On the central front, while Chen Yucheng and Liang Litai's 3rd and 4th Divisions attacked the Yangtze River area in Mubei, the other two eastern and western fronts were not idle, and began an astonishing offensive against the captured army. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In mid-December, Chen Tianshi led the 8th Division A and took the fleet of the 5th Division to the south of Zhejiang, and took the lead in attacking Wenzhou. Due to the smooth transportation of the naval division, the 8th Division was not only newly equipped with 1,000 Dresser needle muskets, but also transported as many as 20 30-pounder retractable front-loading smoothbore guns all the way.

The Zhejiang Naval Division, which had less than 1,000 people, saw the mighty fleet of the 4th Division and hurriedly fled, and did not even go to the water camp, so they fled directly back to the countryside.

After landing on the shore, the first eighty directly stormed the city of Wenzhou. The Wenzhou assistant general wanted to give the order to defend to the death, but the 30-pound receded front-loading smoothbore gun was so powerful that after three rounds of direct shelling, the city gate was cracked and the city was broken. The captives rushed into the streets and alleys of the city like a massacre, and the Qing soldiers scattered and fled, unable to organize the defense, and soon the city of Wenzhou fell.

From mid-December to late December, the 8th Division of the First Division successively occupied Fucheng of Wenzhou, Yongjia, Ruian, Pingyang, Qingtian and Yueqing, and then conquered Yuhuan Hall, Taiping, Huangyan and Taizhou Fucheng by sea, together with some of the 5th Division B. The entire southern part of Zhejiang is in the hands.

The Qing army lost more than 5,000 people, while the captured army lost less than 1,000 people, which can be described as a great victory.

At the same time, the 4th Division B set out from Guangxin Mansion, which occupied February, and under the leadership of the division commander Qiu Changdao, attacked the territory of Quzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang.

The 4th Division was not equipped with many foreign guns, and it was mainly shotguns and brand knives and spears, but most of them were members of the Tiandihui in southern Shonan, with outstanding martial arts and strong combat power.

Taking advantage of the emptiness of the Qing troops in western Zhejiang, the soldiers of the 4th Division of the B Division were divided into two routes, with a main force of 7,000 people all the way, led by Qiu Changdao himself, and captured Jiangshan in mid-December and arrived at the capital city of Quzhou.

Another 3,000 people, led by Li Guanlong, the leader of the Chenzhou Heaven and Earth Society, who later defected to the Holy Kingdom, entered Zhejiang, and then turned to the north and captured Changshan, Kaihua, Wuyuan, Sui'an and other places. Moreover, this Li Guanlong is very rich in organizational ability, all the way to conquer the county seat, all the way to set up a flag to recruit homeless and poor people, originally entered Zhejiang, after conquering four counties one after another, it has accumulated to more than 8,000 people, and the occupied counties remain unchanged, handed over to the follow-up Second Class Brigade to take over the governance.

In late December, Li Guanlong led nearly 10,000 troops to besiege Yanzhou Mansion for three days and three nights, continued to attack, and finally captured Yanzhou Mansion City under the response of the displaced people in Jiande City.

Then, Li Guanlong had 11,000 men all the way, with a momentum like a rainbow, and the momentum was like a broken bamboo to attack Jinhua Mansion in the south, occupying Lanxi and Tangxi counties at the end of December, and then waiting for the main road army Qiu Changdao and others to prepare to encircle Jinhuafu City together.

But at this time, the offensive of the main route army came to a standstill. Qiu Changdao led 7,000 troops to attack the city of Quzhou more than ten times in a row, but was repelled by the Qing army and the Minzhuang regiment in the city led by the defenders in the city. Qiu Changdao was angry, anxious to win, but fell into the Quzhou prefect Jiang Yunkang's plan to lure the enemy deep, arranged for spies to pretend to invite him to attack the south gate inside and outside, but laid a trap, Qiu Changdao did not know what the plan was, led the troops into the city, but was locked in the urn city, a fight could not be freed, the fourth division was defeated, the city guards took advantage of the victory to pursue, the capture army killed and wounded more than 2,000 people, more than 2,000 captives fled in the middle of the night and did not know where to go, Qiu Changdao only led less than 3,000 to return to the camp.

For a while, the people were panicked, and the army was defeated, and the rumor that Qiu Changdao, the commander of the 4th Division, was going to be punished by the Holy King, circulated in the barracks.

At this time, Jiang Yunkang, the prefect of Quzhou, secretly sent someone to secretly meet Qiu Changdao, claiming that the Qing Dynasty had promised to give Qiu Changdao the post of Zhejiang Jin Qu to strictly abide by the Taoist platform, as long as Qiu Changdao led his soldiers to surrender, everyone would have a heavy reward and official position.

So, Qiu Changdao was moved by the instigation of the congregation of a group of people in the south of the Shonan world. He thought of the rumor in the army, and had reason to believe that the Holy King would hold him accountable for the defeat of the army. Instead of waiting to be condemned by the Holy King, it is better to have a future.

However, he was a little hesitant, because he saw that the army was getting stronger day by day, and he was a division commander, even if he was the commander of a second-class division, he was also a high-level general. In this increasingly powerful army, as a high-ranking general, the future is also limitless, so he hesitated: surrendering to the Manchus, can it really be profitable?

However, the words of more than a dozen subordinates made his hesitation firm: "Big brother, we joined the army to fight, isn't it just to have a future, but you see that although you are now the division commander, what is the benefit?" I want silver, but I don't have silver, and I can't rob a woman yet, and being this division commander means a fart? It's not as good as a county order in the Manchu Qing Dynasty! Anyway, if you don't surrender to the court, we will surrender too! ”

So, Qiu Changdao settled down. If he didn't do anything, he immediately transferred most of the troops to his cronies under his command, and eliminated more than ten company commanders and platoon commanders who were loyal to the Holy Country in the name of holding a meeting. Then, he sent troops at night and brought 3,000 captives to the encirclement of the Quzhou defenders.

The most frustrating scene happened, Qiu Changdao confiscated all the weapons of the 3,000 soldiers of the captive army in the name of training. Then, more than 2,000 Qing troops armed with shotguns and swords and spears surrounded the unarmed 3,000 soldiers of the captive army.

At this time, Qiu Changdao announced that he and a cadre of subordinates would return to the imperial court, and be given the title of Daotai, as long as the soldiers of the captive army who followed him, everyone would have a reward, and everyone would have an official position, and suddenly, there were more than 1,200 soldiers of the captive army, which belonged to Qiu Changdao's original subordinates, and had not been very suitable for the military regulations of the captive army, and happily followed the eldest brother Qiu Changdao to return to the Qing army.

Another 1,800 people, under coercion and inducement, a day later, another 500 agreed to join the Qing army. There were 1,300 men left, who refused to agree to betray the captive army from beginning to end. After Qiu Changdao led his men and the Qing army to kill more than 50 people one after another, the more than 1,200 soldiers of the captive army broke out, with full of anger and hatred, attacked the traitors and Qing soldiers armed with shotguns and knives and spears with their bare hands, and finally killed dozens of people and wounded more than 100 people, but in the end they were all killed by the hysterical Qiu Changdao and his troops.

Quzhou Governor Jiang Yunkang is overjoyed! Gu was not allowed to report to the governor of Zhejiang, so he directly sent an 800-mile expedited horse to report to the Beijing master that he had broken the Guangdong thieves and surrendered the thief's head.

Then, Qiu Changdao obeyed Jiang Yunkang's arrangement, took the initiative to contact the subordinate Li Guanlong, and invited a group to attack Quzhou City.

Li Guanlong didn't know what to do, so he led 10,000 troops, withdrew troops from outside Jinhua Mansion, and headed west towards Quzhou City.