Li Hongzhang's accurate judgment of the situation on all sides, his skillful operation, and resolute and resolute action took the intelligence department of the Liberation Army by surprise. After the shocking feeling of such a talent appeared on the part of the corrupt and degenerate Manchu Qing Dynasty, a strong vigilance followed.

For several years, the Liberation Army did not immediately move north, and one of the cornerstones of this strategic judgment was the belief that the Manchus would continue to decline. This is an easy conclusion to agree with, and it is in line with the actual situation. The strategic change brought about by Li Hongzhang's capture of Luoyang made it possible for the Manchus to stop the great blood loss.

The intelligence department sorted out the latest news and sent it to Nanjing. But they didn't know that Wei Ze was not in Nanjing at this time, but in Hubei. After inspecting Guangdong, Wei Ze and his family returned to Wuhan by train, from which they took a boat upstream. Just in time for the blasting of the pile. The pile is a thousand-year-old landscape, and it is also a roadblock of the Yangtze River that has devoured countless lives, and after having rubber and glass, it is natural to make diving suits, and the engineers wear a full set of equipment, with a plumb sinker around their waists, and take a photo with Wei Ze before going into the water with a long gas supply pipe.

Looking at these rather terrifying equipment, even a person like Zuo Zongtang who didn't believe in ghosts and gods couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, are you going to change your feng shui?" ”

"Change Feng Shui?" Wei Ze was stunned for a moment, and after a few moments, he understood what Zuo Zongtang meant, "Comrade Zuo Zongtang, our Guangfu Party is a materialist political party, and we don't believe in ghosts and gods. If you can change feng shui just by blowing up a pile of mounds, this feng shui is too worthless. Isn't it good to blow up the pile so that our ships can go straight to Sichuan, and there are fewer shipwrecks every year? ”

"This thousand-year-old landscape ......" Zuo Zongtang still felt very uncomfortable.

Wei Ze himself has never seen what the real pile looks like, so he naturally has no feelings for this landscape, "Is the thousand-year-old landscape important, or is human life important?" Besides, blowing up the pile may let the people of Sichuan know that our new government has such ability, and can increase the people's trust in the new government. No matter how you look at it, I don't think there is any need to keep this pile. And we have taken so many photos, future generations want to see the pile, you can look at the photos. ”

After two consecutive days of blasting, this boulder that had threatened the Yangtze River shipping route for thousands of years was no longer visible. The flag was unfurled on the high mast of a warship of more than 3,000 tons, and this was the first time in Chinese history that a ship had sailed upriver along the Jiangxin channel at this location.

Wei Ze didn't really take a boat upriver to reach the splendid city in Chengdu, he changed ships and went east after disembarking at the White Emperor City. In ten days, he traveled from the Yangtze River to Lingnan, then from Lingnan to Sichuan, and then from Sichuan back to Changsha. Zuo Zongtang felt that he understood Zhuang Zhou a little, in the end, Zuo Zongtang had the dream of flying across Guanshan? Or is Zuo Zongtang in someone else's dream of flying across the mountain? It's really hard to describe.

When he arrived in Changsha, Wei Ze handed over Zuo Zongtang to the Organization Department when he met with the Hunan Provincial Party Committee. Zuo Zongtang's identity is neither a general nor a civilian official. Rather, he is a probationary member of the Liberation Party who has worked in the Central Committee. This identity is very intriguing, regardless of Zuo Zongtang's background, his work experience and prospective party membership are destined to make Zuo Zongtang a key training object, not to mention the candidate recommended by Wei Ze.

arranged Zuo Zongtang's affairs, and Wei Ze continued to go east by boat. When Li Hongzhang's "great achievements" reached Wei Ze, he was in Hubei to discuss work with comrades of the provincial party committee. After reading the introduction of flying to Luoyang, Wei Ze said with a smile: "I don't know if this is Li Hongzhang's www.biquge.info or Li Hongzhang's end." ”

The comrades of the Military Commission are not so easy, if Luoyang is still in the hands of the Taiping Army, and after half a year and a year, the Northern Expedition will be a melee. The Manchus and the Taiping soldiers fought like dogs, and the battle would be much easier. The current situation is that the Taiping army is concerned about the Guangfu army in Sichuan, and if the Manchu Qing are once again stabilized in the four provinces, the pressure on the Northern Expedition may be even greater.

"Governor, if the Manchu Qing stabilize their position, our Northern Expedition may encounter more trouble." Hu Chenghe said everyone's opinions.

Wei Ze said with the usual smile: "The Manchu Qing Dynasty is now at the threshold of running out of oil, and a little change can't change the situation. If Li Hongzhang didn't stabilize the situation, maybe the Manchus would still have some spirits. Once there is a chance to **, the Manchus will only collapse faster. The dynasty has accumulated disadvantages for a hundred years, where can it be so simple to prosper. ”

"What are the governors going to do?" Hu Chenghe asked.

Wei Ze asked: "I don't know if the use of six armies can solve the four provinces?" Without any changes in the budget, I think that the use of a total of six armies for half a year of combat is already the limit. No matter how big it is, we will have to get the Treasury to act. ”

"Six armies?" Hu Chenghe was a little surprised. The six armies are more than 100,000 people, and with the addition of the engineering troops, railway troops, and the military industrial departments of semi-military units, the Guangfu Army is now a genuine soldier of one million. 100,000 troops is really not a particularly large number.

Wei Ze misunderstood what Hu Chenghe meant, he thought that Hu Chenghe felt that the scale was still relatively large, he said: "Let Anhui and Xuzhou each send two armies, relying on the reserves of the troops, it can't be fought in half a year, and it should still be able to hold on in four months." ”

The transfer of the four armies was not a problem, and Hu Chenghe asked, "Who is in charge?" ”

"How am I commanding this campaign?" Weser laughed.

Hu Chenghe immediately objected: "Dudu, use a knife to kill chickens?" I think it's okay to let Lei Hu command, if the governor is not at ease, I will personally sit in Xuzhou. ”

Wei Ze only felt that he really wanted to command the battle in person again, and the Northern Expedition was not difficult. But Hu Chenghe opposed, and Wei Ze could only back down.

Hu Chenghe immediately issued an order, and when Wei Ze and the others returned to Nanjing, the staff had already come up with a battle plan. The first was three months of pre-war training and recuperation. The troops on the front line of the Huai River have not fought a major battle in recent years, and they have spent a lot of time on various civilian projects. Three months of training and recuperation is very necessary.

Moreover, the General Staff did not simply want to use the army, and the navy also came into play when attacking Beijing and Tianjin. After breaking through to the Bohai Sea, they could directly land and attack Tianjin, and then raid Beijing. The foreign devils have done this, and there is no reason for the recovery army to give up such an offensive mode.

Of course, these are all things that can be discussed. The first battle before the Northern Expedition of the Liberation Army was in the economic field. Representatives of the Navy and the Ministry of Finance came to report to Weeser. When the Guangfu Army was in Hunan, because the army was doing business, it led to a meaningless battle defeat. Since then, it has been an iron rule that the military should not interfere in business. Although the economic bloodsucking of the Manchus was a naval escort, all contacts were made by the Ministry of Finance.

The Ministry of Finance is quite optimistic about the current economic situation in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. "Your Majesty, Beijing has seen a double depletion of silver, copper, coins and materials. The prices of goods in the market seem reasonable, but not much business is done. The Manchus mainly bought from us a large number of goods and luxuries they needed at far lower prices. ”

After saying this, the Ministry of Finance couldn't help but sigh: "After all, it is more than a hundred years of family background, if we are in such a situation, I am afraid that we will not be able to come up with so much money for a long time." But Manqing simply relied on himself to hold on. There are still three pounds of nails in the broken ship, which is really not a lie. ”

Weeser did not comment on this, and the Manchu atmosphere was dying until 1912, and it is only 1867 now. "From now on, we're going to stop buying and selling," he said. The Manchus left themselves to solve the problem. ”

"Your Majesty, if our Liberation Army cuts off this trade pipeline, the Manchu economic circle centered on Beijing will collapse immediately." The people in the Ministry of Finance are also from military backgrounds, referring to the Ministry of Finance, and the available words still can't help but use the Liberation Army.

Weser shook his head, "It's impossible. The Manchus had a hard time, and they only increased their plundering from the localities. The problem with the Manchus was that they were so inefficient that they had to pay a much higher price in order to plunder enough supplies. Why did the Manchus prefer to endure the loss of hard currency than take the initiative to interrupt trade with us? Collecting and transporting food and supplies was a huge expense, and the Manchu court was not so confused that this kind of trade could solve their problems. ”

"Really?" The comrades in the Ministry of Finance were able to understand Weese's words, but they did not quite agree with Weese's words.

"In that case, we will first cut off trade, and tell the embassies of Britain, France, and other countries in the north that we will start a war and demand that they completely withdraw north of the Huai River. If they have to stay there, there's no way we can keep them safe. Weeser ordered.

After saying this, Wei Ze suddenly remembered something, and he asked Foreign Minister Zuo Zhidan, who participated in the meeting, "I heard that the United States is discussing the purchase of Alaska, and I remember that you sued me." ”

Zuo Zhidan originally just came to attend the meeting as an observer to see if there was anything related to diplomacy. Informing foreigners to withdraw from the north of the Huai River is not a big deal, but it is the job of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have an excuse to attend, but simply accepts orders, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will inevitably lose face. Unexpectedly, Wei Ze asked this question, and Zuo Zhidan immediately replied: "There is indeed such a thing. ”

Russia was afraid that Britain would take Alaska, so it simply sold this hot potato. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs often talks to people from various countries and exchanges information. This kind of information is a simple nonsense.

"Then you go and sue the Americans, the people in Alaska are also Chinese, and we have control over that land." But now if we have a big fight with Russia, we will spend more money. So if we can let the United States buy on our behalf, we can pay some handling fees to the United States. Weeser gave the order.

Zuo Zhidan didn't understand what this meant, and Wei Ze didn't explain it immediately, he said: "If we can't use such peaceful means, we can only publicly declare that the land is Chinese." At that time, the United States couldn't even get a fee! ”

R640