Li Hongzhang pretended to be calm as he listened to the secret envoy's report. After hearing that the Liberation Army accepted Li Hongzhang's request to surrender, he was greatly relieved. The Liberation Army did not make any requests to Li Hongzhang. They just wanted him to guard Luoyang and surrender obediently after the Liberation Army arrived in Luoyang. This situation made Li Hongzhang feel very panicked.
According to reason, the Liberation Army could not be so tolerant to Li Hongzhang. If the surrendered generals did not make outstanding contributions and only surrendered obediently, they would generally not end up well. Even if the Liberation Army asked Li Hongzhang to attack the Xiang Army, it would make Li Hongzhang feel much more at ease than now.
However, the surrender could not be discussed with his subordinates. If his subordinates knew about it, he was afraid that there would be no good results. Li Hongzhang thought gloomily, "Is it possible that as a genuine Jinshi, with such a cunning and accurate strategic vision, he is worthless?"
However, Li Hongzhang tried his best to dispel the discomfort and uneasiness in his heart. He knew that he was not qualified to ask for more. Li Hongzhang knew that when the Liberation Army went north, Manchu Qing would be finished. The Liberation Army had newspapers in their territory. Jiang Zhongyuan sneered at the Liberation Army's newspapers, but Li Hongzhang felt as if he had found a treasure. Whether it was land reform or industrial development, the construction of railways, the construction of ports, including the Liberation Army's declaration of war against Spain and the recapture of Luzon. The deep meaning of the article in the newspaper shocked this able official greatly. Of course, the biggest shock was seeing the name of Zuo Zongtang in the signed article.
Of course, the Huai army had no chance to confirm that this Zuo Zongtang was that Zuo Zongtang. Li Hongzhang would rather believe that the Liberation Army was willing to recruit the surrendered army. Compared with the worship of God during the Taiping Rebellion, the contents of the Liberation Army's newspaper were undoubtedly matters of concern to the imperial court. Of course, it was not a tradition of the Manchu Qing to care about the interests of the common people. Li Hongzhang was a second-rank Jinshi, while his father, Li Wenan, was a third-rank Jinshi and an official of the Ministry of Justice.
According to historical records, Wen An Ju was a loyal and upright official who governed the country with filial piety and friends. He governed the prison and was dedicated to his duties. His political standing was outstanding. When he was in charge of the Prison Guard Hall, he restrained the prisoners and forbade the jailers from abusing the prisoners. It was a rule that every prisoner was given a spoonful of food. Wen An San's food had to be filled to the brim and tasted. Donating rice to cook porridge for the prisoners who arrive at night. It was easy to get sick in prison, so Wen An Pharmacy was prepared. In summer they were given cattail leaf fans, in autumn and winter they donated cotton-padded clothes to the various departments, and also bought more cotton-padded quilts for the sick prisoners to sweat and recuperate. The dead are not spared in prison. The chief of the Autumn Inquisition had also been rehabilitated. He had not been wronged and was known as an elder.
With such a father, Li Hongzhang was different from the chivalrous Jiang Zhongyuan, and different from Zeng Guofan, who placed the interests of the landlord class above all else. He had received his father's education since he was a child and knew how to be loyal to politics. When it came to political affairs, there was nothing more than the word "patience". When the Liberation Army publicized that they were doing things for the people, they were simply tireless. Jiang Zhongyuan had once ridiculed the Liberation Army for fishing for fame. Li Hongzhang agreed verbally, but in his heart he did not agree. With his father's teachings, Li Hongzhang knew very well that political operations were much more complicated than what the newspapers said.
What the Liberation Army displayed was undoubtedly the true spirit of a new generation. They dared to face social problems and had the courage to solve them. This kind of style was not something the Taiping Rebellion could compare to. Even the Manchu Qing Imperial Court could not compare at all. For example, after the Liberation Army established the Commissariat Bureau, it provided six catties of oil to families with household registers at a low price every month. The Liberation Army treated this as an important task. The Huai army turned a deaf ear to this. After reading it, Li Hongzhang was frightened.
Under the rule of the Liberation Army, if there were ten million households with household registers, it would be thirty million catties of oil a month, and three hundred and sixty million catties of cooking oil a year. Now, one mu of high-grade fields could produce at most a few dozen catties of rape per mu. Even if it was impossible to produce a hundred catties per mu, the Liberation Army would have to take out 7.2 million mu of fertile land to plant crops to produce rapeseed oil and peanut oil.
The Manchu Qing had calculated that there were about five hundred million people in the country, and each person had one mu of land. In other words, there was no more than nine hundred million mu of land in the country. Even if the Liberation Army took up forty percent of it, it was only three hundred and sixty million mu. The ratio of high-grade fields to low-grade fields was about one to four, and the Liberation Army's high-grade fields were only ninety million mu. Taking out eight percent of the land to plant oil crops was simply a big joke.
Li Hongzhang did not know that the purpose of the Liberation Army's expansion in the South China Sea was to increase the supply of cooking oil. In the twenty-first century, China imported more than twenty million tons of palm oil from Southeast Asia every year. Vézé hoped that by the year 1880, China would be able to produce ten million tons of palm oil from the South China Sea every year. According to the calculation of a population of one hundred million, the per capita palm oil could reach twenty catties. With the addition of rapeseed oil, peanut oil, and coconut oil, not only would there be no pressure on cooking oil, but even soap and other oil chemical products would be basically satisfied.
If Li Hongzhang knew about Vézé's ambition, he would probably wet his pants in fear. Even if he did not know about Vézé's ambition, Li Hongzhang still knew that the Manchu Qing was unable to fight against the Liberation Army.
In the face of the doomed fate of destruction, Jiang Zhongyuan chose the narcissism of "going against millions of people", while Ceng Guofan chose to fight to the end like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. And Li Hongzhang's choice was very simple. He wanted to live, and absolutely would not be buried with the Manchu Qing.
Therefore, when Li Hongzhang received the news that Sengrinchen's Eight Banners of Mongolia had been completely defeated by the Nian Army, and Sengrinchen had died in battle. When he heard the news that the Xiang Army had defeated the Nian Army, and that the remaining Nian Army had fled south, he was shocked and greatly relieved. What the Manchu Qing court really trusted was not the Huai army, but the Eight Banners of Mongolia led by Sengrinchen. Sengrinchen was the cousin of the Xianfeng Emperor, and a hereditary prince that the Manchu Qing court trusted sincerely. What kind of person was Ceng Guofan? He was just a Han official, a lackey.
If the hereditary prince Sengrinchen had won a great victory, and Ceng Guofan had been defeated and killed, the court would feel that they had lost a lackey and put on an act. If the hereditary prince Sengrinchen had been destroyed, the court would probably only have the desire to kill Ceng Guofan. Thinking that his teacher Ceng Guofan had fallen to such a state, Li Hongzhang could only sigh deeply.
The reaction of the Manchu Qing court after receiving the battle report was exactly the same as what Li Hongzhang had imagined. When reading the memorial, all the officials were shocked speechless.
The battle report clearly stated that on the morning of August 3, the Nian Army suddenly launched a fierce attack on Sengrinchen. Zhang Zongyu and Ren Zhu led the cavalry to attack Sengrinchen's Eight Banners of Mongolia. Sengrinchen, who had once defeated the Eastern Nian Army, did not hesitate to launch a counterattack. The Nian Army's cavalry attacked Sengrinchen fiercely, while the infantry mainly attacked the Xiang Army.
After fighting for a whole morning under the scorching sun, Sengrinchen's two flanks were defeated one after the other. Zhang Zongyu and Ren Zhu's cavalry surrounded the Sengrinchen army's center. Sengrinchen personally led the troops and fought fiercely, but they were outnumbered. The eight thousand cavalry in the center were surrounded by the twenty thousand Nian Army, and in the end, they were completely annihilated.
The thirty thousand Xiang Army faced the twenty thousand Nian Army's fierce attack in a completely different situation. The Nian Army's cannons were sharp, while the Xiang Army faced the enemy in a well-organized formation. Both sides bombarded each other for the whole morning. At noon, the Nian Army also divided into three groups to attack the Xiang Army. The Xiang Army did not show any weakness, and met the attack in three groups.
The Nian Army on the left and right were beaten back by the Xiang Army. The five thousand Nian Army's elite troops and the six thousand Bao's elite troops engaged in a volley of gunfire. The cannons of both sides roared, and the Xiang Army and the Nian Army fell row by row under the sweeping bullets and cannons. Bao was commanding the battle from the front line. The brutal battle lasted less than two hours. The Nian Army's infantry was the first to collapse. Bao led his troops to attack fiercely, and the Nian Army was immediately defeated. Not only were twenty to thirty thousand of the infantry killed, even the main camp was seized by the Xiang Army.
After annihilating the Sengrinchen, the Nian Army's cavalry saw that their main camp was lost. After looting the Sengrinchen's camp, they fled south. The Qing Army's Sengrinchen and the Xiang Army paid a price of more than twenty thousand men, and annihilated nearly forty thousand Nian Army troops. The Nian Army, which once had nearly two hundred thousand soldiers and wreaked havoc in the four provinces north of the Huai River, had less than a tenth of its strength left. More than ten thousand Nian Army troops fled south. In the short term, it would be impossible for them to pose any threat to the four provinces north of the Huai River.
The tragic battle was clearly written in the memorial. Before the battle, the Sengrinchen and Ceng Guofan had reached an agreement. Before the battle, they would each defeat the enemy in front of them and then reinforce the enemy. After a moment of silence, a prince suddenly stood up and said with tears in his eyes, "Why didn't Ceng Guofan die?"
Cixi jumped in fright. Ci An was originally frowning in contemplation, but when he heard this, his face was filled with anger. Prince Gong Yixin's face was filled with shock. He did not expect that someone would come up with such an outrageous argument.
Prince Gong Yixin might think that this argument was outrageous, but the Manchurian ministers did not think that it was outrageous. Immediately, a few Manchurian ministers echoed with tears in their eyes, "Why didn't Ceng Guofan die? The one who died was the Monk King? "
"Why didn't the Xiang Army protect the Monk King?"
"Ceng Guofan deliberately left the Monk King to die. The Xiang Army has ulterior motives!"
With someone taking the lead, the Manchurian ministers all stepped forward and knelt down to express their opinions.
Ci An's face was pale with anger. She was originally shocked by the tragic battle described in the memorial. The Nian Army and the Qing Army had invested nearly one hundred thousand soldiers in the decisive battle in Chenzhou. Although they had unfortunately lost Prince Sengrinchen in this battle, the Nian Army had also suffered a great loss of strength. The Eastern Nian Army was now only left with a few scattered troops. Li Hongzhang had recaptured Luoyang. Sengrinchen and the Xiang Army had defeated the strongest Western Nian Army. The imperial court could finally breathe a sigh of relief. As long as they could get rid of Miao Peilin, the Qing Army could build a line of defense in Henan and Shandong to deal with the Liberation Army in the south.
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