On May 2, 1861, the X in the code name said that many strategic points and battlegrounds of the two rivers and lakes were attacked by the Chinese Empire almost at the same time, and the Qing court and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were almost in chaos, and the Qing court, the governor of Liangjiang, Fan Shuli, and the governor Zeng Qinghou, who were extremely backward in the means of communication, were shocked, and the main force of the imperial court active in the two rivers and lakes was only the 4,000 cavalry of Tuatu, the general of Prince Seng Lingqin, and the more than 10,000 people under the command of Zhou Fuming of the Hunan army, and the remaining defense battalions were almost useless.

At the crisis juncture, Fan Shuli, the governor of Liangjiang, thought of Li Hongzhang, the Huaizi battalion of the Hunan army who was reorganizing the army in Shanghai, and Li Hongzhang's loan to himself was rejected in the previous period, Fan Shuli, the governor of Liangjiang, was worried that Li Hongzhang would hold a grudge against him and refuse to come to the rescue, so he had to ask Zeng Qinghou, the governor of Jiangxi, to rush to Shanghai with 600,000 taels of silver tickets. The money he bought for the official was wasted, so the country and the people, he had to go up hard.

The Hunan army Zhou Fuming's department also sent people to go, the difference is that he did not bring gift money, because the Hunan army Zhou Fuming's department is located in the two lakes, the Hunan army is solid, and the possible surname of the person who can come to Liangjiang is very small, and he has no hope for the four thousand cavalry of Tuatu in the Seng Greenqin Department, and the group of Mengbaqi uncles are more troubled than bandits and Lin Rebellious, and letting them come is tantamount to luring wolves into the house, not to mention that Tuatu's extreme lust is famous, relying on his military exploits in Bali Bridge, and he once slept with the daughter-in-law of King Chengjun in Gyeonggi, In the end, Seng Lingqin was still saved, and he still let the troops out, even for the sake of his own concubines, and he could not let Tuatu come to help.

After the letters and letters for help and urgency were sent out from all directions, Fan Shuli, the governor of Liangjiang, could only hide in the study with his staff and read the letters for help submitted by the prefectures and counties below.

Fan Shuli, the governor of Liangjiang, scolded Lin Shun for being disloyal and unfilial, and bringing disaster to the country and the people while reading the letter, people who don't know must think that this trusted governor is a loyal and patriotic lord, in fact, Fan Shuli hates Lin Haijiang Why didn't he fight a few months earlier, he didn't have to buy this unlucky official a few months earlier, or a year later, and when he got back the capital, he was talking!

Liangjiang has become a mess, and as the governor of the two lakes, the official document is also a headache, the official text is Manchurian Zhengbai Banner Wang Jia's family, the word Xiufeng, Daoguang was guarded by the worship hall A Bu Lan Ling, and the general of Jingzhou was promoted to the governor of Huguang, but there were some twists and turns, and the official document that dragged on for a year to be in place still has the governor of Huguang become the governor of the two lakes, Ye Mingchen's governor of Liangguang has already sat firmly, and his lake is divided into Hunan and Hubei. The changes in the land under the governors of the Qing Dynasty have made people a little confused.

Especially in the Kangxi and Qianlong dynasties, it is basically that whoever the emperor trusts will give him more power, but the headache of the official document is Zeng Guofan, who had a deep relationship with Zeng Guofan before, and now Zeng Guofan is still the governor of Zhili and the title of Minister of Beiyang Commerce.

Now that Lin Wei's army is attacking the two rivers and his own two lakes at the same time, Guan Wen is somewhat apprehensive in his heart, he believes that Zeng Guofan will not sit idly by and watch his hometown fall into the bandit area, but Guan Wen believes that Zeng Guofan will definitely make a deal about this matter, otherwise he is not Zeng Guofan.

He is the governor of the army and the people, if there is any mistake in the two lakes can be said to be his sin, so the official document does not dare to have the slightest neglect, the official document is promoted by the Jingzhou general to the governor, all along the upper reaches of the river Jing, City, Xiang, Yun Zhu County military affairs are familiar with the times, and his partner Governor Lin Yi is stationed in Jinkou for a long time, controlling the military affairs of the lower Wu, Han, Huang, and Dezhu counties, and the official Wen will divide the territory of the northern and southern armies, levy and transfer troops, Lin Yi is more good at raising money and raising food, and the two cooperate like a fish in water. In addition, Xiang Yong was originally fierce and abnormal, and it was very easy to form an army, so the two lakes were far from being comparable to the two rivers.

However, in the face of the large-scale attack of the army of the Chinese Empire, the official who still has a little military acumen gathers all the troops in his hands, and in the opinion of the official text, the division of troops everywhere is tantamount to letting people break through one by one, and it is better to let the enemy occupy and divide the troops in a big way, and it is more appropriate to break through their weaknesses, and the official text gave his military power to Lin Yi, and the official text is very clear that he is far from Lin Yi in this regard.

When the news of the Chinese Empire's simultaneous invasion of the two rivers and lakes reached Shanghai, Li Hongzhang was taking Xu Tong to talk with Brown, the manager of Lens & Co., and Li Hongzhang was very satisfied with the breech guns sold by the British and the flowering shells fired by Armstrong's six-pound and twelve-pound rear-loading guns.

Enfinance rifles are also made of metal bullets, with a five-round magazine, in addition to being heavier than the Imperial Type 1 rifle made by Lin Yi, the basic range can be regarded as combative, but the surname of mortars and various machine guns is much worse, of course, the British weapons are not cheap, and the price makes Li Hongzhang almost unacceptable, and the purpose of Li Hongzhang and Xu Tong coming today is to discuss the price.

Li Hongzhang personally tested the Enfinance rifle, and he still remembered that the Enfinance front-loading smoothbore rifle purchased by the Hunan army half a year ago, only half a year later, the strength of the European industrial countries is really not to be underestimated! As long as it is an industrial product, with a sample, you can quickly imitate a similar product, which is really beyond the reach of Daqing.

After testing the Enfinance rifle, Li Hongzhang tested a high-priced Imperial Type 1 rifle, and Li Hongzhang obviously felt that the Imperial Model 1 rifle was more suitable for the figure of the Chinese people than the Enfinance rifle, and the recoil was not as large as the Enfinance rifle, and the relative range was longer and the accuracy was higher.

However, Li Hongzhang has always wanted the Dai's Type 1 class light machine gun, but he has never been able to get a sample, while the British and French only have products similar to Gatling machine guns.

After the end of the test, Li Hongzhang looked at Brown, the manager of Lens & Co., who had a fat face, and smiled slightly: "Mr. Brown, you speak Chinese very well, but unfortunately, the weapon surname you promised seems to be far from your Chinese level, far less than your Chinese level!" ”

Brown said with a leisurely expression: "My honorable Lord Li, do you still have to deal with me for such a little money?" You must know that now the United States, France, and Prussia are all involved in the war, and now the best thing to sell in the world is weapons, not to mention this advanced firearm, that is, the breech rifle is now rushing to ask for it! Our price of raising 20% this time is also very reasonable! ”

Li Hongzhang, who was originally expecting the other party to reduce the price, suddenly stood up when he heard that the other party was going to sit on the ground and raise the price, paced back and forth in the room, and finally waved his hand violently and said: "It's too much deception!" We don't want the deposit, and I don't want this batch of goods, you can sell whoever you want! ”

Li Hongzhang turned around and left, this time Brown was dumbfounded, it can be said that Brown is an authentic businessman, but Li Hongzhang is a scholar and official, the two sides were not originally a planet in orbit, and now they meet, naturally it is difficult for the two sides to talk about going together, Li Hongzhang, who is stationed in Shanghai with 12,000 elites, is naturally angry, and no one dares to take this stubble in Shanghai He said no, so once the deal breaks down, Brown can only post money to transport the weapons back, and Brown's loss is far greater than the deposit he received.

So Li Hongzhang decided to take a step to retreat and see the other party's reaction, as the manager of Lens & Co., Brown has been in China for more than ten years, and he has seen a lot of all kinds of characters, but Li Hongzhang is really the first time he has seen it, he looks a little cowardly, but there is a ruthlessness in his bones.

Brown knows very well that the Enfinance rifle is indeed not comparable to the Imperial Type 1 rifle produced by the Chinese Empire, and the Enfinance rifle can be said to imitate the Imperial Model 1 rifle to a large extent, but in order to take into account the face of the British Empire, many designs have been changed to speciousness, Brown is not a professional arms dealer, in his opinion, the weapon is good, it is good to be able to fire, the surname can actually be irrelevant, the most important thing is that there is a seller's market.

At this time, a burst of exclamation and confusion broke out on the first floor of the foreign bank, and after a while, suddenly, a foreign bank interpreter hurriedly walked in, and after a whisper, Brown suddenly laughed: "Dear Li, I have to regret to inform you that the original price increase of 20% has now reached 50%, this is for the sake of friendship between us, and now the price of the inventory outside has increased several times!" ”

Li Hongzhang was slightly stunned, in his opinion, this damn foreigner must be crazy, Xu Tong, who had just left, also came to Li Hongzhang with an anxious face and whispered: "Lin Rebellion's army attacked Liangjiang, Lianghu and other places at the same time, and the rebel army made rapid progress, even exceeding the speed of Di Bao, and now there are frequent emergencies everywhere!" ”

"Ahh The tea bowl in Li Hongzhang's hand fell to the ground, and then he was very unwilling to say to Brown: "According to the price you said, all will be delivered in the afternoon!" ”

Brown smiled and said to Li Hongzhang: "As you wish!" ”

In Brown's eyes, Lin Haijiang, the head of the Chinese Empire, has become an angel, and 50% of the payment for this transaction will be his lucky reward!

In the general headquarters of the former enemy in Ganzhou, Li Anmin held the latest battle reports of various units in front of the sand table, and gave Lin Haijiang a summary report: "As of 11 o'clock today, the progress of all units of our army is rapid, and the attack speed is basically the same as the speed of marching, whether it is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom or the Qing court, they are shrinking their forces, and the reconnaissance and search companies of our army have small-scale exchanges with the enemy. The main force of the Third Army Corps of the Imperial Army under Liu Quansi's command in Shaoguan was divided into two routes, namely Li Zhi's first support cluster and Feng Junhui's second support cluster, to follow up the advance of the two main army corps, respond to the main force operations, and ensure the smooth flow of logistics supply lines. ”

Li Anmin flipped through the battle report and continued: "The Fourth Army Corps of the Imperial Army under Zheng Zhipeng was divided into two routes, attacking Sanming and Putian, and then attacking Fuzhou City according to the instructions of the General Staff, and then attacking Ningde, Taizhou, Ningbo, and Shaoxing along the coast, and then waiting for the First, Second, and Third Army Corps to besiege Changsha, and then attacking Wuhan with all the First Army Corps, one division and all artillery of the Third Army Corps, and all the three divisions of the Third Army Corps with all the Second Army Corps, dividing the troops into two routes, attacking Jiujiang all the way, all the way through Yingtan, and attacking Jinhua through Shangrao, cooperate with the units of the Fourth Army to attack Hangzhou and take Shanghai! Complete the strategic encirclement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! The First Mountain Infantry Corps of our army quickly interspersed with the decisive battle of Changsha when the main force, directly took Jingmen, threatened Wuhan, and annihilated the main force of the Qing army and the garrisons of Liangjiang and Lianghu. ”

Li Anmin closed the war report file and said: "This is the overall strategic deployment and campaign orientation of the main force of our army in the near future, the time point of the campaign will be unified and coordinated by the General Staff Department, and the specific implementation of the campaign will be commanded by the command organs at the corps and division levels of various troops, so that the tactical awareness of the middle-level command can be tempered, and at the same time, the actual work and coordination of the General Staff Headquarters in the implementation of the strategy for the campaign transformation can be tested. ”

Lin Haijiang nodded, what Li Anmin said was indeed the biggest weakness of the Chinese Empire, his commanders were too young, lacked basic combat experience, and their optimistic and blind surnames about war would make them make some low-level tactical command mistakes.

War itself is a very unpredictable thing, and there are a thousand possibilities in a war, or even in a campaign? Each one could upend the final outcome of the battle.

This point is clear to Lin Haijiang, but now the bow is open, the arrow is on the string, it has reached the point where it has to be sent, regret medicine is not sold, even if there is a sale, Lin Haijiang will not want to buy, he can only complete the reunification of the country as soon as possible, in order to catch up with the second wave of the world's colonial frenzy before the arrival of a piece of the pie, since the invasion of the British and French forces was advanced by two years, and the Franco-Prussian War was advanced by a full ten years, many objective historical factors are quietly undergoing major changes.

According to Lin Haijiang's personal understanding, the First World War may also be advanced, a person's life is short, Lin Haijiang does not have enough patience to wait for the outbreak of the world war, in order to seize the commanding heights, he even does not hesitate to take the initiative to detonate this great war that can be called a catastrophe for mankind when the conditions are ripe, and the starting point of everything is beneficial to the country and the nation.

On June 21, 1861, Liu Quansi's Second Army Corps of the Imperial Army set out all the way from Ganzhou to conquer Ji'an, and the main force of the current corps had reached the suburbs of Nanchang, and Fan Shuli, the governor of Liangjiang, and Zeng Qinghou, the governor of Liangjiang, mobilized nearly 30,000 defense warriors and 20,000 regiments to train with the intention of defending Nanchang.

Liu Quansi slowly put down the binoculars, it can be said that this is the first large-scale battle after the Second Army began to attack on May 2, 1861, before the Qing army has been constantly shrinking its forces, the second army is steady and steady, Liu Quansi, like several other corps commanders, does not want the troops under his command to have the first defeat of the battle, even if it is the loss of a company in the formation, so although the progress of each corps is fast, but they are extremely cautious.

Liu Quansi glanced at the staff officer beside him and said, "Where are the three divisions assigned by the Third Army Corps now?" ”

The staff officer flipped through the document and said: "I was in Pingxiang two weeks ago, because my department and it were in motion, so there has been no contact for a week!" ”

Liu Quansi shook his head helplessly and said: "A division seems to have a lot of people, but compared with such a large battlefield and the depth of national strategy, once you let go, it is basically equivalent to a drop in the ocean!" It is necessary to get in touch with the troops of the Third Army Corps as soon as possible, because our army will have to divide its forces to fight after conquering Nanchang, and now our troops are already a week behind the coordination plan of the General Staff Headquarters, and we cannot be hindered by the whole campaign. ”

In the city of Nanchang is a gloomy and bleak scene, because of the fear of the old, weak, sick and disabled empty rations, early in the morning by the Liangjiang Governor Fan Shuli ordered to expel out of the city, the city only the young and strong who assisted in the defense, in the governor's yamen, the Liangjiang Governor Fan Shuli and the governor Zeng Qinghou are discussing the city defense.

But at this moment, there is a world of difference between the inside and outside of Nanchang City and the bandits, the first Chinese Empire's Lin Rebellion is different from the bandits, the Chinese Empire has abolished all agriculture-related harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and the second Chinese Empire's military has never disturbed the people, in terms of military-civilian relations, the Chinese Empire's marchers seem to be very considerate to the people, and this is difficult for ordinary Eight Banners, Han Army Green Battalion, and New Army to do!

This basic point of belonging also determined the specific contradiction between the military power of the Qing court and the infiltration of the military power of the Chinese Empire, and the governor of Liangjiang, Fan Shuli, and the governor Zeng Qinghou are now afraid of the political education of the Chinese Empire.

The basic policies of the Chinese Empire, such as reducing agricultural taxes and redistributing land, can be said to have shaken the foundation of the Qing Dynasty's governance, and the land of the Qing Dynasty was basically concentrated in the hands of officials, compradors, landlords, etc., who did not need to farm to make a living.

The revolution of the Chinese Empire revolutionized the lives of a small number of people in this part, but in China, this small group of people represents the interests of the vast majority of the people, and this point is the most difficult for them to accept and complete! All men are mortal? Keep Dan in mind!

Lin Haijiang has never been afraid, as a so-called soldier, Lin Haijiang only feels a deep sense of responsibility! At the same time that the main army of the Chinese Empire began to launch strategic attacks along the two rivers and lakes, as a person who strategically formulated the implementation plan, he had a strong sense of responsibility, and Lin Haijiang hoped that the next time they got together, they should be in the country!

And this one country should be China!

(To be continued)