Chapter 277 The Snake

Liu Chang's wedding banquet was just a small episode. Through mid-August, all the troops of the Hong Army were busy preparing for the Ningshao Battle.

Jinhua Prefecture originally gathered troops from more than a dozen infantry battalions of the Hong Army, but with the progress of the Ningshao Battle, it immediately turned into a secondary battlefield. Liu Chang was only prepared to leave four or five infantry battalions in the entire Jinhua Prefecture, and most of them were newly formed infantry battalions. The only one who was truly known as combat-capable was the old Jintang Second Battalion.

Therefore, the next mission of the Hong Army troops in Jinhuafu was to undertake defensive tasks, but this group of newly formed infantry battalions is quite successful. Although practice has proved that each of their infantry battalions only has one or two infantry companies that can undertake field attack tasks, it is still okay to take on defensive tasks.

In addition, given historical experience, after the Ningshao Battle, one or two combat-capable infantry battalions will be temporarily left in Jinhua Prefecture as reserve teams.

Liu Chang's decision to use Zhuji Bao Lishi as his main opponent was quickly implemented. Soon everyone discovered that Liu Chang's decision was correct. Although this village is called a village, its actual combat effectiveness is not limited to one village, but has occupied many villages near the village.

The young and middle-aged people in the Bao clan brigade were all armed. Although the leaders were not in military affairs, the Ding Zhuang who moved was quite considerable. Bao Lishen received a lot of funding from Wang Luqian. Now there are at least dozens of flintlock rifles and more bird guns.

Moreover, Bao Lishen also carried out the so-called magical propaganda, creating a large number of fanatics who rushed forward with bird guns, and were definitely outlaws.

However, as the core of Bao Village's combat effectiveness, they are not them, but some of the rural braves, militias and defeated soldiers who were defeated by the Hong Army in the three prefectures of Jinchutai. These people often have deep hatred with the Hong Army, so they all surrendered to Bao Lisen. They are considered to be combat-capable and have experience in fighting with the Hong Army.

In this case, Bao Lisen's village has surpassed Xie Jing's Huangtouyong and became the only enemy unit worthy of attention in the entire Shaoxing Prefecture. The Hong Army was originally planning to attack Shaoxing County with its main force to solve Xie Jing's Huangtouyong, but now it has changed its plan and decided to send a main force as the foundation to eliminate Bao Lisen's army. Shaoxing County only needs an infantry battalion.

Together with the Jinhua Prefecture, Taizhou will also send two infantry battalions and several township soldiers to participate in the war, cooperate with the main force to attack the Qing army, and strive to occupy the Ningshao Prefectures as soon as possible.

However, after everyone admired Liu Chang's extremely wise judgment, they found that the second person in Bao Village was Bao Lishen's sister named Bao Meiying, who was also a big-footed girl, but she was quite handsome.

Some people maliciously thought why Liu Chang knew the situation of Bao Village well. He would not have had the intention of accomplicating Bao Meiying, otherwise he would have known Bao Village better than the entire Hongjun intelligence department.

...

Fujian, Fuzhou.

"I'm in a hurry! I'll stop doing this governor!"

Wang Xinde complained loudly: "No more, more than a dozen edicts scolded me for not moving my troops and refused to send troops to Zhejiang, but let us jump into the fire pit here!"

No wonder Wang Xinde is so resentful. Although there is peace on the border between Fujian and Zhejiang, the Fujian army has suffered two severe damages in the past few months.

The last time, Rao Ting's army to aid Zhejiang was almost completely destroyed, losing thousands of people, and almost all the weapons were lost. The red thief Lu Ziyun took the opportunity to occupy the entire territory of Chuzhou, directly forming a confrontation with Fujian on the provincial territory.

Then, Wang Xinde decided to send reinforcements to Chuzhou Province, but suffered another big loss. The official army marched in Fujian Province, and was very careless. Unexpectedly, Lu Ziyun suddenly crossed the province, and one attacked and lost more than a thousand people. The newly purchased four hundred foreign guns were even taken away by Lu Ziyun before he even unboxed them.

Since then, Lu Ziyun has become a strong man, but he has only the strength of three infantry battalions. He may not be able to defend himself, let alone the Fujian Province. Therefore, the two sides maintain a scene of no war and disagreement on the border.

Wang Xinde also cherished this hard-earned opportunity for peaceful coexistence. While buying foreign guns and cannons, he slowly increased troops on the province, and reported a great victory to the center every three or five days. So far, he has killed 70,000 to 80,000 red thieves in Lu Ziyun's army.

However, his eternity and perseverance were criticized by Emperor Xianfeng again and again. It was said that Zhejiang was in danger. As the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Wang Xinde neither sent troops to Wenzhou nor Chuzhou. As the result, the Red thieves were rampant in Zhejiang, and had occupied as many as four prefectures and thirty counties.

Now another edict came out, and Wang Xinde was so angry that he jumped straight and said he was quitting: "What do you say about the Red thieves in Chuzhou? However, Lu Ziyun's thieves have the most, the fewer, the fewer, and hundreds of bandits. The total number is only 2,000. Fujian Province has 60,000 troops and 70,000, and he dared not copy the Red thieves' retreat! It's hateful!"

Most of this is true, but there are a little differences. The three main battalions of Lu Ziyun's troops, plus local troops, now have only 3,000 people. In terms of military strength, it is incomparable to Fujian, which has an army of 60,000 or 70,000 troops.

But Wang Xinde knew the truth. Although there were only 3,000 red thieves in Chuzhou, there were many foreign guns and cannons. The total number of foreign guns purchased from foreign countries and captured from the official army was no less than 1,6700. There were also several foreign guns, which were not controlled by a few Fujian army.

What's more, the mountains of Chuzhou Prefecture are rugged and large troops are not easy to deploy. The Red thieves are very convenient to defend. They can also obtain reinforcements from Jinhua Prefecture and Taizhou at any time. Only when the bandits reinforce the third or fifth battalions of the infantry team, the war situation in Chuzhou Prefecture may be reversed.

As for attacking Wenzhou, it was not a good idea. The red thief in Wenzhou Prefecture was a group of Qu Zhenhan, and he was not affiliated with Liu Juehu. Now he sent troops to Wenzhou, maybe he helped Liu Juehu to swallow Qu Zhenhan.

Under such circumstances, Wang Xinde felt that although he wanted to support Zhejiang, he was not so rash to support Zhejiang now. It was just that the Fujian governor Qingduan was a man of mankind and had some disagreements: "Mr. Master of the Ministry, Zhejiang is in an emergency, and Fujian Province may have to send troops!"

Although Qingduan is not a wise minister, it is their vast territory after all. Therefore, when he spoke, although the Fujian Governor Lu Qisun next to him has never been in charge, he also said: "Don't be anxious, Qingfantai, don't be anxious. The minister has his own strategy. Now that the imperial edict is issued, it will be a matter of time to send troops! Master, do you think so?"

When Lu Qisun spoke like this, Wang Xinde could only explain his strategy: "Now the emperor is anxious that Liu Juehu's soldiers are entering Ning Shao. Ning Shao has salary but no soldiers, so it is probably a lot of danger, right?"

"If Ning Shao is lost, Zhejiang will have no obstacles!" Qingduan said: "Our army must have attacked Chuzhou early, attacked its flanks, and forced Liu to extort the help of the households!"

"That's our Fujian to get millet from the fire in Zhejiang!" Wang Xinde said bluntly: "I forgot the lesson of Rao Ting's defeat in Chuzhou in the previous election? Although there are troops that can fight in our Fujian Province, the Red Stories Liu Juehuo still owes a little bit of fire. When we attack Chuzhou Prefecture, the main Red Stories, Dragon Spears, Panshi, and Nanxi camps swarm south. How likely will Qingfantai have to win?"

When Qingduan heard Wang Xinde's analysis, he hesitated. Wang Xinde was right. Rao Tingxuan was a famous general in Fujian no matter what. However, under the power of the Red Bandits, the army would be destroyed if they could not hold on for a day. This shows the bravery and cunning of the Red Bandits.

Although Fujian claims to have 60,000 or 70,000 soldiers, the Jingshu who can really be transferred out to attack Chuzhou Prefecture is probably only 20,000 to 30,000. However, if the Red thief goes to help Chuzhou Prefecture, it will be a tough battle even if he can gain the upper hand.

But if these 20,000 to 30,000 people lose most of their lives in Chuzhou, then Fujian will be considered a disaster and invite the Red Riding Lie family into the house.

When Qingduan thought of this, hesitated: "What is the best view of that temple?"

Wang Xinde immediately expressed his thoughts: "I have made an appointment with Xiangrong Xiangxinran. The camp has sent Deng Shaoliang to command troops to help Zhejiang. Our Fujian army and Deng Shaoliang launched at the same time."

"Now the Red Thief occupied the three prefectures of Jintai and was peeking at Ning Shao. It was actually a giant snake formation. The road ahead had already reached Hangzhou, and the road behind was still in Fujian..."

Although Qingduan is a Manchu, the Manchu who can be a governor at the level of the governor must be an outstanding man among the Manchus. Wang Xinde has already understood this point: "In terms of the long snake formation, Chuzhou is the tail of the long snake, the weakest, Jinhua Mansion is the snake waist, and Jinchutai and Wen are all connected by Jinhua, and it can also be said to be the seven-inch snake."

Wang Xinde, old man, immediately praised: "The heroes saw the same thing as the long snake formation. The red thieves in Jinhua Prefecture attacked Ningshao and the two prefectures are the most elite, and they can be called the snake head. Taizhou Prefecture is the old nest of the red thief and willow. This is the poisonous fang of the long snake!"

"Those who want to break the long snake!" Qing Duan already understood: "Attack his tail and break his waist, Ning Shao can protect him!"

"That's right! The Red thief was launched in Ningshao, and there were not many troops left in Jinhua Prefecture. Our Fujian army raided and attacked from Chuzhou, and Deng Shaoliang cut off from western Zhejiang. The two groups attacked each other, which would inevitably force the Red thief to escape back!"

"This plan is great! The tribe is indeed the country's Gancheng!"

In this case, the Red Riding Riot Liu family must first solve the problem of cutting off Deng Shaoliang's troops in Jinhua Prefecture, so the Fujian army can feel at ease to solve the problem of Lu Ziyun's troops in Chuzhou Prefecture.

It is naturally a situation where the attack on the Chuzhou Prefecture without foreign aid is easy to capture with a tenfold army, but Wang Xinde's plan is not here: "In addition to the launch of our Fujian Province and Zhejiang Admiral Deng Shaoliang at the same time, we can still ask the Gan army to rush to Zhejiang, and there are also surprise troops to attack Taizhou Prefecture. If all the troops join forces, we will surely win!"

Most of the Gan Army are Hunan Army. Although the Hunan Army was defeated in Jiujiang in February this year and its troops were divided into four water and land branches, it was no longer important for the overall situation in the southeast, but it still had the strength to mobilize a force to assist Zhejiang, let alone the so-called surprise attack on Taizhou, which greatly increased Qingduan's confidence: "Qing is a Manchu man, so he must fight against His Majesty. It is not advisable to launch it now!"

With Wang Xinde's strategy, even if the main force of Liu Juehou did not seriously damage the war, as long as it was dragged down, everything was possible.

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Chapter completed!