In the face of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which swept most of China, the Qing court was not afraid, because they knew that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was essentially a group of rogue soldiers, and it was incompatible with Confucianism.

However, Lin Zhe is different, Yu Shengjun is not a rogue bandit, but a regular political and military interest group.

The generals who led the army were all Confucian scholars and officials, and including Lin Zhe, most of these generals were born in the scholarly families in the Jiangnan region, rich gentry and wealthy families, and the impact of these rebellions was definitely not comparable to that of the outcasts and bandits.

This is enough to overthrow the Manchu regime!

Otherwise, why do you think the Manchu Qing Dynasty endured Lin Zhe in the past two years, it is because they know that Lin Zhe is not easy to deal with, and he is a greater threat than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and if he is forced to rebel, Emperor Xianfeng, the emperor, will not be able to stand.

But after enduring it for two years, Lin Zhe was no longer ready to give them too much time, and now he detained Jiangnan taxes and asked himself to supervise Jiangnan's military and political affairs, making it clear that he wanted to divide the locality.

In the face of Lin Zhe, who was already not just domineering, but made it clear that he wanted to divide the place, the Qing court was greatly alarmed, and those military-level ministers discussed for several days but failed to come up with any good solutions.

Admit that Lin Zhe seized the place? It's impossible.

But just falling out with Lin Zhe like this, the consequences are also unbearable for them!

"Now Lin Zhe has tens of thousands of troops, entrenched in southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, southern Anhui and other prefectures and counties, if he forcibly falls out with him, the consequences are unimaginable!" Wen Qing said this to Emperor Xianfeng.

Although Emperor Xianfeng was young, he still heard the hidden meaning of his words, that is, to continue to endure.

"If you continue to let Lin Zhe continue to do this nonsense, what if he continues to grow bigger, and then control the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang, or even go north to northern Jiangsu?" Emperor Xianfeng also has his own worries, he knows that if he falls out with Lin Zhe now, it will be the imperial court that suffers, but he is also worried that if he continues to endure it, it will make Lin Zhe more arrogant, and then control more regions such as northern Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

Wen Qingdao: "Now there are still a large number of thieves in Jiangning and Zhenjiang, Lin Zhe is entrenched in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, and it is they who are directly opposed, not us." Until these thieves are completely wiped out, it is very unlikely that Lin Zhe will go north. ”

"And what we have to do now is to continue to expand the size of our new army before the thief army is defeated by Lin Zhe!"

Speaking of this, he mentioned Li Hongzhang: "Previously, the Jianghuai New Army had already sent troops to Yangzhou and defeated the thief army, which shows that we have been on the right path to run a new army in the past two years, and now we only need to run more new troops, which will be enough to deal with any situation at that time!" ”

In the face of Lin Zhe's de facto secession, although the Qing court was already eager to eat Lin Zhe in one bite, it still had to continue to endure it, and Lin Zhe's excerpt was left by Emperor Xianfeng.

He did not say anything about Lin Zhe's withholding of taxes in some states and counties such as southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, and southern Anhui, and put on an attitude of not asking.

This was an ostrich tactic, and the Qing court did not give Lin Zhe any title to supervise Jiangnan's military and political affairs, nor did it punish him for withholding Jiangnan taxes.

In short, I don't know!

On the other hand, Emperor Xianfeng once again issued an edict, requiring Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army to expand to more than 10,000 people within the year, and at the same time ordering the Eight Banners and Green Battalions in various places to run new armies.

The new army asked for money, although the Qing court was still poor, and the taxes in the zhì area controlled by Yusheng in Jiangnan were also withheld by Lin Zhe, but the Qing court still controlled most of the country, and after the Jiangnan camp and the Jiangbei camp were destroyed one after another, although the losses were heavy, but on the other hand, the Qing court also reduced the great burden.

You must know that there were hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Jiangnan camp and the Jiangbei camp before, and countless military salaries, grain and grass, and ordnance were consumed every month.

In addition, because the Qing court was no longer able to purchase foreign guns and cannons from foreigners, although Hechun and Lin Zhe had reached a verbal agreement to exchange war horses for foreign guns and artillery, this transaction was stopped after Lin Zhe announced that he would withhold the taxes in the Yusheng military control area as military expenses.

During the transaction, which lasted for more than a month, Kazuharu only bought a thousand foreign guns and five or six old guns and then stopped, for which he paid the price of up to 500 horses. This calculated the price of a smoothbore foreign gun, including a bayonet and a set of ammunition for distribution, which was as high as twenty taels of silver, which was not cheaper than the small-caliber Mini rifle of the 1856 model.

There was no way to purchase ordnance, and the Qing court had a very large demand for foreign guns, so Zeng Guofan first wrote a letter requesting the establishment of an ordnance bureau, and first opened the Hunan Ordnance Bureau in Laochao Hunan to produce foreign guns and cannons.

Later, Li Hongzhang also connected several other governors to write a letter requesting the establishment of an ordnance bureau, and this time the Qing court planned to set up an ordnance bureau in Tianjin, that is, the Tianjin Ordnance Bureau, in order to ensure that the ordnance bureau was under its own control.

As for when these two ordnance bureaus will be able to mass-produce foreign gun sample guns, it will depend on the investment of the Qing court.

Judging from this series of measures of the Qing court, it is clear that they want to delay time with the ostrich policy, and then bury themselves in the development of the new army, and finally expect to use the new army to fight with Lin Zhe's Yu Shengjun.

In the face of such a reaction from the Qing court, Lin Zhe was amazed at their endurance, and at the same time, he also unceremoniously took over the military and political affairs in the area controlled by Yu Sheng's military control.

At this point, although it is said that Lin Zhe has not yet openly rebelled, it has actually torn his face, and Lin Zhe and his Yu Shengjun have embarked on the road of independent separation.

At present, Yu Shengjun has taken control of all of Su Songtai, all counties in Changzhou Prefecture except Jiangyin County, Jintan County and Liyang County in Zhenjiang Prefecture, and Lishui County in Jiangning Prefecture.

Zhejiang, on the other hand, controlled several counties in the northern part of Huzhou Prefecture, while Jiaxing was also under the command of Yu Shengjun, and Lin Zhe had already sent people to accept local taxes and money.

In southern Anhui, it controlled Guangdezhou.

It is worth noting that in the above-mentioned areas, except for the trade zone, Yu Shengjun in other places can only be regarded as military control, and does not completely interfere in the local civilian system.

Lin Zhe only needs local taxes, as for who will be the official, it is not a big problem for him, and Yu Shengjun has been entrenched in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang for several years, and most of those local officials also know how powerful Yu Shengjun is, since the imperial court did not have a clear decree that Lin Zhe would not be allowed to collect taxes, then they would naturally obediently hand over the tax income to Yu Shengjun for the sake of their own net worth and life.

And get the tax income of the above-mentioned states and counties, and it makes Yu Shengjun's military expenses much richer, you must know that Jiangnan is a heavy tax area, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have supplied hundreds of thousands of troops to the Jiangnan camp and the Jiangbei camp, and now these money and grain have fallen into the hands of Yu Shengjun, so it's no wonder that the money is not much.

What is the first thing to do when you have money? Naturally, the army was expanded.

Lin Zhe spilled a large amount of military spending, in addition to preparing for the establishment of the 6th, 7th, and 8th mixed regiments, which had already been planned, Lin Zhe also expanded the ninth mixed regiment on the basis of the two battalions stationed in Huzhou and Guangde.

At the same time, a new mixed regiment was recruited in Shaoxing's hometown, which was the tenth mixed regiment.

He also used the hundreds of high-quality war horses he had bought from the north in exchange for He Chun to prepare for the formation of the Second Cavalry Regiment.

If the above five mixed regiments and the second cavalry regiment could be organized in accordance with the lì, then the size of Yu Sheng's army would be directly doubled, reaching about 23,000 men.

In addition to expanding the army force, Lin Zhe also allocated a large amount of military funds to the naval battalion to recruit sailors and purchase additional warships, and the wealthy naval battalion had already placed an order with the Shanghai shipyard to purchase three 400-ton steam dark wheel warships, in addition to placing an order for as many as 12 80-ton inland river steam dark wheel gunboats.

If these orders are fulfilled smoothly, the size of the naval battalion will be directly doubled to the scale of six warships of more than 400 tons and 20 gunboats of less than 100 tons, and the total strength will exceed 5,000 men.

Lin Zhe's entire army expansion plan, in fact, the core idea is to double the existing strength of Yu Sheng's army.

In addition to the regular army of the Yu Sheng Army, Lin Zhe also vigorously rectified the auxiliary defense regiment, first of all, from the original seven auxiliary defense regiments from the elite backbone, that is, the original reinforced battalion soldiers, unified two regiments, although these two regiments continue to use the title of the auxiliary defense regiment, but in fact the equipment and treatment have been the same as the regular army of Yu Shengjun.

At the same time, Yu Shengjun's source of soldiers for the Auxiliary Defense Corps was not only limited to the previous prisoners of war, but also recruited from the poor people, and still only gave food, not military salaries. The requirements for recruits are not as high as those of the regular army, and basically as long as they are young and strong.

Lin Zhe hopes to expand the size of the defense team from the current 10,000 people to 30,000 or more.

In the face of the recruitment requirements of the Auxiliary Defense Corps, which were almost as long as the physical conditions were qualified, many of the defeated soldiers of the Qing Army and the Taiping Army took the opportunity to join the Auxiliary Defense Corps, just to have three meals a day.

At the same time, the total number of troops of the regular army and the auxiliary defense regiment of Yu Sheng's army is still too small, and when they go out to fight, the vast hinterland also needs a certain amount of troops to suppress the bomb to prevent local bandits and wandering troops from making waves.

To this end, Lin Zhe used strong means to set up patrol police offices and yamen in various prefectures, forcibly incorporated all kinds of local armed forces in various prefectures and counties into patrol police units, and uniformly organized and trained patrol police battalions.

In this process, there was opposition from many people, and in recent years, basically every county order, the prefect had a different number of armed forces in his hands, especially in Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other areas that had been fighting against the Taiping Army for a long time.

If your Yu Shengjun wants to incorporate their armed forces, it will naturally encounter obstacles, such as Qu Shengchao, who has been promoted to Hangjiahu Soldier Preparation, he will not let the more than 2,000 people under his command be recruited.

As a result, Xu Peng'an, who was sent by Lin Zhe from Shanghai to Huzhou to preside over military affairs, was directly mobilized by Xu Peng'an, who had just formed and had not completed training, and the Eighth and Ninth Mixed Regiments were jointly exterminated.

Even He Guiqing, who was in Hangzhou, tried his best to oppose it to no avail, so he could only watch the Eighth Mixed Regiment of Yu Shengjun go north to Huzhou from outside Hangzhou, and then unite with the Ninth Mixed Regiment to suppress and incorporate Qu Shengchao's Huzhou Yongying.

Qu Shengchao's troops were defeated and fled, and finally went to Yangzhou to seek refuge with Li Hongzhang.

Although the process of incorporating and controlling other armed forces in the zhì area was somewhat tortuous, it finally progressed smoothly.

Throughout the summer of 1856, Lin Zhe was busy expanding the army and rectifying internal affairs, and he wanted to accumulate strength to launch the final attack!

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing army were not idle on both sides, they were all grinding their fists and palms, training and expanding the army, but what is interesting is that since June, the fighting between the Yu Sheng army, the Taiping army, and the Qing army in the Jiangnan region has invariably stopped.

Shi Dakai and the others on the side of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are not stupid, naturally they knew that Lin Zhe and the Qing court had parted ways, so they almost raised a rebellion directly, at this time, if the Taiping army and Yu Shengjun fought to the death, wouldn't it be cheaper for the Qing army?

Not to mention fighting, Shi Dakai even sent someone to Shanghai to secretly ask to see Lin Zhe! (To be continued.) )