With endless curiosity, at noon the next day, Zeng Guofan's confidant Liu Rong crossed the Yangtze River in the name of returning gifts and came all the way to the Hubei New Army Camp in Wulidun. Although Wu Chaoyue did not go to the camp gate to greet him in person, he also ordered to be summoned immediately, allowing Liu Rong to successfully enter the Hubei New Army Camp that had been curious for a long time.

The result of visiting along the way disappointed Liu Rong. Wu Chaoyue, who was legendary, had no outstanding achievements in camping and setting up camps. The battalion defense arrangement can only be considered as just-in-law, with a trench protection trenches and fences behind the fence, a sheep and horse wall, a barely enough number of sentry towers and watchtowers, barely reasonable camp tent settings and space configurations in the camp, no bunkers, no walls for soldiers to climb up and walk, and in the end, there was no turret built. The defense power was only equivalent to a temporary camp that could spend the night during the Hunan Army march. Compared with the Xinshengzhou Camp where the main force of the Hunan Army is currently fully constructed, it can only be described as a terrain.

It was indeed not as famous as meeting. Liu Rong was extremely jealous of the weapons and equipment of the Hubei New Army. The main combat soldiers were all equipped with high-fire speed firing needle guns. Grassroots officers such as Shi Chang and Huo Yong were all equipped with revolvers. New clothes, new hats and brand new weapons were made to make people feel energetic and majestic at first glance. Even the armed migrant workers who were auxiliary work had a knife and a main rifle of Hunan Army. The equipment was so good that Liu Rong drooled, and Liu Rong secretly complained more than once, "The sky is not eye-catching. Why can't our soldiers equip each of them with such a good foreign gun?"

In addition, the careful Liu Rong also noticed that each of the Wu soldiers on duty was hanging several round small cloth bags on their waists. When Liu Rong was curious to ask Wu Chaoyue's personal soldiers who were leading the way, the personal soldiers truthfully replied that it was a grenade bullet. Liu Rong was of course envious of him and said, "It turned out that they were the grenade bullets that Li Yuandu brought back from Shanghai last time. It would be better to hook up with foreigners. Grenade bullets can be equipped with ordinary soldiers. If there are enough grenade bullets in our army, it would be easier to fight."

Finally, he entered the tent of the Central Army to meet Wu Chaoyue. Wu Chaoyue's attitude towards Liu Rong was quite intimate. He invited the emperor and served tea. After thanking Zeng Guofan for his return gift, he also held a banquet to entertain Liu Rong. Liu Rong took it without hesitation. Then when he was drinking opposite him, Liu Rong was surprised to find that the wine glass in front of Wu Chaoyue was filled with tea, and asked curiously: "Wu Futai, your military discipline is so strict that you can't even drink in the army?"

"It's not completely untouched. The usual rule is to drink only three cups of alcohol." Wu Chaoyue explained with a smile: "But today is an exception. I am going to launch a siege tonight. In order not to miss the matter, I can't drink wine today. I can only use tea instead of alcohol. Please don't blame Mr. Meng Rong."

"Will you start a siege tonight?" Liu Rong was truly surprised.

Wu Chaoyue smiled and nodded, saying, "I'm already preparing. I'll send troops to the third day of the night tonight. After arriving at the battlefield, I'll officially launch an attack at dawn tomorrow, and strive to take down Wuchang County tomorrow."

He looked at Wu Chaoyue with his eyes wide open. Seeing that Wu Chaoyue's tone was relaxed, his expression and attitude did not seem to be joking, Liu Rong was even more speechless and asked after a while: "Wu Futai, how sure are you?"

"Sixty or seventy percent sure." Wu Chaoyue replied casually: "Even if he can't take over Wuchang County this time, he can at least give the long hair in the city, so that they can't hold on in the city for a long time, so that they can force them to abandon the city and leave."

After continuing to look at Wu Chaoyue up and down, Liu Rong simply said to Wu Chaoyue directly: "Wu Futai, the student is daring to accompany the army to watch the battle and see the military power of the army. I wonder if the Futai Lord can allow it?"

"Welcome." Wu Chaoyue agreed and smiled, "I will lead the army to fight tonight, and Mr. Meng Rong will just go with me. Also, please send someone back and send a message to the teacher, saying that I will launch an attack tonight and ask him to prepare for the Navy of the Navy. If Changmao sent the Navy to rescue Wuchang County, the Navy of the Navy could take the opportunity to send troops to defeat the enemy."

Unexpectedly, Wu Chaoyue could be so calm and confident. While becoming more and more suspicious, Liu Rong did not dare to neglect her. While she also turned down drinking to avoid misleading things, she quickly picked up her pen and wrote a book to report to Zeng Guofan the important situation that the Hubei New Army would launch an attack tonight. At the same time, she also reminded Zeng Guofan to ask the Hunan Navy to prepare for war so as not to miss the enemy's opportunity.

Next, of course, it was Zeng Guofan's turn to be shocked. If this letter was not written by his confidant Liu Rong, Zeng Guofan would have suspected that it was a boring prank. But it was precisely because of his trust in Liu Rong that he finally came back to his senses, even though his stomach was still full of doubts, Zeng Guofan still ordered the navy to prepare for night battles. At the same time, Zeng Guofan would have to mutter in his stomach and say, "Okay, I am so anxious to attack the city, I have to see with my own eyes how much ability you kid has on the battlefield."

Also shocked were Hu Linyi, the Hunan general of the army, and Liu Kunyi, who was not Wu Chaoyue's direct lineage. Because Hu Linyi needed to cover the flanks to prevent the Taiping Navy from landing in battle, Wu Chaoyue also sent someone to inform Hu Linyi of his siege plan. After being scared, Hu Linyi spent time to come back to his senses, although he immediately ordered the preparation of a night battle, he was as surprised and suspicious as Zeng Guofan, and was determined to observe the true strength of the Hubei New Army tonight.

Liu Kunyi ran to Wu Chaoyue to express his concern, worried that the fortifications of the Taiping Army defending the city outside the city had not yet been flattened, and he rashly launched an attack on the city was afraid that it would easily lead to huge casualties. Wu Chaoyue smiled and told Liu Kunyi, "Don't worry, just watch the show tonight. The fortifications of Changmao outside the city are solid, but no matter how strong the fortifications are, isn't it a bunch of decorations?"

While the Hunan Army and Liu Kun were waiting for each other, the night quickly came. After halfway through the second day, the Wu army, who had been resting in the tent, got up, ate midnight snacks and received dry food, prepared enough drinking water to check weapons. At the third day, the order was lined up, and Liu Rongcai, who volunteered to serve as a military observer, was stunned to find that all the soldiers of the Wu army were lit with torches, and did not cover up the military operations at all, and did not mind whether the Taiping Army was found. At the same time, what made Liu Rong even more stunned was that Wu Chaoyue had only dispatched four battalions, including Liu Kun Yizhuang Battalion, to fight, and only used two-thirds to attack Wuchang County, which the Hunan Army did not even dare to attack.

"If this kid named Wu is not a lunatic, he is really sure!" This is what Liu Rong said in his heart at this moment.

In the bitter night wind, two thousand Hubei New Army and more than 700 armed civilians lined up, marching with various siege weapons, surrounded by various siege weapons. What made Liu Rong continue to be surprised was that the number of siege weapons of the Wu army was obviously small, with only twenty temporary trench bridge vehicles and dozens of flying ladders, and some floating boxes used to build floating bridges. The overall battle of ant is more than enough, and it is obviously not enough to fight two ant battles.

At the same time, Liu Rong also noticed that Wu Jun Jianyong had focused on the number of strange cannons. One type had twenty guns with long barrels and five guns with short barrels, but the appearance was completely different from the various foreign cannons that Liu Rong had seen before. When Liu Rong asked Wu Chaoyue about the names of these cannons, Wu Chaoyue replied lightly: "The twenty guns are called breech guns, straight-line ejection, and use for far-range shooting, and use for five guns, and use for curved ballistics."

Unable to understand the foreign nouns in Wu Chaoyue's mouth, Liu Rong could only choose to observe silently, and also saw with her own eyes that Wu Chaoyue was completely different from the Hunan Army in terms of military use. She had a dense formation and was not afraid of being sneak attacked by enemy artillery fire. After arriving at the position, she did not build temporary fortifications and directly set up formations in the open air; she did not build earth walls to protect the artillery positions, and directly lined up the artillery lines; the choice of the position even opened Liu Rong's eyes. Wu Chaoyue actually placed the army in the southwest corner of the city far away from the city gate, as if she did not intend to attack the most easily broken city gate.

At this time, because the Wu army had already discovered that the Wu army had already been operating, the city was also brightly lit, and a large number of Taiping soldiers were on the wall to prepare for war. Although they were worried about ambushing outside the city in the dark, Liu Man, the guard general, did not dare to send troops out of the city to guard the Sheep and Horse Wall defense line, but before the Wu army's artillery took the position, he let several nearby artillery open fire early, and bombarded the torches of Wu army soldiers with artillery. However, the position of the Wu army was just outside the range of the Taiping army artillery artillery. The Taiping army's artillery shells not only failed to cause harm to the Wu army soldiers, but also exposed the position of the artillery, allowing the Wu army artillery battalion to measure the distance through the clock method and the triangle method, so that the Wu army artillery artillery, which had only a small number of torches, found a more ideal shooting position.

A few minutes later, when the Taiping Army's bore guns fired again one after another, all the Wu army's artillery was in place. Qian Wei, the artillery battalion officer, sent someone to Wu Chaoyue to ask for tactics and when to fire the artillery. Wu Chaoyue directly replied: "Fire the artillery immediately, ten breech guns, greet the long-haired turret, kill the long-haired turret and then hit the city, and the other ten cannons are dedicated to hit the city!"

The messenger of the artillery camp, Chang Nuo, ran back, but Liu Rong next to him widened his eyes again and asked Wu Chaoyue in great surprise: "Wu Futai, the students are not wrong, are they? Ten cannons are specialized in attacking the city? Most of the long-mao defenders are on the city wall. What is the purpose of shooting the shells into the city?"

Wu Chaoyue smiled and replied: "Mr. Meng Rong, don't ask more questions, you will know after a while."

When Liu Rong nodded in confusion and turned her gaze even more confusedly to Wuchang County in the northwest, the Wu army's artillery had already roared at the same time. Twenty shells snatched the chambers one after another, and ten were roaring towards the Taiping Army's artillery on both sides, and ten were directly shot into Wuchang City.

Then, it was naturally the exclusive time for Liu Rong, a native bun, to open her eyes. While most of the ten shells hit the Taiping Army's artillery, they suddenly burst out again with a shocking rumbling sound. As the shrapnel flew across, huge flames immediately enveloped the Taiping Army's artillery. The Taiping Army soldiers hit by the shrapnel fell to the ground screaming. The gunpowder that was about to be put into the cannon was immediately ignited, either for explosion or burning wildly. Three of the Taiping Army's artillery immediately turned into a sea of ​​fire and was completely scrapped, and two other fires also emerged.

The worst thing was in the city. When the Wu army shells flew into the city, the Taiping Army soldiers led by Liu Man started to laugh at the Wu army's gunners for being too bad. However, when the Wu army shells exploded in the city and erupted huge flames, the Taiping Army was stunned again, but almost instantly, the blazing fire broke out in seven or eight houses.

Before the Taiping Army and Liu Rong came to their senses, Wu's artillery had fired again, and more bitter sour shells were fired one after another. Liu Rong couldn't help but scream like a pig, "Wu Futai, what kind of artillery are you, can you shoot continuously?"

"It's not that you can shoot continuously, it's just that the firing speed is too fast, so it looks like you can shoot continuously." Wu Chaoyue explained with a smile.

Liu Rong stopped saying a word, but looked at Wuchang County with disbelief, watching Wu Jun's bitter sour shells exploded one after another in the city, spraying flames of more than two feet in a radius, and also watching Taiping soldiers howl and run around in the sea of ​​fire, and even vaguely heard such shouts, "Demon Fire! It's Demon Fire! If the water cannot be extinguished, it will burn on the wall!"

It was still after vaguely hearing these shouts that Liu Rong suddenly woke up and quickly looked up and went forward. He saw Wu Chaoyue's Wu-character flag fluttering in the wind, and his teeth and claws pointed directly to the northwest. Liu Rong suddenly realized and asked Wu Chaoyue in surprise: "Wu Futai, are you planning to burn Wuchang City tonight?"

"Mr. Meng Rong is indeed amazing. I can see my true plan so quickly." Wu Chaoyue nodded with a smile, admitting that Liu Rong had guessed his vicious purpose. Then Wu Chaoyue told Liu Rong, saying: "When I climbed the high ground yesterday and looked down at the city, I saw that the streets and houses in the city were kept intact. Because of the flowering fire shells and the good incendiary effect of the incendiary bomb I used, I came up with this fire attack plan."

Liu Rong quickly flattered Wu Chaoyue for being extremely smart, adapting to local conditions and adapting to changes. Then he couldn't wait to ask Wu Chaoyue: "Wu Futai, is your shell expensive? Can you buy it from foreigners in that country?"

Having expected Liu Rong to ask this, Wu Chaoyue smiled naturally even happier and replied: "I can't buy it, at least I can't buy it for the time being, because this new gunpowder for the shell is produced by my arsenal."

"What factory is your own production from Master Futai?" Liu Rong asked in surprise.

Wu Chaoyue nodded with a smile and said casually: "Mr. Meng Rong, after you go back, you can tell my teacher about this situation. By the way, I will tell the teacher that if you want this kind of gunpowder, you can discuss it."

After saying that, Wu Chaoyue ignored Liu Rong and just raised his telescope to observe the arson effect. The result did not disappoint Wu Chaoyue. With the help of the whistling night wind, the picy acid fire, which had already had excellent combustion effect, became more violent. It soon ignited a large number of houses in the city. The wind helped the fire, and the fire leveraged the power of the wind and quickly expanded and spread. It quickly turned the southeast corner of the city into a sea of ​​fire and quickly advanced into the inside of the city. Seeing this scene, Wu Chaoyue nodded with satisfaction, and also quickly commanded the third battalion of the Wu army to extinguish the torch and protected the artillery camp position in the shape of an inverted style.

At this time, the city and the city of Wuchang County were of course in chaos. Under the current situation of the enemy, the guard Liu Man had to use the reserve team to put out the fire in advance, and at the same time, he organized and forced the people in the city to participate in the extinguishing of the fire. However, the bitter and sour flames of the Beiyang Fleet were so bitter that they could not even extinguish the water. Even if they were attached to steel, earth and stones, they could still burn ragingly. In addition, the night wind was too strong, and the houses in the city were dense, and there was flammable material to help ignite the fire. Therefore, no matter how the Taiping Army soldiers and the people in the city watered the fire, they could not stop the spread of the fire, and they could not completely extinguish the fire. Because the night wind was raging and the Wu army's artillery fire gradually concentrated in the city, the fire was completely out of control, and the flames soared more than ten meters in the sky, quickly covering half of the Wuchang County.

Seeing the critical situation, the guard Liu Man had to bite the bullet and open the south gate, send troops out of the city to destroy the Wu army's artillery position, and at the same time send people out of the city to ask for help from the Taiping Navy stationed downstream. However, the Taiping Army who left the city was naturally warmly welcomed by the Wu army's firing guns in the field. The new Wu army recruits, led by veterans, crushed the Taiping Army with weapons advantages to win experience points. At the same time, the Taiping Navy, who had been on guard for the entire army, was also in a dilemma. They had to rescue Liu Man's army, and they had to be wary of the Hunan Army taking the opportunity to launch an attack. In the end, Qin Rigang had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead the main force to launch an outing to cover Wei Jun to lead the army to land in reinforcements of Wuchang County, and also to be wary of the Hunan Navy taking the opportunity to attack.

The summer night was short, and when Wei Jun led the two thousand naval marines to land, the sky was already hazy and bright. When he noticed the movement of the Taiping Army, Hu Linyi's unit, who was responsible for covering the flank of the Wu army, immediately dispatched, seized the rare fighter jets that were attacking halfway, and attacked the Taiping Army soldiers who were disembarking one after another. The Taiping Army who was disembarking was difficult to form a strong counterattack, and was hit by the Hunan Army's melee's melee. Seeing that the situation was not good, Qin Rigang could only quickly command the navy to cover the Wei Jun's army's landing with artillery fire. Hu Linyi commanded the Hunan Army soldiers to respond calmly. While blocking the enemy's landing, he also attracted a large amount of artillery fire from the Taiping Army Navy to create favorable fighter jets for the Hunan Army Navy.

The rare fighter jet created by Hu Linyi at all costs was almost missed by Zeng Guofan. Although the Hunan Navy had already prepared for war and had already set up camp, after confirming the situation of the Taiping Navy's dispatch, Zeng Guofan, who liked to preserve his strength, ordered the Navy to attack. At the same time, he also asked Zeng Guohua, who was commanding the Navy, to advance carefully and not be able to fight with the Taiping Navy without ideal fighter jets.
Chapter completed!