Chapter 22 Expansion and Recruitment

In the past two days, Lin Fengxiang and Liang Litai led the second army to be stationed in the northern suburbs of the city next to the official road, and more than 2,000 people came to vote nearby, and 1,500 of them were selected to be incorporated into the latter second army, and the rest were compiled into the end of the card. The latter army stationed in the city www.biquge.info also recruited 1,200 strong men in the city under the guidance of Luo Xuan and Li Kaifang. The total strength of the two armies has expanded to nearly 6,000 men, but there are many new recruits who are strong and lack training.

Feng Shaoguang ordered Lin Fengxiang and Bai Huihuai to lead the second army to train soldiers, and at the same time dig trenches, erect earthen walls, set traps and wooden fences, and build fortifications in dangerous places outside Daozhou City, in preparation for the Qing army to attack. Zhou Shengkun, Hu Damei, Zeng Yuheng and others assisted in managing logistics, responsible for grain procurement and collection, ordnance collection and refurbishment, gunpowder procurement, artillery casting and other affairs.

Huang Yukun and Xie Xiangcai, on the other hand, led some Taiping troops and escorted nearly 400 captured Qing soldiers in the city, especially the two generals surnamed Yang and Zhang, on the steps of the slope in front of the state yamen, and sounded gongs and gold to call the people in the city to come and identify the evildoers. Mr. Yang was already so frightened that his face turned pale, and his legs trembled. Zeng Guanlan also brought Liu Changyou, Jiang Zhongjun, and Jiang Zhongshu, but did not take them up the steps, but only watched them in a crowd to warn the officials of the evil end.

Among the hundreds of onlookers, dozens of people had already walked out and rushed to the soldiers and servants who had bullied his family, exposing the evil deeds one by one.

The two surnamed Yang and Zhang threw the stones, mud, and vegetable leaves that had already been thrown by the crowd all over their bodies and wounds, and they were embarrassed.

Then, Huang Yukun announced that he had been escorted out of the Qing army and the two generals who were full of evil deeds, stood on the top of the steps and said: "Fellow villagers, I am Huang Yukun, the first commander of the palace under the command of the Taiping Holy King, and now I announce on behalf of the Taiping Holy King that the ninety-four demon soldiers and two demon heads who are full of evil and calamity in Daozhou City will be beheaded to correct the way of heaven!" Since then, with my Taiping Holy Army in Daozhou for one day, the people will no longer have to be oppressed by the Qing Demon for a day! ”

After that, with a wave of his hand, a Taiping soldier stepped forward and escorted 96 people including the Qing soldiers to the Xiaoshui River outside the Shuinan Gate, ignoring the Qing soldiers' struggle and begging for mercy, crying bitterly, and beheading.

Huang Yukun ordered the soldiers to carry out a few baskets of copper coins and disperse them to the neighbors who were bullied by the Qing soldiers, and for a time the people in the city applauded. Immediately, some villagers revealed that there was an official eunuch in Dongmen Village outside the city, and there was a squire Chen Liji in the city, who had always colluded with the state government to oppress the people of the four townships and ask the holy army to eliminate evil.

Huang Yukun has already mastered the information of the He family and Chen Liji through careful work in the army. This He family is very big, and there is an important minister of the Qing Demon Court, He Linghan, who has successively served as the secretary of the Ministry of Works, the secretary of the ministry, and the secretary of the household, but he has passed away more than ten years ago. His eldest son, He Shaoji, is also a Qing Demon Jinshi, and is currently a scholar in Sichuan, who just returned to his hometown last year and built the He family ancestral hall with his clansmen. It's just that his family has moved to the Qing Demon Capital decades ago, and there is no tile in Daozhou.

The He clan has a good reputation in Daozhou, and there are many members of the He clan. Therefore, for the ancestral hall of the He family, Feng Shaoguang specially explained not to damage it. However, Chen Liji in the city, who has a lot of wealth, and once assisted the Qing Demon Zhizhou in organizing a group training, just using this excuse to confiscate his family assets.

At that moment, Huang Yukun was overjoyed, and asked with great enthusiasm about the details of exposing the bullying of the villagers, and immediately ordered hundreds of soldiers to confiscate the Chen family, but poor Chen Liji pretended to be a friendly Taiping army the day before yesterday, and took the initiative to donate more than 200 taels of silver, thinking that he could escape for a while, but he did not expect to be liquidated in only two days.

More than 100 soldiers followed these villagers, confiscated all Chen Liji's family assets, dismissed his wives, concubines, old and young, and escorted Chen Liji to parade through the streets of the city. After Feng Shaoguang learned about it, he also rushed over, gathered villagers in the open space in the city, and personally presided over the criticism meeting. Let the villagers who had been oppressed by him loudly tell Chen Liji's various evil deeds of bullying men and women and encroaching on fertile land, and the crowd was angry for a while, shouting for Chen Liji's execution. Feng Shaoguang saw that the effect was achieved, so he ordered the soldiers to behead him cleanly. He also asked Huang Yukun to take some of the money confiscated from Chen Liji's house and distribute it to the sufferers, which attracted the gratitude of the poor people in the city.

Seeing that the people in the neighborhoods hated the Qing soldiers and squires of the imperial court so much, and were easily bought by the small favors of the Taiping army, Liu Changyou, who was watching on the sidelines, couldn't help but sigh miserably: "The laws and discipline of the dynasty are all bad in the hands of such officers and soldiers and the scum of the evil gentry. At the same time, he was even more worried about the Qing court.

He originally thought that the Taiping Army was just a group of bandits who were no different from the previous bandit rebellions, burning, killing, and plundering only for money, but he didn't expect that this group of Taiping Army was different from other anti-thieves, and actually knew how to buy people's hearts, especially the thief chief Feng Yunshan, who was deeply attentive and knew political affairs, which was very different from other Taiping thief chieftains.

Feng Shaoguang and Zeng Guanlan soon took Liu Changyou, Jiang Zhongjun, and Jiang Zhongshu back to the Cloud Dao Palace. For these three people, Jiang Zhongshu is the youngest and has some intentions, but Feng Shaoguang values Liu Changyou the most. When the text was released yesterday, Liu Changyou wanted to die when he saw that his name was on the text, but now he seems to have accepted this fact, and even a trace of expectation flashed in his eyes from time to time.

The reason is simple. Yesterday, when Liu Changyou was about to continue to seek death, Feng Shaoguang whispered two words in his ear:

"Brother Zimo, a dignified husband, one did not serve the old mother of the filial family, the second did not benefit the people of Li, and the third could not contribute to the recovery of my Han Guang, so he died in vain for the Manchu Hu demon alien race, leaving the loving mother and young son of Jinshi's hometown, suffering in the world, how can I bear it?"

"Yunshan has sent someone to Jinshi's hometown a few days ago, and he will be able to pick up Ru Jiaci and his wife to come to Daozhou to get together in a few days, and Brother Panzi Mo knows my hard work!"

At that time, Liu Changyou trembled and looked at Feng Shaoguang in disbelief.

On the one hand, he was a little afraid of Feng Shaoguang. The investigation of him was so detailed, and he sent someone to his hometown to pick up his family, if he did not return, his family would not be spared, and he was the most filial person. On the other hand, Feng Shaoguang's actions and sincere words also showed how much attention he paid to him, which made him have the illusion of meeting Bole, and he was a little moved.

Liu Changyou was worried, although the Confucian science he had studied for many years reminded him not to abandon the imperial court and often go to the bandits, but deep in his heart, there was a voice shouting from time to time: You are just a small tribute, and you have not eaten half of the court. In order to give birth to you and raise your mother, for the inheritance of the Liu family's incense, endure the humiliation and bear the burden. What's more, you are also Han, why do you have to be a slave to the Manchus!

For a while, his mind was full of all kinds of thoughts and thoughts.

Huang Yukun handed over the remaining 300 Qing soldiers who had not done any great evil, and the 400 Qing soldiers who were imprisoned in the women's camp and had been captured in Quanzhou earlier, to Luo Xuan, selected those who were willing to surrender, and incorporated them into the latter army, adding more than 600 troops. The remaining more than 100 people did not surrender, and continued to be imprisoned, with a little porridge every day, and no salt, and their bodies were weak and miserable, and within a few days, except for a few who died of illness, the rest surrendered one after another and joined the ranks of the holy army.

Liang Litai, Su Sanniang, Huang Yiyun, He Jianji and others set up banners to recruit troops in the four townships outside Daozhou. With the dissemination of three texts such as "Fengtian Discussion of Hu Xuanbu Quartet", coupled with the propaganda of the Taiping Army Women's Camp and the streets and alleys of Paiwei Village, the villagers and the Hui Party in all parts of Daozhou enthusiastically joined the Taiping Army.

Luo Outline and Wu Ruxiao were originally members of the Heaven and Earth Congregation, and immediately found a congregation named Wu Yu who had newly joined the Taiping Army in the city, and learned that the famous leader of the Heaven and Earth Society near Daozhou was named He Zhigou, a native of Jiang Ju in Daozhou, Wu Ruxiao led people to the home of Jiang Ju He Beigou more than 40 miles southeast of the state city, but learned that he had left home yesterday and led dozens of people to the state city to come to join the Taiping Army.

When Wu Ruxiao rushed back to the state city, Luo Outline had already met with He Beigou, who came to defect. Within two days, more than 3,000 congregations in Jiangju, Yantou Village, Lezi Mountain, Qingtang and other places came to vote under the leadership of He Zhigou's subordinate He Lu.

Liang Litai, Su Sanniang and others gathered rice porridge in each polder, preaching the evil deeds of the Manchu soldiers, all brothers and sisters in the Taiping army, not worrying about the beauty of food and clothing and everyone being equal, and Huang Yiyun helped the villagers to diagnose and treat miscellaneous diseases for free. By the 10th day of the fifth month, more than 12,000 villagers and congregations in the vicinity of Daozhou had joined the Taiping Holy Army.

Only then did Luo Xuan realize that he was a little unable to see through King Nan. First, he seized the opportunity to divide his troops with the main force of the Heavenly Kingdom, and then went straight to Daozhou, as if he had long known that there were no soldiers in Daozhou City, and he easily captured Daozhou City. He also published an article on Hu Xuan, and easily expanded the number of recruits by tens of thousands. It seems that everything is in his calculations, could it be that King Nan really had Heavenly Father to mention it, and he knew all this in advance?

In any case, Luo Xuan happily reported to Feng Shaoguang that the total number of officers and soldiers of the Taiping Army in Daozhou had reached more than 18,000. Then, he said worriedly: "King Nan, there are many soldiers, the command is not clear, and the command is inevitably chaotic, so Luo suggested that the battalion be set up." Also, there are many people who consume a lot of food, although the food seems to be sufficient at the moment, but the daily consumption is huge, and I hope that the king of the south will plan as soon as possible. ”

"Brother Outline is worthy of being a general in my holy army for many years, and he can detect these two hidden worries at once and remind Yunshan! Yunshan has carefully considered it in the past two days and decided to reorganize my Taiping soldiers, and I hope that the outline brothers can help me with all their might! Feng Shaoguang was very pleased.

"My subordinates will do their best to help King Nan create a peaceful and prosperous world!"