Let’s take a look at the situation on Zuo Zongtang and Guo Songtao first. Fortunately, the bad habit of the Taiping Army focusing on cities and towns and neglecting rural areas has not been corrected yet. Therefore, even though the Taiping Army controlled the main cities and roads in northern Jiangsu, Zuo Zongtang and Guo Songtao still took the rural road to the Jianchang battlefield. They sneaked over the Taiping Army's encirclement like they went to Changsha to help Zhang Liangji, and entered the city smoothly.

The current situation of the Hunan Army was worse than before Guo Songtao set out to ask Wu Chaoyue for help. The wounded soldiers were full of camp, but the medicine was as short as food and grass. Each soldier's daily rations had been cut to four or two meters; there was a shortage of ammunition. In order to make gunpowder, the soldiers of the Hunan Army had almost dug up the foundations of the old houses in the city and boiled old soil to make saltpeter. However, even so, the gunpowder carried by each Hunan Army soldier was only enough to fire about ten shots. In such a difficult and difficult situation, when Zeng Guofan heard the bad news that his disobedient disciple refused to send troops to aid, it is conceivable that Zeng Guofan's despair and sadness could be imagined.

The only thing that was slightly comforting to Zeng Guofan was Zuo Zongtang's arrival. Even though he could not tolerate Zuo Zongtang's fierce temper like Luo Bingzhang, Zeng Guofan also knew how important Zuo Zongtang's amazing talent was. So even though he was so sad and angry that he wanted to cry loudly, Zeng Guofan still forced himself to welcome Zuo Zongtang with a smile, and took out the wine and meat that had almost disappeared in the Hunan Army camp to host a banquet for Zuo Zongtang.

"There is no need for a banquet! If you have wine and meat, I will first kill the thieves. I will only eat four or two meters a day in the future! There is no need to say more nonsense. Military is important. Tell me immediately how many troops you have left, how many soldiers can fight? How many guns, ammunition, artillery and food?"

The unrepentant Zuo Zongtang had a straightforward temper as usual and his attitude was equally arrogant and domineering. Zeng Guofan was thinking that Zuo Zongtang took the initiative to surrender and had military experience in commanding the Changsha defense battle, so he did not care about Zuo Zongtang, but just truthfully reported the real situation of the Hunan Army. However, as he listened, Zuo Zongtang's face gradually began to change.

There is no way, the current situation of the Hunan Army is so miserable that it can no longer be miserable. More than 60% of the more than 3,100 troops were light and seriously injured, and there were only more than a thousand soldiers who could fight. There were serious shortage of guns and ammunition. Even if all the ammunition was concentrated, it would only be enough to fight a medium-sized battle. The food and grass could only last for another half a month, and the accumulated grain in the city had been exhausted. Even if the people in the city were starved to death, it would be difficult to get more food.

The only one with relatively sufficient number is artillery. There are still 42 left in the light and heavy artillery. Zuo Zongtang breathed a little relieved when he heard this, and hurriedly asked again: "How many shells are left?"

Zeng Guofan smiled bitterly and replied, "There are no shells left. Now our cannons are filled with copper, iron coins and gravel."

Zuo Zongtang took a deep breath and stopped saying a word. He was just going to come again to a battlefield map marked with the deployment of the Taiping Army, and to study the possibility of the Hunan Army breaking through and running to Nanchang to obtain food. However, after a careful study, Zuo Zongtang soon became completely desperate. It was expected that the Hunan Army would definitely escape south to support Tujiakou, the Taiping Army, with the support of the throat-bound land of Tujiakou, built several camps to encircle the southern part of Jianchang in an arc shape, completely blocking the Hunan Army's road to the south. Unless a miracle happened, the Taiping Army's chief general Shi Zhenji made a major command error, otherwise the Hunan Army would have no possibility of breaking through south.

Take a step back and say that even if the Hunan Army is lucky enough to break south and successfully break out and break out of Shi Zhenji's siege, the main force of the Taiping Army on the battlefield in Nanchang can also slap the Hunan Army, which is at the end of its strength, with one hand!

Considering this, Zuo Zongtang could only turn his attention to the north of the battlefield, and then Zuo Zongtang was even more reluctant to discover that breaking north and retreating to Tianjia Town was indeed the only choice for the Hunan Army. Although Shi Zhenji was likely to lead his army to chase and Luo Dagang, stationed in Jiujiang, would also likely send troops to Ruichang to intercept, as long as Hubei sends troops to respond in time, it is possible to cover the Hunan Army's withdrawal from Tianjia Town, which is much more likely to be the Hunan Army to go south to Nanchang to obtain food.

When Zuo Zongtang frowned and pondered, Zeng Guofan also asked Guo Songtao about the specific details of the contact and negotiation with Wu Chaoyue. Guo Songtao answered truthfully. Although Zeng Guofan never believed that the disobedient disciples did not dare to send troops because they were insufficient ammunition, he did not scold them in public like before. After thinking about it, Zeng Guofan also asked Guo Songtao: "Zhao Liewen said that the Hubei New Army lacks ammunition. Have you asked you to go to Wu Chaoyue's ammunition depot to see the situation with your own eyes?"

"No, the time was urgent, and neither Zhao Liewen nor Zhao Liewen mentioned this matter." Guo Songtao shook his head and said again: "Zhao Liewen just proposed that Bao Chao lead two thousand green camp soldiers to rescue us, but Wu Chaoyue pretended to be sick and didn't say anything. It looked like he didn't even want to send these two thousand green camp soldiers."

"He hates me to the core!" Zeng Guofan, who judged others by himself, sighed. He not only secretly hated the cruel heart of disobedient disciples, but also regretted that he had blackmailed and forced them too much, which laid the root of today's disaster.

At this time, Zuo Zongtang finally spoke, and his face was extremely serious. He said slowly: "Jianchang should not be defended anymore, otherwise he would just sit and wait for death. Nanchang should not go again. If you force yourself to break through, you will die in vain. There are only two strategies, either to go west to Wuning Yining, or to go north to Ruichang, to reorganize the troops, and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback."

Retreat west to Wuning and Yining, and fleeing north to Ruichang. Zeng Guofan had considered these two options more than once, but he had been unable to make up this decision. Now Zuo Zongtang has also proposed two plans. Zeng Guofan, who could no longer expect Hubei reinforcements, also completely gave up and asked Zuo Zongtang: "Ji Gao, in your opinion, is our best choice to go north or west?"

Zuo Zongtang was silent again. After a long time, Zuo Zongtang said helplessly: "The road to Wuning and Yining is far away, and it is narrow and dangerous, but there is no army to support him. As long as Changmao splits out an army and goes lightly to the front of our army for defense, we will die without a place to bury."

Zeng Guofan smiled bitterly and sighed for a while: "Does this handsome man really want to escape back to Hubei in shame and be a guardian dog for the students? He is ridiculed and bullied?"

Zuo Zongtang was silent and after a moment of time, he said, "Zengbutang, you are the commander of the entire army. You should make your decision. No matter how you choose, I agree, you can die with you. But quickly, your regiment training has reached a critical moment of life and death, and there is no need to delay or waste time. My suggestion is to let your soldiers eat for two days to recover their strength, make all the food and grass into dry food, and act overnight!"

On that day, Zeng Guofan didn't sleep all night. He knew that fleeing back to Hubei by Ruichang was the only way for his own army to live, but he was worried about face and was even more worried that his disobedient disciples would take the opportunity to take revenge and deliberately refused to send troops to meet him. He wanted to flee westward and even flee directly to Hunan, but he also understood that this road was even more dangerous and evil, and if he was not careful, he would be doomed to annihilate the entire army. In despair, Zeng Guofan once considered fighting with all his might and even if he couldn't succeed, he could gain an eternal reputation for loyalty to the country. However, Zeng Guofan was unsure of this determination, and he was even more unwilling to die, and went straight to the end of his life. He tossed and cried several times.

Of course, those who can do great things can tolerate what ordinary people cannot tolerate. When it was dawn, Zeng Guofan, whose eyes were covered in blood, finally made up his mind and ordered the tent to be promoted to convene the generals to discuss matters, announced that the soldiers would be fed for two days, make all the remaining food and grass into dry food, and then discard all unnecessary supplies such as artillery tents and military tents, and go north to break through and retreat to Hubei with light.

After Zeng Guofan announced this major decision, the central army tent was silent. After a long time, Zeng Guoquan asked Zeng Guofan timidly: "Brother, you just impeached Wu Chaoyue not long ago. You offended him so fiercely. Now you run back and beg him to take him in. Will he agree?"

"I will go back and be a watchdog for him, and he will never refuse to agree." Zeng Guofan said with a smile: "At worst, I just suffer some humiliation, so what? Goujian can sleep on firewood and taste gall, Han Xin can suffer the humiliation under his crotch. They can do it, why can't I do it?"

Zeng Guoquan was no longer willing, but tears were already flashing in his eyes. Zeng Guohuang even cried out loudly, which implicated many Hunan generals and couldn't help crying loudly. They were not willing to go back to Hubei to be so angry that when the Hunan Army was in Hubei, except for almost forcing Wu Chaoyue to death, all other Hubei officials were offended by the Hunan Army. There were more than one or two Hubei civil and military officials who wanted to eat Zeng Guofan alive.

Only Zuo Zongtang looked free and said to Zeng Guofan: "Zengbutang, since you have made up your mind, then arrange it quickly. Don't rush to tell the soldiers that we are going north and deliberately letting out the wind. We are going to break south and fight to Nanchang in three days. If we send more scouts to the road to Nanchang, create the illusion of going south and give Changhai a chance to grab the tongue. Also, it is best to choose to break through before dawn the morning after tomorrow, so as not to give Changhai too much reaction time as possible."

Zeng Guofan agreed immediately and immediately ordered the generals to follow the plan. The generals agreed to leave. Zuo Zongtang, Liu Rong and others quickly discussed the breakout plan and the arrangement of the rear army. Zeng Guofan continued to sit in front of the commander's case and lowered his head, clenched his fists with both hands, his nails were broken, and his teeth were bleeding.

Zuo Zongtang's plan to attack the north was indeed confusing. The illusion of going south and the scouts deliberately made the Taiping Army catch successfully mislead Shi Zhenji, the lord of the Taiping Army's siege. In order to monopolize the extraordinary achievements of the Hunan Army, Shi Zhenji dispatched a large number of main combat soldiers to ambush south of Tujiakou, and carefully designed a defensive weakness to deliberately drill for the Hunan Army. At the same time, it completely misjudged the time of the Hunan Army's breakthrough and failed to make all combat preparations in advance, giving the Hunan Army a god-given opportunity to break north.

Two days later, before dawn, when the Hunan Army suddenly left the city and fled north at full speed, Shi Zhenji paid a heavy price for his misjudgment. He had no time to send a large number of main combat troops to pursue him immediately. He could only use small troops to come forward to restrain him and buy time for subsequent reinforcements to gather and pursue him. Zuo Zongtang had already expected this and suggested that Zeng Guofan fight with a small number of troops and cover the main force of the Hunan Army to go north at full speed. When the main force of the Taiping Army gathered to chase him, the small Hunan Army behind the palace escaped from the battlefield at full speed and fled north, and competed with the Taiping Army at either life or death.

The Hunan Army, who had all their might, retreated rapidly. At noon that day, it had already arrived at the city of De'an in the north. The Taiping Army defenders stationed in the city were misled by the fake messenger sent by Zuo Zongtang, and mistakenly thought that the Hunan Army was here to attack De'an and did not dare to leave the city. The Hunan Army took the opportunity to quickly pass De'an and continue to go north, missing the best opportunity to attack the remnants of the Hunan Army with the Taiping Army. However, Shi Zhenji was furious and immediately sent a large number of messengers to advance and ordered the Taiping Army stationed in Ruichang to block the Hunan Army from the north at any cost. He would rather lose Ruichang City than give the Hunan Army a chance to escape back to Hubei. At the same time, Shi Zhenji naturally had to send people to Luo Dagang, who was stationed in Jiujiang, and asked him to send troops to help encircle the Hunan Army's escape route.

Originally, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang planned to let the Hunan Army soldiers go north at full speed day and night, and planned to only rest for two hours that night before continuing to go north. However, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang and others seriously underestimated the impact of injuries and malnutrition on the Hunan Army soldiers. Even Zeng Guofan himself accidentally overslept during camping breaks. Finally, he relied on Zuo Zongtang's roar and roar. The generals of the Hunan Army finally woke up all the soldiers and continued to rush. As a result, not only wasted more than an hour of precious time, but also gave the Taiping Army messenger the time in front of them, and then forced Zeng Guofan to fight the most dangerous and evil battle in his life with the Hunan Army.

The place where this fierce battle occurred was in the northern suburbs of Ruichang City. Now in the area of ​​Yujia Village to the north of Ruichang City, there is a east-west Hengduan Mountain Range. The only flat road that can directly cross the mountains is located between the steep Tiansi Mountain and Paoma Mountain. Cutting off this road is equivalent to cutting off the land connection between Jiangxi and Hubei. The Ruichang Taiping Army defenders who received the order first almost left the city in full swing, seized this important place in advance, and built a large number of defensive fortifications to defend with all their strength. Even if the Hunan Army creates the illusion of siege, they will not return to the city to rescue, forcing the Hunan Army, who are eager to escape, to attack their blocking positions.

Forced to helplessness, Zeng Guofan had to command the Hunan Army to attack the Taiping Army's blocking positions with all his might. However, the Taiping Army refused to take a step back, gritted his teeth and just defended with all his strength. With the sheep and horse walls built in advance and the refusal of the red-haired deer antlers, he caused huge casualties to the Hunan Army.

The gunshots continued, and the Taiping Army Shi Zhenji, who was chasing from behind, was only ten miles away from the blocking position, and the Taiping Army who came from Jiujiang had also approached within thirty miles. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zeng Guofan not only had to charge in person, but also learned to disobey and let the soldiers tied up gunpowder bags to commit suicide. However, while Liu Rong and others were trying to persuade Zeng Guofan to death, they also told Zeng Guofan with tears in their eyes that the gunpowder had remained less than a hundred kilograms of insured gunpowder and that several soldiers could not armed a few soldiers to launch a suicide charge.

Even worse was still behind. Just when Zeng Guofan was red with his eyes and shouting that he had to use all the gunpowder no matter how much gunpowder was left, the gunshots of the Hunan Army fighting in front suddenly disappeared. When Zeng Guofan was shocked and asked the reason, Hu Linyi, who was leading the army to charge, told Zeng Guofan with tears, "Master, there is no gun, and no gunpowder."

"Is God going to kill me?"

Zeng Guofan yelled in despair, then burst into tears. The civil and military officials next to him all burst into tears. Zuo Zongtang also lamented in despair for the first time in his life, "There is no way out, I can only sit and wait for death."

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The sudden continuous explosion sound brought Zeng Guofan, who had completely collapsed, back a little bit of his mind. When he raised his hazy tearful eyes and looked in the direction of the explosion, Zeng Guofan saw in disbelief that the explosion occurred on the Taiping Army's blocking position. At the same time, a large number of Qing army green camp flags also appeared behind the Taiping Army's blocking position!

"I will not perish!"

He cried in ecstasy, not caring about checking who reinforcements and how many troops were. Zeng Guofan yelled directly, "Crash! Charge! Charge with all your strength! Kill out of the siege and take my life!"

The unexpected reinforcements that suddenly appeared were like a shot of a heart-warming injection, which immediately pulled the Hunan Army back from the brink of death. Seeing the vitality, they didn't care that the ammunition had been used up. The Hunan Army soldiers just charged forward and rushed to the Taiping Army's blocking position with their desperate efforts. They used their butts, stones, fists, and teeth to sacrifice their lives to fight in close combat with the Taiping Army soldiers, killing the Taiping Army, who was best at hand-to-hand combat, and retreated step by step.

At the same time, the Qing army reinforcements who came from the north also threw out a large number of grenade bombs that the Hunan Army soldiers were already very familiar with, and the powerful bitter and sour grenade bombs were still used to open the way with powerful firepower to help the Hunan army disperse the Taiping Army blocking the road. With the joint efforts of the reinforcements and the Hunan Army themselves, the Taiping Army on the blocking position was finally killed by them and they met.

As a result, it was when the Hunan Army soldiers cheered loudly with tears in their eyes, Zeng Guofan finally saw clearly that the reinforcements were Bao Chao who was placed in the green camp in Hubei. Suddenly, he realized why the reinforcements were so dedicated. Zeng Guofan also thanked Bao Chao to his core. As soon as he met, he held Bao Chao's hand and cried and said, "If it weren't for Chunting, my life would be over. I would never thank Chunting for saving his life. Zeng Guofan did not forget it."

"Master, you thank the wrong person." Bao Chao said respectfully: "If Wu Futai hadn't lie on the hospital bed and sent me to send troops, and sent his navy to cover me across the river to help, and equipped me with grenade bombs, I wouldn't have come so coincidental this time."

"What do you mean?" Zeng Guofan was stunned and asked quickly: "Is Wu Chaoyue really sick?"

"Of course Wu Futai is really sick." Bao Chao said truthfully: "I'm still very sick and I fainted once, but even so, he still remembers sending me to save you."

Zeng Guofan was speechless and Guo Songtao was also ashamed, but an old man in casual clothes stood behind Bao Chao, bowing to Zeng Guofan and saying, "Zengbutang, Yang Wending, the deputy governor of the lower official, is here to welcome you on the order of Hubei Governor Wu Futai, and is also responsible for the establishment of the Hunan Army. Zengbutang, please rest assured. After retreating to Tianjia Town, if you have any needs, just speak to me, and the lower official will be fully satisfied."

"Yang Wending?" Zeng Guofan, who was too excited, did not immediately remember who Yang Wending was. After a moment of recollection, Zeng Guofan immediately exclaimed: "Yang Wending? Former Jiangsu Governor Yang Wending? Wu Chaoyue's official wife...?"

"Yes, it's me, Wu Chaoyue is my grandson-in-law."

Yang Wending smiled and nodded, and said, "Zengbutang, what you may not know is that when he was the governor of Jiangsu, he once made enemies with the grandchildren of the Wu family and instigated his disciples to falsely accuse their grandchildren, and almost killed their grandchildren. But when I was in danger in Jiangyin, Wu Chaoyue sent troops to save my life twice. After I was exiled to Xinjiang, he did not break his promise and refused to regret it. He still married my granddaughter as his official wife. Finally, he asked the court to pardon and re-appoint me."

Speaking of this, Yang Wending paused, then smiled and said, "Zengbutang, now you should understand why my grandson-in-law asked me to welcome you, right?"
Chapter completed!