By the time Li Chengdong's second army entered Hengyang City, Hengyang had become an empty city.

After entering the city, Li Chengdong's first thought was the gun factory set up by the Qing soldiers in Hengyang, and he ordered people to run to take a look, but the entire gun factory was almost completely emptied, and the people sent by Li Chengdong did not even find a few catties of iron, which shows how calm the Qing soldiers were when they withdrew.

The more calmly Hong Chengchou withdrew, the more faceless Li Chengdong felt, and Li Chengdong, who had a black face, didn't even dare to talk to Zeng Zhu now.

Most of the Qing soldiers were taken by water, and they had already set off for seven or eight days, and it was impossible to catch up, so Li Chengdong had to let the second army rest in Hengyang first.

Luo Jian received an urgent report from Li Chengdong from Hunan in Nanjing, and Luo Jian, who was about to leave for Cangzhou, stopped.

Hong Chengchou was so "a strong man broke his wrist", gave up the land of the two lakes and marched to the southwest, which Luo Jian and everyone did not expect.

Since the Haoge army was transferred to Henan by the Manchu court, these provinces have basically become a vacuum, and the Haoge army did not have time to establish a stable regime after the arrival of the Haoge army.

I have to say that Hong Chengchou's strategic vision is really good, if he stays in Hunan again, waits for the national defense army to solve the Qing troops in Wuchang, and then joins the second army to attack him, it is impossible for him to hold Hunan.

At this time, he moved into the southwest, and with the strength of Li Chengdong's second army, it could not pose a fatal threat to it, and relying on the complex terrain of the southwest, Hong Chengchou could win one to two years to develop himself.

Hong Chengchou came to such a hand, which can be regarded as adding a big trouble to the Nanjing government, if he does not want to make great efforts to solve the southwest problem after the Manchu Qing Dynasty is solved. Then Hong Chengchou can't be allowed to develop in the southwest with peace of mind now. This is the unanimous opinion of the Nanjing government.

But now the main strategic direction of the Wehrmacht is still Beijing. The southwest can only be a secondary strategic direction.

It's just that the second army obviously can't deal with Hong Chengchou, so which troops to send to pursue Hong Chengchou, Luo Jian, Shi Kefa and others are quite difficult to think.

"The Wuchang Qing Army must be dealt with as soon as possible, and it cannot be delayed any longer." In the war room of the General Staff, Shi Kefa stared at the map and said.

"I'm afraid that Minister Huang and they have learned that Hong Chengchou has escaped, and they must be going to do it in the next few days, right?" Luo Jian said.

If the 2nd and 5th Divisions and the Marine Corps solve the Hubei problem, then they will actually become the strategic reserve of the entire Wehrmacht, and they will be mobile units that can be reinforced, at any time, to various battlefields.

Luo Jian was right. Huang Degong and Yan Yingyuan were ready to attack Wuchang.

These days, the two ships "Yue Fei" and "Ran Min" began to approach Wuchang City to carry out artillery bombardment on the city wall, shelling for three days in a row, even though the Qing army built a lot of fortifications with sandbags on the Wuchang city wall, but the Qing army's artillery still suffered heavy losses.

The 2nd Division had already maneuvered to the west of Wuchang and blocked the escape route of the Qing troops, while the 5th Division cooperated with the Marines to directly attack the city, and Yan Yingyuan's Marines were ready to attack the city.

Tong Dai knew that his end was coming, and he was like crazy in the past few days, but anyone who proposed to surrender to the Wehrmacht, without saying a word, let the soldiers directly cut people. In the past few days, more than a dozen generals who want to surrender have been killed.

Yan Yingyuan once again learned from Luo Jian's experience in attacking Huai'an City, and made five or six siege vehicles. Prepare to blast the city of Wuchang.

The siege officially began on March 20.

Beginning at six o'clock in the morning, the artillery on the two warships began to bombard fiercely until almost eight o'clock, and there was hardly a single Qing soldier standing on the eastern wall of Wuchang City, and it was only then that the siege troops of the Marine Corps began to approach Wuchang City.

The ensuing battle went so smoothly that Huang Degong couldn't believe his eyes, and after the Marines successfully blew down the city wall and covered the gap with grenadiers and mortars, the siege force successfully entered Wuchang City.

The battle in Wuchang City was far less fierce than that of Ezhou City, perhaps it was the long siege that made the Qing soldiers in Wuchang have no fighting spirit, just after Tong Dai was killed, the battle ended quickly, a large number of Qing soldiers chose to surrender, and the battle in the entire city lasted less than an hour.

At this point, the whole territory of Hubei had been fully recovered, and Huang Degong sent clippers to Nanjing to report the news of the victory after his troops entered the city, and did not wait for the end of the battle.

The city of Nanjing soon received the news, Shi Kefa began to have a headache, the two lakes were basically recovered, and the officials who were studying at the three administrative colleges were almost dispatched, at this time Shi Kefa really hoped that the pace of the Wehrmacht would be slower, so that the government would have time to train another batch of officials.

Luo Jian's heart was steady, with these mobile troops, Hong Chengchou wanted to develop in the southwest with peace of mind, it was impossible.

However, the current strength of the second army really makes Luo Jian a little worried, Hong Chengchou's troops are now equipped with a large number of firearms, which is not much different from the second army, and the number is superior, once Hong Chengchou breaks through the artillery manufacturing, Li Chengdong is really in trouble.

Li Chengdong is a little big now, and as soon as Hong Chengchou leaves, where will the second army go, he has to make up his mind as soon as possible.

Is it to follow Hong Chengchou to chase after him, or to follow the instructions of the Nanjing government such as Hengyang? Li Chengdong struggled for a day.

In the end, under Zeng Hui's reminder, Li Chengdong made up his mind, and the whole army of the Second Army began to pursue Hong Chengchou.

"Hong Chengchou, this is going to Sichuan to be the king himself, right?" Zeng Shu said.

Zeng Hui's words reminded Li Chengdong, and only now did Li Chengdong react that Hong Chengchou wanted to find a place to recuperate.

"We can't let him sit big, let's chase him and entangle him!" Li Chengdong said.

After Li Chengdong made up his mind, he asked the troops to reclaim the land and search for the ships, and he also wanted to take the waterway, so that not only was the speed fast, but the troops were not so hard.

However, the search for ships ran into trouble, the ships in the Hengyang area had long been looted by Hong Chengchou, and Li Chengdong only found a limited number of a dozen ships, which was of no use at all.

The search for the ship was delayed for two days, but Li Chengdong did not dare to wait any longer, and ordered the whole army not to take the boat anymore and set off immediately.

After thinking about it, Luo Jian decided to let Huang De's second division and fifth division join the second army and pursue Hong Chengchou in Sichuan, while the marines landed in the northeast according to the original plan, blocking the retreat of the Qing soldiers to escape to the pass.

After the order was issued, Luo Jian immediately set off for Cangzhou again to prepare for the final battle with the Manchu court.

Luo Jian rode on a speedboat specially customized for him by Liu Lan, although this kind of clipper is only equipped with a steam engine drive, but the hull is not large, the structure of the boat is also very simple, and the hull is slender, suitable for fast progress in the river.

In March, the weather was good, Luo Jian sat on the bow of the boat and read the book, he read the "History of the Ming Dynasty", it was funny, but this "History of the Ming Dynasty" was compiled later by the Manchu court, and in this time and space, the Manchu court may never have the opportunity to write the "History of the Ming Dynasty".

"Do you still want to edit the History of the Qing Dynasty?" Luo Jian was a little entangled, in this time and space, the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not occupy all of China, and it could not be regarded as a dynasty.

"Let's talk about it then, how do you think about it now?" Luo Jian was a little funny.

Seeing the "Battle of Jingnan" by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, Luo Jian found that the route of the National Defense Army's attack on Beijing was exactly the opposite of the "Battle of Jingnan", and even the cities captured along the way were not bad at all, which was really a coincidence when you thought about it.

Putting down the book in his hand, Luo Jian began to think about the battle that was about to begin, thinking that he could defeat the Manchus this year, and he was a little excited in his heart, history will be changed after all, and a few of his people have already painted half of the picture scroll in the south, and how to continue the picture scroll in the whole of China next, this will be the most realistic question.

The lock pillar stood on the side of the ship, and the 92-type rifle that Zhao Quan gave him was hanging on his chest, seeing that the Metropolitan Governor was thinking about the problem, the Lock Pillar made a gesture to the other guards on the ship, asking them to lower their voices, and the Metropolitan Governor liked to be quiet when he was thinking about the problem.

"Lock pillar, did you go back to Yangzhou this time?" Luo Jian quickly stopped thinking and asked towards the lock pillar.

"Governor, I'm back, I took three days off and went back to see it." The lock pillar hurriedly stepped forward and replied.

"How are you at home? How are the parents? Luo Jian asked with concern, he was very impressed by Zhang Laohan outside Yangzhou City.

"They are all very good, now the family is much better, this year I received a lot of fertilizer from the county to come back, I was preparing for spring ploughing when I left, but unfortunately the time is too tight, I can't help." Some of the lockposts apologized for not being able to help the family.

"You're twenty this year, aren't you? Don't have a lot of money to find you a daughter-in-law at home? Luo Jian asked with a smile.

"The Governor, I don't have to look for it at home, this time I went back, I heard that I was the captain of the guard for the Governor, there are a lot of matchmakers in the family, and I heard that there are also young ladies from big families. But I'm not in a hurry, when the world is peaceful, I still have to go to the military academy that the metropolitan governor said, the country has been defeated, and someone has to guard it. ”

Speaking of this, the lock pillar is quite proud, although he is a country man, now he has become the captain of the guard of the Grand Governor, and those who used to look down on his family are now coming to the door.

"Hehe, you have a good idea, even if the country is laid, our soldiers can't live a peaceful life, for the soldiers, you can't have a peaceful life, our soldiers only have war and prepare for war."

The idea of creating a military school has been around for a long time, but the future war has entered the era of hot weapons, and he has no time to teach.

Luo Jian stayed in Jining for a day, He Gang has built a large military supply station in Jining, Luo Jian went to see, the reserves of various materials are very sufficient, and there is enough grain and grass, it seems that He Gang has calculated the prisoners and relief victims after taking Beijing City.

Although it was a fast boat, it took five days to rush from Nanjing to Cangzhou, and Yibang took Wang Qiang and Ma Yingkui to the dock to receive Luo Jian.

"Chief, we're going to enter Beijing City this time, right?" Wang Qiang was anxious, and asked as soon as he received Luo Jian.

"Well, we have to speed up the pace, and we will never stop if we don't fight Beijing this time!" Luo Jian said with a smile. (To be continued.) )