scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 329: Backfired
Anhui Jin Fu, who was cleared by mites, guessed that after Wu Jun Xia Guoxiang's Department and Ma Bao's Department joined forces near Wangjiang, there were indeed voices in the interior to imitate Lu Fatty's tactics of bypassing Anqing and attacking Nanjing. Xia Guoxiang gave up the original plan to cross the river to attack Anqing, let his army cross the river and land on the south bank, and joined hands with Xia Guoxiang to go eastward by land, bypassing the solid Anqing City, and went to the south of the Yangtze River to join forces with Lu Fatty to make a fortune, so as to play a big role. Wu Jun's strength in field battles prevented him from falling into siege battles.

This suggestion was also strongly responded by Du Hui, the commander of the Wu Jun Navy, because Du Hui knew very well that Xia Guoxiang had fought for five months in Nanchang, a city whose main force had been destroyed, and the small city of Pengze, which was killed by Fatty Lu. It also took twelve days, which is enough to prove that Xia Guoxiang is not very good at attacking tough battles.However, Anqing City is also a well-known and famous fortified city in the world. The city is high and the moats are deep and the terrain is dangerous. There are also sufficient garrison troops and food and grass in the city. If Xia Guoxiang insists on pulling out the nail of Anqing, even if he succeeds in the end, he will definitely suffer heavy casualties It takes a long time.

Instead of this, it would be better to learn Fatty Lu's raid tactics and bypass Anqing and enter the south of the Yangtze River. As long as he can join up with Fatty Lu before the army's food and grass run out, then it doesn't matter whether we need food roads or rear roads.And the more important point is that the main force of the Wu army's navy has almost been dispatched this time, which is enough to rival the Qing army's navy in Anqing, and even has a lot of advantages, so even if Du Hui leads the navy to fight alone, there is no need to be afraid at all. The pursuit of Anqing Navy Ghent Baturu is quite confident that he will defeat Ghent Baturu in the water battle.

For the Eastern Wu Army, Ma Bao and Du Hui's proposition may be correct, but it is definitely not completely correct. As the son-in-law of the old traitor Wu and his powerful arm, and at the same time the current coach of the Wu Army's East Route Army, no matter how much Xia Guoxiang likes it No matter how bad his sensuality was, he had a far-sighted vision than Ma Bao and Du Hui.In Xia Guoxiang's view, bypassing Anqing and going straight to the south of the Yangtze River can avoid the shortcomings of the self-army's attack, but after bypassing Anqing and continuing eastward, what if there is another hard nail on the road to the south of the Yangtze River?Once the siege fails, it will take a long time, the food and weapons will be exhausted, and the throat of the food road will be tightly strangled by the Anqing Qing army. Isn't the Wu army facing the danger of being wiped out?At that time, Ma Bao and Du Hui may be able to escape and break through as deputy, but Xia Guoxiang will still have to be responsible for the lives of the soldiers of Wu Jun's eastern expedition!

In addition, there is another important reason why Xia Guoxiang, who has a secret order, dare not bypass Anqing and go straight to the south of the Yangtze River. If Fatty Lu refuses to give it the jurisdiction over Jiangnan, he must get rid of this dangerous fatty and his henchmen!Under such circumstances, Xia Guoxiang must not only let the army maintain a certain strength to enter the south of the Yangtze River, but also ensure that the backup roads are completely unimpeded. , Anqing, a stumbling block lying in the middle of the road, naturally had to be removed.

It is precisely because of this that on the sixth day of the first lunar month of the second year of the Lunar New Year, when two Wu army teams arrived in Huangshiji one after another, the question of whether they should attack Anqing City also reached the climax of the dispute among the decision-making levels of the Wu army. He and the conservatives each had their own reasons, and each had their own reasons, and no one could convince the other. The quarrel was in full swing, so intense that it was almost full of heat. Xia Guoxiang was hesitant, unable to make up his mind.But at this time, the envoys sent by Anqing City also came to Huangshiji in a small boat with a white flag, and asked to see Prime Minister Xia Guo, saying that they had something important to discuss.

"The envoys of the Mandogs are begging to see you? Could it be that they are here to ask you to surrender?" Xia Guoxiang was overjoyed at first, but after thinking about it carefully, he couldn't help laughing. It is really unlikely to ask yourself to surrender.But in this way, Xia Guoxiang was inevitably even more curious about the purpose of the Qing army envoy, so he hurriedly stopped the quarreling generals of the Wu army, told them the situation, and ordered the Qing army envoy to be summoned.

A moment later, the envoys of the Qing army were called into Xia Guoxiang's tent of the Chinese army. He was about forty years old, with an ordinary appearance, spoke a Guangxi accent, but had a very respectful attitude. Saluted, he clasped his fists to all the generals of the Wu army present, and said respectfully: "Deng Chengchun, the governor of Anhui in the Qing Dynasty, was ordered to pay respects to General Pingdong of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Greetings to the General, and greetings to all the Generals of the Great Zhou Dynasty."

"Who sent you here? What did you send you for?" Xia Guoxiang asked directly.

"Back to the general, it was General Niyahan, the southern general of the Qing Dynasty, and Jin Fu, Jin Zhongcheng, the governor of Anhui in the Qing Dynasty. Zheng, when the troops approached the city of Anqing, General Ni and Jin Zhongcheng knew that the mantis arm would be difficult to handle, so they sent envoys here to ask the general for peace, and discussed with the general a non-contradictory peace treaty."

After all, Deng Chengchun held the gift box he brought with him in both hands, and said respectfully: "General, this is a small gift from General Ni and Jin Zhongcheng's envoy, and I hope the general will accept it." Deng Chengchun opened the gift box, revealing ten pairs of South Sea pearls the size of pigeon eggs.

"Could it be that you really came to ask for surrender?" Xia Guoxiang was overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered: "Come here, accept the gift, and then invite Mr. Deng to sit down." He refused to sit down immediately, and then cupped his hands to the generals of the Wu army and said: "Generals of the Great Zhou Dynasty, General Ni and Jin Zhongcheng also ordered the envoy to bring you a small gift, 5000 taels of silver, which is currently placed outside the account. The envoy must offer it with both hands, and I ask all the generals not to be too humble."

"Niyahan and Jin Fu are pretty smart." Ma Bao also felt that Deng Chengchun might have come to ask for surrender, so he nodded and smiled and said, "Go back and tell them, open the city and surrender honestly, and we promise not to harm their lives and their entire family's life." , and will ask the prince for merit and reward for them."

"The general probably misunderstood, the envoy didn't come to ask for surrender." Deng Chengchun hurriedly explained: "The envoy came to your barracks today to negotiate with your army and hope to sign an armistice agreement with your army. , not to offend each other."

"My army has already arrived at the city of Anqing. What kind of truce do you want to conclude?" Xia Guoxiang was even more curious, and hurriedly asked, "Then what kind of truce do you plan to make? Let's hear it."

"Returning to the general, our army hopes to draw the river with your army as a boundary and not to invade each other." Deng Chengchun's attitude became more and more respectful, "In addition, the Yangtze River waterway is a neutral zone, and the ships of both sides can pass through the Yangtze River, and the other party is not allowed to intercept and attack. "

Xia Guoxiang, Ma Bao, Du Hui and the others looked at each other, and said together that they wanted to sleep and someone gave them a pillow. Is there such a good thing in the world?There must be some conspiracy in this, right?It seems that in our army, there is such a fat man with a sweet belly and a sword who is best at this. He will give you sweets to coax you, and then stab you to death with a knife in the back, so that you will not know who died in the hands of you. of.

"General, all generals." Deng Chengchun looked at his words and said sincerely, "The envoy understands that if you rashly propose to sign this peace treaty, the general and all the generals will definitely not believe it, and they will definitely suspect that our army has no good intentions. But the envoy can God swear, although our army has selfish intentions in this move, it has no malice towards your army. To put it bluntly, we just want to take advantage of your army. I just ask the general to investigate clearly and appreciate the sincerity of our army."

"How do you plan to use our army?" Du Hui asked in a deep voice.

"Borrow your army's knife to solve a confidant's trouble for our army." Deng Chengchun didn't hide anything, and replied frankly: "Since Lord Leerjinbei Le was defeated in Guangdong, he moved his troops to Tongling Mansion in the lower reaches of Anqing to provide food, grass, military supplies, and luggage. Weapons are all supplied by our army. However, Lord Belle, relying on his status as a royal family, not only does not feel grateful to our army, but instead takes what we give and take from our army, like a cow and a horse, and also treats General Niyahan and Jin Fu The adults bully at will and treat them as slaves. They have long intended to drive away General Niyahan and Lord Jin Fu. Therefore, the arrival of your army is a god-sent opportunity for our army."

"You want to borrow my general's sword to take Leerjin's head?" Xia Guoxiang asked Deng Chengchun, staring at him.

Deng Chengchun nodded, and said sincerely: "General, please check clearly. When the general marches eastward to the south of the Yangtze River, he must pass through Anqing and Tongling. If we hold Anqing, Tongling will be lost in Lebeile's hands. Anhui, of course, will not be able to gain a firm foothold. No matter whether the general can take the head of Le Belle, Le Belle will not be able to stay in Anhui. After all, our Anqing army is stationed on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and Le Belle is stationed On the south bank of the Yangtze River, the general broke through our army from the south bank and succeeded in intercepting it, Le Belle was the one most responsible, not us General Ni and Jin Zhongcheng."

Deng Chengchun's explanation was reasonable and sincere, but after hearing Xia Guoxiang, Du Hui, Ma Bao and others, Xia Guo and the others were more puzzled, and they all thought: "Is there such a good thing in the world? We just approached In Anqing, there was a lot of internal strife among the dogs, is our luck too good? Could it be that the gang of dogs in Anhui was led to death by that little fat guy Lu Yifeng, and they also learned how to dig a pit for others to jump into?"

"General, please be sure to trust us." Seeing that Xia Guoping and others showed vigilance, Deng Chengchun hurriedly said: "If the general really doesn't trust the envoy, you can draw a road, as long as you don't let General Ni and Lord Jin get in the way." If you leave Anqing City, you will not be able to submit a mission to the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. No matter what other conditions, the general can ask for it, and our army will try our best to satisfy it, so as to prove the sincerity of the peace talks."

"You go down to rest first, and I will give you an answer later." Xia Guoxiang thought carefully for a moment, and ordered: "Come here, send Mr. Deng down to rest, so I can entertain you."

The soldiers agreed, and hurried up to ask Deng Chengchun to leave the tent to rest. Deng Chengchun turned his head when he was leaving the tent, and said more sincerely and respectfully: "General, please forgive me for speaking bluntly. The terrain of Anqing City is dangerous. The city is high and the pond is deep. There are [-] troops in the city, and the food and grass in the city can be used by the whole city for more than a year. If the general decides to attack by force, it will only make others cheaper, so I hope the general will think twice."

Xia Guoxiang's eyes flashed, and he didn't speak. He just waved his hand to let Deng Chengchun leave the tent. After Deng Chengchun walked away, Xia Guoxiang turned his eyes to the generals of the Wu army present and asked, "Everyone, please express your opinion. What do you think?"

All the generals in the Wu army looked at each other, and didn't dare to say anything for a while, for fear of misleading Xia Guoxiang, but Ma Bao, the old traitor of Wu, was not afraid of this, and asked first: "Old Xia, could this be a trick of a dog? We bypassed Anqing to attack Tongling, and then took the opportunity to cut off our food roads, leaving us in a dilemma, under the city of Tongling?"

"Old Ma, didn't you always advocate bypassing Anqing and go directly to the east? Why are you afraid again?" Xia Guoxiang asked with a smile.

"I used to advocate bypassing Anqing and going east directly, but Mangou also wants us to do so. Of course I have to doubt it." Ma Bao folded his arms and said with a frown: "Although the main force of Leerjin Mangou is stationed in Tongling City, we can bypass Tongling City and go directly eastward, but in this way, our food road will be even more dangerous. The section of the river from Anqing to Tongling is completely controlled by Mangou. The progress is unfavorable, and the food and grass are exhausted... By the way, Lao Xia, how much time do we have enough food and grass to accompany the army?"

"Twenty days." Xia Guoxiang replied without thinking.

"Why so little? Can't you bring more?" Ma Bao complained.

"You still have the face to accuse me?" Xia Guoxiang said angrily, "Originally, my food and grass were enough for two months, but who told you to bring more than 5 mobs, fighting is useless, eating is worse than anyone else, my food and grass are still enough Is it?"

Ma Bao was speechless. The food and grass in Xia Guoxiang's army was not enough. The key reason was that when he and Xia Guo met, his army had already been hungry and full, and it had been supported by plundering people's food for half a month. Not only can't help Xia Guoxiang's food and grass, but he has eaten a lot of Xia Guoxiang's food and grass. Will he have no face to blame Xia Guoxiang?In desperation, Ma Bao had no choice but to smirk and said: "Fortunately, our food and grass are transported by water, which is much faster and more convenient than land. It will definitely be able to catch up with the supply. Besides, my army is not completely useless. At least you can consume some defenders full of dogs when attacking the city."

Xia Guoxiang snorted, too lazy to argue with Ma Bao, Du Hui over there also opened his mouth, and said in a deep voice: "Although I also advocated bypassing Anqing and going straight to Jiangnan before, judging from Mangou's reaction, this plan I'm afraid it's a bit dangerous. Lu Yifeng had already killed Mangou by surprise before. Mangou had suffered a big loss, and he couldn't justify it without more experience. Therefore, the condition proposed by the Mangou envoy this time was a trap, tricking us into bypassing Anqing. Go east, then cut off our food roads, and let us starve to death under the strong city downstream."

"Maybe Mangou has already grasped the weakness of our lack of food and grass." Guo Zhuangmou also interjected: "When General Ma went south to join us, he robbed all the food and grass of the villages and cities along the way. No matter how stupid Mangou is, he will understand General Ma. The team has run out of food, and General Ma's team is so huge, after joining forces with us, it will definitely increase our food and grass burden, Man Gou may have seen through this weakness of ours, and deliberately dug a trap for us to jump."

"That's right, that's right, that must be the case." Wu Jun's generals nodded in agreement one after another. They all thought that Niyahan and Jin Fu had been brought down by Fatty Lu, and they had no good intentions to trick them into stepping into a trap— — But it’s not surprising, the Qing army and the Wu army have always been fighting for every inch of land, and now they will suddenly propose such a favorable condition to let the Wu army pass, and the Wu army who used the peace talks to confuse the Qing army countless times before treats gentlemen with the heart of a villain Naturally, he refused to believe the sincere kindness of the Qing army in Anqing.

"Stop arguing!" Xia Guoxiang, who was quite opposed to taking the risk of bypassing Anqing, slapped the table and said: "Let's do this, Zhuang Mou, tell the envoys of the dogs, and say that the general appreciates their kindness, but As an important general of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the prince’s son-in-law, I will never make peace with them in private behind the prince’s back, and I will never accept their condition of drawing the river as a boundary, I can only accept their Kaesong surrender.”

Guo Zhuangmou agreed, and Xia Guoxiang ordered: "The rest of the generals, immediately prepare to cross the river. Tomorrow, the whole army will cross the river and board the north bank of the Yangtze River to attack Anqing City. Du Hui, your navy must be on full alert and closely protect our army crossing the river. Fleet. Zhang Guozhu, you have to hurry up with the scouting, send more scouts and secret agents downstream, and closely monitor every move of Tongling Mangou and Ningguofu Mangou for me, and report immediately if there is anything unusual."

All the generals of the Wu army agreed together, and Xia Guoxiang grabbed a master at random, and ordered: "Write a letter to Wu Yingqi for me, and ask him to send the [-] shi of grain and grass that I want as soon as possible, and then make preparations to continue supplying our army with grain and grass. At least we won’t have to rely on him to supply our food and grass until our army takes down the Anqing granary. Also, we will ask him for more rockets, shells and gunpowder.”

........................

Well-intentioned and ready to release water, let Xia Guoxiang enter the south of the Yangtze River smoothly and Lu Fatty dog ​​bites the dog, but in the end, Xia Guoxiang's entire army went northward to attack Anqing City with all its strength. The news spread into Anqing City. He and Jin Fu's group almost felt like they wanted to vomit blood.In desperation, Tu Hai and the others had no choice but to guard the Anqing granary with all their strength, while sending envoys to contact Xia Guo, trying to convince Xia Guoxiang of their sincerity in releasing water, and deliberately mobilizing the Qing troops in Chizhou, Qingyang and other places Go to Anqing to help in the battle, leaving a big space for Xia Guoxiang to drill.

The winking eyes were completely for the blind. The envoys sent by Tuhai and others one after another and the intentionally exposed Nan'an vacancy not only failed to convince Xia Guoxiang, Ma Bao and others of their sincerity in releasing water, but made Wu Jun more determined that Nan'an was the Qing army. The huge trap was carefully designed and arranged, so Xia Guoxiang, Ma Bao and others not only completely dispelled the idea of ​​bypassing Anqing and going straight to the south of the Yangtze River, but also became more determined to pull out the nail of Anqing.After the whole army crossed the Yangtze River on the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, the coalition forces of Xia Guoxiang and Ma Bao launched an attack on Anqing on the eighth day of the lunar month. Going to defend Anqing City—it’s impossible if you don’t defend it. Anqing is the general granary of the Qing army on the western front. It is obviously impossible for the Qing court to support the Qing army on the western front with a catty or two of grain and grass. ?

After the offensive and defensive battle of Anqing started, the kind-hearted Xia Guoxiang deliberately let Ma Bao's team play the vanguard, went to Anqing City to consume the Qing army's strength, ammunition and defense supplies, and consumed the cannon fodder and rice worms in Ma Bao's team. Although Ma Bao is very aware of Xia Guoxiang's vicious intentions, he doesn't care at all - anyway, General Ma is best at forming a team of rogues. As long as he keeps the elite seeds of the Wu army in the team, even if all the more than 5 recruits can kill General Ma Don't feel bad, as long as General Ma is given a little space to move around and develop, General Ma can pull up a team of 10 people at any time.

As a result, the offensive and defensive battles in Anqing were carried out extremely fiercely. Under the intimidation of the Wu army supervisor team, tens of thousands of cannon fodder troops pushed and carried various siege weapons, and launched a wave against the city wall of Anqing. After a wave of crazy impact, Wu Jun's artillery kept firing uneasy and kindly from behind, frantically bombarding the soldiers of the Qing Army and the cannon fodder of the Wu Army in the upper and lower parts of the city. Wave after wave, the corpses of soldiers and various siege weapons on both sides of the war filled the moat almost on the first day, and the blood stained the city wall red. Dyed pink.

There were too many ants killing elephants. Thanks to General Thomas, Xia Guoxiang finally had enough cannon fodder to consume this time. He could spare no expense in investing in the siege infantry and nibble on the Anqing city wall bit by bit.In this way, it will be hard for the Qing army defenders in Anqing City, especially after the moat is filled, even if there is a strong city to defend, the casualties of the Qing army in Anqing began to expand rapidly. Tuhai and Niya Although Han and the others knew that fighting like this would only benefit Fatty Lu in Nanjing City, but because Anqing was too important to give up, they had no choice but to constantly invest in the city's defense force, fighting against Xia Guoxiang's cannon fodder army. Soldiers of the Qing army shed blood and sacrificed themselves to look after Fatty Lu's home.

During the seven days from the eighth day of the first lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Wu Jun launched four sieges against Anqing City, consuming more than 4000 cannon fodder troops. He paid the sacrifice of more than [-] people, and basically gnawed away the fortifications on the periphery of Anqing, and once attacked the city wall of Anqing, allowing Wu Jun to see the dawn of breaking the city.And as Wu Jun's cannon fodder army became better and better, and no longer foolishly rushed to the city to die, Xia Guoxiang, who was not completely foolish, also began to adjust the siege tactics, ordered the siege to be stopped, and started to build siege weapons with all his strength, and made a lot of preparations Siege weapons such as ladders, cloud platforms, and siege vehicles, as well as dispatching engineers to dig tunnels, prepare to advance several ways, and capture Anqing City in one fell swoop.

Also taking advantage of this brief truce, Tuhai, Niyahan and others quickly sent envoys to contact Xia Guoxiang, trying to make Xia Guoxiang understand their sincerity in releasing water, but they were ruthlessly rejected by Xia Guoxiang every time. The messenger simply didn't even see Xia Guoxiang's face.On the [-]th day of the first lunar month, Tu Hai had no choice but to think over and over again, but he had no choice but to make up his mind, slapped the table and shouted: "I personally went to see Xia Guoxiang's dog thief, and advised him to give up attacking Anqing and go straight to the south of the Yangtze River!"

"Lord Tu, are you crazy?" Shang Shan, Niyahan and the others present all exclaimed, "You are an important general of our Southern Expedition in the Qing Dynasty, what if Wu Gou finds out your identity?"

"Of course I'm not crazy!" Tu Hai gritted his teeth and said, "And I won't hide my name to negotiate with Xia Guoxiang's dog thief, and I will tell Wu Dog's army clearly that I am Tu Hai! He is the former university of the Qing court. Sergeant, general, the current minister of the Ministry of War, governor of Jiangsu - Ma Jiashi. Tuhai!"

"Then what should Wu Gou do if it's bad for you?" Shang Shan asked in alarm.

"The great thing is that the head falls to the ground. What's the big deal?" Tu Hai looked gloomy, stroking his broken leg and said slowly: "I am a useless person, my wife and children were killed by Lu Yifeng's dog thief, and my only daughter is here. When I was thrown into the prison for the third time, I had already hanged to death, and I had nothing to worry about. Now in my heart, I don’t have any other thoughts except to seek revenge from Lu Yifeng, a dog thief. The thief went to the south of the Yangtze River and took Lu Yifeng's dog thief's head, not to mention my head fell to the ground, even if I was hacked to pieces by Xia Guoxiang's dog thief, I would be satisfied."

"But..." Shang Shan still tried to persuade him.

"Master Baylor, needless to say." Tu Hai waved his hand and said lightly: "This servant knows your intentions are good, but we have no choice but this method now. If this servant does not come back, please tell Prince An , I have done a lot of sorry things to him before, this time, I repay him with my life, so I ask him not to remember my previous revenge."

Seeing that Tu Hai had made up his mind, Shang Shan, Niyahan and the others did not stop him anymore, they could only send him out of Anqing City with tears in their eyes, watching him limping alone with a white flag on his crutches The hardships lead to the Wu army team waiting in full battle, and to the unpredictable road ahead.

Every general of the Qing army on the city wall was bursting into tears, but Zhangtai Beizi, who was hiding in the dark, quietly spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm, counted with his fingers: "Eight hundred miles should be urgent, it should be on the tenth or tenth day of the first lunar month." Send it to the capital on the [-]th, today is the [-]th day of the first lunar month. Calculated according to the distance, even if the memorial of this beizi is delayed in the study room for a day or two before being delivered to the master, the master's edict should arrive within two or three days. Master Shengming, you But we must stop these traitorous ministers from doing anything wrong."

(End of this chapter)