When the sky gradually became brighter, Luo Yaoguo was already standing on the tower of the Zodiac Gate in Changsha City.
A large city in the late Qing Dynasty that was bathing in the flames of war is all in his "Tiantian Mirror". This is a rare historical material. You have to take some photos from above.
Changsha City is several times larger than the three state cities that Luo Yaoguo previously captured, including Daozhou, Guiyang, and Chenzhou. This is a provincial city after all! It has a circumference of seventeen miles and has nine city gates...that is The famous Changsha Old Nine Gates! The city covers an area of ​​more than eight square kilometers and has a population of more than 200,000.
In later generations, this scale would probably be just a crowded and outdated small county town. But in this era, it is the "second line of Qing Dynasty" after Beijing, Nanjing, and Guangzhou, and is the well-deserved number one city in Hunan Province!
Moreover, the city's geographical location is also quite good, with the Xiang River to the west, Dongting to the north, mountains to the east, and the hinterland of Xiang Lake to the south. If we can capture Yuezhou in the north and strangle the entrance to Dongting Lake, then Changsha can completely serve as the temporary capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can defend the enemy outside Sanxiang, it can have all the land, population and food of Xianghu Lake.
And Hunan has a large population, a lot of brave men who are good at fighting, and the Dongting Lake plain is rich in rice... If they were all owned by the Kingdom of Heaven, in a few years, they would be able to conquer Jingchu in the north, take Guangdong and Guangxi in the south, cross Luoxiao in the east, and seize Luoxiao in the west. Yungui and even cannibalized part of Sichuan. The heyday of Wu and Zhou in the past is just around the corner!
Compared with the whole gang going down the river to take Sanwu as their home, it seems to be better!
Luo Yaoguo thought to himself: "If Hong Xiuquan can be allowed to be the king of the house in Changsha, with Feng Yunshan assisting, Yang Xiuqing and I can go down the river and occupy Xiwu, and Dongwu will not be bad!
Although the authority of the Heavenly Kingdom Center will further decline, Xiao Chaogui, Yang Xiuqing, I, and I will all become vassal towns of the Heavenly Kingdom. But it will definitely be better for the Kingdom of Heaven to be divided and ruled by me, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, and Feng Yunshan than it was originally held by Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing. I wonder what Yang Xiuqing is thinking?"
While he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard someone shouting happily: "Look, there is thick smoke rising over the Hunan Governor's Yamen... There is also a faint red flag fluttering. It must have been captured by Hall Master Zhu's people." Got it!"
Hearing this good news, Luo Yaoguo's thoughts were finally brought back. He put away the "Tongtian Mirror" and followed the sound, only to see Su Sanniang dressed in a red robe and a red scarf, with her hand on the handle of the knife, looking heroic. Luo Yaoguo was so happy that he asked loudly, "Sanniang, how is the situation?"
Although Luo Yaoguo is the commander-in-chief of the Shangjun, he doesn't care much about commanding on the battlefield. His role is more like a "political commissar"... the kind of "political commissar" who makes the final decision on the military! And the "political commissar" of the Shangjun The "commander" is actually Su Sanniang. Yu Miqing is old at military affairs, but cannot be a general, so he plays the role of "chief of staff".
Since the establishment of the Heavenly Kingdom Army, the combination of Luo, Su, and Yu has been operating well.
This battle in Changsha is no exception. The determination to fight in Changsha was made by Luo Yaoguo. The formulation and execution of the battle plan were the responsibility of Su Sanniang and Yu Miaqing. Luo Yaoguo only supervises the battle!
When Su Sanniang heard Luo Yaoguo's call, she hurried forward, clasped her fists and saluted, bowed and said: "Dear angel, among the nine gates in Changsha, the Zodiac Gate and the Derun Gate are in my hands, and the Eight Banners Soldiers on the Zodiac Street are in my hands. , the green camp soldiers were also cleared, and the road to Changsha City was completely opened. Our army suffered a lot in the battle of Huangdao Street, losing more than a hundred new brothers. It was Sanniang's fault!
However, there were a lot of gains during the battle. There were more than a thousand corpses of Eight Banners soldiers and Green Camp soldiers, and more than a thousand people were captured. If you include the Qing Yao captured outside Changsha City, there were a thousand prisoners captured. Five hundred. In addition, six to seven hundred high-quality shotguns and one to two hundred explosive mines with cross patterns engraved on the surface were also seized!"
As she spoke, Su Sanniang took a "holy bomb" from a female soldier beside her that was thrown without lighting the fuse, and handed it to Luo Yaoguo with both hands. Luo Yaoguo took the bomb and looked at it. , looks like a shot put, weighs more than a kilogram, has deep cross patterns carved on the surface, and the lead has already been inserted, but it has not been lit.
"Grenadier?" Luo Yaoguo thought for a while and asked: "Sanniang, which Qingyao used this weapon?"
"It's the Eight Banners soldiers," Su Sanniang said. "The Eight Banners soldiers who ambushed our army inside the Zodiac Gate are called the Fu Mo Camp. They are said to be composed of elite soldiers drawn from the Beijing Banner Forbidden Army."
"Let the Eight Banners soldiers serve as grenadiers..." Luo Yaoguo chuckled, "It's a good thing they dared to think and do it!" He carefully looked at the bombs on hand, "The bombs are quite well made."
Su Sanniang said: "According to the captured Eight Banners soldiers, this bomb was made by a lama from the Rakshasa Kingdom named Tupolev with the help of the Qingyao court."
"Tupolev? No wonder." Luo Yaoguo thought: "Then I have to find a way to reverse engineer, copy it, and make a Heavenly Grenadier!" Thinking of this, he handed the bomb to his female guard. Zeng Jiumei ordered: "Jiumei, keep it carefully."
Luo Yaoguo originally had four female guards. Now Li Cuihua and Wei Xiulian were sent to lead the troops because of their outstanding marksmanship. They also had Ji Chunhua and Zeng Jiumei, and later added Wang Xi'er, so there are still three female guards left. Among them, Zeng Jiumei and Wang Xi'er They are both quite intelligent. Together with Xiao Zhang Bao, they followed Luo Yao to learn "Science" and made rapid progress.
After handing the bomb to Zeng Jiumei to put it away, Luo Yaoguo asked again: "Sanniang, have you taken down the Tianxin Pavilion? Has the Cai Gong Tomb outside the city been taken down?"
"Tianxin Pavilion has not been captured yet," Su Sanniang said with a frown, "I have ordered Li Kaifang to fight. It is a bit difficult, but we should be able to win... The public tomb was captured by Li Shoucheng." Luo Yaoguo turned his head, Looking at the tall tower of Tianxin Pavilion, he frowned slightly.
He had been to Tianxin Pavilion... more than a hundred years later. It was indeed a fortress made of copper and iron! If the Qing army had not deployed heavy troops, they could have taken it with one blow. As long as Tianxin Pavilion was obtained, Changsha Even if we take half of the city
If Tianxin Pavilion had deployed heavy troops in advance...could someone be able to predict victory and ensure defeat? "Do you know who is guarding Tianxin Pavilion?" Luo Yaoguo asked again.
"Mr. Yu just went to see it and said that it is the flag of Zuoying, Fubiao, Hunan. The guard general is a disciple of the Eight Banners, named Taqibu."
"What? Taqibu?" Luo Yaoguo was shocked. Today's Eight Banners disciples are also powerful. Taqibu and Dolonga are not easy to deal with. Especially this Taqibu, he was an early member of the Hunan Army. General Zeng Tianyang died in his hands! How could he be assigned to Tianxin Pavilion? He also brought a whole battalion of Fubiao elites with him... Whose handiwork was it? Luo Bingzhang? Luo Raodian? Zeng Guo... No, not them! Suddenly, a very resounding name flashed in Luo Yaoguo's mind - Zuo Zongtang! Luo Yaoguo thought: "It's Zuo Zongtang... who else could be there besides him? The battle of Changsha is probably going to happen. What a surprise!"
Thinking of this, he turned to Su Sanniang and said: "Sanniang, Tianxin Pavilion is extremely strong. The defenders are probably no less than a thousand people. It doesn't matter if they won't be able to defeat them for a while. Tell Li Kaifang not to fight hard and leave some strength." .The Battle of Changsha, I’m afraid there will still be another fight?
Su Sanniang was stunned and thought: "The governor's office has been captured, the army has entered the city, and there are thousands of Tiandihui heroes in the city. The overall situation is clearly decided, how long can a bare Tianxin Pavilion be defended? At worst, I'll be trapped for a month or two, and when the food is gone, I won't be able to get it."
Just as she thought about running out of food, Ji Chunhua beside her suddenly laughed and said, "Look, there's another fire in a city gate in the northeast of Changsha. It must be the heroes of the Tiandihui who are fighting against the Qingyao, right?"
Luo Yaoguo hurriedly turned his head to look. Before he could find where the fire was, he saw Yu Miaqing flying towards Luo Yaoguo. He bowed to Luo Yaoguo first, and then said: "It's broken... Zongmen Rice Market is burned down! That's Hunan." The largest rice market in the lake has at least 100,000 kilograms of rice stored in it. If it is burned down, the two to three hundred thousand people in Changsha City will starve!"
"Ah...that's it!" Luo Yaoguo's expression suddenly became serious, and he murmured: "You Zuo Zongtang..." 44-88
At the same moment, Zuo Zongtang was standing on the tower of Chaozongmen, standing side by side with Chen Qishu, who ran over from Chenzhou. The Chaozongmen rice market not far from them had been burned into a sea of ​​fire. Chen Qishu watched as it burned more and more There was a raging fire, with a regretful expression on his face, while Zuo Zongtang lowered his head and flipped through the first volume of "Anti-Jing" that he had just obtained.
After a long while, he closed the book, looked at the four characters "written by Luo Yaoguo" on the cover, and said softly: "Luo Yaoguo... is a great enemy!"
Chapter completed!