On the morning of September 21, Huguang Changsha Mansion

In the lobby of the backyard of the governor's yamen, He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang, Fu Shangrui, the governor of Biyuan, Dao Zhangkuang, the superintendent of the army, the prefect of Changsha, Wang Jincai, the chief soldier of Changsha, Wang Yuncheng, the chief soldier of the naval division, and Dong Ying, Wu Chengzong, Xiang Dengwei and other generals of the superintendent and Fubiao battalion gathered together. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Everyone present sat on both sides of the two classes of civil and military, silently looking at He Tengjiao who was sitting in the first place, no one spoke, and the atmosphere in the lobby was solemn.

He Tengjiao also looked serious, and after scanning the faces of the people below, he said: "Everyone, this Northern Expedition is not only related to the trend of the situation in Huguang, but also related to whether our Huguang army can be ashamed!" As long as our army can successfully recover Yuezhou and even Hubei, the situation in the Huguang war will be completely reversed, and we will have more hope for the recovery of rivers and mountains. And those rumors against my Huguang Wenchen generals will also be self-defeating......"

Listening to He Tengjiao's generous speech on it, the faces of the people sitting below did not show any surprise, obviously they had been notified before.

The Northern Expedition was decided by He Tengjiao after consulting with Fu Shangrui and Zhang Kuang, and was also recognized by the governor of Huguang stationed in Changde, Du Yinxi.

The reason why He Tengjiao decided to go on the Northern Expedition was mainly due to two reasons. Originally, he thought that Emperor Longwu would thoroughly investigate his delay in the pace of the car after entering Huguang, but Emperor Longwu seemed to have forgotten about this matter, and did not pursue himself excessively about the defeat of the new wall in June, and received the envoy he sent to Hengzhou as usual and encouraged him to continue to guard the side of the imperial court. This almost abnormal situation made He Tengjiao feel a little apprehensive, so he hoped to achieve the goal of covering up his mistakes by taking some practical actions.

In addition, only two months after He Tengjiao's pro-army was defeated in the Battle of the New Wall, the soldiers of Ganzhou Town achieved a great victory of beheading thousands of people under the leadership of the general soldier Pang Yue and kept the important town of Ganzhou. This stark contrast aroused a lot of criticism from the government and the opposition against He Tengjiao, and some officials who had had a holiday with him even laughed behind his back for wasting food and salary and achieving nothing. He Tengjiao, who has always paid attention to his personal reputation, certainly can't tolerate this situation, and he dreams of using a victory to break those rumors.

“…… At present, most of the eastern captives in the northern part of Huguang have been withdrawn, and most of the remaining ones are newly attached to the green battalion. He Tengjiao's tone was full of confidence, "The only one stationed in Yuezhou is the rebel general Ma Jiaolin. Therefore, as long as our army is full of strength and moves north, Yuezhou can go down every day! Even Wuchang and Jingzhou can be recovered in one fell swoop! ……”

He Tengjiao's self-confidence is not without reason. At present, the Qing army stationed in Yuezhou only surrendered to the Qing Dynasty last year, and the troops in battle are only 3,000 people, which can be described as weak, but the strength in the hands of He Tengjiao, Zhang Kuang, and Fu Shangrui is much stronger, and the men and horses of the Supervising Biao and Fubiao battalions plus the Changsha General Soldier Wang Jincai Division, a total of nearly 30,000 people, plus the 4,000 naval divisions of Wang Yuncheng's department, can almost form an absolute advantage over the Qing army in Yuezhou. What's more, Ma Jiaolin was originally the deputy general of Daming Yuezhou, and He Tengjiao was naturally clear about the combat effectiveness of his army.

In addition, He Tengjiao also agreed in the letter with Du Yinxi that when he personally supervised Wang Jincai and other troops from Changsha to Yuezhou through Xiangyin, Du Yinxi also supervised Ma Jinzhong's troops from Changde to the north, into the Yangtze River and down to form a flanking attack on Yuezhou, and after conquering Yuezhou, the two armies would join forces and take the opportunity to collect Zhuzhou County in Hubei. Once the Northern Expedition goes well, it will undoubtedly be a miracle.

“…… If we can recover Yuezhou and even the entire Huguang in one fell swoop this time, it will definitely greatly boost the morale of the military and people of our dynasty" He Tengjiao became more and more excited the more he spoke, and his face was flushed with red light, "This governor will also truthfully play the court and ask for credit for you one by one!" ”…,

"Lord Governor, the Northern Expedition is very important," After He Tengjiao finished speaking, Dong Ying, the general of his Governor Battalion, said cautiously, "Although there are not many Huguang Qingqing, we must also beware of the sudden arrival of its reinforcements, such as the Battle of Jingzhou at the beginning of this year......"

"Nonsense!" Hearing Dong Ying say about the Battle of Jingzhou at the beginning of this year, He Tengjiao was suddenly furious, and his three beautiful long beards also trembled, "Yuezhou is close at hand, our army is coming, can the reinforcements of the Qing Dynasty fall from the sky?!" ”

Dong Ying suddenly stopped talking, and the rest of the generals did not speak again, especially Wu Chengzong and Xiang Deng, who returned from a crushing defeat in the Battle of the New Wall in June this year, and even lowered their heads and looked at the bluestone floor tiles at their feet.

After retiring Dong Ying, He Tengjiao encouraged everyone again: "You don't have to worry, as long as our army works together, there is nothing to worry about!" That Ganzhou General Army Pang Yue relied on the inferior army, and still repelled the menacing Qing captives in the future, and now our army has strong soldiers and horses, what is there to fear? ”

After the words came out, He Tengjiao realized that something was wrong: how could he take that unruly Pang Yue as a model? However, on the surface, he was still quiet: "I have agreed with Dufutai to officially send troops in four days, and everyone should go back and prepare!" ”

Everyone in the lobby stood up one after another, and bowed their hands to He Tengjiao: "Obey!" ”

On the morning of the third day of October, Huguangchen Prefecture was in charge

Chenzhou is the Huaihua City of Hunan Province in later generations, located in the west of Xiangxi, since ancient times it has been called "the gateway of Guizhou and Yunnan", "the throat of all Chu", in later generations it is the bridgehead leading to the southwest in the eastern and central regions and an important transportation hub city in China, and it is also known as the "city dragged by trains".

However, at present, the scale of Chenzhou Capital City is not very large, and it is slightly insufficient compared to Ganzhou City.

At this moment, at the gate of a certain house in the north of the city, several soldiers wearing mandarin duck battle jackets are working together to hang a brand-new plaque above the gate, and on the plaque on the black background are six gilded characters "Huguang General Soldier Yamen".

After a while, Pang Yue, who was dressed in civilian clothes, walked out of the gate, and the soldiers who had just finished their work hurriedly saluted. Pang Yue smiled and nodded to everyone, and then walked down the stone steps at the door and came to the street, where Wei Yuan led some personal soldiers to follow him in civilian clothes.

In the evening of the day before yesterday, Pang Yue had just arrived in Chenzhou with his army. When he first arrived, there was a lot of work to be done and socializing, and he hardly had much rest yesterday, meeting with visiting guards and local officials, arranging for the camp of the army, discussing with his subordinates the preparation of barracks, school grounds, recruiting new soldiers, and so on, and he was busy from early morning until midnight.

This morning, Pang Yue decided to go to the camp in the city to visit the soldiers, and then walk around the city to get a preliminary understanding of the situation and prepare for various affairs in the future.

Walking on the streets of the city, looking at the pedestrians in various costumes, and listening to the vaguely familiar accent, Pang Yue almost had a feeling of returning to the afterlife, and he couldn't help but have a sense of intimacy with the city in front of him.

Pang Yue first came directly to the camp in the city. Seeing the arrival of the chief soldier, the soldiers were very excited. Pang Yue was also very satisfied with the mental state of the soldiers, although he had been on the road for more than ten days in a row, there was not much fatigue on their faces. In addition, there were not enough barracks in the big camp in the city, so everyone set up tents in the open field, and there was no confusion in an orderly manner. Despite the long journey, and despite the lack of school space, the battalions and teams still did not relax their training, but took turns to carry out some light training programs under the organization of officers.

Seeing the hot scene in front of him and the young and energetic faces, Pang Yue was greatly grateful: this is the soldier he wants, this is the army he wants. …,

Coming out of the camp, Pang Yue went to Chenzhou Wei's Ordnance Bureau to take a look. Although the situation of the Chenzhou Wei Weapons Bureau was better than that of the original Ganzhou Wei Weapons Bureau, at least no one went to the empty house, Pang Yue could know from the few remaining craftsmen and their blank eyes: There are still many things to do.

After inspecting the various workshops of the Ordnance Bureau and asking some craftsmen at random, Pang Yue began to return to the Yamen of the General Army along the road with Wei Yuan and others.

Shuttling through the crowd of people coming and going, Wei Yuan, who followed Pang Yue closely behind, seemed to be unfazed on the surface, but he never dared to relax in his heart, under his arrangement, a group of capable soldiers were also dressed in civilian clothes and scattered among the surrounding crowd, widening their eyes to be on guard against emergencies at all times.

As he walked, Pang Yue saw a sudden commotion in front of him, and some people around him who liked to watch the excitement rushed up one after another. Wei Yuan hurriedly asked his soldiers to shrink the defense line and guard around Pang Yue.

I saw that there was a large circle of people in front of me, and the dense human heads were faint, but I couldn't see the situation clearly. The various sounds that came out of it were mixed together, making it noisy and even more indistinguishable. But anyone with a discerning eye can see that it will certainly not be a good thing.

"Let's go and have a look!" Pang Yue gave Wei Yuan an order, and then took the lead and walked forward.

"Yes, sir."