The Battle of Huaihai was won, but the battlefield was littered with the corpses of Qing troops and their horses.
The red blood gathered into small ditches, and the small ditches flowed together to form small streams.
If you look at it from above, the earth seems to be covered with blood vessels, with large arteries, branches, and capillaries.
If it were not on the battlefield, anyone who saw such a tragic scene would be frightened.
"Report to the President, there are still many wounded Qing soldiers on the battlefield. Do you want to save them?" A staff officer ran over and reported.
"Rescue, of course we must save, let the military hospital do its best to treat him, and don't skimp on medicines." Dong Shuheng ordered firmly.
In fact, Dong Shuheng did not want to harm any Chinese people unless he was forced to do so.
In his view, whether they are the Han or other ethnic minorities, they are all descendants of the Chinese nation and are the people he wants to protect.
Rather than being consumed in the civil war, these people might as well immigrate out and expand China's living space.
The islands in North America, South America, and the Pacific are now basically sparsely populated. Although the Europeans started the Age of Discovery and occupied a lot of land, they did not have the population or the strength to actually develop these lands.
Now China still has a chance to reoccupy this place. The method used by the Europeans is to trade slaves and use slave areas to develop this place.
The method Dong Shuheng wanted to use was to immigrate and let the Chinese immigrants cultivate these new lands by themselves. What he wanted to do was two things. One was to send the immigrants out and settle down locally.
The other is to build a strong China and let China become their strong backing. In the future, whether these overseas Chinese establish their own countries or directly integrate the local areas into China, they will need the support of a strong China.
After going north this time and getting what he wanted, Dong Shuheng would go back and annihilate the Taiping Army with peace of mind. It was not because he hated the Taiping Army, but because the Taiping Army's uprising cost too many lives and also had a negative impact on Jiangnan's economy.
Great damage.
He had tolerated the Taiping Army in the past because he was worried that after the Taiping Army was destroyed, the Qing government would point the finger at local forces like them.
In that case, he would not be able to develop with peace of mind. In the past year, it was the delay of the Taiping Army that allowed him to develop with peace of mind in Jiangsu, and he made so many outrageous actions without incident.
Now that the situation has changed, the flag of the Taiping Army is no longer important.
First of all, the strength of the Huai Navy has now taken shape, and it cannot be moved by the Qing government if it wants to.
Secondly, the Taihang Column has built a base in Taihang Mountain, which is not far from the capital and can go out to contain the Qing government at any time.
Therefore, Huai Haijun now has so many ways to control the Qing court that there is no need to use the Taiping Army anymore.
Thirdly, the longer the Taiping Army existed, the easier it was for the Hunan Army to grow. Dong Shuheng did not want to cultivate another enemy for himself. Zeng Guofan was still at home with Ding You, and Dong Shuheng hoped that he could "retire" after his Ding You was over.
Langfang County is now in ruins, with burned-out ruins everywhere. The Taiping Army came in, robbed everyone of their belongings, and forced the men to defend the city. The women and children were locked up and used as hostages.
The Qing army fought back and drove away the Taiping army, but all the property and food collected by Li Kaifang and others were in the hands of Shengbao.
When Shengbao led his army to leave, he didn't even leave a grain of food behind.
Nowadays, even the big households in Langfang City have become paupers. However, many big households still have properties outside. The poor and small households can only support the old and the young, preparing to leave Langfang and join the army of refugees.
When the leading troops of the Huaihai Navy arrived in Langfang, they saw such a miserable scene.
The first to enter the city was a cavalry company chasing the remnants of Shengbao. There was no longer any defensive force in Langfang City, and there was no official government.
There are only some ruffians who try to rob those who have nothing. There is really nothing to rob. Those weak women become the tools for them to vent their despair.
Huai Haijun will not be merciful to these scum. The company commander gave an order, and the cavalry company divided into several teams and patrolled the city. Any thugs they saw committing crimes would be shot on the spot.
"Old man, there is no need to be afraid. We are the Huaihai Navy. We will not harm you or steal your things." The company commander saw an old man sneaking his head out of the door to observe them and shouted quickly.
The army assigned him a task to maintain law and order in Langfang, and at the same time recruit people to help clean up the Qing army corpses on the south bank of the Long River.
The main force of the Huaihai Navy's mixed division would immediately go north to find trouble with the Qing court, and there was no time to stop and slowly clean up the battlefield.
Now all the people are hiding, making it difficult for the company commander.
The company commander saw that the old man had no intention of coming out, so he could only use his trump card.
He took down the dry food bag tied to his saddle. He took out a pack of compressed biscuits and a can of hairtail fish and placed them at the old man's door.
"Old man, I just want to ask you something. You can take these rations for emergency first," the company commander said again.
This time the door finally opened, and an old man came out: "Are you telling the truth?" He picked up the dry food on the ground and put it to his nose and smelled it.
"Master Jun, if you have any questions, just ask."
"Old man, why is this city like this?"
The old man told the story of how the bandits and the Qing army had sorted out the city twice.
The company commander was filled with indignation. Huai Haijun's military education has always been to instill in the officers and soldiers the concept of family ties between soldiers and civilians.
Dong Shuheng has also always warned his troops that we all come from the people and must be loyal to the people and safeguard the interests of the people.
"Old man, now there is an opportunity to exchange for food. I wonder if you are willing to do it. Everyone who goes can get 20 kilograms of rice and 10 kilograms of horse meat."
"Such a good thing, the military master wouldn't lie to the old man, right?" The old man didn't believe it at all.
There has never been such an army. The Qing army and the bandits directly recruited young men and robbed everything from their homes. I have never seen an army that would distribute things to the people.
"Old man, do you think it is necessary for me to lie to you?" The old man looked at the neatly dressed cavalry officer riding a tall horse, and then looked at the bare walls of his own home. It seemed that there was no need for him to lie to himself.
"Master Jun, you don't know what's going on?" the old man asked carefully. Such a benefit should not be a simple thing. If he loses his head, it will be troublesome.
"Don't dare to hide it from the old man. It's really not an easy thing to do." The company commander said awkwardly. It was very taboo to collect corpses and no one was willing to do it.
After hearing this, the old man thought to himself: "If that's true, let's just say, how could the army give things to the people for no reason?"
"It's like this, old gentleman, we wiped out a rebel army south of Longhe, and we need someone to help bury the bodies. If the old gentleman feels it's difficult, we can add 20 kilograms of horsemeat to each of us." There were things everywhere on the battlefield.
As for the carcasses of the war horses, it is winter now, and the horse meat will not spoil for a while. The Huaihai Navy does not need much for itself, so it is better to give it to the people.
"On this matter, we won't be asked to go to war, right?" the old man asked.
"Of course not. All the traitors are dead and the rest have escaped. There are only corpses there. Just dig a hole and bury them," the company commander said quickly.
"Master, please wait a moment." As he said this, the old man ran back to the room and took out a gong hidden under the bed.
This old man turned out to be a watchman in the city.
"Master Jun, if this old man helps you find someone, is there a reward?" the old man said sheepishly.
"Of course there is. The more people we recruit, the better. The more people we recruit, the heavier the rewards will be," the company commander said.
The old man stepped out of the threshold and scampered through the streets and alleys.
"There is work to be done. We are recruiting people. Each person will be paid 20 kilograms of rice and 40 kilograms of meat. We need to take over the work."
After a while, a large number of people followed behind the old man, including men, women, old and young. Some people even helped the old man and shouted together.
Not long after, all the people in the city followed the old man to gather at the city gate. They carried various shoveling tools in their hands. There was no way that everyone had run out of food. If they stayed at home, they would starve to death sooner or later.
It must be said that the vitality of the people is very strong. After several wars and chaos, there are still thousands of residents in the city.
The cavalry company commander did not care that some of them were children who had no ability to work at all, and brought them all to the south bank of the Long River.
When we arrived at the battlefield, these common people had experienced a lot of life and death in the past few days, and they unconsciously became frightened when they saw such a scene.
Some people even retched, but there was no food in their stomachs. They vomited for a long time, but nothing came out.
The adults put the children behind the mound and did not let them come out to see.
The battlefield with a radius of more than a thousand meters was covered with the corpses of men and horses. The ground was covered with sticky blood, which gathered into the craters created by the shells and reflected a deep red light.
"Old man, let's get started! Clean up the dead horses and divide them individually. Pile all the traitor's corpses together, then dig a hole and bury them."
"Oh...what, okay." The old man was obviously dumbfounded and didn't even hear what the company commander said clearly.
In desperation, the company commander could only say it again.
The old man could clearly see that these were the soldiers of the imperial court led by Lord Sheng who had entered Langfang City before.
But at this time, the old man didn't dare to ask again. He was worried about violating other people's taboos.
Anyway, these Qing troops were not good people. They took away all the food and money in Langfang.
Now it's considered a good thing for everyone to help them collect the bodies.
The weapons on the battlefield and the surviving war horses have all been taken away by the Huai Navy.
However, the soldiers who died in battle usually had some dry food and money on them, which the Huai Navy did not have time to search for.
After the people discovered this, they immediately became more enthusiastic about collecting the corpses. Whoever found the corpses would belong to them.
When the cavalry company commander saw it, he didn't say anything. It was just a small amount of money. Some people even took off the Qing soldiers' cotton-padded clothes and put them on themselves.
In such a cold winter, many people don't even have a decent cotton coat. The children hiding behind the mounds are also huddled together and shivering.
"Hey..." The cavalry company sighed, "Such a court should destroy him as soon as possible."