"Ask me to the Futai Yamen for a banquet? And he said he would apologize to me in person?"

After receiving a banquet invitation from the disobedient students, people also heard that disobedient students were preparing to apologize to them in person. Of course, the barber teacher smiled as happy as he would. For the sake of money and food, and to gain a reputation of being generous and caring for his disciples, Zeng Guofan also happily obeyed the order and immediately took a team of personal soldiers into the city and came all the way to the Hubei Governor's Office located in Liangdao Street to meet with the disobedient students.

It was when the disobedient student was respectfully invited into the warm room of the Governor's Office, Zeng Guofan saw that the new governor of Huguang had already come first and was drinking tea and reading books in the warm room. Seeing this, Zeng Guofan couldn't help but smile again, knowing that the disobedient student was still a little tender after all, and he didn't know that Guan Wen's biggest weakness was lust. When he missed a rare opportunity to please Guan Wen to welcome Guan Wen at Shakou, the barber teacher carefully selected two beautiful maids to serve the Hou Guan Mansion to drink.

Next, he naturally said that he was hypocritical and polite, and he greeted each other in a hypocritical manner. Then Wu Chaoyue was very respectful and asked Guan Wen and Zeng Guofan to sit in the seat. Then Wu Chaoyue actually bowed to Zeng Guofan and said more respectfully: "Mr. Teacher is above. Please accept a greeting from the students. The students are young and ignorant, ignorant and frivolous. Yesterday, they offended their teachers in their words, and then regretted them extremely much. Today, the students apologize to you. I hope that the teacher will forgive the students for their love for the teacher and students."

Hearing Wu Chaoyue say it nicely, and in front of the new governor of Huguang Wen, Zeng Guofan was secretly proud, and of course he left the seat immediately. He helped Wu Chaoyue up with his own hands, and said with a smile: "Weiting quickly, please get up. You contradicted me yesterday, because you were kind to protect the people. How could you blame you as a teacher? This matter has passed like this. There is nothing between teachers and students who need to apologize or not."

Wu Chaoyue respectfully thanked Zeng Guofan for his magnanimity, and then bowed to the bored official Wen sitting next to him, saying politely: "The official is a platform, and the official must ask you to forgive me. Yesterday, the official was impulsive and was disrespectful to you. I hope you think that the official is only a junior, and I forgive me more."

Guan Wen and Wu Chaoyue had no grudges in the past, and today they had no grudges. They also knew that Wu Chaoyue’s backstage could not be easily offended Su Shun. Seeing Wu Chaoyue apologizing so well, Guan Wen waved his hand and let Wu Chaoyue go down and no longer had to worry about yesterday’s events. Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered his servants to set up a banquet and invite Zeng Guofan and Guan Wen to the banquet.

During the exchanges, Wu Chaoyue naturally took the initiative to mention the issue of drawing a literate to assist the army in Hubei, saying that as long as the official text or Zeng Guofan asked the Qing court for the consent of the Qing Dynasty, he would immediately organize the local governments in the ten prefectures and one prefectures in Hubei to implement the implementation and withdraw the Lijin to help the Hunan Army's military pay. Zeng Guofan was overjoyed when he heard this, and was greedy, and then said: "Weiting, since you think drawing a liter is feasible, then you should just ask for the memorandum. If you follow this new policy in Hubei, you are the governor of Hubei, and it is most appropriate for you to submit the memorandum."

"My teacher loves students so much." Wu Chaoyue quickly refused and said, "Although the students are acting governors of Hubei, the official platform is the governor of the military affairs of Huguang. You are the chief commander of the Hunan regiment who needs to draw a lie to assist the army. If you don't submit a memorial, please let me know, but the students will submit this memorial. Wouldn't the court think that students are dogs and rats and meddling in other people's business? Then the court will also think that you do not need this military salary in urgent need. If the students submit a memorial, please draw a lie to fill your private bags and eat fish and meat to the people?"

Although Wu Chaoyue's words were quibbling, there was also some distortion. The official Wen in charge of military affairs in the two lakes did not submit a statement to ask for the military pay. Zeng Guofan, who needed the military pay, did not submit a memorandum to ask for it. Wu Chaoyue, an outsider, turned around and submitted a memorandum to reach out to the people. The Qing court had the possibility of Guan Wen and Zeng Guofan's military pay, and it was also possible that Wu Chaoyue had bad intentions and had the opportunity to fill his personal pockets. So for a while, Zeng Guofan really couldn't find anything to instigate and force students to take the blame for him.

Of course, Guan Wen didn't want to be scolded by this memorial, so he also said to Zeng Guofan: "Bohan, why don't you give this memorial? You need this military pay. You know the difficulties of Hunan regiment training now. If you give me a memorial, it means that the importance of drawing money in Hubei is for you, and the court's approval is the greatest possibility."

After hesitating for a while, he did not dare to offend Guan Wen, who needed to pull each other up and support him, he could not bear to force the students to take the blame. He was really short of money. Zeng Guofan hesitated for a long time, and finally nodded and said, "Okay, I will give this note."

When Wu Chaoyue heard this, he was overjoyed and said, "Don't worry, you have just won such a big victory in Wuchang Prefecture City. The court's finances are urgent and cannot afford to reward you. You must rely on you to restore the fallen city in Hubei. If you ask for money for this memorial, the court will definitely not refuse."

"You still need to teach this?" Zeng Guofan snorted coldly in his heart, but his face was very friendly and said, "Weiting, if the court can really approve the request for the teacher, he will set up a local card to draw money, and he will rely on you to work harder. Never do this good thing that benefits the country and the people."

"It's easy to say." Wu Chaoyue patted his chest and said, "Please don't worry, my mentor. After the court approved the recruitment of Li to assist the army in Hubei, students will definitely keep a close eye on it. They will never let corrupt officials in the local area enjoy their own pockets and harm the people. They also guarantee that a lot of Lijin will be handed over to the official platform, and the official platform will be given full payment to the group trainees under their mentor!"

At first, Wu Chaoyue spoke beautifully, and Zeng Guofan also smiled very pleasedly. However, after hearing that Wu Chaoyue wanted to hand over Lijin to Guanwen, the smile on Zeng Guofan's face suddenly solidified and asked in surprise: "Do you want to hand over the Lijin you draw to the official platform first?"

"Mr., of course, you have to hand it over to the official platform first?" Wu Chaoyue asked in surprise and said, "Not to mention that the official platform governor of the military affairs of the two lakes, he is the superior of the subordinate. But your relationship with students and students cannot avoid suspicion? If you don't pass the official platform's hands and hand it over to you directly, then the teacher and students will become selfless even if they are selfless. You can't explain it clearly even if you have a hundred mouths?"

Zeng Guofan was speechless, but when he saw Guan Wen siping a wine quietly in the corner of his eyes, Zeng Guofan quickly squeezed out a smile that was even worse than crying, and said, "Weiting is right. You and my teachers and students have to avoid suspicion. The liquor you received must be handed over to the official platform first, and then distributed to me by the official platform's hand."

Hearing this, the greedy and lustful Guan Wen, of course, smiled as much as he would. He raised his glass to Wu Chaoyue and said, "Weiting, how good is it that you can directly distribute the Lijin to Bohan. Why do you have to cause trouble for me through my hands? But well, your words make sense. Bohan is a teacher-student relationship with you, so you have to avoid suspicion. Come on, I will punish you for a cup, so that you will not cause me these unnecessary troubles in the future!"

He took Guan Wen's punishment with a smile on his face. Wu Chaoyue smiled as happily as Guan Wen. When he secretly went to see his barber teacher, he saw that although Zeng Guofan was smiling, he smiled as fake as it was, and it was too ugly as it was. Wu Chaoyue laughed in his heart and said in his heart: "Teacher Shaving, don't blame me, you first asked me to make a problem and deliberately messed with me. I was just following the flow and giving him the way he did!"

The banquet ended with the laughter of Wu Chaoyue and Guan Wen. After drinking and eating, Zeng Guofan, who could not eat, said goodbye first. When Guan Wen was about to say goodbye, Wu Chaoyue called him and asked his servants to bring four young and beautiful maids, and said to Guan Wen: "You have just come to Hubei to take office, and you have not brought many servants. You must be short of people around you. The servants asked people to buy four maids who look good from the people. Please take them back and let them serve your daily life. I hope the master of the Taiwan Strait should not refuse."

Hearing Wu Chaoyue's words, he looked at the four pretty maids. Of course, Guan Wen smiled even happier. He refused a few words and thanked Wu Chaoyue for accepting them. Then Guan Wen patted Wu Chaoyue's shoulder and said, "Weiting, work harder and hurry up and get your Hubei training. Now I can only rely on your teacher. I will rely on you in the future."

Wu Chaoyue understood it, nodded with a smile, looked at the four maids with apologies, and said intimately, "Sorry, I'm the one who harmed you, but in order to protect more innocent girls, I can only do this."

After successfully passing the incident of Dingli with Zhao Liewen's plan, Wu Chaoyue also made an effort to prepare for war and develop internal affairs. He also prepared for the rainy day to build two deep-water docks in Hankou where large cargo ships could be parked, just waiting for the foreigners to open up the Yangtze River route and deliver the urgently needed weapons, ammunition, and machinery and equipment to himself.

At the same time, the training of the Hubei New Army gradually became regular. Under the leadership of more than 200 veterans, Sanqian Zhengyong quickly practiced the linear tactics that were not difficult to learn. After visiting the training of the Hubei New Army many times and understanding the essence, Liu Kunyi also brought his direct line Zhuangzi Battalion to ask Wu Jun Lianyong to help with the training. However, due to the limitations of financial resources, time and weapon source channels, Wu Chaoyue's army was still far from the Hunan Army in terms of weapons and equipment and practical experience, and the navy even did not even deserve to carry shoes to the Hunan Navy.

Zeng Guofan, who suffered a secret loss in the Drawing Li incident, also seized the weakness of Wu Chaoyue and secretly stumbling on Wu Chaoyue. When the Qing army had already discovered that the strength of the Taiping Army's defenders in the downstream Huangzhou Prefecture City and Wuchang County was far inferior to the main force of the Hunan Army, Zeng Guofan used the excuse of insufficient military pay, money and food and the heavy losses in the Wuchang defense battle, and always kept his troops unmoved, saying that he would not take back the barriers of these two Wuchang Prefecture City, deliberately embarrassing Wu Chaoyue, the governor of Hubei, and the direct threat from the Taiping Army to Wuchang Prefecture City was never eliminated.

The Hunan Army was able to calm down and exhaust the patience of the Taiping Army with the major victory in the Wuchang Defense War. The newly appointed Guanwen and Wu Chaoyue were different. The Qing court's decree was urged to force Guanwen and Wu Chaoyue to quickly take back the fallen city in Hubei and annihilate the Taiping Army in Hubei as soon as possible.

Zeng Guofan was unable to send troops, and Liu Changyou's army had already withdrawn from Linxiang, Hunan on the order of Luo Bingzhang before Guan Wen took office. He also said that he wanted to prepare to reinforce the Jiangxi battlefield, which was also in urgent need of an emergency, of course, Luo Bingzhang was unwilling to hand over his direct line to Guan Wen to direct command. As a result, Guan Wen, who urgently needed a stable position, could only organize a mob composed of Green Camp soldiers and Hubei Township Warriors, and let Hubei general Yang Dingguo take them east to restore Wuchang County. He looked for even if he could not defeat the relatively strong Huangzhou Prefecture City and take it back to Wuchang County first, he could give the Qing court an explanation and delay more time perfunctorily.

Guan Wen's wishful thinking hit the Taiping Army. The reason why the Taiping Army insisted on refusing to give up Huangzhou Prefecture City and Wuchang County was not only because of looking for opportunities to counterattack Wuchang Prefecture City, but also because of the fact that it was to lead the snake out of the cave, luring the Qing army from the Wuchang to leave the strong city and fortification protection, and to fight against the Taiping Army on land and water. Therefore, the Taiping Army not only left an elite army to guard Huangzhou and the Wuchang front line, but also the general who commanded the troops was quite reliable.

Originally, the mobs had to fight a tough battle. Yang Dingguo was naturally defeated. The Taiping Army in Wuchang County was too lazy to defend the county town, so they set up three camps outside the city to support each other. Yang Dingguo bullied the Taiping Army and set up their own camps, and then divided the troops from three groups, using two side divisions to restrain the two camps of the Taiping Army, and attacked one of the Taiping Army with the main force. The Taiping Army defended with fortifications and patiently dealt with Yang Dingguo. When the Qing army was tired, Zhong Tingsheng, stationed in Huangzhou Prefecture City on the north bank, sent a spontaneously to send an elite army across the river and launch a surprise attack on the Qing army. The Taiping Army in Wuchang County also took the opportunity to launch a counterattack. The Qing army was defeated and fled. Although he was not very capable of escaping, he was chased by the Taiping Army for more than 30 miles in one breath and was forced to withdraw back to Gedian to establish a camp.

After this battle, Guan Wen scolded Yang Dingguo for being incompetent, but he was shameless to report the victory to the red flag of the Qing court, claiming that this battle was a victory for the Qing army. However, even when Zeng Guofan was not so humble that he secretly reported to the Qing court, Guan Wen was still criticized by Emperor Xianfeng, questioning Guan Wen, why could not take advantage of the victory to restore Wuchang County and Huangzhou Prefecture City? He also directly told Guan Wen that he would not have used this trick to win, and Emperor Xianfeng had already gotten tired of seeing it!

Guanwen's move also implicated our poor comprador Wu. While scolding Guanwen for being shameless tricks, Emperor Xianfeng also scolded Wu Chaoyue a few words, questioning Wu Chaoyue had been in office for nearly three months in Hubei. Why has he not made any achievements and not killed an enemy? It is not enough to win repeatedly like before, why can't he even get a lost Hubei city back? Finally, he used an extremely vicious sentence to summarize Wu Chaoyue's actions after taking office and occupying the pit and not shit!

After reading the red letter of Emperor Xianfeng transferred by Guan Wen, Wu Chaoyue did not say a word, and Guan Wen did not say a word. The two governors and governors who were sympathetic and were sitting in a distressed city. After a long time, Guan Wen suddenly asked Wu Chaoyue: "Weiting, how much money can the Hubei vassal treasury can squeeze out? Can they squeeze out 100,000 taels of silver and 20,000 stones of grain?"

"Master of the Taiwan Strait, it's not that the officials are not doing their best, but they really can't take it out." Wu Chaoyue replied with a sad face: "Hankou opens a port to help hungry people, repair city defense, repay Sichuan's plowing oxen and Hunan's grain-growing advances, and train new troops and provide grain for the green camp. Everything needs to be used for money. Not to mention 100,000 taels of silver and 20,000 shi of grain, now the officials can't take out 10,000 taels of silver and 20,000 shi of grain."

Guan Wen, who was getting closer and closer to Wu Chaoyue, was quite reasonable this time. After thinking for a long time, he said again: "So, can you find a way to get this money and grain? Even if it is borrowed, the court has agreed to draw a liter fund in Hubei, and we can use the liter fund as a guarantee to repay it."

Wu Chaoyue hesitated for a long time before answering: "If the official platform can convince my teacher to send troops and retake Huangzhou Prefecture City and Wuchang County, even if the officials are selling their money and food, they will definitely get this money and grain!"

Guan Wen stopped talking, but just stood up straight and went out, saying as he walked, "I'll go find your teacher, you can prepare money and food immediately!"

Wu Chaoyue turned his promise, then returned to the backyard and opened his own private banknote. Looking at the money sent by the comprador grandfather to secretly send him in batches, the money he prepared to use to build a Hubei industrial base, and the money he had corruption with the comprador grandfather, Wu Chaoyue truly understood how important the comprador grandfather was to him and said secretly: "Grandpa, grandson is unfilial and will waste your hard-earned money again."

Zeng Guofan's appetite was so big that it was far above Wu Chaoyue's imagination. In the evening, when Guan Wen appeared in front of Wu Chaoyue with a tired face, he said to Wu Chaoyue directly: "Your teacher wants 200,000 taels of silver and 50,000 s of grain, give half of it first, take the Wuchang County and Huangzhou Prefecture City, and give half of it. You also need to issue a printing ticket now and use the Hubei Fanku as a guarantee."

Here we have to say something wronged for Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan really didn't want to force the disobedient students to death, but Zeng Guofan's expenses were really too high, not counting ammunition, supplies, weapons and ships, just for military pay, the most ordinary soldiers in the Hunan Army had a monthly salary of four or five cents, and the monthly military pay of at least 50,000 taels of silver! There was no stable and reliable source of military pay, and Zeng Guofan could not find any other way to solve the problem of money and food except for the disobedient students in charge of Hubei.

Wu Chaoyue also knew the barber's difficulties, so after being silent for a long time, Wu Chaoyue still gritted his teeth, nodded heavily, and swallowed his anger and accepted the barber's extortion. Guan Wen breathed a sigh of relief and then said goodbye. After Wu Chaoyue was in a very bad mood, he personally sent Guan Wen out, and returned to his study room and took out the letter Huang Sheng that he had received a day ago and watched it again.

In the letter, Huang Sheng told Wu Chaoyue that the foreign fleet that transported Wu's army's ammunition and weapons was blocked on the Nanjing River. The small package led by this fleet was intensified negotiations with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It is still unknown when the Taiping Army could open the Yangtze River route to the British...

"Let's have another bet. Anyway, my family has a big business and can afford to waste this amount of money. Even if I lose the bet, it will not hurt my family's muscles and bones."

After successfully forcing the disobedient disciples to respect huge amounts of money and food, the barber teacher finally led the main force of the Hunan Army to drive towards the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Although Zeng Guofan saw at a glance that the disobedient disciples played tricks on printing tickets, he would not get half of the remaining money and food without taking over Wuchang County and Huangzhou County. But it doesn't matter. Zeng Guofan, who was always concerned about the downstream battlefield, had already discovered that there were only more than 6,000 Taiping Army in Huangwu area, and there was no power to fight back in front of the main force of the Hunan Army. At the same time, the Hunan Navy also had the advantage of the upstream. Unless the main force of the Taiping Army stationed in Tianjia Town came to provide a large amount of assistance, it would be absolutely no problem for the Hunan Army to take over Huangzhou and Wuchang County!

Teacher Zeng was so happy that he probably never dreamed that in his dream, after replenishing a batch of food and ammunition for Qin Rigang and Lin Fengxiang, Shi Dakai, who attached great importance to the threat of the upstream, transferred the army to the south to reinforce the Jiangxi battlefield, but ordered Qin Rigang and Wei Jun, who were commanding the Taiping Navy, to closely monitor the movements of the Hunan Navy. When he seized the opportunity, he immediately launched a decisive battle with the Hunan Navy, and strived to eliminate the Qing army's water force that poses a huge threat to the Taiping Army's western front. And because of the benefits of the water, Qin Rigang and Wei Jun had already received this important news on the night when the Hunan Army's main force was dispatched east! (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!