Chapter 114: The Unrecognizable Battle Report

Grant was inexplicably excited. "Sir, are you willing to send such elite troops to help the United States fight?"

"I just can't bear to see you two go. Can I take a famous prince-level general and four thousand elite soldiers from the Taiping Army in exchange for you two staying?"

Emery felt honored, "Sir, you really think highly of us."

Grant saluted sincerely and solemnly, "I will take these soldiers back to North America, hand them over to the military, and will come back to serve you immediately."

Shao Quanzhong waved his hand and said, "No need to go through so much trouble. We can just contact each other by telegram. The leader of this group of mercenaries is a prince of great prestige in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This is enough to suppress them from rebelling all the way."

What a joke. Grant is in our hands, how can we let him go? Shao Quanzhong would never do this. Even his former gangster opponents knew that "you can't let a tiger go back to the mountain"...

"Besides, I will be fighting the Taiping Army, and I will take more and more prisoners. Only if you are here, can we have a reasonable explanation for these mercenaries. You must say that these are the escaped Taiping Army troops you recruited for the United States, not my prisoners."

Grant understood that those who would later become president had at least good political awareness, if not full marks.

It is absolutely an act of exceeding authority for local generals to send mercenaries abroad without the permission of the Qing government.

Grant patted his chest and said, "Yes, these mercenaries were recruited by two foreigners, Emery and I. They are the remnants of the Guangdong bandits who were defeated by the Shanghai Army. They are all stragglers who destroyed the social order of the Qing Dynasty. There are definitely no princes among them."

Shao Quanzhong and Grant laughed at each other. After doing bad things together, their relationship began to become stronger.

Grant and Emery no longer mentioned leaving. Shao Quanzhong was delighted and patted his two subordinates on the back. "Your departure is a loss for the Northern Army. I feel very sorry for Lincoln. Sending the elite Taiping Army over there can be regarded as compensation to His Excellency the President."

The Huai Army came to Wuwei in batches on five steam cargo troop transport ships. On the way back, three cargo ships returning from Wuchang joined the transport team.

The whistle blew long, and eight 1,500-ton transport ships, led by the Haichang, set sail and left Wuwei.

The next day, Chen Yucheng's troops, who had driven away Duolong'a, marched quickly to Wuwei.

Before the Huai Army left, the engineers had temporarily blocked the blown-up Fenghuangjing Dam with sandbags.

The water in the swamp has lost its source and the water level has dropped significantly.

When Chen Yucheng established his army on the bank of the river, the east bank of the newly deposited river channel was already deserted. The Huai Army and Yang Fuqing's troops had disappeared, and Ma Yutang's troops, huddled in Wuwei City, were still clueless.

In Hailing City, Lord Qiao in Xiaoxiangya Garden received the spoils of the Wuwei battle sent by Shao Hengzhong, the commander of the left wing of the Huai Army's infantry.

One thousand elite Taiping Army heads were swollen from being soaked in water. The Huai Army had to row their small boats with great effort to search for them all over the battlefield.

A shattered military flag of the auxiliary king, a tattered dragon robe of the auxiliary king, and a pile of indistinct rotten meat.

Shao Hengzhong personally handed over Shao Quanzhong's victory report to Qiao Songnian, "Master Qiao, the Huai Army suffered heavy losses in this battle. The commander is personally cleaning up the battlefield and will be back in a few days."

Hearing about the heavy losses, Qiao Songnian didn't care at all, as long as he won. In the eyes of a high-ranking official of the Qing Dynasty, soldiers were just numbers, and he would recruit more no matter how many died, without any regret.

He just wants Shao Quanzhong to be fine. As long as Shao Quanzhong is around, the soldiers can still be trained. Let's see the results of this battle.

"In order to cooperate with General Zeng's plan to besiege Anqing, our Huai Army was forced to attack resolutely under General Zeng's strict order, despite the fact that the troops were not yet fully trained. In this battle, Yang Fuqing, the assistant king of the Guangdong bandits, was killed, and 5,000 elite Guangdong bandits led by Yang Fuqing were annihilated. Fifteen thousand Guangdong bandits' second reinforcements were defeated, and the entire Guangdong bandits' second reinforcements were annihilated.

Liao Rong, commander of the Huai Army's navy, personally led the warship Haichang to attack the Guangdong bandits halfway across the river, cutting off their reinforcements and killing the leader of the second Guangdong bandit reinforcement force, Yang Fuqing, with artillery fire.

Zhang Zhidong, a scholar from Zhili, led his soldiers to fight hand-to-hand with 5,000 elite bandits and beheaded 1,000 of them. At the critical moment, he dug the Fenghuangjing Dam and his troops perished together with the enemy. The rest of the enemy was lost in the flood and drifted away without a trace.

In this battle, the Hunan Army's Duolong'a pretended to attack Tongcheng, making it impossible for the Guangdong bandit Chen Yucheng's troops to participate in the battle. The passing Shanghai Army defeated the Guangdong bandits who came to reinforce on the south bank of the Yangtze River, buying time for our troops to defeat the enemy.

The patriotic businessman You Sihai sacrificed his commercial interests and donated a steamship to transport troops, which enabled our troops to arrive at the war zone in time and intercept the two reinforcements of the Guangdong bandits, making a significant contribution to the victory of this battle.

In this battle, 20% of our soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and the army is facing collapse. 40% were killed in the flood, and more than half of the remaining troops were injured. The loss is heavy. Please allow our troops to rest and replenish.

Shao Quanzhong bows his head a hundred times. June 20th, the eleventh year of Xianfeng.

After reading the battle report, Qiao Songnian laughed out loud, "Okay, with this record, Zeng the Barber can't do anything to me. The Huai Army is safe."

He stroked his beard and said, "However, if you want to get more rewards from the court, I will have to polish your battle report."

Qiao Songnian wrote with great talent, and made some minor revisions based on Shao Quanzhong's already unrecognizable battle report.

The focus is on the Huai Army's helplessness in sending troops under pressure from Marshal Zeng, which was the main reason for the heavy losses.

Originally, Shao Quanzhong wanted to describe the losses, but was forced to change Zhang Zhidong's contribution from strategic planning to brave hand-to-hand combat.

Mr. Qiao used his imagination to fully depict the glorious image of Zhang Zhidong who braved arrows and stones and fought bloody battles.

Pointing out that the well-mannered scholar was finally forced to take the risk of bad reputation and lose his subordinates. This was because our army had not yet been trained. Although we had the will to kill the enemy, we had no power to defeat the enemy. This was a last resort, all for the purpose of executing the strict order of General Zeng...

He also greatly praised Li Hongzhang and Duolong'a for their noble character and integrity in ignoring Marshal Zeng's prudent obstruction, focusing on the overall situation of fighting the Guangdong bandits, and working closely with the Huai Army to finally defeat the enemy.

He highly praised You Sihai for being a mere scholar who was willing to take some unspeakable risks to support the Huai Army for the sake of justice for the court, and expressed deep concern for the future fate of You's freight, who were loyal to the court.

Qiao Songnian prepared the victory report and sneered. Zeng the Barber, you are trying to play tricks on me, don't I know how to play?

It doesn’t matter whether Marshal Zeng really stopped Duo Long’a and Li Hongzhang.

The bigwigs in the court, with their rich experience in political struggles, can reasonably infer that Marshal Zeng must have stopped it, and your defense is useless.

Once this battle report was released, Li Hongzhang and Duolong'a were forced to stand on the same front with the Huai Army to fight against Zeng Guofan's suppression.

We need to have more friends and fewer enemies. This has been the case since ancient times.

The military flag, dragon robe, rotten meat and Lord Qiao's victory report were sent to Rehe at an express speed of 800 miles.

(End of this chapter)

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