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In early 1854, the future Governor of Liangjiang, Liu Kunyi, was still under the command of the founder of the Xiang Army, Jiang Zhongyuan. In reality, Jiang Zhongyuan was not only the founder of the Xiang Army, but also the founder of a local army. He used his status as a landowner to form a local militia and relied on his military achievements to climb to a high position. This was the path Jiang Zhongyuan had created. From this perspective, Jiang Zhongyuan was the founder of the Xiang Army, the Chu Army, and the Huai army.
In December 1852, the Taiping army left Changsha and headed straight for Wuchang. In theory, Jiang Zhongyuan should have followed Xiang Rong, who had once been the Governor of Guangxi, in pursuit. However, Jiang Zhongyuan was a man of character. He had interacted with Xiang Rong in Guangxi for more than half a year and had a deep hatred for him. In addition, Hunan Governor Zhang Liangji strongly urged him to stay, so Jiang Zhongyuan stayed in Hunan to reorganize his "Chu Army." At this time, Jiang Zhongyuan reunited with his old friend, Ceng Guofan.
Ceng Guofan had originally followed the path of the Grand Council's Mu Zhanga. His teacher, Mu Zhanga, had advocated for peace during the Opium War, falsely accused Lin Zexu and the other pro-war factions, and presided over the signing of a series of unequal treaties. After Emperor Xianfeng succeeded the throne, he reappointed Lin Zexu and the others and dismissed Mu Zhanga, never to be used again.
Thus, Ceng Guofan's once bright future was gone. It just so happened that his mother passed away, so Ceng Guofan returned home in 1852.
Jiang Zhongyuan had a close relationship with Ceng Guofan in the capital. Ever since he met Ceng Guofan, who was then the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Rites and the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War, Jiang Zhongyuan lived in Ceng Guofan's home in the capital. Jiang Zhongyuan was naturally happy that the two of them reunited.
In April 1853, Emperor Xianfeng believed that Jiang Zhongyuan was loyal and brave, so he had him go to Xiang Rong's Jiangnan camp to help with military affairs. Jiang Zhongyuan did not want to see Xiang Rong, whom he hated so much, but the Emperor had personally given the order. Jiang Zhongyuan had no choice but to act. Therefore, he slowly set out from Hunan with Chu Yong and began to move towards Nanjing.
In the sixth month of 1853, Jiang Zhongyuan arrived at Jiujiang. Hearing that Nanchang was besieged, he submitted a memorial to the imperial court, requesting to reinforce Jiangxi first, and led one thousand three hundred men to Nanchang. The inspector-general of Jiangxi, Zhang Di, bestowed the imperial command medallion on Jiang Zhongyuan, allowing him to command all the battles. Jiang Zhongyuan had fought dozens of battles with the Taiping army, big and small, and was very familiar with the Taiping army's siege strategy. He burned down civilian residences outside the city, beheaded deserters, and personally stationed himself at Zhangjiangmen, supervising the battle day and night. He defended the city for more than 90 days, repelling the Taiping army's attack.
At the beginning of October, Jiang Zhongyuan had encountered the commander-in-chief of the Taiping army, Shi Dakai, at Hukou and suffered a crushing defeat. Jiang Zhongyuan impeached himself, and was demoted four ranks to remain in office.
The demotion order did not dispel Jiang Zhongyuan's fighting spirit. After suffering a defeat at Jiujiang, Jiang Zhongyuan believed that the Taiping army would attack Wuchang again, so he led his troops directly to Wuchang. Things developed just as Jiang Zhongyuan had predicted. The Taiping army sent troops to attack Wuchang, and Jiang Zhongyuan led Chu Yong and fought several bloody battles with the Taiping army, thwarting the momentum of the Taiping army's attack on Wuchang.
At the beginning of November, less than a month after Jiang Zhongyuan's order to demote him four ranks was issued, Xianfeng appointed Jiang Zhongyuan as the inspector-general of Anhui, sending him to Suzhou to rectify the mess of Anhui's affairs.
Jiang Zhongyuan created a miracle in the Qing dynasty's officialdom. In one year, he completed the Qing dynasty's' five-rank jump ', which was out of print, and became the inspector-general, surpassing Ceng Guofan. In return, Jiang Zhongyuan strongly supported Ceng Guofan's plan to build a navy, and he also submitted his support to Ceng Guofan. However, Xianfeng was still the emperor who held great power. Although he thought highly of Jiang Zhongyuan, he did not immediately agree to Jiang Zhongyuan's proposal. He only ordered Jiang Zhongyuan to hurry to Anhui to take charge of affairs.
Temporarily unable to help his good friend Ceng Guofan, Jiang Zhongyuan could only go to Anhui to take up his post. When he arrived in Anhui in December 1853 with about two thousand troops, Jiang Zhongyuan was stunned by the situation there. The Shu Hair Bandits, who had once caused Jiang Zhongyuan to suffer a great loss on the battlefield, had already taken control of central Anhui. They had also established a preliminary tax system by 'paying taxes when the grain is finished'. Jiang Zhongyuan was the representative of the statecraft faction in the middle of the Qing dynasty. He did not like to play the games of those pedantic scholars. Instead, he liked to read books on establishing specific affairs.
If a pedantic scholar who was' well-read 'learned of Vézé's' paying taxes when the grain is finished 'policy, he would most likely curse Vézé as a' monkey wearing a hat '. He would think that Vézé was a peasant rebel who actually wanted to play the game of tax collection. But Jiang Zhongyuan saw things completely differently. He was very clear that Vézé now had the ability to initially control the situation in Anhui.
Paying taxes was a very practical thing. The peasants could only produce so much. After paying taxes to the Taiping army, there would be no extra grain to pay taxes to the imperial court. The imperial court did not have taxes, so naturally, they could not afford to raise an army. Moreover, Vézé's policy was open to the public. 'Paying taxes when the grain is finished' was also made into a song that was sung in Anhui. "Those who have more land pay more taxes, those who have less land pay less taxes. If there is no land to be a tenant, the poor can sleep peacefully without paying taxes."
As an outstanding statecraft figure and an outstanding representative of the landlords of the two lakes, Jiang Zhongyuan was frightened by this reactionary song. At this time, Vézé's name had spread throughout Anhui. Jiang Zhongyuan did not mistake the name of his opponent anymore. Paying taxes when the grain is finished was not just a tax collection operation. There was a whole system behind it.
According to the information obtained by Jiang Zhongyuan, Vézé assigned village officials to every village and township. During the temple and township meetings, Vézé would do his best to promote one thing: "The current situation in Anhui was caused by the war. If the villagers want to continue living like this, then make sure that the villagers support our Taiping army. The Taiping army will protect the border and pacify the people. We will definitely not let the villagers down! We will not let Qing Yao come back to collect taxes from everyone! "
And Vézé even condensed the propaganda into two sentences: "Taiping's tax is good! Manchu Qing's tax is bad! "
In all fairness, although Jiang Zhongyuan was extremely hostile to Vézé, he intuitively felt that Vézé had indeed grasped the key point of the current social contradictions. The current tax system was very unfair to the poor. Vézé and the others used the weapons in their hands to reverse this unfair system. After realizing this, Jiang Zhongyuan's hostility towards Vézé increased even more.
Now that Vézé was heading straight to Suzhou, Jiang Zhongyuan was naturally worried about what Vézé was going to do. Was he going to conquer Suzhou, or did he have other plans? At this time, after Jiang Zhongyuan's expansion through the local regiments, there were 5,000 soldiers in Suzhou, which was more or less enough to defend the city.
The area around Suzhou was already considered a flat area, and new news kept coming in. Vézé's troops had closed in on Suzhou, and the main force had no intention of approaching the county town. They were actually going to pass through the county town to the north.
"The Cantonese bandits are actually going north?" Jiang Zhongyuan was very puzzled. If the other Manchu Qing officials and the Cantonese bandits didn't attack the county town and just passed by, they would definitely feel that the situation was excellent. However, Jiang Zhongyuan had already made plans to chase after the Cantonese bandits.
If he wanted to chase after the Cantonese bandits, he would first have to defeat or stall the Cantonese bandits outside Suzhou. The Cantonese bandits had about 3,000 soldiers, and it would not be easy to defeat them in a short period of time. In the end, Jiang Zhongyuan decided to leave 2,000 soldiers in the city, and lead 3,000 troops to chase after them. If he could attack the Cantonese bandits' transport team, that would naturally be for the best.
The 3,000 troops quickly saw a group of large carriages in the distance. If they hadn't seen them, Vézé might have been very disappointed. The troops guarding the carriages were only about 3,000 soldiers, about the same as Jiang Zhongyuan's troops.
Jiang Zhongyuan only needed to look at the terrain to know that if he wanted to attack effectively, he would have to first run parallel to Vézé's troops. When he reached the front of Vézé's troops, he would turn around and launch an attack in front of Vézé's supply team. However, this running parallel did not cause Vézé's troops to show any signs of fear. The Qing Army moved forward, and the supply team also moved forward at their own pace. After walking like this for about ten minutes, Jiang Zhongyuan's troops were actually unable to overtake the supply team.
At this time, Jiang Zhongyuan also felt that something was wrong. He had never seen such an orderly supply team. Their existence seemed to be mocking Jiang Zhongyuan's Qing Army. In addition, Jiang Zhongyuan also knew that time was not on his side. If they continued to advance like this, it would only be a matter of time before Vézé's other troops came to their aid. The 3,000 Qing Army had no chance of victory against the 20,000 Taiping army.
But Jiang Zhongyuan was also unwilling to retreat without firing a single shot. At this time, Jiang Zhongyuan could only order his troops to advance and prepare to fight the Taiping Rebellion's supply team.
"Is this fellow finally preparing to advance?" The commander in charge of the battle, Liang Zhangtai, couldn't help but yawn as he sat on the large carriage. He had come from the navy, so he had his own views on formations. Seeing Jiang Zhongyuan's troops charge towards the side of the supply team, Liang Zhangtai smiled and said, "Stop! Prepare for battle! "
The large carriages quickly stopped, and the horses on the carriages were also led to the side. The troops acted as if they didn't see the Qing Army charging towards them, minding their own business.
"Retreat!" Jiang Zhongyuan shouted. At this time, he already understood that something was wrong. His troops seemed to be attacking the side of the Taiping army, but this was just an illusion. Under Guanyang City, under Changsha City, the Cantonese bandits under Vézé's command were best at horizontal battles. Jiang Zhongyuan was facing the side, but to the Taiping army, it was only the front.
Jiang Zhongyuan's troops were well trained. Following the drum and bugle orders, the charging Qing Army had already begun to stop and retreat.
"Get them to retreat quickly!" Jiang Zhongyuan continued to roar.
Behind the Qing Army, the Taiping army's infantrymen had already crossed the ranks of the large carriages and started to form their own horizontal formation. Behind them, some large wheels were unloaded from the supply vehicles, and the cannons from the other carriages were mounted on the wheels. The horses and mules that were originally pulling the carriages also gathered around the troops, and the cavalrymen all mounted their mounts. It looked like they were about to launch an attack.
Although Jiang Zhongyuan was very brave, he wasn't stupid at all. Seeing the Taiping army's orderly formation, he completely gave up on the idea of fighting. He ordered the Qing Army under his command to retreat at full speed. He didn't even care that some of the rear troops were far behind the main force.
Seeing Jiang Zhongyuan's choice, Liang Zhangtai also ordered his troops to retreat.
"Commander, if we catch up to them, we'll definitely be able to achieve a complete victory," a brigade commander suggested.
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