The financial budget alone was discussed for a day, and the subsequent meeting was chaired by Zuo Zongtang, mainly on the deployment of civil affairs, land reform, industry and commerce, agriculture, transportation and minerals. Hong Yun'er is still leading the heads of intelligence, propaganda, education, medical and other departments to discuss the matters to be completed this year, while Xiao Yungui is mainly focusing on military affairs, and their main goal at this stage is to carry out military operations to defeat the Manchu Qing and unify the whole country.

All three had discussed specific matters beforehand, and then divided the work, each responsible for one direction, but at this stage all departments were deployed to accomplish the main goal - military operations to overthrow the Manchus.

Xiao Yungui came to the West Water Pavilion of the Heavenly King's Mansion, where almost all the important generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gathered in the small hall, and even the Yiwang of Hubei sent his father-in-law Huang Yukun to Tianjing with several Yidian generals to participate in this military meeting.

Last year, Shi Dakai returned to the division to rescue Wuchang, first the naval division led by Luo Xuan defeated the Hunan army naval division, two new Western warships played a decisive role, Wuchang Luojiagang a water battle on the Yangtze River made the Hunan army work hard to build up the naval army almost completely annihilated, Zeng Guofan and in history, almost threw himself into the water, but was also pulled by his subordinates. Subsequently, the Hunan Army Lu Division, the Qing Army's Huguang Governor Yang Pei's Division, Hunan Governor Zhang Liangji, Hu Lin's Wing Division, and the Hubei Governor's Guanwen Department were also attacked by the Taiping Army at the same time. Shi Dakai commanded the land division of the Taiping Army to besiege the Qing troops in Wuchang in nine battles within three days, Yang Pei's troops were annihilated by the Qing army, Zhang Liangji and Hu Lin's wing were defeated, and the Hunan army Zeng Guoquan and other troops were taken care of by the artillery fire of the Luo Gang Water Division. It is also a rout. However, the governor of Hubei, Guan Wen, saw that the momentum was not good, and slipped away the fastest, and after a little resistance, he was defeated and retreated to Jingzhou. Zeng Guofan saw that he could not contain the Taiping army's sailors. had to retreat to Yueyang, and Yang Pei, Zhang Liangji, Hu Linyi and others had to retreat to Tongcheng and other places to form horns with Yueyang.

In order to block the Taiping army's naval army, Zeng Guofan also learned from the later government of the Republic of China, sinking ships to block the mouth of the river, and building the vicinity of Yueyang into an iron pass. Subsequently, the Taiping army counterattacked Yueyang several times, but the Hunan army held on stubbornly, and they all won and lost each other. The two armies were at a stalemate. However, the Qing army of Jingzhou's official and cultural departments is still eyeing the enemy, and it can go south again at any time, and Shi Dakai's department is equivalent to facing the enemy on both sides. Although there are certain advantages, there is no certainty of victory.

The battlefield in the west of Jiangxi also fell into a stalemate, Jiang Zhongyuan, a die-hard Qing army general, was firmly nailed to Yichun, Ji'an and other places, and Lin Qirong was mainly in Jiangxi to stabilize the interior. Although several small campaigns have been launched. However, they were all forced to retreat because of the lack of follow-up force.

In the lobby of the West Water Pavilion hangs a map of the nine provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, this map is almost the same as the map of later generations, since the study of Western surveying and mapping, the map of the Taiping Army has completely bid farewell to the kind of landscape painting-like freehand map, the real sense of the military map should be like this.

When Xiao Yungui walked into the hall, the senior generals present stood up one after another, and their eyes swept over, including Li Kaifang, the secretary of the military department, Lin Fengxiang, who was in charge of the battlefield in northern Jiangsu, Lin Qirong in Jiangxi, Liu Lichuan in Fujian, Chen Alin in Ningbo, Zhou Lichun in Shanghai, Li Xiucheng near Tianjing, Chen Yucheng, who had already crossed the river to lead southern Anhui, Luo Xuan, and Tang Zhengcai, the admirals. In addition, there are staff officers and generals at all levels of the General Staff Department and the Logistics Department.

Xiao Yungui walked to the main seat, feeling a bit like Chairman Jiang in later generations. But he has long hair and fluttering, not a bare head. With a big hand, the generals sat down together, and then bowed slightly to Li Kaifang and signaled to start.

Li Kaifang cleared his throat, first stood up and introduced the current situation of the enemy and us, and then pointed to the land of Hunan on the map and said: "The above is the situation of the enemy and us, the reason why the Hunan army is tenacious is because Zeng Guofan is using Hunan disciples to defend Hunan, although we once occupied Changsha and other places for a long time in the early stage, but because the previous policy was too extreme, many Hunan locals have a hostile attitude towards us, because it is very difficult to destroy the Hunan army in a short period of time and reoccupy Hunan. Zeng Guofan claimed to have organized 200,000 regimental exercises, and every village had regimental exercises, and every household was a soldier, and he wanted to turn the whole of Hunan into a quagmire, and once we fell into it, it would not be good. Since this is the case, then we will consider maintaining pressure on the Hunan Hunan Army for the time being, and this year's focus of our operations will be on Liangguang, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places in the south! Saying that, Li Kaifang's whip struck heavily on the two broad places on the map.

"In the land of Guangzhou, although Guangdong is rich, but after the Tiandihui uprising last year, it has recently been blockaded by the British and French fleets at the mouth of the Pearl River, and Ye Mingchen is panicked all day long, for fear that the British and French will attack Guangzhou. Although 50,000 Qing troops were concentrated in the city of Guangzhou, they were really vulnerable. Li Kaifang pointed to Guangzhou and said: "At the beginning of this year, the British and French envoys sent notes one after another, hoping that we could send troops to capture Guangzhou as soon as possible. Once Guangzhou fell, there would no longer be any major resistance in the whole province of Guangdong. After taking Guangdong, we can connect with the rebel armies of Zhu Hongying, He Goubei and other troops in Guangxi, and we can enter Guangxi smoothly. Then Du Wenxiu and other troops in Yungui returned to the Miao Righteous Army, which can also respond to us, and it is also possible to occupy Yungui. ”

Then Li Kaifang drew a big circle on the map and said: "After the fall of Liangguang and Yunnan-Guizhou, Hunan Province will be surrounded on three sides, as long as the Yiwang launches the Jingzhou Campaign within this year and conquers Jingzhou and other places, he can achieve a complete encirclement of the Hunan army, and at the end of the day, he will either force Zeng Guofan to surrender or completely exterminate the Hunan army!" ”

This strategy can be said to be the best choice at present, first cut off the weak Qing army around the Hunan army, isolate it, and surround it on all sides and then exterminate it. As long as Shi Dakai maintained pressure on Yueyang and other places, Zeng Guofan would not dare to divide his troops to rescue Liangguang no matter what. How could Ye Mingchen and Lao Chongguang of Liangguang be the opponents of the Taiping Army like wolves and tigers? It seems that the strategic layout of all this is under control.

Before Li Kaifang's words fell, the generals began to discuss in a low voice, all the generals present here are all generals who can take charge of themselves, and the situation in front of them is also familiar with the situation, Li Kaifang's strategic layout is indeed the most appropriate.

Xiao Yungui knocked lightly on the table, the generals gradually quieted down, the king of the west took a deep breath, and said slowly: "As a general, in addition to the necessary military literacy, you must also have a political vision, this is what this king has reminded you many times, war is the continuation of politics, and there will be war only if there is political need." Although Britain and France have sent us a note that they want to fight together, you must see the political impact of the alliance! After the closure of the Pearl River Estuary in Guangzhou, most of the trade between Britain and France was concentrated in Shanghai and other places, but our Taiping Army was forbidden to smoke in the interior, which means that the British and French opium trade in China has suffered great losses recently! Britain and France did not intervene too much because of our smoking ban, and that was because there was still Guangzhou, a treaty port under the jurisdiction of the Qing court! The narrowing of the channels for the purchase of opium led to an increase in the price of opium per box, and the greedy opium merchants were happy to see this situation, so they remained relatively quiet for a while. Once Canton is conquered, the contradictions brought about by the opium trade will inevitably make Britain and France hostile to us, and the alliance and sending troops will inevitably tie us up, and at the same time, joining forces with foreigners will make the people of Canton hostile to us, and the General Staff must take into account political factors! ”

When the generals here heard this, Xiao Yungui then said in a deep voice: "Recently, this king and the Foreign Affairs Department have been dealing with Britain and France, and they have put forward a note on joint operations, and they even agreed to sever diplomatic relations with the Manchus, choosing to recognize us, and even saying that they can send warships to transport our soldiers to land directly from Dagukou and attack the capital of the Manchus!" Although they also considered having the sailors transport their soldiers to attack Dagukou directly, the British and French had already hit a wall at Dagukou, and the powerful coalition fleet had failed, and the weak navy of the Taiping Army was even more unlikely to capture Dagukou. If the Anglo-French alliance could really send a powerful fleet to join forces with the Taiping army, maybe it would really be able to decide the outcome of the war!

Xiao Yungui's next words poured everyone's hearts cold: "But everyone should pay attention, this situation will never happen!" Because there is no free lunch in the world, the reason why Britain and France have become fully supportive of us is to have a more far-reaching influence on us, and when we replace the Manchus, they can continue to seize benefits in China as before! For this reason, the British must open the whole territory on the condition that the opium trade be legalized and tariffs agreed! France, on the other hand, demanded that Christianity be established as the state religion, establish a Chinese diocese, and have a French serve as the archbishop of the diocese of China, accepting the leadership of Western Christianity! ”

As soon as the words fell, the generals present were surging with emotion, and they all scolded the foreign devils for being shameless, and they dared to put forward such excessive conditions, if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom agreed, it would be almost no different from betraying the country.

Xiao Yungui then tapped on the table and said slowly: "Britain and France are powerful countries in the world, and if we can't become strong, we can only be bullied by them!" Therefore, we want to expand the scale of the new-style army this year, that is, we must grit our teeth and tighten our belts, and we must also make the army strong, so that we will not be bullied! ”

After Xiao Yungui glanced around at the generals present, he said: "The plan for landing in Guangzhou remains unchanged, we will complete it independently, this king can promise to open Tianjing as a new treaty port in exchange for the British and French fleets not to blockade the Pearl River estuary when we attack Guangzhou, but the Taiping army will not unite Britain and France to fight against the Manchus!" This is our own war, and once a foreign force intervenes, it will make the Chinese people very disgusted, and at the same time, it will tie our hands and feet in the future! Fujian, Shanghai, Ningbo and other places should begin preparations to recruit all kinds of sea ships for transporting soldiers and supplies! This is our first large-scale landing operation, and we must think it out more carefully, and the General Staff Department has reformulated its operational plan to complete the landing operation before the typhoon season arrives! "The generals should be loud together.

Xiao Yungui said in a deep voice: "Everyone must have an awareness, Britain and France are our imaginary enemies in the future, once we can't meet their interests and needs, we will have a war with Britain and France, this war cannot be avoided, and we must fight!" If we win, we will have more than 20 years to build the country with peace of mind, and if we lose, we will sink for a hundred years! This is the historical mission that you shoulder on your shoulders! (To be continued......)