Regarding the question of the official document, Hu Linyi could only smile bitterly: "I have exhausted all means, let alone fire attack!" ”

During the period from Xiangtan to Tianjia Town, the Hunan army destroyed at least 15,000 ships of the Taiping Army's naval division, although the main force of this naval army was only some civilian ships that did not consider the possibility of confrontation at all.

However, when encountering the steam steamer of the Hongjun, the tactics of fire attack are not used at all, and people's steamers are still walking like flying in retrograde, not to mention that they are going downstream, not to mention that the gun positions on the ships are many and strong, and they are better than the tens of thousands of catties of artillery on the side of the Qing army, often after several rounds of shelling, the defense line that the Qing army has painstakingly built has come to naught.

After several confrontations under normal circumstances were completely lost, the Qing army used abnormal means, according to Hu Linyi's knowledge, some used the widow's Yin Gate Array, some used dung, some invited the Heavenly Master, and Hu Hu collected 20,000 silver yuan to collect women's unclean things and set up a large array, all these defenses, in front of the steamer, completely ineffective.

Now these steamers and the red thieves on their ships are enough to have the strength of an entire army, in order to prevent them from raiding and landing, the entire Hubei along the rivers and lakes have been mobilized, and countless money and food have been consumed, and now they are deployed everywhere, and everywhere is tight, Hu Linyi has reached the point where he cannot mobilize mobile troops, let alone support Hunan.

Guan Wen had a lot of thoughts: "Since the fire wheel is difficult to deal with, why don't you pick a brave man and attack its lair lightly, no matter what, he has to go back to the lair to replenish it!" ”

Such a battle example was staged in the Battle of Jiujiang on the battlefield of the Two Lakes, Shi Dakai personally selected 100 Jianrui soldiers, and attacked the base of the Qing Army's naval division, 3,000 Qing troops left without a fight, and abandoned Shi Dakai more than 100 warships and hundreds of artillery positions, but Hu Linyi shook his head and said: "Now that the red thieves have come to our heartland, there is no way to clean them up, let alone go deep into Jiujiang!" ”

When Hu Linyi and Guan Wen were discussing how to deal with the steamer, the big flag outside suddenly shook, and many Qing soldiers retreated directly from the city wall, and some people shouted: "The red thief's steamer is coming, the steamer is coming, let's run!" ”

As soon as they heard that the foreign fire wheel was coming, the entire Wuchang city was in a panic, and it was not organized at all, many Qing soldiers were afraid of the red thief's cannons, and they retreated to the Tibetan soldier cave first, and some Qing officers and soldiers did not ask the direction, and directly fired guns and cannons directly towards the river, but now they didn't even see the figure of the red thief's foreign fire wheel, and Lin Huyi sighed loudly: "In this situation, the red thief only needs to send a group of soldiers, no...... When a battalion of soldiers comes up, we in Wuchang will suffer a big loss! ”

It's just that the Hongjun Naval Division on the river doesn't have the strength of a regiment of troops, and Shi Huiji, who was standing at the bow of the ship, said loudly: "Don't pay attention to them, it's enough to shoot back, we have another mission this time!" ”

His Ziwei Star is a steam paddle steamer converted from a red single ship, which belongs to the weaker battleship in the sequence of the First Squadron, and because this ship has special significance, this weak ship has become the flagship of the entire First Squadron, and Shi Huiji, the brigade commander of the Marine Brigade, has also become the supreme commander of this combat operation.

In fact, there is only one independent marine battalion in the Marine Corps fighting in Hubei, but when it comes to this Marine Battalion, the officers of the Rainbow Army are full of praise, believing that the First Detachment and the Marine Battalion cooperate seamlessly, and almost contain the entire Qing Army in Hubei.

As a certain general said, this is the kind of era: "a few cannons can conquer a country", in fact, the Hong Army only used a few steam paddle steamers and a marine battalion to suppress the whole of Hubei, and sometimes the results were so brilliant that the Marine Brigade itself could not believe its results. …,

For example, the first operation of the Marine Brigade in the Hubei region was only to send a platoon of marines to reinforce a light artillery piece to reconnoiter on the land, but they bypassed the Qing army's defensive line for less than 10 minutes, and the more than 1,000 Qing troops deployed in front of them scattered as birds and beasts, leaving behind 30 artillery pieces, 470 small guns, 40 military flags, 100 barrels of gunpowder, 400 stone of grain, 120 prisoners, and six corpses.

After that, the Marine Battalion continued to perform such military miracles with the cooperation of the Navy, so that now the Navy has completely handed over the command of the fleet to an officer from the Army, Shi Weisi, and the greatest loss suffered by the Marine Corps in past battles was only 26 killed and 78 wounded, but their opponents paid more than 10 times the price.

Therefore, the current retirement season is full of spirits: "Cross Wuchang, let's go upstream!" ”

In the past, the Rainbow Navy had worried that if the ships went too deep, there would be accidents or other circumstances that would lead to accidental losses, but now that a number of wooden ships had been rowed upstream, they quickly raised the white flag, and then Ziwei Star slowed down.

The people on these wooden ships were poor, but the pressure of life did not make them give up, and they shouted enthusiastically to the sailors on the steamer: "Do you want pancakes?" ”

"Cut the cake, cut the cake, how about a knife?"

"The best Chinese cabbage, just picked!"

"I'm going to prepare dozens of catties of live fish here, and the old man will be merciful and take them all away!"

For the Hongjun, these fish and vegetables are just a necessary part of life, and now there are many fishermen in Hubei who depend on them to survive, and whenever the steamer crosses, there is such a group of small paddlers who come out and start to sell all the products in their hands to the Hongjun, and at the same time fulfill their obligations one by one.

Sometimes, they are not just as simple as leading the way, when they see the Qing army, but also the official army in their eyes defeated in the face of the red thief's offensive, they take the opportunity to make a profit, and even do not hesitate to directly participate in the war, and sometimes they act as the red thief's sentinel and vanguard in the village.

At first, the local government in Hubei also tried to open fire on such a leading party, and even did not hesitate to arrest a group of people, but it turned out that this could only attract the retaliation of the gunboats, and several platoons of marines directly attacked the county seat under the cover of naval guns, and the county magistrate could neither abandon the city nor stick to the city, and was finally captured by the red thieves, becoming the flag they used, and even becoming one of the most important roles in the leading party.

Now many nimble people do not hold Hu Linyi and Zeng Guofan, and they are naturally willing to maintain a good relationship with a strongman like Shi Huiji, so it is not only the salesman who came today, but also several well-known gentry in Jingzhou, and Shi Huiji's order was temporarily anchored, and the steam engine also stopped running.

At this time, a new cargo ship rowed on the shore, but they brought the sincerity of these Jingzhou gentry one or two thousand catties of coal, although the quality of the coal is not high, for Shi Weisi, this is the best gift.

"Thank you, thank you!" Shi Huiji did not shy away from saying the biggest weakness of his kind of hot wheel: "Our foreign hot wheel is a thousand good, ten thousand good, the only thing is not good, that is, it can't be played at all without coal, and I understand your sincerity, and it will inevitably play with His Royal Highness King Yan!" ”

Speaking of which, they did a great favor to Shi Huiji and the navy, you must know that the navy's boiler coal is all transported from Shanghai and Anhui and Zhejiang, and the quality of Anhui and Zhejiang coal is not good, and now it can only be reluctantly used on the steamer. …,

It's just that no matter how much Huo Qiu attaches importance to coal production, he can't conjure up coal in a hurry, so the actions of the navy and marines are completely restricted by coal storage, although these gentry only sent one or two thousand catties of coal, but for Shi Huiji, it can be said to be a great help.

And among this group of gentry, there is a man named Yang Qingliu's brain is particularly flexible, this matter from mining, coal mining to the end is handled by him, he now stood up and said: "The rainbow army gods descended from the sky, how can they lack a few catties of coal, this is just the sincerity we expressed, now the people of Jianghan are thirsty for the heavenly soldiers like a rain, and Brigade Commander Shi can conquer Wuhan as soon as possible and recover the whole province!" ”

"You have more confidence than me, that's good, that's good!" Shi Huiji laughed and said: "It's a pity that my ship is too simple, otherwise I will treat you with lamb wine." ”

It's just that Yang Qingliu said: "Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, everything we do is to protect the township, and today's contact with your army is that your army should not behave like the Taiping Army in Wuhan." ”

Speaking of which, the actions in Wuchang can be said to be the biggest strategic mistake in the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, when the Taiping army was frustrated in the attack on Changsha, all the way forward, invincible, straight to Wuhan, and what they did in Wuhan was quite popular with the people, but the Qing army that came after the military discipline was corrupted, even the literati close to the Qing side said that the degree of military discipline corruption was far better than that of the Taiping army.

The Taiping army that conquered Wuhan not only did not manage the big city of Wuhan well, but on the contrary, he coerced the entire people of Wuhan into the Taiping army, and then drove these recruits to sweep downstream, with the result that not only did many recruits flee halfway, but also ruined the image of the Taiping army in the two lakes.

Today, Yang Liuqing brought up the old matter again, naturally to protect his hometown, and Shi Huiji knew that he had more intentions: "What else do you want to say?" (To be continued.)