Chapter 109: The Imperial Examination (I)
"The King has a good opinion on the matter, and the actions of the navy seem to have stimulated his ambitions and hindered his plans." The Winged King said with a smile. At present, the Kingdom of Heaven is in a state of external strength and middle cadres, and the 100,000 new troops are still training and running-in, because more than half of them are from captive soldiers, and they need to be brainwashed to be of great use. To this end, the political instructors in the First Army of the Wehrmacht were almost completely recruited. Moreover, in order to win the hearts of the people as quickly as possible, Hong Tiangui personally participated in identifying 10 typical persecuted people in the whole army and launching an army-wide grievance campaign. In later generations, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) used the Grievance Appeal Movement to fight and reorganize, and turned the weak forces into superior forces, and finally wiped out the millions of elites of the Chiang clan and established New China. Now Hong Tiangui plagiarized it, and the effect was naturally immediate.
However, no matter how good the policy is, it will take time, not to mention that the weapons and equipment of the 100,000-strong army are still a bottomless pit, and although the arsenal has successfully prevented British rifles, it is a hard flaw in terms of production capacity. Hong Tiangui also had the idea of purchasing from the West, but the war in the early stage made the relationship between Heaven and Britain and France tense, and other Western countries did not dare to sell advanced arms and weapons to Heaven because of the might of Britain and France, and Hong Tiangui did not look down on the old antiques eliminated by Western armies at all. There is a desire to expand the production capacity of the arsenal, but the weak economy of the kingdom of heaven cannot support it at all.
Now Hong Tiangui understands what it means to have a cannon sound, and the things he got from Shanghai have long been consumed. Even if Hong Tiangui has the ambition to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice.
"The British king still takes into account the overall situation, and it is really not appropriate for us to continue to expand the results of the war at present, not to mention that the Manchu Qing is easy to fight, but the British and French are difficult to deal with, with the current strength of the loyal king and the king, I am afraid that we will not be able to deal with the attack of the large-scale British and French alliance." Hong Tiangui sighed. Even if there was no reform and opening up, after the founding of New China, especially after the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, China played a national and military prestige, and its military strength was close to that of the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain and France and other countries have been reduced to second-rate countries, and psychologically Hong Tiangui does not care about Britain and France at all. But strategically contempt for the enemy, tactically we must pay attention to the enemy, not to mention that the current Britain is in a rising period, the sun never sets on the majesty of the empire to suppress all directions, the Taiping Army's most elite Wehrmacht First Army If there is no grenade and no conscience cannon firepower supplement, with the British equipment obtained in Shanghai, the frontal combat strength is even worse, not to mention the backward heavenly ** team of the loyal king and the servant king.
"I have read the battle reports of the loyal king and the servant king, they did achieve results, but the ratio of battle losses reached an astonishing ten to one, if it were not for the enemy's logistics problems, I am afraid that the last war would not have been fought to this extent. Heavenly King, what can you do? Is it necessary to reorganize the strength of the two men? The Winged King said in a deep voice. As a general with outstanding strategic vision, Shi Dakai understands that although the current Zhongwang and Shiwang are known as the two elites of the Taiping Army, the Heavenly King has very little control over them, and can even be said to have no control at all, not to mention that the two kings occupy a large area of territory in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and even the administrative aspects are controlled by themselves, and they are definitely the princes of the side of the splitting ground.
"There is no need at the moment, the Kingdom of Heaven really does not have the financial resources to support a larger-scale military reorganization." Hong Tiangui said with a wry smile.
The Wing King was silent, according to the construction standards of the National Defense Force, the 100,000 army is already the limit, but if it is according to the original Taiping Army standards, the Kingdom of Heaven is enough to arm hundreds of thousands of troops in a short period of time.
"Wing King, King Zhong is your old subordinate, I'm afraid there are many things that you still need to come forward to solve." For the loyal king Li Xiucheng, Hong Tiangui's heart is still quite complicated, judging from the original history, Li Xiucheng was undoubtedly a loyal minister of the heavenly kingdom before he was arrested, and even gave his war horse to himself to help him get out of trouble when the war was in chaos, but history is history after all, and what the real Li Xiucheng is like needs Hong Tiangui to contact and judge himself.
"It's your duty. I still believe in Xiucheng's loyalty to the Kingdom of Heaven, and I hope that the King of Heaven can give him enough patience. "King Yi's heart is tight, Li Xiucheng is the best subordinate under him, and now he is also the mainstay of the Heavenly Kingdom, he doesn't want there to be a gap between Li Xiucheng and Hong Tiangui, resulting in the suitability of the monarch and ministers, and the tragedy of the Tianjing Incident must not be repeated.
"Rest assured, I still trust the loyal king's person, the reason why I didn't move to reorganize their army is to avoid a loophole in the east and be caught by Li Hongzhang, the king of the wings may not know if he has not been in contact, in my opinion, this Li Hongzhang and his Huai army are more difficult to deal with than Zeng Guofan and his Hunan army."
"Is Li Hongzhang really so powerful? It's time to see and learn! A gleam flashed in the Winged King's eyes. Over the years, he has fought too many battles with the Manchu army. The Manchu generals of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were not worth mentioning, but some Han generals were extremely difficult to deal with, and the Hunan army of Zeng Guofan was full of talents and extremely strong combat effectiveness. And the governor of Sichuan, Luo Bingzhang, and the regimental training new army under his command are also very difficult to deal with.
"There will be a chance, but I am very interested in Li Hongzhang, and I want to subdue him." Hong Tiangui said with a smile.
"Accept him?" The Wing King was stunned, he didn't expect Hong Tiangui to have this kind of interest.
"Of course, this kind of thing is not easy, I have already started to lay out, as for whether it will succeed or not, only God knows." Hong Tiangui smiled and didn't say much, and the Wing King didn't ask more.
The action of the navy completely suppressed the king of the county, and on the grounds of negligence in the garrison of the large battalion, he successively took out several battalion owners who could be in charge of the Hunan army, and then removed more than a dozen people from his Shenji battalion to serve as the generals of the Hunan army, and took control of the command of the Hunan army. Immediately afterwards, he transferred the Hunan army battalion to Wuchang City and served as the guard of Wuchang City, posing as a turtle shell.
On the other hand, the turmoil in Hubei made him uneasy, and he ordered Zeng Guoquan to lead the Green Battalion Army to suppress the Twist Army in Hubei.
Although Zeng Guoquan hated the king of alcohol to death in his heart, in the Manchu political system, he had to bow his head and could only vent his resentment on the Twist Army in Hubei. A vigorous "twisting" campaign kicked off in Hubei.
On the other hand, the first imperial examination of the Kingdom of Heaven, which the cabinet had been preparing for more than a month, had finally begun. The location was set in Nanchang, and for the imperial examination, the entire Nanchang city was completely under martial law. Seven of the nine chief officials of the cabinet came, and Ganwang Hong Renxuan personally presided over it, and a total of 50,000 candidates stepped into the venue.
The imperial examination lasted all day, and the tense marking followed. The people who participated in the reading of the papers were all scholars with literary names in the Heavenly Kingdom, and a few of them were civil officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Of course, to be able to participate in the selection of officials of the Heavenly Kingdom is naturally to completely break with the Manchu Qing and restore the Han blood.