?
"I was just lucky. Why don't you try firing a few more times?" Wei Changrong poured a bucket of cold water over Zhang Yingchen's head.
Just now, Vézé's artillery had fired two shots at the Qing Army outside the city. The two shots had accurately hit the Qing Army's flag more than a mile away. One of the shots had even pierced through the flag of the Qing Army, causing a wave of cheers from the top of the city wall. The Qing Army quickly began to retreat. They retreated three to four miles away as if they had just lost a battle.
Even though he had been poured a bucket of cold water over his head, Zhang Yingchen still burst into laughter as he watched the Qing Army retreating. Although Ke Gongyu, the commander of the Instructional Brigade, was also happy, he was not as happy. He had seen cannons fire many times. The same fixed gunpowder, or even the same shot, seemed to be fired from cannons of similar caliber, but the range and landing point of the shot were very different. Even the same shot from the same cannon could land in very different places.
As a member of the Instructional Brigade, Ke Gongyu understood the meaning of the word "homogeneity" more and more clearly. Troops could take the same steps and stride. Guns could have similar trajectories and bullets could have similar power. Cannons could also have the same range and accuracy. With such troops and weapons, the combat staff could be more efficient when making plans.
Most of the three hundred people in the instructional brigade were elite troops. Many of them had been following Wei Ze's troops since Yongan City. This group of brothers had received formal military education the earliest and had been trained the longest. Therefore, their discipline, obedience, and determination to attack were all outstanding.
This Instructional Brigade could be said to be the absolute elites of Vézé's troops. They were also the role models of the entire army. However, as the benchmark of the entire army, the Instructional Brigade could not be used as the standard for making military plans. This was because the soldiers in Vézé's troops had joined the army at different times. Their personal characteristics were very different, and their qualities were uneven. If the Instructional Brigade was used as the standard for making battle plans, the battle plans would definitely be impossible to accomplish.
Ke Gongyu thought of another problem when he saw this seemingly effective bombardment. "When can we make our own guns and cannons? That would be great!"
As for Wei Changrong, he was in charge of the military's combat training. He was also quite displeased with Zhang Yingchen's excited behavior. "Ying Chen, you weren't here when we were choosing the cannons. We didn't get to choose many good cannons. The standard for choosing cannons is very strict! The things that were destroyed were several times more than the things that were left behind. The powder that was used to train the soldiers (this is the name for gunpowder in this era), if we fire the cannons now, at least tens or hundreds of Qing Yao will be killed. "
Lin Fengxiang had been following Vézé the entire time, and was greatly astonished to see the accuracy of Vézé's cannons when they reached the top of the city wall. He didn't expect that after scaring off thousands of Qing Army with two cannons, Vézé's troops were not in high spirits. Instead, most of them looked bitter and resentful. This dissatisfaction did not seem to be because Vézé was trying to embarrass someone, but because they were arguing about something that Lin Fengxiang didn't understand.
As for Vézé's own army, Lin Fengxiang couldn't persuade him. But when Lin Fengxiang saw that the Qing Army didn't show any signs of turning around after retreating, he couldn't help but say to Vézé, "Wayne Brothers, since we've decided to return to Daozhou, we should go out of the city and fight. We should force the Qing Army to retreat."
In Yongan and Guilin, every time the Taiping Army prepared to retreat, they didn't give up. Instead, they sent their troops to attack the Qing Army. This kind of tactic could confuse the Qing Army and make it difficult for the Qing Army to figure out what the Taiping Army was thinking. When they suddenly left the front line, the Qing Army wouldn't be able to discover the Taiping Army's movements.
Vézé didn't think too much about it. Originally, he just wanted to quickly climb the city walls. There weren't many opportunities to use the Qing Army as a training tool. It was a good opportunity to see what the artillery was capable of. In terms of future movements, they didn't think as far ahead as Lin Fengxiang. After hearing Lin Fengxiang's suggestion, Vézé looked at his troops again and realized that they were so tired that they weren't suitable for fighting outside the city walls.
Lin Fengxiang waited for Vézé to give his orders, but when he saw Vézé's embarrassed expression, he couldn't help but ask, "Wayne Brothers, are there any difficulties?"
Vézé replied, "My brothers are too tired."
This answer was incomprehensible to Lin Fengxiang. Vézé's troops had gone south to seize Jianghua and Yongming, and then attacked Liu Zhangqing. There had been almost half a month in between. They had only fought one battle and walked for a few days, but they were already "too tired." This was at odds with Vézé's achievements. King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, had led the Taiping army north from Guilin and fought for more than ten days. Yet they weren't so tired that they couldn't send troops to attack the retreating Qing Army.
But the matters of Vézé's troops weren't for Lin Fengxiang to say. Vézé did indeed have achievements. Lin Fengxiang said, "If that's the case, we have to fight Qing Yao tomorrow no matter what. We've brought so many carts and mules. If we can't defeat Qing Yao first, we won't be able to retreat to Daozhou."
Hearing Lin Fengxiang's words, Vézé secretly heaved a sigh of relief. He didn't want to waste his breath telling Lin Fengxiang how hard it had been to train his troops these days. If it was a war, as long as they dared to attack, the Qing Army would be no match. But training was completely different. In order for the soldiers to display their strength on the battlefield, basic training was extremely arduous and boring. Besides, the Qing Army had two to three thousand men, and they had the guts to attack Guanyang. Vézé absolutely had to formulate a battle plan for this Qing Army. He couldn't simply send his troops out to attack.
Outside the city, Jiang Zhongyuan had also abandoned his plan to attack Guanyang. The Taiping army's fighting strength was beyond his imagination. If the Qing Army's disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat could be attributed to the bandits' fearlessness of death, and musket shooting was an easy skill to master, but artillery technology wasn't something that could be mastered overnight.
Because he hadn't studied Newton's three laws, Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't use modern physics to construct the concept of ballistic trajectory. He had a very direct understanding of the firing of cannons, and after that, he only had some vague "ideas". The Qing Army's knowledge of artillery was at this level. Perhaps there were some things that could be summed up after a lot of practice. However, because of the lack of a real theoretical framework and the lack of large-scale education and communication, the Qing army had no way to achieve any real improvement.
Needless to say, the Qing Army didn't pay much attention to training. For the Qing Army, gunpowder wasn't expensive, but it wasn't cheap either. In battle, the Qing Army could consume large amounts of gunpowder regardless of the cost. But for daily military training, the Qing Army's generals felt their hearts ache to fire a single shot. At that time, they felt it was a "waste".
Because of the surrounding environment, Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't understand how Vézé was able to make use of the scarce resources at hand to carry out a large amount of efficient training. The Taiping army's accurate artillery skills in Guanyang made Jiang Zhongyuan suspect that some of the Qing Army's veteran gunners had defected to the Taiping army. Moreover, one of the two shots had hit Jiang Zhongyuan's flag. This was a great omen in Chinese tradition. The morale of the soldiers around Jiang Zhongyuan suffered a huge setback. He could only choose to retreat and set up camp. He was ready to find an opportunity to fight the Taiping army.
During the retreat, Jiang Zhongyuan suddenly remembered something. The hairstyle of the Taiping army in Guanyang. Now, everything was connected to a single line. This hairstyle of the Taiping army had been famous in the Qing Army in Guangxi for half a year. They looted the supply routes, killed and wounded the imperial guards, and blocked the valley entrance during the battle of Dadong. More importantly, the Han hairstyle of these people even attracted the attention of the Xianfeng Emperor. He ordered the generals in Guangxi to spend a lot of effort to collect information about this army.
As a scholar, Jiang Zhongyuan suddenly felt a little complicated. Although he hadn't read the nonsense, "Money and rat's tail are the new government's elegant policy; High hat and wide belt are the corrupt rules of a subjugated country," Jiang Zhongyuan had seen the portrait of Confucius. In the portrait, Confucius had his hair tied up. Manchu Qing didn't dare to change the hairstyle of Confucius in the portrait. Jiang Zhongyuan never thought he would see a Han with this hairstyle in his lifetime. He couldn't help but feel a little complicated.
Forcefully shaking his head, Jiang Zhongyuan said to himself fiercely, "They are bandits. Even if they tie up their hair, they are still bandits! If they really want to restore the Han style, they can take the righteous path! "
But as soon as this thought came to his mind, Jiang Zhongyuan was also horrified. According to the Manchu Qing's system, any attempt to restore the Han style was considered a rebellion. This time, Jiang Zhongyuan could only slap his bald head hard. "We are the imperial army, they are bandits! The two sides will fight to the death. We must determine a winner tomorrow! "
Inside the city, Vézé said to the generals, "The Qing Army outside the city is different from Liu Zhangqing. We must not underestimate them!"
"Why?" Ruan Xihao didn't understand these words, which praised the enemy's prestige.
Vézé replied, "If Liu Zhangqing encounters our army, he will immediately run away. This Qing Army has forced their way to the city, but they still haven't relaxed. They have long ladders in their hands, and it looks like they are going to attack the city. When they retreated, they even took the ladders with them. It is obvious that they are planning to attack the city next time. To deal with this kind of Qing Army, our army must not underestimate them. When Liu Zhangqing is at a disadvantage, he will run away. This Qing Army will not run away until they are at the end of their rope. "
The other officers didn't make a sound. Having seen the signs of the Qing Army outside the city, they all felt the same way.
"Then how should we deal with this Qing Army?" Ruan Xihao asked.
"I want to try a more complicated tactic. I want to see if I can involve cannons in the battle!" Vézé gave his answer.
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