The three strong attacks of the Qing army caused heavy casualties to the Taiping army, which can be said to be the largest casualty battle since Luo Dingli established the camp and formed the army.

Before the war, there were 465 people in the battalion, and only 178 remained after the war; Before the war, the Xiongwei Battalion was the leader of the five battalions with the least number of soldiers, with only 390 people, and now only 160 people remain; The trapped camp, composed of Laofengzhuang copper miners, had 410 people before the war, and now only 230 people remain; The attrition rate of the Hujie battalion has also reached 60%, and now it is only 140 people, including officers.

Although the Guards Battalion is the head of a battalion with the largest number of troops, but since the reorganization of Guifeng Mountain, the soldiers of the Guards Battalion have not been fully formed, and in the attack on Xinhui and the subsequent defense of the city, Zhou Shixiang successively transferred troops from the Guards Battalion to supplement the shock and majesty, resulting in the actual number of soldiers of the Guards Battalion being the least of the five major battalions, and now there are only 108 people left. With such tragic casualties, the five battalions have already existed in name only, and the combined strength of the five battalions is less than 1,000 people.

Compared with the death rate of soldiers, the death rate of officers is higher, before the war, the total number of officers above the small flag of each battalion was 35, and the total number of officers in the five battalions was 175, and now the number of officers in the entire Taiping Army including the thousand households of Zhou Shixiang is only 48.

The casualties of the five major battalions were like this, and the security regiment Ding who was promoted by the rear battalion also lost more than half, and after the Qing army retreated again, Song Xianggong asked Zhao Sihai to make special statistics, including the original public treasury army, plus those who were slightly injured and could still continue to fight, the entire security regiment was less than 400 people.

After the Taiping army invaded Xinhui, Liao Ruixiang, who was appointed as the temporary governor of Xinhui, organized the young Zhuang among the residents of the city with the assistance of the Taiping Army to be responsible for the transportation of materials and order in the city.

Although these young men could not really be used as soldiers, after all, they had also guarded the city for a few days, and saw a lot of blood and corpses. Some brave young men even fought with the Qing soldiers who climbed up to the top of the city, so for the Taiping army, which suffered more than half of the casualties, they were all urgently needed soldiers for each battalion.

There was no need to mobilize more, and the more than 300 young men who survived volunteered to join the Taiping Army, and were frantically robbed by the battalions, and even the officials that Liao Ruixiang put in the yamen as a façade were also requisitioned by the battalions. The young men and officials who joined the Taiping Army knew that the battle had reached this point, and so many Qing troops outside the city had died, and if the city was broken, no one in the city would be able to survive with it. Therefore, whether it is for the sake of one's own life. Or for the lives of their families, they all have to carry their heads to the city and fight hard with the Qing army.

After the Taiping army invaded Xinhui City, hundreds of Qing soldiers were captured one after another, except for some officers of the Han army banner who were beheaded, and the rest were left to serve as hard labor to repair the city wall. Under the scorching sun and the urging of the Taiping army, half of the captives died of exhaustion on the construction site of the city wall. After the Qing army approached Xinhui, the remaining captives, except for the Han army banner soldiers who could handle artillery, were ordered to go to the city to open fire, and the remaining part continued to serve as auxiliaries for hard labor, and the other part was added to the battalions. In the ensuing siege battle of the Qing army. These captives also suffered some casualties, and there are still more than 400 people alive today, half of whom are Teochew soldiers.

These Chaozhou soldiers originally numbered 500 people, and when Li Dingguo approached Xinhui last year. Because the garrison was insufficient, Shang Kexi transferred troops from various prefectures and counties, including Chaozhou soldiers. After the Taiping army occupied Xinhui, the leader of the thousand generals was killed in battle. These Chaozhou soldiers were uncommanded and the city was broken, so they surrendered with the rest of the Qing soldiers.

Because Zhou Shixiang has always wanted to build a plan for the Taiping Army's water division, these water properties are good. Originally, many Teochew soldiers who served in the sailor division were deliberately retained, intending to build the sailor team of the Taiping Army based on these Teochew soldiers in the future. Zhou Shixiang, who was a hard servant in the early days of repairing the city, specially ordered the Chaozhou soldiers to do less, so that they were not exhausted to death like other green battalion soldiers, resulting in these Chaozhou soldiers being captured and envied by other Qing soldiers. After the Qing army attacked the city, no matter what Zhou Shixiang's plans were in the future, in the case of an extreme lack of soldiers to defend the city, these Chaozhou soldiers were also thrown into the city. Under the desperate battles again and again, there are still more than 200 prisoners of Chaozhou soldiers.

Like the security regiment, the Ya Servant, and the young man, the surviving Qing prisoners were also unified into the war barracks, and under several patchwork, the three battalions of Zhenju, Xiongwei, and Hujie were regained to full strength again, and 400 soldiers were restored to the camp and 300 soldiers were in the guard battalion.

Because of the large number of officers killed, new officers were selected from those soldiers who defended the city, and even a few brave young and strong men were awarded small flag officers, and the Han flag soldiers who could handle cannons among the captives were organized into a separate general flag, and the captives themselves selected below the general flag. In order to strengthen the loyalty and control of these captives, Zhou Shixiang also deliberately made the Green Camp captives and the Han army flag mixed.

It almost emptied all the men in the entire Xinhui City to make the Taiping army reorganized to 2,500 people, but at the cost of the young and strong men in the city, if the Qing army still attacked like the previous three times regardless of casualties and costs, then the city would be broken sooner or later.

The most fearful thing about an army trapped in a lonely city is not how strong the enemy is, but how much it has nothing to replenish.

Previously, on the way of the Taiping army to the south into Xiangshan, in order to facilitate the transfer and settlement of the old and weak women and children, Song Xianggong had selected a group of relatively strong women as security guards, and later after the Taiping army occupied Xinhui, because of the usual contempt for women, these female security guards were quickly abolished. After the second strong attack of the Qing army, Song Xianggong adhered to the idea of mobilizing all the men to desperately defend the city, and tried his best to eliminate the criticism of those camp elders, and once again selected 500 healthy women as auxiliaries. Because the use of these female soldiers allowed the manpower of the Taiping Army to be more effectively invested in the front-line confrontation between the city and the Qing army, Zhou Shixiang officially agreed that the Houying Security Corps could set up a women's battalion after the war. Of course, there are no more men in the current rear battalion security regiment, and it is these female soldiers who are carrying the mission of the security regiment.

The food in the city can barely last for half a month, salt, vegetable oil and other materials are almost exhausted, and there is not much wood and lime left for the city guards, so the women's battalion can only use baskets to transport the scattered bricks in the city for use.

Six officers above the general flag were killed, Zheng Tiezhu and Zheng Daniu, two of whom were killed in the camp, and Peng Dazhu, who tried a hundred households in the Hujie battalion, was also killed in battle, this is an old brother from Daqiao Mountain, and he was also a warrior who fought to seize the city with Zhou Shixiang, his death made Zhou Shixiang extremely sad, and at the same time, Ge Zheng's serious injury made him even more uneasy, because Ge was killed by the Qing soldiers who rushed up behind him with a spear in order to save him. (To be continued.) )