Although the Taiping Army launched a sudden multi-way attack on the Jingwu Army and began the so-called Second Eastern Crusade, only Chen Yucheng and Hong Renda were the two main forces in this Second Eastern Crusade.

Therefore, when Hong Renda's troops and Chen Yucheng's troops withdrew one after another, although Cheng Xueqi and Li Shixian's soldiers and horses were still fighting with the Jingwu army, it was just a show, and they were unable to continue to march at all.

When they know the news of Hong Renda and Chen Yucheng's failed retreat, they will inevitably retreat, of course, whether they can retreat smoothly at that time, it is not certain.

Therefore, Chen Yucheng's defeat can basically be said that the Taiping Army's Second Eastern Expedition Offensive failed, and the next situation must be a change of offensive and defensive situation, the Taiping Army has to face the retaliation of the Jingwu Army and becomes the defender, and the Jingwu Army becomes the attacker again.

This situation made Hong Renji very annoyed and angry, because this Eastern Expedition offensive was successfully organized by him after he worked hard and racked his brains, and it was only a few days after it was launched, and there was no decent result, so he was defeated so simply, how could he not make Hong Renji angry?

Hong Renji didn't think there was anything wrong with his plan, he felt that he had already considered things comprehensively, so the main reason for the failure was to blame Hong Renda's rash advance and retreat without a fight.

In Hong Renji's opinion, if Hong Renda hadn't left Zhenjiang to fight Danyang, and then quickly fled after encountering the main force of the Jingwu Army, exposing the important place of Zhenjiang to the Jingwu Army, Chen Yucheng's back road would not have been attacked.

If Chen Yucheng's rear road is stabilized, with Chen Yucheng's ability, he will definitely be able to use the method of ambush to eat one of the main regiments of the Jingwu Army, and then use the advanced weapons in the hands of the opponent to continue to attack at the right time, and then the entire battle will be revitalized.

But it's a pity that Hong Renji's anger can't find a person to vent at all, because although Hong Renji is the king and the chief military division. But to put it bluntly, he is just a bare-bones commander, and Hong Renda is already a general of the army, and he has his own lineage of soldiers and horses, in this case, in fact, even Hong Xiuquan can't do anything with Hong Renda.

This made Hong Renji even more angry, because the purpose of recruiting soldiers and horses for Hong Renda was to let the Hong family master a lineage of the Imperial Forest Army, that is to say, Hong Renda's soldiers and horses should have been the Central Army, but now he has once again become a soldier and horse who does not listen to the announcement. How is this different from other military leaders?

What's even more sad is that when Hong Renji found Hong Xiuquan's small report on Hong Rengan, Hong Xiuquan quickly yawned, and it looked like he was perfunctory to Hong Renji.

In short, a qiē and a qiē made Hong Renji annoyed, and they all made Hong Renji angry, and he even began to be a little discouraged.

If it weren't for worrying about Hong Xiuquan, if it wasn't for the cause of the Heavenly Kingdom. He wanted to leave, but in the end he chose to stay and continued to worry.

It's really time to worry, because he knows one truth very well - if you fight a snake, you won't die, but you will suffer from it!

That's right. Although anyone with a discerning eye knows that the Jingwu Army will fight with the Taiping Army sooner or later, and in fact, the Jingwu Army and the Taiping Army have never signed an armistice agreement, which means that everyone has always been in a state of war. But before because of Li Xiucheng's relationship. The two sides have always been relatively peaceful, but this time it was the elite army that the Taiping Army took the initiative to provoke, and the most hateful thing was to provoke and fail.

In this case. Not to mention how big the blow will be to the morale of the military morale of the soldiers and civilians of the Heavenly Kingdom, when facing the retaliation of the Jingwu Army in the future, the confidence of the Taiping Army will be even worse.

The intelligence officers in Hong Renji's possession had already told him that in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, everyone hated the remnants of the Hunan army and others who were still loyal to the Manchu Dynasty, but they did not have much hatred for the Jingwu army that was close at hand, and there were even many people who secretly envied each other's lives.

The reason why this can be done is, of course, inseparable from the consciousness penetration of the Jingwu Army, because when Li Xiucheng was sitting in Nanjing, he always treated the businessmen who came from the territory of the Jingwu Army very preferentially.

These businessmen who came from the territory of the Jingwu Army, in addition to bringing a large number of food, luxury goods and other things urgently needed by the Taiping Army, also brought a lot of news from the territory of the Jingwu Army, so that the people of the Taiping Army also had a general understanding of what kind of life the people under the rule of the Jingwu Army lived.

Not to mention anything else, the fact that a person with an annual income of less than 200 taels of silver does not have to pay any taxes is enviable.

In contrast, although there is no longer any holy treasury system in the Heavenly Kingdom, and taxes have been collected again, the taxes imposed on the people are not small, and even much higher than those of the Qing court.

In fact, because of the shortage of grain in the Taiping Army, in the past, it was Li Xiucheng's private transactions with the Jingwu Army that temporarily ensured the stability of the grain, and now that he has turned his face with the Jingwu Army again, then don't expect the Jingwu Army to sell grain again.

In other words, even if you don't send troops to attack after the elite military, you only need to pinch the channels of grain trading, and the Taiping army will not be able to support it for long.

Regarding the economic problems of the Kingdom of Heaven, Hong Renji, as the king of cadres and the chief military division, is very clear, even better than most people, knowing that the Kingdom of Heaven is now inseparable from the grain trade with the Jingwu Army, but he also knows that if he did not take advantage of Li Yongji's lonely army to fight the Jingwu Army at that time, there would be no chance at all in the end, so he had to fight hard.

At the beginning, he formulated a plan to come out with multiple routes, all of which were aimed at the essence of the other party, such as Chen Yucheng and Hong Renda's Northern Route Army, the real goal was to target Changzhou and Suzhou, as long as these places were laid, the Taiping Army's food and salary would not have to worry in the short term.

It's a pity that Hong Renji is a scholar after all, he can only sketch the so-called plan on paper, and when the real fight starts, it is not the same thing at all, and he doesn't know what happened on the front line.

For example, Hong Renda, although Hong Renda is recognized as a straw bale, he still has a lot of courage, otherwise he would not have fought against Li Xiucheng at the beginning, and dared to lead the troops to leave Zhenjiang and go directly to Danyang.

So, why did Hong Renda not even dare to fight with the other party after encountering the second division of the Jingwu Army, and immediately fled with his troops? There's something else going on here.

Although Hong Renda has an army of 50,000 under his command and looks very powerful, he is usually pampered and will not lead troops to fight at all. So the actual leader of the troops was Chen Kunshu, nicknamed Chen Slanyan.

After Chen Kunshu failed in the battle of Suzhou, all his soldiers and horses were wiped out, and he soon lost his momentum, and when he found that Li Xiucheng was no longer successful, he took refuge in Hong Renda, and soon won Hong Renda's trust.

After that, when Hong Renda recruited new soldiers, Chen Kunshu was actually recruiting and training these new recruits, and Hong Renda's role was only to provide money and food. Other words. Hong Renda is just the nominal commander-in-chief, or the finando of this army and horses, it is Chen Kunshu who really controls this army and horses, and all the generals of the entire army are all promoted and appointed by Chen Kunshu.

However, Hong Renda will definitely not tell outsiders about these things, and he doesn't think that he can't control this army, after all, Chen Kunshu has always been obedient before, and he is considered to be Hong Renda's most obedient dog.

Usually. In order to continue to obtain funds, Chen Kunshu has always been obedient to Hong Renda's words, and he is also very good at patting on the back, which makes Hong Renda have an illusion that he does not suspect people and does not use them. But in essence, Hong Renda's soldiers and horses have quietly become Chen Kunshu's troops.

In other words, after seeing the main force of the Jingwu Army, he ordered to turn around and flee immediately. It's not Hong Renda, it's Chen Kunshu, after all, Chen Kunshu had witnessed the strength of the elite army A troops back then. Facing such a force again, Chen Kunshu was not sure to win at all.

Not to mention winning, he felt that it would be good if he encountered such a force in the field without annihilating the whole army.

It was precisely because it was Chen Kunshu who ordered the escape, so he did not return to Zhenjiang, but went directly to Nanjing, the reason is that naturally Chen Kunshu knew that returning to Zhenjiang was death, and he didn't think that Chen Yucheng could defeat the Jingwu army in the wild, even if he set up an ambush.

As for whether Hong Renda will be angry, Chen Kunshu doesn't care, and Hong Renda is also very easy to deceive, Chen Kunshu only used a lame reason to lure the enemy in, and Hong Renda believed it.

It's stupid to this point, it's a must, but if you take a closer look at Hong Renda's daily habits, it's not surprising.

Hong Renda has long been addicted to smoking under the influence of Chen Kunshu, and he is as greedy and lustful as Hong Xiuquan. How can a person who smokes a lot of cigarettes and plays with women all day long, and is still like this when he leads the troops, really win the love of the officers and soldiers of the army? It's only natural that such a guy will be toyed with between applause.

In short, Hong Renda's troops are actually in the hands of Chen Kunshu, Chen Kunshu agreed to send troops, and he never thought about really going against the Jingwu army, but just wanted to take this opportunity to grab a handful and run.

So after he took over Zhenjiang, he began to loot on a large scale, and when the looting was almost over, he used the excuse of attacking Danyang, which was actually preparing to withdraw his troops, otherwise, how could the 50,000 army run so fast after encountering Zhang Wei's second division, it was really that they had already prepared to run away, and they just took advantage of the situation after seeing the Jingwu army.

As for why he went to Nanjing, the reason is very simple, Chen Kunshu plans to lead his troops to Luzhou Mansion, that is, Hefei City, and Nanjing is the only way to go. In other words, Chen Kunshu felt that his wings were almost up, and he could leave Nanjing, the land of right and wrong, and planned to go to Luzhou Mansion to become a warlord.

If it weren't for this, after Chen Kunshu returned to Nanjing with his troops, he would not have failed to enter Nanjing City, but only urged food and salary with Hong Renda's order, not because he was afraid of strengthening the defense, but because he was afraid that there would be any unexpected changes in Nanjing.

In a few days, when Chen Kunshu's grain and grass were almost raised, he would lead his troops away again, and at that time, this Hong Renda was estimated to be really just a puppet.

Let's talk about Chen Yucheng. Chen Yucheng thought that he had been fighting in the west in the past and had never had direct contact with the Jingwu Army, and the intelligence of the Jingwu Army was hearsay, so he naturally did not have much fear.

In addition, some time ago, foreigners had vigorously supported Chen Yucheng, so that Chen Yucheng's troops were equipped with a large number of foreign guns and foreign cannons, although there were few foreign cannons, but the Cheng dù of foreign guns had reached 30 percent, such a force, Chen Yucheng was confident that he could definitely fight with the Jingwu army, not to mention that he still set up an ambush in advance.

After Chen Yucheng started the war with the Jingwu Army, all the local troops he encountered were the Jingwu Army, such as the Zhenjiang garrison and the Yangzhou garrison, all of which were miscellaneous soldiers and militias based on cold weapons.

In the face of these garrison troops in places where cold weapons are mainly used and there is not much heavy firepower, Chen Yucheng is naturally very relieved, feeling that the elite army is nothing more than this, not as good as others boast, at most their combat will is not bad, and the range of some rifles is also longer, but that's it.

Although Chen Yucheng also knew that the main force of the Jingwu Army was definitely different. After all, the legend that the elite army is invincible with thousands of people is not covered, but he thinks that his 50,000 army has set up an ambush in advance, and it should be trivial to eat the opponent's four or five thousand people.

But as a result, the two regiments of the Second Division of the First Division were beaten from behind, obviously Chen Yucheng discovered the other party in advance and took the other party by surprise first, but after that, the two regiments of the Jingwu Army immediately broke out with terrifying combat effectiveness, and they stubbornly withstood Chen Yucheng's offensive, and also had the ability to counterattack.

It was in that battle that Chen Yucheng witnessed the strength of the main force of the Jingwu Army. Not only did I see the terrifying firepower of the Jingwu Army, but also saw the strong combat will and organizational ability of the Jingwu Army.

This made him quickly realize that to say that the elite army was invincible in the field, and that they were invincible in the thousands, was indeed not boasting, they did have the qualifications and strength.

It was only after understanding this and personally witnessing the strength of the main force of the Jingwu Army that Chen Yucheng dispelled all his arrogance in order to preserve his strength. Began to quickly lead the troops to retreat.

Thanks to the fact that the commander of the Jingwu Army at that time lacked sufficient offensive awareness, Chen Yucheng's troops left safely.

But since then, Chen Yucheng has lost the intention of continuing to attack, because he knows it. His army of more than 40,000 seems to be a lot, but if he fights with the main force of the Jingwu Army again, he will definitely lose.

In fact, it was not only him, after the encounter with the two regiments of the Second Division of the Jingwu Army. Chen Yucheng's subordinates have long been frightened, that fierce firepower, and the combat consciousness of fighting to the death. The combat skills of division of labor and cooperation, each of which surpassed Chen Yucheng's soldiers and horses, and these things combined, except for the word terror, Chen Yucheng could no longer think of other words to describe this army.

In other words, Hong Renji's plan is just taken for granted, he himself has never really come into contact with the Jingwu Army, and he does not know the horror of the Jingwu Army, especially the main force of the Jingwu Army, so when calculating the Jingwu Army, the most he can compare with the troops of the foreigners.

In fact, the foreigner troops are also very strong, but Hong Renji has personally contacted Chen Yucheng's troops and knows that Chen Yucheng has an all-foreign gun regiment under him, which is no worse than the equipment of the foreigners.

Chen Yucheng's foreign gun regiment consisted of 6,000 people, all of whom were elite soldiers who had experienced a hundred battles. These soldiers were all equipped with smoothbore guns used by the British, as well as six British six-pounder field guns, four eight-pounder guns, and many flowering shells used.

When the Hunan army was first attacked, the foreign gun regiment was only 4,000 people, so the Hunan army was beaten to a pulp, and now the foreign gun regiment has 6,000 people, plus the cooperation of other troops, if you set up an ambush to attack with more and less, you will not fail.

It's a pity that whether it is Hong Renji or Chen Yucheng, although they have thought of the elite army very well before, they still underestimate their combat effectiveness and underestimate the other party, so the result is naturally a big defeat.

Maybe I want to say that they don't know the details of the Jingwu Army, so Li Xiucheng is different, Li Xiucheng will never tell them the truth, right?

The fact is that Li Xiucheng has long told Hong Renji about the horror of the Jingwu Army and how sharp the firearms of the Jingwu Army are, but unfortunately Li Xiucheng has long not had enough prestige because of the successive defeats of the Jingwu Army.

Hong Renji, although he is not from a military background, he has seen what the foreigners' troops are like, so he only thinks that the other party is exaggerating and making excuses for his failure.

found that Hong Renji didn't believe him, Li Xiucheng didn't say anything anymore, and Chen Yucheng didn't inform Li Xiucheng when he came, so the two had never met, so naturally they didn't have the opportunity to tell Chen Yucheng what he knew in advance.

Naturally, there is more than one person who has fought with the Jingwu Army, and many soldiers who have fought with the Jingwu Army also know the truth, but unfortunately in the face of low-level officers and soldiers, Hong Renji and others are even less interested in inquiring.

In addition, Hong Renji also has an intelligence force, so it is impossible for these intelligence officers not to know the truth, right? It's a pity that the main force of the Jingwu Army has always done a good job of keeping secrets, and it is difficult to understand how effective they are when they are not fighting.

Therefore, the intelligence investigated by those intelligence officers only means that the main force of the elite army is all equipped with foreign guns and foreign artillery, and they cannot recognize the difference between these foreign guns and foreign guns and foreign artillery.

In short, there are many sources of intelligence, but because of Hong Renji's preconceived ideas, he went back and forth until the battle failed, except for the front-line officers and soldiers, Hong Renji himself still did not know how powerful the Jingwu Army was.

Hong Renji is the king of the Taiping Army, the chief military division, the actual power is similar to the regent, belongs to the central minister, but a central minister is not even clear about the actual combat effectiveness of the enemy, just rely on his own assumptions to arrange troops, and it is not surprising that he suffered defeat.

But the problem is that Hong Renji has not realized his mistake until now, not only does he not know his true strength, but he also does not know the true strength of the Jingwu Army, and he is even more confused in terms of employing people, and he relies on his own assumptions to make decisions.

For example, now, he still thinks that the Second Eastern Crusade did not fail, and he thinks that he only suffered a small setback, and he thinks that Hong Renda is timid and afraid of things, and he retreats privately to lead Chen Yucheng's failure, and he still feels that he still has a chance to turn the tables.

What made him have this idea was because the Taiping army did not have much loss in essence, such as Hong Renda, no, Chen Kunshu's 50,000 troops were almost intact, and Chen Yucheng's department, who had just retreated to Liuhe, although he lost a lot of baggage, there were still more than 40,000 people.

In addition, Cheng Xueqi's soldiers and horses and Li Shixian's soldiers and horses still have no bad news, normally speaking, they are still fighting with each other.

Therefore, Hong Renji, who had calmed down again, began to take it for granted that as long as Hong Renda and Chen Yucheng were brought together again, everyone sat down and talked well, removed their differences, worked together again, and worked out a new attack plan, then the plan for the Second Eastern Crusade was still promising.

As everyone knows, this is impossible at all, not to mention that Chen Kunshu has long planned to lead the troops to smear oil on the soles of their feet and go to Luzhou Mansion to be at ease, even Chen Yucheng is now thinking about how to stick to Nanjing, and find a way to renegotiate peace with the Jingwu Army, if he wants to attack again, it will never work.

Sure enough, early the next morning, Hong Renji, who had calmed down, sent people to Hong Renda and Chen Yucheng respectively, but then I heard that Hong Renda had already led his troops to Quanjiao as early as last night, and only Chen Yucheng was summoned and was on his way to Nanjing at the moment.

This made Hong Renji scold again, scolding Hong Renda for not being able to carve rotten wood, ruining his big thing, and not knowing that he was scolding the wrong person.

Because Hong Renda is now completely under house arrest by Chen Kunshu, he has become a puppet at all, although the entire army is still under the banner of the Taiping Army, but it is just to save trouble, in fact, it has long become Chen Kunshu's personal arm.

Chen Kunshu had already thought about it, he planned to leave Nanjing, a place of right and wrong, go to Luzhou Mansion to become a warlord, and then sit and watch the tearing war between the Taiping army and the Jingwu army, and then surrender to the victorious side when one side is about to lose.

However, as far as Chen Kunshu personally thinks, there is a chance that the Taiping Army will not be able to do the Jingwu Army, so it is very likely that he will surrender to the Jingwu Army in the end, which is why he ran away when he saw the Jingwu Army at the beginning, and he didn't even fight, in addition to being afraid of losses, he also didn't want to offend the Jingwu Army, and he wanted to see it in the future.

said again, since he was planning to surrender to the Jingwu Army, why didn't he lead his troops to surrender early in the morning, but had to run away first, and then go to Luzhou Mansion?

That's because Chen Kunshu wants to bargain and fight for greater benefits for himself.

You must know that if he surrendered to the Jingwu Army under Danyang City, then he would just be a general with troops, and he obviously surrendered under the threat of the Jingwu Army, and the force was too low, it is estimated that even if he surrendered, he would not be treated well and would not gain much benefit.

On the contrary, if he leads his troops to leave early and conquers Luzhou without losing his strength, then he is a prince with soldiers and territory, and when the time comes, it will be different to surrender with the Jingwu army, and he will have to be treated according to the warlord.

I have to say that Chen Kunshu's idea is quite good, the only thing he didn't expect is that Luzhou Mansion is still under the control of the Qing Army, or the Hunan Army, and it is the rising star of the Hunan Army - Li Hongzhang who guards Luzhou Mansion! (To be continued......)