Zeng Guofan, who had lost his armor and armor at the Battle of Jiujiang, was very unconvinced and decided to organize his troops to counterattack. At that time, when the Spring Festival was approaching, Zeng Guofan took the advice of his staff and prepared to concentrate his forces on capturing the lake mouth when the Taiping Army celebrated the Spring Festival, in order to rescue the 2,000 sailors trapped in Poyang Lake. They actually didn't know that the calendar that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was following at that time was adapted by Feng Yunshan long before the Establishment of Yong'an, called the Celestial Calendar, and there was still a period of time for the Spring Festival of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom according to the Celestial Calendar. From this incident, it can also be seen that the Xiang army was very short of intelligence information on the internal intelligence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, and after that, it was also reported that a taiping heavenly leader with bright clothes and colors was sent to the imperial court as a senior leader to receive a reward, and after several jokes, Zeng Guofan later attached great importance to the internal official positions and military positions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and related information, so he vigorously supported the county clerk Zhang Dejian in compiling the "Collection of Thieves' Feelings" and sent it to the whole army for study.
The soldiers of the Xiang Army were in a state of emotion because they had to send troops to fight in the Spring Festival, and most of them had emotions after the New Year, so the morale of the generals was not high, and the Xiaochikou who attacked Luo Gang suffered another defeat, and Taqibu was brave and unusually brave to the whole army hall, and was almost captured alive by the Taiping Army.
In the Hubei battlefield, Qin Rigang and Chen Yucheng led an army to attack the Guangji camp of Yang Pi, the governor of Huguang, on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and Yang Pi's army was celebrating the Spring Festival, and the defense was lax, and it was beaten to the ground and defeated Puzhou. Qin Rigang and Chen Yucheng pursued Yang Pei's escape route all the way, and even occupied Puzhou, Huangmei, and Hanyang, and once again attacked the city of Wuchang, while another western expeditionary force also rushed to Wuchang under the leadership of Wei Zhijun (Wei Changhui's brother), and the two armies joined forces on the outskirts of Wuchang and attacked Wuchang again.
In April 1855, qin rigang and Wei Zhijun combined forces, after two months of continuous sieges, Wuchang City was once again attacked by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Tao Enpei, the governor of Hubei Province, committed suicide, which was the third time that the Taiping Army captured Wuchang City, and the three Grams of Wuchang marked the triumphant song of the Taiping Army in the western expedition battlefield.
Wuchang is the thoroughfare of the nine provinces, has always been a place of contention for soldiers, and is also an important distribution center for the granaries of the two lakes, Wuchang City was breached again, the Qing court was very angry, the new Hubei Governor Hu Linyi, Hubei Governor Yang Zaifu, and the Xiang Army Commander Luo Zenan, etc., hurriedly led the army back, eager to retake Wuchang City. Soon, Qin Rigang was ordered by Yang Xiuqing to lead his army back to Tianjing to relieve the siege of Tianjing, the Taiping Army in Wuchang City was presided over by Wei Zhijun, and the Taiping Army of the Qing Army was evenly matched, fighting each other, winning and losing each other, and the Hubei battlefield began to be in a state of stalemate.
On the battlefield of Jiangxi, after the Battle of Jiujiang, the Taiping Army had already occupied an absolute advantage, Taqibu was depressed due to long-term unsuccessful attacks, repeated defeats, and depressed mood, and died in September 1855 in anger and vomiting blood, at the age of 39; Zeng Guofan, who had already retreated to Nanchang, was very frightened, and urgently ordered His successor Zhou Fengshan, who had succeeded Taqibu, to evacuate Jiujiang with troops to Nanchang to jointly deploy, and as a result, he was ambushed by Shi Dakai in the middle of the road, and the whole army was destroyed, and Zhou Fengshan fled back to his hometown in Hunan alone.
At that time, all the major cities in Jiangxi except Nanchang were basically occupied by the Taiping Army, and Zeng Guofan was alone in Nanchang, with no branches to rely on, so he had to send his relatives disguised as beggars with secret letters to escape through many checkpoints to find Luo Zenan under the city of Wuchang, asking Luo Zenan to return to Nanchang.
Luo Zenan received a letter of help in fact, it was quite embarrassing, because on the one hand, the strategic town of Wuchang must be captured, on the other hand, the friends of the same village were under siege, and Wuchang was now attacking and not going well, in a dilemma, the Qing court attached great importance to it, he had to reply to Zeng Guofan not to worry about the gains and losses of one city and one place, Xu Tu was slow, which meant that he could temporarily abandon Nanchang and plan later. Then he himself was eager to win, but also wanted to rush to capture Wuchang to return to Zeng Guofan, leading the army to attack Wuchang City with all his might, only to be hit by Wei Zhijun's stray bullets on the left forehead at Hongshan And killed on the spot. A generation of Great Confucians, practitioners of learning to apply, founder of the Xiang Army, father of the Xiang Army, Luo Zenan withdrew from the stage of history.