(From this chapter onwards, friends who don't know much about the geography of Jiangsu in the Qing Dynasty can refer to the "Geographical Map of the Suchang Campaign" in the related work.) ）

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Zeng Guoquan has besieged Jiangning for five months, and his Yuhuatai camp, after surviving the most difficult summer, is now under pressure on Jiangning City is becoming more and more great.

It is difficult because in June, in the military camp of the Hunan army, there was an outbreak of an epidemic, and among more than 20,000 people, at least 30% of them fell ill. At its worst, ten men were sent out to bury the bodies, and when they came back, only five remained—the other five, too, died on the spot and were buried together.

This situation was soon discovered by the Taiping army, so they continued to attack the camp of the Hunan army. The Hunan army had to deal with the plague, and at the same time used the remaining personnel to resist the Taiping army inside and outside the city, which made them anxious and miserable.

However, this old nine of the Zeng family has a ruthless Hunan people, and his subordinates Xiao Fusi, Li Chendian, Zhu Hongzhang and other fierce generals insisted that Qingshan would not relax, resisted desperately, and refused to withdraw from Jiangning.

This battle was fought for 20 days in a row, and when it was seen that the Hunan army was gradually exhausted and was about to collapse, the attacking Taiping troops were also infected by the plague and began to die one after another. So he was so frightened that he hurriedly retreated and broke away from contact with the Hunan army, which allowed Zeng Guoquan's Jizi battalion to escape from the brink of annihilation.

Zeng Guoquan breathed a sigh of relief, and finally stabilized his position, and then received the support of 15,000 troops such as Li Xuyi and Wei Jun sent by Zeng Guofan. Xinyong, who was recruited in Hunan, also arrived. So. The Hunan army outside Jiangning reached 50,000 people. Although Jiangning City is grand, it cannot be encircled, but it finally has the prototype of a "besieged city".

Since the situation has reversed, Hong Xiuquan in the city can't sit still, so he urged Li Xiucheng, who was in Suzhou, to quickly supervise the troops to come back.

Li Xiucheng came west to aid Jiangning, bringing with him his personal guards the Chinese army, as well as a total of 32,000 Taiping troops drawn from all parts of his "southern Jiangsu Province". The defense of southern Jiangsu Province was entrusted to the "nine brothers" such as Tan Shaoguang and Gao Yongkuan. In this way, it is not known whether the west wall can be repaired by "tearing down the east wall to make up the west wall", but the thinness of the east wall is already an obvious fact.

Of course, the officers and troops refused to let go of such an opportunity, and on the second day of November, they finally launched a strategic counteroffensive on two fronts.

The Huai army on the north road was sent from Jiading. In addition to leaving his younger brother Li Zhaoqing and general Zhang Shusheng to defend the city, Li Hongzhang left the rest of the Huai army elite. Together with the officers and soldiers of the Green Battalion, they made up the number of 25,000. Pounced on Taicang Prefecture.

The Xuan army set out from Qingpu, still with the deputy general Ixan as the vanguard, with the German regiment on the left and the foreign gun regiment on the right, and spread out in a wedge-shaped manner, attacking Kunshan County, which is located northwest of Qingpu. The horse team of the general soldier Daniel Zhang, as a partial division, searched and advanced along the line of Dianshan Lake, sweeping the Taiping Army strongholds along the lake.

The battle went smoothly, the next day they conquered the Xianghua Bridge, and on the third day they took Dianshanhu Town, and then they did not stop, and the regiments continued to advance westward. When Guan Zhuofan's camp was settled in Dianshanhu Town, and the prisoners, military supplies, and a small number of wounded who had been transported down from the front had arrived in an endless stream, Liu Xunzhi and the Jianzi Regiment that served as the guard of the Chinese army were busy, and they inevitably had to do some things to sort out the logistics of containment.

Behind the front were a contingent of about 100 men from the Shanghai Telegraph Office and the Sihe Company, led by a Dane and three Prussian engineers, plus a member of the Telegraph Bureau, who hurried day and night to pull the telegraph line that had reached Qingpu to Dianshan Lake. Because the weather was cold and the ground was hard, it was very difficult to do.

"Send three hundred taels of silver, and send twenty jars of rice wine." Guan Zhuofan smiled and said to Liu Xunjiao, "Just say that I rewarded them, let them work hard, the sooner they can get through, the sooner they can get in touch with Shanghai." ”

However, the progress ahead was faster than he expected, and he wanted to wait for the telegram to be reached in Dianshanhu Town, but he was afraid that it would not work. By the evening of the seventh day of the first lunar month, Ixan's Kezi regiment had broken the outer defense line of the Taiping army in Qiandeng Town, and together with the Xuan army horse team that arrived, they attacked Qiandeng overnight, and at dawn, thousands of Taiping troops finally could not support it, and retreated in the direction of Kunshan County.

Qiandeng Town is only fifteen miles away from Kunshan, it is an important town leading to Kunshan, as soon as the thousand lights are broken, Kunshan is already in sight.

Daniel Zhang led the horse team to chase after a small ride, and then returned to Qiandeng Town, sending people to report to Guan Zhuofan, and on the other hand, they arranged their own horse teams to camp outside the town. By the time everything was settled, it was already dawn, and my stomach was rumbling with hunger.

Daniel Zhang has a problem, the diet is meatless and unpleasant, usually marching and fighting, gnawing dry food is no way, now since he has conquered Qiandeng Town, he will not give up, after thinking about it, he still turns back to find Ixan. He and Iksan were extremely haode brothers when they were still in the Chengnan Horse Team, eating and drinking together, and the last time they were in Rehe, Zhuofan's military stick was also because they ran out of the defense area without permission with Ixan in order to find a meal.

Sure enough, as soon as I entered the small courtyard where Ixan was temporarily serving as the regiment headquarters, the aroma was already wafting out. Daniel Zhang made a silent gesture to the soldier standing guard at the door of the house, suddenly pushed open the door, and shouted: "Beat you kid who eats alone!" ”

I saw that Ixan was alone at the table, and there was a steaming copper hot pot on it, and a plate of big steamed buns was placed next to it, and I don't know where his personal soldiers got it for him. Iksan was eating happily, and suddenly was cut off by Daniel Zhang, and his hands shook in fright, and a meatball held on the chopsticks fell to the ground and rolled to the side.

When he saw that it was Daniel Zhang, Ixan breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and said with a grin: "It turned out to be Zhang Junmen-Gudemonin!" ”

Goode ...... Alonzo! Daniel Zhang actually replied with a half-baked English, saying in his heart, I really don't understand that the boss weishenme wants to force us to learn the words of foreign devils.

Most of the foreign officers in the battalions and regiments of the Xuan Army were Americans, but there were also Portuguese and Prussians, and a few Dutch, Austrian, and Spanish soldiers. After the end of the Shanghai Campaign, Guan Zhuofan somehow ordered the officers of the whole army to teach English to them by the interpreters of each battalion in addition to training.

Fortunately, there are many foreigners in the camp, and there is a "language environment". After a few months, Daniel Zhang's gang of Qiu Ba, who didn't even know a few Chinese characters, was able to speak a few foreign words after suffering enough, and they could actually do simple exchanges with the foreigners in the camp. Now the Ike sauna comes to say good morning, which is not only a joke, but also a new fashion in the Xuan army.

"Come on," greeted Ixan warmly, "the fish head stew is really fresh." ”

"I don't need you to sell it." Daniel Zhang glanced at him, sat down honestly and unceremoniously, snatched the big soup spoon in Iksan's hand, scooped half a spoonful of soup first, drank it slowly, smacked his lips, and said with a smile: "It's really not bad, where did you get it?" My own soldiers don't have this cleverness. ”

"There was a shop on the next street, with the door panel, saying that it took a long time to knock on it, and it took such a pot to come."

"Aren't you robbing people?" Daniel Zhang stopped.

"Where do I dare to put the boss's military law there?" Ixan argued, "I gave five pieces of silver, which is enough to have a surplus." ”

"Oh, I said." Only then did Daniel Zhang relax his heart and eat and drink with Ixan. It didn't take long for him to eat all the time, and even Zuihou drank a mouthful of soup.

Daniel Zhang patted his stomach unfinished and said, "Just deal with half full." When you get to Kunshan, you must have a good meal. ”

"I heard that the military baggage of Long Mao on the Eastern Front is piled up in Kunshan City." "If it's true, Ixan will be rich." ”

"Rich? Do you dare to put more in your pocket? ”

"Hey, I don't dare, I'm already satisfied with the forty percent." Ixan hurriedly shook his hand, "Didn't the boss say it?" The old brother who came out of our Chengnan horse team, who dares to stretch out his hand, chop a finger for the first time, a hand for the second time, and a head for the third time! But Zhang Junmen, after all, you have been promoted to the general soldier, and the boss likes you the most, do you dare? ”

"Me?" Daniel Zhang's eyes widened, raised his two hands in front of his eyes, looked at them over and over for a while, still felt that among the ten fingers, he couldn't bear any of them, shook his head, and said regretfully: "Alas, if my old lady gave birth to me when she gave birth to a six-fingered child, how good would it be." ”

*(To be continued......)