The Travelers of the Heavens

On March 12, the 28th year of Chengkang's reign in the Great Zhou Empire (the third year of Xianfeng's reign in Gongjilu, 1853 AD), outside Jiangning City.

Under the cover of their own warships and red-coated cannons, Taiping soldiers attacked Jiangning's city wall like a tide.

The city defenders, led by Lu Jianying, the then governor of Liangjiang, launched a fierce battle with the Taiping Army.

"Sir, the long-haired bandits are like a flood, and brothers can’t stand it any longer." A senior military attache who looked like a general soldier ran up to Lu Jianying and said to Lu Jianying with an oxtail knife full of adzes.

"Where are Xianghou's men?" Lu Jianying asked. The

Xianghou he mentioned was a man with a red flag in Manchuria, Aixinjueluo family. He was currently serving as General Jiangning. At this time, he was leading the soldiers with a red flag to bravely guard Jinchuan Gate. However, the Taiping army was powerful and the offensive was very fast. Jinchuan There's a lot of pressure on the other side of the door.

"Maybe it's still at Jinchuan Gate," said the man who looked like a general soldier.

"Now we must defend Jiangning, and we must not leave it to Changmao," said Lu Jianying

"Mr. Governor, I have very few soldiers left. Without reinforcements, we will not be able to hold on."Bing said

"Then just die to serve the country," Lu Jianying said.

"you.. Why"The general obviously didn't want to die here, but he had no choice but to return to the city wall to resist the enemy.

An hour later, the commander-in-chief was killed in battle and the entire army was wiped out.

The Taiping troops filed in through this gap and started a fierce battle with other defenders in the city.

But suddenly

"Da da da"

"boom! boom!"

"Snapped.. Snapped!"

The sound of gunfire continued.

The part of the Taiping Army that had already entered the city was shocked. They saw something.

A black torrent in the distance was slowly advancing. This was a regiment of Kyushu soldiers with a total of 6,000 troops heading towards this gap. Come.

The spears, broadswords or shotguns in the hands of the Taiping Army are no match for the breech-loaded rifles and machine guns and artillery of the Kyushu soldiers. In just one encounter between the two sides, the Taiping Army was killed and wounded more than a thousand people, and they were forced to withdraw. Outside the city.

Kyushu soldiers took advantage of the situation and mounted the city wall, set up machine guns and 75mm artillery and began to fight back. In the

Liangjiang Governor's Mansion, Director of Foreign Affairs Huangfu Weiyan found Lu Jianying

"Mr. Governor, we are willing to help you defend Jiangning, but we don’t have much ammunition left and cannot hold on for a long time. It will take up to ten days. If there are no reinforcements by then, we will have to break out of the city." Huangfu Weiyan said

"Jiangning is an important city of the imperial court in the south, how can we give up so easily?" Lu Jianying was very happy when he heard that the"foreigners" were willing to help defend Jiangning, but later he learned that he would have to abandon the city if he defended it for up to ten days, and his hopes were dashed.

At this time, there are no reinforcements from the Qing court. A year ago, the Qing general Wu Lantai massacred thousands of Taiping Army family members, causing the Taiping Army to go into battle in full mourning and sacrifice. Four second-rank general soldiers of the Qing court were sent to the army in one fell swoop. When they arrived at God, they defeated the Qing army.

A year later, the power of the Taiping Army expanded even more. The main force of the Qing court in the south had been basically wiped out by the Taiping Army. Only Jiangning still had tens of thousands of Green Camp Eight Banners, but in the face of There are 500,000 Taiping troops overwhelming outside the city. These people are enough for what they can do, so the fall of Jiangning is only a matter of time.

Finally, the"foreigners" want to help, but they can only help them defend for ten days. Forget it. , Ten days is ten days, I can be considered worthy of the court and Lord Xianfeng. Even"foreigners" cannot handle this situation, so I can be considered good if I persisted for a few days. This is what Lu Jianying is thinking now

"Mr. Governor, we don’t want to give up this beautiful city of Jiangning, but we are seriously short of artillery shells and bullets, and ten days is already the limit," Huangfu Weiyan said.

"Well, thank you very much, Mr. Huangfu." Lu Jianying said helplessly.

"Okay, more than 50,000 of our troops have rushed to the city wall to help defend it. Please be prepared to evacuate at any time, Governor-General." After Huangfu said that, he left. In the direction of Jinchuan Gate.

Xianghou's Eight Banners Army has collapsed, and the Taiping Army has captured the city. Door.

Xianghou is gathering his troops to prepare for street fighting.

"Go!"

"Kill!"

Suddenly a cry of kill came from behind.

Tens of thousands of Kyushu soldiers carried rifles with bayonets and crossed Xianghou's broken troops. Then they lined up in a horizontal line and started shooting at the Taiping Army on the opposite side.

"Da da da.. Da da da"The two machine guns were set up and immediately fired in the direction of the city gate. The Taiping troops who were entering the city were crowded together, and most of them were quickly killed by machine gun fire. The Taiping troops were suppressed and unable to move near the city gate.

The Taiping Army was really unable to break through the barrage of dense bullets. They finally withdrew from Jinchuan Gate after suffering heavy casualties.

The Kyushu soldiers continued to advance and controlled the section of the city wall where Jinchuan Gate was located.

In the Anton Protector's Mansion, Li Xiaoman was instructing the maids to pack up gold, silver, soft goods and other valuables.

"Xiaodie, put this away for me"

"Cailin, be careful, you are careless. If you damage it, see how I can deal with it.."

Li Xiaoman stood in the lobby on the first floor of Luan Pavilion and conducted the command.

Wang Qi inspected various positions outside the Duhu Mansion. Once the Taiping Army attacks within ten days, the area around the Duhu Mansion will become a battlefield.

"Prince, one division of our army has taken over two sections of the city wall, and the rest of the troops have gathered near the city wall to take action. At present, Changmao has been expelled from the city." Yuan Shulai and Wang Qi reported the battle situation

"Okay, judging from this situation, the Changmao outside the city will not be able to attack within ten days." Wang Qi nodded.

"Yes, I will definitely hold on for ten days," Yuan Shu said

"General Yuan, we must invest the maximum firepower at Jinchuan Gate. From now on, we must break through Jinchuan Gate and then go north," Wang Qi said

"I'll go deploy immediately." Yuan Shu said with a military salute and went to arrange the troops.

Outside the city, near Jinchuan Gate, after the Taiping Army was driven out, although they learned that"foreigners" participated in the war, the general believed that the opponent's number would not be high. There were too many, so they did not stop the attack, but intensified the offensive. Tens of thousands of people attacked Jinchuan Gate.

However, under the fire of dozens of heavy machine guns of the Kyushu Army, the Taiping Army suffered heavy casualties. Tens of thousands of people attacked for a day and night, and only a few thousand The Taiping general who commanded the battle was shocked when the man came back alive.

The Taiping general had to suspend the attack and report the matter to the king of heaven, Hong Xiuquan.

Tens of thousands of his troops were lost in just one day and one night. Hong Xiuquan did not expect these"foreigners""So tough, he mobilized a large number of elite troops to attack Jinchuan Gate with all his strength. At the same time, the red cannons also began to move outside Jinchuan Gate to assist in the battle. Hong Xiuquan wanted to show these"foreigners" some color.

More than 100,000 Taiping troops rushed to Jinchuan. Gate, the red-coated cannon behind them also began to roar, and the shells continued to fly towards the city walls and towers.

The Taiping Army also organized death squads to attempt to climb the city for close combat, but were blocked by the Kyushu Army's rifle bayonets. The death squads suffered heavy casualties and were driven off the city wall.

With At the same time, at the artillery position temporarily set up by the Jiuzhou Army in the city, the 105mm heavy artillery began to fire outside the Jinchuan Gate.

Cone-shaped shells fell into the attack formation of the Taiping Army outside the city, and the shock wave of the violent explosion would be ignored. Countless Taiping soldiers were overturned, and the explosion fragments killed and injured many Taiping soldiers. The

Taiping Army's attack formation was disrupted by the sudden heavy artillery bombardment, and they were immediately defeated. This attack on Jinchuan Gate also failed.

Where is Hong Xiuquan? Having seen such a large shell explode, in his eyes, the bombardment was like a sky fire devouring the lives of his Taiping soldiers. After the bombardment, Hong Xiuquan ordered the siege of Jinchuan Gate and no more attacks for the time being. After ten days of stalemate , , all the personnel and important documents and materials of the Anton Protectorate were ready to evacuate.

In the carriage, Li Xiaoman also held a revolver in his hand.

General Wang Qi and his wife of the 1001st Division of the Kyushu Army and Anton Du Other personnel of the Protectorate and the carriage containing important documents and materials were tightly surrounded in the middle, and other troops gathered in the direction of Jinchuan Gate.

Wang Qi gave an order, and the team began to break out.

Outside the city, the heavy artillery of the Kyushu Army blasted an unmanned passage , but because the 105mm heavy artillery was too heavy and troublesome to retract and deploy, Wang Qi ordered the artillery before the breakout began to blow up the artillery and remaining artillery shells after the bombardment, and then break out with the team. In this way

, hundreds of 105 The 75mm heavy artillery and the remaining 10,000 rounds of artillery shells were blown up by the artillery during the breakout.

Since the 75mm barrel annealing artillery was light in weight and easy to retract and deploy, these artillery could be pulled by draft horses and accompany the team to break through.

But the breakout Not only Wang Qi and Li Xiaoman's team, but also a large number of Qing officials and defenders in Jiangning, as well as Westerners who were still stranded in the city after the war, also followed the footsteps of the Kyushu Army and rushed out of the city. They did not want to die here. In a city destined to fall.