After the Battle of Sanhe Town ended, in just a few days, the news of the Chu army's 50,000 troops being wiped out spread across the entire Guangdong and Guangxi as if it had wings!
Moreover, the soldiers who had escaped from the battlefield described it, and the merchants from the south and north spread the news!
When this news reached the imperial court, the entire court was shocked. All the officials in the court fell into panic!
"Is this news true? Could it be that the people below were spreading false news?”
Empress Dowager Cixi, who was slightly less shrewd, directly wrote her fear on her face.
Empress Dowager Ci 'an glanced at her unhappily.
"Reporting to the Empress Dowager, this news was personally written by the governor of Liang Jiang. It is absolutely true!”
Gong Prince Jiu Xin was also a little flustered. This was an army of 50,000, and they were all gone in one battle!
Ever since the Qing court entered the pass, they had never experienced such a disastrous defeat!
Even when Li Dingguo lost his title twice, the losses suffered by the Qing army were not as heavy as this time!
With Zuo Zongtang's death, the imperial court no longer had any troops to mobilize in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang. The local troops were not only few in number, but also weak in combat strength.
If even the Chu army could be defeated in one battle, mobilizing these local troops would be sending them to their deaths!
Therefore, in a short period of time, the imperial court was unable to go south. They could only let the other party attack the city in the south!
The defeat of this war was a threat to the Qing court's rule in the south!
This battle reminded the Gong Prince of the Jintian Uprising more than a decade ago. The Taiping Army's uprising in Guangdong and Guangxi later evolved into a huge and long war that swept across half of the Celestial Empire!
Was history going to repeat itself this time?
The Great Qing Dynasty could no longer withstand such a huge upheaval like the Taiping Country!
Thinking of this, the Gong Prince began to panic.
"What are you panicking about? Didn't Zeng Guofan refuse to leave Tianjing because he was sick? Tianjing wasn't too far from Guangdong and Guangxi. At the very least, it was closer than Beijing!”
Empress Dowager Ci An saw that the Gong Prince and Cixi were both panicking and she was a little angry.
How many pairs of eyes in the imperial court were staring at them? The entire imperial court, or even the entire world, was waiting for them to make a decision!
If they were to panic, wouldn't that be telling the world that the Imperial Court was weak and incompetent?
If that was the case, what would the local officials and ambitious generals think?
Would they think that the imperial court couldn't even suppress a small rebellion? If that was the case, they might as well disobey the imperial court's orders and be their local emperors, or even rebel?
If such a thing really happened, it could be said that the Qing Dynasty had completely lost its destiny!
Therefore, regardless of whether the situation had really gotten out of hand, they could not panic!
Aren't the rebels only active in Guangdong Province?
They hadn't even taken down Guangdong and Guangxi, which meant that they were still very weak and there was still hope for them to be extinguished!
Right now, the imperial court's own army was indeed no longer able to do anything, but they still had other Jundu that they could rely on!
And the nearest one was Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army!
Previously, the imperial court had ordered Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army to move north, but Zeng Guofan had used his illness as an excuse to drag his feet and not become famous.
Now that there was a rebellion in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army was relatively close, so he would transfer his troops to quell the rebellion.
If Zeng Guofan still found all kinds of excuses to shirk this time, then the imperial court would have to start to raise their spirits and be vigilant!
Empress Dowager Ci 'an had never truly trusted these Han officials!
This was especially true for these Han generals who used the Taiping Country to expand their own forces and control a powerful army.
The Qing court had always been wary of them!
……
Soon, the order from the capital was sent to Tianjing City in an urgent manner.
When Zeng Guofan received the imperial edict, he looked like he was terminally ill.
However, after the imperial court's eunuch left, he immediately jumped up from the sickbed. He was in high spirits and did not look sick at all!
"Marshal, this is a good opportunity!"
"That's right, General. Zuo Zongtang's 50,000 men were wiped out. Now, only Li Hongzhang's Huai Army can stop us. With the tens of thousands of Huai Army soldiers, it's like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.”
Hearing the news of the Chu army being wiped out in Guangdong and Guangxi, the Xiang army was extremely excited.
They were not worried about Zuo Zongtang's life or death. On the contrary, in their opinion, it would be best if Zuo Zongtang and his Chu army were all dead!
If Zuo Zongtang was still alive, the imperial court might have given him money to rebuild the Chu army.
In this way, the Xiang army would still be threatened by the Chu army.
As the Chu army was located at the border between Fujian and Guangzhou, it was not far from the Xiang army's base in Xiang Province.
If the Xiang army rebelled and the Chu army took the opportunity to attack their nest, it would be very troublesome for the Xiang army!
After all, the vast majority of the Xiang army came from the Xiang Province. If their hometown was breached, it would definitely cause the morale of the Xiang army to be shaken and drop. This would affect their great cause of rebellion!
Thus, to the Xiang Army, the defeat of the Chu Army came at the right time.
The reason why Zeng Guofan didn't take action after he decided to rebel was that he had been in a dilemma.
On one hand, he had secretly contacted the foreigners and ordered a large number of firearms and cannons from them.
These cannons had not been shipped over yet, so he was waiting for these weapons to arrive.
On the other hand, the Chu army had gone south to quell the rebellion, and the Xiang army was paying close attention to the war in the south.
They wanted to see the strength of the rebel army in the south. If they could defeat or pin down the Chu army, then the rear of the Xiang army would be temporarily safe. They would not have to leave a large number of troops to protect their nest.
They could then concentrate all their forces to attack the north, break through the Qing army's defense line in one fell swoop, and take down the capital!
As long as they took down the capital, the Qing government would exist in name only, and they would not be able to mobilize the world's army to crusade against them!
In that case, their rebellion would basically be successful!
That was why the Xiang Army was so excited when they heard the news. They all felt that this was the best time to rebel!
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。