Zhao Ziqiang complained, saying that it was Gao Jinku's defeat that affected his fifth town, causing his fifth town to be powerless in the face of the Qing army's fast fight and fast forward, and he had no choice but to abandon the land and lose the city one after another and retreat northward in embarrassment, but in his bones he was dissatisfied with Shao Jiugong's appointment as the governor of Guangxi. Because he was dissatisfied with Shao Jiugong, the governor, he was afraid of war, but the essence of fear of war was to avoid war, or to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight. There is a sentence that Zhao Ziqiang is inconvenient to say, that is, he is actually happy to see Xiaobeishan taken by Xian Guoan. If the Fifth Town changes from a subsidiary force in the Battle of Liuzhou to a key force that determines the success or failure of the war, and even defeats the army of Line Guoan in one fell swoop, Zhao Ziqiang believes that he can definitely replace Shao Jiugong as the governor of Guangxi.

In the Taiping Army, seniority is important, but combat exploits are even more important, and no matter how old Shao Jiugong's qualifications are, it is impossible to convince other generals in Guangxi, let alone continue to sit in Guangxi. At that time, the military marshal's office will consider the new Guangxi governor candidate, and he Zhao Ziqiang will definitely be in the first place, and he will be the only candidate.

The important position of governor is more tempting than that of the fifth town in the future, and it is also more righteous and powerful. The Taiping army currently actually controls only two Guangxi territory, and if he can serve as the governor of Guangxi, Zhao Ziqiang will be able to leap out of the dozen town generals and become a pivotal figure in the Taiping army. Promotion and wealth have always been the goal he has been striving for. In just one year, if you jump from a small green camp to a provincial governor, I am afraid that the speed of promotion is unprecedented, and there is no one in the future. As for whether this governor was given by Zhou Shixiang or the Yongli Imperial Court, Zhao Ziqiang didn't care, he only cared if he could be this governor. To put it against his will, there is a difference between the surrender of a town general and the surrender of a governor, and the treatment of surrendering cannot be equated.

Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, there has never been a military general serving as a provincial governor, but now it is different from the past, and Zhou Shixiang opened the example of Shao Jiugong, which could not stop the ambition of other generals for the important position of governor. Zhao Ziqiang is just one of them, and there will be more in the future.

For the sake of the governor of Guangxi, the actual feudal official, Zhao Ziqiang could not save Xiaobeishan, what he wanted was the failure of Shao Jiugong, only when Shao Jiugong was defeated, could he show his ability of Zhao Ziqiang. It's just that now Yu Shizhong took Brigade C to go south to relieve the siege of Xiaobeishan without authorization, which disrupted Zhao Ziqiang's plan and made it a little difficult for him to decide.

In terms of combat effectiveness, Yu Shizhong's C Brigade was directly transferred from the Second Town, and the equipment and training of the Old Fourth Town were already stronger than the rest of the towns, and most of them had fought with the Manchurian army, so Yu Shizhong's brigade could fight better than Li Guoan and Hu Mingyi's two brigades. But no matter how much they can fight, there are only more than 2,000 people, and there are 30,000 or 40,000 Qing troops under the line Guoan, and Yu Shizhong will run into it head-on, I am afraid that there will be more than one luck. Without Yu Shizhong's brigade, with only the two brigades of Li Guoan and Hu Mingyi, Zhao Ziqiang had no bottom to meet the Qing army. If he had two more brigades in his hands, he would not have retreated all the way from Guizhou to Tongshan Fort.

In the final analysis, the remaining two brigades at hand by Zhao Ziqiang are stronger than the soldiers under Weiyuan Hou Guo Dengdi, Gao Jinku and others, but they are not necessarily much stronger than the Qing army, because they are originally green battalion soldiers. The reason why Zhao Ziqiang was able to play a majestic battle in the Battle of Chaohui was not because of how capable his subordinates were, but because of the ruthless killing that shocked the Qing army in Chaozhou and the regimental training of the villagers. In Chaozhou, his reputation among the people is no worse than that of the Manchurians, and he can even be compared with the "old ghost" who can stop children from crying at night.

Similarly, Zhao Ziqiang was able to make Zhou Shixiang fancy being the general of the fifth town, and loyalty accounted for most of the factors. Because Zhao Ziqiang can be trusted, Zhou Shixiang can tolerate the tragic things he did in Chaozhou, otherwise, Zhao Ziqiang's head would have been taken by him to appease the people of Chaozhou. And Zhao Ziqiang's loyalty is based on the fact that the Taiping Army can fight and he can follow the promotion and make a fortune.

At present, Zhao Ziqiang is still loyal to Zhou Shixiang, otherwise he would not want to pit Shao Jiugong in order to plot the position of governor of Guangxi. But now the most capable Brigade C went south without authorization, leaving two brigades with similar combat effectiveness to the Qing army, plus the strength of the troops is not as good as the Qing army, Zhao Ziqiang is actually a headache now. It's going to rain, my mother is going to get married, it sounds free and easy, but I can taste it carefully, but it is not difficult to hear that these eight words contain a lot of helplessness. Without the capital to deal with the national security, Shao Jiugong will be defeated, and the position of governor of Guangxi is afraid that it is also very far away from Zhao Ziqiang, and it is impossible to say that the situation in Guangxi will collapse from now on, which Zhao Ziqiang does not want to see. Like those generals under Line Guoan, his family property is in Guangdong, and if the Taiping army is defeated, it means that he has worked in vain for the past two years.

Lu Guangzu heard what Zhao Ziqiang didn't say, and he was silent. Lu Guangzu has never been a person who is afraid of death, when he went down to Sichuan from Haoge, the prince of Manchu Qing Su, to break Zhang Xianzhong, and fought against Sun Kewang in Hunan, when the whole army retreated, he led his headquarters as the queen of the whole army, no matter what the battle, he was brave to charge, and never retreated lightly. However, the Chaohui War, the destruction of Wuzhen Chaoha's entire camp made him afraid for the first time. People either never be afraid, and when they are afraid, there will be a second and third time

Because of fear, Lu Guangzu surrendered after knowing that the Jidu army was destroyed, and after joining the Taiping army, with the continuous victories of the Taiping army, the idea of fear was extinct in Lu Guangzu's heart, but Dushan Prefecture and the subsequent battle of Nandan made him afraid again.

Unlike Zhao Ziqiang's fear of war, which is actually to avoid war, and his real intention of watching Shao Jiugong's jokes and seeking the position of governor of Guangxi for himself, Lu Guangzu is really afraid.

After Li Dingguo killed Kong Youde, the king of Dingnan in Guilin, he didn't want to take advantage of the situation to eliminate the soldiers and horses of other Dingnan Domain, but it was Line Guoan who led the remnants of the Dingnan Domain to thwart Li Dingguo's siege and turned around to reoccupy Guilin, but Li Dingguo was helpless about it.

When the Taiping army rose in Xinhui, Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan, and Li Shutai, the governor of Guangdong, had a proposal at that time, which was to invite the Guangxi line Guoan to flank the Ming army in Guangdong, including the Taiping army, so as to completely unite the two Guangzhou, and then re-enter Yunnan. At that time, the Qing army in Guangdong had no way to take the Taiping army, but Shang Kexi and Li Shutai both believed that if the line Guoan led the troops, the situation in Guangdong would be able to survive, and the Taiping army was not worried.

Because of his understanding of the national security, Lu Guangzu was afraid, so he did not fulfill the responsibility of the deputy general's persuasion, and let Zhao Ziqiang take the fifth town all the way to run for 300 miles, retreating from Guizhou to Tongshan Fort. Now, Zhao Ziqiang has a headache because Shizhong went south without authorization to weaken the troops at hand, so that he does not have much capital to spend on the situation after the defeat of Shao Jiugong, and Lu Guangzu is also having a headache about how to clean up the trouble caused by this unexpected situation.

Regardless of whether Yu Shizhong disobeyed the order to go south or not, as the chief general and deputy general of the fifth town, he sat back and watched the defeat of Yu Shizhong's brigade, and it was unreasonable for them to explain it afterwards, so Lu Guangzu suggested that Zhao Ziqiang immediately lead the whole town to the south, regardless of whether he could pass the line of national security, he must always do his best, so as not to be unable to explain afterwards. But he never thought that Zhao Ziqiang was unwilling to go south, even if the consequences of this incident were very serious, he was unwilling to go south to relieve Shao Jiugong from the siege.

Zhao Ziqiang is not a person who does not know proportion, he has already regretted that he should not sit back and watch the line Guoan besiege Liuzhou, but he really does not dare to send troops south at the moment, because he can't trust the two brigades of Li Guoan and Hu Mingyi, and he is very afraid that he will lose the battle if he goes south. Without Yu Shizhong's brigade, Zhao Ziqiang really has no confidence and no certainty.

When Lu Guangzu was silent, the urgent report of the C Brigade came, and when he learned that Yu Shizhong led the C Brigade to defeat the Qing army Xu Tianyou and Tong Zhengliang, and beheaded nearly a thousand people, when the whole brigade was now pursuing the Qing army fleeing south, Lu Guangzu's heart jumped, and his face showed joy, but he didn't expect that the Qing army would not be able to deal with the more than 2,000 soldiers under Yu Shizhong.

Zhao Ziqiang was also stunned when he heard the news, and stood there for a long time without speaking, Lu Guangzu thought that he was still unwilling to go south, and was about to persuade that since Yu Shizhong's brigade had won such a big victory, the whole town should immediately go south to respond, in order to expand the results of the battle, but saw Zhao Ziqiang call the staff officer of the army with the town command post, and ordered him to write a military order, but it was a military order that the town command post agreed to the south of the C brigade to relieve the siege.

"This"

Lu Guangzu really can't figure out what kind of medicine Zhao Ziqiang sells in this gourd, Yu Shizhong is obviously disobedient and going south, why did you give him a military order, and you are still shameless as a town general?

Zhao Ziqiang saw that Lu Guangzu was confused, and after the staff officer went down, he grinned at Lu Guangzu and said: "Damn, I scared Xian Guoan a few days ago, thinking that he was more capable of fighting, but now it seems that he is just average." Since Yu Shizhong has made a good start for us, let's go to meet with him and Guoan. Losing is Yu Shizhong's business. We are credited with winning. ”

In Lu Guangzu's speechless eyes, Zhao Ziqiang issued a military order, ordering Li Guoan Brigade and Hu Mingyi's Brigade to immediately go south to meet Yu Shizhong's Brigade, and the town command post was immediately moved forward.

The military order was issued, and the fifth town was immediately mobilized, and within half an hour, Hu Mingyi and Li Guoan sent people to report urgently, and the two of them had led their troops south. Zhao Ziqiang ordered the town command post to be moved to Li Guoan's brigade for direct command, and ordered Hu Mingyi to rush to the area of Songjiawolou to meet the town command post within one hour.

On the southern front, more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of Yu Shizhong's brigade disappeared from the sight of the Qing army's horses, but it was not the retreat imagined by the Qing army, but the retreat to the area of Songjiawolou to set up an ambush. (To be continued.) )