Hong Tianfugui did not receive the Liberation Army emissary for long. Because of Shi Dakai's interruption, the emissary was quickly sent away. The Luoyang Military Division's political commissar looked at Hong Tianfugui's stubborn, helpless, and somewhat docile expression. He was inexplicably touched.
There were gentle people in charge of various levels in the Liberation Army, but none of them would be manipulated by their subordinates like this. As for the supreme leader, Vézé, he was an incomparably resolute person. With a leader like Hong Tianfugui and a powerful but powerless general like Shi Dakai, the political commissar was not optimistic about the future of the Taiping Rebellion at all.
Shi Dakai was trying his best to explain his reasons to Hong Tianfugui, or rather, to the higher-ups of the Taiping Rebellion. "Vézé is harboring evil intentions and is trying to divide and break up our army!"
The tone of this evaluation was fierce, but the content was actually quite pertinent. Vézé was openly trying to divide the Taiping Army. The standard of living in Shaanxi was far inferior to that of Jiangnan. After the land reform, the productivity of Jiangnan had exploded. The lives of ordinary people were already much better than those of small landlords in Shaanxi. For a core figure of the Taiping Rebellion like Shi Dakai, such "petty profits" were of course not worth their attention. However, the Taiping army soldiers who had been struggling at the bottom might have a very different view.
Vézé believed that a considerable portion of the Taiping army soldiers would willingly stay when they returned home and saw the changes there. Vézé believed that the core of an army was the middle and low-level commanders. If these people were lost in large numbers and lacked the will to fight, or if they were corrupted, the entire army would lose its ability to fight. Shi Dakai and Lin Fengxiang were both excellent commanders. They had the ability to make those capable middle and low-level commanders work for them. As long as they destroyed the Taiping army's middle and low-level commanders, the Taiping army would be nothing more than a second Manchu Qing.
Shi Dakai was also very clear about this. After hearing the news brought back by Lin Fengxiang, he was most worried that the middle and low-level commanders would be affected. Even though Shi Dakai knew that slandering Vézé would bring about many unpredictable risks, he really had no choice. Most of the time, nothing was advantageous, especially when one was in a disadvantageous position. Therefore, he had to choose the lesser of two evils. Even if he knew that the other method would bring about bad consequences, he could only swallow it first.
Although the other ministers of the Taiping Rebellion did not see things as clearly as Shi Dakai, they knew that once the Taiping army fell into Vézé's hands, Vézé could do whatever he wanted with them. Of course, they would not agree to let their own people go back to their hometown. Just when everyone thought that this matter would come to an end, Zhang Yingchen said, "What if the Prince Of Qi spreads this news among the Taiping army?"
Shi Dakai glared angrily at Zhang Yingchen. He had thought of this problem just now, and this was the problem that Shi Dakai did not want to encounter. Originally, Shi Dakai had planned to arrange this after the court session. He did not expect Zhang Yingchen to reveal this publicly.
Withdrawing his angry gaze, Shi Dakai swept his gaze across the kings and ministers, but saw that some of them looked normal. It seemed that they had already considered this possibility. But the expressions of the others changed. It seemed that they had only thought of this possibility after hearing Zhang Yingchen's words.
"If this is the case, whoever dares to escape will be immediately dealt with according to military law!" Yang Fuqing said in a low voice. Once something like escaping happened, it could easily cause a chain reaction. Such things should be dealt with severely.
Hearing this, Lin Fengxiang's expression couldn't help but change. But Lin Fengxiang was quite shrewd. In the end, he held himself back and did not say anything. Yang Fuqing continued, "If anyone in the army dares to spread such rumors, they will also be beheaded!"
No one spoke. The supporters did not need to speak, and the opponents did not feel it was convenient to speak either. Seeing that Yang Fuqing's suggestion had been approved by the kings and ministers, Lin Fengxiang could no longer bear it. He said, "We're all brothers. It's enough to reprimand them. Why do we have to behead them?"
Lin Fengxiang was the most senior in the Taiping army. If not for his failure in the Northern Expedition, he would have been conferred the title of king before Vézé. During the coup of Tianjing, Vézé had left the Taiping army, and the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing's forces had been uprooted from the vicinity of Tianjing. In order to fight for the fruits of victory, the kings had once again engaged in a cruel slaughter. Shi Dakai had forced Hong Xiuquan to kill the North King, Wei Changhui, the Yan King, Qin Rigang, and Zuo Tianhou, Chen Chengxiang. He had tried to force the Heavenly King, Hong Xiuquan, to confer Shi Dakai the title of military counselor, but Hong Xiuquan had refused. Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, Lin Fengxiang had returned to the capital to mediate, and with great difficulty, the situation had been stabilized.
Both Shi Dakai and Yang Fuqing had experienced leaving the Taiping Rebellion. The one who had always followed the Taiping Rebellion was Lin Fengxiang. After Hong Xiuquan's death, the Wing King, Shi Dakai, had no way of suppressing Lin Fengxiang with his own seniority. On the whole, Lin Fengxiang was the mainstay of the Taiping Rebellion.
Now that Lin Fengxiang had spoken, the Loyal King, Li Xiucheng, immediately said, "The Zhang King is right. We're all brothers. If they make a mistake, it's enough to punish them. Beheading them is nothing."
How could Yang Fuqing listen to a junior? He said loudly, "If it's something else, it's enough to punish them. But this is no small matter. It's something that will shake the morale of the army. If someone dares to take the lead and run, others will follow. If this goes on, the morale of the army will never be at peace. It's better to just kill them and intimidate those with bad intentions. "
The Loyal King, Li Xiucheng, laughed coldly. "Are you talking about what happened in Jiangxi?"
Almost everyone's expression changed when they heard this. The Jiangxi incident that Li Xiucheng was referring to could be understood in two ways. One was that Shi Dakai had abandoned the city and watched as Lin Chengrong, who was guarding Jiujiang, was killed. From then on, the Xiang Army had the power to counterattack. The other was that Li Xiucheng had led his troops south and met up with hundreds of thousands of Taiping army soldiers who had left Shi Dakai's "Ten Thousand Li Return to Chao" in Jiangxi and Hunan. Regardless of which incident Li Xiucheng was referring to, none of the leaders at the time had given the order to kill the deserters.
None of the leaders had pursued the deserters, nor had they killed those with unstable minds. In the end, they had all failed. Li Xiucheng was mocking them. "Did they learn from their previous failures?"
These words had opened up the biggest wound in the Taiping army. Yang Fuqing's expression changed drastically. As the last general leading the army under the King Of The East, when Shi Dakai had left Jiangxi, Yang Fuqing had also led his younger brother, Yang Yiqing, and left with Shi Dakai. However, after failing to attack Zhejiang and Fujian, Shi Dakai had once again gone south of Jiangxi, entered Hunan, and then went to Guangxi. Hong Xiuquan had sent messengers to persuade Yang Fuqing, but because he was disappointed with Shi Dakai's performance in attacking Zhejiang and Fujian, coupled with Hong Xiuquan's guarantee and Lin Fengxiang's endorsement, Yang Fuqing had finally returned to Tianjing.
Shi Dakai had his own reasons for leaving. Yang Fuqing could completely understand Shi Dakai's despair towards the Heavenly King, Hong Xiuquan. However, Yang Fuqing had repeated this several times. He felt that in a certain sense, he was more pitiful than Shi Dakai, or perhaps he was looked down upon more.
Now that Li Xiucheng had mercilessly exposed the past, Yang Fuqing's emotions fluctuated greatly. He flew into a rage out of humiliation. He pointed at Li Xiucheng and said, "What do you mean by this?"
Before Li Xiucheng could speak, King Chen Yucheng said, "You're always talking about killing your brothers. If your brothers broke the military law, smoked cigarettes, or defected to the enemy, killing them is fine. But none of these are mentioned. What's the meaning of this? "
"I also feel that it's not appropriate to kill people like this!" King Ning Weijun said. In fact, Yang Fuqing and Yang Xiuqing had no relationship at all. It was just that their names were similar. In addition, everyone needed to rope in talents at the beginning of the breakfast, so Yang Xiuqing recognized Yang Fuqing as a brother of the same clan. Yang Fuqing had also become the King of the Country. Wei Jun was North King Wei Changrong's younger brother. While Yang Fuqing was worried about his safety and colluded with Shi Dakai, the main driving force behind the Tianjing coup, Wei Jun was still fighting for the Taiping Rebellion. He had always been fighting for the Taiping Rebellion. Later, Hong Xiuquan conferred Wei Jun the title of King Ning with the intention of calming things down.
A confrontation immediately appeared in the imperial court. Lin Fengxiang did not want to see this kind of confrontation at all. The Loyal Prince, Li Xiucheng, was personally promoted by Yang Xiuqing, while the Heroic Prince, Chen Yucheng, was forced to his death by Shi Dakai. King Chen Yucheng was Chen Cheng's nephew, and King Ning Weijun was Wei Changrong's younger brother. Of course, these three people would not follow Shi Dakai, nor would they really like Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan. The three of them had all died at the hands of these two people.
After the coup in Tianjing, the one who came out to persuade and resolve the conflict was Lin Fengxiang. Lin Fengxiang transferred Wei Jun over to be his assistant and tried hard to persuade Yang Fuqing to return to Heavenly State. He was the son of the three Prime Ministers of the Northern Expedition. After the coup in Tianjing, he received the support of Li Kaifang and Yoshibuwon. Lin Fengxiang had no intention of forming a small faction. But with Lin Fengxiang as the center, they naturally formed a force. Before Heavenly King Hong was forced to move the capital by Vézé, among the 13 Kings of Heavenly State, at least six of them supported Lin Fengxiang.
Unlike Yang Fuqing, who flew into a rage out of humiliation, Shi Dakai no longer had such a childish attitude towards problems. He was very clear that it was not important to kill people. The Kings in Lin Fengxiang's faction were not opposed to killing people. Their clear opposition was just an excuse. The coup in Tianjing was a result of the internal strife of the Taiping Rebellion. This was undoubtedly the culmination of the countless conflicts that had accumulated before the coup in Tianjing. It was also the reason why there was now a huge internal rift in the Taiping Rebellion.
At that time, the instigators and the main participants were basically killed in the internal strife. Shi Dakai was actually very suspicious of Vézé's role in the coup in Tianjing. If not for the Prince Of Qi, Vézé, who was in charge of the King Of The East's residence before Yang Xiuqing was prepared to force him to become the Emperor of The East, Chen Cheng, who was actually Heavenly King Hong's confidant, openly said, "The King Of The East should have become the Emperor of The East a long time ago! The Heavenly King is far inferior to the King Of The East! "Heavenly King Hong might not have been able to make up his mind to cause the coup in Tianjing. The Heavenly King is far inferior to the East King! "Heavenly King Hong might not be able to make up his mind to change the situation in Tianjing.
Therefore, Shi Dakai's conclusion was that Vézé had long discovered the signs of the coup in Tianjing. He had made full use of the coup in Tianjing and used Hong Xiuquan to get rid of Yang Xiuqing. When the only person in the world who could restrict Vézé died, Vézé no longer had any obstacles and could fly freely. He could carry out the plan that he had long planned.
Shi Dakai had also felt this before. Yang Xiuqing was like a huge mountain pressing down on Shi Dakai. He could threaten and kill Shi Dakai at any time. The reason why Shi Dakai supported the coup in Tianjing was to get rid of this feeling. From this point of view, Shi Dakai didn't think that there was anything wrong with Vézé's choice. He understood and even supported Vézé's choice.
They were both deeply involved in the coup in Tianjing, but now, Vézé had washed his hands clean. The entire world, including the Taiping army, felt that Vézé was clean and did not owe anything to the Taiping Rebellion. No one doubted Vézé's moral standards. On the other hand, Shi Dakai was burdened with a heavy burden of sin. Comparing the two of them, Vézé had gained thousands of times more from the coup in Tianjing than Shi Dakai.
Shi Dakai was Shi Dakai, after all. Even now, he didn't blame Vézé. The coup in Tianjing was an extremely deep wound to the Kingdom of Tianping. Moreover, the wound had already turned into pus. If the pus wasn't squeezed out, the wound would never heal. In this sense, Vézé was much smarter than Shi Dakai. Shi Dakai had too many entanglements with the Taiping Rebellion. He would never be able to wash away the mark of the Taiping Rebellion on him. However, Vézé had used the death of the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, to completely cut off his connection with the Taiping Rebellion.
If there was anything to regret, Shi Dakai only regretted that he hadn't seen it clearly. Vézé could leave the Taiping Rebellion, but Shi Dakai couldn't. If he could do it all over again, Shi Dakai wouldn't make the same mistake.
With this awareness, Shi Dakai calmly said to the kings and generals, "Brothers, if I, Shi Dakai, had said something about the Prince Of Qi, Vézé, and made everyone think that I, Shi Dakai, was trying to shirk responsibility, then I can only say that you are all wrong. Today, I have some things to say to you. " Today, I might as well say some words to all of you. "
After that, Shi Dakai turned to Heavenly King Hong Tianfugui. "Heavenly King, today's meeting is over. Let's adjourn! "
Hong Tianfugui was extremely curious about what Shi Dakai had to say, but he also knew that he had no real influence on these important officials. Hong Tianfu pursed his lips and wanted to say that he also wanted to hear Shi Dakai's story, but in the end, he didn't say it.
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