"Order the whole army, tonight, the whole army will go out of the city to attack the Taiping army camp!"

One sentence shocked all the officers.

"My lord, by all means! The enemy has an army of 200,000, and we only have 30,000, even if it is a sneak attack at night, it is a stone with an egg, please think twice. Hu Linyi's lieutenant Chen Weiguo spoke in a deep voice.

The main force of the Hunan army left, and the forces of the enemy and us reversed. What's more, the purpose of these 30,000 Hunan troops was to defend the city, not to defeat the powerful national defense army. Everyone understands that without the protection of Pingjiang City, they are a dish that the enemy can eat at any time. Hundreds of thousands of Hunan troops have failed, how can the remaining 30,000 people turn the tide of the war?

"Your Excellency, please think twice, with the city defense of Pingjiang City, the enemy will not be able to easily break through even if it is an army of 200,000."

"That is, if necessary, we can also mobilize the people in Pingjiang City to help defend the city. It will inevitably be able to stop the enemy's westward advance. ”

The generals had different opinions, but none of them agreed to go out of the city to attack the Taiping army. In fact, during this period of time, they were defeated by Hong Tiangui's national defense army, and the 30,000 army killed the main force of their hundreds of thousands of Hunan troops, and now the enemy's strength has reached 200,000, but there are only 30,000 troops left on their side.

Hu Linyi's face was ugly, and he lamented in his heart, the building will collapse, and non-human power can save it.

Hu Linyi no longer said anything about the night attack on the city, and ordered all battalions to raise their alert and further strengthen the city walls. At the same time, he ordered to organize the young and strong people in the city to assist in the defense of the city, and to prepare the things for the defense of the city with all their might.

The generals under his command breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts, fortunately Hu Linyi did not insist, otherwise it would be enough to stump most of the generals of the Hunan army in the choice of saving their lives and obeying the orders of the upper peak.

The discipline of the Hunan army was very strict in China during this period. And the men and horses of Hu Linyi's headquarters are even more disciplined and brave in battle. However, in the face of the situation that the main force of the Hunan army advanced westward, this army remained in the city without mutiny, which is enough to prove Hu Linyi's control.

Hu Linyi's worries were not unfounded, as soon as the sky was dark, some Hunan soldiers secretly slipped down the city wall to join the Taiping Army, at first it was just one or two people, then several, more than a dozen in waves, and even in the end, hundreds of people defected en masse.

Hu Linyi, who was dressed in armor, led his own soldiers to inspect the garrisons of each battalion, and found that those who defected out of the city were killed, and for a while, the heads of the people were rolling, and the head of Pingjiang City was stained red with blood.

The killing only stopped everyone's defection for a while, but it was only temporarily suppressed, as soon as Hu Linyi's personal soldiers left, some people fled secretly, most of the soldiers defending the city turned a blind eye, everyone was a neighbor, and naturally they couldn't kill them, not to mention that the soldiers at the bottom didn't know what strategy they had, they didn't dare to flee, but they were extremely envious of those who dared to take a risk, and some familiar Hunan soldiers also whispered and implored those who fled, agreeing that the party that succeeded in surviving in the future would help the dead party take care of their families.

Especially in the second half of the night, this escape becomes more and more unscrupulous.

Hu Linyi divided his soldiers into small teams and strengthened supervision. However, the result of this was that the fleeing Hunan soldiers were not afraid of these insufficient personal soldiers at all, and even had several exchanges of fire in order to save their lives, which made the entire Pingjiang City constantly shake and it was difficult to sleep all night.

Finally stayed up until dawn, and everyone in the Hunan army turned pale, their eyes were black, and they were obviously extremely tired.

"My lord, I have just counted the total number of people who defected last night...... A total of 3,580 people! The adjutant general said with an ugly face.

Hu Linyi grabbed the armrest of the chair, and his face was extremely pale.

"My lord, we must find a way, otherwise we will not have to attack the city without the Taiping army if we continue like this, and we will be defeated ourselves."

Hu Linyi's face flashed a sickly flush, he waved his hand to signal the deputy general to step down, and the whole person stared at the roof in a daze.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside the city, causing Pingjiang City to shake continuously.

"My lord, it's not good!" The captain of the guard rushed in and shouted.

Hu Linyi looked at him silently, the despair in his expression was gone, and he became extremely calm. No matter how close he is, for the sake of the Qing Dynasty, why would he die?

"What's going on again?" Hu Linyi asked calmly.

"Thousands of traitors from our army have fled outside the city, they are shouting outside the city, they are propagating the policy of the long hair, and now the hearts of the people in the city are fluctuating, and the battalions are ready to move, and the situation is very bad." The captain of the pro-soldier asked anxiously.

Hu Linyi's face turned pale, he pretended to be calm, got up and walked towards the city wall.

Ascended to the top of the city, looking at the various shouts of the Hunan army below, his expression was extremely solemn.

"Chen Xiaoer, I'm Zhang San! Hurry up and come here, the king of heaven has really fulfilled his promise, I have now been allocated ten acres of good paddy fields, this is the rice seeds distributed to me by the king of heaven, they are all good rice seeds, and the king of heaven promises not to pay taxes or grain for three years, as long as we work hard, we will be able to save a sum of money in three years, I can support my eldest son to study, you can also ask a mother-in-law to live a peaceful life, you come quickly......"

"Li Erlang, I am your uncle, those promises are true, the king of heaven promised not to blame you, you come quickly!"

"Zhang Da fool, I'm Wang Er Mazi! Didn't you, old boy, take a fancy to my widow sister? As long as you surrender to the side of the king, with ten acres of good paddy fields, I will marry my widowed sister to you, Lao Tzu never lies, if you do not come, my beautiful widow sister will marry someone else. ”

"Chen Tieniu! I'm your eldest brother Chen Gangniu, what are you hesitating about? What the king said is true, I have been allocated ten acres of paddy fields, this is the title deed, if you come, our brothers can get twenty acres of paddy fields, if you don't hurry up, go back and let our father smoke you to death! ”

……

All kinds of shouts caused the city to tremble.

Hu Linyi's face turned from blue to white, and finally turned to flush.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, he opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood, and the whole person fell headlong and fell into a coma.

There was a great chaos in the city, Hu Linyi fell like the last straw that broke the camel's back, and some soldiers sneakily went down the city wall and assembled towards the east gate.

All the people in the city were terrified, and there were many of these soldiers, led by a battalion owner.

This unit suddenly launched an attack on the Hunan soldiers at the city gate, and at this juncture, everyone in the Hunan army was afraid of fighting, and the Hunan army that defected from this battalion occupied the city gate with almost no effort.

The battalion commander in his thirties waved his hand, and the heavy city gate slowly opened, and the drawbridge was raised.

"Raise the white flag, we surrender!" The camp management band said in a deep voice. This is a big gamble, if you win, you will get everything, and if you lose, you will inevitably be crushed by the Hunan army.

Hu Linyi's lieutenant found the white flag hanging at the east city gate, and the whole person was like a lightning strike.

"My lord, what should we do?" Hu Linyi fell into a coma in a fit of rage, and now in the entire Pingjiang City, he is the biggest official. However, Adjutant General Chen Weiguo did not dare to give this order lightly.

"My lord, the long-haired army has moved, and they have rushed to the East City Gate!" Needless to say, Chen Weiguo also discovered that the Wehrmacht in the long hair that terrified the Hunan army was dispatched.

"What to do? Can you win? Even if we win this time? The enemy's 200,000-strong army besieged the city, and now the hearts of the people in the city are fluctuating, and the Hunan soldiers have already lost their cohesion, and if they drag on for a day, they will be weak for a day, and the final result is that the city is broken and people are killed. All kinds of complicated thoughts circulated in the heart of Vice General Chen Weiguo, making it difficult for him to make up his mind.

"My lord, the general trend has gone, we can seize the city gate, at least there is a battalion of soldiers to participate in the rebellion, even if we can quickly assess, I am afraid that the Taiping army can also hit the city gate, with the power of their heavy artillery, it is a matter of time before the city wall is destroyed, how long can we hold on? As...... Let's go down ......, and leave the green mountains without worrying about running out of firewood. Lin Hongli, a general of the Hunan Army wearing a red military uniform, leaned over to Chen Weiguo's side and whispered. He was the general of Zeng Guofan's headquarters, and when Zeng Guofan left Pingjiang City, he did not take him away, but left him in Hu Linyi's wing, which was called assisting Hu Linyi in commanding the battle, but in fact, he was monitoring Hu Linyi to prevent him from defecting to the enemy. But he didn't expect that he was the first to propose surrender, and it seems that the people's hearts have really been lost at this moment.

Chen Weiguo thought of this, gritted his teeth and made a decision.

"Raise the white flag, we surrender. General Lin, I still bother you to go out of the city to negotiate surrender. Chen Weiguo thought about it and felt that it would be more important to let Lin Hongli, the general of the headquarters of Zeng Guofan, go.

Lin Hongli's face changed, but he didn't expect Chen Weiguo to let him go to the Taiping Army barracks as a representative to surrender, which made his eyes flash with a touch of anger and resentment. Although the Taiping army promised very well, who knows what they will face after surrendering? If the Taiping Army repents, as a representative of the peace talks, I am afraid that he will not be able to escape if he wants to.

But Chen Weiguo's eyes were staring at him deadly, if he didn't agree, I was afraid that Chen Weiguo would let his subordinates arrest him in the next second, and it would be up to him whether he was dead or alive at that time.

Lin Hongli gritted his teeth and arched his hand: "I am willing to share my worries for adults." ”

The white flag was raised at the head of Pingjiang City, and the national defense army that was heading to Pingjiang City slowed down its advance and stopped outside the range of the Hunan army at the head of Pingjiang City.

Lin Hongli took more than a dozen Hunan army officers out of the city, and the two sides quickly negotiated the conditions, Chen Weiguo ordered to open the city gate and personally led the officers above the battalion level out of the city to meet Wang Shi.

And Hu Linyi, an important general of the Hunan army in a coma, became a prisoner of the Taiping army in a daze. When he woke up in the prisoner camp and learned that the army had surrendered, he became a prisoner of the Taiping army, vomited three mouthfuls of blood, and died on the spot.