Above the court, the eunuch's unique voice sounded, wave after wave:

"The envoy of the Xuanxiang army is here!"

"The envoy of the Xuanxiang army is here!"

Liu Rong and Guo Songtao walked quickly, they only thought that the Han army was just a homeless person from a poor countryside, although they wanted to surrender, they still had a trace of superiority in their hearts, but now they entered such a formation, and there was only fear left in their hearts.

Liu Rong and Guo Songtao bowed one after the other and said:

"Foreign Minister Liu Rong meets His Majesty the Emperor!"

"The courtier Guo Songtao of the Great Qing Dynasty pays a visit to His Majesty the Emperor of the Han Dynasty!"

Li Yunzhong smiled slightly, glanced at Guo Songtao, and replied: "Two gentlemen, what are you doing here?" ”

Liu Rong secretly blamed Guo Songtao for being troubled, daring to offend the emperor on such an occasion, in order to make extraneous branches, he hurriedly stepped forward two steps and replied first: "The minister was entrusted by the father of Sanxiang, the former Hunan army helped to abuse and resist the emperor's heavenly might, it is really foolish, please ask the emperor to stop fighting for the sake of tens of millions of people in the two lakes, the Hunan army is willing to disarm and return to the field, and never be an enemy of the emperor!" ”

Guo Songtao showed a look of indignation, complaining that Liu Rong was too groveling, even if they surrendered, there was no need to say so flattering, as if they were wagging their tails and begging for mercy.

Li Yunzhong said with a smile: "This is what Zeng Guofan meant? If you knew this was the case, why bother in the first place! ”

Guo Songtao replied forcefully: "If I had known this, the emperor would not have had a chance to sit on this Jinluan Palace!" ”

"Bold!" Hu Yihuang was dissatisfied with this Guo Songtao, who was neither yin nor yang, and when he heard him say what he meant to sarcastically mock the big man, he immediately scolded him loudly.

Li Yunzhong waved his hand, and had a different opinion on this Guo Songtao. Although Liu Rong's attitude made him happy, there were no one or two tough people in the Xiang army. On the contrary, he was not at ease, thinking that these people were hidden. Wait for the opportunity.

Liu Rong glanced at Guo Songtao, if he had known that he was so impulsive, he would not have brought him over, if this matter was self-defeating, his hard work would have been in vain, and his hometown in Hunan had suffered a military disaster, which was the last thing he wanted to see.

Seeing Guo Songtao lower his tough head, Li Yunzhong was complacent and asked, "Zeng Guofan is conditional?" ”

Liu Rong smiled and said, "Your Majesty." We have three conditions! ”

"Bold!" Zhang Suimou walked over and said loudly: "Allowing you to surrender is the greatest kindness, I didn't expect you to dare to talk about conditions, Ma Hualong of Shaanxi and Gansu said conditions, we just conveyed the order to kill without forgiveness, does Zeng Guofan want to follow suit?" ”

Guo Songtao felt that not only Zeng Guofan was insulted, but even he was despised himself, so he immediately replied angrily: "Hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Hunan army, tens of millions of people in Sanxiang, which one is afraid of death!" Could it be that Ma Hualong, that barbarian, can be compared! ”

Seeing that the two of them had the intention of arguing. Lu Jianying appeared and said with a smile: "Why should the two of you argue, the emperor has his own opinions!" ”

Zhang Suimou glanced at Lu Jianying and bowed back to the queue.

Li Yunzhong asked, "What are Zeng Guofan's conditions?" If it is the autonomy of the two lakes, there is no need to talk about it. Go back and let him wash his neck and wait for the heavenly soldiers to arrive! ”

Liu Rong bowed down and said: "How dare the ministers resist the emperor's military might, and there is no such thing as the autonomy of the two lakes." The country is full of disasters and difficulties, and we people with lofty ideals dare not put forward any more thoughts. ”

There was a pause. Seeing Li Yunzhong's expression of relief, Liu Rong continued: "Our conditions are very simple. First: When the Hunan army surrendered, there were staff and generals who were unwilling to be officials, and the emperor was not allowed to force them to stay. ”

Zhang Suimou sneered a few times and sneered: "What a joke, there are still people in the world who don't want to be officials, I think they miss the Manchu Qing Dynasty and plot against them!" ”

Li Yunzhong glared at Zhang Suimou, so frightened that he immediately lowered his head and admitted his mistake, not daring to intervene casually.

Liu Rong saw that no one raised objections, and said: "Second: the two armies are fighting, there will be casualties, the Hunan army has killed the Han army, and the Han army has also killed a lot of Hunan troops, after the Hunan army surrenders, the Han army must not retaliate, the emperor must treat everyone equally, and the soldiers must be dismissed, and the consent of the Hunan army generals must be obtained before it can be implemented." ”

Li Yunzhong shook his head and asked, "How many soldiers do you have in the Hunan army?" ”

Liu Rong replied cautiously: "The navy has a total of 60 battalions and more than 38,000 people, and the army has 128 battalions with about 80,000 people, which adds up to 118,000 people, and a monthly salary of 500,000 taels of silver!" ”

Li Yunzhong pondered for a moment, and replied solemnly: "Since the Hunan army is under the Han system, there will be no war between the two lakes, this is in the hinterland of China, there is not so many people, if the Hunan army is willing to fight north, I will not cut a single soldier!" ”

When the time comes, let the Hunan army attack Russia, lose both, not only deal with the allies of Britain and France and other countries, but also consume Russia's troops, the best of both worlds.

Pie fall from the sky, and there are traps on the ground! Liu Rong was not stupid, and immediately asked, "The emperor plans to let the Hunan army attack the northeast?" It's just that there are still many foolish and loyal people in the Hunan army, and it is rare to surrender to the Han Dynasty, if they are allowed to attack the Qing Dynasty, I am afraid it will backfire, please think twice. ”

Li Yunzhong said with a smile: "Of course it's not to attack Xianfeng Xiao'er, I don't care about the Northeast yet, it's more than enough to pacify an army in the Northeast, the Beishu I said is at war with the Russian Empire, they occupy a lot of land in our country, and covet the Northeast, it's unbearable, I have formed alliances with Britain, France and other powerful countries to attack Russia together, and now the allies have fought with the Russian army." ”

Guo Songtao sighed secretly, no wonder no one in Britain, France, the United States and other countries continued to sell firearms to Hunan troops, it turned out that they were all fighting with the puppeteers, but foreigners were all greedy for money and righteous people, how did Li Yunzhong instruct them to kill each other?

Liu Rong was also amazed, but he didn't have the bottom to let the Hunan army fight with Russia, and said carefully: "The homeland is difficult to leave, and Russia is thousands of miles away, I'm afraid that the Hunan soldiers are not willing to go to such a far place, please atone for the emperor." ”

Li Yunzhong sneered at the two below a few times before replying: "If you don't want to lay off troops and don't want to serve the country, are you quite a warlord?" I have already decided, the Hunan army is on an expedition, I will not cut a single soldier, but increase the number of troops and salaries, if the Hunan army is really difficult to leave the homeland, I am not the kind of person who is not close to people. ”

When Liu Rong and Guo Songtao heard this, their faces were overjoyed, and they only thought that the merit of this trip was complete.

Li Yunzhong said slowly: "Of the 110,000 Hunan troops, I only left 20,000, and the rest were all sent back to their hometowns. ”

"This ......" Liu Rong and Guo Songtao looked at each other, both of them are staff members, usually only responsible for accounts and logistics, even if they make suggestions, they are thinking according to Zeng Guofan's ideas, and now let them decide such a thing, they don't know what to do for a while.

Seeing that Liu Rong and Guo Songtao were no longer talking, Ling Shibai said impatiently: "What does it look like, didn't Zeng Guofan explain to you?" ”

A word woke up the dreamer, and Liu Rong remembered that Zeng Guofan did grant them full power, as long as the two of them all agreed, no matter how bad the result was, Zeng Guofan would not object.

Liu Rong will bow down when he surrenders, Guo Songtao advocates resistance, he must have a tough attitude, the two restrain each other and cooperate with each other, and he has peace of mind when he is a vassal of the country.

Liu Rong made a gesture to Guo Songtao, Guo Songtao thought about it, shook his head, Liu Rong changed his gesture again, and Guo Songtao nodded quietly.

Liu Rong was prepared, and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the Hunan army has more than 100,000 people on an expedition, and the army's morale will inevitably be unstable. ”

Li Yunzhong asked, "How many people can you send out of the Hunan army?" ”

Liu Rong replied: "At most, 50,000 people must not be disrupted and reorganized, and they must be commanded by the generals of the Hunan army, of course we will obey the emperor's orders." ”

Li Yunzhong said with a smile: "Okay, 50,000 people will be dispatched, 40,000 sailors will be incorporated into the Han Navy, and the remaining 20,000 Hunan troops will go north to cooperate with Li Hongzhang to exterminate the Hui rebels!" Say the third condition as well! ”

Seeing that Li Yunzhong broke down the Hunan army in a blink of an eye, Liu Rong was helpless and replied: "Our handsome has a daughter, whose name is: Zeng Jiaxin, twenty-eight years old, very beautiful, because he admires the emperor's martial arts, he doesn't want to eat, and he is getting thinner and thinner, and if he continues, he will inevitably die. ”

Hearing what he said explicitly, Li Yunzhong glanced at Zhao Yali and replied, "This is not good, I just accepted a concubine." ”

Li Yunzhong really didn't want to, and muttered to himself, the intelligence department has presented Zeng Guofan's portrait, such an ugly person, and the woman born will be very beautiful? Ghosts don't believe it. (To be continued......)