When Hong Yun'er came to the Holy Martial Arts Hall, only Xiao Yungui, Li Kaifang and several other leaders of the Martial Arts Hall were sitting here. Seeing Xi Wangniang come in, everyone including Xiao Yungui got up, Li Kaifang and others respectfully saluted, while Xiao Yungui smiled, stepped forward and took her hand to his seat and asked her to sit beside him.

Then Li Kaifang, Wang Minyun and others all sat down, Hong Yun'er took a look, almost all the leaders of the West Hall in Shanghai were here, and it seemed that there were some major matters that needed to be discussed and resolved.

Xiao Yungui saw that everyone had arrived, holding the teacup in his hand and saying in a deep voice: "One good news and one bad news." ”

Hong Yun'er glanced at him, and complained a little in her heart about Xiao Yungui, when is it, and she still has the heart to play this kind of bloody opening remarks.

Xiao Yungui seemed to notice Hong Yun'er's gaze, the husband and wife had been doing it for a long time, and they also knew her thoughts, so they hurriedly coughed and got to the point: "The good news is that after most of the rebel army of the Guangdong Tiandihui uprising successfully broke through into Fujian, they met with our First Army on the outskirts of Xiamen five days ago. Although Chen Kaibu's righteous army suffered a lot of losses, more than 100,000 rebel soldiers and civilians still reached Xiamen, and now they are safe. ”

Everyone present breathed a sigh of relief, the rebel army besieged Guangzhou for a month, Chen Kai still obeyed the order of the king of the west and led his troops into Fujian. Although on the way, some of the rebel army was unwilling to enter Fujian, but chose to go north to Jiangxi to join the king of the east, but it did not affect the scale of this rebel army that took refuge in the west hall.

When the rebel army moved along the way, most of the Qing troops in Guangdong were concentrated in Guangzhou to defend the town, and a few local green battalion defense troops and local regimental training did not cause much trouble to this huge rebel army. After entering Fujian, he was frantically intercepted by the local regimental training in Fujian and the Qing army of Li Tingyu's department, Li Tingyu has been defeated in Fujian, if this rebel army goes to Fujian, then Fujian will be even more precarious, so Li Tingyu's troops are crazy to block the footsteps of the rebel army. Stop the rebels and the Fujian Taiping army from joining forces.

Fortunately, after a short rest and material replenishment, the First Army quickly captured Quanzhou, and then launched the Xiamen Campaign, effectively containing the Qing army on the southern front of Fujian, otherwise the righteous army that lacked food and clothing was very likely to be dispersed under the resistance of the Qing army.

Subsequently, the First Army sent a cavalry regiment south to meet the rebel army, and Zuihou successfully broke the blockade of the Qing army five days ago.

Li Kaifang continued: "Although Chen Kaibu's righteous army arrived in Xiamen, more than 100,000 righteous troops were short of food and clothing, and the materials of the first army began to be scarce again. Now that there is still some time before the summer harvest, it is extremely difficult to solve the grain and grass on the spot. I suggested that the First Army concentrate its forces to conquer Xiamen, and then Shanghai and Ningbo would organize civilian cargo ships and merchant ships to transport supplies to the south, and directly replenish them to Xiamen via Fuzhou, so as to solve the problem of grain and grass supplies in Fujian. ”

Xiao Yungui also had this plan in his heart. However, he still had one concern, and Hong Yun'er continued: "Li Shangshu's charter is excellent. However, there is still a variable between the occupation of Xiamen and the supply of supplies by sea. That's a foreigner! ”

Speaking of this, everyone's faces were gloomy, since the dispute between Temple Street and Sakhalin Island, Britain and France were forced to swallow this bad breath and reluctantly reached a peace treaty with Russia in the Far East, but this peace treaty far made Britain and France give up a lot of Far Eastern interests that should have been at their fingertips, and the Taiping army began to extend its tentacles to Japan. It also made the United States very dissatisfied, and now it can be said that since the occupation of Shanghai, the relationship between the Taiping Army and the foreign powers has been at a low point.

Moreover, after Grant's combined fleet returned to Shanghai, it did not rush back to Hong Kong, but cruised back and forth in Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou and other places. Cracking down on smuggling and piracy at sea is actually a disguised military threat and pressure. At the same time, it was also a very bad signal that the foreign powers had begun to trade arms with the Manchus, and more than ten days earlier, the Qing army in Xiamen had directly obtained a batch of Western arms.

It was easy for the Taiping army to occupy Xiamen, for fear of attracting the brutal intervention of the foreign powers, and the future of transporting supplies by sea would be threatened by Grant's fleet at any time. Although so far, it is unlikely that the foreign powers will directly send troops to war with the Taiping Army, but if Britain and France agree to lease a few warships to the Manchu Qing Guangdong Naval Division, then Fujian's sea route will be threatened, although the Taiping Navy also has a few Western sail warships, but it is still very difficult to complete the long and huge fleet of supply line escort tasks, and the northern Temple Street and Sakhalin Island trade and sea routes also need naval escort.

Xiao Yungui let out a long sigh and muttered to himself: "Navy, navy, when will we be able to let our ship sail freely." ”

Wang Minyun said: "A naval branch has been opened in the martial arts school, and those who went to Britain to study maritime military affairs have also begun to receive training, and the ships built by France are also in progress, and at the same time, we are also negotiating with Prussia, Norway and other countries on building ships, and these countries are also interested in building ships for us, but because of Britain and France, they have not yet been able to negotiate." At present, according to the most haode plan, it will take a year for the personnel and ships to be in place, and then it will take some time for the people and ships to cooperate neatly, and the navy will be able to fight only after it has been trained. His Royal Highness the King of the West, the navy cannot be achieved overnight, and patience is needed before that. ”

Xiao Yungui endured this breath and said with a wry smile: "This is the price that must be paid to maintain sovereignty!" Then he lowered his face and said: "Renqiu (Wang Minyunzi), you immediately negotiate with the ministers of Britain, France and the United States, since the goal cannot be achieved militarily, then we will achieve the goal at the negotiation table." ”

Hong Yun'er frowned slightly and said: "But there is no military advantage, I'm afraid that there is no advantage at the negotiation table." ”

Xiao Yungui took a deep breath and said, "As long as their demands are not too excessive, Lao Tzu will endure this tone first, and then settle a sum with them in the future!" ”

Wang Minyun responded, but he was very worried, and he was afraid that none of the conditions proposed by Britain and France would be accepted by the King of the West.

followed by Hong Yun'er and said with a wry smile: "Your Highness, the good news you said doesn't sound like good news, and the bad news is only worse." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled faintly and said: "Things are always good and bad, the Guangdong Righteous Army retains its vitality and is always haode, and bad news is not necessarily all bad." He glanced at everyone present, and said in a deep voice: "Changsha was lost a few days ago, more than ten generals such as Lai Hanying and Huang Yiyun were killed in battle, and all 30,000 defenders in the city were killed!" ”

Changsha was the first provincial capital captured by the Taiping Army, and it was also the first provincial capital city to be lost. Moreover, more than ten generals such as Uncle Lai Hanying and Huang Yiyun, the Marquis of Hu, were killed in battle, and 30,000 defenders were wiped out, which was the heaviest loss since the Taiping Army.

Li Kaifang's brows furrowed: "Didn't the East Hall withdraw the soldiers who confronted us early in the morning?" Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the east hall still failed to relieve the siege of Changsha? Our Xidian soldiers even took the initiative to get out of the way of some roads in Jiangxi, and also withdrew the sailors who threatened Tianjing. ”

Xiao Yungui sneered: "Our Royal Highness the East King moved a stone and hit himself in the foot this time, he wanted Shi Dakai to go south to help, and the East Hall took the Jiangxi land route to help." Hu Yihuang's 300,000 army was delayed on the road for more than 20 days, and then he was harassed by Jiang Zhongyuan's Qing demon attack on the way, and the trip was even slower, and Zuihou could not rescue. The city was broken by the Hunan army. ”

Wang Minyun didn't understand military affairs very well, and said strangely: "The Wing King is also a master who can fight, why did he fail to break the siege when he went south to rescue?" ”

Hong Yun'er snorted coldly and said: "The East King wants to weaken the Wing King by the hand of the Qing Demon, and the Wing King will go south from Wuchang to help, and the waterway must be guaranteed." And the sailors from Wuchang to Changsha were in the hands of the king of the east. Moreover, the Wing King also had to ensure that after he went south, he would not be raided by Xiangfan's Qing Demon behind his back. Therefore, the Winged King used his army to tie his hands and feet. It would be good to let the rescue soldiers reach the periphery of Changsha. Zeng Demon Head this time with the army steady and steady, dozens of camps on the periphery of Changsha to form a hard village, and there are water divisions as a grain supply, and the Wing King was blocked in the periphery of Changsha City for more than ten days, and the Wing Hall suffered a lot of casualties but failed to break through the siege of the Qing Demon, so it led to the loss of Changsha. ”

Li Kaifang said angrily: "If the East King has less calculations. Early in the morning, the army is fully supporting, where can there be such a thing?! Changsha is lost, and the king of the east wants to apologize to the 30,000 heroic souls of Changsha! ”

Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er both looked at each other with unnatural faces, as if it was the idea of the two of them who had arranged for the Hunan army to attack Changsha in the first place. It's just that the two didn't expect that Zuihou, Changsha City, which had been in business for so long, would still be conquered by the Hunan army. If there is to apologize, it seems that these two people need to apologize as well.

Xiao Yungui's embarrassed expression flashed, he became more and more like a politician who spit on his own face, and said lightly: "It is not our turn to discuss who Tianjing is going to find to take the blame, the current Qing Demon Zeng Demon is rampant, and we must counteract." The first is to refute his criticism of Cantonese and think that it is a momentum. The second is to send the Third Army into Fujian, continue to strengthen the Fujian offensive, hit Guangzhou as soon as possible, cut off the port of the Qing demons in the south, and block their arms trade with the foreigners, but I am afraid that it will not be possible to do it in this short period of time. Third, although our West Hall can't directly hit the head of the Qing Demon for the time being, Bai Zetang in Guangdong, Hunan and other places will strengthen the assassination of the Qing Demon generals, and Lai Hanying, Huang Yiyun and their heroic souls will have to have some people to accompany them to the funeral! ”

Li Kaifang and the others responded, and then everyone discussed some details and then dispersed, leaving only Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er in the hall at this time.

Xiao Yungui looked at the huge picture scroll of the Taiping Army uprising hanging behind him, and suddenly said gloomily: "Yun'er, I find that I am becoming more and more despicable, Lai Hanying and Huang Yiyun are dead, and we can't get rid of them." ”

Hong Yun'er sighed faintly and said: "Since the day politics and power were born, every pore has exuded filth and filth, since we are in it now, how can we get out of the mud without staining?" Although Yue Fei has been famous for a hundred years, Qin Hui is at ease for a while, sometimes we don't want to be Qin Hui, but the situation forces us to do it. It's useless to regret it now, I just hope that we can expel Hu Nu in the future and revive the Han family, so that their blood will not be shed in vain. ”

Xiao Yungui smiled mockingly and said: "It seems that in the future, there will be more and more excuses for us to comfort each other like this, yes, how can there be immortals in rebellion?" To achieve great things comes sacrifice, and our sacrifice today is to save more people. In fact, at the end of the day, we are just two dirty politicians who are becoming more and more mature. ”

Hong Yun'er stepped forward and hugged Xiao Yungui tightly, the two hugged each other tightly, both of them knew what they were doing, helplessness and self-preservation didn't need too many reasons, self-blame and self-encouragement were just momentary thoughts, they needed to support each other to go down. (To be continued......)