"What? Flood bandits raided Shanyang County? ”

Li Hongzhang slapped the table, stood up suddenly, grabbed the person who reported the news, and shouted loudly.

"When did it happen? How is Shanyang County now? ”

The messenger cried: "The Hong bandits are very powerful, coupled with the cooperation between the inside and the outside, they caught us off guard, and the county seat of Shanyang was broken in the blink of an eye. The villain risked death to deliver the letter, and when he went out of the city, he heard that the Hong bandits had destroyed the Zhao Ziying and Zhang Ziying. ”

"How so?"

The young Li Hongzhang was completely stunned, and sat in a daze.

"Zhao Ziying and Zhang Ziying have been destroyed, and Shanyang County has clearly been lost!" Zhou Fu sighed and continued: "It's just that the scale of the Hong bandits is tens of thousands, how they bypassed Yangzhou Mansion and Fengyang Mansion, it's incredible! ”

Li Hongzhang came back to his senses and said: "For the sake of today's plan, it is no longer important to track down how the Hong bandits bypassed Yangzhou and Fengyang, the top priority is to recover Shanyang County as soon as possible, you must know that Hu Xueyan is still in Shanyang County." It doesn't matter if you lose Shanyang County, you can't lose Hu Xueyan! ”

Hu Xueyan is Li Hongzhang's money bag, and without Hu Xueyan's financial support, it would have been at least ten years later for the Huai army to develop to the current scale of 200,000 people.

Zhou Fu was surprised: "Isn't Hu Xueyan in Yangzhou, when did he return to Shanyang?" ”

Li Hongzhang said with a wry smile: "I want to buy ten battalions of musket teams and two battalions of artillery teams, so that Hu Xueyan can raise funds, so Hu Xueyan will return to Shanyang, which is his hometown, and it is convenient to raise funds." ”

Zhou Fu was suddenly shocked: "It's not good, the Hong bandits are obviously going to Hu Xueyan?" They must have known that Hu Xueyan had raised a huge amount of money in Shanyang and was there to grab money! ”

Li Hongzhang hurriedly said: "The money can't be given to them, and Hu Xueyan can't have anything to do, you quickly send someone to order Zuo Zongtang and Yu Shimei of the Yangzhou battalion to send troops to rescue." ”

Zhou Fu added: "We must not let this flood bandit escape from Huai'an Mansion, otherwise the prestige of the adults will be ruined." It was also a huge blow to the Huai army. ”

Li Hongzhang asked rhetorically, "What do you mean?" ”

Zhou Fu thought for a while and proposed: "You can order Fengyang, Xuzhou, and Haizhou to send troops together, surround them on all sides, and suppress the Hong bandits in Shanyang City." ”

Li Hongzhang continued to ask: "But what if the Hong bandits run away?" ”

Zhou Fu said with a smile: "The Hong bandits are the most greedy for money, even if they want to run, they will definitely search the Shanyang City fiercely before leaving." The Hong bandits went deep alone. Even if they retreat, they can only return to Jiangning Mansion south through Gaoyou Lake, and the main force of the Yangzhou battalion led by Zuo Zongtang will definitely not let them go, they can't run. ”

"Okay, just according to your words!" Li Hongzhang immediately agreed, and immediately wrote four orders, stamped them with a big seal, and sent people to Yangzhou, Fengyang, Xuzhou, and Haizhou for 800 miles to be sent urgently, and transferred troops to encircle Shanyang.

However. Li Hongzhang still miscalculated, and the Huai troops from the four directions of Yangzhou, Fengyang, Xuzhou, and Haizhou poured out their nests, and finally arrived outside Shanyang County in the evening of the next day at the fastest speed.

Yangzhou was the farthest, but it was the first to arrive, because it was Zuo Zongtang who led the troops, and he was worried about Hu Xueyan's safety. But he was still late, and there were no so-called "flood bandits" in Shanyang County, but instead local ruffians and hooligans were taking advantage of the fire to rob.

There was chaos in the streets. The ruffians and hooligans plundered the cheap silver, and did all kinds of evil. There were people crying and screaming everywhere, they were so helpless.

"Come on, slaughter all these hooligans who took advantage of the fire to rob the land!"

Zuo Zongtang was furious and ordered the Huai army to rush up and hack and kill the hooligans who had been looted by cheap silver on the spot, and some ordinary people who wanted to follow and pick up cheap ones could not escape. All of them were hacked to death on the spot as outlaws.

There are hundreds of fire points in the city, most of which are Huai military institutions, such as Huai military camps, granaries, yamen, treasury, etc., which have been burned to ashes by the fire; Then there were some large families, who were first looted by the "flood bandits". Later, he was robbed by local outlaws, and the latter was very cruel and committed murder and arson.

Zuo Zongtang couldn't care about that, and directly led the cavalry team to Hu Xueyan's mansion.

The entire Hu Mansion had been burned to the ground, and the hundreds of charred corpses showed that there had been a fierce battle here, and the hundreds of guards around Hu Xueyan had been wiped out.

Zuo Zongtang's heart sank suddenly, and he guessed that Hu Xueyan was already more than lucky.

A group of women suddenly came out from nearby, they were brightly dressed, and a beautiful woman led by them yelled at Zuo Zongtang.

"Sir, you're finally back, you have to call the shots for us!"

Zuo Zongtang recognized this woman as Hu Xueyan's concubine Liu, and immediately asked her to come over.

"Say it! Where's my brother? ”

The Liu family cried and said: "My lord, my lord has already been cut off by the heaven-killing Hong bandits, saying that he wants to take my lord's head to the king of heaven to receive a reward!" What can I do about this, my master's head was taken away, and he can't live in peace when he dies! ”

"How can this be true? Damn the Flood Demon! I, Zuo Zongtang, will kill you all to avenge my brother! ”

Zuo Zongtang was angry, and the sworn brother made his head cut off, and he couldn't calm down anymore.

"Master, you are the sworn brother of my master, you have to call the shots for us, how can we live without our master!"

A group of women were crying and crying, Zuo Zongtang was upset, and his anger had nowhere to vent, so he suddenly snorted coldly: "Since your master is dead, what are you still alive for?" ”

said that it was too late, but I saw Zuo Zongtang pull out the saber, cut it like a watermelon, killed all these women, and gave his brother a burial.

"Newspaper—"

"General Zuo, the Fengyang Army has arrived at the West Gate, the Xuzhou Army has arrived at the North Gate, and Haizhou has arrived at the East Gate, Deputy General Yang asked if you want to let them into the city?"

Zuo Zongtang suddenly frowned and asked rhetorically, "Why are they all here?" Didn't they all encounter the flood bandits? ”

"Back to General Zuo's words, Vice General Yang has already asked, the Fengyang Army, the Xuzhou Army and the Haizhou Army have not encountered the Hong bandits, and they have not found a team!"

"How is that possible? Our four-way army is surrounded, and even a fly flies over - not good - it must be that the Hong bandits are cunning, they don't stay long at all, and they withdraw directly after breaking the city! ”

Zuo Zongtang figured it out and immediately regretted it.

At this time, the adjutant general in charge of inquiring about information returned.

"Your Excellency. It has been found out that last night it was indeed the Hong bandits who raided Shanyang County, they disguised themselves as refugees and were captured and sent to the Huai Army camp, but last night mutinied, and the Hong bandits outside the city should cooperate with each other to break Shanyang County, and the Zhao Ziying and Zhang Ziying were all wiped out. There was no one alive, and the Huai'an Mansion in Shanyang County had 400,000 taels of silver and 7 million coins, and it is estimated that all of them were robbed. In addition, dozens of large families in the city were looted, and the loss of seven or eight million taels of silver, as well as various gold, silver, jewelry, and other valuable things that cannot be estimated. ”

Zuo Zongtang sighed and said: "You don't know, my righteous brother came back to Shanyang County to raise military salaries, and he contacted dozens of Hui merchants to raise at least 10 million taels of silver. This adds up to 20 million dollars of silver that was robbed by the bandits, and we must take back this money! ”

The adjutant general nodded and said: "I heard that the leader of the troops is called Li Xiucheng, and it seems that he is also a king of Hong Bandit, they carry so much gold and silver treasures, and their walking speed must not be fast!" ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said, "You're right, they are on their way back to Jiangning Mansion now, we must intercept them before they cross the river." Not only to regain the money, but also to reclaim the head of my righteous brother. Avenge my brother-in-law. ”

The deputy general frowned and said: "But there are both water and land routes around Shanyang, and we don't know which way the Hong bandits are going, and which direction they are taking!" ”

Zuo Zongtang deduced: "To the east is the sea, and there is no way to go." To the north and west is the hinterland of our army, and if they dare to go, they will surely die. So they must have retreated south, because their lair is just to the south. Shanyang is only a few hundred miles away from Jinling by land, and the waterway is even closer, no more than two hundred miles, so I deduce that they must have taken the waterway, because the land route is the direction we came. Didn't touch them. ”

The adjutant general suddenly said: "Humble duty, then organize the navy to catch up!" ”

Zuo Zongtang agreed, immediately deployed the operation, and led tens of thousands of Huai troops to swarm towards Gaoyou Lake.

But Zuo Zongtang never thought that it was the fourth town of the Shanghai Army that attacked Shanyang County, and he could not have guessed that it would be "his own people" who would fight "his own people", so he would not pursue it to the north.

At the same time that the Huai army was swarming around Shanyang County, the officers and soldiers of the fourth town of the Shanghai army had already entered the Yellow River (old Yellow River) by boat overnight with gold and silver treasures, and entered Haizhou eastward before dawn.

Subsequently, the fourth town of the Shanghai Army diverted to Haizhou Bay and entered Shandong, still under the cover of the tide of refugees, and continued to go north.

In Lanshan County, the seat of Yizhou Prefecture, Chen Liang and Hai Mingze met with the head of the Yizhou Intelligence Station of the China S.H.I.E.L.D. Bureau, who handed over all the nearly 20 million taels of silver they had obtained from the snow removal operation in Shanyang County, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. was responsible for transporting them back to Shanghai.

Of course, Chen Liang and Hai Mingze had to write a report to explain that Shanyang County was forced to carry out the "snow removal and rush" operation, and they were happy to kill Hu Xueyan, but the huge risks hidden in this must be reported to Li Weiguo in time.

It's time to explain, and the rest is to wait for Li Weiguo to make a decision, whether it is to reward them or punish them, the two of them have no complaints.

After a month of slow marching, they finally arrived at the foot of Baiwang Mountain, which is only ten miles away from the Old Summer Palace, in the northwest suburbs of Beijing.

Baiwang Mountain, as the name suggests, is a mountain that can be seen within a hundred miles. The mountain is not high, only a few hundred meters, belongs to the remaining veins of Taihang Mountain, there is She Taijun Temple on the mountain, there was originally a village under the mountain, but because it was too close to the Old Summer Palace, it was forcibly expelled by the Qing army.

But now there is popularity here, Emperor Xianfeng made an exception to build an annex for Li Weiguo, just under Baiwang Mountain, covering an area of hundreds of acres, which is equivalent to the original entire Baiwang Village has become a part of the courtyard, which can be described as a vast Longen.

Of course, the conspiracy behind this Long is self-evident.

After Chen Liang and Hai Mingze arrived at Baiwang Mountain, Zhang Qiang received them as soon as possible.

As "refugees", the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Town of the Shanghai Army were recruited by Zhang Qiang as migrant workers, responsible for the construction of the Baiwangshan Annex, and declared that "work for relief" could be justified in keeping the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Town of the Shanghai Army.

Of course, the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Town of the Shanghai Army did not come to repair the courtyard, they were secretly digging tunnels under the banner of repairing the courtyard.

An internal passage from the foot of Baiwang Mountain to the Old Summer Palace.

There are professional engineer units in the Shanghai army, and each town has an engineer battalion, and the fourth engineer battalion under the jurisdiction of the fourth town is not only able to build first-class field fortifications, but also to build houses and dig tunnels.

The sapper shovel invented by Li Weiguo was used very easily by the officers and men of the Fourth Engineer Battalion, and a tunnel two meters high, four meters wide, and more than ten miles long was excavated.

According to Zhang Qiang's many stepping points, the tunnel leads directly to the Wenyuan Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace, because there are precious literature and books such as the four libraries of Kangxi Qianlong's King James Collection, because there are only two copies of these books in the world, and the other is in the Forbidden City of the Imperial Palace, for the Hanlin Academy to study, and this part of the Old Summer Palace is only a collection, not for reading, so no one usually comes to Wenyuan Pavilion.

Tunnel excavation is in full swing.

At the same time, Li Weiguo, who was in Shanghai, also received a detailed report on the "snow removal and rush" operation.

At first, Li Weiguo was very angry, because the actions of Chen Liang and Hai Mingze involved the whole body, once the identity was exposed, there would be a war between the Huai army and the Shanghai army, and more than 10,000 troops of the Shanghai army went north, without the permission of the imperial court, with Xianfeng's suspicious character, he must think that Li Weiguo was plotting to rebel, in that case, Li Weiguo really had to rebel.

Of course, Li Weiguo is not afraid of rebellion, and today's Shanghai army is strong, and it has an overwhelming military advantage against the Huai army, the Hunan army, the Qing army and the Taiping army, so even if he rebels, Li Weiguo does not have too many scruples.

Li Weiguo was really angry because he was afraid that Chen Liang and Hai Mingze's actions would affect his plan to "save the Old Summer Palace", you must know that Li Weiguo regarded the Old Summer Palace as his garden, and regarded the treasures in the Old Summer Palace as his things, if this incident caused the Old Summer Palace to be burned by the British and French forces, and the things were robbed by the British and French forces, it would definitely not work.

Fortunately, a month has passed, Li Hongzhang has always thought that the Taiping army did it, and the news from various channels shows that the Huai army has been fighting with the Taiping army very fiercely recently, especially Zuo Zongtang has been fighting with the Taiping army almost every day, and he wants to kill Li Xiucheng by name.

"Li Xiucheng, you are really, why don't you stand up and explain?"

Li Weiguo was puzzled, this Li Xiucheng was obviously lying down, but why didn't he stand up to refute the rumors? Li Xiuben himself neither admitted nor denied it, which made Li Weiguo very puzzled.

However, the news that soon came back from all sides finally made Li Weiguo analyze Li Xiucheng's personality, thinking that Li Xiucheng was an extremely arrogant person, and he disdained to defend this kind of thing.

"Li Xiucheng, you are so stupid!"

"But you're silly and cute!"

"If you surrender to me one day, maybe I'll look at this matter and open up to you!"

Li Weiguo was so happy that his nervous heart suddenly put down.

Soon, Chen Liang and Hai Mingze entrusted the S.H.I.E.L.D. to escort nearly 20 million taels of silver to Shanghai secretly, and Li Weiguo immediately took his daughter-in-law to count the silver happily. (To be continued......)