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Xuyi County was the capital of Sizhou, Jiangsu Province in 1854. In 1696, there was a real Sizhou City. Located in today's Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province, Sizhou City was once an important city in the lower reaches of the Huai River. It guarded both sides of the Huai River and the southern port of the Grand Canal from the Huai River to the Bian River. It had a prominent strategic, transportation and economic position. Sizhou City was first established in the Northern and Southern Dynasties in the second year of the Elephant (580) of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In the 19th year of Kangxi (1680) of the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River seized the Bian River and entered the Huai River. Sizhou City suffered a disaster. In the 35th year of Kangxi (1696), the whole city was completely buried by sand.
The complete destruction of Sizhou City was undoubtedly related to Du Chong, the previous incarnation of Jiang Guangtou, who dug the Yellow River and caused it to move south. After Sizhou City was submerged, it moved several times and now moved to Xuyi. Vézé had been tossing and turning in Anhui. This time, he finally decided to move to Xuyi, which was located at the junction of Anhui and Jiangsu.
Xuyi was on the south bank of Hongze Lake, not far from Wuhe County. To the east, one could enter Gaoyou Lake through the waterway. The lake embankment on the east of Gaoyou Lake was the west embankment of the canal. If one could establish a foothold here, it would undoubtedly be a major threat to the canal.
And after controlling Xuyi, Vézé could completely push his actual control area to the area south of Hongze Lake. The King Of The East proposed to Vézé that this year's grain payment should be 50% more than last year's. After adding such a large area, Vézé had full confidence to complete the task.
In the strategy-making meeting, Vézé took out a passage from Sun Tzu's Art of War. The staff officers looked at the passage on the blackboard and slowly read it.
Therefore, there are five dangers for a general: death, can be killed; life, can be captured; anger, can be humiliated; honesty, can be humiliated; love of the people, can be annoyed. These five are the mistakes of the general and the disaster of the army. The defeat of the army and the killing of the general must be based on the five dangers.
When everyone finished reading, Vézé knocked on the blackboard. "The best goal in our strategy is to be able to carry out the annihilation of the enemy's effective forces, which is the defeat of the army and the killing of the general. The second goal was to implement the tax on grain in such a vast new area. If there was a conflict between the two objectives, then the primary objective would be to annihilate the enemy's forces. If we can't achieve our primary objective, then I can only allow one situation, and that is for the enemy to hide outside our attack range. After that, the enemy kept sending out small units to fight with us for territory. Of course, I don't think that's possible, because the Qing Army doesn't have the ability to penetrate deep into the grassroots. "
When Vézé finished, the staff officers asked, "Chief of the General Staff, can you translate this into the vernacular?"
Vézé immediately took out another piece of paper and pinned it to the blackboard. A general has five fatal weaknesses: He is brave but not astute, only knows how to fight to the death, and may be lured to death by the enemy; He is timid in the face of battle, greedy for life and afraid of death, and may be captured by the enemy; He is impatient and easily angered, and may be humiliated by the enemy and act rashly; He is incorruptible and loves his reputation, and has too much pride, and may be humiliated by the enemy and lose his rationality; He dotes on the people, and may be harassed by the enemy and fall into a passive position. These are the mistakes that a general is prone to make, and they are a disaster in the art of war. The destruction of an army and the death of a general are all caused by these five fatal weaknesses. As a general, he must pay attention to them.
With this, everyone understood. Vézé said, "Now, the intelligence department will start collecting information to see which Qing Yao soldiers dare to come forward and throw away their lives. At that time, it would be better not to rush into battle with Qing Yao, but to ensure that we can carry out a battle of annihilation. We must complete the task of annihilating the entire army. "
On the 7th of May 1854, Vézé ordered Lin Fengxiang's troops, who were resting in Dingyuan, to move to Xuyi and besiege the city. Lin Fengxiang had already returned from Tianjing to Dingyuan at this time. Upon his return, he discovered that the 20,000 soldiers from the four armies under him had all been assembled. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Lin Fengxiang wouldn't have believed that Vézé had such ability.
What surprised Lin Fengxiang even more was that the average age of these soldiers was between 16 to 40 years old. They had even received a certain level of formation training and were able to line up horizontally and vertically. Even though these soldiers looked like new recruits, and their eyes were filled with curiosity and fear, these new recruits who had received basic training had already exceeded Lin Fengxiang's highest expectations. In fact, before taking over, Lin Fengxiang thought that Vézé would throw a group of physically weak people to him. They were either 13 or 14 years old kids, or old men in their forties or fifties. Lin Fengxiang was even worried that Vézé might even throw a group of women to Lin Fengxiang.
Recruiting soldiers was a very troublesome matter. If one didn't have the intention to join the Taiping army, or had to join the Taiping army due to natural or man-made disasters, it would be very difficult for the Taiping army to recruit people under other circumstances. Not to mention that the soldiers were mostly in the prime of their lives. Lin Fengxiang knew that if he was in charge of this matter, he definitely wouldn't be able to recruit so many soldiers in half a month. Even if he did manage to recruit them, he might not be willing to give them to Vézé.
Lin Fengxiang immediately began to organize the troops. He brought back more than 6,000 people from the Northern Expedition Army. This was the result of Lin Fengxiang's loyalty and giving some of the elite soldiers to Li Kaifang and the others. There were these elite soldiers who had participated in thousands of miles of expeditions, and there were also the soldiers who had received formation training provided by Vézé. The troops of the four armies were quickly organized.
When he received the news that Vézé was going to Xuyi, Lin Fengxiang felt that this was a good opportunity to train his troops. His entire army was mobilized and went straight to Xuyi. Apart from the time when he went downstream from Wuchang to attack Nanjing, Lin Fengxiang rarely marched in such a straightforward manner. During the attack on Nanjing, Lin Fengxiang and the others sailed on the waterway that Vézé had opened up. Every stop they landed was received by the Taiping army. There was no shortage of food and other supplies. That was an extremely unpleasant memory.
Since then, Lin Fengxiang's troops had been caught in a series of bitter battles. Only during the Northern Expedition, when they crossed the Huai River from Shouzhou to Mengcheng under the leadership of Vézé, did the Northern Expedition Army feel relaxed and refreshed with Vézé sitting in front of them.
Apart from the feeling of marching, Lin Fengxiang had always insisted on "picking the soft persimmon" when it came to choosing targets. If he had not been sure that the Qing Army's defenses were weak, or that there were countless resources in Xuyi, Lin Fengxiang would not have attacked so directly. This time, Lin Fengxiang's attack was firstly to repay Vézé's support, and secondly to see how capable Vézé was.
Along the way, the army had a map provided by Vézé. The map was drawn very accurately, and with the guidance of the locals, the speed of the march was greatly increased. When they reached Xuyi, Lin Fengxiang changed his mind. The size of the county was not very impressive. The city walls were low, and the number of guards seemed to be very limited. Seeing the approaching army of 20,000, the people outside the city had already run away.
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