Because there are too many poor people in the box, Chen Daxi's brother's income cannot help these poor people. So the sister-in-law and son of the Chen family led the women to weave cloth, dig wild vegetables, collect river shells, etc., to reduce the burden on the men. Chen Daxi, on the other hand, personally led many poor people to use armed forces to sell illicit salt. Because of the large number of people, although the profit is not much, it will not be cold and hungry.

Now let's talk about the situation of the other route armies:

On the side of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army:

In 1854, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Western Expeditionary Army encountered resistance from the newly established Hunan Army in Hunan, and was counterattacked by the Hunan Army near the Jiujiang River. In January, the Taiping army conquered Luzhou (now Hefei), and the Qing governor Jiang Zhongyuan was killed. In February, Shi Xiangzhen, Wei Jun, and Zeng Tianyang marched westward again, defeated Wu Wenrong, the governor of Huguang of the Qing court, and occupied Hanyang three times. The division of troops was three: Zeng Tianyang passed through northern Hubei, Wei Jun crossed the river to encircle Wuchang, and Shi Xiangzhen captured Hunan. After the Taiping army entered Hunan Province, Zeng Guofan formed a Hunan army to resist. In April, Shi Xiangzhen defeated the Hunan army at Jinggang. In early May, Lin Shaozhang's troops were defeated in Xiangtan and lost about 2,000 ships. In June, Wei Juner Ke Wuchang. From July to August, the two armies fought in northern Hunan Province, and the Taiping army was continuously defeated and retreated because of the death of the Xiao general Zeng Tianyang in Chenglingji. In October, the three towns of Wuhan were lost one after another. In December, Qin Rigang's troops defeated Tianjia Town, and the Hunan army approached Jiujiang.

After the Taiping army conquered Luzhou, it played the banner of "Taiping Tianwen Chunguan Zheng Prime Minister's meritorious service plus first-class Hu", since then, there are very few people who call the army of Taiping Tianwen "Taiping Army", and those who have a good impression of it are mostly called "Heavenly Army", "Holy Soldiers", "Western Soldiers" and "Long Hair", and the Qing court is contemptuously called "Long Hairy Thieves" and "bandits", only in the areas where they have been active in the early years and have been quite supportive, there is still the title of "Taiping Army" circulating. This title was apparently voluntary, because the Taiping rulers would not ask others to call them "Taiping Army", and the opportunists would only call them "Heavenly Army" and "Holy Soldiers".

In the same year, the Taiping army attacked Zhili, defeated the Naer Jing's in Linguan, Liankejiaohe, Nanpi, Cangzhou, Qingxian, Jinghai and other places, and the front approached Tianjin. The defeat of Nar was at Linming Pass, and Zhang Zhiwan asked for interception in the Jinghai area, and they were all rewarded.

Let's talk about the historically significant Hunan Army. In February 1854, 5,000 people from 10 battalions of each of the Hunan Army's naval division and land division were trained, and one of the most ferocious landlord armies in modern Chinese history was born. After the Hunan army was trained, it immediately participated in the war to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The Hunan army under the rule of Zeng Guofan was famous for "fighting hard and fighting to the death". His "more methodical, less big words", "don't ask about the harvest, but ask about the cultivation", was praised by Liang Qichao as "after a hundred hardships and obstacles without frustration; Do not seek near-term effect, accumulate inches, accept it, be diligent, plant it with rigidity, be chaste with perseverance, handsome with sincerity, brave and diligent, and hard-working. Therefore, in the war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Hunan army was indeed different from the arrogant green battalion and the cowardly regimental training, but it was very fierce and tenacious.

Zeng Guofan can also select and appoint talents. He is good at observing the forehead and color, and discerning the qualities and talents of his subordinates. His impressions of some people are recorded in the day, such as: simple; The eyes are round and moving, and they are not very reliable; speech gagging; Understand and serene, clumsy, and long-term talent; Wait a minute. Through this method, Zeng Guofan identified and promoted a large number of famous generals who could fight well. So that the Hunan army finally won the victory of this war.

On the side of the Twist Army:

Su Tianfu led the twist army to fight against the Yongcheng regiment Lian Sang Dianyuan and failed and withdrew to the territory of Bozhou. The Qing army entered the army and wantonly burned, killed and plundered, and the people's resentment boiled, and they defected to the Twist Army one after another. Su Tianfu's army was greatly strengthened, killing 7 cousins who colluded with the Qing soldiers and conspired to kill the Twist Army. and cooperated with Zhang Lexing's troops to defeat Xu Guangjin, the minister of Henan regimental training, in Xiayi. The siege of the regiment led by Zhu Kai was practiced in Guide (now Shangqiu County).

And our Pingyu Street, led by Brother Daxi, is practicing boxing, selling smuggled salt, and doing the daily work of twisting. There has not yet been a blatant public rebellion. Do you really want Brother Chen to take it with you if you really sell illicit salt? Brother Chen has a long-term vision, but he is just selling illicit salt on the way, but in fact, he is just making friends with various bosses, group heads, and twisters around him. For example, Xu Siwan of Xiangcheng, Zhang Fenglin of Zhengyang, Huo Guangyu, Qin Xuan of Xincai, Shi Guangbu, Yuan Anyu, Zhao Guoliang of Xixian, Wang Yuguo of Ruyang, Wang Dianshu and so on were all acquainted during this period. In addition to making friends with the leaders, Brother Chen also saved money for the people of Pingyu to build weapons, raise livestock, store forage, make gunpowder shells, build stockades, and install eyeliners. And I, on the other hand, still practice horseback archery every day, and practice gunpowder gun making mechanisms. Of course, this mechanism is for killing. Chen Wen and Shuangxi's younger brother were arranged by Chen Daxi to learn literature and martial arts and manage various internal affairs.