The recovery of Suzhou is a great news for the imperial court, but it is a bit of a fly in the ointment because of the fact that Li Hongzhang killed and surrendered.

Insufficient is insufficient, but he is not willing to take this matter too seriously, let alone reprimand - after all, it is a war, and it is the top priority to get the city back! So he issued an order to give warm words to Li Hongzhang, Guan Zhuofan and other meritorious personnel who should have served in the recovery state, and said that they would be rewarded together when the entire war was completed.

That said, there are subtle differences between warm and cold. Among the two armies of Xuanhuai and Huai, no one else has been rewarded, but Guan Zhuofan has received a special favor - the whole family is carried into the Zhenghuang Flag.

It is the prerogative of the flag bearer to carry the flag, so no one else can say anything. It is a great honor to carry from the lower five flags to the upper three flags, and it is the most noble positive yellow flag. Guan Zhuofan is still a lonely person, the so-called "family brought in", that is to say, even his dead father and mother, as well as the eldest brother and the second brother's family, are also "graceful" and carry the flag together.

For Guan Zhuofan, this is an unexpected joy, because entering the Zhenghuang Banner may be of great help to his future!

There is only one awkward place - he said in his heart, my family is white, this time it is also "Zhenghuang", that is what she deserves, but the two of them are actually "Zhenghuang" together, where does this start?

Having said that, maybe the second sister-in-law deserves it......

After a moment of cranky thinking, it is still time to get down to business.

Since Suzhou fell into the hands of the official army, the largest town on the way west to Jiangning was Changzhou, which was guarded by Chen Kunshu, the "protector" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. And attack Changzhou. It is also necessary to sweep away Huang Zilong who is entrenched in Wuxi and Chen Chengqi who are in Jiangyin. In order to discuss the war against Changzhou. Li Hongzhang and Guan Zhuofan met in Suzhou for two consecutive days. Coordinate the actions of the Xuanhuai and Huai armies.

"Naturally, the Huai army will attack Wuxi," Guan Zhuofan said with a gesture on the map, "My Xuan army will make a detour to Changshu and go to Jiangyin." ”

With the current strength of the official army, no matter who comes to fight Wuxi, Huang Zilong will definitely not be able to resist it. Li Hongzhang knew that this was Guan Zhuofan being humble, after all, Wuxi was a big city. The status is heavier, the goods are more abundant, and the credit is greater.

Li Hongzhang has seen a lot of intrigues in the officialdom and this kind of thing, and he himself is a good player. But for the young banner general in front of him, his mood was quite complicated, and he really had a feeling that he couldn't see through.

If it is said that this Guan Zhuofan is intent on competing with himself, but when he first arrived in Shanghai, he took the initiative to give way to the defense area; Battle of Jiading. transferred Gordon's Second Regiment of Foreign Guns to the command of the Huai Army, which created the later Changsheng Army; Donations. Not only handed over all the cards in the Baoshan area of Jiading, but also kept his promise that he would never touch his hands outside Songjiang Mansion, which were all modest and polite expressions.

But if this Guan Zhuofan is willing to lie in motion, it is not like it.

It took a lot of effort for him, but Shanghai Daotai zuihou still fell into his hands, although he didn't believe that he could predict the prophet, it must be a coincidence, but he planned this position for Yang Fang, there must be. Suzhou was killed, but he happened to go to Kunshan, but he took on a bad reputation, but the benefits were much more for the Xuan army.

As for Chang Shengjun's defection to the Xuan Army, he didn't have anything to say - he had already rejected Gordon twice, which was considered benevolent and righteous, and after Chang Shengjun was disbanded, it seemed that there was no reason to say that Bai Qiwen was not allowed to recruit? Not to mention that it was originally his second regiment of foreign guns.

Although he is the governor, he can no longer be regarded as a subordinate official - not to mention that everyone is originally the same product, just to say that his title of first-class lieutenant and the dazzling eyes on him are the glory that even the teacher Zeng Guofan did not have. And his identity as a banner man, and his foundation in the two palaces and the king of Yizheng, he can't compare it with him. If this continues, he, the governor of Jiangsu, will become a problem if he sits firmly or unsteadily.

However, he is now giving up Wuxi to himself. Li Hongzhang shook his head in his heart, it was still the same sentence, he couldn't eat it thoroughly, and he couldn't deal with it, looking at the southeast, maybe only his own teacher could suppress him.

Because of such a thought, Li Hongzhang refused to work in the city - half of the city was Xuanjun, which was very boring.

Since Li Hongzhang is not stationed in the city, Guan Zhuofan is naturally not easy to station, so it is clear that the governor yamen and the feudal division yamen of Jiangsu Province are in front of him, a current governor, and a feudal platform with the title of governor, but they all turn a blind eye, as for the Zhongwang Mansion located in the Humble Administrator's Garden, no one is willing to step into half a step, if there is anything to discuss, they will meet in the original Tan Shaoguang's Muwang Mansion.

The battle to attack Changzhou has been decided, but it can't be acted on immediately, because the two armies of Xuanhuai need to rest and recuperate after a series of fierce battles, and they also need to classify and select the newly contained soldiers, expand them, and do a major reorganization.

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For the Xuan army, nearly 30,000 soldiers are not a small number, if they were placed in the past, I am afraid that they will have to rack their brains and spend a lot of effort on how to prevent them from rebelling. But now it is different, everyone knows that as soon as Suzhou is concerned, it is only a matter of time before the official army clears the entire territory of "Southern Jiangsu Province", and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is determined to be the capital of Jiangning, is also crumbling, and it is difficult to escape the fate of "the wind is always blown away by the rain and wind". What's more, among these people, there are almost no Taiping Army old people from Guangxi, and most of them are from Lianghu and Anhui, so as long as they are properly pacified, they can be relieved of other worries if they are properly appeased, those who should be dismissed, those who should be recruited, food to eat, and salaries.

Guan Zhuofan refused to be like Li Hongzhang, who incorporated tens of thousands of soldiers into the Huai army, and "supported" the Huai army to nearly 30,000 people. He still adheres to his established principles, hoping that the troops under his command can be "more refined and more".

"Eight thousand warriors, four thousand long husbands, they will be selected according to this number." At the meeting of the big battalion, Guan Zhuofan finally made a decision, "The original reserve soldiers of each battalion will be given priority to make up for the bravery." ”

That is to say, out of the 30,000 people, only 12,000 will be plucked, and the rest will be sent away.

"Yes, I'll pick it well," Ding Shijie said worriedly, "don't let some people with dissident intentions come in." ”

"Tan Shaoguang's cronies. was killed by Gao Yongkuan. Gao Yongkuan's cronies. was killed by Li Hongzhang again. Guan Zhuofan sighed. The rest are all poor people, and there may not be any other ambitions to cherish. ”

Even if it has been selected, the number of Xuanjun's troops, including the Xianzi Regiment stationed in Shanghai, the Jianzi Regiment stationed in Changshu, and the Second Foreign Gun Regiment stationed in Kunshan, still exceeds 30,000 people. This does not include the two battalions of Shui Yong and craftsmen sent by Ding Ruchang.

In addition to filling the number of troops in the original regiments, three new regiments were established, and the names or characters of the regimental officers were still used as the regimental numbers. The way of formation is to draw some officers and soldiers from the original old regiment to build a skeleton, supplemented by Western instructors, and then supplement the reorganized soldiers.

Liu Yulin was promoted to regimental officer for his credit for attacking Chuansha in the Battle of Shanghai and being seriously wounded, as well as for his credit for containing and pacifying the surrendered troops this time. Zheng Guokui took the credit for persuading Gao Yongkuan twice. was also promoted from deputy regimental officer to regimental officer, and led a regiment with Liu Yulin.

Another new regimental officer. It was Zhan Donglu who grabbed the pontoon bridge in the Battle of Suzhou. He is the battalion officer of the first battalion of the Kezi Regiment, and he was also a sentry commander in Guan Zhuofan's original infantry horse team.

However, the armament could not be replenished for a while, except for some guns and eight field guns urgently transferred by Qibao, the rest had to be selected from the captured foreign guns and foreign cannons. Although the system cannot be unified, the equipment of the three regiments has been gathered, and it can barely be called an army armed with foreign guns and artillery.

After the reorganization, the training was followed. After Guan Zhuofan met with Li Hongzhang in Muwang's Mansion, accompanied by Liu Xunjiao, he did not ride a horse or sit in a sedan chair, walked as a car, and walked to Qimen in the south of the city, pondering which regiment to go to see the training today.

Speaking of which, now the Xuan Army is almost equivalent to the establishment of ten regiments, and it is already a little powerless to manage it when it is spread out horizontally.

The streets of the city are bustling with activity. Li Xiucheng has been carefully operating here since the capture of Suzhou, and this time, Suzhou was lucky to escape the ravages of war, so this famous southeast city immediately showed its original appearance after the chaos of the first few days. Even compared with the county seat of Shanghai, it is still quite inferior.

However, as he walked, the smile on Guan Zhuofan's face gradually faded, and he changed to a solemn expression, constantly looking at the crowd on the street.

"Xuan Shuai, but what's wrong?" Liu Xun was reminded of the change in his expression.

"There are too many soldiers!" Guan Zhuofan frowned and said, "What's the matter?" ”

The streets are bustling and lively, but every few steps, you can see the big soldiers in uniforms, wandering around the streets in twos and threes, and you can also see officers in bright uniforms. Some soldiers noticed Guan Zhuofan's group, even if they didn't recognize this "Xuan Shuai", they could recognize the white armband on his left arm and the dazzling eyes on his head, and hurriedly bowed down and retreated. But more soldiers were happily haunting the shops or haggling around the roadside stalls, unaware of the passing of the commander of the Xuan army.

"Oh, this," Liu Xunji understood, and explained to him, "It was agreed upon by Admiral Ding and a few of us at the last camp meeting. Everyone has just finished a big battle, let them relax, and twenty percent of the soldiers can take turns every day. ”

From Shanghai to Suzhou, there were many fierce battles along the way, so that the troops had a chance to relax, not impossible. But it has been more than half a month since Suzhou opened the city, and if this is still the case, how can the whole training start?

"How come I didn't know about this?" Guan Zhuofan stopped.

Liu Xunjiao heard the dissatisfaction from his tone, and was about to explain, but saw Guan Zhuofan's hand pointing forward, only to see a few soldiers coming out of a restaurant in front of him, his steps were vain, his face was red, and he walked towards the west of the city with loud laughter.

"Those soldiers, who were drunk in broad daylight, and didn't return to the camp yet, where are they going? Túrin, call them over and ask! ”

The leader was actually a sentry commander wearing a green armband, who was pulled all the way by several personal soldiers, still unconvinced, shouting with the strength of the wine: "What's the matter?" What's going on? Lao Tzu has violated military law again! ”

When he saw Guan Dashuai and recognized it, he knew that he was in trouble, and he knelt on the ground with a pale face, and most of the wine was scared to wake up. And his shouting also made the officers and soldiers of Xuan on the street realize that it was the marshal who was disposing of people, and hundreds of people made an uproar, please go down, leaving only those unknown traders and ordinary people, standing on the side of the street, at a loss.

The whole street was silent for a while.

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