In a short period of about two months, the Wu army successively took Hukou, Pengze, Poyang, Anqing, Tongling, Chizhou, Wuhu and Taipingfu and other important towns along the Yangtze River, forcing the Taiping army of Wuwei and Hezhou to flee without a fight, basically annihilating the main force of the Anhui Taiping Army, and taking the sheep to kill many Twist troops and luring the remnants of the Anhui Qing Army. A full-blown explosion of all sorts of crushing advantages.

If it were not for the Daye Industrial Base, which Wu Jun had operated for many years, to produce all kinds of technologically advanced weapons and ammunition, it would undoubtedly be a fool's dream for Wu Jun to sweep the important towns along the river downstream in such a short period of time; If there was no policy of leniency and benevolence towards prisoners, the Taiping generals such as the Tongling Taiping Army and Ma Yutang would never have taken the initiative to lay down their arms and surrender; At the same time, if it were not for Wu Chaoyue's extensive accumulation of grain and slow claim to be king, and had been brazenly waving the banner of loyalty and goodness of the Qing Dynasty, and being politically clear, the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty represented by the Weng brothers would never have accepted Wu Jun's persuasion to surrender so easily, and at the same time, the feudal landlord intellectuals represented by Xia Kui, Wu Guanli and Tan Jixun would never willingly give Wu Chaoyue a tiger. And without the various advanced technologies learned from the Western powers, in addition to the Daye Industrial Base, it would never have been possible for such efficient production, and the fleet of Wu Army's naval divisions would never have swept across the river and become a solid shield for Wu's land division. All kinds of factors are indispensable, even if there is one less, Wu Jun will never be able to achieve such brilliant results.

Of course, in order to eliminate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was actually more corrupt and absurd than the Manchu court, the real test of the Wu army was still ahead, and the strong city of Nanjing, which was high and deep, was far more difficult to break through than imagined, and the main force of the Taiping army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang led by Li Xiucheng was striding towards the Nanjing battlefield, and the strength of the Feng Sanbao corps of the Wu army was insufficient, and Cao Yanzhong's corps was exhausted, so he had to rely on stealing and tricking methods to take Wuwei and Hezhou City. Therefore, if he wanted to win the decisive battle of Nanjing and directly kill Li Xiucheng's main force on the Nanjing battlefield like the Hunan army in history, Wu Chaoyue had no choice but to continue to increase his troops on the Nanjing battlefield.

As mentioned above, Wu Chaoyue still has an elite corps in his hands to mobilize, more than half of the troops directly under the corps are still in Jiujiang, and Huang Yuanlong's corps also has half of the strength waiting in Daye, and can be ordered to go out at any time, and the second-line army can be drawn from Henan and Jiangxi, and at the same time, as long as Wu Chaoyue is willing, he can also pull up tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of auxiliary troops in the populous Sichuan at any time to march eastward and take on the task of support and cannon fodder.

However, what makes the Wu army quite strange is that at this critical moment when the front line is in great need of additional troops to strengthen its combat strength, Wu Chaoyue, who has always been decisive in killing, hesitated uncharacteristically, not only agreed to Cao Yanzhong's request for the corps to rest on the spot, did not urge Cao Yanzhong to hurry east to reinforce Feng Sanbao, but also did not even make up his mind about the time limit for the assembly of the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army, and never explicitly required all the reinforcements to rush to Jiujiang before the order, resulting in the delay in the formation of the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Corps of the Wu Army. Not to mention the rapid eastward march and timely entry into the battlefield of the decisive battle with the Taiping Army in Nanjing.

In this regard, the Wu army staff group headed by Dai Wenjie was of course extremely puzzled, and Dai Wenjie, who had already won Wu Chaoyue's trust, also carefully reminded him several times that he should speed up the gathering of reinforcements, but Wu Chaoyue only promised to do so, but he didn't actually see any action, Dai Wenjie knew that something was wrong, so he didn't urge Wu Chaoyue to make Wu Chaoyue unhappy, but he was really strange in his heart, and he didn't understand Wu Chaoyue's real purpose of doing this.

In the end, it was a letter sent by Zuo Zongtang from Sichuan that revealed the mystery, and after carefully reading the letter sent by Zuo Zongtang by speedboat, Wu Chaoyue first smiled bitterly at Zuo Zongtang, who was praised as Zuo Laomad, and then said in a relieved tone, "It is worthy of Mr. Ji Gao, on this issue, I really thought of a place." ”

"King Zhennan, what is Zuo Jigao's plan to do with you?" Dai Wenjie asked curiously, Wu Chaoyue didn't answer, but just handed Zuo Zongtang's letter directly to Dai Wenjie, and after Dai Wenjie read it quickly, he finally understood why Wu Chaoyue said that Zuo Zongtang thought of the same thing with himself.

Zuo Zongtang's letter was written after hearing that the lone army of Feng Sanbao's corps had penetrated deep into the city of Nanjing, and the first sentence of the opening sentence was to roar at Wu Chaoyue, "King Zhennan, if you don't severely punish Feng Sanbao and thank the three armies this time, then you will be sorry for the rebel soldiers who died in this Eastern Crusade, and even more sorry for the Shanghai soldiers and civilians who were surrounded by long hair!"

Are you bastard crazy or stupid? What is the quality of his army, is it not clear to him? Except for the few battalions of elites he brought out from Cao Yanzhong's command back then, what other army can fight? Those regimental training township soldiers in Guizhou in Yunnan are even struggling to deal with the Yungui thief army and bandits, counting on them to be able to defeat Jiangning City and kill the long-haired army in Jiangning City, you might as well expect God to descend the thunder and chop Hong Xiuquan to death is more realistic!

Feng Sanbao refused to join forces with Cao Yanzhong to fight Wuwei Taiping, and the lone army entered Jiangning City, which was greedy! It's blind and short-sighted, and it's even more stupid! When his army arrived under the city of Jiangning, it was destined to become an idle idle soldier, lacking aggressiveness, retreating to hurt morale, and a dilemma! Cao Yanzhong's corps will also be affected by him, the soldiers are so tired after fighting so many big battles in a row, they waste time if they don't hurry up to attack the fortifications, and the casualties will definitely not be small if they are forced to attack the fortifications, and the situation is even more embarrassing than Feng Sanbao! As long as Changmao is smart enough, he will definitely seize the time to storm Shanghai, and it is very likely that our Shanghai soldiers will be annihilated by Changmao! And all of this is the result of your bastard old man's greed for merit!

You only have two choices now, one is to quickly dispatch the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army, hurry up to Jiangning City to help your bastard father-in-law, and help him force Jiangsu and Zhejiang Changmao to return to the army to save Jiangning. The second is that you can find a way to give full play to your good skills of stealing chickens and dogs, and find a way to make your bastard old man form a substantial threat to Jiangning Changmao, and force Jiangsu and Zhejiang Changmao to return to the army quickly! Otherwise, Shanghai will definitely be finished, and we don't know how much we will pay if we want to get rid of the long hair!

In the end, if you create a miracle and use some despicable means to force the main force of Changmao in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to return to Jiangning immediately, then you must not rush to dispatch the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army, and you can spend more time and make adequate preparations before sending troops. Even Cao Yanzhong's corps, you don't have to force them to march east immediately to participate in the war, you can let Cao Yanzhong rest at ease in the Wuhu area for a while, and let the army rest for a while before moving east.

As for the reason, you should be able to see it in your mind, if you don't have this ability, you can ask me directly, as for whether you want to listen or not, you can also do it. ”

After carefully reading Zuo Zongtang's letter, which few people in the world can endure, although Dai Wenjie understood the reason why Wu Chaoyue was so emotional, he was still confused about the reason why Zuo Zongtang and Wu Chaoyue were unwilling to rush out the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army, and couldn't help but ask: "King Zhennan, why do you and Zuo Jigao feel that you should not immediately increase troops on the battlefield in Jiangning and start a strategic decisive battle with Changmao as soon as possible?" ”

"There are two reasons, one is that there is no longer this need, and the other is that it is more beneficial for us to send troops later." Wu Chaoyue put up two fingers and said with a smile: "First, there is no need, because we have achieved the goal of encircling Wei and saving Zhao, and our detailed work has confirmed that Li Xiucheng is returning to Jiangning with the main force of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Changmao, although we have not yet been able to determine the scale of Li Xiucheng's return to the division, but the pressure on our Shanghai side has been greatly reduced, even if Zhou Tenghu and Deng Siyuan do not have the strength to launch a counteroffensive, self-protection will definitely not be a big problem, and we will no longer need to worry about the Shanghai battlefield for a long time." ”

"The second reason is the most critical." Wu Chaoyue continued: "Li Xiucheng returned to Jiangning, first of all, he would definitely only think of quickly driving Feng Sanbao away or annihilating him, and he would be more anxious to fight than Feng Sanbao, so that Feng Sanbao did not need to send troops to attack the fortifications, and he could let Li Xiucheng come to the door and fight with him by himself by staying in the camp. ”

"But if we were also in a hurry to fight this decisive battle with Longhair, the situation would be completely different." Wu Chaoyue explained: "Whether we dispatch the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army as soon as possible, or urge Cao Yanzhong to advance eastward as soon as possible, we will let Li Xiucheng know that he has no chance of a quick victory, and will not take the risk of storming Feng Sanbao's camp again, and it is very likely that he will make a strategic choice to fully defend it, while confronting us on the defensive, while hoarding more grain and grass and military supplies in Jiangning for long-term planning, and it is even possible to persuade Hong Xiuquan to move to the rear of Jiangsu and Zhejiang in advance, and resist layer by layer to drag us forward." Then we don't know when we're going to fight, and we don't know how much we're going to pay. ”

Finally fully understood Wu Chaoyue and Zuo Zongtang's vicious intentions, Dai Wenjie admired Wu Chaoyue and Zuo Zongtang's ruthlessness, but also said with some worry: "But King Zhennan, in this way, Feng Sanbao's situation is too dangerous?" The long-haired nest counterattack will definitely surround General Feng and their camp, if General Feng and them make any mistakes, they will be in danger of being wiped out immediately? ”

"Ci is not in charge of the soldiers!" Wu Chaoyue said coldly: "The current situation on the Nanjing battlefield is that whoever fights the battle will suffer a loss, and that side can create a situation of defending and waiting for the attack, and that side will take advantage of it!" In order for our rear army to fight easily, gain the advantage of being a late striker, and let Feng Sanbao's soldiers and horses take the risk of being surrounded by the main force of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it is worth it! ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue said viciously: "Also, doesn't my old man like to be greedy for merit? In order to grab the credit, he almost destroyed our general's strategic plan to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao, since he likes to be greedy for merit so much, I will give him this opportunity, let him single out Li Xiucheng's main force with a corps, and if he keeps it, he will atone for his crimes, and if he doesn't keep it, he deserves it, even if he escapes back, I have to punish him for both crimes! ”

Dai Wenjie was no longer silent, but suddenly remembered the good news that Wu Chaoyue had announced in public some time ago, saying that Feng Wanzhen, who had been ravaged by himself for many years, was finally pregnant with a child, and he was very hopeful of giving birth to a second successor for the old Wu family. Then Dai Wenjie naturally muttered in his stomach, "No wonder he can become the first king with a different surname after the Kangxi Dynasty, he is really ruthless!" ”

Originally, he had the intention of forcing his father-in-law and Li Xiucheng to work hard, but seeing that Zuo Zongtang, the first capable minister of the late Qing Dynasty, was completely consistent with his own views, and it had been confirmed that Li Xiucheng had lifted the siege of Shanghai and returned to the division to rescue Nanjing, Wu Chaoyue finally made up his mind, and on the same day, he used a clipper to issue two formal orders to the front line, the first order was given to Cao Yanzhong's corps, so that the tired division led by Cao Yanzhong could continue to rest and recuperate in the Wuhu area with peace of mind, and without his own explicit requirements, he was not allowed to send troops to the east without authorization. Join the Battle of Nanjing.

The second order was of course for Feng Sanbao, in view of the fact that Feng Sanbao had made some progress outside Nanjing after coming out of the comatose move, Wu Chaoyue did not ask for all the harsh reproaches and blamed Feng Sanbao too much, but only asked Feng Sanbao to defend the danger outside Nanjing, to buy time for Cao Yanzhong's corps to rest and recuperate, and also to buy time for himself to organize and launch the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army. Then Wu Chaoyue added another article - without his own permission, he is not allowed to retreat without authorization, otherwise the two crimes will be punished concurrently, and military law will be engaged!

For Wu Chaoyue's decision, Cao Yanzhong, who was already exhausted and seriously injured, was of course smiling and smiling, and they all cheered for the wisdom of Zhennan Wang and his love for soldiers like sons. After the official order was delivered to Feng Sanbao, Feng Sanbao and his two dog-headed military advisors Li Hezhang and Ding Baozhen were of course sad and bitter together, because Feng Sanbao's corps was not only a little lacking in strength and faced all kinds of objective difficulties, but at the same time, Feng Sanbao and others had also discovered through scouts and meticulous reconnaissance that the scale of Li Xiucheng's troops to return to Nanjing this time had greatly exceeded their prior imagination, and it was still increasing, so that until he received Wu Chaoyue's official order, Feng Sanbao and the others didn't know how many soldiers and horses Li Xiucheng was going to bring back to fight with his lone army.

"If Longhair only comes back with more than 100,000 troops, then we are still quite sure of self-protection." Feng Sanbao, who was already experienced in a hundred battles, came to a conclusion through analysis, and said: "But if the long-haired army brought back by Li Xiucheng exceeds 200,000, then we will have to fight this battle." At the very least, you have to consider abandoning one of the camps in Dashengguan and Yuhuatai, otherwise it will be difficult to even defend the camp. ”

Li Hezhang and Ding Baozhen nodded together, both feeling that as long as the scale of Li Xiucheng's reinforcements exceeded 200,000, then Feng Sanbao's corps, which only had more than 10,000 people, could only give up one of the places in Dashengguan or Yuhuatai and stick to a camp with all their might. Then Feng Sanbao, who was in a very bad mood, scolded Li Hezhang again: "Virtuous nephew, you are responsible for the detailed work, urge the point, hurry up and figure out the size of Li Xiu's growing hair for me, so that we can formulate a strategy to meet the enemy." ”

"Uncle rest assured, I've been urging." Li Hezhang replied: "Today, Zhong Shenghui has just received some reports on the enemy situation, which are being calculated and summarized, and there should be a report soon. ”

It was also a coincidence that as soon as Li Hezhang finished speaking, Zhong Shenghui, a staff member who helped Li Hezhang collect and summarize the report on the enemy's situation, hurriedly entered the Chinese army's tent, presented a letter to Feng Sanbao, and said: "Feng Junmen, our fine work has just sent a long-haired text copied from Suzhou, and Li Xiucheng, the long-haired puppet loyal king, declared that he would lead 600,000 long-haired troops back to Jiangning and fight to the death with us!" ”

"600,000 long hair?!"

Feng Sanbao, who didn't read much, almost couldn't believe his ears, but fortunately, Li Hezhang and Ding Baozhen immediately scoffed together, and Li Hezhang also said to Feng Sanbao: "Uncle, don't worry, this is a common intimidation trick used in the dispatch of troops in all dynasties, and it is just a bluff." claims to be 600,000, but in fact, sending more than 200,000 troops is already considered a great thing for him Li Xiucheng, and if you remove the old and weak auxiliaries, the army that can really fight will never exceed 50,000. ”

"During the Qianlong Dynasty, Yang Yingju, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, sent troops to attack Burma." Ding Baozhen also sneered and said: "In the letter to the king of Burma, Yang Yingju claimed that he had an army of 500,000 under his command, but in fact, he only had 3,000 green battalion soldiers in his hands at that time. ”

Hearing this, Feng Sanbao patted his chest and said happily: "I'm scared to death, I thought that he Li Xiucheng could really come back with so many long hairs, it turned out that he was doing business to repay his head." ”

Li Hezhang and Ding Baozhen laughed together, but Zhong Shenghui, who had a lower status, did not echo it, but wiped his sweat and said: "Feng Junmen, Mr. Ji Quan, and General Ding, Changmao didn't report much this time?" Student, I took the military secretary office to summarize the scale of Li Xiu's growth and gross troops that we collected in detail, and before the complete statistics were completed, it was already certain that it exceeded 350,000! ”

"Three hundred and fifty thousand?!"

Li Hezhang and Ding Baozhen's faces were suddenly as pale as paper, and they almost couldn't believe their ears, Feng Sanbao even sat back on the handsome chair directly, and it took a while to repeat the number with great difficulty, "At least 350,000 long hair?!" (The real data of Li Xiucheng's troops in the siege of Nanjing in history.) ）