Wu Jun's meticulous work was also quite powerful, and in the evening, Nie Shicheng and Shao Yanhong had already received the news that the Qing army's reinforcements were crossing the river in Mengjin, and Nie Shicheng and Shao Yanhong, who were already under great pressure, suddenly felt that the pressure on their shoulders was even greater, and they believed that Luoyang City was strong and difficult to fight. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

There was also something unexpected to Nie Shicheng and Shao Yanhong, it was just dark, just as they were discussing how to deal with the Qing army reinforcements that would be killed from Mengjin tomorrow, the lookout post of the Wu army set up high outside the city suddenly came to report, saying that when it was almost dark, they used binoculars to see an army with a white crown tassel in Luoyang City, and went north to the direction of Anximen, the north gate of Luoyang.

"Do you see clearly? Really wearing a white hat? ”

Shao Yanhong asked the sentry of the Wu army, and after getting confirmation, Shao Yanhong's face became grim, and he turned to Nie Shicheng and said: "Gongting, I'm afraid there will be movement tonight, and the rebel army is afraid that the idea of robbing the camp." ”

Nie Shicheng also fell into Zhang Zhidong's trap, and after nodding, Nie Shicheng immediately ordered: "Send double scouts and secret whistles on the Anxi Gate side, prepare more drums and gongs, and call the police immediately if there is anything abnormal." In addition, an order was sent to Li Yong's army on night duty that the enemy might disguise himself as us tonight and sneak attack our army's camp, and if the enemy situation is discovered, he was only allowed to guard the camp and not go out of the camp to fight, so as not to fish in troubled waters by the rebellious army. ”

After Zhang Zhidong found out that the Qing army in Luoyang might go out of the city to sneak attack, Nie Shicheng and Shao Yanhong really didn't dare to attack the city overnight, and honestly only stuck to the camp and guarded closely. In order to further confuse and mislead the judgment of the Wu army, at the time of the third watch, a Qing army soldier pretending to be the Wu army really found out An Ximen and pretended to attack the Wu army camp, and at the same time deliberately alarmed the Wu army scouts on the road, inducing the Wu army to ring the drum and gong to call the police, and then pretended that the sneak attack failed, and naturally withdrew all of them to Luoyang City.

"Wu thief can be dizzy." Zhang Zhidong said very proudly: "Found that we really went out of the city to sneak attack, Wu thief would never think that this was just our bluff, he would only think that we were really strong, not only enough to defend the city, but also have the spare strength to launch a sneak attack." Tonight, we can sit back and relax. ”

Looking at the pocket watch, he saw that the time was already half past two o'clock in the morning, and it was almost impossible for the Wu army to send troops to attack Luoyang at this time, Zhang Zhiwan also nodded, agreeing with the judgment that his cousin was safe tonight. Then Zhang Zhiwan asked, "What about tomorrow?" What if the Wu thieves launch a siege tomorrow morning? The Wu thief army has not gone up the mountain to cut down trees in the past few days, and must have prepared a large number of siege weapons, and with a little preparation, they can launch an attack. ”

"Brother, if you are the commander of the Wu thief, will you dare to attack the city tomorrow?" Zhang Zhidong asked very strangely: "There are our ambush soldiers in Longmen Mountain, and the reinforcements from Mengjin to the south may rush to Luoyang at any time within tomorrow to reinforce, and the defenders in our city are not only sufficient, but even dare to go out of the city to attack the camp of the Wu thief, and design to lure the Wu thief's army to storm Luoyang City." If you were the commander of the Wu thief, in the face of such a grim situation, would you dare to attack Luoyang City desperately? ”

After thinking carefully for a moment, Zhang Zhiwan smiled dumbly, and said: "I forgot to consider it from the position of Wu thief, if I were Nie Shicheng's thief, in front of your kid to put out this ecstasy array, unless I am sure that I can deal with ambushes and reinforcements at the same time, and conquer Luoyang City in one battle, I will never dare to take this risk." ”

When the sky was twilight, a messenger of the Qing army disguised as an ordinary person stumbled to the city of Luoyang, bringing the great news that the Kaifeng reinforcements had arrived in Gongxian County yesterday. Zhang Zhiwan, Yang Feixiong and others were crazy about shouting, but Zhang Zhidong asked the messenger very calmly: "How many messengers came, have they been caught by the Wu thief army?" ”

"There are three of us." The messenger replied truthfully: "In order not to give the Wu thief a pot, we are acting in three ways, I will take the south bank of Luoshui, and the other two brothers will take the north bank. ”

"Good!" Zhang Zhidong applauded and said happily: "Although some of the brothers who are sorry for the brothers who took the risk to send us a letter, I still hope that they will be caught by the Wu thief scouts, so that the Wu thieves will also know that our brigade of reinforcements will be able to kill them in the back within tomorrow." ”

After that, Zhang Zhidong hurriedly suggested that Zhang Zhiwan quickly make public the good news that Kaifeng reinforcements had arrived in Gongxian County, so as to boost the morale of the soldiers and civilians defending the city. Zhang Zhiwan promised, and just when he was about to be afraid of someone to give an order, he didn't expect that another scout stumbled into the door, panting and shouting: "Lord Zhang, the Wu thief has sent troops!" Wu thieves have sent troops to attack the city! ”

The Qing army headquarters, which was jubilant just now, suddenly fell silent, and only the tea bowl in the hand of Li Xiqi, the magistrate of Luoyang, who was drinking tea, fell to the ground and made a cracking sound. After opening his mouth, Zhang Zhiwan quickly came back to his senses, and hurriedly asked, "Have you seen clearly?" Are you really here to attack the city?! ”

"See clearly, the Wu rebel army not only dispatched dozens of artillery, but also brought a large number of siege equipment."

The scout's gasping answer made Zhang Zhiwan completely dumbfounded, and also made the clever Zhang Zhidong rarely dizzy, and exclaimed, "How is it possible? There's absolutely no way I'm going to have any flaws in my empty city plan? ”

No one was able to answer Zhang Zhidong's questions, and some just hurriedly followed Zhang Zhiwan to the city, and while visiting the scene to understand the situation, they hurriedly organized the army to go to the city to fight. As a result, after arriving at the Jianchun Gate Tower, which had been opened up by the Wu army as a siege battlefield yesterday, without raising the binoculars, the Zhang family brothers, Li Xiqi, Yang Feixiong and others had clearly seen that in the direction of the Wu army's camp in the distance, there was indeed a large Wu army team rushing towards the Jianchun Gate, with white hats like snow, like a majestic white dragon.

"It's just a backup tactic." Zhang Zhiwan's face was gloomy, and he hurriedly wrote an official document in person, ordering the Dai Ying Department of Huaiqing's reinforcements to abandon the original plan of stationing in Anle Village and rush directly to Luoyang for reinforcements at full speed.

It was still when the Wu army arranged the formation, Zhang Zhidong found that his empty city plan should not have been seen through by the Wu army - in order to prevent the Qing army from suddenly killing from Longmen Mountain, the Wu army deliberately divided a thousand troops to guard the Luoshui Bridge, not giving the Qing army a chance to ambush the flank of the Wu army. At the same time, more than 1,000 cavalry of the Wu army were also drawn out of two battalions and arranged in the northeast corner of Luoyang City to guard against Qing reinforcements that might arrive at any time.

However, the more this is the case, the more confused Zhang Zhidong becomes, and the more he can't figure out a question - he has obviously been fooled, and he may even know that the main force of reinforcements from his own army is about to arrive, how can Nie Shicheng dare to attack Luoyang City, which should be well defended in his opinion? Could it be that Nie Shicheng's strength is really so strong? Aside from the army guarding against the Qing army outside the city, there are also the artillery battalions that stay behind and guard the artillery, not counting the Ruzhou regimental training that is not very useful at all, the Wu army team that Nie Shicheng can use to attack the city is only about 4,000 people at most?

"Is it to be tempted by force?" This thought flashed through Zhang Zhidong's heart, and he also prayed in his heart: "God bless, I hope it is just to test, so that as long as we fight tenaciously and show toughness, it is possible to force Wu Thief to take the initiative to retreat." ”

It's just that when escorting his father's coffin back to his hometown for burial, Zhang Zhidong, who had seen Wu Jun's camp from afar, quickly discovered that even if Wu Jun was just a test of force, the defenders of Luoyang were actually a little overwhelmed. After arranging the offensive formation, more than 60 Wu army light and heavy artillery immediately opened fire and roared, the first round of artillery bombardment easily collapsed the Jianchun Gate city tower built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the city tower collapsed and made a loud noise, the Luoyang Qing army and the regimental training who had only fought a few small battles with the Twist Army before also began to turn pale, and they did not dare to imagine that they were directly hit by the Wu army's shells.

What's even more terrifying is the Wu army's picric acid flowering shells and the Congreve rocket carrying the picric acid bomb, the explosion is so powerful that the Qing army can't believe it, forget it, immediately after the explosion is a sea of fire, burned so that the Qing army generals and soldiers who were ignited by the flames cried wolf howls, rolling all over the ground, and quickly ignited many houses and courtyards in the city, thick smoke rose to the sky, and fires broke out in all directions.

Zhang Zhidong and Yang Feixiong, the chief general of the Qing army, were pressed and squatted behind the arrow stacks by the Qing soldiers, because not only were there shells coming from the sky at any time, but there were also snipers of the Wu army on the ground who were constantly killing the enemy with cold guns, and as long as the Qing soldiers defending the city dared to show their heads, they could be hit by a suddenly flying Mini bullet at any time. What's even worse is that the artillery used by the Qing army to defend the city did not fire a few shots, and the artillery position was just exposed, and it didn't take long for it to be killed by the Wu army's artillery and grenadiers, and it completely became too big to fight back.

The huge explosion was deafening, Zhang Zhidong squatted on the arrow stack and turned blue, not afraid, but blaming himself, regretting that he had not been able to carefully understand the situation of the Wu army when passing through Hubei, and scolded the frog at the bottom of his well, thinking that he had helped his father in military affairs for several years, and led the army to fight some battles to suppress the uprising of the Miao people in Guizhou, so he thought that he was familiar with the military, and wrote so many experiences in the art of war, and he didn't know that there was such fierce firepower in the world, such a terrible foreign gun and foreign artillery.

In order to cope with the next battle, the Wu army only prepared the artillery fire for half an hour before launching the siege, seeing that the Wu army's artillery fire stopped, Zhang Zhidong also rekindled some hope in his heart, and suggested that Yang Feixiong immediately act according to the plan and continue to blaid and intimidate the Wu army. As a result, because the eardrum was almost shattered by the sound of the explosion, Zhang Zhidong yelled several times, and Yang Feixiong heard what he meant clearly, and immediately ordered someone to light wolf smoke at a designated place in the city to send a signal to the fake ambush soldiers outside the city.

Contrary to Zhang Zhidong's expectations, his move did not receive any effect, after seeing the signal in the city, although the Qing army ambushed in Longmen Mountain responded as soon as possible, it was a loud noise of beating drums and firing cannons, camouflaging the illusion of a surprise attack. However, the siege soldiers of the Wu army did not stop, and they were not affected in the slightest and directly attacked the old Luoyang city wall, building one after another trench bridge carts on the trenches under Luoyang City, pushing pointed wooden donkeys and carrying flying ladders to stride across the trenches.

Fortunately, Zhang Zhidong's second move played a certain role, when the Wu army's soldiers and soldiers' flying ladders were built on the city's head in large numbers, and at the same time, the Wu soldiers under the pointed wooden donkeys also struggled to excavate, the Qing army suddenly ignited the mines buried under the city wall, and the black powder mines exploded one after another, and the Wu soldiers screamed and fell to the ground, and the offensive was reduced.

"Good!"

First, he slapped his palm on the arrow buttress and shouted hello, and when Zhang Zhidong hurriedly looked into the distance through the small hole in the arrow buttress, he was disappointed to see that the Wu army not only did not show the slightest sign of retreating after suffering a loss, but also threw a battalion of troops into the city wall position to strengthen the offensive. At the same time, the soldiers of the Wu army under the city wall quickly came to their senses after the panic period of the sudden attack, and while rescuing the wounded, they restarted the ant excavation, and many wounded Wu soldiers refused to retreat, still gritted their teeth and re-entered the battle.

The fake ambush failed to deceive the Wu army to distract, and the real mines failed to shake the Wu army's determination to attack the city. As a result, at this time, the true face of the low combat effectiveness of the Qing army and regimental training in Luoyang was soon gradually exposed, and it was impossible to resist the impact of the elite soldiers of the Wu army like wolves and tigers.

At this moment, Zhang Zhidong's stay on the city wall was purely a drag, and after sending someone to forcibly erect Zhang Zhidong off the city wall, Yang Feixiong was not only forced to immediately put into the reserve, but also immediately brought his own personal team to undertake the heavy task of fighting fires and repairing leaks, and personally went into battle to start a bloody battle with the soldiers of the Wu army.

After being forcibly carried through the streets of Luoyang City, which had already been in chaos, and came to the headquarters of the Qing army to meet his cousin Zhang Zhiwan, Zhang Zhidong immediately went to Zhang Zhiwan to plead guilty, and frankly admitted that he had made the mistake of underestimating the enemy and underestimating the real combat effectiveness of the Wu army. Zhang Zhiwan said with a calm face: "I don't blame you, it's the Wu thief's military strength that is too strong." If you hadn't used a trick to stabilize the Wu thief for three days, Luoyang City would have been broken by the Wu thief a long time ago. ”

The cousin's comfort did not make Zhang Zhidong feel easy, and Zhang Zhidong also broke his head all the time and didn't understand, Wu Jun had obviously been deceived, and the reinforcements of the Qing army had already arrived in two directions, why did Nie Shi become and only use half of his military strength to storm Luoyang City?

The timely arrival of Huaiqing reinforcements has become the only hope of the Qing army in Luoyang, and it is also by relying on this slim hope that Yang Feixiong and Liu Dingfu can inspire the soldiers under their command to continue to invest in the Jianchunmen position, desperately resisting the invasion of the Wu army and fighting the trapped beasts. However, it is a pity that the huge gap in weapons and equipment doomed the dying struggle of the Qing army to be in vain, with the continuous explosion of bitter acid grenades, the Wu army soldiers did not even need to continue to dig the city wall to carry out blasting, and they could directly step on the ladder to rush up the city wall in large numbers, seize a large area of the city's head position, and gradually lay the victory of breaking the city.

Yang Feixiong, who had a very bad temper but a very tenacious personality, refused to give up, and used the third trick arranged by Zhang Zhidong in advance, deliberately letting the soldiers of the Wu army crash open the gate of the Yuecheng of Jianchun Gate with a striking wood, luring the soldiers of the Wu Army into the Yuecheng of Jianchun Gate, and then ignited the mines buried in the Yuecheng beforehand, killing and injuring many soldiers of the Wu Army. However, it is a pity that the Qing army not only failed to force the Wu army to retreat, but on the contrary, it completely angered the Wu army officers and soldiers, and also forced Nie Shicheng to put another battalion of troops to the front to strengthen the offensive again.

The bad news that the defense line of Jianchun Gate was crumbling came to Zhang Zhiwan one after another, Zhang Zhiwan's face was pale, but he could only prepare in advance for the destruction of Jianchun Gate and the street battle of Wu Jun. At the same time, Zhang Zhiwan instructed Zhang Zhidong: "Xiaoda, change into clothes that are convenient for movement, prepare horses, dry food and travel expenses, if the situation is not right, immediately go out with my Wu Ben to the west gate to Michi, where there is no army of Wu thieves." ”

"Let's go together!"

Zhang Zhidong heard Zhang Zhiwan's voice that he wanted to stay and live and die with Luoyang, but Zhang Zhiwan shook his head helplessly, and said with a wry smile: "I am Qincha, after taking off the top of Luoyang prefect Ren Gui, I have to take on the responsibility of defending Luoyang's land, if I abandon the city and leave, even if I can live, the lightest is the fate of Xinjiang, I can't stand that kind of humiliation." ”

"Then I will stay and live and die with Luoyang with you!" Zhang Zhidong yelled.

"Nonsense!" Zhang Zhiwan scolded: "You have a wife and children, and you don't have to bear any responsibility, why should you accompany me to die in vain!" ”

"I don't care! You're my brother, I can't leave you alone to run for my life! ”

When the Zhang brothers were arguing, the Wu army's blasting team had also directly blasted open the inner gate of Jianchun Gate with picric acid explosives, and the Wu soldiers flocked into the city, and the Qing army resisted with street fortifications, but it still couldn't stop the Wu army's grenade attack techniques, and the strongholds were pulled out by the Wu soldiers one after another. What's worse is that Yang Feixiong, the deputy general of the Qing army, was killed by stray bullets in the fierce battle, and Liu Dingfu could only temporarily take on the heavy responsibility of command, which also caused many smart Qing army green battalion soldiers to take the opportunity to slip away, which seriously shook the morale of the defenders.

Even the Ruzhou regimental training, which was not of much use, had already followed the Wu army into the city, and the slogan of surrender and not killing also began to echo in Luoyang City. Li Xiqi, the magistrate of Luoyang County, was even more unrighteous and immediately waved a white flag in front of the county yamen, expressed his sincerity to the Wu army, and sent someone to lead the way for the Wu army soldiers as soon as he surrendered to the Wu army, helping the Wu army soldiers to attack Zhang Zhiwan's Qin Mission, so that the Wu army rushed into the Qing army headquarters while the street fighting was still continuing, and blocked the Zhang brothers who were still arguing.

"Surrender or kill! Surrender or kill! ”

Facing the soldiers of the Wu army who suddenly appeared in front of him like a divine soldier descending from the sky, Zhang Zhiwan's entourage Wu Ben either fled for his life or surrendered, Zhang Zhiwan was also caught off guard, so he could only quickly take out the poison that he had been carrying on his body, wanting to take the poison and commit suicide. Zhang Zhidong was quick-eyed, grabbed Zhang Zhiwan's hand and yelled, "Brother, you can't do this!" ”

"Let go! Let go of me! ”

The Zhang brothers in the dispute were directly kicked over by the Wu soldiers, and after the thick-soled military shoes stepped on the Zhang brothers, Zhang Zhidong had no choice but to shout, "We surrender!" ”

By the way, during the Eight-Nation Alliance, Zhang Zhidong, an old slippery head in the late Qing Dynasty, signed the Southeast Mutual Protection Treaty and agreed to publicly promote Li Hongzhang as the president of China after Cixi and Guangxu were killed by foreigners; On the one hand, he gave Cen Chunxuan a large number of weapons produced in Hankou, and sent troops to help Cen Chunxuan go north to King Qin............

After being escorted in front of Nie Shicheng and Shao Yanhong, the commanders of the Wu army, the first thing Zhang Zhidong did was of course to ask Nie Shicheng: "General Nie, how did you see through the empty city plan I arranged, sinner?" ”

It was very strange to ask Zhang Zhidong why he raised this question, and after learning about it, Nie Shicheng smiled and said: "It turned out that you kid did the ghost, and you deceived Lao Tzu really badly, so that Lao Tzu didn't sleep all night the night before, what I'm afraid of is that there are too many defenders in Luoyang City, and my brothers don't have much advantage and too many casualties!" ”

After scolding a swear word, Nie Shicheng smiled again and said: "But even if you are powerful, I won't hide it from you, in fact, until I entered Luoyang City, I was still worried that the progress of the street battle was unfavorable, and I was blocked by your strong troops, and I never saw through your empty city plan." ”

"Then why do you insist on besieging the city?" Zhang Zhidong hurriedly asked.

"If I don't launch a siege, how can I explain to my brother-in-law and the whole army?" Nie Shicheng replied: "My brother-in-law gave me such an important task under the pressure of being scolded for cronyism, and so many soldiers traveled thousands of miles with me to fight Luoyang City, if I don't do my best to conquer Luoyang City, how can I explain to my brother-in-law?" How do you explain to my soldiers? ”

Zhang Zhidong was completely speechless, and only after a while did he mutter: "It's not that my enemy is too cunning, it's not that my enemy is too cunning." ”

Zhang Zhidong was still to come, and Nie Shicheng added, "Also, in fact, your empty city plan has no effect from the beginning, the reason why I delayed the siege for more than two days is mainly because my soldiers are too tired, I have to let them rest and try to make more siege preparations." Otherwise, don't say that you don't have ambushes in Longmen Mountain, even if there are, I will be correct on the first day I arrived in Luoyang! ”

When Zhang Zhidong was even more speechless, Shao Yanhong also ran out to hit Zhang Zhidong, and said with a smile: "You know, our Wu Dashuai once said such a sentence - the times are different, and in the face of absolute strength, the thirty-six strategies can no longer play much role." ”

"If any bluff and empty city plan can work, then can the foreigners still use just over 10,000 troops to take the city of Beijing? In this era, industrial strength is the most important, and guns are the last word. ”