Chapter 396

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Li Xiucheng would have been very happy if he had entered Hangzhou six months ago. Six months later, when he killed his way into Hangzhou, which was abandoned by "Jin Liang" Zuo Zongtang, Li Xiucheng didn't look happy at all. What Zuo Zongtang could think of, Li Xiucheng could naturally think of too.

The Liberation Army wanted to get rid of the God Worshipping Sect. The Taiping army was facing an enemy stronger than the Qing Army. As a member of the King Of The East's faction, Li Xiucheng had never seen an army better at fighting than Vézé's troops.

In August 1851, the Taiping army broke through the siege of the Qing Army in Guiping and marched to Yongan Prefecture through Teng County. Passing by Li Xiucheng's hometown, they gathered people from the God Worshipping Sect along the way. Li Xiucheng joined the Taiping army and became a holy soldier. He joined the Taiping army a month or two later than Vézé. In May of the second year of the Taiping Rebellion (1852), the Taiping army left Hunan, attacked Wuchang, and went south to Jiangnan. In the third year of the Taiping Rebellion (1853), Li Xiucheng was already a member of the council with the Prime Minister Hu Yihuang.

After the capital was established, Yang Xiuqing personally promoted Li Xiucheng to be the commander of the Right Fourth Army, guarding the new camp outside Taiping Gate. Not long after, he was promoted to the Rear Fourth Army Supervisor, guarding the high bridge outside Yifeng Gate. Li Xiucheng was diligent, upright, and tireless. No matter how difficult it was, he did not refuse, and devoted himself to building the camp. Thus, he was highly regarded by the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing. Later, he followed Hu Yihuang on the Western Expedition and made great contributions.

During the period when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was on the rise, it wasn't even the King of Wings, Shi Dakai, who was truly renowned, but the King of Qi, Wei Ze. He conquered Huainan, established a system, went north to receive the first wave of the Northern Expedition Army, and broke through the Jiangbei Camp. The young Prince Of Qi commanded 30,000 troops to prop up the northern battlefield of the Taiping Rebellion. No matter how the Western and Eastern Fronts were defeated, the Heavenly State's northern Huaihe Line was as stable as Mount Tai.

Li Xiucheng was ten years older than Vézé, but the young Vézé was undoubtedly an insurmountable mountain in his heart. When Vézé attacked Jiangzhe, all the Heavenly State generals believed that Jiangzhe would be conquered. This was also the main reason why Hong Xiuquan had no choice but to quickly initiate the coup in Tianjing. If Yang Xiuqing was allowed to be bestowed the title of 'Ten Thousand Years', and when Wei Ze took Jiangzhe and returned to attack the two lakes, Yang Xiuqing would have an unshakable position. Seven years after Vézé left the Taiping Rebellion, Li Xiucheng had no confidence in defeating Vézé.

Now, seven years after Wei Ze left the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xiucheng was not confident that he could defeat Wei Ze. As soon as Zuo Zongtang escaped, Li Xiucheng immediately transferred Li Shixian's troops, who were monitoring the Jiangnan camp, to Hangzhou.

Li Shixian obviously did not agree with his cousin's choice. "Brother, where are you going?"

Li Shixian obviously did not agree with his cousin Li Xiucheng's choice. He said unhappily, "Big Brother, where are you going?"

Li Shixian asked, "Are you going to retreat when the Liberation Army reaches Suzhou?"

Li Shixian pressed: "Then when the Restoration Army reaches the gates of Suzhou, do you still want to withdraw?"

The Liberation Army would not stop until they reached the south of Huaihe. Where was Li Xiucheng going to retreat to in the face of the Liberation Army? Seeing that Li Xiucheng had no intention of fighting, Li Shixian said loudly, "Brother, how do you know you can't win if you don't fight?"

Seeing that Li Xiucheng had no intention to fight, Li Shixian said loudly, "Big Brother, how do you know you can't beat him if you don't fight?"

But this excitement only lasted for a moment. Li Xiucheng's rationality prevailed. But this excitement only lasted for a moment. Li Xiucheng's rationality prevailed. He said slowly, "We've fought with the Xiang Army. Although the Xiang Army is not easy to fight, we can still fight with them. But where is the Xiang Army now? Almost all of them were killed by the Prince Of Qi. We've fought with the Left Demon Leader, and we have a 50-50 chance of winning. But now that the Liberation Army is here, the Left Demon Leader abandoned Hangzhou and ran away. It's not that these people are incapable, they're not fools either. "

Li Shixian was not stupid, but he knew that if he kept retreating like this. Where could he retreat to in the end? Lin Fengxiang sent someone to deliver a letter, saying that the Liberation Army would conquer the south of Huaihe in a short time. Tianjing City was almost a thousand miles away from Huaihe. The north of Huaihe had never been the territory of the Taiping Rebellion. Even the Taiping army that had been to the north of Huaihe didn't have many people.

"Let's retreat quickly. Bring what we can. When we get to Tianjing City, we'll discuss it with everyone. " Li Xiucheng continued, "Actually, when the Left Demon Leader brought the troops here, I felt that Tianjing City could not be defended. Even if the Prince Of Qi didn't come, we might not be able to stand here. "

Li Shixian still couldn't accept Li Xiucheng's words, but if they didn't fight, they had to retreat. Li Shixian finally agreed with Li Xiucheng.

At this time, the Liberation Army was not far from Hangzhou. The Liberation Army was divided into the Two Lakes Army, the Jiangxi Army, and the Fujian Army. The Fujian Army was divided into land and water. When the navy used the leapfrog tactic to attack the coastal area, the land relied on their marching ability to attack the mountains.

Before the navy entered Shanghai, the 18th Army, the vanguard of the Jiangxi Army, broke through the mountains and headed straight for Hangzhou. Commander Sun Chongyi had two choices. He could either attack Hangzhou or attack Linan and annihilate the Qing Army's Jiangnan Camp there. Among the targets of the Northern Expedition, the Qing army was the highest priority. Therefore, Sun Chongyi didn't make the decision on his own. He led the troops to attack Linan, where the Jiangnan Camp had about seventy thousand men and horses.

Because the Qing Army was relatively weak, this campaign was actually quite easy. The basic tactic was to attack the key points, and the follow-up troops would take over the cities controlled by the vanguard and then expand to the periphery. The vanguard troops would continue to attack. The Liberation Army didn't have a reason to organize the main force to penetrate to the end and then turn back to outflank them.

The reason why the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River were considered was largely because of the weather. The plum rain season in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River moistened the land every year, but it also greatly hindered the war. The plum rain would last for nearly a month. Even though the Liberation Army's weapons were China's most resistant to the rainy season, the Liberation Army was fighting on the outside this time. The advantage of fighting on the inside was that supplies, garrisons, and transportation could all be arranged calmly, while fighting on the outside was too demanding on camps and supplies. This was the first time the troops had fought into Zhejiang. No matter how much investigation they had done beforehand, it was just investigation. Once it rained continuously, the non-battle losses of the troops might not be less than the battle losses.

The training delayed the march to November. If it wasn't for this factor, the Northern Expedition could have been brought forward to at least September. Since they had to act in November, the troops could only speed up their progress.

For more than two months, they had been marching and fighting. The troops basically hadn't had much rest and were now extremely tired. Originally, they could march 60 li a day, but now they could march 50 li. It was just that it was too easy to surround the Qing Army. The Jiangnan Camp didn't react at all. They allowed the Liberation Army to occupy key points outside the city and build fortifications.

"Commander, let's wait for the follow-up troops to come up before fighting," the military commissar suggested at the party committee meeting.

The chief of staff agreed with this view. "Yes, we might have to attack Hangzhou. Since we've surrounded it, we're not afraid that the Jiangnan Camp can escape. Rest for at least two days. "

Of course, the commander knew the current situation of the troops, but he was worried about whether the follow-up troops could keep up. The 400,000 troops of the Liberation Army looked like a lot, but once they were scattered to Hunan and Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, these troops were nothing special. Each army had nine infantry regiments, and each regiment was stationed in a newly captured county. Ninety counties required ten armies of 200,000 troops. The Liberation Army didn't recruit rebels, so the troops on the front lines decreased as the war went on.

In the plan, as the rear stabilized, the local troops would gradually decrease. However, they had only been fighting for two months. The local areas were far from stable to the extent that they could reduce their troops at will. In the end, the commander agreed to the party committee's suggestion to temporarily surround and not fight. However, he couldn't help but envy the Hunan and Hunan armies. The Hunan and Hunan didn't need to completely seize the territory north of the Yangtze River. Moreover, before they set off, half of Hunan was already in the hands of the Liberation Army, not to mention that the Hunan and Hunan regions had the Yangtze River, which could transport troops quickly. In comparison, the large mountainous area of Fujian was a nightmare.

The commander-in-chief of the Hunan and Hunan armies, Lei Hu, didn't know that there were people who envied him so much. At this time, Lei Hu had already moved the headquarters to Anqing to direct the battle nearby. At this time, in front of Lei Hu and Shen Xin stood more than ten people dressed like commoners. They were crying and confiding in Lei Hu.

Anqing was where the Liberation Army truly started. From Anqing onwards, Vézé officially got the opportunity to be in charge of one side of the battle. Of course, the Xiang Army knew the importance of Anqing, but sending a few thousand people to guard the city wouldn't be enough. Sending tens of thousands of people to guard the city would be equivalent to fighting the Liberation Army here. Ceng Guofan simply didn't send any troops, and let the Huai army guard Anqing. More than six thousand Huai army who were waiting for battle were wiped out in two days. After nine years, Anqing returned to Vézé's hands again.

When he left Huainan seven years ago, Vézé brought along people who were willing to follow him. At this time, the people in front of Lei Hu were the locals who refused to leave. The people they were crying and accusing were also locals, and many of them were even their relatives.

In China, every village and every township basically had some relatives. For example, there was a small landlord called Shen Lirong, who was a relative of Shen Xin. Although Shen Lirong and Shen Xin were about the same age, he still had to call Shen Xin uncle.

"The big landlord in the village, Shen Lijin, had a black heart. In order to get an official position from the government, he killed countless people. The local officials were captured by him and handed over to the government. Those who had people who joined the army, he brought people to raid those families and seized their land. Even people like me who had nothing to do with the Heavenly State, he didn't let them off. Because he liked the few acres of good land in my house, he accused my family of colluding with the Heavenly State and forcibly seized my land. " Shen Lirong cried as he spoke. He originally only wanted to farm at home. No matter who was in power, everyone had to pay taxes and pay taxes. Moreover, when the Taiping army was here, their lives were much better than when Manchu Qing was in power. Shen Lirong naturally didn't want to stand out. If it wasn't for the fact that his land was seized, he wouldn't have immediately rushed to Anqing to ask for help when he heard the news that the Prince Of Qi and Vézé's army had returned.

Shen Lirong's situation was a microcosm of Huainan. After the Xiang Army and Huai army worked together to recapture Huainan, the Xiang Army plundered the city. The local landlords who were already extremely dissatisfied with the Taiping army immediately launched a counterattack. The local grassroots organization of the Taiping army was completely destroyed. Because they had the ability to collude with the Xiang Army, the big landlords completely grasped the real power in the local area. These people didn't collude with the Xiang Army because they were loyal to the government. They naturally used this power to expand their own benefits.

Those who ran to Anqing for help were basically all small and medium-sized landlords. This was because the people who followed the Taiping army had already been killed by the troops formed by these big landlords.

After listening to these people's tearful complaints, he had the staff bring them away. Lei Hu asked: "Secretary Shen, what do you think?"

Shen Xin said thoughtfully: "Lei Commander, don't you think this is a good opportunity to recruit soldiers?"