Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 194: Fu Cha Mingliang's Conspiracy

After the bamboo platform was destroyed once, it was rebuilt a second time. At the same time, Chen Gu began to send people to dig trenches. In addition to resisting the cannons on the city walls, it could also provide a certain amount of cover when the special forces battalion fought against the enemy troops leaving the city.

However, until the ten bamboo crosses were built, Fucha Mingliang did not send anyone out to cause trouble.

Chen Gu was testing Fu Cha Mingliang's character, and Fu Cha Mingliang was also testing Chen Gu's army's armaments.

Now that both sides have achieved the result, they will naturally not fight hard anymore.

However, compared with the battles and opponents Chen Gu had encountered before, Fu Cha Mingliang's defense was very strict. Even with the suppression of ten bamboo platforms, Chen Gu gave up after only trying to attack the city once.

Thousands of people rushed forward with bamboo ladders, and just as they entered the 50-meter range, they were met with a volley of fire from the musketeers on the city wall. Moreover, Fucha Mingliang adopted a three-stage shooting method. Although it was only a bird gun, the gunshots were still continuous.

Moreover, Fu Cha Mingliang should have been extremely strict in disciplining his troops. Even though his soldiers were suffering continuous casualties due to the threat of rifles, they still dared to show their heads and shoot at the soldiers attacking the city.

Considering the cannons and rifles on the city walls, the casualties on both sides were actually greater for Chen's army.

Although it was a good deal to exchange the lives of the Chengdu peasant army for the lives of the elite firearms battalion soldiers under Fu Cha Mingliang, Chen Gu still did not intend to go through with the exchange.

Because such an exchange is meaningless, even if you attack the top of the city by force, it will be useless because the opponent's cold weapons are definitely stronger than yours.

Fortunately, our own bulletproof vests are powerful. Although most of the soldiers were injured, their lives are not in danger. After being treated, they will only become more elite. However, the burden of the wounded soldiers is a blow to morale and a pressure on logistics.

The armor on the court soldiers could not protect against rifle bullets, so after Fu Cha Mingliang learned about the casualties of the soldiers, he became more determined in his thoughts.

So early the next morning, Lao Piao prepared to take his soldiers to cross the Jialing River and then attack Bazhong, while Fu Cha Mingliang opened the east gate and prepared to take his elite troops out of the city and leave on board.

Unfortunately, the two people did not leave the shore at the same place. The east gate of Langzhong is at the top of the Chinese character "J", while the place where Lao Piao built the bamboo raft floating bridge is at the bend of the Chinese character "J".

However, the scouts of both sides quickly discovered the movements of the other army.

When Fu Cha Mingliang learned that Lao Piao was building a floating bridge to cross the river, he was overjoyed and immediately rushed to get on the boat.

When Chen Gu received the report from the scout and learned that Fu Cha Mingliang was leading 3,000 troops out of the city and boarding a ship, he couldn't help but frown.

"Tell me in detail, how many ships and people does Fucha Mingliang have?"

"There is a thin fog in the valley, so we can't see exactly how many boats there are. The number of people leaving the city is about three thousand," the scout reported.

Zheng Ming frowned and thought for a while, then said, "What's the purpose of sending soldiers out of the city to take a boat at this time? Sailing against the current is very slow, wouldn't that be like a sitting duck? Unless ~!"

"It's bad!" Chen Gu's face changed drastically, and he gave the order: "Send a fast horse to inform Lao Piao to go ashore, and all the soldiers are ready to ambush. Tell Yuan Bao to pull the mother-and-child cannon to the riverside to prepare to bombard Fu Cha Mingliang. Send a fast horse to Zizhou to gather boats to go out of Tuojiang and rush to Chongqing.

Send pigeons to Luzhou, Jiangjin County and other prefectures and counties along the river to gather ships and assemble troops to support Chongqing. Special forces battalions and snipers will go downstream to set up an ambush and make sure to kill as many soldiers on Fu Cha Mingliang's ship as possible. Send pigeons to Chongqing to let the Han family be prepared. "

In this era, it is not so easy to use carrier pigeons to send messages. First, you have to tame carrier pigeons, then take the carrier pigeons away, and release them when you need to send messages. In other words, if you want to send a message to a certain place, you have to take the carrier pigeons from that place first. Several big families in Jiangjin have tamed carrier pigeons, and the Han family also has them. As for other places, they will not give them to Chen Jue.

Even if Chen Gu was given it, he might not dare to use it.

At this time, it was absolutely impossible for Fu Cha Mingliang to go upstream with his soldiers on board the boat. They could only go downstream to attack Chongqing.

If Fu Cha Mingliang sent his troops to attack Chongqing, the Han family might not be able to defend Chongqing, and they might not be able to hold on for long. In extreme cases, they might even lose the city within a day.

After all, Fu Cha Mingliang's 20,000 troops were all elite soldiers, while the Han family had only 3,000 Green Camp soldiers. Even if they added Jiang Zhenghai's 600 troops equipped with rifles and 5,000 Chengdu peasant soldiers, they would never be Fu Cha Mingliang's opponent even in a battle to defend the city.

Even Fu Cha Mingliang didn't need 20,000 troops. It would be enough to bring more than 10,000 men.

In other words, Fu Cha Mingliang probably did not give up the three cities of Guangyuan, Langzhong and Bazhong.

Chen Gu thought of this and hurriedly said to Lao Nian: "Send all the scouts to Guangyuan to check if the road has been damaged!"

When Chen Gu arrived at the bank of the Lao Piaodu River, he saw Fu Cha Mingliang's warship appear.

In fact, there were not many real warships, but more ordinary merchant ships, and even fishing boats. However, there were a lot of them, at least three to five hundred.

A burst of rifle gunfire rang out, but it had little effect. All the soldiers on the ship lay down on the ship, and the boatman stood on wooden boards beside him to block the bullets. Even though screams were heard occasionally, it did not help the situation.

A fast horse notified Yuanbao downstream to prepare to throw kerosene bombs.

Chen Gu also turned around and rode his horse downstream.

When they reached the downstream, the cluster guns and kerosene bombs did play a certain role. Twenty cluster guns sank thirty or forty large and small ships, and the kerosene bombs burned more than ten large and small ships.

Unfortunately, Fu Cha Mingliang was cunning enough to have made a net bag in advance to intercept the kerosene tank. After all, the kerosene tank was thrown by manpower at a relatively slow speed, giving the opponent time to react and use the net bag to intercept it.

After a net bag catches the kerosene tank, just throw it into the water. Although it cannot catch all of it, it can catch most of it.

In the end, there were only about fifty ships sunk, and including the soldiers killed by rifles when intercepting the net bags, the total casualties were no more than a thousand people.

This amount was nothing to Fu Cha Mingliang. Although he felt sad, his strategic goal had been achieved.

In exchange for the city with Chen Gu, Fu Cha Mingliang had already sent people to blow up the road leading to Guangyuan. Although the road here was not as steep as the one in Jiange, it would take ten days or eight days to repair it or go around it.

In addition, Fu Cha Mingliang left two thousand troops in Langzhong to guard the city. If Chen Gu wanted to attack Guangyuan, he would have to wait for ten days or half a month. The three thousand soldiers in Guangyuan City could hold out for a while longer, which was enough for them to wait for reinforcements from Shaanxi.

(End of this chapter)