The fourth year of Xianfeng was undoubtedly a bad year for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which established its capital in Nanjing and renamed it Tianjing. In this year, the Taiping Army in the Northern Expedition lost the vigor of the three years of Xianfeng and lost consecutive battles.
In fact, as early as the winter of the third year of Xianfeng, the Northern Expeditionary Army had already begun to decline.
Compared with the Qing army, the Taiping Army led by Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and others were better at mobile warfare. Because the advantage of mobile warfare was that it allowed the Taiping Army to absorb refugees from various places along the way, increase its troop reserves, and recruit armed forces from various places. At the same time,
Then, continuous battles are used to cultivate the experience and quality of soldiers, so as to achieve the purpose of supporting war with war.
This kind of combat mode quickly expands one's own strength like a snowball.
However, in the winter of the third year of Xianfeng, the situation took a turn for the worse.
Due to the cold weather and the precautions of various government agencies, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang's troops were seriously short of food, grass and ammunition. They could only stay in place near Tianjin in order to survive the winter. However, the Qing army seized this opportunity and
The Taiping troops who had stopped to wait for reinforcements surrounded them and clung to the declining Taiping troops.
The situation was unfavorable, and the Taiping Army was forced to break out southward on the eighth day of the first lunar month of the fourth year of Xianfeng and retreated to Shucheng in Hejian County.
Before the Taiping Army could gain a firm foothold, the Qing Army had already arrived.
In desperation, the Taiping Army retreated to Fucheng.
Before reaching Fucheng, the Taiping Army of the Northern Expedition was once again surrounded by the Qing army. The Taiping Army, which was already like a lost dog, had long lost its original vigor and was in danger.
Time goes back to the fourth year of Xianfeng, the seventh day of the first lunar month.
When the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing learned that Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and others were besieged, he urgently sent 7,500 reinforcements led by generals including Huang Shengcai, Chen Shibao, Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang from Anqing, Anhui to reinforce the Northern Expeditionary Army.
The reinforcements heading north were as unstoppable as Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang. They continued to expand their ranks along the way. In early March, they defeated Zhang Liangji, Shanlu, Shengbao and others, and captured Linqing, a major industrial and commercial town.
Because the Qing army stationed in Linqing burned all the food and grass in the city when they retreated, the Northern Expedition reinforcements had nothing to eat. In this way, the Northern Expedition reinforcements also had the same problem as Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang - supply difficulties. At this time, Victory
Chongen, the new governor of Shandong in Baohe, arrived in Linqing again, surrounded Linqing, and cut off all aid in the city.
At this time, the morale of the Northern Expedition reinforcements had begun to weaken, and mutinies and escapes occurred almost every day.
On March 21, the Northern Expedition reinforcements withdrew from Linqing and wanted to go north to Fucheng to join the Northern Expedition army.
Halfway through, the newly surrendered refugees did not obey the command and ran southward, hoping to return to Tianjing. This move immediately gave the Manchu and Qing armies an opportunity. The Qing army took the opportunity to intercept and the Northern Expedition reinforcements suffered heavy losses.
He gave up the mission of joining the Northern Expedition reinforcements and retreated directly.
On March 27, the Northern Expedition reinforcements retreated to Qingshui Town.
On April 1, the Northern Expedition reinforcements continued to retreat southward and retreated to Guanxian County.
As the saying goes, when the wall falls and everyone pushes it down, when the Taiping Army is in decline, the local regiment training becomes active. The local regiment training in Guan County and Shengbao's cavalry attack front and back, and the Taiping Army is defeated.
The refugees and civilians trapped in the army were running around in disorder, and the army was unable to form an army, and the whole army was defeated.
The reinforcements for the Northern Expedition were completely defeated and had to retreat to Fengxian County, Jiangsu Province, preparing to cross the old Yellow River in Fengxian County to escape pursuit. The army crossed the river on horseback, but they did not expect that there was a deep mud ditch in the river, and the horses could not move forward. Except for more than 2,000 soldiers crossing the river southward
, all the rest were martyred.
Among them, Zeng Lichang, one of the leaders of the Northern Expedition reinforcements, committed suicide by leaping into a river on his horse, and Huang Shengcai was killed in Kongjiaji, Guan County.
The soldiers who crossed the old Yellow River turned into headless flies and moved to fight at Zhangouji in Fengtai. Chen Shibao died fighting, leaving only Xu Zongyang who fled back to Tianjing, but was thrown into the East Prison.
In this way, the Taiping Army's Northern Expedition reinforcements completely failed.
Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were also trapped and unable to escape and return to Tianjing.
However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not give up. In early April, they sent troops led by King Qin Rigang of Yan to help the north for the second time. However, this time it was even worse. Before the army could go far, Qin Rigang was defeated as soon as it arrived in Shucheng.
They returned with the army in despair. Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang lost their support and could only fight in the north and could no longer go south.
The defeat of the Northern Expedition and the Northern Expedition reinforcements struck a heavy blow in the hearts of the Taiping kings.
The army had lost all its vigor and was no longer able to threaten the Manchus.
However, the defeat of the Northern Expeditionary Army was only the beginning.
Prior to this, the Taiping Army had another army attacking Hunan, Hubei and other places. The battlefield here was relatively smooth in the beginning of the fourth year of Xianfeng. The Taiping Army attacked Changsha from the north and the south. In order to relieve the crisis in Changsha, Zeng Guofan led an army to counterattack Xiangtan, and then personally led the
Forty navy warships and 800 land troops attacked Jinggang on April 2nd.
When the Taiping Army saw Zeng Guofan's navy and army approaching, they opened fire on the Hunan Army's navy. Zeng Guofan took advantage of the direction of the river's water and wind, and asked soldiers to use cables to pull the boats along the banks. Seeing this, the Taiping Army sent troops to annihilate the people holding the cables, and then
More than 200 small rowing boats were sent to approach, taking advantage of the wind to prevent the fire, they defeated the Hunan Navy and burned the warships. The Hunan Army on land was also defeated by the Taiping Army.
Zeng Guofan lost his troops and generals. Feeling guilty and resentful, Zeng Guofan threw himself into the water at Tongguanzhu on the other side of Jinggang. Fortunately, he was rescued by his subordinates.
After a series of victories, the tail of the Taiping Army began to rise.
In particular, the chief general of the Taiping Army, Lin Shaozhang, was confused. His command was improper, and the internal generals were dissatisfied. The navy was temporarily composed of civilian ships, and its combat effectiveness was weak, resulting in the defeat of the battle. There were internal conflicts in the army, but Zeng Guofan polished off the situation.
With the steel sword, he advanced by land and water, and once again fought his way back to Xiangtan.
The two armies fought, and the Taiping Army's land and navy suffered setbacks one after another.
On the fifth day of April, the Taiping Army suffered a series of defeats and was forced to retreat from Xiangtan.
In this battle, the Taiping Army engaged in a total of ten water and land battles, and was defeated ten times. More than 10,000 people were killed or injured, and the remaining soldiers who fled were not less than 50,000 or 60,000, or even more. In addition, nearly 2,000 ships were destroyed.
After the Battle of Xiangtan, Zeng Guofan rose to fame, but the Taiping Army withdrew from Hunan. Zeng Guofan took advantage of the situation to break out of the darkness and attack Jiujiang, Jiangxi, forcing the Taiping Army to defend.
The defeat of the army led by Lin Shaozhang further weakened the strength of the Taiping Army, making it impossible for the Taiping Army to mobilize forces to rescue Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang.
The news of the Taiping Army's disastrous defeat in all aspects spread back to Tianjing, and immediately set off a huge wave.
In the Palace of Heavenly Kings, Heavenly King Hong Xiu is dressed in bright yellow dragon robes and robes. He is sitting directly above the main hall, at the highest position. In the diagonally lower corner on the left side sits 9,000-year-old Yang Xiuqing. The two are the supreme leaders of the Kingdom of Heaven. Their positions are different from
The rest of the kings. On the left and right sides of the hall, sitting are King Yi Shi Dakai, King Wei Changhui of the North, King Qin Rigang of Yan, and King Hu Yihuang of Yu.
The kings gathered at the Heavenly King's Mansion to discuss the next trend of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
ps: One of three updates; in a blink of an eye, there are already 200 chapters and more than 400,000 words, so fast! Thank you for your support, thank you.
