Time back to the middle of the first lunar month, the Taiping army, under the leadership of the vanguard generals Qin Rigang, Hu Yixuan and others, drove all the way into Chizhou, Tongling, Wuhu, Taiping and Hezhou, and arrived outside Jiangning on the 19th day of the first lunar month. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The red-eyed Taiping army, along both sides of the Yangtze River by land, arrived at the area of Shanqiao in the southwest of Jiangning, and the waterway from Dashengguan to the area of Straw Shoes Gorge, and quickly sent troops to occupy Pukou the next day and surrounded Jiangning City.

When Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, heard the news, he panicked and hurriedly withdrew all the Qing soldiers outside the city into Jiangning City, trying to hold on.

Because the Qing army's Yangtze River naval division had been wiped out by the Taiping army's naval division, Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, had no choice but to give up the defense of the Yangtze River, in order to firmly hold Jiangning City, he mediocrely gave up the dangerous defensive place outside the city, and even gave up the Yuhuatai Fort, which was a major defensive place, and the Qing army that withdrew and hid in the city abandoned artillery, ammunition and baggage, and fled back to the city.

Moreover, in order to prevent the people from escaping and opening the city gates, Lu Jianying not only ordered the city gates to be closed, but also ordered the people to plug all the city gates with earthen bags. At this time, all the Qing soldiers were huddled in the city of Nanjing, and they were completely besieged.

This can't be blamed entirely on Lu Jianying's mediocrity, but the Qing army in Jiangning City is too weak.

There are less than 6,000 Qing army banner soldiers and green battalion soldiers in the city, as well as more than 10,000 regimental training brave people temporarily recruited by Lu Jianying earlier. It looks like there are more than 20,000 defenders, but in reality it is still far from enough.

You must know that there are a total of thirteen large city gates in Jiangning City, and the entire Jiangning City is nearly 80 miles in a circle, with more than 16,000 battlements, and there is a great need for garrison troops.

As a last resort, when the Taiping Army's vanguard arrived in Jiangning, Lu Jianying sent someone to urgently ask the court for help. After the Qing court learned that Jiangning was besieged, it urgently sealed and led the army to chase the Taiping army all the way to Xiang Rongwei, and together with the former minister Qi Shan, the two of them each led the Qing army, divided into north and south roads, day and night, and rushed to Jiangning to rescue.

Seeing that Jiangning was besieged and whether reinforcements would arrive for a while and a half, Lu Jianying felt that the troops were not enough, so he ordered Zou Minghe, the former governor of Guangxi, who was removed from his post and was idle in Jiangning City, to set up a preparation and defense bureau in the city, and ordered the squires in the city to raise money and donate silver taels, and funded a large number of recruits to fill the Yong battalion to plan and assist in defending the city.

The people in the city were reluctant to fight and die, Zou Minghe stipulated that each person should be given one penny of silver per day, and the city would be doubled by 1, and even the shout would have 50 copper coins, because as long as the city was defended, there was no need to go to war, and many homeless scoundrels and ruffians in the city went to sign up.

In addition, Lu Jianying, as the emperor's master, in order to defend his lair, mobilized all the cannons in the city to the city, and installed more than 270 cannons in the city.

The entire defense command of Jiangning City was in charge of Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, and Xianghou, the general of Jiangning.

Lu Jianying led the main force of the green battalion to assemble in the south defense, and Jiangning General Xianghou led the full flag soldiers to garrison the gates in the east, and kept more than 1,000 flag soldiers in the city as a reserve to rescue at any time. The rest of the tens of thousands of hired villagers, led by Zou Minghe and the political envoy Qi Suzao, were distributed around the city gates to strengthen their momentum.

After besieging Jiangning City, Qin Rigang, the commander of the vanguard army, did not send people to attack the city immediately, but first seized the favorable terrain such as Yuhuatai outside the city.

Although the city was not attacked, the Qing army in the city was like a great enemy. The Qing troops defending the city, especially the Green Battalion, were very frightened and repeatedly fired artillery indiscriminately to embolden themselves.

The Qing army of Jubaomen did not see a Taiping army, but the large and small cannons were stacked more than once, and thousands of catties of gunpowder were spent every day, and the political envoy Qi Suzao repeatedly stopped it, but it was still forbidden, and the artillerymen on the city tower trembled with their hands, and unconsciously fired the cannons, and they didn't know whether they wanted to scare away the long hair outside the city, or scare away their fears.

In the early morning of the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Qin Rigang finally sent 3,000 Taiping troops into the streets and alleys outside the city, preparing to set up artillery to bombard the city.

Seeing that the artillery on the tower of the Jubaomen of the Qing army no longer sounded, the Taiping army took the opportunity to launch an offensive, ran across the drawbridge, rushed across the Qinhuai River, and reached the city gate under the city gate, and burned the city gate with fire. When the Qing army was in a panic, Qi Suzao hurriedly ordered people to splash water and throw stones, killing more than 200 Taiping soldiers and forcing the Taiping army under the city to evacuate.

Follow-up troops of the Taiping Army arrived one after another.

On the 21st day of the first month, Yang Xiuqing, the king of the East, led the main force of the Chinese army to the outside of Jiangning City. Yang Xiuqing took over the command in the hands of Qin Rigang, and after studying the situation in Jiangning City, he immediately made arrangements.

He ordered Qin Rigang to lead his troops to be stationed outside the Jubao Gate and be responsible for the attack in the south of the city;

Hu Yixuan led his troops outside the Yifeng Gate and was responsible for the attack in the north of the city;

Zeng Shuiyuan led his troops to be stationed outside the West Gate of Han and was responsible for the attack in the direction of the Western Front;

Zhu Xikun led his troops to be stationed outside Chaoyang Gate and commanded the offensive in the direction of the Eastern Front.

The north-south attack is the main direction of the Taiping army's attack, and the east-west direction is only the direction of the containment attack.

And the Wing King Shi Dakai and the Northern King Wei Changhui, Yang Xiuqing let them be in charge of the sweep around Jiangning City, Jiangning City, did not let them be the main attacking force, but only assisted on the side. Because, with more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in his Chinese army alone, it is enough to besiege.

The Taiping army in four directions, under the unified command of Yang Xiuqing, carried out small-scale local battles during the day, and adopted deceitful tactics and bluffs at night.

At this time, a Confucian scholar named Zhang Bingyuan outside the city was loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he was also very courageous and methodical, he used hundreds of trained Yong in advance, relying on the funding of rice merchants outside the city, armed with the flat poles, sticks and other weapons provided by the rice store, and the Taiping army in the streets and alleys outside the city, engaged in street battles.

Because Qin Rigang, who commanded this Taiping army, had no strategy, he was beaten by Lian Yong, who was familiar with the terrain led by Zhang Bingyuan. For a time, more and more wealthy squires outside the city hired Lian Yong to participate in the fight against the Taiping army.

It's a pity that Zhang Bingyuan's Lian Yong doesn't have a good weapon. So, Zhang Bingyuan led Lian Yong to ask for help from the Qing army at the head of the city, asking for weapons. But the timid and mediocre governor Lu Jianying thought that the Taiping army was making people act, trying to deceive their weapons and even deceive the city.

He directly ordered an artillery bombardment of Lian Yong under the city to kill all these spies, and as a result, Zhang Bingyuan's Lian Yong, who was finally organized, was killed by hundreds of people, and the rest of Lian Yong no longer dared to help the government defend the city, and fled one after another, and even really joined the Taiping army.

Lu Jianying was so happy that he was going to be a thief who had been killed by his own order, and was ready to go to the Qing court to ask for merit. It's a pity that Jiangning City is besieged, and it is difficult to send a message out.

In this way, the Qing army in the city bombarded indiscriminately every day, and for a while, it seemed that Jiangning City was firmly stable, which made Lu Jianying and Xianghou in the city quite proud.

Unexpectedly, it was actually Yang Xiuqing's trick. He successively ordered the Taiping army to attack and harass, but secretly ordered the main force of the Taiping army's earthen camp, under the cover of the siege and harassment, to choose to excavate tunnels in Jinghai Temple and Tianhou Temple in the north of the city, and prepare to use the old method of capturing Wuchang: cavity blasting.

Jinghai Temple and Tianhou Temple are close to the city wall, which is an ideal place for attacking the city in the cave area.

Although the Qing army in the city buried empty cylinders under the city wall, under the cover of the rumbling cannons, the sound of digging tunnels was not heard.

On the 25th day of the first month, the excavation of the tunnel was completed.

Yang Xiuqing sent people to release rockets into the city, with a notice on the arrows, announcing that "the city will be broken tomorrow", and warned the people in the city in advance not to help the Qing army to defend the stubborn resistance, as long as they closed the door at home, the Taiping army would ensure their lives after entering the city.

After receiving the report, Lu Jianying was shocked and hurriedly urged all city gates to strictly defend and strengthen patrols day and night.

Although the Qing army blocked the news, the Taiping army in the city should still spread the news, and for a while, the people in Jiangning City were panicked, and it was rumored that the Taiping army would break the city tomorrow.

Hundreds of households in the north of the city even painted red circles or wrote the word 'heaven' on the walls of their doors, preparing to welcome the arrival of the Taiping army.

Lu Jianying and the others were nervous for a long time, but the ordinary Qing soldiers defending at the head of the city, especially the soldiers who assisted in the defense, did not pay attention to it. They had been busy for four or five days, and they had become numb to the fact that they had become numb as usual, thinking that the Taiping army would retreat after only a partial attack.

Early in the morning of the 26th, the general offensive of the Taiping army began.

There was a loud bang, and the city wall behind Jinghai Temple was blasted open, blowing open a gap as wide as two zhang.

Hu Yixuan ordered a 500-strong assault death squad to rush into the city through the gap. It may be that the Qing army did not react, and the death squad did not encounter much resistance, and followed the Taiping army, one team rushed to the Drum Tower, and the other team attacked the Shence Gate along Jinchuan, and attacked the two highlands of the Drum Tower Gang and Jilong Mountain in the city.

Later, the Taiping army, which occupied the Drum Tower, served as a reserve; The Taiping army, which occupied Jilong Mountain, divided into two routes, one through Chengxian Street into the small camp, attacking the inner city of Jiangning, which is commonly known as "Mancheng", and the other way attacking Taipingmen.

The rapid and fierce attack of the Taiping army made the Qing army defending the city have no time to react, and the entire Jiangning city was in chaos.

Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, and Xianghou, the general of Jiangning, who were still asleep, were awakened by the sound of the explosion of the sky and the earth. Lu Jianying was frightened, and hurriedly asked 4 guards to carry the sedan chair, using hundreds of brave men in front to open the way, and more than 200 soldiers in the middle and back to guard, and fled from the yamen of the Liangjiang Governor's Office in the city in a panic, wanting to enter the city and hide.

Unexpectedly, Xianghou, who was defending in the city, refused him to enter, and only asked him to recruit men and horses in the outer city to deal with the Taiping army. Lu Jianying was helpless, and fled from Mancheng to Shence Gate. Halfway through the escape, a group of Taiping commandos roared in, the pro-soldiers in the back and the brave in front of them all scattered and fled, only the remaining 4 palanquin men carried Lu Jianying, and the Taiping army swarmed up one by one, cut off the head, and used it to show military merits.

In this way, the teacher of Emperor Xianfeng, the minister of the Qincha and the governor of Liangjiang, Lu Jianying, was beheaded by the Taiping army and became a head who invited merit and reward. (To be continued.) )