"How?"

Zeng Guofan smiled and asked Liu Rong, Guo Songtao and Luo Zenan, the three confidants, although Zeng Guofan's question was a little clueless, but Liu Rong and Guo Songtao and others still understood, Liu Rong immediately replied: "He is worthy of being a handsome protégé, he is really a young man, the city is very deep, and he can be free to control his joy and anger despite his appearance, and it is more difficult to see what he really thinks in his heart than many people who pretend to be profound." ”

"It's also very aggrieved." Luo Zenan added: "The student can see that he doesn't agree with your tactics of defending the city and waiting for reinforcements, and once suggested a change, but after you categorically refused, he didn't say anything more, and took the initiative to ask the commander to continue to command the green battalion in Wuchang to practice bravery, showing his sincerity in obeying the commander's strategy." Such a person is either weak in character, or good at forbearance and can endure waiting. ”

Zeng Guofan smiled and said: "Xianfeng entered the office in two years, and in just two years, he flew from a six-grade chief to the governor of a province. Such a person can also have a weak character? ”

"So, the handsome thinks that your protégé can't bear it?"

Luo Zenan asked, Zeng Guofan smiled and didn't answer, put aside the topic and said: "Fortunately, he is just a bare-bones governor now, and if he wants to keep Wuchang Mansion City, he can only rely on us, and he doesn't need to worry about what tricks he plays." What we need to worry about now is to quickly get a list of Hubei magistrates, use his hand to recommend and fill in the vacancies, help him manage Hubei's civil affairs, and take care of local money, grain, and taxes. ”

Liu Rong, Guo Songtao and others all laughed, knowing that as long as this move was successful, then Zeng Guofan could become the governor of Hubei even if he could not be the governor of Hubei. However, just when several confidants and staff were thinking about recommending someone to Zeng Guofan to serve as a local official in Hubei, a personal soldier suddenly came to report outside the door, saying that Wu Chaoyue had sent someone to Binyang Gate to shoot a letter out of the city with a bow and arrow to the Taiping Army.

Feeling a little strange, Zeng Guofan asked his soldiers to call in the messenger sent by Li Xubin and asked, "Wu Futai's people, did they say what was on the letter?" ”

"Back to the big handsome, I said it, I said that it was a letter to recruit and reminisce." The messenger replied truthfully: "The people of Wu Futai also said that this is the habit of Wu Futai, and when he went north to King Qin in Tianjin last year, he also shot the surrender letter into the city of Tianjin with an arrow in the presence of Prince Zai Yixian. Wu Futai's people also said that Lin Fengxiang, the long-haired puppet prime minister, was an old acquaintance of Wu Futai, who had dealt with each other since before the Jiangning War, and they didn't know how many battles they had fought with each other. ”

"The villain has a will!" Zeng Guofan scolded secretly, waved his hand again, and said, "Let them shoot the letter, Ben Shuai agreed." ”

Zeng Guofan's fighting is rarely surprising, especially likes to be based on defense, plan and then move, cut off the enemy's way to force the enemy to take the initiative to fight, which is of course due to the fact that the Hunan army's close-quarters white-edged combat ability is slightly inferior to that of the Taiping army, but another reason is that Zeng Guofan is self-aware, knowing that he lacks urgency and is not very good at improvisation. This time it was the same, the messenger sent by Li Xubin had been gone for almost ten minutes, and Zeng Guofan suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly shouted: "Quick, send someone to give Li Xubin an order, telling him not to allow Wu Chaoyue's people to shoot the archery book!" The person who called Wu Chaoyue came to see me directly! ”

It's a pity that it was a step too late, and when the soldiers hurriedly went up to Binyang Gate with Zeng Guofan's order, Wu Chaoyue's accomplice had already shot the arrow book out of the city with an arrow and left the scene, and the arrow book had also been picked up by the Taiping scouts who were patrolling outside the city. After the news was reported in front of Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guofan stomped his feet in regret and shouted: "Oh no! Weiting, you fool, don't write anything that stimulates the long hair too much, if the long hair is completely annoyed, maybe you will come to attack Wuchang Mansion City again. ”

…………

Of course, Wu Chaoyue didn't write any sentences that stimulated the Taiping Army, Wu Chaoyue just wrote something that almost didn't make Lin Fengxiang and Wei Jun mad, the full text is as follows:

"Lin Fengxiang, I haven't seen you for a long time, is there a missing arm or a broken leg? Last time in Jiangning City, the Shence Gate failed to kill you with one shot, your **** luck is good?

To put it mildly, we really have a bit of fate, the first long hair I killed was your subordinate, and the first great achievement was to beat you seriously with my own hands, and then you hit Jiangyin, the then governor of Jiangsu, Lord Yang, in order to ask me for help, Leng is to marry his granddaughter to me as a daughter-in-law, let me choose a beautiful wife for nothing, tracing back to the source, you are still my matchmaker, help me get promoted and make a fortune and help me marry a beautiful daughter-in-law, I really don't want to thank you anymore.

Da En doesn't say thank you, and don't talk nonsense, the two of us finally met on the battlefield again, if you are smart, hurry up and kill Qin Rigang and Wei Jun to come over and surrender, I will guarantee that you will not die, and I will keep it for you to get an official. The opportunity is only given to you once, and if you miss it, you will die without a place to be buried, and when I capture you alive and tie you up to the court, it will be too late to kowtow and beg for mercy.

By the way, thank you to Wei Jun's long-haired man for me, after the Jiangning War, I was promoted two levels in a row to become a four-grade Dao platform, thanks to his brother Wei Changhui's head. Tell him to wash his neck and wait for death, I still want to continue to be promoted, how can I do it without your hairy heads as stepping stones?

See you on the battlefield with eggs, and get out of the eggs early if you don't have eggs. Your old friend Wu Chaoyue. ”

Originally, they hated Wu Chaoyue to the bone, and when they saw Wu Chaoyue's vicious letter of deliberate provocation, Lin Fengxiang and Wei Jun were of course so angry that their whole bodies trembled, and then immediately asked Qin Rigang to immediately send troops to attack the city, yelling and asking Ling to serve as the siege vanguard to find Wu Chaoyue to settle accounts and take revenge. Qin Rigang frowned and said, "Prime Minister Lin, Wei Checkpoint, can you calm down?" The letter of Transcending the Little Demon is clearly a deliberate provocation, provoking you to attack Wuchang Jiancheng, and we send troops, isn't it just in the hands of the Transcendence Demon? ”

"So what?" Wei Jun roared with red eyes: "Beyond the little demon is in Wuchang City, and our forces are superior, if we don't take the opportunity to attack the city to take revenge, do we still want to watch the Beyond Little Demon be at ease in the city here?" ”

Qin Rigang was speechless, and Lin Fengxiang over there also said with a blue face: "Ding Tianhou, the Wing King has repeatedly increased his troops on the battlefield of Wuchang at the age of 5,000, in order to take Wuchang so that the Transcendence Demon will not be able to gain a foothold in Hubei, and will not give him the opportunity to threaten the western front of the Heavenly Kingdom." Now that the Transcendence Demon has entered the city of Wuchang Mansion, if we don't seize the opportunity to attack the city and break the city, do we have to wait for the Qing Demon's reinforcements from all walks of life to arrive and rescue this Transcendence Demon whose hands are stained with the blood of the Heavenly Soldiers?! ”

"But we still have the option of besieging the city and sending reinforcements." Qin Rigang said bitterly: "If we can break the reinforcements of the Qing Demon from all walks of life, and then we turn around and attack Wuchang Mansion City, it will be much easier, and the grasp can be much greater." ”

"Then what if the Qing Demon reinforcements don't come? We've been working with the Transcendence Demon for a long time? Wei Jun asked angrily.

I really couldn't resist Lin Fengxiang and Wei Jun, and seeing that Lin Fengxiang and Wei Jun in a rage threatened to lead the army to attack Wuchang Mansion City by themselves, Qin Rigang had no choice but to grit his teeth and nodded, and reluctantly agreed to the plan to continue to attack the city with all his might.

In the face of the main force of the Taiping Army who shouted the slogan of stepping on Wuchang City and capturing the demon alive, the barber teacher was 10,000 unhappy, and he could only supervise the battle with tears in his eyes, and continue to defend Wuchang Mansion City for the disobedient students, and another earth-shattering fierce battle was also launched on the second day of Wu Chaoyue's arrival in Wuchang.

Cannons roared, gunshots intertwined, the Taiping Army's climbing ladder continued to lean on the head of Wuchang City one after another, the Taiping Army soldiers who were good at hand-to-hand white-knuckle combat shouted and climbed the ladder again, repeatedly impacting the head of Wuchang City, and two large ladder cars that were flush with the city wall were also slowly approaching the Wuchang City Wall under the hard push and pull of the Taiping Army soldiers, and the war directly entered the white heat from the beginning.

In the fierce battle, Wu Chaoyue also led Wu Dadao and Nie Shicheng and others Shi Shiran to the main battlefield of Binyangmen, the most fierce battle, although he did not wear dazzling official clothes to lure the enemy to concentrate firepower, but he also looked as usual in the rain of bullets, and carefully observed the combat characteristics of the Hunan army with his hands behind his back, as well as the siege habits of the Taiping army outside the city.

The Hunan army was indeed good at defending, skillfully taking advantage of the favorable terrain of the city towers, corners, forts and the protrusions of the city wall, weaving a firepower network with almost no dead ends, and at the same time, when the Hunan soldiers used arquebuses, the ammunition loading speed and shooting accuracy were obviously much higher than those of the green battalion soldiers, and the continuous shooting hit the Taiping soldiers on the flying ladder to heavy casualties and fell continuously. In addition, the Hunan army's artillery operation technology was also quite good, although it did not receive systematic scientific training, but it also relied on experience to hit the artillery shells extremely accurately, and when it was bombarded with the Taiping army's Shuangfeng Mountain battery artillery, more than half of every ten artillery hits the Taiping army's batteries -- but it is a pity that they are solid artillery shells, and even if they hit, they do not pose much threat to the Taiping army's batteries.

When he saw the Hunan gunners bombarding the Taiping Army's large ladder truck with cross-trajectory, even Wu Chaoyue couldn't help but nod his head, appreciating the calm and self-confidence of the Hunan army commander, and did not rush to waste shells to bombard the ladder car that posed a huge threat to the city wall, and calmly chose to wait for the enemy's ladder car to enter the best firing position before concentrating firepower. However, at this moment, Li Xubin, the main general of the defenders of Binyang Gate, rushed over and shouted at Wu Chaoyue: "Wu Futai, why are you here?" This is the front line, there are guns and shells everywhere, what do you do if you hit? ”

"Thank you General Li for your kindness, it's okay, I've been used to it for a long time. You don't have to worry about me, go about yourself. ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled and shook his head, and continued to look at the battle on the city wall - not far away, there happened to be a Taiping warrior biting the big knife and stepping on the ladder to rush up the city wall, but before the Taiping warrior could pull out the knife, a Hunan soldier who had been shrinking behind the female wall had already shot at him, and hit him in the ribs with one shot.

Seeing this scene, Wu Chaoyue nodded again, and finally learned a little battlefield skill from the barber teacher - specially arranged for gunners to fill the gaps, and was only responsible for sneaking up on the enemy who was lucky enough to get to the city without participating in the battle, which not only played a surprise role, but also made up for the weakness that the arquebus took too long to load ammunition. In the case of insufficient number of revolvers, it is worth learning from Wu Jun's practice of Yong Cottage.

With a loud bang, a cannonball hit the arrow stack not far from Wu Chaoyue, splashing dust and countless bricks and stones in the sky, which startled the surrounding Hunan army soldiers and Li Xubin, and they were also scared to subconsciously avoid bullets. Wu Chaoyue and his party didn't even blink their eyelids, they all looked calm--they had long been accustomed to it, and they had long relied on experience to know that it was impossible for a solid cannonball bombarded on the city wall to bounce off the city wall. Seeing Wu Chaoyue's reaction, Li Xubin couldn't help but pause again, and said secretly: "This kid, is he pretending?" Or do you really have this bearing? ”

Of course, Wu Chaoyue is a genuine rat who is afraid of death, but no matter how greedy he is for life and afraid of death, Wu Chaoyue is still not in a hurry to hide in the city to be a shrinking turtle, on the contrary, he also walked to the arrow stack that was hit by the cannonball before, and poked his head out to watch the scene outside the city.

"It's worthy of being my teacher, and I really didn't want to fight to the end for me and Changmao from the beginning." Wu Chaoyue snorted coldly in his heart, knowing that if he built a sheep and horse wall to cover the Hunan soldiers shooting under the city, although he could cause more casualties to the Taiping army, it was destined to increase the number of casualties among the Hunan soldiers, so his barber teacher refused to suffer this loss.

"I can't imagine that the teacher is selfish to this point, and then I want him to bleed heavily, pay a little more to pick up reinforcements as soon as possible to come to Wuchang to help me fight the Taiping army, I'm afraid I have to think of some more ways."

Thinking about this problem, Wu Chaoyue stayed in the main battlefield of Binyangmen City all day, although he never participated in the battle, but it also played a role in boosting the morale of the army - seeing that Wu Chaoyue, who was the honor of a province, went to the most dangerous front line and insisted on not retreating, the Hunan soldiers, who were already quite brave, worked harder in the battle. And when they saw Wu Chaoyue personally carrying the Hunan soldiers who were shot and injured to a safe place for treatment, many Hunan soldiers were even more moved to themselves, and their favorability towards Wu Chaoyue increased greatly.

The tragic offensive and defensive battle lasted until close to the evening before stopping, after paying heavy casualties, the Taiping army, which had never been able to attack the head of Wuchang City, finally hated to collect the troops, and when the battalions of the Hunan army hurriedly counted the casualties and rescued the wounded soldiers, Wu Chaoyue also rushed to the wounded soldiers camp as soon as possible in accordance with his personal habits to comfort the wounded soldiers and buy people's hearts. As a result, it was also time to show his acting skills, Wu Chaoyue, who had not paid much attention before, suddenly discovered that Lang Zhong of the Xiang Army used grass and wood ash to stop the bleeding of the wounded soldiers and bandage them directly, Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked Lang Zhong: "Why don't you use Panax notoginseng powder or Jinchuang medicine?" Stop the bleeding with plant ash, not afraid of suppuration from the wounds of the wounded soldiers? ”

Knowing Wu Chaoyue's identity, Xiang Jun Langzhong didn't dare to contradict it, but replied with low eyebrows and pleasing eyes: "Lord Huifutai, after so many battles, Jinchuang medicine and Panax notoginseng powder have long been used, so unless it is a particularly serious injury, or it is ......, it is ......, otherwise it is not used." ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent for a while, and then asked his own soldiers to send an order to Wuchang prefect Duoshan, asking Duoshan to send someone to send some garlic over immediately, and then pointed out to Xiang Junlang: "After the garlic is sent in a while, mash it and add water to make garlic juice, and apply the garlic juice on gauze to bandage the wounded soldiers, which can prevent pus from flowing from the wound." ”

"Lord Futai, is this useful?" Lang Zhong asked suspiciously.

"Yes, this is the method of treating wounded soldiers in the foreign army, and when I was in Shanghai, when I was short of medicine, I also used this method to treat my wounded soldiers."

Wu Chaoyue really didn't fool the Hunan army, in fact, until World War I, European and American armies used this method to treat wounded soldiers. After asking the Hunan army Langzhong to be treated according to law, Wu Chaoyue told the wounded soldiers of the Hunan army around him, saying that although it was a little painful, it could effectively prevent their wounds from worsening and not aggravating them. As a result, although Wu Chaoyue did not do this intentionally, while the wounded soldiers of the Hunan army nodded one after another, they all had such thoughts, "This Lord Futai is actually better for us than the big handsome." ”

It may be that Zeng Guofan could not tolerate the disobedience of his protégé to buy the hearts of his soldiers, at this time, Zeng Guofan suddenly sent someone to ask Wu Chaoyue to meet with him, Wu Chaoyue had to quickly say goodbye to the wounded soldiers, and left a few personal soldiers to help the Hunan army Langzhong treat the wounded soldiers, and then hurried to the Hunan army headquarters set up in Xundaoling to meet with Zeng Guofan.

When they met, Zeng Guofan's mood was obviously very bad, and he reluctantly squeezed out a little smile, first beckoned Wu Chaoyue to sit down, and then asked Wu Chaoyue: "Comfort Ting, what did you write on the letter you sent someone to shoot Changmao with arrows yesterday?" Why did the mammoth go crazy and storm Wuchang City, and directly shouted the slogan of capturing you alive? ”

"Didn't you write anything?" Wu Chaoyue replied suspiciously: "The student is just catching up with Lin Fengxiang, persuading him to lay down his arms and surrender as soon as possible, rein in the precipice, and the prodigal son will turn back." ”

"Then how did it get the opposite effect, provoking Long Hair to attack the city frantically?" Zeng Guofan asked with some annoyance.

"This student doesn't know." Wu Chaoyue shook his head in denial, and said, "But it's not strange, right? Changmao besieged Wuchang Mansion City for nearly two months, isn't it strange to attack the city a few times? ”

Zeng Guofan was speechless, extremely suspicious that the Taiping army's frenzied siege of the city was related to the disobedient protégé in front of him, but he couldn't produce any evidence. In desperation, Zeng Guofan had no choice but to change the topic and asked, "I heard that you have been in Binyangmen City all day today, are you not afraid of danger?" ”

"The student, the bare-pole governor, couldn't find anything to do in Wuchang City, so he went to the city to cheer for the teacher's practice." Wu Chaoyue told the truth, "As for the danger, of course the students are also afraid, but the students want to observe the teacher's method of using soldiers, and also learn about the enemy situation by the way, so they have the courage to go to the front line." ”

Speaking of this, Wu Chaoyue also had an idea, and took the initiative to say to Zeng Guofan: "Teacher, if you don't mind, the student is willing to take on the responsibility of supervising the army for you, and plant the student's governor's flag on the Binyang Gate Tower facing the long-haired thief camp. ”

"Whatever you want." Zeng Guofan didn't think much about it, waved his hand and let the disobedient protégé act, and what he was thinking about in his heart was how to use the strategy of delaying the army, so that the Taiping army would turn its guns and fight for foreign reinforcements, and stop fighting with himself again. There is also a plan on how to insert one's own people into Hubei officialdom and indirectly control Hubei's civil affairs and finances for oneself.

Zeng Guofan soon paid a heavy price for his rash decision, when he saw Wu Chaoyue's big banner of Wu characters with teeth and claws planted in the Binyang Gate Tower, Lin Fengxiang and Wei Jun and other Taiping generals who had a deep hatred with Wu Chaoyue were even more red-eyed, not only forcing Qin Rigang to continue to attack the city, but also forcing Qin Rigang to adopt the tactics of taking turns to attack the city, so that the soldiers of each battalion of the Taiping Army took turns to go into battle, and continuously attacked Binyang Gate day and night. Zeng Guofan was forced to urge the army to continue to fight, but he couldn't help but scold, "The long hairs outside the city are crazy, aren't they?" Ben Shuai has been restrained and didn't go out of the city to fight back once, you have to come to beat me if you take the wrong medicine?! ”

In the end, it was only when interrogating the seriously wounded Taiping soldiers captured in the defense of the city that Zeng Guofan knew the reason, and also knew that in addition to love, there is also an equally unforgettable feeling in this world, that is-hatred! (To be continued.) )