Then the six-day Battle of Xiangtan, which determined the fate of Hunan, began.
On April 25, Taqibu, Wang Xin and other troops rushed to the front line of Xiangtan, and on the 26th, Lin Shaozhang led his army to take the initiative to attack and failed.
On the 27th, the Xiang army advanced by land and water and launched an attack, Taqibu took the lead on the land route, rode alone and fell into the battle, the whole army followed the charge, and the waterway Peng Yulin, Xia Luan and other units coordinated to advance, and it was unstoppable.
The Taiping Army and the Qing Army fought for many years, for many years it has been me entering and retreating from the enemy, I chased after the enemy, it is rare to see the Qing army dare to meet the short troops, directly do hand-to-hand combat, and the leader is still full of braided soldiers, the Taiping Army generals can't help but be a little shocked and hesitant, there is a feeling of entering the wrong set, only I hit you, when is your turn to chase me to fight, at the same time, there are many locals on the hills around the city who shake the flag and shout to cheer for the Xiang Army, the Taiping Army rear team thinks that it is an ambush, the main force of the enemy army is ambushed here, and the panic is to withdraw back to the city first. The front team of the Taiping Army saw the retreat of the rear team, and was also afraid of being ambushed and attacked, and ran randomly, and in the panic, the army crowded with each other, trampled, and collapsed
The army hurriedly retreated, and the Taiping Army's marine division had to retreat when it saw the situation. The Taiping Army's land retreat was a rout.
On the 28th, Lin Shaozhang's marine division suffered a crushing defeat on the river and was burned more than 300 ships.
On the 29th, when Lin Shaozhang was defeated by land at Taqibu, and Lin Shaozhang was defeated and returned to the city, the old brothers from Guangxi and the new brothers from the two lakes in the army actually blamed each other for losing the battle, laughing and taking hundreds of steps, causing both sides to fight with weapons, killing each other, and losing hundreds of soldiers. Lin Shaozhang had no way to solve it.
On the 30th, Lin Shaozhang's water division was once again defeated by Peng Yulin's water division on the river, burning more than 600 to 700 ships.
On May 1, Lin Shaozhang decided to abandon Xiangtan and lead the remnants to retreat to Jinggang.
In these six consecutive days of fighting, Lin Shaozhang was tired and defeated, tired and defeated. Within eight days, the land troops of the Xiang Army won a complete victory, and it is said that more than 10,000 soldiers of the Taiping Army were killed. This was the biggest defeat encountered by the Taiping Army in the Yangtze River Basin since the Jintian Uprising, and it was also the first great victory after the creation of the Xiang Army. XiangYong became famous and began to be valued by the Qing court, and from then on Xiangyong was officially called the Xiang Army, and as a regular army, it switched from the inner line to the outer line to fight, and went out of the province to suppress the Taiping Army.
The main reason for the Battle of Xiangtan was that Lin Shaozhang did not know how to fight, and he was afraid of fighting a hard battle, and he would not restrain the soldiers, resulting in uneven people's hearts. At that time, Lin Shaozhang had more than 30,000 troops, and there were many old brothers and soldiers who had been in the battlefield for a long time, and they were fully sure of defeating the Xiang army that had just been created with only more than 5,000 people, and if this battle was fought well, it would be enough to seize Changsha, run rampant in the land of Sanxiang, and even strangle the Xiang army that had just emerged.
Again, the commander is incompetent, and the three armies are affected.
This battle built great confidence for Zeng Guofan and also earned him a great deal of political capital. So he remembered Lin Shaozhang deeply, and ten years later he said to the captured Li Xiucheng: "Lin Shaozhang was defeated in Xiangtan, and his people had no skills. Li Xiucheng unceremoniously listed Lin Shaozhang's defeat at Xiangtan as one of the "Ten Mistakes of the Heavenly Dynasty": "Lin Shaozhang should not be sent to Xiangtan by mistake, and at this time Lin Shaozhang's entire army in Xiangtan was defeated." ”
The defeat at Xiangtan greatly weakened the taiping heavenly kingdom, and since then, the Taiping army has withdrawn from Hunan, and since then it has been basically unable to try to enter the land of Huxiang again.