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The Li family army is already very experienced in controlling the city.

Since Anqing was once captured and occupied by the Taiping Army for several months, the population in the city was very small. The former landlords, wealthy merchants died and fled, and most of the remaining young and strong people were ensnared by the Taiping Army to join the army, so only the elderly, weak, sick, disabled women and children were left. This is a vulnerable group and is very easy to manage. Therefore, after expelling the remnants of the Taiping Army, the Li family army easily took over the entire Anqing City.

In the past, whenever the Li family army captured a city, they would obtain a large amount of money, grain and materials, but this time it was different. The Taiping Army took away almost all the money, grain and materials that could be taken away, and even the young and strong population did not leave behind.

In this way, the Li family army obtained extremely limited supplies after entering the city. In addition to the few copper plates that fell into the corner, the good thing that could seize millions of taels of silver at any time was gone.

However, this did not affect the morale of the Li family army. On the contrary, the officers and soldiers were happy because of a victory. Li Weiguo still rewarded the three armies according to the old rules, making the morale soaring.

At the same time, the vanguard cavalry sent by Xiang Rong outside the north gate was refused entry into the city, on the grounds that it would prevent disturbing the people.

This is true. The Ministry of Revenue of the Court has long been no longer able to adjust, and the Qing army on the front line relies on various places to raise it on their own. When the court pays military salaries, the Qing army also wants to wipe out local people, not to mention that the court has no money to pay military salaries now. It can be imagined that these Qing troops will not be much worse than the Taiping Army in plundering the people, or even more cruel.

This is reality and cannot be argued. When Xiang Rong learned from behind that his deputy general was refused entry into the city, he was speechless and had to lead a large army in person, intending to bully the few.

Li Weiguo was happy to see this because at this time the Qing army in Jinling had already entered the city from the south gate, and Li Weiguo's contribution to the capture of Anqing was also counted on these generals, so they all thanked Li Weiguo very much. So when Li Weiguo asked them to guard Anqing City, the generals led by Suerha agreed without thinking.

So, Li Weiguo ordered the Li family army to hand over the city defense with Suerha, and Li Weiguo marched into Jiujiang on the grounds that the army is very high and the soldiers are very fast. The Li family army rested for an hour and then drove away from Anqing. Suerha had no doubts about this. He hoped that Li Weiguo would leave quickly, and then he ordered his eight banner soldiers to wipe out the people of Anqing.

Li Weiguo led the Li family army to leave Anqing and headed straight for Jiujiang. They left the south gate, and Xiang Rong personally led the army to the north gate of Anqing.

Suerha had already learned from Li Weiguo that Xiang Rong was here to grab the credit, so he was very angry and refused to hand over the Anqing city defense, let alone Xiang Rong's army was not allowed to enter the city.

Suerha is a member of the Shangsan Banners. He is not used to Xiang Rong's fault. Even if Xiang Rong is an imperial envoy, it will not work.

Xiang Rong originally thought that Li Weiguo was just a small Han official, but when he saw him, the imperial envoy, he had to give up Anqing. However, he didn't expect that when Li Weiguo had left Anqing and handed Anqing to Suerha, Xiang Rong could not afford Suerha, and almost vomited blood. Only then did he realize that he had been fooled by Li Weiguo, and his subordinates all cursed Li Weiguo shamelessly.

However, no matter how they scolded, Li Weiguo could not hear it. At this time, he was leading Fu Shanxiang happily leading his army to Jiujiang. He had already written a memorial with Suerha and sent 800 miles to the capital to rush to the capital, so he was not worried that Xiang Rong would participate in his book.

The reason why Li Weiguo dared to offend Xiang Rong was because he knew that since he had secretly cooperated with the Taiping Army, he would inevitably cheat Xiang Rong in the future, so he would simply do it and never stop making any moves and horses with Xiang Rong. In this way, when he cheated Xiang Rong in the future, it would not arouse suspicion from the court. After all, open and secret struggles in the officialdom are hidden rules. Others only think that it is the personal grudge between Li Weiguo and Xiang Rong, and they will not easily think of Li Weiguo's secret affair with the Taiping Army.

Three days later, the Li family army successfully captured Jiujiang, but this time Li Weiguo did not play the commander of the Qing army outside Jiujiang City anymore, because the other party was Qishan and an important official of the court, Li Weiguo did not want to offend him for the time being.

So when Qishan came to grab the credit, Li Weiguo honestly divided the credit for the capture of Jiujiang with Qishan, and Qishan agreed to Li Weiguo's memorial that Li Weiguo assisted Jiujiang in response to Qishan's request.

This was Li Weiguo's plan, and Qishan didn't know it. He was very happy that Li Weiguo gave him the credit for the capture of Jiujiang, so he stated in the memorial that he asked Li Weiguo to send troops to reinforce Jiujiang and asked Li Weiguo for a credit of assist.

In this way, once Jinling falls, it would be fine if the court does not pursue Li Weiguo. If Li Weiguo is held accountable, then Li Weiguo will have an excuse. Since Qishan asked Li Weiguo to send troops to Jiujiang, it led to the emptiness of Jinling's defense being taken advantage of by the Taiping Army, it is not related to Li Weiguo's affairs. Besides, Li Weiguo has made contributions in succession to capture Anqing and Jiujiang one after another. Even if he does not reward, he can still repay his merits.

From the very beginning, Li Weiguo designed all this, everything was in his plan and in his control.

At the same time, on the eastern front of the battlefield, the main force of the Taiping Army suddenly appeared at Dasheng Pass on May 30th. The Qing army guarding the Pass was caught off guard and Dasheng Pass fell. The Taiping Army immediately marched towards Jinling and surrounded Jinling City on June 2nd.

At this time, there were less than 5,000 defenders in Jinling, and with the 3,000 people of Fu Xuexian's army left by Li Weiguo in Yuhuatai, there were only more than 8,000 people. They were facing the main force of the Taiping Army and more than 500,000 people who were trapped.

Governor Lu Jianying of Liangjiang was immediately scared. He didn't understand why the Taiping Army suddenly appeared under the city of Jinling. Haven't they been defeated by the Shanghai army led by Li Weiguo? I heard that Li Weiguo had recovered Anqing and Jiujiang. Didn't the main force of the Taiping Army flee back to his hometown in Guangxi? Why did they appear in Jinling without knowing it?

Fortunately, Lu Jianying knew that he would have to guard the Yuhuatai when defending Jinling. As long as the Yuhuatai was not lost, the sturdy and tall walls of Jinling City were enough to block the attack of the Taiping Army.

However, Yuhuatai was in the hands of the Li family army. After all, Lu Jianying was an old fox. He did not dare to hand over his life to his enemies. He told him that he could not trust the other party.

So Lu Jianying hurriedly caught the strong men everywhere in the city at any cost. All the bannermen and families were dispatched to send all the servants at the city to the city to defend. They knew very well that once the city was broken, the Taiping Army would definitely kill them. In addition, the landlords, powerful men and rich businessmen in the city also donated money and grain. They also knew that even if the Taiping Army did not kill them, they would steal all their property, so they spared no effort.

As a result, the number of defenders in Jinling City temporarily increased to 20,000. Although most of them were strong men and had never fought a war, it was still possible to defend the city with tall walls.

In the camp of the Li family army in Yuhuatai, Fu Xuexian secretly met with the Taiping Army representative Hong Jian.

"General Fu, but still remember the secret agreement between our two armies? Now our army has given up Anqing and Jiujiang to Lord Li as promised. Please ask General Fu to keep his promise and get out of Yuhuatai."

Fu Xuexian had long received news that Li Weiguo occupied Anqing and Jiujiang, so he would give up the Yuhuatai Defense Zone to the Taiping Army as Li Weiguo's instructions before leaving.

"General Hong doesn't have to worry, our army is preparing for evacuation."

Hong Jian suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. He was not sure that Li Weiguo kept his word. Now that he heard that the other party was indeed preparing to give up the Yuhuatai defense zone, he felt much more relaxed. He immediately sat down and asked, "I wonder when your army will be able to withdraw?"

Fu Xuexian replied: "Our army will begin to evacuate at midnight. At that time, your army will have the illusion of attacking Yuhuatai. However, your army must ensure that you must not step into our army's Yuhuatai defense line before dawn. Otherwise, your army will encounter unnecessary misunderstandings and all consequences will be borne by your army."

Hong Jian nodded and said, "No problem, our two armies only need to fire guns and cannons in the sky. They set up more smoke and fire on the positions of both sides, which is enough to create the illusion of fierce fighting."

"That's good!" Fu Xuexian immediately agreed and then said: "In addition, our army will withdraw from Jinling City first, and will evacuate from Shuipu before tomorrow evening. Your army will not send troops to attack Shuipu before tomorrow evening to prevent our two armies from encountering each other head-on. After our army evacuates, if your army has not yet captured the outer city of Jinling, you can directly enter from the water pass that our army has abandoned."

Hong Jian frowned and said, "Why did your army withdraw from Jinling City? Why not just retreat to Su Songtai tonight? Isn't this an unnecessary move?"

Fu Xuexian smiled and said, "This is my brother-in-law's order, and I cannot change it. We withdraw the Jinling City to help you successfully seize Jinling, because my brother-in-law ordered me to secretly execute a few people, Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, Wu Liang, the prefect of Jiangning, and Xiao Yang, the former chief clerk of Chongming County."

Hong Jian understood as soon as he heard this. Li Weiguo was about to take revenge. He smiled and said, "Your army has helped us so much, and we also hope to express it. Why not just leave these people to us? We will execute them for Lord Li."

Fu Xuexian shook his head and said with a smile: "My brother-in-law is a person who will avenge you with kindness. He regrets that he cannot personally execute Lu Jianying, so he told me to take revenge on his behalf. I am his brother-in-law and a family, so it is more appropriate for me to avenge my brother-in-law. After all, your army is an outsider and it is difficult to interfere."

Hong Jian immediately smiled and said, "It seems that Lord Li is really holding a grudge. Fortunately, our Taiping Army did not neglect the sister Mrs. Li."

Fu Xuexian laughed and asked, "Then we decided that?"

Hong Jian nodded and said, "That's it!"

When Hong Jian left, Fu Xuexian immediately called three thousand commanders and ordered: "Everyone, Lord Li has an order to evacuate Yuhuatai tonight. After entering the city, in addition to secretly executing Lu Jianying, Wu Liang, Xiao Yang and others, they will also move all the gold, silver and treasures they raised back to Shanghai. Do you understand?"

The three thousand-time captains immediately smiled and said, "Don't worry, the commander, Lord Li had already explained before leaving. Guan Bao would shave three feet of Jinling's wealth to the Taiping Army."

Fu Xuexian nodded and said, "Okay, since all three of you know their tasks, then take action immediately!"

The three of them sang in unison and immediately returned to their respective troops to prepare for action.
Chapter completed!