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The choking smell of gunpowder permeated the cabin of the "Chuwang", and although there were grille windows at the top of the deck, the cabin was still filled with the choking smell of sulfur. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the muffled sound of cannons, the 68-pounder caron, which numbered several tons, slid backwards violently until it was stopped by the resistance of the ropes.

At the end of the gun's recoil, the gunner on the left side of the gun immediately wiped the water-stained soft-rope gun into the bore, and after the embers of the bore were extinguished and the temperature of the bore dropped, a gunpowder bag weighing nearly 80 pounds and shells were stuffed into the bore.

"Push the gun!"

Li Weiyuan's voice will be a little hoarse, when the roar of this order, he and the gunners around him tried their best to push the heavy cannon body, the caron cannon is different from the ordinary cannon, there are four small gun wheels under the cannon mount, which can be easily pushed back, and the caron gun in order to increase the resistance of the gun mount, there is no gun wheel under the gun mount, but with the help of the resistance between the wood of the gun mount, the increased resistance makes every time they pile up the gun, they need to do their best.

Almost at the moment when the shell was stuffed into the chamber, another hoarse roar burst out from Li Weiyuan's throat.

"Put!"

The huge cannon flames almost lit up the night sky, so that the lake surface was lit up by the flames, and even the Yuezhou city wall more than two hundred zhang away was reflected red by the cannon flames.

"Suddenly......

Different from ordinary cannonballs, the 68-pound cannonball with a big hat only emitted a roar similar to the roar of a bull in the air when it crossed the air, and the speed of the cannonball seemed to be extremely slow, even in the night sky, Zeng Guoquan on the city wall could see the black shadow of the cannonball flying, but the seemingly extremely slow cannonball could smash the broken city wall into a huge hole.

It was only a few hours, and the walls that had been intact before would have completely changed - all in ruins. As far as the eye can see, the lake is full of warships of different sizes, all of which are spitting flames without exception, and the first time the flames reflect the surface of the lake, they will bring devastating damage to the city of Yuezhou.

"My lord, if you continue like this, this Yuezhou City will be blown up by thieves sooner or later!"

"Please ask me to wait out of the city!"

When Taqib and the others asked for war, Zeng Guofan stared at the lake with a dark face, how many boats were there on this lake? That little bit of red light was the number of ships, at least thirty or so, but his eyes were not on the small boats, but on the iron ship shaped like a tortoiseshell near the shore.

Iron Ship!

Now, he finally knows what a strong ship cannon is!

Isn't this iron ship a strong ship, and the iron bullets it shoots are not sharp cannons?

And this iron ship approached the city without any scruples with its iron armor, and let the cannonballs from the city fall on the hull, even if the cannon weighing more than ten catties from thousands of catties of artillery would be bounced away by the iron armor.

"Come to think of it, I'm afraid that the strong ship used by Yingyi back then was such an iron ship!"

Thinking like this in his heart, he seemed to understand why the news from Wuchang always said that "the benefits of foreign weapons relied on by Han Rebellion", in the past, he only said that what Han Rebellion relied on was nothing more than the sharpness of "foreign cannons and foreign guns", even if it was very sharp, what could it be?

But at this time, the appearance of this ironclad ship shaped like a "floating turtle" subverted his opinion.

At this time, he realized how naïve the idea of building a naval army to "cut off the Yangtze River" was, not to mention anything else, even if he created a naval army with this ironclad ship, what could he do? I'm afraid that it will only be a worse defeat.

Now what?

His brows furrowed, and the sound of the generals asking for battle made Zeng Guofan look into the distance, and saw that on the riverbank four miles away from the city to the north of the city, a barracks had been erected, and the barracks were all made of thick wood—the wood used was the same row in the lake before. At this time, the lights in the camp were bright, and although it was several miles away, Zeng Guofan could still vaguely guess that it must be heavily guarded.

"My lord, don't go out of the city, you see that the camp of the Han rebellion is located at the mouth of the north of the city, if our army goes out of the city to attack, the left wing will be attacked by the Han rebellion army, and our army will be defeated under the front and rear attacks!"

When everyone asked for war, Luo Zenan hurriedly persuaded him, and his words immediately made everyone look towards the camp of the Han rebellion, but this is not the case, the place chosen by the Han rebel just prevents everyone from going out of the city.

It seems that this Han rebel is indeed good at the way of using soldiers!

"But if this is the case, with its wild bombardment, can this Yuezhou City be defended?"

"The Han rebel army has already gone ashore to set up a camp, and if it dares to attack, I am afraid that it will be attacked by land and water!"

After making this judgment, Zeng Guofan, who realized that he could only defend the city at this time, said coldly in the face of the generals who had asked to stand one after another.

"Those who dare to speak out of the city will be killed!"

"They don't dare to go out of the city!"

At the edge of the big camp tent by the river, looking at the soldiers who were supporting the marching tent outside the tent and preparing to rest, Zhu Yifeng said in a rather proud tone.

"Even if he lends them two more guts, he won't dare to go out of the city!"

This is not to say that Zhu Yifeng is proud, but because he is in the palm of his hand, Yuezhou City stands near the rivers and lakes, its city is adjacent to Dongting in the west, and the north of the city stretches out to the mouth of the river for several miles, and now his own camp is located here, so that it is convenient for the fleet in the lake to form a horn of revenge, and any Hunan army that tries to go out of the city to attack the camp will suffer from simultaneous attacks from the front and flanks, as long as Zeng Guofan has a little common sense, he will not make the choice to go out of the city.

As for the night raid......

The slowly rotating searchlight on the wooden tower that towered in the camp, although the light lit with oil lamps did not shine for miles like a searchlight, but this searchlight used for the lighthouse could still cast the lamppost inside and out, thus minimizing the possibility of a night attack, although this searchlight was only a kind of psychological comfort, but for the people of this era, it did not have a psychological impact, which in turn affected their judgment, so that they did not dare to launch a night attack.

"Governor, when are we going to attack the city?"

Yu Xiaobao, who was following Dashuai, hurriedly asked. He had just been promoted to the commander of the 13th Regiment, so he naturally wanted to attack the city, so as to seize military merits, and more importantly, to show himself in front of the commander.

"Siege?"

Zhu Yifeng asked rhetorically.

"Why the siege?"

"Why not siege the city?"

The reason why he was able to be promoted to the commander of the 13th Regiment was not because of his high military quality, but more because he was more reliable, and he was Zhu Yifeng's old team, and it was precisely because of this that Zhu Yifeng chose the 13th Regiment as the left-behind unit.

For Zhu Yifeng, although he understands that the current rebel army has gotten rid of the original "unstable people's hearts" situation to a certain extent, and everyone is quite loyal, but their loyalty is "valuable", and Chen Shuyang, who has been cut off now, will always appear in his mind.

It is precisely because of this that for Zhu Yifeng, unless those junior officers in the military academy replace the "old man" to become the mainstream of the army, this army is still unreliable, although now the grassroots officers in these thirteen regiments have called him "teacher" in the so-called camp school, but people's hearts are always unpredictable!

The heart of defense is indispensable!

"Naturally, there is no need to attack the city!"

Seeing that the head of the regiment turned his puzzled gaze to himself, Hu Linyi explained with a smile on the side.

"Now for our righteous army, this Hunan must go down to the city of Changsha, the provincial capital, once Changsha is conquered, this Yuezhou lonely river estuary, naturally without a fight, how can it be attacked?"

As he spoke, Hu Linyi looked at the Metropolitan Governor with some gratitude in his eyes, the reason why the Metropolitan Governor personally put himself in such a dangerous place was not only to contain Zeng Disheng, but the most fundamental reason was probably to save his life to persuade him to surrender to the righteous army. And this is also at his own request, if not, why not take such a risk.

"Mr. Hu, do you mean that as long as Changsha City is taken, the person surnamed Zeng will take the initiative to donate the city at that time?"

Yu Xiaobao finally understood the thoughts of the Grand Duke, although he had participated in many combat meetings of the Military Command Department, he was still a little unenlightened, which was actually the reality of the current high-level officers of the Righteous Army - more than loyal and brave, but more than enough wisdom.

"It doesn't matter if you sacrifice the city or not!"

Sighing secretly in his heart, Zhu Yifeng smiled helplessly at Hu Linyi.

"The important thing is that Zeng Disheng will not be able to defend the city at that time, once Changsha falls, this Yuezhou will be completely dead for him, as smart as him, how can he not know? When the time comes, for him, there will be only two choices, one is to sacrifice the city and submit to me, and the other is to abandon the city! ”

Out of respect for Zeng Guofan, Zhu Yifeng didn't even use the word "abandon the city and flee", no matter what choice Zeng Guofan made, it would not have much impact on the righteous army, after all, he had decided on Hunan!

"Now the fleet has almost begun to pass!"

Casting his eyes in the direction of the mouth of the river, although the thick curtain and the blockage of the camp wall made him not reach the Yangtze River at all, Zhu Yifeng still asked that the current siege was to cover the fleet's entry into Dongting Lake.

"Governor, half an hour ago, the fleet entered Dongting Lake along the west shore, and if everything goes well, the fleet will arrive outside Changsha City by tomorrow evening at the latest......"

Hu Linyi hurriedly replied, he had just attacked the Governor's Mansion and was now temporarily in the Military Command Department, and Zuo Zongtang was also the same as Zuo Zongtang, who was also in the Military Command Department, and he had been sent to Changsha by the Metropolitan Governor.

"Changsha...... That is, an empty city, there is no problem in taking him, now, Runzhi, do you think that official document will move......"

Compared with Changsha's inevitable victory, Zhu Yifeng is more concerned about the only variable in this battle - more than 10,000 Eight Banner soldiers in Jingzhou City!

"Governor, do you want the official document to move, or do you?"

Regarding Hu Linyi's question, Zhu Yifeng didn't even think about it, but replied directly.

"Naturally, I hope they can get out of the city, only if he goes out of the city, we will have a chance to clean them up in the wild, right?" (To be continued.) )