scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 342

At half past three in the morning on March [-]th, the damn heavy rain finally stopped. Brother Sun, who had been bullied by Sister Wuyun for a long time, finally got out of the clouds, showing a warm and bright smile, and as time went by, the gray-black rain The clouds were gradually blown away by the mountain wind, revealing the blue sky and white clouds that I hadn't seen for a long time, which also showed that this afternoon must be a rare good weather.

"Oops, why did the rain stop so quickly?" Seeing the weather like this, the Qing army in Luzhou, which temporarily blocked the Fatty Army's attack thanks to the help of the weather, all complained, and the coach Jie Shu complained even more, knowing that it was so sunny As long as the weather is sunny for a day or two, the heavy artillery of the Fat Man Army can get rid of the muddy ground, reach the foot of Liutang Mountain, and blast the Qing army's easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack camp into ruins.

"Order all the armies to be ready to move at any time, give priority to the transfer of food, grass and gunpowder, and give up the rest of the luggage." In desperation, Jie Shu had to make the worst preparations, and grabbed his right-hand assistant Wang Zhiding, He told him: "From now on, you will be in charge of our army's scouts. You must closely monitor every move of Wugou's main force. Once you find Wugou's heavy artillery crossing the river, report to me immediately."

"Cover." Wang Zhiding respectfully agreed, and when he was about to go down to make arrangements, a Qing army scout hurried up from the mountain, and rushed into the Qing army camp almost rolling and crawling.Seeing his anxious appearance, Jie Shu, Wang Zhiding, and Jue Luo Bal couldn't help but their hearts jumped, and they all had a bad premonition.

"My lord, my lord, something's wrong! Something's wrong!" Sure enough, the scout stumbled to the front and back of Jie Shu, and before he had time to salute, he paled and screamed: "My lord, we must go through the road on the way back to Chuzhou. Somehow, a Wugou army appeared on the top of Ludong Mountain! It has seized the highland of Dongshan, condescendingly strangled the Chuzhou official road, and is already cutting down trees and pushing stones to block the official road!"

"Wu Dog's army seized Dongshantou?" Jie Shu jumped up, his eyes widened, and he exclaimed in disbelief: "How is it possible? Wugou flew over? To go to Dongshantou, you must pass by my willow." The road below Tangshan Daying, didn’t you set up scouts on the official road last night?”

"Return to the lord, the scouts are in charge of the servants, and the servants have arranged them." Wang Zhiding replied with an incredulous face: "The servants not only arranged the scouts, but also sent out secret sentries. The fear is that Wu Dog will sneak into our army's back and cut off our army's retreat. Last night, the servant braved the heavy rain to patrol twice, but found nothing unusual."

"Then how did Wu Gou infiltrate behind us?" Jie Shu slapped the table and roared, "Do you know that when we withdrew our troops back to Chuzhou, there was only one official road to go, if this official road was cut off by Wu Gou Now, we are the turtles in the urn!"

"Could it be that Wu Gou detoured to the top of Dongshan by a small path?" Military Counselor Ji Ertabu interjected, "But it rained so heavily last night that you couldn't see your fingers. It is impossible for Wu Gou's army to go around the top of Dongshan by a small path. ?”

"It's possible!" Wang Zhiding finally came to his senses, and screamed, "We all forgot one important thing. Wugou's elite soldiers are all Yunnan-Guizhou soldiers and Guangxi soldiers, and they are best at walking the mountain path! Especially the Wugou in Wugou's team. Soldiers, crossing mountains and walking trails is the same as flying! It must be Lu Yifeng's dog thief who specially selected such mountain soldiers, organized them to take cover on rainy nights, walked behind us by trails, and cut off our way back! "

"Fucking Lu Yifeng's bastard!" Jie Shu yelled, slapped the table and shouted, "Hurry up and go down the mountain, before the main force of the Wu dog can catch up, quickly take back the highland at the top of Dongshan and open the official road, otherwise , we're all done!"

Jie Shu's order was given a little late-but then again, it would be too late to give it early.Almost at the same time that the Qing army discovered that the mountain special forces of the fat army had descended from heaven behind them, Wang Xu, the general of the fat army, had already led [-] infantry across the river and rushed towards Liutang Mountain first. After receiving the news, Jie Qing army generals such as Shu and Wang Zhiding inevitably paled, knowing that their own army had fallen into a dilemma. At this time, they pulled out their camps and retreated. There were obstacles before them and pursuers after them.But if you don't withdraw your troops, you can still smash the Qing army's camp to pieces when the fat army's heavy artillery is transported across the river!
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if the fat army didn't have to bombard the battalion heavily, the Qing army whose food road was cut off would starve to death!Facing a dilemma, Jie Shu was quite military-minded, and Wang Zhiding and Ji Ertab were also resourceful. They also felt helpless for a while and didn't know how to deal with it.

"My lord, we only have two choices." After repeated calculations, Ji Ertab suggested to Jieshu: "One is to immediately go down the mountain to break through, and send an elite army to the rear, break through Wu Dog's block at any cost, and return to Chuzhou. Two It is to abandon the supply of food and grass, and retreat to Chuzhou by small roads, bypassing Wu Dog's interception."

"Both roads will cause heavy casualties." Jie Shu hesitated, but now is obviously not the time to hesitate, a little delay may lead to disastrous consequences, so Jie Shu quickly made up his mind and made another decision Said: "Going down the mountain to break through, Wang Zhiding opened the way for the forward, and Jueluo Balkan was in the rear, so the food, grass and gunpowder must be taken away, our Qing Dynasty can no longer afford the loss of money and food!"

With an order, the Qing army camp immediately became lively, and the troops of each battalion began to gather urgently to carry all the valuable luggage that could be taken away. Wang Zhiding, who was in charge of opening the way, also urgently assembled [-] elite soldiers to go down the mountain first, so as not to be blocked by Wang Xu's army on the mountain .However, although the Qing army moved quickly, the fat man's army moved even faster. Just as Wang Zhiding's army left the camp, the flag of the fat man's brigade appeared on the south of the official road. As soon as they got down to the mountainside, more than a hundred Mihao rockets were fired from the Fatty Army two miles away. The rockets roared overwhelmingly and hit the mountainside and exploded.The Fatty Army did not give up, and blasted out several waves of Sanhao rockets in one breath, only to shake the ground, trees and branches flew, and earth and rocks collapsed. , I had no choice but to flee back to the camp on the top of the mountain.

At this time, the Fat Man Brigade led by Wang Xu had also arrived at the foot of Liutang Mountain, and quickly seized several short hills to set up rocket launchers, aiming at the Qing army's downhill road, while the main force set up a formation at the foot of Liutang Mountain, cutting Set up wood to build blocking fortifications.Seeing this scene, the entire Qing army was at a loss, and Jie Shu's face was ashen, knowing that the defeat was a foregone conclusion. Over there, Ji Ertab and Jue Luo Balkan persuaded Jie Shu to abandon the grain and take a small road to break through, but Jie Shu felt distressed The mite Qing army did not dare to accept the precious rations which were pitifully scarce, and just sent another army down the mountain as if gambling, trying to kill Wang Xu and retreat with the rations.

The breakout vanguard selected by Jie Shu this time was Ehena, the deputy capital commander, but this Ehena was obviously more unlucky than Wang Zhiding. Although the [-] infantry led by him were not attacked by rockets when they rushed to the mountainside, they were about to charge. When they reached the foot of the mountain, they were attacked three-dimensionally by the fat army. Rockets bombarded Ehena's middle and rear troops, and firing needle guns slammed the Qing army's front troops. He was shot by a rocket while he was desperately trying to stop him, and his body was blown to pieces. The Qing army immediately scattered, either fleeing back to the camp or going into the deep mountains and old forests. Many of them put down their weapons and surrendered to the fat army. Jieshu's first The second breakout operation again failed.

At this point in the matter, Jie Shu also completely lost hope of getting out of the whole body. He reluctantly accepted the suggestion of his subordinates and planned to give up food, grass and luggage and take the small road to escape, but he only considered that the infantry of the Fat Man Army walked on the mountain road without permission. The army's all-out pursuit and killing will inevitably lead to heavy losses, so Jie Shu had to choose to break out in the evening, let the soldiers seize the time to prepare dry food torches for the breakout, and gather all the food, grass, and luggage that could not be taken away, and throw them on the fire. When the oil was ready to break out, it was ignited and burned.

Jieshu’s decision saved countless soldiers of the Qing army, as well as his food and supplies. When Shen Shi was about to pass in the afternoon, the elite infantry of the fat army who had already detoured to Dongshantou from the small road before suddenly gave up their position and went south to Liutangshan joined Wang Xu's brigade.Immediately afterwards, the Fat Man Brigade led by Wang Xu also abandoned the blocking position that had already been temporarily fortified, and began to retreat to the south in an orderly manner, and the speed was unusually fast.

"What happened? Why did Wu Gou suddenly withdraw his troops?" Seeing this scene, Jie Shu and the others were unavoidably joyful and surprised, and said together in surprise: "Wu Gou is clearly sure of winning? Why did he suddenly withdraw his troops again? Is it a scam to lure the enemy?"

Surprised, Jie Shu and the others had to quickly send out scouts to investigate the situation, and when the sky was about to be completely dark, the scouts came back happily to report that the Fatty Army was definitely not a false retreat, not only did the 2-odd army all withdraw from Chu The water destroyed the Chushui pontoon bridge that had been built with great difficulty, and even separated a separate army to retreat towards Nanjing as quickly as possible.

"Did something happen to Wu Gou's rear? Or did Zhangtai's idiot succeed?" Jie Shu was even more surprised and puzzled, "But that little idiot Zhangtai should have attacked Taiping Mansion? Is it Han Daren's dog thief? How could it become Lu Yifeng's dog thief and withdraw troops urgently?"

........................

The reason for Fatty Lu's urgent withdrawal of troops must be clear to everyone, but let's take a look at the specific process.When it was just getting dark on March [-]th, our prince of Zhangtai County had a sudden whim and temporarily decided to abandon the plan to surprise the Taiping Mansion, and imitated Zhuge Liang's ingenious plan to attack Sima's old thief's camp, and sent a surprise army to Nanjing, the lair of Fatty Lu, Qing Dynasty. Although the army generals tried their best to oppose it, but our Zhangtai County prince [-] lost his temper, insisted on his own opinion and threatened to kill any opponents, and insisted on going to attack Nanjing. The slaves were educated and brainwashed, and in the end they bit the bullet and accepted the order, led five thousand elite cavalry to escort the prince of Zhangtai County, detoured Xuedian Town in the south of Ma'anshan and went straight to Nanjing!
Temporarily going crazy to fight Nanjing, and unintentionally dodging the nets laid by the Fatty Army in Taiping Mansion, our prince of Zhangtai County is really lucky, but our prince of Zhangtai County is more than just lucky.In order to lure the army of the prince of Zhangtai County to take the bait, Li Maozhu, the two neighboring fatty troops, did not send scouts to the south in order to avoid alarming the enemy and leaking the news. , and Xuedian Town, where the prince of Zhangtai County detoured, was located in the southeast of Taiping City. As a result, the army of the prince of Zhangtai County inadvertently avoided the scouts of the Fatty Army. Gao Hongchen's army in Ma'anshan passed by, and miraculously sneaked into the territory of Nanjing.

Here I have to praise the Qing cavalry, the deadly enemy of all ethnic groups in China. They kept the two highest cavalry marching speed records in the cold weapon era. One is the Dorgon cavalry who just entered the customs, marching more than three hundred miles a day, The second is the cavalry of the Qing army during the Shunzhi period, which once set an amazing record of marching 360 miles a day for five consecutive days.In this era, although the Qing cavalry has degenerated, after several years of bloody battles, the animal nature in the blood of the Qing cavalry has basically fully recovered, and its combat effectiveness has basically recovered to more than [-]% of its peak period. The [-] mite Qing cavalry are basically composed of the remnant essence of the mite Qing Jiangnan main force, so their marching speed has almost caught up with the Dorgon cavalry back then.

In addition, there are two other important factors that also contributed to the miracle of the Prince of Zhangtai County. One is the rain in Taiping Mansion, which is far less heavy than the rain in the Chushui area where the fat man's army is located. The population has dropped sharply, a large amount of land has been left unused, and the southern fields far away from Taipingfu City are full of weeds and shrubs. After being drenched by rain, they are not very muddy, which makes the cavalry of the prince of Zhangtai County advance almost in a straight line, and greatly reduces the marching distance. , also greatly increased the marching speed.

Due to various factors, just like this, the [-] cavalry of the prince of Zhangtai County rushed into Jiangsu and Nanjing Mansion in the middle of the night, and the only sparsely populated Zhumen in the southwest of Nanjing Mansion The village took a short rest, fed the horses enough concentrate, and the Mite Qing cavalry also took enough of the refreshing Eight Banners drug ointment.When the sky was just bright, the prince of Zhangtai County set off again, boarded the Nanjing official road in the area of ​​Jiangning Town, and galloped along the wide and flat official road.

At this time, the luck of the prince of Zhangtai County broke out again. The rain in Nanjing stopped before Chushui, so that the team of the prince of Zhangtai County could march at a faster speed.

Towards noon, the surprise soldiers of the prince of Zhangtai County arrived in the suburbs of Nanjing. Seeing the troops of the prince of Zhangtai County coming, Qin Yong, the cousin of Fatty Lu who was staying in Nanjing, couldn't believe his eyes. He hurriedly closed the city gate, and a large number of people Business travelers were also shut outside Nanjing.When Wang Shaobo, Xie Dong and others in the city of Nanjing heard the news, they thought the messenger was joking at first. It wasn't until the alarm gong resounded throughout the city that Wang Shaobo and Xie Dong finally understood—it wasn't a joke!

Then Wang Shaobo, Xie Dong and others also turned pale all of a sudden. Although Fatty Lu left [-] defenders for Nanjing before, Gao Hongchen took away another [-] troops in order to ambush the surprise Qing army that attacked Taiping City. That is to say, in the city of Nanjing, there are actually only [-] Fatty Army defenders left!

At the same time, in front of Jubaomen, the west gate of Nanjing, our Lord Zhangtai County took the lead, ignoring the bows, arrows and muskets on the Nanjing city wall, and was the first to rush to the slowly rising Jubaomen suspension bridge, slashing at the mouth of the bowl with a saber The thick suspension bridge sling was only cut three times, and the sling broke with a bang, and the soldiers of the prince of Zhangtai County also cut off another sling, and the Jubaomen suspension bridge crashed to the ground, and the Qing cavalry behind also Earth-shattering cheers rang out, "My lord is a thousand years old!"

"Demolition team! Go!" At this moment, our prince of Zhangtai County may really be possessed by the wild boar skin ancestor, raised his knife, and almost subconsciously shouted the most correct order!Infected by the prince of Zhangtai County, the cavalry of the Qing army also rushed forward regardless of their own safety, piled up the explosives that had been prepared in advance under the gate of Jubaomen, and then set fire to it...

"Boom!" Amidst the explosion of landslides and ground cracks, the city gate of Jubao Gate was directly blown into sawdust, and the soldiers of the Fat Man Army who were in a hurry on the city wall were also knocked down and stunned countless times.The cavalry of the Qing army cheered and charged at full speed, and followed the banner of the prince of Zhangtai County into the city of Nanjing.

The perverted Nanjing City Wall built by Zhu Yuanzhang and Shen Wansan saved Fatty Army’s life. After the Jubao Gate was blown open, there were still three urns and three gates inside, so although the number of Fatty Army soldiers on the city wall was pitifully small, but Zhangtai County Although the prince rushed into the first urn city, he still had to break through three gates before he could truly enter Nanjing City!Fortunately, the soldiers of the Fat Man Army had already closed the last three city gates in time, forcing the prince of Zhangtai County to blow up one city gate after another. With such a little precious time, he was completely caught off guard. The soldiers of the Fat Man Army finally made the correct adjustments. While quickly summoning the troops in the city to go to the city for rescue, they frantically launched a counterattack, frantically throwing grenades to blow up the Qing cavalry in the Urn City.

"Boom!" There was another loud noise, the second city gate was blown to pieces by the Qing army, and the Qing army rushed into the second urn city. Qin Yong, who came to his senses, quickly ordered to block the passageway of the urn city with sacks of boulders, but in a hurry And how can you find so many sacks of boulders?While he was at a loss what to do, a fat soldier had an idea, and quickly pointed to the truck in the second urn and shouted: "General, push the truck into the corridor of the city gate, light it on fire, and it will block the dogs!"

"Yes! Yes!" Qin Yong finally came to his senses, and quickly dispatched soldiers to push the trucks abandoned by the people, pushed them into the city gate and blocked the corridors, and then set them on fire.But at this time, the gate of the third Urn City was also blown open by the Qing army. The Qing army cavalry shot arrows one after another when they saw the Fatty Army pushing trucks blocking the road. The soldiers of the Fatty Army in the Urn City suffered heavy casualties. It was broken through by the cavalry of the Qing army, and the third city gate was also broken through, and the Qing army rushed into the third urn city.

"If the last city gate can't be defended, Nanjing will be finished!" Seeing this scene, Qin Yong was so nervous that he could hardly breathe, and closed his eyes almost in despair.

"Hurry up, there is only the last city gate left!" The prince of Zhangtai County, who had been to Nanjing, swung his knife and shouted fiercely, "Quick! Blast this last city gate, and all the beautiful women in Nanjing will be ours! Ah, what are you still doing?"

"My... my lord, we are out of explosives." Zhu Man next to him stammered.

"What? No more explosives?" The prince of Zhangtai County almost couldn't believe his ears, and shouted: "The two thousand catties of explosives we brought are all used up?"

"It's all used up." Zhu Man said with a sad face, "Brothers didn't expect that there would be so many gates in Nanjing City. When the three gates were blown up just now, they were all used up."

"Bastard!" The prince of Zhangtai County was also impatient, and slapped Zhuman's face hard, and shouted with red eyes: "Didn't this prince tell you that every gate of Nanjing City has three urns and four gates?" Dao City Gate?"

"My lord, when did you tell the servant?" Zhu Man answered with great aggrievedness covering his face.

"Really?" The prince of Zhangtai County looked blank. When he recalled carefully, he realized that he had never told his confidant Zhuman who had mastered the explosives that there were three urns and four gates in Nanjing City.But our prince of Zhangtai County came back to his senses very quickly, raised the whip and lashed at Zhuman, cursing at the same time, "You dog slave! Even if this prince didn't tell you, you should save it! You should Just ask my lord! You used up two thousand catties of explosives in no time! How do we fight next? How do we fight?"

"My lord, I have never been to Nanjing, and I never knew that there are so many city gates in Nanjing!" Zhuman replied aggrievedly: "I have been working in a small place before, and I have never seen any city gate with three urns. , I thought that Nanjing City, like Anqing City, has only one urn and two gates! And the slaves are already very economical, if the slaves hadn’t saved a little, we wouldn’t even be able to blow up the third gate!”

"Dog slave, are you still stubborn?" The prince of Zhangtai County was almost mad, knowing that there was only the last gate left, and as long as the last gate was blown up, the job would be done, but there was no explosives. Isn't this frustrating to death?
"My lord, we still have a chance!" In order not to be beaten to death by the lord of Zhangtai County, Zhuman hurriedly shouted: "We still have some gunpowder for muskets and grenades captured from Wu Gou in our team, collect them all , should be able to blow up this last city gate!"

"Then why are you still in a daze? Why don't you hurry up?" the prince of Zhangtai County roared.

Zhuman nodded and bowed in agreement, and quickly asked the soldiers to take out the black powder and grenades and pile them up at the last city gate.It was also at this time that Qin Yong finally came back to his senses, and hurriedly shouted: "The explosives full of dogs are used up! Quick, quick! Go to two people and organize the people to block the city gate. Others, blow me up hard!" Full of dogs! No matter what kind of firearms, they are all open! Throw all the gunpowder bags for cannons, too!"

(End of this chapter)