scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 199
War is a product of irreconcilable politics. Both sides are unwilling to make compromises, and neither side is willing to make interest concessions at the negotiating table in exchange for the other's generous sympathy. At the same time, neither side believes that the other side will be able to defeat itself. Under the circumstances of not giving in to each other, both the old traitor Wu's side and the Qing court's side both died of fighting for peace at the negotiating table. Come around the table to make concessions to your side.Therefore, the Battle of Wuchang, which decided the two sides' offensive and defensive initiative on the Yangtze River battlefield, was inevitably doomed to start.

This is an evenly matched battle. Neither side is sure of winning. At the same time, both sides have the hope of winning. The Wu army has certain advantages in terms of military strength, combat effectiveness and weapons, but it does not occupy geographical and logistical advantages, and its weapons are too scientific. , the field force is strong, but the offensive force is relatively weak; the Qing army is slightly inferior in terms of strength, combat effectiveness and weapons, but it has geographical advantages, logistical advantages, and manpower advantages. It can bridge the gap between military strength and combat effectiveness.Each lead the coquettish, each has its own strengths, it is really difficult to distinguish between superior and inferior.

After another two days of intense preparations, on the afternoon of the third day of October 11 in Kang Mazi, the Wu Jun Tunnel was finally dug to the edge of the moat outside the east gate of Wuchang - this is very easy to identify, the moat of Wuchang was used by Wu Jun The sacks were filled with stones and soil, and as long as a large number of sacks were dug, it could be concluded that they had been dug under the moat.At the same time, the moat outside the south gate of Wuchang has been basically filled by the Wu army. Although the Wu army paid the precious lives of hundreds of brave soldiers for this, but once the moat is leveled, the Wu army's siege troops can directly attack Wuchang without any barriers. Under the city, it can be regarded as sharpening the knife and chopping firewood by mistake.

Seeing that the time was right, the old traitor Wu immediately raised his horn and summoned all the generals to arrange a siege plan.The horn sounded, and Wu Jun's generals, who were very strict in military law, gathered in the commander's tent in less than half a stick of incense. Fatty Lu, who still had ink spots on his face, also rushed to the commander's tent and stood behind Wu Yingqi, waiting for orders.Seeing that all the generals had arrived, the old traitor Wu immediately said loudly: "Everyone, I have some good news for you. Our tunnel has been dug to the edge of the moat at the east gate of Wuchang. In half a day at most, our shovel soldiers We can dig tunnels under the Wuchang city wall, plant explosives to blow up the city, and conquer Wuchang city in one fell swoop!"

"Okay!" Wu Jun's generals cheered in unison, all beaming with joy.The old traitor Wu shouted again: "This king has now decided that in order to reduce the loss of the siege, our army will attack the city overnight. After the city wall is blown up, our army must occupy the east city of Wuchang within tonight, and then fill the inner city after dawn." The dog launched a strong attack, all generals, make sure your soldiers take the time to cook and rest, and prepare for the night battle!"

"Follow your lord's order!" Wu Jun and all the generals clasped their fists together and agreed.The old traitor Wu nodded in satisfaction, picked up the command arrow and said loudly: "Now this king is starting to distribute the siege troops, General Zhaowu Ba Yangyuan..."

"Wait a minute." A voice suddenly interrupted old traitor Wu's dispatching of troops, old traitor Wu and everyone looked around in surprise, only to see that the person who interrupted old traitor Wu's order was always obedient and obedient at this moment Fatty Lu.Fatty Lu knelt down on one knee, cupped his fists and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking bluntly. Our army's siege tactics are authentic. I'm afraid the enemy will see through them. If we attack the city by force, our army will suffer heavy losses!"

"How do you know that?" Old Han Wu asked in surprise.

"I don't know if the prince still remembers? Four days ago, our army's airship once dispatched and flew to Wuchang City to distribute leaflets." Fatty Lu replied in a deep voice: "At that time, the general had told our army's airship army to pay attention to it for the sake of caution. The abnormal situation in the city turned out to be as it should be, and our airship soldiers discovered that the Mangou garrison was also digging trenches in the east gate of Wuchang City, and at the same time, there were signs of construction by the Mandog garrison in the Wuchang Shuimen area, which seemed to be digging diversion ditches.”

"The general suspects that Mangou may have seen through our army's tunnel siege tactics, and is going to wait until our army's tunnel is dug under the city, then suddenly dig the tunnel, or release poisonous smoke, or flood the river to kill our army's diggers. , Destroy our army’s tunnels.”

"Then why didn't you say it earlier?" The traitorous old man Wu's expression changed drastically, he threw down his command arrow and slapped the table, and shouted, "Since you discovered something was wrong four days ago, why didn't you report it to the king?"

"Back to the lord, the last general was not sure at the time, so he didn't dare to report." Fatty Lu replied dejectedly: "However, judging from the situation in the past few days, Man Gou did not try his best to prevent our army from filling the moat river, which is enough It proves that nine out of ten out of ten have already discovered our authentic siege tactics, so they resorted to tricks and deliberately allowed our army to fill the river."

"Bastard! Since you have doubts for a long time, you can just say it directly. Is this old man the kind of person who doesn't listen to advice?" For the sake of smallness, the old traitor Wu even thought of pushing Fatty Lu to beat him with a hundred army sticks.In desperation, the old traitor Wu had no choice but to quickly order: "Quick, see if the weather is suitable, if it is suitable, quickly let an airship take off, go to the sky and take a closer look, is Mangou ready in the city?" .”

"My lord, please slow down." Fatty Lu stopped the old traitor Wu again, and said with a sly smile: "My lord, the reason why the last general hasn't reported this news to the lord these days is that one is really not sure, and the second is that the last general also wants to be paralyzed. Let Man Gou think that our siege tactics are only authentic. Behind the back, the last general has the courage to prepare a new siege weapon for the prince. It can kill Man Gou by surprise. So the last general Boldly suggest that there is no need for our military airships to go out again, and then go to make trouble and expose the target."

"What siege weapon?" The traitor Wu turned his anger into joy, and hurriedly asked.Fatty Lu was not in a hurry to answer, he got up and slapped his palms outside the tent. A soldier from the Wu Army outside the tent of the Chinese Army immediately came in with a wooden board. There are four wooden legs that can be folded. When the four wooden legs are opened, the wooden board immediately becomes a high-legged black square table.

"This is your new siege weapon?" The old traitor Wu was extremely surprised and asked, "What kind of siege weapon is this? What is it for?"

"Yifeng, what the hell are you doing?" Wu Yingqi also asked in a low voice to Fatty Lu, the proud disciple, "This is obviously a table for eating, how do you attack the city?"

Fatty Lu didn't answer in a hurry, but turned around under the table, raised his hand and made a few digging movements, and asked, "My lord, generals, please look, our soldiers are hiding under this table and digging with pickaxes. The enemy's city wall, the enemy is standing on the city, is there any way to hurt our soldiers digging the city wall?"

"Huh?" After being reminded by Fatty Lu, the generals of Wu Jun realized that although Fatty Lu's square table is simple, once the digging soldiers hide under the table and dig holes, there is really no way to effectively damage the enemy on the city wall. To the soldiers under the table, even if a big stone is thrown to hit the curved tabletop of the wooden table, it will slide to both sides. It is difficult to smash the wooden table and hit the soldiers of the Wu army under the table.The traitor Wu also came to his senses quickly, and asked tentatively, "What do you mean? Let our soldiers hide under such a table, dig the city wall of Wuchang directly on the ground, fill it with explosives and blow it up?"

"My lord is holy, that's true." Fatty Lu replied with a smile: "I don't know if my lord still remembers? Man Gou also used similar weapons to attack Qianming City before entering the pass, but Man Gou's purpose was to dig down the city wall , You have to dig a lot of caves to succeed, so there are not many successful examples. But ours is much simpler, just dig out five or six caves, hide explosives in the caves, and ignite it to blow it up.”

"How can this king forget?" The old traitor Wu recalled: "The year when this king entered the battle to save his father at the age of 13, he was full of dogs to attack Ningyuan City, and he used this tactic to dig out the city wall of Ningyuan, and dug the city wall of Ningyuan into thousands of holes. Baikong, if it wasn't for the extremely cold weather that year, which froze the city walls to death, Ningyuan City would be..., heh."

Recalling this, the old man Wu treacherously shook his graying head, tried his best to get the memories of his youth out of his mind, and said with a smile: "You are clever, this method is stupid, but it may be more effective for us. However, You bastard spend all day in the factory just to make such a simple thing for me?"

"Back to the lord, of course not." Fatty Lu shook his head, and then said in a deep voice: "The humble worker has spent the past few days in the factory, not only made this simple siege table, but also made a dog-like cannon full of dogs for the lord. The flowering shells, using the 42 sub-cannons captured by Mangou in Anshun, plus the flowering shells we filled with explosives, will definitely give Mangou a big surprise."

"You also made the flowering shells of the mother-child cannon?" Old traitor Wu was overjoyed at first, then frowned and said, "But when we use the siege table to dig the wall, how can we use the mother-child cannon? If it falls below the city wall, our spade soldiers who dig the wall will be miserable."

"Grandfather, that's what grandson-in-law thinks." Fatty Lu smiled triumphantly, and said darkly, "Son-in-law thinks, since Man Gou has seen through our authentic siege tactics, and wants to hit our shovel soldiers hard, then we simply Come up with a plan and plan again, on the basis of the authentic siege tactics, come again and attack the south, which in turn will severely injure Mangou! While attacking the city, kill and injure a large number of Mangou soldiers, laying the foundation for us to enter the city and fight in the streets."

"Why are you going south and east? Let me explain in detail." Old Traitor Wu sat back in his handsome seat and asked with his arms crossed.All the generals of the Wu army present also focused their eyes on Fatty Lu's fat face and listened attentively.

"The grandson-in-law is rude." Fatty Lu was not polite, walked to the sand table of the map, pointed at Wuchang City with a bamboo pole and said, "Grandfather, please look, all generals, Wuchang is a big city. The length of the city wall is seven miles, and the length of the east wall is more than nine miles. Even if the internal line is mobilized, it is difficult to mobilize the troops at once. Therefore, the son-in-law concluded that the man dog discovered our army's attack on the tunnel at the east gate of Wuchang After the tactics, we will definitely ambush heavy troops and elite soldiers in the east gate, one for the convenience of confronting the main force of our army on the main battlefield, and one for precaution.”

"However, at the south gate of Wuchang, because of the abundant groundwater outside the south gate, it is difficult for our army to dig tunnels. Even if the moat is filled up, we can only use ladders and platforms to attack. Therefore, Mangou does not need to deploy too many troops, and can block them by virtue of the location. Our army, no matter what, the Mangou garrison at the south gate of Wuchang must not have many troops!"

"In view of these circumstances, my son-in-law suggested that when our army is attacking the city tonight, we can use the cover of the night to gather the elite troops to the south gate of Wuchang and the siege table to the south gate of Wuchang. Outside the south gate of Wuchang, in order to dig the wall and blow up the wall overnight. At the same time, the 42 sub-cannons seized by our army and our forty red barbarian cannons and bronze cannons were all arranged outside the east gate of Wuchang. Blossom shells, bombard the city wall of Wuchang East Gate and the houses behind it with all their strength, kill and injure the elite Mangou soldiers who are ambushing here, while the old and weak soldiers behind them use more torches, making Mangou think that our main force is still at the East Gate of Wuchang, and bombard them violently. It's just to cover up the underground tunneling."

"In this way, our army's fierce artillery fire can not only severely damage the elite soldiers concentrated in the east gate of Mangou, but also attract the attention of Mangou's main force, interfere with Mangou's judgment on the progress of our tunnel excavation, and induce Mangou to continue to concentrate its main forces on At the east gate of Wuchang, we can further support our army's siege operation at the south gate. Using the sound of artillery and cover in the night, engineers are suddenly dispatched to dig the city wall, fill it with explosives, and blow up the south gate of Wuchang. The purpose, the time is already too late!"

Old Traitor Wu was silently calculating, and after a while, Old Traitor Wu raised his head and glanced at the other two staff officers present, Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong. After seeing them all nodding vigorously, Old Traitor Wu smiled and said, "Then do this." Well, what is true is false, what is false is true, play a game with Mangou."

"Nephew and son-in-law." Wu Yingqi suddenly pulled Fatty Lu's sleeve, and said in a low voice, "Don't forget, who was the first to promote you back then? From now on, you'd better come to my account, I won't treat you badly."

………………

Although Wu Jun hadn't officially started to attack the city yet, judging from the progress of Wu Jun's tunnel excavation and the army's busy preparations, several commanders on Mite Qing's side still concluded that a big battle was coming!In order to meet the strong attack of the Wu army's main force, Tu Hai and Yue Le not only made preparations to crack the Wu army's tunnel siege tactics, but also gathered a large number of elite troops to station in the east gate of Wuchang, so that they could be deployed on the battlefield at any time. The army prepared a large number of defensive weapons such as rolling stones and wood to prevent the old traitor Wu from becoming angry and forcibly attacking the city after his tunnel attack was blocked.

When he was so busy, a new military report came - outside the south gate of Wuchang, Wu Jun's army was also found to be mobilized!Hearing this news, Tu Hai, Yue Le, Cai Yurong and other commanders of the Qing army did not dare to neglect. Taking advantage of the darkness of the sky, they rushed to the tower of the south gate of Wuchang to check the enemy's situation. In addition, a considerable number of Wu army troops appeared, armed with siege weapons such as ladders, platforms, and rocket vehicles, and were gathering towards the open area outside the south gate of Wuchang.However, when they raised their binoculars to take a closer look at the banner of the Wu Army, Tu Hai, Yue Le and the others all showed happy smiles—this Wu Army was impressively the Wu Army Wu Yingqi's team that had been scared by the Wuchang Qing Army some time ago.

"Old thief Wu Sangui, are you still thinking of playing tricks?" Tu Hai said with a smug smile, "You want to deliberately set up the illusion of a strong attack by the southeast gates to cover up your authentic siege tactics? Dreaming!"

"Zhongtang, the south gate can't be taken lightly." Cai Yurong reminded: "We must guard against Wu Gouming's attack on the east gate and the real attack on the south gate, turning the false into reality. According to the opinion of the lower officials, it is better to have more people on the south gate." Deploy some troops, just in case."

"That's right, only by being careful can you sail for thousands of years." Tu Hai nodded vigorously, and said: "Well, tonight, Prince An and I will be in charge of the main battlefield of the east gate, and I will entrust Cai Butang to you at the south gate. , [-] troops were dispatched from the north gate and west gate, and [-] troops were stationed here, and if something is wrong, light the tower on fire, and we will immediately send reinforcements to you."

"Your servant obeys." Cai Yurong clasped his fists and agreed.But at this time, a new military report proved that Cai Yurong was too fearful of the enemy—the lookout post at the east gate of the Qing army discovered that nearly a hundred artillery pieces of the Wu army were gathering and deploying outside the east gate of Wuchang!
Hearing this news, Tu Hai, Yue Le and others were inevitably both happy and worried. The happy thing was that the Wu army had indeed designated the East Gate of Wuchang as the main battlefield, but the worry was that the Wu army's artillery fire was fierce, and a large number of Qing troops assembled in the east gate. The team will inevitably suffer heavy losses.In the end, it was Cai Yurong who suggested again: "Tutang, Lord An, why don't we drive all the people in the east gate to the northwest, and let our reserve team live in private houses. This way we can reduce a lot of unnecessary losses." Tu Hai and Yue Le Yi was very satisfied when he heard it, and immediately acted according to the plan.

In fact, the Qing army still has a hidden worry, and that is the problem of Wu Jun's airship. Once Wu Jun's airship flies over the east gate of Wuchang City and bombs, the Qing army is already prepared to prevent the tunnel from attacking the city. s eyes.But fortunately, it may be blessed by the spirit of the wild boar skin. Today, the north wind around Wuchang City is quite fierce. The wind speed and direction are extremely unsuitable for Wu Jun's airship to dispatch, so Wu Jun's side has never had a single airship fly into the sky and hide in the city wall. Naturally, the deep trenches of the Qing army were never noticed by the Wu army.When the sky was basically completely dark, I began to wait for the main force of the Wu army to attack the city with peace of mind, and then used sufficient defense to prepare for a head-on blow to the Wu army.

In late autumn, the days are short, and before the three quarters of the unitary hour, the outside of Wuchang, where the north wind howls, is already pitch black, and you can't see your fingers. Half of the sky was red, and the noise of people shouting and neighing could still be heard clearly six or seven miles away.At the same time, the long-lost sound of excavation and ground breaking finally sounded in the monitoring water tank buried in Wuchang City. It was obvious that the Wu Army engineers had already started the final sprint excavation toward the east gate of Wuchang.

"Shovels, all enter the trenches!" Yue Le, who was in charge of commanding the Qing army's engineers to fight against the Wu army's engineers, ordered sharply, "Two people are in charge of each water tank, and they all listen to the water tanks. If they find the location of the Wugou tunnel, report it immediately."

The engineers of the Qing army obeyed the order, and all jumped into the deep trench with hoes and shovels in their hands, waiting for orders at any time. The carefully selected soldiers of the Qing army with sensitive ears put their ears on the water tank to listen to the movements of the engineers of the Wu army. The engineers and soldiers of the Qing army who were in charge of releasing the poisonous smoke also prepared firewood, bellows, and kindling, knelt on one knee against the dead corner of the city wall, and waited calmly for orders.

"Boom!"

Just when Xu Shi arrived, the first cannonball of the Wu army's main force to attack Wuchang City finally fired. Amidst the thunder and flames, the first Wu army shell escaped, drew a beautiful parabola in the night sky, and flew towards the city wall of the east gate of Wuchang. .Tu Hai, who has rich experience in the battlefield, hurriedly let the troops on the city hide behind the arrow stacks, and used shields to protect the chest, abdomen and face, so as not to be shot by shrapnel. , It fell directly into the civilian houses where the elite Qing troops were stationed and exploded.

"No way? Is it a coincidence? Or did Wu Gou expect that we would ambush elite soldiers in the houses near the east gate?" Tu Hai cried out in despair.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The sound of artillery shells fired one after another came, and the largest artillery siege of the Yunnan-Guizhou army since the army began.

(End of this chapter)