After successfully luring Zhang Guoliang of the Qing army in Jinan into the Tai'an battlefield, Hu Huaizhao, a partial division of the Wu army with equally strong confidence and strength, did not rush to attack, and chose to sleep on the spot near Mimian Mountain, preparing to wait for the sky to be full of light before fighting this field battle with Zhang Guoliang, and the famous Qing army Zhang Guoliang and his son also spent the longest night in their lives on Mimian Mountain.

During the waiting period, Zhang Guoliang and his son did not consider retreating with the army overnight and retreating to Jinan by the way, but the narrow mountain road in Zhangxia Town was too steep, and there were deep mountains and old forests on both sides that had no way to go, stretching for hundreds of miles from south to north, and retreating into such a dangerous road in the dark, the almost certain Wu army ambush could give the Qing army a fatal blow at any time, and then the Wu army pursuers rushed up and cut their buttocks, and even if the Zhang Guoliang army that was attacked before and after was not dead, it would definitely not be able to escape a few people.

It is difficult to count on reinforcements, there are still some soldiers and horses in the provincial capital of Jinan, but they will not be able to rush here for a while to meet Zhang Guoliang and his son, and at the same time, Baojun is to appreciate Zhang Guoliang again, and it is impossible to send all the provincial army to risk to save Zhang Guoliang and his son, so Zhang Guoliang and his son Even if there is still some food in the army, they can hold on for a while, and they may not be able to wait for the reinforcements to arrive. Sticking to waiting for help is also a dead end.

Zhang Guoliang and his son basically only had two roads left, one was to go east, strive to get rid of the front blockade and chase after the Wu army, and withdraw to Jinan around the Taishan Mountains. The other is to wait for the dawn to retreat back and forth, carefully guarding against slowly retreating until encountering the ambush of the Wu army, and then divide the troops to fight, so that one army is responsible for intercepting the Wu army's pursuers, and the other army will sacrifice its life to attack the Wu army's blocking position, rushing over is to escape, and failing to rush over is the annihilation of the whole army.

After hesitating for most of the night, Zhang Guoliang couldn't make up his mind to make a choice, but Zhang Yinqing, who was an inexperienced father on the battlefield, saw the danger again and urged: "Father, it's time to make up your mind, whether it is to break through to the east or to retreat slowly, you must make up your mind as soon as possible, and the sooner you start, the better." Otherwise, it will be late at dawn. ”

It is indeed necessary to make a choice as soon as possible, and to retreat slowly to the north, you must carry weapons such as mountain splitting cannons, and you must also bring heavy grain wagons; If you break through to the east, you will definitely have to give up heavy weapons and baggage carts, and distribute food and ammunition to the soldiers to carry with you, so Zhang Guoliang can't wait until dawn to make a choice. And by the light of the torches, and carefully looked at the march map in front of him for a long time, Zhang Guoliang finally made up his mind, patted the map and shouted: "Go east!" ”

"First go south to Dawenkou, avoid the Panshui defense line that is easy to intercept by the Wu rebel thief army, and then turn east, Laiwu and Xintai two cities, no matter which city we can enter, we have hope! We really can't rush over, we still have the option of turning around and heading west, desperately starving to death on the road, how can it be better than being annihilated by Wu's rebel army in the mountain road! ”

Respecting his father's decision, Zhang Yinqing, who had always been obedient, did not hesitate at all, and immediately sent people to inform all battalions of Zhang Guoliang's decision, and asked the battalion officers to immediately start distributing food and ammunition, discarding mountain splitting cannons and baggage and sundries that were difficult to carry, and making every effort to prepare to break through the encirclement in an open field. Looking at his son's busy back, Zhang Guoliang's heart couldn't help but feel sour, and said secretly: "God bless, it doesn't matter if I can go back alive, but my son, I must let him go back." ”

Zhang Guoliang, who had been ready to retreat overnight, did not dare to hesitate, and hurriedly led the army to break through, and led the army to charge the open place in the south where it was most difficult to intercept, and took the lead in firing the first shot of this field battle.

Seeing the Qing army descending the mountain, the Wu army brigade did not stupidly stay next to the east of Panshui, which was the easiest to intercept, and was not stupid enough to run to the west to intercept the Qing army rushing to the Yellow Flood Area, but decisively chose to rush to the south to intercept the road, guarding the most accessible official road, and forcing Zhang Guoliang's army into the abandoned fields overgrown with weeds on the east side of the official road. Then taking advantage of the fact that the wasteland was difficult to pass and limit the speed, an army quickly marched east to the front of Zhang Guoliang's army to intercept, and the main brigade calmly attacked the flank of Zhang Guoliang's army.

It's a pity that Zhang Guoliang soon found out that he was very wrong, not only overestimating the combat effectiveness of his own army, but also seriously underestimating the real elite combat effectiveness of the Wu army. How can this Wu rebel thief army be more difficult to deal with than Jiang Zhongji's elite Wu thief soldiers? ”

In addition to screaming, Zhang Guoliangjun, who refused to give up, commanded the army to launch a charge, trying to rush to the close to intercept the Wu army and engage in hand-to-hand combat, sacrificing one or two battalions to entangle this terrifying elite battalion of the Wu army, so that the remaining Qing army battalion could break through in formation. However, after the Qing army launched a charge according to the order, the elite battalion of the Wu army, which was responsible for frontal interception, decisively blasted out grenadier shells, which disrupted the formation of the Qing army early, forcing the Qing soldiers to charge in isolation.

At the same time, the Wu army brigade also launched an attack on the flank of Zhang Guoliang's army, and Zhang Guoliang's father and son, who did not know whether they were alive or dead, once planned to defend themselves against the enemy with a platoon of guns, but Zhang Guoliang soon found that he was still daydreaming, and the Wu army was not interested in competing with him at all and lining up to shoot, just saw his army lined up in a dense horizontal line, not to mention that he first used a grenadier to smash a cannonball, until the dense horizontal line of the Qing army was completely disrupted before launching a charge, and he did not give Zhang Guoliang's army the opportunity to use multiple rounds of shooting- When they got closer, they threw out some grenades first, making it more difficult for the Qing army to line up to fight.

No matter which army it is, what it is most afraid of encountering when breaking through is a hand-to-hand entanglement battle, and the enemy is mixed up, the soldiers cannot find the generals, they will not be able to find the soldiers, and the commander is even more unable to command the whole army as his arm and fingers, and then unless it is like the Wu army in the Nanjing Breakout War, it can rely on high quality to kill the enemy who fought back and continue to break through in formation, otherwise it is destined to be a great chaos and the army collapses. Unfortunately, such a nightmare finally befell Zhang Guoliang's army today, and even more unfortunately, Zhang Guoliang's army did not have the ability to kill the Wu army's charging melee and maintain the formation to break through.

In the tragic melee, the Wu army fought in sentinel formations, constantly throwing grenades to open the way, while blowing up the crowd of Qing troops trying to gather into a group, while rampage through the enemy group, wantonly slaughtering the lone Qing army officers and soldiers, and cutting and separating the Qing army crowd as much as possible. After Zhang Guoliang and Fu Zhenbang's strict training, although the Jinan Qing army desperately approached each other, in a vain attempt to continue to maintain the establishment, but the Wu army's grenade bombs specifically restrained this, the more the crowd gathered, the more dense it was, the easier it was to attract the Wu army's grenade bomb attack, rolling bitter acid grenades falling from the sky fell into the Qing army crowd and exploded, a random explosion is a wave of blood, and a casual explosion can overturn seven or eight or even more Qing soldiers, almost easily blow up the crowd that the Qing army has gathered with great difficulty, Then, when the Wu army sentinel with hundreds of people rushed in front of them, the Qing soldiers who had been blown up were only left to be hacked to death and stabbed to death with random knives.

The shouts of surrender and non-killing have begun to appear on the battlefield, and at the same time, there are also the defeated soldiers of the Qing army who dare not move closer to the brigade and flee in all directions. As a result, seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Guoliang, who regretted breaking through in the open area, gritted his teeth and simply ordered the army to retreat to the north, in a vain attempt to escape into the narrow mountain road to avoid the fate of collapse.

It's too late, not to mention that it is impossible for the Wu army to give Zhang Guoliang this chance to make amends, even the Qing army has no way to carry out Zhang Guoliang's order, after the order to turn around and go north, only Zhang Guoliang's direct battalion and a battalion facing the Pan River next to it reacted, and turned around and headed north according to Zhang Guoliang's request.

If his own battalion is entangled, and his son's battalion is still in formation, Zhang Guoliang can not hesitate to order his son to ignore him and immediately flee north for his life. But unfortunately, it was Zhang Yinqing's battalion that was entangled, and Zhang Guoliang, who loved his son, had no choice but to give up the pitiful opportunity to form an organization, and rushed to the direction where Zhang Yinqing was with his direct battalion, in a vain attempt to rescue his son, and at the same time sent himself into the mouth of Wu Junhu. Although the other Qing army battalion fled resolutely to the north, it was soon stopped by the Wu army reserves, and fell into an even more difficult lonely battle.

The next battle can only be described as a massacre, the Wu soldiers with absolute weapon superiority are like peeling bamboo shoots, layer by layer to easily peel off the Qing army crowd, but also tear it into pieces layer by layer, the Qing army crowd rushed left and right, dead or alive can not rush out of the Wu army's encirclement, just like a snowball under the sun, quickly melted and became smaller, the Wu army's encirclement is getting thicker and thicker, more and more dense. After more than an hour of fierce fighting, only Zhang Guoliang and his son were left with less than 100 remnants of the defeated generals still resisting stubbornly, and the rest of the Qing army was either killed and captured or scattered, and most of the scattered and fled were killed or captured by the Wu army on the periphery, and only a few poor people were lucky enough to get rid of the pursuit of the Wu army and disappear into the wilderness.

"Surrender or kill! Surrender or kill! Surrender or kill! ”

The slogans urging surrender became more and more intensive, and the Qing soldiers around Zhang Guoliang and his son became fewer and fewer, including many of the Zhang family's father and son's own soldiers, all chose to lay down their arms and surrender to the Wu army, and in the end, only Zhang Guoliang and his son, who were full of wounds, and five or six Qing soldiers were still holding on, surrounded by Wu army officers and soldiers, and it was difficult to fly.

"Dog thieves of the rebellious party, give you one last chance, lay down your arms and surrender, and spare you from dying!"

The majestic shout sounded in the crowd of Wu troops, Zhang Yinqing, who was already covered in blood, and the remaining Qing soldiers also turned their eyes to Zhang Guoliang, who was also covered in blood, Zhang Guoliang, who was dripping blood on his beard, hesitated for a moment, and ordered: "Put down your weapons, it is important to save your life first." ”

No one didn't want to live, several Qing troops, including Zhang Yinqing, immediately put down their weapons and raised their hands to express their willingness to surrender, but Zhang Guoliang suddenly raised his knife and wiped it on his neck without hesitation......

"Father!"

Knowing Zhang Guoliang's character, Zhang Yinqing's bloody hand grabbed the blade of Zhang Guoliang's saber in time, and refused to let go until his right hand was dripping with blood, Zhang Guoliang was furious and shouted: "Let go!" Lao Tzu can't be a prisoner! ”

"Then I can't either!" Zhang Yinqing still clung to the blade of the knife and roared angrily: "I want to die together!" Let's live together! ”

"Whew!"

After a slight delay, Zhang Guoliang, who had long been targeted by the Wu army, suddenly heard the wind, and the butt of a gun smashed heavily on the back of his head, smashing the already exhausted Zhang Guoliang directly to the ground and falling unconscious on the spot, and then Zhang Yinqing, who was also wearing a general's uniform, was also kicked over by Wu soldiers from behind, and the father and son both became prisoners of the Wu army, and Zhang Guoliang brought seven battalions of the Qing army from Jinan to Tai'an, and the whole army was completely annihilated.

After the big victory again, of course, there were cheers everywhere in the ranks of the Wu army's partial division, but after decisively ordering the reward of the three armies, Hu Huaizhao, the chief general of the Wu army's partial division, who had already overfulfilled the task, still refused to be satisfied, because the Wu army officials learned through interrogation of the captured Qing army in Jinan that the number of Qing troops in Jinan is not too large at present, including the Changqing defenders, there are only more than 8,000 people, of which all are equipped with Russian-made rifles of only about 6 battalions of 3,000 people, and the overall strength is not strong. Therefore, after repeatedly confirming these circumstances, Hu Huaizhao, who had made many great contributions, inevitably became greedy again, and couldn't wait to discuss with his subordinates at the celebration banquet to discuss the possibility of continuing to attack Jinan in the north.

It's a pity, although there are also some reckless men who applaud loudly, desperately encouraging and supporting Hu Huaizhao to continue the adventure, but most of the Wu army's civil and military forces are opposed to this, and have reminded Hu Huaizhao that the Wu army is very tired, although there is some grain in Tai'an City, the quantity is not very much, it is difficult to support the Wu army's division for a long time, and the climate is already early winter, once the snow is frozen, it is difficult to transport grain north through the mountain road of Zhangxia Town. In addition, the flank of the Wu army's partial division, as well as the hidden danger of Ji Wenyuan, will threaten the security of the rear and flanks of the Wu army. The objections are varied and will not be elaborated on here.

It was also a coincidence that just when Hu Huaizhao was about to give up this risky plan under the persuasion of his subordinate Wenwu, Wu Chaoyue's urgent official document sent from the rear happened to be sent to Hu Huaizhao. However, after carefully calculating the time, Hu Huaizhao was surprised to find that in addition to today, he still had eleven days left to take risks at will, and even if it was late today and he was celebrating and drinking too late to prepare, he would spend one day preparing to go north tomorrow, and he still had ten days left to go north to attack Jinan!

"Or take another risk? If you can't take it, the king of Zhennan won't blame me, but if it is really taken, the rebels will no longer have any important towns to defend on the North China Plain, and it will be much easier for us to take the remaining Shandong land and cities. In this way, the speed of King Zhennan's domination of the world can be much faster, and I can also go down in history and become the Kaiyuan minister of King Zhennan! ”

"It's good, there are opportunities, but if you want to conquer a provincial capital like Jinan, is ten days enough? Also, what about Changqing? According to common sense, if you want to take Jinan, you have to take Changqing first? ”