Time flips back, and on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month of the first year of Tongzhi, Gaoyi City, Zhaozhou, Zhili, bordering Zhengding Prefecture. .

In the biting cold wind, white snowflakes scattered down unknowingly, and once again whitened the wilderness fields outside the city. People who had been busy for a year walked in the wind and snow with their newly bought New Year's goods. Although they were cold, the New Year's goods in their hands were pitifully thin, but their faces were filled with festive smiles of the New Year.

Compared with the common people in eastern Zhili, the people in Gaoyi are really very happy. The harsh taxes are getting heavier, but they have not been affected by the diversion of the Yellow River and have never suffered from military disasters. No matter how difficult life is, they can grind some tofu during the Chinese New Year, buy half a pound of pork, and mix it into chopped cabbage and radish to make dumplings for the Chinese New Year. No matter how badly you wear, you can smile a little on this day.

When passing through the military schoolyard outside the east gate, some people who were not too busy stopped and looked at the Qing army soldiers who were training in the schoolyard curiously. They didn't understand why these Qing army soldiers were still struggling in the schoolyard due to heavy snow, queuing forward in strange formations, constantly changing into even more strange formations.

Although I don't understand, the people of Gaoyi loved the Qing army that came to Gaoyi some time ago. When they came, many soldiers were wearing single clothes and barefoot in the snow, but they didn't rob the common people of a cotton coat or a pair of shoes. After they arrived, they never reached out to ask the people of Gaoyi for a penny. They honestly paid when buying things, and never stepped on the farmland. Occasionally, once the war horses ate wheat seedlings in the fields near the camp. The officials also came to the door to apologize and compensate for the losses. They were not like the previous few official troops passing by Gaoyi.

When the people of Gaoyi looked at the Qing military academy, they didn't know that Fu Zhenbang, the chief general of the Qing army, was also watching them on the stage. When they looked at the meager New Year's goods in their hands, Fu Zhenbang's eyes were almost breathing fire, wishing that thousands of kilograms of grain and dozens of fat pigs could fall from the sky, and a pile of cotton coats and quilts could emerge from the ground, so that the soldiers under his command could eat dumplings and have a good sleep on the New Year's Eve.

In the wind and snow, Zhang Guoliang, who had already formed a life-and-death friendship with Fu Zhenbang, walked up to the stage and asked Fu Zhenbang: "Weiping, why haven't your supplies been delivered yet? Is there something wrong there again?"

"God knows!" Fu Zhenbang said in a rare tone, "I promised to send it before the twenty-seventh. Today I am thirty, and I still have no sign yet!"

"Ninety-nine is the one who made Yi Xing again?" Zhang Guoliang analyzed: "He remembered the grudges of Wuyang. He deliberately beat you up once or twice. Now he deliberately wants you to celebrate the New Year hungry?"

Fu Zhenbang refused to answer, but said in his heart who could be there besides him? Zhang Guoliang said again: "It seems that it is impossible not to complain to the official platform. I will write a letter and send a quick horse to the official platform."

Fu Zhenbang shook his head in pain and said, "Dian minister, there is no need. You are always a guest general. If you are too involved in such a thing, it will not be good for you."

"You just like to be tolerant." Zhang Guoliang said hatefully: "If it were me, I would have been holding a knife and chopped up the bastard Yixing's dog! In the Wuyang incident, he was greedy for merit and falsely claimed that he had wiped out all the Wuyang Nian bandits, causing you to be ambushed and almost died. You impeached him and said, "What kind of face does he have to seek personal revenge for you?"

Fu Zhenbang refused to answer, and after a while he sighed, "Who said he was a Mongolian bannerman, and his thighs were well-held? Is there a monk who helped him?"

"That Mongolian miscellaneous thing is useless in war, but he is good at cheating people." Zhang Guoliang cursed again, and then said, "It's decided that your supplies are delayed. I will tell you the official platform for you. The New Year's Day is also covered by me. I will give you half of the rewards for my New Year, so that your brothers can eat dumplings. Don't be too wronged. In the future, you will have to rely on them to work hard on the battlefield!"

Although Fu Zhenbang repeatedly refused, Zhang Guoliang, who was provided by Zhaozhou, distributed half of his New Year's supplies and forced him to Fu Zhenbang's camp, allowing the Qing army soldiers under Fu Zhenbang's troops to have a meal of dumplings on the night of 30, and were not so miserable that they were hungry for the New Year.

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Zhili Acting Admiral Yi Xing'a promised to give Fu Zhenbang's army supplies to Fu Zhenbang's army. What made Fu Zhenbang tremble in anger was that the amount of food and supplies that Yi had sent for several days was still insufficient. The cotton coats and quilts that he had asked for many times were still missing. The so-called New Year rewards were just ten thin old sows. Gong Yaolun and Tian Zaitian and other generals cursed, and Zhang Guoliang was so angry that he wrote to the official text to complain to Fu Zhenbang again.

Unfortunately, Zhang Guoliang failed to deliver two complaints to Guan Wen, because on the morning of the first day of the first lunar month of the second year of Tongzhi, Guan Wen had already received the news that Zeng Guoquan suddenly turned around and headed north to the capital. In shock, Guan Wen could only hurriedly adjust the military deployment and draw the main elites back to the capital.

The capital is the most important thing, so Guan Wen has to personally lead his army back to the capital. However, the Zhengding battlefield must also leave the general and the army to continue to defend. Otherwise, once the Wu army in Shanxi took the opportunity to break through the Qing army's Jingxing defense line, the Qing army in Zhili would have really come to the front gate to the wolf and the back gate to the tiger. As a result, at this time, Guan Wen discovered that he could not find such a reliable person under his command to take over the Jingxing defense line, so that he could concentrate on returning to the capital without distraction.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, Shi Dakai was promoted by the monks to act as the admiral of Zhili during the Northern Expedition, and volunteered: "Don't worry, the official platform is in charge, and the last general Yixing A can guard Zhengding for you and guard against the thieves in Shanxi Wu!"

Although Yixing'a is qualified to take on this burden temporarily, Guan Wen did not agree immediately, but went to see other civil and military officials under his tent. Unfortunately, although several civil and military officials stood up and volunteered, they either lacked qualifications or prestige or made Guan Wen even more worried in terms of ability and ability. So with no choice, Guan Wen could only turn his attention back to Yixing'a and asked hesitantly: "General Yi, are you sure to defend the Jingxing defense line without any omissions?"

"Please rest assured that even if the thieves from Shanxi Wu come to attack, the last general will keep it..."

I wanted to pat my chest and say that the Wu army in Shanxi will never come back and kill them all, but considering that Guan Wen and the monk prince have different tempers and are relatively more pragmatic, Yixinga quickly changed his words and said, "...The custody makes it impossible for them to cross Jingxing one step, ensuring that the Jingxing defense line is foolproof!"

Seeing that Yi Xing's answer was both confident and cautious, Guan Wen felt a little relieved, and then he thought about it before saying, "Remember two points. The first is to only guard the city and never be allowed to fight in danger! The second is that the investment of troops must be of level. You must never put all the main forces on the Jingxing battlefield. The terrain there is too narrow and too many troops will only give Shanxi Wu thieves a chance to take the opportunity to fight to the decisive battle. Relying on the natural danger of the mountain road, it is best to pull the Wu thieves into consumption and hard battle."

Yixinga quickly agreed, patted his chest and promised to keep Guan Wen's advice in mind, and would never give Shanxi Wu army any opportunity to take advantage of. Guan Wen nodded and said, "After I lead the main force, the Shanxi Wu thieves will definitely try every means to find out the reasons. Once the Shanxi Wu thieves learn the truth, they will definitely take the opportunity to attack Jingxing with all their might, increasing your pressure. Therefore, for the reason why I took away the main force, you must block the news, so that the Shanxi Wu thieves cannot figure out the details and dare not advance easily, so that your pressure will be much smaller."

Yixing A promised to be a little absent-minded, but fortunately his expression was not reflected. Guan Wen then dispatched troops and decided to let Yixing A lead the headquarters to improve the standards, command the general of Zhengding Prefecture, Shuanglu, General of Daming Prefecture, Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang, three troops of troops stayed at the Jingxing defense line. At the same time, he went to Wengaoyi as soon as possible and ordered Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang to lead the army north to meet with Yixing A. As a result, at this time, Yixing A immediately said: "The official platform is the last general, and the last general has no power to directly command the troops?"

After hesitating for a moment, Guan Wen replied: "It's okay, I will give Zhang Guoliang a separate order to temporarily accept your restraint and will also be your order."

When Yi Xinga heard this, he quickly thanked Guan Wen repeatedly, and his heart was even more grinning, "Wait for the sake of Zhang, wait and see. A gentleman takes revenge, it's not too late for ten years. This time, do you dare to help Fu Zhenbang's son to sue me for his slander?"

After quickly arranged the candidates and troops of the generals and troops who stayed at the Jingxing Defense Line, Guan Wen took the head commander to leave Zhengding Prefecture City that afternoon, rushed to Dingzhou to meet with the main forces from all walks of life, and replenished food and grass to go to the capital to rescue. As a result, after Guan Wen left, Yixing Ayititai, who had been trampled by Guan Wen, naturally became the boss of the Western Front. Not only did he not have to be angry with anyone, but he could also be more at ease and bold to give others a bird's breath.

But then again, our Yititai volunteered to stay on the Western Front not entirely to be a heroic victory in the Zhengding battlefield, but to sincerely take the opportunity to make some credit and erase the word "Agent in front of his official position. So after Guan Wen left, Yixing A immediately summoned all his generals to discuss the next plan.

The result of the discussion disappointed Yixinga very much. Because Jiang Zhongji, the Shanxi Wu army, who was stationed in Niangzi Pass, had not taken any action, the generals of the Qing army believed that they should respond to changes in the same situation, and only defend without fighting, and continue to confront the Wu army. Yixinga, who was anxious to make great achievements, heard the fire and said angrily: "Respond to changes in the same situation? What is so good in the world? The official platform led the army to leave today, and the Shanxi Wu thieves may know the news tomorrow. If the Shanxi Wu thieves take the opportunity to enter Jingxing, should we still sit still?"

"Yitai, I'm afraid there is no such well-informed news on Wu Zhe?" A general said timidly: "Not to mention the distance, Wu Zhe's Seizuo could not send the news to Niangzi Pass like that. Even if Wu Zhe's Seizuo sent the news to Niangzi Pass overnight, it wouldn't be so easy to pass through the large and small mountain roads that we strictly blocked, right?"

"What if Wu Zhe made a small job and used a carrier pigeon to send messages?" Yixinga asked back, "Can we block it?"

The unlucky generals shut up. Fortunately, there were also people who were like Yixing and Azhi among the generals under his command. At least the general Teng Jiasheng stood up and said, "What Titai said is that the Wu thieves have been planning to take Jingxing to advance to Zhili for a long time. There must be a lot of spies in the Zhengding area. It is impossible to secretly establish a pigeon station. Therefore, we must not be careless because of the long distance and the difficulty of mountain roads. We should prevent the Wu thieves from Shanxi from immediately sending troops to attack Jingxing east, and even bypassing Jingxing to capture deer. If this is true, we will inevitably fall into a passive position."

Yixing Ada nodded, agreed with Teng Jiasheng's analysis, and asked again: "Jiasheng, how should we act in your opinion?"

Without attending the meeting of senior generals held before Guan Wen's departure, Teng Jiasheng naturally did not know Guan Wen's repeated instructions before leaving, so he said directly: "The last general believes that an army should be sent to Jingxing to reinforce and defend, and prevent the Wu bandits from taking the opportunity to advance eastward."

"Jingxing City is too small and cannot station too many troops." The unlucky general quickly reminded: "At present, the army alone is already very difficult to station General Shuanglu and Shuang. If you add troops there, the army will have no place to station."

"General Zhou, please listen to me and say it's okay?" Teng Jiasheng smiled and said, "Of course I know that it is difficult for Jingxing City to station heavy troops, but I didn't say I want reinforcements to enter the city to station?"

After saying with a smile, Teng Jiasheng first invited Yixinga and others to the map sand table, and then pointed to the map sand table and said, "Please look at Yititai. This Changgang Village is about twenty miles east of Jingxing. The terrain is dangerous and suitable for garrisoning troops and setting up camps, and tightly stalking the Wu bandits bypass Jingxing and then advanced to the throat of Lu Heping Mountain. The most important thing is, however, if we station an army here, we can not only form a corner with Jingxing City, but also prevent the Wu bandits from advancing east at any time and directly enter the hinterland of Zhili."

(Note: Before liberation, Jingxing County was located in Tianchang Town, Jingxing. It is next to Jingnan Station now, not Weishui Town next to Changgang Village now.)

After carefully studying the map sand table, I found that the suggestion of the beloved general made sense. Yixinga immediately left behind Guan Wen's repeated instructions before leaving and immediately ordered: "Give Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang the order, so that they do not have to come to Zhengding Prefecture City to meet with this admiral, and go directly to Changgang, Jingxing to establish a camp, and form a junction with the Jingxing defenders."

After saying that, Yi Xinga added, "The limited time is required, before sunset tomorrow, you must arrive at Jingxing Changgang!"

…………

The distance was not far and the transportation was convenient. With the rapid horse, Yi Xing'a, the commander of the Western Front, was sent to Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang who had been ordered to drive north that night. As a result, when he saw the order, Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang immediately changed their faces and shouted together: "We will rush to Changgang, Jingxing before sunset tomorrow? In less than a day, we will have to march for more than 150 miles?"

"Fuck me! Yixing Adam are cavalrymen? In such a short time, letting the infantry run so far, and we are exhausted to death?" Zhang Guoliang cursed.

"Twenty miles of it are still mountain roads." Fu Zhenbang's face added with a gloomy expression.

No matter how angry it was, it was useless. Guan Wen had already handed over the command of the Western Front to Yixing'a, and also asked Zhang Guoliang, who was affiliated with the Qing army in Shandong, to temporarily obey Yixing'a's orders. Unless Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang wanted to give Yixing a further chance to avenge their private revenge, they could only obey their orders. Therefore, Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang had no other choice, and could only urge the army to go to the north overnight, race against time to catch the deer, and then go west to Jingxing Mountain.

Fortunately, although Yixing's order was harsh, it was not a destined task for the well-trained armies of Fu Zhenbang and Zhang Guoliang. However, even if it did this, the army would be exhausted.

…………

The acting admiral of Zhili Yixinga and his beloved general Teng Jiasheng were actually right. The Shanxi Wu army's detailed work did establish a secret pigeon station in Zhengding City. Moreover, Yixinga and Teng Jiasheng also seriously underestimated the efficiency of Wu army's detailed work. In the afternoon, the news that Guan Wen led the main force of his troops suddenly advanced eastward. Wu army's detailed work had already released the pigeon to deliver a letter to Niangziguan. So in the evening, the report on the movements of the main force of the Qing army in Zhili had been put in front of Jiang Zhongji, the general of the Wu army in Shanxi.

Due to the limitations of road traffic and intelligence transmission channels, Jiang Zhongji was of course extremely puzzled by Guan Wen's actions, and asked several of his civil and military accomplices in confusion: "Was that old Guan Wen taken the wrong medicine? Why did he suddenly take his main force to the Dingzhou direction? What did he want to do?"

"There are only two possibilities." The answer was Li Hongzhang, saying: "The first is Guan Wen's plan to lure the enemy. He wanted to trick us into advancing eastward and use the complex terrain in Jingxing to ambush us. The second is that Guan Wen's rear changes, forcing him to risk his stay in Zhengding battlefield and return to the army to save the hinterland of Zhili."

After thinking about it, Jiang Zhongji asked again: "So which one is probably the largest?"

"The information is unknown and cannot be judged." After years of military and political experience, Li Hongzhang's frivolous and arrogant personality has obviously improved a lot, and he dare not make any big decisions.

"Brother, the enemy's situation is unknown, so it's better for us to change with the same change." said Jiang Zhongyi, a confidant, "Anyway, the King of Zhennan has not set a deadline for us to send troops. We can first understand the reason why Guan Wen suddenly withdrew from Zhengding Prefecture before making a decision."

Jiang Zhongji refused to answer because although Wu Chaoyue did not force the time limit for the Shanxi Wu army to send troops, Liu Kunyi had already brought his main force to pacify Dingzhou for the New Year yesterday. If Jiang Zhongji, who had been blocked by Jingxing for a long time, did not make any moves quickly, the first merit of the army entering Zhili might have to be replaced. As mentioned earlier, the open and secret struggles within the Shanxi Wu army have always been very fierce.

Seeing Jiang Zhongji's contradictory thoughts, although he did not dare to take risks casually, Li Hongzhang came up with a moderate idea and said: "Three generals, although the enemy situation is unknown, we do not need to keep our troops calm for the sake of stability. Anyway, the year has passed and the morale of the army has been settled. If we move appropriately, it may not be a good way to break the current stalemate of confrontation."

"How to move?" Jiang Zhongji asked quickly.
Chapter completed!