Guangdong

In the early morning, outside Dongguan County, He Liu was anxiously waiting for the signal. A few days before the uprising, he sent more than 100 brothers into the city and contacted the brothers of the association in the city, intending to conquer the county town with internal and external support.

"Big Boss, the city gate is open! It is the city gate opened by the third son and the others!"

He Liu also saw it and shouted with a big knife, "Run! Brothers rushed into the city and robbed the silver!"

More than two thousand brothers from Tiandihui rushed towards the city gate with a scream. From time to time, people who fell to the ground were stepped on by the people behind, and they got up again and continued to move forward.

After one hour

He Liu sat in the lobby of the county government and laughed at the county magistrate kneeling below.

The county magistrate trembled his legs and began to stutter: "Okay... Han, please spare me."

He Liu patted the gavel and shouted: "Dog official! Tell me quickly, how much money have you embezzled!"

The county magistrate knelt down on the ground and cried, "The hero is wronged! I am not, the subordinate... The officials are really not corrupt, the subordinate is clean, so I ask the hero to surround the subordinate's life."

He Liu continued to pat the gavel and shouted: "You are bold and dare to argue. The young guys will pull down and beat the fifty big boards!"

The brothers who watched the fun all laughed. Two people were carrying big swords and dragging the county magistrate out of the hall.

"Good man, please spare me, I said, I've called it!" Looking at the big knife on the forehead, a pool of water emerged from the county magistrate **, and the stench filled the county government lobby.

He Liu pinched his nose and waved to the bottom, "Drag it down and search out the silver."

"Who is the next one?" He Liu asked to the leader next to him.

The leader looked through the list and replied: "It is Zhou Shanren, the largest landlord in the city. He took away the land of the boss's house last time."

He Liu rubbed his palms, and the old and new resentments all came to his heart. He straightened the tilted official hat and said excitedly: "Why don't you bring the prisoner up!"

Zhou Shanren was caught by two people, one left and one right, and cursed: "He Liu! You dare to rebel. Wait. The imperial army will come soon. You should let me go. My son is a general in Guangzhou. I will still beg for you to avoid death."

He Liu looked at Zhou Shanren who was scornful and introverted, laughed loudly, suddenly became ferocious, and asked loudly: "I just asked your family to borrow a hundred taels of silver and have no money to return it. You can just snatch away the thirty acres of good land on my family. I must return it today!"

Zhou Shanren smiled and said, "It should be so. I will present the land deed with both hands when I go back."

He Liu stared at Zhou Shanren's eyes and said word by word: "I want all your fields!"

Zhou Shanren thought he had heard it wrong, and when he saw He Liuyi's strange expression, he reacted angrily: "You might as well kill me. My Zhou family's real estate has been passed down from generation to generation, not from the strong wind, you should give up your heart!"

He Liu said angrily: "You can't help but tell you the truth. The 100,000 troops of the Han Dynasty have attacked Guangdong. Those who are rich and unkind, do evil, and harm the countryside... who oppress good people are the target of the Han army. Today I will end you in advance."

Zhou Shanren stuttered and shouted: "What are you going to do? I...I tell you, if you dare to touch a hair of my hair, my son will never let you go!"

Seeing that he was stubborn, He Liu said angrily: "Put down and hit the fifty big boards. If you don't repent, you will kill him!"

"Zhou Ling" There are many people who were destroyed by Zhou Shanren's family and died. They all rushed up and carried the struggling Zhou Shanren and walked away.

"Who is the next one?"

The leader replied: "It's Mr. Li from the west of the city."

He Liu waved his hand and said, "This Li Xiangping is good. Although he has a bit of a quarrel with me, I am not the kind of unreasonable person. I let him go and judge the next one."

After one day, He Liu was only concerned about the trial of the gentry in the city, arresting or releasing, fighting or imprisoning, threatening or intimidating, and received 300,000 taels of silver, more than 50,000 acres of land, and 30,000 dan of food and grass in one day.

He Liu, satisfied, shouted: "Give each of his brothers ten taels of silver, let them quickly and inform them. Anyone who comes to surrender will be given three taels of silver, regardless of the price. It will be like Guangzhou's march tomorrow morning."

On the same day, Chen Kai uprised in Foshan and soon occupied Foshan Town. Li Wenmao and Chen Xianliang gathered tens of thousands of people in the suburbs of Guangzhou to attack some counties and towns outside Guangzhou.

Guangzhou Liangjiang Governor's Office

Ye Mingchen was in a hurry. Overnight, tens of thousands of rebels appeared outside Guangzhou City, isolating Guangzhou's external contacts. Unexpectedly, a few days ago, the foreign minister was assassinated in the street, and now such a difficult thing happened again.

"Sir, it's not good. The number of rebels has increased again. Tens of thousands of rebels are coming to Guangzhou from Dongguan and Foshan!" Guangzhou's chief minister Lai Cun was in a panic after receiving the information and hurriedly reported to Ye Mingchen.

Ye Mingchen pretended to be calm and scolded: "What a pleasurable thing! I have something to say!"

Lai Cun was shouted in front of him, frightened and overcame his fear, and replied: "Sir, Dongguan, Foshan, Sanshui, Guangzhou and other places, the rebellion of the Communist Party has occurred one after another, with a huge momentum, with more than 100,000 troops all attacking Guangzhou."

Ye Mingchen immediately ordered: "Abduct all the members of the Communist Party in the city torture and torture them, order the Guangdong admiral to send troops to quell the rebellion, discover all the guns and cannons transported by foreigners, and order the defenders in the city to strictly guard the city gate!"

When Lai Cun saw Ye Mingchen giving orders calmly, he was also infected by his calm appearance. He suggested: "I'm afraid that the rebels have connections with Fujian's short hair. Dongguan and other counties in eastern Guangdong have fallen. Short hair can drive straight into Guangzhou and go straight to Guangzhou. Adults must be prepared."

Ye Mingchen nodded repeatedly and praised: "You are right. If you are not afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of one. Short-haired soldiers are sharp and are comparable to ordinary rebels."

Lai Cun said: "It is better to transfer the army that suppressed the rebellion in Guangxi back to Guangdong. With the navy, you will be able to reach Guangzhou first. With these tens of thousands of troops to defend, Guangzhou will be safe and sound."

Ye Mingchen vetoed and sighed: "If you lose sight of one thing, Guangxi thieves have conquered the city and territories. I heard that they have marched towards Hunan. If they meet with Changmao in Hubei, it will be a great crime. If the emperor blames it, you and I can't afford to take it."

Lai Cun said panickedly: "What should I do? Guangzhou only has 8,000 green camps and 20,000 rural brave men. With their ability to resist the rebels of the Soochow Party, I am afraid I will not be able to deal with short-haired people. If Guangzhou is captured, Guangdong and Guangxi will inevitably be shocked. Hunan and Yunnan are in danger! The emperor must chop our heads."

Ye Mingchen gritted his teeth and said, "I'm talking about why foreigners sell us guns and cannons. Since that's the case, it's better to ask foreign soldiers to help guard them and promise a few conditions at that time."

I heard that foreign soldiers were helping me, so I felt relieved. Unexpectedly, Lord Ye usually called for defense against foreign countries, and could ask foreigners to send troops to help at critical moments. What's wrong with this?

Ye Mingchen looked at Lai Cun and stood there in a daze, and said angrily: "Why don't you go quickly!"

"As for the order, the humble official will go immediately." Lai Cun did not dare to think about it, and hurriedly left the Governor's Office of Liangjiang.

In order for the brothers of the Tiandihui to occupy Guangzhou in advance, Wu Hong deliberately delayed the road for a few days before rushing to Xiamen, Fujian.

After listening to Wu Hong's report, Zuo Zongtang pondered for a long time. Unexpectedly, the power of the Guangdong Association for the Communist Party was greater than that of Fujian, and hundreds of thousands of people rebelled together. If there were a few people who were ill-behaved, wouldn't these hundreds of thousands be a big concern? The Han army left in Fujian was only more than 30,000.

Li Xuanke, regardless of how many civilian troops there were in Guangdong, saw his commander pondering and stood up to advise: "The last general is willing to attack Guangzhou for the vanguard. As long as there is a Guangzhou, the rest of the areas can be declared."

The southern expedition army advanced southward, attacking Ningbo, Jinhua, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou and other places. The third army did not participate and kept clearing the remaining Qing soldiers in the rear. Li Shixian was so upset that he said, "The last general is willing to attack Guangzhou, please allow the general."

Seeing that the two of them were fighting for war, Zuo Zongtang smiled and said, "Zhejiang and southern Jiangxi have been conquered by our Han Dynasty. Fujian is as stable as Mount Tai. This time, the Third Army and the Eleventh Army can fight."

Wu Hong said in surprise: "If there is no military force in Fujian to defend, if there is any trouble in the people's livelihood, wouldn't it be wasted?"

It's really worrying. Li Shiqi explained: "Since the capture of Fujian, our army has selected many veterans to form militias for the leader. Nowadays, militias have spread across various prefectures and counties in Fujian, with more than 500 people and fewer than 200 people. According to the following statistics, there are 15,322 militias in Fujian, which is enough to deal with the rebellion."

Zuo Zongtang said to Li Shiqi, Yang Kailin: "Fujian will be left to you two. The First Army is still in Zhejiang. The Qing Navy came to cause trouble. Try to delay the Qing army and then ask the First Army to go south quickly."

Li Shiqi and Yang Kailin said in unison: "After the order"

Wu Hong advised: "To capture Guangdong, the first thing to do is to guard against Hunan. All the Guangdong Tiandihui Uprisings were blocked by Hunan and trapped in Guangdong and Guangxi."

Zuo Zongtang deeply agreed that Hunanese people are good at fighting. If the Han army is not prepared, they will inevitably be attacked by the enemy on the back and forth. Whether Guangzhou can capture it is still two different opinions: "The Third Army is the main force and drives directly to Guangzhou along Meizhou, Longchuan, Huizhou and Dongguan. The 11th Army attacks Shaoguan and surrounding counties to block the Qing troops in the north."

When the prefect of Meizhou learned that the Han army was attacking, he opened the city gate and ran away with his confidant. Last month, there were thousands of green camp soldiers stationed in Meizhou. However, the rioters in Guangxi attacked the city and besieged Wuzhou. They were transferred away by Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, with a document, and they did not even leave any root hair. They wanted to rely on the thousands of villages to defend the city, but these local gangs ran faster than his prefect.

The Third Army did not stop in Meizhou, and continued to attack westward after a little training. Before dark, it captured Longchuan County. No Qing army dared to resist along the way. Some rural brave men transformed into rebels and guided the remaining troops of the Third Army to occupy counties and towns in various places. The Third Army had more than 10,000 people, and when they arrived in Longchuan, there were only 14,000 left.

Zuo Zongtang looked at the land of Guangzhou, his mind was complicated and unpredictable. This was where his mentor Lin Zexu stayed, which was to destroy opium in Guangdong and fight against foreign invasions...

Li Shixian looked at the Guangzhou map carefully and calculated the distance. After a while, he said to Zuo Zongtang with a frown: "The general is not good. There are more than a dozen counties from Longchuan to Guangzhou. If all the troops are left to garrison, there will be no few people left when they arrive in Guangzhou?"

Zuo Zongtang came back to his senses: "If we don't send troops to stay, will we leave it to the Qing army? If that happens, our army will come to Guangzhou and will not be surrounded by the Qing army again? The reason why the bandits cannot accomplish anything is because they are swinging around and rushing everywhere. Even if there are no counties and only a few hundred people left to guard it, this is also a deterrent to the Qing army."

Li Shixian still couldn't let go and said worriedly: "There are more than 100,000 gangs under the city of Guangzhou, and we only bring a few thousand people to join them. Will these gangs have a sense of deed? People's hearts are unpredictable. If they fight back, our army will be in danger."

Zuo Zongtang disagreed. He did not deny that the Imperial Party was brave, but the Third Army was not a vegetarian. With these thousands of people, it was more than enough to defeat them. Besides, the Imperial Party was not united.

"Captain Li was too worried. The Third Army was well-equipped. Although the cannons were still behind, there were two thousand foreign gun teams. With them, they were enough to deter the association party from the danger of causing trouble. When you arrive in Guangzhou, you must be strong and not let them underestimate them."

Li Shixian was relieved, which reminded him of the time when he was in the rebellion with the emperor, tens of thousands of troops surrounded Wuzhou and could not do anything, so he could only choose to surround him. The walls of Guangzhou were taller and thicker than those of Wuzhou. The association must be helpless. When the Third Army conquered Guangzhou, the association would inevitably be impressed and prevent him from acting rashly.

Before dawn, the Third Army was ready to go. On the evening of the third day, it arrived in Huizhou. Li Shixian counted the number of people and found that there were only more than 10,000 left in the Third Army.

Looking at the Qing army battle flags dancing on the Huizhou city walls, Zuo Zongtang asked Wu Hong: "Can the Qing army green camp guard this Huizhou city?"

Wu Hong thought for a while and replied: "When I came last time, I didn't realize that the regiment training green camp that had been stationed before was transferred to Guangzhou. Logically, Huizhou is just an empty city!"

Seeing that the sun had completely set into the west mountain, Li Shixian said to Zuo Zongtang: "It's getting late, and our army is still resting outside the city. Wait until tomorrow to attack the city. What do the general think?"

Wu Hong suddenly shouted: "I understand. It must be He Liu's uprising in Dongguan, which made the Qing army prepared for defense. The officials in the city transferred all the nearby troops into the city, and there was really a strongly guarded Huizhou City."

Zuo Zongtang nodded and asked, "How many Qing soldiers are there at most in Huizhou City?"

Wu Hong thought for a moment and said nervously: "There can be up to 20,000. When the foreign soldiers invaded, the government ordered the people to build camps to protect themselves. Most of the people participated in the regiment training. If all the nearby villages' regiment training were flooded into Huizhou, the number of people would be even greater."

Zuo Zongtang said to himself: "It's okay to train the countryside to defend the city, but the attack and field battle will become a third-rate."

After hearing this, Li Shixian replied: "The Marshal wants to bypass Huizhou!"

Zuo Zongtang pointed to the west and replied, "Yes, this place is less than a hundred miles away from Dongguan. The army marched overnight and arrived before dawn. Then, rest in Dongguan and inquire about the situation in Guangzhou."

Li Shixian said: "Okay, the army is running around, it is also necessary to repair it in Dongguan for a few days."
Chapter completed!