Dominate the Country

Changsha is a three-thousand-year-old city. The name and location of the city have remained unchanged for three thousand years. In the 21st century, it is still the center of Hunan. It can only be said that the location of this city is amazing.

In the history of the original time and space, this ancient city would be burned into ruins by a fire during the Anti-Japanese War. Let alone mentioning the fire, Chen Ming did not need to lament the history of the original time and space. He now only We need to face the current situation, facing the criss-crossing trenches outside Changsha City, and the strategic locations where fortifications have been built one after another outside the city.

After Chen Ming raised his troops and went south, the 20,000 Qing troops in Xiangyin immediately withdrew from the city and returned to Changsha at full speed. The Qing army occupied both sides of the Xiangjiang River. Fang Shijun locked up the river across the river and coordinated with the Jiangxi position, preparing to defend Changsha while blocking the Xiangjiang River, the lifeblood of Hunan.

Chen Ming had no intention of fighting the Qing army in Changsha City on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River and its surrounding strategic areas. His attack direction was focused on Fujiazhou and Juzizhou in the middle of the Xiangjiang River, as well as on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River.

The two-mile-wide Xiangjiang River can be crossed by Fuhan Navy warships. However, the range of the cannons cast by the Hunan government itself is even worse than the small cannons on Fuhan Navy warships. There are honeycomb-like pores in many gun barrels. In order to prevent the barrels from exploding, the cannon casting bureau in Changsha could only continuously increase the thickness of the barrel wall, which also continued to increase the weight of the cannon.

"Your Highness, the Qing army has deployed eight forts on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River. The first one is in Sanchaji, ten miles away from Changsha City."

The Changsha defense plan of the Qing army presented in front of Chen Ming was of course sent by the secret camp. This was not something difficult to detect. Fang Shijun sent civilians to dig tunnels and build forts, and the people from the secret camp mingled among them, and they easily Reconnaissance completed. No need to take any risks.

The map in front of him reminded Chen Ming of the "Layout Map of the Taiping Army's Attack on Changsha" that was circulated on the Internet in his previous life.

The Qing army set up battle lines in the north of Changsha City, with trenches and trenches crisscrossing them. It was much more complicated than the Changsha offensive and defensive plans they had seen in their previous lives. There is no longer the "Bingyong Trench" extending for more than ten miles south from Tianxin Pavilion City, and there are no more ten barracks set up by the Qing army from Qingwan Town to Pingtang, because the Qing army did Shi Dakai's work at that time. . The eight camps along the Xiangjiang River are all owned by the Qing army.

There is a pontoon bridge downstream of Juzizhou, which was used by the Qing army to communicate troops and food and military supplies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In the upper section of the river, the Qing army set up a total of five iron cables to block the river, and prepared hundreds of large and small fireboats.

"Everyone, please take a good look at this defense map. The Qing army has set up two forts on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River. Although their cannons have a short range, they are supported by iron cables blocking the river. If our army hits the iron cables, the warships will inevitably suffer damage. Damaged.”

Chen Ming took a pointer and brushed the eight forts along the west bank of the Xiangjiang River on the map. "Let's do what we said before, ignore the Qing army in the east, and just let the Guards Brigade stay in front of them and lead the Qing army." . The 1st Brigade of the 1st Division and the 15th Brigade of the 4th Division crossed the river and launched an attack directly from the west bank. "Anyway, he is not going to attack Changsha now. Changsha will have to wait some time."

The brigade commander of the first brigade was Chen Yongsheng himself. He and Zhao Yongji stood up. Chen Ming continued to give instructions: "Eight camps looks like a lot, and the total strength is only three to five thousand people. You two battalions alternate and take turns. Come on." Chen Ming ended the entire military discussion simply. It seemed that his purpose in convening this military meeting was not to fight the next battle, but just to prevent the 1st Brigade and the 15th Brigade from competing for credit.

"Boom boom boom..."

The battle began that afternoon. Chen Ming led the Guards Brigade and the Cavalry Artillery Unit to camp in the north of Changsha. The troops of the two brigades landed on the south bank by boat, and then quickly rushed towards the Qing army's positions on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River. The first target is Sanchajichu.

The Qing army deployed very few troops in Sanchaji because this place was completely undefendable.

The 15th Brigade, which was the first to attack the Qing army, launched an attack on the Qing army's camp after a quarter of an hour of shelling. A team of musketeers cooperated with four small cannons and a squad of bombardiers.

The artillery fire stopped when the musketeers of this team advanced a hundred or ten meters in front of the Qing army's formation, and the mortars following behind the attacking troops roared. The battalion deputy who led the team waved his hand back, and the musketeers arranged in three horizontal lines spread out even more, and the density became sparser.

When the attacking troops reached a distance of twenty feet from the Qing army's trench, the Qing army's counterattack finally arrived.

Rows of shotguns stretched out from the trenches and fired at the Fuhan Army. It's just that these shotguns were shot too unevenly and out of sequence. If the Fuhan Army was on defense, trenches in front and behind would be arranged continuously, and the soldiers in each trench would be in a row. The officers or soldiers would stick out their heads to observe, with a copper whistle in their mouth, and the soldiers would only listen to the copper whistle as an order. , raised his head and fired when the whistle sounded, and after firing the musket, he lowered his head and knelt in the trench to load ammunition.

If all the shooting sequences can reach a "smooth" state, the defense will be really good. But people cannot be as accurate as machines, especially the Qing army that is being bombarded.

The attacking Fuhan Army musketeers then launched a counterattack, and the grenadiers following the musketeers quickly stepped forward, braved the guns fired by the Qing army and rushed out for about 20 meters, then picked up grenades and threw them towards the trenches.

These bombardiers who followed the troops into battle were all equipped with the most reliable pull-fire grenades. Although they still could not maintain their explosion rate of 80%, they could explode three out of four, or two out of three. It's a pretty good explosion rate.

"Rush..."

When grenades exploded in the tunnel, the officer of the attacking force raised his sword high and slashed at the Qing army's line. The current defense line is only the defense line of a small Qing army camp, not the defense line of Changsha City? The team officer simply didn't think there were many Qing soldiers on the opposite side. As long as they rush into the trenches, they can defeat the Tatars even with the armor they wear.

Zhao Yongji, who was in the rear line, immediately ordered the reserve troops to reinforce. These were also soldiers from the same team, but they were armed with cold weapons. The mortar troops also stopped firing. They wanted to advance their position again and then fire the shells directly into the Qing army's camp.

Zhao Yongji knew that the Fuhan Army had encountered tenacious resistance from the Qing Army under Wuchang City, and he did not know whether his attack would be successful. At this moment, he was holding a telescope in the rear to watch the battle, and high blood vessels appeared on the back of his hands.

"Kill..."

The Fuhan Army soldiers who shouted to kill rushed into the Qing Army's trenches without any delay. The Fuhan Army soldiers in the back row charged deeper through the planks on the trenches. The Qing army in Sanchaji seemed to be far less heroic and resilient than those from outside Wuchang City.

Zhao Yongji temporarily suppressed the doubts in his heart, and joy filled his heart. Regardless of what happened to the Qing troops, this attack on the 15th Brigade was a good start. Half an hour later, he walked into the Qing army camp with relaxed steps. More than a hundred Qing prisoners of war were escorted towards the north by soldiers of the 15th Brigade. At the same time, the good news was also sent to Chen Ming on the other side of the Xiangjiang River.

"So fast?"

The Fuhan army's camp in the east of the Xiangjiang River had not yet been set up, and Chen Ming was still on the boat handling the troops. Sanchaji was captured?

"The Qing army only placed a half-strength battalion and more than 200 civilian soldiers there. They didn't even have a cannon. They could only fire fire from a distance. When they saw our team charging with bayonets drawn, , collapsed immediately." The fifteenth traveler responded with a relaxed expression. They had only fifteen casualties in total. Only four were actually killed in battle, and six were shot by shotguns and grenades. Only one was killed in hand-to-hand combat and one was seriously injured. The bodies of the Qing soldiers they killed were sixty or seventy, and they captured as many as two hundred prisoners.

After passing Sanchaji, there is Guansha Ridge, and then Yingpeng Ridge. The latter was renamed Yinpenling in the 21st century, echoing Jinpenling to the east of the Xiangjiang River. Yingpeng Ridge is connected to Shizi Ridge and is surrounded by six slopes including Shizi, Tanzi, Weijia, Sunjia, Tongzi and Shizhu. During the investigation of the secret camp, this was considered one of the main defensive positions of the Qing army. Behind it was Qinwan Town, and then Yuelu Mountain.

"Kill..."

Amidst the loud sound of artillery, the soldiers of the first brigade launched a direct charge. Solid artillery shells had already riddled the Qing army camp in Guanshaling with holes. The first brigade artillery bullied the Qing army that they had no firepower, so they pushed the cannon directly to a position 200 meters in front of the Qing army's formation. There were only some thick wooden boards in front. Adding a felt blanket to block it, this distance is within the effective range of the shotgun.

The First Brigade did not use solid bullets and explosive bullets to attack the Qing army's positions, but shotgun shells. Although the penetrating power of shotgun shells is not very good, the shotgun shells have covering power, and the barrage spreads very widely.

It was also a shelling of about a quarter of an hour, and the offensive troops of the first brigade directly attacked the Qing army's position.

The troops stationed here are no longer the Hunan soldiers and civilian braves of Ma Zhao, but the Yunnan Green Camp.

These people had fought hard in Burma, won and lost, and were among the most daring and capable troops among the Qing armies in the southwest, although they were unable to hold their heads up after being greeted with shotguns by the Fuhan army. But after the Fuhan army launched a charge, they still raised their heads and fired their shotguns, then threw away the heavy shotguns and charged forward with swords and guns.

And then failed without exception. In terms of hand-to-hand combat, how could they compare with the armored Fuhan Army?

When Chen Ming was eating at noon, the good news about Guanshaling was also sent to the east bank of the Xiangjiang River. Chen Ming was so happy that he asked the entire army to report it. The Fuhan Army's own high morale immediately increased again.

But when they were happy here, the morale of the Qing army was low. Fang Shijun and Changqing on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River, and Daxing'a on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River who supervised the battle, all had confused expressions on their faces.

They knew that the Fuhan Army focused its attack on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River. So, how to stop it?

Without actually fighting against the Fuhan Army, one would simply rely on hearsay and conjecture to understand the Fuhan Army's true combat capabilities. With absolute superiority in artillery bombardment and absolute superiority in hand-to-hand combat capabilities, how could the Qing army fight?

After Guansha Ridge was defeated, it was Yingpeng Ridge, which was also where the first two of the five river-blocking iron cables deployed by the Qing army on the Xiangjiang River were located. Together with Fu Jiazhou in the middle of the river, this was already the strongest defense of the Qing army.

Fang Shijun and Chang Qing also want high-quality, high-range cannons, but Changsha doesn't have them.