With the help of firearms, Shi Dakai took Zuo Zongtang by surprise, and in just three days, Zuo Zongtang was beaten in embarrassment, and the Chu army suffered heavy casualties, so he had to withdraw from Shaoxing and retreat to Hangzhou!

Shi Dakai then mobilized heavy troops and marched towards Hangzhou again, this is the seat of Zhejiang Province, if even Hangzhou is lost, then Zhejiang will be finished!

At this moment, Zuo Zongtang, who was mentally prepared, shrank almost all the troops around Hangzhou to Hangzhou, gathered nearly 40,000 Chu troops and green battalions, and prepared for a decisive battle with Shi Dakai!

In order to be able to keep Hangzhou, Zuo Zongtang, who was ambitious and empty-eyed, had to ask Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang for help, requesting that the Hunan army and the Huai army be immediately mobilized into Zhejiang to help defend Hangzhou!

The news soon spread to Shanghai, at this time Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang had just signed an agreement with Hua Ruohan, and even the down payment had been paid, Hua Ruohan promised Zeng Guofan that within half a month, a large number of foreign guns and foreign guns would arrive in Shanghai for the delivery of goods.

At this time, the news of the fall of Shaoxing and the Taiping army entering Hangzhou reached Shanghai, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang looked at each other in shock, when, Zuo Zongtang became so soft, if you just talk about military command ability, whether it is Zeng Guofan or Li Hongzhang, they think they are weaker, neither of them is Zuo Zongtang's opponent, and the Chu army under him is Jiang Zhongyuan's old department, and the combat power is so strong, it is definitely the leader of the Qing army!

Of course, the two of them couldn't have imagined that it was Hua Ruohan, who had just left, who sold a large number of firearms to the Taiping Army, which led to Zuo Zongtang's defeat!

When the two of them were nervous and confused, Zuo Zongtang's urgent report arrived in Shanghai from Hangzhou.

Zeng Guofan took the report and read it anxiously with Li Hongzhang, only then did he understand, damn it, I don't know where the Taiping army got a large number of muskets and artillery to bombard Shaoxing Mansion, the city wall to the west of Shaoxing Mansion was all blown down, the Qing army was caught off guard, and was beaten by the Taiping Army, and in less than three days, Shaoxing fell!

"This, this!"

Zeng Guofan's anxious green muscles burst out, no matter what, Hangzhou can't be lost, this is the government of Zhejiang, the important town of Jiangnan!

"Shaoquan, it seems that I can't wait for Hua Ruohan's firearms, I must attack, otherwise Zuo Zongtang will be in danger!"

Li Hongzhang is also extremely nervous, if Zhejiang falls, then his Jiangsu will have to face the military pressure of the Taiping Army alone!

"Teacher, my Huai army is the closest to Hangzhou, so I will mobilize Wall's foreign gun team to go first, and then the Huai army will go upriver by boat and gallop to help Hangzhou!"

Li Hongzhang shouted urgently.

Zeng Guofan nodded and said: "Okay, now the Hunan army still has a main force equipped with Western firearms, all of which were bought back by Guo Ye from the United States, and now they are in the Wuxi area, I immediately ordered them to rush to help Hangzhou!" ”

There's no way, the pressure on the Qing court is too great now!

At the same time that Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang dispatched troops, Shi Dakai also mobilized 20 battalions of the Eastern Front Army from Anhui to increase troops in Zhejiang again, and he himself led 20,000 troops to launch a fierce attack on Hangzhou!

Although Shi Dakai's troops are a little insufficient now, relying on the sharpness of the artillery and the advancement of the muskets, the Taiping army still makes Zuo Zongtang a little unable to raise his head, it is too powerful!

Zuo Zongtang continued to deploy troops, and launched a desperate battle with Shi Da in Hangzhou, the blood flowed outside Hangzhou, and Shi Dakai launched a seven-day attack on Hangzhou, but Hangzhou City is not Shaoxing Mansion after all, as the government is located, the city wall of Hangzhou is solid, Zuo Zongtang has no way to retreat, it is completely a backwater battle, yes, seven days of attack, there is no progress, and the Taiping army has lost a lot of money.

Just when Shi Dakai was constantly besieging, the Huai army entered the Qiantang River from the sea on a British ship and approached the city of Hangzhou.

The Taiping Army, who got the information, hurriedly flew to report to Shi Dakai, Shi Dakai frowned, the British ships, now they are going all out to attack Hangzhou, what are the British ships coming to do? However, although Shi Dakai had some doubts, he still didn't think much about it after all, and now is not the time to make trouble, as long as the British ships do not take the initiative to cause trouble, it is better to try their best to avoid contradictions......

It's just that the trees want to be quiet and the wind doesn't stop, what Shi Dakai didn't expect was that the two ships were transporting the Huai army, and the Huai army saw that the artillery positions on the Taiping army positions kept firing shells in Hangzhou, and the Qing army suffered heavy losses.

The leader of the foreign guns, Wall, didn't care who the boat under his feet was, and directly ordered the Huai army to launch an attack on the position of the Taiping army, and dozens of shells fell on the position of the Taiping army, which caught the Taiping army by surprise!

Shi Dakai was so angry that he was thunderous, presumptuous, too presumptuous, do you British really think that I, Shi Dakai, am afraid of you?

"Command! The artillery battalion turned the direction for me and shelled the Qiantang River! ”

Shi Dakai gave an order, and the muzzles of more than a dozen cannons were aimed at the two British ships, and the covering shooting began!

The captain of the British ship, Jill, was so frightened that he was frightened, and more than a dozen cannons attacked two small ships at the same time, this ship absolutely couldn't stop it, no, Lao Tzu didn't care about the life or death of Hangzhou, he had to ensure the safety of the ship, as for whether to go back and find Shi Da to settle accounts, that's a later story, where can I take care of it now?

Run!

The two British ships definitely did not dare to face dozens of guns to start a battle, so they turned around and ran, and got out of the range of artillery attacks in one breath, and Pan Dingxin, the general of the Huai Army, was so angry that he roared angrily: "Wall, who let you fight without permission?" , Well, now it's difficult for us to even enter Hangzhou City! ”

Wall's face was embarrassed and he dared to speak, but the captain of the British ship, Jill, ran over and roared, "Bastard! Are you ****** crazy, we are only responsible for sending you into the city of Hangzhou, you are lucky to go to war with the Taiping army directly on the British ship, are you going to destroy our ship? I will complain to your Governor and Governor! Bastards, a bunch of damn bastards! ”

"Shut up!"

was roared by two people together, so that Wall's face could not be hung up, Wall roared angrily: "Battlefield! This is the battlefield! Accidents can happen at any time! Jill, you coward, you were so frightened by a bunch of long hairs that you turned around and ran, you lost the face of the British Empire! Turn around immediately, Lao Tzu wants to fight to the death with Long Hair! ”

Jill pursed his lips and exclaimed, "Wall, how old are you?" Dare to order Lao Tzu? I'm not going to do it anymore! ”

Saying this, Jill shouted: "First mate, immediately order the ships to dock and throw them all to the shore, we don't care where they want to go!" (To be continued.) )