"What? The city wall in the northern section of Luoyuan Gate collapsed? How did it collapse? How did the Wu thieves blow up our city walls?! ”

"Lord Huifutai, the city wall was not blown up by Wu thieves, that section of the city wall collapsed by himself, and he collapsed by himself for no reason, and buried many of our brothers alive, maybe there is also a possibility that our General Su Kang was buried."

The herald's sad answer made Bao Jun, who had been frightened once now, shocked again, and also made Liu Rong next to him jump three feet high and yelled: "Impossible! No way! When Luo Ruzhai first arrived in Jinan, he attached great importance to the repair and reinforcement of the Jinan city wall, so many years, even if there is a broken brick on the city wall, it will be replaced immediately, and the soil and stone used for repair still spend a lot of money mixed with glutinous rice pulp, which is harder than iron! How could the city wall of Jinan collapse on its own? ”

"yes, it's impossible?" Rong Lu was also confused, and said: "I have carefully looked at every part of the situation in Jinan City, and I can't even find a crack, how can it collapse by itself?" ”

"That's right!" Liu Rong, who was anxious to correct Luo Bingzhang's name, continued to yell and said: "Limited to financial resources, although Ruzhai has not been able to completely renovate the city wall, he can only repair and strengthen the original city wall, but every brick and soil are carefully selected from the best materials!" There could never be a problem with the city wall he repaired, and even if there was a problem with the city wall, it was ...... the old city wall was problematic. ”

For Luo Bingzhang to roar here, Liu Rong's face suddenly turned white, and she stopped her own roar, Rong Lu next to him saw that something was wrong, and hurriedly asked, "Mr. Meng Rong, what's wrong?" Could it be that the section of the city wall north of Luoyuan Gate is the original old city wall? ”

Liu Rong nodded with difficulty and said: "The last time Jinan experienced a big war, it was fought when I entered the customs in the Qing Dynasty, when our Qing army was the city broken from the Qichuan Gate, and the city defense in the area of the Qichuan Gate was the most damaged. Therefore, the city wall in the area of Luoyuan Gate, in fact, only the top three feet are newly built city walls, and the city walls below three feet are all old city walls in the Hongwu period of the previous dynasty. ”

"The old city wall during the Hongwu period of the previous dynasty?" Rong Lu almost didn't cry directly, and lamented: "Can you be older?" ”

"Yes." Liu Rong's answer made Rong Lu cry, Liu Rong said with a sad face: "I carefully read the Jinan Mansion Chronicle in my spare time, and I clearly remember that the Jinan City Wall was first built in the Song Dynasty, when it was just a rammed earth city wall, after Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty, the urn outside the earthen wall was built with bricks and stones, and the current Jinan City Wall was built. ”

"Oh my God!" Rong Lu stroked his forehead and wailed, and said: "The rammed earth of the Song Dynasty, the bricks and stones of the Hongwu period of the previous dynasty, the three-foot new wall built when the country was founded in this dynasty, we have arranged so many cannons on the city wall and Wu thieves to bombard, the cannon wind (recoil) shook the wall, and there were Wu thieves' heavy artillery bombardment of the wall, such a city wall is really unreasonable." ”

"That's why I insisted on building the façade." Du Qiaoyu, the minister of regimental training, interjected, and there was schadenfreude in his tone that could not be concealed.

"Enough!" Bao Jun finally spoke, patted the case in front of him and roared: "Don't show off your knowledge here!" The city wall has collapsed, and the Wu thieves are about to fight, and the most important thing now is what to do! How to block the Wu thief! How to fill the gap! ”

Awakened by Baojun, Liu Rong and Rong Lu remembered that the most important thing now is not to discuss and analyze the cause of the collapse of the city wall, but how to make up for the leakage and resist the enemy. After a little calculation, Liu Rong, who is indeed more experienced in this area, immediately spoke up and said: "Lord Futai, I can only dispatch the reserve team immediately, concentrate my forces to resist the attack of Wu thieves, and make every effort to plug the gap." Besides, we have to give another order to the regimental training on the side of Qinglong Mountain, and ask them to immediately send troops to rescue Luoyuanmen, no matter how much role they can play, as long as they can temporarily contain the flank of the Wu thief, they can buy us time. ”

"I have to go to Changqing City immediately, tell Fu Zhenbang about the situation, and let Fu Zhenbang return to the army immediately to relieve Nancheng." Rong Lu added.

"Then you won't do it?!" Bao Jun roared with red eyes, "Tell the people below that if you want to live, give the old man all his strength to kill the thief!" If we lose Jinan, none of us will be able to escape! No one can live! Also, you are not allowed to fire any more cannons, and you can't help Wu thieves fight us in Jinan City anymore! ”

I have to say that Liu Rong and Rong Lu's contingency strategy is quite decisive and quite correct, and at the same time, the Qing army in Jinan does still have a chance, because after the collapse of the Jinan city wall, only a hole less than ten zhang wide was exposed, and it was only half collapsed, and there were still five or six meters high broken city walls that could temporarily block the attack of the Wu army. In addition, the top positions of the city wall on both sides of the gap are still in the hands of the Qing army, and the Qing soldiers can continue to block the gap with firepower, and the Qing army still has the opportunity and time to re-plug the gap. But......

But the premise of all this is - the execution of the army! If Fu Zhenbang's division of a hundred battles is still in Jinan City, then needless to say, the Qing army has a great grasp of seizing this opportunity, and Fu Zhenbang, who is old in the battlefield, will definitely rush to the gap with his elite at the first time, and fight with the Wu army to the end with bloody lives and amazing tenacious will. But it's a pity that Fu Zhenbang and his Hundred Battles Heroes have been deceived to Changqing by Wu Jun's plan to transfer the tiger from the mountain, and the heavy task of carrying out this hellish difficulty has also been shouldered by Fu Xin, the general of the Qing army who commanded the Qing army reserves, and the Qing army soldiers under his command.

"Wu thief is up, shoot quickly, shoot quickly, fire quickly! Block the Wu thief, block the Wu thief! ”

When Fuxin hurried to the scene of the incident with his 2,000 reserves, the Qing soldiers who had already disappeared under the commander Qu Suken had already become a mess, and soldiers screaming like headless flies could be seen everywhere, some were moving sandbags to plug the gap, some were looking for missing comrades-in-arms and relatives in the ruins, some were shooting outside the city, and some were still reloading and reloading without knowing whether they were alive or dead, bombarding the enemy outside the city with the remnants of artillery. The Wu army firmly grasped this advantageous opportunity, or pushed the cart loaded with earth, stone and sand bags strode forward to fill the moat, or rushed to the edge of the moat to dig bomb avoidance fortifications, laying a solid foundation for the upcoming ant annex war, and at the same time, the main force of the Wu army was also carrying a variety of improvised siege weapons to rush forward, and the front team had also rushed to the vicinity of the artillery position.

Fortunately, Fu Xin, the general of the Qing army who had fought with the Twist Army, the Taiping Army, and the Zeng Guoquan Department of the Henan Wu Army, was also an experienced master, and he was not in a hurry because of the critical situation, in addition to decisively ordering his army to take over the battlefield, he also separately divided a separate revenue to accommodate the rebels left by Su Ken, forcing them to return to the team and assemble, carrying earth, rocks and sandbags to plug the gap - in order to make these rebels obedient, Fuxin also directly ordered that the soldiers under his command were allowed to shoot at the rebels who did not listen to the call.

Then, because of the Manchurian status, Fu Xin, who held two elite battalions of the Qing army, immediately let his army enter the battle, and accurately shot the Wu army on the other side of the moat with a rifle whose shooting accuracy was not under the Mini gun, causing a lot of casualties to the Wu army soldiers who were transporting soil to fill the river and digging fortifications, and at the same time Fuxin also stopped the soldiers of the self-army from continuing to fire artillery, so as to avoid the recoil of the cannon from continuing to damage the Jinan city wall that was still full of cracks, so that the soldiers could prepare powder kegs to wait for their lives, and beware of the Wu army directly crossing the moat to attack the gap, and the command was orderly. Quite the style of a future celebrity.

Fu Xin's calm command and decisive response quickly received satisfactory results, under the continuous attack of the Qing army's elite Lizhi rifles, the casualties of the Wu army not only rose immediately, but the progress of the project of filling the river and building roads was also greatly slow, and at the same time, the Qing soldiers who gradually calmed down also obeyed the order, quickly moved earth and stones to seal the gap, repaired the loopholes left after the collapse of the city wall, and the ordinary people nearby were also under the persecution and requirements of the Qing army. The situation of the Qing army finally began to show signs of improvement.

Although Fuxin's calm command curbed the chaotic momentum of the Qing army, it completely angered Hu Huaizhao, the commander of the Wu army's partial division outside the city, and saw the situation of the Qing army in the telescope and did not want the same chaos as he hoped, the casualties of the soldiers who rushed to fill the moat increased, and there were constantly Qing soldiers carrying sandbags to plug the gap. Hu Huaizhao, who originally planned to attack directly, suddenly became angry and shouted: "Keep firing!" Use the Blossom Cannonball! The breech guns stepped forward, concentrated their firepower, and bombarded the chaotic party in the city! There is no need to save ammunition, this battle will not be able to take Jinan, and we will have little hope! ”

The monstrous catastrophe soon fell from the sky, and in the waving of the flag, the Wu army's artillery, which had been silent for a while, roared again, and the old cannons that could not use flowering shells continued to blast out solid shells, and the new artillery directly blasted out black powder flowering shells, and then waited for the twenty rear-loading rifled guns of the Wu army's partial division to also join the battle, and directly blasted out the bitter acid cannonballs that had not been used before, the unlucky Fuxin and his subordinates soon experienced what the hell of iron and fire was.

Whistling shells smashed into the walls on both sides of the gap one after another, and the solid cannonballs bounced, rampage, and invincible. Flowering shells bloomed everywhere, shooting fragmented shrapnel in all directions, and the Qing soldiers who were unfortunately hit by the shrapnel were either killed or wounded, and some Qing soldiers did not even know what was happening, only heard a swishing sound in their ears, and blood was already gushing from their necks. And the most terrible thing is still the bitter acid shells that make the Qing army, the Taiping army and the Tsarist Russian army suffer a lot, once exploded, in addition to flying out more shrapnel to hurt people and kill the enemy, it can also spew out a large area of flames, turning the vicinity into a sea of fire, the Qing soldiers shrouded in the sea of fire crying dad and mother, rolling for help, but still still can't escape the tragic end of being burned alive by the bitter acid flame.

During the bombardment, there was also a Wu gunner, who had a good luck and the picric acid shell that was blasted out hit the Qing army's demolition team, and the picric acid flame ignited the gunpowder keg in the hands of the Qing soldiers, causing many martyrdoms and causing more casualties to the Qing soldiers. The Wu army roared outside the city, but the Qing soldiers cried wolf howls in the city, and they didn't dare to imagine how they could survive this brutal and fierce battle.

After all, it was not a disciplined steel division under Fu Zhenbang, unable to withstand the fear of death and the fierce artillery fire of the Wu army, the two elite battalions of the Fuxin Division fighting in the city still began to be chaotic, and the soldiers either flinched and slipped away quietly, or only dared to hide behind the female wall and tremble, no matter how the boss shouted and scolded, few people stood up and fired at the Wu soldiers under the city. The soldiers of the Wu army, who were in charge of opening the road, took the opportunity to speed up their actions, transported the earth, stone and sandbags as much as possible, filled the moat and opened up the road directly under the city, and the progress of the project was greatly accelerated again.

At this time, the sky was already slightly dark, and the Qing army defenders on the city wall had been completely unable to raise their heads, but the Wu army, which only had this one chance, still did not stop the shelling, and was still racing against time to bombard the city wall at both ends of the gap. At the same time, the sappers of the Wu army also stepped forward with tools and began to build bridges directly over the moat.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Fuxin could only quickly send someone to report the specific situation to Baojun, and frankly admitted that he was not sure that he would be able to block the Wu army, and the Wu army was likely to rush directly into the city from the gap. As a result, when he heard the news, Bao Jun was of course in a hurry, in addition to returning to Ling Fuxin to defend desperately, he hurriedly asked a few civil and military helpers: "What else can I do?" What else can you do? ”

"Rush to build the Moon City in the city, and use the Moon City to continue to resist the Wu thieves."

Du Qiaoyu, the civil construction madman, rushed to be the first to make a suggestion, but before Baojun could think about it, Rong Lu and Liu Rong had already shouted angrily in unison: "Are you stupid? When has this been? How could it be too late to rush to build Moon City? ”

Du Qiaoyu pondered it and found that it was impossible to have time, so he had to keep his mouth shut obediently. Then Rong Lu said: "Lord Futai, judging from the current situation, the Wu thief should have bet all his bets on this gap in the north of Luoyuan Gate, Xia Guan thinks that it is better to send defenders from the other three gates to reinforce this battlefield, and concentrate on defending this gap with all our might, as long as we can hold on until General Fu Zhenbang returns to help, Jinan City will still have a glimmer of life." ”

Bao Jun nodded when he heard this, and hurriedly asked Rong Lu and Liu Rong to arrange for other city gate defenders to reinforce the battlefield of Fuxin, but only Rong Lu held his fists to receive the order, but Liu Rong did not make a move, and said: "Lord Futai, I'm afraid that this is still useless, the soldiers and horses under the command of General Fuxin Fu are already the most capable and best-equipped troops in Jinan City, they can't resist the Wu thieves, and then transfer other armies to fight against Wu thieves, what is the difference between driving dogs and sheep and fighting tigers and wolves?" ”

"What then?" Bao Jun hurriedly asked.

"The best strategy is to abandon the city, as long as it can't be stopped, quickly retreat to Yidu with the army that can still be commanded." Liu Rong said in a deep voice: "Winter has arrived, and the logistics of the Wu thieves can no longer be guaranteed, and there is absolutely no strength to pursue us, so we can only stop in Jinan and cross the east." The west of Jinan is a piece of yellow water, and the current focus of the Wu thieves' attack is the southeast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the grain, grass and ammunition of the Wu thieves in Shandong can not be guaranteed, so we just need to quickly withdraw to the Jiaodong area, not only survive this winter without any problem, but also survive another year and a half in Jiaodong There is not much problem, and if a miracle appears, we may still have hope for a comeback. ”

After that, Liu Rong added another sentence and said: "But if we fight all the money with Wu Thief here, not only is Jiaodong destined to not be able to keep it, but we definitely don't have any hope." ”

Bao Jun was a little shaken, thinking about subconsciously going to see Rong Lu, Rong Lu hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Although Mr. Meng Rong's words are very reasonable, but now that the Wu rebel thief army has not yet entered the city, we still have hope, so the lower officials think that there is no need to consider abandoning the city and breaking through now." ”

Bao Jun, who didn't want to become the governor of the lost city, nodded subconsciously and said: "Mr. Meng Rong, your proposal will be seriously considered, but now we still have hope, so we can't rush, you should hurry up and arrange with Zhonghua to send troops to reinforce Fuxin and Fu generals, and make every effort to keep Jinan City." ”

After finishing speaking, Bao Jun also added another sentence of self-comfort, saying: "We still have hope, the regimental training on the side of Qinglong Mountain should be coming, Fu Zhenbang will definitely rush back overnight for reinforcements, and we still have hope to hold Jinan City." ”

The proposal was rejected, Liu Rong didn't say anything, just honestly hugged her fists and took the order, and then sighed in her heart: "Ru Zhai, for your sake, I pointed out the last way for your successor to live, but he didn't listen, and I really didn't have anything to do, so let it be fate." I hope I can escape this hurdle, I really don't like Wu Chaoyue's fake foreign devil too much. ”