Rejected Wu Chaoyue's order to ask the Xiangyang Navy Division to withdraw to Tianjia Town, Du Xing'a also asked why Wu Jun's Navy Division was so cowardly and did not dare to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Taiping Army's Navy at the mouth of Jiujiang Lake, so he had to retreat to Tianjia Town to take a defensive position? In the end, Du Xing'a also suggested that Wu Chaoyue sail the steam gunboat to Jiujiang and fight a decisive battle with the Taiping army on the battlefield of Jiujiang. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In this regard, Wu Chaoyue really had nothing to say, and asked Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming and other accomplices very curiously: "What happened to Duxinga this time?" He wasn't like that before, was he? Why can't you listen to persuasion at all? ”

"The river surface on the Jiujiang side is open, the terrain and water flow are complex, which is suitable for the long-haired sailors to give full play to the numerical advantage, and it is also suitable for the long-haired steamers to give full play to the advantages of ship speed and ignoring the wind direction, and it is beneficial to the long-haired sailors to fight there."

"The river in the area of Tianjia Town is narrow, which is suitable for arranging a water defense line to block the channel, so that it is difficult for Changmao to return to our upstream to seize the advantage of the river, and there is a permanent artillery fire covering the river, which is beneficial to us to fight in Tianjia Town. Why doesn't Du Xing'a understand this truth? ”

Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming discussed a few words in a low voice, and then Zhao Liewen replied: "Weiting, Dujunmen may really not understand these truths, he is a cavalry general, and he doesn't know much about water warfare. During the period when he was fighting with the Changmao Naval Division at the mouth of Jiujiang Lake, he had always attacked the Changmao Guard, and he had never fought a water defense battle, and he didn't understand the advantages of the Tianjiazhen battlefield for us, so it was not impossible for him to do so. ”

"Maybe there are two more reasons." Yan Jingming added: "First, the military gate is afraid that you will steal the merit, so withdraw to Tianjia Town and be commanded by you, and winning the battle will definitely be your first merit." And now that Huazhitai has gone to Hubei, you have been ordered to sit in Hubei, and you will definitely not be able to go to the Jiujiang battlefield in other provinces in person, so after our steamer is sent over, we have to listen to his orders, and the first credit for winning the battle will be his. ”

"What about the second one?" Wu Chaoyue asked helplessly.

"Maybe it's because of the flower table." Yan Jingming said with a wry smile: "Hua Zhitai has always paid attention to military power, leaving Hubei to go to Hunan to quell the rebellion, it will definitely prevent you from taking the opportunity to control the Hubei army, Du Junmen is the commander of the army out of Hubei Province, Hua Zhitai is likely to secretly greet him, order him to hold on to the military power, don't give you a chance." ”

Wu Chaoyue was completely speechless, and only after a while did he roar: "Huifu, use my reputation to write a letter to Duxing'a, tell him the difference between the Jiujiang battlefield and the Tianjiazhen battlefield, and clearly tell him that after withdrawing to Tianjia Town, the Hubei Navy Division will listen to his orders, and negotiate with me in case of trouble, and I will not interfere in the internal affairs of the Hubei Navy Division!" ”

Zhao Liewen agreed, and then suggested: "Weiting, it's best to send a letter to Huazhitai, tell him what happened here in Jiujiang, and ask him to let the Duxing Asuo Division temporarily accept your command and command, if he can agree, there may be time to do so." ”

Wu Chaoyue agreed, slammed his fist on the table again, and sighed: "I finally understand my teacher's thoughts, why would I rather be suspicious and suspicious by the imperial court, than let the Hunan army only obey his orders, one army and two masters, not subordinate to each other, really cheat!" ”

…………

Wu Chaoyue's second letter only made Du Xing'a waver, but he did not immediately make up his mind to accept Wu Chaoyue's suggestion, nor did he follow the persuasion of Yang Wending, Wang Fu and others to follow the order, but secretly convened a few of his confidants to discuss the matter. After the results were discussed, several confidants suggested that Du Xing'a insist on a decisive battle with the Taiping Army in Jiujiang.

The reason is the same as Yan Jingming's guess, now that Huashana is not in Hubei, Wu Chaoyue, who stayed in Hubei, cannot easily leave the province, let alone leave the territory of Hubei for a long time, no matter how many troops there are on the front line, according to the rules of the Manchu court and Huashana's previous orders, he should only obey Du Xing'a. In this way, no one is restrained, and the victory is also due to Duxing's monopoly, and in any case it is better than withdrawing to Tianjia Town to fight side by side with Wu Chaoyue.

It's that people have selfish intentions, even if they are good people, Du Xing'a also has them, fortunately, while considering his own personal interests, Du Xing'a raised a very critical question, "What if Wu Futai insists on not letting his Fubiao water division come to Jiujiang, and also withdraws the three water divisions here to Tianjia Town?" ”

"Impeachment on the table!" The cronies said confidently: "Impeach Wang Fu and they fled from the battle, fearing the enemy, please ask the imperial court and Huazhitai to make decisions for you, and force Wu Futai to send all his Fubiao water divisions to Jiujiang to listen to your command." ”

Du Xing'a, who had a good relationship with Wu Chaoyue, shook his head, not only unwilling to openly tear his face with Wu Chaoyue, but also knew that it was difficult for him to fight against Wu Chaoyue, who was a tough backer. After thinking about it for a long time, Du Xing'a said: "In this way, I will send an official document to Huazhitai, and ask him to order Wu Futai to send a steamer to Jiujiang to help me." In addition, I told Wang Fu and them directly about this, and asked them to stay and help me, if he didn't listen, we would discuss it separately. ”

The henchmen applauded in unison, saying that it was still a good idea of the military gate, and they only asked for this order from the stage, and Wu Chaoyue could only obediently hand over the steamer even if he picked the door again. However, Wang Fu, who learned of Du Xing's reply, was bitter, so he could only quickly send a clipper back to the provincial capital and ask Wu Chaoyue for orders.

Coincidentally, on the afternoon of the same day that Wang Fu asked Wu Chaoyue for instructions, news came from the scouts downstream, saying that a fairly large fleet of Taiping naval divisions suddenly sailed out of the lake, and Zhang Fan went to the direction of Pengze.

In this regard, Du Xing'a, Yang Wending and others were a little puzzled, and they didn't understand the reason why the Taiping Army did this, but Zuo Zongtang explained the reason in one sentence, "What's so strange about this?" Changmao brought many new ships from Anqing, and the number of sailors in the fleet must be insufficient, and it was too dangerous to send the new ships with insufficient sailors directly to Hukou, so the long-haired sailors at Hukou took the initiative to go to Pengze to replace the boats, which was not only safe, but also calmly reorganized and familiar with the new ships. ”

Suddenly, Du Xing's heart moved, and he hurriedly said: "This is an opportunity, if we can preemptively attack the long-haired Anqing fleet before the long-haired sailors get on the boat, won't we be able to kill the new ships with insufficient manpower and weaken the strength of the long-haired sailors?" ”

"Dujunmen, this is no joke." Zuo Zongtang warned: "Your sailor is inexperienced, and he doesn't know anything about the Yangtze River channel downstream of the lake, so he will definitely suffer a lot of losses when he gets there." And the long-haired sailors have already preempted you, and when they find that you are attacking to the east, they will definitely pause and change ships to turn around to meet the battle, how will you parry when the time comes? ”

Du Xing'a didn't accept Zuo Zongtang's judgment very much, and Bao Chao, who had been assigned to Du Xing'a's command, also ran out of his bad idea and said: "Dujunmen, we still have a way, take advantage of the opportunity of the main force of the Changmao Water Division to stay away from the mouth of the lake, send troops to capture the Bali River, and capture the camp and fort of Changmao there. With the Bali River as the forward base, cut off the connection between the Hukou Changmao and Peng Ze Changmao, and force the Long-haired Sailor to fight the Balijiang River, when the time comes, we will be at ease and wait for work, and there will be land artillery cover, and it will be much easier to deal with the Long-haired Sailor. ”

"I'm against it!" Zuo Zongtang was still the same annoying, and said: "Capturing the Bali River and cutting off the water connection between the long-haired at the mouth of the lake and the long-haired downstream is able to force the long-haired sailors to attack the Bali River with ease and hard work." However, the strength of the long-haired sailor has increased greatly, and even if our sailor is covered by artillery fire on the road, it may not be able to beat the long-haired sailor, on the contrary, it can also give the long-haired sailor a chance to fight us. ”

After discussing with the generals of the naval division, Du Xing'a quickly finalized this battle plan, and was determined to take advantage of the lack of strength of the Hukou Taiping Army Naval Division to take the Bali River to curb the danger. At the same time, Du Xing'a also found Wang Fu, the chief general of the Wu Army's Naval Division, informed Wang Fu of his battle plan, and asked Wang Fu to lead the Hubei Naval Division to cooperate with the self-army.

Wang Fu was extremely embarrassed, and pondered for a long time before replying: "Dujunmen, of course it's no problem to send troops to help you take Balijiang." However, the last general had a word first, and after taking the Bali River, the last general must immediately withdraw to the Jiujiang camp and not camp there. ”

After that, Wang Fu added another sentence and said: "It's not that the last general is afraid of death, it's that our two main warships are too cumbersome, and it is very difficult to accelerate out of the port, and the Bali River is too close to the mouth of the lake, so the response time to prevent the surprise attack of the long-haired sailors is too short." If the long-haired sailor seized the opportunity to attack with a clipper and set fire to the ship, the last general would not be able to cry. ”

"No problem!" Du Xing'a agreed, and said with a smile: "I can take the soldiers to fill a small boat with gunpowder and rush into the enemy formation to blow myself up, who dares to say that Brother Wang, you are greedy for life and afraid of death, I will not agree to be the first one!" Okay, that's it, after laying down the Bali River, I will be stationed there, and you will be stationed in Jiujiang to pick me up. ”

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Early the next morning, under the personal leadership of Du Xing'a, the Hubei Navy Division and the Wu Army Sailor set out to bypass the mouth of the lake north of Zhangjiazhou and go straight to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. After Yang Wending and Zuo Zongtang heard the report, of course Yang Wending sighed, and Zuo Zongtang scolded, but they were helpless together - who called Du Xing'a the front-line coach?

Not to mention, the news of the dispatch of the Hubei Navy Division really frightened Lin Qirong, the general of the Taiping Army who stayed at Hukou, and hurriedly sent a clipper to send a message to the downstream Navy Division, so that Wei Jun, who led the main force of the Navy Division to Pengze to pick up the boat, was wary of the Hubei Navy Division launching a surprise attack. However, with the passage of time, the Qing army's bombardment of the Balijiang camp began, and when he received the news that the Qing army's naval division sent infantry to land to attack the Balijiang camp, Lin Qirong finally woke up and knew that the Qing army's naval division was planning to take advantage of the situation to capture the Balijiang camp.

"**** Niang's dog Qing Demon, it turns out that you don't want to raid Peng Ze, you plan to capture Bali River. What to do? The main force went to Pengze, and the few small boats in the lake could not be the opponent of the Qing Demon, and they could not reinforce the Balijiang ....... ”

"Forget it, instead of trying hard to let the soldiers die and be injured in vain, it is better to take the initiative to give up, keep the vitality, and wait for the steamer to come."

After calculating, Lin Qirong, who was very decisive, did not discuss with Wei Jun, and decisively ordered the defenders of Balijiang, who were unable to support themselves, to abandon the camp and retreat, retreat downstream to Pengze to cross the river, and let the Duxing army capture the Balijiang camp. The result made Lin Qirong even more ecstatic is still behind, after successfully capturing the Balijiang camp, the Hubei Navy Division of Duxing Asuo not only really stationed in Balijiang to establish a camp, but the Wu Army Sailor Division, which has the strongest combat effectiveness, even withdrew from Balijiang and withdrew to the old Jiujiang camp to station.

"Hahaha, God help me! The main force of the Qing Demon Water Master was actually stationed in Balijiang, and the Water Master who surpassed the little demon actually withdrew to Jiujiang, and the divine power of the Heavenly Father was really endless! We have won this battle! ”

…………

Contrary to the ecstatic Wei Jun, when the news that the Hubei Navy Division had captured the Balijiang River and the main force moved to the Balijiang River was transmitted back to the Hubei provincial capital, Wu Chaoyue, who was actively preparing for the war, directly flipped the table and roared: "Is Duxing crazy or stupid?" Why didn't Zuo Zongtang stop him? ”

"The main force of the naval division moved to the Bali River, the long-haired naval division wanted to sneak attack, and if it wanted to fight a decisive battle, once the war was unfavorable, Duxing'a ran from the north of Zhangjiazhou to the narrow channel, and from the south ran the long-haired Shizhongshan Fort, no matter where it was not easy to run, no matter where it ran was the live target of the long-haired steam gunboat! He had never seen a steam gunboat, and he didn't know how fast a steam gunboat was faster than a sail warship?! ”

After roaring, Wu Chaoyue gasped for a while, and then asked Zhao Liewen to write to Duxing'a on his behalf, letting Duxing'a know the danger of stationing in Balijiang, and asking Duxing'a to immediately withdraw to Jiujiang to avoid taking risks - although the combat effectiveness of Duxing'a's Xiangyang Naval Division was mediocre, but in the case of insufficient water strength, Wu Chaoyue still needed the help of the Xiangyang Naval Division, and naturally did not want to see Duxing'a's entire army annihilated.

"Comfort Pavilion, you have to guard against the military gate not listening to your good advice." Zhao Liewen said in a deep voice: "Especially at present, he is fighting with you for the command of the front line, and he even has to fight with you on the decisive battlefield, in this case, it is very likely that he will not listen to the bad words." ”

"If you don't listen, you can't do anything, he's subject to the flower system, and I don't have the right to restrain him."

Wu Chaoyue shook his head helplessly, and after thinking for a while, Wu Chaoyue said: "In this way, send a secret letter to Bao Chao, asking him to resolutely destroy the ship and flee for his life when the war is unfavorable, save the sailors and gunners, and try his best to persuade Du Xing'a to do the same." When we went to Tianjia Town, we brought more spare ships with us, so that the escaped sailors and gunners could continue to drive the ships into battle. ”

"Also, tell Wang Fu that when the war is unfavorable, even if you are charged with escaping from the battle, you must keep my loyalty and benevolence! Although the mobility of those two ships was not as strong as that of the steam gunboats, their firepower was far more powerful than that of the steam gunboats, and they were also the indispensable main combat power of this decisive battle. ”

The house leak happened to rain overnight, and just as Zhao Liewen wrote a letter after answering the promise one by one, there was a herald outside the door who sent bad news and reported to Wu Chaoyue: "Wu Futai, our sailor came to report that the Brave suddenly broke down, and there was a conflict with the fishing boat on the river, and two fishermen were arrested, please decide how to deal with it." ”

Just counting on the only two steam gunboats to play a role, one of them broke down before it set off, such bad news of course made Wu Chaoyue even more angry, after announcing the messenger of the sailor, Wu Chaoyue immediately yelled at the messenger: "What are you doing to eat, why did you make the steam gunboat break down again?" Also, why catch fishermen? ”

"Wu Futai, we have been wronged." The messenger who came to report the news had a sad face and said, "It was the two fishermen who did not listen to the call and threw their nets upstream, and the nets entangled the blades of the Brave and almost broke the blades of the Brave, so we caught the two fishermen." ”

"Can a fishing net get caught in the blades of a steam gunboat?" Wu Chaoyue asked.

"Yes." The messenger replied truthfully: "The foreign instructor said that the blades and shafts of the steam gunboats are most afraid of being entangled in aquatic weeds and ropes, and we should be on our guard. But this has happened a few times before, and this time is the most serious. ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent, blinking his triangular eyes and thinking for a long time, Wu Chaoyue suddenly jumped up and rushed out, beckoning: "Go, take me to the scene to see for yourself." ”

Hurriedly went out of the city to the embankment where the camp of the Wu Army's sailors was located, and when he rushed to the scene to take a closer look, he saw that the sailors of the Zijun Army, under the command of Wall, were really struggling to remove the winding ropes on the paddle wheel of the Brave.

In the end, it was only under Wall's repeated greetings that Wu Chaoyue came back to his senses, but Wu Chaoyue still ignored Wall's politeness, and just couldn't wait to ask: "Wall, if there are too many ropes in front of the steam paddle steamer, will there be today's situation again?" ”

"Of course, dear Wu, ropes and aquatic plants are the natural enemies of steam paddle steamers." Wall replied truthfully, and then showed his wrath: "When I was traveling on the Mississippi River, I was on that steamer Jeanne, and the leaves were twisted off by aquatic weeds. Today, if I hadn't commanded the ship well and stopped the ship decisively when I saw danger, otherwise your Brave would have had to spend money and time replacing the blades. ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled, smiled very happily, and hugged the lovely Wall with open hands, and said, "Thank you, dear Mr. Wall, thank you for saving my Brave." ”

"You're welcome, that's what I'm supposed to do. By the way, Wu, this time you led the steam gunboat to participate in the battle, but you must take me with you, I am almost suffocated with you. ”

"No problem, you're an American, and I hired you to help my sailors steer the steamboat, and no one can blame you."

When he agreed to Wall's request, the two fishermen who littered the broken fishing nets were also escorted to Wu Chaoyue, seeing that they had made such a big mistake, and seeing that Wu Chaoyue's dignified governor had come forward in person, the two fishermen who caused the accident of course kowtowed again and again, crying bitterly and begging Wu Chaoyue to spare their lives.

"Let them go, although these two boys have caused a big disaster by littering, they have also done us a great favor, which can be regarded as a merit and demerit."

Wu Chaoyue waved his hand very generously and ordered the release of people, and his head was full of bad water, and all he pondered was some bad ideas that lacked virtue and smoked. At the same time, thousands of miles away in the city of Nanjing, Yang Xiuqing, who was snorting on the belly of a beautiful woman, also suddenly shivered, and a very bad premonition suddenly came to mind. (To be continued.) )