In the first year of the puppet Zhou Dynasty, October 20 of the thirteenth year of Kang Mazi of the Qing Dynasty, at the beginning of the morning, Lu Yifeng, the general of the Wu rebel thief army, personally led 24,000 Wu rebel thief army, and launched a comprehensive attack on Huzhou Fucheng, an important town in northern Zhejiang, controlled by the Qing Dynasty soldiers.

The above are all empty words, the specific battle situation is like this, Lu Fatzi, who has always been careful in his calculations, never thought of using the old methods such as cloud ladder siege and the Qing army to consume on the city wall, but from the mouth of the surrounding Huzhou people After learning about the brick and rammed earth structure of the Huzhou city wall, he chose the southwest section of Huzhou that had been in disrepair for a long time as the breakthrough point, lined up more than 200 light and heavy artillery, concentrated firepower to bombard the city wall with solid cannonballs, and waited until the hard city bricks on the outer layer of the city wall were completely shattered, and then replaced with flowering shells containing three good explosives. Concentrate your fire on the rammed earth inside the walls. 【】

As for the army, it was arranged by Lu Fatzi to the south gate and west gate of Huzhou, leaving the north and east gates for the Qing army to flee, and sent Gao Hongchen to lead the cavalry of the Fat Army to ambush on the road from Huzhou to Jiaxing, and waited for the Qing army to break through to the east.

Facts have proved that the new siege tactics tried by Lu Fatzi are indeed effective in dealing with the city walls of Huzhou with bricks sandwiched with rammed earth structure, and the high-precision solid bullets that ensure the air density are fired by the artillery, once hit, one shot can easily break three or four city bricks, and the second cannon hits this position again, and these city bricks can be completely smashed directly, revealing the rammed earth hidden behind them. Under the bombardment of more than 200 artillery pieces aimed at one position as much as possible, seven or eight rounds of salvo fired, and the bricks of the city wall, which were about twenty or thirty meters wide, were bombarded into a state of sand and stones, and a huge deep pit was blasted out of the city wall.

Seeing that the time had come, Lu Fatzi, who personally commanded this artillery battle, decisively ordered to replace it with flowering shells and continue to attack the city with heavy artillery. As a result, several of Lu Fatty's lackeys next to him were puzzled, and they asked Fat Lu one after another: "General, didn't our Neiying agree to open the city gate to welcome us into the city?" Why waste so much precious ammunition to siege a city? This is your usual style, General. ”

"It's a rare opportunity, I'll have to try how effective this tactic is against the walls." Lu Fatzi replied casually: "In the future, when we fight Yanjing City, we may be able to use it, and the wall of Yanjing City is also such a structure, with rammed earth between city bricks." ”

"Yanjing City Wall is also such a structure?" Wang Shaobo was a little surprised, and hurriedly asked: "When you were in Yanjing, did you dig up the wall of Yanjing City?" ”

"No, it was told to me by a guy named Liang Sicheng." Fat Lu replied casually again.

"Liang Sicheng? What kind of official is he in Yanjing City? Could it be that he is also the owner of your internal responsibility? Wang Shaobo asked in surprise. Fat Lu rolled his eyes when he heard this, and said in his heart that even if Liang Qichao's son wanted to be my internal response, he would not be born until at least a few hundred years later.

At this time, Qin Yong, the eldest cousin of Lu Fatzi, had already commanded the Fat Man's artillery team to replace all the flowering shells, and concentrated firepower to continue to bombard the Huzhou city wall. Accuse the Fat Army gunners of being a loser and wasting ammunition.

Under such a fierce artillery bombardment of the Fat Army, the Qing Army's previous determination to defend the city had long been unknown and flew to the Nine Clouds, before they encountered opponents such as Geng Jingzhong and Zheng Jingzhi and others, all the artillery together did not have as many artillery used by the Fat Army in this attack, coupled with the terrifying power of the Fat Army with three good explosives to bloom the cannonballs, the Qing Army defending the city was even more desperate to hold out any hope. So much so that even the high-ranking generals of the Qing army, such as the deputy commander Xifu, ran to the Qing army commander and screamed in despair: "General, Wu Gou's artillery is too powerful!" If it continues like this, let alone sticking to it for a long time, whether it can survive today is probably a big question! ”

The tower glared at the panicked Xifu and shouted, "Stand up straight, what do you say?" Don't forget that you are the deputy commander of the white flag, what if you say such things and shake the morale of the army? ”

Scolding and scolding, it is inevitable that the tower will regret it in his heart, regretting that he did not listen to Yao Qisheng's bitter words, giving up Huzhou and retreating to Hangzhou - the city wall of Hangzhou is not only far stronger than Huzhou, but also because Geng Jingzhong once approached Shaoxing, it has also been repaired and strengthened before, and the anti-artillery ability is far above the Huzhou city wall, and there is every hope that it will compete with Lu Fatzi's artillery array for a long time, which is far better than holding on to the city of Huzhou that has been in disrepair for a long time. But now the regret is obviously over, and the only thing that the tower can count on now is that the ammunition of the Fat Army will run out as soon as possible.

"My lord, there's a movement at the south gate!" The Fat Army's ammunition showed no signs of running out, but the new bad news came first, and the lookout on the city tower shouted, "Someone has lowered the South Gate Suspension Bridge!" ”

"Bold, who put down the suspension bridge without permission?!" The tower was furious, and hurriedly yelled at Xifu: "Immediately bring someone over to check, and those who release the bridge without permission will be killed!" ”

"Da Zhou-!" Before the words of the tower fell, the thunderous cheers had erupted in the ranks of the fat army outside the south gate of Huzhou, and then, one after another of the fat army infantry had launched a tide of charges towards the south gate of Huzhou. Seeing this scene, although he couldn't see the city gate of Nancheng from a very long distance, the tower suddenly came to his senses, and screamed with a pale face: "There is an internal annihilation in the city? Opened the south gate?! ”

"Boom!" At this moment, a new loud noise came, and after the southwest city wall of Huzhou, which was concentrated by the fat army, was blown to pieces, it finally couldn't resist the huge power of Miyoshi explosives and the temptation of gravity, and collapsed violently.

Seeing this scene, the defenders of the Qing army, who were already in a state of disarray, completely collapsed, countless soldiers threw down their weapons and turned around and ran, and the morale of the various teams of the Fat Army was even higher, and there was thunderous cheers up and down. Only Lu Fatzi remained silent, just waved his hand lightly, and gave three orders in a row: "Stop the shelling!" Beat the drums to attack, enter the city and fight in the streets of the dogs, pay attention to protect the granary, and allow the dogs to surrender! Summons Xiao Yong and asks him to immediately count the ammunition consumption, and the more detailed the numbers, the better. ”

The war drums were beating, and in the earth-shaking shouts, Wang Xu and Hu Tongchun charged towards the west and south gates of Huzhou at the same time, and Han Yuanren also led an infantry to rush out of the middle army array of the Fat Army, and charged towards the gap in the city wall that was collapsed by the artillery of the Fat Army. The Qing defenders on the city wall were completely chaotic, either shooting and shooting arrows to block, or running away, and countless Qing soldiers holding their heads and crying and running, they could not effectively block the three-sided attack of the fat army.

At three o'clock, the Fat Army Wang Xu's team took the lead in attacking the south gate of Huzhou, and the team of Wu Qi and Chen Daorun of the righteous army in the city met together, and began to launch a counterattack on the Qing army at the south gate, although Zhao Deshou, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, led a descendant to resist, but the weapons and troops were too far apart, after Zhao Deshou was killed by the grenade of the Fat Army, the remaining Qing soldiers immediately scattered, or fled or surrendered, and the Qing army reserve commander Cheng Long and Xu Wei who came to reinforce also surrendered under the persuasion of Wu Qi, and the fat army took the lead in capturing the south gate. Follow-up troops continued to enter the city.

At noon, Han Daren attacked the southwest corner of Huzhou, killed the Qing army rescuers, and quickly launched an attack on the west gate. At the same time, Hutongchun's team also launched a strong attack on the west gate of Huzhou in the main position, and the tower personally led the army to resist stubbornly, but Han Daren's team had been killed from behind, and the tower had no choice but to adopt Xifu's suggestion, abandon the west gate and break through to the north gate, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Hutongchun attacked the west gate, and the Qing army defenders of the north gate and the east gate of Huzhou saw that the general trend had gone, and opened the city gate to flee for their lives, and Huzhou completely fell into the hands of the fat army, it was only a matter of time.

The good news flew like snowflakes one after another, but Lu Fatzi didn't pay attention to it at all, threw the command to his subordinates, and just lowered his head to study the ammunition consumption that Qin Yong had counted, but what disappointed Lu Fatzi was that in just one morning's artillery battle, the Fat Man's army spent nearly 10,000 catties of propellant and more than 2,000 shells, and it was only then that the Huzhou city wall that collapsed less than 20 meters was still the Huzhou city wall that had fallen into disrepair after more than 20 years of no war. If such a cost-effectiveness ratio is used to attack Yanjing City, which has a history of more than 300 years, it will undoubtedly be a nightmare for the logistics of the Fat People's Army -- Lu Fatzi clearly remembers what Liang Sicheng said, the rammed earth in the walls of Yanjing City has been sandwiched with special materials, and it has turned into concrete for hundreds of years.

"Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Jinan, Dezhou, Damingfu, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Yanjing, ......." After roughly calculating the famous fortified cities that the Northern Expedition would encounter, Lu Fatzi reluctantly threw aside the list of ammunition consumption that Qin Yong had counted, and knocked Erlang's leg under the handsome flag and sulked.

The reason why Lu Fatzi sulked is explained here, Lu Fatzi judged from all kinds of signs, the terminally ill Wu Laohan is likely to be killed, and when he dies, the anti-Qing forces in various places will inevitably be divided, even if Lu Fatzi can finally unify the south, it will inevitably take a long time, plus Kang Mazi and the Mites Qing army are making trouble, the time required by Lu Fatzi is even more difficult to calculate. As the saying goes, the night is long and there are many dreams, this time is long, in case something happens, for example, something suddenly happened to Lu Fatzi himself, or after the death of Wu Sangui, there was a heavy general of the Wu army who surrendered to Mangou and brought new firearms to the Mangou court, then no one can say whether this rebellion of the three feudatories will repeat the mistakes of history.

When Lu Fatzi was thinking about it, Yao Qisheng, who had just surrendered to the Fat Army last night, suddenly asked to see Jin, and Lu Fatzi agreed without thinking about it. After a while, Yao Qisheng was led under the banner of Lu Fatzi, and saluted Lu Fatzi with a smile on his face and said hello: "Congratulations to the general, congratulations to the general, he broke through a major town in less than half a day, which is really rare in the world." ”

"Mr. Yao has won the award, it all depends on Mr. Yao to deliver the letter, and the Wu Governor's Mansion will open the city, otherwise it will be so fast." Fat Lu smiled and beckoned, "Mr. Yao, please take a seat, where is Gongzi Ling?" He was going to ask for a position, and I tried to arrange it as much as I could. ”

"General Xie, but thank you for the kindness of the general, it's best for the little dog to start as a soldier and have more experience, so that he can serve the general." Yao Qisheng thanked him, and pointed to the gap in the city wall that was blasted out by the fat army in the distance and said with a smile: "There are also generals who are too modest, even if there is no letter from Yao Qisheng, the Wu Governor's Mansion will open the city, and it will not be easy for the general to break through Huzhou?" The general's firearms are so sharp that the strong cities in the world are nothing in front of the general. ”

"Is that easy?" Fat Lu smiled bitterly, pointed to the list of ammunition consumption counted by Qin Yong, and said with a wry smile: "Look at it, how much ammunition did our army consume in order to blast out this gap?" ”

Yao Qisheng was not polite and avoided suspicion, and directly picked up the list and looked at it carefully, but after only one glance, Yao Qisheng couldn't help but exclaim, "So many?!" Nine thousand one hundred and sixty-eight pounds and nine taels of gunpowder! One thousand six hundred and eighty-nine solid shells, six hundred and twenty-six flowering shells! ”

"Yes, it takes so much ammunition to fight this Huzhou City, and I can't imagine how much it takes to fight Yanjing City and the cities along the way." Fat Lu sighed.

"Hit Yanjing City and the cities along the way?" Yao Qisheng raised his eyebrows, he could already hear Lu Fatzi's voice, and couldn't help but ask tentatively: "General, could it be that you have the intention of launching the Northern Expedition in the near future?" ”

"Not in the short term, but it is possible in a year or two." Lu Fatzi was not obscure, and said frankly: "The southern soldiers are weak, the northern soldiers are brave, and the south of the Yangtze River is rich. So I want to take advantage of the opportunity that my strength still exists to launch the Northern Expedition as soon as possible, take advantage of the fact that Mangou is now suffering from a big injury to the capital, kill Kangxi Xiaomazi, and tear Mangou apart, so that I can have a chance to dominate the world. Otherwise, once Mangou recovers, and the other anti-Qing rebels have accidents, it will be difficult for me to be in a safe corner. ”

Yao Qisheng nodded again and again, and agreed with Lu Fatzi's point of view, since ancient times, the north-south duel has basically won in the north, a very key reason is that the southern soldiers are weak and the northern soldiers are strong, the reason why the fat army can now form an overwhelming surname advantage over the Zhejiang Qing army, the main reason is also because the fat army is based on the northern soldiers brought to the southwest by Wu Laohan to destroy the skeleton, coupled with the fierce folk customs in the bitter and poor land of the southwest, and the main flesh and blood on the skeleton The combat effectiveness of the southwest soldiers is not weak, so that they can abuse and ravage the pampered Zhejiang Qing army to their heart's content. If this army is also softened by the fragrant wind and soft words of the hometown of Jiangnan, then the future of the fat army is really unimaginable.

"This guy is quite anxious, and he is an enterprising man in troubled times." Yao Qisheng nodded secretly, and said with a smile: "Don't blame the general, in fact, the students think that the general seems to have drilled the tip of the bull's horns this time." ”

"What did I do?" Fat Lu asked.

"The idea of the general capturing the thief and capturing the king first, wanting to kill the emperor of the dogs and tearing the dogs apart is really good." Yao Qisheng smiled and said, "It's just that why does the general only think about the Northern Expedition by himself?" Why don't you think about it, what is the way to let the Mangou Emperor personally wave his army to the south and take the initiative to send him to the door to send him to death? ”

"You mean, let the Emperor of the Dogs take the expedition himself? Is this possible? Fat Lu blinked his mung bean eyes and calculated. How much military talent does Kang Mazi have who was held up to the sky by the mites relics, Lu Fatzi knows better than anyone else, and he concentrated the strength of the whole country to fight a tribe of Geerdan, and finally let his family Geerdan immediately have a stroke and die on the belly of the beautiful woman - such a military straw bag If he really drove to conquer Lu Fatzi, Lu Fatzi could simply wake up laughing even from a dream.

"Possibly!" Yao Qisheng's words were astonishing, and he said with a smile: "Maybe the general doesn't believe it, but in fact, Emperor Mangou has long had the heart to personally conquer the general, and it has been more than once, but the first few times he was violently opposed by the ministers, and the last time he didn't make the trip because he really couldn't get the army and grain and grass." ”

"How do you know about such a thing, Mr. Yao?" Fat Lu asked in surprise.

"Don't blame the general." Yao Qisheng smiled and said, "The student's younger sister, Yao Qisang, is the wife of Huang Xigon, a scholar of Wuyingdian University and a squire of the Ministry of War, a favorite minister of the Mangou Emperor!" My brother-in-law has been in charge of military affairs since the ninth year of Kangxi, after Wang Xu's death, he also directly served as the secretary of the military department, although the student disdains to use nepotism to promote the officer, but he has always had correspondence with Huang Xigon, because the student was at the forefront of the confrontation with the general before, so he mentioned these things in the letter, let me provide some front-line information, to help him persuade the Mangou Emperor to dispel this idea. ”

It was the first time that Fat Lu heard that Yao Qisheng had such a good brother-in-law, and he was stunned for a long time, Fat Lu waved his fat hand excitedly, and said happily: "Thank you Mr. Yao for your advice, Lu Yifeng finally knows what to do in the future this time!" Since Kang Mazi is in charge of the expedition, I will find a way to help him with all my might, and let him send him to the door to die! ”

"General, I'm afraid it's not so ......."

Yao Qisheng just wanted to remind Lu Fatzi that it was not so easy to prompt Kang Mazi to drive the expedition in person, but before the words were finished, Lu Fatzi had already turned to Wang Shaobo next to him and shouted: "Young uncle, immediately make up some nursery rhymes for me, just say that I, Lu Yifeng, occupy the land of Nanjing Daming Longxing, and Nanjing's dragon qi will re-raise its head, and only the Mangou Emperor's royal drive can cut off Nanjing's dragon qi and recapture Jiangnan." Then arrange for people to spread these nursery rhymes, and then send people to Yanjing to spread them. ”

"Understood." Wang Shaobo, who was accustomed to Lu Fat's lack of morality, nodded immediately, and began to ponder without saying a word. Yao Qisheng next to him was dumbfounded, and muttered in his heart: "So fast? This Lu Yifeng and Lu Sanhao, how much bad water should there be in the stomach? ”

At this time, the battle report came again in the city of Huzhou, and the commander of the Qing army, Lai Ta, saw that the fall of Huzhou was a foregone conclusion, and had led a defeated army to break through from the east city of Huzhou and break through in the direction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, but there were still some Qing troops in the city of Huzhou who were stubbornly resisting. Lu Fatzi only thought for a moment, and immediately ordered: "Let Hu Tongchun and Han Yuanren lead the army to chase and kill with all their might, cooperate with Gao Hongchen's ambush soldiers, and try to eliminate the East Escape Mangou, and kill as many as possible." Wang Xu was responsible for clearing the remnants of the dogs in the city and recruiting them as much as possible. ”

"Congratulations to the general, another important town in the south of the Yangtze River." Yao Qisheng hurriedly congratulated Fat Lu again. Fat Lu nodded with a smile, accepted Yao Qisheng's congratulations, and then asked: "Mr. Yao, you just came from Mangou, and you know more about Mangou's situation, in your opinion, what should our army do next?" ”

"General, do you really trust the students?" Yao Qisheng stared at Fat Lu and asked.

"Mr. Yao, please say, Lu has already said that since Lu dares to take in Mr. Yao, it is natural that those who believe in it do not doubt it, and those who doubt it do not need it." Fat Lu replied sincerely.

"In this case, the student thinks that the general should not go to Jiaxing and Songjiang in the next step, and should go straight to Hangzhou!" Yao Qisheng said in a deep voice: "At present, most of the main forces of Zhejiang Mangou are confronting Geng Jingzhong in Jinhua, Ningbo, Quzhou and Taizhou, and there are only more than 10,000 defenders in Hangzhou, and most of them are recruits of the new army. ”

"Boss, this is no joke." Wang Shaobo, who was pondering the nursery rhyme, was startled, and quickly pulled the sleeve of the fat man Lu, and whispered in the ear of the fat man: "It is more than two hundred miles from Huzhou to Hangzhou, and once there is a change in the rear, it will be difficult for you to return to the help." Going directly south to fight Hangzhou, our back roads and grain roads will all be exposed to the knives of Jiaxing Mangou and Songjiang Mangou. ”

Lu Fatzi was silent, and although Yao Qisheng didn't hear Wang Shaobo's whispers, he probably guessed Wang Shaobo's scruples, so he said sincerely: "General, maybe you think that the student's tactics are too crazy, and even suspect that the student has no good intentions. But the students insisted that attacking Hangzhou now was indeed the best choice for the general at present! ”

"There are two advantages of the general fighting Hangzhou, Hangzhou is the first important town in Zhejiang, and the grain, grass and ordnance in the city are extremely abundant, if the general can take Hangzhou, he can make a big profit and completely weaken the strength of Zhejiang Mangou, not to mention, he can also induce Geng Jingzhong to go north with all his strength, desperately attack Zhejiang Mangou on the southern line, let them kill each other and consume each other!"

"What about our food routes and back roads?" Wang Shaobo asked: "Our main force went south to Hangzhou, what should we do if Jiaxing and Songjiang were full of dogs to attack us?" ”

"The grain and grass in Huzhou City is enough for the general to last for a year, and enough to fight Hangzhou!" Yao Qisheng replied in a deep voice: "As for the Mangou in Jiaxing and Songjiang, aren't they being pinned down by General Li Tianzhi in Suzhou, how many troops can they take out to attack our army's rear road?" ”

"Then how do you defend Hangzhou?" Wang Shaobo asked again: "Hangzhou is far away from the rear of our army, and it is inconvenient to supply and reinforce, even if our army takes Hangzhou, the southern front is full of dogs and counterattacks, how can we defend it?" ”

"You don't need to keep it." Yao Qisheng replied with a smile: "Before entering the customs, Mangou broke through the Great Wall five times to enter the Central Plains, all of which robbed a large number of people, money and food, and left. From now on, does the general still need to worry about the threat on the southern front? ”

Wang Shaobo was in a hurry, and when he was about to persuade again, Lu Fatzi raised a fat hand to stop it, and said in a deep voice: "It's decided, fight Hangzhou!" Young uncle, you immediately write a letter to Li Tianzhi, tell him the next move of our army's main force, and ask him to send a mobile army to monitor Jiaxing Mangou and protect our army's rear road! ”

"The owner, the city of Hangzhou is strong, far from being comparable to Huzhou." Wang Shaobo hurriedly reminded again: "In case our army can't break the city after a long time under the city of Hangzhou, and there is a sudden change in the rear, what will happen to our army?" ”

"I only bring half a month's grain and grass, and if I can't capture Hangzhou in half a month, I will immediately collect my troops and return to Huzhou!" Fat Lu waved his hand again, and suddenly changed his smile again, and said: "Besides, I should also go and get my little wife back, I really don't know what she looks like, is she as beautiful as the legend?" ”

"Little wife?" Yao Qisheng was a little confused, but he didn't bother to pay attention to it, he just smiled and said: "General, if you want to successfully break through the fortified city of Hangzhou, then the student has a plan, maybe you can increase some chances of winning." ”

"Please Mr. Yao." Fat Lu asked hurriedly.

"The general will definitely be able to capture a lot of prisoners when he breaks through Huzhou today, why don't the generals ......?" Yao Qisheng said with a smile.

"Brilliant plan!" Before Yao Qisheng finished laughing, Lu Fatzi was already applauding and said with a smile: "Erlang, immediately send someone to the captive team to surrender, pick dozens or hundreds of obedient and greedy people to come out, and entertain them with good wine and food - but remember, don't cut their braids, and don't let them change their clothes." ”

Xiao Erlang agreed, and hurriedly went down to make arrangements, but Yao Qisheng muttered in his heart again, "This Lu Sanhao, what bad water should be in his stomach?" Why did he immediately guess what I was thinking? ”

(To be continued)