Because Liu Lichuan's subordinates did not contribute to the work, the Taiping army's tired tactics had little effect, and in one afternoon and one night, there were only two battles that really forced the Wu army to practice courage and spend their strength to fight, and both times they relied on Xu Zongyang's army to sacrifice their lives to charge, and to kill near the Wu army's position to create an offensive opportunity for the assault team. Xu Zongyang's troops suffered a lot of casualties because of this, and Zhou Lichun's department, which served as a commando, suffered heavy casualties, but on the contrary, Liu Lichuan's department, which had the most battles, was greedy for life and feared death, and chose the cheapest, and the casualties were the least.

The commander of the Taiping Army, Zeng Lichang, was of course extremely dissatisfied with these circumstances, and went to the forward position early the next morning, scolded Chen Alin, the deputy sent by Liu Lichuan, and forced Liu Lichuan's army to launch another attack on the Wu army's position in front of him. As a result, although Chen Alin swallowed his anger and led the order to fight, the soldiers under his command still only rushed to the vicinity of 200 meters and then lay down and fired, no matter how Chen Alin insulted and expelled in the rear, he just refused to take a step forward, and the Wu army Lian Yong on the opposite side didn't even bother to shoot a gun, only a few sentries practiced marksmanship behind the wall with a Mini gun, and a few people beat more than 200 Liu soldiers to the point that they didn't dare to raise their heads.

Seeing this scene, Zeng Lichang, who was watching the battle in the rear, of course, had an ugly and ugly face, so he simply sent someone into the city to invite Liu Lichuan to enjoy the wonderful performance of Liu Junjun, during which Zeng Lichang called Zhou Lichun to the front and asked Zhou Lichun about yesterday's losses, and Zhou Lichun replied truthfully: "Back to Prime Minister Zeng, 278 people died, 33 were seriously injured, and countless minor injuries were inflicted. ”

"So much loss?" Zeng Lichang showed a look of surprise, then sighed again, and said: "Thank you for your hard work, let you suffer so many casualties, so let's do it, you don't have to take on the task of the commando team from now on, take your brothers to retreat and rest, and the prime minister will select three hundred strong ones from the newly recruited soldiers to replenish you." ”

Zhou Lichun, who didn't want to die in vain, was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly thanked Zeng Lichang again and again, who would have thought that Zeng Lichang smiled again and said: "By the way, Liu Lushuai, there is no war in that area of Zhabei, why don't you take the people of your headquarters to move to Zhabei to set up camp, rest in peace, and by the way, monitor the demons in Wusongkou for us." ”

"Prime Minister Zeng, did you let the last general move to Zhabei?"

Zhou Lichun's face turned white -- the area of Zhabei on the north bank of the Wu Yan River is now not a war, but it is not only the forward position of confrontation with the Qing army at Wusongkou, but also the only way for the Qing army to counterattack Shanghai in the south, whether it is the Qing army in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to reinforce in the east, or Wu Chaoyue to lead the army back to Shanghai from the north, as long as it is by land, it will inevitably pass through Zhabei, and what will be the result of being stationed there, Zhou Lichun can also know it by thinking with his toes!

"Yes, it's safer right now, just in time for your army to recuperate." Zeng Lichang nodded, waved his hand again, and said in an indisputable tone: "No thanks, go quickly." ”

"No thanks?" Zhou Lichun strangled Zeng Lichang's heart, and said that Lao Tzu recruited you to provoke you? Secretly send someone to follow and monitor me, I just died so many descendants, and immediately pushed me to the northern front to resist the main force of the Qing Demon, are you determined to use the hands of the Qing Demon to kill me?

When Zhou Lichun was rubbing and refusing to accept the order, the Liu soldiers sent forward by Chen Alin had already retreated, knowing that Zeng Lichang would definitely be furious again, Chen Alin simply pretended to reorganize the army and hid in the army, and Zeng Lichang did not send anyone to call him, but waited for Liu Lichuan to arrive with an ugly face. However, at this moment, there was a new movement on the side of the Wu army's position-a few Lian Yong came down from the top of the wall with ropes, dipped their brushes in white paint, and began to write on the wall of the arsenal, which had been riddled with shells and bullets.

No one in the Taiping army knew what Wu Jun Lian Yong wanted to do, including Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang, and under curiosity, the Taiping Army did not rush to attack and stop it, but patiently watched Wu Jun Lian Yong play tricks. However, when the six big characters written by Wu Jun Lian Yong gradually took shape, Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang began to regret it.

"Allah doesn't fight Allah?"

"Allah doesn't fight Allah! The six words written by the demon soldier are Allah not to fight Allah! ”

Several local generals of the Taiping Army in southern Jiangsu with monoculars gently read out the six tall characters written by Wu Jun Lian Yong, although these generals did not loudly proclaim to shake the morale of the army and slack morale, but soon, hundreds of people suddenly shouted in the Wu army's position, "Allah does not fight Allah!" Allah doesn't fight Allah! ”

I have never encountered such a vicious and shameless divisive scheme, when Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang's noses were about to be crooked, Liu Lichuan, who was wearing a red turban on his head, finally rode a horse to the scene, and after seeing the six big characters written by Wu Jun Lian Yong with a telescope, Liu Lichuan also exclaimed very exaggeratedly: "Allah does not fight Allah? Dog Qing Demon, it's really shameless, such shameless words, they can also write and shout? ”

Meeting with Liu Lichuan with a very ugly face, Zeng Lichang first told Liu Lichuan about the wonderful performance of Sergeant Liu on the battlefield, and then said: "Liu Checkpoint, this prime minister knows that this is definitely not what you meant, but you also know the current situation, if you can't take his ammunition depot before the main force that surpasses the little demon and returns to the army, there will be no need to be wordy." Now is our only chance, you say what to do. ”

Blinking his eyes twice, Liu Lichuan suddenly slapped Chen Alin in the face, kicked Chen Alin to the ground again, and roared: "Go and rush again!" No matter how much it costs, I must rush to the vicinity of the Qing Demon's position, and those who escape from the battle will be killed immediately! Besides, send someone to give Pan Qiliang an order, telling him to bring his headquarters to participate in the war! ”

Got up from the ground without saying a word, Chen Alin really organized the army to launch another charge to the Wu army's position, and specially arranged for the supervising team to guard in the back, forcing the soldiers to only advance and not retreat, but this hand barely had a little effect, under the threat of the black hole of the supervising team, some of the ragged Liu soldiers rushed to the vicinity of the Wu army's position, hid in the single bunker dug by the Taiping soldiers before and shot, but more Liu soldiers were still afraid of the enemy. A few of the overly timid soldiers simply fled to the two flanks of the unwarned, and when they were stopped by the Taiping soldiers, the soldiers cried and shouted: "Allah does not fight Allah!" We are no longer soldiers, we are not soldiers to fight Allah's own people! As a result, after the Taiping soldiers hacked these deserters to death without hesitation, the morale of the local soldiers on the battlefield also plummeted.

Seeing these situations, Liu Lichuan not only did not have a look of shame on his face, but on the contrary, he took the initiative to turn to Zeng Lichang and said: "Prime Minister Zeng, the last general's people have rushed up, is it time for your army to go below?" ”

With a pale face, he looked at the few people in front of him who could pose a threat to the position of the Wu army, and then glanced at the triumphant Liu Lichuan, and secretly cursed, how could there be such a shameless person in the world? Zeng Lichang still ordered Xu Zongyang to organize a commando team to launch an attack, but in the face of Wu Jun Lianyong's intensive firepower, the charge of the genuine Taiping Army still failed to receive much effect, and was also hit by Wu Jun Lianyong's firing gun and suffered heavy casualties, and the only cluster charge was also repelled by Wu Jun Lianyong with grenade bullets, and the casualties were far above Liu Jun.

It can't be said that there is no gain at all, after seeing that Liu Jun's soldiers can hold on for a long time after a single soldier bunker, Bai Fanglin, the chief under Zeng Lichang, suddenly had an idea, and suggested to Zeng Lichang: "Prime Minister, the most powerful thing about the demon soldiers is that the foreign guns have many bullets, and our frontal attack is just to use them as a target, but the bullets of the demon soldiers can't turn and can only shoot directly, in this case, why don't we dig it?" The zigzag trench is close to the demon position, and then a trench is dug fifty steps away from the demon soldier's position to surround the demon soldier position on all sides, so that our army can take the trench and throw troops forward, launch an assault at the first opportunity, and retreat into the trench to avoid bullets if there is no chance, which is far stronger than a direct hard attack? ”

After pondering for a while, Zeng Lichang was immediately overjoyed, applauded and said, "Good idea, just do it!" ”

After that, Zeng Lichang also turned to Liu Lichuan again and said: "Liu Checkpoint, the matter of digging the trench is handed over to you, and our army is responsible for the assault, how about it?" ”

After thinking about it, he felt that although this made the soldiers of the self-army harder, it was better to have fewer casualties in safety, so Liu Lichuan immediately agreed. At that moment, the Taiping army immediately acted according to the plan, quickly explored the terrain and decided to dig six trenches to approach the Wu army's position, and then under the personal command of Liu Lichuan, the Liu army soldiers really began to excavate earthworks.

After seeing the Taiping army vigorously digging trenches behind the wall, Deng Siyuan still didn't understand the enemy's purpose and intentions at first, but when he saw the Taiping army's trenches zigzag and gradually approaching the position of the self-army, Deng Siyuan quickly realized that he quickly found Zhou Tenghu, who was doing some manual work with Wuxi Lian Yong, and asked him for advice.

"I can't imagine that Long Hair has a bit of a brain, and he can come up with such a good way." Zhou Tenghu buried his head in writing something on a small note, and said without raising his head: "But it's okay, don't forget that we also have grenade bullets and grenadiers, both of which are sharp weapons to deal with the long-haired trenches, even if the long-haired can dig day and night at any cost, we can at least make them pay a heavy price, and then find another way to crack their trench tactics." ”

Deng Siyuan nodded uneasily, and when he saw Zhou Tenghu holding a foreigner's fountain pen and writing Arabic numerals on the small note, Deng Siyuan, who had eaten and seen with Wu Chaoyue, asked suspiciously: "Zhou Lianguan, what are you doing writing these foreigner numbers?" ”

"Send a message to the outside." Zhou Tenghu pouted to Jiangyin Lian Yong, who was doing manual work next to him, and said: "See, they are making Kong Ming lanterns, tie these small pieces of paper to Kong Ming lanterns at night and light them out, as long as I pick one of the Jiangyin Lian Yong who I arranged outside, you can know my order." ”

Looking at those Kong Ming lanterns in surprise, and then looking at the note with Arabic numerals written in Zhou Tenghu's hand, Deng Siyuan was even more puzzled, and asked again: "Zhou Lianguan, these numbers are your orders?" Why can't I read it? ”

"If you can read it, then we will be in big trouble." Zhou Tenghu said with a smile: "These numbers can only be understood by my deputy Zhou Pei who stayed outside, he has a book in his hand, and the number I write is the number is the first few words, and then connect these words together to become my orders." In this way, even if Changmao picks up our Kong Ming lantern, he won't be able to understand what I said to the outside. ”

"What a solution!" Deng Shaoliang was overjoyed when he heard this, and said, "How did you come up with such a subtle method, Zhou Lianguan?" ”

"I didn't come up with it, it was already in place during the Song Dynasty." Zhou Tenghu smiled and said, "I've just made some improvements to convey more complex orders." ”

"Then what order do you give to Lian Yong outside?" Deng Siyuan hurriedly asked again.

Zhou Tenghu smiled again and replied: "Pretend to be Liu Lichuan's subordinates and kill foreign long hair!" ”

…………

The Taiping army's trench attack technique only began to go smoothly, but as the trench gradually approached the Wu army's position, the resistance gradually began to come, Wu Jun practiced Yong to aim at the trench with a grenadier to fire, even if the accuracy was very poor, it could be hit by a few cannons, and as long as one shot entered the trench, it was immediately a bloody storm, blood and flesh flying, and the Liu soldiers who were digging hard were crying wolf, with heavy casualties and great slowdown. And Liu Lichuan, who supervised the work in the back, couldn't withstand Xu Zongyang's pressure, and repeatedly urged the soldiers of the army to speed up the excavation, causing the soldiers of Liu Jun who sacrificed their lives to dig trenches to complain and become resentful of the overbearing guests.

Liu Jun's bigger nightmare is still to come, after nightfall, Wu Jun Lian Yong successively went down the wall to touch the near of the trench under the cover of night, and suddenly threw a grenade into the trench, which made Liu Jun Lian Yong cry and scream to the sky, and the casualties were even more serious. Pan Qiliang, who was ordered to carry out the excavation work, could not afford such huge casualties, so he could only quickly run back to the Taiping army position and demand that the excavation be stopped and continue working when the field of vision was wide during the day.

Considering the threat of Wu Jun's grenades, and at the same time, he could not persecute the friendly troops in Shanghai too much, Xu Zongyang finally agreed to Pan Qiliang's request, but just when the soldiers of Liu Jun were cheering, dozens of Kong Ming lanterns suddenly rose in the Wu army's position, and with the night wind drifting directly to the open place in the north, Xu Zongyang knew that something was wrong, and hurriedly sent someone to track those Kong Ming lanterns to collect as much as possible, and then soon, more than a dozen small notes full of Arabic numerals were sent to Xu Zongyang.

Neither Xu Zongyang nor Zeng Lichang could understand Arabic numerals, but some Western homeless people who had joined the Taiping Army could understand them, but they did not understand the meaning. After pondering it carefully, Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang quickly came to a correct conclusion - Wu Jun Lianyong was probably passing on some kind of important news to the outside world! But what important news was transmitted, Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang do not know.

When the Taiping army commanders racked their brains and could not crack the code of the Wu army, a new accident suddenly appeared - at dawn, it was first reported that a soldier under Zeng Lichang's command had been killed outside the camp, and then another Taiping soldier who had been seriously injured by a revolver was carried in front of Zeng Lichang. When Zeng Lichang hurriedly asked him who the murderer was, the dying soldier groaned and replied: "It's Chen Alin's person, he said that he is Chen Alin's subordinate, and he has something to say to me, and then when I don't pay attention, he suddenly shoots me." ”

"Are you sure he's Chen Alin's subordinate?" Zeng Lichang hurriedly asked again.

The Taiping soldier who was shot in the abdomen nodded with difficulty, and said in a weak voice: "He said the local accent, after beating me, let's see if we dare to bully the Songjiang locals." ”

"Did someone pretend to sow discord, or did it really Liu Lichuan's people do it?"

Zeng Lichang had such a question in his heart, and he wanted to press this matter down as before to avoid a conflict with the friendly forces in Shanghai, but the news that his soldiers were killed and injured by Liu Lichuan's soldiers had gradually begun to spread, and if the truth was not found out as soon as possible and the real murderer was found, the consequences would definitely be more unpredictable. So after thinking about it again and again, Zeng Lichang still gritted his teeth and gave an order, asking Liu Lichuan and Chen Alin to come here to meet him.

Not to mention, when Zeng Lichang directly explained to Liu Lichuan and Chen Alin the reason for summoning them, Liu Lichuan, who knew what kind of virtue the generals and soldiers under his command were, and was still a little self-aware, decisively did not directly shout grievances, but just squinted his eyes to peek at Chen Alin's expression. And Chen Alin was also very angry, his eyes only rolled slightly, and he immediately opened his teeth and claws and yelled, "Impossible!" When pigs fly! How is it possible for my men to sneak up on the allies of the Heavens? This is frame-up! This is a frame-up! ”

roared on his lips, but Chen Alin was secretly scolding in his heart, "! What did that idiot do? The hands are not neat, and they actually leave a living mouth, isn't this making trouble for Lao Tzu? ”

Zeng Lichang, who is very perceptive, has been closely observing Chen Alin's reaction, and said: "Master Chen, Prime Minister Ben also suspects that this is likely to be framed by others, but this matter is too big, and it can't be found out without investigation. Fortunately, the person who did it used a foreigner's revolver, this kind of gun is very rare in our army, tell me who of your subordinates are equipped with revolvers, the prime minister sent people to investigate one by one, I believe there will be results soon. ”

Zeng Lichang's suggestion is of course too good to be a good idea, if Chen Alin obediently cooperates, not to mention that all suspicions can be cleared soon, even if he takes the opportunity to find out the real murderer, it is not hopeless. But there is no way, Chen Alin really has no confidence in the jackals, tigers and leopards under his command, and he is afraid of taking responsibility and even more afraid of provoking fire, so Chen Alin also snorted and said: "Prime Minister Zeng, I'm really sorry, my brother is a rough man, I haven't paid attention to such details, I really don't know that my subordinates are equipped with revolvers." But it's okay, brother, I'll go back and take a look, see who is equipped with a revolver, and count the list and ask you to check them one by one. ”

"Great idea!" Liu Lichuan clapped his legs and applauded, and couldn't wait to say: "Prime Minister Zeng, the last general will go back to check with Brother Chen, and I will definitely give you an answer as soon as possible, as soon as possible." Prime Minister Zeng, you are busy, let's leave first. ”

After that, Liu Lichuan didn't wait for Zeng Lichang's reply, and immediately pulled up Chen Alin and walked out, Chen Alin naturally followed the situation, and followed Liu Lichuan's footsteps to go out of the account directly, leaving Zeng Lichang to stammer in the tent, and only came back to his senses after a while, and said secretly: "Why don't these two guys want to think about it?" If they do this, how can Prime Minister Ben still find out the truth of the facts? Are they brainless? Or is it deliberately ......? ”

"If they're deliberately covering up, isn't that ......?"

After thinking about this, Zeng Lichang, who still understood the overall situation, shook his head, trying to get that terrible hypothesis out of his mind, but said in his heart: "For the sake of prudence, it is best for this prime minister to arrange for a descendant to be stationed in Shanghai as soon as possible, so that whether it is the attack of the Qing demon army or the main force that surpasses the little demon, this prime minister has room to advance and retreat." Otherwise, once Liu Lichuan does not allow the prime minister's army to enter the city, then it will be ....... ”

At the same time, Liu Lichuan also told Chen Alin in his ear: "Tell your subordinates who are equipped with revolvers to prepare confessions first, and find alibi and physical evidence, it doesn't matter who did it, just don't let Zeng Lichang's people find out!" (To be continued.) )