The reason why the old fox of Huashana asked Wu Chaoyue to exercise restraint stemmed from Wu Chaoyue's decision to adjust the military deployment of Huguang's eastern front, and sent the 3,000 Eyong stationed in Tianjia Town to Jiujiang again and placed them under the command of Cao Yanzhong, and at the same time sent the 2,000 Eyong recruited in Hanyang to the mouth of Xiangyuankou and placed them under the command of Huang Dasha. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Wu Chaoyue's purpose for doing this must be obvious to everyone, that is, taking advantage of Hua Lao's fox being seriously ill and unable to serve as a director, and Du Xing'a was demoted to the chief soldier of the Xiangyang Navy Division because of the defeat of Jiujiang, taking the opportunity to let his pro-confidants control more military power, and embezzle the Hubei regiment training that Huashana and Hua Shana had worked hard to form. The high-sounding excuse used was to take advantage of the internal strife of the Taiping army to increase troops on the eastern front and prepare to launch a war to recover the lost territory in Jiangxi.

I don't know if the old fox who was sick in bed could see that Wu Chaoyue wanted to take the opportunity to embezzle the army, but after hearing that Wu Chaoyue was preparing to launch a war to recover the lost territory in Jiangxi, the old fox Hua sent someone to invite Wu Chaoyue to the hospital bed and made a suggestion to Wu Chaoyue: "Comfort the pavilion, increase the troops in Jiangxi to recover the lost land, the old man does not object." ”

"But the old man feels that during this period of time, it is almost enough to take the opportunity to recover the lost territory in southern Jiangxi, do not storm the line of Hukou and Pengze, let alone think about taking the opportunity to enter Anhui, and the troops are in Anqing, it is best to take it step by step, first gradually regain the lost land in southern Jiangxi, and then try to recover the lost land in northeastern Jiangxi where the long-haired heavy troops are stationed."

Although he never thought of taking the opportunity to attack Hukou to force the main force of the Jiangxi Taiping Army to fight hard with himself, after listening to Hua Shana's suggestion, Wu Chaoyue still felt very strange, so he asked, "Grandpa Hua, why?" ”

"Don't be in a hurry, to the point where you are forced to share the same hatred."

Hua Shana coughed and said: "What happened in Jiangning City, the old man already knows, your discordant plan is indeed good, although it failed to make Longhair openly split and turn against each other, but it also made the long-haired puppet kings meet each other for a time, leaving irreparable rifts, and also made Yang Shun forced to put Hong Shun under house arrest, the rebellion of the ministers who exercised power and bullied the king, although the long-haired generals have not yet reacted publicly, but they will inevitably be dissatisfied in their hearts, and Hong Shun will inevitably try to kill Yang Shun and regain power as soon as he has the opportunity." ”

"In such a situation, if the situation of rebellion is stable and the pressure on the battlefield is not great, then the long-haired thieves who disobey Yang Shun and bully the lord will inevitably have different intentions, or disobey Yang Shunyang and expand the contradictions, or seek the savior of King Qin, kill Yang Fuhong, or even openly rebel, and meet the long-haired sword soldiers loyal to Yang Rebellion, it is not known."

Speaking of which, the old fox who was indeed very sick couldn't help coughing again, and after finally relieving his breath, the old fox gasped and said: "But at this time, if you go down the east of the river with all your might, take the mouth of the lake Pengze and go straight to Anqing, and coerce the thief to the gateway of the pseudo-capital Tianjing, then the long-haired thieves are likely to choose to abandon their old grudges, work together, and fight with us to the end in order to protect themselves." ”

"In this way, the Yang Rebel Bandit can take the opportunity to win the hearts of the people and lay a solid foundation, if they can get lucky enough to win a few more battles, then the Yang Rebel Bandit will inevitably have a great reputation, and the people's will be the will to successfully overcome the difficulty of the prisoner's seizure of power and the turmoil in the hearts of the people."

"Especially one more point, Weiting you have repeatedly defeated Longhair before, and there are countless cronies and dependents who killed the pseudo-kings and pseudo-queens of Longhair, and all kinds of Longhair hate you from top to bottom, seeing you march eastward with troops, the long-haired generals will have the same hatred of the enemy, and the possibility of abandoning the previous suspicion and working together is bound to be greater."

Speaking of this in a weak voice, Hua Lao Fox smiled slightly and said, "This is called saving each other if you are in a hurry, and fighting if you are slow." When it comes to marching and fighting, the ten old men together are not your opponents, but when it comes to fighting for power and profit, the old man is still a little confident. So comfort Ting, don't be confused, don't help Yang Ruixiuqing instead. ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded silently, admitting that Hua Lao Fox's analysis was very reasonable, and what he pondered in his heart was, of course, diametrically opposed to Hua Lao Fox's expectations - how to help his good brother Yang Xiuqing tide over this difficulty, forcing the generals of the Taiping Army to be forced to move closer to Yang Xiuqing when the situation was critical, and giving Yang Xiuqing the opportunity to integrate the soldiers and horses of the Taiping Army.

The way to help Yang Xiuqing Hua Shana has already made it very clear, but Wu Chaoyue really doesn't want to storm the city of Anqing, first, he doesn't want to arouse the disgust and suspicion of Hua Lao Fox, and second, he doesn't want to let too many descendants stay away from Hubei, and miss the opportunity when the opportunity arises in the future. And after carefully calculating for a while, a bluff strategic deception plan came to Wu Chaoyue's mind.

Wu Chaoyue's bluff plan is as follows: First of all, he mobilized heavy troops to garrison Jiujiang, created all kinds of illusions to make the Taiping army think that he was going to enter Anhui in a big way, and at the same time created huge pressure on the Taiping army, he took the opportunity to send troops to attack the capital of Gannan Prefecture, where the Taiping army was relatively empty, and supported Yang Wending to take over as the governor of Jiangxi, and also took the opportunity to control the army and localities in Jiangxi.

The encouragement and demands put forward by Emperor Xianfeng and Su Shun together gave Wu Chaoyue a reasonable excuse to carry out this matter, and in the case of partially concealing the plan of action, Wu Chaoyue first persuaded Huashana to agree to increase his troops in Jiujiang in large quantities, and then immediately dispatched troops to arrange for the expedition, and sent three battalions of Wu's naval division in one go, with three steam warships that could return to the Hankou dock for renovation at any time as the main force of the operation, and sent them to Jiujiang for reinforcements.

Also sent to Jiujiang was Liu Kunyi's Zhuangzi battalion, in addition to the two thousand Eyong who were originally intended to be sent to Xiangyuankou, also sent to Jiujiang, and placed them under the command of Yang Wending and Cao Yanzhong, secretly ordering Yang Wending to create the illusion of preparing to attack Hukou on a large scale, and at the same time divided his troops to the south to recapture Ji'an and Fuzhou and other places captured by the Taiping army, grabbing credit and territory.

Not to mention, even if Wu Chaoyue did not really plan to take the opportunity to attack Hukou, but Wu Chaoyue's troop mobilization alone was enough to make the main force of the Jiangxi Taiping Army in Hukou extremely nervous, because the Qing army on the Jiujiang side was already very strong, with both the Wu army Cao Yanzhong's corps, Xiao Qijiang's regimental training and Wang Guocai's green battalion, in addition to Du Xing'a's sailors to help the battle, in terms of strength, compared with the main force of the Taiping Army in Jiangxi.

Under such circumstances, after Wu Chaoyue sent 5,000 Eyong, Zhuangzi battalions and three steam gunboats to Jiujiang in one go, the Qing army in Jiujiang completely overwhelmed the Jiangxi Taiping army in terms of strength, and still had an absolute upper hand in both water and land power. Therefore, after discovering Wu Chaoyue's moves, not only Wei Jun, Lai Guiying, Huang Wenjin and other Taiping army generals believed that Wu Chaoyue was going to take advantage of the fire to rob, but even Yang Xiuqing, who was far away in Nanjing, and Shi Dakai, who had returned to Gaoyou, were also taken aback.

There is pressure, there is motivation, in the face of Wu Chaoyue's soldiers, Hong Xiuquan's brother-in-law Lai Guiying, who was originally very angry about Yang Xiuqing's seizure of power, did not dare to have any dissent, and honestly expressed his willingness to accept Yang Xiuqing's command and actively prepare for war while asking Yang Xiuqing for help. And Shi Dakai also began to consider returning to Anqing, in case Wu Chaoyue took the opportunity to attack the base camp he had worked hard to run for many years, and took the initiative to negotiate with Yang Xiuqing on this matter.

At the same time, Yang Xiuqing, who had resumed secret contact with Daye Industrial Base, also knew that the real purpose of Wu Chaoyue's march was to help him, although he was still very suspicious of Wu Chaoyue's intentions, but Yang Xiuqing still seized this opportunity to show goodwill to the generals of the Taiping Army, and while stating that he would go all out to rescue the important town of Hukou, he immediately agreed that Shi Dakai would return to Anqing to ensure the safety of the upper reaches of Tianjing and the Anhui base area. Then, of course, Yang Xiuqing also issued a warning to Wu Chaoyue through the secret envoy, saying that if Wu Chaoyue really dared to fight Anqing's idea, the main force of the Taiping Army would definitely fight to the death!

At the same time, Zuo Zongtang's opportunity to show his face of course came again, after learning Wu Chaoyue's true intentions from Yang Wending, although Zuo Zongtang did not oppose Wu Chaoyue's strategy of attacking the south in the east, he couldn't help but laugh at Wu Chaoyue's elm head, and sneered: "I have heard for a long time that Wu Futai is good at using troops, and now it seems that it is nothing more than that, and the heavy hoarding of Jiujiang can scare Jiangxi's long-haired main force, but it is not too wasteful to arrange so many soldiers and horses in Jiujiang?" ”

"Could it be that Mr. Ji Gao has a better plan?"

Yang Wending, who had long been accustomed to Zuo Zongtang's bad character, didn't care, but asked Zuo Zongtang's idea curiously, and Zuo Zongtang replied proudly: "Of course there is!" If you really want to set up a false attack on Anqing and force Jiangxi Changmao to go all out to reinforce northeast Jiangxi and take the opportunity to go south, the best way is not to deploy all the troops to Jiujiang, but to highlight the surprise troops and capture Taihu Lake! In this way, it will be difficult for Long Hair to even think that we are going to fight Anqing! ”

"Taihu Lake?! Taihu Lake in Jiangsu? Thousands of miles away, how do we highlight the surprise soldiers? ”

Yang Wending, who happened to be the governor of Jiangsu when he forced Wu Chaoyue to marry his granddaughter, was suddenly dumbfounded, but Yang Wending's stupid words naturally attracted Zuo Zongtang's angry roar, "Yang Zhentai, you are still the current Jiangxi inspector, don't you even know how to memorize the map?" Who said to fight Taihu Lake in Jiangsu? I'm talking about Taihu County! Taihu County in Anqing Province! ”

Roaring, Zuo Zongtang brought the map again, pointed to Taihu County, Anqing Prefecture and shouted, "See? Yes, there is! Taihu County is adjacent to Susong, and Susong borders Huangmei in Hubei, these two cities are under the control of the imperial court, Liu Kunyi sent troops from Qizhou to the east by land, and he could rush directly to Susong City unimpeded, and then quickly go north to capture Taihu County before Changmao reacted! ”

"As long as we take this city, our army can go down the road and river east into Anhui at any time, and then go all the way to the city of Anqing unimpeded! Changmao must also think that we are going to attack Anqing, and it is difficult not to focus on the line of Anqing, Pengze and Hukou! ”

After carefully looking at the sand table of the map, he saw that although there was no waterway between Huangmei and Taihu Lake to transport grain, grass and ammunition, the terrain was flat and there were no mountains to block it, even if it was not a big problem to use chariots and horses to transport grain to supply the Taihu Lake battlefield, Yang Wending nodded and said: "Okay, I will write a letter to Weiting and ask him to order Liu Kun to attack Taihu Lake through Huangmei and Susong." ”

"Soldiers are fast, don't waste time." Zuo Zongtang said coldly: "Wu Chaoyue made it very clear in the order, Liu Kun was under your command as soon as he arrived in Jiujiang, since this is the case, why waste time to ask Wu Chaoyue's opinion, you directly order Liu Kunyi to attack Taihu Lake, as for his logistics and supplies, I will arrange it." ”

Not daring to disobey the order of Zuo Zongtang of Taishangtai, Yang Wending could only obediently comply, and hurriedly sent someone to contact Liu Kunyi, who had already set off to the east, and ordered him to change the route of the army to fight Taihu Lake. The result is not bad, since joining Wu Chaoyue's command, Liu Kunyi, who has not had any outstanding performance, is in a panic, and when he saw that there was such an opportunity to make great achievements, he did not make any excuses, and did not complain about the change of the order and the lack of grain transport vehicles, and happily took the Zhuang Zi battalion, which had been expanded to 2,000 people, to land in Wuxue, and only carried grain and grass for two days and went directly north.

Yang Wending and Wu Chaoyue all know that the Huangmei County Commander certainly did not dare to ask Yang Wending to borrow grain and borrow a car to let go of half a fart, not only prepared enough grain, grass and vehicles for Liu Kunyi overnight, but also borrowed some donkeys and mules from the people to transport grain to Liu Kunyi. After Huangmei was supplied with grain and grass vehicles, Liu Kun's army, which was lightly armed, went directly out of Hubei and entered Anhui without any official documents.

Liu Kunyi's luck is good, although the local government on Susong's side must first seek the consent of the governor of Anhui in the decree, or see the official documents issued by the yamen of the governor of Hubei and the yamen of the governor of Huguang, in order to allow Liu Kun's army to cross Susong and go north, but the small county of Susong, which is located in a remote area, has not been taken by the Taiping army until today, and it is completely stained with the light that is still very close to the border with Hubei, and the Taiping army is afraid that the Qing army in Hubei will send troops to rescue so they did not dare to come to Susong's trouble. So Liu Kunyi just said hello, and the Susong County Order, who knew that he was grateful, pretended to have seen the official document that Wu Chaoyue saw to let him go, and also sent a guide to show Liu Kun the way and translate the folk dialect.

So, when the eyes of the Taiping army were focused on the Jiujiang battlefield where the heavy army camp was gathered, when Liu Kunyi suddenly entered the defense area of the Taiping Army in Taihu Lake with the Zhuangzi battalion, Zhang Luocheng, the general of Shi Dakai stationed in Taihu Lake, was of course taken aback, and hurriedly asked Anqing for help, but he was still rational and did not dare to fight in the field, and decisively chose to close the city and hold on.

Even if he killed the Taiping army by surprise, Liu Kunyi still fought quite hard in the battle of Taihu Lake, because although Taihu County is small and there are not many defenders, it is a dangerous terrain surrounded by water, and the soldiers of the Zhuangzi battalion did not have time to prepare sufficient siege equipment, so they failed to succeed in the two sieges, and were blocked by the Taiping army under Taihu City. Liu Kunyi imitated the gunpowder bombing tactics used by Wu Chaoyue, but because the Taiping army was well garrisoned, he failed to block the city gate with sandbags and dirtbags in time.

When the news of the surprise attack on Taihu Lake did not go well enough reached Jiujiang, Yang Wending was very sorry, but Zuo Zongtang was unimpressed, and said with a sneer: "What's the hurry? Liu Kun's army is equipped with all firing guns, and if it is not good to attack the fortification, then besiege the city and send reinforcements, and Liu Kunyi is still afraid of long hair in the field? ”

After sneering, Zuo Zongtang quickly made adjustments, while ordering Liu Kunyi to change his tactics and give up the siege point to send reinforcements, while arranging a follow-up army for Liu Kunyi to protect the supply of grain, grass and ammunition, and open up the Taihu Lake partial division battlefield outside Wu Chaoyue's plan, forcing the Taiping Army to rescue Taihu Lake and strengthen Anqing's troops.

In view of the urgency of Taihu Lake and the heavy garrison of the Qing army on the battlefield of Jiujiang, Shi Dakai had to choose to lead the main force back to Anqing, and was forced to continue to work together with Yang Xiuqing, abandoning his previous suspicions to resist Wu Chaoyue. Then, with Wang Guocai, Xiao Qijiang and Liu Mingchuan's three-way Hubei soldiers and horses going south, Lai Guiying, who was located in the hinterland of Jiangxi, also completely died, got rid of Yang Xiuqing's thoughts, and obediently repeatedly wrote to Yang Xiuqing to express his loyalty, and continued to accept Yang Xiuqing's orders and commands.

At the same time, great changes have also taken place on the battlefield in southern Hunan, unable to withstand the fierce pursuit of Feng Sanbao, the Hunan army, and Chu Yong, and the main force of Shi Zhenji's department had to abandon Hunan and withdraw to Jiangxi, and under the persuasion of Shi Dakai's letter, he also wrote to Yang Xiuqing to express his loyalty. And Yang Xiuqing also seized the time to appease Shi Zhenji, used Shi Zhenji's soldiers and horses to rescue Lai Guiying to strengthen the troops in the hinterland of Jiangxi, and mobilized Zeng Lichang's troops in southwest Zhejiang to reinforce Jiangxi, and at the same time sent a secret envoy to contact Wu Chaoyue again, asking why Wu Chaoyue was so aggressive?

After Yang Xiuqing's handwritten letter was sent to Wu Chaoyue through Rong Hong's channel, Wu Chaoyue was very helpless to reply to Rong Hong with a coded letter, asking Rong Hong to tell Yang Xiuqing, saying: "I was also forced, I have to give an explanation to the Manchu court, if you can trust me, you will give up the hinterland of Jiangxi and retreat to the northeast, after the matter is completed, I will immediately lift the siege of Taihu Lake, Yang Wending can also take the opportunity to sit in the position of governor of Jiangxi, and then Jiangxi will actually be controlled by me, and we can be justifiably peaceful. Back to back warmed. ”

"Besides, what foolishness are you making the battle line so long? Lai Guiying is Hong Xiuquan's brother-in-law, and Shi Zhenji is Shi Dakai's brother, let them stay away from you and still have heavy troops, do you dare to rest assured? ”

Whether Yang Xiuqing can fulfill Wu Chaoyue's purpose of supporting Yang Wending to become the governor of Jiangxi is not known for the time being, taking the opportunity of driving Shi Zhenji out of Hunan, Wu Chaoyue has successfully put his father-in-law Feng Sanbao on the throne of the governor of Hunan, and at the same time, through the Li brothers, he firmly controlled the economic lifeline of the Hunan army and Chu Yong, curbed their development momentum, and completely consolidated his position as the first boss of the Central Plains military force.

In fact, he is already the boss of the Central Plains, and the uncrowned prime minister in the court, Su Shun, regards himself as his own son and nephew, and the only boss who can suppress himself locally, Hua Lao Fox, is still terminally ill, and the power of Huguang has been actually grasped, and there is hope to control Jiangxi through white gloves. The situation is very good, but Wu Chaoyue is still a little depressed, because even at this point, Wu Chaoyue has not been able to get rid of the shackles of the Manchu slave system, and in the real sense, he can not find any reason, excuse or opportunity to officially start the army, no matter how great the power in his hands is, no matter how strong the strength is, he still has to work for the wild boar skin family, so Wu Chaoyue is naturally not happy.

"I can only count on the help of the British and French forces, but fortunately, there is already news from Xiaobaoling, and both Britain and France have decided to increase their troops to take revenge. Although some are sorry for the Han people in Beijing, the long pain is better than the short pain, so, foreign devils, come on. ”

According to the normal historical process, the Anglo-French alliance army entered Beijing and drove the Xianfeng Emperor to Rehe to kill rabbits, which was indeed the best opportunity for Wu Chaoyue to get rid of the control of the Manchu court, but fortunately, Wu Chaoyue had received accurate information confirming that the British and French were actively planning to attack Beijing again, and it was unlikely that this important historical event would change. But what Wu Chaoyue didn't expect was that at the critical moment when a great opportunity was about to appear, a huge crisis that might lead to the loss of his previous achievements was quietly coming............ (To be continued.) )