As Zuo Zongtang worried, although he was very proud to almost annihilate the Hunan army and kill his old opponent Zeng Guofan, the current commander of the Taiping Army's Western Front, Yan Wang Qin Rigang, was still very clear in his heart, knowing that this victory was a fluke, if it wasn't for the Hunan Army's naval division making a fatal wrong choice at a critical moment, and if it weren't for the fact that the Wu Army's naval division never dispatched, the Taiping Army's naval division would still be able to defeat the Hunan army, and the victory would not be so brilliant. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Qin Rigang also knew one thing better, that is, after arriving on land, the self-army had no possibility of defeating Wu Chaoyue's elite lineage, so just after breaking through the remnants of the Hunan army in Gray Mountain, Qin Rigang immediately gave birth to such a tactical idea, abandoning the mouth of Jiujiang Tunbing Lake, taking Poyang Lake as the boundary, relying on Shizhongshan and Meijiazhou to build a water defense line, taking a defensive position on the water to prevent Wu's naval division from going east, and developing southward on land, seizing Raozhou, Guangxin and Fuzhou and other Jiangxi land cities west of Poyang Lake. Avoid the edge of the Wu army and only find trouble with the Qing army in Jiangxi.

If Qin Rigang had the power to finalize the tactical plan, then before the Wu army's naval division rushed to Jiujiang, the Taiping army's superior naval division was very sure to transfer the main force of the Jiujiang Taiping army, so that the Jiujiang Qing army, which had Liu Kun's division, could only look at the water and sigh. However, it is a pity that Qin Rigang does not have this power, and the important town of Jiujiang, which is geographically far more important than Hukou, is not something that can be given up, so Qin Rigang can only write his idea into a letter and send someone to Nanjing to ask Yang Xiuqing to take this idea. And then ......

And then Qin Rigang, who was already very dissatisfied with Yang Xiuqing, inevitably hated Yang Xiuqing even more, and Nanjing had not sent a reply, and the Third Corps of the Wu Army, which had been expanded to four battalions, was led by Cao Yanzhong and Liu Mingchuan, the generals of the Wu Army, and under the protection of the Wu Army's naval division of the three battalions, it entered Jiangxi with great momentum and directly entered the Jiujiang battlefield. Then, although the Qing army transferred six battalions of E Yong back to Tianjia Town for fortification, the strength of the Qing army on the Jiujiang battlefield did not change much, but after learning this news, Qin Rigang still couldn't help but look up to the sky and sighed, "Trouble, the Qing demon will pump the car as much as the general wants this time, Dongwang Jiu,000 years old, why didn't you think about giving up Jiujiang and retreating to Hukou beforehand?" ”

Let Qin Rigang nest the fire is still behind, the Qing army's side of the battle has not yet been rotated, Yang Xiuqing has already sent his henchman Hou Yukuan as an envoy, with a letter to Hukou to Qin Rigang to act as a supervisor, and also scolded Qin Rigang in the letter A bloody head - the battle has not yet been fought and the transcendence demon is already afraid of this point, so simply send the head directly to the transcendence demon who will come to fight the kingdom of heaven sooner or later!

Jiujiang Town must not give up! It is also necessary to use Jiujiang as a bait to attract the Wu Army's naval divisions, which are not yet proficient in operating steamships, to dispatch and try to annihilate the Wu Army's naval divisions and obtain the right to control the river in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River! -- This is the highest instruction given by Yang Xiuqing in the honor of Heavenly Father to the Jiujiang War! Only the implementation can not be questioned, let alone perfunctory!

Of course, this is also the highest instruction that winning or losing is only beneficial to Yang Xiuqing himself, if he loses, Yang Xiuqing can justifiably clean up Qin Rigang, go to prison and kill the head as he wants. If he wins, of course, it is the best, he can severely damage the water power of Wu, who is also an enemy and friend, and obtain the right to control the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and also eliminate the huge hidden dangers in the upper reaches of Nanjing.

By the way, the most extreme point of Yang Xiuqing's wishful thinking is that the current Taiping Army Navy is a light and flexible small pulling boat as the main warship, and the combat effectiveness of a single ship is not strong enough but the number is amazing, even if it is defeated, most of the warships and sailors can still easily escape and return to the team, and it is almost impossible to suffer real heavy losses.

In addition, after seeing the power of the foreigners' steam warships, Yang Xiuqing also began to set up the Taiping Army's steam fleet, preparing to use it to clean up the Red Dan fleet under the Qing Army's general Wu Quanmei, as well as to guard against Wu Chaoyue, the good brother who was the first to purchase and equip steam gunboats in China. Therefore, as long as the skilled sailors can be kept, no matter how much the low-cost small pull-out boat loses, Yang Xiuqing will not feel distressed.

To get back to the point, Qin Rigang is not without the opportunity and strength to successfully carry out the supreme instructions of Yang Xiuqing's Heavenly Father, the grain and grass in Jiujiang City are quite abundant, and there is no problem in persisting for half a year, during which he has obtained a supply of ammunition and weapons, and has the strength to hold on to Jiujiang Jiancheng for a long time, Qin Rigang does not have to rush to risk reinforcing Jiujiang for a long time.

On the other hand, because the Wu army had not yet had time to train qualified sailors to skillfully operate the steam gunboats, the two newly equipped steam gunboats were not sent to Jiujiang to participate in the war, and the Wu army's naval division still used the Loyalty and Renyi as the main combat force, and its strength was still inferior to that of the Taiping army's naval division, and the Taiping army's naval division did still hope to achieve a smooth water battle. Therefore, Qin Rigang, who also knew this, faithfully carried out Yang Xiuqing's order, racking his brains to figure out how to completely annihilate the Wu army's naval division.

Of course, it is not as easy as imagined to kill the Wu Junshui Division, which has been formed for nearly two years and has been tested in actual combat, and what is even worse for Qin Rigang is that his real opponent this time is not Yang Wending, an old rookie on the battlefield who is named as the commander of the Qing army, but Zuo Zongtang, a madman from Sanxiang, a genius in the sky. The same knows oneself and knows the other, and is also good at fighting with his brain, Wu Junshui has just arrived near Jiujiang, Zuo Zongtang immediately ordered in the honor of Yang Wending, let Wu Junshui troops be stationed in Danjiazhou, more than ten miles away from the upper reaches of Jiujiang, hiding in the upper reaches of the ordinary sailor garrison led by Bao Chao, and use Bao Chao's sailor stationed in Xiaochikou to give Wu's sailor as a shield and buffer, not giving the Taiping army any chance to launch a surprise sneak attack.

"Ji Gao, let Wang Fu and them garrison Shan Jiazhou, is it too far away? If there is a sudden change on Jiujiang's side, it will be difficult for Wang Fu and them to immediately send troops to fight? ”

"Why worry about such a simple question? Build more beacon towers along the coast from Jiujiang to Shanjiazhou, use smoke during the day and fire at night, and let Wang Fu and them attack in time is not a matter of words? ”

After scolding the stupid Yang Wending, Zuo Zongtang immediately began to arrange the tactics of encircling the point to send reinforcements, and in view of the reinforcements of the Wu army Cao Yanzhong, the Qing army no longer needed to be afraid of the Taiping army taking the initiative to attack in the field, Zuo Zongtang decisively stopped the Qing army's previous continuation of the Zeng Guofan's stubborn battle tactics, ordered the Qing army to abandon the east gate position of Jiujiang, move the camp to concentrate on the south gate and southeast corner of the Jiujiang River, and deliberately give up part of the communication road between the Jiujiang Taiping Army and the Hukou Taiping Army, The Taiping army that lured Hukou to send the main force to reinforce Jiujiang.

At the same time as giving way to the road, Zuo Zongtang vigorously strengthened the siege of Jiujiang City, built a large number of fortified forts higher than the Jiujiang City Wall between the south and west of Jiujiang City to Jingxing Lake and the east to Tuanyupo, arranged artillery bombardment in the city, and carefully arranged Liu Kun, who was the second strongest combat force in the Qing army, on the flank of the protective position in Sanlong Village. At the same time, Zuo Zongtang also ordered his soldiers to cut down a large number of trees and build various siege weapons, and put on a posture of breaking the city by force.

Of course, this is just an illusion, even the soldiers of the Wu army are not good at attacking head-on fortifications, Zuo Zongtang naturally does not expect Liu Kunyi's Zhuangzi battalion and Wang Guocai's green battalion to be able to win Jiujiang City by relying on frontal attack, Zuo Zongtang's real killer weapon is still tunnel blasting, and at the same time excavated three tunnels, respectively from the southwest, due south and southeast three directions approaching Jiujiang City.

Keeping in mind the advice of his son-in-law, Zuo Zongtang's planning and arrangement Yang Wending only signed and sealed, and never asked about the specific details, but in the matter of excavating three tunnels at the same time, Yang Wending raised some objections and asked: "Ji Gao, is it too much to excavate three tunnels at the same time?" Especially in the southeast, you have lifted the siege of the east gate of Jiujiang, and the long hair can easily go out of the city to explore, and the long hair at the mouth of the lake can also be landed in a small boat, and the situation in that area can be detected, and it is easy to expose the entrance of the tunnel and the direction of travel? ”

"Don't ask, you'll understand." Zuo Zongtang didn't bother to explain to Yang Wending, who didn't understand military affairs, but just instructed like an order: "Send a letter to your grandson-in-law, ask him for more new gunpowder, and say that the siege will be used." ”

Very depressed agreed to Zuo Zongtang's request, and while writing a book, Yang Wending of course had to report everything Zuo Zongtang had done to his grandson-in-law. In addition to sending someone to send the picric acid explosives that Zuo Zongtang needed, Wu Chaoyue also gave a simple answer to Yang Wending in his reply to this matter - let him toss!

During this period, thanks to the blessing of the Qing army taking the initiative to abandon the position at the east gate, Luo Xuan, the general of the Taiping Army sitting in Jiujiang City, relied on the scouts to investigate, and sure enough, he had discovered the tunnel that the Qing army was digging in the southeast outside the city. In this regard, Deputy Lin Qirong once suggested taking the risk of sending troops to destroy, but after repeated calculations, Luo Xuan said to Lin Qirong: "Lin Checkpoint, whether to risk sending troops or not, we will discuss it later, but do you think this matter is a little strange?" ”

"Weird there?" Lin Qirong asked suspiciously.

"The Qing Demon has obviously taken the initiative to give up the position outside the east gate, why do you still dig a tunnel in the southeast corner outside the city?" Luo Xuan clasped his hands on his chest, looked at Lin Qirong and asked, "Didn't the Qing Demon think that the tunnel in this position is the easiest for us to discover and destroy?" The Qing demon wants to dig a tunnel to blow up the city wall, and there is a suitable place in the south, why does the Qing demon give up the easy and difficult, but to dig a tunnel in the southeast corner where it is not easy to hide? ”

Not to mention, after listening to the questions raised by Luo Outline, Lin Qirong really immediately found out that the situation was indeed wrong - the soil in this area of Jiujiang is thick, and everywhere is suitable for digging tunnels - so the Hunan army can dig so many trenches to surround Jiujiang City, in this case, why didn't the Qing demon side dig a tunnel to approach Jiujiang City directly south of the heavy garrison, so as to ensure the concealment of the tunnel to the greatest extent, why did it dig a tunnel in the southeast where it is easiest to be discovered?

How do you look at this, how does it seem that the Qing Demon deliberately wants the Taiping soldiers to discover the existence of the tunnel?

Thinking of this, Lin Qirong immediately nodded his head and said: "It's still Prime Minister Luo Cheng's heart, this situation is not right, the Qing Demon is on the side, it seems that he deliberately wants us to discover their authenticity!" If that's the case, this tunnel in the southeast is a trick to cover up their real killing! Qing Demon has another purpose! ”

"I think so too." Luo Xuan nodded, frowned again, and said, "But, what is the true purpose of the Qing Demon?" Lure us into sending troops to attack, or are we digging fake tunnels while digging real tunnels? Or is this really the carelessness of the Qing Demon, not considering that the tunnel will be discovered by us? ”

Unable to judge the true purpose of the Qing Demon, Luo Xuan, who was already over half a hundred years old, did not bother to drill the tip of the horns, and after thinking for a moment, he ordered: "That's it, three, first, send someone to cross the lake in a small boat and inform His Royal Highness King Yan of this situation." Second, send more local people to serve as detailed workers, disguise themselves as ordinary people and go out of the city, focusing on reconnoitring the south of the main camp of the Qing demons to see if the Qing demons are digging tunnels in other places. Third, bury a listening urn in the city to find the location of the demon's tunnel. ”

Lin Qirong agreed, and when he immediately started to make arrangements, Luo Xuan added another one, and instructed: "Be more cautious, organize a commando team, bring more gunpowder bags, go out of the city late tonight, try to sneak attack the entrance of the tunnel dug by the Qing Demon in the southeast, and see what the Qing Demon's reaction is." ”

According to Luo Xuan's instructions, it was the second watch of the night, a Taiping army commando composed of more than 50 people went down to the city with the help of ropes, carrying a few gunpowder bags and quietly touched the entrance of the Qing army tunnel that was the first to be discovered, but because of the negligence of the Qing army green battalion soldiers who protected the entrance of the tunnel, the peripheral sentries were lazy to sleep, until the Taiping soldiers touched less than 100 meters away from the entrance of the tunnel, the green battalion soldiers guarding the tunnel found that the enemy appeared and quickly sounded the alarm.

It was too late to issue the alarm, and the combat effectiveness was a little sorry, and the green battalion soldiers in the hurry to meet the battle were not the elite opponents of the Taiping Army, and were directly killed by the Taiping Army commando with a charge, and when the earthworkers and people in the tunnel hurriedly escaped from the tunnel, the Taiping soldiers had already lit the gunpowder bag and threw it into the tunnel, and almost effortlessly blew up the tunnel entrance that the Qing army had worked hard to dig, and buried dozens of people alive. Then the soldiers of the Taiping Army quickly withdrew before the neighboring Wu army Liu Kun rushed to the rescue, and successfully completed the task assigned by Luo Xuan and Lin Qirong.

The news was reported to Yang Wending and Zuo Zongtang overnight, in this regard, Yang Wending of course shouted bitterly and was disappointed, Zuo Zongtang scolded the incompetence of the green battalion soldiers, and shouted: "Immediately dig the tunnel mouth again, see if you can save some people, they are all raised by your parents, how much you can save and how much you can save back!" ”

When the earthwork reserve team rushed to the southeast corner to rescue the buried migrant workers, the Taiping Army commando team had already reported the battle to Luo Outline and Lin Qirong. ”

After sneering, Luo Outline told Lin Qirong to closely reconnoiter the south of Jiujiang City to find the real tunnel entrance of the Qing army.

Fortunately, thanks to the great blessing of digging the entrance to the tunnel, and because the black powder used by the Taiping Army was less powerful than the explosion, relying on the full excavation of the Qing army's earthwork team, the Qing army miraculously rescued most of the migrant workers trapped in the tunnel, and the casualties of the migrant workers were far less than Yang Wending and Zuo Zongtang expected, and almost all of the unlucky migrant workers who were killed directly and buried alive by the collapsed soil were really killed.

In this regard, Yang Wending, of course, called Amitabha Buddha with his palms, and Zuo Zongtang ordered on his behalf to immediately behead the green battalion soldiers who were lazy and slept when they were on guard, and ordered Liu Kunyi's Zhuangzi battalion soldiers to take over the defense of the entrance to the tunnel in the southeast corner, and at the same time ordered to remove the soil at the entrance of the tunnel, re-strengthen and continue to excavate.

"Mr. Ji Gao, are you still digging here?" Yang Wending asked with a sad face: "It's too dangerous here, should you just give up?" ”

"You can't give up, you have to keep digging!" Zuo Zongtang replied with a straight face: "Without this tunnel as a cover, our other two tunnels will soon be discovered by Long Hair, here is a way to cover other tunnels, we must continue to dig!" ”

Unable to resist Zuo Zongtang's obscenity, Yang Wending, who had already gone to Xinjiang to eat cantaloupe once, also learned a lesson, and honestly carried out the dispatch of Zuo Zongtang from Zhuge and ordered the soldiers and soldiers to continue to dig this very inauspicious tunnel in the southeast corner of Jiujiang, and because there were already dead people in this tunnel, Yang Wending was forced to pay more wages for the people here and reward wine and meat for every meal, so it was not easy to continue the underground project!

may be due to the lack of battlefield experience, Zuo Zongtang's trick not only failed to deceive Luo Xuan and Lin Qirong, who were old on the battlefield, but also strengthened their determination to explore the true authenticity of the Qing army. Although the entrances of the other two tunnels were closely protected by the main force of the Qing army, the Taiping army could not directly find the real tunnel entrance of the Qing army, but after Yanjialong Mountain in the southwest corner of Jiujiang City, a large amount of fresh soil was found that had just been excavated, and there were a large number of heavy rut marks, which indirectly proved that the Qing army had dug tunnels in other locations.

Confirming this, Luo Xuan and Lin Qirong of course listened to the urn's reconnaissance focus on the southwest corner, fortunately, Zuo Zongtang is also a very cunning person, after the road is close to the city wall within half a mile, Zuo Zongtang ordered the soldiers to slow down the speed of excavation, try to avoid making too much noise, and at the same time bombard the city with artillery from time to time to cover up the underground sound. As a result, this hand also received a fairly good effect, and the Qing army's tunnels were not until they were within 50 meters of the city wall, and the Taiping army barely confirmed that the Qing army was digging three tunnels at the same time, approaching the city of Jiujiang from three directions.

Coincidentally, this day happened to be the twenty-seventh day of the sixth year of the Wild Boar Skin Ninth Xianfeng, and there were only three days left before the New Year. And in the evening, after confirming the progress of the three tunnels again, Zuo Zongtang, who has rarely spoken, rarely took the initiative to speak, and said to Yang Wending: "Congratulations to Yang Daotai, if it goes well, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, we will have hope to break through the Jiujiang city wall, and on the first day of the new year, we will break through a major town, and the red flag will be sent to the capital. ”

"Mr. Ji Gao, are you sure that you will win Jiujiang on the first day of the Lunar New Year?" Yang Wending asked suspiciously.

"It's not to take, it's to break." Zuo Zongtang replied: "After the city wall is blown up, we still have to fight street battles, and we also have to fight water battles with Changmao, only God knows if we can really take Jiujiang City on that day." ”

"Mr. Ji Gao, how exactly are we going to fight this battle?" Yang Wending hurriedly asked again.

"You don't have to worry about how to fight, I'll arrange it for you."

Zuo Zongtang replied arbitrarily, but when Yang Wending showed helplessness, Zuo Zongtang, who had always had a serious and arrogant expression, rarely showed a little smile, and said with a smile: "Yang Daotai, give you a hint, haven't you noticed it all along?" The city wall in the southeast corner of Jiujiang is a little dilapidated, and the terrain is a little high? ”

"What? Don't......?! ”

When Yang Wending opened his mouth to stammer, Zuo Zongtang smiled even more happily, and said with a smile: "Also, haven't you found out until now, because I deliberately let go of the east gate, the pressure of Jiujiang Changmao in the east gate has been reduced, and I want to rely on the east gate to get reinforcements from Hukou Changmao, and there has been no sign of blocking the east gate of Jiujiang with soil and stones?" (To be continued.) )