After getting the news that Zhang Liangji, Peng Yulin, and Hu Linyi led the troops to cross the Xiangjiang River west, Xiao Yungui was very surprised, he didn't expect that the Qing army would not play its cards according to common sense, and let Yuezhou behind him ignore it, and went straight to Yiyang, where the Taiping army was weak, it seems that Peng Yulin and Hu Linyi really have two brushes.

Zuo Zongtang said: "This is unexpected, but it is reasonable. Now that I think about it, Zhang Liangji is the governor of Hunan, and he has the responsibility to defend the territory, and he can't wait for the trouble to lead the water to the east, so that the Taiping army can go out of Hunan, if he can recover Yiyang in northern Hunan, he can block the Taiping army from attacking Changde, Hunan, so that he can explain to the Qing court. But the matter of blocking the Taiping Army, he Zhang Liangji can't control it, it is the matter of Xu Guangjin, the governor of Huguang and the minister of the Qincha. And at this moment, Yuezhou and I are waiting for the people in the West Hall to be huge, and he Zhang Liangji does not dare to come to the tiger beard, but the soldiers and horses of the Northern King Department of Yiyang are thinner, and it can be said that it is reasonable to find soft persimmons. ”

Xiao Yungui frowned and said, "But can Xu Guangjin tolerate Zhang Liangji acting like this?" Emperor Xianfeng Dog issued a strict decree to Xu Guangjin to block the Taiping Army and punish him on the spot. ”

Zuo Zongtang said with a smile: "Since ancient times, the official characters have two mouths, this is the case for the bottom, and the same is true for the top, he Zhang Liangji can only protect himself, and recovering Yiyang is also a great achievement, and it is also blocking the Taiping army from going north to Jingzhou, how to write the twists and turns." ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said with a smile: "The officialdom is like this, how can the Qing army be undefeated?" So what do we do? Do you want to go back to Shixi to aid Yiyang? ”

Zuo Zongtang shook his head slowly, pointed to a large map of the whole country hanging on the palace hall and said: "Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is now taking advantage of the situation, it occupies less than Hunan Province. The Qing court has been established for more than 200 years, and still occupies the orthodox name of the world, if you want to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the king of the west must take a long-term view, and must not be confined to a corner of a city. ”

"Yes, Mr. Zuo is right, we have finally come out now, how can we turn back?" A voice like a silver bell came, and when the two looked back, it was Hong Yun'er who walked up to the hall with a smile like a flower, only to hear her continue: "Yiyang is now guarded by the North King, Zhang Liangji and others are attacking from the west, and they may not be able to please well, and the East King will not sit idly by, anyway, our plan to go north to encircle Wei and save Zhao has been successful, and the Qing army has given up the siege of Changsha, so we might as well go east along the river and concentrate on Jinling!" ”

Zuo Zongtang applauded and cheered: "That's right, Xiwang Niang really doesn't let her eyebrows go." The Qing court is in the north, since the founding of the country, the bloodline is Caoyun, if you want to determine the nine southern provinces and then launch the Northern Expedition, will hunt Yandu, it is necessary to cut off the Qing court's Jiangnan Caoyun. Now that the Xiwang Navy has become a great success, it has become a strange soldier outside the overall situation. If the soldiers and horses of the West Hall advance by land and water, go straight to Jinling, the center of Cao Yun, and then go down to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, one can cut off the Qing court's ninety percent of Cao Yun, and the Qing court will be unsustainable, and it will not be so calmly mobilized to mobilize reinforcements from various provinces to help. Otherwise, the Taiping army would resist the whole country with the strength of one province, and it could only be defeated like Wu Sangui. Second, it can disrupt the Qing army's deployment of the Hunan Taiping Army, so that the Qing army cannot take care of each other. Third, after the soldiers and horses of the West Hall marched eastward, there was more room for turning, in order to enter and suppress the Taiping Army in Hunan and Guangxi, the Qing court drew a lot of soldiers and horses from all over the country, and the Qing court outside Hunan had very few soldiers to fight. ”

Speaking of this, Hong Yun'er suddenly interjected: "It's just that it's hard to guarantee that after we occupy Jinling, the King of Heaven and the King of the East will not turn to Jinling to snatch the results of the West Palace, but at the moment, if we don't take advantage of the fact that the Qing court's defense along the river is not too strict, take advantage of the situation to seize Jinling, and wait for the Qing court to be tightly defended along the river in the future, it will not be easy to attack, how to choose?" ”

Xiao Yungui has been smoking dry tobacco and listening to the two of them, hearing this, he suddenly knocked off the cigarette, stood up with a sigh, clenched his fists and said categorically: "Yes, if the king and the king of the east are entangled with the Qing army in Changsha and other places today, we can just drive the east along the river, staring at Jinling City with a pair of eyes, and entering the east by land and water. In the future, if the King of Heaven and the King of the East really come to Jinling, we can retreat to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to build our own territory. But at present, Jinling City must be defeated, and our biggest enemy now is still the Qing court! We must not lose our fighters by looking forward to gains and losses, and we must not let the Qing court comfortably take Jinling as the foundation and calmly deploy troops to attack! ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled and twisted his beard and said: "The king of the west can know the essence of the word willingness, and his vision has reached a higher level, since his mind has been decided, then we are ready to go down the river to the east!" ”

Speaking of this, Xiao Yungui breathed a sigh of relief, but said with a little frown: "It's good that my mind has been decided, but there is still one thing to worry about, and I don't know how to solve it." ”

Zuo Zongtang muttered: "Is the person the king of the West worried about the military heart? ”

Xiao Yungui said frankly: "Yes, most of the soldiers and horses in the West Hall are the sons of Xiangzhong, and the elite are the old brothers of Guangxi, all of whom are from Hunan and Guangdong. ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled slightly and said: "The king of the West is too worried, since the children of Xiangzhong have already voted for peace, they naturally know that there is no turning back, so like Zuo, they have already hung their heads on their belts to act, and if they don't succeed, they will become benevolent, why are they afraid of leaving their homeland?" However, many soldiers think that one day they can become famous and return to their hometowns, what kind of scenery? Previously, Zuo had already listened to the hearts of the soldiers in the army, and the big guy was very morale-high, and he just wanted to kill more demons, and it was best to be led by the King of the West to enter the capital as soon as possible and get rid of the Manchu Emperor. At this moment, it is not the time for the soldiers to love their hometown, even if they love their hometown, it will be a matter of a few years after the expedition, and the king of the West does not have to worry about the children of Xianghu. ”

Speaking of this, Zuo Zongtang paused and continued: "As for the old department of Guangxi in the West Palace, the King of the West can first reveal the bottom with his henchmen and generals, let them know in advance the benefits of concentrating on Jinling, and obtain their support." Later, the king of the west might as well do some things about ghosts and gods, and use this excuse to write to the king of heaven and the king of the east to explain the matter, only saying that he was dedicated to Jinling, but it was for the will of heaven that the king of the west would open up territory for the kingdom of heaven and occupy the name of righteousness. Zuo Mouguan Dongwang is not a stupid person, he should also know that now is the best fighter to capture Jinling, and the rest of the soldiers and horses are in a stalemate with the Qing army, only the West Hall can still be mobilized, and the East King will not sit idly by and miss the opportunity, and will definitely agree. And among the generals other than the confidants and generals of the West Palace, if anyone opposes it, the King of the West might as well invite Brother Tian to come down to teach him a lesson, and it is expected that no one will object. ”

Xiao Yungui breathed a sigh of relief, this Zuo Zongtang is worthy of being an old man, these days he has quietly touched the bottom of the Taiping Army in the West Palace, and he has seen it more thoroughly than himself, and after removing a trace of concern in his heart, Xiao Yungui began to arrange it.

That night, Xiao Yungui convened the confidants of the West Palace to discuss matters in the palace, and as soon as he came up, Xiao Yungui sonorously and forcefully stated that the whole army of the West Palace should advance by land and water, go east along the river, and concentrate on Jinling. At first, all the generals were taken aback, but after listening to Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er's analysis, all the generals thought that this moment was indeed the best time for the West Hall to capture Jinling.

It's just that Li Kaifang and other generals are a little indignant, why do they always take the lead in the West Palace?

Xiao Yungui didn't say anything, just said with a smile: "This king is the former army commander, and our West Hall is the front army, of course, every battle must be the vanguard!" In the future, this king will still take you to be the spear of the kingdom of heaven, poke directly into the demon capital of the demon of the Qing Demon, and achieve the great cause of recovering the Han Dynasty! ”

The generals didn't complain when they heard this, but their blood was boiling, in fact, Jinling is a flower shijie, who doesn't want to see it?

In the following days, there was a rumor in the city of Yuezhou, saying that strange stones fell from the sky, and the book "The army in front of the West Palace, dedicated to Jinling" eight big characters. When the king of the West learned of this, he ordered the strange stone to be hidden deep and ordered the news to be blocked. But somehow, this time the military order of the king of the west seems to be invalid, and the more the rumors spread, the more gods become, saying that the heavens want the king of the west to lead the troops to fight Jinling and the capital, in short, there are all kinds of rumors, and the soldiers are very high-spirited, and they have asked to go to war.

In fact, these are all ghosts and gods made by Zuo Zongtang, since the soldiers and generals don't believe in these? Simply make a strange stone from the sky, the effect is much better than a military order.

Then Xiao Yungui convened all the generals to discuss the matter, and more than ninety percent of the generals in the hall were in favor of sending troops to expedition to Jinling, and only a few Dongdian generals under Luo Xuan were unwilling to leave the Hunan brigade. Xiao Yungui followed his memory, Xiao Chaogui descended to the god and staged a heavenly brother descending to earth.

Nearly eight months after Brother Tian's voice disappeared, the Prince of Christ had once again come to earth, and the sound of the bang had indeed frightened everyone present to their knees to obey the order. Brother Tian used Xiao Yungui's mouth to solemnly tell the essence of this eastward advance to Jinling, and also confirmed that the proverbs on the strange stone were the will of God. In this way, no one dared to say anything, and the Taiping army in Yuezhou was already unanimous and ready to send troops eastward.

Since Zhang Liangji and other Qing troops crossed westward, the pressure on the north of Changsha City suddenly lost, and Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, immediately sent Qin Rigang and Hu Yihuang to wave their troops north to conquer Xiangyin, and a few days later conquered Miluo, which was about to open up a land connection with Yuezhou.

But at this time, the king of the west sent a messenger back to Changsha, and wrote a letter to the king of heaven and the king of the east to let the soldiers and horses of the west hall go out to Jinling. Song Shu wrote about the strange stones falling from the sky, and also said about the things that Brother Tian went down to. This messenger was the warden of the East Temple, and he also carried the strange stone back to Changsha.

After Hong Xiuquan heard about this, his face turned a little blue, Yang Xiao and the others always used this kind of ghost and god method to force themselves to submit, so their faces were very ugly, and they only said that they would let the East King decide, and then they stopped speaking.

Yang Xiuqing also weighed left and right with a blue face, and now Xiao Yungui's water and land soldiers and horses are said to be no less than 25,000 people, and there are more than 3,000 naval warships. However, as Xiao Yungui said, now is indeed the best time to attack Jinling, and all the soldiers and horses in Changsha are entangled with the Qing army, and they can't distinguish their troops from moving eastward. And Xiao Yungui beautifully used Brother Heaven to go down to earth and strange stones from the sky to block everyone's mouths, he Yang Xiuqing has nothing to say, if he comes to a Heavenly Father to say that there is no such will, it will inevitably shake the prestige of the gods of God worship.

After weighing it again and again, Yang Xiuqing had no choice but to agree with the matter, and united with the Heavenly King to issue an edict to the West Hall to go east to Jinling.

This incident has caused an irreparable rift between the King of Heaven, the King of the East and the King of the West, but Xiao Yungui doesn't care anymore, since he has chosen to break away from the brigade and go it alone, it is only a matter of time before he breaks up, but he neither sets himself up as a king, nor does he play any other banner, so everyone will not tear off this fig leaf for the time being.

However, the news spread, the king of the west was the first to be brave, and his reputation for being the first to fight still allowed him to establish a strong prestige in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the soldiers and civilians of the other heavenly kingdoms would not think that the king of the west was breaking away from the heavenly kingdom, but went on an expedition at the behest of the Heavenly Father Emperor God.

In this way, the army of the West Temple began their epic expedition, and an irreproducible military miracle was born.