Let's take a look at the situation on Zuo Zongtang and Guo Songtao's side first, fortunately, the Taiping Army's bad habit of emphasizing towns and villages over villages has not yet been corrected, so even if the Taiping Army controls the main cities and roads in northern Jiangsu, Zuo Zongtang and Guo Songtao still took the country road to the Jianchang battlefield, and sneaked past the encirclement of the Taiping Army as they went to Changsha to help Zhang Liangji, and entered the city smoothly into Jianchang City. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The current situation of the Hunan army is worse than before Guo Songtao set out to ask Wu Chaoyue for help, the camp is full of wounded soldiers, but there is a shortage of medicine and grain and grass, and the daily rations of each soldier have been cut to four or two meters; Ammunition was scarce, and in order to make gunpowder, the soldiers of the Hunan army had almost dug up the foundations of the old houses in the city, boiled old soil to make saltpeter, but even so, the gunpowder carried by each Hunan soldier was only enough to fire about ten shots. In such a difficult and difficult situation, and hearing the bad news that the disobedient protégé refused to send troops to help, Zeng Guofan's despair and sadness can be imagined.

The only thing that has a slight comforting effect on Zeng Guofan is Zuo Zongtang's arrival, even if he can't tolerate Zuo Zongtang's fiery temper like Luo Bingzhang, but Zeng Guofan also knows how important Zuo Zongtang's amazing talent is, so even if he is so sad and angry that he wants to cry loudly, Zeng Guofan still welcomed Zuo Zongtang's arrival with a forced smile, and took out the wine and meat that was almost extinct in the Hunan military camp to entertain Zuo Zongtang.

"You don't have to feast! There is wine and meat for the soldiers who go into battle to kill thieves, and I am the same as you, and I will only eat four or two meters a day in the future! Needless to say, military affairs matter, tell me immediately how many troops you have left, and how many soldiers can go into battle? And how many guns, ammunition, artillery, and food and grass? ”

The unrepentant Zuo Zongtang's temper was as fierce and direct as ever, and his attitude was equally arrogant and domineering, Zeng Guofan thought that Zuo Zongtang took the initiative to vote, and he had military experience in commanding the defense of Changsha, so he did not bother with Zuo Zongtang, but truthfully reported the real situation of the Hunan army. However, listening to it, Zuo Zongtang's face gradually began to change.

There is no way, the current situation of the Hunan army is really miserable, more than 60% of the more than 3,100 troops are lightly and seriously wounded, and there are only more than 1,000 soldiers who can go into battle, and there is a serious shortage of guns and ammunition, even if all the ammunition is concentrated, it is only enough to fight a medium-sized battle. The grain and grass can only last for another half a month at most, and the people's grain accumulation in the city has also been exhausted, even if they starve to death the people in the city, it is difficult to get much more food.

The only thing that is still relatively sufficient is artillery, and there are still forty-two light and heavy artillery pieces left, Zuo Zongtang was a little relieved when he heard this, and hurriedly asked: "How many shells are left?" ”

Zeng Guofan smiled bitterly and replied: "There is not a single shell, and now our artillery is full of copper and iron coins and broken stones. ”

Zuo Zongtang gasped and stopped talking, but he was about to come again to the battlefield map marked with the deployment of the Taiping army, and study the possibility of the Hunan army breaking through the siege and rushing to Nanchang to get food. However, after a careful study for a while, Zuo Zongtang soon became completely desperate, and the Taiping army, which was expected to be destined for the Hunan army to flee south, was supported by Tujiakou, a choke point, and established a number of camps to surround the south of Jianchang in an arc, completely blocking the southward road of the Hunan army.

Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if the Hunan army is lucky enough to break through the south and successfully break through and kill Shi Zhenji's encirclement, as long as the main force of the Taiping Army on the Nanchang battlefield casually divides an army, it can also slap the Hunan army that has reached the end of the strong crossbow!

Considering this, Zuo Zongtang could only reluctantly turn his gaze to the north of the battlefield, and then Zuo Zongtang found even more reluctantly that breaking through to the north and retreating to Tianjia Town was indeed the only choice for the Hunan army at present - although Shi Zhenji was likely to lead the army to chase and kill, and Luo Xuan, who was stationed in Jiujiang, was also likely to send troops to Ruichang to intercept it, but as long as the Hubei side sent troops to respond in time, the possibility of covering the Hunan army's withdrawal to Tianjia Town was far greater than the hope of the Hunan army going south to Nanchang to get food.

When Zuo Zongtang frowned and pondered, Zeng Guofan also asked Guo Songtao about the specific details of the liaison and negotiation with Wu Chaoyue, and Guo Songtao answered truthfully one by one, but although Zeng Guofan never believed that the disobedient protégé did not dare to send troops because of lack of ammunition, he did not scold in public as before. After thinking about it for a while, Zeng Guofan also asked Guo Songtao: "Zhao Liewen said that the ammunition of the Hubei New Army is insufficient, did he let you go to Wu Chaoyue's ammunition depot to see the situation with your own eyes?" ”

"No, the time was urgent, and Zhao Liewen and I didn't mention it." Guo Songtao shook his head and said: "Zhao Liewen just proposed that Bao Chao lead two thousand green battalion soldiers to save us, but Wu Chaoyue pretended to be sick and kept silent, looking like he didn't even want to send these two thousand green battalion soldiers. ”

"He hates me to the bone!" Zeng Guofan, who was a man of his own life, sighed, not only secretly hated the ruthlessness of the disobedient protégé, but also regretted that he had blackmailed and persecuted the disobedient protégé too much, and buried the root of today's bane.

At this time, Zuo Zongtang finally spoke, and his face was extremely solemn, and he said slowly: "Jianchang can't be defended anymore, otherwise he will sit and wait to die." Nanchang can't go again, and it is in vain to die. There are only two strategies, either go west to Wuning and Yining, or go north to Ruichang, reorganize the army with food, and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback. ”

Retreating west to Wuning and Yining, and fleeing north to Ruichang, Zeng Guofan had considered these two options more than once, but he had never made up his mind. Now that Zuo Zongtang has also put forward two plans, Zeng Guofan, who can no longer count on Hubei reinforcements, is also completely dead, and asked Zuo Zongtang: "Ji Gao, then in your opinion, our best choice is to go north or west?" ”

Zuo Zongtang was silent again, and after a long time, Zuo Zongtang said very helplessly: "The road to Wuning and Yining is far away, and it is narrow and dangerous, and there is no army to respond. ”

Zeng Guofan smiled bitterly, and sighed after a while: "Could it be that Ben Shuai really wants to flee back to Hubei in disgrace and make a guard dog for the students?" To be ridiculed, to be bullied? ”

Zuo Zongtang was silent, and only after a moment did he say: "Zeng Butang, you are the commander of the whole army, you can make up your mind, no matter how you choose, I agree, I can die with you." But quickly, your group training has reached a critical juncture of life and death, and there is no room for delay and waste of time. My suggestion is to let your soldiers regain their strength for two days, make dry food from all the grain and grass, and move overnight! ”

On that day, Zeng Guofan stayed awake all night, and he knew that escaping back to Hubei through Ruichang was the only way for his army to survive, but he was afraid of face, and he was even more worried about disobedience and protégé taking the opportunity to retaliate, so he deliberately refused to send troops to meet him; Some people want to flee west to Yining or even flee back to Hunan directly, but they understand that this road is more dangerous and evil, and the slightest carelessness will doom the whole army to annihilation. In despair, Zeng Guofan once considered going all out, even if he couldn't succeed in going south, he could get a reputation for being loyal to the country through the ages, but Zeng Guofan couldn't make up his mind, and he was even more unwilling to die and go directly to the end of his life. My heart tossed and turned, and I quietly cried several times.

Those who can do great things can of course endure what ordinary people can't bear, and when the sky is light, Zeng Guofan, whose eyes are bloodshot, finally made up his mind, ordered the tent to be raised to convene the generals, announced that the soldiers would be fed for two days, and all the remaining grain and grass would be made into dry food, and after two days, all the unnecessary baggage such as artillery and military tents would be abandoned, and the light equipment went north to break through and retreat to Hubei.

After Zeng Guofan announced this major decision, there was silence in the big tent of the Chinese army, and after a long time, Zeng Guoquan timidly asked Zeng Guofan: "Brother, you just broke the bullet to impeach Wu Chaoyue not long ago, and you usually offended him so badly, and now you run back and beg him to take him in, will he agree?" ”

"I'll go back and be a watchdog for him, there's no way he won't agree." Zeng Guofan smiled and said, "The big deal is to be humiliated, so what's the point?" Gou Jian can lie down and taste the guts, Han Xin can suffer the humiliation of his crotch, they can do it, why can't I do it? ”

Zeng Guoquan was unwilling, but there were tears flashing in his eyes, and Zeng Guohuang cried directly, and even many generals of the Hunan army couldn't help crying loudly, and they were all unwilling to go back to Hubei to suffer those birds' anger - when the Hunan army was in Hubei, in addition to almost not forcing Wu Chaoyue to death, other Hubei officials, big and small, were almost offended by the Hunan army, and there were definitely more than one or two Hubei civil and military officials who wanted to eat Zeng Guofan alive.

Only Zuo Zongtang's expression was free, and he said to Zeng Guofan: "Zeng Butang, since you have made up your mind, then hurry up and arrange, don't be in a hurry to tell the soldiers that we are preparing to go north, deliberately let out the wind, and say that we are ready to go south to break through to Nanchang in three days." Send more scouts to reconnoiter the road to Nanchang, create the illusion of going south, and give Longhair a chance to scratch his tongue. Also, it is best to choose a pre-dawn breakout the morning after tomorrow to try not to give Long Hair too much time to react. ”

Zeng Guofan agreed, and immediately ordered the generals to act according to the plan, and the generals left as promised, Zuo Zongtang, Liu Rong and others also hurriedly discussed the breakthrough plan and the arrangement of the palace army on the side, Zeng Guofan continued to sit in front of the handsome desk and hung his head still, his hands were clenched into fists, his nails were broken, and the roots of his teeth were oozing blood.

Zuo Zongtang's plan to attack the north from the south really played a confusing role, and the deliberately created illusion of going south and the scouts deliberately caught by the Taiping army successfully misled the pre-war judgment of Shi Zhenji, the besieging commander of the Taiping army. In order to monopolize the miraculous feats of annihilating the Hunan army, Shi Zhenji dispatched a large number of main troops to set up an ambush south of Tujiakou, and carefully designed a defensive weakness to deliberately drill for the Hunan army, and at the same time completely misjudged the breakthrough time of the Hunan army, failed to make all the combat preparations in advance, and gave the Hunan army a god-given opportunity to break through to the north.

Two days later, before dawn, when the Hunan army suddenly left the city and fled north at full speed, Shi Zhenji paid a heavy price for his miscalculation, and it was too late to immediately dispatch a large number of main soldiers to pursue, so he could only use a small force to step forward to contain and buy time for the follow-up reinforcements to gather and pursue. And Zuo Zongtang had already expected this, and suggested that Zeng Guofan should meet the battle with a small number of troops, cover the main force of the Hunan army to go north at full speed, and wait for the main force of the Taiping army to gather to chase after him, and the small Hunan army behind the palace will leave the battlefield and flee north at full speed, and start a speed competition with the Taiping army.

The Hunan army retreated quickly, and arrived at the north of De'an at noon that day, and the Taiping army defenders stationed in the city were misled by the fake messenger sent by Zuo Zongtang, mistakenly thinking that the Hunan army was coming to attack De'an and did not dare to go out of the city, and the Hunan army took the opportunity to quickly continue northward through De'an, missing the best opportunity to attack the remnants of the Hunan army with the Taiping army. In addition to the thunderstorm, Shi Zhenji immediately sent a large number of messengers to rush forward, ordering the Taiping army stationed in Ruichang to block the Hunan army to the north at any cost, and would rather lose Ruichang City than give the Hunan army a chance to escape back to Hubei. At the same time, Shi Zhenji naturally had to send someone to ask for help from Luo Xuan, who was stationed in Jiujiang, and asked him to also send troops to help block the escape road of the Hunan army.

Originally, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang both planned to let the Hunan soldiers go north at full speed day and night, and planned to continue to go north after only two hours of rest that night, but Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and others seriously underestimated the impact of injuries and malnutrition on the Hunan soldiers, and even Zeng Guofan himself accidentally overslept while camping and resting. In the end, relying on Zuo Zongtang's roar, the generals of the Hunan army finally woke up all the soldiers and continued to hurry, but not only wasted more than an hour of precious time in vain, but also gave the Taiping army messengers time to rush ahead of them, and then forced Zeng Guofan and the Hunan army to fight the most dangerous and vicious battle in their lives.

The place where this vicious battle took place was in the northern suburbs of Ruichang City, just north of Ruichang City, in the area of Yujia Village, where there is an east-west Hengduan Mountain Range, and the only flat road that can directly cross the mountain range is located between the steep Tiansi Mountain and Paoma Mountain, and cutting off this road is equivalent to cutting off the land connection between Jiangxi and Hubei. The defenders of the Ruichang Taiping Army, who received the order first, almost poured out of the city, seized this choke point in advance, and built a large number of fortifications to defend it with all their might, even if the Hunan army created the illusion of siege, they refused to return to the city to rescue, forcing the Hunan army who was anxious to flee to attack their blocking position.

Forced to be helpless, Zeng Guofan had no choice but to command the Hunan army to storm the Taiping army's blocking position with all his might, but the Taiping army refused to take half a step back, gritted its teeth and just defended with all its might, and repelled the Hunan army's desperate charge many times with the sheep and horse wall built ahead of the country and the horse rejecting antlers, causing huge casualties to the Hunan army.

The gunfire was endless, and Shi Zhenji, the Taiping army chasing from behind, was only ten miles away from the blocking position, and the Taiping army that came from Jiujiang had already approached within thirty miles. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zeng Guofan not only had to go into battle to charge in person, but also learn to disobey and let the soldiers tie up gunpowder bags to commit suicide, but Liu Rong and others desperately dissuaded Zeng Guofan, and told Zeng Guofan with tears that the gunpowder of the self-army was less than 100 catties, and a few soldiers could not be armed to launch a suicide charge.

The worse is still to come, just when Zeng Guofan shouted with red eyes that no matter how much gunpowder is left, all the gunfire of the Hunan army in front of him suddenly fell away, and when Zeng Guofan was shocked and asked the reason, Hu Linyi, who led the army to charge, told Zeng Guofan with tears, "Dashuai, there are no guns, and there is no gunpowder." ”

"Is the heavens going to kill me?!"

Zeng Guofan yelled in despair, and then cried loudly, the Hunan army next to him all burst into tears, and Zuo Zongtang also lamented in despair for the first time in his life, "There is no way out, I can only sit and wait for death." ”

"Boom! Bang! Bang! ”

The sudden continuous explosion sound brought Zeng Guofan, who had completely collapsed, back to his senses, and when he raised his hazy teary eyes and looked in the direction where the explosion came from, Zeng Guofan saw in disbelief that the explosion actually occurred on the blocking position of the Taiping Army, and at the same time, a large number of green camp flags of the Qing Army also appeared behind the blocking position of the Taiping Army!

"Heaven will not kill me!"

Crying in ecstasy, he didn't care to check who the reinforcements were and how many troops they were, Zeng Guofan directly shouted, "Rush! Rush! Charge with all your might! Fight your way out of the encirclement and take my life! ”

The sudden appearance of unexpected reinforcements was like a shot in the arm, and suddenly pulled the Hunan army back from the brink of death, seeing the appearance of vitality, regardless of the ammunition had been used up, the Hunan soldiers just charged with strength, and rushed to the front of the Taiping army's blocking position, with gun butts, stones, fists, and teeth, and the Taiping soldiers who were the most good at hand-to-hand combat were killed and retreated.

At the same time, the Qing reinforcements who came from the north also threw out a large number of grenade bullets that the Hunan army soldiers were already very familiar with, or bitter acid grenades, which were powerful picric acid grenades, and opened the way with powerful firepower to help the Hunan army disperse the Taiping army blocking the road. And relying on the joint efforts of the reinforcements and the Hunan army itself, the Taiping army on the blocking position was finally killed by them and dispersed, and the division was in one place.

As a result, it was only when the soldiers of the Hunan army cheered loudly with tears in their eyes that Zeng Guofan finally saw that the reinforcement general was Bao Chao, the inner line he had placed in the green camp in Hubei. Suddenly realized why the reinforcements were so desperate, Zeng Guofan also thanked Bao Chao to the bones, and as soon as they met, he took Bao Chao's hand and said in tears: "If it weren't for Chunting, my life would be over." The great grace is not grateful, the grace of Chunting to save his life, Zeng Guofan will never forget. ”

"Dashuai, you thanked the wrong person." Bao Chao said respectfully: "If it weren't for Wu Futai lying on the hospital bed and sending me troops, and sending his sailors to cover me across the river to help, and equipping me with grenade shells, I wouldn't have come so coincidentally this time." ”

"What do you mean by that?" Zeng Guofan was stunned and hurriedly asked, "Wu is really sick when he surpasses him?" ”

"Of course Wu Futai is really sick." Bao Chao said truthfully: "It's still very sick, and everyone faints once, but even so, he still remembers sending me to save you." ”

Zeng Guofan was silent, and Guo Songtao was also full of shame, but an old man in civilian clothes stood up behind Bao Chao, and said to Zeng Guofan: "Zeng Butang, Yang Wending, the prefect of Xiaguan, was ordered by Wu Futai, the governor of Hubei, to come to greet you, and he was also responsible for the affairs of the Hunan army. Zeng Butang, please rest assured, after retreating to Tianjia Town, if you have any needs, just ask me, and the lower officials will do their best to meet them. ”

"Yang Wending?" Zeng Guofan, who was too emotional, didn't immediately remember who Yang Wending was for a while, and after a little recollection, Zeng Guofan immediately exclaimed: "Yang Wending? Former Jiangsu Governor Yang Wending? The ...... of Wu beyond the main room? ”

"Yes, it's me, Wu Chaoyue is my grandson-in-law."

Yang Wending smiled and nodded, and said: "Zeng Butang, what you may not know is that when Xiaguan was governor of Jiangsu, he once made an enmity with the ancestors and grandchildren of the Wu family, and connived at his protégés to falsely accuse their ancestors and grandchildren, almost killing their ancestors and grandchildren. But when I was in distress in Jiangyin, Wu Chaoyue sent troops twice to save my life, and after I was assigned to Xinjiang, he did not break his word or regret it, and still married my granddaughter as the main house, and finally asked the court for pardon and re-employed me. ”

Speaking of this, Yang Wending paused, then smiled and said, "Zeng Butang, now you should understand the reason why my grandson-in-law asked me to greet you, right?" ”

Zeng Guofan didn't have anything to say, just arched his hand to Yang Wending and said, "Understood." At this point, Comfort Pavilion is my teacher. (To be continued.) )