Situ Yutang's words made Wu Feng secretly sigh with relief. If Situ Yutang still stubbornly believed that he should hand over the four palaces outside the northwest to the empire and several other princes under the current situation, that only It shows that she has placed the interests of the Situ family above the interests of the Tanghe Empire and even the entire Tang people in her heart. There is no need to tangle with her anymore for this kind of person, because in her opinion, everything should revolve around the Situ family. For the benefit of others, everyone else and everything can be left behind. Fortunately, Situ Yutang didn't think so. Although she was a little hesitant, it was because the conflict between the interests of the empire and the interests of the family made her confused and confused for a while. In the end, she made the correct judgment, even if it was just a verbal statement.
"Yutang, aren't you optimistic about the counterattack performance of your eldest brother and third brother in Yanyun and Wuhu?" Wufeng smiled softly, lay back on the bed, and naturally leaned a hand on her waist, as if Feeling the affection of the man next to him, Situ Yutang felt a slight tremor in his heart, hesitated for a moment, and then quietly lay down next to Wu Feng.
"Feng Lang, you don't have to be shy. At that time, my eldest brother retreated from Beiyuan and the eastern part of Yanyun. He couldn't hide it from anyone. Although the Taiping Army was at its peak at that time, the northern military region of the empire ranked first among the four major military regions in the empire. How could it be possible? Collapse at the first touch? He just wanted to preserve his strength. Now the situation has changed, the Taiping Army is getting worse and worse, and the eldest brother is determined to show off, and it will naturally happen if he is prepared and unprepared. But this also sounds a wake-up call for the Taiping Army, and then If you want to win easily, I'm afraid it won't be that easy." Situ Yutang calmed down his nervous mood for a while, and used his hand to brush the messy hair on his forehead to deliberately open up the distance between the two bodies, and tried his best to Return your attention to the topic.
Wu Feng was shocked. He didn't expect that the man next to him had such sharp eyes. He could tell at a glance that the Taiping Sect was getting worse and worse. Most people had only seen the Taiping Army's consecutive victories in Heshuo. They even invaded the Wuhu area, obtained a food supply base, and formed a siege situation around the imperial capital. However, no one could see that the Taiping Army was at the end of its strength. Although it captured Jiujiang, it was no longer able to capture neighboring areas, and even There was no more threatening offensive, and if the Qinghe Prefecture in Beiyuan had not been deliberately avoided by the city guards, I am afraid that Qinghe Prefecture would have been recaptured by the empire.
"Yutang, what you said makes some sense. The Taiping Sect has indeed lost its momentum in the past, but it is difficult for the empire to make much progress in the short term. Cheng Dayou, who is entrenched in Jiujiang, is a strong enemy. I think it will not be easy for the empire to deal with him. The most important thing is that His Majesty the Emperor's health seems to be unstable now, which directly affects the running trend of the entire empire. I think the great victory of Wuhu and Yanyun this time is all due to His Majesty's health improving and restoring the morale of the army. Otherwise, it is difficult to say. It's just that I hope that His Majesty can recover completely as soon as possible, so as to stabilize the hearts of the people of the empire and revive the empire." Wu Feng suppressed the thoughts in his heart while sniffing the faint body fragrance emanating from the girl beside his pillow. He did not want to ruin the moment. tacit agreement.
Situ Yutang thought so in his heart, but now the communication with the central government of the empire has been completely cut off. With the resignation of the former Minister of Military Affairs He Zhiqiu, the new Minister of Military Affairs seems not to know that there is still a means of communication here that he had originally agreed with his father. Maybe He had simply lost hope in himself, and there was no news from his father, which made Situ Yutang feel even more sad.
As if aware of the change in the beauty's mood around him, Wu Feng tightened his grip around her waist. The beauty's body struggled slightly and then rolled into Wu Feng's arms. The soft jade was fragrant in his arms, and he caressed the jade lovingly. The person's smooth and satin hair, the secret breath of lilac, the endless tenderness and sweetness, all are reflected in the endless breathing.
Before returning to Qingyang, Wu Feng had a secret conversation with Cui Wenxiu alone. When Wu Feng came to leave the Spark Group and return to Qingyang, Cui Wenxiu also immediately selected 30,000 elites from the 100,000 Mott reserve personnel to form Mote. The 7th, 8th, and 90th-thousand-person corps of the Special Self-Defense Forces. Many outstanding performers from the original Self-Defense Forces were promoted to serve as mid- and low-level officers in the newly formed 30,000-person corps. Dozens of people were once again transferred to the Northwest Military Academy for the second batch of short-term training, in the hope of improving the military quality of officers as soon as possible.
Wu Feng, who returned to Qingyang, immediately summoned the new Director of the Intelligence Agency, Gu Quan, and the Director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, Ling Huyi, and asked them to increase their efforts to collect intelligence on the East Tengger Grassland, especially on geography, hydrology, climate and Accurate collection of population distribution intelligence, and requires the two intelligence agencies to produce a practical and comprehensive intelligence analysis by October based on their respective priorities to provide a reliable basis for future operations.
In midsummer, Jiujiang is already full of green. The scorching sun is in the sky and the ground is boiling hot. Business travelers from the south to the north are avoiding this poisonous sun and hiding in small shops and tea sheds by the roadside, hoping that the sky will be overcast. Traveling in this kind of weather is too hard, and even the horses and mules pulling the cart are a little overwhelmed. It is best to rest for an hour or two, wait for the sun to pass, and then hurry up and hurry up.
The two horses led Feng Chen into the barn of the roadside tea shop. The waiter had already stepped forward to take the reins of their horses, tie them up for them, and waved them into the pavilion to rest.
After glancing at the guests in the pergola, he first chose a tea seat near the fence, ordered the shopkeeper to make tea, and unbuttoned his clothes. The weather was too hot.
"Master Gu, where are we going to rest today? Twenty miles ahead is Huanghuaji, and thirty miles further north is Mitang Town." The person who followed the leader was obviously a companion, and he first took a big gulp of the cold boiled water that the store placed on the table. , wiped the sweat rolling down with the lapel of his clothes, and then took a deep breath.
"Let's rest for a while first. Let's try to rest in Mitang Town. I haven't been here for some years." The person who replied was a young man. Looking at his dress, he looked a bit like a businessman, but his entourage only had a small bag. , but it’s hard to tell what kind of goods the two of them are selling.
Seeing that the master seemed to be worried, the companion knew nothing more and just held the herbal tea and drank it. The young man seemed very quiet, and only occasionally picked up the tea cup and took a sip. It seems that the situation in Jiujiang is very calm, not as tense as I imagined. The empire's victory in the south does not seem to have affected the Jiujiang area. Except that I saw the Taiping Army guarding the dangerous points when I first entered the Jiujiang area. And it seems that there are only about four to five thousand people. I didn't see anything unusual along the way. Even the tea shed business on the roadside was not greatly affected. What is this Cheng Dayou doing
The young man is Gu Dengyun, the head of the Wufeng faction's intelligence agency operating in the Central Plains. According to the division of labor in the intelligence system, Gu Dengyun is no longer responsible for general intelligence affairs. The collection and transmission of ordinary intelligence has been handed over to the Northwest Intelligence Agency, which is increasingly improving its organization. and the Northwest Military Intelligence Bureau, and his task is to collect and investigate all tasks that he considers important and assigned directly by Wu Feng, and can receive unconditional help directly from the Northwest Intelligence Agency and the Northwest Military Intelligence Bureau.
Since Cheng Dayou occupied Jiujiang, the situation in this area seemed to have suddenly become more subtle. The intelligence personnel stationed in Jiujiang did not notice this at first, but as time went by, some abnormalities gradually became apparent.
First of all, the local reaction is not as strong as that of the two southern prefectures in the Wuhu area, and the resistance seems to be much weaker. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in the two southern prefectures of Wuhu. At the same time, Chengda, which occupies Jiujiang, On the grounds that the situation was not stable and it was not appropriate to intensify conflicts, You refused the appointment of Jiujiang Prefect by the Taiping Holy Kingdom Wen Xiangfu, and instead temporarily appointed himself as Jiujiang Prefect. At the same time, he reorganized the more than 50,000 Taiping troops under his command. The Taiping Army was reduced from more than 50,000 to 45,000, and a series of drastic reforms were carried out. A large number of more radical dissidents were purged from the middle and senior levels of the army by Cheng Dayou, and were replaced by more conservative ones. The moderate direct lineage of Chengda You not only aroused the doubts of the Taiping Religion leaders, but also attracted the attention of the surrounding forces.
This change also attracted the attention of Gu Dengyun, who was already considered an old man in the intelligence system. After Cheng Dayou occupied Jiujiang, he did not carry out restructuring like other prefectures and counties controlled by the Taiping Army. The land ownership of the rural gentry also changed. Given certain protection, as long as they did not openly oppose his rule, he almost did not touch the other party. The bumper harvest in the spring season in Jiujiang and the treasury silver left by the officials in Jiujiang also added weight to Cheng Dayou's implementation of these policies that were incompatible with the Taiping Religion. When the top leaders of the Taiping Holy Kingdom threatened to cut off its food and salary supply, Cheng University You had already used the looted treasury money to purchase a large amount of grain from the remaining grain merchants in Jiujiang Prefecture who stayed to observe the situation.
After receiving this news, those gentry and merchants who were reluctant to flee their homeland began to return one after another from places such as Anqing, Huanggang, Yueyang, and the Imperial Capital. Some of them soon reached a private compromise with Cheng Dayou, and Cheng Dayou As long as their interests are not touched, they are willing to pay the taxes and land taxes they should pay like other counties in the empire. Of course, this is not done willingly, and can only be done secretly and privately.
It was these signs that made both Gu Dengyun and Wu Feng feel a crisis. This Cheng Dayou seemed to be somewhat out of tune with the Yu Taiping Religion. His behavior and methods seemed to be more conservative, and it was easier to win the favor of the gentry. According to the According to Dengyun's opinion, this guy doesn't seem like a Taiping person at all, but more like Li Wufeng from a few years ago.