After Wang Jingyuan was promoted to the commander of the division, the second army on the left was transferred to the new prison army Ning Zongyang, who was originally a thief of the two lakes, and successively participated in the uprising of Lei Zaihao and Li Yuan, and then went into exile in Guangxi, joined the worship of God. Soon after, the Qing army commander Su Butong'a, the general soldier Fuxing, and the capital secretary Zhang Guoliang came to attack the Qiqiao urn outside Tongji Gate, and Zhu Xikun sent Li Zhenhui to lead the second army on the left to the rescue. After the Taiping army occupied Tianjing, the offensive and defensive forces changed positions, and the Qing army repeatedly provoked. The three Qing armies numbered as many as 7,000 people, and the four right armies of the Taiping Army were stationed at the Seven Bridges. Wang Jingyuan inquired about cooking Li Xiucheng in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and this person was appointed as the commander of the right fourth army by the king of the east two days ago. In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Chen Yucheng resisted the Hunan army in the west, Hong Rengan presided over the government, and Li Xiucheng opened up the territory in the east.

Located in the southeast of Nanjing, connecting both sides of the Qinhuai River, the Seven Bridges Urn has been the gateway to the south of the Gongwei capital since the Ming Dynasty. After Kecheng, Zhu Xikun ascended to the third inspection point on the left of the palace, and was responsible for the defense of the east of the city, which was also under its jurisdiction, so Li Zhenhui was sent to help.

Xiang Rong, the commander of the Qing army, did not decide to attack on a large scale, but intended to probe, so the battle was not very fierce. As soon as Zhang Guoliang started the battle, he stormed several camps on the periphery, but the Taiping army guards never held out, and Zhang Guoliang did not take much advantage. When the Taiping army reinforcements arrived one after another, Li Xiucheng led the army to fight fiercely with the enemy on the bridge, and the Qing army was defeated, leaving more than 1,000 corpses and retreating.

The Second Army on the Left came late, did not gain any military exploits, and everyone from the general system to the holy soldiers was depressed, and compared with the Fourth Army of the Right Army, which returned victoriously, their spirit was far behind. When returning to the camp, Wang Jingyuan paid attention to the Fourth Army on the right, Li Xiucheng, who was riding on a horse, had big eyes and a straight nose, a square face, and a very noble and handsome atmosphere. Although there is only one level of difference between the two, Li Xiucheng is an old man in Guangxi, and his reputation is significantly higher than that of the kings, which Wang Jingyuan cannot match. In addition, when retreating, Jing Yuan carefully counted the banners of the Taiping Army in his own formation, including those with banners such as "The Second Inspection of the Right of the Palace" and "The Fourth Inspection of the Right of the Palace", and even the banner of "Chunguan Zheng Prime Minister Hu". It is said that Xiang Rong of the Qing army was more than 60 years old, and participated in the battle of Zhanger in Huijiang 30 years ago, and now he is too old to be old, and it is no wonder that he sat in the camp in the south of the Yangtze River for several years, and there was never an earth-shattering battle, and finally he was forced to hang himself.

In the splendid spring of March, in addition to this small battle, it can be mentioned that the British minister Wen Han visited Tianjing, and the British side was extremely low-key in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, but Tianjing did not think so. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising for three years, conquered several provinces, broke the famous city three times, founded the country and opened the dynasty, this visit of the British envoy, everyone thought that it was the beginning of the tide of all nations, and everything was received with the highest standard. Wang Jingyuan wanted to use his broken English to show it, but he inquired about it to make him proficient in Chinese without translation. The sad Jing Yuan didn't inquire anymore, anyway, there was nothing good about foreigners' visits to China in the 19th century.

In the blink of an eye, it was April, April completely lost the tranquility of March, and a major event occurred at the beginning of the month, Lin Fengxiang, the deputy prime minister of Tianguan, and Li Kaifang, the prime minister of the local government, led the troops back to Tianjing from Yangzhou. Wang Jingyuan realized that the Northern Expedition, one of the three major strategies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was about to begin, and sure enough, the Eastern King issued a mobilization order for the Northern Expedition and recruited Ji Wenyuan, the deputy prime minister of Chunguan who had been ordered to patrol the river, to return to Beijing. When Wang Jingyuan heard that Ji Wenyuan was also going on a northern expedition, he was very glad that he had long since fallen out of his subordinates, otherwise he would have died in Fucheng with him. However, during the meeting of the three armies in early April, Ning Zongyang, the supervising army, suddenly announced the edict of the whole army to participate in the Northern Expedition. It turned out that Wang Jingyuan ignored one person, that is, Zhu Xikun, the fourth person in the Northern Expeditionary Army. The king of the east ordered him to lead the team, and Xu Zongyang, the seventh commander on the left of the palace, Huang Yiyun, the sixteenth commander on the right of the hall, and Lin Shaozhang, the fourth general system of Yansi, led the first four, the fifth in the middle, the second on the left, and the fourth army on the right to form the second echelon of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

As soon as he heard the news, Wang Jingyuan was immediately stunned, he couldn't be clearer about the fate of the Northern Expeditionary Army, fighting all the way, lacking food and clothing, and finally trapped in the lonely city. Moreover, Zhu Xikun's team was still ambushed in Liuhe, and even the dignified commander Huang Yiyun was blown up. Wang Jingyuan most wanted to participate in the Western Expedition rather than the Northern Expedition, and the Western Expedition was the most important battlefield for the Taiping Army in the next ten years, as long as a base area could be established in Anhui or Jiangxi and gradually developed, and when the Tianjing Incident occurred and a large number of troops were brought into Beijing, then the major events could be decided. But it backfired, and now that the Second Left Army has entered the Northern Expedition sequence, Wang Jingyuan has to take one step at a time.

On the eighth day of April, the three major generals Lin Liji led 20,000 troops from the first, second, third, fifth, first, and third armies from Yangzhou to the Northern Expedition. Two days later, more than 10,000 people from Zhu Xikun's subordinate to Wang Jingyuan also set out from Tianjing and landed at Pukou. Early the next morning, Zhu Xikun led his troops to chase in the northeast direction, but Lin Li's army had already entered Anhui along the northwest road. In the middle of the day, Zhu Xikun led his troops to Liuhe County, and Liuhe County ordered Wen Shaoyuan to lead a regiment to train troops to resist desperately, but the Taiping soldiers were numerous, and there were more than 1,000 regimental training soldiers who were opponents, leaving hundreds of corpses, Wen Shaoyuan retreated to Nanguan Town. When several commanders saw that the county order did not return to the county seat, they moved the mind of Liuhe City. This place is adjacent to Yangzhou Mansion in the east, and if it is taken, the situation in Tianjing is bound to be very good. When the army arrived at the city, it was already late, and several shells could not enter, so they had to order to camp.

As soon as he heard that he was camping, Wang Jingyuan secretly screamed badly. In history, Wen Shaoyuan, the commander of Liuhe County, camped outside the city with the Taiping army, sent a death squad to set fire to the powder magazine, and then took advantage of the chaos to launch a night attack and defeated the Taiping army. Wang Jingyuan knew the impact of this historical event on the Northern Expeditionary Army, and even the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but he was very hesitant whether to tell him or not, once the Taiping Army was prepared, Wen Shaoyuan's trick would never succeed, and then the Northern Expeditionary Army would successfully rendezvous, and the military strength would be far stronger than in history, and the outcome would be unpredictable, and the fate of the Heavenly Kingdom would also undergo major changes. It was then that he realized that his decision had a great impact on history, would history change because of this, and what would the future look like if it did?

Wang Jingyuan analyzed it again, if he didn't say it, he would do a good job of guarding against the headquarters, maybe he could take advantage of the chaos to break through, return to Tianjing, and stay in the south to develop, which is better than sending the Northern Expedition to death. But in this way, the comrades of the Northern Expedition will be slaughtered, and it is not the work of a righteous man and a gentleman to harm others and benefit himself, so Jing Yuan still decided to report to his superiors. Wang Jingyuan didn't care about camping, and immediately went to find Ning Zongyang, but unfortunately Ning Zongyang was holding a meeting in Zhu Xikun's big tent.

Jing Yuan didn't care much, and rushed directly to meet Zhu Xikun, at this time Zhu Xikun was holding a military meeting, and the inspector outside the camp was willing to let him in. Jing Yuan refused to give up, and shouted loudly: "Huang Jingyuan, the commander of the rear battalion of the Second Left Army, has something important to ask to see the inspector!" ”

The shout alarmed the standard-bearers who were patrolling nearby, and the guy shouted: "The commander dares to disturb all the adults, and beat me away!" ”

As soon as the words fell, several inspectors did not allow Jingyuan to explain, and they beat them with their sticks, these people are equivalent to the pro-soldiers of the inspectors, each of them is the same military commander, Wang Jingyuan can't afford to offend, and shouts while hiding. Soon the camp tent finally came out of a checkpoint palm, the head of the book is Hou Xiangjian's subordinate officials at the same level, they are the six chiefs of the level, and the inspection standard-bearer is at the same level, they are all in the same position as the supervising army, but they can all read and write, and they are indispensable assistants for adults, and they have to rely on more. At that moment, the palm asked, "Stop! Who's making a fuss here? ”

The big standard-bearer did not dare to slack off, and on the one hand, he hurriedly signaled his subordinates to stop, and on the other hand, he replied: "The commander of a small division of the Second Army on the left does not know the height of the sky, and he said that he has something important to see the inspector. ”

"Oh? What's the matter? ”

"There is a military aircraft in the lowly position to report to the inspection lord, ask the lord to introduce you!" Jing Yuan straightened his clothes and arched his hand.

"Lord Checkpoint is in the military discussion, call Er in!"

As soon as Wang Jingyuan entered the big tent, he saw thirty or forty people sitting in the tent, and all their eyes were focused on him, and he was instantly shocked by this strange atmosphere. The generals in the tent are all in red robes, and the only one in the middle, the yellow-robed general, is sitting in the handsome position, which is very eye-catching. There is a red-robed warrior on each side of it, and the rest sit on both sides, each with two rows. Wang Jingyuan scanned the surroundings with his peripheral vision as he entered, only to find that the generals above the army commander were all discussing matters in the tent. Ning Zongyang, the second military supervisor on the left, actually sat in the penultimate position on the right side, and the military commander Peng Yisong sat in the penultimate place in the second row on the right, only Li Zhenhui was a little better, but he was also the third in the first row on the left. Wang Jingyuan happened to walk near Li Zhenhui, knelt down and bowed: "Huang Jingyuan, the commander of the rear battalion of the second army on the left, greets the inspector!" ”

"What do you have to tell you?" A deep, majestic voice asked.

Wang Jingyuan said solemnly: "I think it's not appropriate for my lord to order to camp here!" ”

As soon as the words fell, there was an uproar in the big tent, and the general on Zhu Xikun's left side scolded even more: "Bold maniac! You can't talk nonsense in the lobby! ”

Jing Yuan completely ignored the reprimand, and still said without humility or arrogance: "My lord, the demon head of Liuhe County resisted our army during the day, although he was defeated, he did not go far, and now the enemy situation in the city is unknown, and the army is camped for several miles, once there is a night attack, you can't take care of each other!" ”

As soon as these words came out, there were many discussions in the big tent, some said nonsense, some said that disturbed the morale of the army, and some said that they were reasonable and must not be guarded against. Seeing this, the general on the left said angrily: "Bastard! The Qing Demon rabble has already been defeated, how dare you come to attack again, not to mention that our army has 10,000 people, and the opposite side is just a county town, where is the strength to sneak attack? I think this person is clearly grandstanding and causing trouble to the morale of the army! Come on, beat him out of the stick! ”