More than ten miles northeast of Liuzhuang is the first shop in Xiangyin County to the south - Yuanjiapu, where the official road from Xiangyin to Changsha is guarded, at this time here has lost the tranquility of the past, and the small town has become the place where the Qing army is stationed.

In front of the barracks lay a half-man-deep trench, filled with pointed stakes and antlers, and on the ridge was a barracks lined with stone stakes, and several lonely stone bars were arranged in the barracks, on which there were only a few small bronze cannons. There were a lot of flags planted in the battalion, but the Qing soldiers who patrolled back and forth under it were all listless.

On the watchtower in the south of the Qing army barracks, a Qing officer about forty years old is looking into the distance, his head is wearing a lapis lazuli flower feather, his body is a robe with eight pythons and five claws, and a snow goose is in the chest supplement, but it is the official clothing of the fourth grade of the Qing court.

This person's face has long ears, a thick beard on his lips, and a pair of deep eyes exude a fierce aura, he looked at the terrain on the left and right, frowned and said to another Qing army official beside him: "Governor Mei, the terrain here is flat, there should be more trenches and stone barriers inside and outside, and the long-haired bandits are all outlaws, so they can't be careless." ”

The official Mei Zhifu said with a bitter face: "Hu Daotai, it's not that we don't want to deal with the blockade, Wujialing was defeated in the first battle, Bao Junmen was killed in battle, Taqib fled to Liuyang, and the deputy general and above in the army died and fled, and it really reached the situation of no general to lead the army." The army's rations, salaries, and firearms were innumerable, and morale was so low that they fled at the sight of the long-haired banner. The following thousands of presidents and generals were arrogant and domineering, so they didn't listen to orders, and after fleeing back, they didn't want to forge ahead, but gathered people to gamble and fight. I, the prefect of Changsha, am a fart in front of them, and I call you an adult when I am happy, and I don't look at you when I am unhappy. The day before yesterday, when he heard that Wang Zongzhen was defeated in Liuyang again, Zhang Futai drove these soldiers to Yuanjiapu to garrison after many threats and temptations. reluctantly built the current camp, and then asked them to dig trenches and build fortifications, but it cost the lives of these eight masters. ”

This Hu Daotai snorted coldly and said: "The imperial court raises soldiers for a thousand days and uses soldiers for a while, you need to know that military law is ruthless, and the king's law is like a furnace, these soldiers are brave and do not obey orders?!" ”

The prefect of Namei sighed lightly: "We are all civilian officials, and we don't have the determination to kill and govern the army, I'm afraid that killing people at this time will chill the morale of the army, and I'm even more afraid that those Qiu Ba are making trouble." At the moment, I don't know that the long-haired soldiers will be pointing north, and their reinforcements are still out of reach in the middle hall of the south road and Xiangjunmen, and the morale of the army is floating at the moment. ”

The Hu Daotai slapped the wooden railing heavily and said: "At this critical moment of life and death, the killing must be more decisive, although Hu has only been here for a day, but he has led the troops for some time and knows how to generalize the soldiers, and today I, Hu Linyi, will let these Qiu Ba know the means of my Hu someone!" ”

Governor Mei let out a sigh of relief and said: "Hu Daotai's official voice, the lower officials have also heard of it, but Hu Gong is ordered to transfer Hunan Xiang to handle military affairs this time, and everything is still waiting for Zhang Futai's order." Then he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, sighed and said with a wry smile: "The provincial city has fallen, Wujialing is defeated again, and I don't know how the imperial court will deal with me, Mei Budo, and the rest of my colleagues are just trying their best. ”

Hu Linyi's heart tightened fiercely, this Changsha prefect Mei Bu undoubtedly said that what he said was true, he was originally the prefect of Liping, more than ten days ago, the imperial court issued an edict, added him to the rank of Taoist, and transferred to Hunan Xiang to handle military affairs. Originally, Hu Linyi only planned to rush to Hunan alone, but before leaving, the news of the fall of Changsha came, and the imperial court ordered him to lead troops to Chu. At the beginning of the year, there were also long-haired thieves in Liping Mansion, but Hu Linyi ordered villages everywhere to protect themselves and train the people to defend themselves, and there were only more than 1,800 green battalion soldiers in Liping Mansion, but Hu Linyi launched more than 18,000 soldiers and Miao soldiers, so as not to let Longhair enter Liping.

Hu Linyi has long known that the training camp soldiers are weak and unreliable, and they need to ask for supplies, and they are very troubled, so they are not as good as the indigenous people, and they are not as good as the villagers, and the general purpose is that it is better to keep the words and wars, and it is better to use the soldiers than to use the people, and the people are better to defend themselves, especially if they use the land to defend the people, and the concept of people's war used by Chairman Mao may come from here. Under the operation of Hu Linyi, Liping Mansion and other places set up regiments to train more than 1,500 villages, set up more than 450 card gates, and each card sent four to 20 people, divided into shifts, month by month committee members and old gentlemen led to practice Yong patrol, cycle after cycle, the first time to eliminate bandits, twenty or thirty years without seeing the light of day in this area, the beginning of the blockage. The Qing court knew about Hu Linyi's talents, so he was transferred to Chu. …,

This time he went to Chu, Hu Linyi hired and recruited 1,000 Zhuang people and seedlings on the South Road, and drew their elites to form 500 troops, taught their skills, and made them know the law of war and defense, so they went to Chu. Arrived in Xiangyin a little later yesterday, and led the troops to the forefront early this morning to inspect the military situation, from Xiangyin to Yuanjiapu, Hu Linyi saw a gloomy and bleak scene, the officials did not want to do errands, the soldiers were unable to kill thieves, the military equipment was not in order, the food and grass were scarce, and the people were completely indifferent to their own affairs.

At this moment, listening to Mei Budo talk about the bitterness in his heart, Hu Linyi also knew that the new Hunan governor Zhang Liangji and Hunan political envoy Pan Duo took over a mess. Thinking of this, Hu Linyi also sighed and said: "Now that it is an eventful season, we and other officials can only do our best." Hu entered Chu and transferred 500 Miao soldiers from Qiandi to help, and the matter of digging trenches and fortifying fortifications will be left to us, only ask the Mei Governor to mobilize some people and people to do the errand together. ”

Mei Budo said with a bitter face: "Hu Daotai, it's not that the officials don't want to do errands, but now the autumn harvest is busy, and I really can't draw a strong man." ”

Hu Linyi muttered: "Extraordinary times are not the law, and the people can be told that those who go out to do errands for the people will be less than 10% of the money and grain paid by the family this year." ”

Mei was embarrassed and said, "This ...... Although this method is good, it still needs to be decided by Lord Futai. ”

Hu Linyi nodded and said: "I will go to Zhang Futai to say, I heard that Lord Futai went to Liuzhuang to invite Zuo Zongtang, this Zuo Zongtang is arrogant by nature, I am afraid that he will not go out of the mountain easily." But if you can really invite this person out of the mountain, the odds will be a few points higher. Speaking of this, Hu Linyi paused and said: "By the way, there are many stories in the battle report and the palace report about this long-haired pseudo-king of the West, it seems that this fang is bold with soldiers, and it is really a strong enemy, although the battle report said that this fang has thousands of soldiers, but Hu seems to be able to attack Changsha with light troops, and the soldiers should be around 2,000, and he will not despise the military gate more, and only sent Wang Jialin and Deng Shaoliang two departments but 3,000 soldiers and horses to pursue it." ”

Mei Budo blushed and said: "In the past few days, the spies have reported, in fact, the long hair that rushed to Changsha was only about 2,000 people at first, and colluded with bandits to join along the way, and there were more than 4,000 soldiers and horses when attacking Changsha. ”

Hu Linyi twisted his beard and said: "This fang must be a strong enemy, and we should fight against him." ”

As he was talking, he saw Zhang Liangji's warm sedan chair coming to the barracks from a distance, surrounded by everyone, and Mei Budo pointed to the warm sedan chair and said, "Lord Futai is back." Hu Linyi straightened his official uniform and said, "Let's go down and wait." ”

At that moment, the two of them went down to the watchtower and went to the gate of the camp to follow Zhang Liangji. Hu Linyi recognized Peng Yulin from within the people, the two had known each other when they suppressed the uprising of Li Yuan of the Stick Society a few years ago, and they both admired each other's talents, and they were both happy after seeing each other.

After a few words of greeting, everyone went to the Chinese military tent to talk, and without saying a few words, Peng Yulin hurriedly said: "This is not the time to gossip, Lord Futai, it is better to send troops to arrest the long-haired thieves on Liuzhuang as soon as possible." ”

Hu Linyi said: "How can there be a long-haired thief in Liuzhuang? ”

Peng Yulin frowned and said: "The worst plan is that Zuo Zongtang has become a thief, but it is also possible that Longhair wants to force him with his family, in short, we have to leave people in our hands first, besides, these Longhaired official positions must be not small, and the woman who spoke was sharp-tongued, and her style was not like an ordinary big-footed barbarian." At that moment, Peng Yulin briefly said what he saw in Liuzhuang, stood up and said, "Lord Futai, please give your subordinates two hundred soldiers to get people." ”

Before Zhang Liangji could answer, Hu Linyi muttered: "Xueqin, don't panic, these long-haired people dare to come to Xiangyin without fear, and there will be soldiers and horses to respond to them, so you must act cautiously." Then he stood up and bowed to Zhang Liangji and said: "Xia Guan led five hundred Miao soldiers to Chu Di, and he did not have an inch, and he was willing to lead the soldiers and horses of the headquarters with Xueqin to go out of the sentry, one to capture the long hair of Liuzhuang, and the other to listen to the reality of the long hair, if the long hair soldiers and horses can also be exterminated on the spot." ”…,

Zhang Liangji was overjoyed, so he ordered Hu Linyi and Peng Yulin to lead 500 new Miao soldiers out of the camp and go straight to Liuzhuang.

Liuzhuang is only more than ten miles away from Yuan's shop, and after a while, Hu Linyi and Peng Yulin have led the troops to Shapoling, which is three miles northeast of Liuzhuang. This Shapo Ridge is not too high, and the mountain is not too steep, but it is full of yellowing grass and shrubs, which is the hiding place of Jihaode. Along the way, all the Miao soldiers were cautious, and when the leader of the current army saw this mountain, he ordered the march to stop, and ordered someone to fly to report to Hu Linyi.

After Hu Linyi arrived, he quickly punished corrupt officials and evil officials, resolved local conflicts, and appeased the people of all ethnic groups, first cut off the foundation of the uprising Miao people, and then led the troops to destroy dozens of thieves such as Gaoli Shushang Village, and the remaining more than 60 Miao leaders with more than 3,800 people all surrendered, voluntarily shaved their hair and picked off their rings, and were compiled into Baojia. Hu Linyi treated the people of Toushou Miao well, and most of them sneaked back to the original village for the people, and more than ten leaders volunteered to follow Hu Linyi, and Hu Linyi settled under his command.

At this time, the leader of the former army and Miao people was named Yi Shang, and he was careful by nature, and when he saw that the grass was high and the forest was dense, he reported to Hu Linyi. Hu Linyi rode on a horse, and also saw this mountain, and after a moment of silence, he ordered Yi Shang to divide his troops to go up the mountain to investigate.

Yi Shang led dozens of Miao soldiers into the barren grass, after a short time, shouting and killing were everywhere, there were really long-haired soldiers and horses ambushing on this mountain, and Yi Shangren was defeated and retreated when he fought less. Yi Shang only had more than ten people left, and he was not angry, so he wanted to lead more than 100 people from the front army to kill again, and at this time, the dense muskets, bird guns, bows and arrows on the mountain were fired, and the conflict could not be fought for a while.

Hu Linyi rode his horse to see the mountain, and saw that the northwest wind was blowing at this time, so he ordered his Miao soldiers to seize the northwest ridge and prepare to set fire to the mountain.

Only then did he see the division of the Qing army, and the long hair on the mountain seemed to understand where he was, and at that moment he also divided more than 100 troops to guard the northwest ridge, and the two armies fought fiercely.