"Kill! Kill! Kill! Conquer Taiping City, and all the brothers will be free for three days! Grab money, grab food, grab women! ”

In the midst of the arrogant shouting, the second wave of the besieging Qing army led by Niyahan also launched a charge towards the Taiping City, and at the same time, Ehne's team had already stepped on the flying ladder and began to climb towards the city wall. The bows and arrows and muskets on the city wall of Taiping Mansion are still sparse, but the sheep's head stones and sassalwood that ordinary people can easily use are a bit exaggerated, so much that they are like rain and hail, densely smashed on the heads of the Qing soldiers besieging the city, smashed the heads of the Qing soldiers and bleed, people turned over on their backs, and the gold juice made of feces plus croton, wolf poison and other substances was splashed under the city wall like money, and the skin and flesh of the Qing soldiers fell off, and the ghosts cried wolves.

In any case, from the analysis of the counterattack method of the defenders of Taiping Mansion, as long as the Qing generals with a little battlefield experience can see that the number of defenders in Taiping City is definitely not much-at least there are definitely not many regular troops, so the number of bows and arrows, artillery and muskets that require a lot of skill and strength are scarce, and a large number of simple sheep's head stones and wood are used to smash the Qing soldiers under the city, and it proves that the fat soldiers on the city wall are not new soldiers, or the notoriously cunning fat army pulls the people and wears military uniforms and fake soldiers!

Discovering this, the morale of the Qing army was naturally greatly boosted, and Niyahan, who had serious doubts about breaking through Taiping City, also swept away all his worries, not only rushed to the front in the lead, but also kept yelling, "Rush! Rush! Wu Gou doesn't have many troops! Seize the opportunity to rush! The Qing army's demolition team behind them also increased their confidence, and they sneakily followed the back of the Niyahan team and ran just as fast.

"Rush up the walls!" New cheers came, the first batch of Qing soldiers stepped on the simple flying ladder and rushed to the city wall, the first Qing army's triangular pseudo-dragon flag was also planted on the wall of Taipingfu, and the Qing soldiers below were also pouring onto the city wall. Seeing this scene, the Qing soldiers who were waiting in the distance were naturally cheering, and the Qing generals were also overjoyed, saying that they could enter the city in the first round of charge, and it seemed that it was really easy to break through this Taiping City.

"Forgiveness!" Our Lord Zhang roared again.

"Minions understand!" Without the orders of Prince Zhang, the former Guangzhou general Shu Shu immediately called a thousand, stood up and rushed to the front of his descendant team without saying a word, and shouted: "Brothers, break through Taiping City and get away for three days!" Rush with me! ”

"Kill——!" The third wave of Qing siege troops broke out slogans, followed by Shu Shu's war horse, and the meteor strode towards the wall of Taiping Mansion.

"It's time." At the same time, on the wall of the Taiping Mansion, Li Mao, the guard of the fat army, smiled slightly, raised his hand, and lightly ordered: "Beat the war drums and fight back with all your might!" ”

"Knock knock!" The earth-shattering war drums sounded on the city wall, and then, the more earth-shattering artillery roar also sounded on the city wall, more than 60 large and small shells came out of the chamber, whistling and flying towards the dense Qing soldiers, and thousands of Miyoshi rockets were also shot from the city wall, shooting obliquely at the Qing siege team that charged up. At the same time, the city wall also erupted a dense rain of bows, arrows and bullets, overwhelmingly shooting at the Qing soldiers under the city wall and far away from the city wall, the arrows and bullets were so dense that the noon sun was completely blocked, as if a dark cloud was coming to the head of the Qing army.

"Boom! Bang! Bang! In the sound of violent explosions one after another, the generals of the Qing army were stunned to see that their most elite and combative soldiers on the Western Front were shattered one after another, flying into the air one after another, and falling far away like a broken kite! One after another, their main soldiers were full of arrows, and one after another their whole bodies were bleeding, wailing and screaming, and they fell in a pool of blood, and a large number of them fell in an instant.

What's even worse is the Qing soldiers under the city wall, not only the arrows and guns came to their heads, but the grenades with green smoke smashed on their heads like hail, the explosions and flames under the city wall were everywhere, the blood and brains of the Qing soldiers splashed together, screaming and crying shook the sky, the simple flying ladder was also knocked down by the fat soldiers with a giant log, the Qing soldiers on the flying ladder danced and screamed and fell off the city wall, fell into the moat, and the Qing soldiers who fell and squeezed the moat in a panic are difficult to count, and the moat is scarlet, Densely packed with corpses and wounded soldiers. As for the dozens of Qing soldiers who rushed to the city wall before, they were also cut into countless pieces by the fat soldiers who were overcrowded and suddenly killed, and all the flesh and blood of the corpses were thrown under the city.

"Boom! Bang! Bang! "The artillery bombardment of the Fat Army is still firing violently and rapidly, the long-range Hongyi cannon is specially bombarded by the Qing Army artillery array, and the short-range sub-mother cannon is specially bombarded by the Qing soldiers, with the help of the Fat Army gunner's skillful work and the fixed charge package, the Hongyi cannon of the Fat Army almost effortlessly shut up the Qing Army artillery team, and the sub-mother cannon also bombarded the Qing soldiers to the ground, and the corpses were all over the field, and the Niyahan Army, which was bombarded most badly by the Fat Army's sub-mother artillery, simply lost thousands of people in an instant, and the blood gathered into a stream into the low-lying place, The severed limbs of Qing soldiers were all floated.

"I've been tricked, run!" "Run!" "Help!" "Who's going to save me!"

The shouts of killing in the ranks of the Qing army turned into cries, sounds of escape and cry for help, countless Qing soldiers could not bear the fierce firepower of the fat army and the dense muskets and bows and arrows, turned their heads and ran back, lost their armor and trampled on each other, the distance of the city wall was to flee all over the mountains, and the Qing soldiers under the city wall were crowded at the narrow suspension bridge, swarming across the river and falling into the water countless times, the soldiers of the fat army took the opportunity to bombard the suspension bridge with bows and arrows, muskets and grenades, desperately harvesting the lives of the Qing soldiers.

The particularly vicious Fat Army soldiers, who are more likely to be related to Lu Fatzi, simply bombarded the bridge deck with a three-good rocket, although the three-good rocket shot into the crowd did not explode immediately, but it also frightened the Qing soldiers to cry and scream wildly, and rushed to throw the flames and gunpowder smoke into the distance, but the side of the suspension bridge was already crowded with Qing soldiers, and the rockets kicked and threw the tail flames to burn many Qing soldiers, not to mention, and finally exploded in the dense place of the Qing soldiers, splashing huge waves of flesh and blood. The moats on both sides of the spears were piled with the corpses of Qing soldiers, so that latecomers could cross the river by stepping on the corpses, and even the soles of their shoes would not be wet by the river.

Seeing such a scene, of course the fat soldiers on the wall of Taiping Mansion were laughing and shaking the sky, but the Qing army generals in the distance were all stunned and dumbfounded, and the same was true of our Prince Zhang, whose eyes were twice as big as usual, and muttered: "How is it possible?" How could it not be an empty city plan? Could it be that Lu Yifeng's dog thief hasn't read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and he can't even use the empty city plan? ”

"We've been tricked!" Xuanyi General E Qi finally came back to his senses, stomped his feet and screamed: "Wu Gou is false this time, but the truth is real!" Deliberately deployed many defenders on the city wall, and organized a large number of people to go to the city to help in the battle, so that we thought they were bluffing and lured us to attack the Taiping City! ”

The generals of the Qing army nodded secretly, agreeing with Eqi's opinion, and when they peeked at the Qing Dynasty God of War Zhang Wangye, they found that our Zhang Wangye looked indifferent, neither showing special anger, nor surprise and disappointment, let alone the slightest shame and guilt, and his expression was in a trance as if he had flown out of the sky.

At this time, the Qing army that attacked the city had all escaped the moat, but less than half of the 4,000 siege infantry who could cross the river alive, and even the Mongolian deputy commander with the blue flag, Ehenne, had been killed by the rockets of the Fat Army, and at the same time, the artillery and rockets of the Fat Army desperately bombarded the defeated soldiers of the Qing Army from behind, making every effort to expand the results of the battle and increase the casualties of the Qing soldiers. There was also Mu Cheng's army, which formed temporary fortifications to suppress the defenders of the city with bows and arrows and muskets, but was also bombarded by the artillery and rockets of the Fat Army, and was forced to throw down the expensive cart and flee for his life. In addition, the last two waves of siege teams of Niahan and Shu Shu were also bombed by the rocket artillery of the Fat Army and suffered heavy casualties and had to be forced to retreat.

It is also the luck of these Qing army teams, the new capital Tongzhu Manchu sent by Prince Zhang to lead the supervision team is quite loyal, and when he found that the situation was not good, he did not let the supervision team stop the Qing soldiers from fleeing, otherwise, the casualties of the Qing army would have to be increased by at least three percent! But Rao is so, this time the Qing army still lost more than 4,000 troops in one go, and they are all the main soldiers who have been tempered after a few years of war - such a loss, not to mention that it is already the Qing court of the mite in Bo Xishan, even the fat man Lu who has few soldiers or the old man Wu who is strong and strong, it will definitely hurt for a long time.

But then again, this siege fiasco, our Zhang Wang Ye must bear the responsibility for the mistake of judgment, but in the battle command, our Zhang Wang Ye did not make the slightest mistake, and whoever commanded would fight like this, the reason for the Qing army's fiasco was also because the fat army in Taiping City had too much firepower, the city defense materials were too sufficient, and the absolute geographical advantage was occupied, and the tactical arrangement of Zhang Wang Ye did not make any mistakes. Therefore, after the Qing army generals such as Ni Yahan, Mu Cheng'e and Shu Shu returned to the Qing army's banner array in despair, they did not accuse Zhang Wangye of nothing, but honestly knelt down to Zhang Wangye to ask for guilt.

Prince Zhang still didn't speak, his expression continued to be dazed, and after a stalemate for a long time, Zhu Man came up and whispered in Prince Zhang's ear: "Lord Zhang, it's time to ask the generals to get up, this defeat has nothing to do with them, it is because we misjudged the strength of Wu Gou in Taiping City." ”

"Get up ......, get up." Prince Chang finally came back to his senses.

"Thank you for your grace." Ni Yahan, Shu Shu and the others kowtowed and thanked them, and then they got up, and Ni Yahan asked cautiously: "Lord Wang, I am afraid that it will not be possible to storm Taiping City head-on, what should our army do next, please show it to the prince." ”

"What's next?" Prince Zhang was stunned for a long time, and only after a long time did he give another order that convinced the Qing army, "The soldiers have been running all night and fighting again, and they are all tired, so today they will set up a big camp on the side of the Guxi River, rest for the night, and decide what to do tomorrow." ”

It is considered to be sympathetic to the order of the soldiers, and naturally there will be no cheers in the ranks of the Qing army that has just been defeated, but they silently pack up the heavy grain and grass, clean the battlefield and carry the wounded soldiers, and set up camp on the upper reaches of the Guxi River ten miles away from Taiping City, and rest for the night.

The temporary camp was set up, the sky was already slightly dark, and Prince Zhang, who had lost the battle for the first time in half a year, did not have the heart to convene the generals to discuss the military situation, arranged the team of patrols in turn and the generals on duty, and then went into his own bed, holding the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and sighing for a long time, complaining like a long-term resentful woman - the god-killing Lu Yifeng dog thief, why didn't he read a famous book like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"? Don't you use an empty city plan in Taiping City?

No one dared to disturb our prince Zhang without authorization, the only henchman of Prince Zhang in the army was full of exceptions, and he heard from Prince Zhang's personal soldiers that Prince Zhang's water and rice had not entered since he entered the tent, and the loyal Zhu Man immediately asked the man to make a hot meal, served it on a wooden plate, and personally sent it into Prince Zhang's sleeping tent, and Prince Zhang's personal soldiers naturally did not stop him. And when Zhu Man entered the sleeping tent, our Prince Zhang was still dutifully looking at "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" under the candlelight, pinching his brows and meditating, thinking hard about the strategy of turning defeat into victory = breaking the city, like the scene in the autumn wind Wuzhang Plain.

"Lord Wang, it's the second watch, let's rest for a while." Zhu Man put the food on the table, reached out to grab the prince's book, and said, "Lord, the servant heard that you haven't eaten yet, so he asked the man to make you some meals you like, and eat some of them hot." ”

"I don't have an appetite, I can't eat." Prince Chang replied with a sigh.

"People are iron, rice is steel, and if you don't eat a meal, you will be hungry." Zhu Man continued to persuade and said: "The slave knows that you are sad about today's defeat, victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, the prince lost this battle, and the next battle will be won back, but you can't eat if you don't eat." ”

Saying that, Zhu Man also put a plate of yellow eel with chicken in front of Prince Zhang, and said with a forced smile: "Lord Wang, your favorite dragon and phoenix match." The slave remembers that you said that this dish was first created by Zhuge Liang, and it will be as smart as Zhuge Liang if you eat it, please use it more, so that you can figure out a clever plan like Zhuge Liang and lead us to break Wu Dog. ”

To put it mildly, Prince Zhang finally lifted the chopsticks and barely ate a few bites, but he was depressed in his heart, and he couldn't help but feel unpleasant to eat, and under the boredom, Prince Zhang had to transfer his thoughts and asked, "How is the situation in the camp?" ”

"Everything is normal, and our scouts have not found any signs of Wu Gou going out of the city for a night attack, please rest assured." Zhu Man replied respectfully, and then lowered his voice and said: "In addition, the slave has to report to the prince, just now Niyahan and Shu Shu several generals found the slave, and the slave will persuade the prince to withdraw the army tomorrow, so as not to be surrounded by Wu dogs." ”

"Retirement?" Prince Zhang put down his chopsticks and said hatefully: "A bunch of dog minions without a monarch and no owner!" Annihilator thief! The master wants this king to contain Wu Gou's Taiping Mansion and Jiangning's two corps, and now that the battle has just begun, they want to retreat? delayed the master's major event, and the master blamed it, did they take care of it, or did the king take care of it? ”

"Lord Wang, don't blame General Ni for them, they are also for your good." Zhu Man said kindly: "Our army is alone in the hinterland of Wu Gou, surrounded by several armies of Wu Gou, the most important thing is to fight quickly, and immediately flee away if one blow is missed, otherwise, once the Wu Dog army adjusts and surrounds our army on all sides, our army will be dangerous." ”

"How can you speak for those disobedient dog minions? I forgot the last time I was in Chizhou, how did those dog slaves deliberately harm us? Prince Zhang glared at Zhu Man, and shouted: "Retired soldiers, what should I do with the messenger assigned by the master?" ”

"Lord Wang, the minions are not to help the general and them speak, the minions are to help the relatives and not to help the relatives." Zhu Man replied respectfully: "And the slave also thinks that if we retreat to Ningguo Mansion, we can not only avoid being surrounded by Wu Gou, but also continue to complete the mission assigned by the master." Ningguo Mansion is located at the junction of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the terrain is precipitous, the city is solid, and the grain and grass are also sufficient, if we ....... ”

"Report ——!" Suddenly, the sound of an urgent report interrupted Zhu Man's free expression, and then a personal soldier rushed into the sleeping tent, hugged his fist to Prince Zhang, and said: "Lord Qiqi, our army scouts captured a Wu Dog official outside the camp, claiming to be Chen Rui, the wife and brother of the prefect of Wu Dog Taiping Mansion, and now he is appointed as a worshipper in the Wu Dog Army, saying that he was ordered to ask to see the prince, and there is a confidential event to be presented. May I ask the prince, did you meet this person? ”

"Wu Dog's messenger? What did Wu Gou send an envoy for? "The beads are full of a lot.

"No matter what he does, I'll talk about it after seeing him first, this prince is familiar with military books, and he is well versed in strategy, and he is still afraid that Wu Gou's envoy will use fraud?" Prince Zhang waved his hand decisively and shouted: "Lead him in, search his body carefully, be careful that he also hides explosives on his body like Wu Dog's envoy killed Ming Zhongtang." ”

After a close search, Chen Rui, the envoy of the Fat Army, was led into the camp of the Qing army, and was escorted to our Lord Zhang. And when our Prince Zhang and Zhu Man carefully looked at the visitor, they found that this Chen Rui was about thirty years old, medium in stature, not fat or thin, his appearance was quite dignified, and he was carrying a large package on his body, Zhu Man hurriedly pointed to the package and asked, "Have you searched the package?" Are there any weapons hidden? ”

"General Huizhu, I searched it, there are no weapons in it, it is all gold, silver and jewelry." The Qing soldiers who escorted Chen Rui into the tent replied respectfully.

"Gold, silver, jewelry?" Prince Zhang and Zhu Man were all in the same hand, and they said together that what did the fat army envoy bring jewelry for? And that Chen Rui also hit a thousand, and said respectfully: "Little envoy Chen Rui, knock on the prince of Baojun in the Qing Dynasty and say hello to the prince." ”

"Who sent you?" Prince Zhang shouted.

"Back to the prince, it was our Great Zhou's general Zhengdong who sent a clipper ship from Ogigang to give an order to Taiping City, and then our Great Zhou's Li Mao sent a small envoy to ask the prince for peace." Chen Rui was also honest, answered the truth, untied the package on his back and put it on the table next to him to untie it, and opened the wrapped square wooden box, revealing a box full of jewelry and jade, and said more respectfully: "Lord Wang, this is a little bit of General Lu's little meaning, and please accept it with a smile." ”

"Lu Yifeng's dog thief is the sworn enemy of this king, why do you want to give such a heavy gift to this king?" Prince Zhang asked suspiciously.

"Our general wants to ask the prince for something." Chen Rui said with a flattering face: "If the prince can agree, then our general will have ten times more such a heavy gift, and I will give it to you." ”

Prince Zhang and Zhu Man glanced at each other, and they were even more puzzled in their hearts, and then Prince Zhang asked: "Lu Yifeng dog thief, what do you want to ask this king?" ”

"It's a very simple little thing." Chen Rui said with a smile: "In about three or four days, our general will return to Nanjing from Fanchang and return to Nanjing through the city of Taipingfu. If the prince agrees, gold, silver and beautiful women, please speak casually, and our general will try his best to satisfy. ”

"Lu Yifeng's dog thief wants this king to make way and let him go?" Prince Zhang's heart jumped, and he secretly said in his heart: "Why did Lu Yifeng's dog thief ask this king to make way and let him go?" Is something big happening to Wu Gou's other battlefields? Or did Wu Gou's main force have an accident? ”

"Lu Yifeng dog thief, why do you want our prince to give way and let him go?" Zhu Man asked. Chen Rui's expression hesitated, not daring to answer, Zhu Man shouted again: "Say!" If you don't tell the truth, immediately push it out and cut it! ”

"This general, it's not that the villain doesn't want to tell the truth, it's just that the villain really doesn't know." Chen Rui replied helplessly: "The villain is just an errand runner, such a major military event, how can General Li Maozhu let the villain know the reason?" Don't talk about the villain, it's the villain's brother-in-law, the prefect, and I don't know why. ”

Zhu Man thought about it, and when he was about to give up the question, Chen Rui cautiously added, "However, the villain privately speculated that it may be related to the excessive consumption of ammunition by the general's army and the excessive casualties, because the villain knows that the general did not plan to attack Tongling before this expedition, so he didn't bring much ammunition, and after a big battle, I'm afraid there won't be much left." and Yangzhou Mansion, the fight was too fierce. ”

"Huh?" Our Zhang Wangye's eyes lit up, and his heart began to beat violently. After a little calculation, our Prince Zhang immediately snorted coldly: "Does Lu Yifeng's dog thief think too low of this king?" This king is loyal to the Qing court, and he wants to buy this king with a little gold, silver and jewelry? ”

"The prince's loyalty to the Qing court and the Qing emperor, of course, our generals and villains know and admire it very much." Chen Rui hurriedly patted his ass, and said cautiously: "But the villain also heard that although you have been named the king of the county, because of the shortage of money and food in the Qing Dynasty, you have not been rewarded with silver for repairing and expanding the mansion until now, so that your Fujin and children can only live in the original Beizi Mansion so far, and they are very wronged." Therefore, our general thought, if the prince can raise your noble hand, open the net, and don't fight this battle for the time being, then our general will honor the prince and you 100,000 taels of silver, and help the prince expand the palace. ”

"One hundred thousand taels of silver? Lu Yifeng's dog thief was really generous. When it came to the section where Zhuge Liang used silver to bribe Yang Song to frame Ma Chao in front of Zhang Lu, and finally forced Ma Chao to surrender to Liu Bei, our Zhang Wangye frowned a few times, knocked on Erlang's leg and said: "But he Lu Yifeng is a dog thief in Jiangnan who knocks on the bones and sucks the marrow, and the money must be about to squeeze the warehouse, right?" 100,000 taels of silver, hum. ”

"Please ask the prince to make an offer, and our general will do his best to meet it." Chen Rui hurriedly replied.

"Two hundred thousand taels of silver!" Prince Zhang raised two fingers and said viciously: "And you have to pay first!" ”

"Lord Wang, is it okay to pay half of it first?" Chen Rui asked cautiously: "It's not that we can't take it out, it's just that if you regret it, then we will lose our wife and lose our soldiers." ”

"It's someone who has read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"." Prince Zhang's heart was overjoyed, and he snorted coldly in his mouth: "Are you still afraid that this king will not believe in his words?" Well, for the sake of your respectful attitude as a dog minion, I'll allow you to pay half of it first! But be quick, the remaining 100,000 taels will be paid by Lu Yifeng when the dog thief passes under the Taiping Mansion City, if you dare to play tricks, hum! ”

"Please, my lord, our general is also famous for walking his word." Chen Rui hurriedly called a thousand, and said with a flattering face: "One hundred thousand taels of silver, after dark tomorrow, it will be kept and sent to the prince." ”

(To be continued)