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Luo Dagang was the best in the Taiping army, or at least that was what Vézé thought. During the military conference convened by King Of The East Yang Xiuqing, Vézé saw that Yang Xiuqing had sent Shi Dakai and Luo Dagang to form a team, and immediately felt that this was the best team that Yang Xiuqing could bring out.
Apart from these two, Yang Xiuqing had also sent his trusted aides, Prince Yu, Hu Yihuang, Shi Dakai, and Luo Dagang as reinforcements, which made Vézé even more impressed. Not only was Hu Yihuang capable, but he was also exceptionally loyal to Yang Xiuqing. The commander, the general, and the army supervisor were all outstanding talents. The possibility of defeat in this battle was extremely small.
But Vézé had no idea what kind of defeat would cause Yang Xiuqing to form such a team to fight. Despite his curiosity, Vézé kept his mouth shut. If Vézé were to ask questions out of curiosity during a military discussion, he would definitely incur the disgust of others. No one explained what had happened because they felt that there was no need to talk about it. Moreover, the reason for the defeat had nothing to do with the reinforcements.
After confirming his position, Vézé kept his mouth shut and listened attentively. But the one who spoke the most was Yang Xiuqing. He pointed out the key points of the future battle at the mouth of the lake, which was to destroy Ceng Guofan's troops at the mouth of the lake. No matter what, Ceng Guofan's troops must not be allowed to break through the mouth of the lake and kill their way downstream.
It was obvious that this last instruction before they set off had put a lot of pressure on Shi Dakai. Vézé was a little suspicious. Wing King Shi Dakai was worried that he would not be able to destroy Ceng Guofan's troops, or that he would end up like the North King, Wei Changhui, if he failed to complete Yang Xiuqing's arrangements.
However, Vézé could not ask these questions. All he could do was think about it, but he appeared to be listening attentively.
Yang Xiuqing had no intention of giving a long speech. After giving his instructions, he had Shi Dakai and the rest set off quickly. After Shi Dakai took the lead and left the residence of the King Of The East with light footsteps, Yang Xiuqing asked Vézé, "If King Yi can't stop Zeng Yaowu, you have to stop Zeng Yaowu at the East and West Liang Mountains! Vézé, do you have any ideas? "
"The short-term solution is to erect iron chains across the river," replied Vézé. The surface of the Yangtze River was very wide. Rivers that were four to five miles wide or even six to seven miles wide could be found everywhere. The effective range of Vézé's 12-pounder cannon was only one kilometer. Even if it was placed on the shore, it would not be able to block the river's surface. Moreover, the accuracy of the cannon would drop drastically at night. Therefore, after receiving Yang Xiuqing's order, Vézé combined it with the map and realized that only the East and West Liang Mountains could effectively block the river's surface. In this era, the most effective way to block the river's surface was to set up iron chains across the river.
"Iron chains across the river … Hmph!" Yang Xiuqing laughed coldly after hearing Vézé's idea. Right now, Yang Xiuqing already had dark circles under his eyes, which made him look rather frightening.
Wei Ze was also shocked in his heart, but he didn't feel that Yang Xiuqing had any evil intentions in doing this. If she had any evil intentions, she could have made a move earlier. There was no need to deliberately mock Vézé now. "Your subordinate seeks guidance from the King Of The East!" Vézé said.
Yang Xiuqing said mockingly, "Qin Rigang used the Iron Chains Across the River at Tianjia Town. Zeng Yaowu placed a furnace on their ship and drove the ship into the iron chains. After burning the chains red, he cut them off and rushed out through the gap! You did the same at East and West Liang Mountains, but I don't know if you can stop Zeng Yaowu. "
Vézé finally understood what had happened upstream. It turned out that Tianjia Town's defensive line had been broken by Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army. Once Tianjia Town was breached, the Xiang Army would then attack the mouth of the lake. Just by looking at the name of the mouth of the lake, one could understand the meaning of the name. This place controlled the entrance and exit of a large lake. The mouth of the lake was where Panyang Lake entered and exited the Yangtze River. If Zeng Guofan's navy advanced from Panyang Lake and the Yangtze River at the same time and broke through the mouth of the lake, they would be able to follow the flow of the river straight to Tianjing City. Along the way, they could even ignore the key points on both sides of the Yangtze River. The Taiping army did not have a navy and could not stop the navy of the Xiang Army.
Even though he understood all this, Vézé had no other way. Limited by his current technical means, Vézé could only use the Iron Chains Across the River. Even if his artillery was powerful, he couldn't just rely on them to block the Yangtze River. With the iron chains blocking the way, even in the dark, he could still rely on the accuracy of the shots to carry out the bombardment. If he really couldn't do it, Vézé could only accept his fate.
Thinking of this, Vézé said seriously, "I will definitely do my best. Otherwise, Zeng Yaowu's ship will threaten Tianjing!"
After listening to Vézé, Yang Xiuqing laughed coldly again. "Vézé, this time Qin Rigang failed in Tianjia Town. I have already demoted him to a servant! Although you are the Prince Of Qi and Qin Rigang was once the Prince of Yan. If anything were to happen to you, I won't let you off the hook. You can't say anything. You will naturally be demoted to a servant! Do you understand?! "
"Are you going to make a move on me?" Vézé thought. His heart was filled with panic and hatred. However, Vézé was after all a technician from the 21st century. His friends, classmates, and family were basically in the mechanical, electronic, and construction industries. He had personally experienced, seen, and heard too many things like "33 Days of Overtime", "The Project We Did Together All Those Years", "Designer's Redemption", "Let the Plan Fly 2", "Party A Is Coming", "Drawing East and West 2014", "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf's Happy Tuning Model", "The Rise of the Rookie", "The Engineer's Biography", "The Plans of the Female General of the Yang Family", "This Party A Is Not Too Ruthless" … In terms of threat, Yang Xiuqing was nothing.
Threatening words like "Get out of the workshop if you can't produce the design!" and "Collect 500 data!" had become reality before.
Vézé thought about it again. If he really lost the battle, it would not be strange to be beheaded. So what if he was demoted to a servant? Qin Rigang was demoted to a servant after losing the battle. Would Vézé be worshipped after losing the battle?
Thinking about this, Vézé suppressed those meaningless emotions and said seriously, "King Of The East, I was frightened by the Prince of Yan. In order not to disappoint the King Of The East and not to be demoted to a servant, I will definitely work harder to defend Liangshan. However, I have a request. I want to set up beacon towers in the cities between Anqing and Wuhu. I hope the King Of The East will agree to it. "
"Do you think that King Yi can't defeat Demon Head Zeng?" Yang Xiuqing asked with a cold expression.
"Of course, I hope that King Yi can succeed immediately and defeat Demon Head Zeng. I want to set up beacon towers mainly to send messages quickly. Regardless of whether there is news from Wuhu to Anqing or from Anqing to Wuhu, it will naturally be much better with the beacon towers! " Vézé answered. After he finished speaking, he paused for a moment before continuing, "I know that Liangshan cannot be lost. Setting up beacon towers is completely to defend Liangshan!"
After hearing this, Yang Xiuqing stared at Vézé and unconsciously frowned. This was completely reasonable. Yang Xiuqing could not find any fault with it. Of course, if he wanted to deliberately find fault, Yang Xiuqing could certainly find countless thorns in these words. However, Yang Xiuqing did not wish to do so.
Apart from Yang Xiuqing's relatives, Vézé was the first person among the generals of the Taiping Rebellion in Yong 'an to clearly express his loyalty to Yang Xiuqing. Moreover, Yang Xiuqing's relatives did not really express their loyalty to Yang Xiuqing. They were completely based on their relationship with Yang Xiuqing. Therefore, they wanted to protect Yang Xiuqing's position and at the same time use Yang Xiuqing's position to do whatever they wanted.
Vézé's loyalty was completely different from this group of people. Apart from advocating Yang Xiuqing as the number one person in Tianping, Vézé was also one of the few people that Yang Xiuqing did not make things difficult for. He did not give discounts, did not ask for anything, and did not need anyone to help Vézé deal with the aftermath.
However, because of this, Yang Xiuqing could not understand Vézé. The brothers of the Taiping army began to gather four years ago. Everyone had their own thoughts and purposes. Four years ago, Yang Xiuqing was still a charcoal burner. Now, he was the King Of The East of the Taiping Rebellion, commanding hundreds of thousands of troops. The same was true for his other brothers. They all became high-ranking officials of the Taiping Rebellion in a very short time. They had soldiers and money. Like Yang Xiuqing, these old brothers were also very arrogant.
Being a charcoal burner was a very hard and even cruel job. Before joining the Taiping Rebellion, Yang Xiuqing had fought against strong dragons and local snakes. Therefore, it was very easy for him to deal with this group of arrogant brothers. However, Vézé was completely out of the environment that Yang Xiuqing was used to.
It was not that Vézé was a dull person. Yang Xiuqing was also very familiar with the kind of people who meekly accepted adversity. In a sense, Vézé was also a very rebellious person. He established the General Staff Headquarters and set up military ranks. When implementing these measures, Vézé was very firm. Yang Xiuqing also had some spies in Vézé's army. The intelligence of Vézé's army could not be hidden from Yang Xiuqing. He clearly saw that everything Vézé did was to build a more powerful army, not to fight against Yang Xiuqing. This was very different from his other brothers. At least until now, Vézé did not show any signs of going against Yang Xiuqing.
This made Yang Xiuqing feel very uncomfortable. He was very good at playing tricks to tame his subordinates, but Vézé did not need to be trained to be obedient. In the entire Taiping army, this was an extremely rare existence. Therefore, although Yang Xiuqing felt that he could not let go, he was also very clear that it was meaningless to excessively beat up Vézé at this time. Yang Xiuqing had already begun to work hard to beat up the other high-ranking generals. If he beat up Vézé at this time, it would not have the effect of beating up the mountain and frightening the tiger. It would only be a joke to those with ulterior motives.
Looking at Vézé's behavior, Yang Xiuqing could not help but think: Vézé, can't you really do something that annoys me and then let me beat you up?
However, Yang Xiuqing was Yang Xiuqing after all. No matter what kind of emotions he had, he could not really make him lose his rationality. No matter how unhappy he was in his heart, he still chose what he thought was the most reasonable choice. He ordered, "Then hurry up and go!"
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