After staying in Cangzhou for five days, Li Yongji's army had all been rested, and Feng Zicai's troops, who had been ordered to reinforce, and the follow-up supply troops had also rejoined, which allowed Li Yongji to continue to move forward boldly with confidence.

Li Yongji's current Northern Expedition strategy is to seek a stable word, for example, his Northern Expeditionary Army at the moment, it seems that only Li Yongji personally led the little people, but it is actually divided into three parts.

The first part of the first part is the mixed brigade of the first division of type A and the guard, and there are also 10,000 troops of type B of Feng Zicai who act as engineers for civil engineering operations, which can be said to be quite strong.

The middle part, or the consolidation of the territory and the logistics, is Wang Sanwu's Third Division, as well as some of the militia he recruited in Huai'an City, and the role of this part of the soldiers and horses is to hold the rear road of the vanguard of the Northern Expedition.

In addition, in most of Jiangsu, the Jiangnan region in the north of Zhejiang, there is also Zhang Wei's second division in charge, plus there are a large number of second-level garrison troops, third-level militia units and a large number of police forces being formed in this area, which form the tail of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and its role is naturally to consolidate its own nest.

In fact, since the beginning of the Huai'an Defense War, the entire Jingwu Army has been fully mobilized, and when the Huai'an Defense War achieved a comprehensive victory, Li Yongji took advantage of the situation to counterattack the Northern Expedition, and the Jingwu Army had been fully mobilized and completed their tasks step by step.

In other words, it was precisely because Wang Sanwu's troops consolidated the occupied area and Zhang Wei's troops consolidated their nests that Li Yongji was relieved and boldly led the leading troops to march forward.

This is not a joke, you must know that Li Yongji's current enemies are not only the Qing government, the Taiping army, but also the Twist Army, and even those landlords who are training in regiments, are all potential enemies of Li Yongji. If Li Yongji is not careful, the catastrophe will not be recovered, but he will definitely get a lot of trouble for himself.

It is precisely because Li Yongji placed the three main divisions of the strategic level separately, and Li Yongji has been victorious and victorious, and he has deterred the crumbs around him, that he can hit Cangzhou so smoothly, otherwise, if others don't say it, the Taiping Army may not let go of the rich Jiangnan and not be moved.

In fact, when Li Yongji led his army to fight the Qing army in Huai'an. The Taiping army had the idea of attacking Jiangnan, but Zhang Wei's second division held on to the strategic location, and Li Xiucheng was a very shrewd person, suppressing the restlessness in the army, so that the original line of defense was maintained, and everyone continued to be safe.

However, when the Jingwu army led the army to Cangzhou and peeked north into Beijing and Tianjin, the Taiping army once again had the idea of fishing in troubled waters. And the most troublesome part this time is that it is not someone else who takes the opportunity to fight Jiangnan, but Hong Xiuquan, the king of heaven who has become more and more abnormal recently.

In fact, Hong Xiuquan has not paid much attention to the government in recent years, and has played with the princesses in his harem almost every day. As far as the absurd and perverted Cheng dù are concerned, Emperor Xianfeng is not on the same level as him at all.

During the period when Hong Xiuquan ignored the government, the government of the Kingdom of Heaven was basically in the hands of Li Xiucheng and Hong Rengan, of course. Hong Renda and Hong Renfa also have a certain amount of real power, but in terms of prestige, they still can't be compared with Li Xiucheng and Hong Rengan, who broke the Jiangnan camp.

But. With the defeat of the Battle of Suzhou, Li Xiucheng's prestige plummeted, that is, relying on the prestige accumulated over the years, plus Hong Rengan's exculpation, he did not lose his position too much, but Li Xiucheng's status in the court was not as good as before.

After that, the Jingwu Army launched a summer offensive, which once again beat the Taiping Army, and since then, the foreigners' support for the Taiping Army has also ceased to care, which leads the Taiping Army up and down, especially the Taiping Army directly facing the Jingwu Army, to have more fearful of war.

At this time, Li Xiucheng relied on the kung fu of secretly trading back and forth with the Jingwu Army, and took the opportunity to regain his strength and strength, and once again became a decisive force in the Taiping Army.

Originally, this momentum was also very good, Li Xiucheng has never broken off his contact with the Jingwu Army, and he has never broken off the secret transaction with the Jingwu Army, but the object of the transaction has changed from Li Yongji to Li Yongchang. With the re-emergence of Li Xiucheng's strength, his voice in the government has become more and more powerful, and his prestige has not only recovered to the past, but even slightly surpassed.

It's a pity that Hong Renda and Hong Renfa are unwilling to watch Li Xiucheng continue to develop like this, so they keep looking for opportunities to slander Hong Xiuquan, hoping to weaken Li Xiucheng's authority.

Although Hong Xiuquan is a lustful and perverted person, and his ability is not good, he still has a good way of looking at people, of course he will not be moved by Hong Renda and Hong Renfa to remove Li Xiucheng's power, because he knows that Li Xiucheng is talented and loyal to himself, and he also expects Li Xiucheng to fight the world for himself.

Of course, Hong Xiuquan couldn't let Li Xiucheng unscrupulously develop his strength, so he decided to strike a balance, let Li Xiucheng pay tribute with a batch of weapons, and then take out some of them to Hong Renda, so that Hong Renda could reorganize a force.

Obviously, this is to continue to play the art of balance, and Li Xiucheng is helpless in this regard, as long as he is still loyal to the kingdom of heaven, it is impossible not to listen to Hong Xiuquan.

Originally, this was just it, it was not a big deal, but Hong Xiu was the boss of the kingdom of heaven, and if he committed superstition, no one could save him.

In fact, this matter is also very simple to say, that is, Hong Xiuquan is old after all, and he drinks and plays with women all day long, not to mention anything else, there are 88 concubines alone, so many women have to deal with it, with his small body, how can he cope with it.

Therefore, in fact, Hong Xiuquan has secretly taken aphrodisiacs for a long time, and those so-called prescriptions actually contain a lot of hot toxic substances and heavy metals, eating too many of these things, in addition to further causing a decline in physical function, there is also a side effect, that is, it will make people mentally weak, and even in a trance.

As early as a year ago, Hong Xiuquan's sleep was not good, and now he continues to take medicine every day to play with women like this, he can't sleep well when he sleeps every day, and he has no energy when he wakes up, and he is prone to hallucinations when he comes and goes, and he regards these hallucinations as a revelation from God to himself, and while becoming more and more arrogant, he also begins to become more and more superstitious.

At the beginning, when Hong Xiuquan was engaged in worshipping God, he was actually very sober himself, he knew that this was all something he made up to fool people, but by this time, he had already fallen into it by himself. It doesn't matter if others believe it or not, he himself believes it anyway.

In other words, Hong Xiuquan at this time is already a psychopath, but the symptoms are not too strict, but he is no longer compatible with normal people.

This Hong Xiu is the spiritual leader of the kingdom of heaven, and it doesn't matter if he ignores the government, anyway, there are Li Xiucheng, Hong Rengan, Chen Yucheng and other people waiting outside to support him, it will not be too bad, but when Hong Xiuquan doesn't know which nerve is wrong. When you have to go out and give orders yourself, it's a bad situation.

I don't know where Hong Xiuquan got the news, but he actually knew that the Qing court was beaten by the Jingwu army and lost his temper, and he also knew that the main force of the Qing court had been annihilated by the Jingwu army, and even knew that the Jingwu army had hit Cangzhou.

Then, Hong Xiuquan began to take it for granted, he felt that this was God's revelation to himself, this was a sign of the great prosperity of heaven and the whole world. Then, he felt that the current situation was that the praying mantis was catching the cicada and the yellow finch was behind, the Qing court was the cicada, and the Jingwu army was the praying mantis. And their kingdom of heaven is naturally the yellow finch.

In addition, Hong Xiuquan also took it for granted that the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Jingwu Army had been fighting with the Qing Army for so long. He must have suffered heavy casualties, and the Jiangnan area must be empty of garrisons, so take advantage of this God-given opportunity. Naturally, he had to send troops to the east to reassign the rich Jiangnan to the embrace of heaven.

As long as Jiangnan is defeated, the Jingwu army will inevitably be in chaos, and then the army of the Heavenly Kingdom can take advantage of the situation to sweep the world and finally win the world.

If you only look at the map, you can't say that Hong Xiuquan's idea is unreasonable, but unfortunately there are times when you can't just look at the map, you can't just look at the number of people, you have to look at the combat effectiveness.

Although there is only one of Zhang Wei's A divisions in the south of the Yangtze River to support it alone, and the various divisions are still scattered in various places, the combat effectiveness of this division is not at the same level as the troops of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the reason why Zhang Wei dares to divide his troops to guard is not only because he is very confident in the combat effectiveness of his troops, but also because the mobility of the elite army is stronger, and he is not afraid of dividing troops to guard at all.

Moreover, the water network in the Jiangnan area is dense, and after the Jingwu Army started, the shipping here is also very developed, and the people's hearts are also towards the Jingwu Army, so any attack on the Jiangnan area at this time is self-defeating.

In fact, even if you don't use the second division, even if you use those B troops that were incorporated and reorganized, you can push back the troops of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in other words, the current situation is still that the Jiangnan military government is strong, and the Taiping army is weak, the reason why Zhang Wei didn't make a move is just that Li Yongji had a secret agreement with Li Xiucheng before, plus Li Yongji is now going all out on the Northern Expedition, and he doesn't want to make any extraneous branches.

However, anyone with a discerning eye knows that after Li Yongji defeated the Qing court, won the throne of the world, and ascended the throne, he would have a battle with the Taiping army sooner or later, and at that time, the Taiping army would definitely not be able to stop the soldiers of the Jingwu army.

Many people in the Taiping Army can actually see this clearly, such as Li Xiucheng, who knows it, but he has no good way now, he can only continue to strengthen his strength, and then wait for change, step by step.

However, at this time, Hong Xiuquan suddenly summoned Li Xiucheng and others, and then issued a decision to march to southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang under the control of the Jingwu army.

This naturally made Li Xiucheng shocked, because he knew that this was impossible, so he immediately opposed this plan.

If it was in the past, if Li Xiucheng raised a rebuttal, Hong Xiuquan would often follow, that is to say, in terms of general military and political affairs, Hong Xiuquan is actually not so stubborn, but this time, Hong Xiuquan is stubborn, that is, he wants to send troops.

Originally, Li Xiucheng wanted to ask Hong Rengan for help, but he found that Hong Rengan actually agreed to send troops, coupled with the prodding of Hong Renda, Hong Renfa and others, and finally the order to send troops to Jiangnan was decided.

After leaving the Heavenly King's Mansion, Li Xiucheng quickly found Hong Rengan, no matter what the occasion was here, he hurriedly said when he pulled it aside: "Your Royal Highness, you, how can you support such a decision?" Now that it's too late for us to unite the elite army, how can we attack them at will? Isn't this an excuse for the other side to attack us? ”

"I know." Hong Rengan sighed, "His Royal Highness King Zhong, I agree to do this, and I also have my troubles. ”

"Bitterness, what hardship?"

"For the cause of heaven, of course." Hong Ren said, "Although this order of the King of Heaven is a little impatient, but from another point of view, the Jingwu army has already led troops to Tianjin, if we let it go, and when he enters Beijing and destroys the Qing court, this prestige will go up all of a sudden." When the time comes, he will get half of the whole world!

Therefore, the current situation is actually the old matter of the Three Kingdoms, our Heavenly Kingdom is a force, the Jingwu Army is a force, and the Qing court is a force. Judging from the moment, although the territory of the Jingwu Army is small, it has the strongest military strength, and the territory of the Qing court is the largest. But the military is the weakest, and we are in the middle.

Therefore, we can't watch the Jingwu army destroy the Qing court and gain more prestige and territory, we must take advantage of the fact that he is inseparable from the Qing army in the north, take the opportunity to destroy his lair, weaken the Jingwu army, the biggest enemy, otherwise, wait for Li Yongji to defeat the Qing court. Do you think he will continue to be so inviolable with us? ”

"But the question is, where do we get the troops to fight Jiangnan." Li Xiucheng frowned and said, "The troops that we can fight the most now are all in the west, and the army that we are in contact with Jiangnan is engraved." They are all newly established, and they are all a little afraid of the elite army, it's not that I am discouraged, we are currently difficult to defend. If you take the initiative to attack, let alone defeat Jiangnan, it is difficult to say whether you can break the first line of defense of others. ”

"I know." Hong Rengan smiled. Then he looked left and right, and after finding that no one was approaching, he whispered, "To tell you the truth, the British King's army will arrive in Tianjing in a few days, and when the time comes, the main force attacking Jiangnan will be the British King's troops, and you, the Heavenly King, have decided to transfer you to Jiujiang to take over the British King's territory." ”

"What?" Hearing this, Li Xiucheng was really shocked, "This, how can this be done?" Monkey business! Who is slandering? In this way, what will we do if the Hunan army takes advantage of the situation to advance eastward? ”

"Don't worry." Hong Rengan shook his head and continued to whisper, "Let me tell you another news, we have secretly negotiated peace with Zeng Guofan, during the period when the British king transferred troops back, the Hunan army has taken the initiative to retreat and will not trouble us, and the transfer of you and your troops to Jiujiang is just to watch Zeng Guofan."

Well, the Xiang army is actually suffering from a big injury now, and it will not be able to recover in the short term, with the ability of the loyal king, it should be no problem to block the Hunan army. ”

"This, this ......" Li Xiucheng was stunned, "You mean, transfer me to defend the west, and then transfer Chen Yucheng to fight the east?" ”

"Yes!" Hong Rengan nodded, "The Jiangnan region is rich and prosperous, once it is laid down there, the great cause of the Kingdom of Heaven will be half completed." Of course I know the good fighting of the elite army, but it is because I know that I have to take advantage of this opportunity to fight to the death. ”

Speaking of this, Hong Rengan's face was full of perseverance, and he waved his hand vigorously: "You see, now that Li Yongji is leading the army outside, he can't come back, and he is fighting so fast and occupying so much territory, these places have to be guarded by troops, right?" In this way, he stretched the battle line, not to mention anything else, at least in the Jiangnan region, which is currently the weakest time for the elite army.

At this time, we should not be frightened by their previous victories, but should take this opportunity to go all out to the east, defeat the lair of the Jingwu army, and seize the prosperous land south of the Yangtze River. At that time, we will have enough food and drink, and we will be able to directly establish a relationship with foreigners, and the trend of strength and weakness will change at once.

Once the nest of the Jingwu army is captured by us, Li Yongji will definitely lead his troops back to the rescue, and when the time comes, the prestige established by Li Yongji's previous victory over the Qing army will collapse at once, and they will be tired when they come back to rescue them for thousands of miles, but we are waiting for work at ease, and the odds of victory are higher.

In addition, the emperor of the Qing court has already brought the soldiers and horses out of Beijing in advance, and there is still a certain strength, once Li Yongji leads the troops back, he will definitely not let go of this good opportunity, and there is a chance that he will pursue at the end of the year.

As long as the Jingwu Army is destroyed, we swallow the territory of Jiangnan, and the wealth of the Jingwu Army will belong to us, and by that time, the Qing Army will also be weak, and there is anything else in this world that can stop us? ”

"You, you're wishful thinking!" Li Xiucheng shook his head, "Ganwang, what you said is very good, but even if Li Yongji leads the army outside, Jiangnan is not so easy to fight." For now, Jiangnan still has Zhang Wei in charge, this Zhang Wei is not simple at all, and he also has an elite army of elite troops in his hands. In addition, there are still a large number of garrison troops, militia troops, and those migrant workers in the Jiangnan area, and these people can pull out 300,000 troops in an instant if they are slightly armed.

The most terrifying thing is that these people are deeply benefited by the elite army, and they also love Li Yongji very much, and if we want to fight it, I am afraid it will be very difficult. ”

"Three hundred thousand troops? Hehe, what you said is a bit excessive, and even if there is, it is just a rabble. Hong Rengan shook his head, "You also said, it's just some migrant workers, not real soldiers, and the 50,000 army of the British king was killed in the sea of corpses and blood, and it is equipped with a large number of foreign guns and cannons.

Moreover, this time the king of England was calculated or unintentional, and with the cooperation of Hong Renda's 50,000 soldiers and horses, if he carried out a surprise attack, the victory or defeat would be at least fifty-five.

Even if we can't defeat Jiangnan for a while, we can still be in a stalemate, at least we can let Li Yongji lead the troops back to the rescue, and it is not good to take Beijing lightly, and as long as he can't take Beijing, the Qing court will still have a breath.

At that time, although we did not take the initiative to unite with the Qing court, but the situation of joining forces to attack the Jingwu army was formed, no matter how strong the Jingwu army is, the time to start must be too short, and it will not last long in this case, don't you say? ”

"Too much to take for granted, too much to take for granted." Li Xiucheng shook his head again, "Your Royal Highness, this is not the case, the Jingwu Army is not so easy to defeat, you haven't seen it, you don't know how terrible they are." ”

"Hehe, I think His Royal Highness King Zhong is scared." Hong Rengan smiled slightly.

"What did you say?" Li Xiucheng was suddenly furious, "Since I joined the Kingdom of Heaven and have gone through big and small wars, have you ever seen who I am afraid of?" I'm not afraid of the elite army, but this plan is too hasty, one is not good, it is a total loss, we ......"

"Alright, alright." Hong Rengan waved his hand, interrupting Li Xiucheng's words, and then sighed again, "His Royal Highness King Zhong, I still admire you very much, but since ...... Forget it, don't say it, don't say it, anyway, this is the will of the king, and the army of the British king will arrive soon...... In short, the plan to attack Jiangnan is already in full swing, and no one can change it! You, it's better to go to Jiujiang to take office with peace of mind, and don't worry about anything else. (To be continued......)