Time Travel to 1859: The Iron-Blooded Soldier King

When Grant saw the ragged Saxton, he understood in his heart that the British and French coalition forces' plan to encircle and annihilate the Qing army once again had failed!

It took half a day, until dusk, to gather only 1,500 men. The British army suffered an unprecedented blow. Despite being outnumbered, they were still beaten badly. When had the British Empire ever suffered such a great loss?

Saxton also lost his dignity and completely lost his temper.

Grant sighed and said, "General Saxton, we can only retreat temporarily. The British army has suffered a huge blow and lost all its heavy weapons. The French army alone cannot completely defeat the Qing army. We underestimated the strength of the Qing army!"

Saxton lamented, "Who the hell knew that this damn Liu Ye had actually flown back to Beijing from the three northeastern provinces like he had wings? You have to remember, that's over two thousand miles! He actually led his elite troops straight back like that! If we had known this guy was coming back, we would never have attacked so rashly!"

However, it was too late to say anything now. Emperor Xianfeng was not a real fool. How could he not urgently recall his most trusted generals when the British and French forces attacked the city?

Saxton had to send out elite cavalry to pursue the French army immediately and ordered them to retreat temporarily and return to the Baliqiao area to discuss countermeasures.

Upon hearing the news, the temporary French commander, Yaman, was at a loss for words. Saxton, before setting out, had been so full of confidence, planning to annihilate the Qing army in one fell swoop. Now, he'd been completely routed by the Qing army! Three thousand elite infantrymen, armed with a vast array of heavy weaponry, had been defeated like this. It was a complete disgrace to the British Empire!

However, the Allied Forces are the Allied Forces after all. They share the same fate. Now is not the time to laugh at each other. The British army has begun to retreat, and only a few thousand French troops are left. If they advance forward rashly and are ambushed by the Qing army, they will repeat the mistakes of the British army. It would be unwise. Let's retreat. There is no other way. Let's retreat first!

Yaman had to lead thousands of French troops to retreat to Baliqiao and join forces with the British army!

The British and French coalition forces had more than 10,000 soldiers, and the loss of more than 1,500 combatants may not be considered a serious injury, but the serious loss was the loss of dozens of artillery pieces. This was equivalent to directly equipping the Qing army with an elite artillery battalion. Even if the Qing army's artillery operation technology was poor, so many artillery pieces could pose a huge threat to the coalition forces!

Saxton, Yaman and Grant sat together, looking at each other in silence. The losses were too heavy. Since arriving at Zhangjiawan, the British and French forces had lost battle after battle, contrary to their previous victories. The casualties had exceeded 6,000. The huge casualties had made the British and French forces feel an unbearable price. The Qing Dynasty, which was a soft bone, was now difficult to deal with!

Yaman said in a deep voice, "General Saxton, we don't have enough troops right now. All the coalition forces combined only have about 20,000 men. We still have to leave some troops in Tianjin. I'm afraid the number of troops available for the offensive will not exceed 15,000. Most importantly, we've lost a lot of weapons and ammunition. Without enough heavy weapons, it won't be easy to take Beijing!"

Saxton snorted coldly. He understood this, but what could he do? Ask for help from the South Seas? That would be too humiliating! With so many defeats, how could he, the commander-in-chief, lead his troops? He was afraid he would be dismissed immediately upon returning to London!

However, without asking for help, Saxton really had no confidence with only the current military strength. He was full of confidence before because the Qing army only relied on the speed of the cavalry and had nothing else to rely on. Although Senggelinqin was also a famous general of the Qing Dynasty, he was far behind the times and was not on the same level as Western generals. Now it was different. Liu Ye's tactical command ability, even if it could not be said to be far better than the generals present, had surpassed them. His brilliant command on the battlefield and his imaginative strategies were really beyond their reach.

Saxton said helplessly, "Alright, send a letter to Tianjin immediately, ordering them to mobilize two more regiments. Add to that the regiment that's already headed to Zhangjiawan, and you'll have three regiments totaling 5,000 men. Add to that our own forces, and you'll have a full 16,000 men! If this still isn't enough to defeat the Qing army, we'll have no other options. Have Blair send a letter to Nanyang immediately, ordering them to mobilize another brigade from Malaysia to come north to support them!"

While the British and French forces were discussing countermeasures, the Qing army was naturally also further adjusting its deployment.

Senggelinqin was now as excited as if he had eaten ice cream on a hot day, shouting with excitement. A series of great victories! This was a rare achievement! It was enough to go down in history! Senggelinqin immediately wrote a memorial to the emperor and sent it to Rehe to report the victory. Now, Emperor Xianfeng needed a great victory to boost his confidence the most! As long as they kept fighting like this, the Qing army would undoubtedly win!

Senggelinqin looked at Liu Ye and asked, "Liu Ye, what should we do next?"

Liu Ye said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, our greatest achievement in this battle was not inflicting more than half of the British casualties, but rather obtaining the equipment of an artillery battalion. This is the most important thing. As long as we make good use of this artillery battalion, we have the confidence to fight the British and French forces to the death, and even win!"

Senggelinqin frowned and replied, "Liu Ye, this is certainly a good thing. However, although these artillery pieces are powerful, we still have to know how to use them. The spearmen in your firearms battalion are powerful, there is no doubt about that, but the artillery battalion, to be honest, is really not that good. Zaidun is a complete loser. He can't even use the good stuff. The current artillery can't even shoot accurately. Once they fire, they don't even know where the shells are going! They only have the Dragon Slaying Sword, but they don't have the skills to slay the dragon..."

Liu Ye also grinned. Damn it, it was all because of that incident. Damn Zaidun, you don't have the ability, just leave it to someone who does. I brought some of the fifty direct descendants of the Firearms Battalion with me, but most of them stayed in the Firearms Battalion. None of them are unfamiliar with operating artillery. I taught them hand-in-hand back then! What a bad apple that ruined the whole pot of broth. Now it's time to use it, and you just realized it's not working. It's too late!

Liu Ye smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, there's nothing we can do about this. Who made the Emperor trust this bastard? All we can do now is withdraw the two hundred men from the Firearms Battalion and have them take charge of the captured artillery. They have some experience and hopefully they can take on the responsibility of resisting the Anglo-French artillery..."