When the Taiping army blew up the city wall of Yifengmen, Wu Chaoyue, who had been tired all day, was still asleep, and was awakened by the huge explosion, and heard the continuous artillery bombardment from the Yifengmen, although it was too late to explore the tunnel blasting effect of the Taiping army, Wu Chaoyue immediately understood in his heart - he must immediately start preparing for a breakthrough and retreat! Otherwise, once the Taiping army that had been secretly helped by himself successfully entered the city, he would definitely be ungrateful and cut himself with a thousand knives!

- Of course, as to whether they are ungrateful, Li Kaifang, Lin Fengxiang and Ji Wenyuan and other Taiping generals are not convinced!

Understanding the danger of the situation, Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate any longer, immediately checked his equipment, and then rushed out of the room, and gave a loud order to Wu Jun Lian Yong, who had been awakened by the sound of explosions, and ordered his right-hand man Deng Siyuan to lead his men and horses to stay in the camp to guard the remaining weapons and ammunition, and never leave without his own orders, and ordered all Lian Yong to check dry food, drinking water and weapons and equipment, and each person to carry thirty firing pin guns and bullets to the city, and at the same time secretly ordered his henchman Wu Da to pack up the gold and silver, and contact Fu Shanxiang and Wanzhen who lived in the neighboring courtyard first, so that they must not leave the residence for half a step, and be ready to leave at any time.

After making these arrangements, Wu Chaoyue took his own army and another outpost to the city to meet the two outposts of Huang Dasha and Meng Yu, who were stationed on the city wall. At the same time, the Taiping army outside the Shence Gate has also been dispatched in large numbers, and is killing towards the side of the Shence Gate, and the vanguard army has already approached within two miles of the Shence Gate, clearly attacking the Shence Gate as it did yesterday.

At this time, the hardcore traitor Zhang Jigeng also rushed to the city wall of Shence Gate with some Lian Yong, and as soon as they met, he shouted at Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan with a crying voice: "Wu is in charge." Geng Shoubei, the big thing is not good! I guessed it. Long Mao really buried gunpowder on the side of Yifeng Gate and blew down a section of the city wall! ”

"How many did the explosions collapse? Did the long-haired kill enter the city? Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked.

"I heard that the explosion collapsed six or seven feet. Some longhairs have already taken the opportunity to enter the city, but the details have not yet been confirmed. ”

Zhang Jigeng replied truthfully, but Geng Huan shouted bitterly when he heard it, stomping his feet and not knowing what to do, Wu Chaoyue was both happy and worried, for fear that the revenge-hungry Taiping Army would kill this side directly after entering the city without saying a word, so he hurriedly proposed to Geng Huan: "Brother Geng, since Changmao has entered the city, then for the sake of safety." I divided a sentry into the city to guard the city gate, beware of the long hair killing and attacking the city gate, and meet the long hair outside the city. ”

Geng Huan, who relied on Wu Jun's combat effectiveness and trust, agreed, Zhang Jigeng did not doubt him, and there was no objection, and Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked Huang Dasha to lead the outpost to guard the city gate, and quietly stared at the control mechanism of the jack gate in the urn city, thinking about how to find an opportunity to destroy the mechanism and make the jack gate useless.

Just sent Huang Dasha down to the city. Before Lian Yong, who lived in the temples and nunnery in the city, went to the city to help the battle, the Taiping army outside the city had already launched a fierce attack, and more than 2,000 troops were invested at one time to directly attack the city. They had to resist with all their might in the same way, focusing on the flying ladders that had set up the city walls with stone ash bottles, and shooting at distant enemies with arquebuses. During this period, Wu Chaoyue also rarely and generously let his soldiers shoot ants with revolvers to attach to the enemy, desperately stabilizing the defense line on the side of Shence Gate.

There is a condescending advantage. The Taiping army's siege methods were relatively monotonous, except for using flying ladder ants to attach, at most they only hit the city gate with a crashing wood. It's relatively easy to deal with, but it's not a big problem to keep the Shence Gate safe for the time being. But the situation in the city is very bad, Yifengmen Street, Sanpailou, Matai Street and Jinchuanmen side of the fire smoke one after another, I don't know whether the Taiping army has already killed there, or the rampant members of the Heaven and Earth Society set fire to create chaos, at the same time, Chaoyangmen and Jubaomen are also constantly cannonging, it is obvious that a fierce battle has also begun.

Affected by this, the panicked people of Jiangning basically chose to stay closed, and those Lian Yong who had negative combat effectiveness in the Preparation and Defense Bureau basically did not go to the city to help in the battle, although the morale of Lian Yong controlled by Zhang Jigeng was relatively high, but only six or seven percent went to the city wall to fight, and the rest were all deserters, and the already thin troops on the side of Shence Gate became even thinner.

The critical moment to test the command ability of Lu Jianying and Xianghou and other Jiangning bigwigs came to the critical moment, and the result made Zhang Jigeng want to cry without tears and Wu Chaoyue was secretly happy that Lu Jianying, who was in charge of the defense of the outer city, never issued an order to deal with such a crisis, but the inner city heard that a reserve team was sent to rescue Yifengmen, but this hearsay has never been confirmed, on the contrary, there is also a fire and smoke from the most remote Taipingmen, and some people report that the gunfire over there is very dense, It was also confirmed that the gunshots were fired inside the city walls.

Without God's perspective and a serious lack of intelligence support, Zhang Jigeng, the most strategic in Jiangning City, and Wu Chaoyue, the most capable of fighting, were helpless in such a chaotic and complicated situation, so they could only send people to contact Lu Jianying in the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion while struggling to resist the attack of the Taiping Army, and at the same time contact other gentry and directors of the Preparatory and Defense Bureau, so that they could organize Lian Yong to go to the city to help as much as possible. As a result, the person who went to contact Lu Jianying did not come back, and Hui Zheng, who had a good relationship with Wu Chaoyue, stumbled up to the Shence Gate in his official uniform, and shouted to Wu Chaoyue with a crying voice: "Brother Xian, it's not good, the long hair has exploded the city wall of Yifeng Gate, and it has also seized the gap in the city wall, and a large strand of long hair is entering the city, and the outer city has been broken!" ”

"What about the land-based platform? Where did he go? Zhang Jigeng hurriedly asked.

"He's gone to the inner city." Hui Zheng said with a sad face: "As soon as I heard that Changmao had entered the city, Lu Zhitai went to the inner city, saying that he wanted to discuss with General Xiang how to defend the city, but he never came back. ”

"Old Puff!" Zhang Jigeng, who had long been angry with Lu Jianying, slammed his fist on the city wall and roared: "What do you discuss how to defend the city?" Nine out of nine, this old puppet is running away from the battle and fleeing for his life in the inner city! ”

"Mr. Bingyuan, don't be scared." Wu Chaoyue took the opportunity to instigate: "With the method we discussed yesterday, you go to Yifeng Gate under my banner, arrange suspicious soldiers to intimidate Changmao, and buy us time to respond!" ”

"The situation over there in Yifengmen is critical, you should go." Zhang Jigeng objected and said, "I will stay at Shence Gate under your banner." Hold back the long hair here for you. ”

"You're confused!" Wu Chaoyue was so anxious that he stomped his feet - this time he was really anxious to stomp his feet, and said quickly with a sigh of relief: "In addition to my practice in Jiangning City. And that army can be relied on? I am in charge of guarding the Shence Gate without an order, and if General Lu Zhitai and General Xiang have any urgent military orders to send. If you can't get in touch with me in time, isn't it a mistake in the city defense? ”

felt that Wu Chaoyue's words were reasonable, and Zhang Jigeng, who wanted to defend Jiangning City, did not hesitate, and immediately took over the Wu character banner from Wu Chaoyue, and took his Lian Yong to pretend to be Wu Jun Lian Yong and rushed to Yifengmen to help in the battle. Before leaving, Zhang Jigeng also took Wu Chaoyue's hand and said: "Director Wu, after I leave, I must let the other gentlemen and directors of the Preparation and Defense Bureau try their best to organize Lian Yong to go to the city, even if they can't rely on fighting." It can also resist for you for a while, so that you can get out and carry out their military orders on the mainland. ”

"I know, I know, go quickly, if it's too late, the long hair will come up again, and you won't be able to leave if you want to."

Wu Chaoyue urged impatiently, Zhang Jigeng did not hesitate any longer, and hurriedly took the opportunity of the Taiping Army's ant army being temporarily killed and retreated, and took his Lian Yong to hit Wu Chaoyue's military flag and march west along the city wall. rushed to Yifengmen to help in the battle, and deliberately let those Lian Yong, who was carrying Wu Jun's scrapped bayonet, walk next to the arrow stack, as much as possible to create the illusion that Wu Jun Lian Yong had been transferred to Yifengmen for reinforcements, and Wu Chaoyue ordered Zijun Lian Yong to temporarily remove the bayonet. so as not to reveal the true position of the self-army.

Not to mention, Wu Chaoyue's suspicious tactics really played a big role, and in the monoculars, I saw Wu Chaoyue's big banner with teeth and claws moving in the direction of Yifeng Gate. Ji Wenyuan, who was red-eyed, immediately strengthened the siege again, and threw 4,000 troops into the ant-attached battlefield in one go. In vain, he tried to contain the 'Wu Jun Lian Yong' who was leaving in formation. As a result, although it did create a lot of pressure on the real Wu Jun Lianyong, he suffered from the fact that the siege weapon was too simple. The effect was never great, and several soldiers rushed to the city wall by luck, but they were quickly shot and killed by Wu Jun Lianyong, who temporarily unloaded his bayonet, and failed to hold the city wall position. In the end, Ji Wenyuan had no choice but to quickly send someone to report the situation to Li Kaifang, who was attacking Yifengmen.

Finally repelled this wave of crazy attacks of the Taiping army, Wu Chaoyue found Hui Zheng who was shivering in the dead corner of the city wall, grabbed him and whispered: "Quick, go to Wanzhen, change your official uniform first, and then take Wanzhen and that Fu Shanxiang to my camp, I left a sentry there, let them protect you first, and then wait for my news." ”

It is also a blessing to the soul, although he vaguely guessed that Wu Chaoyue was already arranging to run away, but Hui Zheng still did not hesitate, and immediately went down to the city to find his daughter to prepare to escape again, and Hui Zheng just left, Wu Chaoyue also immediately found Geng Huan's showdown, and said to Geng Huan: "Brother Geng, things have come to this point, what are your plans?" Is it preparing to live and die with Jiangning City? Or do you have other plans? ”

Looking at the streets of the city with a gloomy face, Geng Huan hesitated and asked, "Brother Wu, what are your plans?" ”

"How about destroying the jack gate first, just in case, and then seeing the opportunity?" Wu Chaoyue pointed to the jack gate switch controlled by the green battalion soldiers.

After hearing Wu Chaoyue's suggestion, Geng Hua didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately rushed up to push away the gate guards, directly removing the control lever that had just been renovated, and then adopted Wu Chaoyue's suggestion, and let Wu Jun Lian Yong smash a few big iron nails into the cracks of the slide rail, completely blocking the slide rail. Although there were also a few green battalion soldiers present, no one objected. - After all, they also know that when they go out of the city to escape for their lives, once this jack gate falls, they will become turtles in the urn, and they will not be able to run if they want to.

After solving the trouble of the jack gate, the banner of the Taiping army could already be faintly seen on the street on the side of Jinchuan Gate, and to Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan's surprise, the Taiping army outside the Shence Gate not only did not continue to attack, but also divided part of the troops to reinforce the Jinchuan Gate battlefield. Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan were secretly happy, and they immediately secretly arranged for their subordinates to prepare to flee out of the city, and at the same time, Wu Chaoyue also promised to personally lead the army as the vanguard and lead Geng Huan's more than 100 green battalions out of the encirclement.

Everything is ready, and in the end, all that remains is how to break through and escape, but just when Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan discussed the details of the breakthrough in a low voice, a new accident suddenly happened - with the support of several entourages, Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, suddenly stumbled onto the wall of Shence Gate, and grabbed Wu Chaoyue as soon as they met. also said with a crying voice: "Master Wu, the big thing is not good." The Yifeng Gate is broken, and the Jubao Gate is also broken! ”

"The treasure gate is also broken?" Wu Chaoyue was taken aback. said: "There are three urn cities on the side of Jubao Gate, how can it be broken so quickly?" ”

"There's a spy over there at the Treasure Gate!" Lu Jianying cried: "Before, it was rumored that Changmao was going to kill all the monks and nuns, and many monks fled into the city for refuge. ”

The fortifications are strong, and the first treasure gate in Jiangning is lost so easily, and the monks who are most likely to be pretended by the Taiping Army without careful screening are not carefully screened. Instead of transferring troops from the neighboring city gate to reinforce Yifengmen, he had to transfer troops from the farthest and most important Jubaomen, and when he met such a clever commander-in-chief, Wu Chaoyue was so admired that he threw himself to the ground. While smiling bitterly, Wu Chaoyue had some worries, and hurriedly asked: "Lu Zhitai, then what are you doing here?" Wasn't it rumored that you went to the inner city? ”

The book shows that Lu Jianying did flee to Mancheng. It's a pity that Xianghou, who guarded the city, not only did not allow Lu Jianying to enter the city, but also asked Lu Jianying to organize the people in the city to fight back. But such a humiliating thing, of course Lu Jianying was embarrassed to tell Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan. After hesitating for a moment, Lu Jianying said: "This governor is going to the inner city to discuss with General Xiang how to counterattack, given that the outer city of Jiangning is now difficult to protect. General Xiang decided to retreat to the inner city with all his strength and wait for reinforcements, and the official was ready to go to Zhenjiang to mobilize reinforcements from all walks of life to launch a counterattack. Kill them back to reinforce General Xianghou. ”

Hearing Lu Jianying's words, Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan's eyes certainly lit up. Then Wu Chaoyue pretended to be surprised and asked, "Lu Zhitai, are you going to Zhenjiang to recruit reinforcements?" Now that the long-haired siege is besieged, how do you get out? ”

"That's why this official came to you." Lu Jianying said with a sad face: "Chief Wu, this official orders you to lead the people of the headquarters to escort the official out of the city, and fight out of the long-haired siege to Zhenjiang for help!" ”

Fleeing from the city without permission, he will not be able to escape from the battle in the future, but it is completely different to be ordered to protect Lu Jianying from the city to break through, so when he heard Lu Jianying's order, Wu Chaoyue of course immediately sang the promise, and even narrowed his eyes with a smile, but Geng Huan over there was anxious, and hurriedly asked: "Lu Zhitai, what about me?" There are only more than 100 green battalions under the command of the last general, and Chief Wu has broken through to protect you, how can I defend the Shence Gate? ”

"Let's go, let's go." Lu Jianying hurriedly said: "Geng Guard, you will also escort this official to break through." ”

Geng Huan finally smiled with the same eyebrows as Wu Chaoyue, and Lu Jianying stomped his feet again and again, ordering Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan to hurry up and prepare to protect him to break through, Wu Chaoyue and Geng Huan hurriedly agreed, and quickly decided that Wu Jun Lian Yong would go down to the city to assemble first, and then Geng Huan would follow out of the city with the green battalion, leaving Jiang Ning Lian Yong, who still did not know, to continue to hold on to the city.

It was not until the protection of Lu Jianying that Wu Chaoyue was surprised to see that Lu Jianying also brought a few carriages and more than 20 war horses, each of which also carried two large packages, although the old face of Governor Lu was a little red and claimed that those packages were full of official documents and books, but Wu Chaoyue didn't bother to care about what was on it, and he also had an idea to ask for a carriage from Lu Jianying, and sent someone to bring the remaining gunpowder on the city wall to load it on the car, arranged the lead, and tied a string of firecrackers to the horse. And it was extremely vicious to blindfold the war horse............

After receiving Wu Chaoyue's order, Deng Siyuan, who stayed in the camp, took Hui Zheng's father and daughter and Fu Shanxiang to the city to meet Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue first sent the remaining eight parts of ammunition to the self-army Lian Yong to carry with him, leaving only two percent in case of emergency, and arranged for Hui Zheng and Lu Jianying to squeeze in a carriage, let Fu Shanxiang and Wanzhen sit in another car, and checked the carrying of dry food and drinking water again. He also drove the wagon with gunpowder to the front.

What made Wu Chaoyue very speechless was that although he had repeatedly promised to break through with the green battalion soldiers, only fifty or sixty of the more than 100 green battalion soldiers from the Shence Gate followed - all the rest ran back to the city to take advantage of the fire to rob, or change their clothes and hide in the houses to flee for their lives.

The matter is not over, seeing that the Shence Gate suddenly opened, a group of Qing soldiers suddenly killed out of the city, Ji Wenyuan, who was waiting in the distance, of course did not hesitate to send an army to block it, and then before the official battle, those green battalion soldiers who went out of the city collapsed again, shouting and fleeing clean in the blink of an eye, including Geng Huan, who had already changed into the clothes of the people, fled to the Xuanwu Lake without the Taiping Army, and shouted loudly while running, "Brother Wu, I will go to Xuanwu Lake to explore the way for you!" If you don't have a good breakout, come to me! ”

Of course, Wu Chaoyue didn't care about the self-collapse of the green battalion soldiers without a fight, but he was worried that they would affect the morale of the self-army, but fortunately, the self-collapse of the green battalion soldiers without a fight only caused some of Lu Jianying's entourage to flee with them, but the disciplined Wu Jun Lian Yong was still marching in line, and there was no situation where the soldiers left the team and fled - but what these Lian Yong thought in his heart, Wu Chaoyue didn't know.

Without Lu Jianying's orders, Wu Chaoyue, who was mentally numerous, had already arranged for a few personal soldiers to replace Lu Jianying's entourage, leading the horses brought by Lu Jianying to continue to advance, and then raised the binoculars to observe the incoming enemy, seeing that there were not many enemies this time, and the equipment was obviously very poor, Wu Chaoyue did not immediately order the gunpowder cart to be lit, but ordered the army to stride forward, and then load the bayonet and shoot when the enemy was close. Hit by the high-velocity firing needle gun, the man turned on his back, and the corpses were scattered all over the field, screaming and running for his life. - I must explain here that the reason why this Taiping army is so unable to fight is because they are all second-line auxiliaries.

"Oops! Hit the trick! ”

In fact, just saw in the telescope that the Qing army that was out of the city to kill suddenly loaded with bayonets, and Ji Wenyuan, the general of the Taiping Army who was ordered to command the battlefield of Shencemen, had already understood the plan, and Ji Wenyuan did not hesitate in remorse, and quickly ordered the most elite 2,000 soldiers under his command to charge, intercept the real Wu army Lian Yong head-on, and at the same time sent someone to contact Wei Changhui, who was escorting behind, so that Wei Changhui knew that his target was still in Shencemen.

The biggest difference between elite soldiers and auxiliaries is weapons and equipment, in the telescope to see the second wave of the Taiping army is all equipped with snow bright blades, and the hands are also expensive standard shields, Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate, immediately ordered to ignite the gunpowder cart and the firecrackers on the horses, the firecrackers exploded violently, the war horses were in pain, and they ran wildly along the flat official road, and rushed directly to the opposite enemy.

The sky has eyes, at the critical moment, Wu Chaoyue's fire bull meter of the cottage has a huge deviation, that is, he forgot to calculate the burning time of the fuse, and when the frightened war horse rushed to the elite soldiers of the Taiping army with a gunpowder cart, the fuse was still not burned out, and at the same time, the experienced elite soldiers of the Taiping army also scattered to avoid the horse, Wu Chaoyue's fire horse plan did not say that it killed and injured a large number of Taiping elites, that is, even the Taiping soldiers did not injure half of it, and rushed over directly.

"! Why did Lao Tzu forget to calculate the length of the fuse?! ”

When he shouted in regret, Wu Chaoyue's triangular eyes suddenly widened bigger than a bull's eye, and many Wu Jun Lian Yong's eyes were also round, so nervous that they even forgot to breathe and shout!

Because, the carriage loaded with hundreds of catties of gunpowder advanced along the flat official road, and rushed directly towards the Taiping Army's handsome banner, although the Taiping soldiers who protected Ji Wenyuan shot and fired arrows one after another, lined up to block, but the eyes of the war horse were covered with black cloth, and the beast could endure the pain, and was shot a few shots and arrows and did not die for a while, but ran faster! Rush harder!

"It's smoking in the car! There was gunpowder in the car! ”

Finally, some Taiping soldiers saw that something was wrong, and several Taiping soldiers immediately rushed up, risking being killed to pull the reins of the carriage, so as not to give the gunpowder cart a chance to explode in front of Ji Wenyuan. However, just as they joined forces and struggled to hold the wild horse, the damn fuse on the powder cart finally burned to the end............

"Bombing!"

In the loud noise, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and several Taiping warriors who sacrificed their lives to stop their horses were naturally swept away dozens of steps away by the air waves, and they had already died heroically before they could even make a sound. However, to the disbelief of the Taiping soldiers, and for some reason, Ji Wenyuan, who was at least twenty paces away, actually fell to the ground on his back, his upper body and face were still covered with blood and minced meat!

Behind Ji Wenyuan's head, who was lying down, there was also a bloody and bloody corpse of a war horse! (To be continued.) )