War is the product of irreconcilable politics, both sides are unwilling to be aggrieved, are unwilling to make concessions at the negotiation table in exchange for the sympathy of the other party's charity, and at the same time both sides do not think that the other side will be able to defeat themselves, in such a situation of mutual disconvincing and mutual inconciliation, Wu Laohan and the side of the Qing court are all dead on the negotiation table to strive for peace, all of them plan to let the other side taste the power on the battlefield, and use knives and guns to let the enemy sit back at the negotiating table to make concessions to their own side. As a result, the Battle of Wuchang, which decided that the two sides would take the initiative in attacking and defending on the Yangtze River battlefield, was inevitably destined to start.

This is a close battle, neither side has a certain chance of victory, at the same time both sides have a hope of victory, the Wu army has a certain advantage in troops, combat effectiveness and weapons, but does not occupy the advantage of land and logistics, the weapons are too biased, the field force is strong, but the offensive force is relatively weak; The Qing army had a slight disadvantage in terms of strength, combat effectiveness, and weapons, but it had geographical advantages, logistical advantages, and manpower advantages, and strong city defenses were enough to offset most of the Wu army's weapon advantages, and it could even erase the gap between troops and combat effectiveness. Each leads the way, each has its own strengths, and it is really difficult to distinguish between the superior and the inferior.

After two days of intense preparations, on the afternoon of the third day of October in the eleventh year of Kang Mazi, the Wu army tunnel finally dug to the edge of the moat outside the east gate of Wuchang - this is very easy to identify, the moat of Wuchang was filled with stone and soil in sacks by the Wu army, as long as a large number of sacks were dug up, it can be concluded that it has been dug under the moat. At the same time, the moat outside the south gate of Wuchang has also been basically filled by the Wu army, although the Wu army has also paid the precious lives of hundreds of brave soldiers for this, but the moat is flattened, the siege troops of the Wu army can directly kill under the city of Wuchang without any barrier, and it can be regarded as sharpening the knife and cutting wood.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Wu Laohan immediately raised his horn and summoned the generals to arrange the siege plan. The horn sounded, and the generals of the Wu army, who were very strict in military law, gathered in the handsome tent in less than half a pillar of incense, and the fat man Lu who still had ink spots on his face also hurried to the handsome tent and stood behind Wu Yingqi to wait for the order. Wu Laohan saw that all the generals had arrived, and immediately said loudly: "Everyone, there is good news for you, our tunnel has been dug to the moat of the east gate of Wuchang, and in half a day at most, our spade soldiers can dig the tunnel under the Wuchang city wall, bury medicine to blow up the city, and conquer Wuchang City in one fell swoop!" ”

"Good!" The generals of the Wu army cheered in unison, and they were all happy. Wu Lao Han shouted again: "This king has now decided that in order to reduce the loss of the siege, our army will attack the city overnight tonight, after the city wall is blown up, our army must occupy the east city of Wuchang within tonight, and then launch a strong attack on the inner city full of dogs after dawn, generals, be sure to let your soldiers hurry up to make food and rest, and prepare for the night battle!" ”

"Obey the orders of the prince!" Wu Junzhong will clasp their fists together and agree. Wu Lao Han nodded with satisfaction, picked up the arrow again, and said loudly: "Now this king has begun to distribute the siege army, and the Zhaowu general Ba Yangyuan ......." ”

"Wait." A voice suddenly interrupted Wu Lao Han Jian's dispatch of troops, Wu Lao Han Jian and everyone looked at it in surprise, but saw that the person who interrupted Wu Lao Han Jian's order turned out to be Lu Fatzi, who had always been well-behaved and obedient at this moment. Fat Lu knelt down on one knee and clenched his fists and said: "Lord Wang, please forgive the last general's blunt words, our army's authentic siege tactics are only afraid that they have been discovered by the enemy and forcibly attack the city, but I am afraid that our army will suffer heavy losses!" ”

"How so?" Wu Lao Han asked in surprise.

"I don't know if the prince remembers? Four days ago, our army's airship made a sortie and flew to Wuchang City to distribute leaflets. Lu Fatzi replied in a deep voice: "At that time, for the sake of prudence, the last general once told our airship army to pay attention to the abnormal situation in the city, and sure enough, the airship soldiers of our army found that the Mangou defenders were also digging trenches in the east gate of Wuchang, and at the same time, the Mangou defenders were also in the area of Wuchang Water Gate, and there were also signs of construction, which seemed to be digging a diversion trench. ”

"The last general suspects that Mangou is likely to have seen through our army's tunnel siege tactics, and is ready to wait until our army's tunnel is dug under the city, and suddenly dig through the tunnel, or release poisonous smoke, or irrigate the river, kill our army's cave digging soldiers, and destroy our army's tunnel."

"Then why didn't you say it earlier?" Wu Lao Han's face changed greatly, he threw down the arrow and slapped the table, and shouted: "Since you have already discovered that the situation is wrong four days ago, why don't you report it to this king?" ”

"Back to the prince, the last general was not sure at the time, so he didn't dare to report it." Lu Fatzi replied dejectedly: "However, judging from the situation in the past few days, Mangou has not made every effort to prevent our army from filling the moat, which is enough to prove that Mangou has discovered our tunnel siege tactics, so he will plan and deliberately connive at our army to fill the river." ”

"Bastard thing! Since you have long doubted it, then you can say it directly, is the old man the kind of person who can't listen to advice? Wu Lao Han Jian's nose was almost crooked, if it weren't for Lu Fatzi's great contribution, Wu Lao Hanzhan would have even thought of pushing Lu Fatzi out to beat a hundred military sticks. In desperation, Wu Laohan had no choice but to quickly order: "Quick, see if the weather is suitable, if it is suitable, quickly let an airship take off, go to the sky to take a closer look, whether the dog is ready in the city." ”

"Lord Wang, please slow down." Lu Fatzi stopped Wu Laohan again, and said with a smile: "Lord Wang, the reason why the last general has not reported this news to the prince in the past few days is that he is really not sure, and second, the last general also wants to paralyze the full dog, so that the full dog thinks that our siege tactics are only one authentic. Therefore, the last general dared to suggest that our airship no longer needs to be dispatched again, and then go to attack the grass and scare the snake to expose the target. ”

"What siege weapon?" Wu Laohan turned his anger into joy and hurriedly asked. Lu Fatzi was not in a hurry to answer, got up and slapped his palm a few times outside the tent, and a Wu soldier outside the tent of the Chinese army immediately came in with a wooden plank, the front of the wooden board was semi-arc, painted black without reflection, and the reverse side had four wooden legs that could be folded, and when the four wooden legs were opened, the wooden board immediately turned into a high-legged black square table.

"This is your new siege weapon?" Wu Laohan was extremely surprised and asked, "What kind of siege weapon is this?" What's the use? ”

"Yifeng, what the hell are you doing?" Wu Yingqi also rushed to the proud man Lu Fatzi and asked in a low voice: "This is obviously a table for eating, how to attack the city?" ”

Fat Lu didn't answer in a hurry, but turned to the table, raised his hand to make a few digging movements, and asked: "Lord Wang, generals, please see, our soldiers are hiding under this table and digging the enemy's city wall with a crane's beak hoe, and the enemy is standing on the city, what can be done to hurt our soldiers who dig the city wall?" ”

"Huh?" Being reminded by Lu Fatzi, the generals of the Wu army found that although Lu Fatzi's square table is simple, once the digging soldiers hide under the table and dig holes, the enemy is on the city wall, there is really no way to effectively hurt the soldiers under the table, even if they throw big stones and smash them into the arc table of the wooden table, they will slide down to both sides, and it is difficult to smash the wooden table and smash the Wu soldiers under the table. Wu Lao Han Jian also quickly came to his senses, and asked tentatively, "What do you mean?" Let our soldiers hide under such a table, dig the Wuchang city wall directly on the ground, stuff it with explosives and blow it up? ”

"Lord Shengming, that's true." Fat Lu replied with a smile: "I don't know if the prince still remembers?" Before entering the customs, Mangou had also used similar weapons to attack the Qianming City, but Mangou's purpose was to dig down the city wall, and he had to dig many caves to succeed, so there were not many examples of success. But ours is much simpler, just dig five or six holes, hide the explosives in the holes, and light them up and blow them up. ”

"How can this king forget?" Wu Lao Hanjian recalled and said: "In the year when this king was thirteen years old and broke into battle to save his father, he attacked Ningyuan City with dogs, and he used such tactics to dig the Ningyuan City Wall and dig the Ningyuan City Wall into thousands of holes, if it wasn't for the fact that the weather was particularly cold that year, the city walls were frozen to death, Ningyuan City would have ......, heh." ”

Recalling this, Wu Laohan shook his braided gray head, tried to drive the young man's past out of his mind, and said with a smile: "Count you kid clever, although this method is stupid, it may be more effective for us." However, you bastard boy soaked in the factory all day long, just to make such a simple thing for this king? ”

"Back to the prince, of course not." Fat Lu shook his head, and said in a deep voice: "I have been soaking in the workshop for the past few days, not only did I make this simple siege table, but also made a full dog of sub-mother cannon flowering shells for the prince, with the forty-two sub-mother cannons that full of dogs were captured by us in Anshun, plus the flowering cannonballs we filled with explosives, we will definitely be able to give Mangou a big surprise." ”

"You got the flowering shells of the sub-mother cannon out too?" Wu Laohan was overjoyed at first, then frowned and said, "But when we use the siege table to dig the wall, how do we use the sub-mother cannon?" If this cannonball falls under the wall, then our spade soldiers digging the wall will be miserable. ”

"That's what grandfather and grandson-in-law think." Lu Fatzi laughed proudly, and Yin Yin said: "Grandson-in-law thinks that since Mangou has seen through our tunnel siege tactics and wants to deal a heavy blow to our spade soldiers, then we will ask for a general to calculate and calculate, and on the basis of the authentic siege tactics, we will attack the south with another sound, and in turn hit Mangou!" At the same time as the siege of the city, a large number of soldiers were killed and wounded, laying the foundation for us to enter the city and fight in the streets. ”

"What's the matter? Let's take a closer look. Wu Laohan sat back in his handsome seat and asked with his hands on his chest. The generals of the Wu army present also focused their eyes on Lu Fatzi's fat face and listened attentively.

"That son-in-law is rude." Lu Fatzi was not polite, walked to the map sand table, picked up the bamboo pole and pointed to Wuchang City and said: "Grandfather, please look, generals, Wuchang is a big city, the length of the southern wall of the outer city reaches seven miles, and the length of the east wall reaches more than nine miles. Therefore, the son-in-law concluded that after Mangou discovered the tunnel siege tactics of our army at the east gate of Wuchang, he would definitely ambush the heavy elite soldiers in the east gate, one to facilitate the main force of our army on the main battlefield, and the other to prevent accidents. ”

"However, at the south gate of Wuchang, because of the abundant groundwater outside the south gate, it is difficult for our army to dig tunnels, even if the moat is filled, it can only be attacked with a cloud ladder and a cloud platform, so Mangou does not need to deploy too many troops, and he can rely on the geographical advantage to block our army, and then so, the Mangou defenders at the south gate of Wuchang must not have much!"

In view of these circumstances, my grandson-in-law suggested that when our army attacked the city tonight, we could use the cover of the night to reduce the number of torches, and concentrate the elite army at the south gate of Wuchang, and the siege table was also concentrated outside the south gate of Wuchang, so as to dig the wall and blow up the wall overnight. At the same time, the forty-two cannons captured by our army and our forty Hongyi cannons and bronze cannons were all arranged outside the east gate of Wuchang, and all of them used flowering shells to bombard the city wall of the east gate of Wuchang and the houses behind it, killing and injuring the elite of the Mangou who were ambushed here, and the old and weak soldiers behind them were more torches, so that the Mangou thought that our main force was still at the east gate of Wuchang, and the fierce shelling was just to cover up the underground tunnel excavation. ”

"In this way, the fierce artillery fire of our army can not only severely damage the elite soldiers concentrated in the east gate of Mangou, attract the attention of the main force of Mangou, interfere with Mangou's judgment of the progress of our tunnel excavation, and induce Mangou to continue to concentrate the main forces at the east gate of Wuchang, and further support our army's siege operation at the south gate, using the sound of artillery and the cover of the night, suddenly dispatch sappers to dig the city wall, fill up explosives, and blow up the south gate of Wuchang, until Mangou perceives the true purpose of our army, the time is already too late!"

Wu Lao Han Jian was silent and calculated, and after a long time, Wu Lao Han Jian raised his head, glanced at the other two staff officers present, Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong, and saw that they both nodded vigorously, Wu Lao Han Jian smiled and said: "Then do it, the real is false, the virtual is real, and the full dog plays a sound of east and south." ”

"Niece-in-law." Wu Yingqi suddenly pulled the fat man's sleeve and said in a low voice: "Don't forget, who was the first to promote you back then?" In the future, you should come to my account and mix, I can't treat you badly. ”

………………

Although the Wu army has not yet begun to officially attack the city, judging from the progress of the Wu army's tunnel excavation and the movement of the army's busy preparations, several commanders on the side of Mites still concluded that the big war is coming! In order to meet the strong attack of the main force of the Wu army, Tuhai and Yue Le were not only prepared to crack the underground siege tactics of the Wu army, but also concentrated a large number of elite troops in the east gate of Wuchang to be stationed in order to enter the battlefield at any time.

When he was busy, a new military intelligence report came - outside the south gate of Wuchang, the army movement of the Wu army was also discovered! Hearing this news, Tu Hai, Yue Le and Cai Yurong and other commanders of the Qing army did not dare to slack off, taking advantage of the fact that the sky was not yet completely dark, they hurried to the city tower of the south gate of Wuchang to check the enemy's situation, and the result was really so, outside the south gate of Wuchang, there was indeed a considerable number of Wu army troops, with siege weapons such as ladders, cloud platforms and rocket vehicles, and were assembling in the open area outside the south gate of Wuchang. However, when they raised the binoculars and took a closer look at the banner of the Wu army, Tu Hai, Yue Le and the others all showed happy smiles - this Wu army was the Wu army and Wu Yingqi team that had been scared by the Wuchang Qing army some time ago.

"Wu Sangui old thief, are you still trying to play around?" Tu Hai smirked: "You want to deliberately arrange the illusion of two strong attacks in the southeast to cover up your tunnel siege tactics?" Dream! ”

"Zhongtang, the south gate can't be taken lightly." Cai Yurong reminded: "It is necessary to prevent Wu Gouming from attacking the east gate, attacking the south gate, turning the virtual into the real, according to the opinion of the lower officials, it is best to arrange more troops on the south gate to prevent accidents." ”

"That's right, be careful to sail the ship of ten thousand years." Tu Hai nodded vigorously and ordered: "That's it, tonight I and Prince An are in charge of the main battlefield at the east gate, and the south gate will ask Cai Butang to you, send 3,000 troops from the north gate and the west gate, and gather 10,000 troops here to garrison, and if you find something wrong, you will light a fire in the city tower, and we will immediately send reinforcements to you." ”

"The minions obey." Cai Yurong clenched his fists and agreed. However, at this time, a new military intelligence report proved that Cai Yurong was too afraid of the enemy like a tiger - the lookout post at the east gate of the Qing army found that nearly 100 large and small artillery pieces of the Wu army were assembled and arranged outside the east gate of Wuchang!

Hearing this news, Tu Hai, Yue Le and others were inevitably both happy and worried, happy naturally that the Wu army really set the east gate of Wuchang as the main battlefield, and worried that the Wu army was under fierce artillery fire, and the large number of Qing troops assembled in the east gate would inevitably suffer heavy losses. In the end, it was Cai Yurong who suggested again: "Tuzhongtang, Lord An, why don't you drive all the people in the east gate to the northwest and let our reserves live in private houses, so that we can reduce many senseless losses." Tu Hai and Yue Le were very satisfied when they heard this, and immediately followed the plan.

In fact, there is another hidden worry on the side of the Qing army, that is, the problem of the Wu army's airship, once the Wu army's airship flies to the east gate of Wuchang City to bomb, the Qing army has been prepared to prevent the underground siege of the city, and it will definitely not be able to escape the eyes of the Wu army's airship. But fortunately, it may be the blessing of the spirit of the wild boar skin in the sky, the north wind in the area of Wuchang City today is quite violent, and the wind speed and direction are not extremely suitable for the Wu army's airship to dispatch, so the Wu army's side has never had an airship fly into the sky, and the Qing army's deep trench hiding behind the city wall has naturally not been noticed by the Wu army. And when the sky was basically dark, he began to wait for the main force of the Wu army to attack the city, and then use sufficient preparations to defend the city to give the Wu army a head-on attack.

The days of late autumn are short, and the three quarters of the unitary hour have not yet arrived, the north wind is howling outside the city of Wuchang is already pitch black, and the five fingers are not visible, but outside the range of the bow and arrow artillery outside the east gate of Wuchang, the boundless torch bonfire reflects half of the sky red, and the noisy sound of people shouting and neighing horses can still be heard clearly from a distance of six or seven miles. At the same time, in the listening tank buried in Wuchang City, the long-lost sound of excavation and ground breaking finally sounded, and it was obvious that the Wu army sappers had begun the final sprint to the east gate of Wuchang.

"Shovel soldiers, all in the trenches!" Yue Le, who was in charge of commanding the Qing army engineers to meet the Wu army engineers, ordered sharply, "Two people are responsible for each water tank, and they all hear the water tank with their ears, and if they find the location of Wu Dog's tunnel, report it immediately." ”

The Qing army sappers followed the order, all of them jumped into the deep trench with hoes and shovels in their hands, waiting for orders at any time, and the carefully selected Qing soldiers with sensitive ears put their ears on the water tank one after another, listening to the movements of the Wu army engineers, and the Qing army sappers who were responsible for discharging poisonous smoke were also prepared with firewood, bellows and tinder, kneeling on one knee with their backs against the dead corner of the city wall, calmly waiting for the order.

"Boom!"

Just arrived, the first cannon of the main force of the Wu army to attack Wuchang City finally fired, in the thunder and firelight, the first Wu army cannonball came out of the disembowel, drew a beautiful parabola in the night sky, and flew to the city wall of the east gate of Wuchang with a roar. Tu Hai, who was very experienced in the battlefield, hurriedly let the army in the city hide in the dead corner behind the arrow battlement, and used a shield to protect the chest, abdomen and face from being shot by shrapnel, but to Tu Hai's surprise, the Wu army's shells actually crossed the city wall and fell directly into the elite houses of the Manchu Qing army.

"Wouldn't it? Is it a coincidence? Or did Wu Gou already expect that we would ambush elite soldiers in the houses near the east gate? Tuhai cried out in despair.

"Boom! Bang! Bang! The sound of shells fired one after another came, and the largest artillery siege of the Yungui army since the start of the army began.

(To be continued)