When the carrier pigeons released by the Wu army agents lurking outside Raozhou City flew to Jiujiang first, and then were quickly forwarded to Wu Chaoyue, who had already returned to Jiujiang, the time was already close to the third watch in the middle of the night when Shi Zhenji sent troops from Raozhou, and it was almost close to 0:00 the next day.

It is a pity that because it is impossible to spy on the specific detailed military situation, the Wu army spies can only report two situations to Wu Chaoyue with carrier pigeons, one is to see more than 3,000 Taiping troops leaving Raozhou, and the other is to see Shi Zhenji's banner leaving Raozhou, as for whether Shi Zhenji himself has really left Raozhou, whether it is the old and weak soldiers or the main soldiers who left Raozhou, the Wu army spies can not be confirmed. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue, who is suspicious by nature and must be responsible for the lives of the soldiers, has to beware of such a possibility, will the Raozhou Taiping Army do its own tricks and set traps for their surprise army?

It was precisely because of this worry, and because he was worried that the two generals Qian Wei and Liu Mingchuan, who were ready to lead the army to participate in the surprise attack, were comparable in prestige and seniority, and it was difficult for them to effectively subordinate each other, Wu Chaoyue temporarily changed his mind and decided to personally lead the army to launch this surprise attack. As a result, not only Qian Wei and Liu Mingchuan objected, but Dai Wenjie, the chief of staff of the army, also reminded: "King Zhennan, it's better to be careful." We have little advantage on the water in this surprise attack, and once Longhair finds out that you are personally leading the army south, it is likely to attack your ship with all his might, and if there is anything wrong with your golden branch and jade leaf body, the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

Knowing that Dai Wenjie's reminder was not unreasonable, Wu Chaoyue hesitated for a while, but considering the fatal problem of the immediate command, Wu Chaoyue still categorically rejected Dai Wenjie's kindness, and said with a smile: "Mr. Wenjie, I am still the original me, why did I suddenly become a golden branch and jade leaf?" In the past, when I only led a battalion, I dared to charge into battle in person, but now I am in command of thousands of troops, but I only dare to hide in the rear? Needless to say, just do it, and I will personally lead the army to attack. ”

Dai Wenjie, Zhou Wenxian, Jiujiang Prefect Gui Zhonghe and others persuaded a few more words, but Wu Chaoyue still insisted on not listening, Dai Wenjie and others had no choice but to say: "King Zhennan, since you insist on going to Raozhou in person, then we are not reluctant, but you must be careful, once Changmao finds out that you are personally in battle, he will definitely fight your idea of taking a boat, and your own safety involves the life and death of tens of millions of people, so it is best to be cautious." ”

"Thank you for your kindness, I'll take care of it." Wu Chaoyue nodded, saying that he would definitely pay attention to safety and would not give the Taiping army a chance to behead him. At the same time, when he said this, Wu Chaoyue's heart moved again, and an idea suddenly came to mind, but time was in a hurry, Wu Chaoyue didn't have time to think about it carefully, so he could only put this idea in his heart for the time being, and was ready to wait for the ship to ponder it carefully.

It was also early to prepare, and at the time of the fourth watch, the three battalions of the Jiujiang Wu Army and the five battalions of Wu Chaoyue's direct corps all boarded the troop transport ships, and set off under the protection of the only steam gunboat in Jiujiang, the Wei Lin, and more than 100 military sampans, and sailed away from the Jiujiang wharf overnight to rush to Raozhou. Wu Chaoyue himself adopted the advice of Dai Wenjie and others, boarded a tugboat for transporting troops, and walked with the brigade, and did not sit on the front line of the water battle in person as usual.

The waters around the mouth of the lake from Jiujiang to the lake are under the control of the Wu army, and the Wu army's surprise attack fleet naturally turned around Meijiazhou smoothly and sailed into the inner lake of Poyang Lake, but after entering the open water, the unplanned trouble came, the south wind has been blowing on the open lake, and the water flow is also slowly flowing northward, the Wu army's fleet is against the wind and the water, except for the steam gunboat Luo Weilin, the speed of other ships of the Wu army is all affected, and the speed of the ship is not fast. Naturally, it was impossible to rush to the mouth of the Pojiang River with the momentum of the wind and lightning, and the Taiping army of Raozhou was caught off guard.

There is an even more dangerous thing, the speed of the fleet is not fast, and it also means that the Raozhou Taiping Army may get an early warning, once the Taiping Scout Clipper discovers the Wu army fleet in advance, and uses the advantage of the speed of the ship to send the news back to Raozhou, not only will the Raozhou Taiping Army win enough time to respond, but the Taiping Army Sailors, who still have the strength to fight, may also rush out of the Pojiang River Estuary and use the open water surface of Poyang Lake to attack the Wu Army's troop transport fleet in a roundabout way, causing heavy damage to the Wu Army. And if Raozhou really set up a plan in reverse, the too slow speed of the Wu army's troop transport fleet would bring countless fatal hidden dangers.

Wu Chaoyue, who was already quite familiar with water warfare, soon discovered this danger, and also found Bao Zhide, the captain of the Luo Weilin, who commanded the escort fleet, at dawn, and asked Bao Zhide to send twenty military sampans to open the way ahead, kill the scout clippers of the Taiping army as much as possible, and delay the time when the self-army fleet was discovered by the enemy. However, after listening to Wu Chaoyue's explanation, Bao Zhide said very embarrassed: "King Zhennan, I'm afraid I can't do this, not to mention that the water surface of Poyang Lake is open, and the long-haired sailor is more familiar with the inner lake flow channel than us, and it is difficult for us to catch up with the scout clipper who killed the long-haired one, even if we don't think about these problems, there must be scout boats dressed as ordinary fishing boats on Poyang Lake, and we can't sink all the fishing boats we encounter on the road, right?" Even if we are ruthless, the number of ships now is not enough to do this, right? ”

Wu Chaoyue thought about it carefully and found that it was also, and he immediately regretted that he had not thought about it in advance, and forgot to arrange in advance to disguise the troop transport fleet as other ships, but after thinking about it, Wu Chaoyue found that even if he considered this in advance, it was useless - seeing a large group of ships rushing into the inner lake, and steam cannon ships escorting it, even a fool of the Taiping Army scout ship could see at a glance that something was wrong. In desperation, Wu Chaoyue could only ask Bao Zhide, who was proficient in water warfare: "Then in your opinion, what method should we use to hide our tracks?" Let the long hair of Raozhou not be in a hurry to watch out for our fleet? ”

"This ......." Bao Zhide has received formal training from the British Navy and is qualified in water warfare, but he has no talent in playing conspiracy, and after thinking for a long time, he replied: "King Zhennan, I'm afraid I can only make some fuss about Duchang City, Duchang is located in the north of Raozhou, and the first thing we encountered must be the scout clipper of Duchang Changmao." If there is any way for Changmao to think that we are going to fight Duchang, then Changmao of Duchang may not be in a hurry to warn Governor Rao Mao, even if he contacts Governor Rao Governor Mao immediately, it may just be asking for help. ”

Put yourself in the shoes of the Duchang Taiping Army for a while, and found that Bao Zhide's suggestion was quite reasonable, once the Duchang Taiping Army felt that the self-army fleet was going towards them, it should not be in a hurry to warn Raozhou, Wu Chaoyue nodded, and after a little calculation, he instructed Zhou Wenxian, who was accompanying him: "With the reputation of Liu Mingchuan, send a letter to the long-haired guard general of Duchang, persuade him to open the city and surrender, and warn him that if he is obsessed, Hukou Longhair will be his fate!" ”

Zhou Wenxian agreed, and quickly wrote a letter of persuasion, Wu Chaoyue took a cursory look and saw that the content was correct, so he took the pen and signed Liu Mingchuan's name at the end of the letter, and then put it in an envelope and handed it to Bao Zhide, instructing: "Send a few sampan clippers to rush to the front, strive to catch a long-haired scout boat, and let the prisoners bring the letter back to Duchang." ”

Bao Zhide hurriedly agreed, but after receiving the letter, Bao Zhide did not leave in a hurry, and said cautiously: "King Zhennan, forgive the end of the general is unlucky, you are really a little dangerous to sit on this towing boat, the hull does not have any armor and the speed of the ship is too slow, once you are targeted by the long-haired steam gunboat during the water battle, you can't run away if you want to." If the king of Zhennan can trust the last general, please move the Wei Lin, and the last general will guarantee that no matter what the situation is, he will definitely be able to protect your safety. ”

There was already a thought in his heart, and when he heard Bao Zhide say this, Wu Chaoyue immediately remembered the problem he had considered before leaving, and after careful consideration, Wu Chaoyue quickly made up his mind............

…………

It is certainly not an easy task to capture an enemy scout clipper on the open water, but fortunately, the Wu sailors have an absolute advantage in weapons, and after noon, after a lot of effort, the four Wu army sampans that opened the way in front finally succeeded in surrounding a scout clipper of the Duchang Taiping army, and killed a stubborn Taiping soldier with a pistol, forcing the remaining two Taiping soldiers to raise their hands to surrender, and successfully handed over the surrender letter written in the honor of Liu Mingchuan to the Taiping soldiers. Let them return to Duchang immediately to deliver the letter.

For the sake of the Wu army's sailors' grace and rewards, the two Taiping scouts obediently brought the letter of surrender back to Duchang City in the afternoon and handed it over to He Miao, the defender of the Duchang Taiping Army, who already knew that the Wu army fleet was coming. Not to mention the result, because the Wu army had already seized Tutang and cut off the land connection between Duchang and Raozhou, He Miao really thought that Liu Mingchuan was here to catch the turtle in his urn, not only did he not rush to send a clipper to Raozhou to call the police, but he couldn't help but think about whether he should accept Liu Mingchuan's surrender. - After all, the bloody lessons of Lin Qirong and the Hukou Taiping Army are placed there, and He Miao, whose loyalty is far less than Lin Qirong's, has to think about his own net worth and life.

The result of the calculation was that He Miao was still unwilling to take off his pants and just take off his pants and give in, and decided to look at the situation, if there was really a danger of the city being broken and dying, it would not be too late to answer the shame of the Wu army, so He Miao did not warn the Raozhou Taiping army to prepare early, but just sent someone to Raozhou by boat to ask for help, reporting that the Wu army fleet was coming at him, and then made every effort to prepare to defend Duchang City and wait for the Wu army to attack.

In the evening, the Wu army fleet approached Duchang, the Duchang Taiping army was noisy, the cannon was equipped with a fuse gun and ignited the fire rope, the atmosphere was unprecedentedly tense, He Miao also personally boarded the city wall of Duchang West Gate, raised the telescope to observe every move of the Wu army fleet, and when he saw the towering Zhennan Wang banner in the Wu army's fleet, He Miao was almost scared to pee his crotch, and screamed: "Beyond the little demon is here in person?" How can it be? How could the Transcendence Demon come to fight Duchang Town in person? ”

Or after it was dark, and it was also after the Wu army's fleet crossed Duchang directly from the west and went south, the Duchang Taiping army breathed a sigh of relief together, glad that the army had escaped a catastrophe, and He Miao, who had been worrying, finally came back to his senses and said in surprise: "What's the matter? Didn't the demon soldiers persuade me to surrender? Why don't you come to fight Duchang? Straight to the south? ”

Then, just thinking about the other targets of the Wu army's southward movement, He Miao immediately came to his senses and hurriedly shouted: "Quick! Fast! Send a clipper to Raozhou to report to Shi Guozong, surpass the little demon and personally lead the demon soldiers south, and go directly to the downstream of Duchang, it is likely to attack Raozhou, please Shi Guozong hurry up and prepare to fight! Hurry up and prepare! ”

…………

Without God's perspective, Wu Chaoyue certainly didn't know whether his plan to hide from the sky and cross the sea had succeeded, whether the Duchang Taiping Army had warned the Raozhou Taiping Army in advance to prepare for the battle, and his heart had been up and down, uneasy, even after successfully crossing Duchang, Wu Chaoyue did not dare to let the big stone in his heart fall to the ground. But after it was dark, the south wind on Poyang Lake was getting stronger and stronger, and the speed of Wu's fleet was getting slower and slower, and it was forced to postpone until the battle plan of landing at Leting between the third and fourth watches of the night, and it gradually became an impossible task.

"King Zhennan forgives his sins, due to the influence of the wind, it is probably absolutely impossible for us to reach Leting in the middle of the night to dock." Bao Zhide also issued a warning to Wu Chaoyue: "The last general estimates that our fleet will not be able to reach Leting until at least before dawn, and the scout clippers of Governor Rao Mao will almost certainly detect us in advance." ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent, cursing the damn ghost weather ten thousand times but there was still no way, and finally he could only say helplessly: "Look at luck, I hope the long-haired sailor is timid and does not dare to take the initiative to attack, otherwise we will have to lose a lot if we meet the long-haired sailor in the middle of the night." ”

"The king of Zhennan forgives his sins, and the last general still has to say something unlucky." Bao Zhide said cautiously: "As long as Governor Rao Mao knows the general situation of our fleet, he must have the courage to take the initiative, after all, such a fighter is very rare." ”

"If that happens, how sure are you that Glory as soon as possible?" Wu Chaoyue asked.

"The last general is incompetent, and he dare not say that he is sure." Bao Zhide hurriedly pleaded guilty and said: "Water artillery battles are not as good as land, they will be affected by wind direction, currents and waves in many ways, if you want to hit a long-haired steam gunboat at full speed, in addition to the extremely high requirements for the gunner's skills and experience, it also depends on luck, and it can even be said that luck is more important than technology." Therefore, the last general only dared to guarantee that he would be able to seriously injure or sink the long-haired steam gunboat, and did not dare to guarantee that it would be as soon as possible. ”

Wu Chaoyue certainly did not blame Bao Zhide for his weakness and timidity, but on the contrary, he muttered, "I can't fight luck, if I am lucky this time, I will set off from Jiujiang to attack Raozhou, and I will not have a south wind all the way." ”

After muttering, after thinking for a while, Wu Chaoyue made up his mind and said: "Leave the sampan fleet to protect the troop carriers, and the boiler of the Luo Weilin will be fully opened, and the Pojiang Estuary will be killed at full speed, and go to the Glory of Changmao to fight alone!" ”

"King Zhennan, do you want the last general's Luo Weilin to take on the long-haired Glory?" Bao Zhide asked in surprise.

"That's right!" Wu Chaoyue said viciously: "The only thing that Changmao can threaten our troop transport fleet is the Glory, since he is likely to take the initiative to attack, then we will go up to him first, so that even if he really rushes out of the Pojiang Estuary and wants to attack our troop convoy, we will have enough time and space to kill him on the way!" ”