No matter how much face and heart are not in harmony in ordinary times, fighting for power and profit in the nest, when the teacher is in a desperate situation, it is a matter of course to ask the students for help, and it is not a loss, but if the students dare to refuse to save the teacher's life, they will definitely be pointed out by thousands of people, leaving a lifetime of infamy, and losing people and losing reason. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Trapped in a desperate situation on the east bank of Poyang Lake, Zeng Guofan did not panic, and Wen Jun, the governor of Jiangxi who was close at hand, refused to send troops to rescue, and Zeng Guofan did not despair, the reason is that Zeng Guofan knew very well that his disobedient protégé Wu Chaoyue would definitely send troops to save him, and he must have sent troops as soon as he received the news. Otherwise, his disobedient protégé would not be able to explain to the people of the world, and he would not be able to continue to show his hypocritical face of respecting teachers to the people of the world.

It's a pity that Teacher Zeng, whose use value has been basically squeezed out, is too naïve, Wu Chaoyue can't refuse his request for help, but Wu Chaoyue can hide!

In fact, as early as when the Hunan army unexpectedly took Dongliu County, Wu Chaoyue had already seen that the so-called victory of the Hunan army was just an old friend Yang Xiuqing's plan to lure the enemy, and the Taiping army was about to counterattack, and his barber teacher was already a grasshopper after the autumn, and he couldn't jump for a few days. As early as that time, Wu Chaoyue was already preparing a reasonable excuse to leave the Hubei provincial capital, avoiding Teacher Zeng's messenger for help, and buying a few more days for the Taiping army.

Can't leave the provincial capital in vain, while thinking about avoiding the teacher's request for help, Wu Chaoyue, who was hugging the grass and beating rabbits, planned to take the opportunity to go to Jingzhou to understand the situation in Jingzhou and prepare for raising troops against the Qing Dynasty in the future.

Although the threat is not as big as Luo Bingzhang, Zeng Guofan and Duxing'a, Jingzhou is also a piece of Wu Chaoyue's heart, Jingzhou, which is tightly choked in and out of Sichuan's throat, is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and its geographical location is second only to Wuhan in Hubei, and it is in the same column as Xiangyang, and it has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times. In order to settle the parasites of the Eight Banners and control the poisoning of the Chinese people, the Manchu court built a number of mite cities in the southern provinces, and almost all of the mite cities were located in the provincial capitals, but the mite city in Hubei was located in Jingzhou, and the importance of Jingzhou's geographical location can be seen.

More importantly, the current Jingzhou general Mianxun is also a descendant of wild boar skin, the uncle of Emperor Xianfeng, and his political position can never be shaken, and there are 4,000 Manchu banner soldiers who have eaten the blood and sweat of the Chinese nation, as well as tens of thousands of Manchu men and women, who may threaten the security of Hubei provincial capital at any time with the Qing troops in Hunan and Sichuan. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue also regarded Jingzhou Mite City as a thorn in the flesh, and when he raised troops in the future, Jingzhou Mite City was also one of the first targets of Wu Chaoyue's armed attack.

In view of this situation, Jingzhou was undoubtedly the best choice for Wu Chaoyue to leave the provincial capital under the pretext of inspecting the place to avoid the Hunan army for help, and at the same time, there were also good reasons - the conflict between the Han and Manchus in Jingzhou was somewhat serious, and although the large armed conflicts occurred only occasionally, the small ones were hardly interrupted. Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Jingzhou, has repeatedly reported before, and Wu Chaoyue can use it as an excuse to go to Jingzhou to inspect and understand the situation at any time.

Wu Chaoyue also could not predict when the main force of the Taiping Army would counterattack the Western Front in a big way, but after receiving the news that the Hunan army had captured the stone mountain artillery outside Pengze City, Wu Chaoyue knew that the time had come - no matter how big Yang Xiuqing was, he would never send troops again after losing Peng Ze. It was expected that the Taiping Army would make a big move in the near future, and Wu Chaoyue immediately decided to go out to patrol Jingzhou, and politely greeted Huashana, and temporarily handed over the Hubei provincial capital to Huashana.

It is the governor's freedom to inspect the provincial capital and county, and Hua Shana naturally did not stop it, and also gave Wu Chaoyue a lot of advice, urging Wu Chaoyue to try to calm things after arriving in Jingzhou, and not to be too insistent on his position, offending the Jingzhou general Mianxun who even Hua Shana could not afford to offend. At the same time, he secretly told Wu Chaoyue that Mianxun was a greedy and lustful lord, and if he wanted to have a good relationship with Mianxun, as long as he started in this regard, it would be absolutely right, Wu Chaoyue sincerely thanked Hua Shana for his kind advice, and the next day he led Zhao Liewen and others to Jingzhou to inspect with great fanfare, and at the same time, under the pretext of training sailors and familiarizing themselves with the route, they deliberately brought the main warships of Wu's naval division, the Loyalty and Renyi, to Jingzhou.

Although the location is dangerous, the location of Jingzhou city is low-lying, the city wall is almost flush with the river, and the city is too close to the Yangtze River.

What's more, Jingzhou Mite City is not located in the inner city like Beijing and Nanjing, but lives separately in the east and west cities, bombarding the city, Wu Chaoyue not only does not have to worry about accidentally hurting the Han people, but also can get direct help from the Han people in Xicheng!

Even more so that Wu Chaoyue's heart was still ecstatic, and after he really arrived at Jingzhou Mansion and entered the city, Wu Chaoyue knew that the ******** highlighted by Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Jingzhou, was not exaggerated, but as much as possible to conceal and underreport and deliberately make a big thing small! As for the extent of the fierce conflict between the Han and the Manchus in Jingzhou, we can just listen to the accusations of our Jingzhou general Mianxun Mianmian.

"Wu Futai, you must cure these people in Jingzhou! These people are so bold that they dare to openly shout and beat thieves in the city! At every turn, they gathered people to fight with the flag soldiers under the old man's rule, and in the last month alone, five flag soldiers were injured by them! ”

"The Thirteen Gangs of Jingzhou must be cured! Especially the Xianwu Gang! These people bully and dominate the market, force to buy and sell, especially like to bully our flag people, six or seven out of ten flag people disputes are related to them! ”

"There are also those Miao Yi barbarians, who are even more arrogant and barbaric, dare to use knives and guns if they don't say a word, and they also target our banner people! Two months ago, a soldier named Haisheng with a yellow flag disappeared, and now no one is alive or dead, and nine out of ten are related to these barbarians! Wu Futai, you are a well-known capable minister, you must solve this case, find the murderer, and give our banner people justice! ”

Listening to General Mianda's reversal of black and white almost with tears in his eyes, Wu Chaoyue comforted him with kind words and promised to seek justice for the soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty. On the other hand, he also made up his mind in his heart, and decided that he must win over the 13 Jingzhou Gangs, especially the Xianwu Gang, which General Mianda focused on accusating, and at the same time, he was also determined to have a good relationship with the local ethnic minority people, make more friendships with their leaders, and give some favors to buy people's hearts.

With the help of Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Jingzhou who was very good at sycophancy, Wu Chaoyue also immediately let go of his hands and feet, and while trying his best to win over the local gangs and ethnic minority masses in Jingzhou, he justifiably delayed returning to the provincial capital, wasting and delaying the time for the reorganization of the army, and preparing an excuse for not being able to immediately dispatch the Hubei New Army to reinforce the Hunan army.

So, just like that, when Yang Wending sent someone to send Teacher Zeng's blood letter for help to the provincial capital, Wu Chaoyue was naturally not in the city, and the messenger had no choice but to report the news to Hua Shana, who was in charge of Huguang Military, and asked Hua Shana to take the idea first.

"Didn't you win a few days ago? also said that there is hope that it can be directly hit under the city of Anqing, but it has only been a few days, why is the situation suddenly critical? It's troublesome, it's troublesome, Weiting happened to go to Jingzhou, and he brought the main warships with him, what can I do? ”

Hua Shana, who was not good at military affairs, complained loudly and had no right to dispatch the Hubei New Army, which was directly subordinate to Wu Chaoyue, so he could only send someone to send a letter to Wu Chaoyue by clipper, and at the same time hurriedly dispatched Bao Chao to lead four battalions of the Hubei Xinjian Naval Division to rush to Jiujiang to try to reinforce the Hunan army. Although Bao Chao knew that the newly built naval division in Hubei was completely vulnerable in front of the Taiping army's naval division, he still took the messenger from Zeng Guofan's previous favor to him, and led the army to save Zeng Guofan for the second time.

…………

Taking advantage of the absolute superiority of water forces, the Taiping army first quickly sent a large amount of supplies to Jiujiang Luojiao, which had been besieged for several months, through the waterway, and then seized Meijiazhou to establish a water defense line, blocked the route of the Qing army's naval division into Poyang Lake, and completely blocked the remnants of the Hunan army's naval division in Poyang Lake. The Qing Army's Kingdom Talent Department and Liu Kun were full of strength, but they were unable to resist and obstruct due to the weakness of the water force, so they could only watch the Taiping Army's sailors crisscross the water.

At the same time, the main force of the Taiping Army Army led by Lai Guiying had also arrived at the Hukou battlefield, and quickly rushed to Gray Mountain to join the siege of the Hunan army, preparing to first destroy the remnants of the Hunan army trapped in Gray Mountain and then concentrate on counterattacking Jiujiang. In addition, the Taiping Army's naval division led by Wei Jun also successfully took Duchang County, and after capturing a large amount of military grain and grass, he quickly returned to the north and joined forces with the land division to attack Gray Mountain. Wen Jun's Jiangxi Naval Division hid in Ruihong and did not move, allowing the Taiping Army's Naval Division to run rampant across the lake, sitting and watching the Hunan Army besieged without hesitation.

If it weren't for the insistence on bringing some artillery when retreating from Pengze, and there was still a little bit of fighting back in the long-range artillery battle, the Hunan army would definitely not be able to survive even three days in the face of the Taiping army's land and water attack, the reason is that the Hunan army was too unlucky and too passive this time.

The mountain is not high enough to make it difficult for the Hunan army to establish an iron-walled and iron-walled strong camp in the gray mountain, and there are not even many trees, and the materials for setting up the camp were forced to be abandoned when the transfer was hastily transferred, and the Hunan army could only build two thin fences inside and outside to protect the camp, and what is even worse is that the soil layer in this area of the gray mountain is very shallow, and it is an indestructible hard stone that cannot be dug down two feet, and the Hunan army's best trench defense has also lost its effect, and the camp is extremely unsolid, and the defense is very weak, which also seriously weakens the combat effectiveness of the Hunan army. The Taiping army, which knew that Wu Chaoyue might send troops at any time, refused to waste even a day's time, and the offensive never stopped since the siege of Gray Mountain, and the various armies and battalions took turns to go into battle, storming the Hunan army's camp day and night, and basically did not give the Hunan army time and opportunity to establish a strong camp.

The house leak happened to rain overnight, and at the critical moment, Zeng Guofan's hidden danger of expanding the army too hastily suddenly broke out, and some Taiping troops who were recruited when they were in Hukou saw that the situation of the Hunan army was critical, and they had a reaction, so they quietly got in touch with their old boss Huang Wenjin, and expressed their willingness to act as an internal hero to atone for their crimes. After receiving Huang Wenjin's acceptance, these old Taiping soldiers suddenly attacked in the dark night, sneaking up on the Hunan soldiers guarding the fence defense line from behind, and the Taiping troops outside the camp took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, and successfully entered the Hunan army camp under the response of the internal response, almost breaking through the Hunan army camp in one fell swoop.

Thanks to Zeng Guofan's very careful repair of the inner and outer fences, he did not give the Taiping army a chance to enter the camp of the Hunan army, and he was always able to command in the center, maybe the Hunan army would be completely finished. It was also a loss that he was able to grasp the overall situation, and relied on the troops led by generals Zeng Guoquan, Li Xubin and Hu Linyi to fight to the death, and was forced to extort the precious bitter acid weapons that Wu Chaoyue had extorted, the Hunan army was able to block the onslaught of the Taiping army and drive the Taiping army that had entered the camp out of the camp again. But even so, the Hunan army was still heavily damaged, a large number of soldiers died in the chaos, countless camp tents were burned, and the military supplies that had been transferred from Pengze were also burned, and the morale of the army was severely damaged.

No matter how fierce the amphibious artillery battle with the Taiping Army was, no matter how crazy the Taiping Army's attack was, the slogans shouted by the generals of the Hunan Army were all the same, "Hold on!" Hold on! Wu Futai's reinforcements are coming! His sailors have steamers and sail warships of foreigners, and they will be able to rush into Poyang Lake to save us as soon as they arrive in Jiujiang! Hang on! Grit your teeth and hold on! Reinforcements are coming, and the reinforcements led by Wu Futai himself are coming! ”

The slogans were shouted loudly, but as time passed, in addition to the dense Taiping army boats, there were all kinds of warships snatched by the Taiping army from all over the place, as well as the Taiping army shells that kept bouncing and flying in the narrow camp, and the flowering shells that exploded from time to time. Under the shroud of despair, deserters and surrenderers continued to appear in the ranks of the Hunan army, especially the Jiangxi recruits and temporarily hired people who were hastily recruited at Hukou, and even fled from their positions in groups to surrender to the Taiping army, which not only further shook and hit the morale of the Hunan army, but also allowed the Taiping army to grasp the latest situation of the Hunan army at any time.

In this case, poor Teacher Zeng of course looked north to the king from time to time, hoping that a miracle would appear, and even more so that the banner of Wu characters with teeth and claws of the disobedient protégé could appear on the turbulent Poyang Lake. However, every time it was a big disappointment.

In the early morning of the ninth day after the siege, the Taiping army suddenly stopped shelling, and then several Taiping soldiers with white flags escorted a Hunan army sailor soldier to the outside of the Hunan army camp, shouting at the Hunan soldiers in the camp, "Don't shoot, the people inside, you all look at it, this is your companion, the person we caught on the lake last night, he is here to deliver a letter to you." ”

When the soldiers of the Hunan army scrambled to look around, the captured Hunan army sailor was forced, so he could only cry and shout in the camp: "Brothers, I came to deliver a letter to you on the order of General Wang Bing, Wu Chaoyue Wu Futai was not in the Hubei provincial capital, but happened to go to Jingzhou, and his sailors were not ready, so there was no way to save you in a short time, and there was no way to save you in a short time!" ”

The Hunan army soldiers were in an uproar, and despair was suddenly written in front of every Hunan army soldier, Zeng Guofan sat on the ground with his ass, and the world was spinning in front of him one after another, and his mind was completely blank. However, Hu Linyi was still calm, first personally raised his gun and fired a shot at the renegade soldier, and then shouted: "Brothers, don't believe the nonsense of long hair! We received news last night that Wu Futai's sailors had arrived in Jiujiang and would soon rush into Poyang Lake to save us! Longhair: This is deliberately lying to us! Shoot! Shoot! Kill these long hairs! ”

Some Hunan soldiers opened fire as ordered, driving away the Taiping soldiers who shouted loudly and used their tactics to attack the heart, but many more Hunan soldiers were dazed and refused to believe the false news spread by Hu Linyi. Hu Linyi yelled to encourage the morale of the army, and said in his heart: "I can only do this step, I hope this news is not true." ”

On that day, even during the day, a large number of Hunan soldiers escaped from their positions and surrendered to the Taiping army. The current Hunan army is no longer the super-cohesive Hunan army that Zeng Guofan brought out of Hunan to defeat Wuhan before, whether it is combat effectiveness or cohesion, and even Zeng Guofan's personal prestige has dropped very much.

…………

After Yang Wending withdrew to the west bank of Poyang Lake with Zuo Zongtang, even if he did not ask for it, Wang Guocai, Liu Kunyi and Bao Chao, who had just arrived in Jiujiang with the sailors, also voluntarily accepted his command order, Yang Wending kept in mind the advice of his son-in-law to learn Luo Bingzhang, and entrusted all affairs to Zuo Zongtang, and Zuo Zongtang also had the opportunity to show his skills on the battlefield. It also won some opportunities for the officers and men of the Hunan army to escape.

At the same time that the Taiping army was carrying out its tactics of attacking the heart, at the request of Zuo Zongtang, Yang Wending invited the generals of the Qing army to hold a military meeting to discuss launching a late Qing version of the Dunkirk retreat and saving as many Hunan soldiers as possible to return to the west bank of Poyang Lake. However, when it came to the meeting, it was basically Zuo Zongtang who was talking alone.

"You all know the current situation, Wu Futai is not in the capital of Hubei Province if he wants to die, and he can't send troops to save Zeng Butang and them in a short time. Judging from our scout reports, it is absolutely impossible to expect Zeng Butang to hold out until the main force of the Hubei Navy Division arrives. And even if the Hubei Sailor can arrive as soon as possible, with Wu Chaoyue's ability, he may not be able to quickly break through the Longhaired Hukou defense line in a short period of time, and defeat the Longhaired Sailor to rescue Zeng Butang and them, so Zeng Butang and they can be said to be dead. ”

"Although Zeng Butang is stupid enough to make his army mutiny, we can't watch his army annihilated, there is no way, we can only rely on the only strength in our hands to save as much as we can."

"The rescue plan is divided into three steps, the first step, at three o'clock tonight, Bao Chao, you will send troops first, attack the defense line of Changmao's Hukou, and pretend to rush into the Hukou to save Zeng Butang. Knowing that you don't have the ability, I don't want you to really rush into the mouth of the lake, as long as you can contain the long-haired water master of the lake. On land, I will also arrange artillery to help you. ”

"Yang Yuebin, you sent troops at the beginning of the day, and by that time the long-haired sailor at the mouth of the lake had been restrained by Bao Chao, you just had to rest assured and boldly go straight to the gray mountain, storm the long-haired sailor's partial division, contain them, and wait for the troop carrier to leave before retreating!"

"Remember, at any cost! It's best to lure the long-haired sailor out of Taoshawan, if not, attack at any cost, even if you beat the remnants of the sailor to the last boat left, you have to contain the long-haired sailor for me! ”

"Also, tell the sailors to prepare a set of people's clothes, prepare dry rations, and after the ship is sunk, they will flee ashore, change their clothes and disguise themselves as civilians, and they can keep as many sailors as they can, and if the ship is gone, they can be rebuilt and bought, and when the skilled sailors die, they will be completely gone. By the way, tell your sailors that if you can't do it, you can surrender to Longhair, save your life first, and then find a way to escape back slowly! ”

"Wang Guocai, Liu Kunyi, hand over all your grenades to Yang Yuebin! It's time to help, so don't knock on the door! ”

"Peng Yulin, the fishing boats and cargo ships collected from the people, you let them secretly assemble in the Gutang area on the other side of the Gray Mountain, were they discovered by Long Hair? It's good if you don't have it, remember, if it goes well, when your fleet arrives at Taosha Bay, the long-haired sailor in Gray Mountain has been entangled by Yang Yuebin, docking, how much can be saved and come back! ”

"Remember, tell every boat, every civilian sailor, that they will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver for every soldier they save when they come back, and one hundred taels of silver for each battalion officer they rescue! Cash in on the spot! ”

"Wang Guocai, Liu Kunyi, lend your military salary silver to Peng Yulin first, and let him take it to Dagutang, so that those civilian sailors can see the silver! Let them rest assured to save their lives! ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, please look at the thin face of the old man, and you must act according to Mr. Zuo's plan. The old man vouched for his head that my grandson-in-law would definitely pay you back, and he would definitely pay you back. ”

Yang Wending gave up and made a gesture to the generals, striving for Wang Guocai and Liu Kun to fully cooperate with Zuo Zongtang's plan, Wang Guocai and Liu Kun glanced at Zuo Zongtang and nodded helplessly, Zuo Zongtang suddenly roared again, "Wenjun! Your mother's eighteenth generation ancestor, if your sailor cooperates, he can at least save seventy or eighty percent of the Hunan army! You son of a bitch, why do you have to die and not save you? And Zeng Guohua, if you stupid pig hadn't been in a hurry to launch a decisive battle and cripple the Hunan Army's sailors, we would have to beg Wenjun now?! ”

The generals of the Qing army rolled their eyes even more, Yang Wending smiled even more bitterly, and then Peng Yulin timidly asked Zuo Zongtang: "Mr. Ji Gao, if my fleet can successfully dock, then we will save those people back first?" ”

"You can only ask Zeng Guofan this question." Zuo Zongtang didn't have any expression, and said to himself: "But no matter how Zeng Guofan chooses, he ...... it himself." ”

"I'm afraid I have a chance, and I don't have the face to escape back." Zuo Zongtang finished adding the second half of the sentence in his heart. (To be continued.) )