Chapter 22: Sparks

The river flows slowly, and under the moonlight, it looks like a silver belt.

The Pingyuan Army on the south bank of Fuhe had already built the next trench fortifications. At this moment, the artillery battalion's shrunk bullets, which fell to the ground, blossomed bullets, poured on the Taiping Army's position on the north bank, like fireworks blooming everywhere, dazzling, but under this beautiful scene, I don't know how many white bones were buried.

Since the engineers of the Guangzhou Iron and Steel Factory invented the open furnace steelmaking according to the idea of ​​General Wang, the texture of the steel has been further improved. The several cannons in the First Town Artillery Battalion are cast from the latest steel materials, and after adding the steel hoop, the gun body is even less likely to be broken.

With the sharp increase in steel usage in Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places and the need for export, the Guangzhou Steel Plant is further expanding, including several iron-making blast furnaces and some parts of the steel-making furnaces imported from Britain. The iron-making blast furnaces built by themselves should be put into use soon in the experimental improvement. As for the steel-making furnace, after using a flat furnace, the technology of removing impurities such as phosphorus and sulfonium in the molten iron has been improved, but some facilities still need to be imported.

Almost all the equipment used in private small steel factories that are preparing to be launched in Ganzhou are manufactured in Guangdong.

Shen Bao was naturally indifferent to these things. He only knew that the cannon body seemed to feel more comfortable.

Standing on the mound, holding a thousand-mile mirror and looking at the north shore, although there were many bandits, it was impossible to break through the Jiangxi camp without paying a hundred times or a thousand times. Li Xiucheng would not have made his elite soldiers die in vain under artillery fire. Several feint attacks were more like doing it.

Even the positions on the north bank within the range of the artillery fire of the Pingyuan Army gradually disappeared.

But the Shenbao's heart was heavy. Li Xiucheng wanted to trap Jiangxi Daying to death. To be precise, the telegram line from Jiangxi Daying to Guangzhou was destroyed several times. Although it had been repaired several times, it was not as fast as the bandit team's destruction. Now that we want to contact Guangzhou, we can only go to Jianchang Prefecture and send a message to Guangzhou.

In fact, between Jianchang Prefecture and the Jiangxi Camp in Fuzhou, the bandits were extremely active, and even if they were teleported, they had to be extremely careful.

Although the Jiangxi Daying has sufficient food, grass and ammunition, now I feel like I am timid in the Daying as a turtle. Sometimes I really want to attack Nanchang and fight with the bandits to have fun.

But the last telegram sent by the prince had to keep himself in order to keep Fuzhou and Jianchang safe. Although he would not accept the orders of the outside king, even if he conquered Nanchang at a tragic price, he would only incite Li Xiucheng's troops to become bandits. Nowadays, wars are extremely tight everywhere, and the troops of the first town are not enough to wipe it out.

What's more, the prince saw the situation of the whole world, and he had his own considerations in everything, but he could not only care about temporary gains and losses.

Putting down the thousand-mile mirror in his hand, the God of War slowly walked back to the barracks.

...

The night was as bright as ink. Under Jianchang City, there were shouts of killing at the top of the city, and a bandit suddenly came to the city. Inside the city, there were shouts of killing everywhere, and firelights were bursting. From time to time, a big man with red scarves and heads ran past the street.

Under the city, the sound of the killing of the red scarf man was shocked by the sky, and waves climbed towards the city.

In the blazing fire, a man like an iron tower cavalry in the formation of ten thousand troops. He carried a huge black and huge tiger-headed sword in his hand and shouted to the bandits to siege the city. His power was Chen Bingwen, the first tiger general under the Zhongwang Li Xiucheng. Later generations said that he "has extraordinary arm strength, can hold a giant pot in one hand, and a few feet away, flying into a boiling tea bowl, without any mistakes. He is good at martial arts, good at 80 kilograms of spring and autumn swords, and waving like flying, and people cannot get close to him."

"Your Master Chen San is here, surrender quickly! Avoid the death penalty of the whole city of demons!" Chen Bingwen's voice was like a bell, and his voice was still clearly heard as the shouts of killing in the sky.

The patrols of the city and the regiments were all in riots. Li Xiucheng had been fighting in Jiangxi for many years, and Chen Bingwen and Chen Laosan's reputation was even more resounding. Although Pingyuan's army repeatedly defeated the bandits after entering Jiangxi, the Green Camp's regiment's fear of the bandits gradually faded, but now he is suddenly attacked, and the huge fear of the bandits that have gradually faded suddenly surges into his heart.

I don’t know how many bandits sneaked in in the city. Under the city, bandits rushed in like ants, so how can it not be trembling?

A team of torches, Jianchang patrol guard Ding Maocai hurried to the top of the city, and then a little thin man ran over and cried: "Second Master, brothers can't stand it..." The little thin man is a relative of Ding Maocai, and he liked it very much in the past.

Ding Maocai's face was as heavy as water. When he came to the battlements, he saw that although the guns were fired from the battlements, someone was sneaking down the city. Ladders had already been put on the top of the city, and the red scarfs were climbing up the ladder. Their hideous faces could be seen in the firelight.

"Second Master, why don't we surrender..." Before the little skinny man finished speaking, he was kicked suddenly and kicked by Ding Maocai.

"Bastard! I will kill you if you dare to disturb our morale again!" Ding Maocai's eyes were red, and he was so scared that the little thin man curled up beside the bricks and did not dare to speak anymore.

Ding Maocai looked around and shouted: "Brothers, you all forgot how comfortable our lives are now? Think about your wife and children, how did this comfortable life come?! Think about whether your wife and children will still want to eat white steamed buns and play kaleidoscopes in the future? If you don't want to live, they will throw away the rolling pin in your hands and surrender! If you still want to live a good life, then let me die! Once the reinforcements of the coach Bao Damao will be the fucking scumbag!"

"Hey!" Ding Mao cut off half of the face of the bandit who had just climbed up to the city, lifted his feet and kicked it down, shouting: "How many years have you been bullied by Changmao? Now with King Su, you are afraid of a bird! It's man, so don't let Changmao hit your neck! You'll have a good life!" As soon as he finished speaking, he banged and was shot on his shoulder, but the bandit under the city gate saw his official uniform, and the one with a musket immediately shot him coldly.

Ding Maocai groaned, but waved his arms and shouted, "Battle him! Kill the long hair!" Blood in his left arm was oozing out, and he seemed to have pulled out his short gun and shot under the city.

At this moment, dozens of big men ran up the city ladder, and the leader said as he ran: "Second Master! The long hair in the city was killed by the little ones! Our brothers all went to four cities!" But it was a branch of the group, called the leader Zhang Weigan, and named the gentleman from the new school in the city.

The investigation into Jianchang Prefecture was extremely strict, not to mention that the city was closed almost every day during the war in Ganzhou last month. There were not many bandits who were infiltrated in the city, but they made a bluff to disrupt the hearts of the military and civilians.

Ding Maocai laughed and shouted, "Everyone beats his grandmother!"

In fact, there are only a lot of new soldiers at the patrol battalion at the top of the city. Ding Mao would come to supervise the battle in person. At this time, the patrol soldiers were motivated, with foreign guns and bird guns released, and the swordsman and spearmen even tried their best to pick up the ladder and launch bandit attacks immediately.

Jianchang City, the sound of killing was shocked. Seeing the waves of offensives being repelled, Chen Bingwen's face turned pale. Although he knew that Jianchang was now the center of Pingyuan Army coming from south to north, Pingyuan Army patrol battalion, the regiment guards must be strictly guarded, but why should the Qing demon, who was not equipped with a large number of firearms, be afraid? Each of them had no eggs and collapsed at one touch. Now he had a thousand musketeers and thousands of infantry attacking the city. He thought Jianchang was at his fingertips, so he cut off the contact between Jiangxi camp and the southern border. When he sent troops to attack Jianchang, he could separate and annihilate them. It was no problem to trap Jiangxi camp.

Who knows why the Qing Demons seemed to have changed? Seeing the city going forward one after another, one by one, one by one, and one by one, was terrifying.

"Qu Laoqi, go!" Chen Bingwen pointed to the Pingyuan Army Hu Ben Banner flying above the city, "Cut the flag for me!"

A big man roared in front of the horse, and then hundreds of sharp steel knives rushed up.

With the sound of the horns, dense red turbans surged up like a tide again.

...

Puff, Ding Maocai was stabbed in the chest, and a golden star appeared in front of him. Then the man was stabbed by Zhang Weigan with a spear. Ding Maocai didn't know that this evil tiger-like man called Qu Laoqi, who was the brother-in-law of bandit leader Chen Bingwen.

"Second Master, are you okay?" Zhang Weigan ran over with a panic look on his face. Ding Maocai's face was pale, but he shook his head, trying to stand up, but his legs were weak.

Zhang Weigan was startled and immediately looked at his wound. Ding Mao pushed him away and whispered, "Help me tie up the wound!"

"Ah?" Zhang Weigan clearly saw that the wound was very deep, but saw Ding Maocai winked at him and said, "Hurry!"

Zhang Weigan had no choice but to peel off the underwear of a corpse next to him and tear it into a strip of cloth, and tied it to Ding Maocai's wound layer by layer with tears in his eyes.

Ding Maocai then stood up slowly with the hilt of the knife, but he saw that although the bandit retreated temporarily, he was obviously preparing to launch the next charge. After the fierce battle just now, the elite bandit elite had chopped down many of their hands and feet. Looking around, there were wounded soldiers everywhere, most of the soldiers were either dead or injured, and some were lying in pools of blood and gasping rapidly, which was a miserable scene.

Ding Maocai closed his eyes. Could it be that Jianchang City really cannot escape this disaster today?

At this moment, suddenly, footsteps sounded, and in the fire, countless common people in the city walls, including men, women, young and old. Several gentry leaders shouted: "We will help the general defend the city!"

The people rushed to the city, some rescued the wounded, some picked up weapons on the city, and some directly brought bricks and stones. In the gate of the city, a large number of people piled up wood, bricks and stones to strengthen the city gate, and some of the wood was obviously just demolished from their own pavilions.

The remaining soldiers on the city were all excited. Ding Mao leaned against the battlements and looked back silently at Jianchang City, a place he was very familiar with.

The horn sounded from afar, and the attack of the bandits came again...

In November 1858, the Pingyuan Army Patrol Corps fought bloody battles with more than 10,000 bandits in Jianchang. Finally, they received reinforcements and ordered the bandits to return to the death. The guard Ding Maocai was seriously injured and died for his country. The people of Jianchang erected monuments to commemorate them. Pingyuan Army Arts and Dance Troupe used him as a prototype to arrange operas and dances, and sang them everywhere. For a while, Ding Maocai's courage, loyalty and righteousness were spread throughout the provinces in southern Xinjiang, becoming a model for patrols in various provinces. The Ganjie Patrol Corps practiced more morale, killed long hair everywhere, and protected their homes countless slogans, almost as the ocean.

In the same month, Pingyuan Army landed on Dinghai and conquered Dinghai City, Jinghai and Dinghai ships lined up in Hangzhou Bay. The material circulation between Shanghai and Fujian and Zhejiang was all in the hands of Pingyuan Army.

The only good news for the Northern Dynasties was that Zeng Guofan returned to Changsha, the Hunan Army, and the new army repelled Harrich's offensive, and the second town of Pingyuan Army retreated to Hengzhou.

...

In the Yan'an Hall of the County Prince's Mansion, Ye Zhao read all the local gentry, Fujian, Jiangxi and other places. Among them, the most gentry in Jiangxi were the ones who asked the General Wang to open the ban on guns and allow them to purchase guns and equipment.

In fact, there are more than a dozen silver rifles nowadays, and the price is not expensive. The landlords and gentry teamed up to form a group to practice self-defense. It is not a problem to buy dozens or hundreds of branches, but there is no channel.

Ye Zhao looked at Chen Qingshu, why did he feel like he was going to help them form a militia group in the return home group? But it is not bad to equip the militia group now. It is like in northern Jiangxi, the militia group is equipped with firearms, which can be patrol and guarded and protect communication lines. If there are small groups of bandits who send a gang to destroy the telegram line, the militia group can deal with it.

However, this militia that allowed the equipment of rifles should be carefully selected and controlled, and it is more limited to the frontiers of the war.

As for the patrol battalions in various places, the speed of changing the rifles can be increased faster. Each battalion can increase by nearly half, with more than one hundred branches and two hundred branches.

In the past, the military armaments of the patrol battalion were not increased rapidly. One was because of the limited military expenditure; the other was because many patrol battalions were similar to those of the local troops in later generations of warlords, and they were busy waiting to die, mostly for military pay. The whole battalion helped you fight today, and they might be able to commit to others tomorrow. As for the tough battle, the whole battalion's turnaround is even less difficult.

How can such an army be assured to hand over the military equipment to them? Now, the ideological transformation over the past few years has gradually seen results, especially the backbone officers, who have mostly entered martial arts lecture halls, and life in Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places has gradually become stable and prosperous, so there is no need to instill the idea of ​​protecting the family. Compared with the past days, they naturally hope to defend the current regime. As for the rich military salary, etc., they are afraid that it is not the most important factor now.

However, this patrol battalion naturally needs to change its clothes step by step, starting with the most loyal and reliable patrol in Guangdong and Jiangxi, who followed him for the longest time.

The military expenditure has to be spent a lot. In this war, I realized that the money was just as expensive. I couldn't even think of some money. Not to mention anything else, I just said that the pension was a expense for the boss. Thousands of patrols in Linjiang Prefecture were sacrificed at one time, and the money had to be given. In fact, Ye Zhao still felt that it was less. In fact, this money could be paid out completely before the war was over, but now the situation is special, because there has been no such rigorous and perfect pension system in China. In order to set a standard, the soldiers would not think that it was empty talk from the above in the end, and in the end it became a trick for officials to make money. Ye Zhao ordered the military garrison to regard this matter as a top priority and did it vigorously.

Looking through the paper, the guards hurried in and sent an urgent telegram.

Ye Zhao tore off the fire paint, pulled out the telegram and saw it, and said, taking advantage of the urgent war in Gan and Hunan, he sent the bandit wing king Shi Dakai to Henan, and was invincible all the way. When the telegram was sent, he had already broken through Chenzhou Prefecture.

The great historical changes that I have stirred up, is this the second Northern Expedition of the Taiping Army?

Ye Zhao frowned.

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I'm late to come back, and there's another paragraph. I'll update it first. I'll make up for what I owe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Chapter completed!