After Li Jingxiao visited his family, he asked Li Hongzhang for 1,200 new troops and set off the next day.
At first, they were traveling in a hurry and didn’t bring much with them.
They left without their muskets.
After leaving the city, Li Jingxiao had already arranged for them Mauser 1871 rifles made in Taipei.
Let them familiarize themselves with the weapons while marching.
There are also people from Li Jingxiao's system here, so Li Jingxiao took over this army very smoothly.
They merged as they walked.
In the suburbs, Li Jingxiao paid for each of these 1,200 people with a horse.
This time they went to fight in Xinjiang. Starting from Jiangsu, they had to cross most of the Qing Dynasty to reach the junction of Gansu and Xinjiang and join Zuo Zongtang's army.
What Li Jingxiao is fighting for now is time.
Starting from Jiangxi, he arrived in Anhui first and stopped in Hefei, Anhui. Passing by Hefei, he went to visit his mother's grave.
At this time, he also learned from Lu Wantong's telegram that Zhao Zengyu and Zhao Lingxi had gone to Shanghai and missed him perfectly.
Li Jingxiao arranged for Lu Wantong to be responsible for Zhao Zengyu and others studying abroad.
Li Jingxiao continued to lead the army westward.
Then it passes through Xinyang and Nanyang in Henan and reaches the intersection of Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi.
Here, Li Jingxiao received a batch of supplies and money.
A total of five hundred taels of silver and more than two hundred thousand stones of grain, as well as a lot of fodder.
The thousand people of Li Jingxiao and others were definitely not enough, and they also used many civilians, camels and oxen to transport them.
It can save a lot of manpower, after all, civilians also have to consume a lot of food.
Li Jingxiao received this batch of supplies and continued westward.
A group of people set off in the direction of Gansu.
Every time they pass through a town, they will also add a lot of supplies, most of which are prepared by Li Jingxiao's people here.
There was also support from the squire.
After all, not all squires are black-hearted, and some are kind-hearted.
Li Jingxiao's team is also getting bigger and bigger.
The daily consumption is also very large.
Fortunately, Li Jingxiao has entered the territory of Shaanxi.
In fact, Li Jingxiao has only gone halfway.
Gansu at this time was very large and narrow. Li Jingxiao and the others had to walk from Qinzhou to Anxizhou to meet Zuo Zongtang.
At this time, Zuo Zongtang had already received an order for him to regain Xinjiang.
Zuo Zongtang immediately asked his men to raise supplies. As for the one million taels of silver sent by the court, it has now shrunk to 500,000 taels. This is because they know that Zuo Zongtang is not easy to mess with, or even less.
Zuo Zongtang's two provinces only scraped together two million taels, which they had looted from the base camp of the Hui uprising before.
Zuo Zongtang saw that he had 2.5 million taels of silver and tens of thousands of tons of grain.
This is not enough for their current 60,000-strong army.
Recovering Xinjiang is not easy.
As for Li Hongzhang's son Li Jingxiao mentioned in the memorial, Zuo Zongtang didn't take it to heart at all.
The second generation of officials are here to get gold plating.
He didn't believe that Li Jingxiao would really come to Gansu, and he might not dare to continue westward after arriving in Shaanxi.
Even if he reaches Gansu, it is impossible to follow him to Xinjiang.
Xinjiang's territory is arid and hot, which is not the place for a young man like this to live.
Just when Zuo Zongtang was worried about the silver, a man knocked on the door and woke up Zuo Zongtang.
"Sir, Hu Xueyan sent a letter."
Zuo Zongtang looked up and saw that it was his general Wang Debang.
"Oh, let me see."
Zuo Zongtang took the letter, read it, and frowned.
Wang Debang: "Sir, what did Hu Xueyan say?"
Zuo Zongtang: "Hey, Hu Xueyan only gave us two hundred taels of silver and one hundred thousand shi of food."
"With this little money and food, our 60,000-strong army can last for two months. It's pretty good."
"Can we destroy Aquba's army in two months?"
"Wang Debang, please continue to write to Hu Xueyan and tell him that the Queen Mother has given me enough rights to let him continue to raise food for me."
"In addition, let him establish a connection with the foreigners. We and Agubabi lack new weapons. This is our shortcoming. Without new weapons, our casualties will be huge."
"We also need an army with new weapons to fight against Aguba's army."
Wang Debang: "Okay, sir."
Another few days passed.
Zuo Zongtang continued to train his troops, and he was still counting on his fingers every day how to spend every penny, and what to do to save food every day.
Zuo Zongtang now leads his troops to hunt in the mountains even if they are poor.
I have to say that Zuo Zongtang was the last stronghold of the Qing Dynasty.
Li Hongzhang and the others couldn't compare with Zuo Zongtang.
Everything Zuo Zongtang did was really for the Qing Dynasty and the people.
Li Hongzhang did more for himself.
Zuo Zongtang also felt something unusual recently.
There is a lot less grain and grass on the border between Gansu and Shaanxi, causing grain and grass prices to rise.
However, many shops have also released news that their new grain will arrive in the near future, so do not rush for food.
It’s just that the people don’t listen. There are still many businessmen who only care about making money. They don’t care about the life and death of the people.
This rise in food prices was partly caused by raising supplies for Li Jingxiao.
Some merchants said that when Xinliang returned, they were also his.
It’s just that many people don’t listen.
Zuo Zongtang was worried about these things every day.
At this moment, another general under Zuo Zongtang walked in.
This man was a recruit recruited by Zuo Zongtang when he attacked the Hui uprising.
This man had studied abroad and was proficient in foreign weapons. He was quickly put into use by Zuo Zongtang.
His name is Xia Zhikuan.
Xia Zhikuan was only in his thirties and was a powerful general under Zuo Zongtang.
"Oh, Xiaoxia, what's the matter?"
Xia Zhikuan: "My lord, someone came to report just now. He is a follower of Li Jingxiao, the son of Li Hongzhang. He said that Li Jingxiao has arrived at the boundary of Lanzhou Prefecture."
"Oh, this kid really dares to come. He has the guts, but I don't know if he will stay in Lanzhou Mansion and stop going west."
"Sir, according to what his entourage said, it shouldn't be possible. According to Li Jingxiao's footsteps, he should be at Xining Mansion."
"Oh, that's considered walking slowly."
"Commander, I heard that he brought a lot of supplies this time, but I don't know the exact amount."
"Li Hongzhang's son sent me supplies, hahaha. No one would believe it if I told him."
"If he can really get me a large amount of supplies, I will give him a big credit."
"Even if he doesn't attack Xinjiang later, I will still give him credit."
"It's just, don't be too happy too early. What we lack is not just a little bit, but tens of millions of taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of stones of food."
"It's good if he can provide food for more than a thousand people. Don't expect to be of much help to us."
Xia Zhikuan nodded.
Then step back and get on with your business.
In fact, Li Jingxiao had already led a large force out of Xining Prefecture and reached the boundary of Liangzhou Prefecture.
There are Ganzhou Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture in the middle before arriving at Anxi Prefecture.
The further Li Jingxiao walked this way, the more desolate he felt.
In other words, it's slightly better inside the town.
Many people did not have enough to eat or wear warm clothes due to the disaster.
The more he looked at it, the more distressed he felt, and it was all his fault in this damn world.
