December 18, 1849, Huaibei, Xuzhou.

The Taiping army, commanded by Wei Changhui, the king of the north, claimed to be 300,000, but in fact no less than 200,000, began the early tactical action of attacking Xuzhou. The infantry of the Taiping army was deployed in divisions, controlling the passage to Xuzhou City, cutting off the communication between Xuzhou City and the surrounding cities, and pulling out the Miao Army strongholds around Xuzhou City. And Miao Peilin ordered the Miao army stationed at various key points in Xuzhou Mansion to hold on to the end, and at the same time sent a horse team to cover the infantry of more than 10,000 people to fight with the Taiping army.

The exchange of fire between the vanguard forces on both sides was brief and not intense. Wei Changhui brought a lot of soldiers and horses, but what he could really fight was his Beidian descendants and Zeng Tianyang's foreign spear army, and the rest were all strong men brought from Henan, Shandong and other places, with very poor equipment and little will to fight, so they were used as cannon fodder by Wei Changhui. And Miao Peilin's soldiers are all upgraded from local regimental training, and there are many green battalion soldiers in Shandong, Henan, Anhui and other places who were incorporated by Miao Peilin, and they are really not good at field warfare, but it is a cover to defend the city and fight in a stupid battle - Miao Peilin himself is an "old hedgehog", specializing in how to defend, and rarely pays attention to how to attack.

So the 18 December battle was not worth mentioning, but both sides agreed that it had achieved its intended purpose. Both sides believe that the other is not an elite, and since it is not an elite, then there is nothing to worry about. Wei Changhui and Miao Peilin breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

On December 19, the Taiping army had completed the encirclement of Xuzhou City and established starting positions on all sides of Xuzhou. At the same time, the excavation of the long trenches of the siege began. Historically, the Hunan army used to dig trenches and besiege the city to deal with the Taiping army. And in this time and space, the Taiping army often besieged the city. Over time, he mastered the method of digging trenches and besieging them, and the previous Qufu was besieged by the Taiping army with trenches for more than half a year before it fell.

On December 25, the long trench besieging Xuzhou City was dug up, and a cannon was pulled from the Jiulishan camp to the outside of Xuzhou City and entered the firing position. The senior generals of the Taiping Army also came to the front line one after another and began to inspect the battlefield.

The city of Xuzhou is of course a strong city, the city wall is tall and strong, and there are trenches dug outside the city wall. The earthen wall was built, and there were layers of deer in addition to the earthen wall, which gave people the feeling that it was "indestructible", "impregnable", "easy to defend and difficult to attack".

However, the three kings of Wei Changhui, Zeng Tianyang and Qin Rigang did not show much concern, but only postponed the original start date of the siege by three days, and ordered all departments to collect materials and make siege equipment. And choose the area around the west gate of Xuzhou as the main breakthrough point. Prepare to tear through the opponent's defenses and break under the Xuzhou city wall with more troops than the enemy's firepower capacity, and then seek a breakthrough in one fell swoop with the cooperation of Neiying.

On December 26, 27, and 28, while preparing for a general attack, the Taiping army launched some small-scale attacks in order to clear some obstacles in front of the Miao army's position. A passage was opened for the general assault force. Both sides used foreign guns and shotguns to fire at each other, and also used artillery to bombard each other. The worst result was that the Taiping army paid thousands of casualties. A considerable part of the deer was cleared, and the Miao army once again proved that it was not a real elite with actual combat, although the forward troops did not waver and retreated, but they did not dare to leave the fortifications to fight hand-to-hand with the Taiping army.

In the early morning of December 29, the main attacking troops of the Taiping Army began to eat breakfast, which was white flour steamed buns with meat, half a catty per person, and a little liquor, which was used to strengthen their courage. All the soldiers devoured their food, and entered the starting position under the leadership of the two Simas, the commander of the army, and the commander of the pawn.

According to the plan of Wei Changhui and others, they are ready to invest three armies in the direction of Xuzhou West Gate to launch an attack at one time, including Zeng Tianyang's descendant foreign gun left army! Most of the artillery of Wei Changhui's troops, including 55 12-pounder Western field guns, is also concentrated here at the West Gate!

In addition, two corps in the north hall served as reserves, and three corps launched diversionary attacks in other directions.

And there are still thousands of people in Xuzhou City, who will do something in the city after the Taiping army begins to attack the city wall!

……

In the Forbidden City of Tianfu, Zuo Zongtang, Liu Peng, Luo Zenan, Luo Bingzhang and Pan Zengshou all stared at Zhu Jishi, Zhu Jishi's face was unacceptable, and they all frowned, as if they had just had an argument. And the reason for the dispute between their monarchs and ministers was not the war in the north, but a 12-year public school, Oto Imperial City Public School.

"Your Majesty, the Imperial City Public School shoulders the heavy responsibility of educating the prince, and the chief master of the public school must carefully consider it, and it should not be rash."

"Your Majesty thinks that the master of the Imperial City Public School can be chosen among the secretaries, and Weng Shuping and Pan Zaizhong can be responsible for this."

Hearing that a major minister recommended Weng Tongyi to become a public school teacher, Zhu Jishi was almost angry. It's a public school, not a study! Can you use Weng Tonggong to teach? Besides, this has not taught any "generation of heroes" in history, just look at the fate of Emperor Guangxu.

And Zhu Jishi also has a favorite candidate for the president of the public school in his heart, that is, Rong Hong, a graduate of the Law Department of Hong Kong Jishi University - this person Zhu Jishi knew in his previous life that he was the first person to study in China! However, he did not go to the United States on this plane, but was brought to Jishi Academy by his teacher, the American missionary Brown, who was also a teacher at Jishi Academy. After a year of studying at Jishi Academy, Rong Hong was admitted to Jishi University and became the first batch of students of Jishi University, and he will graduate from Jishi University in the first half of next year.

He graduated with another 71 Chinese students and 33 white students, 72 of whom have been called "72 Virtuous Men of the World" by Ta Kung Pao, and it seems that there is no need to worry about finding a job!

However, Zhu Jishi did not arrange all these young people with Western-style higher education to high positions all at once, but issued an edict ordering all local governments not to hire the first batch of graduates of Jishi University, because Zhu Jishi's cultivation of these people is to spread the spark of Western science and humanistic thought, not to become bureaucrats - of course, it does not mean that these people will never be allowed to enter politics, but that they must accumulate enough work experience before entering the officialdom.

According to Zhu Jishi's vision, the most suitable job for these Western talents is teachers, and now there are many Western-style or Chinese-Western academies and universities in the Ming Dynasty, but there are almost no qualified Western teachers of Ming nationality. Either foreigners are teaching, or some half-bottle ink crash course graduates are making do with teaching, and you can imagine what the students are like.

Of course, the important ministers in the Ming Dynasty have no opinions on such an arrangement, and no one wants a group of "protégés of the Son of Heaven" to compete for official positions with them, right?

But the problem is that none of them regard the principal of the Imperial City Public School as an inconsequential position - this public school is responsible for teaching the future Great Tomorrow, the prince and the princess, if it is placed in the pseudo-Qing Dynasty, it will be the chief master of the upper study! Nine times out of ten in the future, he will be able to mix with the prime minister of the cabinet, how can he not fight?

Therefore, as soon as the candidate for the head of the Imperial City Public School was determined by Rong Hong, there were immediately ministers who opposed it! Zhu Jishi convened today's meeting to finalize this matter before his own personal conquest.

The courtiers' answers were all words, and they did not agree with Rong Hong to take this position, thinking that Rong Hong's level of Western learning is high, but the middle school is not good (in fact, it is not bad, the level of Confucianism professors in Jishi University is not bad, and many of them are former dynasty jinshi), and after all, the middle school is the foundation, at least the bachelor of the Hong Confucian Academy can be appointed.

Zhu Jishi thought angrily: "These people probably think that my thinking is too Westernized, and there is no way to take me, so they pin their hopes on my successor, right?" I must not let this step go! ”

"How about I take the position of principal of the Imperial City Public School?" Zhu Jishi's face was already sunken, "I repeat again, the Imperial City Public School is an ordinary school, not a study, my prince is just an ordinary student in the public school, and this public school is not specially opened for my prince, your children and grandchildren can enroll as long as they want, but remember, no one is allowed to pay tribute to the prince in the public school, otherwise they will be expelled immediately!" That's it...... The funds for this Imperial City Public School are all funded, so who is the principal and who is the teacher has nothing to do with the cabinet. If you have this thought, let's think more about how to defeat Yang Xiuqing and recover half of the north! (To be continued......)