Chongqing Mansion in Sichuan, known as Jiangzhou in ancient times of the Three Kingdoms, in the second year of Jingding in the Southern Song Dynasty (1261), the Mongolian army broke through Sichuan, the Song army retreated to Chongqing, and Peng Daya served as the prefect of Chongqing. For the needs of defense, Peng Daya made every effort to expand and repair Chongqing City, expanded to the north to the Jialing River, and expanded westward to the current Linjiangmen and Tongyuanmen, which was roughly twice as large as the Jiangzhou City expanded by Li Yan, and laid the general pattern of Chongqing City until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), Dai Ding built a total of 17 city gates that symbolized the "Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams" at the old site, which have continued to this day.

Just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the hot climate began to subside, but there was a lively scene inside and outside Chongqing's Chaotianmen. Located at the confluence of the Jialing River and the Yangtze River on the Yuzhong Peninsula in Yuzhong District, Chongqing, Chaotianmen is one of the 17 city gates in Chongqing and is the largest one. Chaotian Gate is built in the high place of the river cliff, outside the door is the long slope that goes down to the wharf, it is very majestic from a distance, the city gate is a double-layer structure, there is an urn city outside the main gate, the urn city gate is to the north, turn right into the urn city, it is the main gate of Chaotian Gate, the main gate faces east, and the outer city gate is at a right angle. Outside the Chaotian Gate, on the forehead of the urn city gate, there are three big characters engraved with "Chaotian Gate", and the forehead of the main gate is engraved with the four big characters of "Ancient Yuxiongguan".

Lin Qirong stood on top of Chaotianmen City in a new army general's uniform, staring at the extremely busy dock outside Chaotianmen with blazing eyes, and his heart was full of enthusiasm. Last year, Chen Yucheng's troops united with Du Wenxiu and other troops of the Yunnan-Guizhou Righteous Army to advance into Sichuan, and joined forces with Li Yonghe, Lan Chaobi and other troops of the Sichuan Pao Brother Association in Zigong, Sichuan.

Lin Qirong was transferred to Sichuan before October, and Chen Yucheng's troops left Hanzhong Mansion and began to pass through Shaanxi and Gansu. Lin Qirong succeeded Chen Yucheng as the military commander of Sichuan, and now the main task of the Taiping Army in Sichuan is to go down the river and aim directly at the land of Jingxiang. and the wing king Shi Dakai formed a situation of attacking the wing of Hulin in Hubei from east to west. The Wing King Shi Da Kaibu was under pressure from the Qing armies of Hunan and Hubei Zeng Guofan and Hu Lin Wing all the year round, and it was time to relieve the pressure on the Wing King. Therefore, fifteen days ago, the Tianjing General Staff agreed to the battle plan of Lin Qirong's troops to move down the east of the river. After receiving Tianjing's order, Lin Qirong and other troops began to mobilize troops and horses, carry supplies, and prepare to go east along the river today, after several days of preparation.

Standing beside Lin Qirong were Li Shidi, the county guard of Chongqing County, Li Yonghe, the general of the Sichuan Taiping Army, Lan Chaobi, Lan Chaozhu, Xu Daobang and others. Li Shiqi was originally from Sichuan, was the first and first famous poet of the Manchu Qing Dynasty Examination, once served as the commander of Linchuan County, Jiangxi, was captured when the Taiping Army attacked Jiangxi, and then after a year in prison, after the Western King ruled Tianjing, he was also surrendered by Xu Naizhao, who was also surrendered by the Manchu Dynasty. With the recovery of Sichuan, he was also transferred to Sichuan at the beginning of the year to serve as the extremely important county guard of Chongqing.

Li Yonghe, Lan Chaobi, and Lan Chaozhu were originally the leaders of the Sichuan Pao Brothers' Association, and at the beginning of last year, Li, Lan and others took advantage of the Taiping Army's attack on Yunnan to form an alliance and revolt in Zhaotong Cowhide Village. Enter Sichuan, Liankeyunlian, Gaoxian and other places. In the middle of that year, it occupied the Zigong salt field, and the momentum began to flourish. So it was based in southern Sichuan. The activity was on the west bank of the Minjiang River, relying on the foundation of the Pao Brothers' Association, and in a short period of time, more than 300,000 people gathered to erect a flag against the Qing Dynasty. When the Taiping Army Chen Yu entered Sichuan. Li Lan's two rebels changed their banners, accepted the official title of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and returned to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

With the help of the two of them and Brother Pao's huge influence in Sichuan. The Taiping Army's military operations in Sichuan went unusually smoothly, and the entire territory of Sichuan was recovered within half a year. The Qing army's Sichuan governor Duolonga committed suicide in defeat, and the governor of Sichuan, Tang Yougeng, surrendered to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after being captured. More than 300 Manchu officials in Sichuan were captured and surrendered, and countless ordinary soldiers surrendered.

And Xu Daobang is also originally from Fuzhou, Sichuan, in the early years he was also from the Wu Chu Army, defeated and captured in Jiangxi, and then also surrendered to the Taiping Army, after the reorganization of the new army, he has been in the Third Army successively as battalion commander, regiment commander and other positions, at the beginning of the year was promoted to division commander, and then followed Lin Qirong into Sichuan to lead Sichuan soldiers and horses before the tenth month.

Lin Qirong was quite satisfied with the preliminary work of the Taiping Army in Sichuan, especially after Li Shiqi took charge of Sichuan, he immediately began to implement the reform policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the south of the Yangtze River, encouraged industry and commerce, punished the local bullies and wealthy businessmen who committed the most heinous crimes, implemented the policy of land redemption and rent reduction and interest reduction, reorganized the local troops and the rebel army, organized the local township soldier system, and implemented the township official system. After months of operation, Sichuan is already a thriving scene.

At present, the Sichuan Taiping Army will take the two field divisions of the new army as the main force, supplemented by the reorganized righteous army and the original Sichuan Green Battalion, a total of 100,000 people will march east from Sichuan, and the military and people from all walks of life in Sichuan have given great support.

This morning is the first day that the army has begun to march, and Chaotianmen Wharf is in full swing. The soldiers of the Taiping Army gathered at the wharf to prepare to board the ship, the people on both sides of the river were seeing off, thousands of dock workers were busy carrying grain and grass materials for large and small ships, the whole river was stuffed with boats, but the ships were all guided by the command of the boats, after a boat was loaded with supplies, it left immediately, and the other boat followed, although the whole scene was busy but not chaotic at all.

After reading it, Lin Qirong looked back and said with satisfaction: "Today, the army went out to fight in Sichuan, and the logistics and scheduling are so well organized, and Li Jun's defense is indispensable." ”

Li Shidi, who was born as a poet, is naturally literary and crepe: "The great cause of the Kingdom of Heaven is about to be accomplished, and we will wait for the new dynasty to open up its territory and expand its territory, and we will move forward with all our strength, but there are still some rules and regulations for this personnel and material scheduling, so naturally we can only contribute to it." ”

Li Yonghe, Lan Chaobi, Lan Chaozhu and others all laughed, and Li Yonghe said: "Lord Li, in the past, my old Li hated the Manchu officials the most, but I didn't expect that your brother was also a Manchu official. But in the past few months that you have been in charge of Sichuan, our old buddies have seen you as a good official! ”

Li Shiqi also smiled, recalling that at the beginning, Li Yonghe and others did have some prejudices against themselves, but later got along, he acted with a public heart, and over time he also got the support of these people, naturally everyone was happy, and said at the moment: "In the past, the atmosphere of Manchu officialdom was like this, ten officials and nine greedy, such as today's new dynasty and new atmosphere, naturally there is something else, since we can be appointed by the kingdom of heaven as a party, it is natural to meet the requirements of the kingdom of heaven, otherwise I would not dare to serve here, not to mention that they are all hometown fathers, If you lose face, you won't look good. Speaking of this, he paused and continued: "It's just that General Li and General Lan, the Kingdom of Heaven has recovered Sichuan, and non-governmental organizations like the Xiangpao Brotherhood are still going to be banned, and it is not beneficial to be peaceful in the local area." ”

After hearing this, Li Yonghe and the others' faces changed slightly, they had also heard earlier that the Kingdom of Heaven would ban these underworld organizations such as the Pao Brothers' Association, but they didn't expect Li Shidi to openly announce it now.

Seeing this, Lin Qirong said with a smile: "That's not called banning, we all know that this robe brother association was composed of poor slender men and boatmen on the river at first, and everyone formed a group meeting, the purpose was not to be bullied by the government and bullies and rich businessmen, but later after the meeting, the flow of people and goods involved in it was complicated, and many ruffians and hooligans also participated in it, so that the robe brothers in some places became the cause of local instability." Master Li meant that, according to the practice of the Kingdom of Heaven in Jiangnan, the Pao Brothers' Association would be officially banned and then changed into a trade union dedicated to the well-being of the poor workers. In Jiangnan, there are shipwrights' unions, weavers' unions, and so on, all of which are in charge of the poor workers as before. ”

Li Yonghe and the others were a little relieved when they heard this, but Li Yonghe still shook his head and said: "The Pao Brothers' Association was originally a branch of the Heaven and Earth Society, and since it was introduced to Sichuan at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it has been preserved to this day. ”

Lin Qirong turned his head and said to Li Shidi: "Master Li doesn't have to be in a hurry about the affairs of the Sichuan Robe Brothers' Association, just like the Guangdong Tiandi Society, as long as they are willing to cooperate with us, there is no need to disturb them." Just as there are Tusi of various ethnic groups everywhere in Yunnan, Guichuan, they have great prestige and influence in the local area, and they cannot be overturned with a single rod. ”

Li Shiqi looked at Lin Qirong, and then understood Lin Qirong's words, now that Sichuan has only been pacified, it is indeed not the time to deal with these remaining problems, the main goal of the Taiping Army at this stage is to defeat the Manchu Qing Dynasty and unify the whole country first, so Li Shidi nodded and said: "The subordinates are anxious, and in the later administration, the subordinates will definitely listen to the opinions of the people more before acting." ”

Li Yonghe and the others also breathed a sigh of relief, as long as the Kingdom of Heaven does not ban the Pao Brothers' Association, it is fine, a few of them are now generals of the Kingdom of Heaven, and they are from the Pao Brothers' Association, if the Kingdom of Heaven really wants to ban the Pao Brothers' Association, it is really difficult for them to be caught in the middle. The same problem was also encountered in the later generations of New China, when He Long and other generals also had many people from these party figures, but after the unification of the country, the local government began to purge before gradually disappearing.

Lin Qirong is not worried that Li Yonghe and others will have any bad intentions, now their subordinates are all soldiers and horses after the reorganization of the Taiping Army, most of the junior officers are veterans of the Taiping Army, and the weapons are also supplied by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after the war, these people will also enter the military academy to study for a period of time, their own interests have been tied to the Kingdom of Heaven, the Manchu Dynasty sunset, the general trend of the Kingdom of Heaven unifying the whole country has been irreversible, and no one will dig their own graves under this kind of great shape.

However, in the process of unifying the whole country, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did still have many problems, such as the handling of the folk gangs such as the Heaven and Earth Society and the Pao Brother Society, and the problem of the Tusi of the Miao Yi and other ethnic groups in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi and other multi-ethnic places. Only after the Kingdom of Heaven unifies the whole country will it have the energy and ability to mediate slowly, and even if force is to be used at that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will have the spare strength to deal with it.

After Lin Qirong set a tone for Brother Pao in a few words, he turned his head and said: "The army has been pulled, then a few of us are ready to board the ship, 100,000 troops will go out of Sichuan, let's go to Jingxiang to meet with Yiwang, and meet that Hu Linyi to ......" (to be continued......