The big board of Wu Jun's partial division was raised high, no matter how you look at it, it looks like it is about to fight Changqing, but when it suddenly falls, the board hits Jinan's ass!

After inexplicably taking this board, the most sad and regretful person was not Fu Zhenbang, a famous general of the Qing army who strongly advocated strengthening the Changqing garrison, but Governor Baojun, who had just taken office in Shandong for less than a month! So much so that after receiving the news, Bao Jun was so angry that he foamed at the mouth directly on the spot, beating his chest and yelling in frustration......

"Oh my God! O earth! The old man was blinded by lard, I listened to Zhonghua when I should listen to Weiping, and when I should listen to Zhonghua, why did I believe Weiping again? Betting on right and wrong twice, why did the old man bet all wrong?! God, if you make me bet right, the situation in Jinan will come to this point! ”

Thanks to the persuasion of his henchman Rong Lu, as well as the Shandong political envoy Wen Qian and the Shandong League Training Minister Du Qiaoyu (two words together, read qiáo) and other Shandong civil and military forces to help persuade him, Bao Jun, who regretted that his intestines were green, did not faint on the spot. And after finally calming down, of course, Bao Jun hurriedly asked everyone: "My lords, Wu thief is treacherous, and he used a trick to transfer the strong troops under Fu Titai's command, and now there are only 7,000 Qing troops guarding Jinan City, and there are only more than 4,000 people outside the city who can use the regimental training, how to resist the enemy next, what are your lords?" ”

"I can only hold on to the city." Du Qiaoyu, the minister of regimental training, was the first to answer, and said with great annoyance: "It's a pity that Luo Futai rejected the proposal of the lower officials the year before last, and did not agree to build an outer city outside Jinan City to strengthen the defense. Otherwise, we now have two walls to defend, and the prosperous castle town will not be directly exposed to the sword of the Wu thief. ”

(PS: Historically, the polder wall of the outer city of Jinan was proposed by Du Qiaoyu in the tenth year of Xianfeng, because it is impossible to know when it was completed, so the book sets the outer city of Jinan does not exist.) However, the existence of the outer city of Jinan does not affect the plot, as detailed below. ）

"Brother Hansheng, let's do it." Liu Rong, the chief of staff left by Luo Bingzhang to Baojun, opened his mouth and said very dissatisfied: "You proposed to build that outer city, the city wall is only four feet thick, and only two or three people can walk by mistake, even if it is built, how can it stop the foreign guns and cannons of Wu's rebel army?" On the contrary, we still have to waste a lot of troops to defend your outer city, and give Wu thieves the opportunity to kill and wound a large number of our Qing soldiers in the outer city. ”

"At least you can block the Wu thief for a while longer, it's better than letting the main city suffer the enemy directly." Du Qiaoyu immediately fought back - in order to repair this outer city wall, Du Qiaoyu had quarreled with Luo Bingzhang's henchman Liu Rong.

"Alright, stop arguing." Bao Jun groaned in pain, and said hatefully: "If there is a regret medicine to take, the old man should have listened to Weiping at the beginning, concentrated his troops in Gushan Station to resist the Wu thief, and later should listen to Zhonghua, don't care about Changqing's life or death, and concentrate his troops to defend Jinan." ”

Du Qiaoyu and Liu Rong finally closed their mouths, and Rong Lu also said: "Lord Futai, the lower officials think that the people should be evacuated immediately, and let the people outside the city quickly leave the streets outside the city with grain, so as not to give Wu thieves a chance to rob grain for self-sufficiency." ”

"Yes, yes, that's how it should be." Bao Jun nodded hurriedly, and hurriedly sent Zhu Rong, the magistrate of Licheng County, to handle this matter, and then asked Rong Lu: "Zhonghua, what about next?" ”

"Adjust the garrison of the regimental training outside the city, divide the regimental training into two, take back half of the young and strong regimental training back to the city to participate in the defense of the city, and the other half tell them to go to Qinglong Mountain to garrison."

Rong Lu, the new star of the banner people, did have two brushes, and immediately decided to use the strategy of using local group training, and then explained: "Placing half of the group training in Qinglong Mountain can play several roles, one is to lure Wu thieves to divide their troops to attack, pull out our nails outside the city, Qinglong Mountain is high and dense, the terrain is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, Wu thieves will never be easy to take, if they go to fight Qinglong Mountain, the group training on the side of Qinglong Mountain can buy us time to respond." ”

"If the Wu thieves ignore Qinglong Mountain, then our Qinglong Mountain regimental training can play two other roles, one is to contain the flank of the thief army when the Wu thieves attack the city, so that the Wu thieves do not dare to attack the city with all their might, and the other is to attack to meet General Fu Zhenbang's army when necessary, and cover the elite under Fu Titai's command to return to Jinan for reinforcements."

"Yes, yes, yes, we should leave an army in Qinglong Mountain to contain the Wu thieves, so that it is convenient to receive Weiping to return to Jinan. Hansheng, you are the minister of group training, and this matter will be handled by you. Bao Jun nodded again and again, accepted Rong Lu's proposal without thinking about it, and then hurriedly asked, "Zhonghua, what about next?" ”

"And then, of course, we will prepare to defend the city with all our might." Rong Lu replied with a wry smile, and comforted: "Lord Futai, don't worry, Jinan is a thousand-year-old city, the city is high and deep, the fortifications are perfect, and the grain and grass are also very abundant, so we can compete with Wu thieves for a long time, as long as we are united and work together to defend the city, there is absolutely no problem in holding Jinan for a long time." ”

Bao Jun nodded again, but his expression was not very confident. Fortunately, Liu Rong stood up in time and said to Baojun: "Lord Futai, please rest assured, although the student has never been on the battlefield to kill the enemy, he first followed Zeng Guofan, and then followed Luo Ruzhai, and has experienced countless battles, and is very familiar with the marching formation, zoning armor and defending the city against the enemy. As long as the Futai adults can trust the students and let the students help dispatch troops and arrange specific defense details, then the students dare to guarantee that Jinan City will definitely become impregnable in your hands, so that the Wu rebel army has no chance to take advantage of it. ”

"That's great." Bao Jun was overjoyed and said, "But Mr. Meng Rong, your words are also a bit excessive, when will this official not be able to believe you?" If this official can't trust you, how can he let you continue to lead the shogunate of Futai Yamen? That's it, from now on, Mr. Meng Rong, as long as you think it's right, you can cut it first and then play it, and then tell the old man after arranging and implementing it. ”

Liu Rong hurriedly thanked her, but hummed in her heart: "Can you trust me? If you can trust me, the matter of guarding the Gushan Station, and whether it should be divided into troops to strengthen Changqing, you can ask my opinion! ”

Belly slander is belly slander, but because of the reason for holding Bao Jun's silver, and because he extremely dislikes Wu Chaoyue's personality, Liu Rong, the old man of the Hunan army in the real sense, still played the spirit of twelve points, and helped Rong Lu to give advice to Bao Jun together, handle various specific defenses, arrange the garrison troops and arrange reserves, transport all kinds of city defense materials to the city to prepare for war, rush to build simple and practical city defense equipment, and encourage the people to participate in the defense of the city. With his rich military experience, he helped Baojun and Rong Lu, who had just entered the battlefield, to avoid countless detours, and quickly arranged the city defense of Jinan in an orderly manner, without omission.

In addition, Liu Rong, who had collected and studied the tactics and habits of the Wu army with Luo Bingzhang, also adapted measures to local conditions, and suggested early on that Baojun send soldiers to block the most vulnerable east gate Qichuan Gate and South Gate Lishan Gate, which were the most vulnerable to the enemy, with sandbags and stones, so as not to give the Wu army the opportunity to directly blow up the city gate and enter the city. At the same time, for the sake of prudence, Liu Rong also suggested that Baojun send people to lay mines in the two gates of the Urn City in the northwest, so as to prevent the Wu army from breaking through the outer gate of the Urn City, directly threatening the security of the inner gate, and giving the Qing soldiers enough time to block the inner gate.

The siege tactics of the Wu army only gave Liu Rong a headache, that is, he directly dug holes in the city wall and buried the medicine to detonate it, because he had never seen and experienced this tactic before, Liu Rong couldn't understand how the Wu army could dig a hole of sufficient size in the hard city wall in a short period of time, and bury hundreds of catties of gunpowder to directly blow up the city wall? Therefore, Liu Rong, who had no experience in this, naturally couldn't think of any good ways and means to effectively prevent and restrain Wu Jun's tactics.

Fortunately, Liu Rong also has a powerful helper named Rong Lu, when discussing this matter with Rong Lu, Rong Lu didn't think long before saying: "For the Wu thief's hand, we can only attack with fire, so that the people in the city can strengthen their precautions, and find that the Wu thief is digging a wall under the city, we immediately throw the firewood and gunpowder that have been splashed with fire oil to burn, fortunately, our gunpowder is very sufficient, and the city of Jinan is full of old houses, it is really not possible We can also dig the old wall bricks of the house foundation to boil nitrate, and the nitrate powder is not far from being loaded into the barrel, but it is enough to start a fire." ”

After thinking about it for a while, he found that there was only this way, so Liu Rong nodded and said: "It can only be like this, fortunately, we have only repaired the Jinan city wall this year, and it is not so easy for Wu thief to directly dig a big hole that can blow down the city wall." ”

During the busy preparations, the front team and the main force of the Wu army's partial division have also rushed to the city of Jinan, and the result is that the old military affairs Liu Rong is very surprised that the Wu army left the southern suburbs of Jinan, which has open terrain and many people, and chose to camp outside the Luoyuan Gate of Jinan's West Gate, or set up camp between Wulongtan and Baotu Spring in the northwest of Luoyuan Gate, and immediately strengthened the ground near the city wall at that location, and built anti-artillery fortifications, as if to establish an artillery position at that location and directly bombard Jinan City.

"Why did Wu Thief choose to set up camp between Baotu Spring and Wulong Pond? Still building a retaining earth wall there? Are they going to attack the city directly from that position? Rong Lu, who was on the battlefield for the first time, also saw that something was wrong, and said in surprise: "But the terrain there is not open enough, and it is difficult to deploy troops?" Also, the moat there is relatively wide, and there are Wulong Pond and Baotu Spring blocking the road, and the width of the Wu rebel army's march route is not enough, which will only make them tie their hands and feet when attacking the city? ”

"Could it be that the Wu thief wants to play with the east and the west again? Feint to attack the north bank of Luoyuan Gate, attract our attention, and take the opportunity to attack our city gate? ”

Surprised, Rong Lu and Liu Rong once had such suspicions, but for the sake of prudence, Rong Lu and Liu Rong immediately suggested that Baojun strengthen the defense there, in addition to strengthening the defenders, they hurriedly added ten long-range heavy artillery to that section of the city, and erected it on the city facing the Wu army camp, always preventing the Wu army from attacking.

…………

Looking at the reaction of the Wu army, although it was far away under the city, but the Qing army carried the cannon up to the city and deployed it to the section of the wall where the army was ready to attack, such a big movement still could not hide from the eyes of the Wu army's scouts. However, after the news was reported to Hu Huaizhao, the commander of the Wu Army's partial division who was formulating siege tactics with He Qinghan, Hu Huaizhao, the old sparrow on the battlefield, was not afraid of anti-joy, and laughed and said: "Carry the cannon to the city? Carrying cannons up to town? Baojun Lao'er, you really don't think it's enough to help me, and you have to do me another big favor! ”

After laughing, Hu Huaizhao decided to accept the generous gift from the Qing army in Jinan on the spot, and immediately sent people to send the battalion officers of the two recruit battalions, asking them to lead the headquarters battalion, which was almost composed of all the newly surrendered soldiers, to immediately start preparing for night battles and some necessary things, and only wait for the sky to be completely dark and take turns to act according to the plan.

During the winter day, before the Wu army's camp fortifications were established, the sky in Jinan was already dark, and it was impossible for the Wu army to attack the city overnight. However, when the second watch was approaching, the Qing army in the northern section of Luoyuanmen suddenly heard a dense gunfire in the distance, as well as gongs and shouts, and the deputy general of the Qing army on duty on this section of the city wall, Qu Suken, quickly jumped up, raised the telescope to take a closer look, but saw that there were few torches in the wilderness in the distance, and many figures could be faintly seen, and Qu Suken did not dare to hesitate, and immediately shouted: "The thief army is coming, sound the gong to call the police, and the artillery is ready!" ”

After the alarm gong sounded, the Qing army in this section of the city immediately entered a state of alert, and ten long-range cannons and mountain splitting cannons with a short range were also loaded and loaded and fused, and the direction where the torches had been shaking soon appeared again, once again allowing the Qing army to see the dense figure of the Wu soldiers. Qu Suken did not hesitate, and shouted again: "Aim at the queue of Wu thieves and open fire!" ”

Bang! Bang! Ten Qing heavy artillery guns that could hit that position opened fire one after another, and ten shells bombarded the position of Wu soldier's figure, and the sound of shells bouncing on the ground was immediately heard from that position. But it's a pity that several torches of the Wu army disappeared one after another, so that the Qing soldiers such as Qu Suken could not see the effect of the artillery bombardment.

He had fought many times with the Taiping Army and the Twist Army in the area of Jiaodong and Lunan, and he had a lot of battlefield experience, so he didn't dare to waste too much ammunition, just let the artillery fire another round of shells and stop firing, and then continued to wait for the Wu Army to make other reactions, but unfortunately, after waiting for half an hour, the Wu Army no longer had any movement. On the contrary, Bao Jun sent someone to ask about the situation, and Su Ken introduced it truthfully, and then Bao Jun's messenger just left, and a few red lanterns suddenly appeared under the city and galloped quickly, and let Gu Su Ken and the Qing army in the city vaguely see the figures of some Wu soldiers, and Su Ken hurriedly ordered the cannon to fire, and ten Qing artillery guns that had already been loaded with ammunition hurriedly opened fire together, and bombarded again to find the position of the Wu army.

In the next hour or so, the torches and lanterns of the Wu army appeared three more times, exposing the positions of the Wu army in two different positions, and the Qing army opened artillery bombardment every time, but never waited for the Wu army to really attack. In the end, it was only after Liu Rong and Rong Lu came to this location to understand the situation on the spot, that Liu Rong, who was very familiar with the history of the war over the years, came to her senses and said, "Could it be a scarecrow?" When Changmao first fought Jiangning, he once set up a dummy on the Lion Rock outside Chaoyang Gate to trick the Qing army into firing artillery, and deceived the Jiangning general at that time, Xianghou, who wasted countless gunpowder. ”

"Scarecrow?" Qu Suken was surprised and said, "Impossible? Those Wu rebel thieves appear in different positions, ah....... ”

Before he finished speaking, Qu Suken rewarded himself with a mouthful, and said angrily: "Pig! I'm a pig! The scarecrow does not have legs, but the Wu rebel thieves have legs, and as soon as the torch and lantern are extinguished, a new false position can be established by moving the light scarecrow. ”

"It seems that the Wu thief is trying to play tired tactics." Rong Lu came to the correct conclusion and said: "Using a false position to trick us into firing artillery can not only waste our ammunition, but also consume the physical strength and morale of our defenders. ”

"It's not for nothing that the Wu rebel thief army can sweep the world and be invincible." Liu Rong sighed, and then said with a wry smile: "Unless we risk going out of the city to fight, we can only be next to the tired tactics of Wu thieves." Fortunately, the Wu thief's food and grass problem is their fatal injury, as long as we rotate properly and let the defending army take turns to rest in time, it is not too difficult to survive this pass. ”

Liu Rong expected that it was night, and the recruits of the two battalions of the Wu army took turns to go into battle, either using straw dummies, or stepping forward in small units, or shouting, beating gongs and drums, running to the edge of the moat and shooting and harassing, trying all kinds of ways to disturb the Qing army in the city, not giving the Qing army in the city a chance to rest at ease, and also forced the Qing army to open artillery bombardment many times to suppress the rampant momentum of the Wu army's feints.

But fortunately, the Wu army's focus on attacking this section of the wall is not too wide, and the Qing army has a favorable position in hand, so only half of the battalion can be guarded against with its eyes wide open, and the remaining half of the battalion can still rest with peace of mind. And when it was dawn, the two battalions of Wu army recruits who were also exhausted could only end the feint and obediently go back to the camp to sleep, although the Qing army was very painful, but it also spent the first night after the Wu army came to the city.

"Wu thief of dog days, lack of virtue and short life, when you attack the city, see how Lao Tzu cleans you up on the city wall!"

Seeing the back of the Wu army's feigned soldiers retreating, the Qing army officers and soldiers who were tired and tortured scolded one after another, all of them hated the Wu army's deliberately torturous and immoral tactics into their bones, but no one could know these Qing army generals and soldiers, and no one could see with the naked eye that some subtle changes had quietly taken place in the depths of the city wall under their feet. And what caused this change was the ten Russian-style heavy artillery pieces that they had specially pulled from the city to suppress the attack of the Wu army......