At the gate of the Xiangtan County Ya, Xiao Yungui ordered Deng Shaoliang and others to be taken into custody, and then entered the county government hall with Zuo Zongtang, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and others to sit down. The generals stepped forward to detail their respective battle situations, and after hearing that it was a group of boy soldiers who captured Deng Shaoliang, Xiao Yungui was a little surprised, so he ordered Su Ji to come to the court.

When Su Ji came to the hall, Xiao Yungui was very surprised by Su Ji's age, he was only sixteen years old, and he was still a high school student in the next life, so he didn't expect that in this troubled world, he had already killed people with a knife. At that moment, Xiao Yungui was soothed by his kind words, and he was promoted to the commander of the boy soldiers.

As soon as this remark came out, all the generals were a little surprised, the boy soldiers have always been used as the tail cards in the battalions of the adult Taiping Army, Su Ji just happened to be the two Sima of Changsha Dagong and Chen Picheng and Tan Shaoguang, but they are only the boy soldiers in the first battalion, but now Su Ji is named the commander of the pawn, and he is going to lead a hundred people.

Seeing that the generals were a little stunned, Xiao Yungui explained: "The child soldiers are still young and lack strength, and there are great disadvantages of mixing with adult holy soldiers. Second, it is inevitable that adult holy soldiers will bully child soldiers; Therefore, the king decided to set up a separate children's camp, which was led by Chen Picheng, Tan Shaoguang, Su Ji and others, and the boy soldiers were added to the adult camp after they reached the age of eighteen. ”

The generals have spoken out in agreement, since then the boy soldiers of the West Hall set up a separate army, no longer as the tail card of each battalion and the adult Taiping Army mixed, to the greatest extent to avoid the boy soldiers being bullied by adult soldiers, and the boy soldiers are young and vigorous, determined, brave and good at fighting, to the later generations of the Young Communist International Division is quite similar, in the last major battles of the West Temple, this child soldier has played a pivotal role, and later has a resounding name "Youth Guard Corps".

In this way, Chen Picheng, Tan Shaoguang, and Su Ji were all named pawns, and Li Yiwen was very happy, after all, Su Ji was the little brother who followed him, and his hard work was not in vain.

After talking about the child soldiers, Xiao Yungui ordered Deng Shaoliang to be brought to the court for trial. After a short time, several Taiping soldiers drove Deng Shaoliang to the hall. When he arrived in the hall, Deng Shaoliang sat cross-legged on the ground, unable to stalemate.

When the generals of the Taiping Army saw the enemy, they all stood up and looked at each other angrily, and even drew their swords to kill Deng Shaoliang.

Xiao Yungui waved his hand, and after the generals retreated slightly, Xiao Yungui frowned and looked at Deng Shaoliang and said, "What else do you have to say now?" ”

Deng Shaoliang still has a bit of backbone, although he was seriously injured and was locked up in a cage for a long time, he still raised his head and said: "The winner is the king, and the loser is the coward. Hmph, people and thieves like you who died under the knife of this association, if not 10,000, but thousands, Lao Tzu has already earned it. ”

Xiao Yungui saw that he was unrepentant, and he didn't want to talk nonsense with him, so he ordered him to be beheaded at the gate of the county government to show the public. The rest of the Xiangtan officials who committed the most heinous crimes were also killed, and the rest of the officials were more sparing than Haode, and ordered them to take Deng Shaoliang's body back to Liling, and told Zhang Guoliang to let him wash his neck and wait for slaughter.

This is Zuo Zongtang's idea, let Zhang Guoliang get the news of the loss of Xiangtan, he will be even more afraid, and speed up urging the Hengzhou brigade to come to help, then it will be easier to go south to Hengzhou in the next step.

In the first battle of Xiangtan, the Taiping army of the West Temple annihilated more than 1,500 people of Deng Shaoliang's department, but because of its own recruits, it also suffered more than 500 casualties, and most of the casualties were the new army, but after this battle, these recruits were tempered. Xiangtan has abundant materials, a lot of rice, grain, oil, salt and cloth, the Taiping army has made a large windfall, and the people and horses of the West Hall have absorbed hundreds of poor people into the army, plus the Qing army prisoners were forcibly recruited into the army anyway, there are 800 more soldiers and horses.

After resting for three days, the soldiers and horses of the West Hall were replenished with a large number of weapons, grains, and pack horses, and they stood in Xiangtan and coerced Liling, so that Zhang Guoliang of Liling sent messengers to the south several times a day to ask for help.

On the third day, Zeng Tianyang, a veteran of the West Temple, and He Zhenchuan, Bo Shu, led three thousand soldiers and horses who were originally guarding Yuelu Mountain, and their defense had been taken over by the people of the North Temple, so they came south to join the brigade. The soldiers and horses of the national uncle Lai Hanying also drove to Jianning (now Zhuzhou), not far from Xiangtan, and more than 25,000 Taiping troops on the South Road began to march south.

Hearing this news, Zhang Guoliang once wanted to abandon Liling and retreat to Youxian to join the brigade, but Xu Guangjin, the governor of Huguang, strictly ordered Zhang Guoliang to garrison Liling, and only sent Jiang Zhongyuan, Jiang Zhongji, and Liu Changyou to lead more than 1,500 Chu Yong to reinforce Liling. Because so far, Xu Guangjin has not figured out the strategic direction of the Taiping Army, do they want to expand their territory and completely occupy Hunan, or divide their troops to fight back to Guangxi? Or westward to Guizhou? Or eastward into Jiangxi? Now there are only less than 40,000 Qing troops under Xu Guangjin's command, if you can't guess the direction of the Taiping army, the 40,000 Qing army will be difficult to block, and the Qing army will not be able to block the Taiping army from three directions, east, west and south. After many discussions, the generals of the Qing army could not guess the direction of the Taiping army's departure this time, so they had to strengthen the strength of Liling first, and the brigade of more than 20,000 people still stood still in Youxian County, and the more than 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Xiang Rong Department stationed in Leiyang formed a corner, waited for the changes, and waited for the arrival of reinforcements from the Qing army from all walks of life, and then gathered and annihilated. Xu Guangjin never dreamed that this time the Taiping army came out of the team, not to fight for one city and one place, but to come for the 40,000 Qing troops under him.

On the fourth day after the capture of Xiangtan, Xiao Yungui led the soldiers and horses of the West Palace, and the troops were divided into three routes, the left route was led by Lin Fengxiang and Lin Qirong along the west bank of the Xiangjiang River to the south of Leidashi Town and Sanmen Town, and the middle road Xiao Yungui led Zuo Zongtang, Ji Wenyuan, Zhu Xineng, Chen Picheng, Tan Shaoguang and others along Meilin Bridge and Tanjiashan to the south, and Li Kaifang, Li Yiwen, Zeng Tianyang, and He Zhenchuan on the right road led their troops to the south along Gutang Bridge and Baiguo Town. There were more than 10,000 soldiers and horses on the three routes, and they went straight to Hengzhou.

In order to cooperate with the west hall to fight southward, the Yidian Shida opened the troops and horses to attack Liuyang, and Lai Hanying, Zeng Lichang and other troops began to march to Liling, which had the intention of entering Jiangxi Province eastward.

……

On this day, the north wind began to blow on the earth, and on the official road south of Liling, a Qing army of more than 1,000 people bravely marched to Liling against the north wind. These soldiers were different from the ordinary green battalion soldiers, they wrapped their heads in coarse blue cloth, and the word "brave" was written on their coarse cloth uniforms, and they were tied with cloth leggings under their feet, but their clothes were very ragged and dirty, and they looked like a group of people called flowers. But these soldiers were resolute and resolute, and although they were thinly dressed, they marched against the wind, without slowing down at all, and without hearing any complaints.

In the team, several Qing army generals rode horses to follow them, the first one was more than thirty years old, with an elegant expression, but between the eyebrows was a heroic spirit, the demeanor was leisurely, but there was a sense of chivalry between the lines, the appearance was dignified, and the color of the Qing Dynasty's four-grade civil official uniform was already a little worn, but the pulp was neat and clean.

Along the way, he saw that the village houses were destroyed one by one, and wild dogs gnawed at the dead corpses on the roadside from time to time among the barren grass, and the official frowned deeply. A lean general beside him suddenly said: "They are all damn long-haired thieves, poisoning our townspeople, it is really hateful." ”

The official looked sideways at the Qing general, sighed lightly, and said slowly: "Sorry for this poor man who cultivates hard, and the good years are only enough to pay for tithes." This year is no longer looking back, and the ravines are filled with white bones. But when the rich are worried, who will pity the poor for hunger? Once the poor are driven by hunger, how can the rich be in peace? Zimo, do you still remember that when I returned to my hometown and province a few years ago, there was a great harvest and hunger in Xiangzhong, but it was not like this? ”

The Qing general was silent for a moment and said, "The meaning in Lord Jiang's poem seems to be sympathetic to Long Hair? ”

Master Jiang nodded and said, "If everyone has enough food and clothing, who will rise up and rebel?" There are too many rich and unkind rich gentry and corrupt officials in various places, forcing people to live and not surviving, so they take risks. ”

The Qing general gritted his teeth and said, "My lord, let's fight the bandits all the way, when have you ever softened?" Why is there such a testimonial at this time? ”

Lord Jiang sighed: "I, Jiang Zhongyuan, compiled and trained Chu Yong back then, originally to exterminate Lei Zaihao and these bandits, but I have been suppressing bandits and thieves for the next few years, why do these bandits kill more and more?" Sometimes I think about it, maybe the official forcing the people to oppose this sentence is also good. ”

This Jiang Daren is Jiang Zhongyuan, the fierce general who commanded the Qing army Chu Yong, the commander of the early Hunan army in the late Qing Dynasty, the word Changru, the name Minqiao, a native of Xinning, Hunan, and a person raised in the seventeenth year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty. Daoguang held a regimental training in his hometown for 24 years, instilled loyalty, filial piety, etiquette and righteousness, taught the art of war and bravery, and then led the regiment to cooperate with the Qing army to suppress the Lei Zaihao Party uprising, and was promoted to Xiushui County, Zhejiang. In the first year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, he rebelled in Jintian of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and was ordered to go to the Guangxi military camp of the minister Saishan'a. Xuan recruited 500 Chu Yong to go to Gui, called "Chu Yong", and the following year, the department expanded to more than 1,500 people. He once ambushed the Taiping army at Lingyidu, north of Quanzhou, seized the baggage of its ships, and severely damaged the Taiping army, once breaking the myth of the invincibility of the Taiping army, and was quite famous among the generals of the Qing army.

The Qing general said indifferently: "Your Excellency must not be discouraged, now when the country is in trouble, the people are in dire straits, and now it is our Hunan people's hometown that is ravaged by bandits, and the husband should relieve the people's difficulties and serve the country." I, Liu Changyou, have followed the adults all the way to the battle, no matter how difficult it is, I will definitely help the adults and never regret it. ”

This Qing general is Chu Yong's fierce general Liu Changyou, the word is silent, the number is Yinqu, and he is from Xinning, Hunan. At the beginning, he held a regimental training with Jiang Zhongyuan in Hunan, and led Chu Yong to Guangxi to suppress the Taiping Army and the Tiandihui uprising with Jiang Zhongyuan, and Jiang Zhongyuan's brother Jiang Zhongji was Jiang Zhongyuan's right-hand man. Liu Changyou is worth mentioning that in later history, he served as the governor of Zhili and the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou because of his military merits, and he suggested a preemptive crusade against Japan as early as 12 years before the First Sino-Japanese War.

According to Liu Changyou's analysis, Japan violated public international law at that time, and once a war broke out, it would not be able to take advantage of international morality, and its aggressive nature would sooner or later annex Korea. He believed that since the Tongzhi period, the imperial court has paid attention to foreign affairs, set up coastal defense, trained sailors, repaired forts, purchased iron ships, built guns, and invested a lot of money.

I have to say that this duke's vision is still quite accurate, if the Qing court could adopt his suggestion at that time and strike first, maybe there would not have been that humiliating defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, let alone the tragic eight-year war of resistance. But everything was just a fantasy, and if the Manchu court would follow his bold advice, it would not be the Manchu court.

While speaking, I have seen the walls of Liling City, not far away only to see more than 100 Qing soldiers waiting in line, the Qing army flag has a big book, it seems that Zhang Guoliang personally went out of the city to meet the reinforcements.