Turning around and taking a look at the situation on the side of the Qing army, although the secret fold that asked for the immediate cessation of peace talks with Wu Chaoyue was not approved, the old fox Luo Bingzhang, the only remaining military achievements of the Manchu court, still did not give up, and immediately went on another secret fold, and asked to strengthen the armament of the Daimyo Mansion to prevent the Northern Expedition of the Wu Army, and took the initiative to ask the Shandong New Army Zhang Guoliang to advance eastward to assist the Qing army in Zhili to guard the important land of the Daimyo's Mansion. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Luo Laohu's plea was finally approved by Ci'an and Cixi, and he also gave Luo Bingzhang's subordinate Zhang Guoliang the right to fight independently, and was not subject to the control of Fu Zhenbang, the chief soldier of Zhili Daming Town, and only listened to the orders of the governor of Zhili, so as not to make Zhang Guoliang's guest army incompatible with Fu Zhenbang, the head snake, and cause contradictions and misdeeds.

After the request was approved, the overjoyed Luo Bingzhang immediately found Zhang Guoliang to entrust him with the important task, and advised: "Palace, the Daimyo Mansion is not only the south gate of Gyeonggi, but also the west gate of Jinan, Shandong. ”

From this, the old man dared to conclude that if the Wu thief army in Henan went north, it would definitely take the Daimyo's Mansion directly, and would never look elsewhere. Once the Daimyo's Mansion is lost, the Henan Wu thieves will inevitably attack Jinan in a big way to the east, so that our Shandong officials and troops will not dare to return to the capital to help, and create a fighter for the Shanxi Wu thieves to go out of Niangzi Pass. Therefore, the life and death of the Daimyo Mansion is not only related to the safety of Jinan, but also to the life and death of the capital. ”

"Lord Zhongcheng rest assured, the last general will definitely assist Fu Zhenbang to defend the Daimyo's Mansion, and will never allow Wu thieves to enter the city!" Zhang Guoliang replied confidently: "The city is in the people, and the city is dead!" ”

Luo Bingzhang nodded, smiled and said, "The old man just knows that you have a tough personality and loyalty, so he entrusts you with this heavy burden." You can also rest assured, as long as you can assist Fu Zhenbang to protect the Daimyo Mansion, at the right time, the old man will definitely send Yuan Baoheng to reinforce you. In addition, the Wu thieves in Henan went north to the Daimyo's mansion, there was no waterway to transport grain, and they suffered from the diversion of the Yellow River along the way, and the grain and grass were difficult to transport, and the rear Henan was a mess with a lack of food and salary, so you don't have to risk a decisive battle, just stick to the city camp and not come out, and the time will be long, and the Wu thieves will inevitably retreat from the grain. ”

Zhang Guoliang promised again, patted his chest and promised that he would keep in mind Luo Bingzhang's advice, only defend against the enemy, and never risk fighting. Luo Bingzhang knew that Zhang Guoliang was loyal and obedient, but he was also relieved, but he told another question, "Palaceman, after you arrive at the Daimyo's Mansion, you have to get along with Fu Zhenbang, and don't have any conflicts with the friendly troops of Zhili." Fortunately, the old man has long heard that Fu Zhenbang, who is about to fight hand in hand with you, is a very tolerant person, and he is very generous, as long as you don't blindly lose your temper, you will not have any suspicions, and you can work together to resist the robbers. ”

Zhang Guoliang assured again, but Luo Bingzhang told the last fatal question, and said: "Palace, the last point, you must not let your subordinates neglect their combat preparations, and give the Wu rebel army a chance to suddenly attack. Don't take it lightly that Wu Chaoyue is negotiating peace with the imperial court, the treacherous degree of the traitor is by no means what you can imagine, the old man can conclude that his peace talks with the imperial court are fake, and it is true that he is ready to make a sudden move, if you are slightly negligent, it is likely to give Wu thief a chance! ”

With Luo Bingzhang's babbling instructions, Zhang Guoliang soon led the 2,000 Shandong New Army of his headquarters to march westward, rushed to the Daimyo's Mansion via Liaocheng, and joined Fu Zhenbang's department of the Zhili Qing Army stationed here. As a result, it was also at this time that Zhang Guoliang found that Luo Bingzhang's introduction was indeed true, and Fu Zhenbang, the chief soldier of the Daimyo Mansion, was indeed a very good person to get along with, not only was he not the slightest bit harsh on the arrival of Zhang Guoliang's guest army, but on the contrary, he also took the initiative to ask his subordinates to restrain the soldiers at the dust washing banquet, and did not allow any conflict with the Shandong guest army.

But there is also something that worries Zhang Guoliang, that is, several of Fu Zhenbang's deputies do not believe in the danger predicted by Luo Bingzhang, and even feel that Luo Bingzhang has already asked for the mobilization of the Shandong New Army to the west to reinforce the Daimyo's mansion. Among them, the deputy general Gong Yaolun also said: "General Zhang, is Luo Futai a little worried? Now that the Wu rebel thief army in Henan is fighting with the Five Banners of the Twisted Bandits, and is gathering heavy troops in the area of Guide Mansion to prepare to go south, then there is still the strength to attack the Daimyofu in the north? ”

"The Wu thief is treacherous, Luo Futai is like a god, it is certain that the Wu thief went south to beat the twister is fake, and the north to beat the twister is true." Zhang Guoliang replied.

Gong Yaolun and several other Qing army generals all laughed with disdain, and then Gong Yaolun smiled again: "The heavy troops assembled in Guide Mansion are preparing to go north to attack the Daimyo's Mansion, and the soldiers of the Wu thieves can fly, can they fly across the Yellow River before we can react, and fly directly to the city of the Daimyo's Mansion?" Our meticulous scouts are all blind and deaf, and they can't detect the situation of the Wu thief army assembled in Guide Mansion heading north? ”

The Qing generals present all laughed, and the grumpy Zhang Guoliang's face was a little ugly, but fortunately, Fu Zhenbang spoke in time and shouted: "Yaolun, be careful when you speak, Luo Futai and General Zhang are all kind, so they took the initiative to ask the imperial court to send troops to help us." Also, it is true that the main force of the Wu thieves in Henan is assembled in the territory of Guide Mansion, but there is also the thief army of the Wu thief Zeng Guoquan in Kaifeng, and the strength of this thief army should not be underestimated. ”

Fu Zhenbang's good temper is easy to get along with, but correspondingly, another consequence is that his subordinates are not particularly afraid of him. So Gong Yaolun immediately said: "General Fu, I know that there is still the Zeng Guo Quan Thief Army here in Kaifeng, but the Zeng Guo Quan Thief Army is almost all infantry, why do you suddenly attack our Daimyo Mansion?" ”

"And Kaizhou is still in our hands." Another deputy general, Tian Zaitian, also said with a smile: "Ruilian, the co-leader who sits in Kaizhou, is a Manchurian or a Zhenghuangqi person, how can we not worry that he will secretly communicate with Wu thieves, deliberately not report the news of Wu thieves going north, and help Wu thieves sneak attack our Daimyo Mansion City, right?" ”

The generals laughed again, Zhang Guoliang's face was even more ugly, Fu Zhenbang hurriedly opened his mouth to stop, and finally let the generals stop talking about this topic. And after the banquet was dispersed, Fu Zhenbang also apologized to Zhang Guoliang alone: "General Zhang, don't care, those rabbit cubs are all mouthless and unintentional, and they are usually presumptuous, and I blame me for not restraining them well." ”

"It's fine." For the sake of Fu Zhenbang's good temper, Zhang Guoliang didn't care too much about this matter, but just proposed: "General Fu, the city of the Daimyo Mansion is not very large, and it is difficult to garrison too many soldiers and horses, and if you just blindly defend the city, it will be too passive and easy to be taken advantage of by thieves." ”

"I think it is better to be cautious than to mobilize the people to build an outer fortress outside the castle to protect the castle town, and then dig a deep trench under the outer fortress to fill it with water from the river. In this way, when the Wu thieves come to the city, we not only have a buffer to defend, but also have ample space to station the army, accommodate the people, and ensure that the manpower to defend the city is sufficient during the war. ”

Fu Zhenbang was very embarrassed when he heard this, and only after a while did he say: "General Zhang, I won't tell you, in fact, I have long had this plan, but the amount of work is too large, and the money and food spent are too much, and the prefect of the Daimyo Mansion, Changqing, refuses to agree." ”

"Then you're not going to sue me?" Zhang Guoliang was furious when he heard this, and said: "What time is it now, why don't you hurry up and strengthen your combat preparedness, and wait for the Wu thief to suddenly kill, how can you still be too late to rush to repair Wai Guo?" ”

"I have sent a letter to the Governor of Zhili, Yi Xing'a, twice, asking him to report to the official and civil official system on his behalf, and begged the official system to come out to put pressure on Changqing, but all the mud cows have ...... into the sea." Fu Zhenbang shook his head, and his face was full of desire to speak.

Zhang Guoliang didn't notice Fu Zhenbang's strange expression, but just volunteered: "It's okay, now I am under the direct control of the official system and have the power to write to him directly, so I will go to the civil government station and ask him to come forward to put pressure on Changqing, forcing Changqing to take out money and grain to build Waiguo." ”

When Fu Zhenbang heard the joy, he hurriedly thanked Zhang Guoliang again and again, but what Fu Zhenbang never expected was that although Zhang Guoliang was true to his word, he wrote a letter to the official that night asking for help, but he also wrote about Fu Zhenbang's request for Zhili Admiral Yi Xing A to play on his behalf......

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Not far from Baoding, and it was on the North China Plain of Pingchuan, Zhang Guoliang's letter was of course quickly delivered to the current governor of Zhili, Guanwen, who was also immediately startled after reading the letter, and exclaimed: "The war preparedness of the Daimyo Mansion is so poor? That bastard in Changqing had a water in his head, and he was even reluctant to take out the money and food for the construction of Waiguo? Doesn't he know how important the Daimyo's Mansion is to the Zhili Shandong of the Qing Dynasty now?! ”

In a fit of rage, in addition to immediately going to the Daimyo Mansion and forcing the prefect Changqing to immediately take out money and grain to build a waiguo with a circumference of more than 50 miles, the official document also called the current Zhili Admiral Yi Xing'a to the front, scolded him in front of everyone, and asked him why he did not forward Fu Zhenbang's proposal for war preparedness.

Yi Xing'a was disgraced, and replied reluctantly: "Back to the official system, the reason why the last general did not report it is because the last general felt that the Daimyo Mansion did not need to build the outer Guo, and Fu Zhenbang only had a total of seven battalions of troops in his hands, even if all of them retreated to the Daimyo's Mansion City, the city could be stationed, and then repaired the outer Guo, but it diluted the ...... of the garrison of the city." ”

"Fuck your stinking fart!" Guan Wen scolded and roared: "If Fu Zhenbang's soldiers and horses can be stationed in the Daimyo's Mansion City, there is no need to repair Wai Guo?" What about the people outside the city? What about the reinforcements sent by the imperial court and the Sixiang regimental training? Let the people help the thieves outside the city? Let our reinforcements and local regiments practice living outside the city to bombard the foreigners of the Wu thieves? It's a shame that you're still the Admiral of Zhili, and such stupid things can be said, the old man sees that you, the acting Admiral of Zhili, are about to come to an end! ”

Guan Wen is Yi Xing's direct boss, and he is also the veteran of the Manchu court, and the officialdom methods are even more ruthless characters that make Luo Bingzhang and Wu Chaoyue afraid of three points, and of course Yi Xing'a didn't dare to fight back after being scolded by him, so Yi Xing'a could only swallow his anger and beg for mercy, while gritting his teeth in his heart, "Okay, you Fu Zhenbang, I haven't settled accounts with you in the past, and now I dare to come to hurt Lao Tzu and be scolded and ugly." And you Zhang Guoliang dog barbarian, dare to help Fu Zhenbang rectify me, you all wait for Lao Tzu! ”

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It was not Yi Xing'a who quietly hated Fu Zhenbang alone, but also the prefect of the Daimyo Mansion, Changqing, who suddenly received an official document requesting the construction of Waiguo at any cost and reprimanding himself for his ineffective preparation for the war, Changqing Elder immediately understood that it must be Fu Zhenbang who was a ghost, and what channel did he go to directly hand the pleadings to the official document, and immediately hated Fu Zhenbang to the bones, "Raised by a bitch, when is it not good to sue Diao, but when to sue Lao Tzu at the end of the year, I will misunderstand Lao Tzu's future!" This year, Lao Tzu's official comments are absolutely nothing good! ”

Then, although he did not dare to disobey the order of the official document and ruin the future, in order to retaliate against Fu Zhenbang's false accusations, Changqing naturally had to quietly slack off during the period of raising money and grain and organizing the people to build Waiguo, and the progress of the project was slow, and by the end of November of the first year of Qixiang, the trench had not been dug well, and the wall of Waiguo had not even been rammed up to a height of three feet. Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang opened their mouths to urge several times, but they were all prevaricated by Changqing on the pretext of insufficient money, food, and migrant workers, and they just promised to repair Waiguo before the end of the month.

During this period, there was another incident, that is, Changqing managed the Daimyo Mansion Lijin Checkpoint, accidentally found that someone secretly smuggled salt tea from the Wu army in Henan to the hinterland of Zhili to make huge profits, after the owner of the goods was taken down and escorted to Changqing, Changqing wanted to do his duty to punish the crime severely, who knew that Ruilian, the Kaizhou co-leader who was currently leading the army to confront the Wu army in Henan, suddenly sent a personal entourage to the Daimyo's mansion, sent some silver to the Changqing adult, and asked the elder to raise his noble hand.

"It turns out that the boss behind this batch of private goods is Ruilian."

Suddenly realized, considering that Rui Lian and himself are both Manchurian banner people, and the relationship is usually quite good, he can't offend his colleagues for the sake of Li Jin, which can't be put into his pocket, Changqing also waved his hand to let the cargo owner go, and Rui Lian's personal entourage also thanked him and left.

The matter is not over, on the first day of the lunar month, under the guidance of Ruilian's personal entourage, a strange man suddenly came to Changqing, and said straight to the point as soon as they met: "Adult, the villain is a secret envoy sent by Zeng Guoquan Zeng Futai, and there are some things I want to discuss with you in person on behalf of Zeng Futai." ”

"Zeng ......, Zeng Guoquan?" Changqing was so surprised that he couldn't even speak, and after finally coming back to his senses, Changqing, who was very loyal to the Qing court, also took the case and asked angrily: "Are you the thief sent by Zeng Guoquan, the traitor?" ”

"Not bad." The person who came nodded calmly, and said with a smile: "Adult, can you stop scolding us for being a traitor?" We, Wu Dashuai, have always considered ourselves to be Qing courtiers, and the peace envoys sent by the Qing court have also talked with our Wu Dashuai in Wuchang, and we will soon be a family again. ”

Of course, Changqing knew that the Manchu court was negotiating with Wu Chaoyue, so after hesitating for a moment, Changqing couldn't help but ask, "What did Zeng Guoquan send you to do?" ”

"Give you a little gift to the grown-up." Zeng Guoquan's envoy took out a small cloth bag and opened it, revealing a few pearls the size of pigeon eggs, which were placed in front of Changqing first, and then said with a smile: "Also, I want you to help us a little bit, adult." ”

"How can I help you?" Changqing asked vigilantly, but the corner of his eye was staring at those pearls.

"Help introduce Zhang Guoliang's true intention." Zeng Guoquan's envoy said with a heartfelt speech: "Now that the imperial court envoy is in Wuchang to negotiate peace with our Wu Dashuai, and our Henan rebel army is also using troops against the bandits in northern Anhui, why did Zhang Guoliang rush to the Daimyo's Mansion with the army from Jinan to station?" What is he trying to do? We are really relieved to Futai. ”