No matter how fierce the fight between the Hunan army and the Taiping army is, they don't do Wu Chaoyue's, the dead are either competitors or the current enemy, and Wu Chaoyue doesn't have to feel distressed if anyone dies or is injured, so in the days when the war was fierce, the Hunan army was busy and tired, Wu Chaoyue was smiling and sitting on the side to watch the tiger fight, the only thing to worry about every day is to show off his acting skills to buy people's hearts, and he also volunteered to be a free political commissar for the barber teacher, encouraging the soldiers of the Hunan army to fight hard to kill the enemy, and bravely fight with the Taiping army to lose both.

The performance of the Hunan army on the battlefield really does not need Wu Chaoyue to worry about, no matter how fierce the Taiping army's offensive is, it has never been able to hold the city wall defense line that the Hunan army soldiers have fully defended. No matter how the Taiping army continued to attack the city day and night, it could not break the strong cohesion of the Hunan army formed by the unity of the soldiers of the Hunan army, and the strong cohesion of the Hunan army, which was formed by the ties of fellow villagers, clans and blood, not only far outperformed the elite troops of the Taiping army, but also completely offset the experience and white-edged combat advantages of the Taiping army.

In the fierce battle, Wu Chaoyue saw more than once that a Hunan soldier fell, and the Hunan soldiers around him immediately rushed forward like crazy, hacking and strangling the Taiping soldiers who killed him to death, and then hugged the dead companion and cried, crying bitterly for the brother or father and son who had just died. In order to avenge their fathers, brothers or sons, many Hunan soldiers even rolled down the city wall with the Taiping soldiers and died together, and would rather be hacked to death by the Taiping soldiers than bite the enemy's throat alive.

In the end, relying on the tenacious fighting of the Hunan army soldiers, the Taiping army's siege battle for two days and one night finally ended in failure, both sides paid a very heavy price, even in the case that Zeng Guofan forced the Hubei Green Battalion and Wuchang Regiment to train a large number of people to go to the city as cannon fodder, four of the thirteen battalions of the Hunan army were disabled, and more than half of the casualties were killed, Li Xubin's precious brother Zeng Guofan's favorite general Li Xuyi was still seriously injured in the battle, and he was unconscious after being carried off the battlefield, and no one dared to guarantee whether he could be rescued. The remaining nine battalions of the Hunan army were also damaged, among which the two battalions of Taqib and Zeng Guoquan suffered the worst losses, and all the deaths were the elite of Zeng Guofan's lineage, so when the casualties were counted after the battle, Zeng Guofan was so distressed that he cried loudly on the spot, so sad that no one could persuade him.

Wu Chaoyue didn't know how big the casualties of the Taiping army were, but considering that the Taiping army was an attacker in an unfavorable position, and there were piles of corpses more than two meters high under the city, Wu Chaoyue could guess with his toes that the casualties of the Taiping army were at least twice that of the Hunan army.

After the war, the Wuchang battlefield was full of devastation, the snow-capped land, there were dead corpses everywhere, broken flags and broken guns everywhere, broken weapons, under the city wall were everywhere the caves dug out by the Taiping soldiers who sacrificed their lives, full of holes, even in the middle of winter, the soil was hard, many caves were about to penetrate the city wall, and the large siege weapons such as the ladder car and the Lu bus were still emitting faint smoke, the flames melted the snowflakes, and the snow flowed, and there were layers of pink colors.

Although he had long been accustomed to seeing such a picture, standing at the head of the city and watching all this, Wu Chaoyue couldn't help but let out a long sigh and said secretly: "It's a pity, it would be nice if all these powers were used on the Manchu alien race." ”

"Comfort Pavilion, it's rare to see you sad."

Zhao Liewen's smiling voice came from behind him, and he walked to Wu Chaoyue's side and glanced outside the city first, Zhao Liewen also stuck out his tongue, surprised by the tragic scene under the city, and then said to Wu Chaoyue: "It's a little miserable, but it doesn't matter, after this battle, it is estimated that the long hair side should stop." Unless Shi Dakai doesn't want Anhui Jiangxi to send reinforcements to the Wuchang battlefield again, Changmao has no strength to fight Wuchang Mansion City again. ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded, and also knew that with the current casualties of the Taiping army, the possibility of continuing to storm the city of Wuchang was very small, and when reinforcements from Hunan and Shaanxi arrived, the Taiping army basically had only the only option left to take the initiative to withdraw from the siege. But Wu Chaoyue still didn't dare to be optimistic, and said: "It's not enough to keep Wuchang Fucheng, we still have to take Huangzhou and Wuchang County back, so that we can mine the big iron mine in Dazhi, and if we want to make iron ore mining not threatened by Changmao, we must take Qizhou back to garrison ......." ”

"If you want to create a buffer for Qizhou, you must take back the strategic Tianjia Town, so as to ensure the safety of Daye Iron Mine." Zhao Liewen took over the topic of Wu Chaoyue, and said with a heartless smile: "Weiting, you have a long way to go." ”

"Of course, there is still a long way to go, but fortunately, I am still young and there is still time." Wu Chaoyue smiled, and then asked Zhao Liewen: "Huifu, do you think it is still possible for me to ask the teacher to completely expel Changmao from Hubei for me?" ”

"Difficult." Zhao Liewen shook his head and said frankly: "Your teacher's losses this time are too great, and he needs time to rest and replenish his troops, and if he wants to continue to fight for you, it will definitely be difficult to climb to the sky." Unless you can find something that can definitely impress him, there might be some hope. ”

Wu Chaoyue no longer spoke, but secretly calculated the few chips he had in his hand, thinking about which one to exchange with the teacher, in order to impress the teacher, and to keep him from being so strong that he would threaten him in turn. Then soon, Wu Chaoyue made up his mind and said, "Let the teacher see how powerful our picric acid weapon is, and it is estimated that there is hope." ”

"Picric sour?" Zhao Liewen's eyelids jumped first, and then he immediately thought that the only set of picric acid production lines in China was in Wu Chaoyue's hands, so Zhao Liewen nodded and said, "It's a good way." But now you can't rush to take out the picric weapon, I can see that your teacher is not a particularly magnanimous person, this time the siege of the city was fought so badly, you didn't take out the picric weapon to help him before, this will suddenly show up again, how can he have some ideas in his heart. ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent, noncommittal to Zhao Liewen's words, but Zhao Liewen ignored it, and just said to himself: "It's not easy to explain to the generals and soldiers under your teacher's command, they will think you are too selfish." ”

Wu Chaoyue finally nodded, and Zhao Liewen said again: "Also, you have to quickly grasp a local army in Hubei to prevent it, the green battalion and regimental training in the city of Wuchang Mansion are no longer reliable, but the green battalion soldiers of Jiayu can fight for it." Before you leave Jiayu, order them to come with Hunan reinforcements to rescue Wuchang. If they can successfully reach Wuchang, you have to quickly pull the kingdom with troops over, even if the combat effectiveness is not good, it doesn't matter, no fish or shrimp, at least it is a capital. ”

Thinking of Yang Dingguo, Lin Tianzhi and Bao Chao, the generals of the Hubei Qing Army, bowing their heads and obeying orders in front of Zeng Guofan, Wu Chaoyue didn't think much about it, nodded again, and said: "As long as he is obedient, I will bring Yang Dingguo down and put him in the position of the chief soldier." ”

As Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen expected, after the failure of the super-large-scale siege in two days and one night, although extremely unwilling, the Taiping army, which suffered heavy casualties, still had no strength to continue to attack the city. And after a few days of confrontation, Xingou and Jiayu also came with good news, the Xi'an general Zarafin who came from afar finally arrived in Xingou with the Shaanxi Qing army, joined Yang Pei's division, and soon went south to reinforce the Wuchang battlefield - although Wu Chaoyue and Zeng Guofan did not have much hope for this reinforcement, but Zarafin finally brought 15,000 Qing troops, even if all of them were pigs, it was enough for the Taiping army to catch them for a while.

The reinforcements on the Hunan side are the most worth looking forward to, the coach is Liu Changyou, a friend of Wu Chaoyue's famous elder brother Jiang Zhongyuan, and the deputy is directly Jiang Zhongyuan's younger brother Jiang Zhongji, and the regimental training they led is also based on Jiang Zhongyuan's old foundation left in Hunan as the backbone, and he has also participated in the war against bandits in Hunan many times, and has never been defeated in many battles, and his combat effectiveness is quite guaranteed. It's just a pity that even if this road of soldiers and horses reaches Wuchang, it is difficult for Wu Chaoyue to have a share, and the extremely selfish barber teacher in this regard will definitely use the relationship of his fellow villagers and protégés to try his best to win over him.

In the early morning of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, the last day of the fourth year of Xianfeng, the sailor came again with good news, saying that it was found that Liu Changyou led the army to approach Changhongqiao, and at the same time, Wang Guocai, the deputy general of Hubei, also came to Wuchang with the Jiayu Qing army to reinforce it, and the Taiping army stationed in the area of Changhongqiao rose up to meet the attack, and Liu Changyou and Wang Guocai fought very happily. When Zeng Guofan heard the great news, he hurriedly sent Hu Linyi and Lin Tianzhi to lead a thousand Hunan troops and two thousand Hubei regiments to train out of the city from Zhonghemen, and marched to Changhongqiao to meet Liu Changyou and Wang Guocai.

At the same time, after receiving this news, Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate, and immediately ordered his only two sentinels to prepare for war, although he did not necessarily need to go to war, he was also prepared to take precautions - if he did not hurry up to pull the reinforcements who did not belong to the Zeng Guofan faction into Wuchang Mansion City and set up another mountain, Wu Chaoyue would only continue to be the governor of the light pole.

In the afternoon, the shadow of the reinforcements was finally seen in the south of Wuchang City, but there was still the banner of the Taiping Army behind the reinforcements, obviously the Taiping Army was still in hot pursuit, and at the same time, there were also signs of troops in the Taiping Army camp on the Hongshan side, and it was obvious that the Taiping Army planned to intercept and kill the Qing army reinforcements, and did not give the Qing army reinforcements a chance to enter the city to help Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan did not dare to slack off when he heard the news, and hurriedly arranged for the army to be on guard, and at the same time rushed to Zhonghe Gate to personally go to the city to check the situation.

It was still after hurriedly boarding the Zhonghe Gate that Zeng Guofan found that his other proud protégé, Wu Chaoyue, had already boarded the Zhonghe Gate to look south, and at the same time, the more than 200 Lian Yong brought by Wu Chaoyue from Shanghai had also gathered under the city with strange weapons wrapped in linen. Zeng Guofan, who has been working for his disobedient protégé these days, saw it, and couldn't help but pouted quietly, and said secretly: "I really know how to pretend, more than 200 people, what use can it be?" ”

Seeing Zeng Guofan's arrival, Wu Chaoyue hurriedly came over to salute, and couldn't wait to suggest: "Master, there are already signs of sending troops on the main side of the long hair, for the sake of caution, it is best for us to send an army out of the city in advance, and intercept it in line at the local road, so as to buy time for our reinforcements to enter the city as much as possible." ”

Unwilling to send troops to fight hard with the main force of the Taiping Army to disobey his protégé in vain, Zeng Guofan of course did not immediately adopt Wu Chaoyue's suggestion, but just said that he would wait and see, and then immediately led Liu Rong and other henchmen to the arrow stack and raised the binoculars to look south, leaving Wu Chaoyue aside. Wu Chaoyue understood the teacher's thoughts and sighed quietly, but he didn't say anything, just raised the binoculars to check the reinforcements.

The Taiping army was very tightly entangled with the reinforcements from the south, and the Hu Lin wing army didn't know why, and failed to get the effect of the palace to cover the reinforcements from afar to retreat first, and was chased and cut by the Taiping army to form a state of going hand in hand with the southern reinforcements.

Seeing this scene, Wu Chaoyue, who was counting on reinforcements to enter the city to help, was of course anxious, although Zeng Guofan was also anxious, but he was afraid to continue to send troops out of the city to fight a refueling tactic, and was forced to start a decisive battle with the Taiping army outside the city. So even Luo Zenan, like Wu Chaoyue, proposed to send troops out of the city to respond, but Zeng Guofan categorically refused, "Wait, don't rush, wait until our reinforcements are closer." ”

A slight delay will be a big deal, only in a blink of an eye, the Taiping army sent from Hongshan reinforcement vanguard more than 1,000 people have rushed to the Zhonghe Gate, more than two miles away from the city gate to line up the formation, when the road blocked Hu Linyi and the road to the south reinforcements, at the same time the main force of the Taiping army has also begun to assemble out of the camp, it is clear that it is also to increase troops to the side of Zhonghe Gate. Seeing this scene, Zeng Guofan had no choice but to yell at Zeng Guoquan: "Yuan Fu, take your base camp and five hundred green battalions out of the city, and go and bring Hu Linyi and them back for me!" ”

When Zeng Guoquan agreed loudly, Wu Chaoyue next to him secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately moved in his heart, and said secretly: "Good opportunity, even if you still pull Liu Changyou and Jiang Zhongji over, you can sell them a favor!" ”

After making up his mind, Wu Chaoyue immediately rushed to Zeng Guofan's front with an arrow step, clasped his fists and said, "Teacher, please let the two sentinels under the command of the students go out of the city with the Ninth General and act as a vanguard to receive our reinforcements!" ”

The disobedient student took out his own soldiers to Zeng Guofan as cannon fodder, of course Zeng Guofan would not refuse, and agreed without thinking about it, but he didn't realize that the disobedient student actually went down to the city in person to convey the order, and he never went to the city again.

More than 200 Wu soldiers who volunteered to be the vanguard marched out of the city in a brave formation, quickly crossed the moat that had already been filled in by dead bodies and stones, and lined up two large and one small three horizontal formations on the opposite side of the moat.

Observing Wu Jun Lianyong's battle formation, Zeng Guofan's mouth suddenly opened wide, and it was not that Wu Jun's formation was too dense, but that Zeng Guofan suddenly saw that the disobedient protégé Wu Chaoyue's banner of governor with teeth and claws appeared in Wu Jun's Lian Yong's team! finally came back to his senses, and Zeng Guofan's first sentence was to yell and ask, "Why did the comfort pavilion go out?" He was a governor to fight the vanguard? He's crazy? ”

Wu Chaoyue really seems to be crazy, Wu Jun Lian Yong seems to be all crazy in the eyes of the Hunan army soldiers, lined up in a neat horizontal line, Wu Jun Lian Yong actually strode directly to the Taiping army position that has been arranged, and walked to the Taiping army column that is densely packed with arquebuses and muzzles.

Fortunately for Wu Chaoyue, although the more than 1,000 Taiping troops who rushed to the Zhonghemen battlefield to intercept in array were all elite soldiers and their combat effectiveness was quite strong, but it was Ou Zhencai, an old acquaintance of Wu Jun's Lian Yong, who led the team! When he just saw the Wu army lined up in a terrifyingly dense horizontal line, Ou Zhencai already had an ominous premonition in his heart, and when he saw Wu Chaoyue's big banner of Wu characters with teeth and claws appearing in the ranks of the Wu army, and when he saw Wu Jun Lian Yong showing off his iconic Xueliang bayonet, Ou Zhencai, who had been pumped all over the ground by Wu Jun Lian Yong countless times, couldn't cry anymore, "Why are these crazy people again?" What kind of luck is Lao Tzu? How did you finally catch a field opportunity and happen to run into this group of crazy people? ”

Panic quickly spread among the ranks of the Taiping Army, and the old soldiers of the Taiping Army who had participated in the Jiangning and Jiangyin battles trembled their legs, and they were still in a cold sweat in the winter. Feeling that the situation was wrong, when the companions next to them asked them the reason, some of the old soldiers who were uneasy and trained whispered to their companions to introduce the vicious ferocity of the enemy on the opposite side, as well as the extremely crazy 30-meter shooting tactics during the Jiangyin War. And the companions next to him were already inferior to these veterans in terms of combat effectiveness and experience, and when they saw the old-timers, they were afraid of becoming like this, of course, they were all flustered and cowardly before they fought.

When the two armies were about 150 meters apart, the Taiping army could not bear the huge psychological pressure, and some people who were particularly psychologically fragile could not help but pull the trigger, wasting bullets and gunpowder in vain to Wu Jun Lianyong unharmed, and he was slapped and punched by his boss, and when these people hurriedly reloaded the ammunition, Wu Jun Lianyong was already approaching within 100 steps.

Cold sweat quickly seeped out of the forehead of Wu Jun Lianyong's old friend Ou Zhencai, Ou Zhencai knew very well that his army only had one chance to fire a salvo in front of Wu Jun Lianyong's firing pin gun, and he knew even more that if a salvo could not defeat the enemy on the opposite side, the self-army would only continue to be beaten and tortured. So even though he was terrified to the extreme, Ou Zhencai gritted his teeth and did not give the order to fire, determined to wait until Wu Jun Lian Yong got as close as possible, and then ordered to fire, striving to kill more Wu Jun Lian Yong with the numerical advantage of firepower.

It's a pity that although Ou Zhencai has rich experience, the enemy coach he faced this time is no longer the Huang Dasha who likes to play with his life, but has been replaced by a greedy and afraid of death and likes to preserve strength, when the two armies are only seventy meters apart, the timid Wu Chaoyue has already ordered to fire, and the three rows of horizontal teams take turns to fire, firing three waves of stormy bullets, which immediately caught the Taiping army off guard. And when Ou Zhencai roared with sweat on his face and gave the order to shoot, not only were dozens of Taiping soldiers lying on the ground, but the density of firepower could no longer be maintained, so the only salvo that could be used was extremely poor, just killing and wounding more than 30 Wu soldiers Lian Yong, and most of them were injured.

After successfully forcing the Taiping army to fire the only salvo, Wu Jun Lian Yong's pinch gun advantage was immediately revealed, and the Taiping sergeant had just put down the arquebus to extinguish the embers, and before the gunpowder was loaded, Wu Jun Lian Yong's second volley had already hit head-on; When the soldiers of the Taiping Army hurriedly loaded the gunpowder, and then used the stab to compact the gunpowder, the bullets fired by Wu Jun Lian Yong's third salvo had already hit the front again; By the time the Taiping soldiers barely forced the bullets into the barrel with trembling hands, Wu Jun's fourth salvo had already begun.

There is also a pit father, the original arquebus must be kept in an upright position to be loaded with ammunition, standing with a large area of the gun, naturally it is a live target for Wu Jun Lianyong, and Wu Jun Lianyong's crimping pistol can be loaded and fired even if it is crawling on the ground, and the possibility of being hit by the Taiping Army musket is naturally much smaller. In the end, Wu Chaoyue brought all the most elite people in the Wu army's training and bravery, so after four rounds of shooting, the casualties of the Taiping soldiers had already exceeded 300, and countless frightened Taiping soldiers fled, among which most of them were veterans of the main force of the battle in peacetime.

Completely suppressed by Wu Jun Lian Yong's firing pin gun, Ou Zhencai's army of course had no spare strength to intercept the Qing army's way back to the city, Hu Linyi and the southbound reinforcements also boosted their morale because of the friendly troops out of the city, and soon killed Ou Zhencai's army's back, with Wu Jun Lian Yong's front and back attack, Ou Zhencai's army could no longer insist, and escaped in an instant. The Qing army and the Hunan army from the south were all thunderous with joy, and they accelerated in great strides, and in the blink of an eye, they were together with Wu Jun Lianyong.

"Lord Futai! Lord Futai, why did you come to save us in person? ”

"Wu Futai, it's so dangerous, why did you come here in person? And personally led the army as a pioneer? ”

These words, of course, were the first words of the generals of the Hunan Army and the generals of the Qing Army from the south when they met Wu Chaoyue. (To be continued.) )