Immediately retreating the army and returning to China is a good way to stop the loss, a month's grain is enough for the fleet to insist on returning to Singapore, but the gray is gone, the loss of face is on the one hand, on the other hand, the fleet is gone, the Qing army will soon be finished, the Democratic Alliance will be irrepressible from now on, Southeast Asia and East Asia will be occupied by China, and there is no way to return to China, and the government will collapse.

Moreover, this trip from afar did not catch anything, Portugal and Spain were better, so far not a single shot was fired, and not a single battleship was lost, while Britain, Holland, Austria and Prussia, especially the latter three, suffered extremely heavy losses, and they were not willing to go like this.

As if he was a gambler, Jingguang, who had not lost, always felt that he still had a chance to turn the book, although he did not know what means the Democratic Alliance army used to annihilate the Anglo-Dutch fleet bound for Wuchang, but because of this ignorance, they gave birth to a trace of luck in their hearts, maybe only take advantage of the location to set up an ambush, and ambush the artillery on the shore in advance?

The house was filled with smoke, and Mt. Aeslitt put down his pipe and muttered: "I think we can try to ask France for help, even if he is not willing to send warships directly, it should be okay to borrow some coal food from him, and we must not give up until the last moment." ”

"Not bad!" Fernand also said: "We occupy the Yangtze River, advance and retreat freely, even if the situation is irreversible, it is too late to retreat temporarily, although the Democratic Alliance still has more than a dozen warships in the open sea, but I dare to conclude that if he does not come, he will be killed, and if he comes, he will be completely destroyed!" ”

Kimarones nodded and said: "I'm afraid a month is not enough time to go to Da Nang, we also need to let the Austrian and Prussian fleets stationed in Shanghai go to sea to catch some fish, and ask Mr. Fernand to ask His Excellency Juan, the Governor of the Philippines, for help, and then ask for help from the US troops stationed in Edo, and send some supplies over, so as to support them for two to three months." ”

"No problem!" Poor Fernande doesn't know what's going on in Manila. He shrugged his shoulders very boldly.

"Good!" Raglen's green eyes swept away: "Since everyone has decided to stay, then we will accompany Wang Feng to play to the end, I will say ugly things in front, no one is allowed to sneak away, otherwise, it will be our common enemy." I'm going out to set it up now! ”

The coalition forces decided to stay for the end, and the Democratic Alliance army marched from Xiangyang and Nanyang, and arrived at the city of Xinyang in only four days.

Xinyang is garrisoned by Liu Mingchuan of the Huai Army inscription battalion, Zhang Shusheng of the tree battalion and Zhou Shengbo of the Shengzi battalion, of which 20,000 are in the city by Zhou Shengbo, and outside the city by the inscription battalion and the tree battalion respectively in the west and south of the Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain to set up a village, a city and two villages are separated by five kilometers respectively, forming a tendency to lean on the angle, watching each other.

The two armies of the Democratic Alliance Army had 50,000 men and 10,000 troops from Jiang Zhongji's department, plus 5,000 auxiliary personnel. A total of 65,000 people are gathering in front of Liu Mingchuan's village in the west of the city, erecting artillery and digging fortifications, a scene in full swing.

Xiangyang and Nanyang are the key observation directions of the Huai army, when the two armies just left the city, they were detected by spies, at this time, Liu Mingchuan, Zhang Shusheng and Zhou Shengbo gathered on the west city wall. Pointing at the NLD forces below.

"Sure enough, he is worthy of being the master of Yum, the third brother of the province (Liu Ming's biography). You see that his military appearance is neat, the materials are placed in different categories, even if he digs fortifications, he seems to be orderly, Wang Feng is a genius, this battle is probably very difficult. Zhang Shusheng pointed below and sighed.

Liu Mingchuan nodded with a serious face: "Our army is centered in Suzhou. Using the terrain of Fuli, Jiagou and Caocun, more than 100,000 troops were deployed to fight with the short-haired fierce battle for nearly two months, and this place in Suzhou is connected to the coast, backed by the Central Plains, and is the north gate of Anhui Province. Xuzhou into Anhui the first way, known as Xu Nan Xingsheng, the first state in the south of the Yangtze River, if Suzhou is lost, the short hair will inevitably sweep Huaibei.

Although the marshal deployed nearly 150,000 troops in Suzhou, and the short-haired only had the sixth, eighth, and eleventh armies, with a total number of about 75,000 troops, the strength of the short-haired combat effectiveness was undeniable, and our army could not take any advantage in fighting it with the advantage of two to one in strength, and could only temporarily maintain the situation of being invincible and undefeated.

What's even more worrying is that our army has done its best, and it is no longer possible to draw more troops, and Short Mao, including Lu Nan, only used six armies of 150,000 people to drag us and the court more than 300,000 people, as far as I know, he has recruited rebels all the way in the past few years, and the total strength is about 400,000, in addition to the necessary stay, he can also use the mobile force will not be less than 50,000, that is, he can increase his troops at any time as needed!

This makes the available soldiers of the marshal seriously nervous, even if it is Fuyang Bozhou, there are only less than 10,000 people stationed, but it is in such a difficult situation, the marshal is still entrusted with heavy troops to you and me, it is because Xinyang can not be lost, once lost, the short hair can take Fuyang Bozhou lightly, and then attack on both sides, the marshal will be dangerous.

Our army has 50,000 people, including the auxiliary troops, about 65,000 people, in terms of strength, we are basically equal to him, but his equipment is obviously superior, and according to the news obtained not long ago, more than 60 ships of the foreign British and Dutch fleets have been wiped out in the area of Shizhong Mountain, which makes our plan to break off the communication between Xiaomao Jingxiang and Huxiang has come to naught, and Shorthair can continue to increase troops from Hunan.

In short, we are under a lot of pressure, but we must not ask the commander for help, once he surrounds the point to send reinforcements into an attack, our army will fall into a situation of no return, the only way now is to first hold on and then find an opportunity to break through the enemy, so that it is difficult for him to cross Xinyang half a step is our initial goal. ”

Liu Mingchuan's analysis is very pertinent, everyone's heart is extremely heavy, it's only been seven years, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was happy seven years ago, no one would have thought that seven years later, there would be a behemoth more terrible than the Taiping Army on the land of Jiangnan!

For a while, no one spoke, and the banner blown by the north wind was hunting, adding a gloomy atmosphere to the heaven and earth.

The front line of the position of the Democratic Alliance Army is about 12 kilometers away from Nanyang, about 7 kilometers away from Liu Mingchuan's camp, Zhou Shengbo took the telescope and looked around for a while, and suddenly snorted coldly: "I saw Jiang Zhongji, sure enough, this traitor, because his brother died at the hands of Shi Dakai, Zeng Shuai took pity on him, and also trusted him, and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, but he was ungrateful and cast Shorthair, if he continued to lurk in Hanzhong, Shorthair could not figure out the truth and truth, how dare he send troops to attack my Xinyang?" This person should be cut with a thousand cuts! ”

"Alas~~" Liu Mingchuan sighed and said bitterly: "Originally, Jingxiang was the most worry-free direction, but first the Russians were wiped out, then the left commander left the northwest, and Jiang Zhongji surrendered to the enemy in front of the formation, which made Jingxiang a breakthrough in short-haired, and Chen Chongbing pressed the situation and put my Xinyang in danger, which is really unpredictable." ”

Zhang Shusheng seemed to have thought of something, and frowned: "Why do I think it is very strange for Zuo Zongtang to leave the northwest?" If he cooperated with the Russians, with his familiarity with the terrain, how could Shorthair possibly set a trap on Bowangpo to annihilate the Russians?

Taking a step back, even though the Russians are arrogant and do not listen to advice, where was Zuo Zongtang when the Russians were attacked? After the Russians were annihilated, he took the initiative to withdraw from Xiangyang.

This person has always been brave and knowledgeable, and he dared to go to see Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing alone back then, but now how could he give up Jingxiang without firing a shot? I am seventy or eighty percent sure that Zuo Zongtang secretly colluded with Shorthair, maybe he and Shorthair joined forces to kill the Russians, and then persuaded Jiang Zhongji to rebel!

You must know that Jiang Zhongji and Shi Dakai have a grudge against their brothers, how can they easily surrender to the enemy? And Zuo Zongtang is famous and convincing, if he has dealings with shorthair, then the Russians were annihilated, Jingxiang surrendered without a fight, and even Jiang Zhongji surrendered to the enemy.

Liu Mingchuan and Zhou Shengbo were both slightly shocked, the Qing army's strategic disadvantage began when the Russian army was completely annihilated, and Jingxiang was precisely guarded by Zuo Zongtang.

The more Zhang Shusheng's guess comes into play, the more it makes sense!

It was precisely because the court saw the current situation of weak troops in the Jingxiang area, and it was afraid that it would be difficult to resist the attack in the direction of Huxiang, so it allowed the Russian army to enter Jingxiang, which was the intention of supporting Zuo Zongtang, but he was good, and sold the Russian army to Wang Feng in a blink of an eye.

It doesn't matter if you don't think about this kind of thing deeply, the deeper you think about it, the more creepy it is, Zuo Zongtang is recognized as a high-ranking person, Jiang Zhongji and Shi Dakai have a grudge against killing their brothers, these two can rebel, who else can't rebel? If the defeat is really decided, who dares to guarantee that he will be loyal to Xianfeng?

Although the corrupt officials and corrupt officials of the Qing court were killed by the Democratic Alliance, they never asked about the Qing generals, and even if they were not appointed, they would pay some severance pay and return to their hometown to spend the rest of their lives, which was equivalent to providing a back door for the Qing army generals, with this back door, even if they were defeated and defeated, they would not die, resulting in the Qing army in the history of the battle with the Democratic Alliance Army, the only death battle only occurred under the city of Shanghai, and this was the result of being instigated by Liu Lichuan.

This also means that today's comrades may stab you in the back tomorrow and take your head in exchange for military merit!

The defection of Zuo Zongtang and Jiang Zhongji to the enemy is equivalent to planting a seed of mutual distrust in the Hunan army and the Huai army!

Liu Mingchuan looked at everyone's expressions, secretly snorted badly, and hurriedly said: "This is just our unilateral speculation, no one can figure out what the truth is, it is already evening, short-haired will attack my inscription battalion tomorrow at the latest, if I expect it to be correct, he is likely to climb Tongbai Mountain tonight, condescendingly open fire, and cooperate with the ground attack, if this is the case, I am afraid that my inscription battalion will not last long, Zhenxuan (Zhang Shusheng) brother and Hailing (Zhou Shengbo) brother, what is the best strategy?" ”

Zhou Shengbo said without thinking: "What the third brother of the province said is very true, I will personally take a trip, and when it gets dark tonight, I will lead the troops to go around Tongbai Mountain from behind. ”

"Good! There is Brother Lao Hailing! "The stakes are very high, and Liu Mingchuan did not shirk and arched his hand. (To be continued......)