Chapter 62: The Battle of Jingdezhen (4)

  Most of Huang's remaining troops surrendered, but Yang Yiqing did not dare to be careless and had all the more than 7,000 long-haired soldiers in Huang's unit disarm and be imprisoned.

  Yang Yiqing has now become the highest official of the long-haired outside Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province. With a burning ambition, Yang Yiqing hastily issued an order to summon the counties in northeastern Gannan. A few days later, hundreds of long-haired men gathered in Yingtan from all directions.

  Several days later, all the long-haired bandits from various counties gathered at Yingtan. Since Yang Yiqing had assembled his troops, he did not plan to let them go back. He was preparing to turn these men and horses into his own troops. Yang Yiqing thoroughly defeated all the reinforcements of the long-haired bandits and also defeated Huang's long-haired bandits, reorganizing them into new teams.

  There are uncooperative generals, all beheaded, and mid-to-low-level generals are all held by Yang Yiqing's direct descendants.

  Under Yang Yiqing's iron-fisted rule, although the Taiping Army suffered severe internal strife, he unified the command of the Taiping Army in the shortest time.

  On December 24, 1858, after integrating the entire army, Yang Yiqing led a large army of 15,000 men and horses to reinforce Jingde Town. Under Yang Yiqing's command, General Qian Tongsheng led an army of 3,000 to garrison Yingtan.

  For more than a decade, Zhang Yunlan, Xiao Qijiang, Li Mingfeng and Wei Zhiyun, who all knew that Jingdezhen could not be attacked head-on, unanimously agreed to wear down Yang Fuqing.

  Four main camps, Western-style artillery and Qing dynasty cannons, catapults and other long-range attack weapons fired continuously every day. Although they could not breach the city walls, they also caused significant losses to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

  Yang Fuqing led his troops out of the camp several times, but due to the strict defense and sufficient military strength of the Qing army's four divisions, he returned without success.

  On this day, the four main generals were all in Li Mingfeng's military account studying the specific strategy for the next step. Suddenly, a small school came to report that Yang Yiqing led a large army to support.

  These days, the things that happened in Yingtan, Li Mingfeng and others also knew. The internal strife of the Longhairs, the four people should have been happy, but the unified command of the Longhairs was what the four people least wanted to see.

  If they do not belong to each other, it would be easy to annihilate them if 3,000 came today and 2,000 came tomorrow. However, now Yang Yiqing's army has 15,000 men and horses, concentrated to come and support, wanting to swallow him in one mouth is impossible.

  There were four large camps, with each camp having over 10,000 soldiers and horses. If Yang Yiqing launched a fierce attack on any one of the camps, that camp would be greatly strained to defend itself.

  Yang Fuqing will definitely lead his troops to charge out of the city when he sees the reinforcements, and at that time, the two sides will be pinched together, and the siege situation will be broken. If one camp is broken, the other three camps will also inevitably collapse, and all previous efforts will be in vain.

  After discussion, the four men decided to intercept Yang Yiqing halfway. Wei Zhi-jun and Yang brothers had a feud, they volunteered, Zhang Xiao Li three people, each with their own thoughts, all agreed to do so.

  Wei Zhi-jun led his troops, a total of 10,000 men, from Li Ming-feng's camp, and took out 3,000 from the Qing army, and brought another 3,000 Xiang soldiers, totaling 16,000 men, to Le Ping to intercept Yang Yi-qing.

  Wei Zhi-jun's main camp was supplemented by 3,000 men and horses from Zhang Xiao's two camps, while the Hunan Army general Wang Kaihua was in charge of defending the eastern main camp.

  The reason why Wei Zhi-jun went to fight against Yang Yi-qing was that each of the four had their own plans. As for Wei Zhi-jun himself, one reason was that he had a feud with the Yang brothers, and another was that he wanted to make achievements. Zhang Xiao's two men were hostile towards him, and in these days, he had already clearly felt that if he didn't have enough merits, it would be difficult for Wei Zhi-jun to stand firm.

  Zhang and Xiao did not agree with Li Wei. Wei Zhijun had killed Luo Zhenan, a famous general of the Xiang Army. Luo Zhenan was the lifesaver of Zeng Guofan and one of the earliest founders of the Xiang Army. From this, it can be seen that Wei Zhijun and the Xiang Army were sworn enemies. Although Wei Zhijun had surrendered, the leaders of the Xiang Army still remembered the past. Now that Wei Zhijun was taking the initiative to ask for punishment, Zhang and Xiao were both delighted. If they won, Wei Zhijun would also suffer heavy losses. If they lost, it would be bad for the old Wei who had just surrendered, and he might not see the imperial court's rewards in his lifetime.

  Li Mingfeng also had his own plan. In the battle of Fuliang, Wei Zhijun refused to obey Li Mingfeng's order not to kill civilians. In the following days, Li Mingfeng also felt Wei Zhijun's arrogance. However, Li Mingfeng was helpless. As the saying goes, "a guest is bullied by the host", Wei Zhijun had ten times more men than him, and naturally he was unwilling to be under his command.

  Li Mingfeng surrendered because at that time there was only one Qing army nearby. Now, the tiger has entered the deep mountains and the dragon has entered the great sea. Wei Zhijun's uneasy thoughts arose again in his heart. As long as he worked hard to establish merit, Wei Zhijun believed that in the future he would still be able to swim like a fish in the imperial court.

  Li Mingfeng also saw Wei Zhijun's idea, so he agreed to let him go and fight Yang Yiqing to the death, consume some of his strength, and it will be easier to control him in the future.

  As for the Taiping Army reinforcements coming from Tianjing, Zhang and Xiao were both very concerned, but some messages that came later dispelled everyone's doubts.

  After the great victory of Sanhe Town, Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng and Li Shixian's three armies advanced together, successively retaking Tongcheng, Shucheng, Pingshan and Taihu. At that time, except for Suzong occupied by Du Xinga, the whole of Anhui was already under the control of the Taiping Army.

  Chen Yucheng thought of taking advantage of the momentum of the three rivers to take Su Song directly, and after capturing this city, he could retreat to Anqing without worry, and advance to take Jiujiang Wuchang. Li Xiucheng listened to Chen Yucheng's plan and did not agree with it. He believed that Du Xing'a, Bao and others had more than 10,000 troops garrisoned in Su Song, and it would be very difficult to capture the city.

  Moreover, Su Song's back was against Hubei, and whether it was the Xiang Army or the Green Camp, reinforcements could arrive in time. Therefore, Li Xiucheng advised Chen Yucheng to stop advancing and wait for an opportunity.

  Chen Yucheng had just won a great victory and was proud and arrogant, refusing to listen to others. He hastily advanced his troops and as a result suffered defeat at Susong.

  When Chen Yucheng encountered setbacks, he did not think of retreating, but instead became more aggressive and launched another fierce attack. Li Xiucheng was helpless and could not just watch Chen Yucheng advance alone, so he had to send troops to respond, resulting in the Taiping Army being defeated again at Erlang River.

  The Battle of Erlang River, tens of thousands of Taiping soldiers were beheaded, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng's armies suffered heavy losses in morale, retreated back to Anqing, and did not dare to advance again.

  After this battle, the main force of the Taiping Army was tied up in Anqing, and the pressure on Li Mingfeng and others in Jiangxi was greatly reduced.

  Upon learning that the Taiping Army had no troops in Gannan, Zhang Yunlan, Xiao Qijiang and Li Mingfeng were all exceptionally inspired and more determined to take down Jingdezhen.

  The next day after Wei Zhi-jun blocked Yang Yi-qing, Li Ming-feng, Zhang Yun-lan, Xiao Qi-jiang and Wang Kai-hua gathered in Zhang Yun-lan's big tent to discuss how to attack the city.

  "Everyone knows that the Four-eyed Dog was defeated by General Du, and now he has no power to move south. At this moment, it's a rare opportunity, I think there's no need to continue besieging the city like this. Otherwise, with Jingdezhen's grain and equipment, it would be no problem to hold on for three to five months. By the time the city runs out of food, Taiping Army will probably arrive." Zhang Yunlan said.

  Li Mingfeng frowned and asked: "If we launch a strong attack, I'm afraid our army will suffer too much loss."

  Xiao Qijiang sighed and said, "Alas, attacking cities and seizing land, how can there be no casualties? The Xiang Army is made up of neighbors and fellow villagers. I and Governor Zhang are the most reluctant to engage in a battle to the death. But at this critical moment, if we hesitate for a moment, we will miss our chance."

  The three generals of the Xiang Army, united in spirit and action, had a strong intention to attack the city. Li Mingfeng could only agree with them. The four men discussed and decided that on the next day at dawn, they would launch a simultaneous attack on all four gates.

  Today is the 30th of the Lunar New Year, so I'll take a short break. Today's update will be the only one. Unfortunately, today coincides with the cover recommendation on the 30th, which is also the day with the least traffic on the entire website. Ah, please give me your support.