The Li people in Guangxi use animal skins to make clothes, and Lin Fengxiang has seen that kind of shoddy clothes. But he never imagined that one day he would wear a sheepskin jacket similar to it.

Standing in the courtyard wearing a sheepskin jacket, Lin Fengxiang could clearly see the white mist he exhaled. In the first Northern Expedition more than ten years ago, the elite of the Taiping Army was exhausted, overcoming countless difficulties along the way. However, after hitting Hebei and Shandong, the Northern Expeditionary Army felt the power of the northern winter. Winters in Shaanxi are colder than those in Hebei and Shandong.

Li Xiucheng also wore a sheepskin jacket and stood beside Lin Fengxiang. He said: "Since the beginning of the Heavenly Kingdom, there have been many mistakes, and the first Northern Expedition was a big mistake. If there was no Northern Expedition at that time, but an all-out westward advance, I am afraid that Huguang would have been taken by this time. ”

After Shi Dakai left the Kingdom of Heaven, the Taiping Army changed a lot, and the biggest thing was the change in personnel. A large number of young generals gradually became the real backbone of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng and others grew up rapidly. Three years ago, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom left Nanjing and went north to Shaanxi, and everyone originally felt that the future was bleak. But after really embarking on this road, Chen Yu became the vanguard, conquering the city, and Li Xiucheng was in charge of the rear army, able to command a large number of personnel who lacked combat effectiveness to keep up with the brigade all the way. The strength they showed was no less than that of the veterans of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

At this time, Li Xiucheng was telling Lin Fengxiang about his reflections on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom when it was in Jiangnan. This is also what Lin Fengxiang asked Li Xiucheng to do. Of course, the reflection is not to remember the things that were unhappy before, Li Xiucheng continued: "King Zhang, you let the Twist Army attack Beijing, I think this method is good. As long as the Twist Army can go to the city of Beijing, Seng Greenqin will definitely go back. At that time, we can take advantage of the situation to seize the Loop. ”

The Taiping army had already captured Hanzhong at this time, and if they continued to move south, they could capture Sichuan. But Lin Fengxiang himself may not really want to seize Sichuan. It's not that Sichuan is bad, but what about after taking Sichuan?

Transporting grain to Shaanxi? The journey is difficult and dangerous, and the food that can be transported is actually very limited. Or down the river to attack Hubei? Now it is far from a situation where he completely tears his face with Wei Ze. Sichuan is a good place, but Sichuan is not the primary goal right now. It is more efficient to use valuable troops to expand the territory in the northwest.

"It's just that I'm worried that after the Twist Army really disrupts Hebei and Henan, the Guangfu Army may go north." Li Xiucheng said.

"King Qi wouldn't do that." Lin Fengxiang did not support Li Xiucheng's statement.

"Why? It's a good time to align with the king. Li Xiucheng was a little puzzled. In fact, now Wei Ze is no longer the king of Qi, and when he "sent" the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to Shaanxi, Hong Xiuquan officially took away Wei Ze's title of King of Qi. However, the upper echelons of the Taiping army still habitually called Wei Ze the king of Qi, which has nothing to do with the position, these people are very in awe of Wei Ze's power, and they have no intention of changing their habitual title just because of Hong Xiuquan's attitude.

Lin Fengxiang said with a little regret: "Brother Wei is extremely cautious, if he can't straighten out the territory he has occupied, he will never be so anxious to fight for new territory." This is a place where ordinary people cannot compare with him. However, when Brother Wei really wanted to make a move, no amount of difficulty and danger could stop him. ”

During the Second Northern Expedition, Wei Ze's troops reached the vicinity of Tianjin. It is not that no one in Lin Fengxiang's department has thought of joining forces with Wei Ze to attack Beijing. Wei Ze chose to withdraw without hesitation. Although Lin Fengxiang firmly supported Wei Ze, it would be a lie to say that there was no mustard in his heart. But looking back more than a decade later, a quick withdrawal was the right thing to do. If Beijing City was really attacked at that time, it did not mean that there was no chance of taking Beijing at all. But what about after you take it? As long as those 30,000 or 40,000 horses can't besiege Beijing, Xianfeng can pat his ass and leave, but Wei Ze, Lin Fengxiang and others can't evacuate Beijing. If they don't stick to it after taking Beijing, Wei Ze, Lin Fengxiang and the others will wait to lose their heads when they return to Tianjing City.

Hold on to the huge city of Beijing, and then count on the Taiping army in Nanjing to rush to Beijing? Now Lin Fengxiang thinks of such a strategy, and he feels ridiculous. But when that really happened, I was afraid that there was a ninety percent chance of such a situation.

If the Taiping Army did not come to Nanjing's aid, tens of thousands of troops would be waiting to die if they held on to Beijing. If the Taiping army in Nanjing rushed to Beijing, it would be surrounded by the pursuing enemy in Hebei. In Hebei, where the place of life is unfamiliar, no matter how good the Taiping army is, I am afraid that it will be a dead end in the end.

The reason why Lin Fengxiang asked Li Xiucheng to summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the war strategy before the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was to see the root of victory and defeat from it. Wei Ze gave the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a second chance, and Lin Fengxiang really didn't want to fail again.

Li Xiucheng's experience is much less than Lin Fengxiang's, so he has less emotion, and he said excitedly: "King Zhang, if King Qi doesn't go north, then we will wait to see if the brothers of the Twist Army can win the battle." Hebei and Henan can do whatever they want, as long as Seng Lingqin leaves, we can attack Shanxi after we capture the Hetao. After Shaanxi, Shanxi, Ningxia, and Suiyuan are all taken, and Sichuan is captured, the situation of the three-point world can be achieved. I look at the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang has worked hard all his life, and this is what he is trying to do. Three points and one percent, we can attack and retreat, and the situation is completely different. ”

What Li Xiucheng said was a relatively accepted view among the kings, as long as they could occupy Shanxi and other places, they would be able to take the Taihang Eight Provinces. These eight mountain roads lead directly to Hebei, and the military capital is very close to Beijing, and if the strength is enough, the Taiping army can storm Beijing at any time. It can be said that the key points of victory and defeat against the Manchu Qing are held in the palm of hand.

Lin Fengxiang did not particularly object at that time, but he still felt that it was a little insufficient. Lin Fengxiang always felt that the kings were much worse than Wei Ze. In that year, Wei Ze proposed the Huai River defense line, and later built the Huai River defense line. When Wei Ze decided to break away from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he met Lin Fengxiang for the last time and talked about the matter in depth. At that time, when Wei Ze proposed the Huai River defense line, he did not talk about the significance of this defense line at all, but explained very thoroughly how to maintain this defense line and why some methods should be implemented.

That is from the perspective of standing at the top of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Lin Fengxiang's feeling is that Wei Ze believes that the Huai River defense line is the bottom line and the basis of all strategies. It's the work that has to be done. After completing the Huai River defense line, Wei Ze also limited himself to this and did not pursue other more developments in the north. In Lin Fengxiang's memory, Wei Ze believed that after stabilizing the north, he would then mobilize forces to complete the strategic frontiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on other defensive lines one by one. Finally, integrate the internal and strive for a new breakthrough in the next round.

The three prime ministers of the Northern Expedition led by Lin Fengxiang later adhered to the strategy proposed by Wei Ze, so no matter how fierce the battle was in the east and west, the Huaihe defense line was as stable as Mount Tai and played the original purpose of the strategic concept. It was not until the Hunan army broke through Anqing, after a series of bloody battles, that Huainan was completely collapsed, and the Huaihe defense line was finished. After the Huaihe defense line was finished, the strategic situation of the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was declining, and it soon came to the brink of destruction.

On the other hand, the kings of the Taiping Army, their strategic perception is to step from one victory to another, and they seem to be forever pursuing an upper limit. Stabilizing Shaanxi is for the sake of a certain Hetao, and after seizing the Hetao, he will seek Ningxia and Shanxi, as well as Sichuan. Shi Da drove away and took away 200,000 troops, but the Taiping army at that time still had more than 100,000 elites, and he was really able to formulate a long-term strategy, formulate a strategic bottom line around the periphery, and then complete it one by one. I'm afraid that the final situation will not collapse Cheng dù.

Now Li Xiucheng, who is considered to be the leader of the new generation, is also like this, this mountain is looking at the mountain high, this feeling is honest, which makes Lin Fengxiang feel a little uneasy.

This is the tug-of-war between the Taiping army and the Hunan army in Jiangxi, and the tug-of-war in Zhejiang. As a result, the new goals were not achieved, and the old problems were further exacerbated. Although Lin Fengxiang has long understood that there is no strategy in this world for thousands of generations, the reality clearly makes Lin Fengxiang realize that if the strategy cannot have a long-term nature, then this strategy will lead to long-term failure.

It's just that this is not the time to criticize Li Xiucheng, if Li Xiucheng really has Wei Ze's level, then Zhejiang and Fujian would have won it a long time ago, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would not have come to this day. Lin Fengxiang pushed these thoughts out of his mind, and he changed the subject, "Since we want to let the Twist Army brothers go to attack Beijing, we will allocate more firearms to them." ”

Li Xiucheng replied: "We have already allocated them 1,000 quasi-head guns. ”

Lin Fengxiang replied: "I'm afraid that one thousand is not enough, I'll give them five thousand." ”

"Five thousand?" Li Xiucheng said in surprise that the quasi-head gun was a new gun that the Taiping Army had exchanged for the old gun to Wei Ze. Although Li Xiucheng didn't know that this was a rifle that Wei Ze ordered the military industry department to work overtime to produce, he could finally see that these guns were all new. The quasi-head gun is the basis on which the Taiping army relies to win battles, and as a descendant of the Taiping army, Li Xiucheng is of course unwilling. He was embarrassed and said: "King Zhang, we ourselves only have 100,000 quasi-head guns, give them 5,000 at once, if they lose the battle, then these quasi-head guns are not cheaper than the Qing Demon." ”

Lin Fengxiang said a little helplessly: "If there are too few quasi-head guns, the Twist Army will not be able to win the battle, and it will be cheaper to give a thousand of them." If you feel that the Twist Army can't win the battle, it's too much to give them one. If the Twist Army can win the battle, 5,000 quasi-head guns is not a lot at all. ”

Seeing that Lin Fengxiang's attitude was very firm and his reasoning was quite convincing, Li Xiucheng said: "Can the brothers of the family be willing?" ”

Lin Fengxiang was very disappointed with Li Xiucheng's attitude, when Wei Ze left the Taiping Army, after leaving the Taiping Army, he was always very serious about helping the Taiping Army. Of course, it can be said that Wei Ze has his own plans, and hopes that the Taiping Army can hold out for a while longer to gain time for Wei Ze's own development. But it is precisely because of this that Wei Ze's help is very in place, the method of making the fire cap, the method of converting the arquebus into the fire cap gun, including the later artillery sales, every time the help has completely worked. This effective help did indeed achieve Weese's purpose.

It is true that the Twist Army is not a descendant of the Taiping Army, but the Twist Army is by no means a fool. If you can't make the Twist Army feel that there is really a chance of winning battles in Hebei, Henan and other places, why should the Twist Army be stupid and fight with the Qing Army?

Thinking of this, Lin Fengxiang didn't play tricks with Li Xiucheng, he asked: "Xiucheng, you are also one of the kings, I will ask other people what they mean in the future, I will ask you now, are you willing?" ”

Looking at Lin Fengxiang's firm attitude, Li Xiucheng sighed in embarrassment, and after a while, he said: "Five hundred at most, five hundred at most, at most five hundred on my side." ”

Lin Fengxiang didn't care about Li Xiucheng's cleverness, he said calmly: "Five hundred branches for one person, five thousand branches for ten people." That's enough. And I'm going to send someone to test this gun myself, and if you fool me with some bad guns, then I won't recognize you with five hundred. ”

Seeing that Lin Fengxiang was so serious, Li Xiucheng could only sigh and say nothing more. R1058