Dominate the Country

Changsha in winter has a very Jiangnan flavor, and Chen Ming thinks it is because of the water. Located by the water, it must be damp and cold in winter.

Chen Ming has a big stove in front of him at this moment, and Chen Yongsheng, Shi Meng, Ma Wenjie, Zhao Yongji and other generals are sitting around him. The Fu Han Army has been in Hunan for two months, and now the main force has been withdrawn from central and southern Hunan. Because the troops from Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi have been transferred to Hunan.

According to the news from Fujian, the situation of the Tiandihui has not yet been shown, but the news from Jiujiang proves that the part of the Qing soldiers that were separated is very important to the Qing army in Jiangxi. The Jiangxi Qing army and the militia, which had been competing with Jiujiang Hukou before, have now taken the initiative to retreat to Nankang. In the Poyang Lake area, a defense network with Xingzi [Nankang], Duchang, Raozhou and Nanchang as support points has been formed.

Of course, Zhou Zhilin of the Xiangdong Independent Regiment also withdrew from Pingxiang. After he led his troops to block the Qing army from Jiangxi at Chaling Pass for two days, he retreated to Liling, but soon lost Liling again. Now he has retreated to Liuyang. Zhu Hongfei and Hu Mantian from Xiangxi fought two battles with the Qing soldiers from Guangxi and retreated to Hengyang. Only a thousand people were left in the two regiments.

When these two were in high spirits, many people came to help, but now the Qing army from Guangdong and Guangxi is heading north, and the two have been defeated again and again, first losing Daozhou and then Yongzhou. I don’t know how many people have fled in the meantime. Only those who can follow these two people to Hengyang are their die-hards or those who are determined to fight against the Qing.

Chen Ming returned to Changsha, but Hengyang still has a regiment of the 15th Brigade stationed there, as well as a part of the navy. Whether it is the Qing soldiers from Guangxi entering Yongzhou or the Qing soldiers from Guangdong entering Chenzhou, if these two groups want to lift the siege of Changsha, Hengyang is a hurdle they cannot overcome.

Part of the 15th Brigade is now in Hengyang, and the other part is in Xiangtan, south of Changsha. To the east, it is corresponding to the Jiangxi Qing army coming from Liling. Another part has joined the Fu Han army outside Changsha with Zhao Yongji.

Chen Ming drew a simple map on the ground, pointing at the location of Changsha. "Changsha has been under surveillance for two months. Although there is no shortage of food in the city, the morale of the army and the people is not high. Especially after the article was introduced, their morale dropped even more." Officials are no longer working for the Qing Dynasty. Should soldiers be more loyal than officials?

"Besides, there is the Qinglian Sect in Changsha as an internal response. It should be easy for us to attack Changsha now. Now it depends on whether the three Qing troops outside will come. If they don't come, we can only simply eat Changsha; if they come, we will catch one more fish." Besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements also depends on whether the enemy will take the bait.

Chen Ming has been in Hengyang for the past two months, but he has never relaxed his attention on the situation in Changsha. The Fu Han Army went south around Changsha, which stabilized the shaken morale of the Qing Army after the great defeat. It seems that Chen Ming has made another unwise move. But this move was intentional by Chen Ming, because he did so to give the people of Changsha Qinglian Sect more opportunities to stand out. For example, the credit for guarding the position at night!

After the defeat that night, the morale of the Qing soldiers guarding the city dropped sharply, and they were even unwilling to do the job of guarding the position at night. Chang Qing did not force his men, and pushed the matter to Fang Shijun. Fang Shijun still had some Hunan Green Camp and Minyong under his command, so he could only suppress the Hunan soldiers and Hunan Yong to do this dangerous work. At that time, the Qing army was afraid that the Fu Han Army would launch an attack at night.

And this was the opportunity for the Qinglian Sect to stand out. They had contacted the Fu Han Army.

After the Fu Han Army went south, the crisis in Changsha was resolved, and the Qing soldiers from Yunnan and Guizhou took over the night duty again because they felt there was no danger.

But in the subsequent confrontation, the Fu Han army almost never launched an active attack on Changsha during the day, but attacked more frequently at night. Soon, the Qing army was afraid of killing, and the task returned to the hands of the Hunan soldiers and the Hunan warriors. Relying on the collusion between the two sides, the Qinglian Sect, which originally had a small foundation in Changsha, now actually controls the military power of some Hunan soldiers and the Hunan warriors.

If Chen Ming really wants to take Changsha at this time, it will be much easier than taking advantage of the victory before.

When hundreds of cannons were concentrated by Chen Ming to bombard the positions outside the city north of Changsha, Changqing, Daxing'a, and Fang Shijun all looked as ugly as if their parents had died.

The Fu Han army approached the Qing army's position by tunnel operations. When the smoke of the shells filled the Qing army's position, the Fu Han army's melee troops, wearing iron armor and holding long spears and swords, rushed out quickly and drilled into the Qing army's position. The war turned into a hand-to-hand fight, and the Qing army defending the position had almost no chance of winning.

Changqing and Fang Shijun could only ask for help from the Jiangxi troops in Guangdong and Guangxi and Liling, and even Ben Jinzhong in Changde. They were all in a relationship of mutual dependence. Once Changsha was broken, there would be no city in the area east of Dongting Lake that could resist the footsteps of the Fu Han Army. They could completely enter Pingxiang County, southern Hunan, and the west bank of Dongting Lake again. The Qing troops from all directions saved Changsha and also saved themselves.

Changqing and Fang Shijun could only comfort themselves in this way, and on the other hand, they tried their best to give grace and praise to their teams, and encouraged the morale of the soldiers with gold and silver, and then prayed for God's blessing!

"There is only one regiment in Hengyang, plus a thousand defeated soldiers in western Hunan. The Qing troops in Guangdong and Guangxi have a total of 10,000 or 20,000 troops. How can they not dare to attack Hengyang? I will directly send a brigade to Guangzhou City."

Chen Ming soon received a report that Hengyang was attacked by the Qing army. He laughed and told the 15th Brigade in Hengyang that they did not need to hold on to Hengyang, but to retreat to Xiangtan.

"We need to fight harder in Changsha. The Qing troops in Jiangxi in Liling have not moved yet."

The more than 10,000 Qing troops of Ben Jinzhong in Changde have been too honest in the past few months. If the troops of Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi have all joined forces to the south of Changsha, will Ben Jinzhong's Qing troops still not move a single bit?

When the troops changed from a large-scale battle between two armies in a certain position to a multi-way offensive and defensive battle scattered over a range of hundreds of miles, Chen Ming felt that he seemed to have completed a transformation, or that this transformation came too suddenly. His eyes did not stay on Changsha City, but paid more attention to the "outside"!

The attack of the Fu Han Army under Changsha City continued. In a few days, the Fu Han Army took down the Kaifu Temple in the north of the city. In this way, their front was only three miles away from the Xinkai Gate in the north city.

Changqing's letters for help flew to Liling like snowflakes, and Zhou Kaitai, the general of Nan Gan Town in Jiangxi who led troops stationed there, felt bitter. People know their own business. His troops seem to be quite similar. The so-called Xiangdong Independent Regiment used to fight Zhou Zhilin has also been successful frequently. However, Zhou Kaitai has also fought against the Fu Han Army in Jiujiang and Hukou. The combat power and armaments of the two sides are not at the same level. If his 10,000-man army fights head-on, even the two or three thousand armored Fu Han Army cannot stop it.

In the spring and summer of last year, the 30,000 troops of Jiangxi frequently attacked the Fu Han Army in Hukou, Jiujiang. From time to time, there were small reports of victory, although they were not worth taking seriously. But in the battle, the Qing army in Jiangxi took a certain initiative. But in May, the Fu Han Army in Jiujiang replaced the armor and cannons, and the Qing soldiers in Jiangxi could not fight anymore. Instead, the Fu Han Army in Jiujiang frequently launched small-scale counterattacks from the mountains, causing the Qing army to suffer losses again and again, and had to switch from offensive to defensive.

Wu Shaoshi also clamored to equip the soldiers with armor in Nanchang City, but it was just clamor. Now there are more and more guns and cannons in the Jiangxi Qing army, is it because of the Fu Han army's armor, plus there is a Lushan Mountain in Jiujiang, there are many mountains, and it is inconvenient for artillery to move, so guns and cannons, which are much more powerful than bird guns, have become the necessary weapons of the Jiangxi Qing army. Guns and cannons can play some role in small-scale battles in the mountains, but in large-scale frontal wars, it is simply the wrong technology tree.

"Sir, if you want to rescue Changsha, you don't have to go to Xiangtan. Let's go north directly and fight Liuyang."

Changsha is only 80 miles away from Xiangtan, and the Fu Han army can arrive in half a day by boat. Whether the Jiangxi troops can get out again after arriving in Xiangtan is another matter. But if they go directly to Liuyang by land, the enemy in front is the mob of Zhou Zhilin, and there is nothing to worry about. If the Fu Han army comes, they will retreat in big strides. If they can't beat the Fu Han army, can they still outrun the Fu Han army?

So when Chen Ming received a report from the dark camp saying that Shandong's "Liangshan Plan" had been launched, Zhou Zhilin also sent a quick report that the Qing army in Liling did not attack Xiangtan to the west, but turned to the north to take the not-so-easy land route and rushed to Liuyang. It seems that this Jiangxi Qing army heading north did not see a decent artillery!

"Your Highness, the troops attacking Hengshan in Guangdong and Guangxi have retreated."

Not very good news came one after another. The Qing army that had just "captured" Hengyang suddenly returned to the original route when heading north to Hengshan. The dark camp that was closely watching the Qing army in Guangdong and Guangxi immediately sent a pigeon to report to Changsha.

The Qing army was not an idiot, Chen Ming knew it very well. But Changsha is such an important place, so the Qing army will not save it? This is unscientific!

Chen Ming stood up quickly. The Fu Han army did not mobilize many troops in this battle. How did the Qing army do it?

"Let the troops take down all the positions outside the north wall of Shacheng." Chen Ming, who couldn't figure out a clue, could only let the troops press Changsha more tightly. Then there was Ben Jinzhong's army in Changde. Chen Ming never saw him move. The Qing army in Guangdong and Guangxi that had already gone north suddenly returned to Hengyang. Something must have happened inside the Qing army that he didn't know about. But no matter what, he was planning to besiege Changsha and fight for reinforcements, but he couldn't do it.

The fierce attack of the Fu Han army on the north position of the city attracted all the attention of Chang Qing and Fang Shijun that day. On the west side of the Liuyang Gate Tower, the sun had already set, and the garrison commander Shen Zichun was already a little restless. Seeing that it was getting dark, why didn't the promised troops arrive? "Is there trouble on the road?" Shen Zichun asked himself, but he immediately denied this idea.

The Qinglian Sect had a thorough plan this time. They cooperated with the Fu Han army for more than two months, and many people were promoted to the positions of garrison commander and Qianzong on the front line, although this was due to Fang Shijun's messy hair and hat. But today, the Fu Han Army attacked the north of the city fiercely, and everyone in the city turned their attention to the north city. There should be no problem for the Fu Han Army to enter the city.

"It must be difficult on the road!" Shen Zichun kept comforting himself in his heart. The Fu Han Army has not launched an attack on the west of Changsha. Over time, even Fang Shijun and Chang Qing ignored the west, but this also shows that the Qing Army's defense line in the west of Changsha is complete. Although the guards here are not very good.

The team that the Fu Han Army has penetrated has to walk to Liuyang Gate under the watchful eyes of most of the Hunan soldiers and Hunan braves in various positions in the west of the city. Even if they are led by the Qinglian Sect, it is still troublesome. Since receiving the letter this morning, Shen Zichun has felt chilly all over his body and his heart is up and down. When meeting colleagues, I always feel that the eyes of others looking at me are full of inexplicable meanings.

"Sir!" A general rushed into the city gate tower and reported to Shen Zichun: "There is a group of local braves approaching outside."

Shen Zichun's heart paused at this moment, and a sense of panic that could not be described in words rose from his heart. It was like someone was holding his heart tightly, and the suffocating feeling made him forget to breathe at that moment.

"Whose flag is it?" Shen Zichun's mind was blank, but he blurted out this sentence without delay.

As soon as the word "number" came out of his mouth, Shen Zichun shuddered violently, and everything returned to its original state, his mind, body and mind. The huge pressure and panic, as if they had never appeared, suddenly disappeared without a trace. Shen Zichun's mind was extremely clear at this moment, and his condition could not be better.

"It's dark, and I can't see clearly."

"Let me go and see." Shen Zichun stood up, adjusted his jacket, and stepped out of the city gate tower.

Standing on the city wall, he saw that not far away, outside the defense line of the city position, a group of soldiers were approaching quickly and openly.

…

On the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, the defenders of Changsha West City rebelled, and Changsha City fell immediately. More than 20,000 Qing troops fought hard and retreated to Jinpenling in the south of the city. The entire army was annihilated, including Changsha Governor Fang Shijun, the main general Chang Qing and dozens of civil and military officials...