The Taiping envoy still bragged a little in front of Wu Chaoyue, and the Taiping army led by Shi Dakai took the two cities of Dong'a and Pingyin, but the progress of the war during the period was definitely not overwhelming, and the fight was actually quite difficult and difficult, and it can even be said that if it wasn't for Shi Dakai's luck, the Taiping Army might not even be able to take these two counties. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

There are two key reasons for the hard fighting, one is that the combat effectiveness of the Taiping Army has declined significantly, and the other is that the problem of the Taiping Army's warlordization has gradually begun to emerge, and the soldiers and horses of the Taiping Army who were ordered to participate in the Northern Expedition began to be afraid of fighting tough battles and difficult battles, and they also began to ponder how to preserve the strength of their descendants.

This point is most obvious when the Taiping army fights Dong'e County, the Qing Dynasty's Dong'e county is located in the modern Dong'e Town, surrounded by mountains on three sides, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the geographical location is very important, stuck in the Taiping army from Yanzhou to Jinan's only way, whether the Taiping army wants to bypass the Taishan Mountains to fight Jinan, or take Dongchang in the west and smash the capital along the canal, they have to fight Dong'e first. Therefore, the old fox Luo Bingzhang would rather give up the state city of Dongpingzhou than give up Dong'e, and concentrated the Qing army forces in southwest Lu in Dong'e early, forcing the Taiping army to storm this fortified city, intending to rely on Dong'e to consume a large amount of Taiping army's ammunition and strength, and also take the opportunity to find out the determination and strength of the Taiping army's northern expedition.

As a result, it was precisely because they all knew that Dong'a was difficult to fight, and the three Taiping armies of Wei Jun, Zeng Lichang and Li Shixian, who were transferred by Yang Xiuxin to help Shi Dakai, were unwilling to gnaw on this hard bone, and they all used the excuse that their troops were tired from afar, and it was difficult to take up the heavy responsibility of the vanguard for fear of hurting the morale of the whole army, and they rushed to take on auxiliary tasks. And Ji Wenyuan's army was left in Yanzhou to protect the grain road, Li Kaifang's army was unable to attack the cavalry, Shi Dakai did not dare to force Wei Jun and Zeng Lichang and other three friendly armies too much, so he had to personally lead his descendants to attack the city.

The general decline in the quality of grassroots soldiers seriously affected the overall combat effectiveness of the Taiping army, so much so that when attacking the outer barrier of the Qing army in Dong'a, Shi Dakai was forced to use the newly equipped advanced weapons, and it took a lot of effort to uproot the five Qing army strongholds outside the city, and was able to carry out the Taiping army's best tunnel siege tactics. However, the Qing army figured out the habit of the Taiping army's earthen camp soldiers never participating in battles, and in turn dug tunnels to connect the Taiping army's tunnels, and killed many Taiping soldiers with muskets, destroying the Taiping army's tunnels.

At the critical moment, General Shengbao, who had never won a decent battle in history, helped Shi Dakai a lot and led the army to reinforce the Dong'e battlefield, General Shengbao refused to accept Luo Bingzhang's suggestion to only wander around the battlefield and harass, and tried in vain to attack the camp of the Taiping Army's Zeng Lichang Army.

In order to maximize the use of the Qing army in Dong'e to consume the Taiping army, Luo Bingzhang had repeatedly promised that there would be reinforcements into the city to reinforce, and the Qing army in Dong'e City did not know that the cavalry who could not defend the city did not know that the sneak attack on the Taiping army camp was the cavalry that could not defend the city, and it was Luo Bingzhang who promised the arrival of reinforcements, and hurriedly sent troops in order to strengthen the strength.

As a result, it naturally gave Shi Dakai the opportunity to hit the Dong'a Qing army in the field battle, and under the premise that he couldn't grasp the overall situation in a hurry, Shi Dakai's blind cat met the dead mouse and made the most correct choice, ignoring the Zeng Lichang army that would be attacked by the Qing army, and concentrated all the mobile forces to deal with the Dong'a Qing army that took the initiative to go out of the city. As a result, under a fierce battle, General Shengbao, who failed to steal chickens, was beaten and fled in embarrassment, and Shi Dakai almost completely annihilated the Dong'a Qing army that took the initiative to go out of the city, which not only severely damaged the strength of the Dong'a defenders, but also seriously hit the morale of the Dong'a Qing army, and unexpectedly laid a solid foundation for taking Dong'e City.

In the end, the Taiping army relied on the flying ladder to successfully ascend the city, and the siege was successful, prompting the Dong'a Qing army to scold Shengbao for abandoning the city and fleeing. At the same time, on the peripheral battlefield, Li Kaifang also led the cavalry of the Taiping Army to beat Shengbao to a disgraced face again, and won on both fronts.

Then, when they attacked Pingyin City according to the original plan, Wei Jun, Zeng Lichang and Li Shixian, who had been resting for a while, couldn't shirk it, and used the lottery method to determine the siege order, but these three masters still only wanted to preserve their strength, and no one wanted to sell coolies between the sieges in turn, and they failed to succeed in the three sieges. Then, after the Taiping army blew down the Pingyin city wall twice with tunnels, the thunderous Shi Dakai sent his descendants to serve as the superintendent of the team, and Wei Junjun reluctantly entered Pingyin City and conquered this small county town where the main force of the defenders was local regimental training.

The battle reached this point, of course, Shi Dakai could only sit down and talk with a few former comrades-in-arms, and asked Wei Jun, Zeng Lichang, Li Shixian and others to focus on the Northern Expedition, not to blindly covet anything to preserve their strength, but to work together as before, regardless of personal interests. At the same time, in order to encourage friendly troops to fight bravely, Shi Dakai also promised to let the army that entered the city first enjoy 30% of the spoils after breaking through Jinan.

It's a pity that Shi Dakai's bitter words have not received any effect, and Zeng Lichang and others, who came to participate in the Northern Expedition because they were completely afraid of Yang Xiuqing's obscenity, were already used to enjoying the blessings and were unwilling to work hard to charge into battle, and they had already understood the hard truth that only people with guns can straighten their waists and speak, but they promised to say it well, but in their hearts, they still regarded Shi Dakai's words as a deaf ear, and they still went their own way, unwilling to work hard for Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai.

What's worse is that the old fox Luo Bingzhang also noticed the internal instability of the Taiping Army through the intelligence collected through various light and dark channels, especially after finding out the news that Shi Dakai used the supervision team to force the friendly troops to charge and attack the city, Luo Bingzhang was so happy that he smashed his fist on the table and said loudly: "Okay! Thieves are on the horizon! ”

"You're going to use the discord again?" Chief of Staff Liu Rong asked with a smile.

"Of course." Luo Bingzhang smiled and said: "The long-haired pseudo-king Shi Dakai actually wants to use his descendants to supervise the battle and force other long-haired soldiers to charge and attack the city, such a good opportunity is placed in front of him, and the old man will not make a distraction, wouldn't he be too sorry for the Qing Dynasty?" ”

"And who are you going to target?" Liu Rong asked again.

"Of course, it's the long-haired pseudo-Guozong Wei Jun." Luo Bingzhang replied without thinking about it: "This bandit leader and Wu Chaoyue have a grudge against killing his brother, Yang Xiuqing and Wu Chaoyue are two traitors who turn enemies into friends, this bandit has no way to avenge his brother Wei Changhui, not to mention, Yang Xiuqing also deliberately transferred him away from the Hukou front line where Changmao confronted Wu thieves, this bandit said in his heart that he was not dissatisfied with the old man, the first to disbelieve. This bandit was dissatisfied, and if he wanted to separate him, he would naturally get twice the result with half the effort. ”

"So how?"

Liu Rong asked again, but Luo Bingzhang didn't answer, just smiled, and then personally wrote a letter to Wei Jun, first talking about the past when Wu Chaoyue used a trick to kill Wei Changhui, and then claimed that he had received reliable information, Wu Chaoyue and Yang Xiuqing had reached a secret deal, Yang Xiuqing wanted to borrow a knife to kill people through this Northern Expedition, first weaken Wei Jun's descendant strength, and then either kill Wei Jun by the hands of the Qing army, or let Shi Dakai find an excuse to directly execute Wei Jun with military law. In the end, Luo Bingzhang, of course, pretended to persuade Wei Jun to rein in the precipice, and the prodigal son turned back and killed Shi Dakai to exchange glory and wealth for the Manchu court.

It was only after Luo Bingzhang signed and sealed that Liu Rong asked with some concern: "Is this useful?" Wei Jun is unlikely to believe it, huh? ”

"Absolutely useful." Luo Bingzhang replied confidently: "Even if Wei Jun's bandit doesn't believe the official's letter, he will definitely not work for Shi Da regardless of personal gains and losses, and will only give priority to preserving his strength." In this way, Shi Dakai's rebel thief will inevitably be more dissatisfied with him, making the distrust between the two thieves deeper and bigger, and the more contradictions they have, the more beneficial it will be to us. ”

Luo Bingzhang's heart-attacking tactics can be regarded as pinching Wei Jun's pulse, although Wei Jun never believes Luo Bingzhang's nonsense in the letter, and also believes that this is Luo Bingzhang's discordant plan, but considering the fate of his descendant once he is hit hard, Wei Jun is even more reluctant to fight a tough battle for Shi Dakai. Therefore, when discussing the tactics of capturing Jinan, Wei Jun took the initiative to lead his army to cross the Yellow River, which had been diverted into Shandong, attack Liaocheng in the west, cut off the peripheral troops of Jinan, and also attract the firepower of the Qing army in Zhili, so as to share the pressure for Shi Dakai to attack Jinan.

What Wei Jun didn't expect was that after he put forward this suggestion, Zeng Lichang and Li Shixian were also scrambling to go to Liaocheng, and were unwilling to go to Jinan, the provincial capital heavily guarded by the Qing army in Shandong. As a result, Shi Dakai also got angry on the spot and shouted: "Don't pay attention to Liaocheng, it's better for the Qing Demon of Liaocheng to dare to send troops west to reinforce Jinan, just to give us the opportunity to wait for the field battle to break the enemy!" The whole army marched into Jinan, besieged the city to send reinforcements, and forced the Shandong Qing Demon to fight a decisive battle with us! ”

"But the Wing King, what if the Qing Demon of Zhili goes south to rescue Jinan?" Wei Jun asked.

"This king can't ask for it!" Shi Dakai roared angrily: "To tell you the truth, Long Live Dongwang arranged for us to fight Jinan this time, and another important task entrusted to us is to try to attract the Qing Demon of Zhili to the south as much as possible, and create an opportunity for us to go north from the sea to capture the Qing Demon Capital!" ”

Wei Jun, Li Shixian and the others were silent, and they all said in their hearts: "Sure enough, let's be cannon fodder, if the Zhili Qing Demon really goes south, you don't need to worry about the eight thousand years old of the Wing King, after the ammunition is finished, there will be Long Live the East King to replenish you, and the army will send you again if the East King is disabled, but what should we do?" Our ammunition soldiers are finished, who will replenish us? ”

The leaders of the friendly forces all had such thoughts in their hearts, and Shi Dakai's plan to attack Jinan in the north was naturally destined to be full of ups and downs. And the old fox Luo Bingzhang also regarded Jinan as the main battlefield construction of this battle early, not only gathered heavy troops to guard in advance, but also built a large number of strong fortifications to welcome the arrival of the Taiping army. At the same time, in order to enhance the defensive depth and tenacity of the Jinan battlefield, Luo Bingzhang also took the three cities of Jinan, Changqing and Qihe as defensive support points, and carefully designed a strict defense system, forcing Shi Dakai to attack the two cities of Changqing and Qihe first, and further consuming Shi Dakai's military strength and ammunition.

Shi Dakai really hit a head on Luo Bingzhang's triangular iron bucket array, but he didn't expect Luo Bingzhang to deploy half of the Shandong New Army in the small city of Changqing, Shi Dakai's frontal assault was naturally invalid, and the tactics of underground siege were easily cracked by Yuan Baoheng, a young general of the Qing army. At the same time, the cavalry of the Qing army stationed in the Qi River also took advantage of the pontoon bridge built in advance to frequently cross the river south to harass the periphery of the Taiping army, which created a lot of trouble for the Taiping army's siege and made it more difficult for the Taiping army to quickly take the county seat of Changqing.

After carefully studying the enemy's deployment, Shi Dakai found that there was a loophole in Luo Bingzhang's defense system, that is, the main force of the cavalry was arranged on the Qi River north of the Yellow River, and the Taiping army could isolate the Qing cavalry north of the Yellow River as long as they destroyed the pontoon bridge erected by the Qing army. Therefore, Shi Dakai did not hesitate, and immediately sent Li Shixian to lead the army to fight the Qi River pontoon bridge, not seeking to capture the Qi River, but only hoping to block the Qing cavalry north of the Yellow River.

Shi Dakai soon found out that the Qi River pontoon bridge was actually Luo Bingzhang's carefully designed bait, after Li Shixian's army was ordered to attack the Qi River pontoon bridge, although General Shengbao's cavalry did not cross the river to block, but Luo Bingzhang built a large number of strong fortifications next to the Qi River pontoon bridge in advance brought huge casualties to the Taiping army, the Qing army hiding in the fortifications to guard the bridge blocked the road with guns and cannons, and repelled many attacks by the Taiping army one after another, Li Shixian did not want to lose his private army too much, and naturally did not fight firmly enough. Therefore, after three days of fierce fighting, Li Shixian's army failed to cut off the Qi River pontoon bridge, but instead sent people to Shi Dakai for help.

Not far away, Shi Dakai soon came to the Qihe battlefield with the main force, first scolded Li Shixian, who was ineffective, and demoted his official position to three levels, and then personally supervised the attack on the Qihe pontoon bridge, and finally after paying a heavy price, Shi Dakai's army finally burned down the Qi River pontoon bridge built by the Qing army, and completely razed the Qing army fortifications on the south bank. But......

However, it was only the next morning, and the Taiping scouts were stunned to see that a pontoon bridge had been built overnight on the Luokou Ferry in the north of Jinan City, and the main force of the Qing cavalry, which had been blocked on the north bank of the Yellow River, was also smiling and crossing the river, appearing on the south bank of the Luokou Ferry which was also protected by many strong fortifications.

After receiving this news, Shi Dakai didn't even have the strength to get angry, sat back on the handsome chair and shook his head again and again, and then said to the staff officer Zhang Suimou very helplessly: "Send a letter to the East King, let him know the situation on our side, tell me that I can't break through Jinan in a short time, and even force the main force of the Zhili Qing Demon to go south to rescue Jinan, so please make a decision." ”

Zhang Suimou agreed with a depressed expression, and when he picked up the brush to make a book, Shi Dakai suddenly said, "Wait, report the situation of Wei Jun, Li Shixian and Zeng Lichang to the East King Long Live, and ask the East King Long Live to give me the right to kill the three of them!" Also authorized that I can take over their army at any time! ”

"Will such a request make Wei Guozong and Prime Minister Zeng unhappy?" Zhang Suimou asked with some concern.

"It doesn't matter if they're happy or not!" Shi Dakai scolded, "The three bastards, all of them only think about preserving their strength, and none of them are willing to work hard to fight!" Long live the East Kings If you don't give me such power, what can I do to restrain them?! ”