The dim candlelight reflected on Rong Lu's cheeks, illuminating his timeless face flickering brightly and darkly, and a piece of Huzhou rice paper in his hand had been crumpled and crumpled. When the candlelight dimmed, he once again crumpled the rice paper and threw it on the ground, staring at the candlelight blankly, his face gloomy and terrifying.

After a while, he sighed softly and got up again, picked up the paper ball on the ground, and muttered in a low voice, "What do you want?" It's all crossed, and you still want to pester me? My current identity is a Manchurian, a Manchu nobleman, I have my own way to go, you weishenme refuse to let me go?! ”

Unfolded the paper ball again and read it again, and the familiar lyrics on it came into view again, "I wrote my thoughts about you on the cape and sent it to the rainy season on the seventh of that year, and some of the waits can't be too long, and they have withered in the bottom of my heart......"

Seeing this, Rong Lu's face softened a little, but when he turned his gaze, he saw what was written at the end: "When the lightning flashes on the top of Jizu Mountain, the Taiping Flying Flower falls into the world." If it is an old acquaintance, Dajiang invites to meet the heroes. This poem is incomprehensible, but Rong Lu can see the meaning, and there are people on the other side who want to see him!

Rong Lu's face was difficult to look at again, to see or not to see? He had hesitated for two days, the letter was sent by a senior monk Zhitong of Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, this Zhitong monk was far away from a salt merchant in Yangzhou, and went to Yangzhou to do business, but then encountered a war, so he was stranded in Fajing Temple, one of the eight Ming Temples in Yangzhou, but how could he have contact with people in Jiangnan?

Just as he was thinking wildly, the tent curtain was lifted, Cheng En quickly stepped into the tent, Rong Lu got up and hurriedly asked, "How is the investigation?" ”

Cheng En said in a low voice: "The old brother sent someone to keep an eye on the Fajing Temple for two days, and no one went to find the Zhitong monk, he worshiped the Buddha and participated in Zen all day long, and did nothing else." ”

Rong Lu took a few steps with his irritable hand, and Cheng En asked inexplicably, "Brother." Is there anything wrong with the Zhitong monk? ”

After Rong Lu stood still, he frowned and shook his head and said, "There's nothing wrong with it." ”

Cheng En sat down and took a sip of tea, and said with a wicked smile: "Seeing that you have been impetuous, aren't you on fire, do you want to go to Yangzhou to find a woman for you to go to the fire?" ”

Rong Lu glared at Cheng En fiercely with a gloomy face, and that ruthless intention made Cheng En's back cold, and the smile on his face froze, and after a while, Cheng En said, "Brother, what is there to worry about?" Let's eat well and sleep soundly here. Fighting a war is like playing, what's so bad? More than 20,000 people of Shengbao's army have arrived at the camp, and they can go out to recover Guazhou in ten days, and then they will cross the river, and the long-haired thieves will not be able to jump for many days. ”

Rong Lu had a gloomy face and still didn't speak. It's like someone owes him hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and Cheng En secretly slandered himself. Could it be that this kid took the wrong medicine?

At this time, the soldiers outside the account reported that "the assistant Minister of Military Affairs, Lord Shengbao, has led 20,000 soldiers and horses to three miles outside the camp. Lord Qincha ordered all the commanders, lieutenants, and generals to greet them at Yuanmen. ”

Cheng En replied, "Got it." Then he got up and put on the military attache uniform, and said in his mouth: "Brother, do you think this Sheng Baolai took over the old Zhongtang?" Lao Zhongtang's body is getting weaker and weaker, and he is sick in bed these days, and he estimates that Shengbao is going to take over. If the camp changes masters, will our brothers still be able to get along? Don't push our brothers to the front. ”

Rong Lu's face became cloudy. Then he also put on his official uniform, and only said, "Let's see." ”

The generals of the Jiangbei battalion led by Qi Shan to Yuanmen to meet the Shengbao army, which was different from history, because the Taiping army did not launch the Northern Expedition. The Qing troops in Jiangbei were able to calmly move south. Shengbao, a native of Manchuria with a white flag, the word Kezhai, Su Wan Guerjia, was born in a person, and successively served as the secretary of Guanglu Temple and the cabinet bachelor. Suzhou and Hangzhou were lost, Xiang Rong and Hechun were defeated, the Qing court was shaken, and Xianfeng ordered more than 20,000 people to rush to Jiangbei to do military affairs. Cheng En's guess was good, Qi Shan was already old, and the illness continued, stationed troops in the Jiangbei camp for several months, although several times sent troops to attack Guazhou, but all in vain, Xianfeng thought he was old, and he was more than enterprising enough, so he transferred Shengbao to come, intending to replace Qi Shan as the minister of the Jiangbei camp to suppress bandits.

Rong Lu is already a general at this moment, he is released as a guard in the reserve office, and he has the remnants of his ancestors, plus the credit of exterminating the Shanghai Knife Society, so he is unusually redundant as a general, Cheng'en and Zabudonak are guerrillas, under the command of Rong Lu, and the Han Li Zhong is also transferred to Rong Lu's subordinates, and the official is in the capital. The rest of the guards who followed Rong Lu on errands also served as assistants and garrisons. Rong Lu's subordinates were taken care of by Qi Shan, and there were already more than 3,000 soldiers and horses, and they had fought several battles with the Taiping army in Guazhou, each with its own victories and defeats.

I saw that the soldiers of Shengbao's golden knife horse were surrounded by the generals to Yuanmen, Qishan dragged the sick body and sat on the chair and waited, Shengbao saw it from afar, hurriedly dismounted, and greeted Qishan very enthusiastically, saying that the old Zhongtang was tormenting the younger generations.

Rong Lu stood among the generals, but this Shengbao was the first time he had seen it, only to see that Shengbao had a square head and a narrow forehead, a face full of horizontal meat, and a pair of small eyes that smiled like crocodile eyes.

After Qi Shan reluctantly exchanged a few words, he ordered his subordinates Chen Jinshou, the governor of Zhili, Lei Yixuan, and others to lead Shengbao into the account to explain military affairs, but he couldn't hold on anymore and wanted to go back to the tent to rest.

At the moment, Chen Jinshou, Lei Yiyan and other generals will take Shengbao to the big tent of the Chinese army, Shengbao will be promoted to the general, Chen Jinshou will introduce the generals of the Jiangbei camp one by one, and at the end Shengbao will also follow him to introduce Tuo Ming'a, Dexing'a and other generals one by one.

After the generals got to know each other, they exchanged a few words of greetings, but Shengbao's face changed at this time, and he asked lightly: "There are 20,000 soldiers in the Jiangbei battalion, and there are only a few thousand thieves in the land of Guazhou, why has the siege not been able to overcome it for several months?" ”

Chen Jinshou's heart suddenly, isn't this Xingshi asking for sin? At that moment, he wiped the sweat on his forehead and replied: "The Guazhou thieves have their backs against the river, and there are rebel water divisions on the river, and our sailors can't control it, so there are often soldiers and horses crossing the river to help, and grain, grass and firearms are also continuously sent across the river by waterway, and the thieves set up dozens of camps around Guazhou, and the trenches are heavy, and they are eager to pull out. ”

Sheng Bao snorted heavily and said: "Labor costs for several months, and you can't do it for a while, you can only exaggerate the thief's strength, Chen Jinshou, how did you command the troops?!" ”

Chen Jinshou was shocked in his heart, knowing that Shengbao's new official took office to take the human sacrifice flag to establish his authority, Qi Shan is full of people, and he is highly respected, and he is sick, Shengbao will not do anything to him, Qi Shan will not take the Jiangbei camp with his highest official position, and he is a Han general, Shengbao will not let go of himself no matter what, he doesn't care about anything at the moment, he tears off his face and says urgently: "My lord Mingjian, my subordinates have been attacking Guazhou several times in the past few months, and they have been on the front line in person, and they have not taken a step back, and they have failed to overcome Guazhou, which is not a crime of war." ”

Sheng Bao snorted again and said: "When he came, the emperor had already confessed that if there were people in the Jiangbei camp who were passive and evading the war, no matter who they were, they could take it and go to the capital to ask for their guilt!" Chen Jinshou, you said that it is not a crime of war, okay, this official will give you a chance, tomorrow to order troops to fight Guazhou again, if you still fail to recover, the old and new accounts will be counted together! ”

Chen Jinshou was furious in his heart, but the official was crushed to death, so he had to clench his fists and reluctantly receive the order: "The subordinates obey the order." ”

After leaving the camp tent, Chen Jinshou summoned the generals to discuss matters in his tent, only to see that the generals were all sad, the Guazhou Taiping Army was tightly guarded, and there was the support of the Dajiang Water Division, so it was impossible to break it at all.

The generals in the tent did not speak, everyone knew that Chen Junmen was the end, and if he did not take Guazhou tomorrow, he must go to the capital to ask for the crime, although Chen Junmen did not lose his division like He Chun and Xiang Rong, but it was inevitable to be dismissed and asked.

Chen Jinshou sighed lightly and asked, "Lord Shengbao ordered me to wait for the team to attack Guazhou tomorrow, what are your best strategies to break the enemy?" ”

The generals all looked at their noses and noses, and their noses looked at their hearts, sitting straight but not making a sound, Chen Jinshou looked at his most trusted staff general, Feng Jingni, and the division commander and asked, "Do you have a good plan?" ”

Feng Jingni said: "The military gate doesn't have to worry, you can prepare some gold and jewelry shells to give to Lord Shengbao, otherwise we will share some dividends from the opium business in our hands with him, and it is expected that there will be no trouble." ”

Chen Jinshou shook his head and said with a wry smile: "I just heard that Shengbao was appointed as the deputy minister of military affairs, and the official asked someone to take care of it, but Shengbao didn't get in." ”

Feng Jingni sighed, and thought to himself, Lord Shengbao didn't accept Chen Junmen's gift, he must be determined to deal with him, otherwise why would I accept the gift from the division commander? But he didn't dare to say that he and the division commander had also given gifts, and he didn't speak out at the moment.

The division commander said again: "Military gate, if you increase the reward tomorrow to motivate the soldiers, there will be brave men under the so-called heavy reward, maybe you can recover Guazhou......" Speaking of this, all the generals in the tent looked at him strangely, and now the officers and soldiers of the Jiangbei battalion are all going to the wrong door again, what gambling, opium, smoking, usury, if it weren't for the fact that no woman was allowed to appear in the army, these Qiu Ba were afraid that they would open brothels to the camp, and everyone was interested in making money, but they had to spend money and sell their lives, but no one responded.

Seeing that no one responded, the division commander kept silent, and for a while the tent was surprisingly quiet, seeing that the generals did not speak, Chen Jinshou's face became gloomy, and when he was in a good situation, these generals stammered one by one, and now he was going to be unlucky, and no one would come out to pull himself, it was really a hot and cold world.

Chen Jinshou was disheartened, waved his hand and ordered the generals to retreat, and a group of general soldiers, staff generals, deputy generals, and guerrillas hurriedly left the military tent, as if they were afraid of being stained with Chen Jinshou's bad luck.

"Chen Junmen doesn't have to worry, his subordinates have a good plan to solve the current predicament." A person's voice floated over, Chen Jinshou was pleasantly surprised, looked up, and saw that the person who spoke was Rong Lu. All the generals have left, but only Rong Lu remains.

Chen Jinshou hurriedly got up and said, "Zhonghua has any good plan, come quickly." ”

Rong Lu said slowly: "The military gate can retreat left and right, and the subordinates will talk to you alone." (To be continued......)