It was the end of November, and the bleak cold wind blew early, and the wind and snow fell early in Taizhou beyond everyone's expectations. After the first heavy snow, the temperature dropped sharply to more than ten degrees below zero. In the past, if such a change of weather was encountered, it would lead to the collapse of the army or severe reduction in personnel for the army.

When Dahonga woke up and saw heavy snow, he ran up to the city tower with ecstasy to see how the hairy thieves were. He walked happily and said happily: "Look, this is God's punishment for the traitors!"

Although the sudden abnormal weather was also quite troubled to the Qing army guarding the city, the Qing army was always in the city. They had houses to keep the cold, but the Taiping army was sleeping outside the city, and the trouble they encountered was several times that of the Qing army.

During the Daoguang and Xianfeng period, it was the end of the Little Ice Age of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Although the climate is no longer as abnormal as in the late Ming Dynasty, the weather in some areas occasionally becomes abnormal. The people of Taizhou City said that this heavy snow was not encountered in decades, and many people were worried about the Taiping Army outside the city.

Unfortunately, after Dahonga climbed the city tower, he did not see what he wanted to see. The Taiping Army's position was busy. There were many ox carts and horse carriages shuttled back and forth on the position. The outside of the city was burned to white ground. The Taiping Army had to cut down trees from more than ten miles away and built many temporary shacks on the trenches of the position. These shacks were warmer than tents and were enough to withstand the invasion of the severe cold.

Lin Qirong, the commander of the newly formed First Division of the Taiping Army, and Chen Bushi, the trainer of the First Division, were wearing thick winter clothes, walking in the trenches, visiting the officers and soldiers of various participating troops, and seeing many officers and soldiers hiding in the trenches, covered with thick logs, and bonfires were lit below, and the inside was still very warm. Moreover, the officers and soldiers were all wearing thick winter uniforms, which made the two very satisfied with the Logistics Department.

Subsequently, the Taiping Army Logistics Department specially distributed battlefield manuals for winter combat to all brigades and regiments, and all the things to pay attention to when the cold is cold are written one by one, so small that the socks must be kept dry and not suffering from trench footage. They were also written in it, allowing the Taiping Army to avoid a large non-combat reduction.

Lin Qirong looked at the officers and soldiers, but his morale was still high. He looked at Chen Bushi with relief and said, "It seems that the situation is better than expected, thanks to Li Shuai's patience. Let the Logistics Department thank you for your time to prepare supplies."

Chen Bushi is from Wuchang, Hubei. He joined the Taiping Army in Hubei. He was originally a teacher. Later, he had outstanding achievements in the military academy and was also valued. He sighed. The heat he exhaled instantly turned into aerosols, which stuck to his face. A white layer of frost was covered with white frost. He frowned and said, "Yes, Li Shuai, the brothers of the General Staff and the Logistics Department were very thoughtful. In winter, you have to think of various emergencies. If it were the past, it would be uncommon for half of the soldiers to get sick when they came to such a ghost weather. Now that we are well, our Logistics Department can deliver the supplies so quickly to avoid us from getting frozen."

Lin Qirong smiled bitterly and said, "The King of the West may have done it intentionally this time. Last year, Luo Dagang and the others also chose to advance to Yangzhou in winter. This year, they also chose to go to the winter. It seems that the King of the West wants all the troops to familiarize themselves with the weather in the north in advance and make some preparations for the future Northern Expedition."

Chen Bushi looked at the distant Taizhou City, which was covered with silver and was like an ice city, and said slowly: "Yes, we are all from the south. If we go to the north one day, it will be very troublesome to not adapt to the climate in the north. To be honest, I am not afraid of heat, but cold."

Lin Qirong smiled and said, "Yes, as the saying goes, I would rather travel thousands of miles south than walk north for a day. The winter in the north is even colder. The most important thing for the southern army to fight against the north is to adapt to the climate. Yesterday, Li Shuai came to the general order, and Li Tingyu's reinforcements had been knocked out. Taizhou City no longer has the value of existence, so we can close the net."

Chen Bushi frowned slightly and said, "I saw the combat plan of the General Staff this morning. Do you have to choose to fight today? Yesterday, the officers and soldiers were busy building shacks for a day, and they were afraid they were very tired."

Lin Qirong smiled faintly and said, "We are not the young master's soldiers. What kind of battle can we fight if we can't afford to suffer? Today is very good. We just try our snowy combat capabilities. There are not many opportunities for training. At noon, we launched our first attack!"

At noon, in a leeward valley, a huge fire pit was lit every few meters on the Taiping artillery position, and various types of artillery were arranged in the middle of the fire pit. The Taiping artillery was afraid that the cold weather would freeze the artillery, so the artillery used this method to thaw. Fortunately, the range of the Qing army artillery was not as far away as that of the Taiping army artillery, so the Taiping army artillery dared to make fire to keep warm. Otherwise, the fireworks soaring into the sky would definitely bring greetings from artillery shells.

The time for the attack was up, and the loud military horns resounded throughout the fourth field. The Taiping Army gathered more than 300 artillery guns directly under the artillery regiments of two divisions to prepare for artillery fire. Amid the huge roar, the fire of the muzzle hanging on the icy zi burst out, and instant heat melted the icy zi at the muzzle. The entire artillery position was filled with smoke, hot air, and fog. If the ruler had not been calibrated in advance, it would have been impossible to hit the target with such visibility.

After more than ten days of periphery battle, the Qing army of Dahonga's Taizhou lost all the strongholds on the periphery. Dahonga was very happy at first that the weather suddenly cooled down. He felt that no army could act as usual in such heavy snowy weather, let alone launching siege battles. But at noon, the first round of artillery shells hit the city of Taizhou. When the shells poured down and burst out with huge flames, Dahonga opened his mouth wide and couldn't speak for a while. He thought that after the heavy snow, the long-haired thieves outside the city were busy building shacks to sleep. Unexpectedly, the thunderous flames enveloped the city of Taizhou City at this time.

As the stone chips, soil and ice chips splashed, Dahonga shouted loudly, asking his soldiers and generals to quickly pass orders to the city gates. The order was very simple, avoiding artillery fire and waiting for counterattack of Changmao's attack. Due to the misjudgment, Dahonga believed that the Taiping Army would not leave today, so he withdrew most of the Qing troops at the top of the city to rest. However, he did not expect that the Taiping Army, which had been silent for more than ten days, suddenly launched an attack.

Half an hour of artillery fire preparation made Dahonga feel like he was living a life of year. The Taiping Army outside the city tilted shells toward the city with desperate fear. Almost all the small Taizhou walls were greeted by shells. The heat brought by the explosion made Taizhou, an ice city that was originally covered with heavy snow, show signs of melting in this cold weather.

Dahong A was cursing in his heart. There were several foreign cannons, but the shells were very expensive. It was the cannon that cost ten thousand taels of gold. Dahong A suddenly envied these long-haired thieves. They fired cannons as if they didn't have money.

Dahonga's beard, dyed with a thin layer of snow, was trembling constantly. Judging from the preparations for artillery fire, the Taiping Army was determined to break the city in one battle, but he just didn't know that the section of the city wall would not be able to support it first.

The sound of artillery fire gradually stopped. Dahonga was surprised to find that there was no major collapsed area in the shaking Taizhou city wall, which made him very excited. Then a loud charge sound sound, Dahonga had heard this annoying sound many times. This sound can always inspire the long-haired soldiers, and his soldiers were trembling when they heard this sound. But Dahonga was very surprised that the city wall did not collapse, where did these long-haired thieves charge?

Just when he was puzzled, a Qianmai rushed to report with a mourning face as if he was a mourning test: "Ship An. It's a big deal, Governor Wang opened the west gate and picked up the long-haired thief into the city!"

"What?!" Dahonga felt dizzy for a moment. Wang Youling actually turned against him. Only then did he understand why he could not catch any of the people who spoke randomly. It turned out that someone was sheltering him.

The shouts of soaring into the sky sounded outside the city, and the soldiers of the Taiping Army launched an attack on the four gates of Taizhou at the same time. Although the west gate was opened, in order to prevent the Qing army from concentrating its forces to block the west gate, the Taiping Army of the other three gates also carried long ladders and various siege equipment to attack the city. They rushed over in line with scattered soldiers, which seemed messy. However, it was very troublesome for the Qing soldiers to hit the soldiers lined up in dense linear arrays, but it was difficult to hit the scattered soldiers, the damn smoothbore gun. God knows where the bullets will run to after they are out.

The soldiers of the Taiping Army charged and kept firing guns. They finally thawed the firing pin of the musket in the trench, wrapped a thick cloth to prevent water vapor from entering, and frozen the firing pin again, so they kept firing guns to keep the gun body heated. However, many soldiers' muskets were silent, but these soldiers did not retreat. After the shiny bayonet was ready, they rushed to the front to cover the soldiers whose guns could still be fired.

Several hidden artillery positions in the Qing army city began to fire artillery, but the Taiping soldiers attacking the scattered line were limited to killing. After the Qing army artillery began to fire artillery, the Taiping army artillery began to roar again. After several rounds of artillery, the Qing army artillery was suppressed one by one and continued to cover the infantry's charge, which shows how high the quality of the Taiping army artillery was.

A group of Taiping soldiers rushed to the bottom of the north gate city wall. Taiping soldiers quickly placed huge explosive packs under the city wall. With a few loud bangs, the already shaky city wall collapsed, mixed with soil, and splashes of ice flying in the sky. Dahonga's face began to look ugly. He shouted loudly, asking the messenger to order the Qing soldiers in the city to block the gaps, and street fighting had already begun on the west gate.

The Qing soldiers who rushed to the gap fired several rounds of muskets with the Taiping soldiers at the gap. The slow musket fire rate put the Qing army at a disadvantage. The Taiping soldiers seemed to have no patience. When the Qing soldiers replaced the bullets, hundreds of Taiping soldiers rushed into the gap with bright bayonets and started hand-to-hand combat with the Qing soldiers guarding the gap.

As soon as the battle was held, many Taiping soldiers shouted with shouts: "Surrender and not kill! Surrender and not kill!" Under the sharp bayonet impact, coupled with the seductive shouts of Taiping soldiers, many Qing army trainers who did not have much training put down the messy weapons in their hands and surrendered directly at the gap.

In the cold winter, the two armies launched fierce street fighting in Taizhou City. Compared with the temporary regiment training warriors, Dahonga's 3,000 elite soldiers and horses were all Dahonga's confidant soldiers. They still showed the style of an army. Except for the surrender of individual soldiers who were alone, there was no surrender like the regiment training warriors.

Although they were at a disadvantage in weapons and tactics, they were still tenaciously blocking the Taiping Army's advance under the command of Qing army generals at all levels, their defensive positions were gradually shrinking. In the evening, the positions in the Qing army city were compressed to the area of ​​the official residence of the Taizhou Prefectural Office.

The sky gradually darkened, and the Taiping Army slowed down its offensive. All subsequent troops entered the city, surrounded the prefect's yamen and nearby urban areas on the third floor and the third floor of the outside, preparing to carry out the final blow after dawn.

After dark, Dahonga organized several night attacks in an attempt to break through the Taiping Army's defense line, but under the strict defense of the Taiping Army, the Qing army did not achieve decent results, and was unable to break through.

After the last night attack failed, a general under Dahonga said in a trembling voice: "Sir An, why don't we surrender?" Sometimes, in order to survive, people can say anything and do anything. This general actually said the surrender, but this was the voice of most Qing soldiers and generals.

Dahonga roared angrily: "I will never surrender to the traitors. We will fight to the last person to repay the emperor's kindness. Who dares to surrender again? I will be killed without forgiveness!" (To be continued, please search for astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
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