Zhu Jishi, Zuo Zongtang, Luo Zenan, and Brother Trigo were pointing at a map of the Central Plains on the wall, which was full of small flags, divided into red, blue, yellow, white, and black.

The red color naturally represents Zhu Ming himself; Cyan, of course, represents the Manchu Qing dynasty; Huang is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; White is the "middle force", which is the power of Lin Zexu, Zeng Guofan, and Kong Fanhao; The black color represents the unclear area, including Xinjiang, Gansu, Tibet, Yunnan, Guizhou, and most of Sichuan Province, all of which belong to the unclear situation.

With the arrival of Hong Renji and Brother Trigo in Shanghai, Zhu Ming's side had a lot more information about the situation in the north. In particular, Brother Trigo went around Zhili and Henan and brought back a lot of useful information - he had been an officer for the emperor, and collecting intelligence was an old business of an officer.

Zhu Jishi nodded and said, "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is indeed showing signs of splitting...... Yang Xiuqing held the main force of the Taiping army in his hands, and while besieging Beijing, he managed Hebei (referring to the north of the Yellow River and east of Taihang), and did not care about the Qing army south of the Yellow River. It seems that Hong Xiuquan sent Hong Renji to our side just to make us mistakenly think that their Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is still monolithic. ”

This can also explain Hong Renji's mention of Hong Xuanjiao's rectification, Hong Xiuquan also knew that it was impossible for Lu Dao to do this, and bringing it up would only destroy the relationship between Zhu Ming and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. And Zhu Ming is very likely to be able to block the arms supply of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so that the matter of using the gold and silver of the Holy Treasury to buy guns and cannons to support Yang Xiuqing will be over. Hong Xiuquan didn't really take out a big son, but also showed the family of the King of Heaven and the King of the East in front of Zhu Ming, which was a good plan.

But he didn't expect it. Yang Xiuqing would propose to Zhu Ming through Brother Trigo to divide the world equally. I didn't know that Yang Xiuqing had already hooked up with British imperialism. Moreover, he took matters into his own hands and reinterpreted the doctrine of the Worship of God and separated the worship of God from Christianity.

Brother Trigo added: "Your Majesty, I have also heard that the British sent Yang Xiuqing ammonium oil explosives and Besemai rifles, both of which are products of the British Jason-Churchill Factory. ”

"I know the way, I know the way......" Zhu Jishi nodded slightly, Andrew. Jones has already mentioned this in his latest report to Zhu Jishi. British arms exports are now subject to government control. As long as the British Army and Colonial Office asked the Jason-Churchill Factory to sell weapons to the Manchus, the Jason-Churchill Factory had no way to refuse.

However, the British actually handed over this batch of weapons and equipment ordered by the Manchu Qing Dynasty to the Taiping army who were besieging the Manchu capital, which was really a bit unexpected by Zhu Jishi. The life of this Emperor of Light is really bitter, and the weapon he ordered with his own money will actually hit his head!

Zuo Zongtang took over the topic and said: "With ammonium oil explosives, the Taiping army should be able to blow up the Beijing city wall, and this light is really not 29 years old (according to the Manchu calendar, it is still the 28th year of Daoguang). Moreover, Lin Muweng and Seng Lingqin are also very likely to be unable to withstand the offensive of the Taiping army...... Now there are millions of displaced people in the three provinces of Yulu and Zhi. It was too easy for the Taiping army to expand. Henan and Shandong provinces will also return to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! ”

Luo Zenan snorted coldly: "It's not that Monk Greenqin, this bastard bastard, is in trouble!" ”

Seng Greenqin dug up the Yellow River dam in Lanyi County, flooding dozens of counties in the three provinces of Shandong, Henan and Henan. Not to mention those who drowned, and those with fast legs have become outcasts, and there are always millions. These people did not support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom originally, but now they have become "proletariats" when the flood is flooded, and if they don't follow the Taiping army, they will have no way to live! So the Taiping Army is now not a million, but two million! When Yang Xiuqing has put these newly attached people and horses in order, his strength will be even more amazing!

Zuo Zongtang frowned and said: "Once the Yellow River is flooded, the agricultural affairs of the three provinces of Zhilu and Henan will be even more difficult, and when it comes to the spring famine next year, I am afraid that millions of people will be short of food, if Yang Xiuqing has no way to feed his soldiers and horses, I am afraid that he will have the idea of going south to seek food." Your Majesty, we have to prepare early. ”

Listening to what Zuo Zongtang said, Zhu Jishi and Luo Zenan also frowned, Yang Xiuqing is indeed a natural genius in the matter of "making revolution". However, the affairs of a country cannot be handled by a single "revolution", especially the development of production and the maintenance of people's livelihood are extremely difficult. In the past few hundred years, the grain supply of Jingshi has to rely on Jiangnan rice, not to mention the year of the Great War? If millions of people have no food, how can Yang Xiuqing sit idly by? Although Zhu Ming's force is not weak, there are too many areas to defend, and the battle line is too long. There may be no problem in defending the Yangtze River, but Lianghuai and Jianghan may be about to suffer military disasters.

(Note: In this era, chemical fertilizers were invented, and the North China Plain has been reclaimed for two or three thousand years, and the fertility in the soil is exhausted, so the yield per mu of grain is very low.) Undeveloped black soils such as Manchuria are extremely fertile and do not require chemical fertilizers to achieve high yields. ）

"Looks like we're going to have to help the victims in the north." Zhu Jishi thought about it and said, "I have to send someone to Beijing to meet Yang Xiuqing...... We can lend grain to Yang Xiuqing. ”

"No, don't borrow grain, you can do business with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." Luo Zenan waved his hand and said, "If we borrow grain and send grain, Yang Xiuqing will think that we are afraid of him, but it will backfire." We can make a deal with Yang Xiuqing and exchange rice and grain for antique toys in Beijing and several nearby gardens. ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said: "This method is not bad, Yang Xiuqing and his millions of people are locusts, we have to let them settle down in Jingshi and Zhili, and we can't let them come south." It's not bad to exchange food for antiques, but those rogues don't know what antique relics are, and good things are also ruined for them! In addition, Yang Xiuqing can also pay for the protection of the Ming Tombs, and also pay grain and rice. ”

The Ming Tombs are the imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty, and those buried there are the ancestors of Zhu Jishi, and now the Ming Dynasty has been revived, of course, you have to send people to take care of the ancestral tombs. This is filial piety, and those sour Confucians pay the most attention to this. Therefore, even if Zhu Ming provided grain and rice for their sworn enemy, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the sour Confucians would have to applaud.

The matter involved the mausoleum of the ancestors, how dare Zhu Daxiaozi slack off, he immediately sent Wu Chunqiu as an envoy, took a fast boat to the north, and arrived at Yang Xiuqing's Temple of Heaven camp in less than ten days.

"Rice grain for antiques? You Zhu family genius is really good at trading! ”

Yang Xiuqing lazily leaned on a throne, and swept the kneeling Wu Chunqiu Wu Da Lang with one eye. He had just returned from the front line, so he looked a little tired. It has been almost two months since the Battle of Beijing, and now the outer city has been basically controlled by the Taiping army, and Yang Xiuqing's Chinese army has moved from the Old Summer Palace to the Temple of Heaven. However, the resistance of the Qing army was also very fierce, and after the outer city of Beijing was broken by ammonium oil explosives, the two sides launched another eleven days of street fighting, almost turning the outer city into a blank ground. After that, the Qing army retreated into the inner city of Beijing and continued to rely on the tall city walls to defend it.

As the weather turned cooler, the old brothers of the Taiping Army who came from the south suddenly did not adapt to it, and many people were infected because of the water and soil, and the morale of the army was weak. However, what made Yang Xiuqing feel more headache was the lack of military food. Due to the flooding of the Yellow River, at least millions of acres of fertile land in the three provinces of Zhilu and Henan have been flooded, and there is no harvest! And even on the territory that has not been affected by the disaster, there are many large and small heroes, and it is not difficult for these heroes to recognize the "orthodoxy" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but it is only difficult for them to cut down food. You can't get a few catties of wheat without breaking the forts - in fact, these forts themselves are short of food, and handing over the only rations and growing grain in their hands means starving.

So now that he heard that Zhu Mingken exchanged grain for antiques captured by the Taiping Army, Yang Xiuqing suddenly came to his senses: "Okay! Since the emperor of the Zhu family likes antiques, this king will give him ......" He frowned slightly, as if he was wondering where there were antiques, and said after a while: "By the way, I heard that there are many treasures in Zunhua and Yi County, and I asked Li Xiucheng to lead troops to go with you." ”

Zunhua? Yi? Are there antiques there? Wu Chunqiu was stunned for a moment, and thought hard about the location of Zunhua and Yi County, but still didn't understand how there were antiques there? (To be continued......)