In response to the war of reinforcements from the south, it was actually the Hunan army soldiers who made great efforts, Wu Jun Lianyong just used the weapon advantage to quickly defeat the Taiping Army Ou Zhencai Department of the Dao array, and then he never fought again, relying on Zeng Guoquan to give up his life to intercept the reinforcements sent by the Taiping Army from the Hongshan camp, and the palace fought to the death to stop the Taiping Army chasing the soldiers, and it was still the Hunan Army General Hu Linyi, after the tired reinforcements from afar entered the city, Wu Chaoyue, who was outnumbered, also ran into the city unceremoniously, threw the errand of wiping the ass and doing the coolies to Hu Linyi and Zeng Guoquan.

But even so, seeing that Wu Chaoyue personally led the army to respond with the respect of the governor of a province, and rushed to the front line as a soldier, the reinforcements from the south still remembered most of the favors on Wu Chaoyue, and only settled down a little after entering the city, Liu Changyou, Jiang Zhongji and Wang Guocai and other reinforcement generals immediately ran to Wu Chaoyue to salute and thank him, and thanked Wu Chaoyue in person. Wu Chaoyue also took the opportunity to show off his acting skills, picked up these generals who were not directly descendants of the barber to appease them, shh

When Wu Chaoyue showed his acting skills, Zeng Guofan never appeared on the scene, but Zeng Guofan had been silently watching the scene of his proud protégé being surrounded by reinforcements on the Zhonghe Gate City, with no expression on his face and a rather indifferent gaze. Liu Rong, a confidant next to him, said: "Dashuai, your protégé is very scheming." The green camp and regimental training in the city of Wuchang Mansion are all in your hands, he knows that if you can't fight, you will simply be a favor, take the initiative to give in, and then focus on the new reinforcements to exert favors, and personally lead the army out of the city to receive the reinforcements to sell a great favor, seeing the old and spicy wrist of the stitches and seizing the opportunity, it is really hard to believe that he is not yet twenty years old. ”

Zeng Guofan was still silent, or it wasn't until Liu Rong finished saying that a little smile appeared on Zeng Guofan's face, and he said with a sneer: "Think you can pull the reinforcements over and stand on your own mountain by selling a favor?" Dream! He has the ability to pull over the waste in Hubei Green Camp, just pull it, Hunan group practice, I want to see if he has the ability! ”

After a hard battle, Zeng Guoquan and Hu Linyi finally withdrew from the city from Zhonghe Gate and Baoanmen respectively at a certain price, and although the Taiping Army that failed to block the Qing army's reinforcements was unwilling, it no longer had the strength to continue to attack Wuchang City, so it could only retreat with hatred and hatred. The battle on this day was over, and the defense force of Wuchang Fucheng, which successfully received reinforcements into the city, increased greatly, and the hope that the Taiping army could still break through Wuchang Fucheng was even more slim.

As mentioned earlier, this day happened to be the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve of the fourth year of Xianfeng, and since the reinforcements from the south barely entered the city smoothly, no matter how stingy the barber teacher was, he naturally had to set up a banquet in the Chinese army camp in the patrol ridge to spend Chinese New Year's Eve with the generals of each battalion and the reinforcements. At the same time, the barber teacher was more and more dissatisfied with the disobedient protégé in his stomach, so he could only obediently send someone to invite Wu Chaoyue to the camp for a banquet.

Wu Chaoyue, who received the invitation, happily obeyed, and after arriving at the scene, Wu Chaoyue also unceremoniously took the initiative to sit at the table of Liu Changyou and Jiang Zhongji and other reinforcement generals, and beckoned Wang Guocai to sit down in front of him. Coincidentally, Hu Linyi, the general of the Hunan army who first went out of the city to receive reinforcements, also sat at this table, so when chatting, Wu Chaoyue couldn't help but ask about the confusion in the previous retreat order, and asked Liu Changyou, Hu Linyi and others: "Everyone, I noticed a detail today, when you came from Changhongqiao, why did you go forward at the same time, and did not arrange a separate army to the rear of the palace?" ”

Wu Chaoyue just asked this question, and Wang Guocai, who was sitting next to him, immediately turned red, and honestly pleaded guilty: "Lord Futai's forgiveness, it was the last general who failed to restrain the green battalion soldiers, after General Hu and we met, General Hu originally took the initiative to lead the army to the rear of the palace, but the rabbit cubs under the command of the last general were greedy for life and afraid of death, so they ran forward directly without listening to the command, and rushed General Liu's baggage team. ”

Unexpectedly, the culprit who disrupted the retreat formation turned out to be his own subordinates, Wu Chaoyue was suddenly a little embarrassed, and hurriedly raised his wine glass and said to Hu Linyi, Liu Changyou and others: "Brother Hu Brother Liu, it turned out that it was the Hubei Green Battalion that dragged you back, and as the governor of Hubei, I can't escape the blame, it's me who is not good, I will punish myself with three cups and make amends to you." I also promise you that I will give me a little time to put the green camp in order and make sure that this will not happen again. ”

Hu Linyi, Liu Changyou and others hurriedly waved their hands, not daring to accept Wu Chaoyue's apology, Wu Chaoyue insisted on drinking three cups in a row and repeatedly apologized to Hu Linyi and others, and then comforted Wang Guocai and said: "I don't blame you, I know what virtue the green battalion soldiers are, compared with the green battalion soldiers in other places, the green battalion under your command is already relatively competitive." But you can't be proud, you have to make persistent efforts, now there is a big chaos today, the court is employing people, I just came to Hubei, and I am in urgent need of effective Hubei generals to assist, you have done a good job under my command, I will protect you as a general soldier. ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue patted Wang Guocai's shoulder again, and said with a smile: "Also, the shortage of the governor of Hubei is also empty, and the soldiers who don't want to be generals are not good Qiu Ba, and the deputy generals who don't want to be motivated are not good generals." ”

Wang Guocai hurriedly nodded again and again, saying that he would definitely lead the green camp for Wu Chaoyue, and he would definitely be a good lackey for Wu Chaoyue. Wu Chaoyue laughed, encouraged Wang Guocai, and also talked happily with Liu Changyou, Jiang Zhongji and others, and brazenly took the initiative to mention the past of his sacrifice to Jiang Zhongyuan when he was in Jinan, forcing Jiang Zhongji and Jiang Zhongyuan's cousin Jiang Zhongyi to leave the table and bow down to Wu Chaoyue, thanking Wu Chaoyue for his worship of their brother.

No matter how much you sell short favors, it doesn't have much effect, it may be that you can't get used to Wu Chaoyue's hypocrisy, and there are constantly Hunan generals who come over to invite Liu Changyou and the Jiang brothers to have a banquet to drink, Liu Changyou and the Jiang brothers can't hinder the feelings of their fellow villagers, so they have to complain to Wu Chaoyue and leave the table, and Yang Dingguo and Bao Chao also came to the deadlift kingdom to drink at their table, although the kingdom repeatedly refused, but still couldn't resist the enthusiasm of colleagues and direct bosses, and was forced to leave with Wu Chaoyue. So unconsciously, only Wu Chaoyue, Hu Linyi and the two Hunan generals were left at the table of Wu Chaoyue, and the atmosphere was also cold.

Of course, Wu Chaoyue knew that this was no coincidence, and when he quietly went to see his barber teacher, he saw Zeng Guofan talking and drinking with Liu Rong, Li Qinggu and others, as if he didn't realize that he was being left out and isolated. Wu Chaoyue sighed quietly, and then went to find other people to talk to, and soon saw that his close confidant Zhao Liewen was talking and laughing with a young scholar wearing Confucian clothes, and it seemed that he was chatting quite speculatively.

Sitting bored, Wu Chaoyue also got up to Zhao Liewen's seat, everyone saw Wu Chaoyue arrive and hurriedly got up, Wu Chaoyue smiled and waved his hand to signal everyone to sit down, and then sat next to Zhao Liewen without any unceremonious ass, and asked with a smile: "Huifu, who is this gentleman?" What is it that makes such a good conversation? ”

"This is Liu Xianzhuang." Zhao Liewen hurriedly chatted with the young scholar who had a speculative chat with him, and said to Wu Chaoyue: "This Mr. Xianzhuang is a student, the first place in the county examination in Xinning County, Hunan, who has learned the past and the present, and has outstanding poetry. ”

"I've seen Lord Futai."

That Liu Xianzhuang also hurriedly saluted Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue saw that although he looked elegant and had the same dry and thin figure as himself, he also felt quite pleasing to the eye, so he smiled and asked: "Mr. Xianzhuang, are you from that battalion?" What is your current position? ”

"Lord Huifutai, the student is Chu Yong's battalion officer, and he is currently the battalion officer of Zhuangzi." Liu Xianzhuang replied respectfully.

"Battalion officer?" Wu Chaoyue was stunned and asked in surprise: "You are a military general?" ”

"Comfort Pavilion, underestimate people, right?" Zhao Liewen smiled and blamed, and said to Wu Chaoyue: "This Mr. Xianzhuang is not only the battalion officer of Chu Yongzhuang's character battalion, but also has assisted General Liu Changyou Liu in organizing regimental training in the twenty-ninth year of Daoguang, and has fought side by side with your senior brother Jiang Zhongliegong. ”

He looked up and down at that Liu Xianzhuang even more surprised, and saw that he was only twenty-four or five years old, Wu Chaoyue was inevitably even more surprised, and said with a smile: "Disrespectful and disrespectful, I am lonely and unheard, I really don't know that Mr. Xianzhuang has been handling group training for more than five years. ”

"Lord Futai praised it falsely, and the students didn't dare to be it." Liu Xianzhuang hurriedly said modestly and with admiration: "When it comes to running group exercises, students just handled group exercises earlier, and they were lucky enough to pick up a few combat exploits. ”

After that, Liu Xianzhuang asked Wu Chaoyue quite eagerly: "Dare to ask Lord Futai, what kind of musket are you using on the battlefield today?" How did you fight so fast? Longhair only fired one shot, and your soldier was able to fire four shots in a row, and it seems that he can reload ammunition while crouching? ”

"I didn't expect Mr. Da Zhuang to be so delicate that he could even notice these details." Wu Chaoyue smiled, and then told Liu Xianzhuang about the principle of the firing pin gun, Liu Xianzhuang was naturally extremely envious when he heard it, and immediately begged Wu Chaoyue to let him see the firing pin gun with his own eyes, feeling that this Liu Xianzhuang was more pleasing to the eye, Wu Chaoyue naturally agreed, and invited Liu Xianzhuang to go to his governor's yamen tomorrow to appreciate the firing pin gun, Liu Xianzhuang was overjoyed, and hurriedly thanked Wu Chaoyue.

Zhao Liewen is quite accurate, this Liu Xianzhuang is indeed quite talented, gentle in speech and demeanor, very personable, and at the same time makes Wu Chaoyue quite happy is that although this Liu Xianzhuang is more resistant to foreign affairs, and is not very able to accept advanced technology and culture from the West, but he hates corruption to the core, and points out that the real cause of the Taiping Army is all caused by the expropriation and extortion of local officials, and boldly suggests to Wu Chaoyue that he should make every effort to rectify the Hubei officialdom, clarify the rules and regulations, and vigorously crack down on local corrupt officials and rest with the people. Eradicate the soil for the survival of the Taiping army from the roots.

Feeling that Liu Xianzhuang's words were really right to his appetite, and knowing that he had the title of Zhixian on his body, Wu Chaoyue applauded Liu Xianzhuang's opinion loudly, and patted Liu Xianzhuang on the shoulder and said: "Da Xianzhuang, don't go, how about staying in Hubei to help me?" I'll give you a county magistrate, let you do it freely, and help me for the benefit of the people. ”

Hanging a county fictitious title just sounds good, no real power, making up for a county is completely different, Liu Xianzhuang, who has been doing more than five years of group training and is still very unsatisfactory, is of course a little moved, but Liu Xianzhuang is still a little hesitant, and said: "Lord Futai is loved, and the students are flattered, but the students are determined to serve the country, and now the imperial court is ...... top priority to pacify bandits." ”

"If you stay in Dangzhi County, Hubei, you can't run a group to practice killing long hair?" Wu Chaoyue unceremoniously planned Liu Xianzhuang, and said: "Now that Hubei is in trouble, Wuchang is the heart of the nine provinces of Tongheng, the heart of the Central Plains, and help me build an elite army in Hubei, are you afraid that there is no chance to kill thieves and serve the country?" ”

Zhao Liewen was also on the side to help persuade him, Liu Xianzhuang was moved, but he still had some scruples, so he bowed his hand to Wu Chaoyue and said: "Futai raises love, how dare the students obey?" It's just that the student accompanied General Liu Changyou to lead the army to save Wuchang, and worked with him for many years, leaving him to stay in Hubei directly to take up a substantive position, and he couldn't bear it, so the student wanted to discuss with him first, and then give a reply to Lord Futai. ”

"Well, I'm waiting for your good news. Come, drink and drink, today is Chinese New Year's Eve, we must drink a happy one. Wu Chaoyue promised to give Liu Xianzhuang time to think about it, and he really didn't take it too seriously - Wu Chaoyue liked this Liu Xianzhuang's words very much, but if he really couldn't pull it in, Wu Chaoyue wouldn't mind too much. Of course......

Of course, Wu Chaoyue's recruitment of Chu Yong's camp officials in front of the public soon reached the ears of Wu Chaoyue's barber teacher, who secretly laughed at the disobedient protégé's unrighteous and helpless, and could only attack Chu Yong's middle-level officer like stealing chickens and dogs, Zeng Guofan was also a little interested in this Liu Xianzhuang, and casually ordered: "Find Liu Changyou's person to inquire about the origin of this person, and what identity and background does he have?" ”

Zeng Guofan's henchmen were naturally able to do things, and the Chinese New Year's Eve banquet had just ended, and detailed information about Liu Xianzhuang had already been presented to Zeng Guofan - Liu Kunyi, Zi Xianzhuang, a native of Xinning, Hunan, Daoguang assisted Liu Changyou in handling regimental training in Xinning in the 29th year, and participated in the battle of Yidu that killed Feng Yunshan with Liu Changyou. Later, because he led the army to escort the wounded soldiers back to his hometown, Liu Kunyi failed to participate in the Battle of Changsha and missed the opportunity to rise quickly, so he has only mixed up with a false title of magistrate so far.

After reading Liu Kunyi's general resume, Zeng Guofan only thought about it for a while, and immediately had this idea, and said secretly: "Or, let this Liu Kunyi stay in Hubei as a magistrate, right?" Pull him over with his fellow countrymen, and then let him be a nail for me to be planted next to the comfort pavilion....... ”

Xianfeng's four years passed unconsciously in the wind and snow, and on the first day of the first month of the fifth year of Xianfeng, a newspaper came from outside the city that the Taiping Army had abandoned the Changhongqiao position, and the garrison was transferred to the embankment. Zeng Guofan heard the great news, it was expected that this must be the Taiping army ready to lift the signal of Wuchang Fucheng, Wu Chaoyue also thought that the Taiping army was ready to give up attacking Wuchang City, but what made Wu Chaoyue and Zeng Guofan dumbfounded together was that the Changhongqiao garrison had just been transferred to the camp at the mouth of the embankment, and the Taiping army Chen Yucheng who was originally stationed at the mouth of the embankment crossed the Yangtze River to Hankou on the east bank of the Han River on the same day, and at the same time, the new force of the Taiping Army in Hanyang City also crossed the Han River on all fronts and went north hand in hand with Chen Yucheng.

"Oops! Reinforcements from the north! ”

After being dumbfounded, Wu Chaoyue quickly came to his senses, and immediately understood that the Taiping army was planning to attack the Qing army reinforcements from the north and south, although Wu Chaoyue did not care how many Qing troops the Taiping army would hack to death, and he also had little hope for the Shaanxi and Gansu reinforcements led by Zalaphin and the rabble under Yang Pei, but those armies were the armies of the Manchu court after all, and they were really friendly troops who came to help Wu Chaoyue. If they make any mistakes, even if the Taiping army really gives up Wuchang and goes east, Wu Chaoyue can only rely on the barber teacher completely if he wants to recover the land of Hubei in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and he will no longer be able to count on a second help.

Forced to be helpless, Wu Chaoyue could only hurriedly run to Zeng Guofan's front to make a disciple salute, begging Zeng Guofan to send the Hunan army sailors to go up the Han River, and go to Xingou to help Zalafen and Yang Pei, so that those two fools could keep the army from being beaten too badly by the Taiping army. However, Zeng Guofan refused, saying: "No, the Han River is narrow, and the movement of our warships is inconvenient. ”

"Teacher, the Han River is narrower than the Yangtze River, but the water surface is narrow, and it is also not suitable for a large number of long-haired ships, your warship can give full play to the advantage of the ship's cannons!" Wu Chaoyue continued to plead.

"Our army's sailors are not familiar with the channel of the Han River." Zeng Guofan still shook his head, and said: "Don't worry, I have already sent someone to warn Zaraphine and Yang Zhitai and them, telling them to march cautiously and not give Longhair a chance to sneak attack." ”

After that, Zeng Guofan used the excuse that he still had official business to do, so he directly issued an expulsion order and asked his own soldiers to drive Wu Chaoyue out of the Chinese army's big tent. Wu Chaoyue, the governor of the light pole, was helpless, and could only look at the north and muttered silently, "Zarafin, Yang Pei, you two fools must fight for some anger." Otherwise, if I come to beg the shaved teacher to help me recover the lost land in Hubei, I will only be more angry. ”

Prayer is useless, and roughly the same as in history, a day later, the Taiping army of the famous general Chen Yucheng who went north to help deliberately deceived the defeat at the time of the battle, and introduced the stupid and stupid pig and carried away Zaraphine into the ambush position, the Taiping army ambush suddenly killed, and the Shaanxi-Gansu Qing army that had been hiding in the rear to eat mutton steamed buns was defeated on all fronts, and the Xi'an general Zarafen died tragically in the chaos not to mention, the Qing army's defeat also directly broke down the camp fortifications that Yang Pei had worked hard to establish, and the camp and township were defeated without a fight, and fled in all directions, Yang Pei also fled directly to Xiaogan with the green battalion soldiers. The Taiping army marched forward vigorously, taking advantage of the victory to capture the Xingou camp of the Qing army, capturing countless heavy grains and grass, and achieving a complete victory.

When the news reached Wuchang Mansion City, Wu Chaoyue was stunned, and the barber teacher smiled and said secretly: "As the old man expected, it really collapsed at the first touch." Now, the imperial court should also know who the only person it can rely on on on the battlefield in Hubei, right? ”

The only thing that is gratifying for Wu Chaoyue is that on the same day, after discussing with Liu Changyou, Liu Kunyi finally agreed to be a cow and a horse for Wu Chaoyue, and also promised to bring his descendants to the Zhuangzi Battalion to do the foundation of the Hubei group training, which somewhat made Wu Chaoyue's mood a little better. But after encouraging Liu Kunyi with kind words, Wu Chaoyue patted him on the shoulder and sighed: "It's a pity, in fact, I want to put you in Qizhou as a county magistrate, and let you run a group there to practice guarding the gate of Hubei for me." But now, I don't know when I'll be able to do that. ”

In addition to Liu Kunyi's incident worthy of Wu Chaoyue's gratification, there were two more good news that also made Wu Chaoyue's mood somewhat better - taking advantage of the lax psychology after the Taiping Army's victory, and also taking advantage of the opportunity of Chen Yucheng to lead the army to chase and kill Yang Pei, Lu Shenhui, the county governor of Hanchuan County, west of Xingou, had the courage to organize the township to attack the Xingou camp occupied by the Taiping Army, and miraculously achieved victory, successfully retreated after setting fire to the grain and grass that Yang Pei had not taken away, and stabbed a heavy knife in the soft underbelly of the Taiping army.

Another piece of good news came from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where Liu Di, the incumbent of Qishui Zhixian on the line of fire, organized a township to counterattack the county seat, and took advantage of the opportunity of the main force of the Taiping army to concentrate around Wuchang Fucheng, and also miraculously achieved a victory and successfully recovered Qishui County. The landlords in Hubei were encouraged to practice rampant activities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the rear of the Taiping army was in an emergency, and the supply of grain and grass was difficult, and the siege of Wuchang was lifted. (To be continued.) )