The reason why Li Yongji dared to play airships in Beijing was not because he didn't know how important he was not doing his job, but because the current changes in the shape of the whole world were very beneficial to Li Yongji, and he didn't need to worry too much about wartime.

Dangyi? After escaping from the capital, he went all the way to the north, leading the troops to flee to Chengde, and he didn't dare to stay too much along the way, for fear that the Jingwu army would slow down and chase after him.

And just in Yi? When he ran to Chengde, he didn't know that Emperor Xianfeng, who was still in Chengde, ran to Fengtian under the guise of hunting after hearing the news of the loss of Beijing, and he had the appearance of escaping from the customs in one breath.

Emperor Xianfeng has now completely put down his son, and he doesn't care about anything else, and he is also a person who understands the times.

Originally, Emperor Xianfeng took away a large number of soldiers and horses in the capital. When he left, he took a group of people with him, so so far, there are no soldiers and horses in the entire Beijing-Tianjin region that can threaten the Jingwu Army, and the Jingwu Army is already a monopoly.

Perhaps because of this, in the areas near Beijing and Tianjin, such as Zunhua, Miyun, Xuanhua and other cities, as long as they received the news of the fall of Beijing, the local magistrates were in a hurry to change their flags, and at the same time sent envoys to Beijing, putting on a look of welcoming the new master, which was regarded as a complete fall to the Jingwu army.

For these places, Li Yongji did not need to send troops and horses at all, but only needed to send a few envoys to take over the power of these places.

In short, when Li Yongji captured Tianjin and Beijing with an irresistible posture, the legal system of Manchu rule over China disappeared, and although the Manchus still claimed to be the Great Qing State, they had in fact become a local power.

So far, the Manchurian and Mongolian areas have been effectively controlled, and the rest of the region has been uncontrollable, in other words, when Beijing is captured. China has become a leaderless separatist situation, and has entered a situation commonly known as a long-term separation.

Although China has entered a period of division in which the heroes are competing for each other, in fact, due to the strength of the Jingwu Army, the Jingwu Army led by Li Yongji has become the most powerful force in China, and it is also the most promising force to regain domination of the world.

You must know that the Jingwu Army has now controlled most of Zhejiang, all of Jiangsu, all of Shandong and the Beijing-Tianjin region, and it can be said that the most elite part of China has been occupied by the Jingwu Army, and the Jingwu Army has not been defeated so far. Therefore, this force is the most promising to dominate the world.

In other words, in the eyes of the world, the goal of overthrowing the Manchu rule has actually succeeded, and the next goal of the Jingwu army is to establish a new dynasty and re-dominate the world!

That's right, when Li Yongji defeated Beijing, as long as everyone in China knows about this matter, they will understand a truth. That is, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has fallen, the rise of the Jingwu army has been unstoppable, and it is only a matter of time before Li Yongji establishes the state and establishes a new dynasty.

At this special moment. All the well-wishers in China began to plan carefully for their own interests, especially within the Jingwu Army, and after learning that Li Yongji had captured Beijing, their morale was greatly boosted. They are all making great progress and working hard in the hope of getting more merits. Establish yourself in the new dynasty that is about to be established.

For example, Zhang Wei, who had already arrived in Danyang with his troops, had a great change in his mentality at this time.

"What? If you don't want to fight Nanjing, you want to fight Zhenjiang? At the routine military meeting, after hearing Zhang Wei's new decision, Zhang Feng, who was the commander of the second regiment of the second division and Zhang Wei's younger brother, immediately frowned, "Big brother...... No, division commander, isn't our goal to attack Nanjing, force the Taiping army to return to the division, and then surround the point to send reinforcements? Why change the plan and go to Zhenjiang? ”

"Because there is no longer a need to encircle the point and send reinforcements." Zhang Wei took the wooden teaching pole and pointed to Danyang on the map, and said expressionlessly, "Since Hong Renda led the troops back to Nanjing without a fight, there is no point in us going to Nanjing again, on the contrary, it is the most important thing for us to take Zhenjiang and then cut off Chen Yucheng's back road and annihilate Chen Yucheng's main force." ”

Indeed, when Zhang Wei led his troops from Suzhou all the way to Danyang, Hong Renda's subordinates, who were besieging Danyang, knew that they were incapable of the enemy, so they actually ran away with oil on the soles of their feet in advance, and he did not return to Zhenjiang this time, but directly led the army back to Nanjing.

It can't be said that Hong Renda's approach is wrong, after all, the duty of defending Tianjing is also quite heavy, but as soon as he leads his troops away, Zhenjiang almost becomes an empty city.

Now in front of Zhang Wei, there are two roads, the first is to continue to go straight to Nanjing, and the other is to lay down Zhenjiang and cut off Chen Yucheng's retreat!

You must know that because of the problem of communication means, Chen Yucheng did not know about Hong Renda leading his troops back to Tianjing at the moment, and he did not know that Beijing had been conquered by Li Yongji, so he was still fighting fiercely under the city of Yangzhou.

On the contrary, because the elite army has a radio communication system, the speed of information acquisition, the content is more detailed, and the mobility is stronger, so the grasp of the battle situation is clearer and keen.

Just like now, when Hong Renda had just led his troops to retreat from Danyang, it was also the second day after Li Yongji broke through Beijing, and at this time, except for the area near Beijing and Tianjin, at least here in the south, except for the elite army with radio communications, other places did not know about this matter at all.

As for the Jingwu Army, those who learned the news were all high-level, and before the news was released, the officers and soldiers at the bottom did not know that Li Yongji had broken Beijing, which gave more room for strategy and tactics.

"But ......" Zhang Feng wanted to say something, but Zhang Wei waved his hand and asked him not to speak yet.

"There's a piece of news you don't know yet." Zhang Wei glanced around at the other people in the military meeting, and then said to a young man with a slightly dark complexion, "Lord Luo, please inform everyone of the news." ”

"Yes!" The person known as Lord Luo stood up at once, and then saluted Zhang Wei, and then smiled at the others, "So that everyone knows that the big man has already broken through Beijing City three days ago!" The Manchus are finished! ”

This Lord Luo's name is Luo Ming, he is only 26 years old, and he is the new chief of staff of the Second Division, but he has only been in this position for a month, and his qualifications are very poor, and most of the officers and men of the Second Division are not very interested in him.

But Zhang Wei values him very much, not only is he very polite to him, but he also has to pull him up no matter what meeting he has. And let him come out to speak, and after a long time, he also gained a certain prestige in the second division.

Sure enough, as soon as Master Luo finished speaking, the entire conference room immediately became noisy, and they seemed to be shocked by the news.

"Quiet!" Zhang Wei just said these two words lightly, and then saw that the entire conference room was silent again.

This is the characteristic of Zhang Wei's army, a qiē strict, so as long as he presides over the meeting, unless he allows it. Otherwise, no one would dare to take it lightly, even if it was his most valued brother Zhang Feng.

"Alright, Lord Luo, thank you for your eyes, please sit down."

After Luo Ming sat down again, Zhang Wei continued: "Now, the Manchu Qing Dynasty is finished, and the day when the marshal will ascend to the foundation of the country is just around the corner. At this time, the biggest enemy who can stand in front of the marshal. There is only this Taiping army, so we must change our thinking at present, and we must not be satisfied with blocking the offensive of the Taiping army, but must try our best to annihilate the living force of the Taiping army. Then launch a counteroffensive to wipe out the Taiping Army in one fell swoop, so that the marshal can dominate the world as soon as possible! ”

After a pause, he realized that everyone was still looking at him. After no one had the meaning to speak at all, Zhang Wei continued: "You see, Hong Renda is just a straw bale. What's the point of chasing him? He is now back in Nanjing City, purely as a cocoon, the monk can't run away from the temple, we can clean him up sooner or later!

On the contrary, Chen Yucheng, who is still in Yangzhou, is a little interesting, he is now fighting fiercely with Lu Tianming under the city of Yangzhou, if he doesn't take the opportunity to leave him, in case he gets the news that the commander has captured Beijing and runs away in advance, it will really be endless trouble. ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Wei slowly stood up, picked up the wooden teaching pole and poked Yangzhou on the map fiercely: "So, taking Zhenjiang is only the first step, and rescuing Yangzhou is just by the way, our real goal is Chen Yucheng!" ”

After the dissolution of the military meeting, Zhang Wei sent someone to inform Zhang Feng and asked Zhang Feng to go to his private house for a more in-depth discussion.

After Zhang Feng went to Zhang Wei's private house, he found that Zhang Yun was also there, and immediately smiled: "The third child is also here, I came early." ”

"Big brother summoned, how dare I not come." Zhang Yun also smiled, "It's not that I came early, it's that you came late, second brother." ”

"Well, the eldest brother called me, and he also called you, it seems that this matter is not small." Zhang Feng shook his head.

There are actually a lot of people in the Zhang family, among which Zhang Wei is the eldest in the family, Zhang Feng is the second, and Zhang Yun is the third.

Among them, Zhang Wei is in his early thirties, and Zhang Feng is also over twenty-five, both of which can be regarded as passable in age, but Zhang Yun is only eighteen years old, the youngest.

Soon, Zhang Wei waved his hand: "Okay, second and third, there are just three of us here, I have to say something to you." ”

"Big brother, just say it, let's listen." Zhang Yun said immediately.

"Hmm." Zhang Wei nodded, and then said to Zhang Feng, "Second brother, the matter of the big handsome taking down Beijing City is already known, so tell me, what will happen to us next?" ”

"What's next?" Zhang Feng frowned, "Big brother, I don't quite understand what you mean. ”

"You, you're such an adult, why don't you like to think too much." Zhang Wei shook his head, "The marshal conquered Beijing, and it was only a matter of time before the founding of the country was established, what will happen after the founding of the country, do you know?" ”

"This ...... Not very clear. ”

"Of course, it's a great hero." Zhang Yun said suddenly.

"Hmph, look, you're not as good as the third brother." Zhang Wei reprimanded Zhang Feng.

"Hey, hey." Zhang Feng touched his head, but didn't say anything more.

"Then I'll ask you, the third child." Zhang Wei looked at Zhang Yun again, "How can this hero be sealed?" ”

"How to seal it?" Zhang Yun blinked, "That's naturally according to the size of the merit, or the seniority." ”

"That's right!" Zhang Wei slapped his face, "Since ancient times, the founding emperor wants to make a great meritorious hero, so he naturally has to re-rank, and the higher the position, the greater the power." So, how to rank the position of this hero? Of course, it is based on seniority and merit.

As for the ranking, I have no problem myself, because I followed him when I was a big handsome, but you are different. ”

After a pause, seeing that Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun didn't speak, Zhang Wei continued: "Second brother, you and Xiaoyun both joined later, you two can become the head of this regiment, but it is because of my relationship, and it was given to you by the handsome for the sake of my face, but in fact, you and Xiaoyun are not able to convince the public!"

Why? Because you and Xiaoyun are shallow. No big credit either!

It was okay before, everyone had a similar starting point, for the sake of my face, no one said a word when you were the head of the regiment.

But it will be different in the future, because whether it is the first division of the commander or the third division of Wang Sanwu, because of the successive battles, many people have experienced a lot of battles, and naturally they have accumulated a lot of military exploits, and this time they will go further than you.

Therefore. If you really want to be a meritorious hero, you must rearrange your qualifications and determine your merits, and at that time, many newcomers will come to you in front of you, and it is not certain whether you two can continue to be the head of this regiment under me at that time. ”

"If you don't want to be the head of the regiment, you shouldn't be." Zhang Yun said indifferently, "I'm still young, and I have opportunities." ”

"Confused!" Zhang Wei said, "One step first. Step by step, what qualifications can be compared to the founding vassals? Therefore, we must take advantage of the fact that the marshal has not yet officially established the country and claimed the emperor, and has not yet officially sealed the heroes. Build up a lot of merits, so that you can get enough merit and qualifications to grab a higher position when you are a great hero in the future. ”

"Oh." Zhang Feng nodded as if he didn't understand. "Big brother, you mean, we don't fight Nanjing. Instead, he went to fight Zhenjiang, no, he beat Chen Yucheng, in fact, to grab credit? ”

"That's right!" Zhang Wei nodded and said with relief, "There are some things that I can't say to outsiders, but now that you are both here, I won't hide them."

At the beginning, we were asked to fight Nanjing, but it was just a feint, in order to encircle the point and send reinforcements, mobilize the Taiping army to return to help, and reduce the pressure on other places, not really to fight Nanjing.

There is nothing wrong with this strategy itself, but once the news of the marshal's defeat of Beijing comes to pass, the morale of our army will inevitably soar, and the morale of the Taiping army will inevitably waver, and even if we do not fight Nanjing, I estimate that the Taiping army will retreat one after another, so that the point of our encirclement and reinforcement will not be great. ”

As soon as Zhang Wei said this, Zhang Yun followed: "It doesn't mean much, it's that there is no war to fight, and there is no war to fight, which means that there is no war exploits, isn't that so?" ”

"That's right!" Zhang Wei smiled at Zhang Yun, "Judging from the strength of our second division, there is no Taiping army that can defeat us in a field battle, and Hong Renda's troops have fully proved this when they see us and run away." However, our strength was not enough to directly conquer Nanjing, especially when Hong Renda's 50,000 men returned to Nanjing, and Nanjing was even more difficult to fight.

Therefore, if you want to get military merits, it is no longer suitable to fight Nanjing, as for encircling the point to send reinforcements, Hong Renda has already run back, Chen Yucheng, with his shrewdness, once he knows that he can't do anything, it is impossible to fight with us, and nine times out of ten he will run away, so if we don't take the initiative to find the target, no one in the vicinity will dare to come to us for trouble, so I said that the road to encircle the point to send reinforcements will not go through at all.

On the contrary, the achievements of beating Chen Yu are different, Chen Yucheng is a general that the commander also attaches great importance to, if he can be exterminated, whether he is captured alive or killed, it will be a great achievement, and when the time comes, you will have enough credit to share. ”

"Chen Yucheng is not easy to fight, right?" Zhang Yun said, "Since he is an enemy that the commander also values, he must have some ability, can we take him down smoothly?" ”

"What's so hard about that?" Zhang Wei said, "Chen Yucheng is still in Yangzhou now, as long as we are fast enough, we can reach Yangzhou City as soon as possible, and then chase him to fight, with our attack power and mobility, Chen Yucheng will definitely not be able to escape from the palm of our hands." ”

After a pause, Zhang Weicai continued: "I'm not afraid to tell you, as far as I know, Wang Sanwu's subordinate Jiang Yun's department has already led troops south, to rescue Yangzhou, with his speed, it is estimated that he will be able to arrive tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, as soon as his soldiers and horses arrive, there will be nothing to do with us, so we must be fast, we must rush to Yangzhou before Jiang Yun's department, and then rush to fight with Chen Yu before Jiang Yun, it is best to catch or kill Chen Yucheng in advance, so that the credit will be yours." ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Wei said to Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun: "Second, third, I have decided to set off overnight, and I will light all the torches and go to Zhenjiang tonight!" After arriving in Zhenjiang, the two of you don't have to worry about Zhenjiang City, just go to the ferry to cross the river, and then go straight to Yangzhou. As for the problem of Zhenjiang, I am here, don't worry! In other words, as long as you can rush to Yangzhou before Jiang Yun's rescue force and make a deal with Chen Yu, it will be a victory! Do you understand? ”

"Big brother, don't worry!" Zhang Feng immediately clenched his fists and glanced at Zhang Yun, "I promise to complete the task with the third child, you can take a look!" ”

Sure enough, after the discussion, Zhang Wei immediately gave the order to march into Zhenjiang. Let all the officers and men of the Second Division light torches, or ride horses or bicycles, and march to Zhenjiang overnight.

After arriving in Zhenjiang, Zhang Wei personally led the first regiment of the second division to besiege Zhenjiang City, while Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun's second and third regiments went directly to the ferry and began to cross the river overnight.

In the early morning of the next day, Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun's two regiments had all crossed the river, and then continued to kill Yangzhou City despite fatigue!

This is already a forced march. The reason why the two of them dared to do this was because the Jingwu army had better food, stricter discipline, and the combat mainly relied on muskets and artillery, and did not respect close combat.

Zhang Wei had already tried, and in the case of using advanced firearms, it was completely possible to fight continuously at high fatigue ranges, that is, as long as Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun's troops arrived at the city of Yangzhou. With the density of their firepower, they only need to fire a few rounds of guns and a few mortars, and Chen Yucheng's troops will definitely not be able to resist it.

To know. Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun's troops were tired of forcibly marching, but Chen Yucheng's troops were just as tired from continuous siege operations, and the elite troops of the Jingwu Army had been trained in forced marching and fatigue combat very early. There is no intimidation for forced marches.

Zhang Wei was confident that as long as his two regiments arrived at the city of Yangzhou, Chen Yucheng's soldiers and horses would be useless.

Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun did follow Zhang Wei's instructions. After crossing the Yangtze River, it only took one morning to arrive at the city of Yangzhou, which is fast enough in terms of speed.

However, although their speed was fast enough, they hurried and hurried, and when the troops of these two regiments arrived in Yangzhou, they did not find Chen Yucheng's shadow at all, and when they asked Lu Tianming, the defender of Yangzhou, they learned that Chen Yucheng had withdrawn his troops overnight last night.

"Second brother, what should I do?" Zhang Yun immediately asked.

"What else can I do?" Zhang Feng gritted his teeth, "Chase!" ”

"But our soldiers are tired." Zhang Yun hesitated, "Chen Yucheng has been retreating for a while, what if this ......"

"No whatever!" Zhang Feng waved his hand and interrupted Zhang Yun's words, "Whether you chase it or not, I'm going to chase it anyway." If you don't want to, you just stay here, even if I only have one regiment, I can still capture Chen Yucheng alive! ”

Hearing Zhang Feng say this, Zhang Yun stopped talking, and naturally advanced and retreated with Zhang Feng.

In this way, Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun continued to lead the troops and chased in the direction of Chen Yucheng's retreat, looking like they would not give up if they did not catch up with Chen Yucheng.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, when Zhang Feng and Zhang Yun each led a regiment and chased one after the other to a place called Majiaji, Zhang Yun suddenly felt that something was wrong, because after chasing for so long, he didn't find Chen Yucheng's troops, which obviously didn't conform to common sense.

You must know that although Chen Yucheng's troops also have a lot of cavalry, the number of cavalry is not large, mainly infantry, and those infantry are not equipped with so many bicycles, it is said that even if they retreat overnight last night, the speed is definitely not as good as their own.

Now, his bicycle unit has been chasing for more than three hours in a row, and there is no reason why he can't see a little shadow of the other party now?

Unless the other side is really all cavalry, it is impossible to catch up for such a long time, but that is obviously impossible.

Thinking of this, he immediately talked to Zhang Feng at the front: "Second brother, the situation is a little wrong, let's order the army to be stopped first." ”

"What? What's your idea? ”

"No, I just think something is wrong." After Zhang Yun finished speaking, he expressed his worries, and finally said, "Normally, we have already caught up with each other, but now there is no trace, I guess there are ghosts here!" Do you think we're chasing the wrong one? ”

"Chasing the wrong one? But this direction is only feasible on this official road, and there are many traces of soldiers passing by along the way, so it is impossible to chase the wrong one! ”

"You see if that's possible." Zhang Yundao, "Could it be that Chen Yucheng's soldiers divided into two ways, sending a suspicious soldier all the way as the main force to go this way, deliberately leaving traces, letting us be fooled and chasing this side, but the real main force ran in the other direction?" ”

"But Lu Tianming said that Chen Yucheng just retreated to this one place, and there were no soldiers divided into two ways, would he lie to us?"

"Not really." Zhang Yundao, "But Lu Tianming didn't chase out of the city at that time, he just knew the approximate retreat direction of the other party, and Chen Yucheng left at night, maybe he went halfway to divide the soldiers into two ways?" ”

"It's also possible." Zhang Feng said, "Then what do you mean ......?"

As soon as he said this, Zhang Yun suddenly heard a roaring explosion on the phone, and a crackling musket shooting, and then heard Zhang Feng's angry voice: "Damn, enemy attack!" There are ambushes! We're not mistaken, they're here! (To be continued......)