Before Yu Shengjun's uprising, Lin Zhe had already adjusted the command system of Yu Shengjun's various departments, and this adjustment did not involve the specific establishment of the existing troops, but only an adjustment of the command system.

The total number of regiment-level units such as the mixed regiment and the auxiliary defense regiment of Yu Shengjun has exceeded 20, and it is impossible for the military headquarters of Yu Shengjun, or Lin Zhe himself, to directly command so many regiment-level troops, so it has become inevitable to establish a higher-level fixed combat establishment, which is also the direct reason why Lin Zhe established the First Infantry Division at the beginning of the year.

Logically speaking, Yu Shengjun should have gradually changed many mixed regiments and auxiliary defense regiments into fixed combat formations at the division or brigade level in a step-by-step manner.

However, with the Qing court's large-scale training of the new army in 1856, especially the rapid expansion of Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army, Lin Zhe was forced to speed up the pace of the uprising, which also made Lin Zhe not have enough time to reorganize the troops one by one and then reorganize them into a fixed division and brigade combat formation.

In order not to affect the combat effectiveness of the existing troops, Lin Zhe could only continue to use the existing combat establishment of the troops, but only established three division-level command organs to unify the command of the troops in a certain area.

This was the birth of the Second Infantry Division, the Third Infantry Division, and the Fourth Infantry Division in Yu Shengjun.

The above three divisions are different from the First Infantry Division, which is a unit led by Lin Zhe himself, and at the beginning of its preparation, it broke the operational establishment of each mixed regiment and organized it into three simple infantry regiments: the First Infantry Regiment, the Third Infantry Regiment, the Fourth Infantry Regiment, the First Artillery Regiment, the First Baggage Regiment, and the First Cavalry Regiment.

All of the above units are the most elite elite troops in Yu Sheng's army, and the soldiers are mainly veterans, bringing together a large number of capable middle and lower-level officers.

The First Artillery Regiment had 18 12-pounder guns, six 6-pounder cavalry guns, and six 32-pounder mortars. In addition, each infantry battalion was also equipped with a full number of four-pounder infantry guns, a total of twenty-four guns.

The First Cavalry Regiment under its jurisdiction is also an old unit in Yu Sheng's army, and its combat effectiveness is not comparable to that of the Second Cavalry Regiment that was only formed this year.

After all, the main purpose of establishing these three infantry divisions is to solve the problem of unified command of Yu Shengjun in a certain area in a short period of time, not to change the existing establishment and establish a fixed combat establishment at the division and brigade level.

As a result, the Second Infantry Division was formed with the Second Mixed Regiment in the Lishui area as the core, plus the Fourth Auxiliary Defense Regiment, the Fifth Auxiliary Defense Regiment, and the Sixth Auxiliary Defense Regiment, and Lin Anfei, the commander of the Second Mixed Regiment, concurrently served as the commander of the Second Infantry Division.

In fact, the Second Mixed Regiment and the three Auxiliary Defense Regiments in the Lishui area were a whole before, and they were unified by Xu Yanqing at the beginning, and later after Lin Anfei took over as the head of the Second Mixed Regiment, they were under the unified command of Lin Anfei.

In other words, the formation of the Second Infantry Division was carried out entirely on the basis of the existing troops in Lishui, and only the previous general command title was formally determined in the form of the Second Infantry Division.

The same is true of the 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions.

Among them, the Third Infantry Division was mainly composed of Yu Shengjun, who was originally stationed in Changzhou, Jintan and other places, and was composed of the Fifth Mixed Regiment, the Sixth Mixed Regiment, the First Auxiliary Defense Regiment, and the Eighth Auxiliary Defense Regiment, and Shi Qingxuan, the commander of the Fifth Mixed Regiment, concurrently served as the commander of the Third Infantry Division. Mainly responsible for the war from Changzhou to Zhenjiangfu.

The Fourth Infantry Division was mainly composed of the 8th Mixed Regiment brought by Xu Yanqing from Shanghai, the 9th Mixed Regiment stationed in Huzhou, and the 10th Mixed Regiment stationed in Shaoxing, which were mainly fighting and garrisoning in northern Zhejiang, with Xu Yanqing, commander of the 6th Mixed Regiment, concurrently serving as division commander. Responsible for the war in Zhejiang.

In addition to Lin Zhe himself, the other three division commanders: Shi Qingxuan, Lin Anfei, and Xu Yanqing were uniformly awarded the rank of major general.

In the above-mentioned reorganization aimed at unified command, Chen Yuntao's 10th mixed regiment was under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Infantry Division and under the command of Xu Yanqing.

Looking at the order given by his boss, Chen Yuntao calculated the time and found that if he arrived in Hangzhou within four days, he was afraid that he would have to set off tomorrow, and he must take Shaoxing tonight!

Otherwise, if the time for the Fourth Infantry Division to attack Hangzhou was delayed, and then the overall Zhejiang strategy of Yu Shengjun's Zhejiang attack was delayed, I am afraid that even if he was Lin Zhe's retainer, it would be difficult to hold the blame.

When Chen Yuntao led the 10th Mixed Regiment to attack Shaoxing Fucheng, dozens of miles east of Hangzhou, Xu Yanqing had already personally led the 8th Mixed Regiment to gallop towards the starry night of Hangzhou.

In Huzhou, northwest of the 8th Mixed Regiment, the two battalions of the 9th Mixed Regiment and other troops were also heading south, conquering all the prefectures and counties they encountered along the way, and their arrows pointed directly at Hangzhou.

Judging from the map, the 8th, 9th, and 10th mixed regiments of the Fourth Division under Xu Yanqing all point to the same place: Hangzhou!

In Suzhou, Lin Zhe, who was paying close attention to the overall battle situation, pointed at the direction of Hangzhou with his fingers:

"As long as Hangzhou is taken, then the entire northern Zhejiang will be in the bag, and the strategic security of the Taihu Lake region will be completely consolidated, but there are mostly new recruits in the fourth division, and this battle is not easy to fight!"

At this time, Xu Peng'an, who was on the side of the narrator, said: "The marshal can rest assured, General Xu is a fierce general in the world, and in the spring and summer, he can lead more than 2,000 people of the second mixed regiment to run all the way for hundreds of miles, and the enemies of Yixing, Jintan, Danyang, and Zhenjiang are all fleeing in despair, and even force Jiangning to force the main force of the Taiping thief army to come to the west to help, and solve the crisis in southern Jiangsu in one fell swoop."

This time, General Xu led three regiments of troops to attack northern Zhejiang, and it was bound to be a battle, and the capture of Hangzhou was just around the corner! ”

Although he heard Xu Pengan say this, Lin Zhe was still a little worried in his heart, he had already blocked all the retreats this time, and he had already used all his hole cards for this time to raise troops, and it was impossible to conjure up tens of thousands of troops out of thin air like those magicians.

Now he has gambled on a qiē, only success and failure!

Looking at the current situation, due to the large number of troops in southern Jiangsu, and the penetration of Yu Shengjun's system into the Susongtai region in recent years, it was able to quickly control the Susongtai region after the uprising.

As for Changzhou, because Shi Qingxuan took the initiative to lead the army to attack Jiangyin, forcing Huang Zonghan to lead the remnants of the Jiangnan Qing army to cross the river and retreat north in order to preserve its strength, it was logical that this Changzhou government was controlled by Yu Shengjun.

However, there is no such smooth thing in Zhejiang, even if Yuyao in Shaoxing in northern Zhejiang is Yu Shengjun's hometown, but Hangzhou City is like a bone spur, firmly stuck in northern Zhejiang, and if the Qing army in Hangzhou City is not pulled out, Yu Shengjun will not be able to control northern Zhejiang, let alone any Zhejiang strategy.

Before the uprising, Lin Zhe had already formulated a military strategy after the uprising, first of all, the most important thing was to consolidate the strategic security of southern Jiangsu, prevent the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from taking the opportunity to advance eastward, and prevent the Qing army from crossing the river to attack.

As a specific measure, Lin Zhe hoarded heavy troops in southern Jiangsu, including the first division, the third division and the seventh mixed regiment, many troops were stationed in various parts of southern Jiangsu, in addition to the naval division battalion has also sent warships to patrol the section from the Yangtze River to Zhenjiang, focusing on preventing the Qing army from crossing the Yangtze River to attack south or the naval division from attacking Shanghai.

After ensuring the strategic security of southern Jiangsu, Yu Shengjun's second important strategy was to take northern Zhejiang, take the entire Taihu Lake region into his pocket, and connect southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, and southern Anhui, and expand the strategic depth, but also seize the most elite industrial, commercial, and agricultural areas in the entire Jiangnan region, so as to ensure the source of taxes and ensure the supply of grain.

The fundamental purpose of these two strategic intentions is to ensure the strategic security of southern Jiangsu and take over northern Zhejiang, and to establish a stable rear base area.

Lin Zhe is not willing to learn from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, only caring about conquering the city, but he does not consider building a stable rear base to support the hegemony, and wants to go west and the Northern Expedition.

If it weren't for the Qing army, the captain of the transport brigade, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would have starved to death by itself!

At the beginning of the incident, although Lin Zhe was hoarding heavy troops in southern Jiangsu, he had no intention of crossing the river to the north or west to Zhenjiang, he needed time!

It will take time to take down and digest all the essence areas of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, and then he will consider going west or north, or continue to send troops south.

However, in order to realize these strategic intentions, whether Xu Yanqing can capture Hangzhou or not, and how long it will take to capture Hangzhou is very crucial.

A few days later, when Xu Yanqing arrived at the city of Hangzhou and set up camp, he sat in the tent and touched the gold star on the epaulette, recalling what Lin Zhe had said to him before he led his troops south, and his heart couldn't help but get excited.

On the night after the Shanghai Uprising, Lin Zhe called him into the study, pinned him to the rank of major general of the army, and said to him with a solemn face: "This time, Mu Bai, you go to Hangzhou, and take out your ability to attack Zhenjiang and coerce Jiangning. ”

Even now, when he thinks of Lin Zhe solemnly saying that he entrusted the Zhejiang strategy to himself, Xu Yanqing still feels that he can't calm down.

As a minister, he can make the lord value it so much, Xu Yanqing boasts that he has no regrets in this life!

Xu Yanqing doesn't read much, he is just from the Lin family's nursing home, although he was selected to study in the Suiying School because of his literacy, but he is still different from other scholars, he never shakes his head and chews words, and the Four Books and Five Classics and the like are only half-understood.

The most watched and the most familiar is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he admires those famous generals of the Three Kingdoms very much, and often calls himself Guan Zhang Zhaodian and Lin Zhe as the lord.

And to have such a lord who values himself so much, Xu Yanqing can be regarded as having experienced what it is like to be a confidant and die.

Of course, in addition to these, there are other things that make Xu Yanqing excited, Lin Zhe has already hinted to Xu Yanqing, Lin Anfei, Shi Qingxuan and several other core executives of Yu Shengjun that when the time is ripe, he Lin Zhe will never spare the gift of the prince!

Don't put your head on your pants to play rebellion, who the hell is really for the common people in the world, the people of Li, it's not for the sake of the marquis and the prime minister, and fight for glory and wealth!

Thinking that he might be crowned a marquis, or even a king, his Xu Yanqing's heart was beating very fast, who would have thought that I, Xu Yanqing, a nursing home that relied on strength to eat, would also be able to be crowned a marquis and pay homage!

Now Wang Jue Houlu has beckoned to him, as long as he takes Zhejiang!

And if you want to take Zhejiang, you have to take down this damn Hangzhou city first! (To be continued.) )