? The Xianfeng Emperor had a way with people.
The Xianfeng Emperor was very skilled in personnel matters. Since the local officials in Jiangxi strongly impeached the Xiang army, The Xiang Army also needed the support of Jiangxi's money and provisions, so the Xianfeng Emperor had the Xiang Army temporarily listen to the Jiangxi officials. When the Xiang Army was a guest army, the Jiangxi officials could use all sorts of reasons to refuse to provide provisions to the Xiang Army. Now that the Xiang Army was listening to the Jiangxi officials, the Jiangxi officials had no reason to refuse to provide provisions to their "own army".
After Ceng Guofan left, Hu Linyi became the Xiang Army's supreme leader in name. However, the title of supreme leader was more of a statement or a compliment. The Xiang Army adopted a system where soldiers were generals. Each officer held military power. If they didn't listen, there was nothing anyone could do. The Xianfeng Emperor ordered Hu Linyi to take troops downstream to attack Jiangning as soon as possible.
At the Xiang Army's military conference, Hu Linyi presented Ceng Guofan's strategy. "If you want to eliminate the Guangdong bandits, you need to start with Shi Dakai, Hong Ni, and Vézé. You can't start a war with them at the same time. "
"Your Excellency, the situation in Jiangxi is already like that. It's impossible to fight in Jiangxi!" said Li Jibin, who had made great contributions in the campaign to capture Jiujiang.
Hu Linyi's subordinates all expressed their agreement. The Xianfeng Emperor had indeed ordered the Xiang Army to listen to Jiangxi's command, but this was a trick to deceive people. If the Xiang Army didn't accept it, the Jiangxi officials definitely wouldn't. So those who didn't need to provide provisions still didn't. Those who needed to plunder Jiangxi would still plunder Jiangxi. Under these circumstances, if they wanted to fight in Jiangxi, they needed to bring their own provisions. Hu Linyi's troops had just finished a major battle. If they immediately went to Jiangxi to participate in the attack on Shi Dakai, this request was clearly unreliable.
After some debate, Hu Linyi's subordinates all agreed that the most important thing now was to bring the troops back to Wuhan to rest and reorganize. After resting for several months, the troops set off from the north of the Yangtze River. First, they joined forces with Jiang Zhongyuan in Huaibei to attack Huainan. Then, they cooperated with the Xiang Army Navy to capture Anqing. At that time, the Xiang Army would be able to follow the current and attack Jiangning directly to wipe out the Taiping Rebellion.
This strategy seemed feasible. First of all, the troops could avoid the northern Jiangxi region, which had been destroyed by the Xiang Army. Hu Lin Yi, as Hubei's Inspector-General, was in charge of the Xiang Army's largest supply of provisions and soldiers. From Hubei's point of view, the Xiang Army should march directly from Hubei to Anhui instead of going to Jiangxi to fight.
At this time, the Xiang Army also knew that the Liberation Army had entered Jiangxi to fight, so they didn't want to go to Jiangxi to fight. If they were suddenly attacked from behind by the Liberation Army while they were fighting, who could stand it? Moreover, with the experience of conquering Jiujiang, Hu Lin Yi's Xiang Army was quite confident in defeating the Taiping army. Although Hu Lin Yi had a good relationship with Ceng Guofan, the generals of the Xiang Army undoubtedly preferred the founder of the Xiang Army, Jiang Zhongyuan. Going to the north of the Yangtze River to fight was in line with everyone's expectations.
Hu Lin Yi still attached great importance to Ceng Guofan's point of view, but he couldn't completely ignore the attitude of his subordinates and force his way of thinking. In addition, his subordinates first requested to go back to Hubei to rest, so Hu Lin Yi could only agree to their request.
At the beginning of August, when the Taiping army found that the Xiang Army didn't continue to attack after conquering Jiujiang, they finally felt a little relieved. At this time, the reorganization of the troops had been completed. The generals and deputy generals of the five armies were all in place. Although they had lost the hundreds of thousands of Western Expedition Army led by Shi Dakai, the Taiping Rebellion's garrison troops and field army added up to less than 150,000. Among them, the field army only numbered about 60,000.
However, there were two sides to every coin. Without those half-hearted people, the remaining generals of the Heavenly State might not be loyal to the Heavenly King, but they were all loyal to the Heavenly State. At this time, Heavenly King Hong was acting like a tyrant in Tianjing City. No one could be bothered to argue with this Heavenly King whose reputation was already in tatters. This difficult task was naturally handled by the head of the five generals, Lin Fengxiang. The generals of the five armies only needed to make corresponding moves according to the changes in the battlefield. In other words, a meeting between the generals of the five armies could decide the actions of the military troops defending the periphery of the Heavenly State. These military actions didn't need to be interfered with by Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan.
The loss of Jiujiang and the loss of the famous general Lin Qirong and 20,000 elite brothers was indeed regrettable. But Vézé sent 150 bronze cannons, as well as the casting of the cannonballs and the instruction manual for artillery training. In fact, he didn't need these "extra" gifts in the eyes of the brothers of the Taiping Rebellion. Lin Fengxiang was overjoyed at the sight of these 150 cannons with wheels. After testing it himself, Lin Fengxiang realized that these cannons could move along with the army. When they encountered a difficult path, they could even be dismantled and transported by horses or manpower. The speed of the cannons wouldn't be slower than the marching army. This completely solved the problem of cannons that had troubled Lin Fengxiang for a long time.
Of course, Lin Fengxiang's subordinates also happily claimed credit to Lin Fengxiang. This time, they didn't give Vézé the remaining money for the cannons, which helped Lin Fengxiang save tens of thousands of taels of silver. This made Lin Fengxiang furious. Vézé wasn't someone Lin Fengxiang and the rest could afford to offend. Who knew if Lin Fengxiang would ask Vézé for help in the future? The fact that they didn't give Vézé money this time was the best reason for Vézé to refuse Lin Fengxiang's requests in the future.
But in addition to scolding his subordinates, Lin Fengxiang, who used to be a fortune teller, also knew that this matter couldn't be resolved peacefully. If Vézé really wanted to continue working with Lin Fengxiang, his troops wouldn't have retreated back to Guangdong so easily. It seemed that Vézé didn't have any strong desire to continue working with them. Lin Fengxiang could only say to himself that he should temporarily be satisfied with the "windfall" of these cannons.
At this time, Jiangxi, Changzhou, and Wannan calmed down for the time being. The two directions north of the Yangtze River during the Taiping Rebellion became lively. The first direction was naturally the Jiangbei Barracks of the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks of the Qing Army. The Qing Army had crossed the river and rebuilt the Jiangbei Barracks north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu. Of course, this Jiangbei Barracks was too far away from the original Jiangbei Barracks. But this was also a signal for the Qing Army to counterattack.
The second direction was the Huai army led by Jiang Zhongyuan. They had been tenaciously attacking Shouzhou and infiltrating the Huai River defensive line that had already begun to loosen. Ever since Vézé stationed himself in Anqing in 1853 and used Anqing as a stronghold to occupy Anhui, the northern defensive line of the Taiping Rebellion had never felt such enormous pressure.
Therefore, the military conference of the commanding generals of the five armies was held in Anhui's Chaohu. This place had always been the Taiping army's food supply center. In the conference, the commanding generals of the five armies all agreed to Lin Fengxiang's suggestion. "Split up Shi Dakai and Yang Fuqing's allied forces, and do your best to pull them back first!"
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