?
Popular Recommendations:,
,
,
,
,
,
,
July 29th, 1861. Anhui, Luzhou.
The Xiang Army and the Huai army had gathered outside this city. After the Taiping Rebellion's King Li Kaifang retreated from the Huai River, he led his troops and retreated to Luzhou City. The Huai army was in hot pursuit from behind, while the Xiang Army pounced on the Taiping Rebellion's ruling center in Huainan. After the two armies joined forces, they besieged the city.
Outside the city were mainly the Xiang Army's troops. At the place where Ceng Guofan was "talking sense" to the troops, there were a few people wearing the Huai army's uniform. Ceng Guofan, on the other hand, was talking incessantly to the battalion officers in front of the Xiang Army's troops.
"It's not that we don't want to clean up the evil gentry, and it's not that we don't want to punish the profiteers. It's just that we have to prioritize. Right now, the biggest threat in the world is the rebellion of the people. Only by wiping out the people who are rebelling can we calmly deal with all kinds of chaos. This order must not be messed up! "
Since the establishment of the Xiang Army, the battalion officers and even the entire army would often listen to Ceng Guofan's "reasoning". This was the biggest difference between Ceng Guofan's Xiang Army and other troops. When this system was first established, Ceng Guofan was inexperienced and once fantasized that he could pull the Green Camp in to listen to his "reasoning". In the end, the Green Camp didn't buy it at all. The officers of the Green Camp who were angered by Ceng Guofan's public "reasoning" even launched a clever mutiny in the Green Camp. The mutinous soldiers wanted to drag Ceng Guofan out and beat him up. Ceng Guofan had no choice but to leave Changsha with his Xiang Army and start developing in Hengyang.
Even though he suffered such a setback, Ceng Guofan still showed the determination to fight despite repeated failures. This "reasoning" rule was still maintained. However, as the Xiang Army grew in size and the battle line was lengthened, he could only write all kinds of manuscripts and send them to the various troops so that they could "organize and study on their own."
At the beginning of 1861, Anqing was conquered, and the Xiang Army's long battle line was finally able to shrink. After reaching a strategic consensus with Anhui Inspector-General Jiang Zhongyuan that the Xiang Army and the Huai army should join hands to seize Huainan first, the Xiang Army's troops were able to assemble, which provided an opportunity for Lord Zeng to continue to concentrate and educate the troops.
This time, people who were not part of the Xiang Army also came to listen to Ceng Guofan's speech. Jiang Zhongyuan brought He Chun, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, and other capable generals of the Huai army to the best seats to listen to Ceng Guofan's passionate speech in Hunan Mandarin. Jiang Zhongyuan and Liu Kunyi were both from Hunan's Xin Ning, while Li Hongzhang was from Anhui's Lu Zhou. He was Ceng Guofan's disciple. The three of them understood Ceng Guofan's words. Although He Chun didn't quite understand, he was a Manchu. As long as he could understand the Manchu Qing Emperor's orders, he didn't need to understand any Han Chinese principles. However, after listening carefully, He Chun also understood the gist of it. Ceng Guofan was telling the Xiang Army that there were still many landlords and gentry in Huainan who were loyal to the imperial court. They had already taken the initiative to contact the imperial court, so the Xiang Army and the Huai army gave them documents to prove their loyalty. When Lu Zhou was conquered, the gentry with the documents could be spared.
After Ceng Guofan finished speaking, the various officers of the Xiang Army gave their orders. Soon, the Xiang Army gathered here began to sing in Hunan Mandarin. "All three armies, listen carefully. When marching, love the people first. When bandits harm the people, it's up to the soldiers to save them. When the people suffer because of bandits, it's up to the soldiers to make decisions …"
This was the "Love Folk Song" written by Ceng Guofan. It embodied Ceng Guofan's military spirit. Everyone in the Xiang Army must learn to sing it. Jiang Zhongyuan already knew this song, but this was the first time he heard tens of thousands of Xiang Army singing it together. The song went on, "Don't build a wall blocking the road; Don't chop down a tree on a grave; Don't carry water; Don't carry a fish pond; Don't take a step back in everything … The third order must be strict. Soldiers are not allowed to leave the camp. If they leave the camp, they will learn bad things, and the people will always be the victims. … Be good people at home, be soldiers. Soldiers are different from bandits. Soldiers are humans, bandits are birds. Soldiers don't rob bandits. Soldiers don't rob bandits. Soldiers don't rob bandits. Soldiers don't rob bandits. Soldiers don't rob bandits.
Listening to this, Jiang Zhongyuan nodded his head repeatedly. The Manchu Qing army's discipline was extremely bad. It was very difficult to get the support of the people. After conquering Shouzhou, the Huai army marched into Huainan. The wealthier areas had more people with money. Their attitude towards the Huai army was relatively respectful. In the poorer areas, the people would rather disappear without a trace than have any contact with the Huai army. If the Huai army had the discipline in Zeng Guofan's "Love Folk Song", they wouldn't have ended up in this situation.
"There's another important sentence. Don't kidnap someone to be your husband. If someone is kidnapped and carries the burden, the whole family will cry and be unable to live in peace …" Every word of the song deeply touched Jiang Zhongyuan's heart. At this moment, when he saw Zeng Guofan's ninth brother, Zeng Guoquan, looking at him with an extremely unfriendly expression, Jiang Zhongyuan didn't care anymore.
Just yesterday, Zeng Guoquan had made a clear stand at a joint meeting between the Xiang Army and the Huai army. He didn't want the Huai army to interfere in the attack on Luzhou. The Xiang Army would take Luzhou by themselves. The Huai army's artillery unit was able to start mass production of explosive bombs by relying on the backup platform, Wang Qinian. Their ability to attack the city was greatly increased. Liu Kunyi of the Huai army immediately refuted Zeng Guoquan's unreasonable request. Luzhou was in the territory of Anhui. Jiang Zhongyuan was the Governor of Anhui. In any case, it was not the Xiang Army's turn to speak here.
In the end, Zeng Guofan made a gentle request. He said that the Xiang Army was ready to attack the city. He asked Jiang Zhongyuan to hand over the heavy responsibility of attacking Luzhou to the Xiang Army. This way, the Xiang Army could have a peace of mind after the battle and obtain the provisions in Luzhou. Jiang Zhongyuan had to agree to Zeng Guofan's request. Now that the Xiang Army was singing the "Love Folk Song", Jiang Zhongyuan had more confidence in the Xiang Army.
After singing the song, the Xiang Army began to prepare to attack the city. However, he heard cries coming from afar. The cries were getting closer and closer. Jiang Zhongyuan took a closer look and saw that the Xiang Army was escorting a large group of people over. These people were tied up with ropes. There were men and women, old and young among them.
Jiang Zhongyuan was just praising Zeng Guofan's "Love Folk Song". There was a passage in the song, "There is an important sentence. Do not kidnap people to be your husband. When a person is kidnapped, the whole family cries and cannot live in peace. When a mother cries for her son, her eyes are swollen. When a wife cries for her husband, her tears dry …" According to Jiang Zhongyuan's observation, the Xiang Army did set up camp by themselves. Obviously, they did not intend to kidnap people. However, in the blink of an eye, the Xiang Army captured a large number of people. Zeng Guofan's writing skills were very good. He vividly described the miserable state of the people after they were captured. The captured people were indeed "a family cries and cannot live in peace. When a mother cries for her son, her eyes are swollen. When a wife cries for her husband, her tears dry."
Jiang Zhongyuan hurriedly came to Zeng Guofan's side and asked, "Brother Shisheng, what's going on?"
Zeng Guofan calmly replied, "These are the relatives of the rebels in the city. I just gave them a chance to make meritorious service."
"Do you want them to persuade the Cantonese bandits in the city to come out and surrender?" Jiang Zhongyuan asked.
Zeng Guofan just smiled indifferently, but did not answer Jiang Zhongyuan's question.
It was almost noon. The Xiang Army began to eat. The people were still tied up. It seemed that they had not eaten since they were captured. Jiang Zhongyuan even heard babies crying among the people. However, the Xiang Army, who was wolfing down the food, simply turned a blind eye to these people. It was as if these people were air.
Not long after the meal, the horn sounded in the army formation. The Xiang Army's attack began.
They drove the small group of people strung up by ropes to the direction of Luzhou City. The Xiang Army's way was very skillful. The people were strung up by ropes. As long as two groups crossed slightly, they would be entangled together and could not move. However, the Xiang Army blocked their team between the people and beat and kicked the people who walked randomly. The Xiang Army effectively maintained the order of the whole team.
When the people were taken to the vicinity of Luzhou City, they did not resist much. Seeing that they were driven to the city wall of Luzhou City and the dense Taiping army troops on the city wall, they slowed down. Some people even began to refuse to move forward because of fear. Facing the people who refused to leave in the team, the soldiers of the Xiang Army immediately waved their sabers and cut off their heads. If there was a group of people who resisted together, the Xiang Army would use their sabers and spears to kill them.
Screams, screams, curses, Jiang Zhongyuan watched dumbfoundedly as the Xiang army slaughtered the commoners like they were chopping vegetables. Very clearly, the commoners understood that the Xiang army would not show any mercy when it came to killing people. Under the threat of death, the commoners became obedient. As long as the Xiang Army picked up their bloody sabers and threatened them, the people would temporarily stop resisting and let the Xiang Army do whatever they wanted.
In this era, the main way to attack a city was to dig a tunnel under the city and put a lot of explosives in the tunnel. The explosives would be detonated to blow up the city wall from the bottom up. The troops would then rush in through the gap. This was the first tactic used by the Taiping army. Later, the Qing Army also learned it. Similarly, the method that the Qing Army used to counter the tunnel attack was also learned by the Taiping army. One of the countermeasures was to dig a deep trench outside the city. The tunnel that was dug into the city could not be too deep. As long as the trench was deep enough, the tunnel would be exposed in the trench. Whether it was sending troops into the tunnel to kill, or simply pouring water into the trench to flood the tunnel, the digging of the tunnel could be stopped.
The Xiang Army drove nearly a thousand people towards the Taiping army stationed outside Luzhou City. When they were about 100 steps away, the troops faced the muzzles of the Taiping army and stopped for a moment. When the common people who were driven away by the Xiang army approached the Taiping Army's position, they wanted very much to escape to their own territory, but they were tied together by ropes, so they could only shout at the top of their lungs toward the Taiping Army's position. The Taiping army on the other side obviously recognized the relatives of these people. They also shouted at the top of their lungs. Of course, Jiang Zhongyuan could not hear what they were shouting. He guessed that they wanted their relatives to quickly break free from the ropes and escape to the Taiping army.
At this time, the Xiang Army first cut the ropes that bound some of the people and drove them to the front of the troops. After these people were released, they almost instinctively wanted to get rid of the Xiang Army behind them. They rushed to the Taiping army's position in front of them. As they ran, they shouted at the top of their lungs.
Behind the human wall formed by the commoners, the Xiang army also started to move. They continued to drive the people who were still strung together and followed behind these people. The Xiang Army mixed with the people, so the Taiping army on the top of the city couldn't aim at them. Even if the Taiping army in front of them opened fire, they would hit the people first, not the Xiang Army. Making full use of the people's corpses, the Xiang Army kept pressing on the Taiping army's position.
Jiang Zhongyuan had led troops to fight for so many years, but he had never thought that there was such a way to attack a city. He also didn't expect that the Xiang Army could use other people's relatives to "take the lead" so skillfully.
Obviously, it was the first time for the Taiping army on the other side of the Xiang Army to see this. When the crowd was less than 20 steps away from the city, the Taiping army still didn't open fire. The Xiang army saw that their objective had been achieved. The commander waved the flag and the formation formed entirely by the Xiang army quickly followed.
The Taiping army watched the Xiang Army mixed in with the people and rushed into their formation. The people rushed into the Taiping army's formation, and the Taiping army couldn't distinguish the enemy from the enemy. The Xiang Army was much simpler. As long as the people were not from the Xiang Army, they were all enemies. No matter whether the enemies had weapons or not, the Xiang Army immediately started killing.
First, they used swords and spears, then they fired. The Taiping army outside the city had about four to five thousand people. If the Huai army fought with them face to face, it would take at least one day to defeat this army. The Xiang Army rushed into the Taiping army's formation. Although the Taiping army didn't suffer too many casualties, they couldn't hold the trenches and had to retreat in panic.
It was not dusk when the battle ended, and the ground was full of people's corpses. The Xiang Army had pushed the battle line to the city of Luzhou. Behind the Xiang Army, there were two to three thousand people around Luzhou. Obviously, the Xiang Army didn't intend to let them go. Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't figure out how the Xiang Army was going to "use" these thousands of people.
The two to three thousand people were closely guarded by the Xiang Army. Listening to the people's loud cries, Jiang Zhongyuan only felt upset.
"Brother Shisheng, I'm going back to the camp!" Jiang Zhongyuan said to Ceng Guofan, who was beside him.
Ceng Guofan nodded and said to Jiang Zhongyuan earnestly, "Only by wiping out the rebellious people can we calmly deal with all kinds of chaos. Thunderous means show the heart of a Bodhisattva. "
Looking at the nearly one thousand people whose corpses were all over the ground, and then at the two to three thousand people who hadn't been driven to the battlefield, he listened to their screams and cries. Jiang Zhongyuan completely understood what Ceng Guofan said.
Ceng Guofan's method was indeed cruel, but at least it was very effective. If the Huai army wanted to achieve the results of the Xiang Army, it would have to fight hard. Looking at Ceng Guofan's success, Jiang Zhongyuan had to admit that he had been too kind in the past. Compared with Ceng Guofan, Jiang Zhongyuan was also merciless to the rebellious people, but he was more tolerant to the people who didn't participate in the rebellion. Therefore, Jiang Zhongyuan couldn't break the situation.
Now it seemed that Ceng Guofan was able to get back the strategic advantage in a few years precisely because he dared to expand the attack area. Such a skilled method of using people to attack the city was not something that could be done overnight.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
