July 15, 1857.

The handsome banner of the Hunan army was finally raised in front of the original prefect's yamen in Jiujiang City. This city in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has many titles, such as "the mouth of the three rivers", "the thoroughfare of the seven provinces" and "the land of the world". Each title tells the importance of Jiujiang in transportation from a different perspective.

When attacking Tianjing in 1853, the Taiping army abandoned such an important city as the Three Towns of Wuhan, but did not abandon Jiujiang. Guarding Jiujiang guarded the north gate of Jiangxi, so that the Qing army could not calmly go down the river. In order to conquer Jiujiang, Zeng Guofan fought a series of bloody battles with the Taiping army for several years, and he also tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the water after suffering a crushing defeat in the Battle of Hukou. The Hunan army under the command of Zeng Guofan never succeeded in taking Jiujiang, and Zeng Guofan's generals Taqibu and Li Yuandu attacked several times in vain.

Now the main person in charge of attacking Jiujiang is Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei. Under his command, the Hunan army finally won the final victory.

The battle was over, and the entire Jiujiang City was filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke and blood. Except for the Hunan army, there are no other living people in Jiujiang City. Whether it is Zeng Guofan or Hu Linyi, the attitude of the two towards the Taiping Army is the same. The Cantonese bandits who did not take the initiative to surrender but stubbornly resisted to the end must be killed, and the bandits who follow the bandits must also be killed. After capturing the stronghold held by the Taiping army, the Hunan army dealt with it in this way. The length of time the Taiping army stayed in one place determined the intensity of the Hunan army's massacre. In a stronghold like Jiujiang, which had been held by the Taiping army for several years, it was impossible for the Hunan army to let go of the residents in the city.

Hu Linyi, the leader of the Hunan army in charge of this battle, had both joy and worry on his face, and the capture of Jiujiang not only allowed the Hunan army in Poyang Lake to join forces with the Hunan army on the Yangtze River, but also strengthened the combat effectiveness of the Hunan army. After opening the gateway on the Yangtze River, the next Taiping stronghold on the Yangtze River is Anqing, and if Anqing can be conquered in the next step, the Hunan army can directly point to Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Taiping Rebellion, which lasted for several years, is likely to come to an end.

Now that the situation is in good shape, the divine decree has arrived. Emperor Xianfeng agreed with Zeng Guo's decision to guard Ding Wei. At the same time as this twist and turn arrived, Zeng Guofan, the leader of the Hunan army, was officially relieved of his military duties, and he had to pack up and return to his hometown in a short time. The brothers of the Zeng family are all the backbone of the Hunan army, and Shouding Wei is not the only one of Zeng Guofan, and the brothers of the Zeng family have to go back. According to the system, the Zeng brothers need to be at home for 27 months.

Hu Linyi has always believed that at the moment when the war is in full swing, if the Zeng brothers leave the Hunan army, it will definitely have an adverse impact on the war situation. So the emperor will choose to "seize love". However, the news that the emperor did not "seize the love", but agreed to let the Zeng brothers go home to "guard Ding Wei" proves one thing, Emperor Xianfeng did not trust Zeng Guofan. If Emperor Xianfeng used all kinds of reprimands to implicitly express this attitude in the past, now he has expressed it unmistakably and publicly.

Any emperor with real power has no more killer weapon than personnel power. Of course, the Zeng brothers can command remotely on a certain distance during the more than two years of guarding Ding Wei, but things in the officialdom are basically people walking away from tea. With Zeng Guofan's distance from the command center, and the emperor's public distrust, the big figures who could influence the Hunan army may try to free the Hunan army from the control of the Zeng brothers. Hu Linyi was very optimistic about Zeng Guofan, and he couldn't accept others to come forward and become the new leader of the Hunan army.

Hu Linyi's mind was churning with ideas on how to deal with this time, but the generals under Hu Linyi of the Hunan army did not consider the affairs of Zeng Guofan at all, and Duolong'a, Bao, Li Jibin and others made great contributions in the battle of Hukou. The promotion and the knight were in front of him, and he handed over the matter of cleaning the battlefield to his subordinates, and they almost arrived at Hu Linyi on their front and back feet, and opened their mouths, "My lord, you have made such a great contribution this time, and your subordinates congratulate you!" ”

If one person said this, he couldn't completely affect Hu Linyi's thoughts, but two, three, and four generals ran to Hu Linyi's big tent and said the same words as if they had discussed, even if Hu Linyi originally felt heavy because of Zeng Guofan's affairs, he also had a bit of a sense of patience later. These generals obviously congratulated Hu Linyi on becoming a knight, but in fact, what they really cared about was the benefits after their big victory. This was originally human nature, and after repeated "reminders" from his subordinates, the cheerful mood after the big victory also gained the upper hand in Hu Linyi's heart.

As soon as he had spoken to the generals for a while, his own soldiers brought the messenger of Zeng Guofan into the big tent. Due to his frequent correspondence with Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi knew Zeng Guofan's messenger, so he couldn't help but feel a little regretful in his heart. It seems that what Zeng Guofan wants to say should be about leaving.

When he opened the letter, Hu Linyi's face changed. Zeng Guofan was indeed talking about leaving, but it was only a short sentence, and after this sentence, Zeng Guofan told Hu Linyi that the Guangfu army had attacked Fuzhou in Jiangxi. Fuzhou fell, and the whereabouts of 8,000 soldiers and horses including Zeng Guohua, who guarded Fuzhou, were unknown. For this huge variable, Zeng Guofan asked Hu Linyi to be careful. The Guangfu Army has occupied Guangdong for more than a year, and at this time it should have the spare strength to send troops north.

"You and I go to the back!" Hu Linyi pointed to the messenger and said. The surrounding generals looked at Hu Linyi with strange and even shocked eyes, what a big deal this must be, and he had to secretly negotiate with the messenger behind the generals' back.

Hu Linyi couldn't care about so much, and there was a word in Zeng Guofan's letter that frightened him. Fuzhou is only more than 100 miles away from Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, at this time the Taiping Army Shi Dakai Department marched into Zhejiang, giving up the tug-of-war with the Hunan army in this area, and it can be said that Nanchang to Fuzhou is unimpeded. Therefore, Zeng Guofan's sentence "whereabouts unknown" is really subtle, which seems to give people infinite reverie at the same time, but it also very clearly points out the only possibility. When he arrived at the back battle and shielded everyone, Hu Linyi hurriedly asked, "How can the battle over there be?" ”

The messenger obviously received an order from Zeng Guofan to tell the truth at this time, and he hurriedly replied: "Lord Hu, the Guangfu army will conquer Fuzhou within two days. After only one night of pause in Fuzhou, he left the city of Fuzhou and fled to Guangdong. Zeng Guohua and the others were all killed by them. ”

"All killed?" Hu Linyi seemed to be questioning, and it was like talking to himself.

Regardless of what Hu Linyi meant, the messenger replied, "Yes, there is a big pit outside the city, and inside it is the corpses of the Hunan brothers. When I left, I hadn't heard of the whereabouts of Zeng Guohua. ”

Listening to the messenger's words, Hu Linyi suddenly got up and scolded: "How dare you fake the news? Aren't you afraid of losing your head? ”

The messenger was stunned, what did Hu Linyi mean by this, could it be that he had taken the wrong medicine? But Hu Linyi didn't seem to have taken the wrong medicine, he knew very well what he was talking about. I only heard Hu Linyi continue to shout: "Let me ask you, why do you want to fake the news?!" ”

The messenger was so frightened that he immediately knelt down, "Lord Hu, if you don't believe it, you can send someone to Nanchang and ask Master Zeng about it." Lord Zeng sent me to deliver a message to Lord Hu, but I didn't have a fake message! ”

Hu Linyi glared at the messenger, as if he wanted to check the "fake" on the messenger with his eyes. Because Hu Linyi could not accept this fact. His brother-in-law, Tao Tingyu, was killed in Ganzhou and peeled the last grass, and according to the investigation, the Guangfu Army conquered Ganzhou within one day. Now he has made a break in Fuzhou within two days. It is impossible for Zeng Guohua and other 8,000 men and horses guarding Fuzhou to be "unaccounted for" under the attack of the Liberation Army. It is only more than 100 miles away from Nanchang, and if you can escape from Fuzhou City, you will soon be able to escape back to Nanchang. This "unaccounted for" means "total annihilation".

Zeng Guohua was the third brother of Zeng Guofan, and the Taiping army once captured many cities in Jiangxi, isolating Zeng Guofan from the rear. Zeng Guohua ran to Wuchang and prayed to Hu Linyi for help. Hu Linyi gave Zeng Guohua 5,000 men, and Zeng Guohua led this group of people all the way to conquer Xianning, Puqi, Chongyang, Tongcheng, Xinchang, and Shanggao counties, and opened up the communication line. This time to march into Fuzhou, Zeng Guohua led this army with considerable military merits. Unexpectedly, this unit, together with Zeng Guohua, confessed to Fuzhou.

The Taiping Army is already difficult enough, but I didn't expect that compared with the Taiping Army, the Liberation Army is a hundred times better.

After a few days of the messenger's departure, Zeng Guofan traveled from Nanchang to Jiujiang. Hu Linyi saw Zeng Guofan on the dock and asked, "Zeng Gong, is there a whereabouts of Wen Fu?" ”

Wen Fu is Zeng Guohua's character, and Hu Linyi still has a little illusion that the Guangfu Army is not as fierce as the 8,000 Hunan Army.

Zeng Guofan shook his head, but did not take this stubble. "Hu Gong, the Cantonese bandits are now divided into three. Wei Ze occupied Liangguang, and Hong rebelled to defend Jiangning. They are all possessed of land, and they are invincible. At present, only Shi Dakai coerced the bandits to fight outside, and if he wanted to exterminate the Guangdong bandits, he needed to start with Shi Dakai, Hong Shun, and Wei Ze. You must not go to war with them at the same time. ”

Hu Linyi understood that this was Zeng Guofan's strategy to determine the future. The literati spoke implicitly, and they could not provoke Wei Ze, and in Zeng Guofan's words, "you must not start a war with them at the same time". In fact, after Hu Linyi changed his brother-in-law into a human skin lantern, he didn't want to start a war with Wei Ze at the same time, and Zeng Guofan had no intention of going to war at the same time. But the tree wants to be quiet and the wind does not stop, Wei Ze took the initiative to come up this time to fight Zeng Guohua.

At this time, it was pointless to find fault again, Hu Linyi said: "Zeng Gong, I know. Why don't we go into the city and talk about it in detail. ”

Zeng Guofan shook his head, "No need. There are ginseng all over Jiangxi, I don't keep filial piety, and I covet power. Shouding did not leave in a hurry, but stayed in Nanchang. So I didn't stop in Jiujiang either, and just went home. ”

When the Hunan army was fighting in Jiangxi, military discipline was very bad, and they looted and killed people everywhere they went. In this era, it is a norm for soldiers to be inferior to bandits, and Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi should not have seen each other. But the two commanded the Hunan army to fight in Jiangxi, and the food and salary had to be supplied by the Jiangxi locality, and the local officials in Jiangxi were willing to serve the Hunan army. In addition to directly refusing to provide logistical supplies to the Hunan army, military discipline was corrupted and the townships were intruded, and the impeachment recitals under these pretexts flew like snowflakes to Beijing. To be sure, none of this can be called nonsense. After Jiangxi did not provide logistical supplies to the Hunan army, the Hunan army could only intensify the looting of Jiangxi to gather supplies.

Hu Linyi was also very aggrieved in his heart, and he wanted to shout to the local officials in Jiangxi, "If you are willing to provide supplies obediently, the Hunan army will naturally reduce the number of lootings." How come you don't understand such a simple truth?! It's all your fault for being robbed! ”

Officials in Jiangxi are obviously stones in a dung pit, and their brains are smelly and hard. After the emperor clearly expressed his distrust of Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guofan's actions of not guarding Ding Wei were even better targets for attack. Even Zeng Guofan couldn't withstand the pressure, so he could only flee back to Hunan quickly. Hu Linyi didn't want to add any more trouble to Zeng Guofan, he said: "In that case, Zeng Gong, you have to take care!" ”

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