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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 147: Everyone has their own plans

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    The West Palace Taiping Army stayed in Wuchang for several days to rest and expand its army. Facing the upcoming battle to conquer Nanjing, Xiao Yungui believed that even without the need to expand the army, the West Palace Taiping Army's current strength could successfully conquer Nanjing as it had in history.  However, after discussing with Zuo Zongtang, he decided to continue to expand the army for no other reason than that there were important towns such as Huangzhou, Tianjia Town, Jiujiang, Anqing, and Wuhu along the Wuchang River to the east. It would be extremely dangerous to abandon these important towns and only occupy Nanjing alone.

    Zuo Zongtang, who was well versed in the geography of the south of the Yangtze River, was different from Hong Yang, who was not familiar with the geography of the river in history. Anqing was strategically located and was an important military stronghold guarding the Yangtze River and shielding Jiangning.  If the future power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom along the Yangtze River were compared to a long snake, Anqing would be seven inches of the snake.  Historically, Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi saw the importance of Anqing at a glance, and fought to seize Anqing even if Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which accounted for half of the world's wealth, were not interested. Unfortunately, Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and others first went to Jiangnan and did not understand the geography. After capturing Anqing, they frantically expanded their troops.  , carrying millions of salaries and 700,000 tribesmen, abandoned the city and left.

    Naturally, Xiao Yungui would not make the same mistake. From the beginning, he did not worry about the harmfulness of dividing the troops. The Taiping Army always wanted to seize power across the country. It was only a matter of time before the troops were divided. Taking advantage of the fact that the Qing army was unable to organize an effective counterattack, the Taiping Army  It is necessary to complete the division of troops and attack in the shortest time, and consolidate the cities along the river one by one, so as to gain greater space for strategic activities, instead of being compressed into Nanjing as in history, and then being forced to launch the Northern Expedition  and the Western Expedition.

    Xiao Yungui from the three towns of Wuhan left Li Yiwen and Chen Yucheng to lead 10,000 West Palace veterans as the backbone, supplemented by 20,000 new recruits from the three towns, for a total of 30,000 people to guard this place.  Among the 10,000 veterans in the West Hall, there are actually no more than 1,000 real veterans from Guangxi, and the rest are recruits from Hunan. However, after experiencing several battles in Xiangtan, Hengzhou, Yiyang, Yuezhou, and Wuchang, they are already qualified Taiping soldiers.  The Taiping Army formed with them as the backbone was definitely stronger than the pursuing Qing army.

    In addition, Xiao Yungui also left Lu Shunde, the general of Shuiying Luo Gangmen, to lead more than 1,500 warships as supplements. Li Yiwen also left a lot of firearms and artillery.  Moreover, the benevolent policies implemented by the Taiping Army in Wuchang made the people of Wuchang support the Taiping Army even more. At the same time, the three towns in Wuhan had strong support from the Baoqing Chamber of Commerce and the Guiyun Chamber of Commerce. Xiao Yungui believed that unless the Qing army gathered 100,000 land and water troops to attack, there would be no hope.  Capture Wuchang.

    But the Qing army was extremely miserable. After Xiang Rong escaped with his life in the defeat of Hengzhou, he made a straight up and down. On the first day, the imperial decree came and he was dismissed from his post and exiled to Xinjiang. Lao Xiang packed his bags and prepared to farm in Xinjiang.  Unexpectedly, the decree came the next day, demoting him to stay in the army, and Lao Xiang put down his luggage and stayed.  A few days later, the order came again, and he was promoted to imperial envoy. He took over Xu Guangjin's mission and continued to annihilate the Taiping Army.

    To take over the mess left by Xu Guangjin, even the cunning and cunning Xiang Rong was unable to do anything. As for Liling, Jiang Zhongyuan and Zhang Guoliang were still struggling to support themselves under the offensive of Shi Dakai and Lai Hanying.  Zhang Liangji, Hu Linyi, and Peng Yulin who crossed the Xiangjiang River to the west surrounded Yiyang, which was guarded by Wei Changhui. However, it was Beidian Guozong Wei Jun who commanded the Beidian Taiping Army to guard Yiyang. This man was a general known for his good defense. Although Zhang Liangji had many subordinates  The famous generals are veterans, but they have made little progress in the face of Wei Jun's iron-like defense. The two sides are still fighting for dangerous positions outside Yiyang. The Taiping Army has hundreds of warships to support it, and the Qing army cannot completely encircle it.  Yiyang could only delay the Beidian Taiping Army's offensive against Changde.

    Xiang Rong also understood that if Hong Yang of Changsha sent additional reinforcements to Yiyang or Liling, both places would face defeat.  Compared with the mess in Hunan, what troubles Xiang Rong even more is the West Palace Taiping Army that captured Wuchang. This huge army will move eastward along the river at any time. Xiang Rong knows how many soldiers there are in the cities along the river. It is not at all  The West Palace Taiping Army was said to be an opponent of 300,000 people, and Xianfeng's intention was to lead troops to Rongqin to intercept and suppress the Wuchang Taiping Army.

    After Xiang Rong took office, he and Xu Guangjin handed over military and political affairs. Xu Guangjin seemed to have aged a lot. The old man went to Xinjiang to farm this time. Old Xu, who is old and frail, might not be able to come back. Xiang Rong  It feels like a rabbit is dead and a fox is sad.

    Xu Guangjin tremblingly took Xiang Rong's hand and said, "Xinran, I'm going to Xinjiang and I'm afraid I won't be able to come back. This old bone can be regarded as loyal to the court. But Xinran, you are different. You have taken the power of military and political affairs for the first time.  It's time to show off your talents. But how old are you, the old idiot? Listen to what the old idiot said, the long-haired bandits are different from ordinary thieves. They have established a system and strict control. It has become a climate, and rogue parties in various places are responding one after another. If you want to  In the eradication of extermination, we must not rush for quick success. We must make slow progress, step by step, and use the power of the whole country to consume the bandits like the Emperor Kangxi did when he exterminated Wu Sangui. Only within ten years can there be hope of eradication. The old man will not leave you with much wealth.  Now we can only protect ourselves and avoid war, we cannot ruin the entire Jiangnan war situation with one fight."

    Since Xiang Rong took over, he has also thought a lot about what Xu Guangjin said and what he thought.The Taiping Army has become powerful and cannot be wiped out overnight. The Qing army can only rely on the vast territory and manpower it possesses to deal with it. When the army is strong and the thieves are weak, it will be the time to counterattack.  If the military force blindly intercepts and fights fiercely, the Qing army may not be able to hold out for long.  At that moment, Xiang Rong bowed deeply to Xu Guangjin and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Xu, I understand that this place is very powerful. I will definitely report to the court that Chen Shu is very powerful and we will formulate a long-term plan to suppress the bandits."

    Xu Guangjin was a little pleased, and said with moist eyes: "I have nothing else to ask for, but I still have a nephew, Zhu Ming, who is serving as the capital in the army. I just hope that I will be happy to see you."

    Xiang Rong nodded and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Xu, I will definitely take care of you."

    After saying goodbye to Xu Guangjin, he went to Rongdong and gathered reinforcements from Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi and other provinces. He finally gathered more than 15,000 troops, and went north from Jiangxi by land to join the three troops of Qin Ding.  , finally the Qing army organized a reinforcement force of more than 20,000 people to confront the Taiping Army on the outskirts of the three towns in Wuhan.

    Forced by Xianfeng's order to suppress the enemy, Xiangrong sent Taoist priest Li Mengqun and others to launch several tentative attacks on the Taiping Army in Wuchang, but they were repelled by the Taiping Army. The Qing army lost more than a thousand people and one guerrilla.  Xiang Rong saw that the Taiping Army was well-defended, so he could only stick to the camp and fight.

    Xiao Yungui did not have time to fight with Xiang Rong on the outskirts of Wuchang. On the ninth day after Wuchang was captured, the West Palace Taiping Army left 30,000 people under Li Yiwen and Chen Yucheng to guard Wuchang, and the remaining 50,000 Taiping land and sea troops and 30,000 accompanying soldiers and civilians.  Known as a hundred thousand people, they marched on both land and water and began to go down the river.

    The Western King Xiao Yungui, Zuo Zongtang, Hong Yun'er and others boarded the boat first. Luo Gangyou and Tang Zhengcai led the naval escort. Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Ji Wenyuan, Lin Qirong, Zhu Xineng and other generals led the army to guard the shore. Thousands of ships floated on the river.  The sails and flags are like clouds, heading eastward in mighty force.  The Qing army had been fighting with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for a long time and had always had a numerical advantage. Now the Taiping army had expanded to 100,000. However, there were only a few thousand Qing troops blocking the way, so they fled.

    After Emperor Xianfeng dismissed Xu Guangjin and appointed the veteran Xiang Rong as the imperial envoy, he also sent Qi Shan, a senior minister, and Lu Jianhui, the governor of Liangjiang, as two imperial envoys to take charge of the defense of Jiangbei and Jiangdong respectively.

    Xiang Rong discovered that after the Taiping Army marched eastward along the Yangtze River, he took Xianfeng's strict decree and could only adopt parallel pursuit tactics to chase the Taiping Army along the land route, intending to gather heavy troops in Jiujiang and fight to the death with the West Palace Taiping Army.

    However, the Qing army's containment along the way was ineffective. Except for a small battle in Shuxiaxia, all the officers and soldiers fled hundreds of miles from Wuchang to Jiujiang.  Rang Xiangrong had no time to assemble his troops to intercept, so he could only chase after the Taiping Army.

    Lu Jianhuan, the governor of Liangjiang, was frightened when he heard that Taiping troops were leaving Wuchang. Regardless of his face, he abandoned his subordinates and fled overnight, retreating to Jiujiang to wait for reinforcements from Xiangrong.  Lu Jianhuan was so depressed that he couldn't sleep at night. When he got up to go on patrol, he was caught as a thief by a night watchman who was equally neurotic as him and beat him up. He lost two of his teeth. He was extremely unlucky.

    Lu Jianhui retreated to Jiujiang, but he still felt that he was too close to the Taiping Army and his safety was not guaranteed. He went to Pengze at starry night. When he arrived in Pengze, he became more and more frightened as he fled. He set fire to his boat and returned to Nanjing in a small boat.

    Zhang Fu, the governor of Jiangxi Province, was stationed in Jiujiang. When he saw Lu Jianhuan fleeing, he thought that even the imperial envoys had escaped. How long would it take him, an empty-headed governor, if he didn't escape? Zhang Fei also claimed to have a "Bodhisattva heart" and thought that the battle would be defeated, so it would be better to save people's lives.  So he withdrew all the Qing troops he could mobilize along the river and let the soldiers flee with him. Xiang Rong's strategy failed.

    With the help of Zhang Fu, the West Palace Taiping Army made good progress and captured Jiujiang, Pengze, and Xiaogushan within a few days. The defenders along the way did not offer any resistance.  After capturing Jiujiang, Xiao Yungui left Lin Qirong to guard Jiujiang, assigned 5,000 veterans, and ordered Lin Qirong to recruit more than 10,000 new troops in Jiujiang to supplement him.  Xiao Yungui is relatively reassured at this point. Lin Qirong was famous for guarding Jiujiang in history. Lin Qirong left the town and supported each other with Wuchang. He believed that the Qing army would not be able to pose a threat to Jiujiang in the short term.

    A few days later, Li Kaifang, the forward of the Taiping Army in the West Palace, arrived at the outskirts of Anqing. Wang Pengfei, the commander-in-chief, was heartbroken when he saw the flag of the Taiping Army, and ran away first. Before escaping, he suddenly remembered the story of the Empty City Strategy, so he opened the city gate and ran away.  Li Kaifang's Taiping troops marched into the city with loud ridicule and noise, and let loose to chase the Qing troops.  The military attache of the Qing army had not read the sage's book on loyalty, filial piety, and martyrdom, so he shamelessly took the lead and ran away, leaving behind hundreds of civil servants, big and small, in the city.  The civil servants also made their own ingenious plans to escape, but after all, they are all people who read the books of sages. "If the name is not correct, the words will not be correct."  When they reached the south of the city, they were anxiously looking for excuses to escape.

    The most quick-witted person was Fu Jixun, the prefect of Anqing. He claimed that Anqing was in danger and other cities must be more dangerous. He would escort the money out of the city with a fearless spirit to support the anti-bandit war elsewhere.  Fu Jixun escorted his salary and left the city in disguise with two hundred taels of banknotes. Anhui BuLi Benren was filled with righteous indignation and denounced Fu Jixun as a huge liar who deceived the world.  Li Benren said that after his own inspection, he found that hundreds of thousands of paychecks were still in the city, and that Fu Jixun had not escorted the paychecks at all, so he volunteered to go out of the city to capture Fu Jixun, a huge fraudster, and by the way, he could actually deliver the paychecks and warmth to the friendly forces.

    Li Benren, lightly dressed and simple, carrying an account list worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and more than a hundred taels of wages "samples", also made up and left the city, and met Fu Jixun in Shucheng with the same great humanitarian purpose.  Other officials were also greatly moved and claimed that they would also contribute to the escort of payment. They each carried a hundred taels of payment out of the city in batches. The soldiers also fled one after another. Only Anhui Governor Jiang Wenqing remained in Anqing City as a bare-bones commander.
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