He had a closed door outside the Governor's Mansion and had to leave depressedly with his retinue.

However, he was not ready to return to Nanjing immediately, he was going to stay in Yangzhou for a few days, and finally entered the territory of Yangzhou, so he always had to take a look and learn more about the situation.

Under the arrangement of Ma Shiying's staff, Curb Bilong and others stayed in an inn.

When Luo Jian went to find Ma Shiying, Ma Shiying was not in the post house, but went to find Ji Bilong, he felt that Luo Jian really didn't give them face last night, and he went to apologize.

Fortunately, Qian Qianyi and the others did not live far away, Luo Jian went to sit with them, expressed his gratitude, and near noon, he heard that Ma Shiying was back.

Luo Jian simply invited everyone to the Yangzhou Restaurant for lunch together, and only then went to Ma Shiying's residence to discuss after the meal.

Luo Jian talked about Liu Zeqing's matter, but he didn't expect Ma Shiying to agree, Luo Jian felt a little strange.

He didn't know that Liu Zeqing couldn't stay in Yangzhou for a day, and he didn't hesitate to pay filial piety to Ma Shiying during the New Year, and expressed his apology and sincerity to the Ma Ge Department with a very low attitude, and the Ma Ge Department promised Liu Zeqing to let him move to Jiangyin, which was much stronger than the previous Huai'an.

Hearing Ma Shiying say that Liu Zeqing's troops would march to Jiangyin after the fifteenth day of the first month, Luo Jian's heart was steady.

Early the next morning, Luo Jian, Shi Kefa and others bid farewell to Ma Shiying and other guests from Nanjing outside the east gate, and then everyone rushed directly to the staff headquarters outside the city.

As soon as Ma Shiying and the others left, Lai Fu directly sent someone to "send them out".

"Governor, you have to make up for the wedding wine for us, we didn't drink the wedding wine when we arrived in Yangzhou, this can't be done."

As soon as Luo Jian, Shi Kefa and others arrived at the staff headquarters, Li Chengdong shouted, and several other division commanders also followed.

"I'm done with things this morning, I'll go to the house at noon, let's have a drink today, and I'll let Liu Lan toast you then." Luo Jian said with a smile.

"You have drunk the wine, how have you discussed it in the past two days?" Shi Kefa also said with a smile.

"Most of the governors and superintendents, after our deduction, we all feel that the strength of the two divisions attacking the Duoduo division in Guide is still a little weak." Liu Zhaoji didn't make a fuss with the others, and when he heard Shi Kefa's question, he was the first to answer.

When they sat down in the war room, everyone began to analyze carefully.

At present, the total number of Qing soldiers on the front line of Guide is about 1340,000, of which there are more than 40,000 cavalry, most of which are recruited from Mongolia by Manchurian and Xinxin.

A considerable part of the Han army has been equipped with firearms, although these firearms are still not rifled, but most of them have been transformed into flintlock pistols, although the power can not be compared with the Yangzhou style, but it can still play a great role in defense.

After calmly analyzing and listening to Liu Zhaoji's detailed analysis of the formation of the Qing troops on the opposite side, Luo Jian felt that his previous ideas were a little too optimistic, only one division plus a cavalry division and an infantry division without firearms, if he wanted to solve the Qing troops in Guide, despite the cooperation of artillery units, it was too difficult.

Shi Kefa was still discussing with the generals, and Luo Jian walked to the big map alone and thought about it seriously.

Now the Yangzhou army is facing three operational directions, the Qing troops in the direction of Xuzhou are very strong, needless to say, the Huai'an direction since the "fighting cattle across the mountains" operation, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has also made great efforts to strengthen the defense of the Yizhou area, these two directions are of course the key, the Anqing direction is not very urgent at present, the previous let Huang Dequan lead the fifth division to go, is to consider that the Manchu Qing pressure on Hunan is too great, want to put pressure on the Manchu Qing from the direction of Hubei.

Now it seems that at this time it is necessary to give up pressure on the Manchus on the front line in Hubei, and it is necessary to concentrate the firearms division on the front line in Xuzhou, so that the battle can be more certain.

Judging from the current situation of the various divisions in Yangzhou, the first and second divisions have the strongest combat effectiveness, followed by the fifth and sixth divisions, and the third and fourth divisions are still basically cold weapons despite their tight training, which determines that they are still not much different from the current army.

According to Luo Jian's idea, the most fundamental purpose of the next battle is to eliminate the living force of the Qing soldiers, expand the living space of Yangzhou, and then decide whether to fight or defend according to the development of Yangzhou's military industry.

But if this battle is stopped and the battle is in a stalemate, and a large number of enemies cannot be annihilated, it is better to maintain the current status quo, after all, Yangzhou's technological development is much faster than that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Based on these considerations, Luo Jian decided to transfer Li Benshen's third division to Anqing after equipping some Yangzhou Type 1 rifles, and with the cooperation of Huang Xushui's division, relying on Anqing Jiancheng to defend, this should be no problem.

The 6th Division was transferred to Huai'an to cooperate with the garrison troops on the Huai'an front, mainly to prevent Tan Tai's troops and Wu Sangui's troops on the Yanzhou and Yizhou fronts from launching an attack on Huai'an after the battle began.

The Fourth Division was still stationed in Fengyang, and its main task was to prevent Qing troops from entering Yangzhou from the Huai River line, and to implement reinforcements in three directions according to the situation.

The 1st, 2nd, and 5th Divisions, which were the most combat-ready, with the cooperation of the cavalry division and the artillery brigade, would launch an attack on the Duoduo Division.

After listening to Luo Jian's thoughts, everyone basically understood his intention, which was to concentrate the most superior forces to fight a war of annihilation. This intention was discussed for a long time, and finally a consensus was basically reached.

Only Liu Dingjun, commander of the Fourth Division, and Li Benshen, commander of the Third Division, had some opinions, but the two divisions could only watch from the sidelines in such a large-scale battle, and both of them were a little puzzled.

"Can't you two figure it out? This is the first battle of our Yangzhou army at the beginning of this year, we must win all, so as to play the morale of the army, the number of Manchu troops is probably not less than one million, right? Are you still afraid that there will be no war in the future? If you train the troops well, you will fight in the future, and our six divisions are all the main forces, and there is no difference in my eyes, but the new equipment of your two divisions will be distributed later, and the formation of combat effectiveness will definitely be later. ”

Luo Jian saw that Liu and Li were a little emotionally unreasonable, so he comforted them with words, the generals had the idea of seeking war, which was not a bad thing, and Luo Jian didn't want them to return to the army with emotions.

"Xinghua, now the fifth division is in Anqing, the sixth division is in Yangzhou, the third division is still in Xuyi, and the second division is also going to move from Huai'an to Xuzhou, I'm afraid it will take some time for the large-scale transfer of troops, right? When the specific combat time is set, we must also carefully consider it. Shi Kefa said.

"Chief of Staff B, your staff department must formulate a troop movement plan as soon as possible, and when the specific plan comes out, let's set the time for the battle, Minister He, your logistics support must be in the forefront, especially the ammunition must be organized to be transported to Xuzhou as soon as possible, Brother Xian, what do you think?" After Luo Jian finished ordering, he turned his head and said to Shi Kefa.

"Okay, that's it for this morning, let's all go to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to make up for the wedding wine." Shi Kefa nodded and said to the generals with a smile.

On the way home, Luo Jian kept thinking about a problem, that is, the suddenness of the battle, such a large-scale transfer of various divisions in Yangzhou could not attract the attention of the Manchu court, even if the Southern Ming court knew, I am afraid that someone would have to send someone to ask.

"Xinghua, what are you thinking?" Shi Kefa saw Luo Jian thinking as he walked, and walked over and asked.

"I'm wondering how to achieve the suddenness of the battle, but it's hard to do it with such a large number of troops." Luo Jian said what he was thinking about.

"Xinghua, are you thinking too much?" Shi Kefa looked at Luo Jian with some confusion.

"Governor, as long as our combat operations are fast, even if the Qing soldiers know, they will not be able to react, and there is no time to reinforce from other directions." Liu Zhaoji heard the two of them talking, and also came over to say.

"We are transporting troops from the canal, basically using steam boats, the speed is incomparable with the Qing troops, the Qing troops to mobilize reinforcements is nothing more than from Shandong, Hebei line, from Shandong to transfer the main force, they are not afraid that we will go straight to Shandong?" Li Chengdong also took over the topic and said.

After listening to the words of a few people, Luo Jian thought for a while and finally figured it out.

At present, although the equipment of the Qing army has also improved, it is only to strengthen some firearms on the original basis, and these firearms are still unable to compete with the Yangzhou army, although its training has been strengthened, but the infantry army is basically still the former Ming army and the Dashun army surrendered troops, if you want to fundamentally become a strong army, I am afraid it is impossible.

Luo Jian felt that he seemed to have walked into a misunderstanding, that is, he always hoped to crush the Qing soldiers with absolute superiority, and was afraid that the troops would suffer too many casualties.

And this kind of psychology has led to his own timidity, and he is a little unable to let go of his combat operations, and some problems have not been understood by other generals.

After thinking about this, Luo Jian decided not to interfere with the specific command of the battle, and after more than a year of training, Liu Zhaoji and Li Chengdong and other generals have become very proficient in mastering the new firearms.

"If we don't want to do so much, let's go down ten times and smash Duoduo with our hardest fists. Now it's our task, everyone drink well! Luo Jian, who had figured it out, was in a very good mood and said loudly to the generals.

Luo Jian's emotions infected everyone, and the mood of the group quickly rose, and Li Chengdong made the most trouble.

"Governor, Madame is going to toast us today." Li Chengdong shouted.

"I said, are you kid dazed? Are you a girl like any other woman? Let me tell you, if you kid is a little disrespectful to Sister Liulan, see how my old Liu cleans you up! ”

Liu Zhaoji glanced at Li Chengdong and was a little unhappy with his words.

"My brother Liu, who do you think of me Li Chengdong? Didn't I know that Miss Liu was a fairy? I mean, if the fairy lady toasted us, we would be able to brag to others for the rest of our lives. ”

Li Chengdong saw that Liu Zhaoji was unhappy and didn't dare to be sloppy, so he quickly explained.

A large group of people noisily entered the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and Liu Lan and Steward Luo took it out in person.

Yan Yingyuan, who was walking behind the crowd, saw Liu Lan coming out, walked a few steps forward and bowed to Liu Lan, and did not use the etiquette in the army.

"Congratulations to Madame, Yan Yingyuan is very sorry for not being able to attend Madame's wedding."

Yan Yingyuan has always regarded Liu Lan as the life-saving benefactor of the artillery, and has always been very respectful to her.

"Brother Liheng doesn't need to be polite, I will make it up for you at noon today." Liu Lan also had great respect for Yan Yingyuan, and when she saw his courtesy, she hurriedly hugged her fists and said in return.

Seeing this, the other generals also stepped forward to congratulate them, and Liu Lan generously returned the salute one by one.

This lunch lasted until more than two o'clock in the afternoon, Luo Jian knew that everyone was about to go to the battlefield, so he didn't care about them drinking, except for Li Chengdong, who drank a little more, the other generals were very restrained and didn't let go of drinking.

After eating, everyone went to the hall and sat down, and Steward Luo asked people to bring tea.

"Sister Liulan, you have just gotten married, Xinghua can't accompany you, alas, both of you and your husband are working hard." After Shi Kefa sat down, he glanced at Liu Lan and said with a sigh.