And just as the captives drove more than 1,000 ships to Gaozhou, Leizhou and other prefectures, 2,000 miles away, outside the city of Anqing, the surface of the Yangtze River was a different scene. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

I saw the wide surface of the Yangtze River, the more than 20,000 ships of the Taiping Army were densely arranged, the sails covered the river, the tail was dozens of miles, the sails were stacked like snow, stacked on the surface of the river, and the river could not be seen. On both sides of the Yangtze River, tens of thousands of Taiping troops, wrapped in red scarves on their heads, marched along the banks of the river, becoming two red dragons for more than ten miles, flowing eastward.

The day before yesterday, the Taiping army, under the leadership of the vanguard generals Qin Rigang and Hu Yixuan, arrived at Anqing, the provincial capital of Anman, and stormed for two days. Anqing City had a thin army, and the Qing soldiers retreated into the city and did not dare to fight. Qin Rigang led the Taiping army to erect cannons under the city to bombard the city wall, and for a time the artillery fire rose to the sky, like rain and hail, and the Qing soldiers in the city were terrified.

When Jiang Wenqing, the governor of Anman, remembered to personally supervise the soldiers to fight to the death, the southwest city gate had been bombarded with cannons by a commander named Li Yiwen under Hu Yixuan, and Li Yiwen took the lead in leading hundreds of Taiping soldiers to rush into the city and break Anqing City.

Jiang Wenqing fled back to the governor's office, and when he saw that there was no way out, he committed suicide by swallowing gold.

After Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing rushed to Anqing City and rested for a day, they ordered the army to continue to march, abandon Anqing City, continue to go down the Yangtze River, and go straight to the capital!

In half a month, he conquered Jiujiang and Anqing from Wuchang, Yang Xiuqing wanted the speed of the soldiers, and in the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not have time to transfer troops to defend, he wanted to conquer Nanjing City in one fell swoop.

At this moment, among the many ships, there was a wide dragon boat decorated with bright yellow satin, Yang Xiuqing stood on the deck on the second floor, looking at the dense sails in the distance, and said with high spirits: "Although the generals are going to the east of the river, conquer Jinling City, and establish a heaven on earth and earth!" ”

There are more than a dozen people behind him, but they are meritorious people who conquered Anqing, Qin Rigang, Hu Yixuan, Ji Wenyuan, Zhu Xikun, Huang Wenjin and others, as well as a young general with a heroic face, but Li Yiwen, the first pawn commander to attack Anqing City, was also summoned by Yang Xiuqing and personally encouraged.

"My subordinates wish to follow the King of Heaven and the King of the East forever, kill the Qing Demon, and establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and Earth!" Everyone responded in unison.

"Excellent! Your name is Li Yiwen? Yang Xiuqing's majestic face, with a faint smile for the first time, said softly: "I told Brother Yixuan, in the future, you will go to my Chinese army tent and be a brigade commander." Kill the demons! ”

Everyone looked at the young captain named Li Yiwen with envy, and the little captain could be summoned by the king of the east in person, and he was so important that his future development was limitless.

"Bow to King Xie Dong with a text!" Li Yiwen knelt down and thanked him.

"Even? It's not a good name, it's not tough enough! Yang Xiuqing frowned, thought about it for a while, moved in his heart, and said with a smile: "This king will give you a new name, take the word 'show' in the middle of this king, and add the word 'cheng' that the kingdom of heaven will definitely succeed in killing all the demons." It's called Li Xiucheng, how about it? ”

"Li Xiucheng? Good name! What a name for the king of the east! The crowd was talking.

"Xiucheng has thanked the East King for his great grace!" Li Yiwen hurriedly bowed to the ground again and kowtowed to thank him.

Seeing this heroic general claiming to be Xiucheng, Yang Xiuqing was relieved.

After dismissing everyone, Yang Xiuqing ordered someone to bring a map and look at the city of Nanjing, five or six hundred miles away, and his heart was full of pride.

In the excitement, he raised his hand, but knocked over a cup of tea, wetting most of the corners of the map. If you look closely, it is the land of two wide. Yang Xiuqing's mind suddenly jumped out of an ordinary and loyal scholar's face, and his face was instantly full of excitement, and his face was full of haze.

"Actually secretly led people to deliberately break away from the main force of the Kingdom of Heaven and create their own forces! Nanwang, are you unwilling to be trampled under my feet and want to develop your own territory? I heard that you also found your long-lost son, hum ......"

………

On this day, in the city of Changsha. Zeng Guofan, who was getting thinner and thinner, was writing hard in front of the case, and Menzi came to report: "My lord, the governor yamen has transferred an urgent official document, saying that the governor asked you to deal with it on your behalf!" ”

The governor in Menzi's mouth is Luo Bingzhang, the reinstated governor of Funan because of his meritorious service in recovering Changsha City, and the former governor Zhang Liangji has been transferred to the governor of Shandong a month ago.

Zeng Guofan took a look, but it was an urgent document written by the county order of Liuyang. It is said that a party named Zhou Guoyu in Liuyang established the Zhengyi Hall, and after the Taiping Army was defeated and retreated from Changsha to Yuezhou, the Zhengyi Hall calmed down a lot. At present, there is a resurgence of ashes, and activities are rampant in the mountains and forests outside Liuyang City, and the county regiment cannot deal with it, so please send people to suppress it.

He asked Li Xubin, Zeng Guobao, and Peng Yucheng to disguise themselves as ordinary people and go to Liuyang in person to make a secret visit to Zhou Guoyu and Zhengyitang.

After a few days of investigation, the three reported to Zeng Guofan and learned what happened.

This Zhou Guoyu is a large family under the Liuyang Pagoda Mountain, and its ancestor is a relict of the Southern Ming Dynasty. After the death of the Ming Dynasty, the ancestors of the Zhou family lived in seclusion in Liuyang, and warned future generations to abide by the ancestral precepts of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Guoyu and his brothers Guocai and Guoxian studied and practiced martial arts since childhood, made friends with the party, and plotted great things.

Once, Zhou Guoyu, who went out to do business to Hunan area, got acquainted with the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, He Zhigou, He Beigou led the Zhou brothers to join the Heaven and Earth Society, and after returning to his hometown, he set up a branch of the Heaven and Earth Society in Liuyang County--- Zhengyi Hall.

Later, Zhang Liangji sent people to suppress it, and Zhou Guoyu and the brothers of Zhengyitang retreated to the savage mountains outside the city.

After the Taiping army captured Changsha City, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing did not attach much importance to the Heaven and Earth Society, although they sent someone to invite Zhengyitang once, but Zhou Guoyu and others did not want to worship the God of Nalaoshzi, so they did not join the Taiping army.

A few days ago, the wife of a brother in the Zhengyi Hall was robbed by Zhang Yishan, the head of the Liuyang County League Training, Zhou Guoyu got the news, so he led the congregation to venture down the mountain, but did not catch Zhang Yishan, so he set fire to the county League Training Institute, Liuyang's county commander Rao Fengping was so frightened that he hurriedly reported to the governor's yamen.

Zeng Guofan came up with a plan. He bought off a small leader of Zhengyitang, and asked the small leader to take Li Xubin, Zeng Guobao and others into the inaccessible Savage Mountain, and found out where the headquarters of Zhengyitang was.

Then, Zeng Guofan asked Luo Zenan's protégé Wang Ju to rush from Xiangxiang to Liuyang with 800 Xiangxiang Tuanyong. Wang Zhu and Li Xubin led the Xiangxiang regiment to capture Zhang Yishan, the head of the Liuyang regiment, and incorporated the regimental Yong of Liuyang into the team.

Then, Zeng Guofan ordered all the families of the small leaders in the Zhengyi Hall to be invited and escorted to the Savage Mountain together with Zhang Yishan.

At night, the Tuan Yong surrounded the Zhengyi Hall, and Zeng Guofan ordered people to run back and forth, creating the illusion that there were many Tuan Yong.

Then, lighting the torch, in front of everyone in Zhengyi Hall, Wang Ju announced the sin of Zhang Yishan's fish and flesh people, and hacked the head of the Liuyang regiment to death on the spot. Then he ordered the families of the small leaders of the Zhengyi Hall to persuade them to surrender, and encouraged the people of the Zhengyi Hall to lay down their arms and go down the mountain to surrender to Xiangxiang Tuanyong. Otherwise, after dawn, the Xiangxiang regiment bravely broke through the Zhengyi Hall and killed them all.

Zeng Guofan's combination of soft and hard methods has worked, and the various small leaders of the Zhengyi Hall have led people down the mountain to surrender. Zhou Guoyu's brothers had to take 800 cronies and brothers to fight their way out of the Savage Mountain, losing 300 people, leaving only more than 400 people.

The Zhengyi Hall, which had more than 3,000 people, was bravely exterminated by the Xiangxiang regiment with less than 1,000 people.

Li Xubin suggested that hundreds of strong congregants should be selected from the Zhengyi Hall to be filled with Xiangxiang Tuanyong, and Zeng Guofan laughed and agreed. Wang Zhu said that he was born as a thief and was not very reliable. Zeng Guofan just smiled and said nothing.

Zeng Guofan ordered more than 1,000 congregants who were slightly weaker to serve as tenants, and escorted them back to Xiangxiang with their families, where they were punished as coolies for three years before they were freed.

The remaining 500 healthy congregants were all invited to the Liuyang League Training Center and ordered a feast to be held, saying that they were welcome to join the group training.

With everyone drunk and full, Zeng Guofan made a face and ordered the Xiangxiang regiment to tie up all the 500 strong Zhengyi Hall congregants who were drunk and escorted to Changsha City overnight.

At noon the next day, Zeng Guofan announced in public the crime of 500 bandits and beheaded all 500 bandits in the school field!

Seeing that everyone was surprised, Zeng Guofan sneered: "The townspeople recruited by this official must be innocent peasant children, this kind of strongman who has been a thief in the mountains must not be wanted!" The pretense of agreeing to them at first is just a ploy to paralyze them! ”

Only then did Li Xubin know that Zeng Guofan's suggestion to him was false, and it was true that everyone would not resist and be arrested. And Wang Ju also knew that Zeng Guofan had never thought of recruiting a congregation from a thief from the beginning.

But everyone didn't know why, and they all felt a chill in their hearts. Master Zeng is too ruthless!

I heard Zeng Guofan shouting in the school field: "These people are the end of thieves and rebellions!" The hearts of the onlookers were also shaken,

A peasant woman who watched the excitement said: "Amitabha, create evil, create evil, cut off more than 500 skulls at once, this killing is like shaving your head." ”

Another old man also said angrily: "Master Zeng, I have shaved my head!" These are all children in the Liuyang area, and I heard that they have all surrendered, but it's a pity. ”

As a result, the old man inadvertently gave Zeng Guofan a nickname, which quickly spread with the beheading of these 500 people, and from this day on, the word "Zeng shaved his head" became the nickname of Zeng Guofan's life.

……

And Zhou Guoyu, who led more than 400 brothers, had already passed through Liling at this moment and was on his way to Chenzhou.

He originally thought that the brothers who followed Tuan Yong down the mountain and took refuge in the government were confused for a while, and he wanted to find an opportunity to find a way to persuade the brothers who were recruited to surrender. Unexpectedly, in just one day, the news that five hundred of the most powerful brothers had been beheaded was transmitted back to Liuyang, and Zhou Guoyu was furious!

Immediately, he wanted to lead the remaining brothers to Changsha to find Zeng to shave his head, but the two brothers dissuaded him.

When he calmed down, Zhou Guoyu, who knew that he could not take revenge on his own, suddenly thought of the former big brother, He Zhigou. A few years ago, He Cheap sent him a letter, saying that he was in Daozhou and had joined the Taiping Holy Army, and invited him to lead his brothers to take refuge together.

He thought he was the same as the Taiping army, so he didn't take it seriously. Now, there is no way out but to go to Big Brother. (To be continued.) )