"The marshal is polite, the duty of a soldier is to obey orders. The subordinates also had to send troops to familiarize themselves with the artillery, and the subordinates retired. Lu Guangda gave a new-style military salute and turned away calmly.

Lu Guangda left, and Li Xiucheng's face was a little difficult to look at.

"Too arrogant, what do you mean by the King of Heaven? Let his people form artillery, and make it clear that he doesn't believe us! Li Shixian said indignantly.

"Don't say it, this is the end of the matter, even without artillery, 20,000 rifles and plenty of ammunition are enough to resist the enemy's attack." After all, Li Xiucheng is Li Xiucheng, and he adjusted in a short time and began to think about how to use these 20,000 rifles.

Li Shixian was still a little indignant. It wasn't until the personal letter of the winged king Shi Dakai was delivered to Li Xiucheng and the king that the two were relieved. Hong Tiangui naturally does not distrust them, otherwise he would not have given them a large number of weapons and ammunition, although Li Xiucheng is a handsome talent, but after all, due to the restrictions of this era, these artillery pieces will definitely be dispersed to the various armies in his hands, which is simply overkill, especially the thirty-six Franc Jishan cannons, which were obtained in the Changsha Xiang Military Treasury, which had just been imported from the West not long ago, and the butter on the guns had not been wiped off. If it weren't for the tension of the war in the East, Hong Tiangui would be reluctant to send it to the East.

Although the East was tense, neither side started a war lightly. The place where there is real war in the Kingdom of Heaven is in the southwest, and Zeng Guofan, who was driven out of his lair, was unwilling to lose, and after adjusting for a period of time, he personally led 30,000 elites to detain the pass.

Chen Yucheng only had two divisions in his hands, and he had to disperse the defense of Hunan and southern Jiangxi, the defense line was long, and the troops were scattered. The people of the city were slaughtered, and the evil deeds were heinous.

Chen Yucheng was furious, concentrated the strength of a division, adopted the method of a roundabout battle, marched 200 kilometers in one day and one night, bypassed the mountains and entered Guangxi, cut off Zeng Guofan's retreat, and the army went straight to Guilin.

The actions of the Taiping army frightened Zeng Guofan, and with the place of Guilin, Zeng Guofan must not be lost.

Zeng Guofan didn't care about anything else, and hurriedly withdrew his troops to help.

What Zeng Guofan didn't expect was that Chen Yucheng didn't pounce on Guilin at all, that force was just a full regiment disguised, and Zeng Guofan, who was in a hurry, was ambushed by Chen Yucheng.

The two sides fought fiercely, in the face of the situation of being surrounded and ambushed, Zeng Guofan went into battle shirtless, personally took the lead in rushing and killing, under the impact of his fierce death, part of the main force of the Hunan army broke through and fled to Guilin in embarrassment.

Chen Yucheng's face was full of regret, and he only sighed that the sky was endless. All the Hunan soldiers who lost their commanders were captured.

In this ambush operation, the Hunan army was killed by 5,000 people, seriously wounded 3,000 people, surrendered about 13,000 people, and with less than 9,000 people breaking through the siege of Zeng Guofan, it can be described as a brilliant victory.

Just when the whole army was cleaning up the battlefield, the good news came from the front again, the army that was sent by Li Xiucheng to disguise the main force of the army set up an ambush for the second time, with 3,000 people to ambush the 9,000 Hunan army, although the gap between the troops is large, but the Hunan army has just been defeated, morale is completely lost, and the 3,000 ambush soldiers are waiting for work, a fight, the Hunan army broke through again, according to the war report, the Hunan army commander Zeng Guofan was shot and the life and death are unknown, the Hunan army broke through less than 5,000, died 2,000, captured 2,000, and expanded the results again.

When the war report came, the whole country rejoiced, and Hong Tiangui was overjoyed, and ordered the newly established Propaganda Department to vigorously publicize it, and at the same time ordered people to send a large number of materials to the front line.

Zeng Guofan's defeat was undoubtedly another heavy blow to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and there was a voice of condemnation above the court, even if it was Prince Gong? was also silent, and even Prince Gong felt that this failure should not be. At the same time, I was completely disappointed in Zeng Guofan.

In response to this defeat, the Manchu government passed a decision with rare efficiency, Zeng Guofan was removed from his post as governor of Liangguang and transferred back to Beijing to be investigated, and the imperial court appointed Zuo Zongtang in the southern region of Fujian as the new governor of Liangguang and authorized him to establish the Chu army, while sending the Manchu minister Niu Colu Hongtai as the overseer.

According to the Empress Dowager Ci'an, she can only feel at ease when the Manchus are in charge of this army, if it weren't for the fact that there is really no one to be made up among the Manchus, how could the identity of the governor of these two Guang not fall on Zuo Zongtang.

This big victory was hearty, and Chen Yucheng urgently requested 800 miles to enter the Gui.

Hong Tiangui was also extremely moved, but after considering the pros and cons, he still decided to temporarily withdraw his troops, except for the strategic retention, all other towns in northern Guangxi were abandoned.

The foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven is too thin, if it weren't for the fact that the early war was extremely smooth and the seizures were abundant, it would have been impossible to support it until now, and there was still plenty of room to support it, seeing that the Great War in the East was about to break out, the Hunan army was no longer afraid, and the Huai army and the foreigner army in the east were the big troubles, and Hong Tiangui was not carried away by other victories.

Chen Yucheng was extremely sorry, but based on the overall situation of the Kingdom of Heaven, the British king also believed that Hong Tiangui's decision was correct, but although the British king retreated, he implemented the strong wall and cleared the wilderness, and the people of the five counties north of Guilin were all forcibly relocated to Hunan by Chen Yucheng, and other materials were all transported away, and those that could not be transported were completely destroyed, and the national defense army retreated, leaving the Hunan army with an empty and ruined county town.

It's a desperate plan.

This gave Zuo Zongtang, the newly appointed governor of Liangguang, a headache. Without a population, there would be no taxes, and all the needs of the army would have to be raised from elsewhere, which would undoubtedly add a lot of trouble.

Guilin Governor's Palace, dressed in cloth, Zeng Guofan, whose right arm was hanged, looked at his former colleague with a wry smile.

"Brother Ji Gao, the world is impermanent, it is empty in a blink of an eye, in just one year, Brother Wei has gone from being a marshal with hundreds of thousands of troops to a criminal minister, which is sad and lamentable!" Zeng Guofan's face was full of bitterness, since the long hair changed to the king, the originally dying tiger suddenly became fierce and fierce, and he wiped out hundreds of thousands of Hunan troops in a row, and made him, a handsome Hunan handsome, homeless, and now he has to be sent to Beijing for questioning. This time he went north, Zeng Guofan had already anticipated his fate, and he had something to say to this junior colleague, but he didn't know how to speak.

"Brother Bohan, there are a lot of risks in going north this time, before coming to Guilin, I have already whipped celebrities to go to Beijing to find someone to mediate, Brother Shaoquan will not sit idly by, our Han ministers shed blood and sweat for the Qing Dynasty, we can't just ask about the guilt and not the merits." Zuo Zongtang said in a deep voice.

Zeng Guofan's face showed a touch of gratitude, if Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang jointly protected each other, although he was frustrated in going north this time, he would not lose his life.

"Brother Ji Gao, I don't thank you for my kindness, if my brother can turn over this time, I will definitely repay my help today." Zeng Guofan said seriously.

"Brother Bohan is polite, I am obligated to do so."

In order to ensure that Zeng Guofan could get out safely when he went north this time, with the acquiescence of Zuo Zongtang, there were hundreds of people who followed Zeng Guofan to the north this time, and he brought dozens of boxes of property alone, which was all the belongings that Zeng Guofan took with him when he left Hunan.