Li Guolou was not interested in Zuo Zongtang's luxurious carriage. People who walked in and out of the Royal Old Summer Palace were higher than the top. Except for the dragon chair, he did not dare to sit on anything else, which was not in his eyes. He sat down respectfully and asked: "Zuo Da Shuai has something to do with me."
Zuo Zongtang picked up a pair of reading glasses on the grid and put them on the bridge of his nose to see clearly what Li Guolou looked like.
This pair of glasses has a great origin. It was given to him by the Empress Dowager Cixi and was a relic of Emperor Qianlong. However, Cui Yugui, the eunuch who managed the palace treasury, asked for a bribe of 6,000 taels. Zuo Zongtang was so angry that he refused to reward him. Finally, under the guidance of Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang Zongtang spent three thousand taels of silver to get this pair of glasses. Zuo Zongtang also comforted himself that the relics of Emperor Qianlong were worth three thousand taels of silver.
"Guo Lou, you look like a man. I remember the last time I saw you, you had a oily head and pink face and you were wearing a jade ring on your hand."
"Commander Zuo has a very good memory. He still remembers the first time we met." Li Guolou could only say it in passing without refuting Zuo Zongtang's words. After becoming an official, he did not even expose his gold watch and never wore it. Jade ring finger[
Zuo Zongtang nodded slightly, took off his glasses, carefully put them into the box, and then said, "Guo Lou, you've been away for more than half a year, don't you miss home?"
Li Guolou showed a smile and twitched the corner of his mouth and said: "Commander Zuo, how can he miss home? But since he wants to serve the country, he should do his best to serve the country, how can he give up halfway and turn back? Heng, Ma Hualong vowed not to return to Beijing after he was wiped out."
"Well, young man, if you have this ambition, I will definitely fulfill it for you." Zuo Zongtang was very satisfied with Li Guolou's reply. He stroked his beard and looked at his beloved general. It is not difficult to make a baron with Li Guolou's military exploits, but he still stayed. In the Great Northwest Campaign, Zuo Zongtang believed that this person was an ambitious person rather than relying on his appearance. His literary talent was mixed with the bad feet of the powerful in the capital
Li Guolou lowered his eyebrows and bent slightly and said: "I would like to thank Marshal Zuo for cultivating me so that this junior can make a small contribution."
"Hey, you have too few men and horses, otherwise Lei Heng would not be able to escape from Yan'an. You have the ability to train soldiers, so you need to think of ways to train more soldiers." Zuo Zongtang was good at calculations. Judging from the casualties in Li Ziying, he knew that Li Ziying Guolou did not try his best to intercept the fleeing Ge Laohui rebels, but Li Guolou's merits outweighed his faults. He successfully recovered Yan'an City and compressed the rebels to the southern plains of Yan'an. From two points of view, Li Guolou still had a strategic vision.
Li Guolou heard the implication that something could be hidden under the nose of Zuo Zongtang, an old fox. He blushed slightly and lowered his head and said: "Commander Zuo, after I get to know my subordinates, I will definitely learn from the Chu army and fight to the last soldier." The other subordinates have nothing to say. The situation in Yan'an is complicated. Some troops want to put out fires and grab food. Some troops are fiercely chasing each other. There is no reporting relationship. The subordinates are limited in their abilities and cannot coordinate the relationship between various ministries. That's why Lei Heng was asked to do it. "Chaos" to this day"
"Well, it is not easy to be a qualified commander. Don't blame yourself. The commander knows that it is not easy for you to develop such a scale with only one battalion." Zuo Zongtang cannot blame Li Guo too much. The Ministry of War distributes pay according to the size of the army. Military supplies are not enough for the troops, so they need to find ways to raise money themselves. Li Guolou himself provides money to serve the country. It is rare for such a person to be a pity that Li Hongzhang's descendants are not from his own lineage. For the sake of Prince Gong, can we do more practical things for the Westernizers together?
"Serving the country, I am doing my due duty." Li Guolou raised his eyes and glanced at Zuo Zongtang. He was full of suspicion and called him to the car to say some nonsense. What did he mean?
Zuo Zongtang covered his mouth with his left hand and coughed for a while. After he recovered, he said: "I heard from the Zodiac Officer that you have the ability of a counselor and can see many things more thoroughly. I would like you to analyze the development of the situation between the enemy and us and what our army should do." How to deal with today’s corrupt situation”
Li Guolou's heart was full of joy, but his expression remained as calm as a mountain and as calm as water. He was fake and polite: "Commander Zuo, how dare you talk nonsense if you say that, Marshal Zuo? If you say something wrong, you won't make Marshal Zuo laugh."
"Guo Lou, but I know that your meticulous thinking and ability to draw inferences are unrivaled in the world." Zuo Zongtang put a high hat on Li Guolou. Anyway, it is a common problem for literati to use doctrines. The idea of the three stooges was slightly modified. Become Zhuge Liang's opinion
Li Guolou had no choice but to share his good ideas with everyone. He was given the title of Senior Counselor by the way. He handed it over and said: "Commander Zuo, you are not polite. Your subordinate thought Lei Heng." The troops have nothing to worry about. This is a group of rogue bandits that has become insignificant. As long as Lei Heng is not given a chance to breathe, the rogue bandits without a base will soon be wiped out under our army's strategy of slowly advancing and rushing forward. Under normal circumstances, it cannot be seen that The big mistake is that Lei Heng’s troops will not survive the autumn.”
Li Guolou paused and looked up, looking at Zuo Zongtang to spy on Zuo Zongtang's expression. This is also the way to be an official. Learn to speak in accordance with the superior's preference. If the superior does not like it, he will change the subject and even say the opposite if the superior likes to hear it. He continued talking and saw that Zuo Zongtang's expression was not moving. It seemed that his words did not move Zuo Zongtang.
Li Guolou rolled his eyes and said: "Commander Zuo, I think that as long as Lei Heng's troops are not allowed to break out of the encirclement, the rest of the gang will be in ruins. It is Lei Heng's fate to sit there and wait for death. Instead, Ma Hualong of Jinjibao forgives me for being abrupt now." Although Liu Songshan had the upper hand in besieging Jinji Fort from both sides, he successfully captured Tongxin City and Wuzhong Fort, but it was still too early to defeat Ma Hualong. According to the established strategy, it was not possible to determine the outcome until next year. This took a long time and the horse longevity rate in Xining was delayed. We must cross the Yellow River to support Ma Hualong. Xia Guan believes that the strategy for attacking Jinji Fort needs to be adjusted."
Li Guolou sold it out and pointed out the shortcomings of Zuo Zongtang's two-sided siege of Jinji Fort. He won't go into the key points.
Zuo Zongtang knew very well the temperament of scholars. The more talented people are, the more unruly and unruly they are. He was such a person. Hearing that Li Guolou had such a high opinion, he felt weird and took out the map of Jinji Fort in Angri and spread it on the table. I humbly asked for advice: "Guolou, tell me what are the shortcomings of besieging Jinjibao from two sides."
Li Guolou's vanity was extremely inflated and he did not dare to reveal his inner thoughts: "Our army adopted a step-by-step policy and a strategy of attacking the heart first and successively captured Wuzhong Fort, Tongxin City and other fortresses north of Jinji Fort. The returning troops suffered heavy casualties. Chen Daoqin's battlefield uprising was a heavy blow to the enemy. The Jinjibao war further developed in our favor. However, due to the shortened front line and the relative concentration of troops, Mu Shenghua led the Pingliang returning troops and retreated to the Jinjibao area. The enemy's strength was small. The number of available troops exceeded 80,000. The returning army relied on the two canals of Qin and Han to dig trenches and build walls. The infantry defended against the walls and the cavalry took the initiative to attack east and west. They continuously attacked our army and dealt a huge blow to our army. In my humble opinion, if the attack continues like this Our army's casualties will double, so our army should change its combat strategy according to the changes in the returning army."
Zuo Zongtang said scornfully: "Guo Lou, please tell me how to change the use of official hats or money to bribe."
Li Guolou smiled and said: "Commander Zuo, what you are saying is that small roads should be used, of course they must be used, but these depend on people and success. Whether it succeeds or not depends on the number of days. I will never rely on others but geography. Marshal Zuo's gold accumulation." "The fort is located on the edge of the Yellow River. No art of war would allow everyone to sit back and ignore the Yellow River."[
Li Guolou pointed his finger at the mother river, the Yellow River. He was a ruthless man and pointed out a poisonous plan to use the water of the Yellow River to flood the Jinjibao area.
Jinjibao has two dangerous places: one is the gorge mouth to the west, which is both the Bronze Gorge mouth of the Yellow River and the mouth of the Qin and Han Dynasty Canals; the other is the Yongning Cave in the east, which is the place where the mountains and rivers pass through the culvert of the Qin and Han Dynasties Canal. The canal meets here and flows north into the Yellow River Gorge. The mouth controls the water inlet and the water outlet. Yongning Cave controls the water outlet. These two places have a great relationship with the safety of Jinjibao. Now the water outlet Yongning Cave is already within the control of Liu Songshan and the Hunan Army. If there is no explanation, Liu Songshan's Hunan Army does not need to attack Jinjibao desperately. It only needs to occupy this strategic location. Next, the Qing army only needs to seize the Qingtongxia mouth of the Yellow River and use the water of the Yellow River to turn Jinjibao into a sea for the enemy. All the city fortifications have turned into a swamp. If we cannot defeat the enemy, we will let the enemy's food rot and starve to death.
Zuo Zongtang picked up the map with both hands and laughed wildly. He was not a nerd who kept talking about ancient sayings. Otherwise, he would not have been dormant for more than ten years before becoming an official. Zuo Zongtang was a big devil who boasted about the art of war. Everyone said that he had conspiracies and tricks. Li Guolou's sinister plan was an honest and fair move. In his eyes, the best strategy among strategies was to subdue the enemy without fighting by flooding the Jinji Fort.
"It's a good plan. I have so many counselors. Is there any one who dares to propose this idea? It's not a good thing for a scholar to have a common man's heart. Or is the national building a well-known hero? I can have such an idea. My commander is worthy of his trip. A strategy is worth a hundred thousand troops. Li Guolou is really a blessing to the Qing Dynasty. I want to ask you whether you came up with it yourself or someone under your command." Zuo Zongtang still didn't believe that Li Guolou was a new science explorer and should be a leading figure in the literary world. How could he pull off such a vicious plan?
Li Guolou blushed and had a thick neck. He already had the potential to become a leader in the literary world. He was in the capital and had made friends with Mao Changxi, Dong Xun, Lu Runxiang, Tan Zongjun and other literati. If people knew that he was such a despicable person, the Yellow River would be used. The water harmed hundreds of thousands of Hui people. The literati's verbal denunciation would ruin his reputation for the rest of his life. Some radical literati would even break off diplomatic relations with him. What's the difference between this and Xiang Yu's massacre of the city? Sisi hesitated in embarrassment: "I don't care about Marshal Zuo." I just asked whether I should use this strategy and don’t mention the official’s name. The official is a civil servant and I don’t want to be criticized in terms of justice.”
"Hey," Zuo Zongtang waved his hand and said, "That's a bad statement from Guolou. Nothing is perfect in war. Everyone in enemy-occupied areas is an enemy. I never have so-called scruples in war. Winning victory is the key. If nice words surround you." Of course, if you lose, you deserve to be scolded for thousands of years, both the old and the new. You are still young, don’t be bound by ethics. If this plan is successful, it will be recorded in the annals of history. If you don’t do it, won’t you let me become Zhang Liang of the Qing Dynasty? have to"
Zuo Zongtang regarded Li Guolou as the rare Zhang Liang. Li Guolou was flattered and felt that after meeting Bole, he had a long conversation that completely changed his view of Zuo Zongtang. Originally, he was wary of Zuo Zongtang and always thought. The forces that suppressed Zuo Zongtang in the court now have a slight favorable impression, but they are not convinced.
Li Guolou pointed to the map with some worry and said: "Commander Zuo, who is afraid of returning to the army, will see this move, so the Qingtongxia Pass will become the key point in the battle between the two armies. In addition to occupying this dangerous pass, our army also needs to sit firmly."
It's not easy, so we can't "control" the current Ma Hua against Jinjibao.
Long showed weakness and started to bullshit him. He first made him think that our army has the ability to continue attacking Jinjibao this year. After wiping out Lei Heng's troops, he asked Lei Zhengwan and Lei Shengyuan to return to the Qingtongxiakou of the division. Otherwise, our troops would be stretched thin.
I am afraid that the Battle of Qingtongxiakou will become the grave of our army.”
Zuo Zongtang looked at Li Guolou deeply in shock, thinking that Li Guolou was so scheming and was plotting against the enemy to engage in a psychological war without smoke. This man will never be content with the status quo. It's a pity that he has the ability.
Zuo Zongtang, who restrained Li Guolou's ambition, could not guess Li Guolou's true inner thoughts. He could only smile implicitly and look at the team outside the car, pretending to be cunning.
Li Guolou said no more. This time he showed his talent for the first time and left a deep mark on Zuo Zongtang's heart. He firmly believed that Zuo Zongtang would use his hand to pick up the gold-rimmed glasses dishonestly in the future.
Take a closer look at what the three thousand taels of silver glasses look like. I thought Zuo Zongtang saw his little move.
"Don't move." Zuo Zongtang grabbed the glasses case and glared fiercely. How could Li Guolou "touch" the glasses that even his son could not touch?
Zuo Zongtang’s gold-rimmed glasses are truly historical and actually cost 3,000 silver.