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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 375: Borrowing Troops from Guangdong Province

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    While the West Palace Taiping Army was fighting with Fujian in the north, Guangzhou in the south of China was also in a tense atmosphere.  The Guangdong Heaven and Earth Society is about to move. The British in Hong Kong are pressing hard, but the court is still urging Guangdong to once again form a navy to go north to the south of the Yangtze River. Ye Mingchen, the five-port trade minister, only feels that he is sitting on a volcanic crater. If there is a little spark, he will be  Blow yourself to pieces.

    Although Ye Mingchen struggled to support, bad news came one after another. The Taiping Army launched a southern expedition, and the Taizhou defense line was broken in just half a month.  The governor of Guangxi, Lao Chongguang, received news that the Guangxi Tiandi Hui rebels, Hu Youlu, Zhu Hongying, He Goujian and other troops, had gathered together and gathered 70,000 to 80,000 troops. They had already changed their banners and accepted official positions in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Lao Chongguang could do what he could  They just continued to besiege the rebels.  As the Guangxi Tiandi Society changed its banner, the Guangdong Tiandi Society became even more ready to take action. News came from Dongguan, Foshan and other places that the Tiandi Society was secretly concentrating its manpower.

    What can Ye Mingchen do?  Apart from calling on the wealthy gentry to actively donate food and salary and organize team training, he seemed unable to do much.  He wanted to pay foreigners to borrow troops, but was bluntly rejected by Guangzhou Consul Parkes. In order to get the support of Britain, the Qing Dynasty had to finalize the exchange of contracts first.  Ye Mingchen also knew that he had played Tai Chi a lot with foreigners, and it was almost impossible to ask foreigners to help him at this time.  So Ye Mingchen can do very little.

    In the afternoon of this day, Ye Mingchen was handling official business, and the guard outside reported that someone was coming from Hunan.  Ye Mingchen immediately stopped his official duties and said: "Please come quickly." He knew who this person from Hunan was. Ronglu, the assistant minister of regiment training in Hunan. Ever since the Hunan army conquered Hengyang, Ronglu had opened up the trade route from Hunan to Guangdong.  Only tea, raw silk and other items from the mainland could be transported to Guangzhou for trade.  Ye Mingchen and Ronglu are not only ministers of the same palace, but also business partners.

    After a while.  The personal guards led the two people into Ye Mingchen's study. They were both acquaintances of Ye Mingchen, Ronglu and Li Chong.  Ronglu only met once. After the Hunan Army opened up business routes, he went to Guangzhou to meet Ye Mingchen in person and agreed on the details of the transaction. However, Li Chong was a person who traveled between Hunan and Guangzhou for a long time.

    Ye Mingchen is nearly fifty years old, and his beard and hair are a little gray, but he has no airs about Ronglu, who is only eighteen years old.  As early as last year, when they met, Ronglu impressed Ye Mingchen.  The intelligence displayed by this young man is not comparable to that of the Manchus in Sijiu City who only know how to fight cocks and walk dogs. Moreover, his relationship with foreigners is not bad, and his relationship with several large foreign companies such as Jardine Matheson and Baoshun Matheson is actually not bad.  .  Therefore, Ye Mingchen did not regard him as an ignorant young man, and besides, he was Zeng Guofan's future son-in-law.

    Both parties were old acquaintances, and after a few words of greeting, the guests and hosts sat down.  Ye Mingchen asked eagerly: "Zhonghua, I mentioned in last month's letter that I would borrow Hunan's brave men like Guangdong to help in the suppression. What did Zeng Shuai say?"

    In view of the deterioration of the situation in Guangdong.  Ye Mingchen asked many parties to borrow troops to help suppress the war. Guangdong has always had a strong martial arts style, and there are many martial arts schools among the people to recruit disciples. However, most of these martial arts schools are actually the forces of the Tiandihui, and the Tiandihui has great influence among the people in Guangdong. It was established in Guangdong.  In Ye Mingchen's opinion, those team training teams were also very unreliable.  Maybe something would really happen one day, and it wouldn't be surprising if all these regiments would change their banners, so he came up with the idea of ??borrowing troops to help suppress it.

    In addition to being the Minister of Commerce of the Five Countries, Ye Mingchen was also the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.  But the troops in Guangxi cannot move. They must tightly surround the rebel army of Hu Youlu, Zhu Hongying, He Goujian and others. If this rebel army rushes into Guangdong and Guangdong will become one, I am afraid that both Guangdong and Guangxi will be unable to contain it.  .

    "You can't borrow troops from Guangxi, nor can Wang Yide and Li Tingyu from Fujian. They are directly adjacent to Changmao in the north of Fujian, and they have problems with self-protection. How can they lend troops to Ye Mingchen?"  The same is true for Jiang Zhongyuan in Jiangxi. Although the Taiping Army was defeated in the First Battle of Nanchang, several Taiping Army still roamed around Jiangxi and harassed Jiang Zhongyuan, giving Jiang Zhongyuan a headache.  At the same time, I heard that the Taiping Army was still preparing for a second attack on Nanchang, so Jiang Zhongyuan would not borrow troops.

    Ye Mingchen finally figured out that only Hunan could borrow troops. Although Hunan was also adjacent to Changmao, there were many Qing troops in Hunan. The Qing government's strategy had always been to defend the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and Jingxiang.  To conquer the separatist forces in Jiangnan that relied on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River, they must first control the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Therefore, the Qing government concentrated several heavy troops in Hunan.  The troops from Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other places were concentrated in the land of Jingxiang to confront the Taiping Rebellion. The Sichuan troops and the troops from northern Hunan and Hubei were in the hands of Zhang Liangji, the governor of Hunan. They faced off against the Taiping Army in northern Hunan.  The first branch is the company of Zeng Guofan and Ronglu.

    Zeng Guofan had 30,000 newly trained Hunan warriors in his hands, and Ronglu had gathered the elite Guizhou soldiers in his hands. The two of them were stationed in Hengyang and were still training the navy.  Because both Ronglu and Zeng Guofan were very good at management, Xiang Yong was considered wealthy and had no shortage of money and food.  The most important thing is that the Taiping Army in Changsha is temporarily unable to go south, and Lai Hanying, the uncle of Changmao, can only stick to Changsha, Xiangtan and other places until TaipingThe army defeated Jiang Zhongyuan in Jiangxi and completely pulled out the nails in his back before he dared to go south.

    So Ye Mingchen decided to borrow troops from Zeng Guofan, and he knew Ronglu well and was a business partner. He thought it might be useful to ask Ronglu, his son-in-law, to mention this matter to his father-in-law.  After the two families reached an agreement, Ye Mingchen sent a letter to Xianfeng to request the deployment of troops.

    After listening to Ye Mingchen's words, Rong Lu smiled slightly and said: "There has been an undercurrent in Guangdong Province recently, and Zeng Shuai is also aware of it. There is no need to worry, Master Tai. We still understand the principle of lip death and tooth cold. Xiangyong can be ready within the day."  To go south, all we need to do is to obtain transfer orders from the Ministry of War from Master Taitai."

    Ye Mingchen was overjoyed and said: "This is easy. I had mentioned this to the emperor earlier. The emperor also intended to appease Guangdong and Guangxi first. However, the war in Nanchang was urgent at that time, so the matter was temporarily dropped. So.  I can just draft the memorial."

    Ronglu smiled and said: "Master Taiwan, don't be anxious, and you are not in a hurry. We haven't discussed the details of sending troops yet."

    Ye Mingchen slapped his head and said with a smile: "That's right. How many people will come from Hunan and how much military expenses and food will the Guangdong and Guangxi have to bear? These all need to be agreed upon first." Ye Mingchen also knew that if someone wanted to send troops, they would naturally have to agree on the price first.  Zeng Guofan's regiment training was different from that of the Green Battalion. They were all organized by people raising their own money and food. To put it bluntly, they were the Zeng family's private army. If they didn't agree on money and food, why would they come to Guangdong to work for you?  Although the imperial court's will also allowed Zeng Guofan to send troops, sending troops like that was completely different. Xiang Yong could have done nothing but work.

    You must know that in history, the Qing government asked Zeng Guofan to go out to Hunan to conquer the Taiping Army, but in exchange for the real power of the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the governor of five provinces in military and political affairs.  Ye Mingchen also knew the stakes, so he said this.

    Ronglu smiled and looked at the famous Su Wu in history. This man was indeed not a fool.  When Ye Mingchen responded to the invasion of foreigners in history, he adopted a non-violent and non-cooperative attitude of no war, no peace, no defense, no death, no surrender, and no leaving. He was eventually imprisoned by the British and died in Bengal, India.  Therefore, some people think that Ye Mingchen is a confused official, but in fact, in Ronglu's view, how could a confused person become the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi?

    Moreover, during the Second Opium War, the British and French allied forces had an absolute advantage in Guangzhou. Guangdong was the only province in the country that was relatively prosperous and was not affected by major military disasters. Therefore, Guangdong became an important source of money and food for the country.  land.  After the beginning of spring, Xianfeng issued a decree and Guangdong allocated one million taels of silver to Shaanxi at one time, which shows that Guangdong Province is rich in money and food.  Therefore, Ye Mingchen was using no war, no peace, no defense, no death, no surrender, and no leaving to preserve the Qing Dynasty, the only profitable province, and did not want Guangdong to be occupied by Britain and France.  In the end, he took the blame alone. Although the title of Governor Liu Bu was shameful, if anyone were to take his place, would there be a better choice than him?

    Therefore, Rong Lu did not look down on Ye Mingchen at all. On the contrary, he respected the old guy very much. At that moment, Rong Lu nodded and said: "Since the master of Taiwan Production has spoken frankly, the juniors will also speak frankly. This time Zeng Shuai plans to send five  When a thousand soldiers and horses leave the province, it is hoped that the money, food, supplies, expenses, and pensions for battle casualties and casualties of five thousand soldiers and horses will all be borne by Guangdong Province.¡±

    Ye Mingchen frowned and said: "There are only five thousand soldiers and horses? Is it too few? It should be noted that the Guangdong Tiandihui is extremely powerful. It is rumored that there are sixty or seventy thousand people in the congregation. If there is an uprising, there must be people who rely on them to coerce them.  Some, I'm afraid that 20,000 to 300,000 people will make trouble, and if Xiangyong's 5,000 people come, I'm afraid it won't help."

    Ronglu smiled lightly and said: "Actually, five thousand Xiangyong is enough. These five thousand Xiangyong came south mainly to clean the inner courtyard for Lord Taitai."

    Ye Mingchen narrowed his eyes and said, "What does Zhong Hua mean?"

    Rong Lu said: "When there was a small knife meeting under the Taoist rule in Shanghai, the situation was similar to that in Guangdong now. Five thousand Xiangyong went south so that you can have a reliable army and horses, and then you can use thunderous means to eliminate the Guangdong regiment."  ** in the **. ** are all scattered, without the backbone, there will be no trouble. Moreover, not everyone in the regiment training is a traitor to the Tiandihui Party. As long as you use it well, I believe that five thousand soldiers are enough for you to control Guangdong.  Team training.¡±

    Ye Mingchen said happily: "That's true. As long as the Tiandihui thieves in Guangdong regiment training are removed, those regiment training troops and horses can still be used by me."

    Ronglu nodded and then said with a smile: "The adults in Guangxi can also mobilize more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to help. I believe this matter will be more certain."

    Ye Mingchen frowned and said: "Over in Guangxi, Hu Youlu, Zhu Hongying, He Goujian and other thieves gathered together. The thieves are very powerful. I'm afraid they won't be able to send troops back."

    Ronglu squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "Sir, several groups of thieves and bandits were originally not affiliated with each other, but now they are together, what do you think?who?  "

    Ye Mingchen's eyes lit up, and he suddenly realized: "Zhonghua means to instigate them to fight among themselves?" (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!
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