The drums sounded, and under the city of Jiujiang reflected by the morning sun, thousands of soldiers of the Wu army wore white felt hats that were different from the Qing army, lined up in a neat queue, pushing and carrying all kinds of siege weapons, shouting and attacking the towering Jiujiang city wall, the attacking queue was like the white sea waves, surging endlessly, and the earth-shattering shouts and footsteps shook the hard ground slightly.

Just like Han Daren muttered behind his back, Lu Fatzi is indeed an incompetent character who is strong outside and capable in the middle, in the offensive strategy of the battlefield in northern Jiangxi, Lu Fatzi is extremely arrogant and chooses to take the middle palace directly, and he also insists that Nanchang and Anqing, important towns in northern Jiangxi that are horns with Jiujiang, do not dare to send reinforcements, at least they dare not send reinforcements immediately, and they are so bold that even Wu Jun himself is frightened.

In terms of tactical arrangement, Lu Fatzi was so timid that he was like a frightened rabbit, and on the premise that the morale of the defenders had been severely damaged one after another, he still chose an extremely conservative siege tactic, first bombarding the fortifications of the Jiujiang City Wall with superior artillery, and further attacking the morale and morale of the defenders; Then he sent a convoy of arrows and arrows and muskets to step forward, and the chariots that could be protected against arrows and bullets formed a series of movable fortresses under the city walls, and the archers and musketeers hid behind the cars and fired arrows to suppress the bows and muskets of the defenders in the city; Finally, an infantry team was sent to charge the city walls.

"Big Zhou! Big week! Big week! Big week! Han Daren has a bad temper, but he does have his own set of training the army, and the eight thousand siege infantry led by him first threw two thousand troops into each of the two battlefields of Jiujiang West Gate and South Gate, rhythmically shouting neat slogans, pushing ladder cars, iron cars and cloud platform cars, carrying flying ladders and sacks of sandbags, first trotting forward, then gradually accelerating, and finally charging up, the tide generally poured into the Jiujiang city wall. Han Daren's younger brother, Han Yuanren, personally led the overseer team to carry the axe to keep up, and kept shouting murderously, "Those who take a step back, cut!" Those who take a step back, slash! ”

"Artillery! Artillery! Artillery, fire it! Seeing that the siege team of the Wu army had rushed closer, but the artillery on the city wall had not yet been powerful, Zhangtai Bei Ziye was so anxious that he almost cried, and shouted and urged to open the cannon, "Where is the gunner?" Our gunners are all dead? Why haven't you fired yet? ”

"Qi Qi Pei Ziye, Wu Gou just shelled the city wall of our army, and it has almost blown up our fort!" Zhangtai Bei Ziye's only confidant in the Jiujiang garrison, Yi Tanbu, replied helplessly: "Even if the artillery was not blown up by Wu Gou, most of them were shocked away from the gun position, and there was no way to fire the cannon if they were not on the gun position. ”

"Then why don't you put the guns back in their positions right away?" Zhangtai Bei Ziye yelled with red eyes.

"Master Pei, you didn't give this order." Itanbu replied even more helplessly: "After Wu Gou stopped the shelling, you didn't order to quickly rearrange the artillery array, and the soldiers thought that there was no need to open fire, so they didn't prepare." ”

"Holy!" Zhangtai Bei Ziye's nose was almost crooked, and he almost wanted to order all those damn artillerymen to be cut off, but considering the current enemy, Zhangtai Bei Ziye still tried to swallow this breath back, and shouted with red eyes: "Quickly send someone to give an order, quickly put the artillery back on the gun position, aim at Wu Gou's siege team, and fire fiercely!" ”

Zhangtai Bei Ziye's compensation is obviously a little late, without the destruction and interference of the city's artillery, the Wu army infantry has rushed to the range of bows and arrows on the Jiujiang city wall, this time it is okay, there is no need for Zhangtai Bei Ziye to order, the Qing army defenders on the city wall have already fired arrows, and under the shroud of locust-like arrows and projectiles, the Wu infantry began to fall gradually. However, the well-trained infantry of the Wu army charged non-stop, shouting and desperately stepping forward, either throwing sacks of sandbags into the moat, or putting flying ladders on the moat and paving a simple bridge to cross the river, and the large siege weapons Yuntai, ladder carts and iron-clad carts behind them took the opportunity to follow.

"Knock knock knock!" In the more violent war drum beating, hundreds of people carried the ladder to the head of Jiujiang City, and then the large ladder car also took the city wall, the Wu soldiers shouted and climbed the ladder, climbing towards the city wall, and the huge stones and trees on the city wall rolled down like rain, smashing the Wu soldiers one after another off the ladder, and at the same time flying out hundreds of rockets, the target was the Wu army ladder car and the cloud platform car that hurt the defenders of the city head the most - this is definitely not from our Zhangtai Bei Ziye's instructions, It was completely the instinctive reaction of the Jiujiang Qing Army trained by Dong Weiguo himself.

At this time, the first drum of the Wu army of 330 hammers had been beaten, the first drum handed over to Han Daren by Lu Fatzi was basically completed, and the siege infantry of the Wu army was successfully attached to the city; After a slight pause, the second drum sounded again, and Han Daren, who had no way to retreat, had no choice but to immediately throw 2,000 infantry into the east gate of Jiujiang, which was most severely destroyed by the Wu army's artillery, and chose the west gate of Jiujiang as the main battlefield and the first breakthrough point, while the siege army at the south gate continued to contain and distract the defenders' strength and attention.

The order was conveyed, and the second wave of siege troops shouted up, but the Qing artillery on the Jiujiang city wall finally began to exert its might, pouring cannonballs into the siege team of the Wu army, splashing wave after wave of terrible flesh and blood. And the first wave of the Wu army siege team, there are finally people on the city wall, and the city wall defenders to start a bloody battle, although the first few Wu soldiers who first attacked the city wall because of the outnumbered, but the follow-up Wu army infantry is still endlessly towards the Jiujiang city head to climb and charge, dense almost completely cover the east gate city wall.

"Kill Wu Dog!"

"Kill all the dogs!"

The thunderous shouts of killing and the roar of artillery echoed each other at the head of the city, completely covering all other sounds, and the Qing soldiers and the Wu soldiers slashed and slashed each other like wild beasts on the city wall, or desperately slashed and stabbed through the arrow stacks, or fought with each other with knives and guns at the top of the city wall, entangled in desperate scuffling, with knives, spears, stones, fists, and teeth desperately traumatizing each other, and the scenes of falling down the city wall together and ending up together are endless. In the sky, arrows and arrows flowed back and forth like locusts, and countless soldiers on both sides fell from the arrows and guns, and the soldiers, boulders and trees that rolled down from the city walls were as dense as hail, and the blood under the city walls was like a force, and the moat was dyed red.

Seeing such a cruel scene, our Zhangtai Bei Ziye, who is familiar with military books and has a deep understanding of Tao strategy, has already had weak legs, hiding in the protection of many pro-soldiers and trembling, trembling like a lonely leaf in the autumn wind, and the previous ambition has long been thrown away, so nervous that he completely forgot to command and defend the city, and completely relied on the ordinary soldiers and grassroots generals of the Qing army to fight on their own.

Fortunately, Dong Weiguo left a pretty good foundation for Zhangtai Bei Ziye, even if there was no command of Zhangtai Bei Ziye, the well-trained Qing soldiers still firmly blocked the offensive of the Wu army on the city wall by virtue of their condescending advantage, and drove the Wu army soldiers off the city wall one after another, and also used rockets, fire oil and 10,000 enemies to ignite a large number of siege equipment of the Wu army, so that the fire under the city wall was everywhere, and the Wu soldiers who burned so much that they had nowhere to hide screamed and howled wolf.

The first wave of siege troops was met with such fierce resistance, which was expected by Lu Fatzi and Han Daren, after all, Jiujiang City was one of the three major towns in northern Jiangxi where the Qing army resisted the eastward advance of the Wu army, and if even the first wave of the Wu army could not stop the siege, it would be too unusual. Therefore, Lu Fatzi did not react to this, but coldly ordered more scouts to closely monitor the defeated troops of Dong Weiguo who had broken through from the city of Jiujiang to the east before, and maintain contact with Gao Hongchen's cavalry at any time, so as not to let Dong Weiguo successfully break through to Nanchang and create trouble for Wu's army in the future Nanchang campaign. Han Daren gave an order with red eyes, asking his younger brother Han Yuanren to strictly supervise the battle and never let go of half of the timid deserters.

The drums of war beat faster and faster, the second wave of siege teams finally rushed to the foot of the city wall, stepping on the corpses of the enemy and their companions to charge towards the city wall, the moat at the west gate of the main battlefield has also been filled in many sections by the Wu army, not only more ladder trucks leaning on the city wall, but also hiding the iron-wrapped carts of the city-digging soldiers also leaning on the city wall, opening the car door and digging the city wall frantically. Knowing that the explosives of the Wu army were powerful, the Qing army Zhao Dengju and Zhang Sheguang and other generals were very anxious, and while ordering to sprinkle fire oil and smash 10,000 enemies to burn the Wu army's iron-clad cart, they rushed to Zhangtai to ask for orders, suggesting that Zhangtai send an army out of the city from the east gate, and detour back to copy the back of the Wu army's siege army, so as to reduce the pressure on the defending army.

Zhao Dengju and Zhang Sheguang's suggestions were very correct, and the Jiujiang Qing army, which had nearly 20,000 defenders, also had sufficient troops to launch this operation, but it couldn't stand the timidity of Zhangtai Beizi, who was familiar with military books and deep knowledge of strategy, as soon as he heard that he was going to send troops out of the city, he immediately shook his head like a rattle, and said in a loud voice: "No, no, you must not go out of the city!" Let's not say that Wu Gou is very strong in the field and has opened the city gate, what if Wu Gou takes the opportunity to grab the door? ”

"Master Pei, don't be afraid!" Zhao Dengju comforted: "Wu Gou is using the tactic of encircling three and missing one, there is no army on the east gate, and our army is very safe to go out of the city." In this situation, as long as we send a cavalry out of the city to fight to the death and attack the back or flank of Wu Gou's infantry, Wu Gou's siege army will have to retreat. blocked Wu Gou's first siege and frustrated Wu Gou's sharpness, and the future defense of the city will be much easier. ”

"If I say no, I can't." Zhangtai Bei Ziye shook his head resolutely and insisted: "Wu Dog has more soldiers and we have fewer soldiers, so we can only hold on and not go out, if the army out of the city is surrounded by Wu Dog, will we save it or not?" Just hold the walls, just hold the walls. ”

"If you don't repel Wu Gou quickly, there will be no way to defend the city wall!" Zhang Sheguang couldn't help but roar, "Wu Gou attacked so fiercely, and the firearms were so sharp, if they were allowed to climb the city wall, Jiujiang would be finished!" And there is only a lot of space on the city wall, our troops can't be fully deployed, and no matter how many troops there are in the city, it's not a waste?! ”

Zhangtai Bei Ziye was a little moved, but as soon as he recalled the surging and brutal offensive of the Wu army in the open field in the previous Ruichang War, Zhangtai Bei Ziye was timid again, and suddenly had an idea: "I have a plan!" I have a clever plan to save Zhao from Wei Wei! Our sailors are guarding the watergate dock in the north, instead of letting them waste idle there, it is better to let them fight Wu Gou's sailors, our sailors are stronger than Wu Gou's sailors, and there are more than Wu Gou's sailors warships, as long as they defeat Wu Gou's sailors, Wu Gou will have to retreat! ”

The two generals Zhao Dengju and Zhang Sheguang almost vomited blood, but Zhangtai Bei Ziye waved his hand indiscriminately and shouted: "That's it, Itambu, you immediately send someone to General Yang Jie to give an order!" General Zhang, General Zhao, hurry back to your respective posts, Wu Gou is attacking fiercely, and you can't do without your command! ”

After that, Zhangtai Bei Ziye led his soldiers to retreat to the relatively safe city tower, and did not give Zhang Zhao Erjiang a chance to speak again, Zhang Zhao Erjiang was helpless, so he had to secretly scold Zhangtai Bei Ziye's ancestors for eighteen generations, while rushing back to their respective positions to command the defense of the city. Zhangtai Bei Ziye's confidant Itambu quickly sent someone to give Yang Jie an order, asking Yang Jie's sailors to take the initiative to attack the Wu army's sailor Li Guodong's department in the upper reaches.

After listening to Zhangtai Bei Ziye's Pegasus order, Yang Jie, the chief general of the Qing Army's Naval Division, who was leading the sailors to guard the water gate on the dock at the north gate of Jiujiang, almost vomited blood, and roared on the spot, "Does Bei Ziye know how to fight, our army's sailors are in the lower reaches, and the wind and water are against the water, and if you take the initiative to attack, you must defeat the Wu Dog Sailor?" I can't fight this battle, please ask him to fight it himself! ”

Roaring to roaring, after all, Zhangtai is Yang Jie's top boss and the general of Dingyuan Jingkou who was personally appointed by Kang Mazi, his words, Yang Jie, who is loyal to the Qing court, did not dare not listen, so he could only order the whole army to sail out of the port, and secretly recruited the general Ye Ming, and whispered in his ear: "You take two warships and some small boats, under the pretext of patrolling into Poyang Lake, and go to the western coast of Poyang Lake to find Governor Dong Weiguo Dong, I expect that Wu Gou will inevitably send troops to chase and kill him, if he is not in a good situation, take him on the boat, and help him escape." ”

"Commanded by humility." Ye Ming agreed in understanding, and asked in a low voice: "Junmen, what if the lowly post accepts the Governor on the ship and sends him there?" Nanchang, or Anqing? ”

Yang Jie hesitated for a moment, and then ordered in a low voice: "You can't send him to Nanchang, and now he is still charged with collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, if he is sent to Nanchang, which is under his control, no matter whether he can prove his innocence afterwards, the old men in the court will be held accountable, and you and I will not be able to escape responsibility." We can only send him to Anqing and hand him over to General Hilgen, so that we can be acquitted, understand? ”

"Humble duty understands." Ye Ming suddenly came to his senses and said in a low voice: "It's still the military gate that is thoughtful, we saved the life of the governor, we are already very worthy of him, there is no need to cause trouble for him." Yang Jie nodded, and then let Ye Ming lead the ship away, and he personally led the fleet to go upstream, and went upstream to find the Wu army's naval division Li Guodong for a decisive battle.

………………

At the same time, on the battlefield of Jiujiang, the second drum of the Wu army had been beaten, and the third drum was about to be beaten, but the siege infantry troops commanded by Han Daren had never been able to gain a firm foothold on the city wall, and were always blocked by the Jiujiang defenders under Jiujiang City. Seeing that Lu Fatzi's poisonous plan to announce his personal vendetta was about to succeed, Han Daren was inevitably very anxious, grabbed the two heralds, and shouted with red glasses: "Go and tell Li Maozhu and Chen Raoyuan that after the three drums are beaten, the first two waves of siege infantry led by them will not be able to climb the city wall!" I don't need the general to beat the fourth drum, I will kill them first, and then lead the army to attack the city myself! ”

The herald rushed up and passed Han Daren's death order to Li Maozhu and Chen Raoyuan, the two Han Daren's generals, and the two unlucky people cried out together, secretly scolding Han Daren for being an idiot and having to bet with Lu Fatzi, but he lost and took himself out, but he had no choice but to disobey. In desperation, the two unlucky bastards had no choice but to go into battle in person, rushing to the front line and roaring like thunder, "Brothers! The third drum is beating! If we can't attack the city wall, we will have to fall to the ground, instead of going back and dying in the hands of our own people, it is better to go up and fight with the dogs! Even if you die, you can get some compensation for your wife and children! Kill, Da Zhou! ”

"Brothers, look at the back, General Han Yuanren has already killed more than 20 deserters with his own hands! If you don't want to die in the hands of your own people, just rush with Lao Tzu! Fight with the full dog! ”

"Da Zhou!" Shouting, Li Maozhu and Chen Raoyuan each grabbed a ladder, climbed the ladder to the city with red eyes, and personally led the army to charge. Infected by these generals, the rest of the Wu army soldiers also roared like thunder, and fought bravely again, with fierce troops and indomitable.

"Da Zhou!" Li Mao was the first to rush to the city wall, facing the five or six spears stabbed by the Qing soldiers, Li Mao dodged with a dodge, and then opened his arms to hug these spear shafts, roared and waved, and the adrenaline was crazy, and the five or six Qing soldiers were all thrown by Li Mao and stood unsteadily. The Wu soldiers in the back took the opportunity to pounce with red eyes, chopping down the Qing soldiers with knives and axes, and joined forces with Li Mao to control a small piece of space to enter the city, and then the Wu soldiers behind were endless, crazy to enter the city!

"Lao Tzu is dead, and he has to pull the cushion back!" Chen Raoyuan was more unlucky, just rushed to the city wall and was slashed in the left shoulder by a steel knife, almost chopped off the left arm with the shoulder, in severe pain and despair, Chen Raoyuan also broke out of the temper of a bachelor, did not dodge or dodge several other steel knives and spears that were stabbed, and slashed the Qing soldiers in front of him with a wild swing of his right arm, strode forward, allowing the two spears to penetrate his lower abdomen, his hand rose and fell, and two knives in succession cut down the two Qing soldiers who were already stunned, blood sprayed wildly in his mouth, but he was still laughing, "Come on, come on, kill a cushion back, Kill two and earn one, full of dogs, come on! ”

Seeing Chen Raoyuan's appearance of being pierced through the lower abdomen by two spears but still killing people fiercely, the Qing soldiers around him were all frightened. Seeing Chen Raoyuan vomiting blood while turning his gaze to himself, a Qing soldier was so frightened that he cried on the spot, threw down his weapon and ran, and the rest of the Qing soldiers were also so frightened that their hands and feet were sore, and they were cut down one after another by the Wu soldiers who rushed up to the city wall from behind Chen Raoyuan, and Chen Raoyuan, whose left arm was already hanging on his chest, laughed and staggered towards the other Qing soldiers, "Brothers, rush!" Killed in Jiujiang City, all the silver beauties in the city are ours! ”

Encouraged by these two conscientious Wu generals, the morale of the Wu soldiers, who had already shown fatigue, was greatly boosted again, and they pounced on the enemy again like wolves and tigers, gradually controlling the climbing areas one after another, and the black and white banners of the Wu army were set up more and more on the city wall. Seeing this scene, the Qing army naturally began to shake and chill, and Han Daren in the distance was overjoyed, and couldn't wait to jump up, raising his knife and yelling at the last siege reserve in his hand, "Brothers! It's our turn! The general has an order, within the four drums, to take the Jiujiang city wall, and each person will be rewarded with three taels of silver! Kill, the chance to get rich has come! ”

"Kill!" Raising his sword and roaring, Han Daren personally led the third wave of siege troops to charge towards the crumbling Jiujiang West Gate, seeing that the soldiers of the Wu army who were expected to break through the city were all brave, all of them were vying for the first, roaring and running faster than the other, and the tide was rushing to the Jiujiang city wall, and the attack was extremely fierce.

"Han Daren has hope." Seeing this scene through the telescope, Fat Lu smiled, turned to Xiao Erlang next to him and ordered: "Erlang, let Xiao Yong put those things away, there is no need for the Jiujiang War this time." Tighten it, don't expose it, and save it for the next time you attack it. ”

Xiao Erlang agreed, and hurried down to give the order, and the generals of the Wu army next to him looked at each other, among them, Gao Dejie, who had already cleaned up the official card clamp battlefield and came to watch the battle, asked curiously: "Brother Lu, what are you talking about?" ”

"A new siege weapon of my design." Fat Lu replied casually: "Originally, I wanted to pull Han Daren at the last moment, but Han Daren, this kid is still playing well, and there is hope for breaking the city, so it is estimated that he will not need it." ”

"Newly designed siege weapons? Then why don't you come out? Gao Dejie asked in surprise: "If it is effective, our army can also avoid excessive casualties?" ”

"Wrong, although my newly designed siege weapon is effective, the casualties inflicted on our army will only be greater, not smaller." Fat Lu replied with a smile: "Therefore, until the critical moment, you must not use it casually." ”

"What kind of new weapon is that?" Gao Dejie asked more curiously.

"Secrecy for now." Fat Lu smiled and said: "In short, until the last moment, you must not use the dangerous weapon indiscriminately, you will definitely have a chance to see it in the future." ”

"By the way, this weapon was specially designed for Han Daren." Lu Fatzi added with a smile, "In the future, which of you will learn from Han Daren, and you don't know how to pretend to interfere with my tactical arrangement, I will let whoever use it first, understand?" ”

Seeing Lu Fatzi's smiling appearance and smug expression, all the generals of the Wu army, including Gao Dejie, shivered, and muttered in their hearts: "This weapon must be very dangerous, but don't let me use it." ”

While speaking, there was a sudden huge uproar in the direction of the city wall, and thousands of Wu soldiers began to cheer, it turned out that the third wave of siege troops led by Han Daren himself had rushed to the city wall of the west gate of Jiujiang with only one charge, not only the banner of General Yang Wei of Han Daren was inserted on the city wall of Jiujiang, but the banner of General Jingkou of Zhangtai had disappeared from the city tower. Seeing such a scene, even Fat Lu was extremely surprised, and said in surprise: "Han Daren rushed so violently, and cut down the handsome flag full of dogs so quickly?" ”

"No, it was Mangou who took it off himself." Li Tianzhi's eyes were sharp, he saw the previous situation, and introduced: "After Mangou took down this handsome flag, he retreated to the city. ”

"! Han Daren's luck is really good! Ran into such a timid and useless full dog! Lu Fatzi scolded, and immediately turned to the generals next to him and ordered: "All armies are prepared, Mangou is likely to abandon the city and break through, and you must be ready to intercept and kill." Hutong Chun, Quanjie, the two of you, each lead two thousand infantry to go up, help Han Daren fight in the streets, and drive Mangou out of Jiujiang City as soon as possible! ”

(To be continued)