In the middle of winter, on the vast cold and misty Dongting Lake, a small fishing boat drifts alone on the cold lake. On the dilapidated fishing boat, an old man and a young man shouted loudly to spread a big net into the lake, and followed loudly, hoping to be able to make a gain, but under the net, there was still nothing.

The boy sat down on the board of the boat and began to cry: "Daddy, if we go on like this, we will have to starve to death, I have not eaten a full meal for two days." ”

The old man put his braids on his head, sighed and said, "What can I do? The government blocked the water inlet on the lake at this time, and the two of us finally found an old waterway to steal into the lake to fish, but God didn't open their eyes, and the fish, shrimp and crabs didn't know where to go. Hurry up and make a few more nets, if it snows in a few days, and the weather gets colder, let alone starve to death, we will freeze to death. ”

The young man sighed and sat up, but looked at the lake in the distance, there seemed to be some movement, looked up, and then sat down on the board of the boat in fright, pointed to the front and stammered: "Daddy, Daddy, look, what is that?" ”

The old man looked up and saw a thick fog on the lake, and between the thick fog, a large number of sails came in an endless stream, and the boundless boats cut through the thick fog on the lake and drove over. Rao is the old man has been fishing on Dongting Lake all his life, and he has never seen so many boats coming, so he was so frightened that he sat on the board.

The young man asked in a daze, "Daddy, what are so many ships for?" ”

The old man had some insight and muttered, "It seems to be the sailor of the army." ”

"Is it the sailor of the imperial court?" The young man had never seen such a magnificent scene, and still asked in a daze.

The old man shook his head and said, "Where is the imperial court on the Yangtze River where there are so many sailor fleets?" It's great to have more than 100 ships, but I think this fleet is only afraid of thousands of ships. Oh, son, go quickly, it seems to be a long-haired thief from the south, I heard that they have already hit Yiyang, and these ships are afraid that they are long-haired. ”

The young man was startled and said, "Is the long hair the gang of thieves who are all blue-faced and fanged, bloodthirsty, and want to eat human flesh as the officials said?" ”

The old man stomped his feet and said hurriedly: "It's them, hurry up, they have been arrested, I'm afraid that I will be disemboweled, go quickly, go quickly." ”

By this time, it was already late, and several clippers scattered around the flotilla had already discovered the small boat, and they were speeding over, and the long-bearded military man wrapped in a red turban on the boat shouted: "The boat in front of you stops, and it is about to release arrows while running, if you don't want to die, stop me!" ”

Pity the boat only rowed out of a section, and then it was surrounded by the clipper, and several soldiers with red scarves jumped on the boat, and the steel knife in their hands stood straight, and the father and son were so frightened that they knelt on the ground and kowtowed and begged for mercy. The long-bearded soldier who shouted earlier saw it and shouted, "These two people are very suspicious, take them back to see the chief master." ”

A few red turban soldiers like wolves took the father and son onto the clipper, dragged the boat, and sailed towards the fleet quickly. The father and son were holding their heads in pain on the boat, thinking that this time they were probably going to be eaten alive.

When they arrived at a large ship, the long-bearded soldier escorted the two to the foredeck, only to see a big man with a proud face and a beard sitting on the deck, and his head was also wrapped in a red scarf, but the red scarf was inlaid with a yellow edge.

The big man listened to a few whispers from the long-bearded man, and began to look at the kneeling father and son, the father and son were worried in their hearts, the old man was more knowledgeable, and only said that the big man was looking at the fat and thin, which one to take into the pot first, and wanted to repay his son's life, so he quickly kowtowed and begged: "The king spares his life, my son is thin and small, and I can't be an old man, I have a lot of meat, if the king wants to eat meat, eat the old man and me, and ask the king to release my son." ”

As soon as these words came out, the red scarf sergeant on the ship suddenly became daxiao, and laughed so hard that the father and son looked at each other, not knowing what they were laughing at.

On the warship, the father and son who were fishing were ridiculed by the sergeants of the Taiping Army, and their hearts were even more panicked. The big man with a beard on his face shouted: "Say, are you the dog spies of the Qing Demon?" ”

The two fathers and sons kowtowed like pounding garlic, and even shouted wrongs in their mouths, and the old man said in a mournful voice: "Grandfathers, our father and son are just fishing in this lake, the old man and my surname are Gu Rank Five, and everyone calls me Gu Five, this is my son Gu Xiaosi." Grandpa, we're really just fishing. ”

The big man snorted and said, "The Qing Demon has blocked all the water outlets in the east of Dongting, and no sails are allowed to go into the water, where are the people from fishing?" You must be the spies of the demons! Recruit Lao Tzu from the truth, and avoid the pain of flesh and skin! ”

The old man said with a sad face: "Don't dare to deceive grandpa, a few days ago, the government did recruit a lot of nearby fishermen and villagers, and transported stones to several water ports and water mouths to block the lake port, and everyone was busy for more than a month, but the silver promised by the government was nothing, and we were not allowed to wait for fishermen to fish in the lake. ”

The big man's eyes flashed, and he asked, "The Saturn Harbor in front is also blocked?" My husband didn't lie. ”

The old five nodded ruthlessly and said, "Yes, grandpa, if you don't believe the fleet, you will know it later." ”

The big man rubbed his hands, and hehedaxiao got up: "Qing Demon is thinking too simply, so he wants to stop our heavenly soldiers?" He paused and asked the ancient five ways: "Gu Zhang, don't be afraid, our heavenly soldiers do not harm the people, but come to rescue everyone, as long as they follow us, in the future, they will have clothes to wear, food to eat, and land to plow." ”

Gu Wu and Gu Xiaosi breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that the big man didn't seem to have malicious intent, Gu Xiaosi's newborn calf was not afraid of tigers, and asked boldly: "Grandpa Tianbing, we haven't eaten for two days, can you give us something to eat?" ”

The big man laughed loudly: "This is not simple? Chen Da, take them down to eat something. ”

The long-bearded captain clenched his fists and led the father and son to the cabin. On the road, Gu Wu kept complimenting the captain Chen Da, and the long-bearded man Chen Da smiled and said: "Uncle, come there, don't call grandpa, our heavenly soldiers are all brothers and sisters." ”

Gu Wucheng said with trepidation: "Then where is it? At the very least, you have to shout the general. ”

Chen Da smiled and said: "The general doesn't dare to do anything, but, I'm just a military commander, in charge of five people, the general is the one you just saw, and it's our Tuyi General Luo." ”

Gu Xiaosi asked curiously: "That general is very imposing, is he very powerful?" ”

Chen Da said: "Very powerful, young man, seeing that you are not young, why do you want to follow us?" ”

Gu Wu hurriedly pulled his son behind him and said with a smile: "The military master is merciful, I am such a son, I just want to live in peace." ”

Chen Da snorted and said, "Live a safe life? The heavenly soldiers are all from a bitter background who can't survive, Gu Zhang, if you don't meet us, how do you two survive this winter? ”

Gu Wu was silent, looking at his son with cloudy old eyes, and Gu Xiaosi was at a loss, yes, this meal is there, what about the next meal?

However, he said that General Naluo was the general commander of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's water camp and soil, and he was originally from the Heaven and Earth Huibo Mountain Boat Army, and he was very handy in charge of the water camp. Since he led the water battalion to follow the soldiers and horses of the West Temple to the north along the Xiangjiang River, Xiao Yungui and Zuo Zongtang made a plan not to go straight to Yueyang, but to attack Yiyang west of the Xiangjiang River and north of Dongting first.

Yiyang is located in the south bank of the Yangtze River in the Dongting Lake area of northern Hunan Province, since ancient times it is the rich "land of fish and rice" in the south of the Yangtze River, the east and southeast are close to Yuezhou, the river network in the plain area is vertical and horizontal, the lakes are scattered, the waterway passes through the Dongting Lake outside the Yangtze River, and the internal connection of Hunan, Zi, Yuan, Li waterway, to cross the Dongting Lake from Xiangxi to Yuezhou, the Yiyang on the west bank must be taken down first, thinking that the army is the place to board the ship.

Last time, Wei Changhui waved his army north to fight Yiyang, but because there was still the Qing army in Xiangxiang behind him, he did not dare to attack with all his strength, and when he saw that the Qing army in Yiyang was prepared, he retreated. This time, Xiao Yungui led the army north and went straight to Yiyang. After three days of fierce fighting, the soldiers and horses of the West Temple captured Yiyang, annihilated more than 3,000 Qing troops, and all the officials below the prefect of Yiyang committed suicide.

In Yiyang City, the Taiping Army in the West Hall received a lot of money, food and materials, and what made Xiao Yungui happiest was that Yiyang actually had hundreds of large and small civilian ships, merchant ships and naval warships collected by the Qing army. At the beginning of the war, the water camp ships blocked the Qing army fleet in Yiyang Port, and after the land city was broken, the Qing army sailors had to surrender.

In this way, the Taiping army not only had a lot of money and food, but also replenished a group of congregations such as the Heaven and Earth Society and the Pao Ge Society in Yiyang to enlist in the army, and also got hundreds of large and small ships, counting the original ships in the water camp, Luo Xuan's ships surged to more than 1,500 at once, and spread out on the surface of Dongting Lake.

After a delay of ten days in Yiyang, Xiao Yungui and Zuo Zongtang made a gesture of going straight to Yuezhou with great fanfare, wanting the Qing army in Xiangyin to return to rescue Yuezhou. But they didn't expect Zhang Liangji and Peng Yulin to ignore Chang Dachun's request for help, and they didn't let the Hubei soldiers come back to help.

In desperation, the two came up with a stupid way to gather the people and fishermen in various waterports and ports, collect the boats, cut off all merchant ships on Dongting Lake, and sink the ships and block the harbor, hoping to stop the Taiping army.

After getting the news, Xiao Yungui was a little worried that the port was blocked and the navy was insurmountable, so he planned to cross the Dongting Lake in advance to attack Yuezhou, but Zuo Zongtang said that Chang Dachun was busy in vain, and there were so many waterways in Dongting, how could they all be blocked? Moreover, he did this, cutting off the exchanges between merchant ships and civilian ships, which caused the anger of the heavens and the resentment of the people, and the Taiping army would attack everything later.

So Xiao Yungui waited in Yiyang for more than 20 days, preparing soldiers and horses, training recruits, and watching Chang Dachun and Shuangfu play with their lives on the other side. After a month's rest and drills, the new army in the West Hall finally had a chance to train. At the same time, Xiao Yungui also began to rearrange the duties of the warden, and also began to prepare his first special force.