While the Taiping army in the West Temple was fighting Fujian in the north, Guangzhou in the south of China was also in a tense atmosphere. The Guangdong world will be ready to move, and the British in Hong Kong are very urgent, but the imperial court is still blindly urging Guangdong to once again form a sailor to go north to the south of the Yangtze River, and Ye Mingchen, the minister of trade and commerce, only feels that he is sitting on a volcanic crater, and the slightest spark will blow himself to pieces.

Although Ye Mingchen struggled to support, the bad news came one after another, the Taiping Army launched a southern expedition, and the Taizhou defense line was broken in just half a month. Guangxi Governor Lao Chongguang sent news that the Guangxi Heaven and Earth Society Righteous Army Hu Youlu, Zhu Hongying, He Goubei and other troops had already joined forces and gathered 70,000 or 80,000 troops, and had already changed their banners and accepted the official position of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. With the change of flag of the Guangxi Tiandi Society, the Guangdong Tiandi Association is even more ready to move, and Dongguan, Foshan and other places have heard the news that the Tiandi Association will secretly concentrate manpower.

What can Ye Mingchen do? He doesn't seem to be able to do anything other than calling on the squires and wealthy families to actively pay food and donate money and organize group exercises. wanted to pay for the foreigners to borrow troops, but was bluntly rejected by the consul of Guangzhou, Pa Xiali, and needed the support of the British, and the Qing State had to settle the matter of the exchange of the treaty first. Ye Mingchen also knew that he had played a lot of Tai Chi with foreigners, and it was almost impossible to ask foreigners to help at this time. So there are very few things Ye Mingchen can do.

In the afternoon of this day, Ye Mingchen was handling official business, and the guards outside the door reported that someone from Hunan was coming. Ye Mingchen immediately stopped his official business and said, "Please." "He knows who this person from Hunan is, Hunan's assistant minister Rong Lu, since the Hunan army conquered Hengyang, Rong Lu has opened up the trade route from Hunan to Guangdong, and the tea, raw silk and other goods from the mainland can be transported to Guangzhou for trading. Ye Mingchen and Rong Lu are not only ministers of the same palace, but also business partners.

After a while. The guards led the two into Ye Mingchen's study, both of whom were Ye Mingchen's acquaintances, Rong Lu and Li Chong. Rong Lu had only met once, that is, after the Hunan army opened up the trade route, he personally went to Guangzhou to meet Ye Mingchen and agreed on the details of the transaction, while Li Chong was a person who had traveled back and forth between Hunan and Guangzhou for a long time.

Ye Mingchen is nearly fifty years old, and his beard and hair are a little gray, but he doesn't put on a show at all about Rong Lu, who is only eighteen years old. As early as last year, when they met, Rong Lu impressed Ye Mingchen. The intelligence shown by this young man is not comparable to those Manchurians who can only fight cocks and walk dogs in Sijiu City, and his relationship with foreigners is not bad, and his relationship with several big foreign companies such as Jardine Matheson and Baoshun is actually not bad. So Ye Mingchen doesn't treat him as an ignorant young man, and he is also Zeng Guofan's future son-in-law.

Both parties are old acquaintances, and after a few words of greeting, the guests and hosts sit down. Ye Mingchen asked eagerly: "Zhonghua, the old man mentioned in the letter last month that he borrowed Xiang Yong to help suppress it. What did Zeng Shuai say? ”

In view of the deterioration of the situation in Guangdong. Ye Mingchen begged for help in many ways, Guangdong has always been extremely martial, and there are many martial arts halls to accept apprentices, and most of these martial arts halls are actually Shili of the Heaven and Earth Society, and the Heaven and Earth Society is very large in Guangdong, and the group training formed in Guangdong is also very unreliable in Ye Mingchen's opinion. Maybe something will really happen one day, and it is not surprising that these regiments have changed their banners in one go, so he came up with the idea of borrowing troops to help suppress them.

In addition to being the Minister of Commerce and Commerce, Ye Mingchen is also the governor of Liangguang. However, the soldiers in Guangxi could not move, and the rebel army of Hu Youlu, Zhu Hongying, He Goubei and others should be tightly surrounded over there.

Guangxi's soldiers can't be borrowed, and Fujian's Wang Yide and Li Tingyu won't borrow troops, they are directly adjacent to Changmao in the north of Fujian, and there are still problems with self-protection, how can any soldiers lend to Ye Mingchen? The same is true of Jiang Zhongyuan in Jiangxi, although Nanchang defeated the Taiping army in the first battle, several Taiping troops still roamed around in Jiangxi and harassed, which gave Jiang Zhongyuan a headache. At the same time, I heard that the Taiping army was still preparing to fight Nanchang twice, so Jiang Zhongyuan would not borrow troops.

Ye Mingchen calculated that only Hunan can borrow troops, although Hunan is also adjacent to Changmao, but there are many Qing troops in Hunan, and the strategy of the Qing court has always been to hold the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the land of Jingxiang. The troops of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other places were concentrated in the land of Jingxiang and confronted the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Yiwang Division, and the Sichuan soldiers and the troops of the northern part of Hunan and the first part of Hubei were in the hands of Zhang Liangji, the governor of Hunan, and confronted the Taiping army in the north of Hunan, and the Zuihou army was the company of Zeng Guofan and Rong Lu.

Zeng Guofan has 30,000 newly trained Xiangyong in his hands, and Rong Lu has gathered the elite of Guizhou soldiers in his hands, and the two are still training sailors in Hengyang. Because Rong Lu and Zeng Guofan are both very good at management, Xiang Yong is also wealthy and has no shortage of money and food. The most important thing is that the Taiping army in Changsha is temporarily unable to go south, and Lai Hanying, the uncle of the long-haired country, can only hold on to Changsha, Xiangtan and other places, and wait until the Taiping army solves Jiang Zhongyuan in Jiangxi and completely pulls out the nails behind him, and he dares to go south.

Therefore, Ye Mingchen calculated that he could only borrow troops from Zeng Guofan, and he was familiar with Rong Lu and was a business partner, so it might be possible to ask Rong Lu, the son-in-law, to mention this matter to his father-in-law. After the two families agreed, Ye Mingchen wrote to Xianfeng at the meeting and asked for the transfer of troops.

After listening to Ye Mingchen's words, Rong Lu smiled and said: "There has been an undercurrent in Guangdong Province recently, Zeng Shuai also knows it, there is no need to worry about the Lord of Taiwan, we still understand the truth of the cold lips and teeth, Xiang Yong can be ready to go south within a few days, as long as the Lord of Taiwan asks for the order of the Ministry of War." ”

Ye Mingchen was overjoyed and said: "This matter is easy, the old man had given the emperor an excerpt earlier, and he mentioned this matter, and the emperor also intended to appease Liangguang first, but the war in Nanchang was urgent at that time, so the matter was temporarily put down." In this way, the old man can draft the recital and fold it. ”

Rong Lu smiled and said: "Don't be in a hurry, don't be in a hurry, and don't be in a hurry for this moment, we haven't discussed the details of sending troops yet." ”

Ye Mingchen patted his head and said with a smile: "That's right, how many people from Xiangyong come, and how much military expenses and food and salaries Liangguang have to bear, these are all things that must be said first." "Ye Mingchen also knows that if you want people to send troops, you must first say the price, Zeng Guofan's regimental training is different from the green battalion soldiers, it is all regimental training soldiers and horses set up by people raising money and grain, to put it bluntly, it is the Zeng family's private army, I didn't say anything about money and food, why did people come to Guangdong to work for you? Although the will of the imperial court can also allow Zeng Guofan to send troops, but that kind of army is completely different, and Xiang Yong can work without contribution.

You must know that in history, the Qing court let Zeng Guofan go out of Hunan to conquer the Taiping Army, but he exchanged the real power of the Governor of Liangguang and the Governor of the Five Provinces for military and political affairs. Ye Mingchen also knew what was at stake, so he said so.

Rong Lu smiled, looking at this famous maritime Su Wu in history, this person is indeed not a fool. When Ye Mingchen dealt with the invasion of foreigners in history, he engaged in a non-violent and non-cooperative attitude of no war, no peace, no defense, no death, no surrender, and no departure, and Zuihou was imprisoned by the British and died in Bengal, India. Therefore, some people think that Ye Mingchen is a confused official, but in fact, in Rong Lu's opinion, how can a confused person become the governor of Liangguang?

Moreover, in the Second Opium War, the British and French forces had an absolute advantage in Guangzhou, and Guangdong Province was the only province in the country that could be regarded as solid at that time, and was not disturbed by major military disasters, so Guangdong Province became a source of money and grain for the whole country. After the beginning of spring, Xianfeng issued a decree, and Guangdong allocated 1 million taels of silver to Shaanxi at one time, which shows that Guangdong Province has abundant money and grain. Therefore, Ye Mingchen was using no war, no peace, no defense, no death, no surrender, and no departure to preserve the Qing Dynasty, the only province that could still make money, and did not want Guangdong to be occupied by Britain and France. Zuihou he carried this black cauldron alone, although the name of the governor of the six nos is shameful, but if anyone is changed to sit in his place, can there be a more haode choice than him?

Therefore, Rong Lu did not look down on Ye Mingchen at all, on the contrary, he respected this old guy very much, and at that moment Rong Lu nodded and said: "Since the masters of Taiwan have spoken bluntly, the younger generation will also say bluntly, this time Zeng Shuai plans to send 5,000 soldiers and horses out of the province, and the money and food, materials needed, expenses, and compensation for the war dead and wounded will be borne by Guangdong Province." ”

Ye Mingchen frowned and said, "Only five thousand soldiers and horses?" Will it be too little? It is rumored that there will be 60,000 or 70,000 people in the congregation, and if the thieves start an incident, there will be people who are dependent, and then some will be coerced, but I am afraid that there will be 200,000 or 300,000 thieves who will make trouble, and 5,000 people from Xiangyong will come, but I am afraid that it will not help. ”

Rong Lu smiled faintly and said: "Actually, five thousand Xiangyong is enough, these five thousand Xiangyong came south, mainly to clean the inner courtyard for the Lord of Taiwan." ”

Ye Mingchen narrowed his eyes and said, "What does Zhonghua mean?" ”

Rong Lu said: "When there was a knife meeting under the rule of Shanghai Dao, the situation was similar to that of Guangdong now. The five thousand Xiangyong went south so that the adults could have a reliable army and horses available, and then the adults could use thunderous means to eliminate the thieves in the Guangdong regimental training. The thieves are all scattered sand, and they can't make trouble without the backbone. And not everyone in the group training is the Heaven and Earth Society thief party, as long as the adults make good use of it, I believe that 5,000 soldiers are enough for adults to control the group training in Guangdong. ”

Ye Mingchen said happily: "That's true, as long as the thieves of the Heaven and Earth Society in the Guangdong regimental training are removed, those regimental training soldiers and horses can still be used by the old man." ”

Rong Lu nodded and said with a smile: "And the adults over there in Guangxi can also send a team of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to help, I believe this matter will be more certain." ”

Ye Mingchen frowned and said: "Hu Youlu, Zhu Hongying, He Goubei and other thieves in Guangxi have just gathered together, and the thieves are very strong, but I am afraid that they will not be able to draw troops back." ”

Rong Lu squinted his eyes and smiled: "My lord, several bandits were originally not subordinate to each other, but now that they are together, who do you say you will listen to?" ”

Ye Mingchen's eyes lit up, and he suddenly realized: "Zhonghua means to provoke them to fight? (To be continued......)