Li Jiajun is already very experienced in controlling the city.

Because Anqing was captured and occupied by the Taiping army for a few months, the population in the city was very small, the former landlords, rich businessmen died and fled, and most of the remaining young and strong people were coerced by the Taiping army to join the army, so only the old, weak, sick and disabled women and children were left, etc., this is a vulnerable group, very good management, so it is easy for the Li family army to take over the entire Anqing City after expelling the remnants of the Taiping army.

In the past, the Li Jiajun would obtain a large amount of money, food and materials every time they captured a city, but this time it was different, the Taiping army took away almost all the money, food and materials that could be taken away, and even the young and strong people were not left.

In this way, after the Li Jiajun entered the city, the materials obtained were extremely limited. Except for a few copper plates that fell in the corner, the good thing of seizing millions of taels of silver at every turn is gone.

However, this did not affect the morale of the Li family's army, on the contrary, the officers and soldiers were happy because they had won a battle, and Li Weiguo still rewarded the three armies according to the old rules, which made the morale like a rainbow.

At the same time, the vanguard cavalry sent by Xiang Rong outside the north gate was denied entry into the city on the grounds that it would prevent disturbance to the people.

In fact, this is exactly the case, the imperial court household department has long had no money to adjust, and the Qing army on the front line is all raised by the localities themselves. In peacetime, when the imperial court pays military salaries, the Qing army also wants to sweep away the local people, not to mention that now the imperial court has no money to pay military salaries, it is conceivable that these Qing troops will not be worse than the Taiping army in plundering the common people along the way, and even more cruel.

This is a reality, and there is no room for argument, and when Xiang Rong learned in the rear that his deputy general was refused to enter the city, he was also speechless, so he had to personally lead the army to come, intending to bully the few with more people.

Li Weiguo was happy to see this, because at this time, the Qing army in Jinling had entered the city from the south gate, and Li Weiguo also counted the credit for capturing Anqing to these generals, so they were very grateful to Li Weiguo. So when Li Weiguo asked them to guard Anqing City, the generals led by Suerha agreed without thinking about it.

So, Li Weiguo ordered Li Jiajun to hand over the city defense with Su Erha, and Li Weiguo marched into Jiujiang on the grounds of the speed of the soldiers, Li Jiajun rested for an hour and then left Anqing, Su Erha did not doubt this, he wished that Li Weiguo would leave quickly, and then he ordered his Eight Banners to sweep the people of Anqing.

Li Weiguo led the Li family army to leave Anqing and go straight to Jiujiang, they left from the south gate with their front foot, and Xiang Rongqin led the army to the north gate of Anqing with their back foot.

Suelha had already learned from Li Weiguo that Xiang Rong had come to steal the credit, so he was very angry and refused to hand over the city defense of Anqing, let alone allow Xiang Rong's army to enter the city.

This Suelha is a native of the Three Banners, and he is not used to Xiang Rong's problems, even if Xiang Rong is a minister.

Xiang Rong originally thought that Li Weiguo was just a minor Han official, and when he saw him, the minister of the Qin Mission, he had to obediently give up Anqing. But he didn't expect that Li Weiguo had already left Anqing and handed over Anqing to Su Erha, Xiang Rong couldn't afford to provoke Su Erha, and he was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and then he realized that he fell for Li Weiguo, and his subordinates scolded Li Weiguo for being shameless one by one.

However, no matter how they scolded, Li Weiguo couldn't hear it, at this time he was happily leading the army to Jiujiang with Fu Shanxiang, and he had already written with Suerha to ask the merit to send the troops to the capital for 800 miles to expedite, so he didn't worry about Xiang Rong joining him.

Li Weiguo dared to offend Xiang Rong because he knew that since he had secretly cooperated with the Taiping Army, he would inevitably go to the pit Xiang Rong in the future, so he simply did not do anything and showed that the carriage and horse could not get along with Xiang Rong, so that when he pit Xiang Rong in the future, it would not arouse the suspicion of the imperial court, after all, the open and secret fighting of officialdom is an unspoken rule, and others only think that it is a personal grudge between Li Weiguo and Xiang Rong, and they will not think lightly of Li Weiguo's secret hookup with the Taiping Army.

Three days later, Li Jiajun captured Jiujiang, but this time Li Weiguo did not play the commander of the Qing army outside Jiujiang City, because the other party was Qishan, an important minister of the imperial court, and Li Weiguo did not want to offend him for the time being.

So in the face of Qishan coming to grab the credit, Li Weiguo honestly shared the credit for the capture of Jiujiang with Qishan, and Qishan promised Li Weiguo to write in the recital that Li Weiguo's assistance to Jiujiang was at Qishan's request.

This was Li Weiguo's strategy, Qishan didn't know, he was very happy that Li Weiguo gave him the credit for the capture of Jiujiang, so it was written in the memo that he asked Li Weiguo to send troops to reinforce Jiujiang, and asked Li Weiguo for an assist.

In this way, once Jinling falls, the imperial court will not pursue Li Weiguo, if Li Weiguo is held responsible, then Li Weiguo will have an excuse, since it is Qishan who asked Li Weiguo to send troops to Jiujiang to guide the defense of Jinling and was taken advantage of by the Taiping army, this is not about Li Weiguo's business, and Li Weiguo has captured Anqing and Jiujiang one after another, and he has merit, even if he is not rewarded, he can also deduct the credit.

From the very beginning, Li Weiguo designed this qiē, and all of them were in his plan and in his grasp.

At the same time, on the eastern front of the battlefield, the main force of the Taiping army suddenly appeared under the Dasheng Pass on 30 May after a few days of roundabout marching, and the Qing army guarding the pass was caught off guard, and the Dasheng Pass fell, and the Taiping army immediately marched to Jinling and surrounded Jinling City on 2 June.

At this time, there were less than 5,000 defenders in Jinling, plus the 3,000 Fu Xuexian's troops left in Yuhuatai by Li Weiguo, and only more than 8,000 people, but they were facing the main force of the 300,000 Taiping Army and more than 500,000 coerced people.

Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, was suddenly frightened, he didn't understand why the Taiping army suddenly appeared under Jinling City, hadn't they been defeated by the Shanghai army led by Li Weiguo in one fell swoop, I heard that Li Weiguo had recovered Anqing and Jiujiang, didn't the main force of the Taiping army flee back to his hometown in Guangxi? Why did the gods appear in Jinling unconsciously?

Fortunately, Lu Jianying knew that to defend Jinling, Yuhuatai must be guarded, as long as Yuhuatai was not lost, with the sturdiness and tall walls of Jinling City, it was enough to block the attack of the Taiping army.

However, Yuhuatai is in the hands of Li Jiajun, Lu Jianying is an old fox after all, he doesn't dare to hand over his life to his enemies, and the experience in the officialdom tells him that he can't trust the other party.

So, Lu Jianying hurriedly grabbed strong men everywhere in the city at any cost, and all the banner families were dispatched to send all the minions in the family to the city for defense, they knew very well that once the city was broken, the Taiping army would definitely kill them. In addition, the landlords and wealthy merchants in the city also donated money and grain, and they also knew that the Taiping army would rob them of their property even if they did not kill them, so they spared no effort.

In this way, the defenders in Jinling City temporarily increased to 20,000 people, although most of them were strong men and had never fought, but there were tall city walls, and it was still possible to defend the city.

In the Li Jiajun barracks in Yuhuatai, Fu Xuexian secretly met with Hong Jian, a representative of the Taiping Army.

"General Fu, do you remember the secret agreement between your and our armies? Now our army has ceded Anqing and Jiujiang to Lord Li as promised, and asked General Fu to keep his word and let Yuhuatai go. ”

Fu Xuexian had already received the news that Li Weiguo occupied Anqing and Jiujiang, so he would give up the Yuhuatai defense area to the Taiping Army according to Li Weiguo's explanation before leaving.

"General Hong doesn't need to be in a hurry, our army is preparing for evacuation."

Hong Jian suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, he was not sure that Li Weiguo's words counted, and now that he heard that the other party was indeed preparing to give up the Yuhuatai Defense Area, his whole person was much more relaxed, and he immediately sat down and asked, "I wonder when your army will be able to withdraw?" ”

Fu Xuexian replied: "Our army will begin to withdraw tonight, and your army will make a false impression of storming Yuhuatai, but your army must ensure that it will not step into our army's Yuhuatai defense line for half a step before dawn, otherwise your two armies will encounter unnecessary misunderstandings, and the consequences will be borne by your army." ”

Hong Jian nodded and said, "No problem, your two armies only need to fire their guns into the sky, and set up more gunsmoke and fire on the positions of both sides, which is enough to create the illusion of a fierce battle." ”

"That's good!" Fu Xuexian immediately agreed, and then said: "In addition, our army will first withdraw from Jinling City, and will evacuate Jinling from Shuiguan before tomorrow evening, and your army must not send troops to attack Shuiguan before tomorrow evening, in case your two armies encounter head-on." After our army withdraws, if your army has not captured the outer city of Jinling, it can directly enter through the water pass abandoned by our army. ”

Hong Jian frowned and said, "Why did your army withdraw from Jinling City?" Why don't you just go back to Su Songtai tonight? Isn't that redundant? ”

Fu Xuexian said with a smile: "This is my brother-in-law's order, and I can't change it, and our withdrawal to Jinling City is also to help you seize Jinling, because my brother-in-law ordered me to secretly execute several people, Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, Wu Liang, the prefect of Jiangning, and Xiao Yang, the former head of Chongming County, etc. ”

Hong Jian understood as soon as he heard that this was Li Weiguo's revenge, he smiled and said, "Your army has helped us so much, and we also want to show it." These people might as well be handed over to us, and we will execute them for Master Li. ”

Fu Xuexian shook his head and said with a smile: "My brother-in-law is a person who will repay his kindness and revenge, and he regrets that he can't personally execute Lu Jianying, so he told me to personally avenge him." I am his brother-in-law and a member of the family, so it is more appropriate for me to avenge my brother-in-law. ”

Hong Jian suddenly smiled and said: "It seems that Lord Li is really holding grudges, but fortunately, our Taiping Army did not neglect Ling Mei Madam Li." ”

Fu Xuexian laughed and asked, "Then let's just say it?" ”

Hong Jian nodded and said, "That's it!" ”

Hong Jian left, Fu Xuexian immediately called the three commanders of the thousands, and ordered: "Everyone, Lord Li has an order, evacuate Yuhuatai tonight, and after entering the city, in addition to secretly executing Lu Jianying, Wu Liang, Xiao Yang and others, you must also move all the gold and silver treasures they raised back to Shanghai, do you understand?" ”

The three commanders suddenly smiled and said: "Commander, rest assured, Lord Li has already explained before leaving, Guan Bao will scrape the wealth of Jinling and will never leave it to the Taiping army." ”

Fu Xuexian nodded and said, "Okay, since the three of them are clear about their tasks, let's act immediately!" ”

The three of them sang in unison, and immediately returned to their respective units and prepared for action.