The fiasco on the battlefield of the Qinhuai River made Li Xiucheng cry, but it made Wu Chaoyue, who had done a lot of evil, ecstatic, because in this battle, the Wu army not only took all the Taiping army camps west of the Qinhuai River in one fell swoop, but also successfully eliminated a large number of enemy living forces, almost defeated and severely damaged all the Taiping army troops west of the Qinhuai River, completely smashed Li Xiucheng's dream of vainly trying to pull the Nanjing battlefield into a stalemate, and successfully compressed Li Xiucheng's remnants into a small space. Even if he is not completely sure that he will be able to completely annihilate Li Xiucheng's remnants, it can be guaranteed that even if Li Xiucheng can break through successfully, he will not be able to escape back to the rear of Suzhou and Hangzhou with many people.

When the soldiers of the Wu army were still cleaning up the battlefield, Wu Chaoyue couldn't wait to discuss with his accomplice the lackey how to eat the remnants of Li Xiucheng in one bite, and then take Nanjing to kill Hong Xiuquan, completely ending the Taiping Army cult rebellion that had been a disaster for more than ten years. As a result, as soon as this topic was put on the conference table, Wu Jun and everyone said: "As long as we can find a way to stabilize Changmao for a few more days, let our army rest and prepare for a few days, and Cao Yanzhong will arrange for defense to block Changmao's southward escape road." Then we will break through the defense line of the Qinhuai River with long hair, and it will only be a matter of time before we completely annihilate the remnants of Li Xiucheng. ”

"But the question is, how do we stabilize the long hair for the time being?" Wu Chaoyue pointed to the direction where Li Xiucheng was and said: "The battle has reached this point, as long as Li Xiucheng is not stupid, he must have given birth to the idea of running away quickly, if he is determined to leave, let alone us now, even Hong Xiuquan may not be able to stop him." What kind of methods should we use to stabilize him temporarily? ”

Everyone pondered for a while, and after a while, Dai Wenjie spoke: "King Zhennan, how about continuing to pretend to negotiate with Changmao?" Find some excuses that Changmao thinks can be used to blackmail us, such as asking Changmao to release your only son's grandfather, Zhou Lichun, and lifting the siege of our Shanghai, or simply asking Changmao to surrender to us and pay tribute, so that Changmao feels that there is hope for a truce through negotiations, so that Changmao may be able to stabilize Changmao for a while. ”

"It's useless, Li Xiucheng will never be fooled." Wu Chaoyue shook his head and said: "Things have come to this point, Li Xiucheng will definitely not hope for any so-called peace talks, we will send an envoy to ask for negotiations, but it will make him understand that we are trying to buy time to prepare to wipe out the rest of his army, and strengthen his determination to flee quickly." ”

Dai Wenjie closed his mouth, and Zhang Dejian, who was in charge of intelligence work, continued to speak, saying: "King Zhennan, Your Majesty feels that the key to the problem now is Li Xiucheng alone, as long as we can find a way to let him stay, his army will definitely not leave." But if we can't do this, then no matter what we think of and what means we use, we won't be able to stop Li Xiucheng from leaving. Therefore, if you want to completely annihilate the remnants of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangning Changmao on the battlefield in Jiangning, the only way is to attack Li Xiu himself. ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded slowly, agreeing with Zhang Dejian's analysis, and at the same time, Wu Chaoyue racked his brains to recall the details of the Taiping Army's decisive battle in Nanjing, wanting to find the specific reason why Li Xiucheng chose to stay in Nanjing and wait for death in history. But it's a pity that Wu Chaoyue's history is too sparse, and he didn't pay special attention to such details before he crossed over, so no matter how hard he tried, he got nothing, and he had to restart his head full of bad water, and he pondered a way to force Li Xiucheng to stay.

When he was trying to calculate, Zhang Dejian spoke again and said: "King Zhennan, when my subordinates were interrogating the Changmao prisoners, they inadvertently asked for an important piece of information, saying that Hong Xiuquan sent a prison soldier named Mo Shixuan to Li Xiucheng's side a few days ago, and he was the chief official in charge of the Changmao criminal law. If I'm not mistaken, this Mo Shijun should be the eyeliner that Hong Xiuquan planted next to Li Xiucheng, can we make some fuss about this Mo Shijun, and use Hong Xiuquan's distrust of Li Xiucheng to force Li Xiucheng to stay? ”

"Difficult." Wu Chaoyue still shook his head, frowned and said: "This Mo Shixuan must be Hong Xiuquan's eyeliner, but he has no soldiers and no power in the prison army, if Li Xiucheng is determined to leave, Hong Xiuquan can't stop him, let alone him?" ”

"King Zhennan, can you find a way to let this Mo Shixuan trick Li Xiucheng into Jiangning City, and let Hong Xiuquan force Li Xiucheng to stay?" Zhou Wenxian suddenly opened his mouth and said: "Outside the city, Hong Xiuquan and Mo Shixuan can't help Li Xiucheng, but if Li Xiucheng enters Jiangning City, it won't be up to him to get out of the city." ”

Wu Chaoyue's eyes lit up, and he suddenly felt some clues, and after thinking for a while, Wu Chaoyue also turned to Zhang Dejian and asked, "Shi Peng, how much do you know about this Mo Shijing's situation?" ”

"Not much." Zhang Dejian replied: "I only know that he is an old thief in Guangxi with long hair, and he became a pseudo-Shangshu of the Criminal Department of Long Mao in the sixth year of the first emperor, and I heard that he took Hong Xiuquan's golden dragon sword and pseudo-holy decree to Shanghai to force Li Xiucheng to return, and the rest is not clear." ”

"Guangxi old thief? The soldiers who forced Li Xiucheng to return for Hong Xiuquan, and monitored Li Xiucheng for Hong Xiuquan? Wu Chaoyue came to a conclusion after a little analysis and said: "It is impossible for such a person to be bribed, but can only be used." ”

"How?" Zhang Dejian asked.

"Send someone to contact him, pretending to buy him with his official position and gold, silver and jewelry." Wu Chaoyue said: "Tell him to use his identity as a prison army to stop Li Xiucheng from leading the army into the city, it is best to help us force Li Xiucheng away, so that we can easily take Jiangning City and kill Hong Xiuquan, so that he will try his best to let Li Xiucheng enter the city." ”

"Wouldn't that backfire?" Zhang Dejian said with some worry: "The current situation, even the stubborn long hair may be a little shaken, if this Mo Shijing is really bought by us, and really find a way to force Li Xiucheng to run away with the remaining Jiangsu and Zhejiang long hair, then we will be self-defeating." ”

"Gotta gamble." Wu Chaoyue said in a deep voice: "Now we can't stop Li Xiucheng from running away, we can only find a way to let Hong Xiuquan stop him, this Mo Shixuan is a long-haired old man in Guangxi, and he is so trusted and reused by Hong Xiuquan, we bet that he will not betray Hong Xiuquan, and the certainty of winning is much greater." ”

Seeing that Wu Chaoyue's determination had been made, Zhang Dejian no longer objected, and immediately asked for an order to go to the prisoner of war camp to select a suitable messenger, and Wu Chaoyue asked Zhou Wenxian to write a letter of persuasion on the spot to Mo Shixuan, an important minister of the Taiping Army, and after signing and printing it in person, Wu Chaoyue also kissed the letter and muttered: "Please, it must work, whether you can end the long-haired thief rebellion as soon as possible, so that the people will suffer less from the war for a few years, it depends on you." ”

…………

Of course, Wu Chaoyue would not guess Li Xiucheng's mind wrongly, Li Xiucheng, who had opposed the decisive battle of Nanjing from the beginning, had already given birth to the idea of retreating, which would be defeated in successive battles and suffered a fatal blow on the west bank of the Qinhuai River, Li Xiucheng of course did not have any intention of continuing to fight, so when Wu Chaoyue decided to try his best to leave Li Xiucheng, Li Xiucheng had already made up his mind to lead the army away quickly, and did not want to stay on the Nanjing battlefield to accompany Hong Xiuquan to the funeral.

Fortunately, Li Xiucheng still has a lot of feelings for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, even though he knew that it must be in vain, Li Xiucheng still wrote another seal in person, explaining to Hong Xiuquan the various critical situations on the Nanjing battlefield, and clearly pointed out that the Nanjing war situation can neither continue to fight nor defend again, and begged Hong Xiuquan with tears to take advantage of the fact that there is still a way to retreat in the east, and quickly take the Nanjing Taiping Army to retreat to the rear of Suzhou and Hangzhou with him, and exchange space for time to strive for the hope of a comeback. and made it clear that he was willing to take on the heavy responsibility of the palace and sacrifice his life to cover Hong Xiuquan's retreat.

After the chapter was written, Li Xiucheng didn't let his important cronies go to see Hong Xiuquan, and casually picked an ordinary Zhongdian official and asked him to enter the city with the seal, and at the end Li Xiucheng said to Li Shuxiang with some red circles in his eyes: "This is my last chance to give the king long live, I have done my duty as a courtier, if he doesn't agree, we will leave tomorrow night." ”

"Chung Wang Chitose, in fact, you should have made this decision a long time ago." Li Shuxiang shed tears and choked up and said: "If you had made up your mind earlier, we don't know how many loyal and brave soldiers we can die less, and we don't know how many troops we can keep." ”

Li Xiucheng sighed, stopped talking, turned his head and just looked at the direction of Nanjing City, what appeared in his heart was all kinds of past events, as well as the voice and smile of his old mother's family, and he didn't say a word for a long time.

While waiting for Hong Xiuquan's reply, some people secretly reported that they had found that someone had secretly contacted Mo Shixuan, the overseer of Hong Xiuquan's forced military camp in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Li Xiucheng didn't pay any attention to it, because Li Xiucheng didn't have the mind to pay attention to it, and there was no need to pay attention to it - all the Taiping generals in the Chinese army camp were Li Xiucheng's henchmen, and Mo Shijun couldn't afford any trouble.

In the evening, the messenger who entered the city with a watch returned to Li Xiucheng, and also brought a messenger who held Hong Xiuquan's holy decree, but after kneeling down to listen to Hong Xiuquan's holy decree, Li Xiucheng's nose was crooked on the spot......

“…… Li Xiucheng, I follow the holy decree of God, the holy decree of my brother Jesus, and go down to be the only righteous lord of all the nations in the world, why be afraid? You don't need to play, you don't need to take care of political affairs, you want to run for your life, you want to be in Beijing, let you do it! I don't help the iron bucket, someone helps! You said that you can't fight, there are more heavenly soldiers than water, why are you afraid of surpassing the little demons? If you are afraid of death, you will die! If you want to die, I will not stop you! Chin this! ”

Without any expression, he kowtowed and thanked him, and after sending away the messenger of the decree, Li Xiucheng turned to Li Shuxiang and Li Rongfa and other cronies, and said very calmly: "Long live the king of heaven is hopeless, rest well tonight, prepare for departure secretly tomorrow, abandon the camp and retreat tomorrow night, go east out of Qilin Gate and Cangbo Gate, go to Jurong first, and then go to Danyang." ”

Li Shuxiang, Li Rongfa and the others did not hesitate, and immediately surrendered their promises together, and finally Li Shuxiang said: "What if the King of Heaven sends troops to stop it?" ”

"Who do you think in Tianjing City would dare to send troops to stop us?" Li Xiucheng asked proudly, and said coldly: "Even if someone really comes out to stop them, they will resolutely fight away!" The remaining army is our last hope for a comeback, and we must not stay for the burial of the King of Heaven in vain! ”

It was night, Li Xiucheng, who had not slept for two nights, once again stayed awake all night, or when the sky was light, Li Xiucheng closed his eyes and fell asleep in a daze, but he didn't sleep long, but there was a sudden message outside the tent that Hong Xiuquan announced that Li Xiucheng would be summoned to the city to meet him, and Li Xiucheng, who had decided not to bury Hong Xiuquan anymore, listened to Li Shuxiang's suggestion, and categorically refused Hong Xiuquan's call on the pretext that he did not dare to leave the army without permission due to the military situation, and then seized the time to rest, On the one hand, let Li Shuxiang, Li Rongfa and others secretly start to prepare for retreat.

At the same time, Li Xiucheng did not forget to arrange manpower to try to contact Fu Zhenggang, who was trapped on Jiuhuan Continent, so that Fu Zhenggang could take advantage of the distraction of the Wu army when he retreated and made every effort to break through to the north bank of the Yangtze River. He also secretly allowed Fu Zhenggang to surrender to the Wu army to save his life after the failure of the breakthrough, and first escaped from the death site of Jiuhuanzhou and then tried to return to the rear of Suzhou and Hangzhou.

At about ten o'clock in the morning, the second proclamation envoy came to Li Xiucheng, and once again announced for Hong Xiuquan that Li Xiucheng was summoned to the city for an audience, and the holy decree read out was not only tactful and abnormal, but also rewarded Li Xiucheng with a batch of gold, silver and jewelry on behalf of Hong Xiuquan, Li Xiucheng was a little hesitant for a while, but considering Hong Xiuquan's bear temper, and because Li Shuxiang and others kept hinting on the side, Li Xiucheng still refused Hong Xiuquan's second proclamation, and sent Hong Xiuquan's second proclamation away with a tough attitude.

However, the matter was still not over, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, Hong Xiuquan actually sent his favorite minister Meng Shiyong as an envoy, with Xiao Youhe, the king of Youxi, Feng Ruike, the king of Younan, Wei Chengye, the king of Youbei, and Hong Xiuquan's second son Hong Tianguang, and other four second-generation kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, came to Li Xiucheng's front together, and read the holy decree for the third time to summon Li Xiucheng to the city to meet Hong Xiuquan. As a result, of course, Li Xiucheng couldn't find a reason to push if he wanted to, and he couldn't give up his heart to refuse......

"King Zhong, King Zhong, please, go into the city to see the King of Heaven, and our Kingdom of Heaven can only count on you."

"Uncle Zhongwang, Uncle Zhongwang, please."

In order to persuade Li Xiucheng to enter the city, in addition to pulling Li Xiucheng's sleeve and crying, the four young kings also rushed to kneel down and plead with Li Xiucheng, Meng Shiyong also pleaded with tears, Li Shuxiang and Li Rongfa and others were sad and did not dare to say anything, Li Xiucheng was in tears, holding one could not support the second, and finally had no choice, Li Xiucheng could only choke and nod, and said: "Okay, I will go into the city with you." ”

Not to mention, Hong Xiuquan really didn't have any idea of forcing Li Xiucheng to stay by force, but when Li Xiucheng entered Nanjing City from Hongwumen with the four young kings, both sides of the road were densely packed with soldiers and civilians in Nanjing City, crying and begging Li Xiucheng to stay and defend Nanjing. And Li Xiucheng came to the door of the Tianwang Mansion with tears in his eyes, and saw Hong Xiuquan personally come to the gate of the Tianwang Mansion to greet him, and took off the dragon robe on his body and put it on his own body......

"The Holy Grace of the Heavenly King, His Majesty can only break his bones ...... to protect against the odds."

In front of the families of countless Taiping soldiers who cried and begged to stay behind, after saying this sentence to Hong Xiuquan with tears, Li Xiucheng was the same as in history,

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