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That's often the way it is, when you're overly complacent, the undesirable things follow right away. Not long after the former army left the camp as a whole, the report that Xiangtan had been occupied by the Taiping army arrived. This time, not only Zeng Guofan, but even Zuo Zongtang was also surprised, just left Changsha for a day, and the situation would become so worse.

Zeng Guofan, who got the news, was stunned for a long time and didn't speak. At this moment, he even had a discouraged thought.

"Brother Disheng, do you want to think about a comprehensive strategy again?" Zuo Zongtang, who came with him to see off Taqibu and others, looked at Zeng Guofan beside him.

Looking at the military horses that had gradually disappeared in the smoke and dust in the distance, Zeng Guofan gritted his teeth, "You can't help but send arrows on the string, the opportunity is obtained in the fight!" ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded, and sighed in his heart, "Alas, in this world right now, these people who bet on the side of the court are actually thinking about how to win some upward capital for themselves in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even if it's yourself, why not? Let's not say that the rebels are always looked down upon and covered with all kinds of dirty words. No matter how wonderful the rebels put forward their ideas and how perfect they were, the so-called scholars would still pick out the bones from the eggs. Because they must first protect their own vested interests, without the court, they are not even as good as a lost dog. ”

"Let's go, Brother Ji Gao," Zeng Guofan pulled Zuo Zongtang who was contemplating, "Let's go back and prepare too, and we will leave the camp immediately." ”

"Oh!" Zuo Zongtang agreed, moving his steps mechanically. Changsha can't go back, and with Zeng Guofan, he can only be a hero and never return. Looking at the arrogance of Taqib and Zeng Guoquan when they went out just now, he couldn't even find a little tragic feeling, but there was a kind of contempt in his heart. It's really a newborn calf, and he doesn't know how powerful a tiger is. But when it is your turn, what else can you do?

If you want to say that Zeng Guofan is worried, Zuo Zongtang is also even more worried.

Shi Dakai is a person who is in good spirits when he is happy. Hu Yihuang and Zeng Tianyang on the East Road played smoothly in Jiangxi. Lai Hanying's department in Luzhou also began to attack northern Anhui with the cooperation of Twister, directly affecting the Jiangbei camp in Qishan, on the periphery of Yangzhou, and reducing the pressure on the Yangzhou garrison. After his army on the western route took Yuezhou, the two roads of water and drought went hand in hand, went down to Xiangyin, occupied Jinggang, and obtained a bridgehead to attack Changsha.

He ordered Wei Jun's troops to go forward to five or six miles from the north gate of Changsha and begin to build a barracks. Due to the proper preparation before the war, tens of thousands of civilians came with the army to assist the Celestial Army in transporting supplies. At this time, they also joined the ranks of building fortifications. This is what Zuo Zongtang said, the amazing scene of fifty or sixty thousand people digging trenches.

With the formation of a strong barracks, under the cover of various firearms such as guns and birds, as well as archers and cannons, the soldiers of the Heavenly Army began to dig dozens of trenches side by side, and gnawed away little by little towards the north gate in a snake. In the north of Changsha City, shovels and pickaxes suddenly flew up, and smoke and dust rose everywhere.

It was the first time Shi Dakai had used this tactic. Seeing that the Qing Demon in the city was so anxious that he went to the house, he couldn't come out to stop it, the artillery bombardment was useless, and his soldiers looked completely helpless, Shi Dakai was really happy. Thinking about the more than 100 artillery mounts that had just been brought from Tianjing, as long as the artillery in the army sat facing upward, not only could they move freely up and down, left and right, changing the single firing position in the past, but also because wheels were placed under the gun racks, they could move at will with pack horses, which greatly strengthened the mobility of the artillery unit of the Heavenly Army. Of course, there are also the shells that are newly allocated to the cannons, and according to the gunners who escorted the ammunition, these are all new flowering shells made by the new battalion ordnance, and the power is far greater than before. However, he can't look at how much more powerful it is, because these cannons have already accompanied Shi Xiangzhen's army to take Xiangtan through Ningxiang.

From Lin Haifeng's original account to him, he knew that in addition to the reasons of the Celestial Empire itself, Zeng Guofan of Hunan was the executioner who directly led to the final collapse of the Celestial Empire. Therefore, he and Lin Haifeng reached an agreement on whether to continue to develop upstream after occupying Wuchang, completely cut off the north-south connection between the Qing demons, or go down to Hunan first. That is, to go to Hunan with all his strength first, with only one purpose, to take advantage of the fledgling Hunan army of Zeng Guofan and strangle them in the cradle in one fell swoop. At the same time, because most of the Qing demon generals who have been encountered recently, such as Luo Zenan, Li Xubin brothers and others, are from Xiangxiang, this gives Shi Dakai another intention to go south this time, to enter Xiangxiang, just like what was said in the notice to the military and civilians in Changsha, to erect iron kneeling statues of these traitors to give a warning to the Han people all over the world! Therefore, he made preparations for the capture of Changsha with great fanfare and unhurriedly, waiting for the northern aid of the Hunan army.

Shi Xiangzhen led the main force of the southward Heavenly Army of nearly 20,000 horses, and first broke the interception of part of the regimental training in Ningxiang, leaving Yang Yiqing to lead a small group of men and horses to clear the remnants, and the army rushed straight to Xiangtan. The defenders of Xiangtan did not expect the Heavenly Army to come so quickly. Originally, there were not many defenders, but under the strong attack of the heavenly army with high morale and successive battles, there was almost no strength to fight back, and in less than half a day, Xiangtan was broken.

In Xiangtan, Shi Xiangzhen repaired the city walls, appeased the people, and put on the posture that the heavenly army had always held on to the city and waited for the enemy to attack. Taking advantage of the night, he ordered Yang Fuqing's two soldiers and horses, more than 6,000 people, to quietly leave Xiangtan and go straight to Xiangxiang, the lair of the Hunan army.

After dinner, Shi Xiangzhen began to inspect the doors. In fact, although he also has some literary ink, he is just like the people in the Heavenly Army often use Zhang Fei to describe him, he is an out-and-out brave person. He didn't like any "mother-in-law's little things" such as patrolling the city and urging officers and soldiers, and if it weren't for the repeated admonitions of the Winged King, if it weren't for the fear that one day he would be like the Winged King's scare, his troops would not have been reorganized into the Red Army and equipped with better weapons. Normally, such things were done by the vice-admiral on his behalf.

Now, he is riding a horse all the way, and he is still complaining to Lin Shaozhang beside him along the way. complained that Zhang Guoliang died too early, and he originally wanted to fight with him alone with a knife and a gun. Doesn't this bastard claim to be brave? Lao Tzu just likes to kill this kind of person with his own hands.

Lin Shaozhang listened to the general's complaints, and couldn't help laughing, "Alas, if you don't wait for you to go back and clean up this traitor, Tianjing may not suffer much disaster." From the point of view of humble duty, the sooner this traitor dies, the better. ”

Shi Xiangzhen took a sip, "Lao Tzu didn't complain about anything else, but he didn't expect to leave Tianjing in such a hurry. You don't know, Lao Tzu has already asked the dog thief to fight alone outside the city, who would have thought that before he could reply to the letter, the king of the east sent me out of Beijing to aid the western expedition. Maybe the dog thief laughed at Lao Tzu for hiding before he died. ”

"Haha, that's going to happen," Lin Shaozhang smiled, "This traitor was killed by artillery fire, and I guess I didn't think of anything when I died." If you really want to think about it, he still wants to fight alone with the general, and death is more glorious than being buried under artillery fire. ”

Shi Xiangzhen turned his face to look at him and smiled proudly, "I heard that Zeng Guoquan is also a good blower, and he is very arrogant." What if General Ben asked him to fight? ”

"That's not going to happen." Lin Shaozhang shook his head again and again, "Your Highness said that fighting a war cannot only be a momentary bravery, especially if you are a general, you can't be rash." Once there is a mistake, it is not a trivial matter. When we attacked Yuezhou, we didn't think about our tactics, and now that we think about it, we are still a little ashamed of the brothers who died. Fortunately, it is not the cannon that has just been replaced now, if it is this kind of cannon that has been replaced by a dozen large pieces, it will be all over. ”

"I don't like that." Shi Xiangzhen fiddled with the horsewhip in his hand and snorted, "You only saw that our own cannon accidentally injured some of the brothers, but have you ever thought about it, if it weren't for this, the brothers might have suffered more casualties." The first to climb the city were all the death squads selected by Lao Tzu in advance, and everyone knew what might happen, and they had no complaints. As he spoke, a question suddenly occurred to him. He blinked a pair of big eyes like copper bells and looked at Lin Shaozhang seriously, "I said, brother, have you noticed that we have a cannon with a new artillery rack, and it seems to be more accurate than before?" ”

Lin Shaozhang nodded, "Yes, it's much more accurate." ”

"It seems that I will have to think about the role of this cannon in the future." Shi Xiangzhen muttered, turned over and dismounted, and walked up to the South Gate Tower.

Lin Shaozhang listened to the general's self-talk, he was stunned at first, and then almost oozing cold sweat from his back, this "Zhang Fei" will not repeat any previous stories, right? That's horrible. He seemed to see Ningxiang again, where the Qing demon soldiers fell in pieces in the artillery fire.

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