The war was far from over, and although the Americans went to Beijing to mediate, there was no news from the Qing court. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Obviously, they didn't think that when it was time to reconcile with the thieves, the Xianghuai clique in Jiangnan still had the advantage, and Zhu Jinglun was tossing around Liangguang and Guangzhou, which could not shake their center for the Qing court.

Especially after the Ming Dynasty occupied Fujian, it could not find the direction of expansion for a while, and it was temporarily in a state of recuperation, which made the Qing court fearless.

The direction of the Ming Dynasty's expansion was in the north and west, mainly blocked by Zuo Zongtang in Zhejiang and the Hunan army in Jiangxi, as for going north from Guangxi to Hunan, the difficulty was too great, Jiang Yili was in Baoqing Mansion, an important town in the south of Hunan, and heavy troops were stationed in Jingzhou, Yongzhou and other places, and the border areas were all mountainous areas, so it was really impossible to break through.

Therefore, the Qing court believed that they were still in control of the situation, especially among the local officials.

For example, Zuo Zongtang wrote a letter to assure that Zhejiang was still firmly under control, and despite the loss of Fujian, Cixi not only did not punish him, but instead rewarded Zuo Zongtang for his meritorious service in defending Zhejiang, and still made him the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, hoping that he would find an opportunity to recover Fujian.

But the Qing court thinks that it can control the situation, but it can't turn the overall situation, Westerners in this situation, it is very easy to compromise, mutual signing an armistice, but Chinese politics has always been a zero-sum game, the winner takes all, the loser loses everything, so unless he sees the coffin, no one is willing to compromise, the Qing court only accepts the two options of either destruction or counterinsurgency, so it still supports local officials to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Ming army.

Zuo Zongtang was very sorry, he was deeply ashamed when he learned that Zhu Jinglun had visited the United States for the first time, thinking that this puppet Ming regime had colluded with foreigners, and when the news of Zhu Jinglun's assassination came back, he stroked his palms and shouted that God would help the Qing Dynasty, and successively sent lobbyists to persuade the black dog to surrender.

In the end, it was a pity that Zhu Jinglun came back safely.

Zuo Zongtang regretted that not only a few days later, there was suddenly a situation of instability within the Ming army.

"The hearts of the people in the puppet Ming army are boiling, and I heard that the puppet Ming chieftain Zhu Jinglun ordered the whole army to cut braids."

The secret agent reported back the situation of the Ming army in Fujian, which made Zuo Zongtang nod frequently, thinking that even the soldiers of the Ming army were unwilling to cut their hair, this was because they were nostalgic for their homeland, and the pseudo-Ming would be tied up sooner or later.

However, when the staff suggested: "Please send troops to the commander, take this opportunity to recover Fujian in one fell swoop, and then put down the false Ming!" ”

Zuo Zongtang sighed and said: "How can it be so easy, the Yue bandits (Taiping Army) and the Hong bandits (Tiandihui), which one doesn't cut their hair, but which one was exterminated by my officers and soldiers because of their haircut?" ”

Therefore, Zuo Zongtang thinks that there must be dissatisfaction caused by this kind of haircut, but it will definitely not last, it is a matter of a moment, and it is not a good time to fight Fujian at this time, but it is the Taiping Army that makes him particularly worried.

After Li Xiucheng relieved the siege of Tianjing, he began to attack in all directions, while encircling Anqing, he opened up to Jiangxi to the south, and connected with Li Shixian, Huang Wenjin and other anti-thief soldiers, and now has mastered most of Jiangxi, Jiujiang, Nankang and Raozhou, the three prefectures have been connected with Tianjing, Zuo Zongtang is very worried that the Taiping army will enter Zhejiang again.

"When did the French say the cannon would arrive?"

Why did Zuo Zongtang not move, because he ordered a large number of new cannons from the French, and the French tried the cannons for him, these rifled artillery, whether it is firepower or range, are far beyond the earthen artillery in his army, and far beyond the cannons used by the Ming army and the Taiping army, only when these munitions are in place, Zuo Zongtang will think that the time has come, he has always done his best first, and then consider the enemy's weaknesses, and fight steadily and steadily, which is also what he explored when he and Zeng Guofan formed the Hunan army together, To be honest, he's not exactly a scholar anymore.

On the side of the Taiping army, after mastering the three northeastern prefectures of Jiangxi, Chizhou and Huizhou prefectures south of Anqing, the Taiping army disputed the route of the march.

Li Shixian thought that he should take advantage of the situation to go south and fight until the Ganzhou Mansion and Daming were integrated. Huang Wenjin believes that we should concentrate on attacking Nanchang Mansion and conquer Nanchang, and the whole of Jiangxi will collapse.

At this time, no one chose to concentrate their forces to attack Anqing, where the main forces of Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan brothers were concentrated, and in terms of strategic execution, the Taiping army was far inferior to the Hunan army.

However, Li Xiucheng did not want to go to Anqing to die, nor did he want to fight Nanchang, which was heavily guarded by the Hunan army, and felt that it was not necessarily a good thing to go south to border Daming, and he strongly advocated the development of the east, and he wanted to restore the Sufu Province that he had opened up with all his might, and restore Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

After the meeting in Tianjing, Li Xiucheng agreed with Li Shixian and other kings to send Li Shixian to lead the men and horses of his headquarters and the elite of Li Xiucheng's army to Jiangsu to attack Li Hongzhang's Huai army, and send Huang Wenjin and Wang Haiyang to Zhejiang to attack Zuo Zongtang's Chu army, so as to restore Fu Province in one fell swoop and rebuild the financial and tax foundation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

At this time, the Ming army, which had been closely cooperating with Li Xiucheng, had a problem, which made Li Xiucheng worried, and now he relied on these Ming troops to help them control the waterway.

If there is no Ming army, they can't encircle Anqing at all, they encircle Anqing not to gnaw this hard bone, but to block the Hunan army, once Anqing can't block the Hunan army, the Hunan army can once again come to Tianjing City.

So he urgently invited Chen Ada and other officers to discuss.

"The emperor wants us to grow our hair and change clothes, who dares to disobey."

Chen Ada gave a briefing on the situation of the Ming army.

These Li Xiucheng are already clear, what he doesn't know is: "Hmph, the shaving of hair was made by the Qing Demon to let us shave, and the growth of hair is to restore the clothes of my Han family, and it should be like this." How can there be a rebellion in your army? ”

Li Xiucheng heard that the army was on the front line in Anqing, and there was a rebellion, and thousands of Ming troops were sentenced to leave the barracks and fled to the Hunan army.

Chen Ada sighed: "It's just a momentary negligence. Most of our Ming officers and soldiers obeyed the order to grow hair, and the officer took the lead in cutting the braids. But there were also some officers who didn't understand and made a lot of noise. ”

Chen Ada pointed to his hair, his braids had been cut off by the roots, and he was now almost bald.

He continued: "I was careless, and as a result, those Eight Banners soldiers took the opportunity to make trouble and let them escape. ”

Li Xiucheng frowned: "Those Qing demons should have been killed a long time ago, if you can't do it, this king will be willing to help at that time." ”

Li Xiucheng always thought that Zhu Jinglun was too merciful to the Eight Banners, and these bannermen should be killed.

Chen Ada shook his head: "There are a lot of troubles." The official has come here to discuss with King Zhong, and the official intends to withdraw Anqing. ”

Li Xiucheng was shocked, where did Anqing rely on these Ming troops to support, where he only left 30,000 troops, not an elite army, he is now plotting in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, where is the strength to fight with the Zeng brothers, but the Ming army has to withdraw at this time.

Li Xiucheng has never asked for much, and he can't open his mouth at this time.

Chen Ada sighed: "King Zhong, forgive me. There is really something unspeakable, the emperor sent some clothes, but the officers and soldiers refused to wear them, saying that those were foreigners' clothes! ”

"Foreigners' clothes?"

Li Xiucheng was puzzled.

The order that Zhu Jinglun sent to the army was not only to cut braids, but also to change clothes, which is referred to as growing hair and changing clothes.

Everyone can understand cutting braids, the Heaven and Earth Society, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebellion all cut braids, and the Ming rebellion of course also cut braids, so although some are not used to it, most soldiers can still understand it, because countless former have given them a demonstration, and even whenever someone wants to rebel in history, they are marked by braids.

However, it was difficult for them to accept the change of clothes, because they thought that the clothes sent to them were foreigners.

In fact, where is the clothes of foreigners, but they are military uniforms, they are just uniforms.

A few years ago, the Swedish adviser suggested that Zhu Jinglun should change the uniforms of the troops, and they believed that the loose and sloppy brave uniforms worn by the army would greatly affect the morale of the soldiers, but Zhu Jinglun had long expected that the change of clothes would definitely cause a backlash from the army. So he was hesitant until his first visit to the United States that he made up his mind to introduce a uniform culture to the military. Because it is really difficult for him to accept this kind of loose military uniform, although the wide robe and big sleeves are very Han, but the literati wear it, it is really inconvenient for soldiers to wear this kind of clothes, it is really inconvenient for soldiers to fight, it is regarded as the general reform of Zhao Wuling King Hufu cavalry shooting.

So Zhu Jinglun made up his mind to formulate military uniforms, he had no design talents, directly imitated European military uniforms, the Swedes hoped to introduce Swedish military uniforms, Zhu Jinglun found someone to make more than a dozen sets of European-style military uniforms, including British lobster soldier uniforms, French military uniforms, Prussian military uniforms, etc., for officers to choose.

The officers were honestly not liked by anyone, but if they had to choose one set, they finally chose the Danish military uniform, and the British and French insisted on refusing to choose, because they had fought with the British and French.

Regarding the selection of materials, the consultant said that wool should be used, and they thought that the military uniforms made of wool were more straight, but Zhu Jinglun didn't like it, the wool was too hot, and it was not suitable for the southern climate at all. So he uses cotton cloth, and as for the problem of the pen, there is a solution, just let the pulp wash it.

By the time Zhu Jinglun returned from the United States, the tailors in Guangzhou had already produced more than 10,000 sets and sent them directly to the north, where the troops on the front line were dressed first.

But Zhu Jinglun did not expect that the opposition caused was even greater than he imagined, and the strongest opposition was, of course, those Eight Banner soldiers, who actually caused a mutiny, and many people turned around and voted for the Hunan army opposite.

"Zeng Guofan has a hand, it seems that he has been doing secret work for a long time."

After receiving the report sent back from Tianjing, Zhu Jinglun sighed that he did not believe that those Eight Banners soldiers were improvised, and he concluded that Zeng Guofan had already penetrated into the Eight Banners and sent people to secretly contact the Eight Banners officers for a long time.

This is why Chen Ada wanted to withdraw from Anqing, because for a while, his troops under him were a little chaotic, giving the Eight Banners a chance, and he began to worry that the Hunan army would take the opportunity to counterattack.

"Eight Banners' hair growth and easy service are suspended."

Zhu Jinglun gave him the final order, these Eight Banner soldiers have completed their mission for Zhu Jinglun, Zhu Jinglun has planned to abandon them at any time and integrate the banner people into the country of Daming, he knows that it is impossible for the time being.

Now that the mission has been completed, Zhu Jinglun knows that it is time for these bannermen to withdraw from their own army, but they should still be able to complete the last task, which is to witness the complete degeneration of the Manchu Dynasty.

They will complete this testimony in Beijing, in front of the Forbidden City, in front of the Forbidden City, which they have always dreamed of. (To be continued.) )