The reason why the Wu army was able to break through the Haihe River, in addition to the fact that the Manchu people of the Eight Banners did help in the town of Tianjin, the most important thing was that the lecturer of Wu Jun fought for his own strength, firmly grasped the slight opportunity of the morale of the Qing army in the rear, bravely and decisively launched a rush attack, fought resolutely and bravely, and successfully rushed to the south bank of the Haihe River in the first round of rush only.

At the same time, the Wu gunners, who had received strict training from Western instructors, also continued to fire artillery, risking the risk of accidentally injuring themselves on the raft and continuing to bombard the beachhead of the Qing army, reducing the accidental damage to the lowest point with superb technology, and also covering the heads of the Qing defenders with shells as much as possible, and finally relying on the advantage in the number of artillery, they successfully covered the Wu army commando to seize the shoal position, and helped the Wu army commando to repel the Qing army's two waves of counterattacks, so that the Wu army commando successfully gained a firm foothold on the south bank of the Haihe River, and waited for the rear team to land on the south bank to reinforce the south bank.

Unlike the Wu army, which was resolute and resolute in its tactical approach, the Qing army in Tianjin seemed to be a little timid, and it did not have the morale to fight the Wu army to the end, nor did it obviously have the determination to hold the Haihe defense line. In particular, Chen Guorui, the front-line commander of the Qing army, not only hoped to use the Haihe River to block the Wu army for a long time, but also feared that the casualties in the field battle would be too large, which would affect the next battle to defend the city.

In the end, when the Wu army had just rushed to the south bank of the Shanghai River with about four battalions, Chen Guorui, who was unwilling to fight with the Wu army in the field battle, finally made a decisive move - decisively ordered a retreat, broke away from the battlefield before the Wu army launched a counterattack, and quickly retreated to the moat under the city of Tianjin to protect himself, and helped the defenders of the city to clear out the Manchu masters who rebelled and rebelled. Wu's army broke through the Haihe River with fewer casualties than expected, and set foot on the southern outskirts of Tianjin, the only suitable city for a frontal assault.

Then, of course, there were countless people from the Eight Banners who ran to the Wu army and men to kneel down and surrender, crying and accusing the Tianjin Qing army of forcibly robbing them of their food rations but only giving them rice soup to drink. During this period, there were still many young and strong Eight Banner Manchurians who asked to join the Wu army, willing to be cattle and horses for the bright and great King of Zhennan, charging into battle, and also eating with mixed food.

After carefully understanding the reasons why these Eight Banner Manchus voluntarily accepted Wu's army to rush across the Haihe River, Li Hezhang made two suggestions to Jiang Zhongji: one was to recruit a part of the young and strong Manchus to serve as auxiliaries, and the other was to open a porridge shed and distribute rations to other Eight Banner Manchus who volunteered to help Wu Jun, with two rice balls or steamed buns per person per day, and two bowls of rice soup. Although Jiang Zhongji, who was the same as Zeng Guoquan, felt distressed, but considering the need to win the hearts of the Manchu people with the Qing army, and the fact that there were still thousands of Manchurian people in Tianjin who might become internal responses, Jiang Zhongji still gritted his teeth and accepted Li Hongzhang's suggestion, and opened a larger Wu army porridge shed with more rations distributed amid the cheers of the Manchurian people of the Eight Banners.

Although Li Hongzhang's method wasted the grain, it also achieved immediate results, and just after finding out that the Wu army had opened a porridge shed to help the Manchurians of the Eight Banners who came from the capital, the civil and military forces of the Qing army, such as Guizi Liu, Jing Lian and Chen Guorui, immediately understood that the Wu army was attacking the idea of the city full of people. But it's useless to understand Wu Jun's intentions, things have come to this point, the Eight Banners in Tianjin City are already killing and can't be killed, and they can't be rushed, so Devil Six has no choice but to order the porridge shed to improve the quality and quantity of gruel, and try to hide the news as much as possible, try not to let the Eight Banners in the city know about the good governance of the Wu Army outside the city, and at the same time desperately advocate what Eight Banners family, the blood of the Manmeng Banner people is thicker than water, breaking bones and tendons, in a vain attempt to temporarily appease the Eight Banners Manchu people in Tianjin City, and not repeat the mistakes of the city town.

In fact, it was just evening, and the news that Wu Jun was distributing rice ball steamed buns outside the city had already spread all over the Qiren circle in Tianjin, and it quickly evolved into meat, vegetables, and snacks. What made the six devils even more stunned was that in just one night, many notices and slogans were posted in the streets and alleys of the city, calling on the Eight Banners and the people of Tianjin to open the city gate to welcome Wu Jun into the city, and to capture the devil six alive and present them to Wu Jun in exchange for a heavy reward! ——The rare characters of the six names of the devils on the notice are also neatly and correctly, and at first glance they are written by well-educated scholars.

"How can there be? Didn't you say that those bannerman traitors who secretly contacted Wu Thief had already been arrested? How could there be so many shocking notices in the city overnight? Who did it? In the city of Tianjin, how many traitors are there who secretly communicate with Wu thieves?! ”

No one could answer the question asked by the six devils in a rage, on the contrary, his cronie Jing Lian also wiped his sweat and reported: "Lord Wang, there is another rumor that has not had time to be confirmed, I heard that in our Xiao Cavalry Battalion, Forward Battalion and Shenji Battalion, there are also some people who secretly communicate with Wu thieves, and are ready to lead the Manchurians in the city to rebel and respond to the Wu thieves attacking the city. ”

"The Cavalry Battalion, the Forward Battalion, and the Divine Machine Battalion?" Devil Six couldn't believe his ears and roared, "How is it possible? These are all the Eight Banners Forbidden Brigade of our Great Qing Dynasty, how can there be traitors? ”

"Lord Wang, but most of these people's families are still in the capital." Jing Lian said with a sad face: "They haven't seen their families for more than a year, and the treatment in Tianjin is far from catching up with the treatment in Beijing. ”

The devil was speechless, and only after a while did he slam his fist on the table in front of him, and sighed: "Dou Mien, Shengmi hatred!" Our Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty has really been completely scrapped! At the critical moment, not only can it not help, but it is also our hidden danger! ”

"The prince doesn't have to worry, these people can't afford to make any waves." The banner man general Ha Feng'a persuaded: "As long as we hold the city and don't give the Wu rebel army a chance to enter the city, these bannermen who eat inside and crawl outside will not be able to make trouble even if they want to rebel, we only need to use a small number of troops to ensure that they are cleaned up." ”

"What General Ha said is very true, the most important thing for us now is how to defend the city." The number one general, Chen Guorui, also said: "Those banner men with different ambitions don't even have a knife in their hands, and if they want to directly rebel and accept the Wu thieves into the city, it is completely a fool's dream, the only thing we need to worry about is that they will make trouble and pull us back when the situation is critical." So as long as we guard the city wall and don't give Wu thieves a chance to enter the city, these banner people who eat inside and crawl outside will always be little loaches in the small river ditch, and they will never be able to turn up any wind and waves! ”

Devil Six nodded helplessly, and then instructed Chen Guorui and Ha Feng'a: "General Chen, General Ha, this king doesn't understand military affairs, how to defend the city is up to you, if there is any good way, just say it, as long as it is reasonable, this king will definitely adopt it." ”

After all, they are all veterans of the battlefield, Chen Guorui and Ha Feng'a discussed a little, and really put forward several correct and effective strategies for Devil Liu, the first is to block the city gate and not give Wu Jun the opportunity to blow up the city gate again (Zeng Guoquan has already used it once in the capital); the second is to bury the ground to guard against the Wu army's crypt siege tactics, which were very popular in this era; The third is to prepare more torches, gunpowder, fire oil and other fire-causing things, and arrange secret posts under the city to prevent the Wu army from digging caves and burying explosives directly on the city wall. The fourth is to learn the lessons of the Great Battle of Jinan, build forts higher than the city walls in the city, set up artillery to bombard the Wu army, and strengthen the firepower of the city. Devil Six was very satisfied with what he heard, and immediately adopted all of them and immediately began to implement them. At the same time, Devil Six also came up with an idea, that is, to strengthen the defense in the city and deploy a large number of troops in the city to prevent his own Manchu rebellion.

It stands to reason that when the Wu army has few bitter acid weapons left, as long as the defensive measures taken by the Qing army in Tianjin are effectively implemented, it is definitely not an empty word to block the Wu army's siege for a long time. Helplessly, the Qing army had a good plan, but the Wu army had a wall ladder, and at noon that day, the tricks of the Wu army came, and a messenger of the Wu army with a white flag swaggered to the south gate of Tianjin, shouting loudly to ask to meet with the devil six, and kept saying that he was coming on behalf of the Wu army general Jiang Zhongji, or to save the soldiers and civilians in Tianjin, and asked the devil six to come out quickly to discuss with himself to negotiate surrender.

On duty at the south gate was Chen Guorui's deputy Chen Shizhong, who was as loyal to the Manchu court as Chen Guorui, and was very unaccustomed to the arrogance of the Wu army's envoys, so he immediately categorically refused to report to the devil six, and shouted loudly: "Go back and tell Jiang Zhongji that the dog thief wants to take Tianjin City, just let the horse come over and see how many people he has to die to take Tianjin!" ”

"The general of the city, don't talk too much." The envoy of the Wu army became more and more arrogant, shouting: "If we Jiang Junmen want to take this Tianjin City, it is actually as easy as a hand, and we can guarantee to take Tianjin without a single soldier!" It's just that our Jiang Junmen killed too much and hurt the heavens, so we Jiang Junmen decided to give you a chance to surrender! If you toast and don't eat and drink, don't let our military men show mercy! ”

"Take Tianjin City without spending a single soldier?" Chen Shizhong laughed loudly and said with a smile: "Okay, you just come here, I want to see, how can you take Tianjin City without spending a single soldier?!" ”

"The general in the city, it doesn't matter if we tell you directly!" The envoy of the Wu army shouted loudly: "Don't forget that in this Tianjin city, there is a dead hole, which is the sluice gate of the Haihe River!" We just need to blow up the sluice gates of the Haihe River, and then block the flood discharge river in Chenjiagou, and the flood will besiege the city, so that the food in your city can eat for a few days! (True terrain, also mentioned in Chapter 106 above.) ）

Chen Shizhong's wild laughter stopped abruptly, and the Qing army soldiers who heard the Wu army envoy's shout next to him were also as earthy as earth, and the Wu army envoy shouted loudly: "Okay, since you insist on refusing to report to Prince Puppet Gong, I won't force it, just bring my words!" If you want to surrender, you can send someone out to contact us at any time, and you can negotiate any conditions! But if we wait until we build the dam of the siege and blow up the sluice gates of the Haihe River, you will have no chance to surrender if you want to negotiate conditions! Leave! ”

Chicly clenched his fist to the city, and the envoy of the Wu army turned around and left even more chicly, leaving Chen Shizhong and other Qing soldiers to look at each other on the city wall, and they all couldn't believe that the Wu army would use such a ruthless move, but they didn't dare to hide such a big thing from the devil six, so they could only hurriedly send someone into the city to meet the devil six, and report to the devil six that the envoy of the Wu army took the initiative to confess the siege poison trick.

Like Chen Shizhong and the others, after learning that Jiang Zhongji planned to use the poisonous trick of diversion water to besiege the city that Wu Chaoyue took the initiative to give up back then, the thin face of Devil Six suddenly turned pale, and without any consideration, he slashed his head and asked Chen Guorui and Ha Feng'a and others next to him: "You say, will Wu's rebel thief army use this poisonous move?" ”

Chen Guorui and Ha Feng'a didn't dare to answer Devil Six's question immediately, but after discussing it in a low voice for a long time, Chen Guorui came forward to answer: "Lord Wang, this matter is uncertain, if Wu Chaoyue's side of the rebel thief is ready to transport grain to Tianjin by sea, then Jiang Zhongji dog thief does have the possibility of using this ruthless move." After all, this hand can indeed minimize the losses on the Wu thief's side, and it can also ensure the annihilation of our army in the city. ”

"The last general thinks that the Wu thief may be making two preparations." Ha Feng'a pointed out another possibility, saying: "The Wu thieves deliberately spread the news of the siege of the city with water, forcing us to go out of the city for a decisive battle, or forcing us to abandon the city and break through, so of course it is the best." If not, the Wu rebel army may really lead the water to besiege the city and trap us alive. ”

"So what do we do?" Devil Six hurriedly asked again.

"Three countermeasures, the first is to make every effort to defend the sluice gate of the Haihe River, and not give Wu thieves the opportunity to destroy the sluice gate and divert water." Chen Guorui replied: "However, it is estimated that it will be difficult to succeed in doing so, we will guard the sluice gate located outside the city day and night, and it is easy to fight the taboo tactics of soldiers who have increased troops one by one, giving Wu thieves the opportunity to eat us one by one in the field battle." Moreover, the Wu thief's artillery is too powerful, if they really want to blow up the floodgates, it will definitely not be a difficult thing for them. ”

"What about the other two?" The devil asked again.

"One is to abandon the city and break through, taking advantage of the strength we still have to fight, quickly abandon Tianjin and withdraw to the northeast." Chen Guorui replied cautiously, and said more carefully: "The last way is to go out of the city and fight a life-and-death decisive battle with the Wu thief, and make every effort to directly kill the Wu thief and keep Tianjin." ”

"Going out of the city for a decisive battle?"

Devil Liu's tone was extremely hesitant, and Ha Feng'a over there said in a deep voice: "Lord Wang, we don't have any hope for a head-on decisive battle, the weapons and equipment of the Wu thieves are not stronger than ours, and the demon fire fast cannon and palm thunder have been almost consumed by the Dechun brothers, and our more than 20,000 troops and 16,000 Wu thieves have a head-on decisive battle, and it is definitely not that there is no hope of victory!" ”

"And we can also use some strategies to find a way to kill the Wu thief by surprise." Chen Guorui added: "We can secretly prepare for a decisive battle out of the city, and at the same time arrange a false appearance, fake the illusion that we are ready to negotiate or abandon the city, so that the Wu thieves will not guard us from going out of the city for a decisive battle, and then we will suddenly send troops, we will definitely be able to seize the lead and kill the Wu thieves in a hurry!" ”

Hearing the voices of Chen Guorui and Ha Feng'a, Devil Six asked directly: "So, you all advocate a decisive battle out of the city?" ”

Chen Guorui and Ha Feng'a glanced at each other, then nodded together, and Chen Guorui said: "Lord Wang, since Tianjin City has no way to hold on, the decisive battle out of the city is of course our best choice." Of course, it is best to win the decisive battle out of the city, and if you really can't win, we can also protect you from withdrawing to the northeast and leaving Tianjin, a place of death. ”

After thinking about it for a long time, considering that if Wu Jun really besieged the city with frenzied water diversion, he would definitely die without a place to be buried, Devil Six quickly made up his mind, nodded, gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, it's up to you, first deceive the Wu thief and not take precautions, and then suddenly send troops to fight to the death with the Wu thief!" ”