Li Hongzhang pretended to be calm on the surface and listened to the secret envoy's report, and after hearing that the Guangfu Army accepted Li Hongzhang's request to surrender, he was greatly relieved. The Guangfu Army did not make any demands on Li Hongzhang, but only asked him to hold Luoyang firmly and wait for the Guangfu Army to arrive in Luoyang before surrendering honestly. This situation made Li Hongzhang feel very alarmed.

According to reason, it is impossible for the Liberation Army to be so tolerant of Li Hongzhang. If the generals can't make outstanding contributions, but just surrender honestly, the end will generally not be too good. Even if the Guangfu Army put forward the request to let Li Hongzhang flank the Hunan army, it made Li Hongzhang feel much more at ease than now.

It's just that the matter of surrender cannot be discussed with his subordinates, and if his subordinates know about it, they are afraid that there will be no good results. Li Hongzhang thought depressedly, could it be that he was a dignified Jinshi, and his strategic vision was so tricky and accurate, that he was worthless?

But Li Hongzhang tried his best to dispel the unhappiness and uneasiness in his heart, he knew that he was not qualified to ask for more, and Li Hongzhang knew that when the Liberation Army went north, the Manchu Qing would be finished. The Guangfu Army had newspapers on their territory, and Jiang Zhongyuan scoffed at the newspapers of the Guangfu Army, but Li Hongzhang was like a treasure. Whether it was land reform or industrial development, the construction of railways, the construction of ports, including the declaration of war on Spain by the Liberation Army, and the recapture of Luzon. The inner and deeper meaning of the articles in the newspaper made this capable minister feel extremely shocked. Of course, the biggest shock is seeing Zuo Zongtang's name in the signed article.

Of course, the Huai army did not have a chance to confirm that this Zuo Zongtang was the other Zuo Zongtang, but Li Hongzhang would rather believe that the Guangfu Army was willing to recruit surrendered troops. Compared with the worship of God in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the content displayed in the newspapers of the Guangfu Army was undoubtedly a matter of concern to the normal imperial court. Of course, it was indeed not a Manchu tradition to care about the vital interests of the common people. Li Hongzhang is a second-class jinshi, and his father Li Wenan is a third-class jinshi and became an official of the Criminal Department.

According to historical records, the officials of Wen'an were loyal and upright, governed by filial piety and friends, and served with dedication and outstanding political reputation. When managing the prison hall, the guards are strictly forbidden to abuse the prisoners, and each prisoner has a spoonful of each meal, and the Wen'an loose rice must be full of a spoonful, and taste it raw and cooked. Donate rice to make porridge for the prisoners who arrive in the evening. Diseases are prone to occur in prison, and Wen'an Pharmaceutical prepares them. In summer, they donated fans, and in autumn and winter, they donated cotton clothes, and added quilts in each office to prepare for the sick prisoners to sweat and recuperate. There are no dead in prison. The autumn trial of the general office has also been rehabilitated, and people have no grievances, and they are known as the elderly.

There is such a father, Li Hongzhang is different from the heroic Jiang Zhongyuan, and he is also different from Zeng Guofan, who puts the interests of the landlord class first. He was educated by his father since he was a child and knew how to be loyal to political affairs. Political affairs are nothing more than the word "patience", and the Liberation Army is simply tireless when it comes to propaganda and doing things for the people. Jiang Zhongyuan once ridiculed the Guangfu Army for selling its reputation and reputation, and Li Hongzhang echoed it, but in his heart he didn't think so. With his father's words and deeds, Li Hongzhang knows very well that the political operation is much more cumbersome than what the newspaper says.

The Liberation Army undoubtedly shows the true atmosphere of the new DPRK, and they dare to face and solve social problems. This kind of grandeur is by no means comparable to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Manchu court cannot be compared at all. For example, after the Liberation Army established the Grain Bureau, it supplied six catties of oil at a low monthly price to families with household registration books. Huai Jun turned a deaf ear to this, and Li Hongzhang was frightened after reading it.

If a family with a household registration book under the rule of the Liberation Army has 10 million, it is 30 million catties of oil a month and 360 million catties of edible oil a year. At present, the yield of rapeseed per mu of one acre of high-quality field is at most a few dozen catties, and even if it is calculated according to the yield of 100 catties per mu, which is completely unachievable, the Guangfu Army has to take out 7.2 million mu of fertile land to plant crops for the production of rapeseed oil and peanut oil.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty has calculated that at present, the population of the whole country is about 500 million, and the per capita land is one mu and eight cents of land, that is to say, the cultivated land in the whole country is only 900 million mu, and even if the Guangfu Army accounts for 40 percent, it is only 360 million mu, the ratio of high-grade fields to low-grade fields is about 1 to 4, and the high-grade fields of the Guangfu Army are only 90 million mu. Putting aside 8 percent of the land for oil crops is a big joke.

Li Hongzhang did not know that the purpose of the Liberation Army's expansion in the South China Sea was to increase the supply of edible oil, and that China would import more than 20 million tons of palm oil from Southeast Asia every year in the 21st century. Weeser hoped that by about 1880, China would be able to produce more than 10 million tons of palm oil a year from the South China Sea. According to the calculation of 1 billion people, the per capita palm oil can reach 20 catties, plus rapeseed oil, peanut oil, and coconut oil supplements, not only edible oil is not stressed, and even soap and other oleochemical products can be basically satisfied.

If you know Wei Ze's ambition, I am afraid that Li Hongzhang can be scared of diapers. Even if he didn't know Wei Ze's ambitions, Li Hongzhang still knew that the Manchus were simply powerless to confront the Liberation Army.

For the fate of doomed destruction, Jiang Zhongyuan chose the self-absorption of "tens of millions of people go to me", and Zeng Guofan chose to fight to the end like a mantis arm. And Li Hongzhang's choice is very simple, he wants to live, and he will definitely not give the Manchu Qing a funeral.

Therefore, when Li Hongzhang received the Mongolian Eight Banners of Monk Greenqin, it was completely broken by the Twist Army, and Monk Greenqin died in battle. After the news that the Hunan army broke the twisted army and the rest of the twisted army fled south, he was shocked and rejoiced. What the Manchu court really believed was not the Huai army, but the Mongolian Eight Banners led by Seng Lingqin. Monk Lingqin is the cousin of Emperor Xianfeng, and he is a hereditary prince who is truly trusted by the Manchu court. It's just a Hanchen and a lackey.

If the hereditary prince Monk Greenqin won a great victory and Zeng Guofan was defeated, the court would feel that it had lost a lackey and behaved. The hereditary prince Monk Greenqin was destroyed, and the imperial court was only afraid that it would only have murderous intentions against Zeng Guofan. Thinking that his teacher Zeng Guofan had fallen to such a point, Li Hongzhang could only sigh.

The reaction of the Manchu court after receiving the war report was exactly the same as Li Hongzhang thought, and the Manchu officials were shocked and speechless when they read the chapter.

It is clearly written in the battle report that the Twist Army suddenly launched a fierce attack on Seng Lingqin in the early morning of August 3, and Zhang Zongyu and Ren Zhu led the cavalry to storm the Mongolian Eight Banners of Seng Greenqin. The cavalry of the Twist Army were all attacking Seng Greenqin, and the infantry troops were mainly attacking the Hunan army.

After a morning of fighting under the scorching sun, the two wings of Seng Lingqin's troops were routed one after another, and the two cavalry units of Zhang Zongyu and Ren Zhu surrounded Seng Lingqin's Chinese army. Monk Lingqin personally led the troops to shout a fierce battle, but they were outnumbered. More than 8,000 cavalry of the Chinese army fell into the encirclement of 20,000 twisted troops, and finally the whole army was annihilated.

The 30,000 Hunan army faced the onslaught of the 20,000 Twist Army was a completely different situation, the Twist Army had sharp artillery, and the Hunan Army met the enemy with a strict formation. The two sides shelled each other all morning, and by noon the Twist Army had also divided into three teams to storm the Hunan Army. The Hunan army did not show the slightest weakness and attacked in three ways.

The left and right twist armies were defeated and retreated by the Hunan army, and the elite of the 5,000 twist army and the elite of 6,000 Bao Chao started a battle of gun-to-gun shooting. The artillery on both sides roared, and the soldiers of the Hunan army and the Twist army fell row after row under the sweep of bullets and shells. Bao Chao commanded the battle in the first row of the battle line, and the brutal battle lasted less than an hour, the infantry of the Twist Army collapsed first, Bao Chao led the troops to attack, and the Twist Army was immediately defeated. Not only were 20,000 or 30,000 infantry killed, but even the large battalion was taken away by the Hunan army.

The cavalry of the Twist Army, which annihilated Seng Lingqin, saw that the camp was lost, and looted in the camp of Seng Lingqin and fled south. The Qing army monk Greenqin and the Hunan army paid a total of more than 20,000 people and annihilated nearly 40,000 twist troops. The Twist Army, which once had nearly 200,000 troops and ravaged the four provinces north of the Huai River, had less than one-tenth of its strength left, and more than 10,000 Twist troops fled to the south, and it was impossible to have the strength to pose a threat to the four northern provinces in the short term.

The tragic battle is clearly written in the cantata, and Monk Lingqin had reached an agreement with Zeng Guofan before the battle to reinforce each after defeating the enemy in front of him. After a moment of silence, a prince suddenly stood up in the court and said with tears in his eyes: "Why didn't Zeng Guofan die? ”

Cixi was taken aback by these words, Ci'an originally frowned and pondered, but after hearing this, her face was full of anger. Prince Gong Yixin was even more stunned, he didn't expect someone to make such an outrageous statement.

It's just that Prince Gong Yixin can think this statement is outrageous, but the Manchu ministers don't think it's outrageous. Immediately, several Manchu ministers chimed in tears: "Why didn't Zeng Guofan die? But it was the monk king who died? ”

"Why didn't the Hunan army protect the monk king?"

"Zeng Guofan deliberately trapped the monk king, and the Hunan army had ill intentions!"

Someone took the lead, and the Manchu ministers came forward and knelt down one after another to put forward their own opinions.

Ci'an's face was white, she was originally shocked by the tragic war described in the chapter, the Twist Army and the Qing Army invested nearly 100,000 troops in the decisive battle in Chenzhou, although this battle unfortunately damaged the prince Monk Greenqin, but also made the Twist Army greatly injured. The East Twist Army now has only scattered small troops, Li Hongzhang recaptured Luoyang, Monk Greenqin and the Hunan Army defeated the strongest West Twist Army, the imperial court was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, as long as Miao Peilin was dealt with, the repeated villain, the Qing army could establish a defensive line in Henan and Shandong to deal with the Guangfu Army in the south.

The Eastern Empress Dowager Ci'an never expected that the Manchu ministers of the imperial court would actually attack the Hunan army of Zeng Guofan at this time. Just closed his eyes and thought for a moment, but Ci'an also figured out the key inside, the only field army that the imperial court could trust was the Mongolian Eight Banners of Seng Lingqin, and now Seng Lingqin died in battle, and the field army of the imperial court was only left with two Hunan army and Huai army. The lives of the Qing Dynasty were in the hands of the Han army. Without the checks and balances of Seng Lingqin, the Manchu ministers did not feel the joy after winning the battle, but the horror from the heart.