In Zhu Jinglun’s view, Chang Jiejun is dead. What he has to consider now is the overall situation of Fujian.

After deciding on the strategy of "developing health first", all the troops were contracted to Guangzhou and the regiment was still not good. Now they have completely restored their previous establishment, and their main forces are the first to attack Shaozhou in Nanshao Liandao, rewarding Yang Zizhao for becoming the platform of Nanshao Liandao and Li Weiping for being the magistrate.
The remaining places, from the magistrate to the county magistrate, were also set up by the gentry in Wuyi area, and then they were reformed according to other places in Guangdong, such as letting Hurd go in to reform the county official structure, and the status of the old county official was greatly improved to deal with the past petty official affairs as an alternate official, and at the same time, the examination system was promulgated to establish the county school
To carry out these things, we need a stable order, and the people in Nanshao are strong and strong. Many people in the cottage maintain a strong military color. Whenever the regime changes, there will be a history of fierce resistance here, even if the Japanese come here, the cottage has resisted stubbornly.
It’s impossible to maintain stability in a place like this without an army. The regiment’s brave men can’t move the remaining troops. There are two main forces near Guangzhou, Xin ‘an Second Army and Guangzhou Army, and two armies, Jun Hong and Zhaoqing Army. Among them, Zhu Jinglun, the second army of Xin ‘an, intends to let them have a rest. After fighting hard with Jiang Yili and Zhang Qian Shan, more than 2,000 people were recruited and rested, and they all went to war in France for half a year.
The remaining three armies can be sent out, but the big Jun Hong and Zhaoqing armies are still mixed with cold and hot weapons, and their firepower is weak. They are not as good as Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang’s army, but every army Zhu Jinglun is equipped with artillery, so the army is more defensive than enterprising, and I’m afraid it is insufficient.
After careful study, the general staff gave Zhu Jinglun such a plan to attack Fujian from the sea and capture a coastal plain city.
Fujian’s terrain is actually connected with Chaoshan area in Guangdong Province. The land is mountainous and ups and downs. From the map, although many villages are actually located in valleys, the plain lies in the coastal area near the estuary of rivers.
For example, the plain around Chaozhou was formed by the impact and erosion of mountains by Hanjiang River; All the plains in Zhangzhou are the Jiulong River and its tributaries converge here into the sea; Quanzhou is Jinjiang, Fuzhou is Minjiang.
Because of the limitation of this terrain, the most important and richest cities in Fujian are also built along the coast. Therefore, Fujian is born with a marine culture, that is, it runs through the mountainous areas of the province. Therefore, they naturally have to find a way to the ocean. Unfortunately, this marine culture has not formed an independent cultural body, but it has finally become a subculture of agricultural culture. Although there are many sailors and businessmen who eat by the sea, their social status ends up in the agricultural culture, which is a concrete manifestation of cultural strength.
If you can capture the coastal city, Zuo Zongtang will rule in Fujian in name only. If you want to rule, let him rule the mountainous area.
The first purpose of the attack was Zhangzhou, not only because it is the closest to Guangdong, but also because Zhangzhou is the main stationed area of Zuo Zongtang’s Chu army. Before that, they attacked the main force of the Chu army in Guangdong, and later, they rescued the main force of Changjie Army and retreated here.
Then, in order to rescue Chang Jiejun, most of the troops were transferred to Yunxiao, Zhaoan Heping and three mountain counties, but Zhangzhou is still their logistics base. If we can fight Zhangzhou, we have a good chance to trap Zuo Zongtang’s Chu army in southern Fujian and destroy it in one fell swoop.
The staff officers are all excited about this opportunity. This kind of battle that can eat each other’s serious illness group and decide the outcome through a general battle is the real one. The staff officers like the small-scale battle in local mountains. In fact, it doesn’t matter if there are staff officers or not.
Large-scale battle is the only measure to reflect the level of staff, because it will involve all the necessary elements of war, such as precision graphics, complex logistics supply plan, reserve preparation and so on
Zhu Jinglun didn’t care about the specific plan made by the staff officers after reading the outline, such as the order of sending troops, transportation, attack and so on, and approved it directly.
A total of five warships will cooperate with this operation. All the warships ordered by Zhu Jinglun last year have finally been completed. Five of them fought in the Yangtze River to ensure that the remaining five stayed in Guangdong.
Moreover, because the war in Guangdong is mainly to seize the Pearl River, the tonnage of Guangdong warships is relatively small, and most of them are small boats. The real naval warships are all north of the Yangtze River. Fighting with Xiang is one purpose, and it is also an important purpose for the navy to shock the sailors.
It is impossible for five warships to transport too many troops at a time because they have to transport necessary combat materials. It is already the limit for one warship to squeeze one person. Five warships can transport five people at a time. This is not enough to fight with Zuo Zongtang’s heavy corps, but the sneak attack on Zhangzhou is enough.
The only variable is whether Zuo Zongtang will be so stupid and unprepared.
The plan of the general staff department is that once the other party has prepared for the attack, it will land near Zhangzhou and prepare for the storm. If the storm is not, it will contain the enemy’s main force in Zhangzhou and then attack the city in other places in Fujian, such as occupying Fuzhou and Quanzhou, and form a siege of Zhangzhou in the general direction.
At the end of September, everything was ready, and a new battle was about to start. At this time, a good news came. After two months in the mountains, Chang Jiejun came out, not out, but they surrendered to the French, who didn’t have the courage to stick it out when they saw the unfavorable situation.
They didn’t know the truth until after the trial, but they had been ready to surrender for a long time, but they couldn’t find the opportunity to send messengers to find each other to negotiate surrender. Their heads were often cut off, which almost drove them crazy. Finally, they touched the main force of Wukeng Army, and they had to surrender.
Chang Jie’s surrender made the army suddenly free up the two most effective troops. The Wukeng Army has long been the main force, and Chaozhou Army used to be a veteran soldier. Although it is still a mixture of cold and hot weapons, it has been adapted to the new army formation for a long time.
With the combat effectiveness of these two forces in hand, the staff officers saw great hope in destroying the Chu army, so they decided to revise the plan
Section three hundred and sixty-four ChuJun retreat
The staff headquarters ma gave the Chaozhou Army and the Wukeng Army a plan to go to war. If they have any difficulties, they must immediately read the mountains on the border between Fujian and Guangdong, attack Fujian territory and attack Fujian city.
Once these 20,000 men stormed the Fujian city staff, Zuo Zongtang had to defend himself, and then the navy encountered a weak defense from Zhangzhou. Even if Zuo Zongtang understood all this, he could not change it. It was not a conspiracy, but an open plan.
If Zuo Zongtang doesn’t defend the border area, Yunxiao and other places are captured, the army will still approach Zhangzhou. All this way is the main attack. If he doesn’t defend the Zhangzhou army directly, he will still push the main force to Zhangzhou. Zuo Zongtang can’t face the dilemma of being attacked on both sides.
The young military staff still underestimated Zuo Zongtang’s decisive courage. When they broke into Yunxiao and other places, all the houses and food in the three counties and halls were burned and the Chu army retreated.
This situation made the staff headquarters decide to change the plan again. They had just completed the interrogation of Chang Jiejun, and the French officers truthfully explained Zuo Zongtang’s former strategic concept.
It turned out that they planned to capture Chaozhou, and then Chaozhou went out to the Pearl River Delta. Chaozhou was chosen because Chaozhou had excellent port facilities and was a trading port. Zuo Zongtang rented many foreign ships in Ningbo, including the famous ship Baoshun, which was purchased by Ningbo North Commercial Body.
I have to say that Zuo Zongtang’s strategic idea is that it is possible to occupy Chaozhou area, then carry out large-scale transportation by sea, and then capture Xin ‘an area by six routes to control the Pearl River Estuary, which can pose a great threat to the Pearl River waterway. The key point is that Zhu Jinglun can’t release Xin ‘an, and being occupied will definitely compete with Zuo Zongtang repeatedly here, which is equivalent to containing Zhu Jinglun’s outward expansion. Next, whether to attack Guangdong from Guangxi or Jiangxi and other places, Zuo Zongtang will have the absolute initiative
Of course, this is a strategy. Zuo Zongtang has not finished blocking victory in this strategy. He is a wise man. He left himself an absolute retreat. Unfortunately, he didn’t know much about the western army. There is no habit and culture of fighting to the death. They don’t regard surrender as a shame and lack the style of fighting to the death of Xiang.
Another problem is that Zuo Zongtang is different from Zeng Guofan after all. If Zeng Guofan formulated this strategy, he would really bury his head and carry it out all the time. Zeng Guofan is better than anyone, including the military staff.
Seeing that their staff headquarters revised the battle plan again, they wanted the navy to attack Zhangzhou as soon as possible. Before Zuo Zongtang’s main force returned, he burned Zhangzhou City Zuo Zongtang’s Yunxiao Hall, which made them see Zuo Zongtang’s determination to retreat. Obviously, Zuo Zongtang did not want to follow the staff plan and drag his main force to the border. Then they must retreat to Zhangzhou.
It’s been more than once that I’ve seen the staff changing their plans. Although Zhu Jinglun doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with improvising, changing plans too often means that they are not mature enough, which means that they are still very rough in controlling the situation and not sensitive enough to the possibility of change.
"Why not attack Fuzhou directly?"
Zhu Jinglun asks.
The staff officers have been keeping their eyes on Zhangzhou because they want to fight a big battle in Zhangzhou.
But they forgot that "Zuo Zongtang dared to burn the sky, peace and Zhao ‘an. How do you know that he dared not burn Zhangzhou?"
Burning Zhangzhou seems crazy, but this is a rich city, the Fujian and precious plains, and the tea trade in the Jiulong River Basin has burned down. Such a city has suffered heavy losses, and ordinary people will not choose it. But is Zuo Zongtang an ordinary person? He has followed Zeng Guofan for many years, and scholars like Zeng Guofan can acquiesce in soldiers burning and looting several times. Their hearts are much more cruel than these staff officers.
Zhu Jinglun continued, "If Zuo Zongtang dares to attack Fuzhou, I will admire him. After attacking Fuzhou, he will control the two sides of the Minjiang River to cut off the route of Chu army’s northward withdrawal, leave them in southern Fujian and then beat dogs."
Xie Qi took a breath of air conditioning but was very worried. "But the strength problem?"
Zhu Jinglun said, "The troops are being transferred from Guangdong. I think the Nanshao Liandao Regiment can draw 20,000 people from other armies to transfer mature officers directly to our military system, even if it can’t be defended."
Xie Qi nodded and hurried back to redraw the plan.
The general staff system is the first person in Germany to play, and most of the general staff of other countries can’t finish the work. The reason is that Germany has produced a Mao Qi, who suppressed all the officers and made the general staff the absolute core, while other countries still have the military officers in charge. Sometimes the system is just those outstanding heroes shipped out instead of being formulated at once.
Now Zhu Jinglun is to let Xie Qi directly command the army. It is estimated that he will not be able to play with Hou Jin and Black Dog, senior officers, and he will never learn from them.
The new plan was worked out overnight. This time, more troops were involved. Pan Shicheng rented 3oo salt boats to cooperate with 5o warships to transport 20,000 soldiers directly from Fuzhou. After occupying Fuzhou, he continued to expand his occupation forces and attacked Minjiang River until Nanping.
When the Minjiang River line is blocked, the number of troops will reach 40,000, while the five pits army in the south and Chaozhou army will continue to pursue and finally firmly bite the Chu army, and finally form a joint encirclement of the Chu army with the 40,000 troops in the north.
This plan is not only bold, but also very detailed, which includes the plan of chasing Chu troops to prevent them from jumping from Fujian to Jiangxi and ensuring that they will be driven to the north of Fujian. It also takes into account the customs and customs of Fujian, and the Taiping Army’s entry into Fujian is untenable. A big reason is that Fujian Yong Tuan supports the Qing court, so it is also a very important battle plan to fight for Fujian Yong Tuan.
Fortunately, in the era of a trade, a large number of wealthy businessmen in Guangzhou actually came from Fujian, and almost all of the most famous businessmen in the thirteen lines came from Fujian, such as Pan Chengxun’s family, Pan Shicheng’s family and Wu Chongyao’s family, all of which came from Fujian, and they still have a strong influence in Fujian for decades. They sent money back to rebuild their ancestral ancestral ancestral temple, Pan Shicheng’s hometown to marry their daughter and marry purple clay teapot, and even named it after Pan Shicheng because Pan Shicheng liked purple clay pots. The Wu family owned a large tea garden in Wuyishan.
At present, due to the excellent and efficient management of Kowloon Port, a large number of Fujian businessmen are not in Fujian Trade, and it is an important force in tea trade to send Fujian products to Kowloon Port for sale.
If the influence of the merchant class is superficial to the countryside, there are real local forces. chaozhou people himself thinks that he moved from Fujian to keep in touch with Fujian in large numbers. They are very popular in Guangdong, just as Hakka people can find support when they go to Chaozhou. When they go to Fujian in chaozhou people, they can still find support. Therefore, the biggest thing for Chaozhou army to go to Fujian is to contact local yong ying to strive for their neutrality.
Immediately after the plan was drawn up, Zhu Jinglun left enough. Even if Zuo Zongtang withdrew his troops, it was impossible to retreat to Fuzhou and go to the sea. It was not so easy for Zhu Jinglun to March from Fujian’s many mountains.
At the end of 10 months, the 20,000-strong army finally went straight to Fuzhou.
In mid-November, the fastest 5o ships reached the offshore of Fuzhou.
When Zuo Zongtang received the news at the first time, he was surprised for a moment and sighed, saying that he had not seen such a large-scale deployment of troops by sea for 300 years after the surname of the country. It was also a blessing for Zuo Zongtang to meet it for the first time!
Zuo Zongtang completely ignored the example of foreigners attacking Tiangong from the sea.