Two days later, the senior generals of the First and Fifth armies of the army gathered on the navy's inland gunboat Zhenning on Hongze Lake to discuss the plan for the follow-up war in northern Jiangsu.

In the conference room of the Zhenning, only the commander of the First Gunboat Detachment, Colonel Ye Tangshi, and the other two colonels were a total of three naval officers, and the others were all high-ranking army officers.

Although he was a landlord, Ye Tangshi just sat on the side and did not intervene in the content of the meeting, anyway, in the follow-up war in northern Jiangsu, the navy had little to do with the navy except for providing inland river transportation and supply cover tasks as always.

The protagonists of today's meeting are the senior generals of the First Army and the Fifth Army, but because these senior army generals are old acquaintances with each other, at the beginning, the tone of each one was relatively casual, shhhhh

After complimenting each other, it was time to talk about the follow-up coordinated operations.

I only heard Shi Qingxuan say: "This time in the northern Jiangsu operation, in accordance with the strategic requirements of the high command, it is to annihilate the main military strength of the puppet Qing army in the northern Jiangsu region in one fell swoop, and completely purify their will to resist, not only to control the northern Jiangsu region in this battle, but also to obtain a foothold in Shandong and Henan in the north."

Since the puppet Qing army gathered heavy troops in Huai'an, Suqian, and Taoyuan County, my idea was to first defeat this Taoyuan County, cut off the connection between the Qing army in Huai'an and Suqian, and then encircle and annihilate the enemy in Huai'an. Regain the entire northern Jiangsu region. Chen Bing in the southeastern part of Shandong. ”

At this time, Shen Chiyun also said: "Brother Shi, if you attack Taoyuan County first." The strategic concept is good, but when the time comes, I am afraid that your troops will be attacked by the enemy! ”

Shen Chiyun's worries are not unreasonable, the current Qing army is hoarding heavy troops in Huai'an City and Suqian, according to the intelligence reality some time ago, there are at least 50,000 Qing troops in Huai'an City and the surrounding areas, of which at least nearly 10,000 are Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army.

In addition, Suqian also has at least 40,000 Qing troops. Among them, there are at least 10,000 trained troops, and it is worth noting that the Qing army did not only hoard heavy troops in Huai'an and Suqian. There are also considerable troops elsewhere.

There were at least 10,000 Qing troops in Taoyuan County, tens of thousands of horses in Muyang in the north of Taoyuan, and tens of thousands in Xuzhou in the west of Suqian.

And a considerable part of the above-mentioned Qing army was a new army. It doesn't mean that they are all the old army of the Green Battalion and the Eight Banners.

The Qing army was stationed in many places. A relatively complete defense system in northern Jiangsu has been established, and if you want to fight directly from the middle position, you will definitely face reinforcements sent by the enemy from other places, and then you will be attacked from many sides.

Shi Qingxuan didn't care: "If they send troops from other places to reinforce Taoyuan, it would be even better, we will directly surround the point and send reinforcements!" ”

Shi Qingxuan has the arrogance to say this, the Chinese army may still lack the ability to siege the city, and the strong city in the face of the enemy army often needs a long siege and preparation before it can be taken. But if you fight a field battle, the Chinese army has not been afraid of anyone, and it is good that the Qing army can't come out. But once he took the initiative to go out of the city to face the battle, Shi Qingxuan had absolute confidence that he could defeat the enemy army in the field.

However, Shen Chiyun still cautiously raised a few other questions, and then the officers of the First Army and the Fifth Army continued to speak one by one.

Listening to the army generals discussing strategies, they were talking about large-scale battles of tens of thousands of people, which made Ye Tangshi on the side envious and a little disdainful.

From the end of the day, these army generals did not mention the issue of logistics, nor did they say anything about the issue of naval artillery cover, nor did they express any gratitude for the support of the navy.

Therefore, he was a little unhappy in his heart: You discussed the Northern Jiangsu Campaign, and you actually treated me, a naval representative, as air, and without the logistical support of our navy, your army would be a fart.

Alas, it's a pity that our navy is still too weak, so that these army generals ignore our navy.

Speaking of which, the development of the Chinese Empire's navy in recent years has not been slow, from the beginning of the naval battalion to the Royal Navy, the number of people has increased from more than 500 to more than 6,000, and the number of warships has increased from a few sampan ships to more than 20 river gunboats and seven or eight high-sea warships of several hundred tons.

However, this is too much worse than the army, the total number of the army has exceeded 150,000, and the total number of troops in their own navy is not even a fraction of that of the army, and to be honest, the pillar of the Chinese empire is the army, and the role that the navy can play is actually very limited.

Whether it is the Qing court or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they do not have a formal navy, at most there are only some sailor battalions, and these sailors are also some traditional inland river sailors, said to be sailors, but in fact, they are infantry on sail inland river ships, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Hunan army Several naval divisions were fought with ancient fire, hand-to-hand combat on boarding ships, etc., and there was not much between naval artillery fire.

There is no opponent at home, and there is no enemy abroad for the time being, and even if there is, it cannot be defeated, and the British will casually send a detachment to block the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the Royal Navy will have to rest.

In this way, the marginalization of the Royal Army is natural, which can be reflected in the fact that when the two military academies of the navy and land are enrolled, there are far more applicants for the army military academy than the naval academy.

While thinking to himself, Master Ye Tang suddenly heard Shi Qingxuan say: "Colonel Ye, this logistics and transportation aspect will have to ask the navy a lot!" ”

Hearing that Shi Qingxuan finally talked about the navy, Ye Tangshi couldn't help but straighten his waist, and then said: "Our navy will naturally do its best to ensure the safety of inland river transportation, which the army can rest assured!" ”

Although the strength of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire was weak, it was compared with the ocean-going navies of the great powers, but compared with other sailors in the country, the river gunboats of the Royal Army were enough to destroy them.

Since the founding of the army, the navy has never lost a battle on inland rivers, and this time it will naturally not have any problems covering the supply and transportation mission.

The high-level military talks did not last long. Only two hours later, Shi Qingxuan and Shen Chiyun returned to the shore to land on the gunboats provided by the navy, and then returned to their respective camps.

And the next day. The 1st Army in Sizhou was the first to move, and its forward 1st Division quickly crossed the area around Qingyang Town, Sizhou, and then entered Taoyuan County in Jiangsu Province.

At the same time, about ten kilometers north of the 1st Division, the 3rd Division and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment also advanced eastward.

In addition to the 1st and 3rd Divisions, a number of units of the 1st Army under the jurisdiction of the 1st Army also followed suit, including the 9th Auxiliary Defense Division, the 19th Assistant Defense Division, and the 20th Assistant Defense Division. There were about 35,000 people in total, and about 10,000 people were recruited on the spot to transport supplies.

In fact, the First Army currently has more than the above-mentioned units. There are also two other auxiliary defense divisions, that is, the 16th auxiliary defense division and the 18th auxiliary defense division that are fighting with the Twist army and a small number of Qing troops in the area north of Fengyang Fucheng.

In addition, there were two auxiliary defense divisions that originally belonged to the First Army, but have now been transferred to the jurisdiction of the Second Army, namely the 14th Auxiliary Defense Division stationed in Lu'an Province and the 17th Assistant Defense Division to reinforce Anqing.

An army of 35,000 marched eastward from Sizhou. Such a large-scale move naturally could not be concealed from the Qing army on the opposite side.

The First Army had just marched eastward. The recent Qing army in Taoyuan County learned the news!

"What, the rebel army is marching eastward, and there are more than 50,000 people in the left and right armies?" After hearing the news, Shoude, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army stationed in Taoyuan County, was greatly alarmed.

You must know that the Qing army under his command is only 10,000 people, and only more than 2,000 of them are training troops worthy of a war, and the rest of the nearly 10,000 people are old army units such as green battalions and local regimental training, how can he not panic in the face of the menacing 50,000 Chinese army.

"Quick. Send a fast horse to Huai'an and Suqian, and Muyang report the news. Let them reinforce us as soon as possible! Shoude knew that he would never be able to stop the attack of the 50,000 Chinese army with his own strength, and the only thing he could rely on was reinforcements from other places.

In fact, he didn't need to send a fast horse to report, the Qing army in the direction of Suqian had already learned the news!

For a time, the atmosphere of the Qing army in the direction of Suqian was extremely tense, and many generals gathered in the camp tent of the new military minister of Jiangnan, Seng Lingqin.

And Seng Greenqin looked at the people below, but also felt a deep headache, Monk Greenqin in a group of Qing Manchu generals can be regarded as capable, in the past few years has been fighting with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Northern Expeditionary Army, the Twist Army, frequent meritorious service.

Since Yangzhou was conquered by the Chinese army in the middle of the year, Huang Zonghan, the governor of Liangjiang and the military minister of Jiangnan, was killed in Yangzhou, and Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu, the military assistant and Zhang Guoliang, the chief soldier, and Dexinga, the military assistant and others, fled north to Huai'an.

Under the anger of the Qing court, they all dismissed the above-mentioned people, but they also knew that they couldn't really take it down, otherwise Huai'an City would not have to wait for the Chinese army to attack, and they would have messed up first, so they got a dismissal and retention, and the punishment of meritorious service.

Subsequently, the general class of the Qing army in the Jiangbei region was replaced, and the prince of Bodol Katai, Seng Greenqin, was appointed as the Qincha to supervise the military affairs of the north and south of the Yangtze River, and Du Xing'a, the minister of the supervision of the training army, was appointed as the assistant of the military affairs of the north and south of the Yangtze River.

They were accompanied by about 4,000 cavalry from the Eight Banners and the Mongolian cavalry, 6,000 from Gyeonggi and 4,000 from Zhili.

At the same time, 2,000 troops from Henan and 6,000 troops from Shandong were transferred to the south.

In addition to the above-mentioned new training troops, there are also more than 30,000 people from the Green Battalion and the Old Army of the Eight Banners requisitioned from several northern provinces.

In total, the Qing court was requisitioned from several northern provinces, and the southward army under the command of Seng Lingqin numbered about 60,000 people.

Among them, Li Hongzhang and Zhang Guoliang were dismissed and retained, and they still commanded the old department stationed in Huai'an City.

As the new and second Minister of Military Affairs of Jiangnan, it was naturally impossible for him to come alone, and he also brought many other generals, such as his old subordinate, Du Xing'a, the Minister of Gyeonggi Training Army, and several people from the Hunan military system.

Among them is the famous Hu Linyi!

At the beginning of the year, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom moved westward, Hu Linyi was defeated and Wuchang fled north, although he lost Hubei, but the Qing court also knew that the blame was not on him.

In addition, at that time, the Chinese army had already marched north, compared with Hubei and Hunan, the security of Shandong and other Zhili areas was more important, and a capable minister was urgently needed to force the turmoil, and the candidate of the Qing court was Hu Linyi.

After Hu Linyi was appointed as the governor of Shandong by the Qing court, the first thing he did was to train the Shandong training army, although it is said that the training army organized by the provinces themselves cannot get the same financial support from the Qing court as the Gyeonggi training army and the Zhili training army, but Hu Linyi was able to maintain the Hunan army for many years on his own in the past few years, and naturally has the ability.

No, less than half a year after he took office as governor of Shandong, he trained a Shandong training army of more than 6,000 people, and then took this Shandong training army south to northern Jiangsu.

At present, the various armies of the Qing court stationed in northern Jiangsu are relatively complicated, including the Jianghuai New Army, the Gyeonggi Training Army, the Zhili Training Army, the Shandong Training Army, the Henan Training Army, and the old armies such as the Green Battalion, the Eight Banners, and the Regiment Training in several northern provinces, and the total number of Qing courts in northern Jiangsu exceeds 150,000.

Of course, the only ones that can be fought are the Jianghuai New Army and the provincial training army, with a total of about 30,000 people, and the rest are all chaotic old armies.

"Now that Shi is moving eastward, Taoyuan and Huai'an are in danger, what regulations do you have, let's talk about it!" Seeing that the people below didn't speak for a long time, Monk Greenqin spoke: "Duxing, you talk about it first!" ”

was named by Monk Greenqin, Du Xing'a also had to speak, only to see him think for a long time before he said: "Now that the rebel army is marching east to Taoyuan, it is bound to plan to take Taoyuan and merge with Shen Wei on Huai'an to besiege Huai'an!" ”

Hearing Du Xing'a say this, everyone nodded in unison, the Chinese army did not come to attack Suqian, but to attack Taoyuan, its purpose is very obvious, it should be to cut off the connection between Suqian and Huai'an first, and then besiege Huai'an.

Du Xing'a continued: "However, the rebel army wants to stop us from the waist and cut us off, so we will take advantage of the situation, gather the army to Taoyuan City, annihilate the rebel army in one fell swoop, and cut off the rebel army!" ”

As soon as these words came out, they made everyone's faces change slightly, and gathered the army to annihilate the main force of the Chinese army outside Taoyuan County in one fell swoop? Isn't this cow a little big!

Especially a few generals who had fought with the Chinese army before, they all frowned, but because of Du Xing'a's identity, they didn't dare to speak, but in their hearts they secretly said: When you first arrived, you dared to talk about a decisive battle with the Chinese army, and don't bring us with you if you want to die!

The Chinese army is good at field warfare, this is something that anyone who has fought with the Chinese army knows, even if they have not fought with the Chinese army, but they have also heard of some examples of the Chinese army, and the Chinese army has never failed in field battles.

At this time, Hu Linyi, the governor of Shandong, coughed, and then said: "The rebel army is cunning, if we wait for reinforcements to Taoyuan, I am afraid that we will be broken by each one if we go our separate ways." Looking at the past examples of the Chinese army, Hu felt that it was better to be cautious! ”

Du Xing'a glanced at Hu Linyi, showing dissatisfaction, what kind of thing are you, Hu Linyi, who was beaten by those Taiping thieves in Hubei and fled in embarrassment, not only was he not punished by the imperial court, but his waist changed and became the governor of Shandong.

Hmph, if all the civil and military officials of the Qing Dynasty are like you Hu Linyi, I will be finished early in the morning.

This Qing Dynasty has to rely on me to save it!

Don't think that Du Xing'a thinks this way is arrogant, in fact, he really has this capital, what kind of person is he, the minister of the training army, the Qing court's Gyeonggi training army and Zhili training army, the two training troops directly under the Qing court, are under his control!

The title of Minister of Military Training Supervision may not be easy to understand, but in another way, you can better understand Du Xing'a's status in today's Qing army, that is, he first engaged in the training of new formations and new troops, at first he just made a Zhili training army, but soon he was entrusted with a heavy task by the Qing court, and then he trained the Gyeonggi training army, and the Zhili training army and the Gyeonggi training army can be said to have been trained by him.

At the same time, he can be regarded as creating a situation in which the Manchu Qing Dynasty has large-scale reduction and training of new ones, and the training of troops in various provinces.

Such a Duxing naturally has arrogant capital!

Therefore, Du Xing'a is full of confidence, and wants to take his training army to fight to the death with the Chinese army, as long as the main force of the Chinese army can be annihilated in Taoyuan County, the future princely position is not an extravagant hope, but a great hope! (To be continued......)