And here, the Taiping Army Naval Division, which had just escorted the two Guozong across the Yangtze River and was about to return to the surface of the Yangtze River outside Wuchang City, was attacked by the Xiangyong Naval Division, which had been hiding in the Axe Lake in Jiayu in the south of Wuchang, down the Yangtze River, and attacked at night. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the dark of night, the Taiping army was killed and dispersed and defeated. Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang, Chu Ruhang, and Xia Luan led 4,000 sailors and took the opportunity to chase after them.

Tang Zhengcai saw that the morale of the Taiping army's sailors was gone, so he led the sailors to retreat to Hankou and rely on the water village to defend it.

Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang, Chu Ruhang, and Xia Luan led the water division to set up a water village in Baishazhou in the upper reaches of Wuchang and Hankou, one in the south of the Yangtze River and the other in the north of the Jiangbei, opposite the Taiping Army Naval Division.

Zeng Tianyang, who was seriously injured, was taken back to the camp by his personal guards, although it was not life-threatening, but he could no longer lead the troops to fight for a month or two.

As soon as Wei Jun and Shi Xiangzhen led their troops to occupy Xiaogan and Hanchuan, they were surprised to learn the news of the defeat of Zeng Tianyang's troops and Tang Zhengcai's sailors. Regardless of the need to attack northern Hubei again, he immediately withdrew his troops to help, and hurried back to Hankou and Hanyang, defending Wuchang City across the river.

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Earlier, Hu Yixuan, the prime minister of Chunguanzheng, led more than 7,000 people to march all the way to northern Anhui, and at the end of December, conquered Tongcheng and Shucheng, and beheaded Lu Xianji, the head of the Anhui regiment training and the Ministry of Labor, and coerced Luzhou.

After Anqing was occupied by the Taiping army, the Manchu Qing designated Luzhou as the place of temporary provincial capital of Anqing. Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, ordered that Hu Yixuan must capture Luzhou City. Luzhou is not only the western barrier of Tianjing, but also can go north to Shandong through Luzhou, west to Mubei, and south to Anqing.

The circumference of the city wall of Luzhou is more than 30 miles, the Qing army defending the city is less than 500, and the rural warriors in the city are only 3,000. At this time, Jiang Zhongyuan, who was newly appointed as the governor of Anman, led more than 2,000 troops to flee from Nanchang, all the way through Anman Liu'an, galloped to Luzhou, collected the fleeing Qing soldiers, and finally arrived at Luzhou City before Hu Yixuan surrounded Luzhou.

Jiang Zhongyuan saw that there were few soldiers in Luzhou City, so he asked the imperial court for help. Xianfeng was distraught by the Taiping army of the Northern Expedition at the moment, and wanted to ignore it, but seeing that it was Jiang Zhongyuan's request, he gritted his teeth and transferred more than 5,000 troops from Chenzhou, Henan and Xuzhou, Jiangsu, to come for reinforcements.

Jiang Zhongyuan urged the soldiers and people in the city to strengthen the construction of fortifications, and made plans to live and die with Luzhou City.

In the middle of the first month, Hu Yixuan besieged Luzhou and immediately attacked the city, attacking for several days, but did not succeed.

Qing reinforcements from Henan and Susu arrived one after another. More than 2,000 people from Yushan, the general army of Shouchun Town, approached Luzhou. The Taiping army met outside the mighty gate, slashed Yushan, and annihilated most of its troops. The next day, more than 3,000 Qing troops under the general army Yin Debu and other troops sent by Lu'an were defeated. At this time, the other Qing soldiers were too frightened to step forward.

More than 4,000 people from Shu Xing'a, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, who came to the aid of Chenzhou, dared to enter Gangziji in the northwest of Luzhou in early February; And the new governor of Jiangnan and more than 1,000 people under the spring tent sent by Xuzhou also arrived at Liangyuan in the northeast of Luzhou in early February. The reinforcements from all walks of life were trembling, not daring to get too close to the city wall, as if they were afraid that their soldiers would be damaged, and they each spared their lives.

And Hu Yixuan personally led the soldiers of the Taiping Army, using the houses outside the city as a cover to dig tunnels. Jiang Zhongyuan was shrewd and abnormal, leading his troops to dig from inside the city, and successively destroyed the Taiping army's siege tunnels in nine places. Although Hu Yixuan blew down the city wall twice, he failed to break through.

Hu Yixuan thought of a new way, digging several places in the underground next to the city gate, dividing it into two layers, and filling it with gunpowder.

In the early morning of the 10th day of the second lunar month, the fog was thick and misty, and it was impossible to distinguish between them. Hu Yixuan ordered people to light the fuse, and the upper layer of explosives exploded, blowing up the city wall for five or six zhang.

Seeing this, Jiang Zhongyuan, who was defending the city, ordered the Qing troops in the city to rush up to plug the gap, and soon, the lower explosives were ignited, and the Qing army was killed in a large number of casualties. The townspeople in the city, seeing that the city wall had been blown open, rushed to the city under the bewitchment of some Taiping troops and the northern army, and defected to the Taiping army, and the Qing army was terrified.

Hu Yixuan was barearmed, and personally led the Taiping soldiers to rush in from the gap, Jiang Zhongyuan led his Chu Yong to resist desperately, but the number of Chu Yong was too small, most of them were still frightened to death of the green battalion soldiers, plus the Taiping soldiers under the leadership of Hu Yixuan, they had already killed the red eyes, and the fighting spirit was like a tide, and the Qing defenders retreated.

At this time, the Taiping army from other directions also climbed the ladder, climbed over the city wall, attacked the city, and started street battles with the Qing army in the city.

The Green Battalion and the regimental warriors in the city either surrendered or fled.

By noon, all the Qing troops defending the city in Luzhou were annihilated. Hu Yuanwei, the prefect of Luzhou, led hundreds of green battalion soldiers to surrender to Hu Yixuan. Jiang Zhongyuan, who was only the new governor of Anman for a few months, led a group of Chu Yong composed of hometown children to fight hard, but he was outnumbered, Jiang Zhongyuan saw that Chu Yong around him was fighting less and less, and in desperation, he wanted to lead his troops to break through, but was surrounded by the Taiping Army.

Hu Yixuan saw Jiang Zhongyuan, who was full of injuries and was still fighting on his own, and he was also extremely admired. Called Hu Yuanwei, the prefect of Luzhou who surrendered, accompanied him, and personally persuaded Jiang Zhongyuan, who was besieged in the back garden of the prefect's yamen, to surrender.

Jiang Zhongyuan was angry, and scolded Hu Yuanwei, who surrendered, for being greedy for life and afraid of death, and for not having the temperament of a scholar, he should destroy the nine clans and scold Hu Yuanwei to shame. Hu Yixuan once again persuaded him to surrender on the grounds that the Han people were a family and should overthrow the Manchus together, but Jiang Zhongyuan turned a deaf ear.

He sighed: Jiang Mou is not effective in defending the city, and he has failed the emperor's grace, and today he can only repay the country with death!

After saying that, he jumped into the well of the garden and threw himself into the water and died.

This is a life-and-death enemy who has been fighting against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom since he was in the city of Yong'an in Guangxi; After three years of hard work, he was promoted from Zhengqipinzhi County to a bandit general from the second-rank governor; Governing the army well, the veteran of the Hunan army in later history, Jiang Zhongyuan died in humiliation and tragedy.

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In the city of Wuchang, he was preparing to celebrate two successive victories for Taqibu, Bao Chao, Wang Zhu, Zeng Guoquan and others of the Lu Division and Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang, Chu Ruhang, Xia Luan and others of the Water Division, and lifted the siege of Wuchang by the long-haired thief soldiers.

He knew that if he was trapped in Wuchang City, Jiang Zhongyuan's today would be the tomorrow of his country's domain.

Therefore, he quickly summoned his generals Luo Zenan, Wang Ju, Liu Rong, Li Yuandu, Taqibu, Zhou Fengshan, Bao Chao, Zeng Guobao, Zeng Guoquan, and the generals Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang, Chu Ruhang, Xia Luan and others to discuss taking the initiative to attack, taking advantage of the long-haired thieves outside Wuchang City to divide their troops to guard, and there was no favorable opportunity to besiege Wuchang City to death, he simply broke the cauldron and sunk the boat, and defeated the long-haired thief soldiers who came to attack Wuchang in one fell swoop.

Zeng Guofan ordered Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang, Chu Ruhang, and Xia Luan to each lead the second battalion of sailors, drive boats to the north bank, and take the initiative to attack the sailors stationed in Hankou and the Hanyang River, entangled the sailors, so that they could not drive ships to transport the long-haired thieves stationed in Hankou and Hanyang on the north bank to the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Then, he ordered a cadre of squires in the city to organize the village warriors and regiments to defend the city. He personally led his generals, led 5,000 Xiangyong in the city, and together with Qinglin, the governor of Mubei, and the 3,000 green battalions led by Lao Guangtai, the governor of Wuchang Prefecture, attacked the Taiping army camp six miles east of Wuchang City.