Zhou Shixiang was furious, the slaughter of the city by the Nanhai soldiers was heinous and he would never tolerate it. He can tolerate the bloodbath of the whole city, the bloodbath of the Qing army, and the bloodbath of those stockades that resist fiercely, but he cannot tolerate the bloodbath of the defenseless people who have been broken through - there are 20,000 fresh lives in Chaoyang City! Those are Han Chinese, not Manchus, not aliens, and not enemies!

Zhou Shixiang decided to take Zhao Ziqiang, the culprit of the massacre, to show military discipline, and warned those reorganized soldiers not to do what the Qing army did in Chaozhou under the banner of the Taiping Army, even if they were originally Qing troops, they would never be allowed to do so, because they are now Taiping troops!

Xu Yingyuan, who came back from Xiamen, dissuaded Zhou Shixiang, saying that Chaoyang had been slaughtered by the South China Sea soldiers, and now the South China Sea soldiers actually occupied Chaoyang City.

Chaoyang is in the rear of the first town, if the South China Sea soldiers rebel according to Chaozhou, it will inevitably pose a threat to the first town that is besieging Chaozhou, now the Jidu army has arrived in Fuzhou, the fastest will reach Nanzhao in a few days, if the Taiping army is in turmoil at this time, I am afraid it will have a bad impact on the war situation. Even if the impact is not significant, the consequences are difficult to estimate.

There were several reorganized troops with the main force of the Taiping Army, such as Zhao Ziqiang's Nanhai Soldiers, Wang Zhaoxing's Foshan Soldiers, Hu Mingyi's Xin'an Soldiers, Huang Sicheng's Huaxian Soldiers, Li Guoan's Conghua Soldiers, etc., these original green battalion soldiers added up to five or six thousand people, nominally belonging to the Taiping Army, but they all did their own thing, did not accept the reorganization of the Taiping Army, and belonged to the "Taiping Army" independent of the Taiping Army system. That's the bad thing about snowballing.

Although the snowballing development can make the Taiping army grow rapidly, it brings that it is impossible to digest and absorb those soldiers and horses who are desperate for the wind in a short period of time, and it is impossible to rectify them. Restricting military discipline, there is no problem for the main force of the Taiping Army to win all the time, but once the main force of the Taiping Army fails, these surrendered troops will immediately turn around and fight back.

If Zhao Ziqiang is knifed, these guys will inevitably be alarmed, after all, their hands are not clean. It's just that it's not as excessive as Zhao Ziqiang. But no matter what, these guys naturally belong to the group faction in the Taiping Army system because of their background, and no matter which one they move, it will arouse the doubts of the others. If it weren't for wartime, the Taiping army would have had enough time to deal with them, and killing them would be like killing chickens, but now at this juncture. It's better not to move them than to move.

The Taiping army could not afford to lose. Even a small setback can't, Xu Yingyuan demonstrated the domino truth of this era for Zhou Shixiang, and he piled up the dominoes (mahjong) that he found out of nowhere to Zhou Shixiang, but it was not one by one, but one by one.

On the pyramid of Xu Yingyuan's mahjong tiles, all the troops are part of this tower, and no matter which one is drawn, it will cause the instability of this tower. There is no need for Xu Yingyuan to say more. Zhou Shixiang can also understand. He sighed and listened to Xu Yingyuan's persuasion. decided to put Zhao Ziqiang's head on his neck first, and it would not be too late to settle accounts with him in the future. At the same time, he also made up his mind that after facing the Jidu army, he must completely solve the miscellaneous armies that are attached to the Taiping army, either eliminate them, or completely eat them and integrate them into the Taiping army, so that the military discipline and command system can be clear, and this kind of lawless massacre will not occur again.

Zheng Chenggong's refusal to send troops to attack Jidu made Zhou Shixiang a little disappointed, but it was not without psychological preparation, after all, Li Dingguo had several letters to Zheng Chenggong to join forces in Guangdong, but the other party ignored them, and now where will he pay attention to him, a newcomer, Xingpingbo.

Xu Yingyuan was not idle for a few days in Xiamen, and finally found out that Zheng's army seemed to be going to make a big move in June and July, but in which direction it was moving and what kind of scale, he didn't figure it out, after all, this information belonged to Zheng Jun's top secret, even if he was a friendly envoy, Zheng Jun's people didn't dare to tell him.

"The lowly job found out that the king of Yanping is strengthening the training of the land division, tens of thousands of people practice foot warfare, and tens of thousands of people practice riding and shooting, the pro-army around the king of Yanping is all ironclad, and the sailors on the two islands have to go to sea to practice the war every day, and the movement is very big, I am afraid that there will be a big move, but what is the specific action, the lowly position is unable to find out."

Xu Yingyuan was a little uneasy, speaking of which, Zhou Shixiang gave him two errands, but he failed both errands. Not only did the Tang king not agree to come to Guangzhou, but he also returned the calligraphy and painting with the inscription of his brother Shaowu Emperor intact, although the Tang king did not say a word indicating his actual attitude from beginning to end, but this action could not be clearer.

King Tang's affairs were not completed, and King Yanping's affairs were not completed, which made Xu Yingyuan very worried, for fear that Zhou Shixiang would despise him because of this, so that he would not be able to stand out in the Taiping Army system. Fortunately, Zhou Shixiang didn't blame him for anything, and he didn't get angry at Tang Wang's refusal to come to Guangzhou, let alone anger Xu Yingyuan for doing things unfavorably, Zheng Chenggong was mentally prepared for a long time, and he would not blame Xu Yingyuan.

Zhou Shixiang was surprised that if what Xu Yingyuan said was true, it would mean that Zheng Chenggong would go on a northern expedition this year, otherwise he would not disagree to make an appointment to attack the Jidu army, after all, it would also be beneficial to him to eliminate the Jidu army, although it could reduce the pressure on the Taiping army, but it could also reduce the pressure on his Jinxia, and he could even obtain Chaozhou territory from the Taiping army, so that the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians who got him Jinxia would have a place to recuperate where they could really take root, and it was not impossible to take advantage of the situation to seize Fujian.

The only explanation for Zheng Chengguo's refusal to send troops is that he really has a big move this year, a move that attracts him more than destroying the Jidu army and capturing Chaozhou, this action is beyond the Northern Expedition to capture Nanjing, Zhou Shixiang can't think of anything else.

The surname of the country led the division into the Yangtze River to fight Nanjing, Zhou Shixiang knew, but the time point seems to be wrong, the surname of the country seems to be the Yangtze River after the defeat of Li Dingguo, but now it is only the twelfth year of Yongli (the fifteenth year of Shunzhi), Zheng Chengguo should not go north this year, it should be next year, could it be that his arrival caused a butterfly reaction, so that the time of the Northern Expedition of the surname of the country was advanced by a year.

Zhou Shixiang felt a big headache, if Zheng Chenggong went on a northern expedition this year, it would mean that it would be impossible for him to go to Nanjing to pick up leaks, even if he could annihilate the Jidu army alone. It is impossible to not even rest after the war, so he flew over Fujian and Zhejiang all the way to Nanjing City to pick up leaks, and did not go to Fujian and Zhejiang. It is even more impossible to go up from the northwest of the river.

That's it, if history really changes because of my arrival, then it will change, whether Zheng Chenggong takes Nanjing or not, I will only do my own thing.

After thinking about it repeatedly, Zhou Shixiang cut off any possibility of going to Nanjing to pick up leaks, and threw away unrealistic distractions. Apply all your thoughts to the battle against the Jidu army.

On the 28th, Zhou Shixiang ordered all departments to start ending the grain operation and preparing to retreat to Huizhou

When the Chaoyang Bloody Incident occurred. Except for the first town, most of the Taiping army was carrying out the task of collecting grain and relocating the people of Chaozhou, and in addition to the dozens of villages and Qing army strongholds that were breached, more than 4,000 people were included and reorganized. Several other stockades voluntarily surrendered after the arrival of the Taiping army. Accept the adaptation of the Taiping Army.

The main official road from Chaozhou to Nanzhao in Fujian and to Huizhou was completely occupied by the Taiping army. The forts, villages and towns within dozens of miles on both sides of the official road were all flattened and destroyed, forming a red land of three or four hundred miles. At the time of the Chaoyang Massacre, in addition to Chaoyang County, the counties of Puning, Jieyang, and Raoping were still controlled by the Qing army. In addition, Pingyuan, Huilai, Dapu, Chenghai and other counties were not within the scope of the Taiping army's attack, and the territory had been preserved, but the road with the Chaozhou capital city was damaged by the Taiping army and could not be repaired in a short time. It is even more impossible to transport grain and grass to Chaozhou through this official road.

The main tool used by the Taiping army to destroy the roads was the thousands of shovels urgently produced by the Canton government, and the way to destroy the roads was to dig trenches every few miles. In addition, the captive Zhaiding was driven to carry stones to block them, so that all the communication roads between the counties of Chaozhou were cut off. However, the official road from Chaozhou to Nanzhao and Huizhou in Fujian was retained and not cut off, which means that the Jidu army entered the territory of Chaozhou from Nanzhao in Fujian and went south along the official road smoothly, but it was impossible to obtain grain and grass supplies from Chaozhou, because the grain and grass between the eleven counties under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou could not be transported to the Jidu army through the road. The more Jidu's army advanced southward, the longer his grain route became, and everything could only rely on the grain and grass from the south of the Yangtze River that was transported from Zhejiang and Fujian and part of the grain and grass that might be supplied in the Chaozhou capital.

Hahamu's fiasco is because the soldiers are divided into three ways to attack Xiangshan, so that the Taiping army is lured all the way into the Jedi and defeated, Jidu can not learn the lessons of Hahamu, and Chaozhou to Guangzhou only has an official road through Huizhou, this official road was built in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Yuan and Ming Dynasty were expanded and repaired, it is the only traffic artery in the north and Fujian, Guangdong, if Jidu does not take this official road, but takes the small road, then there is no need for the Taiping army to fight, they themselves will collapse because of the difficulty of grain and grass transportation, Therefore, the only way for Jidu to march was to camp step by step along this official road, advancing slowly step by step, not giving the Taiping army any opportunity to take advantage of, and finally pushed all the way to the city of Guangzhou and fought a decisive battle with the Taiping army.

This way of marching is the most conducive to the Jidu army, with the Jidu not only the forward battalion Manchu soldiers, but also the Mongolian soldiers and the Han army, among which the Han army has the Wuzhen Ha super battalion, and the Wuzhen Ha super battalion is a more powerful artillery unit than the artillery battalion of the Taiping Army, is the Qing army is specially responsible for the artillery of the troops, equipped with the Manchu Qing Dynasty as early as the Guanwai by Kong Youde and others to help make the heavenly blessing of the general cannon.

The Tianyou Cheering General Cannon is a heavy cannon imitated by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which is much more powerful than the traditional firearms of the Ming army, such as the bowl mouth cannon and the Zhankou cannon. It is a retractable front-loading smoothbore gun, and after each fire, it will deviate from the original firing position, and it needs to go through the steps of resetting, reloading, and setting the direction angle and elevation angle again. In addition to being equipped with this kind of heavenly blessing to help the general's cannon, the Wuzhen Hachao battalion of the Han Eight Banners is also equipped with all kinds of large and small copper cannons and iron cannons, and the number of artillery pieces is about three or four hundred, while the artillery battalion of the Taiping Army has only more than one hundred large and small artillery, and the difference in the number of artillery on both sides is about three times, which means that once the Jidu army successfully advances to the city of Guangzhou, the Taiping army in the city will face the artillery attack of the Qing army several times that of its own.

The only thing that benefited the Taiping army was that these official roads were close to the sea, and the Qing army did not have a water division, but the Taiping army had a water division. Any point along the long coastline was a place where the Taiping army could land and fight.

Letting Jidu come in to fight is the tone set by Zhou Shixiang for this battle during the military discussion, and how to put it in and how to fight depends on the cooperation of all departments.

The Tieyi Department of the Second Town has set up a transfer station in Yunluojing in Puning, and has successively moved more than 10,000 people to Guangzhou, more than 30,000 people to Huizhou, and more than 20,000 people are waiting for Hou to move south in Yunluojing. Every day, the grain transferred from Yunluojing to Huizhou is counted in thousands of stones, and these grains are all stockpiles broken by the Taiping army, and the grain action is extremely cruel, except for a few villages, most of the villages have been killed and wounded. However, there were not many massacres in the whole village, and the main force of the Taiping Army strictly enforced military discipline, and only carried out a bloody bath of the leaders and villagers in the fiercely resisting villages, and the rest were not implicated, as long as they did not resist Ken's southward migration, they would not have the advantage of their lives. The casualties are more serious and there are massacres are done by those reorganized soldiers, such as the Chaoyang massacre is done by the Nanhai soldiers, and Suna led a battalion of cavalry to slaughter two villages when they moved to Nanzhao in Fujian, but it was because these two villages took advantage of their night camp to sneak attack, resulting in Suna's subordinates having casualties, so they retaliated by slaughtering the village.

In addition to selecting some strong prisoners and villagers to replenish on the spot, all the prisoners and villagers collected by various departments were also sent to Yunluojing, and sent to Guangzhou and Huizhou like those villagers, and then handed over to the third town for training as a reserve for soldiers, and then used for selection after actual combat.

Lu Feng's artillery battalion did not accept the soldiers, which made the cannon too technical, and it was useless to have many people, but more than 100 battalion soldiers and Zhaiding who could use the artillery were selected, and the rest were all sent to Guangzhou and handed over to the third town.

When Suna moved to Nanzhao in Fujian, he successively broke through five villages, two Qing army strongholds, and a military post, and captured more than 3,000 people. Because the cavalry of the Taiping army was wantonly collecting grain in Chaozhou, some of the leaders of the stockades saw that the enemy could not be defeated by the Taiping army, and refused to hand over the grain and move south, so they moved to Fujian in large numbers, and some even saw that the Qing army in Chaozhou could not save them, so they asked the Qing army in Fujian for help. After learning of this situation, Zhou Shixiang ordered the cavalry brigade to pursue and kill the northward moving stockade indiscriminately, never allowing a single person to escape, and never letting a grain fall into the hands of the Qing army.

For a time, the land of Chaozhou was full of scenes of Taiping cavalry chasing and killing the northbound crowds, and more often than not, a few cavalrymen led dozens of captured villagers to chase and kill those northbound villagers. There are a certain number of stockades and small groups of Qing soldiers who resist stubbornly, but in the face of absolute strength, their resistance is minimal, and they can't change anything, even if they can kill one or two teams of Taiping troops, but as more Taiping troops arrive, they will inevitably be killed.

In addition to controlling the highway checkpoints, the cavalry brigade also guarded every path that might pass under the leadership of the villagers and battalions who surrendered to Cheng, and made the villagers who surrendered to Cheng hide in the woods of the mountains, and rushed out to chase and kill those who fled north once they found it.

The huge Chaozhou, whether it is a plain or a mountain range, is full of people killing people, and corpses can be seen everywhere. The Taiping army found all the food they could find, burned all the houses that could be burned, filled all the wells that could be filled, and transported all the materials that could be carried away. The rich Chaozhou was reduced to ruins under Zhou Shixiang's bloodletting policy, and Jidu did not want to get food and supplies in Chaozhou that could support his Eight Banners army.

Chaonan was the first to be occupied by the Taiping army, and was the first to start the food and relocation operations, and at the same time liquidated the traitor leaders who defected to the Qing army, and the heads continued to land, in the process, the officers were purged in line with the principle of preferring to kill the wrong and not letting go, and there were many people who actually did not do too many bad things for the Qing soldiers, but provided some food and grass to the Qing army and landed on the ground.

The second town killed more than 1,000 people in the Huilai area, many of whom were just ordinary people, because they did not want to follow the orders of the Taiping army to move south. After receiving the report, Zhou Shixiang frowned and prepared to order an end to this indiscriminate killing.

Xu Yingyuan dissuaded again, he said that it was wartime, and the Taiping army could not establish an official government in Chaozhou, nor could it be screened one by one. If you really do that, firstly, the time will not catch up, secondly, there will not be so many literate and broken officials, and thirdly, it is easy to give the treacherous a chance to take advantage of, the so-called troubled times should be used to re-enact, since the Taiping Army's eastward expedition to Chaozhou is to drain the blood of Chaozhou and make Chaozhou a red land, there is no need to follow the rules, what is the benevolence of a woman, kill all the people first, and completely control the situation. In short, whether it is unjust or not, those who have been killed cannot save people, and what we can do now is to try to move the living people intact and without starvation or freezing to Huizhou, and then send them to Guangzhou. (To be continued.) )