Since becoming the commander of the Fourth Army at the end of last year, Shi Langyi has been seeking an opportunity to rise again, and if he wants to rise to become a star in the Chinese Army system, the only way is to have a big victory.

However, don't look at the Chinese army seems to have won battles in recent years, but not every general of the Chinese army can get the opportunity to be in the limelight, when Shi Qingxuan made a big show in the battle of Shanghai, more people are obscure and hard work.

Among them, the most typical is the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army stationed in southern Anhui and northern Jiangxi!

The predecessor of the Fourth Army was the Second Mixed Regiment in the era of Yu Shengjun, and the subsequent Fourth Division formed the Fourth Army with the Fourth Division as the core.

This unit was the most prestigious unit in the era of Yu Shengjun, under the leadership of Xu Yanqing, created a feat of rushing all the way for hundreds of miles to conquer Zhenjiang and threaten Nanjing, at the end of 1856, with the second mixed regiment as the core, plus the tenth mixed regiment and other troops to form the fourth division under the leadership of Xu Yanqing to conquer Zhejiang, in just less than two months is to conquer the entire territory of Zhejiang.

After Xu Yanqing led the Fourth Division to occupy Zhejiang, he laid the foundation of the Chinese Empire and contributed to Lin Zhe's final decision to build the foundation. And Xu Yanqing also took advantage of the situation and became one of the three major generals in the Chinese army together with Lin Chengfei and Shi Qingxuan.

The follow-up Fourth Division participated in the westward expansion plan, but from the beginning of 1857 to the present, the performance of the Fourth Division can be said to be quite average, although it also won a lot of battles when attacking southern Anhui and northern Jiangxi, but compared with the Northern Expedition War, the war between southern Jiangsu and the Anglo-French coalition army, and the three Guangzhou battles. But it's much smaller.

This situation still did not change after Shi Langyi became the commander of the Fourth Army.

The units of the Fourth Army, especially the Fourth Division, were almost silent among the divisions of the Chinese Army. From the beginning of 1857 to the present, not a single large-scale battle has been fought.

There was no fighting. There will be no military merits, and there will be no promotion without military merits!

The officers of the Fourth Army, especially the Fourth Division, to which the Fourth Army belonged, were almost looking forward to the empire launching a westward expansion strategy as soon as possible, and then waving the army westward to make outstanding contributions and seek the position of prince.

The officers of the Fourth Army were like this, and Shi Langyi, who was bent on regaining his position and was reused by Lin Zhe, also had similar ideas.

Therefore, when the situation in Jiangxi and Hubei changed, the Fourth Army saw hope, and last month they were waiting for the order of the high command to let them attack Jiujiang. However, the eyes of the high command were still on the Northern Expedition.

Therefore, Shi Langyi personally returned to Beijing from Anqing in an attempt to persuade Chen Yuntao, the chief of the joint staff, and the commanders of other ministries to support the westward expansion plan.

Watching Shi Langyi talk about the necessity of advancing westward in advance, saying that if he didn't attack Jiujiang now, it would be more difficult to fight in the future, Chen Yuntao was also quite speechless.

The top generals of the military knew that he Chen Yuntao himself supported the plan to launch the westward expansion in advance, and for this reason he had formally submitted his strategic ideas to his colleagues in various ministries and the Holy Lord at the imperial strategic meeting in November, but then it was not done. Not to mention that there are no colleagues to support him, even the Holy Lord Lin Zhe has many doubts about going west ahead of schedule.

In this case, Chen Yuntao naturally had no choice but to give up this idea and instead put all his thoughts on supporting the Northern Expedition.

Now Shi Langyi came to him. Chen Yuntao naturally wouldn't refuse to support him, but what if Chen Yuntao supported him? Although his power as the chief of the Joint Staff is not small, he still does not have the power to decide on this overall strategic plan alone.

If you want to launch the Jiangxi campaign now. It will make the overall strategic planning of the empire change now, and this kind of thing involves the change of the strategic planning of the entire empire. Not to mention him Chen Yuntao, even if all the military bigwigs are added together, they can't decide. There is only one person in the entire empire who can decide such a thing.

That's the Holy Lin Zhe!

So in the face of Shi Langyi's request, Chen Yuntao was not unwilling, but powerless!

But even so, he still agreed, saying that if Shi Langyi could get the support of other departments of the Command, especially the Quartermaster Department and the Logistics Department, then he would support Shi Langyi at the Imperial Strategic Meeting to be held the day after tomorrow.

After getting Chen Yuntao's approval, the purpose of Shi Langyi's trip was achieved, and when he came to see Chen Yuntao, he hoped that Chen Yuntao alone would be able to promote the empire to launch a westward expansion strategy in advance, and he only needed Chen Yuntao to support himself at the imperial strategic meeting the day after tomorrow.

After bidding farewell to Chen Yuntao, Shi Langyi went to see Li Bingtong, chief of the quartermaster department, and Wei Duoli, chief of the logistics department.

However, unlike Chen Yuntao, chief of the Joint Staff, who also came from the field army, Li Bingtong, chief of the quartermaster department, and Wei Duoli, chief of the logistics department, were not generals of the field army, but civilian generals.

Although Wei Duoli, the chief of the logistics department, was born in the military, he has been engaged in logistics-related matters, and successively served as the deputy director of the logistics department and the general office of the logistics department of Yu Shengjun, and at the end of 1856, the headquarters was formed, and after the establishment of the logistics department, he became the chief of the logistics department. In other words, he has always been engaged in logistics and has not really been on the battlefield.

And this person is actually quite good in the Chinese army, you must know that Li Bingtong, the chief of the Quartermaster Department, was not even a full-time soldier before, he was a staff member in the Lin Zhe shogunate in his early years, and was responsible for the procurement of munitions under Qi Xuanhao, until Yu Shengjun changed his name to the Chinese Army and formed the Headquarters, Li Bingtong served as the deputy director of the Quartermaster Department, which was awarded to the army major general for the first time and became a soldier.

Whether it is Wei Duoli or Li Bingtong, these two people have a common characteristic, that is, they are civilian generals, they don't know anything about fighting wars and the like, and they deal with documents all day long.

And these two people, together with a large number of civilian officers, formed a very special system in the Chinese army, that is, the civilian officer system.

You say they don't know how to be military. All of them wear military uniforms and military ranks, but you have to say that they are soldiers. They only deal with documents, numbers, and many have never even touched a gun. Not to mention letting them go to war.

Therefore, these two people have very different ideas from Chen Yuntao, Shi Langyi and others, so when they met with Shi Langyi, when they faced Shi Langyi who said that they would launch the Jiangxi Campaign in advance and asked the headquarters to give them combat material support, these two people invariably played an official tone that only civilian officials can have, saying that it was difficult, saying that it was not easy, in short, it was a meaning, without His Majesty's approval. Don't expect them to send a single shell to the Fourth Army.

Shi Langyi wandered around Nanjing for two days, meeting with almost all the senior military generals in Nanjing, trying to get more people to support his plan to move westward.

At the strategic meeting in front of the emperor on January 3, Shi Langyi also publicly submitted to Lin Zhe a strategic plan to launch the Jiangxi Campaign in advance and seize Jiujiang.

Lin Zhe was not surprised that Shi Langyi would submit this plan, because Shi Langyi had already stated the necessity of capturing Jiangxi in advance in many secret compromises, and today he was just taking this matter out for public discussion.

According to the management, Lin Zhe only looked at it a little and said, "What do you think of Zhong Aiqing?" ”

Then it was the beginning of this imperial strategic meeting, on which Lin Zhe sat most of the time. Listening to their discussions and even quarrels with a calm face, Lin Zhe basically couldn't speak until the last moment, and once Lin Zhe spoke, it basically represented the decision made by Lin Zhe.

So don't look at the fierce arguments between the many generals in the Imperial Strategy Conference, but in reality their goal is not to convince each other. It's about convincing Lin Zhe.

Everyone argued for nearly an hour, and Lin Zhe listened to it word for word.

Today's state is dominated by Shi Langyi and Chen Yuntao, who support the westward expansion strategy in advance. Dispatch troops to attack Jiujiang and then march into Jiangxi, seize Nanchang, Ganzhou and other important cities and then control Jiangxi.

The opponents were Lin Chengfei, commander of the Fifth Army, Lin Mailan, commander of the First Guards Division, Bing Qusong, commander of the Seventh Army, and other generals of the field army. In addition, Admiralty Chief Lin Dabiao also maintained opposing views.

Most of the commanders of the headquarters maintained neutral opinions, such as Wei Duoli, the chief of the logistics department. Li Bingtong, chief of the Quartermaster Department, Han Xiangfang, chief of the Ordnance Department, and others basically did not take part in the training, and their attitude was very clear; anyway, these wars had little to do with them, and they only complained about the difficulties, saying that judging from the current reality of the Chinese army's logistical supply, ordnance production, munitions procurement, and recruit training, the Chinese army would not be able to support a large-scale campaign on two fronts at the same time.

As for who to fight in the end and where to fight, they don't participate in the opinion, as long as the Holy Lord Lin Zhe makes a decision, then they will do it.

Therefore, the debate was mainly between the generals of the field army faction such as Chen Yuntao, Shi Langyi, and Lin Chengfei.

Lin Zhe listened to it for more than an hour, and found that these people were all playing the same old tune, and they didn't discuss a mutually satisfactory result.

In this case, Lin Zhe knew that he couldn't let them continue to argue, otherwise there would be no result in arguing all day.

So Lin Zhe raised his right hand at this time and then pressed it down slightly, although he didn't make a sound, but the conference room was instantly quiet, and everyone who was noisy before immediately stopped rectifying, and then each raised his head and sat up straight.

After calming down, Lin Zhecai said in a calm tone as always: "The Northern Expedition cannot be stopped, and the Command must still give priority to maintaining the supply of combat materials to all departments of the Northern Expedition, especially the Sixth Army!" ”

"Jiangxi and Hubei are making a bit of a big fuss now, and we can't just sit back and watch the situation deteriorate, if the time is right, we can properly intervene in the situation in Jiangxi!"

Hearing Lin Zhe say this, Shi Langyi, who was below, immediately looked happy, which showed that his efforts just now had an effect, and His Majesty was already inclined to send troops to Jiangxi in advance to control the situation.

"But!" But soon Lin Zhe continued: "At present, the main energy of the empire is still on the Northern Expedition, even if it is to make some responses to the situation in Jiangxi, but it must be properly controlled, and it is not a last resort, and the current balance on the Western Front cannot be destroyed to expand the scale of the war!" ”

Lin Zhe said that these are basically a compromise plan, the Northern Expedition should continue, but it will also respond appropriately to the situation in Jiangxi, as for how to control this degree, it will require the hard work of all departments of the Command, especially the General Staff.

However, Shi Langyi, Chen Yuntao and others were happy, and Lin Chengfei felt that there was nothing wrong with the empire continuing to focus on the Northern Expedition, and the only people who secretly complained in their hearts were Li Bingtong and Wei Duoli and a few others.

What's the matter, it's not that the scale of the war is controlled by two fronts at the same time, where will you let us gather the materials needed for the war when the time comes?

Could it be that the sky can fall? (To be continued......)