Far away in Jiujiang, and gradually lost the ability to predict history, Wu Chaoyue of course could not know whether his plan to capture the main force of the Taiping Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang had been successful, but in order to seize the opportunity to end the war as soon as possible and unify China, Wu Chaoyue still did his best to prepare for the decisive battle of Nanjing, and the reserves drawn from the Central Plains and the southwest rear have been constantly marching to Jiujiang to assemble, and the grain, grass, military supplies, weapons and ammunition are also constantly being transported to Wuhu through the Yangtze River waterway to hoard, the sword is unsheathed, and the good bow is wound, The blade pointed directly at Li Xiucheng's army, the last main force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Because it had long been decided to go to the front line to personally command this strategic decisive battle, during this period, Wu Chaoyue also spent a lot of effort to arrange the matters left behind, arrange a detailed contingency plan, and deal with various changes that may occur after he left Huguang, in addition to temporarily stopping major military actions to deal with Li Xiucheng, let Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming, who are the most trustworthy in civilian positions, be responsible for presiding over internal affairs and preparing for the supply of grain and grass to the front line; Nie Shicheng, who was the most trusted in the military, was transferred back to Xiangyang to sit in the center, ready to lead the Central Plains Reserve Force to go to various places to rescue emergencies; Yang Wending and Zuo Zongtang were responsible for leading the Wu army in Sichuan to prevent changes in Shaanxi, Gansu and Tibet, and by the way, monitoring the newly recovered Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

The three Wu army teams on the North China battlefield, Zeng Guoquan, Jiang Zhongji and Liu Kunyi, are not the absolute elite of the Wu army, the equipment is relatively poor, and the supply of advanced weapons is also very difficult, especially the lack of cavalry, and it is very difficult to fight on the North China battlefield dominated by the plains, but the enemy facing the situation is complicated, there are not only the Manchu remnants and Mongolian cavalry who are not dead, but also the twisted army banners that are good at wandering, and at the same time there is the insatiable Tsarist Russia in the north. The slightest carelessness would have unimaginable consequences, and even if it was unlikely to be overturned by the Manchus, it was very likely that Tsarist Russia would take the opportunity to snatch more northern land.

In addition to ordering Zeng Guoquan and other troops to temporarily stop expanding and give priority to holding on to the acquired territory, Wu Chaoyue had to adopt Zhao Liewen's proposal through telegrams, and took the initiative to send envoys to contact Cixi, Ci'an and others, pretending to be willing to end the civil war through negotiations and return the Forbidden City to Emperor Qixiang, and at the same time made it clear that he could consider accepting Ci'an and Cixi to listen to the government, and even coaxed and deceived to appease the Manchu court, which had fled to the northeast, and strive to stabilize the remnants of the Manchu Dynasty. lest they jump over the wall in a hurry and do something stupid like pulling the Tsarist army into the northeast.

Of course, Wu Chaoyue is also very aware of the virtues of his eldest niece of Cixi, and knows that his tricks must be difficult to hide from her, but fortunately, Wu Chaoyue does not need to buy much time, and at the same time, the military strength of Tsarist Russia in the Far East is not strong, Wu Chaoyue only needs to fight for the main force of the Taiping Army before the Tsarist Russian army intervenes in the civil war, and he can free up his hands to deal with the changes in the Northeast. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue did not pay too much attention to this matter, and his main energy was still used to prepare for the decisive battle with the Taiping army in Nanjing, and strive to kill Hong Xiuquan and Li Xiucheng on the Nanjing battlefield.

Finally, more than ten days after Mo Xiangzhi left Jiujiang, the last Wu army team ordered to participate in the war finally arrived in Jiujiang, and all the ships carrying troops and grain and grass were also in place, ready to march eastward at any time and join the Nanjing battlefield. At the same time, after more than 40 days of rest and rest, the situation of Cao Yanzhong's corps of the Wu army has also improved significantly, and the combat effectiveness has recovered to at least eighty percent of its peak.

After the order to Cao Yanzhong and Wang Fu was issued, Wu Chaoyue ordered the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army to start boarding the ships, preparing to lead the army to the east the next day and go to Nanjing to command the decisive battle. However, just when the soldiers of the Wu army were busy boarding the ship, Dai Wenjie, the chief of staff of the army, hurriedly came to Wu Chaoyue, and while presenting a telegram he had just received, he said: "King Zhennan, Zeng Jiushuai in the capital has encountered a troublesome matter, and you need to decide it yourself. ”

"What's going on in the capital?" Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked.

"Our vassal state, the Ryukyu Kingdom, has come to us for help." Dai Wenjie, who was unfamiliar with diplomacy, replied a little awkwardly, and said: "It was said that Japan's Satsuma Domain forced them to sever the relationship between the Ryukyu Kingdom and our Qing Dynasty, and only to the Japanese king, and also asked the Ryukyu Kingdom to pay tribute to the Satsuma Domain to pay tribute to sugar and rice, and tribute to nitrate and copper and iron. ”

Speaking of this, Dai Wenjie paused for a moment, and then said: "As a result, after the envoys of the Ryukyu Kingdom arrived in Tianjin, they learned that the King of Zhennan had taken the capital and driven the rebellious party in the capital to the northeast, and the rebellious Prince Gong who stayed in Tianjin did not give them an answer, and the envoy of the Ryukyu State, Dong Guoxing, sent someone to the capital and Zeng Jiushuai, asking us if we were willing to accept their vassals and send troops to help them deal with the Japanese Satsuma Domain. ”

"Promise the Ryukyu Kingdom!" Wu Chaoyue didn't even read the telegram before he answered categorically, and said in a firm tone: "Call back to the Hubei provincial capital immediately, let Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming reply to the Ryukyu Kingdom in my honor, our Qing Dynasty accepts their request for help, and asks the envoys of the Ryukyu Kingdom to come to Shanghai to wait for me, after I kill the long hair, I will send troops to the Ryukyus as soon as possible to help them resist the shameless aggression of the Japanese Satsuma Domain!" If necessary, I can also send troops directly to the Japanese island of Kyushu and go directly to the lair of the Satsuma Domain! ”

"King Zhennan, isn't it a little too hasty?" Dai Wenjie asked worriedly: "We still have two enemies that have not been cleaned up, Changmao and Chaos, and we directly agreed to send troops thousands of miles away to Ryukyu to start a war with Fusang State, is the battle line too long?" Also, our sailors don't have any experience in fighting at sea, so whether they can fight at sea is a big question? ”

"No matter how much, let's say yes first!" Wu Chaoyue replied more firmly, and said: "It doesn't matter if our sailors can't fight a naval battle for the time being, we can borrow troops from Britain or France to escort us, the great thing is to spend more silver, borrow more foreign debts, and ask foreigners to send our troops to Ryukyu by boat, but Ryukyu must be saved, and we must not let the little Japanese devils snatch it away!" ”

It was rare to see Wu Chaoyue's attitude so firm, Dai Wenjie didn't say anything more, but hurriedly called back to Hubei Provincial City according to Wu Chaoyue's request, Wu Chaoyue also picked up the urgent telegram sent by Zhao Liewen and others to take a closer look, and saw that the content was similar to Dai Wenjie's oral introduction, and suddenly rejoiced in his heart: "Fortunately, there is still a lot of hope to keep the first island chain." ”

Of course, modern people know why Wu Beyond cares so much about the survival of the Ryukyu vassals, but unfortunately, the Chinese of this era do not know, so a few hours later, an accident happened, and Zhao Liewen, who had always been obedient to Wu Transcendent, actually called Jiujiang and asked Wu Transcendence to reconsider the matter of agreeing to Ryukyu for help. Ignoring the Ryukyus' pleas for help would be more beneficial to China.

"Whether the Ryukyus live or die is better for us? Is he Guo Songtao stupid? Or is it water in the head? ”

After snatching the telegram and reading it carefully, Wu Chaoyue realized that he had misunderstood Guo Songtao, and Guo Songtao, who was trying to open his eyes to the world, was never wrong in his starting point, but he was limited by the times and did not know what Japan would do in the future, so he put forward this suggestion that could not be more wrong.

The reason for Guo Songtao's opposition was that there was a vigorous movement in Japan to respect the king, and the Japanese daimyo headed by the Choshu and Satsuma domains resolutely advocated continuing to close themselves to the country, hoping to abolish all foreign treaties signed between the Japanese shogunate and the Western powers, close all foreign trade ports, and expel all foreigners in Japan.

Therefore, in Guo Songtao's view, instead of spending a huge price and using force to weaken the Japanese Satsuma Domain, which advocated seclusion and xenophobia, it is better to indulge a little and make the Satsuma Domain bigger and stronger, and also make Japan's Zun Wang Yi Movement more powerful, so that Japan that is not a subject of the Manchu Qing Dynasty can fall into internal friction, and can also use Japan's Zun Wang Yi Movement to attract the artillery fire of Western powers, reduce the external pressure on China, and allow the Wu army to concentrate more forces on the civil war.

"The heart is a good heart, but it's a pity that the little Japanese devil is underestimated too much." After muttering a sentence, Wu Chaoyue, who was completely angry, asked people to call back Zhao Liewen and Guo Songtao, categorically vetoed the objections of Zhao Guo and others, and specially sent a telegram to Guo Songtao with a sentence, saying: "Don't forget the battle we fought with the Japanese in the Tang Dynasty, we won, and the Japanese are desperately learning from us." Now that foreigners and Japanese are at war, won't the Japanese learn from the foreigners? What if the Japanese learn better than us? ”

After sending out the telegram, Wu Chaoyue, who was about to lead the army on the next day, wanted to inspect the dock, and turned to the door without taking two steps, but Wu Chaoyue's heart moved, and he hurriedly turned around and picked up Guo Songtao's telegram to read it again, and said in his heart: "If I remember correctly, the Zunwang Rebellion was followed by the Shogunate War, and after the apprentice of Kiyojuro helped the old devil called Okubo to kill the Japanese shogunate, it was immediately the abolition of the sword order, and then the Meiji Restoration, and then the ...... of the First Sino-Japanese War. ”

Recalling this, Wu Chaoyue suddenly had a very insidious and vicious thought in his heart, and said secretly: "Can I find a way to disrupt the course of Japanese history?" I don't have the extra strength to intervene now, but I have every chance of a war against the curtain? As long as I help the Japanese shogunate to suppress the shogunate, if it is done, there is no Meiji Restoration, and if it is not successful, the Japanese civil war will expand, and the vitality will be greatly damaged, and the Restoration will die countless people, and the development will slow down, and there will never be a chance to catch up with us. ”

After saying it secretly, Wu Chaoyue suddenly made up his mind in his heart, and subconsciously glanced at the direction of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and said in his heart: "The long-haired soldiers have a way to use the waste." ”