In the city of Suzhou, Li Hongzhang, the commander of the Huai Army, who had been garrisoned for half a month, was holding the teacup comfortably, admiring the beautiful shape of the purple sand teapot, greasy, while gently tasting it, nodding and exclaiming: "Not bad, not bad." ”

"Lord Governor, that pesky Gordon is gone." Ma Jianzhong, a close aide, reminded softly,

"Gone, where."

"He's back in Shanghai for the time being."

"Hmph, this foreign donkey has a pretty stubborn temper." Li Hongzhang sneered: "He doesn't understand the affairs of our Qing Dynasty at all, a hooligan from Xiyi, but he wants to point fingers and break ground on the heads of our Qing officials." ”

Ma Jianzhong hesitated for a moment: "My lord, in fact, in Suzhou City, we have done a little too much, those guys have already surrendered to me, we just take advantage of it, often, these people are very powerful when they fight back and fight their own people, if they can be contained for their own use, they will get twice the result with half the effort." ”

Li Hongzhang was stunned for a moment and looked at Ma Jianzhong, "This is true, but the bandits' decline has been decided, and they are just forced by the situation, and they may not be sincere." ”

"My lord, aren't Cheng Xueqi and Ding Ruchang very loyal, they also originated from banditry." Ma Jianzhong retorted dissatisfiedly,

In Suzhou City, the six princes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom surrendered together, and also assassinated Mu Shaoguang, the king of Tan who insisted on resisting, and surrendered with more than 10,000 troops, but the new governor of Jiangsu, Li Hongzhang, after accepting the surrender of these people, slaughtered them despicably, not only the problem of the six puppet kings, all the Taiping officers and soldiers who surrendered, were also slaughtered together, and the cruel act, that is, the foreigner hooligan Gordon, who was the guarantee of the Chinese, was indignant, and came to him with a long sword to settle accounts, and was so frightened that this guy quickly hid,

Later, Li Hongzhang explained to everyone that the bandits have strange temperaments and are unconvincing, and only by slaughtering them can they be the safest.

No one could understand what he meant, that is, his close aides Ma Jianzhong were very angry,

Li Hongzhang didn't care, because he felt that this was normal, when he was in the assistant of the shogunate of the Hunan army, he heard and witnessed it, and knew that the Hunan army killed people without blinking, and they had been infected with the bloody habit of slaughter.

"Hmph, Zeng Guoquan killed 16,000 people in Anqing, and Lao Tzu let go of thousands."

It was his original intention to kill people, and at the same time, he also beat some of the original bandits who surrendered under his command, so that he knew what was wrong.

Because of the intensification of contradictions, the foreigners' troops were not even willing to crusade against the Taiping Army with Li Hongzhang, which made him very embarrassed.

"Is the governor here?" A stiff voice asked outside,

"Ah, please." Li Hongzhang hurriedly got up,

Immediately, outside the door, there were two personal soldiers leading the way, and a middle-aged Western-aged man came in, he was wearing a suit, sweater, and a Chinese-style cotton robe on the outside, which looked a little ridiculous, but his golden hair, mixed with a white widow, two majestic beards, and a pair of sharp eyes, were daunting.

"Mr. Bidger, please." Li Hongzhang said enthusiastically,

"Hehe, Governor Li, why don't you attack Tianjing."

"I, we're running out of weapons and ammunition." Li Hongzhang said with some distress, in fact, this time is a pretext, because, the situation at this time is very different from history, the Hunan army has broken the city soon, Zeng Guoquan opposed his Huai army to participate in the war, and the Qing court strictly ordered him to rush to Henan, together with the monk Lingqin to suppress the twist army and the Huaxia Tian** from Sichuan and Shaanxi, therefore, Li Hongzhang was not happy, watching the wind make the rudder, waiting for the opportunity,

"It doesn't matter, we in the British Empire can provide you with the best weapons."

"You."

"Your government has sent a note to our minister in Beijing, as well as to Shanghai, so we are willing to provide you with weapons and ammunition."

"But, the question of money." The excited Li Hongzhang knows that as long as there is a foreign fire, his military strength can swell rapidly, but his funds are very tight, the governor of Jiangsu Province can not be stationed in Nanjing, but scurrying like a stray dog, and now Suzhou and other places are also very desolate by the war, and the customs in Shanghai is the big ingot in the pocket of the imperial court, and he dare not touch it.

"Don't worry, lead your army north immediately."

"Free, give." Li Hongzhang was so excited that his heart was about to jump out of his throat,

Bidger shook his head, very resolute,

Li Hongzhang was greatly disappointed, he didn't have any money, where could he get it, no matter how many weapons and ammunition he had, he could only look at it.

"Hehe, old friend, this time, we will adopt a new method, get the weapon first and then pay the fee, use it first, and talk about it when we have time." After playing with it for a while, Bidege looked at Li Hongzhang with a smile,

"That's good, that's great." Li Hongzhang was overjoyed, and came forward to almost adopt the Western hug etiquette.

Bidger was not in the mood: "Lord Governor, our weapons and ammunition will be delivered in a day's time, then, your army will go north in a few days." ”

Li Hongzhang was in a good mood and was very excited, and talked eloquently: "This governor will leave in five days, no later than ten days. ”

"No, don't you know that the battlefield in the north is very critical." Bidger asked curiously,

"Critical, that's what the imperial court says." In front of foreigners, in front of his cronies and friends, Li Hongzhang did not hide his opinion at all: "What's the danger, the bandits are just the remnants of the rough stones that have been circulating in Sichuan, even if they can toss for a while in Sichuan, and then go to Shaanxi for a while, what can they do, I think the imperial court is really a big deal." ”

"My lord, the situation is indeed not optimistic." Ma Jianzhong couldn't help it,

Li Hongzhang waved his hand and interrupted his words, not very happy: "This official is not perfunctory, the monk is in Henan, the elite soldiers are strong, how can he not resist the remnants of the stone rebellion, my Huai army up and down, is being pulled out one after another, Liang Hongsheng Admiral has arrived in Kaifeng, secondly, the general soldier Zhang Shushan, the chief soldier Ye Zhichao, the three-way soldiers and horses, have gone north to reinforce, according to my opinion, these three-way soldiers and horses, the destruction of the thief and the rest of the party is still difficult, to destroy the stone to open the remnants of the thief, it is as easy as a palm, besides, my Huai army general Liu Mingchuan has already set off, The third battalion of Cheng Xueqi, the strongest of our Huai army, is also ready to go, these soldiers and horses are enough for the sin of the Henan thief army, the official thinks, this momentum, I am afraid that the thief army will be so afraid that it will immediately abandon the camp and flee to Shaanxi, our army is just seeking war but can't. ”

Li Hongzhang's proud attitude made Ma Jianzhong stammer, unable to say that since the formation of the Huai Army, Li Hongzhang's temper has become bigger, and with the cooperation of the Western army, there are a large number of foreign guns and equipment, foreign artillery formation, Li Hongzhang's combat effectiveness is obviously better than that of the Taiping Army, so he has won victories again and again, especially in the first battle of Suzhou, a little siege, the Taiping Army's six kings and ten thousand soldiers, easily collapsed, making him feel that the enemy has fallen into the verge of collapse,

"Governor Li should try to get to Henan as early as possible, it seems that those thieves are very fierce." Bidger kindly persuaded,

At the urging of the Qing court and the exclusion of the Hunan army, Li Hongzhang's Huai army of 40,000 people became the main force to reinforce Seng Greenqin in the north, but he didn't know that the Battle of Handan had ended, and the famous general of the Eight Banners, whom he admired, had become a cold corpse in the wilderness, and buried it under the care of the kind-hearted Luoyang army.