Although there is no howling north wind in Changsha in early spring, the cold ice and rain outside the window still make people have to continue to wear cotton jackets and winter clothes in the cold winter season.

Zeng Guofan threw down the battle report in his hand and looked at the people below with a cold face.

"It's only been a few days, and this Hanyang has been lost, how long can Wuchang be defended like this?" Zeng Guofan seemed to be asking himself, and he seemed to be asking everyone under his command.

However, many of the generals of the Hunan army below and the staff of Zeng Guofan did not say a word, and the situation was so bad that they really had nothing to say.

Since the conquest of Jiujiang, the Chinese army has divided into two routes, one to the south of the Fourth Army to Nanchang and other hinterlands of Jiangxi, and the other to the Fifth Army along the west of the river.

No matter which way, it was overwhelming, and the fierce offensive caused some of the remnants of the Zhenhu army and the Hunan army in Hubei to retreat.

Not long ago, Zeng Guofan got the news that the Chinese army had captured Nanchang, which was abandoned by Lin Chengting, without bloodshed, and several other important towns in Jiangxi, such as Ganzhou, were captured one after another, and more of them surrendered on their own initiative.

There is no way, Lin Chengting himself has run away, you can't expect the remnants of the other Zhenhu Army and the officials under his command who were abandoned by Lin Chengting to resist desperately No, except for a few who went west to chase Lin Chengting, most of the others surrendered.

The Chinese army made smooth progress in Jiangxi, and its advance into Hubei was also not greatly hindered, and a large number of local officials and defenders immediately took the initiative to surrender wherever the Fifth Army of the Chinese Army passed, and the few recalcitrant forces were also crushed by the Fifth Army.

Up to now, the Fifth Army of the Chinese Army has marched from both sides of the Yangtze River at the same time, the troops on the south bank have arrived in Wuchang, and the troops on the north bank have already conquered Hanyang and other important towns on the north bank.

In addition, Henan's First Army also sent a part of its troops south from Wusheng Pass to reinforce the Fifth Army's operations in Hubei.

After the Chinese army conquered Hanyang. The main force has completely surrounded Wuchang and launched a battle of encirclement and annihilation, and the old army such as the new army of more than 20,000 Hunan troops and the green battalion of more than 10,000 people in Wuchang has reached the point of exhaustion.

It is not that they are short of ammunition and food, but with their weapons and the quality of all aspects, they are simply unable to resist such a huge siege by the Chinese army.

Once Wuchang is captured, the loss of the city and land is nothing, and the more important thing is that the Hubei side has gathered most of the main forces of the Hunan army. After these main forces were annihilated, Zeng Guofan could no longer muster enough troops to resist the next attack of the Chinese army.

The military predicament made Zeng Guofan unable to see the slightest hope, and in the face of the westward advance of the Chinese army, Zeng Guofan even felt more desperate than in the face of the westward advance of the Taiping army at that time.

In addition, more importantly, the dilemma faced by the Hunan army is not only a military defeat, but also a political turmoil that is the biggest trouble for Zeng Guofan now.

Since Beiping was broken, Xianfeng died, the crown prince Zaichun was captured, and Prince Gong surrendered voluntarily, the news has spread to Huguang and other southwestern regions. It greatly shook the morale of the local army.

There were even many die-hard elements of the Manchu Qing Dynasty who, after learning of Xianfeng's death, hung beams or swallowed gold or opium at home.

Many local officials heard that the Chinese army was coming, and immediately announced that they would surrender to the Chinese Empire anyway, and this situation was especially serious in the areas facing the front line, and Huangzhou, Hanyang and other prefectures and counties in the north of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province surrendered voluntarily.

Why did they surrender?

Because they all see the general trend of the world!

These officials are not ignorant ordinary peasants or ordinary citizens, even if these people have read a few history books casually, they can generally deduce from the current domestic situation: Lin Zhe has no suspense about the unification of Kyushu. The only thing to memorize is how many years will it take to be completely unified, a year? Three years or five years?

But no matter what. In this world, no one can stop the pace of the Chinese army, and no one can stop Lin Zhe from unifying Kyushu.

In this case, they once again shouted words such as 'those who know the times are handsome, and good birds are perched on trees', and then they threw themselves into the big family of the Chinese Empire without hesitation.

This kind of surrender did not only occur among the local officials, but even among the Hunan army. The more than 3,000 Hunan troops stationed in Hanyang surrendered voluntarily, and then changed into the uniforms of the Chinese army, and these new soldiers in the Hunan army became soldiers of the Chinese army, and then pointed their guns at their former allies.

"Is this trend really irreversible?" Zeng Guofan looked at a large group of subordinates who did not speak, sighed deeply and walked to the door. At this time, there was still a drizzle outside the door, and the cold air on his face made Zeng Guofan tremble slightly.

After half a ring, he turned around: "We can be regarded as serving the Holy Lord to the end, and now even Prince Gong has sent a letter to persuade us to surrender!" ”

Speaking of this, Zeng Guofan once again swept through everyone, and saw that many people's faces showed ecstasy, and it was obvious that these people had been waiting for him to say these words for a long time.

In this turbulent situation, Zeng Guofan suspected that if he insisted on not surrendering, before the Chinese army came over, the generals under his command would have to kill themselves first.

"The people of Huguang have suffered enough, let this end in our hands!" Zeng Guofan said as he returned to his main seat, and continued: "Contact them, the back road of tens of thousands of soldiers still has to be arranged!" ”

"Your Excellency is wise!" After Zeng Guofan said these words, although a few of the people below showed sad expressions, most of them still showed joy.

Everyone knows the current predicament, Hanyang has been lost, Wuchang can not hold for a few days, and when Wuchang is overcome, more than 20,000 Hunan army and the main force of the new army are annihilated, the Hunan army will not be able to continue to fight with the Chinese army at all, and then Hunan will be the same as Jiangxi, and the Chinese army will be quickly captured like the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves.

At that time, there will be no difference between surrendering and not surrendering, and even the people of Huguang will suffer more wars.

Of course, there were elements of serving the imperial court, but the most important thing was to protect the people of Huguang from the Taiping army and protect the Confucian culture in their hearts from being affected.

Now the Chinese Empire has completely replaced the Manchu Qing Dynasty as the new dynasty of China, and the new Chinese Dynasty did not persecute Confucianism as much as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and China encouraged the restoration of Han traditions, wearing Hanfu, even if it was the reform of the imperial examination, but still attached great importance to Confucianism, not only the imperial examination still attached importance to the study of scriptures, but even those new schools still took the study of scriptures as the main subject.

More importantly, the Chinese dynasty did not exclude, and can even be said to have welcomed, Confucianism.

This is important for many Confucian students.

Zeng Guofan can't find a reason to continue to resist now?

Zeng Guofan is different from Lin Chengting in the end, and he is also different from Du Xing'a.

Duxing's foundation is in the Manchu Dynasty, and he himself is the representative of the Manchu Dynasty, so Duxing'a and the Chinese Empire are incompatible, water and fire are incompatible, if he is not sick and dead in the Shanhaiguan Army, but Duxing'a will never surrender.

Lin Chengting is purely unwilling to endure it, since he rebelled out of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he has been bent on dreaming of hegemony in Kyushu, even after the defeat in Jiujiang, he still did not let him give up this ambition, and at the same time, Lin Chengting's control of the Zhenhu Army is not comparable to Zeng Guofan.

The Xiangyong under the command of Zeng Guofan was not a force of Zeng Guofan alone, but a combination of the Huguang scholar group, a unit that combined multiple regimental training, and the Hunan army was a group of multiple forces, not a separate individual.

And more importantly, Zeng Guofan cherished the people of Huguang, and he did not want to see his hometown destroyed by the war.

So Zeng Guofan chose to resist until the last moment, then lay down his arms and surrender.

Of course, although Huguang and Yunnangui are the rear of the Hunan army, it does not mean that Zeng Guofan can completely control these areas, for example, in Hunan, in addition to Zeng Guofan, there is another person, that is, Huguang Governor Guanwen, this is a serious Manchurian.

As a result, when Zeng Guofan made up his mind to surrender, more than 5,000 Hunan troops in Changsha entered the Governor's Mansion of Guanwen, and nearly 2,000 pro-troops under the command of Guanwen, that is, the New Army Association of the Governor of Huguang, had a fierce exchange of fire, and finally entered the Governor's Mansion to capture Guanwen.

Since Zeng Guofan has decided to surrender, he has to come up with some courtesy, otherwise how to let the Chinese army treat tens of thousands of soldiers of the Hunan army well in the future.

Soon after, Zeng Guofan's envoy arrived outside Wuchang City and officially handed over Zeng Guofan's letter to Lin Chengfei, the commander of the Fifth Army of the Chinese Army.

The next day, the recalcitrant Hunan army in Wuchang surrendered en masse!

Five days later, a cavalry unit of more than 300 men of the Fifth Army arrived in Changsha, Hunan, and then, as the representative of the Chinese Army, Changsha directly entered Changsha under the watchful eyes of nearly 10,000 Hunan troops.

Three days later, Zeng Guofan led many high-ranking generals such as the Hunan Army and high-ranking officials from Huguang to Wuchang and formally submitted a surrender to Lin Chengfei, the commander of the Fifth Army.

At this point, the Hunan military system under the leadership of Zeng Guofan officially declared allegiance to the Chinese Empire, and Zeng Guofan got on the warship of the Chinese army and then went east along the Yangtze River, where he was going to Nanjing.

At the same time, the Chinese army also launched the integration of the Hunan army!

The Chinese army already has a lot of experience in the integration of the Chengcheng troops and the prisoners, and this time the Western Expedition is also expected to capture a large number of prisoners, so the Military Training Department, which is responsible for the reorganization of the troops, has sent a number of senior officials to advance with the Western Expedition troops.

and began to reorganize the Hunan army and other Qing troops such as the Green Battalion, which would add at least 20,000 newly trained soldiers to the empire. (To be continued.) )