"Brother Xu really lived up to your expectations, since the army was dispatched in April, it has lasted for one month, and the second mixed regiment has won successive battles, all the way north without a round of land Lianke Yixing, Jintan, Danyang, Zhenjiang." Xu Peng'an, who was standing beside Lin Zhe, spoke with an unconcealable envy.

There are already many high-ranking generals in Yu Sheng's army, there are as many as six lieutenant colonel regiment commanders alone, and there are also military generals such as the general office, assistant office, and battalion officer of the supervision and training department, and there are more than ten generals with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Among these people, Shi Langyi's original reputation was naturally the most prominent, but even Shi Langyi was not able to be like Xu Yanqing, just relying on more than 2,000 troops in a mixed regiment to break through for hundreds of miles in a row and take Zhenjiang.

Along the way to the north, Xu Yanqing defeated nearly 40,000 or 50,000 Taiping troops, of which nearly 20,000 were captured by prisoners alone, and nearly 7,000 soldiers of the auxiliary defense regiment were selected from the captives.

This kind of achievement is not something that other generals of the Yu Shengjun can hope for now!

At this time, Shi Langyi on the side also spoke: "Judging from Brother Xu's battle report, their auxiliary defense regiment has played a very key role, in the face of the two fortified cities of Danyang and Zhenjiang, they all rely on the soldiers of the auxiliary defense regiment to attack the city, and then provide a forward base for the follow-up second mixed regiment, and finally completely defeat the enemy's cityhead defense with a point and an area!" ”

"Not bad!" Lin Zhe also spoke at this time: "In the future, you should be bolder and more active in the use and deployment of the auxiliary defense group!" ”

In the past, including Lin Zhe, most of the generals of Yu Shengjun regarded the soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Regiment as civilian husbands and other roles, and just let them transport and transport supplies in the rear, and they had no intention of letting them go into battle at all.

However, now Xu Yanqing told them with actual combat: although the auxiliary defense regiment does not have advanced weapons, and its organization and training are far inferior to the regular troops of Yu Shengjun, they are still cheap and easy to use cannon fodder soldiers, and as long as they are used properly, they can play a more important role.

Lin Zhe said: "Let the First Auxiliary Defense Regiment in Wuxi and the Second Auxiliary Defense Regiment in Suzhou come to Changzhou, and then let the Ordnance Bureau give them unified swords, spears and other weapons of better quality!" ”

Now that he has seen the successful use of the battle example, Lin Zhe naturally will not let those auxiliary defense regiments continue to stay in the rear safely, he wants to see with his own eyes whether Xu Yanqing's tactic of suppressing the firepower of the regular army of the Yusheng Army and rushing up by the auxiliary defense regiment for hand-to-hand combat is really effective.

Xu Yanqing's capture of Zhenjiang brought Lin Zhe and other Yu Shengjun generals the successful application of the defense regiment, as for the capture of Danyang and Zhenjiang itself, it did not cause much surprise, because this was originally the established combat goal of Yu Shengjun, and taking Zhenjiang was expected.

However, for others, no matter what tactics Xu Yanqing used when attacking Danyang and Zhenjiang, they only focused on one topic: that is, a partial division of Yu Shengjun took Zhenjiang.

In the camp of the Qing army, not far from the main camp of Yu Shengjun, He Chun listened to the news of Yu Shengjun's capture of Zhenjiang by his subordinates, and his face changed.

Yu Shengjun was able to win successive battles with a partial division of only 2,500 people, and went north for hundreds of miles to conquer Zhenjiang, which was still very shocking to He Chun, Huang Zonghan and others.

You must know that in Yixing, Jintan, Danyang, and Zhenjiang, the total number of Taiping troops added up to at least 50,000 people, although there are not many elites among them, but 50,000 people are there, and Xu Yanqing's partial division is only 2,500 people, no matter how He Chun imagines, he can't imagine how Xu Yanqing's second mixed regiment conquered Zhenjiang.

He Chun naturally didn't know that Xu Yanqing was fighting all the way to expand, and when he set out from Huzhou, there were only 2,500 people, but now the auxiliary defense regiment under his command has expanded to three regiments, and the total strength has exceeded 8,000 people.

This Lin Zhe is a good means, using Changzhou as bait, attracting all the main elites of the thief army, but he secretly sent a partial division to detour straight to Zhenjiang, this move was undoubtedly dangerous in the eyes of He Chun and others, and they even estimated that Xu Yanqing's only more than 2,000 people would go and never return, and no matter how bad it was, it was estimated that they would be blocked under Zhenjiang City.

But who would have thought that he would be able to connect Danyang and Zhenjiang, and completely cut off the connection between Zhenjiang and even Tianjing, the rear of the Taiping Army in Changzhou City.

After this, the thief army in Changzhou City is probably going to be restless.

Although he was quite unhappy in his heart, He Chun also knew that it was a good thing that Yu Shengjun took Zhenjiang, although everyone knew that Yu Shengjun had always been independent in the Qing army system and never birded other Qing troops.

But in any case, he and Chun are both ministers who supervise Jiangnan military affairs, while Lin Zhe is only an assistant to Jiangnan military affairs, and he is his nominal subordinate, and Yu Shengjun can be regarded as an army under his command.

Yu Shengjun took Zhenjiang, which also meant that he and Chun took Zhenjiang, and he immediately wrote a good news to the imperial court.

This good news naturally cannot say that he didn't know about Yu Shengjun's dispatch to Zhenjiang at first, and later he couldn't interfere at all, but said that under his wise leadership, he led the Jiangnan army to garrison outside Changzhou to attract the elite main force of the thief army, and ordered Lin Zhe to send a partial division to make a detour to Zhenjiang, and Jiang Xu Yanqing had conquered Zhenjiang, and the thief army was defeated!

It's just that after he handed over this good news, those court princes breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time, they also had other thoughts in their hearts.

Since 1854, Emperor Xianfeng and many military ministers have set a strategy for Lin Zhe to reward first and then suppress, and these four words have fully explained the defensive attitude of the Qing court high-level towards Lin Zhe.

It's just that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has not been annihilated in the past two years, so he can only endure Lin Zhe, and even beg Lin Zhe to send troops to resist the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but the Qing court's desire to guard against Yu Shengjun has never stopped, and even as Yu Shengjun's strength becomes stronger and stronger, he is more and more worried.

This can be seen from the Qing court's vigorous promotion of the new army in the past two years, and the Qing court's new army to exterminate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was on the one hand, but on the other hand, it was also an attempt to use the new army to exterminate the Yu Shengjun in the future.

Under this complex and contradictory psychology, their handling of the news of Yu Shengjun's capture of Zhenjiang is even more complicated!

"Now the emperor is waiting for us to hand over the charter of this matter, and they all say, what should we do now?" Wen Qing was a little dissatisfied with the silence of many colleagues, since the Zhenjiang Jiebao arrived in Jingshi yesterday, how to deal with this good news has become a difficult problem.

Although the good news and Chun have stopped the credit on themselves, but the princes of the court are not blind, they all know that this battle and Chun is a soy sauce player, and it is Yu Shengjun who really fights with the Taiping Army, if you want to reward Lin Zhe, you must reward Lin Zhe in a big way, but now Lin Zhe is already a political envoy in Jiangsu, and if he is promoted to a higher level, wouldn't he be the governor of Jiangsu?

And to let the commander of the Han regiment who has objections serve as the governor of a province such a feudal position, isn't that looking for a lot.

If Lin Zhe is left alone and only rewarded Hechun, Lin Zhe, who is famous for his dominance, knows that Hechun has taken all his credit, and it is estimated that he will be mad on the spot and slaughter Hechun.

Back then, thousands of people under Lin Zhe's command dared to shoot at Gil Hang'a, the governor of Jiangsu, and now it is not impossible to kill a minister with more than 10,000 troops.

But if you don't seal it, this is somewhat unreasonable, there are so many generals who are fighting with the Taiping Army now, and Lin Zhe is not the only one, if people see that they have won a battle and there is no reward, what will they say? I'm afraid it's not the one who has to arrange the court.

For the Qing court, Yu Shengjun's capture of Zhenjiang made them feel very embarrassed, and they did not know how to deal with the reward.

For the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the fall of Zhenjiang brought a violent shock, what is Zhenjiang? The gateway to Tianjing, once Zhenjiang is recaptured by the Qing army, then there will be no fortified fortress east of Tianjing to block the enemy army in the future.

Thinking that it would not take long for the Qing Demon to come to Tianjing City, a large number of bigwigs in Tianjing City were flustered, and Hong Xiuquan even sent a messenger to bypass Zhenjiang and go to Changzhou, asking the Changzhou army to return west immediately, recover Zhenjiang, and defend Tianjing.

In the face of the order of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan to ask them to return west, Lin Chengting, Qin Rigang and others inevitably had disputes and contradictions.

"Tianjing is the Xiongcheng of the world, Xu Yanqing only has thousands of soldiers, even if he arrives at Tianjing City, there is no need to worry, now our face-to-face enemy is still Lin Zhe's main force of the Chinese army!" In Lin Chengting's eyes, he was only staring at Lin Zhe's main force from beginning to end.

Even the loss of Yixing, Jintan, Danyang and even Zhenjiang failed to divert his attention!

"Yu Shengjun is capturing Zhenjiang, but it is just a plan to transfer troops, and he wants to force our army to withdraw from Changzhou!" Lin Chengting continued: "I will never let Lin Zhe get his wish! ”

Lin Chengting still understands very clearly, why did Yu Shengjun send a partial division to Zhenjiang, did he really give up his plan to conquer Changzhou? Absolutely not, just by looking at the tens of thousands of main forces of the victorious army outside the city, they know that their eyes are always on the elite main force of the 70,000 or 80,000 Taiping Army in Changzhou.

And he worked hard to manage it, and used the defense system built by the trenches and the ruins of the city wall to effectively resist the attack of Yu Shengjun.

It was not easy for him to block the siege of Yu Shengjun, but today Beijing wants to let himself return west and give Changzhou to Lin Zhe?

It's absolutely impossible!

But Qin Rigang said: "If Beijing is in danger today, Xu Yanqing has already led more than 10,000 troops to march to Tianjing, how can we sit idly by!" ”

Wu Ruxiao on the side also said: "Zhenjiang has been broken, and now our 80,000 troops are trapped in Changzhou, which is of little significance!" ”

Seeing that these two people had the idea of retreating, Lin Chengting was also very angry in his heart, withdrawing from Changzhou? Lin Zhe is waiting for you to do this, once you withdraw from Changzhou, do you think you will still have the opportunity to go west to aid Tianjing?

If Lin Zhe is a fool, he won't come to pursue, and once there is no perfect defense system under Changzhou City, do you think you can block the attack of Yu Shengjun in the field?

He Lin Chengting is not sure of this, and as for you Qin Rigang and Wu Ruxiao, it is even more impossible.

But although Lin Chengting insisted on his own ideas, he still couldn't dispel Qin Rigang and Wu Ruxiao's idea of rescuing Tianjing!

That night, Qin Rigang and Wu Ruxiao jointly led the troops to withdraw from Changzhou, and then went straight to Zhenjiang! (To be continued.) )