Although the fire-like July was unbearable, it passed slowly. During this period, there were many water feelings in various parts of the Jianghuai River. Fortunately, after Yang Yi controlled the three provinces, he made many achievements in water conservancy and construction, and this flood did not appear. In August, Shi Dakai and the Nian Army became more and more fierce. Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army was defeated and retreated step by step on the battlefield in Jiangxi, Hunan. Shi Dakai frequently dispatched troops to condemn generals, suppressing the Hunan Army to death, and even Hubei could not take a step. Zeng Guofan, the governor of the two lakes, was really not a taste. As for the Nian Army, it was also a lord who bullies the weak and fears the strong. They did not see Anhui, controlled by the new army, but they were just struggling in Henan, Shandong and Shaanxi. In early August, Shi Dakai sent troops from Hubei to Shaanxi, echoing the east and west of the Nian Army, which meant to meet with the Nian Army. Fortunately, the Qing army guarded Hangu Pass to prevent the two armies from merging, but their arrogance can be seen.

Let’s talk about Emperor Xianfeng and his nobles of the Qing Dynasty who failed to compete for military power last time, they knew that Yang Yi was dissatisfied with the court’s move. They were afraid that the Han ministers would have a two-minded heart, so they did not dare to force Yang Yi too much. They just kept urging Yang Yi to send troops north and destroy the Nian Army, which might threaten the capital, and also asked the new army to send troops westward to support Zeng Guofan’s actions against Shi Dakai. Yang Yi has always used the delay tactic. Today, the troops were incomplete, tomorrow they said that the food and grass were not in place, and the day after tomorrow they said that the military pay had not been found yet.

He did not send troops. In early August, Shi Dakai suddenly made efforts and condemned 600,000 troops into Hunan. Zeng Guofan was defeated and could only defend and not attack. He was in a situation of defending but not attacking. Helpless Zeng Guofan repeatedly reported to the court, hoping that Yang Yi's new army would advance westward quickly and threaten Shi Dakai's side. In view of the crisis, Xianfeng did not care much about the situation and wrote a stern secret decree to Yang Yi, asking him to quickly reinforce Zeng Guofan's troops, and at the same time asked to send a new army to the north to cooperate with the Shengbao troops to wipe out the Nian Army. Although the

The arsenals in Haisuzhou were produced day and night, but because the troops were expanded too quickly, more than half of the new army did not have new rifles. Some of them were equipped with big swords and spears from the Taiping Army period, and some were carrying guns and rear-mounted rifles on paper. In short, the equipment was varied and of different quality. Yang Yi was indeed unwilling to pull the troops to the battlefield now, but seeing that Xianfeng was too eager to force his troops, his troops had not been fully equipped, and other armaments were not in place. Before the rebellion, he asked Li Xiucheng to lead two divisions and three.

Ten thousand troops rushed to Anqing quickly, cooperated with Anqing's independent division, and went up the river and advanced to Jiujiang. Shi Dakai had always been a little afraid of Yang Yi's new army. This large-scale attack on the Hunan army meant that it was necessary to destroy Zeng Guofan first and then go back to deal with the new army. Now that the new army was struggling with tens of thousands of troops, Shi Dakai didn't care about concentrating on Zeng Guofan. He drew more than 200,000 troops from the Hunan front line and went back to the Jiujiang line and deployed defenses along the river. This greatly relieved Zeng Guofan's pressure.

In fact, the Hunan Army's combat effectiveness is quite strong. History records that the Hunan Army can beat the Taiping Army by 10,000, which shows the power of Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army. Zeng Guofan has always attached great importance to the equipment of the troops and advocated the role of foreign guns and cannons in war. There are also many new equipment in the Hunan Army. However, Shi Dakai has repeatedly suffered from the suffering of Yang Yixin's foreign guns and cannons, and knows the great ones. Since the Nanjing Incident, Shi Dakai has been the king of E Gan, and has vigorously purchased foreign guns and cannons to equip his army. Although the Qing court asked Western countries not to sell arms with Shi Dakai, who doesn't like this white silver, you don't want to sell it.

Some people sold it, and Yang Yi asked Hoffman to sell a batch of eliminated front-mounted rifles to Shi Dakai, not to mention other powerful people. Anyway, Shi Dakai was making trouble in Hubei and Jiangxi, which had little impact on their economic interests. How could he give up making money by himself? Although he did not sell it on the surface, he secretly sold some of them with the Taiping Army. In this way, although the equipment gap between the Taiping Army and the Hunan Army was still a certain distance, it was greatly narrowed. Furthermore, the Taiping Army had a great advantage in number, and Zeng Guofan was defeated by Shi Dakai repeatedly, and his morale was also greatly hit, which showed that the Hunan Army was not good.

In mid-August, Yang Yi, who was forced by the court, sent Nie Shicheng from northern Jiangsu to lead two divisions into Shandong and began to fight against the Nian Army. The Nian Army is different from the Taiping Army. It is mostly mobile warfare and has no fixed base. It is just running around in Henan, Shandong and Shaanxi provinces, and it can't be held back for a while. Yang Yi just asked Nie Shicheng to slowly go north and let Shengbao take a breath. Don't force the Nian Army too quickly. Nie Shicheng enters the mountain.

The East rear end has been fighting steadily and slowly advancing, and has fought several battles with the small traversing troops of the Nian Army. The New Army strives to win every battle, and consolidates the area of ​​the Nian Army, slowly eroding the scope of activities of the Nian Army, first solving the dilemma of the Jinan area. Then gradually forced the Nian Army out of Shandong and retreating to Henan. Then the New Army Nie Shicheng's troops refused to take a step forward and began to find various excuses to stay at the junction of Shandong and Henan.

Since September, Yang Yi has been worried about the transmission of orders between the troops. China is too large and the method of transmitting intelligence by manpower is too low. Sometimes the thing about sending letters from Fei Ge is unreliable. Although pigeons are spiritual, they cannot be aware of encountering natural enemies or humans. So Yang first thought about introducing advanced tools for telegraphs. In 1831, Faraday discovered the law of electromagnetic induction. In 1837, Morse used this law to invent the Morse telegraph machine and in 1844 in Washington.

Telegram communication was first opened with Baltimore. At this time, advanced European and American countries had already begun to use wired telegraphs on a large scale. Yang Yi thought about introducing wired telegraphs first, then using his knowledge from the future, combining existing wired telegraphs to create wireless telegraphs. It is best to make a phone call and also create a Chinese electrical revolution, although this electrical revolution may only be a small-scale. In early September, Yang Yi sent Smith back to the United States again to introduce telegraph equipment and related talents. At the same time, Smith was also responsible for the development of "Li"

"The American market for women's products and the mission of connecting with Jewish commercial organizations. Of course, the first thing Smith did after returning to the United States was to apply for a technical patent for the "Beauty" series of women's underwear, and the second was to open a cosmetics and underwear branch in the United States. Similarly, Hoffman, who had lived a happy life in China for several years, was kicked back to Prussia by Yang Yi. At present, the Prussian emperor is not dealing with Napoleon III of France. Both sides have heavy troops on the border. The Prussian army suffered a lot from the French army during the Napoleon era.

He was thinking about going to war with France and finding some face. Hoffman went back to lobby the government to put military pressure on France. It would be better to advance the Franco-Prussian War, so France would not have the energy to participate in the Second Opium War, and perhaps it would be able to buy some time for Yang Yi. Of course, Hoffman was still responsible for the business of the "Literature" Group in Europe, and he would open up the new-style women's underwear market in Europe when he went back. Hoffman was ordered to join Prussian partners to establish a sales system for new products and a joint venture factory.

In September, new schools that imitate Europe and the United States also opened one after another, and a large number of students were sent to these schools for free to learn new courses such as foreign languages, mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Yang began to enter a period of striving to develop education and cultivate new talents.

Shanghai in September is still in a hot climate. Although it is no longer as hot as midsummer, the remaining power of Qiu Laohu is still there. Yang Yiyi has always hated sitting in the office in the yamen, throwing all the official chores to the men, and hiding at home to cool and comfortable. He just said that Yang Yi was discussing military affairs with Zhang Jian at home that day. The two of them set up tables under the shade of the tree, putting fruits, water and wine, and talking while eating. The door came to report: "The Hunan Army once supervised Li Hongzhang, the disciple, asked for a meeting."

Li Hongzhang and Yang Yi have always been extremely concerned about this. A few years ago, he joined Lu Xianji in Anhui to establish a delegation training in Anhui and cooperated with the Taiping Army. The beginning was smooth. Li Hongzhang led his troops as a scholar, with a record of "specializing the ability to fight in a wave" and a reputation as a "Hanlin turned into a green forest". His years of training career made him gradually understand the way of being a general, not to win or lose for a while, nor to show off his courage as an ordinary man. He won many battles with the Taiping Army, but his achievements were prone to jealousy. For a while, slanderous words broke out. Li Hongzhang could hardly stand in his hometown and simply resigned from military affairs to Fuji, Anhui, and planned to return to his hometown to concentrate on studying. When Chen Yucheng swept across northern Anhui, Li Hongzhang took his family to Nanchang, stayed in his brother Li Hanzhang, and last year he joined his teacher Zeng Guofan's army to serve as a staff member.

In fact, the Hunan Army was defeated repeatedly in the battlefield of Hunan and Jiangxi, and needed people to be anxious. Therefore, Zeng Guofan was very proactive in recruiting Li Hongzhang to the camp to help. However, he also knew that Li Zi was very talented and showed his strength. If he really wanted to stand alone, he would have to go through some hard work. Therefore, he tried his best to let Li Hongzhang participate in core secret discussions and treat him equally with Hu Linyi, Li Xuyi and other officials. At that time, there were many eloquent people in the Hunan Army's shogunate, such as Li Yuandu, Zuo Zongtang, etc. Zeng Guofan often made them verbal disputes with Li Hongzhang to slap his spirit. As for Zeng himself, it was even more

He practiced himself and influenced Li Hongzhang with his own example. Li Hongzhang loved to sleep in. Zeng Guofan got up early every day, woke him up personally, and urged Li Hongzhang to develop the habit of getting up early. In addition, Li Hongzhang always exaggerated and attracted public attention. Zeng Guofan taught him to treat people with sincerity; when encountering difficulties and setbacks, he would talk about "support" to motivate Li Hongzhang; in short, Li Hongzhang was subtly influenced by Zeng Guofan in both thoughts and living habits, and became his favorite disciple. Zeng Guofan's evaluation of Li Hongzhang was: "Shaoquan's talent is the most similar to official documents, and he will make extraordinary achievements in the future, and it is unknown whether he is better than his predecessor."

As Zeng Guofan's proud disciple, Li Hongzhang saw the rapid rise of the new army, and his strength was far superior to that of the Hunan Army. In addition, the new army fought against the Taiping Army many times and had no defeat. Li Hongzhang became very interested in this, and at the same time he was extremely envious of the new army's formation and training. This time, Zeng Guofan learned that Yang Yi had a way to buy the latest guns and cannons, so he planned to send someone to buy it. After Li Hongzhang learned about it, he took the initiative to ask Zeng Guofan for this job, hoping to see Yang Yi, the leader of the new army who made a big fuss in the Li family and now Weizhen East China.

Yang Yi has always been sympathetic to Li Hongzhang. As a person from later generations, he deeply understands Li Hongzhang's helplessness in this era, and also appreciates Li Hongzhang's talents. He cannot realize the many revenges for Li Hongzhang during this corrupt period of the Qing Dynasty, and he also has sympathy for him. Now that Li Hongzhang is visiting, Yang Yi suddenly has the idea of ​​making friends and tells the disciples: "You go there first, treat it well, and I will come soon."

He was wearing a long gown and a melon-skinned hat. He was thin, had a bright eyes and decent manners. The years of rolling in the officialdom had already eroded the youthful spirit that he was back then, and his expression became more calm and capable. This was the first impression Li Hongzhang gave Yang Yi. Li Hongzhang, who was sitting in the living room waiting for Yang Yi, only heard a hearty laugh in the inner room saying: "Is it here that Li Shaoquan, who wrote the ten poems of "Entering the Capital"," as he spoke, a figure swayed, and Yang Yi had appeared in front of Li Hongzhang.

What Li Hongzhang did not expect was that Yang Yi did not come out to see him in his official uniform. The young man in front of him was actually the three provinces of Weizhen, conquering the Taiping Army's strong general Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, the new army commander who wisely defeated Nanjing City, and the governor of Liangjiang Yang Yi? Judging from his appearance alone, Li Hongzhang felt that Yang Yi was more like a scholar. He wore very ordinary home clothes, had a smile on his face, handsome face, and was younger than himself. All of this made Li Hongzhang feel a lot of favor.

"The student is Li Hongzhang, I'll pay homage to Yang Du." Li Hongzhang gave Yang Yi as usual. Now Li Hongzhang is still just Zeng Guofan's aide and has no real position. Facing a rank-up official, Li Hongzhang still calls himself a student.

Yang Yi quickly stepped forward and stopped Li Hongzhang from continuing to bow, saying, "Shaoquan doesn't have to be too polite. Shaoquan is famous. Yang has heard a lot. When he saw him today, he was very happy and was anxious. He didn't change his clothes, so he was rude and rude. In my opinion, everyone should make friends with peers. This common etiquette will be spared." Li Hongzhang never expected that Yang Yi, who was successful in his youth, was so humble. He thought about all the difficulties he thought about when he came, and he felt a little more favorable to Yang Yi.

"Brother Shaoquan, don't you come here?" Li Hongzhang noticed that there was another person inside. After a closer look, it turned out to be an old friend Zhang Jian. When they went to Beijing together, Zhang Jian and Li Hongzhang had many relationships. The two had a good relationship. Now they meet again, how can Li Hongzhang be unhappy? The joy of suddenly meeting an old friend made Li Hongzhang forget Yang Yi's presence. He should have been reserved and flew out of the sky. He suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Zhang Jian's hand, shaking it constantly: "Brother Minsi, I didn't expect that he would meet again here."

Zhang Jian also sighed: "Yes, you and I should be clear about the blessing of meeting an old friend in this foreign land!" As he said that, the two seemed to return to the era when they were so energetic and inspiring words. They held each other with four hands and couldn't help laughing in unison.

After some excitement, Li Hongzhang remembered that Yang Yi was still on the side and realized that he had lost his composure just now. He secretly observed Yang Yi from the corner of his eyes. Seeing that Yang Yi looked as usual and had a look of relief, he actually wanted to be happy for the reunion of the two. The stone in his heart fell to the ground.

Yang Yi smiled and said, "I said that when Mr. Min Si heard Shao Quan visit just now, he was so happy. It turned out to be an old friend. Mr. Min Si is wrong. You and Shao Quan are old friends. Why don't you say it early? If you don't say anything else, just do it. Today you have to drink three more bowls." Li Hongzhang saw Yang Yi calling Zhang Jian a Mr., and expected that Zhang Jian's status in Yang Yi's army was not low. In this way, there was basically no problem with his job. In addition, seeing that Yang Yi was cheerful, he was also happy for this old friend.
Chapter completed!