? Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Take down the village, let's eat meat together!" Lai Wenguang shouted in front of the seven or eight thousand Nian brothers.
Of course, the seven to eight thousand brothers could not hear Lai Wenguang's voice alone. The leaders of the troops who already knew this slogan also shouted. Hearing this exciting news, the Nian Army brothers roared together, "Take down the village, eat meat together!"
In theory, the Nian Army was also a part of the Taiping army. Three years ago, the Nian Army had already become Lai Wenguang's subordinates. However, the Nian Army did not believe in God, so there was this difference.
Lai Wenguang, the leader of the Nian Army, was also an old brother of the Taiping army. Before the coup of Tianjing, Lai Wenguang was a civil servant. After the coup of Tianjing, Lai Wenguang gave up on the civil service and joined Li Kaifang. When Li Kaifang broke out of Luzhou, Lai Wenguang advised Li Kaifang not to go south, but north. The Xiang army's encirclement left a gap on the north side. However, the Xiang Army did not expect that the Taiping army in Luzhou would be so determined to go north to the end.
More than ten thousand people broke out of the encirclement. Although they lost more than six thousand people in the pursuit, Li Kaifang also died from a gunshot wound. The remaining five thousand people went north from the Fei River and ran to the Nian Army's territory in Huaibei. The Nian Army was also badly beaten by the Huai army. When they saw the Taiping army coming, they naturally merged with the Taiping army. Both sides then went north into Henan and other places to fight. When he learned that the Hui and Han were fighting fiercely in Shaanxi, Lai Wenguang led his troops into Shaanxi. He also sent people to contact the Taiping Rebellion.
When the Taiping Rebellion's main force arrived in Shaanxi, Lai Wenguang was given the title of "Zun Tianyi", which was second only to the title of Prince. Furthermore, it was said that if it wasn't for the fact that Lai Wenguang didn't truly support Hong Xiuquan during the coup in Tianjing, he would have been conferred the title of King. This time, the Nian Army had been ordered to go on a punitive expedition to the east. As the leader of the Nian Army, Lai Wenguang personally led a unit to merge with the Eastern Nian Army, which was fighting more independently.
The Nian Army also brought artillery. When the Taiping army retreated from Tianjing City, they couldn't bring those cannons with them. Vézé and his men "exchanged" a cannon for the Taiping army. These cannons included smoothbore cannons and rifled cannons, all of which were cast iron cannons. The Taiping army was also provided with artillery carriages. The British designed and produced a Whitworth breech-loading rifle for the Americans. This thing was the ancestor of the mountain artillery, and it was made of steel. In an era like 186X where technology lockdowns were not a problem at all, Hong Ren? The technical staff of the diplomatic team keenly discovered this type of cannon. In addition to buying 12 of these cannons to be shipped back to China as samples, they also bought the blueprints.
Vézé had decided to use steel cannons to replace cast iron cannons. With these steel cannons, the three-inch cast iron cannons had inevitably entered the ranks of elimination. Therefore, the Liberation Army "exchanged" their own three-inch cannons with the Taiping army.
Lin Fengxiang wasn't a stingy person. Since he wanted the Nian Army to completely wreak havoc in Hebei, Henan, and Shandong, in addition to the 5,000 rifles, the Taiping army also allocated 50 cannons to the Nian Army. The convenient three-inch cannon was considered a backward weapon in Vézé's hands, but against the enemy in Heze, it was the king of war.
The village was a grain-producing area, so it was relatively wealthy. It had its own protective wall and its own training ground. Even though Liu Heiqi had taken away half of the training ground, there were still around 100 people left. Although they heard the roars of the Nian Army, they felt that the Nian Army was running around everywhere, so it was impossible for them to carry cannons. The training ground's understanding of cannons was that they were things that could easily weigh hundreds of kilograms and were extremely difficult to carry.
There were holes in the rammed wall, from which the training ground could shoot outside. Just as the training ground was nervously waiting for the Nian Army to approach and use the wall to defend, a few cannons blew up a long section of the wall. Amidst the flying dust, the Nianwei soldiers swarmed in through the gap. In less than four hours, the village was captured by the Nian Army.
The people who escaped from the village ran to Heze three days later. Only then did Zuo Zongtang learn that the village had been captured by the Nian Army. More than two months ago, Zuo Zongtang brought 20,000 Chu soldiers to Shandong to fight. Now, more than two months later, they had fought more than ten battles with the Nian Army. Not only had Zuo Zongtang not won a single battle, but they had also lost more than 2,000 soldiers.
What made Zuo Zongtang even more unhappy was that the Liberation Army actually sent someone to contact Zuo Zongtang, wanting to have a talk with him. Unlike the cunning Nian Army, the Liberation Army gave Zuo Zongtang the impression that it was a powerful army with the strength of an iron hammer. Not only was the Qing Army nothing in front of the Liberation Army, but even the foreigners were no match for the Liberation Army. What did the Liberation Army want with Zuo Zongtang?
Receiving the news that the village had fallen into the hands of the Nian Army and that the Nian Army had received food supplies, Zuo Zongtang's indignant heart suddenly gave birth to a strong impulse. He wanted to meet the people of the Liberation Army. He wanted to ruthlessly humiliate the people of the Liberation Army. With Zuo Zongtang's intelligence, how could he not see the current situation? Once the Liberation Army moved north, the defenseless Henan, Hebei, and Shandong would fall into the hands of the Liberation Army. At that time, Zuo Zongtang would be dead. Because of this, Zuo Zongtang felt that there was no need for him to be afraid of death. Taking advantage of this time to vent the anger in his chest was also a very refreshing thing.
After agreeing to the Liberation Army's request to meet, Zuo Zongtang began to prepare a plan to recapture the village. At this time, the summer harvest was almost finished, and there was a lot of food in the village. If left unchecked, the Nian Army would only become stronger and stronger.
Lei Hu quickly received the news that the candidate had already been prepared. Political Commissar Xu Kaiwen had some objections. "Comrade Kurosawa Tsuyoshi is not an eloquent person."
Not only was Kurosawa Tsuyoshi not an eloquent person, this Zhuang person was not even a Han. Of course, in the Chinese Min dynasty, the Zhuang people had officially become a part of the Chinese nation, no different from the Han people. This man who came from the mountains of Guangxi was a political commissar, and a very principled one at that.
He was loyal to the Military Governor Vaize, loyal to the Restoration Party, and hated bullying. He was extremely disgusted with all kinds of artificial distinctions in the old society, and he was unswervingly able to fight against it. This was Kurosawa Tsuyoshi's characteristic.
Such a person was, of course, valued in the organization. But as an emissary, he seemed too stiff. The purpose of this trip was to persuade Zuo Zongtang to surrender, not to accuse the Manchu Qing of crimes, and to accuse Zuo Zongtang of following Manchu Qing as a big mistake.
"I think Comrade Kurosawa Tsuyoshi is very suitable. The Governor made it clear that Zuo Zongtang is a more capable person in the Manchu Qing. If such a person is willing to surrender, the capable people in the Manchu Qing will see a way out. Besides, since we can't really kill all the officials of the Manchu Qing and their families, we have to make them feel at ease. " Even so, we still have to make them feel at ease, "Lei Hu repeated Wei Ze's words.
Vézé didn't compare Zuo Zongtang to the Liberation Army at all. What he said was also a humanitarian point of view. The Liberation Army also wouldn't compare the glorious Liberation Army with the Chu Army. Persuading Zuo Zongtang to surrender was just a job. The content of everyone's discussion was how to do this job well.
"Comrade Kurosawa Tsuyoshi went to criticize Zuo Zongtang. What if Zuo Zongtang is obsessed and doesn't surrender?" Xu Kaiwen was very worried.
"Political Commissar Xu, what is the goal of an officer?" Lei Hu asked. "Don't tell me the goal of an officer. During combat training, we have repeatedly said that bullets have trajectories and trajectories. If you only think about killing the enemy and then aim straight, it would be strange if you can hit the target. There is a reason for doing things. "
This simple example had been repeated countless times in the army. On the battlefield, the more you think about killing the enemy, the more you want to kill the enemy in one go. Not only will you not be able to kill the enemy, but it is also easy to be killed by the enemy because you are flustered. Xu Kaiwen didn't want to argue with Lei Hu about this kind of ordinary logic. He asked, "And then?"
Lei Hu said frankly, "If Zuo Zongtang is really a person who does things, he must have a goal. He pursues achievements so that he can be recognized by everyone. All outstanding officers are like this. They knew what they were looking for, and were not confused by the results of the moment. If Zuo Zongtang is such a person, he will only have two choices when he encounters a problem. Otherwise, he would not hesitate to die for the Manchurian Qing. Or he will recognize the situation and know that he should follow us. At this time, you send someone who is good with words to go along with Zuo Zongtang. Is that the way to persuade Zuo Zongtang to surrender? That is to make Zuo Zongtang think that he should be loyal to Manchu Qing. We must make Zuo Zongtang understand that this kind of loyalty is wrong. I don't think anyone is worse than Comrade Kurosawa Tsuyoshi. "
"Tiger, you are right. But what I am worried about now is what if Zuo Zongtang refuses to repent? Yes, I want results, but this is the commander-in-chief's idea. We have to do our best to achieve it. "Xu Kaiwen replied.
Lei Hu replied calmly, "Why should we save someone who is seeking death? Zuo Zongtang committed suicide in China, so let him die. "
The final result of the discussion was to do their best and leave it to Zuo Zongtang's own understanding. If Vézé had heard this, Vézé would have broken out in a cold sweat. If he had followed his original plan and said that Zuo Zongtang was an outstanding talent, and let the Liberation Army think that Vézé felt that Zuo Zongtang was stronger than the Liberation Army soldiers, then the discussion would not have been like this.
It took four days to send the message from Heze to Huai 'an. Just as the Liberation Army decided on the representative, Zuo Zongtang had already led more than fifteen thousand Chu soldiers to the village. Zuo Zongtang did not dare to delay. He thought that the Nian Army in the village would need four to five days to gather food, and it would be difficult for the Nian Army to move with such a large amount of supplies. If they could stop the Nian Army and fight it out, that would be the best. Even if the Nian Army fled again, as long as they could seize the Nian Army's supplies, it would be a great success. At least, these supplies could reduce the pressure on the Chu army.
Less than a day after Zuo Zongtang left Heze, the scouts sent news that the Nian Army had appeared in front of them. Zuo Zongtang led the main force of ten thousand soldiers. He ordered the detachments to continue attacking the village while he led the main force to the Nian Army's main force.
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