Shi Liang was very crazy, he led his team not only to cross Jinkou, but also to enter Shenshan Lake, which was only a short ten miles away from the position of the Fu Han army on the west side of Wuchang. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Chen Ming was surprised, why was this Qing army of only about 5,000 people so bold? Isn't he afraid that the Fu Han army will come up and devour him in one bite?

Yes, the Henan Qing army and Ma Mingxun's Sichuan army have already arrived at Xiaogan and Hanchuan, and the strength of the Fu Han army to defend these two places is only 10,000 strong, 6,000 people to deal with the Qing army in Henan south, and 4,000 people to deal with the Sichuan soldiers led by Ma Mingxun. Even if Sichuan's follow-up forces have arrived at Anlu, it won't be long before they can reach Hanchuan. However, 10,000 people were enough to meet the enemy, and Chen Ming felt that he was more than enough to use 4,000 people to deal with the Sichuan soldiers who did not have a single cannon in their hands. Therefore, Chen Ming, who is sitting in Hanyang, still has sufficient troops in his hands.

When the Fu Han army left Jiangnan, the number of soldiers in the ranks was already as high as 780,000, 20,000 remained in Jiangnan, and Anqing and Jiujiang were equal to 5,000 each-Chen Yongsheng took the main force of the 1st Brigade to join the veterans of the 12th Battalion to attack Hubei, and Chen Ming sent Miao Fuwei to lead the troops, which was actually equivalent to adding 4,000 or 5,000 people, so that after deducting 30,000, Chen Ming still had 40,000 or 50,000 horses in his hands.

The occupation of Huangzhou was mostly used by logistics troops, and there was a special fleet of sailors along the river, and more than 40,000 people were concentrated in Chen Ming's hands to attack Wuchang, and 10,000 troops were assigned to resist the Sichuan soldiers and Henan's southbound troops, and then the sailors were detained, and there were 30,000 people in Wuchang. Among them, there are so many veterans in armor, and the Qing army continues to lose blood in the night battle, how long can they hold out?

Looking around the entire Hubei battlefield, it is true that the Qing army has a lot of troops, but the Qing army is on the offensive, the Fu Han army is on the defensive, and the Fu Han army on the defensive still has an absolute advantage in artillery fire. The Qing soldiers who were on the offensive came too quickly, and there were only a handful of artillery, which was the reason why Chen Ming didn't care about the Manchu armies at all, which was the biggest gap between the Qing army and the Fu Han army. They lacked artillery, and they were once again blind in numbers in the offensive battle.

In fact, Chen Ming did not think that the Qing army's multi-way encirclement was a encirclement at all. Unless Ah Gui becomes a great magician, a war aura makes the Qing troops of Xiaogan and Hanchuan both enthusiastic, and they regard death as home, and then let the fifteen or six thousand Hunan green battalions led by Fang Shijun beep directly from Honghu to Wuchang City, and then the defenders in Wuchang City also become fierce and fearless of death one by one. In this way, it is really possible that the Fu Han army will not be able to gnaw at Wuchang, which is desperately resisting by 30,000 or 40,000 Qing troops, and will be forced to retreat to Huangzhou Mansion. But this is not possible.

The Fu Han army has already established a firm foothold on the west side of Wuchang, whether it is Shi Liang or Hunan Green Battalion, if they want to collide head-on, they will only knock their heads full of bags, and they will not have a big impact on the front of the Fu Han army. Chen Ming relied on artillery defense.

Cannons, cannons. When the gunpowder of the Fu Han army was sufficient, the gap in artillery strength was simply not something that the Qing army could make up for in the offensive posture with more troops.

Moreover, the current situation is that the morale of the Sichuan Green Battalion is not high, and the Green Battalion from Henan to the south still has a little fighting spirit, but it is almost impossible for them to touch the position of the First Brigade, where Chen Ming is equipped with an additional artillery battalion. The 10,000 troops of the Fu Han Army isolated more than 40,000 Qing troops, and the Hunan Green Battalion led by Fang Shijun and Shi Liang, the Qing army in front of him, were also separated from the Wuchang battlefield by a small number of troops on the west side of the Fu Han Army. The soldiers on both sides seem to be about the same, but the losses of the Qing army in hand-to-hand combat are enough to shake the defenders at this time.

You can't have the morale of a defender at about 20,000 men and still be on par with the morale of 25,000, can you?

The soldiers of the Green Battalion and the two lakes are not fools, and looking at the comrades who are killed or wounded in large numbers every night, the morale is visibly low. Chen Ming had the certainty of taking Hongshan two days ago, but he didn't move. As long as the Fu Han army does not occupy Hongshan, the Qing soldiers will continue to fill the pit here. After Hongshan and Shuangfeng Mountain, they were all raids at night, why didn't Chen Ming choose Hongshan, a territory that was already familiar to the Fu Han army, to fight, and go to Shuangfeng Mountain? There's also the Snake Hill Fort behind it!

However, Chen Ming soon regretted it. Because it's raining in Wuhan. Yesterday was still a sunny day, and the spring sun was shining, and today I haven't seen a trace of the sun since dawn. The sky was cloudy, so dark that it seemed to be dripping water.

In the afternoon, dark clouds rolled in the sky, and in an instant, it poured down from the sky.

The rain was pouring down. It fell straight down like a sifted bean, hitting the bluestone slab outside the house. Then the rain became heavier and heavier, and Chen Ming began to scold himself for being stupid and clever. If he had taken Hongshan two days ago, he would have been able to attack Shuangfeng Mountain directly while it was raining heavily, and wouldn't he be able to bombard Wuchang City around it if he had taken Shuangfeng Mountain.

What do you say there is a point behind the Twin Peaks and the tail of the Snake Mountain? Yes, that point is really disgusting, the Qing army also arranged artillery there, the beacon tower built there during the Qing Dynasty - the Qing Dynasty changed the corner tower, and now it has been changed into a fort, and the height is also higher than the top of the Twin Peaks, but Chen Ming dared to use the cannon to directly annihilate it.

Chen Ming looked out through the long lake, and it was like an incomparably wide bead curtain hanging between heaven and earth, a misty one. The rain fell on the green tiles on the opposite roof, splashing small splashes. The rain flowed down the eaves and began to resemble beads with broken threads, gradually joining into a thread. There is also more and more water on the ground.

Jiang Wei, who was guarding the position on the outer edge of the Western Front, scolded God for not being long-sighted, but he also had to ask for help from the rear, and the mortars, tiger squatting artillery, cannons, and bird guns on the front line under this good rain were all useless, and if the Qing army on the opposite side pounced at this time, Jiang Wei's non-main battalion could not stop the Qing army ten times larger.

In fact, Chen Qi, who was stationed on the east side of Wuchang, urgently ordered He Zixiang to lead the team to the front line of Yehu to reinforce when the heavy rain had just fallen. Yehu Lake is where Jiang Wei is located, and further west is Shenshan Lake, one of the four lakes in the Jinkou area.

He Zixiang is also an old acquaintance of Jiang Wei, and they also have Chen Wei and Tang Wencan, the four battalion officers when Wei Xiuzhi was guarding Wuxi. Not a single one is dead now.

When he was in Wuxi, He Zixiang was the person who was least trusted by Wei Xiuzhi among the four battalion officers, and now He Zixiang is still the worst of the four battalion officers, and even the soldiers under him did not make much move, or the original captive soldiers and the one hundred and ten people that He Zixiang gathered when he was training in the mixed regiment in Nanjing.

However, Chen Wei, Jiang Wei and even Tang Wencan were all in distress in the subsequent war, and the knife wound on Jiang Wei's left leg has not completely healed, but He Zixiang is safe. Not a single scar on his body was added.

"This ...... Master Jun, the old man dared to swear to God, and he definitely didn't say anything in vain. This rain will at least last until dawn. ”

In Chen Qi's headquarters, another local old boatman was invited out by the guards, and this was already the fourth local old man invited by Chen Qi in an hour. The Fuhan army under this heavy rain was caught off guard, so when did the rain stop? It has become a matter of great concern to the top of the Fuhan Army.

Chen Ming doesn't have a golden finger like Liu Xian, he has his own weather forecast, and if he wants to know the climate, it is impossible to find a fortune teller, so he can only ask the local old people to be the most reliable. This boatman is very necessary to care about the weather, Chen Qi has not received a specific order from Chen Ming, he found four local old people, and none of them said that the rain will stop soon.

"Commander-in-chief, the reconnaissance team sent someone to report."

"Quick." Chen Qi, who was pacing in small steps in the command headquarters, was in high spirits.

"Report to the commander-in-chief, Shi Liang led the team back to the camp on the south bank of Shenshan Lake."

"It's Xie Jiashan on the south side of Shenshan Lake?"

"That's it."

Chen Qi had a smile on his face, "Okay, okay." Your reconnaissance team has made a meritorious service, and the news has been delivered in a timely manner. If you can catch Shi Liang, I will let Gao Yuanhou promote you. Of course, what Chen Qi said was a joke, but the news from the reconnaissance team did make up his mind.

"Let Gao Qiao run to arrive."

"The commander-in-chief wants to eat Shi Liang?"

"Either we'll listen to the rain all night." Chen Qi looked at the raindrops outside, the attack tonight will definitely not be successful, I don't know how many shells have fallen on the Hongshan battlefield these days, and the loose land that has been hit by the shells has been poured by the heavy rain, I am afraid that it will turn into a mess of mud. However, the trenches were flooded, and the days of the Qing soldiers were also difficult.

The heavy rain turned into a light rain as it approached dark, but soon a strong wind blew violently, and the light rain soon turned into a heavy rain, and it became heavier and heavier. Gao Qiao took two main battalions and two non-main battalion leaders and set out from Yanchuan Mountain on the shore of Qingling Lake -- Qingling Lake is east of Yehu Lake, closer to Wuchang. The route of their army's march was from Yanchuan Mountain to Chenzi Mountain, and then through the corner of Yebo Mountain, Changmao Mountain, and Turtle Mountain, and then Xie Jiashan and the adjacent Changshan Mountain, from the side of the Qing army under Shi Liang to the front of the Qing army [west], and blocked the passage of Shi Liang's retreat at Coffin Mountain.

There are no too high mountains in Wuhan, these 'mountains' such as Xiejia Mountain, Turtle Mountain, and Coffin Mountain are actually small hills 100 meters high, and even the Hongshan is less than 100 meters high. After the coffin mountain, as long as you don't go to the river, you can run straight back to Jiayu County with a horse. No one can walk along the river, right, the naval warships of the Fuhan Army are still on the Yangtze River, but walking along the river is not to feed the shells. So oh, if you take advantage of this heavy rain, take advantage of the fact that the Qing army should camp all night, and its horse team will no longer be able to cast a net like a chance to put people everywhere, the Fu Han army has a certain degree of certainty that the outflanking will be successful, Shi Liang's team, you are really not a good team.

He has hundreds of horsemen in his hands, and he scatters them everywhere like nets, and at the slightest disturbance, he will run west with his team, and you can't hold him at all. But tonight's heavy rain is a good opportunity.

Chen Ming saw Chen Qi's report at about seven o'clock in the evening and agreed with it. This is indeed a good opportunity, and if Shi Liang is completely annihilated, not only will most of him be annihilated, but the morale of the Qing army in the city will be weaker if he pulls the prisoners outside the city of Wuchang. Chen Ming also does not have more men and horses in his hands, if the 20,000 people led by Huang Jie in Jiangnan can fly to Hubei overnight, Chen Ming will not just plot a Wuchang, but will besiege the city to send reinforcements, grinding more mobile troops of the Qing army into minced meat like a grinding plate. Isn't it because he doesn't have that many soldiers?

The rain was pouring down, up to Gao Qiao, down to ordinary soldiers, and most of the clothes on their bodies were wet. The clothes were of great use, and from time to time someone in the army queue fell into the slippery muddy water, and the sound of "snapping" was endless.

"Third brother, it's raining too much! Do you want the brothers to take shelter from the rain first?! In the sound of wind and rain, Gao Shifeng leaned into Gao Qiao's ear and shouted, he is Gao Qiao's brother, and he also had a chance at the beginning, but unfortunately he didn't stand up, and now he is Gao Qiao's guard captain." With such a heavy rain, can Shi Liang move, we still have time. ”

"Don't be smart! You can't stop for a moment. Gao Qiao shouted loudly. Turning his head to look at the men and horses behind him, he immediately shouted at a battalion officer not far away: "Chen Wei, go tell the brothers, let everyone work hard!" We will win the battle when we go to Coffin Mountain. This is to take Wuchang City, and to take the whole of Hubei. In order to take Wuchang and Hubei, what is this rain? Even if there are knives in the sky, our brothers have to rush desperately! ”

After all, it was still spring, and the rain soaked the whole body, not only cold, but also cold. They were all equipped with hats, but that didn't really stop the rainwater from seeping in.

Rain-soaked clothes are not only uncomfortable, but also make people feel cold and wet, and what makes them feel even more uncomfortable is the slippery road. The muddy and slippery mountain road doesn't care if you are a commander, a battalion officer or an ordinary soldier, in front of it is the king of heaven Lao Tzu is the same as calling Huazi. There were countless people in the team who had fallen, and Gao Qiao's body was also covered with mud, and it was extremely uncomfortable.

In fact, Gao Qiao also wanted to take a break, and the clothes on his body were wet and cold, making people shiver. How good it would be to wait for the rain to stop and then walk, if the Qing soldiers were still moving, they would be able to climb down the coffin mountain even if they climbed!

But no, although it was difficult to march in the heavy rain, who could guarantee that Shi Liang would not really move? Could he not know what kind of effect the heavy rain had on his team? His horse team can't be released, and Shi Liang is deaf and blind. And he only has 5,000 people in his hands, and in the face of the Fu Han army, this strength is too weak and too weak.

The only thing Gao Qiao can be sure of is that if he is Alhatu, then at this time he will definitely lead the army to the west, and no matter how heavy the rain is, it will retreat to the west of the Jinshui River - hence the name of Jinkou.

"High Command! It's raining too much! Do you think you should take a break before leaving? The brothers were so tired that they couldn't walk! Zhang Xianlong, the battalion officer of the 38th Infantry Battalion, also came to Gao Qiao to complain.

"Fuck off, didn't you hear what Lao Tzu just said?" Gao Qiao's face turned gloomy, and he was furious. "Don't you want to do it anymore? If you don't want to do it, just say it as soon as possible, and Lao Tzu will let you go back immediately. ”

"Commander Gao, it's not that I'm complaining, I haven't suffered anything? You know what I was doing. This is a little unbearable for the brothers, you see what the brothers are like now? "Zhang Xianlong didn't pay attention to Gao Qiao's threat at all, he knew that those were all angry words." This rainy day is very bad for our march, the Qing soldiers are so delicate, can Shi Liang move the nest? The rain is so heavy, as long as it keeps falling, with the virtue of the Qing army, it will never continue to brave the rain. I'm afraid now that when we get to Coffin Mountain, everyone is tired and paralyzed, and we won't be able to move tomorrow. ”

The strategy of the Fu Han army is that as soon as the rain stops tomorrow, they will assemble a team to attack Xie Jiashan, Shi Liang should take the initiative to retreat, and then when they retreat to Coffin Mountain, they were stopped by Gao Qiao and others, and the team in front of them forced them over again, and they wrapped dumplings for Shi Liang's department under Coffin Mountain.

"Let's take a break and take shelter from the rain. It won't get in the way. Zhang Xianlong touched the rain on his face, and he was about to freeze.

The raindrops sounded in all directions, Gao Qiao didn't say a word, glanced at Zhang Xianlong coldly, turned around and left without saying a word. With his hands pinched his waist, Zhang Xianlong exhaled a short breath, shook his head, and then shouted at the top of his voice: "Brothers, work harder, let's go, ......" The fierce voice sounded like a wolf howling. (To be continued.) )