Entering Luoyang does not mean that the war in Henan is over, as early as during the street fighting, when Huaiqing general Dai Ying led the Qing army reinforcements to Luoyang, the Wu army was forced to fight on two fronts, so that the Wu cavalry responsible for interception and the Huaiqing Qing army did a battle. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

There was no suspense in the war, and the Wu army soldiers who fought with Dai Ying's army were both cavalry equipment and good equipment, and they easily killed the Huaiqing Qing army and fled north, but for the sake of prudence, the Wu army cavalry without a reserve to the north did not pursue too far, giving Huaiqing the opportunity to regroup in Mengjin after the collapse of the Qing army.

More fierce battles are still to come, after the defeat of Luoyang City, before the Wu army can gain a firm foothold, Chong'an, the general soldier of Hebei Town, Henan, also took the Kaifeng rescue soldiers to the outskirts of Luoyang, and the department fought with the Wu army outside Luoyang City. Although the Wu army won another victory, the Qing army in Kaifeng did not give up, but retreated to Shiqiaoji to set up a camp, waiting for reinforcements from the Qing army in other places.

Then, the Qing army rescuers in Shaanzhou and Zezhou also rushed to the Luoyang battlefield successively, and the Chong'an Department of the Qing Army in Kaifeng merged into a unit, plus the Huai'an Qing army that had relieved its breath, and the remnants of the Luoyang regiment training Liu Dingfu army who escaped from the city, the number of Qing troops on the Luoyang battlefield quickly exceeded 10,000 people, forming a huge military force that could not be ignored by the Wu army.

At the same time, Xuzhou's Tuo Ming'a had already led the Henan Qing army to launch a crazy counterattack, storming the small town of Ye County, which was tightly choking the grain route of the Wu army, although the Wu army of Ye County, with the help of the Shu Bao army, successfully repelled Tuo Ming'a's attack. However, due to the lack of strength, he was also unable to completely defeat Tomin'a, who still roamed around Yexian County like a leper dog, frequently harassing the Wu army in Yexian County, and also very viciously expelled the people outside the city when the autumn harvest was approaching, destroyed the farmland that was about to be harvested, and did not give the Wu army a chance to collect food and supplies on the spot.

Some of the shortcomings caused by the excessively rapid advance of the Henan Wu army began to be gradually exposed, and when it was simply too late to effectively control the rural areas, the Henan Wu army could only deal with the threat of the Qing army while suppressing the regimental training of the rural landlords who refused to submit, so as to ensure the collection of money and grain taxes, and fell into the dilemma of fighting on two fronts. The Qing army in Henan was also very smart, knowing that it could not kill the Wu army head-on, so they tried to avoid fighting with the Wu army head-on, wandering around the area controlled by the Wu army like a leper dog, interfering with the autumn grain harvest in the area controlled by the Wu army, in a vain attempt to let the soldiers of the Wu army have no food for the winter, and were forced to retreat or transport grain from the south to the north.

In addition, the excessively long front also doomed the Wu army in Henan to be difficult to reinforce each other, and could not concentrate on one point to deal a fatal blow to the Qing army, and the situation was very embarrassing.

After perceiving this danger, Nie Shicheng listened to Shao Yanhong's suggestion and personally led the army to launch a strong attack on the Heqiaoji camp of the Henan Qing army, intending to kill the main force of the Henan Qing army and then turn around to clean up the enemy in the rear. As a result, after a hard battle, the main force of the Wu army succeeded in taking Shiqiaoji and defeated Chong'an. However, without waiting for the main force of the Henan Wu army to breathe a sigh of relief, Xu Jiji, the minister of Shanxi regimental training, brought the main force of Shanxi regimental training, which he had trained for many years, to Mengjin and stationed on the north bank of the Yellow River, which once again posed a huge threat to the main force of the Henan Wu army, which had consumed too much ammunition.

At this time, Nie Shicheng, who had been studying hard and studying literature, also woke up and found that the Manchu army was dealing with itself with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, relying on the numerical superiority, containing its main force with a sufficient number of troops, not seeking victory but only entangling its main force, and then making a fuss about weakening himself on the partial division, relying on the superiority of manpower and material resources to consume the ammunition that he could not supply on the spot, and dragging himself into a war of attrition that was very unfavorable to the Wu army in Henan.

In such a situation, Nie Shicheng's most correct choice is, of course, to ask Wu Chaoyue for help, and ask Wu Chaoyue to increase his troops to help him strengthen the troops that have been diluted because the battle line is too long. However, Nie Shicheng did not intend to do this, because Nie Shicheng had always been responsible for the security of the northern front for Wu Chaoyue, and knew the situation on the northern front of Hubei, knowing that if the army was transferred from northern Hubei to the north, then there would be a situation in northern Hubei where the troops would not be able to maintain a long defensive line, giving the Twist Army and the Anhui Qing Army an opportunity. At the same time, Hubei's money and grain and Daye's industrial capacity are also difficult to support Wu's large garrison in Henan, so even if he knows that his brother-in-law and Wuhan's directly subordinate corps can be mobilized, Nie Shicheng, who has a simple personality, is unwilling to burden Wu Chaoyue too much.

When discussing countermeasures with Shao Yanhong, although Shao Yanhong was also very worried about such a situation, he also couldn't think of any good way to reverse the situation. After racking his brains, Shao Yanhong even gave Nie Shicheng another bad idea, and said, "Why don't you ask Zhang Zhidong?" That kid is a well-known genius in the world, a prodigy who can print a collection of calligraphy at the age of twelve, and the ghost ideas he came up with when he was guarding Luoyang have caused us a lot of trouble, maybe he can come up with some good solutions for us to solve these problems. ”

"He just surrendered, and his wife and children are still in Zhili, can he be trusted?" Nie Shicheng was a little worried.

"Give it a try." Shao Yanhong suggested: "If he is really willing to work for us, he will definitely be able to give us good ideas, if he has two hearts, we won't listen?" ”

With the mentality that he might as well give it a try, Nie Shicheng really found Zhang Zhidong, who is still in prison, to ask for advice, but after Zhang Zhidong listened to Shao Yanhong's introduction of Wu Jun's current situation, he leaned back and smiled and said: "General Nie, I have long heard that you are a sincere person, but I really didn't expect you to be honest to this point, even the long hair and the twist bandit are not as good!" You won't use your brains to think about why the surrounding officers and soldiers are not afraid of you? Why dare you harass your army? ”

"Why?" Nie Shicheng hurriedly asked.

"It's that you're too honest, too rigid, and too kind-hearted." Zhang Zhidong replied: "I don't know how to adapt to local conditions and adjust tactics and strategies on the fly, so the surrounding officers and soldiers dare to bully you." ”

Nie Shicheng, who was very loyal, still didn't quite understand Zhang Zhidong's words, so he could only change his words and ask: "Then how should I improvise?" Adjust your tactical strategy? ”

Zhang Zhidong hesitated for a while, and then said: "I can tell you what to do, but I have one condition, I must not let others know that I gave you the idea." My family is still in Zhili, and I can't bother them. ”

"As long as your method is effective, not only will I never say it, but I will also find a way to bring your family to Hubei to settle down." Nie Shicheng replied.

Of course, Zhang Zhidong, the promise of the kind-hearted man Nie Shicheng, could be trusted, and after nodding, Zhang Zhidong replied: "General Nie, there are two reasons why the officers and regiments around you dare to harass you, the first is that you are too kind-hearted, do not kill innocents indiscriminately, and are conservative in tactics, and the intensity of the dispatch is too small. ”

"The second reason is that the main force of the official army, there is the main force of the official army, and the local army and regimental training in Henan feel that there is a backbone, and when something happens, the main force of the official army will send troops to rescue, so they dare to be bold and go against you."

Speaking of this, Zhang Zhidong paused for a moment, and then said: "For such a situation, as long as there is a killer monkey, give your surrounding local officials and regiments a little color, and keep them as well-behaved as the third grandson, even if they don't surrender to you, they will never dare to provoke you casually!" ”

"Then how do you make an example of the chicken?" Nie Shicheng hurriedly asked again.

"Pick a random county or group training that you can't get along with, and attack with all your might." Zhang Zhidong replied: "After the defeat, their leaders will be raided and destroyed, and the whole family will be killed, the more cruel the means, the better, and the first level will be transmitted to the counties, so that those local officials and regimental leaders who dare to go against you will see the fate of doing things against you!" Let them also take a look, do these commanders such as Xu Jiji, Chong'an and Tuo Ming'a dare to send troops to rescue them? ! ”

Nie Shicheng, who has always regarded military discipline as more important than life, was silent, but Shao Yanhong thought so, and instigated: "Gongting, it's a good way, you should give it a try, the most hateful thing around us is Mengjin County Ling Zeng Zhao, if we don't surrender, forget it, and rely on the proximity and good geographical location of the main force of the chaotic party, make trouble for us every day, kill him can not only kill the chickens and monkeys, but also let the other surrounding rebel army see, even if it is just across the Yellow River, Xu Jiji does not dare to send reinforcements!" ”

Nie Shicheng pondered for a long time, and then said hesitantly: "After defeating Mengjin, wouldn't we have to divide our troops to garrison again and stretch the battle line even more!" ”

"There's no need to divide the troops!" Shao Yanhong and Zhang Zhidong said in unison, "Defeat Meng Jin, kill Zeng Zhao's entire family, retreat after snatching up all the food, and throw Meng Jin to Xu Jiji as a burden!" ”

"Aren't we the same as the hairy bandits?" Nie Shicheng smiled bitterly.

Bitter smile to bitter smile, in order to kill the chicken to show the monkey, Nie Shicheng finally made up his mind, personally led the 5,000 army north to attack Mengjin, Mengjin Zhixian Zeng Zhao heard the report that his soul was scattered, and hurriedly organized the rabble under his command to defend the city, while sending people across the river to ask Xu Jiji for help, but Xu Jiji promised that he would definitely send troops to help, but in fact, he did not move, just tightly guarded the pontoon bridge and ferry, and refused to send a soldier to cross the river to participate in the war.

The main force of the Wu army, which still had a little inventory of ammunition, only took half a day to break through Mengjin City, which was even older than Luoyang, and attacked the city to kill, burying alive several leaders of the Mengjin regimental training who had frequently harassed the areas controlled by the Wu army and their whole families, and also cut off the head of Zeng Zhao, who had surrendered on his knees, and beheaded the whole family. Then he not only robbed the money and grain of the Mengjin County Treasury, but also razed all the old city walls of Mengjin to the ground, and finally withdrew his troops to the south.

During this period, Xu Jiji, who was very self-aware, always stood still on the north bank of the Yellow River, no matter how the envoys sent by Zeng Zhao kowtowed and begged, they just refused to send troops to cross the river, and watched the Wu army take Mengjin, grab all the money and food and go away. As a result, after the news spread, seeing the bloody lesson on Mengjin's side, the landlord regimental training and the local Qing army around the area controlled by the Wu army were really much more well-behaved, not only did they not dare to provoke the Wu army casually, but also began to take the initiative to contact the Wu army to ask for reconciliation.

At the same time that the passive situation of the Wu army in Henan was gradually alleviated, the coup group in the capital had already panicked, because if it could not recapture Luoyang and defeat Nie Shicheng for a day, the Manchu court would not be able to withdraw the main force of the Qing army around Luoyang for a day. At the same time, the Wu army could also cross the Yellow River at any time and enter Shanxi, the only stable source of money and food for the Manchu court, turning the most reliable rear of the Manchu court upside down.

In desperation, the coup group could only issue an edict to Yinglanpo and Xu Jiji, ordering them to attack Luoyang together and fight a strategic decisive battle with the Henan Wu army on the battlefield in Luoyang. However, Xu Jiji, who helped the successive governors of Shanxi to maintain the chaos in Shanxi, refused to obey his orders, and also defended himself, openly saying: "There is no chance of winning the war!" Shanxi can still be protected without war, and Shanxi will be chaotic if there is war! ”

Not only did Xu Jiji, who had worked hard and made great achievements, refuse to obey his fate, but Yinglanpo, who was loyal to the Manchu court, also opposed taking this risk, and also expressed his attitude on the excerpt of the defense, pointing out: "Half of Henan's power is used for Wu thieves, and half is used for twisting bandits, and there is no more spare strength to use, if the war is not won, Henan will die." And the Wu thief still has the soldiers of Wuchang to be idle, and the army of Daye has been in place for a long time, and there is no reason to sit back and watch the Nie thief's army fight alone in Henan and Shanxi. ”

Extremely irritable, he threw the defense fold sent by Xu Jiji and Yinglanpo on the table almost at the same time, and the six devils yelled, "Cowardly as a mouse!" This king doesn't understand, the strength of the two provinces to encircle and suppress a lone army of Wu thieves, and he still doesn't dare to fight! I want to watch the lone army of Wu thieves entrenched in Luoyang and annex the territory of my Daqing Henan! ”

"I should be scared of the foreign guns and cannons of the Wu thief." Gui Liang next to him said helplessly: "You can't blame them for being greedy for life and afraid of death, the main thing is that Wu thieves and foreign guns and foreign cannons are really powerful, I saw with my own eyes when I suppressed Changmao in Tianjin, even the elite soldiers of Long Mao did not dare to compete head-on with the Wu thief army, not to mention Yinglanpo and Xu Jiji?" ”

The devil kept his face silent, and only after a while did he roar: "Why is there no news over there in Yishan?" The imperial court asked him to find the Russians to borrow troops and ships to fight Shanghai, why has he not heard from him for so long? Go to the official document and ask him to hurry up! ”

It was also a coincidence that in the afternoon of the same day, the timid and incompetent Manchu Heilongjiang general Yi Shan finally sent someone to send 600 li to the Manchu court to report to the Manchu court about the secondment of the fleet to the Tsarist army to attack Shanghai, but the devil six happily picked up the fold and took a closer look, only to see a beginning, the expression of the devil six was more ugly than crying - the Siberian governor of Tsarist Russia, Muravyov, refused to fight Shanghai.

Muravyov is not a fool, how important Shanghai is in the strategic interests of Britain and France Muravyov has long been clear, if Muravyov dares to offend Britain and France for the sake of the Manchu court, then maybe the current Russian emperor Alexander II can kill him without Britain and France!

However, Muravyov did not completely refuse to send troops to help the Manchu court deal with Wu Chaoyue, and also pointed out a very important point to the Manchu court through Yishan, the most critical reason why the Wu army was able to sweep the Qing army on the battlefield was not the tactics and weapons of the Wu army, but the Daye Industrial Base that Wu Chaoyue had operated for many years!

At the same time, Muravyov also clearly told the Manchu court that if the Manchu court could kill Wu Chaoyue's Daye industrial base and make the Wu army lose a stable source of guns and ammunition, then it would be equivalent to copying Wu Chaoyue's old nest, and the Manchu court would not only be able to quickly stabilize its position, but also rely on the weapons and ammunition sold to the Western powers to turn defeat into victory, and kill Wu Chaoyue, the biggest traitor in the history of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, who was even more rampant than Wu Sangui!

In the end, Muravyov informed the Manchu court through Yishan that the Tsarist Far East Fleet could go south to help the Qing army take out Wu Chaoyue's Daye Industrial Base, and even undertake the main combat mission, as long as the Manchu court agreed to a small condition - ceding the land north of Shanhaiguan and east of the Great Xing'an Mountains to the Tsarist Empire.

After gasping, of course Devil Six didn't dare to make decisions on such a big matter, and regardless of the fact that the sky was already slightly dark, he immediately entered the palace to see Ci'an and Cixi, and presented them with the folds that Yi Shan had just sent, asking them what they meant.

Ci'an's reaction surprised the devil Liu, after reading Yishan's excerpts, Ci'an immediately scolded the shameless greed of Tsarist Russia, and even wanted to grab the thriving old territory of the wild boar skin family - note that it is not the hometown, the hometown of the wild boar skin family, Tunguska, has long been ceded by the "Aihui Treaty", in order to pull Tsarist Russia to fight Wu Chaoyue and the Taiping army, the Manchu court has also agreed to admit it.

Diametrically opposed to Ci'an's attitude, Cixi, who had ceded Liaodong twice and forced Japan and Russia to return it only by the intervention of foreign powers, fell into deep thought, and after thinking for a long time, Cixi also asked Devil Liu: "Sixth, is it true that the Russians said that as long as they take the Daye base of Wu Thief, they can turn the situation around?" ”

"My brother doesn't understand much." Devil Zi Liu replied truthfully: "But judging from the local reports, Wu Chaoyue did attach great importance to Daye's place, and sent heavy troops to garrison it, and the civil and military officials there were also Wu Thief's most trusted henchmen and lackeys. ”

"Then send someone to carefully investigate the situation of that Daye industrial base to see if it is really that important." Cixi said in a gentle voice: "If it is true that razing there to the ground can reverse the situation in the world, then the conditions proposed by the Russians are not negotiable!" ”

"Not negotiable!" Ci'an suddenly raised his voice and said angrily: "Who dares to promise to cede the land outside the border to the Russian old Maozi, and the mourning family wants the life of his whole family!" Including you, Sister Lan'er! ”

Cixi and Devil Six went to see Ci'an in surprise, and saw that Ci'an's angry expression did not seem to be fake, so Cixi said cautiously: "Sister, sister, I just said that I can negotiate, which means bargaining with the Russians, and I didn't say ceding the land outside the Guanwai?" ”

"It's not okay to bargain, the land outside the customs can't be let go of an inch anymore!" Ci'an shouted angrily, and said directly: "Today I will also put aside a clear sentence for you, about the affairs outside the Guan, the emperor has left an edict with me, and I must not let half a cent more!" If anyone dares to cede the land outside the gate again, the mourning family wants his head! ”

Referring to the edict left by Emperor Xianfeng, Cixi's eyes first flashed with a strange light, and then said: "My sister understands, my sister can rest assured, my little sister will never dare to mention this matter again." ”

"It's good to understand!" Ci'an was still a little angry, and shouted at Devil Six: "Sixth, I understand the shameless request to reject the Russian old Maozi!" Then send someone to carefully investigate what Daye base is, if it is really so important to the Wu thief, we will find a way to kill it ourselves! ”

The devil six only agreed, but he complained in his heart, and said secretly: "Let's raze the Daye Industrial Base by ourselves?" Imperial sister-in-law, you also look up to our army too much, it is the hinterland of the territory controlled by the Wu thieves, how can we kill it without the help of the foreigners' fleet? ”