The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 128 Luo Yaoguo. A great enemy! (Additional chapter for those who love to read)
When the sky gradually brightened, Luo Yaoguo was already standing on the Huangdao Gate Tower of Changsha City.

A big city in the late Qing Dynasty that was being bathed in the flames of war was all in his "Tiantian Mirror". This was a rare historical material, so he had to take more photos.

Changsha City is several times larger than the three states that Luo Yaoguo had conquered before, namely Daozhou, Guiyangzhou, and Chenzhou. After all, it is a provincial capital! It is seventeen miles in circumference and has nine city gates. They are the famous Changsha Old Nine Gates! The area within the city is more than eight square kilometers, and the population is more than 200,000.

This scale would probably be a crowded and old county town in the future. But in this era, it is the "second-tier city" after Beijing, Nanjing and Guangzhou, and is the well-deserved first city in Hunan Province!
Moreover, the city has a very good geographical location. It is adjacent to the Xiang River in the west, overlooks Dongting Lake in the north, is connected to mountains in the east, and is backed by the hinterland of Xianghu Lake in the south. If Yuezhou in the north can be captured and the entrance to Dongting Lake can be controlled, then Changsha can completely serve as the temporary capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can defend against the enemy outside the Three Xiangs, it will be able to take over the land, population, and food of Xianghu Lake.

Hunan has a large population and many brave and warlike men, and the Dongting Lake Plain is rich in rice. If all of it belonged to the Heavenly Kingdom, within a few years, it would be able to take over Jingchu in the north, Guangdong and Guangxi in the south, Luoxiao in the east, Yunnan and Guizhou in the west, and even eat away at part of Sichuan.

The former heyday of Wu and Zhou is just in sight!
Compared with the whole group going down the river to take the Three Wus as their home, it seems to be even better!

Luo Yaoguo thought to himself, "If Hong Xiuquan can be made the king of Changsha, with Feng Yunshan as the assistant, it would be nice for Yang Xiuqing and I to go down the river and occupy Western Wu and Eastern Wu respectively!

Although the authority of the Heavenly Kingdom will further decline, Xiao Chaogui, Yang Xiuqing and I will all become vassal states of the Heavenly Kingdom. However, it is definitely better for the Heavenly Kingdom to be divided among the four of us, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui and Feng Yunshan, than it was originally controlled by Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing. I wonder what Yang Xiuqing thinks? "

While he was thinking, he suddenly heard someone shouting happily: "Look, there is thick smoke rising from the Hunan Governor's Office. There is also a faint red flag fluttering. It must have been taken away by Zhu Tangzhu's people!"

Hearing this good news, Luo Yaoguo's thoughts were finally pulled back. He put away the "Tongtian Mirror" and looked in the direction of the voice. He saw Su Sanniang in a red robe, a red scarf on her head, her hand on the hilt of a sword, standing on the top of the city wall in a heroic manner. There were also several female generals around her. She was so high-spirited that Luo Yaoguo was happy, so he asked loudly: "Sanniang, how is the situation?"

Although Luo Yaoguo is the commander-in-chief of the upper army, he does not care much about the command on the battlefield. The role he plays is more like a "political commissar". He is the kind of "political commissar" who makes the final decision on military affairs!
The "commander" of the upper army was actually Su Sanniang. Yu Mieqing was experienced in military affairs, but could not be the main general, so he played the role of "chief of staff".

Since the establishment of the Heavenly Kingdom Army, the combination of Luo, Su and Yu has been running well.

The Battle of Changsha was no exception. The decision to attack Changsha was made by Luo Yaoguo. The formulation and execution of the battle plan were the responsibility of Su Sanniang and Yu Mieqing. Luo Yaoguo was only responsible for supervising the battle!
When Su Sanniang heard Luo Yaoguo's call, she hurried forward, clasped her fists and bowed, saying, "My lord, the Huangdao Gate and Derun Gate of Changsha's nine gates are in our hands. The Eight Banners and Green Camp soldiers on Huangdao Street have also been cleared, and the road leading to Changsha City is completely open. Our army suffered heavy losses in the battle of Huangdao Street, and lost more than a hundred new brothers. It's all Sanniang's fault!
However, we also gained a lot in this battle. We can count more than a thousand corpses of Eight Banners and Green Camp soldiers, and more than a thousand prisoners. If we count the Qing monsters captured outside Changsha City, the number of prisoners captured is 1,500. In addition, we also seized 600 to 700 high-quality bird guns and 100 to 200 explosive bombs with cross patterns on the surface! "

As she spoke, Su Sanniang took a "holy bomb" that had been thrown without a ignited fuse from a female soldier beside her, and handed it to Luo Yaoguo with both hands.

Luo Yaoguo took the bomb and looked at it. It looked like a lead ball, weighed more than one pound, and had deep cross patterns engraved on the surface. The fuse had been inserted long ago, but it had not been ignited.

"Grenadiers?" Luo Yaoguo pondered for a moment, then asked, "Sanniang, which group of Qing monsters use this weapon?"

"They are soldiers of the Eight Banners," Su Sanniang said. "The Eight Banners soldiers who ambushed our army at Huangdao Gate are known as the Demon Subduing Battalion. They are said to be elite soldiers drawn from the Imperial Banner Army of Beijing."

"Let the Eight Banners soldiers serve as grenadiers." Luo Yaoguo chuckled, "It's a relief that they dared to think and act!" He carefully looked at the bomb in his hand again, "The bomb is well made."

Su Sanniang said: "According to the captured Eight Banners soldiers, the bomb was made by a lama from Luosha country, whose Buddhist name is Tupolev, who helped the Qing Dynasty to make it."

"Tupolev? No wonder." Luo Yaoguo thought: "Then I have to find a way to reverse engineer it and imitate it, and make a Heavenly Grenadier!"

Thinking of this, he handed the bomb to his female guard Zeng Jiumei and instructed: "Jiumei, keep it carefully."

Luo Yaoguo originally had four female guards. Now Li Cuihua and Wei Xiu Lian were sent down to lead the troops because of their outstanding marksmanship. He also had Ji Chunhua and Zeng Jiumei under his command. Later, Wang Xier was added, so there were only three female guards left.

Zeng Jiumei and Wang Xier were both quite smart. They studied "science" with Xiao Zhangbao and made rapid progress. After giving the bomb to Zeng Jiumei, Luo Yaoguo asked, "Sanniang, have you taken down Tianxin Pavilion? Have you taken down Cai Gong's tomb outside the city?"

"Tianxin Pavilion has not been taken yet," Su Sanniang frowned and said, "I have ordered Li Kaifang to attack it. It is a bit difficult, but it should be possible to take it. Cai Gongfen was taken down by Li Shoucheng."

Luo Yaoguo turned his head and looked at the tall tower of Tianxin Pavilion, his brows slightly furrowed.

He went to Tianxin Pavilion more than a hundred years after he had been there. It was indeed a copper-cast and iron-cast fortress! If the Qing army had not deployed heavy troops, it could have been taken in one blow.

As long as Tianxin Pavilion is in our hands, half of Changsha City will be taken.

If Tianxin Pavilion had deployed heavy troops in advance, could it be possible that someone could have predicted that Shengbao would be defeated?
"Do you know who is guarding Tianxin Pavilion?" Luo Yaoguo asked again.

"Mr. Yu just went to check it out. He said it was the banner of the Hunan Fubiao Zuoying. The commander was a member of the Eight Banners, named Tazibu."

"What? Tazibu?" Luo Yaoguo was shocked. Nowadays, there are also powerful Eight Banners disciples. Tazibu and Duolong'a are not easy to deal with. Especially this Tazibu, he was a general of the early Hunan Army, and Zeng Tianyang died in his hands!
How could he be assigned to Tianxin Pavilion? And he was accompanied by a battalion of elite troops. Who was responsible for this? Luo Bingzhang? Luo Raodian? Zeng Guofan. No, not them! Suddenly, a very famous name flashed in Luo Yaoguo's mind - Zuo Zongtang!

Luo Yaoguo thought: "It's Zuo Zongtang. Who else could it be? The Battle of Changsha is going to be full of surprises!"

Thinking of this, he turned to Su Sanniang and said, "Sanniang, Tianxin Pavilion is very strong, and the defenders are probably more than a thousand people. It doesn't matter if we can't take it down in a short time. Tell Li Kaifang not to force the fight, and save some strength. The battle of Changsha may still be fought!"

Is there anyone else to fight?

Su Sanniang was stunned, thinking: "The governor's office has been taken down, the army has entered the city, and there are thousands of Tiandihui heroes in the city. The overall situation is clearly determined. How long can a bare Tianxin Pavilion hold out? At most, we can be trapped for a month or two, and when the food runs out, we can take it anyway."

Just as she was thinking about running out of food, Ji Chunhua beside her suddenly laughed and said, "Look, there's another big fire at a city gate in the northeast of Changsha. Could it be the heroes of the Tiandihui fighting the Qing demons?"

Luo Yaoguo turned his head to look, but before he could find where the fire started, he saw Yu Mieqing flying over. He came up to Luo Yaoguo, bowed, and then said, "It's bad. The Chaozongmen rice market has burned down! That's the largest rice market in Xianghu Lake, with at least 100,000 dan of rice stored. If it's burned down, the 200,000 or 300,000 people in Changsha City will starve!"

"Oh, so that's it!" Luo Yaoguo's expression suddenly became serious, and he murmured, "You are so good, Zuo Zongtang."

At the same time, Zuo Zongtang was standing on the Chaozongmen city wall, shoulder to shoulder with Chen Qishu who had come from Chenzhou. The Chaozongmen rice market not far from them had already turned into a sea of ​​fire.

Chen Qishu looked at the fire that was growing more and more fierce with a look of regret on his face, while Zuo Zongtang lowered his head and flipped through the first volume of "Anti-Scripture" which he had just received.

After a long while, he closed the book, looked at the four big characters "Written by Luo Yaoguo" on the cover, and whispered, "Luo Yaoguo. Great enemy!"

After saying this, he turned around and said to Chen Qishu: "Bo Wen, set up an ambush. I think some long-haired people will come to put out the fire and steal food. We should collect at least some heads so that the long-haired kings will know the reputation of Zuo Zongtang!"

Chen Qishu nodded heavily: "Yes!"

(End of this chapter)