Chapter 57: The Eve of the Great War

  Each army counted, and in the end, 23,800 people were left. Wei Zhi-jun was very dissatisfied with this result, and this number seriously hurt his confidence. Li Ming-feng had expected this result a long time ago, because historically, after the Xiang Army broke into Tianjing, not a single soldier surrendered, all died in battle, which shows the loyalty of the Taiping Army.

  Li Mingfang ordered an inventory of the goods transported from Chizhou and various counties, excluding grain, fodder, and military equipment. There were approximately 1.4 million taels of silver, 30,000 taels of gold, countless silk fabrics, porcelain, and jade artifacts. Chizhou indeed lived up to its reputation as a crucial location for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

  At this time, the Qing army had more than 23,000 troops, plus 1,600 foreign gunners and 2,000 Xiang soldiers, totaling over 28,000 men. Li Mingfang ordered that each soldier be rewarded with 10 taels of silver to stabilize the chaotic morale and boost their spirits. The foreign soldiers in the foreign gunner unit were rewarded with 30 taels of silver and 10 taels of gold.

  It was still the most cost-effective to reward them with silver, and after receiving the reward, the morale of the soldiers, which had been low due to their surrender, immediately lifted. Wei Zhi-jun reorganized the more than 23,000 people into twelve battalions for the time being, and after the imperial court accepted their surrender, they would be re-divided according to the Green Standard Army's organization.

  Li Mingfeng still had some concerns about the Taiping Army, so he sent out his foreign gun team, and under the leadership of local guides, blocked all roads leading to Jingdezhen, resolutely cutting off Yang Fuqing's source of information, lest the Taiping Army that had just been sent away would take a detour to Jingdezhen to report.

  As for Yang Fuqing, he was still unaware of the situation. After receiving Zhang Yunlan's battle report from the Hunan Army, he thought that with Wei Zhijun's support, they would surely win a great victory. Therefore, Yang Fuqing accepted Zhang Yunlan's challenge to battle while at the same time sending someone to ask for reinforcements from Wei Zhijun's large camp.

  Zhang Yunlan's Xiang Army was brave and fierce, but the number of soldiers was small, with only over 10,000 soldiers in Raozhou City. The battle tomorrow would be a feint, but they couldn't afford to be careless, or it wouldn't be worth it if they suffered a loss. Zhang Yunlan sent someone to Fuzhou to ask Xiao Qijiang to come and assist in the battle, just in case something unexpected happened.

  At this time, the situation in Jiangxi Province was that the northwest part of Nanchang, Fuzhou, and Raozhou were under the control of the Xiang Army. The northeast part, including Jingdezhen and Yingtan, with more than a dozen cities, were under the control of Yang Fuqing, the main general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Central Army. The southern region was within the sphere of influence of Shi Dakai, but at this time, Shi Dakai's main force had already entered Hunan Province, and Jiangxi's southern region was only occupied by small groups of Longhairs. If Yang Fuqing were to be eliminated, then all of Jiangxi would be thoroughly recovered.

  Jiangxi was originally a secondary province, and neither the Qing army nor the Taiping army attached much importance to it. However, after Shi Dakai's departure, he first went to Zhejiang, then to Fujian, and finally arrived in Jiangxi. A few months ago, Shi Dakai sent his top general Yang Fuqing to capture Jingdezhen. As a result, Yang Fuqing captured Jingdezhen and submitted a memorial to the Heavenly King, declaring that he had severed ties with Shi Dakai and would only be loyal to the Heavenly King.

  The Emperor was overjoyed when he heard the news and appointed him as the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Army, exercising control over all the troops.

  After this great change, Shi Dakai's military strength was suddenly reduced, and he could no longer conquer southern Jiangxi from northern Jiangxi, so he had to shift the war to Hunan where the Qing army's forces were weak.

  However, the imperial court was not aware of these events and only received news that Shi Dakai had ambitions to move north into Jiangxi. Jiangxi had places like Nanchang and Jiujiang which could not be lost, so upon receiving this news, the imperial court immediately ordered Zeng Guofan to lead Zhang Yulin and Xiao Qijiang to lift the siege of Jiangxi.

  Zeng Guofan garrisoned Nanchang, Zhang Yunlan garrisoned Raozhou, Xiao Qijiang garrisoned Fuzhou. The three had originally planned to form a triangular defense and provide mutual reinforcements. However, just as the main force of the Xiang Army had assembled and was preparing for a major battle with the Taiping rebels, the Wing King suddenly rushed towards Hunan. Hunan was Zeng Guofan's hometown and the foundation of the Xiang Army, so Zeng Guofan hastily led his troops back to reinforce Hunan.

  At this time, in fact, southern Jiangxi was a power vacuum, all the Longhairs had been taken to Hunan by Shi Dakai, and northern Jiangxi was a confrontation between Zhang Yunlan and Xiao Qijiang against Yang Fuqing. In this situation, whoever controlled northern Jiangxi would actually gain control over the entire province of Jiangxi. Therefore, both sides were extremely cautious and did not dare to make any mistakes.

  On December 9, 1858, Zhang Yunlan led his Xiang Army of five thousand to attack Jingdezhen, while Xiao Qijiang sent an army of ten thousand from Fuzhou to attack Yingtan.

  Eagle Pool was guarded by Yang Fuqing's younger brother, Yang Yiqing, with 5,000 Taiping soldiers. Zhang Yunlan and Xiao Qijiang had agreed that Zhang would launch a feigned attack while Xiao would actually fight. If they could capture Eagle Pool before Yang Fuqing arrived to reinforce it, then Zhang would change his tactics from a feigned attack to an all-out assault on Yang's forces, and the two commanders would join forces to occupy Eagle Pool.

  If Yang Fuqing's reinforcements arrived in time, Xiao Qijiang would not be entangled and quickly withdrew. Taking advantage of Yang Fuqing's expedition outside, Zhang Yunlan's troops secretly crossed Jingdezhen to meet the foreign gun team.

  Yang Fuqing's abacus was also ringing, and the Xiang Army in Raozhou and Fuzhou had about 30,000 people. Except for those who were guarding the city, there were only about 20,000 who could go out to fight. In Jingdezhen City, there were 40,000 Taiping soldiers, and at least 30,000 cavalrymen under Wei Zhijun's command. With such an advantage, as long as they planned carefully, it was very possible that this battle would completely drive the Qing army out of Jiangxi.

  Yang Fuqing sent troops to Weizhijun's camp the day before, requesting coordination for the attack, and specific combat actions were decided by Weizhijun.

  Under Li Mingfeng's instigation, Wei Zhi-jun replied in writing to agree to advance troops and wrote out his own strategic idea, which was to intercept Zhang Yun-lan's unit. Yang Fu-qing saw the reply and thought that this battle would surely annihilate Zhang Yun-lan completely, the great victory of Sanhe had stolen Chen Yu-cheng's thunder, this time he must achieve a great victory in Jiangxi, to revive his own prestige, otherwise, in the future, Chen Yu-cheng, the vanguard commander-in-chief, might ride roughshod over him.

  On December 9th at noon, Yang Fuqing received a call for help from Yingtan and only then did he learn that Xiao Qijiang was not coming to attack Jingdezhen but instead wanted to take Yingtan. Yang Fuqing relied on his superior numbers and was not afraid, dividing his troops with 10,000 men led by General Huang Renzhu to provide reinforcements. Yang Fuqing personally led the main force of 20,000 men out of Jingdezhen to meet up with Zhang Yunlan.

  Zhang Yunlan's dispatched general led hundreds of soldiers under the guidance of local people, traversing mountains and ridges, and arrived at the location designated by Li Mingfeng.

  Li Mingfeng had sent General Chen Xinghan with 200 foreign guns to meet here, and after the two sides met and verified each other's identities, Chen Xinghan took this person to see Li Mingfeng.

  He almost got scared to death when he entered the military camp, thinking it was a trick of the Longhairs. The entire camp, with tens of thousands of soldiers, all wore the uniform of the Taiping Army, how could he not be afraid? As for Li Mingfeng arranging people to take care of him and explain his "military achievements" and other matters, we won't mention it here.

  Li Mingfeng received the news and immediately gathered his generals to announce the uprising and march south.

  Wei Zhi-jun and his subordinates all hated Yang Fu-qing deeply, and this time they heard that they were going to fight him, they were excited and volunteered to go to war. Li Ming-feng still had doubts about these Taiping Army, so he left Chen Xing-han to lead the 2,000 Xiang Army from Tongcheng and Shucheng, plus 3,000 Taiping Army to guard the camp.

  The other troops all set out, and the army marched straight to Fuliang City, sixty miles north of Jingde Town.

  Fuliang City is the northern barrier of Jingdezhen, guarded by General Zhu Yidian and 7,000 Taiping soldiers under Yang Fuqing's command. This city is much larger than Jingdezhen, but because Jingdezhen is a strategic location, while Fuliang is in the rear, only so few soldiers are stationed here.

  Li Mingfeng and Wei Zhijun also arrived in Fuliang at noon.

  According to previous plans, Wei Zhi-jun rode his horse forward to call Guan.

  "How many people are defending the city? Why doesn't General Wei come out of the city to greet me?" Wei Zhijun shouted under the Floating Liang City.

  Zhu Yi Dian stood on the city wall after receiving the news and saw Wei Zhi Jun, the main general of the Tian Guo Right Army, arriving. He silently cursed his bad luck.

  Wei Zhi-jun held a high position, second only to Yang Fu-qing in military jurisdiction. When he came to the pass, it was necessary to open the gate according to reason. However, Yang Fu-qing and Wei Zhi-jun had been at odds due to the Eastern King and Northern King, and although Wei Zhi-jun had helped Yang Fu-qing many times, Yang Fu-qing did not appreciate it.

  If Wei Zhi-jun is allowed to enter, it would be difficult for Yang Fu-qing to explain the situation with Zhu Yi-dian.

  "It was General Wei, I apologize for the discourtesy. Please forgive me for not being able to open the city gate. General Wei wants to go to Jingdezhen to assist in the battle, bypassing our city is fine, why must you insist on entering Fuliang and put me in a difficult position?" said Zhu Yirong.

  "My tactics are not for you to understand, don't waste my time, I'm going to Fuliang today. The Heavenly King has appointed me as the commander of the Right Army, second only to Yang Fuqing, do you dare disobey my orders?" Wei Zhi-Jun pulled out his official rank to suppress him, this move was most effective when dealing with soldiers.

  Seeing Zhu Yidian hesitating on the city wall, Li Mingfeng whispered a few words to Wei Zhijun. Wei Zhijun took out the letter written by Yang Fuqing and waved it at Zhu Yidian, saying: "This is General Yang Fuqing's letter inviting me to assist in battle, take it and verify it."

  Zhu Yi dropped a basket from the city wall and pulled it up with the letter inside. This letter was found by Li Mingfeng in the army, who had asked a scholar to modify the original letter written by Yang Fuqing. Li Mingfeng had anticipated that finding an expert in handwriting identification would not be easy in this era when the literacy rate was less than 2%.

  Yang Fuqing's original message was simple, just asking for coordination with the attack, and specific actions would be decided by Wei Zhi-jun himself. However, Li Mingfeng had someone add a sentence at the end: 'In order to prevent the Xiang Army from sneaking into the city, please have General Wei assist in defending Fuliang and other cities.'

  Zhu Yidian received the letter and took out the previous letters written by Yang Fuqing to himself, comparing the text and seal, there was no flaw. Zhu Yidian saw that this letter was true, and he also breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, otherwise, the crime of disobeying the orders of the Right Army General would not be small.

  Zhu Yi gave the order to open the city gate, and Li Mingfeng ordered that all the blue cloth strips be tied around their right arms before going out, in order to distinguish friend from foe. Then, the 20,000-strong army poured into Fuliang City with a mighty roar.