As the distance quickly narrowed, the other Wu soldiers on the Wu army fleet also raised their firing pin guns to join the battle, and the bullets kept hitting the three strange boats, although the accuracy could not be guaranteed, but they also continued to hit the three strange boats with high density and high rate of fire. And the Taiping soldiers on the three boats were so fierce that Wu Chaoyue couldn't help but be a little amazed, in the case of the firepower was far less than the training of the Wu army, they dared to continue to attack, one boat hit the tail of the Qing army division ship head-on, and the other two boats attacked from both sides, one left and one right actually rushed directly to Wu Chaoyue's boat flying the flag of Shanghai regimental training, and it seemed that he wanted to start a close-port battle with Wu Chaoyue's ship, and rushed onto the boat to capture the thief and capture the king first.

After secretly praising the Taiping Army in its heyday, Wu Chaoyue was not afraid much, relying on the excellent equipment and not making any adjustments, but only ordering the personal soldiers equipped with revolvers to prepare for close combat, and then hurried to see the situation of the Manchu Qing official who claimed to be the Guangtai Daotai - of course, by the way, he also cared about the little Luoli named Wanzhen.

At this time, relying on the advantage of the river, the small pulling boat of the Taiping Army, which was attacking head-on, had already approached the Qing army's ship, and threw out a hook and hooked the side of the Qing army's ship, and the Manchu official was so anxious that he cried loudly, "Help!" Help me! Come on! Come on! ”

Wu Chaoyue's flagship was still fifty or sixty meters away from the Qing army ship, and seeing that the situation was not good, Wu Chaoyue could only hurriedly shout: "The big brother on the boat, get into the water quickly, find a wooden plank and jump into the water, I will come over to save you immediately!" ”

The Manchu official didn't know how to water, and of course he was a little hesitant when he heard Wu Chaoyue's shout, but when he saw that the Taiping army boat behind him had already pulled the rope and was about to lean on his side, he still gritted his teeth and made up his mind, rushed into the cabin to find a wooden barrel, rushed out and hugged the little basket, and jumped into the Yangtze River without saying a word. watched him jump into the river with the little Basket and escape temporarily.

Then, the Manchu official naturally struggled in the water and cried for help, but fortunately he held the barrel tightly in his hand and did not sink immediately even if it did not know the water, Wu Chaoyue shouted loudly to speed up, and ordered the sailors to prepare to go into the water to save people, and at the same time Wu Chaoyue quickly raised his Mini gun and aimed at the Taiping soldier who almost killed the Manchu official and opened fire - unfortunately he did not hit.

Fortunately, although Wu Chaoyue missed, several snipers next to him shot one after another, and it was not known who shot the Taiping soldier in the thigh, knocking him down on the deck, and there was no chance to dive into the water to chase him. At the same time, the other Wu soldiers also used their firing pin guns to aim and shoot as much as possible, and relied on the density of fire to suppress the small Taiping army boat next to the Qing army's ship.

The small pulling boat of the Taiping Army on the opposite side was temporarily suppressed, but the small pulling boat of the Taiping Army who was killing left and right seized the opportunity to quickly close the distance with Wu Chaoyue's boat, and the small pulling boat on the right also rushed to get close to Wu Chaoyue's boat, threw out a hook and hooked Wu Chaoyue's side, and pulled and quickly approached.

It is a pity that although the Taiping soldiers on this small pulling boat have rich experience in water warfare, they seriously underestimated the firepower density and shooting accuracy of the Wu army's training. What these Taiping soldiers didn't expect was that while Wu Chaoyue's boat was concentrating long-range firepower to suppress the frontal boat, the Wu soldiers next to the side of the ship suddenly showed their revolvers and shot at the deck of the small pulling boat condescendingly, or continuous shooting without changing ammunition, and the Taiping soldiers on the small pulling boat were caught off guard, and in a blink of an eye, they were killed and injured many people, and they had to scream and let go of the hook rope, and fled to the south bank of the Yangtze River where there were friendly troops.

The same is true of the small pull-out boat of the Taiping Army killed on the left, first it was suppressed by the long-range firepower of other ships of the Wu army, and then it was bombarded condescendingly by Wu Chaoyue's own soldiers with revolvers, and he had to be shot while lying on his stomach, and finally he couldn't parry, and the small pull-out boat had to flee to the south bank in shock, "There are too many muskets of the Qing Demon, and they will fire continuously, so they can't be beaten and retreated!" ”

Repelled two enemy ships in succession, the morale of the Wu army was greatly increased, and the firepower between the continuous shots was more intense, and the enemy ship in front was even more difficult to parry, and at the same time, several sailors also went into the water one after another, swam up to rescue the Manchu official, and finally rescued him from the water before drowning, Wu Chaoyue was more concerned about the little girl named Wanzhen, and hurriedly shouted: "And the little girl, save her!" Save her! ”

"Young Master Sun, it's rescued!"

Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to put down the rope and pull the little Luoli onto the boat, but when the little Luoli was tied to the waist and pulled onto the boat, Wu Chaoyue couldn't wait to pounce on it, and asked anxiously while facing him: "Wanzhen, are you okay?" Aren't you ...... in the capital? ”

Wu Chaoyue's concerned greeting came to an abrupt end, because Wu Chaoyue had already seen the appearance of the fainted little Luoli - she was not dignified or ugly, but in terms of development potential, compared with Feng Wanzhen, it was purely as big a difference between Mexico and the United States. Then, of course, Wu Chaoyue scolded in his stomach, "! I thought it was Feng Wanzhen, but it turned out to be just the same name! ”

At this time, the Manchu official was also pulled onto the deck, and without saying a word, he jumped up and hugged the unconscious little Luoli and shook it, howling and crying, "Wanzhen, good daughter, are you okay?" It's Amma who is not good, Amma will be fine if he sends you away sooner, it's Amma who is sorry for you! Wanzhen, are you alright? You okay? ”

Crying and shouting, the Manchu official kept shaking his daughter in his arms, but the little Luo Li was still unconscious, Wu Chaoyue saw that he was busy and went up to help, and first tried Xiao Luo Li was still breathing, and then quickly pinched her people, and let the Manchu official rub his daughter's chest smoothly. After tossing for a while, the little Luoli finally woke up and spit out a mouthful of river water, and the Manchu officials were overjoyed, and hurriedly hugged their daughter and cried, crying while thanking Wu Chaoyue, "Little brother, thank you, thank you, if it weren't for you today, our father and daughter would have died." The great grace of saving lives will never be forgotten in the next life. ”

"Brother Tai doesn't need to be polite." Wu Chaoyue waved his hand very generously and said, "Don't say that we are all Qing officials, we are just ordinary people, and we can't ignore such a situation." ”

The Manchu Qing official, who had just been abandoned by his subordinates, was very moved when he heard this, and couldn't help crying even more, and struggled to kowtow to Wu Chaoyue to thank him, Wu Chaoyue hurriedly hugged him, and saw that he and his daughter were all wet, shivering in the early spring river, Wu Chaoyue ordered again: "Come, quickly bring this lord and his daughter to my room, and find some of my clothes for them to change." ”

The soldiers agreed, and they hurriedly came over to lead the way, and the Manchu officials were even more grateful, and thanked Wu Chaoyue several times before helping his daughter to go to the cabin to change clothes, leaving Wu Chaoyue on the deck muttering, "!" An eight-flag silverfish, giving birth to an ugly daughter and a face called Wanzhen, made me happy in vain. ”

After complaining in his stomach, Wu Chaoyue turned around to observe the situation on the river, and saw that the small Taiping army boat on the opposite side had also fled to the south bank to join the friendly army, and the upstream was also empty, and there were no other ships coming for the time being. After relieving himself a little, Wu Chaoyue hurried to see the situation on the south bank, and saw that the enemies on the shore were quite dense, and they were gathering together and didn't know what to say.

In terms of strength alone, the Taiping infantry on the south bank naturally has an absolute advantage, but they are obviously in a hurry, lacking long-range weapons such as artillery, and the arquebus in their hands is a pitiful threat to the Wu army's fleet. In the case of the absolute superiority of the range of weapons, Wu Chaoyue was not very polite, and ordered the fleet to approach the south bank again, lined up only two hundred meters from the river, and then ordered the soldiers to take out the Minie guns and shoot freely, and practice marksmanship with the enemy on the shore.

In this way, those Taiping soldiers on the shore are naturally unlucky, the distance of two hundred meters, whether it is an arquebus or a bow and arrow, there is almost no threat, no matter how to shoot and release arrows, there is almost no threat to the Wu army's fleet, Wu Jun's training Yong's Mini gun can still maintain a certain shooting accuracy at this distance, and take advantage of almost all the advantages of archery warfare, bombarding the Taiping soldiers on the shore to scream and scream constantly, evading and dodging embarrassment, and also making many Taiping generals so angry that they are scolding and shouting constantly," Dog Qing Demon, there is a kind of coming ashore! Kind of come ashore and fight us! ”

When Wu Chaoyue was smirking, the Manchu official who had been wearing dry clothes got out of the cabin, first looked at the battlefield situation, and then said to Wu Chaoyue: "This brother, don't you fight?" The long-haired sailor could be killed at any time, so let's go first. ”

After that, the Manchu official was afraid that Wu Chaoyue would not listen, so he hurriedly added, "Our Wuhu Naval Division of the Great Qing Dynasty has been wiped out, and even General Chen Shengyuan, the chief soldier of the Naval Division, has been killed. ”

"The Wuhu Water Division has been wiped out?"

Even though he was already mentally prepared, Wu Chaoyue was still a little surprised, and when he was busy inquiring about the situation with the Manchu Qing officials, he learned that the Wuhu Naval Division and the Taiping Army had fought with the Taiping Army at Sihe Mountain in the lower reaches of Wuhu yesterday, and as a result, the Qing Army's naval division was completely annihilated, and the general soldier Chen Shengyuan fell into the water and died, and the Qing Army on the shore suffered an even worse defeat.

"What about Lu Jianying? How is he? Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked another important question.

"Land-based Taiwan? He ran away early! The Manchu official said with a sad face: "On the twenty-fourth day of the first lunar month, Lu Zhitai went to Wuhu to set up defenses, handed over the Wuhu defense line to me and General Chen Shengyuan, and then before dawn the next day, he took a boat and ran back to Jiangning. ”

Wu Chaoyue was completely speechless, and then Wu Chaoyue, who was also greedy for life and afraid of death, did not hesitate, and immediately ordered to stop shooting, and the fleet turned around and returned to Jiangning, and then the Manchu official said that he still had tens of thousands of taels of silver on his ship, and Wu Chaoyue, who was greedy for life and death and even more greedy for money and lustful, did not hesitate, and immediately divided another boat to tow the division ship that had been basically scrapped, and retreated eastward in a big way under the noses of the enemy who was several times his own.

…………

At the same time, when he saw the arrogant and domineering U-turn of the Wu army's fleet and heading east, Lin Fengxiang, the general of the Taiping Army on the shore, was so angry that he pulled out his sword and cut the stone, and cut off a piece of the hard reef in front of him, and roared angrily in his mouth, "Dog Qing Demon!" Wait, you wait for me! Wait until you get to Jiangning, see how I clean you up?! ”

It can't be blamed that Lin Fengxiang was so angry, such a short and hasty encounter, in the case that he couldn't even see what the enemy looked like carefully, the Taiping army actually sacrificed 19 elite soldiers who had experienced a hundred battles, and injured more than 30 people, of which five were seriously injured, but in the end they couldn't even touch a single hair of the enemy. So not only Lin Fengxiang was furious, but when he received Lin Fengxiang's report, Li Kaifang, the vanguard commander of the Taiping Army, was also surprised and said, "How is it possible? What kind of Qing Demon can fight so well, without any loss, and can still kill and wound so many of our soldiers? Who is the Qing Demon general who leads the team? ”

"I don't know." Lin Fengxiang said very angrily: "I only saw that there was a Wu character on his flag, and the small characters were not clear." Also, the muskets of this group of demons are very powerful, they hit far and accurately, and it seems that they can still fire in bursts according to the brothers of the sailor, so we suffered a big loss. ”

"Hit far and accurately? Can it still be fired in bursts? Li Kaifang, who had never seen this kind of musket before, was a little unconvinced, but for the sake of prudence, Li Kaifang still ordered: "Send someone to contact the friends of the Heaven and Earth Society, and ask them to spy on the news of this group of demons for us, the more detailed the better." ”

…………

At the same time, Wu Chaoyue remembered to ask the name of the Manchu official he saved, and the Manchu official replied like this, "Foolish brother Huizheng, Guangtai Daotai, dare to ask the virtuous brother Gao's surname, what is the official position?" ”

"Hui Zheng?" Although Wu Chaoyue, who has a sparse history, feels that this name is somewhat familiar, he can't remember hearing it there for a while, so he just replied casually: "The younger brother's surname is Wu Mingyue, the word is Weiting, and the head of the Ministry of Rites is now also handling the errand of Songjiang group training." ”

"Wu Chaoyue?!" Hui Zheng was taken aback, and said in surprise: "Brother Xian, are you the one who followed Prince Gong to Dagukou to negotiate that Wu Chaoyue?" ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded depressedly, only then did he know that his notoriety had even been heard of by the officials in Anhui, and Hui Zheng really gave up his hand again and again, saying that he had admired the name of his virtuous brother for a long time, like thunder, and he was fortunate to see him today. Wu Chaoyue became more and more depressed the more he listened, and quickly changed the topic and asked what Hui Zheng planned to do next? Hui Zheng said with a sad face: "Brother Fool doesn't know what to do, Lu Zhitai asked Brother Fool to assist General Chen in guarding the Wuhu defense line, but he lost the Liangshan camp that he was ordered to hold, and he lost Wuhu City, lost the city and land, lost his teacher and humiliated the country, two major crimes, Brother Fool really doesn't know how to explain to Lu Zhitai and the imperial court." ”

"Don't worry, it's okay." Wu Chaoyue comforted without knowing the weight: "When I see Lu Zhitai in Jiangning, I will say a few more good words for you, and you will try to push the responsibility as much as possible, and I will ask Lu Zhitai to give you a chance to make meritorious service and atone for your sins, and it should be fine." ”

"Brother Xian, what is your relationship with Lu Zhitai?"

Hui Zheng was really a little frightened by Wu Chaoyue, and quickly asked if Wu Chaoyue had any special friendship with his immediate boss Lu Jianying, and Wu Chaoyue replied truthfully: "I've never seen it, and it doesn't matter, but this time I was pulled by Lu Zhitai from Shanghai to help him, and I opened my mouth to intercede for you, thinking that coming to Lu Zhitai would give me a little face." ”

As soon as he heard that Wu Chaoyue turned out to be a cowhide goods who were not ashamed, Hui Zheng was immediately disappointed, but he had just received Wu Chaoyue's great kindness and it was not easy to show it, so he could only thank him politely. At this time, the Qing soldiers who had jumped into the water and escaped and were rescued also came to Hui Zheng to ask for peace, but Hui Zheng was furious when he saw them, punching and kicking them, scolding while beating, "Dog slave, Wang Ba Lamb, how does this official usually treat you?" When you were in danger, you dared to leave the official and run for your life, and almost killed the official's father and daughter, how did you repay the official? ”

Several Qing soldiers knew that they were at a loss, and they didn't dare to fight back but just dodged, wailing and begging for mercy, but Hui Zheng was so angry that he kicked over a Qing soldier in front of him again, shouting: "Get out!" Get out of here! I don't need you anymore! Get out of here! ”

"Master, this is on the boat, you told us to get out of there?" A Qing soldier said with a sad face: "Besides, we are all gone, who will protect you?" ”

"Counting on your protection, this official has already fallen to the ground!" Hye-jeong roared angrily, "Get out! I don't need your protection! ”

couldn't stand Hui Zheng's beating and scolding, a few Qing soldiers really ran away, Hui Zheng's anger rested for a while, and then he turned to Wu Chaoyue and said: "Brother Weiting, then the foolish brother will trouble you temporarily, but brother, don't worry, save your life, the mountain is high and the sea is deep, and the foolish brother will definitely be rewarded." ”

Wu Chaoyue politely pushed on his lips, but he was very disdainful in his heart, and said in his heart that you are a Taoist platform that has even lost Daozhi, what can you do for me, marry your daughter named Wanzhen to me? Your daughter can't even catch up with half of Feng Wanzhen, and I don't need to give it to me as a concubine.

Seeing that Wu Chaoyue didn't think much of his words, Hui Zheng whispered again: "Brother Xian, I won't tell you, although I am only in the fourth rank and I don't have any titles, I am actually barely a national master." After my eldest daughter was drafted into the palace, she was accepted as a concubine by Banzai today, and I heard that she is quite favored, so Brother Xian, you save me, foolish brother, I can guarantee that the emperor will be able to know. ”

Before Hui Zheng's words were finished, Wu Chaoyue's face had completely changed-because Wu Chaoyue had already remembered who this Hui Zheng was in front of him-Cixi's old witch's father! Then, Wu Chaoyue rolled his eyes again, and immediately changed his kind look, and said affectionately: "Brother, don't worry, don't say that the long-haired sailor hasn't come yet, even if the long-haired sailor comes to kill together, junior brother, I will definitely guarantee to escort you back to Jiangning City safely, and guarantee that you will not be frightened just now!" ”

Hui Zheng was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly thanked Wu Chaoyue again and again, Wu Chaoyue was polite on his lips, but said in his heart: "Damn, aren't you commensurate with my brother when you meet?" When you are a brother, you will be a brother, and you will have a good relationship with you, and you will first treat the uncle of the old witch of Cixi as a brother! ”