Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 65: The Third Attack on Xunzhou
Li Yi rode on a horse, looking at the Xunzhou City not far away, his face full of high spirits.

He waved his hands vigorously.

"Order the entire army to attack Xunzhou again!"

As his military order was issued, Li's army responded in unison and marched towards Xunzhou City in a mighty force.

To be honest, if they were to attack other cities, Li's army might still be nervous and have doubts.

But Xunzhou was different. They had been in and out of Xunzhou twice before.

This time we are going to attack Xunzhou three times, which is a piece of cake!

Everyone feels pretty confident.

Li Yi led the troops, attacked Xunzhou, and launched a surprise attack. The combination of these three makes it look reliable no matter how you look at it, right? !
……

Snapped! Bang bang!

The crisp and intensive sound of musketry firing rang out.

The soldiers under Li Yi formed an array outside the southern city of Xunzhou, raised their guns and fired in the direction of the top of the city wall to suppress the enemy with firepower.

At the same time, the commandos carried explosives and rushed towards the gate of Xunzhou, preparing to use explosives to blow open the gate of Xunzhou.

It is definitely more efficient to use explosive packs to blow up the city gates than to use ladders to climb the city walls.

Feng Zicai and Yang Ke hid behind the parapet, and their ears were filled with a series of frequent snapping sounds and the whizzing sound of bullets passing by their ears from time to time.

"Something's wrong. Why is Changmao's gun firing so fast?"

Yang Ke said with a confused look on his face.

If he had seen correctly just now, the number of the Taiping rebels that came to attack this time was at most around a thousand.

But judging from the sound of the gunfire, it would take at least four or five thousand guns to create such a loud noise.

Isn’t this hairy thief’s gun shooting too fast?
Feng Zicai also shook his head in confusion.

"I do not know!"

"Damn it, we can't go on like this, fight back quickly, if we continue to be beaten unilaterally like this, Xunzhou will be lost sooner or later..."

But as soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud rumbling sound.

Flames shot up into the sky at the gate of Xunzhou City, and thick smoke rose into the air in an instant. Feng Zicai and others only felt a violent vibration under their feet, and the originally closed gate of Xunzhou City was blown open.

Soon, the shouting and screaming outside the city became louder and louder!
A large number of bandits poured into the city through the gate that was blown open by explosives, and then followed the horse path along the city wall and attacked the city wall.

The Qing soldiers on the city wall just poked their heads out to resist, but the next moment, a dense barrage of bullets came over and the few Qing soldiers who poked their heads out were instantly shot into sieves.

When the others saw this, they immediately became frightened, dropped their weapons, and turned around to escape.

The same is true for Feng Zicai.

He has just switched from being a rebel to an official soldier. To say that he is loyal to the Qing Dynasty is sheer bullshit.

If you can fire a few shots at the enemy instead of running away when encountering them, you are already worthy of the imperial grain given by the court.

As for fighting with the bandits?

Don’t even think about it!

But just as they turned around, they saw bandits rushing out from the horse path on the other side of the city wall, charging towards them aggressively.

The two bandits attacked them from both sides, ready to eat them.

Seeing this scene, Feng Zicai and others knew that they were surrounded, so they no longer had the will to resist and dropped their weapons one after another.

Just choose to surrender!
……

Li Yi rode his horse through the city gate and led his troops into Xunzhou City again.

He led his men straight towards the inner city with ease.

Halfway through the journey, they encountered a Qing army that had been urgently assembled to stop the bandits from attacking the city.

The troops of both sides met head-on on the narrow streets of Xunzhou City.

"Everyone, raise your guns and shoot freely!"

"Hit me!"

The officers on Li's side shouted at the top of their lungs.

Immediately, there was a burst of crackling gunfire, and the leading Qing army officers were shot like sieves.

Shooting people in line was the way of fighting in the era of muzzle-loading rifles.

To put it bluntly, in order to make up for the low firing rate of the muzzle-loading rifle, we have to rely on queuing and shooting to increase the firepower density.

But breech-loading guns are different. Their firing rate is at least several times that of muzzle-loading guns.

It would be best if we could use salvo fire, but even without salvo fire, we can still achieve a very good firepower density.

In today's sudden encounters, there is definitely no time to reorganize the troops, so letting the soldiers shoot freely is naturally the best option.

A burst of intensive gunfire resounded throughout the street. The first wave of Qing troops that rushed up were quickly defeated by the intensive firepower and began to turn around and flee.

Li's army took advantage of the situation and launched a bayonet charge.

They continued to chase the defeated Qing army all the way towards the inner city.

……

Li Xingyuan was waiting for news on the east city wall of Xunzhou.

As news came that the southern city of Xunzhou had been breached and the Qing troops that were blocking the city had suffered a series of disastrous defeats, he really could not sit still.

Pacing continuously on the city wall.

"Master, the fighting power of the invading bandits this time is quite impressive. In my opinion, Xunzhou City may not be able to be saved."

"You should have made plans earlier!"

With a serious mood, the master came to Li Xingyuan and tried to persuade him.

It is a fact that Li Yi led his troops into Xunzhou and the Qing army was defeated. As an imperial envoy, Li Xingyuan did not want to live and die with Xunzhou.

Then, you must plan early.

Upon hearing this, Li Xingyuan took a deep breath and then asked Lieutenant General Zhang who was standing beside him.

"General Zhang, is Xunzhou really undefendable?"

Upon hearing this, Lieutenant General Zhang shook his head and said.

"To reply to the Imperial Envoy, we cannot defend it."

"Our army's strength in Xunzhou is limited, and the limited strength is scattered throughout the city. It is impossible to gather it in a short time."

"When the scattered troops confront the bandits, they will be defeated one by one and will be almost unable to resist their offensive."

What Admiral Zhang said was very pessimistic, but it was also true.

Because the Qing troops in Xunzhou City were indeed greatly dispersed.

And the various Qing troops were indeed being defeated one by one by Li Yi!

Upon hearing this, Li Xingyuan couldn't help but take a deep breath and then said.

"Pass the order down and immediately send fast horses to Wuxuan to ask for help from our main force."

"Tell Xiang Rong and others to quickly withdraw troops and return to support Xunzhou."

"Send a message to all our troops, and have them withdraw immediately and retreat to the inner city..."

Although the situation in Xunzhou is dangerous now, Li Xingyuan is still not planning to run away.

I want to give it another try!
Because he knew that if Xunzhou was lost in his hands, his position as imperial envoy might be over.

He thought that if he retreated to the inner city, he might be able to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

By then, the situation may change!

But at this moment, a messenger came running over in a panic.

"My Lord, something bad has happened! Something terrible has happened!"

"The bandits... the bandits have already entered the inner city!"

Upon hearing this, Li Xingyuan's face turned pale, and then he became uncertain for a while. In the end, he made a somewhat risky decision.

"Pass the order down, and have the various parts of the city disperse and break out."

"After withdrawing from Xunzhou, let all the troops gather outside the city of Xunzhou, and then counterattack and retake Xunzhou."

(End of this chapter)