"Bang!"

A loud and heavy slap hit Zeng Guohua's face, which made Zeng Guohua's cheek swollen. Then, the anxious and deformed Zeng Guofan's roar also came into Zeng Guohua's ears, "Are you crazy or stupid? Are you going to save Hukou or not? Do you want to make an idea? How important Hukou is to us? Go to Hukou immediately! Go to Hukou immediately!"

"But brother, we have Changmao navy in front of us. I insisted on taking the navy to rescue Hukou. If I was double-teamed by Changmao navy, I would be in danger of being wiped out!" Zeng Guohua explained aggrievedly.

"You have to go if you are in danger of being wiped out!" Zeng Guofan was so anxious that his eyes turned red, and he shouted: "Save Hukou, even if you are wiped out, you can still save the Lu Division! If Changmao takes Hukou, our navy will be finished, and our Lu Division will be finished too! Do you want our Lu Division soldiers to walk more than 300 miles to retreat to Duchang under Changmao's pursuit?!"

"Go to Hukou immediately. No matter how much the price you spend, you have to keep Hukou for me! I will send you reinforcements right away!"

With the order of his elder brother, Zeng Guohua rolled and climbed back to the Hunan Army flagship and led the Hunan Navy to the waters against the wind and headed towards Hukou. As a result, the Hunan Navy had just left, and the dense Taiping Navy fleet appeared on the Yangtze River in the Pengze area again. Although like the Taiping Navy that had crossed Pengze before, it did not land on the dock to reinforce the Pengze defenders, he deliberately fired a few shots, so that the friendly army trapped in the lonely city, Huang Wenjin's troops knew that the reinforcements had arrived. As a result, the crowded Pengze City had indeed shaken the sky again, and the morale was once again boosted.

Seeing this, Zeng Guofan no longer had the intention to consider whether he could still take Pengze City. He just hurriedly sent Li Xubin's brothers to lead his army back to Hukou, and he regretted that he had not made up his mind quickly before. When he received the warning from the navy, he immediately sent troops back to the aid, wasting two full hours of precious time. At the same time, Zeng Guofan naturally had to curse his younger brother incompetence and his own scouts in his stomach. He could not even find out the important situation of the Taiping Navy's large-scale return to the western front.

"Meng Rong, after the Hukou magistrate we appointed was dismissed, who did that idiot Wen Jun send to take over as the Hukou County Magistrate? Do you know much about him?"

Zeng Guofan finally remembered to ask this important question to his chief of staff Liu Rong. Liu Rong replied: "Wenjun sent a candidate magistrate named Wang Shaochong to take over the job. The students didn't know much about him. It was just that he had given Wenjun a lot of money to make up for the actual situation. He should be a corrupt official."

"It doesn't matter whether you are corrupt officials, just not as timid as a mouse." Zeng Guofan said irritably: "Don't have too many, as long as he can hold on for a day, don't take the initiative to abandon the city and leave. In a day, the Li Xubin brothers will be able to bring reinforcements to help him."

"Wenjun, you bastard! Why did you withdraw the magistrate appointed by your official? Why did you withdraw him? Replace him with someone I can't know the truth!"

When Zeng Guofan roared again, the super-large dragon boat competition between the Taiping Navy and the Hunan Navy was already in full swing on the Yangtze River. Although the front of the Taiping Navy led by Wei Jun was troubled by physical strength, the speed decreased a little; the Hunan Navy was delayed for some time in Pengze and was unable to quickly catch up with Wei Jun's army even if it had a slight advantage in speed. The rear team of the Taiping Navy led by Qin Rigang himself also shook the oars and chased them desperately. The three navy troops chased each other, all of which were trying their best to speed up. There were countless large and small ships stranded and stranded in the dark night, but the main generals of the three navy ignored them, and they did not rescue them. They just tried their best to move forward, forward, and forward again!

Finally, when the sky was clear, the Wei Jun troops of the Taiping Navy, who was the leader, finally arrived at the city of Hukou. The more than 800 main combat soldiers carried on the ship jumped off the shallows without waiting for the ship to drop the springboard, rushed to the land, and then rushed to Hukou County where the city gate had been opened. The Qing soldiers guarding the city gate were stunned and could only hurriedly close the city gate, while rolling and crawling back to the city to report the message to the new county magistrate Wang Shaochong.

Next, the incident of Teacher Zeng beat his chest and stamping his feet finally happened. He heard that the Taiping Army's magical weapon suddenly appeared under Hukou City. Wen Jun and Wen Futai newly promoted county magistrate Wang Shaochong did not do the first thing to organize the Qing soldiers and regiments in the city to train the city to defend the city, but to quickly pack all the gold, silver and soft and soft that could be packed, and then rolled and crawled out of the city through the south gate, rushed to the lake to look for a ferry and escape from Poyang Lake.

There is no need for our county magistrate Wang to open the city gate for the Taiping Army soldiers. There is no defense in the city. The Taiping Army soldiers directly climbed up the city wall with a ladder and rushed into the city to open the west gate of Hukou County. The Taiping Army soldiers outside the city swarmed into the city, seizing control of the city gate while seizing the granary and county government. During this period, they were not blocked or resisted at all. Almost in the blink of an eye, they took down Hukou City, which the Hunan Army had spent countless efforts to seize. As a result, when the Taiping Army's flag was inserted into the Hukou City Tower, the Hunan Navy had just appeared on the water at the foot of Shizhong Mountain.

Zeng Guohua was indeed lacking in these decisions. Seeing that Hukou had fallen into the enemy, and knew that there was a Taiping Navy chasing behind him, Zeng Guohua's most correct choice should be to retreat to Jiujiang decisively to preserve the living power of the Hunan Navy to facilitate the future response of the Lu Division. Unfortunately, at the critical moment, Zeng Guohua made a mistake in making another decision and ordered the Hunan Navy to launch an attack on the Taiping Navy, trying to kill the defeated Taiping Navy to land and regain Hukou City.

Facing the big pie that fell from the sky, Wei Jun naturally smiled and caught it with his hands. He fought resolutely despite the fatigue of the soldiers, and urged the Xiaoba fleet to rush forward to fight the Hunan Navy. As a result, with the advantages of warships and physical strength, the Hunan Navy had the upper hand in the early stage and sank several Taiping Xiaoba ships, which once killed the Taiping Navy almost unbearable. However, when Qin Rigang personally led the main force of the Taiping Navy to Hukou, the battlefield situation suddenly reversed.

Amid the fierce artillery fire and thunderous shouts, the Taiping Army's small ship rushed to the Hunan Navy fleet, bombarding guns and snatching ships near the side. Although the Hunan Navy's current large number of military sampans equipped with large numbers of mainly equipped military sampans are not inferior to the power of the motor, and are more suitable for battlefield fighting than the Xiaopai ship, a good tiger can't beat a pack of wolves. In front of the Taiping Army's small ships that are constantly pouring in like waves, the Hunan Army's sampans are still burned and sunk one by one, one by one.

The strip was seized by the side and lost the protection of the sampan, the Hunan Army's red single ship turned into a wild boar in the wolves. It was full of brute force but could not be used, and the hungry wolf was allowed to bite it. Soon, under the attack of dense rocket fuel spray barrels, a red single ship was surrounded by hundreds of Taiping Army small ships. Taiping Army sailors kept boarding the ship and robbing the side, and the slogan of surrendering and not killing resounded throughout the sky. In addition to the choice of self-sinking, being captured was a foregone conclusion.

During the fierce battle, the flagship of the Hunan Navy, including Zeng Guohua, was ignited by the Taiping Army rockets. The fire was raging. Zeng Guohua cried regretfully and had to order to break through and retreat. However, it was naturally even more difficult to go further. The Taiping Navy would never tolerate the Qing Navy's forces on Poyang Lake that threatened the safety of his own army. Despite the fatigue, they insisted on blocking front and chasing back and crazily chopping and burning the Hunan Navy warships. Even if there were lucky people who broke out of the siege and fled west, they were also frantically pursued by the Taiping Army Xiaoba Ship. The ship was burned and captured countless times, and the sailors surrendered and fell into the water. The scene was so miserable that the pen could not describe at all.

In the end, even the flagship of the Hunan Army was completely burned by the Taiping Army's rocket spray can. Zeng Guohua was seriously injured. It was all Yang Yuebin's support at all costs. He luckily escaped on Yang Yuebin's ship. He barely escaped from Poyang Lake during the Taiping Army's pursuit. He fled to the west coast with the emergency dispatch of the Qing army. However, even so, the sailors of the Hunan Navy ships of the three battalions were less than one battalion, and the navy was basically destroyed. Zeng Guohua's two right-hand assistants Yang Yuebin and Peng Yulin were also injured in the fierce battle.

"Hurry, hurry up, ask Wu Futai for help, beg him to save my brother..."

After saying this in the arms of Bi Jinke, the general of Wang Guocai, Zeng Guohua completely fainted and said goodbye to the Hunan Navy forever. He said goodbye to the large-scale burns on the water battlefield. His leg injuries were particularly serious. Even if he could save his life, it would be difficult for Zeng Guohua to stand up again in the future.

…………

At the same time, Teacher Zeng still did not know that his own army had become an isolated army and had been completely isolated to the west of Poyang Lake. Although he had rationally stopped covering Pengze City with artillery, he hurriedly ordered He Shaocai's troops to abandon the city and retreat west. He used Zuo Zongtang's idea to hand over Dongliu City to the newly appointed county magistrate as a scapegoat, but he did not make up his mind to immediately lift the siege of Pengze, and voluntarily abandon the camp and retreated. He just waited for news from Hukou and prepared to confirm the situation on the Hukou battlefield before deciding whether the entire army would retreat.

At this time, Zuo Zongtang, who had already broken openly with Zeng Guofan, finally came to the commander's tent again. As soon as he entered the account, he shouted at Zeng Guofan and asked: "Why haven't you retreated yet? How long do you want to delay? Master Cheng? Do you really have to wait until the hairy main force of the Lu Master also came to the front before running for life in a hurry?"

"Don't worry, there is no news in Hukou yet." Zeng Guofan said patiently: "There is still hope in the Hukou battlefield. As long as Li Xubin and the others can arrive at Hukou in time to defend the city, we don't have to worry about being surrounded by long hair."

"Master, are you not brainy?" Zuo Zongtang cursed angrily and roared: "Not to mention that Hukou may not be able to be kept. What's the use of even if Hukou is saved? Changmao has cleared the downstream official army, and the main force of the navy is free. This time, the westward advance is definitely the elite of the navy. Only the three battalions of the navy can stop them? Changmao cuts the channel, and our food and military supplies cannot be transported to the west bank of Poyang Lake. Will we starve to death sooner or later when we are trapped in Hukou?"
Chapter completed!