? Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As the kings of Heavenly State discussed the next step of the plan, Brave King Zhang Yingchen sat there and listened. No one expected Zhang Yingchen to speak. The Imperial Army couldn't have their own independent ideas, just like how the personal guards of the kings couldn't go to war whenever they wanted.
The result of the discussion was clear. The biggest threat to Heavenly State now was the two armies, Ceng Guoquan and Bao Chao of the Xiang Army. Although Ceng Guoquan had a higher status, his army only had ten thousand men. Moreover, when Lin Fengxiang counterattacked, he lost more than six thousand men. Because Ceng Guoquan was forced to retreat from the battlefield, more than a thousand lightly injured retreated with him, and the remaining two thousand men were killed by Lin Fengxiang. Overall, Ceng Guoquan lost five thousand elites. Their combat power was greatly reduced.
If they could deal a fatal blow to Bao Chao's twenty thousand men, the fifty thousand navy of the Xiang Army could at most dominate the river, but not on land. After the generals found a way to defeat the enemy, Lin Fengxiang turned to Zhang Yingchen and asked, "Brother Zhang, if we can persuade the Heavenly King to let you send out your troops, do you think you can win against Bao Chao?"
The kings were stunned. They never thought that Lin Fengxiang would dare to contact Zhang Yingchen publicly. In everyone's opinion, Zhang Yingchen's biggest role was to tell Hong Xiuquan the results of the kings' discussion.
Zhang Yingchen closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "The Imperial Army can't attack with all their troops. However, if the Heavenly King asks me to fight, I can bring six thousand men with me. Bringing six thousand men with me to face Bao Chao's twenty thousand men, I can still protect myself. "
"That's great!" Lin Fengxiang said happily. Others didn't have much contact with Zhang Yingchen, but Lin Fengxiang had a high opinion of Zhang Yingchen. This person had experienced so many hardships and had become more and more mature. This kind of steadiness was what a general needed the most. Moreover, Lin Fengxiang's elite troops had also suffered great losses. Even if he gathered Chen Yucheng's and Li Xiucheng's elite troops, he could only muster about 12,000 soldiers. With the addition of Zhang Yingchen's six thousand men, the odds of victory would be much higher for the 18,000 men against Bao Chao's 20,000.
After the results of the discussion came out, Lin Fengxiang officially put forward his proposal to Hong Xiuquan at the court meeting. With Lin Fengxiang leading the troops, Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, and Yang Fuqing assembled the elites of the three troops to deal a heavy blow to Bao Chao's troops. The encirclement of Tianjing City that was about to form could be temporarily relieved. In the end, Lin Fengxiang said, "Heavenly King, I still need Zhang Yingchen to lead troops to help me. Only then will I have the confidence to win."
As soon as he heard the word 'win', Hong Xiuquan's eyes lit up. He quickly asked, "What do you mean by 'win'?"
Lin Fengxiang said seriously, "The way to win is because the Xiang Army doesn't have any famous generals. Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Yang Fuqing, and Zhang Yingchen are all famous generals. The previous battle was not good mainly because of the lack of supplies in our army. The Xiang Army's firearms were firing without any regard for their lives, so we couldn't get close. Although our current troops are slightly weaker than Bao Chao's, we have so many brothers who know more about war than the Xiang Army. As long as we have enough troops, we will definitely win against Bao Chao. "
After hearing this, Hong Xiuquan could not help but nod slightly. After thinking for a while, he said, "Let Prince An follow Brother Lin and work for him."
When the generals heard that Hong Xiuquan actually sent the most annoying Prince An to be the army supervisor, they felt very uncomfortable. However, Hong Xiuquan turned around and said to Prince An, "Asking you to follow Brother Lin is asking you to work for him. If you delay Brother Lin's military affairs, you will not be forgiven! "
Prince An immediately replied, "As you wish, Heavenly King!"
Lin Fengxiang did not look disgusted at all. He happily replied, "As you wish, Heavenly King."
At this time, the Heavenly State's elites were under Lin Fengxiang's command. Hong Xiuquan also sent Zhang Yingchen from the Royal Guards to participate in the war. It was impossible for there to be no army supervisor. The fact that Prince An, Hong Renfa, was the supervisor meant that Hong Xiuquan also understood the situation. Although Prince An, Hong Renfa, was annoying, he was not a fool. It was one thing to fight for merits after the war, but he would not be a hindrance during the war. Even if he was spouting nonsense, with Lin Fengxiang's status, he could ignore it. As long as they could win, everything else was not a problem.
The Taiping Rebellion made their own adjustments in the face of heavy military pressure and finally united to a certain extent. At this time, their good luck was not limited to this. The Liberation Army's northern expedition troops had begun to besiege Hengyang.
Hengyang was located in the south-central part of Hunan Province, south of Mount Heng. Because the south of the mountain and the north of the river were "Yang", it got its name. Also, because "Northern geese fly south and rest their wings here", it was known as "Goose City". At this time, the geese that had returned early were alarmed by the rumbling of the cannons and moved away from the gunfire to a quieter area.
The army changed from a four-four system to a three-three system, and the number of troops decreased. Generally speaking, in order to make up for the density of firepower, the troops needed machine guns. Machine guns needed smokeless gunpowder. It was not a problem to prepare smokeless gunpowder, but Vézé did not want to needlessly push the equipment forward. It would be too meaningless if the British learned about the development of machine guns. Without machine guns, the troops could only rely on increasing the number of cannons to make up for the firepower. Therefore, the number of troops decreased, but the number of cannons increased.
The Xiang Army's offensive spirit was limited, and the 11th and 12th divisions used a large number of ships, so they moved very quickly. The Xiang Army's attack force and the Liberation Army's Liberation Army were all wiped out in less than two hours, and no one escaped. The Xiang Army in the city did not understand what was going on, and they were tightly surrounded in the city.
The Liberation Army moved very quickly, and the stronghold outside the city was completely occupied in a very short time. With the foundation from the previous training, although everyone was panting from running, they all completed the combat mission in the scheduled time.
The political commissar of the 11th Division, Zhou Jinguo, wiped his sweat and looked down at Hengyang from the artillery position. The three-inch cannon was a field cannon with a range of two kilometers. It was very convenient in the field, but the range was not enough to be used as a battery. Therefore, the six-inch cannon was transported to the high ground. This cannon was made of pure steel, and it was also forged and then dug holes. It had a range of four kilometers, and was a heavy cannon that only the army had. It was quite difficult to move such a big thing up the mountain, even if it was a cannon with rubber tires. However, the young soldiers managed to transport four six-inch smoothbore cannons to the high ground within a short period of time.
After the reorganization of the troops, the scale was reduced. Originally, there was a brigade between the division and the regiment. Now, the brigade became a combat unit directly under the army, so Zhou Jinguo was promoted two ranks and became the political commissar of the division. Zhou Jinguo really wanted to see how powerful the six-inch cannon was. Looking at the Xiang Army on the top of the city like ants, Zhou Jinguo ordered, "Fire a few cannons first, and adjust the shooting parameters."
After building a stable foundation for the cannon, the artillerymen made some measurements and fired a cannon first. Maybe it was because they were standing close, but Zhou Jinguo felt that the sound of the six-inch cannon was not as sharp as the three-inch cannon. But the sound of the cannon made Zhou Jinguo panic. The whistling cannon hit the top of the city, and a large cloud of smoke exploded on the top of Hengyang City. A large flag pole was blown into pieces, and the flag was torn into pieces by the shockwave and flew into the sky, floating into the city.
"Exciting!" Zhou Jinguo said happily. The smoke on the top of the city was more than two times that of the three-inch cannon. Looking at it with the naked eye, it was at least five or six times more. The smoke and dust took a long time to disperse, and through the binoculars, they could clearly see a large hole on the top of the city.
The artillerymen fired a few more cannons, and no matter if they hit the top of the city or the outside of the city, they caused great damage. One of the cannons hit the inside of the city wall, and the top of the wall, which was half the height of a person, was blown three to four meters away. Other than those who were killed or seriously injured, the Xiang Army near the location of the cannon were all so scared that they hid under the city wall. The top of the city wall, which was originally full of people, was now empty. Seeing this situation, Zhou Jinguo felt extremely comfortable, as if he had eaten a pear in sweet water. All the unhappiness that he had accumulated over the past half a year of training disappeared with the cannon.
The Liberation Army didn't think that they couldn't take Hengyang, so the general staff department made a plan to surround the city and attack the reinforcements. If the Xiang Army really didn't come to rescue Hengyang, then needless to say, they would immediately attack the city and take Hengyang. If the Xiang Army sent reinforcements, then the first task was to completely destroy the reinforcements of the Xiang Army. So the encirclement wasn't very tight, and it left the Xiang Army a channel to send people to ask for help. Of course, this channel could only let small teams out. If the Hengyang guards wanted to escape, they would be annihilated if they dared to leave the city.
The Liberation Army set off on the 11th, and on the 17th, they surrounded Hengyang City. On the 21st, a reinforcements of the Xiang Army finally set off from Xiangtan. According to the intelligence, this Xiang Army had about 5,000 people. Their equipment was so-so.
Zhou Jinguo's First Division received the order to meet the enemy. After marching for a day, they expected to meet the Xiang Army, but unexpectedly, the scouts reported that the Xiang Army didn't even walk 20 miles in a day. In order to save enough energy for the battle, the Liberation Army marched leisurely, and they easily walked 40 miles in a day.
The general staff department held a meeting to discuss what to do. Should they wait for the Xiang Army to come, or should they continue to advance the next day and meet the Xiang Army? In the end, the result of the discussion was that they should fight the Xiang Army head-on, and use the speed of the troops to defeat the Xiang Army.
The next day, a battalion of 510 people in the vanguard "encountered" the Xiang Army. To the great surprise of the Liberation Army, although the Xiang Army had 10 times the number of a battalion of the Liberation Army, the 5,000 people of the Xiang Army actually retreated. Originally, everyone thought that the 510 people couldn't scare the Xiang Army. If the Xiang Army used their advantage in numbers to launch an attack, then they could take the opportunity to lure the Xiang Army into the encirclement and annihilate them. The Xiang Army ran away, which made the Liberation Army's plan completely fail.
But at this time, they couldn't let the Xiang Army go. The Second Division had already made a detour to outflank the Xiang Army. If they let the Xiang Army run away, then the Second Division was likely to be hit by the Xiang Army. The military bags of the troops were neatly piled up, and a battalion of troops were left to guard them. The remaining troops chased after them from the back.
The pursuing troops were always able to deal the most damage. After being attacked by the Liberation Army from the back, the Xiang Army suffered several hundred casualties, and the remaining Xiang Army ran away like rabbits. After the two parties chased for five kilometers, the Xiang Army was scattered everywhere. Quite a number of straw sandals that were thrown away after their shoelaces were snapped began to appear on the road. After another two kilometers of chasing, a large number of exhausted Xiang Army tried to run for their lives with staggering footsteps. Seeing that they couldn't run away, they directly kneeled on the ground and surrendered.
After another three kilometers of chasing, the remaining Xiang Army who still had some physical strength could no longer hold on. A small number of exhausted Xiang Army who still stubbornly resisted were easily killed, and a large number of Xiang Army directly surrendered.
Zhou Jinguo found it funny in his heart. "But we have to run five kilometers of cross-country every day!"
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