Zhang Guoliang guessed that Shen Chiyun was directly chasing him north, and although the actual situation was not the case, it was almost the same.

Shen Chiyun led the main force to leave Huai'an and go north after completely taking the three cities of Huai'an, and did not say that he went north to pursue Zhang Guoliang, but the initial purpose was to go to Taoyuan County and surround Li Hongzhang's department with the First Army.

But the subsequent situation changed, Li Hongzhang fled directly, causing the First Army to urgently pursue at the same time, the Fifth Army was also forced to change direction and turn to Muyang, in order to cover the safety of the First Army's flank after taking Muyang.

In addition, when Zhang Guoliang fled north from Huai'an, although he was two days ahead of Shen Chiyun's northward journey, he was all under the old army of the Green Battalion, although these people were already considered elite in the old army of the Green Battalion, but they still could not compare with the speed of the Royal Army's light and continuous march.

In other words, both the Fifth Army and Zhang Guoliang traveled from Huai'an to Muyang, but the former took nearly a day less!

This also made Zhang Guoliang very suspicious that this Shen Chiyun was directly pursuing him north, and it was even possible that he didn't even go to Huai'an to fight and bypassed.

However, no matter how doubtful he was in his heart, Zhang Guoliang knew very well the fact that he could not take advantage of fighting against the Chinese army.

This is not that Zhang Guoliang is timid and cowardly, but that it is true!

Zhang Guoliang knows the Chinese army better than Li Hongzhang, Du Xing'a and others, long before Lin Zhe raised the flag to rebel, when it was still the era of Yu Shengjun, he Zhang Guoliang had fought side by side with Yu Shengjun, and he saw with his own eyes how the Chinese army crushed tens of thousands of Taiping thieves in Changzhou City with less than 10,000 troops.

It is even clearer that Yu Shengjun's partial division was only more than 2,000 people, but it was all the way through. Running for hundreds of miles, connecting and breaking through Jintan, Danyang, and Zhenjiang. In the end, the soldiers came to the city of Nanjing, and this time they attacked. It also became the direct fuse of the infighting of the Nanjing Taiping Thief Army.

After Lin Zhe raised the flag, the Chinese army based on Yu Sheng's army took Jiangyin in only a few moments, forcing Zhang Guoliang and Huang Zonghan to flee north of the river and retreat to Yangzhou.

In the first battle of Yangzhou, Zhang Guoliang, Li Hongzhang and Dexinga had a total of more than 50,000 troops, including more than 15,000 people of Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army, but they still failed to block the attack of 30,000 or 40,000 troops of the Chinese Army, and finally were forced to flee in embarrassment. Only 8,000 people fled in embarrassment, and Zhang Guoliang left tens of thousands of people and fled to Huai'an with less than 10,000 people.

In the first battle of Huai'an two days ago, the side had a huge force of 40,000 troops, but in the face of the attack of the Royal Army of the Chinese Army, which had less than 10,000 people, and the auxiliary defense army, which had less than 10,000 troops, and the Fifth Army of the Chinese Army, which had a total strength of less than 20,000 people, was still invincible for many days.

In the first time after the city was broken, Zhang Guoliang had to lead 5,000 elite backbones to flee north again!

This series of battles is enough for Zhang Guoliang to profoundly know how strong the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army is, and the Chinese army's auxiliary defense force is not a big threat. But those royal armies are really ruthless characters, according to Zhang Guoliang's own judgment, even if they defend the city and fight, if they lead only the Green Battalion and Eight Banners. If the local townsmen and other old armies do not have five or six times the number of troops, they should not talk about defending the city at all, if it is a field battle. Even with a tenfold superiority in troops, it is difficult to say that it will be able to achieve victory.

These Royal Army simply can't judge by old common sense that this is a brand new weapon. An army with a new mode of combat is unlike any other army in China's thousands of years of history.

This is not just his judgment Zhang Guoliang. As a matter of fact, there are many smart people in China, and they are all very aware of the differences between the Chinese army, otherwise the country would not have set off a trend of organizing and training a new army in just a few years.

Lin Chengting, Li Hongzhang, Du Xing'a, Hu Linyi, not to mention those who presided over the formation and training of various new armies, even the extremely pedantic high-ranking officials of the Qing court in the world's perception all know that this future is the world of the new army, otherwise the Qing court would not have put so much effort into organizing and training all kinds of new armies.

The people of this world, especially the small group of people standing at the top of power, even if they are pedantic, they also have a vision that is difficult for ordinary people to reach.

At least for now, there are no high-ranking officials or military generals of the Qing court who continue to insist on the invincibility of cavalry and shooting, and foreign guns and foreign cannons are not used in embroidered guns.

On the contrary, people nowadays open their mouths and close their mouths to the new army, and almost every day there are courtiers on the Qing court's side of the Qing court, explaining various methods of organizing and training the new army, and they will not say that they will reject some things because they are owned by the Chinese army, and say that things that are against thieves and rebels cannot be used, on the contrary, they copy very happily.

Among them, the most representative is naturally the Jianghuai New Army, the training of the provinces, and at the same time the Tianjin Machinery Bureau attached to the New Army, and then there is the 'Military Department General Ben School' run by Du Xing'a, the minister who supervised the training of the army, in order to solve the problem of the training of the army in Gyeonggi and the training of the army in Zhili

This school began to be prepared in 1856, at the beginning of the imitation of Yu Shengjun Suiying School founded by the Gyeonggi Military Training School, at the beginning of this year it was independent from the Gyeonggi Military Training School, under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, and renamed the 'Military Department General Ben School', and ordered the provincial governors to select the best talents to go to the school to apply for the examination, aiming to provide qualified new army officer talents for the Gyeonggi Training Army, Zhili Training Army and other provincial training troops.

Interestingly, after the opening of this school, nearly half of the students enrolled were the children of court officials, and there were very few real civilian scholars.

The new army, the machine bureau, and the military academy were all things that had never appeared in the past, but in just two or three years, they did make the Qing court attach great importance to them, and then they were quickly opened.

From this point of view, although the Manchu court is already crumbling, objectively speaking, the top level of the Qing court in this era still has a certain strategic vision, and they are not as resistant to reform as outsiders think, as long as such reforms do not harm their vital interests and are conducive to maintaining their rule, then they will not mind promoting these reforms.

The Westernization Movement in history and the New Deal reform after the Xin Chou years have already shown that the rulers of this land still have the vision and the heart of reform, but their interests are not at the same level as the interests of ordinary people, and they cannot be effectively coordinated, so the more reforms, the faster they die.

The Manchu Dynasty in historical time and space can be said to have been reformed by its own reforms!

No matter how the Manchus perished later, but now, the Manchus will definitely not perish on their own because of reforms, because from the current point of view, the biggest threat to the Manchus is not reforms, but the Chinese army from the south. At the same time, if the army had not been reformed, and if the new army had not been trained, it is estimated that Lin Zhe's army would have entered Beijing last year, and there would be a chance that too many reforms would cause the collapse of his own rule in the future.

No matter what era it is, those people who stand at the top of the power will not be mediocre, even if they are traitors who climb up by various small means, Meichen is all human spirits.

Among these people, Zhang Guoliang was not a top notch, but as one of the few major generals of the Qing court in the Jiangnan region, Zhang Guoliang had a clearer understanding of the current situation of the Chinese army than the ministers of the imperial court.

And sometimes it's not a good thing to know more, Du Xing'a didn't know much about the Chinese army at the beginning, but the reason why he had enough courage to lead more than 10,000 training troops and 40,000 or 50,000 old troops south to fight a decisive battle with the first army of the Chinese army, and in the end even though he was defeated, he dared to fight in an upright manner.

But what about Li Hongzhang and Zhang Guoliang, these two are aware of the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, so they don't even have the courage to face the enemy head-on!

Huai'an and Taoyuan County, whether it was Zhang Guoliang or Li Hongzhang, did not dare to go out of the city to take the initiative to face the battle, and the troops immediately fled when they saw the situation at the last time.

From this point of view, they have already been broken by the Chinese army!

Now, when Zhang Guoliang heard his subordinates report that there was a Chinese army outside the city, and it was also Shen Chiyun's fifth division, his first reaction was not to prepare for war, but to escape!

"Pass the order down, let the brothers go out of the city through the north gate immediately!"

Zhang Guoliang's words did not attract any opposition, in the past, if Zhang Guoliang made this kind of decision, his staff and generals might have put forward different opinions, but now, like Zhang Guoliang, they were already frightened when they heard the name of the Royal Army of the Chinese Army.

After Zhang Guoliang gave the order to retreat, those who fled for several days, and finally slept peacefully, this day just got up to prepare for a big raid in the city, so as to forcibly recruit some strong men to join the army, and at the same time loot money to supplement military expenses, that is, I heard that the Chinese army outside the city has come.

Some soldiers threw down the chickens, ducks, cloths and other belongings in their hands, and then ran out of the houses in a panic, while some soldiers quickly got up from the crying women, hurriedly lifted their pants and turned around and left in a panic.

In less than half an hour, the soldiers of Zhang Guoliang's command in the city had already gathered on the street, and then rushed towards the north gate.

Zhang Guoliang looked at the chaotic crowd of people and horses, and couldn't help but sulk for a while, these are all old brothers who have been fighting with him for many years, it will be like this on weekdays, but today it is like a frightened rabbit, hearing the news that the Chinese army is coming, he is rushing to escape.

Seeing these people, Zhang Guoliang knew that these people would never have the courage to fight face-to-face with the Chinese army in the future, because they would run away first without the Chinese army coming.

When complaining about these soldiers, Zhang Guoliang didn't realize that he himself was one of these people!

Half a day later, looking at Muyang City, where there was not a single Qing soldier on the head of the city and the city gate was wide open, Shen Chiyun didn't understand a little, he hadn't started attacking the city yet, and those Qing troops had all run away and gave him a Muyang in vain?

Could it be that there is fraud in it? (To be continued......)