The key reason why Li Xiucheng chose to save Moling Pass first was, of course, that the Taiping Army's water strength was weak, and there was absolutely no possibility that it would be able to defeat the wolf-like Wu Army's naval division, and only on the land battlefield on the Moling Pass side could the Taiping Army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang rely on its absolute superiority in strength to gain hope for victory.

Of course, after initially grasping the equipment of Cao Yanzhong's corps of the Wu army, Li Xiucheng also knew that this battle would not be easy to fight even if he had a strength advantage, so Li Xiucheng did not dare to reinforce the army and ran directly to Moling Pass to fight with the Wu army in the field battle, and chose to order Li Mingcheng to defend the city of Moling Pass and various camps with all his might, forcing the Wu army to forcibly attack the fortifications to gain time; On the one hand, he asked his general Huang Chengzhong to increase his troops in Fangshan to contain the flank of the Wu army, and let another Lun Tianyi Lian Yekun go to Zhumen to cut off Cao Yanzhong's supply and grain routes, in a vain attempt to force Cao Yanzhong to repeatedly divide his troops to expose his flaws, and create surprise fighters for the Taiping army in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, which had sufficient troops.

Although the tactical plan is good, but it is a pity that Li Xiucheng encountered the most elite and powerful Cao Yanzhong corps of the Wu army this time, and after finding out that the Taiping army sent troops to fight his flank and copy the rear road of his own army, Cao Yanzhong not only did not rush to divide his troops to meet the battle, but also chose to step up the attack on Moling Pass, and declared viciously: "Long hair loves to fight Zhumen and let them go, and likes to increase troops Fangshan and let them go, Lao Tzu just only fights Moling Pass, see who is in a hurry first!" ”

In this way, in the case that the enemy's reinforcements were only a dozen miles apart, and in the case that the back grain road was heavily attacked by the Taiping army, less than 20,000 Wu army Cao Yanzhong Corps attacked instead of defending, and dispatched a large number of elites to storm the Taiping Army's Getang Village, although Lin Zhengyang, who guarded Getang Temple, defended with his strength and fortifications, but there was a generation gap between the weapons and equipment and the Wu army, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang soldiers under his command were not enough in combat effectiveness, and they only held out for half a day before showing defeat, and had to ask Li Mingcheng in Moling Pass for help. Li Mingcheng stubbornly dispatched more than 4,000 reserves to attack the right flank of the Wu army, and Huang Chengzhong, who had moved to Fangshan overnight, was also invited to send troops and personally led the army to attack the left flank of the Wu army.

The scale of the war thus expanded rapidly, under the command of Cao Yanzhong, 4,000 Wu soldiers attacked in two ways or so, directly lined up to intercept in the case of no danger to defend, and made up for the disadvantage of troops with superior weapons such as firing needle guns and grenadiers, and attacked the Taiping army attacking left and right.

Huang Chengzhong's troops of the Taiping Army, who came from Fangshan, relied on the advantages of troops and terrain to once saw the hope of breaking through the Wu army's blockade, and a large number of troops detoured back to the rear of the Wu army from the flank of the Wu army's blocking position, and sandwiched the Wu army, which had only two battalions. However, just when Huang Chengzhong expected that the Wu army was going to choose to protect himself with a phalanx, something happened that made him dumbfounded, and the two battalions of the Wu army actually launched a counter-charge towards his flag array, first using grenadiers to blow up his Chinese army's front formation, and then advancing in line with the queue and shooting tactics that Wu Jun had relied on to become famous before, and the front team of the Taiping Army was in chaos at thirty meters, and he was constantly approaching his flag formation under the rain of bullets, Huang Chengzhong had no choice but to give up the formation order and let the army under his command surround the Wu army on all sides. It took a lot of effort to force the Wu army into a phalanx. However, the two battalions of the Wu army were still advancing while lining up to protect themselves, and slowly and unshakably insisted on approaching Huang Chengzhong's banner formation.

Finally, after paying a certain amount of casualties, the Wu army array has always advanced to the vicinity of Huang Chengzhong's banner array, and the Wu army's grenadier team hiding in the phalanx opened fire decisively, and fired more than 30 grenadier shells at Huang Chengzhong's flag array in one breath, and the grenadier shells that were more powerful than the grenade landed and exploded one after another, and the Taiping army team protecting Huang Chengzhong was suddenly in chaos, and Huang Chengzhong himself was also wounded by shrapnel. The soldiers fled to the way they came, the generals could not stop it at all, and the Wu army also achieved a complete victory in the blocking battle on the left flank battlefield.

The Taiping army on the battlefield on the right flank was more unbearable than Huang Chengzhong's army, and the musket was fired from a distance, and it had been suppressed by the well-trained Wu army soldiers with Mini guns and firing needle guns, and several brave charges were repelled by the Wu army's platoon gun volleys, and there was no hope of breakthrough from beginning to end, and after the collapse of Huang Chengzhong's army, before the Wu army made any adjustments, the Taiping army on the right wing had fled back to Moling Pass with shouts. As a result, after the war, the Wu army only sacrificed a dozen soldiers on the battlefield on the right flank, and killed more than 400 enemies.

After the reinforcements on both wings were defeated by the Wu army, the morale of the Taiping army of Getang Temple, which had long been unable to support, completely collapsed, and the grassroots generals and soldiers rushed to escape from the camp. Cao Yanzhong struck while the iron was hot, immediately rotated the attacking army, and at the same time launched an attack on the other two camps of the Taiping army in the northwest Tang and Gaotang at Moling Pass, vowing to take all the outer camps of the Taiping army in Moling Pass within one day.

The Taiping Army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which started by bullying the Qing army in the southeast, did have a major deficiency in combat effectiveness, and its will to fight could not be compared with the real first-line elite, and it was not good at fighting vicious battles and tough battles, but also more afraid of hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, and in terms of artillery fire, it was at an absolute disadvantage in front of Cao Yanzhong's troops of the Wu army, which was equipped with a large number of rear-loading rifled guns. Therefore, after the fierce battle reached the end of the day, as the Wu army successively attacked the Taiping army camp, the Taiping army's northwest pond and Gaotang two camps were also announced to be broken, and the defeated soldiers fled back to Moling Pass like a tide, Li Mingcheng, who was guarding Moling Pass, was frightened, so he could only quickly send people to the upper bridge again to ask Li Xiucheng for help again.

"What?! In just one day, the three camps on the periphery of Moling Pass were lost?! What does Li Mingcheng eat? What does Huang Chengzhong eat? Cao Yanzhong's demon soldiers, are all heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals? Lian Ye Kun, how is Lian Ye Kun over there? Did you lay down the Zhumen?! ”

At the same time, Li Xiucheng, who refused to give up, hurriedly asked about the battle situation in Zhumen, but the report was that although the Lian Yekun army was still attacking the town of Zhumen overnight, it had always had no way to take the Zhumen Wu army, which only had three battalions of troops available, and suffered heavy casualties in the battle, but could not see any hope of victory, and did not dare to guarantee when it would be able to take Zhumen and cut off the connection between Cao Yanzhong and the rear of the Wu army.

In addition, there was also an incident that hit Li Xiucheng's confidence during the day, that is, after the Wu army's naval division completely cut off the connection between the Taiping army and the land in Jiuhuanzhou, it took advantage of the situation to seize the two Jiangxin islands of Jiangxinzhou and Yongdingzhou, and completely annihilated the Taiping army defenders on these two Jiangxin islands, and successfully gained a foothold on the battlefield of Nanjing. The remnants of the Taiping army fled to Qilizhou to survive, and did not have any strength to compete with the Wu army for the right to control the river, and could be annihilated by the Wu army's water division at any time or continue to be expelled downstream.

"I underestimate Cao Yanzhong's demon soldiers, and I also underestimate the demon soldiers' sailors, I can't imagine that they are so powerful when they divide their troops, they are too light on the enemy, and this king is too light on the enemy."

It was also at this point that Li Xiucheng really understood that the person who underestimated the enemy was actually himself, not the enemies Cao Yanzhong and Wang Fu who acted separately, and the reason why the Wu army and the land and water armies dared to act separately was completely based on absolute strength. But it's too late to understand this, not to mention that Hong Xiuquan can't agree, that is, Li Xiucheng took the risk to resist the decree and withdrew to the rear of Suzhou and Hangzhou with the main force without authorization - the waterway has been cut off, the main force of Cao Yanzhong's corps is stationed outside Moling Pass, and the Wu army Feng Sanbao's corps is still staring at Yuhuatai, and there is still the strength to fight, even if Li Xiucheng can barely escape with some troops, the main force will definitely be greatly injured.

Li Shuxiang, the most trusted thinker by Li Xiucheng, has also been frowning beside him, and only asked Li Xiucheng cautiously for a long time: "King Chung, things have come to this point, what should we do next?" ”

"I regret that I shouldn't have started a war with the demon soldiers! How good would it be if you let the Transcendence Demon send troops from the sea to fight the Qing Demon? How did we get to this point? ”

Li Xiucheng sighed and answered the question, and after thinking about it for a long time, Li Xiucheng said: "It's too late to withdraw now, so I can only continue to fight with the demon soldiers, stabilize the situation first, and then find other ways to end the game." ”

"What does Chung Wang Chitose mean is to fight a stalemate first? And then think of another way to clean up the mess? ”

Li Shuxiang vaguely understood Li Xiucheng's true intentions, Li Xiucheng nodded calmly, and said: "In this decisive battle with the demon soldiers, we don't even want to win, we can only resist it at any cost, fight a stalemate war of attrition, and force the surpassing demon to consider accepting other results, and then we will hope to end decently at the negotiating table, make some concessions, and retreat beyond the little demon." ”

"Will the Transcendent Demon agree?" Li Shuxiang asked worriedly: "He has a water advantage, and the supply of grain, grass and ammunition is much easier than ours, even if it is a stalemate, he has the advantage?" ”

"Forgot about Feng Sanbao, the demon soldier who was surrounded by us on the Yuhua Terrace? They don't have food, grass and ammunition to supply, and they are the best bargaining chip for us to negotiate with the Beyond Demon. Li Xiucheng said in the direction of Yuhuatai, and said: "There are also demon soldiers and foreigners in Shanghai who can also be used, as long as we make more concessions, it is not impossible for foreigners to come forward to mediate and persuade peace." No matter how powerful the little demon is, can there be a foreigner? ”

A historical detail must be popularized here, when the Taiping Army first attacked Shanghai in history, the British army shelled the Taiping Army under Li Xiucheng, and Li Xiu, known as Li Hezhang of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, became an excuse not to give the British a war, and ordered not to return fire, resulting in the innocent death of more than 700 Taiping soldiers, and Li Xiuben himself was also injured in the face by shrapnel (contained in "Chang Shengjun" and "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Translation Series" and other historical materials), but after the incident, Li Xiucheng agreed to the request of the foreign powers not to attack Shanghai within a year. So don't feel strange that Li Xiucheng can say the above words......

Getting back to the point, after listening to Li Xiucheng's strategy, Li Shuxiang, who was already a little desperate for a while, rekindled some hope, and hurriedly suggested: "Zhongwang Chitose, then we might as well prepare earlier, send someone to Shanghai as soon as possible to contact the foreigners, see what price we can use in exchange for them to agree to persuade peace, first find out the price of the foreigners, and then make a good discussion." ”

Li Xiucheng nodded tiredly and said, "Okay, tomorrow we will carefully discuss the matter of contacting foreigners." Also, give Li Mingcheng and Huang Chengzhong orders to guard Moling Pass for me at any cost, at least for ten days, if I lose Moling Pass within ten days, even if Li Mingcheng is my own brother, I will never spare it! ”

"And Lian Yekun's side, three days! Within three days, even if he can't defeat Zhumen, he will force the demon soldiers to return to reinforce Zhumen! If it can't be done, military law will do it! ”

Although Li Xiucheng's decision to draw the Nanjing War into a stalemate at any cost was correct and his determination was very resolute, it was a pity that the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the Taiping Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were destined to be difficult to achieve the goal that Li Xiucheng needed. Only two days later, after more than a day and night attack, although a certain price was paid, Wu army Cao Yanzhong always attacked and took Moling Pass, completely cut off Li Xiucheng's main force and the rear of Jiangsu and Zhejiang University, Li Xiucheng's brother Li Mingcheng was seriously injured by a bullet, even if he was lucky to be rescued Li Xiucheng's main camp has been unconscious, Huang Chengzhong was also defeated by the Wu army many times on the peripheral battlefield of Moling Pass, and never played much role in the defense of Moling Pass.

The situation on the Zhumen side is much the same, although in order to complete Li Xiucheng's order, the Taiping Army's Lun Tianyi Lian Ye Kun has personally led the army to charge twice, but has never been able to enter the town of Zhumen to recapture the town, and at the same time, Cao Yanzhong, who is full of self-confidence, has never sent a soldier back to rescue Zhumen, or after successfully taking the Moling Pass, Cao Yanzhong divided an army to return to Zhumen, and easily defeated the Lian Ye Kun army, which was already exhausted and morale fell to the bottom, and never lost contact with the rear of Wuhu.

After the blood-stained Li Mingcheng was carried back to Li Xiucheng, although his younger brother had been unconscious and looked very miserable, Li Xiucheng, who was furious, still deprived Li Mingcheng of his title of Wangzong on the spot, ordered Li Mingcheng to be demoted to a soldier, and reorganized Lian Yekun and Huang Chengzhong, who were ineffective in combat, and personally ordered to kill more than 20 generals who took the lead in fleeing for their lives. As a result, just when Li Xiucheng was almost hysterical to vent his anger, a loyal palace guard rushed into Li Xiucheng's Chinese army tent with a rolling belt, and shouted frantically without saluting: "King Zhong, Chitose, here!" Here it comes! Here it comes! ”

"What's coming? Be clear! Li Xiucheng, who had a bad temper, asked angrily.

"Beyond the little demon!" The guard's answer made the faces of the whole tent change color, and they shouted out of breath: "The greatest enemy of our kingdom of heaven! Wu surpasses! Surpass the little goblin! Personally brought the demon soldiers to Tianjing!! ”

Li Xiucheng's whole body muscles suddenly tensed, his knuckles were pale, and after standing solemnly for a long time, Li Xiucheng said word by word: "The moment to decide the life and death of our heavenly kingdom has finally arrived." ”