Staff member He Zongjun is a Changsha person, and his hometown is about to suffer a military disaster, which makes his heart rise, and he retorted loudly: "The military book says that our army is now fierce, and it should be attacked, enter Changsha, and annihilate this batch of short-haired people in Hunan, which can not only boost the morale of the army, but also hit the morale of short-haired, take the heads of this group of short-haired people and put them under Jiujiang City, what reason is there not to attack Jiujiang!" ”

The rest of the staff are all Hunan people, and they all advocate continuing to march into the army, Li Xubin compared the two ideas, and intellectually let him choose the former, but considering that his hometown was about to suffer a military disaster, the squire of Yueyang admired him, so he decided to advance to the provincial capital Changsha desperately.

"The whole army immediately rushed to the aid of Changsha!" Li Xubin shouted, a delay of a moment will be more dangerous in Changsha.

On January 13, Li Xubin sent a Hunan army to stay in Yueyang, personally led the main force to attack Xiangyin, intending to enter Changsha from Xiangyin through Wangcheng, on January 15, through a day's onslaught, the Hunan army suffered 500 casualties, occupied Xiangyin, and the rest of the Taiping army left in the city were all killed. On January 17, Li Xubin sent people to stay in Xiangyin and march to Jinggang Town, Wangcheng.

Seeing the camp of the Han army in Jinggang, Li Xubin realized that the short hair did not attack Changsha, and he breathed a sigh of relief, and camped five miles outside the town.

Jinggang Town is located in the northwest of Wangcheng. Li Jing, a general of the Tang Dynasty, once garrisoned the army here, because he managed the army in a good way and never harassed the people, so the descendants renamed this place Jinggang.

Chen Yucheng has already been waiting here, and in just seven days, Chen Yucheng has stationed nine masonry barracks outside the town, guarding by the river. All the people in the town fled, and the Han army set up an ambush.

Staff member Zeng Guohua found Li Xubin and persuaded: "The river in Jinggang Town is wide, and our army has no water division. Don't fight, retreat to Xiangyin. Waiting for reinforcements. ”

Li Xubin did not intend to retreat easily, and chased this group of bold and reckless thieves for nearly a month. His patience reached the limit: "The thief army can fight, I can also fight, if I retreat, not only will my army's prestige be lowered, but it will also be pursued and killed by the enemy." ”

He Zongjun said: "There are only heavy troops stationed in Wuchang nearby, it is better to ask the governor to send an army to suppress it, there is a strong city in front, and there are heavy troops in the back, and it is difficult to fly with short hair." ”

All the friends nodded together. No one will dislike that they have too many soldiers.

Li Xubin immediately wrote a letter asking for help:

There are 5,000 people in the subordinate department, and the number of troops left behind is 3,000 because of Yueyang and Xiangyin. And they are all tired divisions, and there are many thieves in the Jinggang area, so please send an army to suppress them. In this way, the thief has nowhere to escape, and success or failure is blunt, and it is not calculated.

The next day. Li Xubin divided his troops into three routes and launched an attack on the nine fortresses outside the town, and fought fiercely for a day. The Hunan army suffered more than 500 casualties, and the defenders were all remnants of the Taiping army. Unable to bear the casualties, they all retreated to the town.

On this day, all the elites in Changde and other places rushed to Jinggang to surround the Hunan army camps.

Every day, the Hunan army had to bear huge casualties, the camps became fewer and fewer, and the encirclement became smaller and smaller.

Wu Lirong proposed to let Li Xubin take advantage of the strength of the Hunan army to quickly withdraw his troops: "The world can do without us battalion officers and brave soldiers, but it can't do without a general like Li Gongyou, please break through, the last general will lead the troops to cover to the death, even if you are highlighted, we will die without regrets." ”

Li Xubin looked at all the battalion officers with solemn expressions, and said: "This is a bad word, the reason why the anti-thieves are so powerful is because the officers and soldiers fled on the battlefield, not only the anti-thieves are arrogant, but also disgrace the imperial court, the only thing I can do now is a bloody battle, do more blood sincerity, and encourage the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty to persevere with the anti-thieves to the end." ”

Zeng Guohua admonished: "I didn't expect that in just a few days, the short hair actually expanded the army several times, it is really a death for us, now Changsha itself is difficult to protect, if you want to break out of the siege, you can only ask the governor to send troops, take a boat from Wuchang day and night, and you can arrive at Jinggang in less than three days, so we still have a glimmer of life." ”

Li Xubin laughed miserably, doesn't he know what kind of person Lu Dao Guanwen is? Can he send troops?

Zeng Guohua saw that Li Xubin didn't think so, so he opened the skylight and said brightly: "General, you sent someone to ask for help from Wuchang, but in fact, you are asking Zeng and Hu for help, just to give the officers and soldiers more hope, so that they will resist desperately and delay for a while." ”

Li Xubin said to Wu Lirong and He Zongjun: "When our army attacks south, you take the opportunity to jump into the river and flee for your lives...... Do not come back. ”

"General!" The eyes of the two were red, and seeing Li Xubin's resolute attitude, they had no choice but to take the order.

Compared with Li Xubin's despair, Chen Yucheng was very surprised that they could hold on until now, and immediately realized that this group of Hunan troops was unusual, and he called prisoners for interrogation, only then did he understand that the Hunan army in the encirclement was all Zeng Guofan's starting troops, and the generals above the rank of officer were all Xiangxiang people.

Tan Shaoguang said with a smile: "This gang of thieves is like our first army, all of them are composed of veterans, annihilating this gang of thieves, the Hunan army will inevitably be greatly injured, morale will drop greatly, and our army will be able to defeat the Hunan army in one fell swoop by taking the opportunity to counterattack." ”

Liu Lichuan has also gained knowledge in recent years, and hugged Chen Yucheng with a smile, "If the Hunan army is defeated because of this, my Han will take advantage of the northern expedition and capture Beijing at that time, the general will be the first merit, and the time to seal the marquis is just around the corner!" ”

Although Chen Yucheng is old, he is still only sixteen years old, and a trace of smugness inevitably appeared on his face, and he said with a smile: "The offensive of the Hunan army just now was unusual, and it almost allowed them to break through the encirclement, and they must double their defense in the future, their food and grass are running out, and in another seven or eight days, our army will be able to attack on a large scale, and it will also be a great achievement to capture Li Xubin alive at that time." ”

Wu Lirong and He Zongjun hurried day and night, with the support of the Xiangyin defenders, they rushed to Wuchang outside the city on the third day, He Zongjun hugged his fist to Wu Lirong and said: "This siege of Jinggang is all my bewitchment of the adults to enter Changsha and rise, although I know that the official is greedy for life and afraid of death, I still have to go into the city to try, I don't believe that he dares to risk the world, refuse to send troops, you wait outside the city for two hours, if I haven't left the city in the evening, it proves that I was killed by the official text, you don't have to wait, continue to go east to ask Zeng Gong to find a way." ”

Wu Lirong laughed miserably: "Zeng Dashuai is thousands of miles away, even if he sends troops to rescue him, it is too late for you to let me live in secret, how can I do this?" ”

He Zongjun said: "I asked you to tell Zeng Gong the actual situation, so that he can know how we were defeated and died, this is all caused by official documents, shouldn't Zeng Gong be wary of him?" You don't have to say any more, it's up to you whether you go or not, and I'll go into the city." (To be continued......)