Six Manchurian Tartar heads were exchanged for three fat pigs, and the Miao New Han soldiers happily disappeared into the jungle with three wooden cards.

After waiting for a while, confirming that there would be no more new Han soldiers coming over to hand over the heads today, the Ming army officer was slightly disappointed, but then thought about it, the headhunting order of the marshal had just been issued, how could it work so quickly. Most of the natives here in Guizhou are still watching, and when these Miao Xinhan soldiers bring back the fat pigs, they will be afraid that the natives will be red-eyed and swarm out.

In the world, there is nothing more bustling than a sharp word.

The Han people are like this, and the natives are also like this, there are high bounties and in-kind incentives, and they are not afraid that these natives will not be used by the Taiping army.

Soon, this group of Ming troops also disappeared into the mountains. For many days after that, in the mountains on the border of Hunan and Guizhou, there were active Ming troops with baskets to collect the heads of Tartars. There were no more than ten of them, and as few as four or five of them, wandering in the deep mountains and old forests like ghosts. And whenever they returned to the Taiping stronghold in Hunan, the basket would always be filled with human heads—the heads of Manchurian Tartars. Correspondingly, the Qing army in Guizhou was panicked, on the one hand, they wanted to break the defense line of the Taiping army, and on the other hand, they had to guard against the attacks of those natives. Luo Keduo, the king of Pingjun, is really anxious now, and he is in a dilemma.

With the advancement of time, the headhunting order gradually took effect, and the reward of exchanging the head of the Manchurian Tartar for the Taiping Army became a grand scene on the Hunan and Guizhou borders during the Spring Festival of the thirteenth year of Yongli. In Zhou Shixiang's words, this is a fashion. The neighbor went out to hunt a Tartar head in exchange for money, grain, rice and fat pigs, and the family lived a nourishing life, but the man of his own family nested in the house, not to mention the meat in the pot, and he couldn't even see a rice soup, this woman must have an opinion in her heart, and this man will also feel that he is a wreck. Therefore, whether he wants to or has enough courage, under the "forced gaze" of his neighbors and his wife, he can only go to the fashion of headhunting, otherwise he will be ridiculed by the tribesmen and complained by his wife.

The full name of the headhunting order is "Hunting Manchurian Head Reward Order", which was issued in Yuanzhou, Hunan, on the first day of the Lunar New Year in the thirteenth year of Yongli (the sixteenth year of Shunzhi in the pseudo-Qing Dynasty).

Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or later generations, the Yamen will always not work during the Chinese New Year. But the war doesn't care if you don't have a New Year, the Guangxi Admiral Line and the National Security Year are just a big army to kill Liuzhou, and the Taiping Army in Hunan is naturally not in the mood for any New Year.

In line with the principle that if you don't let me have a good time, I will let you have a bad life, Zhou Shixiang organized the Yuanzhou defense line to deal with the large-scale attack of the Qing army, and on the other hand, he began his long-planned headhunting order.

The order encouraged the natives on the Hunan and Guizhou borders to bravely hunt down Manchu soldiers in order to cut off the heads of Manchu soldiers in exchange for rich rewards from the Taiping army. The rewards included gold and silver, rice and flour, cloth, iron, pork and mutton, and even rouge gouache for women. It can be said that from money to physical goods, there is no deficiency.

In the early days, the headhunting order was only for the native soldiers who had joined the Taiping army or were captured, and it was limited to the head of the Manchurian Tartars. The reason for this regulation is that the Taiping army obtained a large number of native soldiers in the process of suppressing bandits in Xiangxi, some of which were brought over by the Tusi who took the initiative to vote, and some were captured.

The Taiping Army needed to expand its army, and Zhou Shixiang also needed more soldiers, but some native soldiers were really not suitable for being incorporated into the Taiping Army. This is not to say that these native soldiers are not strong enough or brave enough, but that it is really difficult for them to integrate into the Taiping Army in the short term, or that they cannot abide by the military discipline of the Taiping Army. And wars are often won by the disciplined side.

The war against the Qing Dynasty was by no means won by relying only on some guerrilla warfare and clever warfare; not to mention the future, even now, the Taiping Army was facing a war in Guangxi and Hunan. And the battles that took place in these two directions were mainly frontal battlefields, or rather, they were mainly at the level of battle. Therefore, Zhou Shixiang did not have enough time to digest these native soldiers who could not abide by the military discipline of the Taiping Army, but it was too wasteful to release these native soldiers with a certain amount of force as good citizens. Many of them have been engaged in murder and trading since they became adults, and even under the hands of those local officials, what they have done is to kidnap people, kill people, seize villages, and steal food. In other words, they are a real gang of bandits, and if they are put back, they are likely to return to their old jobs and become an unstable force under the rule of the Taiping Army.

If it was a Han Chinese, Zhou Shixiang could accept them and digest them, but these native soldiers couldn't. After thinking about it, Zhou Shixiang felt that he couldn't waste these "chicken ribs", so he issued the "Hunting Manchurian Head Reward Order".

The native soldiers are very familiar with the terrain of the Hunan and Guizhou borders, and some people can even use them to describe Rufei in the deep mountains and old forests. They were not suitable for large-scale operations, but they were suitable for individual or small group movements, so Zhou Shixiang gave these native soldiers two choices, one was to settle down and farm honestly like the Han people; The second is to go to the border of Guizhou to carry out activities, specifically hunting the heads of the Qing army. Among them, the head of the Manchurian soldiers has a top half of the pig. If you don't want pork, you can be rewarded with gold, silver, or rice of equal value. At the same time, they clearly told these soldiers that their actions were not under the command of the Taiping army, so if the Taiping army died in battle, they would not be compensated. But in order for them to better hunt down the Manchurian soldiers, the Taiping army could provide them with some necessary weapons, and even some more lethal weapons, such as earth-shaking thunder. Of course, because the Taiping Army itself has not yet been able to achieve mass production, if you want to get it, you must pay a certain price, such as reducing a head afterwards.

Zhou Shixiang's order was initially questioned by some of his subordinates, who thought that the native soldiers were not trustworthy, and that these people did not have the courage to attack the Manchurian soldiers, and that if they were allowed to go back, they would probably help the Qing army deal with the Taiping army. But the fact is that after the headhunting order was announced, those local soldiers who were considered unsuitable to stay in the army were very willing to make a fortune from it, and no one thought about helping the Qing army, which had nothing to offer them, but how to make a fortune from this headhunting order.

As Zhou Shixiang thought, the reason why the native soldiers were reluctant to be trained and commanded by the Taiping army was not because they were too useless or unwilling, but because they were used to freedom and could not accept the discipline of steel like the Han people. This is true even for those who have served under the Tuguan.

When they were dismissed, the soldiers were very worried, lest the Taiping army would kill them or send them to do hard labor, but now the Taiping army gave them a way to show their own bravery, and to make a fortune, and to act on their own, they were naturally very happy. As a result, only a few of the more than 4,000 local soldiers who were laid off chose to go home to live a peaceful life, and the rest either went to Guizhou alone or operated on the Hunan border.

Of course, Zhou Shi was not without a backhand relative to these native soldiers, all the detailed information of the native soldiers were made, and their family members who remained under the rule of the Taiping Army signed the letter of guarantee, if the native soldier turned his back to the Qing and turned around to the Taiping Army, then their families would be hanged regardless of men, women and children. But if they were good enough to hunt down enough Manchurian soldiers, then their families would be treated like regular Han soldiers who served in the Taiping Army.

More than 3,000 headhunters quickly disappeared, and there was no news for several days. The border between Hunan and Guizhou is too big, there are many natives in Hunan, and there are more natives in Guizhou.

Zhou Shixiang did not expect the headhunting operations of the native soldiers to achieve immediate results, nor did he wishfully think that relying on these native soldiers could contain the offensive of the Qing army in Guizhou, so his focus was still on organizing the Hunan and Guizhou defense lines. On the Guangxi side, Line Guoan has besieged Liuzhou for half a month, but the news sent by Shao Jiugong said that although the line offensive is very fierce, Liuzhou is surrounded by rivers on three sides, and only one side is connected by land, so under the premise of the help of the sailors, the Taiping army can attack and defend freely, and soldiers and food can be transported by the sailors, and the line Guoan wants to break through the gate of Liuzhou, and the difficulty is the same as that of Dengshu Road. In fact, Line Guoan attacked Liuzhou for half a month, but found nothing but the loss of thousands of soldiers and horses. He wanted to go north to attack Guilin, but as long as he showed signs of moving troops, the Taiping army in the city would go out of the city to bite him, and the fifth town of the Taiping army in the direction of Guilin was also a strong enemy, and the line Guoan was not sure of victory. The withdrawal of troops is obviously impossible, not because he doesn't want to withdraw, but because Doni won't let him withdraw.

The tone of the battle of Liuzhou was to contain the Ministry of State Security, as long as the line of national security could not free up their hands to advance north in Liuzhou, the purpose of the battle would be achieved.

Zhou Shixiang did not draw troops from Hunan to reinforce Liuzhou, because the Qing army in Guizhou, under the command of Luo Keduo, the king of Pingjun, had already captured Pingxiyi. In addition, there is news that another Qing army in Yunnan is returning to Guizhou, and they are likely to attack another key road on the Hunan-Guizhou border, the Hunan Pass.

After Luo Keduo's troops captured Pingxiyi, they never made any advance, because he had no way to break through the defense line built by the Taiping army along the road

There are some things this afternoon, the update is late. There is one more more. (To be continued.) )