When Li Yongji led the army all the way to Jinghai County outside Tianjin, while sending envoys to Tianjin to persuade surrender, while making the final general attack preparations, a bad news suddenly came from the rear, that is, the Taiping army actually did it to itself, and it was still playing a sneak attack, and as soon as it shot, Zhenjiang was defeated!

There were many people who reported the news, including Wang Sanwu and Zhang Wei, as well as people from the intelligence department, in short, many places made emergency calls to themselves, and from different angles they recounted in detail the process of the so-called defeat of Zhenjiang.

Although he was in Jinghai County, because of the convenience of communication, Li Yongji quickly sketched out the process and context of the other party's attack from various channels.

Because it happened just now, the detailed information has not been figured out, but at least one thing is known, that is, the Taiping army attacking Zhenjiang is not Li Xiucheng's troops, but a new army under the banner of the British king, in other words, it is Chen Yucheng's troops who should have been in Jiujiang!

As for the specific process, the most detailed and reliable report so far is the information sent by the Intelligence Department, because there are still secret agents of the Intelligence Department in Zhenjiang.

According to the report sent by the secret agents of the intelligence department, the Taiping army launched a sudden attack between about 3 and 5 o'clock yesterday morning, and when the attack was launched, someone in the city grabbed the city gate in advance, and then joined forces with the Taiping army outside the city to take Zhenjiang, which was not heavily defended.

As for how the Taiping army sneaked outside Zhenjiang City but was not discovered, the secret agent also gave a report, that is, the sneak attack troops of the Taiping Army were disguised as ordinary people, and they first took boats in batches and batches to disembark directly to Qiaotou Town on the outskirts of Zhenjiang, and then waited for the time to be ripe, and then joined forces with the inner ghost troops who entered Zhenjiang City to capture Zhenjiang City in one fell swoop.

After conquering Zhenjiang, Chen Yucheng's large army arrived at Zhenjiang Port by boat. Then they all entered Zhenjiang, and quickly closed the city gates, allowing them to enter but not leaving, and imposed a curfew, if it were not for the fact that the secret agents of the intelligence department were all small businessmen on the surface, and there were radios that could directly send information to the outside world, according to the normal channels of this era, there would be no information at all.

And just when Li Yongji received the information, the secret agent who was still in Zhenjiang City also reported that Chen Yucheng's army had secretly left Zhenjiang at this moment. The destination is unknown, but in terms of the target, it is estimated that eight * nine times out of ten it is Changzhou.

Of course, the intelligence officer also said that because the other side has a large number of ships, it is also possible to continue down the Yangtze River and then carry out landing operations, so that he will attack exactly where he will attack. It's hard to say.

"It's careless." When Li Yongji reported this matter to his staff office, he shook his head first, "I really didn't expect that the Taiping Army would still have the courage to take the initiative to attack us now, let alone that they would directly attack Zhenjiang!" This is our weakest joint. It's really discerning. ”

Indeed, Li Yongji had indeed considered the situation of the Taiping army taking the opportunity to attack before, but in his opinion, the Taiping army only had brains. They won't provoke themselves at this time, because they can't afford to provoke them at all.

However, considering that the Taiping Army is not a well-organized and reliable group, just in case. Li Yongji still considered a lot of precautionary measures in advance, such as Zhang Wei himself has come to Suzhou from Hangzhou and is in the base camp, and Changzhou and other big cities have also strengthened their vigilance.

In addition, Li Yongji had also laid down Dangtu County and Ningguo Mansion before, and stationed two A regiments and a number of garrison troops here, in addition to obtaining the resources of these places, but also to deliberately expose a salient as a flaw and let the Taiping army attack.

You must know that Ningguo Mansion, where Guangde County is located, not to mention, Dangtu County, where Ma'anshan is located, is between Wuhu and Nanjing, which can be said to be a thorn stuck between the capital of the Taiping Army and the Western Route Army.

Normally, if the Taiping army wants to turn its face against itself, if it wants to attack itself, it should first pull out the thorn of Dangtu County, otherwise, if they have any movements, the defenders of Dangtu County will know, and even directly cut off the Yangtze River route, cut off the contact and supply lines of the Taiping Army, so how can the Taiping Army fight this battle?

This is not a joke, stationed in Dangtu County is the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Division of the A Species, which is an integrated A regiment, and this regiment is an artillery company equipped with 18 81 mm mortars, and the range and power of these mortars alone are enough to blockade the entire Yangtze River.

Moreover, what outsiders don't know is that in order to strengthen the defense here, in order to completely defend the Yangtze River defense line and hold the strategic point of Dangtu County, Li Yongji also specially placed a Yangtze River checkpost and an independent field artillery regiment in Yanlaizhou in Dangtu County, that is, the location of Pengxingzhou in later generations!

Not to mention the Yangtze River checkpoint, it is a place to specifically inspect passing ships, and this independent field artillery regiment has three artillery battalions, a total of 54 revised 117 mm Napoleon guns, the predecessor is actually the former independent artillery battalion that has been eliminated by the main force of the elite army, equipped with 18 modified 12-pounder Napoleon guns!

Those revised Napoleon guns, which were equipped with high and low aircraft that could adjust the elevation angle, were only used for teaching for a long time after the Jingwu Army was equipped with an 81 mm mortar that was more flexible and lighter, and the power was not much worse, and it belonged to a representative product of the immaturity of the Jingwu Army in the early days of its establishment.

However, after all, the caliber of these modified Napoleon guns is 117 mm, and if you fire a high-explosive shell with a tail, the firing range can also reach 2220 meters, which can completely cover the entire water surface of the Yangtze River.

In terms of power, although the power of modern 81mm mortars is not inferior to that of the modified Napoleon gun, and even slightly stronger, but that is mainly because the shells of 81mm mortars are specially made, or in other words, mainly because the shells of 81mm mortars have smaller prefabricated fragments and even steel balls, so they are more harmful to unprotected targets.

But the caliber of the 81-mm mortar is there, and the shells also have their own propellant, so in terms of the amount of explosive charge, it still cannot be compared with the previously loaded modified Napoleon gun with a caliber of 117 mm.

In other words, if it is an attack on a building or a ship, the front-loading tail shells of the modified Napoleon guns are more powerful in comparison, and in terms of power, the shells of these modified Napoleon guns are second only to the Type 63 rocket launchers newly obtained by Li Yongji in the artillery sequence of the Jingwu Army, which was used as heavy artillery in the past.

Except, of course, for this reason. There is also a reason, and that is that such shells are cheaper.

You must know that the shells of the 81mm mortar are all military shells purchased from modern society, and although the price is affordable, after all, they are bought from arms dealers, and the price of the clay shells made by themselves in private factories is not comparable at all.

To make a specific explanation, judging by the purchase price, fifteen rounds of 117-mm front-loading shells with a tail foil can buy a high-explosive shell for an 81-mm mortar. The price ratio is fifteen to one, and the price advantage is quite obvious.

In the past, the reason why Li Yongji did not treat the revised Napoleon gun very much was because he mostly fought with people in the field, and in the field, the key was the performance of the artillery. As for the price factor, it is not much of a problem compared to the ultimate goal of victory.

However, if it is stuck to one place. As a stationary battery, that's a different story.

What I want to say here is that when Zhang Xinda was making the Zuò modified Napoleon gun, he first acquired several township foundries in China. The parts and components of this artillery are manufactured separately, and directly exported to South Africa as parts of foreign trade handicrafts, and then assembled into complete artillery in South African factories. As for the issue of the charge of the shell, it was also in South Africa that the final charge was made, and the production of the projectile body mentioned earlier was also in the country.

After all, Zhang Xinda once calculated that if the factory is purely built in South Africa, the cost will be higher, because the South African government has to collect taxes on all aspects of production, and South Africa's labor, land, plant, energy and other aspects are not cheap at all.

On the contrary, if the factory is placed in China and then exported, the South African factory only assembles finished products, so because there are a lot of domestic subsidies for this kind of export, and the number of business items and workers in South Africa is reduced, the cost is much smaller.

At the same time, in order to reduce production costs to the greatest extent, domestic factories have purchased some new stamping equipment in advance, and made molds, the price of molds is not cheap, if the production of molds is no longer used on a large scale, the loss is greater.

It is also based on this reason, coupled with the fact that the price of this kind of homemade artillery shells is really cheap, and once it is mass-produced, the cost advantage is quite significant, so Li Yongji and Zhang Xinda did not abandon this kind of immature front-loading artillery, but continued to produce.

The follow-up production of this artillery, mainly equipped for the second-level troops, that is, the use of the B garrison troops, so far, a total of 300 units have been produced, in addition to a part of the teaching guns used as the Whampoa Military Academy, most of the other artillery are equipped to the garrison troops of major cities such as Changzhou City, Suzhou City, etc., in addition, strategic places such as Dangtu County and Wusongkou are also priority supply locations.

In short, in Dangtu County, there is not only a regiment of Type A troops, but also a Type B garrison of 10,000 people, especially in Yanlaizhou on the Yangtze River, there is also an artillery regiment equipped with 54 artillery regiments that can fire flowering explosive shells. And as long as the Yangtze River is blocked, if the Taiping army wants to do something wrong with the Jingwu army, the first thing must be to take down this nail first.

In Li Yongji's prediction in the past, he also thought that when the Taiping army turned against him, he would give priority to attacking Dangtu County, so he deployed heavy troops here, and the guard general was also Zhang Wei's younger brother Zhang Feng, who was also a general with good ability, but he didn't expect that the Taiping Army would be able to hide from here and fight Zhenjiang directly!

In fact, when the situation of the Tu defense line has been going on for such a long time, especially the passing ships have to be monitored by the Yanlaizhou inspection post, how could the Taiping army not know that this is a difficult bone to gnaw?

It is precisely because he knows that it is difficult to bite, and he is also afraid of startling snakes, so when Chen Yucheng led his troops back to Nanjing, he did not take the Yangtze River, but first led his troops to Fanchang County by boat, and then crossed the river from here to Wuwei County in Jiangbei, and then took the land route, bypassed the Dangtu defense line, and marched to Chuzhou, and then crossed the river from Chuzhou to Nanjing.

In the whole operation, Chen Yucheng led an army of 50,000 and did it in only fifteen days, that is, half a month.

Of course, it can also be seen that the Taiping Army's plan to do something to the Jingwu Army has been decided a long time ago, because fifteen days ago, the Jingwu Army was still in Huai'an to open a film with the Qing Army, and it has not yet led troops to the Northern Expedition, so it is said. When the Taiping army found out that the Jingwu army was fighting the Qing army in Huai'an, they were already planning to take advantage of the opportunity to make a move, and secretly mobilized Chen Yucheng's troops.

It's just that what the Taiping Army thought at the time was that after all, Huai'an had 300,000 horses of the Qing army, and the Jingwu Army had to fight against the Qing Army for a month or two.

Fortunately, after the Jingwu army defeated the Qing army in Huai'an, it soon marched to Xuzhou. And launched the Northern Expedition, and the Taiping Army's actions have also been launched, and the lack of communication equipment, it is difficult to stop lightly, so it will be calculated, and secretly lurked outside Nanjing for two days, waiting for more accurate news from the front, and after ambushing the ghosts in Zhenjiang, it was launched in one fell swoop.

The whole operation. In fact, it was launched secretly by Hong Rengan and Chen Yucheng, and it was not until Chen Yucheng finally arrived outside Nanjing that Hong Rengan explained the reason to Hong Xiuquan, and Hong Xiuquan insisted so much. It is precisely because of Hong Rengan's rhetoric.

In addition to being a little nervous, Hong Xiuquan's ears are also relatively soft, especially for relatives. And Hong Rengan is the family talent that Hong Xiuquan values, so it is clear that Hong Rengan's set is to cut first and then play, and there is a suspicion of deception. But Hong Xiuquan didn't care at all, but followed Hong Rengan's strategy.

As for why Hong Rengan did this, in addition to Hong Rengan's own loyalty to the great cause of the Kingdom of Heaven, there is also an element of distrust of Li Xiucheng.

The secret transaction between Li Xiucheng and the Jingwu Army can be concealed for a while, but after a long time, how can the intelligence system of the Taiping Army be concealed completely? And Hong Rengan happened to be in charge of the secret intelligence work of the Heavenly Kingdom, so he had long known about Li Xiucheng's secret transaction with the Jingwu Army.

However, Li Xiucheng is also authentic, and the food and cold weapons purchased from the Jingwu Army with gold and silver treasures will also be supplied to Tianjing, leaving only the best firearms for himself, and Tianjing has always been short of food, so Hong Rengan turned a blind eye to this matter before.

However, Hong Rengan has a sense of crisis, he knows that the Jingwu Army is the biggest enemy of the Heavenly Kingdom, if the Jingwu Army is allowed to develop, the Jingwu Army will not have a good relationship with the Taiping Army now, but sooner or later the two sides will have a battle!

Therefore, Hong Rengan had already planned to deal with the Jingwu Army, at first he planned to take advantage of the Jingwu Army and the Qing Army to fight against the Qing Army in Huai'an, and after finding that the Jingwu Army defeated the Qing Army neatly, he just waited a few days and continued his previous actions, because he was afraid that if he did not act at this time, he would never have a chance in the future.

However, Hong Rengan is good at planning, but he is not good at leading troops to fight, so he must find a general who can fight, and if you look at the current kingdom of heaven, the most capable of fighting is Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng is no longer reliable, so it seems that only Chen Yucheng is done.

Coincidentally, at this time, the Hunan army also began to secretly send envoys to negotiate with themselves, hoping to maintain the battle line and no longer use swords, so Hong Rengan immediately made a decision, and secretly went to Jiujiang in the name of transporting grain and grass, and discussed this matter with Chen Yucheng in person.

Chen Yucheng actually has similar thoughts to Hong Rengan, that is, he also thinks that the Jingwu Army is the great enemy of the Heavenly Kingdom, but he has been fighting in the west, and his feelings are not so profound, of course, it is also because he has not had much contact, although he thinks that the combat effectiveness of the Jingwu Army is very strong, but he is not much afraid.

In this way, after negotiating a secret non-aggression agreement with the representatives of the Hunan army, Chen Yucheng began to secretly prepare to return to the army.

As for what Chen Yu became, he didn't fight Dangtu, but had to take the trouble to bypass Dangtu's defense line and fight Zhenjiang directly, that was because they were not fools, they knew that Dangtu was not easy to fight, and they didn't want to startle the snake.

Whether it is Hong Rengan or Chen Yucheng, they all have a common understanding, that is, to fight a force like the elite army, it must fight fast and slow, once it starts, it will not give the other party a chance to assemble, and it must quickly lay down the opponent's nest and strategic points, and then rely on the city to fight a defensive counterattack with the opponent.

After all, in the previous battles, the Jingwu army was good at field warfare, and there were no highlights in siege warfare, so they decided to use the city as a base and play fast attack.

On the whole, when the Tu line and the Changzhou area are the key protection targets of the Jingwu Army, only Zhenjiang is a loophole, the troops are empty, and the garrison is not strict, so Chen Yucheng decided to take this place as the first attack target, and when he fights, he mainly focuses on sneak attack operations.

After that, he let Zhenjiang be handed over to Hong Renda for defense, as a bait to lure the enemy to attack, and he took 50,000 headquarters out of the city quickly, but did not fight the so-called Changzhou, but crossed the river to the north, and went directly to Yangzhou, which was also empty in defense.

This set of tricks is still the method used to break the Jiangnan camp twice, that is, to attack the enemy's weak point that must be saved, mobilize the enemy's troops, and then choose the opportunity to attack the opponent's reinforcements or important strongholds.

For this battle, the Taiping Army mobilized a lot of troops, not only Chen Yucheng's 50,000 vanguard troops, but also Hong Renda's 50,000 new troops, in addition to other departments will continue to follow up, it is estimated that after all are launched, the strength of the entire operation will reach 300,000!

It can be said that except for Shi Dakai, who is far away in the west and has become a stranger, the entire Taiping Army's troops that can fight have reactivated this time, and it is the largest mobilization of the Taiping Army so far!

Therefore, in Hong Rengan's view, this battle called the Second Eastern Crusade has already poured out all that the kingdom of heaven has, and only success is allowed, not failure, and once it fails, the consequences are unimaginable. Of course, Hong Rengan believes that his plan is seamless, the timing is quite good, and the action will be successful, and he is full of confidence in this! (To be continued......)