After 1854, due to the strong rise of Yu Shengjun, the Qing court and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom successively organized new armies, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom appeared on the side of Lin Chengting's new army, which was supported by Yang Xiuqing.

It's just that now Lin Chengting has openly broken with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with the killing of Yang Xiuqing and the murder of his family, and the new army he ran has also lost more than half, and now he can only retreat to Jiangxi with the remnants of the army to seek self-reliance.

From the very beginning, the Eight Banners New Army, the Green Camp New Army, and the Jianghuai New Army were launched at the same time, but although the momentum was strong, the actual effect was not great, and it was even inferior to that of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had also trained Lin Chengting's nearly 20,000 new troops, while the Qing court, although the Eight Banners New Army, the Green Camp New Army, and the Jianghuai New Army were launched at the same time, only Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army was really effective.

As for the Eight Banners New Army in Beijing, although more than 6,000 people have been prepared, they have only been replaced with sample guns, and the soldiers are still the original Eight Banners soldiers, and even most of the daily training is not coming, or hiring beggars to replace them, and what is even more ridiculous is that it is not easy for the Qing court to purchase more than 5,000 foreign guns through various channels to be equipped with the Eight Banners New Army, and now there are only more than 3,000 left, and nearly 2,000 new troops are missing.

Where did those guns go? Sold by the officers or soldiers of the Eight Banners New Army!

The situation of the new army of the green battalion in various places is also not much better, because the green battalion is scattered all over the place, and most of the preparations for the new army are handled by the local generals themselves, and the imperial court only issues a charter and does not care, and the foreign guns and military salaries still have to be raised by the generals of the green battalion themselves, so except for a very small number of green battalions who have transferred troops to form a new army of several hundred people, in fact, the training of the new army of the green battalion has remained on paper.

For example, the Jiangnan Battalion and the Jiangbei Battalion, which brought together a large number of green battalions before, Xiang Rong, Huang Zonghan and others also tried to run a new army, but they were limited by the shortage of military spending, foreign guns, and military salaries, plus these two departments were in the front, Xiang Rong and Huang Zonghan did not dare to change the military system indiscriminately, for fear that if they did not do a good job, they would cause a decline in the combat effectiveness of the troops. So it's just a new army of a few hundred people.

On a national scale, the total number of new armies established by the green battalions in various places should exceed 10,000 people, but these new armies are scattered throughout the country and cannot be concentrated at all. At the same time, there are many gaps in the suzhì of these green battalion new troops. The poor ones still use arquebuses, and although the military system is organized according to the regulations of the new army, it is actually still the old way of the green battalion.

Some are better, for example, Chu Yong under the command of Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei, it is rumored that Hu Linyi selected thousands of soldiers from Chu Yong under his command. Purchased foreign guns and cannons to form a new army, and made meritorious contributions in the siege of Wuchang.

I also heard that after Zeng Guofan's defeat and return to Hunan in 1855, the newly recruited Xiang Yong also referred to Yu Shengjun's new army regulations, and no longer stubbornly believed that he could win by relying only on the bravery of soldiers, but began to use foreign guns and cannons, and organized and trained several battalions of new troops.

There are also many reasons why Zhejiang Governor He Guiqing has trained a battalion of 600 new troops in Zhejiang that has a decent combat strength, and a battalion of 600 new troops that Zhejiang has been able to train in a decent combat effectiveness.

First of all, it is related to He Guiqing, He Guiqing was born in Qingqing, and he belonged to a relatively noble person in a large group of local feudal governors in the Qing court. This person has been mixed in the Hanlin Academy since he became a jinshi, and has served as a number of imperial examination examiners, and he has been promoted to a waiter in just sixteen years, and there are still three years in between, so to be precise, it only took him thirteen years to become a second-grade waiter, and the speed of promotion is beyond the reach of many officials.

After three years in the ministry, in 1854, the Qing court transferred Huang Zonghan to Jiangsu to serve as the governor of Jiangsu, in order to appease and suppress Lin Zhe, and he finally got the opportunity to govern the lower places.

After this Qingliu high-ranking official took office as governor of Zhejiang. He is also diligent if he wants to make achievements, and as a Qingliu as an examiner for many years, he can be said to be a protégé all over the world, and this is a big force to run a new army.

The battalion of the new army he ran was sparsely armed. However, he fought with the Taiping Army many times in southern Anhui, and he had quite a record!

The above-mentioned green battalion new armies are the new armies that can be regarded as capable of handling the green battalion new armies in various parts of the Qing court, and the total number is only two or three thousand.

The greatest achievement of the Qing court in running the New Army in recent years was Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army.

Behind the scenes, there are Qi Liaozao and other Han ministers presiding, and Li Hongzhang is indeed outstanding, this Jianghuai New Army has almost been supported by the government and the opposition, and the foreign guns purchased by the Qing court are not only given priority to supply the Eight Banners New Army. It is to give priority to the supply of the new Jianghuai army.

Moreover, Li Hongzhang's vision and mind are far more than others, and when everyone else is groping for Yu Shengjun's military regulations, he has already hired a number of foreigners as instructors to help him train the troops.

Not only did he ask the imperial court for weapons, but he also contacted foreigners to buy arms directly.

After many efforts, the Jianghuai New Army took shape rapidly, and the speed of expansion was not much worse than that of Yu Shengjun, and from the end of 1854, Li Hongzhang tried to run the Jianghuai New Army, and it took less than two years for Li Hongzhang to pull out a 5,000-strong Jianghuai New Army.

Moreover, the unit went to northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu to fight against the Taiping Army many times, and accumulated considerable combat experience.

It is true that Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army is still a certain distance from Yu Sheng's army, but its combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated, which can be seen from the fact that the Jianghuai Army arrived in Yangzhou and quickly defeated the more than 4,000 defenders left behind by the Taiping Army in Yangzhou and then recovered Yangzhou.

Li Hongzhang's new Jianghuai army was quite successful.

After learning that Li Hongzhang led the Jianghuai New Army to regain Yangzhou, Lin Zhe also opened his eyes wide and set his eyes on Yangzhou and Li Hongzhang.

As a later generation, Lin Zhe knew that the name Li Hongzhang was one of the most famous ministers in the late Qing Dynasty, and this Manchu pasteur known as the Bismarck of the East did not live up to his historical reputation.

This person, like Zeng Guofan and Lin Chengting, is his biggest opponent in the future!

Looking at the whole of China, there are not many people who can be regarded as opponents by Lin Zhe, Hong Xiuquan on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom side is just a spiritual puppet, and Yang Xiuqing, Qin Rigang, Wei Changhui and others who have died are just rogue generals in the old era, which are not worth mentioning.

Although Shi Dakai is better, but seeing that Shi Dakai has not engaged in a new army for several years, he knows that this person's thinking is still stuck in the old era, and the only one on the side of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who can pose a strategic threat to Lin Zhe's Yu Shengjun is Lin Chengting.

And now that Lin Chengting has completely broken with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he is no longer a threat to himself in a short period of time.

As for the Qing court, Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi, and Li Hongzhang are all his fierce rivals, and as for others, such as Xiang Rong and He Chun, who are important ministers of the Qing court in the eyes of outsiders, are just rotten trees, Lin Zhe has never looked at them squarely.

Now Li Hongzhang's strong rise naturally attracted Lin Zhe's attention, so he sent a large number of spies to Yangzhou, either overt or covert, to spy on the details of the Jianghuai New Army.

At the same time, Li Hongzhang's strong rise also further deepened Lin Zhe's worries about the future, originally he thought that he still had more time to prepare, but the reality is that there is not much time left for him, he can't wait for Li Hongzhang to develop to tens of thousands of people and then raise the banner to resist, he can't wait for Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi to change the old-style rural brave model, and then start a new army after completely founding a new army.

Lin Zhe, who had a sense of urgency in his heart, once again accelerated the pace of army expansion!

The Sixth Mixed Regiment had not yet been formed, so he ordered to expand the scale of recruitment in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, recruiting soldiers to form the Seventh Mixed Regiment, and the Eighth Mixed Regiment formed in Shaoxing was also formed in advance.

At the same time, a strict order had been sent to the Linde Machinery Factory, asking them to speed up the mass production of the 1856 rifle.

Before the mass production of rifles in 1856, he first used a large number of old Linde rifles in stock to equip the 6th, 7th, and 8th mixed regiments.

At present, the scale and speed of Yu Shengjun's military expansion are so large that the follow-up military spending is completely ignored!

Because Lin Zhe was already planning to completely tear his face with the Qing court, in July 1856, Lin Zhe withheld the regular taxes and centigold of the Susongtai area of Jiangsu and the Changzhou Mansion with his remaining military resources, and did not hand over a dime to the yamen of the governor of Jiangsu.

A few days later, Lin Zhe instructed Xu Yanqing to detain the Zhengshui and Lijin in Huzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang Province and Guangdezhou in southern Anhui Province.

In this regard, Lin Zhe's reason within the Yu Shengjun system is that since the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps have been destroyed, and the heavy responsibility of resisting the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang has been fully undertaken by Yu Shengjun, then the military expenses originally supplied to the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps should naturally be transferred to the supply of Yu Shengjun.

In addition to deducting the taxes and cents of gold in Yu Shengjun's control of the zhì district, Lin Zhe also sent a letter to the imperial court, asking the household department to give Yu Shengjun 10 million taels of military expenses.

In addition, he asked for his own credit, without shame, claiming that he had recovered Changzhou, conquered Danyang and Zhenjiang, and even coerced Jiangning, killing tens of thousands of enemies, and Jiangnan military affairs have been undertaken by Yu Shengjun alone, in order to facilitate his actions, he dared to ask the ministers to supervise the military and political affairs of Jiangnan, and he must exterminate the Guangdong thieves as soon as possible!

In ancient and modern times, anyone who dared to ask the emperor for all the military and political affairs of a certain region was not 100 percent, but 99 percent of them were motivated by rebellion.

Although the upper echelons of the Qing court already knew that Lin Zhe was against him a few years ago, he still did not expect that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had not been completely exterminated, and Lin Zhe had already dared to withhold local taxes, and even asked for an order to supervise the military and political affairs of Jiangnan.

This withheld taxes and fees in southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, southern Anhui and other places, and asked Qin to supervise the military and political affairs of Jiangnan, which almost said that I was going to rebel.

"What now?" After Lin Zhe's excerpt was sent to the Beijing Division, a large number of military ministers of the Qing court panicked. (To be continued.) )