More than 100 Qing soldiers squatted on the ground outside Xiangyang Town, many of them were pale, wearing shabby gray cloth cotton jackets, and the outside was the Qing army's uniform, I don't know if it was because the cotton jackets were not thick enough, a kind of Qing soldiers were shivering in the cold wind. Surrounded by more than 100 Taiping soldiers armed with knives and guns glaring angrily. These Qing soldiers were frightened, they didn't know what their fate would be, and they shuddered when they thought of the cruel methods they used to capture the Taiping prisoners in the past, and the Taiping army would definitely retaliate.

After a while, a group of Taiping troops came quickly, and after a Taiping army general led by him said a few words to the Taiping army commander who was guarding the prisoner, the captain shouted a few times in Guangxi dialect, and the two groups quickly exchanged positions.

The Qing prisoners were a little frightened, and the new Taiping army seemed to be even more vicious, everyone was armed with steel knives, and the vicious tiger surrounded a group of Qing prisoners, like a firing squad.

The general of the Taiping Army stepped forward and shouted: "Wait for the Qing demon to listen, if you want to live, you have to work hard!" What do I say, what do you do! Otherwise all beheaded! The Qing soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, it turned out that they had come to imprison them for work.

At that moment, the Taiping army general ordered a group of Qing troops to go to the northeast, and when they arrived at a small road outside the town, they saw that a group of Taiping troops here were marching to the northeast one after another, and many Taiping soldiers shouted: "Rush to Quanxi Town, ambush the demon head!" ”

One of the Qing army was taken aback, this person's name is Yu Zhifeng, his ancestral home is Anqing, he followed his uncle to Sichuan to seek a life when he was more than ten years old, and later forced to make a living, ran to the green camp as a soldier, and has been following Xiang Rong to suppress bandits, know some words, and have some knowledge after many years of fighting. In the battle of Liaotian Town, seeing that the momentum was not good, he changed into ordinary soldiers' clothes early, and surrendered with everyone, and the Taiping army did not identify it. At this moment, Yu Zhifeng was taken aback when he heard that the Taiping army was going to go out to fight Quanxi Town, he also knew that after Chashu Town, there was only Quanxi Town on the Leishui that could cross eastward, although he didn't know the situation of Xiang Rong's army at the moment, but he could see that the Taiping army seemed to want to ambush Xiang Junmen in Quanxi Town.

The work that the Taiping army arranged for the Qing army to do was to carry grain, and the journey was not short, and it had to go north after passing Pingtouling. Along the way, Yu Zhifeng was spying on the movements of the Taiping army, planning to find an opportunity to escape.

The team marched to Miaoling, and a group of dozens of Qing soldiers appeared in the field of vision, saying that it was also strange that the escorted Taiping army did not seem to plan to come forward to fight, and fled south as soon as they shouted and dropped dozens of grain trucks and captured soldiers. The Qing prisoners cheered together and quickly threw themselves into the arms of their own families.

After being rescued, Yu Zhifeng immediately revealed his identity, and the general who led the Qing army to explore the horses knew him, and immediately waited politely, and distributed food and water to everyone for a full meal.

After eating and drinking, Yu Zhifeng said that there was a confidential military information of the long-haired thief, and the general horse was divided into several horses to escort Yu Zhifeng to the Xiangrong camp, while the rest of the people escorted the grain cart back.

Soon after Yu Zhifeng left, a group of Taiping cavalry came over, and the Qing army could not resist, so they had to lose the grain and grass carts and scatter for their lives.

said that Yu Zhifeng rushed to Xiang Rong's camp and told him what he saw in the Taiping Army. Xiang Rongyan's face changed greatly when he heard this, if the Taiping Army tightened their pockets everywhere and set up an ambush in Quanxi Town, he would really be fooled. asked how many long-haired thieves there were in the south, and Yu Zhifeng only said that there were only more than 2,000 people.

After thinking about it again, Xiang Rong ordered him to visit Quanxi Town, followed by a few words to appease Yu Zhifeng, and ordered him to go down to rest.

Two hours later, Tanma reported that there were indeed long-haired thieves in Quanxi Town, and most of them were arranged on the opposite bank, and the mountains on the opposite bank were dense and dense, and I didn't know how many people there were.

At present, the military situation is like fire, and then let the Taiping army calmly arrange, he will be trapped here, Xiang Ronghu is uncertain, Zuihou made a wrong judgment, he knows the cunning of the Taiping army's puppet king of the West, must have set up a virtual army in the south, the purpose is to deceive himself into breaking through to Quanxi Town, so that he can fight himself there and attack a half. He still has 7,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, so why should he be afraid of 2,000 long-haired thieves in the south? It is better to be safe or to concentrate troops to break through by land to the south. After paying attention, Xiang Rong immediately ordered the whole army to rise up and desperately break through to the south.

At dusk, the forward army of Xiang Rong rushed to the line of Siye Mountain, Niuwan Ridge and Pingtou Ridge, and after a hurried meal, they immediately launched an attack on the Taiping army on the mountain. When Xiang Rong's handsome banner appeared on the battlefield, it was almost dark, and Xiang Rong ordered all the armies to temporarily retreat and camp for three miles to wait and see what happened.

On the other side, Xiao Yungui and Zuo Zongtang were overjoyed when they heard that the Qing army had turned south. It turned out that the Qing army prisoners were pretended to be released in the morning, just to let the Qing army prisoners bring false news to Xiang Rong, and only more than 200 Taiping cavalry on the side of Quanxi Town rushed over to set up a suspicious formation, bluffing on the other side, making Xiang Rong think that it was a dangerous trap over there.

After knowing that the strategy was successful, Xiao Yungui immediately listened to Zuo Zongtang's strategy and sent people to send a message to Lin Fengxiang and Ji Wenyuan, so that their two troops and horses could quickly cross the Xiangjiang River, seize Xinwushan, Miaoling and other important places outside Dongyang Town, and further compress the encirclement of the Rong Army.

Seeing that the Taiping army on the mountain also had fierce artillery fire, Xiang Rong beat a drum in his heart, and seeing that the sky was dark, he had to withdraw his troops for the time being. Although he is cunning and suspicious by nature, it is his suspicion that makes him lose Zuihou's chance to break through. If he ordered the Qing army to forcibly break through at this moment, the Taiping soldiers in the south would be sleepy and lacking, and the camp would also be hastily created, so he might be able to break through, but it was his suspicious nature that he planned to investigate clearly and then make a decision, so he wasted a night's precious time.

After collecting the troops, Xiang Rong thought about it repeatedly, and he began to wonder about the Taiping Army's arrangement of ambushes in Quanxi Town, and asked Yu Zhifeng in detail. Xiang Rong asked very carefully, and when he heard that before taking Yu Zhifeng and other prisoners to transport grain, the Taiping army changed a group of detainees, Xiang Rong was shocked and began to notice that something was wrong. It's just a matter of transporting grain and sending a personal order, so why do you need to change a group of people to guard it? Obviously, he intended to let Yu Zhifeng and the others go.

Thinking of this, Xiang Rong couldn't sit still anymore, and immediately ordered the horse to go to Quanxi Town to investigate, this time he must investigate clearly, the best thing is to find a boat to cross the water to the other side to investigate.

Xiang Rong, who was restless, began to feel like a thorn in his back, walked out of the camp tent, and saw the bonfires on the mountain to the south from a distance, and countless black shadows of the Taiping army swimming in the mountains.

After anxiously waiting for more than an hour, the scout horses sent out finally returned, but they went out for more than 100 rides, and only more than 20 riders came back. The temple ridge north of the main road led by the troops was also occupied by the long-haired thieves, and they could not pass, but fought a battle with the cavalry of the long-haired thieves, and lost more than 70 people.

Xiang Rong's eyes were dark, he almost fainted, the temple ridge was occupied, and even the road to Quanxi Town was cut off, and his more than 7,000 people were trapped in this narrow gap that was only six miles from east to west and eight miles from north to south. After calming down a little, Xiang Rong immediately summoned the generals of all ministries to come to the discussion.

In Xiang Rong's big tent, Xiang Rong's Goshha raised a pot of charcoal, and the whole big tent was warm, but the Qing army generals in the tent were gloomy.

After Xiang Rong said the current situation, all the generals were worried in their hearts, and now they were surrounded by mortal enemies and long-haired thieves, which was something that had never happened before, not to mention that they were surrounded by the extremely fierce pseudo-king of the West, and no one dared to say whether they could escape, and it was surprisingly quiet in the big tent for a while.

Xiang Rong sighed and said in a deep voice: "Ben Shuai has been fighting for half his life, Henan Tianli Sect, Northern Xinjiang Zhang Ge, Xinning Li Yuanfa, Guangxi Tiandihui, all kinds of bandits and thieves have defeated Ben Shuai's opponents, and they have never been bullied in more than 100 battles. At present, the long-haired thieves are surrounded by the north and the south, and the east and west are Leishui and Xiangjiang, the situation is critical, and the danger is like a tired egg, and the commander has no military strategy to arrange. The only plan now is to lay down a heart, work together up and down, hold the courage to die and be born, defeat the land to the south, and seize a bloody road, so that you can have a chance to live! Tonight, all the soldiers will rest for a good night, and after a full meal at the fourth watch tomorrow morning, all the troops will move forward, not breaking through the place in front of them, and vowing not to quit! The soldiers were killed and wounded, the general was on the list, the total number of dead and wounded, the thousand on the general, the thousand on the death again, on the garrison, in short, the commander was in the battle formation, and the whole army was not allowed to retreat! Only in this way can we break through the shackles of the trap and escape, otherwise we will die without a place to be buried! Do you know it?! ”

The generals in the tent heard that they were all in a desperate situation, and only a desperate battle could survive, and they no longer hesitated at the moment, and they hugged their fists together and led their lives loudly, and they were all waiting for tomorrow's breakthrough battle.

It's not that Xiang Rong doesn't want to break through at night, but among the Qing army under his command, there are more firearms, and most of his subordinates are Yunnan, Guichuan and Guangxi Green Battalion soldiers, according to the Qing army military system, every 1,000 Qing soldiers, there are 200 archers, 600 shotguns, 600 firearms, 100 rattan soldiers, 100 artillery soldiers and swords, and less than 1,000 battalions, according to this number decreases. In other words, more than sixty percent of Xiang Rong's soldiers used firearms and artillery, and breaking through the siege at night could not give full play to the maximum effect of firearms and artillery.

Therefore, Xiang Rong can only wait until dawn, hoping to rely on the benefits of powerful firearms to open a bloody road.

On the other hand, the Taiping army took advantage of this night to strengthen the camp defense, dug several trenches, planted bamboo sticks all over the place, rejected horses, and arranged to stop, and the Taiping army units also rested on the spot for a night, waiting for tomorrow's fierce battle.

In this cold winter night, more than 10,000 people on both sides quietly waited for the dawn and the arrival of death.