The Jingwu army cut the braids, not one or two, but a large-scale collective braiding, this kind of thing can't be hidden at all, so it quickly spread outward at a surprising speed, and the explosion of this matter is not comparable to the robbery of the silver, and even a certain kind of Cheng dù is still excessive.

In the Manchu Dynasty, it was a felony to cut braids at will without a special reason, and there was a law to follow, but if you want to violate the law and enforce the law strictly, the government must still have a strong enforcement ability, that is to say, it must be the so-called prosperous era.

But in the Xianfeng era, there were wars everywhere, and the ruling power of the government in various places was sharply reduced, not to mention Li Yongji's ruling area, as long as it was out of the scope of Beijing and Tianjin, even if it was Shandong not far from the capital, the Qing court at this time could not fully control it, and the government naturally had no ability, nor the energy to supervise whether you cut your braids.

In other words, during the Xianfeng period, as long as you didn't cut your braids privately in a place where the Qing court controlled it strictly, there was basically no big problem, at least the government didn't have much binding power on it.

For example, in Shanghai, there are many Chinese compradors, many of whom cut off their braids and put on suits in order to please foreigners, but they have not seen how the government has treated these fake foreign devils, but the common people of the people hate this kind of fake foreign devils, or two devils.

In fact, in the Xianfeng era, except for the Beijing-Tianjin area around the capital, the Qing court was no longer able to punish the braids very strictly.

The Han people were really forced to shave their hair under the butcher's knife, and the Han people also strongly resisted, only for a short period of time in the early Qing Dynasty, with the passage of time, after the end of the Kangxi Dynasty. As the Qing regime gradually stabilized, as the older generation gradually passed away, and with the strong implementation of the policy of fooling the people, the new generation began to grow up in a braided environment from an early age, and they did not feel that there was any problem.

In this way, more than 200 years have passed, and over time, by the time of the Xianfeng era, whether it is Manchu or Han, growing hair and keeping braids has become the so-called ancestral habit. At this time, the Manchurians will not talk about it, and the Han people will not talk about cutting their braids. If someone else cuts your braids, or your braids are accidentally broken, you don't need to make trouble with the government, and you may be like a mourner who wants to die or live.

The power of habit is powerful, and the formation of habit is actually the accumulation of time, if you want to reverse the habit that the world is already familiar with in a short period of time, it is useless to rely on persuasion and education alone, or to have a fierce ideological impact. Either it's enforced.

In the past, Li Yongji was worried about everyone's habits, and his own strength was not enough, so he did not force the implementation of braids. In addition to not wanting to stimulate the Qing court, there was also the idea of not wanting to stimulate the habits of the Han people in the Qing Dynasty too early, and always wanted to reform their thinking first, and then take their time.

Who knows. This time, Jingwujun spontaneously cut his braids at the same time, which surprised Li Yongji himself.

Indeed, it is necessary to say that those who were the first to recruit by Li Yongji were willing to cut their braids. Li Yongji is not strange at all, they have been with him for at least nearly a year, during which they have learned too many things that are contrary to the etiquette of this world, and the tide of the emperor's will has long been re-raised, and it is not difficult for them to cut off their braids.

However, not long ago, after another major expansion of the Jingwu Army, those newly recruited recruits may not be the same, they may also cut their braids, the only explanation is fear, or speculation, is a kind of behavior of trading names.

They cut off their braids to show their loyalty to the Jingwu Army and Li Yongji, but such an act also pushed Li Yongji to the forefront again.

There is no doubt that at this critical time of much attention, all the officers and soldiers of the Jingwu Army suddenly cut their braids on a large scale, not so much to show loyalty, but to force the palace, which is another form of yellow robe!

You must know that when these people cut their braids, Li Yongji himself hadn't cut them yet, and the court had just given a reward and reward, so you cut off your braids together, isn't this a clear slap in the face of the Qing court, isn't it a clear accusation that everyone Lao Tzu wants to rebel?

Don't talk about it from afar, let's just say that the Taiping Army, don't they also have to forcibly cut off their braids when they get into trouble? So once you cut off your braids, it's actually tantamount to rebellion.

It can be said that your braids have been cut, and if the Qing court is still indifferent, then this court will be completely looked down upon, and it will no longer have any prestige at all.

In fact, this time the trend of cutting braids really stimulated Emperor Xianfeng, and it was useless to say no matter how much he said no, he didn't care whether he had the strength or not, and immediately ordered Seng Lingqin and Shengbao's troops to go south to quell the rebellion.

That's right, the word is the word counterinsurgency, Emperor Xianfeng regarded the Jingwu Army as a traitor for the first time, and he was a traitor like the Taiping Army! However, in terms of specific names, the Taiping Army is called long hair because of its hair dispersion, while the Jingwu Army is called short hair because most of them have flat heads and short hair.

Naturally, with the opening of Emperor Xianfeng's golden mouth, there was no buffer room between the Qing court and the Jingwu army, and even if Li Yongji didn't want to rebel at this time, he had to rebel at this moment, which called the plan unable to catch up with the change.

Similarly, with the complete reversal of the Qing court and the Jingwu army, the previous deadlock because of the Caoyin issue can be regarded as broken, and everyone should not mention the issue of repaying the silver, you all say that I am a rebellion, so what else do you say, just start fighting.

Monk Greenqin is a fiery temper, or an impulsive personality, at least so far, he has been known for his bravery, and even because he had defeated foreign devils in the defense of Dagukou before, he was boasted by the world as the first Baturu of the Qing Dynasty.

Perhaps because he has been touted for too long, he even believes in it, thinking that he is already invincible in the world, and he has never fought with the Jingwu Army before, so Seng Lingqin's heart is very high at this time, and this time Xianfeng's order came, and he immediately sent troops when he was already gearing up.

On the issue of sending troops, in the face of the attack between Haizhou and Huai'an, Seng Lingqin correspondingly divided his troops into two routes, one of which was that he personally led the main army to Huai'an, and the other was led by Shengbao to attack Haizhou in order to contain it.

In fact, Monk Lingqin let Shengbao attack Haizhou, not purely for tactical reasons, but mainly because he was afraid that he would fight for merit, because everyone knew that Huai'an City was rich. This time it was occupied by Shorthair, even if it was a bandit city, when the time came, it would naturally be able to rob it, such a good errand could not be allowed to win and keep occupied.

For this kind of thing, Shengbao is naturally slightly dissatisfied, but it is useless to be dissatisfied, Seng Greenqin is the commander of the army at this time, and after the previous Dagukou defense war. The prestige is unparalleled for a while, known as the first Baturu of the Qing Dynasty, known as the Optimus Prime of the Qing Dynasty, it can be said that whether it is status, prestige or authority, it is incomparable to Shengbao, so although he has many criticisms of the deployment of Seng Lingqin, he also had to lead 20,000 people to attack Haizhou.

Katsuho is different from Monk Grinqin, or rather, because he is not touted too much. He has fought a lot of defeats before, so he still maintains a calm heart, and he is quite cautious, although he has heard of the combat power of the elite army. He didn't really see it, but he did.

In Shengbao's view, Hechun of the Jiangnan battalion was a rare good general, although the 200,000 troops of the Jiangnan battalion were found out afterwards. In order to prove the decay of the Jiangnan camp, but it is not useless, and Li Xiucheng was able to defeat the 200,000 army of Hechun in one go. It's definitely not a fluke.

In this way, Li Xiucheng's troops were stronger than the Jiangnan battalion, and Li Xiucheng's army was defeated by the Jingwu Army in a battle, and then the Taiping Army saw the Qing army and won one after another, and when it encountered the Jingwu army, it was defeated and retreated, which is already very revealing.

In addition, he had heard that the Jingwu Army had all foreign guns and artillery, so Shengbao was very skeptical about the problem of defeating the Jingwu Army, and he also regarded the Jingwu Army as the second only to the foreign army.

He knows very well how the foreigners can fight, and as for how to win the battle of Dagukou, he knows better than others, in his opinion, the victory in the defense of Dagukou is not a real victory at all, because his own casualties are much greater than those of the other party.

Because of this, Shengbao's action to enter Haizhou was very cautious, and he set up camp fifteen miles away from Haizhou, usually just closed his door, and resolutely did not take the initiative to provoke, just waiting for Shengbao to fight a result first.

Compared with Shengbao's cautiousness, Seng Greenqin was a little bold, because Monk Greenqin never doubted victory at this time.

Monk Greenqin currently feels very good about himself, he feels that his troops are far stronger than the other party, and he is experienced in a hundred battles, and the other party is just a fledgling hairy boy, no matter how you look at it, he has a better chance of winning.

You must know that Seng Lingqin's troops have not experienced the defeat of Bali Bridge at this time, and their strength is well preserved, plus the troops who have been reinforced during the garrison in Xuzhou, at this time, Seng Greenqin has more than 10,000 cavalry mainly Mongolian horse team, 40,000 infantry mainly from Beijing and Green Battalion, adding up to more than 50,000 people, and the support troops from all over the country are still coming one after another, and it is likely to accumulate a total of more than 100,000 troops at that time.

As for weapons, at present, he has 10,000 large and small guns, 300 large and small artillery, and although the others are all broadswords, spears, bows and arrows, most of them are well-armed, and the food and salary are sufficient, and the soldiers are strong.

And what about the Huai'an defenders? According to the information found by Seng Lingqin, so far there is only an infantry regiment of less than 4,000 people under Wang Sanwu's department, a cavalry regiment of 1,000 people, and 30,000 militiamen, a total of less than 40,000 people.

Although Huai'an is the place where the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River meet the northern plains, in fact, there are relatively few small rivers, and they are located in the plains, which is very conducive to the gallop of the cavalry, so Monk Gelinqin thinks that even if he can't take Huai'an City, it is no problem to trap the other party.

As long as Huai'an City is trapped, he can surround the point and send reinforcements at that time, and use his powerful cavalry to defeat the rescue troops of the Jingwu Army in the field battle, and at that time, Huai'an, which is trapped in the lonely city, will fall sooner or later.

Even, Monk Greenqin still fantasized that after defeating the Jingwu army to help the main force, he could take advantage of the situation to go south, and it is unknown when the time comes, when the time comes, he will recover the rich Jiangnan.

Monk Greenqin was indeed very arrogant at this time, and even a little empty-eyed, but his arrogance was also a little good for the morale improvement, at least his troops looked like high morale, and it was quite like that.

It was precisely because he was too arrogant that he pulled the troops to Taoyuan County, that is, Siyang County in later generations, and regarded Taoyuan County as the former enemy's grain platform.

Seeing that the Jingwu army could not hold out, Seng Lingqin was even more proud, although there was no more daring siege on all sides, but also scattered three thousand cavalry to gallop everywhere in turn, and surrounded the places around Huai'an City with cavalry, it can be said that as long as there is a disturbance in Huai'an City, his people can inform him as quickly as possible.

Although Seng Lingqin was arrogant, his mind was not confused, and in the face of Huai'an Jiancheng, he did not play any strong attack, but honestly stayed in the camp, clearly thinking of encircling the point to send reinforcements. Anyway, he is not short of food and grass, and now that it is just autumn, everyone will consume it together.

In Seng Lingqin's view, time and location are on his side, the longer he waits, the more reinforcements he has, and the more thorough the preparation, when the time comes, he is waiting for work, but the reinforcements of the Jingwu army are coming from afar, so naturally his side has a higher chance of winning.

In addition, here are the great plains, the most suitable for cavalry combat, he has tens of thousands of elite cavalry, even if the elite army comes from afar, it is also an infantry-based force, in the plain environment, in the face of their own cavalry charge, it is definitely a victory and a defeat, so he is still quite sure of victory.

Of course, this is all taken for granted by Monk Greenqin, but there are also many people who have similar thoughts to Monk Greenqin. How to say it, this is probably the fearlessness of the ignorant, in their minds, even the foreigners have been defeated, how strong can the elite army that is inferior to the foreigners be?

Although the Jingwu Army had a brilliant record against the Taiping Army, and the Taiping Army once fought the Qing Army, the Monk Greenqin believed that it was because the Qing Army commander was incompetent, and it did not show how powerful the Taiping Army was, or how powerful the Jingwu Army was.

How did Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang think about back then? That's the most elite unit of the bandits, right? Didn't he suffer defeat at the hands of his monk Grinqin?

In the past, Seng Lingqin did not go to fight the Taiping Army, that is, he had to guard against foreigners, and he also had to defend the Beijing Division, plus the places occupied by the Taiping Army were mostly water towns, which was not conducive to cavalry combat, but now the host and guest are different, if the Jingwu Army dares to come to Huai'an, he will definitely give the Jingwu Army a profound lesson!

In fact, with Wang Sanwu's temper, if he followed his original intention, he would never let Seng Lingqin's troops come to his city, and the reason why he put on a posture of stubbornly waiting for reinforcements was entirely because Li Yongji gave him such an order.

The reason is very simple, it is not that Li Yongji thinks that Wang Sanwu's troops can't defeat the other party, but he doesn't want to have a case.

After all, Wang Sanwu doesn't look at a lot of people in Huai'an City, but most of them are militiamen who have not been conscripted for a long time, and the troops that can really fight are only one infantry regiment and one cavalry regiment, and this is not the original old regiment, but a troop mixed with a large number of recruits, and the combat effectiveness cannot be compared at all, at least the combat consciousness cannot be equaled.

Therefore, in the face of Seng Lingqin's 50,000 army, especially the troops with more than 10,000 elite cavalry, Li Yongji did not want the other party to take too much risk, and did not want him to go out of the city with the other party to fight, which was completely different from when he fought Li Xiucheng.

According to Li Yongji's words to persuade Wang Sanwu, Wang Sanwu's troops have sharp firearms, if they stick to the reinforcements, relying on Huai'an City to give full play to their own firepower advantages, let alone 50,000, even if it is 100,000 people, Li Yongji absolutely believes that Wang Sanwu can hold it, but if he rushes out of the city, such a small number of people face tens of thousands of cavalry charges, I am afraid the result will be difficult to say.

Our Jingwu army has a family background on this, and now it has a big business, and it is not barefoot and not afraid to wear shoes, so he asks for a stable word in everything, so let him first rely on Huai'an City to stand for help, and when Li Yongji finishes dealing with internal matters, he will personally lead the army to come to the rescue.

Regarding Li Yongji's words, Wang Sanwu still listened, not to mention that he also knew that these things seemed to be caused by him, don't look at Li Yongji carrying it for him, but the internal punishment is certain.

Now that the order of internal punishment has not come down, he can be said to be still guilty, and now if he doesn't listen to the order and act privately, it is estimated that even if it is a relative, it is useless, so he guarded the city very honestly this time, and he no longer dared to mess around.

"Hmph, let you be arrogant for a while!" After standing at the head of the city and observing the situation of the Qing army camp opposite with a telescope for a while, Wang Sanwu pursed his lips and touched his freshly shaved bald head, "Wait for my Yongji to ease up, I want you to look good!" (To be continued......)