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Wuzhou had always been a large city. Of the 20 or so inland river port cities in China, Wuzhou was undoubtedly one of the most important. This city was located on the upper reaches of the Pearl River, at the confluence of the Xun River, the Gui River, and the Xi River. If one took a boat and followed the Pearl River downstream, they would arrive at the Pearl River Delta. Since ancient times, it had been known as the 'Three Rivers Converge', the 'Throat of the Two Provinces'.
The main force of Wuzhou's Tian Di Hui was the boat army. They were brothers who relied on the river to make a living. During the defense of Yong An City, the naval forces had tried their best to get close to Yong An City. After the Qing Army launched a defense against the naval forces, the efforts of the two sides to converge failed.
Hu Chenghe was originally a brother of Wuzhou's Tian Di Hui. After joining the Taiping army, he really did treat the Taiping army as his home. When the other Tian Di Hui brothers felt that there was no future in Yong 'an and fled from Yong' an one after another, Hu Chenghe continued to stay in Yong 'an. Thus, he also revealed the true thoughts of the Wuzhou Tian Di Hui brothers toward the Taiping army.
The walls of Yongan City were 15 feet high. The walls of Wuzhou City were 20 feet high, which was 10 feet higher than Yongan City. Furthermore, Wuzhou's location was excellent. The numerous waterways that converged here became Wuzhou's natural defensive barrier. Even if the Tian Di Hui gathered 20 to 30 thousand people, they still could not take down Wuzhou City. They could only force them outside the city.
Ever since the Taiping army started their uprising, they had made quite a name for themselves. Since he was in Guangxi, he naturally had Guangxi's characteristics. The attitude of Tian Di Hui's Taiping army was similar to that of a fight between native guests. Before the battle, they "threw out invitations for heroes" and gathered the heroes of the three mountains and five peaks to see who had the ability to do something no one else could in the battle to attack Wuzhou.
Right now the imperial army was on the defensive inside the city, while Tian Di Hui brothers outside the city were also in control of the situation. Outside the range of the Qing Army's cannons on top of the city wall, the boats could do as they pleased. With Hu Chenghe's communication, Tian Di Hui sent a boat to take Vézé across the river from Jiangbei, straight to their camp in Jiangnan.
Now that it was the rainy season, the river was very big. The boat with the black awning rocked violently in the river. Vézé tightly gripped the wooden railing and gazed from the river at Wuzhou City in the southeast direction. The mist on the river was very thick. In the distance, Wuzhou City looked indistinct, but the majestic feeling was very clear. For the modern military, relying on an honest city wall for defense was a very foolish thing to do. But in this era, towering city walls were the best defense.
Hu Chenghe had briefly explained that Wuzhou City was surrounded by water on three sides. They only needed to guard the land route to the west. The twenty to thirty thousand people of Tian Di Hui had no way of dealing with Wuzhou's tall city walls. Vézé didn't think he could come up with any good ideas just by looking into the distance.
Tian Di Hui's camp was set up near a river god temple. After getting off the black awning boat, Vézé stood at the edge of Tian Di Hui's camp and looked at it for a while. He didn't know what to say. Vézé couldn't care less about the Taiping army's barracks and formations. He thought that they were the worst of the worst. But what Vézé compared to was a large state-owned shipbuilding enterprise in northern China.
Now that he had seen Tian Di Hui's "camp" with his own eyes, Vézé suddenly felt that comparing people to people would kill and comparing goods to goods would throw them away. No matter how much the Taiping army was trash, it was still an army. From the perspective of an army, the Taiping army had always been very young and inexperienced. In many areas, it was a very trashy army. Comparing Tian Di Hui to the Taiping army, the first thing that could be seen was that they were not an army at all, but a group of people who had gathered together in an attempt to fight.
First of all, the people of Tian Di Hui had no concept of camp. A camp was like the sphere of influence of a ferocious beast. A tiger was very clear about its living area, hunting area, and patrolling area. A camp was the same. It could have no walls, could have no trenches, and could even have troops simply lying on the ground. These were not the most important things. The most important thing was that an army could not not have the concept of camp.
If the Tian Di Hui's camp that Vézé saw had to be described, it was like the people of Tian Di Hui had moved their own homes over. According to different groups, there were all kinds of places to bury their pots and cook their meals. Without exception, these places were all at the center of each group. This was very easy to understand. When one was eating, of course, they did not want other families to run over to share the food. To divide up different territories in a military camp, Vézé felt that there was no need to have any more illusions about this motley crew.
Hu Chenghe's position in Wuzhou's Tian Di Hui was not low. There were 14 or 15 leaders who had come to welcome him. Although he already knew that there was no need to have any illusions, Vézé still felt very disappointed when he saw this number. If it was one or two thousand people, it would be normal for 14 or 15 leaders to come out. For example, if a factory of one or two thousand people set up a display to welcome them, there would really be around 10 people. But if it was a large enterprise of twenty or thirty thousand people, perhaps there would be many people coming to welcome them, but there would only be one or two true leaders.
Wuzhou's Tian Di Hui had gathered twenty or thirty thousand people, but a dozen or so leaders had come out. This could only mean that this armed force was a group of dragons without a leader and had many orders. The Taiping army also had a scale of ten or twenty thousand people. The true order maker was the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing. The five princes were all princes, but the other four princes could not openly disobey Yang Xiuqing's orders. Without a powerful focus, there was no powerful ability to command. If the 8,000 first-line troops with true battle power were ordered out in large numbers, it would be absolutely impossible to wipe out four or five thousand Qing Army elite troops in Da Tong.
Before coming to Wuzhou, Vézé felt that perhaps he could make a career in Wuzhou. At the very least, he could have an outstanding performance in the battle to besiege Wuzhou. Now, Vézé felt that he had been taking things for granted. Before taking care of Wuzhou, the first thing Vézé had to consider was how to resolve the scattered situation.
The brothers of Tian Di Hui were very warm and courteous to Vézé. Everyone used curious gazes to look at Vézé's hair and clothing, especially Vézé's epaulets and armbands. They were sewn out of brightly colored cloth and thread. After all, they were items in the army that displayed one's military rank. Naturally, they could not not be eye-catching.
The group clustered around Vézé toward the River God Temple. Along the way, they asked this and that. There were Hakka accents and Tu accents. Compared to the almost entirely Hakka Taiping army, the Guangxi Tian Di Hui was undoubtedly more local and diverse.
Vézé gave a simple introduction of the recent battles of the Taiping army. When he mentioned that the main force of the Taiping army had already headed to attack the provincial capital of Guilin, the brothers of Tian Di Hui were all greatly surprised.
Entering the River God Temple, the brothers of Tian Di Hui all sat down. As a courtesy to a guest, Vézé was arranged to sit in a guest seat. Sitting in the main seats were two leaders in their thirties. The one sitting on the east side of the main seat was called Hu Youlu. The one sitting on the west side was called Wu Fengcai. According to Hu Chenghe's introduction before they crossed the river, the two of them claimed to have brought two to three thousand brothers. In reality, there were only seven or eight hundred people. The two of them occupied the position of dragon heads in Tian Di Hui. Most of the other brothers said they had a thousand or so people, but in reality, they had only brought a few dozen people. The total number of people in the camp was estimated to be no more than four to five thousand. Compared to Vézé's troop of over a thousand people, the brothers of Tian Di Hui didn't count for much.
The development of the matter was as Vézé thought. Tian Di Hui was a temporary military force that had been gathered together. Wu Fengcai opened his mouth to talk about what to do after taking down Wuzhou. First, he talked about a beautiful vision for the future. Next was the main topic. How to fight their way into Wuzhou. When it came to how to fight their way into Wuzhou, the group of people immediately stared at each other. All gazes fell on the newly appeared Vézé.
"May I ask, how many members of the Qing Army are there in Wuzhou?" Vézé couldn't resist asking.
"Five or six thousand?" Wu Fengcai said.
"Which battalion does the Qing Army belong to? Who is the commander?" Vézé followed up with a question.
This question didn't seem to be what the brothers of Tian Di Hui were concerned about. The leaders looked at each other. No one could answer. After a moment, Hu Youlu replied, "By the time I got outside Wuzhou, the imperial army had already closed the city gates. No one was allowed to enter or leave. As soon as we got close to the city walls, the imperial army used cannons to bombard us. As for who was leading the army inside the city, I'm not sure either. "
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