Xiao Yungui took Hong Yun'er, Tang Erniu, Qian Jiang, Li Xuanji and more than 2,000 Xidian staff guards from Zhenjiang to Nanjing, and the Zhenjiang Water Camp fleet wanted to rush the spoils and prisoners of the Jiangbei Water Camp, so Xiao Yungui did not choose to take the waterway to seize the ships of the Zhenjiang Water Camp, anyway, Zhenjiang was not far from Nanjing, so Xiao Yungui took everyone to Nanjing by land.

Starting from Zhenjiang, crossing Qiaotou Town and Qixia Town, Xiao Yungui and others walked for more than 80 miles for two days. Xiao Yungui brought a lot of gifts to the bigwigs in Tianjing, as well as dozens of prisoner cars, plus there was nothing to do, Xiao Yungui took Hong Yun'er all the way to the mountains and rivers for two days off, so the itinerary was slower.

After passing Qiaotou Town, it is not the garrison place of the soldiers and horses of the West Palace, and in the small chestnut village on the periphery of Qixia Town, the soldiers and horses of the West King met the first force of the outer defense army of Tianjing. Xiaolizhuang garrisoned a pawn of troops, and the head of the pawn saw the arrival of the banner of the king of the west, and was overjoyed, and ordered the whole army to line up to greet him.

This pawn's name is Chen Laosan, is a native of Nanjing, since joining the Taiping Army, he has been hearing of the invincible name of the King of the West, he led the troops to garrison the periphery of Nanjing, so far, the biggest official he has ever seen is to come to Xiaguan to inspect the nearby soldiers and horses of the East Hall Chengxuan, the winter official and the prime minister Chen Zongyang, very rarely have the opportunity to see the prince of the Celestial Empire, how can you not be excited? Like Chen Laosan, after his soldiers and horses lined up, they all looked at God as if they were looking at God, bowing to the ground and shouting that the King of the West was 8,000 years old, and after getting up, he peeked at the famous King of the West and the Queen of the West from time to time with admiring eyes.

Xiao Yungui laughed and said loudly: "Brothers, you have worked hard, this king and the whole kingdom of heaven thank you for your hard work in defending the land." ”

After Chen Laosan and the others listened to the praise of the King of the West, their bones were crispy, and they only felt that there was endless strength in their bodies, and they shouted loudly together: "Be loyal to the kingdom of heaven!" ”

After some encouragement. Xiao Yungui ordered Tang Erniu to reward Chen Laosan and the others with some meat, seeing that they were all yellow-faced and thin, it must be because they rarely got meat. Chen Laosan and the others were naturally very happy, happily thanked the king of the west, and took his soldiers and horses to get meat.

Hong Yun'er walked beside Xiao Yungui and said with a faint smile: "It seems that Tianjing's soldiers and horses are not treated very well, looking at their appearance, most of them eat some black beans and coarse grains to survive." ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and sighed: "Tianjing City's soldiers and horses and population are not less than one million, and they can still have money and food to support them before, not all of them rely on the money and food captured by the Qing army after the city is conquered. In addition, we have a lot of money and grain in the west hall and all over the place to the general holy treasury, which can barely be supported. But this is not a long-term solution, Tianjing has not been out to fight the Qing army for more than half a year, and he has lost the largest amount of money and food to help. No matter how rich the Tianjing General Holy Treasury is, it can only sit and eat the empty mountain. In addition, Tianjing has made a "Regulations on Treating the People". All the money and food that the people had received was to be paid into the holy treasury. The enthusiasm for production is not high, and the holy treasury is only small in, but every day is in the big out, in this case, even a mountain of gold will be eaten up. ”

Hong Yun'er's red lips pursed lightly: "Yes, you can see the whole leopard at a glance." Looking at the treatment of the soldiers and horses stationed here, you can see that the supply of Tianjing is not very good, and it seems that Tianjing's economy is very sluggish. ”

Xiao Yungui smiled slightly and said: "This matter may not be a bad thing, Tianjing's economy is in difficulty, it seems that our success in persuading the princes to send troops to Anhui is a few points higher." ”

Hong Yun'er also smiled and said, "You, you." Do you still say that you don't have a black belly? The two looked at each other and smiled, and went to rest in the most haode room here.

The most haode house here was originally the official office of the Shufu Ya here, which was set up by the King of Jingdong in Tianjing. After the capital of Tianjing was established, in order to facilitate Tianjing's dispatch of troops, transportation, and official documents, Tianjing established a communication organization, the Shufu Ya, and the internal officials of the court presided over the nationwide communication work. Zhengshu attached to the government is located in Tianjing, and is supervised by Nie Guangxian, the seventh inspection point on the left of the east hall, and Zhang Wanshun, the eighth inspection point on the right, as the deputy director. In the military units, there are military officers who are attached to the army, and there are subordinate officials in various localities. Every 30 to 50 miles, a sparse subordinate office is set up, and each office has an officer and 20 or 30 soldiers stationed in charge of communication work. Each government has a book of comings and goings, which is registered and regularly inspected. Official documents and letters are accompanied by a list of delivery journeys (such as a list at the end of the Qing Dynasty), indicating the route and place of arrival of the official documents, and the date and time of receipt and transfer are marked by the local government offices. And there is a "fire card" system, with the official document attached to the fire card, must be delivered on time, otherwise the military law will be punished.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom delivered official documents by land and water, and the main routes were: first, from Tianjing to Changsha; One is to pass through Guazhou and Zhenjiang to Suzhou, leading to Jiangsu, Jiangxi and other places respectively. The main means of transportation are the eight-pulp clipper boat and the fast horse. Mainly by waterway, the ship is hung with a yellow flag, and the words "Celestial Empire is attached" or "Supervised army is attached" are written on it. The water is 240 miles a day, and the water is more than 100 miles a day. The land route is a fast horse, and ordinary documents travel hundreds of miles a day. The emergency official document is stamped with a wooden cloud horse round stamp on the envelope, the winged Pegasus is engraved in the middle, the clouds are engraved around, and the official title of the general is engraved at the top of the poke, such as "West Wang Fa", "West Palace Tianguan Zheng Prime Minister Fa" and so on. This stamp can not be used lightly, only emergency military reports can be used, stipulating that every hour needs to fly fifty miles, called "Yunma document".

In the attached ya, Xiao Yungui dictated, Hong Yun'er wrote an official document and sent it to Tianjing, the gist of the document is that the king of the west and the mother of the west returned to Beijing to report on their work, and the name and surname of the accompanying personnel who returned to Beijing and the size of the army were written in detail. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has strict regulations, and the generals who enter Beijing to report on their work must invite the personnel and accompanying soldiers and horses to enter Beijing in advance, Xiao Yungui is the king of the west, and the scale of the personal guards of more than 2,000 people according to the regulations is not much.

After staying in Oguriso for a day, he received an official reply from the Tianjing Tianwangfu and the East Hall in the early morning of the next day, and both the King of Heaven and the East King replied to welcome the West King back to Beijing, and asked if the accompanying soldiers and horses were insufficient, they could gather the soldiers and horses to accompany him, and the Heavenly King replied that the soldiers and horses in the West Hall could be drawn from the holy treasury along the way.

Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er laughed dumbly after seeing it, what kind of poor people have become in the holy treasury along the way, and they still have the ability to supply more than 2,000 soldiers and horses? It seems that the king of heaven is still dreaming of his yellow sorghum.

After getting the edict of Tianjing, Xiao Yungui raised his troops and continued to move forward, passed Qixia Town that day, and after resting in Qixia Town for a day, he would soon arrive at Xiaguan.

The Taiping army and the people along the way are beating gongs and drums, burning incense pots to welcome the triumph of the king of the west, and sure enough, as Xiao Yungui and Hong Yuner expected, the soldiers and civilians along the way are living a poor life together, not only can not supply the soldiers and horses of the West Palace. On the contrary, the soldiers and horses in the west hall gave a lot of money and food to help one or two.

Xiao Yungui didn't feel that he was at a loss, and said that buying people's hearts starts from little by little, and he scattered some money and food to tie the hearts of the army and the people, why not do it? So everywhere Xiao Yungui went, he ordered Tang Erniu to send some of the food he brought to the soldiers and civilians along the way, although he couldn't help for a long time, but it was a tooth sacrifice. Hong Yun'er gave out some of the candy she bought in Suhang, Shanghai, to the children, and the children who were not dressed were as happy as the New Year.

And everywhere you go, the market is depressed, and even if you have money, you can't buy anything, because the goods have become the stuff of the holy treasury. The money obtained from the transaction shall also be handed over to the Holy Treasury, so who will come and buy and sell? In the final analysis, the ground of Tianjing and the land under the jurisdiction of the West Hall are completely two scenes, which makes all the soldiers and generals in the West Hall sigh.

When you arrive at Xiaguan, it is located in the north of Nanjing, near the river and the city. Known as the "North Gate of Jinling", there is also a Xiaguan Wharf here. It is also one of the most important strategic points in the north of Nanjing.

It's strange to say. Everywhere the people and horses of the West King arrived, the military and civilians lined up to welcome them, but they were silent when they arrived at Xiaguan, and the patrol soldiers and horses of the Tang Erniu faction reported that the East Hall in Tianjing City sent hundreds of guards to lock the East Hall Chengxuan, and the winter official was the prime minister Chen Zongyang, and now the soldiers and civilians in Xiaguan are watching and taking people, and no one is coming to welcome them.

Xiao Yungui sighed softly. Chen Zongyang knows that he is also one of the old brothers of the Guangxi Army, a native of Leimiao Village, Pingnan County, Guangxi. Father Chen Zhan, mother Liu. gave birth to three children, named Zongcang, Zongtai, and Zongyang, the three brothers are all married, and Chen Zongyang's wife is Xie Manmei, one of the three brigade commanders of the Jinxiu Battalion under Hong Xuanjiao.

Since Hong Xiuquan's worship of God spread to Pingnan, Chen Zhan's family has been its followers. In the last years of Ming Chongzhen, their ancestor Chen Tianling moved from Yingde County, Shaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province to Pingnan. By the time of Chen Zan and Chen Zhong's generation, the gap between the rich and the poor was already very obvious. Chen Zhong is a national student, his younger brother Chen Hong is a martial arts student, and his son Zong Huai is a famous leader of the Liupin military merit and Penghuali. The father and son collect more than 300 stone of land rent a year, and also have a large number of mountain farms and forests. Chen Zan is a farmer for generations, and his family is very unstable. In the winter of 1850, the Worship of God was in the camp of Huazhou in Pingnan, and Chen Zhong and his son gathered Yao Ding and regimental training to fight against the Taiping army, while Chen Zan led the whole family to "fight the Hong Army together and not return to Nanjing". As a result of this brotherly fight, Chen Zhong's house was burned down by the Taiping army, and the whole family fled to Liu's house in Wuxuan hippo, and Chen Zonghuai fought with his uncle Liu Jisan with the Qing army and also went to Nanjing. And Chen Zhan's brothers Chen Qi and Chen Zhen did not participate in the Taiping Army, and they were ruthlessly hit in their hometown and suffered a lot.

Chen Zongyang from Guangxi to Nanjing, participated in the battle along the way, and was named the autumn official and the prime minister, Xiao Yungui remembered that this person was the most loyal to the kingdom of heaven, but he didn't know what happened, the people in the east hall wanted to lock him up?

Hong Yun'er also said when she heard this: "I also know Xie Manmei's husband, he is the most loyal, why does the East Hall want to lock him up?" ”

Tang Erniu replied: "The lock took his East Hall Protector only said that it was an edict passed down by the Heavenly Father, and they didn't know why. I heard that he was going to lock it up with his wife Xie Manmei, Zhenguo Marquis Lu Xianba, and Hu Jiumei. ”

Xiao Yungui frowned, turned his head and glanced at Hong Yun'er, Hong Yun'er stepped forward and whispered: "This matter seems to have been recorded in history, that is, the case of Chen Zongyang and Lu Xianba's private wife, should we take care of it?" ”

Xiao Yungui touched his chin and muttered for a moment, he vaguely remembered this case, in the final analysis, it was still the bad rule of separating men and women, and husband and wife could not sleep together, Chen Zongyang privately married his wife Xie Manmei, zuihou East Window incident Chen Zongyang and his wife lost their heads, and then turned their heads to look at Qian Jiang and asked, "What do you think about this matter?" ”

Qian Jiang stepped forward and arched his hand: "When the West Palace first returned to Tianjing, the hidden situation is not clear, His Royal Highness the West King is still good to protect himself." ”

Hong Yun'er said: "How can you not care? If there is a grievance among them, it should be clear to the King of Heaven and the King of the East, Lu Xianba and Chen Zongyang are our old brothers in Guangxi. ”

Xiao Yungui thought for a moment and said, "Enter the capital first, ask the reason, and then make a plan!" (To be continued......)