Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 31: Capture the city! Capture the city!
In order to prevent the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from setting up defenses on the left bank of Caicun River and blocking the Qing army from crossing the river.

Zhou Fengqi decisively dispatched Iktanbu as the vanguard and led the troops to the left bank of Caicun River, preparing to meet the main force of the army to cross the river tomorrow.

As for Iktambu, after he crossed the river, was it possible that he was besieged by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom bandits on the other side of the river, but his side was unable to send reinforcements in time because of the Caicun River blocking it?
To be honest, Zhou Fengqi had never thought about it.

The reason was simple. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's regiment performed too poorly in this battle. As soon as the two sides came into contact, they were broken through by Iktambu several times and even lost Xinwei.

In Zhou Fengqi's opinion, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was just an ordinary bandit.

Having just suffered a defeat, the morale of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's bandits should be in turmoil now.

Zhou Fengqi would give a thumbs up to these bandits and praise their courage for not turning around and fleeing in the face of the imperial army.

He did not believe that those frightened bandits who worshipped God had the courage to take the initiative to attack the imperial army.

After Zhou Fengqi issued the military order, Iktanbu led his troops across the river without any hesitation.

Soon, they arrived at the left bank of Caicun River and gained a firm foothold.

Iktambu looked back at his main force on the other side, and then at the God Worshipping Society camp that was abandoning their weapons and fleeing in a panic.

His eyes quickly became firm and he spoke.

"Pass on my military order, continue chasing the enemy and maximize the results of the battle!"

With a wave of his hand, Iktambu led his troops to continue chasing the fleeing God Worshipping Society camp.

It was obvious that Iktambu also looked down on the God Worshipping Society's camp and did not take them seriously.

……

Zhao Xiang put on the Qing army uniform again and walked on the official road with a team of more than ten soldiers from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Battalion, heading towards Xunzhou Prefecture.

They all wore green battalion uniforms, and although they held brand new foreign rifles and had bayonets hanging from their waists, from a distance they looked no different from the Green Battalion soldiers.

Looking at the Xunzhou city wall getting closer and closer, Zhao Xiang's heartbeat gradually accelerated, beating faster and faster, and his face looked slightly pale.

Because he was sent out by Li Yi, leading a team disguised as Qing troops to deceive the Xunzhou city gate.

The reason why he was chosen was because Zhao Xiang was once a member of the Qing army. Asking him to pretend to be a Qing army could basically be said to be returning to his old job.

There won’t be too many flaws!

However, Zhao Xiang was not happy after receiving this task that could bring him great merit.

Because he knew how dangerous this matter was.

The first thing is to be careful not to be discovered by the Qing army defending the city.

Secondly, they had to fight desperately with the Qing army defending the city for control of the city gate.

Finally, they had to hold out against the counterattack of the Qing troops defending the city until the main force of the army arrived.

It is no exaggeration to say that this mission of disguising and seizing the city gate was a life-threatening one.

However, Li Yi's order had already come down, and military orders were as heavy as a mountain. No matter how nervous Zhao Xiang was, he had to grit his teeth and carry out his mission.

Otherwise, Li Yi would definitely not mind using him as an example to scare others and enforce military law!

It is worth mentioning that in order to ensure the mission of seizing the gate is foolproof, except for the leader Zhao Xiang who is a fake, the rest of the team are the newly selected members of the foreign rifle team.

They are still the ones with the best shooting skills.

Each shot is more accurate than the other!

Soon, Zhao Xiang and his team arrived at the gate of Xunzhou city carrying foreign guns.

Although the soldiers guarding the city also saw the weapons in their hands, they thought they were their own people because they were wearing the Green Camp uniforms, so they did not take it seriously.

It was not until Zhao Xiang and others approached that a Qing soldier noticed that Zhao Xiang's face had turned pale, which was obviously something wrong.

So he asked.

"Stop, which department are you from?"

However, before the Qing soldier could finish his words, Bai Yuanqin behind Zhao Xiang raised his gun and shot. With a bang, a blood flower burst out from the chest of the Qing soldier who was asking the question, and he fell to the ground immediately.

Zhao Xiang seemed to be inspired by Bai Yuanqin's shot, and shouted at the top of his voice with a slight tremor.

“Pray…Pray to the Heavenly Soldiers of the God-Religion Church. The Qing…Qing Demon, accept…accept death!”

After shouting, Zhao Xiang felt the blood rushing through his body, and his fear was instantly gone.

Immediately, he strode forward with his rifle equipped with a bayonet.

Behind him, soldiers from the foreign rifle team also raised their guns and fired. Several Qing soldiers at the city gate were killed before they could react.

The next moment, the people who were queuing at the city gate waiting to enter the city also reacted and fled in all directions screaming.

"Help, it's murder!"

"Someone is killing soldiers and rebelling. Everyone, run away..."

"..."

After the gunshots rang out, in just a moment, the people of Xunzhou who were crowded at the city gate disappeared without a trace.

Zhao Xiang strode forward, stabbed a Qing soldier to death with his bayonet, then ran into the city gate and shouted loudly.

"Quick, climb the city wall, climb the city wall, and seize the gate!"

"Don't let Qing Yao lower the city gate, otherwise all our efforts will fail!"

As he spoke, Zhao Xiang rushed forward again.

Soon, they rushed out of the city gate.

Zhao Xiang planned to lead his men to climb the city wall from the horse path inside the city wall and compete with the Qing army defending the city for control of the north gate gate.

However, just as they rushed out of the city gate, they saw several heads popping out from between the battlements of the city wall.

After hearing the gunshots, the Qing troops defending the city realized something was wrong and prepared to engage the enemy.

"Thieves! They are thieves!"

"Quickly lower the gates and close the city gates!"

"..."

Amid the noise, several Qing soldiers stretched out their muskets from between the parapets, aimed at Zhao Xiang and others, and pulled the trigger.

After a burst of gunfire, one of the people led by Zhao Xiang was shot and fell to the ground, and the rest all retreated back into the city gate.

The next moment, there was a loud bang, and the city gate weighing thousands of pounds fell down, smashing the ground and splashing dust.

Zhao Xiang and others were directly blocked inside the doorway.

"Fuck you, follow me!!"

Zhao Xiang got a little excited and yelled again. He then led his team out of the city gate, aimed his gun at the parapet, and pulled the trigger.

Although they were shooting from below and were blocked by the parapets, they still achieved results thanks to the accuracy of the foreign rifles.

After a burst of gunfire, two Qing soldiers on the city wall were shot and fell to the ground.

He covered the wound that was bleeding and let out a scream.

Seeing this, the rest of the Qing troops hid behind the parapets and dared not stick their heads out to shoot.

"Bai Yuanqin, you lead the others to suppress the fire, and the rest of you follow me!"

"Kill!"

Zhao Xiang made arrangements and immediately led his men to rush towards the horse path along the city wall.

Bai Yuanqin and others also raised their guns and fired alternately, using the foreign rifles in their hands to provide fire cover for Zhao Xiang and others, suppressing those Qing troops who wanted to peek out and shoot.

(End of this chapter)