(Movie "Submission")
Everyone has their own perspective and focus on the problem. Since the departure of the division from Hunan, Zeng Guofan paid more attention to Jiangxi, believing that this place could not only be used as a bridgehead to deter Nanjing, but also to defend the two lakes, so even when Shi Dakai attacked Hubei, he did not return to the whole division.
In addition, there are many factors that make Zeng Guofan unable to break away from Jiangxi. For example, the Neihu Water Division is still trapped in Poyang Lake, and if there is no strong land division to cooperate, it is still difficult to sing alone, and it is the most terrible to be annihilated by the Taiping Army in one fell swoop. For example, Hu Linyi only took a part of the Xiang army to Hubei, but there was already a crisis of unsustainable grain and wages, and if the large troops drove over again, the supply would undoubtedly become more of a problem.
Zeng Guofan worked hard in Jiangxi and began to establish a gunpowder factory and a shipyard, and the Neihu Marine Division gradually recovered its combat effectiveness. In the subsequent Battle of Poyang Lake, the Xiang Army's marine division defeated the Taiping Army's water camp in one fell swoop and burned more than a hundred Taiping Army ships.
Zeng Guofan was happy for a moment, but soon he couldn't laugh again, because Taqib was dead.
Taqib was responsible for attacking Jiujiang, but he had been blocked outside the city for seven months after fighting in Jiujiang, and his mood became more and more depressed, and one day when he returned to the barracks, he suddenly fainted, unconscious, and then died at the age of forty.
Zeng Guofan has always relied on the Tarot combination in the Lu Division, which is his right and left arm, and once Taqibu is gone, only Luo Zenan is left.
When Hu Linyi asked Zeng Guofan for help, it was the time when Zeng Guofan was sad about the loss of the general, and what Made Hu Linyi even more unexpected was that before he sent out the request for help, Luo Zenan was actually on the road to Wuchang.
Taking the initiative to come back to Wuchang was Luo Zenan's idea, he knew that Hu Linyi was already stuck there, and if he didn't help, he would have to continue to be stuck.
Zeng Guofan was initially reluctant to let Luo Zenan go. After Taqibu's death, the combat effectiveness of the troops under his command was also marked with a question mark, and Luo Zenan and his Xiang Yong became the only reassuring force, from the perspective of Zeng Guofan, of course, hoping to keep Luo Zenan by his side.
But what Luo Zenan said, Zeng Guofan could not refute. Luo Zenan said: The Xiang army is now trapped in Jiangxi, as if it were sitting in an urn, fighting every day, still can't see the sun outside, and can't grasp the initiative. Wuchang is different, once it is successful, it can sit in control of the two provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui, and then cut off the supply line in Nanjing.
Luo Zenan's strategy was that the Lu division would abandon the attack on Jiujiang and concentrate on returning to Wuchang, while the marine division would join forces to capture the lake mouth to intercept the ships of the Taiping Army.
Zeng Guofan and Luo Zenan are both people with a big picture view. Realizing that Luo Zenan's words were reasonable, Zeng Guofan not only no longer forced him to stay, but also drew elite generals from the Taqibu army and merged with Luo Zenan's original Xiangyong to form an expeditionary corps with more than 5,000 elites.
The staff advised Zeng Guofan that the main general you relied on to turn the war was a total of two people in Tarot, and now that Taqibu is gone, Luo Zenan is going to expedition to Hubei, and the troops in Jiangxi are extremely thin, and if something goes wrong, there will be an embarrassment of no one to use.
Zeng Guofan nodded, "Of course I know." However, for the sake of the overall situation in the southeast, it can only be so. What Luo Zenan said was right, if we were all trapped in Jiangxi, there would be no way out for a long time, and as long as Wuchang was attacked, the world would still be in a big way, so that I would be trapped and glorious. ”
Some people also told Luo Zenan that Zeng Guofan was lonely and lonely, so could you bear to abandon him and walk away like this?
Luo Zenan's answer was: "If the heavens do not die in this dynasty, Zeng Gong will not die!" ”
That being said, Rozenan actually has a lot of thoughts. Before leaving, he told Zeng Guofan not to rush to attack, but to wait until he conquered Wuchang and led his army to the east before launching a counterattack.
Late Qing Dynasty Empire Series: Rise of the Xiang Army ¥45 Purchase