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Wuxi, the pearl of Taihu Lake is also.

Leaning on the Yangtze River in the north, Taihu Lake in the south, Suzhou in the east, Changzhou in the west, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal shuttles through it, and is the transportation center of the entire Taihu Lake Basin. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, this place is the world-famous land of fish and rice, known as the cloth wharf, money wharf, kiln wharf, silk capital, rice market, all kinds of titles can be seen the importance of Wuxi and the decisive position in the country.

In the second year of Yongzheng, the Manchu Qing Dynasty divided Wuxi into two counties of Wuxi and Jinkui, and ruled the same city. But Chen Ming has always regarded Wuxi as a place, and there were several places in China during the Manchu Dynasty that ruled in the same city. When the Fu Han army entered Wuxi, the two magistrates were nowhere to be found. Well, it's the rhythm of not seeing people alive and dying, and now there are more and more Manchu officials.

Wei Xiuzhi led his troops back to Wuxi from Hushu Pass, and then repelled the attack of 3,000 Qing soldiers who pounced from the direction of Taihu Lake. But the threat was not lifted, and the Qing army retreated to the edge of Taihu Lake, and after a little rectification, pounced on Huishan in the western suburbs. This place is one of the holy places of Buddhism in the south of the Yangtze River, and belongs to the branch of Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang Province that stretches from east to west. There are thousands of monks' rooms in Huishan Temple on it, and the name of Huishan Spring as 'the second spring in the world' is even more famous.

What's more, the Qing army occupied there, that is, it was obvious that Wuxi was eyeing it. Soon, the Qing army in Suzhou also went out to kill, Wei Xiuzhi found all the four battalion officers in the team, and the battalion deputy of Jiang Tianfang's department stayed in Changzhou no longer, and the largest battalion head that made Wei Xiuzhi feel most relieved was only the team officer. They are all battalion-level formations, and although there are veterans and new recruits, and the main force is not the main force, it is not possible to put the officers of the old battalion in the same position as the battalion officers at the head of the new battalion, or even higher.

Now the four battalion officers of the Fu Han Army in Wuxi City, the eldest Tang Wencan, is forty this year, a native of Hubei, who was taken prisoner during the Battle of Rolling River, and now his family has been sent to the base area by the secret camp. is still trustworthy, Tang Wencan is not a battalion officer of the Volunteer Battalion, he is a battalion officer of the recruit battalion.

The second battalion officer, Jiang Wei, a veteran of the Fu Han Army, is a native of Lushan. Loyalty is definitely trustworthy, but competence is a mutter. Because Jiang Wei had a leg slumped in the initial battle, he was assigned to the prisoner of war camp as a caretaker very early. He was promoted directly from his position in the custody of the prisoner of war camp to the battalion officer.

Then there is Chen Wei, a son of the Chen family, who is also a veteran, and has been heroically wounded many times. If Chen Wei served as a platoon commander and team officer, Wei Xiuzhi would absolutely rest assured of him, but he was now a battalion officer, and Chen Wei had never even been a team officer, so he was directly promoted to a battalion officer. It would be strange for Wei Xiuzhi to be relieved of his ability to lead troops to fight.

The last battalion officer was named He Zixiang, the leader of the militia who voluntarily surrendered in Nanjing, and he was the least trustworthy of the four battalion officers in terms of seniority and loyalty. He Zixiang is also very self-aware, and after learning the news of Jiang Tianfang's accidental death, the whole person became dumbfounded. Wei Xiuzhi does what he says, he doesn't say much, and he doesn't do a single superfluous action. Most of the battalion under his command were captive soldiers, and it was composed of a hundred and ten militia regiments under his command. To be honest, after Jiang Tianfang's accidental death, in the current situation of sudden changes in the battle situation, he was very suspicious of Wei Xiuzhi.

On the way to retreat, He Zixiang's battalion was placed in the middle of the team, and on the side were the veterans of the two teams.

Now these four people are sitting in front of Wei Xiuzhi, facing the menacing Qing soldiers, how to fight this battle, He Zixiang, Jiang Wei, and Chen Wei are all silent, and the right to speak unexpectedly fell into the hands of Tang Wencan.

Wuxi City is located in the lakeside plain, there is no strategic place worth guarding around, the city wall is two feet high and one foot, the stone is the foundation, the huge brick is wrapped, it is quite solid. The circumference is 12 miles and 100 steps, there are four city gates, the east is called Jinghai, the west is called the test spring, the south is Wanghu, and the north is called the control river.

There are also prosperous four passes outside the city gate, especially outside the east city gate where the Grand Canal passes, the streets and shops are lined up one after another, and they are much more prosperous than the county town of Lushan. Of course, now all the shops and restaurants in the four gates outside the city have closed their doors, and the population has fled in large numbers.

"Director Wei, we should wipe out all the houses near the city wall. Then block the canal pier with a wreck. "Suzhou is seventy or eighty miles away from Wuxi, and you can reach it in a day at most by boat, and even the Qing army can bring some cannons. Tang Wencan's method is just a very ordinary and ordinary pre-war arrangement.

Wei Xiuzhi responded, and then Tang Wencan was also dumb. The five people who have never picked the big beam, and the people who didn't think that they could pick the big beam right away, are the biggest enemies of the Fu Han army in the face of the upcoming war, and their psychological helplessness and lack of self-confidence. At the beginning of the battle in Wuxi, the Fu Han army fought very passively.

Rong Bao is not a veteran of a hundred battles, but he has been to the northwest, from Gansu to Xinjiang, the wind and sand fluttering, although he has never personally led the troops into battle, but Rong Bao no matter how wastewood, is also a 'veteran' who has seen N more pigs run. The Qing army marched from the Grand Canal to the east of Wuxi, either camped or cleaned the wharf, and then unloaded the iron cannons and copper cannons on the boats, and the whole process was very well arranged.

One east and one west, the Qing soldiers, who had an absolute advantage in the two forces, sandwiched Wuxi City in the middle.

The artillery bombarded the city, and the Fu Han army only destroyed the houses of Siguan near the city wall, but the Qing army drove away the residents of Dongguan and directly destroyed half of Dongguan. They built a sturdy camp out of dismantled bricks and wooden pillars, built siege equipment, and wrapped the remaining half of Dongguan with the canal wharf.

Sixteen cannons bombarded the eastern city walls. For a whole day, the battlements at the head of Wuxi City, the female wall and the tower with the east gate were beaten. During this day, Wei Xiuzhi sent three war reports to Chen Tong'an, who had arrived in Changzhou, asking him to hurry to Wuxi quickly. And Chen Tongan himself wanted to rush to the army quickly, but he couldn't do it.

The Qing army in Huishan, on the one hand, threatened Wuxi, and on the other hand, it also made the appearance of attacking Changzhou. After Chen Tongan arrived in Changzhou, he found that he couldn't go to Wuxi.

So, when Chen Ming urged the main force of his army to attack Shanghai and Huating and swept Puxi, more than 10,000 Qing troops also launched a fierce attack on Wuxi. In addition to opening up an opening in the north, the Qing army's offensive was opened on three sides, and of course the east was their top priority.

The houses in Wuxi are all made of bricks and earth, and in the face of iron bullets, these seemingly sturdy houses are useless. Any iron bullet that 'hits' a house can easily penetrate the roof or wall. For the Fu Han army, every shell exploded like a hammer on their nerves.

Some people will have a nervous breakdown under this torment; Some people will grow up rapidly under this kind of torment.

The Fu Han army in Wuxi should be glad that they encountered a Qing army that was strong from the outside and capable from the middle, not the modern Western army of the same era. The Qing army, which fought back from the city of Suzhou, was not prepared for a tough battle and a bloody battle. They thought that with the artillery, they would coax together, and rush twice, and the Fu Han army would retreat from the unfavorable place of Wuxi. Didn't you see that the Qing army in Huishan had threatened Changzhou?

The Qing army, which thought so psychologically, launched two charges against Wuxi City, and how small the actual threat of that weak strength was to the defense of Wuxi City, the result can be imagined.

It was the weak and weak attack of the Qing army that allowed the nervous Fu Han army to get through the most difficult stage at the beginning.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

The sound of grenade explosions resounded in all directions.

"Second Squadron, sortie—"

"Second Squadron, sortie—"

In the smoke of gunpowder, the city gate, which was simply blocked by sandbags, cracked a crack, and a sergeant of the Fu Han Army wearing iron armor and wielding a broadsword rushed out of the city gate first.

"Tiger, tiger, tiger—" the soldiers shouted in unison, and the sharp spears slammed into the surging crowd of Qing soldiers as they ran. A squad of grenadiers followed behind the two platoons and entered the battlefield, and soon the sound of grenade explosions familiar to both armies sounded on the frontal lines of the battle.

The Qing army's attack on the city was not strong, but when they saw the city gate being opened, they came to their senses. A group of Qing soldiers rose to the howl of officers big and small, and shouted loudly, brandishing swords and guns to meet the Han army. However, some Qing soldiers were rushed by the suddenly killed Fu Han army and fled. The command of the Qing army on the battlefield had fallen into chaos, some of them were advancing, some of them were still patrolling, or even retreating. As a result, one red and one green, two torrents collided head-on. The cyan crowd broke up on the spot.

In the second attack of the Qing army, Tang Wencan was also killed by Tang Wencan.

And when the Qing army realized that 'scare' could not drive the Fu Han army out of Wuxi City, when the Qing army took a serious attitude, straightened out its thinking, and intensified its attack on Wuxi City, the Fu Han army in the city already had the confidence to fight the Qing army.

Wei Xiuzhi felt very wonderful after the war, and Jiang Tianfang's sudden death greatly demoralized the fighting spirit of the army that came out of Changzhou. Even if they easily repelled the 3,000 Qing troops from Taihu Lake outside Wuxi, they could not really regain the morale of the team, the Qing army came so many people and pulled so many cannons, if they attacked Wuxi at the beginning regardless of casualties, the Fu Han army might not be able to support it.

It was the Qing army that died on its own, and it was frustrated in two consecutive attacks that it really began to get serious. After the Fu Han army easily repelled the Qing army's attacks twice, both the soldiers and the officers had gathered enough confidence.

In the third contest between the enemy and us, the Qing army's offensive strength was strengthened a lot, and the corpses of the Qing army in blue clothes were covered outside the east city wall of Wuxi and on the city wall, but Tang Wencan, who was guarding there, persevered. With only one battalion of his own, in the face of the onslaught of the Qing army, Tang Wencan did not ask for reinforcements from the city.

Because he found that the Qing soldiers were still the original Qing soldiers. They were lucky enough to kill Commander Chiang, but it didn't mean that their combat effectiveness increased. These enemies with a pig's tail on their heads are still the garbage that they swept away with less and more. Even if there is no Jiang Tianfang in the team now, he shouldn't be afraid of this group of waste.

Then Tang Wencan found that Dongcheng could really defend it with only one battalion of him.

The artillery of the Qing army posed a great threat to the head of the city, but Tang Wencan's troops could hide behind the hidden soldiers cave and the city wall, leaving only a small number of soldiers to watch over the city. When the Qing army rushed up, the artillery almost stopped. The soldiers of the Fu Han Army guarding the head of the city, relying on grenades and knives and guns in their hands, could completely resist the Qing soldiers.

When the problem changed from psychological reasons such as morale and fighting spirit to the real combat effectiveness of both sides, Wuxi City suddenly became a little indestructible.

The combat effectiveness of the more than 2,000 Fu Han troops from Changzhou naturally cannot be compared with the main force attacking Puxi, and the volunteer battalion among them is actually no different from the Qing soldiers, both in terms of equipment and individual soldier quality. But the 2,000 Han troops defended the city and fought against the 14,500 Qing soldiers outside the city [east and west], and it was not something that the Qing soldiers could swallow with their mouths closed. In particular, Rong Bao, the chief general of the Qing army, is still an existence that produces 'negative combat effectiveness'.

The urgent report of the Wuxi military situation that Chen Ming received was not a big bad news, but a battle report from Wei Xiuzhi to report good news. They held on to Wuxi for two days, and it seems that they can continue to hold on...... (To be continued.) )