After receiving the news that Shi Dakai personally led the main force of the Taiping Army to trouble Wu Chaoyue, Fu Aji, who was ordered to investigate Zhao Liewen, ran to Wu Chaoyue as soon as possible and asked to say goodbye. He gave Zhao Liewen a clear innocence on the excuse of going to Wuchang Prefecture City to investigate the details of the case and wanted to clear his name. He pulled Yan Jingming and was about to leave.

Husband and were busy organizing troops to fight Shi Dakai, Wu Chaoyue had no intention or time to mock Fu Aji for escape in the battle. He casually politely said that Fu Aji and Yan Jingming had to leave, and told Fu Aji directly that he was busy with military affairs and had no time to see them off. Fu Aji, who was eager to escape from his life and avoid war, certainly would not mind this. Yan Jingming also bowed and said, "You don't have to be polite to Wu Futai. The officials are literati with no power. This battle is a matter between you young people. Staying here will also cause trouble for you. Hiding in Wuchang Mansion to Jinghou your triumphant sound, how dare you send them to the officials?"

"What happened between young people? Lord Yan, what does it mean?"

Wu Chaoyue was a little confused and suspected that Yan Jingming had no good intentions. Yan Jingming smiled and asked, "Wu Futai, is the servant wrong? You are only twenty years old this year. Your enemy, Shi Dakai, was he only twenty-four years old this year. Now you and him lead an army to fight in Tianjia Town to compete for who is the well-deserved young general in the world. Isn't this a matter between you young people?"

Wu Chaoyue laughed in silence, and then suddenly realized that Yan Jingming's words were not wrong. He was only twenty years old this year, while Shi Dakai on the opposite side was only twenty-four years old. Two young men who had just passed the age of the crown were commanding a large group of men who were above themselves to fight the battlefield. It can be regarded as a rare wonder in the history of wars between ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad.

After smiling and humbled, Wu Chaoyue immediately focused his energy on the establishment of the Tianjia Town defense line. In fact, after overthrowing Shi Xiangzhen, Wu Chaoyue had already predicted that Shi Dakai might come to take revenge again. So even though he knew that the iron chain defense line would not play much role in front of the Taiping Army, in order to make the self-armed navy not even fight back in front of the Taiping Army Navy, Wu Chaoyue still asked the soldiers to rebuilt three iron chain defense lines with the remaining water fortifications early, and at the same time learned from the last war, Wu Chaoyue tried to arrange some cable-style anchor thunders that had been invented by the Ming Dynasty on the iron chain defense line, specifically used to entertain Taiping Army warships that destroyed the iron chain.

On the same day, the genius spy Zhang Dejian finally found the very accurate Taiping Army's military strength. What made Wu Chaoyue overjoyed was that the Taiping Army brought by Shi Dakai this time was mainly the Main Force of the Land Division. The land army had more than 25,000 troops, but only 8,000 people on the water. The fleet consisted of more than 30 tows, fast crabs, long dragon-class warships and more than 1,200 small-drawn ships and small rowing boats. A considerable number of the small-drawn ships were also used by Shi Dakai to carry food and supplies. The ship's strength was not stronger than the previous Shi Xiangzhen army. After Wu Chaoyue accepted a group of remnants of the Hunan Navy who fled back from the downstream, the strength of the navy had improved. Even though the Taiping Navy was still at an absolute disadvantage, it was no longer as huge as before.

In addition, Zhang Dejian also sent the great news that Liu Mingchuan's troops had successfully entered the Taiping Army in accordance with Wu Chaoyue's secret order. However, Shi Da was rigorous in the military management. Even Zhang Dejian could not guarantee that the secret contact with Liu Mingchuan could be unimpeded. Therefore, it was difficult for Wu Chaoyue to continue to command Liu Mingchuan to act according to the order. Whether Liu Mingchuan's Fuzi can play a role and how much role it plays depends on Liu Mingchuan's own adaptability.

It doesn’t matter, it’s enough for Wu Chaoyue at the moment. After carefully understanding the specific forces and troops of the Taiping Army, Wu Chaoyue was still very happy to rub his hands and said happily: “Okay! OK! Just use the Main Force of the Land Division! I am indeed not your opponent on the water, but on land, even if you are Shi Dakai? So what if my total strength is only one-third of yours? I dare to fight on land, and I will keep it and let you **********!"

I really couldn't stand Wu Chaoyue's ugly face of a villain, Zhao Liewen couldn't help but splash coldly and said, "Weiting, don't be too happy too early. Changmao's attack with infantry as the main force this time is indeed more beneficial to our army, but we are far from reaching the point of a steady victory. As long as the bandit leader Shi Dakai uses cautious troops and proper tactics, we may not be sure to win this battle."

"Of course I know this. If I were Shi Dakai, even if I was mainly a land division to attack Tianjia Town in this battle, after arriving at the battlefield in Tianjia Town, I would definitely let the land division adopt a defensive position, with deep ditches and high bases only defending but not fighting, avoiding our army's field advantages, and highlighting our army's weaknesses that our army is not good at attacking. At the same time, with their advantage, the navy takes the offensive, first sweep our navy, and then use the navy to cut off our food and grass supply roads, so that our land division has no food to be in trouble. At that time, Changmao takes the opportunity to launch a general attack, and you can have a stable chance of winning."

Wu Chaoyue's frank answer surprised Zhao Liewen, and also asked in surprise: "Weiting, since you are so clear about our weaknesses and disadvantages, why are you still looking like you will win? Have you thought of a way to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses?"

"Of course." Wu Chaoyue said with a smile: "Our best way to play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses is to fight quickly and initiate a decisive battle with Changmao as soon as possible. The sooner the better."

Seeing that Wu Chaoyue's mind was so clear, Zhao Liewen, who had been worried that Wu Chaoyue would be careless before, breathed a sigh of relief and asked Wu Chaoyue again: "Then have you come up with any good way to lure Changmao to fight quickly?"

"I think of two things at the moment." Wu Chaoyue raised two thin fingers and said, "First, letting go of the rumor, Liu Changyou's troops of our strategic reserve team will rush to Tianjia Town to reinforce in the near future. Second, he used a delaying strategy and deliberately let Shi Dakai see through it, making Shi Dakai feel that the sooner he launched a decisive battle, the more beneficial it would be for him, and luring Shi Dakai to take the initiative to send troops to attack Tianjia Town."

"Wonderful! It's worthy of being a weiting pavilion." Zhao Liewen applauded and said, "It's a good idea to make Changmao mistakenly think that our reinforcements will arrive soon, which is a very effective way to lure the enemy into attack. It is also a good way to let Shi Dakai see through our delaying strategy, but have you thought about how to do it?"

"I'm about to ask you about this." Wu Chaoyue said with a smile: "You are my uterus, Zhang Liang, and the good way to deliberately let Shi Dakai see through it without thinking about it for a while, so I can only leave it to you."

"Weiting has won the award, I am not good at the zifang Kongming." Zhao Liewen smiled bitterly and was modest, but after only a moment of consideration, Zhao Liewen said to Wu Chaoyue: "Weiting, how about using Shi Xiangzhen's body to make a fuss?"

"How to do it?" Wu Chaoyue asked quickly.

"Let a long-haired prisoner of war and let him take a letter back to Shi Dakai." Shi Dakai said with a smile: "Just say that there is no eyebrow on the battlefield, our army was forced to kill Shi Xiangzhen, but we have always admired heroes, so we did not behead the head after getting Shi Xiangzhen's body. On the contrary, we also took the coffin to collect it. Then we made an appointment with Shi Dakai to return Shi Xiangzhen's body to Shi Dakai seven days later."

Wu Chaoyue laughed out loud and asked Zhao Liewen to pick up a pen for him to write a letter to Shi Dakai, prepared a delicate gift, arranged for a prisoner to bring letters and gifts to see Shi Dakai to deliver the letters, and arranged for people to spread the news of Liu Changyou's upcoming assistance, without mentioning all kinds of arrangements.

So, a former soldier of Shi Xiangzhen was escorted by Qing soldiers and was soon taken to the Taiping vanguard army that attacked along the north bank of the Yangtze River. After the prisoner returned to the team, he was soon sent to the central army by Shi Zhenji, the brother of Shi Dakai, who led the vanguard, and handed them to Shi Dakai together with the letter and gifts.

Like Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen predicted, after seeing Wu Chaoyue's almost flattering letter, Shi Dakai not only beaten to death but didn't believe that Wu Chaoyue would treat his brother's body well. On the contrary, he immediately noticed the important question raised by Wu Chaoyue that he returned Shi Xiangzhen's corpse seven days later. He said suspiciously: "How could Chaoyue Xiao Yao say that he would return his brother's body to me in seven days? Is this his delaying strategy? Let me see the hope of welcoming my brother's corpse and not go to fight with him within seven days?"

"On the surface, it should be a delaying strategy."

Shi Da, nicknamed Zhang Zaizi, was happy to be a confidant of Mou Zhang, and then reminded him: "But the Wing King is five thousand years old, we must be careful that this is the opposite way that surpasses the little demon, and deliberately makes us suspect that he wants to use a delaying strategy to delay our advancement. The real purpose is to lure us to advance as soon as possible and start a decisive battle with him as soon as possible."

Shi Dakai nodded, and then asked: "Is there any new changes in the enemy situation in Tianjia Town?"

"As of this morning, there has not been any more." Zhang Suimou replied: "According to the little demon, the three iron cable defense lines were repaired on the Yangtze River, some mines were arranged, and then no adjustments were made. The main force was on the north bank and the side troops were on the south bank."

Shi Dakai had long memorized the military information of Tianjia Town. He knew that Wu Chaoyue's current troops were about 19 battalions. In addition to the navy of the two battalions, the Hubei New Army equipped with firing needle guns and Minni guns had eight battalions, of which six battalions were stationed in the Wuwangmiao area of ​​the north bank, two battalions and Liu Kunyi's Zhuangzi battalion were stationed in Banbishan, and eight battalions were stationed in the battle, five battalions were on the north bank, and three battalions were stationed on the south bank. The deployment of troops was obviously focused on the north, but the terrain of Banbishan on the south bank was dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. A large number of solid civil fortifications had been built early, so the battlefield on the south bank only looked relatively thin, but in fact it was not necessarily easier to fight than the north bank with a poor geographical location.

"The ideal breakthrough is still on the water, but unfortunately it has been too slow to take effect. Even if the navy can break through Tianjia Town and break into the hinterland of Hubei, cut off and harass the supplies and food channels of the transcendence demon, there is no guarantee of victory on land, and I cannot kill the transcendence demon to avenge my brother."

After muttering and sighing in his heart, Shi Dakai decisively ordered the army to continue advancing, and asked the water and land army to directly reach Wuxue, which was only ten miles away from Tianjia Town, to join forces to establish a camp. Then he ordered Zhang Suimu: "Send more details and closely monitor every move beyond the little demon. If there is any movement, report it to me immediately."

The Taiping Army and the Hubei New Army's tactical tricks were very efficient. On the evening of the day, when the Taiping Army's vanguard successfully arrived at Wuxue and immediately started to build the battalion defense fortifications, the Taiping Army's detailed work had already reported the rumors that Liu Changyou was about to take reinforcements to Tianjia Town to reinforcements to Shi Dakai. Shi Dakai, who was only more than four years older than Wu Chaoyue, was not stubborn and chose to immediately convene important strategists such as Zhang Suimu and Zeng Jinqian and major generals such as Hu Yihuang, Lai Guiying, Qin Rigang, and Chen Yucheng to convene a combat meeting to discuss the next combat plan.

Misleadingly, the false news that Liu Changyou was about to lead his army to aid, the Taiping Army's decision-making team discussed two combat plans for Shi Dakai to choose. The first one was of course Wu Chaoyue's most feared Land Division to hold on to the navy's attack, and opened a gap in grasping the larger water battlefield, eliminating the weak navy of the Wu army as soon as possible and controlling the Yangtze River channel, cutting off Wu Chaoyue's food and supplies supply line, and then slowly taking over the main force of the Qing army's land division.

Another thing is Wu Chaoyue's favorite tactics. Before Liu Changyou arrived in Tianjia Town, he launched a decisive battle as soon as possible, attacking the Wu Navy and the Wu Army's main camp with all his strength, and crushing Wu Chaoyue with the top of Mount Tai. Moreover, the Taiping Army also unanimously determined that the main target of the land attack should be the main force of the Wu Army stationed on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The reason is that in order to cooperate with the Banbishan defenders to block the Yangtze River waterway, the main force of the Wu Army was forced to establish the main camp in the area of ​​Wu Wang Temple with relatively open terrain. It was a bit of a loss in geographical location. At the same time, the southeast of the Wu Wang Temple was a large mountain and forest highland (visible at satellite cloud map), which was suitable for the Taiping Army to arrange ambush and intersperse and detour to launch surprise attacks. It is the most ideal place for the wolf to use it to the sky and the earth.

If he hadn't wanted to kill Wu Chaoyue with his own hands to avenge his brother, then there was no doubt that Shi Dakai would definitely choose the safe tactic of using the navy to fight the main attack. However, even if he did this successfully, Wu Chaoyue had the opportunity to escape calmly before the food and grass was exhausted. The current situation on the battlefield in Jiangxi did not allow Shi Dakai to go too deep into the hinterland of Hubei. Shi Dakai hesitated on this choice. Even though he knew it was not very stable and took some risk, Shi Dakai could not help but turn his attention to the second plan and immediately launch an attack and launch a decisive battle with the main force of the Wu army's water and land as soon as possible!

After all, he was still young and impulsive. After weighing the pros and cons of the long-term, Shi Dakai asked everyone tentatively: "In your opinion, how confident can our army win by attacking the main camp that surpasses the little demon with all its might?"

The Taiping Army and civil and military officials present were all more realistic. After discussing for a few words, Shi Dakai's important deputy, Hu Yihuang, came forward to answer: "We don't think we have any confidence in the terrain of the Wing King Temple. Although the terrain in the Wuwang Temple is relatively beneficial to us, the fast-firing foreign gun that surpasses the little demon is enough to offset any disadvantages in the terrain. In addition, he also has a fast-firing cannon called a grenade launcher, which attacks his strong camp head-on. Not only do we have no confidence, we are also destined to die in vain."

Hu Yihuang spoke very frankly. Even though he knew that Shi Dakai was eager to avenge Shi Xiangzhen, he still added: "Also, even in the field, we still have no confidence in winning the decisive battle. The fast-firing foreign gun that surpassed the little demon has caused us to suffer countless great losses. We must not repeat the same mistakes."

Shi Dakai was disappointed. Fortunately, Shi Dakai was also a tough guy who could take it and let it go. He clearly distinguished the more important ones. He nodded and subconsciously gave up his plan to take the initiative to attack. However, at this moment, another important adviser of Shi Dakai, Zeng Jinqian, suddenly said: "The Wing King is five thousand years old. If you want to defeat the Superior Demon before the Qing Demon reinforcement, there is only one way to design and lure the Superior Demon to take the initiative to attack our camp."

"Turn the snake out of the hole?" Shi Da's eyes lit up.

"Yes, lead the snake out of the hole." Zeng Jinqian nodded and said in a deep voice: "There are two advantages to lure the little demons of the Super League to take the initiative to attack our camp. The first is that we have fortifications to avoid bullets and offset the advantage of Super League's fast-fire muskets. The second is that we can obtain the cover of water artillery fire. With these two advantages, we can arrange some ambush in the hidden areas of the mountains and forests, and stick to the old man Qing Yaoshi, and take the opportunity to launch a counterattack. It is not difficult to defeat the enemy."

Seeing Shi Dakai nodding in agreement with this method, Shi Dakai's chief adviser Zhang Suimu was a little cheesy, so he poured cold water and said: "Although Wei Tianhou makes sense, how can he make the Chaoyue Xiaode give up the cover of fortifications and attack our camp? Chaoyue Xiaode has always been known for his treacherousness, and it is not ordinary difficulty to deceive him."

"I'm worried about this too." Zeng Jinqian frowned and said, "The only thing I can think of now is to act as soon as possible, so that the Super Little Demon feels that our fortifications are not strong and have the courage to attack our camp. But as for how to fool this famously treacherous little devil, I can't think of any good idea for a while."

When Zhang Suimu was secretly proud, Shi Dakai encouraged: "It doesn't matter, as long as you can find the direction, the three cobblers are even more capable of one Zhuge Liang. Let's work together, not afraid of not being able to think of a way to fool this Qing Yao. Everyone should think about it quickly and see if there is any good way to fool the Super Little Demon."

With Shi Dakai's encouragement, the Taiping Army's decision-making team repeatedly racked their brains and really came up with some solutions. Among them, Hu Yihuang first proposed: "How about you believing defeat? Send an army to attack the demon-clearing camp. How about cheating defeat and the demon-successful demon out?"

Unfortunately, Hu Yihuang's proposal was unanimously opposed by everyone. In addition to Wu Chaoyue being too treacherous, there was also that Wu Chaoyue was not likely to continue to attack the Taiping Army's camp even if he chased him to Wuxue. After seeing that everyone was helpless, Zhang Suimue, who had already made up his mind, smiled and said: "Wing King, in fact, if you want the Chaoyue Xiao Yao to continue to attack our army camp, there is only one way to make the Chaoyue Xiao Yao believe that he can win by attacking our army camp!"

"How can I do this?" Shi Dakai asked quickly.

"Serial plan! Deceiving the enemy with fraud!"

Zhang Suimu first answered firmly, then smiled and said, "First, I sent someone to surrender to Chaoyue Xiao Yao and make an appointment to serve as an insider. At the same time, I told Chaoyue Xiao Yao that we decided to attack Banbishan position with relatively weak troops first, and persuade Chaoyue Xiao Yao to take the opportunity to attack our main camp, and defeat our army with both inside and outside."

"Next, let our navy carry old and weak soldiers across the river to Fuchi Town to land, pretending to attack the Banbishan camp of Qing Yao, so that the Super Little Demon feels that our navy wants to protect the troop transport ship and dare not return to the main land camp with all his strength, so he can fight with confidence! In this way, the Super Little Demon will not only inevitably fall into a trap, but may also let his navy take the initiative to attack to increase the chance of victory and create opportunities for our navy to break through the navy in one fell swoop!"

"A clever plan!" Shi Dakai applauded and immediately made a decision: "Just do it like this. Even if this plan is not successful, we will not suffer any losses. Once it is successful, we will win a great victory! It is feasible to advance and retreat!"

"Wing King, who would be better to send to surrender?" Hu Yihuang asked.
Chapter completed!