** Ten Thousand Fans Incentive Plan Zeng Guofan achieved the biggest victory since the formation of the Hunan Army on October 14 in the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854) - the capture of Wuchang City, so Emperor Xianfeng ordered him to ** Governor of Hubei.
Since the Hunan army set out in February, Zeng Guofan has been walking with great difficulty, and has won and lost in battles with the Taiping army. However, the capture of Wuchang was an important turning point for Zeng.
However, he did not expect to meet his old enemy - Shi Dakai soon.
When Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, learned that the Hunan army had captured Wuchang City, he was furious, and immediately executed two Taiping generals who were responsible for guarding Wuchang, and urgently sent Qin Rigang, the king of Yan, to Tianjia Town, the important place of river defense, to set up defenses to resist the Hunan army.
However, with Qin Rigang's ability, it was difficult to resist the attack of the Hunan army. On November 20, the Hunan army and the Taiping army fought fiercely near Banbi Mountain, and on November 24, the Taiping army from Wuhu also joined the battle.
Although the Taiping army resisted vigorously, it was still unable to withstand the offensive of the Hunan army. On December 2, Tianjia Town was lost, more than 4,000 ships were burned, more than 500 ships were taken away, and the barrage chain was cut off by the Hunan army, making the Taiping army in Hubei almost disappear.
In the battle in the Lianghu area, the powerful Taiping naval division was almost completely annihilated, and control of the Yangtze River fell into the hands of the Hunan army, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom suffered its greatest defeat since the Jintian Uprising.
Yang Xiuqing recalled and dismissed Qin Rigang's prince, and appointed Shi Dakai, the 23-year-old winged king, as the front-line commander. Since the death of Xiao Chaogui, the king of the West, Shi Dakai has been the most critical commander of the front army, and has won many victories in many major battles.
After accepting the mission, he immediately rushed to Hukou for deployment. However, for Zeng, he had already won consecutive victories, so he believed that the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were under his control, and the situation in the southeast had also turned around.
He believed that his army could clear the river and go straight to Jinling. But in fact, Zeng Guofan has not really seen Shi Dakai's power. After Shi Dakai arrived at the front line, he quickly discovered the weakness of the Hunan army: "The soldiers were too proud, and as soon as they attacked Jiujiang, they surrounded Hukou and attacked Peng Ze ...... at the same timeTheir armies are scattered and prone to vulnerabilities. ”
Therefore, he planned to hold the fortress and carry out various defeats on the Hunan army.
Shi Dakai gathered elites in Jiujiang and successfully blocked the eastward advance of the Hunan army. On January 14, 1855, the Hunan army besieged Jiujiang, but was never able to break through. The Hunan warships sailed into Poyang Lake, and Shi Dakai commanded the Taiping Army to quickly block the exit and divide the Hunan army's naval divisions in the inner lake and the outer river.
The Taiping army used small boats to attack the Hunan naval division in the outer river, burning 39 warships. On February 11, the Taiping army crossed the river to capture Xiaochikou, and attacked the Hunan army's naval division in the outer river again at night, burning more than 10 warships.
This battle was one of the greatest humiliations of Zeng Guofan's life, he said: "Whenever I hear the angry cry of the spring breeze, I feel pain in my heart; When I saw the thief's sail galloping, I wandered around the house. ”
After the defeat at the Battle of Jiujiang, the Hunan army's naval division was isolated in Poyang Lake for a year and a half, and Zeng Guofan's plan to go down the river failed, and the Taiping army regained control of the Yangtze River.
However, Shi Dakai was not satisfied with this. On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve in the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), the Taiping army unexpectedly attacked the Qing army in Guangji and set fire to the camp, and Yang Pei, the governor of Huguang, fled in a hurry.
Taking advantage of the weakness of the Qing army, the Taiping army quickly advanced westward, recapturing Hankou and Hanyang on February 23, 1855, and then besieging Wuchang. The Taiping army and the Qing army held each other near Wuchang for more than a month, and could not directly cross the river to attack Wuchang, so they adopted a surprising strategy of victory, marching north from Xingguo Tongshan to Qingshan, and finally broke through Wuchang again on April 3.
In this battle, Tao Enpei, the governor of Hubei, died bravely. This news shocked the capital, and the imperial court immediately inquired about Shi Dakai's situation. Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, said in his recital to the imperial court
Shi Dakai won the trust of the soldiers, and every battle must select elites to form death squads, with thousands of people; He skillfully deployed the death squads as a second echelon, so that if the front troops were defeated, they could attack quickly, and if the front was victorious, they would take advantage of the victory and pursue them.
Shi Dakai led the army like a god, and it was difficult to act. His talent and majesty impressed both the enemy and the enemy. The Qing court asked Zeng Guofan to lead the Hunan army back to Hubei and seize Wuchang, no matter whether Shi Dakai was a man or a god, Wuchang could not be lost.
Zeng Guofan decided to stick to the siege of Jiujiang and did not send troops as ordered. His strategic goal was to contain the Taiping army, but the fear in his heart, especially his reverence for Shi Dakai, cast a shadow on him, fearing another defeat.