The Manchu Qing Dynasty did not have a solar calendar, and Emperor Xianfeng did not even know that there was such a solar calendar as a calendar from the West. Therefore, on January 1, 1855 in the solar calendar, Emperor Xianfeng did not think that this was the beginning of a new year at all, but the end of the fourth year of Xianfeng.

The fourth year of Xianfeng was a terrible year for Emperor Xianfeng. During this year, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Army attacked all the way to Tianjin. The Second Northern Expedition led by Wei Ze, the puppet king of Qi of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, killed many Manchu ministers, including Shengbao, and also kidnapped Zhang Liangji, the governor of Shandong, and Wei Ze also annihilated 40,000 officers and troops in a back and forth. The most important thing is that the elite of the Cantonese bandits who were once besieged were rescued by Wei Ze.

No matter what others thought, Emperor Xianfeng was very afraid of Wei Ze's decision. Wei Ze got the greatest result at the lowest cost, annihilated the officers and soldiers, and rescued the elite of the Cantonese bandits. Since then, these Cantonese bandits have begun to wreak havoc in Anhui and other places. First, he broke through the camp in Jiangnan and Jiangbei and relieved the siege of Jiangning. Then he defeated the once-victorious Hunan army. After the battle of Hukou, the troops were severely damaged, and Zeng Guofan, who was wiped out of the navy, committed suicide by jumping into the river, but was fortunately rescued by his subordinates.

The Cantonese bandits went straight up from Jiujiang and recaptured Wuchang City. Although Zeng Guofan resisted hard, he had to retreat to Nanchang, Jiangxi because of his small number of soldiers.

On the contrary, Jiang Zhongyuan's troops expanded to 24,000 men and began to attack Fengyang. Regarding Jiang Zhongyuan's character, Emperor Xianfeng believed in it. Jiang Zhongyuan said in his compromises that although he also won a few small battles, he failed to break through the Huai River. The Cantonese bandits firmly controlled the front line of Shouzhou and Fengyang, and confronted Jiang Zhongyuan's Huai army. It will take some time to launch a large-scale attack.

Just when the west road began to erosive, and the north road attacked and defended each other, Wei Ze, the puppet king of the Yue bandits, Chen soldiers in Changzhou. The most ferocious unit of the Taiping army seemed to be recuperating after the relocation, but judging by Wei Ze's previous appearance, this correction was almost over. Once Wei Ze starts to act again, there will definitely be huge waves in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. If they could not resist Wei Ze's troops, the Cantonese bandits would definitely march eastward along both sides of the Yangtze River, and at that time, the south of the Yangtze River would be eroded.

The result of the erosion in Jiangnan was the total financial collapse of the Qing Dynasty. The materials south of the Yangtze River could not be transported north, and at that time, the Qing Dynasty was afraid that it would slide step by step into the abyss of destruction.

At this time, Xianfeng saw very clearly that the first target to be annihilated by the Qing Dynasty was the troops of Wei Ze, the most ferocious puppet king of Qi among the Cantonese bandits. Wei Ze's death means that the Cantonese bandits have been cut off. And Wei Ze will not die, even if the Qing Dynasty can gain temporary advantages on other battlefields, after Wei Ze conquers southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Wei Ze will definitely be transferred to fight in those places.

Xianfeng once asked Jiang Zhongyuan how good Wei Ze's troops were. Jiang Zhongyuan's answer was very realistic, he believed that in the near future, with the same strength, no army in the imperial court would be able to compete with Wei Ze. Even if there are three times the number of troops, I am afraid that it will only be an equal match with Wei Ze.

Xianfeng trusted Jiang Zhongyuan very much and thought that he was a person with extremely reliable character. Now intelligence shows that Wei Ze's troops have more than 40,000 people, and according to Zhongyuan, the imperial court needs to mobilize 120,000 people in order to be evenly matched with Wei Ze. The current national army of the Qing Dynasty is only 500,000 people, which means that a quarter of the country's troops must be used to fight against Wei Ze to ensure that the official army will not fail.

While being annoyed and disappointed, Xianfeng also had a doubt. Why did such a capable person not only not be used by the imperial court, but jumped out to rebel. Has the Qing Dynasty really reached the point of being abandoned by the real heroes of the world?

However, the reflection on the system did not make Xianfeng make any intention of surrendering, and he was still making strategic arrangements in order to save his world. The Jiangbei battalion in Jiangnan was defeated repeatedly, and although it was driven to the claimed area, there were still 60,000 or 70,000 soldiers and horses. Although he was not able to reach twice the size of Wei Ze's troops, Xianfeng still ordered Admiral Zhang Guoliang to lead his troops to attack Changzhou, where Wei Ze was enthroned.

Zuo Zongtang, who was praised by 10,000 people, had already raised 5,000 men and horses in a few months, and had already taken 6 routes to Zhejiang at this time. Before that, Wei Ze must be dragged down, and he must not be allowed to attack Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Moreover, although Xianfeng trusted Jiang Zhongyuan, he did not fully believe Jiang Zhongyuan's evaluation. In other words, Xianfeng at least hoped that he could believe that the officers and soldiers could fight Wei Ze in a life-for-life ratio.

Zhang Guoliang has always used fierce soldiers, and when Xiang Rong, the commander of the Jiangnan battalion, was alive, Zhang Guoliang fought with the Taiping army more than once and won the victory. With such a fierce general leading the troops, Xianfeng hopes that the green battalion of the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps can be cheered up and deal a heavy blow to Wei Ze.

Emperor Xianfeng made up his mind, and Zhang Guoliang was under strong pressure. This pressure not only came from the emperor's orders, but the governor of Jiangsu, Gil Hang'a, also took this opportunity to force Zhang Guoliang to send troops. "Admiral Zhang, when you were a lieutenant under Admiral Xiang, you repeatedly told the Lord Long Live that you had won the battle. Long live the Lord will also give you an official rank and a knight, and continue to reward you. Now you are the commander, commanding tens of thousands of horses in the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps. Long live the lord issued an edict ordering you to send troops. and why he was so reluctant to move. Since the main government is also here, then we have to talk about business first. If you refuse to use troops, you can't say anything, and this government can only participate in you! ”

After all, Zhang Guoliang is the one who became the commander, even if he can't talk about self-cultivation, at least he has enough city government. In the face of Gilhang'a's attack, Zhang Guoliang not only was not angry, but he said with great mockery: "Governor Gilhang'a, the bandits in Guangdong are powerful, why don't we divide the troops into two ways, I will fight Changzhou, and you will fight Zhenjiang." We marched at the same time, so that the Cantonese bandits could not care about each other. What do you think? ”

Of course, Gilhanga knew that Zhang Guoliang had rebelled before, but he was a bandit. Now Zhang Guoliang has played the trick of green skin, but the governor of Zhejiang has no way to deal with it.

Zhang Guoliang fought Changzhou, looking like he was attacking Wei Ze. It can be allowed to attack Zhenjiang, which is further north than Changzhou. Between Changzhou and Jiangning City, if Changzhou and Jiangning each send a troop, the retreat of Gilhang'a will be staged, and Zhang Guoliang will run away again. Lord Gilhanga was immediately the end of the total annihilation.

Therefore, Zhang Guoliang's strategy is naturally absolutely unacceptable. It's just that now I admit it, these days, Gilhanga has sneered at Zhang Guoliang and used all kinds of coercion. can be ridiculed by Zhang Guoliang in turn immediately. Gilhanga didn't want to lose this man.

So the Governor of the Banner Man immediately shouted angrily, "You are a strong quibble!" ”

Zhang Guoliang sneered, "Governor Gilhanga, I actually don't understand. You forced me to go to war, and if I lost the battle, Long Live Lord would at most withdraw me. I've been withdrawn, and it's your turn to lead the troops? Can you win the battle? ”

These words are actually enough to dig out his heart, but Gilhang'a was unmoved, his chest was boiling with loyalty to Emperor Xianfeng. The status of the banner people is above that of the Han Chinese, and Gilhanga considers himself to be the emperor's dog and the emperor's minion. And the mission of his minion is to drive Han officials to serve the emperor and serve the bannermen. If Zhang Guoliang fails, there will naturally be a replacement for Zhang Guoliang to succeed him. What does this have to do with Gilhanga.

Gilhanga firmly believes that the contradiction between the emperor and the banner people can not be interfered with by the Han Chinese?

So Gilhanga was not moved by Zhang Guoliang's words at all, he stood up and said, "Admiral Zhang, what this official should say has already been said, if you don't move like this again." I'm just going to do business! Don't regret it! ”

After speaking, Gilhanga strode away from Zhang Guoliang's big tent and left with his own soldiers.

When Gilhanga walked away and was completely out of sight, Zhang Guoliang spat on the ground, and he scolded: "What is this? ”

However, scolding and scolding, Zhang Guoliang can't do anything about Gilhang'a. Xianfeng issued holy decrees one after another, and Zhang Guoliang also knew that he had no way to refuse. In any case, we have to fight a battle.

Standing up, Zhang Guoliang went out to patrol the camp to relax. His big tent was in the joint camp center set up by the Qing army in Xuancheng. His headquarters is okay, these 4,000 soldiers and horses are all carefully selected elites. When Xiang Rong was alive, he was always led by Zhang Guoliang himself. Relying on this elite, Zhang Guoliang has won a lot of battles.

Zhang Guoliang's military law is strict, but only when he is fighting. In addition to fighting, Zhang Guoliang wielded the management style of bandits. The troops went out to rob the people, and after the robbery came back, these people in the army just drank and gambled and had fun.

After leaving the Chinese army camp and arriving at other camps, Zhang Guoliang immediately smelled the familiar smell of the Qing army's green camp. That's the smell of smoke. The soldiers drank and gambled, which can be regarded as a lively tiger in a sense. In the other camps of the Qing army, there is no such vitality anymore.

In broad daylight, you can see the lights in the tent everywhere. Ordinary soldiers are mostly one person with a lamp, or two people with a lamp. They puffed on their mouths with their mouths tight, and their thin white faces were a little bloody as they sucked the smoke from the smoke from the cannons on the lamp.

After inhaling, the soldiers held their breath again, for fear that the smoke in their lungs would leak in the slightest. Finally, when they couldn't hold it back, they let out a "hi" sound like a long sigh. Then, the whole person slowly curled up and went limp.

The officers, on the other hand, were even more comfortable, living alone in their own beds, lighting lamps on each side of the bed. There are also several cigarette guns. There are pro-soldiers who specially give them smoke cannons. Unlike those poor ghost soldiers who struggle to smoke all the smoke bubbles, these people have money and often put down when they smoke most or half of a cannon.

After sucking, the soldiers came up to give them a light leg beating and served tea. Some officers were more particular and drank their own tea. Some simply let the pro-soldiers feed tea to their mouths.

If everyone weren't wearing military uniforms, they wouldn't be able to tell that this was a barracks, but would mistakenly think that this was a huge smoke house.

Zhang Guoliang is also not surprised by this. It's not that he refuses to send troops to fight, but he leads this group of green camp smokers to fight, and he really doesn't have any confidence to fight a big battle.

Probably walked a few barracks, all of them looked like this, and Zhang Guoliang was really desperate. But this green battalion soldier is the "own son" of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he can't be beaten or scolded. Once Zhang Guoliang started to rectify a little too much, these big smokers united to resist Zhang Guoliang. This is what it has been like since when Xiang Rong was still there.

However, the salty and crispy tight, Zhang Guoliang can't help it. He made up his mind to take the elites of the Chinese army to attack. I have to give Emperor Xianfeng an explanation.

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