There were a total of 16o28 people in the three fully equipped armies, and at the discussions at all levels after the political mobilization, more than 3oo people felt that their lives had not changed for the better. For such political and undetermined elements, Wei Ze did not embarrass them, but immediately persuaded them to retire. During 1853, the families of these people did not have to return their military family benefits. But from 1854 onwards, the gang ceased to be treated as military dependents.

The unreliable guys on the political zhì are excluded, and the members who are more vacillating in their minds are excluded. On January 11, 1854, three divisions of 15,642 troops arrived at Fengyang, the Taiping stronghold north of the Huai River, and prepared to embark on the road north from here.

However, it was not only Hu Chenghe, the commander of the Shouzhou Military Division, who was waiting for Wei Ze in Fengyang, but also more than 30 military leaders who were waiting to see Wei Ze in Fengyang. These people all begged Weser to bring them with them, and they were willing to work for Weser.

Wei Ze did not have absolute confidence in his command ability, and commanding the regular army to carry out a baseless northward operation had made Wei Ze feel very difficult. With such a motley army in the army, Wei Ze had no confidence at all to bring them back to Anhui alive. And in addition to the boys, there are also girls in the leaders of these miscellaneous armies. Three of the thirty-odd collars were women. One of the women, Wen Yuewei, is only over 2o years old. Although Wen Yuewei's complexion is "healthy wheat" because of the wind and sun, her skin is relatively rough, and she has big hands and feet, but women are women after all, and no matter how much she looks like a woman, it does not mean that she can become a real man.

However, Wei Ze thought so in his heart, but he didn't dare to say so. Wei Ze smiled at the gang of twisted army leaders and said: "I know your kindness, but it is useless, I have never seen you before, let alone have any dealings. You treat me like this, then you might as well make it clear, if the battle is over, what do you want me to do with Wei Ze? ”

That group of leaders, you look at me, I look at you, no one wants to come forward for the time being. Instead, Wen Yuewei stood up, first arched his hand to Wei Ze, and then said loudly: "Lord Wei, you have finished paying taxes on your territory." He also shouted that those who have more land should pay more taxes, and those who have no land should not pay taxes. The reason why we twisted the army into trouble was because the imperial court forced us to pay taxes every day, and we didn't want to pay taxes to the imperial court anymore, so it was the opposite. This time, if I want to follow you north, I will think about two things. One is to go north to fight, and you have to let us get a handful. The second thing is that if you come back after the war, you can't go to us and collect taxes. After all, if I wait to follow you north, it will be my life. If you don't have such benefits, you can't say it, right? ”

Such a bold female twist army leader made Wei Ze greatly admired, and the political program of the twist army turned out to be "no taxes". This also makes Wei Ze feel quite funny, the history books have told about the Twist Army Uprising, but Wei Ze is now mistaken, the Twist Army Uprising will definitely not be a rebellion by poor people who can't survive. Historically, those who have made non-payment of taxes a clear policy program are not the poorest strata.

There was never a shortage of bastards in the court, not even a big bastard with no humanity, but there were no fools in the court. The abject poverty without anything was never the object of taxation by the imperial court, because the destitute had no ability to pay taxes at all. In an agrarian society, life is never worth anything.

After determining that the Twist Army was actually a group of local landlords and yeoman farmers in northern Anhui, Wei Ze decided to cooperate with them. Although the landlords were short-sighted, they had a certain fighting ability. It is said in the history books that the Twist Army has a lot of horses, and they don't have some family property, so they can't get so many horses. And what Weeser lacks most at the moment is precisely the mobility of horses and the like.

Wei Ze Zhengse said: "I agree with Miss Wen's words. If I could come back from the north, I would never again collect taxes where you are. And after every battle, I will leave the matter of cleaning up the battlefield to you, and everything that is found from the dead demons belongs to everyone. If we can break the city, the money we have seized will be divided according to the number of people, what do you think? ”

The leaders of the Twisted Army thought that Wei Ze would not agree so happily, especially when it came to paying taxes after completing the grain, and they didn't believe that Wei Ze would agree so lightly. And Wei Ze agreed so calmly, and these people were a little weak-hearted.

Wen Yuewei heard Wei Ze call her name, so that she didn't look the slightest fear. She stepped forward, "Lord Wei, since you dare to agree to everyone like this, do you dare to make a blood alliance with us?" ”

"Then why don't you dare?" Weser laughed. With God as a witness, everyone wrote the content of the oath on the yellow paper with cinnabar, and after burning incense and praying, the yellow paper on which the oath was written was burned. Then he cut the neck of a big rooster, poured chicken blood into the wine bowl, and everyone drank the blood wine.

On the one hand, Wei Ze participated in the blood alliance, but he was extremely regretful in his heart. In ancient times, the alliance of blood was a very important ritual. In ancient rituals, there were chickens, but the chickens were not used to drink blood, but as a tribute to the five birds.

If it is a more traditional method, at least it is recorded in the Taishi Gongshi Records, it is to smear the blood of livestock on the lips, rather than mixing the blood of poultry in wine and drinking it all.

Even if it is a method of using the charlatans, it has to be each person who cuts his own fingers, drips blood into a large bowl, and then mixes everyone's blood in the wine, and everyone divides it. And you must first dip your finger in the wine and flick it three times to the heavens, and then three times to the earth, to show respect for the heavens and the earth, and finally drink the blood wine.

However, the culture of the Qing Dynasty was extremely declining, and the true essence of these rites has long been inherited. The alliance of blood has also become a thing that only looks at the amount of blood and does not seek cultural concepts.

Wei Ze, as the leader of the alliance, after he and the leaders of the Twisted Army fought blood, the leaders of the Twisted Army were also relieved. In this battle, Wei Ze mainly dispatched infantry, and the Twist Army mainly dispatched mule and horse troops to participate in the battle, and the Twist Army obeyed Wei Ze's military orders. The more than 30 twist army leaders are only dozens or hundreds of direct subordinates, and some of them can be on the table. The main force of the Twist Army is the countryside around Huaibei, and there are small armed groups in each village, and these small forces are attached to the large forces, although there are only more than 30 leaders, more than 5,000 of their subordinates have joined Wei Ze's team.

After a delay of more than two days, Wei Ze's troops of more than 20,000 men left Fengyang and continued to advance towards the north. The first target is Huaiyuan County.

When Hu Chenghe conquered Fengyang, there were five or six thousand troops in the city. These are all the people that the Manchus have managed to get together. According to the results of Hu Chenghe's investigation, the Qing army gathered a lot of troops in Suzhou, but there were not too many troops between Suzhou and Fengyang.

Wei Ze was not afraid of the Qing army's troops in Suzhou, and now he had thousands of new twist troops on hand, with two or three thousand mules and horses. Coupled with the more than 500 horse teams hastily formed by Wei Ze's own subordinates, it is naturally impossible to organize a cavalry charge, but Wei Ze can still do it by sending out reconnaissance troops far away. As long as he was not attacked by the Qing army, what Wei Ze was best at was to open the formation and fight with the Qing army. Not only did he not refuse the Qing army to come out to fight him, but he even greatly welcomed the Qing army to come out and fight with him.

The vanguard troops soon arrived at the Huaiyuan Ferry, and on the opposite side of the ferry, hundreds of regiments from Huaiyuan County were blocking there. The vanguard unloaded 12-pounder mountain howitzers from the mules, and across the river from the not wide river, a cannon was a cannon. Accurate artillery fire killed and wounded forty or fifty people in the regimental drill, which did not have hundreds of unified uniforms. After being killed like this, the group drills immediately collapsed.

Without the enemy's obstruction, Weese's vanguard began to cross the river. January is the dry period, the river is not deep, Wei Ze's vanguard set up a pontoon bridge on the river, and then the large army that came easily crossed the Huai River, Huaiyuan County has been unguarded, take the county seat to rest for a night, Wei Ze led the team to continue north.

At this time, in Suzhou City, Wei Ze's next target, Jiang Zhongyuan, the newly appointed governor of Anhui, was listening to the report of Yang Changba, the magistrate who had escaped from Huaiyuan.

After listening to the report, Jiang Zhongyuan's name Yang Changba went down first. Liu Kunyi, who was next to him, had already come up to report, "My lord! The subordinates sent Tanma, and those Cantonese bandits were coming to Suzhou. How can we respond? ”rg

Tips: The new domain name "biquge.info" has been launched by Biquge, and the original domain name is about to be discontinued. Please tell each other, thank you!