scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 265 Be Careful
"Ah! Thirty years of fame and fame, eight thousand miles of roads, clouds and moons! Aspirations to eat the meat of barbarians hungry, and jokes to drink the blood of mites thirsty! I would like to defend the land and open up the frontiers, and the majestic China will let it go, and the Quartet—come to congratulate!"

Before he had time to step into the territory of Jiangxi, the ecstatic Fatty Lu stretched out his arms, looked up to the sky and sighed.Seeing Fatty Lu's appearance, Fatty Lu's absolute confidantes Wang Shaobo, Zhu Fangdan, Li Tianzhi, Yuer Yuer, and Xiao Erlang were all smiling and flattering, and lamented that Fatty Lu had worked with them for many years as a daughter-in-law. , Keeping the clouds and mists in the middle of the sky, I finally looked forward to today, and survived until today.

"Bah!" Not everyone is a sycophant, including Fatty Lu's subordinates—at least Fatty Lu's direct subordinate, Han Daren, spit heavily, and sneered at Fatty Lu's humble appearance.

Fatty Lu's 13 troops set off from Wuchang on the fourteenth day of the first month of the [-]th year of Kang Mazi in the first year of the Great Zhou Dynasty. They entered Jiangxi by both water and land. Fatty personally led the way, with his confidant Hutongchun as the vanguard, General Wang Xu as the food security officer, via Xingguo County, where the famous official Hai Rui once served as the county magistrate, and marched straight into Jiangxi. Jiangxi Jiujiang Mansion!

At the time of departure, it was obvious that Han Daren, who was sent by the old traitor Wu to mix sand as eyeliner, also raised objections. He felt that Jiujiang should not be the battlefield for the first battle of the Eastern Expedition of the Fat Army, but should be 270 miles south of Jiujiang. The purpose of the Nanchang City is of course to defeat the Qing army in northern Jiangxi. Even if the Qing army in northern Jiangxi sent troops to rescue, it could only use the Jiujiang army and dare not use the Anqing Qing army that is farther away. The pressure on the fat army is relatively small. The second choice for siege and aid.

Han Daren's suggestion is also reasonable, it may take a long time but it is relatively safe, but Fatty Lu has another opinion, he believes that his own army has less refined food and can only fight quickly rather than procrastinate, although it is safe to attack Nanchang first, but Time will inevitably be delayed for a long time, and it will also lengthen the grain road, which will give the Qing army a chance to rob grain, which is very unfavorable.Only by directly attacking Jiujiang, not only is the grain road short and close, but it can also induce the Qing army in Nanchang and the Qing army in Anqing to rescue Jiujiang, annihilate the main forces of the Qing army in the two places in the field battlefield where the Wu army is good at, and lay the foundation for future wars. It can play a role in preventing the Qing court from sending reinforcements to reinforce northern Jiangxi.

Facing Fatty Lu's unreasonable reasoning, Han Daren was furious, and inevitably scolded Fatty Lu for being too greedy, but Fatty Lu is now Han Daren's boss, and Han Daren's good friends Xia Guoxiang and Hu Guozhu are not in Wuchang, but they are based in Wuchang Wu Yingqi is still a loyal friend of Fatty Lu, and it is absolutely impossible to speak for Han Daren and interfere with Fatty Lu's tactical choices, so Han Daren had no choice but to obey his orders and accompany Fatty Lu, Gao Dejie and others to lead the Chinese army , all the way to the east and kill directly towards Jiujiang.

The situation of Fatty is basically introduced. Let’s briefly introduce the situation of Fatty Lu’s hapless opponents. You can see from the map that northern Jiangxi can be said to be the only barrier for the Qing army to defend the Wu army from invading Jiangnan. Therefore, since the beginning of the war, Mite Qing The imperial court and Kang Mazi have always paid more and more attention to the northern Jiangxi battlefield. At the moment when the Zhejiang-Fujian war was extremely fierce, Kang Mazi would rather deploy the troops on the Huguang northern line than deploy the nearest northern Jiangxi army for reinforcements Fujian and Zhejiang battlefields.

Later, after the Wu army successfully broke through the Qing army's Yangtze River defense line, the [-] main force of the Qing army mobilized from the Huguang battlefield was divided into [-] to go north to Anhui, and the remaining [-] troops were also stationed in northern Jiangxi. Leading the Wu army down the river, they attacked the Qing court's most important area of ​​wealth in the south of the Yangtze River. In addition, the Qing army fled from Luoshan, Huangzhou and other places to the battlefield in northern Jiangxi. There are not too many enemies on the Internet—just over one hundred thousand!

Among the more than 20 Qing troops, about [-] troops were stationed in Anqing City, the first gateway to the south of the Yangtze River. Two thousand, jointly led by Bei Zizhangtai and Jiangxi governor Dong Weiguo; Jiangxi admiral Zhao Guozuo, a veteran of the Qing army who had forced Zheng Chenggong to retreat on the Jiangnan battlefield more than [-] years ago, led an army of [-] to Nanchang, and the Qing army in Jiujiang was the horn of each other .In addition, Yang Jie, the admiral of the Qing army navy who has committed crimes and meritorious service, led about [-] Qing army navy officers to hover around the mouth of Poyang Lake to defend the safety of the largest freshwater lake in China.It is really difficult for Fatty Lu to pull his teeth out of the mouths of these new and old opponents who are relying on danger and guarding against danger.

After crossing Xingguo, the [-] Fat Man Army had already entered Jiangxi territory. Hutongchun, who led [-] elite troops to open the way, sent a fast horse to report back, saying that it was Yitanbu, the Qing army guard in Ruichang County, Jiujiang Prefecture. He led [-] defenders out of the city and was heading towards Hu Tongchun's army. It looked like he wanted to fight the Fatty's forward in a field battle.Fatty Lu was a little puzzled when he heard the report, and thought to himself: "Man Gou dares to go out to fight in the city? Does he look down on me, think I'm not a famous general and easy to bully? Or do you want to test my truth?"

"Brother Lu, since Man Gou dares to go out to fight in the city, we should fight head-on and kill Man Gou's spirit!" Gao Dejie next to him suggested: "General Hu Tongchun's subordinates are all elite soldiers from Guangxi, and they will never suffer in field battles. A good start should be promising!"

"Man dogs dare to go out to fight in the city? Could it be a scam?" Han Daren is actually the same kind of person as Fatty Lu, and he is also treacherous and suspicious by nature. He quickly questioned: "It's fine to be full of dogs in other places. For more than a year, we have often been ravaged by us in field battles, and we know our field capabilities well. Now we dare to abandon the city and attack, and we must have no good intentions. Our army should act cautiously."

"Whether there is fraud or not, let's fight first." Gao Dejie, who is not a first-time brother on the battlefield, said with a wave of his hand, "This is the first battle of our army's eastern expedition. If you are afraid to fight, you will only be frustrated." Self-improvement. The most important thing is to give Hu Tongchun an order so that he can't chase the enemy too deep."

"Brother Gao's idea is good, let's do it this way." Fatty Lu nodded, and asked the messenger to report to Hu Tongchun, ordering him to attack Itanbu head-on, but if the Qing army retreats, they must not chase after Ruichang County.The messenger galloped away, and Fatty Lu turned to Gao Dejie and said, "Brother Dajie, please let General Gao Hongchen lead two thousand cavalry to go ahead to meet Hu Tongchun. If Hu Tongchun wins, you don't need to join the battle. If Hu Tongchun pursues the enemy If you are in ambush, you can rescue immediately."

"Brother Lu, be careful with your troops. Our central army is only [-] miles away from Hutongchun's vanguard. We must prepare cavalry to respond in advance?" Gao Dejie laughed and said, "But that's right, this is our Eastern Expedition In the first battle, it is better to be troublesome than to be careless and give Mangou the opportunity to take advantage of loopholes."

After laughing, Gao Dejie quickly sent his deputy Gao Hongchen to go first, and the main force of the fat man army continued eastward at the original marching speed, marching towards Ruichang unhurriedly.More than an hour later, the forward of the fat army sent another news that Hu Tongchun led 130 elite soldiers and taught Itanbu a lesson in the field. He beheaded more than 22 people and captured [-] people alive. The Qing army was defeated. Going to Ruichang City, Hu Tongchun followed closely, and the pursuit battle has already begun.

The first outpost battle of the Eastern Expedition was won, Fatty Lu was naturally very satisfied when he heard the news, and ordered Hu Tongchun to pursue cautiously. He would rather let the enemy escape than pursue too deeply. At the same time, he ordered Hu Tongchun to keep the prisoners on the battlefield and wait for the Chinese army to come forward for interrogation confession.Li Tianzhi, Quan Jie, and other generals next to them all laughed when they heard it. They all said that with Hu Tongchun's temper, they had to jump when they heard Fatty Lu's order. Needless to say, the first battle of his Eastern Expedition was extremely important, and now Fatty's army basically knew nothing about the specific situation of Jiujiang Mansion, so naturally Fatty Lu didn't dare to take risks casually.

After walking for more than ten miles, they arrived at the battlefield where Hu Tongchun fought Itambu before. As expected, more than [-] hapless Qing soldiers were taken prisoner by the roadside.Fatty Lu stopped by the side of the road and ordered the captives to be taken to the front. He first offered wine to quench his thirst, and then comforted the captives with good words, stating that he was ordered by King Wu Sangui of Zhou to march eastward to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty to save the people of the world. Captives will never be killed at will—at least Han Chinese prisoners will never be killed at will.After all the prisoners kowtowed to thank them, Fatty Lu asked them about the specific situation of the Qing army in Ruichang.

The few prisoners of the Qing army were quite honest, and they quickly confessed that the Qing army had intended to abandon Ruichang. It was already an empty city. The reason why Yitanbu led the army to fight was entirely from the order of Jiujiang Prefecture, so that the Ruichang Qing army and the Wu army's forwards could meet each other to test the strength of the Wu army in the eastern expedition. Jiujiang City retreated.Therefore, the Ruichang Qing army did not have much morale and fighting spirit at all, and they retreated across the board at the slightest touch with the fat man's forward.

"Lord Lu, Man Gou is really trying to test our situation." Hearing the confession of the Qing army prisoners, Quan Jie, who also belongs to the Guangxi Wu Army, was overjoyed, and quickly suggested: "Lord Lu, we should immediately pursue with all our strength and hit a beautiful It's a good start, and the last general is willing to lead the army to meet Hutongchun."

"What are you in a hurry for?" Fatty Lu glared at Quan Jie, and when he turned his head to look at Gao Dejie and Han Daren next to him, he found that both of them were smiling, but they looked at him without making a sound, obviously wanting to see him What's the next step.Fatty Lu smiled, then turned to the prisoners and asked: "The general will ask you again, from here to the east, the road from Ruichang to Jiujiang, is it okay to walk? Are there many hills and woods on the road?"

"It's not easy to walk." A prisoner quickly replied, "The terrain on that road is a bit low-lying. It's better in winter. In summer, when it rains a lot, it's easy to flood the road. There are also many mountains and woods beside the road." (Note : At that time, there was no Saihu between Ruichang and Jiujiang.)
"Very well, then you go down." Fatty Lu waved to several prisoners and said, "If you want to stay, you can join our army, if you don't want to stay, you can go home, but whether you go or not, your braids will be destroyed." They can’t be kept anymore, they have to be cut off.”

More than [-] families of the Qing army prisoners were all in the local area, and they would not expect to have a good life if they cut their braids and went home, so they all said they would stay and surrender.At the end, Fatty Lu turned to Gao Dejie and Han Daren and said with a smile: "Brother Dajie, General Han, you don't need to read my brother's jokes anymore, you can see it too, there must be dogs lying in ambush ahead, right?"

Gao Dejie laughed out loud when he heard the words, even praising Fatty Lu for his cleverness, while Han Daren sneered, but refused to speak.On the contrary, the whole section was inexplicable, so he hurriedly asked, "Master Lu, why do you think there must be a dog in ambush ahead?"

"Brother Quan, when you lead troops into battle, will you tell your subordinates to test the enemy and shake their own morale?" Fatty Lu asked with a smile, and then said with a smile: "If I'm not wrong, Mangou's side It must have been intended to bully me with my lack of experience in the battlefield, deliberately throwing a bait to lure me into the bait, trying to lure me to pursue it with all my strength, and then jump into their ambush circle and chop them down—unfortunately, they are using axes at the gate of the squad."

"That makes sense, so what should we do?" Quan Node asked with a nod.

"It's getting late, and our army is exhausted from a long distance. Let's talk about what to do tomorrow." Fatty Lu smiled, and ordered: "Immediately send an order to Hutongchun, chase the full dog past Ruichang City and stop chasing it, enter the city to take over the city defense , our main force will camp outside Ruichang City tonight. Then send an order to the navy to rest at the Chengzi Town Wharf and keep a distance from the main force.”

When the order was conveyed to Hutongchun's army, Hutongchun had just led the fat man's army to chase the Qing army led by Itanbu past Ruichang City, and was planning to continue the pursuit to expand the victory, but he had no choice but received an order from Lu Fatty not to continue the pursuit. I was also embarrassed to disobey the military order when Fatty Lu led the army for the first time, so he turned around and entered the city dejectedly, took over Ruichang Kongcheng, posted a notice ordering the people in the city to cut their braids, and waited for the main force to arrive without mentioning it.

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Hu Tongchun was disappointed in Ruichang City, but he didn't know that in the Tianjiaqiao area of ​​Jiujiang, thirty miles ahead, after receiving the news that Wu Jun's vanguard stopped pursuing, the main force of Jiujiang Qing Army who had been ambushing here for a long time was far more disappointed than him, and personally arranged Mite Qing Beizi Zhangtai, who was planning to give Fatty Army a big meeting gift, was even more furious, scolding Fatty Lu for being cowardly, and he didn't dare to take a good fighter, so he had to wait here for a day, throwing it away for nothing Gathered more than 100 decoy soldiers.

"Master Bei, you don't need to be as knowledgeable as Wu Gou." Tong Guodong, the general soldier, comforted: "Wu Gou is timid and afraid of fighting, and it is reasonable for him not to pursue. Since we can't ambush, we might as well withdraw to Jiujiang City earlier, and wait for Wu Gou to arrive in Jiujiang. Under the city, it will not be too late to fight Wu Gou to the death."

"Don't withdraw!" Beizi Zhangtai refused and said angrily, "How can I give up the ambush I have set up here so easily? The army sleeps in the open for one night, and then Itanbu will be sent to camp in Hejiawan! Continue tomorrow To lure the enemy, we must lead Wu Gou into the ambush circle!"

"But this weather..." Tong Guodong pointed at the gray winter sky, with a hesitant expression on his face, but being stared at by Zhangtai, Tong Guodong still honestly lowered his head, and replied helplessly: "Zha, the servant will arrange it now."

………………

When the main force of the Fatty Army arrived at the city of Ruichang, it was already evening. At the same time, the news that the Qing Army Itanbu had set up camp in Hejiawan, twenty miles away, had been reported to Fatty Lu by the scouts of the Fatty Army. Fatty was overjoyed when he heard the news, and hurriedly ordered the army to set up camp, and called all the generals to the big tent to listen to the order.

After a while, all the fat soldiers came in to listen to the order together. Fatty Lu said with a smile: "Man Gou bullies me. I have no experience. They want to set up an ambush, and they will come and go without indecent assault. Since Man Gou wants to fight against others, then the general will naturally do his best to satisfy them." wishes. Listen to orders throughout the festival!"

"The end will be here." The whole section went out and clasped fists.

"Three thousand infantry with you!" Fatty Lu picked up a command arrow and ordered: "Tonight, at the second watch, we will sneak attack on Mangou Itanbu's camp overnight. Mangou will retreat to Jiujiang. Don't hesitate, pursue it boldly and expand The results of the battle. If the Mangou ambush soldiers come out of the ambush, immediately retreat back, wait until our army ambush and dispatch, then turn around and fight back, and beat the Mangou!"

"Decree!" Quan Jie happily took the arrow.Fatty Lu picked up the second command arrow and shouted: "Gao Hongchen listens to the order and ordered you to lead two thousand cavalry, send troops at the beginning of the second watch, and rush to the south of Hejiawan to ambush, full of dogs and ambushes chasing the defeated soldiers through Hejia In the middle of the night, don't fight until our army ambush starts, and then come out and cut off the dog's tail for me!"

"Decree!" Gao Hongchen agreed without hesitation.Fatty Lu picked up the third command arrow and ordered: "Han Daren obeys the order, order you to lead [-] infantry to send troops at two o'clock in the second quarter, and go to ambush on both sides of the road five miles west of Hejiawan. When passing through your defense zone for the whole quarter, let his head go and pinch his waist!"

"The last general obeys." Han Daren agreed feebly, and then asked: "General Lu, is the last general's strength too small? Is it too thin to pinch the two wings of a dog with only four thousand troops?"

"Since ancient times, soldiers have been more expensive than elites, and four thousand infantry ambushing a dog is more than enough." Fatty Lu said with a smile: "Besides, General Han, don't you call yourself a little Huaiyin who is both civil and military? Why are you starting to look like those who just went to the battlefield?" I’m a novice, so I only care about the number of troops? If I’m really not confident, I can change people.”

"Who said I have no confidence?" Han Daren snorted coldly, and strode forward to take the command arrow from Fatty Lu with a very bad attitude.Fortunately, Fatty Lu didn't care about it, he just waved his hand and said: "Okay, let's break up the tents, and the rest of the generals just camp and rest in peace, and get enough energy to wait for the future battle."

The generals agreed, and most of them went away. Han Daren, Quan Jie, Gao Hongchen and other Wu army generals who received errands also hurried down to make preparations for the battle. Only Gao Dejie and Hu Tongchun did not leave, and Hu Tongchun stayed of course. It was complaining that Fatty Lu didn't give him an errand, and he didn't leave until Fatty Lu comforted him again and again.Gao Dejie was worried and said to Fatty Lu: "Brother Lu, don't blame me for being talkative and slandering others behind the back. You have also seen Han Daren's attitude towards you and me. You still hand over such an important job to me. Give it to him, if he deliberately messes up or deliberately delays the fighter plane, then we will be in trouble."

"Brother Dajie, please don't worry about this." Fatty Lu said in a deep voice: "Han Daren is dissatisfied with you and me, but his dissatisfaction is that the prince reused me, did not reuse him, and did not give him a chance to perform meritorious service, but his loyalty to the prince There are still some, and the competitive spirit is a hundred times better than ordinary people, so this time he is sent to fight, in order to show off, and to compare you and me, he will only put in more effort to fight to the death, and will not intentionally make mistakes."

"Is this really the case?" Gao Dejie was a little worried, and said in a low voice: "Brother Lu, if I rely on the old to sell the old, I have seen too many such facts. People are so far away, Han Daren is not authentic. , we must prevent him from intentionally plotting against you, deliberately making you lose so that he can replace you."

"Brother Gao's kindness, my younger brother appreciates it." Fatty Lu said with a smile: "But I still believe that with Han Daren's loyalty to the prince, he should not do such a thing—otherwise, the prince would not have put him down." Sent here to watch over you and me for the prince."

After all, considering Gao Dejie's face, Fatty Lu ordered again: "Brother Gao, but you have to guard against your worries. Well, you should also prepare for battle tonight. If the situation is unfavorable, You attack immediately to meet our army." Gao Dejie nodded in agreement, and then left.

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Forgotten note in the previous chapter: There are two versions of the death of General Gao Dejie of the Wu Army. One is that Han Daren made a false accusation to Hu Guozhu, saying that Gao Dejie invaded and occupied the silver hidden in the home of Sele, a general of the Qing Army, and failed to hand it over as usual. Gao Dejie, causing Gao Dejie to die of illness in anger.Another theory is that Han Yuanren, Han Daren's younger brother, made a false accusation against Hu Guozhu, spreading rumors that Gao Dejie deliberately let Yue Le go during the Luozishan battle, and did not save Han Daren, causing the Wu army to be wiped out in Jiujiang. Gao Dejie died of anger.In view of this, this book assumes that the relationship between Gao Dejie and Han Daren is at odds.

(End of this chapter)