Now that the situation on the eastern front of Hubei has come to an end, it is naturally time to introduce the background of the general trend of the world, but it is very sad for the Qing Dynasty that because of the agitation of the wings of a certain demon moth, the situation of the Qing Dynasty in the sixth year of Xianfeng is far worse than in history. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the sixth year of Xianfeng in history, although the main force of the Hunan army under the Zeng State Domain was severely damaged by Shi Dakai in Jiangxi, it always exerted military pressure on the western front of the Taiping Army by virtue of the economic support of the Huguang grain-producing area, which played a huge role in diversion. However, the current strength of the Hunan army is not only far less than in history, but Hubei's money, food, and military salaries have always been held in the hands of the little comprador Wu Chaoyue, who wants to raise cats and let the Hunan army watch the door and catch mice for themselves on the border of the eastern front of Hubei. The Hunan army, which lacked strength, could only form a little diversion effect on the Taiping army on the Jiujiang front at most, and the pressure on the western front of the Taiping army was greatly reduced, so it was naturally free to clean up the Qing army in other places.

And the northern front of the Taiping Army is also like this, Li Kaifang and Ji Wenyuan, two famous generals of the Taiping Army who should have died on the battlefield long ago in history, are still alive, and the diversion of the Yellow River has provided them with almost endless troop supplies, and the Taiping Army, which has almost disappeared on the battlefield in North China and the Central Plains, has been reborn from the ashes, and has been constantly attacking cities and plundering land in Henan, northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu and Shandong, wandering and rushing, containing nearly 100,000 Qing soldiers and consuming millions of military salaries of the Manchu court. More than a handful of salt was sprinkled into Emperor Xianfeng's already deep wound.

Only the situation on the battlefield of Ningzhen is similar to that in history, Qishan's Jiangbei battalion and Xiang Rong's Jiangnan battalion are still confronting the main force of the Taiping Army directly under Yang Xiuqing, and no one can help each other. However, it is still very regrettable that the two masters, Qi Shan and Xiang Rong, happened not to be affected by the wings of the demon moth, and failed to break out of the small universe to break the deadlock on the battlefield of Ningzhen, and consumed millions of taels of silver of the Xianfeng Emperor every month but never built an inch, helping the Taiping Army and Wu Chaoyue to shake the already crumbling foundation of the Qing Dynasty in disguise.

Affected by the Twist Army, the history of the Twist Army in the early days by the loose organization, poor weapons, lack of training and no actual combat experience and other objective reasons, combat effectiveness is quite weak, or to Nanjing was broken by the Hunan Army, got the remnants of the Taiping Army to join, the Twist Army really entered the heyday, obtained advanced tactics easy to quickly improve combat effectiveness for the cavalry, fought the battle of Gaolouzhai and the Battle of Baqiao and other beautiful battles, knocked off the top of the teacher Zeng and killed the hardcore Mengmeng monk Greenqin, He also defeated Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang and other famous generals many times, and became the peasant rebel army that posed the greatest threat to the Manchu rulers after the Taiping Army. It's a pity that the heyday came too late, and he was completely drowned by the Qing army's endless soldiers, horses, money and food.

After the famous Taiping army general Li Kaifang successfully got rid of the joint pursuit of Wu Chaoyue and Seng Lingqin with more than 1,000 backbone elites, he just arrived at the southern border of Shandong, and immediately got in touch with the Twist Army, and with the help of the local Twist Army, he quickly got on the line with the Twist Army Alliance. Then when Li Kaifang successfully joined forces with Zhang Lexing, he not only quickly persuaded Zhang Lexing to accept the canonization of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but also selflessly taught the tactical experience of the Taiping Army to the officers and soldiers of the Twist Army, instructed the soldiers of the Twist Army to use and make their own muskets and artillery, and taught them how to cooperate with foot and cavalry to attack the city and lure the enemy to set up ambushes, so as to help the soldiers of the Twist Army quickly improve their combat effectiveness.

In addition, more importantly, Li Kaifang, who was born a general, also put forward tactical suggestions to the Twist Army at least ten years in advance to take the cavalry as the main force of operations in view of the open terrain characteristics of the Central Plains, and personally helped Zhang Lexing, Gong Deshu and Han Qifeng and other banner owners of the Twist Army to establish cavalry units. The Twist Army also increased its combat effectiveness sharply because of these, defeated the Qing Army in the Central Plains many times in succession, and once defeated the main force of Wu Chao's old rival Monk Greenqin, so that Monk Greenqin, who had just regained the title of the county king by slaughtering the peasant rebel army, was disgraced, and was forced to learn the defeat of the former rival Shengbao, and shamelessly claimed to have won the battle, but was also recognized by the Xianfeng Emperor, who had long been accustomed to this set, and was scolded by a bloody scolding.

Of course, Wu Chaoyue gloated, and the stronger the Twist Army, the more secretly happy Wu Chaoyue was, but the fact that the White Flag soldiers and horses of the Twist Army continued to harass the northern border of Hubei made Wu Chaoyue intolerable. -- Although Du Xing'a, the governor of Hubei who sits in Xiangyang, is still quite angry, and he can drive the Twist Army away every time, but every time it will cause some economic losses to the northern prefectures and counties of Hubei, and at the same time, it is also a large expense to supply Duxing A's troops and horses to fight one after another, so Wu Chaoyue has long held back his bad breath, and wants to clean up these twists that dare to break ground on his Tai Sui's head, and at the same time, in order not to be forced by the Manchu court to send troops to Jiangxi, the war on the eastern front has just ended, and Wu Chaoyue immediately decided to send troops to the northern front. Personally go and clean up the team of twisters who are constantly flowing around Xiangyang, and let them know that the idea of wanting to fight Hubei is to ask Hanako to carry the bowl into the toilet - looking for death!

Huguang Governor Guan Wen raised his hands to support Wu Chaoyue's decision, because every time they could not annihilate the inbound Twist Army, they could only be driven back to Henan, the Prime Minister of Henan Governor Yinggui had already been on the table to impeach the Governor of Huguang Military Affairs The official document is beggar-thy-neighbor, although an impeachment can not overthrow the governor's throne of our official Taiwan, but if it continues, it is difficult to say, this will be the 'Qing Dynasty famous general' Wu Chaoyue volunteered to clean up the twist, of course, the official document is not begging, full support, take the initiative to cooperate.

"Virtuous nephew, with you coming out in person, my uncle can finally sit back and relax this time. Rest assured, the official of the Dujun Gate will write to him, asking him to fully cooperate with your war, and he will never be allowed to drag you back. ”

"Thank you, uncle." Wu Chaoyue thanked him, and said: "Uncle also rest assured, the little nephew knows Du Junmen, when the little nephew led the Songjiang regiment to practice the north to Qinwang, he once fought side by side with Du Junmen under the city of Tianjin, although he is not very familiar, but he has also seen one or two sides, and he gets along quite well. ”

Guan Wen, who was a little worried that Wu Chaoyue would not be able to get along with Duxing's friendship, was overjoyed when he heard this, and quickly said that he could finally rest assured, and then Guan Wen asked Wu Chaoyue with some hesitation: "Virtuous nephew, I heard that when you went to the north to King Qin, you didn't get along very well with the monk and the prince, I don't know if it's true or not?" ”

"It's not just a bad deal, it's just a situation like fire and water." Wu Chaoyue smiled, and asked curiously, "Uncle, why did you suddenly ask about this?" ”

Guan Wen smiled bitterly and replied: "That's really unfortunate, the news from Henan, the main force of the monk and the prince's department is currently being suppressed in Nanyang Mansion, Henan, which borders Xiangyang Mansion, and you and him are likely to meet again after a long absence." ”

"It's really not like the enemy doesn't get together." Wu Chaoyue also smiled bitterly, he really didn't expect to meet his old rival monk Greenqin again so soon, maybe it would be possible to join forces again.

"Virtuous nephew, when my uncle was a guard in the capital, the monk was a minister in front of the palace, and they often met, and their friendship was not bad." The official text said quite sincerely: "Therefore, Wangxian's nephew looks at the thin face of the old man, and also for the sake of the important affairs of the court, and forbears the monk and the prince, don't repeat the mistake of falling short last time." After all, he's also your senior. ”

"Uncle entrusted, and the little nephew naturally remembered it." Wu Chaoyue nodded directly without thinking about it, and then said: "But uncle, the little nephew also said first, the last time was the monk who took the initiative to provoke me for no reason, and I was forced to fight back." If he can restrain himself this time, it would be good to say, if he still wants me to deliberately send me to death as soon as he came up like last time, then I will not be polite to him. ”

"Of course." Guan Wen nodded again and again, and said: "Don't worry, the old man will write a letter to the monk and the prince first, and ask him to give the old man a little restraint, if he doesn't listen, he will deliberately bully you, that is, he will not give the old man face, and don't blame the old man for being unkind to him." ”

The official text said it to this point, Wu Chaoyue naturally didn't say anything, so he could only quickly thank the official text, and agreed with the official text on the specific plan and time to send troops, Wu Chaoyue left the governor's palace and returned to his governor's yamen to rest. However, on the way back to the Yamen, Wu Chaoyue suddenly thought of an important question - why did he have to get along with Monk Greenqin, and why couldn't he think about how to use his old grudge with Monk Greenqin to lay the foundation for his future events?

"Monk Greenqin is a high lord, and I will definitely not be able to defeat him, but as long as I take advantage of it, and the wild boar skin family is reluctant to clean up this dog, then my soldiers will ......."

While pondering this problem in the governor's yamen, Zhao Liewen led Huang Sheng, who was in charge of taking care of the Hankou Development Zone for Wu Chaoyue, to the front and said: "Weiting, two things, the first thing, we hired the American instructor Brown before, and came to Shanghai from the United States, bringing a large number of arms and weapons, and the letter asked if we needed it, if we were interested in purchasing, he could personally deliver the goods to Hankou. Here is the list of weapons and quotes, you see. ”

"Isn't it a carbine and a front-loading gun again? Revolvers can be bought more, front-loading guns and carbines are not fooled. ”

Wu Chaoyue, the American rifle that Brown kept trying to promote, had never liked it, but the revolver produced by the American Colt Company was quite practical, and Wu Chaoyue didn't mind taking care of his old friend's business when Daye Arsenal could only copy it in small quantities. However, humming and taking the list of weapons and only looking at it twice, Wu Chaoyue immediately jumped up and howled like a pig: "Metal bullet shell?!" Smith & Wieson revolver?! There are already metal cartridge shells in this era ?! ”

I don't understand why Wu Chaoyue is so excited, Zhao Liewen and Huang Sheng inevitably looked at each other a little, and Wu Chaoyue continued to yell, "Reply to Brown immediately, Smith & Weisson's revolver and matching bullets, as many as you want, I want them all!" As long as he can't sell the revolver and carbine in Shanghai, he can send them all to me and sell them to me, so we don't have to sell them to others to make money! ”

"Haha! Finally not afraid of the rain war, finally not afraid of the rain war! If that Brown kid can get me a metal stamping machine for the production of bullet casings, then maybe we can develop our own bullets and rifles for metal cartridge casings, and then the officer will no longer have to worry about the sudden rain in the middle of the war! ”

Probably because he couldn't get used to Wu Chaoyue's ugly appearance of dancing with his hand, Zhao Liewen lowered his voice a little, and said: "Weiting, there is a second thing, Pingfu found that someone was secretly investigating the matter of the official system taking commissions in the Hankou tea business, and they were also trying to collect evidence, and there seemed to be more than one group of people investigating this matter. ”

Wu Chaoyue, who was cheering, felt a pang in his heart, quickly stopped dancing, and asked Huang Sheng, "How did you find out?" Do you know who's investigating? ”

"It was discovered by a manager of our foreign firm." Huang Sheng replied: "Under the pretext of doing tea business, two groups of people secretly inquired from him about the division of the official system, and they both opened tea estates in Hankou, and the trade volume was quite large, as if they were deliberately luring the Hankou Chamber of Commerce to pull them in. But it is not yet known who is behind them. ”

"Luo Bingzhang? Zeng Guofan? Wu Chaoyue's mind quickly flashed these two names that might be related to this, although it was very strange how Teacher Zeng would know about this, but after a little calculation, Wu Chaoyue quickly ordered: "Don't pay attention to it, let alone expose it, don't stop the Hankou Chamber of Commerce if it wants to pull them in." But remember two things, one is that our people can't pull them in, and the other is that we can't let our people give them evidence. ”

Huang Sheng and Zhao Liewen agreed together, but Wu Chaoyue smiled and said secretly: "It doesn't matter who checks, as long as you can bring down the official document." This old fox is inconspicuous, in fact, it is the most difficult to deal with, on the surface he is obedient and caring to me, but in fact he keeps an eye on me more closely than anyone else, my Hubei New Army has expanded its army by five battalions, and his superintendent will immediately expand the army by ten battalions, which is clearly on guard against me. It's much easier to fiddle with a stupid and brutal one. ”

Although Wu Chaoyue hoped to surprise the Twist Army with metal bullets, time waited for no one, and at the same time, subject to the traffic conditions of this era, no one could guarantee when the old American friend Brown would be able to bring the new pistol to Hankou for delivery, so after preparing for the expedition, Wu Chaoyue could only set off north on schedule with the Hubei New Army and endless disappointment, and rushed to Xiangyang by the Hanjiang River waterway to preside over the Twist War. At the same time, Wu Chaoyue refused to give up on Huang Sheng and others, saying that if Buran arrived in Hankou during the war, then he would immediately send Smith's pistol and bullets to the northern front and hand them over to himself - the role of metal cartridge cases in cavalry warfare was not ordinary.

Considering various actual situations, Wu Chaoyue only brought four battalions of infantry and cavalry battalions in this Northern Expedition, although the newly built sailor battalion was destined to not be able to participate in the war, but it was also brought by Wu Chaoyue to familiarize himself with the waterway and strengthen the training of ship handling techniques, and two of the four infantry battalions were recruits who had never been on the battlefield, and the overall strength was average, but the strength of the Twist Army was still weaker than that of the Taiping Army in the head-to-head confrontation.

It's just theoretically so, Wu Chaoyue's biggest headache is that the Twist Army is more able to flow than the Taiping Army, and if he misses a blow, he immediately flees away and flees to Henan, where the whip of the Qing Army in Hubei is beyond his reach. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue had already gone to Wendu Xing'a before he set off, and asked him to send more scouts to find the main force of the Twist Army, and to find the enemy's traces at any cost. At the same time, Wu Chaoyue also went to the Manchu court early to explain the reason, and sent a letter to Yinggui, the governor of Henan, stating in advance that he was likely to personally lead the army out of the province to fight, and asked the Manchu court to agree to understand and cooperate with Yinggui. Of course, Wu Chaoyue naturally selectively forgot to greet Monk Greenqin, who happened to be on the border of Hubei, in advance.

It is convenient to take the waterway, but in a few days, Wu Chaoyue's fleet and the cavalry battalion by land have entered the territory of Xiangyang Mansion one after another, and the result is that Duxing'a, who is sitting in Xiangyang, is also interesting enough, and has sent a wing commander to lead the honor guard to the Yicheng wharf hundreds of miles away to put up lanterns and beat gongs and drums to welcome Wu Chaoyue's arrival.

I don't like this kind of pure and wasteful grand welcome, but I don't want to hit the smiling person, and the next battle also needs the full cooperation of Du Xing'a, so Wu Chaoyue still got off the boat at Yicheng Wharf and met with the generals sent by Du Xing'a. However, when they met, before the wing commander sent by Du Xing'a saluted and reported his identity, Wu Chaoyue suddenly looked a little familiar with the fierce wing leader in front of him, as if he had seen it somewhere. Wu Chaoyue asked curiously: "This general, have we met before?" ”

"What Lord Futai said is very true, the last general has met with you." The wing commander was also very happy to see that Wu Chaoyue still remembered himself, nodded and said: "More than two years ago, Lord Futai, when you went north to King Qin, the last general was also in the army, and he had met with the military gate of the capital. ”

"It's the general, and I am impressed by your mighty temperament." Wu Chaoyue smiled and put on a high hat for the wing commander, and said with a smile: "I have been promoted two levels in two years, and I have risen very quickly, it seems that you have made meritorious contributions in the past two years." By the way, I forgot to ask you what your name is. ”

"The last general, Duolonga, has seen Lord Futai!" The winged chief clasped his hands into fists and said his name aloud.

"It turned out to be General Doronado." Wu Chaoyue nodded casually, and just when he wanted to continue to be polite with Duolong, Wu Chaoyue's triangular eyes suddenly widened, and he lost his voice: "Many? Dorona? You're Dorona?! ”

"Lord Huifutai, the last general is Duolonga, is there any problem with your lordship?" Duolonga nodded confusedly, not understanding why Wu Chaoyue was so surprised.

I can't blame Wu Chaoyue for making a fuss, although the history is sparse, but in the history of China, there are also three foreign generals who let Wu Chaoyue remember and admire, one is the general Li Shengtian of the Caucasian who swore allegiance to the Great Song Dynasty, one is the Mongolian Man Gui who sacrificed for the Ming Dynasty, and the third is the general Duolonga in front of him. However, it is a pity that Zuo Zongtang was confused for a while and failed to adopt Duolonga's consistent proposition, leaving a bane, and it is even more regrettable......

"No, it's okay, it's just that I was surprised for a while when I heard about your brave and warlike name, General."

Wu Chaoyue, who has absolutely sparse history, casually perfunctory, sighed in great disappointment in his heart, and said secretly: "Why Manchurian? How good would it be if it wasn't full? (To be continued.) )