Wu Jianying and Liu Yulin did not miss the appointment, and early the next morning, the 2,500 Taiping troops under their command left the city from the south gate, formed a team outside the city, and handed over the city defense.

Interestingly, it was the American Wall who accepted the surrender of the Taiping Army on behalf of the imperial court - he was the chief general of the East Road appointed by Guan Zhuofan, so Ding Shijie did not steal the limelight with him.

Wall is a very showy person, dressed in a hunting suit, and actually washed very straight, wearing a French military hat, but holding a "civilized stick" in his hand, the leather boots under his feet are polished, and his body is clean and dusty, and he can't tell that he is an officer who has just experienced a vicious battle - as everyone knows, he is dressed like this on the battlefield, never holding a knife or a gun in his hand, and never refusing to lie down.

However, there are also unlucky times, when he was injured in Shanghai the year before last, when he was standing tall, he was pierced in the cheek by a bullet from the Taiping Army, and his life was almost lost.

"Mr. Wu, from now on, we are no longer enemies, but friendly forces." Wall said solemnly, "I can add a little bullet for you first, the uniform is not ready at once, and you can only be wronged to wear the original clothes first." Mr. Guan's telegram said that as long as you defeat Chuansha, he will not only ask for a reward for you, but also allocate you another batch of guns and two field guns. ”

Wall's fluent Chinese language surprised Wu Jianying, who had a scorched face and a strong temperament. He and Wu Yulin are both from Jingmen, Hubei, and after the Taiping Army entered Wuchang, they were coerced into joining the army, and gradually became famous because of their courage and good fighting. Accumulated merit rose to today's position. In the past two years, he has been ostracized by his own people. Eat Li Rongfa's hanging again. Disheartened, he surrendered to the officers and soldiers, and he didn't want to eat the bowl of war anymore, he just wanted to go back to his hometown to live a rich life. Now that I heard Guan Zhuo Fan willing to give guns and cannons, it was a very sincere expression, and my heart couldn't help but move.

"General Hua, we are not here to ask for a reward, but Li Rongfa insulted me too much. Be sure to settle with him. Now it's useless for me to talk in the vernacular, wait for me to hit Chuansha, and see my sincerity. Wu Jianying said, "Since we have returned to the imperial court, we can't go back, otherwise we will be taken to the snow in the clouds." ”

Hua Er, and said in his heart that although my name is Huaer, I am not surnamed Hua, how can I be called "General Hua"? If you want to call it, you should call it "General Wall". He knew that the so-called "snow in the clouds". It is the jargon of the Taiping Heavenly Realm, which means to cut off the head. Wu Jianying said. It was also to express his decision with Long Hair, so he was no longer polite, and said: "That's great, our soldiers are fast, let's listen to my arrangement." ”

Wall's arrangement was still to march to the Chuansha Hall on three routes, with the east and west roads being the official army, and the middle road was mainly attacking the south gate of Chuansha, which was led by Wu Jianying, and he was supported by twelve field artillery.

"Okay!" Wu Jianying said without hesitation, "I am very familiar with Li Rongfa's tactics, watch me defeat him!" ”

Just do it. People from all walks of life rested outside Nanhui City for two hours, buried the pot in advance, and after a full meal, the whole army was mobilized, and only Li Hengsong's department left 300 people to guard Nanhui - this is Guan Zhuofan's established plan, Fengxian County south of Nanhui, only more than 1,000 Taiping troops are stationed, and they will never dare to attack Nanhui if they can't figure out the situation.

There were originally more than 2,000 Taiping troops in Chuansha Hall, and with the reinforcements brought by Li Rongfa, there were about 4,000. Zeng Bingzhong, the general in charge of the feint attack here, set off guns and cannons in the west of the city, and the battle was very lively, but as soon as Li Rongfa arrived, he judged the situation and found that there did not seem to be many people in the official army, so he took more than 2,000 soldiers out of the city to storm the city the next day, and Zeng Bingzhong could not support it. Fortunately, the militia regiment trained by Liu Xunjiao was very effective, and the morale was higher than that of the official army, and the two sides worked together, relying on the firepower of foreign artillery, and inspiring the soldiers with the arrival of reinforcements, which was able to maintain a stalemate, but after a long time, they could not escape the end of collapse.

Fortunately, at this time, the Xuan army finally arrived, first Daniel Zhang's horse team stabilized the situation for them, and then Ding Xianda and Forrest's subordinates jointly charged, directly pressing the Taiping army back into the city. And Wu Jianying, who was on the front, was also extremely brave, breaking through Li Rongfa's three camps along the way and entering the city. In the east, as usual, Li Hengsong's troops advanced along the coast, and Chuansha, like Nanhui, was surrounded on three sides.

*

*

The news that the official army had suddenly recovered Nanhui and were storming Chuansha had already spread in the city of Shanghai. It was as if a ray of sunshine suddenly shone out of the haze for many days, and the gentry and people of Shanghai regarded this as great news and smiled.

Guan Zhuofan hadn't closed his eyes for almost three days, and when he received the news that the official army had surrounded the Chuansha Hall that night, he couldn't support it anymore, and staggered back to the west wing of the backyard. I slept until three o'clock in the morning, only to be woken up by Zhang Shun's knock on the door.

"Master, master, the Tang report is here, there is an edict from Mingfa."

"Bring it in."

Guan Zhuofan struggled to raise his head from the pillow, lifted the quilt and sat up, shaking his head to sober himself up. Turned over and went to the ground, but it was cold under my feet, and I found that my shoes and socks were completely gone.

He sat back on the bed, let Zhang Shun put on his socks and boots, and said with a smile: "This is up to you, I was really tired last night, if you didn't clean up for me, I would have to catch a cold." ”

"Master, I didn't come in yesterday." Zhang Shun kept his hands in his hand, lowered his head and said.

"Huh? Could it be that I ......took it off myself," Guan Zhuofan said to himself, he really couldn't recall that he had taken off his shoes and socks to cover the quilt before he went to bed, scratched his head, only to find that his hat was not on his head, but on the head of the bed on the side.

"The villain doesn't know what to do." Zhang Shun replied to this sentence, cleaned up for Guan Zhuofan, took a step back sideways, handed over the Tang Bao, and glanced at the opposite wing room intentionally or unintentionally.

Guan Zhuofan understood, tasted it secretly in his heart, quietly took the Tang Newspaper, found the edict related to Shanghai, and read it slowly.

The gist of the edict was to say that the Hunan army was fighting well in Anhui, and Zeng Guoquan conferred the title of Jiangning Domain Division and had begun to march to Jinling. Li Hongzhang, who is still an envoy to Fujian, has also formed an army and is about to leave for Shanghai with the 15 th battalion of the "Huai Army" organized and trained in Anqing. These words are both false and true, probably to boost the morale of the Shanghai army and civilians.

When it comes to the rout of the counties around Shanghai, there are a few reproachful words in the edict, which are quite impressive: "The defense army of all passes, in the face of thieves, escapes, and the soldiers are impermanent and will have no solid will, why should they be the expectations of the people?" As for saying, "Commanders of the army, you should take the sacred heart as your mind, and you should not learn to accumulate twilight, and you should not be invited to the court's reward!" Although he did not name him, everyone could see that this was a criticism of Guan Zhuofan.

On the day this edict was issued, it was naturally impossible to know that the official army had begun a major counteroffensive, so Guan Zhuofan just smiled and didn't care, but put his mind on another interesting matter.

"Master, where is your meal?" Zhang Shun asked.

"Let's just open it in the house, I'll do it when I'm done."

After a while, Zhang Shun was holding a large tray, and Hu Qingqing carried a food box to set the table for him. When everything was set up and was about to leave, Guan Zhuofan opened his mouth and stopped Hu Qingqing: "Miss Hu." ”

Seeing this, Zhang Shun didn't say a word, and slipped away along the door first.

"What do you have to tell Master Guan?" Hu Qingqing said with a smile on her face with joy.

Guan Zhuofan looked at the table, full of six dishes, a big bowl of white rice, and a small pot of rice wine, and said with a smile: "Usually there are three dishes and one soup, how can you be gracious today?" Not only add vegetables, but also give wine to drink. ”

"Master Guan has won a big victory, and he should be treated in the kitchen." Hu Qingqing said, generously picked up the wine jug, and poured him a glass.

"Incense!" Guan Zhuofan picked up the wine jug and sniffed it, I don't know if it was the fragrance of the wine, or the fragrance of her hands - since Hu Qingqing entered the government, Guan Zhuofan has been concerned about military affairs, and has never pretended to be a beautiful cook, which is really against nature, and he is in a very good mood at the moment, so he will inevitably take the opportunity to laugh.

He took a piece of meat with chopsticks, and while chewing, he said vaguely: "Miss Hu, there is a fox spirit in our yamen, do you know the way?" ”

"Vixen?" Hu Qingqing's face was a little pale, and she exclaimed in a low voice. Gods, demons, and monsters, she believes in these things, "Then you have to find a master to collect them quickly!" ”

"That doesn't have to be. This vixen doesn't seem to have any malicious intent," Guan Zhuofan said casually, "Last night, he took off his shoes and covered the quilt for me, which was very thoughtful." ”

Only then did Hu Qingqing realize that Guan Zhuofan was making fun of himself, pursed his lips and smiled, and said, "That's me, not a fox spirit." ”

"Oh? Thank you so much! Guan Zhuofan recognized her indifferently when he saw her, and he thought it was funny, "It's just that there is a difference between men and women, in the middle of the night, they broke in without knocking on the door, Yu Li is not compatible, right?" ”

"Master Guan, you didn't close the door at all? I didn't take off my hat, I didn't take off my shoes and socks, and I didn't cover the quilt. Hu Qingqing said confidently, "I can't wake up even if I shout, I sleep like a ...... Follow a ...... Something the same. ”

"Follow ...... What is the same? ”

"I don't dare to say."

"It doesn't matter, just say it."

"Like a pig!"

Guan Zhuofan's own scolding was speechless for a while, but his heart was warm. However, he slept enough, and his brain naturally became clear, and he soon thought that there was a huge loophole in Hu Qingqing's words.

"Even if I hadn't closed the door," he asked with a smile, "how did you know the truth?" ”

The beautiful chef's face turned red, she had nothing to say, hurriedly said a blessing, turned around and left. (To be continued......)