In the first battle of Jingzhou, there were not many Manchus of the Eight Banners who were really wiped out by the Wu army's artillery, swords and guns, even if you add the street battles after entering the city, at most there were more than 2,000 people, and even the number of the standing army of the 4,000 Eight Banners in Jingzhou City did not catch up, and then the results of the statistics after the war made Wang Fu, Li Xubin and Li Xuyi and others stammer - just in the city, the corpses of the Eight Banners were more than 11,000! The total population of Jingzhou is only more than 22,000 people. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Before the soldiers of the Wu army had time to count the number of Manchu people of the Eight Banners who died outside the city, a large number of Manchu people of the Eight Banners who escaped from the ancient trough gate outside the city took advantage of the cover of night and relied on their familiarity with the terrain to easily get rid of the pursuit of the soldiers of the Wu army. It's a pity that these Manchus didn't understand until the end that it was actually the luckiest thing for them to be captured by the Wu soldiers - because the soldiers of the Wu army with strict military discipline did not abuse and kill the prisoners, but the people of all ethnic groups inside and outside Jingzhou City were completely opposite.

In the wilderness of the wilderness, the Eight Banners are like lambs and hares that have only encountered wolves, and the people of all ethnic groups in Jingzhou who live around the city are like groups of hunting tigers and leopards, chasing the flag people in groups of three or five, and each time they catch one, they can't help but say that they are greeted by kitchen knives and sticks, chopping one after another into meat puree and smashing them into meat sauce; also broke the hands and feet of one flag man after another, threw them into the ditch and river, and drowned them alive; The Taibai Lake in the northeastern suburbs of Jingzhou is densely packed, and all the corpses of the banner people are floating, and almost all of them are mutilated corpses.

That night, the northern suburbs of Jingzhou were full of the voices of the people of the Eight Banners crying and begging for mercy, and the angry revenge voices of the people of all ethnic groups in Jingzhou, "Kill!" Kill all the thieves! Not a single one to stay! ”

In the end, when it was full of light, after the Wu army soldiers stepped forward to stop and take over the prisoners, less than 4,000 Eight Banners Manchu barely survived and survived in the Wu army's prisoner of war camp. However, even so, there are still countless people in Jingzhou who strongly demand that all these remaining Manchus be killed, and that the grass and roots will not be left behind.

In the end, in desperation, Wang Fu, the main general of the Wu army's western expedition, could only personally come forward to appease the people, saying that although the Manchus in Jingzhou were hateful and should be killed, there were also some innocents among them, and at the same time, the Wu army rebelled not to kill all the Manchus, but to eliminate the traitors in the court and the scum among the Manchus of the Eight Banners, and promised to strictly deal with the Eight Banners soldiers who were guilty of crimes among the captives, so as to temporarily pacify the people of Jingzhou.

After the war, there were countless people in Jingzhou who took the initiative to ask to join the Wu army, and Wang Fu, who had gradually experienced it, decisively accepted it, selected the young and strong among them to form an army, and used them as the vanguard and opened to Yichang, which was also a strategic place, and Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Jingzhou, was retained as the prefect of Jingzhou because he had secretly asked the Wu army to surrender before the war, and was continued to be retained as the prefect of Jingzhou to help the Wu army preside over the aftermath.

When the news of Wu Jun's victory in Jingzhou was sent to Wu Chaoyue, the Hunan side also sent Wu Chaoyue the latest situation in Hunan - forced by Wu Jun's obscenity, Hunan political envoy Xu Youren chose to surrender and listen to the order, but Hunan according to the inspection envoy Fu Fei refused to obey his orders, and scolded Wu Chaoyue in public that the so-called Qing monarch wanted to rebel, forcing Feng Sanbao to behead him on the spot.

In addition, there are some state capitals in Hunan that have not given Feng Sanbao a reply for a long time, and it is estimated that they can only rely on knives and guns to speak, but fortunately, the Hunan army is all under Feng Sanbao's dispatch, and at the same time, the hollowed out Hunan places have no money, no salary, and no weapons, and the problem of force suppression is certainly not big, but it will definitely take some time.

Not only the local governors of Hunan, but also several prefectures on the Hubei side have not expressed their stance in response to Wu Chaoyue's army, including Xiangyang Prefecture, which is the most important on the northern front. Wu Chaoyue was forced to have no choice but to prepare for the use of force against the important town of Xiangyang early on, and ordered Nie Shicheng to let him lead his army westward to force the Qing army stationed there to surrender or expel it from Hubei by force.

Fortunately, in the evening of the same day, the Xiangyang side finally sent a letter of allegiance, Xiangyang prefect Liu Qi title and the deputy commander of the Han army with the yellow flag Shu Baoquan both expressed their vows to follow Wu Chaoyue to the death to raise troops to rebel, and at the same time, Nie Shicheng's father-in-law Liu Qi also told Wu Chaoyue in the letter, saying that Shu Bao also personally hacked to death several Manchu generals who refused to obey his fate, and swore to fight to the end with the monk Grinqin who shamelessly framed him!

There must be no need to emphasize how important Xiangyang's geographical location is, and hearing that Xiangyang is also raising the flag Anyway, Wu Chaoyue of course breathed a long sigh of relief and said happily: "Thanks to the monk and the prince, there is a lot of enmity, otherwise, if Xiangyang insists on not falling, I will be in big trouble." ”

"And Yunyang." Zhao Liewen reminded: "It borders Shaanxi, and the waterway can transport grain and troops directly to the city of Xiangyang, if Yunyang refuses to submit, the Shaanxi and Gansu troops of the imperial court can send troops directly from Yunyang and directly threaten our north gate of Xiangyang." ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded, and said comfortingly: "Fortunately, Jinghui, the Manchu prefect of Yunyang, was already out of Hubei by me last year and replaced with Li Zongtao, the prefect of the Han people, which is relatively easy to fight." Seeing that Xiangyang also raised the flag Anyway, Li Zongtao, who has received my favor, should not be a white-eyed wolf. ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue also said with great regret: "It's a pity that I was forced to cause trouble within a few days of becoming the governor of the five provinces, if I had given me more time, let me replace the officials of Huguang and Jiangxi with my own people, there would not have been so many internal problems after the incident." ”

"Comfort Ting, don't be content." Zhao Liewen smiled and said: "I think the time of your uprising is too suitable to be more suitable, if you really delay some more time, seeing that you are still unwilling to fight long hair after becoming the governor of the five provinces, and desperately squeezing out the Manchu officials from Huguang Jiangxi, not to mention the imperial court, even Su Zhongtang may be suspicious, right?" ”

Wu Chaoyue sneered, and also knew that Zhao Liewen's words made sense - if the Qixiang coup had not happened, and he had become the governor of the five provinces, he still refused to fight the Taiping army, and blindly only strengthened his control over Huguang and Jiangxi, then even Su Shun would definitely be able to see that he had different intentions.

Greedy and regretted that the Qixiang coup could not be postponed for a few more months, Wu Chaoyue then set out to solve two small problems exposed in the battle of Jingzhou - the first is the flag, in order to distinguish it from the flag of the Qing army, the Wu army temporarily adopted a pure red flag, which is not conspicuous and majestic enough, and it is easy to be beaten by the enemy. The second is whether the old system is still used in wearing military hats, which makes it difficult for the soldiers of the Wu army to distinguish between friend and foe, and also causes the soldiers of Wu to be accidentally injured by the people of Jingzhou.

Fortunately, these two problems are not difficult to solve, after a little calculation, Wu Chaoyue shamelessly decided to add a huge golden five-star to the pure red flag, symbolizing his banner is radiant, and also drew a model of the military flag, Zhao Liewen applauded when he saw it, and praised the flag for being conspicuous. Then Wu Chaoyue and Zhao Liewen agreed to change the flags of the generals of the Wu army to the triangular tooth flag with white frame and black characters on a red background, and the size of the banner followed the Qing military regulations.

Then, Wu Chaoyue decided to change the red tassel rope on the hat of the Wu soldiers to white, which is not only convenient to save money, easy to distinguish, but also shows the meaning of national disaster. As a result, Zhao Liewen was stunned when he heard this, and asked in surprise: "Change the red crown tassel to white?" Comfort Pavilion, do you really want to change white? ”

"What's wrong?" Wu Chaoyue asked suspiciously, "Is there anything wrong with changing white?" Conspicuous, easy to dye, and symbolic of filial piety for the national disaster, isn't it? ”

After looking Wu Chaoyue up and down for a long time, seeing that Wu Chaoyue did not seem to understand the allusions, Zhao Liewen nodded and said, "Okay, very good, then change it to white." ”

It was only in the morning of the next day when Wu Chaoyue's official form officially stipulated the new military flag and new military hat, Wu Chaoyue finally knew why Zhao Liewen was so sensitive to white - Yan Jingming, Dai Wenjie and Shao Yanhong and other accomplices actually asked Wu Chaoyue in surprise: "Dashuai, what do you have to do with Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi?" ”

"It doesn't matter, it's just bad luck and he has a last name." Wu Chaoyue answered truthfully, and asked suspiciously, "What's wrong?" How do you ask this question? ”

The accomplices looked Wu Chaoyue up and down, until they saw from Wu Chaoyue's blank expression that Wu Chaoyue really didn't know the allusion, Yan Jingming and the others shook their heads and sighed, "Providence, it's really providence, providence is destined for such a coincidence." ”

"What are you talking about? Why can't I understand? ”

Wu Chaoyue asked confusedly, but Zhao Liewen smiled and said to Wu Chaoyue: "Comfort Ting, do you know?" When your prince with the same surname, Wu Sangui, raised his army, he also asked his soldiers to wear white hats, so his army was also called white hat soldiers. ”

Wu Chaoyue almost didn't cry when he heard it, and hurriedly wanted to change his military hat again, but Zhao Liewen, Yan Jingming and others strongly objected, and they all said: "Big handsome, white hat is the best!" Let our soldiers change to white hats, and then deliberately spread some nursery rhymes and proverbs such as the beginning of Wu and the end of Wu in the Qing Dynasty, which can have the effect of shaking the hearts of the enemy's army and the people, and can also encourage the morale of our army, and there is no color better than white. ”

Unable to resist the kindness of the accomplice lackey, Wu Chaoyue had to reluctantly agree to let the soldier wear a white tasseled hat instead, and then muttered in his heart: "Old traitor Wu, I didn't expect that I would have a heart with you." ”

As a result, under the malicious dissemination and clever propaganda of the Hubei propaganda department, a rumor quickly spread in the land of China - the Manchu Eight Banners relied on Wu Sangui to lead the Qing soldiers into the customs to win the world, but the heavens are clear, the retribution is not happy, and the Manchu Eight Banners will definitely die in the hands of a person surnamed Wu. At that time, Wu Sangui wore a white hat and failed to win the world, because he did too much evil and the heavens did not agree, and the next person surnamed Wu wore a white hat to raise troops, and he will definitely be able to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and recover China! As a result, it also received some demagogic effects, not to mention.

In the case of insufficient preparation, Wu's army not only exposed the problems in the small links of military flags and clothing, but also had to deal with the major matters of the Huguang local governor's refusal to surrender, and it was difficult to immediately free up his hands to provide strong help to friendly troops in other provinces. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue has no choice but to give priority to reinforcing the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in Suqing Province under Yang Wending's department to ensure the security of Sichuan's money and grain and upstream.

After the mobile force was given priority in the direction of Sichuan, Wu Chaoyue in Jiangxi could only rely on Liu Kunyi, Xiao Qijiang, Wang Guocai and Liu Mingchuan to solve the Jiangxi problem on their own, in order to force Ma Xiuru to obey without too many worries, Wu Chaoyue could only send an envoy to Nanjing on the first day of the official announcement of the uprising, demanding that a non-aggression pact be concluded with Yang Xiuqing and divide the territory with the existing control area as the boundary. And before that, Wu Chaoyue, who had formed a lot of grudges with the Taiping army, did not dare to mobilize the Jiangxi Wu army to surround Nanchang at will and force Ma Xiuru to submit, for fear that the Taiping army would stab himself in the back.

Yang Xiuqing's reaction was also very fast, only ten days later, when Wu Chaoyue received the news that Wang Fujun had successfully forced Yichang to surrender, the envoy who went to Nanjing to contact Yang Xiuqing took the Taiping envoy Hou Yukuan back to Hubei Province on a French merchant ship, and also brought a reply that made Wu Chaoyue cry and laugh - Yang Xiuqing actually canonized Wu Chaoyue as the 8,000-year-old king of Zhenxi of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and asked Wu Chaoyue to accept his orders.

"Whew!"

Wu Chaoyue's saliva almost didn't spray on the face of Yang Xiuqing's henchman Hou Yukuan, and said with a sneer: "Go back and tell Yang Xiuqing that I am kind enough to conclude a non-aggression pact with him, so that his western front can be safely retired, not to beg him, let alone to listen to his commands." If he is willing to live in peace, we will divide the territory according to the territory under our existing control, and if he is not willing, we will continue to fight! ”

"King Zhenxi is eight thousand years old, please don't say it so absolutely." Hou Yukuan's smile was very sinister, and he said: "Eight thousand years old, I probably don't know yet, something big happened in Shanghai, your grandfather Wu Jianzhang Wu is in danger now, and the only one who can help your grandfather at present is our Heavenly Kingdom's army in Songjiang." ”

"What's going on in Shanghai?" Wu Chaoyue was shocked and subconsciously blurted out.

"On the night of March 14, Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu of the Qing Demon, mobilized Wu Quanmei's Red Single Fleet and suddenly took over the county seat of Shanghai." Hou Yukuan smiled and said: "I heard that Lord Wu Jianzhang Wu was trapped in Shanghai City, and your old department left in Shanghai was stationed outside the city at that time, and he failed to enter the city in time. ”

After staring at Hou Yukuan for a long time, seeing that his smile was relaxed and there was no hypocrisy in his eyes, Wu Chaoyue's rare voice began to tremble, and he asked suspiciously: "How is it possible?" How could Xue Huan's gang receive the news so quickly? ”

"I don't know." Hou Yukuan shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "But when I set off from Tianjing six days ago, Long Live Dongwang did receive the news of this big event in Shanghai, so Long Live East asked me to tell you about it, and by the way, if you accept the canonization of our Heavenly Kingdom, he will immediately send troops to help your old department, and no matter what, you will rescue Lord Wu, as well as your prince." ”

Calculating the time, he found that the letter he sent on the evening of the ninth day of the first month of March notifying Wu Lao comprador of the incident could indeed not be delivered to Shanghai before the evening of March 14......

"Grandpa, don't let anything happen to you, I can even ignore my son, but I really can't bear to ignore you." (To be continued.) )