Xiao Yungui has been in a very bad mood recently, and there are many reasons, one of the biggest reasons is that the Huaishang Twist Army is very unhappy. Lai Wenguang, Chen Decai and others led thousands of elite soldiers and horses of the East Hall to the north, although these soldiers and horses were not equipped with new rifled guns and new artillery, but the original old muskets and artillery of the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were equipped with a lot, and the soldiers and horses they commanded were still the elite of the East Palace, and after going north, it was a very powerful force.

Although the force is strong, but it has also aroused the suspicion of the leaders of the Twist Army, the head of the Twist Army, Zhang Lexing, Gong Deshu and others have already supported the army on their own, and the Twist Army is not a monolith, plus the arrival of the Taiping Army, a powerful force, the balance of power within the Twist Army has been broken, and all parties have begun to suspect each other.

In order to cooperate with Lai Wenguang and others to go north, Lin Fengxiang and other troops also launched a series of feints in the middle of the Soviet Union, Lai Wenguang and other troops led the troops all the way to break through the Qing army's defense line, Liankehuoqiu, Yingshang, Mengcheng and other places, and finally reached Zhiheji. After arriving in Zhiheji, Lai Wenguang and Chen Decai immediately met with Zhang Lexing and others, and proposed to take immediate action to capture Suzhou and cooperate with Lin Fengxiang's troops to attack Xuzhou's Jianyi.

However, Zhang Lexing and others were not interested in meeting with the main force of the Taiping Army in Xuzhou, and Zhang Lexing instead proposed their own conditions for twisting the army. The condition of the Twist Army was to listen to the title and not to listen to the tune, and the Twist Army agreed to nominally accept the leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and also accepted the title of official of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but the Twist Army remained independent and was not subject to the command and deployment of the Taiping Army.

Chen Decai and others were very angry, the Taiping army worked hard to break through the Qing army's defense line and came here to support the Twist Army's uprising, and the righteous flag was busy asking for power before it was raised. Moreover, the Qing army had already deployed heavy troops to guard against the uprising of the army, and the military situation was like fire, and it was still so ignorant of the general situation. It's really hard to make a big deal. On the contrary, Lai Wenguang talked with the chief of the West before leaving, and Xiao Yungui reminded him that no matter what conditions the Twist Army proposed, they could agree, as long as they were willing to play the banner of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they wanted to fight the Qing army elsewhere and did not cooperate with the Taiping Army, as long as they did not surrender to the Qing court, as long as they attacked the Qing army, they could agree to any conditions.

So under the mediation of Zhang Zongyu. Lai Wenguang persuaded Chen Decai and others to agree to the conditions put forward by Zhang Lexing and others, and Zhang Lexing and others sealed official positions ranging from inspection to inspection. Subsequently, the Twist Army established a five-banner military system, using yellow, white, red, blue, and black five-color flags to distinguish the army. The chief yellow flag is owned by Zhang Lexing. Gong Deshu, the chief white flag owner, Hou Shiwei, the chief red flag owner, Han Laowan, the chief blue flag owner, and Su Tianfu, the chief black flag owner. There are big flags and small flags under the general flag. Each banner owner has a leading group that combines clan, kinship, and township relations. Because the flags do not belong to each other. There are many kinds of groups. It is not easy to leave the homeland, forming its scattered and backward nature.

The Twist Army then changed its flag and played the banner of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Zhang Lexing and others raised troops against the Qing Dynasty again. The rebels easily took the tip of the three rivers. Sanhejian is a relatively wealthy town on the Huai River, with thriving commerce. Zhang Lexing's army attacked this place in order to get money, food, and materials here, and their purpose was to rob the big and rich merchants, and then leave and attack the next target after robbing.

This approach was very different from that of the Taiping Army, which had long since abandoned this rogue-style method of warfare. There is no solid rear in this mode of warfare, only destruction and killing. Everywhere they passed, the big and wealthy merchants were swept away, and even the slightly richer kulaks were not spared. Since the Taiping army occupied Nanjing, especially the Taiping army in the West Palace, the places they occupied were no longer looted, but turned to protect private property, relying on the collection of commercial taxes, land taxes, etc. to maintain military expenditures, and turned into a legitimate regime, so the Taiping army gradually won the recognition of the vast number of rich and large families wherever they went. As long as you don't support the Manchus, the Taiping army will not rob you of your property, but you have to pay taxes, and since ancient times, it is fair to pay taxes and food, so there will not be much resistance.

However, the practice of the army was to dry up the river and fish, burn the forest and hunt, after all the robbery, Sanhejian, the original rich commercial town on the Huai River, became a ruin. Although the army distributed some money and food to the local poor people, the damage caused to local production was incomparable.

This time Lai Wenguang couldn't sit still, he found Zhang Lexing to negotiate, hoping that the next time the Twist Army conquered the town, he would not loot again, but should consider establishing his own base. Zhang Lexing was born in a strong and strong background, and he also knows this truth, but the Twist Army does its own thing, and it is difficult to subordinate, and even many Twist Army participate in the uprising just to make a fortune, not to rob the big households, where does the money come from?

Although Zhang Lexing likes power, he knows that he can't confront the Qing army alone, so he plans to go south to Huoqiu, Yingshang and other places to establish his own base and cooperate with the Taiping army in Luzhou.

Part of the Twist Army led by the Blue Banner general Liu Yongjing insisted on returning to Huaibei and was killed by Zhang Lexing and others. The Twist Army then split, and most of the banner owners returned to Huaibei, only Zhang Lexing, Gong De and a few others stayed in Huainan and turned to attack Mengcheng.

The northbound twist army was encircled and suppressed by the Qing army of the Ronglu Department of the Qing army in Maozhou, Yongcheng and other places, and suffered heavy losses, tens of thousands of twist troops were wiped out, and in less than two months, the northbound twist army was encircled and suppressed to only more than ten weak forces. It turned out that Rong Lu commanded the new army in the capital, together with Yuan Jiasan, Li Hongzhang and other troops, who had been eyeing the Zhiheji all the time, and Rong Lu himself was personally sitting in Xuzhou.

Rong Lu knew that the Twist Army was originally scattered in a piece, but the Twist Army of 7 or 80,000 people gathered in Zhihe, and it was very likely to be supported by the Taiping Army.

At first, Yuan Jiasan did not agree to this plan, since he already knew the location of the enemy, he could be surrounded and annihilated by the army, why should he sit back and wait for the enemy to mess up? If the enemy does not mess up and instead divides his troops to attack, the Qing army will be in a hurry.

But Rong Lu insisted on his opinion, and the development of things was just as Rong Lu expected. After the division of the Twist Army, the Twist Army in Henan, Shandong, and Huaibei was anxious to return to their own territory, so they were surrounded and suppressed by the Qing army on the way north. And the Qing army's methods this time were very ruthless, even if the surrendered Twist Army was slaughtered, leaving no one alive, Rong Lu knew that these people could not be put back, and after going back, they would be Twist the Army again in a few days.

The remaining army was less than 20,000 horses, but fortunately, thanks to the cooperation of Wenguang and other Taiping troops, they finally conquered Yingzhou and got a place to rest. After Rong Lu exterminated the Twist army that was returning to the north, he immediately waved his troops south to surround Yingzhou. Zhang Lexing, Lai Wenguang and others stuck to Yingzhou on the one hand, and asked for help from the Taiping army in Luzhou on the other.

By the time the news of Yingzhou's call for help reached Tianjing, the Battle of Guangzhou had already ended, and the Taiping army was sweeping through Guangdong.

When he received the news that most of the Twist Army in the north had been exterminated and Zhang Lexing and others were besieged in Yingzhou, Xiao Yungui's expression was like swallowing a fly, and his original plan was to let the Twist Army disrupt the Qing army's Yellow River defense line deployment in Huaishang, so that the Taiping Army could take advantage of it. But I didn't expect the Twist Army to be scattered, not only did it not contain many Qing troops, but it was surrounded by Yingzhou and asked the Taiping Army to go to the rescue, I really don't know what Lai Wenguang did with them.

Xiao Yungui's anger has not yet subsided, and bad news has come, Jiangxi Governor Jiang Zhongyuan has been transferred to the governor of Liangguang, and has already led troops to Wuzhou, and will divide troops with Guangxi Governor Lao Chongguang to guard Zhaoqing, Luoding and other prefectures and counties. Zhang Wenxiang's troops scattered and attacked western Guangdong, but they met with stubborn resistance in Zhaoqing.

The news of Jiang Zhongyuan's transfer was so late that Xiao Yungui was very annoyed, not only did the Bai Zetang rudder in the capital not send back any news, but in the end, the news was reported after the Jiangxi Bai Zetang rudder detective learned about it, and at this time, Jiang Zhongyuan's soldiers and horses had been fighting in Zhaoqing and Zhang Wenxiang's department for a long time.

More than 10,000 Taiping troops under Zhang Wenxiang's department scattered and attacked western Guangdong, and the forces were too scattered and difficult to concentrate for a while, if it were not for the fierce firepower of the Taiping army, the Qing army in Zhaoqing might even have the possibility of counterattacking.

After a thunderous fury, Tong Qiangsheng, who returned to Beijing to report on his work, was very trembling, and the king of the west had not lost such a big temper for a long time. But Tong Qiangsheng still has to report another bad news, that is, the Bai Zetang rudder in the capital was surrounded and suppressed by the Qing court, and suffered heavy losses, and the helmsman Zhao Jia was martyred, and now there are less than ten people left in the rudder of the capital.

After patiently listening to Tong Qiangsheng's report, Xiao Yungui was relieved, it turned out that there was a problem with the rudder of the capital, no wonder there was no news back, after all, Sijiu City was the old nest of the Manchu Qing Dynasty for many years, and among the meticulous spies trained by Bai Zetang, there were not many northerners, and it was easy to be noticed by sending southerners to the north to be meticulous. Moreover, the Manchu Qing guards in the capital were very sufficient, after the last Dagukou assassination of the British and French envoys, the Manchus strengthened the security forces in the capital, although it did not reach the point where the water could not be splashed, but Bai Zetang was also very difficult to move in the capital.

Xiao Yungui pinched his temples, slightly relaxed some tense nerves, and Tong Qiang continued to say: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, this time the rudder of the capital was destroyed, and two people were arrested, and then the Qing Demon released one person out, this person has returned to Tianjing, and he also brought back a letter, saying that it was a handwritten letter from the Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Demon. ”

Xiao Yungui was slightly stunned, raised his head in some surprise, and asked eagerly, "Where is the letter?" Hurry up and get it! ”

Tong Qiangsheng sent the letter sealed by fire paint, Xiao Yungui opened it and looked at it, his face suddenly changed greatly, and he became short of breath with him, turned his head and asked, "Where is Xuanjiao?" ”

Tang Erniu, the captain of the personal guard, said: "Xiwang Niang went to the Tianjing Edict Office today ......"

Without waiting for Tang Erniu to finish speaking, Xiao Yungui hurriedly shouted: "Come and find her back, just say that there is something important!" ”

Tang Erniu and Tong Qiangsheng are a little strange, what is written in the letter of the Empress Dowager of the Qing Demon? Will it make the King of the West so urgent? Although the two of them were strange, Tang Erniu immediately turned around and ordered someone to go to find Xi Wangniang.

I saw Xiao Yungui walking back and forth, just muttering: "It turns out that she is really Cixi......" (to be continued......)