The Taiping army's attack on Shanghai, to be more precise on several counties around Shanghai, began in April 1870. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

It is the time when the spring flowers are blooming, but the sound of flowering bombs is constantly sounding around Shanghai.

Defending the counties around Shanghai was Zuo Zongtang's Chu army troops, Zuo Zongtang was the governor of Jiangsu, Shanghai at this time was in Jiangsu, and the counties of Taicang Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture around Shanghai were under the jurisdiction of Zuo Zongtang.

It is not right to say that Zuo Zongtang completely gave up the south of the Yangtze River, at least he still controls the surrounding areas of Shanghai, although in recent years, because the Qing court has allocated most of Shanghai's finances to Bao Chao's Hunan army, Zuo Zongtang is quite dissatisfied with this, but he is still unwilling to give up defending here, because even if it is only a small part, it is also an important financial for the Chu army group.

The most important thing is that Zuo Zongtang can also get supplies from Shanghai in other ways, the famous Hu Xueyan has already taken refuge in Zuo Zongtang as early as when Zuo Zongtang was still in Zhejiang, in Zuo Zongtang's view, as long as Hu Xueyan is here, he doesn't have to worry about military spending, and Hu Xueyan's silver is all from Shanghai.

It was with the economic support he received from Shanghai that Zuo Zongtang was able to breathe a sigh of relief in the past two years and recover from the defeat in Zhejiang.

And at this time, the Chu army was more powerful, losing the foreign gun team of the Chang Jie Army commanded by the French, Zuo Zongtang re-established a new musket unit, he still hired a group of French officers, mainly French grassroots veteran officers, but unlike Chang Jiejun, the current Chu Army foreign gun team can be completely commanded by Zuo Zongtang's own cronies, the French are only responsible for training soldiers, and teaching battle formations, in Zuo Zongtang's words, called Xi Yang Cao, with foreign guns, set up foreign formations.

Obviously, after being defeated by the Ming army's pure firearms army, Zuo Zongtang's thinking changed quickly, he was a smart man, he learned the Confucian doctrine of the Classics and Practical School since he was a child, his brain was originally flexible, and his thinking was not old-fashioned.

But compared with Li Hongzhang, he still seems more orthodox, he has always basically only cooperated with the French, I don't know if it was influenced by Lin Zexu, so that he did not trust the British, when Lin Zexu fought a battle with the British army because of the ban on smoking, after the defeat of the Qing court, when he was exiled to Ili, he passed through Hunan and was introduced to see Zuo Zongtang, and immediately asserted that Zuo Zongtang would become the national humerus in the future. Lin Zexu's comments made Zuo Zongtang from a small talent in the countryside of Hunan to more people in the world.

Therefore, it is understandable that Zuo Zongtang has a bad impression of the British.

Li Hongzhang is different, Li Hongzhang does foreign affairs, of course, it is indispensable to cooperate with the British, but he has never excluded cooperation with other countries, Li Hongzhang's wrist is more sleek, good at maneuvering between foreigners, and very practical, even if he doesn't like the British, but the British Navy is the first in the world, he still sent Liu Buyun and other students to study in the UK, but the warships are mainly purchased from Germany.

Of course, Zuo Zongtang is quite open compared to the Hunan army of the Zeng brothers, and the Hunan army of the Zeng family is still mainly a cold weapon unit so far, and the firepower is not as good as the Zuo Zongtang Chu army equipped with French chasebo rifled rifles and French artillery, nor as good as the Li Hongzhang Huai army equipped with Li Enfield rifled rifles and Armstrong cannons, but the Hunan army is far superior to these two troops in one point, first of all, it is more experienced in combat and more tenacious in combat, it can be said that the Hunan army mainly relies on spirit, The soldiers have the brute energy of Hunan's conservative countryside, and the officers, who are all scholars, are full of Confucius and Mencius.

As for the other military area in Jiangbei, Bao Chao's Hunan army, now it looks disorganized, the Qing court gave him the most support, purchased the most foreign guns and cannons, and also equipped with a British fleet, commanded by the captain of the British regular navy, Asben, and the sailors were mainly British. Historically, the Aspen fleet, which was not originally accommodated by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and even Yixin, was fooled to China by Li Tai this time, but found a place in Bao Chao's department, because Bao Chao didn't understand the navy at all, didn't understand the foreigners, and didn't care about the fleet at all.

But in addition to having a large number of muskets and artillery, a navy composed of British, Bao Chao also has tens of thousands of green battalions and tens of thousands of eight banners, which makes his troops extremely mixed, and the eight banners green battalion is not very obedient to command, so he should be the best to fight, no one expected that Li Xiucheng would not fight Bao Chao first, but the first to face the hard bone Zuo Zongtang.

Is Lee so-sung stupid?

Of course not, Li Xiucheng knows better than anyone else about the situation in Jiangbei, and he has made a lot of progress in the past few years, and he can already look at military issues from other angles, such as using politics to interpret military issues.

He saw it thoroughly, Zeng Guofan went south to the Ming Dynasty, the Hunan army immediately lacked the backbone, split into Zeng Guoquan and Bao Chao two factions, Zeng Guoquan took root in Anqing in the past two years, and never moved the nest, although the Taiping Army was in the south of Huizhou Mansion and Anqing across the river, in the past few years, I didn't really think about crossing the river to surround Anqing again, and the two armies were peaceful.

Li Xiucheng figured out Zeng Guoquan's temperament, he thought that if he went to fight Bao Chao, Zeng Guoquan would definitely not support, and if he wanted to support, it would only be when Bao Chao was beaten by himself, and Zeng Guoquan would appear as a savior. But if he goes to fight Zeng Guoquan, Bao Chao may be able to reinforce, at least he will send a fleet of foreigners to reinforce him, and he can't control the river, Li Xiucheng didn't have the capital to lay down Anqing, not to mention that he has too many dealings with Zeng Guofan, and he knows what a difficult bone Zeng Guoquan is.

If Li Xiucheng goes to fight Zuo Zongtang, it is the same reason, Bao Chao may also send a fleet to reinforce, and if he fights Bao Chao, Zuo Zongtang will also reinforce. It seems that it is the best to fight Bao Chao, but Li Xiucheng chose to attack Zuo Zongtang first, he was sure that as long as Bao Chao was in the middle, Zeng Guoquan would sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight.

Another important reason is the foreigners, the Qing court has been afraid of the foreigners like tigers, even Zuo Zongtang and others also think that the foreigners are not easy to mess with, but Li Xiucheng has a psychological advantage over the foreigners, and always feels that if the foreigners fight with him in a dignified manner, they will not take advantage at all, and his three attacks on Shanghai are not because of military problems, but basically because of political problems, such as the siege of Tianjing.

Historically, after Li Xiucheng was captured by Zeng Guofan, when evaluating the foreigners, he still said in a contemptuous tone, "At that time, the foreigners did not dare to fight with me, and the war would be defeated", Li Xiucheng was not completely bragging, he always had an advantage in the battle with the armed forces of the foreigners, and Wall's foreign gun team was defeated by him many times, and Wall himself was killed.

So for the attack on Shanghai, Li Xiucheng didn't have any psychological pressure, anyway, he fought the third time, this time his strength was even stronger, there was no reason why he couldn't fight.

As for Zuo Zongtang who defended Shanghai, he didn't care, anyway, he was going to compete with Zuo Zongtang, if he didn't take Shanghai, he didn't have the best base to go north, and it seemed easier to take Shanghai and go north by water from Shanghai. The most important thing is that the wealth of Shanghai makes him unimpressed, although there is financial support for the production of raw silk in the south of the Yangtze River in recent years, but he has bought too many muskets and cannons, the financial pressure has always been very great, and the politics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are becoming more and more corrupt, especially the prince surnamed Hong still does not change his true colors, and he is corrupt, he also acquiesces to this, even he himself is not honest, is the peasant revolution, how can it be so great as the propaganda, the only purpose of the peasant rebellion is to turn over and become a landlord, And I will never have such a great ambition as letting the whole world live a happy and happy life.

Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not only corrupt, but everyone takes it for granted, corruption is also a cost, which will erode the financial resources that should belong to the government step by step, so the finances of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have always been stretched, if Shanghai can be pocketed, Li Xiucheng believes that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will not only be able to obtain an ideal port to cross the river in the north, but also will get sufficient financial resources to support the Northern Expedition.

This is a matter of strategy, and his purpose in attacking Shanghai three times before and after is actually this.

Zuo Zongtang could see that once Li Xiucheng captured Shanghai, the next step would definitely be to cross the river to fight, and then the Yangzhou Mansion under his jurisdiction would bear the brunt, so Zuo Zongtang still worked hard to defend Shanghai, but the battle situation was extremely unfavorable at the beginning, and the counties around Shanghai fell one after another under the onslaught of the Taiping Army.

In April, the Taiping army attacked from Jiashan County, Jiaxing Prefecture, Zhejiang, and captured Lou County in Songjiang Prefecture within ten days, and then attacked Qingpu County from both sides of Lou County and Kunshan County in Suzhou Prefecture, taking five days to capture.

At this time, Zuo Zongtang's main force was still deployed in Zhenyang County and Jiading County in Taicang Prefecture, preparing the Taiping Army to launch an attack from Suzhou.

Then the Taiping army's large forces, still stationed in Kunshan and Qingpu County, seemed to be guarding against Zuo Zongtang's troops in Taicang Prefecture, and still drove reinforcements from Zhejiang into Songjiang Mansion, and attacked Huating County, Jinshan County, and Fengxian County on the side far from Zuo Zongtang's main force.

Zuo Zongtang's army also marched into Taicang Prefecture in large numbers, and had repeatedly attacked the Taiping garrisons in Suzhou and Qingpu County, but repeatedly returned without success.

The Taiping army made smooth progress on the southern front, and after successively taking Huating and other counties, at the end of August, they captured Nanhui County, and all the counties around Shanghai were captured by the Taiping army.

At this time, Shanghai panicked!

A large number of wealthy people sold their fixed assets and rushed to flee Shanghai, and for a time the high property prices plummeted, and a financial crisis broke out under the threat of war.