After listening to Li Kaifang's words, Xiao Yungui's smile stiffened a little, he didn't expect the second expeditionary force of the British and French coalition to come so quickly, and the deployment of the Taiping army on the north and south coasts had not yet fully met the requirements of defeating the British and French coalition forces. Xiao Yungui, who had a solemn face, walked quickly to the huge map of the whole country in the room, looked at the map and asked, "The General Staff judges where the enemy will attack from?" ”

Li Kaifang walked to the map and pointed to Guangzhou: "The most likely is to hit Guangzhou first!" Xiao Yungui immediately asked, "What is the reason?" Li Kaifang said: "Guangzhou is close to Hong Kong, the British and French forces can shorten the supply line by attacking here, and at the same time, Guangzhou's commerce and trade are not as good as Shanghai, even if the attack here is broken in the future, it will not prevent the British and French from resuming commerce and trade after the war, and they have occupied Guangzhou twice in the hands of the Qing army, and they know the local terrain very well." And we can't afford to lose Guangzhou, because Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province. ”

Xiao Yungui hummed softly, looked at the long coastline and sighed: "The navy is still too weak, does the General Staff have a battle plan?" ”

Li Kaifang said: "There are two Hunan armies that have been reorganized and can be transferred to Guangdong and Fujian for deployment, but they lack the necessary weapons, especially the lack of artillery. However, with the addition of the Hunan army, the strength of the regular army in the Guangzhou area can reach more than 30,000 people, not counting the local troops. ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said: "It can only be deployed like this first, Hunan has just been recovered, and the local government retains a certain amount of troops to maintain stability, and the other troops will immediately return to Jiangsu and Zhejiang along the Yangtze River for deployment." Zuo Zongtang and Li Kaifang nodded together in agreement.

It has been exactly a year since the defeat of Britain and France last year, and it seems that the Anglo-French forces have organized a second expedition, according to the newspaper. The size of this expeditionary force may be twice as large as the previous one, which means that the army strength may reach the size of more than 50,000 people. The size of the responding Navy will also multiply. Although the current British Navy is still dominated by wooden warships, the number and tonnage are still quite terrible. However, the good thing is that Britain cannot use all the warships in the Far East, and Britain's overseas colonies in other parts of the country still need the British Navy to control, as long as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can survive this hurdle, I believe that Britain and France will not organize a third expedition. But to survive this hurdle, what price does the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom need to pay? Xiao Yungui was still very worried.

At the same time, thousands of miles away in the city of Yakutsk, there is another person who has the same thoughts as Xiao Yungui, and this person is the Russian governor of Siberia, Muravyov. The news of the siege of Nebuchu and the destruction of the 30,000 Cossack cavalry reached him almost simultaneously, and Muravyov rubbed his temples, his gray hair shaking. He muttered a curse in his mouth: "Boutov, you arrogant bastard, you have already asked you to retreat to Chita, why do you still go to the rescue?" Even if it's to go to the rescue, why not be careful? ”

Major General Lyukov, the Russian Far Eastern general beside Muravyov, asked in a low voice: "Your Excellency the Governor-General, have all 30,000 Cossack cavalry been annihilated by the enemy?" Muravyov handed over the two battle reports and said with a wry smile: "Our elite cavalry was annihilated by the enemy's infantry, and it was a humiliating total annihilation, and our disaster has come." ”

Major General Lyukov said disapprerovingly: "Your Excellency the Governor, perhaps you are too pessimistic, we have a lot of people in our land, and you can ask Your Majesty for more reinforcements." In the Crimean War, we mobilized a million troops. ”

Muravyov looked helplessly at this almost idiot major general, if it weren't for the fact that his father was a Russian nobleman, he would not have gotten into the rank of major general. But Muravyov sighed and explained: "The Far East is not Europe, the Crimea is not Nebuchu, and our enemies are not the Anglo-French of Europe." The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was as vast and populous as we are, and they were close to the Far East. It was easier to mobilize troops, and we had to cross a long distance to bring troops over from the west. ”

Muravyov paused and continued: "Your Majesty is now implementing reforms. 30,000 Cossack cavalry is already the limit of the number of troops that His Majesty can transfer to the Far East, and at home His Majesty needs a large army to maintain stability, do you know that more than 200 uprisings broke out in the country last year? ”

Lykov nodded and said, "I know, I also participated in the battle to quell the rebellion, and after that, I was promoted to major general before being transferred to the Far East under your command. ”

Muravyov secretly thought, at your level, you can only lead troops to bully the defenseless serfs in the country, but he said: "Your Majesty just issued a decree on land reform in February this year, but in just a few months now, the number of uprisings that have broken out in the country is more than 600!" ”

Lyukov asked with some surprise: "How can there be so many?" Didn't the reform decree issued by His Majesty agree that the lowly peasants could buy land with money? Why did these peasants rebel? ”

Muravyov smiled bitterly, this person really didn't know anything, and immediately said: "Most of the peasants in the country themselves are destitute, where do these people have the money to buy land? In fact, this reform did not fully meet the requirements of the peasants. Lyukoff muttered in a low voice: "These lowly people are asking for a lot. Then he said: "Your Excellency, since it is impossible to draw troops in the country now, then we can rely on the three newly formed Siberian divisions in our hands to relieve the siege." ”

Muravyov stood up, shook his head and said: "These three divisions of more than 40,000 people are the last military force in our Siberia, we can't use them easily, and now that the cold has come, we can only wait, don't worry, young man, the cold winter will crush our enemy." ”

The city of Yakutsk is an important stronghold in the Russian Far East, in 1632 Russia built a castle on the right bank of the Lena River, and in 1642-1643 it also built a castle on the left bank, which later became the new city of Yakutsk. Since then, Yakutsk has become an important base for Russia's expansion into northeastern, southern, and Pacific coasts of Asia. Close to the Arctic Ocean, it is the coldest city in the world, and the whole city is built on rock-solid permafrost, but the surface of the 1.2-meter-thick active soil layer freezes in winter and melts in summer, and the wooden piles must be deeply embedded under the active soil layer, and the houses are built on piles 1 meter above the ground to prevent the land from melting and destroying the buildings.

Muravyov organized and established more than 40,000 troops in Siberia, all stationed here, he planned to avoid the Taiping army, save his strength and wait for domestic reinforcements, maybe need to hold for a few years, and Yakutsk is the best stronghold, where the low temperature of minus 40 degrees in winter will be their greatest guarantee.

As for places such as Nebuchu and Chita, Muravyov was powerless, and his newly formed army of 40,000 was absolutely unable to defeat the Taiping army in the field battle, and in the face of the Taiping army's continuous offensive in the northeast in recent years, Muravyov never thought of taking the initiative to attack, because his previous attempts ended in failure. In the northeast region in recent years, the Russian army has lost a total of more than 50,000 troops, settlements, outposts and strongholds have been pulled out one by one, and the population loss is also very large. Therefore, Muravyov has adjusted his strategy since the beginning of this year, and he is ready to shrink the pace of expansion, shrinking the population and troops to some important strongholds and cities, waiting for the situation to change.

Sergeyev, the Russian general who was far away in Nebuchu, did not know that his superior, the Siberian governor Muravyov, had abandoned him and the city of Nebuchu, and he was still at the head of the city of Nebuchu to boost the morale of the soldiers, "Brave Russian warriors, the time has come to test you, the bitter cold has come, the enemy will not be defeated, and the victory will finally belong to us and to His Majesty the Great Tsar!" Amid the sound of the ulla, the Russian soldiers at the head of the city waved their bearskin hats, looking confident.

Outside the city of Nebuchu, inside the camp of the Taiping army, Liu Mingchuan looked at the city of Nebuchu with a telescope from the command post covered with thick pine branches. Last night, the Russian army in the city of Nebuchu launched a night raid, thousands of Russian troops went out of the city to sneak attack, intending to use bayonets and night to offset the firepower advantage of the Taiping army, but the troops under the command of Liu Mingchuan were beaten back with bayonets. After a busy night, Liu Mingchuan and several generals were eating breakfast, and when he heard cheers from Nebuchu City, he raised his binoculars to observe.

This Liu Mingchuan was the first governor of Taiwan, who was famous in later history, but in this time and space, he did not defect to the Huai Army to become a general of the Huai Army, but became a member of the Taiping Army early on. Liu Mingchuan was born in 1836, his father died of illness when he was 11 years old, and then his eldest brother and third brother died one after another, and the other brothers started their own families, and since then they have lived alone with their mother Zhou. Mother and son depend on each other for their lives, and make a living by selling smuggled salt. Liu Mingchuan has a bold temperament and gets along very well with local young people. Later, the Liu family was insulted by the local tyrants because they could not pay the tenant rent. Liu Mingchuan was unwilling to be humiliated and killed the local tyrant, and then called hundreds of young people from the township to build a polder in Daqian Mountain and began his rebellious career.

Later, the Taiping Army's Beiwang troops captured the Hefei area, and Liu Mingchuan became the deployment of the Taiping Army in the North Palace. After the Tianjing Incident, Liu Ming's subordinates stayed in Hefei and did not go to Tianjing, so they escaped, but then, like most people in the North Temple, they were transferred to the bitter cold northeast and served under Tan Shaoguang.

Liu Mingchuan has fought bravely under Tan Shaoguang in recent years, and has made many achievements, and now he is the leading general in the Northeast Army, this time Tan Shaoguang commanded tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to besiege Nebuchu, so he handed over the task of besieging the city to Liu Mingchuan, and Tan Shaoguang himself led the main force to find an opportunity to annihilate the soldiers and horses of the Russian army on the outskirts of the field.

Seeing the cheering scene of the Russian army at the head of Nebuchu City, Liu Mingchuan was furious and shouted loudly to the heralds around him: "Damn, let the artillery fire, these Rakshasa ghosts have disturbed Lao Tzu to eat!" ”

The herald immediately led the order to leave, and soon after, there was a rumbling sound of artillery from the artillery position of the Taiping Army, and the city was full of fire, Liu Mingchuan nodded with satisfaction and turned around to beckon several generals to continue eating, he said while eating: "Last night we defeated the enemy in the best way of the enemy, today let them taste the taste of cannonballs, you remember, although it is a siege, but to maintain the suppression of the enemy's psychology, don't let their morale be high......" (to be continued......