Qirong took a deep breath and instructed everyone: "Everyone holds their own territory, reinforcements have come from all over the country, and the emperor has sent a large army to attack Hunan, the hometown of the Hunan army has been copied, and it will inevitably return to help, everyone insists for a month, and the main force of our army will be able to launch a counteroffensive, and then annihilate the great enemy of the Hunan army. ”

Among the people, only Lin Qirong was named a viscount, Ye Yunlai was named a baron, Cheng Xueqi and others have long been red-eyed, and now their morale is even higher, even Ding Ruchang fantasizes about guarding the mouth of the lake and being knighted.

Three days later, Lin Qirong stood at the head of Jiujiang City, and sure enough, he saw a Qing army fleet running rampant in the Yangtze River, and a large army drove on the riverside at the same time, camping five miles outside the city.

"The whole army is on alert," Cheng Xueqi shouted loudly.

Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi and others took a big boat to the center of the river and used the telescopes purchased from foreigners to observe the defense of Jiujiang City.

"Lin Qirong is really a good general, Jiujiangyuan is not a big city, when the short hair went south from Wuchang, the Jiujiang prefect thought the city was short, abandoned the city and fled to Nanchang, and now this Jiujiang is not inferior to Wuchang and Changsha." Zeng Guofan put down his binoculars, squinted his eyes and stared at Jiujiang, feeling a feeling.

Li Xubin clenched his fists, his face was resolute, and he asked for his life: "Why should the marshal grow his ambition to destroy his prestige, and he is willing to attack Jiujiang for the forward." ”

Hu Linyi smiled: "It's good to let Kehui try!" ”

Zeng Guofan nodded: "That Kehui will lead 10,000 people to attack Jiujiang first, and Xueqin is responsible for transporting the cannon to the shore and bombarding Jiujiang as a cover!" ”

"Compliance"

"Commander, the Hunan army is attacking the city!" Cheng Xueqi watched a group of Qing soldiers run to the outside of the camp to line up, and hurriedly reminded Lin Qirong.

Looking at the Hunan troops who are getting closer and closer. Lin Qirong shouted loudly: "Open the cannon"

"Boom Boom"

"Boom Boom"

The Hunan army had already trained for artillery, and quickly dispersed within range. The front row carried a ladder and accelerated towards the city wall, and one person fell. Someone quickly made up for it later, and there was no longer a phenomenon of turning around and running away.

Li Xubin commanded the army five hundred meters away, watched the vanguard approach the city wall, and waved his hand at the main army behind him.

"Kill"

The 5,000 Hunan troops raised their swords in a straggler formation, roared angrily and rushed towards the city wall, climbing quickly along the ladder.

Cheng Xueqi sweated on his forehead and exclaimed: "I didn't expect that in just eight or nine months, the Hunan army has become so strong, no wonder the Taiping army has been defeated repeatedly." It seems that the first wall will not last long. ”

"Boom Boom"

The Han army on the first city wall resisted the siege of the Hunan army while bearing the fire of the Hunan army, and in less than half an hour, the Hunan army climbed the city wall and fought hard.

Seeing that the Hunan army was attacking the city wall, Peng Yulin signaled to the artillery to stop the shelling.

"Kill" Li Xubin personally led the reserve team and rushed to the first city wall.

Lin Qirong's face was ugly, and he glimpsed that the generals around him were all frightened. comforted: "This is only the first city wall, you don't have to take it to heart, let the brothers in the city retreat." ”

"The commander ordered again, withdraw"

Zeng Guofan saw Li Xubin capture the city wall. Smiled with relief: "Mr. Zhongyue has a successor, Kehui is both wise and brave, and he can be on his own." I will go to the emperor and protect Kehui as the political envoy of Anhui. ”

Hu Linyi saw white smoke rising from time to time on the first city wall. Recalling the experience of the first attack on Jiujiang, I finally understood. He scolded: "This short hair is really treacherous, the three walls are of different heights, two hundred paces apart, our army captured the first one, not only to withstand the artillery fire on the first and second walls, but also to attack the second wall at this narrow distance, and the middle is also full of traps, and the casualties must be heavy." ”

Seeing Xiang Yong jumping down from the wall from time to time, Zeng Guofan was dumbfounded, and after reacting, he became annoyed and angry, and said to Liu Rong: "Order the people to blow up and tear down the city wall." ”

There was a loud bang, the first city wall collapsed, and Li Xubin commanded the Hunan army to retreat to avoid shelling.

Without the obstruction of the city wall, Hu Linyi and others clearly observed the fortifications of the second city wall from the telescope, the Han army dug a long ditch at the fifty meters of the city wall, and built a small village every five hundred meters, relying on the city wall into a corner, each small village was placed on top of five cannons to form a small fort, next to the boulders, crossbow arrows, and about fifty Han soldiers armed with foreign guns to help defend.

Hu Linyi rubbed his eyes, as if he didn't see clearly, and looked at it again: "This...... This...... How is this good! Hu has been riding horses for more than ten years, and has never seen such a strange city wall, there are more than 20 batteries in front of the city wall, more than 100 cannons, our army attacked strongly, not to mention heavy casualties, but also in vain, a waste of time. ”

With Hu Linyi by his side, Zeng Guofan always felt uncomfortable, just pointing fingers, he couldn't ignore these suggestions was the most boring, at this time Zeng Guofan's heart had the idea of dividing the troops: "Hu Gong Mingjian, Hukou County, more than 20 miles away, is easy to attack and difficult to defend, if our army captures Hukou, we can connect the camp together, even if the short-haired army comes back, our army is enough to resist." ”

This is a credit to me! Disheng is really kind! Hu Linyi did not let go: "Zeng Gong waited here, and Hu personally led his troops to attack Hukou and cut off the back road of Jiujiang. ”

The "attack" did not have Hu Linyi on the side, Zeng Guofan had no scruples, and the 30,000 Hunan troops formed six phalanxes and attacked one by one.

"Boom, boom, boom" The artillery on both sides comes and goes, and the flesh and blood fly on the battlefield.

Li Xubin saw that many soldiers close to the city wall were killed by bows and arrows, and shouted to Li Xuyi behind: "Prepare a shield and come forward to cover!" ”

The Hunan army that attacked the walled city with "bang bang bang" endured the anger of the foreign guns, and rows of white smoke dissipated, taking away the lives of the Hunan army.

"Shields in front, muskets in the back, forward!" Li Xuyi personally led 2,000 people in a circle and slowly approached the city wall.

"San" entered the range of the cannon, Li Xuyi shouted, a large circle, scattered into twenty small circles, greatly enhanced mobility, towards the fort on the walled city.

Zeng Guofan praised left and right: "Xi'an has the style of his brother, and my Hunan army has one more general who can lead the troops to fight alone!" ”

Liu Rong was also very optimistic about this little junior brother, and saw that Zeng Guofan had the intention of promoting Li Xuyi, so he hurriedly agreed: "Xi'an and Kehui are two heroes, and sooner or later they will be the pillars of our Hunan army." ”

Cheng Xueqi saw that the situation was critical, and asked for orders: "The last general is willing to lead the troops out of the city to kill these 'little turtles'." ”

Lin Qirong nodded: "You take 3,000 people to attack from the side gate, I will lead the troops to respond outside, the main force of the Hunan army is based on this five miles, which is enough to kill this group of shield troops, you leave 1,000 people on the battery to support, and the rest of the men and horses are brought back to the city." ”

"Compliance"

Cheng Xueqi arranged in advance for each company to draw half of the men to support the forts, looked at the slowly opening city gate, raised his knife and shouted: "Rush!" ”

Li Xuyi hurriedly shouted: "Formation, formation, formation......" In a hurry, only seven or eight hundred people gathered, and the rest were overwhelmed by the Han army that went out of the city to fight.

"Kill" Cheng Xueqi watched the 'little turtle' turn into a 'big turtle' again, and he felt like he didn't know where to start, so he killed it on the side.

Li continued to command and issue orders in an orderly manner.

"Put the gun"

"Bang Bang Bang"

"Spear ready, stab, turn"

Cheng Xueqi rolled on a donkey to avoid the spear, but unfortunately he and the Han army were not so lucky, they collided with the spear one after another, were thrown out of the spear, and fell to the ground and died.

Lin Qirong clenched his fists and instructed Ye Yunlai: "Mobilize twenty cannons to bombard three rounds in this circular formation, and be sure to blast them out of a gap." ”

"Boom Boom"

"Boom Boom"

"Boom Boom"

Zeng Guofan watched the round array of people turn over on their backs, and said to Liu Rong beside him: "Quickly wave the flag and order the 'Ting' battalion to attack, and take Xi'an next." ”

Li Xuyi turned over the corpse on his body and held a long knife: "Don't panic, everyone, form a formation!" ”

Cheng Xueqi rushed into the circle formation and killed it, and later saw that the circle array was running anew, and there was no advantage to take advantage of before leading the army back to the city!

Lin Qirong saw that Cheng Xueqi was well commanded, and praised: "Fang Zhong is really a general. ”

Ye Yunlai whispered: "The last general always feels that Division Commander Cheng has a little less 'loyalty' on his body, and he talks about promotion and wealth every day, cronyism, and the whole of the 11th Division is his relatives and friends. ”

Lin Qirong waved his hand, he and Ye Yun were good brothers when they started troops from Guangxi, and they also understood that he had no bad intentions, so he waved his hand and said: "Brother Xian is too worried, if the Han Dynasty declines, Fang Zhong has some doubts, I still believe it, but the Han Dynasty is in full swing, as long as the Hunan army is defeated, he will be able to go on a northern expedition and unify the country, with Fang Zhong's personality, he will not surrender even if he dies in battle, don't say this kind of thing again in the future, so as not to misunderstand." ”

Ye Yunlai sighed and arched his hand: "It's the last general who is too worried." ”

The blood on Cheng Xueqi's body had not yet been washed, so he rushed to the city wall and said to Lin Qirong: "The last general is here to give the order!" ”

"Good! Fang Zhong is mighty, he has already counted you as a merit! Lin Qirong stepped forward to help Cheng Xueqi.

Cheng Xueqi sighed: "The Qing army under the city is unusual, the soldiers not only fight to the death, but the officers also regard death as home, it is really a strong enemy of our army, no wonder the emperor went west first!" ”

Ye Yunlai said with a smile: "Division Commander Cheng has a good plan, this time the enemy army didn't expect our army to take the initiative to attack, so he suffered a loss, if the enemy army has defense, I am afraid that there will be no return to go out of the city to fight!" ”

Cheng Xueqi lowered his head and thought about it, and shook his head slightly: "The last general has no choice but to keep bombarding with cannons." ”

Ye Yun looked at the Hunan army that was temporarily retreating under the city, and sighed: "The Hunan army has attacked the city for a day, and our army has scrapped ten cannons, and if it goes on like this, after half a month, my army may ......."

Cheng Xueqi remembered that he had heard about Zhu Yuanzhang's deeds of fighting the world when he was drinking tea, and said with a smile: "It's better to collect the fire oil in the city and put the fire oil in the wine jar. ”

Lin Qirong clapped his hands and smiled: "This plan is very good"

Li Xubin saw that Li Xuyi came back safely, and hurriedly stepped forward to check.

"Big brother, you don't have to worry, the eldest husband should be shrouded in horse leather to serve the country." A look of fortitude appeared on Li Xuyi's face.

Li Xuyi patted his younger brother on the shoulder and said with relief: "Good job!" is worthy of being a child of my Li family. (To be continued......)