In Xiaomaoshan, Shanghai Army camp, and Central Army tent, Li Weiguo secretly met with Hong Jian, the representative of the Taiping Army.

"Mr. Li commanded 20,000 troops this time. Could it be that he would fight the Taiping Army to the decisive battle?" Hong Jian asked straight to the point. He had already noticed that the Qing army had been mobilized frequently recently. When he learned that Li Weiguo personally led the army to re-enter Xiaomaoshan, he knew that the situation was serious.

Li Weiguo smiled and said, "Brother Hong, don't be nervous. It's true that there is a decisive battle, but it's not me and you, but Xiang Rong and you, I'm just here to join in the fun."

Li Weiguo was here to make a fuss. He told the truth and told Hong Jian about Xiang Rong's request to the court to approve the encirclement of Jinling from all sides.

Hong Jian was startled. If this is the case, once the Qing army successfully encircled the iron walls on all sides, it would be a disaster for the Taiping Army. Tun asked: "In the past few months, Xiang Rong has repeatedly launched attacks on our Taiping Army. Now his vitality is severely damaged, so it is no longer a fear. What are you going to do?"

Li Weiguo smiled mysteriously and said, "I just reunited with my wife and was enjoying the joy of human relations. This Xiangrong has disturbed me. I hate him so much. How about I send Xiangrong to your army?"

"This is naturally a great thing!" Xiang Rong was so happy that he thought that the pie would not fall out of the sky for no reason, so he asked, "I wonder what conditions are there for Lord Li? If he can pull out the Jiangnan camp and lift the threat to our southern line, our Taiping Army will have a good reward."

Li Weiguo laughed and said, "The conditions are very simple, and the second batch of arms of your army will be temporarily postponed."

"How can this work?" Hong Jian immediately stood up and said, "The Qing army surrounded all sides, and our army was in need of a large number of arms support. At this time, the lord cut off our arms supply. Wouldn't we sit and see our Taiping Army suffer a loss?"

"Be calm! Be calm!" Li Weiguo signaled Hong Jian to sit down, and advised with an old-fashioned look: "Didn't your army negotiate with the British? Have you purchased arms from the British in the future?"

"The British said they were going to fight and would not give it to us-" Hong Jian was shocked when he was halfway through his speech. Then he realized that Li Weiguo knew that the Taiping Army had negotiated arms with the British, and his feelings were angry.

He immediately smiled and said, "Mr. Li is not so stingy, right? We are just talking to the British casually. You don't have to take it seriously. We will continue to cooperate in the future. Of course, we will rely on the supply of arms."

It would be strange if you believe in you!

Li Weiguo snorted coldly in his heart and said, "It's not that I don't want to sell your arms, but the British have suspended the direct export of arms supplies. Although I got the arsenal from the British, it is still under construction, so even my own soldiers are not enough, so it is naturally impossible to give it to you."

Li Weiguo would definitely not give arms to the Taiping Army. After all, once the war breaks out, the weapons consume a lot. Without the British providing weapons and parts maintenance, they can only rely on themselves. Li Weiguo needs to give priority to the weapons guarantees of the Li family army, so it is naturally impossible to sell weapons to the Taiping Army. This involves his own security issues, and Li Weiguo will not give in.

Hong Jian frowned immediately. There is no doubt that the Taiping Army has won consecutive victories against Xiang Rong's troops recently and annihilated 70,000 to 80,000 Qing troops in Xiang Rong's troops. The result of such a major battle was advanced foreign guns and cannons. If Li Weiguo did not provide them with weapons and equipment, the consequences could be imagined.

"We can understand the difficulties of adults, but should we understand our difficulties? If this is the case, how about we increase the price by 20% based on the existing prices?"

The arms sold by Li Weiguo to the Taiping Army were originally two or three times higher than the market price, and the price was increased by 20% and the profit was considerable. If it were normal, Li Weiguo would definitely agree immediately, but now he is not short of money at all.

"It's not that I don't understand you, but I really don't have any extra weapons and equipment to give you? You won't let my soldiers give you weapons, right? That's impossible!"

Seeing that Li Weiguo was serious, Hong Jian settled for the second best and asked: "Since Lord Li's arsenal has not been built, we don't want weapons and equipment, so we can always give us some gunpowder, right? As far as I know, Lord Li has started to stock up on gunpowder, and he has his own gunpowder factory, is that OK?"

You guys know a lot!

Li Weiguo was vigilant in his heart. This time it happened. When he went back, he must "anti-counterattack" and eliminated the lurking "spy" of the Taiping Army in Su Songtai.

Thinking of this, Li Weiguo smiled and said, "Since you know everything, I won't hide it from you. I can give you gunpowder, but it's only one million kilograms, and the price will be increased by 30%.

Hong Jian scolded Li Weiguo for asking for a price too ruthlessly, which was shameless. But the Taiping Army did need a large amount of gunpowder. Although the manpower and material resources have begun to be concentrated in Jinling City, the quality is far less than that of the gunpowder provided to them by Li Weiguo. Therefore, Hong Jian had to bear to be slaughtered by Li Weiguo and replied with a smile: "No problem!"

After the gunpowder matter was settled, the two returned to the main topic.

Hong Jian asked: "I don't know how our two armies cooperate with each other this time. As long as our army eliminates Jiangnan Daying and Jiangbei Daying, we can make appropriate concessions to Lord Li."

Li Weiguo thought, if you eliminate Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps, the rest will be the other party’s Jiangdong camp.

"I wonder what kind of concessions your army will make?"

Hong Jian smiled and said, "If the Jiangnan Camp and Jiangbei Camp are eliminated, only Lord Li's Jiangdong Camp will be left. At that time, the court will have to rely on Lord Li. Our army will give up Longtan Town and Jiuhua Mountain to retreat to Tangshan. How is the situation of our two armies making a long-term confrontation?"

Li Wei Guodao: "Yes! However, after your army eliminates the Jiangnan camp, it is estimated that it will attack Jiangxi and Zhejiang. Jiangxi can belong to you, but Zhejiang must belong to me."

Hong Jian also understood military affairs and guessed Li Weiguo's intentions, so he smiled and said, "Don't worry, Lord Li, Zhejiang is the strategic rear of your army, and our army dare not go deep alone. We know the combat effectiveness of the Shanghai army and will never go to trouble."

"That's good!"

Li Weiguo smiled and said that there is no need to talk to smart people. Anyway, both sides are now using each other, and it is beneficial to both sides to be at peace for the time being.

Next, the two of them started negotiations on how to cooperate with each other. On the premise of satisfying their respective interests, the two reached an agreement to break the Jiangnan camp first.

Li Weiguo wanted to cheat Xiang Rong. In addition to retaliating against Xiang Rong, what is more important is that although Xiang Rong and Li Weiguo were the imperial envoys on Jiangnan Road and the other was the imperial envoys on Jiangdong Road, the two garrisons on the garrisons on Jiangdong Road were not far apart from each other, both south of the Yangtze River.

If Li Weiguo wants to be king and dominate the south of the Yangtze River, he will not allow a powerful military force to appear around him. This is not in line with his strategy, it is an obstacle, a stumbling block, and it will never be allowed.

There can only be one powerful force in the area south of the Yangtze River, that is Li Weiguo; there can only be one powerful army, that is the Li family army.

This is the fundamental reason for the tragedy of Xiang Rong. He will be killed by Li Weiguo.

As expected, on the night when Li Weiguo arrived at the Jiangdong Camp in Xiaomaoshan, Xiang Rong sent a special envoy to issue orders.

At this time, Xiang Rong had been appointed by Xianfeng and was responsible for organizing four armies to encircle and suppress the Taiping Army in Jinling. Not only Li Weiguo, Qishan, but also Shengbao and Jiang Zhongyuan. The four of them had to temporarily listen to Xiang Rong's dispatch and cooperate with the four sides to suppress the Taiping Army.

According to Xiang Rong's combat deployment, Li Weiguo took the lead. His main force went out to Xiaomaoshan and marched into Longtan Town, and attacked the Taiping Army's troops on the front, attracting the attention of the main force of the Taiping Army. When the main force of the Taiping Army went to Jiuhua Mountain, Xiang Rong sent troops from Xiaoling Guard to pick up Qishan across the river, and then sent troops to Yanziji. In order to restrain the Taiping Army in the direction of Jinling and prevent him from sending troops to intercept Qishan's troops across the river, Xiang Rong ordered Jiang Zhongyuan troops in the direction of Moling Pass and Shengbao troops in the direction of Puzikou to send troops to Jinling to restrain the Jinling defenders.

The entire deployment looked very perfect, but in fact, Xiang Rong wanted to cheat Li Weiguo. He asked Li Weiguo to take the lead in attracting the main force of the Taiping Army in order to consume and weaken Li Weiguo's Shanghai army's troops. Xiang Rong and Li Weiguo's ideas coincided with him, and also wanted to use the Taiping Army to destroy the Shanghai army and then dominate Jiangnan.

Li Weiguo had long guessed Xiang Rong's intention and deliberately refused to avoid the lack of troops and did not dare to take the lead. Xiang Rong's special envoy threatened that if Li Weiguo did not do as he did, he would transfer the Shanghai artillery team to Xiang Rong's army for use. Li Weiguo naturally refused to hand over his artillery team to Xiang Rong, so he agreed to Xiang Rong's plan and decided to send troops to Longtan Town.

The front line of Longtan Town and Jiuhua Mountain is the battlefield that Li Weiguo and Hong Jian secretly agreed upon.

When he learned that Li Weiguo had advanced to Longtan Town and Jiuhua Mountain, Hong Xiuquan ordered the Northern King Wei Changhui to personally lead an army of 200,000 to station at Jiuhua Mountain to stop the Shanghai army from continuing to advance.

Xiang Rong was very happy after receiving this news and wanted to watch Li Weiguo and Wei Changhui fight to the death. It would be better for Wei Changhui and Li Weiguo to lose both sides, and then Xiang Rong would get a bargain.

However, Xiang Rong could not have imagined that Li Wei and the Taiping Army had secretly colluded with each other. The 200,000 troops brought by the Northern King Wei Changhui were mostly old, weak, sick and disabled, and their combat power was not strong, so he just showed it to Xiang Rong.

Xiang Rong wanted to plot against Li Weiguo, but he didn't know that he was plotting against Li Weiguo. At this moment, Li Weiguo had already dug a big hole and was waiting for Xiang Rong to jump in.

On the other hand, Hong Xiuquan ordered the wing king Shi Dakai to lead 150,000 elite Taiping Army troops to head south along the Qinhuai River and feint to attack Jiang Zhongyuan's troops in the direction of Moling Pass, forcing Jiang Zhongyuan's troops to not dare to send troops and defend on the spot.

As a result, when Shi Dakai led his army through Fangshan, he only left 50,000 troops to continue advancing towards Moling Pass, with flags everywhere and bluffing. Another 100,000 troops crossed Fangshan from the Fangshan trail and raided the Qing army in Chunhua, and decided to fight.

Chunhua Town is located behind Xiaolingwei, and is the rear route towards Rong Jiangnan Daying. Money, grain and supplies from Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places are transported to Xiaolingwei Jiangnan Daying through Chunhua Town. When Chunhua Town was lost, the rear route of Jiangnan Daying was cut off and he was immediately in danger.

Xiang Rong was about to watch the show, but when he learned that Chunhua Town was lost, he was shocked and hurriedly led his army back, intending to retake Chunhua Town.

Shi Dakai was brave and resourceful, and sent 10,000 Taiping Army to march towards Xiaoling Guards. He was defeated by Xiang Rong's troops after a fierce counterattack. Xiang Rong believed that the main forces of the Taiping Army were all in Jiuhua Mountain, and the ones who appeared in Chunhua Town must be just a partial division with only ten thousand troops, so he personally led 30,000 main forces to take advantage of the victory and pursue it, hoping to retake Chunhua Town in one go.

As a result, Shi Dakai set up an ambush halfway, and the 100,000 elite Taiping Army soldiers eliminated Xiang Rong's 30,000 main forces, and Xiang Rong fled back to the Jiangnan camp in a panic. Unexpectedly, Shi Dakai led his army to pursue the victory, and 20,000 Taiping troops were dispatched in the city of Tianjing to attack the Jiangnan camp of Xiaolingwei. Xiang Rong was forced to ask for help from Li Weiguo. As a result, Li Weiguo refused to reinforce on the grounds that there were 200,000 Taiping troops in Jiuhua Mountain that could not escape. Xiang Rong's remaining troops guarded the Jiangnan camp for three days. Finally, they were out of ammunition and food and were completely wiped out by the Taiping Army, and Xiang Rong died in battle.

The Taiping Army broke through the Jiangnan camp and Xiang Rong died in battle. The previous plan to suppress the Taiping Army on all sides failed. Qishan, Jiang Zhongyuan and Shengbao took the lead in withdrawing troops. Li Weiguo launched a "crazy" attack on the Taiping Army in Jiuhua Mountain under the banner of avenging Xiang Rong. As a result, the Taiping Army in Jiuhua Mountain was "defeated". Wei Changhui was forced to retreat, abandoned the Jiuhua Mountain defense line, and handed over Longtan Town to Li Weiguo.

When the news came out, the court vibrated and removed Qishan's position as the imperial envoy of Jiangbei Daying on the grounds of unfavorable combat. Jiang Zhongyuan and Shengbao were demoted. Only Li Weiguo avenged Xiang Rong and defeated Wei Changhui, the northern king of the Taiping Army in Jiuhua Mountain, and made contributions to recapturing Longtan Town. He was left to serve as the imperial envoy of Jiangdong Daying. At the same time, the court decided to let Li Weiguo be responsible for rebuilding the Jiangnan camp.
Chapter completed!