Liang Huafeng was defeated at the Benniu River, tens of thousands of horses were lost, and only more than 600 cavalry fled back to Changzhou with him. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Hearing that Liang Huafeng was defeated, the university scholars in Changzhou City were so frightened that their faces were colorless, and they couldn't speak fluently. After seeing Liang Huafeng, he hugged him and cried bitterly, and said repeatedly: "What to do now, what to do now?" ”

How does Liang Huafeng know what to do, most of his soldiers have lost most of them, and at present, in addition to a few hundred cavalry, there is no way to put together a defender in this Changzhou city, how to defend it?

On the side of the Taiping Army, since the victory of the Benniu River, the Taiping Army's Northern Route Army did not stop for a moment, and the infantry and cavalry joined forces to quickly advance to Changzhou City.

The new town from Liyang, Nanjing, is in the town of Jiangwang. Under the command of the auxiliary minister, he arrived in Yixing in two days. As soon as the Taiping army arrived, Hu Yongkuan, the county magistrate, Wu Wenjia and others immediately opened the door and surrendered.

After appeasing the Yixing gentry and posting the people, Wang. The auxiliary minister immediately led the cavalry east into Changzhou, occupied Zhongxi on the 24th, and marched into Wujin County on the 26th. Like Yixing, the Wujin gentry did not resist stubbornly and surrendered in Kaecheng. On the 27th, the Taiping Army of the North Road and the Taiping Army of the West Road joined the city of Changzhou, and more than 15,000 soldiers and horses surrounded the city of Changzhou, but the south gate was opened.

Surrounded by three queyi, Liang Huafeng knew that the Taiping army left the south gate and did not besiege it, but let the defenders in the city have no intention of defending it. But at this time, he had no intention of keeping Changzhou anymore. In the early morning of the 29th, the south gate of Changzhou suddenly opened, and hundreds of Qing cavalry surrounded Liang Huafeng and fled desperately to the south, apparently to flee to Suzhou.

King. The auxiliary ministers wanted to lead the cavalry to chase and kill, but Zhou Shixiang had a handsome order to come, saying that the poor Kou Mo chased and let Liang Huafeng go to Suzhou.

After Liang Huafeng and Esehei fled, Zhou Angui, the prefect of Changzhou, and others went out of the city with the gentry in the city to surrender Huang Bo, and so far, Changzhou has been restored.

Zhou Shixiang asked Zhou Angui to remain the prefect of Changzhou, ordered the people to be reinforced, and strictly ordered the Taiping army to enter the city not to invade the people, and ordered all the Changzhou young men who were captured in the Benniu River to be dismissed, and ordered each to return to his own home. The men in the family were dragged away by the Qing army, and they burned incense and prayed, hoping that the Taiping King of the Ming Dynasty could Yongzhen Jiangnan, no longer like the previous Zheng Jun.

........

After Liang Huafeng and Esehei escaped from Changzhou, they first fled to Wuxi County, stayed for a long time and felt unsafe, and fled to Suzhou overnight. The people of Wuxi described the Qing army that escaped from Changzhou as "the northern soldiers were frightened and terrified."

In fact, Liang Huafeng is indeed like a frightened bird now, with the wind and the cranes, and the grass and trees are all soldiers. What made him even more panicked was that he didn't know if Suzhou's Guan Allegiance would admit him into the city. However, knowing that Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu were hostile to him, Liang Huafeng had to go to Suzhou because he had nowhere to go.

Arrived at the city of Suzhou, Esehei personally called the door, Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu were taken aback after getting the report, the two discussed that Liang had not many soldiers and horses, and there was no threat to Suzhou, and now Changzhou has been lost, and the Taiping army will inevitably attack Suzhou next, so Liang Huafeng can be put into the city to help defend. After all, there are still hundreds of cavalry in the Liang Division, and they can come in handy at critical times. Besides, if the people are not allowed to come in, the emperor will know that there will be no good fruit for them to eat.

In the past, Liang Huafeng was a great enemy of life and death, but now he is the object of cooperation. The world is changing, it's really impermanent. This ending is really as Zhou Shixiang expected earlier, under the pressure of the Taiping Army, Liang and Guan will definitely huddle together to keep warm.

However, after Liang Huafeng was put into Suzhou City, he swallowed his soldiers and horses because he was worried that Guan Allegiance would harm him, so he asked Esehei to say to Jiang Guozhu and Guan Xiaozhong that he would vacate the military camp alone in the city for him, and he and his soldiers and horses lived in the military camp, and said that he was not loyal to his subordinates, and this time he came to Suzhou only to assist in the defense, so he would not participate in any military discussions. If he needs to send troops, he only needs to have someone deliver the military order.

Guan Xiaozhong knew that Liang Huafeng was afraid that he would poison him, so he smiled coldly and ordered someone to vacate a vacant land in the west of the city to place Liang Bu. Esehei is a native of Manchuria, a cabinet scholar, and has no military power, so Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu are polite to him.

Jiang Guozhu came forward to invite the governor of the Yamen to have a banquet, and the black forehead came happily, and Guan Xiaozhong and Yan Shaoqing, the prefect of Suzhou, sat with him.

At the banquet, Jiang Guozhu knocked on the side, deliberately finding out whether Liang Huafeng had a secret decree given by the emperor from the forehead black, and the forehead black insisted that it was all provoked by the Ming army. No, he insisted that he didn't, but Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu were even more determined that Liang Huafeng had a secret decree in his hand, otherwise why would Liang Huafeng be so wary of them after entering the city. If there is no ghost in his heart, can Liang Huafeng do this?

Guan Xiaozhong even guessed that the eight achievements of the secret decree were brought by the black from the camp, but even if this is the truth, now is not the time for the fire, because the current Suzhou City is already a powder keg, and it can't withstand a little spark.

After the Taiping army captured Changzhou, it had marched to Wuxi, and the front probed the Malay newspaper that the Taiping army brigade had entered the Wangting of Suzhou Prefecture, and would wave troops to attack Hushu Pass at any time. Suzhou City is now panicked, many people privately conspire to dedicate the city, if it were not for Jiang Guozhu and the prefect Yan Shaoqing's strong bomb pressure, I am afraid that Suzhou would have been self-defeating.

Zhou Shixiang was pleased with the smooth use of troops in Changzhou, and when he was in Wuxi, he received an express delivery from Guangzhou, and the prison country had set off for the north under the protection of the pro-army, and now he had entered the territory of Jiangxi. Therefore, Zhou Shixiang wanted to take Suzhou in one go, completely pacify Jiangnan, and take Jiangnan as a congratulatory gift for the enthronement of the southern capital. At the same time, the secret report of the Military Intelligence Department was also sent to Zhou Shixiang's hand, and Zhou Shixiang only smiled contemptuously at Lian Chengbi and others for obstructing the behavior of the prison country to the north, and it was not a matter for the people around him to be corrupt.

Zhou Shixiang wanted to take Suzhou quickly, and then returned to Nanjing to meet the prisoner and his party. The day after the army advanced to the Lookout Pavilion, it snowed heavily. In the land south of the Yangtze River, there is very little snowfall in winter, and the snowfall is generally in the cold winter wax moon, but it snows at the end of winter at this time, which is really rare.

The heavy snow affected the movement of the army, and Zhou Shixiang had to order the whole army to rest and recuperate on the front line of Wangting. At the same time, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, and Changzhou were urgently ordered to make winter clothes quickly.

In the heavy snowfall, Zhou Shixiang was also waiting, waiting for Liang Huafeng and Guan Zhong, who fled into Suzhou City, to fight. Although this possibility became very small under the pressure of the Taiping army, it was not ruled out that it would not happen.

What Zhou Shixiang didn't expect was that he didn't wait for the news of Lai Guan and Liang Huo, but received a secret letter from another group of people in Suzhou City.

On the third day of November, Zhou Shixiang secretly met with several Qing generals who had sneaked out of Suzhou on Yangcheng Lake in the north of Suzhou. (To be continued.) )