"This old thing, I don't need such a good method, I have to give up the near and far to find the easy and the difficult, isn't this difficult for Brother Lu and me?"

Looking carefully at the map sand table and troop deployment signs in the Jingzhou area, scratching the millimeter-level new hair on his bald head, Lu Fatzi's fat face was full of crying and laughing, it was obviously easy and very simple, but because he had to pay a certain sacrifice, he had to turn this simple thing into a complicated thing, and an easy thing into a difficult thing, what is this not asking for trouble?

"Fortunately, Brother Lu, I had the foresight, Yi Cheng was the first to do that, fortunately, Brother Lu, I pushed out Wu Yingqi's two hundred and five as a substitute for the dead ghost!" Secretly rejoicing in his heart, Lu Fatzi muttered very suddenly, "No wonder in history, Wu Laohan failed to bring down Kang Mazi, the gap, this is the gap, Wu Laohan lost unjustly." ”

Secretly sighed a few words, Lu Fatzi tried to put the full stomach scratch behind, and began to think about other city-breaking tactics, but like Wu Laohan, Lu Fatzi is also very troubled by the current Jingzhou battlefield The comparison of enemy and our forces, now on the north bank of the Yangtze River in the Jingzhou battlefield, the total strength of the Wu army's naval army, including Yang Laijia's surrender, is less than 50,000, but the Qing army in Jingzhou City is more than 60,000 - although 30,000 of them are the new army just formed by the Qing Dynasty, and the combat effectiveness is insufficient, However, in the case of a strong city to rely on, this weakness is not obvious, and it is still difficult for the Wu army to annihilate these 30,000 rookies.

In addition, on the south bank of the Yangtze River, although the Songzi army of the Wu army still has about 17,000 troops, the Yiling Naval Division of the Qing Army led by the hardcore Han Annihilation Xu Zhidu and his wife is like a leper dog, always entrenched on the river surface of the Yidu to Zhijiang area upstream of the ferry, always threatening the safety of the Songzi Wu army to cross the river, and in disguise for the Qing army in Jingzhou to contain nearly one-third of the Wu army's troops, and the Wu army's naval division has always been helpless with this leper dog because the water flow, wind direction and battlefield are all at a disadvantage. As a result, the Songzi Wu army was unable to cross the Yangtze River for a long time and threw itself into the Jingzhou battlefield, wasting a valuable force in vain.

"The prince is back to the account!" During the calculation, the sound of guards shouting suddenly sounded outside the big tent of the Chinese army, and then, Wu Laohan, who personally led the army to patrol the camp, led Wang Shirong, Fang Xueshi and Lu Shrimp and other cronies to stride into the tent, Lu Fatzi hurriedly stepped forward to salute and say goodbye, and Wu Laohanzhan waved his hand and said: "That's it, it's so cold, why don't you go back to the tent to rest?" ”

"Go back to my grandfather, and my grandson-in-law will go back in a while, and I want to study the enemy situation again." Fat Lu replied respectfully.

"How's that going?" Wu Laohan took off his cloak, threw it into Lu Shrimp's arms, sat down on the charcoal brazier, and asked casually while warming up the fire: "Have you figured out any good strategies to break the city?" ”

"Back to grandfather, not yet." Lu Fatzi replied helplessly: "The strength is insufficient, the enemy is outnumbered, our army still wants to attack the enemy army but it is defending, our army's combat strength advantage and weapon advantage are difficult to play, my grandson-in-law is incompetent, and I really can't think of a better way to attack the city for a while." ”

"Take your time, there's no rush, we still have some time." Wu Lao Han waved his hand very generously and said: "The old man has already said that since ancient times, siege battles have been the most difficult to fight, and you, like the old man, must be prepared for a long-term hard battle." ”

"Lord Wang, we can't afford to drag it out." Wang Shirong said cautiously: "It has been a month since our army broke through the Yangtze River, and if we don't seize the time to expand the results of the battle, when Mangou relaxes, all the opportunities will be missed." ”

"Can the old man know this question?" Wu Laohan said helplessly: "The problem is that if we don't pull out the nail of Jingzhou now, our army's Huguang army and the Sichuan army will not be able to connect together, and the remote hinterland in the rear of the money and grain will also be threatened by dogs all the time, and it is useless for the old man to be anxious." ”

"Then Lord Wang, what ......is Mr. Maoyao's proposal today?" Wang Shirong asked with some reluctance.

"The old man has already said that this matter is not to be discussed!" Wu Laohan categorically vetoed it and said categorically: "The old man opposed the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty to save the people from the sea of suffering, not to trap the people in the sea of suffering." ”

Wang Shirong closed his mouth helplessly, Lu Fatzi smiled bitterly, and had to quickly change the topic and ask: "Grandfather, can we send an army from Sichuan down the river, copy the old nest of Xu Zhidu Yiling City, and force Xu Zhidu to retreat, and second, put reinforcements on the Jingzhou battlefield - since the Jingzhou battle has almost become a battle, then we will make the scale of the battle larger, and strive to annihilate some more dog-filled living forces in Jingzhou, so as to lay the foundation for the victory of our army's next all-out counteroffensive?" ”

"The old man also considered this plan." Wu Lao Hanjian replied in a deep voice: "It's just that now our Sichuan army has been concentrated in the area of Yangping Pass and Chaotian Pass, ready to launch a northern expedition at any time, capture Hanzhong and advance Shaanxi and Gansu, if this will be transferred from Sichuan, not only will the army need to travel thousands of miles to the distance, but the preparation for the Hanzhong campaign will also be wasted." ”

Lu Fatzi knocked his head in embarrassment, and felt even more headache - now that the Wu army is fighting on multiple battlefields at the same time, and its troops are stretched thin everywhere, it is indeed difficult to draw troops from other battlefields to reinforce Jingzhou. Wu Laohan sighed and said: "I regret not listening to Fang Xianyan's words, if the old man sent you to attack Jingzhou at that time, with your talent and ability, Jingzhou City must have been in the old man's bag long ago." Is that useful like now, a nine-in-a-ten siege war has been turned into a war of attrition by the straw bag of the prime minister? ”

"Grandfather has won the award, even if it was the son-in-law who came to fight Jingzhou at that time, with the situation of the Jingzhou battlefield, the grandson-in-law may not be sure to win Jingzhou." Lu Fatzi was modest, and said with a strong spirit: "Grandfather, the matter has come to this, it is useless to regret it, according to the grandson-in-law's opinion, since our army wants to pull out the big nail of Jingzhou, then we must first pull out the small nail of the dog Xu Zhidu, otherwise, it will not only be difficult for our Songzi army to cross the river to participate in the war, but our army's water food route will also be seriously threatened." Therefore, the grandson-in-law believes that the main force of our army should not be in a hurry to attack the city, and should start preparing siege equipment while concentrating troops to kill Xu Zhidu's Mangou Water Division, cut off the wings of Jingzhou Mangou, make Jingzhou Mangou frightened, and then try to break the city. ”

"Insightful, the old man also plans to do this." Wu Laohan nodded with satisfaction, and asked Lu Fatzi again: "Then Yifeng, the old man handed over the Songzi army and Lin Xingzhu Sailor to you to command, and you were responsible for annihilating the Sailor of Mangou Xu Zhidu, how about it?" ”

"Sent by grandfather, grandson-in-law dares to disobey his orders?" Fat Lu hurriedly clenched his fists, and said with an embarrassed face: "It's just ......, it's just ......." ”

"I'm just afraid that your father-in-law will be disobedient, right?" Wu Lao Hanjian saw Lu Fatzi's concern at a glance, and said with a smile: "It's okay, the old man wrote a handwritten warrant to take you across the river, and let you hand it over to your father-in-law, he is the old man's righteous son, dare not listen to Lao Tzu!" Fat Lu smiled bitterly, so he had to quickly thank him.

………………

So, in the case that it was obvious that he could easily capture the important town of Jingzhou, but because of the hypocrisy of benevolence and righteousness, Wu Laohan threw a rat bogey, Lu Fatzi had no choice but to cross the river with Wu Laohan's handwritten order, and went to the Hudu camp on the south bank of the Yangtze River to take over the command of the Songzi Wu Army and Lin Xingzhu's water division. The result was the same as Lu Fatzi expected, after seeing Wu Laohan's warrant, Lin Xingzhu, who was surrounded by Wu's army on the battlefield of Anshun and surrendered, obediently accepted the order, Wu Guogui's deputies Zhang Guozhu, Dong Shixing, Ma Longxing, Xiong Tianzhang and Lu Dajie knew that Lu Fatzi was a popular person in front of Wu Laohanan, and they didn't dare to offend, and they all obediently accepted the order, but Wu Guogui had a straight face and refused to speak.

"Forgive my father-in-law, it's not the son-in-law who trespasses, it's really the grandfather who sent it, and the son-in-law doesn't dare to disobey." Lu Fatzi had no choice but to salute Wu Guogui in public and plead guilty, and said in a low voice: "Grandfather sent his son-in-law to cross the river, not so much to let his son-in-law command and command the battle, but to let the son-in-law serve as a military officer for his father-in-law and assist his father-in-law in eradicating Xu Zhidu's leprosy-skinned dog." Besides, changing commanders in battle is also a taboo for soldiers, so the son-in-law came here this time just to give advice to his father-in-law, transfer troops and send commanders or something, and he had to worry about his father-in-law giving orders on his behalf. ”

Lu Fatzi said it to this point, and at the same time brought Wu Laohan's handwritten warrant, no matter how dissatisfied Wu Guogui was and how he couldn't hold his face, he couldn't say anything more, just nodded very reluctantly and said: "Okay, you say, how should this battle be fought?" ”

"Don't be busy, the son-in-law has to figure out some things first." Fat Lu shook his head, walked to the map sand table of the Songzi camp, beckoned to Lin Xingzhu to come over, and ordered: "General Lin, please introduce to me the location of the Mangou Sailor Division, as well as their troops and ships, the more detailed the better." ”

"Yes." Lin Xingzhu clenched his fists and agreed, and pointed to the sand table and introduced: "After careful investigation by our army, it was determined that there were more than 3,400 sailors in the Mangou Xu Zhidu, including 22 warships such as sand boats, bird boats and bluff boats, and more than 120 small boats. In normal times, Xu Zhidu dog thieves are sent scout clippers to monitor the activities of our Songzi army, once they find that our army is abnormal, the fleet full of dogs will immediately go down the river, and they can kill the ferry in more than an hour and attack our army's river-crossing fleet. ”

"Then why did our army's naval division take the initiative to attack last time, why did it suffer defeat?" Lu Fatzi asked: "Our army has 28 large warships of all kinds, more than 160 small ships, and more than 4,000 sailors, and the strength is above the Mangou Sailors, why do you take the initiative to attack and lose so much?" Lost nine ships in one go? ”

"The last general is incompetent, the key is that the wind direction and the current are too unfavorable for our army." Lin Xingzhu replied helplessly: "The Mangou Sailor Division is located in the upper reaches of the northwest, and now the climate is in winter, the northwest wind is strong, our army takes the initiative to attack against the water and the wind, and the speed of the ship cannot go up, and the Mangou Sailor Division is fast and flexible, so it suffers a big loss." ”

Speaking of this, Lin Xingzhu paused again, and said even more helplessly: "There is another point, Xu Zhidu's full dog is too cunning, the area from Yidu to Zhijiang where he is active is densely packed with reefs, there are many shoals, and the waterway is extremely complicated. ”

"In this way, if our army's sailors want to defeat the Mangou Sailors, they must first solve two problems?" Fat Lu groaned and asked, "First, to lure the full dogs to leave the complex waterways they are familiar with?" The second is to let them lose the advantage of smooth sailing? ”

"Not bad." Lin Xingzhu nodded hurriedly, and emphasized: "If Lord Lu has a way to solve these two problems, then the last general dares to vouch for his head, and if he does not take revenge on the previous in the water war, the last general will apologize!" ”

Lu Fatzi stopped talking, just stared at the map sand table and calculated nervously, Wu Guogui and other Wu generals next to him didn't speak, they all looked at Lu Fatzi and waited for the following, and said in their hearts that Lao Tzu wants to see, what is so powerful about you, a dead fat man who climbs faster than anyone else, can be so powerful that he can solve the two big troubles of wind direction and water flow?

"General Lin, I have one more question." After a while, Lu Fatzi suddenly asked again: "You just said that once the Mangou Sailor Division discovers that our army is abnormal, the Mangou Sailor Division will immediately go south to attack our army's river-crossing fleet, so how can the Mangou Sailor Division quickly deliver the news from the more than 60-mile channel from Hudu to the Zhijiang River?" ”

"Light wolf smoke and set off fireworks." Lin Xingzhu replied quickly: "Xu Zhidu dog thieves arrange several scout boats every five miles, once they find out that our army is moving, their scout ships will immediately light wolf smoke during the day and set off fireworks at night, and it will not take half a moment to spread the news to their sailor fleet." ”

"Understood." Fat Lu nodded, looked at the sky again and saw that it was morning, so he smiled and said: "General Lin, then you immediately send me five scout boats to go upstream, prepare more firewood on board, go to the location of the dog scout boats, and light wolf smoke for me!" ”

"We light the wolf smoke ourselves? Do? The Wu army was in an uproar.

"What for?" Fat Lu said with a smile: "Of course it's a greeting, brother, I was wrongly loved by the prince, and I was ordered to come here to command the sailor to entertain Xu Zhidu, so naturally I have to get to know this opponent first." ”

"Say hello?" Lin Xingzhu was even more dumbfounded.

"Don't ask, you'll understand when the time comes, go ahead." Lu Fatzi said with a smile: "By the way, let the sailors and artillery teams be ready to fight, Xu Zhidu dog Han annihilated the white run, in case he finds that our army is not ready to fight, maybe he will jump over the wall and launch a strong attack on our army's water division." ”

Lin Xingzhu was even more inexplicable, but he still honestly went down to arrange the arrangement. When Fat Lu turned his head to look at the generals of the Wu army again, he saw that most of the generals were confused, only the old man Wu Guogui was thoughtful, and when he saw Fat Lu's eyes turned to him, Wu Guogui first nodded, indicating that he understood, and then snorted coldly: "Mangou is only one or two at most, what should I do in the future?" ”

"If the Mangou Sailor has the courage to sit back and watch our army cross the river, then they won't be fooled." Fat Lu replied with a smile: "The dog has a good plan, and the son-in-law naturally has a ladder over the wall, and within one day, I will wipe out the entire army of the dog sailor!" ”

………………

After a while, the Wu army scout boat really lit the wolf smoke at the location of the upstream Qing army scout boat, which made the nearby Qing army scouts inexplicable, but the Qing army scouts five miles upstream did not dare to slack off when they saw the wolf smoke, and quickly lit the wolf smoke, and alerted the companions further upstream, and then every five miles the alarm signal of an active beacon tower was transmitted to the surface of the Zhijiang River, and the fleet of the Qing army sailor Xu Zhidu, who was hiding in a safe area, did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly set sail with the whole army, taking advantage of the howling north wind and the river downstream, The wind is passing away, and it kills downstream.

In less than an hour and a half, the Qing army fleet led by Xu Zhidu and his wife rushed to the Hudukou River, which the Wu army must pass through to cross the river, but what stunned the Han and Han couple was that the Songzi Wu army on the south bank of the Yangtze River not only did not have the slightest sign of boarding a boat to cross the river, but the Wu army fleet, which had suffered a big loss under their husband and wife, was lined up in a diamond shape near the south bank covered by artillery fire, and was waiting for the battle. Xu Zhi, who had a meager capital, didn't dare to attack rashly, but just called the police scout to the flagship, slapped his head and face a few times, and yelled: "Are you stupid or crazy?" Wu Dog didn't cross the river, what wolf smoke did you put in it? ”

"Junmen, wronged." The Qing army scouts shouted loudly and explained with a sad face: "The wolf smoke was not released by us, it was released by the Wu dog scout boat, and they went up the river against the current to our patrol area, and the wolf smoke was placed on the river surface where we were responsible for patrolling, so the brothers upstream misunderstood." ”

"Really?" Xu Zhidu was taken aback.

"Dare to swear with your head, the wolf smoke is really put by Wu Dog." The scout captain screamed in reply.

"Xianggong, we have met a master this time." Xu Zhidu's 'virtuous helper' Xu Shi stood up and said solemnly: "Wu Gou's side has already seen through our signal transmission method, so he deliberately concocted the same method to induce our upstream scout ships to send false signals, so that our fleet tossed back and forth, in vain, exhausted our army, and forced our army to leave the favorable terrain. ”

"What then?" Xu Zhi asked in embarrassment.

"The slave family thinks, change the way the signal." Xu suggested: "Send people to the high ground on the north bank to discover the real enemy situation, send a signal on the river and land high ground at the same time, and then send a signal to the scout ship upstream to give an alarm, so as to prevent the enemy from falsifying the signal." ”

"Okay, just do what Madame has planned." Xu Zhi was overjoyed, and hurriedly kicked the scout captain and shouted, "Did you hear that? Immediately sent people to the high ground on the north bank, and found that Wu Dog was moving, and wolf smoke was lit on the river and on the shore at the same time! ”

The unlucky scout captain agreed and hurried down to make arrangements, while Xu Zhidu spat heavily at the Wu army fleet with artillery protection in the south, and scolded, "Shameless Wu dog, if you have a kind of going to Jiangxin to fight to the death, hiding behind the artillery, what kind of manly husband is it?" ”

Scolding and scolding, Xu Zhidu, who had the heavy responsibility of resolutely blocking the crossing of the river by the Wu army of Songzi, never had the courage to use this meager capital to fight hard with the Wu army's sailors, so he could only lead the army back helplessly, facing the cold north wind and the impact of the current, relying on the difficulty of the slurry to return to the sea, and at the same time ordered the upstream activity beacon to pay attention to false reports, and never let Wu Jun's false reports succeed again.

It was naturally fast and easy to go down the wind and water, but it was difficult to go upwind and upstream, and it took more than four hours, until it was completely dark, Xu Zhidu's fleet finally returned to the absolutely safe Yizhi water, but before the exhausted Qing sailors ate and rested, several fireworks suddenly rose in the downstream direction, flying into the sky and exploding, showing that there was another enemy movement at the Tiger Ferry. Xu Zhidu and his wife were at a loss, neither knowing whether it was true nor whether it was false, so they could only stubbornly urge the whole army to reopen their sails and rush downstream to block the Wu army from crossing the river.

Fortunately, Xu Zhidu and his wife were still very popular with the army in the Yiling Water Division, and an order was issued, but the exhausted Qing Army Water Division still followed the order, turned around again, and rushed downstream under the cover of night. More than an hour later, when the fleet of Xu Zhidu and his wife arrived at Hudu again, what made the Han and Han couple crooked their noses was that there was still no movement in the Wu army camp on the south bank, only the Wu army's sailor artillery array and the Wu army's soldiers laughing in laughter.

"I'm fucking your mother's eighteenth generation ancestor!" ran twice in a row in one day, Xu Zhi was completely mad, and arrested the scout captain who had reported the false police twice in a row, and yelled hysterically while punching and kicking, "You say, what the hell is going on?" If you can't say that a son is ugly, Lao Tzu will cut you right now! ”

"Junmen, Wu Gou was indeed crossing the river just now!" The hapless scout captain howled and cried: "More than an hour ago, a Wu dog army boarded a civilian boat, crossed the Yangtze River here, and boarded the north bank. If you don't believe it, you can mark it for the other brothers, and if you say half a lie, you will be willing to die! ”

"Xianggong, don't embarrass him, he's not lying." Xu Shi grabbed Xu Zhidu and said helplessly: "The slave family has asked the other scouts just now, and it is true, Wu Gou crossed an army of about 2,000 people, but only crossed once, and then rested. ”

"Fuck it, dog Wu dog!" Xu Zhidu yelled, "Do you want to be shameless? ”

"Obviously, Wu Gou just wants to toss us." Xu Shi said helplessly: "They just want to force us to run back and forth, wasting time and soldiers' physical strength, and then forcing us to give up the favorable waterway from Zhijiang to Yidu, and camp in the area of Hudu, which Wu Gou is already familiar with." ”

"No, you can't stay here." Xu Zhidu shuddered, and quickly shook his head and said: "The north and south banks of Hudu have been controlled by Wu Gou, and our infantry and cavalry dare not go out of the city to respond. ”

"There are two ways." Xu Shi said very assertively: "The first is to divide the troops, Xianggong, you and the slave family will divide the fleet into two, and take turns to stay and monitor Wu Gou's movements, and the second is to move our camp to Canggang, so that as long as Wu Gou crosses the river at the beginning, we can immediately send troops to block it." ”

"There must be no division of troops." Xu Zhidu hurriedly shook his head again and said: "Madam, although you are proficient in Tao Chan and good at riding and archery, you have never known much about water warfare, and the most taboo thing in water warfare is to divide the troops. ”

"Then we will have to withdraw to Canggang." Xu's tone became even more helpless, "Otherwise, if we retreat to the absolutely safe water surface of the Zhijiang River, the soldier's physical strength will no longer be able to support it." ”

"That's all there is to it." Xu Zhidu hung his head and ordered: "Raise the flag, retreat twenty miles, and rest in Canggang." ”

The fleet of Xu Zhidu and his wife, who was tossed to death by Lu Fatzi, finally retreated again, but Lu Fatzi did not look satisfied at all, but carefully observed the lights of Xu Zhidu's fleet with a telescope for a long time, and determined that Xu Zhidu and his wife were indeed not retreating, Lu Fatzi quickly instructed Wu Guogui: "Troublesome father-in-law gave two more orders, the first is to give our troop transport fleet, and after an hour, transport two thousand troops across the river; The second lane is to Lin Xingzhu, let him prepare, when the full dog fleet turns back for the third time, he will immediately attack, and go all out to seize the advantageous position upstream, what to do next, let him think about it himself. ”

"Understood." Wu Guogui agreed weakly, and asked again, "What about you?" What do you do? ”

"My son-in-law is tired and wants to rest." Fat Lu yawned, "Father-in-law, if you are tired, you can also rest, tossing the dog to this point, Lin Xingzhu can't win the battle, then he has no face to live in this world." ”

Note: Xu Zhidu's Han Jian's wife Xu is not fictional, for the historical figures, the Qing Dynasty historical materials boast that it is 'Jing Tao, good at riding and shooting, every time the husband goes out', before the start of the Jingzhou War in the rebellion of the three feudatories in history, Xu Zhi was contained by the Wu army in the Changde area, Xu found that the Wu army had signs of attacking Jingzhou, so he restrained the army for the Han Jian's husband, rectified military discipline, and donated all the jewelry to reward the soldiers, so that Xu Zhidu was able to immediately lead troops to reinforce Jingzhou after returning to Yiling. Later, Xu and Xu Zhidu fought side by side against the Wu army, and was killed by the Wu army in Yiling.

(To be continued)