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When the troops assembled, they had already done some relaxing and stretching movements. After stretching their muscles, the officers and soldiers appeared very calm. Everyone quickly tidied up their weapons and quietly waited for the order to fight.
"Comrades, follow the commanders of each unit closely and obey orders." The content emphasized by the Liberation Army before the war was also exceptionally simple and clear.
"Let's go!" "Let's go!" The commanders of the various troops shouted. The troops began to advance in the direction of the enemy.
At this time, Ceng Guohua was also watching the Liberation Army's actions from the top of the city wall. As Ceng Guofan's third brother, Ceng Guohua completely followed the battle tactics that Ceng Guofan had concluded. Ceng Guofan was of the opinion that when looking at the terrain, they should not bring too many men and horses. The more people there are, the bigger the target. If the Taiping army saw them sending their troops to attack, it would be easy to lose their generals if they fought, and their morale would drop if they retreated. Therefore, it was enough to bring three to five attendants and travel light. Furthermore, he had to be even more careful when observing the situation of the enemy. There was no need to put on a show. By this time, Ceng Guohua had changed into an ordinary Qing Army soldier's uniform, and only brought two attendants with him to observe the battle from the top of the city wall.
Seeing the Liberation Army's column movement, Ceng Guohua frowned. There was nothing strange about marching in columns. This was the most traditional way of marching for thousands of years. However, there were too many columns in the Liberation Army, and the columns did not seem to be subordinate to each other. That was strange.
In a battle of cold weapons, one had to form a battle formation. In this era of spear battles, battle formations had become even more important. Facing the enemy in a horizontal formation, in order to be able to fire continuously, the troops would form three horizontal rows or even more. This was the most basic form. In the legends, the Liberation Army was very particular about fighting horizontally. It was said that the Liberation Army could even form a horizontal line and walk out a few miles and still maintain a straight line. The Xiang Army trained hard every day, and they were also working hard in this direction.
However, the Liberation Army that Ceng Guoquan saw did not show any signs of moving horizontally. It was as if they had given up on the idea of lining up neatly and were only focused on marching. What kind of trouble was the Liberation Army preparing to cause? Ceng Guoquan really couldn't understand.
Seeing that the Liberation Army had more than 500 people lined up in columns and headed straight for the Qing Army lying in ambush in the south of the city, Ceng Guohua already understood that the Liberation Army had discovered the ambushing troops. This judgment did not make Ceng Guohua nervous. The Xiang Army was prepared for this. After returning to the city, Ceng Guohua ordered the Xiang Army to attack.
The Liberation Army south of the city only had about a thousand people in total. There were two battalions of Xiang Army soldiers lying in ambush. Every battalion of the Xiang Army consists of five hundred men (one battalion officer and four sentinel officers outside), with ten men forming a platoon, each platoon having a ten-man leader; eight platoons forming sentinels, each platoon having a sentinel leader, under the command of a sentinel officer; four sentinels forming a battalion, under the command of a battalion officer; the rest are personal soldiers, directly under the command of a battalion officer. Each team used spears, knives, spears, small spears, and other long and short weapons to coordinate with each other in battle. At this time, the Xiang Army in the city sent out another two battalions, one thousand people in front and one thousand in front and one thousand in front. In total, there were 2,000 troops attacking the Liberation Army of about a thousand people.
Ceng Guofan believed that the troops on the defensive side had the advantage in battle. Even if the Xiang Army was on the offensive, they should try their best to let the other side take the initiative to attack the camp set up by the Xiang Army. Although Ceng Guohua's initiative to attack somewhat deviated from Ceng Guofan's idea of "being the host and being the guest", the Xiang Army, which had the advantage in numbers, had a great chance of winning when 2,000 people attacked 1,000 people in front and behind.
The second half of the Liberation Army's troops did not form a formation, nor did they form a horizontal formation to fight the Xiang Army. Returning to the top of the city wall, Ceng Guohua found that the Liberation Army still maintained their column formation to fight the Xiang Army. And these columns hid their troops in the undulating terrain according to the terrain. Although the sporadic troops and flags of the Liberation Army could be seen in many places, these people were scattered very widely. Even if they wanted to form a horizontal formation, there was not enough time. Watching the Xiang Army's horizontal formation approaching the position occupied by the Liberation Army in an orderly manner, Ceng Guohua seemed to see victory waving to the Xiang Army not far away.
Then, the artillery of the Liberation Army began to show its power.
The shells flew into the Xiang Army's horizontal formation with great accuracy and exploded immediately after touching the ground. Every shell swept across the Xiang Army around the landing point like a storm, and after each shell exploded, it created a fracture in the Xiang Army's horizontal formation. However, the Xiang Army unexpectedly withstood such a bombardment. Even though the horizontal formation moving forward stopped where it was, and even though the officers and soldiers of the Xiang Army were dumbfounded as they watched the three cannons constantly firing shells. At least, the Xiang Army's troops did not collapse.
The composition of the Xiang Army's troops was quite simple. The honest farmers from the mountainous areas were the soldiers, and the scholars from Hunan were the officers after being trained by Ceng Guofan. It was almost like the system of the gentry controlling the people in Hunan was transplanted intact into the army. Even though the three cannons of the Liberation Army kept shelling and the shelling caused a lot of casualties to the Xiang Army, the soldiers subconsciously gathered around the officers and withstood it.
The Xiang Army supported them so hard, but the Liberation Army acted quickly. Because he was far away, Ceng Guohua could not hear what the Liberation Army was arguing about. Through the smoke caused by the shell explosion, he saw the Liberation Army begin to attack quickly in columns. When these troops began to attack, the Liberation Army's artillery adjusted the direction of shooting. From the continuous horizontal movement at the beginning, it turned into a fierce shooting in the direction of the Liberation Army's charge. The Liberation Army, which was made up of 40 to 50 people, rushed forward with spears. When they advanced 200 meters, the leader of the column slowed down, and the column magically became horizontal. The horizontal teams made the first effective shooting at the Xiang Army. The Xiang Army, which was cut off by the artillery, immediately had casualties in the horizontal formation.
The Liberation Army changed from a column to a horizontal formation and had a unified command. The Xiang Army, which was forcibly cut into horizontal formations by the Liberation Army's artillery, did not have such a command system. Some officers in the horizontal formation commanded a counterattack. The Liberation Army in front of them had no fear of the Xiang Army's counterattack. The horizontal formation stabilized its rhythm and calmly shot at the Xiang Army.
There were only a few Xiang soldiers who had an officer commanding them. Most of the Xiang soldiers did not have an officer commanding them. They stood rooted to the ground and looked at the recovery army in a daze. The recovery army quickly reloaded their ammunition and continued to close in on the Xiang army. When the Liberation Army advanced to a distance of 100 meters from the Xiang Army, each horizontal formation fired again. At this distance, the Fire Hat Gun fully exerted its power. The Xiang Army suffered a fierce blow and suffered heavy casualties. Without a commander, these troops no longer had the will to fight. They turned around and fled. The Liberation Army quickly loaded bullets and concentrated their firepower on the Xiang Army, who still stayed in the position, to carry out a mass shooting. Most of the Xiang Army, who were either too brave or overwhelmed by fear, were killed. Those who did not die finally turned around and fled.
Without the need for a higher-ranking commander to command them, each small unit could fight independently. The Liberation Army continued to advance after defeating the enemy in front of them with a volley of guns.
Ceng Guohua, who was on top of the city wall, was dumbfounded. When there was a stronghold to rely on, the Xiang Army, who used the tactic of "forming a strong stronghold to fight a slow battle," could ignore the enemy's actions and just focus on firing. After leaving the stronghold, the Xiang Army made full use of the long horizontal formation's disadvantages. When the Liberation Army's small columns suddenly changed into horizontal formations and engaged in battle, the Xiang Army's troops, who had suffered a fierce attack, fled like rats. The Xiang Army's battle line, which had originally formed a line, was suddenly left with only a few troops still fighting at the front. The numerical advantage of 1,000 soldiers against 500 soldiers quickly turned into an absolute disadvantage of 200 soldiers against 500 soldiers. The 200 troops who continued to fight were immediately pincered by fire from the left and right.
The Liberation Army did not stop in their tracks foolishly. After reloading their bullets, they continued to approach the Xiang Army. They fired their last volley at a distance of about 50 meters, leaving less than 60 Xiang Army soldiers standing on the battlefield. The Liberation Army began their final charge. The infantrymen raised their bayonets and charged forward. After the grenade throwers' grenades exploded in the final formation of the Xiang Army, the tide of bayonets engulfed the last of the Xiang Army's troops.
The Hunan peasants who had survived until now and tried to fight back with cold weapons were quickly killed by the bayonets. Meanwhile, the Liberation Army's artillery used explosive shells to launch a fierce attack on the fleeing Xiang Army. Meanwhile, the Liberation Army's combat troops did not stay on the battlefield. After they dealt with the Xiang Army, the horizontal formations changed into columns and began to retreat to the position where they had attacked.
The battle between 1,000 Xiang Army and 500 Liberation Army ended in less than 20 minutes. The remnants of the Xiang Army fled back to the city of Fuzhou, while the Liberation Army returned to the starting position. The city of Fuzhou was still in the hands of the Xiang Army. The Liberation Army's troops still relied on the terrain to stay out of the range of the Xiang Army's artillery at the top of the city of Fuzhou. The only thing that could prove that there had been a fierce battle just now was the ground full of corpses and wounded Xiang Army soldiers between the two armies.
Ceng Guohua looked at the corpses of the Xiang Army outside the city. His legs turned to jelly and he almost fell to the top of the city wall. His personal attendants beside him hurriedly supported Ceng Guohua and carried him down from the top of the city wall. Ceng Guohua could not see the Shuraba outside the city, but he had to face the tragedy inside the city. Many of the Xiang Army soldiers who had escaped back were injured. Some of the Xiang Army soldiers were seriously injured. They only showed their human potential when they were running for their lives on the battlefield. After they entered the city, they relaxed and their injuries immediately acted up. They fell to the ground and died after struggling for a while. The Xiang Army soldiers whose injuries were not fatal were either moaning, screaming in pain, or crying, as if the end of the world had come.
Just when Ceng Guohua had not yet recovered from the slaughter he had just seen, the Xiang Army soldiers carried a person over. It was He Junxi, one of the two battalion officers who had left the city to fight just now. He was lying on his side. The place on his back where he had been shot was gurgling with blood. His face was getting paler and paler. He was already exhaling more than he was inhaling.
"Sir …" He Junxi opened his mouth with difficulty. Before he could continue, He Junxi opened his mouth and coughed. Blood gushed out of his mouth, blocking He Junxi's words and blood in his throat. His trachea was blocked by blood, causing him to suffocate and causing He Junxi's body to convulse violently. When He Junxi finally calmed down, he was already dead.
Without the support from inside the city, the gunshots outside the south of the city slowly stopped after a while. A clear thought appeared in Ceng Guohua's chaotic mind. The Xiang Army was probably finished.
"Go up the city quickly. Be careful of the Liberation Army's sneak attack!" Ceng Guohua gave the order almost unconsciously. Ceng Guohua had fought in wars for several years, but he had never seen such a bloody one-sided slaughter. At this moment, his legs could no longer support his body. Ceng Guohua fell to the ground on his butt.
The Liberation Army did not take advantage of the situation to attack the city. Instead, they surrounded Fuzhou City. In the afternoon, the Xiang Army had roughly calculated the battle data. Out of the one thousand Xiang Army soldiers who went out to fight, more than seven hundred were killed or injured. Two battalions of the Xiang Army were completely finished. The final statistical report made Ceng Guohua feel like he was about to collapse.
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