"Invite me to the Futai Yamen for a banquet? And said that he wanted to apologize to me in person? ”

After receiving an invitation to a banquet for a disobedient student, and hearing that the disobedient student was ready to apologize to his face, the barber teacher was of course smiling as much as he could. For the sake of money and food, and for the sake of a reputation for generosity and caring for his protégés, Zeng Guofan also happily obeyed, and immediately brought a team of personal soldiers into the city, all the way to the Hubei Governor Yamen located on Liangdao Street to meet with the disobedient students.

It was only when he was respectfully invited into the warm pavilion of the governor's yamen by the disobedient students that Zeng Guofan saw that the new governor of Huguang, Guan Wen, had already arrived one step ahead and was drinking tea and reading a book in the warm pavilion. Seeing this scene, Zeng Guofan couldn't help but smile slightly, knowing that the disobedient students were still a little tender after all, and he didn't know that the biggest weakness of the official text was that he was lustful, and he missed a rare opportunity to curry favor with the official document - when he went to Shakou to greet the official text, the barber teacher carefully selected two beautiful maids to go to the official table to drink.

Then naturally there is no hypocrisy and politeness that is indispensable for everything, saluting each other and greeting each other, and then Wu Chaoyue is very respectful and first invites the official Wen and Zeng Guofan to sit down, and then Wu Chaoyue really bows to Zeng Guofan, and says more respectfully: "The teacher is above, please accept the student's worship, the student is young and ignorant, ignorant and frivolous, yesterday he offended the teacher in his words, and regretted it very much afterwards, today the student apologizes to you." For the sake of the love between teachers and students, Master Wanwang forgives one or two students. ”

Listening to Wu Chaoyue's good words, and in front of the new governor of Huguang, Zeng Guofan was secretly proud, of course, he also left the table immediately, picked up Wu Chaoyue with his own hands, and said with a smile: "Comfort Pavilion please get up quickly, you bumped into me yesterday, and it was also out of a good intention to care for the people, how can you be blamed for being a teacher?" This matter is over, and between teachers and students, there is nothing to ask for guilt or not. ”

Wu Chaoyue respectfully thanked Zeng Guofan for his magnanimity, and then bowed to the official who was sitting bored next to him, and said politely: "The official system, the lower officials must also ask for your forgiveness, yesterday the lower officials were impulsive, and there were many disrespects to you, I hope you will read that the lower officials are only the younger generations, and you will forgive the lower officials." ”

Guan Wen and Wu Chaoyue had no enmity in the past, no resentment today, and knew that Wu Chaoyue's backstage was Su Shun who could not be easily offended, seeing Wu Chaoyue so well-behaved, Guan Wen waved his hand and got off the donkey, so that Wu Chaoyue didn't have to remember yesterday's events. Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered people to set up a banquet and invite Zeng Guofan and the official to the banquet.

During the exchange of cups, Wu Chaoyue naturally took the initiative to mention the matter of drawing a fee to help the army in Hubei, saying that as long as the official document or Zeng Guofan asked for the consent of the Manchu court, he would immediately organize the local government of Hubei to implement it in ten prefectures and one prefecture, and draw out a cent of money to help supplement the military salary of the Hunan army. Zeng Guofan was overjoyed when he heard this, and he was greedy, so he said: "Weiting, since you think it is feasible to take a penny, then why don't you take this excerpt." In Hubei, you are the governor of Hubei, and it is most appropriate for you to carry out this new policy. ”

"Teachers love their students too much." Wu Chaoyue hurriedly excused himself and said: "Although the student is the acting governor of Hubei, the official platform is the platform of the governor's Huguang military affairs, and you are the commander-in-chief of the Hunan regiment who needs to help the army. And then won't the imperial court still think that you don't urgently need this military salary, and the students are allowed to draw a percentage on the table, in order to fill their own pockets and fish the people? ”

Although Wu Chaoyue's words were quibble, they were also somewhat crooked -- the official in charge of the military affairs of the two lakes did not ask for this military salary, and Zeng Guofan, who needed this military salary, did not ask for it, but Wu Chaoyue, an outsider, in turn went to the fold and stretched out his hand to the people, and the Manchu court was suspicious of the possibility of the official document and Zeng Guofan's military salary, and it was also possible to suspect that Wu Chaoyue's move was ill-intentioned and had the suspicion of taking the opportunity to enrich his own pockets. So for a while, Zeng Guofan really couldn't find anything to instigate and force the students to carry this big black pot for themselves.

Of course, the official didn't want to be scolded for this excerpt, so he also said to Zeng Guofan: "Bohan, or this excerpt will be up to you, you need this military salary, and you know best the current difficulties of Hunan regimental training. ”

After thinking about it for a long time, he didn't dare to offend the official documents who needed to pull and support each other, and he couldn't pull his face to force the disobedient students to carry this big black cauldron, and he was really short of silver in his hand, Zeng Guofan hesitated for a long time, and finally nodded and said, "Okay, this official is on this excerpt." ”

Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly said: "Don't worry, you have just won such a big battle in Wuchang Mansion City, and the imperial court is financially urgent and can't come up with silver to reward you, and you must rely on you to recover the fallen city of Hubei. ”

"Do you still need to teach this?" Zeng Guofan snorted coldly in his heart, but he smiled very kindly on his face, and said: "Weiting, if the imperial court can really approve this request for the teacher, when the time comes, the card will be set up in the local area, and the teacher will have to rely on you to work harder, and you must not do this good thing for the benefit of the country and the people." ”

"Well said." Wu Chaoyue patted his chest and said: "Please rest assured, after the imperial court approves the lottery to help the army in Hubei, the students will definitely keep an eye on the following, and will never let the local corrupt officials fill their pockets and harm the people, and also promise to hand over a lot of gold to the official platform, and ask the official platform to distribute the full amount to the group training under the command of the teacher!" ”

At first, Wu Chaoyue said beautifully, and Zeng Guofan also smiled very happily, but after hearing that Wu Chaoyue was going to hand over the gold to the official document first, the smile on Zeng Guofan's face froze suddenly, and he asked in surprise: "The gold drawn up must be handed over to the official system first?" ”

"Teacher, of course you have to hand it over to the official system first?" Wu Chaoyue asked in great surprise, and said: "Not to mention the military affairs of the two lakes of the governor of the official system, he is the boss of the lower officials, but the teacher-student relationship between you and the students, and the students and you can't avoid suspicion?" If you don't go through the hands of the official system and hand over the money directly to you, then under the melon field and plum, the teacher and the student will become selfless and selfish, and they can't tell if they have a hundred mouths? ”

Zeng Guofan opened his mouth and stammered, but when he saw Guan Wen quietly sipping wine out of the corner of his eye, Zeng Guofan still hurriedly squeezed out a smile that was more ugly than crying, and said: "Comfort Pavilion is reasonable, you and I, teachers and students, we have to avoid suspicion." The money you receive must first be handed over to the official platform, and then it will be distributed to me by the official platform. ”

Hearing this, the greedy and lustful official Wen was of course how happy he was to laugh, and he raised his glass to Wu Chaoyue and smiled: "Comfort Ting, how good it is that you will directly distribute the money to Bohan, why do you have to make trouble for me through my hands?" But okay, your words are also reasonable, Bohan and you are a teacher-student relationship, you have to avoid suspicion, come on, I will punish you with a drink, lest you find me these unnecessary troubles in the future! ”

With a smile on his face, he took the punishment of the official text, Wu Chaoyue smiled as happily as the official text, and when he peeked at his barber teacher, he saw that although Zeng Guofan was also smiling, he smiled as much as he wanted, how ugly and ugly he was. Wu Chaoyue snickered in his heart, and said secretly: "Teacher shaved your head, don't blame me, you gave me a problem first and deliberately corrected me, I just pushed the boat down the river, and gave back to the other in the other way!" ”

The banquet ended in the laughter of Wu Chaoyue and the official text, after the wine and food were full, Zeng Guofan, who couldn't swallow it, took the lead and left, when the official wen was also about to leave, Wu Chaoyue stopped him, and let the subordinates bring four young and beautiful maids, and said to the official text: "The official system, you just came to Hubei to take office, and you didn't bring many people with you, and there must be a lack of people around you to serve. ”

Hearing Wu Chaoyue's words, and looking at the four handsome maids, of course the official text smiled even more happily, and thanked Wu Chaoyue for his kindness after a few words of pretending to excuse himself, and then the official text also patted Wu Chaoyue's shoulder and said: "Comfort Ting, work hard, hurry up and get your Hubei regiment training, now I can only rely on your teacher, and I will rely on you in the future." ”

Wu Chaoyue understood, nodded with a smile, glanced at the four maids apologetically, and said secretly: "I'm sorry, I hurt you, but in order to protect more innocent girls, I can only do this." ”

Relying on Zhao Liewen's plan, after successfully surviving the incident, Wu Chaoyue also freed up his hands to prepare for war and develop internal affairs, and built two deep-water wharves in Hankou that could berth large cargo ships, just waiting for the foreigners to open up the Yangtze River route and send him the urgently needed weapons, ammunition, and machinery and equipment.

At the same time, the training of the Hubei New Army has gradually entered the formalization, under the leadership of more than 200 veterans, 3,000 Lian Yong soon practiced the linear tactics that were not difficult to learn. It's just that limited by financial resources, time and weapons sources, the army under Wu Chaoyue is still a big step behind the Hunan army in terms of weapons and equipment and actual combat experience, and the sailors are not even worthy of carrying shoes for the Hunan army's sailors.

In the case that the Qing army had already found out that the strength of the Taiping army defenders in the lower Huangzhou capital city and Wuchang county town was far inferior to the main force of the Hunan army, Zeng Guofan used the excuse of insufficient military salaries, money and food and the heavy losses in the defense of Wuchang, and always stood still, saying that he would not take back the barriers of the two Wuchang mansion cities, and deliberately embarrassed Wu Chaoyue, the governor of Hubei. The direct threat of the Taiping army to the city of Wuchang has never been eliminated.

The Hunan army has a major victory in the defense of Wuchang, but it can calm down and the Taiping army to consume patience, but the newly appointed official Wen and Wu Chaoyue are different, the Manchu court's will and official document on three days to urge, is to force Guan Wen and Wu Chaoyue to quickly take back the fallen city of Hubei, as soon as possible to annihilate the Taiping army in Hubei.

Asking Zeng Guofan not to send troops, Liu Changyoujun had already withdrawn from Linxiang, Hunan Province on the order of Luo Bingzhang to take up his post before Guanwen took office, and said that he wanted to prepare reinforcements for the Jiangxi battlefield, which was also in danger at every turn--the real reason was, of course, that Luo Bingzhang was unwilling to hand over his lineage to the direct command of Guanwen. As a last resort, the official document who urgently needed a stable position could only organize a rabble composed of green battalion soldiers and Hubei Xiangyong, and let Yang Dingguo, the general soldier of Hubei, take them east to recover Wuchang County, looking for even if they can't beat the relatively strong Huangzhou City, they can take back Wuchang County first, and they can also give an explanation to the Manchu court, and delay more time.

The reason why the Taiping army insisted on refusing to give up Huangzhou and Wuchang County was not only to find an opportunity to counterattack Wuchang Fucheng, but also to lure the snake out of the hole and lure the Wuchang Qing army to leave the strong city and fortifications to protect it and come to fight field battles with the Taiping army on land and water. Therefore, the Taiping Army not only left the elite army to guard the front line of Huangzhou and Wuchang, but the general who commanded the troops was still quite reliable Wei Jun's deputy Zhong Tingsheng.

Originally, the rabble had to fight a tough battle, Yang Dingguo naturally suffered a big defeat, the Taiping army in Wuchang County was not even bothered to defend the county seat, and directly laid three large camps outside the city to fight each other's horns, Yang Dingguo bullied the Taiping army after each set up camp, and then also divided the troops in three ways, and used two partial divisions to contain the two camps of the Taiping army, and attacked one of the battalions of the Taiping army with the main force. The Taiping army was defended by virtue of fortifications, patiently dealing with Yang Dingguo, when the old man of the Qing army was tired, Zhong Tingsheng, who was stationed in the city of Huangzhou on the north bank, sent a group of elite soldiers to cross the river, launched a surprise attack on the back of the Qing army, and the Taiping army in Wuchang County also took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, and the Qing army was defeated and fled.

After this battle, the official text scolded Yang Dingguo for his incompetence, and even cheekily reported the victory to the Manchu court, claiming that the battle was a victory for the Qing army, but even if Zeng Guofan was not so lowly as to quietly report to the Manchu court, the official text was still criticized by Emperor Xianfeng Zhu, and asked Guanwen Since he won, why can't he take advantage of the victory to recover Wuchang County and Huangzhou City? also directly told the official that he would come to this set less, and the little trick of turning defeat into victory was already tired of Emperor Xianfeng!

While scolding the official for his shameless tricks, Emperor Xianfeng also reprimanded Wu Chaoyue a few words by the way, asking Wu Chaoyue why he has not built an inch and not killed an enemy until now that he has taken office in Hubei. If you can't just win the battle like before, why can't you even get back a lost Hubei city? In the end, he used an extremely vicious sentence to summarize what Wu Chaoyue did after taking office - occupy the pit and don't!

After reading the reply of Emperor Xianfeng Zhu Bi forwarded by the official document, Wu Chaoyue was silent, and the official document was also silent. And after a long time, the official text suddenly asked Wu Chaoyue: "Weiting, how much grain can be squeezed out of the Hubei Domain's treasury now?" Can you squeeze out 100,000 taels of silver and 20,000 stone of grain? ”

"Lord Taiwan, it's not that the lower officials don't do their best, they really can't take it out." Wu Chaoyue replied with a sad face: "Hankou opened the port, gave relief to the hungry, repaired the city defenses, repaid the cattle in Sichuan and the advance money for planting grain in Hunan, as well as trained the new army and provided food for the green battalion, everything and everywhere must use money and grain." Not to mention 100,000 taels of silver and 20,000 stone of grain, now the lower officials can't take out 1,000 taels of silver and 2,000 stone of grain. ”

The official text, who was getting closer and closer to Wu Chaoyue, was quite reasonable this time, and after thinking about it for a long time, he said: "So, can you find a way to get this money and food?" Even if it is borrowed, the imperial court has agreed to draw a cent of money in Hubei, and we can use the cent as a guarantee to repay. ”

Wu Chaoyue also hesitated for a long time before replying: "If the official system can persuade my teacher to send troops to recapture Huangzhou Prefecture and Wuchang County, even if the lower officials are smashing pots and selling iron, they will definitely get this money and grain!" ”

Guan Wen didn't speak anymore, just got up straight and went out, and said as he walked: "I'll go find your teacher, you go and prepare money and food immediately!" ”

Wu Chaoyue promised, then returned to the backyard, opened his private silver vault, and looked at the silver sent by the comprador grandfather in batches and secretly, the silver he prepared to use to establish the Hubei industrial base, and the silver that the comprador grandfather had worked hard to embezzle, Wu Chaoyue really understood how important the comprador grandfather was to him, and said secretly: "Grandpa, the grandson is not filial, and he is going to waste your hard-earned money again." ”

Zeng Guofan's appetite was far beyond Wu Chaoyue's imagination, and in the evening, when the official wen appeared in front of Wu Chaoyue with a tired face, he directly said to Wu Chaoyue: "Your teacher wants 200,000 taels of silver, 50,000 stone of grain, give half first, and after taking Wuchang County and Huangzhou Prefecture, give half more, and ask you to issue a printing ticket now and use the Hubei Domain Treasury as a guarantee." ”

Zeng Guofan really didn't want to force the disobedient students to death, but Zeng Guofan's expenses were really too large, not counting ammunition and weapons and ships, just the military salary, the most ordinary soldier of the Hunan army was also four taels or five cents a month, and the monthly military salary was at least 50,000 taels of silver! There was no stable and reliable source of money and food for military salaries, so Zeng Guofan could not find any other way to solve the problem of money and food except to reach out to the disobedient students in charge of Hubei.

Wu Chaoyue also knew the barber teacher's distress, so after being silent for a long time, Wu Chaoyue still gritted his teeth, nodded heavily, and reluctantly accepted the barber teacher's blackmail, Guan Wen breathed a sigh of relief, and then said goodbye and left. After Wu Chaoyue, who was in an extremely bad mood, personally sent the official document out of the door, he returned to his study and took out the letter from Huang Sheng that he had received a day ago to read again.

In the letter, Huang Sheng told Wu Chaoyue that the foreign fleet carrying Wu's ammunition and weapons was blocked on the Nanjing River, and that Xiao Baoling, who led the fleet, was in tense negotiations with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it was still unknown when he would be able to persuade the Taiping army to open the Yangtze River route to the British......

"Let's gamble again, anyway, my family has a big business, and this bit of money can afford to waste, even if I lose the bet, it won't hurt my family's bones."

After successfully persecuting the disobedient protégé to obediently respect a huge amount of money and grain, the barber teacher finally took the main force of the Hunan army to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, although Zeng Guofan saw at a glance that the disobedient protégé played tricks on the printing ticket, and he could not get the remaining half of the money and grain if he did not take Wuchang County and Huangzhou County. But it doesn't matter, Zeng Guofan, who is always concerned about the downstream battlefield, has already found out that the Taiping army in the Huang and Wu areas has only more than 6,000 people in total, and there is no power to fight back in front of the main force of the Hunan army, and at the same time, the Hunan army has the advantage of the upstream, unless the main force of the Taiping army stationed in Tianjia Town comes to help, otherwise the Hunan army will definitely not have a big problem to take Huangzhou and Wuchang County!

Teacher Zeng was really happy too early, he probably never dreamed that in the first few days of his departure, after replenishing Qin Rigang and Lin Fengxiang with a batch of grain, grass and ammunition, Shi Dakai, who attached great importance to the upstream threat, although he sent the army south to reinforce the Jiangxi battlefield, he ordered Qin Rigang and Wei Jun, who commanded the Taiping Army's water division, to closely monitor the movements of the Hunan Army's water division, and immediately launched a decisive battle with the Hunan Army's water division when he seized the opportunity, and made every effort to eliminate this Qing army's water force that posed a huge threat to the Taiping Army's western front. And because of the benefits of the river, on the night when the main force of the Hunan army went east, Qin Rigang and Wei Jun had already received this important news! (To be continued.) )