In order to prevent the enemy from attacking at night, Ouyang Xuan ordered the entire army to sleep in their clothes, and set up two posts and two sentries to strengthen the warning. However, the Mongolian troops in the city did not come to attack at night, or even harass them, which allowed the soldiers of the Perak Army to sleep well. When Ouyang Xuan woke up the next day, he saw that the camp was shrouded in thick fog. Not to mention that he couldn't see the city head two miles away, even the breastworks outside the camp were dimly visible in the white mist. Although the winter in western Sichuan is always gloomy, such heavy fog is extremely rare. It is impossible to attack a city in this kind of foggy weather. Hitting the target with artillery depends on luck, just like letting a blind cat catch a mouse. At the same time, there was still no news about the navy from the direction of Xinjin City, so Ouyang Xuan had no choice but to suspend his plan to attack the city and wait for the thick fog to dissipate before making plans.
At noon, the thick fog had completely dissipated, but there was still no news from the Xinjin Village navy. Early in the morning, Cao Ergou sent a clipper to brave the heavy fog and go down the river to contact him. It is said that Xinjin City is only fifty miles away from Chongqing Fucheng. A navy ship can reach it in a day even if it goes upstream. If it takes a fast boat, it can reach it in half a day. But so far, not only have we not seen the Xinjin Village ship, but we have not even seen the contact boats. It's really strange to see one. The soldiers of the Perak Army were already gearing up and eager to try, but Ouyang Xuan thought over and over again and decided to wait for the navy from Xinjin City and wait for the two armies to join forces before attacking the city.
The city walls of Chongqing Mansion are tall and well-equipped with facilities such as moats, archery towers, and horse faces. Its defense is not even a little stronger than that of Yongkang City. It is definitely a tough nut to crack. Take the city wall covered with blue bricks as an example. Light artillery has limited effect on it. To open the gap, people must rush to the root of the city wall and use explosive bags to blast multiple times to explode. However, this will consume a lot of gunpowder. , there will be many casualties among the Perak Army warriors. Ouyang Xuan and other Xinjin navy troops attacked the city together, not only for political considerations, but also to minimize the casualties of the Perak soldiers.
At dusk in the afternoon, there was still no news about the Xinjin City navy, which made Ouyang Xuan a little anxious. "Soldiers are valuable and quick", the longer the delay is, the more disadvantageous it will be to the attacking party. This time in the attack on Fucheng, the Pili Army came as a guest force to assist, but the protagonist did not appear for a long time, which seemed a bit like the emperor was not in a hurry and the eunuch was. You must know that after capturing Chongqing Mansion, Pan Tongzhi will definitely send people to garrison it, while the Perak Army will only retreat to the mountains. The Perak Army's supply line is too long and there are no ships. The only way to attack Chongqing City is through the land route, which is time-consuming and laborious. The logistics transportation of grain, grass, ammunition and other supplies is under great pressure. If they are attacked by the Mongolian cavalry that comes and go like the wind, the trouble will be even greater. Big. Ouyang Xuan thought over and over again and decided to make preparations to attack the city before dark. If the navy came tomorrow, they would attack the city together. If the Pili army did not come, they would attack the city alone. The officers and soldiers of the Perak Army were already impatient. After hearing the order, they got busy in a hurry. In fact, many preparations had been completed. Only the artillery was not range-finding and calibrated due to the heavy fog. Seeing the strange movements in the Perak Army camp, the new auxiliary troops at the top of the city also became alert. Especially when a few test-fired artillery shells hit the city wall, it caused chaos at the top of the city.
It was already dusk after preparations for the siege were made. At this time, the leading soldiers began to cook food. The aroma made everyone hungry. Ouyang Xuan's heart moved and he called Tang Xiangwei, the commander of the sixth company, and asked him to choose more than ten people with loud voices. The soldiers brought deliciously roasted bacon, noodles and other food to the bottom of the city tower and shouted loudly: "Brothers in Chongqing Mansion, stop working for the Mongolian Tatars. Come to the Perak Army to eat well and wear warm clothes." When the hungry defenders above heard the shouts of Tang Xiangwei and other old friends, there was naturally another commotion.
Late at night, the liaison speedboat sent to Xinjin City came back. Ouyang Xuan saw that Mr. Yu and the others who were accompanying him were shivering from the cold, so he asked them to warm themselves over the fire and eat. After eating the hot food, the faces of several people who were blue from the cold gradually turned dark red, but Yu Laodou still looked dejected. Ouyang Xuanping left the crowd to wait, leaving only Cao Ergou and Huang Dagen beside him. He listened to a few people talk about going to Xinjin City to contact the navy.
After setting off, several people took the helm and paddled while carefully observing the situation ahead. Although the boat was sailing along the current at an extremely fast speed, Yu Laodou still felt it was too slow and kept urging him to row. Later, he simply took the oar and started rowing by himself. This was originally understandable. After all, more than ten days had passed since he was sent to Wanjiaping as a liaison officer years ago, and he really missed his brothers in the navy. They looked along the way while sailing, but they never saw the navy ships that were supposed to go up the river. It was not until they arrived at the navy camp in Xinjin City that they saw that the warships were still parked at their berths, with no intention of setting sail.
On the way to the Navy Yamen, Mr. Yu asked about the situation of the Navy standing still, but all his colleagues were hesitant and kept secrets. Yu Laodou was so angry that he had no choice but to go to see the new navy leader Pan Luohuan with full of dissatisfaction. However, he was severely scolded by him: "When to send troops is a military aircraft. I have my own opinion. What do you do?" My subordinates are supposed to deal with things, but why are they led by Ouyang Xuan? Could it be that you took advantage of him and spoke for him? Go back and tell Ouyang Xuan, I have my own ideas when to send troops, no? He needs to make noise." Yu Laodou's face turned red and he was about to defend himself, but Pan Luohuan didn't give him a chance to speak and directly kicked him out of the Navy Yamen.
Yu Laodig was unwilling to go back, so he quietly went around to find out the news. Colleagues with whom he had good friendships secretly told him that Pan Tongzhi, on Pu Zezhi's orders, had accompanied Yu Xing, deputy envoy of Sichuan and Jiading prefecture governor, to lead an army to Chengdu. Pan Luohuan now had the final say in Xinjin City. The reason why Pan Luo Huan delayed setting off was that he wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight. If the Perak Army won, the city would also belong to the Pan family. If the Perak Army was defeated, that would be better. Rather than gain or lose the city, Pan Luohuan would rather see the failure of Ouyang Xuan and the Pili Army to vent his hatred.
The more Yu Lao dug talked, the angrier he became, and he told Pan Tongzhi's rejection of dissidents and Pan Luohuan's wanton behavior one by one. Due to the misbehavior of the uncle and nephew, the original generals of the navy were ostracized and were either dismissed or left. Naturally, the vacated positions were filled with close associates of the Pan family. Le Quan'an and Yu Laodou were officers skilled in water warfare, but they were deliberately sent as messengers and liaison officers, and their vacated official positions were replaced by flatterers.
"Uncle and nephew of the Pan family have misled the country. Now Xinjin City's naval forces have almost no combat power, and the future is worrying," Yu Laodou sighed angrily.
