Chapter 24

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On the evening of the 8th of April, Yang Xiuqing took charge. All the troops had returned to their camps, except for Vézé, the Southern Prince's Brigade Commander. At the mouth of the Great Cavernous Valley, a soldier under Vézé's command formed a spear formation and blocked the Qing Army's escape route. The Taiping army finally annihilated the Qing Army near the mouth of the valley.

However, the soldier commander only knew that Vézé led his troops to chase after the escaping Xiang Rong. The Taiping army chased after him, but apart from seeing hundreds of corpses of the Qing Army, they didn't see Vézé's troops after they passed Longliao Ridge. Yang Xiuqing knew that Vézé was extremely valiant. He was worried that Vézé would lose his mind in the chase and would not let go of the escaping Xiang Rong. Although he ordered for the troops to retreat, he sent people to continue the chase. He was determined to call Vézé back.

This battle was a great victory. At least five thousand Qing Army troops were wiped out in one fell swoop. The elite Qing Army troops of the Southern and Northern Barracks that besieged Yongan were almost completely annihilated in this battle. Not only did the Taiping army take revenge for their defeat at Longliao Ridge yesterday, they also basically annihilated the Qing Army's main force. They no longer had to worry about the Qing Army's pursuit.

Yang Xiuqing arranged for the Taiping army's generals to prepare for tomorrow's battle. As long as they took care of the Qing Army's Liu Changqing's troops blocking the Taiping army's way, the Qing Army's encirclement strategy would be completely useless.

After assigning the tasks, Yang Xiuqing didn't immediately order his generals to return. He wanted to wait for Vézé's return. Yang Xiuqing had a deep impression of Vézé, who had expressed his loyalty to Yang Xiuqing when he was sent to the Southern Prince. Of course, this impression was also based on Vézé's bravery and fighting skills.

Before breaking out of Yongan, Vézé looted the Qing Army's provisions. When Yang Xiuqing inspected his troops after breaking out of Yongan, he noticed that Vézé's troops didn't show any signs of fatigue after a whole day of running in the rain. Even if they weren't full of vigor, they seemed to be at ease.

It was precisely because of this feeling that Yang Xiuqing ordered Wei Ze to block the Great Cavernous Valley's entrance, bypassing the Southern King Feng Yunshan. After the battle, Yang Xiuqing's order was extremely correct. Wei Ze led the troops and completed the mission. According to the report of the brothers who came back, the corpses of the Qing troops killed by Wei Ze 'piled up like a mountain'. Dynasty of, Prince, and. However, of, of, and Wu., of of of the Prince, there., Army,, and, Mountain. of.,., Yang of of.

After waiting for a while, there was no news of Vézé. Yang Xiuqing couldn't wait any longer. Just as he was about to leave, a guard outside hurriedly brought in a man. When the man saw Yang Xiuqing, he immediately saluted. His voice was filled with excitement. "Reporting to the King Of The East. Commander Wei has returned. He has captured the commander of the Qing Yao's Southern Barracks, Wu Lantai! "

As soon as he said this, the entire tent was in an uproar. In the battle of Dadong, the Taiping army had surrounded and annihilated Wu Lantai's troops. However, after searching through the pile of Qing Army corpses, they only found the corpses of four commanders. Wu Lantai's body was nowhere to be found. Everyone was furious. Wu Lantai was an old rival of the Taiping army. Not long after the Jintian Uprising, he had been fighting against the Taiping army. At Longliao Ridge, Wu Lantai had killed more than 2,000 Taiping army troops. No one expected that Vézé had captured Wu Lantai alive. This news was unbelievable.

"Where is Vézé now?" Yang Xiuqing stood up and asked.

"Commander Wei will be here soon." The one who answered was Zhang Yingchen. His voice was filled with passion.

Sure enough, not long after, Vézé entered the tent with a few subordinates. It was unknown how far Vézé had run, but Vézé and the others' heads were steaming. As soon as they entered the tent, Vézé immediately bowed to King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing. Then he pointed to a general of the Qing Army who was being carried by a few Taiping army soldiers and said, "Reporting to King Of The East, this is the leader of Qing Yao, Wu Lantai."

Then Vézé pointed to the head in the hand of another brother and said, "King Of The East, this is Qin Dingsan, the commander of Qing Yao. He resisted stubbornly and was killed by us. We could only cut off his head and report back. "

Yang Xiuqing had seen Wu Lantai on the battlefield. He strode over to Wu Lantai and carefully identified him. He couldn't help but laugh out loud. "It really is Wu Lantai!"

Some of the generals had seen Wu Lantai before. Wu Lantai had been shot in the stomach and was on the verge of death. He was exhaling more than he was inhaling. Even when he was carried into the tent, he didn't seem to be conscious.

Hearing that Yang Xiuqing had confirmed that this person was Wu Lantai, the generals couldn't help but shout, "Kill this Qing Yao!" "Cut him up!" "Cut him into pieces!"

Although Wu Lantai had lost to the Taiping army many times, he had killed too many Taiping army soldiers. At this time, no one had any pity for the dying Wu Lantai.

Yang Xiuqing's face was filled with the excitement of revenge. He ordered loudly, "Pass the order! All the troops gather. We will disembowel Wu Lantai and dig out his heart as a sacrifice to our brothers and family who died at Longliao Ridge! "

Wu Lantai was already on the verge of death. When his heart was disemboweled and dug out, he only grunted a few times. He didn't even have the chance to scream before he was finished. Meanwhile, the thousands of Taiping army soldiers let out a tsunami-like roar. When Wu Lantai's head was chopped off and hung high on a flagpole with Qin Dingsan's head, many Taiping army soldiers who had lost their family members at Longliao Ridge couldn't help but burst into tears.

After taking care of this, the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, raised the tent again. "Vézé, listen up!" Yang Xiuqing said.

"Your subordinate is here!" Although Vézé was exhausted, his back was still as straight as a flagpole when there was an order.

Yang Xiuqing said condescendingly, "Vézé, I promote you to Inspector! I hope that you will fight bravely in the future and don't let my good intentions down! "

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Vézé replied excitedly.

In the Taiping army's official system, below the kings was the Prime Minister. Below the Prime Minister were the Inspector, Commander, General, Commander, Army Supervisor, Commander, Division Commander, Brigade Commander, Commander of the Army, and Commander of the Army. Although the Taiping army had few soldiers and generals, and even a Commander of the Army only had 500 to 1,000 people, the Inspector was still a high-ranking person in the Taiping army.

Vézé originally thought that he would at least be promoted to Division Commander. If he was lucky, he would be promoted to Commander of the Army. He didn't expect that Yang Xiuqing would promote Vézé to the highest position in the Taiping army without changing the structure of the Taiping army.

After Vézé was promoted to a new position, Yang Xiuqing ordered to disperse. At this time, there were no more encampments. Vézé and the others went straight to the place where the brothers were guarding the supplies yesterday. No one had occupied the place and the Qing Army's pursuing troops had been taken care of. The brothers started a fire and put the bamboo rice next to the fire to roast. Hu Chenghe, the Second Commander of the Army, who stayed at the entrance of the Great Cauldron Valley, hurriedly asked, "Brigade Commander Wei, how did you catch Wulan Tai?"

When Wei Changrong heard this, he said proudly, "Brigade Commander had a brilliant plan. He guessed that the Qing Army was hiding in the valley. After chasing them to Longliao Ridge, he stopped and went straight to the valley. In the end, Wulan Tai took Qin Dingsan and hid in a cave in the valley. Fortunately, Zhang Yingchen carried out the order firmly. The brothers didn't miss any place and found Wulan Tai. "

Speaking of this, Wei Changrong sighed. "I didn't expect that Qin Dingsan would dare to make a move. It's a pity for that brother."

Hu Chenghe heard the gist of it, but he didn't understand it completely. He continued to urge Vézé to explain. Vézé didn't want to talk, so he let Zhang Yingchen speak. Zhang Yingchen was also a great hero this time. He immediately began to speak proudly.

When they entered the valley, Vézé asked Zhang Yingchen to lead the scouts to explore the way ahead. He asked Zhang Yingchen to not miss any blind spots. Zhang Yingchen immediately sent out the scouts and ordered them to search carefully. Many Qing Army soldiers fell from the valley, and more than half of them died. Those who didn't die were freed from their pain and exhaustion by the Taiping army.

However, one of the brothers found a cave and went in to search. The commander-in-chief of the Qing Army, Qin Dingsan, was very skilled. He suddenly killed the scout who had sneaked into the cave. The scout didn't even make a sound before he was killed by Qin Dingsan. Qin Dingsan thought that with so many Taiping army soldiers entering the valley, they wouldn't notice that one person was missing. Vézé's scouts had a system. Every soldier was responsible for a direction, an area, and a mechanism to report back. Not only was one person missing discovered, but Zhang Yingchen was also immediately notified.

Zhang Yingchen immediately searched the suspicious area carefully. After discovering the cave, he suddenly fired a shot into it. The Qing Army didn't expect this. A scream exposed the existence of the Qing Army.

Because the Scout was missing inside, Zhang Yingchen and the others launched a smoke and fire attack on the rather deep cave. The people inside the cave could not bear it any longer and escaped. Qin Dingsan was killed, and Wulan Tai was shot. The captured Qing Army soldiers confessed who the two men were. Vézé couldn't be bothered to escort the prisoners, so he killed all the Qing Army soldiers. Only Wulan Tai and Qin Dingsan's head were brought back.

After listening to Zhang Yingchen's vivid description, Hu Chenghe cried out in regret. He was responsible for blocking the entrance to the Great Cauldron Valley. Because of his outstanding military service, he was praised by the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing. However, because Hu Chenghe's superior, Vézé, hadn't returned, the King Of The East only said that Hu Chenghe would be promoted, but didn't give him a specific title. However, compared to the capture of Wulan Tai, this contribution was insignificant.

By now, the meal was hot. The brothers ate and continued to talk. Since Vézé had become an inspector, he was a few ranks higher than the commander-in-chief. Although the others didn't understand much about the Taiping Rebellion's management, Hu Chenghe knew very well that under Vézé, his chances of promotion would be greatly increased.

Vézé didn't care about these things. The so-called Taoist temple in a conch's shell was very similar to the official system of the Taiping Rebellion. When there weren't that many people, the detailed official system was purely looking for trouble. Moreover, in the current situation, whoever had the soldiers was the one with the real power. Even though Vézé was a brigade commander-in-chief, he had more than 300 subordinates under his command. He was the true commander of one-thirtieth of the ten thousand soldiers of the Taiping Rebellion. Although some generals had been made commander-in-chief or commander-in-chief, they didn't have many subordinates. As an officer directly under the King Of The East, Vézé didn't need to pay attention to them at all.

Thus, Vézé said, "Brothers, we've already killed Wulan Tai. When Xiang Rong escaped, he only took 300 soldiers with him. Where do you think we should go next?"

The brothers didn't have any ideas. On the other hand, Zhang Yingchen thought they might as well take advantage of the Qing Army's defeat to lead troops back to Yongan. After taking down the Northern and Southern Camps of Yongan, they could make plans for the next step. This suggestion received the approval of quite a few brothers.

Waiting for Zhang Yingchen to finish speaking, Hu Chenghe said, "Brigade Commander-In-Chief, I still think we should go to Wuzhou. There are many brothers in Wuzhou's Tian Di Hui. There are at least two or three thousand people. After taking down Wuzhou and gathering troops there, the Qing Yao in Guangxi won't be a threat. "