Dong Shuheng had a good overall impression of Lin Wei. He was an honest and upright person, not so frivolous, and had some chivalrous heart. He had strong cavalry combat ability and was also very talented in cavalry command, unlike Dong Shuheng.
His subordinates are only mounted infantry at most. This man is a rare general.
According to Dong Shuheng's usual practice, the middle-level backbone of the cavalry regiment will be gradually replaced by Huai Haijun's own people. Dong Shuheng will take turns to transfer the thieves recruited by Lin Wei to the rear for training. The most important thing is that their families will be arranged to live a stable life in Jiangbei.
Their children were able to study in schools, so that they could help Dong Shuheng fight in Shandong with peace of mind.
In the west room of the Yangxin Hall, Emperor Xianfeng was reviewing the memorial. He had two memorials in hand. One was that Zeng Guofan, the Hunan regiment ambassador who was assisting in surrendering bandits in Nanchang, Jiangxi, impeached Jiangxi governor Zhang Pei for treating foreign troops harshly and refusing to cooperate, and requested to be revoked.
One of Zhang Pei's duties as governor was to impeach the Hunan army commanded by Zeng Guofan for being arrogant and looting places.
Emperor Xianfeng had a headache for a while. Zeng Guofan was capable, but too prickly. He had a conflict with a group of local officials in Hunan in Changsha, so he went to Hengyang to train troops. When he arrived in Jiangxi, he quarreled with a group of local officials in Jiangxi.
stand up.
"Recruit the military ministers to come to the main hall to discuss matters." He ordered the eunuch next to him.
Soon the military minister on duty arrived at the main hall of Yangxin Hall.
"Did Qishan say when he would attack Yangzhou? The Taiping Army has already reached Tianjin. Why is there no movement on his side?" the emperor asked.
"Lord Qishan should launch a campaign in the next few days. We have gone to Mizhe before, but we have to raise food and grass, so we have postponed it until now. Your Majesty, the Taiping Army in Tianjin is nothing to worry about. It has become a lonely army and it is difficult to make any progress."
. As long as its food and grass are cut off, it will collapse within ten days." Yunzhang returned, and he was on duty today.
"Can the sound of grain still be heard in Beijing?"
"This...recently all the money from the Ministry of Household Affairs has been used to reissue the salaries of Hebei and Henan. Because bandits are coming all the way north, the entire northern army has been mobilized frequently."
"Hey...does Qi Shan have any discounts for getting paid?"
"That's not true, but recently it has been revealed by imperial officials that Qi Shan connived with his general Dong Shuheng to usurp local power, take over the treasury, and act on behalf of the local state government. There were many acts of arrogance."
"Hey! This is also an expedient measure. It's hard to raise military pay! Are they still afraid of Qishan's rebellion? Qishan was a little confused before, but he was loyal to the Qing Dynasty. If he passes the order to Qishan later, Jiangsu will pay taxes in the future.
There is no need to escort him to Beijing, and he will be kept directly as military pay for the Peking University Camp. The imperial court will no longer allocate special pay to him."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Where's Xiangrong? Why hasn't there been any movement?"
"I wrote to General Xiang Rong that the Taiping Army had many defenders in Jiangning and the Jiangnan Camp had few major generals. They could only hold on and were unable to attack. Before the Taiping Army attacked Changzhou, the Jiangnan Camp did not send a single soldier to rescue. For this reason, Jiangsu Governor Yang Wending made this announcement
A letter was written to impeach Xiang Rong. A month ago Yang Wending lost the counties in the west of Changzhou and is now retreating to the capital."
Xianfeng is also in urgent need of medical treatment now. The old rules must give way in the face of new difficulties. As long as you don't want to pay, breaking some rules is not impossible. There is no harm without comparison. Qishan's understanding and Zeng Guofan's unreasonable troubles are still there.
Rong's mediocrity is compared with each other, and a judgment is made between the three.
On July 1st, Dong Shuheng hurried back to Gaoyou. Today was the enrollment day for Huaihai Academy. For the sake of fair examination, the examination had to be organized. Each academy put up its own signboard and hung it at the entrance of the academy, with the learning content of the academy and the contents written on it.
Features. Candidates first take the selection test, which is proportional to admission, and there is no cutoff. After the scores are released, candidates can choose the major to apply for according to their own hobbies. The test content includes Chinese, mathematics, history, current affairs, miscellaneous studies, etc.
Those who apply for the School of Foreign Languages can choose to take an additional foreign language test. Since this is the first enrollment period, many candidates have studied the eight-part essay before and have not made special preparations, so the test content will be relatively simple.
For this recruitment, the academy specially produced a "Huaihai Academy Admissions Brochure" and a "Huaihai Academy Entrance Examination Outline", which were printed and published by Huaihai Bookstore. Both books were sold to candidates at cost price. In addition, Huaihai Bookstore also
Published some books, such as the ancient Chinese "Shui Jing Zhu", "Agricultural Administration Complete Book", "Nine Chapters on Arithmetic", "Essentials for Qi Min", "Mengxi Bi Tan", "Xu Xiake's Travel Notes", "Compendium of Materia Medica",
"Tiangong Kaiwu", as well as books translated from the West, such as Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", "Optics", Faraday's "Experimental Studies in Electricity", "Experimental Studies in Physics and Chemistry" and others
Western historical science books...
In order to allow students with poor conditions to read books, Huaihai Academy has set up a special library, which has collected a large number of various books for students to read for free. This library was established not long ago, but Dong Shuheng insisted on using it.
The money was spent on hundreds of thousands of books.
Wei Yuan and other academy bosses were also very satisfied with Dong Shuheng, his disciple and benefactor, because of this library.
On July 2, the Huaihai Navy Field Force Training Group and the 101st and 102nd Regiments completed pre-war preparations. 20,000 militiamen gathered from various places were also in place. More than 26,000 soldiers lined up at the military camp in Xijia Town, and the crowd was filled with darkness.
There are really tens of thousands of people in one area, and it is boundless.
With so many people, Dong Shuheng was speaking alone, so he couldn't hear clearly. So Dong Shuheng simply said a few words and inspected the troops on horseback. The following pre-war meeting was the most important.
In the combat conference room, all middle-level and above-ranking officers of the Huai Navy were present.
"Everyone, our Huaihai Navy has been invincible since its establishment, but most of the battles we fought were bandit militia groups. This Yangzhou battle was a head-on confrontation between us and the Taiping Army's regular army. The Taiping Army fought from Guangxi to Jiangsu
, it can be said that they are an army capable of hundreds of battles, and they are not as conservative as the Qing army. They are good at learning from wars."
"In this battle, we do not seek to kill the enemy as much as possible, as long as we capture Yangzhou City. Therefore, the troops will launch an attack on Yangzhou City from the east and north. The attack adopts a layer-by-layer strategy to force the Taiping Army to give up on its own initiative.
Yangzhou City.”
After Dong Shuheng finished speaking, he looked at the venue. Today, in addition to the generals of the Huai Navy, Yan Shikun's military office was also present. Some of them were taking notes and some were making map marks. Cai Shusen
"Yan Canjun, please tell everyone about the deployment of the Taiping Army."
"Yes, President, the Taiping Army currently has 5,000 regular troops in Yangzhou, all of whom are veterans of the Guangxi camp. These veterans have experienced hundreds of battles, and their belief in the Kingdom of Heaven is firm to the point of fanaticism. Their fighting spirit is very brave and tenacious, and their combat effectiveness is even greater.
He is fierce and brave. The commander-in-chief Zeng Lichang is a general under Lin Fengxiang. He has always been cautious in leading troops and is a very stable general."
"There are also 50,000 strong men guarding the city. Most of these people are ordinary people in the city. After the Taiping Army set up men's and women's camps in the city, they selected 50,000 men from the men in the city, trained them, and placed them on various city walls.
The people's combat effectiveness is not strong because their family property was confiscated by the Taiping Army, which caused the morale of the military to be unstable. However, the Taiping Army placed officers among these people to control them. These people will still exert a certain degree of combat effectiveness when defending the city."
"The Taiping Army's defense was not limited to the city walls. They also built a large number of trenches and low walls outside the city. If our army attacked by force, the range advantage of the muskets would not be too great here, and the troops would inevitably suffer a large number of casualties."
Dong Shuheng: "I emphasize again that this battle cannot be carried out recklessly, and reducing casualties must be the first priority. Chief of Staff Liu, you are responsible for commanding the militia. The 20,000 militiamen are divided into two columns, east and north, with 10,000 people in each column.
Each column is divided into five temporary regiments, totaling the 401st to 410th regiments. We are now building trenches on the east and north sides of Yangzhou City, and then building longitudinal trenches as lines of communication, directly digging into the trenches of the Taiping Army. Wang Congzhi
, your first regiment is responsible for the east gate, Yang Bingchun, and the second regiment is responsible for the north gate. The teaching regiment is commanded by me, as a reserve team, and the cavalry battalion of the teaching regiment is responsible for attacking and blocking enemies from leaving the city through the other two gates. "
"After the militia dug two trenches, the first and second regiments should concentrate their firepower to clear out the enemies in the trenches. Try to concentrate shotguns and grenades on the front line for use."
"The first phase of the combat mission is to occupy the outer trenches. In the second phase, the artillery battalion of the teaching regiment mainly bombs the city wall. Our newly built siege mortars can already hit the city wall at this distance, allowing the Taiping Army to feel the power of artillery.
The truth lies within. When the time comes, put the mortars in the trenches so that the Taiping artillery can't hit us."
The mortar is a transitional product that Dong Shuheng asked the arsenal to make. He originally wanted to make a mortar, but the arsenal could not produce mortar shells for the time being. So he could only use the mortar as a transition product first. But it was paired with explosive shells.
, the mortars were simply the nemesis of the Taiping trenches and city walls.
Dong Shuheng then said to the naval commander Liu Dahai: "Commander Liu, the navy must escort the army across the river, and at the same time block the waters of the Yangtze River at the junction of the canal and the Yangtze River to block the reinforcements of the Taiping Army."
Yan Shikun: "Our army will definitely not be able to conceal the Taiping Army in Yangzhou when it goes out. I think we can march with great fanfare. If the Taiping Army goes out to fight in the field, it will be in line with our army's wishes. If the Taiping Army can't retreat, we can attack it with such an open and honest advance.
Its morale. The commander had better issue a proclamation to let the people of Yangzhou know that the soldiers from Yangzhou came to liberate Yangzhou."
"The president's upright act this time to recapture Yangzhou can determine the president's status in the hearts of all Yangzhou people in one fell swoop. Even if the Qing government sends another prefect to Yangzhou in the future, it will not be able to replace the president's control of Yangzhou."
…
In the north of Gaoyou City, Yunmei Embroidery Factory. Dong Shuheng met Yang Ximei again. Perhaps because she was practicing embroidery here, Yang Ximei was more feminine than before. She was not so aggressive when meeting Dong Shuheng.
"I'm ready to take back Yangzhou."
"Oh, do you really want to side with the Qing court and be the enemy of our Taiping Army?"
"I am not an enemy of you because of the Qing court. I just want to make the people live a better life. Anyone who stands in my way is my enemy. And when your Taiping Army arrived in Yangzhou, it brought only misery to the local people."
"I have told you before about Yangzhou. When I go to recapture Yangzhou this time, I hope you can withdraw on your own initiative. I will not pursue you, and no one from the Jiangbei Camp will come out."
"Based on my understanding of Brother Zeng, he will not retreat without a fight. Our Taiping Army has never been afraid of anyone in a war."
"Then there's nothing I can do. I gave him the opportunity, and there's nothing I can do if he doesn't accept it."
"You are so confident that you can defeat Brother Zeng."
"Maybe, Miss Yang, fighting is actually an arithmetic problem. If I add my conditions together, it's 10, and then add my opponent's conditions together, it's 5. So, do you think it's 10 or 5?"
"No matter what, according to our original agreement, you can prepare to go back." With that, Dong Shuheng turned around and prepared to leave.
"Wait a minute, Dong Shuheng, come with me to Tianjing. With your talents and my brother's support, you will definitely be crowned king!"
"Haha... So I told you at the beginning that your Taiping Army no longer represents the people. You think it is better to be princes. By making yourself kings one by one, you are distinguishing yourself from the people and putting yourself on the opposite side of the people.
.I advise you to go back and remind your brother that if he continues to be so arrogant and domineering, Hong Xiuquan will take action against him sooner or later. You don’t understand your own king. He is a man who will retaliate for his anger. He can turn against the Qing Dynasty just because he failed several exams. Now you
When my brother is fine, Heavenly Father possesses him and makes him sick. How long can he endure it?"
"Heavenly Father, you, you must not be unreasonable!" Yang Ximei glared at him angrily.
"I believe you know the inside story of your tricks, so you don't need to pretend in front of me anymore."
"With that said, I will send someone to take you back tomorrow and discuss some business with your brother."
…
It was time to go back. Looking at Dong Shuheng's leaving figure, Yang Ximei felt a sense of loss in her heart.