"Idiot! It's a discord meter! The Qing Demon sows discord between us and the friendly forces in Shanghai, and frames the loyal and brave soldiers of our heavenly kingdom! You believe what the two demon soldiers say casually? Idiot! ”

The most disgusting thing about the discord scheme is that it is difficult to crack, even if you suspect that this is a discord scheme, or even understand that it is a discord scheme, but unless you know the truth, or have the noble character of a saint, you will be affected to a certain extent in any case. So no matter how Xu Zongyang scolded and scolded angrily, he finally sent Zhang Shaoqiang to see Zeng Lichang, and reported the incident to Zeng Lichang, and the result was the same as Xu Zongyang, Zeng Lichang also immediately scolded:

"Idiot! This is obviously the deliberate arrangement of the Qing Demon, you haven't read the book, Jiang Gan should have watched the scene of stealing books? After being caught by the Qing Demon, you can still hear such an important military situation, is there such a coincidence in the world? ”

scolded and scolded, but after careful consideration, Zeng Lichang still felt a little uneasy, so he casually sent a person to secretly investigate the situation about Xu Yao, but he didn't know if he didn't check, and he was shocked when he checked - under the command of Zhou Lichun, the commander of the Wuxi Taiping Army, there is indeed a commander named Xu Yao (the position is second only to the brigade commander), this Xu Yao does have a scar on his face, and Xu Yao's love for Zhou Lichun's daughter is also known to everyone in the army of the Wuxi Taiping Army, and no one knows it, and Zhou Lichun has indeed not agreed to the marriage of Xu Yao and his daughter.

The details were so precise that Zeng Lichang was inevitably suspicious in his heart, and in addition to sending someone to closely monitor Xu Yao, he also began to quietly pay attention to Liu Lichuan's situation. Zeng Lichang's people only checked it a little, and immediately found that Liu Lichuan did have frequent exchanges with the local Taiping army generals in Songjiang, and they had to get together to drink wine and eat meat almost every day, and the signs of forming a gang were very obvious - although this was only Liu Lichuan's gang boss nature.

When Zeng Lichang was suspicious, the tunnels of the Taiping Army had also been discovered by Wu Jun Lian Yong's listening, and the vicious Zhou Tenghu immediately commanded Lian Yong to plant explosives above the Taiping Army tunnels, and after detonation, the tunnels collapsed and buried more than 20 Taiping Army soldiers alive. Zeng Lichang was both distressed and angry when he heard the report, and immediately summoned all the generals under his command to discuss the tactics of attacking the fortified fortification, determined to kill the ammunition depot of the Wu army no matter what, so that even if the main force of the Wu army returned to Shanghai, there would be no ammunition to replenish.

Xu Zongyang, who was in charge of surrounding the Wu Army Arsenal, was the last to arrive at the venue, and after entering the tent, Xu Zongyang also handed a letter to Zeng Lichang and said: "Prime Minister Zeng, this is the letter that the Qing Demon shot into our position with an arrow last night. ”

"What did you say?" Zeng Lichang asked casually while receiving the letter.

Xu Zongyang didn't answer, just let Zeng Lichang see it himself, but Zeng Lichang was furious when he saw it, it turned out that the recipient of this letter turned out to be Liu Lichuan, and the content was that Wu Jun heard that Liu Lichuan was bullied in the Taiping Army, and the soldiers under his command also got along with Zeng Lichang's subordinates very unpleasantly, and strongly persuaded Liu Lichuan's prodigal son to turn back, kill Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang, and return to the warm and broad embrace of the Qing Dynasty to ask for merit and reward. At the end of the letter, the writer also gave Liu Lichuan an absolutely feasible idea, that is, he suggested that Liu Lichuan take advantage of the opportunity of the Taiping army stationed outside the city to trick Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang into the city in the name of holding a banquet, or poison them or kill them directly by closing the door and beating the dogs, and then they can lie down and enjoy countless glory and wealth.

When Zeng Lichang saw the fire, Zhou Lichun, who didn't know that he had become the target of the frame, was still beside him and asked curiously: "Prime Minister Zeng, what did the Qing Demon say in the letter?" ”

Unwilling to make any extraneous branches, Zeng Lichang tore the letter directly into pieces, shook his head and said: "It's nothing, it's all nonsense, don't say it, let's talk about business." The demon soldiers discovered our tunnel, and it is impossible for us to use the tunnel to blow up the ammunition depot beyond the little demon, but in order to resist the counterattack of the Qing demon, the prime minister still continued to attack, and entered the inside of the demon nest, and it was of course the best to seize the guns and ammunition beyond the demon inventory, and if it could not be captured, it would have to be burned with fire! ”

"Prime Minister Zeng, the Qing Demon is tightly guarded, the firepower is strong, and the frontal attack is strong, I'm afraid we don't have a good grasp of it?" Liu Lichuan asked recklessly.

"If you don't have a good grasp, you have to fight!" Zeng Lichang was categorical, and said: "My plan is to attack one after another day and night, let all armies and battalions take turns to fight, so that the demon soldiers who surpass the little demon have no time and opportunity to rest, they are exhausted and show their flaws, and then break the enemy in one fell swoop!" ”

"If we fight like this, our casualties will definitely be not small!" Liu Lichuan exclaimed exaggeratedly.

"It's better than not being able to take down the ammunition depot that surpasses the little demon!" Zeng Lichang said loudly angrily: "If we can't do this, when the little demon returns to Shanghai with the main force of his demon soldiers, rescues his trapped demon soldiers, and replenishes ammunition, then our casualties will only be ten times as many as now!" Dozens of times! ”

Liu Lichuan pretended to nod his head, and praised Zeng Cheng for his wisdom, but Zeng Lichang's next deployment of troops made Liu Lichuan's face begin to turn pale - since Zeng Lichang wanted Liu Lichuan's army to also participate in the battle, he also had to undertake two-thirds of the combat missions - but this is not surprising, Liu Lichuan has recruited the most rabble, and if he doesn't let these rabble be cannon fodder, does he want the elite of the Taiping Army to block Wu Jun's bullets?

Frightened, Liu Lichuan hurriedly protested and said: "Prime Minister Zeng, launch an attack on the Qing Demon's ammunition depot every hour, twelve times a day, why do my people have to fight eight times a day?" ”

"Liu Checkpoint, you have a lot of troops, of course you have to fight a few more battles." Zeng Lichang replied: "And your people are only responsible for feints, the casualties will not be too large, if there is a real fighter, my soldiers and horses will immediately launch a real strong attack, then the casualties are great." ”

After that, Zeng Lichang didn't give Liu Lichuan a chance to continue to defend himself, and pointed to Zhou Lichun, who was also in the tent, and said: "Lvshuai Zhou, you lead your soldiers and horses to act as the commando on the first day, obey the command of Prime Minister Xu Cheng, and immediately launch a strong attack on the Qing Demon camp as soon as you have the opportunity!" ”

"How is it?" Zhou Lichun complained bitterly in his heart, but he didn't dare to disobey the order, so he could only obediently clench his fists and obey the order. At the same time, Zhou Lichun didn't notice at all that after Zeng Lichang gave the order, he exchanged a meaningful look with Xu Zongyang.

After some intense preparations, at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, under the cover of shelling by more than 20 light and heavy artillery, the Taiping army launched a frontal attack on the Wu Army Arsenal, dispatching more than 800 people at a time to divide into four teams and attack the Wu Army Arsenal from four directions at the same time. And the person who took charge of the first round of offensive tasks was none other than the Knife Society rebel army under Liu Lichuan.

The first attack was a failure as a matter of course, and Wu Jun Lian Yong, who had sufficient ammunition, was well guarded, and Liu Lichuan's men were easily repelled by Wu Jun Lian Yong without even having a chance to touch the factory wall. At the same time, the artillery bombardment of the Taiping army did not have much effect, Wu Jun Lian Yong hid behind the reinforced wall and fired, and the reserve team also rested in the underground fortifications, and the solid shells fired by the Taiping army did not cause any effective damage to Wu Jun Lian Yong except for the wall full of holes and the destruction of some factory houses.

It must be mentioned that Liu Lichuan's men also performed very well on the battlefield, running two hundred meters away from the Wu army's position, they all lay on the ground, shouting loudly and beating the Wu army's position with earthen guns and arquebuses, wasting gunpowder in vain and not even touching a single hair of Wu army's practice bravery.

In this regard, Wu Jun Lian Yong of course fought very easily, and analyzed from the scale of the enemy's troops that the Taiping army wanted to use the strategy of exhausting troops, and Zhou Tenghu immediately suggested that Deng Siyuan only send sentries to monitor the enemy's movements in turn, so that the main force of the battle could rest on the spot and save physical strength as much as possible. However, Xu Zongyang, who was in charge of commanding the battle of the Taiping Army, was extremely dissatisfied with the performance of the Liu soldiers, and scolded and forced the Liu soldiers to get as close to the Wu army's position as possible, forcing the Wu army to practice bravely shooting to meet the battle and consume the enemy's physical strength.

Contradictions naturally began to appear, Liu Lichuan's subordinates were unwilling to come forward to die in vain, and sniped Wu Junlianyong's Minnie gun one by one, while Xu Zongyang counted on them to try their best to step forward to exert real pressure on Wu Junlianyong, their respective positions were diametrically opposed, and they were not reconciled at all, and they naturally became dissatisfied with each other, just like old wine, koji began to ferment gradually.

The real threat to the Wu army was at dusk, when the Taiping army launched an attack, the brave and resolute Taiping soldiers covered the bullets with thin shields, rushed directly to a distance of fifty or sixty meters from the Wu army's position, and then quickly dug a single bunker while firing. Seeing this scene, although Deng Siyuan immediately ordered a full-scale counterattack, Zhou Tenghu stopped Deng Siyuan and said: "Don't worry, give the enemy a little hope, and lure them to send out a stormy assault team now, otherwise, Longhair will only exert its strength at night, and we will only fight harder." ”

As Zhou Tenghu expected, after seeing that the soldiers of the self-army had dug out a large number of individual bunkers in the west of the Wu army's position, Zeng Lichang, who felt that the fighter had appeared, decisively sent an assault team to attack the western front that seemed to have an opportunity, but unfortunately when Zhou Lichun led the commando team to kill closer, Wu Junlian Yong, who had been gathering momentum for a long time, suddenly shot a group of shots, shot a large number of bullets from the shooting hole of the wall, and also used the grenadier as a big killing weapon, which beat Zhou Lichun's army to heavy casualties in the blink of an eye, and no matter how much he charged, it was difficult to touch the wall of the wall. In the end, they could only retreat in disarray, leaving corpses and seriously wounded people all over the ground.

Zhou Tenghu was waiting for this opportunity, the Taiping army had just withdrawn, and more than a dozen Jiangyin Lian Yong immediately crossed the wall and ran to the battlefield to find the seriously injured Taiping soldiers who were not dead, and soon caught three of Zhou Tenghu who could still speak. Zhou Tenghu was overjoyed when he saw it, and hurriedly asked Lian Yong to bandage and medicate the three captives, give them water and food, buy them, and then extract confessions.

The soldiers under Zhou Lichun's command were almost all natives of southern Jiangsu, and their will to fight was far less firm than that of the veterans of the Taiping Army. And when Zhou Tenghu asked if they were all Zhou Lichun's subordinates, and one was Xu Yao's direct subordinate, of course, he was even more overjoyed, and the bad ideas that lacked virtue in his head and smoked out one after another............

At the same time, of course, Xu Zongyang also saw the situation of Wu Jun Lian Yong capturing the seriously wounded of his own army, although he was very puzzled by Wu Jun Lian Yong's intentions, but Xu Zongyang was still vigilant, and immediately ordered the soldiers of the own army to strengthen the monitoring of the Wu army's arsenal and beware of Wu Jun's tricks. As expected, when it was completely dark, the three captives who had been captured before were indeed released by Wu Jun Lianyong, and limped back to the Taiping army position with each other.

Next, the three unlucky captives were naturally immediately escorted to Xu Zongyang, and when Xu Zongyang asked him why he was released, the three captives replied truthfully: "Qing Demon asked the little ones to come back and tell the other brothers, telling us not to sell our lives to the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord of Heaven only cares about his own enjoyment, regardless of the life or death of the soldiers, it is not interesting to work for the Kingdom of Heaven." The demons also told the other brothers that as long as they surrendered on the battlefield, they could live, and they would never kill the prisoners, and they would be released as soon as they were caught, and the three of us were living examples. ”

It is a very common strategy to slow down the enemy, in order to shake and strain the morale of the enemy, the Taiping army has not used such tricks. But for the sake of prudence, Xu Zongyang still ordered the soldiers to search the bodies of the three captives, and it turned out that Xu Zongyang's decision was extremely wise - in the shoes of a prisoner, a small note was found!

There was only one sentence on the small note, 'Tell Liu Lichuan that Changmao wanted to kill people with a knife and deliberately weaken his strength.' ’

A very short sentence, but it is also the sentence that Xu Zongyang hates the most, and in anger, Xu Zongyang immediately asked the origin of the unlucky captive note, and who was he going to hand it over? The prisoner shouted loudly, he didn't know where the note came from, and he didn't know who it should be handed over.

At this time, Zhou Lichun, who received the news, and Chen Alin, Liu Lichuan's deputy, also came to the scene, learned the truth of the matter, and saw the content of the note. To whom?! ”

"Wronged, wronged!" The unlucky captive continued to shout grievances, "Zhou Lvshuai, I don't know where this note came from, the Qing Demon didn't let me hand it over to anyone, and I don't know when I put it in my shoes!" ”

Of course, Zhou Lichun didn't believe it, he just asked, and when the captive continued to shout grievances, Xu Zongyang next to him suddenly remembered an important question and hurriedly asked, "Who is your pawn?!" ”

"Xu Yao." The hapless captive answered honestly.

"Sure enough, it's him." Xu Zongyang's face changed, and he hurriedly shouted: "Someone, escort him to see Prime Minister Zeng, and tell Prime Minister Zeng that he is Xu Yao's subordinate." ”

After the soldiers escorted away the unlucky prisoner who was crying and shouting grievances as ordered, Xu Zongyang also turned to Zhou Lichun and asked, "Zhou Lushuai, how is Xu Yao?" Tell me about his origins, the more detailed the better. ”

Zhou Lichun was confused, and didn't understand why Xu Zongyang cared about Xu Yao so much, but he still gave a general introduction to Xu Yao's situation as required, saying that Xu Yao was originally a general of the Jiading Rebel Army, and after the Qingpu Uprising was suppressed by Wu Chaoyue, he followed him and has always behaved very well. Xu Zongyang listened patiently, and suddenly asked again: "Zhou Lushuai, I heard that Xu Yao likes your daughter very much, but you have refused to ask you for marriage several times, isn't that so?" ”

Zhou Lichun was even more confused, but he still replied honestly: "There is such a thing, in fact, I like this young man very much, and I also want him to be my son-in-law, but my daughter doesn't agree, so I can't help it." ”

The details are completely consistent, and Xu Zongyang is inevitably even more suspicious in his heart, but without real evidence, it is impossible for Xu Zongyang to directly cut Xu Yao with a knife and eliminate the future troubles forever. After careful calculation, Xu Zongyang could only say this: "During the third watch, we will launch another strong attack on the Qing Demon position, and let Xu Yao lead the army to attack the main attack." ”

The plan of exhausting troops had just begun, and when the Wu army was still very strong in training, the attack launched by the Taiping army during the third watch was naturally failed again. But fortunately, after learning the lessons of the battle in Qingpu, Xu Yao did not dare to rush to the front to die as stupidly as before, but kept hiding among the soldiers and shooting, and finally escaped unharmed.

Even so, after withdrawing from the Taiping Army's position, Xu Yao still complained to the friendly army with anger, and said: "It's just a blind fight, the ammunition of the Qing Demon is so sufficient, and there is a wall to block bullets, what is the use of how we rush?" Death in vain! ”

To Xu Yao's surprise, after he finished complaining, before he could wash off the sweat and dust on his face, Xu Zongyang had already sent someone to ask him to visit, Xu Yao, whose official position was a big difference with Xu Zongyang, was confused, and Zhou Lichun also felt strange, so he also came with Xu Yao. Then when he saw Xu Zongyang, Xu Zongyang asked Xu Yao directly: "I heard that you said to the soldiers of Liu Jian that our attack was in vain, is there such a thing?" ”

Xu Yao opened his mouth to stammer, nodded after a while, and arched his hand and said, "The last general should be damned, when the last general came back, he said this." ”

"What do you mean by that? What is the purpose? Xu Zongyang asked.

"The end will be meaningless, and it will serve no purpose." Xu Yao hurriedly shook his head and said, "The last general just lost the battle and said an angry word. The last will die, the last will be guilty, please forgive the prime minister. ”

Zhou Lichun also hurriedly explained to Xu Yao, and pretended to scold Xu Yao, but Xu Zongyang didn't bother to pay attention to Zhou Lichun at all, a pair of eagle-like eyes just stared at Xu Yao's scarred face, Xu Yao was flustered by Xu Zongyang's sharp eyes, and uncontrollably revealed fear. Xu Zongyang was inevitably even more suspicious when he saw it, and suddenly asked, "Who is Zhou Lianguan?" ”

"Who is Zhou Lianguan?" Xu Yao was dizzy, and it took a while to come back to his senses and say, "Prime Minister Xu, the Zhou Lianguan you are talking about, shouldn't it be the Zhou Tenghu in Jiangyin?" I know that the official surnamed Zhou of the Qing Demon is the only one. ”

"What's your relationship with him?" Xu Zongyang asked again.

"It doesn't matter." Xu Yao hurriedly shook his head and said: "The last general has never seen him, but he fought a battle with his demon soldiers in the Hengtang area, his demon soldiers are very powerful, and we lost that battle." ”

didn't find any flaws, Xu Zongyang could only wave his hand to let Zhou Lichun and Xu Yao leave, and his suspicions were still unresolved, and he said in his heart: "For the sake of prudence, it's best to transfer this Xu Yao out of Shanghai." By the way, the Qing demons on the other side of Wusongkou also need to be monitored by the army, so they simply asked Prime Minister Zeng to transfer Zhou Lichun's army to Wusongkou. ”

Xu Zongyang was suspicious here, but what he absolutely didn't know was that Xu Yao was on the way back to the position of the army with Zhou Lichun, and at the same time wondered why Xu Zongyang asked so many strange questions, he suddenly remembered an important question, and hurriedly said to Zhou Lichun: "Uncle Zhou, no, why did I casually complain in front of outsiders, and I was immediately known by Prime Minister Xu?" ”

Xu Yao reminded Zhou Lichun that he also remembered this important question, and when he subconsciously looked around and around, Zhou Lichun and Xu Yao found at the same time that behind them, there were two sneaky black shadows following them............

"How can someone secretly follow us? Could it be that Prime Minister Xu sent it? ”

When Zhou Lichun and Xu Yao had this question, Chen Alin had already sent the content of the small note back to Shanghai and sent it to Liu Lichuan. (To be continued.) )