In Jinan, Shandong, Du Xing'a and his subordinates were all worried.

"Let's talk about it, what are the regulations now, how to repel the rebel army going north?" Du Xing'a saw that his group of subordinates didn't speak for a long time, and couldn't help but name him directly: "Old Shi, you say it first!" ”

Shi Rongchun heard Du Xing's name be named, and he was silent for a while before he said: "Now the rebel army is peeping at my Jinan, and we have also got the news that the general Shen army in Liaocheng has been defeated and retreated, and it is Shi Rebellion in the rebel army who led the army to attack Liaocheng, and everyone is no stranger to this person, and in terms of his usual combat style, the next step is probably to lead the main force of the department to our Jinan."

And once the army arrives, I am afraid that it will not be easy to fight in the future, so the humble opinion is that before the army arrives in Jinan, we should gather the main force of our army to defeat the land outside Changqing first, and then prepare the whole army to meet the rebellion, so that we have a slight chance of winning! ”

Hearing Shi Rongchun's words, an official wearing a second-grade civil official robe on the side sneered: "What are the odds of winning? Could it be that the historical system thinks that the 150,000 troops gathered by the Qing Dynasty in Lu are muddy, but the rebel army of only 30,000 or 20,000 makes you and others fear the enemy like a tiger, could it be that the new army trained by the tens of millions of military expenses spent by the imperial court in recent years cannot defeat this mere 20,000 or 30,000 rebel army? ”

Immediately, a few more people in civilian robes echoed in, saying that if the rebel army dared to come to Jinan, I would have to beat them to the ground, and even annihilate the main force of the rebel army in the north in one fell swoop and establish peerless feats.

Hearing what these civil officials said, not to mention Shi Rongchun frowned, even Du Xing'a above frowned slightly.

These civil officials are in addition to calling all day long. Don't you never open your eyes to reality?

Do they hide in the temple every day and don't even read the war report?

Or does he really not know who Shi Qingxuan is? Have you forgotten how Shi Qingxuan led the army all the way north last year, connecting Yangzhou, Huai'an, Suqian, and Xuzhou? Forget that more than 100,000 imperial troops were lost under this man last year?

These civil servants may not know. Maybe it's selective amnesia, but Du Xing'a remembers it very clearly. Not only him, but the military generals who fought with the Chinese army last year and this year all have a deep feeling for the strength of the Chinese army.

And the more you know, the more you fear!

Duxing Ake is a person who has experienced those defeats, and the sight of the whole army collapsing and having to flee with the remnants of his army will still wake him up from his sleep for many nights.

Even Shi Rongchun, the commander of the second town who did not participate in the Northern Jiangsu Campaign last year, has been fighting with the Chinese army many times in Laizhou, Qingzhou and other prefectures and counties since he led his army to reinforce Shandong this year, although the scale of the battles is not large, they are all limited to battles at the battalion and regimental levels. However, the strength of the Chinese army still left a deep impact on Shi Rongchun, which can be seen from the fact that he continued to retreat and was finally forced to abandon most of the eastern part of Shandong, Shi Rongchun knew the strength of the Chinese army.

In the second half of 1858, any Qing army general who led the army to fight in the north was very clear about how strong the Chinese army they needed to face.

In the Battle of Qingzhou, an infantry association under the Second Town of the Qing Army led by Shi Rongchun and an infantry battalion of the Third Division of the Chinese Army met. The strength of both sides was nearly 2,000 men compared to 600. As a result, the Qing army was stunned to defeat the Qing army's attack through skillful formation changes, skillful loading and shooting, and finally had to retreat in embarrassment with more than 100 corpses in front of the formation.

The generals of the Qing army knew the strength of the Chinese army. In particular, the Royal Army in the Chinese Army is powerful, and it can even be said that it has reached the level of fear.

But the civil servants who only care about playing tricks all day long do not know this, or are reluctant to believe it. They stubbornly believe that the Chinese army is just a group of rebels, and that it was all Seng Lingqin who had been defeated in the past. Li Hongzhang is incompetent, and the current military generals are afraid of the enemy like tigers. Also because of the incompetence of the commander-in-chief.

God is pitiful to see that they have been able to barely keep up with the pace of the Chinese Army in the rapidly changing military innovation in China in recent years, and Duxing'a, who single-handedly founded the 'Great Qing Army', and those new-style officers in the new army system of the Qing Army, no matter how incompetent, what they have done in the past two or three years can be regarded as very outstanding in this era.

Without the existence of the Chinese Army, Du Xing'a, with the seven new army forces in his hands, would have absolutely sure that he would go south to sweep away the rebels such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Lin Chengting.

It's a pity that the Chinese army they met was their teacher, a modern army that was better trained and better equipped than them!

Many times, you can use helplessness to describe these generals of the new army system of the Qing court such as Duxing'a, not that they don't have to use their lives, but that the Chinese army on the other side is too strong, and this can't be beaten, just like the sighs of the generals of the national army in later generations, it's not that the national army is not strong, but the communist army has a high ......

The previous Liaocheng had more than 30,000 Qing troops defended, and at the same time, there was the fifth town of the Qing Army and more than 5,000 Manchurian and Mongolian cavalry, but even in the face of Shi Qingxuan's attack, he fled in embarrassment if he couldn't hold it for a day.

This made Du Xing'a and the others in Jinan City how to put their minds at ease.

The next civilian officials and military generals quarreled one by one, some people thought that they wanted to stick to Jinan, and they couldn't get out, which was afraid of the Chinese army, but they were unwilling to give up Jinan, and some people thought that the rebel army was strong, and it was undoubtedly waiting for death to continue to stay in Jinan, and they must take the initiative to retreat north before the main force of Shi rebel arrived, which was purely frightened by the Chinese army, especially those who were frightened by Shi Qingxuan, and wanted to flee for their lives.

There are also people like Shi Rongchun, who think that they should take the initiative to attack Changqing in order to change the current strategic disadvantage, and these people are also afraid of Shi Qingxuan, but they still maintain basic confidence. thinks that the Chinese army is very strong, but it is not without a chance at all.

In order to convince the crowd. Shi Rongchun said: "As we all know, the combat effectiveness of the rebel army is not bad. But don't forget, now we have more than 90,000 troops in Jinan and Changqingtun, and the new army alone has three towns, and there are thousands of Manchu and Mongolian cavalry.

If we gather all the main forces to attack the enemy forces outside Changqing and attack the enemy forces with absolute superiority in forces, is there no hope for this? ”

Attacking the enemy with six or seven times the number of troops, even if there is a certain gap in the combat strength of the two sides, there is still a great hope of victory.

Hearing Shi Rongchun's words, Du Xing'a pondered.

It's not that he doesn't want to win. But there are a lot of worries, if this attack can't be defeated, then the follow-up may fall into a passive realm, if the loss of troops is too large, then I am afraid that it will be difficult to defend Jinan, and it is even possible to lose the tens of thousands of new troops that have been trained with great difficulty.

On the one hand, it is to take the initiative to change the strategic disadvantage and thus win the war, and on the other hand, it is possible to bury tens of thousands of new troops here if you are not careful. At that time, it is possible that he will follow in the footsteps of the monk Greenqin and be dismissed and investigated by the imperial court.

Now Du Xing'a feels that he is in a dilemma on a single-plank bridge, one end of the bridge is a paradise of victory, and the other end is a hell of defeat. What's more important is that Du Xing'a doesn't know that there is hell, and he doesn't know that there is heaven.

Seeing that Du Xing'a was in deep thought, Shi Rongchun said again: "My lord." If we don't take the opportunity to change the tide of the battle this time, then we may never have a chance again. After Jinan is the new Yellow River, after crossing the Yellow River is a horse Pingchuan. At that time, even if it is an army of 100,000, there will be no place to defend! ”

Hearing this, Du Xing'a stood up: "Everyone, if we don't take the initiative to attack and stick to Jinan now, without foreign aid, it will be as short as three months, and as long as half a year, sooner or later, we will not be able to hold on, and it is even more feasible to take the initiative to retreat, now we have no way to retreat, if we give up Jinan, the rebel army can directly enter the territory of Zhili, and the next step will be to reach the Beijing Division, and it will be even more difficult to fight without geography at that time!" ”

This remark already means that Du Xing'a has adopted Shi Rongchun's opinion, that is, to take advantage of the arrival of Shi Qingxuan's main force of the Sixth Army, take the initiative to attack the Chinese army outside Changqing, and strive to defeat the Chinese army before Shi Qingxuan's main force arrives, and then integrate forces and fight to the death with Shi Qingxuan.

There are many factors that made Du Xing'a make these decisions, in addition to the reasons mentioned above, it is also related to Du Xing'a's personal factors, he does not want to return with the same fiasco as Seng Lingqin, he is eager to win, and now taking the initiative may be his last chance to win.

It may even be the last chance for the imperial court to regain its strategic disadvantage.

As a Manchu general, he was more worried about the survival of the Qing court than Shi Rongchun and others, maybe Li Hongzhang and others, and even Shi Rongchun and other Han generals in front of him could surrender to the Chinese army after the defeat, and even continue to be an official in the Chinese Empire, but he was not able to do it.

Although in the past few years, the Chinese Empire has generally adopted an attitude of acceptance of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's demotion of officials, but there is also a relatively obvious dividing line here, that is, the acceptance of reused demotion officials are generally Han officials, and almost all of the former Qing officials who have surrendered to the Chinese Empire and continued to be officials in the past are Han officials, and although Manchu and Mongolian officials have also surrendered, although the Chinese Empire will not embarrass them, but there are very few officials who continue to be officials, especially almost none of the middle and senior officials. Those who were able to stay in office were all middle- and low-level Manchurian and Mongolian officials.

In other words, if Duxing'a and other Manchu generals were defeated by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, his future way out would be almost a dead end, so he was more reluctant to lose the court than many Han officials and generals in the court.

When Du Xing'a made a decision, the number one commander of the new army in the contemporary Qing court was also a person with unusual means, and after forcibly suppressing other voices with his huge military prestige, he began to prepare the army on the same day.

In the evening, he personally led the Qing army in Jinan City out of the city to Changqing, preparing to join the Changqing defenders and take the initiative to launch a counteroffensive against the first division of the Chinese Army in Changqing City. (To be continued......)