With endless curiosity, at noon the next day, Zeng Guofan's henchman Liu Rong crossed the Yangtze River in the name of returning the gift, all the way to the Hubei New Army camp in Wulidun, but although Wu Chaoyue did not personally greet him at the camp gate, he also ordered to be summoned immediately, allowing Liu Rong to enter the Hubei New Army camp that he had been curious about for a long time. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Liu Rong was disappointed by the results of the visit all the way, the legend of Wu Chaoyue, who had rarely tasted defeat, obviously did not have any outstanding points in camping, the camp defense arrangement could only be regarded as decent at most, the camp ditch was guarded with a fence, a sheep and horse wall behind the fence, the number of watchtowers was barely enough, the camp tent was barely set up and the space configuration in the camp, there was no bunker, there was no wall that allowed soldiers to climb and walk, and finally even the fort was not built. At most, the defensive strength is only equivalent to the temporary camp where the Hunan army spent the night while marching, and compared with the Xinshengzhou camp where the main force of the Hunan army is currently well-fortified, it can only be described as a soil fence.

Secretly sighing that it is really better to be famous than to meet, Liu Rong is extremely interested in the weapons and equipment of the Hubei New Army, the main soldiers are all high-fire rapid-fire needle guns, including Shi Chang and Yong and other grass-roots officers are all equipped with revolvers, new clothes, new hats and new weapons, at first glance, it makes people feel energetic and majestic. Even those armed migrant workers who served as auxiliary workers had a sidecar and a arquebus, the main rifle of the Hunan army, each of them. The equipment was so good that it made Liu Rong drool, and it also made Liu Rong quietly complain more than once, "The sky is not long-eyed, such a good foreign gun, why can't our soldiers each be equipped with one?" ”

In addition, the careful Liu Rong also noticed that the soldiers of the Wu army who were standing guard on duty had several round small cloth bags hanging on their waists, and when Liu Rong curiously asked the Wu Chaoyue soldiers who led the way what was there, the soldiers truthfully replied that it was a grenade bullet. Of course, Liu Rong was very envious when she heard this, and said secretly: "It turns out that it is the grenade bullets that Li Yuandu brought back from Shanghai last time, it is good to hook up with foreigners, and the grenade bullets can be equipped with ordinary soldiers, if there are enough grenade bullets in our army, the battle will be much easier." ”

Finally entered the big tent of the Chinese army and met with Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue's attitude towards Liu Rong was quite affectionate, and he invited him to take a seat and served good tea, and after thanking Zeng Guofan for his return gift, he also set up a banquet to entertain Liu Rong, and Liu Rong accepted it without being polite. Then when it was time to drink from the opposite seat, Liu Rong was surprised to find that the wine glass in front of Wu Chaoyue was filled with tea, and asked curiously: "Wu Futai, your military discipline is so strict that you don't drink a drop of alcohol in the army?" ”

"It's not a complete drop of alcohol, the usual rule is to drink no more than three glasses." Wu Chaoyue smiled and explained: "But today is an exception, I am going to launch a siege battle tonight, in order not to miss something, so I don't drink a drop of wine today, I can only replace the wine with tea, and please ask Mr. Meng Rong not to blame." ”

"Siege tonight?" Liu Rong was really taken aback at this moment.

Wu Chaoyue smiled and nodded, and said: "I am already preparing, tonight the third watch will send troops, and after arriving at the battlefield, the artillery will be prepared, and the siege will be officially launched at dawn tomorrow, and we will strive to take down the county seat of Wuchang tomorrow." ”

Looking at Wu Chaoyue with wide eyes, seeing that although Wu Chaoyue's tone was relaxed, his expression and attitude did not seem to be joking, Liu Rong was even more stammered, and only asked after a while: "Wu Futai, how sure are you?" ”

"Six or seven percent sure." Wu Chaoyue replied casually: "Even if you can't take Wuchang County this time, you can at least give the long hair in the city a heavy blow, so that they can't hold on to the city for a long time, so that they can force them to abandon the city and leave." ”

continued to look Wu Chaoyue up and down, and after being extremely suspicious, Liu Rong simply said directly to Wu Chaoyue: "Wu Futai, that student is brave and wants to accompany your army to the battle to watch the battle and see the military might of your army, I wonder if Lord Futai can allow it?" ”

"Welcome." Wu Chaoyue agreed, and said with a smile: "I will personally lead the army to battle tonight, and Mr. Meng Rong will go with me." Also, please ask Mr. Meng Rong to send someone back to send a message to the teacher, saying that I will launch an attack on the city tonight, and ask him to make your army's sailors ready to fight, if Changmao sends a sailor to save Wuchang County, your army's sailors can just take the opportunity to send troops to break the enemy. ”

Unexpectedly, Wu Chaoyue could be calm and confident to this point, and while he became more and more suspicious, Liu Rong did not dare to slack off, while also pushing away the drinking to avoid mistakes, he hurriedly put pen to paper and wrote a book, reporting to Zeng Guofan the important situation that the Hubei New Army was going to launch an attack on the city tonight, and at the same time, according to Wu Chaoyue's request, he reminded Zeng Guofan to let the Hunan army and naval division prepare for war, so as not to delay the enemy fighters.

Next, of course, it was Zeng Guofan's turn to be dumbfounded, if it weren't for the fact that this letter was written by his confidant Liu Rong, Zeng Guofan would definitely suspect that this was a boring prank. But it was precisely because of his trust in Liu Rong that after finally coming back to his senses, although his stomach was still full of doubts, Zeng Guofan still ordered the sailor to prepare for the night battle, and at the same time, Zeng Guofan had to muttered in his stomach, and said secretly: "It's okay, so anxious to attack the city, Ben Shuai wants to see with his own eyes how much ability your kid has on the battlefield." ”

Also dumbfounded were Hu Linyi, the general of the Hunan army, and Liu Kunyi, a Hunan general who was not a descendant of Wu Chaoyue, because Hu Linyi was needed to cover the flank to prevent the landing of the Taiping Army's naval divisions, Wu Chaoyue also sent someone to inform Hu Linyi of his siege plan. Hu Linyi, who was frightened, took no time to come back to his senses, and although he immediately ordered to prepare for a night battle, he was also full of suspicion like Zeng Guofan, and he was determined to observe the true strength of the Hubei New Army tonight.

Liu Kunyi ran to Wu Chaoyue to express his worries, worried that the Taiping army outside the city had not yet been leveled, and rashly launched an attack on the city, but he was afraid that it would not be easy to cause huge casualties. Wu Chaoyue smiled and told Liu Kunyi, "Don't worry, you just have to watch the show with peace of mind tonight, the fortifications outside the city are solid, but no matter how strong the fortifications are, no one guards them, isn't it a bunch of decorations?" ”

In the Hunan army and Liu Kun seven up and eight waiting, the night soon fell, the second watch, the Wu army, who had been resting in the tent, got up, ate supper to receive dry food, prepared enough drinking water to check weapons. At the third watch, they lined up to wait for orders, but it was also at this time that Liu Rongcai, who volunteered to serve as a military observer, was very dumbfounded to find that the soldiers and soldiers of Wu actually lit up with torches in their hands, and did not hide the military operations at all, and did not mind whether they were discovered by the Taiping army. At the same time, what made Liu Rong even more dumbfounded was that Wu Chaoyue only dispatched four battalions, including Liu Kun's Zhuangzi battalion, to fight, and only used two-thirds to fight Wuchang County, which the Hunan army did not even dare to attack.

"This kid surnamed Wu, if he is not a madman, he really has this certainty!" This is what Liu Rong is saying in her heart at this moment.

In the cold night wind, 2,000 Hubei New Army and more than 700 armed men marched out in formation, holding torches as dense as stars, and striding forward with all kinds of siege weapons, but what made Liu Rong continue to be shocked was that the number of siege weapons of the Wu army was obviously small, only about 20 temporary trench and bridge vehicles and dozens of flying ladders, and some pontoon boxes used to build pontoon bridges.

At the same time, Liu Rong also noticed that Wu Jun Lian Yong focused on the strange artillery, there were a lot of them, one type of artillery with a slender barrel had twenty, and the other had five guns with a thick barrel, but the appearance was completely different from the various foreign cannons that Liu Rong had seen before. When Liu Rong asked Wu Chaoyue directly about the names of these guns, Wu Chaoyue replied lightly: "Twenty cannons of that kind are called breech guns, which are thrown in a straight line and are used for long-range purposes, and five cannons of that kind are called mortar guns, with curved ballistics and are used for close use." ”

I couldn't understand the foreign terms in Wu Chaoyue's mouth, Liu Rong could only choose to observe in silence, and also saw with her own eyes the various differences between Wu Chaoyue and the Hunan army in terms of using troops to fight, the formation was dense and he was not afraid of being attacked by the enemy's artillery fire at all, and after arriving at the position, he did not repair temporary fortifications, and directly arranged the formation in the open air; Do not build earth walls to protect the artillery positions, and directly line up the artillery; The choice of position was an eye-opener for Liu Rong, Wu Chaoyue actually placed the army in the southwest corner of the city far away from the city gate, as if he did not intend to attack the city gate that was the easiest to be breached.

At this time, because the Wu army's actions had already been discovered, the city of Wuchang County was also brightly lit, and a large number of Taiping soldiers went to the wall to prepare for battle, although they were worried that there would be an ambush outside the city in the dark night, and the guard Liu Man did not dare to send troops out of the city to defend the defense line of the sheep and horse wall, but he also rushed before the Wu army's artillery was in place, and let several surrounding batteries open fire early, and bombarded the dense torches of the Wu army soldiers with artillery. However, the position of the Wu army happened to be outside the range of the Taiping artillery, and the shells of the Taiping army not only failed to cause damage to the soldiers of the Wu army, but on the contrary, exposed the position of the battery, so that the technical soldiers of the Wu army artillery battalion measured the distance through the clock method and the triangulation method, so that the Wu army's artillery, which was only illuminated by a small number of torches, found a more ideal firing position.

A few minutes later, when the breech guns of the Taiping army fired again one after another, the Wu army's artillery was all in place, and the artillery battalion officer Qian Wei sent someone to Wu Chaoyue to ask for instructions on tactics and when to open the artillery, Wu Chaoyue replied directly: "Open the cannon immediately, ten breech guns, greet the long-haired battery, kill the long-haired battery and then hit the city, and the other ten guns will fight in the city!" ”

The herald of the artillery battalion sang Nuo and rushed back, but Liu Rong, who was next to him, widened his eyes again, and asked Wu Chaoyue in great surprise: "Wu Futai, the student heard it right, right?" Ten cannons to fight inside the city? Most of the long-haired defenders are on the city walls, what is the use of you to put cannonballs into the city? ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled and replied, "Mr. Meng Rong, you don't need to ask more, you will know the effect in a while." ”

Liu Rong nodded blankly, and when he turned his gaze to Wuchang County in the northwest even more blankly, the Wu army's artillery had already roared at the same time, and twenty shells were snatched out one after another, whistling ten to hit the Taiping army batteries on both sides, and ten directly throwing into Wuchang City.

Then, naturally, it was the exclusive time for Liu Rong, a native bun in Hunan, to open his eyes, ten shells hit most of the Taiping Army forts at the same time, suddenly broke out again with an earth-shattering boom, shrapnel flew horizontally, and a huge flame suddenly shrouded the Taiping Army forts, the Taiping soldiers who were hit by shrapnel screamed and fell to the ground, and the gunpowder that was about to be loaded into the barrel was suddenly ignited, either detonated or burning, and three of the Taiping Army batteries suddenly turned into a sea of fire and were completely scrapped, Two others were also on fire.

The worst thing was in the city, seeing the Wu army's cannonballs flying over the city wall into the city, the Taiping soldiers led by Liu Man began to loudly laugh at the Wu army's gunners' poor skills, but when the Wu army's cannonballs exploded in the city and erupted huge flames, the Taiping army was quickly dumbfounded-almost instantly, seven or eight civilian houses burst into flames.

Before the Taiping Army and Liu Rong came back to their senses, the Wu army's artillery had already fired again, and more bitter acid shells were fired one after another, and Liu Rong couldn't help but scream like a pig, "Wu Futai, what kind of artillery are you, can shoot continuously?" ”

"It's not that it can shoot continuously, it's just that the firing speed is too fast, so it looks like it can shoot continuously." Wu Chaoyue explained with a smile.

Liu Rong no longer spoke, but looked at Wuchang County with an unbelievable face, watching the bitter acid cannonballs of the Wu army explode one after another in the city and under the city, spraying out pieces of flames with a radius of more than two zhang, and also watched the Taiping soldiers howling and running in the sea of fire, and even vaguely heard such a shout, "Demon fire!" It's demon fire! If the water is not extinguished, it will burn on the wall! ”

It was only after vaguely hearing these shouts that Liu Rong suddenly woke up, and when she hurriedly raised her head and went forward, she saw Wu Chaoyue's handsome flag fluttering in the wind, and the horns of the flag pointing directly to the northwest, Liu Rong suddenly realized that she asked Wu Chaoyue in surprise: "Wu Futai, are you planning to burn Wuchang City tonight?" ”

"Mr. Meng Rong is really good, he can see my true intention so quickly." Wu Chaoyue nodded with a smile, admitting that Liu Rong had guessed his vicious purpose, and then Wu Chaoyue told Liu Rong and said: "When I climbed the high ground to look down on the city yesterday, I saw that the streets and houses in the city were still intact, and because the flowering cannonballs I used had a good incendiary effect, I came up with this fire attack plan. ”

Liu Rong hurriedly patted his ass, praised Wu Chaoyue for his cleverness, adapting measures to local conditions and adapting to changes, and then couldn't wait to ask Wu Chaoyue: "Wu Futai, are your shells expensive?" Can you buy it from a foreigner in that country? ”

I had long expected Liu Rong to ask such a question, and Wu Chaoyue naturally smiled even more happily, and replied: "I can't buy it, at least not for the time being, because this new gunpowder of artillery shells is produced by my arsenal." ”

"Lord Futai, what factory did you produce yourself?" Liu Rong asked in surprise.

Wu Chaoyue nodded with a smile, and said casually: "Mr. Meng Rong, after you go back, you can tell my teacher about this situation." By the way, I told the teacher that if you want this gunpowder, you can negotiate. ”

With the help of the whistling night wind, the bitter acid fire that already burned very well became more intense, and soon ignited a large number of houses in the city. Seeing this scene, Wu Chaoyue nodded with satisfaction, and quickly commanded the third battalion of the Wu army to extinguish the torch and step forward, protecting the artillery battalion position in an inverted zigzag.

At this time, the city and the city of Wuchang County have of course been in chaos, in the current situation of the enemy, the defender Liu Man had to use the reserve in advance to put out the fire, and at the same time organize and force the people in the city to participate in extinguishing the fire, but the bitter acid flame of the Beiyang Fleet is the place where the pit is not even water, even if it is attached to the steel, soil and stone, it can still burn, plus the night wind is too strong, the houses in the city are dense, and there are flammable materials everywhere the fire goes. Therefore, no matter how the soldiers of the Taiping Army and the people in the city poured water to put out the fire, there was no way to prevent the spread of the fire, let alone completely extinguish the fire, and because of the raging night wind and the gradual concentration of the Wu army's artillery fire in the city, the fire was completely out of control, and the flames soared more than ten meters into the sky, quickly enveloping half of Wuchang County.

Seeing that the situation was critical, the garrison general Liu Man had to open the south gate and send troops out of the city to destroy the Wu army's artillery position, and at the same time send people out of the city to ask for help from the Taiping army sailors stationed downstream. However, the Taiping army that went out of the city was naturally warmly welcomed by the Wu army's firing pin guns in the field battle, and the Wu army recruits who lined up in a dense horizontal line under the leadership of the veterans crushed the Taiping army with weapon superiority and frantically brushed up experience points. At the same time, the Taiping Army Naval Division, which had already been on alert for the whole army, was also in a dilemma, neither could it fail to save Liu Manjun, but also had to beware of the Hunan Army taking the opportunity to attack, and finally Qin Rigang had no choice but to lead the main force to cover Wei Jun's landing to reinforce Wuchang County, and at the same time, beware of the Hunan Army's naval division taking the opportunity to attack.

In the short summer night, when Wei Jun landed on the shore with two thousand marines of the Navy, the sky was already hazy and slightly bright, and he noticed this movement of the Taiping Army, and the Hu Lin wing of the Hunan Army, which was responsible for covering the flank of the Wu Army, immediately dispatched to seize the rare fighter plane that was halfway across the attack to meet the Taiping soldiers who were disembarking one after another, and the Taiping Army who was disembarking and landing was difficult to form a strong counterattack, and it was difficult to raise their heads by the arquebuses of the Hunan Army. Seeing that the situation was not good, Qin Rigang could only quickly command the naval division to cover the landing of Wei Junjun's army with artillery fire, and Hu Linyi commanded the officers and men of the Hunan army to deal with it calmly, blocking the enemy's landing while also attracting a large number of artillery fire from the Taiping army's naval division, creating favorable fighters for the Hunan army's naval division.

Although the Hunan Army Naval Division had already been fully prepared for war and had been assembled in the camp, it was still confirmed that after the Taiping Army Naval Division was dispatched, Zeng Guofan, who liked to preserve his strength, ordered the Naval Division to attack, and at the same time asked Zeng Guohua, who commanded the Naval Division, to march cautiously, and not to engage the Taiping Naval Division without an ideal fighter.

After giving this order, Zeng Guofan also hurriedly raised his binoculars and looked at the direction of Wuchang County, which was red, and his heart was itching, "What kind of weapon is it?" So amazing? Damn little slippery head, with such a good foreigner weapon in his hand, he has never said a word to Ben Shuai! Ben Shuai accepted you as a protégé at the beginning, but he was really blind! (To be continued.) )