The front battalion of the Eighth Army of the Taiping Army was the first to enter Shaxi City, and Hu Yongxiang first sent people to control the only street in the town. He obeyed Wang Jingyuan's orders, did not chase any fleeing pedestrians, nor did he dig open the doors of any houses on the street. The holy soldiers of the front battalion carefully guarded the door of each house to greet the brothers of the subsequent battalions.

Wang Jingyuan rode a horse and stepped onto the small street paved with blue bricks, and from time to time he searched the houses on both sides, as if he could see the fear behind the wooden door. When he walked to a mill in the town, Wang Jingyuan grabbed the reins of his horse.

"Fellows! Hello! Wang Jingyuan spat out a fluent dialect in central Anhui: "We are the generals of the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not bandits!" The Qing court is unreasonable, the emperor is mediocre, there are countless corrupt officials and evil officials, and the landlords and gentry are everywhere, we are going to overthrow this decadent dynasty and drive the Manchu emperor out of Shanhaiguan! ”

Wang Jingyuan's impassioned speech did not impress the residents of Shaxi City, and the broken wooden doors of each house were still tightly closed.

"Our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the kingdom of heaven for all the people in the world, all men in the world are brothers, all women in the world are sisters, and everyone is equal!" Wang Jingyuan continued.

"Don't you long-haired believe in that foreign religion? We don't believe that. I don't know where a sentence came out of the crack in the door.

"What a shit, there's a kind of standing up and saying!" Yuan Hongmo, who was in a hurry, was immediately enraged.

"Alas, Yuan Hongmo, what are you doing? If they have questions, they have to ask them, otherwise how can they accept us! Wang Jingyuan, who came from later generations, has long been deeply rooted in his heart with the idea of putting the people first, and he knows that the future generations of Taizu can only win the world by taking the mass line and fighting the people's war. Only by dispelling the people's doubts about the Taiping Army can we win their support!

Wang Jingyuan replied in a loud voice: "Although we believe in foreign religions, we are Chinese and Han!" We will not force you to convert, let alone take you captive! We will give you all the money and land of the world. There is land and ploughing, there is money and work, there is food and food, everywhere is uneven, everywhere is food and clothing! ”

"Don't! We've got food to eat now! ”

"Yes, let's go! We don't need to! ”

For a while, every family was abusive. This made Yuan Hongmo angry, and shouted: "My lord, let's go and tear down those broken doors!" ”

"No! Let's go! Wang Jingyuan ordered extremely calmly. Shaxi City is a small bazaar, but the people living in this kind of place are wealthy families with land and land, and many of them are businessmen with considerable assets. Wang Jingyuan knew that these people would not accept Juntian and other wealth, so he ignored them.

"Hmph, I'll take advantage of Lujiang and then worry about you!" Yuan Hongmo yelled towards the army: "Go! Go get rid of the dogs! ”

As soon as the armies heard the order, they immediately became active, and the divisions and brigades advanced in turn.

"Shhh Suddenly, a thin figure rushed out of the mill, startling Wang Jingyuan's mount and screaming! "Master General! I'm going to go with you to beat the dogs! Ding Xianda knelt in front of Wang Jingyuan's horse.

"Well, what's your name! Did your family tell you to go? Wang Jingyuan became interested in this bold boy.

"Back to the general, my name is Ding Xianda, and there is no one at home for a long time...... I'm going to go to war with you! ”

Wang Jingyuan looked at Ding Xianda carefully, there were countless patches on his clothes, and there were obvious whip marks on the back of his hands, obviously his life was not good!

"Good! If you can keep up, lead me to the horse! ”

"Yes! Big man! Ding Xianda knocked his head on the ground three times excitedly.

"Xianda! Don't go! Fighting a war kills people! Ding Wanwan's wife, Chen, ran out of the house, crying and screaming to persuade Ding Xianda.

Ding Xianda didn't listen to Chen's words, but replied: "Auntie, I want to go to war with the eldest master, you have to take care of yourself!" Take care of the uncle! ”

"Xianda, don't go! Your uncle won't beat you anymore, you're the only seedling in your family! Ding Million also walked out.

"Ding Xianda, are you afraid of the dead?" Wang Jingyuan asked.

"Sir, I'm not afraid! How can there be no immortal in war! From now on, I will fight wherever you tell me! Ding Xianda's face was filled with excitement that had not been seen for a long time.

"Okay, Xianda, let's go! You'll be my commander-in-chief! ”

After a short stay in Shaxi City, a southern town in Lujiang County, the Taiping army quickly advanced towards the county seat.

At that time, Yuan Hongmo, the supervising army, led the front battalion and the rear battalion to enter the city of Lujiang. Suddenly, the rest of the Eighth Army on the Right arrived one after another. Wang Jingyuan calmly arranged the siege task, Lujiang is a small county town, and there are not many soldiers defending the city, and it was reported that Xu Hong, the county governor of Lujiang, had already responded to Lu Xianji's call and led 500 soldiers to be stationed in Jinniu Town, preparing to block Hu Yihuang's army going north.

Lu Xianji is purely a literati, he only cares about the number of soldiers, how can he know the art of war! The hasty transfer of hundreds of garrisons in Lujiang County will not help the battle at Beikip Pass, nor will it be conducive to the defense of Lujiang County. This does not allow Wang Jingyuan to pick up the cheap, Lujiang small county, there is neither the county leader, the main book and other county officials, nor the inspection department of the yamen. As soon as Xu Hong, the magistrate of the county, left, there was only a classic history guarding the city.

The soldiers of the eighth army on the right are all tigers and wolves, Wang Jingyuan is afraid of such petty officials, and Long Fengwei and others made a slight total, so they divided each battalion into four sides to attack the city, and at the same time passed the order to reward the battalion that attacked the county government first with three pigs, and one from each battalion of the other battalions!

This is the advantage of leading the army alone, since leaving Tianjing, the right Eighth Army has been under the jurisdiction of Zuo Chongji and Zeng Tianyang, according to the rules of the Celestial Empire, the seizures are all disposed of by the main general, and most of them are sent back to Tianjing. Wang Jingyuan led the army, so he naturally wanted to reward the soldiers of the headquarters. This did not take a few landlords' stockades along the way, but also got some livestock, money and rice. The money and rice were properly sealed by Long Fengwei, and they still had to be handed over to Zeng Tianyang's camp, but there was no one to take care of this livestock, so Zeng Tianyang would not have asked.

Three pigs! This is a good reward, usually the holy soldiers may not even be able to eat a full meal, this meat does not have to eat all the strength to climb the city wall. Especially the front battalion, under the temptation of the division commander Hu Yongxiang, they all rushed to be the first. It didn't take long for the front camp to take control of the city tower, but in the end, it was not the front camp that won the reward!

It wasn't until Shen Shi that Wang Jingyuan arrived at the county government and found that the result was a bit unexpected! Hu Yongxiang and Lu Yaoling greeted them together. It turned out that Lu Yaoling of the middle camp and his subordinate brigade commander Wang Haiyang made a plan, pretending to be the Qing army, fraudulently opened the west city gate, and entered the county government first!

"Lord General, the advanced city of our former battalion, we should give our battalion three heads!" Hu Yongxiang led Wang Jingyuan into the door and rushed to the road.

"Hahaha! Blind man, you really opened your eyes and said nonsense, this is obviously us to occupy the county government first! Lu Yaoling saw Hu Yongxiang snatching the credit, so he shouted: "Ocean, quickly carry the treasure found in the warehouse to the yard!" ”

Wang Haiyang answered, and led the holy soldiers to carry out six large wooden boxes from the backyard, and Wang Jingyuan guessed that Lu Yaoling found the treasury in Lujiang County.

"My lord, this is a silver ingot from the storeroom! Five taels each, a thousand per box! Lu Yaoling opened them one by one, and each box was neatly lined with silver ingots, separated by layers of red cloth.

"Thirty thousand taels! Good boy! It's the first time I've seen so much silver! Wang Jingyuan was dumbfounded and asked, "Wangjiang County only found a few hundred taels, how can there be so many here!" ”

"My lord, do you know, this is this year's autumn tax silver in Lujiang County, all of which are to be released to the province, and each has the name of the state and county and the silversmith!" Lu Yaoling took out a tablet from the box and compared it to Wang Jingyuan, and sure enough, there were words "Lujiang County" and "Xianfeng three years". I only heard Lu Yaoling explain: "This autumn tax is also called busy, it will be levied in August and will end in November, and the summer tax will be called busy, and it will be levied in February and closed in May." All counties are collected during this time period, there are early and late, but there are doorways here for the Qing Demon, and the early harvest will be more! When we were in Wangjiang, we shouldn't have collected it yet. In recent years, there have been many floods and droughts in the counties of Jianghuai, and they have all dragged on with the arrears of silver, so they will be richer when the two taxes are paid. ”

"I'm afraid that there are 500,000 people in this Lujiang County, two taxes in summer and autumn plus donations and miscellaneous donations, one dollar and six silver per capita, if a family of four has six acres of land, and the rice and wheat are only worth about six taels, this tax is not heavy!" Long Fenghui calculated slightly.

Obviously, the tax rate of Long Fengwei is only in peacetime, and with the increase in wars, the reparations of the great powers continued, and the tax rate at the end of the Qing Dynasty was nearly ten to four.

30,000 taels of silver, if the land price in Anhui at this time, the best paddy fields can also buy 2,000 acres. It's not that Wang Jingyuan is unmoved, but he doesn't have the ability to eat it yet, so he said: "Lao Lu will seal this silver for the time being, and when our army is opened, take it to Prime Minister Zeng's camp and hand it over to Tianjing!" Yuan Hongmo, you go and distribute the pork to the battalions! Rest early tonight, and recruit troops in all parts of the city tomorrow. ”

At that moment, Yuan Hongmo received his order, and dispersed with Hu Yongxiang and Lu Yaoling. This Lujiang County is small, there are only four city gates, except for the middle camp stationed in the county government with Wang Jingyuan that night, the other four battalions each guard one door.

Each battalion was given pork and rice, and cooked for itself. Wang Jingyuan and Yuan Hongmo called the five division commanders, and the three scholars and conspirators, including Long Fengwei, Pan Hefu, and Jiang Wan, opened a table in the county office, and the food was not only sumptuous, but also good wine. Wang Jingyuan has always forbidden alcohol, even Zhong Liangxiang, Ren Guixin and other old brothers of the Taiping Army, there are no taboos.

"Brother Zhenke, you also sit down and let Dashun and Xianda pour them wine!" Wang Jingyuan beckoned the busy Xie Zhenke to take a seat, he was also a brother who had followed him since Anqing, and he repeatedly sacrificed his life and death on the battlefield.

"Alas, the first arrival is full of adults and prison soldiers!" Xie Zhenke was very excited, after all, the chief master had not forgotten him.

"Brother Xumou, I want to give you tomorrow in Beijing, and the old man will be promoted to be the commander of the army, and your men and horses will be merged into his middle camp, and you will be the commander of the division, and please deign to you!" Lu Yaoling has made many military exploits, Wang Jingyuan has long wanted to promote him, and now he has been taken over by Yumou.

"Lord Xie, it's better to be respectful than to obey your fate!" Because of the preparation, he couldn't help but be secretly happy.

"Thank you, Lord for love!" Lu Yaoling thanked him.