?
The fog was getting thicker and thicker. They could not even see each other clearly when they were close by, let alone when they were far away. The sky was getting brighter, but the fog had only thinned slightly.
"It seems like we don't have to worry about Qing Yao discovering us," Zhang Yingchen said in a low voice. Even Zhang Yingchen would not choose to send out scouts a few li away in this kind of weather. Not to mention finding an enemy a mile away, even if they did, it would be very difficult to run a few miles away in this fog to deliver a message. At that moment, they could hear the sound of the Qing Army marching in the distance. Even though the fog had thinned, it was still a blur a few kilometers away. It was impossible to see anything. The sound of marching, the noise, and all sorts of echoes made it hard to tell how many Qing Army soldiers there were.
At ten in the morning, the Qing Army's march had finally come to an end. Suddenly, it started raining. The rain had dispersed much of the fog, but the distance was covered by a thick curtain of rain, making it even harder to see anything.
Vézé's troops were hiding in a depression at the bottom of a cliff. The battle was imminent. The soldiers were either cleaning their spears or cleaning their muskets that were wrapped tightly in cloth. This was the basic quality of a modern army. Even weapons that could not hit accurately had to be cleaned. It was not that cleaning a weapon would improve its accuracy. Instead, it was necessary to familiarize themselves with the weapon's structure and ensure that the weapon could be used in battle at any time.
The sky was getting brighter. Wei Ze guessed that it was between ten and twelve in the morning. Suddenly, he heard a loud noise coming from the direction of Da Dong Valley. The loud, continuous noise sounded like countless shouts, gunshots, and cannons coming together to form the same noise.
"They're fighting!" After Wei Changrong said this, he stood up.
Vézé ordered, "Hurry up and pack up. Get ready to depart!" After that, he stood beside the curtain of rain and listened quietly. The indescribable sound echoed in the valley like thunder and tidal waves. Vézé listened carefully. The sound lasted for a while before it became clearer. It was coming from the entrance of Dadong Valley.
At this point, Sima and the squad leaders had already ordered their soldiers to put away their equipment. Vézé looked at his subordinates and said, "It's time to go into battle. Brothers, follow me!"
Vézé and the others walked for a good while in the rain. Zhang Yingchen was only worried that Vézé would pull his brothers to block the Qing Army's retreat. He didn't expect that Vézé didn't go straight for the back of the Qing Army. Instead, he went further away from the Qing Army. It was still raining heavily. Although he was still three to four miles away from the Qing Army, Zhang Yingchen could only vaguely make out the silhouettes of the Qing Army. The Qing Army's attention was obviously focused on the Dadong Valley. They didn't notice that a group of men wearing straw capes and straw hats were quietly moving behind them.
Vézé finally reached a small slope and heaved a sigh of relief. There was a ravine between the slope and the official road. It was about 40 steps away. Vézé divided two soldiers and 200 musketeers into four groups on the slope. The musketeers were placed behind the musketeers.
The main fighting force of the Qing Army was the Green Camp. During the early Qing Dynasty, the Green Camp was not allowed to use firearms. They didn't even have matchlocks, let alone cannons. However, not long after the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners became corrupted. The Qing court had no choice but to give firearms to the Green Camp. As the main force of the Manchu Qing Army, the Green Camp started to use firearms. These firearms were later the famous Three Treasures of the Xiang army, 'Carrying Spear, Carrying Musket, Splitting Mountain Cannon'.
The javelin was a firearm with a length of more than two meters and a weight of about thirty kilograms. It could shoot a large amount of lead at once. Although the generals of the Manchu Qing Army boasted that this thing could shoot up to a hundred steps, the Manchu Qing Army did not dare to underestimate it. But whoever really believed it would be a fool. The black gunpowder used as the propellant would scatter all over the sky after eighty steps, unable to hit anything. An experienced general would always give the order to open fire when they were about thirty steps away from the enemy. That was when the killing power was at its highest. Because of the difficulty of lifting the gun and the difficulty of reloading, it would usually only ring once or twice in a battle.
Although the Spear Bearer wasn't a creation with complete intellectual property rights, it was still a newcomer to the firearms industry of the Qing Dynasty. The muskets and mountain splitting cannons used by the Green Camp were old fellows who had been in service since the Great Ming Dynasty. The muskets were Great Ming replicas of the matchlock muskets, while the mountain splitting cannons were known as the Thousand Thunder Cannons. It had been used for more than two hundred years without any improvements. It was really hard work.
Vézé was already quite familiar with the weapons of the Green Camp. In such a heavy rain, if the three weapons advanced slowly under the cover of the rain, they would be of some use. But once they were exposed to the rain and the three weapons were drenched, there was no need to consider whether they could still fight normally.
Now that Vézé had no way of contacting the King Of The East, no matter how much he wanted to destroy Manchu Qing, no matter how much he was moved by the King Of The East's heroic spirit, Vézé no longer had the intention of risking his life for the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven. In this situation where communication was completely cut off, directly fighting the Qing Army would only expose them to the firepower of the Qing Army. Choosing this place, which seemed to pose less of a threat to the Qing Army, was the result of careful consideration by Vézé.
As soon as Vézé and the others occupied that position, the Qing Army discovered Vézé and the others. The one in charge of guarding the valley entrance was the commander of the Northern Camp, Xiang Rong. After receiving this news, Xiang Rong turned pale with fright.
As early as the 24th of March, Ceishan 'a had received an edict from the Xianfeng Emperor. The edict had very strict words written on it, the gist of which was: "Since the traitors have been surrounded, they cannot be allowed to escape again. If the renegade escapes, we will find out which way the renegade escaped and punish him severely. "
Ceishan 'a was also frightened by this edict. In the following days, he constantly sent troops to launch restraining attacks on Yongan. But Ceishan 'a did not expect that in the early hours of the 6th of March, the Taiping army would break out of Yongan in the rainy night, when it was most difficult for troops to march. Thinking of the Xianfeng Emperor's edict, Ceishan' a immediately dispatched Ulan Tai and Xiang Rong to pursue with all their elites.
On the 7th of April, Ulan Tai led his troops in a fierce pursuit, surrounding the rear of the Taiping army in one fell swoop and killing two thousand people. Finally, Ulan Tai, who had made a great contribution, felt that he had surpassed Xiang Rong completely by relying on his contributions. He did not care about Xiang Rong at all and was even prepared to pursue and destroy the Taiping army on his own.
Early in the morning of the 8th of April, Ulan Tai was in the midst of his rebellion when he saw a small unit of the Taiping army appear in front of him. Moreover, it seemed that this small unit was actually returning to attack the outpost. Ulan Tai, who had already had his breakfast, thought that he could replicate the victory of the 7th of March. He did not wait for his troops to have breakfast and led his troops into Dadong Valley. This frightened the 60-year-old Xiang Rong, who had been on the battlefield for a long time. Ulan Tai's actions were too rash. It was obvious that the Taiping army had set up an ambush in Dadong. Xiang Rong could not catch up in time. He could only lead his troops to guard the entrance of Dadong Valley and prepare to receive Ulan Tai.
Just as Xiang Rong had predicted, the Taiping army had set up an ambush in Dadong Valley and suddenly attacked Ulan Tai's troops. Ulan Tai's troops were defeated. Now, the defeated troops were fleeing towards the entrance of the valley. Meanwhile, the Taiping army was in hot pursuit.
Just as he was about to line up to receive them, he suddenly learned that a Taiping army had occupied his rear. Xiang Rong broke out in a cold sweat. Without thinking, he said, "Line up and kill the renegades at the back first."
Xiang Rong was responsible for protecting Ulan Tai's escape route. However, if Xiang Rong's escape route was cut off, the two armies would be wiped out.
"Father, I'm afraid Ulan Tai's defeated troops are almost here," Xiang Rong's son, Xiang Jixiong, hurriedly reminded him. In fact, Xiang Rong did not need Xiang Jixiong's reminder. Just from the sound of the approaching shouts and the vague silhouettes of people in the rain, Xiang Rong knew what was going on.
"Take 500 men and kill those renegades first," Xiang Rong said to his son with a straight face.
Xiang Jixiong also felt that his father's order was more reasonable. He took a battalion of Qing Army troops and headed straight for Vézé's troops.
The closer they got to Vézé's troops, the more shocked Xiang Jixiong was. He saw that the Taiping army on the opposite side were wearing thick straw raincoats and bamboo hats. The bamboo hats were covered with straw. They lined up neatly behind the stone slope, with only their upper bodies exposed. In the hands of each soldier in the front row was a matchlock gun. The firecaps were all under the bamboo hats. Although the edges of the bamboo hats were dripping with rain, the straw covered bamboo hats did not leak any water.
What made Xiang Jixiong feel even more threatened was that these soldiers, facing the swarming Qing Army, stood firmly in place. They did not shoot, nor did they run away in fear. Xiang Rong was very proficient in chain fire. Xiang Jixiong had naturally learned his father's skills. Looking at the Taiping army's formation, Xiang Jixiong knew that if he rushed forward rashly, he would only run into the muzzle of the gun.
When he was about 80 steps away from the Taiping army, Xiang Jixiong's uneasiness grew stronger. He did not dare to advance any further. Xiang Jixiong called a halt to the Qing Army and ordered, "Fire!"
With a series of gunshots, the Qing Army's matchlocks opened fire. The smoke mixed with the fog immediately blocked the Qing Army's line of sight. Xiang Jixiong did not care too much. Learning from his father, Xiang Rong's unique skill, he began to fire non-stop. Half of Xiang Rong's muskets used three burst shots, while Xiang Rong's chain fire was non-stop. It was equivalent to seven, eight, or even ten shots. The advantage of this method was that it could intimidate the enemy with non-stop firepower, and it could also continuously attack the enemy that was close to it. The disadvantage was that the density of the firepower was greatly reduced.
Matchlocks were front-loading weapons. When loaded in the heavy rain, the barrel would be flooded, and even the matchlock would be extinguished by the rain. After such a chain fire, Xiang Jixiong really could not organize a second round of shooting. In addition, the smoke made it impossible for him to see clearly, so he could only stop the shooting.
Xiang Rong had been fighting in the north all this time, so he was not used to this kind of heavy rain. When it rained, he had to hide under the huge umbrellas that moved with the army. The speed of loading was not fast on a sunny day, and in the rain, it was several times slower.
When the rain dispersed the smoke, there were not eighty matchlocks that could be fired again.
When Xiang Jixiong looked at the Taiping army's camp, he was surprised to find that not only did the Taiping army not retaliate with their muskets, their formation was actually as neat as before.
At a distance of eighty steps, and in the heavy rain, the shooting of the matchlocks was completely useless. Even if a few bullets flew into the Taiping army's formation, the rain-soaked, heavy straw raincoats and bamboo hats covered with grass could effectively protect them from the lead bullets.
Seeing that this round of shooting was useless, Xiang Jixiong also understood where the problem was. Not only was it raining, but the humidity was also very high, and the effectiveness of the gunpowder was greatly reduced. If he wanted to effectively kill the Taiping army, he could only move to a distance of forty steps, or even thirty steps.
Gritting his teeth, Xiang Jixiong ordered the loaded Qing Army to continue to move closer. Through the curtain of rain, Xiang Jixiong could hear someone in the Taiping army shouting something, but he could not hear it clearly.
The one who shouted was Vézé, and the content was simple: "Listen to my orders! Open fire! "
Not only that, Vézé was originally standing in the first row of the musket team. Now, he pulled out his sword and took two steps forward, standing at the front of the line. Vézé's right arm was straight, and his sword was shining in the rain. Although there was only one person, all the Taiping army soldiers were excited when they saw Brigade General Vézé, who was originally standing in the first row, standing at the front.
After more than a month of training, everyone learned to listen to orders before firing. However, when facing the Qing Army, the soldiers couldn't help but feel nervous. Seeing that Brigade General Vézé was closer to the Qing Army's muzzles than the soldiers, everyone held their breath and ignored the Qing Army, waiting for Vézé's orders.
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