Vézé thought to himself, "Uncultured people are really scary! Do I look like a kind and pedantic person? " One of Vézé's friends' great-grandmother's grandfather was Jiang Zhongyuan, so Vézé had paid attention to this important but unknown figure of the Taiping Rebellion.
When his friend mentioned his great-grandmother, he sighed. The daughter of the Jiang family was a concubine, but because she fell ill and became disabled, she was chased out of the house with her son and daughter. Of course, this person had also studied and experienced the evils of the backward productivity of the old society, and joined the revolution. In the new China, he successfully became a member of society again. At the mention of the evil old society, Vézé's 21st-century friend could not help but spit on it, and his spit on it was reasonable. This fully proved that the progress of society had improved the level of understanding of individuals.
Therefore, Vézé knew that Jiang Zhongyuan was a straightforward person, and had the spirit of a chivalrous man. Unless Jiang Zhongyuan really understood the situation and was determined to repent, Jiang Zhongyuan would be dead after reading the Song of Righteousness written by Wen Tianxiang after the fall of his country.
Thinking about it, Vézé said something else. "Don't worry, there is still room for consideration that the old revolution is not as good as the new revolution, but I will never create a situation where the revolutionaries are not as good as the counter-revolutionaries. Recruiting surrenders has never been our way of doing things. "
Hearing Vézé expose his thoughts, Hu Chenghe looked a little embarrassed. In previous dynasties, when a dynasty fell, it was inevitable that there would be people who surrendered, and there were many examples of this group of people becoming the new nobles of a new dynasty. When discussing the arrangements for the Nian Army, many people in the Liberation Army talked about this matter. The Nian Army did have rich experience in cavalry warfare, but how should they use these people?
As the saying goes, there is no way that four fingers are close to a stake in a stake. The Liberation Army, of course, did not want to use people outside the system, let alone let these people quickly gain status in the system. If they treated the Nian Army this way, there was no way they would show any mercy to the Huai army. However, Vézé once favored Zuo Zongtang. Even though he arranged for Zuo Zongtang to start from the bottom, it was different if Zuo Zongtang joined the party as a probationary party member, or if Vézé was the one who introduced him into the party. Hearing that Vézé had made it clear that he would not let Jiang Zhongyuan off the hook, not only Hu Chenghe, but the other comrades were also relieved.
Hu Chenghe's embarrassment only lasted for less than a minute. As the commander of the army, if he was narrow-minded, then his days would be over. At the Party Committee meeting, everyone had the experience of opposing Vézé's opinions, so they didn't feel any pressure when opposing Hu Chenghe.
"After dealing with the Huai army, who's next?" Hu Chenghe asked.
"I think we should deal with Miao Peilin first." Vézé pointed at Dezhou on the map and said, "Once we occupy Dezhou, we will have a direct passage to Beijing. By then, Beijing will be shaken, and the pressure on our troops to move north will be much less. "
This suggestion took efficiency into account. When it came to seizing territory, one had to be efficient. The Taiping Rebellion had gathered a considerable number of troops in Hanzhong, and it was obvious that they were going to deal with the Liberation Army that occupied Sichuan. According to the intelligence system of the Liberation Army, the Taiping Rebellion had eliminated the main armed forces of the Hui people, and the Shaanxi machetemen had systematically cleaned up the northwest. Other than Xinjiang, the chaos had been eliminated. In a sense, the Taiping Rebellion had completed its mission, and there was an option to "let it die."
Vézé explained his opinion. "Currently, the three military districts of Hubei, Anhui, and Xuzhou have sufficient supplies, and the budget is far from exceeding the budget. It doesn't seem to be a problem to fight until November. "
When it came to the budget, Hu Chenghe suddenly remembered something. He smiled and said, "Commander-in-chief, the Tokugawa shogunate recently came to beg us to send troops. I heard that they failed in the second Choshu expedition. Should we get a sum of money from them to subsidize military expenses? Also, the cleansing of the natives in Luzon has not been settled yet. I read the information, and it turns out that the Spanish also relied on Japanese ronin to clean up the island. "
Even though he knew that Hu Chenghe was joking, Vézé waved his hand. "Don't worry about that. There will be opportunities to intervene in Japan. The most important thing right now is to quickly liberate the four northern provinces. The navy needs good birch wood to build ships. Not to mention outside the Great Wall, there is such good wood on the Liaodong Peninsula! "
At the mention of the navy, the military commission immediately became spirited. It was 1867, at most three years from 1870. It would take two or three years for the wood to dry naturally, and it would take time to build a large number of warships. The territory of the Dutch East Indies was not a small area. Luzon and Lanfang province combined were not that big. How many problems could he solve if he swallowed up such a large territory?
"What about Ceng Guofan?" Lin Jiajun, the commander of the navy, asked immediately. He was the person most concerned about the construction of the navy, so he paid special attention to collecting the latest war situation.
"The Xiang Army, I don't think the Xiang Army will be like the Huai army. At this time, they will run away." Vézé made his own judgment.
While Vézé and the comrades of the military commission were discussing Ceng Guofan, Ceng Guofan was also discussing his own way out with the Xiang Army. The news of the Liberation Army going north shocked the Xiang Army. In the view of the Xiang Army, in recent years, the Liberation Army seemed to have completely lost the spirit of progress and was only satisfied with the southern territory occupied.
This was a problem of insufficient intelligence. Of course, the Xiang Army did not know that at this time, the Liberation Army was vigorously expanding in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and even intervening in North America. Of course, even if they heard some news, they did not know where the Liberation Army intervened.
But since the Liberation Army began to take action, it would not be a small movement. The idea of the Huai army emissaries was to ask the Xiang Army to immediately go south to help the Huai army. The Xiang Army did not accept this idea, so the generals all looked at Ceng Guofan, hoping that he could clearly say something against it.
"The bandits will be destroyed in a day. We must hurry up and kill them!" Ceng Guofan said with a cold face. With a loyal soldier like Jiang Zhongyuan guarding Huaibei, Ceng Guofan could fight in Henan with peace of mind. Originally, the Xiang Army thought that they had fought hard to conquer Huoyang, and there was no reason to let the Huai army take over. In the past two years, the Huai army would transport the military food to the Xiang Army after collecting the food, and the Xiang Army no longer criticized them. Because the Xiang Army knew that they could not do such a loyal thing.
As for Ceng Guofan himself, he trusted Jiang Zhongyuan very much. As early as twenty years ago, he had said this about Jiang Zhongyuan. "I have never seen such a person in my life. He should make a name for himself and die a martyr." That was what he said, and that was what he believed.
At this time, the war in Henan had entered the final critical stage. The Nian Army was almost at the end of its rope by the Sengrinchen and the Xiang Army. As long as they worked harder, they would be able to wipe out the Nian Army. If they gave up chasing the Nian Army and turned to save the Huai army, the result would be that the Huai army could not be saved, and the Nian Army could regroup. Ceng Guofan would never allow that to happen.
More importantly, if the Huai army was wiped out, the Xiang Army would not be able to conquer Henan. Then there would be no way to fight the war after that. As long as the Liberation Army could persuade the Nian Army to surrender, they could use the Nian Army to deal a fatal blow to the Xiang Army.
It must be admitted that Ceng Guofan's mental state was much more stable than Jiang Zhongyuan's. At this time, he did not think about the possibility of the Manchu Qing being wiped out. Instead, he was trying his best to make the overall situation more favorable to the Xiang Army before the war.
Seeing that Ceng Guofan did not have any intention of saving the Huai army, the generals of the Xiang Army were relieved. Bao Chao suggested, "Marshal, based on the previous movements of the Nian Bandits, I am afraid they are going to split up and run again. I think they will eventually want to return to Chenzhou. "
From May to July, the Nian Army barely managed to escape under the pursuit of the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Xiang Army. At this time, Luoyang had been seized by Li Hongzhang, and the Nian Army could no longer get food from Luoyang. In the places where the Xiang Army pursued, the Nian Army had already done their best to plunder the local food, leaving the Xiang Army with no food to collect. At this time, the western and central Henan provinces were out of food. But the food in Chenzhou had already been harvested. As long as they could take Chenzhou, the Nian Army could get rid of the food shortage.
Bao Chao was a fierce general of the Xiang Army. His suggestion immediately received the approval of many generals of the Xiang Army. After fighting with the Nian Army for so long, the Xiang Army had figured out the Nian Army's tactics. The Nian Army was best at moving over long distances, temporarily getting rid of the pursuers. After resting for a while, they would continue to tangle with the pursuers. As long as they could determine the next target of the Nian Army and stop them before the Nian Army, they would have a chance of winning.
"Marshal, even if the Nian Army doesn't go to Chenzhou, we can still replenish our food after we take it," Ceng Guoquan said.
Ceng Guofan listened to his brother's words and finally nodded in agreement. He said, "As long as Huaibei can hold on for a while longer, we can eliminate the Nian Bandits and pacify the four provinces. At that time, we can fight to the death with Wei Gou! "
When Ceng Guofan said this, it was the seventh day since the Liberation Army surrounded Suzhou. Lei Hu had already decided to attack the city on the eighth day. The siege didn't need to be so late, but a large number of people escaped from Suzhou to avoid the flames of war. In Suzhou, Jiang Zhongyuan didn't trample on the people like the Huai army in Fuyang. He didn't stop the people if they wanted to leave.
When they were screening the people, they found that there were many officers and soldiers of the Huai army among them. Of course, the troops arrested this group of people. When their identities were exposed, this group of people knelt and begged for mercy. They said, "Master, we don't want to fight anymore. We don't want to be the Huai army anymore. We just want to go home to farm and live peacefully. Master, please let us live! "
After an inspection, the Huai army didn't carry any weapons. It didn't seem like they had bad intentions. Of course, this group of people's goal could be to escape from Suzhou and go to Huoyang and other places in the west to join the Huai army again. But in this era, people without weapons were useless. In the end, Lei Hu only temporarily locked up this group of people. He was going to make a decision after taking Suzhou.
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