The dinner of the Queen Mother was still uploaded on the "Champion", but Guan Zhuofan could not "accompany the dinner", and he had to attend a dinner to welcome the British advisers -- mainly to welcome Ke Liefu who had arrived from Lushun, and Hymanch and Bishop who had arrived from Fuzhou.

The rest of the high-ranking British advisers, senior Chinese and American naval officers, and senior generals of the Songjiang Army stationed in Tianjin were also invited to the banquet.

At noon, I also had a lot of food and drink, but it was called a "banquet", which was in the nature of a "working meal", not a formal "welcome dinner". Although when it comes to the ingredients and taste of the dishes, this "working meal" is really better than the "welcome dinner".

Cixi told Guan Zhuofan, "Go early and return early", and "don't drink too much".

Obey the order. However, ahem, just a few words, it's just ......

Guan Zhuofan really "went early and returned early".

After three rounds of drinking, he claimed that "the will is in the body, it is inconvenient to stay for a long time, everyone must have fun", told Ding Ruchang to greet good guests on his behalf, and hurriedly left.

This is just a ceremonial banquet, and it is impossible to "have fun," because the Chinese and foreign naval generals present here will go to sea early tomorrow morning to carry out the important task of "accompanying the Queen Mother" on a "parade." However, even so, Guan Zhuofan left a little too early.

No way, tonight, he has so much to do.

He was going to rush back to the "Champion", and the first person to meet was also the Queen Mother. However, it's not just for the royal sister's sentence: "What do you want, isn't there a ...... at night?"

When Guan Zhuofan returned to the "Champion", it was at the right time.

Cixi had taken off her military uniform. Changed back to cheongsam. Leisurely sipping tea.

Last time I stayed on a boat in the night. When he was still a teenager, his father died of illness, and he and his sister took a small canopy boat and returned to Beijing. Sichuan capital is shy, there is no loan, the wind is cold and the moon is cold, and the cold water is boundless. Thinking of the great disaster in the coming day, the sisters looked at each other with tears in their eyes, speechless and choked.

And now?

It's like a world away.

When Guan Zhuofan came in, holding a yellow box, Cixi glanced at his face, and said with a smile: "What, there is good news?" ”

Guan Zhuofan said with a smile: "The Queen Mother knows what she knows!" There is indeed good news: our army Dong Zhiyuan won a great victory, the whole territory of Qingyang Prefecture was restored, the door of Gansu was opened, and the road to Jinji Fort was entered. Unblocked! ”

Cixi couldn't help but be overjoyed: It is a matter of time before Dong Zhiyuan is taken. This was to be expected - not so soon!

Zuo Zongtang's excerpt of marching into Dong Zhiyuan was received when he was stationed in Shen Wanzhuang in Langfang on the way to Tianjin, and it has only been half a month so far. That is to say, this battle, from the beginning of the march to the complete victory, was fought in half a month!

*

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Dong Zhiyuan's shape shì was introduced above, which is a plateau in Longdong, belonging to Qingyang Mansion, with abundant local products and known as the "granary of Longdong". The Gansu Hui bandits were the most eastern, that is, the most close to Shaanxi, and the Shaanxi bandits who fled into Gansu merged and gathered in Dong Zhiyuan for food.

The center of the Gansu rebellion was in Jinjibao, Ma Hualong had been operating there for a long time, and the fortification was thorough, and if he wanted to attack Jinjibao, he had to attack from the north and south. Dong Zhiyuan was in the southeast of Jinjibao, which was the gateway for the middle route army of the Western Expeditionary Army, and was choking the main road of the official army to attack the south of Jinjibao. Therefore, if you want to attack Jinji Fort, you must first defeat Dong Zhiyuan.

Before the Central Route Army officially marched into Gansu, that is, when Zuo Zongtang paid tribute to the excerpt that Cixi received in Shen Wanzhuang, he had already made a lot of preliminary preparations for Dong Zhiyuan. In addition to clearing out the periphery and strictly blocking the road for the bandits to return to Shaanxi, Zuo Zongtang sent many meticulous and horse probes, vigorously strengthened the work of intelligence gathering, and carried out a powerful psychological war against Dong Zhiyuan's return to the bandits.

This psychological warfare was mainly to exaggerate the prestige of the officers and soldiers, especially to focus on the Xuanjun Zhan Donglu Department to talk about things, which caused great panic among Dong Zhiyuan's bandits.

The Shaanxi Hui bandits, who retreated to Gansu, have unforgettable memories of fear of the army in Western uniforms. Most of the Shaanxi bandits, thinking of those vigorous blue figures, are like seeing ghosts, hearing thunderbolts, and sifting chaff all over their bodies.

If they confront this army again, they don't believe that they have the ability to hold Dong Zhiyuan -- they can't stop the artillery of the Xuan army in Shaanxi, which is calmly operated and has deep ditches and high fortifications; Dong Zhiyuan's place, there is no danger to defend, hundreds of thousands of old and weak hungry people are huddled together, a hurry and chaos, most of the raw mouths, waiting for their breasts, just a burden, no combat power - this battle, how can it be fought?

Among the Hui bandits in Shaanxi, Bai Yanhu, the most fierce and cunning, also has this idea.

Where to go, among Dong Zhiyuan's bandit leaders, there were repeated refutations, and there was no agreement.

As explained above, Dong Zhiyuan's bandits are different from the other three major bandits in Gansu, and their forces are mixed, and none of them dominates the rest of the big leaders. The Gan bandits originally had no unified subordination, and the Shaanxi bandits joined in, and the regulations became more and more chaotic.

The bandits gathered Dong Zhiyuan, basically according to their original hometown, one nationality and one battalion, stationed in Dong Zhiyuan's villages and towns, known as the "Eighteen Battalions" to the outside world. Each battalion has a "marshal". These 18 "marshals" are of complete equal status -- one can imagine how lively the meeting can be.

Most of the Hui bandits in Shaanxi advocated retreating in the direction of Jinjibao and converging with the Mahualong bandits. However, Bai Yanhu is not included in this view.

Bai Yanhu can see it more clearly than most of his accomplices: Dong Zhiyuan's return to Jinjibao will not only not help Jinjibao, but will also form a strict burden - only a few can fight, most of the old and weak women and children will only consume food in vain, Jinjibao can barely survive on his own, if there are suddenly more than ten or two hundred thousand mouths, how can he withstand it?

During the meeting, Bai Yanhu had a gloomy face, holding the dry tobacco pot, smoking bag after bag, from beginning to end, without saying a word.

He is not the only one who thinks about eating, but the others, especially the leader of the bandits, think that Dong Zhiyuan's current situation, although he can't eat enough, he will not die of hunger for a while, and he can't give up this "Longdong granary" that is hard to get.

But the panic in the battalions spread and they could not afford to meet endlessly.

Among the war-torn and hungry people, rumors and rumors are the easiest to spread. Once panic is formed, it spreads like a plague and cannot be suppressed.

The officers and soldiers who are about to enter the suppression are imagined and described as Zhanger King Kong, all with green faces and fangs, infinite strength, and invulnerable. Moreover, it will breathe fire and spit thunder, "a hundred steps away, take people's heads". Also: eating human flesh, drinking human blood, and skinning people; For women, they rape first and then kill, and then even eat the belt and bones, and there is no scum left.

According to Zuo Zongtang's excerpt, the Hui bandits were "very afraid", and finally even developed into such a situation: "There are many people who hang themselves, and they can't be banned." ”

The battle has not yet begun, and under the devastation of despair and fear, Dong Zhiyuan is already a hell on earth.

The bandit leaders finally accepted Bai Yanhu's proposal: first "seek survival in death" and take the initiative to cross the border and enter Shaanxi to "surprise attack" the officers and troops, hoping to inflict a heavy setback on the officers and troops, disrupt the deployment of the officers and troops, and form a confrontational situation.

This is a bold plan, but the ideal is very plump, the reality is very skinny, the beauty of the return bandits, but the action force is weak, the officers and soldiers are meticulously scattered, and the actions of the return bandits dragging mud and water are all in the hands of the officers and soldiers.

Zuo Zongtang was tightly armed, intercepted separately, and returned to the bandits several ways, and as soon as he entered Shaanxi, he was blocked.

The excerpt says, "On the North Road, East Road, and Southwest Road, all armies are defending and suppressing, and they are defeated without a fight, and they are greatly defeated." Among them, in Changwu County, on the border of Gansu and Shaanxi, Feng Junfu, an important leader of Dong Zhiyuan's bandit unit and one of the "Eighteen Marshals", was killed by Tao Maolin, the general soldier of Fengxiang.

After the defeat of Dong Zhiyuan, the morale of the bandits was even lowered, and it was really "losing the wife and the army".

Under such circumstances, whether they are willing or unwilling, Dong Zhiyuan's bandits must be prepared to retreat in the direction of Jinjibao, otherwise, once the official army enters Dong Zhiyuan, according to the experience of the Fengxiang campaign of the Shaanxi bandits, they will not be able to leave.

Dong Zhiyuan's bandits held a meeting in Xiaojin Town, and the "eighteen battalions" were the "four major battalions", led by Bai Yanhu, Yu Deyan, Ma Zheng, He, and Cui Wei.

This seemingly very appropriate retreat plan is actually in the hands of Zuo Zongtang. His wishful thinking was to force most of Dong Zhiyuan's old and weak women and children who had no combat strength into Jinji Fort and increase the burden of Jinji Fort; At the same time, try to eliminate the young and strong elites who have combat effectiveness.

The only regret is that in this plan of returning to the bandits, Bai Yanhu, who Guan Zhuofan had in mind, escorted the "Jiakou Baggage" to retreat first, and failed to capture and kill Dong Zhiyuan in the battle.

The battle plan formulated by Zuo Zongtang is called "But the thief moves, and the pursuit is pursued".

In this plan, the choice of the timing of the attack is of paramount importance.

At this point in time, it should be placed when the Hui bandits have just begun to retreat -- if the Hui bandits launch an attack before they have retreated, the Hui bandits may be forced to fight and increase the casualties of the officers and soldiers. But once the retreat begins, it is irreversible, and the bandits will no longer have the will to fight to the death; Moreover, with the organization and action ability of the bandits, more than 200,000 horses and horses will flee for their lives in a hurry, and they will be in chaos.

Of course, it can't be any later - or the bandits will run away and make a fart.

Zuo Zongtang's specific approach is, "Commanding all roads to transport enough grain and materials, and chasing after thieves." Considering all kinds of advances, and thieves or branches disturbing my back road, I re-ordered each to leave four teams behind, in order to be meticulous. Considering that the armies were widely distributed and could not finish the time, they urged the armies to advance, but the thieves moved, that is, they pursued them without waiting and seeing, so that they could not contain each other and could not be transported. ”

Guan Zhuofan's evaluation of this battle plan is: "Attacking and defending, fully authorizing, and leaving no end in sight." ”

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