Jiang Zhongyuan rode his horse and walked towards the Huai army's camp dejectedly. Li Hongzhang followed behind Jiang Zhongyuan and said nothing. A few hours ago, when the two of them went to the Hunan army camp, Jiang Zhongyuan was full of anger, and Li Hongzhang was also extremely annoyed. Seeing the Hunan army wantonly slaughtering the people, Jiang Zhongyuan was furious. The Hunan army slaughtered Li Hongzhang's hometown of Luzhou, and Li Hongzhang was of course extremely unhappy.

But the two were finally persuaded by Zeng Guofan. Jiang Zhongyuan's ears seemed to be echoing Zeng Guofan's voice.

"Is it the first to make rebellion against the people, or the Hunan army and the Huai army?"

After the Diao people rose up to make a rebellion, the Diao people from all over the country responded. Minqiao, when you were fighting with the Cantonese bandits, didn't you want to eat meat and skin for the Cantonese bandits? ”

"If the people do not obey the squire, they will definitely cause chaos. Now there are Cantonese bandits, and Wei rebels have set an example, and the people in various places have risen up to rebel. Thunder means to show the heart of the Bodhisattva, if we are indecisive and can't stand up for the court, then the people will never be afraid of the king's law! ”

"If you want to punish corrupt officials and bad gentry, it must be after the world is stable. If you blindly feel that the people are pitiful, and the corrupt officials and gentry are hateful, you are putting the cart before the horse. Corrupt officials and inferior gentry can still be educated, they just failed the court, from the heart, they still know the way to fear the court and the saints. The Cantonese bandits have conquered so many cities, and many local officials are morally deficient, but they still know that they commit suicide to be loyal to the country. The people only know that they will rebel when they are a little poor, and in their hearts there is no court, and there is no way of sacrificing their lives for righteousness. We must not let go of these people. ”

"If there is no Huainan Diao people to support, how can Huainan Yue bandits be rampant. The Huainan Diao people paid grain and taxes to the Cantonese bandits, and many of them even defected to the Cantonese bandits and became their minions. If the Cantonese bandits are compared to the trunk of a tree, Diao Min is the root of the tree. Although they can't usually be seen, what the Cantonese bandits rely on is the local Diao people in Huainan......"

Zeng Guofan is worthy of being a master of Confucianism, and he is very clear about the reasoning. Of course, Jiang Zhongyuan had no intention of letting go of the Cantonese bandits, he just felt that the people were pitiful and there was no need to kill them. But after listening to Zeng Guofan's heart-wrenching words, Jiang Zhongyuan really couldn't find a reason to justify.

Yes, Jiang Zhongyuan can find thousands of reasons from the words of the sage, but Zeng Guofan's explanation of this may be more convincing, "As a member of the imperial court, some things must be in power."

The people of Huainan had been under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for eight years, and they had long been accustomed to the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Money and food are needed to fight a war, and the people of Huainan are so evasive from their responsibilities that if the officials and soldiers still blindly appease, the officers and soldiers themselves will starve to death before the Cantonese bandits are exterminated.

Faced with Zeng Guofan's dignified truth and the cold reality, Jiang Zhongyuan could only admit the status quo. As for Li Hongzhang, he didn't speak, but the angry expression on his face disappeared without a trace.

In the next few days, Jiang Zhongyuan did not let the Huai army return to Luzhou. There were no people left in Luzhou City, so Jiang Zhongyuan ordered some people to be arrested from nearby and asked them to clean up the tragic situation in Luzhou. Digging pits and burying people, these must be grasped tightly. It's already August and the hottest time has begun. If it is not buried quickly, it will not be long before a great plague breaks out in Luzhou, and the city will be completely uninhabitable.

At this time, Luzhou City also came to many visitors who did not know the tragic situation in Luzhou. Without exception, they were all landlords and gentry in the township. When these people came, they all brought greeting gifts, which were Taiping military township officials tied with ropes. After these people saw Jiang Zhongyuan, they all expressed their willingness to organize their own group training to help the imperial court pacify the local area and clear the remnants of the Taiping army in the countryside to suppress the Cantonese bandits.

There were also landlords and gentry who were willing to support the imperial court, and Jiang Zhongyuan was also very pleased. Jiang Zhongyuan sent people to find a way to verify the identities of these people, and he himself ordered these landlords and gentry: "If you really want to serve the imperial court, then quickly donate grain." ”

Faced with this problem, all the landlords and gentry made bitter faces. Of course, these people without exception sued Jiang Zhongyuan, and the Taiping army followed the policy of "paying taxes on grain after completing grain" formulated by Wei Ze, and led the poor people to suppress the landlords and gentry in the locality. Over the years, the landlords have undertaken most of the heavy responsibility of paying grain under the oppression of the Taiping Army, and it is really "the landlord's family has no surplus grain". And those poor people are getting better because they pay less taxes.

In addition to complaining, the landlords and gentry also gave about the same amount of money. If Jiang Zhongyuan really wanted to collect grain and grass, he was asked to wait a little longer, and the group training organized by these landlords and gentry would collect grain first. If Jiang Zhongyuan can't wait, he can directly collect grain and grass from poor people's homes. The landlords and gentry in Huainan strongly said that now these poor ghosts and families have food, and the officials and soldiers will be able to eat enough as soon as they arrive in the locality.

Of course, Jiang Zhongyuan refused to let his troops go to the local area to collect grain from house to house, and this was the most efficient method. So he unceremoniously ordered the landlords and gentry, "If you really want to be loyal to the imperial court, then hurry up and collect grain and grass, and the deadline is one month, and the grain will be transported in a month." If you shirk it, then I will punish you. ”

After scaring away these gentry, Jiang Zhongyuan felt a little better in his heart. In any case, the food problem has finally come to fruition. What means those landlords and gentry would use to raise food, Jiang Zhongyuan didn't want to know at all.

On August 13, 1861, the Hunan army, which had finished its rest, began to sail south.

On August 16, 1861, the Huai army also began to move south.

The goal of the Hunan army was to begin an attack on Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping army, while the Huai army completely occupied Huainan and was ready to attack Tianjing together with the Hunan army.

Even if the leaders of the Hunan army may not accept Jiang Zhongyuan's plan to come to share the pie, they have to accept this matter. If you want to break through Tianjing City in the short term, you can only use Jiang Zhongyuan's forces.

At this time, Wei Ze was eyeing the tiger, and the sooner he broke through Tianjing, the sooner he could prepare for a decisive battle with Wei Ze. R1058