The Second Army of Xin'an is still an army composed of Xin'an's children, which was formed after the salary, and the soldiers have been leading for nearly three years, and then participated in the suppression of bandits in Gaozhou and other places. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In terms of weapons and equipment, it is also an all-rifle army, and compared with the Xin'an Army, there is only a gap in artillery.

They joined the Xin'an First Army and the Wukeng Army along the waterway, and after a short correction, they could march to Wuzhou.

Wuzhou is a strong city, has always been a place where soldiers must fight, is the gateway of Guangxi to and from Guangdong, and is also the gateway to Guangxi from Guangdong, who occupies this city, who has the initiative.

They all thought it was a vicious battle, but no one expected that Jiang Yili didn't wait for Zhu Jinglun's army to arrive, but actually plundered Wuzhou, and then retreated north, Yangui River pulled to Pingle, and then withdrew directly to Guilin.

Zhu Jinglun is not capable of capturing Guangxi at this time, he is not a rogue, he occupies a place, he must ensure that he has the ability to stand, he does not do the matter of monkeys holding rice, he is untenable, not to mention the loss of troops when he fights around, and the common people will suffer.

Jiang Yili probably guessed this, he knew that Zhu Jinglun had a fighting heart for Wuzhou, but he had no covetous thoughts for other places in Guangxi, so he simply gave up Wuzhou City, the soldiers in his hands were all children of his hometown, and none of them could afford to die, and more importantly, these soldiers were the capital of his life, and the court had to entrust him with important tasks with these soldiers, without these soldiers, the Zeng brothers did not accept him, and Zuo Zongtang did not help him, so he had nothing.

This may be the reason why the Zeng brothers don't want to see Jiang Yili, because this is a lone wolf.

After taking control of Wuzhou, Zhu Jinglun mobilized forces to repair Wuzhou City, strengthen the city defenses, and stationed officials to settle the people.

At the same time, he also made a prank to the Qing court, impeaching Jiang Yili for rebellion, raising troops to invade the territory for no reason, and burning and looting in Wuzhou, asking the court to arrest the murderer.

He still hasn't torn his face with the Qing court, but he has actually broken up, and it will only be a month or two after he really pulled the flag.

Because within a month or two, Zeng Guofan and Hong Xiuquan will be able to separate the winners and losers, and then they will be able to free up their hands to deal with Zhu Jinglun.

Must rush ahead of the Hunan army, think of countermeasures, recruit troops?

This is not a question of strength, this is a question of combat effectiveness, the Taiping army has two or three hundred thousand people at every turn, and it is not that it has no power to fight back by the Hunan army, and no matter how many rabble people recruit, it is also in vain.

However, it is unthinkable to train enough to fight against the entire Hunan army group in just one or two months, and even to face the equally large number of Li Hongzhang's Huai army and Zuo Zongtang's Chu army group.

The staff officers, with the help of Swedish advisers, conducted one war game after another, and each time it was not optimistic.

Wu Chongyao received information from Shanghai that as early as last month, the Hunan army had captured the Purple Mountain, and Zeng Guoquan's troops were stationed outside the Taiping Gate and Shence Gate, completing the siege of Tianjing, and Nanjing's last contact with the outside world was also cut off.

cut off foreign aid, Hong Xiuquan was trapped in a lonely city, no need to fight, starved to death, there is a saying that Hong Xiuquan died because of eating grass.

As soon as Hong Xiuquan died, the 100,000 Hunan army would inevitably go south, maybe it would take a few months for them to clear the remnants of the Taiping army, but it would definitely not drag on for a year, and it was already April 1864, half a year at most.

In fact, Zhu Jinglun has already begun to open up the recruitment, the army of the counties of Guangfu was withdrawn, at that time, a county sent out a hundred people, allowing the recruitment of 1,000 people, the fourteen counties of Guangfu were concentrated, that is, 14,000, Huichao Jiadao, especially Chaozhou Mansion is also a densely populated place, it is not difficult for Huichao Jiadao to recruit 20,000 new troops, two armies in Xin'an, plus one army in Wukeng, the Dahong Army that was incorporated, one army of the Green Battalion Tuanyong in Gaoleiyang Road, the Guangfu Army, the Chaozhou Army, and 20,000 people recruited by Fang Shan in the Wuyi area. The total number of troops is more than 90,000, 100,000.

Recruiting people has never been a problem, the problem is combat effectiveness, the Hunan army and the Taiping army have been fighting for more than ten years, their combat experience is fed with human blood, the soldiers in Zhu Jinglun's hands, who have seen blood, that is, the first and second armies of Xin'an, the Wukeng army, the Dahong army and the Gao Leiyang army, these more than 50,000 people, barely counting the Wuyi regiment Yong who fought out of the weapon, there are only more than 70,000 people, so many people after half a year, it is impossible to train out.

At this time, Fang Shan came up with an idea to cooperate with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Fang Shan could also see that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was finished, and the fall of Tianjing was inevitable, he didn't know that Li Xiucheng had suggested that Hong Xiuquan let the city go, Hong Xiuquan didn't agree, saying that he had 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals, and he was not afraid of anyone, but Fang Shan knew that the city was besieged by the Hunan army on all sides, and the gods were difficult to save.

However, Tianjing is backed by water, and the Hunan army can capture the Purple Mountain, but it is impossible for them to fill in the Yangtze River, they rely on the water division to blockade the Yangtze River, if Zhu Jinglun can send the navy to support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from the waterway, maybe he can open a waterway.

This is a clever plan, and it is also a poisonous plan, at least Zhu Jinglun thinks so, he thinks that saving the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is letting them wreak havoc on Jiangnan, how many people will be poisoned.

But after thinking about it, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not nail the Hunan army to the south of the Yangtze River, and let the Hunan army go south to Guangdong, but also killed people, and the most important thing was to destroy the reforms that Zhu Jinglun was making.

Between supporting the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, carrying huge psychological pressure, or ignoring the reality and preparing to fight the Hunan army, Zhu Jinglun had no choice, he could only support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

After discussing with Fang Shan, Fang Shan saw that Zhu Jinglun had adopted his idea, and suddenly asked in a whisper:

"If you send troops to Jiangnan, you must have a banner."

"Yes, they have all sent troops abroad, and it will definitely not work to continue to play the banner of Guangdong, and it is time to let the officers and soldiers of the three armies know which banner they are fighting for."

didn't wait for Zhu Jinglun to finish sighing.

Fang Shan almost jumped up and smashed down directly, kneeling on the ground and bowing his head to the ground:

"Minister, I respectfully invite Your Majesty to ascend the throne!"

Zhu Jinglun agreed, that is, he promised to be the emperor, and he promised to take them to compete in the Central Plains to dominate the world.

Zhu Jinglun sighed secretly in his heart, he had thought about this day for a long time, but after making this decision, he didn't feel excited, but relieved, this matter had always been a stone pressing on his heart, and he suddenly relaxed.

As for being the emperor, he felt that he had no choice, it was not that he was hypocritical, he didn't take the emperor's dignity in his eyes, he was just a person who grew up in the early stage of the republic, and the word emperor had more derogatory connotations than praise in his heart, but the rational choice was that in China at this moment, you can only choose to use imperial power to maintain the country, and it is nonsense to engage in a republic.

This is where his sentimentality comes from, and it is summed up in one sentence, "I am still an emperor after all."

Zhu Jinglun watched Fang Shan kneel for a long time, and when he knelt unnaturally, he said softly, "Get up."

Fang Shan's kneeling leg hurt, but he didn't care, he regarded this as the price of forcing others to be emperors, which was insignificant compared to what he had to do.

"Many things are much more important than ascending the throne, immediately summon Wu Chongyao and Chen Zhiting to come over for a meeting."

Fang Shan walked outside the door, whispered a few words to the guards, and the demonstration immediately went to spread the word, Chen Zhiting and Wu Chongyao quickly ran into the governor's yamen. After Bai Gui came to Guangdong, Zhu Jinglun moved out of Zhang's house and lived with Bai Gui to facilitate the control of the governor of Guangxi and Guangzhou, and at the same time to give the outside world a political meaning that they are one.

Chen Zhiting and Wu Chongyao entered Zhu Jinglun's study, and the first words that greeted them made the two of them feel like five thunderbolts.

"It's time for us to build a nation!"

Zhu Jinglun said.

Chen Zhiting and Wu Chongyao were stunned on the spot, but their thoughts were completely different.

Chen Zhiting is contradictory, as a vested interest in the old era, his brother is the head of the household department of the Qing court, he is the head of the Qing court, the Chen family is not only a scholarly family of the times, but also through the identity of the brothers, they are considered to be an official family, and the next few generations will be local nobles, so the Chen family is firmly on the side of the government when the British and French forces invaded.

Wu Chongyao is different, his family is a big family, the wealth is the top, the status is the bottom, this extreme mismatch between wealth and status, so that they have a huge psychological gap, on the one hand, the old times gave them great material wealth, on the other hand, the richer they are, the more they desire to be respected, rich but not expensive is not the norm, everyone longs for a rich and noble life.

But the two of them have known for a long time that Zhu Jinglun will take this step sooner or later, so Chen Zhiting's heart suddenly rose, "I still took this step", "I really took this step", and "I finally took this step", he was also relaxed, it was not terrible to pull the trigger, what was terrible was the torment before pulling the trigger, and he had a feeling that it was finally over.

Wu Chongyao was pleasantly surprised, a feeling that a big businessman had finally arrived at the harvest period of trading, a kind of "finally here", "it can be regarded as coming", "really coming!" Such a feeling of winning a bumper harvest in anticipation, so Wu Chongyao had no contradiction in his heart, and after a moment of shock, he knelt on the ground for the first time.

"Weichen congratulates Your Majesty on building a foundation, long live the emperor, long live long live!"

Chen Zhiting came to his senses at this time: "Long live Your Majesty, long live." ”

Fang Shan also knelt and kowtowed, and when others finished shouting, he was the first to speak.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty ascended the throne and called the emperor the name of the country, issued ceremonies, sacrificed to heaven and earth, announced to the world, and invited Fanbang to watch the ceremony. Weichen is not talented, and he dares to serve the post of minister of etiquette for His Majesty. ”

Fang Shan wanted to settle things quickly, he felt that etiquette was the thing he knew best among these people, and he should do it.

Zhu Jinglun waved his hand: "You can discuss these things." Minister Wu, you go and inform the countries and present their credentials. Lord Chen, you have issued a general order to all counties and the whole people. That's all for the big things, as for the enthronement ceremony, you can watch and do it. ”

After saying that, he walked straight out.

A dry group of people hung inside, looking at each other, just let them call the shots, this is not like Zhu Jinglun's usual style, he has always had ideas, or he doesn't like others to help him make ideas, he likes to set rules for others, but he has never seen others set rules for him.

But when they thought about it, they felt that it was right, such a thing as adding a yellow robe has never been a matter of preparing a yellow robe, how can anyone who is an emperor find a tailor to make a yellow robe by himself. (To be continued.) )