Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang are exactly the same, they are both remote control command battles, Zuo Zongtang entrusted the heavy responsibility of the front line to Liu Jintang, Liu Jintang is known as Zhou Yu of the lupine scarf, can be described as a military wizard, deeply loved by the Qing Dynasty soldiers, for the battle of the Hui army, Zuo Zongtang can sit back and relax.

However, Li Hongzhang had not yet made up his mind, the organization of the war in Taiwan was somewhat disorganized, and the Qing Dynasty had several armies fighting in Taiwan, but there was no unified deployment, and instead of giving full play to the advantage of having a large number of troops and a wide range of generals, Li Hongzhang had retreated into military fortresses and allowed the Japanese army to sweep the ethnic minority areas in the east and west of Taiwan everywhere.

During his tenure, there was constant friction between the Taiwan garrison and Taiwan's ethnic minorities, resulting in the establishment of exclusive associations among Taiwan's ethnic minorities, and the relationship between Taiwan's Fanbang and the Qing Dynasty fell to a freezing point. Failing to carry forward the noble character of spending money on etiquette, the Qing court did not do a good job of educating people, which caused a rift between the Qing Dynasty and Taiwan's Fanbang.

Taiwan's Fanbang actually said that the Qing Dynasty did not talk about credit, it was really a dog biting Lu Dongbin who didn't know the hearts of good people. The Qing government sent supplies and materials to Taiwan every year, and only asked the Taiwanese people to pay a little cane sugar, which was really a dog eating their conscience.

Liu Mingdeng only sent a telegram to the imperial court, asking for reinforcements to support Taiwan, and constantly stated that the Japanese army had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and the Qing army could only hold on to it, as if it were holding a strategic place, which was the greatest merit. Liu Mingdeng did not dare to engage the Japanese army, and when the contact battle began, he resorted to the tactic of shrinking, and the main force of the 2,000 Qing army was stuck in Keelung Harbor.

However, several military ministers have already made an analysis that Taiwan's land is barren and the people are poor, the population is sparse, and the grain cannot be self-sufficient, and it is only by relying on Fujian and Guangdong that the 4,000 garrisons of the Qing Dynasty can be stationed in Taiwan and Penghu.

If the Japanese army dispatched tens of thousands of people, how much manpower and material resources would it have to spend to transport grain and grass? Little Japan is short and thin, even if a person's basic ration is half a catty, 10,000 people is 5,000 catties of grain, and a month is 150,000 catties of grain, and 150,000 catties of grain must be transported to Taiwan from the Japanese mainland or the Ryukyu Islands. The war also has staggering losses, transporting 150,000 catties of grain, at least 200,000 catties of grain, or even more, this logistical pressure will collapse the Japanese army. Therefore, the Japanese army will never send 10,000 people at a time, and still believe in the intelligence of the British, and the Japanese army has reached the limit of Japan's military strength by dispatching 3,000 men and horses.

If the Japanese army had dispatched tens of thousands of horses, it would not have been used to attack the land of life, and it would have already broken through Taiwan Prefecture and hit Keelung Port. The Japanese army only retaliated bloody against the Paiwan people and stormed the territory of the Paiwan people, and the Japanese army adopted the principle of mutual non-aggression against other ethnic minorities, but instead resorted to sugar-coated shells to buy the hearts and minds of Taiwan's ethnic minorities.

Li Hongzhang did not believe that the Japanese had such a bold amount and dared to start a war against the Qing Dynasty. The national power of the Qing Dynasty was far above that of Japan, and until now the Japanese have not admitted to violating the territory of the Qing Dynasty. In the initial stage of the war, the Japanese army used the pretext that Taiwan's minority areas could be used as Japanese colonies to wage war against Taiwan's ethnic minorities.

But even if the vanguard of the Japanese army is only 3,000 people, it is not easy to fight for the Qing army, the Japanese army is a modern and equipped army, and the Qing army is scattered in various military fortresses, with backward weapons and equipment, and weak military strength.

The goal of the Japanese invasion of Taiwan was not to occupy the whole of Taiwan in one go, but to occupy a deep-water port as the first goal, that is, to establish a bridgehead at Langqiao to build a military fortress, which was the primary strategic goal. This is similar to the initial stages of Western colonial rule, when the colonists established themselves in a military fortress and then expanded outward, during which they were able to live in harmony with the local minorities under the guise of commercial trade. Some of the mercenary indigenous people thought that trading with the colonizers would be profitable. When the colonizers were fully fledged, the indigenous people had nothing but the fate of being slaughtered.

In the Ming Dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea, and the Japanese army built military fortresses everywhere after landing in Korea, which made the Japanese army defeated by the Ming army, and then made strategic adjustments, sticking to the military fortresses on the east coast of Korea, so that the Ming army could not move, and the two armies could only confront each other. After two years of Sino-Japanese war in Korea, the Japanese army could not support the war because it could not afford financial resources, and the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi caused the Japanese army to withdraw from Korea.

If the Japanese army is allowed to establish a bridgehead in Langqiao and establish a huge military base, the Japanese army will attack the Qing army's garrison. At that time, the Japanese will have another statement, saying: "It was the Qing army that fired first, and the Japanese army was forced to defend itself and counterattack." "How can this kind of ghostly trick blind the eyes of the world? Therefore, Li Hongzhang would never allow the Japanese army to gain a firm foothold in Taiwan, and sent his most powerful trump card, "Li Guolou," to the island of Taiwan.

Li Hongzhang quite appreciated Li Guolou's proposition of "promoting peace through war." War is the means, and peace is the fundamental. If you don't have the courage to fight, no amount of troops will be useless. The severity of Japan's military law is beyond human imagination. The Japanese army is a modern army trained by following the example of its greatest enemy, Qi Jiguang. Qi Jiguang's "New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness" and "The Actual Record of Military Training" became reference books for the Japanese army's military training, and the Japanese army learned from the enemy's strengths and trained an iron army with excellent technology and ideology, so that the Japanese army was not afraid of death, dared to be weak and strong, and small countries dared to invade the territory of the Qing Dynasty.

Li Hongzhang raised his eyes and looked into the distance, the sky and water were connected to a line, gulls and birds were hovering in front of the boat, and several mosquito boats were guarding on the side. Thinking of the eighteen mosquito boats funded by Li Guolou, Li Hongzhang showed a relieved expression on his face. Li Guolou has a strategic vision, and the dispatch of this mosquito ship is very convenient, and it can set off anytime and anywhere, and can fight at any time. Even if a few mosquito boats are lost, for the Beiyang Naval Division, they can afford to lose. Li Guolou's vision is unique, the wolf pack tactics can completely fight with the Japanese army's ironclad monsters, and it is not known who will kill the deer? Even if the mosquito boat is defeated, it can escape back to the harbor, and the advantage of speed allows the mosquito ship to advance and retreat freely.

Japan is an island country, and in the past 100 years, the Japanese navy has not been ravaged by the Western powers, and the number of wooden warships is huge, so it has surpassed the Qing Dynasty in the number of warships. The Japanese Navy had four cruisers, the number of battleships is unknown, and some of the battleships were built by Japan itself, so the Qing army did not know how many Japanese battleships there were. Japan's steel industry is weak, and the materials used in battleships and frigates are mainly clad iron, that is, the vital parts of the hull are wrapped with steel. The main body of the hull structure is still a wooden structure, which is not much different from the ships of the Qing Dynasty.

The four cruisers were obsolete warships of the United States, and the United States suffered huge losses in national strength due to the Civil War, so the four obsolete cruisers were sold. It was these four cruisers that the Japanese army relied on to invade Taiwan without fear. The Qing Dynasty had only two cruisers, and in terms of high-end weapons, the Qing Dynasty was also lagging behind Japan. The only place where the Japanese naval division was superior was that the Qing Dynasty had twenty mosquito boats that imitated the British gunboats, and the Great Qingshui Division had a slight advantage in the speed of the warships.

The two cruisers of the Qing Dynasty were old warships bought from the British, and the two 10,000-ton cruisers ordered by Li Hongzhang from Prussia were not yet completed and were still being built in the Prussian shipyards. Li Hongzhang would not use his family resources for naval warfare, that is, the two cruisers would not take the initiative to engage the Japanese navy. The main goal of the Qing Dynasty's naval division was to protect the water routes from Mawei Port to Keelung Port and Penghu Luer Port, and the two cruisers of the Qing Dynasty would not take the initiative to attack unless they had to.

Similarly, it is doubtful that the Japanese had the courage to throw four cruisers into one campaign? Because the Japanese cruisers are actually the level of battleships, the tonnage does not exceed 3,500 tons, the Japanese cruisers have a small tonnage and slow speed, Japan boasts that it has four cruisers, but in fact, the warships that really dominate the sea are still old-fashioned two- or three-story wooden ships, and the shells are still mainly solid shells, and the flowering shells are imported from the United States in limited quantities.

The reason why the Qing army had only 4,000 soldiers and horses in Taiwan and Penghu in the past 100 years, but did not take the road of expanding the army, was because Taiwan was very desolate and not suitable for stationing a large number of troops. As the master, the Qing army was not yet able to garrison a large number of troops in Taiwan. Taiwan's geographical conditions have constrained the Japanese army, so that the Japanese army does not dare to rashly invest tens of thousands of troops, and under the condition that there is no agricultural foundation, it is impossible for the enemy to use a large number of troops. You must know that the Japanese army invaded and occupied the Ryukyus, and it only took 500 Japanese troops to occupy the Ryukyus without bloodshed. Although the 3,000 Japanese troops were not able to occupy the entire island of Taiwan, they were able to occupy a corner and build a military fortress.

Defeating the vanguard of the Japanese army was also difficult for Li Hongzhang, because the Japanese navy had the upper hand, and the naval battle had not been fought, and Li Hongzhang was already stage frightened. The Qing army has the upper hand, but there is a lack of generals to command the army, only Liu Mingchuan and Li Guolou have passed the test of blood and fire, enough to undertake the great responsibility, with these two tiger generals sitting in Taiwan, Li Hongzhang has enough confidence to fight with the Japanese army.

Li Hongzhang thought about it and looked at the current map in his hand, the current map of the four seasons of the year, it can be seen that Li Guolou is thoughtful and fully capable of the role of commander, which is more reassuring than Liu Mingchuan.

As for Liu Mingdeng, the chief soldier of Taiwan Town? If it weren't for the military spirit of the Taiwan garrison, he would have taken down Liu Mingdeng now, and this reckless man would have been returned to Zuo Zongtang, so that Liu Mingdeng could go to the northwest to exert his residual heat. Li Hongzhang made the most important decision in his life, and Li Guolou was the supreme commander in the war on the island of Taiwan, and Liu Mingchuan and Liu Mingdeng were at the disposal of the great general Li Guolou, and asked Li Guolou to be given the title of "Zhenhai Jingkou General", and I believe that the two empress dowagers were very happy to make Li Guolou a general. With Shen Baozhen in charge of the Penghu Islands and Luer Port in Penghu, the supply lines of the Qing army in Taiwan will not be broken, and the logistics and transportation will be handed over to Shen Baozhen. After the two armies fought, we would see him and the Japanese fighting wits and courage, and the long-sleeved and dancing iron-blooded Prime Minister of the East dominated the negotiation table.

Li Hongzhang stood on the deck, holding three strands of beard, with the image of a worldly master with fairy wind and bones. In the Qing Dynasty, there have been no Han generals for more than 100 years, and the most famous is the "Fuyuan General" Nian Qianyao, but unfortunately this person was given to death by Emperor Yongzheng. The successor, Yue Zhongqi, the general of Ning Yuan, was almost beheaded by Emperor Qianlong, but fortunately ended up with a good death.

Thinking of the completely different fates of the two generals, Li Hongzhang smiled slyly, how is Li Guolou's creation? Just take a look at the bumpy life of the emperor's uncle Dorgon. After Dolgon's death, he was first posthumously honored as Emperor Cheng Zongyi, and then was posthumously accused of treason by Emperor Shunzhi, and his descendants were unlucky. There is no doubt that Li Guolou's future fate will also turn into a tragedy. However, at this time, it was the time to employ people, and Li Hongzhang believed that Emperor Tongzhi would not do anything that went against the wishes of the empress dowager of the two palaces, and was happy to crown Li Guolou as "General Zhenhai Jingkou".

The army is afraid of changing generals in battle, which will lose the morale of the army. Do things rigorously and quickly, and after thinking clearly, you need to put them into practice. Li Hongzhang made up his mind, and immediately sent a telegram to Prince Gong, explaining the idea of sealing Li Guolou.

Li Hongzhang wrote in the telegram: "Li Guolou is loyal to the country, good at using troops, has experienced the baptism of the battles of Shenfengling and Weishanhu, and has become very familiar with mountain warfare and water warfare. The most commendable thing is that Li Guolou is good at mobilizing the enthusiasm of the local people to participate in the war, and has all the qualities of a commander. Surprisingly decisive, each battle first, the strategy is excellent, the opportunity is appropriate, and the sutra is more than qualified. At present, the war in Taiwan is rotten, and various departments are not subordinate to each other, forming a pattern of fighting their own battles, and the war situation does not allow for optimism, and a senior general with prestige must be under unified command. Li Guolou's expedition to Taiwan is what everyone is looking forward to. Therefore, I asked for the title of Li Guolou as the post of 'General Jingkou of Zhenhai', the prime minister of Taiwan's infantry and horses, and the head of the naval division. ”

Of course, Li Hongzhang's trick has an ulterior purpose, and it is a bit hasty to crown Li Guolou with the title of general. The soldiers and horses given to Li Guolou were added up to several soldiers and horses, but tens of thousands of horses and horses were far from reaching the grand occasion of the general's response. This is to comfort the heart of the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces, so that the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces can worry more about the war in Taiwan, and give him enough time to calmly deal with various crises in Mawei Port.

Li Hongzhang finished sending the telegram on the front foot, and before Prince Gong could call back, Fan Shirun on the back foot took Li Hongzhang's telegram and went to Li Guolou to say hello.

Li Guolou was on another ship, and Fan Run was on a mosquito boat, climbing the cable of the hull, and it took a lot of effort to board the ship. Li Guolou also thought that Runse was an example of delivering the latest military order, but he didn't expect it to be a letter of appointment. Seeing Li Hongzhang grant him the command of the war in Taiwan, Li Guolou was too shocked, and before he arrived at Mawei Port, Li Hongzhang made up his mind to use him, not Liu Mingchuan, which was a great joy for him, and he could finally plan the war in Taiwan according to his ideas. As for the big hat of "General Zhenhai Jingkou", Li Guolou smiled and didn't take it seriously.

"Thank you Fan Junshi for my kind words, I will definitely recover the lost territory in Taiwan, you can see. However, the official hat of 'General Zhenhai Jingkou' is too big, and I will never accept it, isn't this depriving me of military power? Now that the scenery is over, after the war is over, let me go home and farm. Master Fan went back and said to Master Fu Xiang, I am not stupid, I rise fast and fall faster, I am still me, let me lead the fleet to sea, I will never live up to the trust of Lord Fu Xiang. Li Guolou saw through Li Hongzhang's trick and accepted the heavy responsibility, but he didn't want to be vain.

Fan Run's laughter and said, "Well, it's a good thing that young people are willing to work down-to-earth." Since Li Guolou is still Li Guolou, and he is willing to be a chief military officer in the Xinwu Army, I think he can learn the military system of the Song Dynasty, and the chief military officer of Shuangzhen is also indispensable. ”

Li Guolou came to his senses when he heard this, this is what he wanted, and clapped his hands and said: "It's still Fan Junshi, please go and tell Master Fu Xiang, Baoding Military Academy will also be handed over to me, and the ideological work of the army will be handed over to me in the future." I will definitely play the song of triumph again, and the glory will be to Master Fu Xiang. ”

Li Guolou handed Fan Xianrun a codebook, and said embarrassedly: "Fan Junshi, this is the codebook for the transmission of messages between me and Liu Liumazi, this codebook will be used until the end of June, and this codebook shall prevail when I call Master Fu Xiang in the future." ”

"Good! I'll say it for you, I hope the codebook you wrote is better than the codebook written by Hongjun, the secretary of the ministry. Fan Xianrun looked at Li Guolou in surprise, the ambitious Li Guolou regarded the military academy as more important than the chief military officer of a town, and he was really old-fashioned in his work, and he had his own principles for dealing with the world.

Li Guolou smiled slightly, he didn't belittle Hong Jun, he was almost sixty years old, how could he have a flexible and wise mind. Fan Xianrun carefully put the dictionary-thick codebook into his pocket, climbed down from the cable of the hull, and went to Li Hongzhang to return to his life. Li Guolou is too cunning, he is the master who does not see rabbits and does not scatter eagles, and only now will he hand over the secret code book to the public. It is not easy to deal with Li Guolou, Li Guolou is a god of the criminal department, and he kills people invisibly. Fan Xianrun in front of Li Guolou, he didn't dare to rely on the old and sell the old, for fear that if he said something wrong, Li Guolou would hate him all his life, and he also wanted his children and grandchildren to climb the big tree of Li Guolou.