Volume 4 1860 The Rise of the Heavenly Dynasty Chapter 93 Whale Swallows the World

Next chapter

The first army went out of Shanxi, through Shaanxi, Kexi'an, through Hanzhong, and went to Chengdu. ∈♀，x.

The second road army, out of Henan, Kexiangyang, went south to Changsha, Hunan.

The Third Route Army, out of Henan, went to Hefei, and joined the Taiping Army in Jiangning to attack the Jiangnan camp of the Hunan Army.

The Fourth Route Army, out of Shandong, Ke Shanghai, all the way to Suzhou.

The Fifth Route Army, out of the mouth of Dagu in Tianjin, along the coastline, with the land army all the way south, landed in Quanzhou, as a hidden blade, ambushed in the back of the Taiping Army and the Twist Army.

Although he commanded the five-way army to attack at the same time, with the assistance of Shenyin, it was easy for Qianjiang to control the speed of the five-way march without hurry or slow, and at the same time launched a surprise attack on the Hunan army and Huaiyong in the south.

At this time, in the Jiangnan camp, Zeng Guofan had received the news of the fall of the Beijing Division, and a banner man who was covered in blood rushed over from the Beijing Division day and night to convey Cixi's will, and recruited Zeng Guofan to lead the army to return to the aid quickly, temporarily shelving the war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and cooperating with Luo Bingzhang of Sichuan, Li Hongzhang of Zhejiang, and the iron cavalry of Mongolia, and gathered the four-way army to crusade against the True God Cult and recover the Beijing Division.

Zeng Guofan waved his hand, motioned for the herald to go down to rest, and then called his two younger brothers, Zeng Guoquan and Zeng Guobao, in.

These two younger brothers recruited villagers from their hometown with him, fought in the south and the north, and made a lot of contributions, at this time the Qing Dynasty was in danger, the wall had ears, and some words were naturally difficult to say to outsiders, Zeng Guofan could trust, naturally his two younger brothers were undoubtedly.

He put Yi Yi on a few cases, frowned and said: "The Jingshi has been conquered by the cult anti-thieves, and the Queen Mother has issued an order to move the Hunan army to fight in Zhili..."

"What?" Zeng Guoquan's eyes widened, and without waiting for Zeng Guofan to finish speaking, he interrupted angrily: "When the foreigners approached Beijing, I didn't see this queen mother asking to move troops back to help, but now the banner people are not in a good united front, so let us go back and wipe our butts!" Hmph, we finally conquered these dozen or so key points around Jiangning, and now that we have retreated, I don't know how long the war will drag on! Whoever loves the past and who goes over, anyway, I can't go over, let the bannermen solve the affairs of the bannermen themselves, don't they have the invincible Mongolian cavalry in the world? It's not easy to exterminate some peasants with sticks and forks? We don't need to go out! ”

Zeng Guofan glared at Guoquan, this younger brother is quite good at marching and fighting, but he doesn't know anything about officialdom and political affairs, if these words are spread by someone with a heart, wouldn't it be a felony of raiding the family and destroying the door?

Zeng Guobao is more careful, and he analyzed slowly: "Although what Guoquan said is reckless, it is not completely unreasonable!" The reason why the brothers of the Hunan army are willing to fight with us is that the long-haired thieves burn and loot everywhere, and they have to do it as a last resort in order to defend their hometown! Now let them abandon their wives and go to fight in Zhili, what will happen to our hometown? We now have a deep grudge with the long-haired thief, once the army is withdrawn, the long-haired thief is bound to intensify his revenge, and it is not our own relatives and friends in the township who will suffer at that time? ”

He saw that Zeng Guofan was a little moved, and continued: "What's more, now that Jiang Ning is at his fingertips, if he gives up at this time, won't it be a failure?" Isn't the blood of so many Hunan army brothers in vain? How can I account to my brothers who have followed me in life and death? Even if they can say it clearly, will they still be able to listen to our brothers in the future? In my opinion, this matter must not be avoided, and I hope my brother will think twice! ”

Zeng Guofan hesitated: "The messengers have already come, do we want to resist and disobey the order?" What is the difference between openly opposing the imperial court and rebellion? ”

Zeng Guoquan stomped his feet angrily, and was distressed to himself, suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration, cracked his big mouth, smiled, and said: "This thing is not easy to do, look at me!" ”

This younger brother has a short temper and has always lacked quick wit, so he can think of a solution at this time? Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guobao were stunned, not knowing what his method was, so they could only wait and see what happened, praying in their hearts that as long as he didn't poke out any big baskets, he would be Amitabha, in short, he would definitely not come up with any superior strategies.

After a while, Zeng Guoquan walked in with a smile and a head, threw it into the coach's tent, and said proudly: "The messenger has already asked me to slaughter, let's just say that we haven't seen this person at all, and we haven't seen any Yizhi, so don't we have to return to life now?" ”

Zeng Guofan looked at Guoquan's expression, he really wanted to smash it with a punch, the Empress Dowager Cixi is not a fool, don't you kill the messenger and others won't know? At that time, when the messenger rushed into the camp, many officers and soldiers along the way saw it clearly, it doesn't matter if you kill you so lightly, put aside in advance if you resist the decree and disrespect the order, just killing the Qin Cha and bullying the king for these two crimes is enough to be punished by Ling Chi!

"Guoquan, Guoquan, you are really confused!" Zeng Guofan didn't know what to say at this time, although he was the commander of the Hunan army, but the prefects and governors of various places were not under his own jurisdiction, once the news leaked, without waiting for the long-haired thief to call, his own family would have to mess up first, didn't this add chaos to himself!

Guo Bao didn't expect that Guo Quan's stupid brother would kill people if he killed someone, and he didn't discuss it with himself, but the matter had come to this point, and it was too late to say anything, he turned around a few times with his hands behind his back in place, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and he whispered to Zeng Guofan: "Brother, don't panic, I think Guo Quan's matter is wrong!" ”

Zeng Guofan was hesitating to himself, and seeing that Guobao was confident, he knew that this younger brother was quite intelligent, and hurriedly asked, "How do you say this?" ”

"In my opinion, this messenger must be an impostor, if the expectation is good, it must be the long-haired thief of Jiangning Mansion who can't withstand the repeated attacks of our army, so he came up with such a lie plan, intending to lure me to retreat from the siege, fortunately, General Guoquan has a unique vision, and he saw through the thief's tricks at once, and after interrogation, after confirming that there is no doubt about this matter, he will show the head of the long-haired thief to the public to boost the hearts of the army! Please also ask my brother to reward the country and reward the meritorious heroes! ”

Zeng Guofan nodded appreciatively, and couldn't help but clap his hands.

Guo Quan didn't know what was going on, he picked up the messenger's blood-stained head from the ground again, looked it up and down, and asked stupidly, "Really?" Did I kill a hairy thief? ”

Zeng Guofan was angry when he saw him now, pointed at his nose and nodded three or four times, and then sighed heavily, "Guobao's words are reasonable, just do what you want, reward the country with five altars of fine wine, one hundred taels of silver, and then get it after conquering Jiangning Mansion!" ”

Guoquan rubbed his hands, and said with a smile: "Brother Xie, hehe, I don't think this kid is like a flag man, but I didn't expect it to be a long-haired person..."

Of the three people in the tent, only Zeng Guoquan was beaming with joy, and he didn't know why he had made a great contribution, and the two brothers shook their heads and sighed.

"Report!" A soldier hurriedly ran in, knelt down and bowed: "Your Excellency, Fengyang Mansion is besieged by tens of thousands of long-haired thieves led by long-haired thief Li Xiucheng, and I ask for reinforcement!" ”

"Got it!" At this time, the messengers have been killed, and the orders of the imperial court have been disobeyed, Zeng Guofan's mind has been decided, such as today has been torn apart, the capital has fallen, and the money and food needed for the war in the future must be relied on by themselves to find a way, the treasury of the state capitals is the things of the imperial court, and he has no way to take it, but it is not illegal to rob the things of the long-haired thief.

The Taiping Army has always advocated the sacred treasury system of "people have no selfish wealth", and has collected countless gold and silver treasures.

The so-called selfless wealth of people, as the name suggests, is to demand that everyone's property does not belong to him, but should be handed over to the collective ownership of the Heavenly Balance Heavenly Kingdom, and the so-called holy treasury is the place where everyone's money and food are gathered together.

This system played a very huge role in the war, as long as the Taiping army went, the people in the occupied areas had to "donate" all their belongings to the holy treasury, so that the Taiping army's military pay became more and more sufficient, ensuring a strong military logistics supply.

In contrast, the Qing army is much worse, although the local state governments will also give money and grain supplements, but most of them come from taxes, no matter how high the tax can not reach 100 percent, plus the rule of officials, money and grain from the collection, to the treasury, and then to the circulation out, each layer has officials from the oil from it, to fill the pockets, so when sent to the army, there is not much left.

What Zeng Guofan was thinking about at this time was not to rescue Danyang Mansion, he knew the fighting style of the Taiping Army, and when he led the army to relieve the siege, Li Xiucheng would definitely have withdrawn early, and he might not have besieged which state capital again, rather than being led by the nose aimlessly behind, it was better to attack its vital point directly!

Jiangning Mansion is the weakness of the entire Taiping Army, originally when Hong Xiuquan did not have a fixed capital, he traveled around to fight, which was indeed a headache, and now he tied his hands and feet, and he had to set a Tianjing!

As long as this place is surrounded, no matter where Li Xiucheng is, he will definitely have to gallop back to help, and at that time, as long as he waits for work and sets up an ambush on his way back, he will definitely be able to defeat him in one fell swoop!

As long as he captures Jiangning, he will not only severely damage the morale and combat effectiveness of the Taiping army, but also cut the enemy's sphere of influence into pieces, and it is easy to break through each one, of course, the most important thing is the holy treasury in Jiangning Mansion!

Just imagine, a Taiping army who has looted the rich land of Liangguang, plus the millions of silver taels they have earned from selling tea bricks to foreigners in recent years, all these money are stored in the Jiangning Mansion, what a treasure this must be? It is no exaggeration to say that whoever has the General Holy Treasury will have a steady stream of troops and excellent armor, and he dare not say that he has conquered the world, but it is definitely more than enough to dominate one side.

At this time, Zeng Guofan, a bold idea suddenly popped up in his mind, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has never paid attention to the Han people, rather than whispering for this already broken court, it is better to set himself up as the king, as long as the long-haired thief is destroyed, with the two lakes, two Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu, these rich places, it is not impossible to dominate the Central Plains!

Thinking of this, he was excited for a while, and ordered: "Someone, repair a letter and send it to the mansion of Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhejiang, and invite him to send troops to set up an ambush on the traffic artery south of Jiangning Mansion to block the long-haired thieves who came to the rescue!" ”

"Guobao! You lead 5,000 elite soldiers, open the distance, set up more tents, slowly go north, go to Fengyang Mansion, if you don't meet the long-haired thief, immediately turn to the southeast, hold the north of the river, and stop the long-haired thief from going south! ”

"Guoquan, order you to be the vanguard, lead 3,000 cavalry, and attack Jiangning Mansion urgently!"

As soon as the plan was in place, the 100,000 Hunan army took advantage of the cover of night to penetrate directly into Jiangning Mansion by water and land.

Tao Chengxuan, the leader of the Taiping Army, led 8,000 Taiping troops to attack Luzhou Mansion, and just more than 30 miles out of Jiangning, he suddenly encountered Guoquan and led 3,000 iron cavalry to cover and kill.

The Taiping army was caught off guard, rushed to the battle, killed and wounded more than 1,000 people, the leader Tao Chengxuan was beheaded by Zeng Guoquan, the remnants fled north, and encountered Li Hongzhang's Huaiyong ambush, most of the dead and wounded, only a few hundred people fled back to Jiangning Mansion.

Just when Hong Xiuquan learned that the Hunan army was attacking in a big way, the artillery outside the city rang out, and the vanguard of the Hunan army had come to the south gate, dozens of flowering bullets smashed on the city wall, and the stone chips were splashed, and then more than 1,000 topless Hunan troops rushed to the city wall without fear of death.

At this time, after the Tianjing Incident, most of the main generals in the early stage died of infighting, and a rising star like Li Xiucheng was still shallow in commanding the army, and the troops were divided, and the entire Jiangning Mansion was simply a huge cake, with more than 100,000 defenders, but no good generals to dominate.

The two sides fought fiercely for two days and two nights, the south city gate was lost and captured, seized and lost, and finally the Taiping army was able to hold it, blocking the cracks in the city wall with gravel, and continued to resist stubbornly.

At this time, the army of the Hunan army had arrived in full force, although there were only 50,000 people, and the number was not superior, but the orders were neat and the morale was like a rainbow, so frightened that the Taiping army retreated in the city and did not dare to meet it.

In this way, the two armies fought around Jiangning Mansion for more than ten days, this time the war burned from the south gate to the east gate and the west gate, the Hunan army was lined up into five echelons, taking turns to go into battle, attacking the city day and night, with the support of powerful artillery fire, the defenders in the city suffered heavy losses, and the morale was also disintegrating little by little, and now Hong Xiuquan's only hope is all pinned on the body of the True God Sect.

After fighting for another three or five days, Zeng Guofan suddenly received an urgent report: 50,000 people in the navy army encountered a cult and rebel, and the whole army was wiped out!

Not long after, there was an urgent report that Guobao had been defeated by Li Xiucheng's suspicious plan in Jiangbei and had retreated to Anqing Mansion.

Soon, the war reports from all over the country hit like snowflakes, and Li Hongzhang was defeated by the True God Sect, lost Zhejiang, and retreated to Nanchang Mansion in Jiangxi.

Hunan and Hubei have all fallen, and there is currently a force of 8,000 True God Sect rebels attacking Jiangning Mansion.

Zeng Guofan was in a trance, how could it be that in just one month, the seamless layout he had arranged was broken by the True God Sect repeatedly, what kind of evil methods did this cult have, and it could conquer so many places at the same time, you must know that whether it is his own Hunan army or Huai Yong, who is known as the victorious army, they are all veterans of a hundred battles, and they are so vulnerable in front of the cult, this is really unimaginable!

Before he could think of a countermeasure, there was a burst of muskets from the dense forest, followed by the screams and wails of the soldiers.

What's the situation? Zeng Guofan was stunned, in order to prevent ambushes, his camp was a mile or two away from the woods, and secret sentries were placed in the forest, such an arrangement can be described as solid, and he has never missed!

Why are the enemies all killed under their noses today, and there is no warning? What's even more terrifying is that what firearm can hit such a long distance? Even if a foreign gun can hit a mile away, it is the end of a strong crossbow, and these firearms can hurt people at such a distance, is it really an evil method of a cult?

The Hunan army had never seen such a battle, and they didn't know how to resist the enemy, and they didn't even see what the enemy looked like, so they fell one after another, and when they were dying, they still had a pair of frightened eyes.

"Retreat!" At this point, there is no way but to retreat.

The Taiping army shook the flag of the Hunan army, knowing that reinforcements were coming, and roared out from the three city gates in the east, west and south.

Although the Hunan army is not the opponent of the True God Sect, it is more than enough to deal with these long hairs! At this time, the Hunan army was already frightened by this terrible gunshot, and only wanted to kill it, so why did it care about the Taiping army's obstruction? The enemies that can be seen are always much more reassuring than the enemies that cannot be seen, so they scrambled one by one, like chopping melons and vegetables, and forcibly tore a large crack in the outflanked troops of the Taiping Army, protected Zeng Guofan, and killed them.

Although the Taiping army cooperated with the True God Sect to intercept the enemy army, the number of casualties was even greater than that of the Hunan army, even so, the siege of Jiangning was finally resolved, and it should be happy.

Just when they were waving their flags and shouting, shouting that the King of Heaven is mighty and the Heavenly Father is blessed, the troops in black uniforms all the time rushed over with murderous vigour, and with them, there were bullets that rained down and covered the sky!