On the seventh day of the Taiping army's retreat to Shanghai, when the siege fortifications of the Qing army were basically completed, Xiang Rong, who was in charge of the Jiangnan battalion, in order to recapture Shanghai as soon as possible and regain the Shanghai tariff that was extremely important to the Jiangnan battalion, sent the chief soldier of the naval division Bo Chengsheng to lead a naval fleet composed of twelve red single boats, and came directly to the Shanghai battlefield by water for reinforcements.

In this regard, Wu Chaoyue didn't care much, he just wondered why Xiang Rong wanted to divide the forces one by one, and he didn't think about concentrating superior forces to open up the situation on a key battlefield first? Xu Naizhao, the governor of Jiangsu, who had dealt with Xiang Rong in Jiangning, and He Chun, the acting governor of Jiangnan, scolded behind their backs, "Shameless Xiang Xinran, seeing that Shanghai has the upper hand, he immediately sent someone to grab the credit!" Longhair has already retreated into the city, and it is useless to send a sailor to reinforce it? Will the sailors attack the city or will our land division attack the city? ”

Sure enough, after arriving in Shanghai, the first thing Xiang Rong's henchman Bo Chengsheng did was to convey Xiang Rong's Qincha order, urging the Qing army to launch an attack as soon as possible - but of course, the ant attached battle had to rely on Xu Naizhao, He Chun and Wu Chaoyue to fight, and our general soldiers just hid on the ship and fired artillery in Shanghai!

There is no way, although Xu Naizhao and He Chun are both second-class officers, but Xiang Rong is the front-line commander-in-chief appointed by Emperor Xianfeng, even Yiliang, the governor of Liangjiang, has to listen to Xiang Rong's call, and there is no choice, Xu Naizhao and He Chun can only reluctantly agree to launch a not very sure attack, and Wu Chaoyue, who is still replenishing the troops, can only send a battalion to participate in the battle, and join forces with the Qing army to launch a frontal battle.

As a result, the Qing army was naturally defeated, and the vigorous Bo Chengsheng relied on the fact that the ships of the self-army were all foreigners, and had the advantage of strong ships and guns, and lined up the fleet of sailors on the Huangpu River, and bombed the east gate of Shanghai within the firing range, while the officers and men of the Taiping Army responded calmly to the battle, and used the artillery and flowering shells bought from the foreigners to fight back strongly, and still fought inextricably with the Qing army's naval division in the case of a disadvantage in the number of artillery, and even had a slight upper hand, and damaged many Qing warships one after another. dealt a heavy blow to Bo Chengsheng's arrogance.

On the land battlefield, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Qing army's naval division to attract the main attention of the Taiping army, the army of Hechun and Wu Chaoyue deliberately marched into the west gate to continue to distract the Taiping army's strength and attention, and Hu Songlin of Xu Naizhao's department led a thousand Qing troops to highlight the surprise troops and launched an ant-attached attack on the south gate of Shanghai. Not to mention, the first few Qing soldiers really stepped on the ladder and rushed to the south gate city wall, but before the Qing soldiers let out a victory cheer, there was already a cannon on the city wall, and then the gunfire and cannon sounded, and the Taiping army ambush hidden behind the female wall suddenly killed, and easily cut all the Qing soldiers who landed in the city into pieces, and then beat the Hu Songlin army to the head of the rat, and easily smashed the Qing army's surprise attack and city breaking plan.

He Chun Jun and Wu Jun Lian Yong also failed to make a breakthrough at the west gate of Shanghai, although Wu Jun Lian Yong's participation in the battle allowed the Qing army to gain a firepower advantage, but after all, the Taiping Army had a condescending terrain advantage, and there were arrow stacks and female walls to avoid bullets, which greatly reduced the possibility of being hit by Wu Jun's musket, and the Hechun Army who was responsible for the main attack was not good at hand-to-hand combat. And what made Wu Chaoyue vomit blood even more was that the general of the Taiping Army in charge of the Ximen battlefield turned out to be Lin Afu, a general of Liu Lichuan who had been trained with his own money.

In the end, the first to retreat was the Qing army's naval division, when the land was still in a fierce battle, the warship under the command of Bo Chengsheng 'Clone' (don't laugh, there is really the name of this ship) has been heavily damaged by the Taiping army and lost control, and two other warships were also injured, Bo Chengsheng saw that the situation was not good, so he hurriedly fled downstream with his fleet. After receiving the news of the defeat of the naval division, Wu Chaoyue, He Chun and Xu Naizhao did not hesitate and immediately ordered the troops to retreat, and the Qing army was defeated when it attacked the city for the first time.

After the Qing army's sailors fled to Yangshupu in embarrassment and stationed there, Bo Chengsheng, who felt ashamed, excused himself to urge the sailors to repair the ship, and did not come to meet Xu Naizhao and others again. And although Wu Chaoyue felt that Bo Chengsheng was a little wronged, and the Qing army's sailors were not bad, he still signed his ugly name on the joint fold at the request of Xu Naizhao - after all, Wu Chaoyue also had a part in the siege defeat, so why didn't Wu Chaoyue push the black pot out?

The losses of the Qing army in this battle were not small, but Wu Chaoyue's biggest concern was not the strength of the city and the casualties of his own army, but the fear that after this battle, the Taiping army saw the hope of holding Shanghai for a long time, and was more and more unwilling to take the initiative to abandon the city and break through. The result was not as Wu Chaoyue expected, Zhou Tenghu's Jiangyin Lian Yong, who had been inserted into Liu Lichuan's army in advance, quickly sent the news through the concession, saying that even Liu Lichuan's subordinates were clamoring that Shanghai's city defense was impregnable, enough to hold out until the arrival of the main reinforcements of the Taiping Army, and the will to defend the city was greatly strengthened, and the morale also rose quite a lot.

"Hit the birds! If you don't fight Long Hair, you're still afraid of me, and if you continue to fight like this, Long Hair may be more afraid of me the more you fight! ”

When Wu Chaoyue made this complaint, Governor Xu Naizhao took the initiative to call Wu Chaoyue to the Chinese army's big tent to discuss, saying that his subordinates had discovered that the masonry of the city root in the west of the south gate of Shanghai was relatively loose and the trench was slightly narrow, which was suitable for digging tunnels, so he planned to dig tunnels here overnight and bury gunpowder to blow up the city wall and open the way into the city.

Wu Chaoyue strongly opposed this time-consuming, laborious and doomed tactical plan, on the grounds that the Taiping army had already prepared for street fighting, and even if the Qing army blew up a gap, it could not quickly put a large number of troops into the battlefield in the city, and sending a small number of commandos into the city was in vain, and at the same time, it was very easy for the Taiping army to block the gap. However, Xu Naizhao, who was in a hurry to attack the city, did not listen to Wu Chaoyue's advice at all, and at the same time, He Chun, Hu Songlin and others also felt that they could give it a try, so Xu Naizhao not only forcibly passed the decision to implement this tactical plan, but also asked Wu Chaoyue to send Lian Yong to participate in covering the Qing army soldiers to dig tunnels.

After returning to the camp with a helpless face, seeing that Wu Chaoyue's expression was not good, Zhou Tenghu and Zhao Liewen, the unscrupulous uncles, of course, hurriedly inquired about what happened, but after Wu Chaoyue explained the reason for the situation in frustration, although Zhao Liewen also complained about Xu Naizhao's blind command, Zhou Tenghu was shocked and said: "It's a good thing, it's a good thing." ”

"Mr. Tao Fu, do you think Xu Futai's tactic has any hope of success?" Wu Chaoyue asked suspiciously.

"Of course, there is no hope of success." Zhou Tenghu smiled and said, "But letting Xu Futai and them suffer some defeats is more conducive to your enemy's plan." ”

When Wu Chaoyue, who was more and more confused the more he listened, hurriedly asked the reason again, Zhou Tenghu replied with a smile: "It's very simple, if the situation is critical, then Liu Lichuan, Zhou Lichun and Zeng Lichang, the three thieves, in order to protect themselves, will naturally try to tolerate each other, try to restrain themselves, and work together to defend Shanghai City." ”

"But if Xu Futai and they have been defeated repeatedly, and they have repeatedly lost troops and defeated generals but have gained nothing, we have nothing to do with the city of Shanghai, and the defense of Shanghai is as stable as Mount Tai, so without external pressure, it will be difficult for Changmao to think of problems inside. There's a problem inside the long-haired body, and if you want to separate the long-haired bandits, wouldn't it be much easier? ”

After pondering for a long time, he found that Zhou Tenghu's optimistic speculation was quite reasonable, Wu Chaoyue swept away the haze in his heart, and honestly sent troops to cooperate with Xu Naizhao's tunnel siege plan, so that the six battalions under his command took turns to attack, and cooperated with other friendly troops to cover the Qing army's tunnel excavation with muskets and artillery. At the same time, not to mention, relying on heavy rewards and encouragement, there are really many Qing soldiers under Xu Naizhao who are not afraid of death who rushed to the city to dig tunnels, and the Taiping soldiers who are good at earthwork laughed and seized the opportunity to constantly attack the Qing soldiers who dug tunnels with various weapons, brushed a lot of heads, and made several different contingency preparations early.

After more than ten days in this way, the Qing army finally dug the tunnel, filled the tunnel with a full 1,200 catties of gunpowder overnight, successfully closed the mouth of the pit and placed the fuse line. However, when Xu Naizhao and He Chun urgently dispatched troops and horses to attack the city, and at the same time quickly ignited the fuse, the expected violent explosion did not appear, on the contrary, there were many Taiping soldiers holding gunpowder bags on the city wall and shouting, "Thank you Qing Demon for sending gunpowder!" Thank you for sending gunpowder! ”

It turned out that as early as when the Qing army began to dig tunnels, the Taiping army had also dug a tunnel in the city wall, but the tunnels of the Qing army were not immediately connected, and when the Qing army put the gunpowder in place and re-blocked the tunnel mouth with soil and stones, the Taiping army soil camp soldiers who were good at digging immediately exerted their efforts to quickly dig the tunnel connecting the Qing army, cut off the fuse line and take away the gunpowder, and then blocked the tunnel, and the whole 1,200 catties of gunpowder were renamed and surnamed. In addition, the Taiping army had already prepared for street fighting, and even if the Qing army succeeded in blasting, it would still not be able to penetrate the interior of Shanghai City.

The blasting failed and the Taiping army took away the gunpowder, Xu Naizhao was angry and ashamed, and ignored Wu Chaoyue's kind reminder, insisted on launching another ant attack on Shanghai City, the result was that the Qing army suffered a lot of casualties and still had nothing to say, and in the morning of the next day, it suddenly rained heavily in the sky, drenching the gunpowder and fire rope of the Qing army, as well as the paper shell bullets of Wu Jun's practice bravery, all kinds of guns and cannons were completely ineffective, and Xu Naizhao, who was drenched like a chicken in the soup, had no choice but to order the retreat, and the morale of the Qing army was depressed. The morale and fighting spirit of the Taiping army were once again high.

The pouring rain was followed by several days of continuous rain, and it was difficult to walk on the rain-soaked ground, let alone move large siege weapons. In this regard, Xu Naizhao, He Chun and others of course sighed and shouted that the sky was not blessed, but Wu Chaoyue was happy to let the self-commissioned soldiers continue to rest, and also took the opportunity to strictly train the newly recruited self-army soldiers, and at the same time Wu Chaoyue adopted Zhou Tenghu's suggestion, intensified the reconnaissance of the concession, and tried every means to contact the Taiping generals who could move freely in the concession, looking for opportunities to further divide the enemy.

Two days later, the French Concession sent good news, saying that Liu Lichuan's important assistant Chen Alin had entered the French Concession and was negotiating with the French Foreign Firm about the purchase of arms. Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly took some people to the French Concession in the rain, and finally blocked Chen Alin in front of the door of the French foreign firm.

Seeing Wu Chaoyue's sudden appearance, Chen Alin and his soldiers immediately pulled out their revolvers, so frightened that Wu Dadao and other personal soldiers also hurriedly pulled out their guns to protect Wu Chaoyue, and the manager of the French foreign firm who knew Wu Chaoyue also immediately came forward to remind Wu Chaoyue, saying that Wu Chaoyue had no right to arrest Chen Alin here. Wu Chaoyue smiled and said to the French manager: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to arrest people, if I'm here to arrest the Alin brothers, how can I bring such a few people?" ”

After saying that, Wu Chaoyue turned to Chen Alin again, and said with a smile: "Brother Alin, can you use the gun?" This is the concession, foreigners are not allowed to use knives and guns, you don't want to be arrested by the foreigners' army, right? ”

Chen Alin hesitated, but seeing that there were already French soldiers rushing here, Chen Alin still said to Wu Chaoyue: "Tell your people to put down their guns first." ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled and ordered Wu Dadao and others to collect their guns, and after Wu Dada and other personal soldiers followed the order, Chen Alin ordered his soldiers to put down their guns as well. Then Wu Chaoyue greeted Chen Alin: "Brother Alin, I haven't seen you for a long time, how about we go in and talk?" Don't worry, I'm just catching up with you, nothing else. ”

Faced with Wu Chaoyue's request, Chen Alin once refused, but he couldn't stand Wu Chaoyue's repeated requests, Chen Alin finally followed Wu Chaoyue into the hall of the foreign bank and sat down to talk face-to-face. Then Wu Chaoyue first took the silver and asked someone to serve tea and snacks, and then smiled at Chen Alin and asked, "Brother Alin, how are you doing recently?" ”

"It's better than when you practice bravery!" Chen Alin's voice was still full of gunpowder.

"Not necessarily, right?" Wu Chaoyue said with a smile: "In the past, when you were a group practitioner in Dongjiadu, although I was your boss in terms of reputation, I never cared about you. As far as I know, you had a very leisurely life at that time, except that the silver in your hand was definitely less than now, but at least you had wine to drink, meat to eat, and women to ride every day, so you don't have to worry about being arrested by the government that day. Can you live so easily now? The military law of long hair is so strict, what does it mean to have more silver in your hand? ”

Chen Alin, the former second master of the Shuangdao Society, was silent, while Wu Chaoyue smiled more relaxed and kindly, and said: "Brother Alin, I remember when I drank with you before, you once said that your greatest wish is to have endless silver, marry ten or eight beautiful daughters-in-law, visit the kiln twice in three days to change the taste, and drink wine and eat meat every day. Now you have the money in your hand, and you must live in the big house, but what about the pretty woman? What about the delicacies of the mountains and seas every day? With the strictness of the military law of long hair, I'm afraid you won't have a chance to enjoy these things, right? ”

"Shut up!" Chen Alin's sudden roar frightened Wu Chaoyue's personal soldiers into reaching out to touch the gun, but fortunately, Chen Alin didn't mean to use force, just jumped up and pointed at Wu Chaoyue's nose and roared: "The surname Wu, you shut up Lao Tzu!" Don't seduce me with these things! Lao Tzu is now the head of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! Much better than when you were under it! Don't think that if you seduce me with glory and wealth, I will go with you! ”

"The general system of long hair? How many officials is the general system? Wu Chaoyue sneered and said, "How many Yulu?" How much oil and water is there? Can the wife and children enjoy happiness with them? Can your parents and brothers in your hometown in Guangdong follow you to enjoy happiness because you are the general system? Compared with a seven-pin county order with a sesame mung bean, is your life as a general system better, or is the life of the seven-pin county order free? ”

"Lao Tzu is willing!" Chen Alin yelled.

"You don't want to!" Wu Chaoyue also raised his voice a little and said, "No one will want to live the life you live now!" There is no place to spend money, there is no place to spend money, there is no oil and water in an official position, there is power and there is no beautiful woman, and even a few small dollars and a few puffs of smoke have to be sneaky, Brother Alin, you ask yourself, have you thought about such a day? Is that the life you used to want to live with your brothers of the Twin Swords Society? ”

Chen Alin continued to shout with a blushing face, saying that he was willing to live such a hard life. Wu Chaoyue, who knew very well the virtues of these gang thugs, sneered constantly, and said: "Brother Alin, don't be so excited, sit down and talk well, in fact, you also know very well in your heart, as long as you want now, glory and wealth are at your fingertips, you can spend the money you want, you can marry a few beautiful daughters-in-law, and you can live a good life as you want." I don't understand, why are you so obsessed, let go of such a good life, but you have to follow Changmao to live that hard life? Endure hardships and suffering, and still be in danger? ”

Chen Alin's face became even more ugly, and he suddenly raised his feet and rushed out of the gate of the foreign bank, and when his own soldiers hurriedly followed, Wu Chaoyue also followed to the gate, shouting loudly in front of countless passers-by: "Brother Alin, it's decided!" Tell Uncle Yuan, as long as you bring Zeng Lichang's head, I will guarantee him a five-grade real job, and I will also get you a seven-grade county order to be a pawn! and will not take your money, but give you another fifty thousand taels of silver. 1,000 acres of fertile land! A good house in the concession! ”

"Heaven and earth are proof, the sun and the moon can be learned, if I Wu Chaoyue has no faith in his words, he will repent, three knives and six eyes, five thunders in the sky, and there is no place to bury him!"

As if he hadn't heard Wu Chaoyue's promise and made a wish, Chen Alin couldn't move quickly, leading his own soldiers directly in the direction of the north gate of Shanghai, and never gave Wu Chaoyue the slightest reply. But it doesn't matter, Wu Chaoyue didn't say this to him, looking at the passers-by with different looks on the street, Wu Chaoyue smiled extremely happily, and said secretly: "Even if Zeng Lichang is stupid, it is impossible not to arrange eyeliner in the concession, right?" ”

When he returned to the foreign bank, the captain of the pro-soldier Wu Dadao came up and said in a low voice: "Young Master Sun, what you just said reminded the little one, and it made me suddenly think of an idea, but I don't know if it will work." ”

"What's the idea?" Wu Chaoyue asked casually.

"Young Master Sun, don't scold me if I said something wrong." Wu Da cautiously whispered: "Little suggestion, we might as well charter a hotel in the concession, get some girls in the flower boat to live in, and get some good wine, good food and big smoke, which will be specially used to entertain the original old man of the Shuangdao Society." With the virtues of Liu Ayuan and Lin Afu, it is impossible not to be recruited? ”

Of course, Wu Chaoyue didn't scold Wu Dadao, but also patted Wu Dada's head, smiled and whispered: "It's a good idea, but it can't be used, it has set such a precedent, and in the future, others can't think that only by betraying me can they mix better?" Therefore, this good method may work, but it cannot be used. For people like Chen Alin, they can only be used, not really used. (To be continued.) )