The next day, Tao Enpei, the old man, took the initiative to ask to see Xiao Yungui and Zuo Zongtang, and the two were happy for a while, thinking that the old man had figured it out, but he didn't expect that after meeting, Tao Enpei proposed that he should govern Hengzhou and benefit the people, but he was resolutely not subject to the official position of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and said that he would take care of the people with cloth clothes.

Xiao Yungui secretly laughed in his stomach that this stubborn old man did something to take off his pants and fart, but he didn't force him too much, as long as he was doing things for himself, it didn't matter what his identity was. immediately agreed to Tao Enpei's request and asked him to act as the governor of Hengzhou and share some of He Zhenchuan's government affairs.

In a few days, more than 3,000 Qing army captives were divided and disintegrated, and more than 1,000 soldiers and bullies were identified and beheaded. Nearly 600 soldiers who smoked big cigarettes were sent away, and the Taiping army gave them some food and let them return to their hometowns. More than 1,400 people joined the Taiping Army, and after cutting off their braids and changing into Taiping Army uniforms, these people seemed to become very energetic, and their waists seemed to be straightened.

Among these Qing soldiers, Guangxi and Guangdong soldiers accounted for half, and the rest were Hunan soldiers and Sichuan soldiers, as well as a small number of soldiers from the northwestern provinces. He also recruited 4,000 young men into the army in Hengzhou and enriched them into various armies. And the wounded more than 2,000 Taiping troops, after the injuries healed, most of them were able to return to the battlefield, and the number of the Taiping army in the West Temple did not shrink, but swelled to more than 15,000 people at once.

After seven days of rest, Changsha came to praise the Heavenly King and the Eastern King, and all the armies were promoted, except for Li Yiwen, who was promoted by two levels, and the rest of the people were promoted to one level. At the same time, war reports continued to come from various places, and compared with the great victory on the southern front, the battle situation on the other fronts was mixed.

More than 5,000 people from the Northern King Wei Changhui Department of the Western Front and Jia Hengjin from the Phoenix Hall of the Qing Army and more than 6,000 Qing soldiers from the Yongsui Association Deputy General Qu Tenglong fought in Ningxiang west of Changsha, Jia Hengjin and Qu Tenglong originally had only 3,000 soldiers, but after arriving in Hunan, they joined more than 2,000 Guizhou soldiers and hundreds of regiments from Xiangxiang to practice, and the strength reached more than 6,000 people.

And this regimental training from Xiangxiang was the Hunan army set up by Luo Zenan and his disciple Wang Zhen under the funding of Zhu Sunyi, a famous scholar Liu Rong and others in Xiangxiang County, which is the predecessor of the Hunan army.

But where is the fledgling Hunan army the opponent of the elite Taiping Army? After Wei Changhui led 5,000 troops to Ningxiang, Jia Hengjin, Qu Tenglong, Luo Zenan, Wang Zhen and others were consolidating the outer city defense of Ningxiang. Seeing this, Wei Changhui immediately ordered the soldiers and horses in the north hall to pounce on the Qing army barracks in three ways, and broke through eight barracks of the Qing army. Two hours after the battle, the Taiping army annihilated more than 2,000 Qing troops, and the remnants fled to Xiangxiang for refuge.

In this battle, the Hunan army, like the general regimental training, was not the opponent of the Taiping army at all, and was beaten to the point that the pot was completely lost, Wang Zhen was seriously injured and almost died, and only half of the men and horses fled back, which can be described as a very miserable defeat.

After Wei Changhui occupied Ningxiang, he did not take advantage of the victory to pursue, but suddenly went north to threaten Yiyang, which made the Qing army very nervous, and mobilized the soldiers and horses who were originally going to Xiangyin to garrison Yiyang to defend the town. When Wei Changhui's troops arrived in Yiyang, they saw that the Qing army was well defended and had no way to take advantage of it, so they had to retreat.

The east road Shida marched into the army very smoothly, Liuyang was conquered by him within a day, the Qing army Hebei town chief soldier Wang Jialin was killed, Taqib was seriously injured, and was rescued by his subordinates. Shi Dakai joined forces with the Heaven and Earth Society Righteous Army led by Zhou Guoyu.

In the direction of Liling, the uncle Lai Hanying led a large army to besiege Liling City, and the Qing army generals Jiang Zhongyuan and Zhang Guoliang were deployed outside the city, and fought with the Taiping army for many days, winning and losing each other, forming a stalemate.

When Yang Xiuqing heard that Lai Hanying's army couldn't take the small Liling City, he couldn't help but be furious, and urgently dispatched Shi Dakai to lead the troops to help.

After Shi Da opened his troops and horses to Liling, he immediately divided the troops into three ways and went straight to the Qing army camp in the north of Liling City, Zhang Guoliang fought desperately, and he was about to be defeated, at this moment, the Qing army brigade led by Xu Guangjin arrived, and Qin Dingsan, the general of Zhenyuan Town, Li Mengqun, the prefect of Xunzhou, Kailonga, the general Ren Dagui, Chang Lu and other generals led their troops and horses to attack the flank of the Taiping army.

Shi Dakai saw that the Qing army was fierce, so he had to order his soldiers and horses to retreat and engage the Qing army brigade. The two armies fought fiercely for a day, and each other won and lost, so they had to withdraw their troops.

After a few days of stalemate, the news of the loss of Hengzhou came from the south, Xu Guangjin and others were panicked, and Xu Guangjin hurriedly ordered Xiang Rong to wave troops to recapture Hengzhou. However, three days later, after receiving the news of Xiang Rong's defeat, the morale of the Qing army was greatly depressed, and all the generals had the idea of retreating, and they all persuaded Xu Guangjin to retreat to Youxian or Chenzhou, so as to avoid the advance of the Taiping army, so as to prevent the Taiping army in the south from going north to encircle.

Only Jiang Zhongyuan had another opinion, he advised Xu Guangjin not to retreat, otherwise the court would blame it would be a disaster to lose his official position, and the Taiping army would not really go south in this battle, and only proposed to let Xu Guangjin lead a group of soldiers and horses to retreat to Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and receive the help of Jiangxi soldiers and horses, and he was willing to lead the troops to defend Liling.

When Xu Guangjin was in a dilemma, there was good news from the north, Hunan Governor Zhang Liangji, Liping Governor Peng Yulin, and Hubei reinforcements Li Rui and Shuangfu were in Xiangyin Dapo North Road Taiping Army Qin Rigang and Hu Yihuang Division, and the troops reached the bank of the Liuyang River, directly threatening Changsha.

After Xu Guangjin got the news, he dispelled the idea of fleeing south, divided his troops and stationed them in Pingxiang, and asked the imperial court to mobilize reinforcements to march eastward, intending to fight with the Taiping army in Liling.

Yang Xiuqing was also taken aback when he saw the defeat of the North Road, but he did not expect that the Qing army on the North Road, which seemed to be the weakest, was defeated by the Taiping Army, which was really unexpected, and immediately he ordered Qin Rigang, Hu Yihuang and others to garrison the banks of the Liuyang River, and sent messengers to urgently recruit Xiao Chaogui, the king of the West, to lead the troops back to Changsha.

It was an old acquaintance Luo Outline who came to pass on the edict of the King of the East, and after reading Yang Xiuqing's letter, Xiao Yungui already understood the general situation. While beckoning Luo Outline to sit down and discuss the matter, he showed the letter to Zuo Zongtang, and walked to the map on the table to read it.

After reading the letter at a glance, Zuo Zongtang said in a deep voice: "At this moment, Changsha is in danger, Liling has restrained the soldiers and horses of the Wing Hall and most of the soldiers and horses of the East Palace, Liling insists on attacking, the Qing army will not be able to hold it, and then the road to the east into Jiangxi Province can be opened, the Wing Palace soldiers and the East Hall soldiers can not withdraw from the siege, otherwise the Qing army is very tricky to press from the east, and the North Palace soldiers in the west want to monitor the West Road, and they cannot move lightly, but the South Road is a big victory, there is no large Qing army around, and the East King draws the West Palace soldiers back to help, and it is also a last resort. In Zuo's opinion, it is better to return to the teacher as soon as possible. ”

Xiao Yungui originally wanted to take advantage of the situation to go south to Guangxi, but now Changsha is indeed in danger, and the king of the east has issued an edict, and Hong Yun'er is still in Changsha, so he can only return to Changsha first. In an instant, Xiao Yungui put Hong Yun'er's safety in the first place.

After pondering for a while, Xiao Yungui asked Luo Outline, "Brother Outline, how is your water camp practiced?" ”

Luo Xuan got up and hugged his fists and said: "There are already hundreds of large and small ships, and there are 3,000 soldiers and horses in the water battalion, all of which are old generals and young generals, all of whom are waiting in Xiangtan. ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said to Zuo Zongtang: "Then we will go back to Changsha, but this king does not plan to fight with Zhang Liangji and Peng Yulin, they occupy the north bank of the Liuyang River, and they must have occupied the dangerous point a long time ago, and they have spread the camp widely, just waiting for us to run into a wall." After this king arrives in Xiangtan, he will advance by land and water, go north along the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, make a detour to attack Xiangyin, and force Zhang Liangji and Peng Yulin to return to the division to rescue, what does Mr. think? ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said: "This strategy is feasible, but if the king of the west mobilizes the water camp, does it still need to be explained to the king of the east?" ”

Xiao Yungui touched his chin and muttered: "That's it, this king and the outline brothers led the horse team back to Changsha to meet the king of the east first, and the gentleman and the generals led the troops to the rear, and went north after gathering in Xiangtan." Hengzhou was handed over to Zeng Tianyang and He Zhenchuan to lead 3,000 soldiers and horses to guard, and 2,000 wounded soldiers stayed in Hengzhou City to recuperate. ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled slightly, knowing that he handed over Hengzhou to Zeng Tianyang and He Zhenchuan Shou, just to get rid of the two, so he nodded and said: "Old General Zeng is the right person. ”

At that moment, after Xiao Yungui summoned the generals and said about returning to Changsha, he and Luo Xuan led hundreds of horse teams to return to Changsha first, and Zuo Zongtang and the generals sorted out the equipment, grain and grass, and baggage and then followed up.

After crossing the Xiangjiang pontoon bridge that day, Xiao Yungui first went to the West Hall Mansion of the Governor's Yamen to find Hong Yun'er.

I haven't seen her for a long time, Xiao Yungui really misses her a little, and Zaijian Jade is the same, and he is a little relieved in his heart.

Hong Yun'er knew that Dongwang had recruited him back to Changsha, but she didn't expect him to come back so quickly, so she hurriedly greeted him and said in surprise: "Why did you come back so quickly?" ”

Xiao Yungui said with a smile: "My wife and children are in Changsha, I heard that Changsha is in danger, of course I have to rush back." ”

Hong Yun'er's face turned red, muttered who is your wife, and then frowned: "The Qing army in the north is fierce, and it is dangerous to build a camp in the north, it seems that it is planning to trap Changsha City for a long time." Then he approached and whispered: "Just like the history of later generations, like setting up a large camp in the north and south of Jinling City, do you have a good strategy to break the enemy?" ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said with a smug smile: "Of course there is, you don't look at who Young Master Ben is, I'm so hungry, get some food first, after I'm full, I will go to see the East King and tell him the strategy of mobilizing the water camp to break the enemy." ”

Hong Yun'er snorted and ordered Li Xuanji and Yang Dongqing to go to the kitchen to get some food, and she accompanied Xiao Yungui to talk.

Xiao Yungui said the strategy he discussed with Zuo Zongtang, and Hong Yun'er sighed lightly after pondering for a while: "It turns out that you still have to go north, your plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao is too close, or you will fight farther, and simply fight Yuezhou." ”

Xiao Yungui was slightly startled, and after a moment of silence, he said happily: "Four-eyed sister, I didn't expect you to be right." ”