"Since the great grandson thinks so about Shijue, you can come to the rear of the palace!"
Wu Guogui turned to look at his son and handed him the most difficult task.
"What? My queen?" Wu Shijue was stunned.
It’s not easy to be a royal warrior!
Although the opponent is his sister, nephew and old friend, the tasks he undertakes are related to the success or failure of the overall situation, so the opponent will definitely not hold back!
Wu Guogui nodded and said: "Shijue, as a father, I have thought over and over again, and only you can take on the responsibility of the palace army. This responsibility of the palace army is directly related to the life and death of our great Zhou Dynasty. It is difficult for non-generals to shoulder this responsibility, and it is difficult for non-clan members to shoulder this responsibility." . Shijue, you have generals and talents, and you are my clan member of Wu Zhou Dynasty. If you don’t want to serve as the palace army, you will delay the Ming Dynasty’s Guangdong army from marching north. Looking at the army, who else can take charge?”
Wu Shijue frowned deeply and already understood: "Father, is the Battle of Hunan the decisive battle?"
Wu Guogui nodded lightly and said: "This time Li Fuchen and Li Zhongshan took advantage of the great victory in Jiangxi to invade Hunan. Now our prince is trapped in Jiujiang, and the emperor is seriously ill in Hengyang. It was they who gathered the troops from the southeast and Guangdong to make a big move." , a God-given opportunity to join forces to capture Hunan. Li Fuchen and Li Zhongshan have been blessed with good fortune in the past few years, and they are very proud! How could they miss such an opportunity?
As for us, the three towns of Jiangxia, Hanyang, and Hankou are still there after all, and Jiujiang can still support it for a while. The Ming army was temporarily unable to advance by land and water, and their food routes were not smooth. It was difficult for them to stay in Hunan for a long time, so they could only seek a quick decision. Hunan is the home ground of our army, and the food, grass and civilians can be replenished on the spot, so the supply advantage lies with me!
The King of Qin's army is about to enter Hunan. Our army can at least gather hundreds of thousands of troops for the decisive battle. If we can temporarily block one of the two Ming armies with a powerful force, and then concentrate our forces on the other to start the battle, then the outcome of the Battle of Hunan will be The advantage in military strength is also on our side!
Shijue, do you now know how important your role as the Imperial Army is? "
It has to be said that Wu Guogui's battle organization ability is second to none among today's Wu and Zhou armies. Immediately, he keenly found the only chance for Wu Zhoujun to regain the situation from the current rather unfavorable situation - taking advantage of Wu Sangui's death and Wu Yingxiong's still holding on to death, seize the time to gather the Chu Palace, Qin Palace and The emperor's own army went to battle with the main force of the Ming army that invaded Hunan from Jiangxi.
In order to ensure that they could have superior strength in the battle, they had to send out elite troops to delay the Ming Guangdong Army from the north of Guangdong.
It's just that it's not the least bit difficult to lead an army to lag the Ming army in Guangdong. Guangdong is an "old republican area". Once the Guangdong Chinese army is mobilized, there will definitely be a lot of people!
In order to ensure that Wu Guogui could concentrate more troops on the northern front, he could not leave too many troops on the southern front to lag the Ming army. That's why he wanted to give this task to Wu Shifan. If it didn't work out, let this grandson be the Western King of the Ming Dynasty!
But Wu Shifan was unwilling, so Wu Shijue had to take action. It seemed that they were the only two people who could complete such a task with extremely high risks and little benefit.
"Father," Wu Shijue knew that he could not refuse, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Then we will first defeat the Ming army coming from Nanxiong, and then scare off the Ming army coming from Lianshan. Then you can lead the main force quickly Go north, and lead 20,000 people to the south to attack Qujiang. Using your banner, bluffing, and pretending to attack Guangdong again, we should be able to delay the Ming army in Guangdong for some time."
"Okay!" Wu Guogui smiled and nodded, "Shijue, you have a good plan. From now on, until my father goes north, you will be in charge, and my father will be watching from the side!"
He wanted to train his son's battle organization skills! It is one thing to make plans, but it is another thing to actually organize a battle - this time Wu Guogui went south, it was a battle that neither warring party had organized well. Wu Guogui and Wu Xiaotuo, a loving father and filial daughter, deceived each other for several months. In the end, Wu Guogui had to take risks because Wu Sangui suffered a disastrous defeat in Jiangxi, and fell into Wu Xiaotuo's trap.
However, because He Tianran's battle organization ability was much worse than that of Wu Guogui, he failed to organize the battle to encircle and annihilate Wu Guogui, and he ran away due to an oversight.
Now it's Wu Shijue's turn to perform!
Wu Guogui made this arrangement with good intentions.
If Wu Shijue could organize this difficult battle to delay the Cantonese army's march north, even if he defected to Li Zhongshan in the future, he would be of great use - three armies are easy to obtain, but a general is hard to find, and handsome men are more valuable than generals. Hard to find!
Moreover, Wu Shijue himself is also a shareholder of Gonghe Ming Dynasty, one of the earliest members of the Tiandi Society, and the uncle of Li Zhongshan. He belongs to the kind of people who have the option of "Gonghe Ming Dynasty"! If he still has handsome talent, he will definitely show off his talents if he throws it over. Not only can he be the King of the West, he can also be a powerful King of the West!
Hengyang, the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty is here.
In the study room of Wu Sangui's palace, there is a strong smell of Chinese medicine. Wu Sangui, who was already a little old, was looking at each other silently with his second son Wu Yingqi. The troops brought by Wu Yingqi from Shaanxi are now crossing the river in Jingzhou. And he himself hurriedly came to Hengyang to meet Wu Sangui, who was already seriously ill. Liu Xuanchu stood aside, his face full of sorrow.
It was quiet in the main hall, and only the sound of Wu Sangui's coughing could be heard. Wu Sangui weakly picked up a bowl of dark Chinese medicine and drank it with a frown. Only then did he feel a little better and stopped coughing.
Wu Sangui put down the medicine bowl, covered his face with a pair of hands full of age spots, and sighed deeply: "One careless move will cause you to lose everything. I have been fighting all my life, but I don't know how to fight with water. I didn't expect this water It’s so difficult to fight. Those tower ships look big and strong, but why can’t they defeat those old lock ships that can’t move on their own when facing the wind and current?”
Seeing Wu Sangui being so entangled in this matter, Wu Yingqi was quite speechless. He had come all the way from Shaanxi to Hunan, traveling day and night, not just to hear the old man say such regretful words.
"Father, don't be sad. Although our navy cannot defeat the Ming army, my son has brought a lot of Gansu and Shaanxi cavalry this time!" Wu Yingqi patted his chest and said, "These cavalry are good at fighting with artillery, musketeers, When the spearmen cooperated with them in the Western Regions against the Yeerqiang, Heshuote, Junggar and other tribes, they were quite sharp! The Ming army had very few cavalry and lacked draft horses. The artillery that could be brought in from Hunan would certainly not be too powerful. There are many, so our advantage is still huge!”
When Wu Sangui defeated Jiangxi and retreated to Hunan, his fateful place of Hengyang, Wu Yingqi's son Wu Shicong used a mere 10,000 to 20,000 troops to massacre all parties in the Western Region. The Wu and Zhou army, equipped with a small number of flintlock muskets, can coordinate the use of musketeers, pikemen, artillery, and cavalry, and can launch large-scale lance charges. It can crush the armies of Yeerqiang and Heshuote. Even Junggar No one can resist it.
Wu Sangui also seemed very pleased to hear what his son said. He smiled and said to Wu Yingqi: "The prince is trapped in Jiujiang. You should encourage him."
As soon as he said these words, Liu Xuanchu's expression changed drastically as he stood aside. And Wu Yingqi even knelt down with a plop: "Father, I don't dare to be Zhu Gaoxu!"
Wu Sangui waved his hand and said: "Second brother, do you think that if Zhu Di cannot successfully capture Zhu Yunwen and instead fights a game of North and South, who will inherit the throne? The prince who cannot fight, or the King of Han who is good at conquering? Although I have the advantage in the First World War in Hunan, Li Fuchen and Li Zhongshan are not easy to eliminate. The most they can do is withdraw to Jiangxi. The third child's sneak attack on Guangdong failed and is now retreating to Hunan. And the Yangtze River waterway is now clear The army and navy are firmly in control. It seems difficult to save the three towns of Jiangxia, Hanyang, and Hankou. Therefore, even if we win the battle of Hunan, we are still at a disadvantage. It seems that I am not able to hand over a great country to you. I can only I’ve left a mess for you and Shi Cong to clean up! Your elder brother can’t clean up this mess!”
"Father, there is also a grandson here!" Wu Yingqi reminded in a low voice.
Wu Sangui shook his head: "If he can't wait until the battle in Hunan is over, I will arrange for him to go to Nanjing to join Li Zhongshan, so you don't have to worry about him."
Listening to Old Man Wu's tired tone, Ma Bao and Liu Xuanchu felt sour in their hearts and almost shed tears. Both of them had already felt that Wu Sangui had passed away soon, and they could also feel that Wu Sangui was already discouraged about Wu Zhou's future.
This may also be because he feels that his days are numbered, right?
But having said that, Wu Sangui's death at this moment would indeed be very detrimental to the overall situation!
Because within Wu Zhou, excluding Wu Sangui himself, there have always been three major factions: the Prince Faction, the Qin King Faction, and the Chu King Faction, and these three factions are very independent. This time Wu Sangui did not take Wu Yingqi or Wu Guogui with him in his eastward expedition to Jiangxi, but only took Wu Yingxiong. The purpose was actually to support the prince line and create favorable conditions for Wu Yingxiong to take over in the future.
But no one expected that Wu Zhoujun actually lost the water battle that he shouldn't have lost even though he had the advantage. He ended up playing second fiddle to Chen Youliang!
Therefore, Wu Sangui had no choice but to support Wu Yingqi to take over, lest his lifelong foundation be wasted in the future!
Wu Sangui felt very tired at this time - he had been recuperating in Hengyang during this period, and had planned to move to Jingzhou or Xiangyang on the north bank of the Yangtze River to take up residence. But since he arrived in Hengyang, his illness seems to be getting worse and worse.
Thinking of this, Wu Sangui sighed, then pointed at Liu Xuanchu and said to Wu Yingqi: "Lao San has already formulated a decisive battle strategy. I have let Xuanchu read it and he thinks it is good. You can also take a look. If you think it is good, Just follow it! But the coach of this battle is still you, so fight well, Da Zhou will depend on you!"
He was already a little tired, so he waved to Wu Yingqi and Liu Xuanchu, "You go and discuss it, I'm tired!"
On the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, Chalingguan Town.
The sound of artillery suddenly fell silent, followed by rhythmic drum beats and sporadic gunshots.
Accompanied by the sound of drums, advancing unhurriedly towards the cave-in of the wall of Chalingguan Town where Jieshu's remnants were guarding, were two fusilier battalions that formed a charging column. These two fusilier battalions are from Model No. 1 Town and Model No. 2 Town respectively. These two towns, plus Model No. 3 Town in Guangdong, are today. Perhaps they are the only three fusilier battalions in the world today. A division-level combat unit with a gun as the main battle weapon of the infantry!
Those sporadic gunshots were not fired by the advancing fusiliers, but by skirmishers scattered in front of the fusiliers. These skirmishers had only one mission, which was to physically eliminate the Wu and Zhou troops under Jieshu who dared to fill in the two gaps in the city wall blasted by cannons.
In fact, there are not many people who are so stubborn. They are all subordinates of that Mang Yitu! Jieshu's soldiers don't have that much hatred against Ming Dynasty. Now they just have to go to Lingguan to resist for a while because of Wu Sangui's strict order.
Moreover, Wu Sangui's envoys had already told them that as long as they could build the town of Chalingguan for five days, they would be allowed to go north to join Kangxi - Jieshu and his bannermen were also discouraged by Wu Zhou! This Wu Sangui is so dishonest that he uses them as cannon fodder! When they followed Jieshu and retreated to Jiangxi, they had at least 20,000 full-capacity banner troops. As of now, the number of people is less than 5,000. After surviving today (today is the fifth day) and being harvested by Li Fuchen's cavalry, I wonder if there will be two thousand left? How miserable!
The flag soldiers who tried their best to block the gap were quickly knocked down by skirmishers holding rifled guns. Then there was a burst of piercing suona, and the fusiliers of the two battalions and columns shouted together, thousands and hundreds of them. The soldiers in red scarves and red robes held flintlock guns with bayonets, maintaining a relatively intact column, and rushed towards the gap in the wall of Chalingguan Town like two red tides.
A shell flew over and landed on the edge of the charge team, then bounced up and flew in a direction where there was no one around. During the whole process, no one of the charging Red Scarf troops bent down to dodge, and no one slowed down. And this last artillery shell fired by the defenders seemed to announce that this pass at the junction of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces was about to change hands.
Li Zhongzheng breathed deeply, holding a sword in his hand, walking on the side of the column of one battalion of fusiliers, pointing the sword forward, and loudly ordered: "The Ming Dynasty is victorious. Charge with me!" "
Following his shout, the battalion of fusiliers rushed into the gap unstoppably, and a red flag flew high on the wall of Chaling Pass.
Li Fuchen, who was watching the battle from behind the Ming army's line outside Lingguan City, put down his binoculars, grinned, and asked Li Zhongshan beside him: "Second brother, how about third child? Is he a fierce general?"
Li Zhongshan nodded and said with a smile: "Not bad. I have learned to command a pure unit of flintlock rifles. I will serve him as a general soldier later!"
Li Fuchen nodded with satisfaction. Just as he was about to finalize the matter with his son, Master Yu's voice suddenly sounded from behind the two of them: "King Nan, General. Have you finally found out where Wu Sangui is?"
This master was specifically responsible for finding Wu Sangui. He went all the way from Nanchang to Chalingguan, and he was almost in Hunan, so he was able to find him.
Li Fuchen asked: "Where is he? Hasn't he slipped back to Jiangxia?"
"No, he didn't go back to Jiangxia." Master Yu said, "He went to Hengyang!"
"What?" Li Zhongshan was shocked, "Where has he gone?"
"Hengyang. The first county of Hengzhou Prefecture." Master Yu said with a smile, "You didn't expect that, right?"
I really didn’t expect that this is his life! Li Zhongshan thought to himself: Wu Sangui entered Hengyang. Is this still okay? Designation can’t be better! He now has such a large territory and has so many big cities, but he ended up going around in Hengyang. Is this Hengyang attractive to him?
"By the way, he went to Hengyang to supervise Wu Guogui's war!" Li Fuchen had already guessed Wu Sangui's purpose of going to Hengyang. "He must be worried that Wu Guogui and Xiao Tu are deeply in love and cannot be cruel, right?"
Because the transportation between Jiangxi and Guangdong was already open, Li Fuchen already knew about Wu Guogui's sneak attack on Guangdong and was slightly tricked by Wu Xiaotuo.
Master Yu shook his head and said: "He may have gone to his son's place to recuperate. Wu Guogui moved his residence from Changsha to Hengyang last year. Wu Sangui seemed to be seriously ill and was unlikely to recover, so he went to his son's place to recuperate."
Wu Sangui went to Hengyang to recuperate when he was sick? Li Zhongshan thought to himself: Is this turning a minor illness into a serious one? No, I, the Zhongshan and Shikai, will never go to Beijing again! Let Zhongzheng go next time we fight in Beijing, we will definitely win!
Thinking of this, Li Zhongshan first looked expectantly at his good brother who was standing at the gap in the city wall in the distance directing the battle, and then said to Li Fuchen: "Father, Wu Sangui is stranded in Hengyang. It seems that he will die soon. Let's take the opportunity to go in." Hunan has established the overall situation of Hunan in one fell swoop.”
Li Fuchen looked back at Master Yu, who smiled and said: "Your Majesty, this opportunity cannot be missed! We have a hundred thousand troops on hand, and Guangdong has no less than a hundred thousand troops that can be used to advance north! Li Zicheng and King Li Zhong besieged Jiujiang There are more than 70,000 soldiers there. There is also Admiral Liu's navy on the Yangtze River. If the three armies attack Huguang, they will number 300,000!"
Li Fuchen frowned slightly. The 300,000 people that Master Yu mentioned were really numerous! However, the armies of the three armies are too scattered. The north road is still in Jiujiang, the middle road is on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, and the south road is still in Guangdong. It is impossible to support each other.
He was just thinking about whether to slow down and wait for Wu Sangui to die before advancing. Li Zhongshan had already spoken: "This battle can be fought! Although the armies of the three armies are relatively scattered, it doesn't matter. Because we can defeat Wu Sangui all the way." Hunan's entire army. Besides, Guangdong's Seventh Army should be able to contain Wu Guogui, and the troops Wu Sangui can mobilize are extremely limited."
Master Yu also meant the same thing, and said with a smile: "We don't need to go to Hengyang, just attack Changsha directly. Let's attack Changsha and mobilize all the troops Wu Sangui can mobilize in Huguang. We will use Changsha as a boiler to give them a Pot stew!”
Li Fuchen nodded, already convinced: "That's okay. The terrain of Changsha is indeed like a big pot. We will cook as much as Wu Sangui's soldiers come! Moreover, Changsha is not far from Mubu Mountain, where Li Zhong Wang Tie’s territory!”
(End of chapter)
