The General Staff Headquarters immediately sent a battle plan to the Chaozhou Army and the Wukeng Army, telling them that no matter what difficulties they had, they must immediately climb through the mountains on the border of Fujian and Guangdong, attack the territory of Fujian, and attack the city of Fujian. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Once the 20,000 people began to storm the city of Fujian, the staff thought that Zuo Zongtang must defend it no matter what, and then the navy landed from Zhangzhou, and it must encounter a weak defense of Zhangzhou City, even if Zuo Zongtang understood all this, he could not change it, this is not a conspiracy, this is a conspiracy, and it is to suppress people with power.

If Zuo Zongtang does not defend, Yunxiao and other places in the border area are captured, and the Ming army still has to approach Zhangzhou, no matter how you look at it, this way is the main attack, if he does not defend and retreat directly to Zhangzhou, the Ming army still has to advance to Zhangzhou with the main force, and Zuo Zongtang can not face the dilemma of attacking from both sides.

The young staff officers of the Ming army still underestimated the decisive courage of such a figure as Zuo Zongtang, and when they attacked Yunxiao and other places, the three county towns and halls were empty, all the houses, grain and grass were burned, and the Chu army retreated.

This situation made the General Staff Headquarters decide to change the plan again, after they had just completed the interrogation of Chang Jiejun, and the French officer truthfully explained Zuo Zongtang's previous strategic ideas.

Originally, they planned to capture Chaozhou, and then use Chaozhou as a starting point to advance towards the Pearl River Delta. The reason why Chaozhou was chosen is because Chaozhou has excellent port facilities and is a treaty port. For this reason, Zuo Zongtang leased many foreigners' ships in Ningbo, including the famous steamship Baoshun purchased by Ningbo Beishang Collective.

I have to say that Zuo Zongtang's strategic idea is possible, occupy the Chaozhou area, and then carry out large-scale transportation by sea, and then capture the Xin'an area by land, and control the Pearl River estuary, which can pose a huge threat to the Pearl River waterway, the key is that Zhu Jinglun cannot let Xin'an be occupied, and will definitely compete with Zuo Zongtang here repeatedly, which is equivalent to containing Zhu Jinglun's outward expansion, and then whether it is attacking Guangdong from Guangxi or from Jiangxi and other places, Zuo Zongtang will have the absolute initiative.

Of course, this is just a strategy, Zuo Zongtang did not completely block the victory on this strategy, he is a wise general, he left himself an absolute way to retreat, but it is a pity that he does not understand the Western army too well, there is no habit and culture of fighting to the death at all, in an absolutely unfavorable situation, they do not regard surrender as a shame, and lack the style of the Hunan army that does not retreat from fighting to the death.

Another problem is that Zuo Zongtang is different from Zeng Guofan after all, if Zeng Guofan formulated this strategy, he would really bury his head and continue to implement it, in terms of execution, Zeng Guofan is stronger than anyone else, including the staff of the Ming army.

Seeing that their staff headquarters had revised the battle plan again, they wanted the navy to attack Zhangzhou as soon as possible, and take Zhangzhou City before the main force of Zuo Zongtang's troops returned to help. Zuo Zongtang's move of burning the Yunxiao Hall made them see Zuo Zongtang's determination to retreat, obviously Zuo Zongtang was unwilling to go according to the plan of the General Staff and was unwilling to drag his main force to the border, so they would definitely retreat to Zhangzhou.

Although Zhu Jinglun didn't think there was anything wrong with changing the plan on the spot, changing the plan too frequently meant that they were not mature enough, which meant that they still had a very poor grasp of the situation and were not sensitive enough to the possibility of change.

"Why don't you attack Fuzhou directly?"

Zhu Jinglun asked rhetorically.

The staff officers have been keeping their eyes on Zhangzhou, because they are holding back their strength to fight a general battle in Zhangzhou.

But they forgot: "Zuo Zongtang dared to burn Yunxiao, Pinghe and Zhao'an, how do you know that he didn't dare to burn Zhangzhou?" ”

Burning Zhangzhou seems to be crazy, this is a rich city, as a precious plain area of Fujian, coupled with the tea trade in the Jiulong River Valley, burning such a city, heavy losses, ordinary people will not choose, but Zuo Zongtang is an ordinary person, he has followed Zeng Guofan for many years, literati like Zeng Guofan, can watch the soldiers burn and loot, countless times to slaughter the city, their hearts are much more ruthless than these staff officers.

Zhu Jinglun continued: "Attacking Fuzhou, if Zuo Zongtang doesn't even dare to do Fuzhou, then I will admire him." After capturing Fuzhou, he launched an operation along the Min River, controlled both sides of the Min River, cut off the route of the Chu army's northward retreat, left them in southern Fujian, and then closed the door and beat the dogs. ”

Xie Qi took a breath of cold air, but was very worried: "But the problem of troops?" ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "In terms of troops, in terms of troops, in terms of drawing from Guangdong, I think the regimental courage of Nanshao Liandao can draw 20,000 people, and transfer mature officers from other armies, and directly organize them according to our military system, even if they can't shoot, the defense is always enough." ”

Xie Qi nodded and hurriedly went back to reformulate his plan.

The reason why the general staff system is only played by the first person in Germany, and most of the general staff of other countries are all like goods, and they can't do the war minister and army commander at all, the reason is that Germany has a Mao Qi, who suppressed all the officers and made the staff the absolute core, while other countries are still army officers who have the final say, and sometimes the system is used by those outstanding heroes, rather than formulated at the beginning.

Now Zhu Jinglun is letting Xie Qi directly command the army, and it is estimated that he will not be able to play, and Hou Jin and Heigou, old qualified officers, will definitely not obey.

The new plan was drawn up overnight, and this time it involved more troops, leasing 300 salt ships from Pan Shicheng, with 50 warships, transporting 20,000 soldiers at one time, landing directly from Fuzhou, and after occupying Fuzhou, continue to expand the occupation forces, attack the upper reaches of the Min River, and fight all the way to Nanping.

With the Min River as the line, the force blocking this line will reach 40,000 troops, while the Wukeng Army and the Chaozhou Army in the south will continue to pursue, always firmly bite the Chu army, and finally form an encirclement with the 40,000 army in the north to annihilate the main force of the Chu army.

This plan is not only bold, but also very detailed, including how to pursue the Chu army, not let them jump from Fujian to Jiangxi, to ensure that they will be driven to the north of Fujian plan, but also consider the customs and customs of Fujian, the reason why the Taiping army entered Fujian is not tenable at all, a big reason is that the local regimental training in Fujian supports the Qing court, so fighting for the local regimental training in Fujian is also a very important battle plan.

The advantage is that in the era of commerce, a large number of wealthy merchants in Guangzhou actually came from Fujian, and almost all of the most famous merchants in the thirteen lines came from Fujian, such as Pan Chengxun's family, Pan Shicheng's family, and Wu Chongyao's family, all of which came from Fujian, and they still have a strong influence in Fujian, and they have sent money back to rebuild the ancestral ancestral hall many times in the past few decades.

Even at present, because of the excellent and efficient management of Kowloon Port, a large number of Fujian merchants do not trade in Fujian, but re-export here for trade, and send Fujian's products to Kowloon Port for sale, which is a force that cannot be ignored in the tea trade.

If the influence of the merchant class is relatively superficial to the countryside, and there are real local forces, the Chaozhou people themselves think that they have moved from Fujian, so a large number of people keep in touch with the same clan as Fujian, and they are even called Fu Lao in Guangdong, just like the Hakka people can find support when they go to Chaozhou, Chaozhou people go to Fujian, and they can still find support, so the biggest task of the Chaozhou army to Fujian is to contact the local regiment training and strive for their neutrality.

After the plan was drawn up, it was immediately implemented, this time Zhu Jinglun left enough space, even if Zuo Zongtang withdrew his troops quickly, it was impossible to withdraw to Fuzhou immediately, the sea route was controlled by Zhu Jinglun, and it was not so easy to march from the mountainous terrain of Fujian.

The 20,000-strong army finally set off at the end of October, aiming to drive directly to Fuzhou.

In mid-November, the 50 fastest ships sailed off the coast of Fuzhou.

Zuo Zongtang received the news for the first time, he was surprised for a moment, sighed, and said that three hundred years after the surname of the country, there has been no precedent for such a large-scale transfer of troops on the sea as the road, and it is also a blessing that he Zuo Zongtang was the first to encounter it!

Zuo Zongtang completely ignored the example of foreigners attacking Tianjue by sea.

Seeing Zuo Zongtang's breezy appearance, the staff also settled down and began to make suggestions.

But most of them are the same set of strategies to deal with the Taiping army, such as connecting group training, defending the city to the death, cutting off the enemy's rear route, and so on.

"Withdraw your troops!"

Zuo Zongtang only said two words.

Where to withdraw troops?

The other party is pressing forward step by step, just not giving you the opportunity to withdraw calmly, and the other party is coming across the sea just to block your retreat.

"The army in Zhangzhou immediately retreated to Longyan, then to Tingzhou, and finally to Jiangxi. Tear down bridges along the way and burn down the boardwalks. The northern army of Fuzhou immediately withdrew to Zhejiang. ”

No one expected Zuo Zongtang to dare to make such a decision to directly give up the entire province of Fujian, this kind of courage is not something that ordinary people have.

Zuo Zongtang is still confident: "Fujian Province is surrounded by mountains on three sides and the sea on the other, and this is a cage in itself. Then we attacked Guangdong from Jiangxi and Guangdong from Guangxi, and Guangdong was empty, so that the other party won Fujian Province and lost Guangdong Province, and this deal was not a loss! ”

The staff admired this handsome man who had always had the title of Xiangjiang genius, and went out to implement the plan one by one, at this time Zuo Zongtang sat on the chair, holding a thick turbidity in his chest, and trembling uncontrollably.

Only he himself understands that this battle was lost, and what used Fujian Province as a cage and what exchanged Fujian Province for Guangdong Province was just to boost the morale of the army.

Surrounded by mountains on three sides and water on one side, is it a cage? Then how did the other party come to Fuzhou? Fujian is backed by mountains and facing the sea, and the sea route is the smoothest road, and this cage traps the Eight Banners, and can't trap the Ming army. (To be continued.) )