After severely attacking and driving away the main force of the White Banner of the Twisted Army, Wu Chaoyue did not return to the provincial capital for a long time, in fact, he was also preparing for the future, Wu Chaoyue did not expect that in the future, all the ten prefectures and one state in Hubei would raise troops by themselves, but Wu Chaoyue, the most important Xiangyang Prefecture on the northern front, must be in his hands. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Coincidentally, during the period of stationing in Xiangyang, Wu Chaoyue's honest brother-in-law Nie Shicheng was kind and blessed, and by chance he met the daughter of Liu Qi, the prefect of Xiangyang, who had a good reputation. At the same time, Wu Chaoyue used the excuse of coaching cavalry to seconded Duolonga to serve in the provincial capital, brainwashed and observed, and strived to win.

Originally, Wu Chaoyue also planned to use the excuse of anti-twist to deploy a new army in Hubei Province to contain and prevent the Duxing Asuo Department in De'an Mansion, but considering that he did not have many troops in his hands, it was not good to be too scattered, coupled with the inconvenience of the barrier of Dahong Mountain, it was difficult to play a strong role in containing the army even if he deployed the descendant army, so Wu Chaoyue quickly changed his mind and picked an obedient and somewhat educated veteran from his command, so that he could make up for the lack of the Yunmeng County Order in De'an Prefecture, and set up a local regiment to practice holding the waterway of Zhuanshui. A buffer zone was built to prevent the Qing army from sending troops south from Xinyang.

To do these two inconspicuous but very important things, the letter from the official document asking for help was also sent to Wu Chaoyue, and Wu Chaoyue also said goodbye to Du Xing'a and Liu Qizhi and others, and set off south with the Hubei New Army, and came to relieve the siege of the official document with a smile. However, after returning to the provincial capital, Wu Chaoyue did not go to visit the official Wen as soon as he returned to the city as before, but under the pretext of contracting the wind and cold on the road, he hid in the governor's yamen and fooled around with Fu Shanxiang and Feng Wanzhen, who gathered less and left more, and made every effort to create people to inherit the old Wu family.

Wu Chaoyue was so calm that he didn't go to see the official document, but a few days ago, he was crying and shouting and begging Wu Chaoyue to come back to relieve the siege, and the official platform didn't know what medicine he had taken wrong, and he even became as stable as Mount Tai, and let the foreigners raise a petition outside his governor's yamen every day, but they just ignored it. In the end, after receiving the holy decree of Emperor Xianfeng asking the official to check Wu Chaotongyi's matter and send it to Hubei, the official system Taicai Shi Ran came to the yamen of the governor of Hubei and met with Wu Chaoyue in the back hall.

The first thing after meeting was that the official document prevailed, and when he took out the bullshit holy decree to check Wu Chaoyue's private foreigners, Wu Chaoyue could only kneel to greet him. Then after reciting the holy decree and sitting down, Wu Chaoyue immediately shouted at the official text, "Uncle, I am wronged, the little nephew took American foreigners to Xiangyang and Xinye, but the "Wangxia Treaty" does not stipulate that foreigners are not allowed to be hired to go deep into the mainland, and there is no provision in the Qing Dynasty that incumbent officials are not allowed to hire foreigners to run errands for the imperial court, what is the crime of the little nephew?" ”

I already knew that Wu Chaoyue would definitely take advantage of this loophole, and the official document had already responded, so he sighed and said: "Virtuous nephew, I also know that you are a little wronged in this matter, but before you hired foreigners to go north, why didn't you think about asking the court to ask for the court's consent first?" Also, you don't say hello to the old man, how can the old man protect you? ”

"The military situation is like fire, and it is too late to come up in time." Wu Chaoyue replied confidently.

"Then there is no way, the old man can only report to the court." The official said in an official tone: "But don't worry, nephew, the old man will try his best to intercede for you, and ask the emperor and the court to give you some relief from the law." ”

"Thank you, uncle."

Wu Chaoyue pretended to thank him, and then stopped talking, waiting for the official to open his mouth and beg him to settle the foreigners' trouble. However, what Wu Chaoyue never expected was that Guan Wen suddenly smiled and asked: "By the way, virtuous nephew, inquire about something, I heard that when you were in Shanghai, a foreigner went to the yamen of the provincial capital to beat the drum for you and voice grievances, is there such a thing?" ”

Rao is Wu Chaoyue's cheeks are thick, and after hearing the words of the official text, he will inevitably lose weight and blush, nod and say, "Uncle Hui, there is such a thing." ”

"Huh." Guan Wen smiled, and suddenly said: "By the way, a few days ago, the old man was really confused, and forgot to study the Tianjin Treaty signed by the imperial court and the foreigners, and it did not say that the foreigners were allowed to establish a consulate in Hankou. ”

Wu Chaoyue's face changed again, knowing that Guan Wen had not only guessed that he was making trouble behind his back, but also had come up with a way to deal with foreigners making trouble - taking advantage of the treaty loopholes like himself, Xu Guangjin, and Ye Mingchen. After the official wen glanced at Wu Chaoyue proudly, he got up and said: "The old man is fine, since you are not feeling well, then you can rest, the old man will leave first." ”

After that, Guan Wen really got up and left, and made up his mind in his heart, this time he had to clean up Wu Chaoyue who dared to use foreigners to plot against him no matter what. As a result, what made Guan Wen very proud was that he had just gotten up and left, and Wu Chaoyue immediately said: "Uncle, please wait, the little nephew has another matter." ”

"What's the matter with the virtuous nephew?"

Guan Wen finally showed a little smile, and he was ready to greet Wu Chaoyue kowtowing and begging for mercy. However, Wu Chaoyue's next words also made the face of the official Wen change-Wu Chaoyue said with a smile: "The little nephew almost forgot to apologize to his uncle, the day before yesterday, his uncle's beloved concubine celebrated his birthday, and the little nephew was in Xiangyang, and he failed to lead the civil and military officials of Hubei to the uncle's governor's yamen to congratulate him, which is really a bit rude, and I hope that my uncle will forgive my sins." ”

Looking at Wu Chaoyue viciously, the eyes of the official Wen, who has always been old and treacherous, rarely showed a dark green fierce light, Wu Chaoyue smiled more easily, and suddenly changed the title of the official text, and said: "Lord Taiwan's forgiveness, the lower officials should not know about this matter, but it is really not a coincidence, it happened that that day a foreigner ran to your governor's yamen to beat the drum and sound the grievances, and the city was full of wind and rain, and the lower officials were deaf and blind, and it was difficult to think about it." ”

The official Wen who had an extremely unclean butt regretted that his intestines were so blue that he continued to smile and said: "But please rest assured, the foreigners are quite familiar with the lower officials, and the lower officials will tell them to keep their mouths shut, don't shake this matter to the newspaper office in the concession, otherwise, if this matter is even published in the newspaper of the concession, it will be even more difficult for you to explain it to the imperial court." ”

Guan Wen's face was even more ugly, knowing that Wu Chaoyue was determined to tear his face with himself this time, and was ready to fight with himself to break the net. At the same time that he regretted being confused for a while and was also held by Wu Chaoyue, the old officialdom official Guan Wen quickly calculated for a moment, and still took out the letter from his sleeve that Wu Chaoyue asked him to commit perjury, and put it in front of Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue picked up the letter and checked it to see that it was correct, and then said with a smile: "Thank you uncle, please rest assured, the foreigners, you don't have to bother your uncle to come forward, the little nephew will explain it for you, just let them stop as soon as possible." ”

With an extremely gloomy face, he snorted, and the official wen flicked his sleeves and turned to leave, constantly thinking about how to retaliate in the future, while Wu Chaoyue slowly tore the letter to shreds, and what he was thinking about in his heart was also how to compete for power and profit with the official wen who had turned his face in the future, and restrain each other.

After Guan Wen left angrily, Zhao Liewen quickly appeared in front of Wu Chaoyue, and said with a smile: "Weiting, do this step, and your life in Hubei will be difficult in the future." ”

"I can't help it, if I don't threaten him with this, he will use my letters as evidence to rectify me." Wu Chaoyue spread his hands helplessly, and said to himself: "It's okay to tear your face directly, many things are easier to do." ”

…………

The handle was pinched in Wu Chaoyue's hand, no matter how reluctant he was, the official document could only report to Emperor Xianfeng according to Wu Chaoyue's sophistry, although he did not make perjury for Wu Chaoyue and said that the hiring of foreigners was to obtain his consent first, but he did not dare to mention that Wu Chaoyue asked him to commit perjury. It's just that what the official text and Wu Chaoyue didn't expect in advance was that when the official document was sent to the capital, it was no longer important for Wu Chaoyue to go deep into the mainland with foreigners, and all the attention of the Manchu court and the Xianfeng Emperor had been diverted to an earth-shattering news - the two camps in Jiangnan and Jiangbei were successively broken by the Taiping army, and the two front-line commanders of Qishan and Xiang Rong also died in the army!

As mentioned above, after the Taiping Army's Qin Rigang Department broke through the Yizheng, Qi Shan had already died violently in the army, and afterwards Xiang Rong didn't even have time to ask for his will, so he first cut and then appointed Ji Hang'a as the acting commander of Qi Shan, temporarily stabilizing the situation, but he was also forced to transfer a large number of troops from the Jiangnan camp to reinforce the Zhenjiang battlefield, causing the Jiangnan camp to be extremely empty. When Shi Dakai broke through Moling Pass and approached the Jiangnan camp, the panicked Xiang Rong hurriedly dispatched the troops from the Zhenjiang battlefield to return to the Jiangnan camp, which not only was too late in time, but also gave the Taiping army the opportunity to play a field war to give full play to its field expertise.

It was not that the Qing soldiers did not work hard, and when the Jiangbei battalion was in arrears for one and a half months and the Jiangnan battalion was in arrears for more than two months, the Qing soldiers still obeyed the command and order, and fought a few victories on local battlefields, which was worthy of the money and food that the Manchu court had raised them over the years. It was the quality of the Taiping soldiers who were better, and it was also the command art of Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai that was more superb, taking advantage of the opportunity of the dispersion of the Qing army's fortified forces in many places, and constantly breaking through the various battalions of the Qing army in a flexible and flexible manner, and taking advantage of the opportunity of Xiang Rong's hasty dispatch of troops to help the fire, and gave full play to the strength of field warfare, and ate the Qing army contingent that was forced to leave the fortifications one by one, completely weakening the outer defense of the Qing army before launching a general attack on the Jiangnan camp and the Jiangbei camp.

As a result of the general attack, the two large battalions in Jiangbei and Jiangnan both collapsed, Qin Rigang broke the main force of the Jiangbei battalion in Guazhou, and took advantage of the momentum to occupy Yangzhou again, and Gilhang, who was in charge of the line of fire, collapsed to Gaoyou; Shi Dakai personally led the army to break through the Jiangnan camp, and Xiang Rong led the remnants to flee to Danyang, where he hanged himself in shame. All the departments of the Jiangnan battalion were severely damaged, but Wu Quanmei, Wu Chaoyue's fellow countryman, led the Red Dan fleet to flee to Lu Port intact, which more or less saved a little face for the Qing army.

By the way, in this battle, the Taiping Army not only completely smashed the two main forces of the Qing army that had plagued Nanjing for three years, but also Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, the two future famous generals of the Taiping Army, were also able to show their talents. ——Fortunately for Wu Chaoyue, one of these two masters, Yang Xiuqing, was put on the battlefield in Anhui and the other on the battlefield in southern Jiangsu, so they were not used to trouble Wu Chaoyue.

After receiving this news, Emperor Xianfeng, who had spent more than 20 million taels of silver on these two battalions for more than three years, fainted on the spot, and after being rescued, Emperor Xianfeng also forgot that Xiang Rong and Qi Shan had both died, and yelled to arrest Xiang Rong and Qi Shan together, and Ling Chi was executed! After being reminded by the minions that these two masters had already burped, Emperor Xianfeng suddenly hid his face and cried again, crying so dark that there was no light day and night, "It's over!" The Qing Dynasty is over! ”

In such a background and situation, such a trivial matter as the 'famous general of the Qing Dynasty' Wu Chaoyue taking advantage of the loophole of the treaty to hire foreigners has of course become irrelevant, not to mention that Emperor Xianfeng forgot to want to knock Wu Chaoyue, that is, Mianyu and Wen Qing, the new chief military aircraft who have always discriminated against the Han people, dare not make a big fuss about this matter anymore, and can only criticize Wu Chaoyue's lawlessness like a dragonfly. Emperor Xianfeng, who was about to regroup, was absent-minded, and casually ordered: "Just ask the official to reprimand a few words in person, and by the way, tell the official text to quickly expand the Huguang army for me so that it can be mobilized." ”

…………

The approval document of the Military Aircraft Department was transferred back to Hubei, and the official document that had already turned against Wu Chaoyue was even more annoying, but also took the opportunity to make things difficult for Wu Chaoyue, under the pretext of expanding the number of soldiers in Hubei to 70,000 so that the Manchu court could transfer them, and the lion opened his mouth to demand that the Hubei Domain Treasury managed by Wu Chaoyue bear sixty percent of the military expenses. At the end, the official text said to Wu Chaoyue with a smile: "Don't say that the old man is partial to you to bear sixty percent, but Hubei's money and grain situation is better than Hunan's, and you have good financial management, so the old man can only let you work more." ”

Knowing that the official document was deliberately retaliating, Wu Chaoyue didn't argue, but just sent the official document away under the pretext that he needed to consider it, and then returned to the back hall to discuss with Zhao Liewen. As a result, as soon as he sat down, Zhao Liewen smiled at Wu Chaoyue and said, "Are you here?" This is just the beginning, and there will be more and more such things in the future. ”

"Be mentally prepared." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said, "Let's talk about business, what about the expansion of Huguang Green Camp?" We can take out this money and food, but it's a pity to take it to the official to raise the waste under his command, what should we do? ”

"What else can I do? I can only endure it. Zhao Liewen replied lightly: "The expansion of Huguang soldiers is a requirement of the imperial court, and the official document wants you to pay money and food, unless you don't want to be the governor of Hubei, or directly rebel, otherwise you can only endure it, at most it is to compete with the official text, and bear less money and food." ”

"Rebellion? Huifu, you really dare to speak. ”

Wu Chaoyue pondered for a moment, and suddenly asked: "The two gangs in Hankou, have you got any evidence that the official document is taking commissions in the tea trade?" ”

"I've got it a long time ago." Zhao Liewen replied: "The business of those two gangs is so big, how can the people under the official platform let them go?" As for their origins, judging from various clues, it is likely that your teacher and Luo Futai, who has broken off the tea entry. ”

"It's only possible that Luo Bingzhang and my teacher." Wu Chaoyue said: "Zuo Zongtang ran to my teacher's command, and he is very likely to stab my teacher for his temper, and my teacher is for Huguang's money, food, and military salary, and it is natural to collect the evidence of the official document to prevent it." ”

"Comfort Pavilion, do you want to contact them to do it together?" Zhao Liewen asked curiously.

Wu Chaoyue shook his head directly without thinking about it, and said: "Can't get in touch, we must learn the lesson of the last time we were held by the official letter with ironclad evidence, don't repeat the mistakes of the past, my teacher and Luo Bingzhang are not fuel-efficient lamps." I dare to write to them today to contact them to do it together, and they may poke the letter to the official document tomorrow. ”

"And what are you going to do?" Zhao Liewen asked again.

"Huifu, have you thought about this?" Wu Chaoyue asked rhetorically: "The official document wants to expand the Huguang army to 70,000 people, and asks us to bear sixty percent of the money and grain, we can get it by living frugally, and can Luo Bingzhang take out the remaining forty percent?" ”

"I shouldn't be able to take it out." Zhao Liewen replied: "Without Zuo Zongtang to help him Luo Bingzhang scrape the ground, and without the important input of Chali, and at the same time he has to bear the reconstruction of the Hunan army and Chu Yong's combat needs, Luo Bingzhang has long been overstretched, and the possibility of being able to come up with this money and grain is very small." ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Liewen also somewhat understood what Wu Chaoyue meant, and said: "Weiting, do you want to go up to the house and draw the ladder, deliberately agree to the extortion of the official platform, and indirectly force Luo Bingzhang, who is short of money and food, to a dead end, and force him to turn his face directly with the official text?" Shake out the evidence that you have already got your hands and bring down the official document? ”

"Regardless of whether Luo Bingzhang is determined to bring down the official document or not, as long as he fights with the official document, we can all profit from it, and at least we can share a lot of pressure for me." Wu Chaoyue knew very well the difficulty of letting Luo Bingzhang and Guanwen, the two old foxes, fight to defeat both, and he didn't have too much extravagance, but just asked, "Is it feasible?" ”

Zhao Liewen pondered for a moment and replied, "It's feasible." It's best to let Luo Bingzhang know that you have also turned against the official platform, give him a little more courage, and the greater the certainty. (To be continued.) )