Chapters 512 and 513 were released in a row, and the three shifts have been completed, two more chapters were issued at 2 p.m., and one chapter was sent at 7 p.m

Old Summer Palace, Western Building.

"Which way should these three Ming armies be fought......"

Yang Xiuqing was a little undecided, the three-way Ming army of the Northern Expedition must be the strongest of the Western Route Army personally commanded by Zhu Jishi, and Yang Xiuqing was unwilling to meet this Ming army first. The remaining two roads, Miao Peilin commanded the East Route Army has a lot of numbers, after merging the defenders in Jinan City, I am afraid that there are 150,000 or 60,000 troops, which is not elite, but this road soldier and the Ming Army West Route Army are not far away, Miao Peilin is cunning and cunning, if it is besieged by the main force of the Taiping Army, it is likely to shrink into a group and wait for help.

If you don't hit the east road, then it seems that you can only hit the north road. But you have to hit the North Road...... However, they could not do anything outside the pass, because there were quite a few troops in the towns of western Liaoning and eastern Liaodong, and there was a rather elite Fourth Army in the Shenyang and Liaoyang areas. If the battle starts outside the pass, Zhu Ming's main forces in Liaodong and Liaoxi will definitely come to support, and the Taiping army will break its front teeth at that time.

However, it is not good to lose Shanhaiguan to the Ming Army's Northern Route Army, and let them swagger into the customs, in case they can't be defeated with one blow, let them dig trenches and defend them...... It seems that the Ming army used the tactics of barbed wire to build trenches in the Battle of Ningjin, which caused the Qing army, which was 10 times its size, to run into a head and break blood. Of course, the Taiping Army is not the kind of waste of the Qing army, how can it gather and annihilate the opponent with 10 times the number of soldiers, but ...... What about casualties? The Ming army on the northern route had about 30,000 soldiers, and if it was annihilated with three times the losses, would the Taiping army still have the strength to fight the Ming army on the east and west? Therefore, the Ming army still blocked them outside the Shanhai Pass on this way.

In this way, it is difficult to start fighting on the West Road? This way is the main force commanded by Zhu Jishi himself......

"Henan Urgent. Xiangcheng and Guide Fucheng were attacked by the Ming army. It is reported that they are all elite ...... of the Ming army"

Lin Fengxiang's loud voice sounded. pulled Yang Xiuqing's somewhat depressed mood up. The elite of the Ming army appeared in Xiangcheng and Guide Mansion!? When was this!?

"The eight hundred miles of the Northern King's expedited should have been sent from Kaifeng 2 days ago...... The two urgent reports were sent at the same time, and Xiangcheng and Guide City were also attacked on the same day. ”

Without waiting for Yang Xiuqing to ask questions, Lin Fengxiang first pointed out the main points, time is very important, Xiangcheng and Guide Fucheng are more than 250 miles apart, and the two places were attacked by the Ming army at the same time, which shows that the Ming army's West Route Army has been divided into two routes. All the way to the northwest through Guide Mansion to open the Fengfu; All the way, Xiangcheng and Xuchang went to Zhengzhou.

"Where are the Ming Army's East Route Army and North Route Army?"

Yang Xiuqing hurriedly asked again.

After Miao Peilin relieved the siege of Jinan, he stationed troops in Jinan and did not move. Confronted King Lin Wei's soldiers across the Yellow River, and there was no sign of crossing the river for the time being. In addition, the military newspaper also said that the Yellow River had been completely frozen, and now the moat was gone.

The military report of King Hu Liao arrived in the morning, and the Ming army was bombarding the Shanhaiguan Pass with heavy artillery, but the Shanhaiguan Pass was strong and the Ming army could not do anything for a while. ”

Lin Fengxiang said calmly, not showing the slightest nervousness, Yang Xiuqing nodded, this Lin Fengxiang does have the style of a general.

"Then order the king of the north to divide his troops to guard Kaifeng, Xuchang and Zhengzhou, and tell the king of the north. This king will not be able to ask the army to go to Henan to fight against Zhu Demon Head, so that he will hold the ...... no matter what."

Yang Xiuqing paused here when he said this. looked at Lin Fengxiang: "Is there any movement in Luoyang?" ”

"The Heavenly King has not yet issued an edict to start a war with the Zhu Demon Head, some time ago, Tianmei arrived in Luoyang from Yingtian and is living in the Heavenly King's Mansion."

Yang Xiuqing sighed softly, this Hong Xiuquan is too ignorant of the importance of the Dao, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is already weak compared to Zhu Ming, if he concentrates all his strength, he can still fight, but now Hong Xiuquan is watching from the wall, does he really think that after he loses, he can still support the situation alone?

However, this complaint can only be kept in my heart now, the unity on the surface of the kingdom of heaven must be maintained, and if this Hong Xiuquan is willing to look at it, it will be good.

"Ask the king, you said that Zhu Jishi would be on that road? Is it going to Kaifeng, or is it the way to Xuchang? ”

Yang Xiuqing's train of thought turned back to the decisive battle, and he asked casually.

"It's time to attack Kaifeng, right?" Lin Fengxiang said uncertainly, "Kaifeng is the capital of Henan Province, and it is also the residence of the Northern King, and the head of the Zhu Demon must be going to Kaifeng." King Dong, do you think we are going south? ”

Hum...... Yang Xiuqing's nostrils made two soft sounds, and he sneered, this Zhu Jishi can't wait to lead the army south to Kaifeng, right? Take Kaifeng first, and then go straight to Zhengzhou, which can separate the south of Henan from the north, and are you afraid that the Taiping army there will not go? Why did he divide his troops and take Xiangcheng? There must be fraud, but there is also a chance

Yang Xiuqing said in a deep voice: "The third army on the right in the middle and rear of the East Palace, the fourth army in the right center before and after the foreign guns, the fifth army of the horse army, and the eight armies in Tuntian are fully equipped with military rations for one month, and they will set off in three days!" ”

This time, the main force of the Taiping Army dispatched as many as 20 armies! The total number of troops is more than 250,000, and all of them are soldiers!

"King Dong, where are we going?" Lin Fengxiang asked in a low voice.

Yang Xiuqing said: "You first lead 50,000 soldiers to Jinan under my banner!" ”

……

"The income from money and food is really low......

In the city of Guide Mansion, Zhu Jishi muttered while flipping through the account books of the Guide Mansion and the letter of allegiance sent by the local gentry of Guide. A few days ago, he personally led 58,000 elite Ming troops to attack Defu, and it only took a few hours to break the city. In fact, there was not much fighting, the Taiping army defending the city was not elite, and the number was not much, the leader was a division commander named Zhong Liangxiang, who was from Hubei, and was paralyzed by fright when he saw the vast military appearance of Zhu Ming's army, and as soon as the Ming army opened fire, he sent an envoy to ask for surrender, and became a traitor to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Zhu Jishi asked this Zhongda traitor, only to learn that he was originally a Confucian student, and was coerced by the Taiping Army when he was studying in Wuchang. However, looking at the money and grain account books of Guide Mansion, Zhu Jishi was very dissatisfied with Wei Changhui's appointment, and this Zhong Liangxiang was simply incompetent and cowardly.

Nuoda is a guide to the German government, and last year's autumn tax collected less than 100,000 stone of grain and 1,300 taels of silver. There were also some cloths, cured meats, livestock, poultry and other miscellaneous things. Not much. Together, they are worth at most one or two thousand taels of silver. This income, in exchange for any county directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, will be multiplied several times, and I don't know if the road is enough for the Taiping Army garrison and township officials in Defu?

"The gentry's allegiance is stacked...... It seems that the Taiping army took the route of the city being surrounded by the countryside......"

Looking at the letter of loyalty, the content on it is much the same, it is nothing more than the owner of a certain village organized the people to fight, according to the fortress and the Taiping army thieves insisted on fighting, fighting N times, destroying the enemy, and so on. If you add the number of enemies destroyed on this stack of allegiances. It is estimated that there is no 100,000 and no less than 80,000! It's unlikely that there are that many, but dividing that number by ten is quite impressive. The weakness of the Taiping army's control over the countryside can be seen, but the rise of so many squire armies in Henan will always be a trouble in the future.

In addition, there is another problem that Zhu Jishi did not expect, that is, as the Guide Mansion fell into the hands of the Ming army, the armed forces of the Guide gentry who were originally suppressed by the Taiping Army began to go out to hunt down and kill the original supporters of the Taiping Army! And the scattered Taiping troops fell into the grass one after another, or entrenched in danger, or robbed houses, and the whole area of Guide fell into a state of full-scale civil war.

Military advisor Luo Zenan saw Zhu Jishi's face solemn. He smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, the people here in Guide Mansion have always been fierce. Twister, Tianlijiao, Dadaohui, Bagua Society and other folk bandits want to be active, in the past, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty was there, it was already faintly unable to suppress, and now the war has been in turmoil for many years, and the local area has been completely out of control, but I am afraid that it will be difficult to restore calm in a short period of time. ”

Zhu Jishi nodded, from chaos to chaos, from chaos to difficulty!

"Do you have any good advice for me?"

Luo Zenan said: "If the emperor wants to ask for a quick treatment, he can only use the strong and the weak to fight the poison with poison." ”

"There is no problem with the disadvantage of being strong and powerful, it is a big deal to clean it up in the future, but once these people take power, I am afraid that they will massacre the remnants of the Taiping army......" Zhu Jishi frowned and said, "Strategist, you go and tell Zhong Liangxiang that I have appointed him as a recruit, and with my edict of abonement, I will recruit the Taiping officers and soldiers scattered all over the country, gather these people and place them in the city of Guide Mansion, and tell them that I am fighting for the world with Hong Yang, and it has nothing to do with them, and when the Central Plains is decided, I will definitely settle them properly." ”

Chapter 513 The Ming Army also has a trap

Jinan, in a secluded courtyard in the Yamen of the governor of Shandong, the famous anti-smoking hero in history, a generation of famous ministers who made Emperor Daoguang hate in this time and space, Lin Zexu, the leader of the Qingliu, has now reached the point where he is seriously ill and difficult to recover - of course, it is not hopeless, but it is just a more serious hernia, Chinese medicine has no choice, Western medicine, there is no way to take this disease, but since Dr. Zhu created a new era of surgery, the surgical skills of Western medicine have been significantly improved in a short period of time. Hernias can already be treated surgically.

At present, in the Ming Dynasty, there are not many medical skills with such excellent medical skills, only two. The other is Professor Liszt, the director of the Hong Kong Jishi Hospital, who knew Zhu Jishi when he was in England and was a famous surgeon who was hired by Zhu Jishi to teach at the Faculty of Medicine of Jishi University. There is also one who is Zhu Jishi, the son of the Great Tomorrow. Zhu Jishi originally wanted Liszt to come north to heal Lin Zexu, but Lin Daqingliu did not have a good impression of foreign devils, especially British devils, so he would rather lie on the hospital bed and hum, waiting for the emperor Lao Tzu to come and personally operate on him after the battle, rather than being knifed by a British doctor.

During this time, the siege of Jinan had been lifted, and Lin Zexu also handed over all the military affairs to Zeng Guofan and Miao Peilin, who had just arrived, and he was bedridden to recuperate. Pan Shien also arrived in Jinan, and now he is in front of his sickbed, chatting with him about the various measures of the Ming Dynasty these days, some of which make Lin Zexu quite refreshing.

Lin Zexu leaned on the pillow, half-sat and half-lay on the bed, listening quietly. After Pan Shien finished speaking, after another half a while, he frowned and said, "This ...... The Constituent Assembly doesn't sound bad, and the major state affairs are brought to the public, so that the lower situation can be uploaded, and the dispute between friends and parties is superficial, but it is not bad, we also have to fight, but it is a pity that my body is no longer good, otherwise Fuzhou will still be able to say a few words. ”

Pan Shien smiled, Lin Zexu's attitude towards the Constituent Assembly was as he expected, and it was not very resistant. In fact, there is nothing wrong with this parliament in the first place, it is a place where people can talk and discuss the gains and losses of the government. It is also said to guarantee that the speaker will not be convicted for his words. It's good governance.

The only problem is that the way in which the members of the Constituent Assembly are elected is linked to the payment of taxes. It smells a bit of copper! However, this is not a big problem for Lin Zexu, the leader of Fujian Shilin, and Pan Shien, the leader of Jiangnan Shilin. Fujian and Jiangnan have developed industry and commerce. Taxes are paid a lot, and their share in the Constituent Assembly is not too low. Unlike Hunan, they are all rich landowners, guarding a few acres of land to collect rent, and they can't make a fortune in their lives, and they can't pay a few taxes. Therefore, the Xianghu faction was quite disgusted with this Constituent Assembly at first, but now it has formed an alliance with the Lanfang faction under the central liaison of the queen to organize the Zhengdao Society, and is now soliciting celebrities to flow into the Association.

In the same way, the Royalist Society is also expanding its membership with great fanfare. The eyes of both sides were fixed on the local public bureaus and the election of the Constituent Assembly after the end of the Northern Expedition. Although this Constituent Assembly does not have the power to elect a cabinet. But the power of suggestion and impeachment is no longer small, and the parliaments of many European countries in this era are only advisory bodies.

"Shao Mu, you have a good relationship with Zuo Jigao, probably to join the Righteous Path Society, right?" Pan Shien stroked his white beard and said, "The old man wants to protect the emperor." His grandson Pan Zuyin is the secretary of the imperial study, and he is known as the top five talents of the imperial palace along with Weng Tongyi, Wang Tao, Yu Wenbao, Zhao Liewen, etc. - this is the emperor's intention to support Jiangnan scholars to divide the power of the Xianghu faction! How could Pan Lao Fox not understand? However, he also knew that Xianghu's power would definitely be limited, but the collapse was impossible, and Zhu Jishi would not let the Royalist Society dominate, so he persuaded Lin Zexu to support the Righteous Dao Society.

Lin Zexu nodded silently. didn't speak, at this time his son Lin Ruzhou suddenly walked in in a hurry. When he saw his father awake, he shouted loudly: "Father, it's not good, Changmao (the nickname of the Shandong people for the Taiping Army) is calling again!" ”

Lin Zexu and Pan Shien glanced at each other, and they both showed surprised expressions, why did this long hair just retreat, why did it make a comeback?

Lin Zexu asked, "How many people came?" ”

"Countless! Approaching the Yellow River and camping, it looks like we are about to cross the river! Lin Ruzhou replied with a cool breath.

When Lin Zexu and Pan Shien, supported by their servants, climbed the north gate tower of Jinan and looked at the north bank of the Yellow River with binoculars. Yang Xiuqing's banner had been raised outside the newly entrenched Taiping army camp on the north bank of the Yellow River, and the Taiping soldiers were busy setting up camp, digging trenches, and building camp walls. According to the estimates reported by the sentinels, the Taiping army in Jinan is likely to exceed 100,000.

The news that the soldiers and horses of the Taiping Army Brigade appeared under the city of Jinan again reached Guidefu, and the officers of the Jinyi Guards and the Third Army Division and above gathered in the city of Guidefu, the main force of the Taiping Army appeared, but everyone was excited, and the big battle that decided the ownership of the world was finally going to be staged, this is a good opportunity for meritorious service!

"At least 100,000 people...... Now attack and destroy this Taiping army, Yang Xiuqing Sancheng will have no more men and horses, and he will never dare to fight again! ”

Luo Xuan shouted angrily, he succeeded Su Yuniang as the commander of the Jinyi Guards, but his reputation cannot be compared with Su Yuniang, and many people in the team are not convinced, so now they stretch their necks and want to make meritorious contributions.

"It's only 100,000 people...... The General Staff estimated that Yang Xiuqing had more than 300,000 combatable troops at his disposal, and he also had a large number of cavalry. Where are the remaining 200,000 people? ”

Old Peel shook his head, the 100,000 Taiping Army didn't need the Jinyi Guards and the 3rd Army to dispatch at all, and the hundreds of thousands of training troops gathered in Jinan could deal with it.

"Will the remaining 200,000 people be on their way to Kaifeng?"

Ren Yijiang, the commander of the Sixth Army, tentatively analyzed: "Could it be that Yang Xiuqing also divided his troops into two routes, all the way to resist the East Route Army and all the way to the West Route Army?" ”

Such a possibility also exists, but it is not very high, because although Yang Xiuqing has a lot of soldiers, his combat effectiveness is much worse than that of the Ming army after all, and the division of troops is bound to be defeated. His greatest advantage is that he can fight on the inside line, and he can concentrate his forces to defeat the incoming enemy in various ways. With Yang Xiuqing's military talent, it is impossible for him to give up the only chance to turn the tables.

"Where is Yang Xiuqing's 200,000 troops likely waiting for us...... Yang Xiuqing had a large number of cavalry in his hands, and the terrain west of Jinan Mansion was very flat, and the Yellow River was in a frozen state, which was very suitable for cavalry combat. He may want to use the 100,000 troops approaching Jinan as bait to attract our troops to come to the aid and defeat us halfway. ”

Old Peel took a map and sketched a route from Guide City to Jinan, and made a few crosses along the way.

This analysis seems to be closer to the actual situation than Ren Yijiang's. At present, there are 58,000 Ming troops concentrated in Guide Province, and a large number of baggage and people have also arrived in Guide Province, which need to be protected by soldiers, and Guide Province itself also needs to leave defenders. In this way, there are only less than 50,000 troops that can reinforce Jinan, and Yang Xiuqing concentrates 200,000 people to fight 50,000, which seems to have a bit of a chance of winning!

"Your Majesty, it's better to plan and fight with Yang Xiuqing!" After a little calculation in his heart, Luo Xuan thought that this battle would be won, "I am up and down the brocade guards, and I only want to fight!" ”

"One against four...... It's easy to defeat them, but is it safe to gather and annihilate? Zhu Jishi looked at Jérôme on his left. Pierre.

Jérôme. Peel must be the most awesome general on Zhu Jishi's side, he silently calculated in his heart, with one enemy and four, it is certain to win, but it is not easy to let Yang Xiuqing lose at the bottom, compared to Yang Xiuqing is not stupid, he will definitely run when he sees the signs wrong. Although the 6,000 cavalry of the Ming army is very strong in combat, and the 10 times the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cavalry is not an opponent, but after all, the number is too small, how much can the Taiping army catch up if they want to spread out and run?

"You need to set another trap for His Royal Highness the Eastern King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and you need to take a little risk...... Let Yang Xiuqing see a greater chance of winning. (To be continued......)