>.

Why is Jiangsu the most important, that is for a reason, in the Jiangnan state capitals occupied by the Rainbow Army, Jiangning, Zhenjiang, Suzhou, and Changzhou are the richest in Jiangsu, and they are relatively less affected by the war, compared to the war disaster in the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there is still more vitality preserved, and each state capital has the financial resources to provide hundreds of thousands of silver, but the foundation of the Rainbow Army of these four provinces is not stable enough.

Especially Jiangning, in terms of military strength, the old Taiping army here is much more than the Hong army, Zhenjiang Mansion also has Wu Ruxiao, the main force of the old Taiping army, and due to the impact of the war, the political management of these four provinces has been greatly restricted, the tentacles of the Hong Army have not penetrated into the corners of the place in many places, and it is still the local strongmen, gentlemen, and local tyrants who hold the local power, and deal with the Hong Army in all aspects, and sometimes even take the Hong Army as a thing at all.

However, now that he has taken half of the mountains and rivers south of the Yangtze River, extending from Hunan and Jiangxi to Shanghai, Liu Chang is ready to reorganize the army and build up the government in the next few months, and run his base area into a Jincheng soup pool, even if the regular army is frustrated, the local government can organize troops to continue fighting -- some people comment on how the Kuomintang failed in the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the words are very simple, saying that the Kuomintang side always the party headquarters cannot support it first, and withdraws first, and then the government cannot gain a foothold, and finally the army can only be forced to withdraw and enter a region. It is the army that enters first, then the government, and finally the organization of the party department, and on the other hand, it is the army that retreats first, then the government, and finally the party.

Liu Chang felt that it was impossible to replicate such a miracle, but at least it was a reality to run the base into a solid rear. As soon as there is an enemy fighting, whether it is the army, the grassroots political power, or the strongmen in the countryside, they must respond to all calls and fight together. It is no longer a situation where the army fights independently: "I think Sun Huzi's reorganization of the army in Fujian is good, although there are some problems. But on the whole, he was thinking correctly! ”

"Our entire Rainbow Army is going to do the same!"

It is precisely because of Liu Chang's remark that throughout the late spring and early summer of 1857, while fighting on multiple fronts, the Rainbow Army focused its main energies on the construction of the whole army and the government. The building of grassroots organizations is of greater significance.

Originally, there were only two complete provinces in the territory of the Hongjun, that is, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and the rest of the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, and Fujian only occupied part of the area, and they were still engaged in a difficult struggle against the enemy, and the regional situation would inevitably be repeated. There are even some underground forces against the Rainbow Army.

Of course, compared to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this is a very good territory, and the heyday of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was also the period of the Western Expedition, all the way to Yichang, and at the same time the army entered Hunan. But there is no complete province, just occupy Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei along the river, there is no complete province, in the entire history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they have never occupied a complete province, the best Li Xiucheng, Li Shixian marched into Zhejiang, after more than a year of operation, finally occupied almost the entire Zhejiang, but there are still two cities and seven counties are not under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the rest of the area is not well consolidated, immediately because Zuo Zongtang entered Zhejiang, Li Shixian's 200,000-strong army and other Taiping armies were also quickly wiped out.

Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is very limited in the management of political power, and in the past few months of action, the Hong Army has completely mastered the entire Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, and there were originally several hostile forces of 1,000 or hundreds of people in the territory, and now a girl can also carry property in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces to move freely, and now the organized remnants of the army, bandits, and homeless people have been completely wiped out, and the Hong Army has re-established its absolute authority in these areas. …,

On the other hand, the situation in southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui has also stabilized, and the basic political power of the Hong Army has been established in these newly occupied areas, although there are still some small groups of bandit groups and defeated soldiers operating around, but the scale has been greatly reduced, and the maximum number of people is only sixty or seventy, and the courage is cold, not only do they dare not confront the regular troops of the Hong Army, but as soon as the local township soldiers and militia are dispatched, these bandit groups are also immediately withdrawn, so it can be said that public order has been basically established, and the next step is to continue to cultivate deeply.

The two bridgeheads in Jiangbei not only consolidated the original position, but also the road forward, Yangzhou has now occupied the entire territory of the old Yangzhou capital, ready to march to Lianghuai, but compared to the progress of Chaohu in Hezhou, this is nothing at all.

At present, the various armed forces in the entire Anhui Province have privately formed an anti-twisting alliance, whether it is Yuan Jiasan and Fuji, or Hong Xiuquan, Chen Yucheng, Wei Jun and other units of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or local regimental training, they all have a great hostile attitude towards the development of the twisting army.

In this case, the Twist Army not only could not go to Yangzhou according to the original plan, but it was extremely difficult to march to the Yangtze River near Hezhou, and they only gathered dozens of miles out of the Pheasant River, and the various armed forces encountered along the way, whether they had greeted them in advance or not, and no matter what their position was, even the allies who had been said in advance were dispatched in a big way to attack the Twist Army in the south.

In fact, everyone already knows that the Twist Army is a group of real locusts, and the place where they cross the border is simply not a single grass, even if an alliance agreement is reached with them, it will not help, so throughout the late spring and early summer, the Twist Army not only did not touch a single hair of Hezhou, but also fought endlessly with opponents from all sides, and there was a great feeling of taking care of one and losing the other.

The Hong Army not only consolidated the bridgeheads near Hezhou and Chaohu, but also successfully incorporated a large number of nearby local armed groups, and has shifted from a defensive posture to an offensive posture, and the same situation appeared on the Lianghu battlefield.

Although there are still some remnants of the army in the occupied area, the largest of which is as many as three or four hundred, their goal has changed from attacking the county and the capital city to how to save themselves from the current bad situation.

In fact, it invested three infantry brigades and one marine battalion, and not only took six or seven counties from Hunan, but also successfully landed in Hubei, capturing as many as nine counties in a row.

In this case, the original assistance and military funds provided by Hubei were temporarily cut off, although Hu Linyi was also from Hunan, but in his position, he had to think about Hubei first, and today he was in Wuchang City Head and Huguang Governor to talk about Wuchang's defense: "Wei Jun abandoned the city and left, less than a year away from now, I didn't expect the situation to be extremely bad!" ”

The official text is full of people who are very much in line with Hu Linyi's lines: "Futai doesn't have to worry, although the red thief is fierce, but Zeng Disheng already has the saying of being crowned king, for the sake of this only Han king since the three feudatories, how can he work harder!" ”

"He wants to sell his strength, but he also has to have the strength to sell!" Hu Linyi said distressedly: "Now the red thief is a knife in our hinterland, since the loss of defense in Tongcheng, I haven't slept well, Zeng Disheng wrote to me, saying that because of the lack of support in Hubei Province, the situation in Hunan Province is very bad, and five cities have been lost in a row!" ”

He let out a long sigh: "But we in Hubei, but we have lost nine cities in a row, and looking at this situation, we have to lose a few more county seats!" ”

"It's not just a matter of losing a few counties, but losing a few counties, and we can afford to lose Hubei!" The official document is full of people, and the loyalty is naturally unquestionable: "Guan Jian is Wuhan will immediately fall into the siege of thieves again, and now the red thieves are running between the Jiang and Han with the Western fire-raising iron boats, and the counties along the river are rumoring and panicking!" ”…,

As soon as he said about this Westerner's steamship, Hu Linyi's face changed.

There has always been a saying that Hu Linyi and Zeng Guofan commanded the Hunan army to besiege Anqing, and felt that their deployment was foolproof, and the Anqing defenders were already turtles in the urn, and there was no chance of escape.

Thinking of his flaw, he was so frightened that Hu Linyi was soaked in blood, and it didn't take long for him to ascend to heaven because he was too worried, this statement should be quite far from the fact that history, Hu Linyi was a masterpiece in the world, if he didn't die early, the position of the four ministers in Zhongxing might also be higher than Zeng Guofan, how could he be scared to death by a Westerner's steamship.

But this story also represents the attitude of the Chinese Shidaifu group towards the Western steamer at that time, for this kind of powerful existence that knows nothing, Hu Linyi can only say: "The red thief steamer attacks the Jianghan day and night, and can only make more preparations along the river!" ”

There are only a few foreign steamers in the upper reaches of the red thief, no more than ten, but it is just these few foreign steamers, so that the once invincible Hunan army sailors were defeated, and more than 60 large and small warships were lost in a battle, and some warships were even smashed by the foreign steamers.

As a full member, Guan Wen felt that he could work harder, so he immediately asked: "Runzhi, can you put more thought into it?" For example, although the Red Thief Ocean steamer is powerful, but after all, there are weaknesses to be found, for example, we can use fire to attack the ship, the battle of Banbishan that year, but burned more than 10,000 Hunan warships......" (to be continued) RQ