Although the battle of Sijing Town ended with the open and secret victory of the Wu army in Shanghai, and the success of taking the second-line army consumed a large number of elites of the Taiping army's Tan Shaoguang department, this still could not change the contrast between strength and weakness on the battlefield in Shanghai, let alone the existential crisis faced by the Wu army in Shanghai.

At the same time, the loss of the Sijing stronghold also accelerated the arrival of the crisis, because of the lack of strength and forced to abandon Sijing, the salient of the western front position, another important stronghold of the Wu army in Shanghai, Qibao stronghold was directly exposed under the muzzle of the Taiping army, and once Qibao could no longer be kept, Hongqiao, Wangjiasi, Caohejing and Xujiahui and other places had to be in an emergency, and at the same time, the Luojiagang, Zhuzhai and Xinqiao strongholds on the flanks were also in danger of being isolated.

What's worse is that the Taiping Army is not afraid of fighting a war of attrition with the Wu Army in Shanghai, which has sufficient troops on the front line, and there is still Li Xiucheng's main force on the southern front of the Taiping Army in the rear, which can be put into the Shanghai battlefield at any time. At present, although the Wu Army in Shanghai has eleven battalions of elite main forces as the core, the ashes auxiliary troops can also be directly replenished among the refugees in Shanghai, but the supply of weapons and ammunition cannot be guaranteed at all. Therefore, whether the Wu army in Shanghai can hold on to the main force of the Wu army to come to help, even Zhou Tenghu, who is as famous as Zuo Zongtang in this era, does not dare to guarantee.

The only thing Zhou Tenghu could do was to try his best to persevere, and after being forced to abandon the Sijing stronghold, Zhou Tenghu not only strengthened the defensive strength of the Qibao stronghold, but also made preparations early to abandon the peripheral strongholds such as Luojiagang and Zhuzhai, and consciously controlled the ammunition and military supplies to these positions, so as to abandon these positions at any time.

In order to prove that he had no intention of annexing Shanghai alone, Tan Shaoguang's main attack after taking Sijing was Qibao, intending to open the way to enter the suburbs of Shanghai, and at the same time to isolate the Wu army's Xinzhuang stronghold, reduce the difficulty of attacking the fortifications, and even force the Wu army to take the initiative to abandon Xinzhuang. As a result, the brutal fierce battle like a meat grinder also started on the Qibao battlefield after Sijing.

Tan Shaoguang no longer attacked the fortifications during the day and rested at night to give the Wu army a chance to adjust and breathe, and chose to take turns attacking the Qibao stronghold of the Wu army day and night, or bombarding with artillery fire, or sneak attack with a small army, or making noise to disturb the defenders of the Wu army's stronghold, exhausting the energy and physical strength of the Wu army's officers and soldiers, and not hesitating to charge a large-scale assault charge at every opportunity, mainly focusing on the night force, increasing the casualties of the Wu army's officers and soldiers, Several times it posed a huge threat to the Qibao stronghold of the Wu army, and it also made Zhou Tenghu once consider sending more elite forces to the Qibao battlefield to continue to strengthen the defensive force.

Jin Anqing, the right-hand man, resolutely opposed Zhou Tenghu's adjustment, and said: "Tao Fu, we can't invest too many main forces and elites so early, we still have more important strongholds such as Hongqiao, Wangjiasi, Caohejing and Dongjiadu behind us, and the concession, the streets of the outer city and Shanghai City cannot tolerate the slightest mistake. ”

Zhou Tenghu frowned and calculated, and only said after a while: "Of course I know that we can't invest in the main force too early, but what I'm more worried about now is that what if the long hair exhausts our outlying strongholds, what if reinforcements come from their rear?" At that time, we will have no outer buffer, and even if the main elite is preserved, it is not impossible to hold such a long line of defense as the concession and the streets of the outer city? ”

Jin An was speechless, but Zhou Tenghu said to himself: "It seems that the best way is to replace defense with offense, suddenly dispatch the main force, give them one of them a heavy blow all the way, regain some battlefield initiative, and relieve our defensive pressure." ”

Jin Anqing nodded silently, and then asked, "Tao Fu, then you plan to attack that long hair first?" Tan Shaoguang? ”

"Of course it's Tan Shaoguang." Zhou Tenghu said without thinking about it: "He has been fighting tough battles in the past few days, the main force has suffered many casualties, and the army is also the most tired. ”

Jin Anqing wanted to nod his head again, but when the words came to his lips, he changed his mind, and after thinking about it for a while, Jin Anqing also said: "Tao Fu, have you considered such a question?" If you are the leader of the long hair, and through various clues, you find out that our Shanghai rebel army has suddenly dispatched elites, or after we dispatched the elite, you found out this situation through scouts, who do you think our Shanghai rebel army will attack? ”

"Tan Shaoguang." Zhou Tenghu immediately gave this answer, and immediately understood the reason why Jin Anqing asked this question, so he asked rhetorically: "Do you think you can't suddenly attack Tan Shaoguang?" ”

"We have three disadvantages to Tan Shaoguang." Jin Anqing raised three fingers and said: "First, judging from the situation we have so far, among the three long hairs on the battlefield in Shanghai, Tan Shaoguang's troops are not the most, but they are difficult on the battlefield, and we will definitely pay the greatest price if we hit him first." ”

"Second, Tan Shaoguang's army has been fighting for days, although tired, but it has always been in a state of combat readiness, and it is not only difficult to kill him by surprise when he suddenly attacked, but also just gave Tan Shaoguang's gang of long hairs a chance to vent in turn."

"The third is that we can't get a surprise effect, no matter what kind of hair is growing all the way, as long as we find that we have signs of sudden action, we must know that we are most likely to find Tan Shaoguang to settle accounts, prepare in advance or make emergency adjustments, so that our sudden attack will not receive many surprising and winning effects."

It was Zhou Tenghu's turn to nod again and again, and asked, "Since it can't be Tan Shaoguang, do you think it should be Huang Zilong or Lu Shunde first?" ”

Jin Anqing didn't answer immediately, and after pondering for a while, Jin Anqing said: "I think we can also use this matter to kill two birds with one stone, which not only catches Changmao off guard, but also further increases the gap between the three ways of Changmao, making them more deeply contradictory, and they can't work together to fight." ”

"So how do you do this article that kills two birds with one stone?" Zhou Tenghu asked.

"Tao Fu, if you are Tan Shaoguang's long hair." Jin Anqing didn't answer the rhetorical question, and said: "An important person in our Hongqiao camp suddenly sent someone to contact you, and said that he wanted to give you the Hongqiao camp if he wanted to do it, and asked you to send troops to get it at the appointed time, what would you think first?" And then how? ”

"Of course, the first suspicion is that this is a fraud." Zhou Tenghu replied without thinking about it: "Then it depends on the situation, and if you confirm that it is not a fraud and there is a real chance to take Hongqiao, I will send troops to take Hongqiao." If I find that there is still a hole in the fraud scheme, then I will plan it, and in turn pit someone who dares to set me up. ”

"What about Huang Zilong and Lu Shunde?" Jin Anqing asked again: "Will you tell Huang Zilong and Lu Shunde about this matter and pull them to do it together?" ”

Zhou Tenghu understood the meaning of making friends again, and said with a smile: "It's hard to say whether I will do this, but he will definitely do it!" Tan Shaoguang will definitely tell Huang Zilong and Lu Shunde about this, and pull them to do it together, because only by doing this can Tan Shaoguang prove that he never had any intention of eating alone, and that the so-called foreigner letter is just to sow discord. ”

"Since Tan Shaoguang will definitely do this, then don't we have a chance?" Jin Anqing asked with a smile.

Zhou Tenghu smiled again and said with a smile: "Meisheng, if Tan Shaoguang knew that you were calculating him like this, and you unfortunately fell into his hands, how many days did you say he would kill you?" ”

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