Zuo Zongtang knew that it would be difficult to deal with the Hui army and the Twist Army after the combination, so he entered the Qing court and Chen Fangluo said: "Fang Jin's patients twist bandits and return to the ear, and take the topographical theory of the Central Plains as the most important and the Guanlong as the light; In order to suppress the thief, it is advisable to suppress it quickly, and it is advisable to slow it back; In terms of the use of troops, if you want to appease the western region, you must first clear the hinterland, and then the guest army will have no worries about the future, and avoid the trouble of the middle stalk."

He also said: "When entering Shaanxi, we must first clear the thieves outside the customs, and when we enter Gansu, we must first clear the thieves from Shaanxi, and the garrison in Lanzhou must first clear the thieves from all walks of life.

The core of this strategy is "twisting first and then returning", and the key is "not making twisting rounds"

In July, nearly 20,000 Chu troops under Zuo Zongtang's headquarters arrived in Shaanxi from Fancheng, Hubei Province by three routes, and in accordance with his established policy of "twisting first and then returning", they entered Shaanxi in advance, with more than 21,000 people from the Lao Xiang army under Liu Songshan's department, Guo Baochang's Anhui army, Liu Houji's Hunan army, and Gao Liansheng's Chu army, and more than 8,000 people from Liu Dian's Chu army and Huang Ding's Sichuan army, stationed on the Shaanxi-Gansu border to deal with the Hui rebel army

The rest of the Chu army of more than 10,000 people were stationed in Fengxiang, Yijun, Huazhou, Huayin, Weinan, Lintong and other places, and the Western Twist Army saw through Zuo Zongtang's conspiracy, quickly jumped out of the encirclement, and the Hui Army advanced to northern Shaanxi with the cooperation of the Hui Army, and at the same time, the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui rebel army continued to enter Shaanxi from Gansu and resisted the Qing Dynasty together with the West Twist Army

From January to November, the Western Twist Army and the Hui Army won victories in Lianke, Shaanxi, Ansai, Yanchuan, Suide and other cities, and Zuo Zongtang was exhausted and had to play a "self-request for strict discussion"

However, due to differences in ethnic and religious beliefs, the alliance between the Hui rebel army and the Western Twist Army has not been able to further develop, and has always been in a loose state of "time and time," and there is neither a unified organizational form nor centralized leadership, nor a long-term plan for joint operations

Due to the leadership of the Hui Army and the strong and narrow nationalist ideology in the hands of the upper aristocracy, the Hui Army rejected the Twist Army, and the Hui Army and the Western Twist Army attacked and killed each other from time to time, making the Hui Army and the Western Twist look inseparable

After that, in order to rescue the East Twist Army, the East Twist Army crossed the Yellow River from Hukou in the east of Yichuan and entered the Shanxi Hui Rebel Army, and Shaanxi was in a disadvantageous position to fight alone

Zuo Zongtang led the main force of the Qing army into Jin to pursue the West Twist Army, under the siege of several people and horses, the leader of the Twist Army, Zhang Zongyu, threw himself into the river, and cleared most of the West Twist, and only a small part of the Twist Army remained in Gansu

At this time, Zuo Zongtang participated in the suppression of the Western Twist Army, and then returned to Xi'an, and he stepped up various rectifications in Gansu with the overall situation of Shaanxi had been decided

The first is to reorganize the troops

In addition to the Chu army under Zuo Zongtang, the Qing army stationed in Shaanxi also included Liu Songshan's Lao Xiang army, Guo Baochang's Anhui army, Huang Dingchuan's army, etc.; In order to unify the troops, Zuo Zongtang ordered to eliminate the weak and weak, and all of them were rectified according to the establishment of the Chu army, and they were all under his command, and at the same time, Shaanxi and Gansu recruited soldiers on the spot, Zuo Zongtang and Liu Dian directly commanded the Chu army, and the Chu army had 55 battalions of infantry and 15 battalions of horses, totaling about 30,000 people

Second, lure the hungry people to surrender to the armed forces

After the West Twist Army withdrew from Shaanxi and most of the Hui rebel army was transferred to Gansu, Dong Fuxiang led the hungry people's armed forces to still operate in northern Shaanxi, which posed a great threat to the Qing army, Dong Fuxiang and Jinjibao and Dong Zhiyuan, and the Hui rebel army were in contact, which was a major obstacle for Zuo Zongtang to attack Gansu, so Zuo Zongtang, Yulin, Suide, and Yanchang each garrisoned an army to cut off Dong Fuxiang's road to cross the Yellow River eastward; He also sent Liu Songshan to lead his troops to cross the Yellow River from Shanxi, and traveled west from Suide to Jingbao, the base of Dong Fuxiang, and Liu Songshan induced Dong Fuxiang to surrender by bribing Dong Fuxiang's father Dong Shiyou

Liu Songshan collected more than 100,000 people, selected the best and strongest, and organized them into the "Dong Zi Three Battalions" according to the establishment of the Chu army, with Dong Fuxiang, Zhang Jun and Li Shuangliang each leading a battalion, and Dong Fuxiang's surrender not only caused the Hui rebel army to lose an allied army, but also directly threatened the safety of Jinjibao and Dong Zhiyuan

Third, reform the tax mechanism

The Shaanxi and Gansu regions followed the practice of Fujian to set up a merchant to collect 2 percent of the value of the goods

Recruit honest and simple gentry to manage the bureau, and the amount of commodity tax expenditure will be publicized every month, and a general bureau will be set up by the governor of Xi'an Yulin, and the tax will be transferred to the Quartermaster Bureau

The tax system eliminated the disadvantages of the accumulation of grain, and the original grain was floated and discounted, and the government and private officials were required to pay six taels of silver per stone of grain

In that year, a stone of grain was only worth 400 yuan or 2,400 yuan to exchange for one or two pieces of silver, and the peasants exchanged the grain for money, and then exchanged the money for silver

Zuo Zongtang ordered all prefectures and counties to abolish the old rules, and in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Households, each stone of millet should be paid three taels or four pieces of silver, of which four coins were paid for the land, one or two or three coins for the rice folding, plus one or two or three dollars for military quarters, and four cents per stone of millet were added to the county

As an agronomist, Zuo Zongtang saw that the malaise of transportation, commerce, and taxation was effective, and the reform allowed agriculture and commerce in Shaanxi and Gansu to regain their vitality

Taxation and agriculture are Zuo Zongtang's strengths, and as for the establishment of military enterprises, which has become a heavy burden for the imperial court, Hu Xueyan has always asked Hu Xueyan to borrow money from foreign banks for him, which is also a major disadvantage of his official status

Zuo Zongtang, Han nationality, Ji Gao, Hunan peasants, has been in his fifties, left a dense eight characters, few mustaches, tried many times, the pair of goldfish, blistered eyes, squinting at people, who can stand Zuo Zongtang, boasting of talent, eight buckets, there is no in the world, he admires people, strange temper, the Qing Dynasty officialdom is unique, the balance of heaven is rampant, won the reputation of "the country can not be without Hunan for a day, Hunan can not be without Zuo Zongtang for a day".

Even his mentor Zeng Guofan had to let him wait until he was full-fledged, and even Zeng Guofan couldn't get used to reading books to attack Zeng Guofan, and even later, the two had a discord

Zuo Zongtang never took bribes, when he was not an official, his family was rich and powerful, not that he was rich, his family was in the middle, and the twenty-year-old young man had not yet married, but he married Zhou Yiduan, a talented woman of the Zhou family in Xiangtan County, Hunan, and became a son-in-law

The Taiping Rebellion gave Zuo Zongtang a place to play, relying on his superb command art and extraordinary vision, he went from Hu Linyi's staff to a hot commander, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and the minister of military aircraft

Zuo Zongtang is racking his brains for the funds, the annual customs are sealed by the local government, and in the second half of the year, the Chu army and the Hunan army have not seen the salary and silver at this time, and the imperial court has not allocated a year, and the military department will not admit the old accounts, which is also a practice, the imperial court will never issue the army salary according to the amount of the military register, and the military department will issue more money according to the nine-month salary, and the military department has already made rules, so that Zuo Zongtang will cry out in vain, and his soldiers are more than the number on the roster

"It's difficult, it's better to follow the old way," thinking of compensating the dead soldiers of the various departments, how could Zuo Zongtang have Ruixue Zhaonian, and sighed bitterly to his subordinate Wei Guangtao, a solid Taoist in Pingqingjing

"No matter how difficult it is for the marshal, the generals have to work hard all the way, and the good wine and food must always be prepared, and the officials will arrange it first," Wei Guangtao is the formulator of the tax reform, and he is the title of Sipindao, and was transferred from Hunan to Shaanxi and Gansu by Zuo Zongtang to implement the tax reform policy

Zuo Zongtang remembered something and asked angrily in his heart: "Where is Wei Daotai's escort Li Guolou now, why don't I even have news of him, don't he use horses to deliver news?"

Taoist Wei Guangtao showed a wry smile and replied: "Don't mention the escort Li Guolou, who thinks he has meritorious service to the society, and treats the country's property as private property, I sent a document to ask him about the specific number of materials, he was unexpectedly unknown, and they all came to me in a batch, but I asked our Shaanxi place to provide him with 22 people and 1 cow and horse feed, this kind of official document is not rare, I have never seen such an arrogant official."

"Hey, he's coming to ask for a barony of military merit, and if he doesn't satisfy his selfish desires, he will pinch my neck and Li Hongzhang have a sense of virtue, I don't ask him," Zuo Zongtang said categorically, looking like he was not afraid of heaven and earth

Wei Guangtao was full of sorrowful clouds, and his square face was brushed and said: "The handsome imperial court has a lot of complaints about us borrowing from foreigners, and that Li Guolou also said that he would return the customs and tariff rights to the national treasury, and no longer give local tariffs as collateral to foreign banks as guarantees, I am afraid that he will really do it in order to vent his anger."

Zuo Zongtang: The expenditure on military use in the west is huge, and it is often more than one million silver, and the household is unable to continue, so the official businessman Hu Xueyan "Fukang Qianzhuang" came out to borrow money from several foreign banks and money banks such as "British Standard Chartered Bank", and the money is borrowed with local customs tariffs as a guarantee for repayment

Wei Guangtao warned Zuo Zongtang that it was terrible to turn his face with Li Guolou, and if you don't give him fruit to eat, he won't make you feel better, everyone will break up, if you don't give Li Guolou a chance to be named a baron, he will definitely retaliate, and there is more than one means, he can fan the flames if he stands in the court

Zuo Zongtang looked at the huge model of the Shaanxi and Gansu regions, shouldered too much responsibility, that obedient and domineering face slowly became peaceful, he knew how to be flexible, and the saint also gave the eunuch filial piety to the two palaces, the queen mother's birthday gift, never forgot that the filial piety Bodhisattva always had to kowtow, he was also a disciple of Prince Gong Yixun, and also belonged to the Westernization faction

A faction also invaded each other, and the Qing Dynasty had an ancestral system, and "no military merits can not be knighted", so Li Guolou was extremely vicious, brought nearly 1,000 soldiers to escort military supplies, and deliberately made things difficult for Zuo Zongtang

Zuo Zongtang pondered for a long time, his ups and downs of his mentality returned to calm, revealing Lao Cheng's solemn expression, and said: "Wei Daotai is reasonable, Tanhualang is dedicated to the country, and he should encourage the political envoy Lin to send a document to escort Li Guolou, so that Li Guolou's grain and grass must be properly arranged, and then send an official letter to Li Guolou, asking him to directly transport the materials to Dong Zhiyuan's front line, directly to the Guoyong Battalion, Xu Zhanbiao's department, the war is urgent, and I hope that the escort can put national affairs first, so that the soldiers can see the invincible divine power and the power of the cannon as soon as possible."

"Marshal, so many military supplies have been handed over to Xu Zhanbiao's department, I'm afraid that other troops will make trouble," Wei Guangtao couldn't believe that Xu Zhanbiao's 12th battalion was a guest army in Sichuan, not Zuo Zongtang's descendant of the Chu army

"Hey, Wei Daotai, you don't know how to attack the fortress or the Sichuan rat, if you want Xu Zhanbiao's department to die, you have to treat them as your own, only in this way, Li Guolou will not sell Shanxi everywhere, buy it everywhere, and bring you a batch of military supplies to perfunctory you, now he looks at me and says that I will give him face, and then Prussia will import materials, he will not use coastal defense to be more important than the border garrison, and make things difficult for my Han people, those fancy intestines, you have to learn a little."

The fortress on the high slope of the loess and the topography of the Longdong area restricted the Qing army from launching a large-scale offensive, fighting forts and military barriers need to be filled with life, and they also need to climb the fortifications, and the mountain people "Sichuan rats" are good at mountain warfare since ancient times, so this time Dong Zhiyuan's front-line commander was handed over to Xu Zhanbiao, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan army

Wei Guangtao smiled and said: "It's still handsome and smart, Li Guolou is just a clown who jumps off the beam, and the prime minister can hold the boat in his belly, and he doesn't have the same knowledge as him."

Thousands of people wear sycophants, but they don't wear Zuo Zongtang's old face couldn't help but smile, the strategic layout has long been clear in Huaihuai, and the small troops are interspersed in winter, not giving the enemy a chance to escape, and when it comes to the spring, the soldiers are pressed and Dong Zhiyuan is recovered in one fell swoop