On August 15, 1861, Lin Haijiang, who was visiting the troops outside Changsha, received an infiltration investigation report from the intelligence department's action team, and the Taiping Army's Peng Dake Division appeared in Jiangping County, northwest of Changsha, with nearly 100,000 troops, which seemed to be surrounded by a large number of civilians, and a company of the Jiangping defenders had retreated.

Lin Haijiang was very helpless when he stood in front of the map, because of the means of communication, the timeliness of intelligence was greatly reduced, and because of the limited number of troops, Lin Haijiang could only deploy his troops on the front-line operations, and the tasks of occupation and reconnaissance could only be carried out by sending relatively few troops.

Therefore, in a relatively large area, if it weren't for the Taiping Army's Peng Dake Department wrapping up a large number of people, making a huge sensation, and taking the initiative to attack Jiangping City, if it was replaced by an elite army of more than 10,000 people, it is likely that even if it penetrates the rear of the battle line, it may not be discovered, and when I think of these Lin Haijiang, I can't help but break out in a cold sweat.

The visual distance of the telescope is limited, and the search range of the reconnaissance squad, the search platoon, and the reconnaissance company is also very narrow; the local people are already afraid of those who serve as soldiers and are so afraid that they will flee for dozens of miles without people, and deserted villages and abandoned towns can be seen everywhere.

The elite of the 70,000 Taiping Army under Chen Yucheng's department is maneuvering in Yiyang, how much does the 70,000 people need to consume every day? How much can be replenished with on-the-spot supplementation? Lin Haijiang was eager to know this information that the intelligence department could not provide at the moment, and although Peng Dake's department claimed to be 100,000, there were only 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers capable of fighting, compared to the simple weapons and equipment of the Tianping Army, Lin Haijiang thought that any division could be picked out to block Chen Yucheng's 70,000 elite soldiers, and give it a large number of effective casualties.

There is also Xiangyin County between Yiyang and Pingjiang, and the current trend on both sides seems to echo each other from afar, Lin Haijiang does not know much about Chen Yucheng, only knows that in fact, a famous young general in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, due to the continuous butterfly effect, Chen Yucheng appeared on the stage of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in advance, and he has much more resources in his hands than in history, but this still did not make Lin Haijiang vigilant enough.

Because in Lin Haijiang's opinion, Chen Yucheng is not an idiot, he will never touch a stone with an egg, if his 70,000 army can defend or guerrilla and deal with the emperor [***] team, but if it is a field attack or encounter, then Li Hongzhang's Huai army and Earl's foreign gun team are their lessons from the past.

However, what made Lin Haijiang very depressed was that the Battle of Jiaxing did not capture or kill Li Hongzhang, maybe like the TV series of later generations, famous figures in history are not easy to braid, Li Hongzhang lost his trace in the chaotic army, and later failed to find his body after the body identification.

What made Lin Haijiang relieved was that Earl, who had committed a lot of blood debts since he came out of Shanghai, was captured alive, and Li Anmin only reported the result of capturing Earl alive, but did not ask for instructions on how to deal with it? Lin Haijiang still knows this mentally, Lin Haijiang knows that the background of this Frenchman Earl is very complicated, and his wife is the niece of the Duke of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, a widow with the title of Lord.

Earl himself was a frequent frequenting of the high society of Britain and France, and in the words of later generations he was a political broker, moving from country to country, regulating and conveying information that was inconvenient to convey openly between countries.

This time, Earl helped Li Hongzhang establish a foreign gun team in Shanghai, and then recruited troops and served as the commander himself, because some people in Britain promised him that if he could inflict heavy damage on Lin Haijiang's army, he would give him a meritorious reward equivalent to the British [***] team's foreign war.

Earl is just a political broker, he has been dazzled by the price proposed by Li Hongzhang, and commanding a team that will not take any responsibility to fight on the territory of other countries, this is Earle's greatest wish all along, Earl has been suppressed in the bottom of his heart The beast surname has been completely exposed, if humans lose their surname, it is equivalent to a beast, Earl is like a beast out of control, he likes the strong sense of chastity of the Oriental woman very much, the stronger the resistance, the greater the pleasure it will bring him.

Lin Haijiang had to think more about dealing with people like Earl, but Lin Haijiang knew better that concern was definitely not any reason or excuse to cover up these bastards, and in the land of China, no matter who committed a crime, one day they would have to repay it a thousand times more.

Earl is definitely not the first, but he must not be the last, or even the exception! Sympathy is not cheap, and political considerations are not an excuse for scruples.

Three days later, Earl was escorted back to Hangzhou, where Li Anmin organized a public trial on the shores of the West Lake. The only thing they care about is the fate of those foreign devils? Each of these foreign devils who had done a lot of evil in Hangzhou deserved to die, and even the soldiers who were escorting them were innocently attacked by bricks and tiles on the way, and under the pressure of bullets from many sides, the 963 members of the foreign rifle team who were captured were saved from being stoned to death by stones along the way.

After a great deal of evidence and evidence, all the 963 members of the foreign guns team who were captured were executed, and Earl himself was chopped alive by the angry Hangzhou people, and finally even the bones were smashed into slag.

It can be said that Li Anmin thoroughly carried out Lin Haijiang's previous secret instructions and did everything possible to kill all these foreign invaders, these Manchu accomplices knew what the anger of the Chinese nation was, and in Lin Haijiang's subconscious, they only dared to come again.

When Lin Haijiang learned that Li Anmin had conducted an unprecedented public trial and executed nearly 1,000 mercenaries from various countries at one time, he immediately felt that something was wrong, and Lin Haijiang knew that this large-scale trial would definitely give some scheming European countries an excuse, an excuse that was enough to support them to push for a full-scale war against the Chinese Empire.

Li Anmin's handling method can be said to be very much in line with Lin Haijiang's thoughts, but Li Anmin lacks the most basic common sense and foundation of international politics, whether it is annihilation on the battlefield, or direct slaughter of prisoners, any way is much more effective than this so-called trial.

Because many countries in the international community did not recognize the status of the Chinese Empire at all, and the European countries of this era did not recognize each other's legal judgments, the powerful countries only blindly emphasized consular jurisdiction and diplomatic immunity to weak countries and even colonial countries, and there was no legal effect at all.

However, since the wood is in the boat, Lin Haijiang is not overly worried, the soldiers will block, the water will come to the earth, the imperialists can only be defeated, and they have never been convinced!

On August 20, 1861, the ten towns of the Beiyang New Army commanded by Zeng Guofan had arrived in Zhengzhou, and the army of Seng Lingqin also arrived in Xuzhou in the same day.

The difference is that after the arrival of Zeng Guofan's Beiyang New Army, the four towns under the jurisdiction of the left wing of Zuo Zongtang's headquarters directly went out of Zhumadian, while Zeng Guofan's central army and the right wing directly occupied Pingdingshan and Zhoukou.

In the middle of the movement of the Beiyang New Army of Zeng Guofan, Seng Lingqin also sent Deng Junhua and Mo Ning two horse infantry troops totaling more than 80,000 people, 50,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry from Xuzhou to Suzhou and occupy the county town of Suzhou controlled by Li Xiaoyou, the Taiping Army, while 20,000 cavalry under Mo Ning's army entered Huai'an, directly threatening Yangzhou, the gateway to Tianjing, the puppet capital of bandits.

On August 25, 1861, Lin Haijiang had just received a report that the Qing army seemed to be speeding up the march, and he was shocked, Zeng Guofan and Seng Lingqin walked slowly and leisurely on the map for several months, and this journey can be said to have gained a lot, especially the recruits of the four towns in the new army of the ten towns in Beiyang have also honed some patterns, it can be said that Zeng Guofan's road is to train while marching, marching and exercising without delay.

But Zeng Guofan and Seng Lingqin suddenly accelerated the speed of the march, Lin Haijiang had to start worrying, after all, Seng Greenqin had nearly 40,000 cavalry under his command, although most of these cavalry lacked basic training, they were just herdsmen on the Mongolian steppe before, but the difference between herdsmen and cavalry in this era is really not big, and those who can swing a knife and a bow are soldiers, and those who dismount are also people.

Just when Lin Haijiang was still hesitating where to block Zeng Guofan's department, and then set up a pocket formation for Zeng Guofan, and strive for a single blow, completely hurt the Beiyang gang of dogs who are now screaming, Lin Haijiang suggested that Li Anmin take the initiative to attack the Seng Greenqin, who is good at maneuvering, and then lead the counterattack force of Seng Greenqin to his own artillery and machine gun positions, and use cross-oblique fire to consume a large amount of its vital strength.

Shortly after Lin Haijiang's operational instructions were sent to Li Anmin, and when the staff officers of the former enemy's general headquarters were still considering where to set up a pocket formation for Zeng Guofan to invite you into the urn, Peng Dake's headquarters of the Taiping Army near Pingjiang County suddenly launched an attack yesterday in the direction behind the Sixth Division of the First Army Corps on the outskirts of Changsha.

Lin Haijiang, who had already prepared, immediately ordered all units to prepare for the attack, and it was better to cut off one of his fingers than to injure his ten fingers, and Lin Haijiang transferred troops from the three main divisions of the First Mountain Infantry Corps to prepare for the encirclement and suppression of Peng Dake's headquarters in Pingjiang.

In the early morning of August 27, 1861, Pingjiang County, which had fought fiercely all night, had been turned upside down, and many counterattacks launched by Peng Dake's troops overnight were repulsed, Peng Dake's troops suffered huge casualties and corpses all over the field, and the east ferry outside Pingjiang City was blocked by corpses floating down the river, and the ferries inside were stuffed in by secret numb corpses and could not move.

At the front, Zhang Zheng and Gao Qi jointly sent a message to report that the combat effectiveness of Peng Dake's department was almost vulnerable, almost all of them were ordinary people, and there was no way to talk about combat effectiveness, it was just a group of outright rabble, and at present, the troops were making rapid progress, and it was expected that the Taiping Army Peng Dake's department would be completely annihilated in two or three days.

However, at the same time, Lin Haijiang received a bad news, the first mountain infantry division defending the temporary reserve of supplies of the Chinese Imperial Army near Ningxiang was attacked by about tens of thousands of enemy troops, and the defending division commander Qin Wanxin immediately led the first brigade and two battalions of the second brigade to pursue the enemy's rout, and was ambushed in the Huiwan valley of Huilong Mountain, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and the division commander Qin Wanxin was killed, and the commander of the first brigade, Hao Guang, led the remnants of about 3,000 people to forcibly break through and wait for reinforcements, and the enemy army was said to be about tens of thousands of troops!

As soon as Lin Haijiang got the news, he immediately put on a piece of clothing and rushed back to the former enemy headquarters, Lin Haijiang's first feeling was that he seemed to have fallen for someone else's plan to divert the tiger from the mountain? But what will be the other party's goal? Chen Yucheng's headquarters of the Taiping army in Yiyang is less than 70,000 horses, if tens of thousands of troops are divided to attack the first brigade and two battalions of the first mountain infantry division, then he will not have enough troops to attack his troops deployed around Changsha, and the Taiping army will help the Qing army relieve the siege? This is clearly illogical.

Could it be that the Taiping Army's target was the temporary reserve of supplies for the Imperial Chinese Army near their own Ningxiang? But soon in the afternoon, Lin Haijiang received a Taiping army of about 40,000 people advancing in the direction of Jinggang? The Taiping army ambushed a section of our army on the outskirts of Ningxiang, and then maneuvered in the direction of Jinggang with the main force?

Lin Haijiang couldn't understand the Taiping Army's intentions a little, not only Lin Haijiang, but even the dozens of staff officers in the entire front command could not analyze the Taiping Army's strategic intentions and tactical purposes.

What does Chen Yucheng want to do? Lin Haijiang stared at the map without saying a word, it can be said that looking at the map has become the only way for Lin Haijiang at this time, Lin Haijiang knows very well that when everyone is confused, he, the head of the empire, must not be confused, he must make a decision immediately, even if the decision is wrong, it doesn't matter.

After Lin Haijiang hesitated for a moment, looking at the distribution of troops on the map, Lin Haijiang knew that he had no mobile forces in his hands to be deployed, except for one brigade of the corps directly under the Command, the last two brigades were sent to the direction of Jinggang.

After considering the overall situation of the enemy and the enemy, the Taiping Army, the Qing Army, and our army one by one, Lin Haijiang's eyes fell on the temporary reserve center of the Chinese Imperial Army near Ningxiang, where only the Second Brigade of the First Division of the First Mountain Infantry Corps Wang Zecheng was defending, and there were almost 70% of the military supplies on the Eastern Front and 80% of the building materials transported by the Construction Corps.

Lin Haijiang linked the battles that took place at the three points of Pingjiang, Jinggang, and Huilongshan at the same time, and Lin Haijiang found that a huge conspiracy was covering himself, and only the temporary reserve center of the Imperial Chinese Army near Ningxiang could Chen Yucheng's attention, as long as the temporary reserve center of the Imperial Chinese Army near Ningxiang was completely destroyed, then the overall equipment level of the Taiping Army would directly take a qualitative leap, and it would not be a thorny problem to resist the Beiyang New Army and the army of Seng Lingqin.

The most important thing is that almost all the armies of the Taiping Army on the West Road have returned to defend Yangzhou, Ma'anshan, Zhenjiang and other inner defense circles, and it can be said that the intensity of troops has reached a certain level, and it is almost impossible for either the Qing army or the emperor's [***] team to fight in a very short time.

If the Taiping army on the east road successfully attacked the temporary reserve center of the Chinese Imperial Army near Ningxiang, then the imperial [***] team besieging Changsha must carry out a general retreat, in order to prevent the rear road of the Western Route Army from being cut off, the Western Route Army must also carry out a general retreat, and the Taiping Army can take advantage of the imperial siege to continue the attack, such as capturing Changsha and other fortified cities, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom forces will sweep the two lakes and two rivers.

In this way, the whole form of the campaign will inevitably return to the level in front of the station, and this extremely risky attack is tantamount to an attempt to waste supplies, munitions, and soldiers' lives, and the whole campaign will be a dowry for the Taiping army.

At this moment, Lin Haijiang was completely sure that Chen Yucheng's target was the weapons and materials of the Chinese Imperial Army's temporary storage center near Ningxiang, and Lin Haijiang concluded that Chen Yucheng had transferred all the elite of Peng Dake's division of the Taiping Army, and then used the remaining tens of thousands of people to encircle the common people and attack in Pingjiang to create an atmosphere to attract his own troops to deploy troops to carry out a war of annihilation. , and then hit the defenders of Ningxiang in a false shot to attract their attention, and used the suspicious soldiers to confuse their sight and judgment in the direction of Jinggang, creating the illusion that the Taiping Army was preparing to attack the rear of our army, which can be described as true and false, Lin Haijiang can be said to be very impressed with Chen Yucheng's courage at this moment, and he actually played himself with conspiracy and conspiracy at the same time?

Lin Haijiang immediately decided to personally lead the First Brigade of the First Division of the Corps directly under the Command and immediately reinforce the Temporary Reserve Center of the Imperial Chinese Army near Ningxiang!

In Yiyang, Chen Yucheng and Gong Deshu are secretly discussing the matter of jointly sending troops to capture Ningxiang, this Gong Deshu is a member of the Pheasant River in Bozhou, Anhui Province, and Zhang Lexing in the early years after the Pheasant River Uprising, leading the White Flag Army, and repeatedly fighting with Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, etc., and the Twist Army can be said to have benefited a lot from it.

The army is not within the scope of Lin Haijiang's reconnaissance, because of the unique combat mode of the Twist Army, dozens of people, hundreds of people in a group of people in the Ping Dynasty wandering around, when the five general flag owners gather into a group after the flag, the Twist Army does not even have the logistics supply to form, Ping said that it is all dependent on soldiers to carry dry food, all the way to fight and loot, so the Twist Army is not a regular combat unit in formation.

However, this does not prevent the unique and relatively strong combat effectiveness of the Twist Army! At this moment, Chen Yucheng, who was full of confidence, was in control of 70,000 horses in his headquarters, 40,000 horses from Peng Dake, and 60,000 horses from Gong Deshu, and in addition to the 170,000 troops and the 50,000 horses besieging Huilongshan, Chen Yucheng had 120,000 troops at his disposal.

For Ningxiang Chen Yucheng is already inevitable!

(To be continued)