Thanks to the fact that the sky was too dark and the boat was not grand enough, and it did not attract the attention of the soldiers of the Wu Army's sailors too much, Shi Dakai's flagship was lucky not to be pursued by the Wu Army's sailors.

However, most of the other Taiping soldiers were not as lucky as Shi Dakai, and the high-mobility and large-tonnage Wu army steam gunboats did not even need to shoot and fire, nor did they need to deliberately ram the enemy ships, and directly overturned a large number of Taiping troop carriers with the waves brought up by high-speed driving, and countless Taiping soldiers who were lucky enough to escape on the battlefield fell into the river, struggling and calling for help, sinking with the waves, drowning and choking countless people, and the scene was unbearable.

Then, the sampan fleet of the Wu army also rushed to participate in the battle and looted and killed, and more Taiping troop carriers were sunk and burned, and the number of casualties among the Taiping soldiers rose rapidly, and finally Shi Dakai finally gathered more than 7,000 remnants of the army in Hezhou defeated and fled to the south bank of the Yangtze River alive Less than 2,000 people, including the right-hand man Zeng Jinqian and the generals Zeng Guangyi, Xu Guihe, Xu Linzhong, and many other civil and military officials died tragically on the way across the river, and the soldiers who were able to follow Chen Yucheng to the north bank were less than 1,000 people, and the losses were so heavy that countless Taiping soldiers cried loudly, which also made Shi Dakai burst into tears and gritted his teeth and bleed.

No matter how much it was useless to cry, it was impossible for the fallen soldiers to come back to life, and seeing the Wu army's fleet densely along the river on the shore, Shi Dakai immediately understood that the Nanjing War would start earlier than he estimated, so after crying blood and tears, Shi Dakai did not dare to do any hesitation, and hurriedly took the remaining remnants of the soldiers to the east, and hurried back to Nanjing to meet Hong Xiuquan.

Fortunately, because the Nanjing Taiping Army was stationed in Jiangxin Prefecture, Yongding Prefecture and Dasheng Pass to be guarded by troops, the Wu army Feng Sanbao, who had to take these peripheral barriers first, did not rush to land on a large scale, and Shi Dakai's army, who had lost all its baggage weapons, was able to escape smoothly into Nanjing Waiguo, and ran to the city of Nanjing to ask to enter the city to meet Hong Xiuquan.

Expected by Zhang Suimou and Cao Crouching Tiger, Shi Dakai, who was in a hurry to return to Beijing, was no longer greeted by the previous grand welcome, Hong Xiuquan, who turned his face and did not recognize people, even did not allow Shi Dakai to lead the army into the city, first forced Shi Dakai's remnants of soldiers and horses to camp in Yuhuatai, and then sent someone to summon Shi Dakai into the city to meet him, and at the same time clearly required Shi Dakai to bring no more than ten people into the city, Shi Dakai was very angry, but he had no choice but to act honestly and honestly, and entered the city under the supervision of the Nanjing Taiping Army soldiers under the command of Meng Deen. The disgraced man went to the Heavenly King's Mansion to meet Hong Xiuquan.

The matter is not over, when he saw Shi Dakai, who had suffered a fiasco, Hong Xiuquan not only did not say half a good word of comfort, but on the contrary, he roared at Shi Dakai as soon as they met, and roared by name, "Shi Dakai, what are you eating?" More than 40,000 heavenly armies, only four days before and after, actually lost all their essence to me! You, the Winged King, 8,000 years old, will you be able to fight? Heaven has given you such a high title, and I have given you so much military power, so you repay me like this? Such a reward for my kingdom of heaven?! ”

Full of grievances but nowhere to cry, Shi Dakai could only bow down at Hong Xiuquan's feet and honestly plead guilty, and said in tears: "Wechen is incompetent, he has failed the Holy Grace, he has failed the Heavenly Court, and he has failed thousands of Heavenly subjects, but Wechen has tried his best, Wechen has done all his best, it is really the sharp guns of the demon soldiers, surpassing the little demon and his demon soldiers and demon generals are all treacherous, plus traitors and scum emerge in an endless stream, so Weichen is ......." ”

"Shut up!" Hong Xiuquan roared angrily and interrupted Shi Dakai, and shouted like crazy: "Defeated all the way from Hukou Jiujiang to Tianjing, lost Hukou, lost Pengze, lost Anqing, I handed over all the soldiers and horses in the upper reaches of Tianjing to you for moderation, and you fought like this?" You were actually captured by the demon soldiers, and you still had to exchange you with the demon soldiers captured by our heavenly soldiers, and the face of the Heavenly Emperor was all lost by you, and you still have the face to come back, and the face to come back to tell me that you have done your best?! ”

"Long live the King of Heaven, the blame is, Weichen should kill himself to thank the King of Heaven." Shi Dakai cried out again, kowtowed and said: "But it's not okay if Weichen doesn't come back, the demon soldiers are about to hit Tianjing City, and Weichen can't come back to protect King Qin!" ”

"King Qin's escort? Phew! As far as the remnants of the defeated army you brought back, what role can you play in addition to wasting food? If you are greedy for life and afraid of death, I will tell me, I see that you don't want to say that you are compared with Lin Qirong and Huang Wenjin, even if you are a dead Heavenly Soldier, you can pull out any of them, and they are a hundred times stronger than you! Impotent! Shameless!! ”

I did my best but was defeated by the lack of strength, and I escaped death several times and finally came back, but I was scolded and humiliated like this, and Shi Dakai, who was wronged to the extreme, was so ashamed that he almost had no place to go, but Hong Xiuquan still scolded angrily, and finally Shi Dakai couldn't bear it, so he had to shout a sentence of death to apologize, and then committed suicide by hitting the pillar in front of Hong Xiuquan.

Fortunately, the civil and military officials of the Taiping Army led by Meng Deen stopped Shi Dakai to death, and at the same time knelt down to Hong Xiuquan to plead for Shi Dakai, so that Hong Xiuquan stopped scolding, but even so, Hong Xiuquan still yelled: "You don't have to be the Wing King, you will be demoted to a checkpoint, and all your subordinates will be stripped of their titles!" ”

Everything and everywhere are focused on the great cause of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, of course Shi Dakai will not care about Hong Xiuquan's removal of his so-called 8,000-year-old title, he honestly just kowtows to thank him, which somewhat calms Hong Xiuquan's anger. And at this time, there was an official outside the hall to report, saying that the Wu army and Feng Sanbao had launched an attack on Dasheng Pass from both land and water at the same time, Hong Xiuquan immediately pointed at Shi Dakai again, and shouted: "Bring your soldiers and horses, and immediately go to reinforce Dasheng Pass!" The big victory is here, your head is here, the big victory is lost, your head is lost! ”

"Immediately go to reinforce Dasheng Pass?"

Shi Dakai, who only had more than 1,000 remnants of the defeated army in his hand, was dumbfounded when he heard it, but fortunately, at present, the most trusted Zanwang Meng Deen by Hong Xiuquan is a person who understands, and quickly kowtowed to Hong Xiuquan and said: "Long live the King of Heaven forgive the sin, the Wing King ......, oh no, the army situation of the stone inspection point knows that he has lost all the artillery baggage, and he is very tired and tired, and most of them are injured. Therefore, his subordinates had the courage to beg the king to retract his order and send another army to reinforce the Great Victory Pass. ”

Of course, Hong Xiuquan wanted to give some face, and after trying to suppress the anger in his heart, Hong Xiuquan nodded, withdrew the order to let Shi Dakai go to battle immediately, and ordered Meng Deen to arrange the army to reinforce Dasheng Pass. As a result, Shi Dakai was a little anxious when he heard this, and he hurriedly kowtowed and said: "Long live the King of Heaven, it is best to be cautious in the matter of sending troops to reinforce the Great Victory Pass." Dasheng Pass is on the bank of the Yangtze River, and the fire of the demon soldiers' steamers can be directly covered, and it is not only difficult to send reinforcements to help, but it is also likely to be doomed to death and injury in vain. In the opinion of his subordinates, it is better not to rush to send reinforcements, let the defenders of Dasheng Pass hold on with strong fortifications first, and then see the situation before making a decision. ”

Meng Deen was a little shaken when he heard this, but Hong Xiuquan was angry again, and shouted: "The demon soldiers are going to fight to Tianjing City, and if they don't fight for an inch of land with the demon soldiers, do you want to give up all the camps outside the city and return to the city to let the demon soldiers surround Tianjing City?" ”

Knowing that Hong Xiuquan was angry, Shi Dakai could only keep his mouth shut obediently, but fortunately, Shi Dakai soon found that his words still had a certain effect, and when he sent troops to reinforce the army of Dashengguan in front of Hong Xiuquan, Meng Deen deliberately sent an army that was ranked lower in the second-tier army to reinforce Dashengguan, and did not send the first-line elite main force. ——Previously, in order to get rid of Yang Xiuqing's influence on the Nanjing army, Hong Xiuquan transferred a lot of troops from Shi Dakai to stay in Nanjing, so Shi Dakai was quite familiar with the situation of the Taiping army in Nanjing.

"Fortunately, the Heavenly King's most trusted Meng Deen can still listen to persuasion, and there is still hope for Tianjing." After rejoicing in his heart, Shi Dakai immediately made up his mind and decided to hurry closer to Meng Deen, and strive to influence Hong Xiuquan through Meng Deen, so that Hong Xiuquan could make the right decision and stabilize the situation of the Taiping Army, which was already in danger.

The matter is not over yet, just when Shi Dakai felt that there was still hope, Hong Xiuquan suddenly went crazy again, and yelled at Meng Deen, who was being pinned on by Shi Dakai: "Why is there no news from King Zhong's side?" The demon soldiers have already hit Tianjing City, why didn't he bring the main force to save Tianjing? What does Li Xiucheng want to do, what does he want to do?! ”

"The King of Heaven forgives his sins, and there has been no news from King Zhong in the past few days." Meng Deen hurriedly pleaded guilty, and said cautiously: "I'm afraid he still has that plan, he wants to take Shanghai first, clear the hidden dangers in the rear, and then return to the division to save Tianjing." ”

"Shanghai Shanghai, what does he want to do if he insists on hitting Shanghai?!" Hong Xiuquan was obviously a little angry, and shouted: "Send him another holy decree, order him to return to the army immediately to save Tianjing!" ”

"Long live the Heavenly King, the Divine Decree has been issued this morning?" Mund's caution reminded.

"One more shot!" Hong Xiuquan roared with red eyes: "Ask him directly, does he want to betray the Kingdom of Heaven and deliberately let the demon soldiers break the Heavenly Capital and kill me?!" ”

The thin arms can't twist the thick thighs, and Meng Deen can only honestly receive the order, and let the female official write it on the spot, and send Li Xiucheng the second holy decree of Hong Xiuquan urging the return of troops to save Nanjing within one day, or the holy decree with a more severe tone. As a result, after the second holy decree was issued, Hong Xiuquan, who had been angry for a while, drank the order to disperse the dynasty angrily, and handed over the envoy who incorporated Shi Dakai's remnants to Meng Deen, and asked Meng Deen to arrange the weapons, grain and grass allocated to Shi Dakai's remnants, and clearly explained that Shi Dakai would directly obey Meng Deen's command.

Although Hong Xiuquan's decision obviously meant that his cronies Meng Deen was spying on Shi Dakai, he was also deliberately humiliating Shi Dakai - Meng Deen's previous official title was not three or five levels different from Shi Dakai, but it also gave Shi Dakai and Meng Deen the opportunity to communicate and contact. At the same time, what made Shi Dakai very pleased was that when he reluctantly followed Meng Deen out of the Heavenly King's Mansion, Meng Deen not only immediately invited him to his Zanwang Mansion to talk, but also said directly to Shi Dakai when he was talking alone: "Wing King, although the Heavenly King has taken your title, but in private I still want to call you the Wing King, and I will also find a way to ask the Heavenly King to restore your title as soon as possible." ”

Shi Dakai hurriedly humbled himself, but Meng Deen insisted on continuing to call Shi Dakai the Wing King, and said: "Wing King, there is one more important thing, Wing King, you also know, I don't know much about military affairs, I have not led the army on the battlefield alone since the Jintian Incident, so this time in the defense of Tianjing, I want to ask you to help me a lot." ”

Shi Dakai quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and after a few modest words with Meng Deen, he immediately said that he would try his best to help Meng Deen, and Meng Deen was resolute, and immediately asked someone to bring various books of the Nanjing Taiping Army, so that Shi Dakai could understand the specific situation of the Nanjing Taiping Army now, Shi Dakai was no longer polite, and quickly buried himself in the sand table of books and maps, and raced against time to understand the various conditions of the Nanjing defenders.

The result of understanding and mastering was to make Shi Dakai overjoyed, because the current strength of the Nanjing Taiping Army is not only more than Shi Dakai had guessed in advance, but also a large part of Hong Xiuquan's veterans from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during this period of time, not only can their combat effectiveness be reliable, but their will to fight and loyalty are even more reliable. At the same time, the weapons reserves of the Taiping Army in Nanjing were also more and better than Shi Dakai had predicted, with more than 10,000 foreign guns of all kinds, more than 50 foreign cannons using black powder flowering shells, and a small number of picric acid weapons. Therefore, Shi Dakai quickly came to the conclusion that as long as he did not make a big mistake in tactics, the Nanjing Taiping Army alone would be enough to block the attack of the Wu army and Feng Sanbao's troops!

The only thing that makes Shi Dakai worry is the grain and grass, although the current grain and grass in the city can support more than seven or eighty percent, but as long as the Wu army dredges the Yangtze River channel, the grain and grass are endless, and at the same time, the Wu army's sailors are too strong, and it is easy to cut off the supply of grain and grass on the water in Nanjing, so as long as the Wu army cuts off the land grain route of the Nanjing Taiping Army, then there is no need to risk attacking the city, and the Taiping army can be consumed alive by besieging the city and consuming grain!

And then, Shi Dakai suddenly understood Li Xiucheng's insistence on fighting Shanghai first, only by taking Shanghai can he get an inexhaustible supply of weapons and ammunition from the foreigners, and even get a steam gunboat that can compete with Wu's naval division, and only by taking Shanghai can he clear the hidden dangers in the rear, so that Suzhou, Hangzhou, Songjiang and other grain-producing areas can rest assured that they can provide supplies for the Nanjing battlefield, and at the same time, Li Xiucheng, who has no worries about the future, can also rely on the most absolute military superiority to provide food and grass supplies for the Taiping Army in Nanjing by land!

"The key to the success or failure of the strategy is in Shanghai, and we must not give up attacking Shanghai at this time!"

After figuring out the specific situation of the Taiping Army in Nanjing, Shi Dakai quickly came to an astonishing conclusion and said secretly: "Li Xiucheng should be given another period of time, otherwise it may make him lose his previous achievements." In addition, at this time, let Li Xiucheng continue to attack, and another advantage is that he can force the demon soldiers to storm Tianjing City to surround Wei and save Zhao, and even induce the demon soldiers to divide their troops to save Shanghai first, then we must have a greater grasp of holding Tianjing! ”

After seeing through this, Shi Dakai hesitated a little, because Shi Dakai had already seen Hong Xiuquan's attitude towards Li Xiucheng's refusal to return to Nanjing today, and he was naturally a little worried that he would not be able to persuade Hong Xiuquan to accept his conclusion. To Shi Dakai's surprise, when he told Meng Deen his opinion, Hong Xiuquan's current most trusted Meng Deen not only did not get angry, but said with a surprised expression: "Yiwang, do you also think that King Zhong should continue to fight Shanghai?" ”

"King Zan, who else thinks that they should continue to fight Shanghai?"

Shi Dakai heard Meng Deen's voice and hurriedly asked for details, but Meng Deen hesitated for a moment, and then said in a low voice: "Long live the East King, he also feels that he should continue to fight Shanghai, and there is no need to rush to force King Zhong to return to his master to save Tianjing." ”

Shi Dakai was taken aback again, and looked at Meng Deen in disbelief, but Meng Deen remained silent, and said in a low voice: "Wing King, in fact, you and I are very clear, who is the best person in our heavenly kingdom to fight, after receiving the news of your defeat in Yuncao before, I was worried that Tianjing would be difficult to protect, so I quietly found the East King and asked him about the strategy for dealing with the demon soldiers, he and your judgment are exactly the same, they all feel that Tianjing will not be in much danger for the time being, and King Zhong should continue to storm Shanghai with all his strength to clear the hidden dangers in the rear." ”

Shi Dakai suddenly came to his senses, and while he was more and more impressed by Meng Deen, he hurriedly asked in a low voice: "Then did you present this Chen Jin to the Heavenly King?" ”

"Not yet." Meng Deen shook his head and said: "Before, I was a little worried that the East King was deliberately talking nonsense, so I didn't dare to speak indiscriminately, this will still listen to the Wing King, you also say the same, I know that the East King still values the kingdom of heaven in his heart." ”

"Then King Zan, please tell the King of Heaven my and the King of the East as soon as possible, and suggest that the King of Heaven do this in your honor." Shi Dakai hurriedly said: "Don't worry, King Zan, don't dare to say in the field, we will definitely be able to block the demon soldiers for a long time in the city defense battle, if Feng Sanbao's demon soldiers are in a hurry to attack the city in order to save Shanghai, it is not impossible for us to defeat the demon soldiers in the city defense battle." Only by taking Shanghai first, clearing away the hidden dangers in our rear, and constantly obtaining guns and ammunition from foreigners, can we hope to block the demon soldiers and rejuvenate the kingdom of heaven. ”

Meng Deen nodded, not very confident, and said, "I do my best, but to be honest, I'm not too sure." ”

Knowing Hong Xiuquan's bearish temper, Shi Dakai also understood the truth that Meng Deen said to him, but when he begged Meng Deen to fight for it with all his might, Shi Dakai suddenly had an idea and hurriedly said: "King Zan, there is another good news that may come soon, you can report it to the King of Heaven by the way, and when the time comes, as long as the King of Heaven feels hopeful, maybe he can accept the suggestion that I and the King of the East fight Shanghai first." ”

"What's the good news?" Meng Deen hurriedly asked.

"Our ally Twisting Army Five Banners is going to borrow a road from Lu'an and Yingzhou to enter Hubei." Shi Dakai explained, first of all, Weng Xincun's sudden illness and death, Zhang Lexing's decision to sneak attack Hubei and the strategy he had adopted in Yuncao before carefully explained to Meng Deen, and then said with great confidence: "Can I say that the demon soldiers of the three brothers of the Weng family will send troops to Hubei, maybe I am not completely sure, but I am at least eighty percent sure that they will borrow the road to the Twist Army." ”

"As long as the Twist Army suddenly enters Hubei, even if the Twist Army will not withdraw the troops and horses in front of it, it will definitely not dare to invest the main elite on the front line, and will only give priority to dealing with the Five Banners of the Twisted Army, which is good at flowing, and if the Five Banners of the Twisted Army can stir up a big mess in Hubei Nest that surpasses the Little Demon, we may not need to wait until King Zhong returns to save Tianjing, just with the Heavenly Army in the area of Tianjing and Ning Zhenyang, we can directly beat the demon soldiers away!"

Seeing that Shi Dakai said confidently, Meng Deen also ignited hope, and immediately nodded vigorously and said: "Okay, I will first report this good news to the King of Heaven, long live him, first relax his heart, and then report to him the opinions of the Wing King and the East King, please don't rush to force King Zhong to return to his master, so that King Zhong can attack Shanghai with all his strength with peace of mind!" ”nt

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