In order to prevent any accidents, while making tense arrangements for the Northern Expedition, Wu Chaoyue also made preparations for a two-front war early on, and decided to take charge of the war on the northern front with the Wu Army of Shanxi and the Wu Army of Henan, and let the Cao Yanzhong Corps of the Wu Army and the Wu Army's Naval Division secretly start the expedition preparations, so as to launch the Eastern Crusade when Yang Xiuqing suddenly turned around and moved, and dredged the Yangtze River channel that was bound to be blocked by the Taiping Army by force. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Of course, the two-front war is a huge test for Wu Jun's economy, industry and logistics, even if Yan Jingming, the number one financial expert in the late Qing Dynasty, helps to operate, Wu Chaoyue does not dare to say that he has the grasp to start a war on two fronts and win on both fronts. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue also had to prepare a contingency plan - if it really didn't work, he would temporarily stop the Northern Expedition and make every effort to dredge the Yangtze River waterway.

Wu Chaoyue was very reluctant to prepare this contingency plan, and even more unwilling to repeat the mistakes of history, leading the Han army and the Han army to fight to the death. But there is no way, the Yangtze River waterway is too critical for Wu Chaoyue and the Wu army soldiers, whether it is the Wu army soldiers or the common people and gentry in the areas controlled by the Wu army, they must not allow the Yangtze River channel to be cut off by the Taiping army.

Without the Yangtze River waterway, silk, tea and other local products produced in Huguang and Sichuan would not be able to be exported for money, Wu Chaoyue would not be able to collect taxes to support the army, and the economy and people's livelihood in Huguang and Sichuan would also be greatly affected. Without the Yangtze River waterway, Wu Chaoyue would not be able to import machinery and equipment, weapons and raw materials from overseas, and the industry would be greatly affected. At the same time, the Wu army in Shanghai, which was heavily surrounded by the Taiping army, would also fall into the dangerous situation of fighting alone.

Therefore, if Yang Xiuqing really turned his face and blocked the Yangtze River waterway, Wu Chaoyue would have no choice but to immediately move eastward and fight to the death with the Taiping army that controls the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The danger of a war on two fronts had already made Wu Chaoyue worried, and what Wu Chaoyue never expected was that at the critical moment, a third potential enemy appeared in the Wu army - the Twist Army!

Mainly active at the junction of the four provinces of Henan, Anhui and Sulu, the Five Banners of the Twisted Army originally did not have much contact with the Wu Army, and because the three prefectures of Chenzhou, Guide and Ruzhou had been controlled by the Qing Army, the only few contacts between the Wu Army and the Twist Army were mainly cooperation, even if the traitor Li Zhaoshou of the Twist Army took the initiative to provoke and cause trouble several times, it failed to cause a large-scale conflict between the Wu Army and the Twist Army.

However, as time passed, the situation gradually changed, and after losing direct contact with the Manchu court, the Qing army training in Chenzhou, Guide and Ruzhou had no choice, and chose to surrender voluntarily to Shun, and most of them chose to surrender to the Wu army, which had legal discipline. And when the news of the Wu army's defeat of the Qing-Russian coalition army spread, the remnants of the Qing army in Sanfu rushed to surrender to the Wu army, and no longer had any confidence to wait for the Manchu court to counterattack and rescue.

The contradictions thus intensified, the Qing army in southeast Henan not only fought fiercely with the Twist Army for many years, and there was a bitter hatred for each other, but also had a very fierce conflict of interests in the local area, even after the surrender of the banner, there was no change in the slightest, so the number of armed conflicts between the Wu Army and the Twist Army in Henan naturally surged, and the scale also expanded rapidly, and even broke out several times with a thousand-person army engagement.

Of course, it is not entirely possible to blame the flags of the Twist Army, who do not understand the national righteousness, and the Wu army is also responsible, Zeng Guoquan, who commanded the Wu Army in eastern Henan, is a master who would rather die than suffer losses, and the generals under his command are all like to take advantage of them desperately, and they do not like to tolerate and seek grievances, so naturally they do not vigorously restrain the local army and reduce the conflict with the Twist Army. At the same time, after a large number of local Qing troops and regimental training were collected, the strictness of discipline of the Wu army also declined, and in the case of a conflict of interest with the Twist army, it was really difficult for the Wu army in Henan not to break out a war with the Twist army.

As a result, at this critical moment, the sharp contradiction between the Wu army and the Twist Army in Henan suddenly broke out on a large scale, in order to fight for the control of Gaoxinji in Guide Province, the Guide Wu Army and the Twist Army Zhengbai Banner main force fought hard, and Jiang Yili, the general of the Wu Army who went south to take over the Guide Mansion, also personally led the army to participate in the battle, and directly engaged the main force of the Twist Army Zhengbai Banner.

Gong Deshu, the banner owner of the white flag of the Twisted Army, was originally drawn by Wu Chaoyue himself, and this will start a war with the Wu Army, of course, the new hatred and old hatred came to his heart, not only did he not give in, but also immediately sent people to Zhang Lexing and other Twisted Army banner owners for help, coupled with Li Zhaoshou's unremitting efforts to sow discord, the surrounding Twist Army sent troops to reinforce Gong Deshu. After Zeng Guoquan received Jiang Yili's request for help, he did not hesitate to send Shu Bao to lead the Manchurian and Mongolian cavalry south to reinforce him, and when Wu Chaoyue received the news, the Henan Wu army and the Twist army had already fought in the territory of Guide Mansion, and the sun and moon were dark.

"Oh, annoying, isn't that a mess for me?"

After reading Zeng Guoquan's official report, Wu Chaoyue frowned, and Zhao Liewen, Dai Wenjie and others also frowned, all of them were extremely worried that the Wu army in Henan would start a full-scale war with the five banners of the Twist Army and affect the Northern Expedition plan of the Wu army. Still sighed for a long time, Zhao Liewen said to Wu Chaoyue helplessly: "Comfort Ting, there are only two choices, one is to transfer Nie Shicheng's soldiers and horses to the east for reinforcements, so that the Twist Army will retreat in the face of difficulties." The second is to ask Yang Xiuqing to intervene and strive for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. ”

"Nie Shicheng's soldiers and horses can't be moved lightly." Wu Chaoyue shook his head and said: "Zhang Lexing and Gong Deshu's gang are outlaws who are not afraid of heaven and earth, and when they see us mobilizing the main force of Henan to advance eastward, they will not know what it means to retreat in the face of difficulties, and will only expand the conflict with us even more." ”

"Then I can only ask Yang Xiuqing for help." Zhao Liewen said even more helplessly: "But with Yang Xiuqing's position and attitude now, I'm afraid it's more dangerous to do this, if he is determined to save Zhao from the chaos in the capital, this is a good excuse to provoke a war." ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded, and also knew that Yang Xiuqing was likely to use this incident to attack himself and take the opportunity to provoke an armed conflict between the Taiping army and the Wu army. However, after thinking about it for a long time, Wu Chaoyue made up his mind, gritted his teeth and said: "Send someone to contact Yang Xiuqing and ask him to mediate, if he takes the opportunity to stir up trouble, we will accompany him to the end!" ”

"Comfort Ting, isn't it too reckless to do this?" Dai Wenjie asked with some concern: "The Northern Expedition is imminent, at this time, can we avoid re-starting the war with Longhair, or try to avoid it as much as possible?" ”

"If you want to add sin, why should you do it?"

Wu Chaoyue made a famous saying, and snorted coldly: "If the anonymous letter that Zhou Wenxian brought back is true, then no matter what excuse Yang Xiuqing makes, he will definitely block the Yangtze River waterway and drag us back when we launch the Northern Expedition." In this case, instead of making useless forbearance, it is better to give Yang Xiuqing the excuse for restarting the war, and let him directly state his attitude and position, so as to save us from worrying every day! ”

"Yes." Zhao Liewen echoed and said: "Instead of guarding day and night and passively guarding, it is better to induce Yang Xiuqing to make a move in advance, which is much better than Yang Xiuqing's sudden action during our Northern Expedition." ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded, immediately ordered his staff to write a book, and wrote a letter to Yang Xiuqing, asking Yang Xiuqing to come forward to mediate the war conflict between the Wu army in Henan and the banners of the Twisted Army. It was also a coincidence, only the next day, Yang Xiuqing took the initiative to send people to the capital of Hubei Province, and forced Wu Chaoyue to hand over Jing Shou, the envoy sent to Hubei by the Manchu court, to the Taiping army under the pretext of asking Wu Chaoyue to prove that he had no intention of betraying the alliance.

Hearing the request of the envoy of the Taiping Army, Wu Chaoyue also closed his eyes in pain, not because he was embarrassed, but because Wu Chaoyue was already basically sure that his good brother Yang Xiuqing had betrayed the great cause of opposing the Qing Dynasty, and chose to work hand in hand with the Manchu court for the sake of power, and was sad to lose Yang Xiuqing, a former firm ally.

In addition to being sad, Wu Chaoyue even rarely asked his staff to write a book, and said directly to the envoy of the Taiping Army: "Go back and tell your long live the Eastern King, just say that this messenger sent by the Qing Demon happens to be my friend, and he is somewhat kind to me, I can't hand him over to you." Also, when Yang Xiuqing and I signed the alliance, we didn't agree to hand over the messenger of the Qing Demon to each other. ”

"Marshal Wu, long live our East King wants you to hand over the Qing Demon Envoy to prove that you have no intention of betraying the alliance and give you a chance to prove your sincerity in continuing to maintain the friendly alliance." The envoy of the Taiping army threatened: "If you refuse, Marshal, our East King may suspect that you have different intentions and are ready to betray the alliance agreement between your and our armies." ”

"Whatever." Wu Chaoyue waved his hand and said, "Go down and rest, you can leave whenever you want." ”

Sending off the last Taiping envoy who was likely to be peaceful, Wu Chaoyue's first thing was to order the Wu Army's naval division and Wu's Cao Yanzhong Department to enter a state of readiness, and at the same time mobilize the Wu army's troops and horses in Jiangxi, ready to restart the war with the Taiping army in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In addition, Wu Chaoyue seized the time to send a secret envoy to warn the Wu army in Shanghai, so that Zhou Tenghu and others could prepare for a sudden sneak attack by the Taiping army in Songjiang.

In the end, Wu Chaoyue had to order Nie Shicheng to lead the army to Guide Mansion to expel the Twist Army, and make all preparations in advance to abandon the Northern Expedition plan, and sighed regretfully: "It's a pity, I can't hurry up and do it quickly, and when the Manchu court relaxes a little, I don't know how much difficulty it will increase if I want to conquer the capital." ”

In the following time, Wu Chaoyue, who was about to officially marry Zeng Jijing, had been sullen, and always paid attention to the changes in the situation in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but the expected speed of Yang Xiuqing's move greatly exceeded Wu Chaoyue's expectations, and only in the past three days, Zhang Dejian, the head of the Wu army's spies, rushed to him like a fly, and shouted out of breath: "Dashuai, something is wrong!" There's something big going on over there with Long Hair! ”

"So fast?" Wu Chaoyue was stunned at first, and then when he thought of Yang Xiuqing's violent temper, Wu Chaoyue was not too surprised, but sighed and asked Zhang Dejian: "What excuse does Long Hair use?" Blockade of the Yangtze River channel downstream? ”

"Dashuai, what do you mean by that?" What answered Wu Chaoyue was Zhang Dejian's dumbfounded rhetorical question......

…………

Let's also take a look at the situation on the side of the Manchu court, for Wu Chaoyue, the outbreak of a large-scale armed conflict between the Wu army and the Twist army in Henan Province in Guide Mansion is of course too bad news to be bad. However, for the Manchu court, this news is of course a great good news, especially when it has been discovered that the Wu army in Henan and Shanxi is actively planning the Northern Expedition to the East, this news is equivalent to the gospel from heaven for the Manchu court.

"The emperor bless me in the Qing Dynasty." Devil Six even cheered directly: "The twist bandit and the Henan Wu thief are fighting at this time, which is equivalent to doing our Qing court a great favor!" At this moment, not only did the Wu thieves in Henan dare not go north easily, but Yang Xiuqing also had an excuse to go to war directly with the Wu thieves. ”

A few days later, Jing Shou, who had been in contact with the Manchu court with Wu Chaoyue's permission, suddenly sent the good news with six hundred miles of urgency, reporting Wu Chaoyue's refusal to hand him over to Yang Xiuqing. Hearing this good news, the devil six didn't even invite Yi Zhi, and ran directly into Cining Palace and yelled and jumped at Ci'an, "Imperial sister-in-law, good news!" Great news! Wu surpassed the traitor, and really refused to hand over Jingshou to Yang Xiuqing, and Daqing was saved now! There is salvation! ”

Knowing that Yang Xiuqing would definitely use this as an excuse to take the opportunity to re-provoke the war with the Wu army, Ci'an was also so excited that he shed tears and couldn't cry, "The emperor blesses, the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty have appeared, and now there is hope for the Qing Dynasty again." ”

Cixi, who lived in Chuxiu Palace, only knew the good news after being invited to Cining Palace by Ci'an, although the city government was far deeper than Ci'an, but suddenly hearing this situation, Cixi couldn't help wiping the corners of her eyes, and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed, and then it's up to Yang Xiuqing to be the puppet king." ”

"Sister-in-law, it's not just that you owe the east wind, you should already be burning Chibi." Devil Six smiled and said: "Counting the time and distance, Yang Xiuqing's side should have started to block the Yangtze River waterway in the past few days, and Wu Chaoyue should also be forced to send troops to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to dredge the Yangtze River waterway by force." ”

Cixi nodded, and asked lightly: "Sixth, in your opinion, how much time can Yang Xiuqing, that traitor, buy us?" ”

"Brother Chen estimates that he can buy us at least a year." Devil Six said triumphantly: "If Wu Chaoyue wants to completely dredge the Yangtze River channel, he must capture Hukou, Pengze, Anqing, Zhenjiang and Jiangyin, five important river defense towns with long-haired heavy troops, and at the same time take Jiangning, without a year, Wu Thief does not want to do this!" ”

"You can't just rely on long hair." Cixi shook her head and said, "To prevent Longhair's pressure from turning back again, we also have to try to help Longhair." ”

"Sister-in-law, don't worry, my brother understands this truth." Devil Ziliu nodded hurriedly, and said impatiently: "Brother also thinks that we should take out part of the arms we bought from foreigners to help the bandits, so that they can be more powerful to contain the Wu thieves for us, so that the Wu thieves will not dare to send troops north." ”

"You can watch this happen." Cixi nodded again, and pointed again: "Don't just care about helping the bandits, but also try to take the opportunity to buy them, the officials who should be crowned, and the knights who should be knighted, so that they work harder, and there will be more bandits ......." ”

"Master, Gui Liang Gui Zhongtang handed over a sign to ask for a meeting, saying that there was a major report about the long-haired pseudo-king Yang Xiuqing, and it looked very urgent." The cautious report of the chief eunuch An Dehai interrupted Cixi's ear to the devil six.

If it was changed to usual, An Dehai's short eyes would definitely make Cixi angry, and maybe there would be a danger of being punished for slapping his mouth, but this time it was completely different, after hearing that it was about Yang Xiuqing, Cixi not only did not feel the slightest displeasure, but also quickly changed her words and said: "Quick, please Gui Zhongtang come in." ”

During the command, Cixi's mouth still had a happy smile on the corner, and Devil Six and Ci'an smiled even more happily, as if they had seen the spectacular picture of Wu Jun and Taiping Army fighting again.

Ci'an, Cixi, and Devil Six soon laughed even more happily, because Gui Liang Gui Zhongtang not only stumbled into Cining Palace, but rushed to Ci'an and Cixi and knelt down on their knees, before their mouths opened, tears had already welled up in their eyes, and the good greeting turned into crying silently.

"Gui Aiqing, what are you crying about? Isn't it just that Changmao and Wu Chaoyue are re-starting the war again, is it necessary to be so excited? Ci'an smiled and complained, but the corners of his eyes couldn't help but flicker......

"Queen Mother, it's not Changmao and Wu Chaoyue who are rebels to start a war again! It was the long-haired thief general Wu Ruxiao who discovered that Yang Xiuqing had formed an alliance with us, and took the lead in raising troops to fight against Yang Xiuqing, and the long-haired thieves will respond one after another! ”

Gui Zhongtang, who cried with joy, finally shouted out the important event he had come to report, hearing this, Devil Liu's eyes suddenly turned black, and he fell to the ground with a plop, and at the last moment before losing consciousness, Devil Six also vaguely heard An Dehai's male duck shouting, "Queen Mother!" Dowager! Two queen mothers, what's wrong with you? What's wrong? ”