In Wuchang City, in He Renlong's mansion, a group of big men were sitting shirtless in the hall eating watermelon. These people were all He Renlong's lieutenants, Mr. Qian, and the generals, who had been with He Renlong for many years. They were all forthright men.
, he didn’t adhere to those common etiquette, so he dressed casually in front of the general.
Zuo Liangyu's 100,000 tribesmen are composed of several parts, He Renlong's former official cavalry, the remnants of Li Zicheng's bandits, a number of small groups of bandits, and some of Zuo Liangyu's own troops, He's tribe
He is considered to be the most powerful among them. The battalion officers are all He Renlong's cronies. He Renlong has relatively high qualifications and is a serious martial arts scholar, so he has always felt unfair that he was inferior to Zuo Liangyu. In terms of force and wisdom, he
He feels no worse than Zuo Liangyu, and he should have the final say in this vast land.
The generals of the He Department also have this view. Since Zuo Liangyu has died, their boss should naturally be the spokesperson for Huguang, so that their generals can rise with the tide. However, the situation seems a bit bad now. The people in the imperial court
There is a tendency to completely take back the administrative and military power of Huguang, especially Liu Ziguang, who is always against them. In just a few days, they have drawn swords against them twice. Although they were resolved later, the hatred has taken root in their hearts. Now they are
While gnawing on the watermelon, they were busy discussing how to start another incident.
He's tribe originally had ten battalions of cavalry, each with only 500 soldiers. Including auxiliary soldiers, the total was less than 10,000, about 6,000 or 7,000. After these two days, they have lost nearly a thousand cavalry, and their strength has been reduced a lot.
, half of the military rations and horse feed were also taken away by He Tengjiao. Now He Tengjiao had 7,000 men in his hands and took over the defense of Wuchang City, which made He Renlong and the others even more unhappy.
However, strong men are strong men, and they can only make up the number. In a war, three of them are no match for one trained elite soldier. If you want to suddenly attack and control Wuchang, there is no problem, but the biggest problem is that there is no food. Zuo Liangyu's
The grain depot was in Hankou, and the court's disaster relief grains were still on the way. Now that the rebel government's grains could no longer be obtained, He Renlong decided to endure it for a while longer and wait until the disaster relief money and grains arrived before settling the accounts with Liu Ziguang.
At this time, the imperial court's follow-up grain transport team has arrived on the other side of Ezhou. This team is very large, with as many as 20,000 people, half of whom are the Beijing camp forbidden troops led by Wu Sangui. Wu Sangui is very organized in leading troops, and first sends out the vanguard camp to meet them.
When Shankai Road encounters water, bridges will be built. When encountering stagnant water or quagmire, the road will be paved with stones. When encountering shallow creeks, they will be directly stepped on. This will greatly speed up the progress of the subsequent convoy, which is faster than Liu Ziguang and the others expected.
Hurry, the Ezhou River is wide, and only a few ships controlled by the effective death camp can ferry back and forth. They can only transport a thousand people and horses overnight, hundreds of carts of supplies, and a large number of people and food waiting to cross the river. But the flood peak is coming.
When they arrived, Wu Sangui could only look at the ocean and sigh.
The people who crossed the river were led by Qianhu Huang Degong. Huang Degong was less than thirty years old and was Wu Sangui's vanguard officer. The officers and soldiers of the death battalion at the ferry told him that a battle had been fought in Ezhou. Liu Ziguang led his troops to surprise Wuchang and must have fought with Zuo.
Liangyu officially started fighting, so Huang Degong left 500 soldiers to defend the ferry, took the remaining 500 soldiers and the 200 death battalions that had been replaced, and rushed to Wuchang overnight. All the supplies across the river were also transported away, and the locomotive at Ezhou Station
It had been completely destroyed and there was nothing left to use. Huang Degong pulled the carriage onto the train track, and people pushed the horses forward. The carriages of the imperial army were all standard, and the width between the two wheels was the same as the width of the train track.
, after peeling off the rubber on the wheels, they can be stuck on the rails. The distance from Ezhou to Wuchang is only a hundred miles, and we can reach it by marching overnight.
Huang Degong's troops marched along the railway overnight and finally arrived at Wuchang Station. News of the arrival of the imperial disaster relief supplies reached the city. Everyone was delighted. Eighty of the one hundred wagons of supplies were grain, and the rest were military supplies transported to Liu Ziguang.
supplies, and also a lot of cash.
Having the food in hand will solve the urgent need, not to mention there are hundreds of thousands of taels of cash. With this money, he can go to Jiangxi, Hunan, and Sichuan to buy food. He Renlong feels that the time has come to take action.
Huang Degong said that there were more than 10,000 people waiting to cross the river on the other side of Ezhou, which strengthened He Renlong's determination to take action. If all the imperial troops came, how could he still have a chance? Every second counts now.
Liu Ziguang also planned to take action. The twenty carts of ordnance materials Huang Degong brought to him contained a large amount of gunpowder, fifty boxes with a total of fifteen thousand rounds of ammunition, twenty boxes of four hundred hand grenades, and dismantled and packed in wooden boxes.
His secret weapon, there were about ten boxes of canned military rations for the Red Shirt Regiment, all of which were canned meat that was very satisfying to the hungry. The addition of two hundred fresh troops greatly increased his courage.
The Yangtze River is turbulent and the river is still filled with fog, so there is no need to worry about the Zuo army's attack for the time being. He Tengjiao hosted a banquet for Huang Degong and celebrated the killing of Zuo Liangyu the day before yesterday. Although most of the Zuo army was still watching Hanyang, Wuchang City needed a celebration.
to improve military morale.
A banquet was held at the Governor's Mansion. The dishes were mainly local freshwater fish and shrimp, supplemented by canned meat shipped from the capital. The wine was aged Baiyunbian. Wine, meat, fish and sheep were also distributed in the military camp, and even in the refugee camps outside the city.
The porridge shed also served a meal of porridge thick enough to hold chopsticks in as a celebration.
He Renlong knew that Liu Ziguang was very brave and could not attack by force but by outsmarting him. He had many dog-headed military advisors under his command and quickly came up with a vicious plan. He Renlong nodded after hearing this and secretly sent 800 elite soldiers to Ezhou to attack the ferry.
I prepared a lot of dry firewood and kerosene.
At the same time, Zuo Mengeng on the other side was also seizing the time to integrate resources. The 20,000 people in Hanyang had surrendered, and there were still 20,000 people in Hankou who were not under his control. However, Jin Shengheng, the defender of Hankou, was Zuo Liangyu's brother and was loyal.
Zuo Mengeng told the truth about what happened in the past two days. Jin Shengheng immediately expressed his willingness to be loyal to the Marshal. He only waited for the flood to pass before crossing the river to avenge Marshal Zuo.
In Wuchang City, in the Governor's Mansion, the military and political officials gathered together and drank from cup to cup. Although Huang Degong only brought 700 men and horses and more than 100 vehicles of supplies, it brought unlimited hope to everyone.
After all, Wu Sangui's 10,000-strong army was only a hundred miles away from Wuchang.
He Tengjiao admired He Renlong very much and kept praising this upright and upright general of the uprising. He Renlong was sitting on pins and needles, coping with everyone's toasts, and glanced at the door from time to time, looking very impatient. After He Tengjiao finished his speech,
So he accused him of urinating and escaped.
Opposite the Governor's Mansion is the military camp of the Racecourse, where He Jun's cavalry brigade is stationed. After He Renlong slipped out of the banquet site, he looked for his own soldiers. According to the pre-determined strategy, he only needed to hold up his hand on the wall of the Governor's Mansion.
When the lantern is circled three times, the ambush troops on the opposite side will pour out and throw in torches, kerosene, and dry firewood in turn. When the weather is dry and the wind blows, the people in the Governor's Mansion will be unable to fly. Even if someone emerges from the sea of fire, it doesn't matter.
Thousands of bows and arrows are waiting for them. As long as the officials in the Governor's Mansion are eliminated, the imperial court's influence in Huguang will be over. The strong men in the city will not be considered at all. As long as these hungry people have milk, they are mothers, and they can be sent to them casually.
With enough food to eat, we can send out the city to attack the death camp of the shipyard tomorrow.
He Renlong's plan was very carefully arranged, but Liu Ziguang was also plotting against him. Since he came to the Governor's Mansion for a drink, he had no intention of letting him go back. He Renlong's eight soldiers were already under control, so He Renlong shouted
After several calls, no one came out.
There was no one in the courtyard of the Governor's Mansion. He could only hear the laughter and laughter in the hall behind him. He Renlong suddenly felt a little cold. His sixth sense told him that someone was staring at him in the dark. Those soldiers
He was afraid that someone had already killed him, and their target must be him. Thinking of this, He Renlong broke into a cold sweat. He pretended to be nonchalant, whistled and walked towards the dark place, as if he wanted to pee.
, when he reached the shadow near the gate, he suddenly ran away and ran towards the gate. The four newly appointed guards of the Governor's Mansion at the gate looked at him in shock as he ran over and were at a loss.
He Renlong's feeling was right. As soon as he started running, a few feather arrows were nailed to the place where he was standing. The ambush arranged by Liu Ziguang ran out from the darkness on both sides and fired at He Renlong's back with a Zhuge crossbow.
, but He Renlong ran zigzag very smartly, and was covered in soft armor in his robe, so he couldn't do anything to him for a while.
The crossbow was originally used to kill He Renlong silently, but it was a mistake. He failed to kill him on the spot. Instead, he escaped from the gate and ran towards the horse parade. The He Jun cavalry in the barracks was already ready.
, just waiting to send the signal, he suddenly saw his general escaping from the Governor's Mansion in a panic. He immediately knew that the matter was failed. All the troops rushed out to meet He Renlong. At this time, a team rushed out from the Governor's Mansion.
The men came with guns and fired fiercely. Many of He's cavalry fell off their horses, but more people rushed forward and protected He Renlong in the middle. He Renlong turned over and jumped on his horse, shouting: "We are in an ambush."