The news that the Taiping generals Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yunlai successively raised troops to attack Yang Xiuqing was like a thunderbolt from the sky, which shook the entire land of China at once, caused a huge sensation, and completely changed the trend of the Chinese civil war. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The most affected is, of course, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom itself, under the premise that the warlordization of the major military leaders of the Taiping Army has long been very obvious, this incident undoubtedly directly led to the complete split of the Taiping Army. Although the frightened Yang Xiuqing issued a statement at the first time, flatly denying all Wu Ruxiao's accusations against him, declaring that Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yunlai were rebellious and asked the Taiping army to send troops to fight, but except for a few Yang Xiuqing's die-hard friends, most of the Taiping warlords chose to wait and see, and they also contacted Wu Ruxiao one after another to understand the truth of the matter before reacting.

Soon, following Ye Yunlai, Huang Zichao, the Taiping Army guard in Changzhou, also chose to raise troops to fight Yang. After Tan Shaoguang, who guarded Suzhou, and Lu Shunde, who was guarding Songjiang, repeatedly confirmed that Wu Ruxiao's evidence was true, they also successively raised the banner of begging Yang, although they did not directly send troops to Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yun to help, but they also took the opportunity to get rid of Yang Xiuqing's control and command, and officially divided one side.

Yang Fuqing, who is currently stationed in Yangzhou, because he is a member of the Yang Xiuqing clan, also resolutely does not believe that Yang Xiuqing will betray the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and chooses to go south to King Qin, helping Yang Xiuqing temporarily block the army of Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yunlai, and also gives the unprepared Yang Xiuqing a crucial response time.

Taking advantage of Yang Fuqing's opportunity to temporarily block the Wu Ye coalition army, after Yang Xiu cleared the active preparations for war, he naturally went all out to win the support of the generals of the Taiping Army upstream. As a result, under the guarantee of Yang Xiuqing's envoy's gambling and oath, Huang Wenjin, a general of the Taiping Army who had been Yang Xiuqing's descendant since the beginning of the Jintian Uprising, chose to continue to support Yang Xiuqing, but Lin Fengxiang and Lin Qirong, who were more geographically important, continued to hold reservations, neither sent troops to fight Yang, nor continued to express their allegiance to Yang Xiuqing, and chose to make every effort to get in touch with Wu Ruxiao and understand the truth of the matter.

Li Kaifang, who was loyal to Yang Xiuqing, did not believe any explanation from Wu Ruxiao's envoy at all, and decisively chose to remain loyal to Yang Xiuqing, and personally led the army to reinforce Yang Xiuqing at the first time. The same is true of Ji Wenyuan, who is also loyal to Yang Xiuqing, but Ji Wenyuan's army shoulders the heavy responsibility of resisting the Qing army in Shandong, and failed to send troops south, so he can only voice support.

What made Yang Xiuqing very angry was that Shi Dakai, who had the most iron relationship with him among the major military leaders of the Taiping Army, chose to support the troops this time, and did not express his support for him at the first time.

In this case, Yang Xiuqing's best choice is, of course, to fight quickly, taking advantage of the opportunity that the major military leaders of the Taiping Army have not yet made up their minds to raise troops against him, and quickly eliminate Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yun to destroy the evidence. In order to do this, Yang Xiuqing also sent his elite descendants to the east, and joined forces with Yang Fuqing's army to storm Zhenjiang, but unfortunately, because of the heavy losses in the Northern Expedition, coupled with the degeneration of combat effectiveness in the prosperous land of Nanjing for a long time, although the Yang family army launched many attacks on Zhenjiang, but was never able to quickly break through Zhenjiang to eliminate Ye Yunlai, Wu Ruxiao's army actively moved west to help Ye Yunlai share the pressure, and bought time to wait for the other Taiping army leaders to respond.

At the same time, of course, Yang Xiuqing did not forget Wu Chaoyue, the biggest upstream threat, in the case that the situation was already dangerous, Yang Xiuqing naturally did not dare to dream of any United Qing Dynasty to resist Wu, and honestly sent his henchman Hou Renkuan to Hubei to contact Wu Chaoyue, claiming that Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yunlai and others had slandered their accusations, and he had absolutely no collusion with the Manchu court, and expressed his willingness to continue to join hands with Wu Chaoyue to destroy the Qing Dynasty, and also asked Wu Chaoyue to remain neutral in the civil war of the Taiping Army. Don't provide any support or help to the Yewu rebels.

Yang Xiuqing's action was obviously a little too late, when his henchman Hou Renkuan was still on the way to Hubei in a hurry, Jing Shou, the envoy sent to Hubei by the Manchu Qing court, had already begun to persuade Wu Chaoyue to send troops to the east, and ran to Wu Chaoyue's marshal's mansion every day to ask for a summons, and every time he saw Wu Chaoyue, he tried his best to persuade Wu Chaoyue to take advantage of the fire to rob, and take the opportunity to send troops to attack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to seize the land in the south of the Yangtze River, and said that as long as Wu Chaoyue attacked the Taiping army, no matter what conditions can be discussed.

Because the opportunity is really rare, there are also a lot of calls within the Wu army to take advantage of the fire to rob, and even Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming and other important ministers of the Wu army suggested that Wu Chaoyue might as well consider destroying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom first, seizing the prosperous land in the south of the Yangtze River, and then launching the Northern Expedition under the condition that the geographical location is more advantageous.

It is that everyone has selfish intentions, and it would be false to say that Wu Chaoyue had not been moved by the proposal of robbing while the fire was burning, especially under the premise that the Wu army had secretly prepared for the Eastern Expedition, taking advantage of the fire to rob and seize Jiangnan was actually a matter of Wu Chaoyue's words. However, the four words of national righteousness stopped Wu Chaoyue, and also made Wu Chaoyue make up his mind to adopt neutrality against the Taiping Army after hesitating again and again.

When announcing his major decision, Wu Chaoyue summoned Zhao Liewen, Yan Jingming, Qian Wei, Wang Fu and other absolute henchmen, and poured out his heart to everyone, saying: "Everyone, I know that now the opportunity is rare, Changmao is in civil strife, attacking each other, we send troops east to eliminate Changmao not only have a great grasp, but also get the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River." However, I decided to give up this opportunity. ”

Zhao Liewen and the others, who were already familiar with Wu Chaoyue's character, remained silent, patiently waiting for Wu Chaoyue to explain the reason, and Wu Chaoyue also said directly to himself: "I think so, if we use our main forces on the Eastern Front now, what will happen?" ”

"First of all, the first point, the long hair will definitely hate us for taking advantage of the fire, even if the civil war will not be stopped, the downstream long hair army that did not participate in the civil war will definitely fight with us to the end, although we have the upper hand, but we may not be able to quickly take the cities along the Yangtze River smoothly, on the contrary, we may pay a heavy price."

"Secondly, if we take advantage of the fire to rob at this time, it may backfire, causing Yang Xiuqing to regain the support of the long-haired army. The long-haired military leaders are not stupid, they will not understand the truth that a chopstick is easy to be broken, seeing that our soldiers are pressing, as long as the long-haired military leaders with a little brain, they will definitely choose to join forces to resist the enemy, and Yang Xiuqing will definitely take the opportunity to call on all long-haired people to work together to resist our army, and take this opportunity to reunite people's hearts. ”

"The third point is the most crucial, our most dangerous enemy is not Longhair, in fact, even if Longhair does not have civil strife, they are by no means our opponents. Because the internal affairs of Changmao is a mess, it is not popular with the gentry and students, and it is too harsh on the people with military force, the army and the territory are seriously fat, the official positions are complicated and chaotic, and the military leaders of all sizes basically listen to Yang Xiuqing and do not listen to the tune, even if there is no Wu Ruxiao to raise troops to fight Yang, it is only a matter of time before the long-haired split and civil strife are separated, and if we want to eliminate the long-haired, in fact, we can do it at any time, and there is always a chance. ”

"Our most dangerous enemy is the rebellious party in the capital, since the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing to the present, Beijing has been the capital of China for more than 400 years, even the villagers in the mountains know to listen to the words of the capital, although the rebellious party is weak now, but as long as they still control the capital for a day, they will have the central righteousness one day, and the military and the people's hearts will be subconsciously towards them."

"Another advantage of the chaotic party in the capital is that the political system is perfect, as long as the territory in the hands can be effectively ruled, can develop production and receive money and food, and obtain a steady stream of military salaries and soldiers, especially for the army, before the Beijing chaotic party can ask Monk Greenqin to obediently hand over the military power, there is absolutely no possibility of a situation like the long-haired army, the big and small army leaders are fighting separately, the surface is strong but actually divided, although such an army is relatively weak, in fact it is the most difficult to deal with."

"Finally, it is possible that the Beijing Rebellion will continue to receive support and assistance from foreigners, not only the Rakshasa Kingdom is likely to continue to assist the Beijing Rebellion, as long as the price is sufficient, Britain and France may not consider supporting them. Moreover, even if the foreigners will not directly send troops to help the rebel party in the capital, as long as they continue to sell a large number of weapons to the rebel party in the capital, prolong the years, and give the chaotic party a lot of time to equip themselves with advanced weapons and learn advanced tactics, they will still be able to stay with us on the battlefield for a long time. ”

Speaking of this inexhaustibly, Wu Chaoyue paused, first drank a sip of water to moisten his throat, and then said: "Therefore, we must not covet the immediate profits, take advantage of the fire to rob and attack the doomed Changmao first, we can only nip the danger in the bud, give priority to eliminating the chaotic party in the capital, and take the capital at the worst, obtain the righteousness of the central government, and then it is not too late to slowly eliminate the longhair." ”

After listening to Wu Chaoyue's heartfelt words, and knowing Wu Chaoyue's unwavering temper once he made up his mind, none of the Wu Jun's civil and military ministers present raised objections, and all of them opened their mouths to express their support for Wu Chaoyue's decision. Wu Chaoyue was very pleased, and said: "Okay, since you all have no opinions, then it's decided, we will issue an announcement tomorrow to announce that we will take a neutral position on the civil war of Changmao." ”

"Wait!" Zhao Liewen, who had the most trust from Wu Chaoyue, finally spoke up and objected: "Dashuai, you have decided to continue to disrupt the party first and I support it, but we must not make an announcement and directly express neutrality." ”

When Wu Chaoyue and everyone looked at Zhao Liewen suspiciously, Zhao Liewen explained: "If we directly issue a neutral announcement, it will be too cheap for Changmao and the chaotic party in the capital." ”

"If we do this, first of all, Yang Xiuqing's side doesn't have to worry about the hidden dangers upstream, and can go all out to deal with Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yunlai's long-haired Qinwang rebel army, and when the pressure is greatly reduced, maybe he can quickly eliminate Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yunlai, end the long-haired civil war and turn around and threaten us."

"Secondly, if we make a neutral announcement, the Beijing Rebellion Party will definitely understand that we are determined to attack them first, and they will also concentrate all their forces to block us and increase the difficulty of our Northern Expedition. Therefore, by directly issuing this neutral proclamation that represents our moral integrity, we will receive only a little moral praise at best, but in fact we will suffer a great loss. ”

"But if we don't rush to make a statement, the situation is completely different." Speaking of this, Zhao Liewen smiled slightly and said: "First, Yang Xiuqing's side doesn't dare to rest assured, and Huang Wenjin, who has publicly expressed his support for Yang Xiuqing, does not dare to directly go east to participate in the war, and the civil war on Changmao's side may become bigger and bigger, and Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yunlai can also buy us more time for the Northern Expedition." ”

"Second, of course, it can paralyze the chaotic party in the capital, so that the chaotic party in the capital feels that we may attack the long-haired at any time to rob the fire, in order to promote this, the chaotic party in the capital will not only definitely make huge concessions at the negotiation table, but also may be negligent in war preparedness, creating a chance for us to win."

After listening to Zhao Liewen's analysis, Wu Chaoyue realized that he was still too moral, and forgot to use his fairly good credibility to seek benefits, and immediately nodded and said: "Huifu Gao, our neutral position cannot be announced immediately, we must first close our mouths and not make any statement about the long-haired civil war." ”

"You can't stop talking at all." Zhao Liewen smiled and said: "Comfort Ting, I think from now on, you'd better not meet Yang Xiuqing's envoy again, no matter how the envoy sent by Yang Xiuqing begs, you just don't meet and don't express your position, so that Yang Xiuqing can't figure out your attitude and position." ”

"But if Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yun come and send someone to ask to see you, you can meet in public, one is to make Yang Xiuqing worried, and the other is to give Wu Ruxiao and Ye Yun a little encouragement, so that they can rest assured that they will fight to the death with Yang Xiuqing."

Wu Chaoyue recognized it again, and asked directly: "What about the chaotic party in the capital?" ”

"Yes, of course." Zhao Liewen said with a smile: "After meeting, only talk about the wind and snow, don't talk about the military aircraft, and don't give a clear word, so that the chaotic party in the capital will beg you to send troops to fight against Changmao at any cost." ”

Wu Chaoyue laughed, adopted it on the spot, and then accepted Zhao Liewen's suggestion, and decided to increase troops in Jiujiang under the pretext of preventing the downstream war from endangering the border, which not only put pressure on Yang Xiuqing, but also disguised himself as a false appearance that he was ready to attack the Taiping army at any time.

In Zhao Liewen's expectation, Hou Renkuan rushed to Hubei to ask to see Wu Chaoyue was categorically refused, and Hong Renji, who had a good relationship with Wu Chaoyue, also failed to see Wu Chaoyue, and Wu Chaoyue had not made any statement on the civil war of the Taiping Army, after these news reached Yang Xiuqing, Yang Xiuqing really dispelled the idea of mobilizing the upstream army to go east to quell the rebellion, and feared day and night to prevent Wu Chaoyue from suddenly attacking, and did not dare to put all his forces into the counterinsurgency battlefield.

The Manchu court was the same, through Jingshou's channel, it was learned that Wu Chaoyue did not make a statement on the civil war of the Taiping army, but only increased troops in Jiujiang under the pretext of protecting the border, Ci'an, Cixi and Devil Liu really immediately suspected that Wu Chaoyue was preparing to take advantage of the fire to rob, and couldn't help but start discussing such a question - what price can be exchanged for Wu Chaoyue's full attack on the Taiping army in civil strife? Buying time for the dying Manchu court?