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The incident in Tianjing had not dealt a blow to the Taiping Rebellion by killing nearly 20,000 people. Although the deaths of these people had led to the destruction of the central administration, it was nothing compared to the losses that the party had suffered in history.
After Vézé led his troops away from the Taiping Rebellion, there were still more than 20,000 soldiers in Tianjing City despite the massacre. The Northern Expedition Army of Huainan, together with the newly recruited troops, totaled nearly 70,000 men. Yangzhou had over ten thousand elite troops who had experienced defending the city for more than a year. The Western Punitive Expedition had more than 100,000 soldiers. The several armies added up to more than 200,000 men. This did not include the two to three hundred thousand people who were included in the military management system. The territory controlled by the Taiping Rebellion had tens of millions of people.
What the Tianjing incident truly destroyed was the established theocratic system of worshiping the Church of God. The "Heavenly King's Family" is the group of people who were conferred the title of King during the establishment of Yong An. The soldiers and civilians of the Taiping Rebellion think that perhaps they can be killed by Qing Yao, but they are after all a family. They are the united leaders of the Taiping Rebellion. China's small farming system made the people particularly trust this kind of family relationship. Those princes in high positions were the core of leadership, and they were the big shots who led everyone to victory.
After Heavenly Brother Wei Changhui killed Heavenly Father Yang Xiuqing, the theocratic system collapsed. If a family started killing each other, it would only make the people at the bottom of the hierarchy feel that they were unreliable. Since the "Heavenly King's Family" were immortals who descended to the mortal world, they would definitely kill each other for the mortal world after they died and went to heaven. Count on the blessings of the Gods who are falling apart and killing each other in the sky? Any normal citizen would not think that this would be reliable.
As for the upper echelons of the Taiping Rebellion, they did not believe in such things. What they saw was a cruel political struggle. In the struggle for power, no one was safe anymore. This kind of uneasiness directly led to dissension. That was why Vézé didn't go to Xuancheng immediately before the meeting. He needed time to decide on his future development path.
There were more than three hundred Brigade Marshals and officers of higher ranks, as well as officers of the General Staff with the rank of Major and above. This group of people was the true core of Vézé's army. Holding a meeting with them meant deciding on the direction of the future. Moreover, this group of people had different degrees of worries. If he couldn't pacify them, Vézé's troops would be greatly weakened.
Vézé first told the high-ranking officers about what had happened in Tianjing City. After he was done, Vézé shouted, "If anyone has any questions, hurry up and ask. You are the backbone of our army. You can't spread rumors among yourselves! "
"I heard that the Heavenly King was killed?" Someone immediately asked.
Vézé immediately replied, "The heavenly monarch is still alive and well in Tianjing City. He's just sent people out to chase after the Wing King, Shi Dakai, who's escaped from Tianjing City!"
"But that's what everyone is saying!" The brigade commander who asked the question hesitantly continued.
Vézé frowned and said sternly, "Do you believe me or someone else? If the heavenly monarch was killed, why wouldn't I tell everyone? When have our troops ever lied to our brothers on purpose? Our intelligence agency has been working hard to gather information. They have all sorts of eyes and ears in Tianjing City. They can get the latest news and send it to us in a timely manner. Do you believe in the intelligence agency, or those who blurt out information without thinking? Think about it. Can those shameless people be trusted? "
Vézé's attitude was very strict. What he said was true. Although the brigade commander was still a little hesitant, he didn't continue asking.
With this opening, the following questions were much more rational. Questions about XX's death rarely appeared. Instead, there were more and more questions about the actual situation they were facing. Vézé divided these questions into two categories. He answered the questions about the Taiping Rebellion. As for the questions about the army, Vézé let the questioners sit down first and wait until it was time to talk.
Looking at Vézé calmly answering the questions, although he would refute everyone's opinions, the circulation of information reduced the impetuous mood of the higher-ups. Especially after Vézé tried his best to refute the statement that the Taiping Rebellion would collapse immediately, although everyone knew that they had broken away from the Heavenly State, they unexpectedly felt at ease.
After answering the questions for the time being, Vézé drank some water to moisten his throat. Vézé was really tired of answering these meaningless questions nonstop. He had decided to establish a regular reporting system. The weekly reporting system used to make Vézé feel unnecessary. Now, it seemed that the measure was not only not unnecessary, but also very useful.
After catching his breath, Vézé continued, "The reason why the conflict between the heavenly monarch and the King Of The East ended like this is because of the duopoly. Since we have broken away from the Heavenly State, we must solve this hidden danger! "
Hong Xiuquan held the religious power and became the supreme leader in name, while Yang Xiuqing held the political power and became the supreme leader in reality. As the system changed and the strength of both sides changed, they would eventually enter a situation where they could break out of this stalemate. After this incident in Tianjing, Vézé completely understood this matter. He spent a lot of effort to explain this matter to his brothers because he wanted to gather all the power to himself.
Regardless of whether they understood the specific process of the incident in Tianjing, when Vézé paused for a while, Lei Hu immediately took the lead and shouted, "I support the Chief of Staff to hold the power!"
Wei Changrong looked at Lei Hu with a slightly unhappy expression. He was prepared to shout this first, but he didn't expect that Lei Hu would take the lead. As a result, with this delay, the other brothers had already followed suit and shouted, "I support the Chief of Staff to hold the power!"
After the others had finished shouting, it was not Wei Changrong's turn to speak. After Lei Hu finished shouting, he stood up and knelt down in front of Vézé. This time, Wei Changrong followed the rhythm and knelt down together with the senior officers.
After kneeling down, Ruan Xihao shouted, "Long live the Chief of Staff, long live the Chief of Staff!"
Someone took the lead and the shouts of "Long live the Chief of Staff!" immediately rang out.
If it was any other time, Vézé would probably be happy if someone shouted "Long live the Chief of Staff". However, in the current situation, this shout of "Long live the Chief of Staff" did not make Vézé complacent. Instead, he felt that it was a little ridiculous. The King Of The East wanted to confer the title of "Long live the Chief of Staff", so he was killed. Hong Xiuquan's title of "Long live the Chief of Staff" would not last for long. As for the Manchu Qing Xianfeng in Beijing, as long as he did not die early, Vézé would lead the army into Beijing and cut off his head in a few years. It was quite risky to be a "Long live the Chief of Staff" these days.
However, Vézé could not immediately say anything else. Facing the brothers who were kneeling on the ground and shouting "Long live the Chief of Staff", Vézé stood up steadily and waved his hand to indicate that he wanted to speak. Thus, more than 300 people immediately quieted down. Vézé said loudly, "Everyone, follow me to conquer the world and rule the world. As long as you obey my orders, I will definitely not let you down. But let me say this first, if anyone disobeys my orders and delays our important task of conquering the world, I will definitely not spare them. Brothers, are you willing to obey my orders? "
"Resolutely obey my orders!" This kind of shouting was one of the most common slogans in the army. More than 300 people answered in unison.
Vézé glanced around and saw that everyone was rather excited, staring at Vézé with determined eyes. Satisfied, Vézé let out a sigh of relief and shouted, "I now order everyone to stand up!"
Rumble, rumble, rumble. More than 300 high-ranking officers stood up. Without waiting for them to speak, Vézé continued to shout, "I now order that from now on, our army will only have the salute of raising one's hand. There will no longer be the etiquette of kneeling! We are all indomitable heroes, we will not kneel to anyone! You don't have to kneel to me, just listen to my orders, do things well, and fight! There is no need to kneel to me! "
Hearing this, most of the officers felt that Vézé was really generous to his brothers. Everyone revealed a joyful expression. Vézé had someone carry the blackboard over and wrote four large words on it: "Like-Minded", followed by two large words: "Comrades!"
When he was done, Vézé shouted, "Brothers, since you are willing to conquer the world with me, then we are not just brothers, but like-minded brothers! From now on, we will not address each other as brothers, but as comrades! This is my order! "
Some of the officers did not understand what Vézé meant by these words, but some were more quick-witted. Regardless of whether they understood or not, they immediately shouted, "Resolutely obey my orders!"
After temporarily unifying the upper echelons of the army, Vézé then ordered a complete restructuring of the army. All the original official positions in the army were abolished, and the army was organized according to the modern military model of "army, division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company, platoon, squad".
A squad of ten people was organized according to the four-four system. Only between division and brigade, and between brigade and regiment, there was a binary system. A division had two brigades, and a brigade had two regiments. All the official positions in the army had a "commander" at the end of their rank. Corps commander, division commander, brigade commander, regimental commander, and so on. The squad leaders at the basic level were the basic officers.
After thoroughly implementing the familiar military system and changing the awkward names, Vézé felt very relaxed. The officers in the army had received cultural education. This new restructuring looked very big, but the overall feeling was more concise. Everyone could accept it.
The General Staff Headquarters was still the original system. A military committee was established above the General Staff Headquarters, and the Chief of the General Staff was responsible to the military committee. The military committee was actually a military management system. Not only was the army in it, but the administrative department was also a department under the military committee. The military committee was known as the "Recovered Commander-in-Chief's Office", and Vézé was the commander-in-chief of the Commander-in-Chief's Office. He held the military and political power in one hand. The possibility of a duopoly was completely ruled out. The army was called the "Liberation Army".
In order to facilitate the reorganization, a squad of the army still had five people for the time being to ensure that the tactics at the basic level would not be affected. Vézé told the General Staff Headquarters that after the conquest of Guangdong and Guangxi, the army would officially adopt a ten-man squad.
It took a day to reorganize the numbers of the army. Now there were 53,000 soldiers who had received comprehensive training in the army, and they were organized into two infantry divisions with supply troops and a cavalry division. At this time, Hu Chenghe had not yet arrived in Xuancheng. After discussion, the new Chief of the General Staff was Hu Chenghe, the commander of the First Army was Wei Changrong, and the commander of the Second Army was Ruan Xihao. The commander of the cavalry division was Lei Hu.
Four days later, after Hu Chenghe led the rearguard troops and the people who followed Vézé arrived, all the troops had assembled. Vézé held a comprehensive mobilization for the middle level of the Liberation Army. The content of the mobilization was "Why is the strategy we must adopt to go south to Guangdong and Guangxi?"
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