Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang were very dissatisfied with Zuo Guigui's withdrawal alone, and it turned out that it was an expedient measure to intimidate the imperial court to take the initiative to cut the flag salary, and several forces made the same choice, after all, they are both Hanchen, so they must maintain the status and power of Hanchen, and sometimes they are united in the same spirit, which is necessary.

However, an expedient measure is an expedient measure, you can't play it really, the original Zuo Guigui only retreated more than a hundred miles, and he could enter at any time in a breakthrough, but he didn't expect that they would continue to retreat and retreat to Suqian in one go, so is there a Taiping army in Suqian, what are you going to do there?

However, although Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang are angry, they can only be helpless, after all, Zuo Guigui is not a line of the Hunan army, in the first line of the Hunan army, whether it is a direct subordinate like Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guoquan, or a colleague like Zuo Zongtang and Shen Baozhen who have been instructed by Zeng Guofan, they must ask Zeng Guofan's meaning in the face of major events, but Zuo Guigui is different, Zuo Guigui is clearly different from Zeng Zuo Li Jingwei, people are Guo Ye's subordinates, Shandong Three Towns and Shandong Lianjun are Guo Ye's descendants, why should people look at your Zeng Guofan's face?

If the Jiangnan border remains stable, then it is good to say that the Hunan army, the Huai army and the Chu army are silently accumulating strength, waiting for the time to be ripe, and launch a fatal blow to the Taiping army, however, the preparation is still far away, and Shi Dakai does not give himself such a chance to prepare at all, and the Taiping army is dispatched on all fronts!

The 40,000 troops of the East Battalion advanced towards Zhenjiang and approached Zhenjiang, if they were not careful, they would definitely not be the opponent of others just by relying on a few thousand people in Zhenjiang. Zeng Guofan was helpless, so he had to mobilize the main force of the Hunan army and move closer to Zhenjiang to guard against the eastward invasion of the Taiping army.

The direction of Zhenjiang has just been deployed, the southern battalion of the Taiping army launched an attack in the direction of Hangzhou again, tens of thousands of Taiping troops pointed at Hangzhou again, Zuo Zongtang was shocked, the last time almost exhausted all methods, Hangzhou was robbed, and now the Taiping army has launched another attack, how can Zuo Zongtang not be timid?

Zuo Zongtang immediately mobilized the Cai Chu army to assemble in the direction of Hangzhou, preparing to resist another attack by the Taiping army.

However, when the Hunan army and the Chu army were assembled in the north and south directions, the defense of Suzhou and Shanghai inevitably revealed a huge flaw, this area, only the Huai army was left in the defense, the Huai army is now less than 40,000 troops, respectively stationed in Changzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai, Li Hongzhang personally sat in Suzhou, and Zeng Guofan, who was in charge of the affairs of the two rivers, was stationed here together.

Shi Dakai saw the success of his strategy, and gave an order, sixty or seventy thousand troops, set off from Wuhu and went straight to Changzhou, a short distance of less than two hundred miles, four or five days, and killed the city of Changzhou.

The current generals of Changzhou City are Zhang Shusheng and Pan Dingxin, two fierce generals of the Huai Army, leading five or six thousand people from the Shuzi Battalion and the Dingzi Battalion, responsible for the security of Changzhou.

Today's Huai Army, just two or three years into the army, the generals in the army all hope to be able to make contributions, the desire for fame and fortune is far better than the Hunan Army, and the Huai Army relies on the support of Britain and France, a large number of Western firearms purchased, now equipped with rifles and artillery is not a few, the combat power is strong, in the Jiangnan area, do not do other thoughts!

Zhang Shusheng and Pan Dingxin were young and vigorous, thinking that Shujun and the Ding army were incomparable, so they went straight out of the city to fight and fought with the army of Shi Dakai's Chinese army camp.

The vanguard army of the Chinese army battalion is the elite of the Taiping Army led by Zhang Suimou, most of them are veterans brought out by Shi Dakai, and the combat power is strong, not weaker than the Huai Army, and the most important point is that the Taiping Army has more than 10,000 troops, which is nearly three times that of Zhang Shusheng and Pan Dingxin, and the gap is too obvious.

Zhang Shusheng and Pan Dingxin were careless, but they suffered a big loss, and in less than a day, they were defeated by Zhang Suimou's forwards and had to be pushed into Changzhou in a hurry.

Zhang Suimou's momentum was like a rainbow, and he commanded his Taiping army to surround Changzhou and besiege it on all sides, and the artillery he carried was desperate to hit Changzhou, and the Huai army was frightened, and under the command of Zhang Shusheng, it barely supported.

The news soon spread to Suzhou, Li Hongzhang got the news of the defeat in Changzhou, and was surprised, at this time the Taiping army launched an attack on the area of Suzhou and Changzhou again, but the timing was too good, how to fight?

Now all the Hunan troops have gathered in the Zhenjiang area, the Chu army is moving rapidly towards the Hangzhou area, and only the Huai army is struggling to support the Suchang area, which is an important town in the south of the Yangtze River, and there can be no problem at all!

Li Hongzhang didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly ordered Liu Mingchuan and Zhou Shengbo to lead the main force of the 8,000 Huai Army to aid Changzhou!

Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan's faces were solemn, and now there are only 30,000 people in the Huai army in the Su Chang area, and the troops are seriously insufficient.

"Teacher, I feel that we are fooled, the main forces of the Hunan army and the Chu army have been far away from the Suchang area, but the Taiping army has gathered tens of thousands of people from the Chinese army battalion to attack, it is obvious that it is to contain the Hunan army and the Chu army, and then attack the Huai army with all their strength, and break each one!"

Li Hongzhang said astringently.

Zeng Guofan smiled bitterly and replied: "There is no way, now our troops are insufficient, the five battalions of the Taiping Army, together have exceeded 200,000 people, our Hunan Army, Huai Army, plus the Chu Army, is only 1120,000 people, the Taiping Army lacks training, the combat power is insufficient, we will still face tremendous pressure, if the three towns of Shandong and the training army of Zuo Precious do not retreat, how good it would be......"

"Left precious? We can't count on it now, he doesn't listen to our moderation at all, and now he is far away in Suqian, even if he wants to participate in the war, it will be half a superfluous thing, in a short period of time, how can he enter the southern Jiangsu area? ”

Li Hongzhang was dissatisfied.

However, if you don't rely on Zuo Guigui now, who else can you count on?

"Teacher, now there is only the Hunan army in the direction of Zhenjiang temporarily, and the safety of the Suchang area must be guaranteed, especially in Shanghai behind, where there are too many foreigners, there must be no chaos, once the strong intervention of foreigners is caused, we will cause new troubles......

Li Hongzhang said urgently.

Zeng Guofan is in a dilemma, Su Chang is not safe, so the area around Zhenjiang is safe? Although the strength of the East Battalion is not as strong as that of the Chinese Army, the pressure on the Hunan Army is also not small, which is unlucky!

"Okay, then send a part of the Hunan army to help Su Chang, and the two of us will jointly ask Zuo Guigui for help, asking the three towns of Shandong to go south again!"

(To be continued.) )