The day after the Taiping army fully retreated to Nanjing, Cao Yanzhong also came to Nanjing with the main force of his department, including the Wu army's water division, the four major corps of the Wu army officially met together, Wu Chaoyue ordered to reward the three armies, and at the same time held a banquet in his own Chinese army tent, and the main civil and military officials of the Wu army celebrated the main force of the division, the successful rescue of Feng Sanbao's corps and the repeated victories on the battlefield outside the city, and recounted the feelings of farewell.

The reunion after a long absence is celebrated after a series of big victories, Wu Jun's celebration banquet is of course full of festive atmosphere, full of smiles, everywhere is mutual compliments and mutual praise, Wu Chaoyue also forgot Feng Sanbao's previous mistake of making a big mistake by entering alone, and he was very caring for Feng Sanbao, as if he had been concerned about the life and death of his father-in-law. In return for the favor, Feng Sanbao also forgot that he had quietly complained behind his back several times that his son-in-law refused to send reinforcements early, and he took the initiative to ask for guilt and thanked him again and again, and at the end he also took the initiative to ask Ying: "King Zhennan, when you fight Jiangning City, please be sure to let the army of the last general serve as the main force of the attack, and the last general will definitely guarantee that you will not be disappointed." ”

Next to him, Li Hezhang and Ding Baozhen and other Wu army civil and military officials of Feng Sanbao's army quietly rolled their eyes, secretly scolded Feng Sanbao for saying big things, and was not afraid to flash his tongue, but actually had the face to let the weakest of the four major corps of the Wu army fight for the heavy task of attacking the main force. Fortunately, Wu Chaoyue was also very clear about the strength of Feng Sanbao's corps, so he erased this question with a haha, and said with a smile: "Father-in-law, don't worry, I haven't made up my mind about how to fight Jiangning City yet, so I'll wait for the detailed battle plan to be formulated." ”

Wu Chaoyue's words were just polite to his father-in-law, but Bi Jinke, the general of the Wu army next to him, immediately took over the conversation and said: "King Zhennan, there is a suggestion on how to attack Jiangning City. Changmao has two camps in the northwest corner of Jiangning, one is called Tianbao City, which is located on the top of Purple Mountain, and the other is called Bunker City, which is located on a mountain called Dragon's Neck, the top of this Dragon's Neck Mountain is higher than the Jiangning City Wall, and artillery can be arranged to directly bombard Jiangning City, and the foot of the mountain is only a dozen zhang wide from the nearest part of Jiangning City Wall. If we take these two long-haired camps, and then use artillery cover to cooperate with civil engineering operations, it should be much easier to attack Jiangning City from the area of the dragon's neck than from other places. ”

"You've already been to the site to explore?" Wu Chaoyue asked.

Bi Jinke nodded, and said: "The last general also estimates that with the manpower and material resources we can use, we can completely use grass, trees, sand and stones to fill in a road between the foothills of Longneck Mountain and the Jiangning City Wall, so that we can directly rush into Jiangning City from Longneck Mountain." (Real terrain, one of the city-breaking tactics of the Hunan army in history.) ）

Bi Jinke's words immediately aroused the interest of the generals of the Wu army, and they all pulled Bi Jinke to the newly made map sand table, and asked Bi Jinke to point out the flaws in the defense of Jiangning City that he had discovered. However, Wu Chaoyue was not very excited about Bi Jinke's discovery, first appeased the generals' requests, and then said with a wine glass: "I can trust Ying Hou's vision, judging from his introduction, the position of the dragon's neck should indeed be an ideal siege breakthrough." But have you ever thought about it, we can find this flaw, will the long-haired side be ignorant of this weak point in the city's defense? If Long Hair is carefully arranged for this weakness, even if we enter Jiangning City from the dragon's neck, I am afraid that it will be more than lucky, and it will be difficult to succeed in one fell swoop. ”

Considering that the Taiping army refused to give up the two camps of Tianbao City and Bunker City located outside the city, it was obvious that they were wary of the special terrain in that area, and the generals of the Wu army nodded one after another, admitting that the Taiping army was very likely to be very aware of the weakness of this city defense, and Dai Wenjie, the chief of staff of the Wu army, also stood up and said: "Everyone, although our Zhennan King did not personally go to the area of Purple Mountain and Dragon Neck to explore, However, our scout has already found out the situation in that area and reported it to our Zhennan King, and our Zhennan King has long found that it is an ideal breakthrough for attacking the city, but he has never considered attacking the city from there from the beginning. ”

"Mr. Wenjie, why?" Bi Jinke hurriedly asked.

"There are two reasons, the first is that the terrain is narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of our siege forces." Dai Wenjie replied, "The second is that the terrain in the city around the dragon's neck is special, and it is easy for long hairs to set traps. The king of Zhennan estimated that if Longhair was willing, they could build an inner city wall from Taiping Gate in the north to the inner city of Jiangning in the south overnight, and even if our army entered the city from the dragon's neck, it would have to face the new city wall blocked by Longhair, and it was likely to be ambushed by the fire attack and mines arranged by Longhair in advance, and suffered heavy losses. ”

After carefully looking at the narrow distance from the inner city of Jiangning to the Taiping Gate of the outer city on the sand table, Bi Jinke suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and hurriedly surrendered his hand to plead guilty: "The king of Zhennan is wise, and the last general is ignorant, and he did not take into account that Changmao can build a new city wall defense line and arrange ambush traps in the city, and the plan is ridiculous, please ask the king of Zhennan to punish the crime." ”

"Who said your plan was ridiculous?" Wu Chaoyue shook his head and said, "If Changmao doesn't have many defenders in the city and doesn't have enough strength to quickly build the city walls and set traps, then your tactical plan must be too correct to be correct, and I will definitely adopt it immediately." But now the situation is different, Li Xiucheng brought almost 80,000 longhair into the city, plus the long-haired defenders and people in the city, there is enough manpower to turn the weakness of the dragon's neck into a trap, so if we just stare at the dragon's neck, not only will it be difficult to succeed, but it may also be in the arms of longhair, giving longhair a chance to clean us up. ”

Bi Jinke hurriedly bowed his head to accept the teaching, but Wu Chaoyue suddenly changed his words and said: "Of course, we can't give up the weakness of Jiangning's city defense, the dragon's neck, we must take down the two long-haired camps of Tianbao City and Bunker City first, and then arrange heavy troops in the dragon's neck, and use the method you said to build a fortified attack, so that Changmao will decide that we want to attack the dragon's neck!" ”

"The king of Zhennan wants to attack the east and the west?" Bi Jinke understood what Wu Chaoyue meant.

"Not bad." Wu Chaoyue nodded and said with a smile: "There are too many long-haired troops in the city, and it is not only difficult to directly attack the city, but even if a breakthrough is made, it will definitely cost a lot of money, and it will be difficult to advance." But if we come to attack the east and west, lure Longhair to concentrate their main combat forces in the area of the dragon's neck, and also lure Longhair to spend a lot of manpower and material resources on the dragon's neck battlefield, and then we suddenly start to exert force in other places, the certainty of success can be much greater. ”

"Then King Zhennan, where should we really fight?" Bi Jinke hurriedly asked again.

"There's no hurry, I haven't thought about it yet." Wu Chaoyue shook his head again, raised the wine glass in his hand again, and said with a smile: "Okay, the military affairs are over today, today is a good day for us to celebrate the great victory outside the city and the main force of the division, although we can't get drunk, but we must drink happy." Come, let's have a toast together. ”

Wu Chaoyue didn't say anything wrong this time, the feint attack on Nanjing's weak city defense dragon neck was indeed in Wu Chaoyue's plan, but Wu Chaoyue never made up his mind about what point he really attacked while feint to attack the dragon's neck. Because there are too many enemies in Nanjing City, Li Xiucheng's remnants plus the original Nanjing defenders, conservatively estimated to be more than 100,000 people, plus the people who can be mobilized, it is enough to rely on the strong city defense of Nanjing City to give the Wu army a head-on attack, the Wu army is difficult to succeed in a frontal attack, even if it succeeds, it will definitely cost a huge amount, and once the surprise attack fails, the consequences will definitely be even more unimaginable, so before finding out the enemy's defense situation, Wu Chaoyue will never dare to rashly decide on siege tactics and choose a siege breakthrough point.

In addition, the purpose of this battle also determines that Wu Chaoyue's battle will not be easy to fight, because Wu Chaoyue's purpose in this battle is to completely kill Hong Xiuquan and Li Xiucheng, but they have a chance to make a comeback, so this determines that Wu Chaoyue cannot concentrate his forces in one place, and must ensure that Hong Xiuquan and Li Xiucheng break through and break out of the encirclement of the Wu army while ensuring the breakout of the city. - Don't look at Li Xiucheng has been forced into the city of Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan also said that he is reluctant to leave Nanjing, a rich and gentle township, but when the city is broken, let alone Li Xiucheng, even Hong Xiuquan is likely to choose to break through with all his strength to save his life.

It was precisely because of these scruples and considerations that when the specific tactics were formally discussed the next day, Wu Chaoyue had to continue to decide to divide the troops and fight, dividing the Nanjing City Wall into three theaters, from Jinchuan Gate to Jubaomen, which was jointly responsible for the direct corps led by Wu Chaoyue and the Wu Army's naval division; The section of the wall from Tongji Gate to Chaoyang Gate was responsible for Feng Sanbao's regiment, which was the weakest in the Wu army; Cao Yanzhong's corps, which has the largest number of elite battalions in the army, is responsible for the battlefield from Taipingmen to Shencemen, while Cao Yanzhong's corps is also responsible for dealing with Tianbao City and Bunker City, two important camps of the Taiping army, and is also responsible for creating a false attack on the dragon's neck to cover friendly forces to launch surprise attacks on other wall sections.

Wu Chaoyue's war zone arrangement was opposed by Cao Yanzhong, a favorite general, and just after dividing the war zone, Cao Yanzhong said very worriedly: "King Zhennan, is your pressure too great?" It is more than forty miles from Jinchuan Gate to Jubaomen, and it is difficult to take precautions with your directly subordinate corps of less than 30,000 troops and our sailors, right? ”

"Forgot about the Qinhuai River?" Wu Chaoyue asked rhetorically and said: "We have the advantage on the water, the mobile fleet plus a small land garrison, plus the mobile army, it is not a big problem to hold the west of Jiangning." ”

"What about the main attacking army in the west?" Cao Yanzhong asked again, and said, "Also, isn't it too serious that the troops on the general's side are idle?" The last general is only responsible for the Shence Gate, Taiping Gate and the Purple Mountain battlefield, and there is a Xuanwu Lake in the middle that is a natural barrier to intercept the Changmao breakthrough, and then it is just a feint, is there too many idle elite troops? ”

"The main attacking army in the west, I will find a way to pull it out." Wu Chaoyue replied one by one and said, "The battlefield on your side is obviously narrow, but if we don't concentrate enough elites in the Dragon Neck Battlefield, how can Long Hair be fooled into using too much power on the Dragon Neck Battlefield?" ”

"And." Wu Chaoyue added: "Your army is not only Guangguang is responsible for feints, what is the situation in Shence Gate, you are as familiar as me, if it is possible, Shen Ce Gate may be our main direction of attack, and then your pressure will be great." ”

Seeing that Wu Chaoyue was confident, Cao Yanzhong, who had always been obedient, didn't say anything more, but repeatedly told Wu Chaoyue to be careful, don't let the Chinese army be too single, and give the Taiping army a chance to suddenly attack. Wu Chaoyue thanked Cao Yanzhong for his kindness, then turned to Feng Sanbao and instructed: "Father-in-law, in fact, the most pressure is you, your elite battalion is too small, and the army is tired. ”

"King Zhennan, don't worry, if Longhair doesn't break through from me, if they dare to break through from me, I will beat them back even if I risk my life!" Feng Sanbao also said that he had never been very taboo, and asked curiously: "King Zhennan, you said that it is possible for me to attack the main attack, and you are ready to start from Jiangning Dongcheng?" ”

Wu Chaoyue, who has not yet decided on the main point of attack, smiled bitterly and replied: "Don't ask more, you will know when the time comes." ”

After dividing the fighters, the four major corps of the Wu army immediately began to adjust the deployment, Cao Yanzhong's corps bypassed the Purple Mountain and returned to the Jiangning City Gate, Feng Sanbao's corps left Yuhuatai and moved to Xiaolingwei, Wu Chaoyue personally led the direct corps and the Wu army's naval division took over the east line of Nanjing, and the water and land joined forces to block the eastern gates of Nanjing, and at the same time, the general of the Wu army, Qian Wei, also led an army to the north to go up and down the pass, responsible for dealing with the enemies of Yifeng, Zhongfu and Jinchuan who were far away from Jubaomen.

The internal line of operations has a certain mass advantage, of course, the deployment and adjustment of the Wu army was quickly figured out by the Taiping army, and after the intelligence summary report was reported to Li Xiucheng, Li Xiucheng also saw at a glance that Wu Chaoyue's move was to swallow the elephant with a snake and eat his remaining strength and the main force of the Taiping Army in Nanjing.

After discovering that Cao Yanzhong's corps was equipped with firing pin guns, there were more elite battalions of the Wu army than Wu Chaoyue's direct corps, Li Xiuguo immediately suspected that the Wu army was going to attack the dragon neck, the natural weakness of Nanjing's city defense, and immediately strengthened the monitoring and reconnaissance of the Wu army's Cao Yanzhong corps.

However, Li Xiucheng did not rush to use a lot of manpower and material resources to build the inner wall and arrange traps to meet the Wu army, the first reason is that the two key camps of Tianbao City and Bunker City, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, are still in the hands of the Taiping army, and there is no need to be in such a hurry, and the second reason is that Li Xiucheng is also a little worried about Wu Chaoyue's real intentions......

"The dragon's neck here is the weakness of our Tianjing's city defense, but it is a little suspicious to surpass the little demon himself to sit on the southern front, but let a subordinate fight the dragon's neck in the future?" Although the logical analysis of Li Xiucheng's reasoning is completely inconsistent with Wu Chaoyue's thinking, but the crooked attack is correct, Li Xiucheng is still suspicious because of this, and said secretly: "The little demon beyond has always been treacherous, should he want to play with the east and west, and attack the dragon's neck to attract my attention and my main force of city defense, and actually prepare to quietly attack other places, right?" ”