In the first half of the second lunar month of the fourth year of Xianfeng. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The weather is gloomy and cold, although there is no snow, but the freezing rain continues, making Wuchang inside and outside the city a bleak and desolate.

Zeng Guofan, who was standing at the head of Wuchang City, his eyes were bloodshot and exhausted. He hadn't closed his eyes for two days.

"Junmen, if you have a humble position here, you should go back to your house to rest for a while!" Luo Zenan and Li Yuandu, who were standing beside Zeng Guofan, persuaded.

"Yes, big brother, you have to rest, otherwise, how can your body survive? We're guarding here, and the hairy thieves don't want to get in. Zeng Guoquan, who was at the bottom, also echoed the persuasion.

Zeng Guofan shook his head, let the freezing rain stick to his eyebrows and beard, half loud, and then said slowly in a deep voice: "Zeng was defeated again and again, Hengzhou was lost, Changsha City was also lost, and Yuezhou was also lost. Now, living in the north of the house, retreating to Wuchang, if you don't hold it again, we will all die without a place to be buried! Now that the war is rotten, we must sacrifice ourselves and serve the court. ”

"Last month, Lord Wu was defeated and killed in Huangzhou, and 7,000 elite soldiers were wiped out. The army of the long-haired thief army led tens of thousands of troops to conquer Huangzhou, Qizhou, Hankou, and Hanyang one after another, and now it is besieging the provincial city of Wuchang. The sailors of the thieves are also swimming against the current, and they will arrive in Wuchang in a few days, and at that time, it will be even more dangerous. In the past few days, I have seen the repeated movements of the bandit soldiers outside the city, presumably because of some scheme. When it was critical, how could Zeng have the heart to go to the city to rest? Anyway, since the brothers cared, Zeng squinted in the cave for a while. Keep an eye on me, you need to wake me up urgently! Zeng Guofan finally relented and promised to rest in the castle tower for a while.

In fact, he understands that even if he closes his eyes, it will be difficult to fall asleep for a while. The Qing army was defeated like a mountain! How could he sleep?

He couldn't figure out why the Cantonese thieves and the long-haired thieves were getting bigger and bigger, and the more fierce the battles became, but the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty were afraid like tigers and rotted to the roots.

He hated it even more, the Cantonese thief was so cunning that he didn't give him a chance to train his troops. If it was another year or two, let him train those Xiangyong and bring out twenty or thirty thousand hometown soldiers, how could he be so unbearable in a battle, defeated and fled one after another, and was driven all the way from his hometown to Wuchang in the pasty north!

"When is Nai's bad luck! Time also, life also! Zeng Guofan sighed, lying on the soft straw mat that had been arranged in the Tibetan soldier cave, and two cloudy tears couldn't help rolling down the corners of his eyes.

……

Outside the city of Wuchang, on a hillside six miles east of the city, the leaders of several major armies of the Taiping army gathered here to discuss the countermeasures for attacking Wuchang.

The ninth commander of the left of the hall was Zeng Tianyang, Guozong Shi Xiangzhen, Guozong Wei Jun, and the watermaker Tang Zhengcai, and sat on the ground.

"Two national emperors, Lord Tang, now I have nearly 30,000 soldiers on land and water, and I have been besieging Wuchang for more than half a month, although there are less than 10,000 Qing demons in Wuchang City, but I have attacked several times, and there is no sign of breaking the city, what can I do?" Zeng Tianyang took the lead in provoking the topic.

Shi Xiangzhen said angrily: "If the Qing Demon dares to go out of the city for a decisive battle, Shi will kill them." But the Qing demon is always a turtle with a shrunken head, but Shi has no choice. ”

Wei Jun frowned, thought for a while, and suddenly said: "The Qing demon has shrunk all the troops of the nearby state capital in Wuchang City, and there are two demon head Qinglin, the new governor of Hubei, and Zeng Guofan, the demon head of the assistant minister of Huguang Province, who commanded the town guard, and it is difficult to conquer it for a while!" The younger brother has an idea, if we divide 10,000 troops and continue to attack the north and west of Hubei and cut off the foundation supply of the Qing demon in Hubei, after a long time, Wuchang will inevitably run out of food, and it will naturally be self-defeating! ”

Zeng Tianyang frowned, and just wanted to speak, Tang Zhengcai grabbed the words and said: "Wei Guozong's method is good, but it is difficult to grasp how long it will take, it may take half a year and a year, will it be too long, but the king of the east asked me to wait for the western expeditionary army to occupy Wuchang as soon as possible, and then return to the division to break the two large camps in the south and north of the Qing demon." ”

Zeng Tianyang said: "Guozong may not understand, Lao Zeng heard a report from the spies, Jingzhou City in western Hubei has been besieged by the Cantonese soldiers of the Southern King, and we rushed to it at this moment, but it was too late, maybe it would cause a dispute between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Southern King." However, northern Hubei is okay, but the lone army is deep, and the Qing demon will just meet when he transfers troops from Shaanxi. It's better to press all the army and storm a few times, maybe the Qing demon will be scattered. ”

Tang Zhengcai said: "If the whole army presses up, if it can't capture Wuchang City, it will inevitably deal a serious blow to the morale of the soldiers." Careful consideration is needed. If you don't report this military situation to the main general of the Western Expedition, Tianguan and Prime Minister Zeng Shuiyuan, he will decide and then calculate. However, Wei Guozong's method can also be tried, and Wei Guozong and Shi Guozong each led 5,000 troops to occupy northern Hubei and other places. ”

Tang Zhengcai is a close confidant of the East King, and his official position is comparable to that of the prime minister, when he said this, he synthesized everyone's opinions, and everyone nodded one after another.

So it was decided.

Wei Jun and Shi Xiangzhen led 10,000 Taiping troops, crossed the Yangtze River under the escort of Tang Zhengcai's sailors, and rushed to Xiaogan.

A day after the Taiping army divided its troops, a spy came to report that the head of the Qing demon led 3,000 demon soldiers to line up outside the east gate of the city, which seemed to be preparing to break through.

When Zeng Tianyang heard the great news, he hurriedly ordered 6,000 Taiping troops, launched an offensive formation, and rushed towards the east gate of the city.

The general of the Qing army was Taqib, holding a big flag, arranging 2,000 Xiangyong in front and 1,000 green battalion soldiers behind, personally leading a cadre of Xiangyong to rush into the formation and attack the Taiping army.

Zeng Tianyang was furious, seeing Taqib charging in front of the battle, killing his Taiping soldiers, anger rose from his heart, he couldn't help the momentary resentment, rushed into the enemy formation alone, took Taqib directly, and said loudly: "Demon head! Take your life! ”

The spear pierced straight into the middle, and Tazib sat on a horse in the middle. The horse jumped in pain and threw Tazib off his horse. Zeng Tianyang drew his spear and stabbed again, preparing to stab Taqib to death in one fell swoop, but unexpectedly, the Qing soldiers rushed to rescue Taqib.

Taqib ordered the Qing army to retreat and flee.

The Qing army did not resist and hurriedly ran to the city gate. Zeng Tianyang led the troops in hot pursuit, and came to the east gate of the city, suddenly a cannon rang out, and two teams of Qing soldiers rushed out of the city gate.

At the same time, the guns on the city tower rang out in unison, and thousands of guns and hundreds of cannons opened fire at the same time, and the Taiping troops beside Zeng Tianyang were shot and fell to the ground. It turned out that the Qing soldiers were ambushed here, and Taqib went out of the city to deliberately pretend to break through, and then failed to retreat, but it was to lure the Taiping army to attack. It's just that Zeng Tianyang was too brave and picked Taqib off the horse in one round. Taqib took the opportunity to order a retreat and lure the Taiping army to the city gates.

After figuring out the joint, Zeng Tianyang was shocked and hurriedly ordered not to chase after him, and retreated back to the camp. But where is the time now?

The lead bullets shot from the shotguns on the city wall, and the arrows like rain, were concentrated on Zeng Tianyang. Although there were more than a dozen guards desperately trying to step forward to block Zeng Tianyang, how could he, who was tall and burly and extremely proud, want the protection of his brothers?

Zeng Tianyang shouted to the brothers to retreat, he just wanted to grab the corpse of a clear demon and put it on his back to block the lead bullets and arrows shot from the city wall behind him, but he was half a beat late, only to hear a few pops, several lead bullets hit his back, he heard the sound of entering the flesh, and felt a sharp pain coming, and then fell to the ground.

The Taiping Army guards on the side hurriedly lifted Zeng Tianyang and risked the danger to snatch him back to the Taiping Army camp.

Because the main general Zeng Tianyang was injured and did not know whether he was alive or dead, and was ambushed by the Qing soldiers, the morale of the Taiping army was low, and he was killed by Xiang Yong and led the green battalion soldiers to rush and kill, and returned with heavy losses.

The Qing army then gave chase, and the sound of killing shook the sky.

The Taiping army retreated again and again, until the camp six miles away from the city wall, to stop the momentum of the rout, relying on the camp, plus thousands of Taiping soldiers who stayed in the camp to come to the rescue, only to resist the pursuing Xiang Yong.

After this battle, the Taiping army lost more than 3,000 people, and without the main general, it was no longer able to besiege Wuchang City.