On the position of the Taiping Army, Tan Shaoguang looked at the gorgeous artillery fire in the night sky with great interest, and sighed to Gu Yunfei beside him, "The Qingzi Regiment has no artillery to cover, and Jiading City is at your fingertips."
It's a pity that Qiao Zhiqing is a talent, otherwise he will be a fierce general if he is used by my heavenly kingdom. ”Gu Yunfei still replied with a calm face, "King Mu must not underestimate Qiao Zhiqing, he can organize and train such a force in just two months, it is definitely not a person, we better be careful." ”"This king sees that you are scared of Qiao Zhiqing, the battle situation of King Zhong on the Western Front is tight, and he urgently needs troops, we can't be entangled with Qiao Zhiqing in Jiading City for too long, tomorrow at noon, Jiading City must be taken."
Tan Shaoguang confidently threw off his robe, patted Gu Yunfei's shoulder, and turned back to the tent.Gu Yunfei looked at Jiading City with a melancholy face, and ordered the artillery team to gather and arrange the task of attacking the city tomorrow.Qiao Zhiqing had just received the latest battle situation in Shanghai, and gathered all the generals overnight, and the Taiping army Chen Bingwen and Gao Yongkuan had already occupied Qingpu City, and Li Xiucheng, the loyal king, was leading his troops to attack Songjiang City, and Shanghai was in danger.The Huai army and the coalition army were weak in division of troops, and the whole line retreated, and they were no longer able to support Jiading.Li Hongzhang's bottom line for Qiao Zhiqing is to be able to follow the rules, and if he can't take it, he will avoid the enemy's edge and retreat to Shanghai."
What does the owner mean" Qiao Zhiqing handed the secret letter to the generals under the seat to circulate it, and Wang Shumao read the secret letter with a serious expression."
Tell me what you mean," Qiao Zhiqing pretended to look at Wang Shumao relaxedly."
Since Li Dashuai has said it so clearly, I think we should withdraw to Shanghai, the long-haired thief is fierce, I think it won't take a few days for Shanghai to be surrounded by groups, and then we will have no way back at all."
Wang Shumao expressed his opinion, and most of the generals present also had the same opinion, nodding their heads again and again.Qiao Zhiqing also nodded, chuckled and looked around at the generals below, and asked tentatively, "Who of you still has different opinions" "I have something to say," Wang Shijie stood up and said with a resolute face, "The current situation is indeed not optimistic from a local point of view, but looking at the overall situation, the long-haired thief has been repeatedly defeated by the Hunan army led by Zeng Dashuai in the Yangtze River defense line, and now they have all retreated to Nanjing City, and Nanjing City is in danger."
Li Xiucheng led the army of Suzhou at this time, but it was only the end of the crossbow, and he would not hold out for a few days before he would completely withdraw the defense of Nanjing City.Therefore, if we want to solve the siege of Shanghai, we have two ways to choose" Wang Shijie deliberately sold Guanzi."
Go on."
The generals relaxed and began to urge.Wang Shijie walked to the topographic map and said, "The first way, stick to Jiading City until the long-haired thief retreats."
If you retreat to Shanghai, you will inevitably be surrounded by long-haired thieves.The second way, that is, to draw out troops, on the one hand to deal with the long-haired thief, on the other hand, to send troops to attack Suzhou, besiege Wei to save Zhao.If we succeed, we will make a name for ourselves and lose, and we can also let the long-haired thief return to Suzhou in advance, and the marshal will reward us well. ”"Surprise attack on Suzhou, your kid is too bold, Suzhou City is Li Xiucheng's lair, the city is strong, there are many soldiers and enough food, what can you attack down" Wang Shumao stood up excitedly and was the first to object.Qiao Zhiqing smiled and motioned for Wang Shumao to sit down, looked at Wang Shijie and said seriously, "I only have five hundred soldiers and horses in the personal barracks for you, can you complete the task?"
"Please rest assured, the regiment commander, it won't take three days, and his subordinates will guarantee to take Suzhou City." ”Wang Shijie clenched his fists and took his life.Although Wang Shumao was a little worried, Qiao Zhiqing had already given an order, and he was not good at objecting, so he could only tell Wang Shijie a few words and let him go.After the meeting was dismissed, the pro-military camp was all hard-covered, each carrying 200 rounds of ammunition and two freshly made explosive bags, and took advantage of the night to ride war horses to break through the weakly defended north gate.The explosives package was made by Qiao Zhiqinggang and Ma Xun with people temporarily, and every 20 kilograms was tied into a bag with a fuse rope, and the fuse was lit when it was detonated.The defenders of the Taiping army immediately reported the situation to Tan Shaoguang, who was determined to capture the city, because there were only five hundred cavalry, Tan Shaoguang did not take it to heart, and ordered the troops to hold their positions and wait for the order to attack the city.Qiao Zhiqing sat in the camp tent, his eyes were glued to the topographic map, and he secretly admired Wang Shijie's military talent, his judgment of the overall situation of the war coincided with his own, but he had the advantage of crossing over.After dawn, the Taiping army prepared to attack the city again, Ren was the main attack on the south gate, and the other three city gates were set up to feint.After a night of preparation, the Taiping army obviously changed its tactics, no longer charging in an orderly and dense manner as yesterday, but digging trenches in the position to advance, and the soldiers defending the city wall were in a hurry, and even if they fired, they could not find the target.What worried Qiao Zhiqing the most was that the Taiping army erected as many as thirty guns on the position, although they were all old-fashioned iron-cast breech guns, but they were all large-caliber heavy guns, and the city walls of Jiading City definitely could not withstand two rounds of shelling.Tan Shaoguang looked at the artillery on the position with great pride, and said secretly in his heart, look at what else you Qiao Zhiqing has the ability to stop this king."
Open the cannon" Gu Yunfei waved the order flag beside Tan Shaoguang, and the thirty cannons let out an earth-shattering roar at the same time, spitting out an iron ball with a large bowl mouth and rushing towards the city wall at high speed."
Knock, knock, knock" The city wall was like tofu, smashed by solid cannonballs, and a crack was torn open.When the soldiers digging in the trench were less than twenty meters away from the moat, all the soldiers jumped out of the trench, and the archers immediately threw arrows at the city wall with their bows to cover it, and the rain of arrows covered the sky and the sun as if it were dark for a while.The foreign spear team lined up in a dense formation and fired at the city wall, and the suppressed Qingzi regiment could not raise its head, and saw the Taiping army rush across the moat and rush towards the gap in the city wall."
Ready, launch."
Qiao Zhiqing's order finally sounded on the city wall.The Taiping army under the city only felt that the stones fell from the sky, and before they could secretly rejoice that they had not hit themselves, they felt a violent roar coming, as if standing on the source of thunder and lightning, and the mountains shook in an instant, and the ears were dizzy.The soldiers on the battlefield all covered their ears with their hands, and the Taiping troops near the explosives bag were directly churned by the sound of the explosion, their heart rate increased, their eyes widened and they fell to the battlefield, and they didn't know what happened until they died.The situation on the battlefield was reversed for a while, and the Taiping army, who had just rushed through the moat, hurriedly turned around and fled, hoping that their parents would give birth to two more legs, and the rest of the soldiers all jumped into the trenches and did not dare to show their heads again.The Qingzi regiment counterattacked at the right time, and rows of gunfire rang out, and the Taiping army under the city wall fell in large swath, and the corpses were piled up together more than a meter high.The roar sounded again, but the power was greater than just now, "What, how is this possible, isn't Qiao Zhiqing without shells" Tan Shaoguang held the telescope and looked at the situation in front of him in shock.Gu Yunfei hurriedly ordered the artillery team to open fire and cover the retreat of the Taiping army near the city wall.Qiao Zhiqing sneered on the city wall, he asked the craftsmen to make ten large iron barrels overnight last night, and the waist was fastened with an iron pipe, and after filling it with propellant, he put the explosive bag bundled into a disc shape, and then ignited the propellant, which could throw the explosive bag more than fifty meters below the city wall, and ignite the fuse on the explosive bag at the same time.This kind of weapon is commonly known as the "conscienceless cannon", which was widely used by our army during the War of Liberation, how thick the barrel is, how big the caliber is, and the strong explosive impact generated by the huge explosive package, where it passes, pillboxes, people and horses will be blown away.Many of the enemies who were blown down often did not find any wounds on their bodies, but they bled through seven holes and were shocked to death.Originally, this kind of earthen cannon could fire explosives to a distance of two or three hundred, but because the quality of the iron bucket was not good, Qiao Zhiqing did not dare to put more explosives, so he only threw it to a distance of more than fifty meters.Although the Taiping army had more than 30,000 people, they were all rabble armed with wooden sticks, knives and guns, and there were only more than 3,000 elite soldiers, and some of them were even trampled to death by the retreating people.Gu Yunfei killed five or six retreating soldiers in a row, and then ran to the front line, and the commander who fled with his sword in his hand, let the foreign spearmen form a gun formation behind the deserters, and immediately killed them when they retreated.The situation was immediately stabilized, and Gu Yunfei screamed and ordered the soldiers to attack again.The Taiping army had no choice but to turn their heads, jumped into the trench again, and crawled forward with their heads down.The artillery team fired again, but the direction was aimed at the soldiers on the city wall, Qiao Zhiqing ordered the soldiers to retreat and dodge, because the power of the earthen cannon was limited, and it was a solid iron lump, throwing it on the city wall did not do much damage to the soldiers.After suppressing the foreign gun fire on the city wall, Gu Yunfei once again ordered the Taiping army in the trench to attack.In a moment a procession of thousands of men came out of the trench and poured through the moat towards the breach in the wall."
Ready, launch."
Qiao Zhiqing once again gave instructions to the artillery team."
Boom, boom, boom" The stone-like explosive bag in the sky fell again, making a earth-shattering explosion, although the Taiping army was psychologically prepared, but it was still taken aback, except for the soldiers who were killed by the explosion, the rest of the Taiping army turned around and ran.Gu Yunfei hurriedly ordered the artillery team to suppress the artillery fire, and the Qingzi regiment did not use foreign guns to fight back, allowing all the surviving soldiers of the Taiping Army to flee.This time, Gu Yunfei did not execute the Taiping army who escaped from the battle, everyone had already been frightened by the "conscienceless cannon" made by Qiao Zhiqing, if he forcibly ordered the soldiers to attack, I am afraid it would cause a mutiny.Because the strength of the Taiping army still existed, Qiao Zhiqing did not order the pursuit, but just asked the people in the city to block the gap in the city wall with stones as soon as possible.Tan Shaoguang was furious in the command post, Jiading City was close at hand, but he attacked for two consecutive days without any results, and he lost troops and lost about 6,000 casualties one after another.The generals under the handsome position trembled all over, trembling with fear all over their bodies, for fear that King Mu would treat him as a crime of escaping.Gu Yunfei waited for him to calm down a little, then took out the battle map and suggested, "King Mu, Qiao Zhiqing is scheming, according to our own duties, it is better for us to divide our troops into two ways, dig ditches and set up trenches on all sides of Jiading City all the way, and besiege the Qingzi regiment."
Bypass Jiading City all the way, go south as soon as possible and make peace with King Zhong, if we take Shanghai, Jiading City is a lonely city, and when the time comes, we will concentrate our troops to besiege Jiading City, and we are not afraid that Qiao Zhiqing has three heads and six arms.Tan Shaoguang took a deep breath, looked at the battle map and pondered for a while, and agreed, "This is the only way, just do as you say, the soldiers are fast, and we will go south." ”Gu Yunfei breathed a sigh of relief, he also had his own careful thoughts in his heart, Qiao Zhiqing is a bone that is difficult to gnaw, if he consumes it like this, he can't take Jiading City even if he fights his brothers, on the one hand, Yan Minxia trafficked foreign guns in Shanghai, and disappeared without a trace in a daze, so take Shanghai as soon as possible to investigate Yan Minxia's whereabouts, maybe she is still alive in this world
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