The psychological warfare contest between Zhang Zhidong and Guanwen before the war was only an auxiliary and could not decide the victory, and the real test of the Henan Wu army, which entered the city of Beijing alone, was still to come, and whether the Henan Wu army led by Zeng Guoquan could maintain the rich victory was still a huge unknown. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the early morning of the sixth day of the first lunar month, after a series of strict pre-battle preparations, Guan Wensheng, who was supported by Manchu magnates such as Guizi Liu and Mianyu, took up the command of the Qing army, arranged the deployment of a plan for counterattacking Mancheng, ordered the commander-in-chief Zhang Desheng and Ha Feng'a to lead an army to attack Xuanwumen and Chongwenmen respectively, and ordered Chen Guorui to lead his troops and horses back to the north gate of Mancheng, mobilize to launch a diversion attack, disperse the main force of the Wu army, and also try to open a gap at the northern end of Mancheng, which is far away from the main position.

Zhang Desheng and Ha Feng'a are both rising stars discovered by Guanwen when he repelled Shi Dakai's Northern Expedition, Chen Guorui was already a general of the Qing army who was already in charge at that time, after Guanwen handed over the task of attacking Xuanwu and Chongwen and containing the feint, the other three Qing army rookies Dechun, Sanxingbao and Wang Shiyi, who also won the trust and attention of Guanwen, also immediately straightened their waists, and hoped that Guanwen could hand over the responsibility of attacking Zhengyangmen, the largest gate in the city, to himself, and the remaining Qing generals did not dare to speak. They all knew that the person in charge of attacking Zhengyangmen must be one of the three of them.

To everyone's great surprise, the official text actually handed over the task of attacking Zhengyangmen head-on to the monk Lingqin Monk Wangye, but everyone was stunned, and the official text also said to the monk who looked bad: "Monk Wangye, don't misunderstand, the old man arranged for you to attack Zhengyangmen, but he didn't deliberately harsh you, deliberately pushed the heaviest burden to you, but there is a very important reason, I don't know if the prince knows?" ”

"What is the reason?" The monk asked with a not very good-looking face.

"Because the old man doesn't know how to arrange troops and attack the city, he can only arrange an envoy to be a hands-off shopkeeper, and it all depends on the generals' own efforts to arrange specific siege tactics."

Guan Wen first depreciated himself very modestly, and then said: "Zhengyangmen is not only the south gate of the Inner Nine Cities, but also not far from the main force of the Chinese army of Zeng Guoquan's rebel thieves. ”

"The old man thought about it last night, and found that among the generals under his account, none of them could pick up such a heavy burden, so he could only ask the monk and the prince to go out in person, so as to effectively attack the Wu thieves in Zhengyangmen and create an opportunity to break the city. Therefore, the old man was courageous, and asked the prince to work hard to provoke the heavy burden of attacking Zhengyangmen. ”

After listening to the words of the old fox of the official text, it was the second time that the monk and the prince who had been robbed of the throne of the boss by the official text felt a little better, and said in a big way: "The official platform does not have to be polite, it is all to serve the emperor of the court. ”

"Thank you Lord, Zhengyangmen will ask the Lord, thank you." Guan Wen thanked him again and again, and said: "Monk and prince, the inner city is strong, this battle will definitely take a lot of time, and it is very likely that it will fight overnight. ”

The monk and the prince agreed in a big way, the official text thanked him again, and the monk and Chen Desheng and others who accepted the task immediately went to prepare to send troops, and then after the monk and the prince left, the official Wen shouted again: "Dechun, Sanxingbao, Wang Shiyi, go out and listen to the order!" ”

"The last general!" Dechun and Sanxingbao and others came out to hold their fists.

"The three of you, lead your men and horses, rest in peace during the day today, eat and drink enough to nourish your physical strength, prepare enough things for night battle, and assemble in the evening." Guan Wen commanded loudly, then waved his hand again, and said, "Go to sleep, the old man will ask you tonight." ”

Vaguely guessing the plan of the old fox of Guanwen, Dechun, Sanxingbao and Wang Shiyi immediately agreed, and without hesitation, they left the headquarters and went back to the camp - sleep! Then, the official document ordered the remaining generals to lead their headquarters to serve as reserves, and accept their own command and dispatch at any time.

Or after all the generals left, Devil Liu, Bao Jun and others gave a thumbs up to the official text and praised together: "The official system is clever, except for your methods, there is really no way to invite the monk and the prince." ”

"It's not enough." Guan Wen smiled and said: "If you want the monk to really take on the heavy responsibility of consuming the main force of the Wu thief, you have to continue to find ways to provoke him, but fortunately, with the arrogant temper of the monk and the prince, it is not difficult to do this." ”

The devil six and the others burst into laughter, and they all admired the old fox of Guanwen for his understanding of the character and temper of the monk and the prince. At the end, Devil Six asked curiously: "Official platform, listen to your arrangements and deployments, it seems that you are planning to do it at night, how to do it?" ”

"Of course, I hope to climb the water pass." The official replied to a term that only old Beijing understood, and said with some concern: "If this trick can't work, it can only be a turn-by-turn attack day and night, relying on manpower to defeat the Wu thief." ”

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At nine o'clock in the morning, the Qing army units that knocked on the three gates in the south of the city entered the position one after another, and the Qing army led by Chen Guorui also went out of the city from the Xibian Gate, and hurried to the north end of the city to feint and contain the Wu army.

In the rumbling of artillery, Zhang Desheng and Ha Feng'a, the two generals unearthed by Guan Wen himself, adopted the new siege tactics that were gradually developed in actual combat in this era, while concentrating artillery fire on the city, while sending a large number of soldiers to sneak into the streets and houses in the north of the outer city, using the streets of the houses as a cover, constantly shooting accurately at the soldiers of the Wu army in the city, weakening the Wu army in the city little by little, sharpening the knife and not cutting the patience of the woodcutters. Wait for the fighter to appear.

The monk and the prince are completely different here, and they still don't know what it means to concentrate firepower, but they just let the artillery bombard blindly in the Zhengyangmen City, rely on luck to kill the soldiers of the Wu army, and at the same time concentrate the archers brigade, and use the ancient bow and arrow to shoot the city, the blind cat touches the mouse and kills the Wu soldiers, and the troops dispatched in the long-range battle are far more than the two armies of Zhang and Ha, and the momentum is also more vast, and the scene is far more powerful than the second army of Zhang and Ha.

On the Wu army's side, Zeng Guoquan, who is known for his good defense, knew that the monk and the prince were actually the best to deal with just by looking at the enemy's tactics, and decided to concentrate firepower to cover the position of the monk and the prince early.

"Bring our breech-loading guns to Zhengyangmen, cover Qianmen Street with crossfire, and wait for the order to fire."

Or in the deployment position of arranging the killer rear-loading rifled gun, Zeng Guoquan introduced his intention to Zhang Zhidong at the request of Zhang Zhidong, and said with a smile: "That idiot of Monk Lingqin doesn't understand how to fight the current battle at all, just looking at his tactical use, I can expect that it won't take much time for him to launch an ant-attached siege, we first deploy the breech-loading flower cannon in place, and then deliberately expose a little flaw, lure him to invest a lot of troops in the ant-attached siege, and then suddenly counterattack, The artillery crossed over Qianmen Street, and it was difficult to prevent Seng Lingqin from suffering heavy casualties. ”

After listening to Zeng Guoquan's introduction, although Zhang Zhidong, who was working hard to learn modern military affairs, had no objections, but after a little calculation, Zhang Zhidong asked Zeng Guoquan a strange question, and said: "Jiu Shuai, do you want to fight more enemies like Seng Lingqin?" Or are you willing to fight the enemy outside the Xuanwu Gate of Chongwen Gate? ”

"Of course I want to fight with Monk Greenqin." Zeng Guoquan said with a smile: "I still wish that Seng Greenqin would be the commander of the rebellious army, then our battle will be much easier." ”

"Then you must not kill Monk Greenqin!" Zhang Zhidong said categorically: "If you attack Seng Lingqin too hard and prove his tactical mistakes, then he may not only change his course, but also may become angry and fight us to the end at any cost." Fighting a desperate monk and two dangerous enemies at the same time may be very difficult for us. ”

After careful consideration, Zeng Guoquan, who found that Zhang Zhidong's opinions were reasonable, and the more he learned, the worse he became, he quickly understood Zhang Zhidong's plan and asked, "Then what do you mean, give the monk a little more face?" ”

"Yes, not only to give him more face, but also to let him be more in the limelight." Zhang Zhidong said with a sneer: "Focus on guarding against the enemies of Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen, don't give them any chance, and try to kill them when you have the opportunity." Zhengyangmen deliberately put some space on this side, and in the case of ensuring safety, he even deliberately let the soldiers of the monk and the prince rush to the Zhengyangmen city to help the monk and the prince prove that he is right, and encourage him to keep fighting like this, so that we may be much easier. ”

After pondering for a while, Zeng Guoquan slapped his thigh and immediately made a decision, immediately ordered the withdrawal of the rear-loading rifled cannon, and sent someone to Zhang Shiri, who was responsible for guarding the Zhengyang Gate, to give him an order to deliberately release water and give the monk more opportunities to show off. At the same time, he ordered Ni Gui and Liu Lianjie, who were on duty at Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen, to tell them to attack the enemy on the opposite side at any cost, and never give the enemy any opportunity to be arrogant.

In the end, in order to prevent accidents, Zeng Guoquan specially arranged for the love general Li Chendian to lead an elite ambush under the Zhengyang Gate, so as to rescue and make up for the leak when Zhang Shiri made a mistake in releasing water - although Zeng Guoquan himself felt that there was no need for this.

After the order was conveyed, although he did not understand Zeng Guoquan's intentions, Zhang Shiri, the general of the Wu army, still strictly implemented Zeng Guoquan's order, and immediately strictly prohibited the use of advanced weapons such as shotgun guns, mini guns and lizhi rifles, and only used old-fashioned arquebuses and lances to resist the enemy, and at the same time stopped using half of the artillery, weakening the firepower by himself to give the monk and the prince a chance to be possessed.

Then, after Zeng Guoquan was keenly aware of the weakening of the enemy's firepower on the wall, the monk did not hesitate to order the launch of the ant siege, and a battalion of Qing troops carried the flying ladder specially built for the city wall to shout up, and hit the river crossing stone bridge under the Zhengyang Gate head-on, and also relied on the deliberate release of water by the Wu army, and rushed through the moat with only one charge, rushed to the Zhengyangmen City, and put the flying ladder on the Zhengyangmen city wall ten meters high.

Seeing this situation in the telescope, the monk prince was of course very proud, proud and proud, and what made the monk even more proud was that the soldiers under his command had rushed to the Zhengyangmen city, and the battlefields of Chongwenmen and Xuanwenmen on both sides were still sparse, and there was no soldier of the Zhili Qing Army who was under the command of the official and civil affairs dared to step on the stone bridge across the river.

It is also destined to be the monk and the prince should be in the limelight, although Zhang Shiri, the general of the Wu army, has a hundred ways to make the Qing soldiers who are attacking with ants get out of the way immediately, but in order to complete the task assigned by Zeng Guoquan, Zhang Shiri is useless, not only that, but also deliberately let the core backbone of the Wu army soldiers be responsible for remedy, only let the Wu army auxiliaries with weak combat effectiveness smash the enemy under the city with primitive sheep's head stones and yaksha beats, and tie their right hands and feet to fight with the monk army with one left hand.

In the shouting of killing, against the sheep's head stone that keeps smashing and the yaksha that falls from time to time, the monks and soldiers bite their weapons and keep stepping up the ladder, scrambling to hit the head of Zhengyangmen City, and also very much to the monks and princes to fight for the front and back, sacrificing their lives fearlessly upward, several times approaching the top of the Zhengyangmen city wall.

After all, it was condescending to smash stones at the inflexible enemy, no matter how bad the combat effectiveness of the Wu army's auxiliaries was, and the hail rain-like stones and ash bottles were smashed, they still killed and injured a lot of monks and soldiers, and every time they were able to smash the monks and soldiers who were about to approach the top of the city wall down the city, and they firmly held the city wall position without the main soldiers of the Wu army.

Seeing this scene, in addition to decisively sending another battalion to the front to continue the fight, the monk and the prince naturally had to send people to the battlefield on the left and right sides to go crazy, asking Zhang Desheng and Ha Feng'a why they didn't dare to charge and attack until now? caused the monk and the prince's elite soldiers to be alone in front and fall into a bitter battle?

Zhang Desheng, who was a fellow villager with Wu Chaoyue, was born in a wild country and did not understand etiquette, so of course he ignored the questioning and condemnation of the envoy of the monk and the prince. However, Ha Feng'a, who was born in the bannerman, knew that it was powerful, and was afraid of the noble blood of the monk and the prince, so he launched a charge and attack in advance, preparing to use gunpowder to blow up the urn gate of Chongwen Gate, and share the pressure of the monk and the prince's fearless hero.

It's a pity that the soldiers of the Hafeng A army have just launched a charge, but the Wu army's bullets and bullets rain immediately covered their heads, and the Wu army's artillery, which had already calibrated the gun position in advance, also fired wildly, forming a crossfire to cover the bridge road, the Kazakh soldiers were killed and wounded, only a few people rushed onto the stone bridge across the river, and because of the weak strength, not only did not retreat quickly, the first charge ended in a fiasco.

Blocked by the streets and houses, it was impossible to directly see the battle situation of Chongwenmen with binoculars, or through the herald soldiers, the monk knew that the friendly army was so weak and powerless, and as a result, when the monk was furious, the Zhengyangmen battlefield in front of him suddenly resounded with cheers. The monk didn't think much about it, and when he quickly turned his head to look, he saw that on the Zhengyang Gate in the distance, there was already a monk soldier wearing a red hat who had successfully rushed to the top of the Zhengyang Gate city wall!

"Up!" The overjoyed monk hurriedly raised the binoculars to take a closer look, but it was a pity that in the telescope, the monk only clearly saw that the warrior of the self-army fell off the city wall on his back, and a bright red blood arrow rushed out of his chest!

"It's a pity!" Extremely sorry yelled, the monk Wang Ye casually grabbed a personal soldier, and shouted: "Go and tell the official Wen that the siege of this king here is going well, but the army of Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen is afraid of the enemy, and they can't share the pressure of attacking the fortified position for this king, so ask him what to do?!" ”

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"Go back and tell the monk and the prince, and say that the old man will immediately go to order Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen, and ask Zhang Desheng and Hafenga to step up the attack, share the pressure for him, please rest assured."

After sending away the envoy of the monk and the prince with a sentence, the official text slammed his fist on the handsome case in front of him, and muttered with a blue face, "Zeng Guoquan, you traitor is ruthless enough!" Wu surpasses the traitor to raise long hair and self-respect, and you raise the pig of the monk Greenqin! Now the old man doesn't want to provoke the pig to work hard, even if he begs the pig to work hard, it's hard! ”

After seeing through Wu Jun at a glance, he deliberately indulged in the arrogance of the monk and the prince, and the official document was not very anxious, on the contrary, he also ordered Ha Feng'a and Zhang Desheng to fight according to their own methods, and they must not be swayed by the requirements of the monk and the prince, and they must not be misled and deceived by the seemingly smooth battle situation on the side of Zhengyangmen. At the same time, he told Devil Six about the specific intentions of Wu Jun alone, and pulled Devil Six and himself to resist the bloodline pressure of the monk and prince, roaring and coercing, patiently consuming Wu Jun's physical strength and ammunition, and waiting for the fighter to mature.

Although the old fox of Guanwen was very calm, sharpening his knife and cutting wood, he was never in a hurry to really exert his strength, but what Guanwen forgot was that his opponent Zeng Guoquan this time was not only known for being good at defense, but also far above him in battlefield experience, and he had already seen his true intentions.

"The old thief is testing the attrition, consuming the physical strength, spirit and ammunition of our soldiers, and while being tired and dragging us down, he also takes the opportunity to test the reality of our city defense, looking for the weakness of our defense, the number and location of artillery." Zeng Guoquan introduced Zhang Zhidong like this: "When everything is ready, he will really exert his strength, and he will really attack the city with real swords and guns." ”

"Jiu Shuai, when does the old thief plan to really do it?" Zhang Zhidong asked curiously.

"If I'm not bad, he should start working between three and four in the afternoon." Zeng Guoquan replied: "Drag us down, disrupt our change of guard deployment, and then at night, he will use his familiarity with the terrain and the cover of the night, as well as the inevitable fatigue and physical decline of our soldiers, to show his real killer weapon." ”

Zhang Zhidong nodded as if he didn't understand, and Zeng Guoquan said again: "Xiaoda, the real knife and real gun, I'm not afraid of the old thief, no matter how he attacks him head-on, I am sure to deal with it, I am only afraid that he will come to Yin, because compared with him, I am really unfamiliar with the situation in the capital." You are good at this, you can think about it for me, if you are an old thief of official literature, what tricks will you use to trap me? ”

Zhang Zhidong nodded, and immediately began to calculate and analyze, and said secretly: "If I am an old thief of official documents, what will I do?" How do you give us a yin? ”