Pan Er and Chen Zhankui encountered a rout on the way to aid Lujiagang with the left battalion, and Han Xiufeng, who rushed to Hongshan in front of them, was not idle.

Jin Guochen, who was in charge of receiving them, heard that the left base of Luxiang was tight, and heard that Lord Hu had even sent all the personal guards, so he didn't care to accompany Han Xiufeng to meet Lord Hu, so he led Han Xiufeng, Liu Shanyang and Chen Tianru to lead the Eastern Sichuan Regiment Lianzuo Battalion and the Firearms Regiment of the Baojia Bureau to Luxiang.

I didn't know before the battle, and I was surprised.

The Xiangyong stationed here suffered heavy casualties, the corpses could not be buried, the wounded soldiers could be seen everywhere, and there were less than 200 soldiers who could fight. Li Xubin, the prefect of Anqing, who was also given the title of Brave for his civilian duties, not only personally supervised the battle, but was also wounded.

Han Xiufeng didn't care about greeting him, observed the terrain, and found that their camp was collapsed by Changmao with artillery, but the trench was dug remarkably, not only very deep and wide, but also inside and outside, and immediately ordered Chen Tianru and Zhang Biao to take over the defense of the left battalion of the Hunan army, which suffered heavy casualties.

I don't know if the long hair in the city found that there are a lot of flags here, a lot of reinforcements came, only sent three or four hundred thieves to try the feint, the firearms regiment put five or six rounds of guns and beat it back, the left battalion just added the mountain splitting cannon and the loaded bird gun to raise the gun and had no chance to fire, and the knife player and the long haired hand had nothing to do, Liu Shanyang learned some medical skills from Fei Erye on the way back to Ba County from the capital, and simply led them to treat the injured from Xiangyong.

Li Xubin, like Luo Zenan, who has been martyred, is a veteran of the Hunan army, and he has experienced a hundred battles, and he has always regarded himself very highly. In terms of leading troops to fight, he even looked down on Zeng Guofan, so he didn't have much hope for Han Xiufeng and the Eastern Sichuan regiment led by Han Xiufeng like Jin Guochen before.

Then the half day that had just passed made him really eye-opening to Han Xiufeng and the reinforcements of less than five hundred people brought by Han Xiufeng.

The left battalion had shotguns, carrying guns, and mountain splitting cannons, and the troops were neat and morale was high. And most of them are from Huguang, no different from the Hunan army.

There are not many people in the firearms regiment, but all of them are mobile guns!

Those Tuan Yong who made foreign guns were obviously all veterans, not only accurate in shooting, but also skillful in loading, Li Xubin even felt that relying on the deep trench, just one firearms regiment could hold Lu Xiang.

Seeing that Changmao didn't dare to attack again, Li Xubin couldn't help but ask: "Brother Han, where did you buy these foreign guns for your subordinates?" ”

Han Xiufeng was also tired of standing, and he didn't care about how dirty the trench was, so he sat down and said with a smile: "Since it is a foreigner, it is naturally bought from a foreigner." ”

"How do foreigners sell it, how much silver is a pole?"

"Two hundred taels and one stroke."

"So expensive, alas...... That is, you Sichuan can afford it. ”

"If the ninth brother doesn't know, although Sichuan has not been disturbed by the long hair, it is not as rich as you think. Since the rebellion of the long-haired criminals, he has to help the provinces with food and wages every year. The treasurer treasury was empty, and the people were even more overwhelmed. If it weren't for the generosity of the merchants of the eight provinces in Ba County, how could they have the extra money to buy these foreign guns. ”

Thinking that Sichuan has produced so much money and food in the past few years to suppress the bandits, and even the food and salary of his brothers in the past two months have been provided by Sichuan Xieji, Li Xubin was embarrassed to say this, but said again and again: "Brother Han, I was patronizing the enemy just now, and I forgot to tell you something. ”

"What's the matter?"

"Qian Junchen, do you recognize it?"

"Recognize, what's wrong with him?"

He ...... Yesterday, he was ordered by Lord Hu to lead the young men he recruited from his hometown to rush to the aid of Little Turtle Mountain, although he repelled the long hair who went to attack Little Turtle Mountain, but he also suffered more than a dozen wounds, and more than half of his brothers were killed or wounded. ”

"Is he seriously injured?" Han Xiufeng asked eagerly.

"The injury is not light, Lord Hu has sent someone to send him to Hanyang for treatment." Li Xubin paused, and said meaningfully: "I don't know if he is seeking benevolence and benevolence, or whether he is close to Zhu and red and black to ink." ”

"Brother Rujiu, where did you start with this?"

"Brother Han, you won't know anything about his past and what happened to him later, right? It can be said that he came back from Yichang with a certain heart of death, in order to serve in the army, in order to avenge his wife and children, he knelt in front of Lord Hu's tent for a day and a night. Later, I followed Bao Chao, Brother Bao Chao, you should have heard that every time he fights, he is the first soldier, so he is close to Zhu and red and black to ink. ”

Han Xiufeng nodded slightly and didn't say anything more.

Li Xubin didn't know what Han Xiufeng was thinking, so he simply got up and said, "Brother Han, I see that your subordinates are all good at fighting, and there is nothing to worry about here, or I will accompany you to the camp to meet Master Hu." ”

"Okay, there is Lao Ru Ninth Brother."

……

took four regiments and followed Li Xubin to the Hongshan camp where the sun had set.

Hu Linyi had already heard that Han Xiufeng had not only arrived, but even helped guard Lu Lane, and specially asked the cook to set up a table of banquets to wash the dust for Han Xiufeng.

Han Xiufeng was really a little flattered, and sat down after a polite gesture before saying, "Lord Zhongcheng is so gracious, Xiufeng is ashamed." ”

"Brother, what are you talking about?" Hu Linyi picked up his wine glass and sighed: "It's not a secret, I didn't expect my brother to come, let alone my brother to come so quickly." ”

Compared with Li Xubin, Han Xiufeng was more willing to deal with the governor in front of him.

It is not because Hu Linyi is a big official, but because Hu Linyi is not only not pedantic, but even used to be a "gentleman", it is said that when he was in the capital, he did not look for flowers and ask willows, once he met the Yamen of the Bujun to check the night, and was caught by those Qiu Ba, because he did not dare to show his identity and suffered a lot, and even because a friend who went to visit the kiln at that time saw that the situation was not good, he hid, and did not "share the joys and sorrows" with them who were caught, and broke off his friendship with that friend.

Later, he even pooled money to donate to the prefect, and the dignified Hanlin official spent money to donate to the official, which is said to have attracted criticism at that time, but now it has become a beautiful talk.

Because of this, Han Xiufeng felt that he was a lover, and couldn't help but smile and asked, "Why did the adults say this?" ”

"You are worrying about the system, even if you don't obey the emperor, you won't be punished."

"That being said, Xiufeng is deeply favored by the emperor, how dare he not obey the edict."

Hu Linyi was very curious about Han Xiufeng, the former general secretary of the Department of Justice, who was born as a donor, stared at him and asked with a smile: "Then what is the next plan for the old brother?" ”

"Adults are really good at laughing, Xiufeng was ordered to lead the eastern Sichuan regiment to come here to listen to it, what the adults ordered Xiufeng to do, Xiufeng will do it, how can there be other plans."

"Brother, aren't you afraid that these subordinates sent by this official will take the lead?"

"Xiufeng is afraid, Xiufeng is really afraid that he will not be able to explain to Jiangdong's father in the future. But Xiufeng is here, and Xiufeng is neither familiar with thieves nor the terrain, who else can he listen to if he doesn't listen to Lord Zhongcheng's orders. ”

The more Han Xiufeng was so honest, the more suspicious Hu Linyi became.

Because he has heard friends in Beijing mention Han Xiufeng in his letters in the past two years, not only does he know that Han Xiufeng has been impeached by Han Zhan Kedao more than once, but he even knows that Han Xiufeng is really a "protégé of the Son of Heaven", otherwise the emperor would never ignore the admonition of the imperial historian and order Han Xiufeng to walk extra on the military plane Zhang Jing with the name of Zhang Jing.

When the official is the governor, he understands better than anyone that sometimes the size of the official position is no longer important, what matters is who is closer to the emperor and who can talk to the emperor! For example, Su Shun is neither a scholar nor a minister of military aircraft, but he is equally powerful.

Thinking that many ministers in the DPRK and China were prejudiced against him and even the Hunan army, Hu Linyi felt more and more that it was not so simple for the emperor to order Han Xiufeng to lead the eastern Sichuan regiment to train to come to help, maybe it was both to come to help and to defend, in case "the tail is too big to fall".

Just thinking about how to work with the former general secretary in front of him in the future, Han Xiufeng suddenly arched his hand and said: "My lord just said why Xiufeng came so quickly, it is because Xiufeng was ordered to supervise the group training in eastern Sichuan, and he happened to inspect Wushan, and helped the adult to transport tens of thousands of taels of silver along the way. ”

"I see."

"Actually, that's not what Xiufeng wants to say."

"What does the brother want to say?"

"There is one thing that Xiufeng didn't have time to report to the adults, the food and ordnance of the thousand regiments brought by Xiufeng were generously donated by the gentry and merchants of eastern Sichuan. When running the group, the gentry and merchants in eastern Sichuan made an agreement with Xiufeng for three chapters, only in eastern Sichuan to protect the territory and the people, and not to go out of the province or even to help the officials and soldiers suppress the bandits and quell the chaos. Therefore, Xiufeng wanted to implore the adults to let them go back when they repelled the enemy in front of them. ”

Hu Linyi thought he had heard it wrong, and he paused for a while before he smiled and said: "My brother wants to retire successfully, even if the official agrees, the emperor will not approve it." ”

When Wushan was waiting for the edict, he received a letter from the Baxian branch of "Rishengchang", in which Wen Xiang said that the British and French envoys had requested the transfer of troops to their homeland, and it was a matter of time before those foreigners went to war with the Qing Dynasty. And once a foreigner starts a war with the Qing Dynasty, the emperor will order him to go to Guangdong or Shanghai as soon as possible, Han Xiufeng couldn't help but smile bitterly: "The emperor will be gracious." ”

"So my brother doesn't want to play in Hubei?"

"As the saying goes, it's good to enjoy the shade under the big tree, and you can serve under the command of adults, Xiufeng can't ask for it, but the emperor won't let it."

The more Hu Linyi thought about it, the more strange he felt, and he didn't know what to say, when a friend walked into the big tent, smiled and arched his hand: "Lord Yuzhongcheng, Master Jiang Yili and Jiang urgently report, at noon today, Shi Dakai did not attack my Lujiagang camp in six ways, and two of them actually went around the side of the camp, and fled in a hurry after being repulsed. As a result, I met the left battalion of the eastern Sichuan regiment who went to help, and was attacked by the middle battalion brothers who were pursued by the eastern Sichuan regiment Yong and me......"

Han Xiufeng was surprised and subconsciously asked: "Dare to ask this gentleman, how much did my brother in the left battalion of the eastern Sichuan regiment lose?" ”

"Lord Han, if the battle report sent by Master Jiang is correct, then the casualties in this battle are negligible."

"That's a human life, how can it be ignored?"

"Master Han, the battle report said that no one died in the battle, only a dozen brothers were injured, but I don't know if the injuries were serious."

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