Even though he did not lead the army to fight in person, and with the financial management expert Yan Jingming helping to manage the money and food, Wu Chaoyue has been busy with civil affairs and military affairs, busy preparing for rebellion and actively preparing for war, and busy ushering in various places.

Now, before the matter in Hunan was resolved, Hubei Admiral Du Xinga ran to Wu Chaoyue's governor's yamen to ask for a meeting. He already knew that Du Xinga was actually a Huer tribe, Wu Chaoyue, who dared not neglect, so he hurried out of the gate and welcomed Du Xinga into the door with great fanfare.

Du Xinga was ordered to lead the Xiangyang Navy to the east to reinforce the Jiangxi battlefield and passed through the provincial capital. He came to visit Wu Chaoyue for two purposes. One is to have a good relationship with Wu Chaoyue. He passed by the Wu family gate and did not come in to sit down. I am sorry to my friend. The second is to ask Wu Chaoyue for advice and humbly ask Wu Chaoyue’s strategic and tactical suggestions for the Xiangyang Navy’s east aid to Jiangxi battlefield.

"Brother Du, my only advice for you to go to Jiangxi this time is to fight carefully and not to make progress."

He is not disgusted or hostile to Du Xing'a. Although he is somewhat hidden, Wu Chaoyue still gave Du Xing'a some correct opinions and said, "Why be cautious? Brother Du, don't think that your brother is rude. You may not be sure to defeat the main force of the Changmao Navy. Even if you have the help of your brother's loyalty and Renyi, you dare not say that you will have a stable chance of winning."

"Because the two camps in Jiangnan and Jiangbei were defeated together, the only official troops in southern Jiangsu were the Shanghai defenders and Wu Quanmei's red single fleet. Changmao had basically no opponents in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, so the main forces of Changmao's navy have almost all been arranged to Hukou. Pengze went to Anqing. Brother Du, you will definitely fight with the eastward expedition of Hukou this time. Brother Du, you are actually using the power of a province of naval forces to fight the Changmao's navy's army. This time, you must consider this weight clearly. Therefore, you have to take great risks if you are careless and lightly advance. There is no other way to deal with it."

"Compared with the long-haired navy, we have the quality and firepower advantages of ships, but the long-haired navy has the number of ships. Their main warships, the small-haired navy, are light and flexible, and have low cost. It can be said that they can't fight no matter how they fight. We sank one of their small-haired navy ships upstream, and they can build two or three downstream. So, brother, you must not be careless because of sinking and burning hundreds or thousands of long-haired navy ships. That's useless. As long-haired navy as long-haired navy can go back, they can immediately drive more small-haired navy ships to continue fighting with you. Therefore, when fighting with the long-haired navy, your focus cannot be on the long-haired navy ships, but on people."

He talked endlessly and introduced the combat characteristics of the Taiping Navy to Du Xing'a, asking Du Xing'a to beware of the Taiping Navy's ship-sea tactics, as well as the rocket and oil-spraying cans, and reminded Du Xing'a that the current wind direction is not good for the Xiangyang Navy. Wu Chaoyue finally warned: "Brother Du, there is another thing you must be careful. Brother, I sent out a detailed investigation. Changmao has bought some new gunpowder weapons from foreigners. The arson effect is particularly good. If the water cannot be extinguished, it can continue to burn even if it floats on the water. It is the nemesis of your Navy ship. When you encounter this weapon, you must be careful."

Du Xing'a nodded, solemnly thanked Wu Chaoyue for his advice and reminder, then frowned and said, "I'm a little guilty after hearing Brother Wu said so much. Brother Yu, I'm a little guilty. It seems that this battle is much harder than I thought. I can only be careful."

"Don't worry too much. Victory and defeat are common in military affairs. If the situation is wrong, just keep people first." Wu Chaoyue comforted: "It is difficult for navy to practice boats and make it easy. If you have brothers, I will be in the back. Brother, you will throw a boat in front. I will add two more for you!"

Du Xing Aha laughed and quickly thanked Wu Chaoyue for his kindness, and then asked: "Brother Wu, you have been buying those two steamships for more than half a year, so why are you still reluctant to send them to the front to participate in the war? If you can send these two steamships to help me, Brother Yu, I will be more confident this time."

"Brother, I will give you those two steamships in the future, but I will never send you." Wu Chaoyue said frankly: "The court does not allow me to hire foreign sailors, and I am not at ease to let foreigners drive ships to fight. So I can only use those two steamships to train soldiers, repeatedly practice sailors and gunners, so they can thoroughly learn how to operate and use steamships, and buy more and larger steamships in the future before sending them out. So I must not send those two small steamships now, but only for training."

"Brother Wu sees the long term, or what you said, it's hard to practice boats in a navy, and we can build it again without a ship. Without a ship, we can build it again and buy it. Without a person who can fire a ship, no matter how many ships there are, it's useless. Okay, I won't borrow the steamships, Brother Wu, please keep it for training."

Du Xing'a was a cheerful person, and directly agreed with Wu Chaoyue's attitude towards the two treasure steam gunships. He no longer asked for borrowing them. He just raised his glass to drink and chatted with Wu Chaoyue. As a result, it was at this time that Wu Chaoyue caught the opportunity and asked Du Xing'a in confusion: "Brother Du, why did you lead your army to Jiangxi this time? You seem to have never fought a water battle before. Henan, north of the important town of Xiangyang, is not peaceful. It is inseparable from your personal guarding. How could the flower platform let you lead your army out of the province in person?"

Du Xing'a did not answer immediately, turned the wine glass and thought for a moment, and looked around again. Wu Chaoyue's personal soldiers, led by Wu Dasai, understood and all left the room. Du Xing'ao whispered: "Brother Wu, Huatai is also for the sake of caution, so I let Brother Yu take action personally. On the Jiangxi battlefield, there are already more than 5,000 Hubei official troops, plus the 3,000 E Yong who was stationed in Tianjia Town, and the ten new naval divisions I brought. The Hubei official troops on the Jiujiang battlefield will soon exceed 13,000 people. If there are so many soldiers, if a senior official in the imperial court takes charge of the troops, Huatai is not at ease, and the imperial court will not dare to feel at ease."

Wu Chaoyue was silent, and then he realized that Hua Shana did not understand military affairs and let him fool him, but he still looked very close to military power. He did not give him indirectly the opportunity to control the Huguang army.

"But Brother Wu, don't worry." Du Xing'a comforted: "I know that the Wuchang General Kingdom is yours and will take care of you and support him. Also, when something happens, I will definitely discuss with Mr. Yang and try to respect his opinions and will not make you embarrassed."

Thanks for Du Xing's care for his fellow disciples, Wu Chaoyue asked about the situation in Xiangyang casually. Du Xing'er introduced that he was following Hua Shana's request, leaving behind his right-hand assistant Deputy Chief Shu Bao to take charge of Xiangyang to take care of the troops in Xiangyang. The Nanyang Prefecture in Henan in the north of Xiangyang is relatively peaceful and there is no sign of danger for the time being, so he dared to rest assured that the Eastern Expedition. Wu Chaoyue nodded and praised his kindness, while feeling depressed, and said in his heart: "Old Fox Hua, is cruel enough. While letting Du Xing'er take charge of the military power on the eastern front, he continues to use Du Xing'er's people to control the military power on the northern front, and he doesn't take any loopholes for me. In terms of playing power, you are actually more difficult to deal with than official articles."

Wu Chaoyue is indeed not a match for Hua Shana. He is also obedient to Wu Chaoyue's words and caring. Hua Shana still has not been restraining Wu Chaoyue's hands and feet for a while, and always takes military power very tightly, resulting in the army that Wu Chaoyue can directly control at present is actually his own fubiao. Liu Kunyi's Zhuang Ying, Wang Guocai's troops and some E Yong have quality advantages, but he is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of quantity.

It’s useless to be depressed. The governor is in charge of soldiers and governors and the people. This is the rule of the Qing court. Unless Wu Chaoyue is confident that he can overturn Huashana and replace him, he can only accept such reality and wait for the opportunity to appear.

Wu Chaoyue always believed that the Second Crow War would be his own opportunity, but unfortunately, due to insufficient troops, the British army did not make any move after attacking Guangzhou City twice. When will the Second Crow War break out in full, and will it drive Emperor Xianfeng to Rehe to harm the rabbits like history, and completely loosen the governors of various provinces. Wu Chaoyue didn't know these, and he couldn't guarantee them.

Wu Chaoyue, who was tied up, sighed, and Hua Shana, who was good at making power, was secretly proud. But at this moment, what Wu Chaoyue and Hua Shana did not expect was that a huge variable that caused the shock of Hubei suddenly appeared, completely disrupting Hua Shana's wishful thinking and also giving Wu Chaoyue a chance to make a profit in the chaos. The origin of this huge variable actually came from Wu Chaoyue's arch-rival Prince Senggelinqin...

…………

The monk didn't know that he was about to give Wu Chaoyue a big gift with both hands. The monk only knew that Wu Chaoyue was hateful and even more hateful. He also knew that his compatriot Hua Shana was sorry that he was all Mongolian aristocrats. Hua Shana dared to reject his kindness and dared to provide him with foreign weapons that only his mortal enemy Wu Chaoyue had! For such Mongolian traitors who were elbows out, the monk didn't deal with him and was even more sorry for himself!

Du Xing'a, who was brave and resourceful, was transferred to Jiangxi to participate in the war, giving the monk prince the opportunity to avenge. Although Shumulu Shubao, who succeeded Du Xing'a in Xiangyang, was also a general, he was a relatively capable person among the generally corrupt and degenerate bannermen. He dared to fight and was relatively capable. During the period when Du Xing'a was in charge of Xiangyang, the Nian army could never break through Du Xing'a's defense line and went deep into the hinterland of Hubei to kill and set fire. Shu Bao was definitely not small. However, the monk prince knew very well that Shu Bao's personality flaws were too honest and honest, lacked ambition, and was not good at using his brain when he was fighting in trouble.

The monk who seized Shu Bao's weakness and deliberately revenge tried his best to drive the Nian Army Wang Guansan and other troops who were active in Runing south, while sending Wen Shu Bao, asking Shu Bao to increase his troops to De'an, and fooled him that he had surrounded the Nian Army bandits on three sides, as long as the Qing army in Hubei blocked the south, it would be easy to destroy these bandits. As a result, the loyal and honest Shu Bao was indeed deceived. In order to help the monk quell the rebellion, he sent all the mobile troops to De'an, and put in close defense at the eastern end of the Tongbai Mountains far away from Xiangyang, resulting in the more important defense line of Xiangyang Palace becoming more empty.

Then, the monk prince, who was not strong enough to maintain a huge encirclement, had indeed made a mistake. The three units of the Nian Army seized the opportunity to break through from the weak area of ​​the Qing army's encirclement and successfully broke through the weak area of ​​the Qing army, and rushed westward into Nanyang Prefecture and suddenly appeared in the north of Xiangyang. Then Zhang Long, Chen Daxi and other small Nian Army also followed Wang Guansan into Nanyang. Wang Guansan, the strongest, took advantage of the weak power of the Xiangyang Qing army and used feigned troops to restrain the Xiangyang Qing army. The main force broke through the Zhenbei River defense line that Duxinga had worked hard to maintain for many years, broke into the open hinterland of Hubei, and quickly looted more than ten wealthy markets south of Zaoyang, obtained a large amount of supplies, and then crossed Dahong Mountain to enter the Anlu Mansion where the Qing army in Hubei had a more empty force.

After the incident, Shu Bao, panicked, quickly pulled back the mobile troops from De'an Prefecture to encircle him. However, because the distance was too far, he failed to block the Nian Army of Wang Guansan and other people north of Dahong Mountain in time. The monk prince also took the opportunity to sneer and smiled and demanded to lead the army into Hubei to fight. Fortunately, Shu Bao was not deceived again this time. He just led the troops to pursue the troops himself, and sent people to inquire with Hua Shana.

After receiving this news, Hua Shana was shocked, of course, he quickly asked Wu Chaoyue to discuss it. When he heard that the hinterland of Hubei was in a hurry, Wu Chaoyue was also scared and asked quickly: "How could this happen? The arrangement of Du Junmen in Xiangyang is very strict. How could so many Nian bandits break into the hinterland of Hubei?"

Hua Shana, who was not good at military affairs, could not answer, so he could only hand Shu Bao's official document report to Wu Chaoyue to watch, and then called the messenger sent by Shu Bao to Wu Chaoyue for inquiries. After roughly understanding the incident, Wu Chaoyue immediately became furious and roared: "Train! This is a trap set by Seng Gelinqin! Our people were too honest and were trapped by Seng Gelinqin's plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain. The bitch raised the girl took the opportunity to put the twist into Hubei and drove the wolf into the room to deliberately trick us!"

"Is this matter intentional by the monk?" Hua Shana asked in shock.

"Of course it was his intention!" Wu Chaoyue replied angrily: "The terrain in Runing is wide, and no matter how many troops he has, it is impossible to fully encircle the Nian bandits. As long as Shu Bao blocks the south, he will definitely wipe out the Nian bandits. It's completely nonsense and dreaming in the daytime!"

"He tricked Shu Bao into joining the army in De'an to dilute the tiger away from the mountain. His purpose was to dilute the troops we had in Xiangyang, lengthen our front line, give the Nian bandits a chance to take advantage of the opportunity to enter, and then deliberately let the Nian bandits escape west. Shu Bao was deceived to the east of the Tongbai Mountains and there was no time to return to prevent and make up for the leaks!"

After listening to Wu Chaoyue's analysis, he recalled the past when he offended the monk prince. Hua Shana's muscles couldn't help but twitch, and he cursed a little, "Dog bastard! I'm worried about rescuing neighboring provinces in Huguang. You stabbed the wolf in the back and drove the wolf into the house. The Qing Dynasty will sooner or later die in the hands of you despicable villains!"

After cursing, Hua Shana remembered to ask Wu Chaoyue for advice. After Wu Chaoyue thought about it carefully, he was soon surprised to find that the monk prince deliberately helped the Nian Army to rush into the hinterland of Hubei to commit crimes. Although it would indeed bring considerable losses to him, he inadvertently helped him countless favors and gave him a god-given opportunity to strengthen his grasp of Hubei! (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!