One morning in 855, a dusty and worn carriage drove into Haijing City. This carriage was not a four-wheeled carriage like the Western type, but a two-wheeled carriage with a carriage stuck on a pair of wheels that is common in the Qing Dynasty. When they ran, their tails were bumped up, covering the exit at the back, which was just a dirty and unsightly cloth curtain. It passed through the crowds of people amid the shouts of the coachman and the squeak of the car body. It stopped in front of a shabby inn in the south of the city. The coachman spoke Cantonese and smiled at the three people in the carriage: "Customers from Hunan, how about you stay at Youpeng Inn? This place is close to the port outside the city. It is convenient for you to go to the dock to purchase goods tomorrow."

"It's a good guy." The three Hunan guests in the car lifted the dirty curtains and jumped out of the car. The leader was a short 4-year-old man with a big head and a strong figure, and looked square. His fat face was full of horizontal flesh, which was a bit scary, but it was slightly funny, and it was no different from the long-distance merchants everywhere here. The customer also had black and smooth braids. In the scorching sun in Guangdong, he was holding his coat in his hands and only wore a double-breasted vest, revealing two thick and short arms, which looked full of energy.

Both of his followers were very young, one with red skin and the other with black face. They were both very burly, one head taller than their boss, and they were strong in shape. They were quick and powerful in every move. After jumping out of the car, they quickly turned around and took out a large rattan bag from the car, and the other pulled out a long package. When they were carried on their shoulders, they made a metal sound. It seemed that they were some weapon.

However, the coachman has seen too many people like them. Haijing is now a crazy adventurer park: bandits in mainland China and bankruptcy rangers among foreigners. They can be seen everywhere here. As long as you are lucky, you have courage. You have vision, or you are hardworking enough, Haijing belongs to you, so he squinted his eyes and looked at the long package. The coachman smiled and reached out: "Customer, pay the fare."

"Okay, okay. We paid for the land from the dock to the city gate. We went to the city for a walk and paid for it." Although the strong middle-aged man with a terrible face, he had a smile. He immediately took out a silver dollar from his belt and handed it to the coachman.

The coachman took it and was still in the baggage, then took out the copper coins from it to find the money.

"Hey, aren't you damn us? We often take buses, Guilin, Nanchang, and Changsha. What you ask for is twice as expensive!" The black-faced follower shouted in dissatisfaction.

"Hey, when you are out, what are you calculating about?!" The strong middle-aged man stopped his subordinates' questions in dissatisfaction.

The coachman smiled. He handed the money to the boss and explained: "Dear bosses, how could I hack you? You see, you are here to purchase goods! Things in Haijing and Guangdong are indeed expensive. They are very expensive. Everything is very expensive. It is definitely not comparable to those in the mainland. You will know it after staying for two days."

"Why?" the middle-aged man was stunned and asked, "There are many taxes here?"

"There are no taxes." The coachman pointed to the south gate and said, "I saw that there are so many ships coming in every day. Our land and foreigners are all piles of silver coming in here! There are too many rich people here, foreigners are rich, and our merchants are rich, and our army makes a lot of money. The army and the navy are just as rich. How can those who sell things not increase the price?"

"There are many rich people?" The middle-aged man blinked and thought for a while, and smiled, "There are no rich people, right? There are many poor people everywhere. Such a expensive place. Can poor people survive?"

"You can live. There are many places to make money, such as working in a factory. Although you work from dawn to dark and you are so tired that you can't get into bed, the worker can only make half a day to 2 cents of silver. Isn't it 500 yuan per month?" The coachman smiled and said, "Moving more is more profitable than farming."

As he said that, the coachman got into the car, raised the whip, and said, "I'm going to run away too. If you hire a car, come to me. He told the owner of the store that he was the youngest, and he would give you 20% off the store fee, and he knew where I live."

Standing outside the store, watching the short-haired coachman disappear at the corner of the street, three Hunanese people looked at each other in a blushing young man whispered: "Shopkeeper, is this person's words reliable? A hairy spy?"

"How many spies are there? You will know after staying for two days." The middle-aged man snorted coldly and turned his head to enter the inn.

"The boss is here, welcome. Come to Haijing to do business? Where are you here?" The inn guy came up enthusiastically, served tea and poured water, and handed a palm-leaf fan to the sweaty middle-aged man: "Which business do you do? There are various goods in the shop, and you can help you contact and transport it."

"I run an antique shop in Changsha, so I come here to get a few watches, but I'll take a look at the market here. I'll give me one of those markets if appropriate. If it's right, I'll get a little more." The middle-aged man smiled and said, "Give me another room, let's go together, and the three of us will not let others live together."

After entering the pigeon cage, the three Hunanese people were shocked. The three beds filled the small room with thick legs between the beds, and they couldn't squeeze in at all.

"Is this the room going to the room? It's so expensive!" The black-faced follower was angry and angry: "You can stay in the best inn in Changsha for this room money!"

"Li Yuan, please keep your mouth low, there are ears in the wall." The middle-aged man glared at the follower in dissatisfaction, sat down on the bed, and immediately looked through the stack of various products he had just bought.

Red-faced sat down with the shopkeeper, and he whispered: "Sir, the information here is different from the governors and governors of various provinces. Except for foreigners everywhere, there is no situation where people live in poverty, and the roadside is full of hunger. No one in the civilians hate long hair, but they are all scolding the Heavenly Kingdom..."

"If they took Jiangxi, can they still lack food?" Li Yuan said in a low voice: "Don't hate Changmao. That's because they were trapped by the demonic magic of Changmao. Besides, we have seen inferior untouchables along the way. Scholars are the mainstay, and a scholar can compare with tens of thousands of untouchables."

The middle-aged man stretched out his finger and pointed at Li Yuan and said with a smile: "This time you, Li Jue, came to the point, but Zhang Longtan didn't say it right."

"Sir, you have been too rewarded. I have been following you for a long time, and I always listen to your teachings." Li Yuan stood up and bowed and said.

Hearing this, the adult's eyes suddenly raised from the stack of oil paper, and looked at Li Yuan who was bowing and bowing viciously. He said in a low and vicious manner: "Put your official voice for me! How many times have you said it. You can't call him Lord here, I am Manager Huang! Did you hear it too? "

"Yes, slave...the villain understands!" The two of them immediately stood up and bowed at the same time.

"Hmph, I accidentally lost my head!" The middle-aged man snorted coldly, lowered his head and continued to look through the information.

This person is the leader of the think tank under the governor of Hunan Luo Bingzhang - the master Zuo Zongtang Zuo Jigao.

When Zuo Zongtang was young, he failed many exams, so he paid attention to farming. He read a lot of books, studied geography and military tactics. In the history of Zhao Kuo, he later became a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, and served as the Grand Secretary of the Dongge and Minister of Military Affairs. He was granted the title of Second Class Marquis of Kejing.

When he was a commoner, he compared himself to the dragon. Luo Bingzhang visited the cottage three times before he invited him to be his master.

Legend has it that Luo Bingzhang sent someone to find Zuo Zongtang to be his subordinate, but Zuo Zongtang did not swear him. Luo Bingzhang personally visited this great man in a private manner for the second time, but he still refused to go out of the mountain. Finally, Luo Bingzhang thought of a fake arrest method, pretending to ask for military expenses from the rich, and arrested Zuo Zongtang's rich son-in-law, but Zuo Zongtang did not slander the governor. But he also cherished his son-in-law, and was so angry that he went to Changsha to find the governor to reason. Unexpectedly, when he got there, his son-in-law was waiting for him with Luo Bingzhang for nothing, so he became Luo Bingzhang's master.

This master is very good. According to unofficial history, one day, Luo Bingzhang was resting in the mansion and suddenly heard the firecrackers on the school ground. According to the rules, only when sending memorials to Beijing can firecrackers be made to show their solemnity. Luo Bingzhang hurriedly asked his left and right: "It's the master Zuo who made the fuss to be made to be a shrimp?" The left and right said: "It's the master Zuo who made the fuss."

"Oh. Master is giving me a memorial." Luo Bingzhang nodded and said.

When Zuo Zongtang returned to the mansion, Luo Bingzhang came up and asked carefully: "What kind of memorandum did you just put in? Can you show it to me?"

Whenever Luo Bingzhang encounters promotion and military deployment, he must first seek Zuo Zongtang's opinions before he can implement it. Zuo Zongtang is therefore in power. Most of the generals in Hunan act according to Zuo Zongtang's expression. With Zuo Zongtang's assistance, Hunan rectifies social order internally. The provision of economic and military aid to other provinces shows the style of a strong province.

So there is a saying in Changsha: "I only know that there is a master, but I don't know that there is a governor."

Because of this, Zuo Zongtang was reported to Xianfeng as a bad official.

Moreover, Zuo Zongtang, Jiang Zhongyuan and Zeng Guofan were both mainstays of Confucianism. These Confucian elites who defended the Qing Dynasty were all good friends. Zeng Guofan’s Hunan Army was inseparable from the strength of his policies and financial resources that were later on by him, the general governor.

But Zuo Zongtang was a guy with a hot temper and couldn't rub the sand in his eyes. In Zhao Kuo's history, Zeng Guofan once wanted to threaten Xianfeng with "quit! I'll go home". Xianfeng immediately understood: "Damn? Go home? Who are you? If you leave you, the Qing Dynasty will not turn around? Then get out!" Zeng Guofan didn't expect the emperor to be accurate and almost cried to death. Then Zuo Zongtang scolded him so much that he was not a private scold, but a memorial that officials had to read. He scolded Zeng Guofan for seeking fame and threatening the emperor, almost depressing this old guy.

So although he claims that he has a hot temper when he is in a low position, and he should not hesitate to argue and highlight himself and seek opportunities to climb up, he has a better temper when he is in a high position, but this person is essentially a firecracker.

This time he took the risk of taking the opportunity to come to Haijing to conduct a reconnaissance with his own makeup, because of his energetic and hot personality.

Of course, what is more important is that on the battlefield, Hai Song is completely different from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and is a very strange opponent.

Since the Battle of Ganzhou last year, the Haisong Crab Formation first appeared on the land battlefield, it quickly swept across Jiangxi.

There are relatively small numbers of linear arrays of foreign guns in the middle. The two wings are supplemented by a large number of cavalry or cold weapon corps. They look like huge crabs in terms of numbers and formations. Once the battle begins, they will attack the Hunan Army and the Green Camp head-on with foreign guns. With such a simple discharge of foreign guns, the Qing army is not an opponent at all. One encounter often leads to the entire camp collapse. Then the two wings of the crab formation immediately defeat the army. The Qing army rarely has no casualties.

Zuo Zongtang was familiar with the military tactics from his grandson to his grandfather. He really couldn't figure out why such "crabs" could be rampant?

He has learned about the situation with many people and discussed how many days of how to deal with it.

Many officers said: the enemy is possessed by demonic magic, and moves when hearing the evil music of the West. The music rises and moves, the music stops and stops, and the hands and feet are stiff, and they cannot jump at all, so they can only walk. The reason why the foreign gun legion cannot rush is that the soldiers are not brave enough, and the other is that Hai Song is wearing strange clothes. He is possessed by demonic magic. The Qing soldiers will become weak when they see the legs. To defeat the demonic people of Hai Song, they can only destroy the mage playing evil music like the heroic Taqibu discovered. Otherwise, they will not be able to defeat them.

Zuo Zongtang scoffed at this statement: Confucius said that the existence of the six kings and the other side is not the case. If Hai Song knew the magic of demons, then it would be the Mao Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? Are they all the foreign religions without kings and fathers (ancient idioms referring to beasts)? And to destroy the bands in the array, isn’t that nonsense? You can kill all of them. Isn’t it the same as killing demon soldiers and killing mages?

Moreover, not only are the tactics strange, but Hai Song's strategy is also strange. They are by no means fighting like Hong Xiuquan, but occupy a place and stabilize it. Assimilate a place, and they are actually eroding the Qing Dynasty's strategy step by step.

This is rare in the history of the thousands of years of war in China. This place only recognizes one head. As long as the other party has the vitality, the world will be yours. However, Hai Song and Zhao Ziwei actually put on a stance of separatist forces in Jiangxi.

The Hunan Army was not afraid of the Taiping Army. But Hai Song had just started a battle with the Longhaired Pseudo-Wing King for the north of Jiangxi a few days ago.

The long-haired pseudo-winged king Shi Dakai led his army to attack Jiangxi, and the pseudo-elephant thief Zhu Qingzheng immediately fought back.

Both sides fought on the border between Jiangxi and Anhui and the Yangtze River, and the waters of the Yangtze River. At that time, the Qing officials were all celebrating: It’s good to bite the dog, it’s better to have both lost money and be a big deal.

But Shi Dakai was obviously not the case. He developed the Taiping Army's mobile combat strategy to the extreme. In contrast, Zhu Qingzheng seemed very stupid. His tactics were similar to those of the Qing Dynasty: defending the key points, then concentrating his troops, and seeking a decisive battle in the field.

If it is the Manchu Green Camp, if it is concentrated to defend the city or the village, there is no mention of field battles. However, Haisong and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are both good players in field battles.

However, on land, the Taiping Army was defeated as if it were the Haisong Crab Formation.

On the waterway, Zuo Zongtang was even more shocked. The Sun and Moon Army, the inland water naval division in the Haisong land, completely imitating the Hunan Navy. Even the big and small ships cooperated with the same tactics. They relied on sharp artillery and well-trained sailors in close combat. The Taiping Navy, whose civilian boats were the main force, could not defeat them at all.

Soon Shi Dakai was driven out of Jiangxi, but at this time, information about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Hai Song's alliance again came out, which made all the Qing officials feel sorry that neither side was stupid!

After analyzing the information, Zuo Zongtang did not know the strategy Zhao Kuo told Zhu Qingzheng, but came to the same conclusion. Hai Song and Zhu Qingzheng relied on strength, rather than maneuvering and strategy with Shi Dakai.

Zhao Kuo said: "With the foreign gun team, the world is not the deceitful strategy of Sun Tzu's Art of War, but the strength of the head-on. A philosophical master Yuru once said: What is more than all skills is strength.

Note: Tosuro-----The character in the comic "Youyoubaishu" when he was a child)"

The navy imitated the Hunan Army, and the land was a strange and irresistible crab formation. After occupying Jiangxi, it was not in a hurry to continue attacking the Qing Dynasty, but instead turned to defense and managed Jiangxi's grain province, what exactly did the beasts like Haisong want to do?

As soon as Jiangxi calmed down, Guangxi suddenly cried. The main crusaders immediately turned their attention to this area connected to Guangdong waterways. Guangxi did not have the combat power similar to the Hunan Army, and even suppressed the Taiping Army uprisings one after another. When encountering the 40,000-sea Song Changmao, a basic army with the Ten Thousand Demons Army Corps as its invasion, there was no choice but to seek help.

However, the neighbor of the Yunnan-Guizhou Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou was sweating coldly, and he wanted to protect himself. He did not send reinforcements at all. The Hunan Army could support him. However, Zhu Qingzheng, the pseudo-elephant of Haisong, vigorously managed the Yuanzhou Prefecture of the Hunan-Jiangxi Channel, and deployed heavy troops there. Even if the Hunan Army had the spare strength to break through the Haisong Fortress in Shaozhou, Lianzhou and entered Guangxi, he would have to face the possibility of being stabbed in Jiangxi and the Taiping Army taking advantage of the opportunity to enter the ground. He dared not go south, so Guangxi had no power to resist and dared not fight in field battles. In front of cannons and landmines, countless "traitors" and "spy" who were mixed into the officers and soldiers, one city after another surrendered when he saw the cross flag.

During the battle situation in Guangxi, Zuo Zongtang discovered another feature of the demon army: he likes field battles and does not like defending the city.

According to Guangxi, after the Changmao pseudo battalion commander Liu Yongfu led five people to occupy Nanning City in the morning, a total of three people from the Eight Banners soldiers who were originally deployed on the border arrived outside Nanning City in the afternoon. They were ordered to help defend the city. Unexpectedly, the city was lost after arriving. They wanted to camp outside the city to surround Nanning, but when the Haisong pseudo battalion commander Liu Yongfu discovered it, he immediately went out of the city to form a formation for battle. The troops of Baekje were defeated and took the lead in escaping. The remaining troops fled for 5 miles overnight before they dared to stop and take a breath.

In the memorial, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Rao Dian said: Hai Song Changmao is obviously not good at defending the city and only likes to use magic in field battles. Therefore, it is recommended that when encountering Hai Song Changmao, you must avoid field battles and not be monitored.

The memorial was very clear that these five people were all long-haired elites with strange costumes and human-handed guns.

"Is this foreign gun tactic established for field battles?" Zuo Zongtang thought.

He has never seen Hai Song Changmao use a land foreign gun. He has several land smoothbore guns in his hand. This kind of gun is not expensive and can be bought in the black market in Changsha. The shooting ground may not be as far away as the two Qing soldiers used to lift guns. Why can this gun be exerted by the power in Hai Song Changmao's hands? Should we concentrate the shotguns and muskets together, and the gunmen lined up to fight and load them together. Is it the secret of Hai Song?

In those days, Zuo Zongtang found several Hunan and Guangdong soldiers who had seen the world in the Hunan Army. Their population insisted that Hai Song Changmao just wore Western clothes and used Western tactics!

"Are the Western barbarians powerful?" Zuo Zongtang sneered. He admitted that the foreigners were powerful in the naval war. The first Opium War left a deep impression on the Qing Dynasty's officialdom, but the ocean is useless! China is vast and wealthy, and it is also a country with no need for a large pool of water!

But the war resulted in more and more concerns: although the elite demon army had been transferred from Jiangxi to Guangxi, similar tactics appeared in Haisong Changmaoli in Jiangxi - they might not be wearing high hats and dresses. They might not be wearing neat British guns. They had everything they wore, but they had red turbans and all guns in their hands, but they were all flintlock guns, rather than common clamps in the Qing Dynasty. Terriblely, these guys who looked like mobs obviously learned the tactics of their brothers. They lined up in line to shoot the Qing soldiers unscrupulously on the land, and their lethality was as terrifying.

From the captured prisoners and the spies sent to him, Zuo Zongtang learned that Zhu Qingzheng also popularized foreign gun battle techniques under the guidance of foreigners.

"How subtle is this tactic? It's just that you are walking in line and loading after fighting. Have you found any secrets in them?" Zuo Zongtang asked his spy.

"It's just to use Yiwen to say the command, and then we turn around, walk around and pretend! It's just a wrong thing, just a beaten hard!" The spy showed a trembling expression on his face. It seemed that the experience of intruding into the training for a while was very painful. He thought for a while and said, "It's the bandit leader Li Wenmao shouting every day: You must completely obey the orders! Even if there are the enemy's muzzles and shells in front of you. You must first be shot and marching and loading without blinking, and shooting, so that you can line up and shoot to kill Qing Yao! No, it's wrong, it's the brothers of our army's Wang!"

"The military discipline is very strict." Zuo Zongtang frowned. He had a huge question in his heart: But our Hunan Army can also enforce orders!

"What else is there?" Zuo Zongtang couldn't figure it out, so he had to ask again.

"Li Wenmao often complained that the fake long-haired leader Zhao Zi was slightly biased and did not deserve the ammunition for the Sun and Moon Army to unite long-haired guns and ammunition. He had to pay for the money to raise foreign guns and ammunition, saying that he had no money to exchange his pants if they were broken..." The spy said on his knees.

Hearing this, Zuo Zongtang's eyes lit up. He suddenly stretched out his hand and asked, "Are you sure?"

"He often complains like this, but I dare to take my head to guarantee it." The slave spy said quickly.

"So that's it!" In an instant, Zuo Zongtang suddenly realized: Why did he suddenly enter defense in Jiangxi after losing the Hunan Army, and Guangxi immediately fell into defense - it turned out that it was because the foreigners' style of fighting required a large number of foreign guns and ammunition, so foreign guns had to be built in large quantities. How could Chinese technicians have such great ability? The arms must be bought from the West, which is silver! Although Zhao Ziwei occupied Guangdong, he urgently needed money and grain in Jiangxi to buy arms, so he had to enter defense. The number of such high-cap demons in his hands was definitely not enough, so he moved to Guangxi after using them in Jiangxi.

Although the foreign gun team is powerful, it does not become soldiers like traditional soldiers who throw away their hoes and carry their spears and swords. They need a lot of training, weapons, and silver.

In other words, Hai Song Changmao's number of Western elites was restricted by his financial resources and personnel.

With those memorials, the water added by other provinces and Zeng Guofan was removed. According to his knowledge that the Hunan Army could cause casualties in the face of the foreign gun team, Zuo Zongtang estimated in his mind that the number of elite lands such as Hai Song was about 5,000 to 5,000.

Thinking of this, Zuo Zongtang sighed: There are so many people, I guess Hai Song Changmao’s financial resources are at its limit; but then his eyes suddenly widened: There are so many people who swept across Jiangxi and Guangxi? Guangxi will not mention it. But Jiangxi is a place where the Hunan Army and the Eight Banners Green Camp gathered, and it was swept across within half a year? If Changmao had silver and formed a demon like 100,000, what would it be like?

On the one hand, he was a stable territory and accumulated strength to train new demons. Then he waited for the Hunan Army Taiping Army to fight and consume each other in the Yangtze River field, and then wiped out the two families at one fell swoop!
To be continued...