Although Li Xiucheng's army was unprecedentedly strong at this time, strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the foreign guns trained by foreigners, in mid-May this year, Li Xiucheng broke more than 30 camps in Taicang and took advantage of the victory to recover Jiaxing. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 In August, in the battle of Cixi, Zhejiang, he killed the leader of the "Changsheng Army" formed by Li Hongzhang, an American, in the battle of Cixi, Zhejiang.

Although Li Xiucheng's army was very effective and could fight with the foreign spear team with foreigners as officers and Chinese soldiers, and was at the top, Zhu Jinglun still felt that his strategic direction was wrong.

When he attacked Shanghai, he issued a circular to the foreigners, saying that "each should love himself and not disturb each other," and that "if he does not follow our king's transformation and turns to help and turn rebellion into evil, and confront the enemy with our division, it will be a moth to the fire and bring about its own destruction." ”

Obviously, this tone of threat and intimidation showed that although he had some scruples about the foreigners, he still did not take it seriously, and he did not know that if he really wanted to attack Shanghai, the two big hooligans of Britain and France would really start a war, but this year, more than 60 million taels of British and French goods were imported here, and it was impossible for any of these two countries to give up Shanghai when the American market was affected by the war.

But Li Xiucheng's vision made him unable to see this, and even he didn't know how strong the British and French were together, although the British and French coalition forces invaded Beiping, but Li Xiucheng probably felt that if he could go to Beiping, he could also sweep away those green battalion soldiers, so from the bottom of his heart, he didn't take the two big hooligans of Britain and France seriously, this kind of courage can really make the populist angry youth feel encouraged, but it is not half beneficial to the country and the people, to his heavenly king and his heavenly kingdom.

On the contrary, Zeng Guofan is like a blind old pig, that is, he arches down step by step from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Wuhan, Jiujiang, and Anqing, and the target in his eyes is only Nanjing, so he can be in Anqing with Chen Yucheng for more than a year.

In May 1858, the Hunan army captured Jiujiang, and then began to target the next target, Anqing.

The Battle of Anqing was not a simple siege battle, but a general battle with Anqing as the center and covering a radius of dozens of kilometers.

In the summer of 1860, the Taiping army led by Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng broke the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army for the second time, pushing the prestige of the Taiping army in Jiangnan to the peak.

However, Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi's army was only deployed around, and the people who were really responsible for the siege were more than 10,000 people in the elite Hunan army led by Zeng Guoquan and more than 4,000 people in the Hunan army and navy division under the commander Yang Zaifu. The deputy commander Duolong'a and Li Xuyi, the envoy of the inspection, led 20,000 Hunan and Hubei troops to garrison the trailer river and Qingcaochang in the southwest of Tongcheng to block the Taiping army reinforcements.

The result of the Battle of Anqing was that the Hunan army won and captured Anqing.

The result was just one sentence, but the process was arduous and complicated, and in this process, quite a lot of variables occurred, but Zeng Guofan was always unmoved, just keeping an eye on Anqing.

When the Anglo-French army captured Guangzhou, Zeng Guofan's troops in Jiangxi and Fujian were unmoved, and when the Anglo-French army went north to Tianjue, and even approached Beijing, Zeng Guofan was unmoved, and even when Xianfeng sent an edict to Zeng Guofan, he was still unmoved.

On June 20, Yang Zaifu's water division captured Zongyang Town, an important place on Anqing East Road, and Anqing was besieged. Zeng Guoquan's army dug two long trenches outside the city of Anqing, the front trench besieged the city, and the rear trench refused to help.

In terms of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it is not that they do not know the importance of Anqing, it can be said that this is the water gateway of Nanjing, so they are trying their best to rescue, but the Hunan army is a move, and they will not let go of the siege and bite to death.

Attacking, the Taiping army could not defeat the Hunan army's naval division, so they could only find a way by land, either tearing through Zeng Guoquan's long trench head-on, or mobilizing the Hunan army, the Hunan army's defensive skills were already in full swing at this time, and the Taiping army was not given any chance.

In late September, Hong Xiuquan mobilized troops from the battlefields of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and marched north and south of the river in five routes, approaching Wuhan. King Chen Yucheng led his army westward from the north bank of the Yangtze River and entered eastern Hubei through northern Anhui; Li Xiucheng, the king of loyalty, led his army westward from the south bank of the Yangtze River, and entered southeast Hubei through southern Anhui and Jiangxi; Auxiliary king Yang Fuqing and Dingnan general Huang Wenjin led the army along the south bank of the Yangtze River to northern Jiangxi; Li Shixian, the king of waiting, led the army into eastern Jiangxi through southern Anhui; Liu Guanfang, the commander of the right army, led the army to attack the camp of the Zeng State Domain in Qimen.

In the five routes, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiu became the main force, taking a pincer offensive, and it was scheduled to join Wuhan in the spring of the following year to mobilize the enemy besieging Anqing. The other three routes were mainly to contain the Hunan army in southern Anhui and Jiangxi, and wait for an opportunity to annihilate the enemy.

But in this case, Zeng Guofan was still able to remain unmoved, that is, to encircle Anqing.

In terms of this kind of strategic execution, all the generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were compared at once, maybe Zeng Guofan's use of troops was not flexible and alert, but for an army, strategic execution is more critical, he can adhere to the strategic policy under any circumstances, even if the emperor is in danger, even if there is danger in the back road, he can not move, it looks rigid, but this is the performance of a veteran's level tempered to the point of perfection.

So the Taiping army failed in Anqing, and at this time Li Xiucheng was still marching towards Shanghai, for him, perhaps controlling Shanghai is also an important strategy, the first is a wealth of power, get Shanghai, will greatly improve the financial capacity of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the second occupation here, will also win a window for the Taiping army, but the second purpose is estimated that they have not considered, they are only for Shanghai's tariffs, tariffs of several million taels a year.

But Anqing fell, Anqing was lost, Jiangbei was eroded, Chen Yucheng was captured, Zeng Guoquan's army entered Nanjing, Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi were deployed on the periphery, and they copied the situation of Anqing in Nanjing, and this time they will besiege Nanjing to the death.

After the Hunan army captured Anqing, Zeng Guofan set up a large camp here, and at this time, the Qing court, which had lost its prestige because of the death of the emperor and the coup, could no longer help Zeng Guofan, and could only be enveloped step by step.

Zeng Guofan was appointed as a co-organizer of the university to oversee the military of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang. This time, Zeng Guofan aimed to attack Jinling and formulated a comprehensive military operation. Zeng Guoquan from Anqing along the north bank of the Yangtze River to Jinling; Zeng Zhen's cadres attacked Wuhu from Chizhou; Peng Yulin and others led the Hunan Army and Naval Division down the river, cooperating with the actions of the land divisions on both sides of the strait and taking responsibility for transportation and relief; Bao Chao's troops entered Anhui from Jiangxi and attacked Ningguofu; Zuo Zongtang's troops attacked Zhejiang, and Li Hongzhang's Huai army attacked the Taiping army around Shanghai, and then advanced westward.

Zeng Guofan's deployment, centered on Nanjing, including all regions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, began a general battle. In May this year, the Hunan army captured Dangtu, Wuhu, Banqiao, Moling Pass, Dasheng Pass, and Sanchao River. On May 30, Peng Yulin led the sailors into the mouth of the Jinling moat, Zeng Guoquan's troops approached Yuhuatai, and Zeng Zhengan also led the army to arrive.

Nanjing is already in danger, the most important thing is that this egg is held in Zeng Guofan's hand, no matter how Li Xiucheng tosses outside, the Zeng brothers are unmoved, and once Li Xiucheng tosses too happily, they will pull the egg in their hands, Hong Xiuquan will be in pain, and will order Li Xiucheng to be recalled, again and again, very good.

Li Xiucheng attacked Shanghai three times, but the last two times had to return because of the Nanjing crisis, and from then on he was completely strategically in a passive situation.

Zhu Jinglun has no interest in the freak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at all, no matter how good the propaganda of the party and the state is in later generations, but in fact, everyone knows that this is the craziest evil organization in Chinese history, no, it should be the craziest evil organization in human history, and it is the darkest and most hybrid monster in Eastern and Western cultures.

Zhu Jinglun ignored them, but they came to the door.

A businessman-like lobbyist, who came on behalf of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, proposed to Zhu Jinglun to submit to their Heavenly King, and the Heavenly King was willing to canonize Zhu Jinglun as the King of Yue.

The prince of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? This is tantamount to scolding, Zhu Jinglun didn't cut this product, it's good.

Later generations only know that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is indiscriminately crowned king, and some teachers also sarcastically mock more than 2,000 kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom like dogs, those who are crowned kings are unhappy, and those who are not crowned kings are even more unhappy, Hong Xiuquan doesn't know?

No matter how much you despise his nouveau riche style and how much he instigates foolishness, you have to admit that this kind of person is definitely not a stupid person, and it is impossible for a stupid person to incite tens of millions of people, gather more than ten provinces, and kill tens of millions.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom really began to indiscriminately seal the king, in fact, it is a matter of the last few years, the early princes of the Taiping Army are still very difficult to seal, basically these princes in the southeast and northwest, what really induces the king **** is the major event of the Tianjing Rebellion, the eastern king Yang Xiuqing was killed, Wei Changhui was killed by Shi Dakai, and then Shi Dakai and Hong Xiuquan left Tianjing.

At this time, Hong Xiuquan had enough of the pain of being governed by these princes who raised troops together, just like Zhu Yuanzhang later, he began to only believe in his own family and canonized his two brothers who had no merit, Hong Renfa and Hong Renda as kings, which angered the generals at all levels of the Taiping Army who led troops outside, and Chen Yucheng, who had great achievements in war, was not a king at this time.

In the dissatisfaction of the officials, Hong Xiuquan could only appease and cut off the princes of the two elder brothers, but two years later, Hong Xiuquan's brother Hong Renji came from Hong Kong to defect, Hong Xiuquan's old problem was committed again, and Hong Renji was named the god, and directly let him take charge of the government.

But the officials, mainly the army, are still dissatisfied, this person has not made an inch, just because he is Hong Xiuquan's brother, he can easily be crowned king, and at this time, Chen Yucheng, who has become the pillar of the Taiping Army in the later period, has not yet been crowned king, and the officers are jointly clamoring, or it may be promoted by Chen Yucheng, and in the end Hong Xiuquan can only be crowned Chen Yu as the king.

After sealing Chen Yucheng, another main general, Li Xiucheng, was also unconvinced, and it was rumored that the Qing army wanted to use the prince to recruit Li Xiucheng, so Li Xiucheng was also named the loyal king, which means that he is loyal and will never betray.

After the two kings were crowned, soon the colonels and generals who led the troops under their command were crowned out of more than 20 kings at once, and the princes really began to be worthless at this time, what took refuge in the king of the mountain, Hong Xiuquan's own brothers were crowned kings, the landlords who donated a lot of money were kings, and the old brothers who had not died from Guangxi also had to be kings, so they finally swelled to the point of more than 2,700 kings.

But this kind of indiscriminate sealing method really doesn't seem to be done by a person with intelligence, either Hong Xiuquan is crazy at this time, or he has something else.

Zhu Jinglun was inclined to the latter, at this time, in order to reverse the crisis in the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he restored the system of the chief generals of the five armies at the beginning of the grass, that is, the system of the southeast, northwest and northwest kings of each side of the army, but in fact, the main force of the Taiping army was still concentrated in the hands of Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng was in Jiangbei, and Li Xiucheng was in Jiangnan.

Because he was threatened by the king of the east, Hong Xiuquan was able to instigate the Tianjing incident desperately, it can be seen that this person is unwilling to accept being held hostage, but the consequences of killing Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui are too serious, he definitely can't afford to come together again, but he is coerced by the generals again and again, he must be difficult to accept, indiscriminately crowning the king, and sealing Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng's generals as kings, and sealing his own brothers as kings, I am afraid it is even more of a check and balance.

Alas, before the world was defeated, all kinds of infighting began, and the Heavenly Kingdom of Heaven could not be defeated.

He almost staged all kinds of bad deeds that happened to a peasant regime in a short period of time, infighting, cannibalism, and mutual containment, Zhu Yuanzhang also killed heroes, which was caused by the mind of a peasant king, and people from small families have a character that can share weal and woe, and it is difficult to share wealth and prosperity.

But after Zhu Chongba sat down steadily, Sect Master Hong was unwilling to share wealth and prosperity before he completed the tribulation, and at this level, the level of the two was really too different.

This kind of goods, now send someone to Zhu Jinglun, saying that he wants Zhu Jinglun to surrender to him?

This is a merchant, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is different from the Qing court, they are still very supportive of doing business, not because of open-mindedness, but because there is no way, just so large, the largest output on the land is tea and silk and other highly commoditized cash crops in the Jiangnan region, even the supply of food is in short supply, so they not only do business with foreigners, but even secretly do business with merchants in the Qing court-ruled areas, for which the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom authorized its own merchants not to shave their hair, still have braids.

It was such a businessman sent to Guangdong, he didn't see Zhu Jinglun at all, in fact, he himself knew that Zhu Jinglun could not return to the King of Hong, he only mentioned it casually, only said that if he was willing to surrender, the King of Heaven was willing to be crowned king, and then he didn't mention it anymore, but began to talk about business.

If he insisted on mentioning it, Zhu Jinglun didn't say it, and Wu Chongyao would tear him apart.

Fortunately, it was Wu Chongyao who he contacted, if Chen Zhiting was still in Guangzhou Mansion and fell into the hands of Chen Zhiting, I am afraid that he would already be in a different place.

As for doing business, whether to sell them weapons and equipment, especially whether to sell them warships, Zhu Jinglun was extremely conflicted in his heart.

Selling is tantamount to aiding and abetting, Jiangnan is bound to kill hundreds of people, not selling, but they are actually Zhu Jinglun's allies, and what they have to deal with is definitely the Hunan army that will confront Zhu Jinglun in the future.

Now, Zhu Jinglun must make a choice between conscience and diplomatic interests. (To be continued.) )