After Lin Fengxiang entered Tongzhou City, he beheaded all the officials who were unwilling to surrender in public, which shocked the people in the city and the surrendering soldiers.
Then he took this opportunity to organize the people in the city into the refugee team.
Lin Fengxiang distributed rations to all the refugees equally. Although everyone was not eating well, many refugees now followed the Taiping Army and at least had enough to eat, and they were more secure than before.
The Taiping Army had its own system for managing the refugees. Although it was strict, it was fair and no one had any privileges. Of course, the regular troops of the Taiping Army were treated differently from them. In this way, these people who were incorporated into the ranks of the refugees gradually settled down.
Lin Fengxiang set up a holy treasury for unified management of all food supplies. He distributed all the clothes that could be distributed and let these people wear them.
It is winter now. Wearing more clothes can also reduce the loss of body heat and save some food in disguise.
After Tongzhou City was captured, the city of Beijing really became chaotic. Some powerful people had already packed up their power and started running away to Xishan.
Fortunately, Zeng Gelinqin's army arrived from Baoding in time, which gave Xianfeng a sense of security. Otherwise, he himself would have gone hunting in the north of Chengde.
This time Shengbao failed to defend the Taiping Army, so he would definitely be punished in the end. However, Seng Gelinqin made a contribution in regaining Baoding. It is conceivable that Seng Gelinqin will become the first person in the army. He came from behind and overshadowed Shengbao.
Emperor Xianfeng also had high hopes for Senggelinqin. If he had time to cultivate in the future, he might be able to help the Qing Dynasty train another Eight Banners cavalry.
Lin Fengxiang left five thousand defenders in Tongzhou City, which will serve as their retreat.
At the same time, this was also the meeting place agreed upon by him and Li Kaifang. With an army of more than 40,000 people on hand, Lin Fengxiang headed towards the capital to fulfill an obsession in his heart.
Not long after walking, they encountered more than 15,000 Qing troops led by Seng Gelinqin at Bali Bridge. Although his troops were much larger, Lin Fengxiang did not take it lightly.
Half of his 40,000 people are refugees who make up the numbers. If these people are not used properly on the battlefield, they will have the opposite effect.
Seng Gelinqin is also very careful. He is now the last line of defense outside the capital. If he wins, he will be a great hero. If he loses, he will be nothing.
He deployed the infantry in the center and the cavalry on the wings, forming a very stable formation.
"Prime Minister, I think this battle is not going to be easy. If we charge forward, the opponent's central army will only have to resist us for a while, and the cavalry will be able to outflank us. We still have too few cavalry." Ji Wenyuan said with a frown.
Senggelingqin himself was born in the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and his horse team was rare among the Qing army with superb riding skills.
"What? It's not like we haven't fought against the Qing army's cavalry before. The open terrain here is good for the cavalry, but there are so many of us, it doesn't matter even if some of our lives are lost."
"I think we should use a circular formation and let each division commander organize his division to form a large circular formation. The spear and sword soldiers are outside to block the bows and arrows of the Qing cavalry. Protect the musketeers behind, and then use our musketeers to slowly
It will consume the opponent's cavalry." Lin Fengxiang said.
Facing the cavalry with superb cavalry, the Taiping Army's infantry, which was only partially equipped with muskets, had better protect themselves with a tight formation, and then use muskets to consume the opponent.
When he saw that the Taiping Army was forming a formation, Seng Gelinqin took the lead in sending out cavalry. He was going to take advantage of the opportunity of the opponent's formation to go forward to harass and interrupt the opponent's deployment.
However, what Seng Gelinqin didn't expect was that the Taiping Army ignored his harassment at all. They still insisted on setting up their formation.
Although the Taiping Army has been suffering casualties, they don't seem to care. Some musketeers gathered in small formations and fired volleys whenever cavalry approached.
Therefore, the Qing army did not gain much from this wave of harassment. Seng Gelinqin stroked his long beard under his chin and shook his head. This kind of scattered harassment by the cavalry would not do much harm to the bandits.
They had a strong will to fight and were not panicked by the approach of the cavalry. The veterans of the Taiping Army played a role in stabilizing the sea. Under the supervision of the veterans, the newly joined refugees did not dare to escape. As long as someone ran away, they would be killed.
of veterans killed.
Soon the formation was formed, and Lin Fengxiang commanded the army to slowly squeeze towards the Qing army.
The two sides fought in formation, and the battlefield suddenly became slow. Neither side dared to let go and charge at the other side.
The Qing army used bows, arrows and muskets to continuously consume the pikemen and sword soldiers outside the circular formation. The musketeers in the Taiping army's circular formation were also shooting at the Qing troops who entered the range.
The artillery from both sides soon joined in the exchange of bombardments, but the rate of fire of these old-fashioned artillery was too slow, and the lethality of the iron balls shot was limited. It felt like they were cheering with the sound of cannons and drums.
The two armies fought from noon to evening, and the physical strength of the soldiers on both sides was greatly exhausted.
A piece of news was delivered to Lin Fengxiang, and Lin Fengxiang decided to retreat temporarily.
Li Kaifang broke through and returned to Tongzhou, and was seriously injured.
Li Kaifang's fight against Shengbao in Langfang was very brutal. Shengbao's desperate play made Li Kaifang miserable.
After all, Li Kaifang only had 5,000 men, and the rest were young men in the city. These people had low combat power and were resentful of the Taiping Army. They were only willing to accept the command of the Taiping Army because their family members were controlled.
While Shengbao was attacking fiercely, he ordered his men to dig tunnels towards the city wall, and finally dug under the city wall. As the explosives exploded, the city wall was blown open, and the Qing troops swarmed in along the gap.
The Taiping Army organized street battles in the city, but were still beaten back by the Qing army. Li Kaifang went to the front line to command the battle, but was shot in the abdomen by a cold arrow from the Qing army. However, he still held his abdomen and persisted in fighting, and was finally carried away by his guards.
Exit the north gate.
Of the 5,000 soldiers and horses left to block the Qing army, less than 1,000 were eventually withdrawn to Tongzhou City.
The circular formation commanded by Lin Fengxiang retreated slowly without any panic. The Taiping Army's confrontation with the Qing Army in the past half day can be said to be evenly matched. Although the Taiping Army suffered more casualties, most of them were refugees.
Seng Gelinqin did not pursue the pursuit. On the one hand, it was because both the soldiers and the horses of the Qing army were very tired. On the other hand, it was getting dark now and he could not be sure whether there would be an ambush in Changmao. Therefore, the Qing army watched helplessly.
He watched the Taiping troops retreat. However, the bodies of the Taiping troops remained on the battlefield.
These are all military achievements. The soldiers of the Qing army harvested the heads of the Taiping Army despite exhaustion. Seng Gelinqin had already sent people to Beijing to report the victory. In his words, this close battle became: a major defeat of the bandits, and the beheading of three thousand people.
, the bandit army broke up and fled!
After Emperor Xianfeng received the good news, Long Yan was overjoyed and did not care about the ineffectiveness of the organization of the bannermen in the past few days.
By the way, Prince Gong's palace in Yixi has been flooded with saliva these days. The bannermen in the capital are all related to each other. They don't care whether you are a prince or not. An inconspicuous and run-down bannerman can rise up.
How many generations may it be ****?
Therefore, Prince Gong wanted to organize flag soldiers to go to the city, but these people were unwilling. They had not used flag soldiers to fight in many years.
Some with better conditions will send a slave to pick up the numbers, but those with worse conditions can't even have enough to eat, so who is willing to defend the city.
Every day there are people clamoring in front of Prince Gong's mansion, saying that they want to go to the city to distribute food first. Forget about a few, there are so many people, where will Prince Gong get the food?
It was originally a recruitment of bannermen, but now it has become an incident where the bannermen in the city are arguing about food and pay.
Fortunately, Seng Gelinqin blocked the Taiping Army, otherwise I really don't know if the capital could have been defended.
…
Dagukou Fort is located at the mouth of Haihe River. In 1816, the Qing government built a circular fort on each side of Dagukou.
The fort is made of wood inside and blue bricks on the outside. It is about one foot and a half tall, nine feet wide and six feet deep. This is the earliest fort in Dagukou and is built as solidly as a mountain.
During the Opium War in 1841, the Qing government stepped up the construction of the Dagu forts and built a total of 5 large forts, 12 earthen forts, and 13 earthen forts, forming a fort group.
Most of the soldiers in the fort were transferred to encircle and suppress the Taiping Army, leaving only a small number of people behind. In the eyes of the Qing court, the capital was more important.
Zhao Ergou is a soldier on duty at the fort.
Early in the morning, he was woken up by a splash of urine. The rising sun had already peeked out from the east sea, illuminating him so hard that he couldn't even open his eyes.
He stood on the edge of the fort with squinted eyes and poured water down. Suddenly something blocked the sun that had just peeked out. Without the strong light, Ergou could finally open his eyes. The scene in front of him made him
I almost trembled back after peeing out.
A white sail suddenly appeared in the eastern sky, like a forest, blocking out the sunlight. The rising sun embroidered a golden edge on the edge of the sail.
In Ergou's eyes, this fleet seemed to be sent from Tianhe.
The two dogs didn't even have time to fasten their trousers, so they grabbed their trousers and hurriedly ran to report the incident to the officer guarding the fort.
The chief officer guarding the fort was a guerrilla general, who was Ergou's eldest cousin, otherwise Ergou would not have been able to get the advantage of staying behind in the fort.
After a while, a burly general ran over with a monocular.
At first glance, he thought it was a foreign warship approaching again. When he picked up the monocular and took a closer look, he discovered that this fleet was also flying the Golden Dragon flag.
When did the imperial court have a fleet of this size? The general was puzzled.
"Ergou, take someone over in a small boat and ask them which army they are from and what they are doing at Dagukou?"
"I...I'm going?" Ergou asked stuttering.
"Of course you go, why don't you let me go? Don't worry, it's the imperial fleet, there won't be any danger."
This was the first time Ergou saw such a big ship. The closer the boat got, the bigger the warship seemed.
Finally, Ergou saw the people on the warship. They were indeed people from the Qing Dynasty, but they wore different military uniforms.