The three towns of Wuhan are known as the "thoroughfare of the nine provinces" and are the most prosperous places in commerce. After the Taiping army captured Wuhan, they obtained a large amount of materials, especially gunpowder and raw materials for the manufacture of gunpowder.

After Wei Ze received the order of Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, he began to prepare to advance eastward along the river, and the troops began to gather troops and store supplies. In Hankou, a region rich in commerce and handicrafts, Wei Ze was able to raise what he needed. The blacksmiths built a batch of mixers made of copper, as well as machines made of iron for pressing and crushing, according to Weeser's design.

In the era of black powder, it can be said that one of the highest achievements was granular powder. The method of preparation is relatively simple, first fill two copper hemispheres fixed on a rotatable rack with gunpowder, and then start to rotate to allow the components of gunpowder to mix evenly. Pour water mixed with egg whites into a homogeneous powder powder and stir into a semi-dry paste. Then the wet powder paste was compressed with a roller to make it a rather dense powder cake. After the gunpowder cake is dried, it is broken into small pieces with a crushing machine. It can be used as a relatively rudimentary granule gunpowder. The particles that are too fine are recovered and then re-pressed, and the prepared particles are used as the propellant of the paper shell bullets.

After the first batch of products came out, after the actual yàn, the results were similar to what Wei Ze imagined. The flashiness of gunpowder is greatly reduced. In order to ignite this granular gunpowder, a more powerful primer is required. Arquebuses are more friendly to this type of gunpowder, after all, arquebuses are ignited directly with open flames. The flint is not bad, and the flint flame can hardly ignite such small particles. It often takes two or three pulls of the trigger to make a successful start.

Of course, after using this gunpowder, the amount of gunpowder used was greatly reduced by hitting the lead at the same distance as before, when the gun could be fired. So the military-industrial department also does not know whether this gunpowder is good or bad. If you want to use this powder more effectively, you need a stronger primer. How to get this kind of primer is a great problem for the military industry.

Weeser certainly knew how to make a more powerful primer, and that was one of the core technologies of a real Minérgyne rifle, the "fire cap". One step closer to the flint is the musket gun. Both arquebuses and flint guns rely on the gunpowder in the fire pool to spray close to the chamber and ignite the gunpowder in the chamber. However, the fire cap gun is completely different, the small hole between the fire pool and the chamber is enlarged, and a fire cap containing mercury thunderate is plugged in, and after the trigger is extremely fireable, the mercury thunderate explodes, and the high-temperature flame produced by the explosion sprays directly into the chamber. Although the flash of granular gunpowder is reduced, it burns quite fully at high temperature because the components in the gunpowder are evenly mixed. The combat effect has been greatly improved.

Mercury thunderate is high-tech in this era, but it is very easy to prepare for any high school student who has studied chemistry. With his skills in hand, Weeser was sure that all he needed was a more sturdy flint. With this sturdy musket as a base, it is easy to convert a flint gun into a musket gun.

The flint gun still needs six or seven shooting steps, the fire cap gun only needs to pull the bolt, tear the tail of the paper shell bullet with teeth, load the tail of the bullet into the barrel downward, use the through strip to pass the bullet into the chamber, install the fire cap on the fire hole, and pull the trigger after aiming at the enemy.

It only takes four steps to fire a shot, and the fire cap is far faster than other methods, and the shooting efficiency can be at least doubled. The flint gun can shoot one shot, and the musket gun can shoot at least two shots. And the arquebus shoots one shot, and the flintlock can fire at least five shots. With the addition of a fire cap and rifling and Miner, this is a real Mineer rifle. This is a weapon that cannot be considered backward until at least 187o.

Weeser himself knew what he was pursuing, but this clear step was completely incomprehensible to the Chinese in 1853. Weeser's troops were better, but they had a general staff to run the troops, and they were still able to prepare all kinds of pre-war affairs in an orderly manner. Luo Xuan, who was ordered to go east with Wei Ze, felt quite strange, and Wei Ze, who had watched things in a hurry, suddenly slowed down. The whole army looked busy, but there was no final decision.

On January 6, Luo Jian came again to urge Wei Ze to send troops. By the way, I brought news that Bian Sanniang, a well-known female general in the Taiping Army, took her subordinates to leave the Taiping Army and returned to Guangxi.

Wei Ze had an impression of Bian Sanniang, and before Yang Xiuqing played the arrival of the Heavenly Father, Bian Sanniang strongly advocated attacking Henan. Unexpectedly, after her idea fell through, Bian Sanniang actually broke away from the Taiping Army, and chose to return to Guangxi after leaving.

Looking at Wei Ze's stunned appearance, Luo Xuan smiled and said: "What Bian Sanniang said is the idea of the King of Heaven, but the King of Heaven did not dare to fight against the King of the East, Bian Sanniang felt that the King of Heaven was actually useless, so he simply did not follow the King of Heaven." ”

There was a bit of a peach flavor in this, and Wei Ze also wanted to listen to it a little bit, to see if there was actually any gossip inside story to entertain him. So Wei Ze smiled: "If you follow the idea of the Heavenly King this time, I don't know if Bian Sanniang will stay." ”

Wei Ze has seen Bian Sanniang many times, and in terms of appearance, Bian Sanniang is not Wei Ze's dish at all. Wei Ze was just a little skeptical, Hong Xiuquan would have any thoughts about Bian Sanniang. After all, in the latest information, Hong Xiuquan, who brought thirty-six wives on the way from Yongan to Wuhan, began to add new wives to himself.

"Listen to the king?" Luo Xuan laughed a little maliciously, "Listen to the Heavenly King, can we still fight Wuchang?" I'm afraid I'll go to Guangdong early. ”

Seeing that Luo Xuan didn't mean to gossip at all, Wei Ze stopped trying to pick this head. He said, "Brother Luo, it will take me another day to prepare......

Luo Xuan interrupted Wei Ze's words, "I think your ordnance is all in order, isn't it?" ”

Wei Ze smiled: "Those are all ready, but I haven't practiced on and off the boat yet, so I'll give me a day to practice." And Brother Luo, you also have to send a boat to practice with your brother. ”

"What else do you want to practice?" Luo Xuan was a little surprised.

Wei Ze replied: "If you encounter a Qing Demon on the road, I am going to let the troops disembark and fight, and we will advance in water 6, and the Qing Demon will definitely not be able to resist it." After defeating the Qing Demon, we will leave some brothers to garrison temporarily, and the team will still get on the ship and continue eastward. ”

"Do you still have to practice getting on and off the boat? Brother Wei underestimated the brothers' abilities, right? Luo Xuan was very puzzled by Wei Ze's attitude.

"As the saying goes, it's not fast to grind a gun, so why not take a day to practice?" Wei Ze still insisted on what he had seen, this was a habit he couldn't violate, and everything had to be practiced first.

"I'll listen to you, but I can only practice for one day, only for one day!" Luo Xuan was in a hurry to fight Nanjing, so he emphasized repeatedly.

As a result, the training for this fast boarding took two days to practice. If you get on and off the boat slowly, you really don't need training. However, if the troops were going to fight, they would carry artillery and disembark from the ship, and after the battle, they would quickly board the ship again. This order alone is a nuisance.

Luo Xuan is proficient in water operations and provides a lot of very efficient commands. But Wei Ze's troops are all eating 6 meals, and if they want to cooperate effectively with Luo Xuan, it will take a lot of time. After practicing for two days, Luo Xuanzheng said to Wei Ze: "Brother Wei, we might as well practice for another day, right?" ”

"Why?" Wei Ze asked, feigning surprise.

Luo Xuan replied seriously: "If this practice method is carried out, it will only take one more day, and I will dare to let the troops walk a hundred miles of waterway in one day." The Qing demons along the way are definitely not opponents. ”

The training was finally terminated on the fourth day, not that the two were completely satisfied with the troops, but that Yang Xiuqing sent someone to inform the two prime ministers, Wei Ze and Luo Xuan, and let them participate in the selection of wives. Weser has no interest in this kind of egg thing, and now is not the time to play with women at all. Luo Outline is very disgusted with this corrupt style, and like Wei Ze, Luo Outline has been unhappy with Hong Xiuquan for a long time.

As soon as the two discussed, they informed Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, that they were going to be sick. I'll talk about choosing a wife later.

On January 1o, Wei Ze's 5,000 troops were all on board, and Luo Jian led 4ooo sailors, and a total of 9,000 troops on both sides began to move down the river.

On the 1oth, Wuchang County was conquered, and on the 11th, Huangzhou was conquered. Wei Ze and the others demolished the city gates, took away all the military supplies they could take, and then withdrew from Huangzhou.

On the 12th, after conquering Qishui, the city gate was continued to be demolished, and after a day of rest, the troops continued to advance eastward.

On the 14th, Qizhou was conquered.

At this time, the news was received that the Qing army was preparing to intercept Wei Ze's troops in Wuxueshui 6. Luo Xuan came up with the idea to have the brothers on the front boat disguise themselves as refugees. This strategy embarrassed Wei Ze, if the Qing army saw through it and shot immediately, then Wei Ze would suffer a big loss. But there is no better way than that, Wei Ze originally wanted the teaching brigade to go into battle in person, but Lei Hu jumped out and asked for battle, "Please also let my troops fight!" ”

Since the loss of the Qing army's horse team, Lei Hu has trained the troops hard, but he has never had the opportunity to fight a beautiful turnaround. Although the battle was dangerous this time, Lei Hu saw an opportunity to save his face. So he insisted on going into battle. Finally, Weeser also wanted to see the level of training of the troops, and he also personally participated in the operations of the striker.

On the fifth watch, the vanguard fleet first went down the water, and in the dim sky, there were indeed people shouting from the Qing army's boats on the water, "What are you doing?" ”

"Wuchang was beaten down by thieves, and we are fleeing!" The local brothers in Hubei, who were responsible for deceiving the enemy, shouted. So the Qing army believed so, they did not use guns to fight, let alone shell! I watched as a dozen large ships cleared their line of defense.

"Master Lei, if you dare to make such a thing happen to me, I won't let it go!" Even if he got great benefits from it, Wei Ze didn't have the slightest sense of appreciation, and he said to Lei Hu quite seriously.

"Please rest assured!" Lei Hu also replied quite seriously.

The vanguard fleet soon passed the Qing army's defensive line, and the river behind it suddenly became bright, but it was Luo Jian who ordered people to light bonfires on some empty boats. A large number of ships emitting smoke and fire flowed down the river, and the Qing army reflexively began to fire heavily on these attention-grabbing ships.

"Dock! Get ready to disembark! Lei Hu shouted to the people around him.

A red flag was raised on the bow of the ship, and the flagbearer held the flagpole and swung it vigorously. At this signal, the ships of the vanguard troops immediately approached the shore, and before the ships could stop at the river, Lei Hu had already drawn his waist knife, jumped out of the cabin with his left hand on the side of the ship, and jumped into the river water that was almost knee-high. It was January at this time, and the river was filled with moisture, and after Lei Hu jumped down, he could only see the position above his chest. saw Lei Hu raise the single knife in his hand high, and shouted vigorously: "Get off the boat!" Disembarked! ”

When Lei Hu led the team to kill from behind the Qing army, the 6th Army of the Qing army shot at the warships on the river that were emitting smoke and flames for a long time, and both artillery and muskets were already boiling hot, and they could not continue to fight at all. Seeing hundreds of people slaughtering viciously, the Qing army shouted, and the whole army dropped their weapons and began to flee. Lei Hu only killed more than 200 Qing troops who were running slowly, and the remaining **100 people fled without a trace.

Luo Xuan, who was on the water, led the fleet straight to the Qing army on the water, and the Qing army, like the 6th Army, saw the Taiping army coming up to play with their lives, they immediately pulled up the sails, rowed their oars and fled.

interrogated the captured Qing army, only to learn that the commander of the naval army was the deputy general of the Taihu Association, also named Liu Changqing. Wei Ze saw that the Qing army's navy had fled neatly, and he was worried that they would find an opportunity to sneak attack him. However, after hearing such a familiar name, Wei Ze actually felt that he could relax.

On the 17th, Jiujiang was conquered, and on the 18th, Pengze was captured. On the 2o day, he captured the small lonely mountain. On the evening of the 22nd, Wei Ze's troops arrived at the city of Anqing, and without resting, they immediately made preparations for the siege. On the fifth watch day of the 23rd, Wei Ze began to attack Anqing, the capital of Anhui Province, and the Qing defenders scattered in a hurry, allowing Wei Ze to take Anqing in one fell swoop.

Wei Ze gave an order to leave a considerable part of the materials carried with the fleet in Anqing, and left Wei Changrong and Zhang Yingchen with the first and fourth divisions in Anqing. The staff headquarters was shocked, and the division of troops at this time was really a little inexplicable.

Wei Ze told everyone with a tough attitude, "Once I break through Nanjing, I will immediately bring my troops back!" Before I come back, you must not lose Anqing to me! ”

No matter how much everyone did not understand, Wei Ze continued to lead the army eastward on the 24th, conquered Chizhou on the 25th, and occupied Wuhu on the 28th.

On February 1, the Taiping Army Water 6 merged into the East and West Liangshan, and when the Water Army and the Qing Army fought fiercely on the river, the 6th Army had already defeated the Qing Army's 3ooo more than 3 horses. Go around to the downstream of the Qing army, set up cannons by the river, and bombard the Qing army. The Qing army was immediately defeated, and even Nanjing did not dare to stay, and went straight to Shanghai.

On February 2, Taiping Province was conquered, and Jiangning Town was occupied on the 3rd. On February 4, Wei Ze's troops arrived outside the Jubaomen Gate in Nanjing, where they spent 25 days marching more than 18oo miles along the river. Wei Ze, like his predecessors in history, went down the river and came to the city of Nanjing!

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