Shi Dakai was a meticulous and meticulous person. He believed that Lin Fengxiang was telling the truth, so he still questioned the people who traveled with Lin Fengxiang. After the investigation, Shi Dakai confirmed that what Lin Fengxiang said was completely true. After the last person was sent away, Shi Dakai slumped on the chair, as if all his strength had been drained.
The treatment Lin Fengxiang enjoyed in Nanjing and the life of the people in Nanjing were described by different people, but the focus was different. Shi Dakai didn't care about this. Nanjing had always been a prosperous place, and it was reasonable for the people to live far better than other places. What Shi Dakai was really afraid of was the change in the poor Martial Serendipity.
In the past few years, the changes in Henan and Sichuan, which were close to the Kingdom of Tianping, had been quite amazing. Shi Dakai just felt that Henan and Sichuan were originally richer than Shaanxi, and that Vézé was powerful. It was nothing special that these places had become better than Gansu and Shaanxi. After listening to the changes in the Martial Serendipity, Shi Dakai discovered one thing. The original affluence of the places occupied by Vézé was actually limited. The greatest impact on those places was the length of time Vézé ruled there. The longer they were ruled by Vézé, the greater the local changes.
After the Taiping Rebellion left Nanjing, the old brothers in Guangxi felt unhappy. But Shaanxi was much better than Guangxi, and everyone could accept it. But the people in the Taiping Rebellion who were originally born in Jiangnan were not so optimistic. The changes in the climate and the backwardness of the economic conditions made everyone very dissatisfied.
If the true situation in Guangxi and Jiangnan spread to the Taiping army. The already loosening cohesion would be even worse. If Vézé took advantage of this time to attack Shaanxi, the Taiping army had no chance of winning, and now there was no chance of winning. How could they unite the Taiping army more? Shi Dakai was deeply worried about this.
In June 1871, the Liberation Army received the news that a group of high-level Taiping Rebellion leaders, led by Shi Dakai, began to spread some content that slandered Vézé. The intelligence of the Taiping Rebellion was basically transparent to the Liberation Army. Too many people in the Taiping army were inclined to collude with the Liberation Army. Even if they didn't openly betray the Taiping Rebellion, they thought they could do something in exchange for the favor of the Liberation Army.
It wasn't that Wei Ze hadn't thought about ending the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with military force, but it would cost a lot to march into the northwest. With the current financial situation, they would have to invest in the northwest after recovering it. If they had the money, they might as well buy more tractors. If the Taiping Rebellion lived in the Northwest, Vézé wouldn't mind if the Taiping Rebellion survived until the government 'improved.
Now that Shi Dakai was acting with a purpose, the Liberation Army's intelligence department felt that they couldn't just sit back and do nothing. After analyzing the intelligence, the Liberation Army's intelligence department found that Shi Dakai's goal was to increase the Taiping army's hostility toward the Liberation Army by demonizing Vézé.
Vézé frowned after reading the report. Was Shi Dakai deliberately provoking hostility to prepare for war now? Or was he trying to attack the Liberation Army forces in the Taiping Rebellion? During the Tianjing coup, Shi Dakai had a bad record of infighting. And in the days that followed, Shi Dakai himself had once split the Taiping Rebellion.
Vézé's departure didn't change the Taiping Rebellion's strategic advantage. At that time, there was the Huaihe River defense line in the north, and the enemies in the east and west had suffered heavy losses. The Taiping Rebellion still had a certain strategic offensive advantage. What completely destroyed this advantage was that Shi Dakai took 200,000 elites and left the battlefield in Jiangxi and began to attack Zhejiang.
In history, after Shi Dakai left, there wasn't much left of the Taiping Rebellion's field army. Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, and other generals who didn't have any special fame came out to support the Taiping Rebellion. Because of Vézé's appearance, the Northern Expedition Army, who were rescued, guarded the Huaihe River defense line, which made the Taiping Rebellion more sustainable than in history. Even so, the change in the offensive and defensive situation couldn't be reversed, and the Taiping Rebellion's destruction couldn't be reversed.
Perhaps it was Vézé's prejudice against Shi Dakai. He suspected that Shi Dakai had relapsed and was preparing for another internal struggle.
The Liberation Army had long stopped treating the Taiping Rebellion as a real opponent. Now they were just using the Taiping Rebellion to suppress the Northwest. Therefore, the main generals of the Liberation Army also knew what Shi Dakai really wanted to do. It was just that Shi Dakai smeared Vézé's reputation, claiming that Vézé was the main culprit of the Tianjing Rebellion. This made the generals of the Liberation Army, who had experienced that incident, feel that they couldn't ignore it.
The Tianjing Rebellion was a great counterattack by the upper echelons of the Taiping Rebellion against the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, who was trying to gain supreme power. The leader was, of course, Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, and the other kings had thrown themselves under Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan's banner. Under such a situation, Vézé's departure had undoubtedly damaged the strength of the Taiping Rebellion. But if Vézé hadn't left at that time, the Taiping Rebellion would have immediately fallen into a big fire.
It was true that Vézé's troops were brave and good at fighting, but the other kings had an army of 200,000 troops. Even if Vézé could win with fewer troops and wipe out the main forces of the kings with a small price, it would only force Lin Fengxiang and the other local army leaders to intervene. Vézé, who had set himself against the kings of the Taiping Rebellion, had no choice but to fight to the end. Then, both sides died together, allowing Manchu Qing to reap the benefits for free.
If Vézé was really an ambitious schemer blinded by power, as Shi Dakai had said, his choice at that time must have been to fight to the death with the kings. At that time, the generals of the Liberation Army were also young and energetic. They didn't think too much and would only follow Vézé to the end.
Fortunately, Vézé was a strategist with a long-term vision and a broad-minded politician, so he decisively chose to break away from the Taiping Rebellion and lead his troops to the South. This choice not only saved the Liberation Army, but also saved the Taiping Rebellion. Their own people knew their own affairs, especially since the Recovery Army's vision had reached such a level that they could see the past more thoroughly. Everyone felt that this was unbearable and suggested to take some measures against the Taiping Rebellion.
Looking at the old men's indignation, Vézé made a suggestion. "Let's take a beating. We might as well publicize the situation in Jiangnan and Guangdong to the Taiping army, and tell the brothers of the Taiping army that if they are willing to go back to their hometown and live a good life, we will let bygones be bygones and welcome them back. "
Hu Chenghe was a little surprised. "Commander-in-chief, they have been in the Taiping army for so long, and they are at least leaders. Will they agree to come back and be ordinary people? "
"What does it have to do with us whether they make a name for themselves or not? Do you think that just because they are leaders in the Taiping army, they can also be officers of the same rank here? Is that reasonable? "Vézé asked.
Hu Chenghe hurriedly explained, "I didn't mean that. I mean, I'm afraid they won't be willing to give up their glory and wealth and come back to live honestly. "
Vézé sneered. "Hmph! Now there are quite a few people in the Taiping army who are colluding with us, but they are unwilling to immediately state their position. What do you think they are doing this for? They can't let go of their current status, and they know that they can't beat us. That's why they want to get some benefits from both sides, so that when the two sides shed all pretenses of cordiality, they will have something to look forward to. Of course, we don't want to fight to the death with our old brothers, but now is a good time to let them understand the conditions we can offer, and cut off their unrealistic delusions. When that day really comes, everyone will have to waste less time talking. "
After hearing Vézé's words, the members of the Military Commission didn't say anything else. Although they were worried that Vézé's conditions were not enough to buy over the people of the Taiping Rebellion. If Vézé really agreed to treat the people of the Taiping Rebellion with the same level of treatment, these members would immediately jump out to oppose it.
"Then let's send someone to ask those who are in contact with us," Hu Chenghe suggested.
"Don't do this kind of thing in the dark, let's do it openly." Vézé flatly rejected Hu Chenghe's suggestion.
On May 4th, 1871, the political commissar of the Luoyang Military District of the Liberation Army personally went to Chang 'an to meet the current Heavenly King, Hong Tianfugui. The current Heavenly King didn't have any ill intentions towards the envoy of the Liberation Army. When receiving the envoy of the Liberation Army, he sat high on the dragon throne in the golden palace, looking down curiously at the soldiers of the Liberation Army in green military uniforms.
"I'm here on the order of His Majesty Vézé, the Emperor of the Min dynasty. I'm here to convey the greetings of His Majesty," the political commissar said calmly.
Hong Tianfugui had heard too much about Vézé. From the information he got from his late father, Vézé was a big bad guy. However, the other ministers had different opinions about Vézé. Therefore, Hong Tianfugui was very curious about Vézé. Hearing that Vézé's envoy brought Vézé's greetings, Hong Tianfugui looked at the political commissar excitedly and nodded. "Greetings to Vézé too."
This kind of reply was normal. The ministers of the Taiping Rebellion in the golden palace heaved a sigh of relief. Shi Dakai felt that something was wrong about Vézé sending someone to meet the Heavenly King, Hong Tianfugui. However, the envoy refused to reveal anything. Although Shi Dakai didn't want the envoy to meet Hong Tianfugui, the other kings thought that they shouldn't offend Vézé. In the end, Shi Dakai had no choice but to tell Hong Tianfugui the news. Seeing this kind of reply, Shi Dakai knew that it was time to talk about something important. He looked at the envoy and waited for him to explain his purpose.
"Heavenly King, the old brothers of the Taiping army are basically from the south. Guangdong and Guangxi, Hunan and Hunan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces have family members of the old brothers. Their family members miss their loved ones very much and hope that they can come home to visit. We don't want to see our loved ones separated, so we promise that we won't force the Taiping army brothers to stay. We hope that you can allow the Taiping army brothers who want to go home to visit, "the political commissar said calmly.
Hong Tianfugui had a good impression of the envoy of the Liberation Army. He thought about it and said with a smile, "It's good to go home to visit …"
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