scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 359
(PS: I will be away from home tomorrow, so the update can only be said to be as hard as possible. If you can’t make it out, please understand and forgive me.)
With a large number of people and great strength, the ideal position needed by the Qing Army's artillery formation was quickly found. It was located in a large piece of farmland with an area of ​​more than 600 mu to the north of the west of Yangzhou City.The water source is not a problem. The reason why the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River are called the granary of the world is that apart from the suitable climate and fertile land, another important reason is that the water conservancy facilities are perfect. The Qing army only needs to dispatch hundreds of thousands of infantry, and it takes less than half a day. It is easy to dig out a diversion channel that is enough to flood the [-] mu of farmland into a swamp.

The only more troublesome thing is the temporary fort, firing on the muddy ground, if there is no solid fort support, the terrible recoil of the artillery is enough to insert the tail of the gun into the mud, and the shell will fly without knowing where it will go.But fortunately, the Qing army also had capable people and sufficient manpower, so they quickly figured out a way to quickly build a temporary fort, that is, to cut down a large number of trees, cut off the branches and leaves of the trunk, and sharpen one end , and then nailed a few tree trunks into the mud, and then nailed planks on the top, and a temporary fort strong enough to withstand small earthquakes was completed. (This method is not fictional, and it is still used when building buildings in some areas.)
Of course, it is impossible for the Qing army to hide such a large-scale construction of temporary fortifications from the eyes of the Yangzhou fat army. It is just that they are too far away to judge what kind of fortifications the Qing army is building and what they are used for.For the sake of caution, Gao Dejie, who is experienced in the battlefield, not only transferred three-quarters of the twenty Hongyi cannons in Yangzhou City to the northwest corner of Yangzhou, but also sent an army out of the city for fire reconnaissance.

Although Gao Dejie's wishful thinking was good, but this time Yue Le was willing to go all out, mustered up the courage to fight with all his strength, Gao Dejie sent his general Gao Qi to lead [-] troops out of the city, and Yue Le sent [-] cavalry The army fought against the fat man's army at all costs. With the determination that three Qing soldiers would kill a fat man's soldier, he desperately blocked the way out of the city for the fat man's army. Leading Yue Le's relatives to supervise the battle in front of the battle, anyone who takes a step back before the battle will be killed immediately!

At the beginning of the blocking battle, after killing hundreds of deserters including the banner soldiers in one breath, the soldiers of the Qing army who were all dead in front of them could only temporarily forget the fear of the fat army in order to survive, and moved forward desperately with red eyes, using their bodies To block the fat army's gun holes, use your body to block the fat army's knives and guns, use your life to consume the fat army's Miyoshi rockets, desperately close the distance with the fat army, and the mite cavalry and Mongolian cavalry are also desperately encircling the two wings , Even if there is already a river of blood in front of him, corpses are strewn all over the field, and the ones who follow are just desperately charging.

One man is desperate, and ten men are unstoppable. Although the fat man's soldiers are brave, they can't stop the enemy's desperate impact several times. After fighting for more than two hours, they can't break through the Qing army's blockade and get close to the Qing army's artillery position.At the same time, Yue Le was still sending reinforcements in a steady stream, assuming the posture of completely exhausting the fat city army.Gao Qi had no choice but to give up the fire reconnaissance plan, and led the remnants of the army to flee back to Yangzhou City. The red-eyed Qing army chased him with all their strength, and the Yangzhou City was covered with artillery and Sanhao rockets with a range of only three miles. The Qing army that rushed to the front was almost wiped out, so they had no choice but to withdraw their troops honestly.

When Gao Qi ran up to the city wall of the northwest gate of Yangzhou and saw Gao Dejie, Gao Dejie was discussing the military situation with Hu Guoliang, Wu Yonghua and other civil and military officials in Yangzhou city.Seeing Gao Qi knelt down to plead guilty, Gao Dejie waved his hand generously and said: "Get up, I have seen the actual situation, I don't blame you for not getting the job done, it's because Man Gou worked too hard, you are afraid of too many casualties." retreating soldiers."

"Thank you, General Gao." Gao Qi hurriedly saluted and thanked him, then stood up, wiped the sweat and blood on his face and said, "General Gao, did Man Gou take the wrong medicine? The last general only had three thousand infantry out of the city. The dog mobilized tens of thousands of troops to block it, and fought so desperately, as if it was going to die with the last general, is it completely unreasonable?"

"I'm also curious about this matter. Why is Mangou so afraid of us leaving the city?" Gao Dejie also had a puzzled expression, and pointed to the Qing military construction site six miles to the northwest and said, "But one thing I can be sure of is that Mangou The dogs are working so hard, nine out of ten are related to that construction site, and the dogs are either afraid of us destroying it, or afraid that we will know what they are doing?"

"Then what is Mangou doing?" Hu Guoliang pondered: "Mangou transported so much wood and dug so much earth, could it be that they want to dig tunnels to attack the city? But if Mangou digs tunnels, there is no need to be in such an open place Did you dig it so that we can find out? Besides, there is groundwater everywhere in Yangzhou, isn’t digging a tunnel to attack the city just for flooding?”

"General Gao, I have a suggestion." Jin Zhen, the magistrate of Yangzhou, said flatteringly: "General Gao Qi's performance in the city just now, I have seen it. As expected, our Great Zhou army is indeed brave and good at fighting. , Invincible, Man Gou dispatched five or six times the army, and paid a heavy price to force General Gao Qi back to the city. I think that if this is the case, why don't our [-] defenders in Yangzhou take the initiative to fight and repel the Manchus in the first battle? A mob of dogs? The top is to make contributions to the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the bottom is to protect the environment and the people of Yangzhou?"

"You think I don't want to take the initiative to fight?" Gao Dejie rolled his eyes at Jin Zhen, and said angrily: "Don't say that there are hundreds of thousands of mobs full of dogs outside Yangzhou City. Er Er’s 10,000+ Man Gou elite, I still dare to go out of the city to make a surprise attack! But the problem is, our general Lu brother has an order, I am not allowed to beat Man Gou away, only drag Man Gou under the city of Yangzhou, I will go out of the city for a decisive battle , what if the dog is beaten away?"

"Why didn't the general beat Mangou away?" Jin Zhen asked in surprise.

"This is war. Sometimes you have to pretend to be a grandson for the sake of the overall situation of the battlefield." Gao Dejie, whose hands and feet were bound by Fatty Lu, explained sullenly, and then decided: "Let's do this, let's not go out of the city, either. Gather all the twenty Hongyi cannons in Yangzhou City to the northwest corner, aim at Mangou's construction site and beat me hard, interfere with Mangou's construction work, and force Mangou to fight back, exposing their true purpose!"

After finalizing the countermeasures, while the soldiers of the fat man hurriedly transferred the artillery, the fifteen red cannons of the fat man army that had been deployed in the northwest corner of Yangzhou were the first to show their power, blasting the expensive and precious flowering shells at the Qing military industry with a loud rumble. land.

At the beginning, when they saw the shells from the Fat Man Army falling, all the soldiers of the Qing Army who were piling were startled. When they dropped their tools, they scurried away, but the soldiers and generals of the Qing Army soon discovered to their great surprise—— After the fat army's flowering shells landed, most of them got into the mud and exploded in the mud. Although the mud and mud flew all over the sky, most of the shrapnel and explosion shock waves were absorbed by the soft mud. The sharp drop, basically unless the exploding artillery shell happened to explode at the feet of the Qing soldiers could threaten the lives of the Qing soldiers, as long as they went a little farther, at most they could only splash the Qing soldiers with mud.

Seeing this scene, the generals and soldiers of the Qing army who had been feared by the Fatty Army's firearms were naturally cheering and their morale was high. Yue Le, Tu Hai and others who hurried to check the situation were also beaming with joy, their confidence greatly increased, and they praised Dai Zi This method was really great, and he quickly ordered: "Hurry up, hurry up and repair the forts! We must repair the 63 forts at all costs before Wu Gou reacts otherwise!"

The order was conveyed, amidst the sound of rumbling artillery fire, on the Qing army construction site filled with gunpowder, the morale-boosting soldiers of the Qing army launched a race against time to build the fort. Shells and mud were flying in the sky, and the soldiers of the Qing army on the ground desperately swung their sledgehammers and swung them. Smashing wooden stakes, carrying wooden stakes and running like flying, racing against time, and desperately striving for victory.In order to further boost morale, Yue Le also risked his life to visit the construction site and personally supervised the construction of the Qing army on the construction site where the shells were flying. The fort is repaired!"

The Fatty Army is not a fool. Although it is too far away to see the effect of the bombardment clearly even with primitive telescopes, Gao Dejie still feels something is wrong when he sees that the Qing Army is still insisting on construction under artillery fire.At the same time, in view of the scarcity of complex high-precision shells, Gao Dejie decisively ordered to replace them with solid shells for bombardment. However, the effect was even worse. Drilling into the muddy ground, it was even more impossible to kill the soldiers of the Qing army next to them, and the number of Hongyi cannons of the Yangzhou Corps of the fat army was still very small, only twenty in total. Destroy the reserved positions of the Qing army.

"What the hell is Mangou doing?" Puzzled, and seeing that the sky was getting dark, Gao Dejie made a decision that he regretted very much, "Stop the shelling, let the soldiers rest for the night, tomorrow At dawn, go out to fight in the city and destroy the strange fortifications full of dogs."

The fat army stopped firing, but the Qing army seized this golden opportunity and started working overnight with torches, frantically piling and repairing the platform, and moved the Hongyi cannon that had been transported to the muddy ground in advance to the fort and fixed it. Straight into the sky.Under such urgent repairs at any cost, at around four o'clock in the night, not only were all 63 forts repaired, but all 63 Hongyi cannons were also placed in place. tactics.

At this point, the siege tactics of the Qing army are actually very simple. One is to concentrate heavy troops to protect the artillery positions, the other is to arrange the superior cavalry to take turns to be ready to attack at any time, and the other is to arrange Han Daren to command the artillery battle. Dai Zi measured and calibrated the gun positions, and only waited for the Yangzhou city wall to be smashed down, and then rushed into the city to fight in the street with the Yangzhou Fatty Army, which was severely armed and understrength.But this time, Yue Le, who had both Tsarist Russian musketeers and Anhui elite soldiers in his hands, had a little bit of confidence in street fighting.In addition, in order to boost morale, Yue Le, who has always been hypocritical, gritted his teeth and agreed to Tu Hai's suggestion, that is, to tell all the generals and soldiers of the Qing army that after Yangzhou is broken - the PLA will be disciplined for ten days!
Five corrections, after everything was arranged, Han Daren and Dai Zi boarded the temporary fort, and after Dai Zi personally adjusted and calibrated all 63 Hongyi cannons, Han Daren waved his torch and shouted, "Fire!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Amidst the earth-shaking explosion, black and heavy solid shells rushed out of their chambers, roaring along a parabola and hitting the city wall of Yangzhou five miles away. It also sounded again on the city wall of Yangzhou.

Immediately afterwards, the artillery of the Fat Man Army on the city wall of Yangzhou also began to fight back. The flames suddenly appeared, and high-precision shells far more advanced than the artillery of the Qing Army spewed out, and also roared and smashed at the artillery positions of the Qing Army.The northwestern city wall of Yangzhou and the artillery positions of the Qing army were filled with gunpowder and smoke, and the sound of cannons shook the sky. An extremely rare long-range artillery battle in China began.

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

At the same time, the news that Fatty Lu personally led the army from Taipingfu City to send troops to hang filial piety to the west was also delivered by fast horse to the Qing army camp in the small village of Majiayuan in the northwest of Ningguofu, Anhui, and then directly sent to the new leader In front of the Qing army's west front coach, general Dingnan, and Baojun Wang Zhang Taizhang.Together with Prince Zhang, there was also the marching route of the Fatty Army that the scouts of the Qing army had spent countless efforts and even sacrificed their lives to spy on - marching along the official road, and the blade pointed directly at Fanchang County where Le Erjin was stationed!
Different from the last expedition, our Lord Zhang not only has several times more troops, but also has more generals around him. There are more than a dozen soldiers in Dutong and Zongbing. Our Zhennan General Niyahan, who is proud of his power on the head of Prince Zhang, also went out with the army this time as Prince Zhang's deputy. He obeyed Prince Zhang's command and dispatched him, and let Prince Zhang wear small shoes for him. It is also far inferior to Zhuman, the confidant of Prince Zhang who has just been promoted to the capital with the red flag - this is the only confidant that our Prince Zhang can trust.

"Lu Yifeng's dog thief pays filial piety to the Han people?" After reading the intelligence collected and reported by the Qing army, Niyahan, who has been serving as the deputy of the Qing Qing old fox Hillgen for a long time and has always performed well, frowned, and worriedly asked Prince Zhang Said: "My lord, look at the posture, Lu Yifeng's dog thief is here this time, and in all likelihood, he will have the goal of annihilating us or severely injuring us. The general thinks that our army is best to use defense instead of attack. Think about what surprises to win, and concentrate on completing the mission assigned to us by the master to contain Wugou's main force."

"General Ni's words are reasonable, and the slaves think so too." Ehena, the vice commander of the Xianglan Banner and the military counselor, also echoed: "From the perspective of military strength alone, Wugou's military strength is not as good as ours, and the navy is no more. There are 5000 people, but judging from the fact that Lu Yifeng's dog thief personally led the army, the bandit army that came is definitely the elite of Wugou in the south of the Yangtze River, and its combat effectiveness is absolutely extraordinary. Soldiers are few and take it lightly."

"The last general suggested that our army should be transferred immediately to Fanchang to join Shuncheng Baylor's army and join forces to fight Wugou." Another Qing army general, E Qi, suggested.

To the disappointment of Niyahan and others, no matter how well-meaning they suggested and enthusiastically speaking, our Prince Zhang just refused to speak up, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, just flipped through the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in his hand while tapping Erlang's legs , It's completely like a look that hasn't heard the advice of the generals at all.In the end, it was Zhuman, the only confidant of Prince Zhang, who couldn't stand it any longer. He stepped forward and pulled the sleeve of Prince Zhang, and whispered a few words in his ear. What did you just say? Say it again."

"You really didn't hear that?" Niyahan and the others were angry, but considering that they had teased and bullied Lord Zhang hard enough in Anqing before, now that he's a villain, it's normal for him to take revenge. So he finally suppressed his anger, swallowed his anger, and repeated the suggestion again.

"Transfer the camp immediately? Are you kidding me?!" Prince Zhang seemed a little angry, and asked angrily, "Is there an official road from Majiayuan to Fanchang? The camp said that it can be transferred if it is transferred?"

"Then you forced us to give up the Nanling official road and take a small road to this small village of Majiajiayuan, where birds don't lay eggs?" The Qing army generals murmured together.Niyahan swallowed his anger again and said: "The general is right. There is no way to go. It is really difficult to move the camp. Then Lu Yifeng will personally lead the army to attack. I hope the general will show his strategy as soon as possible. , the general will wait and make preparations.”

"What's the rush? Let me think about it again." Prince Zhang waved his hand lazily, then looked down at "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" again. Niyahan and the others had no choice but to shut their mouths and wait patiently.

After holding his breath and waiting for a long time, Prince Zhang finally raised his head again and ordered: "It's decided, the whole army will set up camp and go north to Huangchi Town at the junction of Taiping Mansion and Ningguo Mansion!"

"Go to Huangchi Town?" Niyahan was taken aback, and quickly said, "My lord, are you joking? Huangchi Town is hundreds of miles away from Fanchang City, and there are no official roads or waterways. We still honor Baylor, once in danger, it is very difficult to rescue each other."

"Fortunately, you are still the Dingnan General of the Qing Dynasty. I can't even see the purpose of moving to Huangchi Town?" Prince Zhang said angrily: "Huangchi Town is located at the junction of Jiangning Mansion, Taiping Mansion and Ningguo Mansion. Our army Moving here will directly threaten the two major towns of Wugou, Jiangning City and Taiping City, which can not only have the effect of besieging Wei and saving Zhao, but also take advantage of false attacks to capture Jiangning or Taiping City, killing two birds with one stone, wouldn't it be wonderful?!"

"Surround Wei and save Zhao? Kill two birds with one stone?" Niyahan and the others were stunned. After finally recovering, Niyahan hurriedly exclaimed: "General, it seems that it is not that easy, right? Let's not say that our army is so arranged that it is easy to be defeated by Wu." It is absolutely impossible to attack Jiangning and Taiping City! Last time you almost succeeded in attacking Jiangning, it was because you commanded all cavalry and moved quickly, so you caught Wu Gou by surprise. This time our [-] The army is mixed with infantry and cavalry, and the marching speed is slow, and Wu Dog has suffered and been deceived, so there must be heavy troops stationed in Jiangning and Taiping City, how can we succeed in a surprise attack?"

"If there is no way to sneak attack, then attack by force." Prince Zhang said confidently: "My prince is familiar with military books and has a deep understanding of military strategies. Naturally, I have considered the difficulty of sneak attack this time, so when our army moved to Huangchi Town, I also I will send a death order to Le Erjin, let him stick to Fanchang City, not to take a step back, firmly restrain the main force of Wugou, and buy time for the main force of our army to storm Taiping City and Jiangning City!"

Not to mention, the tactics deployed by Prince Zhang this time are literally invulnerable. Even Niyahan, who is experienced in military affairs, can't find faults - although it is definitely not that easy to execute.So Niyahan could only cautiously remind: "My lord Zhang, is it too difficult for Shuncheng Baylor's lone army to contain Wugou's main elite? After several times of seeing and seeing in Fanchang County, the people in the city have basically fled. It's completely clean, the city is dilapidated, and it's too difficult for Baylor to stand alone?"

"That's right." Shu Shu, Leerjin's powerful deputy, who was forcibly transferred by Prince Zhang from Tongling City, also reminded: "And most of the [-] troops in Shuncheng Baylor's hands are second-line troops with mediocre combat effectiveness, so let him alone I'm afraid it will be difficult to fight Wugou's elite, so please think twice, my lord."

"Can't fight in the wild, can't you defend the city?" Prince Zhang suddenly got angry and asked fiercely: "Last time in Chizhou, I only had five or six thousand troops in my hands, and the people in the city fled completely, but the enemy There are more than 8, according to your thinking, isn't this king dead? But what is the final result?"

"That's why your blind cat ran into a dead mouse, okay?" Most of the generals of the Qing army murmured together, but no one dared to speak out.

"It's so decided!" Prince Zhang clapped the handsome case and shouted: "Immediately the whole army will pull out the camp and march into Huangchi Town! Give Le Erjin a death order, and defend Fanchang City at all costs! Take Taiping City for the main force of our army Buy time! Then send an order to Ghent Baturu, let him and Leerjin become horns, assist Leerjin to defend Fanchang, and wait until the king wins Taiping City or Jiangning City, and then go south to join me!"

"Damn it, there is no other way, just take a gamble. Logically speaking, Wu Gou should have come to beat us first. After this idiot suffers, maybe he will change his mind." Headed by Niyahan All the generals of the Qing army murmured in their hearts together, and they all agreed together helplessly, "Cover."

Ever since, when the main force of the Fat Man Army was fighting towards Fanchang along the wide and flat official road, our Great Qing God of War, Prince Zhang, led the main force of the Qing Army on the Western Front very wisely, carrying a large amount of food, grass and baggage across the mountains and mountains, Crossing rivers and streams, overcoming thorns and thorns, marching on sparsely populated wilderness paths, aggressively attacking Huangchi Town at the junction of Jiangning Mansion, Taiping Mansion and Ningguo Mansion. Surround, and look for opportunities to send surprise soldiers to attack the back of the fat man's army!

After Lord Zhang’s wise decision and order to stick to Fanchang came to Le Erjin, Le Erjin vomited blood on the spot, slapped the table and cursed, “Child Zhangtai, I’ll fuck your mother’s eighteenth generation ancestor! Not to mention the transfer of Lao Tzu's main soldiers, but also Lao Tzu's steadfast defense of Fanchang, not allowing him to take a step back--Fanchang is a shattered siege, and you still want to contain the elite of Wugou's two major corps? You come to guard for me! "

"Prince Zhang is a good man, let him continue his prestige for a few more days, and ignore him." Fatty Lu reacted in this way when he received the news. He pointed his whip in the direction of Fanchang and shouted: "Go forward at full speed to Fanchang. This time, you can't say anything." Let that annoying fly, Leerjin, run away again!"

(End of this chapter)