The waves crashed on the shore, the red flames soared into the air, the canopy was extinguished, the fire began to shine on the sea of clouds, and the comprador broke the rakshasa here. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Judging from the scene alone, since following Wu Chaoyue to raise troops to rebel, the battle of Gaowan Village is definitely the most beautiful battle fought by the Wu army and naval division in Jiujiang, with only more than 150 people, driving 30 vulnerable sampan boats, can actually kill the powerful Tsarist fleet in complete chaos, forcing the Tsarist Russian transport fleet to flee for its life in a hurry, not only really playing the momentum of the army, but also playing the high fighting spirit of the Wu army officers and men who are not afraid of strong enemies.

However, it is also a pity that the times are really different, the arson and ship burning tactics in the era of cold weapons are no longer so bright, no matter how hard the Wu army death squad sacrificed their lives, they only burned a Tsarist Russian barge, burned two barges and two transport ships, killed less than 50 enemies, and the results were not satisfactory.

What is even more regrettable is that because the speed of the ship is far from catching up with the enemy's steam warships, the sampan fleet of the Wu army that tried to escape to the lower reaches of Qizhou was easily caught up by the Russian steam gunboats, and the Wu army death squad with heavy casualties could only hurriedly flee on the north shore, and was chased and killed by the enemy on land, and finally only came back alive more than 20 people, and the main general Liu Liankun was also killed by the cannon, and unfortunately became the highest-ranking general killed after the Hubei rebel army rose up.

Knowing the war situation and Liu Liankun's sacrifice, Wu Chaoyue immediately cried loudly, and only then did he realize that he was actually very sorry for the Jiujiang Wu Army, because the Jiujiang Wu Army was not his descendant, and Bao Chao and Liu Liankun and others were once subordinates of Zeng Guofan and Du Xing'a, and he had always paid insufficient attention to the Jiujiang Wu Army, and was reluctant to equip the Jiujiang Wu Army with even better weapons, and even used Huang Yuanlong's First Corps to secretly guard against the Jiujiang Wu Army, and was ready to suppress the rebellion of the Jiujiang Wu Army by force.

However, Bao Chao and Liu Liankun and other Jiujiang generals never complained, and have been conscientiously sticking to the east gate of the Wu army's controlled territory, and have been standing at the forefront of the confrontation with the Taiping Army. Compared with the two, Wu Chaoyue is inevitably ashamed and regretful.

After truly understanding the loyalty of the Jiujiang Wu Army to himself, Wu Chaoyue also gave compensation, in addition to ordering the reward of the soldiers of the Jiujiang Wu Army and the preferential compensation of the fallen soldiers, he also announced in public the adoption of Liu Liankun's eight-year-old son, and assigned Fu Shanxiang and his daughter to Liu Liankun's son. At the same time, Wu Chaoyue also apologized to Bao Chao and other Jiujiang in public, admitting that he had treated Bao Chao and his soldiers too badly before, and said that he would repent and compensate, in exchange for Bao Chao's crying, Jiujiang Wu soldiers shed tears one after another, and swore allegiance to Wu Chaoyue.

"Dashuai, we've been waiting for this day for a long time."

With tears in his eyes, Bao Chao said something psychological to Wu Chaoyue, choked up and said: "Actually, Brother Liu and I both know that you can't trust us, and we don't blame you, because we really don't have any decent credit, and we are not your descendants, and we have done it right with you, and no one will be at ease with us." We have also been waiting for the opportunity to tell you with facts that we admire and ...... loyalty to you. ”

Bao Chao's heartfelt voice made Wu Chaoyue can't help but tears, holding Bao Chao's hand and crying bitterly, he also said in his heart: "You still have to be careful, you have to prevent Bao Chao from pushing the boat down the river and saying beautiful things, the Jiujiang army has never dared to come nonsense, the most critical reason is that they are surrounded by my descendants and long hair, and if they dare to move, they will die." ”

…………

Wu Chaoyue, the number one hypocrite of the late Qing Dynasty, showed his skillful film skills to buy people's hearts at the mouth of the source, but the commander of the Tsarist fleet, Novosilsky, was furious in front of Wen Xiang, scolding, crazy like a bull in heat, and the speed of his roar made it impossible for the interpreter to keep up.

"What do your scouts eat? With so many rebel ships passing through your zone, why didn't your scouts notice it? Did your scouts do it on purpose? Also, how did the rebel fleet know the night password, did you leak the secret? ”

"You damn yellow-skinned monkeys, filthy shit! Ugly pigs! Our Great Russian army sailed halfway around the world to help you suppress the rebels, and you even deliberately helped the rebel fleet to sneak up on us! I will immediately end my cooperation with you, withdraw alone, and let the rebels and the Taiping army kill you all!" Stupid pig! ”

After nodding his head and bowing his head as usual, and promising to severely punish the dereliction of duty, the first thing Wen Xiang did when he returned to the Qing Army's naval division was, of course, to track down the scouts who were in charge of patrolling last night, but the scouts who were found shouted injustices one by one, saying that they were all dedicated to patrolling and probing last night, and they were not lazy at all, let alone deliberately letting the Wu army fleet attack the Tsarist fleet. Wen Xiang was furious when he heard this, and asked, "Then the Wu thief fleet flew over?" ”

At this time, Ye Changchun stood up and said vigorously: "Wenzhongtang, it may be that it came by land, the sampan boat is not too heavy, and it can be carried by manpower, cattle and horses." It is also possible that the Wu thieves had already hidden ships in this area, and secretly put down the sampan in the downstream of our defense area at night and directly attacked the Rakshasa fleet, so our scouts had no way to find out. ”

The generals of the Qing army's naval division echoed one after another, saying that the Wu army must have bypassed the Qing army's naval division defense area by land and helped the soldiers of the own army shirk their responsibilities. Wen Xiang was suspicious, and when he asked about the password, Ye Changchun was even more eloquent, and said: "Needless to say, there must be a traitor informing, maybe there are Wu thieves and spies hidden in our army, or it may be that there are Wu thieves and spies hidden in the fleet of the Rakshasas, Lord Zhongtang, as long as you send someone to investigate, you will definitely be able to find out immediately." ”

As soon as Wen Xiang heard this, he felt reasonable, and immediately ordered the flag guards he brought from the capital to be responsible for investigating the traitors, but the results of the investigation made Wen Xiang and his guards cry without tears - in addition to the scouts on duty last night in the Qing army's naval division, even the grassroots generals of the Qing army at the rank of chief knew last night's password! If you want to find out these people one by one, the most conservative estimate will take a month......

In desperation, Wen Xiang had no choice but to accept the advice of the generals of the Qing army, and reported to Novosilsky that the Wu army was directly on the south bank where the Tsarist fleet was located to launch a surprise attack, and said that a commander who knew last night's password was missing, and put all the blame on the non-existent commander of the Qing army. Novosilsky was furious, but he was helpless - playing these officialdom methods with Wen Xiangwen Zhongtang, Novosilsky was a little tender.

In a fit of rage, of course, Novosilsky deliberately forced the Qing Army's naval division to attack the main position of the Wu Army's estuary, Wen Xiang cried and said with a sad face that Wu Quanmei, the commander of the Qing Army's Naval Division, had fallen ill and was useless, Novosilsky didn't listen at all, and threatened: "If you refuse to implement the loan agreement, then we will end the cooperation and withdraw the troops alone!" I won't protect you anymore! ”

Frightened by Novosilsky's threat, Wen Xiang had no choice but to come back and force the generals of the Qing Army's naval division, and the generals of the Qing Army's naval division were also a little worried that the Tsarist Russian fleet would really withdraw alone, resulting in the isolation of the army, so they first temporarily perfunctory Wenxiang, and then gathered at the flagship to discuss countermeasures with Wu Quanmei, who was sick in bed.

Like his subordinates, Wu Quanmei was also a little worried that the Tsarist Russian fleet would really abandon its own army and withdraw alone - even if Wu's naval division did not come to pursue, the Taiping Army's Hukou Naval Division, which had two steam gunboats, would definitely not let go of this rare opportunity to beat the water dogs. Therefore, Wu Quanmei was a little shaken for a while, and wanted to accept the blackmail of the Tsarist fleet, and said: "Advancing is also death, retreating is also death, or let's fight, maybe we can fight a way out." ”

The generals of the Qing army were silent, they all knew that Wu Quanmei was telling the truth, but they were extremely unwilling to be cannon fodder for the Tsarist fleet, and Wu Quanmei's deputy Li Delin said directly: "Even if we can fight a way out, I'm afraid we won't have anything left, and the Da Qing Shui Division will definitely be finished." The navy does not need the army, as long as the army is exhausted, as long as there are guns and cannons, it will not take long to train to go to the battlefield, how much time does it take to train a skilled and capable sailor, don't you know Bishan? ”

Wu Quanmei was speechless, and only sighed after a long time, and said: "But it's also better than withdrawing troops directly, how much price did the imperial court pay this time in order to borrow troops from the Rakshasa people to destroy Wu Thief's Daye Iron Factory, how much money did it cost, how much food and materials did it consume, and how many concessions did it make to the Rakshasa people, if we just retreat and go back directly, how can we explain to the imperial court?" ”

It was Li Delin's turn to be speechless, but at this moment, someone among the generals of the Qing army suddenly said: "Junmen, then the Rakshasa foreign devils can explain to their court?" ”

Everyone was shocked, and when they followed the sound, they saw that the person who spoke was Wang Pengnian, the first Jieshi general who refused to be cannon fodder for the Tsarist fleet. Being watched by everyone, Wang Pengnian was not panicked, but said loudly: "Wu Junmen, colleagues, we will retreat directly, there is no way to explain to the imperial court, but let's not forget, the Rakshasa people have no way to explain to their imperial court, in order to launch this expedition, the price they paid seems to be greater than that of our Qing imperial court, right?" ”

After being reminded by Wang Pengnian, Li Delin suddenly woke up, patted his thigh and said: "General Wang is right, if you retreat like this, the Rakshasa people will definitely not be able to explain to their court!" ”

"I heard Wen Zhongtang say that the fleet of the Rakshasa people traveled tens of thousands of miles to come to our Daqing, and the military supplies consumed on the road were piled together, which must be higher than the mountain. Moreover, the Rakshasa people did not help us in vain, but asked our court to exchange a large amount of land. They spent such a big price to fight the Wu thieves, if they retreated directly without fighting, their court would definitely not be able to spare them either! ”

After listening to Wang Pengnian and Li Delin's point-to-point analysis, Wu Quanmei was naturally greatly moved, nodded, and said: "Yes, the Rakshasas should not dare to retreat directly, they threatened to retreat alone, it is very likely that they just threatened us and forced us to stand up to them in front to serve as a shield." ”

"We can't just put up with it, we have to be tough once!" Li Delin said categorically: "Find a way to threaten the Rakshasa foreigners in turn and force them to change their tactics!" ”

The generals of the Qing army nodded one after another, all thinking that they could not blindly tolerate the Tsarist Russian army, Wu Quanmei also gritted his teeth after thinking for a while, and said: "Think of a way to threaten the Rakshasa people again, see their reaction, it really can't be done, let's find another way." Who has any good ideas, just say. ”

At this time, it was naturally the turn of Ye Changchun, who was the most slippery among the generals of the Qing army, to behave, and without even blinking his eyelids, Ye Changchun said the suggestion he had already calculated, and said: "I think we should collectively submit the resignation and force Wen Zhongtang to beg the Rakshasa people to change their tactics." It also lets the Rakshasas know that if they don't want to fight this battle, we can also stop fighting and accompany them to the end! ”

After speaking, Ye Changchun hurriedly added: "Wu Junmen, as well as colleagues, don't worry, I expect that the imperial court and Wenzhongtang will never dare to deal with us because of this matter, you all know how critical the situation in the Qing Dynasty is now, at this time, the imperial court will not condemn us unless it is crazy, and dare not let so many of our heroes and old generals resign collectively!" ”

"Good idea." Li Delin applauded again and said: "Even if the imperial court and Wenzhongtang may settle accounts with us in the future, it is better than sending us to death in vain now!" ”

Wu Quanmei hesitated again and again, and after thinking about it, he found that although this method might be settled by the Manchu court, it was better to use peaceful means to counter the Tsarist Russian fleet, and there was also a chance to atone for his sins in the future. So Wu Quanmei finally made up his mind and said, "Okay, just do it!" ”

So, a thick stack of resignation letters was quickly sent to poor Wen Xiang Wen Zhongtang, and after learning that the Qing army sailors led by Wu Quanmei collectively resigned, Wen Xiang also immediately fell into a state of madness, and yelled at Wu Quanmei and other sailor generals in front of him: "What are you crazy about? Why all resignations? The big war is coming, why do you still want to resign? ”

"The middle hall forgives the sin, our ability is low, and we have no confidence to capture the estuary, but we are afraid of delaying the important affairs of the court, so we collectively resign." The generals of the Qing army replied in unison: "Please choose another merit in Wenzhongtang and lead the troops into battle!" ”

At this point, Wen Xiang of course also understood the meaning of the generals of the water division, and hurriedly threatened: "Do you know what the end of this will be? In the second year of the first emperor, the imperial court once issued a decree, and there were no military officials, and those who said that they were sick and resigned at the time of the battle, no matter what the reason, they were all beheaded! ”

"Please behead me immediately!"

The neat answers of the generals of the Qing army made Wen Xiang completely crazy, jumping up and down and yelling for a long time, threats and temptations could not have any effect, Wen Xiang also softly admitted defeat, panting and said: "Okay, you say, what should the old man do, so that you are willing to withdraw your resignation?" ”

"Please ask the Rakshasas to change their tactics." Wu Quanmei said: "Don't deliberately force our Da Qingshui Division to die in vain, and reformulate a combat tactic that we can accept, so that the last general can retract his resignation." ”

"But how could the Rakshasa people agree?" Wen Xiang asked wailingly, but the generals of the Qing army led by Wu Quanmei did not say a word, and kicked this problem back to Wen Xiang to solve by himself.

In the end, Wen Xiang, who was helpless, could only rush to see Novosilsky with the resignation of the Qing army generals, and as soon as they met, he knelt down on Novosilsky's knees, and tearfully stated the situation that the Qing army sailors had collectively resigned, kowtowing like chickens pecking rice, begging Novosilsky to raise his noble hand and change a tactical plan, a tactical plan that could be accepted by the Qing army sailors.

In this regard, Novosilsky, who did not want to lose his strength too much, of course, was also furious, yelling and categorically refusing, but just when Wenxiang was completely desperate, Novosilsky suddenly relented and yelled: "Get out and wait for news, we have to discuss, damn Qing Guo pig!" ”

Wen Xiang climbed out of the cabin, and the interpreter sent by the Manchu court was also driven out by Novosilsky, and then Novosilsky said to the other Tsarist generals: "No way, the sailor of the yellow-skinned monkey seems to be determined not to fight like this, although we still have the option of directly withdrawing the army, but I am worried that I will not be able to explain it to our Emperor His Majesty, what do you think?" ”

"Of course, there is no way to explain it to His Majesty the Emperor." A Russian general said: "His Majesty the Emperor agreed with Mr. Muravyov's suggestion to launch this expedition in order to destroy the industrial capacity of the Qing rebels and reduce the cost of our military assistance to the Qing court. ”

"Otherwise, we will not only have to pay a heavy price to keep the Qing court, but it is also very likely to lead to the collapse of the Qing court, make Wu Chaoyue, the leader of the Qing rebels hostile to us, the ruler of the Qing state, and seriously damage the economic and military interests of our Great Russia in the Far East of Asia."

"The cost of our expedition is also very large, and if we give up like this, His Majesty the Emperor will definitely hold us responsible." Another Tsarist general also said: "It is better to make appropriate concessions to the yellow-skinned monkeys, let them continue to participate in the war, and let them leave a little strength to fight a land battle for us." ”

Seeing that several of his subordinates were opposed to directly abandoning this expedition, and Novosilsky, who was still counting on the promotion of lieutenant general, also changed his mind, nodded and said: "Okay, just use the backup plan formulated by our staff to fight, and let the yellow-skinned monkey leave some strength to fight a land battle for us." ”

The alternate tactical plan drawn up by the staff of the Tsarist fleet was as follows: 12 sail battleships were dispatched to assist the Qing army's naval divisions in the battle, and the Wu army's barrage defense line was broken through the barrage line along the north bank of the Yangtze River, and at the same time, the relatively weak Wu army's north bank batteries were destroyed by artillery fire, and the northern channel to the upper reaches of the sandbank was opened.

Then the Qing army's sail division and the Russian sail warships continued to go north, if the Wu army's sailors went to the open water to the north of the sandbar to meet the battle, then the Russian army's fleet of steam gunboats also went west to participate in the battle, and fought a decisive battle with the main force of the Wu army's sailor division without the cover of shore artillery, first destroying the main force of the Wu army's sailor division to obtain the right to control the river, and then launching a landing operation.

If the Wu army's sailors continued to hide in the sailors' camp protected by the sandbank's Jiangxin Island, then the Qing army's sail divisions and the Russian sail warships continued to attack the Wu army's iron cable defense line at the northernmost point of the sandbank, smashing the barrage and forcing the Wu army's sailors to leave the camp to attack, and the Russian steam gunboats took the opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Wu army's sailors. The naval division of the Qing army was responsible for suppressing the southern bank batteries of the Wu army with the fire of the Russian sail battleships, and reducing the combat pressure for the Russian steam fleet.

This relatively fair tactical plan was finally accepted by the generals of the Qing Army's Naval Division, and the generals of the Qing Army's Naval Division immediately fulfilled their promises and withdrew their resignations. However, people will be greedy and insufficient, just when Wen Xiangwen Zhongtang raised his might and scolded the Qing generals who bowed their heads again, the generals of the Qing army couldn't help but use their brains one after another, thinking about such a question - can the Wu army battery focus on taking care of the Tsarist Russian warships during the battle, and show mercy to the Qing army's sailors?