Originally, Wu Quanmei and Novosilsky both believed that if they simply broke through the Wu army's iron cable defense line, then the loss of warships of the Qing-Russian combined fleet would definitely not exceed ten, and it was even possible to control the battle damage within five, and they could easily break through the excessively long iron cable defense line of the Wu army in Jiujiang. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

However, the greed for the opportunity to directly kill Wu Chaoyue hurt the Qing-Russian combined fleet, especially the Red Single Fleet under Wu Quanmei's command, after a tragic fierce battle, although the Qing-Russian Combined Fleet successfully took the Jinjipo Fort of the Wu Army in Jiujiang by virtue of its absolute superiority in strength, the Red Single Boat of the Qing Army's naval division was sunk by fifteen, nine were seriously wounded, and the casualties of the soldiers were close to 1,000.

Wu Quanmei, a famous general of the Qing Army's naval division, has been crisscrossing the water for more than 20 years, and he has never suffered such heavy losses in that battle. At the same time, it is also due to the fact that the river surface in this area of Jiujiang is too wide, and it is difficult for the north bank battery of the Jiujiang Wu army to provide artillery cover for the battlefield on the south bank, otherwise the losses of the Qing army's naval division will definitely be greater and more miserable.

Therefore, after counting the battle damage, Wu Quanmei couldn't help but sigh and said, "Yes, stealing chickens doesn't cost rice, so you shouldn't have a hard time with Wu Thief's fort." ”

Contrary to Wu Quanmei, who was secretly distressed, Wen Xiang, the minister of the Qin Mission sent by the Manchu court to Wu Quanmei, was cheering and smiling. Because since the defeat of Wu Chaoyue, the Manchu army has never achieved such a big victory in the Wu army, not only successfully smashed the Jinjipo Fort of the Wu army in Jiujiang, captured dozens of artillery, but also killed more than 800 Wu soldiers, forcing the Wu army in Jiujiang to fully retreat into the city, shattering the myth of the invincibility of the Wu Chaoyue rebels in one fell swoop. Therefore, after the victory, Wen Xiang did not care about the Taiping army guarding along the way, and personally wrote an excerpt as soon as possible, and sent a fast boat back to the capital to report the victory to the Manchu court.

But then again, the battle of the Qing Army's naval division was indeed fought beautifully, basically relying only on the strength of its own army to beat the Jiujiang Wu Army to the point of parrying, and it was difficult to fight back, and it was difficult to fight back, and fought bloodily against the intensive artillery fire of the Jiujiang Wu Army, and inflicted heavy losses on the defensive positions of the Jiujiang Wu Army, in fact, even without the help of the Tsarist Russian fleet, the Qing Army's naval division was very sure that it could take the Wu Army Fort by itself. Therefore, after this battle, not only the timidity of the Qing army's naval divisions that feared Wu Jun was swept away, but the morale of the army was also greatly boosted, and there were even calls for smashing into the Hubei provincial capital to capture Wu Chaoyue.

Fortunately, the commander of the Tsarist fleet, Novosilsky, was also a knowledgeable master, and after seeing the battlefield performance of the Jiujiang Wu Army with his own eyes, Novosilsky also put away a lot of his underestimation of the enemy, and began to believe that the warning issued by Ignatiev before the departure was true. But it is a pity for the Qing army's sailors, the more Novosilsky did not dare to despise the Wu army, the more he made up his mind to let the Qing army's sailors be cannon fodder, and he would never take action until the last moment.

After the great victory, the Qing Russian coalition army once shelled Jiujiang City to retaliate against the stubborn resistance of the Wu army, and sent troops to loot the streets outside Jiujiang City to loot the people's property, Liu Mingchuan, who replaced Bao Chao to guard Jiujiang, kept in mind Wu Chao's advice, and resolutely sent troops to meet the consumption of the enemy's troops, and the Qing Russian coalition army fought a street battle in Jiujiang City, although it caused huge losses to the lives and property of the people of Jiujiang, but also played the Wu army's ambition and majesty of not fearing a strong enemy, forcing the Qing and Russian coalition forces without backup and supply to take the initiative to withdraw from the land battlefield, and did not dare to consume too much strength in Jiujiang.

At the same time, Wu Chaoyue also returned to Tianjia Town, Hubei Province on the Luo Weilin, and joined the main force of Cao Yanzhong's corps of the Wu Army, which had been transferred back from Sichuan, and continued to personally arrange and deploy the Tianjia Town blocking battle.

Different from the blocking positions in Jiujiang, Tianjiazhen was definitely the best blocking position of the Wu army, and the narrowest part of the river was only two miles, and the batteries on both sides of the river could not only block the channel with crossfire, but even cover each other's beachhead positions with artillery fire. In addition, the Wu army had repeatedly fought with the Taiping army here, and built a large number of permanent fortifications, which were very strong for both land and water defense, and it was the most ideal position for the Wu army to gradually consume the enemy's combat strength by virtue of its geographical advantages.

By the way, if it weren't for not putting all the eggs in one basket, the Tianjiazhen defense line could actually be used to allow the Wu army and the Qing-Russian coalition army to fight this decisive battle. For the sake of insurance, although Wu Chaoyue decided to start a decisive battle with the enemy at the mouth of the source, he still specially transferred Cao Yanzhong's corps, one of his most trusted troops, to guard Tianjia Town, in order to use the favorable terrain of Tianjia Town to deal a heavy blow to the enemy and reduce the pressure in the decisive battle.

Of course, the defense line of Tianjiazhen is not completely flawless, at least the Banbishan fort on the south bank has the weakness of small space, the fort position is easy to be covered by the enemy's artillery, and it is impossible to station too many troops, and at the same time, the terrain south of Banbishan is too open, which is suitable for the enemy's landing operation, and the water and land flank Banbishan position.

This weakness did not matter when fighting with the Taiping army before, the Wu army, which was equipped with a firing pin gun and protected by fortifications, wished that the Taiping army would go ashore and die, but when it was time to prepare for the battle with the Tsarist army, which was known as a fighting nation, if the Wu army neglected to protect the position of the Banbishan Fort, it might be attacked by the enemy in one blow, resulting in the complete collapse of the defense line of Tianjiazhen.

In view of this weakness, Wu Chaoyue's previous tactical arrangement was to arrange an ambush in the area of Junshanzui, which is complicated to the south of Banbi Mountain, and wait for the enemy to make a sudden attack after landing, and flank the enemy with the defenders of Banbi Mountain. However, after learning the lesson of being tortured by enemy ships in Jiujiang, Wu Chaoyue had just returned to Tianjia Town and ordered the ambush to be withdrawn, preparing to find another way to protect Banbi Mountain.

"Dashuai, how about we set up another camp in Xin'an Temple?" Cao Yanzhong, a nobody who had gradually been trained in actual combat, suggested: "It is located in the upper reaches of the iron cable defense line, the enemy's fleet can't hit the artillery fire, and it is only four miles away from the Banbishan Fort, so you can send troops to rescue Banbishan at any time, and it can play the role of a horn with the Banbishan Fort." ”

Wu Chaoyue didn't answer, because although Cao Yanzhong's suggestion was good, it still had a weakness. As a result, Cao Yanzhong's deputy, Yang Shilin, the old man of Wu Jun, also saw the weakness and said: "Brother Cao, what if the enemy doesn't attack Banbi Mountain and first hits our Xin'an Temple camp?" It's impossible for the defenders of Banbi Mountain to send troops to save Xin'an Temple? ”

"It doesn't matter, just use Xin'an Temple as the main battlefield for the decisive battle on land." Cao Yanzhong replied: "I personally went to defend Xin'an Temple, and I sent troops to rescue when the enemy attacked half of the mountain, and the enemy first attacked Xin'an Temple, and then took the opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Rakshasa people on land." ”

"Brother Cao, if you really want to do this, let me go to Xin'an Temple." Yang Shilin hurriedly expressed his loyalty and said: "Brother Cao, you are the chief general of the defense line of Tianjia Town, and you can only sit on the main battlefield of Wuwangmiao to command the overall situation, and Xin'an Temple will let me go." If the enemy hits Xin'an Temple first, even if there is no rescue, I will definitely fight to the death with the Rakshasa people of the rebellious party! ”

"The Xin'an Temple camp is the key point of the defense line of Tianjia Town, do you have this certainty?" Cao Yanzhong asked with some concern.

"Yes." Yang Shilin replied.

"Of course Yang Shilin has." Wu Chaoyue also suddenly opened his mouth and said, "Yang Shilin, I will go with you to guard the camp of Xin'an Temple and help you fight this evil battle." ”

"Dashuai, you can't go!" Cao Yanzhong and Yang Shilin exclaimed in unison: "It's too dangerous there!" ”

"How dangerous can it be if the enemy's naval guns can't hit it?" Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "Don't worry, I won't risk going into battle, the enemy will fight Banbi Mountain, Yang Shilin, you will lead the troops to save Banbi Mountain, and I will guard the camp of Xin'an Temple." If the enemy comes to fight Xin'an Temple, I will join forces with you to meet it. ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue also picked up the Henry Repeater Gun in Wu Dada's hand, and said with a smile: "Don't forget that my direct pro-military battalions are all equipped with this, and the Russian old Maozi really wants to attack the Xin'an Temple camp, just to open this new equipment for us." ”

has a Henry Bead Gun given by Wu Chaoyue in his hand, knowing how powerful this thing is, Cao Yanzhong and Yang Shilin did not object, but unanimously asked Wu Chaoyue not to support the hero, and if the situation is not right, he will have to flee as a deserter. Wu Chaoyue, who was actually extremely greedy for life and afraid of death in his bones, of course agreed, and arranged the clipper ship in advance to take precautions, so as to meet him at the critical moment and escape back to the dock of Tianjia Town, and at the same time decided not to set up the flag for the time being, so as not to be attacked by the enemy.

After quickly adjusting the blocking tactics, Wu Chaoyue with his own battalion and Yang Shilin's two battalions had just set up a camp in Xin'an Temple, and before they could finish digging the trench and building a sheep and horse wall, the Qing-Russian combined fleet had already arrived near Tianjia Town, and did not give the Wu army of Xin'an Temple too much time to prepare for battle.

But fortunately, after observing the solidity of the defense line of Wu's Tianjiazhen army, whether it was Wu Quanmei, the commander of the Qing army's naval division, or Novosilsky, the commander of the Tsarist fleet, they all immediately gasped, did not dare to attack rashly, and quickly retreated to the downstream of Fuchikou to anchor and prepare for battle, missing the best opportunity to take the opportunity to kill Wu Chaoyue. At the end, Novosilsky also shouted at Wu Quanmei: "All your intelligence personnel in the Qing Kingdom are waste? Wu Chaoyue rebels have built such a strong defensive line in front, why didn't they report to us beforehand? ”

"I didn't expect that Wu Chaoyue's rebels would build the defense line of Tianjia Town so strongly." Wu Quanmei replied with a sad face: "The defense map of the Wu thief fort in Tianjia Town, which we drew in detail before, only marked the location of the Wu thief's fort, and I felt that this Tianjia town was not easy to break through. But I really didn't expect that Wu Thief would build the defense line of Tianjia Town so strongly. ”

"Call your men ashore to reconnoiter at once!" Novosilsky yelled angrily: "I need to know everything that is ahead, otherwise I will not fight this battle!" ”

Even if he didn't have to explain it like this, Wu Quanmei would have done it, but after carefully exploring the specific deployment of the Wu army in Tianjia Town, Wu Quanmei and Novosilsky pulled their faces longer than a donkey together.

Because the defense line of Tianjiazhen is too difficult to break through, the fire of the north and south batteries can easily cover the entire river surface, not to mention, under the half of the mountain where the water is current, there are also ten iron cables connecting the river, and the iron cables are connected with floating mines, and the frontal impact of the Qing Russian warships is purely in vain, and the direct breakthrough will have to pay at least three or four times the price in Jiujiang.

Of course, the weakness of the Banbishan Fort was also quickly discovered by the experienced Wu Quanmei and Novosilsky, and at the same time, the two also saw through the intention of the Wu army to build a camp in the Xin'an Temple at a glance. However, there was no way, even if he knew that the battle between Banbishan and Xin'an Temple would definitely not be easy to fight, in order to allow the fleet to break through the Tianjiazhen defense line with minimal losses, the landing operation was still the only correct choice for the Qing and Russian coalition forces.

"It can only be to hit Xin'an Temple first, and then take half of the mountain." Wu Quanmei said very helplessly: "Hit Banbi Mountain first, the Wu thieves of Xin'an Temple will definitely send troops to attack us, we can only concentrate artillery fire on Banbi Mountain, and attack Xin'an Temple at the same time, this half of the mountain Wu thieves will not dare to send troops to rescue Xin'an Temple, and our pressure on the battlefield will be less." ”

"Then let's do it quickly." Novosilsky also agreed with Wu Quanmei's tactics, and urged: "The sooner the better, don't let your Qing rebels set up a strong camp there, then the price of our victory will be even greater." ”