Outside Xiangtan City, Su Sanniang, who had just arrived on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, breathed a sigh of relief. She led www.biquge.info 6,000 A and 7th Divisions, day and night, set off from Anhua City in central Hunan Province, and after six days, rushed to Xiangtan, joined the 3rd Division, and prepared to attack Changsha together.

A few days ago, the Holy King's order came, sending Zuo Zongtang, deputy chief of general staff of the General Staff, to Xiangtan to unify the command of the attack on Changsha City, with the 3rd Division of the First Division as the main force, the 4th Division, the 7th Division of the First Division and the Peng Yulin Water Division to capture Changsha together.

Chen Yucheng hurriedly sent a message to Su Sanniang. Sure enough, within two days, the news came that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had already started the Northern Expedition more than half a month ago.

Finally, when the Taiping Army went on the Northern Expedition, in this way, the captive army could also attack Changsha! Chen Yucheng became excited.

The entire plan for the capture of Changsha was drawn up by the General Staff of the Capture Army, and Zuo Zongtang was specifically in charge.

I waited for nearly ten more days. The first is to wait for the 7th Division led by Zuo Zongtang and Su Sanniang to arrive, and the second is to urgently transfer the local guard brigades stationed in the southern Hunan area, the 11th Brigade to the 15th Brigade, and urgently transfer them to the newly occupied Baoqing Fucheng, Xinhua, Hengzhou Fucheng, Hengshan, Xiangxiang, Anhua and other areas to garrison, and transfer back the main troops that were originally assigned to garrison.

Last time, Chen Yucheng and Liang Litai jointly reported to Feng Yunshan that there was a shortage of troops to garrison the newly occupied prefectures and counties, and Feng Yunshan remembered that the 11th Brigade to the 20th Brigade of the Army had stayed in the Liangguang and southern Hunan areas, so he mobilized more than 20,000 people from the 11th Brigade to the 15th Brigade in Yongzhoufu, Guiyang, and Chenzhou in southern Hunan and drove to the newly occupied central Hunan region. The 16th and 17th Brigades were also mobilized from Shaozhou Prefecture and Lianzhou to rush to the southern Hunan area, where the local guard forces were withdrawn.

In this way, the Fourth Army originally assigned by Liang Litai was finally much more complete, and there were 10,000 and 500 people again, and the rest were casualties and losses after attacking the capital city of Hengzhou.

The 7th Division led by Su Sanniang, part of the troops was still in the area of Xinning, Baoqing, and could not arrive, and it was still 6,000 people, while the 3,000 soldiers of the 3rd Division led by Chen Yucheng who were originally stationed in Hengyang City were also liberated and rushed to Xiangtan to join the main force and make up more than 11,000 people in the integrated division.

As Zuo Zongtang led several staff officers of the Intelligence Department and the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters to Xiangtan, and the officers and men of all divisions also arrived at the front line of Xiangtan, Zuo Zongtang, on behalf of the General Staff Headquarters, officially issued the order to go to Changsha.

After more than two months of investigation, the General Staff found out the deployment of the Qing army's troops around Changsha City.

Moreover, not only in order to find out the strength of the Qing army, but also to prepare to ambush some internal responses in Changsha City, Zuo Zongtang learned that Zhou Guoyu, the leader of the Zhengyi Hall from Liuyang, had also defected to the captive army, so he transferred him from He Zhigou's subordinates, sent him to disguise himself, disguised himself as a foot merchant, infiltrated Changsha City, and secretly contacted the Tiandihui congregation in the city.

Soon, Zhou Guoyu sent the news.

There were 6,000 Green Battalions in Changsha City and the surrounding provinces, plus 2,000 Guizhou Battalions and 1,000 Chu Yong Battalions, for a total of 9,000 local Qing troops.

In addition, there were more than 6,000 people in Zeng Guofan's Xiangyong land division, originally 7,000 old Xiangyong, divided 1,000 to Yuezhou to form a water division, and the rest were killed by the captives outside Hengyang City, more than 1,700 people were killed by the captive army, and Zeng Guofan quickly replenished more than 1,000 people after returning to Changsha, and restored to the scale of 6,000 people.

The 11,000 men of the 3rd Division of the First Division were used as the forwards and drove directly to them

The topography of Changsha City, for Zuo Zongtang, knows everything without on-site exploration. However, it was the first time for him to preside over such a major siege battle, so he cautiously sent a detailed work to probe, but he didn't expect that a return from the fine work scared Zuo Zongtang away!

The Qing army started from the White Horse Temple under the city of Tianxin Pavilion in the south of Changsha City, from north to south, the Qing army dug a deep and wide soldier trench pit, which stretched for several miles. On the outside of the trench, the Qing army set up five barracks, it seems that there are three battalions of Chu Yong, Guizhou and Xiangyong, among which Xiangyong occupies the high ground of Cai Gong's tomb, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In addition, all the houses in the south and east of the city were burned down and demolished.

Originally, the captives led more than 30,000 or 40,000 people to attack, and Zuo Zongtang, like other soldiers, thought that the Qing soldiers would defend the Changsha city wall. Unexpectedly, he dared to go out of the city and defend the camp.

You know, now is completely different from last year when the Taiping army attacked Changsha City, when the Qing army's provincial reinforcements and Guangxi's chasing troops gathered in Changsha, there were tens of thousands of Qing soldiers before and after, but because Changsha City collapsed in many places, it was finally conquered by tens of thousands of Taiping troops with momentum. Now the Qing army, which is less than 20,000, dares to go out of the city!

However, Zuo Zongtang thought about it carefully, and also felt that it was better to go out of the city to defend the heights of Cai Gong's tomb than to defend Changsha City. If the Qing army does not defend Cai Gong's tomb, the captive army occupies this high ground and sets up cannons to bombard the city, I am afraid that Changsha City will indeed be difficult to hold.

Moreover, the demolition of all the houses of the people outside the city must have learned the lesson of the Taiping army's capture of Changsha City last year, and they were worried that the terrain of the houses outside the city would be used by the captive army, so they forcibly demolished them despite the opposition of the people.

Think about it, with the loyalty of Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan in Changsha City, to the imperial court, and the ruthlessness of Zeng Guofan, the new governor of Xiangyong and the minister of regimental training, as long as it can be beneficial to defend Changsha City, the demolition of private houses seems to be nothing!

However, when Liang Litai led 10,000 soldiers of the 4th Division to arrive, the 3rd Division and the 4th Division directly attacked other strategic heights in the south of the city----- Miaofeng, Chengnan Academy, Xihu Bridge, Jinji Bridge and other strategic heights.

Here, the Qing army only sent a few hundred people to defend it, under the cover of some artillery, the Qing army saw that the situation was not good, and the morale quickly collapsed, so they had no choice but to abandon these heights and retreat to the Qing army camp behind the trench.

The 3rd Division quickly dispatched troops to occupy all the commanding heights in the south of the city. Among them, Miao Feng is opposite to the city tower, but unfortunately, it is too difficult to transport heavy artillery to Miao Feng.

Zuo Zongtang was in the Chengnan Academy under the Miao Peak, and gathered the generals to distribute military orders.

Although the focus of the attack is still at the south gate, Zuo Zongtang will not only attack the south side of the city like the Taiping army.

However, the Cai Gong Tomb in the southeast corner of Changsha City was occupied by the Qing army, which stuck the entire southeast corner, and coupled with the trench dug by Xiang Yong outside the eastern city wall, the entire road from the south of the city to the east of the city was completely blocked, and it was no longer possible to attack Changsha City from the east.

Therefore, after checking the terrain and consulting with several staff officers of the Intelligence Department and the Operations Department of the General Staff, Zuo Zongtang took advantage of the superiority of the captive army and first tried to attack from four directions of Changsha City at the same time. If it is difficult to capture, then plan to garrison it for a long time. At the same time, the Heaven and Earth Society in the city was used as an internal response to incite the people in the city to create chaos.

As soon as the military order was given, the generals immediately followed the order.

In addition to attacking the south of the city, the 3rd Division also attacked the Qing battalion behind the trench from the southeast side.

The 4th Division of the First Division, in cooperation with Peng Yulin's naval fleet, set up a pontoon bridge in front of the head of Orange Island on the Xiangjiang River, and 10,000 soldiers crossed the river to occupy the area west of the river.

Su Sanniang led the Seventh Division, and also dug a trench two miles opposite the trench dug by the Qing army, opposite the ditch from the Qing army.

If it weren't for the fierce firepower of the batteries on the riverside in the west of Changsha City, and most of the warships of Peng Yulin's sailors were small boats, and they could not install larger artillery, I was afraid that he would have driven a boat directly in the Xiangjiang River to forcibly shell the West City Gate.

…….

In the governor's yamen in Changsha City. Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Munan, paced back and forth, looking out the door, obviously waiting for some news, and his mind was restless.

Soon, a gate came to report, saying that it was the new Admiral Zeng who sent a message to let Lord Futai defend the city with peace of mind, and there was a Xiangyong battalion stationed outside the city, which could be safe.

When Luo Bingzhang heard this, he finally felt a little more at ease, and called the door and asked, "How is it outside the city, has there been a fight?" ”

"Lord Huifutai, there has never been a fight. However, according to Xiang Yong in front, the Cantonese thieves were divided into several routes, and some of them went to Hexi, presumably to make a detour to the north of the city to besiege and besiege Changsha City. On the other hand, they set up camp at the Miao Peak in the south of the city and confronted Xiangyong. ”

Luo Bingzhang nodded, waved his hand and let Menzi retreat. He sighed: "The Qing Dynasty has many disasters and difficulties, and there are many thieves, and I am even more troubled by the thieves in Guangdong. ”

A young scholar standing on the side of the room took over the conversation and said, "Lord Futai, can you find out where my father-in-law is now?" ”

Luo Bingzhang remembered that there was another person in the room, and said with a smile: "Tao Gongzi has a heart." At the moment, I only know that your father-in-law is in the military camp of a Cantonese thief in Miao Fengfeng. Here is a letter to your father-in-law, which you can help to forward. In addition, Luo begged you for Sanxiang's father and elder to persuade your father-in-law to return to the court. Luo desperately wants to sponsor him as a member. ”

The young man surnamed Tao smiled bitterly and said: "Lord Futai, my father-in-law is now highly valued by the chief of Guangdong, and his status is so high that he has long exceeded the mere platform, I am afraid that Lord Futai's recommendation will not necessarily be taken to heart by my father-in-law." According to the students, it is better to urge the Governor of Wuchang to send reinforcements as soon as possible. ”

Luo Bingzhang was stunned for a moment, and sighed: "What Tao Gongzi said is right, but Luo Mou was naïve." However, no matter what, Luo has to give it a try, if Tao Gongzi is really good for your father-in-law, try to persuade your father-in-law. He doesn't have to think about himself, he has to think about his Zuo family's reputation and daughter. ”

"As for Governor Wu's side, hey, even if he doesn't perfunctory Luo, he will only send one or two thousand Yonglian to deal with things. Wuchangxin was attacked by bandits, and there were no soldiers to send. Moreover, I heard that the bandits began to march west again, tracing the river, and Wuchang had to garrison troops to be on guard. Luo Bingzhang lamented heavily, "The state affairs have been corrupted to this point, and Luo can only do his duty as a courtier!" ”

The young man surnamed Tao couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Lord Futai, the student promised to run this leg for you." Can you put it in the cheap room first and let it go home? ”

Luo Bingzhang shook his head expressionlessly: "Master Tao, you rest in the backyard of Fuya first." When tonight comes, Luo will send someone to wake you up and accompany you to visit your father-in-law! Mrs. Zun, you can rest assured, Luo asked Mrs. to take her with her like a daughter, just waiting for you to bring back good news. ”

The young man surnamed Tao had no choice but to leave. (To be continued.) )