scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 371 Fatty's Choice
It is only 130 miles from Nanjing to Zhenjiang. Fatty Lu set off from Nanjing on May 25th and marched step by step. He arrived in Zhenjiang City at noon on the 27th, and joined Li Guodong, the General Reserve of the Fatty Army stationed here. The Ministry has joined forces, and immediately started preparations for the battle across the river.On the night of the same day, Han Daren's army, who had marched all the way in a hurry, also arrived in Zhenjiang City and joined forces with Lu Fatzi and Li Guodong's army.

At this point, all the fat troops preparing to go to the Yangzhou battlefield have all arrived at Zhenjiang Ferry, with a total strength of more than [-]. The bonfire at Zhenjiang Ferry can't see the edge at a glance, reflecting the river bank in red, and flags and camps stand on the land It is like a forest, stretching for ten miles, and the boats on the river are densely packed. It is like forming a water city on the Yangtze River. The air is full of rich meat, coriander, and the night wind is full of laughter. They are showing off everywhere. The Fatty Army has strong military strength, strong financial resources, and high morale.Seeing such a scene, feeling very proud, Fatty Lu held a military meeting overnight in the commander's tent to discuss the next battle plan.

At the second quarter of the hour, all the generals of the Fatty Army above the rank of lieutenant general arrived. More than 100 civil and military officials of the Fatty Army participated in the meeting. It wasn't until Fatty Lu sat on the handsome chair with the fat that was almost gone, and announced the start of the meeting, that the generals of the fatty army stopped laughing, knelt down on one knee to Fatty Lu, and saluted with fists clasped.

"Generals, please stand up." Fatty Lu first greeted the generals, and then said with a smile: "Generals, I heard some of what you said just now in the back account, and I can see that everyone is very concerned about this. I am full of confidence in a decisive battle in Yangzhou, and I believe that our army will surely win another big victory this time."

"Of course." Hu Tongchun laughed and said, "We all know the situation of Mangou soldiers on the northern front. They are several times stronger than them, except for the fact that we have more people. Our elite main force who has experienced many battles has arrived at the Yangzhou battlefield, and they are just catching bastards in a jar-handy!"

"Brother Hu Tongchun is right." Han Daren echoed, "It's not that we underestimate the enemy. The northern front is indeed far worse than the western front, and even the southern front is worse. The main force of our army wants to deal with it. They, that is really easy, without any discount." The generals of the fat man also echoed one after another, all of them dismissed the Manchu army on the northern front, and believed that their own army would definitely be able to make another glory, and defeat the Manchurian army in the first battle. The main force of the dog north line.

"I'm very pleased that everyone has such confidence and fighting spirit." Fatty Lu nodded in satisfaction, and asked again: "But I would like to ask all the generals, since everyone believes that our army will win, then our army will fill the northern front line completely." How confident are you that the main force of the dogs will be wiped out? How sure are you that you will take the head of the Emperor Mangou on the Yangzhou battlefield?"

"Annihilate the main force of Mangou? Take the head of Mangou Emperor?" The fat man and the generals all looked at each other in blank dismay, no longer daring to express an absolutely optimistic attitude.

"If our army wants to achieve these two goals, I'm afraid it will be quite difficult." Li Guodong, who is highly respected in the fat army, said: "First, there are too many cavalry full of dogs. Together, there are almost more than [-]. Although we are not afraid of the cavalry full of dogs, because our army's cavalry is relatively scarce, even if we defeat the army of full dogs, it will be difficult to catch up and annihilate them all."

"The second is the terrain." Wang Xu also said: "Although the north of Yangzhou is densely covered with lakes and rivers, which is not conducive to the battle of the Manchu cavalry brigade, but the terrain is relatively open, and it is more convenient for the Manchu cavalry to break up into pieces and retreat for their lives. Even if our army penetrates to the back of the main force of Mangou, there is no ideal blocking position that can completely cut off Mangou's retreat. Mangou's light cavalry can bypass our blocking position and escape for their lives. It is still difficult for our army to take the northern line. Hundreds of thousands of Man Gou will be wiped out. And the Man Gou Emperor's target is so small, if he disguises himself as a small group of ordinary soldiers to break through, our army will have to catch up with him or stop him, it will be purely luck."

"That's the reason." Fatty Lu nodded again, and asked again: "Then I would like to ask you generals, in your opinion, our army has no chance of completely wiping out all the dogs in the northern clues? Is there any way to ensure the complete wiping out?" The northern line is full of dogs?"

The civil and military officials of Fatty's army started whispering, and Han Daren took a peek at Fatty Lu, knowing that Fatty Lu was taking the opportunity to test the attitude of the generals of Fatty's army on blowing up Gaojiayan, so he said: "General, finally! There will be two ways to ensure the complete annihilation of Mangou on the northern line, and to ensure that the Emperor Mangou is captured to the greatest extent."

"General Han, please tell me." Fatty Lu said calmly.

"The first method." Han Daren said in a deep voice: "Immediately blow up the Gaojiayan, flood the Huai'an mansion with flood water, use the flood to cut off the food road of Mangou's retreat, catch the turtle in the urn, annihilate the main force of Mangou, and kill the Emperor Mangou."

The commander's tent was completely quiet, all the civil and military officials of the fat army were silent, knowing that although Han Daren's plan was feasible and the safest, but he was afraid of eternal infamy, so he dared not open his mouth to agree.But this is not surprising, the Fatty Army was born out of the Pingxi Palace of the old traitor Wu, and the old traitor Wu is the only vassal who has not slaughtered the city for the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, and once refused Fatty Lu to blow up the embankment of thousands of people and flood Jingzhou It is suggested that under the influence of old man Wu's treacherous benevolence and hypocrisy, the generals and officials of the fat army naturally dare not set this precedent casually - if the fat army was born out of Pingnan Wangfu, Jingnan Wangfu or Dingnan Wangfu, then there must be no such taboo.

Seeing such a scene, Fatty Lu and Daren Han were inevitably disappointed. They knew that even the generals of the Fatty Army, who were as ruthless as jackals and venomous as snakes, would not dare to speak up to support this plan, which would result in a reputation that will last forever.

"I..., I object." Gao Degui, the magistrate of Zhenjiang who surrendered from the Qing court, dared to speak up, and said tremblingly: "Down Gaojiayan, Huaiyang will not see each other. If you do this, hundreds of thousands of people in Huai'an will suffer." , it’s all over... If we do this, then what’s the difference between us and Man Gou?”

The fat generals closed their mouths even tighter, but a few civilian officials who were not afraid of death cautiously echoed, "Gaofutai is justified, this move is too damaging to morality and harm to the peace of heaven. If we do this, we will also It’s no different from a dog full of beasts.”

Fatty Lu has no face to scold these pedantic nerds. If it was replaced by mite banner people who were damaged by the embankment bombing, let alone hundreds of thousands, it would be millions and tens of millions. Fatty Lu would also order the embankment to be blown up without batting an eyelid , In the end, I will definitely proudly declare that if this is considered a crime, and I will go to 36 hells in the future, then I am willing to commit a crime once, and I will go to [-] hells in the future!But when he thought of the hundreds of thousands of Han compatriots in the lower reaches of Hongze Lake, Fatty Lu couldn't bear it, nor did he dare to bear the eternal infamy.

Han Daren was also silent, and after a while, Han Daren said again: "The second method is to fight in Huai'an Mansion. Don't rush to defeat the main force of Mangou in Yangzhou Mansion. First fight a few small victories to force the main force of Mangou to retreat. Anxious to defeat the main force of Mangou in the pursuit battle, let the main force of Mangou retreat while fighting, and wait for the main force of Mangou to retreat near Huai'an City, our army will launch a fierce attack again, and at the same time separate an army to seize the Qinghe Ferry of Mangou, Use the Yellow River to block the retreat of the Mangou main force, and annihilate the Mangou main force near Huai'an City."

"Then what if Man Gou blows up Gaojiayan? We will die together with Man Gou." Li Guodong questioned.

"As long as Emperor Mangou is still on the south bank of the Yellow River, Mangou will not dare to bomb Gaojiayan even if he eats the guts of a leopard," Han Daren replied.

"That's the reason." Li Guodong nodded, and then said to Fatty Lu: "General, the final general thinks this plan is feasible. First force the main force of the dog to fight and retreat to Huai'an City. The Yellow River Ferry, full of dogs, is indeed very sure to wipe out the main force of the dogs, and also has a relatively high hope of killing the emperor of the dogs."

Fatty Lu closed his mung bean eyes. The second tactic proposed by Han Daren was of course already in Fatty Lu's consideration before, but if he did this, although he had a great chance of annihilating the main force of the Qing army on the northern front and killing Kang Mazi However, there is still little hope—if Kang Mazi disguised himself as an ordinary soldier or ordinary people, and fled to the lower reaches of the Yellow River to cross the river, how could the Fatty Army take precautions for the hundreds of miles downstream?

"Let's take one step at a time." Sighing softly in his heart, Fatty Lu opened his small mung bean eyes, nodded and said, "Follow General Han Daren's second plan, the army is ready to cross the river tomorrow, at the Tuqiao Ferry log in."

"Decree." Fatty's army generals clasped their fists in agreement, and at the same time felt great regret in their hearts.

"The Tuqiao Ferry is located on the west of the canal." Fatty Lu said again: "Man Gou still has strength at present. It is not ruled out that when our army crosses the river, Man Gou will come to prevent our army from crossing the river and frustrate our army. A general will lead the elite to cross the Yangtze River first, build a blocking position near the Tuqiao Ferry, and block the invading enemy, who is willing to go?"

"The last general is willing to go!" The wolves, tigers and leopards of Fatty's army answered very neatly this time, and they rushed to take a step forward together, as if they were afraid that Fatty Lu would not see him.Fatty Lu smiled and said, "General Wang Xu, go ahead, you have experience in fighting such a battle."

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

Fatty Lu overestimated Yue Le's courage. On May 28, the main force of Fatty's army began to cross the river with all its strength. There were more than a thousand boats crossing the river. Tens of thousands of troops were sent to Qiaodukou.The news spread to the Yangzhou camp of the Qing army fifty miles away. Yue Le contemplated for a long time with an ashen face, and finally stomped his feet and shouted: "Continue to attack the city! Before Shen o'clock in the afternoon, Yangzhou city cannot be captured. town!"

No matter how desperate you are, it's useless, the same sentence, Yangzhou City is still the same Yangzhou City, but the fat army is not the Nanming army with low morale and fighting spirit 30 years ago.Although the corpses of Qing soldiers under the city wall have been piled up more than two feet high, the Qing army can climb up the Yangzhou city wall with both hands as long as they stand on the mountain of corpses. Although the most vulnerable northwest corner of Yangzhou has changed hands several times, the corpses are even more They were so piled up that they could step on the corpses and rush up to the city wall, and were repeatedly sawed by the Fat Man Army and the Qing Army; although the soldiers of the Fat Man Army on the city wall had fought bloody battles for two days and two nights, the casualties were almost greater than any previous Fat Man Army soldiers. battle.

But the pure white military flag of the fat army is still flying on the city wall of Yangzhou, and the soldiers of the fat army with bloodshot eyes are still roaring and waving knives and guns on the city wall, hacking and stabbing every Qing army soldier who dared to rush to the city wall, and the shells hit them. It's over, the rockets are finished, the grenades are used up, the soldiers of the fat army will kill the enemy with primitive knives and guns, and use more primitive stones, sticks, fists and teeth to stop the advance of the soldiers of the Qing army!Because the soldiers of the fat army know that although Jiangnan is big, behind them are the people of Yangzhou City. If they take a step back, the tragedy of Yangzhou Ten Days 30 years ago is doomed to repeat itself!
Yangzhou fat army, there is no retreat!The casualties of the Qing army were at least four times that of the Fatty Army!
The west and north sections of the city walls of Yangzhou City no longer have other colors, and everywhere they can see is blood red. The blood of the soldiers on both sides is so bloody that the soil can't absorb it. The blood also dyed the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the pride of the Chinese nation, red, and Yue Le invested in the siege force again at any cost, and its effect was only to make the blood red here even redder.

The people in Yangzhou City overcame their timidity and spontaneously organized to walk up the city wall to help the soldiers of the Fatty Army share the pressure, carry the supplies for the defense of the city and rescue the wounded soldiers of the Fatty Army. They were all Yangzhou people, and the Fatty Army officers and soldiers stationed here had been transferred to the West Gate and North Gate by Gao Dejie, where they were exhausted and suffered heavy casualties.The Qing army's 11 troops outside Yangzhou City have taken turns to fight several times, but they have never been able to break through the Yangzhou City Wall.

It was also at this time that Yue Le found out with a pale face that the number of Qing soldiers he had damaged in this meat grinder in Yangzhou had exceeded [-], with countless minor injuries and serious injuries, and the generals and soldiers were exhausted. It was blown down, but so far there is no hope of breaking the city. The generals and soldiers of the fat army are still holding on to the city wall of Yangzhou, and the main force of the fat army who has crossed the Yangtze River has also established a firm foothold on the north bank of the Yangtze River.So when it was half past time, Yue Le himself gave up his idea of ​​fighting until Shen Shi, and tremblingly issued an order that made the Qing army and the fat army cheer, "Stop attacking the city, pack up your luggage, and retreat north."

The Qing army can no longer retreat. After more than two days of siege, the Qing army's morale is extremely low, and it is also extremely exhausted and fragile. The main force of the Fat Man Army has been lured into the floodplain, and it is not certain whether it will be able to withdraw from the battlefield of Yangzhou's city wall.

When the golden gong of the Qing army rang, both the Qing army and the Fat Man army cheered at the same time. On the city wall covered with blood puddles, snoring like dead dogs fell asleep. Although Gao Dejie really wanted to take the opportunity to go out of the city to fight back, but seeing that all the soldiers of the fat army were so tired, he had no choice but to give up this idea. Looking at the Qing soldiers who were also exhausted but in better condition, they fled back to the formation in embarrassment, returned to the Shaobo Lake camp, packed their bags and fled northward for their lives.

In 14 AD, the first year of Zhaowu in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and on May 28, 3000th year of Qing Kang Mazi, the main force of the Qing army who made a desperate attack on Yangzhou for two days and two nights was finally helpless after receiving the news that the main force of the fat man crossed the river. He gave up the tactical plan to break through the Yangzhou city and fled to the north in embarrassment, and dropped more than 30 corpses under the Yangzhou city wall.In order to get rid of the pursuit of the main force of the fat man and go northward as soon as possible, the main force of the Qing army also dropped more than [-] Hongyi cannons whose barrels were destroyed, and a whole Shaobo Lake camp, only carrying precious grain and gunpowder They immediately went north, crossed the canal before the fat man's new force arrived in Yangzhou City, and fled to Cheluo Town, which is just north of Yangzhou.

At Shen Shizheng in the afternoon, the first new force of the fat army, 2000 cavalry, led by Gao Hongchen, the younger brother of Gao Dejie, arrived in Yangzhou City. They saw the miserable scene of corpses piled up under the city of Yangzhou, and heard that the Qing army had only withdrawn for three hours. , Gao Hongchen immediately led the cavalry to pursue, and blocked more than [-] Qing army troops who had escaped the canal at the Qing army pontoon bridge in Shaobo Lake. Canal pontoon, then escape to the north.

Seeing the canal pontoon on fire, the soldiers of the Qing army who had not had time to withdraw from the canal pontoon were naturally crying, but Gao Hongchen gave an order mercilessly, and the 2000 fat soldiers immediately rushed up like wolves, let alone mercilessly They slaughtered more than [-] soldiers of the Qing army without even taking a single prisoner. Even if they put down their weapons and surrendered, they killed them all without mercy.But after such a little toss, the Qing army on the west bank had already fled far away.

In the evening, Fatty Lu personally led the main brigade of the Fatty Army to the city of Yangzhou, while the rear team led by Li Guodong rushed to dredge the canal in the area of ​​Shijiaqiao, so that the ships transporting weapons and luggage could go north along the canal, faster and more labor-saving. Send the artillery to the northern front.When Fatty Lu entered the city of Yangzhou, in addition to seeing the smiling faces of Yangzhou soldiers and civilians looking forward to their relatives, he also saw blood all over the ground and rows of wounded soldiers. Kneeling down, he cupped his hands and said: "Soldiers and common people, in order to buy time for our main force, I have worked hard for you and wronged you!"

Countless Yangzhou soldiers and civilians wept bitterly, but what they shed were tears of happiness and emotion. Gao Dejie, who was wrapped in bloody gauze on his forehead, came up to help Fatty Lu, and then bowed his hands to Fatty Lu, and said very ashamedly: "The last general!" Incompetent, this time Yangzhou was occupied, and our army lost more than 1, please punish the general."

"Brother Gao, you are welcome. You fought so hard and so fiercely. You only have merit, so what's the crime?" Fatty Lu patted the back of Gao Dejie's hand and said, "Besides, our army suffered heavy casualties in this Yangzhou battle. Our army's weapon mix is ​​not reasonable enough, and the long-range weapons are insufficient; second, Man Gou is desperately attacking this time without any casualties; Run, tie your hands and feet, this is my responsibility, otherwise, with your ability, it will not be difficult to repel the main force of the dog in the field."

"The general is humble, and it's also because the general is not good at defending the city and lacks experience." Gao Dejie hurriedly said modestly: "Especially when Man Gou built that swamp fort to weaken the power of our army's artillery, if the final general went out of the city overnight to make a surprise attack , The Yangzhou battlefield will not be passive to this point, the fault lies with the junior general, and the latter will definitely learn a lesson in the future, and when he defends the city, he will never make similar mistakes."

"Ha, brother Gao can rest assured about this." Fatty Lu laughed and said, "I can conclude that we will never have to fight city defense battles in the future. What we can fight in the future is only siege battles and pursuit battles. Fight with annihilation!"

"That's true." Gao Dejie laughed and nodded, then suddenly remembered a major event, and hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "General, this time I chased and killed the main force of Mangou, please make atonement for the vanguard, and go to Yangzhou with my own hands to make amends." The brothers who died on the battlefield and the common people will avenge their revenge!"

"We'll talk about this later." Fatty Lu said with a smile, "Brother Gao, you haven't closed your eyes for three days and two nights. Rest in Yangzhou City for a day or two, and then catch up with the main force and send troops to pursue it. It won't be too late."

There were still quite a lot of cavalry in the Qing army, and the Fatty Army's pursuit could never be completed within a day or two, so Gao Dejie, who was really exhausted, did not refuse, and immediately nodded in agreement.When Fatty Lu turned to Wu Yonghua and Gao Qi to buy people's hearts, Han Daren, who was already planning to ease the relationship with Gao Dejie, approached him, and said to Gao Dejie with a flattering face and an envious tone: " Brother Gao, you are glorious this time, it is really remarkable to repel the siege army that Emperor Mangou personally sits in with your lone army."

He stretched out his hand not to hit the smiling face, although he still felt that Han Daren was not pleasing to the eye, but Gao Dejie reluctantly nodded and said: "Thank you Brother Han for the compliment, it's just average, but it's a pity that he couldn't kill Emperor Mangou."

"By the way, Brother Gao, what the hell does the Mangou Emperor look like?" Han Daren asked again out of words: "I heard that the Mangou Emperor has pockmarked face, protruding ears, yellow teeth, and looks as ugly as a baboon. Brother, did you see it with your own eyes this time?"

"No." Gao Dejie shook his head, and replied casually: "Emperor Mangou came to Yangzhou to take command this time, but he never came to the front line to command in person, so I didn't see him greedy for life and afraid of death."

"wait wait wait!"

Fatty Lu's sudden exclamation shocked everyone present. Fatty Lu quickly turned around and asked with a serious face, "Brother Gao, what did you just say? Frontline command?"

"Yes." Gao Dejie nodded, and replied: "Emperor Mangou's dog Piluan has been hiding in the Shaobo Lake camp since he arrived in Yangzhou. He didn't come to the front line to command, so the general didn't see him in the end."

"So, in the last two days and two nights of the battle, did Emperor Mangou show up under the city of Yangzhou?" Fatty Lu asked quickly.

"This..., probably not." Gao Dejie replied hesitantly: "At that time, the fight was extremely fierce. I didn't pay attention to the situation of the Mangou Banner, and I don't know if the Mangou Emperor showed up."

"Probably not." Wu Yonghua interjected, "I lead the supervising team, and I have more free time. I have used the binoculars to observe the Mangou Banner formation several times, but I have not seen the Mangou Emperor appear."

Fatty Lu was dumbfounded, and after a long while, Fatty Lu roared, "We've been tricked! Kang Mazi's full dog never crossed the Yellow River! This time, he just came with a fake car!"

"How is it possible?" Fatty's generals exclaimed together.

"I understand Kang Mazi's full dog!" Fatty Lu stomped his feet and roared, "The world's most vicious, cruel, insidious, conceited and shameless full dog! If he really comes to the battlefield in Yangzhou, he will come to the battlefield in person On the front line, he declared that his bullshit benevolent government recruited you, and also boosted the morale of the Mangou army! But the Mangou Emperor did not show up, which proves that he never crossed the Yellow River! He never came to the Yangzhou battlefield at all!"

"What if Emperor Mangou is greedy for life and afraid of death, and dare not go to the front line in person?" Wu Yonghua asked timidly.

"Impossible!" Fatty Lu waved his fat hand resolutely, and roared decisively: "With the arrogant and narcissistic character of Emperor Mangou, it is impossible to be so greedy for life and afraid of death! Also, the Mangou army has not hesitated these days. The fierce attack on Yangzhou at the price is clearly intended to break through Yangzhou and use the city of Yangzhou to compete with our main force. In this desperate situation, no matter how greedy the Emperor Mangou is, he will definitely show up in front of the battle and die. Boost morale!"

"Then what's the point of Emperor Mangou doing this?" Gao Dejie asked again: "Why doesn't he want to cross the river himself, why does he use a fake car to deceive us?"

Fatty Lu didn't answer, and when he turned to look at Yao Qisheng, he saw that Yao Qisheng also had a serious face, and nodded to himself, indicating that he had understood the real intention of Kang Mazi's move.Fatty Lu thought for a while, and then ordered: "Mr. Yao, you immediately arrange for a fast boat to enter Hongze Lake, contact Li Ji's team lurking there, and let him carry out the original plan."

"Students will arrange it immediately." Yao Qisheng quickly agreed, and then said hesitantly: "Just, I wonder if there is still hope to lure Emperor Mangou across the Yellow River?"

"Let me figure out a way." Fatty Lu tapped his temples with his fat fingers, and said in a deep thought: "It seems that the only thing that can be used at present is the arrogant psychology of Emperor Mangou."

If you want to know what happened next, please read the next chapter "The Flood" - this time it is not a headline party.

(End of this chapter)