In Wu Chaoyue's view, the monk prince deliberately helped the twisted army to flow into the hinterland of Hubei, which would indeed bring a lot of trouble and losses to himself, but from a deeper level and a more long-term perspective, the monk prince actually helped himself a lot. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

First of all, the first point can help Wu Chaoyue block the mouth of the Manchu court. Since Wu Chaoyue patrolled Hubei, although he has also won several battles, he has basically fought in Hubei, and the frequency of combat is far less than in the past, so if this continues, the Manchu court will sooner or later feel that it is too wasteful to leave Wu Chaoyue in Hubei, which is stable in the province.

After the monk Wang Ye deliberately helped the Twist army to enter Hubei and disturbed the hinterland of Hubei, whether it was for the purpose of quelling the rebellion or for the sake of reassuring the people, Wu Chaoyue had enough reasons to stay in Hubei to avoid being forcibly sent to fight in the province by the Manchu court, and it was not easy to be transferred to the governor of other provinces.

Secondly, Wu Chaoyue can take the opportunity to master more Hubei troops, Hua Shana is very good at playing power, but he is not good at military affairs, and if he wants to annihilate the Twist Army in Hubei, he can only rely on Wu Chaoyue. Although the combat effectiveness of the Twist Army is average, the mobility ability is all in the Central Plains, and the open terrain in the hinterland of Hubei is suitable for wandering, if you want to completely wipe out the Twist Army, you can only use a large number of troops to encircle and intercept it.

In this way, Huashana is left with only two choices, one is to allow Wu Chaoyue to expand Fubiao again, and the other is to hand over the Hubei army to Wu Chaoyue's command, and let Wu Chaoyue reward and punish the control order.

In addition, there are many advantages, the Twist Army is wandering in the hinterland of Hubei, which can help Wu Chaoyue kill a lot of unpleasant local civil and military forces, remove and dismiss officials, and replace them with his own people, so as to strengthen his control over Hubei. It can also help Wu Chaoyue get rid of a lot of bad debts, take the opportunity to pay less grain and taxes to the Manchu court, and free up precious money and grain to be used in more critical places. At the same time, there was chaos in Hubei, and the Hubei army could not fight effectively in Jiangxi, and Wu Chaoyue also had an excuse to explain to the Manchu court.

One of the best things is that Wu Chaoyue does not have to take responsibility for this matter, the twist army is under the pursuit of the monk and the prince to kill into the hinterland of Hubei, and the responsibility for the failure to pursue and flee belongs to the monk and the prince, and Wu Chaoyue can't be involved in breaking the sky. Even if it climbs up, the Manchu court will pursue Shu Bao's direct boss Du Xing'a, or Hua Shana, who is in charge of the Huguang military, and does not do Wu Chaoyue's bird affairs in charge of civil affairs, even if Hua Shana wants to put the black pot on Wu Chaoyue's head, he must first ask Su Shun and Zaiyuan's gang if they agree.

With so many stakes at stake, Wu Chaoyue naturally didn't answer Hua Shana's question about how to deal with this situation, until Hua Shana urged Wu Chaoyue again, Wu Chaoyue replied: "Hua Zhitai forgives the sin, and the younger generation is calculating how many troops it will take to exterminate the bandits who have entered Hubei, so they are distracted." ”

"Are you okay then?" Huashana asked, "How many troops will you use?" ”

"Two thousand!" Wu Chaoyue raised two fingers and gave an answer that made Hua Shana ecstatic, "In a head-to-head battle, the junior guarantee only needs to use two thousand Hubei Fubiao, which is enough to break the bandits!" ”

"That's good." Hua Shana said happily: "Then send troops quickly, the military salary, grain and grass, the old man will give as much as he wants!" ”

"Flower table, please listen to what the lower official has to say." Wu Chaoyue said with a wry smile: "In a head-on battle, the juniors can guarantee that two thousand troops are enough to break the enemy, but if you want to win the opportunity to fight head-on, you must ask the master of Taiwan to hand over the soldiers and horses of Xiangyang, De'an, Huangzhou, Hanyang, Jingzhou and Jingmen to the subordinate officials to control." ”

"What?" Hua Shana almost thought that she had misheard, and asked in surprise: "Since you can defeat the twisted bandits with two thousand soldiers and horses, why do you still have to control the soldiers and horses of so many state capitals?" ”

Wu Chaoyue didn't answer immediately, but just invited Hua Shana to the room where the Hubei map sand table was placed, and then pointed to the map sand table and said: "Please look at the flower table, the terrain of Hubei is high in the west and low in the east, and the west is full of mountains and mountains, which is suitable for encirclement and interception, but the east of the line from Xiangyang to Jingmen and then to Jingzhou is an open area, there is no danger to defend everywhere, and it is also suitable for bandits to wander around. ”

"The younger generation said something from the heart, the twisting bandit is not difficult to break, not to mention the direct line of the younger generation, it is the soldiers and horses under the command of the monk and the prince, and even the soldiers and horses of General Shu Bao, and there is a great certainty of winning the battle head-on. But the problem is that if you can't seize the opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the bandits, no matter how strong the army is, what role can it do? ”

Therefore, if we want to exterminate the inbound bandits, there is only one way, mobilize all the soldiers and horses of the five provinces and one prefecture in eastern Hubei, such as the mobilization of soldiers and horses, everywhere fortify the front and block the rear pursuit, and expel the bandits to the narrow terrain as much as possible, so that they have no way to escape, and force them to fight a decisive battle. Otherwise, if you only know how to chase and catch up stupidly, not only will you not be able to extinguish the entry bandits, but on the contrary, it will make more counties, towns and markets in Hubei face the disaster of war. ”

After listening to Wu Chaoyue's words, Hua Shana didn't say anything for a long time, and only after a while did he hesitate to ask: "There is no other way except this method?" ”

"Nope." Wu Chaoyue replied very frankly: "The monk prince has been suppressing bandits in the Central Plains for three years, and the twisted bandits have been repeatedly suppressed, on the contrary, they have suppressed more and more, the most critical reason is two, one is that the terrain is too open, suitable for the twisted bandits to flee and wander, and the other is that the local government is incompetent, and only knows that the twisted bandits are driven out to beggar-thy-neighbor, and they are unwilling to work hard to help the monk and the prince to surround the twisted bandits, so the monk and the prince pressed the gourd to float the scoop, taking care of the east and not the west, resulting in the current situation in the Central Plains. ”

Hua Shana was silent again, and after a long time, Hua Shana looked at the map sand table and said slowly: "Weiting, it's not that the old man can't trust you, it's the old man's responsibility, and he must be responsible for the court." Therefore, the old man has to think about this matter carefully, and he can't answer you yet. ”

"Yes, the juniors know your hardships and will not force you." Wu Chaoyue nodded, and then said: "Hua Zhitai, no matter what decision you make, the juniors will never object, but there is one point, please don't let the army of the monk and the prince enter the territory of Huguang!" The twist bandits are just a group of hungry dogs, which can't bite people, but the soldiers and horses of the monk and the prince are a group of hungry wolves, and they will chew people even the bones of the belt clean! ”

"You can rest assured that thieves are like combs, and soldiers are like grates, and the old man still understands this truth. Monk Greenqin, a dog mongrel, deliberately helped the bandits to kill in the hinterland of Hubei, in addition to wanting to take revenge on the old man and you, he must also have the idea of taking the opportunity to make a fortune in Hubei, which the old man can also see. ”

That night, Hua Shana stayed up all night, but after thinking about it all night, Hua Shana still chose to be loyal to his duties, and did not take the risk of handing over all the military power in eastern Hubei to Wu Chaoyue, but borrowed four battalions of Fu Biao from Wu Chaoyue, and sent him north to intercept the Twist Army, and cooperated with the Shu Bao Department to block the front and chase after him, and at the same time ordered the Qing army of Hanyang, De'an, Anlu and Xiangyang to hold the roads and rivers, block the flow of the Twist Army, and make every effort to compress the activity space of the Twist Army.

After making these decisions, Hua Shana asked Wu Chaoyue if it was appropriate, and Wu Chaoyue replied: "If the general army of the four prefectures can carry out the orders without discounting, all of them can be dispatched properly, loyal to their duties, and it will not be difficult to exterminate the inbound bandits." ”

Hua Shana, who was very self-aware, was silent, and then added a sentence to the official documents of the general soldiers of various provinces - there is no forgiveness for those who make the bandits cross the border!

It is useless to order strictly, how to make the Hubei New Army and the Xiangyang Qing Army block and chase after it, the too open terrain has long been doomed to make it difficult for the Qing army to besiege the Twist Army, which is good at flowing, and the two governors before and after Guanwen and Huashana did not allow Wu Chaoyue to get involved in the local military power, and the local general soldiers used are not outstanding, and they cannot provide strong help to the main force of the Twist Hubei New Army and the Xiangyang Qing Army, and the Twist Army soon turned the world upside down in the hinterland of Hubei, where the Qing army was empty.

The most severely affected is the junction of De'an and Anlu provinces, which is not only open and suitable for the Twist army to flow and fight, but also has a large number of markets and dense population, so that the Twist army can easily obtain the supply of grain and grass materials, and also allows the Twist army to rob a large number of donkeys, mules and horses, which further enhances the already excellent mobility ability.

It can't be said that there is no chance at all, Shu Bao and Nie Shicheng's troops rely on hard work. At one time, the Twist Army was compressed to the narrow terrain in the south of Dabie Mountain, but the Qing army in De'an Province dropped the chain at a critical moment, and the Twist Army successfully broke through the Zhangshui defense line garrisoned by the De'an Qing Army, and entered the north of Hanyang through Pingli, and then threatened the northern part of Huangzhou, where the population and towns were more dense, forcing Huashana to urgently use the Huangzhou Green Battalion to go north to block.

At this time, the incident that almost made the good old man Hua Shana's belly burst suddenly happened again - after the entry to Huguang was refused, the monk and the prince actually sued first, and the above table impeached the Hubei general Shu Bao for fearing the enemy's cowardice and failing to block it, causing the twisted army to flow into Hubei, and causing the monk and the prince to lose his hard work in pursuit. And the Manchu Qing court did not ask about the merits, and directly gave Shu Bao the punishment of dismissal and retention, and by the way, he also reprimanded Hua Shana's incompetence and ineffective suppression of bandits.

The punishment was sent to Hubei, and the honest man Shu Bao was so angry that he cried loudly on the spot, and took the soldiers and horses of the army to chase the main force of the army, and was almost hit hard by the ambush, but fortunately, Nie Shicheng led the army to arrive in time to kill and disperse the ambush of the army to rescue Shu Bao's department, but even so, the Qing army still suffered a lot of losses, and Shu Bao, who was too sad and angry, also suffered a lot of injuries in the battle because he personally led the army to kill.

Even more sad and indignant is Hua Shana, it is useless to shout for Shu Bao on the table, impeaching the monk and the prince for arguing against the enemy, and he can't fight the 'noble blood' of the monk and the prince, and at the same time, the innocent people of Hubei have also suffered huge disasters in the war, and the displaced people are full of hidden dangers. Under the resentment and sadness, Hua Shana, who felt that he had done his duty, made up his mind, and finally handed over all the military power of the state capital in eastern Hubei to Wu Chaoyue for the time being, and let Wu Chaoyue mobilize troops and horses, appoint and dismiss generals, and take over the affairs of the peace twist in Hubei.

The first thing Wu Chaoyue, who had taken over the burden, did was to order the pursuit to be halted and give the exhausted main force of the Qing army a chance to rest. Then the reorganization of troops and horses, the Qing cavalry under the command of Shu Bao to his brother-in-law Nie Shicheng to lead, at the same time, also reorganized Hubei Eyong, dismissed and punished a number of ineffective battalion officers and local officials, all replaced with their own people, and vigorously expanded the army, the Eyong who participated in the counterinsurgency was expanded to more than 16,000 people, armed with swords and arquebuses, auxiliary equipment with a small number of mini guns and firing pin guns to strengthen combat effectiveness, so that the Qing army had sufficient strength to calmly deploy.

Then, Wu Chaoyue ordered the Qing army to adopt the strategy of static braking, gathering troops in densely populated places in various places, mobilizing the people to look for traces of the twisted army for the eyeline, and building a large number of beacon towers to quickly report the military situation. Once the enemy's whereabouts are launched, the nearest Qing army is responsible for a frontal attack, and the Qing army on the surrounding east, west and south routes is responsible for sending troops to respond, not seeking to immediately win a big battle and break the enemy in one fell swoop, just to weaken and exhaust the enemy, gradually block the space for the Twist army to flow, and also force the Twist army to flow north.

Then he is good at wandering, after all, he also has to eat, drink and rest, and at the same time, the leaders of the Twist Army also have the idea of preserving their strength, so after being stubbornly blocked by the Qing army several times to the east and south, the Twist Army, which was unwilling to fight all the money, finally retreated to the vicinity of the estuary at the junction of Han and Huang to rest, and the people quickly reported the news to the Qing army, and Nie Shicheng, who was waiting for work, also took the main force to attack, forcing the Twist Army to fight a decisive battle with himself at the mouth of the river.

There is no suspense in the frontal decisive battle, and it is earlier than the maturity in history, the Twist Army is still far from being the opponent of the Wu Army soldiers who are armed to the teeth, the fierce battle is only half a day, the Twist Army has collapsed on the whole line, the important leader Chen Daxi was killed by the Wu Army, and Wang Guansan honestly fled back to Henan with the defeated soldiers. Zhang Long, who had made a fortune in Hubei, was reluctant to leave this golden nest, taking advantage of the opportunity that the main force of the Wu army was attracted by the defeat of Wang Guansan's brigade, and took the men and horses of his department to De'an.

After the news of Hekou's victory was transmitted back to the provincial capital, Hua Shana's first plan for the relieved Hua Shana was to quickly disband the obviously too many Hubei Eyong, but Wu Chaoyue took the lead to warn Hua Shana: "Hua Zhitai, no matter whether the newly recruited Eyong still has a role or not, it must not be disbanded in a hurry at present." ”

"There are two reasons, one is to prevent the monk from repeating his old tricks, and deliberately drove the twisted bandits into Hubei. Second, the war in northern Hubei has caused the people to be displaced and tens of thousands of homeless people, and the people may be affected by hunger and cold at any time, and heavy troops are needed to guard the place. At this time, the disbandment of Eyong may also lead to these military-trained Eyong taking risks when they can't find food, which will become a greater hidden danger. ”

As if to prove Wu Chaoyue's foresight, only one day later, Anlu Mansion, which had been severely harmed by the Twist Army, really had a civil uprising. At the same time, there was also news from Henan that the monk Wang Ye was desperately rushing south of the Han Qifeng Army, which was active in Chenzhou, Henan. Forced to helpless, Hua Shana had no choice but to accept Wu Chaoyue's suggestion, decided to continue to maintain the current scale of Hubei Yong, Wu Chaoyue's brother-in-law Nie Shicheng also took the opportunity to get the title of alternate Dao, and was ordered to lead the new formation of E Yong, sitting in the north of Suizhou General Division, and also took advantage of the opportunity of the loss of the Qing army in Xiangyang, the deployment of the troops and horses to the territory of Xiangyang, an important town in Hubei.

Then, the good old man Hua Shana couldn't help but curse in his heart, "Monk Greenqin, you son of a bitch, Wu Chaoyue's soldiers and horses actually controlled in Hubei are all caused by you!" (To be continued.) )