On February 1, 1859, in a restaurant on the edge of the West Lake in Hangzhou, several scholars seemed to have drunk too much and were arguing about recent events. Zuo Zongtang, the minister of military training, repelled Shi Dakai, who was attacking Zhejiang, in November last year, and then entered Fujian with his Chu army, and drove Shi Dakai from Fujian to Jiangxi in early December last year. At this time, he was promoted to governor of Zhejiang. The war that seemed to be about to enter the rich plains of Zhejiang finally moved away from Zhejiang, which made the local rich people breathe a sigh of relief.

However, the news from Beijing and the list of the Liberation Army surprised these rich people, and the emperor of the Ninety-Five Emperor was forced to flee the capital. The British captured Beijing and forced the imperial court to sign a treaty. Scholars do know a little bit of history, and this situation only occurs at the end of the dynasty. Could it be that the Qing Dynasty was going to die at the hands of the British?

But the follow-up news also spread quickly, and it is said that the British were satisfied with the signed treaty and led their troops to withdraw from Beijing. The imperial court miraculously turned the corner. Naturally, this news made the readers have to double the discussion.

"Those traitors of the Guangfu Army, if they hadn't rebelled, how could the imperial court have no troops to defend Beijing?" A middle-aged man in his thirties said indignantly.

"But the Liberation Army is said to have fought with the British, but they have not been defeated." A young man in his twenties next to him replied with some unease.

"How do you know that the traitors have not lost the battle? They were in Guangdong, if they could stop the British, how could the British go to Beijing? The middle-aged man in his thirties said angrily. He was so angry, but his momentum also soared, and the young man didn't dare to say anything more.

Seeing that the young man was shocked, the middle-aged man in his thirties continued to say angrily: "Now the news from Guangdong is that the traitors of the Guangfu Army have actually made some kind of land granting order, all the land belongs to them, and those who are willing to farm from the bandits must get land from them, where are the landlords and gentry?" ”

The young man was overwhelmed by the momentum of the middle-aged man, but after all, there was still a little bit of "rebelliousness" of the young man, and he replied resignedly: "Mr. Liu, I read the book, the Tang Dynasty also used the Juntian system......"

Mr. Liu said angrily: "What books have you read, what nonsense!" The Tang Dynasty only had the rule of Zhenguan, and our dynasty also had a prosperous Kangqian era, which was better than countless ...... in the Tang Dynasty."

A scholar in his forties next to him obviously couldn't listen to it anymore, and he said with a faint sneering expression: "Where did the government soldiers come from without the Juntian system?" ”

It seems that this scholar in his forties is a more knowledgeable person at the table, and as soon as he speaks, the others immediately no longer raise any objections to the "Juntian system". The young man in his twenties looked a little bolder, and his waist was much straighter. However, the scholar in his forties did not continue the topic, he frowned slightly, "Lord Zuo is recruiting soldiers, and I read that the notice says that he wants to recruit people who know how to do arithmetic. But I don't know what Lord Zuo wants to do. ”

This question is far closer to the current life of Zhejiang people than the Juntian system, and everyone at the table is a little confused. Everyone, you look at me, I look at you, and you all see the confusion and confusion in each other's expressions.

Zuo Zongtang, who was discussed, did not have any doubts, there were several foreigners in military uniforms sitting in his mansion, and the two sides were discussing issues related to the war. The foreign officer said: "Minister Zuo, I am under the command of the French Imperial Government, and I hope that you can accept our guidance in the matter of establishing a new army. You've also seen drills, the same artillery, the same shells, different people operate completely differently. ”

The translator translated the words of the foreign devil as gently as possible, and even so, the arrogance of the foreign devil could not be hidden. Zuo Zongtang has always been arrogant, and he is afraid that he will be stabbed a long time ago when he is said to his face on weekdays. But at this time, Zuo Zongtang was not angry, he just nodded slightly, "But I don't know how long it will take to train a new gunner." ”

"If it's okay, it's three months as fast as it is, and half a year as slow." The judge said.

Zuo Zongtang was about to say something, but the judge continued: "But they still have to learn French first, which is essential." ”

"Why?" Zuo Zongtang finally frowned. With his lion-nosed and wide-mouthed appearance, there were originally several textures on his eyebrows, which made it even more vicious when he wrinkled.

But the judge didn't care about these at all, and he replied with a big grin: "You don't use Chinese words. Cannot be used as a military command order. It is necessary to use French in order to effectively direct artillery battles. ”

"Huh!" Zuo Zongtang sneered, "But I don't know who is stronger than the French artillery and the artillery of the Liberation Army?" ”

If it weren't for the arrogance of the French to such an extent, Zuo Zongtang would not want to borrow the Liberation Army to refute the French at all. Since Zuo Zongtang compares himself with "Today's Brightness", he is by no means a person who does not know what to do. The equipment and training of the French ** team are far superior to the Qing army, and they are also much higher than Zuo Zongtang's Chu army. France boasted of its own artillery, and even let the artillery learn French, which was within Zuo Zongtang's range of patience. But the French actually spoke Chinese and didn't work, which completely broke through Zuo Zongtang's bottom line. Of course, perhaps it was the arrogance of the French that had already pushed Zuo Zongtang to the brink of the limit, and criticizing the Chinese for not working was only the last straw.

The French naturally know the speaking skills, and of course they can also hear Zuo Zongtang's voice, not to mention that the meaning of Zuo Zongtang's words is too obvious. Slightly stunned, the Fa ** showed a somewhat unhappy expression on his face. After listening for a while, the judicial officer said: "Minister Zuo, if you can get the artillery training manual of the Liberation Army, I have no objection to you using Chinese as a tactical language. But I think you know very well that the Liberation Army is the common enemy of you and me. Our goal is to eliminate the rebel forces in your country, so using French as the tactical language of artillery is the best option right now. ”

Although the French were still hard-mouthed, they did not comment on the Chinese language. This gave Zuo Zongtang a step down. He just nodded silently, and did not continue to fight the Frenchman.

After discussing the formation of a new 6th Army, Zuo Zongtang sent the French away. The feeling of being looked down upon was too bad, Zuo Zongtang returned to the study with a gloomy face, his subordinates were so unhappy to see Zuo Zongtang, and no one dared to come over and say anything to Zuo Zongtang at this time.

Zuo Zongtang sat behind the desk, and first thought about it for a while. Finally, he opened a box on his desk and pulled out one of the letters from the stack inside. It was a letter sent by Jiang Zhongyuan to Zuo Zongtang a few days ago, and the letter stated Jiang Zhongyuan's views on the recent situation. For the failure of the imperial court, Jiang Zhongyuan was heartbroken. But this kind of pain is the pain of Jiang Zhongyuan's inability to defeat the foreign devils, and Jiang Zhongyuan still has loyalty to the Manchu court. Therefore, in the letter, Jiang Zhongyuan built yì Zuo Zongtang "to master the strength of Yi to control Yi". Now Britain and France have offered to the Manchus that they are willing to sell advanced weapons to the Manchus, and at the same time are willing to help the Manchus build a new army. Jiang Zhongyuan sent Li Hongzhang to Shanghai and invited foreign instructors to the Huai Army to help train the army. Jiang Zhongyuan also built yì Zuo Zongtang to take advantage of Shanghai's advantages to learn the "method of strong ships and sharp artillery" of foreign devils, and trained to become a new army, pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and recovering the Governor's Mansion. Then he struck a blow back and drove the foreign devils out of China.

In fact, there is no need for Jiang Zhongyuan to say this, Zuo Zongtang has already begun to do this. The French consul in Shanghai took the initiative to contact Zuo Zongtang, hoping to cooperate with Zuo Zongtang to jointly establish a new army. Zuo Zongtang's news is relatively smart, he knows that he is actually not the partner of foreign devils. The foreign devils first went to Jiangnan Jiangbei Camp to try to cooperate, and where did Jiangnan Jiangbei Camp dare to decide such a major matter by themselves, they immediately reported the matter to Emperor Xianfeng. At this time, Emperor Xianfeng, who was still living in Chengde, of course did not want foreign devils to reach out to the territory of the green camp. He didn't dare to refuse the "kindness" of the foreign devils, so he asked Jiangnan and Jiangbei to send the foreign devils to Zuo Zongtang.

Zuo Zongtang was not opposed to training the new army, and the foreign devils came to the door to ask for cooperation, and he accepted it. But the negotiations between the two sides did not go well, and the foreign devils did not completely want to help Zuo Zongtang train the new army. For example, the French demanded that Zuo Zongtang's new army completely adopt French equipment and be trained by French instructors. But the French demanded that their instructors have the right to appoint and dismiss Zuo Zongtang's army, which Zuo Zongtang ruthlessly refused.

In today's artillery negotiations, Zuo Zongtang made a great concession and allowed the French instructors to be responsible for formulating a plan for military training. It was also the day before yesterday and yesterday, France pulled out ten artillery pieces, and the French army and Zuo Zongtang's Chu army operated the artillery separately and carried out a series of exercises such as shooting and marching. The Chu army was defeated by the French army in every competition, and Zuo Zongtang had to admit the facts and reluctantly accepted a certain authority from the French.

Zuo Zongtang looked at Jiang Zhongyuan's letter and felt the painful feeling in the letter. That was the true feeling of Jiang Zhongyuan, who was loyal to the Qing Dynasty, with powerful rebel forces such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Restoration Governor's Mansion inside, and foreign devils who invaded the city of Beijing. The Qing Dynasty is really crumbling. Foreign devils entered Beijing and robbed the Old Summer Palace. He also looted outside Beijing for more than 20 days, and looted the imperial village outside the capital. When Jiang Zhongyuan mentioned this, he was almost in tears.

Zuo Zongtang was not so excited, he was a person like Jin Liang, who prided himself on being bright, and he was also very picky about the sovereign. Moreover, at the end of October, the Guangfu Army finally sent someone to meet Zuo Zongtang once. The Guangfu Army did not directly say that it wanted to recruit Zuo Zongtang, but when it came to the "big crime" of the Manchu Qing Dynasty not being able to defend the country, Zuo Zongtang felt a little agreed. can't defend his own court, he deserves to be beaten like this.

In Zuo Zongtang's view, if such talents as himself really want to make contributions, they must build a strong army to eliminate rebellion. But even so, Zuo Zongtang also needed to see Jiang Zhongyuan's letter and feel Jiang Zhongyuan's grief, so that Zuo Zongtang could barely suppress the humiliation caused by being underestimated by the French.

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