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Vézé had thought that after he had dealt a heavy blow to the Qing Army, based on the Qing Army's conduct, they would not charge head-on into the Qing Army again. Unexpectedly, on the 15th of October, He Chun, Chang Lu, and the other generals of the Qing Army, who were stationed east of the city, joined hands and launched an attack.
The Qing Army mobilized over ten thousand men and horses. Vézé's five thousand troops also turned out in full force. The two sides engaged in a fierce battle near the drill ground. The battle ended in Vézé's victory, because the Taiping army had taken over the battlefield. The Qing Army had left more than three thousand six hundred corpses near the drill ground.
However, after the battle, Vézé's face was frighteningly gloomy. During the battle, two pawns of the Fifth Division's formation was disrupted by the sudden appearance of a cavalry unit. The unit was routed. Seeing an opening, the Qing Army also began to attack. Fortunately, Vézé immediately ordered the two units next to him to launch a counterattack, blocking the Qing Army behind them. At the same time, he urgently sent in reserve troops to surround and annihilate the Qing Army cavalry that had charged into the Taiping army's formation.
Even though they did not lose the battle in the end, the original plan had been disrupted and the casualties rose sharply. For the first time, Vézé's troops had lost more than a hundred men in battle. In addition to the two hundred wounded, even though the Qing Army's casualties were more than ten times that of Vézé's, it did not quell Vézé's anger.
Not only was Vézé furious, but the General Staff Officers were also gloomy. More than three hundred casualties was no laughing matter for a five thousand man army. Ever since they had followed Vézé and led the army until now, the total number of casualties in battle had never exceeded eight hundred. Especially when two pawns had been defeated, this was something that had never happened before.
The marshals of the other four divisions knew that the responsibility did not lie with them. Although they were relieved, they also knew that this time, Vézé would probably punish them. None of them dared to show the joy of victory. As for the commander of the Fifth Division, Lei Hu, he lowered his head, not daring to raise it.
Vézé looked around and said, "I'm not very happy this time! Why are you unhappy? Because the array was broken, it scared me. "
Hearing that Vézé's words were not very harsh, the generals who thought that Vézé was going to fly into a rage were relieved. In the past, only Vézé's troops had defeated the Qing Army's defensive line. This was the first time his own defensive line had been destroyed by the Qing Army. Vézé wasn't the only one who was shocked. Suddenly, dozens of Qing Army soldiers rushed in through the gaps in the Taiping army's defensive line. Everyone in the General Staff who was commanding the army was shocked.
At this time, the marshals of the other four divisions knew that they had nothing to do with this matter. Vézé also didn't scold everyone indiscriminately. Everyone's eyes fell on Lei Hu. Lei Hu's head, which had already been lowered, drooped even lower, almost touching the table.
Seeing Lei Hu's ashamed expression, Vézé's anger dissipated greatly. He forced a smile and said, "This time, we still won the battle. I'm not trying to dampen everyone's spirits. Everyone saw that no matter how much we practiced, we still couldn't resist the charge of the Qing Yao cavalry. A victory can be celebrated at any time, but a defeat means the lives of so many brothers. "
Brigade Marshal Ke Gongyu said, "Prime Minister is right. In fact, this time, Brother Lei was the one who encountered it. If we encountered the Qing Yao cavalry, we wouldn't have been fine either."
Hearing that Vézé didn't want to punish them severely, and his brothers helped to smooth things over, Lei Hu finally raised his head and said shamefully, "When I go back, I will definitely punish those two soldiers severely!"
"What right do you have to punish the soldiers severely?" Wei Ze was a little unhappy again. "Punishing without teaching is called crippling. We didn't have the corresponding practice in the first place. The two soldiers' commanders didn't run away in the face of battle. I saw that they were still fighting in the end. We have to make up for this. "
"Prime Minister, what do you mean by 'not called something'?" Zhang Yingchen asked.
Vézé asked the secretary to take a dipping pen with the tip fixed on a bamboo stick. He dipped it in some diluted ink and wrote the sentence from the Analects on a piece of paper. Because of the incident with Hong Xiuquan, Vézé didn't reveal the origin of the sentence. He only explained the meaning of the sentence to everyone.
Zhang Yingchen frowned and asked, "So you mean, without specific training, even if the troops lost the battle, we can't punish them?"
Vézé answered, "No one wants to lose a battle. Are we beating the soldiers because we are angry? Of course not! The purpose of beating the soldiers is to remind everyone what to do, not to vent their anger. Punishment is not the end, but the means. "
After that, Vézé said to Lei Hu, "Go and bring the two soldiers' commanders and officers here. We need to ask them what is going on. Let's postpone the celebration. "
After saying this, Vézé suddenly thought of something. "Eat all the horses that were killed and seriously injured this time. Our Guangxi makes good horsemeat. "
Hearing that there was horse meat to eat, the gloomy tent immediately burst into laughter.
After all, Vézé was the victor, so he had the generosity of a victor. In Changsha, the Qing Army, which had suffered a great defeat, was not so calm. Hunan Governor Zhang Liangji, who had proposed the military plan to attack Vézé, was criticized a lot. Although Zhang Liangji was the governor and could deal with it calmly, the way he looked at Zuo Zongtang was not friendly.
Zuo Zongtang was a famous person in Changsha. Even though he didn't pass the examination, he was praised by all the important people he knew. Before this battle, Zuo Zongtang had been working as an advisor and managing Changsha's defense was quite outstanding. Even though the battle was a failure, when the military plan was proposed, it was still quite amazing.
The Cantonese bandits were the elites of the Cantonese bandits. The generals of the Changsha Qing Army all admitted this. The difference between the Cantonese bandits and other bandits was that they didn't have a defensive system. When other bandits set up camp, they had to dig layers of pits and stick bamboo sticks everywhere. The Cantonese bandits had a very basic defensive position. When fighting the Qing Army, they strived to fight the Qing Army on relatively flat terrain.
Zuo Zongtang's suggestion was to use this characteristic of the Cantonese bandits. First, He Chun would send troops to lead the Cantonese bandits to flat ground near the training ground. Then, they would turn back and attack the Cantonese bandits together with the Qing Army. Zuo Zongtang even thought that the Cantonese bandits would only send out about 3,000 troops at the beginning. Moreover, with their horizontal formation, no matter how nimble they were, they wouldn't be able to retreat quickly if they were besieged. Therefore, Zuo Zongtang also arranged a cavalry to attack the rear of the Cantonese bandits who came to help.
Unexpectedly, the Cantonese bandits didn't split up. Instead, they attacked with all 5,000 troops. The original plan of ten thousand against three thousand became ten thousand against five thousand. The Qing Army's advantage in military strength was greatly reduced. In addition, the Cantonese bandits used horizontal formation. Although the depth of their troops was small, the efficiency of their firepower was much higher than that of the Qing Army. As a result, the Qing Army that could participate in the frontal battle was even fewer than the Cantonese bandits.
In the end, Zuo Zongtang issued an order through Zhang Liangji to have the cavalry attack the Cantonese bandits' formation. The 300 cavalrymen killed their way into the Cantonese bandits' formation. In the end, they were like meat buns thrown to dogs. On the other hand, the Qing Army on the three fronts were either repelled or routed.
Such a meticulously planned battle ended in vain. The morale of the Qing Army was already low. At this moment, they were even more desperate to find a scapegoat. And this scapegoat was, without a doubt, Hunan Inspector-General Zhang Liangji.
Listening to the Qing Army's high-ranking officers shirk responsibility and blame each other, Zuo Zongtang was enraged. Admittedly, the battle this time ended in failure. But, looking at the overall situation, the battle had been arranged extremely well. If they had followed the Qing Army's usual method of fighting the Cantonese bandits head on, the Qing Army would have long since been defeated. The cavalry's sudden attack was definitely a highlight. Amidst the smoke created by the continuous firing of the flintlocks, the Qing Army cavalry's sudden attack was extremely successful.
If one were to point out who had wasted such a good opportunity, it would undoubtedly be this group of high-ranking officers of the Qing Army. When the Cantonese bandits' formation was broken, they first stared blankly. By the time they remembered that they should have followed the cavalry's charge and killed the enemy, the Cantonese bandits had already reorganized their troops. Using the smoke, they took the initiative to launch a frontal assault on the Qing Army, defeating the Qing Army in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, the Cantonese bandits mobilized their troops and surrounded and annihilated the Qing Army cavalry that had charged into their formation.
Looking at this group of high-ranking officers spouting nonsense, Zuo Zongtang only wanted to go up and slap them across the face. But right now, he was only an advisor to an Inspector-General. His status could not be compared to this group of high-ranking officers. No matter how much he wanted to vent his anger, it could only be categorized as lewd fantasies.
The quarrel continued like this for one day, two days, three days. In the end, there was no conclusion to the quarrel. Instead, Jiang Zhongyuan, who understood Zuo Zongtang quite well, explained on behalf of the high-ranking officers. "The imperial army has suffered such a setback. They will need at least ten days to reorganize before they can fight again. Ji Gao, there is no need to be too anxious. "
The muscles on Zuo Zongtang's face twitched twice. He sighed and said, "Duke Jiang, the Green Army is really unreliable. Compared to the Chu Yong you formed, they really cannot withstand a single blow. Your Chu Yong also fought that battle. Hasn't he reorganized himself now? "
Jiang Zhongyuan smiled bitterly. "Ji Gao, if that's the case, then the Cantonese bandits are the reliable ones. If they are the imperial army, which bandits in the world can resist them? "
This topic was unavoidably too heavy. When the Yue bandits rose up to rebel, their marching and fighting were very methodical. Zuo Zongtang had always been confident in himself. He knew the merits of his plan. If it was any other unit, even if it was Jiang Zhongyuan's subordinate, Chu Yong, who was rather good at fighting, in a situation where they were fighting one against two, surrounded on three sides and attacked by the cavalry, they would have been defeated no matter what.
For the past few days, he had been thinking about the reason for their defeat. Zuo Zongtang could still remember the battle situation of the Cantonese bandits very clearly. Even though they were in a disadvantageous situation, it was as if they had no idea that they were surrounded, as if they had no idea that they were outnumbered. From his vantage point, Zuo Zongtang could see that the Cantonese bandits had been fighting in an orderly manner from beginning to end. Relying on their orderly formation and well-trained marksmanship, they were able to defeat the imperial troops.
Zuo Zongtang had read too many books. Ever since he lost hope of obtaining scholarly honors, he had read a lot of books, including books on the art of war. These several thousand men were exactly the same as the well-trained and disciplined elite troops of ancient China recorded in the military books. Yet, they seemed to have suddenly emerged from the ground and appeared at the foot of Changsha City. Zuo Zongtang found it very strange. How did these people gather together?
Based on the abilities of the Cantonese bandits, they should have risen up long ago to rebel. Why did they only appear now and fight all the way from Guangxi to Changsha?
Just as he was thinking about whether he should ask Jiang Zhongyuan, who had participated in many battles in Guangxi, about this matter, a bodyguard rushed in in a panic. After seeing Zuo Zongtang, the bodyguard panted and said, "Mister Zuo, the Cantonese bandits have burned down the Yuelu Mountain Academy. It is said that they have almost killed everyone in the academy! Someone from the academy has escaped and is asking for help! "
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