(For those who don't know much about the geography of Jiangsu in the Qing Dynasty, you can refer to the "Geographical Map of the Suchang Campaign" in the related work.) ）

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What I didn't expect was that this inquiry revealed two pieces of news, one is that Li Hongzhang's Huai Army encountered trouble in Taicang Prefecture and has not opened up the situation for a long time, and the other is that the imperial court approved Li Hongzhang's twist and turn, and transferred Wu Xi to assist the Huai Army in military affairs, and his identity is to concurrently serve as the leader of the "Chang Shengjun".

The Taiping Army's guard general in Taicang was Cai Yuanlong, the "King of Hui", who once accompanied Li Xiucheng to encircle and annihilate 9,000 officers and troops in the Battle of Banqiao. He is not as cautious as Tan Shaoguang and Wu Guiwen, and he thinks that he is facing the Huai army again, and he can fight.

He was also very flexible in his style of play, not only defending Taicang City, but also sending several small troops, taking advantage of the advantages of being familiar with the terrain, constantly attacking the flanks and grain routes of the Huai army, and even sent a partial division of 3,000 people to cross Beiqi Mountain and go straight to attack Baoshan. Of course, Baoshan couldn't be defeated, but because of the momentum, this strategy to encircle Wei and save Zhao also brought a lot of trouble to the Huai army, and they were in a hurry for a while.

Another trouble lies in military salaries. In the battle of Shanghai, the Huai army suffered heavy losses in Taicang and Jiading, so Li Hongzhang took advantage of the interval to supplement and train a lot of new bravery, especially for Gordon's victorious army, and expanded the establishment of two battalions to six battalions of 3,000 people. In addition, it is necessary to urgently purchase all kinds of ordnance, and the cost is not small, and the military salary will inevitably be tight; some of the battalion leaders in the team that have been drawn this time have to owe one to three months' salaries, and the green battalion that accompanied the Huai army in its operations has long ago only been paid half of their salaries.

In this way, morale inevitably suffered. Progress has been slow. It was not until six days after the Xuan army occupied Kunshan. The Huai army can be regarded as hitting the city of Taicang.

As for the concert of Wu Xi as the leader of the Changsheng Army, and the army went to work, it is even more incomprehensible. Guan Zhuofan thought to himself, is it to ensure the smooth payment of salaries?

"Xuan Shuai, I think it's more than that." Liu Xunxuan frowned and said, "Li Shaoquan's mind is afraid that Xiang Zhuang is dancing the sword, and he is determined to be Peigong." No matter how you look at it, it looks like a ploy to divert the tiger from the mountain. ”

If Wu Xi is a "tiger", then the location of Shanghai Daotai is that "mountain". Guan Zhuofan thought that Liu Xunjiao's insight was very profound, and he pondered silently for a while, and said: "Let's wait and see if it gets better, and see what tricks you have to use in this old age." However, the Huai army is blocked in Taicang, but I can't wait for him in Kunshan - Mr. Liu, a general above the regimental officer, come to my Chinese army to come to the meeting! ”

The thrust of the meeting. It is necessary to discuss the next step of military action. Regarding the current predicament of the Huai army, most of the generals believed. This is a great opportunity.

"Boss, Huaijun is unreliable, we fight our own," Huaijun was deflated, which was the thing Daniel Zhang was most happy to see, he opened his arms, closed inward, made a gesture of embrace, and said excitedly, "Take Suzhou and eat it in one bite!" Tan Shaoguang Gao Yongkuan or something, they are all defeated generals of our Xuan army, and they are just frightened birds, I don't believe what waves they can make! ”

"Oh, you Daniel Zhang is good at learning, and you bring out idioms in your words." Guan Zhuofan smiled.

"This is all cultivated by the boss!"

"Well, well, I haven't cultivated you anything." Guan Zhuofan thought about Daniel Zhang's proposal for a while, and looked around at the others, "What do you mean?" ”

Among the various regimental officers, Iksang, Jiang De, and Wu Jianying were all eager to make meritorious contributions, and they all agreed with Daniel Zhang's words, only Forrest, shook his head, and said in blunt Chinese: "According to the intelligence, Changmao has 60,000 soldiers in the area of Suzhou." It's not that we can't fight, but we have to fight and attack the city, this, I think, can't be done, and the city wall of Suzhou is very thick and thick, and our strongest twelve-pounder cannon can't be broken. ”

"Yes, this shows a shortcoming of our Xuan Army." Guan Zhuofan nodded and said, "If you want to break through a city wall like Suzhou, you can only dig a tunnel and stuff gunpowder under it to blow it up." But if you want to dig tunnels, Long Hair will be, Huai Jun will also, but our Xuan Army, just won't. ”

Digging tunnels is definitely a craft, not something that can be done by people and tools. Among the Taiping Army, there were all miners from Guangxi, digging tunnels is a good job, with this trick, I don't know how many famous cities have been broken. The Huai Army was formed with the Hunan Army as the team, and also brought the method of digging tunnels from the Hunan Army. The Xuan army was good at field battles, and the siege of the city relied on artillery, and it was somewhat helpless to encounter such a strong city wall as Suzhou.

It can be seen the importance of sappers, Guan Zhuofan thought, but he can't talk about this at the moment.

"Forrest has a point, Suzhou won't fight it first, let's wait for Li Futai." Guan Zhuofan pointed to the map on the case and came to a conclusion, "Shijie, clean up the south of Suzhou first, and take down the two counties of Wujiang and Zhenze for me, so that when I fight Suzhou in the future, it will get in the way." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier who was guarding outside the hall came in with a piece of paper, handed it to Túrin, and whispered a few more words.

"Master, this is a telegram from Dianshan Lake." The telegraph line had not yet reached Kunshan, so the news from Shanghai could only be sent to the telegraph room at Dianshan Lake first, and then delivered by special cavalry. Tulin handed the paper in his hand to Guan Zhuofan: "Zhao Jingxian, Lord Zhao, said that I want to invite you back to Shanghai." ”

"Huh?" Guan Zhuofan had a sudden shock in his heart, he didn't know what was going on in Shanghai, and the generals in the room also looked at his face. When he opened the folded paper, he saw that his tightly knit brows gradually relaxed, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and his face became brighter.

"The Aspen fleet has sailed to Shanghai, and Li Taitai is anxious to see me." Guan Zhuofan raised his head, suppressed the smugness in his heart, and said lightly, "Our Xuanjun also has a water master." ”

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After two months of sailing, the eight warships of the Aspen fleet finally arrived in Shanghai on 19 November.

When the ship entered Wusong Port, it immediately caused a sensation in the concession, followed by Shanghai County, and then the entire Songjiang Prefecture. Zhao Jingxian, who was sitting in Shanghai for Guan Zhuofan, ordered the telegraph room to send a telegram to inform Guan Zhuofan in front of him, and flew to the imperial court. The residents of Shanghai, whether Chinese or foreigners, all go to Wusong in the name of "watching the ship" as long as they have leisure, and Ding Ruchang, who has been practicing on a US warship for nearly two months, is even more staring at this fleet every day, eager to immediately climb on the ship and "apply what he has learned."

The reason why this time it is so sensational is because this is the first real naval fleet in China's history.

"Are you kidding? Own gunboats! ”

Of course, the common people said so, but when Guan Zhuofan rushed back to Wusongkou two days later, he also felt this way in his heart.

It is difficult to say exactly when China's naval development began to stagnate. On this issue, the Manchu Dynasty certainly bears most of the responsibility, but in fact, since the end of Zheng He's voyage to the West and the accession of Ming Yingzong to the throne, it has stopped building large sea ships and completely closed the sea.

In the Ming Dynasty, generally speaking, the sea ban was still the mainstay, but in the early Qing Dynasty, the sea ban became stricter, stipulating that "if there is an illegal ship with a double mast of more than 500 stones, regardless of the officers and soldiers, the border guards will be sent to fill the army."

500 stones, only about 30 tons, so the big ship has been extinct ever since. In the 17th year of Shunzhi, the "Decree on Moving to the Sea" was promulgated, and all coastal residents from Bohai Bay to Guangdong were moved 30 miles inward, all ships were burned, and not an inch was allowed to be launched. Since then, although the ban has been occasionally relaxed, there are still many strict restrictions on sailing, such as one iron pot per boat, and only one iron axe per person.

These practices finally dealt a fatal blow to China's shipbuilding industry - like many other crafts, China's shipbuilding jishu has always relied only on the oral teaching of master and apprentice, and there are few written records. Especially the big ship, in the Ming Dynasty, it was still possible to build but not allowed to build, and in the later period of the Qing Dynasty, it was "even if you want to build it, you can't build it at all." ”

Unfortunately, China has not had the concept of coastal defense for a long time, and although it has had a "naval division" for a long time, the "naval division" is not a navy. In the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, there were "inland water divisions" that patrolled rivers and lakes and "outer sea divisions" that defended Haikou, captured pirates, and "patrolled salt". However, this "offshore naval division" has only one or two hundred broken wooden boats, and not only is it not a navy, but in fact it is not even qualified to serve as a coast guard. And the famous dispute between coastal defense and coastal defense will have to wait until more than ten years later.

In that case, it's no problem to buy it first! Guan Zhuofan's personal soldiers set up a guard on the dock, while he himself searched the fleet for his own "Jintai" and "Baiyue" ships, while waiting for Li Tai's arrival.

As everyone knows, Li Taitai was also eagerly waiting to see him, and received a notice on the flagship "Zhenwu", and immediately took the commander of the fleet, Xie Nad. Asben hurriedly walked down the gangway, and when he saw Guan Zhuofan who was smiling and staring at the pier, he stepped forward and held his hands, very happy.

"Yixuan!" Li Taitai said with a smile, "I heard that you have been promoted to the chief executive of Jiangsu Province, congratulations!" ”

It is true that the feudal secretary is the chief executive of a province, and Li Taitai's good impression of Guan Zhuofan comes from three aspects. First, he believes that Guan Zhuofan is fluent in English and proficient in foreign affairs, which is rare among Chinese officials. Second, in the matter of the Aspen fleet, Guan Zhuofan entrusted Libin to do the excerpt, which was an important factor in facilitating the fleet's trip. But even without the first two, there is a crucial third.

He received a heavy bribe of 5,000 taels of silver from Guan Zhuofan.

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(Three more, xiexie everyone.) ）

*(To be continued......)