Today is still five watches, 12 o'clock plus one watch, frantically begging for monthly passes, recommendations, and subscriptions

Jining, Jinxiang County, Shandong.

On the afternoon of February 6, 1850 in the Gregorian calendar, snowflakes fell one after another, fluttering and falling with the northwest wind between heaven and earth, piling up on the ground layer by layer, turning the entire plain into a white picture. In Jihuang Town, 20 miles southwest of Jinxiang County, two large armies are facing each other from afar. One of the troops with the Sun and Moon Tonghui Banner and the Red Bottom Regiment Dragon Banner occupied the town of Jixiao, and dug a square trench around the town, and set up two wooden stakes and barbed wire fences outside the trench, and the dilapidated town was also strengthened and renovated, and the town was covered with tents inside and outside, and the Jinyi Guards led by Zhu Jishi himself were stationed here.

The official road from Jining to Guide winds its way through the town, and the surrounding fields are snow-white, and because of the war, the nearby villages are mostly uninhabited, with only dilapidated outlines and barren fields.

The town is surrounded by an endless wilderness, part of the Great Plain of North China, flat as if it were a tabletop, except for the villages and towns scattered in between, there is no dangerous terrain to rely on. So it is not surprising that the Ming army on the march immediately chose the largest nearby town to defend after encountering the Taiping army horse team in the afternoon of the previous day.

Li Kaifang has rushed to the front enemy of Jihuang Town, he came here to observe the terrain and the enemy's situation, he is one of the earliest believers of the God Worship Society, and also one of the five tiger generals of the Heavenly Kingdom, his status is second only to several kings and Qin Rigang, and he once commanded the foreign spear team of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom together with Zeng Tianyang, and has repeatedly performed miraculous feats since the beginning of the Battle of Chengqianling. Known as the champion of the three armies. Not long ago, he was named King Yong. But after being knighted. Li Kaifang seemed more and more depressed, rarely spoke, and seemed to be preoccupied.

The generals of the Taiping Army at his level naturally knew more about the inside story of the Dao, and the contradictions between the Heavenly King and the Eastern King had reached the point where it could not be concealed, and the combat effectiveness of the Taiping Army began to decline rapidly after conquering Beijing. Although the number of troops has increased several times, it no longer has the sharp attack power that it had during the Great War of Huaxian. And the new enemy of the kingdom of heaven, the Ming Dynasty, is stronger than the Manchu Qing, I don't know how much......

The rumbling sound of horses' hooves pulled Li Kaifang out of his thoughts, and a group of cavalry was galloping by. This is probably the cavalry that went to search the surrounding area and look for possible Ming ambushes returned. Li Kaifang always felt that it was a bit strange to encircle the Ming Emperor in Jihuang Town, maybe there was an ambush of the Ming army lurking somewhere nearby.

Looking at the defensive formation of the Ming army, Li Kaifang couldn't help but take a breath. This is an enlarged hollow phalanx, and a wire array is set up to dig a trench, and the town inside the trench also has an outer wall, although it is not very tall, but I really don't know how many people will die if it is to be defeated?

Putting down the binoculars, he sighed, and just wanted to turn the horse's head and leave here. I saw two fast horses galloping over, and the one riding on the horse was Hou Shiwei, the former commander of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Horse Army. "Lord Yongwang, the scout horse of the search has returned, and it is safe within a radius of a hundred miles, and the Zhu Demon seems to have been caught off guard by us."

Li Kaifang sighed, but then a sense of foreboding surged in his heart, he suppressed this thought, and then said to Hou Shiwei: "Continue to monitor, at noon tomorrow at the latest, His Royal Highness the East King will bring the main force over." ”

……

It was already night, but Zhu Jishi in Jiwei Town didn't seem to be ready to rest, and the lights in the Chinese army's tent were bright.

"Report!" A staff officer came in from outside, "The enemy has reinforcements arriving, more than 10,000 people, coming from the southwest with torches!" ”

Old Peel walked to Zhu Jishi's side and made a mark with red and blue pencils on a map: "This should be from the direction of Guide City, it is estimated that Yang Xiuqing will transfer all the cavalry." ”

Zhu Jishi smiled and said, "Yang Xiuqing's old book has been taken out...... Isn't this convenient for us to gather and annihilate, as long as we win this battle, Henan, Zhili, and Shanxi can probably change banners, right? ”

There is a saying in the military that winning six points in a war means that the ten goals set before the war are good to achieve six points. If you want to win ten points, unless the opponent is a big fool, but Yang Xiuqing is definitely not stupid, so if he can leave fifty or sixty percent of his troops, this battle will be very good.

Peel said: "This Yang Xiuqing prince is actually a genius general, and he will concentrate 5 times his troops to fight a decisive battle with me, if it weren't for the big gap between his old-style army and our new-style army in terms of combat power, this war would be really unpredictable." ”

Zhu Jishi said leisurely: "Even with the same army, I will defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it will take a little effort......"

Historically, didn't the garbage-like Manchu Qing defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? The system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was too advanced, at least it could be regarded as agricultural collectivization! It will probably succeed in another 100 years, right? Now it's simply impossible. Moreover, their leadership is too corrupt and uneducated, and the GCDs and Jews who later became agricultural collectivists are not at the same level at all. I really don't understand, how could the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have such a "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System"? It is to divide the land equally between the rich and the poor, and why not divide the land for nothing? This would probably be easier to get the support of farmers, right?

"Your Majesty, rest early, you may not be able to sleep tomorrow night." "I estimate that their main force will arrive tomorrow morning, spend half a day camping, and it will be possible to start attacking in the evening." ”

"Night attack?"

"Most of the time there will be night attacks!" "Their firepower can't compete with us, and the losses in the daytime attack are too great, so they will definitely choose to attack at night." ”

Zhu Jishi patted the table, "Okay, then let's fight at night!" He stood up and said to old Peel: "Old Peel, you should rest early, you are very old, you have to take care of it, and you will have to hold your grandson in the future!" ”

"Grandson?" Old Peel turned out to be an old bachelor, not only had he been married before, but his wife was Maria. Clementina's French maid, the old man also received the good news of his wife's pregnancy before he set out for the war. Hearing the "grandson", he laughed: "Then I have to live to be 80 years old." ”

Zhu Jishi said: "Then live slowly, you have to live well and live a long time in order to hold your grandson, and I want to see this country on the right track." ”

……

"Order the three armies, speed up, and you must arrive in Jiwei Town before breakfast tomorrow!"

Yang Xiuqing, the eastern king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was marching through the snow with his army at this time, and the wilderness covered by ice and snow was full of Heavenly Kingdom officers and soldiers who were marching with their heads down. They have been marching rapidly for more than ten days in a row, and they have been running back and forth for more than 1,000 miles, almost 2,000 miles. If it were replaced by the past, the New Army of the Eight Banners would be tired and exhausted, but the soldiers of the Taiping Army could still afford this hardship.

"Tell the three armies, the survival of the kingdom of heaven should be fought here, and the soldiers should fight bloodily, and after defeating the pig demon, they should give you and other good fields and beautiful houses, and enjoy wealth together!"

Yang Xiuqing, who was riding on a horse, ordered loudly again. Along the way, he was thinking about how to encourage the morale of the Taiping Army, and after thinking about it, he could only give land and houses...... Even he, the "God", now has to admit that the power of faith is slowly disappearing, and it is necessary to show tangible benefits to everyone. Zhu Jishi's practice of using the method of giving land to motivate the morale of the army seems to be advisable, and the morale of the Ming army has always been stable, as if there has never been a time to be low!

This land should still be given......

The edict of the king of the east was not a confidential military order, so some loud horsemen rode their horses all the way and shouted all the way to order the whole army.

"Hooray! Long live the East King! Long live the kingdom of heaven......"

The sound of cheers rang out, no matter how much it came from the heart, but on the surface, it was indeed a great boost in the morale of the army.

"His Royal Highness the East King, the last general is back." Li Kaifang didn't know when Lu Dao appeared beside Yang Xiuqing.

"What? Jinxiang ......" Yang Xiuqing hurriedly asked.

"At least 20,000 Ming troops have been surrounded, but they have dug trenches around a big town and set up a wire ......array," Li Kaifang told Yang Xiuqing what he had seen.

"Good, good, good...... It seems that they also came prepared, and they didn't panic at all! Yang Xiuqing gritted her teeth, "Let's decide the winner tomorrow night!" (To be continued......)