One night of siege and one night of bloody battles, when the sky was already light, the bloody street battles in Wuchang City were still continuing, in order to buy time for the mites in the inner city to board the ship and escape for their lives, and in order to buy time for their own boarding and escape, in the case that the Wu army had occupied the southern city of Wuchang and Wuchang was already doomed, Tu Hai, Yue Le and Cai Yurong The commanders of the Qing army had to take out the last elite to fight with the Wu army to do a trapped beast fight, do bloody consumption, and fantasize that they could temporarily repel the attack of the Wu army and temporarily delay the advance speed of the Wu army. Gain precious time to cross the river and escape.

In order to occupy the tactical initiative in the strategic stalemate stage, the Yunnan-Guizhou army vowed to take the important town of Wuchang no matter how much it spent, and annihilate the elite main force of the Qing army to the greatest extent, so as to lay the upper hand in the strategic stalemate stage. In the case that the Qing army is destined to be difficult to protect Wuchang, its tactical purpose is to make a great retreat from Wuchang and bring the last elite of the Qing army back to the north of the Yangtze River, and the backbone core of the Qing invaders is to bring the Eight Banners to the north of the Yangtze River, so as to preserve the seeds and vitality for future wars.

On the one hand, you have to attack desperately, and on the other hand, you have to defend desperately, and this big battle is destined to be extremely cruel and bloody. In order to fight for an alley that can lead to the main road, the armies of both sides usually have to pay the lives of hundreds of soldiers, and in order to fight for a street that can lead to the inner city or to the dock, the two sides even put battalion after battalion of troops into the battlefield, slashing and killing in the narrow streets.

I have to admit that at the critical moment of life and death, the Qing army, whether it is an authentic mite soldier or a Han annihilation puppet soldier, has shown a fairly high level of perseverance and tenacity and high fighting spirit in the face of death. There are also the mite people in the inner city of Wuchang, and a considerable part of them did not flee to the dock, but chose to take up arms and fight side by side with the Qing soldiers, men and women in the prime of life rushed into the battlefield, the old people and children shouted and cheered, desperately resisting the advance of the Wu army, and the Wu army, which had an advantage in strength and combat effectiveness at the same time, desperately rushed to the death and killed all night, and never killed in front of the inner city gate of Wuchang.

The Qing army is strong and brave, and the Wu army is not far there, affected by the speed of production and logistical supply, after the street war weapon grenade is basically used up, the soldiers of the Wu army did not hesitate to pick up the original knives, guns and spears, and one after another into the bloody battlefield, into the street battlefield that they are not familiar with, and the Qing soldiers who are entrenched there to do the dying struggle to start a life-and-death struggle, desperately consume the last elite main force of the Qing army, most of the outer city of Wuchang has completely become a huge Shura battlefield, everywhere is full of fire, There are thunderous killings everywhere, flesh and blood are racing everywhere, and corpses are everywhere.

Relying on the desperate resistance of the Qing army, Tuhai and Yue Le and others finally ensured that the two water gates of Wuchang West Gate and the North Gate were temporarily not affected by the war, and the wharves of these two water gates were also crowded with countless fleeing soldiers and civilians, and more than 500 large and small warships of the Qing Army's Yangtze River Naval Division Yang Jie stationed in Hanyang were dispatched, and there were thousands of civilian ships temporarily collected by the Qing army, although they had been ordered to arrive at the two wharves to carry the transfer of mites to the Qing army and civilians, but the wharf was too small and there were too many people fleeing, and there were less than 20 ships that could be loaded on the shore each time. In order to board the ship as soon as possible, the Qing soldiers and civilians who rushed to get on the boat and fled for their lives pushed each other and trampled on each other, and there were countless dead, and the crying and shouting shook the sky.

"Mom! Mother! Help me! On the Yangtze River, another Qing warship was sunk by too many people, the river surged into the warehouse, the Qing soldiers and mites on the deck cried and shouted and jumped into the river, crying and shouting in the cold river water, the soldiers and people in the cabin cried and shouted for help, the soldiers and people in the cabin cried even more violently, you fought and wanted to rush out of the cabin to escape, and in the narrow hatch around the silt and pull, and finally the people who could really escape from the cabin were actually pitiful, and the vast majority of the mite Qing soldiers and civilians in the cabin still slowly sank into the river with the warship, Disappear into the depths of the choppy river.

"Keep order, keep order! Each boat must not be overloaded, and there are those who compete to get on the boat, no matter who it is, no matter who they are! ”

Seeing this scene, Yue Le, the prince of Mites Qing, who was responsible for directing the military and civilian people to retreat by boat, couldn't help but shed tears, shouting orders with a crying voice, asking the army to restrain the order of boarding, but there were more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians on the two docks in the north and south of Wuchang, and the thousands of troops in Yue Le's hands were like a lonely boat in the flood, not to mention mastering the direction and controlling the boat, it was difficult to be scattered and overwhelmed by the refugees. The crowd is still surging frantically towards the wharf, the people are still climbing and boarding the boat as if they are dying, no matter how the Qing soldiers expel and beat them, it is always useless, and the scenes of the people and the Qing soldiers scuffling and pulling both falling into the water emerge in endlessly, and they are not uncommon.

"It's still too hasty!" Yue Le slapped his palm on the wall beside him, tears rolled in his eyes, tears fell into his eyes, extremely regretful for their previous decision-making mistakes, in order to retain the manpower to defend the city and stabilize the hearts of the army and the people, it was strictly ordered not to let any ordinary people in Wuchang City cross the river in advance to escape, for this reason, even confiscated all the people's boats, blocked the nearby large and small docks, and did not allow a civilian boat to approach Wuchang to carry the people, which led to today's situation.

Of course, Yue Le himself knew very well that Tu Hai made this decision because of the situation, and it was a wise move not to take it as such, otherwise, in the case of the army's panic and the loss of the support of the people, Wu Yingqi and Ma Bao's army of the previous Wu army had already directly captured Wuchang City. It's just that Yue Le and Tu Hai never dreamed that it took only one night for the main force of the Wu army to break through the unbreakable Wuchang city wall and enter the city of Wuchang. Thinking of this, Yue Le couldn't help but think of the news sent by Curb Pilon again, and couldn't help but slap his palm on the table again, and roared with red eyes: "Lu Yifeng, dog thief!" It's all a good thing that you dog thief did! ”

"Lord Wang, look at the sky!" The sound of frightened and inexplicable screams came, and when Yue Le hurriedly looked up at the sky, he saw three Wu Jun airships flying extremely low, heading towards the Wuchang North Gate Wharf with difficulty and slowness against the howling north wind. Seeing this scene, Yue Le's face turned to the color of a dead man, and he yelled frantically: "Hide quickly!" Wu Dog is throwing gunpowder bullets again! ”

Yue Le's order was destined to be ignored, seeing the Wu army airship appear, the crying and shouting on the dock suddenly expanded countless times, more soldiers and civilians crowded to the dock as if they were dying, hundreds of soldiers and civilians were instantly squeezed off the dock, screaming and screaming and falling into the icy water, and the Qing army warships and civilian boats on the river were even more chaotic, colliding with each other and competing for the waterway, and for this reason, nearly ten small boats were subverted.

When the Wu army's airship flew over the pier with difficulty, the chaos on the North Gate pier suddenly reached the extreme, and the Qing soldiers and civilians who were afraid of the Wu army's bombing were either scrambling to climb onto the warship, or scattered to find a hidden area where they could hide, trampling and trampling each other, and hundreds of dead and wounded. But even so, the three Wu army airships still dropped bombs one after another without mercy, first directly filled with individual bombs with safety explosives, and then dropped one cluster bomb after another when the airship was reduced and flew high.

No matter what kind of bomb it is, it will be indifferent to the mite Qing soldiers and people, because no matter what kind of bomb falls and explodes, it can take away the lives of hundreds of mite Qing soldiers and people, no matter what kind of bomb falls, it can splash wave after wave of bright blood waves, the gunpowder smoke is rolling on the dock, the cry is shaking the sky, the corpses are all over the field, the river water next to the river bank is full of human heads, heads, stumps and flesh and blood are chasing the waves, densely like gruel, pink gruel.

"Wu dog! Wu dog! Wu Dog!! Yue Le scolded, "Do you really want to kill all our Qing Dynasty soldiers?" Why are you so ruthless? Why is it so ruthless?! ”

"Boom! Bang! Bang! Bang! The Qing warship whose mast was blown off was like a headless fly spinning on the river, knocking out the Qing soldiers who were struggling in the water, sinking the rocking boat full of soldiers, blocking the waterway of the wharf, and delaying the retreat of the Qing army............

………………

At the same time, on a section of the city wall that has not collapsed at the south gate of Wuchang, there is still a city tower that has not been damaged too seriously, and the headquarters of the Wu army has also moved to this place, although the situation of the Wuchang North Gate Wharf can not be seen in this position, but hearing the muffled thunderous explosion sound from the direction of the North Gate Wharf, the Wu army headquarters is still relieved, knowing that their airships have flown to the North Gate Wharf and are desperately bombing, which is effectively blocking the retreat of the Qing army across the river, next, That is, how to solve the trouble of the Qing army's Ximen Wharf.

"How far is our army from the Westgate Wharf?" Wu Laohan asked sharply.

"And three miles!" Wang Shirong replied quickly: "General Tian Jinxue, General Gao Dejie and Wang Jing are joining forces to attack the dock, but Mangou has a lot of troops there, and the resistance is also very tenacious, and the progress is not very fast. ”

"Give them an order, within an hour, they can't take the West Gate Wharf, and the military law will be engaged!" Wu Laohan shouted with a strong voice, pointed at his nephew Wu Yingjing, and shouted: "Jing'er, you take the headquarters up and assist Tian Jinxue to attack Ximen Wharf!" Remember, the battle at Ximen Wharf is related to whether our army can cut off the retreat of the elite main force of Mangou, no matter what the cost, we have to take this wharf down for my uncle! ”

"Yes!" Wu Yingjing clenched his fists and agreed loudly, and hurriedly rushed down the city tower to lead the troops to the west gate. At this time, Lu Fatzi hurriedly ran up to the city tower again, and saluted Wu Laohan: "Grandfather, please let your grandson-in-law's army also join the battlefield and attack the Ximen Wharf!" The grandson-in-law's army had just found some liquor and sugar in the city, and had made a batch of hand-thrown incendiary bombs to attack the dog-filled warships, with the best effect. ”

"What hand-thrown Molotov cocktails?" Wu Lao Hanjian asked curiously.

"Back to my grandfather, it is the kind of incendiary bomb used by Taiwan's sailors, Zheng Jing used this kind of incendiary bomb to break the Fujian sailors the year before last, and the kind of incendiary bombs that the Mangou sailors are afraid of like tigers." Lu Fatzi replied quickly: "Just now, after our army's grenade ran out, my grandson-in-law suddenly remembered this, so he asked the soldiers to put the sugar into the spirit bottle, and then stuffed the bottle with a strip of cloth dipped in fire oil at the mouth of the bottle, and after lighting the strip of cloth, it shook it vigorously, and after smashing it out, it was immediately a sea of fire. ”

"Very good, Lao Tzu's grandson-in-law is really angry, and he can create a weapon of water warfare for the Taiwan army so quickly." Wu Laohan was overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered: "Then let your army also go to Ximen, but you don't want to go, your army is under the command of Yu Xuan, and you stay and instruct other armies to make this kind of incendiary bomb, this thing will definitely be used in street battles." ”

Lu Fatzi is now wearing many hats, and it is indeed inconvenient to go to the battlefield to command the street battle, so he hurriedly hugged his fists and agreed, and rushed downstairs to urge Yu Xuan to lead the people of the headquarters to fight, and called a few Wu generals to teach them the manufacturing method of the simple version of the monotov cocktail on the spot, and let them find their own materials to make it temporarily - Lu Fatzi also temporarily remembered this homemade incendiary bomb after the grenade ran out, which would naturally not be able to provide them with raw materials. And when all this was prepared, Hu Guozhu's herald found Lu Fatzi, saying that it was the Kubilon side that asked for the resumption of negotiations, and asked Lu Fatzi to rush to Baishazhou immediately to participate in the negotiations.

Civilian and military affairs are one after another, and if you want to change someone else, you may be called away, but Lu Fatzi is happy in it - about killing the dog, Lu Fatzi is indeed happy, so not only did Lu Fatzi not complain or complain that he was tired, but he got on the war horse with an earthen Molotov cocktail, and rushed to Baishazhou, five miles away, to torture the poor Mangou negotiation messenger.

In view of the critical situation of the Qing army in Wuchang, the Qing army also gave up the dream of asking the Wu army to withdraw from Wuchang Mansion, but only asked the Wu army to stop the offensive immediately, let the Wuchang Qing army and the banner people in the city leave by boat, and the Qing court was willing to put Wuchang Mansion and Sichuan, Guangxi, and Biyuan provinces under the direct jurisdiction of Pingxi Wangfu. However, the Pingxi royal palace must make concessions in terms of military salaries, grain and grass, and ransoms for prisoners of war - half of the concessions!

"Yifeng, you're finally here." Seeing that Lu Fatzi, who was the most capable of messing around and being the most eloquent on the side of the army, arrived, the polite Hu Guozhu and Fang Xueshi were relieved and hurriedly beckoned Fat Lu to sit down. The three of them, Curb Pilon, Zheerken and Fu Dali, were full of black lines, and they cried out in their hearts - how could this most difficult, cunning and vicious dead fat man come so quickly?

After listening to Fang Xueshi's hurried introduction to the negotiation situation, Lu Fatzi was not in a hurry to turn his words to the topic of negotiation, but just asked Wu Jun's entourage to bring a torch and beckoned to Ji Bilong and the others: "Ji Zhongtang, Lord Fu, please come out, the lower official wants to invite you to see something." ”

The three Qing army representatives such as Ji Bilong and Hu Guozhu, Fang Xueshi and others all looked at each other, not knowing what medicine was sold in Lu Fatzi's gourd, but they still followed Lu Fatzi out of the tent, but saw Lu Fatzi shake the wine bottle in his hand vigorously, and then used a torch to ignite the cloth strip on the mouth of the wine bottle, and threw it hard towards the no-man's land, the wine bottle first smashed with a bang, and then turned into a sea of fire with a 'suddenly' sound, the flames were raging, and it was also burning extremely vigorously on the sandy land without ignitions.

"Curb Zhongtang, Fold, Lord Fu, this thing is called an incendiary bomb." Lu Fatzi introduced slowly: "Two years ago, Taiwan's Zheng Yi used this kind of thing to destroy your Fujian sailors in Kinmen, and burned your nineteen sea ships in one go, which is very easy to manufacture, and in less than half an hour, we rushed to build more than 500 such things. ”

Ji Bilong's face turned white again, and he suddenly understood what Wu Jun's weapon was aimed at, and Lu Fat said in a gloomy voice: "Ji Zhongtang must be very curious to know, how did we get such a thing in Pingxi Palace?" The lower officials did not dare to deceive, this is the envoy of Taiwan's Zheng Rebellion dedicated to our prince, the only condition is to hope that our Pingxi prince will play the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty, and join forces with them to deal with the Qing court. ”

"Ji Zhongtang, do you want our Prince Pingxi to continue to be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty? Or do you want to force our prince to rebel? Please think about it, although our prince is loyal to the Qing Dynasty, if he insists on fooling and playing with our prince, our prince will not be a lamb to be slaughtered. ”

After bowing their heads and thinking for a long time, Kubilong turned to Hu Guozhu and said weakly: "General Jinwu, the issue of military salaries, grain and grass and ransom for prisoners of war is up to you, but you have to give us a little time to prepare, within two months, our Qing court will pay half first, and the remaining half, we will pay within next year." In addition, the old man has to implore your army to promise to stop the attack immediately and let us cross the river. ”

"Absolutely not!" Hu Guozhu replied categorically: "Your army must all lay down their arms, surrender on the spot, and wait until you have paid the salary, food and grass, and the ransom of the prisoners of war before you are released!" In addition, within this year, you must pay 70% of the salary, food and grass, and the ransom for prisoners of war! ”

"We can pay 70 percent of the salaries, food and grass, and ransom for prisoners of war within this year." Kupilon said anxiously: "But your army must stop attacking and let our soldiers and civilians cross the river!" ”

"No way!" Hu Guozhu shook his head firmly, "You must immediately lay down your arms and surrender, we guarantee the safety of prisoners of war!" ”

"I can't do that." Kupilon said with a sad face: "The old man is only negotiating, not the commander of the army, and he has no authority to order them to lay down their arms and surrender. ”

"Then you can go back and discuss with Tuzhongtang and Prince An." Hu Guozhu clasped his hands to his chest and said with a smile: "It's still the same sentence, even during the war, the door of our Pingxi Palace's negotiation truce is still open to the Containment Hall, when will the Containment Hall figure it out, when will it come to negotiate with us again." ”

He was speechless, his already wrinkled face was even older, tears were rolling in his cloudy old eyes, and Zheerken and Fu Dali were also in tears, and their expressions were lost and depressed, as if they had already flown out of the sky. Seeing this scene, Lu Fatzi, who hated the dog so much that his eggs hurt, was rarely a little uneasy in conscience, and he couldn't help but persuade again: "Ji Zhongtang, two adults, you can't do this, in fact, there is another way, as long as you support Prince An to ascend the throne and become the emperor, and change the Yuan Yongzheng, then our Pingxi Royal Mansion will definitely fully support you, and you don't have to worry about not being able to explain to Kangxi when you go back." ”

Ji Bilong raised his head suddenly, his eyes stared at Lu Fat Man with resentful eyes, his expression was so fierce that it was almost as if he was going to eat Lu Fat Man alive, Lu Fat Man was full of smiles, and said: "Ji Zhongtang, you don't have to look at Xia Guan like this, in fact, Xia Guan is also for the good of the Qing Dynasty, Prince An is old and virtuous, diligent and loves the people, and he is deeply popular and reasonable, and his old man ascended the throne and became the emperor, which is not a good thing for the Qing Dynasty." ”

"Say it again!" Kupilon suddenly cried hoarsely, "The old man will die in front of you, even if he dies, he will not let your divisive poisonous plan succeed!" ”

"Alright, alright. Yifeng, don't talk about it. Hu Guozhu was also afraid that Lu Fatzi would really force Curb Pilon to death, so he hurriedly smiled and grabbed Fat Lu, and pointed to Wuchang City in the north, and said very kindly: "Curb Zhongtang, look, your North Gate Wharf is on fire, if you don't go back, I'm afraid there won't even be a direction for the boat to dock." ”

Kubilong hurriedly turned his head to look at the north, and saw that the fire in the area of the water gate in the west of Wuchang City was soaring, and the smoke was billowing out, and it was indeed already burning on fire, and the Qing warships on the river were in chaos, fleeing to the center of the river, and the crying voices of the Qing soldiers and people could be heard clearly even here. Seeing this scene, Ji Bilong was even more helpless, so he had to reply: "Thank you General Jinwu for your guidance, the old man will go back to the city to contact Tu Zhongtang and Prince An." ”

"But the old man still said that." He paused for a moment, and said very seriously: "If the prince of Pingxi and General Jinwu don't want the military salary, grain and grass and ransom promised by the old man to be in vain, please don't kill the people of our Eight Banners, please give us a little time to discuss and discuss." ”

"That's good." Hu Guozhu was also very cheerful, and replied: "As long as your army gives up breaking through and retreats to the inner city, then our army will give your army two hours to discuss, and within two hours, our army will never attack the inner city!" ”

(To be continued)