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Because Vézé paid too much attention to the arms trade, ever since he met Smith, who was extremely sensitive to business, he has been dealing with the arms trade. After sending off Smith, Vézé found out that Luo Dagang was not in the camp, but at Yuhua Terrace.
When he arrived at Yuhua Terrace from the camp, he saw Luo Dagang urging his troops to move the cannons.
"Brother Luo, you are so capable!" Vézé immediately flattered.
Luo Dagang laughed proudly, "Wayne Brothers, it's not that I am capable, it's that Qing Yao is too useless. When I got here, I didn't see Qing Yao, but I saw things all over the ground. "
When Vézé suddenly arrived at Nanjing, the Qing Army immediately blocked all the gates of Nanjing with sandbags. When the Qing Army guarding Yuhua Terrace saw the large number of Taiping army and learned that all the gates were blocked, they threw away their weapons and ran back to the city that night. Luo Dagang originally led his troops to attack Yuhua Terrace, but without wasting a single shot, he obtained a large number of cannons and supplies.
After asking about the situation, Vézé didn't know what to say. As a person who grew up in China, Vézé had heard too many such things, but when he actually encountered it, he always felt it was too outrageous.
Looking at Vézé's disbelieving expression, Luo Dagang laughed, "Wayne Brothers, it was you who rushed in and scared Qing Yao. This brother also admires you very much. "
"Brother Luo, you only know how to say nice things. This brother is a landlubber, I get dizzy when I get on a boat. If you want me to command the navy, I might as well jump into the river and commit suicide. This time we were able to attack Nanjing so quickly, brother Luo, you are the first person to do it! "Vézé replied. Although he praised Luo Dagang for being the first person to do it, Vézé did not deny Luo Dagang's words.
Hearing Vézé's words, Luo Dagang suddenly sighed. He was able to travel more than 1,800 miles on the water in more than 20 days, and along the way, he attacked cities with irresistible force. Even the capital of Anhui, Anqing, was easily captured. Luo Dagang indeed felt that this was the proudest moment of his life. Wei Ze's praise touched the itch in Luo Dagang's heart, which naturally made Luo Dagang extremely happy.
With a stern countenance Luo Dagang said, "Prime Minister Wei, this time you are the one leading the troops. In our Taiping army, the one who takes the responsibility to exterminate Qing Yao is, in my opinion, other than the King Of The East, Prime Minister Wei. If it wasn't for the Prime Minister leading the army, I'm afraid only the West Prince would dare to fight like this. "
Vézé was slightly startled. Luo Dagang's words clearly indicated the status of both sides, and also seemed to be vaguely expressing his dissatisfaction with the Taiping army that was still in Wuchang. Vézé smiled and said, "Brother Luo, this time you are coming with me to the south, I am very relieved. If it wasn't for you, I'm afraid no one else would dare to do this with me. We are all working under the King Of The East. If we can conquer Jinling this time, I still want to be with you when we go to war in the future. "
Speaking up to this point, Vézé and Luo Dagang were not among the 40 sworn brothers of the Jintian Uprising. Both of them were promoted in the Taiping army through their military achievements, and they were also the King Of The East Yang Xiuqing's subordinates. Based on this similarity, Vézé and Luo Dagang reached an agreement that both sides were well aware of.
Moreover, Vézé arrogantly raised a question to Luo Dagang, that was, Vézé felt that his overall military strategy was better than Luo Dagang's. He could prove it through this attack on Nanjing. Moreover, Vézé wasn't worried that Luo Dagang wouldn't understand. As long as he could conquer Nanjing, Luo Dagang would certainly be convinced. There was no need to discuss this.
Luo Dagang was far more understanding than Vézé, he readily replied, "I also think so! But Prime Minister Wei, when we crossed the Yangtze River, it was a matter of water, I could only make decisions on my own. But you are the Commander-in-Chief, this time in Nanjing, I will listen to Prime Minister's instructions. "
Both sides could clearly state their positions, there was no need to waste time on other things. Vézé immediately made preparations for the attack on Nanjing. Because the number of troops was only 7500, Vézé decided to break through the Gathering of Treasures Gate from the front. He left the Artillery Brigade Commander Liang Changtai to help set up the cannons. He himself went to make arrangements for the attack on the Gathering of Treasures Gate.
At this time, the Qing Army seemed to have gone crazy, they started to fire cannons randomly at the top of the city wall. At this time, Vézé's troops were only set up in formation from afar, they were completely out of the Qing Army's range of cannons. Vézé didn't pay attention to the Qing Army, he actually hoped that the Qing Army would do this. Using gunpowder, cannons and energy would only make the Qing Army weaker.
In the early morning of the 5th of February, Vézé dispatched two soldiers from the 5th Division, Lei Hu, to explore the Gathering of Treasures Gate. Although Lei Hu won the battle at Wu Xue last time, it was mainly Luo Dagang who came up with the plan, Lei Hu was only responsible for carrying out the work. So this time, he still tried his best to ask for permission, hoping to make new contributions. Vézé also felt that with Lei Hu taking the lead, it should be able to inspire the courage of the other generals. So he agreed to Lei Hu's suggestion.
When the two soldiers' troops got close to the Mi City, they immediately encountered resistance from an armed force. This force didn't have any fine weapons, they only used wooden sticks and shoulder poles to attack the Taiping army. The two soldiers killed nearly a hundred people with a flintlock, the remaining thousands of Qing Army soldiers hid in the alleys and streets of the Mi City outside the Gathering of Treasures Gate. But they scattered, they didn't collapse, it was quite troublesome.
After fighting for a while, the Qing Army's armed forces gathered on the streets outside the city gate, it seemed like they wanted to have a head-on confrontation. But at this time, the top of the city wall suddenly fired fiercely at this area. Lei Hu had suffered a lot, his troops were very strict about defense training in all kinds of situations. Hearing the dense sound of the artillery, the Taiping army soldiers instinctively crawled on the ground. But the group of armed forces obviously didn't have the relevant training, the artillery from the top of the city wall hit the dense formation, causing heavy casualties.
Seeing that the Qing Army's artillery fire was endless, the Taiping army could only choose to retreat. The artillery fire only stopped when the sky was bright. At noon, the scout reported to Vézé. All the buildings in the Mi City outside the Gathering of Treasures Gate were destroyed by the Qing Army's intensive artillery fire, the ground was covered with corpses. There were at least a thousand people.
In the report that Lei Hu submitted to Vézé, the Taiping army suffered less than ten casualties from the Qing Army's artillery fire. Thinking about it, Lei Hu didn't dare to lie, the thousands of corpses on the ground seemed to belong to the Qing Army in the early morning.
Vézé knew that the Qing Army's warfare was strange, but he didn't dare to believe that it could be so strange. At this time, the General Staff Headquarters came up with their first siege plan. The plan was very simple, on the ground, they used the large number of artillery seized from Yuhua Terrace to attack the Gathering of Treasures Gate. Underground, they dug tunnels and carried out explosions.
Although it was time-consuming, laborious, and used gunpowder, this plan was already the best choice for Vézé's troops. The use of granular gunpowder on the artillery was extremely effective, these days, Vézé's troops had been using the seized gunpowder to make granular gunpowder. Starting from the 6th of February, the artillery at Yuhua Terrace began to attack the Gathering of Treasures Gate under the command of the artillery brigade commander Liang Zhangtai.
This time, among the artillery seized from Yuhua Terrace, there were many artillery cannons that were more than two thousand catties. These artillery shells weighed several catties, and their destructive power was astonishing. The artillery unit gave up on using small cannons, and focused on using these large cannons to attack the city wall. They were different from the Qing Army's artillery unit, after the shooting tests and adjustments, by the 7th of February, the heavy cannons fired ten times, and could hit the city wall at least six or seven times. By the 8th, the city wall had collapsed in four places, and each place was two to three feet wide. The Qing Army's artillery on top of the city wall had all been destroyed by the Taiping army. Under this kind of effective bombardment, the Qing Army didn't even have a foothold on top of the city wall, let alone counterattack.
With the artillery unit's cover, the digging speed of the tunnels under the city also increased greatly. Luo Dagang had originally participated in the battle of digging tunnels to attack Changsha, and was very familiar with it. His team also had a lot of experienced miners. Without the Qing Army's obstruction, the digging speed was even faster.
On the 10th of February, the tunnels had been dug successfully, and the Gathering of Treasures Gate's city wall had collapsed in three places. In these two days, Vézé didn't just focus on the bombardment, the troops were divided into several groups, and set up camps outside Nanjing's other city gates, waving flags and shouting war cries, and constantly harassing the enemy. Moreover, Vézé did business with the city's vendors at a fair price, and even sent people disguised as monks to infiltrate Nanjing, spreading the news that the Taiping army would never harm the citizens, and only wanted to destroy the government's army.
Vézé ordered Lei Hu's troops, whose fighting spirit was boiling, to fight back, to be the vanguard. On the morning of the 11th of February, preparations were made at the fourth watch, and the explosions began at the fifth watch.
On the morning of the 11th of February, Vézé stood on the Rain Flower Terrace, and concentrated on the Gathering of Treasures Gate. In the darkness before dawn, following the violent tremors, the broken city wall shook violently. Because there was enough time, the underground tunnels were supported by wooden beams, so there was a large empty space. The heavily damaged city wall collapsed violently. The city wall that originally had several holes in it sank more than ten meters underground. Without ladders, the infantrymen could easily climb through the gaps in the rubble to launch their attack.
And Lei Hu's troops had already raised the red flag high, and rushed towards the gap.
Fifty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters, ten meters, the soldiers' bodies were strong, they jumped on the rubble, crossed over the rubble, and climbed up the other city walls. Gunshots and shouts could be heard. When the first ray of light appeared on the eastern horizon, the Taiping army finally controlled the Gathering of Treasures Gate, and occupied the nearby city wall. The outer gate of Nanjing City opened to Vézé.
Without much joy, Vézé sat back on the stool to observe the battle. Nanjing City was a traditional China large city. The entire city did not only have one city wall, there was a city within the city, and a wall within the city. After breaking the Gathering of Treasures Gate, Vézé's troops only obtained a gap in the outer city. What followed was a tragic street battle. The Taiping army and the Qing Army had to surround the various key points of the outer city, and engage in fierce battles again and again.
This was the inevitable problem brought about by the lack of military strength. Facing a large city like Nanjing, even if a small part of it was breached, the enemy could still rely on the other city walls to form a defensive system, and fight for a long time with the attacking troops.
But on the afternoon of the 11th, the brothers guarding the ferry suddenly sent news that two huge monster boats appeared on the river, on both sides of the boats were two huge wheels, the wheels flipped the river surface, and just like that, it went against the current.
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