Behind the Taiping Camp is a 1,000-strong volunteer battalion.

Compared with the Taiping Battalion, which was focused on training, although the strength of the Volunteer Battalion is not enough, it is much better than when it was first established. These young and strong rebels with commendable morale after the great victory were responsible for escorting the grain and grass of the accompanying army.

Behind the Volunteer Battalion is an expanded women's battalion.

This women's battalion is no longer just women and children related to the soldiers of the rebels. Many blacksmiths, stonemasons and other craftsmen who were willing to serve the rebels, along with their families, were arranged inside. Although the fortification is tight and the safety factor cannot be compared with that in the Taiping camp, after all, it is still within the sphere of influence of the rebels, and the treatment is also somewhat guaranteed.

Behind the women's battalion, it was no longer a rebel army in the strict sense.

They are just the people of Yicheng who follow the actions of the rebels, the line is long, and the family is dragged with them. Almost every family carries a large amount of possessions on their shoulders – or worthless rags.

These useless outfits slowed down their movements.

Chen Wu wants homeless people, not people who move like this. Therefore, on the first day of departure, he deliberately ordered the army to speed up, and it was a full twenty miles. You must know that even if it is a regular army of the empire, the normal march of the day is only thirty miles, which is the so-called land of a house. Ordinary people, with so many things, want to run twenty miles in one day, absolutely exhaust all their strength.

As expected, when the sky was getting dark, the rebels had already set up camp, and these Yicheng refugees followed one after another—and then received food that could only eat seventy percent full.

This naturally caused a lot of dissatisfaction.

However, except for a few cart pullers, there is not much work for the rebels to do at this stage. In the face of the free food, these Yicheng people are inevitably a little weak-hearted. Coupled with the fear of the knives and guns in the hands of the rebel soldiers, he could only eat half full and lie down on the side of the road to rest. Fortunately, it is not yet September, which is the hottest time in Taiping County, so even if you sleep outside at night, you don't have to worry about catching a cold.

But can you barely keep up on the first day, but what about the second day?

When they woke up, many Yicheng people who were already suffering from back pain, faced with a little less food than last night, and then looked at the rebels who had begun to pull out the camp, and had to face a painful choice: either continue to bring all the household belongings, or throw away some unnecessary things.

As a result, after the camp was pulled, a large number of tattered clothes, old wooden boxes and other sundries were left around the entire camp.

But even so, after the departure began the next day, a large number of people were still left behind, and some even felt uneasy and wanted to flee. Chen Wu didn't care much about the stragglers, but those who wanted to flee in groups, especially the young people, Chen Wu couldn't tolerate it.

Except for the horse team of the front team to explore the way, he almost scattered all the remaining riders and roamed on both sides of the people of Yicheng. If they find someone trying to flee in groups, they will drive them back, and those who do not obey will be beheaded. After cutting more than a dozen people a day, there were suddenly a lot fewer people who dared to escape.

On the second day's trip, Chen Wu deliberately took care of the people who followed, and it was reduced to fifteen miles.

For the volunteer battalion, whose body and bones have gradually been raised, this trip is already relatively easy; For the elite Taiping Battalion soldiers, it is even easier to do. But for the people of Yicheng, who drag their families and can't eat, it is still an unbearable burden.

So, on the second day, the camp was again surrounded by a large pile of clothes and debris.

Day 3!

This time, Chen Wu did not even pull out the camp early in the morning, but first showed that the Yong Camp and the Taiping Camp continued to train, and did not set off until almost noon, and the itinerary was even more resumed when Changshan Town had just raised the matter, which was about ten miles a day. However, after the first two days of travel, coupled with the fact that they had never had enough to eat, the people of Yicheng who followed behind were already exhausted and had to throw away the items they carried as if they were moving.

Useless bottles and cans, pots and pans, winter clothes, bedding, etc......

When these things were also thrown away, and even several families began to share the same pot and take turns to carry it, the burden of these Yicheng people was finally reduced to an acceptable point. At this point, the pace of the rebels became smoother. These guys, who have initially changed from ordinary people to qualified displaced people, can finally keep up with the rebels more steadily.

The price paid for this was the disappearance of hundreds of people, most of them elderly people.

They either died of exhaustion, or they fell behind because they couldn't keep up with the rebels, and finally starved to death in the wilderness, or they were attacked by a group of wild wolves and jackals that gathered one after another and hung behind the brigade of homeless people. The minds of the other displaced people also began to gradually become numb, and they no longer thought too much about anything. Just try to keep up with the rebels, then eat half full, sleep in a daze of hunger and exhaustion, and then wait for the reincarnation of the new day.

This is exactly what Chen Wu hopes to see, the most qualified homeless - no thoughts, no trouble, willing to do anything for a bite of food.

………

Long Son Province.

Compared with the ease of a week ago, the current castle guard is already gloomy. Before the expedition, almost all civil and military officials were full of confidence, believing that the suppression of the rebels was easy to capture. After the departure of the 600 official army, Zhang Chengshou has been waiting for the victory to be returned. As a result, two weeks later, the good news did not come, but the bad news came!

The officers and troops were completely wiped out!

All the officers and soldiers who went out on the expedition, along with the men outside the camp, were exterminated by the thieves. Only a few clever people saw that the situation was not good and escaped in panic. Along the way, they were afraid of being caught by thieves, and they didn't even dare to take the main road, which delayed a lot of time. When the news finally came back, Chen Wu's rebel army had already set off from Yicheng and walked to Lushan for several days.

This unprecedented bad news has brought huge panic and clouds to Longshan Mansion.

That's 600 officers and soldiers, including 100 light cavalry, and they are all the most elite in Longshan Mansion. After such a force was wiped out, there were only 400 available light infantry and at most seventy cavalry left in the hands of the Long Son Mansion. Defending the city is not a problem, but it is impossible to put down the rebellion again.

In other words, now that the Longshan Mansion has lost its ability to interfere with its rule, it can only let Chen Wu's rebel army run amok.

Worse news is yet to come.

Before the people of Longshan Mansion could recover from the blow of this bad news, just this morning, another messenger from Lushan rushed over.

A group of traveling merchants in Lushan accidentally discovered the intentions and whereabouts of tens of thousands of thieves in Yicheng, and are heading towards Lushan with all their might!

After learning that this gang of thieves had killed the officials and soldiers, they began to expand so decisively that the officials and nobles of the entire Longshan Mansion collectively lost their voices and fell into a strong uneasiness. Some businessmen from other places who are cautious by nature have even begun to sell their industrial fields at low prices and are ready to withdraw from Long Mountain.

Ordinary lower-class people, although they haven't gotten the news due to the news blockade, they are afraid that they will not be able to hide it for too long. After all, there was no news from the officers and soldiers who went out for a long time, and many people saw the messenger who rushed to Lushan to ask for help in the early morning, and now there are bad rumors circulating among the people. In a few days, the news of the annihilation of the counterinsurgency officers and troops by the thieves will spread sooner or later, and it will inevitably lead to a huge riot.

What to do?

The grim reality is in front of Zhang Chengshou and his henchmen.

If the thieves still retreat in Yicheng after winning the official army, they can delay for a few more days to discuss countermeasures. But now that the thieves are sending out of Lushan, things can't drag on anyway. With the strength of that gang of thieves and as many as 40,000 displaced people, it is impossible for Lushan to stop it. It can be said that the situation in the entire Long Son Province has become a foregone conclusion.

"Troops must be sent!"

Ji Hongguang's attitude is very resolute, if Longshan Mansion can't send troops to reinforce Lushan, then the fact that Yicheng is broken is very likely, no, it will almost certainly be staged again, and then Linxian will be followed. In the end, the thieves sat on the land of three counties and 100,000 displaced people, besieging the city of Longshan Prefecture, regardless of whether it could be succeeded in the end, the impact would be so bad that it could be so bad that it could not be repeated.