Annan had a lot of food, so Zhou Shixiang decided to start a war.

He started a war at all costs and used troops to Annan under tremendous pressure just to have food for Annan.

Zhou Shixiang needed food too much.

The war between the Ming and Qing dynasties was more like a war between two nations than a war of food.

In this era, everything is false, and only food is real.

If there is food, there will be soldiers and there will be lives; if there is no food, it will be as powerful as the Ming Dynasty, and it will collapse instantly.

For food, the Later Jin, which was still outside the pass, entered the pass and robbed many times. For food, the Qing soldiers would almost slaughter every city, just to kill those extra mouths, so as to reduce the burden on the Qing Dynasty and avoid the lessons that the Ming Dynasty had overwhelmed by hungry refugees.

For food, the Taiping Army also used extremely bloody means to suppress the Han people in Hunan. For food, the Taiping Army's Eastward Detachment bloodied the four prefectures of Baoqing, Yongzhou, Quanzhou and Hengzhou, causing the people of the four prefectures to suffer. All this was to support the war against the Qing army in the southwest, and to eliminate the Qing soldiers who came to rob food.

The two sides of the war can no longer say who is the righteous side or the evil side. At least, in Hunan, the Taiping Army plays an extremely disgraceful role, and in some aspects it is even more evil than the Qing army.

The people of Hunan are far away and very clear, and the people of Hunan are suffering!

The Eastward Detachment trucks transported from the grain trucks to western Hunan were filled with the blood and sweat of the people of Hunan!

Zhou Shixiang knew about the suffering of the people of Hunan, but he could not relieve them of their suffering, because he really had no food, and he really needed their food.

Guangdong Province, which has initially completed the construction of villages and townships, has a population of only 1.52 million, of which only more than 400,000 adult males, and the rest are elderly, weak, women and children. Before the Qing army headed south, Guangdong Province had more than 987,000 households, a total population of more than 7.5 million, and more than 20,000 adult males.

The twelve years of war have reduced Guangdong's population by 80%, while the population of Guangxi, which is originally poorer than Guangdong, has a sharp decline. In the sixth year of Wanli, there were more than 1.786,000 people in Guangxi Province, while the population of Wuzhou, Xunzhou, Liuzhou, Guilin and Nanning, which were counted a few days ago, was only more than 120,000.

The Guangxi Governor's Yamen did not count the natives in southern Guangxi, because so far, the Guangxi Governor's Yamen has only established actual rule in a few important towns, and has not established effective rule on the front line from southern Guangxi to Zhennan Pass. However, the population of those local officials controlled by the area was not included in the Yellow Book counted by the Ming Dynasty. The fact is that the population of Guangxi Province can be ignored. Most of the 120,000 people are elderly, weak, women and children, and only more than 30,000 people can be called Dingkou.

Guangdong and Guangxi seem to be large, but the population is too small. Guangdong's pressure can be imagined by just relying on the needs of tens of thousands of Taiping Army in Guangdong. Duke Xiang of Song wrote many letters, saying that Guangdong's people's strength has been exhausted. If it cannot obtain great results, it may be difficult for Guangdong to bear the needs of this war. If it is pressed down, it will inevitably affect Guangdong's production and stability, and may even incite civil rebellion. This great result obviously refers to the capture of a province or even several provinces, and the area occupied is definitely not a barren and sparsely populated area like Guangxi. Duke Xiang of Song mentioned the two lakes many times in his letter. Obviously, Song was very anxious to occupy the two lakes or obtain a grain-producing area that can stabilize and support the Taiping Army.

The pressure in Guangdong is so great that Zhou Shixiang didn't know, and he also wanted to control the two lakes. "Huguang is familiar, and the world is full." He is ignorant and well-known. However, now he has no way to establish actual rule in the two lakes. He will build villages and villages like Guangdong, so that "imperial power" can go to the countryside. First, the Kuidong soldiers need to rest in the territory to reduce the pressure of the Qing army in the north. Second, if hundreds of thousands of Qing troops in the southwest are not solved for a day, it will be impossible for the two lakes, which are the only way they must go north to establish an effective rule. Zhou Shixiang really devotes his energy to establishing the Ming Dynasty rule in Hunan, and it is likely that the wind will blow the eggshell in the end.

What Zhou Shixiang is doing now is to take all the people in Hunan and money and grain to deal with the Qing army. This practice can be called harshly regardless of the lives and death of the people in Hunan. The food and salary of hundreds of thousands of Qing troops in the southwest all come from the wealth and wealth of the southeast. In other words, Zhou Shixiang raised the Taiping Army with Hunan and Guangdong, while the Qing Dynasty raised the Qing army in several southeastern provinces.

Both sides were under great pressure, but the Qing Dynasty was much more pressure than the Taiping Army. Their financial resources were in the southeast, their army was in the southwest, and the Taiping Army was in the middle. If the war continued for a long time, or if the Qing army was unable to break through the Taiping Army blockade and came out from the southwest, over time, the Qing Dynasty's rule over China would have a crisis. Even if their biggest opponent, Yongli regime, abandoned the country and fled or was captured and killed, the situation caused by the Taiping Army that was inserted into a strait, still left this crisis tightly hanging over the Qing Dynasty.

Variables have appeared.

After the New Year, the Qing court ordered Prince An Yue Le to go south. Before leaving, Yue Le was seen by Shunzhi. The young emperor could no longer control his anxiety and urgency and had high hopes for Prince An who went south. Huguang Governor Zhang Changgeng also received an urgent order from the Qing court, ordering him to stay in Wuchang and to rectify the Dongting Lake Navy to ensure that the front line from Wuchang to Changsha was controlled by the Qing army.

When the Qing court responded to the changes in the two lakes, Zhou Shixiang was also responding. When the Taiping Army in Guangxi fought against Guoan, he had initially made a battle deployment against Luo Keduo, the prince of Qingping. Zhou Shixiang planned to use the second town, the sixth town and the bandit suppression army in western Hunan to encircle and annihilate the troops of Luo Keduo, the king of Qingping. If Luo Keduo can be defeated in one fell swoop, the soldiers of the bandit suppression army in western Hunan will continue to carry out the important task of blocking the border between Hunan and Guizhou. Zhou Shixiang led the second town, the sixth town, the ninth town and the eastward detachment to seize Changsha along the river eastward, and directly seize the rich land in the southeast, and seize the southern capital in one fell swoop. The wealthy land in the south of the Yangtze River slowed down the current tight money and food problems, and took advantage of the opportunity to seize Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi, thus connecting Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan Taiping Army controlled areas into one piece, forming a de facto half of the regime.

This plan is very grand, but it also has certain risks. The biggest risk is the Qing army in the southwest. Whether the hundreds of thousands of Qing army in the southwest can be surrounded and prevent them from going north is the key to whether this strategy can be implemented. As for the Qing army in the southeast, Zhou Shixiang did not take it seriously, because he believed that the Guo surname would clear these obstacles for him. All he had to do was wait in Hunan, wait for the moment when the melons ripened, and wait for the Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River to celebrate the Guo surnamed's defeat.
Chapter completed!