scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 272 The Battle of Jiujiang
The drums sounded, and under the city of Jiujiang, which was reflected in the morning sun, thousands of generals and soldiers of the Wu army wore white felt hats that were different from those of the Qing army. Attacking against the towering city walls of Jiujiang, the attacking queue was as turbulent as white sea waves, endlessly, and the shocking shouts and footsteps made the hard ground tremble slightly.

Just as Han Daren muttered behind his back, Fatty Lu is indeed an incompetent character with a strong outside but capable in the middle. In terms of offensive strategy on the northern Jiangxi battlefield, Fatty Lu chose to go straight to the middle palace in an extremely arrogant manner, and he insisted that Jiangxi, which is mutually horned with Jiujiang, The northern cities of Nanchang and Anqing did not dare to send reinforcements, at least they did not dare to send reinforcements immediately. They were so daring that even Wu Jun himself was frightened.

But when it comes to tactical layout, Fatty Lu is as timid as a frightened rabbit. On the premise that the morale of the defenders has been severely damaged one after another, he still chooses an extremely conservative siege tactic, first bombarding Jiujiang with superior artillery The fortifications of the city wall further reduced the morale and fighting spirit of the defenders; and then dispatched a convoy of archers, archers, and musketeers forward. Arrow-proof and bullet-proof chariots formed movable fortresses under the city wall, where archers and musketeers hid Shooting arrows from the back of the car suppressed the bows and muskets of the defenders on the city; finally, the infantry team was sent to charge towards the city wall.

"Da Zhou! Da Zhou! Da Zhou! Da Zhou!" Han Daren has a bad temper, but he does have his own way of training the army. The [-] siege infantry led by him first went to the west gate of Jiujiang and the south. Two thousand troops were invested in each of the two battlefields, shouting neat slogans rhythmically, pushing ladder carts, iron-wrapped carts, and cloud platform carts, carrying flying ladders and sacks and sandbags, first trotting forward, then gradually speeding up, and finally Charged up, the tide generally rushed to the city wall of Jiujiang.Han Daren's younger brother Han Yuanren personally led the supervising team to keep up with the axe, shouting murderously, "Whoever takes a step back, cut! Whoever takes a step back, cut!"

"Cannons! Cannons! Cannons, let's fire!" Seeing that the Wu army's siege team had rushed to the vicinity, but the artillery on the city wall hadn't fired yet, Master Beizi Zhangtai was so anxious that he almost cried, and kept yelling to urge the cannons to fire, " Where are the gunners? All our gunners are dead? Why haven't we fired yet?"

"I want to report to Bei Zi, Wu Dog bombarded our army's city wall just now, and our fort has been almost blown up!" Itanbu, Zhang Tai Bei Zi's only confidant in the Jiujiang garrison, replied helplessly: "Even if Wu Gou is not Most of the cannons blown up by the dogs were also shaken away from the emplacements, and they couldn’t fire without being on emplacements.”

"Then why don't you move the cannon back to the gun position immediately?" Master Zhangtai Beizi shouted with red eyes.

"Master Bei, you didn't issue such an order." Itanbu replied even more helplessly: "After Wu Gou stopped shelling, you didn't order to quickly rearrange the artillery array. The soldiers thought that there was no need to fire, so they didn't prepare .”

"Fuck!" Beizi Zhangtai's nose almost turned out of anger, and he almost wanted to order to cut off all those damn artillerymen, but considering the big enemy now, Beizi Zhangtai tried his best to swallow his breath back, With red eyes, he shouted: "Send someone to pass the order, quickly put the artillery back on the gun position, aim at Wu Gou's siege team, and fire hard!"

Master Zhangtai Beizi’s recovery was obviously a bit late. Without the destruction and interference of the artillery on the city, the infantry of the Wu army had already rushed within the bow and arrow range of the Jiujiang city wall. The Qing army defenders had already fired arrows, and the Wu army infantry began to gradually fall under the cover of locust-like arrowhead projectiles.However, the well-trained infantry of the Wu army kept charging, shouting desperately forward, or throwing sacks of sandbags into the moat, or putting flying ladders on the moat to form a simple bridge across the river. The cloud platform, the ladder car and the iron-wrapped car took the opportunity to keep up.

"Dong dong dong dong!" Amidst the increasingly violent beating of war drums, hundreds of people carried the ladders to the top of Jiujiang City first, and then the large ladder cars also climbed to the city walls. Wu Jun soldiers shouted and climbed the ladders On the top of the city wall, climbing towards the city wall, the huge stones and logs rolled down like rain on the city wall, smashing Wu soldiers one by one down the ladder, and at the same time hundreds of rockets flew out, all aimed at defending the city. Wu Jun's ladder car and cloud platform car that hurt the army the most - this is definitely not an instruction from our Zhangtai Beizi master, it is completely the instinctive reaction of the Jiujiang Qing army trained by Dong Weiguo himself.

At this time, Wu Jun's first drum 330 hammer had been beaten, and the first drum handed over by Fatty Lu to Han Daren was basically completed, and Wu Jun's siege infantry successfully attached the city; Han Daren, who had no way out, had no other choice. He immediately sent another [-] infantry to the East Gate of Jiujiang, which was most severely destroyed by the Wu army's artillery. Contain and distract the defenders' strength and attention.

The order was conveyed, and the second wave of siege troops rushed forward, but the Qing army artillery on the Jiujiang city wall finally began to show its power, pouring shells into the Wu army siege team, splashing wave after wave of terrifying flesh and blood.In the first wave of the Wu Army's siege team, some people finally climbed the city wall and started a bloody battle with the city wall defenders. Although the first few Wu Army soldiers who attacked the city wall first were outnumbered, the follow-up Wu Army infantry continued to move towards the city. Climbing and charging at the head of Jiujiang City, the dense crowd almost completely covered the city wall of the East Gate.

"Kill Wu Dog!"

"Kill all the dogs!"

The thunderous shouts of killing and the roar of artillery echoed each other at the top of the city, completely covering all other sounds. Qing soldiers and Wu soldiers slashed at each other like wild beasts on the city wall, or separated by arrow stacks. Slashing and stabbing desperately, or fighting each other with knives and guns on the top of the city wall, entangled and scuffling desperately, using knives, spears, stones, fists and teeth to wound each other desperately, falling down the city wall together while tumbling and crawling. .In the sky, arrows and arrows flew back and forth like locusts. Countless soldiers from both sides fell down from the arrows and guns. The moat was dyed red.

Seeing such a cruel scene, our master Zhangtai Beizi, who is familiar with military books and has a deep understanding of strategy, has already had weak legs, hiding in the protection of many personal soldiers and trembling like a lonely leaf in the autumn wind. I don't know where my ambitions have been thrown for a long time. I was so nervous that I completely forgot to command and defend the city, and I relied entirely on the ordinary soldiers and generals of the Qing army to fight on their own.

Fortunately, Dong Weiguo left a very good foundation for Zhangtai Beizi. Even without Zhangtai Beizi's superfluous command, the well-trained Qing soldiers still firmly blocked the Wu army's offensive on the city wall by virtue of their condescending advantage. One after another, the soldiers of the Wu army who climbed the city drove down the city wall, and ignited a large number of Wu army's siege equipment with rockets, kerosene and tens of thousands of enemies, causing fires to break out under the city wall. .

The first wave of siege troops encountered such fierce resistance, which was expected by Fatty Lu and Han Daren. After all, Jiujiang City is one of the three major towns in northern Jiangxi where the Qing army resisted the eastward advance of the Wu army. A wave of sieges can't be stopped, that's too outrageous.Therefore, Fatty Lu did not respond to this, but coldly ordered more scouts to closely monitor Dong Weiguo's defeated soldiers who broke out from the city of Jiujiang to the east before, and keep in touch with Gao Hongchen's cavalry at any time, so as not to let Dong Weiguo successfully break through to Nanchang Wu Jun's future Nanchang campaign will cause trouble.Han Daren sent orders with red eyes, asking his younger brother Han Yuanren to strictly supervise the battle, and never let half of the timid deserters go.

The drums beat faster and faster, and the second wave of siege teams finally rushed to the foot of the city wall, stepping on the corpses of the enemy and their companions to charge towards the city wall. The moat at the west gate of the main battlefield has also been filled by the Wu army. Leaning against the city wall, the iron-clad cart with the soldiers hiding the city also leaned against the city wall, opened the door and dug the city wall frantically.Zhao Dengju and Zhang Sheguang of the Qing army, who knew well the explosives of the Wu army, were extremely anxious. While ordering to pour kerosene on tens of thousands of enemies to burn the Wu army's iron carts, they rushed to Zhangtai to ask for orders, and suggested that Zhangtai send an army from the east gate. Go out of the city, turn around and copy the back of the Wu army's siege army, and reduce the pressure on the defending army.

Both Zhao Dengju and Zhang Sheguang's suggestions are very correct, and the Jiujiang Qing Army with nearly [-] defenders also has enough troops to launch this operation, but we can't stand the cowardice of Zhangtai Beizi, who is familiar with military books and has a deep understanding of strategy. As soon as he heard that he was going to send troops out of the city, he immediately shook his head like a rattle, and said repeatedly: "No, no, you must not go out of the city! Let alone Wu Gou's strong field battles, he opened the city gate, in case Wu Gou took the opportunity to snatch the door what to do?"

"Master Bei, don't be afraid!" Zhao Dengju comforted: "Wu Gou is using the tactic of encircling three and missing one. There is no army deployed at the east gate. It is very safe for our army to leave the city. In this situation, we only need to send a cavalry Go out of the city to fight to the death and attack the back or flank of Wugou's infantry, and Wugou's siege army must retreat. Blocking Wugou's first attack on the city and frustrating Wugou's spirit, the future defense of the city will be easier to fight too much."

"If I say no, I won't do it." Zhangtai Beizi shook his head resolutely, and insisted: "Wugou has more soldiers and we have few soldiers. We can only stick to it and not go out. If the army going out of the city is surrounded by Wugou, should we save it or not? Just hold the city wall That's fine, as long as you keep the city wall."

"If you don't fight back Wu Gou quickly, the city wall will be impossible to defend!" Zhang Sheguang roared unbearably, "Wu Gou attacked so fiercely, and the firearms are so sharp, if they are allowed to climb the city wall, Jiujiang will be finished! Moreover, there is only a small space on the city wall, and our troops cannot be fully deployed. No matter how many troops there are in the city, isn’t it a waste?!”

Beizi Zhangtai was a little moved, but when he recalled the fierce and brutal offensive of the Wu army in the open field during the Ruichang War, Beizi Zhangtai became timid again, and suddenly had an idea: "I have a plan! I have a plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao. Our sailors are guarding the water gate pier in the north. Instead of letting them waste there, it is better to let them fight Wugou's sailors. Our sailors are better than Wugou's sailors, and also better than Wugou's. There are a lot of navy and warships, as long as they defeat Wu Gou's navy, Wu Gou will have to retreat!"

Generals Zhao Dengju and Zhang Sheguang almost vomited blood, but Master Zhangtai waved his hand indiscriminately, and shouted: "That's it, Yitanbu, send someone to General Yang Jie immediately! General Zhang, General Zhao, hurry back Go to your respective posts, Wu Gou's offensive is fierce, and we can't do without your impromptu command!"

After all, Beizi Zhangtai led his soldiers to the relatively safe tower and retreated. He didn't give General Zhang Zhao a chance to speak again. General Zhang Zhao had no choice but to curse the eighteenth generation of Beizi Zhangtai's ancestors secretly. , while rushing back to their respective positions to command the defense.Yitanbu, the confidant of Zhangtai Beizi, quickly sent someone to send an order to Yang Jie to let Yang Jie's navy take the initiative to attack Li Guodong's department of Wu Jun's navy who was in the upper reaches.

The order is good, but the errands are difficult. After listening to Zhangtai Beizi's Pegasus order, Yang Jie, the navy commander of the Qing army who was leading the navy to guard the water gate on the Jiujiang North Gate Wharf, almost vomited blood and roared on the spot, "Beizi! Master, do you know how to fight? The navy of our army is in the lower reaches, headed against the wind and the current. If you take the initiative to attack, you must defeat the Wugou navy? I can't fight this battle, so I ask him to fight it himself!"

After all, Zhangtai is Yang Jie's immediate boss and the General Dingyuan Jingkou personally appointed by Kang Mazi. Yang Jie, who was loyal to the Qing court, did not dare not listen to his words, so he could only bite the bullet He ordered the whole army to sail out of the port, and secretly recruited the general Ye Ming, and whispered in his ear: "Take two warships and some small boats, and go into Poyang Lake under the pretext of patrolling, and look for Dong Weiguo on the west coast of Poyang Lake. Governor Dong, I predict that Wu Gou will definitely send troops to hunt him down, and if his situation is not good, he will be picked up on board and help him escape."

"The humble official takes orders." Ye Ming agreed with understanding, and then asked in a low voice: "Junmen, if the humble official accepts the governor to board the ship, where should he be sent? Nanchang, or Anqing?"

Yang Jie hesitated for a moment, and then ordered in a low voice: "We can't send him to Nanchang. Now he is still charged with collaborating with the enemy and traitorous country. If he is sent to Nanchang, which is under his control, it doesn't matter whether he can prove his innocence afterwards." , the gang of gentlemen in the imperial court are going to investigate, you and I can’t escape the responsibility. We can only send him to Anqing and hand him over to General Hilgen, so that we can have meritorious deeds, understand?”

"Understanding." Ye Ming suddenly came to his senses, and said in a low voice: "It's better that the military sect thought carefully. We saved the governor's life, and we are already very worthy of him. There is no need to cause trouble for him." Yang Jie nodded , That's why Ye Ming led the boat to leave, and he personally led the fleet to go upriver with difficulty, and went upstream to find Wu Jun's navy Li Guodong for a decisive battle.

………………

At the same time, on the Jiujiang battlefield, the second drum of the Wu army had already been beaten, and the third drum was about to be struck, but the siege infantry unit commanded by Han Daren was still unable to gain a firm foothold on the city wall, and was always beaten by Jiujiang. The defenders blocked the city of Jiujiang.Seeing that Fatty Lu's plan to avenge his personal revenge was about to succeed, Han Daren was unavoidably anxious. He grabbed two messengers and shouted with red glasses, "Go and tell Li Maozhuo and Chen Raoyuan that after the three-way drum has been beaten, the first two waves of attack they led City infantry, if you still can't climb the city wall! No need for the general to beat the fourth drum, I will kill them first, and then personally lead the army to attack the city!"

The messengers rushed up and conveyed Han Daren's death order to Li Maozhu and Chen Raoyuan, two of Han Daren's direct generals. The two hapless fellows cried out bitterly together, cursing Han Daren that he was an idiot for insisting on marrying Fatty Lu. Bet, and in the end they lost and took us out, but they had no choice but to dare not disobey their orders.In desperation, the two unlucky guys had no choice but to go into battle in person, rushing to the front line and roaring like thunder, "Brothers! The third drum is beating! If we can't attack the city wall, we will be killed. Instead of going back If you die at the hands of your own people, why don't you all go up and fight Mangou! Even if you die, you can get some pensions for your wife and children! Kill, Da Zhou!"

"Brothers, look at the back. General Han Yuanren has already killed more than [-] deserters with his own hands! If you don't want to die at the hands of your own people, you can fight with me! Fight with the dog!"

"Da Zhou!" Shouting, Li Maozhu and Chen Raoyuan each grabbed a ladder, climbed up the ladder with red eyes, and led the army to charge in person.Infected by these generals, the remaining soldiers of the Wu army also roared like thunder, fighting bravely again, with ferocious forces, and marched forward without hesitation.

"Da Zhou!" Li Mao was the first to rush up to the city wall, facing the five or six spears stabbed by the soldiers of the Qing army, Li Mao dodged and hugged these spears with open arms, frantically Roaring and waving, while the adrenaline was crazily secreted, five or six Qing soldiers were shaken by Li Mao, unable to stand steadily.The soldiers of the Wu army behind took the opportunity to pounce on them with red eyes, chopping up the few Qing soldiers with knives and axes, and joined hands with Li Mao to control a small space for climbing the city.

"Even if I die, I have to pull my back!" Chen Raoyuan was unlucky. He was cut on his left shoulder by a steel knife as soon as he rushed up the city wall, and his left arm was almost cut off. With a temper, he would not dodge or dodge the other steel knives and spears that were slashing and stabbing. He swung his right arm wildly and killed the Qing soldier in front of him. With the knife up and down, he chopped down the two stunned Qing soldiers twice in succession, with blood spurting wildly from his mouth, but he was still laughing, "Come on, come on, kill one back, kill two and earn one!" , Man dogs, come on!"

Seeing Chen Raoyuan's lower abdomen pierced by two spears but still killing fiercely, all the soldiers of the Qing army around were scared out of their wits.Seeing Chen Raoyuan spitting blood and turning his gaze to himself, a soldier of the Qing army was so frightened that he cried out on the spot, threw down his weapon and ran away, and the rest of the soldiers of the Qing army were all so frightened that their hands and feet were so weak, they were rushed up from behind Chen Raoyuan The soldiers of the Wu army on the city wall chopped down one after another, while Chen Raoyuan, whose left arm was dangling on his chest, laughed and staggered towards the other soldiers of the Qing army, "Brothers, go! If you enter Jiujiang City, all the beauties in the city will be killed." It's ours!"

Encouraged by these two dutiful generals of the Wu army, the morale of the already exhausted soldiers of the Wu army was boosted again. There are more and more black banners erected on the city walls.Seeing this scene, the Qing army naturally began to shake and tremble, while Han Daren in the distance was ecstatic, jumped up impatiently, raised his knife and shouted at the last siege reserve team in his hand, "Brothers! We are here! The general has an order to take down the city wall of Jiujiang, and everyone will be rewarded with three taels of silver! Kill, the opportunity to make a fortune has come!"

"Kill!" Raising his sword and yelling, Han Daren personally led the third wave of siege troops to charge towards the crumbling West Gate of Jiujiang. Seeing that the Wu army soldiers who were hopeful of breaking the city were all brave and eager to be the first, they roared and ran faster than each other. Soon, the tide rushed towards the city wall of Jiujiang, and the offensive was extremely fierce.

"Han Daren has hope." Seeing this scene through the binoculars, Fatty Lu smiled, turned to Xiao Erlang next to him and said, "Erlang, let Xiaoyong put those things away, we don't need them in this Jiujiang war." Tighten it up, don't expose it, save it for the next attack."

Xiao Erlang agreed, and hurried down to deliver the order. The generals of the Wu army looked at each other in blank dismay. Among them, Gao Dejie, who had already finished cleaning the official badge battlefield and came to watch the battle, asked curiously, "Brother Lu, what are you talking about?"

"A new siege weapon I designed." Fatty Lu replied casually: "I originally wanted to use Han Daren at the last moment, but Han Daren is still a good fighter, and he is expected to break the city. No more."

"A newly designed siege weapon? Then why don't you use it?" Gao Dejie asked in surprise: "If it works, our army can also avoid excessive casualties?"

"Wrong, my newly designed siege weapon is effective, but it will only cause greater casualties to our army, not smaller." Fatty Lu replied with a smile: "So, before the critical moment, you must not use it casually. .”

"What kind of new weapon is that?" Gao Dejie asked more curiously.

"Temporary confidentiality." Fatty Lu said with a smile: "In short, the dangerous weapon that must not be used indiscriminately until the last moment, you will definitely have the opportunity to see it in the future."

"By the way, I specially designed this weapon for Han Daren." Fatty Lu added with a sinister smile, "In the future, whoever learns from Han Daren and interferes with my tactical arrangement by pretending to understand, I will let whoever uses it first , understand?"

Seeing Fatty Lu's sinister smile and triumphant expression, all Wu Jun generals, including Gao Dejie, shivered, and murmured together in their hearts: "This weapon must be very dangerous, please don't let me use it."

While speaking, there was a huge commotion from the direction of the city wall, and thousands of generals of the Wu army began to cheer. It turned out that the third wave of siege troops led by Han Daren had already rushed to the west gate of Jiujiang with only one charge. Not only did Han Daren's General Yang Wei's flag be planted on the Jiujiang City Wall, Zhangtai's Mangou Dingyuan General Jingkou's flag has also disappeared from the tower.Seeing such a scene, even Fatty Lu was extremely surprised, and said in amazement: "Han Daren charged so hard, and cut down the handsome flag full of dogs so quickly?"

"No, Man Gou took it down by himself." Li Tianzhi saw the previous situation with sharp eyes, and introduced: "After Man Gou took down the handsome flag, he retreated to the city."

"Fuck! Han Daren's luck is so damn good! He ran into such a cowardly and useless man dog!" Fatty Lu cursed, then immediately turned to the generals next to him and said: "Every army is ready, Manchu The dog is likely to abandon the city to break through the siege, and we must be prepared to intercept and chase. Hutongchun, Quanjie, you two, each lead [-] infantry, help Han Daren fight in the street, and drive Mangou out of Jiujiang City as soon as possible !"

(End of this chapter)