Bashan Chushui bleakly, abandoned for twenty-three years.
Nostalgic empty chanting flute fu, to the countryside to turn over like a bad guy.
Thousands of sails passed by the side of the sunken boat, and Wan Muchun was in front of the diseased tree.
Today, I listen to the song of the king, and for the time being, I will have the spirit of drinking wine for the time being.
"Rewarding Lotte, See You at the First Meeting in Yangzhou"
Tang Dynasty: Liu Yuxi
—I am the dividing line —
And in the Ba county town of Yuzhou. In the rainy night of Bashan in summer, Wang Qiuye, who was wearing a rubber rain cloth, walked across the pools of standing water with a sound, and looked at the military camp shrouded in the rain.
He has now been deprived of his post for crimes, and he is a confidant left in front of the battle. But whether it is the former subordinates, other colleagues in the army, or the people in the villages in the retired city, they will respectfully greet him when they see him:
"Pharaoh..."
"Brother Wang..."
When performing duties, some people took the initiative to hand him water, fruit and sweat towels; even when starting a meal, the chef would give priority to scooping the bottom of the precipitated pot and filling his portion full.
It was because of his unauthorized action that violated military discipline on the way of retreat; therefore, even as an ordinary soldier, he was not very sad; especially when the current material reserves and supply quotas were still sufficient.
In fact, although it looks like a siege at the moment, and soldiers are generally tired and injured, the actual situation is much better than the previous situation and recent situation. Up.
Of course, most of the defenders including Wang Qiu are concerned, but I hope the more rain will last, the better, because during this period it is rare to have sunny days, that is, they ushered in a fierce bloody battle. It's time.
The main reason is that the rain that rarely sees a sunny day in early summer has greatly restricted the effectiveness of the firearms that the Taiping Army relies on as an advantage, but at the same time it also brought great troubles and troubles to the offensive officers and soldiers. Hinder.
In particular, the soaring Fujiang River and other tributaries have caused a lot of trouble for the supply and transportation of the officials and the army down the water. After all, they do not have a water ship that can barely go up the current during the high water period. .
As a result, most of the ships that tried to navigate forcibly were smashed on the rocky beach by the rapids in the river, or rushed to the shore and ran aground. After several attempts, the officers and soldiers gave up this effort.
In addition, all the roads of various sizes in Ba County (Chongqing City) of Yuzhou have also become muddy and slippery. It is also an unavoidable obstacle to marching and transportation on land.
Although, there may be those barbarians from Luzhou who don’t care; but they are used to contain harassment and roundabout sneak attacks, who are used to the bad roads in the mountains. Up.
Therefore, when the high-benevolent Dongchuan army vanguard came down to Linba County, he had to stand tired and muddy, stand up camp and take a rest; by the way, he had to gather the barbarians who had herded sheep and ransacked everywhere. And tutu.
Then, the captain Min Xu, who was left behind by the Taiping Army, led the warriors and killed hundreds of people in a sneak attack, which was a kind of boost to the morale and people in the city. At this time, the balance of forces and the ebb and flow of the situation in the battle have also undergone qualitative changes.
Compared with the unfavorable situation in field battles, although the rain has greatly restricted the power of the Taiping Army’s kerosene bombs, explosive bombs and other throwing firearms; however, there are quite a few three-eyed blunderbuss, short blunderbuss, and horn blunderbusses in the defenders , And other projectile firearms have little effect.
Especially when they set up rain shelters on the city’s head, and prepared many carbon braziers and raw ash as moisture-proof, these different length and short firearms began to replace those that tend to be weak in wet and rainy weather. The bow and crossbow, and unexpectedly rise.
Therefore, they tasted the sweetness, and even had a few three-inch (inner diameter) light guns disassembled from the vehicles and ships, which could deal with the siege equipment made by the officers and soldiers who worked hard to chop down trees and quarry. As long as one shot is hit, it bursts and collapses.
Moreover, although the retired Taiping soldiers and the garrison battalions staying in the city are only four to five thousand people; but there are more than 10,000 armed soldiers who have received support from the rear states, and there are also the same enemies in the city. In order to cooperate; even the new pawns who have just entered the city for a long time, immortality will become more sophisticated.
Therefore, although the officers and soldiers who arrived one after another surrounded Ba County on the riverside terrace from the water and land directions, they were still unable to take the Ba County outside the Ba County, backed by the terrain, and the several villages on the Beishan and Dongshan mountains. It is impossible to cut off the connections and exchanges between them.
And with these high altitudes that are enough to threaten and control the gorge, although the remaining Taiping navy forces are already quite weak; the surface power composed of the official warships wants to cut off the backyard and transport on the waterway. , It is also unrealistic.
Therefore, since there is a promising future assistance outside Ba County, there is a long-lasting fighting spirit within; although the situation has deteriorated and cannot be furthered, it is impossible for the officers and soldiers to want to outflank and detour under Jiangliu City. It is impossible to take a breakthrough. .
Although they also used a lot of help and drive, the power of the mountain people and the Tu people came along the way; but there was no way to bring out the all-encompassing harassment and sneak attack at the beginning, and the effect of responding to them everywhere.
In this regard, the Taiping Army, who came to support from the downstream, has learned the lesson, and used food and materials plus the threat of knives and guns to forcefully recruit the unstable factors/young people in these rear villages;
On the other hand, it organized many temporary patrol teams in the villages along the river. They set up checkpoints at the key points and mountain passes where various roads and small roads meet to interrogate and block those suspicious persons coming and going. Wait.
In addition, at some observation points, many children were paid to take turns to monitor and transmit messages; therefore, this time the army's infiltration operation to the east of Ba County occupied by the Taiping Army was naturally greatly discounted.
Except for organizing several failed sneak attacks, almost all the people who crossed the mountains and detoured to the lower reaches of the Xiajiang Road were never able to return or send any useful messages.
And Wang Qiu himself was even recruited to participate in one of the ambush battles; it was the great merchant Meng clan in the city who brought his family out of the city, intending to contact the local tyrants, using the trilogy and family concealed in their respective estates. In response to the officer's army, he seized the stronghold that went north.
The result happened to be seized by Deng Chuna, a light patrol captain under Min Xun's; the plan was to first gather the tribe masters hidden in the farms and gather them together to besieged and killed on the spot.
Then, he pretended to vote in the official army camp outside the book city in the name of Meng, seduce the official army to sneak attack on the so-called "weakness" between the Beishanzhai Fortress and the Dongshan Defense Camp. As a result, when the rain stopped, a mixed team of native barbarians and officers and soldiers with more than 3,000 people was actually attracted.
If it weren’t for the old efforts in advance, at dawn, two short-barreled cannons and some of the medicines would be forcibly towed up to the top of the mountain as a back-up method in case; they presumed that they would almost just ambush the position on the mountainside. Because of the lack of manpower, this contingent attacker forced a breakthrough and punched through.
Finally, when the rain curtain came back down, the mountains and plains were filled with corpses soaked in mud and wounded wriggling like maggots; and the Taiping Army's ambush line was also overwhelmed by more than half, causing at least more than 400 casualties.
However, the results of the officers and soldiers were even more miserable. They were defeated by the on-coming bombardment. The last bit of support and the paranoia of victory were in sight; in the end, they fell in panic and injured each other during the collapse. The stampede in the shovel is more than the sword and fire of chasing.
In the end, only about three or four hundred fishes that slipped through the net were able to escape into the rain curtain under the mountain; and according to the results of the investigation by the spies sent out afterwards under the cover of rain, at least one of them should have been killed. Very important person or big boss.
Therefore, after these remnants fled back after defeat, there was a continuous crying in those savage camps, as well as the commotion visible to the naked eye; some people even started to pull out the team to leave the camp.
Although they were quickly overwhelmed by the nearby officers and soldiers, in the next few attacks, the morale and momentum of these as the starting natives were obviously not so hard and brutal compared to the previous low and decay.
Therefore, more officers and soldiers have also appeared in the sequence of siege; this has further strengthened the intensity of the battle between the offensive and the defensive. However, the captain Min Xu, who had summoned the generals, declared in public with a joyful face that this was a call for the officers and the army to be weak.
Therefore, except for some soldiers who maintain the most basic vigilance and corresponding strength of the city, the others have been hit in turn to repair and repair the armor and swordsmen; only waiting for that time to come.
But then, it rained for two days and three nights in a row, and the interval of stopping during the period was nothing more than half a meal. Therefore, both the enemy and ourselves had to maintain this low-intensity mutual vigilance and confrontation.
With the muddy eyes all over the country, even the sporadic conflicts between the outposts and the scouts to hunt and kill each other stopped. Therefore, Wang Qiu, who went to set up temporary observation posts and sheltered contact points outside the city several times according to the rotating duty system, also got a moment of leisure.
He was so full of complex emotions, he raised the iron kettle in his hand, and swallowed a big mouthful of the ginger tea soup that had been cooled but was mixed with rainwater. I was thinking about going to the room to get some hot and sour Hutang after finishing his duties.
However, the whistle summoned inside the city wall rang again. Soon after, Wang Qiu, who was wearing a new dress again, followed in a lightly outfitted team out of the city, facing the rain curtain with his head and face, and disappeared into the mist of the world outside the city.
Under the guidance of alternate outposts, they did not know how long they walked with one foot and one foot shallow. Even the specially reinforced leggings and rubber boots were filled and soaked with ice-cold mud. The sound of the official army drum was faintly sounded. The camp wall and Juma had already faintly appeared in front of them.
Wang Qiu couldn't help but was shocked. Was it this time to sneak an attack on the army's camp? However, the school lieutenant Deng Chuna who was in charge of leading the team, in a tone of cherishing words like gold, suddenly scolded:
"Dry and cool, I was deceived..."
Immediately, a piece of arrow wrapped in a bamboo tube in his hand was shot at the standing figure of the nearest outpost, but it didn't move at all. Everyone already understands this now.
At this time, the roar of shelling sounded from the rear of the city; however, Deng Chuna, the captain of the team, was overjoyed when he heard the sound, and then turned into a somewhat angry and helpless color:
"Navy... Reinforcement... late..."
Then he turned his head and said to these specially selected military veterans:
"Or... follow me... chase for a while..."
And on the riverside more than ten miles away to the southwest of them, the last formed official army, in a certain atmosphere of silence and silence, kept retreating upstream.
Wherever they passed, all kinds of vehicles and heavy objects that could not be taken were abandoned all the way. And at Hejiangkou as the starting point, Gao Renhou in the military account was also listening solemnly to the report:
"In an emergency report, Huang Ni led the thieves to attack in a big way, and he has broken through all the Zhazhai villages and went straight to the pass;"
"The Yellow Head Army left soldier Li Jun died in battle, and the right soldier caused Gong Xian to escape the battle. But Yu Zhongwu, the first capital, refused to retreat Lu Hongyan and Xiao Yang."
"The Holy Lord has ordered Dayang (Fugong)'s Privy Council to battalion the tribes to return to the north to resist the enemy, and he has also declared that the three capitals of Zhongwu, headed by Wang Jian, shall be taken in to lead the soldiers and horses of Song Hao's troops.... , In order to transfer forward the use of Zi..."
"Furthermore, even the quick recruitment made Xiang think that he is in the two rivers..."
This messenger who arrived early, said here after a while:
"According to the rumors in the line, Zhang (Jun) of the Ministry of War is advocating the Holy Lord, and he wants to make the envoy into the political affairs hall..." (End of this chapter)