After the Battle of Xiangtan, Lin Shaozhang was dismissed from his post and transferred away from the battlefield of the Western Expedition, Lin Shaozhang can also be regarded as a relatively special experience in the Taiping Army, he was promoted from a big head soldier to a commander, and he worked hard all the way, but he was not a general, so Xiangtan was defeated. He was also a general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Shuai Lidu, who participated in the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition, and as a force of the second Northern Expedition, he went north with Zhu Xikun, but after being attacked in Liuhe County, he returned to Tianjing with Xu Eighteen's troops, and his final outcome was that he died in battle to protect the young King after the destruction of Tianjing City.
In June 1854, after resting and replenishing, about 20,000 people from the Xiang Army's land and water divisions went north under the leadership of Zeng Guofan to attack Yuezhou. After the fierce defeat of Xiangtan, the Taiping Army was seriously injured, the strength of the land and water divisions was sharply reduced, and they were forced to turn into a defensive state, and zeng Tianyang, a veteran general of the Taiping Army, turned around in Hubei and rushed from Changde to Dongting Lake to Yuezhou to support to preside over the military of the Taiping Army in Hunan.
Because Yuezhou had no danger to defend, Zeng Tianyang led his troops to take the initiative to withdraw from Yuezhou, and continued to prevent the Xiang army from moving north at Lingji, north of Yueyang City, he organized several counter-offensives, but none of them succeeded, and a few days later the Hubei reinforcements of the Taiping Army also rushed to Chenglingji, Zeng Tianyang organized a counterattack again, and was defeated, in these few days Zeng Tianyang was defeated in five battles and five battles, but he was not discouraged, he saw that the Xiang army was proud of the enemy, so he lured the enemy with a partial division and light boat, and the main force was ambushed at the port of Xuanhu. The Qing army's marine division was indeed successful, and Chen Huilong, the commander-in-chief of Dengzhou in Shandong, and Sha Zhenbang, a guerrilla in Guangdong, led an army to pursue them, but due to the heavy weight of the ship, they were lured into the shoal and ran aground.
The Taiping Army completely annihilated the two Qing army sailors who rushed in, the prefect Chu Ruhang, and Tongzhi Xialuan rushed to the rescue, and also went deep into the siege and was killed on the spot by Zeng Tianyang.
Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army Marine Division was well-equipped from the beginning, equipped with cannons specially imported from Macao to Portugal, and the sailors were also re-recruited and carefully selected, and now they were defeated in only one day of fighting, especially the death of Chu Ruhang, the president of the most important marine division, which made Zeng Guofan very sad.
Two days later, Zeng Tianyang led an army of three thousand men to land from Chenglingji, planning to camp in Anzhai and fight steadily, when he suddenly saw a great deal of smoke and dust in the south, taqibu, who had originally been promoted to the post of viceroy of Hunan, led the xiang army army division to arrive, Zeng Tianyang did not have time to deploy troops to dispatch troops, immediately stepped on the black horse, held a spear in his hand, and rushed straight to Taqibu, Taqibu was too late to cover it, was stabbed by a spear in the war horse, Zeng Tianyang was ready to draw a spear and stab again, but unexpectedly was stabbed back with a spear by Huang Mingkui, a pro-soldier who followed Taqibu, with a spear, and Zeng Tianyang did not have time to turn around, and was stabbed by a spear and fell off his horse, and died tragically.
Zeng Tianyang's death was purely an impulse in his own tactics, as the commander of the whole army, he took the lead in charging in the overall favorable situation, resulting in irreparable consequences, he was a veteran general in the Taiping Army who could recruit good warriors, and he was the oldest, more than 60 years old, and he also had great prestige in the army, his death in battle was a major loss of the Western Expedition to the Taiping Army, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom never preached that death is ascension to heaven, can not cry, can not do funerals, but the death of Zeng Tianyang is an exception, the two lakes Taiping Army soldiers for 6 consecutive days to eat vegetarian food, to show mourning.
Zeng Guofan had a high opinion of Zeng Tianyang because he had suffered a great loss at the hands of Zeng Tianyang, and later repeatedly asked the captured Li Xiucheng why Zeng Tianyang had not been crowned king, and commented on him: "His person is a good hand, the most qualified."