After resting in Wusongkou for a night, when he woke up early the next morning, Jiangyin Lian Yong, who Zhou Tenghu stayed outside the battlefield, also got in touch with Wu Chaoyue, and learned that Zhou Tenghu had led the army to reinforce the Wu Army Arsenal, and also inserted Jiangyin Lian Yong into the enemy as an undercover agent. ”

Although the Wu army, which had suffered from the wind and waves, was still very tired, and the Qing army did not have time to find out the enemy's latest deployment, but in order to share the pressure on the battlefield of the arsenal, Wu Chaoyue still decided to immediately go south and attack the Zhabei camp of Zhou Lichun of the Taiping Army.

Out of politeness and rules, Wu Chaoyue symbolically asked his boss Xu Naizhao, the governor of Jiangsu, for instructions after making up his mind, and what surprised Wu Chaoyue was that Xu Naizhao, who had a good reputation in governing the river and soothing the people, not only did not deliberately block and make things difficult, but also offered to let the general Qin Ruhu lead a thousand green battalion troops to assist Wu Chaoyue to go south, and at the same time, Xu Naizhao explained that Qin Ruhu must obey Wu Chaoyue's orders and commands, and showed sufficient sincerity to show that he was willing to get along with Wu Chaoyue. ——Although the magistrates of Liangjiang now hope to partner with Wu Chaoyue on the battlefield, Wu Chaoyue also appreciates it and sincerely thanks Xu Naizhao for his unsparing help.

In order to try not to give the Taiping army time to adjust its deployment calmly, Wu Chaoyue arranged for the Wu army's artillery battalion and Qin Ruhu's green battalion to march behind, and led the main infantry to the south lightly, and it only took more than three hours to arrive at Jiangwan Town, which had been destroyed by the war into ruins. When they took a short break to replenish their water, the Qing army scouts who were scouting nearby came to visit one after another and reported to Wu Chaoyue the enemy situation in front of them, but the sentry commander of this group of Qing army scouts also said to Wu Chaoyue with regret on his face: "Lord Wu, you should come one step earlier." Just now, Longhair's reinforcements have arrived at their Zhabei camp, otherwise, you may still have a chance to stop Longhair's division. ”

The distance for the Taiping army to reinforce Zhou Lichun was much closer than Wu Chaoyue's southward journey, and Wu Chaoyue didn't have much regret when he heard the report, but just asked: "How many reinforcements did Changmao send?" Who is the head of the thief? ”

"There are about 2,000 reinforcements from Long Hair, and the leader of the thieves is Lin Afu."

The report of the Qing army sentry commander made Wu Chaoyue laugh, laughed and said God help me, and then Wu Chaoyue immediately ordered Wu Jun Lian Yong to continue to go south and rush to Zhou Lichun's camp at a normal marching speed. During the march, Wu Chaoyue also said to Zhao Liewen: "Huifu, for a meal, do you bet that Zhou Lichun will let Lin Afu lead the army into his camp and join forces with him to guard the camp fortifications?" ”

"I want to eat Hongbin Lou's Buddha jumping over the wall and braised bear paws, and bet that Zhou Lichun will not let Lin Afu in."

Zhao Liewen replied without thinking about it, and stretched out his hand to high-five Wu Chaoyue, and then Zhao Liewen said with a smile: "Comfort Pavilion, just take out the silver!" It is clearly written in the detailed investigation report of our army, Zhou Lichun is a small family, his camp is one hundred and fifty steps long from east to west, and only one hundred steps thick from north to south, such a camp is a great scale to garrison three thousand troops, Lin Afu wants to bring two thousand reinforcements in, unless the tent in Zhou Lichun's camp is dismantled in half, Zhou Lichun is not a fool, how can he agree to let him in and enjoy the ready-made? ”

Wu Chaoyue screamed and patted his forehead, annoyed that he did not remember the details of the enemy situation provided by Hu Songlin, Zhou Lichun's camp was already in sight, and as expected, there was indeed an army struggling to dig trenches and pile up earth barriers to build temporary fortifications to the east of Zhou Lichun's camp, and it was obvious that the Taiping army had just sent reinforcements to Zhou Lichun. Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate when he saw it, and immediately ordered the self-army to directly open to the enemy's reinforcement position, and specially ordered the self-army to detour back to the east of the enemy's reinforcements. At the same time, for the sake of prudence, Wu Chaoyue, who was greedy for life and afraid of death, naturally ordered the Qing army scouts to continue to closely reconnoiter the surrounding movements without mentioning them.

At the same time, of course, the Taiping army also made moves, under the command of Zhou Lichun, the Zhou soldiers quickly entered the defensive position, relying on the fences, trenches and fortifications built in advance to defend to the death, without the slightest sign of taking the initiative. And the generals and generals on Lin Afu's side were also desperately shouting, asking the soldiers of the army to speed up the construction of fortifications, and the soldiers shouted that they were in chaos before the battle, showing the true colors of the rabble.

Lin Afu was indeed forced by Zhou Lichun to build another fortification outside the Zhou military camp, but this can't be blamed on Zhou Lichun's ruthlessness, seeing the so-called reinforcements brought by Lin Afu, no matter who they replaced, they will definitely be furious. At the same time, Lin Afu is also a person with a more generous personality, so after Zhou Lichun asked Lin Afu to set up another camp with a blushing face, Lin Afu did not have the face to complain, and honestly led the army to act according to the order, which made Zhou Lichun calm down some anger a little, and did not cause Zhou Lichun and Liu Lichuan, who had old grudges before, to turn their faces again.

His own family knew his own affairs, and Lin Afu also knew very well what virtue Liu Lichuan forcibly allocated to his army, so after seeing Wu Jun Lian Yong return to the east of the camp of his own army, Lin Afu, who was very righteous, immediately secretly ordered the generals in the army to flee south with the defeated soldiers as much as possible after the defeat in the battle, and tried to restrain the soldiers from letting the defeated soldiers go west to attack Zhou Lichun's camp - if the defeated soldiers broke Zhou Lichun's fortifications, Lin Afu would have no face to see the friendly generals.

The well-trained Wu Jun Lian Yong quickly lined up in the east of Lin Afu's army, but the fierce attack like a storm in Lin Afu's imagination did not come immediately, while Wu Jun Lian Yong temporarily stood still, there was also a Wu Jun Lian Yong who played a white flag out of the battle, and said loudly in front of Lin Afu's position: "Lin Afu, Lord Wu asked me to bring you a message, you are not our opponent, Lord Wu read that you once helped him save his grandfather, and also read that you once protected their ancestors and grandchildren to go north to the capital, Give you fifteen minutes to lead the army to retreat, and our army will not pursue! But if you don't leave in fifteen minutes, don't blame us for being rude! ”

The eyes of the generals of the Liu family army were all focused on Lin Afu's face, Lin Afu was silent at first, and then stepped forward and said loudly: "Go back and tell Young Master Wu, I understand his kindness, but I was ordered by Brother Liu to come here to reinforce Lvshuai Zhou, unless Brother Liu personally ordered me to retreat, I will never take a step back." Please Young Master Wu don't have to wait fifteen minutes, just come over. ”

Wu Jun Lian Yong wrote down Lin Afu's reply, rushed back to Wu Chaoyue to give orders, and then after a while, Wu Jun Lian Yong ran back with a white flag again, showed two letters and said: "Lin Afu, our Lord Wu please do me a favor, these two letters, one is written by Xu Futai, the governor of Jiangsu, to Liu Lichuan, and the other is written by our Lord Wu to Liu Lichuan, please read it on the old days, take the letter back and hand it to Liu Lichuan." ”

Lin Afu was a little hesitant, but thinking that the old Wu family was really good to him before, Lin Afu still waved his hand, sent someone out to take the two letters, and promised loudly that he would definitely send the letters back to Liu Lichuan. Wu Junlian thanked Yong, and then went back to give orders to Wu Chaoyue.

In the smug laughter of Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen, Wu Junlianyong's attack finally began, although he had probably seen the equipment of Lin Afu's army in the telescope, but Wu Chaoyue, for the sake of prudence, still invested a battalion to launch an attack at one time, and at the same time let the two battalions hold the two wings to prevent Zhou Lichun from attacking out of the camp.

Facts have proved that Wu Chaoyue's prudence and caution are absolutely right, Lin Afu, who performed the most reliable in the first Jiangyin War, kept in mind the guidance of the foreign instructor, and always calmed down during the march of Wu Jun's practice and bravery, and did not give the order to shoot, and the Liu Jun soldiers he brought out also kept the queue neat, and also discharged a three-stage shot queue, trying to insist on not wasting bullets by shooting in advance. It was only when Wu Jun Lian Yong entered within 80 meters that Lin Afu shouted and gave the order to shoot, and more than 100 elite soldiers of Liu Jun took turns to shoot and shoot, which did bring some casualties to Wu Jun Lian Yong.

Wang Hammer, the officer of the Wu military camp who was ordered to lead the army to attack, kept in mind the previous experience, gritted his teeth and led Wu Jun Lian Yong into within 50 meters, and then ordered Wu Jun Lian Yong to shoot and shoot, and launched the most regular line of up shooting and shooting with Lin Afu's army. As a result, at this time, Wu Junlianyong's equipment advantages and training advantages were also fully displayed, the firing rate of the firing pin gun was super fast, and it could easily shoot five or six bullets in one minute, the firepower was endless, and the bullet rain was pouring continuously, and although there were thirty or forty of the more than 100 elite soldiers under Lin Afu's command who were equipped with firing pin guns or carbines, the rest were all primitive arquebuses, and the overall rate of fire was far less than that of Wu Junlianyong, who was fully equipped with a firing gun, and the firepower was completely suppressed. Less than three minutes after the queue was shot and fired, the Lin army musketeers, who had suffered heavy casualties, could only hide after the fortifications that had just been built to avoid the Wu army's fire.

Hiding behind the fortifications did not have much effect, Wu Jun Lian Yong only used a charge, and directly killed the inside of the unfinished fortifications of Lin Afu's army, and also forced Liu Lichuan to Lin Afu The cannon fodder soldiers were so frightened that they were scattered, and they rushed to the rear to flee far away. At the same time, seeing that the general trend had gone, Lin Afu had no choice but to obediently flee south with the remnants of the elite soldiers.

At the same time, there was some movement in Zhou Lichun's camp, but instead of sending troops to help Lin Afu, he shot and shot the defeated soldiers under Lin Afu's command who tried to storm their camp, forcing Lin Afu's defeated soldiers to flee in other directions. At the same time, Zhou Lichun was still yelling in the camp, "Beat the fuck!" It's only been a long time to lose, Liu Lichuan, you show Lao Tzu a look! Let's see! ”

easily defeated Lin Afu's rabble, and Wu Chaoyue did not chase after Lin Afu's defeated soldiers - anyway, most of the defeated soldiers were killed and only wasted bullets. After capturing as many prisoners as possible and quickly gathering the army, Wu Chaoyue ordered Cao Yanzhong to lead a battalion to attack Zhou Lichun's camp. ”

"Lord Wu, why?" Cao Yanzhong asked in confusion: "A hundred meters away from the musket fire, how can the last general break through the long-haired camp?" ”

"I want to see Zhou Lichun learn us to that point." Wu Chaoyue replied with a smile: "Before going north to King Qin, I heard that Zhou Lichun imitated our tactical operations and defeated the officers and troops in Changzhou. ”

Dejectedly took over the task of testing the enemy's virtual reality, Cao Yanzhong simply lined up the soldiers of the four sentinels into two horizontal formations, and the formation was loosely advanced to Liu Lichuan's camp 100 meters away to shoot, Zhou Lichun's army went all out to meet the battle, and probably the virtual reality was soon exposed in front of Wu Chaoyue.

Not to mention, Zhou Lichun really had a look at the tactics of Wu Jun's training and bravery, the horizontal team tried to strengthen the firepower density as intensively as possible, and used a small number of high-precision mini guns to cover the shooting, at the same time, Zhou Lichun was also quite genius The musket tactics of the Taiping Army were also introduced into the linear tactics, and a large number of individual bunkers were built under the camp fortifications, and the soldiers were ambushed to shoot outside, and the camp defense was quite good, and generally speaking, there was already a prototype of a strong army.

It's a pity that such a Zhou Lichun army is still not worth mentioning in the main force of the Wu army, not to mention that the main force of the Wu army that is definitely not armed to the teeth in the field battle, even if it continues to defend the camp and does not come out, as long as the Wu army trains Yong to send out heavy artillery bombardment and bombard the front of Zhou Lichun's camp with bitter acid shells, it is also easy to take Zhou Lichun's camp. And patiently waited for a while, and after seeing that Zhou Lichun's army had no more tricks, Wu Chaoyue had no choice but to shrug his shoulders in disappointment and ordered: "Mingjin, let Cao Yanzhong retreat and reorganize the team, and it is not too late to clean up Zhou Lichun when our artillery battalion arrives." ”

Ringing the golden gong, Cao Yanzhong, who was ordered to be tempted, couldn't wait to order a retreat, and Wu Chaoyue also hurriedly raised his binoculars to search for Zhou Xiuying's whereabouts, but what surprised Wu Chaoyue was that there was a huge cheer in Zhou Lichun's camp, and the generals and soldiers jumped and jumped with joy, and they were ecstatic to repel a tentative attack by Wu Jun's practice. Seeing this scene, Wu Chaoyue's heart moved, and he immediately put down his binoculars and instructed Wu Dadao: "Send someone to give Meng Yu an order, telling him to set up camp on the spot after arriving in Jiangwan and establish a camp that can garrison our main force." As for Qin Ruhu, continue to come over and listen to orders. ”

At the same time that Wu Da promised to make a promise, Zhao Liewen asked Wu Chaoyue suspiciously: "Comfort Pavilion, why don't you fight?" If we use artillery, it won't be difficult to take Zhou Lichun's camp? ”

"If you were Zhou Lichun and repelled my attack, what would you think?" Wu Chaoyue asked rhetorically: "If you were Zeng Lichang and Liu Lichuan, what would you think when you saw Zhou Lichun withstanding my attack?" Also, do you think it is convenient for our army to fight Changmao here, or is it convenient to break through Changmao's defense line on the Wu Yan River first and then look for a decisive opportunity? ”

Zhao Liewen thought about it for a while, and soon realized it, but Zhao Liewen was still a little uneasy, and hurriedly reminded: "Comfort Pavilion, don't forget our arsenal, the situation there may be very critical." ”

"Don't worry, your brother-in-law and Deng Siyuan can hold it." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "Your brother-in-law's subordinates have made it very clear, they will use the agreed signal to tell your brother-in-law that our main force has arrived, and when we hear this good news, our morale will soar, and we will definitely fight more tenacious." The long-haired army is the opposite, knowing that our main force will only panic, and the more we fight, the more panicked we become, and at the same time, we have to consider leaving reserves to resist our main force, and dare not attack our arsenal with all our strength, your brother-in-law and Deng Siyuan will have a chance to breathe. ”

When Zhao Liewen nodded suspiciously, Wu Chaoyue immediately came up with another bad idea, and sent a few loud Wu Jun Lian Yong to touch Zhou Lichun's camp and insult loudly, from Zhou Lichun's ancestor eighteen generations to Zhou Lichun's non-existent son, pretending to want to lure Zhou Lichun into battle. And although Zhou Lichun was not fooled into sending troops, he was fooled in another aspect, and subtly gave birth to such an idea - Wu Chaoyue may have no way to take his camp fortifications.

Wu Chaoyue's tricks were not finished, and after a while, when Qin Ruhu, a general of the Qing army, came to Wu Chaoyue with a thousand green battalion soldiers, Wu Chaoyue just whispered a few words in Qin Ruhu's ear, promising to give Qin Ruhu a share of the battle achievements in the future. Qin Ruhu immediately happily accepted the order and commanded the green battalion soldiers under his command to attack Zhou Lichun's camp in batches, and when the green battalion soldiers asked Wu Jun why Lian Yong didn't go? Qin Ruhu replied loudly: "Lord Wu's regimental training consumed too much ammunition and insufficient ammunition when he was King Qin, so he must use it sparingly now." ”

In order to make Zhou Lichun feel that he was deliberately using the green battalion soldiers to lure the enemy, Wu Chaoyue once asked Qin Ruhu to deliberately deceive the enemy, but Wu Chaoyue soon found that he was purely wasting saliva, and finally understood why Xiang Rong's Jiangnan battalion had been stationed outside Nanjing for more than a year without an inch. They are already known as the elite soldiers sent by the Jiangnan battalion, and the green battalion soldiers under Qin Ruhu only dare to put their guns more than 100 or 200 meters away, and every time they are forced to attack, they run backwards without rushing a few steps, how do they look like they are deliberately luring the enemy, but also successfully make Zhou Lichun more and more confident, and feel that there is great hope for repelling Wu Chaoyue with strong fortifications.

After tossing in this way until the afternoon, after fully creating the illusion that it could not be attacked for a long time, and also confirming the news that Deng Siyuan and Zhou Tenghu were still firmly holding the self-army arsenal, Wu Chaoyue decisively ordered to retreat to Jiangwan to set up camp. And after seeing the retreat of the main force of the Wu army, of course, Zhou Lichun's camp was full of cheers, and the roars of joy were earth-shattering, one after another, continuously, and the excited Zhou Lichun immediately went to contact Zeng Lichang and reported to Zeng Lichang that his army had repelled Wu Chaoyue. At the same time, Zhou Lichun naturally had to report to Zeng Lichang about the ugly state of Liu Lichuan's army, and asked Zeng Lichang to send him a truly reliable reinforcement to help him more effectively resist the attack of Wu Junlianyong.

In addition, Zhou Lichun of course made a small report by the way, telling Zeng Lichang about Wu Chaoyue's public request for Lin Afu to give Liu Lichuan a letter.

When the news of Zhou Lichun's victory was delivered to Zeng Lichang, Zeng Lichang, who had always been helpless with the Wu Army Arsenal, couldn't believe his ears, and subconsciously gave birth to such a thought, "Beyond the little demon, shouldn't you be deceiving and luring the enemy?" ”

After careful calculation, Zeng Lichang found that it was not completely impossible for the Wu army to be truly defeated, first of all, the first point was that the main force of the Wu army went north to Qinwang, and the ammunition has not been replenished after many battles, and now the possibility of insufficient ammunition is very large. The second is that when the generals of the Taiping Army summarized the operational characteristics of Wu Chaoyue, they found that Wu Jun Lianyong was best at defensive warfare and field warfare, but his performance was mediocre in the battle, and the only time he broke through the Taiping Army camp was to lure the enemy by trickery, and deceived Lin Fengxiang's main force to take the initiative to break away from the fortifications to protect and win in the field battle, Zhou Lichun's army was guarded by the camp, and was never deceived into going out of the camp for a decisive battle, and it was completely reasonable to carry the Wu army's attack with the fortifications.

Such a thought was born in his heart, and Zeng Lichang naturally gave birth to the idea of using defensive warfare to consume the main force of the Wu army - the intelligence of the Taiping Army clearly showed that the weapons and ammunition of the Wu army had to be purchased from Prussia, which was tens of thousands of miles away, and could not be supplied on the spot, as long as the Taiping army survived until the ammunition of the main force of the Wu army was exhausted, it was definitely not impossible to kill Wu Chaoyue, whose hands were stained with the blood of his comrades!

After being tempted, after hesitating for a long time, Zeng Lichang still made up his mind and sent Huang Shengcai and Yan Zhongwu to lead two thousand main forces to cross the Wu Yan River overnight and go north to Zhabei to help Zhou Lichun, but repeatedly explained that Huang Shengcai and Yan Zhongwu were only allowed to stick to the camp fortifications and were absolutely not allowed to risk fighting. In addition, Zeng Lichang also secretly issued an order to General Huang Yan's second general, an order that could ensure that the reinforcements would not be completely wiped out by the Wu army............

At the same time as the deployment of troops, Zeng Lichang has of course been waiting for Liu Lichuan's news, hoping that Liu Lichuan can be informed and interested, and take the initiative to present the letter written to him by Wu Chaoyue. But it's a pity that Zeng Lichang waited until midnight and didn't wait for Liu Lichuan's messenger, and in addition to being angry, Zeng Lichang said in his heart: "This Liu Lichuan is probably unreliable." (To be continued.) )