After confirming that the situation in Shanghai was just a false alarm, Wu Chaoyue, who had always turned his face faster than turning a book, naturally became arrogant again to Hou Yukuan, the envoy of the Taiping Army, and asked Hou Yukuan to tell Yang Xiuqing for himself, saying that he was only willing to conclude a non-aggression pact with the Taiping Army, open border markets with each other, and allow each other's unarmed fleets and caravans to pass through the controlled areas, and was never willing to accept any extortion from the Taiping Army. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

"Go back and tell Yang Xiuqing and ask him to ask himself, how much have I helped him secretly over the years? In the past few years, if I hadn't carried the pressure of the Manchu court and never made a big move, would your Taiping army have swept the southeast and north to Shandong? If it weren't for the mercy of my subordinates, Li Kaifang and Ji Wenyuan would have escaped to the south of the Yellow River alive? Tell him not to be greedy, if he really pushes me into a hurry, it's a big deal to continue fighting, and I can still be afraid of you?! ”

Hou Yukuan, who also knew that the Shanghai incident was nothing more than an oolong, and had already in his stomach and didn't know how many times he had greeted the female relatives of Lu Shunde, the commander of Songjiang of the Taiping Army, looked depressed, and only replied helplessly after a while: "Lord Wu, your words will definitely be brought back and tell the East King long live." But the villain must say something from his heart, even if you and our Dongwang Banzai have entered into a non-aggression pact, can we rest assured that you are the adult in the upper reaches? My lord, can you rest assured that we are close at hand? ”

"That's a pretty honest statement." Wu Chaoyue nodded first, and then thought about it for a while, and then said: "In this way, after I force the governor of Jiangxi, Ma Xiuru, to change the banner anyway, I will immediately reduce the Jiangxi garrison, and at the same time, I will allow you to establish an office in Xiangyuankou and send people to be stationed for a long time." In this way, it will not only facilitate the procurement of steel and weapons for your army, but also allow you to keep track of the movements of the main force of my sailors at any time, and not give me the opportunity to suddenly dispatch sailors to attack you. ”

Wuchao allowed the Taiping envoys to be stationed at the mouth of the Yangtze River for a long time to monitor the movements of the Naval Division, and indeed showed enough sincerity to appease the Taiping Army, which was threatened by the Wu Army's Naval Division. Therefore, Hou Yukuan was also very happy after hearing this, and immediately agreed, and promised to try his best to persuade Yang Xiuqing to accept Wu Chaoyue's kindness. Wu Chaoyue, on the other hand, threw out a bigger piece of cake and said, "Also, tell Yang Xiuqing that if he can conquer Beijing before me and expel the Manchurian Tartars back to their Tunguska hometown, I will pay tribute to him." ”

Hou Yukuan looked up in surprise and asked in surprise: "Lord Wu, are you not joking?" ”

"Absolutely not." Wu Chaoyue shook his head and said lightly: "We must learn the lessons of Shu and Wu in the Three Kingdoms, and we must not wait and see each other in order to preserve their respective strength, it will only cheap Manchurian Tartars for nothing, so I am willing to add such a clause to the peace treaty of mutual non-aggression, if you can take Beijing first, I will pay tribute to you." ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue added, "Of course, correspondingly, if I take Beijing first and return the Manchurian Tatars to their Tunguska hometown, you will have to pay tribute to me as if I were a vassal." ”

Hou Yukuan was very happy to hear this, and hurriedly invited Wu Chaoyue to send an envoy to Nanjing to negotiate with Yang Xiuqing, Wu Chaoyue promised, and immediately sent a scribe who had been snagged before as a representative, and went east to Nanjing to secretly negotiate an alliance with Yang Xiuqing - Wu Chaoyue estimated that as long as Yang Xiuqing's head did not enter the water, he would definitely accept his own conditions.

The matter of negotiating with the Taiping Army was temporarily over, and Wu Chaoyue did not dare to relax in any way, and quickly turned his eyes back to the interior, making every effort to solve the large number of internal problems exposed by his hasty army. The result was not bad, after hesitating for a long time, Li Zongtao, the prefect of Yunyang, who was located in the upper reaches of the Han River, finally remembered Wu Chaoyue's kindness, and sent someone to send a letter of allegiance to express his willingness to continue to follow Wu Chaoyue. Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed when he heard the report, and immediately let Li Zongtao receive the title of Sanpin according to the rank of inspector so that he could be promoted in the future.

The situation on the western front also looks quite gratifying, although after the troops arrived in Yichang, blocked by the Three Gorges, the large warships of the Wu army could not continue to move westward, so they could only withdraw the four main warships and drive to Sichuan with ordinary warships and infantry, but they took advantage of the unprepared Qing army in Sichuan, and the Wu army easily took Wushan Tianxian, and the soldiers were in the city of Kuizhou, and Tang Yougeng, the prefect of Kuizhou, even if he relied on some local townships in his hands to resist stubbornly, but the Wu army's demolition team only used one blasting, It directly blew down the city wall of Kuizhou, which had been in disrepair for a long time, the Wu army attacked the city of Kuizhou and killed Tang Yougeng, Yang Zepu, the magistrate of Kuizhou, led the people to surrender, and was used by Wang Fu as the prefect, and the Wu army continued to open to the Yangtze River, and had touched the edge of the central Sichuan Basin.

There are good news on both the northern and western fronts, and the southern line of Hunan is controlled by Feng Sanbao because the army, even if there is a little problem, there is basically no need to worry, the situation is quite good, but Wu Chaoyue still does not dare to have the slightest slackness, because since he sent someone to inform Yang Wending to raise troops on the Qingjun side, Wu Chaoyue has never received any news from Yang Wending's army, and he doesn't know whether the situation on Yang Wending's side is evil or auspicious. In addition, Wu Chaoyue also knows very well that the current situation of the self-army is completely taking advantage of the Qing army's unpreparedness, once the Qing army relaxes its breath to launch a counterattack, then the Wu army, which is actually quite bad, may immediately face the dilemma of fighting on multiple fronts.

In late March, the Manchu court first issued an edict denouncing Wu Chaoyue's various crimes of ingratitude and rebellion, declaring that Wu Chaoyue was a rebel and a thief, calling on the heroes of the world to rise up to crusade against Wu Chaoyue, and offering a reward of 500,000 taels of silver for Wu Chaoyue's head. At the same time, the Manchu court announced the establishment of a new prime minister's state affairs yamen in the capital, requiring the ministers of various countries to be relocated in Beijing and cutting off all contacts with Wu Chaoyue.

Then, Ma Xiuru, the governor of Jiangxi, finally tore his face and categorically rejected Wu Chaoyue's request to let him raise an army, and at the same time cut off the supply of grain and grass to the Wu army in Jiangxi. Wu Chaoyue was forced to have no choice but to order Liu Mingchuan and Wang Guocai to return to attack Nanchang, risking leaving only Xiao Qijiang and a lone army to contend with the Taiping army whose current attitude was unknown.

There is even more disgusting Wu Chaoyue, on March 29, the messenger sent by Yang Wending finally got in touch with Wu Chaoyue, saying that after Yang Wending gritted his teeth and announced the change of banner, he was not only categorically rejected by Du Xing'a, but also caused Du Xing'a's department to get out of control. Li Lan's thief army, which had already been pumped out by the Wu army in Sichuan to find teeth and fled north, also jumped out to take advantage of the fire to loot, demanding that the Wu army recognize their Shuntian regime and allow them to cut their land and stand on their own. At the same time, Chengdu General Youfeng also closed the city for several days, and did not give Yang Wending any reply, and the main force of Yang Wending's army mostly pursued and killed Li Lan's thief army on the northern front, and Chengdu's troops were relatively empty, and they did not dare to make up their minds to storm the city.

"Old man Yang is difficult." Wu Chaoyue shook his head and sighed, and at the same time sighed at the impermanence of the world, saying that he didn't expect that Yang Wending, who had fought to the death with his own family, had now become his biggest reliance on winning Sichuan.

The road was not smooth, and the situation in Sichuan was too complicated, so Wu Chaoyue did not give Yang Wending any instructions, but only replied to Yang Wending to act at the opportunity, take advantage of the situation, and listen to the opinions of Zuo Zongtang, a powerful man in the late Qing Dynasty. There is also to tell Yang Wending that the reinforcements of Wang Fu and Li Xubin brothers are on the way to Chengdu, so that Yang Wending knows that he will never let him fight alone.

Knowing that the situation in Sichuan was not very good the next day, another bad news came - the governor of Henan, Yinglanpo, the white flag man of the Han army, not only categorically rejected Wu Chaoyue's request for Yi Zhi, but also sent someone to contact Shu Bao, the chief general of the Xiangyang garrison in Hubei, to remind Sheng Bao not to forget his Manchurian identity, and strongly persuaded Shu Bao to raise troops anyway, and killed Liu Qi, the prefect of Xiangyang, to atone for his crimes, and promised to do his best to meet Shu Bao. Let Tomin lead the killing to Xiangyang.

Afterwards, Shu Bao, an honest man who was not in the same place with the monk and the prince, handed over the messenger and the letter to Liu Qiwei for the first time, but Liu Qizhi told Wu Chaoyue in the letter, saying that there were still many Manchu people in the Xiangyang army who were very dissatisfied with Shu Bao's decision, and the army's morale was quite unstable, and Wu Chaoyue was advised to take precautions as soon as possible to prevent Shu Bao from suddenly defecting.

This is undoubtedly another thorny problem, originally Wu Chaoyue's heavy troops in the northern front had sufficient troops to be transferred to Xiangyang to prevent Shubao, and at the same time, Wu Chaoyue also had enough mobile troops in the Hubei provincial capital to be transferred north to deal with the situation, and even took the opportunity of Tomin's southern invasion to kill Shubao's unreliable army by killing people with a knife. However, Shu Bao was not only the first Manchu general to support Wu Chaoyue's army, but also offended countless Manchu colleagues and subordinates for this.

At the critical moment of testing his political ability, Wu Chaoyue made an astonishing decision, deciding to transfer 2,000 troops from Nie Shicheng's command to the west, hand them over to Shu Bao's command, and at the same time send Shu Bao a batch of advanced weapons, and named Shu Bao as the governor of Zhili, and ordered Shu Bao to lead the army north, take the initiative to meet Tuo Ming'a, and capture Xinye to create a buffer for the important town of Xiangyang!

After listening to Wu Chaoyue's decision, although Zhao Liewen did not object, he also reminded in a deep voice: "Weiting, you are gambling, betting that Shubao will not defect, but have you considered the price of losing this bet?" ”

"The big deal is that the Xiangyang garrison mutinied, Xiangyang was surrounded, and Nie Shicheng was forced to go west to relieve the siege." Wu Chaoyue said lightly: "Shu Bao's department is stationed in Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River, and Xiangyang City is in the hands of Liu Qi, as long as Liu Qi is tightly guarded, even if Shu Bao suddenly defects, it will be difficult to take Xiangyang in one fell swoop." There are new weapons in Xiangyang City that we secretly sent, and it is not difficult to defend the city, and then when Nie Shicheng's reinforcements arrive, it will definitely not be a big problem to keep Xiangyang. ”

After talking about his own arrangement, Wu Chaoyue paused, and then said: "When the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the military advantage was actually not great, but their politics were good, anyone could use it, and anyone dared to use it, using all the forces that could be used, so that the more they fought, the stronger they became, the bigger the territory, and finally won the world." ”

"I want Shu Bao to become my Hong Chengchou and King Sanshun!" Wu Chaoyue said in a deep voice: "Even if he becomes a traitor, I will let him become Zu Dashou and give him a chance to surrender!" ”

…………

A few days later, the Xiangyang garrison camp Fancheng Town, facing the Tomina army that was striding towards Xinye, the Xiangyang garrison, which was already panicked, was even more frustrated, and a large number of Manmeng bannermen in the Xiangyang garrison also took the opportunity to spread rumors, saying that Wu Chaoyue would never take care of the Xiangyang garrison, and Liu Qizhi, who was hiding in Xiangyang City, would not let the Xiangyang garrison cross the Han River into the city anyway, and if the Xiangyang garrison did not raise troops quickly, it would definitely only be deliberately annihilated by Wu Chaoyue as an outcast and thrown to Tuomin'a. Constantly instigating the Xiangyang garrison to mutiny, and no matter how instigating the Xiangyang garrison to kill Shu Bao and Liu Qi to ask for credit from Tuo Ming'a, there are still quite a few Manchu and Mongolian banner people who are already discussing how to put it into practice.

Under such circumstances, Shu Bao, who resolutely joined the Wu army despite the opposition of many compatriots, of course suffered tremendous psychological pressure, and had to repeatedly come forward in person to refute the rumors, saying that Wu Chaoyue would never ignore the Xiangyang garrison, and also said that Wu Chaoyue would never deliberately let the Xiangyang garrison die in vain. He also took out a letter from his friend Duolong'a, so that the Manmeng bannermen under his command knew the tragic situation of the Jingzhou bannermen, and how the soldiers of the Wu army protected the Jingzhou bannermen, and reminded the Manmeng bannermen under his command not to repeat the mistakes of the Jingzhou bannermen, live up to Wu Chaoyue's kindness, and leave the Wu army to give the Han people a chance to take revenge.

On the fifth day of the first month of April, after receiving the news that more than 12,000 people of Tomin'a's army had successfully arrived in Xinye, the Xiangyang garrison, which had only about 2,000 people in total, was suddenly in chaos. Shu Bao repeatedly explained that due to the influence of the road and distance, the reinforcements of the Wu army should not arrive in a day or two, but the Manmeng generals did not believe it at all, and many people looked at Shu Bao with murderous eyes.

"General Shu, General Shu, reinforcements have arrived! Reinforcements have arrived! ”

The sudden cheers outside the tent rescued Shu Bao from being embattled, and the Manmeng generals who were forcing the palace opened their mouths, but Shu Bao, who was extremely anxious, raised his head in surprise, and asked Mu Laqi, a close general who rushed in to report the news, "How many troops are coming?" ”

"Two sentinels, two hundred."

Mulaki replied with a smile, and raised two fingers, but Shu Bao immediately stood on the spot, but the other Manchurian generals were making a loud noise, either scolding or yelling at Shu Bao, "Shu Bao, did you hear that?" Reinforcements from two outposts! Just two sentinels for reinforcements! That's what you call reinforcements! ”

"What are you anxious about? Hear me out! Mulaqi, the tiger fighter, yelled, first quieted everyone, and then said to Shu Bao with a smile: "General Shu, those two sentries sent by Marshal Wu are not here to help us fight, but to send us weapons!" Guess how many grenades Wu Dashuai sent us this time? ”

"How much?!" Shu Bao hurriedly asked.

"Five thousand!"

Muraqi slapped his face and said loudly: "In addition, Wu Dashuai also sent us fifty grenadiers and a thousand shells!" There are also 200 copper-shelled guns that are not afraid of water, and 5,000 copper-shelled bullets! ”

The big tent that was as noisy as a vegetable market just now suddenly fell silent, and none of the Manmeng generals present were not dumbfounded, and none of them were not suspicious that there was something wrong with their ears suddenly, and they couldn't believe that Wu Chaoyue could send so many battlefield weapons to Shengbao in one go! So much so that after a long time, Shu Baocai's voice trembled and said, "Muraqi, you rabbit cub didn't lie to me?" Wu Dashuai really believes in me so much and sent me so many weapons?! ”

"That's not all." Mulaki finally took out the generalissimo official document of Wu Chaoyue, and said proudly: "Marshal Wu also named you the governor of Zhili, and ordered the Nie brothers to send two thousand troops westward and hand them over to General Shu to command you, let you lead the army to the north, take the initiative to meet the rabble of the rabbit cub of Tomin'a, take Xinye, and establish the outer barrier of Xiangyang!" ”

Before Muraqi's words were finished, Shu Bao was already in tears, and then wiped his eyes and wept silently, and Muraqi salivated and said: "General Shu, don't cheap others for those fifty grenadiers, at least equip me with half of them, right?" And grenade shells, my army will score at least two thousand, right? ”

Shu Bao nodded with tears in his eyes, and agreed to the reasonable request made by Muraqi, who had always firmly supported him, on the spot, and then Shu Bao slammed the table again and roared angrily: "All arms for war!" As soon as Wu Marshal's reinforcements arrived, he immediately went north to face Tomin'a! ”

"Also, Lao Tzu made it clear and was willing to stay, keep his mouth shut from now on, who the fuck would dare to say a word about Wu Dashuai's no, cut it immediately! If you are willing to go, you can go to Tomin at any time from now on, except for weapons and war horses, you can take anything with you, and Lao Tzu will also send dry food for the journey! But when it comes to the battlefield, don't blame Lao Tzu's guns and grenades for not having long eyes! ”

The Manmeng generals present were silent, but scolded in their hearts: "You Shu Bao is stupid to be Lao Tzu?" At this time, go to Tomina and ask Lao Tzu to be blown up by your cannonball grenade shells? Damn, 5,000 grenade shells, 1,000 shells, you don't need to see blood with knives and guns, it's enough to clean up that bastard of Tomina with these things! ”

Muttering in their hearts, these Manchurian generals couldn't help but think of how much loot they could grab on the battlefield after Shu Bao defeated Tomina, how much wealth they could make on the battlefield, and how many official positions would be vacated in the north in the future.