In the early morning of April 18 in the second year of Tongzhi, the Xuanjun Naval Division, which was anchored in Jiuhuanzhou, opened fire on the northern city of Jiangning with the 110-pound and 68-pound main guns of the two ships of Jintai and Baiyue.

As soon as the giant cannon rang out, Jiangning was shocked all around, especially Zeng Guoquan in the Jizi camp, after figuring out what was going on, he once again jumped like thunder.

"Guan Yixuan is hateful!" Like a red-eyed beast, he spun around the tent a few times before he stopped.

"Send them to my camp for a meeting!"

The people who want to come are several generals under him, Li Chendian, Xiao Fusi, Zhu Hongzhang, Peng Yuju, and Liu Lianjie. Among them, except for Zhu Hongzhang, who is from Guizhou, most of the others are the descendants of Zeng Guofan brought out of Hunan, like Li Chendian, who turned out to be Zeng Guofan's personal soldiers.

"People are coming to take credit!" Zeng Guoquan had a gloomy face, his eyes were like fire, and he glared at the generals under him, "This morning, the Xuan Army Naval Division has already fired cannons, have you all heard it?" ”

"It's not that cheap!" Xiao Fusi was the first to shout, "How many years have we fought before we reached the bottom of Jiangning City, only since April last year, Jiushuai camped in Yuhuatai, and now it has been a whole year, no matter how hard it is, it is our Hunan army that is bearing, he Guan Zhuofan wants to snatch this credit, but there is no door!" ”

"That's right, Jiangning is under the contract of our Jizi camp!" Liu Lianjie's hangover had not yet woken up, and he also shouted, "Even Admiral Bao doesn't dare to rob us, what is he Guan Zhuofan?" When we fought Anqing, he was just a five-grade leader, and now he is about to climb on top of us? He dared to come to compete with Jiu Shuai, and I, Liu Lianjie, dared to fight with him! The white knife went in. The red knife came out ......"

The words are not finished yet. Unexpectedly, he was spit on his face by Zeng Guoquan. looked at this nine handsome in astonishment, and didn't dare to squeak.

"That's!" The furious Zeng Guoquan looked at Liu Lianjie forcefully, "He is the imperial guard, are you comparable?" He is a genuine brand of Zhenghuang Banner, can you compare? Do you have the yellow coat on his body? The dazzling eyes on his head, do you have them? ”

There is such a thing as dazzling eyes, and even the old handsome don't have it. How can there be people underneath? The generals were silent.

Zeng Guoquan's anger was for a reason - although the people of the Xuan army did not enter the city, the cannonballs had already flown into the city!

In this way, when the time comes, the credit for recovering Jiang Ning will be shared by Guan Zhuofan no matter what. But his actions did not violate his promise to his eldest brother at all! How can this nest not make Zeng Guoquan angry?

"This account with Xuan Jun will be calculated later! It's useless to say anything else now, only to knock down Jiang Ning as soon as possible is the right thing to do. Zeng Guoquan calmed down slightly. waved his hand, "Otherwise, you will not be careful one day." was broken by Xuan Jun Jiang Ning, that was the joke. There are more than 40,000 people in the Jizi camp, everyone is looking for a rope and hanging! ”

In this way, everyone is desperate. Since it is said that Jiangning should be broken as soon as possible, the original method of besieging the city alone cannot be used, and it must be attacked. After a few people discussed around Zeng Guoquan for a long time, Zuihou decided to take the Taiping Gate in the south as the main attack point and do two things well: one is to take the "bunker city" on the dragon's neck as soon as possible, and the other is to speed up the excavation of the tunnel, and ten ways to go together.

"Whether it can succeed or not, we will see within this month!" Zeng Guoquan looked around and said emotionally, "Big brother has cultivated us for so many years, and we can't be sorry for him in Anqing!" These of us are brothers in life and death, and this great wealth in front of us must not be handed over! The herald ordered all battalions, as long as they broke Jiangning and allowed a three-day plunder, military law was forbidden! ”

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The area from the dragon's neck to Fugui Mountain is the southern foot of Zhongshan Mountain, close to the Taiping Gate of Jiangning City. Because this is the most advantageous place to attack Jinling, the dynasty that has always fixed the capital of Jinling has always been the most heavily guarded place.

The Taiping army was no exception, and there were two huge stone fortresses built here, which were exceptionally strong, and were named "Tianbao City" and "Bunker City" respectively. After the Hunan army besieged the city for more than half a year, it paid a heavy price and finally took Tianbao City, but the remaining bunker city could not be broken no matter what.

This time, if it is not broken, it will not be done, the Hunan army made up its mind to die, and the two divisions of Xiao Fusi and Liu Lianjie, a total of 8,000 people, attacked day and night, in accordance with the order of "artillery fire, shooting, and charging", over and over again, and so on. He Zhenchuan, the "King of Mu" guarding the fort, felt the huge pressure and relied on the power of Western cannons and flowering shells to support him. However, after all, the flowering shells became less and less, and after more than ten days, although the Hunan army was killed and wounded, the sound of artillery in the base gradually became scarce.

Zeng Guoquan saw the bargain and called Zhu Hongzhang behind him.

"Huanwen, according to what you said, make a shield wall!"

"Shield wall" is a moving fence invented by Zhu Hongzhang, made of local materials, with reeds, bamboo branches, wooden strips, layer by layer densely knitted, up to two feet thick, seven feet high, between each layer, filled with thatch and thin mud tamping, in addition to not being able to resist the flowering cannon, other cannons and shotguns can not penetrate.

A total of thirty such shield walls were made, and the death squads of the Hunan army, pushing cannons behind the shield walls, advanced towards the bunker city little by little. He Zhenchuan destroyed more than ten shells with flowering shells, and the shells were finally exhausted, so there was no way to do it again, and was approached by more than ten guns of the Hunan army, and fired together, and hundreds of death squads wore only pants, wielded knives shirtless, and swarmed up, and finally attacked this big fort that had been held for more than a year.

The Taiping army in the fort was exhausted, although they resisted with guns, spears and hand-to-hand combat, but after all, they could not defeat the dead soldiers specially selected by the Hunan army, and more than 600 people were all killed, and the bunker city fell.

As soon as the bunker city was lost, there was no barrier to rely on in the south of Jiangning, and Li Xiucheng, who was in charge of the overall situation, could only rely on the thick city wall to do Zuihou's defense.

When Guan Zhuofan received the news, he immediately ordered the generals above the regimental officer level to go to the camp meeting and wait for the dispatch. Therefore, Jiang De and Wu Jianying, who were stationed in Qixia, Ding Shijie, Daniel Zhang, and Yixan who were stationed in Fangshan, and Liu Yulin and Zhan Donglu, who were maneuvering between the three places, all rushed to Suoshu, where Guan Zhuofan was stationed, that night, and gathered in Guan Zhuofan's Chinese army tent together with Huaer, Forrest, and Bai Qiwen.

"Jiangning is about to break," Guan Zhuofan got straight to the point, "I once told Governor Zeng that the Xuan army is here to pick up the gaps, and now the time has come." From Qixia to Fangshan, every regimental officer must demarcate areas for his battalions and posts, spread the soldiers, and never allow a single long hair to escape from the defense area! ”

"Yixuan," Wall first accepted the military order before he spoke again, "The Hunan army is besieging the city on the inner line, but we are blocking it on the outer line, even if there are long-haired people who have escaped from Jiangning City, I am afraid they will all fall into the hands of the Hunan army." ”

"There are thirteen gates in Jiangning, four of them have been closed in this dynasty, and there are still nine gates." Guan Zhuofan's expression was as usual, and he pointed on the map and said, "Not to mention that the city is surrounded by hundreds of miles, relying on tens of thousands of Hunan troops alone, if you want to make it impassable, it is impossible, not to mention——"

What's more, once the city is broken, according to the practice of the auspicious camp, the first thing is to loot the treasure. Most of the high-ranking officials and generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have the habit of accumulating, and in Jiangning City, it is even more gold and silver like a sea, and wealth is like a mountain. Naturally, the hands are fast and the hands are slow, where is the spirit to focus on the search for the remnants of the long hair. Besides, such a big Jiangning City has been broken, and a few long hairs have run away, what's the big deal?

These words made Wall stunned and sighed again and again. So everyone had no more dissent, and each got up and prepared to return to the camp overnight to be distributed.

"Shijie," Guan Zhuofan beckoned, "the three of you stay, I still have something to say." ”

In addition to Ding Shijie, there were also Daniel Zhang and Yixan. This is the strongest combat power of the Xuan army, but it is arranged in Fangshan, the farthest away from the city, and the three of them have always had doubts in their hearts. Now that I stay, I know that the boss has something to say.

"Hong Xiuquan will not leave Jiangning."

The first sentence startled the three of them, looked at each other, and became nervous, waiting for the boss to continue.

"Anyone else, it's not guaranteed." Guan Zhuofan's eyes flashed, and he said faintly, "No matter who it is, if you escape from Jiangning, to the north is the Yangtze River, to the east is the Xuan Army Huai Army, and to the west is the Hunan Army of Bao Chao and Zhang Yunlan, there is no way out, even if you can get away, there is no one to answer." ”

When the three of them heard this, they were even more shocked - if it was an ordinary long hair, it would be haode if they could escape, and what could they talk about whether to accept or not?

"Only to the south, to Jiangxi, there are still more than 100,000 people waiting for the 'king' Li Shixian." Guan Zhuofan lowered his voice and said, "If you go from Jiangning to Jiangxi, you must pass through Fangshan, this Huarong Road, you will guard it for me!" ”

Even Huarong Dao has been compared, so who is Cao Cao? The three people who were originally sitting in the chair knew that the stakes were high, and they all stood up and gave the order.

"I still say the same thing - no matter who escapes, no matter how many people there are, they must all be captured, and no one is allowed to escape!" Guan Zhuofan leaned back in his chair, his face was solemn, and his eyes swept over the faces of the three people one by one, "The three of you are all old brothers I brought out from the Chengnan horse team, and you will not miss my important affairs." ”

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(Presented on the third watch)

*(To be continued......)