scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 203 The Battle of Wuchang

(PS: It’s December, ask for a monthly pass for December. In addition, let’s explain tomorrow’s update. Tomorrow, Pure Wolf has a friend and old classmate who is engaged, so I have to accompany him on a trip to drink with his natal family Fighting wine, so tomorrow's update, Pure Wolf, can only say its best. If you really can't make it out, please forgive me, it's really hard to refuse.)
In the fourth armistice negotiation, Ye Bilong, the Qing negotiator and imperial envoy who had no bargaining chips in his hand, refused to agree to Wu Jun's harsh conditions. I can't be the master of Tuhai and Yue Le, and I can't represent them agreeing that the Qing army in Wuchang will lay down all their weapons and surrender to the Wu army, waiting for the silver grain and grass from the Qing court to redeem them back to Jiangbei to reunite with their families.So there was no way, even if Ye Bilong was already tempted, considering the future of the Qing Dynasty court, he had no choice but to return to Wuchang to discuss with Tu Hai, Yue Le and others whether to accept Wu Jun's condition.

Of course, as the last general of the Qing Dynasty’s old generation, although Ye Bilong’s personality is quite weak, and he is afraid of taking responsibility and even more afraid of being blamed, but Ye Bilong still has the last ray of hope in his heart, that is, the expectation and hope that a miracle will appear The Qing army in Wuchang was able to block the Wu army in the street fighting and even severely injured the Wu army, forcing the Wu army to take the initiative to let the Qing army and the Qingqi people in Wuchang city cross the river. Although this hope is slim, it is not hopeless. After all, the strength of the Qing army in Wuchang was as large as [-], and the advantage of the Wu army in terms of strength was not obvious. Moreover, it was difficult for the Wu army to fully utilize its strength in the street battlefield.

What completely shattered Ye Bilong's hope was the chaotic state at Wuchang Wharf. When the warship that Ye Bilong and others took returned to Shuimen Wharf in the west of Wuchang, his warship could no longer berth. It has been occupied by the overwhelming Wu army soldiers. Although the northern part is still in the hands of the Qing army, the Qing army generals and soldiers on the pier and on the shore obviously have no desire to fight, and they are just desperately rushing to board the ship.The reason why the Wu army was unable to quickly occupy all the docks was not because of the resistance of the soldiers of the Qing army, but because they were blocked by the crowd of ordinary people as dense as the tide.

In order to get on the ship and escape as soon as possible, the soldiers of the Qing army either jumped into the water and swam onto the warship, or slashed and killed their companions and civilians who robbed the springboard. Throw it upside down into the river, or push it into the river alive!Crying and shouting for help on the pier on the river shook the heavens, the heads of people on the pier were like ants, the living and dead were floating in the river, black smoke billowed from the warships hit by Wu Jun’s incendiary bombs, the chaos was like a boiling pot rice porridge.As for the Daqing Baylor Zhani who was in charge of commanding the garrison at Ximen Wharf, he didn't even know where he disappeared, and he didn't know whether he died in battle or had already boarded a boat and fled for his life.

Seeing such a scene, Ye Bilong, who could barely be regarded as a good conscience, couldn't help but burst into tears, choked up, and yelled, "Tuhai, a national traitor! A national traitor! This is all caused by you, a national traitor. If you don't stop The common people cross the river ahead of time, don’t spread rumors that Wu Gou will slaughter the city after it breaks the city, will this happen? A national thief, a national thief, you deserve death...!"

The problem of the docking of the Yebilong warship was finally resolved with the help of the soldiers of the Wu army. After Zheerken held a pure white flag and took a small boat to the shore to explain the situation to the Wu army, Wu Yingjing, who was commanding the Wu army to fight on the Ximen pier, was very surprised. He readily agreed to Ye Bilong's request, and let Ye Bilong and others take twenty entourages to land in a small boat, and sent a small team to escort Ye Bilong and others into the water gate, and let Ye Bilong and others fight against the water gate. Bai Qi went to the inner city and the north gate to find Tu Hai, Yue Le and other Qing army commanders to discuss surrender matters.

At this moment, the chaos in Wuchang City is worse than that of the wharf. The fleeing civilians and the warring armies blocked the streets and alleys. Crying and crying for help came and went, corpses lay everywhere on the ground, blood stained the canals red and overflowed, the houses on both sides of the street were ablaze, black smoke billowed into the sky, old people and children cried for help from time to time in the sea of ​​flames The sound and the sound of smashing boxes and boxes, but no one rushed into the flames to save people, and no one stopped the robbery.On the contrary, it was Tuhai's direct army that robbed, murdered, and raped the most.

If it weren't for the desperate protection of Ye Bilong's entourage, and Zheerken and others showing the banner of imperial envoy in time, Ye Bilong would definitely never have the chance to return to the negotiating table—a Qing army battalion defeated by the Wu army took a fancy to Ye Bilong. The luxurious clothes worn by Bilong and others planned to kill Ye Bilong and others to steal the clothes.After revealing his identity in time to stop the defeated Qing army, Ye Bilong didn't bother to pay attention to their military discipline any more, he just asked them about the whereabouts of Tuhai's Chinese army, but the defeated Qing army told Ye Bilong that they had to wait until dawn. , They never saw Tuhai's flag and team again.

In desperation, Ye Bilong could only take over the command of the Qing army battalion on the spot, and rushed to the inner city of Wuchang as if trying his luck, to find the Fuyuan general Tu Haitu who had vowed to live and die with Wuchang city before. In the middle hall, in order to avoid the fighting and the flow of people, Ye Bilong and his party could only circle the inner city half a circle, and finally entered the inner city which was also extremely chaotic from the north gate of the inner city.Fortunately, very fortunately, after Ye Bilong and others walked through the inner city with difficulty for half an hour, they finally saw the banner of Tu Hai on the tower of the south gate of the inner city.

"When I got back to the capital, the old man was desperately trying to shake the morale of the front-line soldiers, and he wanted to read this map again and again in front of the emperor! If it weren't for the country's traitor who is incompetent in running the army and likes to rob, the loss of Wuchang City would not be so great. ! Now, even if the old thief Wu Sangui is willing to withdraw from Wuchang City, Wuchang City will basically be abolished!"

With this in mind, Ye Bilong hurriedly boarded the north gate tower, but what surprised Ye Bilong was that although Tu Hai's flag was still planted on the tower, Tu Hai and his huge bodyguard team were not there. However, the person who actually gave the command in front of the battle turned out to be Henan General Zhou Bangning!What made Ye Bilong even more frantic was that when they met, before Ye Bilong could ask Tuhai whereabouts, Zhou Bangning asked profusely, "Yi Zhongtang, where is Tuhai? Why hasn't he come back yet?" ?”

"You ask me, who am I to ask?" Ye Bilong asked angrily, "When did he leave? Did he say what he was going to do?"

"It was just dawn, about halfway through the hour, and Tutang sent someone to upload the last general from the street fighting battlefield." Zhou Bangning replied with a sad face: "Tutang said that the last general and Wu Gou had already fought bloody night with Wu Gou, and he was very tired, so The last general took command in the center, and he went to the east gate to personally command the street fighting and cover the retreat at the north gate pier. In order not to shake the morale of the army, Tutang also left the flag here, allowing the last general to use his honor to command the commander."

"Dog thief!" Ye Bilong cursed unbearably, "No wonder 10,000+ Qing troops lost their lives in Guizhou, and you are the only one who can escape unscathed. It turns out that you are good at this skill!"

"Yi Zhongtang, running away from battle is a crime of beheading, Tutang may not dare to do that." Zhe Erken kindly persuaded: "Perhaps Tutang is really at the east gate battlefield, but he was entangled by the Wugou army, and there is no way to retreat Just come down."

"I hope so." Ye Bilong stomped his feet and sighed, grabbed Zhou Bangning again, and ordered: "General Zhou, I now order you in the name of Zhongtang and the imperial envoy. From now on, the inner city is allowed to enter and not to leave, and the order will continue." , all the troops and people retreated back to the inner city and stood firm! Tell all the soldiers that now Wugou has occupied the two water gates in Wuchang. Only then can there be a way to keep them alive!"

"Cover!" Zhou Bangning didn't dare to neglect such a life-threatening matter, so he had to agree quickly.Ye Bilong didn't have time to delay any longer, and hurriedly led his team to the east gate to find Tu Hai Tu Tang, who claimed to fight bloody battles against the Wu army there.

Because the main attack direction of the Wu army is at the south gate, although the situation in the east city of Wuchang is better than that in the south city, it is not much better. The fleeing crowd is still blocking the streets and alleys, and the Wu army is still advancing. They are still retreating steadily, and soldiers from both sides are fighting desperately everywhere in the streets and alleys, but it is obvious that the Qing army is completely desperate and dying, and the will to resist is very weak, while the Wu army is as imposing. Hong, it is only a matter of time before Dongcheng is completely occupied.

Unfortunately, the bad situation was suppressed by Long Bilong. When asking several Qing troops about the whereabouts of Tuhai, all the generals of the Qing army replied that they had never seen it, and they had never seen it since the sky was clear. Even if Tuhai None of the soldiers of the brigade who were fed with silver women was seen.After getting such an answer, Ye Bilong wanted to cry, and scolded Tu Hai for being greedy for life and fearing that he would harm the country and the people, so he could only retreat all the troops to the inner city to save their lives for the time being, and then accepted the advice of Fu Dali and others. He hurried to the north water gate with his guards to look for Prince An Yue Le, deputy commander of the Qing army.

At the moment, the situation at the North Gate Wharf in Wuchang is slightly better than that at the West Gate Wharf. The airship of the Wu Army, which has been depleted of ammunition, has flown back to the position to reload. The refugees and defeated soldiers on board were able to board the boats and cross the river smoothly, but the Qing army warships that were damaged and sunk by the Wu army airship and the ships of all sizes that were sunk by overload blocked many waterways, making it difficult for the Qing army warships to approach quickly. The wharf is full of soldiers and civilians. Even if a few warships come to the wharf by chance, they are immediately filled with defeated soldiers and civilians swarming up. The soldiers of the Qing army who maintained the boarding order were either crushed to death or rushed to the warships first. Fleeing for their lives made every warship seriously overloaded, not only difficult to operate, but also frequent overturning and overturning tragedies, which increased casualties and delayed the retreat speed of Wuchang soldiers and civilians.

"Heaven is dead to me!"

Swallowing with grief, Ye Bilong finally found Yue Le, the deputy commander of the Qing army on the city wall of Shuimen, but at this moment, Yue Le's face was covered with sweat and mud, his eyes were bloodshot, and he didn't know where his helmet fell. After hearing the news of Tu Hai's disappearance, Yue Le also yelled wildly, "National traitor! Dog thief! Here we go again! I dare to bet on the head of the item, that dog thief must have escaped for his life! It was the same in Yuezhou last time." In this way, he shouted to live and die with Yuezhou, and when Wu Gou broke through the gate of Yuezhou, he was the first one to board the boat and flee for his life!"

"And that Cai Yurong! The bastard! Before Wu Gou attacked the city, he had already prepared his warship to escape. After the city was broken, the bastard disappeared! Now, this bastard must have escaped across the Yangtze River Already!"

"Ao Zhongtang I was so wise, why did he miss the last moment? A despicable villain like Tuhai was chosen to command the whole army?" Ye Bilong burst into tears, choked up and said, "If it wasn't for the villain Tuhai who threatened People, how could the people of Wuchang be so chaotic and panic after the city was broken? If he hadn’t fled before the battle, how could our army be so chaotic? Ao Zhongtang, you are wronging the country——!”

"Yi Zhongtang, it's useless to say these things now." Yue Le tried to calm himself down, and quickly asked: "Yi Zhongtang, how is your negotiation with Wu Gou going? Now the West Gate Wharf is basically over, and the North Gate Wharf is in chaos. In this way, I am afraid that even 2 people will not be able to withdraw from the Yangtze River when Wu Gou kills here! The situation has already been placed here. For the sake of the future of our Qing Dynasty, Xiao Wang believes that as long as Wu Gou agrees to stop the attack, let go If we cross the river, then we can agree to the truce conditions they proposed before!"

"This old man has already done this." Ye Bilong wailed, and replied: "But Wu Gou insisted that we all put down our weapons and surrender. We will not be allowed to cross the river until our Qing court fulfills its promise. , They would rather form an alliance with Zheng Ni of Taiwan and join forces to cause chaos, and they will never give way!"

"Wu Dog—!" Yue Le roared, drew his knife and slashed fiercely at the nearby iron cannon, causing sparks to fly and the steel knife to break.

"Prince An, this old man is just negotiating with imperial envoys, not the front-line commander. He has no right to order you to put down your weapons." Ye Bilong said with a sob, "Now Tuhai can't be found, Lord An, you are the deputy commander, you can make up your mind." Come on, do you want to accept Wu Gou's harsh conditions and temporarily save the precious lives of our Qing soldiers?"

Yue Le hesitated, just like Hu Guozhu commented on Yue Le, although Yue Le's character was indeed hundreds of times better than Tu Hai and Cai Yurong, but he was not selfish, and now Tu Hai was going to die or live or run for his life No one knew that if Yue Le ordered the whole army to lay down their weapons and surrender to the Wu army, then Yue Le would have to bear all the consequences.

At that time, Wu Jun broke his promise to kill the prisoners and massacred all the Eight Banners masters in Wuchang City, so Yue Le will be the eternal sinner of the Qing court.Even if Wu Jun kept his promise, Xiao Mazi redeemed these prisoners of war with an astronomical amount of food and silver, and Yue Le was still the chief culprit. Things that are not allowed!Can Yue Le afford such a consequence?

Surrendering is death, not surrendering is death, a dilemma, Yue Le really doesn't know what to do, staring blankly at the crying crowd on the pier, refusing to say a word for a long time.On the other hand, Zheerken and Fu Dali were so anxious that their heads were full of smoke, they grabbed Yue Le's sleeves and begged, "Prince An, make up your mind, make up your mind quickly, or it will be too late!"

"My lord, I beg you, hurry up and make up your mind! You haven't seen the situation in the city, but the humble officials have seen it all. The Wu dogs are madly slaughtering the soldiers and people of our Qing Dynasty. Wait a little longer. Hundreds of people died! My lord, please say something!"

No matter how much Zhe Erken and Fu Dali begged, Yue Le still didn't speak, completely turning a deaf ear.Just at this time, another heavily overloaded Qing army warship capsized on the river more than a mile away from the river bank. The soldiers and civilians on the deck fell into the water, crying and screaming for help, piercing the sky. The muscles on the extremely tense face twitched involuntarily, but the eyes quickly dimmed again, and they continued to keep silent, Zhe Erken and Fu Dali were so anxious that they cried loudly, beat their chests and feet, helpless.

"Don't force Prince An." Ye Bilong suddenly calmed down, grabbed Zhe Erken and Fu Dali and said, "Prince An has his own reasons. If he issued this order, he would have no way to explain it to the court, let alone The method is explained to the emperor."

"Then we can't watch our soldiers being slaughtered by Wu Dog?" Zheerken asked crying.

"This sinner, the old man will do it." Ye Bilong straightened his clothes and said calmly: "Prince An, you can get on the boat and leave. The old man will take over the command of the entire army. After you leave, the old man will immediately signal the navy to retreat. Lead the entire city to surrender to Wu Dog. We have already had three princes captured by Wu Dog in the Qing Dynasty, and you cannot be the fourth."

"Yi Zhongtang—!" Zhe Erken cried out heart-piercingly, "No! Ye Zhongtang, if you do this, return to the capital, the court and the emperor will not let you go!"

"I don't do this, and I can't explain to the court after I go back." Ye Bilong said slowly with a serious face: "The emperor's bottom line is that he only wants to give Wu Dog 1000 million taels of silver and 100 million stones of grain. , but the old man promised to give 500 million taels of silver and 500 million shi of grain, and after returning to the capital, the emperor and the court will still not spare the old man. Anyway, both of them are dead, so why drag Prince An into the water?"

"Besides, this old man deserves to die a long time ago." Ye Bilong looked up at the sky again, and said calmly: "During the period of Ao Zhongtang's dictatorship, this old man was afraid of Ao Zhongtang's authority, so he didn't dare to publicly support the emperor. The emperor who is lenient and jealous has long wished to cut this old man into pieces. This time I sent this old man to negotiate with Wu Gou, and his intention was nothing more than to let this old man take the blame for traitorousness and fame. I have already been mentally prepared, so I don't care about bearing one more infamy or one more crime."

"Yi Zhongtang—!" Zhe Erken and Fu Dali fell to their knees together, hugging Ye Bilong's thigh and weeping loudly.Yue Le also burst into tears, knelt down to Ye Bilong slowly, put his forehead on the ground, wept bitterly and blamed himself: "Yi Zhongtang, Xiao Wang is shameless, Xiao Wang is selfish, Xiao Wang is nothing..."

"Prince An, you don't have to blame yourself, this is human nature, no wonder you." Ye Bilong said sincerely: "You are still young, and you still have a future. In the future, sooner or later, we will resume our war with Wu Gou. The court cannot do without it." You are a general with both ability and political integrity, but this old man is already old. After today, I don’t know if there will be a bad old man tomorrow. Even if he can continue to live, this old man will not be of much use to Qing Dynasty. But you are different. "

Yue Le cried bitterly, Ye Bilong patted the tops of Zhe Erken and Fu Dali again, and said with a smile: "You all get up, this matter has nothing to do with you, the old man will bear all the consequences alone, and will not let you be implicated. "

"Zhongtang—!" Zhe Erken and Fu Dali were quite conscientious. After hearing Ye Bilong's words, they couldn't help being heartbroken and cried together with Yue Le.Ye Bilong urged: "Prince An, we don't have much time, you go quickly, take the troops you can mobilize on board, and cross the river immediately."

Yue Le was so ashamed that he didn't have the face to get up and give this order, but Ye Bilong grabbed him and shouted: "Don't be dumbfounded, let's go! We are running out of time, don't you plan to act like Jie Shu and Le Erjin?" The monk is happy that they were also captured by Wu Dog? To suffer the endless humiliation? Go! Let the old man go immediately!"

"Zhongtang—!" Yue Le cried loudly, kowtowed three times to Yebilong, got up and rushed down the city wall crying, and headed towards the pier with the army maintaining order under the city wall.

"Prince An, please tell the emperor." Ye Bilong yelled at Yue Le's back again, "Please remember, Wu thief's running dog Lu Yifeng has both civil and military skills, and his talents are far superior to those of Wu thief. Other lackeys! If this person can’t be used by the Qing Dynasty, he must be killed! Otherwise, this thief will become a disaster for the Qing Dynasty, and his degree of harm may even be higher than that of the old thief Wu Sangui!"

Yue Le stopped suddenly, nodded with his body on his back, and then led the army forward again, let the army show their knives and guns, set up a charge formation, frantically expelled and killed the defeated soldiers and refugees, and forcibly killed a bloody path from the crowd Boarded the wharf, boarded a large Qing army ship, drove off the defeated soldiers and refugees who followed, and sailed away from the wharf with sails and oars.It was also at this moment that Ye Bilong decisively ordered the Qing army on the city tower to display the flag of the navy to retreat. The navy of the Qing army who was worried about the return of the Wu army's airship on the river was amnesty. Order the whole army to retreat to Jiangbei.

"Let's go! Let's go! The navy doesn't care about us!"

Seeing the Qing army's navy retreating slowly towards the north of the river, the defeated Qing army and refugees on the pier burst into earth-shattering cries. Countless Qing army's defeated soldiers and refugees jumped into the river, swimming and chasing after the Qing army's naval battle. Even if the boat is swept away by the river, it will be followed by others. There are layers of corpses floating on the river, covering almost half of the Yangtze River.More civilians and defeated soldiers beat their chests and feet on the wharf and on the river bank, grabbed the ground with their heads, and the sound of desperate crying echoed on the surface of the Yangtze River for a long time.

"Soldiers and common people, don't worry." Old Ye Bilong murmured with tears and choked up, "You don't have to be afraid, even if this old man dies, I will try my best to protect your safety.... "

After muttering, E Bilong wiped away his tears, and ordered to the soldiers of the Qing army around him: "You all go and send an order to let all our troops lay down their weapons and surrender to the Pingxi Palace. Tell them, and also tell the Manchus in Wuchang City. Folks, this imperial envoy has already negotiated with the Prince of the West Palace, after the surrender, there will be no massacre of the city, nor will there be any prisoners. Old man..., I will guarantee them with the head of the item."

In the afternoon of the fourth day of October 11, Kangmazi, Qing Dynasty, after receiving the promise of never killing prisoners and never massacring the city from the Yunnan-Guizhou army, Ye Bilong, the grand master of the Qing Dynasty, the full-power imperial envoy for the armistice negotiations and the interim coach of the Qing army in Wuchang, issued an order to lead the whole city The soldiers and civilians surrendered to the Yunnan-Guizhou army, and the Wuchang War, which lasted for more than a month, finally ended with the Yunnan-Guizhou army winning a complete victory.

So far, although the Yunnan-Guizhou army, which is exhausted from top to bottom, has no spare power to expand its control area, the Jinghu line of defense that Xiao Mazi used to prevent the Yunnan-Guizhou army from going north has been actually broken by the Yunnan-Guizhou army. The strategic and tactical initiative of the Jinghu battlefield has finally come. It fell into the hands of the Yunnan-Guizhou army.Hunan, the new rear of the Yunnan-Guizhou army, has finally won a valuable strategic buffer zone!

In the evening of the same day, E Bilong signed his name on the armistice treaty. In exchange for the Wu army's immediate truce, the stop of the northward march and the release of prisoners of war, the Qing court promised to put Sichuan, Guangxi, Pianyuan, and Huguang Wuchang mansions under the concurrent management of the Pingxi palace. , The military, personnel, and civil affairs are all managed by the Pingxi Palace. The Qing court only has the right to approve and appoint, and has no veto power.At the same time, the Qing court compensated the Pingxi Palace with 3000 million taels of silver for military expenses, 500 million shi for food and grass, and paid 500 million taels of ransom for the prisoners of war.

"The ancestors of the Qing Dynasty! The ancestors of the Qing Dynasty! The ancestors of the Qing Dynasty——!"

After signing his name on the first treaty of humiliation and humiliation that was more than 20 years ahead of schedule, Ye Bilong threw down his writing brush, cried three times, spurted a mouthful of blood, and fell to the ground fainting on the spot.

"Poor old guy, Xiao Mazi made it clear that he was letting you take the blame, so you can ask for more blessings." After looking sympathetically at Ye Bilong who fell to the ground and passed out, Fatty Lu gritted his teeth in his heart. He said, "Kang Mazi, just wait! In order not to let you guys sign more after a hundred years, I swear that in the future, I will let you sign more such treaties!"

(End of this chapter)