Chapter 65: The Battle of Jingdezhen (7) Retreat

  The next morning, Gong Chang led Andrew, Parland and other British soldiers, as well as 2,000 surrendered Taiping rebels, to Fuliang City. Fuliang City was guarded by General Zhou Jingtong under Wei Zijun, with two battalions of Taiping rebels inside the city.

  Holding Li Mingfeng's order, Gong Cheng quickly organized his troops in Fuliang and transported all the supplies from Chizhou and other places to Hukou. Hukou is about 300 miles away from here, and it is currently controlled by the Qing naval forces. However, there are some small groups of Taiping rebels along the way. But with a convoy of nearly 7,000 people, even if there were several hundred Taiping rebels, they would not dare to attack.

  Li Mingfeng led the remaining 5,000 troops south to reinforce Wei Zhijun.

  At this time, Wei Zhi-jun and Yang Yi-qing were inextricably linked in the Le Ping area, but when Li Ming-feng's reinforcements arrived, Wei Zhi-jun's side was greatly boosted, and Yang Yi-qing gradually became overwhelmed.

  Li Mingfeng is not familiar with military affairs, and all the matters of going to battle are handled by Wei Zhijun. He himself is carefully studying the movements of various parties. Since Li Mingfeng left Beidaying, Yang Fuqing's pressure in the city has been greatly reduced, and recently he has often led his troops out to harass them.

  On the contrary, Zhang Yunlan and Xiao Qijiang were short of troops and only defended themselves without attacking the city.

  Li Mingfeng made up his mind not to sacrifice himself for others, and he would retreat as soon as he got the chance. However, this plan was not told to Wei Zhijun, because this man was eager to make a name for himself and would certainly not agree to retreat when there was no sign of defeat.

  Since the retreat of Fuliang's troops, the north gate of Jingdezhen has been opened. The long-haired reinforcements from Tianjing can now reach the city without having to cross any checkpoints. Through his intelligence network, Li Mingfeng learned that Huang Wenjin and Liu Guanfang, former subordinates of Wei Zhijun, had told the whole story of Wei's surrender after arriving in Tianjing.

  Hong Xiuquan was furious when he learned of this. After a few days, he heard the news that Wei Zhijun had attacked Jingdezhen and the Heavenly King almost died to see his Godfather. Although Tianjing City and Jiangnan had limited military strength, Hong Xiuquan still squeezed out 20,000 troops for Huang Wenjin and Liu Official Four, letting them lead the army to rescue Jingdezhen.

  Hong Xiuquan was a scholar before he got into religion, and he wasn't a nobody either. Letting Wei Zhi-jun's former subordinates, the four generals, go to punish Wei Zhi-jun not only eliminated the danger of betrayal but also brought many benefits.

  Huang Wengong and others, in that situation, were able to remain loyal to the Heavenly King without changing their allegiance. Their loyalty can be seen from this. Letting these four lead troops shows the Heavenly King's trust in them, allowing these four to deepen their loyalty to the Heavenly King. Moreover, many of Wei Zhi-jun's surrendered Qing soldiers were originally under the command of these four men. If they went to attack, it would confuse the enemy's mind. If Wei Zhi-jun were defeated, Huang Wengong and Liu Officially would just need to wave their hands, and probably most of the Long Hairs would return to the Taiping Army's banner.

  When Li Mingfeng learned of this news, Huang Wengong and others had already passed through Chizhou. This intelligence was very important, if Fuliang was still in Li Mingfeng's hands, relying on the city pool, with 8,000 to 10,000 troops inside the city, they could still hold off Huang Wengong. However, for those gold and silver, weapons, Li Mingfeng had already transferred all his troops away, Fuliang was just an empty city.

  When Huang Wukong's army arrives, the military strength comparison near Jingdezhen will change dramatically. The Taiping Army will increase from over 30,000 to over 50,000, while the Qing army will decrease from over 40,000 to just over 30,000 (Gong Cheng took 7,000 to go to Hukou).

  It was an emergency, so Li Mingfeng hastily summoned Wei Zhijun from the front camp and told him what had happened.

  "What's the big deal about abandoning the floating bridge and not defending it? If we let Huang Wenjin and others bring their troops to kill us, our army will be in danger." Wei Zhi heard this and also felt the severity of the situation.

  Old Li also didn't dare to open his mouth at this time, I'm reluctant to part with those treasures, let's transport them away first.

  After deliberating for half a day, Li Mingfeng finally said: "It's just that if we don't abandon Fuliang, Huang Wenjin won't be able to reach the foot of Jingdezhen City. Do you think it will take how long for the more than 10,000 troops of Xiang Army and our nearly 20,000 troops to defeat Yang Fuqing and Yang Yiqing brothers?"

  Wei Zhi-jun also frowned and remained silent after hearing this. The battles in recent days had been extremely brutal. Yang Yi-qing rushed to rescue Jingde Town, but Wei Zhi-jun knew that the town's defenses were currently insufficient, so he needed to quickly defeat Yang Yi-qing and then go back to support Zhang Yun-lan and Xiao Qi-jiang. Therefore, both sides were eager to fight.

  After several days, both sides lost at least 3,000 to 4,000 men, but still could not determine the outcome. Although Wei Zhi-jun, who currently has an advantage in military strength, is confident of winning, it's unclear how much longer this will take. In fact, the situation around Jingdezhen has already reversed, with Yang Fu-qing repeatedly attacking the Xiang Army, which has retreated and refuses to come out. Under these circumstances, it would be laughable to mention taking Jingdezhen again.

  "What's good then?" Wei Zhi-jun asked.

  "When Huang Wengong's army arrives, Yang Fuqing will lead his troops out of the city. The Xiang Army will surely abandon us and escape on their own. Now that Yang Yiqing's army is in the south and Yang Fuqing is in the north, our army is surrounded from both sides. There is no Yangtze River to cross now, if we really fall into this situation, I'm afraid we'll all be buried here." Li Mingfeng intentionally exaggerated the consequences a bit, so that Wei Zhiyun would agree to withdraw troops.

  In fact, Jiangxi is not Anhui's northern region. Even if Huang Wenjin really arrived, the ratio of forces between the two sides would be at most five to three, which is much better than the ten-to-one ratio when Du Xinga was in charge. As long as Zhang Yunlan and Xiao Qijiang do not shamelessly retreat, Li Mingfeng's army will merge with the Hunan Army, and the Taiping Army will not gain any advantage. Of course, the Taiping Army did not gain an advantage, but Li Mingfeng and his men did not even get a small one.

  Wei Zhi-jun seemed to have understood the situation and knew that his plan to capture Jingdezhen and make a great contribution to redeem himself had fallen through. He could only helplessly sigh, turn to Li Ming-feng, and say: "This subordinate humbly follows the adult's military order, as for how to proceed, it will be entirely up to the adult's instructions."

  What intention can Li Mingfeng have, it must be an escape character. According to reports, Huang Wengjin passed through Chizhou, and Li Mingfeng and others took three days from Chizhou to Fuliang, which was due to the reason of rushing to transport materials along the way. If it were just a march, they could arrive in half a day.

  If we don't retreat quickly now, I'm afraid that by tomorrow morning, the two armies of Yang Fuqing and Huang Wenjin will be back in the vicinity of Jingdezhen. To prevent Yang Yiqing from pursuing and killing them from behind, Li Mingfeng ordered the army to pack up their luggage at midnight and set out at noon.

  Chang Mao has always been in a state of confusion, with unclear military systems. In recent days, Yang Yiqing has suffered consecutive losses, so he did not detect the enemy's large-scale action. By dawn, when Wei Zhi-jun's camp was empty, Li Ming-feng and others were already 50 miles away.