Using the fake flagship to kill the last steam gunboat of the Taiping Army is only the beginning of the Wu army's military operation to attack Raozhou, and it can even be said that it has not yet completed the first step.

In addition, because there is no God's perspective, Wu Chaoyue is not even sure whether the Raozhou battlefield is a trap of the Taiping Army, and whether the core elite troops of the Raozhou Taiping Army who went to Jingdezhen to find Ji Rongxian's rebels to settle accounts are not!

But fortunately, Wu Chaoyue can be sure that the Raozhou Taiping Army has only the last steam gunboat left, the Rongguang, and it is also certain that the Rongguang, which has taken advantage of the time and place, has been killed by his own shameless tricks, although the Taiping Army Navy still has some old-fashioned sail warships of different sizes that can be used to fight, but it is no longer the opponent of the Wu army's steam gunboat Luo Weilin. Therefore, after quickly gathering the troop convoy that was disrupted by the Glory, Wu Chaoyue immediately strode south with the fleet, and sailed to Leting Xiaogang, five miles north of the Pojiang River estuary.

At dawn, the port of Leting, which was scheduled as the landing place by the Wu army in the pre-war plan, was finally in sight, but what made Wu Chaoyue scold was that because of the Taiping army scouting the fast boat, a small group of Taiping troops stationed in Leting had already set fire to the dock on the shore of the lake, and it was very cunning to increase the difficulty of landing for the Wu army, and at the same time, the sailing fleet of the Taiping army had all rushed out of the mouth of the Pojiang River, and howled and pounced on the Wu army's troop transport fleet with the favorable wind direction, obviously wanting to impact the Wu army's troop transport fleet at any cost. As much as possible, kill the officers and men of the Wu Army's land division who are not good at water warfare on the water surface to reduce the pressure on land warfare.

After Wu Chaoyue gave an order, the Luo Weilin, which was hoisting the new handsome flag, immediately raised the flag, and more than 100 Wu army sampans swayed and rowed, heading straight for the Taiping sailing fleet. The officers and men of the Wu army, who had been trained in water shooting on the troop carrier, also rushed to the deck one after another, raising their muskets and preparing to meet them. The Luo Weilin concentrated its artillery fire, bombarded the Taiping defenders on the Leting Wharf, opened the way with firepower, and covered the Wu army of a battalion under Liu Mingchuan to seize the wharf.

The fierce battle began again, and in the sound of artillery fire, a battalion of Wu troops who fought in the vanguard took the front in small boats and swarmed to the burning Leting Wharf, while the Taiping troops on the shore resisted stubbornly by virtue of the fortifications built in advance, and kept shooting at the soldiers on the Wu army ships without any protection, and the Wu soldiers were constantly shot and shot, and several particularly unlucky Wu soldiers fell directly into the water and died. However, the Wu army's small boat did not stop, quickly approaching the dock, or jumped directly on the burning dock, or directly docked, risking the risk of being shot at any time to rush to the land, charging forward and hiding behind the pile of debris, suppressing the Taiping soldiers after the fortifications with firepower, covering the troop transport ship to the shore. During this period, the Taiping Army also lit the mines that were hastily laid, which caused some casualties to the soldiers of the Wu army, and Wu Chaoyue couldn't help but scold, "The son of a bitch is really fucking cunning and stubborn." ”

Even more stubborn was the sailing fleet of the Taiping Army, although the sampan fleet of the Wu Army successfully met the sailing fleet of the Taiping Army, and also relied on superior weapons to gain the upper hand in the water battle, using the small-caliber artillery on the bow to sink a number of Taiping Army boats one after another, beating the boats of the Taiping Army sailors to the point that they could only parry, and had no power to fight back, and at the same time used bitter acid grenades to severely damage a Taiping army's long dragon boat. However, the number of ships of the Taiping army is too much, there are nearly 300 of them, and more than 100 Wu army sampan clippers are all with three heads and six arms, and they cannot stop all the enemy ships. But......

However, these Taiping army boats soon found that they were too naïve, the Wu army's troop carriers were both bulky and unarmed, but the Wu army officers and men who shot on the deck not only had accurate marksmanship, but also firepower was endless, almost never stopped, and the Taiping army boats that thought they could kill were basically not able to fight close to the board, and the soldiers on the ship had been swept away by the dense firepower of the Wu army, and those who did not die only dared to climb on the bottom of the boat, and did not dare to get up and drive the boat again. The dense firepower of the Wu army blocked the lake and protected the troop carrier near the side.

Only the Taiping Army's long dragon, tow and fast crab and other big ships can still effectively threaten the safety of the Wu army's troop carriers, but fortunately, knowing this, the Wu army's sampan clippers focus on hitting the Taiping army's big ships, desperately blocking the front and chasing behind, throwing bitter acid grenades near the side to prevent the Taiping army's big ships from approaching the Wu army's troop transport fleet, and the two sides are guns and cannons to each other, fighting each other.

At this time, a battalion of Wu army troop carriers responsible for seizing the wharf has basically docked, Wu army officers and men jumped into shallow water with muskets, shouted and rushed to the land, storming the land position of the Taiping army, the Taiping army continued to resist stubbornly, but unexpectedly several grenadier shells suddenly flew out of the Wu army's formation, and smashed their heads and faces on the Taiping army's position, the Taiping army's position was in chaos, and the Wu army took the opportunity to launch a charge, and quickly approached the Taiping army's position.

The situation on land is that the enemy and us have begun to intertwine, and the Luo Weilin, which had previously provided fire cover for the land battlefield, of course, turned around its muzzle and began to pour artillery work on the Taiping Army's naval fleet, and also used all picric acid shells to kill chickens and knives, and at the same time gradually accelerated, began to dominate the enemy with tonnage superiority, and directly hit the Taiping Army's small boats, which were absolutely inferior in speed and displacement, and the Taiping Army's naval fleet was in great chaos, and the threat to the Wu Army's troop transport fleet was greatly reduced.

After another period of fierce fighting, the landing Wu army finally succeeded in expelling the small number of Taiping army Leting garrisons, but before the Wu army soldiers could vacate the landing space, the land south of Leting was full of people, and a Taiping army of about 1,000 people rushed quickly from the direction of the mouth of the Pojiang River. Wu Chaoyue was furious when he saw it, and scolded: "The tiger is not powerful, you long hair treat Lao Tzu as a sick cat!" Raise the banner and tell my pro-military battalion to land on the beach and teach these long-haired people a lesson! ”

…………

Of course, it was the Shizhenfa Department of the Taiping Army's garrison army stationed at the Pojiangkou Fort that hurriedly came from the Pojiangkou Mouth to reinforce the troops, and seeing from a distance that there were not many soldiers of the Wu army landing on the shore, Shi Zhenfa secretly screamed a fluke, and hurriedly urged the army to speed up the march and not give the Wu soldiers a chance to continue to land. As a result, when the Taiping army was speeding up the charge, more than 20 Wu army troop carriers rushed straight to the shallows south of Leting, and the Wu soldiers on board did not have time to make any preparations, so they jumped directly into the shallow water and dragged the mud and water to the shore.

Seeing this scene, Shi Zhenfa, who knew the landing battle very well, was not afraid of rejoicing, and hurriedly shouted: "Brothers, rush! Rush up and don't give the demon soldiers a chance to form a formation, the demon soldiers jump directly into the water, there must be muskets into the water, rest assured! ”

Shi Zhenfa brought his own direct army, both loyal and obedient, hearing Shi Zhenfa's shout, of course, everyone rushed to be the first, all of them rushed wildly, and the speed was extremely fast and quickly approached the group of Wu soldiers who were still working hard to land. What made Shi Zhenfa and the Taiping army even more happy was that the group of Wu troops on the opposite side turned out to be a group of rookies, seeing the Taiping army rushing quickly, not only did they not hurry up to form a formation to meet the battle, but on the contrary, they also rushed to the ground, gave up the opportunity to reload and reload, and shot directly at the Taiping army crowd.

Of course, the great joy soon turned into a big surprise, when he saw the Wu soldiers who were shooting on their stomachs did not make any action of loading ammunition, and immediately fired the second shot after the first shot, and quickly fired the third shot after the second shot, and the marksmanship was still very accurate, and the Taiping soldiers who were shouting and charging were constantly stacked to the ground, Shi Zhenfa and the Taiping army were of course all open their mouths, they couldn't believe what they saw in front of them, and shouted endlessly, "The demon soldier's gun has a demon method, and it will fire continuously!" The guns can't be shot! ”

Wu Chaoyue's pro-military battalion, which was plugged in with Henry's rifle, could easily suppress more than ten times the number of enemies in terms of firepower, and it was of course easy to pack up the Shizhen army that even had to be supplied with Minnie guns and flintlock pistols, and it was of course easy to pack up the Shizhen army, and in less than ten minutes of the battle, the Shizhen army was killed and wounded by Wu Chaoyue's pro-military camp, leaving the dead and wounded soldiers all over the ground and fleeing in embarrassment, and they did not dare to approach the Wu army's position for half a step. Although there was no wharf to carry heavy weapons ashore, and a large number of ships ran aground and lost their mobility, it also broke the Taiping Army's sailors' desire to sink the Wu troop carriers on the water.

Even so, there were still two particularly unlucky Wu troop carriers that were sunk by the artillery fire of the sailors of the Taiping Army, causing many Wu sergeants to drown, and almost all the weapons and ammunition carried on board were lost in the water. Wu Chaoyue was furious when he saw this, and ordered the boiler of the Luo Weilin to be fully opened, and rampage in the Taiping army fleet at the highest speed, bringing up waves to set off a number of Taiping army boats, and the Wu army's sampan fleet was the sail ship that focused on attacking the Taiping army, and set fire to three Taiping army ships one after another, and the Taiping army sailors could not parry, and saw that the Wu army fleet had docked and could no longer be sunk, so they had to honestly flee back to the mouth of the Pojiang River.

After the retreat of the naval division, the land division of the Taiping Army led by Shi Zhenfa also immediately slipped away to the way they came, and Wu Chaoyue, who had not had time to transfer the heavy weapons and disembarked, did not order the pursuit, but while directing the army to land and rush to build a temporary wharf, he asked the soldiers of the Wu army to search the battlefield and scratch their tongues to ask for confessions.

More than a dozen Taiping prisoners, including a commander, were soon brought to Wu Chaoyue, who personally interrogated them, first comforting them with kind words before asking them for confessions. But it's a pity that although most of these captives have questions to answer and don't deliberately say anything false, including the captured Taiping army commander, they don't know the specific situation of Raozhou's capital city now, but they heard that Shi Zhenji led the troops to leave Raozhou, but they don't know where Shi Zhenji took those troops and where they are now.

The military situation is like fire, the fighter plane is fleeting, things have come to this point, no matter how unclear the enemy situation is, Wu Chaoyue has no choice but to command the army to quickly carry weapons ashore, let Bao Zhide lead the sailors and an elite battalion of soldiers to protect the fleet, and then hurriedly take the small road east with heavy weapons and a small amount of grain and grass, and hurriedly rush to Raozhou Mansion to fight an uncertain battle that confidants do not know the enemy.

During the march of the Wu army, all the villages and markets along the way had been evacuated, and all the grain, pigs and cattle had been transferred, which not only made it impossible for the Wu army to supply food on the spot, but also made it impossible for the Wu army to recruit people to accompany the army, and at the same time made it more difficult for the Wu army to collect specific information about Raozhou. It was only after rushing to the Tuanlin area directly north of the capital city of Raozhou that the soldiers of the Wu army found some local people who had not been evacuated in time and asked for some important information from them.

When the people of Tuanlin provided information for the Wu army was quite gratifying, when the people in the countryside were notified to evacuate, the Taiping soldiers of Raozhou directly told the local people, saying that the Wu army came too suddenly, and Shi Zhenji took most of the army to Jingdezhen, and the Taiping army of Raozhou had no way to resist the attack of the Wu army, so they could only prepare to close the city and hold on, and asked the local people to quickly transfer with grain and cattle, so as not to rob and capture the strong men by the Wu army. However, after the soldiers of the Wu army reported the news to Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue, who had a bad character, became suspicious, and suspected that the Taiping Army had ulterior motives and other motives for publicly disseminating such important news.

In the evening, more than 3,000 Wu soldiers arrived at the suburbs of Raozhou City very smoothly, stationed on the plateau of Xiatalong, and condescendingly observed the situation of Raozhou City. At the same time, there are few lights on the north gate of Raozhou, and the defenders are scarce, and there is no sign of facing the enemy.

"It's strange, why didn't the longhair burn the streets outside the city? No matter how inexperienced Governor Rao Mao is, he should know very well that leaving these streets and houses is beneficial to our army's siege? Isn't Longhair afraid that my soldiers will take advantage of the cover of these houses to sneak under the walls and dig the city, or hide behind the windows and courtyard walls and beat them with Minnie guns to the point that there is no place for them in the city? Could it be that there is an ambush in the streets below the city? Also, why are there so many hairy guards on the city walls? Is it an empty city plan? Or is it deliberately luring our army to attack the city? ”

When he was full of suspicion, the soldiers led a man with a roe deer head to Wu Chaoyue, saying that he was a Hubei spy sent by Zhang Dejian to go undercover in Raozhou City, and the carrier pigeon that informed Wu Jun of the situation in Raozhou was also released by him. Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed when he heard this, and first rewarded this capable spy on the spot, and then asked him: "On the day when Changmao sent troops from Raozhou, did you see with your own eyes that it was Shi Zhenji's soldiers?" The long hair that went out of the city, how is the equipment? ”

"Back to Zhennan Wang, the little one just saw the banner of Shi Zhenji's big hair with his own eyes, but didn't see him himself." The roe head rat nodded and replied truthfully: "The long-haired equipment that goes out of the city should be their elite, there are many foreign guns, and more than a dozen mountain splitting cannons, and the soldiers are all strong men, no white-haired veterans and baby soldiers. ”

"Eighty percent are elite soldiers." Wu Chaoyue nodded slightly, and hurriedly asked, "How many elite troops are there in Raozhou's Changmao?" And the long hair that went out of the city, where is it now? ”

"It's ......." The roe head rat was in great difficulty, and replied with a sad face: "King Zhennan forgives the sin, the establishment of Longhair is too chaotic, and the villain was sent by General Manager Zhang's Office to go undercover in Raozhou more than two months ago, and he is really not familiar with the situation of Longhair's army." As for where the long hair that left the city is now, it is even more impossible for the small one to know. ”

Wu Chaoyue did not blame the roe deer, because the chaotic and complex formation of the Taiping Army was that Wu Chaoyue and Zhang Dejian often felt headaches, not to mention a grassroots spy of the Wu army who had not received a good education, and at the same time, there was no scout to help him on the enemy's territory, and it was even more difficult for a small spy of the Wu army to find out the location of the enemy's army. So Wu Chaoyue waved his hand and said, "I don't blame you, you have worked very hard, what else do you know about the long hair in Raozhou?" ”

"Back to Zhennanwang, when Changmao evacuated the people outside the city today, Xiao heard a very important news." The roe head rat eye quickly straightened his waist slightly, and said: "Those long-haired soldiers who expelled the people said that Raozhou City was very dangerous this time, and they were afraid that they would not be able to hold it, so they told the people to quickly flee to nearby Yugan and Leping, and also said that their long-haired soldiers were also ready to burn the city and retreat at any time, and they would not leave Raozhou City behind to cheapen our Qing Dynasty to fight against the rebels." ”

"The long-haired soldiers said that they are afraid that they will not be able to hold Raozhou? Still preparing to burn the city and retreat? Wu Chaoyue asked in surprise: "Did you hear this with your own ears, or did you hear other people's rumors?" ”

"The little one heard it with his own ears." The roe head rat replied truthfully, and said with some pride: "It was also the small one that came out of the mouth of the long-haired soldier, and they came to force the small one to go to the rest of the work, and the little one pretended not to know why, and the cliché came out of the mouth of the long-haired soldier." ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded slightly, but said in his heart: "I'm afraid that the long-haired soldiers deliberately said it to you, deliberately releasing fake news, this long-haired hand should still learn from me." How many secrets can a few long-haired soldiers who evacuated the people know, and they even know about preparing to burn the city and retreat, if it weren't for the arrangement of Shi Zhenchang and Shi Dade, this king would be the first to disbelieve it. ”

"If this is really a deliberate arrangement by the long-haired generals, then what is their purpose? The empty city plan made me dare not attack the city immediately, and buy time for Shi Zhenji to bring the long-haired elite back to help? Or do you want to capture the old and make me think that this is an empty plan, despite the exhaustion of the army and the lack of sufficient siege weapons, to forcibly attack the city, and take the opportunity to inflict heavy damage on my army in the best battle to defend the city? ”

At a glance, it is not difficult to see through the information provided by the Wu army's spies that it is just the news deliberately spread by the Taiping army, but after seeing through this, a new problem is put in front of Wu Chaoyue. Or let the army camp and rest, build enough siege weapons, and then launch a frontal assault?