Although Wu Jun Lian Yong, who arrived in advance, only had two battalions, Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate to lead the army to be stationed eight miles away in the northwest corner of Suzhou, leaning on the canal and facing the threat of the Suzhou Taiping Army and the Wuxi Taiping Army at the same time.

When the Suzhou Taiping Army stationed in Hushu Pass heard the news, they immediately strengthened their combat readiness and immediately asked for help from the Wuxi Taiping Army, and the Wuxi Taiping Army also quickly sent troops to reinforce Hushu Pass, and joined forces with the Suzhou Taiping Army to encircle Wu Chaoyue in the north and south. But Wu Chaoyue was not afraid at all, and immediately started to build camp fortifications as soon as the camp was decided, and the purpose was nothing else, that is, to block Zeng Lichang's way back to help, and not to give Zeng Lichang the opportunity to return to Suzhou to preside over the overall situation!

However, it is a pity that so far, Wu Chaoyue still does not know whether the snipers of the self-army have hit Chen Shibao, let alone whether Chen Shibao is dead or alive now, whether the self-army is risking to be stationed in the northwest corner of Suzhou with a sword to seal his throat, or whether he is risking himself into danger in vain.

But Wu Chaoyue knew that if he cut off Zeng Lichang's way back to the city, then he might still have hope of taking Suzhou City on schedule; If he didn't cut off Zeng Lichang's way back to the city, then he would not be able to take Suzhou City before the deadline of September 10 anyway, and keep his comprador grandfather, who was closer than his real relatives.

During the establishment of the Wu army's camp, the Taiping army in Suzhou City did not send troops to obstruct it, and even did not make adjustments to the deployment of the corresponding city defense forces, but only sent a small number of scouts to observe the movements of Wu Jun Lian Yong from a distance, and calmly and unhurriedly how to look at how to look at it as if it was confident, how to look at it as if it was not in the eyes of Wu Jun Lian Yong at all.

A day later, Zhao Liewen and Deng Siyuan led the follow-up reinforcements to the Suzhou battlefield, not only brought Wu Chaoyue five battalions of reinforcements, including the artillery battalion, but also brought Wu Lao's comprador scolded the baby grandson's unfilial letter, Nie Shicheng, who came with the army, also told Wu Chaoyue very embarrassed, saying: "Brother, grandpa told me to tell you that you can not go to meet your grandmother and parents, but if you dare to miss the marriage date with Yuru, grandpa will not recognize you as a grandson." ”

Waving his hand in annoyance, he didn't reply to the threat of the comprador grandfather, Wu Chaoyue just hurriedly told Zhao Liewen about the previous situation, and asked Zhao Liewen, who had a bad nature, to help him ponder and analyze the enemy's situation. As a result, Zhao Liewen also frowned and said, "Weiting, how can you tell me to guess?" There is no intelligence support, and Changmao's reaction does not show any flaws, and he does not send troops or fight without going out of the city, how can I guess whether Chen Shibao is dead or not? If I guess wrong, who will dare to bear the consequences? ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent, and he also knew that it was difficult to guess, and once he guessed wrong, he would inevitably pay a heavy price. But it's okay, Zhao Liewen said again: "But Weiting doesn't need to be in a hurry, fortunately, we still have some time, we can't grasp the specific situation in Suzhou City, but we can observe the movements of Zeng Lichang, the main force of long hair, and see what his reaction is." If he immediately gave up attacking Changzhou and returned to Suzhou, then needless to say, something must have happened to Chen Shibao, and even if he didn't die, he would at least be seriously injured. If he still insists on attacking Changzhou, then ....... ”

"Then there are two more possibilities." Wu Chaoyue took over the conversation, and his brows furrowed even tighter, "The first is that Chen Shibao is fine, and the second is that Zeng Lichang deliberately bluffed to confuse us while continuing to strive to win Changzhou City." ”

"The second one may be small." Zhao Liewen also interrupted Wu Chaoyue's words and said: "Unless Zeng Lichang can take Changzhou City immediately, Zeng Lichang does not have the capital to bluff for a long time, Wuxi was smashed by Yi Zhitai and Xie Changsha together, even if Xie Changsha did everything he could to provide logistics supplies for Zeng Lichang, Wuxi's current money, food and materials are definitely not enough to support Zeng Lichang's long-term isolation." ”

Feeling that Zhao Liewen's analysis made sense, Wu Chaoyue nodded and said, "Okay, then wait patiently for a few more days, and when Zeng Lichang's side has a reaction, we will decide how to act." ”

"Before that, we might as well send troops to Hushu Pass, and take the pass of Hushu Pass first." Zhao Liewen also suggested: "After taking Hushu Pass, we can use one battalion of troops to ensure that we hold the pass and buy time for our main force to respond, so that even if Zeng Lichang and Xie Changsha join forces to attack, we can deal with it calmly." ”

Wu Chaoyue was a little tempted, but after a little calculation, he shook his head and said: "Don't be in a hurry to fight Hushu Pass, go to Hushu Pass now, Zeng Lichang is likely to withdraw his troops immediately in order to ensure the transportation connection with Suzhou City, and the reason for his withdrawal is reasonable at that time, and it is more difficult for us to judge the specific situation in Suzhou City. ”

Although he felt that Wu Chaoyue's decision was a bit risky, but considering that if he misjudged the enemy's situation, it would only be more dangerous for the Wu army to forcibly attack Suzhou City, Zhao Liewen still did not insist on his opinion, but suggested that Wu Chaoyue strengthen the monitoring and blockade of large and small roads, and intercept the messengers connected with each other of the Taiping army as much as possible, and at the same time suggested that Wu Chaoyue should choose a good siege breakthrough as soon as possible, and first destroy the Taiping army's city fortifications as much as possible with superior artillery, so as to reduce the pressure when attacking the fortifications head-on. As a result, Wu Chaoyue adopted it at the same time, and also issued an unprecedented order to disturb the people, allowing Wu Jun Lianyong to completely block the water and land roads between Wuxi and Suzhou, and not allow anyone including women, children, the elderly and the weak to pass.

At the same time as the follow-up reinforcements set up camp, Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen also quickly found a relatively ideal breakthrough point for attacking the city, and chose to take Qimen, which is relatively open outside the city and the rivers are relatively scarce, as the main direction of attack, and immediately dispatched the artillery battalion to bombard Qimen with artillery, and destroy all kinds of city fortifications built by the Taiping army in Qimen as much as possible. At the same time, a large number of siege weapons such as floating fortresses and flying ladders are also prepared, and it is very rare to prepare for a frontal battle.

The plan to destroy the city fortifications of the Taiping army was carried out very smoothly, under the bombardment of the bitter acid shells of the Wu army, the defense line next to the moat quickly turned into a sea of fire, and then could not stop the Wu army from building a pontoon bridge to increase the role of the road across the river, and the two city towers inside and outside the garrison were bombed into two fire towers, and the outer gate of the urn city was also directly blasted open by the Wu army's artillery, forcing the Taiping army to block the city gate and the road with earth, stone and sandbags, and give up the initiative to attack. It also scrapped the sheep and horse wall defense line built by the Taiping army outside the city. At the same time, the Wu army organized the people to build a four-zhang high fort outside the Qi Gate, preparing to directly bombard the city of Suzhou from a high position.

Relying on the superiority of weapons and equipment, Wu Jun Lianyong had an absolute upper hand in the artillery battle, but Zeng Lichang's reaction made Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen very sad - six full days have passed since the sniper of Chen Shibao, and Zeng Lichang, who should have received the news a long time ago, has been standing still under the city of Changzhou, and there is no sign of returning to the division to save Suzhou, Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen naturally have no way to judge the current true situation of the Suzhou Taiping Army through his reaction.

During this period, the Wuxi Taiping Army also made every effort to cut off the direct contact between the Wu army and the Changzhou battlefield, resulting in the exchange of intelligence between the Wu army and the Changzhou Qing army could only detour to Zhongxi Taihu Lake or Jiangyin Changshu, which was not only time-consuming, but also the danger of being intercepted by the Taiping army.

Friends must have to ask, since the lack of intelligence can't guess whether Chen Shibao has been shot and ascended to heaven, why didn't Wu Chaoyue directly attack the city with firepower? The answer is very simple, Wu Jun Lian Yong is not good at attacking fortified cities, and it is difficult to send a small number of troops to attack the city to play a reconnaissance role.

But if Chen Shibao has nothing to do or is only slightly injured, then the price that Wu Jun will have to pay for Lian Yong is more than ordinary, and the dream of winning Suzhou before the tenth day of September will also completely become a flower in the moon mirror in the water. Therefore, even if Wu Chaoyue was extremely suspicious that the Taiping Army was just bluffing, slapping his swollen face and becoming fat, he couldn't make up his mind to take this risk.

Another three days passed, at noon, Zhao Liewen suddenly took a letter and hurried into Wu Chaoyue's military tent, and said to Wu Chaoyue, who was having lunch: "Weiting, my brother-in-law just sent someone to Changshu to send it, he can't bear it anymore, Changmao is digging a tunnel to threaten the city wall of Changzhou, and forcing him to lure the enemy to open the city as soon as possible. My brother-in-law couldn't persuade him, so he could only write to us quickly, so that we could get ready as soon as possible. ”

Wu Chaoyue put down his chopsticks, his face was gloomy and he didn't say a word for a long time, Zhao Liewen was afraid that Wu Chaoyue would hesitate and make a mistake, so he said again: "Weiting, you have to make up your mind quickly, if Zeng Lichang returns to Suzhou, even if we stop him from entering the city, as long as we set up a camp in Hushu Pass, we will suffer from the enemy on our backs, and it will be even more difficult to capture Suzhou." ”

Wu Chaoyue still didn't say anything, and took out a silver yuan from his arms and played with it in his hand, after playing for a while, Wu Chaoyue suddenly bounced the silver yuan into the air, let the silver yuan tumble and fall on the table, and then quickly held down the silver yuan. Zhao Liewen smiled bitterly when he saw it, and said, "Weiting, I didn't expect you to have a time to buy hexagrams from the sky." ”

"I can't help but ask God for guidance and protection." Wu Chaoyue smiled bitterly and said, "If you guess wrong, we will be in big trouble." ”

"Then which side of the city are you betting is a siege?" Zhao Liewen looked at Wu Chaoyue's thin hands and asked curiously.

"The word is to attack the city, and the flower is not to attack." Wu Chaoyue replied casually, raised his head again, looked at the top of the tent and muttered: "God, I have done good deeds and accumulated virtue all my life, helped the poor and helped others, and done countless good deeds, you can bless me once and tell me what to do." ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue raised his thin hand, and when he quickly looked at the silver yuan, he was extremely depressed to see that the Mexican silver yuan was an eagle pattern upward. Zhao Liewen was also disappointed when he saw it, and said: "Comfort Pavilion, it seems that this is destined by God." ”

“****！ I don't believe in any fate! Wu Chaoyue suddenly scolded, grabbed the silver yuan and slammed it on the ground, roaring: "God is deliberately manipulating me, knowing that I am telling a lie, I have never done anything good in my life!" I don't speak shamelessly when I swear, so God deliberately told me that I was wrong! ”

Roaring, Wu Chaoyue grabbed the silver yuan and threw it heavily on the ground, roaring: "Order the whole army, immediately start preparing for battle, and send troops tomorrow morning to storm Qimen!" ”

"Weiting, have you made up your mind?" Zhao Liewen asked in a deep voice.

"It's decided!" Wu Chaoyue gritted his teeth and said: "I have to gamble no matter what, this is my only chance to repay my grandfather!" Even if I lose the bet, I'm willing! ”

Zhao Liewen sighed and said: "Okay, since you want to gamble, then I won't stop you, fortunately, Zeng Lichang should take most of the long-haired elite away, even if Chen Shibao really doesn't die, we still have some hope." However, at the comfort pavilion, Xu Futai and Hejunmen, you have to say hello, even if they are not willing to really contribute, you have to let them send troops to feign a little bit of attack, and share a little pressure on us. ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded, and immediately began to prepare for war, and at the same time, he sent people to contact Xu Naizhao and He Chun, asking them to send troops to help him the next day, but fortunately, Xu Naizhao and He Chun were quite interesting, and they all agreed without refusing, but they also stated together early that they were only responsible for feints and would never fight a tough battle that they were not sure of.

It was indeed the last chance, in the middle of the night, the Wu army scouts sent Wu Chaoyue a bad news from the Taihu Lake waterway, saying that Zeng Lichang's tunnel siege tactics failed because he accidentally dug up the underground water veins, and at the same time, there was no movement on the side of Jin Agou, so Zeng Lichang had lifted the siege of Changzhou this morning and led the army to retreat to Wuxi, and the speed was very fast.

How fast is the marching speed of the Taiping army Wu Chaoyue has been taught not once or twice, counting the travel time, if you march in a hurry, the Taiping army is likely to arrive at Hushu Pass around the evening of the next day, so the siege time left for the Wu army to practice Yong is actually likely to have only one day left. In this regard, Wu Chaoyue's face sank like water, but he categorically denied the idea of giving up the siege, and immediately blocked the news, so as not to shake the morale of the army, and at the same time concealed Xu Naizhao and He Chun, the two slippery heads.

At seven o'clock in the morning of the next day, Wu Chaoyue sent troops on time and left only one battalion to guard the camp grain and grass and baggage, and personally led six battalions to advance directly to the city of Qimen in Suzhou, and then Wu Chaoyue quickly dispatched troops, arranged the artillery battalion to be responsible for artillery cover, and arranged for Deng Siyuan to lead two battalions to erect pontoon bridges and intercept other city gates of the Taiping Army to send troops to reinforce Qimen, and the task of fighting ants attached to the vanguard was handed over by Wu Chaoyue to Feng Sanbao, a future old man who is good at close combat.

The fighter plane was fleeting, and the vanguard generals were arranged, Wu Chaoyue let Huang Dasha take on the second wave of siege tasks, and then said to the generals: "Today we will fight three ant attached attacks, Feng Sanbao vanguard, Dasha, you second round of attack, the third round of attack by my base camp, I personally led the siege, after I went to the front line, the commander-in-chief of our army was temporarily served by Zhao Liewen, no matter what happened, you must obey the command of Zhao Liewen and Master Zhao!" ”

The generals were in an uproar and asked Wu Chaoyue if he had heard it wrong? Why did Wu Chaoyue have to participate in the most deadly and dangerous ant battle? Wu Chaoyue said calmly: "Of course you heard it right, the first two rounds can't be beaten, and the third round will be up to me!" Today's battle is related to my grandfather's evening season and career, if I don't want to be a grandson, who will? ”

The generals made an uproar again, and they persuaded Wu Chaoyue not to take risks, but Wu Chaoyue shouted: "Shut up! That's it! Prepare for the siege immediately, we don't have time! Remember, tell the whole army that after I attack, whether I am dead or wounded, you must obey Master Zhao's command and dispatch! ”

The pretending bitter meat plan received a satisfactory effect for Wu Chaoyue, knowing that Wu Chaoyue was going to personally participate in the ant annex battle, Wu soldiers and soldiers, whether they were sincere or false, all took out 100% of their strength to attack the city. In the face of the rain of bullets, it only took more than half an hour for Wu Jun Lianyong under Deng Siyuan to build four pontoon bridges across the river on the moat on both sides of Qimen, which greatly enhanced the speed at which Wu Jun Lianyong put troops into the battlefield of the city wall.

In the earth-shattering cannon sound and continuous gunfire, the first ant siege of the Wu army since the formation of the army was officially launched, five hundred Wu soldiers carried the flying ladder to cross the bridge across the river in five ways, and set up a flying ladder on the city wall of Suzhou, during which there were constantly Wu soldiers who were injured or fell into the water, and some Wu soldiers retreated and fled because they were too timid, but more Wu soldiers still did not hesitate to climb the city on the flying ladder.

In the city, the future father-in-law Feng Sanbao was once shot and fell off the flying ladder, but after getting up with his face covered with blood, Feng Sanbao bit the machete and rushed back to the flying ladder, climbed quickly with both hands and feet, and rushed to the city wall in one fell swoop, becoming the first Wu army warrior to kill the Suzhou city wall. When the soldiers of the Wu army saw this, of course, they were thunderous with joy, and their morale was also greatly boosted, and they gritted their teeth and rushed faster and fiercer, and climbed the city wall of Suzhou one after another, fighting with the Taiping army who resisted with their lives.

The resistance of the Taiping army was also very fierce, from beginning to end did not stop shooting, and was not afraid of the hand-to-hand white-knuckle battle with Wu Jun Lian Yong, the bayonet was red and Wu Jun Lian Yong was inseparable, and relied on the condescending advantage to always have the upper hand, never gave Wu Jun Lian Yong a large number of rapid opportunities to go to the city, the fierce battle lasted for more than an hour, Wu Jun Lian Yong only controlled a city wall position less than three zhang wide.

Feng Sanbao's offensive was blocked, Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate, and immediately ordered Huang Dasha to attack, launched a second round of attacks to build more ladders on the city wall, and then led the direct battalion to the front without hesitation, preparing to launch a third round of attack. And when Wu Chaoyue's handsome banner appeared on the front line, the Taiping army was of course in an uproar, and the morale of the Wu army was higher again, and the charge of sacrificing life was more violent.

When the Huang Dasha battalion also rushed to the city wall position one after another, the Taiping army with a swollen face and a fat man was finally revealed in its original form - the Taiping army reserve team that was newly in the city to help the battle not only could not defeat Wu Jun Lianyong at all in the white-knuckle battle, but also used very primitive and crude weapons, and was blown up by a few grenade bullets of Wu Jun Lianyong, and fled in all directions. Wu Jun Lian Yong took the opportunity to march forward, climbed a large number of ladders to the city, occupied a large part of the city wall position, and gradually became the most proficient column combat posture of Wu Jun Lian Yong.

Seeing that the situation was critical, the commander of the Taiping Army on duty at Qimen sent people to the headquarters in Wu Xiaocheng several times to ask Chen Shibao for help, saying that he and the main soldiers who led the city gate were about to run out, and the reserves in the city were too weak, and asked Chen Shibao to immediately send reinforcements to rescue Qimen. However, Chen Shibao never showed up, and it was always Chen Shibao's deputy Zhou Haikun who came forward perfunctory, asking the defenders of Qimen to insist on persisting and persisting, like squeezing toothpaste, little by little from other city gates to reinforce Qimen, saying that he would not let the Qimen messenger see Chen Shibao.

In the end, he still found that he couldn't support it anymore, so Zhou Haikun reluctantly took the main force of the Chinese army guarding Wu Xiaocheng and rushed to Qimen to reinforce it, and at this time, the Wu army had nearly a battalion of troops on the Qimen city wall.

At the same time, the Qing army, which had already found that the situation was wrong, and the Chunbu and Xu Naizhao troops also exerted their efforts to really launch a fierce attack on the Suzhou city wall. However, the defenders of Loumen of the Taiping Army, who were attacked by Hechun, were frightened, and hurriedly sent a messenger for help to Chen Shibao, who had not appeared in public for ten days.

Without Zhou Haikun's perfunctory appearance, the messenger sent by the Loumen guard for help directly met with Chen Shibao's direct guards, and when he asked to meet Chen Shibao directly, Chen Shibao's guards shed tears and choked up and said: "Prime Minister Chen is resting, he can't see anyone, and he can't see anyone." (To be continued.) )