Yang Xiuqing's words seemed to be as unquestionable as ever, and when he looked at Xiao Yungui with sharp eyes, Xiao Yungui didn't know where the courage came from, and gritted his teeth and said: "It's okay to kill people who deserve it, but it's not okay to kill defenseless people!" Then he turned his head and walked out of the tent.

Yang Xiuqing was slightly stunned, he had never seen Xiao Chaogui contradict him like this, no matter when it was in the past, Xiao Chaogui always listened to him Yang Xiuqing's ideas, how could it become like this today? In a daze, Xiao Yungui had already brushed his sleeves away, looking at the shaking curtain, Yang Xiuqing's face slowly became gloomy.

After walking out of the big tent, Xiao Yungui took a deep breath, and not far away, Hong Yun'er stood under the apricot yellow flag with her hands and looked at him and smiled. Xiao Yungui stepped forward with a hesitant face and asked, "What are you laughing at?" ”

Hong Yun'er still said with a smile: "Li Kaifang came out and said that the East King mentioned the matter of killing the flag people in the West Hall again, it seems that you are unwilling, so the East King left you to discuss alone." How? Does he still have to do it? ”

Xiao Yungui nodded with a gloomy face and said, "Yes, is it really right to kill to stop killing?" ”

Hong Yun'er shook her head slowly and said: "There is no absolute right or wrong in the world, just like Emperor Qin unified Liuhe, for the people of the Six Kingdoms back then, he was a tyrant who killed people without calculation, but for future generations of China, what he did at that time seemed to be the trend of the times." Extraordinary times use extraordinary methods, and right and wrong cannot be judged in a moment. ”

Xiao Yungui said suspiciously: "Are you in favor of killing?" To kill the defenseless old and weak women and children? ”

Hong Yun'er bit her red lip and said: "The banner people now enjoy more privileges than the Han people and other clansmen, for example, the Qing Dynasty Han people basically have to pass the imperial examination, this practice is beyond reproach, but on the contrary, the Qing Dynasty Manchu people enter the office, there is no such restriction, through a variety of ways, such as schools, recommendations, discussions, donations, hereditary, shades, translations, imperial examinations, etc., and so on." Another example is that there are official vacancies in the Manchu official system, which are divided into full vacancies, Mongolian vacancies, Han army vacancies, and Han vacancies. After the Eight Banners entered the customs, they occupied the land, forced the Han people to be slaves, and the children of the Eight Banners did not need to pay food and could be supported by the imperial court. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu leader Duan Fang said that the Han people all paid taxes, and the banner people used the quota of soldiers to receive salaries, and those who had a share of profits and those who did not have profits were a true portrayal of this. Even the banner people had special laws and regulations for crimes compared to the Han people, and so on were the unique powers of the Manchu banner people. ”

Marx once said, ahem, maybe I haven't said it yet, but in short, I said that people have social attributes, people are not independent individuals, they are part of the group. So if you're in a group that is guilty, maybe you haven't done anything, but you're guilty, and that's what it is, you can't change it, and that's probably what we've heard about in later generations. Hong Yun'er continued softly: "Those old and weak women and children are indeed not guilty in your eyes and me, but in the eyes of the Taiping Army, they are banner people, privileged classes, and people who eat the flesh and blood of the people, so they can only die now." Maybe one day, when the banner people can give up their privileges, like other clansmen, the Taiping army will put down the sword in their hands. To put it bluntly, what we want to deprive us of now is their privileges, they are the interests of the banner people, they will not be willing to lose their interests, no matter where they go, they will be the enemies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so it is their identity as the banner people who killed themselves, do you understand? ”

Hong Yun'er's mouth was gushing as soon as she opened it, but Xiao Yungui still understood what she meant, and at the same time understood the meaning of Yang Xiuqing's words just now, maybe his knowledge was limited, and his analysis was not as thorough as Hong Yun'er, but Yang Xiuqing's heart was very clear, the struggle for power and interests has always been a tragic situation, unless the distribution of interests is balanced, the killing will stop, this is human nature, to put it bluntly, this killing has nothing to do with the righteousness of any clan, just because of interests.

Xiao Yungui pondered for a long time before saying, "Then what should we do?" Do you still want to do it according to Yang Xiuqing's wishes? ”

Hong Yun'er frowned and said: "Judging by your appearance, you must have contradicted Yang Xiuqing, if Yang Xiuqing has another order later, you must not disobey him, it really angers him, and it will be bad for Heavenly Father to go down to earth." ”

As soon as the words fell, the guards of the East Hall turned out of the tent, holding the East King Order Flag, turned over and galloped towards the city, shouting while running: "At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Xiangjiang River bank sacrifice flag is out of the team, and the East Hall soldiers have killed the demon sacrifice flag!" ”

The orders of the East King were scattered everywhere, and soon the soldiers of the West Hall of the entire Miao Peak knew that Yang Xiuqing ordered the soldiers of the East Hall to kill the flag people and sacrifice the flag by the Xiangjiang River, Xiao Yungui secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and some did not understand why Yang Xiuqing changed his mind, and the people of the East Hall did it himself, it would not be Yang Xiuqing He had any other plans.

Just as he was thinking about it anxiously, he saw Yang Xiuqing walking out of the big tent, and dozens of East Hall guards hurriedly led their horses to follow.

Xiao Yungui had no choice but to meet him, and Hong Yun'er hurriedly followed to hear something.

When he got closer, Yang Xiuqing had already turned over and got on the horse, Xiao Yungui stepped forward with some embarrassment and hugged his fists and said, "Fourth brother, I ......"

Before the words came out, Yang Xiuqing had a cold face, and interrupted with a whip: "The team is about to leave, this king doesn't want to waste time talking nonsense, you immediately gather people and horses, prepare to go to the bank of the Xiangjiang River, and prepare to go out with the army to sacrifice the flag!" After that, he urged the horses and took the men and horses without looking back.

Xiao Yungui looked at Hong Yun'er with a look on her face, but the four-eyed girl touched her delicate chin and whispered thoughtfully: "This Yang Xiuqing has always been straightforward and straightforward, why did he change his mind today?" Could it be that he is a man who is cold on the outside and hot on the inside? Still miss Xiao Chaogui and his brotherhood? No, when I was in Chenzhou, it seemed that he was the one who wanted to kill you the most, I really couldn't figure it out. ”

Xiao Yungui smiled secretly, he was afraid that Hong Yun'er would be worried, so he hadn't told Hong Yun'er that Yang Xiuqing actually wanted to get rid of her, and now was not the time to speak, so he smiled and said, "If you can't figure it out, don't think about it for the time being, let's sort out the people and prepare to leave the team first." ”

……

The killing finally began, and when the flagmen were tied into a string and moved to the edge of the Xiangjiang River, they seemed to know their fate, and the earth-shattering howls and cries were unbearable.

The Xiangjiang River was dyed red, and the dense corpses in the river flowed down the river, making people unbearable to look at it. But the Taiping army erupted in an earth-shattering cheer and shout, Xiao Yungui felt that this shout was so harsh, but he was powerless to change anything, it turned out that the road he embarked on was not only the blood of his own people, but also the blood of the enemy, and there would be a lot of innocent blood. He gradually understood that bloodless change is a fool's dream, in this change, everyone needs to endure the pain of change, in order to usher in the kingdom of heaven in his heart, is this kind of effort worth it? Isn't it worth it? The team has traveled a long way, Xiao Yungui is still thinking about this problem on horseback, Hong Yun'er did not go out with the army, so no one talks to him, he can only think about it himself.

There are three post roads leading from Changsha to the county seat of Xiangtan County, from the west to Taling, Mapoli, Shanshu Lane to Xiangtan Zhanyue Gate; The arch gate of the north gate of Xiangtan from Hutouling is one; From Houfangping into the east gate of Xiangtan Xichun Gate is one.

To go to the west, you need to cross the Xiangjiang River, Xiao Yungui did not consider this route, the whole army of more than 8,000 people was divided into three roads, Xiao Yungui led Ji Wenyuan, Zhu Xineng and more than 3,000 people to go to the lake leader, attack the north gate; Lin Fengxiang and Lin Qirong led more than 2,500 troops to the east, preparing to attack the east of Xiangtan City; Li Kaifang and Li Yiwen led more than 2,500 soldiers to respond to the rear team.

The Qing army in Xiangtan was Deng Shaoliang, who had been defeated before, and in the battle of Jingtang Village, Deng Shaoliang's Qing army suffered heavy losses, and only more than 400 people remained. After retreating to Xiangtan, Deng Shaoliang had to recruit new soldiers, calling on local officials and gentry in Xiangtan to donate salaries and set up regiments to train and help to defend, and after several hard work, the newly recruited soldiers plus the original officers and soldiers in Xiangtan only pulled up a team of more than 1,000 people, plus more than 400 veterans of his department, a total of more than 1,500 Qing troops.

For many days, the Chenzhou Taiping army marched to Changsha, and Deng Shaoliang was trembling in the city, only afraid that the Taiping army would suddenly turn around and fight Xiangtan, and with the strength in his hands, it was no match for the Taiping army. Fortunately, the Taiping army was in a hurry and did not want to attack, which made Deng Shaoliang breathe a sigh of relief.

Recently, I received news that Zhang Guoliang, the forward of the Hengzhou Official Army Brigade, has arrived in Liling. Deng Shaoliang was born in the Green Battalion Army, and originally looked down on Zhang Guoliang, a thief general from the Heaven and Earth Society. Zhang Guoliang, whose original name was Jiaxiang, was a native of Gaoyao (now Zhaoqing) in Guangdong. He once participated in the Tiandihui uprising in Guixian County, Guangxi, and fought side by side with Luo Xuan, and was active in Hengzhou, Lingshan, Qinzhou, Penn and other places. In the 29th year of Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Guoliang returned to Zhennanguan, and was appeased by Lao Chongguang, the Qing army's Guangxi envoy, and finally surrendered to the Qing army. Later, Zhang Guoliang returned to Xiang Rong's account as a garrison, and has been following Xiang Rong to suppress bandits, he is familiar with the bandits' combat style, the means are vicious, the most fierce, relying on the slaughter of former comrades-in-arms, Zhang Guoliang has been promoted to the post of general.

Deng Shaoliang has always despised Zhang Guoliang as a person, and he also looked down on Zhang Guoliang as a thief, and even more despised Zhang Guoliang's Qing army burning, killing, and plundering along the way, but he forgot that his Deng Shaoliang's subordinates often did this. But at this time, Deng Shaoliang had to send someone to contact Zhang Guoliang, hoping that Zhang Guoliang's troops could move closer to Xiangtan.

Deng Shaoliang's messenger had only been gone for half a day when he received the news that the Taiping Army in Changsha had left the army. Deng Shaoliang was shocked, he never expected that the Taiping army would come so quickly, so he had to mobilize troops to prepare to defend the city, and at the same time sent eight messengers to Zhang Guoliang for help.

Early in the morning, in the early morning mist, Deng Shaoliang did not wait for reinforcements from Liling, but saw the apricot and yellow banner of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom erected on the leader of the lake in the north of the city!