"Shi Qiao, Ziying, Yunxian, and that bandit Xiao Chaogui brought three or four thousand people to Baiyangping in Lotus Leaf Pond... They must be here to arrest me, the registered minister. I have to leave Xiangxiang as soon as possible!"
In the big house of the Zeng family, the evil-looking Zeng Guofan was like a jackal being targeted by a hunter. He looked extremely uneasy, talking and walking around in the dark, dilapidated, musty old house. Inside the house There were three more visitors, the first of whom was Guo Songtao, who had come to Xiangxiang three times to persuade Zeng Guofan to come out.
The second one is a man with a rather rich appearance. He is the county official of Xiangxiang County. His surname is Zhu, his given name is Sun Yi, and his courtesy name is Shi Qiao. He is from Qingjiang, Jiangxia. He is also one of the early founders of the Hunan Army, as early as the 30th year of Daoguang. In 2000, before the Jintian Uprising broke out, he summoned Liu Rong, Wang Xin and others and began to establish local armed forces on the grounds that "if you want to defend your village, you must train local soldiers in regiments."
After the Taiping Army invaded Hunan, he divided his regiment training arm into three battalions, with Wang Xin in charge of the left camp, Luo Zenan in charge of the middle camp, and Kang Jinghui in charge of the right camp. Later, Luo Bingzhang used Zuo Zongtang's plan to summon regiment training from all over the country. Wei Changsha, Luo Zenan's middle camp, and Wang's left camp all went to Changsha, leaving only one right camp still in Xiangxiang.
The third visitor was Huang Shijie. His Daozhou regiment training was now divided into three battalions. Zhang Dingxiang led the left battalion, he led the middle battalion, and Zhang Guoliang led the right battalion. This time Zhang Dingxiang's left battalion stayed in Changsha with Zuo Zongtang, and Huang Shijie and Zhang Guoliang led two battalions of thousands of people to Xiangxiang.
In other words, there are now 1,500 green soldiers in Xiangxiang City, as well as "General" Zhang Guoliang.
But Zeng Guofan had no confidence to hold on, because he already knew that the person who came to take Xiangxiang was Xiao Chaogui, the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!
He also knew that Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, had been captured by another Taiping army, with only one castle and Tianxin Pavilion still holding on.
Changsha is almost lost. Huang Shijie is from Yizhou and Zhang Guoliang is from Guangdong. They have no responsibility to defend the territory. Why should they defend the small and broken city of Xiangxiang to resist Xiao Chaogui? So the thirty-six strategies are better!
"Di Zhang, my soldiers and horses can leave at any time! I have a thousand elite soldiers, so I can keep Di Zhang and his family going..." Huang Shijie patted his chest half way, and then suddenly remembered that Changsha seemed to be impossible to reach, so where should he go? He couldn't do this, so he had to look at Zeng Guofan and wait for this "filial son of Xianghu" to speak.
"Go to Wuling County, the capital of Changde!" Zeng Guofan said, "If Changsha is not protected, Yuezhou will probably fall, and Zhang Shiqing, the governor of Hunan, can only manage things in Changde. We must live up to your kindness and make a difference in troubled times. The only choice is to go to Changde." "Oh..."
Guo Songtao's eyes lit up and he thought: "You finally stopped pretending? Now Zuo Jigao is getting bigger and bigger. If this filial son continues to pretend, Hunan will lose your share!" "Di Zhang, Ziying, you are leaving. What should I do?" Xiangxiang County Zun Zhu Sunyi became a little anxious when he heard what Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie said.
Neither Zeng Guofan nor Huang Shijie were officials in Xiangxiang, so they had no responsibility to protect the territory, so they could leave as they pleased. But Zhu Sunyi was the magistrate of Xiangxiang, and he had the responsibility to protect the territory! Moreover, he was a donor, and he spent a lot of money to buy this. The magistrate of Xiangxiang County, even before taking it back, was guilty of "losing his teacher and losing his land".
If this was taken to the capital by the lock, would it be carefully concocted by the lackeys of the princes in Luozhong?
"Don't be afraid!" Zeng Guofan waved his hand and said with a smile, "Don't be afraid, Shi Qiao. You still have 500 regiment training in hand, so don't be afraid if you have soldiers! And after I get to Changde, I will be the minister of regiment training. Am I still afraid that I can't protect you?"
Although Zhu Sunyi was a tangban, he was a tangban who was familiar with the "Four Books and Six Classics" (the Four Books and the Five Classics plus the "Anti-Jing"). Even when there was no "Anti-Jing", he had already embarked on the "rebellion" without a teacher. Lu. He is not comparable to nerds like Wang Kuiyi and Sun Enbao!
So he immediately understood what Zeng Guofan was going to do!
So Zhu Sun Yi didn't show off the airs of a scholar, bowed his head and cried, "Sun Yi is willing to pay homage to his father-in-law!" Zeng Guofan nodded and said only one word: "Okay!"
Then he turned to look at Huang Shijie and Guo Songtao.
Guo Songtao said with a sad face: "My father-in-law, I think after this battle, there will not be many officers and soldiers left in Xianghu. Changsha, Yuezhou, Hengzhou, Chenzhou, Guiyang and Yongzhou will not be safe... This is half It’s Hunan!”
Huang Shijie said: "Di Zhang, there is still half of Hunan, Hui Di Zhang, we can grab it!"
Zeng Guofan nodded, and then clasped his fists in the air: "If the emperor wants to keep the remaining half of Hunan, he still has to rely on us Xianghu gentry and local officials like Shi Qiao who are good at organizing regiment training.
Shizhui, don’t worry, not only will the emperor not hold you accountable for losing your land, he will also give you a position as prefect!"
He looked at Huang Shijie and Guo Songzhu again, and said with a smile: "Ziying, Yunxian, you are also the prefect of Hunan!"
Zhu Sunyi kowtowed heavily: "Thank you, my father-in-law!"
Guo Songtao cupped his fists and said, "Gao Tao only looks at the stallion's head!"
Huang Shijie bowed his head to the ground and said, "I was born late and wandered for half my life, without receiving any guidance from a wise master. If I am not abandoned, I would like to become his disciple!"
Zeng Guofan stroked his beard and nodded lightly: "Okay, I already have disciples Huang Mei, Shuai Zhongqian, Piaoyang Chen Zuomei, and Hefei Li Shaoquan. They are all talented at the moment. Today, I have got you, Daozhou Huang Ziying, to form the four disciples. Why worry about big things happening?" ?」
Big things? You also want to do big things! Okay......
Huang Shijie immediately lifted up his robe, knelt down on the ground, and kowtowed several times to Zeng Guofan: "Student is willing to serve as a soldier in front of the master, and is willing to follow the master to lead the army of Xianghu to bring peace to the troubled times!"
Cao Guofan looked at his new disciple with approval, twirled his beard, and said warmly: "Ziying, you and Sun Qi make good preparations, we will leave tomorrow... Remember, don't make any noise!
Now that Changsha has been lost, Xiao Ni's troops have arrived. If the gentry in the city know that we are going to flee, I'm afraid...
Zeng Guofan said nothing further, while Huang Shijie, Guo Songsen and Zhu Suntie nodded heavily together.
In Xiangxiang County, people are panicked!
The "Taiping Storm" along the Xiangjiang River is getting bigger and bigger!
Luo Yaoguo, who had previously bypassed the small towns and large towns defended by the Qing army and the gentry regiments and headed north, only led thousands of advance troops. However, after the governor of Huguang, Cheng Yicai, gave up Hengyang and headed northwest to "detour to support Changsha" , driving along the Xiangjiang River
But it was an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people led by Xiao Chaogui, and they were advancing by water.
At the same time, news that Changsha had been captured by the Taiping Army spread wildly southward along the Xiangjiang River!
Now not only the landlords on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River were unable to defend their towns, but also the towns on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River.
And now it happens to be the autumn harvest season, which is always the time when the conflicts between the local tyrants and evil gentry and the poor tenant farmers in the countryside are most intense.
For those poor farmers who have been suffering from hunger and poverty year after year, it would be good if they could pay less rent for one year and not pay the debt to the king of hell for one year! I hope
When Changsha had not fallen, and when the Western King's army did not advance by land and water, the gentry could still suppress the situation with their hastily organized regimental training.
But now, everyone in Changsha has the surname "Taiping", which is a provincial capital! The army of the King of the West is about to arrive, and the sky... has changed!
All the towns and villages along the Xiangjiang River were "exploded"!
There are protests against rents, taxes, and debts everywhere. Some are instigated by "underground members" of the God-Worship Society, and some are simply spontaneous.
In towns that do not have relatively strong regiment training and armed garrison, chaos will occur as soon as it gets dark. Either someone will perform a "Welcome to the Taiping" late at night, or someone will set fire to it and shout something like "The Taiping Heavenly Soldiers are coming!"
Many of the more clever landowners and gentry did not wait for the imperial concubine to arrive, so they fled first.
It is not possible to escape to Changsha, that is to fall into a trap!
Escape to Hengyang...that's to fight against the nobles!
So they had no choice but to run westward along the tributaries of the Xiangjiang River. As a result, they crowded into Xiangxiang in large numbers.
And Zeng Guofan, the resident minister, the leader of Hunan scholars, and the minister of regiment training personally appointed by Lord Xianfeng, naturally became a life-saving straw in the eyes of these gentry from all over the country who crowded into Xiangxiang County.
Moreover, there are still a full 1,500 regiments in Xiangxiang City. As long as they and Zeng Guofan do not escape, the fleeing gentry will feel more secure. But just tonight, in the small Xiangxiang County, someone suddenly used A voice that reached the extreme of panic shouted!
Oh no, Minister Zeng is running away!
Immediately afterwards, there was a second tone, a third tone, and a fourth tone.
"No, Master Zeng ran away!"
"Oh no, Zeng Guofan ran away with the group training..."
This voice seemed to have magical power, and it enveloped the entire city of Xiangxiang in a very short period of time, immediately taking away the remaining sense of security in the hearts of the gentry and landlords who had fled.
The gentry, who had been like frightened birds for a long time, and kept one eye open when sleeping, were woken up by their family members who kept vigil at night. Family members who were inquiring about the news were sent out one after another, holding lanterns in the small county town. They were running around everywhere, and after a while, flickering lights could be seen outside the county government office and inside the four city gates.
The shouts of "Master Zeng has run away" and "The Changmao is coming" still kept coming, and many residents in Xiangxiang County were also alarmed and took to the streets to look around.
At the same time, an officer from the right battalion of the Xiangxiang Regiment who was patrolling at the top of the Xiangxiang city suddenly saw a fire dragon composed of countless dots of firelight in the vast darkness, walking along the north bank of the stream towards the city. Xiangxiang County City was coming at a fast speed! They seemed to have run into a fork in the road, and the long dragon made of fire split into two, one running to the north of Xiangxiang City, and the other running to the east of Xiangxiang City.
This is, this is thousands of Taiping troops marching in the dark of night! Only the Taiping Army can work so hard...
Chapter completed!