"Stop, you actually despise me so much..." Li Hongzhang slapped the table with a bang and was furious. He really couldn't understand that even if Xiao Letian had a strong army under his command, even if he didn't get a advantage today, how could he insult him so much?

"You think you will win today. What you are facing is only a part of the 100,000 Huai Army. Even my 100,000 Huai Army is just a wave among the millions of Qing troops. You really think you are the invincible commander."

"The court really wants to deal with you, but there are ways to drown you with 500,000 Hunan Army and 1 million Green Camps... What's so great about you? It's just that the long hair is just flat and the Nian Army is not determined. The court gives you a chance to reform. Don't regard the court's mercy as weakness."

Xiao Letian turned his head and looked at him, "You should be a good official. People like you don't have a dream of a great country in their hearts. You are just a family dog..."

"Rareless." Li Hongzhang's roar almost caused the two armies to get fire. "I know what you want to say. Isn't it just my argument about Xinjiang? What's wrong with me? Xinjiang is full of Gobi deserts, snowy and high mountains, and few people and thalaspora. What exactly can I defend?"

"As long as we Han people guard the front line of Jiayuguan, we will naturally be like the ones on Mount Tai. What is the use of a waste of money and food? Why don't we concentrate our limited money and food on the coast? We must know that the foreigners' warships are our confidant enemies."

"We concentrate our money, build turrets along the coast, and buy large shore defense cannons. As long as we defend the coastal defense, can foreigners still attack? We will save the heavy taxes of our Qing Dynasty."

Li Hongzhang roared, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?"

"Hahaha..." Xiao Letian said with a crazy smile, "Sea Defense, you still understand sea Defense. What else can you do besides building some turrets with stones and then buying some backward and old artillery? By the way, you can also embezzle. You must at least half of the turrets to build a turret. Isn't the Qing tax you mentioned entering your pockets like this?"

"Of course, you will also buy a few foreign warships to serve as the storefront. It looks extremely powerful and scary, but you can't do anything except add some face to the court... You won't buy the latest cannons, nor will you add brand new flowering shells. You will even dry clothes on the cannons..."

"In your eyes, national defense funds can be embezzled or misappropriated at will. You may even stuff sand into shells, with the purpose of making that little bit of black money..."

Xiao Letian almost shouted out, "In the end, you will lead such a fleet to be sunk by the weakest enemy to the bottom of the sea, and then those turrets will be demolished by the enemy's army one by one... There will even be two fucking foreign troops going to war on the land of the Qing Dynasty, but you dare not intervene at all, but stay neutral."

"This is your strategy, I despise you..."

Li Hongzhang was scolded and his hands were shaking. He pointed at Xiao Letian and said, "You, you... are you talking nonsense? Are you crazy?"

Don’t blame Li Hongzhang for scolding people. No one can understand what Xiao Letian said except himself, because what he said was something that had not happened in the future.

Although it was something that had not happened in the future, just against Li Hongzhang's attitude towards Xinjiang rebellion and the inertial thinking of the Qing Dynasty, I am afraid that the tragedy in history will still have to be repeated.

Xiao Letian scolded him to relieve his hatred, but Li Hongzhang was wronged. He always regarded himself as a loyal minister and a capable minister. He would not admit his false charges.

"Xiao Letian, stop for me. Why do you slander my innocence out of thin air? Let me explain it clearly..." Li Hongzhang slapped the table. If there was a knife in his hand, he would definitely stab him in a transparent hole.

Xiao Letian pointed at the refugee people who had cleaned up the wounded soldiers and said coldly, "You have driven the people away as a meat shield. You can't do anything. If you want to be innocent, tell me where your innocence is."

Li Hongzhang's face turned pale after a sentence, and he gritted his teeth and said, "That's an urgent matter. Mercy does not control military affairs, righteousness does not control wealth. I don't believe that Xiao Letian will not do this when he encounters a strong enemy. Don't say too much..."

"Bah..." Xiao Letian spit on the ground with thick phlegm. "I don't know if you have any face to meet saints of all generations after you die, and I don't know what comment Confucius will give you."

"Okay, stop talking nonsense. Now there are two ways to put it in front of your Huai Army. Either move away or fight. Don't think that if you hide in the canal, I can't deal with you. You'd better not force me."

The negotiations were deadlocked. Li Hongzhang found that Xiao Letian was as smelly and hard as the stone in the pit. He had already put down his figure, but he was too lazy to open the door to the negotiations.

"Xiao Letian, even if you want to rebel, you are not so domineering. Before Wang Mang usurped the humble... you are destroying yourself."

Xiao Letian walked towards his own formation with a big stride, and he was too lazy to even turn his head back and just waved his hand and said, "If you want to fight, you will fight, and if you want to leave, you will leave. How can you talk so much nonsense? If you want to rely on Su Qin and Zhang Yi's sharp mouth, you should save your energy."

When Xiao Letian returned to his own camp, he sneered and said, "It's obvious that they don't know what we did in Europe at all. They all think they are old men. I saw contempt in his eyes, and Li Hongzhang looked down on me at all..."

"If these idiots had known that we had defeated the French twice in a row, and Austria would have rushed over like dogs that wagged their tails."

Molière said on the side, "It's good that this is the time difference that gives the Prime Minister's military power room. A fierce victory is more useful than you have to spend all your time. Alas... this is the consequence of the low efficiency of intelligence transmission."

That's right. The failure of the Qing Dynasty this time was due to the low efficiency of intelligence transmission. If the Qing Dynasty listened to the opinions of Zeng Guofan and Fuqing and invested in the construction of a telegram line that ran through the north and south, more than a year would be enough to get from Beijing to Shanghai.

The earliest telegraph lines had a very simple structure. Just spend some money to build a wooden pole along the post road, and the light telegraph lines were carried over. As long as you don’t embezzle such a telegraph line, it would be enough to have 200,000 taels of silver.

Is this little money worthy for the Qing Dynasty? The royal family saved a bite from food expenses. As long as there was this telegram line, news from Nanyang would be sent from the south to the capital in an instant. As long as Cixi had no water in her head, she would not have launched a battle against Tanggu even though she knew that Xiao Letian was winning wildly in Europe.

The old saying goes, before the troops are moved, food and grass are carried out first, but real war is not like this. Real war always comes first. Intelligence is the first. The Qing Dynasty, which fell into decline, did not understand this truth, or they did not believe in Western technology at all. Thousand Miles of Voice Transmission is a myth for them.

Li Hongzhang and Xiao Letian both retreated, and the battlefield was temporarily in a stalemate. Although Xiao Letian used his words to provoke Li Hongzhang and asked him to fight to the final battle, Li Hongzhang was not stupid. Xiao Letian's four rapid-fire guns have not come up with a solution until now.

The Huai Army that had sneak attacks announced that there were 3,000 people, but in fact there were 4,55 of them, and 1,55 of them were suspicious soldiers. Li Hongzhang originally thought that the small five thousand troops had a sneak attack of 1,33 to win a stable victory, but he did not expect that it would be a tragic situation.

Li Hongzhang didn't know how much ammunition was left in Xiao Letian's army, but he knew that the remaining 3,000 lives might not be enough. The only way now is to wait and wait for reinforcements from the capital.

Since the Huai Army did not move, the new army moved. Wang Huaiyuan organized three charges in total to attempt to break through the enemy's defense line. However, the Huai Army fully utilized the advantages of the terrain and used the ditches and forests to fight with the charge's new army. The three charges did not meet the expected goals, and the battlefield situation suddenly became stalemate.

The main battlefield was stalemate, but on the official road near Langfang northwest of the battlefield, the torrent was staring at the wind and rain and moving forward rapidly. It was the garrison of the capital that was pieced together with 3,000 war horses and 10,000 troops.

Cixi spent a lot of money this time. One of these soldiers had a chance to make ten taels of money first. Thanks to the fact that the Empress Dowager Cixi's small treasury was sufficient, and if she was a little poorer, she would not be able to fight this battle.

Not only that, there were also silvers for rewards, each of whom was fifty taels. As long as the win was won, they were immediately paid. Meller, who was locked in the Office of the Internal Affairs, was released and made meritorious service. Even several general managers of the Office of the Internal Affairs were dispatched.

What is even more surprising is that An Dehai was sent out by Cixi to serve as a military supervisor. These 10,000 people are the last hope. Cixi must ensure that everything is foolproof.

It was only more than 100 miles away from Beijing to Langfang. In later generations, as long as there was no traffic jam, it would be only six or seven hours after driving.

However, for these pampered Eight Banners soldiers, the Liantian team had been walking halfway through the journey for a whole night. By the morning of this, the Huai Army and the New Army began to exchange fire, and the group of soldiers had not seen the shadow of Langfang.

"Oh, my ancestors, we really can't run... I have never suffered such a serious crime for a whole night..."

"That's right, I won't run away anymore... Let Langfang open fire for us, we have to eat, we can't fight this war when we're hungry."

"Okay, that guy has a buff... I'll buy it with ten taels of silver. The money is a bastard..."

When the new army and the Huai army were stalemate, the imperial reinforcements finally arrived. At this time, they were less than five kilometers away from the battlefield.

Meller is going to make meritorious contributions today. He rode back and forth on the war horse, shouting loudly in a team like a dead snake, "All up, all the damn up, now you are less than ten miles away, you can rush over in half an hour... Raising soldiers for a lifetime is used for a while, the court will support you, just look at the present, get out of here."

If Meller says good things, someone may listen. The scolding guy will stop. "Fuck your grandma, Meller, get out of here... I am also the old man from the Three Flags. You guy is playing tricks with me. You can even drown you if you urinate."
Chapter completed!