Chapter 381

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Lin Fengxiang had no intention of engaging in political struggles, but he very much wanted to establish a General Staff Department system in the Taiping Army to strengthen the fighting capacity of the Taiping Army. After expressing his views in the court, Lin Fengxiang began to contact people from all sides. The first person they contacted was naturally King Chen Yucheng of England, who had suffered great losses.

However, if one were to look closely, Chen Yucheng was a short and handsome man. If one only looked at him from his appearance, one would not be able to guess that he was famous for being a fierce general. If one only looked at his appearance, no one would think that this man was famous for being a valiant general. When Lin Fengxiang came to visit Chen Yucheng, he did not look like he had lost his wits after the great defeat.

When Lin Fengxiang came to visit Chen Yucheng, Chen Yucheng did not look like he had lost his wits after the great defeat. Without needing Lin Fengxiang to say anything, Chen Yucheng took the initiative and said, "King Zhang, if you want me to join forces with you, I have no objections. However, I have something to tell King Zhang. "

Chen Yucheng was Chen Cheng? According to seniority, he was Lin Fengxiang's nephew. Therefore, he did not dare to address Lin Fengxiang as Lin Da Ge like the others. Instead, he addressed Lin Fengxiang as King Zhang.

Lin Fengxiang nodded. "There's no harm in being frank."

Chen Yucheng's handsome face was solemn. He said slowly, "After listening to King Zhang's explanation of the General Staff Headquarters system, I suddenly understood. It turns out that I'm learning from Prince Of Qi, but now I know that I'm much weaker than Prince Of Qi. However, other than the General Staff Headquarters system, there's another big gap between us and Prince Of Qi. Prince Of Qi's firearms are excellent. Prince Of Qi started using a firearm seven years ago, and we're still using a firearm. As for cannons, we're much weaker than Prince Of Qi. That's why Prince Of Qi always fights head-on. No matter what kind of enemy they are, he'll defeat them head-on. At a distance, he would shoot with a gun, but at a close distance, he would stab with a bayonet. But if they're near, they'll be attacked with a spear or stabbed with a spear. Our army may not be able to use Prince Qi's tactics. "

Lin Fengxiang nodded slightly after listening. He had a few middle-level officers under him who had been "wronged" by Wei Ze and came to seek shelter. According to them, Wei Ze's current troops had already eliminated the "advanced" firearm and replaced it with a rear-loading rifle commonly known as a one-on-one rifle. "" This rifle "was said to be. A soldier with good marksmanship could accurately kill an enemy from two hundred meters away. With Wei Ze's military management skills, after changing to such weapons, the Xiang army could not withstand a single blow. In terms of weapons, Vézé didn't want to compete with Vézé.

So Lin Fengxiang answered, "Yucheng, with the standard of the Xiang Army, a firearm is enough. Prince Of Qi's tactics are different from ours. He doesn't care how the enemy comes, he'll just attack them. Moreover, in the battle plan formulated by the General Staff Headquarters, the echelon arrangement was extremely good. Who's going to attack and who's going to outflank the enemy is part of the overall strategy. That's why Prince Of Qi always sends out his troops to fight a tough battle. Yucheng, even for someone like you who's good at fighting, there are only a few troops that can fight a tough battle. Prince Of Qi calls this kind of troops a field army. When Prince Of Qi left, he had at least 30,000 field troops. Our Taiping army now has 400,000 to 500,000 troops. I'm afraid there's less than 30,000 troops that can match the standard of Prince Of Qi's field army. "

Chen Yucheng had no intention of refuting this comment. As a general recognized by the Taiping army, Chen Yucheng had less than 5,000 troops that could fire a volley of guns and fight in close combat. If his troops were like that, there were even fewer soldiers of this standard in the other troops. Now that the Taiping army had suffered heavy losses in Huainan and lost more than 100,000 troops, It was a fair judgment to say that there were less than 30,000 field troops.

"How many of them are there in King Zhang's army?" Li Yucheng asked.

"Less than 10,000," Lin Fengxiang answered.

"There are so many of them?" Li Yucheng said in surprise.

Lin Fengxiang said seriously, "I proposed to establish the General Staff Headquarters because I want to pull Zhang Yingchen's royal guards into it. Zhang Yingchen had always been Prince Of Qi's subordinate, so he learned a lot from Prince Of Qi's training methods. "With the three of us working together, it's still possible to gather 20,000 field troops. With these 20,000 troops and the support of other troops, it's not impossible to defeat the Xiang Army. If our army continues to fight separately like this, fighting the Xiang army, the chances of victory and defeat is only fifty-fifty. Prince Of Qi was able to dominate the world because he defeated the enemy in every battle. I heard that the key to Prince Of Qi's war is that it's better to break one than to injure ten fingers. "The more the field troops are, the more prepared they are, and the fewer casualties they will suffer in battle. "The enemy's elite troops are constantly being lost. They either have to rob Peter to pay Paul, or recruit new soldiers, so their combat effectiveness is getting worse."

Chen Yucheng nodded slightly. He agreed with Lin Fengxiang. After Vézé left the Taiping Rebellion, the Taiping Rebellion no longer had a field army like Vézé, who could easily defeat the enemy troops. All the generals treated their elite troops as treasures and chips to decide the outcome of the battle at critical moments. It was even more impossible for them to bring their own elite troops to join forces with other generals. This kind of cowardice and wishful thinking led to the loss of many battles that could have been won.

Lin Fengxiang tried to persuade him, "Yucheng, things with Zhang Yingchen won't go so smoothly. But if you and I join forces, I'll let you be in charge of the troops and I'll be the chief of staff. "Everything will be like Prince Of Qi's General Staff Headquarters. My troops have a combat training department that specializes in training troops, and the field troops will be replenished. They will only get stronger as the battle goes on. "I didn't know Prince Of Qi's trick in training troops before. His troops are divided into non-commissioned officers and officers. "In the troops, he teaches everyone how to read and write. Even the non-commissioned officers can read and understand military orders. They can even write military orders. "With these non-commissioned officers in charge, the troops are really at their beck and call. "Compared to Prince Of Qi, the non-commissioned officers under my command are not qualified at all, let alone the officers. "Prince Of Qi always uses the strong to defeat the weak, so he gets stronger as the battle goes on. "But now that we have a strong army, we can't wait to hide it for fear that something will go wrong. On the contrary, the more we fight, the weaker we become. "

After listening to Lin Fengxiang's explanation, Chen Yucheng was full of praise. However, when he thought about the fact that his troops would be merged with Lin Fengxiang's from now on, Chen Yucheng felt a knot in his heart. Even if Chen Yucheng had agreed, whether his subordinates would be willing to merge with Lin Fengxiang and adopt a new military system after the merger, Chen Yucheng was not optimistic at all. He could only say that he would discuss this matter with his subordinates first and try his best to make it happen.

Chen Yucheng's reply did not exceed Lin Fengxiang's expectations. If Chen Yucheng had said that he would definitely get things done, Lin Fengxiang would have been surprised. Vézé's troops had a natural advantage in establishing a system. Nine years ago, when they only had a few thousand troops, they had already established the system of the General Staff. When they expanded the army, there was a system in place, and the troops were completely unified. Thinking about how the Taiping army had not only failed to be unified all these years, but had instead become more and more divided, Lin Fengxiang only felt a little sad.

After reaching an agreement with Chen Yucheng, Lin Fengxiang continued to visit the other civil and military officials in Tianjing City. However, Zhang Yingchen did not receive Lin Fengxiang. When Lin Fengxiang went to visit him, he was rejected at the door. Zhang Yingchen was "sick".

Just as Lin Fengxiang was working hard, Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan issued an edict. The edict used the reason that there was not much food in Tianjing City as an excuse to order Lin Fengxiang to go to the East and West Liangshan to be stationed there. The East and West Liangshan Mountains were very close to Wuhu. The edict was very polite. The food supply for Lin Fengxiang's troops would be handled by Wuhu.

Lin Fengxiang was not a fool. After reading the edict, he understood Hong Xiuquan's intention. It was very obvious that Hong Xiuquan did not want to establish the system of the General Staff, so he directly sent Lin Fengxiang to the East and West Liangshan Mountains, which was far away from Tianjing City. As long as no one in Tianjing City took the initiative to establish the system of the General Staff, this matter would end there.

Because he understood Hong Xiuquan's intention, Lin Fengxiang immediately went to see Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan. The reply he received was, "The Heavenly King is unwell and cannot see your subject!" This reason made Lin Fengxiang furious. If Hong Xiuquan was not willing to establish the system of the General Staff, he could openly oppose it. What was the point of using this kind of politics?

But Hong Xiuquan did not appear, and Lin Fengxiang could not directly rush into the palace, capture Hong Xiuquan, and interrogate him. Moreover, Hong Xiuquan did not attend court, but he still had enough power to influence the court. Prince An Hong Renfa and Prince Fu Hong Renda revealed their value at this time. The two first publicly said that Hong Xiuquan had ordered Lin Fengxiang to guard the East and West Liangshan Mountains, and then urged Lin Fengxiang to hurry up and not waste time in Tianjing City. Prince Fu Hong Renda even publicly said, "Prince Zhang, since the Heavenly King has ordered, we can only stop your food supply in Tianjing. As long as you go to the East and West Liangshan Mountains, you will naturally be able to get food from Wuhu. "

Lin Fengxiang had a lot of dissatisfaction with Shi Dakai, but the fact that Shi Dakai forced Hong Xiuquan to take away Hong Renfa and Hong Renda's titles, Lin Fengxiang could not agree more. It was because of such a bastard running amok in Tianjing City that the generals outside were increasingly desperate against the central government of the Taiping Rebellion.

But no matter how dissatisfied he was, Lin Fengxiang could not force Hong Xiuquan to act according to Lin Fengxiang's plan. As a last resort, Lin Fengxiang could only first lead the troops to the East and West Liangshan Mountains.

On the day Lin Fengxiang left with the troops, a messenger secretly contacted Lin Fengxiang. At night, when the troops were stationed, Lin Fengxiang secretly left the camp with the guards. According to the agreement, Lin Fengxiang met with another small team. Although it was not very clear in the darkness, Lin Fengxiang could still recognize the man in the lead. He smiled, "Brother Zhang, I didn't expect you to still be willing to see me."

Opposite him, Zhang Yingchen sighed. "If I publicly see Lin Da Ge, the Heavenly King will immediately know. Then I can only not see him. I hope Lin Da Ge does not blame me. "

Lin Fengxiang did not want to discuss the reaction of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan. He ordered his subordinates to be on guard. He and Zhang Yingchen were alone together, and the surrounding guards could not hear the content of their conversation. Lin Fengxiang asked in a low voice, "Then why did Brother Zhang come to see me this time?"

Zhang Yingchen said frankly, "Lin Da Ge, I naturally agree with the unification of military orders. If we really join forces to form a field army and combat training department, the first three months will probably be difficult. After the first three months, the days after that will be better. However, such a good thing can only be thought of, not done. The Heavenly King only wants to seize power for himself now. If Lin Da Ge really succeeds, the Heavenly King will only feel that there is another King Of The East. "

Lin Fengxiang could not say anything to Zhang Yingchen's frank evaluation. He said, "But if we don't do this, how long can the Heavenly State last?"

Zhang Yingchen smiled. "If Lin Da Ge wants to succeed, he can only be like the King Of The East and let the Heavenly King be an obedient puppet in the palace. If not, the Heavenly King will give orders. Right now, he is only afraid that someone else will seize power and seize his Heavenly State. Everything else is secondary. If Lin Da Ge hopes to borrow the power of the Heavenly King to push something, it's better to give up on this thought as soon as possible. "

"Brother Zhang, did you come out just to tell me this?" Lin Fengxiang asked with a trace of hope.

Zhang Yingchen answered, "Lin Da Ge, I respect your character. Even at this time, you are still thinking about the Heavenly State. I'm telling you this because I want to make things clear. I can't help you anymore. Big Brother Lin, take care of yourself! "R1058