promised to marry Yang Wending's granddaughter as his wife, although it was a concession forced against his will, but Wu Chaoyue's hue was not sacrificed in vain. After receiving Wu Chaoyue's reply, the old slippery head Yang Wending's attitude in front of Xiang Rong, Deng Shaoliang and others immediately became tough, and under the pretext that Wu Jun Lianyong needed time to train and prepare for war and purchase ammunition and weapons from foreigners, he categorically refused Xiang Rong and Deng Shaoliang's request for him to recruit Wu Jun Lianyong to Zhenjiang to participate in the war.

Like Wu Chaoyue, the Qing army generals who refused to participate in the war were not one or two, and the situation of the Qing army sailors under the command of Hechun was particularly serious, Xiang Rong forced Hechun several times to take advantage of the upstream to launch an attack, and the generals of the sailors under the command of Chun all found excuses to refuse to obey the order, and the Zhenjiang battlefield was completely deadlocked, after the defeat of Pudingshan, for two months, the Qing army never took the initiative to launch an attack, but the Taiping army took the initiative to launch a counterattack that was not very large, and the Qing army fought a winless battle, After that, the Taiping army did not move, and there was a tacit understanding to maintain a passive confrontation with the Qing army.

After the hard work of Wu Chaoyue, Zhao Liewen, Huang Sheng, and others, the military training and weapon development of the Wu army were gradually on the right track, and the recruits who had to undergo strict training every day were trained bravely and disciplined, and their combat effectiveness was significantly improved. At the same time, the Wu gunners, who had been trained by foreign instructors, were also able to operate mortars and breech-loading rifled guns proficiently, and after carefully studying the problems of artillery transportation, Wu Chaoyue, who had always been afraid of carrying these heavy weapons, also changed his original intention. Five mortars and five rear-loading guns were ordered from Ali Guo again to make up for the weakness of Wu's army's lack of firepower.

In terms of weapons development. Grenades and flowering shells refilled with picric acid have been successfully developed and gradually put into mass production; The portable grenadier made by Wu Chaoyue and Huang Sheng is also constantly improving. Although Wu Chaoyue can still be completely satisfied, he has also accumulated a lot of technical experience, and has preliminarily determined the production specifications, and can use the iron mold casting method to produce mass production at any time when needed. In addition, representatives of Prussian and American arms dealers also accepted Wu's request and promised to contact China to help Wu Chaoyue research and develop mortars and grenadiers - of course, they were all working on black powder shells.

The biggest headache for Wu Chaoyue was the problem of guns and ammunition, the road was too long, and the shotgun and accessories and ammunition that Wu Chaoyue ordered from the Prussians have not yet been delivered to Shanghai. As a result, the 3,000 Wu troops could only take turns to use the only 1,600 or so firing pin guns for live-ammunition training, which was extremely time-consuming and extremely dangerous -- if the Taiping army suddenly attacked, Wu troops would only be able to go to the battlefield with half of them.

As a last resort, for the sake of prudence, Wu Chaoyue could only retreat to the second, gritted his teeth and bought all the carbines in stock of Brown, the business representative of Colt Company, and handed them to Wu Jun Lianyong to make do, which reluctantly allowed all Wu Jun Lianyong to be equipped with muskets. In this regard, Brown, who helped a lot during Wu Chaoyue's military training, was of course overjoyed. I couldn't wait to miss the shortcomings of the firing pin gun again to Wu Chaoyue, and tried his best to persuade Wu Chaoyue to switch to all carbines in the future.

"Wu, you've finally made a smart decision! I still don't understand why you have to equip the Prussian enema guns? Don't you know. Such rifles were not popular with their soldiers in the Prussian army? In addition to being slightly faster in reloading, which is a little as good as our American carbines, the firing pin must be changed every hundred bullets. Is it simply a waste of your precious money? When the Prussians sell you a firing gun, they are actually experimenting with the firing gun that your army gave them. Improve their immature and unstable enema guns! The carbine I sold you is different, this is the active rifle that our American army is equipped with now. Mature technology, stable and reliable, it is the most reliable partner of soldiers on the battlefield, and it is your smartest choice to purchase and equip carbines in large quantities and universally! ”

No matter how much Brown blows the sky, it is useless, compared to the firing pin gun, the carbine with hammer fire does have the advantage of being solid and durable, but the situation of breech fire leakage is much more serious than that of the firing pin gun, and it cannot be improved at all, and when loading, you must bite through the cartridge case and sprinkle the gunpowder on the fire trough to ignite, the speed is slow and unsafe, so no matter how Brown boasts and persuades, Wu Chaoyue just does not let go and agrees to order a carbine from Brown again.

Of course, out of gratitude to Brown for helping him train his troops, Wu Chaoyue still gave Brown a good idea to sell a lot of arms, and said: "Brown, my good friend, if you want to do big business, why do you have to keep an eye on the three thousand troops in my hand, why don't you think about other armies?" The other armies of the Qing Kingdom, as well as the armies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, are ideal for your customers, so why don't you try to contact them and sell them your arms? ”

"Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?" Brown was dumbfounded on the spot and said in surprise: "Wu, you suggest that I sell weapons to your enemies?" ”

"Even if I don't recommend it, if you don't sell it, there are other countries that will." Wu Chaoyue replied very frankly and directly, and said: "As far as I know, Britain and France have already sent missionaries to try to get in touch with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and if they succeed in opening up the connection with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it will only be a matter of time before they sell weapons to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Since I can't stop them from doing this, why don't I give you this opportunity? Is my friendship with you comparable to theirs? ”

"Wu, we are friends for life!"

It was only after hugging Wu Chaoyue with open arms that Brown whispered in Wu Chaoyue's ear: "Wu, since you treat me as a friend so much, then I won't hide it from you, in fact, our American consul is also secretly contacting the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, if it succeeds, I will definitely try to start an arms trade with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." ”

Not surprisingly, Wu Chaoyue, who had long known what kind of virtue foreign devils had, was not at all surprised, and at the same time, in order to repay Brown for his great help to him, Wu Chaoyue also promised to send someone to get in touch with his teacher Zeng Guofan and help Brown sell carbines to Zeng Guofan. The ecstatic Brown hugged Wu Chaoyue again and thanked him sincerely, and Wu Chaoyue snorted coldly in his heart: "I hope you can succeed and let the Hunan army and the Taiping army be equipped with your tattered carbine in large quantities." Completely distort their tech tree. Anyway, Lao Tzu is not fooled, and now he is only equipped with a firing pin gun. In the future, it will only be equipped with metal bullet guns, and the firepower advantage on the battlefield will still be Lao Tzu! ”

Snorted coldly. Wu Chaoyue, who was stingy and stingy with the door, suddenly had this idea, and said secretly: "The carbine that Lao Tzu bought for so much silver can't be wasted in vain. If you can think of any more ways to advertise, maybe you can make some money to subsidize the military. ”

In the midst of the hustle and bustle, before you know it, two months have passed quietly. During this period, Shanghai was not alarmed, but the Central Plains and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River underwent earth-shaking changes. After the Taiping army Li Kaifang and Ji Wenyuan, who were ordered to attack the Central Plains, successfully captured the two important towns of Chuzhou and Fengyang, they suddenly turned on the plug-in mode again, easily broke through the Huaihe defense line of the Qing army, and successively took Huaiyuan, Mengcheng, Maozhou and Guide and other places, drinking the Yellow River, and scared the Xianfeng Emperor to desperately transfer troops to block and block, for fear that the Taiping army would break through the Yellow River and enter Shandong. Who would have thought that the Taiping army would just shoot a shot at Liujiakou, and then attack Kaifeng City, which had been emptied of troops. conquered Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province, in one fell swoop, and Emperor Xianfeng was so angry that he vomited blood again, and the hinterland of the Central Plains, which was originally peaceful, was suddenly thrown into chaos.

In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the vanguard of the Taiping Army's Western Route Army led by Hu Yihuang and Lai Hanying also created miracles. easily recaptured the important town of Anqing, and then Liankepengze, Hukou and Jiujiang and other places, and then miraculously took Nankangfu City. Basically controlled the key points of the cities along the Yangtze River in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and once attacked the city of Nanchang. Disturb the northern part of Jiangxi. When the news reached the capital, Emperor Xianfeng wanted to cry without tears. Long Yan was furious, and angrily overturned the Golden Dragon case, but he was still helpless.

In fact, Emperor Xianfeng should not be angry about these things, because the Manchu civil and military officials in these places are also worthy of him, and the loss of the city and land is completely because of the lack of strength, and he really can't do the Taiping army. Even so, the Qing army of Qingliuguan also won a battle in front of the Taiping army with a force of more than 800 people, and the Qing army in Henan also sent a fine work to infiltrate the Taiping army, looking for an opportunity to ignite the ships carrying ammunition of the Taiping army, causing a lot of casualties and difficulties for the Taiping army (historical facts), and in general there are barely a few bright spots.

What is really worthy of making Emperor Xianfeng angry and hateful should be Xiang Rong and Qi Shan, Xiang Rong hid in the Jiangnan camp and did not move, Qi Shan also spent all day in the Jiangbei camp outside Yangzhou City, spending hundreds of thousands of taels per month, but none of them wanted to forge ahead, and they all counted on Deng Shaoliang's side to open up the situation, take Zhenjiang, where the Taiping Army had a small number of defenders, and then take the opportunity to pick up the cheap.

It's a pity, Deng Shaoliang is also not angry, after a stalemate for more than two months, on the thirteenth day of June in the third lunar calendar of Xianfeng, at noon, the Zhenjiang Taiping Army, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly dispatched more than 2,000 people to attack the Qing army camp, the Qing army went out of the camp to fight, and the Taiping army lured the Qing army to the city, and ambushed the soldiers to attack the back of the Qing army. And Deng Shaoliang should not be fighting for anger when he was angry, gritted his teeth and sent out the rear army to start a decisive battle with the Taiping army, but after it was dark, the Taiping army in the city suddenly killed from the tunnel dug secretly, and raided into an empty Qing army camp, killing people and burning the tent, Deng Shaoliang found that when the plan hurried back to the army to save the camp, the main force of the Taiping army also took the opportunity to launch a comprehensive counteroffensive, and the panicked Qing army was defeated and fled, and the seven camps were burned by the Taiping army along with the grain, grass and ordnance.

If it weren't for Deng Shaoliang's wise choice after learning a lesson after the fiasco, holding on to the three Qing army camps south of the Gantang Bridge, and desperately repelling the Taiping army's attack by taking advantage of the situation, then the Qing army's Zhenjiang encirclement would have been completely smashed by the Taiping army at once. But even so, after receiving the report of Zhenjiang's defeat, Emperor Xianfeng was so angry that he tore Xiang Rong's recital to pieces, and roared: "Waste! It's all a bunch of waste snacks! I know that sooner or later, my country will be ruined by this group of waste dim sum! ”

Seeing that Emperor Xianfeng was angry like this, Mu Yin, the minister of military aircraft who had never forgotten his grudge in his heart, also took the opportunity to stand up, and cautiously reminded Emperor Xianfeng of Wu Chaoyue's existence, and said: "Long live, Songjiang regimental training to handle Wu Chaoyue, it seems that there has been no action for a long time, Wu Daotai can fight well, and repeatedly break the rebellion, this time the imperial army counterattacked Zhenjiang, why didn't you see him also participate in the Zhenjiang counterattack?" ”

De Mu Yin reminded that Emperor Xianfeng also suddenly remembered Wu Chaoyue, who could fight and shout slogans, and gave an edict without thinking about it: "Pass the decree." Let the Songjiang regiment practice Wu Chaoyue lead the men and horses of the department to reinforce Zhenjiang and participate in the Zhenjiang counterattack! Give Xiang Rong and Deng Shaoliang another will. I don't want their explanations, I just want Zhenjiang! As long as Zhenjiang! ”

It's a coincidence. On the same day, in view of the fact that Luo Gang had already inflicted heavy losses on the Qing army's land division, Yang Xiuqing, the real military leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, also felt that it was time to completely smash the Qing army's Zhenjiang encirclement, and decided to send a support army to Luo Gang on the same day to help him break the enemy. And when it came time to select the generals for reinforcements, although all the generals of the Taiping Army bravely asked for battle, no one's voice could compare to Lin Fengxiang, who had just recovered from his injuries, and Lin Fengxiang, who was unable to participate in the Northern Expedition due to injury, was willing to make a military order in front of Yang Xiuqing in order to seize this opportunity to fight, guaranteeing to lift the siege of Zhenjiang.

Of course, Yang Xiuqing can trust Lin Fengxiang's military ability. knew that Lin Fengxiang had been holding back for too long, so he also agreed to Lin Fengxiang's request. But for the sake of prudence, Yang Xiuqing still reminded: "Prime Minister Lin, be careful of the Qing Demon in Taiping Prefecture, although the Qing Demon Army has not moved so far, as far as this king knows, Liu Lichuan, the uncle who surpasses the little demon, is also in this Qing Demon army, and the more than 200 Qing demons under his command are all equipped with foreign guns, just like the demon soldiers who surpass the little demon. There is also a strange weapon that the little demon has never used in the Jiangning War, what is it called palm thunder, it will explode when it lands, Prime Minister Li Cheng and Deputy Prime Minister Ji were defeated by this demon soldier in Jiangyin. You run into them. Million....... ”

"Dongwang is nine thousand years old, please rest assured." Lin Fengxiang interrupted Yang Xiuqing's verbosity, and said calmly: "I will be careful in the end." The last general had already suffered a big loss from the enemy during the Jiangning War, and he would learn a lesson. ”

knows that Lin Fengxiang's character is actually more calm and steady than Li Kaifang and others. Yang Xiuqing didn't say anything, just nodded and said, "Very good." Then go, this king waits for your good news. ”

…………

It's time to look at the situation on Wu Chaoyue's side, after a week, Emperor Xianfeng personally ordered Wu Chaoyue to lead the army to participate in the Zhenjiang Battle The holy decree was sent to Wu Chaoyue, and after seeing this will, Wu Chaoyue's thin face suddenly became longer than a donkey, because Wu Chaoyue not only knew that the Zhenjiang counterattack was impossible to succeed, but also the guns and ammunition purchased from the Prussians did not know that they were floating on that sea.

After quickly finding Zhao Liewen to discuss, Zhao Liewen immediately told Wu Chaoyue: "Comfort Ting, you don't have to worry, although the emperor's holy decree cannot be disobeyed, it is not completely without countermeasures. All you need to do is write down the actual situation of the regimental training in Shanghai as a recital, and then complain bitterly, saying that you are now short of food and salary, and that the soldiers have no heart to fight, not only can you delay it for a few more days, but you may also be able to get some military pay from the imperial court. ”

"This ......, can it work? A few months ago, the imperial court just allocated me 100,000 taels of silver, can I still get it? Wu Chaoyue asked suspiciously.

Zhao Liewen smiled, first took out a detailed account of the military salary expenses of the Manchu court that he didn't know where he got it from, handed it to Wu Chaoyue and said: "Look at it, how much military salary did others get, and how much military salary did you get?" ”

After carefully looking at the details of the military salary expenditure of the Manchu Qing Dynasty that Zhao Liewen did not know from there, Wu Chaoyue immediately opened his mouth wide - in early April of the third year of Xianfeng, the Manchu Imperial Court ruled that the military salary allocated to Xiangrong Jiangnan Battalion this year turned out to be four million taels of silver! Qishan's Jiangbei camp salary is 1.46 million taels! The military salaries of Huicheng and Yang Dianbang and others are also about 500,000 taels, of which the military strength and Wu Chaoyue are both 3,000 Zhou Tianjue's troops, and the military salary is also 260,000 taels! (All historical data)

Shocked, Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked, "Where did you get it from?" ”

"Of course, I asked Lord Hui Zhenghui to help me get it." Zhao Liewen replied very easily: "The 10,000 taels of silver you handed over to me last time, I only sent 6,000 taels to Yang Wending, and you didn't ask how much silver was left, and I didn't pay you back. ”

Encountering Zhao Liewen, a conscientious staff officer, Wu Chaoyue really couldn't find any words to express his excitement, holding Zhao Liewen's hand just shaking vigorously, Zhao Liewen smiled and said: "Comfort Ting, what are you doing holding my hand?" Don't you want me to write an excerpt for you, buy time and ask for military pay? ”

Zhao Liewen's ghostwriting was quickly written, and after Wu Chaoyue sent someone to send it to the post station and sent it out with a fast horse, he sat down in front of the other information carefully collected by Zhao Liewen to study, but it didn't take long for the captain of the pro-soldier Wu Dadao to suddenly come in quickly, and handed a military intelligence report with chicken feathers to Wu Chaoyue, and said: "Young Master Sun, Jiangsu Governor Yang Wending just sent someone to send it, it seems to be in a hurry. ”

I took the Tang Newspaper and opened it, and after opening it, I only looked at it a few times, Wu Chaoyue's face changed immediately, and the Tang Newspaper in his hand fell to the ground in a distraction, Zhao Liewen next to him saw that something was wrong, and hurriedly asked: "Comfort Pavilion, what is the bad news?" ”

"Yang Wending's army was defeated." Wu Chaoyue replied in a distraught manner: "Liu Lichuan's Lian Yong was also defeated, and Liu Lichuan himself disappeared on the battlefield. (To be continued.) )