Although he paid a heavy price, Zeng Guofan finally kept the city of Wuchang.

The Hunan army was originally the best at fighting defensive battles, the main forces gathered on the battlefield of Wuchang, and the advantages of the city wall fortifications of Wuchang Mansion City, the grain and grass in the city were barely enough to support, and because of the difficulty of riding a tiger, they had to fight to the death with the Taiping army.

Even if there are famous generals like Lin Fengxiang, Qin Rigang and Chen Yucheng in charge, they can't help the Zeng Guofan, who can only defend, blast and attack the city three times, besiege the city for more than 50 days, and countless battles on land and water, including no less than ten times relying on the ant attached battle to rush to the Wuchang city wall, but the Taiping army has always had no way to take Wuchang City and Zeng Guofan, and the casualties are no less than the siege of Changsha that made Xiao Chaogui lose his life. In the end, Qin Rigang and Lin Fengxiang were completely at a loss, and they could only ask Shi Dakai again for a decision, to see whether to continue fighting, or not to sacrifice the precious lives of the Taiping soldiers in vain.

Of course, the biggest beneficiary of the Hunan army's death battle was not Zeng Guofan, nor was it Yang Pei, the governor of Huguang - his so-called excuse for fleeing to De'an to organize reinforcements to counterattack was seen through by Emperor Xianfeng at a glance, and Emperor Xianfeng, who was furious, ordered Yang Pei to be demoted to three levels on the spot and retained his original position, and personally wrote down the cruel words of Yang Pei's head falling to the ground after the fall of Wuchang Mansion! forced Yang Pei to quickly scrape the ground and gather a group of rabble, and ran south to Xingou to cheer for Zeng Guofan.

On the eighteenth day of the lunar month, when the greedy and fearful of death Wu Xiaocomprador returned to Yuezhou, Hunan from southern Jiangxi to board the ship, it was confirmed that the city of Wuchang Mansion was still in the hands of the Qing army, and the barber teacher was still in Wuchang Mansion to guard the governor's yamen for himself. Having such a teacher is really a blessing for me as a student! ”

But for Wu Chaoyue, the crisis has not been resolved, the Taiping Army has still not withdrawn from the Wuchang Fu battlefield, and there is still the possibility of increasing troops on the Wuchang battlefield; The second is whether the Hunan army has reached the end of the strong crossbow and how long it can hold out, which is unknown. Therefore, after arriving in Yuezhou, Wu Chaoyue did not dare to delay, learned a little about the situation of Jiayu County in the next battle, and quickly chartered ten civilian boats down the river, left Hunan on the same day and entered Hubei, and arrived at the first Hubei city of Jiayu County the next day, and there was only one day left from Wuchang Fucheng.

Finally arrived at the first Hubei county town that could be used as a prestige, Wu Chaoyue did not put on any governor's guard of honor and official stands, on the contrary, he also asked the entourage to temporarily keep his whereabouts secret, and asked the boatman to declare to the outside world that the ship was full of Hunan mountain goods, and then changed into a common person's clothes and led Zhao Liewen, Wu Dadao and a few personal soldiers into the city, and arrived at the county government to ask to meet with Jiayuzhi County.

The result is not bad, Wu Zhenxi of Jiayu Zhixian County is barely a more reliable goods, although he was surprised by the stranger who refused to show his identity, but he did not put on any official authority and categorically refused, and still went to the lobby to meet Wu Chaoyue. And when Wu Chaoyue showed the governor's fuse again, Wu Zhenxi was so frightened that he knelt down on the spot, and Wu Chaoyue hurriedly stopped him from calling out his identity, and ordered: "Keep my whereabouts secret for the time being, go to the back hall to talk, and then send someone to invite Wang Guocai, the deputy general of Hubei stationed here." Remember, don't let me come over there. ”

Wu Zhenxi hurriedly agreed, and hurriedly sent someone to invite Wang Guocai, the deputy general of Hubei stationed outside the city, to come and meet, and at the same time respectfully invited Wu Chaoyue to sit down in the back hall, Wu Chaoyue asked Wu Zhenxi to provide an intelligence summary about the Wuchang battlefield as soon as he sat down, and at the same time asked Wu Zhenxi to give a general introduction to the current situation of the Wuchang battlefield. Wu Zhenxi wiped his sweat and said: "Lord Futai forgives his sins, the lower official is a civilian official, and he doesn't know much about military affairs, and he doesn't know much about the situation on the battlefield in Wuchang. ”

"It doesn't matter, just say as much as you know, just be as accurate as possible." Wu Chaoyue encouraged.

Wu Zhenxi wiped his sweat again, and then reported to Wu Chaoyue that the Taiping army on the Wuchang battlefield had more than 60,000 troops, and the main infantry force was stationed in Hongshan in the east of the city to establish a large camp, and the other troops were divided to control the dangerous roads outside the city to block the reinforcements entering the city. Wang Guocai, the deputy general of the Qing army, led the army north to reinforce Wuchang City, but was defeated by the Taiping army just after arriving at Changhongqiao, and fled back to Jiayu to garrison in embarrassment.

In addition, the information provided by Wu Zhenxi also shows that the Taiping Army Navy Division continued to send a small fleet of ships to attack and harass the upstream of Wuchang Mansion, pretending to want to cut off the Hunan Army Navy Division and the rear of Hunan, but in fact it wanted to lure the Hunan Army Navy Division to leave the water camp fortifications of Baishazhou to protect the decisive battle on the river, although the Hunan Army was never fooled and did not send troops, but it also caused the Taiping Army Navy Division to be rampant in the river section of the upper reaches of Wuchang, not to mention the government ships, even ordinary civilian ships could not reach Wuchang City.

After learning about the list of Taiping generals in the hands of the Qing Army in Hubei, and then asking Wu Zhenxi to prevent the Taiping Army in more than 2,000 townships in Jiayu, Hubei Deputy General Wang Guocai finally came to the county Yahoutang with a drunken body, and as soon as he entered the door, he yelled at Wu Zhenxi and asked: "Master Wu, what are you calling me so urgent?" Are you going to invite me to drink flower wine again? Did Xiao Hongxia, who leaned on the Red Mansion, call? I can't drink without her? ”

Wu Zhenxi, whose soul was about to be frightened, hurriedly glanced at Wang Guocai, and quickly attached it to Wang Guocai's ear and whispered Wu Chaoyue's identity, Wang Guocai's alcohol was also scared away at once, and he quickly knelt down on one knee to Wu Chaoyue to beat a thousand, and said tremblingly: "The last general doesn't know that Futai in this province is here, talking nonsense, offending and confronting, please forgive Wu Futai." ”

I have long been accustomed to the virtue of the green battalion generals, and Wu Chaoyue is not the slightest strange, but Wu Chaoyue didn't say anything, just looked at the kingdom coldly, pretending to be unfathomable and cold, not to mention the result, this hand really has some effect, under Wu Chaoyue's indifferent gaze, the kingdom, which was already a little nervous, was inevitably even more nervous, and sweat began to appear on his forehead. After another moment, Wang Guocai hurriedly pleaded again: "The last general should die, the last general was ordered to reinforce the Wuchang battlefield unsuccessfully, and he also returned to Jiayu to set up camp, but the last general has really done his best." All kinds of reinforcements, only the last general hit the Changhongqiao, which is only sixty miles away from Wuchang City, and it was not possible to succeed without friendly reinforcements. ”

"Get up." Wu Chaoyue finally spoke, and said lightly: "I don't care about the past, but if you dare to be like this in the future, don't blame the ruthlessness of the national law!" ”

Wang Guocai was submissive, thanked Wu Chaoyue before standing up, and then Wu Chaoyue was not polite, and asked directly: "How many troops do you have in your hands now?" How many guns and artillery are there? Report the real number, don't report it to me. ”

"Lord Huifutai, the last general actually has about 1,600 troops under his command." Wang Guo didn't dare to say that the Manchu court gave him five battalions of 2,500 people, but he honestly reported the actual strength, and then said: "There are two 2,000-jin heavy artillery, four 1,000-jin cannons, and 13 small cannons of various types below 800 catties." In addition, there are more than 800 bird guns and more than 120 guns. ”

Wu Chaoyue patted his forehead and sighed, knowing that just such a little firepower was not enough in front of the more than 60,000 Taiping troops, and he also knew that Wang Guocai's previous boast that he was the best among the generals of the Qing army in Hubei was by no means a joke - just such a little strength dared to summon up the courage to fight sixty miles away from the city of Wuchang Mansion, in the green camp of the Qing army full of straw bags, it was indeed a great miracle.

After sighing, Wu Chaoyue asked Wang Guocai: "Vice General Wang, if this official orders you to lead the army to escort this official north to the Wuchang battlefield for reinforcements, can you be sure to escort this official into the city?" ”

"It's ......." Wang Guocai's face was embarrassed, and he replied after a while: "Lord Futai, the lower officials can only say that they are doing their best, and if they really can't do it, they have to ask for your forgiveness." ”

"As long as you have the courage to say do your best, I think you're already good." Wu Chaoyue smiled helplessly and praised Wang Guocai, and completely died of the idea of organizing an army to rush directly to the Wuchang battlefield for reinforcements - not to mention that there were not many troops organized in a hurry, even if tens of thousands of soldiers could be gathered in a short period of time to reinforce the Wuchang battlefield, without weapons and combat effectiveness, it was just an opportunity for the Taiping army to brush their heads.

Therefore, although he was a little reluctant, Wu Chaoyue still had only one last choice left - to follow the example of Zhang Liangji, the governor of Hunan during the Changsha War, and with only a few followers, he mixed into Changsha City, which was heavily surrounded by the Taiping army, and organized the existing forces in the city to defend the city with all their might, and survived until the Taiping army retreated. Fortunately for Wu Chaoyue, the current combat effectiveness of the Hunan army in Wuchang Mansion is much stronger than that of the Qing army in Changsha City.

After thinking for a while, Wu Chaoyue instructed Wu Zhenxi and Wang Guocai: "Wuxian Order, Deputy General Wang, you immediately let out the wind, and say that I will arrive in Jiayu on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month in three days to take office, and then ask all your people to get active, and prepare the honor guards that should be ready to welcome me, and make the momentum as loud as possible." But remember, don't let anyone know that I've arrived in Jiayu. ”

"Lord Futai, what do you mean by that?" Wu Zhenxi and Wang Guocai both asked confusedly.

"I'll tell you the reason later, now go and let the news out to me first, so that everyone in Quanjiayu knows." Wu Chaoyue casually ordered, and sent someone to give orders to his entourage, so that none of them were allowed to get off the ship, and all of them hid in the cabin and waited for the next order.

It was also when Wu Zhenxi and Wang Guocai went to carry out the order that Zhao Liewen, who had been listening to the side, smiled and asked Wu Chaoyue, "Weiting, what do you want to do?" Crossing the river in white clothes, let Changmao know that you can only arrive at Jiayu on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, take it lightly, and then you take the opportunity to rush forward in a light boat, and kill overnight to meet your teacher under the city of Wuchang? Or lure the snake out of the hole, lure the long-haired army to attack Jiayu, take the opportunity to set up an ambush for the long-haired for a while, and share the pressure for your teacher from the periphery? ”

"Those who know me, Huifu also." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "I won't tell you, I thought of two ways to cross the river in white clothes and lead the snake out of the hole just now, but I also think that crossing the river in white clothes is too dangerous, and the long hair has eaten me so much, no matter how lightly I am concerned, I will definitely go all out to strengthen the defense of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River when I hear that I am coming." Luring the snake out of the hole does not have much effect, long-haired want to sneak attack Jiayu, must take the Yangtze River waterway to take a boat, Jiayu has no sailor here, no matter how we ambush we can't catch many fish. So I gave up and came up with a third option. ”

"Is there a third option?" Zhao Liewen asked in surprise.

Wu Chaoyue smiled and asked rhetorically: "Huifu, when we were studying the map of Hubei on the road, do you remember that thirty miles away in the northwest of Jiayu County, there is a small place called Guodi Bay?" ”

Zhao Liewen, who has been familiar with Baguwen since childhood, has a much stronger memory than Wu Chaoyue, and after only a little recollection, Zhao Liewen immediately remembered that thirty miles away from the northwest of Jiayu County, there is indeed a fishing port called Guodi Bay, and this fishing port is close to Zhuanshui, and if you go down from Zhuanshui smoothly, you can directly kill the Zhuanshui estuary less than four miles away from Baishazhou, where the Hunan Army Navy Division is stationed -- as long as the generals of the Hunan Army Navy Division do not enter the water, how can they arrange a patrol fleet to monitor in this critical position?

Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if the head of the commander of the Hunan Army Navy is full of Yangtze River water, and there is no patrol fleet at the mouth of the Zhuanshui River, or Wu Chaoyue and his party are on their backs, and they happen to meet the patrol ship of the Hunan Army Navy Division to change their guards, and there is no boat of the Hunan Army Navy Division at the mouth of the Zhushui River, and they also happened to collide with the Taiping Army's sailor fleet, Wu Chaoyue, who is armed to the teeth, is still sure to break through the Taiping Army's small pull boat to intercept and rush to the Hunan Army's Navy camp to ask for help, at most it is just a little more cost.

Thinking of this, Zhao Liewen naturally hurriedly gave Wu Chaoyue a thumbs up, and Wu Chaoyue said with a smile: "Don't waste time, help me write a letter to the teacher, and ask my teacher to send a sailor warship to Chiji Mountain downstream of Jiayu to pick me up on the afternoon of the twenty-second day of the lunar month, escort me to Wuchang Mansion City to take up his post, and assist him in defending Wuchang Mansion City." ”

"Wei Ting, is this letter really written to your teacher?" Zhao Liewen asked with a smile.

"What do you say?" Wu Chaoyue smiled and asked, before the words fell, Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen, the unscrupulous partners, were already laughing loudly.

…………

As Wu Chaoyue expected, a day later, he entrusted Wu Zhenxi to send someone to send a letter to contact Zeng Guofan, and sure enough, it was intercepted by the rampant Taiping army Xiaotuan boat in the upper reaches of Baishazhou, the camp of the Hunan army's sailors. At the same time, the news that Wu Chaoyue would arrive in Jiayu on the 24th day of the lunar month was also placed in Jiayu's eyes by the Taiping Army and sent to the Taiping Army camp by clipper, and presented to Qin Rigang, Lin Fengxiang and Wei Jun and other senior generals of the Taiping Army.

By the way, Wu Chaoyue also underestimated the Taiping Army's ability to work carefully, and ten civilian ships with a deep draft rushed to Jiayu Wharf from upstream on the nineteenth day of the lunar month to dock, and mysteriously disappeared that night, which also aroused the vigilance and suspicion of the Taiping Army, and also wrote a letter about this suspicious situation and reported it to Qin Rigang and others.

After suffering so many losses, the generals of the Taiping Army naturally said that they would not be fooled again, and combined with various intelligence, Qin Rigang, Lin Fengxiang and others also guessed that Wu Chaoyue was likely to have rushed to Jiayu City in advance, and Jiayu City was preparing for Wu Chaoyue's welcoming ceremony with great fanfare, but it was just a trick to cover up Wu Chaoyue's stealing of chickens and dogs and abduction!

Although I can't guess what shameless means are behind Wu Chaoyue's blinding method, it doesn't matter, an all-out interception of the upstream ship on the Yangtze River is enough to respond to all changes with the same change, and it is of course the best to stop the ship on the water and completely drown Wu Chaoyue with the tactics of the ship and the sea, and you can directly take revenge and kill Wu Chaoyue with a thousand knives. Even if Wu Chaoyue is as timid as a mouse and does not dare to take the waterway, or Wu Chaoyue really arrived at Jiayu on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, it doesn't matter, the Taiping army will immediately divide heavy troops to kill Jiayu, even if you can't take the general Wuchang Mansion City with iron walls, killing Wu Chaoyue is equivalent to achieving a huge victory! And because of the degree of hatred of the Taiping army for Wu Chaoyue, killing Wu Chaoyue is even more worthy of celebration than taking Wuchang Mansion City!

The hatred between Wu Chaoyue and the Taiping Army is too deep, for this rare opportunity for revenge, Lin Fengxiang and Wei Jun even quarreled in front of the generals in order to fight for the opportunity to lead the army to intercept and kill Wu Chaoyue, and countless comrades-in-arms died tragically under Wu Chaoyue's butcher's knife Lin Fengxiang disregarded his own water battle, saying that he had to go to Wu Chaoyue desperately! Wei Jun, whose own brother Wei Changhui was killed by Wu Chaoyue, did not give an inch, and wanted to grab this opportunity for revenge with red eyes, saying that he would strangle Wu Chaoyue to death with his own hands to avenge his brother! You fight for me, don't give in to each other, the quarrel is turned upside down, so fierce that you almost use a knife.

In the end, it was Qin Rigang who proposed a reluctant compromise method, suggesting that Wei Jun, who was better at water warfare, should lead the sailors to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to intercept and kill Wu Chaoyue, and asked Wei Jun to ensure that Wu Chaoyue was captured alive as much as possible, and let Wei Jun and Lin Fengxiang cut Wu Chaoyue to death with a knife together, even if he couldn't catch him alive, he would bring Wu Chaoyue's body back and hand it over to Lin Fengxiang to vent his anger. And if Wei Jun fails to intercept Wu Chaoyue, and Wu Chaoyue hides in Jiayu and the turtle does not come out of the shell, then Lin Fengxiang, who is good at land warfare, will be responsible for leading the army to attack Jiayu and clean up Wu Chaoyue, and Wei Jun will lead some sailors to assist Lin Fengxiang in sending troops.

After each of them reluctantly accepted this plan, in the evening of the same day, Wei Jun personally led more than 800 large and small warships to set out, and fiercely slaughtered the area around Jinkou Town to defend it to the death, and at the same time, Qin Rigang ordered to strengthen the defense of various land routes, and Wu Chaoyue, who was scheming about the embankment, suddenly came to Wuchang Mansion by land.

Although Zeng Guobao, the fifth elder of the Zeng family who commanded the Hunan Army's naval division, did not rashly send troops to fight, he also sent a large number of patrol and sentry ships to closely monitor the movements of the Taiping Army's naval division and the surrounding waters, and also specially arranged for a warship fleet to be on guard all night, ready to attack and engage the Taiping army's naval division at any time. And after the news that the Taiping Army's sailors safely crossed the defense area of the Hunan Army's sailors and sailed upstream was delivered to Qin Rigang, Qin Rigang, who was still a little worried, breathed a sigh of relief and said secretly: "Heavenly Father bless, this time please be sure to bless us to be able to successfully intercept and kill the little demon and avenge the six thousand years old of the Northern King and our fallen soldiers." ”

With this good wish, Qin Rigang gradually fell asleep, slept soundly, and had a good dream of swimming and playing with beautiful women, but just as Qin Rigang ripped off the beautiful woman's clothes, the noise from outside the tent pulled Qin Rigang back to the cruel reality from the good dream. Opening his eyes with an unhappy stomach, the first thing Qin Rigang did was to yell and ask, "Who is making noise outside?!" ”

"It's Prime Minister Lin Cheng, he said that he had to ...... something immediately."

Before the report of the pro-soldiers was finished, Lin Fengxiang, who was not even dressed neatly, had already pushed away the road, and the pro-soldiers rushed in, shouting at Qin Rigang: "Ding Tianhou, I couldn't sleep after patrolling the camp during the third watch to look at the map in the camp, and found that we missed a very important road, if you take that road to Wuchang, we will not be able to intercept him at all!" ”

"That way?" Qin Rigang asked with a yawn.

"Chaos Waterway!" Lin Fengxiang replied loudly, and then showed the only map of Hubei that the Taiping Army had, and snatched a freshly lit oil lamp from his own soldiers for Qin Rigang to look at the map.

Looking up along the Zhuanshui channel, when he saw the small port of Guodiwan thirty miles northwest of Jiayu County, Qin Rigang's sleepiness disappeared without a trace, and he immediately jumped up and shouted: "Quick, immediately organize another fleet to go to the upper reaches of Zhuanshui to intercept all the incoming ships!" ”

Before the soldiers in the tent could agree, a herald had already rushed in outside the tent, knelt down on one knee and said to Qin Rigang: "Shun Tianhou, report from the upstream, dozens of fishing boats suddenly rushed into the Yangtze River from the Zhushui River during the third watch, and the Qing Demon Water Division patrol boat stepped forward to intercept it, and then I don't know why, a large number of Qing Demon Water Division patrol boats immediately gathered, protecting those fishing boats and going to the Qing Demon Water Division camp!" ”

With a soft bang, the oil lamp and the map in Lin Fengxiang's hand fell to the ground one after another, and the overturned oil lamp ignited the precious map, but Lin Fengxiang didn't seem to realize it, and the expression on his face completely fell into a state of dementia.

Peng made another sound, and Qin Rigang also sat back on the bed, and the sluggish expression on his face was exactly the same as Lin Fengxiang's. After a long time, when the map was already half burned, Qin Rigang and Lin Fengxiang scolded in unison, "Dog RI's transcendence demon!" (To be continued.) )