Xianfeng appointed three Qincha to encircle and suppress the Taiping army, among which the Jiangdong camp in Zhenjiang was stationed by Li Weiguo's Shanghai army, secretly colluding with the Taiping army, and the two sides were acting, and a real war never broke out. In Yangzhou's Qishan Governor Jiangbei Camp, he is an old fox, guarding the Yangtze River defense line all day long, not seeking merit but seeking no fault.

Only Xiang Rong, who was stationed in the Xiaoling Weijiang South Battalion, was bent on making meritorious contributions, and fought with the Taiping army all day long, and the 150,000 troops brought from Anqing were exhausted in less than half a year, and the wounded and disabled were removed, and there were less than 30,000 soldiers in battle.

On the other hand, after half a year of development, the Taiping Army has gained a firm foothold in Tianjing, with more than 200,000 elite troops, and a firearms battalion of several thousand people.

For most of the year, Li Weiguo and Qishan's troops were not damaged, only his Xiang Rong's troops lost 80,000 or 90,000 people.

On this day, Xiang Rong fought with the Taiping army again, losing thousands of people, and he returned to the camp in Jiangnan with a disgraced face and called his confidant deputy general to inquire.

"How's that going on with your inquiry?"

The lieutenant's name was Zhang Cheng, and he said: "General Qiyu, I have inquired clearly these days. Li Weiguo was not in Jiangdong Daying at all, and he had already returned to Shanghai County. Although the Taiping army had 50,000 troops in the east of the Yangtze River, they were all old, weak, sick and disabled, and every attack was a bluff, while the Shanghai army in the Jiangdong battalion only fired back and never pursued. In terms of the Jiangbei camp, it was only to prevent the Taiping army from crossing the river, and there was no intention of taking the initiative to attack. ”

Xiang Rong suddenly smashed the tea bowl and said angrily: "Damn, a little fox and an old fox, inside and out, he is so cheating on the inside!" ”

Zhang Chengdao: "General, there is a way not to seek merit but to seek no fault, anyway, the rebels have no intention of breaking through, I think it is better for us to learn from the Jiangdong camp and the Jiangbei camp, only defend and not attack." After the court asked, it was impossible to blame the general alone, and Li Weiguo and Qishan couldn't escape. But if the general blindly fights with the rebels and loses his troops, the court will blame him, and the general will not be able to get out of it. ”

Xiang Rong sighed: "Aren't I also eager to seek merit, who would have thought that the two foxes, Qishan and Li Weiguo, would not move their troops and let me fight with the rebels alone, now I can't do it even if I want to hold on to my troops, after all, we have lost seventy or eighty thousand troops, how can the court not blame?" Now the only way to survive is to break through Jinling as soon as possible! ”

Zhang Cheng also knew that he had made a wrong step, so he suggested: "This Jinling City is high and deep, and I am afraid it will be difficult to take it with the weapons in our hands alone." If only we had those foreign guns and cannons in Li Weiguo's hands, I don't believe that a hundred cannons would not be able to open the city wall of Jinling? ”

Xiang Rong nodded and said, "What you said makes sense, Li Weiguo has a lot of cannons in his hands, but it is impossible for him to lend them to me!" ”

Zhang Chengdao: "General, Li Weiguo refuses to borrow it, can't the emperor open his mouth?" ”

Xiang Rong asked, "What do you mean?" ”

Zhang Cheng said with a smile: "The general only needs to draw up a joint battle plan, and let the emperor open his mouth to transfer Li Weiguo's artillery team over, so as to break through Jinling City, the general is the leader, and there is no doubt about it." ”

Xiang Rong thought about it, and immediately discussed countermeasures with Zhang Cheng and the others.

Soon, a letter was sent to the imperial court. The general content is that the Shanghai army guarding Zhenjiang has made no achievements, and asks the imperial court to transfer the Shanghai army to the northeast of Jinling, and then transfer the troops of Jiangxi Jiang Zhongyuan to the south of Jinling, replenish the strength of the Jiangnan battalion, transfer the Shengbao Department north of Jianghuai to strangle the west of Jinling, transfer red single boats from Guangdong to choke the river, cover the Qishan Department in the north of the Jiangbei to cross the river, and suppress the Taiping army in one fell swoop.

Xiang Rong fought on the battlefield for decades, successively quelled the rebellion of Tiandihui in Guangxi and Xinjiang, and was very proficient in arranging troops, and his combat plan was very feasible.

So soon Xianfeng issued three edicts in succession, requiring the three Qincha to follow Xiang Rong's plan and encircle and suppress the Taiping army on the fourth route, and be sure to conquer Jinling and destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom before the end of the year.

The reason why the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was to be exterminated before the end of the year was that Xianfeng had no money in his pocket, and the silver used to pay for military expenses every day was like flowing water, flowing out in a hurry. The household department has long been empty, and the temporary increase in taxes by the imperial court cannot reach the household department, and it is basically withheld by the local government for military salaries and local regimental training. In this way, the expenses of the group of civil and military officials in the court, the emperor and the harem, and the more than one million children of the banner people who are waiting to eat the silver of the imperial court's "relief" are tens of millions of taels of silver, which makes Xianfeng have a headache, so he has to urge the front line to finish the battle quickly.

The lotus flower in Yuyuan Garden, Li Weiguo was accompanying Fu Shanxiang to pick lotus seeds in the lake, and after learning the news, he couldn't help frowning.

Fu Shanxiang said softly: "Although I don't know about military affairs, I think Xiang Rong must not be at ease this time, he made such an encirclement and suppression plan, in fact, he forced Xianggong and you and that Qishan to send troops, let you take the lead, and he can make profits from it." ”

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "Even the lady can see that there is a problem, how can I fall into his trap?" ”

Fu Shanxiang asked curiously, "What are you going to do?" ”

Li Weiguo smiled mysteriously and replied, "Lady forgot that there is cooperation between us and the Taiping Army?" ”

Fu Shanxiang Bingxue is smart, everything can be understood at one point, and his beautiful eyes lit up immediately, but he quickly asked with worry: "Xianggong should not contact the Taiping Army too closely, after all, they are anti-thieves, Xianggong is a court official, once the incident in the east window happens, I am afraid it will be very unfavorable to Xianggong." ”

Li Weiguo pulled Fu Shanxiang into his arms and said: "Don't worry, I have been prepared for the Xianggong, if the East Window incident happens, I will say that it is a counter-plan made by the enemy, as long as I destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in time, the court will have nothing to say." ”

Fu Shanxiang was a little relieved, and asked again: "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a million people, Xianggong, you only have tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, can you really destroy them?" If they can be eliminated, why does Xianggong stand still and sit idly by? ”

"So there's something else the lady doesn't know?" Li Weiguo pretended to be surprised and joked about Fu Shanxiang.

"Nasty! Do you say it or not? If you don't say it, I'll ignore you! Fu Shanxiang was coquettish in Li Weiguo's arms, pretending to be angry, and wanted to break free.

Li Weiguo laughed, naturally refused, hugged her tightly, and explained: "The lady doesn't know, although the Taiping Army has millions of people, most of them are coerced refugees, strong men who are forcibly pulled, and have no combat effectiveness. Their real elite is only the Guangxi Hakka army that followed Hong Xiuquan to raise troops, probably only more than 100,000 people. Although there are many of these troops, most of them use cold weapons such as swords, clubs, and clubs, and although our Li family army has less than 40,000 soldiers and horses, they are all equipped with foreign guns and cannons, and it is just a matter of minutes to destroy the Taiping army. ”

Fu Shanxiang, as Li Weiguo's wife and the first lady of Li Jiajun, had seen the power of Li Jiajun's foreign guns and cannons when he was in Anqing and Jiujiang, and he had no power to resist the Taiping army, so she believed that tens of thousands of Li Jiajun were enough to compete with hundreds of thousands of Taiping troops.

It's just that Fu Shanxiang continued to ask: "Then why didn't you destroy the Taiping Army?" The emperor is happy, maybe he will give the prime minister a feudal official to sit down! ”

"If I did, I would be the biggest fool in the world!" Li Weiguo said with a smile, seeing that Fu Shanxiang still didn't understand, so he explained: "If I destroy the Taiping Army immediately, Xianfeng will definitely think that the Taiping Army is easy to eliminate, and he will not be grateful to me, and he will even be jealous of the military power in my hands, he would like to cut my military power immediately, in that case, I will not have the Li Jiajun as a support, but I will be slaughtered." On the other hand, if I don't destroy the Taiping army, I will consume it with them, and I will slowly develop my strength and strengthen the power of the Li family's army. In this way, it is Xianfeng who is in a hurry, he has to rely on me in order to exterminate the Taiping army, and if he wants to rely on me, he has to continue to give me benefits. If the Taiping army is not extinguished, my position will be as stable as Mount Tai. Therefore, the Taiping army is not only not my enemy now, but my helper, and when one day my strength is not afraid of Xianfeng, then the Taiping army will become my enemy, and I will destroy them. ”

After listening to Li Weiguo's words, Fu Shanxiang looked at him blankly, as if he didn't know his husband.

I haven't seen him for two years, Fu Shanxiang can't imagine that her husband has grown up so fast, this is a fifteen-year-old boy, who is obviously more cunning than a seventy or eighty-year-old fox.

Fu Shanxiang tilted his head, and faced Li Weiguo with a pretty face, and said suspiciously: "Are you really my husband?" How do I feel that you are more cunning than my father? ”

Syllable!

Li Weiguo waved his hand and slapped Fu Shanxiang's buttocks, and pretended to be angry: "Bold, dare to question your man, see how I clean you up!" ”

Bang Bang Bang!

Li Weiguo lifted Fu Shanxiang's buttocks and slapped him, he didn't really hit hard, but Fu Shanxiang was embarrassed and angry.

Fu Shanxiang is a scholarly lady, how can he stand this kind of treatment, he suddenly screamed and struggled, and begged for mercy loudly.

"The husband spares his life, and the concubine knows that she is wrong! Don't dare anymore! ”

It's just that the more Fu Shanxiang begged for mercy, the more excited Li Weiguo became.

Tomorrow Li Weiguo is going to return to the Jiangdong camp, this time I am afraid that there will be a big war, it is inconvenient to take Fu Shanxiang, thinking that there will be no wife to warm the bed in the next days, Li Weiguo whispered in Fu Shanxiang's ear: "Lady, I want you." ”

Fu Shanxiang's face was full of shame when he heard this, thinking that his husband was going to fight tomorrow, and he didn't know when he would be able to come back to reunite with his wife, so he nodded slightly, and sighed, which was considered to be agreed.

Li Weiguo was very happy, picked up Fu Shanxiang by the waist, and strode towards the bedroom.

Seeing this, the maids and maids who followed behind were also silent with a smile, and they all stopped in a funny way and stayed in the distance.

Have a good night, I don't know how many times I have asked for it.

At dawn, Fu Shanxiang snuggled in Li Weiguo's arms like a kitten, although there were undried tears in the corners of his eyes, but there was a satisfied smile on his face.

Li Weiguo still wanted to sleep lazy, but was woken up by Zhang Xiaoliu.

Wu Yong and Fu Xuexian came to see her off, Li Weiguo didn't dare to slack off, got up in a hurry, and saw that Fu Shanxiang was sleeping soundly, so he didn't wake her up.

"My lord, that Xiang Rong is the foreman of this encirclement and suppression operation, my lord must be careful to prevent him from falling for his tricks!" Seeing Li Weiguo, Wu Yong immediately reminded him to be careful.

Li Weiguo nodded and said: "Don't worry, if Xiang Rong doesn't come to provoke me this time, if you dare to provoke me, I will join forces with the Taiping Army and kill him!" ”

Wu Yong said with a smile: "It's good if the adults are prepared, Wu Yong will rest assured, without further ado, the adults should return to the Jiangdong camp early, and there are no adults in the Jiangdong camp in the province, so Xiang Rong will go to engage in small means." ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said goodbye to Wu Yong and Fu Xuexian.

Zhang Xiaoliu, as the commander of the infantry army, was ordered by Li Weiguo to lead 20,000 Li family troops to accompany him, and the army was pulled out, all the way to the Jiangdong camp with murderous spirit.