scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 313

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In the first year of the puppet Zhou Dynasty, in the 13th year of Kangmazi in the Qing Dynasty, on October [-]th, the Wu rebel army falsely conquered the Eastern General Lu Yifeng, and personally led [-] Wu rebel troops towards the important town in northern Zhejiang controlled by the Qing soldiers. Huzhou Fucheng launched a full-scale attack, and our Qing soldiers guarded the city. General Pingnan Laita came to the front line to supervise the formation, urging the Qing soldiers to fight bravely, shed their blood, and bravely resist the shameless attack of Wu's rebel army!
The above are all empty words. The specific situation of the battle is like this. Fatty Lu, who has always been careful and careful, has never thought about the old methods of using ladders to attack the city and the Qing army’s consumption on the city wall. Instead, he learned about Huzhou from the surrounding Huzhou people. After the city wall was constructed with bricks and rammed earth, the southwest section of Huzhou, which had been in disrepair for a long time, was chosen as the breakthrough point. More than [-] light and heavy artillery were lined up, and the concentrated firepower was used to violently bombard the city wall with solid shells. The hard city bricks were completely smashed, and then they were replaced with blooming shells containing three good explosives, and concentrated firepower to blast the rammed earth inside the city wall.

As for the army, they were arranged by Fatty Lu outside the south gate and west gate of Huzhou, leaving the north and east gates for the Qing army to escape. He also sent Gao Hongchen to lead the fat man's cavalry to ambush on the only way from Huzhou to Jiaxing. Breakout to the east.

Facts have proved that the new siege tactics that Fatty Lu tried are indeed effective in dealing with Huzhou's brick-and-rammed-earth city walls. Easily crush three or four city bricks, and the second shot hits this position, and these few city bricks can be completely blasted into pieces, revealing the hidden rammed earth behind them.With more than 200 artillery pieces aiming at one position as much as possible and bombarding them, seven or eight rounds of volleys were fired, and the bricks of the city wall about 30 meters wide were blasted into a state of sand and stone, blasting a huge deep hole on the city wall. pit.

Seeing that the time had come, Fatty Lu, who personally directed the artillery battle, decisively ordered to replace it with blooming shells, and continued to attack the city with heavy artillery.As a result, the few lackeys of Fatty Lu next to him were puzzled, and they asked Fatty Lu one after another: "General, didn't our officers agree to open the city gate to welcome us into the city? Why are we so wasteful?" Siege with precious ammunition? This is your usual style, General."

"This is a rare opportunity. I have to try how effective this tactic is against the city wall." Fatty Lu replied bluntly: "We may use it when we attack Beijing in the future. The Beijing city wall also has the same structure. Rammed earth."

"The Beijing city wall also has such a structure?" Wang Shaobo was a little surprised, and quickly asked: "When you were in Beijing, Master, did you dig up the Beijing city wall?"

"No, a guy named Liang Sicheng told me." Fatty Lu replied casually again.

"Liang Sicheng? What kind of official is he in Beijing? Could it be that he is also your boss?" Wang Shaobo asked pleasantly.Fatty Lu rolled his eyes when he heard this, and thought that even if Liang Qichao's son wanted to be my internal assistant, he would not be born until at least a few hundred years later.

At this time, Fatty Lu's eldest cousin, Qin Yong, had already commanded the Fatty Army's artillery team to replace all of them with blooming shells, and concentrated their firepower to continue bombarding the Huzhou City Wall. Amidst the sound of rumbling explosions, the Huzhou City Wall continued to glow, sand and gravel were flying, and the top was crumbling. The guards of the Qing army who were so frightened that they could only fight back after being beaten on the city wall screamed and ran away from their posts. Occasionally, a few shells that were not adjusted to the height flew over the city wall and flew into the city, blowing up the residents in the city. Not to mention, Fatty Lu's scolding was unavoidable, accusing Fatty Army gunners of being prodigal and wasting ammunition.

Under the bombardment of such fierce fat army artillery fire, the Qing army's previous determination to defend the city had long since flew out of the sky. Before they met opponents such as Geng Jingzhong and Zheng Jing, all the artillery combined was not as strong as the fat army This attack used a lot of artillery, coupled with the terrifying power of the fat man's shells loaded with three good explosives, the Qing army defending the city was even more desperate to give up any hope.So much so that even senior generals of the Qing army like Xifu, the vice capital commander, ran to the Qing army coach Laita and screamed in despair: "General, Wu Gou's artillery is too powerful! If you keep bombing like this, don't say If you stick to it for a long time, whether you can survive today is probably a big question!"

Laita glared at the panic-stricken Xifu, and shouted: "Stand up straight, what are you talking about? Don't forget that you are the deputy capital commander with a white flag. What if you say such a thing and shake the morale of the army?"

Cursing and cursing, Laita inevitably began to regret in his heart. He regretted not listening to Yao Qisheng's earnest words, giving up Huzhou and retreating to Hangzhou. Repair and reinforcement, the ability to resist artillery is far above the Huzhou city wall, and it is entirely hopeful that it can compete with Fatty Lu's artillery for a long time, which is far better than holding on to the Huzhou city whose city wall has been in disrepair for a long time.But now the regret is obviously over, the only thing Laita can count on now is that the fat army's ammunition will run out as soon as possible.

"My lord, there is a change at the south gate!" Fatty's army did not show signs of running out of ammunition, but new bad news came first, and the watchman on the tower shouted, "Someone lowered the south gate suspension bridge!"

"Bold, who put down the suspension bridge without authorization?!" Laita was furious, and hurriedly shouted at Xifu: "Take someone to check immediately, and those who release the bridge without permission will be killed without mercy!"

"Da Zhou—!" Before Laita's words fell, thunderous cheers erupted from the Fat Army outside the south gate of Huzhou City, and immediately after that, groups of Fat Army infantry rushed towards the city like a tide. Huzhou South Gate launched a charge.Seeing this scene, even though he couldn't see the gate of the South City clearly from a distance, Laita suddenly came to his senses, and screamed with a pale face, "Is there a traitor in the city? Open the South Gate?!"

"Boom!" Just at this time, a new loud noise came. After the southwestern city wall of Huzhou, where the Fatty Army was concentrated, was bombed and riddled with holes, it finally couldn't resist the huge power of Sanhao explosives and the lure of gravity. It collapsed for a while, and the soldiers of the Qing army who hadn't evacuated at the top screamed and fell into the dust, and were buried alive by broken bricks and stones.

Seeing this scene, the already frightened defenders of the Qing army completely collapsed. Countless soldiers threw down their weapons and turned around and ran away.Only Fatty Lu remained calm, just waved his hand lightly, and issued three orders in a row: "Stop shelling! Beat the drums for a general attack, enter the city and fight Mangou alleys, pay attention to protecting the granary, and allow Mangou to surrender! Order Xiaoyong to count immediately Ammunition consumption, the more detailed the figures, the better."

Amidst the sound of war drums and earth-shattering shouts, two teams of Wang Xu and Hu Tongchun charged towards the west and south gates of Huzhou at the same time. Charge towards the gap in the city wall that was bombarded by the Fat Man's artillery.The defenders of the Qing army on the city wall were in complete chaos. They either fired guns and arrows to stop them, or ran away. There were also countless Qing soldiers holding their heads and crying and running. Although the generals of the Qing army, such as Ta and Xifu, could not restrain the troops by yelling, they still had no effect.

At three o'clock at three o'clock, Wang Xu's troops of the Fat Man Army took the lead in attacking the south gate of Huzhou, joined forces with Wu Qi and Chen Daorun's troops of the rebel army in the city, and began to launch a counterattack against the Qing army at the south gate. Resisting, but the disparity in weapons and troops was too great. After Zhao Deshou was killed by the grenade of the fat man, the remaining soldiers of the Qing army scattered like birds and beasts, or fled or surrendered. Under the persuasion of the traitor Wu Qi, he formed an organization and surrendered. The fat man army took the lead in capturing the South Gate, and the follow-up troops entered the city in an endless stream.

At noon, Han Daren invaded the southwest corner of Huzhou, killed the Qing army to rescue the soldiers, and quickly launched an attack on Ximen.At the same time, Hu Tongchun's team also launched a strong attack on the west gate of Huzhou, the main position. Laita personally led the army to resist, but Han Daren's team had already attacked from behind. Laita had no choice but to adopt Xifu's suggestion and abandon the west gate to the north Breaking through, at [-]:[-] noon, Hutongchun attacked the west gate, and the Qing army defenders at the north gate and east gate of Huzhou saw that the situation was over, opened the city gates and fled for their lives. It was only a matter of time before Huzhou fell into the hands of the fat man's army.

The good news came one after another, but Fatty Lu ignored it at all, and left the command to his subordinates. He kept his head down and studied the ammunition consumption calculated by Qin Yong. However, to Fatty Lu's disappointment, in just one In the artillery battle in the morning, the Fatty Army spent nearly 2000 catties of propellant and more than 20 artillery shells, and the Huzhou City Wall, which was less than 20 meters away, was still in disrepair for more than 300 years without war.With such a cost-effective ratio, if it is used to attack the [-]-year-old Beijing city, it will undoubtedly be a nightmare for the logistics of the Fatty Army-Fatty Lu clearly remembers what Liang Sicheng said, the rammed earth surrounded by the city wall of Beijing was added. Special condiments have been turned into concrete for hundreds of years.

"Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Jinan, Dezhou, Daming Mansion, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Beijing..." After roughly calculating the famous cities that will be encountered when launching the Northern Expedition, Fatty Lu reluctantly threw Qin Yong's ammunition consumption list away When he got to the side, he beat Erlang's legs under the handsome flag and sulked.

Let me explain the reason for Fatty Lu’s sulking here. Fatty Lu judged from various signs that the terminally ill old traitor Wu is likely to die soon. It was bound to take a long time, and with the disturbance of Kang Mazi and the Qing army, the time required by Fatty Lu was even more difficult to count.As the saying goes, nights are long and dreams are many, and as time goes on, in case something unexpected happens, for example, something goes wrong with Fatty Lu himself, or after Wu Sangui dies, some general of the Wu army will surrender to Mangou and bring new firearms to the court of Mangou, Whether this San Francisco rebellion will repeat the mistakes of history, no one can tell.

When Fatty Lu was thinking about it, Yao Qisheng, who had just surrendered to Fatty's army last night, suddenly asked for an audience, and Fatty Lu agreed without thinking.A moment later, Yao Qisheng was led under Fatty Lu's banner, and he saluted Fatty Lu with a smile on his face and said: "Congratulations to the general, congratulations to the general, it took less than half a day to break through an important fortified city. Rare."

"Mr. Yao won the award. It all depends on Mr. Yao delivering the letter. The prefect of Wu opened the city, otherwise it would have been so fast." Fatty Lu smiled and greeted: "Mr. Yao, please sit down. Where is Mr. Ling? He intends to ask for a position, although Open your mouth, and I will try my best to arrange it."

"Thank you, General, but I would like to thank you for your kindness. It is best for the puppy to start as a soldier and have more experience, so that he can serve the General." Yao Qisheng thanked him, pointing to the gap in the city wall blasted by the Fatty Army in the distance and said with a smile : "And the general is too modest. Even if Yao Qisheng didn't send the letter, and Wu Zhifu opened the city, wouldn't it be easy for the general to break through Huzhou? The general's firearms are so sharp that the world's strong city is equivalent to nothing in front of the general."

"That's so easy?" Fatty Lu smiled wryly, pointed to the ammunition consumption list calculated by Qin Yong, and said with a wry smile, "Look, how much ammunition did our army consume in order to blow out this gap?"

Yao Qisheng was also polite and avoided suspicion, so he picked up the list and looked at it carefully, but after only one glance, Yao Qisheng couldn't help but screamed, "So many?! Gunpowder nine thousand one hundred and sixty eight catty nine taels! Solid shells one thousand 160 nine shells, 680 six shells!"

"That's right, it takes so much ammunition to fight the city of Huzhou. I can't even imagine how much it would cost to fight the city of Beijing and the cities along the way." Fatty Lu lamented.

"Attack the city of Beijing and the cities along the way?" Yao Qisheng raised his eyebrows, and he had heard Fatty Lu's overtones. He couldn't help but asked tentatively, "General, do you have the intention of launching the Northern Expedition in the near future?"

"Not in a short time, but it is possible within a year or two." Fatty Lu did not hide anything, and said frankly: "The soldiers in the south are weak, the soldiers in the north are brave, and the south of the Yangtze River is rich. Once these old brothers I brought from Yunnan and Guizhou are softened by money, , being absorbed by a beautiful woman, the consequences will be unimaginable. So I want to take advantage of the chance that my strength is still there, to launch the Northern Expedition as soon as possible, and take advantage of Man Gou's current vital energy to go straight to the capital, kill Kangxi Xiaomazi, and let Man Gou fall apart , Only in this way can we have a chance to unify the world. Otherwise, once Mangou recovers, other anti-Qing rebels have accidents, and it will be difficult for me to settle down."

Yao Qisheng nodded again and again, agreeing with Fatty Lu's point of view. Since ancient times, the confrontation between the north and the south has basically been the north's victory. A very important reason is that the southern army is weak and the northern army is strong. The reason why the fat man's army can form an overwhelming advantage over the Qing army in Zhejiang The main reason is that the fat army is based on the northern soldiers brought to the southwest by the old traitor Wu as the skeleton. In addition, the people in the poor and impoverished areas of the southwest are tough, and the main flesh and blood southwestern soldiers on the skeleton are not weak in combat effectiveness. The Qing army in Zhejiang, which was spoiled and pampered, was abused. If this army is also weakened by the soft words of the fragrant and soft words of the rich Jiangnan, then the future of the fat army is really unimaginable.

"This guy has a sense of urgency, and he is an enterprising hero in troubled times." Yao Qisheng nodded secretly, and then said with a smile: "Don't blame the general. In fact, the students think that the general seems to be on the edge of his horn this time."

"Why am I so stupid?" Fatty Lu asked in a daze.

"The general's idea of ​​capturing the thief and the king first, and wanting to kill the Emperor Mangou, and splitting the Mangou everywhere is really good." Yao Qisheng said with a smile: "It's just why the general only wants to send his troops to the Northern Expedition? Why don't you think about it, what's the matter?" The way is to let Emperor Mangou personally send his troops to the south and take the initiative to send them to his door to die?"

"You mean, let the Emperor Mangou personally lead the conquest? Is this possible?" Fatty Lu blinked his mung bean eyes and calculated.Fatty Lu knows better than anyone how much military talent Kang Mazi, who was extolled into the sky by the mites, has, he concentrated the power of the whole country to fight against a tribe of Galdan. On the belly—if such a military idiot really came to conquer Fatty Lu himself, Fatty Lu would be able to wake up laughing even from a dream.

"It's possible!" Yao Qisheng said surprisingly, and said with a smile: "I said that the general might not believe it. In fact, Emperor Mangou had wanted to conquer the general himself, and not only once, but the previous few times he was strongly opposed by the officials. The last time, it didn’t take place because we couldn’t afford the army and food.”

"Mr. Yao, how did you know about such a thing?" Fatty Lu asked in surprise.

"Don't blame the general." Yao Qisheng smiled and said: "The student's younger sister, Yao Qisang, is the official wife of Emperor Mangou's favorite minister Wuyingdian University, Huang Xigun, the servant of the Ministry of War! My brother-in-law has been in charge of military affairs at Mangou University since the ninth year of Kangxi. After the death of Wang Xu, he also directly served as Minister of the Ministry of War. Although the student disdained to use nepotism to get promoted, he kept in correspondence with Huang Xigun. Because the student was at the forefront of confrontation with the general, he wrote in the letter I have mentioned these things before, let me provide some front-line information to help him persuade Emperor Mangou to give up this idea."

It was the first time that Fatty Lu heard that Yao Qisheng had such a good brother-in-law, and he was dumbfounded for a long time. Fatty Lu waved his fat hand excitedly, and said happily, "Thank you, Mr. Yao, for your guidance. This time, Lu Yifeng finally knows what to do in the future." !Since Kang Mazi is on the imperial conquest, I will try my best to help him and let him come to his door to die!"

"General, I'm afraid it's not so..."

Yao Qisheng just wanted to remind Fatty Lu that it would not be so easy to get Kang Mazi to lead the imperial conquest, but before he finished speaking, Fatty Lu turned to Wang Shaobo who was next to him and shouted: "Shaobo, make up some nursery rhymes for me immediately, and say that I, Lu Yifeng, occupied Nanjing In the place where the dragon flourished in the Ming Dynasty, the dragon energy in Nanjing has risen again. Only the Emperor Mangou himself can cut off the dragon energy in Nanjing and regain the south of the Yangtze River. Then arrange for people to spread these nursery rhymes, and then send people to Beijing to spread the word.”

"Understood." Wang Shaobo, who was used to Fatty Lu's wickedness, nodded immediately, and began to ponder without saying a word.Yao Qisheng next to him was dumbfounded, and murmured in his heart: "So fast? This Lu Yifeng and Lu Sanhao, how much bad water should there be in his stomach?"

At this time, another battle report came from the city of Huzhou. Seeing that the fall of Huzhou was a foregone conclusion, the coach of the Qing army, Laita, had already led a defeated army to break through from the east city of Huzhou and headed towards the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. However, there were still some Qing troops in Huzhou city. Recalcitrant.Fatty Lu only thought for a while, and immediately ordered: "Let Hu Tongchun and Han Yuanren lead the army to pursue and kill them with all their strength, cooperate with Gao Hongchen's ambush, and try to kill as many dogs as possible. Wang Xu is responsible for clearing the city. Dog remnants, try to recruit and surrender."

"Congratulations, General, you won another important town in the south of the Yangtze River." Yao Qisheng hurriedly congratulated Fatty Lu again.Fatty Lu nodded with a smile, accepted Yao Qisheng's congratulations, and then asked: "Mr. Yao, you just came from Mangou and know the situation of Mangou better. In your opinion, what should our army do next?" Walk?"

"General, do you really trust the students?" Yao Qisheng stared at Fatty Lu and asked.

"Mr. Yao, please tell me that Lu has already said that since Lu dared to take in Mr. Yao, it is natural that those who believe in him will not doubt it, and those who doubt it will not." Fatty Lu replied sincerely.

"Since this is the case, the student believes that the next step for the general should not be to attack Jiaxing and Songjiang, but to go directly to Hangzhou!" Yao Qisheng said in a deep voice: "At present, most of the main forces of Zhejiang Mangou are in Jinhua, Ningbo, Quzhou and Taizhou. Confronting Geng Jingzhong with troops from all walks of life, there are only more than ten thousand defenders in Hangzhou City, and most of them are recruits from the new army. With the sharpness of the general's troops, it is not difficult to capture Hangzhou!"

"Boss, this is no joke." Wang Shaobo, who was pondering nursery rhymes, was taken aback. He quickly pulled Fatty Lu's sleeve and whispered in Fatty Lu's ear, "It's more than 200 miles from Huzhou to Hangzhou." , Once there is a change in the rear, it will be difficult for you to return to the team without saying anything. If we go directly south to fight Hangzhou, our rear and food roads will all be exposed to the swords of Jiaxing Mangou and Songjiang Mangou."

Fatty Lu remained silent, while Yao Qisheng probably guessed Wang Shaobo's scruples, although he didn't hear Wang Shaobo's whisper, and said sincerely: "General, maybe you think the student's tactics are too crazy, and even suspect that the student has no good intentions. But the students insisted that attacking Hangzhou now is indeed the best choice for the General!"

"There are two advantages for the general to attack Hangzhou. Hangzhou is the most important city in Zhejiang, and the food, grass and military equipment in the city are extremely abundant. If the general can take Hangzhou, he can make a fortune and completely weaken the strength of Zhejiang Mangou. Geng Jingzhong went northward with all his strength, desperately attacking the Zhejiang Mangou on the southern line, let them kill each other and consume each other!"

"Then what about our food roads and back roads?" Wang Shaobo asked: "Our main force went south to Hangzhou, what if Jiaxing and Songjiang Mangou attacked our back roads?"

"The food and grass in Huzhou City is enough for the general to spend for a year, and it is enough to fight Hangzhou!" Yao Qisheng replied in a deep voice: "As for the Mangou in Jiaxing and Songjiang, aren't they being restrained by General Li Tianzhi in Suzhou? How many troops have harassed our army's rear?"

"Then how to defend Hangzhou?" Wang Shaobo asked again: "Hangzhou is far away from the rear of our army, and it is inconvenient to supply and reinforce. Even if our army takes Hangzhou and the southern line is full of dogs, how can we defend it?"

"No need to guard." Yao Qisheng replied with a smile: "Before Man Gou entered the customs, he broke through the Great Wall and entered the Central Plains five times, all of which robbed a large number of people, money and food. Man Gou, if Man Gou can rob Hangzhou City of Man Gou's armaments, food, grass and military pay, can it further weaken Zhejiang Man Gou? From now on, does the general still need to worry about the threat from the southern front?"

Wang Shaobo was in a hurry, and when he was about to persuade him again, Fatty Lu raised his fat hand to stop him, and said in a deep voice, "It's decided, fight Hangzhou! Shaobo, you should write to Li Tianzhi immediately and tell him the next move of the main force of our army." , Let him send a mobile army to monitor Jiaxing Mangou and protect our army's retreat!"

"Boss, the city of Hangzhou is solid, far from being comparable to that of Huzhou." Wang Shaobo hurriedly reminded again: "What if our army can't break through the city after a long attack under the city of Hangzhou, and there is a sudden change in the rear, what should our army do?"

"I only have half a month of food and grass, and I won't be able to attack Hangzhou within half a month. I will withdraw my troops and return to Huzhou immediately!" Fatty Lu waved his hand resolutely, and suddenly changed into a lewd smile, and said: "Besides, I will It's time to bring my little wife back, I really don't know what she looks like, is she as beautiful as in the legend?"

"Little wife?" Yao Qisheng was a little confused, but he didn't bother to pay attention to it. He just smiled and said: "General, if you want to successfully break through the strong city of Hangzhou, then the student has a plan, which may increase your chances of winning."

"Mr. Yao, please advise." Fatty Lu asked hastily.

"The general broke through Huzhou today, and he will definitely capture many prisoners. Why don't the general...?" Yao Qisheng said with a treacherous smile.

"Brilliant plan!" Before Yao Qisheng could finish with a smirk, Fatty Lu applauded and said with a smile, "Erlang, immediately send someone to the captive team to recruit them to surrender, and pick out dozens or hundreds of obedient and greedy people, with good wine and good food." welcome--but remember, don't cut their braids, and don't make them change their clothes."

Xiao Erlang agreed, and hurried down to make arrangements, while Yao Qisheng murmured in his heart again, "This Lu Sanhao, what kind of bad water should he have in his stomach? Why did he guess what I was up to just as soon as I raised my head?"

(End of this chapter)