July 29, 1861. Anhui, Luzhou.

The Hunan army and the Huai army gathered outside the city at this time, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom asked Wang Li Kaifang to retreat from the Huai River and then retreated into Luzhou City with his troops. The Huai army pursued closely behind, while the Hunan army swooped down on the center of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's rule in Huainan, and after the two armies converged, they laid siege to the city.

Now outside the city are mainly the troops of the Hunan army, and in the place where Lord Zeng Guofan "reasoned" with the troops, there were so many people wearing the uniforms of the Huai army. And Zeng Guofan was gushing endlessly to the battalion officers in front of the Hunan army, shouting his views.

"It's not that we're unwilling to rectify the bad gentry, let alone punish the profiteers. It's just that the matter of acting should be prioritized, and the great harm in the world at this time is the rebellion of the people. Only by first eliminating the rebellious people can we calmly rectify all kinds of chaos. This order must not be messed up! ”

Since the formation of the Hunan Army, the battalion officers and even the entire unit have often been able to listen to Zeng Guofan's "truths," which is the biggest difference between Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army and other units. When this system was first established, Zeng Guofan was inexperienced, and he was full of illusions that he could bring the green camp in to listen to the "truth". As a result, the Green Battalion did not buy it at all, and the officers of the Green Battalion, who were angered by Zeng Guofan's public explanation, even launched a very ingenious Green Battalion mutiny, and the mutinous soldiers wanted to pull Zeng Guofan out and beat him severely. Zeng Guofan had no choice but to leave Changsha with his Hunan army and start development in Hengyang.

Even after suffering such setbacks, Zeng Guofan still showed the determination to defeat and fight repeatedly, and these reasonable rules were still maintained. It's just that the Hunan army later became larger and the battle line was lengthened, so he could only write various manuscripts and send them to various units, so that each unit could "organize and study on its own".

At the beginning of 1861, after conquering Anqing, the long front of the Hunan army was finally contracted, and after reaching a strategic consensus with Jiang Zhongyuan, the governor of Anhui, that "the Hunan army and the Huai army join forces to seize Huainan first", the Hunan army's troops were assembled, which provided an opportunity for Zeng to continue to concentrate on the education of the troops.

Jiang Zhongyuan brought He Chun, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kun, and other Huai army cadres to listen to Zeng Guofan's passionate generosity in Hunan official dialect from the best guest seats. Jiang Zhongyuan and Liu Kunyi are both from Xinning, Hunan, and Li Hongzhang is from Luzhou, Anhui Province, and worships Zeng Guofan as his teacher. The three of them understood Zeng Guofan's words. Although He Chun didn't understand very well, he was a Manchu, as long as he could understand the orders of the Manchu Emperor, he didn't need to understand any Han principles at all. Just listened carefully, and He Chun also heard a rough idea, Zeng Guofan was suing the Hunan army, and there were still many landlords and gentry in Huainan who were loyal to the imperial court, and they had now taken the initiative to contact the imperial court. Therefore, the Hunan army and the Huai army gave them the documents to prove it. When attacking Luzhou, the gentry with documents could be let go.

After Zeng Guofan finished speaking, the battalion officers of the Hunan army ordered, and soon the Hunan troops gathered here all sang in Hunan dialect, "The three armies listen carefully, and the people must love the people before marching; The thieves harmed the people, and it was all up to the officers and soldiers to save them; The people were afflicted by thieves, and it was all up to the officers and soldiers to make the decisions......"

This is the "Love Folk Song" written by Zeng Guofan, which condenses Zeng Guofan's spirit of governing the army, and everyone in Hunan must learn to sing it. Jiang Zhongyuan had known this song for a long time, but this was the first time he heard thousands of Hunan soldiers sing this song together. I only heard the song sing: "Build a wall, don't block the front of the street, don't cut down wood, don't cut down the grave and tree; Don't pick a fish pond to carry water, everything must be a step forward...... The third order must be strict, and the soldiers are not allowed to go out of the camp in disorder; When you go out of the camp to learn badly, it is always the people who suffer; …… Everyone at home is a good citizen, and when they come out to be a soldier, they are also people; Officers and soldiers are different from thieves, officers and soldiers are human thieves and birds; Officers and soldiers do not rob thieves and bandits, and officers and soldiers do not commit adultery to thieves and bandits; If the officers and soldiers also rob the bandits, they will have the same heart as the bandits......"

Hearing these contents, Jiang Zhongyuan nodded again and again. The Manchu military discipline was extremely corrupt, which made it difficult to gain the support of the common people. After conquering Shouzhou, the Huai army marched into Huainan. There are many rich people in the richer places, and their attitude towards the Huai army is relatively deferential, and in the poor areas, those people would rather flee without a trace than have any contact with the Huai army. If Huaijun could have the discipline in Zeng Guofan's "Love Folk Song", it would not have gotten to the point where it is now.

"There is also an important book, don't kidnap people to be long-term husbands; One person was taken captive, and the family cried and couldn't live in ......" The lyrics deeply touched Jiang Zhongyuan's heart. At this time, looking at Zeng Guofan's ninth brother Zeng Guoquan with an extremely unfriendly look, Jiang Zhongyuan didn't care at all.

Just yesterday, Zeng Guoquan made it clear at a joint meeting of the Hunan army and the Huai army that he did not want the Huai army to interfere in the attack on Luzhou. The Hunan army will capture Luzhou on its own. The artillery of the Huai Army relied on the efforts of the alternate Daotai Wang Qinian, and was able to start mass production of flowering shells. The siege capacity has been greatly increased. Liu Kun of Huaijun refuted Zeng Guoquan's unreasonable demands at that time. Luzhou is the boundary of Anhui, and Jiang Zhongyuan is the governor of Anhui, so it will not be the turn of the Hunan army to speak here anyway.

In the end, Zeng Guofan Wen Yan requested, saying that the Hunan army had prepared to attack the city, and asked Jiang Zhongyuan to hand over the burden of attacking Luzhou to the Hunan army, and the Hunan army could also obtain the grain and grass in Luzhou City after the war. Jiang Zhongyuan had to agree to Zeng Guofan's request, and now that he listened to the Hunan army singing "Love Folk Song" in unison, Jiang Zhongyuan had more confidence in the Hunan army.

After singing the song, the Hunan army began to make preparations for the siege. But he heard the crying in the distance, the crying was getting closer and closer, Jiang Zhongyuan looked at it, but saw that the Hunan army had escorted a large number of people over, and these people were tied up in strings by ropes, including men and women, old and young.

Jiang Zhongyuan was still lamenting that Zeng Guofan's "Love Folk Song" was doing well, and one of the paragraphs was "There is an important sentence, don't kidnap people to be long-term husbands; One was taken captive, and the family wept and did not live well; The mother's eyes are swollen when she cries, and the tears of her wife and husband are withered...... "According to Jiang Zhongyuan's observation, the Hunan army is indeed encamped by itself, and obviously has no intention of arresting people's husbands indiscriminately. But in the blink of an eye, the Hunan army captured a large number of people. Zeng Guofan's writing skills are very good, and he describes the tragic situation of the common people after they were arrested very vividly. When a mother cries, her eyes are swollen, and when a wife cries and her husband cry, her tears are dry."

Jiang Zhongyuan hurriedly went to Zeng Guofan's side and asked, "Brother Disheng, what the hell is going on?" ”

Zeng Guofan replied calmly: "These are the relatives of the rioters in the city, I just give them the opportunity to make meritorious contributions?" ”

"Do you want them to persuade the Cantonese bandits in the city to come out and surrender?" Jiang Zhongyuan asked.

Zeng Guofan just smiled indifferently, but did not answer Jiang Zhongyuan's question.

At this time, it was almost noon, and the Hunan army began to eat. The people were still tied up, thinking that they hadn't eaten since they were caught. Jiang Zhongyuan heard the cry of a baby among the common people, and the gobbling Hunan army turned a blind eye to these ordinary people. It's as if these people are the air.

Not long after eating, the horn sounded in the military formation, and the Hunan army's offensive began.

Driving the small group of people strung with ropes in the direction of Luzhou City, the way of the Hunan army was extremely skillful. The people were strung together with ropes, and if two teams crossed each other slightly, they would be entangled and unable to move. However, the Hunan army blocked its own team between the ranks of the people, and beat and kicked the people who were walking around, and the Hunan army effectively maintained the order of the overall queue.

When the people were brought to the vicinity of Luzhou City, they did not resist, and they saw themselves being driven to the city wall of Luzhou, and saw the Taiping troops densely covered on the city wall. The people slowed down, and some of them began to refuse to move forward because they were afraid. Facing the people in the team who refused to leave, the Hunan soldiers immediately waved their knives and cut off the heads of these people. If there were groups of people who resisted together, the Hunan sabers and guns were fired, and the people were killed in groups.

Screams, screams, shouts and scolding, Jiang Zhongyuan was stunned to watch the Hunan army slaughtering the people like chopping melons and vegetables, it was obvious that the people also understood that the Hunan army would not be the slightest softer when killing people, and under the threat of death, the people were honest. As long as the Hunan army picks up the bloody knife and threatens it, the people will at least temporarily stop all resistance and let the Hunan army drive them.

In this era, the main method of siege was to attack the city, digging tunnels to the bottom of the city, putting a large number of explosives in the caves, detonating these explosives to blow up the city walls from the bottom up, and the troops swarmed in through the gaps. This was originally a tactic used by the Taiping army first, and later the Qing army also learned it. Similarly, the methods used by the Qing army to counter the method of attacking the cave were also learned by the Taiping army. One of the countermeasures is to dig a deep trench outside the city, digging into the tunnel inside the city can not be too deep, as long as the trench is deep enough, the tunnel will be exposed in the trench, whether it is to send troops into the tunnel to kill, or simply directly into the trench to fill water, flooding the tunnel, can block the excavation of the tunnel.

The Hunan army drove nearly 1,000 people to the front of these Taiping troops stationed outside the city of Luzhou, and when they reached a distance of nearly 100 paces, the team faced the muzzles of the Taiping army and paused for a moment. When the people driven by the Hunan army approached the Taiping army's position, they wanted to flee to their own people's territory, but they were tied together with ropes, so they could only shout at the Taiping army's position at the top of their voices. On the other side, there were obviously people in the Taiping army who recognized the relatives of these people, and they also pulled their necks and shouted. Of course, Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't hear what they were shouting, and it was estimated that it was nothing more than asking his relatives to quickly break free from the rope and flee to the side of the Taiping army.

At this moment, the Hunan army first cut the ropes of some of the people and drove them to the front of the team. After these people were let go, they almost instinctively wanted to get rid of the Hunan army behind them. They scrambled towards the position outside the Taiping army in front of them. As they ran, they shouted at the top of their throats.

Behind the human wall formed by these people, the troops of the Hunan army also followed suit. They continued to drive the people who were still strung together to follow behind these people, the troops of the Hunan army were mixed with the people, and the Taiping army on the high part of the city naturally could not be targeted, and even if the Taiping army in front of them fired, it was the common people who hit first, not the Hunan army. Making full use of the barriers formed by the flesh of the people, the Hunan army kept pressing towards the position of the Taiping army.

Jiang Zhongyuan has led his troops to fight for so many years, and he never thought that there would be such a method of attacking the city, let alone that the Hunan army would be able to use this method of using other people's relatives to "take the lead" so skillfully.

The Taiping army opposite the Hunan army was obviously the first time to see this, and when the crowd approached the position outside the city less than 20 paces, the Taiping army still did not shoot. When the Hunan army saw that the goal of the front line had been achieved, the flag of the command waved, and the queue composed entirely of the Hunan army quickly followed.

The Taiping army watched as the Hunan army mixed with the people and rushed into their array, and the people rushed the Taiping army's ranks to pieces, and the Taiping army could not distinguish between friend and foe. The Hunan army is much simpler, as long as they are not from the Hunan army, they are all enemies. Regardless of whether the enemy on the opposite side had weapons in their hands or not, the Hunan troops immediately slaughtered.

First there were knives and guns, and then there were platoon guns. The Taiping army outside the city must have four or five thousand men, and if the Huai army engages it head-on, it will take a day to defeat this army. The Hunan army was killed in one fell swoop, and although the Taiping army did not suffer too many casualties, it could not hold the trench and had to retreat in a hurry.

It was not evening when the battle ended, and the ground was littered with the corpses of civilians. The Hunan army has pushed the battle line to the city of Luzhou. And behind the Hunan army, there are still two or three thousand people around Luzhou, and the Hunan army obviously has no intention of letting them go. Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't think of how the Hunan army was going to "use" these thousands of people next.

The two or three thousand people were closely guarded by the Hunan army, and listening to the earth-shattering cries of the people, Jiang Zhongyuan only felt upset.

"Brother Disheng, I'll go back to the camp!" Jiang Zhongyuan said to Zeng Guofan beside him.

Zeng Guofan nodded, and he said to Jiang Zhongyuan earnestly: "Only by first eliminating the rebellious people can we calmly rectify all kinds of chaos. The thunderbolt means to show the bodhisattva's heart. ”

He looked at the nearly 1,000 people who were already strewn with corpses, and then at the two or three thousand people who had not yet been driven to the battlefield, and listened to their screams and howls. Jiang Zhongyuan fully understood what Zeng Guofan said.

Tsang's methods were brutal, but at least they were very effective. If the Huai army wants to achieve such a result as the Hunan army, it must have to fight hard. Looking at Zeng Guofan's success, Jiang Zhongyuan had to admit that he was indeed a little too kind before. Compared with Zeng Guofan, Jiang Zhongyuan was also merciless to the rebels, but he was more tolerant of the people who did not participate in the rebellion. So Jiang Zhongyuan always couldn't open the situation.

Looking at it now, Zeng Guofan's ability to regain his strategic advantage in a few years is precisely because Zeng Guofan dared to expand the area of attack, and it was by no means an overnight achievement to use the skilled means of the people to attack the city.

Jiang Zhongyuan didn't want to praise the Hunan army, so he bowed his hand to Zeng Guofan and left Luzhou City with his subordinates. R1058