Chapter 201: Predicting the enemy's plane first

War is a product of political irreconcilability. Both sides are unwilling to make grievances, and are unwilling to make concessions on the negotiating table to exchange for the other party's sympathy. At the same time, neither side thinks that the other party will definitely be able to defeat themselves. In such a situation where they are not convinced and disrespectful to each other, the old traitor Wu and the Qing court all died. They are determined to make peace at the negotiating table, and they all plan to make the other party feel good on the battlefield, and use swords and guns to let the enemy sit back at the negotiating table to make concessions to their own side. Therefore, the Wuchang Battle, which decided that both sides take the initiative in offense and defense on the Yangtze River battlefield, was inevitably destined to start.

This is a battle that is evenly matched. None of the two sides must win. At the same time, both sides have hope of winning. The Wu army has certain advantages in military strength, combat power and weapons, but they do not have a good advantage in land and logistics advantages, and their weapons are too special. The field forces are strong, but their offensive power is relatively weak. The Qing army has a slight disadvantage in military strength, combat power and weapons, but they have a good advantage in geographical strength, logistical advantage and manpower advantages, and strong city defense are enough to offset most of the weapons advantages of the Wu army, and can better smooth the gap between military strength and combat power. Each leader has its own strengths, and it is really hard to distinguish.

After another two days of intense preparations, on the afternoon of the third day of the 10th month of the eleventh year of Kangmazi, the Wu army tunnel finally dug the side of the moat outside the east gate of Wuchang - this is very easy to identify. The moat in Wuchang was filled with sacks and stones and soil. As long as a large number of sacks were dug, it was naturally concluded that it had been dug under the moat. At the same time, the moat outside the south gate of Wuchang had been basically filled by the Wu army. Although the Wu army also paid the precious lives of hundreds of brave soldiers for this, once the moat was leveled, the Wu army siege troops could directly kill the city of Wuchang without any obstacles, which could be considered as sharpening the knife and chopping wood.

Seeing that the time was ripe, the old traitor of Wu immediately called the tent and summoned the generals to arrange a siege plan. The trumpet sounded, and the Wu generals with very strict military laws gathered at the tent in less than half a stick of incense. Fatty Lu, who had a face with ink, hurried to the tent and stood behind Wu Yingqi waiting for the order. When the traitor of Wu saw that the generals were all here, he immediately said loudly: "Everyone, there is a good news to tell you that our tunnel has been dug to the moat of Wuchang East Gate. At most, our shovel can dig the tunnel under the wall of Wuchang City, bury medicine and explode the city, and conquer Wuchang City in one fell swoop!"

"Okay!" The generals of the Wu army cheered in unison, all of them were happy. The old traitor of Wu shouted again: "I have decided now that in order to reduce the losses of siege, our army will attack the city overnight tonight. After the city wall is blown up, our army must occupy the east city of Wuchang tonight. After dawn, we will launch a strong attack on the inner city Mangou. All generals, please make sure your soldiers hurry up and make a rest and prepare for the night battle!"

"Abide by the prince's order!" The generals of the Wu army clasped their fists and agreed. The old traitor Wu nodded with satisfaction, picked up the arrow and said loudly: "Now I will start to allocate the siege army, General Zhaowu Ba Yangyuan..."

"Let's go." A voice suddenly interrupted the old traitor Wu's dispatched soldiers. The old traitor Wu and everyone looked in surprise, but saw that the person who interrupted the old traitor Wu's order was actually Fatty Lu, who had always been obedient at this moment. Fatty Lu knelt down on one knee and clasped his fists and said: "Prince, please forgive me for saying bluntly that our army's authentic siege tactics have been discovered by the enemy. If we forcefully attack the city, we are afraid that our army will suffer heavy damage!"

"How can I see it?" asked the old traitor Wu in surprise.

"I wonder if the prince still remembers it? Four days ago, our airship was dispatched once and flew to Wuchang City to distribute flyers." Fatty Lu replied in a deep voice: "At that time, the last general had reminded our airship army to pay attention to abnormal situations in the city. As a result, our airship soldiers discovered that the Mangou defender was also digging trenches in the East Gate of Wuchang. At the same time, the Mangou defender was also in the water gate area of ​​Wuchang, and there were also signs of construction, as if digging water digging trenches."

"The general suspects that Mangou may have seen through the tactics of our army's tunnel siege. When our army's tunnel was dug to the city, he suddenly dug through the tunnel, either emitted poisonous smoke or poured river water, harmed our army's digging soldiers and destroyed our army's tunnel."

"Then why didn't you say it earlier?" Old Traitor Wu's face changed drastically. He threw an arrow and slapped the table, shouting: "Since you discovered that something was wrong four days ago, why don't you report it to me?"

"Return to the prince, the last general was not sure at that time, so he didn't dare to report it." Fatty Lu replied dejectedly: "However, judging from the situation in the past few days, Mangou did not do his best to prevent our army from filling the moat. This is enough to prove that Mangou has discovered our authentic siege tactics, so he used the trick and deliberately allowed our army to fill the river."

"Bastard! Since you have long been suspicious, then you can just say, isn't I the kind of person who doesn't listen to advice?" Old Traitor Wu's nose was almost ruthless. If it weren't for Fatty Lu's contribution, Old Traitor Wu would have even thought of pushing Fatty Lu out and hitting a hundred military sticks. In desperation, Old Traitor Wu had to quickly order: "Hurry, see if the weather is right, if it's appropriate, let a airship take off quickly and go to the sky to see if the dog is ready in the city."

"Prince, please wait." Fatty Lu called out to the old traitor Wu again, and said with a traitor: "Prince, the reason why Mo Jiang has not reported this news to the prince in the past few days is that it is indeed not certain, and the other is that Mo Jiang also wants to paralyze Mangou, making Mangou think that our siege tactics are only authentic. Under the back, Mo Jiang has already prepared a new siege weapon for the prince, so that he can kill Mangou off guard. So Mo Jiang suggested that our airships no longer need to be dispatched again, and then go to alert the snake and expose the target."

"What kind of siege weapon?" The old traitor Wu turned anger and asked quickly. Fatty Lu was not in a hurry to answer, and got up and slapped his palms at the outside of the tent. A soldier from the Wu army outside the tent immediately came in with a wooden board. The front of the wooden board was half-arc, painted into non-reflective black, and the reverse side had four foldable wooden legs. When the four wooden legs were spread, the wooden board immediately turned into a high-leg black square table.

"Is this the new siege weapon you made?" The old traitor Wu was extremely surprised and asked, "What kind of siege weapon is this? What's the use?"

"Yifeng, what are you doing?" Wu Yingqi also asked in a low voice to his decent disciple, Fatty Lu, "This is clearly a dining table, how can you attack the city?"

Fatty Lu did not rush to answer, but turned to the table, raised his hand and made a few excavation moves, and asked: "Prince, generals, please see, our soldiers hid under this table and used a pickaxe to dig the enemy's city wall. When the enemy stands on the city, what can I do to hurt our soldiers who dig the city wall?"

"Huh?" After being reminded by Fatty Lu, the generals of the Wu army discovered that although Fatty Lu's square table was simple, once the excavator was hiding under the table and digging holes, the enemy was on the city wall, there was no way to effectively harm the soldiers under the table. Even if they threw a big stone and hit the curved table of the wooden table, they would slide down to both sides, making it difficult to smash the wooden table and hit the Wu army soldiers under the table. The old traitor Wu also quickly woke up and asked tentatively: "What do you mean? Let our soldiers hide under such a table, dig the Wuchang city wall directly on the ground, fill in explosives and blow up the city wall?"

"The Prince is indeed so." Fatty Lu replied with a smile: "I don't know if the prince still remembers it? Before entering the pass, Mangou also used similar weapons to attack Qianming City. However, Mangou's purpose was to dig a wall and have to dig many caves to succeed, so there are not many examples of success. But ours is much simpler. Just dig out five or six caves, hide the explosives in the cave, and ignite the fire and explode it."

"How can I forget?" Wu's old traitor recalled: "In the year when I was thirteen years old, I attacked Ningyuan City. I used this tactic to dig Ningyuan City and dig the Ningyuan City walls into thousands of caves and holes. If the weather was not particularly cold that year and the city walls were frozen to death, Ningyuan City would... haha."

Recalling this, the old traitor Wu shook his hair and his hairy head, trying to drive the boy's past out of his mind, and said with a smile: "You are smart boy. Although this method is stupid, it may be more effective for us. However, you, a gangster, staying in the workshop all day long, is it such a simple thing for me?"

"By the prince, of course not." Fatty Lu shook his head and said in a deep voice: "Beizhi has been in the factory these days. He not only created this simple siege table, but also created the Prince's mother-child cannons, flowering firecrackers for the prince. He used the forty-two cannons seized by us in Anshun, and the flowering firecrackers we filled with explosives, which will definitely give Mango a big surprise."

"You have also created the flowering shells of the mother-child cannon?" The old traitor Wu was happy at first, then frowned and said, "But how do we use the mother-child cannon when we use the siege table to poach the wall? If this shell falls under the city wall, then the shovel we poached the wall will be miserable."

"Grandfather, how do grandson-in-law think." Fatty Lu smiled smugly and said sinisterly: "The son-in-law believes that since Mangou has seen through our authentic siege tactics and wants to use a plan to severely damage our shoal, then we simply use a plan to make plans and then make plans. On the basis of the authentic siege tactics, another sound will be taken east to attack the south, and in turn will be severely damaged Mangou! While siegeing the city, a large number of soldiers in the dog were killed, laying the foundation for us to enter the city to fight."

"How can I attack the south? Let's listen in detail." The old traitor Wu sat back on the position of commander and asked with his hands crossed his chest. All the generals of the Wu army and generals present also focused their attention on Fatty Lu's fat face and listened intently.

"Then the grandson-in-law is rude." Fatty Lu was not polite, and walked to the sand table of the map, picked up the bamboo pole and pointed at Wuchang City and said, "Grandfather, please see, generals, Wuchang is a big city. The south wall of the outer city reaches seven miles in length, and the length of the east wall is more than nine miles. Even if the inside is mobilized, it is difficult to mobilize the troops in one go. Therefore, the grandson-in-law concluded that after Mangou discovered the tunnel siege tactics of our army at the east gate of Wuchang, he would definitely ambush the elite troops in the east gate, one for convenience in fighting the main force of our army on the main battlefield, and the other for prevention."

"However, at the south gate of Wuchang, because the groundwater outside the south gate is rich, it is difficult for our army to dig tunnels. Even if the moat is filled, it can only be attacked with cloud ladders and clouds. Therefore, Mangou does not need to arrange too many troops, so it can block our army with the advantage of geographical location. Therefore, the Mangou defender at the south gate of Wuchang must not have much force!"

"In view of these situations, my grandson suggested that when our army attacked the city tonight, we could use the weak ones to be solid, and use the cover of the darkness to burn less to concentrate the elite troops at the south gate of Wuchang, and the siege tables were also concentrated outside the south gate of Wuchang, so as to dig the wall overnight. At the same time, we should use the solid ones to be weak, and all the forty-two mother cannons seized by our army and our forty-two red cannons and bronze cannons outside the east gate of Wuchang, and all the flowering artillery shells were used to bombard the walls of Wuchang East Gate and the houses behind them, killing and killing the elites of Mangou who were ambushing here, and the old and weak soldiers behind them used more torches, making Mangou think that our main force was still at the east gate of Wuchang, and violently bombarding was just to cover up the tunnel excavation underground."

"In this way, our army's fierce artillery fire can not only severely damage the elite soldiers concentrated in the east gate of Mangou, attract the attention of the main force of Mangou, interfere with Mangou's judgment of our authentic excavation progress, and induce Mangou to continue to concentrate its main force at the east gate of Wuchang. Further, it can also support our army's south gate siege operation indirectly. Using the sound of artillery and night cover, engineers suddenly dispatched to dig the city wall, fill in explosives, and blow up the south gate of Wuchang. When Mangou noticed the real purpose of our army, it was too late!"

The old traitor Wu was silently thinking. After a while, the old traitor Wu raised his head and looked at the other two staff officers present, Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong. After seeing that they all nodded vigorously, the old traitor Wu smiled and said, "Then do it this way, it is in reality, and it is in reality. Play with Mangou and attack the south."

"Niece-in-law." Wu Yingqi suddenly pulled Fatty Lu's sleeves and whispered: "Don't forget, who was the first to promote you back then? You should just come to my account in the future, I can't treat you badly."

……………………

Although the Wu army had not yet begun to formally siege the city, judging from the progress of the tunnel excavation of the Wu army and the direction of the busy preparation of the army, the commanders on Miqing still concluded that the war was coming! In order to welcome the strong attack of the main force of the Wu army, Tuhai and Yue Le not only prepared to crack the tunnel siege tactics of the Wu army, but also concentrated a large number of elite troops to be stationed in the east gate of Wuchang so that they could be put into the battlefield at any time. At the same time, the army also prepared a large number of defense weapons such as rolling stones and wood to prevent the old traitor of Wu from being angry and forcibly siege the city after being blocked from the tunnel siege.

Just when he was busy, a new military report came - outside the south gate of Wuchang, he also found that the Wu army was mobilized! Hearing this news, Tuhai, Yue Le and Cai Yurong and other Qing army commanders did not dare to be negligent. They took the sky before dark, and rushed to the city tower at the south gate of Wuchang to check the enemy situation. The result was really like this. Outside the south gate of Wuchang, there was indeed a considerable number of Wu army troops, carrying siege weapons such as cloud ladders, cloud tai and rocket cars, gathering towards the open area outside the south gate of Wuchang. However, when he raised his telescope and looked at the flag of Wu army carefully, Tuhai, Yue Le and others all smiled happily - this Wu army was the Wu army Wu Yingqi team that had been beaten by the Qing army some time ago.

"Wu Sangui's old thief, are you still trying to play the game of attacking the east and west?" Tuhai smiled proudly and said, "I want to deliberately arrange the illusion of two southeast gates to cover up your authentic siege tactics? Dream!"

"The central hall, the south gate should not be careless." Cai Yurong reminded: "Be careful that Wu Gouming attacks the east gate and actually attacks the south gate, and turns the weak into the real one. According to the opinions of the lower officials, it is best to arrange more troops on the south gate to prevent any situation."

"That's right, be careful to sail the ten thousand-year-old ship." Tu Hai nodded heavily and ordered: "This is it. Tonight, Prince An and I will be responsible for the main battlefield of the East Gate. I will ask Cai Butang, here to the South Gate. I will draw 3,000 troops from the North Gate and the West Gate to come here to garrison 10,000 troops. If you find something wrong, you will ignite the fire on the city tower. We will send reinforcements to you immediately."

"Sister obeys the order." Cai Yurong agreed with his fists. However, at this time, a new military report proved that Cai Yurong was too afraid of the enemy. The lookout at the east gate of the Qing army found that nearly 100 large and small artillery of the Wu army were gathering and deploying outside the east gate of Wuchang!

Upon hearing this news, Tu Hai, Yue Le and others were both happy and worried. Of course, the Wu army really set the Wu Chang East Gate as the main battlefield, and the Wu army was worried that the Wu army was fierce artillery fire, and the Qing army gathered in the East Gate would inevitably suffer major losses. Finally, Cai Yurong suggested: "Tu Zhongtang, Prince An, otherwise, if all the people in the East Gate were driven to the northwest and let our reserve team live in the private houses, this would reduce a lot of unnecessary losses." Tu Hai and Yue Le were very satisfied when they heard this, and immediately followed the plan.

In fact, there is another hidden worry on the Qing army, that is, the Wu army's airship problem. Once the Wu army's airship flew over the east gate of Wuchang City to bomb, the Qing army was ready to prevent tunnel siege, and it would definitely not escape the eyes of the Wu army's airship. Fortunately, it may be the blessing of the wild boar skin's spirit in the sky. Today, the north wind in Wuchang City is quite fierce, and the wind speed and direction are not very suitable for Wu army's airship to be dispatched, so there was no airship on the Wu army's side flying into the sky. The deep trenches of the Qing army hiding behind the city walls were naturally not noticed by the Wu army. When the sky was basically dark, we began to wait for the main force of the Wu army to launch an attack, and then use sufficient defense to prepare to give the Wu army a head-on attack.

The day is short in late autumn, and before the third hour of Youth, the north wind was whistling outside Wuchang City was pitch black, and there was no fingers. However, outside the range of bows, arrows and artillery outside the east gate of Wuchang, the boundless torch bonfire reflects half of the sky red. The noise of people shouting and horse neighing can still be heard clearly from six or seven miles away. At the same time, the long-lost sound of excavation and breaking through the monitoring tank buried in Wuchang City finally sounded the sound of excavation and breaking through the ground. It was obvious that the Wu army engineers were already starting the final sprint excavation towards the east gate of Wuchang.

"Shaku, all go into the trenches!" Yue Le, who was responsible for commanding the Qing army engineers to fight against the Wu army engineers, issued a stern order, "Two people are responsible for each water tank, they both hear the ears on the water tank, and find the authentic location of Wu Gou, and report immediately."

The Qing army engineers followed the orders, all holding hoes and shovels in their hands, waiting for orders at any time. The carefully selected Qing soldiers with quick ears put their ears on the water tank and listened to the movements of the Wu army engineers. The Qing army engineers who were responsible for distributing poisonous smoke were also prepared with firewood, bellows and fire, and knelt on one knee against the dead corner of the city wall bullets, waiting for the order calmly.

"Boom!"

As soon as the Xu hour arrived, the first shot of the main force of the Wu army attacking Wuchang City finally started. In the thunder and flames, the first Wu army shell was out of the chamber, drawing a graceful parabola in the night sky, roaring towards the city wall at the east gate of Wuchang. Tuhai, who had a lot of experience in the battlefield, quickly let the army on the city hide in the dead corner behind the arrows, and used shields to protect the vital points of the chest, abdomen and face to avoid being shot by shrapnel. However, what surprised Tuhai was that Wu army's shells actually crossed the city wall and fell directly into the houses of the elite Qing army stationed in the Manchu Qing army and exploded.

"No way? Is it a coincidence? Or did Wu Gou have long expected that we would ambush elite soldiers in the houses near the East Gate?" Tu Hai cried in despair.
Chapter completed!