Guan Zhuofan stood on the dock, glanced at the group of officials behind him, and then looked at the "William Matt" who was slowly berthing, and was overwhelmed with emotion.

Half a year ago, it was this ship that sent Xuanjun from Wuchang to Shanghai, and it was Wu Xu who led a group of officials to meet him on the dock. And now, he took Wu Xu and a group of officials to greet Li Hongzhang on the dock.

Of course, the momentum of the Huai army here was not the same as that of the 600 Xuan army that had just arrived at that time -- the 7,500 men were transported by nine foreign ships, which was already a fairly large army.

Fortunately, this time is different from the past, and the Xuan Army has also taken shape! Guan Zhuofan smiled and thought about it, he had a firm foothold, and he was short and long enough to compete with Li Hongzhang. To put it mildly, if the war starts now, the Xuan army will probably be able to push the more than 7,000 Huai troops to Jiangxin.

However, it is naturally not yet time to fight in the same room.

As for how to get along with Li Hongzhang, Guan Zhuofan has thought about it repeatedly for a long time, and he already has a set plan. On my part, it is to keep the division, recuperate, and wait for the time to move; As far as Li Hongzhang is concerned, it is necessary to withhold the eight words "desire to suppress the first and rise first, and to suppress in the promotion", so that he can not see through his ambitions, and he cannot let him sit big, so that he is powerless to check and balance.

People always need allies, Guan Zhuofan knows this very well. Although he has become famous, he is a guard inside, a heavy soldier outside, a curtain of the two palaces, and an Austrian aid from King Gong, but after all, he is only a twenty-three-year-old young man, and the time he has been rolling in the officialdom has only been a year, and his foundation is still shallow. I don't have the capital to make enemies on all sides. If you think you're okay with everything. I have it all over the world. That's going to be a big deal! What's more, the two major events at the moment also rely on "like-minded" people to do it together.

These two things, one is to pacify Hong Xiuquan's Taiping army as soon as possible, otherwise the civil strife will not go, the country's wealth will be exhausted, and other things will not be talked about at all; The other thing is to do foreign affairs, which requires several powerful people to share the same voice. Only by helping each other can we confront the conservative factions in the DPRK and China and in the localities and gradually do what they want to do.

On the other hand, among the so-called four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, Hu Linyi is dead, Zeng Guofan is old, Zuo Zongtang is too domineering, and he is used to being a hero and deceiving others, and sooner or later he will play himself to death, only Li Hongzhang. has both ability and skill. It's in the ascendant.

His Huai army is still a guest army, but his people have already arrived in Shanghai, and the edict that the imperial court has appointed him as the governor of Jiangsu is about to arrive - since he has won the feudal division, then the position of governor is naturally reserved for Li Hongzhang, and it will not be wrong.

As for Xue Huan, he was probably on the waterway from Nantong. Shanghai is a strong soldier, and he naturally wants to preside over the next military deployment. Thinking of this governor who was always on guard against himself and did not hesitate to make tricks behind his back, Guan Zhuofan sneered in his heart, and when the time came, it must be very interesting to look at the expression on his face.

The thick ropes on the William Matt had been dropped and tied to the piers of the pier, and the wide gangplanks had been erected. is different from Guan Zhuofan's low-key behavior, wearing casual clothes, and Zuihou's style of getting off the boat, but this time the first person to step off the springboard was a middle-aged man wearing a three-grade official uniform, with a long body and clear eyes - not Li Hongzhang, which one?

"Brother Shaoquan, the little brother is looking forward to it, and he has been waiting for a long time!" Guan Zhuofan clenched his fists. Although he had made sufficient preparations, when he saw this historical figure who had been famous for more than a hundred years for the first time, even if he had deliberately suppressed it, he couldn't help but have a trace of excitement on his face.

"Master Guan, I have also admired it for a long time." Li Hongzhang, who is about to be forty years old, has thick eyebrows and long eyes, has a very elegant demeanor, and returns the favor with a smile. He saw the expression on Guan Zhuofan's face in his eyes, and felt a little strange in his heart - this look was very sincere, but it didn't seem to be fake. "I just hate that I didn't see you, the young marshal who single-handedly supported the situation in Shanghai, earlier."

"Call me Yixuan. I don't dare to show off my little stuff in front of Brother Shaoquan. Guan Zhuofan's attitude is polite and affectionate, "Governor Zeng's body is still healthy, right?" ”

"My teacher is very tough." After Li Hongzhang finished speaking with a smile, he was introduced by Guan Zhuofan, and greeted the officials and gentry who greeted him on the dock, before turning around and greeting the several officers who got off the boat behind him: "You have come to see Lord Guan." ”

Those majestic military attachés signed up for themselves one by one, calling them "Xuan Shuai", and saluted Guan Zhuofan in turn.

Zhang Shusheng, Liu Mingchuan, Wu Changqing, Cheng Xueqi, Zhang Yuchun, Guo Songlin...... Guan Zhuofan watched them kneel in front of him one by one, and a sense of self-satisfaction suddenly rose in his heart - these are the generals of the future Huai Army, and the future Beiyang lineage also started from this, like Yuan Shikai, isn't it from this Wu Changqing's door?

Looking at the Huai soldiers who came down from the ship one after another, I felt a little surprised in my heart. These soldiers do not seem to be the habitual soldiers he imagined, their clothes are dark and old, and their spirits are not very high, and because many of them are new and brave, when they come to a prosperous place like Shanghai, there is still a bit of fear in their expressions, which is very different from the vigor of the pretentious soldiers when the Xuan army horse team first arrived in Shanghai.

Guan Zhuofan nodded secretly in his heart: This is the only way for Zeng Guofan to choose people! These simple and honest peasant children who can bear hardships and stand hard work, as long as they have fought one or two tough battles, will soon become a qualified army.

However, the gentry who greeted them at the dock did not think so. The officials are just that, those Shanghai gentry have long regarded the Xuan Army as a "child soldier", and they are used to seeing the Xuan Army's Western-style drill style on weekdays, but when they see the Huai Army at this moment, they have a lot of frowns -- where did this come from a group of people called Huazi?

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Li Hongzhang's camp, Guan Zhuofan has prepared it for him, it is in the Anhui Hall in the west of the city, and even the two large courtyards connected to it are coiled down together, which is very magnificent. It is enough to be used here as a temporary governor's yamen, Li Hongzhang naturally accepted his affection, but he expressed his humility and said where to use such a big place.

"Brother Shaoquan is a person who wants to make great achievements," Guan Zhuofan smiled, "It always has to be a bigger place to be able to show it." ”

This sentence sounds ordinary, but it seems to have a deep meaning, Li Hongzhang heard it, his heart moved, but his face refused to bring it out, and said: "When Huaijun first arrived in Shanghai, nothing has yet been settled, and everything depends on Yixuan's care." ”

This is asking about the arrangements for the Huai army's garrison. Li Hongzhang was originally ambitious and wanted to make the Huai Army famous in Shanghai, but who knew that because of Libin's obstruction, a contract was revised back and forth, and the ordnance could not be complete, so it was inexplicably delayed for three months before leaving, so that the Xuan army took the lead. Now the surroundings of Shanghai are all the defense areas of the Xuan Army, and Guan Zhuofan is still the highest official in Shanghai - the appointment of his own governor has not yet arrived, so he has to be aggrieved and listen to his arrangement. It doesn't matter where it is, let's let these 8,000 people have a place to settle down first.

Unexpectedly, Guan Zhuofan was unusually generous, saying that Shanghai's defense area was nothing more than the north and south lines, and asked Huaijun to pick one side by himself, and Xuanjun could let it out immediately.

"What's so embarrassing?" Li Hongzhang was overjoyed, but he couldn't help but make a polite excuse verbally, "In the end, it is the place where the Xuan army fought hard to recover." ”

"What is the difference between each other?" Guan Zhuofan shook his hand and said, "To be honest, the Huai Army is the foundation of the Hunan Army, and Brother Shaoquan is the successor of the mantle of Zeng Commander. ”

Li Hongzhang has always regarded himself as the protégé of Zeng Guofan, and when this sentence came to his heart, his perception of Guan Zhuofan became different.

It's not because of this flattery -- Li Hongzhang's scheming is deep, and it can't be moved by a fluttering sentence. What he thought was that he thought that this upstart under his banner was young and vigorous, and he had made great achievements, and he had newly sealed the position of lieutenant of the light car, and most of his eyes were going to grow to the top of his head.

Thinking about it, the matter of defending the land is not polite, Li Hongzhang thanked: "Since this is the case, it is difficult to be gracious, and the Huai army will defend the northern line." ”

He picked the northern line, but he didn't know that Guan Zhuofan had already expected him to pick the northern line.

The so-called southern line refers to the line from Songjiang to Pudong, facing Zhejiang, only defending, and there is little chance to go out of the province to attack Zhejiang. As the governor of Jiangsu, Li Hongzhang must have taken it as his responsibility to recover the entire territory of Jiangsu, and faced Suzhou Prefecture and Taicang Prefecture on the northern front, and his Huai army wanted to fight and make meritorious contributions, so he naturally had to make a fuss on the northern front.

"Okay, tomorrow the Xuan army will hand over the defense of the northern front." Guan Zhuofan nodded, "Jiading, Nanxiang and Baoshan all have ready-made barracks. I don't know where the grain platform of the Huai army is going to be located? Tomorrow I will bring another 300 tents from the Curry. ”

"It's so thoughtful, so gracious!" Li Hongzhang thanked him, "I plan to set up the grain station in Nanxiang, so that I can support it nearby." ”

"Okay, I'll transfer 3,000 stone meters from Qibao first, and in the future, I'll ask Qian Yunqiu from the Yamen of the Domain Division to contact Nanxiang. Is the number of the Huai army the current 8,000? ”

"There is also Pan Dingxin's third battalion, which came by land, and it will take about five or six days of work."

"In this case...... Guan Zhuofan pondered for a moment, and seemed to have made up his mind, "Brother Shaoquan, so that the Huai army has nearly 10,000 people, I still say the same - there must be a place to be able to show it." I think it's good to hand over the defense of Qingpu to the Huai Army, and Jiading can be each other's horns, one more echo. ”

This is another great gift, and Li Hongzhang can't help but thank him again. However, after thanking each other, I couldn't help but smile bitterly in my heart: This Guan Yixuan, everything is in front, and I can't open my mouth.

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(On Monday, ask for a recommendation ticket.) ）

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