The biggest advantage of the Taiping army officers and soldiers is to bear hardships and stand hard work, even if the body is quite tired after the battle with the Wu army Deng Siyuan, but after Zeng Lichang gave an order, the main force of the two thousand Taiping army still did not hesitate to assemble and dispatch at night, crossed the Wu Zhen River to the north to reinforce, and at about three o'clock in the morning to join Zhou Lichun's army, won a few hours of precious time to establish a defensive position.

As mentioned above, Zhou Lichun, a small family, built a camp that was not big in order to defend the convenience, so Lin Afu's army could only build another position outside the Zhou military camp. However, seeing that the soldiers of the Taiping Army brought by Huang Caisheng and Yan Zhongwu were all main soldiers with thick waists and round arms, and most of the guns in their hands were birds, guns, and even a few 400-pound tiger cannons snatched from the Qing army, Zhou Lichun still did not hesitate to allow the Taiping Army to enter his camp, and at the same time sent auxiliaries to expand the area of the rear camp overnight to alleviate the overcrowded situation in the camp.

It was also at this time that Huang Shengcai, who was under Zeng Lichang's secret order, secretly confessed to Zhou Lichun, asking Zhou Lichun to be careful to guard against Xu Yao, and also explained the reason why Xu Yao betrayed and collaborated with the enemy because of Zhou Lichun's love for his daughter, and also explained that Zeng Lichang sent Zhou Lichun to Zhabei to set up camp because he was wary of Xu Yao. Zhou Lichun didn't believe it at all, saying that there was no such possibility, and said that the scar on Xu Yao's face was left by Wu Chaoyue, and listed Xu Yao's various achievements in resisting the Qing army on the battlefield in Wuxi, Huang Shengcai had no evidence and could not force Zhou Lichun to immediately execute or arrest Xu Yao, so he could only repeatedly tell Zhou Lichun that he must not take it lightly. After understanding the reason why Zeng Lichang deliberately sent the self-army to Zhabei to set up camp, Zhou Lichun's resentment was slightly relieved, and the relationship with the main force of the Taiping army improved.

At the same time, the news that the Taiping army reinforced Zhou Lichun overnight was also sent to Wu Chaoyue by the Qing army overnight. After that, Wu Chaoyue snored and fell asleep like no one else.

Although Qin Ruhu, the general of the Qing army, repeatedly suggested that Wu Chaoyue send troops as soon as possible and not give the Taiping army a chance to strengthen the defense of the camp, Wu Chaoyue did not listen at all, but just let the soldiers eat and prepare for war as usual, and prepare dry food for the day, and then it was still around half past eight that Wu Chaoyue led the army south and came to attack Zhou Lichun's camp again.

Wu Chaoyue's procrastination gave the Taiping army plenty of time to prepare for the war, and the newly opened camp behind the camp not only erected all the fences and antlers, but also dug a deep and thick trench to protect the camp, and the artillery was all in place. When Wu Jun Lianyong came to Zhou Lichun's camp two miles away with heavy artillery, the Taiping army's new camp had even built a sheep and horse wall, and a large number of mines were planted outside the new camp against time, and the defense was further enhanced.

Before Wu Chaoyue gave the order, Meng Qi, the officer of the Wu military camp, had already sent the artillery battalion to practice arranging the artillery positions on his own, but Qin Ruhu saw the great urgency, and hurriedly ran to Wu Chaoyue and said: "Wu Zhentai, why is your artillery directly arranged in the front of the Changmao camp?" The front fortifications of the long-haired camp are the strongest and the most difficult to break, and the best way for our army to break through the long-haired camp is to detour back to the rear of the long-haired camp and attack their newly built camp. ”

"It's the same from there, and it's easy to hit from the front for the trouble of running around." Wu Chaoyue, who had not rested well in the past few days, yawned, and said to Qin Ruhu: "General Qin, after we break through Changmao in a while, restrain your people, and rush to clean up the battlefield and search the pockets of prisoners, and when the battle is completely over, we will join forces to clean up the battlefield and capture you three and seven, how about it?" ”

Qin Ruhu opened his mouth and stammered, staring blankly at Wu Chaoyue's dizzy head, Wu Chaoyue told again: "Also, your people are absolutely not allowed to attack the long-haired female prisoners, if anyone dares to **** female prisoners of war, this official will chop him up with his own hands!" Remember, make sure every one of your subordinates knows about it! ”

After Qin Ruhu was dizzy, Wu Chaoyue ignored him anymore, and immediately asked Huang Dasha and Wang Hammer to lead their own battalion soldiers and horses to protect the artillery camp position, and let Qin Ruhu lead the Qing army to line up in the rear of the army. And when the Wu army and the Qing army were in place, the Wu army's artillery had also been arranged in place, Meng Yu ran to Wu Chaoyue to ask whether to fire the cannon immediately, and Wu Chaoyue first raised the telescope to look at Zhou Lichun's camp, until it was roughly confirmed that Zhou Xiuying was not present, Wu Chaoyue nodded and ordered: "Open the cannon." ”

The flag waved, and the ten breech-loading rifled guns of the Wu army roared one after another, blasting the overloaded shells towards Zhou Lichun's camp. In this regard, Zhou Lichun and Huang Shengcai, who had long been accustomed to the artillery of the Qing army, both looked contemptuous and sneered, and the experienced Taiping soldiers also immediately fell to the ground to avoid the artillery, but soon, the violent explosion of the Wu army's artillery shells landed on the ground, but the sneers of Huang Shengcai and Yan Zhongwu and others froze on their faces.

"It's okay, I've seen the foreigner's flowering bomb, it's not a big deal."

Zhou Lichun, who had seen more than Huang Shengcai and Yan Zhongwu, waved his hand, but after waving, Zhou Lichun immediately found that something was wrong, because the explosion of Wu Jun's flowering cannonballs was not only far more powerful than the foreigner artillery he had seen before, but also directly overturned many camp tent flags with the shock wave alone, and also erupted a large number of flames.

Previously, in the battle with Wu Jun Deng Siyuan, the Taiping Army had not seen Wu Jun's practice of bitter acid weapons, but the picric acid used by Wu Jun Deng Siyuan's department was a grenadier shell and grenade shell with a charge of only one or two hundred grams, although the explosion power was far greater than that of black powder, the combustion effect was not very good, and it had not been used to attack fortifications, and the Taiping Army had never seen the destructive effect of picric acid flames on wooden fortifications. At this time, Wu Chaoyue suddenly used a picric acid cannonball with a charge of up to two kilograms, and the Taiping army, which originally hoped to be able to resist the edge of Wu's army with civil engineering fortifications, was of course stunned and caught off guard.

In the raging fire, many Taiping soldiers who were shrouded in bitter acid flames were on fire, crying and shouting and rolling on the ground, but they still couldn't extinguish the flames on their bodies, even if their companions carried water to splash it on their bodies, the bitter acid flames were still burning on their bodies, burning these unlucky Taiping soldiers to the point that they were crying wolves and screaming, and their deaths were extremely miserable. It also made many Taiping soldiers scream, "The water can't be extinguished, what kind of demon fire is this?" ”

At this time, the Wu army artillery had already fired again, and more bitter acid shells were fired into the Taiping army camp, igniting more Taiping army camp tent fences, and also shrouded more Taiping soldiers in the sea of fire. Seeing this scene, Zhou Lichun, Yan Zhongwu and others turned pale, and they also hurriedly organized soldiers to put out the fire, so as not to burn down their camp fortifications, but no matter whether the Taiping soldiers splashed them with water or covered them with brooms, the bitter acid flame was not extinguished.

The third round of artillery bombardment of the Wu army was to concentrate on the main gate of the Taiping army's camp, almost in the blink of an eye, the Taiping army's strong camp gate and tall arrow tower rose into flames, and the fourth round of artillery bombardment was to hit the inside of the Taiping army's camp, the ultra-high rate of fire of the breech guns made the Taiping army feel unbelievable, and also made the Taiping army even more unable to extinguish the fire in the camp, the flames gradually soared into the sky, the smoke was billowing in, the Taiping army's fences, antlers and horses were burning in rows, and the air was full of the stench of burnt hair and meat, During this period, there was also a loud explosion accompanied by two Taiping artillery, and the scene was like Shura hell.

Seeing these conditions, Huang Shengcai and Yan Zhongwu, who were experienced on the battlefield, immediately understood that their army had fallen for Wu Chaoyue's evil again, and they were deceived by Wu Chaoyue into being beaten here. But Huang Yan and others refused to give up, Zhou Lichun also refused to give up, after a little discussion, the main force of the Taiping Army and Zhou Lichun's elite simply went out together, from the two wings of the rear camp together, the main force of the Taiping Army was on the left, Zhou Lichun's army was on the right, one left and one right outflanked and killed the Wu army's position, and they all used the linear tactics that Wu Jun relied on to become famous - the Taiping Army was much better at learning than the Qing Army.

In the sound of artillery fire, the Taiping army's ranks were tightly organized, the footsteps were firm and unified, and they strode forward with muskets with bayonets, while Wu Jun Lian Yong quickly arranged four hollow phalanxes, and the Narita zigzag protected the artillery battalion in the middle and took a defensive position to meet the battle. The breech guns of the artillery battalion stopped firing and quickly retracted to avoid being destroyed by the Taiping army's assault, and replaced them with curved mortar guns to meet the enemy, while the Wu army's mortar guns were relatively short in terms of range, but the advantage was that the shell charge was larger, and the explosion was more powerful, as long as a shell entered the dense queue of the Taiping army, it could immediately lead to a terrible disaster, the huge shock wave directly overturned the Taiping soldiers in rows, and the flames that erupted also turned the Taiping soldiers into pieces of fire people who were on fire all over their bodies, and the screams covered the sky and the wilderness. The tight formation was also thrown into disarray.

The gunfire finally rang out, and the Taiping soldiers who had learned a lot of the essence of linear tactics gritted their teeth and advanced to the Wu army's position eighty meters before shooting, and also relied on the opportunity to shoot first to cause some casualties to the Wu army soldiers, but the weapons were too messy, resulting in the Taiping army's musket rate of fire was different, and the intensity of firepower could not be guaranteed in any case, while the Wu army Lianyong, who was uniformly equipped with a firing pin gun, was methodical, divided into two teams to shoot in turn, and the firepower density was like a storm. Each round of fire killed and wounded countless Taiping soldiers who were reloading their ammunition.

At the same time, it is also at this time that the advantages of the firing pin gun to the carbine are fully reflected, the same breech gun, the carbine must first bite through the paper cartridge case, stuff the gunpowder into the fire door to ignite, and then shoot the bullet into the barrel to shoot, the operation is complex and time-consuming, and it is very easy to make mistakes. Wu Jun Lian Yong only needs to shoot the bullet into the barrel to shoot directly, with fewer mistakes and short time, and the rate of fire is far faster than Zhou Lichun's army, which uses carbines as the main weapon, and throws out more than 18 streets of flintlock muskets and arquebuses equipped with a large number of main forces of the Taiping Army, and queues up to shoot, of course, Wu Jun Lian Yong has the upper hand.

The main force of the Taiping Army gritted its teeth and simply launched a board charge with a bayonet, but it was still useless, Wu Jun Lianyong not only fought with a bayonet and was not afraid of the Taiping Army, but also equipped with a bitter acid grenade bomb, a big killing weapon, which could easily blow up the dense crowd of the Taiping Army, forcing the Taiping Army to disperse to meet the battle. In the field battle, the situation was still one-sided, and Wu Junlianyong, who had previously used linear tactics to beat the Taiping army, still beat the Taiping army, which had begun to learn linear tactics.

In order to preserve the strength, Zhou Lichun, who was a small profit, ordered the rear army to abandon the camp and retreat to the south, while taking his main force to retreat, Huang Shengcai sent someone to ask Zhou Lichun to continue fighting, and Zhou Lichun did not listen at all - he ran out of his family book, and Zhou Lichun had no confidence to speak within the Taiping army.

At the same time, Wu Chaoyue also made adjustments, ordering Cao Yanzhong to lead a battalion to pursue Zhou Lichun, and ordered Qin Ruhu to lead the army to help Cao Yanzhong, only to pursue and kill Zhou Lichun with a partial division to expand the results, and the main force was all used to clean up the main force of the Taiping Army. And Huang Shengcai and Yan Zhongwu began to want to fight and retreat to reduce their losses, but when they saw that Wu Jun Lian Yong had divided a battalion to outflank their backs, Huang Shengcai and Yan Zhongwu didn't dare to waste time anymore, and quickly ordered the whole army to retreat and fled south with the army. No matter what, we must completely kill this long hair, and never let them escape to the south of the Wu Yan River! ”

The pursuit battle began, Wu Jun Lian Yong, who had received strict weight training, walked like a fly, while desperately stabbing and killing the Taiping soldiers who fell behind, while outflanking and intercepting the troops, the result was that the Wang Hammer battalion, which attacked and outflanked first, relied on the speed advantage, and really plunged into the waist of the defeated soldiers of the Taiping Army, and quickly cut the Taiping Army into two, Wu Jun Lian Yong stabbed and shot again, killing the rear team of the Taiping Army with heavy casualties, forcing the Taiping soldiers to scatter and flee, and then Wu Jun Lian Yong's footsteps did not stop, While continuing to chase the front team of the Taiping Army that escaped by chance, a battalion was divided to chase and kill the scattered Taiping soldiers.

After chasing, Wu Chaoyue gradually discovered that the situation was wrong - the Taiping army did not flee directly to the southwest where their main camp was located, but fled to the southeast of the concession. Wu Chaoyue saw that it was not good, and hurriedly sent someone to give Huang Dasha an order, asking Huang Dasha to lead the army to intersperse, and rush to the front at any cost to snatch the pontoon bridge and ferry of Wu Zhenjiang, so as not to give the Taiping army a chance to run into the concession and escape. At the same time, Wu Chaoyue also scolded, "Fuck it!" I couldn't imagine that Long Hair could have such a brain, and he could actually think of the idea of running into the concession to escape for his life! ”

(It is not an exaggeration to say that after the failure of the Xiaodaohui uprising in history, a large number of Xiaodaohui rebel soldiers ran directly into the concession, and as a result, the Americans who rescued Wu Lao's comprador saved these rebel soldiers, allowing them to shave their hair and disguise themselves in the concession to escape the pursuit of the Qing army.) ）

Huang Dasha's interspersed detour was still a step too late, and when Wu Jun practiced bravely to kill the Wusong River pontoon bridge that went straight to the concession, a large number of Taiping soldiers had already crossed the pontoon bridge and fled into the concession, although the concession at the other end of the pontoon bridge was also guarded by Western coalition soldiers, but when they saw that the Taiping army was crossing the bridge with their weapons held high, they immediately put down their weapons after crossing the bridge to show that they had no hostile intentions, and those foreign soldiers did not stop them, but just let the Taiping army cross the bridge or swim across the river and enter the concession land.

In the end, Wu Jun Lian Yong only blocked more than 100 Taiping soldiers who could not water on the north bank of the Wu Yan River, forcing them to lay down their arms and surrender on their knees, and at the same time, Cao Yanzhong's side was also stubbornly blocked by Zhou Lichun's army in the pursuit battle.

The messenger had just been sent out, and what made Wu Chaoyue's eyes light up was that Wu Jianzhang's old comprador had already appeared on the pontoon bridge, and was running to the north bank with the support of Wu Xiaohua and Huang Sheng, and crying and crying loudly while running, Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed to see it, and quickly dismounted to meet Wu Jianzhang, first a bear hug, and then knelt down on both knees, and shouted loudly and heartily: "Grandpa, you want to kill me." ”

"The old man is the one who wants to kill you!" Wu Jianzhang cried and picked up his baby grandson, and didn't give his baby grandson a chance to say hello to Wu Xiaohua and Huang Sheng, he just kept checking whether his baby grandson was missing arms and legs, until he confirmed that his baby grandson didn't even lose a few hairs, Wu Lao comprador wiped away his tears, and couldn't wait to ask Wu Chaoyue: "Grandson, tell me quickly, you went north to King Qin this time, did the emperor and the court give you a promotion?" ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded with a smile, Wu Jianzhang hurriedly asked what official he was promoted, and Wu Chaoyue said with a twist: "Jiangsu is an envoy, and the rank of squire of the leading army!" ”

"Haha!" Old comprador Wu first laughed wildly, and then immediately knelt down on one knee to Wu Chaoyue, clasped his fists and said, "Xiaguan Wu Jianzhang, I have seen Lord Zhentai!" ”

"Grandpa, you're going to kill me." Wu Chaoyue hurriedly knelt down and returned the salute to the old comprador Wu who was too good to be good to him, and said with a sad face: "Grandpa, what are you doing here?" I am your grandson, I will always be your grandson, you kneel to me, do you want to fold my longevity? ”

"Nonsense, my grandson must live a long life!" Old comprador Wu first reprimanded, and then said, "Hurry up, I'm paying homage to you." You are now the Jiangsu envoy of the third grade, and you have the title of squire from the second grade, and I am from the third grade of the Jiangsu political secretary to participate in politics, and you should salute when you see it. ”

was forced by Wu Lao comprador but Wu Chaoyue got up and ordered the old comprador to be free of etiquette according to the rules, and then hurriedly picked up Wu Lao comprador with both hands, Wu Lao comprador smiled so that his old face was wrinkled and bloomed, and his mouth kept chanting, "Fight for anger, so soon you will be bigger than your grandfather's official, it seems that in a year or two, our Wu family will be able to produce a feudal official." The ancestral grave is smoking, the ancestral grave is smoking! ”

"Grandpa, I'll talk about being an official later." Wu Chaoyue interrupted the old comprador Wu's chatter and said, "Grandpa, do you think I remember correctly?" In the concession treaty we signed with foreigners, it seems that there is a clause that can extradite Qing criminals who escaped into the concession, right? The longhairs who fled to the concession just now are all the elites of the longhairs, and if I don't get them back from the foreigners and let them escape back to the longhairs, it won't be so easy to clean them up in the future. ”

Wu Jianzhang was a little embarrassed, and hesitated for a moment before saying: "Sun, you are not mistaken, our Qing Dynasty has the power to extradite prisoners who have escaped into the concession. But Ali Guo made it very clear to me before that he allowed me to live in the concession and did not hand me over to Changmao because they recognized the Great Qing State and had diplomatic relations with the Great Qing State. However, their British envoy Wen Han also signed a non-aggression pact with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Long Hair, and Long Hair allowed British ships to come and go freely on the surface of their defense area, so if there was a situation where Long Hair escaped into the concession, they would never hand it over, and if they wanted to hand it over, they would only hand it over to Long Hair. ”

"!" Wu Chaoyue scolded, "How to fight this battle?" As soon as Longhair saw that the situation was wrong, he ran to the concession, what else could I do to kill them? (To be continued.) )