More than 10,000 people are overwhelming, and more than 100,000 people are boundless! Lin Haijiang, who led his troops to Ningxiang, immediately summoned Qi Mingxin, commander of the First Brigade of the First Division of the Corps directly under the Commandery, and Wan Fujiang, commander of the Second Brigade of the First Division of the First Mountain Infantry Corps, to the headquarters of the First Division of the former First Mountain Infantry Corps.

Now this command post has become the forward command center of the entire Eastern Front, and the Führer's personal arrival at the front line can be said to have greatly encouraged and shocked the two brigades and the three battalions of the Railway Engineer Corps of the Production and Construction Corps, which had been requisitioned to transport supplies in Ningxiang.

Lin Haijiang in Ningxiang to Jiangping and the troops around Changsha continued to issue one after another instructions, more than 300 carrier pigeons frequently and busily released and recovered, because of the tight time, the guide pigeon and the liaison pigeon, the carrier pigeon almost at the same time, Lin Haijiang knew that Ningxiang's materials and weapons were categorically not transferred, whether it was captured by the Taiping army or destroyed by their own side, then they were destined to launch the battle of the two rivers and two lakes will become an expensive attempt to tuition.

Therefore, Lin Haijiang's only choice was to hold Ningxiang, temporarily slow down the encirclement and annihilate the bait that Chen Yucheng gave him, and quietly draw out his troops to carry out a big detour on the outside line to carry out a big encirclement of Chen Yucheng's real elite, and strive to inflict heavy losses on the largest mobile force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

In Daquan outside Ningxiang, Chen Yucheng summoned Li Shixian, Huang Wenjin, Liu Guanfang, the commanders of the three-way army, and Gong Deshu, who had reached a secret agreement before, to Daquan, and in Chen Yucheng's eyes, Ningxiang had become the meat of his mouth, but according to a secret report he received in the morning, Lin Haijiang, the head of the Chinese Empire, personally led about 6,000 people to Ningxiang, and was intensively building fortifications.

Because Ningxiang has no city defense to rely on, the army of the Chinese Empire is desperately digging a ditch, and for the opponent is desperately digging a ditch, Chen Yucheng remembered a weapon equipped by the Chinese Emperor's [***] team, what is the name of the Imperial General Machine Gun! It is said that it is like a fire dragon spewing flames, and even thousands of troops cannot rush through it.

Of course, Chen Yucheng attaches special importance to this kind of news and intelligence, but he doesn't fully accept it, because if that weapon is really so powerful, why is Changsha still in the hands of the Qing Demon? The only thing that made Chen Yucheng more depressed was that four months before the Chinese Empire launched its attack, they cut off the arms trade in the Heavenly Kingdom, resulting in the Heavenly Kingdom's artillery without shells, and the lack of spare parts became scrap.

Chen Yucheng was glad that the pre-purchase of Heavenly Kingdom was all breech-loading rifles, and the gunpowder and lead Heavenly Kingdom could produce their own, if they bought breech guns with metal bullets, I am afraid that they would be staring at them now!

Chen Yucheng's intention to summon a few people to Daquan was that he couldn't bear it, why did Lin Haijiang dare to ask the big man to come to Ningxiang alone? Chen Yucheng believes that Lin Haijiang must have judged his intentions by now, but in this case, Lin Haijiang still dares to come to Ningxiang to throw himself into the net? What is the reason why this Lin Haijiang is so rampant and fearless?

Chen Yucheng admired Lin Haijiang's legendary achievements and rise process, in the past seven years, he has become a feudal official from the sea merchant to the Qing demon, and then rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and became a country, and now began to swallow the world, Chen Yucheng has never encountered a more terrible opponent than Lin Haijiang, so at this critical juncture that is also related to the life and death of the heavenly kingdom, he has to be cautious and very cautious.

Chen Yucheng looked at Liu Guanfang, Huang Wenjin, Li Shixian and Gong Deshu with a tired expression, Liu Guanfang, Huang Wenjin, and Li Shixian can all be said to be older than Chen Yucheng, but now Chen Yucheng commands these three armies, so Chen Yucheng always reminds himself to be gracious and powerful, and to treat these three people strategically.

And Gong Deshu is the department of the Twist Army, although it is the Taiping Army on the surface, but the Twist Army is the Twist Army, and it is a regiment inside, and it is absolutely no way to divide and put it aside, and if it is not used properly, there will be many unexpected accidents.

Chen Yucheng has always been unable to starve them, because if he is hungry, he will rebel, but he can't let them be full, because once the Twist Army is full of food and drink, no one wants to call them, and with a wave of the general standard-bearer, hundreds of thousands of people and horses will be scattered in an instant.

Gong Deshu's face is very bad, and Chen Yucheng is not easy to ask, because Gong Deshu has a quirk, he doesn't like girls and likes women in their thirties and forties who are still like wolves and tigers. Chen Yucheng suspected that Gong Deshu's Five Tigers and Gossip Broken Door Knife might have been abolished long ago.

On a simple cowhide map, Chen Yucheng beckoned to the four of them and said: "Everyone, please take a step forward, Lin Haijiang, the head of the Chinese Empire, is here in Ningxiang, and there are about 11,000 or 12,000 enemy troops in Ningxiang, and we have trapped 3,000 of them in Huilong Mountain. ”

Liu Guanfang looked at Ningxiang on the map, nodded with his hand, and looked at Chen Yucheng with an unbelievable gaze: "Lin Haijiang has arrived in Ningxiang?" Knowing that our army is bound to win Ningxiang, could it be that this forest giant demon is engaged in some conspiracy? This son can be described as a trick! We need to be careful with him. ”

Li Shixian didn't care and said: "If you are afraid that our Left Route Army will fight Ningxiang alone, if Lin Giant Demon is really here, I will come to you tomorrow with his head, how about King Ying?" ”

Liu Guanfang glanced at Li Shixian and didn't say anything, just quietly looked at the slightly blurred word Ningxiang on the map, and Huang Wenjin, who was standing on the side, hesitated and said: "I thought that Lin Haijiang was also a general of a hundred battles, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was a star descending to earth, but the more such a master he is, the more he can't afford to lose, because if Lin Haijiang loses Ningxiang, it will be equivalent to this attack in vain, and whether he can retreat with his whole body is two different things!" ”

Huang Wenjin's analysis made Chen Yucheng nod, and Liu Guanfang looked at Huang Wenjin in surprise and said, "Are you saying that Lin Haijiang turned the conspiracy into a conspiracy and played an empty city plan with us?" ”

Huang Wenjin nodded and said: "It can't be completely regarded as an empty city plan, at least Lin Haijiang still has more than 10,000 elite soldiers in his hands, think about the ambush we fought in Huilong Mountain, almost eight times the enemy's strength on both sides of the valley ambush, killing 3,000 enemies, our army lost more than 15,000 people, yesterday Tian Dazhi told me that the bodies of my brothers have not been cleaned up!" ”

Chen Yucheng nodded and said: "I thought that Lin Haijiang must have a lot of external contacts at this moment, and he will send troops to Xiangning to relieve the siege, but his army is on the outer line, even if it takes at least four days to travel at night, and suddenly our army horse team will continue to harass the enemy, and it will take four days to capture this land of Ningxiang, even if the reinforcements of the Lin Giant Demon arrive, I am afraid that there is nothing that can be done, if it really kills or captures the Lin Giant Demon, such a brilliant victory is even unimaginable!" ”

Chen Yucheng's words made Liu Guanfang, Gong Deshu, Huang Wenjin, Li Shixian and others have golden light in their eyes, Lin Haijiang is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to throw himself into the net, Liu Guanfang thought that if Lin Haijiang was really captured if he won this battle, then he would be even more sure that he would be crowned king.

Chen Yucheng immediately decided to start attacking immediately after waiting for the arrival of the artillery team in the afternoon, and Gong Deshu, Liu Guanfang, Huang Wenjin, and Li Shixian began to attack non-stop from the east, south, west, and north directions.

Chen Yucheng took a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down, because he knew very well that whenever people think that they are not far from success, they tend to lose their ability to discriminate, and the more they need to calm down at this time.

And outside the city of Ningxiang, Lin Haijiang summoned Wan Fujiang and Qi Mingxin to the command post to jointly study the defense plan, Ningxiang County is very entangled for Lin Haijiang, as the gateway to the east of Changsha, Ningxiang has no city defense system? The entire county has only a so-called wall less than three meters high made of low adobe, and there is no moat and no defense facilities to use.

There are only less than 400 households in the county town surrounded by adobe, compared to a village in later generations, after asking Lin Haijiang to know, the original 1858 will be the Taiping Army of the Five Roads Army will attack Changsha, Ningxiang, Jiangping seven counties of the county seat are completely demolished, all the stone bricks are transported to Changsha to strengthen the city defense, so Ningxiang has no city wall.

Lin Haijiang was still very satisfied with the large ring fortifications built by the First Mountain Infantry Division in Ningxiang around the material reserve center in the city, and the people in the city had already been evacuated, and all the unused houses in the city had basically been demolished, and all of them were cross streets and rows of brand-new warehouses planned in the shape of a tic-tac-toe.

The vertical and horizontal communication trenches were connected with the main trenches, and all the dirt slopes seen in the second line of defense after the first line of defense were turned into a positive slope nearly four meters high by the method of blasting and stacking by the engineers, and 70 75-mm Krupp field guns were placed on the material transfer field in the city, and more than 100 80-mm mortars and more than 100 general-purpose machine guns and heavy machine guns were all distributed to the combat units.

The troops of the first division of the mountain infantry and the legion directly under the headquarters are the troops equipped with the first type, although the corps directly under the headquarters is said to be at the corps level, but there is only one reinforced brigade in the actual structure below, but the firepower of these two troops has been strengthened by Lin Haijiang to the point of almost perversion, 1,228 light and heavy machine guns, more than 200 mortars and 70 75 mm Krupp field guns have completely turned Ningxiang into an authentic hedgehog.

Under the supervision of Lin Haijiang, a large number of barbed wire fences were pulled up between each line of defense, and mines were laid, and the excavation firepower was combined with the concealed bunker covering fire points, mortar firing bunkers, and two-story pillboxes with three layers of perforations on the upper and lower floors.

Guarding the largest military center, especially the Ningxiang Material Reserve Center, which also undertakes the task of transferring the materials used by the production and construction corps, naturally what is needed, Lin Haijiang personally appeared at the forefront of the construction of fortifications as the head of the empire, and Lin Haijiang, who was wearing dusty overalls, also struggled to carry several generations of sand, and moved the officers and soldiers beside him, Lin Haijiang is not one of those high-ranking officials who wear dresses and white gloves to run to voluntary labor, at least Lin Haijiang has made a very hard work appearance that is very close to ordinary officers and soldiers, According to his own words, since it is labor, there must be a pattern of labor.

The entire annular defense system of Ningxiang can be basically completed in just three days, Lin Haijiang feels that this is a miracle that is not big or small, more than 10,000 officers and soldiers are almost part of the day and night desperate construction of fortifications, many officers and soldiers are biting their heads and falling asleep, for this Lin Haijiang is very moved, because his troops have already appeared in the smell of an army with a real soul.

On September 4, 1861, early in the morning, Lin Haijiang, who had inspected the fortifications, returned to the headquarters and instructed all troops to rest seriously, as long as the Taiping military headquarters attacked, the task of the troops was to rest and eat, and a large amount of dried meat and non-staple food were distributed, because Ningxiang was the only and largest material storage center on the eastern front of the Chinese Empire, and all supplies were available.

Just last night, 1,000 mountain infantrymen covered the transportation battalion of a battalion of the production and construction corps, forcibly broke into the encirclement of the Taiping army in Huilong Mountain, and brought food and ammunition to the troops in the encirclement, because Lin Haijiang was contacted through military pigeons and knew that there was a spring on the hill where the troops were besieged, but there was little food left, so there was this assault operation, and the most direct consequence of the action was that there were only more than 3,000 people in the original encirclement, but now it has become nearly 5,000 men and horses.

The only thing that Lin Haijiang was very depressed about was that the General Staff and himself were very interested in Ningxiang as the material reserve center of the Eastern Front, but they did not expect that the attack on Changsha would be delayed, and the overall strategy was backward and did not revise the cooperation plan of the Production and Construction Corps, which directly led to the fact that the Production and Construction Corps was still located in Ningxiang to build a material transfer reserve center, and then a large number of materials were also continuously transferred from the waterway and land.

Now Ningxiang has become a relatively very prominent battle formation point, before the General Staff has proposed to transfer Ningxiang's materials several times, but Lin Haijiang took into account the manpower and material resources consumed, and at that time Lin Haijiang still stubbornly believed that it would not take much effort to take Changsha, so he did not approve the plan of the General Staff, it can be said that Lin Haijiang needs to bear the main responsibility for this issue.

On the afternoon of September 4, 1861, Qi Mingxin reported to Lin Haijiang that the artillery of the Taiping Army had begun to build an artillery position about 1,000 meters away from the first-line position in the north of the city, Qi Mingxin was responsible for the defense in the north and east of the city, while Wan Fujiang was responsible for the defense in the west and south of the city, and Lin Haijiang's former enemy command post was in the east of the city, which was very convenient to contact with the artillery group in the city.

Lin Haijiang very patiently waited for the Taiping Army's artillery positions in the east and west of the city to be completed, and Lin Haijiang gave an order, and the artillery group in the city was divided into two parts to fire ten rapid shots to the east and west of the city respectively.

After a burst of dense explosions, the smoke of gunpowder rose into the air and, the completely defenseless Tianping Army artillery team was blown off guard, Chen Yucheng never expected that the other party would have such a powerful artillery fire, able to bombard the east and west of the city at the same time, most of the Taiping Army artillery team are Armstrong's front-loading six-pounder and twelve-pounder guns, and some of them are captured by the Qing army's mighty generals and Chang Sheng's bronze cannons, the ideal range of these artillery guns is generally about two miles, so Chen Yucheng decided to be in the east of the city, The artillery team in the north of the city was arranged to bombard the enemy's front line, but what they didn't expect was that the range of the artillery of the Chinese Empire was far beyond their imagination, and all the shells fired were all flowering shells of Qingyishui.

In the dense explosion, the commander of the artillery team, Guo Zonglin's handsome flag, was blown into several sections, flying high into the sky, at the beginning you could still see the figure running around in the smoke of the explosion to dodge, but soon as the smoke column continued to rise, the violent explosion was like a wave, and soon Chen Yucheng's monocular could not see anything.

Although Chen Yucheng couldn't see the situation in the west of the city, he knew that his artillery team would definitely not be spared, and Chen Yucheng was now completely sure that the defenders of the Chinese Empire must have used the latest artillery, because as far as he knew, the accurate and effective range of the field artillery equipped by the Chinese Empire was about three or four miles, so he had made corresponding arrangements before, and as a result, the artillery team he had worked so hard to build was sent into the tiger's mouth.

Chen Yucheng knew that although the opponent's artillery was powerful, it was not completely without weaknesses, once his men and horses entered a close battle, then the artillery of the Chinese Empire would be correspondingly ineffective, considering that the opponent's firepower may be very strong, Chen Yucheng ordered the four armies to arrange about 2,000 men and horses in each direction to carry out a tentative attack, and wait until night to launch a full-scale attack.

Under Chen Yucheng's personal dispatch, Gong Deshu's army attacked the east of the city, Liu Guanfang's army attacked the south of the city, Huang Wenjin's army attacked the west of the city, and Li Shixian's army attacked the north of the city.

Soon, the infantry and a small number of cavalry of the Taiping army began to appear around Ningxiang and began to slowly launch the so-called attack, Lin Haijiang laid out a ring of minefields outside the city, and the depth of the entire minefield ranged from 200 to 300 meters.

Looking at the Taiping soldiers holding shields and holding tiger head knives and slowly moving forward, Lin Haijiang put down his binoculars, he knew very well that this was a tentative attack by the Taiping army, Wan Fujiang and Qi Mingxin as front-line commanders, they must know very well how to deal with the command.

Soon, when the Taiping soldiers in the north of the city stepped on the first mine, the Taiping soldiers were as if they had been hit on the spot with a heavy hammer, and their broken legs flew seven or eight meters away, and more than a dozen soldiers nearby also screamed and fell to the ground under the fragments of the mines, and some of the fire points in the four directions around the city began to use machine guns to strafe the Taiping army, although at first it sounded like a burst of fire, but Lin Haijiang was still able to distinguish short short bursts.

(To be continued)