Chapter 567 Northwest Worry-free (Second update, please subscribe)

Is Shi Dakai still alive?

How could he still be alive?

In the following time, Zhu Xianhai asked a lot of questions about Shi Dakai.

"So he crossed the Dadu River?"

After learning that he had crossed the Dadu Pass and defeated Luo Bingzhang's army of tens of thousands, Zhu Xianhai was so shocked that he could not say anything.

"King Yi is a man of extraordinary talent. Not only did he cross the Dadu River a few years ago, he also killed tens of thousands of Qing Yao led by Luo Bingzhang. If Luo Qing Yao had not escaped quickly, he would have lost his life there."

While Yang Fuqing proudly showed off the brilliant military achievements of Wing King Shi Dakai, Zhu Xianhai had more questions in his heart - how did Shi Dakai cross the Dadu River, how did he defeat Luo Bingzhang, and how did he occupy Gansu.

In fact, in the final analysis, the change of Shi Dakai's fate was completely a butterfly's wings. 10 years ago, relying on the arms transported by Nanhua, the Taiping Army captured Hangzhou earlier than in history. With the advantage of guns and cannons, it almost swept across the entire Zhejiang Province. In order to save the situation, the Qing army hurriedly mobilized the troops in Hunan and Jiangxi to try to stop the Taiping Army from entering Shanxi. At the same time, Shi Dakai, who had fought in several provinces, led the Taiping Army from Rong County, Guangxi to Suining, Hunan. After learning the news, he changed his plan to march to eastern Sichuan and headed to Jiangxi. Then he reunited with the Taiping Army in Jiangxi.

After the meeting, Shi Dakai's troops not only had a chance to rest, but also unexpectedly received a batch of arms - Li Fugui sent him more than 20 12-pound mountain howitzers, thousands of Spencer rifles, P1853 rifles and a large amount of ammunition.

"The reason why I sent the arms to him was, firstly, out of nostalgia. After all, I once served under King Yi. Secondly, I wanted to open up a new path. After all, King Yi has tens of thousands of troops under his command. If he can buy weapons from us, he will naturally be a big customer..."

When mentioning this "old account", Li Fugui couldn't help but complain.

"I never thought that the King of Wings, who was such a hero in his lifetime, would be so lazy that he would lead his troops and flee before we could collect the debt. I don't know where to find him to collect the debt. Now the King of Wings has fled to Gansu. It's just right that I will go back and settle the debt properly."

When Li Fugui mentioned Shi Dakai, he always used the name "King Yi". It was obvious what he was thinking. It was definitely not just a simple nostalgia. The arms were deliberately given to him.

"Okay, Fugui, let's not settle the score, but honestly, this was a brilliant move you made!"

It’s more than wonderful!

It was simply amazing. The change in route made Shi Dakai arrive at the Dadu River half a year later. He crossed the river in November 1863, and then relied on thousands of foreign guns and cannons to bombard the militia under Luo Bingzhang that were armed with bird guns and spears, and then fought all the way. After that, he entered Gansu the following year, and took advantage of the emptiness of Gansu to capture Lanzhou and seize the entire province of Gansu.

After occupying Gansu, he not only saved the lives of millions of Gansu people, but also completely wiped out the "Eighteen Camps". He even joined forces with Li Hefei to some extent - the Huai Army defeated the "Eighteen Camps", and when the "Eighteen Camps" fled to the northwest, they were completely wiped out by Shi Dakai on the way.

According to Yang Fuqing, the Yellow River turned red that day! Nearly 100,000 people from the "Eighteen Camps" were captured! From then on, there would no longer be any nightmare legends of "returning to Xi'an, knocking on the city gate bolts, I'm back"!

"With the Wing King here in the Northwest, the Northwest can be at peace!"

The reason why Zhu Xianhai had such an exclamation was not only because of the collapse of the "Eighteen Camps", but more importantly because of Xinjiang.

In fact, when Zuo Zongtang was captured and came to Nanhua, Zhu Xianhai felt like he was struck by lightning. Lord Zuo was carrying a coffin to the battlefield, so what about Xinjiang?

Now, Yakub Beg's biggest accomplice was killed by Shi Dakai halfway through, and sank into the Yellow River. As for Xinjiang...

After thinking for a while, Zhu Xianhai seemed to remember something. He walked to the map wall, pushed aside a few maps, and a map of China appeared in front of him.

"Has the Longhai Railway been built past Xi'an?"

"Your Majesty, the original purpose of building the Longhai Railway to suppress the bandits was just an excuse. After passing Xi'an, Li Hefei stopped building the railway to the west. Going northwest, the mountain roads along the way are not only difficult to build, but also require a lot of silver. The Qing Dynasty does not have that much silver to throw to the northwest."

The Longhai Railway was originally built to pacify the northwest, but no matter what, Zhu Xianhai never expected that Shi Dakai was among the bandits.

History takes some unexpected turns here.

This change seems to be good, the only problem is - how to coax Shi Dakai to Xinjiang!

As long as Shi Dakai arrived in Xinjiang, Xinjiang's Yakub Beg would definitely not be his match.

On this day, Zhu Xianhai stood in front of the map all night, staring at it, and he thought a lot.

"It seems that we need to strengthen our intelligence work in China!"

When collecting intelligence in China, Ming was more concerned about immigration issues than political and economic intelligence. After all, Ming's focus was not on China. Because of this, they did not know much about many situations in China.

Just like Shi Dakai, who would have thought that he was still alive...

However, this is not surprising. Gansu is really too remote. In this era, unless people pay special attention to it, few people pay attention to that place.

"We must find a way to get him to Xinjiang!"

Staring at the map and thinking for a long time, Zhu Xianhai frowned. Finally, he set his eyes on Li Hefei.

As long as Li Hefei was there, Shi Dakai would go to Xinjiang sooner or later, whether he was willing or not. After all, as long as Li Hefei was determined to make progress, train new troops, and run foreign affairs, he would enter Gansu sooner or later.

The only problem was that we had to establish some connections with Shi Dakai and sell him some arms before he left Xinjiang. After all, it was the sharp seven-shot rifle that helped Marshal Zuo recapture Xinjiang.

"Well, it seems that we need to send someone to collect the old debt!"

Zhu Xianhai chuckled.

"As the dignified King of Wings, you shouldn't be so lazy!"

What if it's just lazy accounting?

Emperor Zhu would not care. The most important thing was to reestablish contact, use "smuggling" to send some weapons to Shi Dakai, and find a way to add fuel to the fire and turn his attention to Xinjiang or even Central Asia.

Central Asia, Central Asia...

Russia has only just begun to expand in Central Asia. If the Qing Dynasty had not intervened, at least Xinjiang would not have lost hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land to the Russians!

Russia is also a problem!

However, it doesn't matter to them. After all, Zhu Xianhai had already dug a trap for Russia a few years ago.

Not only is it a pit, it’s also a sinkhole!

(End of this chapter)