Most of the women and children in the city were sent away, and the city fell into a deathly silence, and the dark clouds of hunger hung over the faces of the Taiping soldiers. In fact, hunger is not terrible, and it can't kill people for the time being, but the side effects it brings are life-threatening. Many soldiers were malnourished, swollen, night blind, and had very weak resistance, so it was a problem to walk in such a situation, let alone take up arms to fight. In a state of hunger, a small illness can kill a person, and this situation has already begun to appear in the city, and the night wind is a little colder that night, and many people die of a cold the next day.

Yang Xiaoshan asked Li Xiucheng to count that there were less than 20,000 Taiping soldiers in the city who could still hold weapons. Time was extremely unfavorable to the Taiping army, and the longer it dragged on, the weaker the Taiping army's combat power became.

There are more and more Hunan troops outside the city, which means that the other battlefields of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have failed, and the number of Hunan troops is enough to encircle the big city of Tianjing, but Zeng Guofan has not done it, maybe he wants to delay it a little longer.

Yang Xiaoshan felt that he should give Zeng Guofan a little stimulation and let him do it as soon as possible, now the Taiping army has no strength to break through at all, and only by introducing the Hunan army into Tianjing City for a melee can it be possible to break through in the chaotic battle. This has to be done before the Taiping army runs out of food.

In the middle of the night, there was no moon, and there were no fingers in sight, and a group of hundreds of Taiping troops descended from the city wall one after another along a long rope. Under the leadership of Yang Xiaoshan, he went to the horse farm of the Hunan army to prepare for a sneak attack.

Coincidentally, it was Zeng Guofan who wanted to meet Yang Xiaoshan and gave Yang Xiaoshan the opportunity to discover this horse farm unexpectedly. Horses are needed to break through, and the soldiers also need horse meat to boost morale, and in addition, to give Zeng Guofan some stimulation, so that he can attack the city as soon as possible, and the intention of this sneak attack on the horse farm of the Hunan army is this.

Yang Xiaoshan gave a piece of bread to each of the brothers who were willing to come, which was already the best thing that could be eaten in Tianjing City. And he also promised that after the deed was completed, the brother who could survive would get another piece of horse meat as a reward.

Under the heavy reward, everyone's morale is very high, although they know that it is very dangerous, but the king of the east himself is here, and everyone has nothing to say, at this time, life is no longer valuable, and some can only save life by eating. Of course, there are a lot of people who want to come, Yang Xiaoshan is also picky, there is no night blindness, and there are brothers who can ride horses to come together, and in the end, more than 600 brothers were selected.

Yang Xiaoshan walked with his brothers for an hour, and finally came to the horse farm set up by the Hunan army in the west of the city. He divided his brothers into ten teams, each of which was responsible for an area, and killed the Qing soldiers patrolling the perimeter. Then he opened the gate of the racecourse and rushed in.

"Pick up the horse and ride, don't look back, don't entangle with the Qing soldiers, go straight to Tianjing, everyone has to live." Yang Xiaoshan made the final arrangement, and more than 600 Taiping troops burned forage, set fire everywhere, and then flew on their horses and galloped towards Tianjing City.

===================

Zeng Guofan was giving a banquet to Colonel Eric of France, thanking them for their timely assistance in the last battle of Jiangxinzhou, and did not let the Taiping army capture Jiangxinzhou.

The banquet was very Westernized, and Zeng Guofan specially invited a French chef from the French Concession in Shanghai to make a very sumptuous French feast. Foie gras, oysters, steak and other uncommon Western dishes are placed on the table covered with snow-white tablecloths, and of course such a large meal is indispensable for wine, and Zeng Guofan carefully served champagne, brandy and other foreign wines to the French guests.

After spending so much money, the atmosphere of the banquet was naturally quite harmonious, Zeng Guofan had done his homework before, how to put a white napkin under his neck, how to use those silver knives and forks, and did not lose face in front of foreigners. Some of the other entourage can't, but fortunately, these staff members are smart people, and after watching the actions of foreigners, they really can't learn knives and forks, so they drank some French vegetable soup with a spoon to cover up their embarrassment, and finally didn't make a fool of themselves on the spot.

"Thank you Colonel for beating Changmao in Jiangxinzhou, and thank you for your country's help on behalf of the Qing Dynasty." Zeng Guofan began to set almost the Tao.

Eric is a China expert who speaks Chinese, but has a strong accent and can barely understand it. "It's just a gesture, our fleet just happened to pass by on the Yangtze River, and the Governor was polite."

It seems that this Colonel Eric was very satisfied with Zeng Guofan's hospitality, and he seemed to be very happy with a few bottles of brandy, his face was red, and he seemed very happy.

Zeng Guofan was very good at seizing the opportunity and said the purpose of this banquet, "Please also ask Your Excellency to stay here for a few more days, the losses of our Hunan army and naval division are somewhat serious, and we may mobilize warships from other places, I hope that your country can help defend the waterway of the Yangtze River during this period to prevent Changmao from escaping from here." Zeng Guofan was very careful, although he knew that the chance of Long Hair breaking through by water was not very high, but he still had to put an end to this possibility.

Eric was very satisfied, and he smiled and said, "Such a friendly hospitality, we will stay here for a few more days, don't worry." If you are going to attack the city, let us know, and our gunboats will be able to hit their northern walls. ”

Zeng Guofan was even more pleasantly surprised when he heard it, he knew about the cannons on the French ships, they were all 32-pound heavy guns, and the power was incomparably huge, and if the fire was fully fired, the walls of Tianjing would be blown down.

"Thank you very much。。。。。。 then"

Before Zeng Guofan could finish speaking, a personal soldier came over and whispered a few words into his ear.

"What? Chengxi Horse Farm was attacked by Longhair? They stole more than 3,000 war horses? Zeng Guofan stood up angrily.

"Is there anything wrong with the Governor?" Eric was visibly drunk, and his speech was a little shaky.

Zeng Guofan suppressed his anger and said with a smile: "It's nothing, there are some official duties to do, you continue to eat and drink." ”

Zeng Guofan asked a few of his staff members to continue to accompany their French guests, and he himself took some of his retinue and went straight to the horse farm in the west of the city.

Looking at the ruins here, the long hair is really ruthless, not a single horse is left, and they are all packed away. This made Zeng Guofan feel distressed, and said sharply: "Who is in charge here?" ”

"Admiral Duo died in battle, and now it should be Admiral Bao's steward." The subordinate replied.

"Call him here!" Zeng Guofan was very angry.

Bao Chao was here, and when something happened to the racecourse, he immediately rushed over and commanded his men to extinguish the fire.

When he was called to Zeng Guofan's side, he realized that this black cauldron had to be carried by himself, in fact, Bao Chao was really wronged, although after the death of Duolonga in battle, he was the supreme commander here as the deputy commander, but Duolonga's troops were taken over by his eldest son, and he couldn't command it at all. Duolonga just died, and there was indeed some chaos in the troops, which allowed Long Mao to take advantage of the loophole, but the board couldn't hit him, and he came over in time to reinforce to avoid everyone from causing greater losses.

But Bao Chao didn't dare to argue, he was born from the grassroots and had no backers, he knew that Zeng Guofan would not punish Duolonga's people, and this black pot could only be carried by himself.

Zeng Guofan scolded Bao Chao with a stinking face, and finally suspended Bao Chao's military salary for three months as a punishment.

"This Yang Xiaoshan is very ghostly, it seems that he has to do it quickly, so as not to have many dreams at night, and there will be any more moths." Zeng Guofan secretly pondered in his heart that he was very taboo against Yang Xiaoshan, and decided to take action immediately, capture Nanjing, and capture Yang Xiaoshan.

"Pass my order, the whole army will surround Nanjing, and launch a general attack in three days!" Zeng Guofan was stimulated by Yang Xiaoshan's horse stealing, and got the help of foreigners, and the imperial court urged him to hurry, and he was worried that the Huai army would come to snatch the war achievements. Under various factors, he finally couldn't help but make a move on the capital of the Taiping Army.