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If he could enter Hangzhou six months ago, Li Xiucheng would have been very happy. Six months later, he killed his way into Hangzhou, which had been abandoned by "Jin Liang" Zuo Zongtang. Li Xiucheng didn't look happy at all. What Zuo Zongtang could think of, Li Xiucheng could also think of.
The Liberation Army wanted to kill 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 the fifth month of the second year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1852), the Taiping army left Hunan, attacked Wuchang, and went south to Jiangnan. In the third year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1853), they established the capital Tianjing. At that time, Li Xiucheng was already working 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 Rebellion was gaining momentum, the one who made a name for himself was not even Wing King Shi Dakai, but Prince Of Qi Vézé. Conquer Huainan, establish a system, head north to receive the first wave of the Northern Expedition Army, and break through the Jiangbei Barracks. The young Prince Of Qi commanded a 30,000-strong army to prop up the northern battlefield of the Taiping Rebellion. No matter what kind of setbacks the Western and Eastern fronts suffered, the Heavenly State's northern Huaihe River defense 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 Li Xiucheng's heart. When Vézé wanted to march into Jiangzhe, all the generals in the Heavenly State believed that Jiangzhe would be conquered soon. 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 conferred the title of 'Emperor of the Ten Thousand Emperors', when Vézé conquered Jiangzhe and returned to attack the two lakes, Yang Xiuqing would have an unshakable position. At that time, replacing Hong Xiuquan would be a piece of cake.
Now that Vézé attacked Hangzhou again seven years after leaving the Taiping Rebellion, Li Xiucheng did not have the confidence to defeat Vézé at all. As soon as Zuo Zongtang escaped, Li Xiucheng immediately transferred Li Shixian's troops who were monitoring the Jiangnan Barracks to Hangzhou.
"I'm preparing to retreat," Li Xiucheng said to his cousin Li Shixian.
Li Shixian obviously did not agree with his cousin Li Xiucheng's choice. He said with dissatisfaction, "Big Brother, where are you going to retreat to?"
Li Xiucheng replied, "I'm going to retreat to Suzhou first."
Li Shixian asked, "When the Liberation Army reaches Suzhou, are you still going to retreat?"
Li Xiucheng could not answer for a moment. Li Shixian clearly pointed out the essence of the problem. The Liberation Army would not stop before advancing to the south of Huaihe River. Facing the Liberation Army that would not stop until it reached its goal, where was Li Xiucheng going to retreat to?
Seeing that Li Xiucheng had no desire to fight, Li Shixian said loudly, "Big Brother, how do you know that you can't beat them if you don't fight?"
Li Xiucheng's heart skipped a beat. These words had indeed aroused his desire to fight. However, 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 fifty-fifty chance of winning. But now that the Liberation Army has attacked, the Left Demon Leader abandoned Hangzhou and ran away. These people are not incapable, and they are not fools. "
Li Shixian was not stupid, but he knew that if they kept retreating like this. Where could they retreat to in the end? Lin Fengxiang sent someone to deliver a letter, saying that the Liberation Army would conquer the south of Huaihe River in a short time. Tianjing City was almost a thousand miles away from Huaihe River. The north of Huaihe River had never been the territory of the Taiping Rebellion. Even the Taiping army that had been to the north of Huaihe River didn't have many people.
"Let's retreat quickly. Bring what we can. When we reach Tianjing City, we'll discuss it with everyone. " Li Xiucheng continued, "Actually, when the Left Demon Leader brought his troops here, I felt that Tianjing City could not be defended. Even if the Prince Of Qi didn't attack, we might not be able to stand here. "
Li Shixian still couldn't quite accept Li Xiucheng's words, but if they didn't fight, they had to retreat. They had no other choice. Li Shixian finally agreed with Li Xiucheng's words.
At this time, the Liberation Army was not far from Hangzhou. The Liberation Army's northern expedition troops were divided into the Two Lakes Corps, the Jiangxi Corps, and the Fujian Corps. The Fujian Corps was divided into land and water divisions. When the navy used the leapfrog tactic to attack the coastal areas, the land division relied on their marching ability to attack cities in the mountainous areas.
Before the navy entered Shanghai, the 18th Division of the Jiangxi Corps' vanguard broke through the mountainous areas and headed straight for Hangzhou. Commander Sun Chongyi had two choices. He could either attack Hangzhou directly or attack Linan directly and annihilate the Qing Army's Jiangnan Camp there. In the northern expedition, the Qing Army was the highest priority target. Therefore, Sun Chongyi didn't make the decision on his own. He led his troops to attack Linan, where the Jiangnan Camp had about 70,000 men and horses.
Because the Qing Army was relatively weak, this campaign was actually quite easy. The basic strategy 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 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 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 the most resistant to the rainy season in China, 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 entered 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 at least be brought forward to 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. But 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 Liberation Army's 400,000 troops looked like a lot, but once they were scattered to Hunan and Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, these troops were nothing special. An 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 they fought.
In the plan, as the rear stabilized, the local troops would gradually decrease. But now they had only been fighting for two months. The local areas were far from stable to the point where 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. But 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, and before they set off, half of Hunan was already in the hands of the Liberation Army. Not to mention, 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 and was nearby to command the battle. At this time, in front of Lei Hu and Shen Xin stood more than ten people dressed like commoners, 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, and Anqing returned to Vézé's hands after nine years.
Seven years ago, when he left Huainan, 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 at that time. 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. Naturally, Shen Lirong didn't want to stand out. If it wasn't for the fact that his land was seized, he wouldn't have 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 joined hands to take back Huainan, the Xiang Army plundered the city, and the local landlords who were 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 landlords completely grasped the real power in the local area. The reason why these people colluded with the Xiang Army was not because they were loyal to the government. They naturally used this power to expand their own benefits.
Those who ran to Anqing to ask for help were basically all small and medium-sized landlords, because the people who followed the Taiping army had already been killed by the troops formed by these 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?"
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