The Qing army camp outside the city of Xiangzhou, Guangxi. It was already late at night, but the big tent of Guangxi Governor Lao Chongguang was brightly lit. In the big tent, Lao Chongguang sat on the handsome position, and the generals stood on both sides, and everyone had a dignified look on their faces.

"The long-haired four-eyed dog led the elite light cavalry to break into the hinterland of Guizhong, and recently attacked the Xunzhou Mansion, and will soon go north. After being silent for a long time, Lao Chongguang couldn't help but ask.

Deng Heming, the chief soldier of Liuqing Town, hugged his fists and said: "Lord Futai, the long-haired man broke into the Xunzhou Mansion to find an opportunity to meet the Xiangzhou bandits. However, although there are many four-eyed dog cavalry, there are few foot soldiers, and they must not be good at attacking fortifications. The Xiangzhou thieves were besieged in Daming Mountain for several months, and the lack of food and clothing could be broken. However, if the Xiangzhou thief has to be met by a long-haired four-eyed dog, and the two armies are combined in one place, then the four-eyed dog will have a foot pawn, and the shape will be much more disadvantageous than mine. ”

Deng Heming's words are equivalent to not saying them, and now Chen Yucheng wants to respond to He Gou, do you know the truth that the two armies will meet? Lao Chongguang then asked: "Then in the opinion of General Deng, what should we do?" ”

Deng Heming wanted to say a few words to fool the past, but he didn't expect Lao Chongguang to ask him, he was originally a military general in the Beijing camp, and he was regarded as Rong Lu's cronies, but after Cixi ordered Yixuan to take over the military power of the Beijing camp, Deng Heming was secretly demoted by Mingsheng and transferred to Liuqing Town, Guangxi as the chief soldier. This person has only not been in office for a long time, and he is not very clear about the temper of Lao Chongguang, who has been patrolling Guangxi for many years, and has followed Sai Shang'a and others to encircle and suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Later, he fought against the Heaven and Earth Society, boat bandits, the remnants of the Taiping Army, and so on, and he was a good hand at suppressing bandits, how could he be fooled with a few words?

"Lord Futai. When the whole army went south, along the north bank of the Liujiang River, Baihu Mountain, Sanmao Mountain, Panlong Mountain, Roof Mountain and other places to build a fortress to block the four-eyed dog from crossing the river, and set up a heavy ambush at the pass of the Wolf Village, once the four mountain fortresses were lost. You can lead the four-eyed dog to retreat to the Wolf Village Pass, and the four-eyed dog cavalry will be useless in the hills on all sides of the Wolf Village Pass, and my heavy troops can ambush and annihilate it. "Deng Heming is worthy of being a general who has followed Rong Lu for a long time. The vision is still very vicious, but unfortunately he missed one thing, that is, Chen Yucheng is a native of Guangxi, and he fought for a long time in Xunzhou, Liuzhou, Xiangzhou and other places. How unfamiliar is the geography here? There is another reason why Chen Yucheng did not let Chen Alin lead the team. That is, Chen Alin, a native of Fujian, did not have his own familiarity with the topography and local customs of Guangxi.

Hearing this, Lao Chongguang's old subordinate Jiang Yiyan, the Guangxi envoy, said: "Although General Deng Zongbing's strategy is feasible, if we wait to withdraw the siege of various passes in Daming Mountain, the bandits in Daming Mountain will inevitably flow everywhere, and the two years of hard work of Lord Futai will be in vain, the troops cannot be withdrawn, and the army cannot be fully moved." ”

Deng Heming said hurriedly: "He Gou's bandits have been trapped in the mountains for half a year, and the people are sleepy, lacking food and clothing, so they have come out of Daming Mountain. The regiments in various places can practice guarding the city carefully, and wait for the army to defeat the four-eyed dog. When we return to the teacher, we can wipe out He Gou in one fell swoop! The four-eyed dog is the big problem! ”

Jiang Yiyan was originally a fierce general of the Hunan army, and in the fifth year of Xianfeng, Rong Lu borrowed the Hunan army to go south to Guangdong to suppress the Tiandihui uprising, and then most of the Hunan army returned to Hunan, but Jiang Yiyan was sent to Guangxi. The reason is very simple, Lao Chongguang also has a branch of the Guangdong Tiandi Society to harass boat bandits, and He Goubei, Zhu Hongying and others made a lot of trouble, so Governor Lao went to the Qing court to ask for reinforcements. So Jiang Yiyan led his battalion of hundreds of men and horses to Guangxi to suppress bandits with Lao Chongguang. After more than two years, Jiang Yiyan really helped Governor Lao defeat the boat bandits, dispersed He Goubei, Zhu Hongying and other rebel troops, and forced them into a corner, so he did not return to Hunan and was promoted to Guangxi as an envoy.

Although Deng Heming's opinion is right, Jiang Yiyan, as an old qualified official in Guangxi, naturally can't get used to him, so Jiang Yiyan still insists on his opinion: "As the so-called snake fights do not die but suffers from it, He Gou is quite popular here, once out of Daming Mountain, it is inevitable that there will be a hundred responses, and there are tens of thousands of bandits attached to it, and the long-haired four-eyed dog is fierce, and it may not be able to break it in one drum." We should take stability as the top, send a general to lead thousands of soldiers and horses to guard the north bank of the Liujiang River, and drag the footsteps of the four-eyed dog. ”

Deng Heming was in a hurry, thousands of soldiers guarding the north bank of the Liujiang River might as well not be guarded, Chen Yucheng's troops were all cavalry, although there was a lot of terrain in the hills of Guangxi, but there were also a lot of flat land in the river valley, and the restriction of cavalry movement was not too obvious.

Deng Heming wanted to say more at the moment, but Lao Chongguang raised his hand and stopped: "There is no need to fight anymore, Benfu is determined to divide 7,000 soldiers and horses to the south to resist the enemy, and the rest of the soldiers and horses will continue to hold the passes everywhere and attack them step by step." ”

Deng Heming was a little depressed, Lao Chongguang looked at him and said: "General Deng is newly appointed, I heard that you are known as one of the five tiger generals of the new army in the new army in Beijing, can you take on the important task of going south to resist the enemy?" ”

Deng Heming was furious when he heard this, this task is to lose more and win less, didn't you, Lao Chongguang, clearly bully the newcomer? But Deng Heming had to endure this breath, the reason is also very simple, recently Rong Lurong has lost power, and the people who originally followed him have been more or less implicated, and there are not a few people who have been transferred, demoted, or even found to be corrupt and imprisoned, and it is not bad that he can be promoted from the general of the Beijing battalion to the post of general of the general army. At that moment, Deng Heming weighed for a moment, gritted his teeth and clenched his fists and said: "My subordinates are willing to send a team to the south, but please take care of Lord Futai on top of the weapons, grain and grass." ”

Lao Chongguang smiled cunningly and said, "This is natural." At that moment, Lao Chongguang deployed the generals, and Deng Heming and other generals went back to the camp to arrange the departure of the team.

After Deng Heming and the others left, only Lao Chongguang and Jiang Yiyan were left in the tent, Jiang Yiyan stepped forward and said in a low voice: "My lord, this Deng Heming doesn't know the height of the sky, and he will be defeated if he goes." Lao Chongguang sneered: "It will be difficult for these Jingying guests to wait for a mind with me, it is better to get rid of it as soon as possible, and the meaning of Shangfeng is to beat these people who are honored with the party, what five tiger generals, I think it is just a lost dog!" The two of them laughed together.

……

After Chen Yucheng led his troops out of Xunzhou Prefecture, Liankedong Township, Jintian Village and other places, after several years of reincarnation of the Taiping army, they finally returned to the holy land in their minds, Jintian Village, where the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolted. After Chen Yucheng in Jintian Village swept away the gentry and rich people who were entrenched here and colluded with the Qing army, he opened a warehouse to release grain to the poor people.

In Jintian Village and other places, the prestige of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is still quite long, it turns out that every family has people who have participated in the Taiping Army, at this moment I heard that the holy soldiers are back, they all come forward to inquire about the whereabouts of their relatives, and the endless stream of calling fathers and Lang to find their sons, the scene is quite touching, but there are too many people to make it difficult for the Taiping Army to move an inch.

In the end, Chen Yucheng had to post a notice, informing everyone that the headquarters was the vanguard of soldiers and horses, and the army was still behind, and after the arrival of the army in a few days, he could ask the army department about the whereabouts of his relatives, and said that Guangdong had been defeated, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would recover Guangxi in the near future, and then he would not leave, but all relatives who were still alive could meet Yunyun.

Subsequently, Chen Yucheng ordered the nearby gentry to come forward to form the township soldiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, hand over the defense of Jintian Village and other places to the locals themselves, and leave several sergeants to guide, and at the same time act as a liaison to contact the defenders of Xunzhou Prefecture. Although Chen Alin's large army is progressing slowly, but Jiang Zhongyuan in Wuzhou is no longer able to look westward, Chen Alin uses troops to stabilize the word, but the speed is not slow, presumably within ten months can break through Wuzhou and enter Guangxi, after Chen Yucheng finished arranging affairs, he led the troops to continue north to Xiangzhou.

On this day, Chen Yucheng led the troops to pass through the Zhuzi Gorge, and after Liankegupeng, Miaowang and other places, the Liujiang River was close at hand. However, the scouts reported that there were thousands of Qing troops guarding the other side of the Liujiang River, and they could not cross the river directly to the north, and that Xiangzhou was guarded by a Qing army brigade, so they should not take it lightly.

Later, Chen Yucheng personally went to the shore of the Liujiang River to see the deployment of the Qing army, and couldn't help laughing: "This Qing general knows that the troops are insufficient and only guards a few ferry passes, but he doesn't know that there are several places in the Liujiang River Although the river surface is wide, but after the water level decreases in autumn, it can be crossed. There's also a place where you can steal a small number of people, well, you can do that......"

In the evening of the same day, Chen Yucheng's cavalry troops crossed the Liujiang River near Daren Village in Liujiang, and after crossing the Liujiang River, they waved their troops to attack the flank of the Qing defenders. Deng Heming was caught off guard, but he had also predicted in advance, if he could not resist, the whole army would retreat to the Wolf Village Pass, where the mountains were dangerous and conducive to infantry defense, so Deng Heming led more than 1,000 men and horses in his headquarters to break through and escape to the Wolf Village Pass while it was dark, and left the remaining 6,000 men and horses for the Taiping army to capture prisoners.

When Deng Heming ran to the pass of Wolf Village out of breath, he did not find any trace of more than 100 Qing troops stationed here. It turned out that Chen Yucheng sent a battalion of cavalry to smuggle across the river from the upper reaches and captured the Wolf Village Pass before Chen Yucheng raided Deng Heming's troops. Facts have proved that there are countless ways for the locals to cross a river, after all, this is their territory, and many officers of the Taiping Army are from Guangxi, will they get lost fighting in their hometown? Deng Heming was terrified, but he still waved his troops and resisted stubbornly.

The two armies fought until dawn, Chen Yucheng's brigade swept the north bank of the Liujiang River and rushed to the Wolf Village Pass, seeing that the Qing army was stubbornly resisting, although it was at a disadvantage, but the rejection of the horses was quite orderly, and the soldiers did not retreat. Originally, if there were cannons, this kind of dense stacking of cannons could destroy it, but the Taiping cavalry did not have cannons.

After Chen Yucheng ordered people to surround the remnants of the Qing army, he ordered people to come forward to persuade him to surrender, but he was greeted by Deng Heming with a bow and arrow a few times and was forced to retreat. Chen Yucheng was furious and ordered the cavalry to dare to die to immediately step forward and throw grenades into the stacked formation to break the formation. After killing more than a dozen cavalrymen, the Taiping army finally relied on grenades to blow up several gaps in the stacked formation, and finally the Taiping army's saber completely collapsed the Qing army. (To be continued......)