After winning the first battle, Zuo Zongtang did not want to cause more trouble, and after robbing Huangshi, he wanted to bypass Ezhou and continue to go north.

But who knew that Li Henian was actually a ruthless person, and he actually engaged in a strong wall and a clear field from the north of Ezhou.

Although it was because of the hasty layout, Qingye was not very clean.

The mud-legged people in the suburbs have not had time to go up the mountain, and there are still a lot of food reserves in the village.

But Zuo Zongtang was unwilling to take this grain.

Zuo Zongtang's troops said that it was the Chu army, but it basically had nothing to do with Hubei.

The old foundation of the Chu army is Hunanese, plus a small number of recruits from Zhejiang and Fujian, so there is no psychological burden in robbing in Hubei.

Before breaking Huangshi, Zuo Zongtang came to torture the operation.

The soldiers are like grates, and the disadvantages of this old warlord are of course shared by the Chu army.

If the Chu army really had the ability to move like a mountain army, Zhu Fugui would not be able to sleep.

Besides, this time they went to the Western Regions to do the work, and it was not something that a humble gentleman could do, and they were not ruthless enough, so it was impossible to succeed.

It's just that Zuo Zongtang is still a face-saving person after all, and it's okay to ask the squire to "borrow" some grain, if he really wants to grab the little food in Dousheng Xiaomin's mouth, he really can't do it.

He prefers to buy grain.

It's a pity that under Li Henian's ghost, Chu Jun couldn't buy anything even if he had money for a while.

The Chu army is rich.

When he was in Jiangxi before, Liu Kunyi only sent a small part of the grain, and Zuo Zongtang bought a lot of it with his own money.

The reason why Zuo Zongtang is rich is naturally because of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to the previous stock dividends, Zuo Zongtang's white-glove Hu Xueyan also raised a huge sum of 15 million taels of silver.

In history, Zuo Zongtang recovered the Western Regions, and the Qing court actually only gave him 5 million taels of silver for military expenses.

The military expenses of the Chu army mainly relied on the 18.7 million silver borrowed by Hu Xueyan.

And now, the 15 million taels of silver raised by Hu Xueyan are basically not borrowed, but the family funds saved by the Chu army in these years by buying and selling people and selling goods.

Of course, Zuo Zongtang's current identity is a thief, and he can't borrow much money.

Daming declared war on Russia too hastily and did not give Hu Xueyan a chance to borrow money, he sold a lot of assets to get this military spending.

This can be said to be stud.

Hu Xueyan was originally a person who liked stud, otherwise he would not have lost so badly in history.

However, in this life, Hu Xueyan has visited Daming and seen the high-rise buildings in Fengdu City and the roar of machines in the shipyard.

He believes he will never lose.

And even if he loses, the big deal is to run away with Zuo Dashuai and go to Fengdu to be a millionaire who relies on stock dividends and waits for death.

·

The so-called house leak happened to rain overnight, and when the Chu army detoured to Liangzi Lake, it rained heavily for three days in a row.

The muddy roads made the march of the Chu army even more difficult.

In addition, the people who formed villages in Hubei to protect themselves also distrusted this guest army, and even shot the Chu army scouts who went to negotiate to buy grain.

In the end, the Chu army walked out of the lake area in exhaustion.

At this time, the 50,000 Chu troops at the time of departure had been reduced by more than 6,000, and the 130,000 people had run nearly a quarter.

When the sun broke through the clouds, the long-lost sunlight shone on Zuo Zongtang's dark and old face, and he squinted his eyes and looked in the direction of Wuchang.

"Pass the order down, spread the scouts widely, rest the army in place for a day, cook tomorrow, march to the army, and go to Wuchang at the end of the day!"

"Yes! Handsome! ”

The herald conveyed Zuo Zongtang's order, and after a while, the Chu army began to set up a simple rest camp.

At this time, Liu Songshan and Master Bai came together.

Liu Songshan asked: "Dashuai, what is the attack method of this Wuchang City tomorrow?" ”

Wuchang is not as good as Ezhou, and there is no way to get around.

More than 100,000 people want to cross the river, and they must take Wuchang.

Not only must we take Wuchang, but we must also take Hanyang and Hankou.

Only by holding the three towns of Wuhan can it be possible to take advantage of the Yangtze River and the Han River to directly send materials to Shaanxi.

Liu Songshan understands the art of war, and knows the truth that the Pingxi Regions must first level Ganshan, and Pingganshan must first get Wuhan.

He said: "The gunpowder brought by our army was soaked in rain a few days ago, and if we use the method of blowing up the city wall, I am afraid that we will have to delay drying the gunpowder for a few days." ”

"It doesn't matter, Wuchang City is solid, it can't be taken down immediately, tomorrow our army just needs to besiege and not attack."

Zuo Zongtang stroked his beard and said, "Before the old man set off, he wrote a letter to Changsha Wang Kuishi (Wang Wenshao character Kuishi), inviting him to enter Wuchang together.

As for the grain and grass, the two of them don't have to worry too much.

Although the people fled and lost a lot of food before, we had two meals a day during these days, and there were a lot of rations left, which was enough to besiege Wuchang for twenty or thirty days.

Moreover, Xueyan must have been raising grain and grass in Huzhou, Jiaxing and other places these days, as long as Zhu Ming can open up water and land, our army will definitely not worry about the shortage of grain and grass.

As for Kuishi, there is no shortage of grain in Hunan, so it must come with enough food. ”

The Wang Kuishi in Zuo Zongtang's mouth is Wang Wenshao, who was a staunch ally of Zuo Zongtang in history to pacify the rebellion.

Now south of the Yangtze River, it is one of the few "leftists".

Even Wang Wenshao called Zuo Zongtang a lowly position in his letters, indicating his subordinate status.

It's a pity, as the saying goes, three lives are unfortunate, and the county is attached to Guo; Three lives do evil, attached to Guo provincial city.

Wang Wenshao, the governor, was even more unlucky than the provincial capital attached to Guo.

What kind of place is that in Hunan?

It was the base camp of the Hunan army, and it was the hometown of Zeng Guofan, the current governor of Sichuan, Luo Bingzhang, the former governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Zuo Zongtang, the former governor of Hubei, Hu Linyi, and so on.

Wang Wenshao, the governor, can really manage very limited places, and it would be good if the government decree could go out of Changsha.

If it weren't for Tan Tingxiang, the governor of Huguang who placed the yamen in Changsha, he had just died of illness a while ago, and Wang Wenshao would not even be a mascot.

Now that he has taken over Tan Tingxiang's political legacy, he can finally put together a team of soldiers and horses to follow Brother Zuo north to eat meat.

Wang Wenshao has already made up his mind, if he can really defeat the three towns of Wuchang, he will not return to Hunan.

Instead of being the governor of Hunan who didn't have the birds, it was better to enter the mansion of Chu to be a prefect of Wuchang and provide logistical support for Zuo Zongtang's army of the Western Expedition.

All in all, even if he raised troops in a hurry, Zuo Zongtang had already made all the calculations as much as possible.

Hearing Zuo Zongtang's detailed explanation of the current form, Liu Songshan and Master Bai couldn't help but admire: "Lord Gaozhi! ”

"Hahaha, it's not that the old man is modest, in terms of layout and strategy, if someone on my left is second, I'm afraid no one in the world dares to say that he is the first!"

Zuo Zongtang twisted his goatee, revealing a little smugness, "Long live the Zhu family, which is a soldier, but if you talk about strategizing, the old man is actually more than enough to be an emperor." ”

has real talent and real learning, but he is also arrogant, and he has insight into the tense but can't suppress his hot temper, if he lacks any side, this is not Zuo Zongtang.

Zuo loves to pretend to be forced and does not overturn Zong Tang also stroked his palms and laughed this time, cheering for himself, "In the old man's opinion, Wuchang will be Ke within ten days, and Xiangyang will be ...... within twenty days."

Boom –

Boom –

Boom Boom Boom –

The old left pretended to be halfway through, and suddenly he only felt that the ground was shaking, and there were bursts of muffled thunder from afar, as if the sky was falling.

"Thunder on the ground, why is this so? Could it be the Rolling Dragon? ”

Zuo Zongtang hurriedly climbed to a high place, raised the clairvoyant mirror to look, and saw that a puff of smoke seemed to rise in the direction of Wuchang, but because the distance was too far, he couldn't see it at all.

After a long time, a tall horse galloped towards a scout.

"How can there be such a good horse in our army, it must be a Tartar spy!"

The Chu army was just about to release the guns, and the scout hurriedly rolled off his horse, showing the token and checking the password, while shouting: "The city is broken, the city is broken!" ”

"What city is broken?"

Zuo Zongtang couldn't care about comfort, ran up with a group of personal soldiers, and asked eagerly, "What did you say about the city being broken?" ”

The scout hurriedly replied, "Of course it's Wuchang City!" ”

"Nonsense!"

Zuo Zongtang was stunned and said angrily, "The Wuchang city wall is three feet high, made of bricks and stone rammed earth, and it is extremely strong, how can it be broken?" Didn't you deceive us? ”

"Dashuai, how can you have the courage to do this! It is Ming Lijian, it is Ming Lijian people who rely on strong ships and cannons, and ten thousand cannons blow up the city wall of Wuchang.

Dashuai, the old men of Ming Lijian said that they are not manpowered, and they don't look down on those beggars, so let's hurry into the city!

By the way, you look at the lowly horse, this is the Danshan military horse of the Ming master, they think the villain can't drive a motorcycle, and reward the lowly one! ”