Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Taiping blood

Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 339: Three Wooden Cities

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    Xianfeng's edict to appoint Shu Xing'a, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, as the imperial envoy to suppress bandits in Jiangxi and to control the various Qing armies seems to have arrived a bit late. The various Qing armies were not under each other's control, and after wandering around in chaos outside Nanchang for more than half a month, Xianfeng's order  The arrival of the Taoist Imperial Edict solved the embarrassing situation of the Qing army without a leader.

    Shu Xing'a is a member of the Zhenglan Banner in Manchuria, the Hesheli family, and a Jinshi in the twelfth year of Daoguang's reign.  In the 22nd year, he was promoted to a bachelor of the cabinet, a minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the deputy capital of Mongolia in Xianghuang Banner.  He was awarded the title of Minister of the Ministry of War in Shengjing.  In the following year, he took charge of the affairs of the royal family and Jueluo official school.  In the twenty-fourth year, he was awarded the title of Minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  He has served as the counselor of Ili, the general of Ili, the minister of affairs in Hotan, and the minister of affairs in Aksu.  In the first year of Xianfeng, he was appointed Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Hubu, served as minister of military aircraft, and was promoted to governor of Shaanxi and Gansu.  Historically, he fought against the Taiping Army in Shanxi and Henan for a long time in order to deal with the Taiping Army in the Northern Expedition. However, because the Taiping Army did not launch the rogue-style Northern Expedition, Shu Xing'a led the Shaanxi-Gansu Qing army in Hunan.  Donghe fought against the Taiping Army.  Looking at the Qing generals outside Nanchang at this time, only he had the qualifications to command the entire army.

    After ending the period of not leading each other and fighting on their own, the Qing army finally recovered. Shu Xing'a ordered the Qing army to set up camp and confront the Taiping army.

    At this time, stationed in Nanchang City were Jiang Zhongyuan, an old rival of the Taiping Army, and Zhang Fei, who had been demoted to Jiangxi Inspector and Jiangxi Assistant League Training Minister.  Zhang Fu was originally the governor of Jiangxi, but he was demoted and retained because of his ineffective battle against the Taiping Army. This man and Jiang Zhongyuan were of the same mind. The two worked together to defend Nanchang, which was as stable as Mount Tai.

    Jiang Zhongyuan had seriously thought about the deployment of the Qing army since the last reinforcements in Shanghai were defeated. In his opinion, the Taiping Army's Eastern Expedition was a cruel move, not only interrupting water and sea transportation, but also disrupting the Qing army's military construction.  The possibility of Jiangnan Camp threatening Tianjing, and what is even more frightening is that the Taiping Army and foreigners actually colluded, which makes the situation even more complicated.

    Jiang Zhongyuan has a clear mind and is not as optimistic as Xianfeng. In his opinion, this Changmao Rebellion is more difficult than the San Francisco Rebellion during the Kangxi period.  What the Qing army has to do now is not to attack, but to consider how to defend.  Defend the Taiping Army's future offensive, then form a stalemate, and then rely on the power of the whole country to slowly consume the Taiping Army. It will be impossible to defeat the Taiping Army in less than ten years.

    It¡¯s a pity that his opinion was criticized for a while after he wrote to Xianfeng. However, after the reply in the memorial, Xianfeng mindlessly added, ¡°The hinterland of Jiangxi is a barrier between Guangdong and Guangxi, and Nanchang must not be lost.¡±

    Based on Jiang Zhongyuan¡¯s understanding of his emperor¡¯s master, it was impossible for him to reprimand him.  Say this at the end.  Jiang Zhongyuan was a little puzzled.  But Jiang Zhongyuan was still very happy that Xianfeng did not blindly urge Jiang Zhongyuan to send all his troops to attack the Taiping Army.  Therefore, Jiang Zhongyuan and Zhang Fu repaired the city defenses, strengthened the city walls, recruited regiments and trained new soldiers in Nanchang, burned down the houses outside the city, set up strongholds on the highlands outside the city, and dug trenches to connect the city, making Nanchang City look like a railway.

    It¡¯s also a credit to Jiang Zhongyuan that he was prepared.  When the Taiping Army attacked, more than 20,000 Qing troops in Nanchang City were trained to defend the city. The city defenses were reinforced. The outside of the city became an open space without any obstruction. There were a lot of money, food and equipment stored in the city.  Yang Fuqing's troops laid siege for half a month and lost thousands of soldiers and horses. Jiang Zhongyuan failed to attack the city in caves and forcibly attack it. The Taiping Army did not even capture several important places outside the city that were at the horns of Nanchang City.  If it weren't for Chen Yucheng's troops in the West Palace, they defeated the Qing reinforcements one after another.  The Taiping Army did not even dare to camp outside the city.

    The Battle of Nanchang until now is somewhat like the Battle of Changsha in history. However, the connection between Nanchang City and Qing army reinforcements has not yet been established. The Qing army only needs to open up the connection with the city and connect the camp positions outside the city with the Qing army inside the city.  The army is connected.  That would truly be invincible.

    Therefore, after gaining a foothold, the Qing troops who came for reinforcements fought repeatedly with the Taiping Army outside the city. They hoped to open up connections with Jiang Zhongyuan's deployment in several important places outside the city.  However, the Taiping Army repeatedly blocked the move, and the two sides began a tug-of-war that lasted for more than ten days.

    The south of the city is where Chen Yucheng's Taiping Army is stationed. It is also a nail between the Shu Xing'a Department and Jiang Zhongyuan's Department of the Qing Army. Therefore, it is under the greatest pressure. Fortunately, Chen Yucheng's Department has many muskets and artillery, and he built three more  Built in the shape of a wooden city, the Qing army failed to gain any benefit from its several attacks. On the contrary, it suffered heavy losses.

    Ronglu had few soldiers, and Shu Xing'a didn't take it too seriously. However, at this time, most of the Qing army's supplies came from Hengyang, Hunan, so most of the Ronglu troops were assigned the task of guarding the grain road, so there was not much risk.  Ronglu came to see the show, so he didn't do any harm. On the contrary, he brought a large amount of tobacco and soil, bulked it up in Jiangxi, and purchased a batch of Jiangxi porcelain, tea, raw silk, etc., which made a lot of profit.  rich.

    Shu Xing Ali convened the generals for several days to discuss strategies to defeat the enemy. The generals were all old men and women, and they all said that in order to defeat the four-eyed dog, he must first destroy his three wooden cities.  Since Chen Yucheng led the army alone, he has defeated the Qing army.At the age of seventeen, he commanded tens of thousands of troops and became the youngest general in both the Qing and Taiping armies.  Ronglu was already eighteen years old at this time. Although he also held the title of Commander-in-Chief, he seemed inferior to Chen Yucheng.  Chen Yucheng defeated the Qing army in a row, and because of the moles under his eyes, the Qing army called Chen Yucheng a four-eyed dog, a four-eyed dog that was very good at biting people.

    Shu Xing'a also knew that to defeat Chen Yucheng, he must first defeat his three wooden cities. However, Chen Yucheng's three wooden cities had sharp artillery and strong defenses, and the Qing army's artillery could not reach them.  Upon seeing this, Ronglu offered to purchase more than ten Western artillery pieces to bombard the Taiping Army. However, at this time, the foreigners were at odds with the court over the exchange of contracts, and the foreigners were not willing to sell high-performance artillery to the Qing army. Seeing Ronglu  When he said this, Shu Xing Apo didn't believe it.

    In the end, Ronglu persuaded Shu Xing'a, saying that he had a businessman who could buy the goods for him, but the price was more expensive, so Shu Xing'a agreed to Ronglu with the attitude of giving it a try.

    As a result, Ronglu sold the more than ten Western artillery pieces he purchased to Shu Xing'a at ten times the price, and made a lot of money from it.  Zeng Guoquan was very dissatisfied when he heard about this. He must know that the more than ten cannons were weapons of the Hunan Army. Although they were sold at a good price, they could not all be sold.

    Ronglu did not explain much to Zeng Guoquan, but only promised to purchase more artillery in two months, which temporarily suppressed Zeng Guoquan's dissatisfaction.

    More than twenty days later, Ronglu delivered the artillery. Shu Xing'a had already ordered people to build a mountain of earth, so the Qing army sent the artillery to the mountain, set up artillery on the mountain, and bombarded the wooden city with artillery every day.

    Chen Yucheng was also too careless. He did not expect that the Qing army could obtain so many Western cannons. When the Qing army was building fortifications at Tushan, he thought that the Qing army was building fortifications. After more than a month of fighting, the ammunition  Some couldn't keep up, so they ignored the Qing army on Tushan Mountain.

    But he did not expect that the Qing army on Tushan Mountain suddenly fired artillery on this day. Chen Yucheng was caught off guard. Eight cannons were destroyed, causing heavy casualties and many damage to the wooden city.  Fortunately, there were many Taiping soldiers, and in the evening, manpower was organized to repair the areas that were destroyed by artillery fire every day.

    Chen Yucheng was furious and ordered the Taiping Army artillery to bombard Tushan the next day. The two sides began an artillery battle. After the artillery battle, the Taiping Army sent troops to raid Tushan many times, but the Qing army was also heavily defended and was beaten back.

    The artillerymen of the Qing army were not as skilled as the artillerymen of the Taiping army in handling Western artillery. After several days of artillery battles, the losses were not small. Shu Xing'a felt sorry for those 30,000 taels of artillery. That night he summoned Ronglu to ask about countermeasures.

    After Ronglu arrived, he ordered people to carry a sand table and place it in the center of the camp. On it were the mountains and rivers of Nanchang City, all of which were displayed on this small sand table. When the generals saw this, they were all amazed.  .  Shu Xing'a's eyes lit up even more, and all the other generals gathered around to watch.  I saw that the positions, camps, troops and horses of the enemy and our armies were clearly marked above. The generals all admired the talent of this weak-headed general for being able to come up with such exquisite artifacts for marching and formation.

    Ronglu walked to the sand table, pointed with a bamboo stick at the Qing army camp outside Jinxian Gate in Nanchang, and said: "Now our army has gathered together, and the company camp is here. Opposite are three long-haired wooden cities, with a camp in the middle.  The trenches and wooden fences serve as barriers to block our communication with Master Jiang in the city. Now that our army wants to break the siege of Nanchang, we only need to open the Jinxian Gate so that the city can receive the support of our army's food, grass, baggage, and soldiers, and Nanchang can be defended for a long time.  .So tomorrow, I think I should destroy these three wooden cities first!"

    Shu Xing'a frowned and said: "We have been attacking the three wooden cities here for many days. They are extremely strong and have many long-haired soldiers. The middle barracks are connected. Long-haired can pass through the forts to send more troops to the three wooden cities at any time. It is difficult to pull out the long-haired cities in a hurry.  The guns and artillery are sharp, and our army's artillery battle is at a disadvantage, what can we do?"

    Ronglu chuckled and said: "Changmao and our army have been attacking for three years. They besieged and destroyed the city. They all liked to attack in holes. They buried gunpowder under the city wall and blew open the city wall to attack. Now we are following the way of others.  In the past few days, my subordinates have taken advantage of the artillery fire to hit the wooden city and sent hundreds of people to dig tunnels. They have already dug three tunnels under the wooden city. They will put gunpowder on them tomorrow morning and follow the same method. Three of their tunnels will be dug.  If you blow up a wooden city and then the whole army breaks out, you will definitely succeed in one fell swoop!"

    All the generals of the Qing Dynasty were overjoyed when they heard this. Jiang Zhongyuan's younger brother Jiang Zhongjun and Jiang Zhongyuan's old subordinate Liu Changyou were even more happy. Jiang Zhongjun even shouted that he would take the lead tomorrow to avenge his brother Jiang Zhongji who died at the hands of Chen Yucheng.  Shu Xing'a was overjoyed. He didn't expect that Rong Lu had already arranged everything calmly. As soon as Mucheng left, Jiang Zhongjun's fierce troops, supplemented by various troops and horses, would definitely be able to break the siege of Nanchang in one fell swoop. Everyone looked happy at the moment.  At that moment, Shu Xing'a sent various ministries to prepare, and he was going to break the city in one fell swoop tomorrow.
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report