What Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng didn't know was that even if they knew that the situation on the Hubei battlefield was not good, Shi Dakai, the commander of the Western Front of the Taiping Army, still did not intend to give up the Hubei battlefield, and still used a clipper to order Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng to continue to stick to the front line of Huangzhou. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Of course, Shi Dakai made this decision not to let the Taiping soldiers die in vain, the reason is that the more important Nanchang battlefield has entered the most critical stage, most of the Qing army in Jiangxi has gathered in the Nanchang battlefield to protect the provincial capital, and after the Taiping army successfully occupied most of the cities in Jiangxi, it also concentrated its forces on the Nanchang battlefield to prepare for a decisive battle with the Qing army in Jiangxi.

At such an important and critical moment, Shi Dakai certainly hoped that Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng could temporarily contain the Qing army in Hubei and not give Zeng Guofan or Wu Chaoyue the opportunity to reinforce Nanchang, so even if he knew that the situation in Hubei was not good, he could not send reinforcements to Hubei, and Shi Dakai would never allow Qin Rigang to withdraw from the Hubei battlefield.

However, it is a pity that Shi Dakai's order was a step late, when Shi Dakai's order was sent to Qin Rigang, the capital city of Huangzhou had been jointly attacked by Wu Chaoyue and Zeng Guofan, Zhong Tingsheng quickly withdrew from the Huangzhou battlefield in order to preserve the vital force, and the main force of the Taiping Army Naval Division led by Qin Rigang had also withdrawn to the Qizhou area, and there was no chance to contain Wu Chaoyue and Zeng Guofan in the hinterland of Hubei.

Huangzhou capital city is the Qing army with demolition tactics to get the hand, in the fierce battle, Hubei New Army soldiers rely on the cover of superior artillery fire, in the north gate of Huangzhou City successfully dug a tunnel, buried picric acid explosives detonated, although the first explosion failed to successfully blow down the Huangzhou city wall, but Zeng Guoquan under the command of the Hunan army soldiers Xuan immediately dug a tunnel nearby, Wu Chaoyue hurriedly sent people to fill in the picric acid explosives again after detonation, the city wall that had been crumbling before finally collapsed, revealing a gap not less than 20 zhang wide, The officers and men of the Hunan army who were in charge of this round of offensive immediately poured into the gap.

At the critical moment of the competition of courage and fighting spirit, although the soldiers of the Taiping Army relied on dense bullets and throwing gunpowder packs one after another, they once drove the Hunan soldiers who had rushed into the city out of the city. But the Hunan army was even more ruthless, Zeng Guoquan personally went into battle, successively cut down three officers who took the lead in fleeing, and threatened to shoot at whoever he dared to retreat again, forcing the Hunan army soldiers to attack again, and then successfully entered the city to start a street battle with the Taiping army. And when Feng Sanbao led a large number of Wu soldiers armed with grenades and revolvers into the city, Zhong Tingsheng, who was guarding the city of Huangzhou Mansion, had no power to return to heaven at all.

During this period, the Taiping Army Naval Division was also dispatched to save Huangzhou, but the reinforcements had not yet landed on the shore, and the Hunan Army Naval Division, which had no longer deliberately conserved its strength, had also been killed, and the Taiping Military Naval Division was forced to meet the battle on the water, and then immediately suffered a grenade bomb raid by the Hunan Army Naval Division. Caught off guard, the Taiping Army Naval Division was suddenly in chaos, the soldiers had no fighting spirit, and the Hunan Army Naval Division, which had high morale, took the opportunity to attack and kill, almost simultaneously with the land to achieve victory, and the Taiping Army Naval Division also abandoned Huangzhou earlier than the land division and fled downstream.

After receiving the news of the defeat of the naval division, Zhong Tingsheng, who was already unable to parry, was even more unwilling to fight, and issued an order to abandon the city without thinking about it, but he was pursued by the Hubei New Army with all his might, and fled to Lanxi to join the naval division when the losses were quite large. Then Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng added up a little, and felt that it was impossible to counterattack the Wuhuang battlefield, and at the same time, the land division's grain and grass baggage were lost too much, and it was difficult to supply them in the field, so Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng simply took the army and directly withdrew to Qizhou to provide food, Wu Chaoyue and Zeng Guofan continued to join forces in pursuit, and the sailors who went down the river almost arrived in Qizhou at the same time as the Taiping army, but they did not dare to attack immediately.

When Qizhou was breathing, Shi Dakai's order not to withdraw from the Hubei battlefield had also been sent to Qizhou, Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng saw that they were crying out loudly, because they were defeated all the way down, and the land division of the Taiping army suffered quite heavy losses, even with the defeat brought out by Liu Man from Wuchang County, the land combat force was only more than 3,000 people. At the same time, the small city of Qizhou, which had been devastated by several wars, lacked grain and grass, the city was dilapidated, and the material base was difficult to support the Taiping Army's long-term operations, so even if the Taiping Army's sailors still had the strength to fight, it was difficult to hold the Qizhou defense line, and they blindly defended indiscriminately, and the land division was still in danger of being completely annihilated in Qizhou by the Zeng and Wu coalition forces.

As a last resort, Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng could only sit down and discuss again how to implement Shi Dakai's military order, and the result was not bad, Shi Dakai only forbade the Taiping army to withdraw from the Hubei battlefield, and did not ask Qin Rigang and others not to give up any Hubei city, the flexibility is very high, and Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng still have room to play on their own. After repeated deliberations and discussions, Qin Rigang and Zhong Tingsheng quickly discussed a new tactical plan, and decided to abandon Qizhou to continue the retreat, retreat to the strategic Tianjia Town to re-arm, with the help of the favorable terrain in the area of Tianjia Town, gather the money and grain of the four counties of Qizhou, Guangji, Huangmei and Xingguo to hold the throat of Tianjia Town, and deal with the Zeng Wu coalition army for a long time.

Just do it, and before the land division of the Zeng and Wu coalition forces arrived, the Taiping army immediately loaded all the grain and grass in Qizhou City, and also transported the grain and grass baggage in the neighboring Guangji City overnight. Although the naval division of the Hunan army, which arrived at the Qizhou battlefield first, expected that the enemy was preparing to continue to retreat eastward, they did not dare to advance lightly, so they could only quickly send a fast ship to contact Zeng Guofan and report this important situation to Zeng Guofan.

If it weren't for the fact that when the messenger met Zeng Guofan, Wu Chaoyue happened to be by Zeng Guofan's side, and he might have missed the precious time to seize the opportunity. Fortunately, he knew the news at the same time as Zeng Guofan, and after a little calculation, Wu Chaoyue immediately said to Zeng Guofan: "Teacher, no matter whether Changmao plans to withdraw the grain and grass to Tianjia Town, or is preparing to withdraw directly from Hubei, for the sake of prudence, your sailors should immediately enter Tianjia Town, seize the tactical position of Banbishan on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and seize the advantage of the upper hand, just in case." ”

Tianjia Town has two tactical points, one is the Wuwang Temple on the north bank, and the other is Banbi Mountain on the south bank, it is now in summer, the southeast wind is strong, and the Hunan naval division with big ships as the main warship must of course give priority to seize the upper hand, otherwise it will inevitably suffer a big loss in the water war. Zeng Guofan understood this truth, and Zeng Guofan also knew the actual terrain of Tianjia Town far more than Wu Chaoyue, and knew that as long as the self-army naval division seized half of the mountain in advance, it would be extremely difficult for the Taiping army to rebuild the defense line in Tianjia Town, but if the Taiping army naval division seized half of the mountain, then the Taiping naval division, which was already good at maneuvering, was even more powerful, and could even take advantage of the favorable wind to hit the Hunan army naval division with fire.

Understand and understand, but at the critical moment, Zeng Guofan's selfishness prevailed again, and after a moment of silence, Zeng Guofan shook his head and said, "Comfort Ting, although your suggestion is very correct, it is still too risky. If we let the water division continue to advance alone and seize the important land on the south bank, then it will be difficult for the water division to rescue each other once the water division is in danger. ”

"Teacher, your sailor only needs to hold on for a day or two!" Wu Chaoyue was so anxious that he stomped his feet and said: "As long as your sailor is cautious and persists until our land division arrives at the battlefield in Tianjia Town, then it will be difficult for Changmao to gain a foothold in Tianjia Town!" But if we let Changmao seize half of the important land in the mountains, not only will we have to cross the river against the wind to attack, but Changmao can also directly get in touch with Xingguo and obtain money and food supplies from Xingguo County, and it will be even more difficult to destroy them quickly! ”

Zeng Guofan was still thinking about keeping silent, Wu Chaoyue had no choice but to hurriedly say to Zeng Guofan: "Don't worry, your sailor will not fight alone, Liu Kunyi's Zhuangzi battalion is in Huanghaokou on the south bank of the Yangtze River, I will order him to immediately go to Banbi Mountain at full speed to help your sailor resist Changmao, and not give Changmao the opportunity to seize the high ground of Banbi Mountain and condescendingly attack your sailor!" ”

Zeng Guofan was most worried about this, hearing Wu Chaoyue say this, and understanding the importance of Banbi Mountain to the army, Zeng Guofan made up his mind, but Zeng Guofan did not rush to agree, just smiled and said to Wu Chaoyue: "Weiting, the battle of Tianjiazhen is over, and the long hair will completely roll out of Hubei, and the new weapons in your hands ......." ”

Wu Chaoyue was completely speechless with his barber teacher, and said helplessly: "Five hundred grenades, plus fifty cannonballs with grenadiers, is it enough?" ”

"A thousand grenades, a hundred shells, plus fifty revolvers and two thousand rounds." Zeng Guofan replied with a smile: "Also, after expelling Changmao from Hubei, the stamp you issued to me before must be cashed in full." ”

Wu Chaoyue was even more speechless, but there was no way, Tianjia Town was close to Daye County, and the largest iron mine and the largest coal mine in Hubei also happened to be in Daye County, if Tianjia Town was not taken back, Wu Chaoyue would not want to develop the iron ore and coal mines in Daye County, so Wu Chaoyue had no choice but to grit his teeth and stomp his feet, and said viciously: "Deal!" ”

After knocking on the disobedient protégé again, the barber teacher was satisfied with the order, so that Zeng Guohua immediately led the sailor to Tianjia Town at full speed to seize the important land of half of the mountain that took advantage of the wind. At present, Wu Chaoyue, who was still the last to ask for the barber teacher, did not dare to play tricks, and immediately ordered Liu Kunyi, who was on the south bank, to lead the army to Banbishan for reinforcements, and also asked Liu Kunyi to seize the heights of Banbishan at any cost, and not give the Taiping army a chance to condescendingly attack the Hunan army's sailors.

Coincidentally, when Zeng Guofan's order was sent to the Hunan Army's naval division, the Taiping Army's naval division had just finished loading the grain and grass military supplies, and the two armies set off almost at the same time, rushing to the important place of Tianjia Town one after the other, and an unprecedented dragon boat racing conference was also launched on the wide Yangtze River water.

At the beginning, Qin Rigang had not guessed the purpose of the Hunan army, and once mistakenly thought that the Hunan army just wanted to bite the tail of the self-army and wait for the fighter to appear before launching a surprise attack. But seeing the unusually rapid sailing of the Hunan army's sailors, Qin Rigang gradually felt that the taste was wrong, and when he saw the Hunan army's sailors deliberately avoiding fighting with the palace fleet of his own army, and speeding around the battlefield to the east, Qin Rigang suddenly woke up and exclaimed: "It's not good, the Hunan demon fleet wants to get ahead of us!" ”

The river is too wide, Qin Rigang is not very worried that the Hunan army and the naval division will seize the front of the self-army and then line up to intercept it, Qin Rigang, who is proficient in water warfare, is most afraid that the Hunan army and the naval division will seize half of the mountain in advance, seize the advantage of the upper hand, and force the self-army to the north bank of Wuwangmiao, which will be directly threatened by the Qing army's land division. Therefore, after waking up, Qin Rigang also immediately made two adjustments, one was to order the fleet behind the palace to take the initiative to meet the attack, entangle the Hunan army and navy division at any cost, and delay the eastward advance of the Hunan army's navy, and the other order was to divide a fleet to go to Banbi Mountain at full speed and occupy the position of Banbi Mountain.

The brutal fierce battle began on the river, and the rear army of the Taiping Army Naval Division, which originally only intended to intercept the Hunan Navy Division to protect the main fleet, took the initiative to attack, and attacked the flank of the Hunan Army Naval Division with the help of the advantage of mobility. Fortunately, Zeng Guohua's two deputies, Yang Yuebin and Peng Yulin, were both understandable people, and repeatedly reminded Zeng Guohua of the importance of the Banbishan position to the Hunan Army's naval division.

The cannon body rumbled, the sound of killing shook the sky, the Taiping army's small pulling boat was like a fragmented arrow, constantly piercing into the flank of the Hunan army's naval division, desperately firing the cannon and setting fire, the Hunan army's naval division officers and soldiers were advancing at full speed, while bravely responding to the battle, with all kinds of weapons to meet the Taiping army's naval division, the river cannon came and went, the war drums were like thunder, everywhere was the fire and smoke, the shouting and killing sound came and went, endlessly, and the river was chaotic like a pot of boiling porridge.

Fortunately, the biggest advantage of the Hunan Navy Division is that the warship is big enough, and even if the Taiping Army's small boat is blocked horizontally in front, it can't stop the Hunan Army's sailor division's charge, so after a fierce battle for about an hour, the Hunan Army's Navy Division finally got rid of the entanglement of the Taiping Army's Navy Division without losing speed at a certain price, crossed the main fleet of the Taiping Army full of soldiers and grain, and rushed to the front and rushed straight to Banbi Mountain. The rear team of the Taiping Army's sailors did not give up, still biting the tail of the Hunan Army's sailors and chasing after them, while Qin Rigang kept clasping his palms together and praying on the flagship, "Father bless, the front army must hold half of the mountain!" Otherwise, even if I want to stick to Tianjia Town, the battle will be extremely difficult. ”

Going down the river is naturally very fast, starting from Qizhou in the morning, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, the Hunan Army Naval Division has seen the majestic and towering Banbi Mountain in the distance, but it is a pity that the Taiping Army Naval Division fleet that set off first has arrived at the foot of the Half Mountain in advance, and has already moved a few artillery pieces brought with the ship to the shore and the high ground, and greeted the arrival of the Hunan Army Naval Division with great momentum.

The battle has reached this point, Zeng Guohua will not dare to give up the attack easily no matter how selfish he is, even if the front army of the Taiping Army has formed a defensive formation, and there is still the rear army of the Taiping Army chasing after him, Zeng Guohua still gritted his teeth and shouted: "Hit the flag, the whole army will attack!" Gotta take down half of the mountain for me! ”

A larger-scale fierce battle unfolded on the river surface of Banbi Mountain, under the rumbling cannon and dense rocket guns, the Hunan army sailors were indomitable, directly crashed headlong into the Taiping army's sailors interception fleet, and relied on the advantage of the ship's strong sinking, directly knocked over several Taiping army's small boats, the Taiping army took the opportunity to carry out a close-port battle, biting weapons to climb and seize the broadside, boarding the deck and Hunan soldiers to start a hand-to-hand white-knuckle battle, knives and guns, fighting flesh and blood, the sky was dark.

Although the Hunan soldiers and soldiers are somewhat lacking in experience in hand-to-hand white-knuckle combat, the disparity in combat effectiveness is not too great, and they have a numerical advantage, and they are not inferior in hand-to-hand combat. However, the heavy artillery pieces that had already been brought ashore brought a lot of trouble to the Hunan army's naval divisions, and they condescended to almost a dozen of the Hunan army's big ships, which had lost their mobility, and dealt a great blow to the morale and fighting spirit of the Hunan army's naval divisions. Zeng Guohua once sent a ship to dock and let the soldiers land for battle, but he was soon killed and retreated by the Taiping soldiers who went ashore in advance and seized the favorable terrain, and it was difficult to fight back just by being beaten.

But fortunately, the Hunan Navy not only had the advantage of a large ship, but also the numerical advantage of the nest, and after gritting its teeth and fighting fiercely for a long time, the Hunan Army Navy finally broke up the interception fleet of the Taiping Army and seized the upper hand. However, without waiting for the officers and men of the Hunan Army to cheer, let alone for the heavy and huge warships of the Hunan Army's naval division to turn around and form a group, the Taiping Army's side was the first to burst into earth-shattering cheers, and when Zeng Guohua, Yang Yuebin, Peng Yulin, and other senior generals of the Hunan Army were shocked to see the reason, they couldn't help but cry out loudly -- it turned out that the main fleet of the Taiping Army's naval division had also rushed to the visual range of the Banbishan battlefield.

"U-turn! Turn! Hurry up and turn around! Hurry up and make a U-turn for me! ”

When Yang Yuebin and Peng Yulin and other generals were yelling with red eyes, the main force of the Taiping Army's naval division was getting closer and closer, and at the same time, the Taiping Army's land division on the shore was also frantically firing, condescendingly throwing various weapons including big stones at the Hunan Army's naval division, desperately creating chaos for the Hunan Army's naval division, delaying the Hunan Army's naval division's U-turn and the speed of the whole team, and creating surprise fighters for the Taiping Army's naval division. However, the top and bottom of the Hunan army and sailors were greatly affected by morale, and the speed of the boat was even slower, and Yang Yuebin, Peng Yulin and others were so anxious that no matter how angry they roared, it was useless.

"Bang bang bang!"

When Zeng Guohua, Yang Yuebin and others were shocked to see the land, they were extremely surprised to see that an army with the banner of the Qing army had appeared at the foot of half of the mountain, and all the high-fire rapid-fire rifle guns in their hands made the Hunan army soldiers jealous and red-eyed, and they were frantically attacking the Taiping army's artillery positions at the heights.

Seeing this scene, Zeng Guohua breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help patting his chest, and said with great joy: "Fortunately, Liu Kunyi finally arrived in time, and this battle still has to be fought." (To be continued.) )