When Emperor Kangxi sent to Huguang, Eza, the general who "knows gambling best", prepared a stud and gathered all the elites at hand - not many in fact, just more than 20,000 people - to sneak across the Yangtze River and surprise Shimen. When he was about to seize Li Zicheng's home base, reverse the decline of Huguang in one fell swoop, and then concentrate his forces on the southern front to resist Wu Guogui. He had no idea that there was another gambler he was very familiar with at the "card table" in Huguang, the prince of the West, Wu Yingxiong!
Wu Yingxiong was also known as a good gambler when he was in Beijing. He was very unlucky and had poor gambling skills. He wouldn't leave the poker table after winning money until he lost it all. If his father wasn't Wu Sangui and his wife wasn't Princess Jianning, he would have lost all his family property and begged for food.
However, Wu Yingxiong has successfully quit gambling after returning to Wu Sangui. He has never been to the gambling table again, and there is no chance that he would deliberately lose points to him.
In a shooting range opened on a very rare flat land outside Kuizhou City, senior and mid-level officers from the six guards under Wu Yingxiong gathered together. Everyone was neatly dressed in robes and jackets, with shiny military boots. They surrounded Wu Yingxiong and carefully looked at the "country soldiers" lined up in a row.
They are real "country soldiers", all mountain people near Kuizhou. They were recruited as fusiliers by Wu Yingxiong's son Wu Shifan last month at the price of two taels of silver per month. There were not many recruits, and a total of more than a hundred and dozens of people were recruited. In addition, some old soldiers who were able to use shotguns were drawn from Wu Yingxiong's guards to serve as team deputy, platoon leader, and shed leader, and a standard " "Cantonese Fusiliers", the captain was of course Wu Shifan, who was a little too handsome. He was so handsome that he looked like a king! So good-looking, what if everyone is not afraid of him when he ascends the throne and becomes emperor?
Just when everyone felt that Wu Shifan was not fierce enough or scary enough, Wu Shifan suddenly looked hard, gave everyone a fierce look, and shouted: "Stand at attention!"
Hearing his shout, the group of recruits lined up with flintlock rifles immediately stood at attention. Two hundred people stood at attention together, clean and neat, and you could tell at a glance that they had been trained hard. And anyone who has ever led a soldier knows that kindness cannot lead a soldier!
Wu Shifan was able to train these mountain people to this point in such a short period of time, which seems a bit fierce.
"The gun under the shoulder"
Wu Shifan then shouted the command.
With a quite neat movement, the fusiliers lined up in two rows took off the flintlocks on their shoulders, with the muzzles pointing upward and the butts leaning on the ground.
"Load bullets!"
Wu Shifan continued to give orders.
The fusiliers quickly started loading ammunition - they still used custom-loaded paper shell ammunition!
Wang Zhongxiao still knew that he would join forces to fight against the Qing Dynasty, so he did not "keep a hand" with Wu Shifan, and taught him everything he needed to teach! Of course, he is not afraid that Wu Shifan will beat him if he learns real skills - because he holds Foshan Town, the largest iron smelting and handicraft industry center in East Asia, in his hands, and he also has the unique skill of mobilizing fusiliers to divide the land equally! These two trump cards are not so easy to learn!
In the blink of an eye, all the fusiliers had completed loading ammunition step by step according to the procedures they had practiced repeatedly for the past month!
This art of reloading a flintlock gun may seem complicated, but it is actually the easiest to practice among all weapons. A smarter person can master it in a day, and a dumber person can master it in a few days. If you can't learn it even in a few days, , then you won’t be able to get two taels of silver and a month’s military pay. After you learn it, you can train every day, and you will be proficient in ten and a half months.
Of course, hitting a target with a flintlock isn't that easy. What can be done in ten days and a half is loading, raising the gun, and shooting. As for whether you can hit it, just leave it to chance!
In addition to loading, raising guns, and shooting, fusiliers also need to master the two basic skills of queueing and bayonet charging.
The former is more complicated, but you can go from easy to difficult. First practice a horizontal formation and a column formation, and it will be enough if you can fight in a so-so way. The latter is easier. Just stick a bayonet and stab someone. How difficult is it? The worst case scenario is that someone will stab you!
"Raise the gun!"
Wu Shifan shouted again, and all the hundreds and dozens of flintlock guns were raised.
These one hundred and dozens of fusiliers were arranged in two rows. The positions of the front and rear rows were staggered, so the rear row could place their guns on the shoulders of the front row or extend the barrel of the gun from between the two. .
This firepower density is quite large!
At the same distance, the firepower density that a matchlock gun can achieve is probably only one-fifth to one-sixth of that of a flintlock gun!
This ratio alone can determine the outcome of the battle - whoever wants to hold one gun against the enemy's six guns will have to be timid even with Super Batulu!
"beat!"
Wu Shifan saw everyone raising their guns, and finally let out another loud shout!
Before he could finish his shout, the fusiliers had already pulled the triggers one after another. The flint clamps holding the flints hit the iron sickles, sparks immediately shot out, and the sparks ignited the gunpowder in the medicine pool. Then the propellant in the barrel was ignited, and fire and smoke erupted from the muzzle, and at the same time there were a series of "bang bang bang" gunshots!
As the gunfire rang out, a row of wooden targets erected thirty paces in front of the fusiliers were hit by bullets. The wood chips flew away, and the power of the bullets tore wooden slats and pieces of wood flying in all directions, at least five points. One of the wooden targets had a hole punched out.
All the officers watching the shooting gasped.
They are all experts. If this shooting occurs on a real battlefield, a burst of gunfire will knock down one-fifth of the enemies coming from the opposite side. No, even one-tenth of them will not be able to hold it back!
A volley of guns knocks down one-tenth, what happens after two, three, or four rounds?
I don’t know about other enemies, but the Manchus definitely can’t hold it, because there are too few of them, and the queuing and shooting method kills too many people, which is not suitable for them.
"Everyone, are the fusiliers trained by Shifan still usable?" Wu Yingxiong turned around and asked proudly.
"It's usable, it's so usable! The second young master is truly a genius!"
"Second Young Master, you are better than your master!"
"Your Majesty, if Lin'er is like this, why worry about Manchuria being immortal and the world being unjust!"
"Your Majesty, the Second Young Master's method works so well. Let's train more fusiliers!"
"Yes, yes, if we can have 30,000 fusiliers, we will have no problem conquering the world!"
Of course, these words contained a lot of flattery, but Wu Shifan's prestige was still improved a lot. Wu Yingxiong felt quite proud and was about to strike while the iron was hot and announced the expansion of the fusiliers. His prince, the governor Shi Wang Shirong, quickly walked up to Wu Yingxiong and muttered a few words in a low voice. Then Wu Yingxiong burst into laughter, causing everyone around him to laugh. A group of generals cast curious glances at him.
What happened to this prince?
What happy event happened to you?
Guo Zhuangtu asked: "Master, why should you laugh?"
Only then did Wu Yingxiong stop laughing and replied: "As expected, that gambler prince of Ezha finally couldn't help but risk his money to attack Li Zicheng's lair, Shimen!"
When the surrounding generals and staff heard what he said, they all cast admiring glances - Wu Yingxiong had indeed predicted that Eza would definitely bet on his capital!
Because this is Eza’s gambling style!
Wu Yingxiong looked at the people around him and said with a smile: "I'm not bragging, I know all about the gambling products of the popular Manchu princes in Beijing. In order to curry favor with them all those years ago, I pretended to export hundreds of thousands of taels!
I know very well what it is like for them to be jealous when they lose! This Eza, every time he got anxious, he would come and decide the outcome. At this time, those of us playing with him would conclude that the cheater lost to him! "
"Lost by cheating?" A general who was elated when he heard about gambling couldn't help but interjected, "Master, are you saying the opposite?"
"It's not counter-attack, it's just cheating." Wu Yingxiong gritted his teeth and said, "He is the iron king of Manchuria, how can I really make lose anxious? I made him anxious, and used the palace to compete with me, what should I do? manage?
But this time, hey, I won’t let him! "
"The prince is right, we can't let him go!" The general waved his fist and said, "Now we have a lot of capital to bet with him, and with Li Zicheng and the third master's people, we have an army of 100,000!"
"Bet with him?" Wu Yingxiong chuckled, "I won't bet with him! I want to cheat!
He knows how to gamble, and I know how to gamble. I know all his cards! As for my trump card, he doesn’t even know that I will send troops! Why should he bet with me? "
Then he said to the gambling general with a serious face: "Don't gamble anymore. Nine out of ten gambles are cheats! Do you understand?"
"I know the humble position!" How dare that gambler general say he doesn't know?
Wu Yingxiong nodded and said to his left and right: "Let's go back to the city and discuss how to fight the surprise attack on Xiangyang?"
On the 22nd of the first lunar month, the small Wuling City, the capital of Changde Mansion, had been surrounded on three sides by the left, right and rear battalions of the Fengtian Army under Li Zicheng, leaving only the side next to the Yuan River that could not be surrounded.
The middle camp led by Li Zicheng himself was placed in the Bailu Temple at the foot of Yangshan Mountain, six or seven miles north of Wuling City. As for the 2,400 people in the front camp of the Fengtian Army led by his grandnephew Li Laishun, they did not appear in the camp. Outside Wuling City
At this time, Li Zicheng immediately stood on the high ground to the north of Bailu Temple, followed by three tall generals who broke into the camp with gray hair and gray hair. There was also a circle of soldiers with green cloth and white hats around them, holding long spears and shotguns, on guard.
These three elderly generals who broke into the camp used to be Li Zicheng's most trusted guards. One was named Tian, one was named Miao, and one was named Fan. They all became monks in Jiashan Temple with Li Zicheng. Now they have finally come out of their misery. At this moment, he had taken off his cassock and put on his battle robe again, looking eager to try.
Huang Zhisheng, the magistrate of Lizhou, is now also a general in charge of the camp. He is wearing a Ming Dynasty-style blue cloth robe, shaking a paper fan, and standing next to Li Zicheng. He is advising: "Your Majesty, I am an old friend of Magistrate Xue of Changde. The money he needed to buy Changde Magistrate's money was lent to him by me. As long as I come forward, he will definitely surrender."
"You must surrender? Okay." Li Zicheng nodded repeatedly, "But it's still early, just wait."
"Wait? Your Majesty, it's time to wait!" Huang Zhisheng said, "If we wait any longer, we are afraid that the Tatars from the north of the Yangtze River will cross the river in large numbers and attack the old Shimen camp."
"Yes, we sneak attacked our old camp!" Li Zicheng smiled, "To tell you the truth, for so many years in Jiashan Temple, I often dreamed of Tatar soldiers coming to sneak attack. Oh, I also dreamed about a comeback, and also dreamed about my Dashun. The army is chasing the Tatars all over the world! Huang Taishou, tell me, is this dream accurate?"
"Accurate" Huang Zhisheng didn't understand what Li Zicheng meant, but he still said the word "accurate".
"Okay," Li Zicheng nodded, "Since it is accurate, it should come true! Now that you have persuaded the man named Xue to surrender, won't your dream stop working?"
What are these words? Did Li Zicheng become a monk and become dizzy? Why did he become so distracted?
"Your Majesty," Huang Zhisheng thought for a while and then asked tentatively, "Are you going to use a strategy to lure the enemy in? Lure all the Qing troops in Jiangbei to Jiashan, and then set up an ambush to catch them all?"
"Catch them all in one fell swoop?" Li Zicheng smiled coldly, "Well, why do you want to help Wu Sangui catch all the Tatars in one fell swoop? Wu Sangui has an army of 80,000 in Huguang, but he only has 15,000!"
He looked back at Huang Zhisheng, and his eyes suddenly turned cold: "Prefect Huang, in the past two days, I have dreamed that Wu Yingxiong succeeded in stealing Xiangyang, and Wu Guogui succeeded in seizing Changsha. Then the two of them pressed towards him together, intending to destroy him. This old king!"
Huang Zhisheng trembled: "Your Majesty, what are your plans?"
"Of course I have a plan!" Li Zicheng smiled and said, "It's okay to tell you. I don't plan to stay here in Lizhou, Jingnan, and Changde forever. Sooner or later, I will be squeezed to death by Wu Sangui, and I will have to jump out. Go to a place farther away from Wu Sangui and open up a new situation!"
Li Zicheng had seen through Wu Sangui a long time ago. He had already lost his country once because of Wu Sangui's "anger for beauty". If he couldn't see through it again, wouldn't he be a fool?
"Your Majesty, where do you plan to jump?" Huang Zhisheng asked.
Li Zicheng smiled and asked: "How about Wuchang? First, I asked Li Laishun to dismantle the pontoon bridge used by the Tatars to cross the river, and then used the large ship with the pontoon bridge as a warship to sail down the river to surprise Yuezhou. The spy reported that Eza had sent someone to Yuezhou intercepted many grain ships returning to Hunan from Hankou and detained them in Yuezhou. If we can capture these ships, we can take the entire army and family members south along the Yangtze River and attack Wuchang City! As long as we can capture Wuchang If you go to the north, you can take the Dabie Mountains, to the east, you can take Jiangnan, and to the south, you can take Jiangxi Governor Huang. If you take Wuchang in equal proportion, how about I make you the governor of Hubei?"
"Chen Zhisheng, thank you so much for your support and guidance!"
When Huang Zhisheng heard this, he immediately became excited! It’s not that Li Zicheng promised him the governorship of Hubei, but that Li Zicheng’s strategy of jumping out of the narrow area west of Dongting Lake is really promising!
He had seen that Li Zicheng was very diligent in equalizing land in Lizhou, Jingnan, Changde and other places. He thought that this Li Zicheng had decided to be a bandit west of Dongting Lake for the rest of his life!
It is not impossible to act as a bandit, but the hatred between Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui is too deep. Although Wu Sangui is pretending to be confused and pretends that Li Zicheng does not exist, this is only a temporary policy. Once Wu Sangui takes over the Huguang Department, he will definitely encircle and suppress him. Li Zicheng!
Therefore, Li Zicheng had no way out if he stayed west of Dongting Lake. It was also not feasible to go north to Jingzhou and then north to Xiangyang. Because this will create a situation where Li Zicheng is in the middle, Kangxi is in the north, and Wu Yingxiong and Wu Guogui are in the south.
When the time comes, Li Zicheng will be attacked from the north and south by Kangxi and Wu Sangui, and they will not end well.
Once the eastward march to Wuchang is successful, the situation will become brighter.
After Wu Sangui captured the lands of Shaanxi-Gansu and Jingxiang, he would definitely regard attacking Beijing as his main goal. He would only use a small number of troops to contain Li Zicheng, who was entrenched in Wuchang and invaded Jiangxi.
The Qing Dynasty will definitely not regard Li Zicheng as its main opponent. Recapturing Shaanxi or defending Henan and Shanxi is the top priority, followed by protecting the financial resources of Jiangnan and Jiangbei.
As for Wang Fuchen and Wang Zhongxiao in Guangdong, and Geng Jingzhong in Fujian, not only will they not become enemies with Li Zicheng, they may even form an alliance with Li Zicheng to fight against the powerful Wu Sangui and the Manchu court.
On February 2, the dragon raises its head.
The spring rain in Jingzhou has fallen sparsely. The rain is a bit fierce, a bit like a summer rainstorm. When the rain is at its strongest, standing on the bank of the Yangtze River, there is a vast expanse of white, and no one can be seen dozens of feet away. Everything seems to be covered by a celestial river flowing from heaven to earth.
In this vast expanse of white and fog, groups of officers and soldiers, wearing bamboo hats and raincoats, carrying flags and weapons, drove out from Jingzhou City towards a newly built horizontal bridge at Shashikou. Go across the floating bridge across the river.
The number of this army is quite large. The front team has already arrived at Shashikou and stepped onto the pontoon bridge in an orderly manner. The rear team has just emerged from Jingzhou City with cannons and baggage vehicles!
Prince Xin of the Qing Dynasty and General Eza of Fuyuan himself were also in this brigade. However, he did not ride on horseback wearing a raincoat, but sat in a spacious two-wheeled carriage with Cai Yurong, the governor of Huguang.
This carriage was very well built. Even though it was raining heavily outside, there was no leakage inside. Moreover, there is a brazier inside the carriage, which is very warm and comfortable. You don't feel the dampness and coldness of Jingzhou spring at all.
Eza seemed to be in a good mood, humming a little tune while rocking forward in the carriage. However, Cai Yurong beside him always looked a little sad, and would sigh slightly from time to time.
"Ren'an, why are you sighing! It's a nice rainy day. It's white and foggy, which is just the right cover for our army to cross the river. By the time Li Zicheng's people find out, we'll almost have arrived at Shimen!" Eza smiled and said, Then he said, "We will definitely win this one. This is Tianhu's card!"
After hearing what Eza said, Cai Yurong could only squeeze out a smile to cope.
This prince treated the war as gambling, but someone was coaxing him while he was gambling. The war was for real, and all the deceitful and evil ones were involved. Li Zicheng was so cunning and a rebel, he could really seduce this gambler prince. The way?
It’s a bit confusing!
(End of chapter)
