Chapter 105 Killing someone with a borrowed knife

Chapter 105 Killing someone with a borrowed knife

Chapter 105 Killing someone with a borrowed knife

Shao Quanzhong met Wu Ci in the study.

As soon as Wu Ci entered the room, he leaned back in his chair and sighed, "Commander, I have failed to live up to your trust."

Shao Quanzhong smiled and said, "Li Hongzhang thinks our temple is too small and refuses to come, right?"

Wu Ci shook his head. "There was hope, but unfortunately we went too late. After Li Jianfu left the Hunan Army camp, he did not return to his hometown in Anhui. Instead, he temporarily led the Huaiyang Navy of the Hunan Army and was responsible for blocking the waterway of the Taiping Army in Anqing."

Shao Quanzhong nodded. "The Taiping Army had long lost control of the Yangtze River, so the Huaiyang Navy was useless. With Li Hongzhang's ability, it would be the same as going home and quitting his job with those broken long dragons and sampans."

"I went to talk to Li Hongzhang in detail and showed him the advanced features of our Huai Army. He was very interested. But the day after I went there, Hu Linyi, Guo Songtao and Chen Nai took turns to persuade him. When they heard that I was trying to persuade him, Zeng Guofan personally came out on the third day and invited him back."

"Ziyi, don't be discouraged. Zeng Guofan is his mentor after all. The Hunan Army is much more powerful than the Huai Army now. It's normal that we can't compete with the Hunan Army."

"It's actually a matter of opportunity. We destroyed the foreign rifle team once, and the gentry in Shanghai felt that it was unsafe to rely on the foreign rifle team alone, so they wanted to recruit our Huai Army to Shanghai..."

"That's impossible. We have offended Wu Xu and Yang Fang so much that we can't get along with the foreign rifle team. There is no way we can cooperate with them."

"Yes, they had no choice but to send Qian Dingming as a representative to Anqing to ask Zeng Guofan for help. Zeng Guofan was the governor-general of Liangjiang, so he couldn't just ignore it, so he planned to send Zeng Guoquan to Shanghai."

Shao Quanzhong knew about this, "In the end they decided to send Li Hongzhang, right?"

"The commander is very good at predicting things. Zeng Guoquan thinks that going to Shanghai is a small task. It will be difficult to defeat Li Xiucheng and the achievement will be small. It is better to attack Nanjing directly after defeating Anqing to achieve unprecedented achievements. He is unwilling to go to Shanghai. Chen Shijie, a veteran general of the Hunan Army, also has the same idea..."

"So the pie fell on Li Hongzhang's head, right?"

"That's right. Zeng Guofan needed to have an overview of the overall situation. He had to fight Li Xiucheng no matter how difficult it was. He recommended Zuo Zongtang to be the governor of Zhejiang and lead the Chu army to attack Hangzhou. Li Hongzhang replaced Xue Huan and became the governor of Jiangsu. He became Mr. Qiao's theoretical superior. How could he come to the Huai Army?"

Shao Quanzhong sighed deeply. Xue Huan, who had been at odds with Zeng Guofan, was finally eliminated by Zeng the Barber.

The fact that Lord Qiao took the blame and guaranteed foreign loans for himself would be revealed sooner or later. If the Huai Army did not make some achievements, Zeng Guofan would have a reason to impeach his godfather. Wouldn't that be very dangerous?
But the Huai Army has not yet been expanded. With only one thousand officers scattered among more than ten thousand people, the average combat effectiveness of the Huai Army has actually decreased. What can be done? Before the Huai Army is fully trained, can Godfather withstand Zeng Guofan's suppression?

Damn it, it’s a blessing in disguise, but if it’s a disaster, it’s inevitable. No matter what, the Huai Army has to be trained before it can fight.

"Li Hongzhang returned to Anhui to recruit soldiers and form the Shanghai Army. Now the Shanghai Army has quickly assembled the four battalions of 'Shu' (Zhang Shusheng), 'Ming' (Liu Mingchuan), 'Ding' (Pan Dingxin), and 'Qing' (Wu Changqing), and is preparing to hire the You family fleet to transport them to Shanghai..."

Shao Quanzhong patted Wu Ci on the shoulder and said, "A forced melon is not sweet. If Li Hongzhang doesn't come, forget it. Without him, the butcher Li, we wouldn't eat hairy pigs. You're back just in time. Our Huai Army has a great talent who can compete with Li Hongzhang. It's just right for you to go and meet him."

Shao Quanzhong took Wu Ci back to the reception room, now the conference room, and announced his new appointment on the spot.

"Brothers, I appoint Zhang Zhidong as the Huai Army's staff officer and the Huai Army's chief of staff. He will enjoy the treatment of an assistant commander and be in charge of the Huai Army's supplies. Except for sending troops to fight, which requires my approval, you can make decisions and command everything else."

"Yes!"

All the generals stood up and saluted.

Originally, Shao Quanzhong was the assistant commander of the infantry of the Huai Army. When Zhang Zhidong arrived, he took his place and became the second in command after Shao Quanzhong.

Zhang Zhidong was not the rookie Zhuge Liang who had not achieved anything. He had achieved outstanding results in Guizhou and was a juren who had an overwhelming advantage over the unsophisticated people, scholars and tribute students.

All the generals were convinced, and no one wanted to judge the quality of this military advisor.

Shao Quanzhong granted Zhang Zhidong a lot of power, but Zhang Zhidong did not use it at all. After he came to power, he did not do anything. Everyone did what they were supposed to do, as if it was the same with or without him. He took 300 taels of salary and 300 taels of public funds from the United Front for nothing.

A month passed in a flash, and it was already June 15th. Zhang Zhidong strolled around, familiarizing himself with what the soldiers were doing and inspecting the training situation of each camp.

Most of the time, he was hanging out with Le Sen, studying the intelligence sent by the Intelligence Department from various places. He would spend half a day reading it and also instructing the intelligence personnel on the direction of their investigation.

Shao Quanzhong was very satisfied. This was what a chief of staff should be like.

I may not be able to fry eggs, but I can eat them. I know that a qualified chief of staff needs to help the boss make suggestions and decisions. He must be clear about the resources he can control and have sufficient intelligence support.

The work of a military advisor cannot be accomplished simply by relying on intelligence and imagination.

Shao Quanzhong trained his troops every day, or went to inspect various industries. In a blink of an eye, the soldiers had been training for three months and had completed half of the training subjects. In another three months, the Huai Army Infantry would be fully formed and would not be afraid of any challenge.

Shao Quanzhong went to Zhang Zhidong's office to check on his work progress. Zhang Zhidong's office was next to Le Sen's, and the two were in full contact at any time.

In the middle of the office was a huge sand table made by Zhang Zhidong himself, on which the military situation of the entire Liangjiang region was marked. Along the wall were rows of cabinets containing various important intelligence that he had picked out.

Shao Quanzhong looked at it and asked Le Xiucai who followed him, "As far as I know, the Taiping Army does not allow the existence of brothels. How did Jiang Chunlin get so much information?"

Le Sen chuckled, "How can human desire be suppressed by harsh laws? The Taiping Army violates human nature, with men and women in separate camps, and couples have to ask their superiors for permission to maintain family ties. Who can stand this? We set up underground brothels around their territory, and countless Taiping officers and soldiers escape from their posts and sneak over here every day.

They also confiscated all property, and any soldier with more than five taels of silver in his pocket would be beheaded, and he would not be able to stay unless he spent it on brothels. Now, not only does the Taiping Army have no secrets from us, but our intelligence department is actually making money."

Shao Quanzhong sighed, "Hong Xiuquan is committing a crime against humanity."

"Report, Lord Wu Wenxi has arrived."

Le Sen disappeared in a flash. He didn't want to be beaten again.

Wu Wenxi looked panicked. "Yuting, something bad has happened. Our loan from the British has finally been exposed. Zeng Guofan impeached Mr. Qiao for colluding with foreigners and selling out the interests of the Qing Dynasty. Mr. Qiao can still defend himself. He has come up with another shady trick."

Zeng Shave is a bad guy. Don't you claim to be the inheritor of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and to emphasize benevolence, righteousness, and morality? Why do you spare no effort in suppressing your political enemies? Where is your morality?

"He impeached the Huai Army for wasting national resources, fearing the enemy and avoiding fighting. Three months had passed since the Battle of Zhenjiang, and they had done nothing. He wanted to transfer the Huai Army to the Anqing front to block Chen Yucheng's reinforcements to Anqing."

Shao Quanzhong slammed the table and said, "Bullshit! Zeng Guofan is not ignorant of war. How can he go out to fight without well-trained soldiers? Letting the untrained Huai Army block Chen Yucheng's 100,000 troops? Is he really trying to use the Taiping Army to destroy the Huai Army?"

"But the court believed his words. He is the Governor-General of Liangjiang and the Minister of War. How dare we disobey his orders?"

"Whatever you want, I won't go anyway. I can't fall for Zeng's scheme of using a knife to kill someone. What else can he do to fight the Huai Army?"

"But he can remove Lord Qiao because of this."

this--

Seeing Shao Quanzhong walking around angrily with his hands behind his back, cursing Zeng Shaver for being unscrupulous, Zhang Zhidong smiled and said, "Commander-in-chief, I think we can send troops to fight."

This was the first time that Zhang Zhidong, the military advisor, gave Shao Quanzhong advice and it was time to take formal action and demonstrate his abilities.

(End of this chapter)