Introduction: "Hu and Lai Erwei besieged Huangzhou with heavy troops. Wu Zhijun asked me to send troops to Hunan as soon as possible. Green camp, the headquarters did not dare to move lightly, so he could only invite his brother out of the province. ”

。。 Luo Bingzhang wants to rely on Wang Zhu to maintain the overall situation.

"Futai Rongyu, after the first battle of Chenchen and Yong, there are only more than 4,000 people left in Chu Yong. If you go out of the province to help Huang, you must recruit new brave people and it will not be successful. ”

。。 Wang Zhu looked at the opportunity to talk about the conditions.

What is Zeng Guofan doing at this time?

The news that the Taiping Army's westward expedition broke Luzhou was reported to Wu Wenrong stationed in Huangzhou as soon as a spark.

Wu Wenrong was outnumbered and lonely, knowing that he was invincible, and immediately wrote a secret letter to his protégé Zeng Guofan to express his determination to fight to the death with the coming enemy, and at the same time vented his complaints and dissatisfaction with the authorities. Send the letter to the horse as soon as possible.

The letter said: "I will stick to it, and when you go east, you will do it." Now forced by people, he will repay the country with a death, and there is no hope of recovery. The army of water and land trained by the king must have a little certainty, and then he can come forward to meet the enemy. I can't go down to the east. The overall situation in the southeast, the king is alone, and he must be serious, and he is afraid that there will be no successor in the future. I get along with you, and it's different. ”

It can be seen from the letter that Wu Wenrong is most afraid that his protégé, under the coercion of the imperial court, hastily dispatched troops to destroy the overall situation of suppressing bandits, resulting in the replacement of the country and the god of Hong becoming the lord of the people. If this is the case, this eastern empire will be completely finished.

After sending the letter away, Wu Wenrong shook his spirits and supervised the soldiers to take strict precautions. He also sent an official letter to Chonglun, the governor of Hubei, ordering him to quickly divide his troops to aid Huangzhou and attack the Taiping army.

Chonglun received an urgent letter, but he just sneered and did not send a single soldier.

The 50,000 Taiping army began to storm the tiny state of Huangzhou. Wu Wenrong did not dare to slack off, and personally went to the city to supervise the battle.

After a fierce battle for half a day, they were finally outnumbered, and the city wall was bombarded by the Taiping army. The defenders of the city began to flee for their way.

Wu Wenrong saw that the general trend had gone, and he kowtowed three times in the north, and jumped down from the city tower to be loyal to the country.

Hu Yihuang and Lai Hanying, the overseers entered Huangzhou, hoping to gain something, but it was an empty city.

As early as when the Taiping army broke Luzhou, Wu Wenrong had already moved all the men and women in the city to other places; Grain, grass, money, and other things were also put in the caves outside the city. The grain and grass left in the city were only enough for the army and soldiers for half a month. When the Taiping army attacked the city, Wu Wenrong knew that it was impossible to hold Huangzhou, so he rushed to the city before it was broken, and ordered the soldiers to set a fire, which not only burned all the grain and grass, but also burned many houses.

At this time, the grain and grass of the Western Expeditionary Army were already insufficient, and the two generals Hu and Lai wanted to replenish supplies after breaking Huangzhou. Huangzhou was in such a situation that the two of them were so angry that they almost vomited blood.

After only one night in Huangzhou, the Taiping army pounced on Hanyang.

Guarding Hanyang was Tang Shuyi, the envoy of Hubei. Seeing the Taiping army rushing like ants, Tang Shuyi divided the soldiers and horses into two, one held the city, and led the other out of the city to meet the battle; At the same time, Qi Shuyi urgently sent a letter to Chonglun and Qinglin, who were guarding Wuchang, asking for troops to come to help.

After three days and nights of fierce fighting, Tang Shuyi was seriously injured all the way, and the defenders in the city had run out of ammunition and food. But reinforcements were nowhere to be found.

In the middle of the night, Tang Shuyi led the remnants to break through and was killed by five shots at the edge of a dense forest. Early the next morning, Hanyang was broken by Lai Hanying.

When Hu and Lai Er were in Hanyang to catch the strong, pageant women, look for grain in the military land, open the treasury to get gold and silver, and loot on a large scale, Zeng Guofan received an urgent oracle.

The edict said: "In the past, because the thieves disturbed Anhui, the edict repeatedly ordered Zeng Guofan to set up ships and cannons, supervise Chu Yong, enter the river from the lake, and attack Anhui by land and water. On this day, according to Yuan Jiasan's request, the governor of Zeng Guo led the troops and ships and cannons from Jiujiang to Anqing, Anhui, and engraved the words that the number of thieves is not much, or the first to return to Anqing, or the thieves can return to the road. Luzhou is a key point in the north and south, and now it is occupied by thieves, so it is necessary to take advantage of the respite and hurry up to suppress the thieves. Zeng Guofan set up ships and cannons, and recruited thousands of Chu Yong, at this time the forgiveness was ready, immediately complied with the order, quickly sailed from the Yangtze River to Anhui, together with Hechun, Fuji, water and land together, north and south attack, quickly extinguished the adverse atmosphere, in order to comfort the memory. ”

The Hechun mentioned in the holy decree is the governor of Jiangnan. Anhui was in a hurry, and he was ordered to go to the aid of spring and stationed in Chuzhou. Luzhou was in an emergency, and Hechun led the army to reinforce and was blocked. The blessing mentioned in the holy decree is the successor governor of Anhui.

When this decree was issued, Xianfeng obviously did not know that the Taiping army had broken through Huangzhou and Hanyang, and was about to fight Wuchang and Hunan.

When the holy decree arrived in Hengzhou, Luo Bingzhang, who was in Changsha, also received an emergency fire ticket from Huangzhou from Wu Wenrong at the same time. Wu ordered Luo to urgently allocate troops to aid Huang.

Luo Bingzhang then invited Wang Ju to the governor's yamen and said: "Hu and Lai Erwei are besieging Huangzhou with heavy troops. Wu Zhijun asked me to send troops to Hunan as soon as possible. Green camp, the headquarters did not dare to move lightly, so he could only invite his brother out of the province. ”

Wang Ju said: "Futai Rongyu, after the first battle of Chen and Yong, there are only more than 4,000 people left in Chu Yong. If you go out of the province to help Huang, you must recruit new brave people and it will not be successful. ”

Luo Bingzhang smiled and said: "Zeng Shilang's army of water and land is about to leave the province, and most of my Hunan grain has been taken away by him. My brother recruits new bravery, where will the food come from? The ministry thought that if the elder brother could train the existing Chu Yong neatly, it would be a great achievement. The elder brother will return to the camp now, select three thousand strong from the four thousand Chu Yong, and go out of the province to reinforce the army within five days. Huangzhou is already in an emergency, and if the elder brother delays it any longer, I am afraid that he will miss a big deal. ”

Wang Ju still insisted on saying: "Lord Futai is generous, since ancient times: if there are few soldiers, you will be lonely, and only when people can they become an army." If you go out of the province to fight, there are not 10,000 people, but at least 6,000! 3,000 people out of the province, not only can not solve the siege of Huangzhou, if they fall into the siege, they will not be able to protect themselves! ”

Luo Bingzhang's face sank and said: "Zeng Shilang has written to the headquarters many times, and has repeatedly said that the soldiers are not expensive, and the courage of the new set is not trained, and it is easy to collapse when the thief is found. The current Chen and Yong suppression of bandits is an example. The ministry has always regretted that it couldn't listen to his old good words in the first place! ”

Wang Ju saw that Luo Bingzhang's face was gloomy as if it was going to rain, so he didn't dare to be stubborn anymore, and whispered: "Please Futai make it clear that the remaining 1,000 people will be eliminated or left in the provincial capital?" ”

Luo Bingzhang didn't think about it, so he threw out a sentence: "Don't leave any of them, all of them will be laid off and go home!" ”

Wang Zhu saw that Luo Bingzhang's tone was very different from before, and hurriedly got up to say goodbye.

Luo Bingzhang sat still, but said in his mouth: "Zeng Shilang turned around a lot of papers, all of which are related to my brother. After the elder brother returns to the camp, he must be strict with the camps, and if there is any illegal incident, the headquarters will definitely play the court and punish him severely! ”

As soon as Wang Zhu heard this, he was so frightened that he sweated like rain, and he thanked him again and again.

On the night when the news of the loss of Huangzhou and the death of Wu Wenrong reached Hengzhou, the last warship of the Xiangyong Naval Division happened to be installed and successfully tested in the water.

So far, the Xiangyong Second Army has been completed.

The Xiangyong Naval Division has a total of ships: self-made fast crab No. 40, Changlong No. 50, and sampan No. 150; Purchase a civilian ship to renovate No. 80. Another 150 good civilian ships were hired to carry the baggage. He also built a large tractor No. 1, which was the flagship and was ridden by the commander Zeng Guofan.

The sailor has 471 large and small ships, of which four battalions of Xiangtan recruit water yong, each battalion has 500 people, and the battalion officers are served by Yu Ruhang, Xia Luan, Hu Jiayuan, and Hu Zuolin; Hengzhou raised six battalions of water bravery, each battalion also had 500 people, led by Cheng Mingbiao, Zhu Dianyuan, Yang Zaifu, Peng Yulin, Zou Hanzhang, and Long Xianchen. There are also sailors, husbands, etc., nearly 400 people. The Xiangyong Lu Division also consisted of 10 battalions, each with 500 people, led by Taqibu, Zhou Fengshan, Zhu Sunyi, Chu Meibow, Lin Yuanen, Zou Jiqi, Zou Shouzhang, Yang Mingsheng, Bao Chao, and Zeng Guobao. The second battalion of Luo Zenan and Li Xubin was ordered to stay in Hengzhou, responsible for transporting arms, food and other materials to prevent bandits on the South Road and respond to all roads.

The waterway is still according to the original proposal, with Zhu Ruhang as the president of each battalion; The land route was still spearheaded by Tazib. The General Grain Station was set up, which was divided into eight offices, namely the Copywriting Office, the Internal Bank Money Office, the Foreign Bank Money Office, the Ordnance Office, the Fire Shun Office, the Detective Office, the Issuance and Examination Office, and the Gathering and Editing Office. Each office is managed by a member. Li Hanzhang, the magistrate of Shanhua County, is the chief grain station, and Chen Jianyuan, the magistrate of Leiyang County, is assisted. In order to continue the food and salary, Zeng Guofan sent the "Please Send a Minister" to the imperial court at the same time, and Zhang Chengshi, the alternate prefect of the Special Committee, supervised the donation bureau to receive funds.

Everything was ready, Zeng Guofan took Li Hanzhang and other attachés, supervised the 120th hired civilian boat, and rushed to Changsha overnight, where he and Luo Bingzhang and Xu Youren would discuss the plan to suppress the thieves.

An urgent oracle, like a meteor, progressed into the governor's yamen.

The edict said: "According to Chonglun and others, the situation in Hubei is extremely critical, and a strong force should be sent to aid Hubei as soon as possible. At this time, only the Zeng State Domain led the artillery ships and soldiers bravely, and quickly went eastward to Wuhan, which could stifle the swallow of the thief. This move has a bearing on the overall situation of the North and the South and is of great importance. At this time, the waterway was attacked, and the army was singled out. The squire must be aware of the emergency and go to the rescue. Zeng Guofan went to the aid this time, and the arms, food and other materials were all provided by Hunan. If there is a shortage, it is only necessary to ask! ”

Seeing Xianfeng's real anger, Xu Youren did not dare to export a word of complaint, and on that day, he was about to prepare 12,000 stone of grain and rice, 18,000 stone of coal, 40,000 jin of salt, 30,000 jin of oil, thousands of pieces of ordnance, and more than 200,000 jin of medicine, all of which were handed over to Li Hanzhang, who entered the province with Zeng Guofan. Li Hanzhang did not dare to slack off, and ordered the shipman to serve with the boatman, and urgently make a register and load all the necessary things from the Hunan Domain. (End of chapter)