Du Xing'a said confidently: "As long as my Qing army gathers in Taoyuan and presses it with the momentum of Mount Tai, the rebel army will definitely be wiped out in the snap of a finger!" ”

Perhaps it was Du Xing'a's self-confidence that drove several other people, and immediately several other people spoke one after another in line with his words.

"I have 150,000 soldiers in the Qing Dynasty, even if Huai'an can't draw too many troops, but only by virtue of our ability to gather 100,000 troops in Suqian, Muyang, and Taoyuan, and the Shi Rebellion Department is only 350,000, and as we all know, there are still a large number of servant troops in the rebel army, of which only a few new troops brought out by Lin Rebellion." The person who spoke did not directly say that it would be easy to win a big victory, but talked about some situations of the Chinese army.

"Lin Zhizhi's Chinese descendants of the new army, last year was not more than 10,000, and even the difficulties of the new army are also understood, I have been lying in the Qing Dynasty for three years, and the number of new troops trained is less than 50,000, Lin Zhizhi is only entrenched in the southeast, how many new troops can be trained, at most 20,000 or 30,000.

However, the Chinese rebel army was so arrogant that it divided its troops into four directions, going south to Fujian, west to southern Anhui, and north to northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui. However, these people were divided into Huai'an and Sizhou.

Therefore, I can assert that the new army only has more than 10,000 men and horses in the Shi Rebellion Department that entered Taoyuan from Sizhou to the east, and the rest are all coerced people, so there is nothing to worry about! ”

Monk Grinqin turned his gaze to the man who spoke, a young man of about thirty years old, named Nader, who could be regarded as his old subordinate. He had made great contributions to the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Shandong, and was later transferred to Zhili to assist Duxinga in organizing and training the new army, and the official was promoted to the deputy commander. is also the commander of the Zhili Training Army who fought this time, and he is also Du Xing'a's direct subordinate.

Nader's words were heard in the ears of Seng Greenqin, and it also made him a little moved, because many of what Nader said were facts.

Since the beginning of the Yongying era in Yuyao County, the Chinese army has been famous in the country by several battles in northern Zhejiang, and in these years, Lin Zhe's Yu Shengjun and Zeng Guofan's Xiangyong are the most typical in China. At the same time, the most famous team practice.

If his reputation is big, it will naturally attract the attention of others, whether it is the Qing court or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they are closely following the development of Yu Shengjun. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom didn't say anything, and could only rely on spies to report back.

However, the Qing court had all the information of the early and middle stages of the Chinese army, including the military system and the resumes of the generals, and the Qing court had it, after all, Yu Shengjun had not rebelled at that time. The expansion of the army and the promotion of generals were all reported to the Qing court.

Otherwise, how do you think the Qing court would have a detailed military system of Yu Shengjun. And use this to train the new army of Jianghuai and the training of the troops in various provinces!

In the early years, Lin Zhe personally wrote and played the 'Yuyao County Yongying Camp Regulations', but it was rotted by the military and political dignitaries of the Qing court.

Therefore, it is not difficult for them to guess how big the Chinese army is today!

Although the Chinese army claims to have 200,000 troops, everyone who understands it knows that most of them are those auxiliary defense forces, and the real new army, that is, the Royal Army, is only 40,000 or 50,000 at most.

With the preliminary understanding of the Chinese army, it is not difficult to speculate how many troops the Chinese army has gathered in northern Jiangsu, and it is not difficult to speculate on the real strength of Shi Qingxuan's troops who attacked Taoyuan at this time.

Monk Greenqin guessed that the spies had reported that there were 50,000 people in the Shi Rebellion Department that had marched into Taoyuan, but a few months ago, the Qing army knew that there were only two steps under the new army. They are the first division of the puppet Royal Army, the third division of the puppet royal army and a small number of cavalry, and the rest are all puppet defense forces.

Even if it is Shi Rebellion, all the main forces are brought with them. Then the new army under his command will not exceed 20,000 people, and considering that Shi Rebellion's troops have been fighting against the Taiping Thief Army in northern Anhui for many months, it is said that there are heavy casualties, and now the new army of Shi Rebellion's troops who have arrived in Sizhou and attacked Taoyuan can have 15,000 people.

If there is only this 15,000-strong new army, Monk Greenqin thinks about whether he can fight a dozen if his main force enters and exits and gathers an army of 100,000?

Thinking about this, Monk Greenqin couldn't help but think of the holy decree that Emperor Xianfeng sent to him a few days ago, although the words on the holy decree were encouragement and comfort, but the meaning of letting himself recover the north as soon as possible and sweeping away the puppet Chinese rebel army was very obvious.

Yu Shengjun rebelled, and the performance of the Chinese Empire established by Lin Zhe in the past year had greatly alarmed the Qing court, and many people said that Lin rebellion was far more harmful than Hong rebellion.

In fact, it is true that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which made the Qing court a great trouble a few years ago, has been in decline, and since the internal strife in Tianjing in 1856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been like a grasshopper after the autumn, and it will not be long after it.

However, at this time, Lin Zhe's strong rise and command of the Chinese army to fight everywhere, not only swept all over the south of the Yangtze River, but also invaded Fujian and waved the army to the north of the Yangtze River, and after the fall of Yangzhou, the bridgehead of the Chinese army, the Qing court was greatly alarmed and put the suppression of the Chinese Empire in the first place.

For this reason, the Qing court sent a large number of troops to northern Jiangsu, and asked Seng Greenqin, who had exterminated the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, to command the northern army of northern Jiangsu, hoping that Monk Greenqin could bring them news of victory again.

Seng Lingqin led the army south, and did not exhaust the army at the first time, but mainly stuck to Huai'an and Suqian, delaying time and waiting for more reinforcements.

In the face of the already powerful Chinese army, the countermeasure reported by Seng Lingqin to the Qing court was to 'first use the fortified city to frustrate its spirit, wait for our reinforcements to arrive, and then sweep through the Jiangbei in one fell swoop, capture Yangzhou, cross the river and conquer the Zhenjiang River, and encircle the enemy in Jiangning to annihilate it. ’

But the people in the court obviously have a lot of opinions about their own troops in northern Jiangsu, and the new military department Shangshu Quanqing recently played Emperor Xianfeng to impeach him, saying, "Wen that the rebel army is taking northern Anhui with the Taiping thief army, and will not be able to look eastward, but send troops to seize Yangzhou, and restore the heaven-given opportunity of Zhenjiang, but the monk Greenqin went south for several months, and hundreds of thousands of troops in the north of the Yangtze River cost countless money and food every day, but they did not send a single soldier, and sat back and watched the rebel army become strong!" ”

For these impeachments, the DPRK and China are dissatisfied with him, and Seng Lingqin feels a little wronged!

Quan Qing and others said that he was afraid of the enemy and could not recapture Yangzhou for a long time. But is it the fault of his monk Grinqin?

Since the defeat of Yangzhou, his monk Greenqin can be regarded as being ordered to supervise the military affairs of Jiangnan and the north of the Yangtze River, although he arrived in the north of Jiangsu early. However, at that time, he rushed south with a team of 4,000 horses, and the main force, that is, the Gyeonggi training army of Duxinga, and Nader's Zhili training army were still behind, and the other training troops transferred from all over the country, the green battalion was also behind.

Even at the normal pace of marching, it would take at least a month or two to reach northern Jiangsu. Not to mention that there was also a non-payment of the opening fee in the middle.

The new army trained by Du Xing'a and Nader and others was trained according to the Yu Shengjun in the early years, not to mention whether it was like or not, but the salary given to the soldiers was a real silver. However, when this salary is paid, it is not deducted from food and other expenses, and it must be paid in full, which also leads to the need for additional military pay if the troops want to march and fight. In the early years of Yu Shengjun, this was called a pulling fee. The new army of the Qing court also used this name.

If you want these new troops to move to the defense area and march to fight, they will not move half a step if they don't pay a promotion fee!

The Qing court has also been very sad in recent years, the silver treasury in the household department is empty, and there is no money to let the training army under Du Xing'a be pulled, and finally there is really no way to shirk it, and Emperor Xianfeng temporarily pulled out 500,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury to serve as the opening fee for the 6,000 Gyeonggi training army and the 4,000 Zhili training army in the south.

The main forces did not arrive. He monk Greenqin is not an immortal, and he can't change the army to counterattack Yangzhou. Not to mention the counterattack, the first few months were all in fear, for fear that Huai'an would also be lost.

Fortunately, there are Li Hongzhang and Zhang Guoliang on the side of Huai'an City, one has nearly 10,000 Jianghuai new troops under his hands, and the other is the old slippery head general soldier, commanding the other tens of thousands of green battalion old army, relying on the two of them, the Qing army finally stabilized its position in Huai'an City, as for the counterattack, don't think about it, let alone counterattack Yangzhou, even the Chinese Army Fifth Army camp outside the city, the Qing army can't break it.

In the early stage, there were not enough troops, so they could only defend passively, but now it was difficult to wait until there were more than 100,000 people under Seng Lingqin, but the Chinese army also ended the war in northern Anhui, and Shi Qingxuan ran to northern Jiangsu with the main force of the first army.

At this time, although there are many Qing troops in northern Jiangsu, there are also many Chinese troops, there are more than 20,000 people outside Huai'an, and 50,000 in Sizhou. That adds up to 70,000.

150,000 against 70,000, the strength of the enemy was only twice that of the enemy, and Seng Lingqin was really not sure that he could defeat the Chinese army.

In his heart, he didn't want to take the initiative to go to Taoyuan County to fight to the death with the Chinese army, but he also knew that now the government and the opposition were looking at him, if he sat back and watched Taoyuan be captured, and then let Huai'an City also fall into the hands of the enemy, it is estimated that he would be dismissed immediately, and it was possible to lose his head.

In addition, many generals under his command, especially several people led by Du Xing'a, are striving to fight, although Seng Lingqin is the commander-in-chief, he also knows that the war in northern Jiangsu still has to rely on those training troops, that is, he has to rely on Du Xing'a, so he can't help but refer to their opinions.

After thinking about this for a long time, Seng Lingqin secretly made up his mind, and then raised his head and looked around and said: "Taoyuan is the central hub connecting Suqian and Huai'an City, and it cannot be lost. ”

Monk Greenqin's words set the tone, that is, Taoyuan County was saved, and now the question is, how to save Taoyuan?

For a while, Du Xing'a and Nader and others connected again, some said that they would gather all the heavy troops and go south to Taoyuan after they were ready, but some people said that if they said this, Taoyuan County might not last long, and if they wanted to save Taoyuan, they had to hurry up.

However, some people say that if they divide their troops and advance rashly, it is very easy to be broken by the Chinese army, and when the time comes, not only will they not be able to save Taoyuan, but they will also lose it.

Everyone's words and sentences instantly make the atmosphere in the room become excited.

After a long time, Monk Greenqin looked at Hu Linyi and saw that he did not speak like the others, but sat there by himself.

Immediately, the monk Grinqin said: "Master Hu, what do you think? ”

Hu Linyi turned his gaze to Monk Lingqin, and then said slowly: "I think Taoyuan is irretrievable!" ”

As soon as these words came out, they immediately attracted the attention of others, and Monk Lingqin was also puzzled: "Why? ”

Hu Linyi said: "Although our army has the advantage in strength, it is divided into Suqian, Muyang and other places, and it is quite time-consuming to gather together, and if the time drags on for a long time, Taoyuan County will not be able to hold it, and it is better not to save it at all."

If all the departments don't gather together and go directly to the south, then they will be broken by each other, which is also unacceptable to us! ”

"This doesn't work, that doesn't work, then what do you say, watching the rebel army capture Taoyuan and besiege Huai'an?" Du Xing'a stood up directly, and his tone was already a little big.

Hu Linyi said: "I still say the same thing, be cautious!" ”

"You just say that you are greedy for life and afraid of death!" Du Xing'a was very unhappy with Hu Linyi's attitude, thinking that he was a smart person alone, and treated everyone else as if he was stupid.

Everyone knows that Taoyuan is not easy to save, and the army will overturn if you are not careful, but the question is whether Taoyuan County can not be saved?

If you don't save Taoyuan County, Huai'an City can be defended, and if you lose Huai'an, Suqian is not far from the end.

If Taoyuan, Huai'an, and Suqian are lost, then the entire northern Jiangsu will be lost, and if northern Jiangsu is lost, Shandong and Henan will be in danger, and the Qing Dynasty will be finished.

In this case, can Taoyuan County not be saved? (To be continued......)