On May 24, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang's troops arrived in Shouzhou. At this time, the gate of Shouzhou was wide open, and after approaching, I saw that two pontoon bridges had been erected on the Huai River outside the city. In addition to the pontoon bridge passing on the Huai River, camping, and eating places, Wei Ze has already arranged.

As soon as Lin Fengxiang asked where Wei Ze had gone, one of the brigade commanders who stayed behind told Lin Fengxiang, "Our prime minister has gone to attack Mengcheng." ”

Hearing this sentence "We are prime ministers", Lin Fengxiang, the deputy prime minister of Tianguan, was slightly stunned, this is the first time he has heard such a title in the Taiping Army. And the direction of the local official is a little different than that of Prime Minister Li Kaifang, "When did Prime Minister Wei leave?" ”

The brigade commander replied: "We left early yesterday morning, and we have captured the city of Xia Cai on the opposite side. Now our prime minister is going to Mengcheng, and leaving his subordinates behind is to welcome the three prime ministers across the river. ”

Now that Wei Ze has arranged all the work, Lin Fengxiang has no reason to refuse. Wei Ze is not in Shouzhou City, and Lin Fengxiang has no plans to enter Shouzhou. The troops began to cross the river after eating. Four people could walk side by side on the two rows of pontoon bridges, plus some ships were not suitable for transporting the baggage of the pontoon bridges, and it only took more than a day for more than 20,000 troops to cross the Huai River and go straight to Mengcheng.

On May 28, Lin Fengxiang rushed to the outside of Mengcheng and saw Wei Ze's troops already under the city to greet him from a distance. Li Kaifang couldn't help but sigh, "I know that Wei Ze has always dared to fight tough battles, although there were people who did internal response when he captured Shouzhou, but he really dared to fight Shouzhou." The city wall is really extraordinary. ”

Lin Fengxiang knew that Li Kaifang still had something to say, among the generals of the Taiping Army, Wei Ze was only twenty years old this year, and he was an extremely young general. Compared to this already quite startling age, the overall impression of Weeser is even more bizarre.

The other generals all fought with the king of the south, the king of the west, and the king of the east, such as Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, as well as Ji Wenyuan, the deputy minister of the Chunguan, all of whom were killed with one shot with Xiao Chaogui, the king of the west. And Wei Ze was nominally subordinate to Xiao Chaogui, the king of the West, but Wei Ze has always led an army to fight alone, which started when he was in Yong'an City. And Wei Ze's troops have also grown from more than 20 people at the beginning, and with more and more achievements, there are now more than 10,000 people.

Judging by the expansion of troops, Weese's troops are not very fast. However, in the expansion of other troops in the central government, a large part of the process was that some people defected to the central government of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and finally the central government arranged it uniformly, and finally transferred it to the lower head team.

Wei Ze's subordinates all defected directly to Wei Ze, and then they were integrated by Wei Ze. Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang have now also experienced this feeling of co-optation. When they came out of Yangzhou, they met many hungry people on the way. In order to make ends meet, the hungry people joined the army. The number of troops of the two increased considerably. However, when these people joined, the troops' marching was much lower. At least compared with Wei Ze's non-stop progress and the ability to arrange the march of Lin Fengxiang and other follow-up marching troops, Lin Fengxiang's troops were indeed not fast enough.

Wei Ze didn't say anything politely, and when he received Lin Fengxiang, Wei Ze said directly: "Three prime ministers, I got the news that the Qing Demon in Fengyang and Huaiyuan came over. I can only lead the way to Mengcheng for the three of them, and then I have to lead the troops back to Shouzhou. ”

No matter what attitude Li Kaifang and the others had, Lin Fengxiang replied: "It's been hard work on the way, Brother Wei. If I had known this, it would have been better to ask the King of the East that this Northern Expedition would have led the way with Brother Wei, and my brother and I would be able to march all the way behind Brother Wei. That's a lot of fun. ”

Wei Ze smiled, "Brother Lin really likes to joke, my brother can only fight here, and he can't fight in the back." Brother Lin, goodbye brother, I wish Brother Lin all the way to Beijing! ”

There was no time to make any false tricks during the war, Wei Ze just spent a few minutes saying goodbye to Lin Fengxiang and the others, and then led his troops all the way south. If Shouzhou had not been captured, Wei Ze might have been satisfied with his Jiangbei defense line based in Luzhou in central Anhui. However, now that Shouzhou has been captured, Wei Ze has unconsciously decided that Shouzhou cannot be given up lightly. Just after capturing Shouzhou, he took a trip around the city, and Wei Ze understood that if he retreated so lightly, it would be extremely difficult to take Shouzhou in the future.

There was a large road from Mengcheng to Shouzhou, and Wei Ze's troops marched all the way. During the break, Lei Hu, who came with him, couldn't help but ask Wei Ze, "Prime Minister, I think you are too good to Lin Fengxiang." In fact, if we just send them across the Huai River, why should we be like their vanguard officers and attack the city all the way? ”

Wei Ze shook his head, "If you think about it from another angle, with Lin Fengxiang's Northern Expedition, the attention of the Qing Demon is attracted by the Northern Expeditionary Army, where do they still have the kung fu to deal with us." At this time, we need to recruit troops quickly, and everyone needs to be asked first. Whether it's bandits and hooligans, or outcasts, grass counds. Now get these people to defend the city first. Once we have completed the system of paying taxes on grain and set up the military service system, the rest of the matter will be much easier. ”

"It's easy to recruit displaced people, but it's not easy for them to defend the city!" After this toss, Lei Hu also felt a little scared in his heart, "We have all hit Shouchun now, and at this time Fengyang is in the north, and at this time we have to turn around and deal with Lu'an in the south." After taking Lu'an, we can fight to the north and west. Besides, the boat on the Huai River is too small. Compare with our division ships in the Yangtze River...... Alas! ”

"Can the Huai River be compared with the Yangtze River?" Ke Gongyu smiled dryly, "Lei Hu, your joke is not funny at all. ”

Wei Ze smiled bitterly, there were some things he really couldn't say. When he arrived in Shouzhou City this time, Wei Ze remembered the events of the Three Kingdoms. At that time, why did Cao Cao and Sun Quan spend so much effort in order to compete for Luzhou (Hefei), because there was a small canal from Shouchun in that era to communicate which two rivers God knows. At that time, he could get on a boat from Shouchun and take a boat from the Huai River all the way to the Yangtze River.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the canal between the Huai River and the Yangtze River determined that both Cao Cao and Sun Quan wanted to get control of the canal. In order for Cao Cao to farm in the vast area between Xuchang and Shouchun, he had to defend Hefei. Sun Quan failed to seize Hefei, so he could only go to Hubei and Jiangdong to farm, and life in the Yangtze River basin was also very difficult.

Wei Ze just knew that there was such a thing, and now that he had captured Luzhou (Hefei) and Shouchun, Wei Ze really couldn't help but want to figure out if this ancient small canal could still be used. If it works, Weese can use the waterway. After all, Wei Ze did not have a strong naval force, and if he wanted to compete with the Qing army in Hongze Lake in eastern Anhui, it was really beyond Wei Ze's ability.

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