After the Wu army's Feng Sanbao Corps unexpectedly took the Yuhuatai heavy land, if the Wu army's Cao Yanzhong corps could move faster, and could take Taiping, Wuwei and Hezhou before Li Xiucheng's main army returned to Nanjing, completely dredge the Yangtze River waterway, and rush to the Nanjing battlefield first, then even if the Wu army could not quickly take Nanjing City, it could seize more favorable terrain in advance, meet Li Xiucheng's main force with leisure, give full play to the field advantages of the Wu army, severely damage Li Xiucheng's main force, and win more decisive opportunities.

But there is no way, Cao Yanzhong's corps is too tired, after advancing east from Jiujiang, Cao Yanzhong's corps successively fought with Huang Wenjin, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and Shi Dakai and other elite corps of the Taiping Army, and then in the siege of Taiping Mansion to send reinforcements to meet the Taiping Army in southern Anhui several soldiers and horses, although the battle was won, but also accumulated a considerable number of casualties, the soldiers were even more exhausted, the physical condition was seriously reduced, and the injuries were also quite serious, so when attacking the Taiping City defended by the famous general Li Kaifang, Cao Yanzhong's corps could no longer fight with that momentum like a bamboo, and stumbled in front of the deep trenches of the fortified city, the progress was far slower than expected, and the fighting was more difficult than previously imagined.

"Boom!"

The earth-shattering loud sound sounded under the wall of Taiping Mansion as desired, and in the dust and smoke, the tall city wall fell to the ground, revealing a huge gap more than ten zhang wide, and before the dust and smoke settled, a battalion of Wu soldiers had already shouted and rushed to the gap in the city wall, "Kill!" Break into Taiping City and capture Li Kaifang alive! ”

If it is replaced by the past, with the combat effectiveness and weapon superiority of the soldiers of Cao Yanzhong's corps, basically as long as the city wall is blown up, the city can be guaranteed to be broken, and the great thing is to spend some more grenades in the street battle to annihilate the remnants of the enemy in the city. However, this time it didn't work, the overly tired Wu soldiers were obviously not as fast as usual when they charged, and the distance of about three miles, it took the Wu soldiers about ten minutes to rush to the front, and the Taiping soldiers successfully passed the panic period when the city wall suddenly collapsed, while throwing sandbags and earth stones to plug the gap, while throwing powder kegs to explode against the enemy and block the Wu army's attack.

Of course, the powder kegs smashed out by the Taiping army are black powder, but even if it is only the most ordinary black powder, it is still not the flesh and blood of the Wu army soldiers can resist, the fire erupts one after another, the Wu army soldiers are all burning, they are blown down by the shock wave, the death pillow, the momentum of the charge is completely contained, although the Wu army gunners in the rear temporary fortifications have fired grenadier shells one after another, but they still cannot cover the assault team to rush into the city, the Wu army commandos have sacrificed their lives twice, and they have also been blown back by the powder barrels of the Taiping army, and the casualties are quite heavy.

Seeing this scene in the telescope, Cao Yanzhong was as loyal as a knife, but in order to take the Taiping Mansion City as soon as possible, Cao Yanzhong still forced the commandos to continue to attack, and at the same time decisively invested two battalions of ant attached troops, carrying flying ladders to climb and attack the city, and cooperate with the commandos to attack head-on.

The Taiping army that resisted to the death still used a powder barrel to blow up the third charge of the Wu army commando, forcing the Wu army commando team with heavy casualties to withdraw from the battle, fortunately, the Wu army's tricks were not used up, and the commando team was just forced to retreat. At the same time, under Cao Yanzhong's order, an elite battalion of the Wu army, all equipped with firing guns, strode out of battle and took on the task of attacking the gap in the city wall for the second time.

The physical condition is not good, the elite battalion of the Wu army also fought very hard, and it took two charges to rush into the Taiping Mansion city with difficulty, Li Kaifang led the army to fight to the death, relying on a large number of street fighting fortifications built in advance to do the battle of the trapped beasts, and at the same time, because the position at the top of the city wall was still in the hands of the Taiping army, the invincible elite battalion of the Wu army fought even harder, and the speed of advancing into the city was very slow, forcing Cao Yanzhong to only put another battalion to the front to strengthen the troops, almost inch by inch with the Taiping army to compete for positions in the city.

If it weren't for the efforts of the Wu army's engineers to dig up and blow up a big gap in the wall of the Taiping Mansion, then the Wu army might have been repelled by the Taiping army's street battle for the first time, but even if the Wu army used crypt tactics to blow up a large hole more than ten zhang wide on the city wall, the Wu army's advance speed was still quite slow, and the fight was far harder than before the war. In the end, in a hurry, Cao Yanzhong simply accepted Huang Yuanbao's initiative to ask for battle, and let Huang Yuanbao join the battlefield with three elite battalions of the Wu army, which had long been dissatisfied.

Correspondingly, the three elite battalions of the Wu army under Huang Yuanbao also paid the price of more than 200 casualties in the street fighting, and Huang Yuanbao was also wounded by the Taiping army's Minnie gun, almost becoming the highest-ranking Wu army general killed in this Eastern Crusade.

The bloody and bloody brutal street fighting lasted until the Taiping army's gunpowder was basically used up, and the Wu army formed an overwhelming advantage over the Taiping army, but the stubborn Li Kaifang still refused to abandon the city and fled, insisting on taking the remnants of the defeated general and the Wu army to fight to the end, and caused a lot of casualties to the Wu army in poor condition, Li Kaifang and his last dozen personal soldiers were all killed under the dense grenade cover of the Wu army, and none of them surrendered.

According to post-war statistics, the Wu army killed more than 1,200 soldiers in this battle alone, more than half of which were soldiers of the elite battalion of the Wu army, and Huang Yuanbao's three elite battalions suffered the most heavy losses, and they were forced to transfer a large number of second-line army soldiers to supplement the army after the war. So even if Li Kaifang's troops were completely annihilated in victory, Cao Yanzhong was not happy at all after the war, on the contrary, he sighed long and sighed sincerely: "It's too hard, after so many years of following the king of Zhennan to fight in the south and the north, it is the first time that I have fought so hard." If it weren't for the fact that Li Kaifang, the main force with big long hair, had been wiped out by us in the field battle, we would not have been sure to win this battle. ”

"Mainly because our soldiers are too tired and their physical condition is too poor." Cao Yanzhong's chief of staff, Tan Jixun, came to the correct conclusion and said: "After marching eastward from Jiujiang, we fought seven major battles in less than two months, and there were no less than 20 small battles. ”

Cao Yanzhong nodded, calmly admitting that the main reason for the hard work of this battle was that the physical condition of the soldiers was generally not good, and then Cao Yanzhong asked very worriedly: "Mr. Zishi, then what should we do next to fight Wuwei and Hezhou?" According to the current situation, even if the long hair of Wuwei and Hezhou is not as fierce as the long hair of Taiping Mansion, our battle is not easy to fight? ”

"Cao Junmen, with all due respect, for the sake of our soldiers, we should now give priority to letting the army rest and recuperate." Tan Jixun said in a deep voice: "The army is tired like this, if we don't let the soldiers rest for a while, whether we continue to attack Wuwei and Hezhou, or leave the naval division to protect the waterway, and let the land division directly enter Jiangning, when we get to the battlefield, we will only fight harder than today, and the casualties may be greater than today." ”

It has not been confirmed that Li Xiucheng has lifted the siege of Shanghai and returned to Nanjing, Cao Yanzhong certainly did not dare to casually decide to let the army rest and recuperate, and at the same time, on the premise of knowing that Feng Sanbao had taken Yuhuatai and the troops were coming to Nanjing, Cao Yanzhong did not dare to let the army in his hands rest idlely, so that the Taiping army understood that the army was almost at the end of the crossbow. So after thinking about it for a long time, Cao Yanzhong gritted his teeth and still ordered: "Command the sailors, prepare the troop transport ships, and at this time tomorrow, our main force will board the ship and turn around to fight Wuwei." ”

"Cao Junmen, our army ......."

"Mr. Zishi, I understand what you mean." Cao Yanzhong interrupted Tan Jixun and said, "I can't help it, if I let the army stop and rest, Changmao will definitely understand that we can't do it anymore, and we don't have the strength to threaten them for the time being." Only by letting the soldiers persist in working hard a little longer and let the army move, will the long-haired side think that we still have the strength to fight again, and we can still take a boat to the east at any time to help Feng Junmen fight Jiangning City, and then Hong Xiuquan's big long-haired army will be anxious to urge Li Xiucheng's long-haired army to return to the division to save Jiangning, and receive the effect of encircling Wei and saving Zhao to share the pressure for us in Shanghai. ”

After that, Cao Yanzhong added another sentence and said: "Mr. Zishi, don't worry, I just let the army move, and I won't fight a frontal offensive battle anymore, and I also love my soldiers." ”

"What do you mean by the military gate, bluffing? Let Jiang Ning's longhair feel that we can still threaten them at any time? Tan Jixun understood Cao Yanzhong's intentions, and suddenly had an idea, and hurriedly said: "Cao Junmen, since this is the case, we might as well scare Wuwei and Hezhou's longhair together, if we are lucky, maybe we can scare the longhairs in these two cities to take the initiative or abandon the city, so that we can take Wuwei and Hezhou at no cost." ”

"So how do you scare that?"

Cao Yanzhong hurriedly asked, Tan Jixun did not answer immediately, and after thinking about it for a long time, Tan Jixun told Cao Yanzhong the details of his plan, Cao Yanzhong was overjoyed when he heard it, clapped his hands and said: "Okay, just do it!" Whether it works out or not, you have to give it a try! ”

…………

The distance is not too far, just arrived the next morning, Fan Yunde, who was in charge of Wuwei City, received the news that Taipingfu City was broken by the Wu army and Li Kaifang was killed.

Loyal to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Fan Yunde is not afraid of sacrificing his life for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but human nature, Fan Yunde is unwilling to accept such a cruel reality in his heart, so even if he knows that he shouldn't think so, Fan Yunde still hopes that Wu Jun will choose to fight Hezhou first, and then fight Wuwei, and even take Tianjing directly after taking Wuwei, and never come to trouble Wuwei.

It's a pity that the ideal is very plump, but the reality is very skinny, and in the evening, Xizuo sent accurate news, saying that a large number of Wu soldiers boarded the troop transport fleet, and were turning around and sailing back upstream under the protection of the Wu army's naval fleet, and it was basically certain that Xiang Wuwei was killed. Fan Yunde sighed when he heard the report, but he was helpless, so he could only sigh: "Be ready to be loyal to the King of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven." ”

The matter is not over, at noon the next day, the garrison of the Wu army on the side of the mud mouth suddenly released a Wuwei Taiping soldier who had been captured in the Yuncao War, and forced him to bring Fan Yunde a letter from Ma Yutang, a traitor to the Taiping Army, although Fan Yunde knew that Ma Yutang would not put any good farts on the letter, but out of curiosity, Fan Yunde still sneered and took the letter submitted by his own soldiers to open it, but after seeing the general content of the letter, Fan Yunde's face gradually changed.

The content of Ma Yutang's letter, a traitor to the Taiping Army, is probably as follows: "Qi Tianhou, for the sake of past friendships, I advise you, if you are smart, you should quickly lay down your arms and surrender, so that you may still have a chance to live, otherwise, you will die miserably, and your whole family will die even worse than you."

Qi Tianhou, it's not my brother who scares you, because you are obsessed and help Shi Da open to deceive Feng Junmen, not only Feng Junmen asked for your head by name, Cao Yanzhong Cao Junmen also released his words early, saying that after defeating Wuwei City, your whole family will not spare any of them, and all of them will be killed! If it weren't for the fact that there were many scholars around Cao Junmen, who had benevolence in his heart, and proposed to let the younger brother write this letter to persuade you to surrender, I wouldn't even have a chance to say hello to you in advance.

Of course, I know what kind of temper you are Qi Tianhou, I know that you will not listen to my persuasion, and will only insist on burying these long-haired heads such as Hong Xiuquan and Shi Dakai. But it doesn't matter, what is the situation in Wuwei City, brother, I know as well as you, I can block it for a few days in front of Cao Junmen's foreign guns and cannons, and I am as clear as you, Cao Junmen and we are terrific, just take a little effort to attack the city, and then ask the executioner to work hard to chop your whole family.

Don't talk nonsense, it's death or life in your thoughts. By the way, don't expect reinforcements, Shi Dakai has already been killed by Feng Junmen outside Tianjing City, and the long-haired soldiers in Lujiang, Chaoxian and Luzhou have been emptied by Shi Dakai, and it is difficult to even protect themselves, they will only count on you to save them, don't expect them to save you. Brother Ma Yutang. ”

In fact, Ma Yutang's letter of persuasion is already the third letter of persuasion that Fan Yunde has received during this period of time, and it is completely different from the previous letters of persuasion sent by Cao Yanzhong and Feng Sanbao respectively, Ma Yutang's letter of persuasion is not only full of naked intimidation, but also obviously going through the motions and perfunctory, without the slightest sincerity in surrendering. But it is precisely because of this that Fan Yunde received such a thought in his heart, and said secretly: "It is impossible for the demon soldiers to spare me, as soon as the city of Wuwei is broken, my whole family and I will die." ”

had already been mentally prepared to die in the line of duty, and Fan Yunde was not particularly worried about this, but just when Fan Yunde tore the traitor's letter to shreds, a scout suddenly came from outside the city to report, saying that the Wu army's troop transport fleet had just landed after docking at the Shentang River wharf, and immediately divided a battalion of troops to the west and came directly in the direction of Wuwei City. Fan Yunde was surprised when he heard the report, and asked in surprise: "There is only one battalion of demon soldiers?" What did the demon soldiers do with only one battalion? Hit the front station? One battalion is not enough, huh? ”

"Back to Qi Tianhou, it is confirmed that it is just a battalion of demon soldiers." The scout replied truthfully, and said: "In addition, the demon soldiers of this battalion also carry a lot of vehicles, and the goods on the vehicles are covered with sackcloth, and they don't look heavy, so it's not clear what they are for the time being. ”

After listening to the scout's report, Fan Yunde suddenly understood in his heart that Wu Jun had a new trick.