Being able to get to such a senior position as Xia Guan and Deputy Prime Minister in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Lichang certainly would not disappoint Wu Chaoyue, in fact, not long after Chen Alin returned to the city, the news of his meeting with Wu Chaoyue in the concession, as well as the content of Wu Chaoyue's shouting at him on the street, had already been sent to Zeng Lichang by the Taiping Army's meticulous work.

Zeng Lichang knew very well that this was probably just Wu Chaoyue's discordant plan, but he had a pimple in everything in his heart, and he was always worried that if it continued like this, Liu Lichuan, Chen Alin and others, who had too many hooligan habits, would not be able to resist the temptation of glory and wealth, and would do something stupid to ruin the current good situation.

Liu Lichuan, Chen Alin and others, who were used to being free and casual, also continued to disappoint Zeng Lichang, and waited until it was completely dark, and Liu Lichuan did not take the initiative to run in front of Zeng Lichang to report the situation to Zeng Lichang, the honorary boss, and make a stand. In this regard, Zeng Lichang was of course very angry, and his dissatisfaction with Liu Lichuan and others further deepened and intensified, and gradually reached the edge of being unbearable.

The continuous rainy season stopped the Qing army's siege footsteps, forcing the Qing army to temporarily maintain a state of confrontation with the Taiping army, giving the Taiping army time to rest calmly, but also giving the Taiping army and Liu Lichuan's army the opportunity to brew contradictions and deepen the estrangement. Only two days later, when the arms purchased by Liu Lichuan's army from the French were transported into the city, the first conflict between the Taiping army and Liu Lichuan's army suddenly broke out.

The reason for the sudden outbreak of the contradiction was, of course, because of those arms, the two large-scale attacks launched by the Qing army before, both of which were fought by the Taiping army as the protagonist to kill the Qing army, and the ammunition consumption was quite huge, and at the same time, because of the threat of the Qing army's naval division, the Shanghai East Gate Battlefield that the Taiping army was responsible for also needed to replenish artillery and shells. Therefore, Zeng Lichang naturally found Liu Lichuan to discuss, and asked Liu Lichuan to distribute some arms to the Taiping Army to help the Taiping Army replenish ammunition and weapons.

Zeng Lichang asked for five artillery pieces and 200 French-made mini guns, as well as matching bayonets and ammunition, but Liu Lichuan only promised to give the Taiping army two artillery pieces and 30 mini guns. Zeng Lichang was of course very dissatisfied when he heard this, and asked directly: "Liu Checkpoint, this prime minister is guarding the south gate of the east gate, and he has to resist the Qing Demon Water Division, and he also has to resist the main force of the Qing Demon Infantry and the demon soldiers who surpass the little demon, how great is the pressure?" You just give me such a little weapon, how can I fight the Qing demon? ”

"Prime Minister Zeng, I also tried my best." Liu Lichuan also shouted grievances and said: "This time, I only bought a total of ten artillery pieces and four hundred mini guns from foreigners, and even I am not enough for myself, so can I give you half of it at once?" Don't you know that most of my brothers are still slaying demons with machetes and spears? ”

"The north gate you're in charge of is hardly fighting." Zeng Lichang pointed out: "Half a mile away from the north gate is the French Concession, the Qing Demon can't show its troops there, it is impossible to launch an attack, you are actually guarding a west gate, much easier than us!" ”

"Who said that?" Liu Lichuan said angrily: "The first attack of the Qing Demon, the main attack is the West Gate, and even the surpassing demon is also the West Gate, how hard we fought that battle, didn't you see Prime Minister Zeng?" The second time the Qing Demon attacked the city, didn't he still hit Ximen? ”

"The real main attack of the Qing Demon is the South Gate!" Zeng Lichang gradually became a little angry, "The second time the Qing Demon was a feint, the first time it started a feint, it was our army that thwarted the Qing Demon's main attack on the South Gate, and the Qing Demon was forced to attack the West Gate, and then it didn't take long to retreat by itself!" ”

"Then I won't give it!" Liu Lichuan was annoyed and angry, and shouted: "I bought the guns and ammunition with my own money, why should I give it to you?" If you want, spend your own money to buy it from foreigners! ”

If it weren't for Liu Lichuan's important assistant Lin Afu who came out in time to play a round, Liu Lichuan and Zeng Lichang would have to turn their faces on the spot. But even though Lin Afu tried to persuade Liu Lichuan and Zeng Lichang to focus on the overall situation, not to affect unity for such a trivial matter, and to give the Qing army outside the city a chance, Liu Lichuan, who was too selfish, still refused to change his words, saying that he would not give Zeng Lichang weapons again, and in the end the two broke up unhappily, and Zeng Lichang did not even get a cannon or a gun.

At the beginning of the above, Zeng Lichang and Liu Lichuan, who were once able to maintain a harmonious relationship, also gradually had disputes and conflicts, and conflicts arose over some trivial matters, first quarrels, and then fists and feet, and even big fights. Although Liu Lichuan and Zeng Lichang did not deliberately connive at this, they did not do their best to restrain and stop it, resulting in constant disputes between the two soldiers and soldiers, and gradually began to appear in a bad situation of fighting in groups with the unity party.

There was a whole outpost of Jiangyin Lian Yong lurking in Liu Lichuan's army, and the expansion of the contradiction between Zeng and Liu's armies was of course quickly spread to Wu Chaoyue's ears through the neutral place of the concession. Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate to be overjoyed, and immediately asked the two bad kind staff officers, Zhou Tenghu and Zhao Liewen: "Mr. Tao Fu, Hui Fu, there is finally a problem inside Long Hair, how can you continue to fan the flames next, do you have any good solutions?" ”

"You don't need to fan the flames, you can give the last blow to Longhair." Zhou Tenghu replied in a deep voice: "One blow is fatal, let the long-haired infighting and fire each other, and kill each other!" ”

"Brother-in-law, I'm afraid it's not that easy, right?" Zhao Liewen rarely retorted to his brother-in-law, and said cautiously: "Zeng Lichang is quite knowledgeable, we have tried to drive a wedge between him and Liu Lichuan many times before, but he has not been fooled, and has always maintained restraint, which shows that his character is cautious." In the past, your people pretended to be Liu Lichuan's soldiers and killed a few of Zeng Lichang's subordinates, Zeng Lichang didn't turn his face with Liu Lichuan, this will be the long hair in Shanghai City is just a group fight, how could Zeng Lichang suddenly turn his face with Zhou Lichun? ”

"Huifu, why are you also drilling?" Zhou Tenghu smiled and said: "It's not so easy to let Zeng Lichang get into the scheme, but this time we changed the target of the discord plan to Liu Lichuan, do you think Liu Lichuan will be tricked?" ”

Zhao Liewen paused, then quickly slapped his head and said: "I'm a bull, Zeng Lichang is not easy to deal with, but it is much easier to attack Liu Lichuan, with his irascible temper and rough character, as long as he knows that Zeng Lichang is going to be unfavorable to him, it will be strange if he doesn't hit the plan!" ”

"Mr. Taofu, what exactly should you do?" Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked.

"Simple." Zhou Tenghu said in a relaxed tone: "Make a fake letter, Zeng Lichang wrote a fake letter to Yang Xiuqing, saying that Zeng Lichang could no longer tolerate Liu Lichuan's selfishness and greed, and also found that Liu Lichuan had signs of secret collusion with us, worried that Liu Lichuan would surrender and rebel again, so Zeng Lichang wanted to strike first, arrest Liu Lichuan and several of his accomplices, force Liu Lichuan to hand over control of the army, and annex Liu Lichuan's team to monopolize Shanghai City." Zeng Lichang was just worried that the impact of this would be too bad, so he first wrote to Yang Xiuqing to ask for permission. ”

After that, Zhou Tenghu smiled slightly and said: "After the letter is written, it is okay to pass through the concession, or directly shoot it at Liu Lichuan's army with arrows, just say that we found it on the captured long-haired messenger, and I think it is very interesting, so let Liu Lichuan also take a look." ”

"Brilliant plan!" Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed when he heard this, but after a little calculation, Wu Chaoyue said in embarrassment: "No, we don't have Zeng Lichang's handwritten letter in our hands?" There's no way to imitate and forge his handwriting? ”

Zhou Tenghu laughed when he heard this, got up and went to his bookshelf to find two documents with fire marks, handed them to Wu Chaoyue and said with a smile: "Lord Zhentai, after you broke through the long-haired camp last time, the students found it in the long-haired Chinese army's big tent, although it was broken, it also had Zeng Lichang's handwriting and autograph, as well as his pseudo-prime minister's seal. ”

"With Mr. Taofu to help me, I can win 100,000 male soldiers!"

Wu Chaoyue shouted exaggeratedly, and hurriedly ordered Zhao Liewen, who was excellent in calligraphy, to forge a fake letter, and sent someone to find a skilled craftsman to forge the seal of a Xia official and deputy prime minister of Zeng Lichang with a radish, and stamped it on the fake letter to make a fake book. In the end, Wu Chaoyue, who was impatient, didn't have time to go to the concession to find someone slowly, so he directly sent someone to the north gate of Shanghai, and shot an arrow on the city wall with a crossbow, so that Liu Lichuan could see this fake letter.

Seeing the so-called Zeng Lichang's letter, Liu Lichuan's general Li Xianchi, who was guarding the north gate, was shocked, but did not dare to hesitate, and quickly sent the letter to Liu Lichuan in person. Then naturally, the grumpy Liu Lichuan immediately burst into flames and roared all day long, "Zeng Lichang of dog RI!" Lao Tzu will not kill you, and he will not be a man! ”

"Brother Liu, be careful that this is Wu Chaoyue's discordant plan." Chen Alin calmly reminded: "That kid is notoriously scheming, so we have to prevent him from deliberately sowing discord and tricking us into turning against Zeng Lichang." ”

was able to organize an uprising of the Little Knife Society under the nose of Old Comprador Wu, no matter how irritable and rude Liu Lichuan's temper and personality were, of course, there were some outstanding points. After trying to suppress his anger and thinking for a while, Liu Lichuan quickly thought of a way to check the authenticity of the letter against the handwriting, but after asking someone to take the letter that Zeng Lichang had written to him before and carefully compare, Liu Lichuan couldn't help but clench his fists.

"Brother Yuan, you still have to be careful." Chen Alin continued to remind, saying: "Handwriting can be imitated, seals can be forged, if we turn against Zeng Lichang, it will only be beneficial to Qing Demon and Wu Chaoyue." ”

Liu Lichuan nodded slowly, and after thinking about it for a long time, Liu Lichuan said: "Send someone to see Zeng Lichang, just say that I have something to discuss with him about the military situation, and after you meet, don't make a noise, I'll try him first." ”

"Brother Yuan, how do you try?" Li Xianchi asked, and then also reminded: "If you directly ask him about the authenticity of Lichang's letter, whether the letter was written by him or not, he will definitely not admit it?" ”

"I told him to break through and go to Suzhou, and let me defend the city alone." Liu Lichuan replied: "If he agrees, it proves that this letter must be fake, and if he does not agree, he must stay in the city of Shanghai, then there must be a problem." ”

When Li Xianchi and Chen Alin heard this, they were overjoyed, and they both said that this was the best way to tempt, and they hurriedly sent someone to invite Zeng Lichang to come over and talk. But Liu Lichuan's face was extremely gloomy, and he said secretly: "I knew that Wu Chaoyue and Qing Demon were so bad at attacking cities, I shouldn't have let Zeng Lichang enter the city in the first place, I should have told him to go directly to Suzhou!" ”

Because the contradiction had not yet deepened to the point of irreconcilability, Zeng Lichang quickly accepted Liu Lichuan's invitation and came to the Liu Army headquarters in the center of the city to meet Liu Lichuan, but for the sake of safety, Zeng Lichang still brought a large number of personal soldiers to protect him, and directly brought his personal soldiers to the lobby. As a result, for the sake of safety, Liu Lichuan's side of course also hinted that his own soldiers should be careful, and the atmosphere that was not very harmonious with each other became a little tense.

Keenly aware that the atmosphere was a little tense, and carefully found that most of Liu Lichuan's personal soldiers put their hands on their waists and were ready to draw their guns at any time, Zeng Lichang's heart jumped, and he hurriedly asked Liu Lichuan what he planned to discuss, Liu Lichuan said with a smile: "Prime Minister Zeng, it's like this, I don't know if you have found out, recently between our two armies, there seems to be a lot more conflicts between the soldiers, and there were more than a dozen people fighting in groups yesterday and the day before yesterday." If we continue like this, I'm afraid it will not be good for our war? ”

"Do you know that the war is not going to be good? At least eight out of ten pawn clashes these days have been provoked by your pawns! Zeng Lichang muttered in his heart, but his face was silent, he just nodded, and said: "What Liu Jian said is extremely true, I also think that we have to work hard to restrain the soldiers, otherwise, the future war will be extremely unfavorable." ”

"So how does Prime Minister Zeng plan to restrain him?" Liu Lichuan asked.

"I think we might as well join forces to form a military team." Zeng Lichang proposed: "In the event of a conflict between soldiers and soldiers, the military law team will come forward to resolve it, try to mediate and stop the conflict, if the military law is to be punished, the generals of your and our armies will negotiate and act, what do you think?" ”

"It's a good idea, but it's not going to work much." Liu Lichuan shook his head and said with a heartfelt voice: "Prime Minister Zeng, people will be selfish, and the generals of your and my armies also have their own habits of protecting their shortcomings, we join forces to form a military law team, no one can guarantee that you and my generals will not deliberately protect their shortcomings and favor them, everyone is a rough person, when the time comes, I am afraid that even the people in the military law team will fight, then the situation will definitely be even worse." ”

Zeng Lichang nodded, and admitted that Liu Lichuan's worry was not impossible, and then asked rhetorically: "Liu Jiandian, in your opinion, how should we deal with it?" ”

"Prime Minister Zeng, why don't you move to Suzhou?"

Liu Lichuan finally saw the dagger, and hurriedly said: "Of course, I am not driving you away, I am also thinking about the overall situation of the kingdom of heaven, Suzhou is located in the upper reaches of the Wu Yan River, you can go down the river to Shanghai by boat, there is silver and grain in the city, it is also a critical place, you move there, you can not only get sufficient food and grass supplies, but also contain the Qing demon from behind, stab the Qing demon in the back at every opportunity, and continue to wait for the reinforcements sent by the East King Jiu Qiansui next time if you don't have a chance." As for Shanghai, don't worry, I can hold the city and wait for your reinforcements again. ”

Zeng Lichang smiled, his smile was full of contempt, and he asked with a sneer: "Liu Checkpoint, do you mean to let me lead the Heavenly Army to kill the Qing Demon to go to Suzhou, and then kill back to reinforce Shanghai?" Tossing back and forth, sacrificing the soldiers of the heavenly kingdom in vain? ”

"Prime Minister Zeng, that's not what I meant." Liu Lichuan hurriedly shook his head, and said with an extremely false smile: "Prime Minister Zeng, I am also thinking about guarding Shanghai for a long time, you need to pay some price for breaking through with the Heavenly Army, but after you break through successfully, you don't have to worry about food and grass immediately, and you can rest and recuperate in Suzhou and expand your military war." As for me here, the pressure on grain, grass and ammunition can also be reduced a lot, and the grain and grass that can only be used for more than half a year can be used for at least ten months, which is not more beneficial to defend the city for a long time and wait for reinforcements? ”

If it was replaced by other cities, in order to unite and let the soldiers rest at ease, Zeng Lichang would definitely agree to Liu Lichuan's request in one bite, but there was no way, this is Shanghai City, there is plenty of money and food, and there is a concession port, you can buy vital guns and ammunition from foreigners at any time, and even artillery and steam ships, and the current situation is also very conducive to the long-term hold of the Taiping Army. So Zeng Lichang not only did not agree, but on the contrary, he suddenly laughed out loud and laughed wildly: "Liu Checkpoint, what you said is very good, but why don't you think about it, after Prime Minister Ben takes the army away, can you hold Shanghai City?" Can you stop the Qing Demon and the Beyond Demon from attacking the city? ”

"I really won't leave!" Liu Lichuan gritted his teeth in his heart, but said with a smile on his face: "The city of Shanghai is strong, there is plenty of grain and grass, and there is a concession to replenish ammunition, why can't I hold it?" ”

"If you can hold it, it's weird!" Zeng Lichang roared angrily: "You don't look at the virtues of your soldiers, and you don't look at what kind of virtue you are, greedy for life, afraid of death, bullying the soft and afraid of the hard, just want to preserve your strength all day long and don't want to fight a tough battle, even if you have a good place in your hands, even if you can block the army of the Qing demon, but can you stop the demon soldiers who surpass the little demon?" Can you stop the endless intrigues and tricks that surpass the little demons? ”

Liu Lichuan's face became extremely ugly, and his personal soldiers immediately touched the guns one by one, and Zeng Lichang's personal soldiers over there did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly touched the pistols on their waists one by one. But fortunately, when he saw that the conflict was about to break out, Lin Afu, who was guarding the west gate, suddenly hurried into the lobby, and shouted as soon as he entered the door: "Brother Ayuan, it's not good, our brothers are fighting with Prime Minister Zeng again." ”

It was only when he finished shouting this sentence that Lin Afu saw that Zeng Lichang was also in the hall, and hurriedly said to Zeng Lichang: "Prime Minister Zeng, go and take a look, your people and ours are fighting again, and there are a lot of people participating in the fight this time." ”

In Liu Lichuan's command and Liu Lichuan's conflict, of course, it is extremely unfavorable for Zeng Lichang, listening to Lin Afu say this, Zeng Lichang, who is very flexible, immediately got off the donkey, and immediately hurried out of the hall with his own soldiers after agreeing, Liu Lichuan suffered a little slow reaction and had not yet made up his mind, and when Liu Lichuan came back to his senses, Zeng Lichang had already directly walked out of the gate of Liu Jun's headquarters rebuilt by the Shanghai County Government under the support of his own soldiers, and Liu Lichuan also missed the best opportunity to kill Zeng Lichang immediately.

Frustrated and slammed his fist on the table, Liu Lichuan finally made up his mind, and said to Chen Alin, Li Xianchi, and Lin Afu, who are still confused, and other cronies: "It doesn't matter whether the letter is true or false, we have to do it quickly, otherwise, if Zeng Lichang's side makes the first move, then we will be all finished!" ”

"Brother Yuan, do you want to think about it again?" Li Xianchi cautiously reminded: "When we start, if the Qing Demon takes the opportunity to attack the city, what should we do?" ”

"Find a way to solve it quickly, and don't give the Qing Demon a chance to react." Liu Lichuan said with a gloomy face: "Strive to capture Zeng Lichang and Xu Zongyang, the two bastards, alive, and force them to hand over their military power and annex their army!" If not, kill them! ”

"Kill them?" Li Xianchi opened his mouth and said again: "Then what about their subordinates? That's more than 6,000 people. ”

"If you can control it, try to control it, if you can't control it......."

Liu Lichuan looked out of the city with a gloomy face, and said with a hideous expression: "Don't forget, Young Master Wu made a promise to us, and he can be considered trustworthy." (To be continued.) )