Xiao Yungui included Feng Zicai in the list of the West Palace, he was not worried that Feng Zicai would have any intention of deceit, in fact, sometimes it is very simple to ask people to be loyal to you, in a word, as long as you have strong strength, then people's hearts will naturally belong to you. Xiang Rongbu and Zhang Guoliang's Qing army all started by suppressing various rebel armies all the way, and it can even be pushed back to Zhang Ge's rebellion battle more than 20 years ago, when Xiang Rong, Hu Songlin and other Qing generals participated in that war. In the following 20 years, the Qing army crisscrossed Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan and other places to quell the rebellion, and it had already played a kind of prestige.

But it's a pity that this Qing army, which is not weak in combat effectiveness, met the elite of the Taiping Army commanded by Xiao Yungui, and they suffered a big loss in the earlier battle of Xiangjiang, and the subsequent battle of Suzhou and Hangzhou even defeated the spirit of this army. Qing army generals like Feng Zicai began to have a sense of awe for the Taiping Army in their hearts, and those who should be broken and those who were attacked were subdued, and the places where the banner of the West King of the West Hall appeared were all defeats of the Qing army. In the Qing army array, the primitive law of the jungle that the strong man made was popular, but when the stronger man appeared, many generals in the formation would follow this law and attach themselves to the strong. This is also the reason why Feng Zicai broke away from the Heaven and Earth Society Righteous Army and accepted the surrender of the Qing army.

Xiao Yungui didn't see that Feng Zicai would become the famous Zhennanguan veteran in the future, and he was not surprised at all, because now that the Taiping Army and the Qing Army were fighting a civil war, what was there to do with their own people killing their own people? And Feng Zicai is still young, he is only in his thirties, and he still needs to go through a lot to have the kind of national integrity of Feng Zicai in later generations. No one is born to be a great man or a celebrity, and no one is born righteous and awe-inspiring, let alone born to know what integrity is, all of which take time to hone. Xiao Yungui didn't mind letting Feng Zicai start from a card tail and re-hone him, Xiao Yungui believed that the melting pot of the Taiping Army would let Feng Zicai know what national integrity was.

But then the father and son of the Tiger family were not so easy to deal with. Hu Songlin Jiaqing was born in Xindu County, Chengdu, Sichuan Province in the fourth year, his ancestral home in Tianshui, Gansu Province, he practiced martial arts at a young age, joined the army as a young man, and participated in the Qing army's counterinsurgency battle against Zhang Ge in Kashgar, Xinjiang. Because of his military exploits, he was rewarded with Lan Ling. Hu Songlin has been a handsome man all his life, and his footprints have traveled all over Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan and other places, and he is the first fierce general under Xiang Rong. His son Hu Kunyuan also joined the army with his father at the age of seventeen, and his courage was outstanding, and he was bound to take the lead in battle, and he was called "Little Tiger" in the army. To put it bluntly, these two people are both from Qing military families, and this kind of person's loyalty to the Qing court can be described as blind.

So when the two of them came to the hall, of course, they scolded the pseudo-king of the west. After seeing Feng Zicai, who had changed into the Taiping Army's uniform, he also scolded, and each one scolded more fiercely than the other, Xiao Yungui didn't bother to talk nonsense with them, and ordered people to fight thirty boards each. Then he was gagged and thrown back to prison.

Xiao Yungui muttered angrily: "Waste this king's time." ”

Tang Erniu bowed down and said, "His Royal Highness the King of the West, do you want to see Lai Zhenhai?" ”

Xiao Yungui said impatiently: "Lai Zhenhai? This person is just a thousand generals in the Qing Demon Guangdong Humen Water Master Camp. It's okay not to see it. Waste of time. ”

Tang Erniu clenched his fists and took the order, and when he turned around to go out and take Lai Zhenhai back to the cell, Xiao Yungui suddenly sneezed, he rubbed his nose, and said to himself: "How can you sneeze for no reason?" Is someone chanting me? Thinking of this, Xiao Yungui shouted with a thought: "Wait a minute, bring Lai Zhenhai up." ”

Years later. Lai Zhenhai became one of the founders of the Taiping Navy, and whenever he recalled his time when he returned to the Heavenly Kingdom, he always smiled and said, "My life was saved by a sneeze." ”

Lai Zhenhai, the word Panzhou. Daojiao Changpingzhou people, the official position of later generations to do the Fujian Navy Commander, this person studied when he was a teenager, well understood the righteousness, by the army to make up the Humen Water Division in the battalion general, and then promoted to a thousand general. In the third year of Xianfeng, after the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captured Nanjing, he went to Fujian with Chen Guotai, the commander of the Guangdong Navy, and then drove to Shanghai. This man was born as a naval division of the Qing army, and he fought with pirates all year round, and he was quite proficient in naval warfare.

After being escorted to the hall by Tang Erniu and others, Lai Zhenhai arched his hand to Xiao Yungui without humility or arrogance.

Xiao Yungui asked with interest: "Lai Zhenhai, you are the general of the Qing Demon Water Division, Wu Song fought a battle, and the Guangdong Water Division did his best, what do you think?" ”

Lai Zhenhai was also single, and said unabashedly: "The time and place are not in me, and there is no complaint about defeat." ”

Xiao Yungui stroked his palms and smiled: "You can understand it, but unfortunately you haven't figured out one thing yet, that is, what are you fighting for." ”

Why fight? Lai Zhenhai and Feng Zicai, who had changed his uniforms in the hall, were slightly stunned, the literary and martial arts that the eldest husband learned, sold to the emperor's family, naturally fought for his official position and future, and won a wife and a son. As for being loyal to the imperial court, Lai Zhenhai naturally felt that it was still far away for him. In the Qing Dynasty, in order to prevent the Han people and other ethnic groups from rebelling, the local defense troops guarded the common people even more than the outside, to put it bluntly, the Manchus never regarded the people as their own people, and the people never had the concept of a state.

During the Opium War, the British warships went north along the coastline, and people rowed small boats to sell fresh vegetables and fruits everywhere, which was a very incredible thing in the eyes of later generations, and later generations would also think that the common people at that time were too unnationalized, your country was at war with the British, how could you do business with the British?

In fact, everything must have a reason, the banner people are a minority, they want to rule the majority of the nation, all kinds of high-pressure means must be necessary, so that the people only know that there is a court and an official government, and the court and the government are oppressive to the people, but they do not know that there is a concept of the state. Were the British invaders? They fight the official army and the government, and the common people will only watch it as if they were watching a play, and they even have a deep sense of pleasure.

As for Sanyuanli and later the movement of Guangzhou to resist the British entering the city? That's because the British army opened the coffin in Sanyuan, robbed the property, raped the women, and entered the city of Guangzhou to directly infringe on the interests of the people, so the people's spontaneous actions were just that, it is very sad that all these actions have nothing to do with the general interests of the country, but the textbooks of later generations have made these the banners of the national struggle. In Xiao Yungui's view, these are just means for the people to protect themselves, and they have nothing to do with the dignified Qing Empire.

Lai Zhenhai and Feng Zicai's current thinking is also like this, so when Xiao Yungui asked why they were fighting, both of them were a little stunned.

Xiao Yungui smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't understand, Lai Zhenhai, are you willing to serve my Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?" ”

Lai Zhenhai glanced at Feng Zicai, clenched his fists and said lightly: "The kingdom of heaven is like the sky, the Qing court is thin, Zhenhai is not talented, and he is willing to serve the king of the west." ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said: "Very good, you can serve under the command of my water camp general Tang Zhengcai, as for what you are fighting for, after you join the army, you will slowly and naturally understand." "Man is a very strange animal, he can change and affect the environment, and at the same time will be affected and changed by the environment, Xiao Yungui believes that the two will find the answer in the Taiping Army, because why he is fighting He has already relied on the grievance campaign carried out by the warden in the army and deeply implanted in the Taiping Army of the West Palace, he hopes that Feng Zicai, Lai Zhenhai, these new Qing generals and ordinary Qing soldiers, to find the answer themselves, the army is a melting pot, no matter how cowardly people will be beaten into steel. This is also the difference between the Taiping Army in the West Hall and the rest of the Taiping Army and the Qing Army.

Hong Yun'er's side was much smoother, among the captured Qing army generals, a total of more than 20 more than 1,000 Qing generals were attached, Hong Yun'er according to the confession of the surrendered Qing soldiers, after eliminating those who did a lot of evil, subdued more than ten people. Xiao Yungui incorporated them into the army, starting from low-level generals, and did not give them official positions according to the official positions of the Qing army. And diehards like Hu Songlin's father and son, Xiao Yungui unceremoniously ordered people to be loaded into a prisoner car, and together with He Chun, Zhang Guoliang and others, they prepared to be escorted into Tianjing to sacrifice prisoners.

……

After Luo Outline and other generals returned triumphantly, Xiao Yungui rewarded the generals, and then explained the defense of Zhenjiang and Guazhou to Luo Outline and other generals, and then prepared to rush to Tianjing with more than 2,000 of his own personal guards.

Xiao Yungui told Luo Da Outline to actively prepare for war, the Qing army retreated to Yangzhou, although it is impossible to build a camp in Jiangbei in a short period of time, but after all, there are more than 20,000 Qing troops in Yangzhou City, and the Qing troops in the northern provinces will come to help one after another, so as to do a good job in the defense of Guazhou, the foothold of northern Jiangsu is still very important.

As for whether Xiao Yungui can fight Yangzhou, let Luo Outline decide on his own according to the changes in the military situation, Yangzhou can be defeated best, but at present, the Xidian Taiping Army has to digest the newly conquered southern Jiangsu, Ningbo and other places, and it is unlikely to give Zhenjiang large-scale military assistance, Luo Outline Department wants to defend Guazhou and Zhenjiang, and it is indeed a little reluctant to fight Yangzhou, so Xiao Yungui let Luo Outline make a decision on the spot.

Before leaving, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er met Rong Lu again on the river, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er were very happy, because the information given by Rong Lu was correct, indicating that Rong Lu still had the heart to help the Taiping Army. Later, when Xiao Yungui asked Rong Lu if Yangzhou City could be captured, and whether Rong Lu could do it again, Rong Lu shook his head and said that he had offended Shengbao by doing Neiying this time, and estimated that Shengbao would transfer himself to other battlefields, and his troops had already been handed over to Yangzhou's defense these days.

Xiao Yungui was a little disappointed, and when he asked where Rong Lu would be transferred, Rong Lu only said that he would not know until he was appointed by the Ministry of War, and he might go to Hunan, Anhui, or Jiangxi.

In the end, the Xiwang couple invited Rong Lu again or took the soldiers and horses who were willing to go south to Guazhou, and he and his wife would receive them warmly, and Xiao Yungui even allowed Rong Lu to take the high position of the deputy prime minister of the West Palace.

Zuihou Ronglu smiled slightly and said: "My role in the Qing army is far greater than that of being with you. I am not as good as Xiao Yungui in leading troops, not as broad in knowledge as Hong Yun'er, not as good as those strategists and generals under you, and I still have a greater role in the Qing army. ”

Seeing that Rong Lu still refused to go south, the Xiwang couple had to give up, and Xiao Yungui still asked Rong Lu to be careful, and if he couldn't do anything, he could come to him. After the two agreed on a new contact person and a code word, Rong Lu went back to Yangzhou.

After dealing with the military affairs of Zhenjiang, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er took more than 2,000 parts, together with dozens of gold jewelry shells and Qing army prisoners to be sacrificed, played the banner of the king of the west, and went to Tianjing. (To be continued......)