Peng Yulin and others repeatedly guessed that the Western King would let him go. Finally, Peng Yulin pressed his finger on the table and said, "No need to guess anymore. I'll discuss whether to leave or not."

Yu Wanqing hurriedly said, "Of course I left. There was a long-haired hard village in front of me blocking the road. We went out to attack for a few days. Their artillery and muskets were sharp. There were many mines in front of the village. They couldn't suddenly enter. If they couldn't capture the current hard village, they could not go to Guilin Prefecture to rescue the siege. Since we could not rescue the siege and our army was in danger of being wiped out, of course, it would be best to leave as soon as possible."

Li Mengqun sneered and said, "Old General Yu is really not waiting for his departure. As expected, he still has the style of retreating fifty miles a day when he saw the big hairy flag!"

Yu Wanqing blushed. When he was admiring Hunan, he had gathered troops under Sai Shanga to fight against the Taiping Army in Quanzhou and other places, but he lost consecutively. When he saw the Taiping Army flag for the last time, he was frightened to retreat for fifty miles. He was once called a laughing stock. At this moment, Li Mengqun turned it out and said that he was of course angry and angry, saying: "At this moment, the right time, place, people are not here. A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. If he walks, he will save his troops and deal with Changmao in the future. Lord Li, do you have the ability to defeat Changmao in front of him to rescue Guilin?!"

Li Mengqun snorted, ignored him, but turned to Peng Yulin and said, "Shishou, my subordinates still think there is a deception here. If there is impermanence, there will be a demon. If we leave here and return north, Changmao will attack him on the road and return to the evening, what should we do?"

After pondering for a moment, Peng Yulin looked at Li Dean who was still standing under him in the tent and asked, "Li Shenrong. How were you captured by Changmao? Have you ever witnessed the internal situation of Changmao after being snatched? How are the morale of the Changmao soldiers?"

Li Dean hurriedly said, "Reported to Xue Shuai, my subordinates led a personal guard to guard Li Shuai that day. Because our army's artillery formation was destroyed many places, the only remaining mountain-splitting cannons could not stop Changmao. Changmao broke into the town in multiple ways. The soldiers fought and almost formed an army. By dawn, only we were left to protect Li Shuai and trapped in the Huguang Guild Hall in Xing'an Town. Then Changmao used gunpowder to blow up many places in the courtyard walls of the guild hall and broke into the guild hall. We fought and retreated, and in the end there were only dozens of people left to protect Li Shuai in the lobby of the guild hall. In the end, Li Shuai saw that Changmao was powerful and asked us to save our lives. Therefore, he was captured by Changmao. It was not that we didn't want to fight to the death, but because Li Shuai had a life, so..."

Peng Yulin waved his hand. He knew that Li Dean's remarks must have been to blame Li Chong. Otherwise, his guilt would be even heavier. He asked immediately: "Where will Li Shuairen wait after you are captured?"

Li Dean lowered his head with shame and said, "After more than ten generals and officials of all sizes were captured, we were detained separately. After our subordinates were sent to Guilin Mansion by water, they saw Changmao Chen Yucheng, so he asked me to deliver a letter to Xue Shuai. He had never seen Li Shuai and the others again until his subordinates left Changmao Camp, but his subordinates had also asked the guards, and the guards said that Li Shuai and others should have been sent to Jinling City to offer prisoners."

Peng Yulin sighed lightly and said, "No matter how trustless Li Chong is, he is also a general in the court. The soldiers of the ranks attacked Hengyang, defeated Changsha, and saved Wuchang. Unexpectedly, they ended up being wiped out by the entire army." He paused and said, "Then did you see the long hair in Guilin when you came back?"

Li De'an said: "When his subordinates left Guilin Mansion, they had seen the situation in Guilin Mansion from afar. Changmao trenches surrounded Guilin Mansion with tens of thousands of soldiers, occupied various key passes and built hard villages, and even carried no less than 100,000 young and strong people nearby, surrounding Guilin Mansion was not airtight. At that time, his subordinates left during the day, and Changmao was firing guns at Guilin Mansion. Tens of thousands of cannons were fired at the same time. The entire Guilin Mansion was shrouded in thick smoke and dust. The sound shook for several miles, and the whole picture of Guilin Mansion could not be seen at all."

Yu Wanqing frowned and said, "Shishou, look at the power of Changmao in Guilin Mansion, I'm afraid I won't last long. Staying here is just to save 30,000 lives for Changmao. It's better to leave a useful body for the time being and then report to the court."

Li Mengqun stopped talking this time. Although Li Dean's words may be suspected of exaggerating, Lingchuan has a hard village made of thousands of long-haired people blocking the road. The number of cannons and muskets in it is not as large as that of his own people. According to the news sent back, Guilin Mansion is surrounded by the main force of long-haired troops, so it is not surprising that the situation is naturally large.

Peng Yulin also said in a little embarrassed manner: "The court ordered us to rescue Jiang Zhongyuan's tribe in Guilin. If we retreat north, we are only afraid that the court will blame him."

When Yu Wanqing saw that Li Mengqun was not speaking, he struck the railway while it was hot: "Shi Shuai Mingjian, we waited for two groups of troops to rescue. Now, the troops of Li Chong's troops were killed, Xiangyong was wiped out, our troops were cut off, and we were surrounded by Changmao in Lingchuan. At this time, Xue Shuai judged the situation and drove his troops to break through. After several hard battles, he broke out from Changmao's siege and preserved most of the troops. Afterwards, he found out that it was Changmao's poisonous plan to siege the city and attack the aid. Fortunately, Xue Shuai saw through early in the morning, otherwise the 30,000 troops would be gone. In this way, I think we would not be guilty, but might also be praised by the court."

Li Mengqun and Li Dean looked at each other and felt that Yu Wanqing was worthy of being a veteran of escaping. Even if he escaped, he could be said to be so righteous. He was indeed a cunning person. But Li Mengqun still gritted his teeth and said, "But Xue Shuai, there is still a risk of the army leaving this place and retreating north. If Changmao doesn't keep his promise and really pursue us, I'm afraid we will be in trouble."

Li Dean hurriedly said, "Shishou, this time he is a subordinate whom Changmao's head coach Chen Yucheng met in person, and they also have their handwritten letter from the King of the West. It can be seen that Changmao is still sincere. Although we cannot understand what Changmao is about, if Changmao wants to annihilate us, they only need to cut off our food route and wait for our army to get rid of ammunition and food, and they will naturally be captured in one go. There is no need to do such a hard time to cheat by offering books."

Peng Yulin pondered for a moment and said, "Although the Long Hair Four-Eyed Dog is vicious in military use and likes to kill all the people, she is also an open-minded gentleman and has never used a despicable trick. I also believe that Changmao will not be cheated when he lets the road back north." He stood up and said, "Okay, order the three armies to dress up today and lead the troops back north tomorrow!"

Li Mengqun and the other three hurriedly accepted the order loudly, and then they all sued their own arrangements. Peng Yulin was left in the tent, staring at the map in the tent, murmured: "Minqiao Duke, Minqiao Duke, it's not that I don't want to save you, it's really impossible..."

At the same time, at the gate of the East Town of Guilin Prefecture dozens of miles away, Jiang Zhongyuan was wearing a worn military uniform and stood on it holding a sword in his hand. He stared at the Taiping Army that was swarming in from a distance like a sculpture. He did not move.

Dongzhen Gate is an ancient city gate left by the Song Dynasty. It is also one of the twelve city gates of Guilin outer city in the Ming Dynasty. It is also known as Zhennan Peak, which is located on the southeast foot of Tiefeng Mountain. Tiefeng Mountain lies at the entrance of the north of the city and forms a natural barrier. Tiefeng Mountain divides the east and west peaks. The west peak is higher than the east peak and is in the shape of a saddle. There is a city wall between the two peaks, extending southward and directly to the east town gate. But now Tiefeng Mountain falls into the hands of the Taiping Army, and the city wall between the east and west peaks was also captured by the Taiping Army this morning. Now the Taiping Army occupies the city wall and cooperates with the Taiping Army outside the city to attack Dongzhen Gate.

Jiang Zhongyuan's defense was not too close, but he never expected that the Taiping Army would start from the most difficult Dongzhen Gate, and the other gates were just feint attacks. There were more than a thousand soldiers sent by Jiang Zhongyuan to guard the Tiefeng Mountain, but yesterday it was foggy. The Taiping Army took advantage of the situation to attack the mountain and took Tiefeng Mountain under the cover of artillery, and then attacked the city wall at the foot of Tiefeng Mountain. It seemed that Dongzhimen was no longer difficult to defend.

"Brother, retreat to the inner city, this place is about to fall!" Jiang Zhongjun rushed to the front with a bloody face and shouted loudly: "Changmao is coming soon, and the boys can't stop it."

Jiang Zhongyuan knew that this time it was no better than in Zhaoqing Prefecture. This time, there were several long-haired trenches and trenches, and it was impossible to break through. The civilians in the city were not obedient. The people in Guangxi were brave. In order to defend the city, the Qing army collected food in the city and forced the strong men. If it were not for the strong suppression of the Qing army, they would have rebelled long ago. Jiang Zhongyuan believed that once the city was broken, the Qing army would have no conditions to fight street battles. The people in the city would probably have opened their doors to welcome the Taiping Army.

"Inner city? Can the inner city be defended if the outer city is broken?" Jiang Zhongyuan did not look back, but said lightly, his expression as if he had grown older overnight.

Jiang Zhongjun stomped his feet, ordered his guards to raise Jiang Zhongyuan and then went down to the East Town Gate. He saw a group of young and strong men guarding the city opening the East Town Gate desperately and let the Taiping Army outside the city enter the city.

Jiang Zhongjun was furious and led his men forward to kill more than ten young and strong people in the city, but soon the Taiping army poured in like a tide. Jiang Zhongjun had to take his men to protect Jiang Zhongyuan and retreat into the city, wanting to retreat into the inner city and continue to guard.

The inner city of Guilin City is the Jingjiang King City, which is the Jingjiang King Mansion. Jingjiang King City was first built in the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty. Ordinary people cannot enter. The main buildings in the royal palace are strictly constructed in accordance with the regulations made by the court on the vassal palaces, and are lined up along the central axis. The front is the Chengyun Gate, the middle is the Chengyun Hall, the back is the sleeping palace, and the last is the Imperial Garden. The ancestral temple is built on the left and the society altar is built on the right, forming a magnificent and large-scale building complex. The inner city wall is about 3 miles in circumference, 7.92 meters high and 5.5 meters thick. It is built with giant square bluestone inside and outside, which is stronger than the outer city. At this moment, there are thousands of Qing troops guarding the inner city. As long as you escape into the inner city, you can guard it for a few days.

After turning a few streets, there were shouts of killing everywhere, and the guns and fighting sounds in front became increasingly dense, and artillery shells flew over to their heads from time to time. It seemed that the Taiping Army had transported the artillery to the Iron Closing Mountain and occupied a high place to fire cannons into the city.

Although Tiefengshan was lost yesterday, because the mountain was too high, the Taiping Army still had no time to transport cannons. I didn’t expect that the Taiping Army should have carried the cannons on their shoulders to Tiefengshan. In this way, the entire Guilin City was probably covered by Taiping Army cannons, and even the inner city was no exception. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!