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"Wayne Brothers, why do I feel like you're becoming more and more like Qing Yao in battle?" Lin Fengxiang said to Vézé in private after the military meeting to discuss the battle strategy against the Qing Army outside the city the next day.
Vézé was stunned. Lin Fengxiang's tone was a little puzzled, a little surprised, and a little reproachful, but not malicious. Since he couldn't figure out Lin Fengxiang's thoughts, Vézé simply asked, "Lin Da Ge, why do you say that?"
"I heard Wayne Brothers and the other brothers' strategy. It's not a surprise attack, an ambush, or a surprise attack on the Qing Army. Instead, it's to line up and fight the Qing Army head-on. This is exactly the same as Qing Yao." Lin Fengxiang was very straightforward.
After hearing this very pertinent comment, Vézé was speechless for a moment. As the saying goes, the onlooker sees more. Vézé felt that Lin Fengxiang was right. When they attacked the Qing Army's supply line half a year ago, Vézé mainly used close combat, surprise attacks, and side attacks. As Vézé implemented military and cultural education throughout the army, the scale of the army grew larger and larger. There were fewer and fewer battles in which the elite troops were the core of the battle. There were more and more ways to make full use of the advantages of military strength and firepower gained through training. There were more and more ways to fight head-on against the enemy.
"Lin Da Ge, what's wrong with this?" Vézé asked.
Lin Fengxiang said bluntly, "It's too slow to fight like this! If the King Of The East led the army, so many people would have been divided into several groups and attacked separately, and Qing Yao would not know where to go. Wei Xiongdi always came and went like this, he always felt that he was a bit too arrogant. The Wayne Brothers are brave and skillful in battle. I've seen you win every time you send out an army. You've killed at least three to four thousand Qing Yao soldiers. If they could destroy a group of Qing Yao every time, there was nothing wrong with doing so. It's just that if Qing Yao doesn't suffer a crushing defeat and instead gets entangled with the Wayne Brothers, the rest of Qing Yao's forces will surround him. This battle won't be able to continue. "
That made sense, and Vézé agreed with it. After settling Lin Fengxiang down to rest, Vézé gathered the generals and told them about Lin Fengxiang's suggestion. While Wei Changrong and Zhang Yingchen were still deep in thought, Hu Chenghe had already retorted, "Prime Minister, Lin Fengxiang is right, but the King Of The East's men are all old brothers from Guangxi. They've been fighting for more than a year, and they're all elites. We also have brothers who have been in the army for less than two months. If we send them to the King Of The East to fight, I'm afraid the King Of The East won't be able to use them at ease. But these brothers of ours are already able to go onto the battlefield and fight hard battles. If we don't line up, I'm afraid they won't be able to fight as well as Qing Yao. With another six months of training, these brothers won't be any worse than the old brothers from Guangxi. "
His words were quite blunt. Not only did he deny Lin Fengxiang, but he was also clearly dissatisfied with Vézé's indecisiveness. Vézé also felt that he was thinking too much and couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. The army's system was set by Vézé. Just listening to Lin Fengxiang's words made Vézé waver. This was indeed a big problem.
At this time, Wei Changrong tried to smooth things over. "I think we all know how elite the brothers who first followed the Prime Minister are. It's normal for the Prime Minister to be a little anxious. And I think what Lin Fengxiang said is right. At this time, we really can't waste any more time here. Since Qing Yao has already sent troops to attack Guanyang, it's not impossible for them to send more later. "
Hearing Wei Changrong's words, the brothers all nodded in agreement. This was actually the same as fighting in the countryside. If the other party had a group of people who were good at fighting outside, most of the local tyrants would choose not to fight with the enemy first. Instead, they would send a large group of people who were not bad in numbers and combat ability to deal with the small group of people first.
Vézé confirmed again. "Tomorrow, we will fight according to the original plan. As long as we beat back Qing Yao, it'll be fine. After the battle, they immediately retreated and went to Jiang Hua to rendezvous with Yong Ming and Luo Dagang. If Qing Yao is not easy to deal with, then we might as well just take the easy load and take the mountain road. In short, we can't continue fighting. "
After a good night's rest, the troops had breakfast and began to prepare for their retreat. Opposite them, the Qing Army had set up camp about a dozen li away from Guanyang. By the time they set off from the camp to Guanyang, it would be noon. Sure enough, when it was almost noon, the Qing Army appeared. Within the line of sight of the sentry post.
"While the Qing Army hasn't stabilized their footing, we should send our troops to attack them!" Lin Fengxiang suggested.
Vézé's military plan was to line up in formation and finish off the Qing Army with a single blow. Therefore, they were only prepared to send a small number of troops to the flanks. First, they could defend the flanks, preventing the Qing Army from launching a sneak attack. Second, they could force the Qing Army to adopt a head-on stance. But after listening to Lin Fengxiang's suggestion, Vézé couldn't help but feel a little tempted. After all, mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare were the tactics he was most familiar with. In the past, the great army had relied on these tactics to win countless battles.
In this moment of hesitation, Vézé found himself wavering again. He pondered for a moment, then said: "Lin Da Ge, I want to place the Qing Army in front of the county seat and ruthlessly beat them into a pulp."
After all, Vézé was the commander-in-chief. Lin Fengxiang couldn't force Vézé to do anything. He shook his head slightly and said no more.
Soon, with the sound of the horn, Vézé's troops left Guanyang City and lined up on a relatively flat terrain, three or four li away from the Qing Army.
Jiang Zhongyuan hadn't expected the Taiping army to go into battle so casually. In the battles between the Taiping army and the Qing Army, most of the time, the Taiping army resorted to baiting, ambushing, and surprise attacks. There were very few direct confrontations. Therefore, Jiang Zhongyuan used his previous experience to make targeted arrangements. The current situation had caused some of Jiang Zhongyuan's original plans to fall through.
But these accidents didn't cause Jiang Zhongyuan to panic. Instead, they made him feel that the opportunity for victory had come. After all, the Qing Army was an official army. They wouldn't be at a disadvantage when it came to guns and cannons. Moreover, nearly two thousand Chu Yong soldiers had been trained by Jiang Zhongyuan. Their fighting ability wasn't inferior to that of the Taiping army. Thinking of this, Jiang Zhongyuan also ordered the Qing Army to line up and prepare for a frontal attack.
Carefully observing the Taiping army's formation, Jiang Zhongyuan found that the Taiping army's troops were very orderly. Every combat unit was a hundred men strong. After a long row, he couldn't see the formation at the back. This was very different from the Qing Army. The Qing Army's troops usually had two to three hundred men as a unit. Therefore, the troops couldn't line up in a very beautiful square formation.
But he didn't think too much about it. Jiang Zhongyuan ordered the cannons at the back to push to the front and started shooting at the Taiping army's troops. But before Jiang Zhongyuan's cannons could carry the cannons to the front, the Taiping army's frontline was already covered in smoke. Cannons whistled towards Jiang Zhongyuan's troops.
Because it was a fast march, Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't carry cannons that weighed thousands of kilograms. He couldn't even carry cannons that weighed six to seven hundred kilograms. The cannons he brought with him were small cannons that weighed dozens of kilograms. These cannons couldn't shoot three miles. But the Taiping army's cannons didn't look very big, but they had a very long range. The cannons flew three miles in an instant and smashed directly into Jiang Zhongyuan's troops.
Dozens of cannons hit the ground. Flesh and blood flew everywhere. In the blink of an eye, the Qing Army had been killed and wounded 50 to 60 men. Screams and cries rang out in Jiang Zhongyuan's troops. But this was just the beginning. The Taiping army fired three consecutive shots at an extremely fast speed. Within a few minutes, the Qing Army had suffered hundreds of casualties.
Vézé watched Vézé watch as the 16 cannons fired 48 cannons. He felt very regretful. If he could make cannons himself, even if he used the most primitive method of firing ignited iron bombs at the enemy's position, it would still be considered a bomb. Looking at the Qing Army's stupidity, they would be able to kill or wound hundreds of Qing Army soldiers. Then he wouldn't have to waste any more effort. Just the number of casualties alone would be enough to cause the Qing Army to collapse.
After thinking about this wonderful thing, Vézé couldn't help but start calculating when the Qing Army would collapse. Logically speaking, when the Qing Army's casualties reached 10%, it would basically collapse. If he continued fighting like this, three more rounds of cannons would cause the two to three thousand Qing Army soldiers to collapse and flee.
Just as he was thinking, he heard Ke Gongyu, the Brigade Commander, sneer. "Everything is knowledge!"
His concise and comprehensive words elicited a burst of laughter from the staff beside Vézé. Chief of Staff Zhang Yingchen laughed. "When this war is over, I must learn the Three Laws. This is not a joke. Fighting like this is saving gunpowder! "
The Taiping Army had long since prepared their positions, so there was no need to test the shooting parameters. The artillerymen easily followed the calculations on paper to position the cannons and adjust the angle of the cannons. They loaded the gunpowder and loaded the projectiles. Every shot accurately hit the Qing Army's formation. If they wanted to use guns to kill or wound hundreds of Qing Army soldiers, the amount of gunpowder and lead consumed by these dozens of cannons was simply not enough.
As Vézé's subordinates lamented and made sarcastic remarks about the Qing Army, they heard Lin Fengxiang ask in a trembling voice, "Wayne Brothers, did you train these artillerymen?"
Lin Fengxiang turned pale with fright. When the Qing Army's artillerymen fought against the Taiping Army, they often fired dozens of cannons without hitting the Taiping Army's formation, let alone killing more than a few soldiers. The Taiping Army lacked gunpowder and their artillerymen were even more pitiful. Now that he saw the artillerymen accurately destroy the enemy with their shells, Lin Fengxiang was truly shocked.
"Yes!" Vézé answered proudly. The inferiority complex of not being able to use mobile warfare to destroy the enemy had now flown out of the window. Perhaps there was a huge gap between Vézé's troops and the later Red Army, but when facing the Qing Army, Vézé had the confidence to overwhelm the Qing Army and achieve victory. More importantly, Vézé had the strength to do so.
Of course, Wei Ze knew that this artillery unit, with its god-like artillery skills, would immediately reveal its true colors if they started a war elsewhere. They would not be any better than the Qing army. But in this meticulously prepared position, Vézé's artillerymen could display extraordinary combat effectiveness. And this performance was enough for now!
"The Qing Army is charging!" Zhang Yingchen shouted.
Even without Zhang Yingchen's shout, Vézé could see the Qing Army's central banner wave. The Qing Army, which had been somewhat orderly before, split into three groups and charged towards Vézé's troops.
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