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"The Xiang Army has a lot of elite soldiers and strong generals, Shi Ni's two hundred thousand men besieged Baoqing, but they were still defeated, now Wei Ni has forty to fifty thousand men and horses in Hunan, don't tell me we don't dare to attack?" Mao Hongbin stared at the crowd of civil officials and military officers in the Hunan Inspector-General yamen and shouted loudly.
Although these civil and military officials also lowered their heads, no one took the initiative to speak. In the face of this silent resistance, Mao Hongbin sternly said, "His Majesty has decreed that we should recapture Yongzhou. I have made up my mind. I order Inspector Zhao Huanlian and Zongbing Zhou Kuanshi to lead troops to recapture Yongzhou."
Hearing that the generals of Changsha were not allowed to move, they were all greatly relieved. Everyone disapproved of Mao Hongbin's order. Shi Dakai did have two hundred thousand men, but the Hunan Xiang Army had sent nearly sixty thousand men to fight Shi Dakai. Both sides had victories and defeats. The Liberation Army only had forty to fifty thousand people fighting against the thirty thousand Xiang Army. The Xiang Army had thirty thousand men, and ten thousand of them had been easily killed. If the Liberation Army killed the captives like the Xiang Army, instead of releasing them, the thirty thousand Xiang Army would be finished. Of course, if the 30,000-strong Xiang Army was annihilated … He reckoned that Sir Mao Hongbin wouldn't be so high-spirited as to take back Yongzhou.
Inspector Zhao Huanlian and Zongbing Zhou Kuanshi were in charge of defending Baoqing when Shi Da marched into the city, and they did a good job. The officials of the Inspector-General's Office could only hope that the two of them could make another great achievement and recapture Yongzhou from the hands of the Liberation Army.
On the 25th of March, the inspector Zhao Huanlian and the commander-in-chief Zhou Kuanshi led seven thousand soldiers into Yongzhou.
On the 2nd of April, Inspector Zhao Huanlian and Zongbing Zhou Kuanshi were attacked by the Liberation Army fifty li from Yongzhou and were completely wiped out.
On the 10th of April, the Liberation Army troops in Yongzhou broke through all the checkpoints on the way to Hengyang and stationed their troops outside Hengyang City.
On April 13, the Liberation Army delivered more than 8,000 Xiang Army soldiers and more than 3,000 Xiang Army corpses to the outskirts of Hengyang City and released them on the spot. Then the Liberation Army began to withdraw and return to Yongzhou.
On the 15th of April, Hunan Inspector-General Mao Hongbin received the news and did not go to work, citing illness as an excuse. The civil and military officials of Changsha could roughly guess Lord Mao Hongbin's thoughts. Lord Mao Hongbin would not be able to keep his face after being threatened and humiliated so blatantly by the Liberation Army.
Moreover, there was another, more realistic problem. The Liberation Army advanced from Yongzhou to Hengyang and killed another 5,000 Xiang Army along the way. Currently, more than 10,000 Xiang Army soldiers have been killed, and more than 40,000 have been captured. All their weapons were seized by the Liberation Army. There were nearly sixty thousand Fire Hat-Guns, and the current official price of a Fire Hat-Gun was thirty taels of silver. If he wanted to replenish the 60,000 guns, he would need 1,800,000 taels of silver. The whole of Hunan had been almost depleted in the past few years. Even if they sold everything they had, they wouldn't be able to get 1.8 million taels of silver.
According to the repatriated captives, the Liberation Army's Fire Hat-Guns were far superior to the Xiang Army's Fire Hat-Guns. Even with the Fire Hat-Guns, they still couldn't win against the Liberation Army. With broadswords and spears in their hands, there was no need to consider fighting against the Liberation Army.
Of course, this situation also made the Hunan officials feel a lot more at ease. If Lord Mao Hongbin couldn't get his hands on the Fire Hat-Guns, he would at least be a bit more well-behaved. The civil and military officials of Changsha didn't want to be sent to the front lines by Lord Mao to die. Although the Liberation Army repatriated captives, they only repatriated soldiers. None of those officers had been repatriated. Even if the officials didn't die on the battlefield, if they were captured, their fates wouldn't be much better. Looking at Lord Mao's "single-minded desire to kill thieves," no one dared to believe that Lord Mao would agree to ransom the captives.
Mao Hongbin's illness lasted for three days. Three days later, Lord Mao went to court to discuss matters. His eyes were red and his cheeks were sunken. It looked like he had suffered greatly these past three days. Without even looking at his subordinates, Mao Hongbin said, "We want to increase our income by 1,200,000 taels of gold."
The civil and military officials of Changsha were dumbfounded when they heard this. In recent years, Hunan had frantically collected the Likin, which had caused the prices of goods to skyrocket. Hunan's main suppliers of Likin were merchants. They were basically unwilling to do business now. If they collected another 1,200,000 taels of Likin in a short period of time, the shops in Hunan would probably have to close down.
Just when everyone was scared out of their wits by Lord Mao's boldness, Lord Mao gave the officials a new shock. "If it's not easy to collect from the merchants, then we'll increase the Likin from the Xiang Army's families. The gentry will also have to fork out more money when the country is in danger."
The officials were scared out of their wits by Lord Mao's strong "tyrannical aura." The Administrative Commissioner couldn't care less about his original intention of not saying anything. He hurriedly said, "Lord, you can't do this!"
The ordinary people of Hunan were tormented by the current taxes. However, it wasn't that there weren't any rich people among the ordinary people. They were basically the relatives of the Xiang Army. Their families were fighting outside, so all their belongings were sent back to Hunan. However, these people couldn't be taxed. If they were taxed, it would only shake the morale of the Xiang Army. The other rich people were the landlords and gentry of Hunan. These years, under the pressure of the government, they had already spat out a portion of their money. However, if they were to spit out another 1,200,000 taels of silver, the landlords and gentry would definitely not be willing. Moreover, which of these landlords and gentry didn't have their own connections? They were all genuine local snakes.
As the saying goes, a strong dragon can't fight a local snake. Lord Mao Hongbin had indeed found a rich local snake. In terms of the direction he chose, it could be said that he had grasped the key. However, no matter how one looked at Lord Mao's current performance, he didn't have the aura of a strong dragon.
"Why not?" Mao Hongbin angrily said, "The Liberation Army is about to capture Hengyang, why stop advancing? In fact, when they saw that Lord Zeng was about to march to Jiangning, they wanted the Xiang Army to perish together with the Guangdong bandits. When Lord Zeng breaks through Jiangning, it will be the day the Liberation Army goes north. If they attack Hunan too much, Lord Zeng will have no choice but to return to the army to rescue them, and the Liberation Army's wishful thinking will come to nothing. The Guangdong bandits released the Xiang Army prisoners several times, only to buy people's hearts. When they go north, they hope that the released Xiang Army prisoners will know that they won't die if they surrender, so they won't fight them to the death. However, the Liberation Army will let the ordinary Xiang Army off, but they won't let us off. Right now, if we sit and wait, we'll just be waiting for death! "
Mao Hongbin had always been famous for understanding people. Moreover, among the Changsha officials, it wasn't that no one had made such a prediction. It's just that everyone knew that they couldn't defeat the Liberation Army. If they took the initiative to attack, they would die. It would be better to wait for death to come. Now that Mao Hongbin had so clearly pointed out the possible future situation, the civil and military officials of Changsha were all shaken.
"In that case, we have to hurry up and gather military resources and make preparations. When Lord Zeng exterminates the Guangdong bandits and returns to Hunan, we have to at least be able to defend! "Mao Hongbin shouted himself hoarse.
The Hunan Inspector-General's yamen was dead silent. The officials who didn't think of this were shocked speechless. The officials who had thought of this were full of worries and didn't want to say anything.
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