Just when the court was discussing how to invite Guo Ye back, a fast horse was already galloping!

For no other reason, the Qing army was defeated again!

This time, Shi Dakai did not attack Zeng Zuoli, but aimed at Jiangxi and Zhejiang, which are adjacent to Anhui!

In order to resist the pressure of the Taiping army in the north and east, Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Zhejiang, led the main force of his Chu army north to Jiangsu, and resisted the attack of the Taiping army at the same time as Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu.

Shi Dakai is now attracted by his two front generals, Zeng Zuo and Li, and he is leading the first part of the Chinese army and the front army of due south from the northeast of Jiangxi straight into Zhejiang, starting a stormy offensive!

Ten days, only ten days, the Taiping army even Quzhou, Jinhua two prefectures, the front of the army directly pointed to the third province in the south of Zhejiang to govern Lishui, once Lishui was captured, then the west, central and southern parts of Zhejiang will all fall into the hands of the Taiping army, only a corner of Hangzhou and Ningbo remains!

Without Zuo Zongtang in charge, all the Chu army was transferred to Jiangsu, and now Zhejiang is extremely empty, and it is impossible to resist effectively, and the local green battalion soldiers are simply crushed at the touch of a button, and they are powerless to resist at all!

In ten days, Shi Dakai led the army to advance the troops to less than fifty miles away from Lishui, and Shi Jingkai, the prefect of Lishui Prefecture, was already frightened, and sent seven urgent reports to Zuo Zongtang, asking Zuo Zongtang to urgently return to the division and rush to help Zhejiang!

It's just that now it's obvious that far water can't quench your thirst from near now, it's too far, it's too far!

From Yangzhou, Jiangsu. to Lishui, Zhejiang. It is more than 1,500 miles apart. Even cavalry would take at least a month to arrive! It will take at least twenty days to come and go, but now Shi Dakai is already close at hand!

At the time of this crisis, Fujian took action!

The governor of Fujian is a generation of famous ministers Shen Baozhen, who is also the backbone elite of the Hunan army, and now Zhejiang is in danger. Zuo Zongtang is far away in Jiangsu, and Shen Baozhen, who is closest to Lishui, has to make a move, otherwise, who knows if Shi Dakai will go crazy and attack his own Fujian?

In order to ensure the safety of Fujian, Shen Baozhen sent Zheng Dehai, the governor of Fujian, to lead the 5,000 Hunan Army and 6,000 Green Battalions to advance towards Lishui, protect the safety of Lishui, and hold the throat of Zhejiang leading to Fujian!

The Hunan army plus the green battalion, 11,000 people. Such a force can be regarded as not weak. Shi Dakai left Anhui to attack Zhejiang. It only brought more than 20,000 troops, left 5,000 troops in Quzhou and Jinhua respectively, recruited troops on the spot to help defend the two prefectures, and he still had more than 10,000 troops to advance into Lishui, and the troops that could be used for the attack were only about 10,000 people, but although the strength was almost the same, and Zheng Dehai was in the city and took the lead, Zheng Dehai still couldn't complete the important task of resisting Shi Dakai!

Because his opponent is Shi Dakai!

Shi Dakai stayed more than ten miles outside Lishui City, for seven or eight days, there was no appearance of attacking, Zheng Dehai thought how awesome he was, Shi Dakai was frightened, what's the matter, he is also a force of more than 10,000 people, plus the strength of Lishui City, it is close to 15,000 people! Can't you still hold a Lishui City?

On the tenth day, there was a sudden change in Lishui City, and at the south gate, two or three hundred people suddenly appeared, and launched a surprise attack on the Qing army's officers and soldiers defending the city, and in the blink of an eye, the south gate was snatched down!

Zheng Dehai, who got the news, hurriedly mobilized the army in an attempt to recapture the South City Gate, so where could he get it back in a short time?

At the same time as the accident occurred in the city, outside the city, Shi Dakai's forward, five hundred cavalry launched a surprise attack on Lishui City, followed by a steady stream of Taiping troops drove in and launched an attack on Lishui City overnight!

At this time, the gate of the Qing army's southern city was no longer under control, and Shi Da had already rushed into Lishui City without bloodshed, and began a fierce battle!

The city gate was lost, and the Hunan army could barely calm down, but nearly 10,000 green battalion soldiers were already frightened and numb their claws at that time, and they either scattered and fled, or threw down their weapons and surrendered, completely losing the courage to fight a decisive battle in front of the Taiping army!

There are only 5,000 Hunan troops left, even if they can fight again, they can't save the situation, Zheng Dehai held on all night, suffered heavy casualties and had to withdraw from Lishui City, fleeing in the direction of Fujian!

Until Zheng Dehai failed, he didn't know where he lost to Shi Dakai, this loss was too bad, who would have thought that suddenly, in the middle of the night, there would be a group of people who rebelled?

Of course, Zheng Dehai couldn't think of it, although Lishui City is now facing Shi Dakai's attack, but still has to release thousands of people out of the city every day to collect firewood to maintain their lives, in addition to this, there are also some businessmen who go out to play outdoors, the Taiping Army sent a large number of soldiers around, and when they saw the residents of Lishui City, they were detained, and at the same time their identification documents and clothes were confiscated, one by one, dressed up in disguise, and quietly mixed into Lishui City!

The guards of Lishui City are relieved to have thousands of people every day, where can they tell whether it is a resident or a long hair? Even if there is any doubt, a silver coin on the ground, seeing the green battalion soldiers with open eyes, where will they care about other things, they will naturally put people into the city.

In this way, in six days, the Taiping army had nearly 300 people mixed in, and when they met together, they launched a sneak attack overnight, and the unsuspecting Qing army suffered a big loss when they landed, and no one could have imagined that it would become elbows and armpits!

The unlucky Zheng Dehai did not lose in the battle array, but he was exploited by Shi Dakai in other places, and the entire Lishui City was overwhelmed, and Lishui City was lost!

Shi Dakai occupied Quzhou, Jinhua, and Lishui one after another, and once again caused a major earthquake in the south of the Yangtze River, and Zuo Zongtang, who got the news, was about to be mad, and mobilized heavy troops to return to Zhejiang overnight, but it was hundreds of miles away from Zhejiang, and it was so easy to return to the army?

The whole of Zhejiang has been in chaos, and an urgent report to the imperial court for help was sent to the capital by 700 miles of urgency, and the Qing army was defeated again, and the momentum of the Taiping army was even higher!

The first-class duke position given to Guo Ye was stuck in the court, please go back to Guo Ye, and you can also be a marquis, but the first-class Duke of Yasukuni? Forget it! Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, nine people have been crowned as national dukes? Especially the Han people, it is even rarer! Even if he is crowned the Duke of the Kingdom, it is all prestige and qualifications to cover one side, and He Shen was so powerful at the beginning, and it was only when he was nearly fifty years old that he was crowned the Duke of the Kingdom, how could Guo Ye be able to do it?

(To be continued.) )