Chapter 131: The Defensive Line

While the fierce battle raged on the rear mountain, in front of the mountain gates at Guifeng Pavilion, Qianshou Hall, Shuiyue Palace, and elsewhere, the Qing army and the Taiping Army were also locked in combat.

Compared with the weak defensive force on the rear mountain, the front mountain concentrated nearly all of the rear camp's combat-capable troops, with the manpower at several key strongpoints totaling as many as fifteen or sixteen hundred men.

Of these, apart from the hundred-odd surviving soldiers under Zhao Sihai, there were more than four hundred Security Corps members and over two hundred depot troops, with the remainder being old and weak men conscripted from the various camps.

In order to effectively hold off and inflict casualties on the Qing army, Zhao Sihai divided his forces and deployed three defensive lines from the Yutai Temple mountain gate to the Great Hero Hall.

The first line consisted mainly of combat soldiers and Security Corps members; the second line was held mainly by the depot troops; the remaining manpower was concentrated on the third line, which was also the last line.

Once the square in front of the Great Hero Hall fell, the rear camp's resistance at Yutai Temple would collapse, and the several thousand surviving old, weak, women, and children would all fall into enemy hands.

Over several consecutive days, Zhao Sihai and Song Xianggong mobilized every able-bodied person in the temple and reinforced the three defensive lines separately.

Every path that could admit a person was blocked with mountain rocks, and countless logs and boulders were placed on both sides.

For this purpose, several of the temple's already few dilapidated halls were demolished, which so angered the old monk Qilin that he could not swallow a drop of water for days on end, and the monks around him often heard him muttering about some calamity or other.

Because the first defensive line was built along the steps leading up and down the mountain in front of Yutai Temple, and was also the only passage in and out of Yutai Temple, once this line fell, the Qing army would no longer need to attack upward against the mountain, but could directly break through the mountain gate and storm into the temple.

Therefore, Zhao Sihai assigned the most troops to the first defensive line, and these troops were also the most elite men the rear camp could currently field.

When chaos erupted on the rear mountain, although the Taiping Army soldiers deployed on the first defensive line also felt unsettled, compared with the fear and panic of the old, weak, women, and children on the rear mountain, they were clearly much calmer.

Having experienced life and death in the breakout battle several days earlier, and having repelled several Qing attacks, by now the combat soldiers, the Security Corps members, and even the depot troops no longer felt the same fear and tension toward the encircling Qing army as before, and they showed not the slightest timidity in the face of the Qing troops swarming up from below the mountain.

After urgently ordering Zhao Wu to take a squad to the rear mountain to reinforce Song Xianggong, Zhao Sihai made his battle preparations, and all the rear camp officers and men on the first defensive line also made ready for battle.

At this moment, no one needed to remind them; they all knew the Qing army below the mountain would surely take advantage of the chaos on the rear mountain to attack.

"Put out the bonfires on the mountain!"

Because in the previous Qing assaults on the mountain the rear camp had used archers, and even had gunners firing at close range, which had caused the rear camp some losses, as soon as he heard the Qing army's horns sound from below the mountain, Zhao Sihai immediately ordered the bonfires on the mountain extinguished, lest the soldiers be shot by Qing archers using the firelight.

Compared with Song Xianggong, Zhao Sihai, who had once served in Li Chengdong's army, had far greater battlefield experience and command ability.

Lying prone and observing the distance of the Qing troops climbing the mountain, he shouted orders to his men: "Let the Qing curs come closer before you release the logs. Don't be in a hurry to push them down!"

The rolling logs were Zhao Sihai's most lethal weapon after the thunderclap bombs.

On the narrow mountain path, logs hurled from high ground were absolutely a deadly weapon for killing and blocking the enemy, and in the previous battles the logs had rendered great service in enabling the rear camp to hold Yutai Temple.

However, in the earlier battles the soldiers had been too nervous, causing excessive consumption of the logs, and there were not many temple buildings left that could be demolished, so the number of logs was already running low.

Upon hearing the Company Commander's order, the soldiers responsible for releasing the logs steadied their breathing and quietly watched the Qing troops drawing near.

As in the previous times, the Green Standard troops still charged at the very front of the Qing army, with the Han Banners behind them.

But unlike the previous times, this time the Green Standard troops at the front were conspicuously all wearing padded armor, and several Company Commanders were even clad in iron armor.

"Loose arrows!"

When they were less than a hundred paces from the Taiping Army, the Qing archers loosed their arrows up the mountain, and almost every ten paces of advance was accompanied by another volley of arrows from the Qing side.

In order to completely seize Yutai Temple, Wu Jinzhong had transferred two hundred archers from Xinhui city, and together with the army's original one hundred fifty archers, a full three hundred fifty archers shot at the mountain simultaneously.

Although because of the uphill attack and the darkness most of the arrows missed their targets, the arrows that kept falling still forced the rear camp officers and men above to keep their heads down, and more than twenty soldiers were struck by arrows and cried out in agony.

"**** Qing curs!"

Zhao Sihai cursed, but could only lie there not daring to move. There was nothing to be done: his men had no iron armor, not even a single padded coat.

Without the protection of armor, both bows and firearms posed a lethal threat to the rear camp. The only response for now was to make themselves as small as possible and stay still, or hide beneath simple barricades built of wooden planks.

Under the cover of the arrows, the Qing army had already closed in on the rear camp's defensive line.

Had there been a moon tonight, and had the Taiping Camp and the Qing army not both refrained from carrying torches out of caution against their opponent, the Taiping soldiers above would likely have been able to see the faces of those Qing soldiers with perfect clarity.

After silently calculating the Qing troops' pace, Zhao Sihai finally gave the order to the soldiers who had long been waiting with sweat beading on their noses: "Release the logs!"

"Release!"

In an instant, more than a dozen great logs tumbled down from halfway up the mountain.

"Dodge the logs! Dodge the logs!"

Even though the Qing army had long been on guard against the Taiping Camp's rolling logs, at such short range these logs, carrying tremendous force, left them no way to dodge.

Log after log rolled over the Qing soldiers' bodies, smashing them until they wailed for their fathers and mothers.

Being struck by a great log was not something padded armor could withstand, and even iron armor could not take it; more than one Qing soldier was smashed on the spot and vomited blood.

After one round of logs, the Qing soldiers lying on the mountain path numbered over a hundred. Most of them were not dead, but were unable to move because of various injuries, and lay there wailing in a chorus.

The Qing army's miserable state drew cheers from the rear camp officers and men above, and Zhao Sihai was also greatly pleased.

He had thought that after suffering such heavy casualties the Qing army would choose to withdraw, but unexpectedly, not only did the Qing army not retreat, it sent even more troops charging up.

After the second and third rounds of logs, more and more Qing soldiers lay on the mountain path, bodies piled on bodies, pressed one against another, and no one knew how many casualties there were.

Yet the Qing attack still did not stop, but continued, and this time many more Han Banner troops appeared at the front.

The logs on the mountain had all been used up, and stones took their place. But under the cover of the wooden planks the Qing soldiers held over their heads, the stones did not inflict much damage.

As the Qing army drew ever closer, all the rear camp officers and men on the mountain knew that the true bloody battle was about to begin.

The news from the front made Wu Jinzhong gnash his teeth. Hundreds of casualties and still the bandit soldiers' defensive line had not been broken — this left him deeply unwilling.

But he had no intention of withdrawing; instead, he sent orders to press the entire Han Banners forward. He refused to believe the bandit army on the mountain could hold out under a simultaneous assault from front and rear!