziying.

The thick gunpowder smoke that stung the eyes made Liang Shaoqiong cough and shed tears. However, at this time, Liang Shaoqiong could no longer care about his physical discomfort. Instead, he quickly loaded the gun and pulled the trigger through the gunpowder smoke that had not dissipated, and shot towards the enemy as quickly as possible.

Metal projectiles were thrown into the Taiping Army formation.

At this time, the artillery team also replaced the original explosive shells with shotgun shells under Jorgensen's order. After stuffing two cans of shotshells into each cannon, they poured raindrops of shotshells towards the Taiping Army.

From time to time, sporadic stray bullets hit the sandbags in front of them, sending up a cloud of dust.

An unlucky soldier next to Liang Shaoqiong was hit in the arm by a stray bullet and fell to the ground with a miserable cry.

The military doctor accompanying the army bent over and took out a first-aid kit to bandage the wound of the wounded soldier skillfully. While bandaging the wounded soldier to stop the bleeding, he said: "It's just an arm injury. At most, it will be amputated, and I won't die."

Not long after, the cavalry sentry in charge of reconnaissance came back and reported to Wang Shu: "Officer Wang Ying! Official Wang Ying! The long hair is gone! The long hair is gone!"

"Stop shooting!"

After confirming that Changmao had been repelled, Wang Shu ordered to stop shooting.

When the wind blew away the gunpowder smoke surrounding the soldiers of Shanzi Camp, the view ahead gradually became clearer.

What caught everyone's eyes were the Taiping soldiers who were in disarray and retreating like a tidal wave.

Just win?

At this time, the Yue Yong soldiers looked at the defeated Taiping Army in disbelief, unable to believe that what was happening in front of them was real.

The victory came so easily that most soldiers could not believe it was true.

"We win!"

Someone suddenly shouted, and then the battlefield was filled with cheers like a roaring tsunami from the Cantonese warriors.

"We win!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Liang Shaoqiong looked up to the sky and smiled like crazy, laughing, and his tears and snot flowed out involuntarily.

Even he himself didn't know whether the tears and snot were choked by the smoke, or forced out by excitement.

Liang Shaoqiong knew that as long as the Taiping Army's first wave of attacks were repelled and the Taiping Army saw the power of Yue Yong, the Taiping Army's subsequent offensive would slow down, and even a direct retreat would not be impossible.

They have already won half of this battle, and now it depends on how the Taiping Army chooses.

Should we continue to carry out meaningless attacks, or should we retreat directly?

"Liang Shuai!"

The war came to an end for the time being, and Wang Shu came to Liang Shaoqiong to report to Liang Shaoqiong.

"What are the casualties among the soldiers?"

Liang Shaoqiong took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears and snot from his face, straightened his appearance and asked.

"Two soldiers were killed and seven soldiers were injured, all caused by stray bullets." Wang Shu replied, "The soldiers of Shanzi Camp are all good."

Compared with the results achieved and the casualties of the Taiping Army on the opposite side, their losses were almost negligible.

The only thing that made Wang Shu feel distressed was that one of the soldiers killed in the battle was a non-commissioned officer.

"Yaoxie! Yaoxie! These Qingyao must have used evil things!"

The attack was frustrated, which made the 6,000-year-old Wei Changhui of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom furious.

The performance of this country warrior completely exceeded his expectations. The artillery can hit people two miles away, and the fire gun still maintains a very high hit rate from a hundred steps away. The rate of fire is ridiculously fast, which is not peaceful at all.

The army can bear it.

Wei Changhui knew in his heart that this Xiangyong from Guangdong must be equipped with foreign muskets and artillery. After all, Guangzhou had been the only foreign trade port of the Qing Dynasty for a long time, so it was not impossible for the Guangdong Yong to obtain foreign guns.

The Taiping Army also purchased a batch of foreign guns and cannons from the foreigners in Shanghai. Unfortunately, these foreign guns and cannons have not yet been distributed to his right army.

Although Wei Changhui knew what was going on, Wei Changhui decided to conceal the matter from his soldiers.

In order to appease the morale of the soldiers, Wei Changhui said to everyone.

"Don't panic! We are God's people, and we have God's protection! Wait for me to do something, tell Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly Brother about this, and let Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly destroy the evil treasures and evil gods of Qingyao. There are no evil objects and evil gods.

Bless you, these demons are the fish on our chopping board!"

After hearing what Wei Changhui said, the officers and soldiers of the Taiping Army were convinced. They believed that there were evil things in pure demons.

If there were no evil spirits in the Qing Yao, how could their guns and cannons shoot so accurately? How could they shoot so fast?

Fortunately, Wei Shuaihui saw through these tricks of Qing Yao.

Wei Changhui's younger brother Wei Jun, as a senior leader of the Taiping Army, understood that his brother was deceiving himself.

There were no evil gods or monsters, it was just that the country warriors in front of them this time were equipped with foreign guns and cannons, and they were particularly good at fighting.

However, worshiping God will be the basis of their rule in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Even if it is absurd to fool people with spiritual elixirs, Wei Jun, as a member of the rulers, can only choose to believe, at least on the surface, this theory.

Wei Jun arranged the incense table for Wei Changhui and performed the spiritual ceremony.

The so-called Heavenly Father refers to God, and Heavenly Brother refers to Jesus.

In April 1848, Yang Xiuqing pretended to be "God descending to earth" for the first time in Yu Ping Mountain, and Xiao Chaogui pretended to be "Brother Heaven descending to earth" for the first time in October of that year. The possession of Heavenly Father from the world became the patent of Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui.

Wei Changhui did not dare to overstep his bounds and allow Brother Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother to possess him to give people a clue. He could only do the next best thing and have spiritual communication with Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly Brother and tell Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly Brother about their current predicament.

Wei Changhui put on a robe-like robe, held a peach wood sword, and shook his head in front of the incense table, pretending to be a ghost, and muttered a bunch of nonsense that he didn't even know the meaning of.

A moment later, as Wei Changhui's body twitched, he suddenly opened his eyes and said to the believers who were kneeling in a circle around him with devout expressions on their faces.

"The pure demons and evil gods have been killed, and the evil objects have been taken away by Brother Tian. Brother Tian said that these demons enveloped the evil gods and used evil objects to cause harm to the world. Everyone will have them and punish them.

Those who kill demons will go to heaven after death."

“Follow the teachings of Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly!”

Wei Jun took the lead and kowtowed to Wei Changhui.

Wei Changhui pretended to be weak and fell down. Wei Jun hurriedly stepped forward to help Wei Changhui: "King of the North!"

"It's okay, it's just that the relationship with Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly Spirit consumes a lot of my soul, and I feel a little tired." Wei Changhui said.

I heard that the evil god who protected Qing Yao had been killed by Heavenly Father and Brother Tian, ​​and Qing Yao's treasures had also been taken away. The Taiping Army swept away the haze of failure and their morale was greatly boosted!

By the time the Taiping Army organized its second attack, sporadic Qing cavalry had appeared behind the Yue Yong.

The mercenaries of the artillery team waved their guns and cheered at the group of Qing troops.

Liang Shaoqiong disagreed. He knew that the Qing troops in the Jiangbei camp were unreliable and would not risk their lives to save his countrymen.

The only one he can rely on is himself.

Seeing that the Taiping Army launched another attack, the Cantonese warriors who were eating canned food to replenish their strength reluctantly threw away the uneaten canned food and entered a fighting state.

Thinking that the evil god who protected Qing Yao had been killed and Qing Yao's treasure had been taken away by Brother Tian, ​​the Taiping troops charged against Yue Yong's artillery fire without their lives.

This frightened the brave soldiers of Guangdong.

But the mortal body of flesh and blood cannot stop the rain of metal bullets from washing away.

The only difference from the last charge was that this time the Taiping troops charged closer, but still did not rush to the front of the Shanzi Camp.

Seeing that the Taiping Army had been defeated, Dexing'a, who had been waiting for a long time, finally joined the battlefield with the Eight Banners soldiers from the Jiangbei Camp to pursue the Taiping Army and joined the battlefield.

In this battle, the Yue Yong, who went out for the first time, killed 2,100 Taiping soldiers with less than 20 casualties, wounded and captured nearly 7,000 Taiping soldiers, and became famous all over the world.

"grown ups."

Liang Shaoqiong, who had just come off the battlefield and was disgraced, went to the Jiangbei camp to pay homage to Qishan.

Liang Shaoqiong is no stranger to Qishan.

After Lin Zexu was dismissed and investigated, Qi Shan succeeded Lin Zexu and came to Guangzhou as an imperial envoy and governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

After arriving in Guangzhou, Qi Shan changed the tough British policy of Lin Zexu's team. Seeing that the British warships were strong and powerful, it might be difficult to win, so he privately made a treaty with Yi Lu, the "Chuanbi Cao Treaty", ceding Hong Kong and paying an indemnity of 600 yuan.

Ten thousand yuan.

It can be said that Hong Kong was ceded from Qishan.

As a Cantonese, it is difficult to have a good impression of Qishan and Liang Shaoqiong.

However, Liang Shaoqiong also believed that Qi Shan could change his destiny. He knelt down to Qi Shan without hesitation and said, "Liang Shaoqiong, a villager in Xiangshan, Guangdong, has met Mr. Qi."

In order for the Liang family to be able to stand up, and for myself to be successful in the future, why not kneel to Qishan? Many people want to kneel but have not had the chance to do so.

"Okay, okay, when I was working in Guangdong in the past, why didn't I find that there were talents like you in Guangdong?" Qi Shan smiled brightly and waved his hand to signal Liang Shaoqiong to stand up, "This battle was well fought. I was defeated."

The majesty of the Qing Dynasty."

"It's not that my subordinates fought well, but that Master Qi commanded well and General Dexing'a's Eight Banners soldiers attacked well, that's why they achieved such a great victory. I don't dare to be greedy for credit." Liang Shaoqiong did not get up and kowtowed.

This kid is quite good. Seeing that Liang Shaoqiong behaved appropriately, Qi Shan became even more happy.

The Eight Banners generals on the side also became happy, and their eyes towards Liang Shaoqiong became more kind.

Qishan stepped forward with a smile and helped Liang Shaoqiong up and asked, "What is your current position?"

"I feel ashamed to say that my father was originally an official of the imperial court, but now he is a scapegoat. He lives in the country, and the younger one is now white." Liang Shaoqiong replied.

"White body? What do the local officials of Guangdong do for a living? You can't see such pearls and jade before your eyes. Do you have any fame?" Qi Shan felt very regretful.

"The meritorious service of the people." Liang Shaoqiong replied.

"It's easy to talk about it if you have merit and fame." Qi Shan squinted his eyes and nodded with satisfaction. "Come here, bring me a pen and paper. I want to show victory to the emperor!"

(End of chapter)