In the past few days, Li Chengdong has finally taken a bad breath, and for more than half a year, the Second Army has been pressed and beaten by Hong Chengchou, and Li Chengdong has long been suffocated.

A few days ago, the 20,000 grenades allocated by the Nanjing government finally arrived, and he had seen the power of this thing outside Yangzhou at the beginning, but now he had so many in his hands at once, and Li Chengdong had the feeling of getting rich overnight.

With the help of grenades, the second army advanced very smoothly, all the way from Qiyang to the vicinity of Qidong, which was less than a hundred miles away from Hong Chengchou's base camp Hengyang.

However, the more Li Chengdong hit, the more he felt that something was wrong, and Li Chengdong, who felt that something was wrong, ordered the troops to stop the attack.

"Xiucai, why do I think something is wrong? We're playing too well, aren't we? Li Chengdong stared at the map and said to Zeng Zhu, chief of staff of the Second Army.

Zeng Zhu is one of the first batch of Xiucai from Yangzhou Army, because of his excellent ability and performance, he was promoted quickly in the Second Army, and he was already the chief of staff of the Second Army last year.

"Commander, we've been angry for so long, and now that we're fighting well, why don't you think it's wrong?" Zeng Hui didn't feel anything wrong.

"No, anyway, I always feel that something is wrong, although we have grenades, but the Qing soldiers really want to retreat into the trenches to defend, we can't just throw this thing over, right? Besides, although we are marching very fast, how many Qing soldiers have we killed in total these days? You know this, right? ”

Li Chengdong expressed the doubts in his heart, and Zeng Zhu felt a little strange at this time.

"Why don't you wait for a while, commander, and find out the situation of the Qing soldiers first?" Zeng Hui suggested.

"This is the only way, otherwise we will suffer a big loss." Although Li Chengdong dared to fight, he was not reckless. The Qing soldiers they are facing now are not as vulnerable as before, and the guys in their hands are not much worse than the second army.

To say that the reconnaissance efficiency of the Second Army is really good at present, it is all forced out by the environment, and the reconnaissance methods of the Second Army are now diverse, such as conducting reconnaissance behind enemy lines and bribing informants to provide intelligence. By the third day, the intelligence returned.

The first news was that the Qing soldiers in Hengyang were collecting ships in large numbers.

"This is the lice on the bald man's head, Hong Chengchou is going back to the army to rescue Wuchang, and only taking the waterway is the most time-saving and labor-saving." Zeng Shu said.

"Could it be that this old boy is going to give up Hengyang? Unlikely, right? He's been here for so long, and he's built a gun factory, and he can't move it. Li Chengdong asked suspiciously.

"If Hong Chengchou really wants to give up Hengyang and return to Wuchang, our offensive speed will have to be accelerated, and we must hold them back." Zeng Zhu analyzed.

"That's nature. The longer we drag the old boy, the more time there will be to clean up the Qing troops in Wuchang, Xiucai, order the troops to attack again tomorrow morning, this time to beat me harder! Li Chengdong said.

But before the Second Army launched an offensive, new information came, and Li Chengdong was in a dilemma.

This time the situation was discovered by scouts, who reported that they had spotted a large number of clear troops maneuvering eastward. Mainly cavalry, they have already advanced to the area of Anren County.

"Xiucai. Didn't Hong Chengchou want to rescue Wuchang? Why did you go to the west of the river again? "Li Chengdong really can't figure out what Hong Chengchou wants to do, the Qing soldiers really want to attack Jiangxi, they can do it a long time ago, the defense force of the national defense force in Jiangxi is extremely weak, only Ganzhou has a garrison division, and firearms have not been distributed.

But Jiangxi's strategic position is not important. If the attack was to be carried out from Jiangxi to the southern provinces, the mountainous terrain of Jiangxi alone would make it impossible for the Qing troops to keep up with the grain and grass burden, not to mention that the national defense forces could quickly provide sufficient support to Fujian and Zhejiang provinces through sea transportation.

Zeng Zhu was also puzzled, and the two stared at the map. They looked at each other again, but they just stared at each other, and they couldn't say why.

"Commander, if the Qing soldiers really capture Ganzhou, we can't explain it?" Zeng asked asked.

"Damn! Hong Chengchou, this old boy, is playing with his heart, if you literati play with his heart, I am really not an opponent. Li Chengdong said helplessly.

Hong Chengchou was known for his thoughtfulness as early as the Chongzhen period, Li Chengdong had already heard of it, if he had let himself lead the troops alone to confront him, Li Chengdong really didn't dare, and later defeated Hong Chengchou with the First Army in Guangdong, so he had no fear of Hong Chengchou.

"Hong Chengchou is called attacking the enemy must be saved, through Jiangxi can directly attack our hinterland, Ao Baike did this a few years ago, we can't help but guard against it." Li Chengdong said.

"So what do we do? Our infantry will definitely not be able to catch up with their cavalry, or shall we let the cavalry brigade intercept it? Zeng Shu asked.

"Our cavalry hasn't changed their clothes, Hong Chengchou has more than 10,000 Manchus and Mongolian cavalry there, I'm afraid our cavalry brigade is a little enough, so let's let the cavalry each carry five grenades, you must stop them in front of the Qing cavalry, if not, dismount as infantry defense, with grenades you can't always hold it." What Li Chengdong said is also the best way at present.

"Okay, Commander, will we attack tomorrow?" Zeng Hui asked about the offensive to the east of Qidong.

"Hit! I have to beat him hard, this old boy has to beat me out if he has any intentions! Being transferred back and forth like this by Hong Chengchou, Li Chengdong felt a little aggrieved.

The cavalry brigade of the Second Army marched in the direction of Yanling early the next morning, where they were to stop the cavalry of the Qing army advancing eastward.

Soon after the departure of the cavalry brigade, two divisions of the Second Army launched a fierce attack on the defensive line on the periphery of Hengyang of the Qing army.

Li Chengdong was ruthless this time, and all the artillery pieces of the whole army were pulled out and lined up in the rear of the attacking troops. This time, Li Chengdong pulled out half of the artillery shells in the whole army's reserves, and prepared to launch an attack on the Qing defense line after full artillery preparation.

However, the attack of the Second Army was not smooth, Hong Chengchou operated in the Hengyang area for more than two years, all kinds of fortifications were built extremely defended, the artillery fire of the Second Army was still powerless against these fortifications, although the attacking troops carried a large number of grenades, but could not get close to the Qing defense line.

Li Chengdong reluctantly ordered the troops to stop the attack after suffering more than 1,000 casualties, and the characteristics of the Yangzhou rifle determined that in order to form a certain firepower density, it was necessary to use a phalanx formation, and the Qing soldiers used the same musket to guard the trenches, and they could stand and reload, while the exposed part of the body was much smaller, which would inevitably cause great casualties to the attacking troops.

Li Chengdong did not dare to attack fiercely regardless of casualties, the number of Qing soldiers far exceeded that of the Second Army, and it was obviously impossible to fight with the lives of soldiers.

In the command tent of the Second Army, Li Chengdong was extremely irritable, this battle was really a wretch, if Hong Chengchou really wanted to rescue Wuchang, he seemed to have nothing to do, and he couldn't stop him at all.

Whether the cavalry brigade could stop the Qing cavalry in the direction of Yanling, Li Chengdong also had no idea in his heart.

The next day, information came from Hengyang, a large number of ships set off from the Xiangjiang River and began to sail in the direction of Changsha, it seems that Hong Chengchou is undoubtedly going to rescue Wuchang.

It seems that the Second Army will not be able to break through the Qing army's defense line in a short period of time, and Li Chengdong, who is extremely helpless, has to report the situation here to the General Staff Headquarters as soon as possible, hoping that the Metropolitan Governor can know the news that Hong Chengchou has come to Wuchang's rescue in time.

The cavalry brigade returned to the garrison of the Second Army after six days of marching in the direction of Yanling, and they reported to Li Chengdong that they had not intercepted the Qing cavalry, nor had they heard that the Qing cavalry was coming in this direction, which made Li Chengdong wonder.

"What does Hong Chengchou mean by letting the Qing cavalry swing a shot in the direction of Yanling? Is it just to divert our cavalry brigade? Li Chengdong asked Zeng Zhu with a frown.

"There must be a problem here, I don't know if there is any situation on the defense line of the Qing soldiers?" Zeng Zhu seemed to have thought of something.

"Hurry up and order the Third Division to send a regiment up to take a look." Li Chengdong felt that something was wrong.

Soon, the commander of the third division and the first regiment personally ran to the command tent, and the news he said made Li Chengdong stunned.

"Report to the army commander, there are only a very few people guarding the Qing army's defense line, and they will surrender directly as soon as we go." The head of a regiment reported.

"Oh no, we've fallen for the empty city scheme! Hong Chengchou, this old boy ran away! Li Chengdong suddenly understood, and quickly ordered the whole army to march towards Hengyang.

However, it was too late at this time, Hong Chengchou had already crossed Changsha by boat and entered Dongting Lake, and a large number of infantry troops of the Qing army relied on the fleet to provide logistical support along the river, and all marched lightly.

Hong Chengchou stood on the deck of a naval warship with his hands behind his back, looking at the wide Dongting Lake, feeling a little happy in his heart, and finally out of danger.

"Dashuai, this trick of yours is really wonderful! Li Chengdong was played around, but he didn't know what we were going to do. Tong Yangjia admired Hong Chengchou so much that he threw himself to the ground, walked to Hong Chengchou's side and said.

"Hehe, this is more than one trick for the golden cicada to get out of the shell, our cavalry is dangling a shot in Yanling, that is called diverting the tiger from the mountain, if you don't transfer their cavalry, where can our infantry retreat with peace of mind? There was no cavalry in front to collect ships for us, and it would be difficult for the infantry in the rear to march thousands of miles away from the Wehrmacht. Hong Chengchou was a little proud.

"Dashuai, are we really not going to save Wuchang?" Tong Yangjia asked worriedly.

"Lu Hai (Tong Yangjiazi), just rushing at the giant ships of the National Defense Army, do you think we can save Wuchang?" Hong Chengchou turned his head, stared at Tong Yangjia and asked.

Tong Yangjia shook his head, but asked worriedly: "Dashuai, let's act privately without going through the imperial court's holy decree, in case the imperial court blames us, we can't afford to bear the guilt!" ”

"Hmph, Lu Hai, do you think the imperial court can survive this? If we go south into Sichuan to do something, we may be able to reduce the burden on the imperial court, and if the imperial court is really not guaranteed, we can also keep a little vitality of our Qing Dynasty. ”

Although Hong Chengchou said this with some sadness, Tong Yangjia understood Hong Chengchou's thoughts, this time Hong Chengchou gave up the two lakes and went south to Sichuan, because the national defense army still can't take care of Sichuan and the southwestern provinces, he wants to take this opportunity to make a good living, if he can block the national defense army in the future, he can stand himself as the king, if he can't stop it, he can also flee to the Yunnan-Guizhou area, so as not to be completely wiped out by the national defense army. (To be continued.) )