Shi Dakai was full of doubts and couldn't understand Li Zhen's intention. Zhang Suimou saw that Shi Dakai was depressed and had a sad face all day long, so he asked: "Your Majesty, we have escaped Li Zhen's pursuit and entered Jiangxi. Now, you should You are happy, why do you still look sad?"
Shi Dakai sighed: "Things are complicated."
Zhang Suimou said: "What's the matter?"
Shi Dakai continued: "Li Zhen and his soldiers have been following us. They have never lost us, nor have they taken the initiative to catch up with us. The army led by Li Zhen is extremely powerful, even more powerful than our soldiers. If Li Zhen will definitely catch up with us if he wants to pursue us with all his strength. Now Li Zhen has driven us to Jiangxi. What is the reason for this?"
Zhang Suimou said: "Your Majesty, this is because Li Zhen's skills are inferior to others. You regard Li Zhen as too important."
Shi Dakai shook his head and said: "Absolutely not. If you think about it carefully, the general you and I met in the meteorite zone with our soldiers that day led only more than 200 soldiers, but he blocked more than 700 of our soldiers. The attack still seems to have the upper hand, and a glimpse of the leopard shows that the strength of the army led by Li Zhen is definitely quite tyrannical."
Zhang Suimou rolled his eyes and said: "The prince is right. I think Li Zhen asked us to come to Jiangxi because he actually wanted to keep him. As long as the prince is alive and poses a threat to the Qing Dynasty, the emperor will always reuse Li Zhen." , This must be Li Zhen’s way to protect himself, Your Majesty, since Li Zhen has this idea, we will be safe. The general believes that it is better to leave Jiangxi as soon as possible and seize the time to enter Sichuan.”
Shi Dakai nodded and said, "Your explanation makes sense. This should be the reason."
After he figured it out, he felt relaxed.
…
After Li Zhen drove Shi Dakai into Jiangxi, the army was far away from the Jiangbei camp, but it was not too far from Nanjing. Li Zhen still chased Shi Dakai slowly, but Shi Dakai did not stay in Jiangxi for too long.
On the fifth day of March, Shi Dakai led his troops to leave Jiangxi and enter Hunan.
By now, Shi Dakai had already left Nanjing.
When Li Zhen saw Shi Dakai walking away, he did not continue to pursue him. Instead, he returned to the Jiangbei camp to station himself.
In the army, all the generals gathered together.
This time Li Zhen led his army on an expedition. He did not consume any money or ammunition. Instead, he made nearly one million taels of silver and made another huge sum. Huang Shihai looked at Li Zhen with admiration on his face and asked: "Commander, we went out to pursue Shi Dakai, and now we have returned to Jiangbei Camp. Could it be that your purpose in going out is to drive Shi Dakai away?"
Long Ao explained for Li Zhen: "The commander-in-chief and I deduced that Shi Dakai would leave. However, we were not sure at the time, so we did not tell everyone that it was my suggestion to drive away Shi Dakai. I wanted to establish another strong enemy for the Manchus." , In this way, even if the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is greatly weakened, Shi Dakai, a tough bandit, is still there, and the commander-in-chief can continue to suppress the bandits, and can also control the provinces to ensure that the commander-in-chief's power is not affected. The inference at the time was a bit speculative, not too much. Credible basis, but at present, it seems that they are all correct."
When everyone heard this, their eyes flashed with surprise.
It's really terrifying that Shi Dakai's actions were speculated.
Li Zhen smiled slightly and said: "Don't look so surprised. Our success is largely due to Shi Dakai's cooperation. Shi Dakai himself is unwilling to fight with us and wants to stay away from Nanjing. This is a prerequisite for success." , if Shi Dakai fights us directly, the situation will be different."
But everyone still looked at Li Zhen and Long Ao strangely, as if they were in a dream.
These two people secretly communicated with Shi Dakai.
Huang Shihai then said: "Commander, Shi Dakai has left Jiangxi, what should we do next?"
Li Zhen said seriously: "We are not in a hurry to deal with Hong Xiuquan for the time being. When Shi Dakai's army has completely established a firm foothold, we will attack Nanjing. In this way, we can not only make a great contribution and be rewarded by Xianfeng, but also, because With the rise of Shi Dakai, the emperor also needs us to destroy Shi Dakai. There are still things to do, so now, just wait patiently."
Huang Shihai nodded and understood.
…
After Shi Dakai entered Hunan, Zeng Guofan immediately led his army to bite Shi Dakai, hoping to avenge his shame. However, Shi Dakai had no intention of fighting with Zeng Guofan. After a head-on confrontation with Zeng Guofan, he made a plan to attack east and west to avoid Zeng Guofan. The main force broke away from the entanglement of Zeng Guofan's army, jumped out of Hunan and entered Guizhou.
After Shi Dakai got rid of Zeng Guofan, he circled around Guizhou and then headed for Sichuan. He led his soldiers to continuously advance. The strength of the army became stronger and stronger, and its influence became greater and greater.
For a time, news about the gangster Shi Dakai was everywhere.
However, Li Zhen didn't have free time to take care of it.
Shi Dakai's momentum grew, and Li Zhen also presented a memorial. First, he asked Xianfeng for his failure to capture Shi Dakai; second, Li Zhen still stayed in the Jiangbei camp and continued to encircle and suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
After the memorial was handed in, Li Zhen stopped taking care of it.
Time flies and it is already June.
Li Zhen's army was stationed in the Jiangbei camp and there was no fighting. After Li Zhen submitted the memorial, Beijing did not reply. Li Zhen did not pay attention to it. He forgot about it and focused on developing his own strength. When the weather became hot, The training in the army is still hot and there is no slack. Li Zhen and Long Ao are inspecting the training of soldiers in the army together.
"Tap, step,..."
There was a sound of rapid running, and Ye Chengzhong ran over. After he stood still, breathing heavily, he said quickly: "Commander, Han Laiyu is here and waiting at the gate of the camp."
After Li Zhen heard this, he walked towards the camp gate without hesitation.
When Li Zhen saw Han Laiyu, he was very surprised, because at this time Han Laiyu seemed to have conveyed to him the news that Zhilan was about to give birth and asked him to hurry back to Beijing. His whole face was haggard and very tired. He was obviously It was caused by the continuous riding on horseback, and what made Li Zhen feel even more uneasy was the panic, worry, and more confusion in Han Laiyu's eyes.
what's going on.
Li Zhen was worried and quickly welcomed Han Laiyu into the camp. Li Zhen waved his hand for Han Laiyu to sit down and asked, "Eunuch Han has come all the way to the Jiangbei camp, what's the matter?"
Han Laiyu saw Ye Chengzhong and several soldiers standing in the camp, frowned slightly, waved his hand and ordered: "You all go down, Admiral Li and I have important matters to discuss."
Ye Chengzhong looked at Li Zhen, saw Li Zhen nodded in agreement, and left with the soldiers.
Li Zhen and Han Laiyu were the only two people left in the camp.
Li Zhen asked in a deep voice: "Father, what happened in Beijing." Seeing Han Laiyu's cautious approach, he began to speculate and guess what happened in Beijing.
Han Laiyu said word for word: "The Emperor is dying."
ps: First update, Shi Dakai is finally out, and the emperor is going to die. What will happen next, haha... This volume is finally over, and a new volume is starting.
