"Zuo Zongtang, this guy, he really has some tricks up his sleeve!”
After hearing the information sent back by the intelligence personnel, Lin Yu sighed and handed the information in his hand to Li Xiucheng and the others to read.
"This subordinate has dealt with Zuo Zongtang a few times before. He is good at judging the situation and is very good at taking advantage of it!”
" When he was fighting in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he attacked the cities of the Taiping Army with the help of the fierce firearms of the Foreigners 'Chang An Army, Chang Jie Army, and Ding Sheng Army. The firearms of the foreigners were sharp, and with their help, the cities of the Taiping Army were as fragile as tofu. They could not be defended at all, and they were destroyed by him one by one!”
"I heard that these foreigners originally planned to disband, but in the end, they were retained by him. Many of them joined the Chu army and became mercenaries!”
This news was very fresh. It was also the first time Lin Yu learned that there was such an inside story.
No wonder Zuo Zongtang was able to quell the rebellion in the northwest and reclaim the southwest territory of the Celestial Empire from the foreigners.
So he had dealings with foreigners so early!
"What is the combat strength of these foreigners? Are there many people?"
Hong Ren Xin asked worriedly when he heard Lee Xiu Cheng's words.
For the civil administration system that Hong Renhao was in charge of, whether their work could proceed smoothly depended on whether they could win this battle.
Therefore, Hong Renjiu was very concerned about the upcoming battle.
"The number of Westerners is not that many. In total, there are about 1500 people, right?”
Li Xiucheng thought for a moment and said.
"However, their cannons are very sharp. Not only are they powerful, but they also have a long range. They can hit the distance that the Qing artillery can't reach. Therefore, in the past artillery battles, the Taiping Army had a hard time taking advantage of them!”
Li Xiucheng was obviously a little depressed when he said this.
In 1862, he had proposed to march southeast and give up on Tianjing, a place that could be easily surrounded. He had suggested that Taiping Country's center of gravity move southeast.
For this reason, he personally led the army to attack Song Jiang and Jiangsu and Zhejiang, intending to expand the defense of Taiping Country.
As a result, just as he took down Song Jiang and was about to attack the Suhang area in the south, the Xiang army came in large numbers. Hong Xiuquan sent several orders to send him back to Tianjing to help.
Left with no choice, Lee Xiucheng could only give up on going south and bring his troops back to Tianjing. In the end, Tianjing was not defended, and the territory in the southeast region that he had fought hard to conquer was also taken over by Zuo Zongtang. This left the Taiping Army with almost no room for maneuver after Tianjing fell. That was why they were quickly destroyed in an extremely short period of time!
If Hong Xiuquan had listened to his suggestion and sent troops to the southeast to expand their territory, with the wealth and manpower of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, they would have no problem holding on for a few more years. Who knew who would win in the end?
"Hehe, what's there to be afraid of?”
Compared to the worries of Hong Renhao, Li Xiucheng, and the others, Lin Yu did not take the foreigners to heart.
So what if they were foreigners?
It was just that the guns and cannons in their hands were better. Weren't they like the Han army, carrying a head on two shoulders?
Could it be that they had three heads and six arms?
Lin Yu admitted that their weapons were indeed good, but that was based on the standards of the Taiping and Qing armies.
However, according to the standards of the Han army, their weapons were not worth mentioning.
Take the firearms used by the Westerners as an example. They were using the muzzle-loading flintlock, and a small number of them were using the copper cap gun.
This kind of gun was a generation more advanced than the muskets and bird guns that the Qing army was equipped with. It had a longer range and greater power. If the Qing army fought with them, they were naturally not their match.
However, this type of flintlock was a generation behind the Han army's current flintlock with a fulminate base fire.
Compared to the flintlock, the trigger gun was more sensitive, more powerful, and had a longer range. Moreover, the bullets used were after-loading bullets, so there was no need to fire a bullet from the muzzle like before.
This greatly increased the firing speed of the rifle and greatly increased the firepower of the ordinary soldiers.
With the advantage of firearms, the Westerners could firmly suppress the Qing army in a gunfight. However, if they were to face the Han army, the ones who would be suppressed would definitely be themselves!
The only thing they needed to worry about was that the Han army had more recruits, and their combat experience was not as rich as these foreigners 'mercenaries.
As for the cannons used by the Westerners, they were even more inferior to the equipment of the Han army!
The cannons used by foreigners were mainly the Napoleon Cannons invented by Napoleon III.
This was a type of front-loading field cannon with a caliber of about 93mm, which was a 12-pound cannon.
This type of cannon was relatively light, powerful, and had a long range. It could be used as the accompanying firepower of the infantry to move with the troops, so it was currently the main field artillery of the western powers.
Compared to the Qing army's Tiger Cannons, Red Cannons, and General Cannons, the foreigners 'Napoleon Cannons were more powerful, more powerful, and lighter.
However, compared to the Han army's field artillery, the difference in their performance was a little big!
The Han army's field artillery was a rear-loading cannon. The advantage of a rear-loading cannon was that it had a longer range and greater power.
Moreover, the Han army's cannons were not only rear-loading cannons, but they also used grenades that were triggered.
Compared to the time fuse shells used by foreigners, this kind of shell had a more sensitive reaction to the explosion. There was no need to measure the distance and time. As long as the shell did not hit the mud pit, it would basically explode.
On the other hand, although the foreigners also had explosive shells, they did not trigger the fuse. The explosion of their explosive shells required the soldiers to manually set the length of the fuse, which was to cut the length of the fuse according to the distance.
The precision of manual cutting was definitely very unreliable, especially in the first few rounds of artillery fire. It was almost impossible to achieve the instant explosion of the artillery shell.
If the cannonball did not explode immediately when it landed, the nearby enemy soldiers would immediately escape. At that time, even if the cannonball exploded, it would not be able to kill any enemies.
Therefore, it was extremely difficult for gunners, especially observers, to operate the cannons of the foreigners.
On the other hand, the Han army's cannoneers were much easier to control!
Considering their huge advantage in rifles and artillery, Lin Yu was still full of confidence even if he only had a quarter of the enemy's troops!
This battle would definitely go down in history and shock everyone!
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