Jiang Zhongyuan didn't like Li Hongzhang very much. In the capital, the reason why everyone is proud to be able to make friends with Jiang Zhongyuan is because Jiang Zhongyuan is a very righteous person by nature. This kind of righteous behavior was not reached by Jiang Zhongyuan after judging the merits and disadvantages, but Jiang Zhongyuan was such a person, and he believed that he had the obligation to maintain the social moral system of loyalty.

Li Hongzhang is very smart, and everything he does is judged. After making various judgments about things, Li Hongzhang will choose the most beneficial way to deal with it. And Jiang Zhongyuan is not only a righteous person, but also a smart and free person, so he can understand Li Hongzhang very well for people who are not responsible. And I don't like this kind of person very much.

From the perspective of Jiang Zhongyuan's personal interests, he reminded the governor of Jiangsu, Gil Hang'a, during the Taiping army's attack on Hongze, and asked Gil Hang'a to make preparations. Moreover, the reason why Jiang Zhongyuan was unable to hold back the Taiping Army in Anhui was completely because Jiang Zhongyuan's strength was insufficient. Unable to maintain Manchu rule north of the Huai River, Jiang Zhongyuan had done everything he could.

Xianfeng allowed Jiang Zhongyuan to establish the Huai Army, and Jiang Zhongyuan also did his best to establish a Huai army of more than 14,000 people north of the Huai River. It was only south of the Huai River that there were at least 60,000 Taiping troops. And Wei Ze's troops had just annihilated more than 12,000 people in the Hechun Division. This kind of powerful field combat capability is simply not something that the Huai army can resist.

At this time, if Jiang Zhongyuan was a person who considered himself as the highest priority, he would definitely think like Li Hongzhang, thinking that it was a good thing for the main force of the Taiping Army to attack Jiangsu. But even if Jiang Zhongyuan knew that he should do this and think so, he would not accept that he thought so and did so. This is the difference between him and Li Hongzhang.

But a smart person like Li Hongzhang, he will never be rash. Even if he saw He Chun's disgusted and disdainful expression, even if he saw Jiang Zhongyuan's disagreeing appearance, Li Hongzhang was still able to insist on himself. Because Li Hongzhang believes that in this world, only strength determines the outcome of things.

Whether the Taiping Army is called the Cantonese bandits, or the Taiping Army is called the Cantonese bandits. Whether it is to call Wei Ze a bandit, or to make Wei Ze a giant. It doesn't matter. The current reality is that if Wei Ze led the 60,000 Taiping troops south of the Huai River to cross the small ditch of the Huai River and go north, Suzhou City, which only had 14,000 people, would not be able to hold it.

In order to support Jiangsu and extinguish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing Dynasty had no choice but to recruit more troops, train more elites, and adopt more advanced weapons. So after arriving at Jiang Zhongyuan, Li Hongzhang put all his energy on this. Jiang Zhongyuan was in charge of the conscription, and Li Hongzhang was in charge of training and weapons. Wang Qinian, who can make flint guns, only took the initiative to come out after Li Hongzhang made an example. After the new musket is popularized in the Huai army, the combat effectiveness of the Huai army will naturally be greatly improved.

Of course, Li Hongzhang is well aware of Jiang Zhongyuan's personality of being able to disregard his own life for the sake of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, and Li Hongzhang is very disagreeable with China's approach. If you can't even save your own life, then what can you do to be loyal to the monarch and love the country?

Therefore, Li Hongzhang, no matter how Jiang Zhongyuan boiled his patriotic mood of loyalty to the monarch, directly threw out a very real problem. "Jiang Gong, the Cantonese bandits have begun to send a small force to the north of the Huai River. These teams entered the villages and towns north of the Huai River and demanded that the local people pay them grain this year. The Cantonese bandits posted lists in villages and towns, saying that if the local people paid them all the grain and taxes, they would send troops to protect the people there, and would never let the people of the imperial court go to their villages and towns. ”

He Chun is not a fool, someone impeached He Chun for accepting bribes from the Taiping army when he was in Changsha City, so he connived at the Taiping army to escape. Admiral Hechun wrote a deafening sentence on the fold of his self-defense, "Kou is not afraid of the official army, and Anken bribes him?" ”

As soon as he heard Li Hongzhang's words, He Chun understood what Li Hongzhang meant. Admiral Hechun looked at Li Hongzhang with more contempt than disgust.

However, Li Hongzhang, as a genuine jinshi in the second and thirteenth ranks, didn't care about this look at all. He continued to pour cold water on Jiang Zhongyuan, trying to make Jiang Zhongyuan calm down and look at the problem.

"Jiang Gong, we have passed the list north of the Huai River, and let the local gentry form their own local regimental exercises. If you can kill the Cantonese bandits, you can use the heads of the Cantonese bandits to receive the reward. There is a place called Sunjia Town north of the Huai River, and the local gentry formed a regimental exercise. Originally, we made an agreement with them that once the Cantonese bandits attacked the localities, the local authorities would first resist them, and the officers and troops would immediately go to annihilate the Cantonese bandits. But the Cantonese bandits were sharp, and the Sun family's house was breached in less than half a day, and the Cantonese bandits entered the Sun family, and the entire Sun family was killed. All property was plundered. The Cantonese bandits spread the news north of the Huai River, saying that whoever dared to cooperate with the government again would end up with the Sun family. ”

Li Hongzhang was born as a Jinshi, and his father Li Wenan was not only a Jinshi, but also a Langzhong in the Criminal Department. With family heritage and personal experience, Li Hongzhang has a good understanding of the operation of the central government and is more sensitive to tax matters. He reported on the main points. Jiang Zhongyuan was not allowed to be moved.

Jiang Zhongyuan frowned, he and Wei Ze are also old acquaintances, everyone has fought in Guangxi and Hunan, and they are "close neighbors" in Anhui. Thanks to Wei Ze's efforts, the dignified governor of Anhui now only commands ten counties north of the Huai River. If Wei Ze is allowed to infiltrate north of the Huai River, I am afraid that it will not be long before Jiang Zhongyuan, the governor of Anhui, will not be able to gain a foothold in Anhui.

"Jiang Gong, what should I do?" After Li Hongzhang finished reporting the situation, he asked in a desperate tone.

Jiang Zhongyuan didn't know what to do, and when Wei Ze had not yet fully hit the Huai River, there were also some villages and towns south of the Huai River that paid taxes to the Manchu Qing. At that time, Wei Ze's troops played this hand south of the Huai River, and the Taiping army always wiped out anyone who dared to hold regimental exercises to resist the Taiping army. Land confiscation.

Later, the Taiping army even played the trick of encircling the point to send reinforcements. They set up an ambush and then pretended to besiege the villages and towns south of the Huai River. Qing reinforcements crossed the river to rescue, but were annihilated after encountering ambushes by the Taiping army. The Taiping army took the captives and brought them to the resisting villages and towns, beheaded the captured officers and soldiers in public, and then exterminated and slaughtered those who refused to surrender. After doing this more than a dozen times, the villages and towns south of the Huai River no longer dared to trust the officials and soldiers, and paid grain and taxes to the Taiping army. Moreover, those landlords and gentry were not stupid to give their lives to the officials and soldiers. The power of the government was quickly cleared from the south of the Huai River.

In fact, there is no need for Li Hongzhang to remind him, Jiang Zhongyuan knows very well that he really can't afford to play a decisive battle with Wei Ze with the more than 10,000 people at hand.

"Assign Huai Yong to ...... now" Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't say anything about this, and what could he do if he was assigned to the locality. Fighting for villages and towns in a-for-tat battle with the Taiping Army? In those years, the grain paid by a village or town could not support many soldiers. If measures were taken to protect the monarchs in the villages and towns threatened by the Taiping army, the officials and soldiers would probably consume more grain than they received. And dispersing these soldiers is tantamount to putting pieces of good fat on the mouths of the Taiping army. The Taiping army had a strong ability to attack fortifications, and they could suddenly cross the Huai River at any time and besiege the Qing army stationed in a certain village or town with heavy troops.

Thinking of this, Jiang Zhongyuan felt a kind of despair in his chest, and the passion for trying to go to Jiangsu's aid was gone. Where is his opponent Wei Ze is a bandit, this person uses soldiers to govern the people more like an official army. If Jiang Zhongyuan could not reverse the problem of insufficient troops and weak combat effectiveness, he could not find a way to defeat Wei Ze.

Seeing Jiang Zhongyuan's appearance, Li Hongzhang hurriedly seized the opportunity to admonish, "Gong Jiang, even if the flint gun is not as good as the musket of the Yue bandits for the time being, the flint gun is far superior to the musket in our current army. As Admiral Chun said, not everyone of the Cantonese bandits is using the muskets used by the elite Cantonese bandits under Wei Ze, and many of the Cantonese bandits use the same muskets as ours. We don't want to fight to the death with the Shu Yue bandits now, we will build weapons, recruit men and horses, and train the Huai army. After these are ready, there will naturally be a chance to eliminate the Shu Yue bandits. Jiang Gong, if you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools! ”

Of course, Jiang Zhongyuan knew this, but he could just ignore the fact that the Taiping army had infiltrated north of the Huai River. So after thinking for a while, Jiang Zhongyuan ordered: "If you go to Wen again, you can't let the villages and towns north of the Huai River pay grain and taxes to the Taiping Army." ”

"Jiang Gong, since the Taiping Army sent people to cross the Huai River, I might as well send people to cross the Huai River." Li Hongzhang said tentatively.

"Oh......" Jiang Zhongyuan didn't have any special interest in Li Hongzhang's construction. What can you do after crossing the Huai River? Attack the city occupied by the Taipings, and then send them to their deaths?

Li Hongzhang continued: "After we crossed the Huai River, we killed the bandits in various villages and towns. As long as the people's hearts can be shaken, the life of the Cantonese bandits will not be easy. ”

After listening to Li Hongzhang's construction, Jiang Zhongyuan's eyes widened. Two words popped up in his mind, "Lack of virtue!" ”

It was the government itself that was unable to defend Anhui and was driven north of the Huai River. If the official army did not fight the Cantonese bandits after crossing the Huai River, they killed the people south of the Huai River in the name of the bandits. What is that officer? I'm afraid it's worse than bandits.

However, Li Hongzhang didn't feel that there was anything wrong with him doing this, and he continued: "Jiang Gong, if we don't do this, the Cantonese bandits will definitely be able to collect grain and taxes south of the Huai River this year. If the south of the Huai River has not seen the official army for three years, then the south of the Huai River is still the place of the Qing Dynasty? Although there are not many of them, there will definitely be gentry who are deluded with ghosts and will come out to defect to the Cantonese bandits. If the Cantonese bandits are allowed to take root south of the Huai River, we will be sorry for the court and the people. ”

There are different rhetorical whitewashes, and Li Hongzhang has different conclusions about what he did. At least according to the theory put forward by Li Hongzhang, it is possible to explain Li Hongzhang's actions. And in a sense, Li Hongzhang didn't talk nonsense. If the current situation is followed, the Qing army will no longer have a sense of zài on the south bank of the Huai River.

Jiang Zhongyuan finally came up with a compromise plan and sent troops across the Huai River, but did not kill people on the south bank of the Huai River. Just kill the people sent by the Taiping army in the villages and towns on the south bank of the Huai River.

As for the Taiping Army's conquest ......of Jiangsu, Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't help but admit it, and he could only stare at it now.

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