"Or are you setting up a turtle formation?"

Zhu Jishi put down the telescope in his hand and muttered softly: "Why is this monk Lingqin so timid? ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled: "Isn't it to be afraid of Zheng Hou?" The 20,000 Eight Banners Green Battalion can't take Zheng Hou's 5,000 people, and now the king oversees 20,000 troops, all of whom are strictly organized elite soldiers, where does Monk Greenqin still have the courage to take the initiative to attack? ”

Zhu Jishi was silent for a long time, and then asked: "Military advisor, if the troops of the Guangxi God Worship Society invade Hunan, will Seng Lingqin withdraw his troops and go north?" ”

"Soldiers of the Worship of God? It's just a rabble......" Zuo Zongtang shook his head.

"I mean if." Zhu Jishi knows that this "if" will definitely come true! In history, when the Hong sect leader and the Manchu list practiced, they both invaded Hunan from Guangxi, and then entered Hubei, Kewuchang, and went down the river east to take Jinling as their home. Now that the Manchus' attention is attracted to themselves, where is there any spare strength to guard against the Taiping army? It's no wonder that this Hongjiao can't enter Hunan!

"The king wants to wait for Monk Greenqin to retreat and go north, and then take advantage of the situation to take Guangdong?" Zuo Zongtang shook the paper fan and thought for a while, but still shook his head, "In this way, Guangdong is easy to get, but Hunan is not easy to fight." Hengzhou, Changsha, and Yuezhou are all fortified cities, and the Shili of Heaven and Earth will be inferior to Guangdong in Hunan, and the foolish loyalty of the Sanxiang scholars to the Manchu Qing is also greater than that of the Guangdong gentry......"

"Military advisor, do you mean that after Guangdong is pacified, troops will be sent to attack Hunan?" Zhu Jishi understood the middle of Zuo Zongtang's words, frowned, and said, "Isn't it Xianping Liangguang and Fujian?" ”

Zuo Zongtang said: "Hunan should be hit first!" First, the villagers in Hunan are simple, and the gentry are capable and pragmatic, if I use them. The south of the Yangtze River will be owned by the king sooner or later.

Second, Hunan is close to the Yangtze River. It is also in the middle of the stream. Going down the river can take the south of the Yangtze River, and crossing the river to the north can point directly to the Central Plains. After Hunan was owned by us, the Manchu Qing Dynasty could no longer take care of Guangxi and Fujian, and inevitably concentrated troops in Hubei and Jiangnan. At that time, it will be easy to take Guangxi and Fujian. ”

"It seems that we have to take Hunan first!" Zhu Jishi nodded and glanced at Zuo Zongtang, who was working hard to give advice to himself. He knew that there was a Hunan army in history, and this Zuo Zongtang relied on this Hunan army to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then became a feudal official! I must take Hunan as soon as possible, so that Zeng Guofan can make another Hunan army to embarrass me!

"Hmm. If you want to take Hunan first, you must defeat the main force of Seng Lingqin! Zhu Jishi nodded heavily and made up his mind, "Order the whole army, this king will personally cross the river, learn from Chu Xiangyu, and fight to the death with the monk Greenqin!" ”

Zuo Zongtang almost laughed out loud when he heard this, and said in his heart, with the Manchu army of more than 40,000 people, you still need to learn Xiang Yu? With Liu Bang's skills in fighting, he won.

……

"Mobilize troops to defend Yongzhou, Shaozhou, Chenzhou......" Saishan'a looked at Bai Siwen and Zeng Guofan in front of him. An embarrassed expression. "Enming and Disheng, I also know the truth of limiting the chaos to the two Guangzhous. But where are the troops to be sent now? There are 10,000 green battalions in Guangzhou City, and it is not easy to defend the city. ”

"Heweng, the reinforcements from the two towns of Suijing Town and Yuanzhou Town in Hunan will arrive in Guangdong in a few days, so the appeasement troops can be ordered to aid Yongzhou, and Yuanzhou Town will be ordered to guard Shaozhou."

Zeng Guofan is a native of Hunan, and he naturally knows the military affairs of Hunan well. Hunan was not an important place for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and only set up three towns, Yongzhou, Yuanzhou, and Suijing, plus the Fu Biao of the Hunan Governor and the Governor of Hunan, totaling 20,000 or 30,000. The number of people in the three green camp towns of Yongzhou, Yuanzhou, and Suijing is not large, although the town of Yuanzhou is known for its bravery, but there are only more than 4,000 people, and there are no foreign guns and cannons, so there is nothing to do at all. If the chaos between Guangxi and Guangxi spreads to Hunan, the green battalion soldiers will at most defend Changsha, Yuezhou, Hengzhou and other big cities. However, the Ming army had a Western cannon in its hand, and it was afraid that it would be impossible to escape the annihilation of the entire army.

Zeng Guofan was silent for a moment, but still mustered up the courage to put forward the proposal of forming a regiment and said: "In addition, we must make the Hunan gentry recruit regiment brave and strong...... This Hunan gentry is different from Guangdong, they are all loyal to the Qing Dynasty and have no two hearts......"

"I heard that Zuo Jinliang, the military advisor of Zhu Jishi, the rebel thief chieftain, is from Hunan!" Bai Swen interjected coldly. "There are also rumors that this Zuo Jinliang is very likely to be the so-called Sanxiang genius Zuo Zongtang! Lin Muweng took a fancy to his talent and recommended him to the emperor! ”

"Enming! Don't talk about these nonsense! ”

Cezanne hurriedly waved his hand and interrupted Bai Siwen. He himself has passed the examination to raise people, and he is considered to be half of the imperial examination, and his attitude towards Han Shilin is also more friendly than that of ordinary banner people. Although Han scholars often give people the impression of being pedantic and useless, Saishana knew that the Manchu Qing Dynasty could not live without scholars for a day. Therefore, after hearing the rumor that Zuo Jinliang, the anti-Ming military division, was Zuo Zongtang, a talented son of Sanxiang, he immediately took a move to refute the rumors, openly sent people to Hunan to investigate, and then found out that Zuo Zongtang died of illness as early as the winter of the 26th year of Daoguang. However, the rumors that Zuo Zongtang faked his death and surrendered to Ming arose again! There is also news that there are many teachers and students from Hunan in Zhu Jishi's Jishi University and Jishi Academy, and there is also a female gentleman who is good at writing poetry, which is very likely to be Zuo Zongtang's wife...... In short, all kinds of news show that Zuo Zongtang is very likely to be an official under Zhu Jishi's account!

However, Saishan'a has always adopted the policy of "not believing rumors and not listening to rumors", and resolutely regarded Zuo Zongtang as a dead man, so as not to affect Hunan Shilin and Lin Zexu, who is famous all over the world.

Moreover, as for Zeng Guofan's proposal to use the gentry to recruit the people, Saishan'a actually agreed. Although the lessons of the Sanyuanli Civil Rebellion show that the gentry are unreliable, no matter how unreliable the gentry is, they are also a force that should be fought for. Like now, putting on a face of not believing in the gentry, isn't it pushing the gentry to the side of the anti-Ming?

"Enming, the craftsmen of your Western-style Academy, the Manufacturing Bureau, and the Official Money Bureau have all been plundered by traitors, right?" Saishana suddenly asked Bai Siwen.

"Yes, they were all plundered, and General Manager Wei's office almost fell into the hands of thieves, but he took off his official uniform and makeup and fled back." Bai Siwen sighed. How can the two factories and a school in Kowloon be the foundation of the Western-style yamen, and now they all belong to Zhu Jishi! The assistant Bai Da has a feeling of making wedding dresses for others.

"Then let's recruit again." Sai Shang Ah paused and said, "You can't recruit in Liangguang, go to Hunan to recruit, Disheng, you have to help Enming in this matter, go to Hunan to recruit thousands of strong peasant children, if you are willing to learn to do foreign affairs, you can also recruit some." As for the name, I will work with the monk king to promote you to be the general office of the foreign affairs yamen, and work with Wei Yuan. ”

This is ultra vires! However, Saishan'a was a minister of military aircraft, a minister of war, a governor and a minister of affairs with the rank of university sergeant, and the monk Lingqin was a confidant of Emperor Daoguang. It is a trivial matter for the two of them to jointly protect Zeng Guofan's general office of a foreign affairs yamen, and Zeng Guofan is Mu Zhang'a's party, and he is in a group with Bai Siwen. Bai Siwen did not dare to raise objections.

"Let's keep the name of Zanxiang Hunan Military Affairs." Saizanne pondered for a moment, and then said, "Lu Chunfan (Hunan Governor) sent a letter to the Yuehai camp the day before yesterday, asking a few officials who are familiar with the situation of the rebels to help. ”

This is probably a "curve group exercise", right? In the name of recruiting students and workers, he pulled up a team of thousands of people, and then let Zeng Guofan take them to Zanxiang in Hunan for military affairs. This Saishana is really well-intentioned to protect the Qing Dynasty.

After arranging the "curve group exercise", Sai Shang'a looked at Bai Siwen again and said: "Enming, there is nothing to do with you here in Guangdong, it is better to go with Zeng Disheng and go to Shanghai as soon as possible to assist Lin Shaomu in negotiations." This is also what the emperor meant, this Shao Mu is always too tough in negotiations. ”

As he spoke, Cezanne sighed. This Lin Zexu became more and more stubborn as he got older, and his means of negotiating with the foreigners were also inflexible, and only a few days after he arrived in Shanghai, he actually clashed with the British over the jurisdiction of the Shanghai concession. According to Lin Zexu's understanding, the clause in the "Treaty of Nanjing" that allowed the British to lease land and build houses in the treaty port did not mean that the British could obtain a concession in the form of a country within a state, so the "Shanghai Land Lease Regulations" and the Shanghai Concession violated the "Nanjing Treaty", so they must be corrected immediately! (To be continued......)