Congyang planned, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng each prepared troops and horses, organized the army to prepare for war, and were very busy.
Li Zhaoshou, the guard general of Chuzhou, didn't take it seriously. He was eating, drinking and having fun every day, and he often disturbed the people.
Chen Yucheng almost wanted to kill him, but Li Xiucheng refused because he was tolerant of charity and not disobedient to things.
Li Zhaoshou also complained and reported to Li Xiucheng: Since Chen Yucheng and his younger brother were at odds with each other, his younger brother would fight with him in a three-way battle to determine the male and female. Xue Zhiyuan, a fellow countryman, said: "Zhang Lexing and Gong Deshu have hundreds of thousands of people, and they rely on me to lead the way, so they can be named the Kingdom of Heaven." Today, Zhang is the commander-in-chief of Zhengbei, Dingtianfu, and Yijue. Gong is the chief general of Zhengbei, Gai Tianyi. You are answering Tianyi. What should I do? General Wen of Yu Province, where is Yu? You and I are from my hometown! Not even hair!
Xue Zhiyuan knew Li Bingxing and said: Now that you are in the sea of fire, you should be patient and bear with it. You must not make a big mistake by showing words of joy.
Li Zhaoshou said: People move living trees and move dead trees. Swords and guns have eyes. In troubled times, people follow their will.
Shengbao, the Mongolian commander of the Xianghuang Banner and the assistant minister of Anhui, heard about it and wanted to appease him.
Fuji, the governor of Anhui, advised Shengbao: Li Zhaoshou has bad moral character and is unkind. This fellow was first a bandit who was defeated and surrendered to me. Then he tried to kill my Taoist priest, the county magistrate and his subordinates, and forty-seven of them. This bloody feud was not motivated by personal grudges, but was really a matter of public outrage. What is the official intention of recruiting this person?
Shengbao didn't take it seriously and sent people to put Li Zhaoshou's wife and mother under house arrest, forcing Zhaoshou to rebel. Zhaoshou was a man of water and immediately came down secretly to tell the truth about Songyang's decision.
Shengbao Shangshu said: Li Zhaoshou's fierce flames are still blazing. Check out the 24 troops he leads, and there are tens of thousands of them. The thieves are promoted as strong soldiers. The other parties who previously disturbed Jianghuai were the other parties. Now he is forced by rebellion and is spreading to Quanjiao and Chuzhou, becoming extremely powerful. If I only fight hard, I may not be able to predict the outcome. Fortunately, I set up defenses and restraints the previous time, so Li Zhaoshou was stubborn and now wanted to be honest and accept the money. I checked what he said in his report and said that he would offer Chuzhou first and then pursue other strategies. If he can do what he said, he will have many members of his party. Wan, instead of being our enemy, are turned to our advantage, that is, the trend of Guangdong's rebellion becomes more and more isolated, and the energy of twisting rebellion is also taken away. Huainan and northern Anhui point to Gu Suqing, which is Li Zhaoshou's back, and is actually the key to the overall situation.
Emperor Xianfeng granted Li Zhaoshou a third-grade crown, gave him the name Li Shizhong, and rewarded him with flower feathers. Fuji, Li Mengqun, Dexing'a, Weng Tongshu, etc. were further instructed to take strict precautions against the enemy's rebellion against Congyang.
On July 3, 1858, Shengbao went to Qingliu Pass, and Li Zhaoshou surrendered. However, he postponed the delay with the excuse that "all his family members from Tongcheng have not come to Chu, and his confidants Chen Guangjun and others are still in Jinling." He also said that Chu and others would be sent to the Duke in September.
Li Mengqun accepted the order and could not help but smile. He laid siege to Shucheng for two months and failed despite repeated battles. He knew what the thieves wanted, but what could he do?
Fuji, the governor of Anhui, entered Anhui for four years, and the long-term fighting became a stalemate. Since the beginning of Xia, Chuzhou, Lai'an, Fengyang, and Huaiyuan have fallen one after another. Before the edict arrived, Fuji begged for leave due to illness.
Emperor Xianfeng angrily criticized Fuji for shrinking and ineffectiveness, so he revoked his palace title and ordered Li to come to Beijing. Li Mengqun was ordered to act as governor of Anhui.
Meng Qun accepted the Fu imperial edict and was surprised. He attacked Shuyi or entered Lu. While hesitating, Chen Yucheng's 20,000 troops had arrived at Zhongmei River, cutting off the connection between Shucheng and Liu'an.
Li Mengqun was panicking and resisted one after another, seeking a way out.
Chen Yucheng did not get what he wanted, so he urgently ordered Sanhe garrison general Wu Dinggui to attack Ershilipu and cut off the connection between Shucheng and Luzhou. Destroy Li, relieve Shu, and attack Lu, a three-pronged approach.
Hanlin editor Li Hongzhang and Ding You were in Lu, knowing that Luzhou was difficult to protect, so he took his family and rushed to Jiangxi to find his brother and avoid trouble.
On August 20, 1858, Wu Dinggui's troops left Sanhe Town and attacked Ershilipu. Qing deputy general Yu Yingbiao was defeated after the battle. Wu Dinggui attacked Shibaligang again and defeated the deputy capital commander Ruilin. He set up more than 10 camps from Shibaligang to Dashu Mountain. The Qing army in Luzhou has become a fish in the cauldron.
Li Mengqun was frightened and retreated in panic. There was no owner in Luzhou, and the soldiers in Luzhen were brave, but they were defeated before they could fight.
On the 24th, Chen Yucheng captured Dianbu again and advanced on Liangyuan; Li Xiucheng's troops also attacked from Quanjiao to the suburbs of Liangyuan.
When Li Mengqun retreated without a fight, Emperor Xianfeng angrily dismissed his position and ordered Weng Tongshu to act as governor of Anhui to lead troops to resist the thieves.
Weng Tongshu accepted the order and stationed in Liangyuan. He divided his troops into two groups and counterattacked Dianbu and Quanjiao, but was defeated miserably. Weng Tongshu collected the broken pieces and retreated to Baodingyuan. Immediately, people in Dingyuan and Hefei were strong, and bandits were rising south of Zhangqiao. Dingyuan is a small city, facing Qingliu Pass in the distance, approaching Chucheng in the east, connected to Lujun in the southwest, and Linhuaiyi Road in the north. We are surrounded by enemies on all sides and surrounded by thieves. The minister assigned officers and soldiers to closely guard the city, and set up four camps outside the city to maintain momentum.
Luzhou was suddenly lost and Dingyuan was in danger. Emperor Xianfeng ordered Shengbao to be the imperial minister to supervise the military affairs of northern Anhui. Weng Tongshu, the governor of Anhui, assisted in military affairs, and Yuan Jiasan supervised the military affairs of the three provinces of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi. He ordered Shengbao to attack Luzhou immediately, and it would be easy if he was not allowed to take refuge. He then ordered the governor of Huguang to send troops to Anhui immediately to assist Shengbao and Weng Tongshu.
Shengbao received the order and said: With the momentum of the engraving, it will be very difficult to attack Lu. The Nian bandits are in the north, and the Yue Ni bandits are in the south. There is only one city of Dingyuan in between, and Shouzhou and Liu'an are also extremely heavy. I sent an army to cross it, and I was already facing enemies from the front and back, and there were sparse and enemy troops. The danger was indescribable. The Anhui army was exhausted, and not only Li Mengqun's army was exhausted; every battalion general sent out his troops, and there were many excuses. It is difficult to describe all the situations. The ministers kowtowed and ordered the troops of Du Xing'a and Yang Zaifu to attack Qianshan, Taihu and Anqing quickly, withdraw the troops from the south bank of the east stream and gather on the north bank, striving to reach the upper reaches. Then he ordered Li Xubin's army to advance from Yinghuo, capture Shucheng and Tongcheng, and join the Anhui army to contain the rebels. I should encourage the soldiers to move from north to south, try to recover Chuzhou first and support the east road; then join forces with Lujun, advance troops step by step, and clear the north of the Yangtze River.
After winning the battle, he wrote to Weng Tong, the governor of Anhui, saying: Peilin, the first Miao in Fengtai, built a stronghold to accumulate grain, refused to control bandits, and ensured peace in one place. He is truly a genius. I will immediately petition the Holy One to appoint him as the magistrate of the fifth rank of Miao. Practice Huaibei team training.
Weng Tong wrote: Miao Peilin is capricious and cannot be used for great purposes.
Shengbao said: Without him, if the seedlings are killed and twisted, I will use them.
Miao Peilin was victorious and guaranteed support, and with the power in hand, he immediately acted arbitrarily. In the Huaibei area, the Miao army was everywhere, smashing, burning, killing, raping and looting, committing all kinds of evil.
The Huai people suffered so much that they wept and cried: The water of the Guohe River flows eastward, and I have enmity with the Miao thieves; he occupied my mother-in-law, and my father and mother were beheaded with a knife.
When Hu Linyi's mother died and Dingyou died, the official document received the order and said: "He, Chu, Chao, Lu, etc. in the east of Anhui Province, and Shu, Tong, Qian, Wang, Su, Tai and other places in the west are all occupied by thieves." Recently, they fled to Luzhou again. They spread out in the Dingyuan area and connected with Fengyang. They also colluded with the Nien bandits to kidnap the hungry people and gathered in Xusu, tens of thousands of them, with the intention of fleeing north. It means that all the dangerous points in the northern border of Anhui Province are lost, and there is no way to control and defend the enemy. I plan to mobilize troops to go around the north road to assist Yuan Jia's third camp in clearing out the Nien bandits. There were many bandits on the road from Shibei to Anqing in southern Anhui. It was not easy for Du Xing'a and Li Xubin's troops to divide their forces on the northern route, that is, to aid Luzhou and Dingyuan, and to block the bandits from Shibei and Anqing. It was also not easy. The ministers asked, Du Xing'a and Li Xubin's horse and foot armies still attacked Qianshan and Shutong from the south road, advancing step by step, and guarding against the thieves from Shibei and Anqing who could not fly over and plagiarize the back road. Shengbao sent special reinforcements to Dingyuan and attacked Luzhou. As soon as Du Xing'a and Li Xubin succeeded on the south road, they immediately attacked from both sides, and the common people could be wiped out.
After the official document was completed, the attack was immediately ordered.
On September 5, 1858, Li Xubin, Duolonga, Bao Chao, Zhao Kezhang, and Shi Qingji divided their troops into five groups and attacked Taihu Lake.
Taihu guard general Ye Yunlai, who was blessed by heaven, spent the night building a fort at the top of the east mountain to make a horn.
On the 6th, Li Xubin's troops arrived in the east of Taihu City. Ye Yunlai sent eight thousand troops out of the city to fight. Xubin attacked from both sides and won a great victory; then he attacked the city. Ye Yunlai relied on the strength of the city to resist and repeatedly frustrated the offensive. The Hunan Army suffered numerous casualties, so Xu Bin stopped attacking and forced the city to camp in the east and northwest. General Shi Qingji also camped in the south of the city. Encircle the city wall.
Taihu Lake was in danger, and Yucheng did not dare to act recklessly, so he abandoned Dingyuan and marched south to Chuzhou, hoping to quickly resolve the war between the two rivers.
Li Zhaoshou secretly reported to Shengbao and Dexing'a: Chen Yucheng was stationed in Chuzhou and joined forces with Li Xiucheng's army to attack Jiangpu and Pukou in the south to connect to the gate of Jinling.
The victory was rewarded, and I was relieved for a while. I asked Li Zhaoshou again: September has come, when will the Duke surrender?
Dexing'a learned that he hurriedly asked for help from Hechun and prepared for war in panic.
