"What?" Wu Ruxiao listened to the report of his subordinates, and his face was full of anger: "How could the more than 10,000 reinforcements from Changzhou be ambushed?" Also, how did Yu Shengjun's Qing demons go around to the north of our Suzhou? Don't you have any eyes? Or did they all fly over? ”

One of the division commanders below said in panic: "We have been monitoring the Yu Shengjun outside the city, but we have not found them dividing their troops to the north in the past two days, we estimate that they secretly divided their troops the night before yesterday, and then bypassed us Suzhou to go north!" ”

Wu Ru wanted to scold a few more words, but when the words came to his mouth, a sense of powerlessness came to his heart, making him too lazy to scold anymore.

For the Yu Shengjun outside the city, Wu Ruxiao felt quite tricky and helpless, although the Yu Shengjun did not have many troops, but the firearms were too sharp, which can be seen from the first day of the tentative attack.

Later, seeing Yu Shengjun's troops stationed outside Suzhou and camped in Suzhou, Wu Ruxiao originally thought that they were ready for a long-term siege and waiting for reinforcements, and he was also prepared to make a decision with Yu Shengjun here in Suzhou.

After taking control of Zhenjiang, Changzhou, and Susongtai areas, on the one hand, he could send troops south to northern Zhejiang to continue to expand and consolidate the control area, and on the other hand, he could also gather heavy troops to the west to aid Tianjing, and join forces with the besieged Taiping army in Tianjing, and defeat the Jiangnan camp in one fell swoop. At that time, not only can the danger of Tianjing be rescued, but even the whole game of chess in Jiangnan can be revitalized.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will control the tax heavy land of Jiangnan because of its eastward expansion, and truly lay the foundation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

And to fight to the death with Yu Shengjun under the city of Suzhou, it is still a little insufficient to rely only on the strength in Suzhou City, although he still has nearly 50,000 troops in Suzhou City, but his family knows his own affairs, and most of these 50,000 people are temporarily forcibly brought in.

There was no training at all, not even decent weapons, and there were only about 10,000 people who could really fight, and the others at most helped to defend the city, and they were just strong.

That's why he transferred the Taiping troops from the periphery of Suzhou, especially Changzhou County and Changshu County, to Suzhou.

Although the Taiping army in these two places was a partial division, there were more than 10,000 people each, and two of them together had at least 5,000 combatants. After gathering reinforcements, Wu Ruxiao thought that he had the strength to fight, and when the time came, he would go out of the city and fight to the death with Yu Sheng's army, relying on the absolute superiority of troops, and he could also consume the four or five thousand Yu Sheng's army to death.

But he didn't expect that instead of successfully arriving, this reinforcement was ambushed and defeated by Yu Shengjun, how could this not make him angry!

"What a trick to surround the point and send reinforcements!" Wu Ruxiao snorted secretly in his heart: "I didn't expect that this Lin Zhe is also a person who is familiar with the art of military formation, it seems that Yu Shengjun's victory not only relies on the sharpness of his firearms, but this Lin Zhe should not be underestimated!" ”

Wu Ruxiao thought that Lin Zhe deliberately made the illusion of besieging Suzhou, and then played the trick of encircling the point to send reinforcements, but the truth was not as simple as Wu Ruxiao imagined.

So far, in fact, Wu Ruxiao still hasn't been able to figure out what Yu Shengjun's strategic goal is, or maybe they haven't figured out why Yu Shengjun came to Suzhou?

He regarded Lin Zhe as an ordinary general of the Qing army, and Yu Shengjun as a Qing army, thinking that he wanted to recapture Suzhou and save the crisis in southern Jiangsu.

But he didn't know that Lin Zhe had never regarded himself as a general or official of the Qing army, and Yu Shengjun's tactical strategy never took the victory or defeat of the Qing army in the Jiangnan region as a reference, Lin Zhe only considered one point, that is, Yu Shengjun's own gains and losses, and the safety of Shanghai was more important to Lin Zhe than the entire Jiangnan.

For the current Yu Shengjun, their fundamental strategic goal is to prevent the Taiping army from continuing to advance south and eastward, thus threatening Shanghai.

This is the fundamental reason why they took the initiative to march into Suzhou, thus attracting the Taiping army from the surrounding areas to gather in Suzhou, as for the defeat of their reinforcements, it is just a normal operation under this grand strategy.

"Since they divided their troops to go to Changzhou County with at least 2,000 troops, wouldn't the number of troops they left outside Suzhou City be less than 3,000?" At this time, a Taiping army general reminded Wu Ruxiao in time: "We sent reinforcements over, which is nothing more than increasing our strength and establishing a military advantage, but now that Yu Shengjun Qing Demon has taken the initiative to divide his troops, then we can rely on the strength inside the city to defeat Yu Sheng's army outside the city!" ”

Wu Ruxiao's eyes lit up when he heard this, yes, why did he send reinforcements over?

It is not to establish a thorough military advantage in the face of more than four or five thousand victorious troops outside the city, and now Yu Shengjun took the initiative to divide two thousand troops, although he was defeated more than 10,000 reinforcements, but on the other hand, those reinforcements on the periphery can be regarded as containing two thousand troops of Yu Shengjun.

Wu Ruxiao, who had figured this out, knew that the opportunity could not be lost, and he would not come again, so he immediately said: "Pass the order, all the arms will fight, and we will go out of the city tomorrow to fight Lin Zhe to the death!" ”

At ten o'clock the next morning, in the camp of Yu Shengjun outside the city, Lin Zhe saw that the gate of Suzhou in the distance was opened again, and then a large number of Taiping troops poured out.

"Sure enough, they're here!" Lin Zhe secretly said in his heart, he took the risk of dividing his troops, and the Taiping Army was not a fool, so he would naturally know that it was good that he could delay for two days without being discovered, and now that they had discovered it, they would naturally not give up the opportunity to attack the battalion where their strength had been reduced.

Facing the Taiping army that came out of the city, Lin Zhe showed a hint of sneer: If you don't take a good Suzhou city, you have to go out of the city to find death!

If the Taiping army held Suzhou City, he Lin Zhe would really have no good way for a while, but Wu Ruxiao actually wanted to take advantage of the emptiness of his troops to take the initiative to attack, then it would be equivalent to giving Yu Shengjun a chance to defeat them outside the city.

Although their own troops are small, it is very risky to face tens of thousands of Taiping troops, and it is very possible to be drowned by their sea of people, but risks and opportunities coexist, and they take the initiative to go out of the city to fight, so they give themselves the opportunity to win or lose in a field battle.

"Pass the order, all arms for war!" Looking at the Taiping army that was constantly coming out of the city in the distance, Lin Zhe quickly gave his order.

In order to prevent the artillery troops from scaring these Taiping troops back to the city, Lin Zhe also specially gave Fu Linyang an order: "Before the enemy troops are all out of the city, no artillery must be fired!" ”

Although there is a certain risk of the opposite side of the artillery to suspend firing, this risk is bearable, and now Yu Shengjun's army is not the first day to arrive at the city of Suzhou, so many days outside the city of Suzhou, a perfect camp has already been built, and various fortifications such as breastop walls, trenches, and wooden fences outside the camp have circled the camp.

Especially the breastwork facing Suzhou City, after many prisoners of war have been built, it has been nearly as high as one meter and five meters high, it is completely a small civil structure of the city wall, because the height of the breastwork is relatively high, so the breastwork wall is specially raised in order to allow soldiers to stand, load and shoot.

Between the breastwork, there are more than a dozen medium-caliber guns between 300 jin and 500 jin, which are all old artillery pieces captured by Yu Shengjun in many battles.

Among Yu Shengjun's many artillery, those small-caliber artillery pieces under 300 catties were generally directly resold to the local green battalion or Xiangyong.

A few cannons of more than 1,000 catties, including 3,000 catties, were left in Huzhou City to form the Sixth Artillery Company.

As for the 800-kilogram guns, they were directly transferred to the First Artillery Company to replace the original 500-kilogram guns, so that the old domestically produced artillery equipped by the First Artillery Company was unified to the caliber of 800 kilograms for the first time.

The remaining 500 jin and 300 jin artillery pieces have the largest number, as many as thirteen, but these guns have a short range and little power, and Lin Zhe is not ready to treat them as a medium and long-distance artillery force, but only uses two guns as the standard and organizes several artillery platoons.

On weekdays, the artillery company manages the training, and in wartime, it strengthens the infantry battalion and prepares to fire scattered shells at close range, so as to maximize the power of these 3,500-pound mountain splitting guns.

In addition to the 300-pound and 500-pound guns on the breastwork, there are 10 6-pound 800-pound guns of the 1st Artillery Company, 6 12-pounder guns of the 2nd Artillery Company, and 6 12-pounder guns of the 4th Artillery Company.

In addition, two 24-pounder mortars were temporarily managed by the 2nd Artillery Company.

The 300-jin, 500-jin, and 800-pound old guns, plus the 12-pounder field guns and the 24-pounder mortar guns, totaled as much as 33 guns.

For the current Yu Sheng's army, which has only 3,000 troops outside Suzhou, the number of artillery is excessive.

The war was approaching, not only the regular army artillery and infantry of Yu Shengjun's army took action, but even the newly formed Yu Shengjun Auxiliary Defense Regiment also took action, under the supervision of Yu Shengjun's officers, these soldiers who were still Taiping Army a few days ago walked up to the chest wall one by one with arquebuses and swords and spears in their hands.

In order to prevent them from defecting or escaping from the battle, Lin Zhe specially arranged the second cavalry Lin in the flank and rear position of this auxiliary defense regiment, and now Yu Shengjun is preparing to fight a defensive battle, this cavalry company naturally does not have to risk out, Lin Zhe regards them as a strategic reserve.

At the same time, he guarded against any changes in the auxiliary defense group, and more importantly, the cavalry company was still Lin Zhe's only means of saving his life, in case he was defeated, he had to let the cavalry company escort him away, and then train a new Yu Sheng army to make a comeback.

More than 3,000 victorious troops plus 1,500 auxiliary defense regiments, this is the strength that Lin Zhe can use in his hands, and how many Taiping troops are on the opposite side?

It is estimated that there are at least 30,000 Taiping soldiers who have left the city, and more importantly, there are many Taiping soldiers who are coming out of the city in a steady stream!