After some careful measurements and field investigations, Han Daren, who was quite proficient in the use of firearms, suggested that Yue Le follow Duoduo's example and use the west gate of Yangzhou as a breakthrough to transport the 63 long-range Hongyi cannons of the Qing army to the west gate of Yangzhou, preparing to concentrate fire on the city wall of the west gate of Yangzhou - it was at this position that Duoduo collapsed many sections of the city wall of Yangzhou, allowing the Qing soldiers to step on the mountain of corpses and kill the city of Yangzhou. 【】

At the same time, in order to limit the power of the Fat Army's sub-cannon and Sanhao rockets, Han Daren suggested that Yue Le arrange the artillery array five miles away from the west gate of Yangzhou, which can not only give full play to the destructive power of the Qing army's solid artillery shells on the brick and earth city walls, but also make the Fat Army's trump card mother cannon and Sanhao rocket not threaten the Qing army's artillery array. In addition, Han Daren was extremely clever in suggesting that Yue Le build a temporary fortification in front of the Qing army's artillery array, which was temporarily composed of a trap ditch, a fence and antlers, and a semicircle to protect the Qing army's artillery array, so that even if the fat army went out of the city to assault the Qing army's artillery array, it would be difficult to get it from the front.

Yue Le, who didn't have any expectations for the Yangzhou war, reused Han Daren because he used a dead horse as a live horse doctor, and saw that Han Daren's arrangement was very reasonable, so he did not hesitate, and immediately approved all the tactical arrangements of Han Daren, let the Qing infantry prepare according to the law, and arranged 3,000 Qing iron cavalry and 10,000 Mongolian cavalry to wait next to the artillery position, preparing to deal with the surprise team of the fat army out of the city.

At noon on May 13 in the first year of Zhaowu and the 14th year of the mite Qing Kang Mazi, after some careful preparations, the Qing army's second attack on Yangzhou kicked off, Yue Le, Jie Shu, Bo Guoduo, Shang Shan and Tu Hai and other Qing army heavy generals came to the front line to observe the artillery battle, the Qing army rookie Han Daren commanded the artillery battle, and the Qing army's chief firearms expert Dai Zi came to the front line to measure the shooting height and correct the angle of fire for the Qing army.

At noon, as Han Daren's command flag waved, sixty-three Hongyi cannons let out an earth-shattering roar at the same time, shooting primordial flowering shells and solid cannonballs of different sizes into the sky, shooting along the parabola towards the Yangzhou city wall. Immediately afterwards, the dust and smoke splashed on the city wall of Yangzhou West Gate, the wood chips and gravel of the garrison tower on the city wall flew wildly, and the fat soldiers who could not avoid it were either broken and fractured, or the flesh and blood were splashed, and more shells hit the city wall of Yangzhou, and the city bricks were shattered, and the city wall shook slightly.

"Boom! Bang! "The fat army Hongyi cannon on the city wall unceremoniously fired back, not only the accuracy is not worse than the Qing army Hongyi cannon calibrated by Dai Zi personally, the power is far better, the solid cannonball can fly four or five zhang away when it lands, and everywhere it passes, the Qing soldiers all break their tendons and fractures, and the flowering cannonballs blow up on the ground, and the surrounding Qing soldiers are shattered. The city wall of Yangzhou and the artillery position of the Qing army were full of smoke together, and the smoke choked the nose.

"Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve......, twelve!" Tu Hai, who was silently calculating the number of the Fat Army's Hongyi cannon, roared, "Han Daren guessed right!" The number of Hongyi cannons in Yangzhou Wugou is really not much, and there are only twelve in the west! In this battle, we have hope! ”

"If there are twelve Hongyi cannons in each of the four city walls in Yangzhou, then there are forty-eight in total, and our numerical advantage in Hongyi cannons is still not obvious." Shang Shan frowned and said.

"Not necessarily!" Yue Le was calmer and said in a deep voice, "Have you noticed? At least four of Wu Gou's Hongyi cannons were fired at the northwest and southwest corners, plus our previous arrangement, Wu Gou must have understood that the west gate was the main position, and it was likely that some Hongyi cannons were transferred from other city walls in advance, so there were only twelve of them, which proved that there were probably not many Wugou Hongyi cannons in Yangzhou City. ”

"Let's see, if we continue to fight like this, how many Hongyi cannons there are in Yangzhou, we will soon be able to find out." Jie Shu expressed his opinion like this, Yue Le, Shang Shan and the others praised it together, put other thoughts aside for the time being, and continued to nervously observe the specific situation of the artillery battle in Yangzhou.

At this time, when the Qing gunners were still nervously loading and reloading the ammunition, the Hongyi cannon of the Fat Army launched with the fixed charge package had already opened fire again, pouring shells into the Qing artillery positions that exposed the target. Although Han Daren tried his best to restrain the gunners to fire as soon as possible, the speed of the Fat Army's artillery was too fast, and the Qing gunners under the cover of the artillery fire were flustered, the firing speed was even slower, and the firepower was greatly suppressed.

"Why did Wu Gou's Hongyi cannon hit so fast?" Seeing this scene, Yue Le, who was hiding from the high ground in the distance to observe the artillery battle, turned white, and exclaimed: "Our Hongyi cannon can fire one cannon, Wu Gou's Hongyi cannon can fire three cannons, and the power of the flowering cannonball is much greater than ours, and our artillery numerical advantage cannot be brought into play at all." ”

"As I said, fighting a war is not simply the sum of numbers." Jie Shu said sullenly: "Uncle Wang, let's let our artillery team stop, don't waste gunpowder and shells, let's stop and find another way." ”

Yue Le was also reasonable, he felt that Jieshu's words were reasonable, and saw that the artillery power of the Fat Army's artillery was indeed huge, and his artillery team was not an opponent at all, so he had no choice but to issue a ceasefire order, and the order was transmitted to the position. Seeing the ceasefire of the Qing army, the soldiers of the Fat Army on the city wall of Yangzhou suddenly shook the sky with joy, laughing wildly and mocking the ugliness of the Qing Army, and Gao Dejie, the chief general of the Fat Army, was also triumphant, and scolded: "Yue Le Xiao'er is in the water in his head, right?" Dare to compete with our Great Zhou army for firearms, it's like looking for death! ”

When the gunners of the Qing army hurriedly transferred the black powder and flowering shells that had been detonated, Han Daren and Dai Zi also returned to the flag of the Qing army in frustration, not only were their faces blackened by gunsmoke, but Han Daren still had a lot of blood stains on his body, and he didn't know whether he was injured by shrapnel from the fat army or the blood of the Qing soldiers. Seeing Yue Le, Han Daren and Dai Zi knelt down helplessly, clasped their fists and said: "The minions are incompetent, and the artillery battle is lost, please surrender the prince." ”

"Get up, it's not your fault." Yue Le sighed, personally picked up Han Daren and Dai Zi, and comforted him warmly: "Today's defeat has nothing to do with the two of you, it is that our explosives are not as good as Wu Dog, and our gunners are not as good as Wu Dog, you all did your best." ”

After that, Yue Le beckoned his soldiers to bring two gourds of clear water, handed them to Han Daren and Dai Zi with his own hands, and said gently: "Being smoked like this, you must be very thirsty, right?" Drink some water, and we'll renegotiate the strategy of breaking the city. Han Daren and Dai Zi were grateful together, quickly thanked Yue Le, and received Yue Le's reward with both hands.

"Huh?" As soon as he fed the gourd to his mouth, Dai Zi, a firearms genius, suddenly moved in his heart, and after rolling his eyes a few times, Dai Zi suddenly focused his gaze on a piece of farmland next to the Qing army's flag array, and ignored everyone's surprised eyes, ran over quickly with the gourd, poured a full gourd of water into the field, and stepped on it a few times with his feet. Then he hurriedly turned around and shouted to Yue Le, Han Daren and the others: "Lord Wang, General Han, please come over and have a look, and bring some water over." ”

Yue Le, Shang Shan, Tu Hai, Han Daren and others looked at each other, and followed curiously, seeing that after Dai Zi poured the water into the field, the soil in the field had become soft, and Dai Zi, who was thin and weak, could drown the soles of his shoes when he stepped on it. Yue Le, Tu Hai and the others couldn't help but be even more puzzled, and asked together, "Mr. Dai, what do you want us to see?" ”

Dai Zi didn't answer, but just snatched the water hyacinth from Han Daren's hand, poured all the remaining water into the spot, and asked Yue Le's personal soldiers to bring a bucket of water, and poured it all into the field, making the field with soft soil muddy, and finally picked up a stone and smashed it down, and the mud splashed, and the stone was completely submerged in the mud. After doing this, Dai Zi raised his head and asked Yue Le with a happy face: "Lord Wang, do you understand?" ”

"What do I understand?" Yue Le is even more inexplicable.

"I see!" Han Daren shouted, "Mr. Dai has found a way to deal with Wu Gou's shells, if we arrange the artillery positions into the fields, and fix the artillery into temporary batteries with wood or stones under the artillery, and then attract river water to flood the fields and turn the fields into mud, then we won't need Wu Gou's shells!" ”

"I get it too!" Tu Hai is also a smart person, and he shouted with great joy: "If you make the artillery position into a muddy field, Wu Gou's solid cannonball will sink into the mud, and it will not be able to bounce up and hurt people!" There is also Wu Gou's flowering cannonball, even if it is not flooded by the mud when it gets into the mud, when it explodes again, most of the power of the explosives will be absorbed by the mud, and it will become inferior to our ordinary flowering shells in the Qing Dynasty! ”

"Mr. Dai is really clever, he thought of a way to restrain Wu Gou's artillery so quickly!" Shang Shanxi said: "What's even better is that this trick can only be used by us, and Wu Gou can't use it - Wu Gou can't drown the Yangzhou city wall into a thin mud, right?" ”

"What are you doing then?" Yue Le finally spoke, and shouted: "Go find a suitable location for me immediately, rearrange the artillery positions, and then let the infantry prepare hoes and dustpans, ready to dig ditches and divert water at any time!" This king doesn't believe it, he Lu Yifeng's dog thief's firearms can really be invincible in the world?! ”

…………………… At the same time, outside the Taiping Mansion, relying on the help of the people of Huinan and the sentry of the scouts of the Fat Army, Lu Fatzi finally figured out the general movements of the Qing army on the Western Front. What made Lu Fatzi laugh off his big teeth was that the fat army sent to Tongling made a detailed report, and the new commander of the Qing army, the Qing god of war, Zhang Taizhang, thought that his troops were insufficient, and when he marched east through Tongling City, he forcibly transferred 10,000 troops from Tongling City, making the army of Prince Zhang's Eastern Expedition reach 40,000, and also made the defenders in Tongling City less than 3,000 people left.

You know, the reason why Le Erjin left so many defenders in Tongling, in addition to guarding Tongling, an important town in Anhui, is that the greater role is to receive the 20,000 troops personally led by Le Erjin, who responded to the support, and Prince Zhang forcibly took away this army, and Le Erjin, who was in charge of the Fanchang battlefield, was really fighting alone. And what made Leerjin vomit blood and make Lu Fatzi laugh even more was that Prince Zhang's forcible transfer of this 10,000 Qing army actually happened to be the true essence of the Qing army in Tongling, and even Leerjin was reluctant to bring it to the Fanchang battlefield to consume the absolute elite wasted - otherwise, would Leerjin dare to count on strong support from the rear from Tongling?

Immediately afterwards, the movement of Prince Zhang's 40,000 army was quickly figured out by the fat scouts - it may be that the sweetness he tasted in Nanjing last time was too impressive, and Prince Zhang did not take the road of Huanghu Town to the east to enter Fanchang, and joined forces to deal with the fat army in one place. Prince Zhang once again chose to go directly east from Tongling to Ningguo Mansion, and put on a posture of fighting with Leerjin, threatening the two major towns of Taiping Mansion and Nanjing from the side, and more completely isolating the 20,000 troops of Leerjin, a general of the Qing army.

In this way, the main force of the Qing army on the western front, which was the most headache for the fat army, has actually been divided into three shares by Prince Chang himself, and the Anqing naval division led by Ghent Baturu is about 6,000 people, and was sent by Prince Chang to the area of Ogigang to wait for his life, and the 20,000 troops of Leerjin are stationed in Fanchang, and the distance between the two armies reaches thirty miles, and it is difficult for each other to rescue each other quickly. The main force of 40,000 men on the Western Front led by Prince Chang advanced eastward to Ningguofu, which was farther away from Leerjin and Ghent Baturu, and as for his real destination and station, even Lu Fatzi could not guess it.

It's not that Lu Fat is incompetent, it's that Prince Zhang is too godly, he led hundreds of thousands of elite Qing troops to besiege Kunming City in history, and King Zhang dared to camp for more than 70 miles, this time Prince Zhang took the main force of the 40,000 Qing army that survived a hundred battles, and stationed in Taiping Mansion at the junction of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

"Brother Ren, the five thousand stone military rations I asked you to sell last time are really cost-effective." After reading the information on the movements of the Qing army sorted out by Yao Qisheng, Fat Lu couldn't help but applaud, and smiled at Han Daren: "Although Mangou's account is paid a little later, as long as Mangou is willing to pay dozens of times the price, this deal is still very cost-effective for us." ”

"The last general has been worried before, if the Emperor of Mangou hands over the Mangou on the Western Front to Le Erjin, then we will be in trouble." Han Daren said with a sneer: "Although we are not afraid of Leerjin commanding the army, Leerjin, a full dog, is indeed cunning and knows how to preserve his strength very well, and we are afraid that it will take a lot of hands and feet and time to annihilate the full dog on the Western Front." It's just that the last general didn't expect that the Emperor Mangou would hand over the Mangou on the Western Front to Zhangtai, the straw bale command, this time, it will be difficult for us not to annihilate the main force of the Mangou on the Western Front. ”

"That's why I said your 5,000 stone military rations are a good deal." Lu Fat Man laughed wildly, full of satisfaction, and the fat army generals in the tent were also sneering, and they all felt that the five thousand stone military rations before were indeed sold extremely cost-effective.

"General, General Han, with all due respect, the situation is probably not as optimistic as we imagined." Yao Qisheng reminded in a deep voice: "It is true that the western front is full of dogs and is divided into three ways to help our army break through, but the distance between the three full dogs is not far from each other, especially the 40,000 main forces led by Zhangtai full dogs, not only is the combat effectiveness quite strong, but we have not yet figured out their true movements - if the main force of Zhangtai is stationed in Nanling, or stationed in Majiayuan, then it is a real momentum of horns, no matter what we attack all the way full of dogs, it is possible to attract the other two full dogs to besiege." ”

"Can King Chang be so smart?" Fat Lu smiled, waved his hand and said: "The specific movements of Prince Zhang make the scouts worry, since the dogs are coming in three ways, then if we don't use the tactics of each break, we will inevitably live up to the good intentions of Prince Zhang." Let's talk about it, let's choose which one to start with first? ”

"Of course it's Zhangtai!" Han Daren, Yao Qisheng, Li Jiyang, Wang Xu and others replied in unison.

"Although Zhangtai Mangou has the largest number of troops, it is also the strongest." Yao Qisheng added: "But one general is incompetent and kills the three armies, we choose Zhangtai to be the first to open the knife and concentrate on killing him first, which not only grasps the maximum, but also severely damages the overall strength of the full dog on the Western Front, so that the other two full dogs are completely frightened, and has the effect of laying the victory in the first battle." ”

"Really?" Fat Lu smiled, and after thinking for a while, Fat Lu shook his head and said: "Wrong, I think that if we attack Prince Zhang first, we will definitely not be able to break the effect of each attack, the first is that after sending troops to Prince Zhang, it will cause Prince Zhang to stop the next two hundred and five moves." The second is that Leer Jinman is full of dogs and old people to seek the country, and when he finds that the main force of Prince Zhang is in danger, he will definitely rescue Prince Zhang at all costs, causing our various tactics to break through and turn a local battle into a general battle, and the strength of the Mangou army commanded by King Zhang is also the strongest, and it is not so easy to quickly annihilate everything. ”

"That makes sense, who does the general think we should attack first?" Han Daren nodded and asked.

"Le Erjin!" Lu Fatzi said categorically: "First clean up Leerjin, in order to show the two hundred and five virtues of the prince, it will definitely not be rescued immediately, maybe it will be repeated, and the nerves will go to Nanjing or this Taiping City again, and be further away from the Fanchang battlefield, so that we can calmly concentrate our forces and completely annihilate Leerjin!" ”

"Wonderful!" Yao Qisheng snapped his fingers and added, "It would be even better if the Mangou Water Division led by Ghent Baturu landed to rescue Leerjin!" The combat effectiveness of the sailors ashore should be weakened by at least 30 percent, and the naval division of our army led by General Li Jiyang can also take the opportunity to attack, buy chickens and cages, and kill the last naval division full of dogs in our upper reaches by the way! ”

"The general's tactics have never been missed, and this time it will definitely be the same." Han Daren stood up and bowed his hand to Lu Fatzi and said, "Please give the order of the general to send troops, and the last general will be the vanguard!" ”

"Please give the order of the general!" All the people in the tent will stand together and clench their fists for orders.

"Han Daren obeys orders!" Lu Fatzi stood up and shouted: "The Taiping Mansion Legion dispatched 17,000 horse infantry, and will dispatch together with my 20,000 elites, take the official road to Fanchang, and you lead 5,000 horse infantry as the vanguard!" ”

"Li Jiyang listened to the order, you led 8,000 sailors from the Taiping Mansion to take the waterway and go straight to the south bank of the mud mouth to station. If the Mangou Sailor doesn't take the initiative to fight, don't pay attention to him, if the Mangou Sailor lands to rescue Leerjin, he will immediately dispatch and strive to annihilate the Dog Fleet! Wuhu Zhang Wenxiang's 5,000 troops did not have to move and held the city. Li Mao, Ji Xuan, the two of you led an army of 10,000 to stay in Taiping City! ”

Speaking of this, Lu Fatzi paused, and then ordered with a smile: "General Li Mao, Ji Governor, when you stay in Taiping City, you must plant more flags in the city, and organize more people to go to the city to assist in defense, lure the main force of Prince Zhang to attack Taiping City, and win time for the main force of our army to annihilate Leerjin." ”

"Why?" Li Maozhu and Ji Xuan were both in the same place, and asked together: "General, since you want to lure Zhangtai Mangou to attack Taiping City, why do you want to raise banners and organize more people to go to the city to assist in defense?" Wouldn't it be better to show the enemy in vain? ”

"Because in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the more this situation is, the less troops in the city may be." Fat Lu scratched his head and said: "Give it a try, I really can't figure out Prince Zhang's thinking, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has fiction on it, reality is reality, there is also reality and fiction, and fiction is reality, the key is to see that Prince Zhang turns to the chapter on "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In short, you try your luck, even if you don't succeed, I don't blame you - among the generals who are full of dogs, the only one I can't figure out is this Zhang Wangye. ”

(To be continued)