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"This Wuzhou is really beautiful." Vézé stood on the boat with the black awning and sighed with sincerity.
Naturally, the Tian Di Hui meeting could not come to any conclusion. Since Vézé did not jump out and pretend to be a big shot, the meeting quickly became quiet. It was not that no one in the Tian Di Hui hoped that Vézé would be able to come up with a solution. This just happened to give Vézé an opportunity. He used the unclear situation as an excuse and requested to personally see Wuzhou. The Tian Di Hui's fleet did not lack boats. Immediately, someone volunteered to provide a boat for Vézé to see the situation of the enemy.
After getting used to the shaking of the boat on the river, Vézé was finally able to divert more attention to look at the surrounding scenery. The rivers in the north truly could not compare to the rivers in the south. Sitting on the boat and gazing at Wuzhou in the distance, one could only see the tall city walls. The green city walls gave one a deep sense of history. Vézé could not help but sigh in admiration.
Hearing Vézé's sigh of admiration, Hu Chenghe, who had long seen enough of Wuzhou, interjected. "Wei Jiandian, these brothers are all old acquaintances of mine. They all want to follow me into battle. "
There were four leaders of the Tian Di Hui who had come with the boat. When they boarded the boat, they had already spoken with Vézé. When Vézé was looking at the scenery, they did their best not to disturb him. With Hu Chenghe's greeting, they immediately asked, "Wei Jiandian, is it possible to take down Wuzhou?"
Vézé was still not used to the shaking of the boat. He grabbed the armrest and sat steadily back in his seat before saying, "I won't hide it from you brothers. This time, I only brought 1,000 people to Wuzhou. There are only 500 guns in the group and no siege weapons at all. Now that you are asking me if I can take down Wuzhou, I feel that right now, I definitely won't be able to. "
The four leaders of Tian Di Hui all looked at each other in dismay at Vézé's actions. One of them, a young man named Ruan Xihao, asked with a stern face, "Since Wei Jiandian feels that he cannot take down Wuzhou, then what are you doing here?"
"If I don't come here to take a look, how would I know I can't take down Wuzhou City right now?" Vézé said calmly.
Because they had already discussed it beforehand, Hu Chenghe did not interrupt and ignored them. He also turned his head and imitated Vézé's posture to look out over Wuzhou. But Hu Chenghe's leisure didn't last long. Behind him, a brother began to tug at Hu Chenghe's collar. Turning his head to look, it was Tian Di Hui's Liang Zhangtai.
Liang Zhangtai's face was full of grief and indignation. He said loudly to Hu Chenghe, "Brother Hu, this is different from what you said before."
"What's different?" Hu Chenghe asked.
Liang Zhangtai said in a loud voice, "Brother Hu, you said that the brothers of the Taiping army are brave and skilled in battle. How is it that when we get here, it becomes that they can't take down Wuzhou City?!"
Hu Chenghe smiled. "We only came with 1,000 people. Right now, we don't even have scaling ladders to climb the city walls, let alone cannons. How can we take down Wuzhou City? "
Liang Zhangtai was blocked by Hu Chenghe's words. He was so anxious his face and neck were red. He didn't know what to say. Ruan Xihao stopped Liang Zhangtai. "Did the Taiping army really come with 1,000 people?"
"If the brothers of the Zhu family don't believe me, you can come with us to the camp to take a look," Hu Chenghe replied.
"Alright! We'll go with brother Hu to take a look! "Ruan Xihao replied as if in a fit of pique.
The boatmen called out, and the boat with the black awning turned around and headed toward Jiangbei.
As soon as they arrived at Vézé's camp, the four leaders of Tian Di Hui froze. The first thing that entered their line of sight was a building in the middle of construction? An observation deck? The observation deck wasn't very high, and it hadn't been completed yet. However, the Taiping army didn't relax their scouting work just because there were no enemies in the surroundings.
As they walked in, patrols appeared. Patrols with guns on their backs and long spears in their hands patrolled back and forth. Continuing to approach the center of the camp, a large camp appeared in front of them. Even though there was no way to build an encampment, the Taiping army had made simple barricades and set up a camp. There were old and young people in the camp, and there were even women. However, they all had a clear division of labor. There were those who chopped firewood and those who lit the fire. The bustling camp already had a rough shape.
These leaders had only brought 40 to 50 people. Suddenly seeing a camp of 1,000 people, just the scale and atmosphere made them not dare to speak loudly.
He brought these four people into the center of the camp. Inside a large tent that was simply surrounded by cloth, Vézé invited them to find a rock to sit on.
Ruan Xihao didn't sit. He said straightforwardly, "Wei Jiandian, I want to join you."
"I brought some brothers to attack Wuzhou because I couldn't survive." Ruan Xihao didn't hide it. His village was more than 80 li away from Wuzhou. There were four or five small Guest villages in that area. There was a Tu family town nearby, so the government handed the responsibility of local tax collection to the Tu family town. The reason the conflict between the Tu and Guest families had quickly intensified was because of tax collection. The government's administrative ability was low. Guangxi was mountainous. If the government collected taxes themselves, they couldn't manage it at all. Thus, the duty of collecting taxes was handed over to the local tyrants. The total amount of taxes each area handed over to the government was fixed. However, after the Tu family obtained the power to collect taxes, the government didn't care how much they collected from the Guest families.
With the government as their backing, the Tu family wildly collected heavy taxes from the Guest villages. Last year's situation was not good. Not only did the taxes not decrease, they increased slightly. Ruan Xihao's village had fewer people than the Guest families. They couldn't beat them in battle. Having been plundered by the Tu family for a long time, they had no money and couldn't send out hero invitations to gather Guest armed forces from other places to come and help. Learning that Tian Di Hui was coming to attack Wuzhou, he led his brothers from a few nearby villages to participate. As long as they could take down Wuzhou and kill all the people in the government, presumably no one would come to collect taxes. If they could take down Wuzhou and rob it, at least they could subsidize the livelihood of the village.
Seeing the order of the Taiping army and thousands of people, Ruan Xihao immediately felt that he still had a better future with the Taiping army.
Vézé had heard of people turning to any doctor when they were ill, but that was just what he had heard. Ruan Xihao used very realistic actions to let Vézé see with his own eyes just how far the people could turn to any doctor.
First letting Ruan Xihao sit, Vézé asked the other three Tian Di Hui leaders, "Why do you want to attack Wuzhou?"
The other three had something in common with Ruan Xihao. They all wanted to get rid of the tyrannical and tyrannical government. Liang Changtai had come from the navy and it was too difficult to make a living at the moment. If he could avoid being taxed and even get a share of the taxes after taking over Wuzhou, Liang Changtai's livelihood would immediately improve.
In summary, this group of Tian Di Hui brothers had already lost all hope for their future. Other than violence, they could not find any other way to change their current terrifying lives. In other words, this group of people could not continue living happily.
Vézé said, "Zhu brothers, you are right about one thing. If you don't kill the present government, you will certainly not be able to survive. However, other than this matter, I'm afraid everything else is wrong. Taking down Wuzhou does not mean everything is over. Behind the Wuzhou government is the Manchu Qing court. If we don't take down the Manchu Qing court, no matter how much everyone does, it will all be for nothing … "
Without waiting for Vézé to explain the difference between rebellion and uprising, Ruan Xihao interrupted Vézé's words. "Wei Jiandian, as long as you can help us destroy Wu Town, not only me, but all the villages we are in, will follow Wei Jiandian. Big brother Hu has already told me that your Taiping army wants to rebel. We have come to attack Wuzhou to rebel. We hope that the brothers of Tian Di Hui will go with us to attack Wu Town, but they are all unwilling. Wu Town has bullied us for so many years and owes us countless blood debts. If we don't destroy Wu Town, I will not be able to eat or sleep! "
Ruan Xihao's words were so clear that for a moment, Vézé did not know what to say next. Since Ruan Xihao had said it clearly, he did not hide it anymore. "Wei Jiandian, we are not people who do not know what is good for us. If we destroy Wu Town, the imperial army will certainly go and kill them. We are alone and weak. If we stay at home, we will also die. I swear here that if you can lead us to destroy Wu Town, we will follow Wei Jiandian to the death. Wherever you lead us to fight, we will follow! "
Vézé couldn't help but slap his thigh. He suddenly stood up. "Good! Since Brother Ruan has said so, even if only Brother Ruan is on my side, I will still attack Wu Town! "
The other three brothers of Tian Di Hui looked dumbfounded at Vézé and Ruan Xihao. They had only come into contact with Vézé today. Vézé's unfathomable appearance made the three of them feel that this youth was not easy to deal with. It was not that Vézé was enigmatic, but these people did not understand what Vézé wanted to do and what he wanted. And Vézé did not attack Wuzhou and ran to attack Wu Town. This made the three even more confused.
Liang Zhangtai was a clever man. He thought about it again. Attacking Wuzhou was to make a fortune, attacking Wu Town was also to make a fortune. Liang Zhangtai did not have such a far-sighted idea, nor did he have the determination to completely rebel. For him, if he had money, he could solve many difficult problems at present. He was more convinced by Hu Chenghe. Since Hu Chenghe was willing to follow Vézé, Liang Zhangtai also wanted to give it a try. This time, if he could follow Vézé and the others to attack Wu Town, it was also a good opportunity to see what Vézé was capable of.
Thinking of this, Liang Zhangtai also stood up and said, "Wei Jiandian, I am also willing to attack Wu Town with Wei Jiandian. I hope that Wei Jiandian can take me there. "
With the addition of these two people, although the other two leaders of Tian Di Hui did not completely understand what was happening, they also expressed their positions. "We are also willing to listen to Wei Jiandian's orders."
After the basic troops to attack Wu Town were determined, Vézé did not argue. As the main force and the highest commander of the "allied army," Vézé immediately began to give orders. Ruan Xihao was a local, so naturally, he was responsible for the early stages of intelligence work with Zhang Yingchen. Liang Zhangtai and the others were brothers of the boat army. They were responsible for using boats to transport the troops across the river, and also took on the task of water transportation.
After sending them out, in the time before departure, Vézé began to intensify the troops' training. Sharpening a spear at the last minute might not be fast, but it was still a good thing. In this era where people lined up to be shot, even the slightest improvement in discipline and familiarity could increase the combat power of an army by a lot.
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