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"Hanhou!"

With such a title on his lips, Zhu Yifeng's dark eyes sank, and his tone became more and more mocking. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"I never thought that now I, Zhu, am also a marquis!"

Fenghou, of course, is a good thing, but now that it falls on him, it has become a mockery.

"The flood thief is so arrogant, he really deserves to be killed!"

Zhang Liangji's eyes were even more staring at the so-called "Heavenly Decree" on the table, and he almost gritted his teeth and scolded with hatred.

This so-called "Heavenly Decree" is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's "reward" to the Han Governor, which is not so much a reward as a humiliation.

The reason couldn't be simpler, compared to the Taiping Army, which had a population of less than 10 million and a territory of less than one province, the Governor's Government governed three provinces and led 80 million people, and its strength was far better than that of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The flood thief suddenly came to such a "reward", how can he make the governor's mansion not annoyed, and accepted the so-called "prime minister" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the past, but it was just to deal with it for a while.

And now that the Governor's Mansion is strong, the thief's "ignorance of current affairs" is obviously a bit out of place. Even in the eyes of many people, this so-called "reward" is simply a slap in the face of Han Du.

"The Grand Duke, in the opinion of the minister, it is better to break with the flood thieves than this, if they dare to cut off Jiang Hang, then directly fight it! Open up Jianghang, it's really not possible, let's take Yangzhou and set up a Jiangbei camp in Yangzhou! ”

For Xu Shiliang, who had just been promoted to the head of the Ministry of Rites, he showed even more righteous indignation, at this time he completely forgot the embarrassment of the "Taiping Army" when he attacked the city, as the earliest "official" to "reform", in this governor's mansion, he is a very special existence, from the prefect of Huangzhou, to the prefect of Wuchang, and then to the director of the Ministry of Rites, his official fortune in the governor's mansion can be described as prosperous.

In his own opinion, the reason why he was reused was that Han Du wanted to show the world his way of employing people, as long as he defected to Han Du, he would be reused, just as the scholars in the Liangjiang area now defected to the governor's mansion and were also appointed.

He's just the "horse bone" that bought the bones for a thousand dollars.

Because of this, even if you are one of the six directors, he still seems cautious and ready to "hand over" at any time. Even so, he knew what he had to say, as they were now typical "wise words," and whether or not they were adopted by Handu, they were evidence of his loyalty.

"Shi Ji is so excited!"

Xu Shiliang's excitement made Zhu Yifeng smile slightly, shook his head and said.

"If my righteous army sends troops to seize Yangzhou, won't it help the Hong thieves block the Qing army?"

History is changing, it can be said that it has become a mess, in another time and space, at this time Yangzhou City should have been captured by the Qing army, and the Qing army then convenient for Yangzhou to set up a camp in the north of the Yangtze River, and the Jiangnan camp of Xiangrong is a horn of each other, and now? It was with his own help that Yang Xiuqing had to transfer the elite of Jiujiang to Yangzhou, and transferred more than 20,000 people from Zeng Lichang in Yangzhou to the north as reinforcements for the Northern Sweeping Army, and as the "price" for obtaining Jiujiang. He agreed that Zeng Lichang's more than 20,000 people would be transported to Xiangyang by water, and Xiangyang would go north, thus reducing the resistance to his northward march to Jiangsu and Shandong.

It was also this Taiping army that was sent months earlier than in history, attacking the city and plundering the land all the way to the capital, forcing Xianfeng to hunt in the north and dying in Rehe, and the "devil six" was almost trapped by the "sweeping northern army" together with the capital. In the end, although it was like divine help, the Manchu Qing Dynasty finally kept the capital, but for the time being, there was naturally no possibility of sending troops to seize Yangzhou.

Even with Xiang Rong of the Jiangnan camp, the current situation is also precarious. After all, now the Taiping Army is "violent", and there is a great chance to reproduce the momentum of sweeping along the river last year, but in fact, behind this seemingly majestic momentum, it is just a bluff.

"Qing army? The governor of the capital, now Zeng Lichang is based on Henan, and he has it in the north as a screen, and if he wants to come to Yangzhou, he should not have the difficulty of being harassed by the Qing army. ”

Luo Bingzhang's suggestion was only half of it, and then he changed the conversation again.

"But only a city in Yangzhou, how can it be defended, if it is to seize Yangzhou, it must be conquered by the provinces of northern Jiangsu, so that it can be guarded by Yangzhou, when the time comes, I am afraid that it is no longer willing to be the screen of the flood thief, and it can only be so!"

This is the most critical place, in the past year or so, the reason why the Righteous Army has been able to grow bigger, is because "it is good to enjoy the shade under the big tree", it is backed by the big tree of the Taiping Army, the eyes of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are attracted by the Hong Yang of Nanjing, as for the Righteous Army, a few people can think that the Righteous Army can have today's momentum. In the past, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the barrier of the governor's palace, and if Yangzhou was captured, the result would naturally be reversed.

"But now even if we want to hide, we can't dodge, it can be said that since we captured Hunan, in the eyes of the Manchus, the threat of the righteous army is probably even greater than that of the Taiping army, and I am afraid that it will not be able to get rid of it!"

Although he did not directly agree with Xu Shiliang's suggestion, Zhang Liangji, as a native of northern Jiangsu, naturally hoped that the righteous army could send troops to Yangzhou and then expand to northern Jiangsu.

"Most of the governors don't know, this northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui, there are a lot of idle men in the countryside, most of them are in the prime of life, although most of them are reckless, they can be suitable for the governor's use, whether it is to work, build roads, or recruit soldiers, can be used by the governor's office! And the Huainan salt field is also in northern Jiangsu, compared with Guangdong salt, Huainan salt is easier to transport into Hubei......"

Seeing that Zhang Liangji even said "there are many singles", the corners of Zhu Yifeng's lips are slightly raised, and there are many singles, this is not only limited to the north, but also in the south, but it is even more extreme in the extremely poor north, and even the famous twisted army uprising in history is, to a certain extent, a "singles criminal gang" -- millions of singles who can't find a daughter-in-law gather together and start to make trouble, from the Jiaqing period to the Tongzhi period.

Even now, the reason why Zeng Lichang has been able to gain a firm foothold in Henan is precisely because of this -- hundreds of thousands, millions of bachelors, it is where his endless source of soldiers lies, and it is precisely by virtue of entering Henan to expand the army by tens of thousands that Zeng Lichang will be named the Marquis of Yu.

"Right now, we've reached the limit of our expansion...... Yangzhou! ”

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Yifeng sneered.

"We still can't move this Yangzhou for the time being, it's easy to defeat Yangzhou, but the problem is not only to create a new enemy for ourselves, we have to wait now!"

"Wait?"

"Yes, the kings in Nanjing are full of contradictions, the reason why they do not break up now is precisely because the external troubles are close at hand, that is, it is difficult to support Xiangrong alone, once the Jiangnan camp is broken by the Taiping army, then, the internal contradictions of the kings will inevitably break out, and they will definitely fight to the death!"

The kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were short-sighted, and they could see from the "Tianjing Change" that almost after Xiangrong's Jiangnan camp was broken and the siege of Tianjing was lifted, there was no external threat and pressure, and its internal contradictions were immediately displayed in an extreme form.

"Governor, are you saying that there is a high probability of civil strife in Nanjing?"

Lin Zhiping asked in surprise, although he knew that the Governor's Mansion had an inner line in Tianjing, but he didn't know who the inner line was, obviously the Metropolitan Governor had already gotten the news in this regard.

"Civil strife, perhaps a civil war is more appropriate!"

Frowning and sneering, Zhu Yifeng said mockingly:

"Those so-called princes, once there are no external enemies, what will they do except infighting? Since they will clean themselves up, why do we need to send troops to Yangzhou now to set up a foreign enemy for them. As a result, we lost the reason for infighting, this kind of thing that benefits others and is not good for us, we can't do it! ”

The words of the Metropolitan Governor only made everyone laugh, even if Zhang Liangji heard what he said, he felt that it was very reasonable, and the original army to Yangzhou was just Xu Shiliang's casual words, and after this step, naturally no one insisted on it. But not sending troops to Yangzhou does not mean that the problem has been solved.

"That Metropolitan Governor, this Hanhou ......"

That's the key!

If the Metropolitan Governor accepts this canonization, it will undoubtedly confirm the "fact" that the Governor is actually a subordinate of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but if it does not accept it, then the Governor will inevitably break with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is also not what the Governor is willing to see now.

"I can't accept it, if I accept the canonization of the flood thief, I am afraid that it will be unbearable for the people of the world!"

Zhang Liangji, who originally wanted to use "disdainful" to describe his voice, just fell, and Lin Zhiping objected to the side.

"But if we don't accept it, we will inevitably break with it, and when the time comes, it only needs to cut off Jiang Hang, which can put the governor in a dilemma!"

Jiang Hang!

For a long time, for the governor, the channel of the Yangtze River is the most important, because it is the most important passage from the governor to the outside world, even after the capture of Guangdong, because of the road and traffic problems, the Yangtze River water transport is still irreplaceable.

"Guangdong is not going to build the Nanling Mountain Road, and it will be ...... when the time comes."

"It's just a mountain road!"

Although he and Li Ziyuan are half allies, Lin Zhiping did not regard his road construction as a "political achievement".

"Even if the mountain road is built, what can it be? How could the steam engine used by the Governor's Mansion be transported by mountain roads? The governor of the capital, from the perspective of the ministers, for the future of the governor's house, this position of Han Marquis must be taken over no matter what! Besides, even if he was able to take over the position of prime minister at the beginning, he can't accept this Han Marquis today! ”

The final result of the discussion was very simple, it was nothing more than accepting the title of "Han Hou", although it was explained that he knew that this was a forced concession made to protect Jiang Hang, but for Zhu Yifeng, it still made him a little indignant, so that after everyone left, there was still a ball of anger in his heart.

"Perhaps, Zeng Lichang should be supported!"

Walking to the map, Zhu Yifeng, who was holding the fire in his heart, stared at the location of Henan, after Zeng Lichang retreated south from the capital, he did not withdraw to Nanjing, but crossed the Yellow River to seize Kaifeng.

"Expand the land to protect yourself, there are masters around Zeng Lichang!"

Looking at the land of the two provinces he had seized on the map, Zhu Yifeng said to himself.

"This master gave him the way to occupy the mountain, but he forgot that Henan is a place of four wars, but this is fine, with Lichang in front of him, within two or three years, it is impossible for the Manchus to withdraw their hands to use troops in Hubei, as for this side...... Xiang Rong's Jiangnan camp is still there for the time being......"

Although the map was extremely inaccurate from the perspective of future generations, after combining the maps of later generations in his heart and connecting the situations on the map one by one, the solemn look on Zhu Yifeng's face slowly disappeared.

"This situation is much better than before, Hunan, Hunan and Guangdong, this southwest is almost broken, to the north and Henan block, to the east there is the Taiping army to block, not bad......"

With a pencil in his hand, Zhu Yifeng drew another line on the map. It was based on memory to draw the route of the Han-Guangdong Railway, although it is not very accurate, but it is also very similar.

"If this railway is repaired again, the two lakes and Guangdong will be connected, and the southwest ......"

Southwest...... Reading these two words on his lips, Zhu Yifeng used a pencil on the map to mark Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, these areas are all difficult places without exception, if you use troops in the southwest now, it will undoubtedly tie up your own strength, and more importantly, it is very likely to support yourself, now the land of the three provinces is already the limit of the expansion of the governor's government, and it can even be said that it has reached the point of approaching "supporting death", in this case, it is undoubtedly extremely unwise to continue to expand.

But if it does not expand now, will the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which carried out the Westernization Movement, gradually become stronger in the next few years under the leadership of the "Tongzhi Emperor"?

He's strong!

Or doesn't it mean that you haven't gotten stronger? No matter how strong he is, what can he do? At most, it's just a noon!

But no, but in just a few years, what can he become?

There is also the Taiping army, which seems to be violent, but in fact it has shown chaos, once Xiang Rong's Jiangnan camp is conquered by it, then the Taiping army will not be far from the end.

Whether it is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, as far as the current situation is concerned, they are not as good as themselves, so what else is there to worry about? As for the "Tongzhi" who works hard to change the overall situation?

Finally, after trying to pass everything, Zhu Yifeng still turned his attention to the southeast corner of the map, stared at Guangzhou, and muttered to himself.

"Looks like we have to build this railway first!"

Railway!

As long as this railway is built, no matter how the situation develops in the future, you can be invincible! Thinking of the importance of the railway, Zhu Yifeng thought of the news from Guangzhou.

"Count the days, the ship should be almost in Wuchang!" (To be continued.) )