At the same time, the news of the fall of Pingjiang City spread throughout Hunan in a very short period of time. Zeng Guofan, who was sitting in Changsha City, was completely panicked. Although Changsha is the capital of Hunan, the thickness of the city wall and the defensive power are really not comparable to Pingjiang City. What's more, now he only has 50,000 troops in his hands, and the food and grass materials are not sufficient, and in addition to the fact that the whole army is afraid of Hong Tiangui's national defense force like a tiger, there is no possibility of victory in a frontal field battle.

The Wehrmacht set out from Pingjiang City, the speed of advance was not fast, and the speed of advance was extremely high-profile, they advanced along the official road of Hunan, the speed of advance was less than 30 miles a day, village and town by village, and even wanted to stretch the range around, where they passed, all the officials loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty fled when they heard the wind, and the others who did not flee jumped out one by one to greet Wang Shi, and it can be said that along the way, the Wehrmacht occupied several counties without moving a single soldier.

The Wehrmacht did not divide the troops, and basically retained the administrative functions of these counties, because the Wehrmacht was confident that these people would not dare to rebel.

The Wehrmacht advanced all the way, and gradually the entire land of eastern Hunan was taken by the Wehrmacht, and the Manchu officials, clan elders, ruffians, and hooligans who fled all gathered in Changsha.

Zeng Guofan quickly recruited Zeng Guoquan's 50,000 troops to return to Changsha, but Shi Dakai, the winged king who had disappeared before, took the initiative to appear and ambushed the five battalions of Zeng Guoquan's forward, avenging the revenge of being ambushed by Zeng Guoquan and being eaten by two brigades.

Zeng Guoquan launched a large-scale attack, trying to open up the passage for the return attempt, but was blocked by the Wing King with the help of layers of terrain and blocked the way, Zeng Guoquan even if he was in a hurry, facing the Wing King who was just blocking the defense, he also had a feeling that it was difficult for a dog to bite a hedgehog.

Zeng Guofan received the battle report sent by Zeng Guoquan's fast horse, lost his temper on the spot, and smashed his most beloved porcelain cup.

Now the national defense army is striding towards Changsha, half of the main force of the Hunan army is trapped in the land of Xiangxi and entangled with the winged king Shi Dakai, and the hole cards in Zeng Guofan's hands are unprecedentedly weak.

What to do? Fight or run? Zeng Guofan hesitated like never before.

In addition to the 50,000 Hunan troops in Changsha, a large number of strong men and young men were also concentrated, all of whom were mobilized by the Hunan people during this time, and were the basis for Zeng Guofan's preparation for army expansion. Now there is no time to come in handy.

Zeng Guofan put forward the strategy of fighting to the death with the national defense army, and the entire Changsha city was taken over by the Hunan army, and all the young and strong people in Hunan were distributed with cold weapons such as broadswords and spears and trained according to the training methods of the Hunan army.

Zeng Guofan ordered all the cities in Hunan to leave all the grain and grass to Changsha City except for the most basic rations to support this final decisive battle.

In order to boost morale, Zeng Guofan even put forward the slogan of coexistence and death with Changsha.

In the face of Zeng Guofan's desperate posture, Hong Tiangui, who was reorganizing the new army in Pingjiang City, couldn't sit still, and he led the 200,000 troops to leave Pingjiang City and rushed towards Changsha.

In the last battle of the Western Expedition, victory, the entire east of Sichuan, there will be no Manchu army, if they fail, they can only retreat to Jiangxi and fight against the Manchus.

The former and the latter faced a completely different situation, the former used the Yangtze River as a line of defense, while the latter faced a confrontation on land, and the Kingdom of Heaven had a natural disadvantage in this regard.

The war report of the Wing King was sent to the British kings Chen Yucheng and Hong Tiangui, and the British king then wrote to the Heavenly King Hong Tiangui, stating that this battle must be fought for the benefit of the heavenly kingdom, and must be won at all costs.

At the same time, all the local officials of the Qing Dynasty around Hunan who had armed forces received a joint battle report from Zeng Guofan and Luo Bingzhang, and the two analyzed the situation faced by the Qing Dynasty, pointing out that the battle of Changsha would be a decisive battle between the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to determine the fortunes of the country, and hoped that the local bigwigs could send troops to increase the number of troops in Changsha. Everyone knows that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom affects the nerves of the entire Qing Dynasty, if they hesitate a little in the face of the rebellion, what awaits them is probably the holy decree of dismissal, and if they don't do it well, they may lose their heads.

Therefore, whether you are willing or not, as long as you receive the battle report of Zeng Luo and the others, you will immediately mobilize the whole army to form reinforcements and go to Changsha. For a time, the entire central and western regions responded like a tide, and Manchu reinforcements from Changsha could be seen on many pipelines.

The Wehrmacht slowed down the pace of its advance, as if waiting for Changsha to make all preparations, while Hong Tiangui in the rear accelerated his advance, and the two armies finally joined forces in Changsha City, and the two sides were tense, and the clouds of war enveloped the entire Changsha City.

"Your Majesty, Manchu reinforcements are coming, should we fight quickly?" King Chen Yucheng said in a deep voice. He originally wanted to lead the Wehrmacht to pounce early, but was vetoed by Hong Tiangui, and it was too reluctant to take Changsha City with the Wehrmacht who had fought repeatedly. On the contrary, it is better to march slowly, on the one hand, to give the enemy as much psychological pressure as possible, on the other hand, to allow the Wehrmacht to rest and recuperate during the slow march, and at the same time to allow the logistics troops to send more food, grass, weapons and ammunition to ensure the needs of the entire front.

After the march into Jiangxi, the production of rifles and artillery was suspended in the military engineering of Tianjing City, and all the personnel of the arsenal were fully involved in the production of ammunition. Although the bullets and shells produced by the Kingdom of Heaven are not as good as those in the West, they are sufficient to meet the needs of the current war, and the low quality means that the technology is relatively simple, and the production capacity is constantly increasing under the stimulation of war.

In the course of a month, the arsenal had expanded three times, from 500 to 5,000, a tenfold increase, and now produced enough bullets and shells per day to support a regiment in a large-scale battle. Even so, it was not enough, after all, the Wehrmacht fought too fiercely and relied on ammunition and artillery shells.

"Don't worry, we are not having a good time, the enemy is probably even more sad, we are victorious all the way, the morale of the whole army is high, as long as the fatigue is slightly relieved, the Wehrmacht can burst out with more powerful combat effectiveness, not to mention that this king is only temporarily avoiding a large-scale decisive battle, not that the war has not begun. Lord, war is not just about deciding the winner on the battlefield. Hong Tiangui smiled slightly, without the slightest hint of nervousness on his face.

He didn't have much involvement in military affairs in his previous life, and after he was reborn, he has been able to cultivate his own military strategy, although he is much stronger than before, but compared to the generals like King Ying and Zeng Guofan, he thinks he is far inferior. But he understands people's hearts, and even the inferior roots of these adults, the layout of people's inferior roots, coupled with military ideas far beyond this era, is not so difficult to accept.