Zhou Shixiang was furious. The South China Sea soldiers' massacre behavior was outrageous and he could not tolerate it. He could tolerate bloodbathing of the whole city, tolerate bloodbathing of the Qing army, tolerate bloodbathing of those villages that had resisted fiercely, but he could not tolerate bloodbathing of the unarmed people in Chaoyang City. Those were Han people, not Manchus, not alien races, and not enemies!

Zhou Shixiang decided to take action against Zhao Ziqiang, the culprit of the city murderer, to use Ming military discipline, warning those adapted soldiers not to do the Qing army in Chaozhou under the banner of the Taiping Army. Even if they were originally the Qing army, they would never allow this, because they are now the Taiping Army!

Xu Yingyuan, who returned from Xiamen, dissuaded Zhou Shixiang. He said that Chaoyang had been slaughtered by the South China Sea soldiers. Now the South China Sea soldiers actually occupy Chaoyang City. If the city massacre is held accountable, the South China Sea soldiers will probably take the risk of slaughtering Chaoyang.

Chaoyang is in the rear of the first town. If the South China Sea troops rebel in Chaozhou, it will inevitably pose a threat to the first town surrounding Chaozhou. Now the Jidu army has arrived in Fuzhou and will arrive in Nanzhao in just a few days at the earliest. If there is chaos within the Taiping Army at this time, it will probably have a bad impact on the battle situation. Even if the impact is not great, the consequences will be difficult to estimate.

There were several adapted soldiers who followed the main force of the Taiping Army's Eastern Expedition, including Zhao Ziqiang's South China Sea soldiers, Wang Zhaoxing's Foshan soldiers, Hu Mingyi's Xin'an soldiers, Huang Sicheng's Huaxian soldiers, Li Guoan's Conghua soldiers, etc. These original green camp soldiers had a total of five or six thousand people. They were nominally Taiping Army, but they all did their own things and did not accept the reorganization of the Taiping Army. They belonged to the "Taiping Army" independent of the Taiping Army system. This is the disadvantage of snowballing.

The development of snowballs can certainly make the Taiping Army grow rapidly, but it will lead to the fact that the troops that surrendered in a short period of time cannot be digested and absorbed. The main force of the Taiping Army has always been successful, but once the main force of the Taiping Army fails, these surrendered troops will immediately turn around and backfire.

The lips are dead and the teeth are cold. If Zhao Ziqiang is attacked, these guys will inevitably be alarmed. After all, their hands are not clean. But they are not as excessive as Zhao Ziqiang. But no matter how they are, these guys are naturally a group faction within the Taiping Army system because of their origins. No matter which one moves, it will cause other doubts. If it were not during the war, the Taiping Army had enough time to deal with them, and killing them would be like killing chickens. But at this critical moment, it is better to not move them than to move them.

The Taiping Army could not withstand failure, even a small setback. Xu Yingyuan demonstrated the domino principles of this era for Zhou Shixiang. He piled up dominoes (mahjong) he found from somewhere to Zhou Shixiang, but it was not one piece after another, but one piece pressed against one piece.

On the pyramid of Xu Yingyuan, the mahjong plaque, all the surrendered soldiers were part of this tower. No matter which one was drawn, it would cause unstableness in the tower. Xu Yingyuan didn't need to say much, Zhou Shixiang could understand it. He sighed, listened to Xu Yingyuan's advice, and decided to put Zhao Ziqiang's head on his neck first. It would not be too late to settle accounts with him in the future. At the same time, he also made up his mind that after facing the Jidu army, he must completely resolve the miscellaneous troops dependent on the Taiping Army, either destroy them or completely eat them into the Taiping Army, so that the military discipline and command system can be clarified, and such lawless city massacres will no longer occur.

Zheng Chenggong refused to send troops to attack Jidu, which disappointed Zhou Shixiang, but he was not mentally prepared. After all, Li Dingguo made several letters to meet Zheng Chenggong in Guangdong, but the other party ignored it. Now how could he pay attention to him, Xingpingbo, a newcomer.

Xu Yingyuan was not idle for several days in Xiamen. After seeing the side attack and some money, he finally got the Zheng army that seemed to be moving in June and July, but he did not understand which direction it was. After all, this information belonged to the top secret of Zheng's army. Even if he was a friendly envoy, Zheng's people dared not tell him.

"Beizhi found out that King Yanping was strengthening the training of the mainland division, and tens of thousands of people were practicing infantry battles. Tens of thousands of people were practicing cavalry and shooting. The personal army around King Yanping was all iron armored. The navy on both islands had to go out to sea to practice wars every day. There was a lot of noise. I was afraid that there would be big moves, but I couldn't find out what specific movements were."

Xu Yingyuan was a little uneasy. He said that Zhou Shixiang gave him two errands, but he failed both errands. Not only did the Tang King not agree to come to Guangzhou, he also returned the calligraphy and painting with his brother Emperor Shaowu's inscriptions. Although the Tang King never said anything to show his actual attitude from beginning to end, this action was very clear.

The matter of King Tang was not done, and King Yanping was not done either. This made Xu Yingyuan very nervous, for fear that Zhou Shixiang would despise him for this, so that he could not stand out in the Taiping Army system. Fortunately, Zhou Shixiang did not blame him, and was not angry at the refusal of King Tang to come to Guangzhou, nor did he anger Xu Yingyuan for his unfavorable work. Zheng Chenggong was mentally prepared and would not blame Xu Yingyuan.

Zhou Shixiang was surprised that if what Xu Yingyuan said was true, it would mean that Zheng Chenggong would be in the Northern Expedition this year, otherwise he would not disagree to arrange troops to attack the Jidu army. After all, eliminating the Jidu army would also be beneficial to him. Although it could reduce the pressure of the Taiping Army, it could also reduce the pressure of Jinxia. He could even obtain Chaozhou territory from the Taiping Army, so that hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Jinxia would have a place to rest where they could truly take root, and it would be impossible to seize Fujian.

The only explanation for Zheng Chengguo's refusal to send troops is that he really made big moves this year, one that attracted him even more than destroying the Jidu army and seizing Chaozhou. This move was beyond the Northern Expedition to seize Nanjing, Zhou Shixiang could not imagine anything else.

Zhou Shixiang knew that the Guo-sen led the troops into the Yangtze River to attack Nanjing, but the time seemed to be wrong. The Guo-sen Master seemed to have entered the Yangtze River after the defeat of Li Dingguo. However, it is only the 12th year of Yongli (the 15th year of Shunzhi), and Zheng Chengguo should not go north this year. It should be next year. Could it be that his arrival caused a butterfly reaction and made the Guo-sen Master's Northern Expedition a year earlier?

Zhou Shixiang felt a headache. If Zheng Chenggong made an expedition this year, it would mean that he would never be able to go to Nanjing to find a bargain. Even if he could annihilate the Jidu army alone, he would not have even rested after the war. He would fly over Fujian and rush to Nanjing to find a bargain. If he didn't go to Fujian and Zhejiang, it would be even more impossible to go north from Jiangxi.

Forget it, if history really changes because of my arrival, then it will change. Regardless of whether Zheng Chenggong takes over Nanjing or not, I will only do my own thing.

After repeated thoughts, Zhou Shixiang cut off any possibility of going to Nanjing to find a bargain, abandoned unrealistic distractions, and applied all his thoughts to fighting the Jidu army.

On the 28th, Zhou Shixiang ordered all ministries to end the grain harvesting operation and prepare to retreat to Huizhou.

When the Chaoyang bloody incident occurred, most of the Taiping Army, except for the first town, were implementing the task of harvesting grain and relocating Chaozhou people. In addition to dozens of villages and Qing army strongholds, they collected and reorganized more than 4,000 soldiers from the village Ding camp. Several other villages voluntarily surrendered after the arrival of the Taiping Army and accepted the Taiping Army's adaptation.

Chaozhou to Nanzhao, Fujian and the main official road leading to Huizhou were completely occupied by the Taiping Army. All the forts and villages within dozens of miles on both sides of the official road were flattened and destroyed, forming a three or four hundred miles of barren land. When the Chaoyang bloody incident occurred, except Chaoyang County, the Chaozhou Prefecture City, except Chaozhou Prefecture City, the county towns that were still controlled by the Qing army were Puning, Jieyang, Raoping and other counties. Pingyuan, Huilai, Dapu, Chenghai and other counties were not within the attack range of the Taiping Army, and they had to be preserved. However, the roads with Chaozhou Prefecture City were destroyed by the Taiping Army and could not be repaired in the short term, and it was even more impossible to transport food and grass to Chaozhou through this official road.

The main tool for the Taiping Army to destroy the roads was the thousands of shovels that were urgently made by Guangzhou Prefecture. The way to destroy the roads was to dig trenches every few miles, and in addition, it drove the captured village heads to carry stones to block them, so that all the connecting roads between Chaozhou counties were cut off. However, the official roads from Chaozhou to Nanzhao and Huizhou in Fujian were retained and uninterrupted. This means that the Jidu army went south from Nanzhao in Fujian and went south along the official road. However, it was impossible to obtain food and grass supply from Chaozhou, because the food and grass between the eleven counties under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture could not be transported to the Jidu army through the road. The more the Jidu army advanced south, the longer its grain route was, and everything could only rely on the Jiangnan grain and grass transported from Zhejiang and Fujian and some of the food and grass that could be supplied in Chaozhou Prefecture.

Hahamu's defeat was because his troops were divided into three groups to attack Xiangshan, and he was led by the Taiping Army to lure into the Jedi and defeated. Jidu could not not learn from Hahamu's lesson. Moreover, there was only one official road from Chaozhou to Guangzhou through Huizhou. This official road was built in the Southern Song Dynasty and was expanded during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. It was the only transportation route between the north and Fujian and Guangdong. If Jidu did not follow this official road, but took a small road, there was no need for the Taiping Army to fight. They themselves would collapse due to difficulties in transporting food and grass. Therefore, Jidu's only way of marching was to camp step by step along this official road and advance step by step. He did not give the Taiping Army any opportunity to take advantage of it, and eventually pushed all the way to Guangzhou and fight the Taiping Army.

This marching method is most beneficial to the Jidu army. Not only the vanguard camp Manzhou soldiers, but also the Mongolian soldiers and Han army. Among them, the Han army had the Wuzhenha Chaobat, and the Wuzhenha Chaobat was an artillery unit that was stronger than the Taiping Army's artillery battalion. It was a unit specifically responsible for artillery in the Qing army. It was equipped with the artillery artillery of the Tianyou cheering generals, which was manufactured by Kong Youde and others in the early morning outside the pass.

The Tianyou cheered the general artillery was a heavy artillery used by the Qing Dynasty to imitate the Red Artillery. It is much more powerful than the traditional Ming army firearms, bowl-mouth guns, cub-mouth guns, etc. It is a retreat-mounted front-mounted smooth-bore cannon. After each launch, it will deviate from the original shooting position and need to undergo resetting again, loading, and setting the direction angle and elevation angle again. In addition to assembling the Tianyou cheered the general artillery, the Wuzhenha Super Battalion of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty was equipped with various types of copper cannons, iron cannons, and the number of artillery was about three or four hundred, while the Taiping Army's artillery battalion had only more than one hundred artillery pieces of artillery battalion, and the number of artillery between the two sides was about three times the difference. This means that once the Jidu army successfully advanced to the city of Guangzhou, the Taiping Army in the city would face artillery fire strikes several times that of the Qing army.

The only thing that is beneficial to the Taiping Army is that these official roads are close to the seaside, while the Qing army did not have a navy division, but the Taiping Army had a navy division. Any point on the long coastline is a place where the Taiping Army can land on combat.

The release of Jidu to fight was the tone set by Zhou Shixiang for this battle during the military discussion. How to put it in and how to fight depends on the cooperation of each department.

The Tieyi Department of the second town has set up a transit station in Yunluojie, Puning. It has moved more than 10,000 people to Guangzhou and more than 30,000 people to Huizhou. Another 20,000 people are waiting for the southward migration of Yunluojie. The grain transported from Yunluojie to Huizhou every day is counted in thousands of stones. These grains are all villages that were broken by the Taiping Army. The grain harvesting operation is extremely cruel. Except for a few villages, most villages have been killed and injured. However, there are not many massacres in the entire village, and the main force of the Taiping Army strictly implemented it.

The military discipline only carried out bloody sweeps of the leaders and patriarchs in the villages who were in a fierce resistance. The rest were not involved. As long as they did not resist, they would not have the advantage of life. Those who were seriously injured and slaughtered the villages were all done by those adapted soldiers. For example, the Chaoyang City Massacre was the South China Sea soldiers. In addition, Suna led a battalion of cavalry to slaughter two villages when they moved to Nanzhao, Fujian. However, because these two villages attacked while they were camping at night, resulting in casualties from Suna's subordinates, and then they retaliated for slaughtering the villages.

In addition to selecting some strong local supplements, the Qing army prisoners and patriarchs collected by each department were sent to Yunluojing, and like those villagers, they were sent to Guangzhou and Huizhou. Then they were handed over to the third town for training as a preparation for troops and then used as a selection force after actual combat.

Lufeng's artillery battalion did not recruit surrendered soldiers, which made the artillery too technical, and it would be useless to have more than one hundred battalions and campers who could send the others to the third town of Guangzhou Jiaoan.

When Suna was moving to Nanzhao, Fujian, successively captured five villages, two Qing army strongholds and one military post, capturing more than 3,000 people from the common people. Because the Taiping cavalry was raising grain in Chaozhou, the leaders of some villages saw that they could not defeat the Taiping army and refused to hand over the grain to migrate south, so they moved to Fujian in large quantities. Some even saw that the Qing army in Chaozhou could not save them, so they asked the Qing army in Fujian for help. After learning about this situation, Zhou Shixiang ordered the cavalry brigade to chase the north-moving villages without distinction, and they must not let one person escape, nor will a grain of food fall into the hands of the Qing army.

For a time, the Taiping cavalry chased and killed the people from north to north on the land of Chaozhou. More of the cavalry led dozens of prisoners to chase and kill those from north to north. There were a certain number of villages and a small group of Qing soldiers who fought stubbornly, but in the face of absolute strength, their resistance was minimal and could not change anything. Even if one or two teams of Taiping Army could be killed, as more Taiping Army arrived, they would eventually be killed.

The main levels of the official road fell into the hands of the Taiping Army. In addition to controlling the road levels, the cavalry brigade also guarded every possible path under the leadership of the surrendered village heads and camp soldiers. He also hid the surrendered village heads by the woods in the mountains. Once they found those who fled north, they rushed out to chase them.

In such a huge Chaozhou, people were killed everywhere, and corpses were everywhere. The Taiping Army found all the food that could be found, burned all the houses that could be burned, filled all the wells that could be filled, and transported all the materials that could be transported away. The rich Chaozhou turned into a ruin under Zhou Shixiang's bloodletting policy. Jidu could not imagine getting food and supplies that could support the war in Chaozhou.

Chaonan was first occupied by the Taiping Army, and also started to harvest and migrate. At the same time, the traitors who surrendered to the Qing army were liquidated, and heads were continuously put on the ground. In this process, the officers cleaned up the principle of rather than letting go. Many people had not done too many bad things for the Qing army, but they only provided some food and grass to the Qing army and the heads were put on the ground.

The second town actually killed more than a thousand people in the Huilai area, many of which were just people, just because they were unwilling to obey the orders of the Taiping Army to move south. After receiving the report, Zhou Shi frowned and prepared to order to stop this indiscriminate killing.
Chapter completed!