At the same time that the equipment of the Hubei New Army was replaced, the Wuhuang battlefield was still an unsolvable stalemate, the Hunan army was unwilling to consume too much strength and refused to take the initiative to attack, and the Taiping Army Naval Division located downstream was in a position against the water, and was unwilling to take the initiative to attack and die in vain. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

If you don't do it, I won't do it, everyone won't do it, staring at it is just dry consumption, and of course it is the local government and the ordinary people affected by the war who suffer. In this regard, Zeng Guofan, who had only extorted a sum of money from his disobedient protégé not long ago, did not care, thinking that it should have been so, and also felt that no matter how slow the progress of the Hunan army was, it was better than the Jiangnan battalion that had not touched the Nanjing city wall once in more than two years, but what made Zeng Guofan angry was that the governor of Huguang, Guan Wen, did not dare to fart more than half a fart about such a situation, but his disobedient protégé suddenly sent a letter from the envoy, and directly asked the Hunan army to launch an attack as soon as possible and take the initiative to break the current negative stalemate.

In the letter, Wu Chaoyue still didn't know the height of the sky, and in turn instilled a great truth of loyalty and patriotism to the barber teacher, and asked Zeng Guofan to focus on the Jiangshan Sheji of the Qing Dynasty and the life and death of thousands of Li people in Hubei, and quickly launch an attack to clean up the Taiping army entrenched on the Wuhuang battlefield, and also asked Zeng Guofan to break through Wuchang County with an almost commanding tone, first attack Wuchang County and then Huangzhou Mansion, and wait for the opportunity to clean up the Taiping Army!

If it was someone else, it would be okay, with the barber teacher's city government, even if he was dissatisfied, he would definitely not have a seizure, but Wu Chaoyue, as a protégé disciple, dared to shout at the teacher like this, as if driving a slave, Zeng Guofan, who was actually arrogant in his bones, was no matter how deep the city government was, he would not be able to suppress the anger in his heart. In front of Wu Chaoyue's messenger, Zeng Guofan directly slapped Shuai on the case, and roared at the messenger sent by Wu Chaoyue: "Did your Lord Futai say that if Ben Shuai can't quickly take down Wuchang County, what will he do?" ”

Without Wu Chaoyue's guidance beforehand, the messenger was taken aback by Zeng Guofan's fierce reaction, and hurriedly replied: "Zeng Dashuai, the villain doesn't know, the villain doesn't know anything." Lord Futai, he just asked the little one to send you a letter, and said that if you have a reply, you should bring the small one back. ”

"Ben Shuai didn't reply to the letter, only a message!" Zeng Guofan shouted angrily: "Go back and tell you Wu Futai, just say that this handsome is incompetent and can't beat Huangzhou Mansion in Wuchang County, if he has the ability, ask him to fight in person!" Get lost! ”

Seeing that Zeng Guofan was really angry, the messenger did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly took his leave after agreeing. As a result, after the messenger left the Chinese army's big tent, Liu Rong and Luo Zenan and other henchmen hurriedly asked Zeng Guofan why they were angry, and when they finished reading Wu Chaoyue's letter that Zeng Guofan fell in front of him, Liu Rong, Luo Zenan, Guo Songtao and several others summed it up in a low voice, and then Liu Rong came forward and said: "Dashuai, you may have fallen for Wu Chaoyue's trick." ”

"Am I falling for his tricks?" Zeng Guofan asked suspiciously.

"Yes." Liu Rong nodded and replied: "Wu Chaoyue's move is probably to deliberately provoke you and induce you to say the sentence 'Let him have the ability to fight Wuchang County and Huangzhou Mansion by himself', and then he will personally raise troops to fight Huangwu, so that he can take the opportunity to rely on half of the money and food owed to us." ”

After pondering it carefully, Zeng Guofan couldn't help but start to suspect that he had been tricked, but Zeng Guofan pondered it carefully but felt that it was wrong, so he asked Liu Rong and the others again: "Do you think that the 3,000 Hubei New Army under Wu Chaoyue can be sure to take Wuchang County and Huangzhou Mansion?" ”

"This ......, I'm afraid it's hard to say." Liu Rong hesitated and replied: "As far as I know from my late life, when Wu Chaoyue first handled the group training in Shanghai, it only took more than two months to train the Songjiang group training that later shocked the world, and in the first battle, more than 200 people broke more than 4,000 bandits. It has been more than three months since the formation of the Hubei New Army. ”

"When I was born in Wuchang Mansion in my later years, I had a lot of contact with Wu Chaoyue's henchman Zhao Liewen." Guo Songtao also said: "During a casual conversation, Zhao Liewen once mentioned Wu Chaoyue's training secrets, saying that Wu Chaoyue used Western methods to train troops to fight, although he was extremely dependent on weapons, ammunition and logistics supplies, but he was able to win at great speed, and he could easily train an ordinary person into a qualified soldier who could go into battle within three months, supplemented by sophisticated equipment and advanced ammunition, which was enough to compete head-on with a first-class strong army. Now that Wu Chaoyue has been training his troops for three months, and he has obtained the foreign guns and cannons that the foreigners sent to Hankou, Wu Chaoyue may really have the confidence to dare to fight Wuchang County and Huangzhou Mansion. ”

Zeng Guofan was silent, and he believed that he had fallen into the evil of disobeying his disciples, but Zeng Guofan was still very unconvinced, gritted his teeth and said: "It's better to provoke the general!" Let him come, I want to see with my own eyes what kind of quality his current Hubei New Army is! ”

The truth was unfortunately said by Liu Rong and Guo Songtao and others, after learning the barber teacher's reply, Wu Chaoyue smiled, the first thing was to find the official document to ask for help, ready to personally lead the army to fight Wuchang County and Huangzhou Mansion, and also asked the official document to hand over the green battalion Yang Dingguo, who is currently outside Wuchang County, to his command. As a result, Wu Chaoyue suddenly became so brave that he startled the official text, and hurriedly asked Wu Chaoyue: "Weiting, are you joking?" Your teacher with more than 10,000 regiments and more than 3,000 Hubei soldiers can't defeat Wuchang County and Huangzhou Mansion, and the more than 3,000 soldiers in your hands are sure to be able to fight? ”

"The official system, of course, is not a joke." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "The soldiers are expensive but not too expensive, when the lower officials were in Jiangning and southern Jiangsu, and when the king of Qin went north, was there a time when there were not many enemies with few, and many enemies with outnumbered?" What was the final result? ”

Considering Wu Chaoyue's brilliant achievements in the past, and considering that if he did not give an explanation to the Manchu court as soon as possible, he was afraid that the throne of the governor of Huguang under his ass might be hanging, and the official document finally made a wise choice and agreed to let Wu Chaoyue lead the army to battle. And after Wu Chaoyue thanked him, he also greeted the official text in advance, and said: "Guanzhitai, you handed over the 2,000 green battalions and more than 2,000 Hubei regimental exercises to Yang Dingguo, but as a result, he not only suffered a big defeat and did not make an inch, but also couldn't even do the most basic restraint soldiers, and more than 2,000 regiments ran away with death, and now nearly half of them are gone." Keeping such a person will only help, and when Wuchang County and Huangzhou Mansion are defeated, I want to move his position, what do you think? ”

"Weiting, as long as you can take down Wuchang County and Huangzhou Mansion, let alone move his position, even if you send him to Xinjiang to eat cantaloupe, I will also be on your side." The official document patted Wu Chaoyue on the shoulder, and with one sentence decided the tragic fate of Yang Dingguo, a traitor in the Hunan army, "When the time comes, this official and you will jointly impeach him." ”

After obtaining the permission of the official document, on May 18, Wu Chaoyue left the untrained sailor battalion in Wuchang Mansion to continue to receive training from foreign instructors, and personally led five battalions of the Hubei New Army and Liu Kunyi's Zhuangzi Battalion to set off and set off by land to the battlefield in Wuchang County. At the same time, Wu Chaoyue relied on the advantage of sufficient manpower to learn from the barber teacher, and equipped each battalion with 180 armed civilian workers, so that they were responsible for carrying grain, grass, baggage, weapons and ammunition, and undertaking auxiliary work such as cutting timber and digging earth.

When the news reached the Wuhuang battlefield, Zeng Guofan was extremely contemptuous and extremely disdainful, but the atmosphere on the Taiping army was unprecedentedly tense, Qin Rigang and Wei Jun got together for the first time to discuss the battle plan, and soon gave a death order to Liu Man, the general of the Taiping Army guarding Wuchang County-only allowed to defend the city, never to fight! At the same time, Qin Rigang and Wei Jun also specially dispatched 2,000 elite soldiers from the water division as a reserve, ready to land and rescue Wuchang County at any time, or encircle Wei to rescue Zhao and attack Wu Chaoyue's flank, indirectly sharing the pressure for the defenders of Wuchang County.

The distance is not too far, it only took a little more than a day, Wu Chaoyue took the Hubei New Army to the battlefield of Wuchang County smoothly, and the result was that Wu Chaoyue was quite angry that he had received his own order to move the camp in advance, the green battalion led by Yang Dingguo and the Hulin Wing of the Hunan Army were still stationed in Fankou, west of Fanshui, and did not move to Wulidun in the southern suburbs of Wuchang County, which was open and convenient for attacking the city, according to the order.

had already made up his mind to bring down Yang Dingguo, Wu Chaoyue naturally asked Yang Dingguo very unceremoniously about the reason for resisting the order, and Yang Dingguo cried with a sad face, saying that it was inconvenient to get water from Wulidun, far away from the Yangtze River waterway and could not get the cover of the artillery fire of the Hunan Army Naval Division, and it was easy to be attacked by the Taiping Army Naval Division located downstream.

Wu Chaoyue heard the fire, and roared at Yang Dingguo: "Fankou is safe here, but from here to attack the city, you first have to cross Fankou, which is not a small amount of water, and it is inconvenient to carry large-scale siege weapons, and it is inconvenient to advance and retreat, how can you put pressure on the long hair in the city?" Wulidun is more dangerous, but easy to attack the city? As a general, you are also afraid of danger, so you might as well go home and pick up your child! ”

Now it is still a system of Wenzun and Wuhumility, and after being scolded by Wu Chaoyue, Yang Dingguo didn't dare to say anything no matter how secretly he hated it in his heart, but nodded resignedly, and promised to move the camp to Wulidun as soon as possible. Wu Chaoyue, who has a somewhat fickle personality, changed his mind again, waved his hand and said: "Forget it, since you don't want to go to Wulidun, then you can continue to stay here to protect the grain road!" This officer personally led the army to Wulidun to station! ”

Yang Dingguo hurriedly nodded in agreement, and kept wishing the Taiping Army to hack Wu Chaoyue to death as soon as possible, Wu Chaoyue guessed his mind and didn't bother to pay attention to it, just turned to Hu Linyi and said: "Zhensheng, if you can, can you please lead the army to move to the east of Wuchang County?" Defend me against the landing of the long-haired sailors and attack the flanks of our army? ”

"It's ......." Hu Linyi was extremely embarrassed, hesitated for a moment before replying: "Lord Futai, it's not that the last general is cowardly, but that without the order of the commander, the last general will not dare to move the camp without authorization." Therefore, the last general must first ask the commander whether he is allowed to do it. ”

"Okay, I'll bother you to send someone across the river to ask." Wu Chaoyue nodded, and said: "Don't worry, you can tell the teacher directly, saying that I know that the soldiers under your command are tired from fighting for a long time, so you don't need to lead the army to participate in the battle, you just need to protect the flanks for me, and the siege of the city will be borne by our army." ”

Surprised by Wu Chaoyue's calm self-confidence, Hu Linyi agreed suspiciously, and immediately sent someone to contact Zeng Guofan, but after Zeng Guofan thought about it again, he decided to sell a favor to the disobedient student, nodded and said: "Go and tell Hu Linyi that Ben Shuai agrees to him to move the camp, but without Ben Shuai's order, he is never allowed to participate in the siege battle!" Besides, ask Hu Linyi to keep an eye on the Hubei New Army for Ben Shuai, and as soon as there is any situation in the comfort pavilion, I will immediately send someone to report to me! ”

When Hu Linyi received Zeng Guofan's order to move the camp, Wu Chaoyue had already arrived at the Wulidun camp located in the south of Wuchang County with the Hubei New Army, and instructed Huang Dasha and Cao Yanzhong and other veterans to lead the soldiers to set up camp.

It is not surprising that the Hunan army did not dare to storm the small county of Wuchang, the city defense arrangement of the Taiping army was indeed very tight, the dredging moat was deep and wide and filled with living water, it was extremely difficult to cross, two trenches were dug outside the moat and two ramparts were established, the sharp piles in the trench were dense, and there were shooting holes in the ram wall, and the large siege weapons could not get close to the city wall at all. At the same time, the Taiping army also built a sheep and horse wall between the moat and the city wall, and there was also a firing port under the chest-high sheep and horse wall, which could cover the Taiping soldiers to stand and squat behind the wall to ensure dense direct fire.

The biggest weakness of the Taiping army's city defense was the city wall, although the old brick and earth structure city wall was repaired and reinforced, it still could not bear the recoil of artillery firing, forcing the Taiping army to build a fort higher than the city wall in the city to erect artillery, in fact, it became a live target for the Wu army's artillery. In addition, the two-zhang high city wall also reduced the difficulty of ant fighting, and if possible, it was very easy for the Wu army to blow down the old city wall with picric acid explosives.

The city defense situation is probably the bottom, Wu Chaoyue is still not satisfied, and immediately went to the high place outside the city, raised the telescope to look into the city, the result made Wu Chaoyue quite happy is that it may be that the intensity of each war is not too high, although after several wars, the streets and houses in the small city of Wuchang are quite intact, and at the same time, the city is narrow, the area in the city is narrow, the density of houses is very high, and there is no trace of regional isolation, it is obvious that the soldiers of the Taiping Army are stationed in the houses, In addition, considering the abundance of groundwater along the river, it is difficult to build large underground warehouses, and it is likely that the grain and grass of the Taiping army were also hoarded in these houses.

Discovering this situation, Wu Chaoyue of course immediately looked up at the sky, and saw that there were a lot of clouds in the sky, the weather was not very good, the wind was quite strong or the southeast wind was blowing from the south, and the wind direction was quite stable. Wu Chaoyue suddenly had a bottom in his heart, and said secretly: "May God bless you and make the wind a little stronger at night." ”

After returning to the camp, the first thing Wu Chaoyue did was to send someone to find some old local fishermen, comfort them, and ask them about the local weather and wind conditions, especially the wind direction at night. As a result, several old fishermen who relied on fishing to eat told Wu Chaoyue: "Master, it is summer, and the wind is the strongest at night, basically the southeast wind, sir, your warship really goes out at night, but don't hit the whole sail, otherwise it may be blown over by the wind." Raise at most half a sail against the current, and don't raise the sail if you are downstream. ”

Haha laughed and thanked a few old people, Wu Chaoyue asked someone to invite them down to reward them with wine and food, but Wu Chaoyue didn't need to explain, Zhao Liewen, who came with the army on the side, had already smiled and said: "Weiting, you care so much about the climate and wind direction, are you going to use the poisonous trick of burning the rattan armor soldiers?" In Wuchang County, but there are still your people, aren't you afraid of affecting them? ”

"I don't want to, but I can't help it, the longer it drags on, the more they suffer. Longhair's side is good for the common people, but when it comes to running out of food, Longhair will not hesitate to reach out to them. And I have already thought of a way to deal with the aftermath, so I don't have to worry about the consequences being difficult to clean up. ”

Wu Chaoyue loosened his shoulders to defend himself, and immediately called Qian Wei, Meng Wei's former deputy and current artillery battalion officer of the New Army, and told him to immediately go to the southeast corner of Wuchang County to explore the terrain on the spot, looking for a suitable position where the shells could be directly fired into the depths of Wuchang City. As a result, after Qian Wei received the order to leave, Zhao Liewen said again: "Weiting, you and Zeng Butang are teachers and students after all, when you come here, it is reasonable for you to visit him in the camp, right?" ”

"I really don't have time, and he is stationed in Jiangbei, so it's not convenient for me to cross the river." Wu Chaoyue sighed helplessly, and said: "It's better to trouble you to write a letter to him, just say that I am busy with military affairs, and I have no time to cross the river to give him a disciple salute. ”

Zhao Liewen promised, and immediately wrote a letter for Wu Chaoyue, and after Wu Chaoyue signed, he asked Wu Dadao to prepare a delicate gift, and then sent someone across the river to meet Zeng Guofan and go through the motions. However, what Wu Chaoyue didn't expect was that he had gone through the motions so politely and politely, and the barber teacher was still uncomfortable, and after sending away Wu Chaoyue's messenger, Zeng Guofan actually sneered at Liu Rong and other henchmen: "After defeating Wuchang County, cross the river to meet me?" It was as if he were sure to break the city quickly. ”

After reading the letter written by Zhao Liewen for Wu Chaoyue, Liu Rong and Guo Songtao also literally felt Wu Chaoyue's calm self-confidence, and under the suspicion in their hearts, Liu Rong simply said to Zeng Guofan: "Dashuai, otherwise, let me cross the river to see the situation over there in the name of returning the gift tomorrow, to see if he is arrogant and underestimating the enemy, or if he really has this confidence." ”

Zeng Guofan nodded and ordered: "After crossing the river, take a look at his camp and draw a picture book back to me." Also, pay more attention to his weapons, if there are any suitable weapons, ask him directly for some samples back, and he will not dare not give them! ”

Liu Rong promised, and then said in her heart: "Wu Chaoyue, I must take a closer look with my own eyes this time, what are your advantages in using soldiers to fight!" (To be continued.) )