Although Zhang Guoliang escaped from the city, he was still uneasy in his heart.
He always felt that someone was watching him. He could only put more sentries in front. But now Zhang Guoliang's men were frightened and just wanted to run out as soon as possible.
After the team crossed Lishui, they turned north. At the location of Zhaozhuang, a group of elite Taiping troops suddenly came out.
These were the elite Taiping troops brought out by Luo Gang from Zhenjiang. After receiving news that Tianjing was attacking the Jiangnan camp and that Zhang Guoliang's troops were in Changzhou.
Luo Dayou saw this as an excellent opportunity. If it worked well, he could wipe out the Jiangnan camp in one fell swoop and greatly improve Tianjing's external situation.
When it comes to strategic vision in fighting a war, apart from Wing King Shi Dakai, among the Taiping Army, I am afraid it must be Luo Youyuan.
Historically, after the Taiping Army established its capital in Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing were eager to conquer Hebei and capture Yanjing. In this regard, Luo Gangluo clearly put forward different views.
He believed that "if you want to go north, you must first locate Henan; if you are stationed in Henan, your army must cross the river." "Otherwise, you must first locate the nine southern provinces without any internal worries, and then send out troops in three directions, one from Xiangchu and the other from Hanzhong.
Rushing towards Xianyang, sweeping across Shanzuo (Shandong) with Xu and Yang (Xuzhou, Yangzhou), and then leaving Shanyou (Shanxi), they will hunt for the capital of Yan."
He also warned: "If the Xuan army goes deep and runs into danger without backup, it will lead to defeat." In addition to these two strategies, Luo Outline also proposed that after establishing Nanjing as the capital, more warships must be built, the navy should be refined, and the warships must be completed.
Before doing so, rafts should be used to block the river surface and seize the upper hand on the Yangtze River.
It is a pity that these correct suggestions with a strategic perspective were not accepted by the authoritarian Yang Xiuqing. Before the Northern Expeditionary Army left, Hong Xiuquan also warned in an "edict": "The road is approaching the capital of Yan, and there is no greed to attack the city and seize the land to save time."
It's so stupid.
In this regard, Luo Gangyou pointed out soberly and sadly: "The world is not yet settled, but we want to live in this capital for a long time. How long can we live in this city? I am of the Wu family!" As expected, the Northern Expeditionary Army was defeated in Tianjin, and the Taiping Army was eventually wiped out.
Unfortunately, Luo Diangui's words were correct.
This time, Luo Gang's troops were divided into two groups. On the other side were more than 1,000 elite troops, led by himself, to ambush Zhang Guoliang on his way back to the Jiangnan camp, preparing to ambush Zhang Guoliang.
Of course, Luo Dayou's original plan was to harass Zhang Guoliang's lagging team. Because Zhang Guoliang originally had more than 5,000 people at his disposal, and he could not eat them all by himself.
But what he didn't expect was to see more than 1,000 defeated soldiers led by Zhang Guoliang. Luo Guoliang didn't know who attacked Zhang Guoliang, but he knew that Zhang Guoliang couldn't possibly pull any more tricks at this time.
So he rushed out without saying a word. Zhang Guoliang's men, whose morale was already low, even ran hundreds of miles in one breath.
Now where is the opponent of the wolf-like Taiping Army? They were defeated by the Taiping Army as soon as they met.
When Zhang Guoliang was escaping, he was shot in the back by Luo Gangzhang with an arrow, and a famous Manchu general fell.
In this battle, the Taiping Army killed Zhang Guoliang and more than 1,000 of his men, and seized more than 700 horses, as well as a large number of weapons and armor.
Luo Dayoun didn't even know who to thank. Who was the good man who beat Zhang Guoliang into a state of disarray and then delivered it to his own hands?
The other team sent by Luo Gang was much larger, with more than 3,000 people, led by his deputy Qi Gang. They followed the land route out of Jintan and attacked in the direction of Changzhou.
They originally thought that Changzhou would be empty if Zhang Guoliang withdrew hastily.
The reason why they took the land route was because the Taiping Army was completely frightened by Peng Yulin's Yangtze River Navy on the river.
Even a famous general in naval warfare like Luo Gang, there is nothing he can do against the Yangtze River Navy of the Huai Navy. When sampans fight steamships, the generation difference in weapons is too great.
Therefore, Luo Goutou avoided the Huaihai Navy's navy on the river and used Zhenjiang's forts for defense. Fortunately, the Taiping Navy's navy never attacked Zhenjiang.
The speed of these three thousand people was very fast, and they were originally intended to catch Changzhou off guard.
But someone was faster than them. The cavalry regiment of the Second Division was ordered to pursue Zhang Guoliang's troops and happened to run to Niutang in the southwest of Changzhou. The sentries on both sides discovered each other in advance.
What surprised the Taiping Army was that although their opponents were all cavalry, they did not charge directly to kill them.
In fact, because this cavalry regiment can only be regarded as a mounted infantry regiment, they do not have enough training time. They can only ride horses or chase the enemy, but cannot charge into battle on horseback.
Moreover, this place is surrounded by rice fields, which is not conducive to the deployment of cavalry.
After the cavalry regiment dismounted, they began to build a position on the spot. The range of their rifles was far greater than that of the Taiping Army's bows and muskets. The main purpose of building the position was to prevent the Taiping Army's artillery bombardment. You must know that the Taiping Army had many old-fashioned artillery.
The Huai Navy quickly built a defensive position relying on the ditch beside the field.
Although the Taiping Army encountered the enemy, they did not retreat. Facing the Qing army, the Taiping Army was still very arrogant.
Although the people who returned from Yangzhou praised the Huaihai Navy as something magical, in the eyes of the Taiping Army, the Qing Army was almost the same.
Qi Gang decided to test the strength of this Huaihai navy.
The cavalry regiment of the Huaihai Navy built fortifications while sending fast horses to report the situation to the second infantry regiment outside the south gate.
The commander of the Second Division, Yang Bingchun, was in the Second Regiment. He immediately decided to quietly move from the Second Regiment to the rear of the Taiping Army, while the cavalry regiment stopped the enemy on the spot and attracted the enemy's main force.
The Taiping Army paid great attention to the centralized use of firearms in their wars. The artillery and muskets in the army were all used intensively, which gave the Taiping Army many advantages in the battle with the Qing army.
The Taiping Army of more than 3,000 people carried more than 30 old-fashioned smoothbore cannons, which should have been captured from the Qing army. They used ox carts to pull the cannons and advanced to a distance of one kilometer from the Huaihai Navy.
The reason why the Taiping Army dared to push the artillery to such a close distance was because they had just observed that the cavalry on the opposite side did not carry artillery.
Soon the Taiping Army deployed artillery at the front.
"Regiment Commander, aren't they deploying the artillery like this to be a living target for our mortars?" the regiment staff officer said.
"This is the price of ignorance. Today we will teach them a lesson. Inform the mortar company to take cover. When the artillerymen on the opposite side bring up all the gunpowder, we will set off a big firework for them." Ding Hao, commander of the cavalry regiment, laughed.
He said.
Qi Gang looked at his artillery and was very proud. He smiled at the general beside him and said: "A group of cavalry did not dare to charge on horseback. Instead, they dug holes to hide. This is what the Huai Navy is like. We will use artillery shells to kill them later."
Bury the hole."
Then he gave an order to the artillery commander on the side: "Aim at the earth wall in front of their trench later."
The artillery commander was also quite helpless. He couldn't even see anyone on the other side, so he had no choice but to shoot like this. You must know that this old-fashioned smoothbore cannon can only shoot directly.
The Taiping Army was preparing in an orderly manner. They brought large barrels of gunpowder and stored them next to the artillery position. It seemed that the Taiping Army general was preparing to fire a few more volleys.
Just as the artillery of the Taiping Army was ready, a low and short sound of artillery suddenly sounded from behind a hill 500 meters away to the north of the battlefield. Then the Taiping Army saw many small black spots in the sky falling towards their artillery position.
Many Taiping soldiers even subconsciously wanted to avoid it. They thought that this thing was like a big iron ball shot by their artillery. As long as it didn't hit them, they would be fine.
But things were different from what they imagined. These seemed to be cannonballs falling from the sky, exploding instantly after landing.
The shock wave of the explosion blew away the surrounding soldiers. What was even more strange was that the sound of artillery continued.
The artillery shells that landed on the Taiping Army's artillery position exploded one after another, detonating the gunpowder barrels on the position, causing a larger explosion.
After a burst of explosions, the artillery position of the Taiping Army was in a mess. There was almost no soldier who could still stand. The sound of artillery finally stopped.
"Go to that hill and have a look. What the hell is that?" the commander of the Taiping Army called a brigade commander and ordered.
After hearing the order, the brigade commander immediately led his soldiers and ran towards the hillside not far away. However, they were destined to miss because the Huaihai Navy's mortar company had already moved its position.
Qi Gang can guarantee that he has never seen such artillery. It can't even see the cannon, and it can hit the cannonballs. Looking at the angle at which the cannonballs fall in the sky, it looks like they were thrown.
Without artillery, the Taiping Army could only organize infantry to launch an attack.
Qi Gang did not directly send the musketeers up. These musketeers were the treasures of the Taiping Army. He first sent a brigade of ordinary infantry up there. However, before they could reach a hundred meters, they were hit by fierce musketry fire.
The soldiers seemed to be frozen in place, falling down layer by layer, like farmers harvesting the bankers.
When Qi Gang saw it, he couldn't fight any more. His musket at this distance couldn't hit him.
So he made the same choice as Zhang Guoliang - retreat.
But he didn't have the same luck as Zhang Guoliang, because the Second Infantry Regiment had already reached their rear.
"Dudududu..." The charge whistle sounded. The Second Regiment launched an attack on the Taiping Army from the rear and collided head-on with the retreating Taiping Army.
Since it was an encounter, the Second Regiment directly formed an infantry battle line. The soldiers in the first row squatted down, the soldiers in the second row half-kneeled, and the soldiers in the third row stood up. Then everyone fired at the same time, forming a dense formation.
The rain of bullets blocked the Taiping Army's path forward.
Qi Gang took a look and realized that this was not possible. The troops were suffering casualties too quickly. A hundred meters away from the Huaihai Navy was simply a death zone. The fallen Taiping soldiers built a low wall.
At this time, the cavalry regiment from behind also came up to kill. Qi Gang was sweating. The equipment was not as good as others, and the number of people was not as good as others. How could this battle be fought? If it were other troops, they would have surrendered long ago.
It’s just that the Taiping Army has a strong will to fight.
This was when the Huaihai Navy was shouting to surrender without killing. The generals in the army looked at Qi Gang. They were waiting for the general's decision. Most of the more than 3,000 Taiping troops were Qing troops who later surrendered. Although they were not like the Qing
Jun was so timid, but he had no determination to fight to the death.
Looking at the eyes of everyone with the desire to survive, Qi Gang finally uttered one word from his mouth: "Surrender!"
On the Xiaoling Guard side, Xiang Rong struggled to support himself, hoping that Zhang Guoliang would come from the rear and lift the Taiping Army's blockade of the rear.
But the news came that Zhang Guoliang had been defeated by Luo Dingyang. Luo Dingyang even ordered someone to send Zhang Guoliang's head.
At this moment, Xiang Rong felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and the morale of the entire camp was devastated. At this time, Xiang Rong only had more than 5,000 soldiers and horses in his hands.
Xiang Rong gave all the property he had accumulated in the camp to his soldiers and agreed to break out of the encirclement at the right time. In fact, at this time, Xiang Rong had the idea of running away one by one.
Xiang Rong didn't know that the Taiping Army's spies had already contacted his generals.