The drizzle is like silk, the flag is like a forest, the Qing army wearing a red tasseled hat has set up a tight formation on the north bank of the Chushui River, the infantry is in the center, the cavalry covers the two wings, the artillery team composed of 30 Hongyi cannons is in front, and the muzzle of the black hole hole is aimed at the bank of the Chushui River, and also at the south bank of the Chushui River. From Prince Kang, the commander of the Qing army, to the ordinary soldiers, they were all silent, waiting for the fat army to take the initiative to attack.

The white on the south bank of Chushui is paved with the white felt hats of the soldiers of the Fat Army, and the main force of the Fat Army composed of more than 20,000 soldiers has also set up an offensive formation on the south bank of Chushui, more than 50 Hongyi cannons and 150 sub-mother cannons have also been aimed at the Qing army artillery team on the opposite bank, Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong, who are responsible for the task of rushing the crossing, are gearing up with their teams, and the fat army engineers under the command of Han Yuan have prepared a large number of materials for erecting pontoon bridges, all waiting for Lu Fatzi's order. Immediately they will rush up and launch a rush to cross, laying pontoon bridges for the main army to cross the river and attack.

This is the second official confrontation between the Fat Army and Jieshu after entering Jiangnan, and the first time was in early May of the first year of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the thirteenth year of Kang Mazi. At that time, the Fat Army had just entered the south of the Yangtze River and had not yet gained a stable foothold, and it was necessary to divide its forces to seize the elite territories such as Yangzhou, Suzhou, Changzhou and Zhenjiang, so it could only be fought by Wang Xu and Li Jiyang's lone army to meet Jieshu, and at that time, the firearms of the Fat Army had been consumed, and the newly formed Xuanwu Lake Arsenal had not yet begun to be put into production, so that battle was fought very hard, and only Taiping City was left in the entire Taiping Mansion and a lonely city was not captured by Jieshu.

In the end, although the fat army relied on Ma Bao's help to surround Wei and save Zhao, forced Jieshu to return to Luzhou, and defended the Taiping Mansion to protect the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River, but also paid a heavy price, with more than 7,000 casualties among the soldiers, Wuhu, Fanchang and Quarrying and other places were plundered by the Qing army, a large number of people were forcibly relocated by the Qing army, and farmland, mines and water conservancy facilities were also destroyed, resulting in the Taiping Mansion, which was also a grain producing area, has not recovered so far, and the money and grain still have to rely on the rear support. It was also from that time that the Fat Army once again formed an incomparable mortal enmity with the Jieshu Army, and everyone from top to bottom hated this brutal and vicious beast army that took advantage of the fire to rob.

It is precisely because of the last Taiping Mansion War that Jieshu's team can be said to be the only Qing army team on the Western Front that is not afraid of the Fat Army, and it can even be said that it is a little contemptuous of the Fat Army, thinking that the Fat Army's combat effectiveness is nothing more than this - although they also know very well that most of the Fat Army soldiers killed in Taiping Mansion last time are new recruits or surrenders. What's more, because the firearms of the Fat Army in Taiping Mansion were exhausted in the last war, they could only be used sporadically, so they thought that the firearms of the Fat Army were not remarkable, although the power was huge, but the number was pitiful, as long as a little caution, it would not affect the overall situation of the battlefield.

Contempt for the enemy coupled with self-confidence created several active provocations by the Qing army in Luzhou against the Fat Army, and even went deep into the capital city of Chuzhou, which is surrounded by mountains, and directly threatened Nanjing City, the nest of the Fat Army. After the whole section took the initiative to retreat under the order of Lu Fatzi, after detecting the situation that the direct corps of the Fat Army had crossed the river to the north, the complacent Luzhou Qing Army did not choose to retreat to Chuzhou, but unanimously asked to go south and fight a decisive battle with the Fat Army in the field.

Of course, as a person who experienced the Anshun War and the Bajiang War, Jie Shu is also very aware of the power of the Fat Army's firearms, and understands that as long as the number of firearms of the Fat Army is sufficient, it is even more difficult for the army to win, even if it wants to retreat. Therefore, Jie Shu, who is quite military-minded, decisively rejected the suggestion of his subordinates to cross the Chushui backwater decisive battle, and chose to line up on the north bank of the Chushui River to force the Fat Army to cross the river to attack, so that not only can the rocket power of the Fat Army be greatly limited, but also have the opportunity to attack it halfway, even if the battle is unfavorable, the Qing Army in Luzhou has enough time to escape, escape back to Chuzhou to defend the danger, and complete the task assigned by Yue Le to contain the direct corps of the Fat Army in Chuzhou.

The only thing that surprised Jie Shu was that knowing that the Qing army had occupied a favorable terrain, the Fat Army not only did not stop, but also did not mobilize the sailors to make a detour to the battlefield to support and cover the army's crossing of the river, but chose to collect ferries on the spot to attack. For Lu Fatzi, who has always been known for his invincibility, the tactics are so big, in addition to underestimating the enemy and arrogance, there is only one explanation for being full of self-confidence.

At noon, the preparations for the fat army to cross the river and attack were completed, but Lu Fatzi did not immediately attack, but only sent a messenger to cross the Chushui River in a small boat and the bridge was completely destroyed by the Qing army, and came to the Qing army with a white flag and shouted, "The Great Zhou Zhengdong General order, the strength and weakness are very different, the Han people surrender and do not kill, and the mites only kill the four surnames of Aixin Jueluo, Hesheri, Niu Colu, and Tong Jia, and the rest will not die!" ”

"Shoot the arrows!" Jie Shu coldly ordered, the flag waved, the Qing army in front of the array of arrows in a chaotic manner, the fat army messenger had already prepared, turned the horse's head and ran away, but the Qing army's bow and arrow were too much, although the fat army messenger fled quickly, he was still hit by two arrows, almost died on the spot, and finally fled back to the river bank with the arrow, and jumped on the boat to cross the river to escape. Seeing this scene, the fat army naturally roared like thunder, and they hated the Jieshu army more and more.

"Even the messenger was killed, and the dog was really getting more and more degenerate." After snorting coldly, Lu Fatzi beckoned, called Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong, who volunteered to be the forwards, to the front, and ordered: "As soon as the war drums sound, immediately cross the river, rush into the large array of the Chinese army full of dogs, and let go of the killing, so as to buy time for the main force of our army to cross the river." ”

"Order!" Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong hugged their fists neatly and agreed. Fat Lu said again, "An Jiarong, don't rush to the front, wait for Hutongchun's shield hand to cover you and rush closer, and then use you as a blade." ”

"Uncle, please take a look, the little nephew's village is already hungry and thirsty." An Jiarong pulled out half of the village in his hand, licked the blade and smiled evilly. Lu Fatzi smiled, waved his hand and asked An Jiarong and Hu Tongchun to go down to organize the team to wait for their fate, and arranged Li Kuang to cross the river for the second team, then he resolutely waved his fat hand and shouted: "Beat the drum, grab the ferry!" Artillery team, pay attention to cover! ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! A hundred cowhide drums sounded rhythmically, and the forward team composed of 1,000 elite soldiers of the Fat Army and 800 invincible soldiers in foot combat, led by the two generals Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong, who were the most capable of fighting tough battles in the Fat Army, trotted towards the ferry two miles away. At the same time, the Qing army also waved its flags, and thirty Hongyi cannons roared together, and at the same time sprayed out thirty swarthy cannonballs, which roared and fell before and after the Chushui ferry, causing the water to splash on the river, and the ship's side ruptured, and also hit several Fat Army soldiers.

"Boom! Bang! Bang! "The artillery team of the Fat Army has also begun to exert its might, this time to replace Qin Yong to command the Fat Army artillery team is the marrying general of the Fat Army Lu Fu, and there is a strange old man who ran from Fujian to join the Fat Army, surnamed Jiemingxuan, very proficient in mathematics, calculating the high firing range is almost like a peer, fast and accurate, and has also created the best record of the Fat Army gunner of ten guns and eight targets on the shooting range, Lu Fatzi was overjoyed to appoint him as the instructor of the artillery team, and the old man did not shirk, nor did he accept Lu Fatzi's reward, just silently devoted himself to the training of the Fat Army gunners, and soon helped the Fat Army gunners improve a lot of accuracy, and once again enhanced the strength of the Fat Army artillery team, which is unparalleled in the world.

The words are far away, to get back to the point, as the artillery battle between the two artillery teams unfolded, with the advantage of quantity and quality, the Fat Army artillery team quickly overwhelmed the Qing Army artillery array, not only the firing speed of the loading and filling is far above the Qing Army artillery team, but also the first round of salvo shot more than ten Qing Army artillery, and then two rounds of salvo down, the Qing Army artillery team almost did not move, even if the Qing Army artillery was not hit by the Fat Army flowering shells, they had to quickly change their position, Changing places with one shot could not stop the infantry of the Fat Army from crossing the river at all. The artillery of the Fat Man Army launched an extended fire again, continuously bombarding the front of the Qing army's large array, and the Qing army archers and shield bearers who were waiting for the battle cried wolf howl, and there was a big chaos, and the infantry of the Fat Army took the opportunity to board the boat, swaying and rowing to the north bank of Chushui.

"Hold it down! Hold the position! Seeing the chaos in front of him, Jie Shu was so angry that his eyes almost breathed fire, waving his right arm that was missing a thumb and just shouted: "Let the Hongyi cannon hurry up and fire the cannon and bombard the Wu dog ferry for this king!" ”

"Big Zhou! Kill all the dogs——! "The speed of the Fat Army fleet is far faster than Jie Shu and every Qing soldier imagined, just in the blink of an eye, the Fat Army fleet has rushed across the Chushui River more than 100 meters wide, shouting and jumping on the river bank into the shallow water, and quickly assembled into an army, directly towards the Qing army front front, killing the dogs and the slogan of the Great Zhou one after another, straight into the sky, the back of the fat army ferry quickly turned around and crossed the river, to meet Han Daren's pontoon bridge team to cross the river.

"Archers, muskets, ready!" Jieshu roared and ordered, "The cavalry on the right flank will be killed, seize the ferry, prevent Wu Dog from crossing the river by bridge, and eat the Wu dog crossing the river to this king first!" ”

The order was issued, the archers and musketeers of the Qing army hurriedly prepared, and the Qing army led the cavalry on the right flank, and the Qing army led the army to rush out and rush straight to the ferry of the Fat Army, intending to block the road of the second wave of the Fat Army's river-crossing team, and buy time for the main force to eat less than 2,000 Fat Army forwards. But soon, Jieshu and the generals of the Qing army found out in despair that this time they were not biting the fat, but gnawing the bones.

"Big Zhou! Big week! Big week! In the crazy roar, the Fat Army forward infantry of less than two thousand people almost rushed forward at the speed of galloping horses, and rushed to the range of the Qing army's bow and arrow muskets in less than a moment, the Qing army hurriedly fired the arrows, but it only played an imperceptible blocking effect, the Fat Army infantry charged while protecting the vital point with a shield, even if the arrow fell down, the companions behind did not hesitate to step on their corpses and charge forward, without waiting for the Qing army to fire the second shot, they had rushed to the front, and then, A bloody hand-to-hand combat begins.

"Kill!" As the two sides of the shield hand of the Fat Army dodged away, only more than 700 Monkey soldiers in the Fat Army burst into front of the battle, An Jiarong, who held the village demon knife, took the lead, cut when he saw someone, and split when he encountered the enemy, and the Monkey soldiers behind were all like crazy, slashing at the Qing soldiers, the knives and knives were all attacking, and the knives were all the same way of playing, ignoring the knives, guns, swords, and halberds of the Qing soldiers, and only greeting the vital points of the Qing soldiers, so crazy that it was almost unbelievable.

"Da Zhou!" Hutongchun, who has been partnering with An Jiarong all the year round, is not weak, and the accustomed surname goes into battle with his bare arms, carrying two plate axes as fierce as a tiger going down the mountain, and when he encounters the enemy, he doesn't say a word is an axe down, and the defense is all covered by the two pro-soldier shield hands around him, and he is extremely skilled in cooperating, and there is almost no one in front of him, and countless Qing soldiers basically just raised their knives and guns, and Hutongchun's plate axe has already been split on the head, and the brain is bursting, the skull is shattered, and there is no one in the middle of thousands of troops.

"Boom! Bang! Bang! "New explosions and shelling sounds, just discovered the intention of the Qing cavalry to seize the ferry, the fat army artillery immediately turned around and began to bombard the Qing cavalry, at the same time Li Kuang also commanded the army to cross the river, while directing the soldiers to shoot the Qing cavalry on the opposite bank with rockets. In the rumbling explosion, the cavalry of the Qing army broke their bones one after another, and the flesh and blood of the people and horses were splashed one after another, and the people shouted and neighed, hugged their heads and scurried, and the chaos was so chaotic that they could not form a formation, and the infantry of the Fat Army took the opportunity to cross the river, occupy and protect the Chushui River crossing, and buy time for the sappers behind to build a pontoon bridge.

This is a very fierce and very spectacular battle, in the roar of the crazy artillery of both sides, the trapped team of the fat army fought bloodily with the main force of the Qing army three miles away on the north bank, killing flesh and blood, and the sky was dark; At the ferry on the north bank of the Chushui River, the infantry led by Li Kuang, the general of the Fat Army, quickly formed a phalanx to block the impact of the Qing cavalry, and at the same time returned fire with single rockets and rockets; Behind Li Kuang's team, there was a team of Han Yuanren of the fat army who crossed the river with a cable, concentrating on connecting the pontoon boxes and boats prepared in advance, laying wooden planks on them to build a pontoon bridge, and the Qing cavalry attacked and destroyed several times, but they were repelled by Li Kuang's army.

The combat effectiveness of the Fat Army was so strong, naturally the Qing army was taken aback, and as a last resort, Jie Shu had to dispatch the reserve cavalry on the left flank in advance, so that this cavalry could also join the battle of the raid on the ferry, and at the same time Jie Shu also sent his own soldiers to Zhu Lachan, the general of the cavalry on the left wing, and directly told Zhu Lachan that within half an hour, he could not break through the infantry phalanx of the Fat Army, and he could not destroy the pontoon bridge of the Fat Army under construction, and the military law was engaged!

"The warriors of the Qing Dynasty, look at us!" Zhu Laman raised his sword and roared, leading the troops to rush out from the left flank, but before they had run half a mile, the flowering shells of the fat army had already smashed overwhelmingly. It turned out that Lu Fatzi did not delay in the slightest after seeing that Zhu Lama was dispatched, and directly ordered the Fat Army artillery team to turn around the muzzles, replace them with expensive and scarce high-precision flowering shells, and concentrate their firepower to bombard the cavalry of this new force of the Qing army.

Since then, it has completely suffered the cavalry of the Qing army, which is accustomed to collective charge, and the flowering shells in the sky are as dense as hail raindrops, and they explode when they hit the ground, and the shrapnel is flying indiscriminately and the shock wave generated by the explosion is raging, and the Qing cavalry is turning over on their backs, and blood is splashed. In just one round of volleys, more than 200 Qing cavalry were killed under the vicious guns of the Fat Army, countless wounded soldiers and horses, dead bodies and horses tripped countless companions, and the momentum of the charge that had just risen was completely wiped out.

"Why is Wu Gou's artillery so powerful?" Secretly complaining bitterly, Zhu Laman could only command the cavalry to charge in a roundabout way, avoid the artillery fire of the Fat Army and choose to go south, and then charge along the river bank to the ferry, but in this way, the Qing cavalry was also exposed to the Fat Army's three-good rocket magic knife in front of the knife, and the Fat Army's rocket team in mobile combat fired arrows in a random manner, blasting out three or four hundred three-good rockets in one breath to shoot at the Qing cavalry, and blew up the Qing cavalry to the point that the ghost cried wolf, and the people turned on their horses, and were forced to change the charging route again. However, after such a delay, more than 1,000 Fat Army infantry crossed the Chushui River, which was no more than 100 meters wide, under the leadership of Yao Qisheng's eldest son Yao Yi, and threw themselves into the battlefield on the north bank.

At the same time, Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong's team has also fallen into the heavy encirclement of the Qing infantry, surrounded by enemies on all sides, full of enemies on all sides, but unfortunately Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong two unlucky people have been doing drudgery since they were on an errand for Lu Fatzi, and they have long been familiar with this situation. kept urging the Qing army to encircle and kill this lone army, but it was never possible, and it also lost a lot of brave generals.

"General, do you want to send another army to pick up Hutong Chun and An Jiarong?" Observing the battlefield in the north with a telescope, Yao Qisheng reminded Lu Fatzi with some worry: "The two of them, but they are both generals, your favorite general, if there is anything missing, ......?" ”

"No, Hu Tongchun and An Jiarong can bear it, their salaries are usually twice as high as those of other infantry, and they are not white-collar workers." Lu Fatzi refused indifferently and ruthlessly, but ordered: "Send someone to give an order to the fifth wave of river-crossing infantry, let them bring more rockets over, use rockets to bombard the dog cavalry, defend the ferry, and buy time for Han Yuanren to build a pontoon bridge." ”

Lu Fatzi, who was in charge of the order, took the order and left, and at this time, there was a fast horse with the flag of the Fat Army in the south, and dismounted outside the flag array to accept the identity verification, and then quickly ran to Lu Fatzi and knelt down on one knee, and submitted a letter with chicken feathers on behalf of 100,000 urgent military intelligence reports to Lu Fatzi, Lu Fatzi put down the binoculars and opened it, only a few glances, Lu Fatty's fat face showed a helpless wry smile.

"General, whose Tang Bao is it? Why is your expression so weird? Yao Qisheng asked curiously.

"Who else? Han Daren is a boy. Lu Fatzi said with a wry smile: "I heard that Le Erjin took the initiative to come to the door to send him to death again, Han Daren, this kid's old problem, made another mistake, and under the pretext that he couldn't let Le Erjin Xiao'er destroy the fields of the people of Taiping Mansion too much, affecting the autumn harvest, and informed me that he decided to lead the Taiping Mansion Corps to the west of Wuhu to face the battle, and swore that he would never let Le Erjin slip away this time." ”

"General Han Daren, everything is good, it's just a little good and happy." Yao Qisheng also smiled wryly.

"Fortunately, this guy at least made a report this time, which is better than sending troops without reporting Taiping City last time." Fat Lu sighed again, it could be regarded as helpless to take Han Daren's bold and adventurous surname. But just after sighing, Fat Lu suddenly felt a shock in his heart, and hurriedly asked, "Master Yao, what did I say in the last sentence just now?" ”

"General, won't you? You just forgot what you just said yourself? Yao Qisheng also cried out bitterly, "Your last sentence just now was: General Han Daren is always a little better than last time, and last time he sent troops privately without reporting and ignoring Taiping City!" ”

"Regardless of Taiping City?" Lu Fatzi muttered a sentence, and several previous doubts passed through his heart like lightning and flint - in just three days, he received three emergency warnings, Yue Le was obviously not sure but took the risk to send troops, and the third-line battlefield and all the soldiers and horses still cooperated seamlessly when the information could not be conveyed quickly, and arranged them extremely carefully for no reason, forcing their four major legions to enter the battlefield at the same time, and they could not free up excess troops as mobile ............ in a short period of time. Thinking of this, Fat Lu nodded, gritted his teeth and muttered: "Han Daren's surname weakness must have been expected by Mangou, Mangou's real breakthrough focus is not on the northern front, but on the western front!" ”

"Divine Doctor Zhu, draw up two orders for me!" Thinking about this, Lu Fatzi didn't pay attention to the Chushui battlefield that was in full swing, and after Zhu Fangdan, he ordered: "The first order, give Han Daren, tell him that it is okay to take the initiative to go to Wuhu to face the battle, but Taiping City must leave 5,000 troops to defend the city!" Also, the banners on the city walls are not allowed to show the actual number of troops, and they must fight less, and the less the better. ”

"The second order, to Gao Hongchen, let him lead 4,000 troops to Ma'anshan to ambush, found that Mangou sneaked attack on Taiping City, immediately attacked, and the defenders of Taiping Mansion attacked back and forth, and fiercely packed up the team of Mangou sneak attack on Taiping Mansion. The defense of Nanjing City was temporarily handed over to Xiao Yong and Shao Bo. ”

(To be continued)