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Ying Tianfu Forbidden City, Cultural Palace. In this palace that had just been built, Zhu Jishi convened the cabinet, the Generalissimo's Mansion, the University Scholars' Mansion, the Dali Temple, the Supervision Yuan, and the Hongru Academy's ministers to hold a grand court meeting. After the ministers bowed, Zhu Datianzi smiled and waved, and did not mention government affairs, but talked about the south of Changsha City, Hengyang Shigu and Changsha Yuelu Academy. These three academies run by the Xianghu faction all follow the path of "middle school-oriented, Western learning for use", in fact, they are a combination of Chinese and Western, and middle schools are the mainstay. Among them, the content of Western learning is similar to that of Jishi Academy, which is equivalent to the level of Western-style middle school. However, this has made Zhu Jishi very satisfied, after all, these three academies are "Chinese and Western" academies run by the Ming Dynasty. This shows that some of the more enlightened scholars have begun to take the initiative to accept Western learning.

After greatly praising the three Xianghu Academies, the topic turned to the north, which was different from the previous main talk about the Northern Qing Dynasty, and the topic in the temple at this time focused on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

"I have sealed eight kings at a time, all of them are Yang Xiuqing's subordinates, and I am afraid that the dispute between Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing will soon be put on the table......"

Li Hongzhang, who had returned from Luoyang, had already been appointed as the governor and admiral of Jilin, and was soon going to command the Tenth Army (commander Zhang Jiaxiang), which had been expanded from 20,000 Huaiyong and a part of the Ming army, to Korea. However, when it comes to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he is particularly energetic, and boldly predicts that the Taiping Army is about to come in civil strife.

"This Hong Xiuquan bought guns and guns from us in the name of the Western Expedition, and his real purpose turned out to be for internal strife. As long as the two kings kill each other, the people of the Central Plains will not look south to the king? ”

Wu Chunqiu, the new secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has only just returned from Japan, and now he is also talking about the affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. is really worthy of being Daming's "internal expert". This time, however, the negotiations for the revision of the Peace of Tomorrow, which he was in charge of, went very smoothly. In fact, the relationship between Zhu Jishi and the Tokugawa shogunate is still in the honeymoon period - Zhu Datianzi is wholeheartedly helping the Tokugawa family to maintain the situation of locking the country, how can the Tokugawa family not know the way? Therefore, Zhu Ming's request to hire Japanese retainers to fight against Xiyi also opened the door. Anyway, there are many samurai in Japan, and the kind of people who have the world in mind and are penniless are all over Japan, so it is better to let them make trouble in the country. It's better to "go abroad".

As for Zhu Ming, it is true that elite soldiers who are skilled in martial arts and strong will will be used in the future northern conquests. Because it was difficult to use large forces in large numbers for operations in Khalkha, Mongolia and Siberia. In that case. A long and unprotected logistics line was enough to drag down the Ming army. Therefore, only a small group of elite troops can be invested to deal with the enemy, and the Japanese samurai are obviously an extremely suitable choice.

"Since there are signs of infighting in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, we might as well use troops to Korea and Manchuria as soon as possible, so that the two kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can rest assured that they are fighting among themselves."

Deputy Chief of General Staff Zhong Ziliang said in a deep voice. He was one of the first "Qing officials" to surrender to Zhu Ming. He has always been the deputy chief of the General Staff, but in fact he is a high-ranking herald, and he doesn't know much about how to fight the modern war. But what is the power struggle, and how can he not understand?

"Your Majesty, Yang Xiuqing is also the hero of the world, even if he wants to fight with Hong Xiuquan, there will be arrangements for us. So the more this time. The more we must be cautious, the more we must guard against changes in the north. ”

Military advisor Luo Zenan is not as confident as others. During this time, Zhu Ming suffered a lot in the process of fighting wits with Yang Xiuqing. Zhu Jishi stretched his eyebrows, touched his beard and smiled, this Yang Xiuqing will take the overall situation, Hong Xiuquan doesn't care so much, even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is demolished, he has to keep his position.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the military advisor is reasonable, Yang Xiuqing's plot is very big, and our dynasty has to be strictly vigilant."

Zuo Zongtang also stroked his beard, with a solemn expression between his eyebrows. The more favorable the situation is to Zhu Ming, the more we must pay attention to Yang Xiuqing, a heroic hero, who takes risks. The damage of Hong Yang's internal strife to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is probably more spiritual, and the belief in the Kingdom of Heaven is based on the godhead of God Yang and Sect Master Hong and Xiao Jesus, and now that "Jesus" has died in battle, God and his second son attack each other, this belief in God worship is not a little discounted. If there is no faith, why should the Taiping army fight against the Ming army?

"Since Zuo Xiang is also worried that Yang Xiuqing will take risks, then King Gu will personally conquer North Korea and go hunting with Yixin! The lonely king wants to see what tricks Yang Xiuqing can play. The smile on Zhu Jishi's face was even stronger, and the big words of the expedition to Korea had long been in front of the Qing envoy Guerjia. Yuanbao's face said it, but it was not taken seriously at that time, and now it is time to "fulfill" this promise.

……

"His Royal Highness the King of the East, no matter what the King of Heaven does with us, we will swear to follow His Royal Highness the King of the East to the death!"

Beijing, Old Summer Palace, in the Western Building.

The eight generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who had just been crowned king by Hong Xiuquan, all knelt at the feet of Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, and loudly expressed their loyalty. This is not all a lie. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can have today, the credit of Yang Xiuqing, the king of the East, is the main one, and Yang Xiuqing also has the privilege of "possession of God", with these two points, he is the supreme leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the true sense - although in later history books, it is believed that Hong Xiuquan was the leader of the early Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, but this view does not take into account the characteristics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's divine power over political power. Yang Xiuqing represents the supreme divine power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and is naturally the supreme leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, while Hong Xiuquan's Heavenly King is only equivalent to the head of state of the GC country in later generations who does not concurrently serve as the general secretary, and is not the real leader.

"The King of Heaven is really ...... is too disregarding the overall situation, doesn't he know that the general trend of the world is far from clear? Although the Qing Demon is declining, but Zhu Ming is getting bigger and bigger, if there is some problem within us, will we still have the situation that we have finally created? ”

Yang Xiuqing frowned and said slowly, during this time, his military affairs and government affairs were so busy that he didn't have the time to calculate the heavenly king in Luoyang City, but he didn't expect Hong Xiuquan to take him to the army at this time.

"There is news from Nanjing, saying that Zhu Jishi is preparing an expedition to North Korea, it seems that he wants to take Shengjing directly through North Korea, and take the old nest of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and we have time to sort out the interior."

Yang Fuqing's words were extremely explicit, and the four kings in the room, except for Li Kaifang, Lin Qirong, and Li Xiucheng, who were also confidants of the East Palace, couldn't help but take a breath.

"There is news coming back from the Shandong front line today, saying that Lin Demon Head seems to be seriously ill and can't be a director, and he is probably about to die......"

Zeng Tianyang, who was recalled by Yang Xiuqing from the Shandong front, suddenly reported the latest news received, Yang Xiuqing was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly stood up from the throne.

"God forbid, God is really helping me...... That's great! ”

His face was full of excitement, and he clenched his fists and swung them hard.

"Zhu Jishi is going to go on an expedition to North Korea, Lin Zexu is about to die of illness, Shandong will be owned by me! The order goes down, and the king will personally raise 300,000 soldiers to attack Shandong! ”

Yang Xiuqing waved his hand and gave the order for the army to go out. Of course, there are no 300,000 soldiers, this is the claim. Although Yang Xiuqing's troops are strong, there are many places to use troops. Although peace was reached with the Northern Qing Dynasty, troops still had to be sent to guard the Great Wall. The attack on Shanxi had also begun, and Li Xiucheng led eight armies (half of which were old brothers) from Jingcheng Pass into Jin and took Taiyuan directly. In addition, Henan and Shandong have already invested in large armies, and the old nest of Beijing City must also be guarded by troops. At present, Yang Xiuqing has at most 180,000 mobile troops at hand, but there are as many as 60,000 of the old brothers, and the combat effectiveness is really not weak.

Yang Xiuqing then gave another order: "Then send a message to the king of the north, and order him to lead 100,000 troops to the foot of Mount Tai to join the king, and the king will take Mount Tai first, and then level Qufu!" ”

Qin Rigang, the king of Yan, and Hu Yihuang, the king of Liao, glanced at each other when they heard this, the two of them had always been friends with the king of the north, and they knew that Yang Xiuqing's move was to force Wei Changhui to stand in line. If Wei Changhui obeys Yang Xiuqing, the 100,000 soldiers he brought will be cannon fodder, if he is not obedient, when Yang Xiuqing finishes fighting Shandong, the first person to clean up is Wei Changhui!

But what if Wei Changhui publicly fell to the Heavenly King? (To be continued......)