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"Advance to Xuancheng and open the passage to the south!" Vézé gave his opinion in the General Staff Headquarters. "Our army will now begin to prepare a battle plan to attack Guangzhou and occupy the Pearl River Plain before the autumn harvest!"
This kind of order was very consistent with Vézé's style, which was to state the purpose and reason at the same time. Vézé had also considered the historical problem of Shi Dakai leaving the Taiping Rebellion. Why did Shi Dakai fight a large circle around the Taiping Rebellion but never go to Guangdong? In the end, he ran to Sichuan and was completely wiped out by the Dadu River. Apart from not having the strength to open up the situation and establish a base, Shi Dakai's core forces were the thousands of relatives he had brought from Guangxi. The other forces were basically recruits recruited from Hunan and Hubei. As an outsider, he really did not dare to rashly march into Guangdong.
But Vézé did not have such worries. There were not many Cantonese among his subordinates. In the true sense, there were only Lin Asheng and twenty other old brothers. But when Vézé fought in Wuzhou, he had gathered hundreds of Wuzhou brothers, hundreds of whom came from the boat army. The boat army did not just appear in Guangxi. They cruised on the Pearl River and many of them had taken boats to Guangzhou.
Most of the troops that Vézé had established in Yongan were from Heaven and Earth Hui, and many of them did not have old acquaintances in Guangdong. Even if this troop was not from Guangdong, they were not completely ignorant of it.
After the Tianjing incident, the supply of Vézé's troops was almost completely cut off. Fortunately, Vézé had forcibly intercepted several batches of food bound for Tianjing at the northern pier of Tianjing. In addition, after conquering Wuxi and Suzhou, he had forcibly collected a large amount of money from the locals. The Chaohu area was originally under the direct control of Yang Xiuqing. After hearing about the Tianjing incident, many of the civil officials there had sought refuge with Vézé. In addition to bringing a lot of money and food, this group included some Cantonese brothers who had originally been brought by the Southern Prince Feng Yunshan.
Conquering Guangdong, especially before the autumn harvest, the General Staff Headquarters did not have any opinions on this whole set of ideas. The General Staff gave their opinion on Vézé's strategy of marching his troops into Kwangtung. Wei Changrong's opinion on this was: "We will give up on Zhenjiang now, take control of Changzhou, continue to attack Wuxi and Suzhou, and then attack Zhejiang. What's wrong with that? Not only is it close, but it can also contact the brothers of the Dagger Society. "
Vézé answered seriously, "And then? We are going to be attacked by Jiangnan and Jiangbei military camp, we are going to be attacked by Qing Yao from Fujian. Most importantly, if we stay here and fight against the Taiping Rebellion, something will happen sooner or later! I will teach everyone how to play Go. What is the saying in Go? Gold horn, silver edge, straw belly! Taking over Zhejiang and Southern Zhejiang, if one were to look at the map, they would still be surrounded by many forces. When we head south to Guangdong, we occupy a corner of the chessboard and break away from contact with the Taiping Rebellion. As long as we can resist Fujian Qing Army, it will be very easy for us to attack Guangxi. That's our hometown. After occupying Guangdong and Guangxi, the Qing Army would not be able to break in. We will be able to expand easily! There will only be one result if we are greedy for a temporary advantage, and that is to end up with nothing! "
"Then we should at least enter Zhejiang first. Wouldn't it be better to get food in Zhejiang before attacking Guangdong?" Hu Chenghe also did not think that it was necessary to break through the layers of obstruction of the Qing Army and travel thousands of miles to attack Guangdong.
Vézé said in a low voice, "The food in Zhejiang is at most enough for us to eat. If we wait in Zhejiang until the autumn harvest, we will only be wasting a year's time. How many variables can there be in a year's time? Besides, Zhejiang is rich. If we stay in Zhejiang for a period of time, who knows how weak our brothers will be. This time, the North King, Wei Changhui, and his three thousand men were able to withstand the attack of more than thirty thousand men in Tianjing City. But if we change the location and let Wei Changhui attack Changzhou, can his three thousand men last a day against our thirty thousand men? Not thirty thousand men, just five thousand men will be able to destroy him in a day! Why is that? Isn't it because the Tianjing City's garrison is in a gentle place like Tianjing City? Although the King Of The East is strict, they do not fight and lack of training. The fighting strength of the troops declines too quickly! If thirty thousand men can't defeat three thousand men, are we going to make a fool out of ourselves? "
The bloody truth was right in front of them. With Vézé's words, no one in the General Staff Headquarters dared to oppose him.
"If we go straight to Guangdong now, I'm afraid something will happen, right? There is the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks of the Qing Army around Xuancheng. We have to defeat them before we can go south. "Hu Chenghe changed to a more tactful way of saying it.
"Let's spread the news now that we are going to fight the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks. Before we enter Zhejiang, we have to completely destroy this Qing Army that could threaten us!" Vézé said.
Vézé's point of view shocked Hu Chenghe. "Won't that let the Qing Army be prepared?"
Without waiting for Vézé to speak, Ruan Xihao replied, "If the Qing Army knows, will they dare to fight us? They can run! They can go to Suzhou, where we have already retreated, and even to Zhejiang. Won't they make way for us then? "
Ruan Xihao was born in Wuzhou, so he was naturally very supportive of advancing to Guangdong. He continued, "We really need to find a place to settle down in the middle."
Vézé smiled. "Of course we need a place to settle down. We will go through Xuancheng and enter Jiangxi. We will settle down in Jiangnan's Ganzhou. If we attack Guangdong, we will leave from Jiangnan, break through Shaoguan and Qingyuan, and then head straight for Guangzhou. "
"This … this is a mountainous area. It will be difficult to fight!" Lei Hu looked at the map and couldn't help but say.
"When we fought our way out of Yong 'an, did we take the main road? Didn't we still walk dozens of li a day? How much better are our equipment and training compared to back then? After staying in this affluent place for a year or two, have we forgotten to fight on mountain roads? "Vézé's tone was full of obvious mockery.
Just now, Vézé had said that the fighting power of the troops in Tianjing was weakening. Now, Lei Hu had used his performance to indirectly prove this conclusion. Of course, no one was willing to admit that they had changed from fearless heroes to cowards who found it hard to walk on mountain roads. For the time being, no one dared to discuss the problem of taking the mountain roads. Everyone began to discuss the strategy of advancing into Guangdong and occupying the two provinces.
After some discussion, Vézé's proposed strategy was gradually approved by the General Staff. After taking Guangzhou, they could advance westward at any time. Following the Pearl River, they would reach Wuzhou after leaving the Guangdong border. In Wuzhou, there were tens of thousands of people who wanted to rebel but didn't have the ability to. If they were recruited, they could instantly build up an army of 100,000. Vézé could march north to near Tianjin with just over 10,000 people. It would be easy for an army of 100,000 to move across the two provinces.
The essence of Guangdong was the plains around the Pearl River. This area was rich in food, enough to feed an army of 100,000. Faced with such a prospect, the hard work of walking through the mountains was completely worth it.
At this time, Vézé did not bring up the idea of developing industry in Guangdong. There were many reasons for the new China's Guangdong Economic Exhibition, especially the people and technology from the north, as well as overseas technology and markets. But why was it in Guangdong, and not Qinghai or Ningxia? No one could change the huge geographical advantage. Guangdong was indeed a place with great potential.
The strategy won because it was correct. If the strategy was not wrong, the General Staff's function was to turn this strategy into operational steps. After eliminating the plan to occupy Suzhou and Zhejiang, Vézé's troops were only left with the choice of Guangdong. Starting from the 5th of February, the General Staff began to work in this area.
The first was naturally to make the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks make way. The troops began to move south to threaten the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks. The Qing Army also tried to send troops to resist, but they didn't dare to bring out their main force to fight the Taiping army. They first sent out a weak force to test the strength of the Taiping army.
After a simple exchange, the 3,000 Qing Army troops were immediately defeated. Lei Hu, who was in charge of the battle, captured the 500 Qing Army captives and gave them a lecture. First, he told Vézé to prepare to concentrate his forces to annihilate the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks. Then, Lei Hu had the captives go back to persuade the generals of the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks to quickly surrender. This would save them from being blind on the battlefield and losing their lives for no reason.
These 500 people were originally the smoky soldiers. After being captured, they thought their lives would not be repaid. They didn't expect to be released. They immediately ran back to the barracks and reported what they had learned. Jiangnan Barracks General Zhang Guoliang didn't say anything after hearing this, but Zhejiang Inspector-General Jierhanga was terrified. He had long heard about Vézé's army. In the battle not long ago, he thought that the 3,000 Qing Army troops would be able to resist for a day or two. Who knew that they would be completely annihilated in less than half a day.
After hearing this murderous news, Jierhanga was about to collapse. If Vézé really wanted to annihilate the Jiangnan and Jiangbei Barracks' main force, then he would really be done for. Although Suzhou and Hangzhou were crisscrossed by rivers and canals, it was still a flat area. There was no way they could fight against Vézé's ferocious army on such a large flat area.
"General Zhang, you will lead and fight Vézé now!" Jierhanga almost screamed.
Zhang Guoliang had always been at odds with Jierhanga. Normally, he would naturally mock him, but this time, he didn't say anything. The Taiping army's actions were too strange. It didn't mean that they were going to war. It was as if there was something hidden behind it.
However, Zhang Guoliang didn't think too much about it. He replied, "We will go and recapture Suzhou now!"
"What?" Jierhanga was stunned. He didn't expect Zhang Guoliang to suggest such a plan. After Vézé conquered Suzhou, Xianfeng Emperor had already given a strict order to recapture Suzhou. He was determined not to let Vézé kill his way into Zhejiang. However, Zhang Guoliang didn't say anything about this imperial edict. Why did he suddenly want to recapture Suzhou now?
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