Zuo Zongtang, who had just conquered Lin 'an, was dumbfounded after receiving the imperial edict from the imperial court.
What the hell?
I just want to deceive the local officials in the Min-Zhe region and make them obediently open the city gates so that the Chu army can take down these cities without bloodshed.
Why was the Imperial Court deceived now?
The imperial court even ordered him to lead troops to attack the Xiang Army's lair?
Did they really not know that they had already joined the Han army?
Zuo Zongtang found it funny and also very strange.
After thinking for a moment, he did not immediately tear off his disguise and reject the imperial court's edict.
Instead, he first pretended to be polite and restrained the people sent by the imperial court to announce the edict. Then, he immediately sent someone to inform the Han King of this matter to Lin Yu.
Zuo Zongtang felt that since even the imperial court had been deceived by him, he might as well beat them at their own game and use this imperial edict to take advantage of the opportunity to earn money from the Gan and Xiang provinces!
Southern Jiangxi Province, Ningdu Prefecture.
Lin Yu, who had led 5,000 Han troops north, had just defeated the Qing army in Ningdu and captured the city.
Compared to the Eastern Expedition, the Northern Expedition of the Han Army did not progress very fast. Up until now, they had only taken down three provincial capitals.
After all, Zuo Zongtang had the identity of the former governor of Min and Zhe in the imperial court. He could control the cities along the way without bloodshed.
As the Han army was a rebel army, Lin Yu naturally could not use the same strategy to deal with the Qing army. When the Qing army saw them, they basically adopted a strong defense and a stubborn attitude.
This caused the Northern Expedition Army to fight more than 20 battles along the way. Almost every city was taken down by them with a saber and a spear!
However, this had its advantages. Although it was a little slow, after experiencing these battles, the Han army that participated in the Northern Expedition had accumulated a wealth of combat experience.
Especially after conquering more than 20 cities, their siege experience became incomparably rich.
The tactics used by the Han soldiers were very simple. They used machine guns to suppress the enemy's firepower on the city wall, then sent out explosives to blow up the city wall and open up the gap.
Under the cover of machine guns and artillery, the Han soldiers began to launch a general attack.
After charging into the city, the Han soldiers immediately used machine guns to control the streets and clear the enemy's resistance. Then, they let the troops fight in squads and began street fighting with the enemy.
The muskets in the hands of the Qing soldiers were difficult to use in street battles, so they often chose to ambush at the corners of the streets and use cold weapons to attack the Han army.
However, the Han army had many methods to deal with such an attack.
Before they launched an attack, they would occupy the high ground first, send a few soldiers to climb up the roof, set up machine guns to shoot the enemy soldiers hiding behind the corner, or send snipers to snipe the Qing army from above.
Under the combined attack of the Han army, the Qing army in the city was immediately beaten dizzy. After a group of people were killed, the remaining people immediately scattered like birds and beasts. They either threw away their helmets and armor and fled, or put down their weapons and knelt down to beg for mercy.
The entire street battle lasted for less than half an hour before Ning Du City fell into the control of the Han army.
Standing on the city wall of Ning Du City, Lin Yu looked at the city.
Fortunately, the damage caused by the battle was not too serious. The Han soldiers had already begun to organize people to put out the fire that had been ignited by the battle in the city.
As long as the remaining Qing soldiers were completely wiped out, the city would belong to them.
"Your Highness the Han King, a letter from the Left General!”
At this moment, the soldier who sent the message delivered Zuo Zongtang's letter.
Ningdu State was just next to Min Province, so it was not far away. Therefore, the news sent by Zuo Zongtang only took two days to reach Lin Yu.
Looking at the time of the letter, Lin Yu realized that it was an urgent letter from 800 miles away. In addition, it was Zuo Zongtang's personal letter, so he was a little curious.
He didn't know what had happened to the Eastern Expedition Army, but they actually wanted to send this letter to him by rushing it 800 li away!
Opening Zuo Zongtang's letter, Lin Yu was amused.
The Qing government was quite interesting. They were actually deceived by Zuo Zongtang!
He actually thought that Zuo Zongtang was now an official of the Qing Dynasty, but he did not know that the other party had long been a traitor standing opposite him.
After reading Zuo Zongtang's letter, Lin Yu began to think.
Originally, he had only planned to occupy a portion of southern Jiangxi and southern Hunan, but not all of them.
However, the Qing government had given him such a good opportunity, and Zeng Guofan had rebelled in the north.
The situation in the south was unprecedentedly favorable to the Han army. Under such circumstances, it seemed necessary to change their original plan and seize the opportunity to unify the south!
Thinking of this, he wrote a letter back to Zuo Zongtang, agreeing to Zuo Zongtang's proposal. He also said that the Han army would cooperate with them in the future and co-direct a good show so that they could take over the Gan and Xiang provinces more smoothly!
After writing the letter and handing it to the soldier who reported it, Lin Yu looked at the back of the soldier who rode away on his warhorse and sighed.
Communication methods in this era were indeed too outdated. It was inconvenient to transmit messages from a distance.
It would be much more convenient if he had a cell phone or a phone from the future!
If there was anything, he could just call and ask.
However, cell phones required a large number of signal towers, while phones required fixed telephone lines.
These things required a large amount of capital investment before they could be used.
With the little money Lin Yu had now, he really could not afford this.
However, other than the telephone, there was another means of communication that could be used in this era, and that was the telegram!
Telegrams had been invented by the Europeans, and they had begun to be popularized and used on a large scale in Western Europe.
According to history, the first telegram line would appear in China seven years later, in 1871. Then, the telegram would be quickly promoted in China. By 1881, China had already laid more than 10,000 kilometers of telegram lines.
Almost all the coastal areas in the southeast were connected to the telegram, allowing the imperial court's decree to be quickly conveyed to the local area.
It could be said that the reason why the Qing court was able to survive for so long after the Taiping Country's internal strife was largely due to the work of the telegram.
The emergence of the telegram made it easier for the Qing government to manage the areas under its rule, thus reducing the risk of local rebellions and maintaining the rule of the empire.
If there were no telegrams, the Qing government would definitely be like the other dynasties at the end of the dynasty, with a large number of peasant uprisings and local warlords rebelling.
Because of the appearance of the telegram, the court had a much easier time understanding the information of various places, and the mobilization of the army was also much easier. Therefore, the rebellions in various places were almost strangled at the first moment. This allowed the Qing government to not die at the hands of the peasant uprising in the end.
However, if the early telegrams were to be used, they had to first lay down the wires and send troops to protect them. Otherwise, once they were destroyed by the enemy, they would not be able to be used!
Was there anything that could achieve long-distance communication without spending a lot of effort to lay down wires?
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。