The reason why the reorganized Hunan Army was able to deal with the Qing army Tuoming Abe without distraction on the battlefield in Xuzhou was also related to the strong cooperation of the other two units of the Wu army, Nie Shichengjun and Liu Kunyi, which helped Zeng Guoquan to effectively contain the main forces of several neighboring Qing armies, so that they could not reinforce the Qing army in Xuzhou, and at the same time, they gradually completed the task of consolidating the control of Henan given to them by Wu Chaoyue. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

On Nie Shicheng's side, although Huaiqing's Qing army crossed the Yellow River many times, harassed the edge of the Wu army's controlled territory, and tried in vain to encircle Wei and save Zhao to put pressure on the Chong'an part of the other main force of the Qing army in Henan, Nie Shicheng, a model of the late Qing army, turned a blind eye to these small tricks, and led the main force of the headquarters to storm the Shiqiaoji camp in Chong'an, and finally succeeded in forcing Chong'an to abandon the Shiqiao camp and retreat eastward, shattering the Manchu court's dream of using a waste main force to entangle Nie Shicheng's army.

Then, Nie Shicheng kept in mind his brother-in-law's advice, did not chase and fight, did not encircle and intercept, did not take the annihilation of the Chong'an army as the purpose of the operation, and led the soldiers of the Wu army to advance eastward unhurriedly, and forced the Chong'an army to abandon Yanshi and the two cities of Gongxian County with the overwhelming momentum of Mount Tai, and fully retreat to Bishui.

Then Nie Shicheng didn't spend the effort and effort to storm Bishui City, and laid down the Tiger Prison Pass, which is gradually becoming less important, and took advantage of the easy to defend and difficult to attack terrain of the Tiger Prison Pass to establish a strong camp, and retreated after stationing an army. While establishing the buffer zone on the eastern front of Luoyang, it also deliberately did not annihilate the Chong'an army, which was vulnerable in the field battle, and forced the Manchu court to continue to throw money and grain at the Chong'an army, which was not a big threat to the Wu army.

Unlike the simple and steady Nie Shicheng, Liu Kunyi's battle was much smarter and more cunning, after receiving Wu Chaoyue's order for him to capture Tongguan and establish a barrier on the western front, Liu Kunyi did not send troops directly like Nie Shicheng, but first sent an envoy to Ruxiang and Tongguan to surrender, and directly told Chen Chengzhi, the magistrate of Ruxiang, and Long Zehou, the guard of Tongguan of the Qing army, with a letter, saying that he had been ordered to fight the territory under their control, and persuaded them to either surrender as soon as possible, or be smart and take the initiative to give up the territory and flee for their lives. He pledged not to hunt down or persecute them, and also allowed them to take away their personal belongings.

In the end, Liu Kunyi also asked the envoy to make a promise to Long Zehou, as long as Long Zehou gave up the small town of Tongguan, which is now called Fenglingdu, to himself, and let himself have an explanation for Wu Chaoyue, then he would never attack Tongguan Hall and force Long Zehou into a desperate situation! At the same time, Liu Kunyi also promised that he would never touch Long Zehou's salt smuggling business, so that Long Zehou could continue to smuggle salt from Jiezhou to Guanzhong for huge profits.

Then, Liu Kunyi unhurriedly urged the division to go west, but Chen Chengzhi, the magistrate of Ruxiang County, who had nowhere to go, really chose to surrender in Kaecheng, and Long Zehou, the general of the Qing army's Tong Pass, secretly contacted Liu Kunyi, asking Liu Kunyi to deliberately defeat once, so that he could give an explanation to the Manchu court first, and then give Tongguan to Liu Kunyi.

Liu Kunyi accepted Long Zehou's request very much, and deliberately sent a cannon fodder regiment to train as the vanguard to attack Tongguan, first let Long Zehou fight two small victories, and then make efforts to tackle key problems, while Long Zehou, who had already given an explanation to the Manchu court, deliberately exposed his flaws, and deliberately let the Wu army blow up the Tongguan Gate, and then justifiably ran away with the army and fled to the Tongguan Hall to defend the city. not only avoided the danger of fighting head-on with the Wu army, but also made the Manchu court dare not move him casually - if he moved again, the Tongguan Hall could no longer be saved, and the Guanzhong Plain would be suspended.

These movements of the Wu army are not large, and the speed of advance is obviously not fast, and the land and cities captured in the same time are not even as good as the Taiping army, which is currently expanding much slower, but in the eyes of the Manchu court, even the devil Zi Liu and Cixi Ci'an, who do not understand military affairs, feel the huge pressure, like a fish in the throat, and more and more regard Wu Chaoyue as an enemy with a higher degree of danger than the Taiping army.

Because Wu Chaoyue is not as blind as the Taiping Army, Yang Xiuqing, the supreme military commander of the Taiping Army, is indeed a military genius, but he is a geographical idiot, who does not know the danger of strangulation and distinguishing priorities, and the command and use of troops are completely drilled there when there are loopholes, and often a large piece of land is laid only to find that there is no reliable road connection between each other, and they cannot echo each other and work together, while the Qing army only needs to hold a critical position to control a large territory, The lost city can be regained by relying on geographical advantages as long as it has the opportunity.

With the gradual weakening of Yang Xiuqing's control over the Taiping army's commanders, and the gradual emergence of the Taiping army's warlordization, this situation is becoming more and more intense, in many provinces, it seems that the control territory is amazingly large, but in fact, the key positions are still in the hands of the Qing army, and it is difficult or even impossible to effectively control the localities, let alone convert the seized land into a logistics base.

Wu Chaoyue is not, under the command of Wu Chaoyue, the Wu army never covets the surface of the territory, never wastes the precious mobile force on the secondary battlefield that can be fought or not, for the remote counties and towns are all priority to appease, really unwilling to surrender and not in a hurry to attack, has always concentrated the strength of one point, specifically hit the most painful position of the Manchu court, even if forced to the secondary battlefield, it is also to the point, never make a risk lightly, the land and city can be firmly controlled in their own hands, And gradually transformed into a logistics base for fighting against the Manchu court.

The Henan battlefield is a typical example, in the case of the temporary inability to use troops on the northern front, the limited expansion of the Wu army is deadly, and every knife is poked to the most fatal place. Zeng Guoquan defeated Xuzhou, and he could immediately use Xuzhou as the core of the battlefield, radiate and control many surrounding counties, and also compress the activity space of the Qing army in Henan to the east and north of Henan, and there was no way to use Xuzhou as a base for westward expansion and wantonly attack the supply line of the main force of the Wu army in Henan.

Nie Shicheng seized Yanshi and Gongxian, two innocuous small county towns, but he refused to attack Bishui with all his might, and even ignored the nearby Dengfeng County, which has not surrendered so far. At the same time, after losing contact with the provincial capital and the main force of the Qing army in Henan, Dengfeng County also obediently took the initiative to surrender, and Yi Zhi anyway, so that the Wu army obtained a city and a large area of land without a single soldier.

Not to mention Liu Kunyi's side, although with the changes in climate and environment, the position of the Guanzhong Plain in the battle for deer in the world is far less important than before the Song and Ming dynasties, but after taking Tongguan, the Wu army has gained the strategic initiative on the battlefield of Guanzhong, and there is no need to worry about the Shaanxi-Gansu-Qing army will suddenly seize the Kunhan Road and cut off the road connection between the Wu army in Shanxi and the rear.

"Wu Thief's next main target is Shanxi! If Shanxi can't be kept anymore, not only will the whole territory of Zhili be in an emergency, but Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang and Tibet will also be directly finished, and the imperial court will no longer be able to directly control it. ”

At this point, even the devil who didn't understand military affairs clearly saw that Wu Chaoyue's purpose in using troops on the battlefield in Henan was to prepare for the invasion of Shanxi, and he regretted that he should not have listened to the slander of the monk and the prince at the beginning, and did not consider giving priority to handing over the arms aided by Russia to Xu Jiji, and chose to hand it over to the Manchu general Tuo Ming'a - as a result, Zeng Guoquan, who suddenly came back, was cheapened in vain.

Remorse is useless, the only thing the coup group in the capital headed by Ci'an, Cixi and Guiziliu is to seize the time to strengthen Shanxi's preparations for war, and the official made a wish to call on the landlords and wealthy businessmen in Shanxi to pay money and grain to handle regimental training to resist the Wu army, and at the same time adopted Luo Bingzhang's suggestion to transfer manpower from the new army in Shandong to the west as early as possible, and went to Shanxi to help Xu Jiji train the army, so that after the follow-up military aid from Russia was sent to Shanxi, the Qing army in Shanxi could immediately use Russian-style weapons and linear tactics to fight the Wu army.

During this period, another batch of arms and weapons purchased by Wenxiang from Western powers in Hong Kong and Macao were sent to the capital, but this time Ci'an, Cixi and Guiziliu said that they would not dare to send this batch of weapons directly to Shanxi, and could only hand them over to the equipment of the Zhili Qing army under the command of the monk Wang Ye - because the coup group had also discovered that the Taiping army was preparing to go north on a large scale by sea and directly attack Dagu and Tianjin, so the coup group had no choice but to give priority to the equipment of the Zhili Qing army and let the Qing army in Shanxi continue to wait.

Having finally obtained the opportunity to equip himself with advanced weapons, the complacent monk and prince of course once again shook his majesty in the Manchu court, and constantly threatened to capture Wu Chaoyue alive and kill Yang Xiuqing, claiming that no matter whether Wu's army, the Taiping army, or the Shandong New Army were vulnerable in front of him, he was arrogant. However, everyone in the Manchu Qing Military Aircraft Department led by Devil Zi Liu was sad and bitter, not only did they have little confidence in the monk and prince, but they were also worried that the follow-up advanced weapons could not be delivered in time, giving Wu Chaoyue the opportunity to seize Shanxi.

"We have to hurry up and think of a way to stabilize Wu Chaoyue for a while again, don't let him rush into Shanxi, otherwise, even if the foreigners' arms are successfully sent to the capital, without Shanxi's money and food, the imperial court will not be able to fight a big battle."

Devil Six racked his brains, and has been thinking hard about temporarily stabilizing Wu Chaoyue's delaying strategy, and even once considered using a way to start a negotiation, but considering that Wu Chaoyue had already listed himself as the chief war criminal in the text, as well as the vicious character of his two sisters-in-law, Devil Six immediately gave up this idea that should be feasible - it is not a joke to make it come true.

"Lord Gong, the excerpt of Shen Baozhen, the political envoy of Henan, please take a look."

In the annoyance, Cao Yuying, the minister of military aircraft who was also listed as a war criminal by Wu Chaoyue, put a fold in front of the devil, and the devil who was thinking about the problem took it while asking casually: "What's the situation?" Is Xuzhou in a hurry again? ”

"No, Wu Thief is not in a hurry to fight Xuzhou for the time being." Cao Yuying shook her head and said, "Shen Youdan put forward a suggestion in the excerpt to induce Changmao and Wu Thief to turn their faces and start a war, I think it is quite feasible, so please take a look." ”

"Tempting Wu thief and Long Mao to turn their faces and start a war, can Shen Youdan have this ability?" Devil Six snorted coldly with disdain, but when he opened the fold and took a closer look, the disdain on Devil Six's face was gradually replaced by surprise, because Shen Baozhen's suggestion was not only feasible, but also quite sure.

As mentioned above, because of the conflict of interests, Li Zhaoshou and the Twist Army have been fighting with Zeng Guoquan's army in Xuzhou, so Shen Baozhen reported the matter to the Manchu court at the same time, suggested that the Manchu court secretly recruit Li Zhaoshou, and secretly pull Li Zhaoshou, who had made enemies with the Wu army, to the side of the Manchu court, and used Li Zhaoshou's influence in the Twist Army to encourage some leaders of the Twist Army who forgot their interests to attack the areas controlled by the Wu army, and also instigated and lured Zhang Lexing and Gong Deshu and other big leaders of the Twist Army to start a war with the Wu army, which then led to a war between the Taiping army behind the Twist Army and Wu Chaoyue.

In addition, Shen Baozhen also attached a copy of Li Zhaoshou's intelligence collected by the Qing army in Henan, introducing Li Zhaoshou's greed for money and lustful character and forgetting his righteousness, as well as the history of Li Zhaoshou who had briefly joined forces with many twist armies, and what was even better for the Manchu court was that this Li Zhaoshou also surrendered to the Qing army in Anhui and gave Anhui's regimental training leader He Guizhen's accomplice lackey, but because he liked to rob the army, he angered the then governor of Anhui Fuji, and was so angry that Fuji ordered him to be killed, which forced Li Zhaoshou back to the side of the twisting army.

didn't discuss it with Ci'an and Cixi, only thought about it for less than three minutes, and Devil Ziliu immediately decided to make this immeasurable deal with this investment that was not very profitable, and asked Yinglanpo, the governor of Henan, to personally handle the matter, asking Yinglanpo to buy Li Zhaoshou with jewelry beauties by unscrupulous means, so that Li Zhaoshou could become the catalyst for provoking the Wu army to go to war with the Twist Army and the Taiping Army.

Devil Six finally got the bet right, just on the first day when Yinglanpo sent someone to buy Li Zhaoshou, Li Zhaoshou had just received Zhang Lexing's order asking him not to continue fighting with the Wu army, and he was losing his temper and felt that Zhang Lexing's arm was turned outward, and then after seeing the canonization book and gold, silver and jewelry sent by the Manchu court, Li Zhaoshou also only thought about it for less than three minutes, and immediately accepted the secret recruitment of the Manchu court and became the second rank of the Manchu court.

Then, Li Zhaoshou deliberately contacted Zeng Guoquan to ask for peace talks, and after Zeng Guoquan agreed, the ruthless Li Zhaoshou sent someone to pretend to be a soldier of the Wu army and killed the negotiator he sent on the road, blaming the Wu army to take the opportunity to provoke the war again. Then Li Zhaoshou sent someone to complain to Zhang Lexing, asking Zhang Lexing to administer justice to himself, and at the same time led the army to loot Wugou Town, Yuncheng, which had surrendered to the Wu army, and brutally tortured and killed many people in Wugou Town, who had changed their banners and became soldiers of the Wu army.

Not to mention, Li Zhaoshou also blinded Zeng Guoquan with this hand, after learning that the envoy of the Twist Army was killed on the road, Zeng Guoquan's first reaction was that the Qing army was making a ghost, and he never suspected that this was a farce directed and acted by Li Zhaoshou himself, and he also sent an envoy to contact Li Zhaoshou and ask Li Zhaoshou to verify it in detail. However, the envoy of the Wu army was cut by Li Zhaoshou without hesitation, and at the same time, the news that the soldiers of the Wu army were buried alive by Li Zhaoshou's army also came from Wugou Town, and the furious Zeng Guoquan immediately sent troops to take revenge, as a result, Li Zhaoshou smeared oil on the soles of his feet, and immediately fled into Chenzhou Mansion, and at the same time sent people to continue to complain to Zhang Lexing, while encouraging other twisted troops in Chenzhou to join forces with him to attack Nanyang Mansion, the rear of the Wu army in Henan.

By the time Wu Chaoyue knew about these circumstances, the contradiction between Zeng Guoquan's army and the Twist Army had already reached the point of irreconcilability, and at the same time, Yang Xiuqing also sent someone to send a message, saying that Zhang Lexing was very dissatisfied with Zeng Guoquan's aggressiveness, and asked Yang Xiuqing to warn Wu Chaoyue, so that Wu Chaoyue must not think that the Twist Army is easy to bully!

But fortunately, Yang Xiuqing was also quite calm, and also thought that the killing incident was a ghost of the Qing army, and took the initiative to promise that he would definitely appease the five banners of the Twisted Army to avoid further expansion of the armed conflict between the Twisted Army and the Wu Army. But Yang Xiuqing also warned Wu Chaoyue, saying that he could not directly restrain and control the Twist Army, and at the same time, he could not be too harsh on the Twist Army, so Yang Xiuqing asked Wu Chaoyue to properly restrain Zeng Guoquan, and don't let Zeng Guoquan aim his gun at the Twist Army team at every turn, otherwise even Yang Xiuqing would have to be caught in the middle and be angry.

After thanking Yang Xiuqing in the reply, Wu Chaoyue asked people to cast a vase with gold overnight, and the bottle was engraved with a picture of Gou Jian lying down and tasting courage, and sent someone to the front line with a fast horse to send it to Zeng Guoquan, and then said sullenly to Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming and others: "At present, it can only be like this, try your best to be patient, and wait until you will slowly find those twisters to settle accounts." ”

"I'm afraid that those bandits will kick their noses and faces, and they will be even more inch-inch." Zhao Liewen warned.

Wu Chaoyue smiled bitterly, knowing that with the eyes of the Twist Army Gang, such a thing was destined to be unavoidable, but there was no way - he couldn't help but fight the Twist Army first in the Manchu Dynasty, right? At the same time, what is even more troublesome is that although Wu Chaoyue has long heard that the Twist Army General Alliance advocates that Le Xing is a reasonable and righteous bold man, and there is hope of subduing him, he must take into account Yang Xiuqing's feelings and cannot just try to win him over.

When he was worried, news suddenly came from outside the door, saying that Wu Chaoyue's old friend American arms salesman Brown asked to meet, and Wu Chaoyue, who had a good relationship with Brown, was a little relieved, and immediately agreed to meet him, and he personally went to the front door of the front hall to greet this American devil who helped him train his first army.

I haven't seen him for a few more years, and the American veteran Brown is obviously blessed, and his dress is no longer as casual as before, he puts on a suit and a top hat, but his hearty personality has not changed at all, and as soon as he met, he gave Wu Chaoyue a bear hug, and shouted in a loud voice: "Wu, my best friend, I didn't expect you to be the interim president of the Qing Dynasty, and I am so honored to be able to go out to meet me in person." ”

"Our friendship will never change, Brown." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said, "No matter what time it is, you and I are the closest friends. ”

"Wu, what you said makes me so happy." Brown laughed, and couldn't wait to take out a list of goods, stuffed it directly into Wu Chaoyue's hand, and said with a smile: "Old rules, you pick the arms I brought first, and I will sell the rest to others if you pick the rest." ”

Wu Chaoyue laughed, and didn't rush to read the list, but invited Brown into the hall to sit down, and asked someone to prepare a reception banquet for Brown, while asking about his situation, Brown said very politely: "Wu, I have become the boss of a company in the United States, and I don't need to come to Qingguo to sell arms in person, but I heard that after you finally raised troops to resist the stupid Qing court, I knew that you definitely needed a large number of arms, so I immediately contacted many American arms dealers for you and purchased a large number of arms for you to send you." In order to deliver as much as I can to you, I've mortgaged my company and farm to the damn Jewish bankers. ”

Knowing that Brown's character would not tell lies, Wu Chaoyue was not polite, and said: "Brown, I won't pick this time, I want all your arms as a thank you for it." ”

"Haha, Wu, I knew you wouldn't let me lose money!" Brown laughed, and then took the initiative to say: "But Wu, as a friend, among the arms I brought, there is a rifle I suggest you don't buy, the price is expensive and dangerous, and if you don't operate it well, it may kill your soldiers, and our U.S. military didn't buy it, so you'd better not buy it." ”

"It's okay, I didn't pay for that rifle for you, it was the miserly boss of that company who forced me to bring it, I can return it, and I don't like that damn Grandet very much!"

"What rifle is so dangerous?" Wu Chaoyue was a little curious.

Brown didn't introduce it, but just asked the entourage to bring a long box and handed it to Wu Chaoyue, and said: "The bastard boss of that company asked me to bring you a sample of the rifle, and in order to trick you into giving him an order, that bastard also engraved your English name on the bolt, and hyped it up in the newspaper, using your fame in the United States to promote his products." ”

"The boss of that company, so good at doing business?"

Wu Chaoyue casually asked and opened the gun box curiously, and the first thing that caught Wu Chaoyue's eye was a gold-plated bolt, which was indeed engraved with Wu Chaoyue's English name, and a gun body number - 5.