Unable to parry Hong Xiuquan's emotional card full of Wang Bang, in the case that there was still a way to retreat, Li Xiucheng was forced to stay very helplessly, not only promised to accompany Hong Xiuquan to live and die with Nanjing City, but also promised to send reinforcements from the rear of Suzhou and Hangzhou to Nanjing as soon as possible to reinforce and keep Nanjing City, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, at all costs.

In this regard, Li Shuxiang, Li Rongfa and Ji Qingyuan, who are familiar with Li Xiucheng's personality, did not say much, and they had already been psychologically prepared for this ending, so they were no longer happy to look at Li Xiucheng's face. However, what Li Xiucheng never expected was that because he had secretly ordered the generals under his command to prepare to retreat, the other generals were very dissatisfied with Li Xiucheng's rebellion, and Wu Jianying, the general who led the army stationed at Shimenkan, even complained publicly, saying that Li Xiucheng only considered his own private name, and did not care about the life or death of the remaining 80,000 soldiers of the Taiping Army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and was determined to use the remaining Taiping Army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to achieve his reputation of loyalty and righteousness through the ages.

It was also unlucky for Wu Jianying, who was of the same sect as Wu Chaoyue, and his complaint happened to be heard by the eyes of the prison army Mo Shixuan planted in Shimenkan, and the small report hit Mo Shijing in front of him on the same day, and then because the Taiping Army was already seriously unstable, Mo Shixuan immediately sued Li Xiucheng in front of him, and suggested that Li Xiucheng should prepare as soon as possible. What is even more unfortunate for Wu Jianying is that Li Xiucheng's godson Li Rongfa has always been at odds with him, and he also opened his mouth to persuade Li Xiucheng to be careful against Wu Jianying. Therefore, after thinking about it for a while, Li Xiucheng still adopted Li Shuxiang's suggestion, pretending to arrange for Wu Jianying to return to the rear of Suzhou and Hangzhou to assist in the preparation of grain, grass and military supplies, and took the opportunity to take away Wu Jianying's military power, so that his absolute confidant Ji Qingyuan was also in charge of the soldiers and horses left by Wu Jianying, and the danger was directly nipped in the bud.

If it was changed earlier, Wu Jianying's order to Li Xiucheng of course did not even dare to put one more fart, so he could only obediently bow his head and obey his fate, but now the situation is different, in the case of the increasingly serious militarization of the Taiping Army, whoever hands over the military power is equivalent to losing power and waiting for death, and there is almost no chance of turning over. So even if Wu Jianying didn't dare to disobey Li Xiucheng's decision on the surface, but in private, Wu Jianying hid behind his back and greeted Li Xiucheng's ancestors for the eighteenth generation, and then was forced by Li Xiucheng to leave the Nanjing battlefield. He also expressed his willingness to contact and rebel against his old troops on the Shimenkan position, to receive Wu's army to cross the Qinhuai River eastward, and to break through the Qinhuai River defense line that Li Xiucheng was currently barely relying on to defend.

Although it was impossible to determine the truth of Wu Jianying's surrender, Cao Yanzhong, a heavy general of the Wu army who had already come to the Tushan battlefield, still tightly sealed the news, and sent someone to secretly escort Wu Jianying and others to Dasheng Pass as soon as possible, and handed it over directly to Wu Chaoyue. During this period, although Wu Jun's attitude towards Wu Jianying was also very friendly, Wu Jianying, who was stealing from the master, was still a little worried that Wu Jun would not believe in his surrender, and even more worried that the powerful Wu Jun would not look down on his meager meeting gift and would not give him any good hospitality.

Wu Jianying soon found out that he was blindly worried, and after being secretly escorted to Dasheng Pass, the main force of the Wu army stationed in Dasheng Pass not only received him more warmly and friendly, but also invited him to a simple but neat military tent, so that he could meet a thin young man. Then the young man smiled and gave him a seat, and at the same time ordered someone to bring him good wine and food to treat him warmly, and then asked impatiently: "General Wu, I heard that you are from northern Anhui, where is northern Anhui?" ”

"Back to my lord, the sin will be a person from Dingyuan in northern Anhui." Wu Jianying replied respectfully: "Yangjiaji, Lotang Town, on the edge of Luzhou Mansion. ”

"Dingyuan Lotus Town Yang Jiaji?" The thin young man's reaction was very excited, and he slapped his thigh and exclaimed in surprise: "What a coincidence! General Wu, maybe the two of us are relatives! ”

"My lord, you are also from Dingyuan?" Wu Jianying was a little strange, and said carefully: "Listening to your accent, adult, it seems to be from the capital?" ”

"I am from Guangdong, and in order to facilitate my dealings with people from all provinces and townships, I speak the official dialect of Beijing." The thin young man explained, and said with a smile: "But my wife is from Dingyuan, or the surname Yang of Dingyuan, General Wu, since you are from the Yang family in Lotang Town, Dingyuan, then the two of us may be relatives." ”

I didn't expect that I would be related to an official in the Wu army who seemed to have a very high status, Wu Jianying was of course very happy, and quickly nodded again and again and said that it was possible, and then hurriedly said with a flattering face: "This lord, the sin will die, I haven't asked your high surname and name, and what is your official position under the account of the king of Zhennan." ”

"General Wu doesn't have to be polite, we are from the same clan, my name is Wu Chaoyue." The thin young man replied with a smile.

"Oh, it turned out to be Lord Wu surpassing Wu." Wu Jianying hurriedly nodded again and again, and suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly asked suspiciously: "Lord Wu, how come your name and sin general seem to have heard there?" ”

The thin young man laughed and said nothing, and the clerks and guards next to him all laughed, Wu Jianying was still a little inexplicable at first, but after slowly coming back to his senses, Wu Jianying gradually opened his mouth again, and his hands pointing at Wu Chaoyue began to tremble, and his teeth fought and said: "You ......, you are Zhen......, Zhennan Wang ......, Wu ......, Wu ...... Transcend? ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded with a smile, Wu Jianying also stumbled and pounced at Wu Chaoyue's feet, kneeling on his knees and hugging Wu Chaoyue's thighs and shouting and screaming, so excited that even his voice was crying, "King Zhennan, King Zhennan, sin will die, sin will die, sin will have eyes and do not know Mount Tai, sin will never dream, you will meet Sin General in person!" Sin will surrender, sin will be willing to surrender, as long as the king of Zhennan says a word to you, sin will go up the sword mountain and down the sea of fire, three swords and six eyes, and the broken bones will also repay your great kindness. ”

Carefully observing and seeing that Wu Jianying's excited expression did not seem to be fake, Wu Chaoyue personally picked up his daughter-in-law's fellow villagers, comforted Wu Jianying, and accepted Wu Jianying's surrender on the spot, pardoned the previous sins and rewarded gold and silver, Wu Jianying was even more happy and excited, and quickly kowtowed to Wu Chaoyue again and again to thank him. Then when Wu Chaoyue asked about the internal situation of the Taiping Army, Wu Jianying, of course, knew everything and said everything, in addition to truthfully explaining all the military information of the Taiping Army that he knew, he also explained in detail the reasons and process of being taken away by Li Xiucheng.

In the end, Wu Jianying, who was anxious to take revenge on Li Xiucheng and loyal to his new master, of course, volunteered again to rebel against his old troops for Wu Chaoyue and help the Wu army break through Li Xiucheng's Qinhuai River defense line. However, Wu Chaoyue shook his head and said: "General Wu, there is no need for this, my scouts and meticulous work have already discovered that Li Xiucheng is transferring his military rations, grass and various baggage to Jiangning City, if nothing else, within a day or two, Li Xiucheng will retreat into Jiangning City with his remaining army." ”

"Ahh Wu Jianying was stunned for a moment, and then said honestly frustrated: "In this way, the sin general can't help you anymore, King Zhennan." ”

"General Wu, you are very wrong about this." Wu Chaoyue said in a deep voice: "As long as you are willing, you can also make greater contributions to me, help me more, and receive more rewards in the future." ”

"King Zhennan, what else can Sin General do for you?" Wu Jianying hurriedly asked.

"I want you to go back to Changmao, go back to your old army, and enter Jiangning City with Li Xiucheng." Wu Chaoyue's voice was gloomy, and he said: "Then take your army to open the city gate, pick me up and enter the city, and help me kill Hong Xiuquan and Li Xiucheng as soon as possible!" ”

Wu Jianying gasped, never expecting that he, a family member and possibly relative, would be so ruthless and want to make himself so dangerous and immoral. However, after careful consideration, Wu Jianying hurriedly kowtowed and said: "King Zhennan forgives the sin, it's not that the sin will be greedy for life and afraid of death, and he won't dare to do it for you, it's that Li Xiucheng doesn't trust me at all now, and he wants to force me to go back to Suzhou to help prepare grain and grass, even if I can find any excuse to go back, Li Xiucheng can't let me lead the troops again?" ”

"It's okay, as long as you dare to go back, I will help you regain the trust of Hong Xiuquan and Li Xiucheng." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "Didn't you say very clearly just now, Li Xiucheng deprived you of your military power, but because you made a few complaints and may be known to him, this kind of thing is easy to handle, as long as you make some merit for him to prove your loyalty, he is very likely to reactivate you." And your army is now under the control of the big long-haired Ji Qingyuan, as long as you coax Ji Qingyuan well, are you afraid that he won't let you take the original old department? ”

Wu Jianying was still a little hesitant, Wu Chaoyue saw his thoughts, so he smiled and said: "General Wu, I know this matter is very risky, if you really don't want to go, this king will not be reluctant." But if you dare to take this risk, after the matter is completed, the official will be awarded the title of second-class deputy general, the hereditary knighthood, and the reward will be 1,000 taels of gold, 10,000 taels of silver, and 1,000 acres of fertile land! ”

Secretly glanced at Wu Chaoyue's serious expression, and after thinking for a while, Wu Jianying gritted his teeth and kowtowed: "King Zhennan, the sin general is willing to go back and do internal response, and open the gate of Tianjing City for you!" ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded with satisfaction, and then he personally helped Wu Jianying to regain relief, personally agreed with Wu Jianying on the future contact code and method, and handed over a sum of activity funds to Wu Jianying, so that he could go back to bribe Ji Qingyuan and Li Shuxiang and other Li Xiucheng's cronies. In the end, Wu Chaoyue told Wu Jianying: "It is not difficult to regain Li Xiucheng's trust, after you go back, spend more money to find a way to return to your army, after this point is successful, use the code as soon as possible to let me know the location of your defense area, I will deliberately send troops to attack your defense area, so that you can win the battle, understand?" ”

Wu Jianying agreed with understanding, Wu Chaoyue smiled and nodded, and instructed Wu Jianying to act carefully, and then arranged for manpower to secretly escort Wu Jianying back to the east bank of the Qinhuai River, so that he could return to the Taiping army camp under the pretext of being intercepted and killed by Wu army scouts. As a result, after sending Wu Jianying away with a smile on his face, Wu Chaoyue immediately changed his face, spat in the direction where Wu Jianying left, and scolded: "Idiot! When he found out that Li Xiucheng wanted to take his military power, he didn't come to take refuge, but he had to wait for the military power to be taken away before surrendering, and he wouldn't sell it if he sold himself! ”

"King Zhennan, then you will give him a hundred taels of gold and let him bribe the other big hairs?" Staff member Zhou Wenxian asked curiously.

"Because he's worth the price." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "Although there are a lot of longhairs who are secretly in contact with us, but he is the only one who has led a long-haired army alone like him, even if he has handed over the military power now, but in his former army, there must be many old departments who listened to him, so compared with other wavering longhairs, he is the most likely to open the gate of Jiangning City to welcome us into the city." Bet a hundred taels of gold on him, and if you lose, you will lose a hundred taels of gold, but if you win, you will ....... ”

Speaking of this, Wu Chaoyue smiled slightly and said: "I heard that after Hong Xiuquan's soil bun became the king of heaven, not only the dishes and chopsticks used for eating were made of gold, but even the toilet was made of gold, and if we win, we can get it back at least hundreds of times, or even thousands of times." ”

When Zhou Wenxian hurriedly nodded, Zhang Dejian, the head of the Wu Army's spy next to him, had already written Wu Jianying's name and his general situation on a confidential list, as well as the specific code and method of contacting him, and in front of Wu Jianying's name, there were also the names of many Taiping Army civil and military officials, including the names of Li Xiucheng's relatives............

…………

Wu Chaoyue expected, more than a day later, the remaining more than 80,000 Jiangsu and Zhejiang Taiping troops under the command of Li Xiucheng, really began to retreat to the city of Nanjing, although the Wu army launched an attack on the Taiping army from the southwest two roads at the first time, but the Taiping army had a strong fortification built in advance to defend, Li Xiucheng personally led the army to the palace, and fought and retreated to cover the transfer of their own army into the city, the Wu army launched many charges and assaults failed to defeat the Taiping army's palace army, and failed to seize the opportunity of the Taiping army to return to the city to eliminate too many enemies, In the end, they could only watch the Taiping army withdraw into the city in an orderly manner, and took the initiative to abandon the battlefield in the southern suburbs of Nanjing, which had no value to hold, and concentrated their forces in the city.

Li Xiucheng and his remnants of the main force were finally forced into the city of Nanjing, becoming the caged bird in the net of the Wu army, but the city of Nanjing is too big, the circumference of the outer city wall alone is ninety-six miles, in addition, in the north of Nanjing, there are also a number of Taiping military camps represented by Tianbao City and bunker city rooted outside the city, although the Wu army's soldiers are sharp, but the loss is that the troops are not enough to cover everything, no matter what, there is no way to guarantee that the enemy in the city will be completely trapped and killed, and the enemy in the city will not be given any chance to break through and escape. Therefore, for Wu Chaoyue and the soldiers of the Wu army, it is still a big unknown whether they can completely annihilate the remnants of the Taiping army in the city of Nanjing and not give the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom any hope of making a comeback.

"It's okay, in history, even my barber teacher who can only fight in a daze can do it, let alone me, a traverser?" But fortunately, Wu Chaoyue is full of confidence in himself and believes that he can do it.