Looking at the paper treaty burned in the fire pit, Zeng Guofan narrowed his triangular eyes and smiled: "Zhonghua means to repent?" ”

"Zeng Shuai has taken care of it himself, but the official thinks that the city is full of local Hunan people, and if Zeng Shuai wants to gain a foothold here, he can't kill too much." Rong Lu said slowly: "I'm just helping Zeng Shuai talk about the surrender of the city, our bluff can't be covered up for too long, this covenant will not be recognized by the official." ”

Zeng Guofan laughed again, this attack on Hengzhou City can be described as extremely dangerous, in the first day of the surprise attack, Zeng Guofan and Ronglu allied army 8,000 casualties a total of 3,000 people, almost can not fight again, the Taiping army killed and wounded more than 6,000, only more than 1,000 people escaped, there are still more than 2,000 Taiping troops in the city, plus the young and strong people in the city can be mobilized, it is really not good to break the city.

Fortunately, there are more than 6,000 people with the army and civilians of Xiangyong, that night Zeng Guofan and Rong Lu laid down an empty city plan outside the city, leaving hundreds of soldiers to command 6,000 people to besiege the city, and the two led 3,000 Xiangyong and 1,000 Miao soldiers to Hengshan County to set up an ambush, the Taiping army in Xiangtan will definitely send reinforcements to come, and it will definitely pass through Hengshan County, so that the Hunan army can set up an ambush in advance.

So Xiang Yong set up an ambush in Kaihe Town, Hengshan County, and the Xiangtan reinforcements of the Taiping Army were also influenced by Liang Litai and He Zhenchuan, because Liang Litai and He Zhenchuan reported that although the Hengzhou Army was defeated, the Qing Demon was also seriously injured and unable to fight again, and the Xiangtan soldiers and horses could break the enemy in one fell swoop after they arrived. In all fairness, the two did not exaggerate the facts, but they still assessed Xiang Yong and Miao soldiers according to their previous understanding of the Qing army......

So the Taiping army swarmed in, intending to break the enemy before the Qing demon gained a firm foothold, and ambushed in Kaihe Town under carelessness, and the whole army was sandwiched in the ravine at the foot of Heng Mountain. Only about 2,000 of the 5,000 Taiping troops who came to Zuihou's aid escaped. The main general of the Xiangtan Taiping Army is Zeng Lichang, after escaping from Kaihe Town, he, Liang Litai, and He Zhenchuan can't figure out how many Qing demons came, could it be that there are Qing demons from Guangxi who came to Hunan to support? It is said that the Qing demons in Guangxi are busy suppressing the rebels of Wu Lingyun and He Goubei, and they should be inseparable. However, seeing that the current losses are quite large, the three generals had to retreat to Xiangtan and wait for the support of Lai Hanying in Changsha.

After Zeng Guofan and Rong Lu cleaned up the battlefield, they ordered people to spread more banners and straw men in the mountains, and then slowly retreated to Hengzhou. Fortunately, the defense was only strengthened in Hengzhou City, and no troops were sent to fight the soldiers and civilians outside the city. Otherwise, the hundreds of Xiangyong and thousands of people left behind would not be able to stop the 2,000 Taiping troops in the city no matter what.

That night, Zeng Guofan and Rong Lu made a plan again, this time to attack Hengzhou, or to attack the city as the bottom, and the heart to attack the heart, so they gathered all the Taiping troops captured in two days the next day, and walked around the city with wooden signs. Demoralize the city. At the same time, he also asked Xiang Yong and the people to sing Chu songs, indicating that the people inside and outside the city were Hunan people. Everyone is a family. And then he used a divisive strategy. Instigating the relationship between Guangxi and Hunan people in the city.

There are many young and strong people who go to the city to help defend them, and the matter of sowing discord and persuading them to surrender is not far away, and Liang Lihai and Tao Enpei can't stop no matter how they cover up and ban transmission. Most of the leaders of the Taiping Army in Hengzhou City are from Guangxi, and when they are in charge of the army and the people, there are many regional differences, and it is not a day or two for the two sides to accumulate grievances.

Speaking of the geographical and regional differences of Chinese people, there has been a long history. Even in later generations, there are still people who come from one place within a collective, and they like to be commensurate with their fellow countrymen. After holding together, they can take care of each other, in fact, they are not mavericks in the Taiping army, but they are just amplified and used by Rong Lu and Zeng Guofan.

In addition, the Guangxi people in Hengzhou City are a minority, and the previous implementation of the braids and the "Regulations on Treating the People" has been looted by the Taiping Army, but all those who still have surplus grain and silver will be charged to the holy treasury. Although the Taiping Army said that the holy treasury belongs to everyone, but everything you need can be used, but for the grass people, the same thing is that they think that their money and food have been confiscated.

As the saying goes, things must rot first and then worms, but the fairness of Hengzhou City has brought about an invisible estrangement between the Taiping army and the people, this estrangement is getting deeper and deeper, the original Manchu rule is the poorer and poorer, the rich are getting richer, but now everyone is the same poor, and those Taiping generals and officials who hold the holy treasury will naturally be hated.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's sacred treasury system had great drawbacks, the sacred treasury system was originally intended to be distributed fairly, but after all the money and grain were concentrated in the sacred treasury, the generals and officials in charge of the sacred treasury were also human beings, and they did not have the consciousness of saints, so they naturally used their power to use their own power, and no one dared to manage it. There have long been songs and ballads in Hengzhou City: "The moon rises to half a catty of oil, and the surplus grain and silver enter the holy treasury. ”

At this time, Hengzhou is not like the Jiujiang and Anqing guarded by Lin Qirong and Ye Yun in later generations, and when the Yiwang Shida opened Jiangxi in the history of later generations, it was not implemented according to the law of Tianjing, but the old grain payment system was restored, and the people were very united. Today's Hengzhou City is just a victim of Tianjing's utopian system, so the discord between Rong Lu and Zeng Guofan can work.

"Zhonghua is really a general, you can rest assured that the official never knows about making a contract with a thief." Zeng Guofan's triangular eyes narrowed again, in the past few days, he admired the young man in front of him very much, Zeng Guofan saw his own shadow in him, and many times the two would want to go together.

Rong Lu smiled faintly, and secretly scolded the old fox, he had previously talked to Tao Enpei about the surrender, Rong Lu expected that Zeng Guofan would only go around the mountains and rivers and would not make up his mind, because although he was the assistant minister of the regimental training, he still had his own co-organizer in front of him, and Rong Lu was still a man, Zeng Guofan was extremely cunning, so he would naturally promise something, if Rong Lu did not come forward to agree to this matter first, then Hengzhou City would not be so easy to surrender. In other words, Zeng Guofan did not have the courage to take on this responsibility, but Rong Lu could, because he was a Manchurian. In the officialdom of the Qing court, on many occasions, among the Manchu and Han ministers at the same level, most of the Hanchen would still listen to the Manchu ministers, and the Qing court would deal with the Manchu ministers who made mistakes less than the Hanchens.

"Then please also ask Zeng Shuai to order a mouth to come out, let people come out of the city first, we successfully occupied Hengzhou City, although we sent Chenzhou to ask for reinforcements, but Hengzhou City still took it as soon as possible, just hundreds of old people with long hair, and they can't set off any storms, if Zeng Shuai feels uneasy, he can send someone to intercept and kill him in Hengshan County." Rong Lu naturally didn't want to bear the reputation of treachery, he just talked about this matter, whether to kill or stay or to see Zeng Guofan.

Zeng Guofan nodded, his triangular eyes suddenly brightened, and he said in a deep voice: "You know this matter, I know, I will send Lao Jiu to do this, the old man in Xiangdi will die one less, and we will use troops in the future." Besides, the official didn't promise anything at all, right? ”

The two laughed together, followed by Zeng Guofan, and tapped his fingers on the armrest of the chair and said: "Zhonghua, although the people in the city are all Hunan people, and they are also the foundation of our foothold in Hengzhou, but I heard that the people in the city have shaved their hair, if they don't ask about the crime, I'm afraid that the court won't be able to explain it." ”

Rong Lu touched his chin and muttered: "I heard that Hengzhou shaves his hair in order, the first is the one who shaves his hair after the capture of Hengzhou, these people have long had an objection in their hearts, and the latter was slowly forced to shave their hair. The elders said that they had shaved their hair for a long time, and the short ones were new recruits. ”

Zeng Guofan stroked his palm and smiled: "This is very good, but how can this person be killed?" ”

Rong Lu also smiled and said: "The handsome man has his own success in his heart, why do you need to say it below?" ”

Both of them thought that the new Hengzhou could not kill too many people, but they had to give an explanation to the imperial court, and at the same time, Zeng Guofan was not willing to let go of those who were loyal to the long hair, so he set a tone that those with sideburns and hair longer than three inches would not be left.

It's a pity that it backfired, after Liang Lihai and others withdrew to the north gate overnight with hundreds of Taiping troops, Tao Enpei took the people of Hengzhou City to surrender the city the next day. In addition to the veterans of Guangxi, there were more than 500 Hunan soldiers loyal to the Kingdom of Heaven in the Taiping army taken by Liang Lihai, and most of the rest who were unwilling to leave were Hunan soldiers whose families were in Hengzhou, and these people all changed their uniforms and hid in their homes.

After entering the city, Zeng Guofan found that it seemed that everyone's sideburns were less than three inches, but no one could wave the raised knife, and he was very uncomfortable for a while. Then Zeng Guofan found out the original gentry and wealthy households in the city to identify the thieves, and this time he finally had a harvest, not only identified a large number of Hunan soldiers who had served in the Taiping army, but also many people who had helped the Taiping army. Zeng Guofan arrested all these people, and even Tao Enpei was arrested and imprisoned, and there were more than 20,000 people.

Then, these people were gone, Zeng Guofan raised his butcher's knife for the first time, more than 20,000 people were slaughtered, the squires and rich families raised their eyebrows again, and the order of the Manchu Qing Dynasty returned to Hengzhou. Tao Enpei was not killed, and Zeng Guofan seemed to intend to send him to Beijing to be punished.

Liang Lihai and others were intercepted by Zeng Guoquan and more than 1,000 Xiangyong on the way back to Xiangtan, Liang Lihai was killed on the spot, and only more than 100 people fled back to Xiangtan. Since Changsha was captured, the Qing army seems to have only lost its territory, and has never recovered a city occupied by the Taiping army.

After Xiang Yong conquered Hengzhou, he really made a fortune, the Taiping army failed to take much away in the holy treasury of Hengzhou, and a large number of money, food and ordnance became the spoils of Xiang Yong and Miao soldiers, although there was no joy of slaughtering the city, but Zeng Guofan and Rong Lu made up for each soldier's salary, and sent a lot of money and food, and for a time Xiang Yong and Miao soldiers were thunderous. (To be continued......)