Deng Heming did not die in battle or commit suicide, when the Taiping cavalry with a sabre rushed in front of him, he calmly said to his panicked subordinates: "The general trend has gone, it is useless to fight again, and it is not the husband's work to die for death." So Deng Heming, the chief soldier of Liuqing Town of the Qing army, and more than a dozen personal guards were tied, and so far the entire Qing army sent by Lao Chongguang to the south to block the Taiping army was completely annihilated.

After Chen Yucheng broke into the hinterland of Guangxi, he twice returned to the horse and defeated Jiang Zhongyuan, broke Xunzhou and Keliujiang, fought four battles and won four victories, the whole province of Guangxi was shaken, and more than 40,000 Qing troops were annihilated after four battles, which greatly damaged the vitality of the Qing army in Guangxi.

Jiang Zhongyuan is also a bachelor, he can see that Chen Yucheng's tactic is to attack everywhere, annihilating the living forces of the Qing army in the movement war, and in the end, no one will guard the Qing army's fortress no matter how strong it is. So while asking Zeng Guofan for help, he ordered the Qing army in Guangxi Province to abandon the plan of encircling and suppressing the righteous armies such as He Goubei, Zhu Hongying, and Hu Youlu, abandon some small towns, and go all out to hold on to the big cities of the prefecture and county. He himself also took the initiative to give up Wuzhou and retreat to Pingle Mansion, Yong'an Prefecture and other places, Lao Chongguang gave up Xiangzhou and retreated to Liuzhou Mansion, Guangxi Governor Xi Yinglong retreated to Yulin Prefecture, Zheng Shijie, the chief soldier of Zuojiang Town, guarded Wuxuan in the west of Xunzhou Mansion, and Qi Wangnian, the chief soldier of Youjiang Town, raised troops to guard Guixian County in the southwest of Xunzhou Prefecture, intending to shrink his forces and stick to the key points, confined the Taiping Army to the scope of Wuzhou and Xunzhou Prefecture, and waited for reinforcements before launching a large-scale counterattack.

Jiang Zhongyuan ran fast, and Chen Alin was not slow. Chen Alin is steady and steady. Under the steady advance of artillery musket and bayonet tactics, the remnants of the enemy in Luoding and Deqing were swept away in more than ten days, and more than 20,000 Qing troops were annihilated in one battle. Liu Changyou, the governor of Guangdong and Jiang Zhongyuan's old general, was killed in battle, and Jiang Zhongyi, the envoy of Guangdong and Jiang Zhongyuan's younger brother, committed suicide.

On 21 October, after handing over the defense to the follow-up township corps, Chen Alin led the brigade to break into Wuzhou Mansion, just as Jiang Zhongyuan had just led his troops away, leaving a team of men and horses to prepare to set fire to Wuzhou's public and private warehouses and government fortresses. Fortunately, Chen Alin's forward troops were commanded by Zhang Wenxiang, and the infantry of the Third Division led by him was good at running. It came very quickly, and when the Qing army saw the arrival of the Taiping Army, they were so frightened that they fled. The fires that were lit were quickly extinguished by the people in the city and the Taiping soldiers who had arrived in advance.

Wuzhou Mansion hoarded a large number of weapons and food materials, Jiang Zhongyuan took half of them, and the rest that he couldn't take away was originally going to be burned, so that the Taiping army had no food supplies to replenish after arriving in Wuzhou. It is also necessary to take care of more than 100,000 people in Wuzhou. Naturally, it will be difficult to look at the end. But he didn't expect the Taiping army to come so quickly, and in the end, except for a small part of the remaining materials that were burned, most of the materials were rescued and fell into the hands of Chen Alin.

After learning of Jiang Zhongyuan's vicious plan, Chen Alin was furious and immediately ordered Zhang Wenxiang to lead the Third Division to continue to pursue Jiang Zhongyuan's troops north. Zhang Wenxiang commanded the 3rd Division to catch up with Jiang Zhongyuan's rearguard troops at Majiangtang in Guijiang, and a major battle broke out between the two sides. Jiang Zhongyuan's retreat was still able to take care of the head and tail, and the rear guards and horses occupied the terrain of Jiangtang and resisted desperately. In the end, more than 1,000 soldiers were wiped out, and no one fled or surrendered!

Zhang Wenxiang was greatly surprised, and this group of soldiers bravely withstood the blows of muskets and grenades. In the end, he launched a counter-charge, and although he was quickly pressed back by the soldiers of the 3rd Division with skillful bayonet formations, he retreated and regrouped until no one on the ground could stand up. And this group of Qing soldiers has a very strange feature, they are all wearing white uniforms.

When the Taiping army cleaned up the battlefield, rescued more than a dozen seriously injured Qing soldiers who could not move, and took off the cool hats of the Qing army, but they were all wearing white hats, Zhang Wenxiang and several officers stepped forward to check, and an officer from Guangxi veterans exclaimed: "They are young at home!" "Wai Xiao is the name given by the old Taiping Army to people who do not believe in the original teachings of worshipping God, although their teachings have changed a lot by this time, some of their titles still cannot be changed.

Zhang Wenxiang frowned, the officer's name was Yang Jijin, a native of Liuzhou Mansion, and he immediately said: "There are three places where people go home in Guangxi, Guilin, Liuzhou, and Nanning. When the King of the West led us to fight Guilin, Guilin's homecoming children also helped us build a lot of cloud cars, why are there so many homecoming soldiers here? And just like we have a grudge, we will not retreat from the fight to the death! ”

A white-hat soldier's leg was blown off, although the bleeding was stopped, but Wu Zi scolded in Guangxi Hakka, Yang Jijin stepped forward to answer a few words, Zhang Wenxiang Anhui people did not understand much, and then Yang Jijin stepped forward and said: "They are all homecoming people from Liuzhou Mansion, when we raised troops in the past, they also helped us, but later after Yong'an was crowned king, the king of heaven did not engage in religious baptism, forced the big guys to join the church, and then their people ran back." He said that they believed in the true God Allah and would rather die than convert to any other religion. ”

Zhang Wenxiang was a little speechless, and he shouted: "Herald! Let Ma Chengfu Ma Company Commander come over! At that moment, the herald was ordered to go quickly, and after a while, an officer with five big and three thick officers ran over, saluted Zhang Wenxiang and the others, and said loudly: "Report to the sir!" Ma Chengfu, the commander of the third battalion and the first company of the second regiment, came to obey the order! ”

Zhang Wenxiang hummed and said, "Take a break." Then he pointed to the wounded soldiers of the Qing army and said: "They are all homemen who believe in the true God, just like you, you go up and talk to them about our army's doctrine and belief policy, they still think that we should force them to convert." ”

Ma Chengfu shouted the order, and then stepped forward, and a health soldier beside the Qing army was bandaging him to stop the bleeding, and he kept cursing to himself. Ma Chengfu was a native of Fujian, and the Taiping Army that joined the Third Division after entering Fujian was, like most of the soldiers returning home in the army, a devout follower of Allah. It's a pity that he couldn't understand the words of the Qing army, Yang Jijin stepped forward to translate, and after the three of them talked for a long time, the Qing army suddenly hid his face and cried loudly, crying very desolately.

Zhang Wenxiang didn't know why, Ma Chengfu came back and said: "He said that he knew that the Taiping Army allowed freedom of belief, and they would never fight with the Qing Demon to fight the Taiping Army. ”

Zhang Wenxiangqi said: "I remember that in the past, the General Staff Department had a propaganda plan behind enemy lines. Bai Zetang and the Intelligence Department should have done propaganda in Guangxi, why don't they know? ”

Ma Chengfu said: "They know, but back then, Yong'an believed in religion was an edict issued by the King of Heaven himself. It was too impressive for them, and the demon told them that these were all tricks we used to deceive people, and it wasn't until now that he saw me that he realized that he had been fooled. ”

Zhang Wenxiang was silent for a moment and then said: "Ma Chengfu, you follow Deputy Chief of Staff Yang to rescue all the Qing soldiers who did not die on the battlefield, and those who can be saved must be saved, and then you take a company of troops to send them home and publicize our policy to the local homemen!" ”

Ma Chengfu shouted his order. When Yang Jijin followed Yang Jijin and called a few health soldiers to search and rescue the wounded soldiers of the Qing army.

Zheng Yantuo, the instructor of the division, who had not expressed his opinion, took out a bloody book from the corpse of a Qing soldier who died in battle, opened it, and saw that it read: "On the first day, I worshipped the one true God. On the second day, you must not worship the evil god, and on the third day, you must not ask the name of the only true god" Zhang Wenxiang walked over and looked at it a few times, and couldn't help but say: "Replace this true god with Heavenly Father, isn't it our ten heavenly rules back then?" ”

Zheng Yantuo sighed lightly and said, "Fortunately, the King of the West and the Queen of the West have changed the belief policy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Otherwise, we don't know how many enemies there will be! ”

Zhang Wenxiang smiled faintly and said, "Including you and me?" I remember you were a believer. ”

Zheng Yantuo smiled and said: "Buddhism and Taoism are not separated. Indeed, it includes you and me. After the two looked at each other and smiled, Zheng Yan said: "After being blocked by these homecoming soldiers, it seems that we can't catch up with Jiang Zhongyuan, the dog thief, so let's temporarily withdraw the troops." ”

Zhang Wenxiang nodded and said, "I agree, stay on the spot, and wait for the order." Zheng Yantuo squatted down and put the book back into the arms of the dead body, and said to Zhang Wenxiang: "There is also a military order, not to take the doctrinal books or other things of faith found on these Qing soldiers." These are their beliefs, and their fighting spirit deserves our respect. ”

Zhang Wenxiang nodded and said: "If the Qing army in the city that came all the way from Guangzhou was so sworn to resist. Where can we get here? ”

Zheng Yantuo touched his chin and said: "It seems that our previous propaganda efforts are still not enough, probably because the underground activities carried out by Bai Zetang and the people of the Intelligence Department are too restricted, and the set of the Heavenly King when he was in power is very unpopular, it is too impressive, if you want to change the situation, you still have to work public opinion propaganda." ”

Zhang Wenxiang said with a smile: "Teaching Zheng, this is your errand, I won't get involved, including letting the troops pay attention to respecting the folk customs of the local people, it's up to you, I still continue to think about how to fight the next battle." ”

Zheng Yantuo shrugged his shoulders indifferently and said: "It was originally an errand that I should do, and I would report this matter to General Chen, or even directly report it to the Ministry of War. ”

Although the Battle of Majiangtang annihilated not many Qing troops, this battle had a great impact on the policies and propaganda offensives of the Taiping Army after that, although Bai Zetang and the personnel of the Intelligence Department who were lurking in the Qing occupied areas also did a lot of propaganda, but they all ignored a practical problem, that is, the bad influence of the Kingdom of Heaven before and how effective the propaganda was. Xiao Yungui and Zuo Zongtang, who were far away in Tianjing, received a detailed battle report on the battle of Majiangtang and Zheng Yantuo's construction a few days later, which aroused their great attention, and finally the king of the West decided to increase propaganda efforts, and widely distributed a "Expedition to the South and the Restoration of the Text", which not only made it clear that the Taiping Army would conquer the Qing army in the southern nine provinces in the near future, completely recovering the homeland of Jiangnan, but also reiterated the Taiping Army's policy on the treatment of the gentry and religious issues in the text. He exhorted the gentry and large families who depended on the Qing army to draw a clear line with the Qing army as soon as possible, as long as they did not support the Qing army against the Taiping army, their property and land could be preserved, and freedom of belief was a principle that the Taiping army had always adhered to, and it would not change.

Although Zeng Guofan, Jiang Zhongyuan and others later issued several proclamations to refute the Taiping army's proclamation, as more and more land in Liangguang was recovered, the true face of the Taiping army became more and more known, and the rumors of the Qing army became more and more unbelievable, so the life of the Qing army became more and more difficult. (To be continued......)