Just when Li Yongji had just obtained a new agent, and at the same time the imperial examination reform was in full swing, a major war suddenly broke out on the northern front.

Because of the huge scale and too tragic, later generations called this battle the Huai'an Defense Battle or the Huai'an Bloody Battle.

To say that this war did come a little suddenly, and before talking about this war, we have to talk about the situation of the two sides before.

The so-called northern front actually refers to the Huai'an defense line, and it is also the most important line of defense for the Jingwu army to confront the Qing army. The one who threatened Huai'an City there was the Qing Army's Monk Greenqin Corps, and the one stationed in Huai'an City was one of the two important ministers of the Jingwu Army from Li Yongji, and at the same time Wang Sanwu, who was known as one of Li Yongji's left and right protectors.

Although Wang Sanwu had an elite reorganization division under his command, he had committed the taboo of dividing troops because he was too big.

For example, before he attacked Huai'an, he left a regiment in Yangzhou, nominally to ensure the back road, and to monitor the Taiping army, but in fact he wanted to keep the fruits of Yangzhou's victory; In addition, after capturing Huai'an, he also divided his troops into a regiment to capture Haizhou, in order to obtain an outlet to the sea, and obtain supplies nearby, but unfortunately when Shengbao led the troops to block, this army was equal to hanging alone.

That is to say, in the face of Seng Lingqin's soldiers and horses, the troops of the Jingwu Army really stationed in Huai'an City were only 3,600 standard elite infantry regiments, a cavalry regiment of 1,000 people, plus 30,000 militia units that were incorporated and temporarily conscripted, mainly with broadswords, spears, and guns and earth cannons.

Although the number of troops is not large, Wang Sanwu is very confident that he can hold Huai'an, because he is full of confidence in his troops, and what gives him confidence is naturally that his own troops are well-trained and have fierce firepower, especially his artillery, which is infinitely powerful.

In addition, there is plenty of grain and grass in Huai'an City. The city defense is strong, Wang Sanwu can be said to be a soldier with enough food, the city is high and deep, if he just sticks to it, he really doesn't think that he will fail, and even he thinks that as long as the other party is not a fool, he will never come to attack Huai'an City, a difficult bone.

Perhaps because of this, Wang Sanwu did not mobilize Jiangyun's troops from Yangzhou to come over for reinforcements, nor did he order Haizhou's Jianghai regiment to lead troops to break through, but honestly divided his troops to defend them.

Of course. As far as the real idea is concerned, Wang Sanwu is so big, in fact, he also wants to deliberately show weakness to the enemy, attract the other party to take the initiative to attack, and then he can mobilize the other two regiments to help.

Once the Qing army attacked the city, Wang Sanwu could support it for a period of time with the defense of Huai'an City, and during that time, his two regiments relied on the mobility of bicycles and the ability to communicate with radios. It is completely possible to rush to reinforcements in time, and when the time comes, it will blossom inside and outside, and annihilate the large corps of Seng Lingqin under Huai'an City in one fell swoop.

To put it bluntly, Wang Sanwu hoped to fight with the Qing army as soon as possible. Then use guò to weaken the upcoming internal punishment, after all, the current situation is basically caused by him.

Although the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, Seng Greenqin, who confronted Wang Sanwu, looked a little arrogant, he was indeed not a fool. And contrary to everyone's previous speculation, he is not a reckless person who rushes to war at all, but a person who is overly cautious.

After Monk Greenqin led the army to Huai'an. At the same time, while urging the capital for food, he continued to mobilize soldiers and horses from all over the world to help, but he did not take the initiative to attack Huai'an City.

The reason why he is so cautious is not that Seng Lingqin is really powerful, seeing Wang Sanwu's attempt to show weakness to the enemy, in fact, he is afraid.

You must know that Monk Lingqin had commanded troops to fight against foreigners before, and he had a deep memory of foreigners' foreign guns and cannons.

For example, the battle to defend Dagukou, which gave Monk Greenqin great prestige, seemed to be won by the Qing army, but in fact, the Qing army's losses were far greater than those of the foreigners.

Perhaps because of this, Monk Lingqin didn't think that he could take advantage of the siege war, his main reliance and killer weapon was his cavalry troops, that is to say, he thought that in the face of the foreign spear-based elite army, if he wanted to win, he must use cavalry to annihilate in the field, and he couldn't stupidly attack the city defense and fight with them.

In a way, he is a model of strategic contempt and tactical emphasis.

What's more, this is his first battle against the Jingwu Army, and it is also a battle that the emperor is closely watching, so he can only win this battle, not lose, under such pressure, he can only seek stability, not urgency.

In Seng Greenqin's view, he is now the main attacker and holds the initiative, so when to fight, where to fight, and how to fight, he has the final say.

He just wants to be more patient with the other side, that is, to encircle the point to send reinforcements, that is, to use cavalry as the mainstay, to use large-scale cavalry charges, and annihilate the opponent's living forces in the field, so he can afford to wait, and he must wait.

This is completely different from the situation in another time and space history, when he passively faced the British and French forces and engaged in the Battle of Bali Bridge.

It is with the idea of encircling the point to send reinforcements and annihilating the enemy in the field, after the monk Lingqin came to Huai'an, he has been stationed in the camp with peace of mind, and at the same time constantly urging the transportation of grain and grass, mobilizing soldiers and horses, and putting on a posture of sitting firmly in the Chinese army, I can afford to wait, and play confrontation with the elite army of Huai'an City.

Before the outbreak of the war, the corps directly under Seng Lingqin had more than 300,000 soldiers and horses, including more than 100,000 soldiers and more than 20,000 cavalry, and the joint camp was 20 miles.

It should be said that during the confrontation in Huai'an, both sides had their own intentions and did not make major mistakes, but after waiting for a long time, the problem came.

Because the elite army has a radio communication system, even if it is divided into various places, it can understand the other party's intentions very well, and can easily give instructions to the upper and lower levels. And the Jingwu Army is a completely centralized discipline organization, only listening to Li Yongji alone, once Li Yongji fully trusts Wang Sanwu, then the entire Jingwu Army will obey orders with peace of mind.

Moreover, the troops of the elite army seem to be divided into various places, but in fact, the main force has been bicycled, and the logistics force has also been mule and horse, plus there are foreign fleets from Britain, France, the United States and other countries to help transport, and the mobility is super strong, so once something happens, it can be very convenient to carry out reinforcements. Therefore, the elite military army can always wait for the fighter plane with peace of mind and act according to Wang Sanwu's plan.

On the other hand, the Qing army, although the prestige of Seng Lingqin is relatively high, the troops under his command are actually varied, from different places and different formations, including the Eight Banners and Green Battalion troops in Beijing, as well as the Green Battalion soldiers in Hebei, Shandong and other places, and even many regimental training troops, and the command cannot be compared with the Jingwu Army at all.

Of course, the most important thing is that Monk Lingqin can afford to wait. But the emperor couldn't afford to wait.

As mentioned earlier, Emperor Xianfeng has not suffered much setback at this time, he still has insufficient understanding of his own strength, and still thinks that my Qing Dynasty is still very strong, and there is the Mandate of Heaven to protect himself, so when dealing with the problem of Caoyin and cutting braids, he was a little in a hurry, and hurriedly beat the Jingwu army into a rebel, and hastily ordered the monk Greenqin to lead the troops to encircle and suppress.

Although according to the development trend of the elite army. The Qing Dynasty ruled by Emperor Xianfeng, whether it was slow or urgent, would fail sooner or later, but if it was slowed down, there would be no chance of accommodation. Or at least push back the time to fail.

But Emperor Xianfeng's impatience unveiled this fig leaf prematurely, which made the Jingwu army a little busy, but the Qing army itself was also caught off guard.

When Monk Greenqin led his troops to the city of Huai'an. Emperor Xianfeng was very excited, and was looking forward to the new Manchu No. 1 Baturu fighting the elite army under the city of Huai'an, who knew that Seng Lingqin was just camping. What kind of encirclement point to play to help.

Well, if you want to play the encirclement point to send reinforcements, you can play, after all, what he said is also reasonable, the elite military firearms are fierce, and the siege losses are too great, and the use of cavalry in the field belongs to attacking the other with their own strengths.

However, you have waited too long, and you are too timid, constantly urging troops and food, and now there are more than 300,000 troops, but you still cower, what is this like?

You must know that the daily consumption of 300,000 troops is not a small amount, not to mention that there are more than 20,000 cavalry inside, not counting anything else, just this person eats horses and chews, the finances of ordinary one or two provinces in the north cannot afford it, Xianfeng is also desperate to supply the daily consumption of this 300,000 army, and this is especially uncomfortable in the case of cutting off Jiangnan Caoyin.

It was precisely because some of them couldn't withstand the logistical pressure, and Xianfeng felt that the 300,000 army could completely besiege the city while sending reinforcements, so he didn't have to be so careful, and the weather was suitable, it was the crisp autumn weather, so he began to give a direct order to let Seng Lingqin attack the city immediately!

Monk Greenqin, the original intention was to wait a little longer, but seeing that the emperor was in a hurry, he felt that it was indeed unreasonable not to fight, plus he also felt that he had strong troops, and attacking the city could make the other party nervous and nervous, maybe he would send troops to help, and then he would just surround the point to send reinforcements and come to a field battle to annihilate the enemy.

At the same time, the Qing army has been here for so long, but it has been nesting and not fighting, and it is also a little breathless, and it is also eager to fight a battle to sulk, which is the so-called eagerness to fight.

In this way, when the Qing army was eager to fight, the huge and bloated Qing army finally moved and began to launch a fierce siege battle against Huai'an City.

In fact, although Seng Lingqin launched a siege war, he didn't want to fight too hard at first, he just wanted to maintain a siege posture, give the opponent a lasting pressure, and then force the opponent to ask for help, and then mobilize troops and horses to fight the opponent's reinforcements.

But Monk Greenqin has never had the experience of commanding a large army in the past, and he does not have such strength, so his control over his subordinates is very weak, and in the chaotic situation of the Qing army's current orders and different sources of troops, it is good not to move, once it moves, or once the attack order is issued, it is easy to put it down, and it is difficult to control it.

Because of this, the siege of the Qing army was actually the own of each department, and some of the Qing army's various units were brave, some were cowardly, some wanted to preserve their strength, and some wanted to use their heads to reap the merits of the war.

This is not only something that Seng Lingqin did not expect, but also a situation that Wang Sanwu did not expect. (To be continued......)