The Wu army that rushed from Niangzi Pass to Jingcheng to reinforce Jiang Zhongyi was divided into two teams, the first team was a mobile reserve led by General Xi Baotian, with few troops, only four battalions of 2,000 people, but the victory was well prepared and acted quickly, and on the evening of the second day of the first lunar month, the second correction received Jiang Zhongyi's carrier pigeon for help, and at the beginning of the second watch, Xi Baotian's army had already marched out of Niangzi Pass, and rushed to Jingcheng to help. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The second team is the main brigade led by Jiang Zhongji himself, although the note that the carrier pigeon can carry is too small to write too many reports on the enemy situation, and Jiang Zhongyi did not ask Jiang Zhongji to come to the rescue, but for the sake of safety, Jiang Zhongyi still let the main army prepare for the expedition overnight, and on the third day of the first lunar month, he set off eastward and personally led tens of thousands of troops to reinforce the Jingcheng battlefield.

The wind and snow of Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang's armies also pitted the Wu army soldiers under Xi Baotian's department, no matter how physically strong and well prepared, marching in the snowy mountain road, Xi Baotian's army was still not fast in any case, and the mountain road from Niangzi to Jingcheng was narrower and more difficult to walk than the road from Jingcheng to Zhulu, so until the sky was full of light, Xi Baotian's army had not completed the sixty-mile mountain road and rushed to the city of Jingcheng, and was stubbornly blocked by more than 1,000 people of the Jingcheng Qing army in the area of the precipitous Lack of Donkey Ridge. It was unable to break through the Qing army's defense line and rush out of the mountain road. -- This is also the key reason why Shuanglu was unwilling to give up on taking over the actions of Fu Zhang's Second Army.

Before the news of Xi Baotian's army rescue was blocked could be sent to Jiang Zhongyi, Jiang Zhongxin, who stayed behind at Niangzi Pass, had already sent someone to transfer Jiang Zhongyi's second pigeon book to Jiang Zhongji.

Seeing the pigeon book, Jiang Zhongji was of course happy and worried, not only happy that his younger brother Jiang Zhongyi accidentally seized an important opportunity, but also worried that Jiang Zhongyi would not be able to withstand the front and rear attacks of the Qing army and would encounter danger. Therefore, Jiang Zhongji did not hesitate too much, and immediately decided to temporarily hand over the baggage rear team to the fourth brother Jiang Zhongshu to lead, and walked slowly, while he led the elite soldiers to rush to the Jingcheng battlefield to rescue Jiang Zhongyi, and also strive for the opportunity to take the opportunity to break the enemy in the field.

The matter was not over, and before Jiang Zhongshu could take the order, the envoy of Niangzi Guan handed a letter written by Jiang Zhongji to Jiang Zhongji, and said: "Third general, this is a letter from Liu Kunyi and Liu Futai, which was just sent to Niangzi Pass this morning, and General Zhongxin asked Xiao Yi to bring it together. ”

He took Liu Kunyi's letter without any expression, and after opening it and only looking at it a few times, Jiang Zhongji's face became a little ugly -- Liu Kunyi actually invited Jiang Zhongji to return to Pingdingzhou City to discuss the important matter of joining hands to send troops to Jingcheng.

"Too much deception!" Jiang Zhongshu next to him roared out what Jiang Zhongji was thinking, and said angrily: "We have been preparing for Niangzi Pass for so long, how can we still need to discuss with him?" It's obviously sarcastic that we don't by occupying the pit, and we want him to send troops first! ”

With a gloomy face, he put Liu Kunyi's letter back in the envelope, and Jiang Zhongji instructed the messenger of Niangziguan: "Go back and tell Liu Kunyi's messenger and ask him to bring a message to Liu Futai, saying that I have personally led the army to dig Jingcheng, and I want to discuss how to fight together, and ask Liu Futai to come to Jingcheng to discuss with me." The military situation is like fire, I don't have time to write a reply, please Liu Futai must forgive the crime. ”

The messenger sent by Niangziguan agreed, carefully remembered Jiang Zhongji's message, and then hurried back to Niangziguan to report the message, and Jiang Zhongji decisively arranged for Jiang Zhongshu to lead the baggage rear team to follow, and led the elite soldiers to set off quickly.

…………

Let's take a look at the situation here at Niangziguan first, after the messenger brought Jiang Zhongji's message back to Niangziguan, Liu Kunyi's messenger did not hesitate, and immediately hurried back to Pingdingzhou City, and at about four o'clock in the afternoon of the third day of the first lunar month, Jiang Zhongji's message was successfully reported to Liu Kunyi.

Knowing that Jiang Zhongji was so impolite that he didn't even bother to write a handwritten reply, although Liu Kunyi was not angry, he was also a little unhappy, and couldn't help but hum, "I still haven't forgotten the majesty when I was in Chu Yong's camp, and I was kind enough to be a donkey's liver and lungs." ”

"Why should Dong Weng be like him?" Yi Shunding, a confidant and staff, said with a smile: "Since the third general likes to do it alone so much, then let him attack Jing Cheng alone, and when he can't attack Jing Cheng and is forced to ask Dong Weng for help, Dong Weng You will not be too late to slowly pinch him." ”

"You can't say that, and don't underestimate Jiang Zhongji." Liu Kun shook his head and said: "It's not that he has no hope of capturing Jingcheng, I'm just worried that he will blindly preserve his strength and refuse to work hard to attack Jingcheng, and miss the Northern Expedition of the King of Zhennan, so I invited him to Pingding Prefecture to discuss the major matter of entering the army, and I want to share some pressure for him as much as possible." ”

After that, Liu Kunyi snorted again, "It's just that I didn't expect Jiang Zhongji to be so stingy, and he still has the intention of competing with me to win." ”

Yi Shunding nodded in agreement, but snorted coldly in his heart: "Dong Weng, you don't seem to be a good thing, right?" Knowing that Jiang Zhongji was small-minded, he deliberately wrote a letter to stimulate him, obviously to provoke him to send troops as soon as possible to make way, right? ”

Snorting coldly, holding Liu Kunyi's Yulu, and knowing Liu Kunyi's true thoughts, Yi Shunding still said: "Dong Weng, since you are worried that the three generals will not work hard to attack the city in order to preserve their strength, then the students have a way to let the three generals attack Jingcheng City with all their might." ”

"What's the solution?" Liu Kunyi asked.

"Radical." Yi Shunding smiled and said: "Dong Weng might as well make another book, and send someone to send it to the three generals again, just say that the city of Jingcheng is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and I am afraid it will be difficult to break through in a short time." If the Zhengding fighter is mature, we can take on the heavy responsibility of attacking Jingcheng for the three generals, and also protect the grain route for the three generals by the way, so that the three generals can free up their hands to advance eastward with confidence and kill the enemy. ”

He has never been a good bird, and after thinking about it for less than a minute, Liu Kunyi immediately nodded, accepted Yi Shunding's insidious suggestion, and said in a high-sounding manner: "It is better to send a general than a general, for the Northern Expedition of the King of Zhennan, it is necessary to provoke Jiang Zhongji." Anyway, the distance is not far, and the road pass is in the hands of our army, and Jiang Zhongji is really in danger, and it is convenient for us to send troops to reinforce him. ”

After brazenly speaking, Liu Kunyi really personally wrote a letter to Jiang Zhongji, deliberately provoking Jiang Zhongji to attack Jingcheng head-on. At the end, while re-arranging the messenger to send it to Jiang Zhongji quickly, Liu Kunyi also snorted in his heart, "I know that you, Jiang Laosan, are dissatisfied with my subordinates on an equal footing with you, and you have also become the governor of Shanxi, but if you want to ride on my head again, I'm afraid it won't be so easy!" ”

Of course, if it weren't for Liu Kunyi, who is a good bird, who can know, and the Jiang family brothers, who are not good birds, who intentionally or unintentionally concealed an important piece of information from him, then Liu Kunyi would never have written this letter......

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Looking at the situation on Jiang Zhongji's side, after only leading the elite soldiers to travel lightly, it was just three o'clock in the afternoon, and Jiang Zhongji's army easily rushed to the Donkey Ridge, but what made Jiang Zhongji smile crookedly was that when the army arrived at the battlefield, it was just in time for Xi Baotian's army to attack the Qing army's defensive position head-on, and successfully won the opportunity to fight a white-knuckle battle with the defenders of the Donkey Ridge.

Then seeing the sudden arrival of Wu army reinforcements, Xi Baotian's army immediately boosted morale, but the Qing army of the lack of donkey ridge was panicked, under the elimination of the other, before Jiang Zhongji urged the army to come forward to help the battle, the Qing army of the lack of donkey ridge had been directly defeated by Xi Baotian's army, and fled to the direction of Jing Cheng in embarrassment.

What made Jiang Zhongji even more overjoyed was still to come, because the Qing army of the lack of donkey ridge was defeated too suddenly, when Jiang Zhongji's main force broke through the mountain road and killed outside the city of Jingcheng, the Qing army of Jingcheng who had withdrawn from Changgang in a hurry had just returned to the vicinity of Dongguan Bridge, and not a single soldier was able to set foot on the Dongguan Bridge and withdraw to the south bank of the Mianhe River. Seeing this scene, Jiang Zhongji also ignored the fact that the area around Dongguan Bridge was under the protection of the Qing army's artillery, and urged the army to attack with a loud roar, and attacked the Qing army outside the city head-on.

The hastily launched field battle turned out to be a great victory for the Wu army, although the Jingcheng Qing army under the command of Shuanglu was also relatively capable of fighting, but after all, it was a tired division that had just been withdrawn from the front line, and its morale had just suffered a setback, and there were many wounded in the ranks, and they were in a hurry to withdraw across the south bank of the Mianhe River to return to the city and return to the camp. Therefore, the Wu army defeated the Qing army outside the city with only one charge, and beheaded countless people in the pursuit, achieving a great victory.

During the fierce battle, Shuanglu, who had already sent too many troops, did not dare to risk sending troops to fight, so he could only command the battery to desperately cover his defeated troops to cross the river with artillery fire, and only after paying a heavy price did he barely accept the remaining remnants of the defeated army to cross the river, and then because of too many casualties among the soldiers, he had to take the initiative to abandon a camp on the south bank of Mianshui.

In fact, as early as the end of the war, Jiang Zhongji had already made contact with Jiang Zhongyi and Li Hongzhang, and kindly ordered the exhausted Jiang Zhongyi army to abandon the mountain road position, move over to join him, and rest in peace under the protection of the main force. However, after the battle outside Jingcheng City ended, Jiang Zhongji did not see the shadow of Jiang Zhongyi's army, only Li Hongzhang came to Jiang Zhongji under the protection of a team of soldiers.

"Shaoquan, didn't I tell you to come over and meet? What's wrong? Jiang Zhongji asked suspiciously.

"Third General, I advise General Zhongyi to temporarily stay at Changgang and wait for you to join us." Li Hongzhang's answer first confused Jiang Zhongji, and then Li Hongzhang quickly asked: "Third general, where is our baggage rear team, how much grain and grass have we brought?" ”

"It's still in the mountain road, not far away, and I only brought half a month's grain and grass, what's wrong?" Jiang Zhongji asked suspiciously.

"Great! Just right! ”

Li Hongzhang applauded with joy, and then told Jiang Zhongji the results of his analysis and reasoning based on the changes in the enemy's situation, and suggested that Jiang Zhongji give up attacking Jingcheng City, lead the main force of his headquarters to continue to advance eastward, give up the grain route and directly enter the hinterland of Zhili, and cooperate with the Wu army of Henan to attack the capital.

Li Hongzhang's suggestion almost didn't make Jiang Zhongji's jaw drop, and then Li Hongzhang naturally had to introduce his logical ideas one by one, pointing out that there was only one reason why Guan Wen suddenly led the main force to leave the east, that is, the capital was in danger, and it must be a mortal danger! Jiang Zhongji's army sent troops to the east at this time, not only can effectively cooperate with Zeng Guoquan's action to attack the capital, increase Zeng Guoquan's certainty of success, but also take the opportunity to make a big profit in the hinterland of Zhili, and it is even possible to share the mountains of rare treasures in the capital with Zeng Guoquan!

It's a pity that the beautiful scene depicted by Li Hongzhang did not make Jiang Zhongji moved, and after calmly thinking about it, Jiang Zhongji also said to Li Hongzhang: "Shaoquan, although your speculation is very reasonable, in addition to the emergency in the capital, even if Zeng Guoquan enters Tianjin City, it is impossible for the official to leave the Zhengding battlefield with the main force. But how do you prove your guess right? ”

"I can't prove it, I can only gamble." Li Hongzhang helplessly spread his hands and said: "If you win the bet, you can only flee for your life in embarrassment, and there is definitely no way to escape back to Shanxi, but to flee to Henan." ”

"You're gambling with more than 16,000 lives." Jiang Zhongji said calmly: "If the gamble is lost, how many of our more than 10,000 soldiers can escape back to Henan alive?" ”

"Fighting a war is a gamble." Li Hongzhang replied: "Step by step, first take Jingcheng to dredge the grain road, and then take Lu Zhengding, although it is safe, but no one dares to guarantee that we can quickly take Jingcheng, if we can't do this, and the official document returns to Zhengding in time, then we want to take Jingcheng and enter the army to get the deer, it will definitely be as difficult as climbing to the sky." ”

After thinking about it for a while, Jiang Zhongji still shook his head and said: "Shaoquan, if there is accurate news that Zeng Jiushuai has really hit the foot of the capital, then I will definitely dare to listen to your bet, but based on your speculation alone, I don't have the guts, I have to be responsible for the brothers." ”

After that, Jiang Zhongji said again: "Shaoquan, let's do it, if you can find a way to get accurate information to prove that Zeng Jiushuai has indeed threatened the capital, then I will immediately give up the grain route and go east alone to help Zeng Jiushuai!" ”

"Third General, how do you tell me to prove it?" Li Hongzhang said bitterly: "The old fox in the official document blocked the news so strictly, even the soldiers of the rebellious party didn't know that he left Zhengding with the main force, how did you ask me to get accurate news for you?" ”

"Then I can't." Jiang Zhongji shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said: "My brother was because he was alone, and in the end, the whole army was wiped out, and I can't repeat his mistakes." ”

Jiang Zhongji could not be persuaded to live or die, and Li Hongzhang had no other way, so he could only try his luck and went to personally interrogate Jiang Zhongji's army, captured the prisoners of war of the Qing army in Jingcheng, and collected relevant information about the main force led by Guan Wen to leave Zhengding in a hurry. As a result, it is a pity that all the Qing army prisoners in Jingcheng did not know that the official document had left Zhengding, and Li Hongzhang naturally failed to extract the slightest valuable news from the mouths of these prisoners.

That night, Jiang Zhongji's army set up camp in the area of Dongyaoling, and the exhausted Li Hongzhang couldn't sleep, racking his brains to figure out how to get accurate information to prove that his inference was correct, although he also came up with some methods, but it was too time-consuming, and it was not necessarily faster than relying on Wu Jun's meticulous work to spy on himself, and he might be discovered by the enemy and take the opportunity to falsify information to mislead his own army. Tossing and turning, but nothing to gain.

In the early morning of the next day, when Li Hongzhang, who had a pair of panda eyes, walked out of the sleeping tent, the soldiers of the Wu army had already begun to cut down and dig trenches, ready to make long-term plans, Li Hongzhang first smiled bitterly, knowing that Jiang Zhongji was still determined to adopt a steady tactic, first lay the well and then send troops eastward, and then sighed: "It's a pity, it would be nice if there was a telegram from a foreigner." ”

At this time, a personal soldier of Jiang Zhongji suddenly came to Li Hongzhang, saying that Jiang Zhongji had invited Li Hongzhang to go to the big tent of the Chinese army to discuss major matters. Li Hongzhang nodded casually in agreement, but after the soldiers came to the Chinese army's tent, before he had time to salute, Jiang Zhongji actually asked with a face: "Shaoquan, has the news that Zeng Guoquan hit the capital confirmed?" ”

"I can't confirm it at this time." Li Hongzhang shook his head and replied: "I estimate that there are only a handful of people in the army of the chaotic party who know the truth, and the acting governor of the chaotic party, Yi Xing'a, must be one, if we use the inner line lurking in Zhengding City to try to buy one or two of Yi Xing'a's personal soldiers, we may be able to get accurate information." ”

"It's too slow, it's not safe." Jiang Zhongji shook his head vigorously, and said, "Tell me carefully about the speculation you said yesterday." ”

"Why do you want me to say it again?"

Li Hongzhang was confused, so he could only quickly re-introduce his logical reasoning in detail, especially emphasizing that the Qing army's transfer of Gaoyi elite to the north was to prove that there was no war on the southern front, and that the main force led by Guan Wen to advance eastward could only be because of the emergency in the capital. As a result, Jiang Zhongji only thought about it for three minutes after hearing this, and then directly slapped the table and shouted: "Just follow your method, give up the grain road, go directly to the east, and go to the capital to help Zeng Guoquan!" ”

"What?" Li Hongzhang almost suspected that he had misheard, and asked in surprise: "Third General, do you really plan to bet on this?" ”

"You're right, fighting a war is a gamble!" Jiang Zhongji gritted his teeth and said: "Wealth and danger are sought, if you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you get the tiger?" “

After looking Jiang Zhongji up and down with doubts for a moment, Li Hongzhang suddenly understood something, and hurriedly asked cautiously, "Third General, is something wrong?" ”

Jiang Zhongji didn't answer, but just picked up a piece of letterhead from the table and handed it to Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang quickly took it, but saw that the letter was Liu Kunyi's own handwriting, and after taking a closer look at its contents, Li Hongzhang suddenly realized, and hurriedly asked: "Three generals, you plan to do everything, deliberately promised to let Liu Futai attack Jingcheng City for us, and contain the chaotic party of Jingcheng and Zhengding for us, and we took the opportunity to march eastward and risk killing into the hinterland of Zhili?" ”

"What else do you need to say?" Jiang Zhongji said with a cruel smile: "Liu Monkey has bad intentions, deliberately provoked me to attack Jingcheng, and came without being rude, if I don't plan to disgust him, wouldn't it be too cheap for him?" ”

Li Hongzhang was speechless, but after a little calculation, Li Hongzhang remembered a very important question, and hurriedly read Liu Kunyi's letter and confirmed that it was yesterday, Li Hongzhang asked: "Third general, no, we received the news of the official document leaving Zhengding on the evening of the first day of the first lunar month, why was it the third day of the first lunar month yesterday, and Liu Kunyi didn't seem to know about it?" ”

"I forgot to tell him." Jiang Zhongji smiled a little weirdly and said, "If he knew, I don't think there would be this letter." ”

Li Hongzhang was even more speechless, and could only muttered in his heart: "It's not a good bird, just a meal of hatred, as for remembering it for so long?" ”

Li Hongzhang knew very well the reason why Jiang Zhongji and Liu Kunyi got married, when they were not yet developed, Jiang Zhongji and Liu Kunyi, who were the same age, once ate at the same table, the food was very good but not much, Liu Kunyi pretended to catch lice in order to eat alone, held the stinky socks in the air and shook them again and again, and the dirt on the socks flew into the plate, Jiang Zhongji could only watch Liu Kunyi eat alone......