In late April, Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, reported his decision to the king of heaven, with Lai Hanying, the deputy prime minister of Xiaguan, and Zeng Tianyang, the first inspector on the left of the palace, as the chief and deputy commanders, and Lin Qirong, the eighth commander on the right side of the palace, and Bai Huihuai, the twelfth commander on the right side of the palace, as generals, and transferred more than 8,000 people from each of the two armies of the Qin Rigang Department and Hu Yihuang Department to trace the Jiangxi expedition from Tianjing.

As soon as this layout came out, everyone secretly praised Yang Xiuqing for having such means, not only using the handsomeness of the king of heaven, but also moving the soldiers of Prime Minister Qin Hu Er, but also promoting him to the general of the East Palace, you must know that Lin Qirong and Bai Huihuai are both from the guards of the East Palace, and the cronies among the cronies.

High! It's really high! Yang Xiuqing's move ostensibly satisfied the Heavenly King's desire for military power, but in fact, it reversed the unfavorable situation of no one in the Eastern Palace's Mansion since Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and other cronies went on the Northern Expedition, and firmly controlled the Western Expeditionary Army. Qin Rigang and Hu Yihuang, whose power was on the rise, had to endure it again, watching the East King suppress them. The ebbs and weaknesses of the two forces made the Heavenly Court, which had been noisy for a period of time after the capital was settled, once again tend to be quiet or balanced.

The struggle of the leadership is something that the lower echelons cannot get involved in, but it cannot be avoided. Wang Jingyuan unfortunately caught up with the first court political dispute after the Dingdu Tianjing, and as the losing side, he naturally had to deal with it.

On April 26, Wang Jingyuan received an edict from the East Palace, and the Right Eighth Army was changed to Bai Huihuai, the commander of the Right Twelfth Army, and followed the westward expedition. Wang Jingyuan, who didn't know where to go, wondered, he had just turned back from the Northern Expedition, why did he want to go west again? How can there be such a busyness in this kingdom of heaven?

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is good on April 29 in the third year. Lai Hanying, deputy prime minister of Xia Guan, led four Taiping armies of nearly 8,000 people, including the sixth and eighth on the right, to begin the westward expedition, and the whole army boarded the ship in Xiaguan, tracing the river, hundreds of warships passed through Hezhou, forced quarrying, and pointed directly to the first town in the upper reaches of Tianjing-Taipingfu.

Throughout the Yangtze River, Wang Jingyuan thought that the safety of Tianjing was in danger in the three cities. From top to bottom, Wuchang City is the thoroughfare of nine provinces, and the upstream is relied on, and it goes without saying that the Taiping army has taken its city three times. Secondly, Anqing City, the granary in central Anhui, where the soldiers are located, Shi Dakai and Chen Yucheng have been operating for more than ten years. In the end, it is this Taiping Mansion, just in one sentence, the throat of Tianjing, but it is a pity that this city has never been valued by the kingdom of heaven. Losing Wuchang, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is sluggish, losing Anqing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is weak, there is no Taiping Mansion, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will die. From the date of the establishment of the capital Tianjing, Taiping Mansion was the lifeblood of the Kingdom of Heaven.

At this time, the Taiping Mansion has been in chaos like a pot of porridge, the prefect was called to the provincial capital Luzhou by the new governor of Anhui Li Jiaduan the day before yesterday, and now the presiding over in the city is only Pan Xien, who assisted in the Taiping Mansion's donation and group training affairs, Xuezheng Xiling, both of whom were born in Jinshi, how can they know how to fight in battle, and when they heard that the Taiping army was attacking, they immediately lost their opinions. However, Song'an, the deputy general of the Fuxie Association, had some courage and asked Xiling to defend the city, leading more than 2,000 people from his headquarters to drive Pan Xien to meet him.

How could a mere 2,000 people stop the 8,000-strong army of the Western Expedition, and after being severely attacked by the Taiping army in the north of the city, the Song'an Department fled to the narrow east and west Liangshan of the Yangtze River with his tail between his legs. On the one hand, Lai Hanying ordered Lin Qirong to take over the Taiping Mansion, and on the other hand, he sent the deputy marshal Zeng Tianyang to supervise Bai Huihuai's troops to pursue the Qing demon.

There are two armies under Bai Huihuai, one of which is the right Eighth Army where Wang Jingyuan is located. At that time, it had recently fallen, and most of the officers and men of the Eighth Army on the Right were exhausted after a day's march and battle, and even Jiang Wan, who was riding on a horse, felt tired and tired. Jiang Wan belonged to the adjutant at the level of division commander, and according to the regulations of the Taiping Army, Wang Jingyuan provided her with horses before leaving the division.

Zuo Chongji received the general's order, and he must rush to the foot of Dongliang Mountain before dark, how dare he disobey. At that moment, Zhuma howled in Hakka words: "Wait for the boys, Heavenly Father ordered me to wait for the westward expedition, and now the time has come for us to run out of grass, run quickly, there is Dongliang Mountain in front!" ”

Zuo Chongji is the general system of the First Army, the highest commander of the First Army, and has the highest command power. But after all, this army was established by Wang Jingyuan, and four of the five division commanders who led the troops were Wang Jingyuan's old troops, so Zuo Chongji, as the commander-in-chief, did not have too high prestige in the Right Eighth Army. Therefore, although Zuo Chongji was happy, no one should be with him. In order to avoid being cold, remind him by the way. Wang Jingyuan deliberately roared: "Brothers, run!" The demon is ahead! ”

As soon as Yuan Hongmo heard the voice of the military marshal, he took the lead and shouted: "Rush! The demon is ahead! ”

Suddenly, the whole army was running, the division commander drove the brigade commander, the brigade commander drove the commander, the commander of the pawn drove the holy soldiers, and the sound of nearly 2,000 footsteps gradually converged into a loud sound.

Zuo Chongji obviously understood the meaning of the different responses, snorted coldly, and ran to the front of the team alone. In fact, Wang Jingyuan did not want to squeeze out his superiors and blindly seize power, but he did not want to be manipulated by the model of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he wanted to create a new army, which was not affected by religion, could fight for the people, and was a real army of benevolence and righteousness.

Throwing away Zuo Chongji's distant figure, and then looking at another superior, Hou Yutian, the supervisor of the Right Eighth Army, slowly and leisurely urging the horse, like an old man who has escaped from the world, rather than a veteran who has experienced a hundred battles.

As the sun slowly set, the earth began to rise and fall, and as we marched along the river, sometimes we saw the steep cliffs on the opposite side.

Hu Yongxiang was worried that the difficult mountain road was crooked by his beloved war horse, so he had already dismounted and walked, kicking away the stones that stood in the way from time to time to open the way for his beloved horse, for fear of hindering the horse's feet.

"Hey, blind man, when did you become a pawn? Come on, open the way for me! Yuan Hongmo teased.

Yuan Hongmo's laughter attracted several commanders on horseback, and Lu Yaoling also mixed in: "Blind, you are here, you go to the front, pick up all the small stones, and knock the feet of the holy soldiers!" ”

This amused the holy soldiers walking beside him.

"Hey, bunnies, what are you laughing at, you have the ability to kill a few more demons, I will give you a promotion, and I will match you with horses!" Hu Yongxiang was dry.

Seeing that the chief was not teased, a bold holy soldier asked, "How many can you kill to be promoted and ride a horse?" ”

"Five, kill five, and the holy soldier will be promoted to two Sima!" Hu Yongxiang replied with squeezing eyes.

"Nope! Just three! When Wang Jingyuan heard Hu Yongxiang's promise to the holy soldiers, he immediately corrected: "However, you have to let Diangong see the three slippery demon heads!" ”

Hearing this, the holy soldiers cheered one by one, and the two horses who talked a lot couldn't help it, "Can the captain match the horse?" ”

"According to the rules of our Heavenly Army, the brigade commander can match the horse, but in our Eighth Army on the right, the two horses can also ride horses, but he has to capture them himself!"

As soon as Wang Jingyuan's words fell, there was another cheer, and the soldiers completely forgot about their exhaustion.

At the foot of Dongliang Mountain, it was already dark when the Taiping army arrived, and the right Eighth Army was stationed two miles away from the Qing army camp. The vigilance of the vigilance, the encampment of the camp, the main generals opened a military council. Zuo Chongji, the commander-in-chief, thought that the Qing Demon had just suffered a defeat in the Taiping Mansion, and the Taiping army should be full of courage and take the Dongliang Mountain camp. But he was opposed by Wang Jingyuan, he thought that he had come from afar, and the enemy situation was unknown, so it was not appropriate to act rashly, as long as he watched the Qing demon and waited for the army.

The quarrel between the two main generals will definitely not be able to intervene in the subordinates, but the supervisor Hou Yutian agreed with Wang Jingyuan's suggestion, and the whole army stood by and waited for help. Zuo Chongji had no choice but to order to bury the pot and make rice.

After the meal, the four division commanders gathered around the bonfire in front of Wang Jingyuan's tent, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom forbade alcohol, so he could only drink water with a cowhide bag. However, after a while, Liu Zhaojun, the commander of the left battalion, also came over to drink water and roast the fire. After another while, Hou Yutian also came down to inspect the military situation and came to sit down.

"How can this mountain be so dangerous? The two mountains confront each other and are born on the river. Zhong Liang looked at the mountain and sighed.

Everyone didn't know why Zhong Liangxiang sighed, but no one answered, only Jiang Wan replied for a long time: "The east and west Liangshan were born between the rivers, just like the gate of heaven, and there is a sentence in the Tang poem, 'The gate of heaven is interrupted and the Chu River is opened, and the blue water flows eastward to this time. That's the mountain. ”

After everyone listened, Zhong Liang seemed to have an understanding, Lu Yaoling and Hou Yutian seemed to be recalling who wrote this poem, while Yuan Hongmo and a few of them were illiterate and wondering, 'Where is the gate of heaven?' ''Is Chujiang Xiangjiang?'' ’。

"The poem comes from Tang Dynasty Li Bai's "Looking at Tianmen Mountain", Tianmen breaks the Chu River, and the Chu River opens the gate of heaven" Wang Jingyuan glanced at Jiang Wan with a smile, and asked quite instructively: "Hey, do you say it's this mountain risk, or this water risk?" ”

Hou Yutian didn't react in time just now, didn't answer Zhong Liangxiang's question, and seemed to feel embarrassed in front of his subordinates, so he listened to Wang Jingyuan's simple question, and immediately replied: "It should be this mountain danger, with thousands of cliffs, crossing the Yangtze River, blocking up and down." ”

"Isn't this water dangerous? The water opens the cliffs, irrigates the East China Sea, and the eight provinces up and down, all of which are passable. Three rivers and five lakes, hundreds of millions of people! Those who win the Yangtze River can not be the world! Listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, Wang Jingyuan said movingly.

"Oh, yes, no wonder the East King is nine thousand years old and let us trace the Jiangxi expedition, Your Highness has long seen the importance of the Yangtze River." Hou Yutian said happily, as if he understood Yang Xiuqing's intentions.

Hou Yutian was originally a soldier in the Qing Army's Zhang Guoliang Department, who is Zhang Guoliang? This person's real name is Zhang Zhao, known as Big-headed Fish, a famous boat bandit in Guangxi. On the day of the beginning of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zhang Zhao also joined the Heavenly Army with Luo Dagang, who was also a boat bandit, but this person was a thief and couldn't stand the constraints of the Heavenly Kingdom, so he turned around and voted for the Qing Demon. Hou Yutian was strong and persistent under Zhang Guoliang's subordinates, and he made many military exploits, and he also gained an official position. Unfortunately, the Taiping army inflicted heavy losses on Zhang Guoliang in Daozhou, and Hou Yutian was also captured.

The Taiping army was disciplined and treated prisoners well, and Hou Yutian, who was originally loyal, was actually influenced and joined the Taiping army with sincerity. In the army, Hou Yutian was vigorous and majestic, and he was deeply appreciated by the king of the east who was in charge of the military and had clear rewards and punishments, and Hou Yutian also admired the commander who used his troops like a god. Whether it is personal emotion or army subordination, Hou Yutian is regarded as the first line of the East King.

So at this time, Hou Yutian praised the strategy of the East King, so that Wang Jingyuan couldn't help but guess his context.