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Liu Jiajun's Lian Yong's victory, in addition to swelling the little face of the monk and the prince, also made Wu Chaoyue greatly surprised - Wu Chaoyue even broke his head and couldn't understand, how did a group of gang hooligans overthrow the first-class elite of the Taiping Army? not only kept Jiangyin City, but also defeated the famous generals of the Taiping Army, Li Kaifang and Ji Wenyuan, in the first battle?

It doesn't matter if you don't understand, for Wu Chaoyue, as long as Jiangyin City is kept, as long as Jiangyin is still in the hands of the Qing army for a day, Wu Chaoyue will not have to worry about the Taiping army coming to Shanghai for a day, and he can free up his hands to fully expand the armament war, and tinker with new weapons such as grenadiers and mortars.

Then, Wu Chaoyue found that he still had a little light from Liu Jiajun, because at this time he needed to rely on Wu Chaoyue to save his life, Yang Wending, who had a lot of festivals with the old Wu family, played the true character of an excellent politician, and not only did not conceal Wu Chaoyue's loyalty in taking the initiative to send troops to help him, but also truthfully reported the fact that the first merit of Jiangyin's victory was Wu Chaoyue's subordinates. Emperor Xianfeng was overjoyed, in addition to a special decree to reward Wu Chaoyue, he also rewarded Wu Chaoyue with a yellow coat, and once again wrote Wu Chaoyue's brilliant exploits into the palace newspaper, which made Wu Chaoyue's famous reputation resounding throughout the land of China again, and his prestige increased again.

Although Wu Chaoyue himself is not very fond of seeing these rotten Confucian and sour talents, it must be admitted that these literati are the mainstream of society in this era, and behind them are the largest and most powerful landlord class in this era, and Wu Chaoyue can get their face and support. It's actually very important.

Out of trust in Wu Chaoyue's military capabilities, officials and landlords in southern Jiangsu transferred their families and property to Shanghai, and took the initiative to ask Wu Chaoyue to befriend the official family families like carp crossing the river, which were innumerable, and also brought Wu Chaoyue an endless source of wealth -- these powerful families wanted to get Wu Chaoyue's protection. Naturally, all the reasons donated to the army to help Wu Chaoyue solve the problem of military salary.

It is also because of this that after receiving a letter of help from his old friend Wu Jianzhang, Gong Zhenlin, the first artillery casting expert in the late Qing Dynasty who is currently working in Hangzhou, did not even blink an eyelid, and immediately sent six skilled craftsmen who were proficient in iron mold casting to Wu Chaoyue, and replied that he would definitely take time to visit his old friend Wu Jianzhang in Shanghai as soon as possible, and by the way, he would point out Wu Chaoyue's little grandson.

Then there was China's first sea turtle, Huang Sheng, who, after his messenger arrived in Hong Kong, quickly found Huang Sheng, who was still working as an editor at Dechen Xibao. Seeing Wu Jianzhang's sincere invitation letter, Huang Sheng, who already owed Wu Jianzhang a great favor, also agreed to be Wu Chaoyue's accomplice as a lackey without hesitation, and also promised to try to help Wu Chaoyue contact the other two international students. It's just that Huang Sheng still has some things to do at work, so in the middle of the third lunar month, Huang Sheng came to Shanghai with the British merchant ship and met the ancestors of the Wu family, a fellow villager in Xiangshan.

When the fellow sees the fellow, put a shot in the back ......, oh no. It was two tears in his eyes. In order to let the returnees die for themselves, Wu Chaoyue of course took the most affectionate attitude to receive Huang Sheng. As soon as they met, they pulled Huang Sheng to ask for warmth, and without finishing three sentences, he called Huang Sheng a brother and brother, and offered to burn yellow paper with Huang Sheng to worship his brother. Huang Sheng, who is not very good at present, is full of praise for Wu Chaoyue's outstanding military exploits, and is even more envious of Wu Chaoyue's fame in the world at such a young age, and because of his close thoughts and many common languages, he has a very happy conversation with Wu Chaoyue. And Wu Chaoyue repeatedly asked to be commensurate with Wu Chaoyue's brother - unfortunately, Huang Sheng was already twenty-six years old, so Wu Chaoyue had to call him brother.

At the banquet, Huang Sheng offered to visit Wu Chaoyue's army and barracks, but Wu Chaoyue did not intend to let Huang Sheng serve in the army. But he still readily agreed, and the next morning, he personally led Huang Sheng out of the city and rushed all the way to his camp in the south of the city to visit.

Some people just don't have long eyes, when Wu Chaoyue led Huang Sheng to the front of the self-army camp that had been expanded again, Wu Chaoyue had just dismounted on his front foot, and a young scholar of twenty-one or two years old immediately greeted him next to the road, bowed to Wu Chaoyue, and said respectfully: "Dare to ask this lord, are you Ning Zhen guarding the patrol Wu Chaoyue Lord Wu?" ”

"It's me, you're looking for me?" Wu Chaoyue asked casually.

"Sure enough, it's Lord Wu." The young scholar smiled and said, "I have heard that the adult is eighteen years old, and the student has taken the liberty of speculating when he sees the age of the adult, and he can't think of a guess. ”

If it was in normal times, Wu Chaoyue would have taken some time to say a few words of greeting to this scholar with a rather pleasing tone and attitude, but this would be very unfortunate, Wu Chaoyue was trying his best to please and encircle China's first turtle Huang Sheng, so naturally he didn't have time to ramble with him. So Wu Chaoyue was not polite, and said: "This brother, if you have something, please tell me directly, I still have something to do." ”

I didn't expect Wu Chaoyue to have this attitude, the scholar was stunned, and immediately understood that Wu Chaoyue was very impatient with him, but the scholar didn't show any displeasure, just arched his hand and said: "Then the student is presumptuous, the student has long heard that Lord Wu has a good way of governing the army, and he also specializes in training soldiers with the method of foreigners, and the student is very curious about this, so I want to ask the adult's permission to let the student visit one or two." ”

Wu Chaoyue is not the first time to encounter such a thing, in fact, almost every so-called local celebrity came to contact Wu Chaoyue when he made a similar request, Wu Chaoyue also pretended to be generous and took some people to visit the military appearance of the self-army camp, but after each visit, those so-called celebrities and celebrities will only say some sycophant nonsense, Wu Chaoyue is very annoyed by this, and later encounters such a thing is basically pushed and pushed, as far as possible to no longer disturb the training of the self-army.

In the past, he must have opened his mouth and excused himself, but today he was in a hurry, and he was about to take Huang Sheng to visit his camp and army, and Wu Chaoyue, who didn't want to be infamous in his eyes, nodded and said to the scholar: "It just so happens that I am about to accompany a fellow villager brother to visit, so you can come with me." ”

The scholar was overjoyed. Busy thanking Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue no longer paid attention to him, but respectfully invited Huang Sheng to enter the camp with him, the scholar followed behind, very knowledgeable and did not disturb Wu Chaoyue and Huang Sheng's intimate conversation, and just watched Wu Chaoyue's camp layout attentively. Wu Jun's training situation.

Wu Chaoyue's camp was built under the guidance of American instructor Brown, and almost all kinds of training were based on the training regulations of the American army, Huang Sheng, who had been in the United States for a year, naturally felt very familiar with it, and was full of praise for Wu Jun's linear tactics of training bravery, and said to Wu Chaoyue: "Weiting, I am afraid that you are the only one in the Qing Dynasty who dares to let soldiers use Western military tactics to line up and shoot with muskets, and compete who dies who has no courage to hold on first, this tactic looks really stupid, But in reality there are only people who have actually used this tactic. will understand the cleverness. ”

Speaking of this, Huang Sheng smiled bitterly again and said, "I'll tell you the truth, when I first saw this kind of tactics and tactics, I also thought that the foreigner soldiers were so stupid that they were home, why didn't they know that they were afraid of death?" Don't know how to spread out to dodge bullets? Later, I specially consulted with foreign officers, and only then did I understand some of the mysteries. ”

"That's why I must ask my brother to come to Shanghai." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said, "The Qing Dynasty is too closed and too conservative. There are very few people like you who have gone abroad and seen the world, so brother, you must help me teach the people of the Qing Dynasty what you have learned overseas. Let the Qing Dynasty have more erudite talents who truly understand the world, and fewer incompetent and useless rotten and sour talents. ”

Still sighed here, Wu Chaoyue suddenly remembered that there was such a rotten and sour talent standing next to him, and it was too late to change his words, so he could only hurry up and peek at the scholar's expression, but it was okay. The scholar's expression was calm and calm, as if he hadn't heard Wu Chaoyue's words. Seeing that Wu Chaoyue finally noticed him, the scholar also arched his hand and said, "Master Wu, the student has a question. How did you manage to get these Lian Yong to line up in the rain of bullets? How can we keep them from being scared and running away? ”

"This kid is really a little expected to be able to ask about this idea." Wu Chaoyue was a little surprised, and then replied truthfully: "Of course, I will explain the reason for doing this, tell them that if they don't do this, they will only be hit and killed by the enemy, and there is also some heavy reward." ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue showed a little patience, explained to the scholar why the Western army used linear tactics, and explained to outsiders for the first time that a very key reason for this is that the shooting accuracy of the smoothbore gun is insufficient, and only concentrated firepower can receive the best shooting effect. The scholar nodded again and again, and then after a moment of silence, the scholar suddenly asked another question that made Wu Chaoyue even more surprised, "Dare to ask Lord Wu, is there a situation in the Western army where soldiers drink blood and eat empty salaries?" ”

"What are you asking for?" Wu Chaoyue asked suspiciously.

"Of course, it's because of these tactics and tactics of the Westerners." The scholar pointed to Wu Jun Lian Yong, who was marching in formation, and said: "This kind of tactics and tactics used by the Western army requires the courage of the soldiers to be very high, but the more important thing is discipline and cohesion. Then when it came to the battlefield, why did the soldiers have to work for the officers and generals, and queued up at such a great risk. ”

Hearing this insight, Wu Chaoyue was naturally more and more impressed by the scholar, and Huang Sheng next to him was also a little stammered, and the scholar said: "Lord Wu, it's not that the student is arrogant, when you answered the student just now, the student thought that you either missed something, or didn't notice a detail. ”

"What am I missing?" Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked.

"Or how do you get a soldier to fight like that." The scholar replied: "Master Wu, what you answered is to explain the essence of the reason, let the soldiers know that this is the most correct way to do so, plus a little reward." But Lord Wu, have you considered it, if your financial resources are not enough, you can't maintain the heavy reward that inspires your soldiers to fight bravely, or if the scale of your regimental training continues to expand to the point that your financial resources can't bear it, how can you still let your soldiers fight like this? No matter how correct your tactics and tactics are, but your money can't keep up, how can you let the soldiers march in such a desperate procession, risking their precious lives to compete for muskets and human lives for you and the enemy? ”

Wu Chaoyue's mouth opened wide. Huang Sheng next to him was also even more surprised, and hurriedly said to Wu Chaoyue: "Weiting, this brother is right, you seem to have forgotten this, as far as I know, the armies of Western Europe and the United States are working hard for their soldiers." They all desperately emphasize the sense of honor of soldiers in the army, and preach fighting for courage and honor. But you didn't mention that when you introduced it to me. ”

Wu Chaoyue was even more shocked, in fact, the American instructor Brown had also told Wu Chaoyue about this before, but at that time Wu Chaoyue was too lazy, not wanting to promote any absurd theories about fighting for the Manchu Eight Banners, but also trusting the political commissar tactics of liberating the time. I haven't paid much attention to this matter, and recently I've been busy with weapons development and dealing with the threat of the Taiping Army, and I haven't had time to make corrections. So when I heard this scholar point out this fate and key point again, Wu Chaoyue was of course surprised, and subconsciously gave birth to this thought, "This kid is by no means an ordinary person." ”

It's a pity that when Wu Chaoyue finally remembered to inquire about the origin of this scholar's name. But because of the sparse history, I got a very unfamiliar answer - this scholar is called Zhao Liewen. The word Huifu, a Chang acquaintance in the neighboring Changzhou Prefecture, has a decent family condition, and he really heard that Wu Chaoyue used Western methods to train the Shanghai regiment training to be particularly capable of fighting, so he came to Shanghai to visit and study, and there was nothing else to ask for except to visit.

History is sparse, and it doesn't matter if you haven't heard of Zhao Liewen's name. Based on Zhao Liewen's unique opinions, Wu Chaoyue had already decided that he was a rare talent, so Wu Chaoyue, who was snobbish by nature, immediately changed his cordial face, and commensurate Zhao Liewen with words when he opened his mouth and closed his mouth, and couldn't wait to invite Zhao Liewen and Huang Sheng to his own banquet together.

It was also at the banquet to talk deeply. Wu Chaoyue found that he still underestimated Zhao Liewen, not to mention that he was only three or four years older than Wu Chaoyue, but Zhao Liewen was already quite accomplished in Yili Buddhism, and also taught himself medicine, military and economics, and his insights in these aspects made the turtle Huang Sheng admire. What made Wu Chaoyue even more secretly surprised was that Zhao Liewen did not treat the Manchu court very much in his speech, although he did not speak ill of it, but he also ridiculed the Manchu court's Wen Tian and Wu Huan, who was corrupt and incompetent -- naturally he also had an appetite for Wu Chaoyue in this regard.

found that Zhao Liewen really had an appetite for himself, when Wu Chaoyue just wanted to open his mouth to solicit, he didn't want to comprador grandfather but suddenly returned home, Wu Chaoyue and Huang Sheng hurriedly went up to greet him, but Wu Jianzhang just waved his hand and said no, and then sighed and said: "Transcendence, there is no hope, the old man borrowed soldiers from foreigners to level the long hair, and there is no hope at all." ”

"Grandpa, the foreigner has already refused?" Wu Chaoyue asked curiously.

Wu Jianzhang nodded weakly, showed a diplomatic note, and said even more dejectedly: "The official letter just sent by the British Minister Dr. Wen Han officially informed the old man that the British side will strictly maintain neutrality regarding the civil war in the Qing Dynasty. Consul Ali Guo also told me directly that Dr. Wen Han might personally go to Jiangning to contact Changmao to discuss economic and trade cooperation. ”

"Good! Meddlesome! ”

The unexpected applause suddenly sounded, Wu Chaoyue and Huang Sheng didn't need to look back to know that it was Zhao Liewen applauding, but Wu Jianzhang raised his head angrily and shouted to Zhao Liewen: "Who are you?" Do you applaud it? ”

"Master Wu, the students are applauding you and Wu Daotai." Zhao Liewen was not afraid, and said with a smile while saluting Wu Jianzhang: "Lord Wu, the student thinks that the British categorically refused to send troops to help the Qing Dynasty pacify the long-haired bandits, which may be a pity for the imperial court, but for your grandson, it is a God-given opportunity that is too good to be good!" ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Liewen paused, smiled at Wu Jianzhang and said, "Lord Wu, why don't you want to think about it?" The British foreigners refused to send troops, the imperial court could only rely on the people of the Qing Dynasty to suppress the bandits, since the long-haired bandits gave up the siege of Changsha to the north, the Green Camp Eight Banners have been defeated repeatedly, in addition to your beloved grandson Wu Daotai, can anyone achieve even half a victory in front of the long hair? Long hair is rampant, so that Sun Shanzhan fights, long live the court and the emperor, there will be a reason not to use Wu Daotai more? Lord Wu, your beloved grandson is about to be even more prosperous, isn't this a good thing? ”

Wu Jianzhang was dumbfounded, and only after a while did he say in his heart: "This arrogant boy is crazy, but it seems to make sense?" ”

Wu Chaoyue was not as surprised as the comprador grandfather this time-because Wu Chaoyue had seen this a long time ago, and he knew very well that with Zhao Liewen's talent, it was not difficult to see this. So Wu Chaoyue was not surprised, but smiled and said: "Thank you Brother Huifu for your words, but Brother Huifu, if I want to be further reused by the court and the emperor, what should I do now?" ”

"Loyalty." Zhao Liewen was not polite, and said directly: "Let the emperor know your loyalty, and let the emperor and the court feel that no matter how much military power is handed over to you, you can rest assured, then Wu Daotai, it will be difficult for you not to fly Huang Tengda." ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled, smiled very happily, and said: "Brother Huifu, I understand the truth you said, but it is difficult to show loyalty, I am not good at this, I need someone to help me, I wonder if Brother Huifu can temporarily succumb to my shogunate and help me?" ”

Zhao Liewen smiled and replied, "I can't ask for it." ”

Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed and hurriedly stepped forward to thank Zhao Liewen, but just when the two anti-bone boys of the Qing Dynasty finally walked together and became embarrassed, an untimely voice suddenly sounded in Wu Chaoyue's ears, "Chaoyue, you have to use this kid and the old man to care, but you must take care of the old man's mouth, don't make trouble for you as soon as you go out!" ”

…………

No matter how much Wu Jianzhang didn't treat Zhao Liewen, it was useless, Wu Chaoyue just talked to Zhao Liewen very well, and insisted on handing over all the official documents and chores to Zhao Liewen to help him handle them. And Zhao Liewen also reciprocated the favor, and gave Wu Chaoyue a bad idea that night, saying: "Comfort Ting, the first thing in the court today is to pacify Long Hair, if you want the emperor and the court to feel that you are loyal, you must make a fuss about the extermination of Long Hair, so that the emperor and the court know that you are anxious about what they are anxious about, and think about what they think." ”

"Brother Huifu, I still don't understand this truth?" Wu Chaoyue almost looked down on Zhao Liewen again, and said with a wry smile: "My old pawns have suffered too many casualties, the recruits are still training, and the weapons and ammunition are not replenished in place, and it is still difficult to protect yourself in Shanghai, how to exterminate the long hair?" ”

Wu Chaoyue's rare heartfelt words were exchanged for Zhao Liewen's mouth and laughter, and he laughed wildly: "Weiting, the foolish brother still thinks you are a snob during the day, but now I know that your kid is a second son!" ”

Of course, Wu Chaoyue was laughed at in a daze, but Zhao Liewen forcibly suppressed his smile and whispered: "Weiting, do you think that if you use the long hair to show your skills, you must be like you, and every battle must be a real fight?" Let me tell you, sometimes just shouting slogans and shouting voices, the credit may not be less than what you shot with a knife! The harvest could be even greater! ”

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