The battle on the banks of the Chushui River continued, in front of the main force of the Qing infantry three miles away on the north bank, 1,000 infantry and more than 700 soldiers of the Fat Army who were responsible for the task of pinning down were surrounded by ten times the infantry regiments of the Qing army, there was no fortification cover, no favorable terrain to defend, and no musket bow and arrow cover, completely with flesh and blood as a shield, stubbornly resisting the impact of the Qing infantry wave after wave; Then, with his sword and axe as a spear, he launched a counter-charge against an enemy ten times his size. [Full text reading]

Almost every soldier of the Fat Man Army is covered in blood, and the two fierce generals of the Fat Man Army, Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong, have already been fished out of the blood and water, and their whole bodies are covered with blood foam and flesh, but the pimples on their arms are still like being beaten by iron cast steel, wielding a Japanese sword and axe to chop out, they can still cut off the heads of Qing soldiers and split the chests of Qing soldiers like cutting apples. In less than an hour of the battle, more than 30 Qing soldiers have died under the spring axe in the alley, and An Jiarong, the nephew of Lu Fatzi, who is known for his bravery, has killed more than 50 enemies, and the splattered blood and brains stained their whole bodies red and white, so fierce and terrifying that they are almost as fierce as Shura, so that where the two generals passed, the Qing soldiers did not have the courage to stop the fight, but just cried and shouted like a rabbit to escape, so that the two generals rampaged in the thousands of troops, as if entering a no-man's land.

The ferocity of the Fat Army not only broke the courage of the Qing soldiers, but also greatly surprised the Qing generals led by Jie Shu, although Jie Shu and other Qing army generals are very clear that since the Fat Army is a lone army that dares to impact the big array of the army, then this team must be the trump card army under Lu Fatzi, and it can fight hard battles and basically specialize in hard battles, so Jie Shu and others have long been ready to fight hard to the death. It's just that what Jie Shu and others didn't expect was that this fat army would be so hard, and after being surrounded by the Qing army, not only did it not show any defeat, but instead killed the Qing army brigade with a large number of people and retreated, which was difficult to parry, and restrained the Qing infantry brigade of 20,000 to death, so that the Qing infantry could not free up their hands to reinforce the ferry battlefield and block the northward road of the main force of the fat army.

"Damn, why is this team of Wu dogs so difficult? The last time we fought the Taiping Mansion, it seems that we didn't encounter such a tenacious and fierce Wu dog? Jie Shu scolded.

"Lord Wang, please rest assured, although this team of Wu dogs is fierce, it is only a lone army and cannot last." Wang Zhiding, the general of Zhenhai Zhenhai of the Han Dynasty, the right-hand man of Jieshu, and the general of Zhenhai of the Qing Dynasty, who still refused to surrender after being captured by the Xiangsheng of the Xia State in history, opened his mouth and suggested: "The prince can send more archers to throw and cover, forcing this team of Wu dogs to constantly assault and charge, consuming their physical strength, and after a long time, there will be hope for the annihilation of this Wu dog." ”

"Then you're not going to arrange it?" Jie Shu glanced at Wang Zhiding and shouted: "Hurry up, the pontoon bridge on Wu Gou's side is about to be built, and before Wu Gou's main force crosses the river, he must eat this Wu Dog lone army for this king!" ”

Wang Zhiding bowed down and agreed, and soon arranged for two thousand archers to be divided into two teams, and the left and right sides were caught in the unstoppable fat army in the chaotic army, and they released arrows together to cover the fat army team, and sure enough, after finding that the Qing army adjusted its tactics here, in order to prevent the team from being completely passively beaten, Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong could only lead the army to kill the Qing army's archery team with all their might, and the Qing army archers fought and retreated, retreating backwards while releasing arrows, lengthening the charging distance of the fat army's trapped formation, and then greatly consuming the physical strength of the fat army's soldiers, The generals of the Qing army in Luzhou, who were quite effective, also took the opportunity to adjust their teams, went all out to encircle and chase and intercept, and constantly drove the soldiers to intercept the fat army to protect the archery team, so that the soldiers of the fat army unknowingly fell into a bitter battle of attrition of the power that was constantly forced to charge.

The embarrassed main battlefield finally got a little better, and after breathing a sigh of relief, Jie Shu hurriedly focused his attention on the ferry battlefield, but what made Jie Shu angry was that the performance of the Qing cavalry on the ferry battlefield was even more embarrassing than the Qing infantry on the main battlefield.

In this way, when the momentum of the cavalry of the Qing army was blocked by the temporary fortifications such as the horse repelling pistols and wooden stakes of the fat army, it completely lost the benefit of the cavalry's charge, and could only honestly cut and stab the fat army across the fortifications, and attack the enemy's length with their own shortcomings, and fell into a bitter battle against attrition, and the fat army engineers seized the time to repair the pontoon bridge, and most of the four pontoon bridges have been completed, and at the same time, the ferries of the fat army have also begun to adjust into rows, connected into bridges, ready to meet the main force of the fat army that is gearing up behind to cross the river to attack.

"Decree Balkan and Zhu Lachan, within half an hour, be sure to break through the interception of Wu Gou's infantry and destroy the Wu Gou pontoon bridge!" Jieshu yelled and ordered, "If not, military law will be conducted!" ”

"Whoa!" As soon as the herald was dispatched, there was a sudden roar from the infantry ranks of the Fat Army, which was already on the left and right, and a little firelight dragged the gunpowder smoke up into the air and exploded, blooming a beautiful and huge red firework in the rainy sky. Seeing this scene, Jie Shu and Wang Zhiding and other Qing army generals couldn't help but be stunned, and said together: "What is Wu Gou doing?" What fireworks are set off when there is a war? ”

"Boom! Bang! Bang! Seeing the fireworks signal rising, the fifty Hongyi cannons with the longest range in the Fat Army artillery team immediately adjusted their direction and firing height, and concentrated their shots at the rear of the fireworks signal, and one after another flowering shells roared into the most dense area of the Qing soldiers and exploded violently, the huge shock wave lifted the Qing soldiers to the ground, and the flying shrapnel took away the surnames of countless Qing soldiers, and the strict and dense Qing army ranks were also in chaos, and the fat army infantry took the opportunity to charge, Smashed into the Qing army that was still standing just now, slashed and slashed, and at the same time released a firework.

"Fuck the Wu dog! Their fireworks are the guiding signal for the Hongyi cannon to fire! Wang Zhiding was the first to come to his senses and scolded: "Is that Wu Gou the ghost idea that came up with?" Let the trap team set off fireworks to guide the artillery team to shoot? ”

"Boom! Bang! Bang! Wang Zhiding didn't have time to study who came up with such an immoral idea for the time being, and after getting the guidance of the fireworks signal, the Fat Army artillery team that had been reloaded and reloaded fired another volley, dumping fifty flowering shells into the front of the Fat Army infantry, and the firepower covered the Qing army team that blocked the footsteps of the Fat Army. However, what made the Qing army's soul fly away and the officers and men of the Fat Army who used this tactic for the first time were very excited was that after receiving the guidance of the fireworks signal, the power of the Fat Army's artillery not only increased greatly, but also the accidental damage was very small, more than 80 percent of the 50 shells accurately hit the Qing Army Brigade, and the Qing Army Brigade was cried wolf and collapsed, and only two shells fell near the front of the Fat Army team, causing a small amount of accidental injuries that were absolutely within the acceptable range.

"Whoa!" It is estimated that the artillery team has reloaded and reloaded, and another firework flew up in the air and exploded, blooming with green flowers.

Immediately afterwards, a cloud of orange fireworks flew into the air, and the artillery of the Fat Army began to concentrate its fire on the right flank of Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong's team; And when the Hutongchun team shot out the purple fireworks, it was the turn of the Qing army on the left flank to be unlucky, and the shells of the fat army basically fell half a mile away from the left flank where the fireworks rose, blowing up the Qing soldiers there to pieces, and also blowing up the sneaky Qing army archery team with blood and flesh splashed, holding their heads and running away.

"Haha!" Seeing this scene, Lu Fatzi Ai Jiang Hutongchun laughed happily, "Brother Lu's method is really good, with such accurate artillery reinforcements, no matter how many dogs there are, we are not afraid!" ”

"Uncle Hu, call for artillery support!" An Jiarong, who had already killed his face covered in blood, pointed at the Qing army's flag formation, and roared angrily: "Let the artillery open the way for us, let's go to the flag array full of dogs!" ”

"Great idea!" Hu Tongchun applauded loudly, waved the flesh-and-blood plate axe, and roared: "Red fireworks are ready, rush and release at the same time!" ”

"Whoa!" "Boom! Bang! Bang! "Whew!" "Boom! Bang! Bang! Under the guidance of the rising red fireworks, the Hongyi cannon of the Fat Man Army, which can shoot ten miles farthest, continues to fire a salvo, and the firepower covers the Qing army team that intercepts the Fat Man Army's charge road, and the Qing army team is scattered and defeated one after another, and the Qing soldiers are also bombarded to pieces one after another, and the team of Hutongchun and An Jiarong takes advantage of the chaos to take the middle palace directly, and continues to advance towards the Lutang Mountain flag formation of the Qing army, and the Qing army is in chaos.

"Hutongchun, this kid, call for fire support and call for real joy." Seeing the signal fireworks rising one after another from the telescope, Lu Fatzi couldn't help laughing, turned to Yao Qisheng next to him and said with a smile: "I bet that kid from Hutongchun must have been working on the idea of smashing the dog flag formation after discovering that the fire support has a miraculous effect, otherwise, the fireworks he set off would not be farther and farther away." ”

"It seems that the tactic of fireworks and artillery support invented by the general has paid off." Yao Qisheng said respectfully: "However, the student also has to remind the general of two points, first, the dog suffered a loss this time, and next time he may use the same method to set off fireworks to mislead our army to bombard, so the general had better prepare the tactics of anti-counterfeiting of the embankment fireworks signal in advance." ”

"Second, the Hongyi cannon can indeed shoot up to ten miles, but as long as it shoots more than seven miles, the Hongyi cannon is easy to explode. Therefore, among our artillery units, it is also best to agree on a signal to communicate with the front, reminding the officers and men in the front not to go too far into the enemy line and lose artillery cover. ”

"Or Yao Junshi thinks carefully, these are indeed two important questions." Lu Fatzi nodded, and secretly pondered: "When the battle is over, I must find Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong to carefully confirm the specific effect of artillery support tactics, if the effect is indeed extraordinary, then I also have to increase the production and improvement of some Hongyi cannons, the maximum range of the sub-mother cannon is only three miles, which is not suitable for firepower to support distant friendly forces." ”

"Da Zhou!" At this time, there was a sudden cheering sound in the direction of the ferry, and when Lu Fatzi hurriedly raised his binoculars, he found that the first pontoon bridge built by the Fat Army sappers had been completed, and the remaining three pontoon bridges had been built close to the surrounding sound, and the ships had also been connected into four large strings, and they were rapidly approaching the north shore under the towing of the Fat Army sailors.

"Okay, good speed." Lu Fatzi nodded with satisfaction, and when he put down the binoculars, he saw that Wang Xu had already rushed to the front of the Hou, and his face was full of anxious and earnest looks, Lu Fatzi couldn't help but smile and ordered: "Go and take revenge, 8,000 troops, bring more three-good rockets and grenades, don't be stingy with ammunition, and blow up those dogs that are not as good as beasts." ”

"Order!" Wang Xu clenched his fists and said yes, turned around and rushed down to lead the troops into battle, and after a while, a fat army infantry that had been gearing up for a long time began to advance under the leadership of Wang Xu, trotting towards the pontoon bridge and ferry, which was about to be completed. At the same time, the Qing army also discovered this dangerous situation, and Zhu Laman and Jue Luo Balkan both urged the cavalry to charge like crazy, in a vain attempt to break through the infantry of the Fat Army and destroy the pontoon bridge. And the Fat Army's artillery team also gave up suppressing and sporadic firing of the Qing army's artillery fire, and began to advance in the direction of the ferry.

In the adjustment of the efforts of all arms of the enemy and us, the nearest fat man army and mother artillery team took the lead in arriving on the right side of the ferry, and the old Qing Jian, who volunteered to be an accomplice to Lu Fat Man, personally calculated the shooting height, ordered the child and mother artillery team to adjust the ruler together, and then opened fire with all their might, and between the 150 sub-mother guns fired one after another, one after another flowering shells weighing eight catties roared out, overwhelmingly falling into the Qing cavalry team that was desperately charging. In the midst of the violent explosion, the Qing cavalry company with a pair of men and horses was shattered, flesh and blood were splashed, and the momentum of the charge was stunned. The fat army sappers took the opportunity to rush to work, and completed the construction of two pontoon bridges, and Wang Xu's team, which came from behind, was immediately divided into three teams, stepped on the temporary pontoon bridge that had just been completed, charged across the river, moved and assembled to the right flank covered by the artillery fire of the sub-mother artillery team, and quickly set up a simple rocket launcher.

"Wu Gou's brigade has crossed the river!" With the screams of despair, Zhu Lachan, the commander of the Qing army, also let go, shouted with red eyes and gave an order, organizing more than 1,000 cavalry around him to outflank him in a roundabout way, and risked killing Wang Xu's army that was gathering on the right flank of the battlefield. However, Zhu Lachan's cavalry team had just rushed into the firing range, and fifty Fat Army sub-mother guns had already fired at his team, and Wang Xu's team did not hesitate to shoot hundreds of Sanhao rockets, covered with overwhelming shells and rockets, Zhu Laman and countless Qing cavalry were crushed on the spot, and the remaining Qing cavalry had no command and were afraid of the fat man's firearms, so they immediately scattered and fled, and the Fat Army infantry took the opportunity to charge across the river, gathered into an army, and carried more and more superior firearms across the river.

The battle has reached this point, and the Qing army is basically defeated, but Jieshu, who hates Lu Fatzi and hates it so much, that he refuses to order a retreat at all, but while transferring the flag array, he desperately orders Jueluo Balkan to lead the remnants of the cavalry to continue to charge and destroy the pontoon bridge, and the hardcore Han Annihilation Wang Zhiding also personally led the descendant army to charge towards Hutongchun's team, and openly shouted the slogan of ten taels of silver for killing the enemy, encouraging the Qing soldiers to kill the enemy bravely.

Although Jieshu's tactical intentions could not be more correct, the generals of the Qing army were also effective, but the tactics implemented were flesh and blood soldiers with families and rooms, seeing that there were more and more fat army troops who successfully crossed the river, the rockets shot by the fat army became denser and denser, and there were shells falling from the sky, and more and more Qing infantry cavalry completely lost the courage to continue to fight to the death, and began to collapse and flee, and the Qing army supervised the war team to block it with all its might, using axes and muskets to block the soldiers from escaping, forcing them to go back to the battlefield, But it has always had little effect. At the same time, the Fat Army's four pontoon pontoon bridges and four boat pontoon bridges were also completed, and the speed of the Fat Army's crossing of the river became more and more accelerated.

In the afternoon, Wang Xu's eight thousand fat army all successfully crossed the river, and after quickly assembling into an army, they immediately launched a counterattack against the nearby Qing army Jueluo Balkan, although Jueluo Balkan led all cavalry, but the firearms were completely at a disadvantage, and they were killed by the rockets, screeching pin guns and grenades of the fat army, and they couldn't get close at all, Li Kuang and Yao Yi also took the opportunity to lead their headquarters into a counterattack, and concentrated all the remaining rockets in their hands, and concentrated on the cavalry team of Jueluo Balkan. Under the repeated bombardment of thousands of Miyoshi rockets, the Qing cavalry, which suffered heavy casualties, was forced to retreat.

Just after the first moment of the unitary hour, the two thousand cavalry of the Fat Army led by Quan Jie crossed the river and assembled, and charged towards the remnants of the Qing cavalry under the cover of the infantry. And Jie Shu saw that the defeat was decided, so he had to lead the army to retreat north, and the hardcore Han Annihilated Wang Zhiding led the army to the rear of the palace.

At three o'clock, Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong's team finally joined forces with friendly forces, and miraculously still retained more than two-thirds of the troops, although the second general still asked to lead the army to pursue, but Lu Fatzi still ordered this elite team to leave the battlefield to recuperate, repair the wounds, and replace it with other new forces to pursue, and make every effort to expand the results of the battle.

The pursuit of the Fat Army lasted until it was dark, until the Qing Army retreated into the dangerous terrain of the Liutang Mountain Camp to defend the end, it was a battle, the Fat Army annihilated more than 11,000 people of the Qing Army's Jieshu Department, including more than 6,000 Qing cavalry, and reluctantly achieved the tactical purpose of weakening and severely damaging the Qing Army's Jieshu Department. And the direct legion of the Fat Army also paid more than 2,500 casualties, and consumed a large number of rockets and high-precision shells, and the losses were not small.

At the battle summary meeting that night, in view of the hard fighting and bloody battles during the day, the fat army generals summed up four important reasons, one is that the combat effectiveness of the fat army soldiers has indeed deteriorated after a large number of expansions in the south of the Yangtze River, and the recruits rely too much on superior firearms, and seriously lack the indomitable fearless spirit of the old fat army soldiers, so the casualties of the fat army are mainly concentrated on the ferry battlefield, and the casualties of the Hutong Chun Army and the Anjia Invalids Army composed of the old fat army officers and soldiers are not large. However, Jie Shutong led the Qing army in Luzhou, but his combat effectiveness and morale were far above the Qing army in Zhejiang, and the recruits of the fat army who were used to abusing the Qing army in Zhejiang were not well prepared, so they suffered a lot of losses.

The second is that the number of cavalry of the Fat Army is still too small, there are few war horses, there are few qualified cavalry, and there are fewer qualified cavalry generals, so after the defeat of the Qing army, the Fat Army was unable to cut off the retreat of the Qing army in a roundabout way, and could not further expand the results of the battle. In this regard, Yao Qisheng suggested that Lu Fatzi follow Zhu Yuanzhang's example in using Mongolian troops, boldly and massively use Qing cavalry to demote generals, and use Qing cavalry to restrain Qing cavalry.

The third reason comes from the Qing army, that is, the Qing army was also refined by the firearms of the Fat Army, and learned to find ways to limit the power of the firearms of the Fat Army. For example, before the start of the Chushui War, Jie Shu chose to stick to the north bank of Chushui very wisely, and placed the main infantry outside the artillery range far from the advantage of the Fat Army, and only discharged the mobile and flexible cavalry to compete with the Fat Army for the ferry, limiting the power of the Fat Army's large number of sub-cannons, and exposing the weakness of the Fat Army's long-range artillery.

In addition, Jieshu also destroyed all the bridges on the Chushui River more intelligently, forcing the Fat Army to cross the river by boat and grab the pontoon bridge, limited to the river blockage and boat carrying capacity, the Fat Army used to restrain the Qing cavalry The three good rockets could not be transported across the river in large quantities, and could not be as intensive bombing and shooting as before, and could only be fired in small quantities to consume the Qing cavalry's troops, and could not prevent the Qing cavalry from rushing to the front for hand-to-hand combat, which caused huge casualties on the ferry battlefield.

The fourth reason was put forward by Yao Qisheng alone, and he mercilessly pointed out that the reason why this battle suffered large casualties, suffered heavy losses, and the results were not as expected, the key was that Lu Fatzi's tactical arrangement was too light on the enemy and rash advance! It is believed that if Lu Fatzi can mobilize Li Guodong's sailors to rush to reinforcements through the Chushui River, or not let the elite soldiers of Hutongchun and An Jiarong take the risk of assault, but let this team that is best at fighting tough battles cross the river and stick to the ferry, cover the friendly troops to grab the pontoon bridge and cross the river to land, plus the unparalleled artillery and Sanhao rocket cover of the Fat Army, then the casualties of the Fat Army are definitely not so big! This battle is by no means that hard!

After listening to Yao Qisheng's merciless and strict criticism, the generals of the Fat Man Army were silent, and they didn't even dare to take a breath of air, and Lu Fatzi was also very embarrassed, and he wanted to admit his mistake but was embarrassed to open his mouth - Lu Fatzi is the boss, if he casually admits his mistake in terms of tactical arrangements, every general of the Fat Man Army will dare to comment on Lu Fatzi's tactical arrangements in the future, so will anyone resolutely implement Lu Fatzi's tactical arrangements? Where does the prestige of Lu Fatzi exist?

Fortunately, Yao Qisheng is also a human being, and added: "Of course, the students believe that the general may have shortcomings in tactical arrangements, but he is extremely correct in terms of strategy. The two tactics proposed by the students were tactically correct and strategically wrong. If General Li Guodong's naval division is mobilized to the north through Chushui for reinforcements, then it will be necessary to waste at least two days of time if it comes and goes and adds a detour [***], and when Mangou sees the arrival of our army's naval division, it is also possible to escape from the battle, so that our army's plan to inflict heavy damage on Jieshu Mangou will fail. ”

"As for the other tactic, in the same way, if there were no conservative tactics of the two generals Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong biting the main force of the dog and choosing to go all out to cross the river on the pontoon bridge, then by the time our army crossed the Chushui, the main force of the dog would have slipped away, and we would still not be able to achieve the strategic goal of severely inflicting heavy damage on the dog. Therefore, the students believe that the general's quick battle is strategically advantageous, and in order to free up our army's direct corps as soon as possible and provide support for other battlefields, the necessary sacrifice of our army is still very worthwhile. ”

"It's best if Master Yao can understand this, I originally wanted to argue with you for a few words, but it seems that it is unnecessary." Knowing that he was wrong, Fat Lu smiled shamelessly, nodded at Yao Qisheng with great satisfaction, and then turned to the generals of the Fat Army and smiled and said: "Anyway, we have always won the battle today, and it also proves that our army's long-range artillery reinforcement battlefield tactics of the chaotic army are indeed effective, and the gains are great, General Hu Tongchun and General An Jiarong also fought very well, and they played the prestige and ambition of our army, which deserve a heavy reward." ”

"General Xie compliments." Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong, who were wrapped in gauze on their heads, hurriedly thanked them happily, knowing that the fat army had always been rewarded the most generously for military merits, and this time they could make a small fortune again. In the end, An Jiarong suggested again: "Uncle, you better ask my father to bring troops quickly, my 800 soldiers are now only more than 500 people left." ”

"Don't worry, your father has more important envoys in Zhanyi, and he can't come for the time being." Lu Fatzi shook his head, and said: "Since your soldiers have suffered great losses, then so be it, you go to our infantry and choose warriors to replenish at will, wrap them in white cloth and take swords like you, let them melt into you, and then tell them that if they can receive the most rigorous training like you, and fight and kill the enemy bravely and fearlessly, then they will be worthy of three times the salary like you, otherwise they will go back and continue to be infantrymen." ”

"Thank you, uncle, my little nephew will pick it up tomorrow." An Jiarong happily agreed, "Please rest assured, whether it is our Yi people or not, as long as they join our Yixian soldiers, the little nephew will definitely bring them to be as brave and fearless as the old Yiyi soldiers." ”

"Very well, I'm sure you can." Fat Lu nodded with satisfaction, praised this cheap and powerful nephew, and then Fat Lu clapped again: "It's decided, in view of the fact that Jie Shuman's vitality is still alive, our army will not retreat for the time being, and it will be said that he will send troops to attack the Liutang Mountain camp full of dogs, and he must be completely afraid of Jie Shumangou, so that he will not dare to dream of the land in the south of the Yangtze River!" ”

(To be continued)