Late at night, the Taiping army began to pass the pontoon bridge one after another, heading to the west bank of the Xiangjiang River and evacuating Changsha. The next day, the Qing army found that the Taiping army had gone to the camp empty, but they didn't expect the Taiping army to leave so quickly.

Governor Luo ordered He Chun to lead the cavalry to pursue the Taiping army. He Chun led the men and horses to bite the tail of the Taiping Army day and night, and spent three days and three nights chasing until Xiangtan.

"What? The Taiping Army is gone? He Chun immediately went crazy when he heard the news, he was tired of driving and riding for the past three days, it can be said that people do not get off the saddle, horses do not rest, just felt that he was about to bite the tail of the Taiping Army, but he was thrown by them.

"Lord Commander, we seem to have a plan for medium and long hair. Their main force doesn't seem to be going to Xiangtan, we were tricked by them. The spies couldn't find any traces of the Taiping Army brigade around, and hurriedly reported back to Hechun.

He Chun was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and he walked so many unjust roads in vain. This is the task that Yang Xiuqing gave to Shi Dakai, asking him to lead a small group of people to deliberately lure Hechun's team and lead them in the opposite direction, so that they think that the Taiping army is going to march into Xiangtan. Hechun was really fooled, humming and chasing for so long, everything was in vain.

He Chun himself chased in the wrong direction, and also misled the Qing army brigade that followed closely, and the entire Qing army chased in the wrong direction. Yang Xiaoshan led the front army to break out of the encirclement of the Qing army and capture Ningxiang in the northwest. After only resting for one night, he followed the soldiers to Yiyang City, and Lu Zhixian, who was in charge of defense, was frightened away.

Yang Xiaoshan entered Yiyang City very smoothly without a single shot.

Yiyang City is not big, and the Taiping army does not get much food and ammunition, but there is something that the Taiping army lacks the most at present, that is, ships. The Taiping army did not have the ability to build ships, and every time they needed water transportation, they bought civilian boats from the people along the way, and once they did not take the waterway, those ships were abandoned, and at present the Taiping army did not have a single ship.

Yiyang is located on the southern shore of Dongting Lake, where there are many civilian boats, and the Taiping army happened to replenish their boats here.

"How much money did it cost?" Seeing Luo Outline smiling and returning from the collection of boats, Yang Xiaoshan couldn't help asking.

"It didn't cost much, just a few thousand taels of silver. Some people said that the ship was too small and embarrassed to ask for money, but we also gave it at the market price. In total, more than 2,000 ships were gathered, enough for us to carry the baggage. Luo Xuan said happily.

"Buying civilian ships is also a helpless move, our heavenly kingdom has no shipbuilding capacity, and civilian ships can only be transported. When we went to the Yangtze River in the future, we needed warships even more. We have to find someone who can build a ship, and let them join us in building for our heavenly kingdom. "Yang Xiaoshan thought very far, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had a naval army, it could not build ships, and it could not form much combat power.

"We've been on the ship for a while, this little raft is easy to build, and this big ship is much more complicated. Such talents are only available in large provincial cities. "Luo Xuan is very clear, although he was born as a water thief, he uses small boats, small boats are flexible and easy to hide, as long as there is a large-scale water battle along the Yangtze River, a large war ship is needed.

"We have to be prepared, we are about to enter the Yangtze River, we can't always use a small raft. In the future, we will fight all the cities along the river, and we may encounter the Qing army's sailors, and we will have to use big war ships. If you really can't find such talents, try to attract more boatmen, at least have the ability to tinker. There are too many places in our kingdom to spend money, so let's save a little. Yang Xiaoshan thought about the direction of progress in the future, and understood that this was the big weakness of the Taiping Army, and it had to be solved quickly.

"Okay, I'll look for this. We should set up a regular water battalion, not only to fight but also to be able to build ships. Luo Outline also agrees with Yang Xiaoshan's idea.

With more than 2,000 civilian boats, Yang Xiaoshan decided to take Yuezhou in the northeast first. Yuezhou is also known as Yueyang, and the famous Fan Zhongyan wrote "The Story of Yueyang Tower" here. He is the northern gateway of Hunan, and it is the only way to go to Wuchang.

The Taiping army attacked Changsha, and the governors of neighboring Hunan were also prepared. Chang Dachun, the governor of Hubei, is relatively outstanding, he has a long-term vision, and he has done a solid job. He was worried that the Taiping army would go north and attack his provincial capital Wuchang, so he asked Emperor Xianfeng in advance to let him take charge of the deployment of Yuezhou across the province.

After obtaining the emperor's favor, he often attached equal importance to land and water, and on the one hand, he sent the general Akdonga to lead a thousand soldiers to assist in the defense of Yuezhou; On the other hand, 2,000 people were hired and spent a month to find large ships, fill them with huge boulders, and scuttle boats to sink the river and block the waterway at Linzikou.

After all the work was done, Governor Chang estimated that he would have to stop the Taiping army for two or three months if he wanted to make such an arrangement, so that if the Taiping army wanted to go north to capture Wuchang, he would have time to prepare and not be caught off guard.

Governor Chang was indeed very thoughtful, but he miscalculated the direction of people's hearts.

He blocked the channel and indeed made it impossible for Yang Xiaoshan's vanguard to pass through, wasting a little time. But the fishermen around the mouth of the forest, the merchants have long hated him for his style, how many people have no food to eat because you have blocked this waterway, and how many people live on this waterway, and everyone dares to be angry when you are there. But as soon as the Taiping army came, these people came over to volunteer to help, and took the initiative to help the Taiping army dredge the waterways, and the number was as high as tens of thousands.

This blockade plan, which the governor had painstakingly managed, was wiped out in one day. The next day, the Taiping army opened the waterway of Linzikou and marched into Yuezhou.

The Taiping army marched so quickly that the defenders of Yuezhou were caught off guard. According to what Governor Chang said, the channel that Changmao had to take two or three months to dredge was breached in just one day.

Zhizhou Lianchang and Zhixian Hu Fanggu participated in Akdong and fled for their lives.

They were also fleeing for their lives, and Lian Zhifu and Hu Zhixian were soon arrested and beheaded. Akdonga was very scheming, he asked his younger brother, who was an official in other provinces, to lie about his death in battle, in an attempt to escape the emperor's sanctions, but Xianfeng was really blindfolded by him, and he was given the title of martyr.

Who knew that this incident aroused the suspicion of Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunnan. He opened the coffin and found that there were only Akdona's clothes in the coffin, but no bones of him. This looks like a fake grave.

After receiving Governor Luo's report, Xianfeng was really angry at this time, he felt that he was being teased, and hurriedly asked people to arrest Akdong'a, cut off the title of martyr, cut off his head, and put him in a coffin.

Yang Xiaoshan doesn't care about the dog-eat-dog between the demons, this journey has been particularly smooth, and his outstanding performance has also won the hearts of the former soldiers. At first, a few old military leaders suspected that the young Yang Xiaoshan could not take on this heavy responsibility, but now no one thinks so, and everyone expects him to bring more surprises to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.