On the playground of the instructor of the Xuzhou Military Region, a group of comrades were shouting slogans of cheering. During the new-style gun truck exercise, four groups of artillery crews were running wildly with the gun trucks on the undulating ground. It was a 3,000-meter long test, with no horses to pull it and it was pulled entirely by people. Each set of nearly two-ton artillery trucks was dragged by eight artillery fighters and ran at a high speed.

Everyone was sweating profusely, everyone was moving forward bravely, and the shouts on the sidelines were also higher and higher. Lei Hu sat steadily on the viewing platform, with an excited expression on his face. The gun carriage has new bearings and solid tires, and the car is as light as if it is about to fly. In the past ten years, the artillery of the Liberation Army has undergone great changes, in the past, it could only transport light artillery, and after imitating the European artillery carriages, some medium artillery could barely catch up with the normal march of the infantry. The artillery that is now being tested is much more powerful than the previous medium guns, and the speed of the march is able to catch up with even the rapid march. In the face of the incomparably strong city walls of Nanjing, there is no way for such artillery. None of the walls of the four northern provinces could resist the onslaught of these new artillery.

Eight warriors were able to catch up with the speed of a rapid march by dragging a sports cart, and if they were pulled by two horses under normal conditions, the body would save even more. Lei Hu was both happy and unhappy in his heart, if these artillery pieces could be sent to the troops earlier, instead of being temporarily transferred before this kind of big war, the tactical arrangements of the troops could have more changes.

But after thinking about it, it is impossible for Lei Hu to accuse the Military Commission of not being thoughtful enough, and the Military Commission had already sent artillery before the war. There are finally guns to grind, and if you really don't give a new sports car, won't Lei Hu still have to use the old "backward weapons".

The troops have a good overall evaluation of the new gun carriage, but the new bearings are a little squeamish, and the damage rate is a bit too high under more extreme actions. Especially when you need to stop and fight, if you want to keep the bearing from the strong recoil, you have to take a bracket to support it, which adds several shelling steps at once.

In the face of this criticism, Lei Hu's answer was simple, "Where are there so many good things for both." If you think the bearing is squeamish, you will use the old one. If you want to use the new one, you should practice the new steps and arrange them. ”

By the time Lei Hu finished inspecting the artillery, the latest information arrived at the headquarters. Miao Peilin of Shandong actually played the banner of the King of Qi of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this person at both ends of the first rat became a Manchu official, and killed Zuo Zongtang's Chu army, and later returned to cooperate with the Manchu Qing to deal with the Twist Army, and now seeing that the situation of the Manchu Qing is not good, he has set up a banner against the Qing Dynasty. In fact, these practices did not have the slightest impact on the Guangfu Army, and Miao Peilin at least did not have the courage to attack the Guangfu Army. But there is still a lot of scolding in the Xuzhou Military Region Headquarters, and everyone doesn't have the slightest good impression of the repeated villain.

The commander of the military region, Jian Yì, said: "Political commissar, anyway, we want to liberate the four provinces, let's just kill Miao Peilin." It's this kind of bastard, if we beat him, no one will really save him. ”

As soon as this construction was announced, there was immediately a voice of approval in the military region headquarters. What's more, a disgusting guy like Miao Peilin turned out to be the "King of Qi" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and this situation belongs to the situation of "tolerable or unbearable". The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also went to the hospital when he was sick, and it was clear that he wanted to provoke and stimulate the Liberation Army.

The party committee of the Xuzhou Military Region was excited, and Lei Hu could only send a telegram to the Military Commission, requesting that the Xuzhou Military Region go north to annihilate Miao Peilin's headquarters.

"You can't raise troops out of anger!" Weeser was quick to call back.

After receiving the telegram, Lei Hu breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. Although Lei Hu said this kind of thing at the party committee meeting, the comrades were not convinced. As a last resort, he sent a telegram to the central government, and out of confidence in Wei Ze, Lei Hu believed that Wei Ze would make a wise choice. Now that Wei Ze has spoken, the situation in the Xuzhou Military Region has also stabilized for the time being.

In Heze, not far from Xuzhou, Lai Wenguang, the commander-in-chief of the Twist Army, was very unhappy. He objected to Hong Xiuquan's recognition of Miao Peilin's "King of Qi". This is not because of jealousy, Lai Wenguang has a very low evaluation of Hong Xiuquan's approach. Li Hongzhang took Luoyang's guide zhì and the army was cut off from Shaanxi, but there was no need to use the title of "King of Qi" to openly express ill will towards Wei Ze.

Twist Jun doesn't believe Miao Peilin at all, after this guy betrayed the Manchu Qing Dynasty twice and three times, he betrayed Twist Army twice and three times, and he believes that he is a ghost. In that case, why should he offend Wei Ze because of a guy who has no value.

Hong Xiuquan said in a letter to Lai Wenguang that doing so would lead the Guangfu Army to attack Miao Peilin. Once the Liberation Army entered Shandong, it would attract the attention of the Manchus. This kind of calculation made Lai Wenguang feel quite ridiculous, even if the Guangfu Army really entered Shandong to fight, it meant that the powerful Guangfu Army wiped out all the enemies in Shandong in one fell swoop, and the Taiping Army was only afraid that it was also an enemy in the eyes of the Guangfu Army.

But at this time, Lai Wenguang could only put this problem down after making such a judgment, and in the latest news, a force of more than 2,000 people was wiped out by Seng Lingqin. The general headquarters of the Twist Army was very depressed.

"Lord Wang, where are we going?" Zhang Zongyu raised the question.

The Hunan army pursued the twisted army like taking the wrong medicine. Coordinating with the Hunan army was the Mongolian Eight Banners of Seng Greenqin, who did not chase after him or follow him. It was the Hunan army that followed the Twist army, and Seng Lingqin adopted parallel tactics, and they kept a distance of thirty or forty miles from the Twist army and advanced in parallel. There is only one purpose for this action, which will prevent the Twisters from adopting the tactics of splitting and attacking as before.

The Twist Army was preparing to divide its troops in Yuzhou, but the Mongolian Eight Banners of Seng Lingqin swooped up, and they did not attack the main force of the Twist Army, but annihilated a divided army nearby. Having suffered such losses, the Twist Army had to regroup. According to the current development, if you go west, you can only take a small road and retreat into Shaanxi.

Lai Wenguang pondered for a while before proposing to retreat westward. Before Zhang Zongyu could answer, Ren Zhu objected, "King Lai, my brothers and I want to take revenge now, if we retreat to Shaanxi, when will we be able to fight back?" ”

The generals of the Twist Army also mean the same thing, "The Guangfu Army has now taken Sichuan and Kangding, and it can hit the northwest in a turn." We went to Shaanxi, but I was afraid that the king would not let us come out again. When and what month can we avenge our family? ”

Lai Wenguang didn't expect the opposition to be so strong, and there were problems in Twist Jun's words that Lai Wenguang couldn't help but pay attention to, and Twist Jun seemed to be very resistant to directly obeying Hong Xiuquan's command.

"Brothers, if you want to take revenge, you have to leave your life first." Lai Wenguang said.

And the generals of the Twist Army did not seem to be interested in this, and everyone's response was not fierce, and some of the generals of the Twist Army even proposed to simply fight back to the construction of Wuyang.

Lai Wenguang's efforts to persuade the leaders of the Twist Army had no effect, and none of the Twist generals supported the plan to retreat into Shaanxi. As a last resort, Lai Wenguang could only consider moving eastward into northern Shandong.

After the meeting, Zhang Zongyu, Ren Zhu and other generals of the Twist Army secretly held a small meeting. Zhang Zongyu said with a gloomy face: "Brothers, after all, King Lai is a person from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not a person from our army. At this time, he was still thinking about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he was still thinking about King Hong. The thoughts of our brothers are not what King Lai really wants to hear. It is absolutely impossible to retreat into Shaanxi! ”

The other generals of the Twist Army nodded one after another, most of them were from Anhui and Shandong, fighting in Henan and Shandong, near the generals' hometowns. traveled thousands of miles to Shaanxi, and entered the Taiping Army's one-third of an acre. At that time, everyone had to listen to the command of others, which was not something that the heroes of the twisted army could accept.

Ren Zhu asked, "What are Brother Zhang's plans?" ”

"Who is the Taiping Army most afraid of now?" Zhang Zongyu asked.

The generals really didn't think about this question, they looked at each other, and slowly had an answer in their hearts.

Zhang Zongyu said: "What the Taiping Army is most afraid of now is the Liberation Army. When they were in Nanjing, they were wrong about Wei Ze, the king of Qi, and killed Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east. Wei Ze, the king of Qi, marched north to Nanjing, and the Taiping army had no way to live. However, Wei Ze, the king of Qi, was righteous enough to let the Taiping army go. I heard that Wei Ze, the king of Qi, said that as long as the Taiping army gave up Nanjing, he would not destroy the Taiping army. Only then did the Taiping army run to the north. If Wei Ze, the king of Qi, really wants to destroy the Taiping Army, where is there still a matter of the Taiping Army now. ”

The generals of the Twist Army also know a little bit about this story, but compared with the Taiping Army, the Guangfu Army is more indifferent to the Twist Army, so everyone doesn't care much about it. Zhang Zongyu is raising this question now, and all the generals of the Twist Army feel that Zhang Zongyu must have something to say.

Ren Zhu said: "Brother Zhang, the brothers can trust you, if you have any way, just say it, and the brothers will sum it up." ”

Zhang Zongyu looked at the brothers who looked at him with expectant eyes, he gritted his teeth, plucked up the courage and said: "If the brothers really want to go back to their hometown, then they can only see if the Guangfu Army wants us." If the Liberation Army wants us, we no longer have to run east and west, but only go south and return to our hometown when the Liberation Army goes north. At that time, not only can we take revenge, but we also don't have to work hard for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. ”

Most of the generals of the army did not expect that Zhang Zongyu was ready to betray the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and switch to Wei Ze after laughing at Miao Peilin's capriciousness.

Everyone is a person who walks the rivers and lakes, and this is really not authentic.

No one agreed, and no one objected. Everyone was silent for a while, and finally someone asked: "The Liberation Army dealt with us more than ten years ago, and they haven't contacted us for more than ten years, and we don't know what people think!" ”

Zhang Zongyu was not so pessimistic, he said: "Relatives will be estranged if they don't come and go often, and if the Guangfu Army doesn't come to us, we will go to find the Guangfu Army." What do you think? ”

The generals could only agree to do so for the time being. Seeing that everyone basically had a common idea, Zhang Zongyu said with a straight face: "I'll put it in my head, everyone is a brother, I'm sorry that the brother's thing can't be done." If there are brothers who want to follow King Lai and want to follow the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, we can't control it. As long as we can fight back to the vortex, we will die in our hometown. If there are brothers who don't want to do this, then don't spoil the brothers' affairs! ”R1058