"The anti-guest is the mainstay, and immediately dispatch an army, and rush to the outside of Jingcheng City to seize a dangerous position, and completely disrupt the deployment and adjustment of the rebel army. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

Li Hongzhang replied very directly, and then explained: "Guan Wen suddenly moved to the east, whether he induced us to send troops to the east to fight, or was really forced to return to the rear in an emergency, he would never have thought that we would react in such a quick time, and all deployment adjustments would only be based on the fact that we would take action at least a day or two." ”

"Therefore, as long as we immediately send an army and rush to the outside of Jingcheng City to seize the dangerous points, we will inevitably catch the rebel army by surprise and fall into passivity. Then our army will adapt to the situation, not only do not have to worry about missing the fighter plane by mistake, but can also quickly withdraw to Niangzi Pass when the situation is critical, and calmly deal with all changes in the enemy situation. ”

Always remembering the lesson of his brother Changjiang Zhongyuan's lone army being defeated and killed in depth, Jiang Zhongji was inevitably a little worried about Li Hongzhang's suggestion, and said: "Isn't it too risky to go outside Jingcheng City lightly, or to march at night?" If the enemy has an ambush in the mountain pass, we will be in great trouble. ”

"No wind, no danger." Li Hongzhang replied confidently: "It is true that the east of Niangzi Pass to the bottom of Jingcheng City is indeed a mountain road, but this road has always been closely monitored by our scouts, and there is almost no possibility for the rebellious army to set up an ambush in advance without being detected by our army. ”

"At the same time, our army suddenly marched eastward at night, and the rebel army in Jingcheng City would only be more afraid than we were of the risk of sending troops to intercept it in the middle of the night. Therefore, I dare to conclude that if we send troops to the east overnight, we will not have to worry about being ambushed, let alone worry about the rebellious army in Jingcheng City sending troops to intercept it overnight, and we can complete the mountain road very safely. ”

Jiang Zhongxin and Xi Baotian both opened their mouths, expressing concern that Li Hongzhang's analysis and estimation were too optimistic, Jiang Zhongji also pulled the short beard on his chin and hesitated to make up his mind, Li Hongzhang saw his thoughts, and said: "Third general, my suggestion may be a bit risky, if the official document is intended to lure the snake out of the hole and prepare well in advance, we will not be able to get the effect of anti-guest if we rush to the outside of Jingcheng City to seize the danger, so even if you don't adopt it, I will never insist on it." ”

"But I still want to emphasize that if the official document is really forced to lead the main force to leave the Zhengding battlefield because of changes in the rear, then our anti-guest-oriented move will inevitably have miraculous results, not only can it disrupt the deployment and adjustment of the rebel army after the main force of the official document leaves, but our main force can also take the opportunity to send troops to Jingcheng, so that the old fox of the official document is difficult to care about, and the advance and retreat are lost."

Speaking of this, Li Hongzhang paused for a moment, and added: "There is a more critical point, although the king of Zhennan did not stipulate a time for us to send troops, but only told us to act at the opportunity, we can't always stay in Niangzi Pass and stand still, sooner or later we will send troops eastward." In this case, instead of attacking Jingcheng in a step-by-step manner, we should seize the opportunity of a major change in the enemy's situation to highlight the surprise troops and seize the advantageous opportunity. ”

Considering that sooner or later it was necessary to send troops to the east anyway, and the cost of knocking on the Jingcheng Heavenly Danger was destined to be not small, and at the same time, there was no certainty of victory, so after thinking for a while, Jiang Zhongji still gritted his teeth and said: "Zhongyi, immediately ask the main force of your headquarters to prepare weapons and torches, only bring five days of food, and the second watch will send troops to the west, rush to the Jingcheng battlefield to seize the danger outside the city and set up camp, and then see the opportunity to act." ”

Seeing that Jiang Zhongji had made up his mind, Jiang Zhongyi could only agree immediately, and then asked: "Brother, after arriving outside Jingcheng City, where should the younger brother take and set up camp?" ”

Jiang Zhongji turned his gaze to Li Hongzhang, who came up with this bad idea, and Li Hongzhang immediately replied: "Third general, let me go with General Zhongyi, the terrain outside Jingcheng City is too complicated, and it is the best policy to adapt to changes when you get there." ”

Jiang Zhongji, who was already well aware of Li Hongzhang's talent, agreed without hesitation, and in addition to asking Jiang Zhongyi to discuss more with Li Hongzhang in case of trouble, he also asked Jiang Zhongyi to bring a few more carrier pigeons as a precaution. As a result, it was only after Jiang Zhongyi and Li Hongzhang hurriedly went down to arrange the dispatch of troops that Jiang Zhongji turned his eyes to the direction of Pingdingzhou City in the west, and snorted coldly in his heart, "Wait and see, as long as I have the opportunity, I will definitely prove to the world that you are just lucky to follow the right person in the fourth year of Xianfeng." ”

…………

According to Li Hongzhang's bad idea, it was the second watch of the night, Jiang Zhongyi led the main force of more than 3,000 troops to the east on time, and rushed to the Jingcheng battlefield with dense torches, worried about the safety of his younger brother, Jiang Zhongji not only made the army under his command ready to set off, but also specially arranged for the general Xi Baotian to lead an army on standby, so that Jiang Zhongyi's army could send troops at any time to risk the eastward march at night.

Facts have proved that Jiang Zhongji is worried in vain, and it also proves that Li Hongzhang's crow's beak is really effective, and the Wu army scouts carefully monitored the official road east of Niangzi Pass, not only did there not have any ambushes, but after the Qing army scouts reported the situation of the Wu army's sudden large-scale dispatch at night into Jingcheng City, Shuanglu, the chief soldier of the Qing army's Zhengding Mansion who was sitting in Jingcheng, really did not dare to risk sending troops in the middle of the night, and honestly chose to stand still, so that the army under his command could not defend the city and camp without leaving, and did not dare to send troops into the mountains to fight.

But it's really no wonder that Shuanglu, the enemy situation is unknown, and the city of Jingcheng is too important, so no one dares to send troops easily. At the same time, Shuanglu's cautious choice missed the best opportunity to block the Wu army on the Taihang Mountain Road, but also received a certain effect of waiting for work, the next day when the sky was bright, when Jiang Zhongyi and Li Hongzhang led the army to rush to the outside of Jingcheng City, not only the soldiers were already quite tired, all the critical positions outside Jingcheng City were still firmly grasped by the Qing army, and even the Dongguan Bridge outside the east gate of Jingcheng made it difficult for Wu troops to cross, unable to cross the Mianhe River to directly threaten Jingcheng City, and was confined to the narrow area north of the Mianhe River.

Fortunately, Jiang Zhongyi's army came lightly, and it was convenient to move, and Li Hongzhang, who was extremely talented, had long kept in mind the terrain of Jingcheng's generation, and after only a little discussion with Jiang Zhongyi, he decided to give up the attack on Dongguan Bridge, and continued to march eastward along the north bank of the Mianhe River with his army, and rushed to the Dongyaoling area to set up camp, so as to cut off the connection between Jingcheng and Zhulu and Zhengding, completely disrupt the deployment and adjustment of the Qing army, and then decide the next step of tactics according to the changes in the situation.

Li Hongzhang did kill Shuanglu by surprise with this hand, worried that this was a signal that the Wu army was marching in a big way, and knew that the official text had already left Zhengding with the main force, so Shuanglu could only hurriedly write a letter about the situation and send someone to rush to Zhengxiang to call the police to Yixing'a, and at the same time immediately summoned the generals under his command to discuss countermeasures.

The result of the discussion was that the generals agreed that they should continue to hold their troops and only defend without fighting, because the grain and grass in Jingcheng City were quite abundant, which could be used for at least two months, enough to support the official document to turn back to save Jingcheng, and at the same time, as long as the Jingcheng Qing army firmly held Jingcheng City, it could easily cut off the eastward grain route of the Shanxi Wu army, so that the main force of the Shanxi Wu army did not dare to advance eastward. And if you take the risk of going to war, once the battle situation is unfavorable, the Qing army is destined to lose more than it loses.

Feeling that the suggestions of the generals under his command were reasonable, Shuanglu, who was quite competent, immediately dispelled the idea of sending troops to fight, and snorted coldly: "Okay, let's let the Wu thief wander in Dongyao Ridge for a few days, and come lightly and hurriedly, I will see how much food you can bring, and you can last a few days in Dongyao Ridge!" ”

…………

At the same time, after the Wu army successfully crossed the Beiguan Mountains and arrived in the area of Dongyaoling, Jiang Zhongyi and Li Hongzhang commanded the army to set up a temporary civil engineering camp while sending people around to reconnoiter the enemy's situation. However, it is a pity that Shuanglu also expected this a long time ago, and the messenger sent was to take the mountain path on the south bank of Mianshui to bypass Dongyao Ridge to Zhengding, and the Wu army scouts naturally failed to stop the warning messenger sent by Shuanglu.

It was not long before the Wu army began to set up a camp, the howling north wind suddenly made a big blow, and between the clouds, another goose feather snow fell from the sky, and the soldiers of the Wu army who came lightly did not have a camp tent to avoid the snow, and they could only shiver in the wind and snow. Jiang Zhongyi saw that he was distressed, so he could only quickly find Li Hongzhang and said: "Shaoquan, I'm afraid it won't work if it goes on like this, if the snow keeps falling like this, it's okay to say during the day, but at night there is no place to avoid the snow, how can our soldiers spend the night?" ”

"It's okay, I've thought about this beforehand, and I'm prepared." Li Hongzhang comforted Jiang Zhongyi, pointed to the northeast direction and said: "Continue to walk along the official road for about ten miles, there is a village called Changgang on the side of the road, there are many households, you can garrison the army to avoid the snow. ”

"Then you didn't say it earlier? And you want us to set up camp here? Jiang Zhongyi complained.

"It's a little farther away from Jingcheng City, and the terrain is not as good as the East Kiln, so I didn't think about setting up camp there before." Li Hongzhang shrugged and replied.

"Far away, stay away." Jiang Zhongyi said generously: "As long as you can avoid the snow, you can send an order to the whole army, abandon the camp here, and immediately go to Changgang to station." ”

"Go slowly, keep your strength." Li Hongzhang reminded: "Our soldiers were tired in the middle of the night last night and could no longer march in a hurry. We have plenty of time, and it will never be a problem to get to Changgang before dark. ”

Jiang Zhongyi agreed, and ordered the whole army to immediately abandon the Dongyao camp, which had not yet been built, and march slowly to Changgang while minimizing physical exertion.

…………

The sudden heavy snow not only hurt Wu Junjiang's Zhongyi Department, but also caused the Qing army Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang, who had been ordered to rush to Changgang before dark, and the two armies of Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang, who had been ordered to rush to Changgang before dark, hurried from Gaoyi overnight to Zhulu, and just turned into the mountainous area, and suddenly heavy snow fell from the sky.

"Fuck you, you're already so tired, and you have to walk on a mountain road in such a snowy day, it's terrible!"

"What's wrong with Mr. Fu? Why don't you let us rest yet? He wasn't like that before, was he? ”

"Ouch, I'm almost tired and out of breath, what's the situation, why don't you let us rest?"

Listening to the whispered complaints of the soldiers, Fu Zhenbang's heart was like a knife, and he wanted to order the army to stop and rest countless times, but there was no way, the military order was like a mountain, and Fu Zhenbang's subordinates, who were seriously lacking cotton clothes and quilts, stopped to rest and sleep overnight in the mountains, the consequences would definitely be more terrible than continuing to march and hurry, so Fu Zhenbang had no choice but to wear single clothes, walk silently beside the soldiers, and encourage his soldiers to trek hard by example.

Zhang Guoliangjun, who had a set of cotton clothes, was in a slightly better situation, but it was not much better, and the soldiers were also complaining when they were struggling to move forward, and the calls for stopping and resting were higher and higher. However, Zhang Guoliang is a very righteous master, knowing that his soldiers can stop and rest, but Fu Zhenbang's side cannot, so Zhang Guoliang can only smile and constantly encourage the soldiers, so that the soldiers under his command can rest at ease after arriving at the long post, and even coax and deceive the soldiers to continue to advance.

The deeper they went into the mountains, the deeper the snow became, the more difficult the road became, and the weather became colder, and the task of rushing to Changgang to set up camp before dark was obviously impossible, but at this point, Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang had no choice but to grit their teeth and urge the army to move forward, while preparing in advance the torches for night walking, preparing to grit their teeth and walk this mountain road no matter what, and did not dare to stay in the deep mountains of ice and snow to rest.

The days in winter are short, and the snowflakes are easy to interfere with the line of sight and cause the soldiers to fall behind, so it was just five o'clock in the afternoon, and the two armies of Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang could only light torches and continue to advance, but fortunately, the Jingcheng in front was controlled by the Qing army, and Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang did not have to worry about exposing their tracks, giving the enemy the opportunity to block their own troops in the mountains.

…………

The geographical location is in the mountain basin, the situation on the side of Jiang Zhongyi's army is naturally much better than that of the unlucky Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang, along the spacious official road all the way east, around four o'clock in the afternoon, Jiang Zhongyi's army successfully arrived at Changgang Village, the people in the village were greatly panicked, basically chose to close the door, Wu Jun was very unceremoniously forced to borrow a room to station, although not all of them can live in the people's house, but they can also take turns to enter the room to rest, the situation is much better than sleeping in the wilderness.

The most basic military common sense, while forcibly borrowing a house to be stationed, Jiang Zhongyi naturally arranged a large number of scouts to reconnoiter and monitor the surrounding situation, because of the complicated terrain in the mountain road directly north, Jiang Zhongyi also specially arranged for scouts to go deep into the mountain road to investigate the situation. As a result, Jiang Zhongyi's side had just finished dinner, and the situation of yin and yang appeared......

"What? There are a lot of torches in the depths of the mountain path, and they are still coming in our direction? ”

Hearing that a large number of torches were coming towards Changgang in the depths of the mountain road, Jiang Zhongyi and Li Hongzhang were of course taken aback, and then Jiang Zhongyi hurriedly asked, "Did you see who came?" Is it a rebel army or an ordinary caravan? ”

"Back to the general, the distance is too far, and the snow is too big, I can't see who is coming, I can only be sure that there are definitely a lot of torches, and you can see a large area of fire from a long distance." The scout replied truthfully.

"It can't be a caravan." Li Hongzhang analyzed: "We have been confronting the rebel army at Jingcheng Niangzi Pass for many days, and the trade route has long been cut off, even if there are a few businessmen coming and going, the scale cannot be so large, so it can only be the rebel army." ”

Jiang Zhongyi no longer said anything, but quickly took out a map to check the situation, and asked the scout who had reported the situation about the distance and width of the road, and as a result, Jiang Zhongyi immediately discovered that the current position of the self-army was very favorable, not only could it establish a blocking position at the exit of the mountain road and easily block the incoming enemy in the narrow mountain road, but it could even preemptively send troops to set up an ambush and flank these enemies in front and rear. But......

"God-given opportunity, you can arrange ambush soldiers!" Li Hongzhang also saw the opportunity at a glance, and immediately suggested: "Zhongyi, immediately send three battalions, two battalions to seize the high ground on both sides of the mountain road, one battalion to the position of Yanfeng to ambush, the main force is ambushed at the exit of the mountain road, wait for the enemy to come, the main force intercepts head-on, the ambush soldiers kill left and right, and then cut off the enemy's retreat on the Yanfeng side, this battle is difficult to win." ”

"But what about Jing Chen's side?" Jiang Zhongyi reminded: "If the rebellious army in Jingcheng discovers the situation and immediately sends troops to raid our back, and we can't immediately kill the rebellious army in the mountain road, then it will be us who will lose the battle." ”

"I'll take a battalion to deal with the rebel army in Jingcheng." Li Hongzhang didn't think about it and said: "The black light is blind and it snows so heavily, the rebellious army of Jingcheng will definitely not dare to send troops easily, and I will arrange suspicious soldiers again, and I will not dare to risk sending troops even more if I keep Shuanglu." ”

Jiang Zhongyi was a little hesitant, because although Li Hongzhang's plan was feasible, once Li Hongzhang's suspicious soldiers could not frighten the Qing army, the Wu army would definitely suffer a big loss. Li Hongzhang saw Jiang Zhongyi's thoughts, so he immediately said: "We have no extra choice, once we let the new rebel army go out of the mountain road and let the strength of the chaotic army on the Jingcheng battlefield be strengthened, the chaotic army does not need to fight us head-on, as long as we cut off the connection with Niangziguan, then our situation will only be more dangerous." ”

Gritting his teeth, Jiang Zhongyi quickly made up his mind to accept Li Hongzhang's suggestion, and while quickly dispatching troops and horses to arrange an ambush, he listened to Li Hongzhang's other suggestion, and immediately released carrier pigeons to warn Niangziguan, asking Jiang Zhongji to immediately send troops to the Jingcheng battlefield to reinforce his own army.

The soldiers and horses were quickly dispatched, and the officers and men of the Wu army of the three battalions rushed out first, and rushed to the mountain road to set up an ambush with only a small number of torches, and Jiang Zhongyi also personally led the main force to rush to the exit of the mountain road, racing against time to build a defensive position and prepare the camp. Li Hongzhang led a battalion of troops to the west, returning to the outside of Jingcheng City to deploy suspicious troops, intimidating the Qing army of Jingcheng, which was likely to send troops to meet friendly forces.

Thanks to the fact that the road was easier to walk, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, Li Hongzhang's army smoothly returned to about five miles outside the city of Jingcheng, and after letting the army rest for a while, Li Hongzhang first let the army hide in the mountains and forests around Beiguan on the north side of the road, and then divided a sentry force to stand on the road, beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers, making a noise to alarm the enemy.

After being expected by Li Hongzhang again and being alarmed by the sound of gongs, drums and firecrackers, Shuanglu, the chief soldier of the Qing army in Jingcheng City, really did not dare to send troops to meet the battle easily, but just sent scouts to reconnoiter where the sound came, and the scouts reported that only a few Wu troops pretended to be ghosts on the official road, and Shuanglu also immediately came to the conclusion, "Wu thief leads the snake out of the hole, can't be fooled, pass on my order, all armies are only allowed to stick to the camp, and they are not allowed to go out without authorization!" Violators will be beheaded! ”