[1] In August 1858 the Taiping Army took Luzhou (庐州), in modern-day Hefei, Anhui, and the Imperial governor of Hunan-Guangdong Guanwen (官文) ordered Li Xubin to counterattack by taking the cities and towns of Tongcheng, Shucheng, and Taihu (太湖).

On November 3, after leaving behind 2,000 soldiers to guard the newly conquered towns, Li Xubin led the remaining 6,000 imperial troops to the outskirts of Sanhe ("Three Rivers"), around 25 km southeast of Shucheng.

Realizing the importance of the town, Chen Yucheng decided to reinforce Sanhe and asked Hong Xiuquan to send Li Xiucheng to strengthen the Taiping forces.

A week later Li Xiucheng's force also reached Sanhe and camped in the region of White Stone Mountain (Baishishan, 白石山).

The Taiping army in the Sanhe region totaled more than 100,000 men and Li Xubin's staff officers suggested that the imperial force should withdraw to Tongcheng temporarily, since there were only 6,000 of them.

Realizing the enemy had numerical superiority and he could not hold out for long, Li Xubin decided to launch a preemptive strike against Chen Yucheng's force.

Li Xubin sent out another four battalions to rescue the surrounded imperial troops and personally led several dozen charges against the Taiping army positions, but all were beaten back with heavy loss of life.

After their victory at Sanhe, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng continued their offensive southward, and the imperial army had to abandon Shucheng and withdrew to Tongcheng.