Li Yongji did quickly receive Zhang Xinda's handicraft jewelry made of modern aluminum products, synthetic opal stone, Hao diamond, stainless steel and other materials, and he did think about leaving for Shanghai to personally negotiate with foreigners about the idea of trading, but soon a new situation appeared on the front line, so that he could no longer run around so willfully, so he could only continue to stay in Suzhou.

The news is that Li Xiucheng has just led the army to defeat Pang Zhonglu, the minister of Jiangnan regimental training, in Zhangjiaqiao, on the outskirts of Wuxi, and then he divided his troops and attacked Jiangyin all the way and Changshu all the way.

It turned out that after Li Yongji defeated Li Xiucheng's army, although the results were outstanding, because he did not take advantage of the situation to attack Wuxi, Li Xiucheng had a chance to breathe, and actually let him rely on his remnants to defeat the general, plus the troops left behind in Wuxi, in just five days, and forcibly pulled up an army of 150,000 people.

After pulling up this army, Li Xiucheng also seemed to know that this temporarily conscripted army could not defeat the Jingwu army, and originally wanted to lead the troops back to Changzhou to avoid the vanguard of the Suzhou Jingwu army, who knew that at this time, Pang Zhonglu suddenly led troops to attack.

Pang Zhonglu used to be a cabinet scholar and a secretary of the Criminal Department, and later retired at home, so he became the minister of the Jiangnan Supervision and Training Department in Changshu, and like Zeng Guofan, he trained the village soldiers in the training regiment in his hometown, and nominally could command the regimental training troops in the Jiangnan area.

After he heard that Li Xiucheng was defeated, he immediately raised troops to attack Wuxi, originally wanting to bargain, but Li Xiucheng led his army to meet the battle, and in Zhangjiaqiao, a suburb of Wuxi, he used the method of ambush to eat Pang Zhonglu's 20,000 troops in one fell swoop. Pang Zhonglu also had a big fate, he was a lot older, and most of his soldiers and horses were lost, but he himself fled to Jiangyin with a few personal soldiers all the way to Jiangyin.

After defeating Pang Zhonglu, Li Xiucheng's troops were slightly more demoralized and regained a little self-confidence, and then Li Xiucheng changed his strategy and began to divide his troops on the spot.

One of them, led by Lu Shunde, known as 50,000, directly attacked Changshu, and the other route was led by Li Xiucheng himself, known as 100,000, to directly attack Jiangyin, as for Wuxi City, it has become an unguarded empty city.

"At this time, he dared to come out in front of us and divide his troops to attack two cities, Li Xiucheng was bold enough." Looking at the new information, Li Yongji shook his head and said to Wang Sanwu and the others, who came back urgently for a meeting, "Let's talk about it, what do you think we should do now?" ”

"In my opinion, Jiangyin is too far away to be saved, Wuxi is already an empty city, when Li Xiucheng left, he pulled away all the grain and grass he could bring, and if he couldn't pull it away, it would definitely be burned, and we just cleaned up the mess when we went, it didn't make much sense, only Changshu, and we still needed to send some troops." Zhang Wei spoke first, "Changshu is not only rich in grain and grass, but also the gateway to the south of the Yangtze River, like Suzhou. ”

"But I'm afraid they just want you to think so." Wang Sanwu said, "Li Xiucheng is the best at the trick of virtual and real, and he did it when he fought the Jiangnan camp. Now that he is doing this, I am afraid that he wants to mobilize our forces and let us divide our own troops. You see, we have to rescue Changshu, if we go less, it is useless, and if we go more, Suzhou will be dangerous, so our forces will be dispersed. ”

"Even if the troops are divided." Zhou Da smiled beside him, "Give me a regiment, no, just a battalion, and I will be able to destroy this army in Changshu immediately!" ”

"There are 50,000 people." Lin Chunsheng said with a smile.

"Fifty thousand? Phew! Zhou Dadao, "Even if there are really 50,000 people, they are just a group of people who are forcibly pulled up, no matter how many people there are, what is the use?" What's more, whether there are 50,000 is another story. ”

"A regiment should be fine, but if it's a battalion, it's a bit dangerous." Wang Sanwu said, "One of our battalions has about 1,000 people at most, and the soldiers are only about 700 people, and there is a lack of artillery. ”

"That's right." Zhang Wei also nodded and said, "It's still the rainy season, it's raining at both ends of three days, the roads are slippery, and the weather is hot, which is not conducive to marching, and the road from Suzhou to Changshu is full of woods and ponds, and there are too many places to ambush." If I were Li Xiucheng, I would inevitably lead a large army to ambush somewhere, eat us when there are few of us, and avoid it if there are many of us. ”

"Didn't Li Xiucheng go to fight Jiangyin?" Lin Chunsheng said, "He still dares to come over?" ”

"Our people haven't seen Li Xiucheng with their own eyes, and these news are all released by themselves, and the credibility is not high." Zhang Wei shook his head, "So it's hard to say whether Li Xiucheng really led troops to Jiangyin." And I believe that after the previous battle, Li Xiucheng should understand that once we pass 10,000 and form a group, it will be useless for him to have more soldiers and horses, but if we only have 1,000, then he will concentrate 50 times the number of troops to fight an ambush, and there will still be a chance to win. ”

"Actually, if you want me to say, Li Xiucheng is not bold, but scared." Jiang Hai, who hadn't spoken much, suddenly spoke up.

"Oh? How so? Li Yongji looked at him.

"I think that Li Xiucheng did this not to let us divide our troops and find an opportunity to attack us again, nor did he want to take the opportunity to grab a handful and leave, he should be trying to distract us." Encouraging, Jiang Hai continued to point to the map and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever thought about it, if we ignore Changshu and Jiangyin, or even Suzhou City, and directly send the whole army to fight Changzhou, what will happen?" What if we take Changzhou, continue to fight Danyang, and then go directly to Nanjing? ”

"You mean...... Wang Sanwu looked suddenly enlightened.

"That's right!" Jiang Hai nodded, "With our strength, if we go directly to Nanjing at this moment, with Li Xiucheng's strength at this time, we can't stop us at all." Nanjing didn't have much defensive strength at this time, and if we pressed all the way, even if we couldn't fight it for a while, we could still re-encircle. Moreover, Nanjing is a place where bandits must be saved, and Li Xiucheng does not dare to leave it alone, so as long as we arrive at the city of Nanjing, we can wait for work and break their rescue teams one by one, in this way, we will have the initiative, and Li Xiucheng will become passive. ”

"So he was afraid that we would think of this, so he deliberately divided his troops to attack Jiangyin and Changshu, not to find an opportunity to trouble us, but to disrupt our sight and make us have no time to think of this? His actions are a kind of confusion, is it to make us focus on him and not pay attention to Nanjing? Wang Sanwu nodded, "That's right, it's very likely, it's very likely." ”

"In that case, we can't do what he wants." Jiang Haidao, "As long as our elite army is assembled, it will be invincible in the world, we don't care what Li Xiucheng does, we just need to put on a posture of going straight to Nanjing, and everything will change." This is what you call yours, and I will hit mine. Even, when the time comes, we can still fake the drama and sing the real thing, and really go to Nanjing, and when the time comes, maybe there will be a real chance to beat Nanjing down! ”

"Hit Nanjing!" As soon as I heard this, everyone became excited, after all, the ** that hit Nanjing was too big.

Emperor Xianfeng is not dead at this time, but he said it himself, whoever takes Nanjing will be crowned king, and if the Jingwu army defeats Nanjing, even if Li Yongji can't be crowned king, it should be no problem to be a marquis, right? And Li Yongji has been promoted to become rich, and their subordinates will not be far behind.

Seeing everyone's excited looks, Li Yongji shook his head secretly, he didn't want to go to Nanjing now, how could he fish in troubled waters in the future? He understands the meaning of the word self-respect for thieves.

"It's not time to fight Nanjing, so don't mention it yet." Li Yongji shook his head, "As for the present...... I think so, Wang Sanwu, you take the 3rd Infantry Regiment and the 1st Cavalry Regiment to rescue Changshu, and then stay there and hold there; Zhang Wei, you take the Second Infantry Regiment plus the Second Cavalry Regiment to stay in Suzhou, as for me, personally lead the rest of the soldiers and horses, and then bring new soldiers and 50,000 people to escort grain and grass to Wuxi. ”

"My lord, what is this?" Zhang Wei immediately wondered about this decision, "The soldiers are divided into three ways? Dividing troops like this is a taboo for soldiers! And Wuxi must have more people and less food, go there, in case there is a good ...... Even if you want to go to Wuxi, I should go, you still sit in Suzhou in person, what if there is a mistake, and Suzhou is inseparable from adults. ”

"Suzhou can't do without my reason." Li Yongji shook his head and said to Zhang Wei, "I've never been impatient with things in officialdom, and it's more suitable for you to stay here than me." As for me, I have a guard battalion, the first cavalry regiment, the first step corps, an independent artillery battalion, plus new recruits and 50,000 people, it is foolproof to go to Wuxi. ”

"But ......"

"Don't be, with our strength and mobility, even if we divide our troops into three ways, it will be absolutely fine. To tell you the truth, I divided my troops in this way to grab territory, so you must remember that as long as the territory occupied by our elite army is occupied, it must not be ceded to others. Li Yongji interrupted Zhang Wei's words, "As for why I went to Wuxi in person...... That's a long story. Let's put it this way, I know that Wuxi now has more people and less food, and the weather is hot, rainy and humid and prone to epidemics, which is the most difficult time, but because of this, I need to lead troops to bring grain and grass over to restore order there. The so-called those who win the hearts of the people win the heavens...... Ahem, in short, sometimes, we can't just look at the immediate interests in a war, but also look at the long-term, we can't just focus on the merit of killing the enemy, we have to care more about the life and death of the people, understand? So, that's it, there's no need to discuss it anymore! ”