"King Yi, we've killed almost 40 people last month and punished hundreds of our brothers. We can't go on like this. "At the beginning of August, Yang Fuqing gave Shi Dakai a tactful suggestion with a rather troubled expression. At the beginning, Yang Fuqing was also a hardliner, shouting to kill those who wavered the army's morale. After he really carried it out, seeing more and more resentful gazes and feeling the avoidance of his middle-ranked and low-ranked brothers, Yang Fuqing felt his morale quickly crumbling. This feeling was exactly the same as when he had been defeated in Fujian.
Shi Dakai didn't speak immediately. The reaction of the entire army was different from what he had expected. From Shi Dakai's point of view, since he had been with the Heavenly State for so long, and his brothers had at least been given land, they were starting to become residents of the Northwest. It was indeed out of Shi Dakai's expectations that these old brothers still wanted to go home.
Shi Dakai also knew that there were people in the army who were sending letters home to other brothers, but no matter how he asked, everyone said they didn't know. For example, someone suddenly threw a letter into the yard in the middle of the night, or woke up to find a letter in the crack of the door. Shi Dakai didn't believe this at all. How could there be such an expert who could leap onto roofs and vault over walls? If the Liberation Army really had such an ability, wouldn't they be able to directly wipe out the upper echelons of the Taiping army? It was obvious that the brothers below were covering up for each other.
Harsh punishments were naturally effective. Those who asked if they could go home and insisted on going home were dealt with. The others didn't say anything, but that didn't mean they agreed with Shi Dakai's idea in their hearts. There was no knowing what was in a person's heart. You couldn't just kill them because they wanted to go home. If Shi Dakai really dared to do so, his brothers would probably dare to rise up and overthrow him.
If this matter stopped just like that, it would be equivalent to wasting all their previous efforts. If this matter continued to be investigated, it would only incite even more resentment. Yang Fuqing had felt deserted by his own people, and Shi Dakai had experienced it in Guangxi. In the blink of an eye, more than 100,000 of the 200,000 troops had fled. That was a feeling Shi Dakai didn't want to experience again.
Just as he was thinking about how to prevent this from happening again, Prince Zhong Li Xiucheng came to see him. After seeing Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng directly said, "Prime Minister, I found something in the army."
Originally, although the Prime Minister of the Taiping army had a high status, he was only below those with noble titles. Now that the Prime Minister had finally returned to his traditional position in China, there were only two Prime Ministers left in the imperial court, and their positions were above the other officials. Although Shi Dakai wasn't used to being addressed as Prime Minister by Li Xiucheng, he didn't mind. He asked, "What happened?"
"Many of the local soldiers in Shaanxi have recently taken leave to return home. Some even left without saying goodbye. I have also inquired carefully. Many of the Shaanxi soldiers say that we are going to war with the Liberation Army. Everyone is worried that the Taiping army will not be able to defeat the Liberation Army. If the Taiping army was defeated and they joined the Taiping army, their land would probably be confiscated by the Liberation Army. That's why the morale of the Shaanxi soldiers is unstable. "
When the Taiping army arrived in Shaanxi, there were nearly 200,000 of them. These people occupied the majority of the official positions in the Taiping army. Although there were also many people in the northwest who joined the army, most of them were just soldiers. Even so, many of the 200,000 people in the Taiping army were now only minor officials. The locals in the northwest were already quite dissatisfied with this. Needless to say, Shi Dakai could guess that this was Vézé's doing.
Yang Fuqing scolded, "This Vézé bastard is so sinister. Why didn't I see it before?"
Shi Dakai didn't join in cursing Vézé. He asked Li Xiucheng, "Prince Zhong, how do you think we should deal with this?"
Li Xiucheng naturally leaned towards Lin Fengxiang, but this time he didn't directly look for Lin Fengxiang. Instead, he came to look for Shi Dakai. Hearing Shi Dakai's question, Li Xiucheng replied, "If we make a move against the Shaanxi soldiers now, the morale of the army will only become more chaotic. If we really want to break out of the current situation, we can probably only take control of the people first, make a move against the Liberation Army, and win a few battles. The morale of the army will naturally be stabilized. Otherwise, if we make a move against our brothers here, our brothers will be dissatisfied. As long as we lose one or two battles, our brothers will still be fine, but the locals in Shaanxi will probably all run away. "
Whether it was Shi Dakai or Yang Fuqing, both of them had considered this method. The Liberation Army was pressing forward step by step, relying on the fact that everyone thought that the Liberation Army would win against the Taiping army. The higher-ups of the Taiping army were fine. If they lost, they would lose the power and status that they had worked so hard to obtain. But the middle and lower ranks of the Taiping army had a completely different view. Since they would only lose no matter how they fought, why should they throw their lives away for nothing?
Shi Dakai didn't immediately respond to Yang Fuqing and Li Xiucheng. For the past three years, he had been willing to easily change the system set by Hong Xiuquan, the most important of which was the Church of God. If the Church of God still existed, even if everyone lost the possibility of conquering the world and seizing national power. But the Taiping Rebellion still had the slogan of "Heaven on Earth". This slogan could at least be linked to protecting the country.
If the Church of God was completely abandoned, then the Taiping Rebellion would only be able to unite the people to fight for hegemony. Fighting for hegemony depended on the situation. If the situation was favorable, then everyone would naturally want to join in and get credit for their future promotions. If the situation was very unfavorable, then the Taiping Rebellion would just be the Taiping Rebellion of a group of princes, dukes, and ministers. Why should their brothers be buried with the Taiping Rebellion?
Vézé obviously saw this problem. He didn't try to persuade the higher-ups to surrender. Instead, he tried to incite the lower ranks. The princes could be awe-inspiring because they relied on the troops and horses under their command. If the troops and horses ran away, the princes would actually be in more danger than the ordinary soldiers. Their heads could be exchanged for a high reward. From this point of view, Shi Dakai saw through Vézé's insidiousness even more clearly. It wasn't that Shi Dakai hadn't thought about taking the route of the higher-ups in the past few years. He wanted to become a subject to Vézé in exchange for power in a separate region. Vézé didn't take the initiative to bring up this matter. When the Taiping army sent people to negotiate, Shi Dakai just made excuses, obviously not wanting to talk about this issue. At most, he suggested that the Taiping army hand over the northwest and go to Xinjiang. Seeing that the Taiping army wasn't willing to accept such harsh conditions, Vézé started to disintegrate the Taiping army from the lower ranks. This method really wanted to uproot the Taiping army from its roots!
There was only one way to rebuild the morale of the Taiping army. That was to prove to all the officers and soldiers of the Taiping army that the Liberation Army wasn't that scary. The Liberation Army could be completely defeated and destroyed by the Taiping army. This reasoning was simple, but Shi Dakai really didn't have the confidence.
Li Xiucheng was also a very strategic person. The reason why he didn't look for Lin Fengxiang but Shi Dakai was because he knew that, given Lin Fengxiang's current attitude, he probably wouldn't take the initiative to attack the Liberation Army. Lin Fengxiang was outstanding and had a noble character. This was what Li Xiucheng admired very much. However, at this critical juncture, Lin Fengxiang would consider the soldiers of the Taiping army even more. To put it in an extreme way, if Vézé said that he would accept better treatment for the entire Taiping army if he killed Lin Fengxiang alone, Lin Fengxiang would probably agree without so much as a frown and willingly accept his death.
But Li Xiucheng wasn't this kind of person. In a sense, he and Shi Dakai were the same kind of person. For himself and for the group he was loyal to, Li Xiucheng didn't care how many soldiers died. If the two hundred thousand old brothers of the Taiping army died now, they could defeat Vézé and take over the world. Li Xiucheng wouldn't even frown. After he took over the world, he could have as many subordinates as he wanted. But there was only one in the world.
Seeing that Shi Dakai was silent, Li Xiucheng said, "Prime Minister, there's nothing to say right now. When it's time to fight, we must fight. Right now, the Prime Minister has just reorganized the army, and the brothers are still in good spirits. If this drags on, Prime Minister, you won't dare to reorganize the army. I'm afraid the brothers below will look down on the Prime Minister. "
"But what if we lose?" Shi Dakai asked.
"This time, we won't make a big fuss. Regardless of victory or defeat, don't tell the brothers. We'll wait and see for now. If we win, the Liberation Army naturally won't dare to come here and talk nonsense. If we lose …, we'll say that the Liberation Army sneaked up on us and killed our brothers. They said that they promised our brothers to go home and take a look was all a lie. It's just to deceive us. "
Yang Fuqing saw Li Xiucheng calmly talking about countermeasures and immediately had a whole new level of respect for this loyal prince of the Taiping Rebellion. Li Xiucheng didn't feel uneasy at all when playing this kind of conspiracy. If they really did as Li Xiucheng suggested, they could stop the Liberation Army's attempt to divide and disintegrate the Taiping army in the short term. But if one didn't think far ahead, there would be immediate worries. Whether they won or lost, the Taiping army would be attacked by the Liberation Army, and it would be a long-term attack. What should they do then?
Li Xiucheng continued, "If we can win, then we fight. If we can't win, then we go to Xinjiang. The Prince Of Qi has always been forcing us to go to Xinjiang. If he really wanted to conquer Xinjiang himself, he wouldn't have to waste so much effort. As long as we go to Xinjiang, we can apologize to the Prince Of Qi and say some soft words. We should be able to take a breather. Anyway, the worst that can happen is death. Whether we live or die, we'll talk about it when the time comes. But there's another way. "
"What way?" Yang Fuqing asked hurriedly.
Li Xiucheng looked at Shi Dakai and answered, "If you don't want to fight, just surrender to the Prince Of Qi now. As long as they don't shed all pretense of cordiality, the Prince Of Qi will always have to save some face for himself. But whether to fight or surrender, we can't wait any longer. The Prince Of Qi has always been a person who makes his moves after planning. But once the Prince Of Qi has made up his mind, nothing we say will matter. "
Shi Dakai listened quietly. In fact, his thoughts were exactly the same as Li Xiucheng's. Moreover, Shi Dakai's plan was more thorough than Li Xiucheng's. His original plan was to gather the troops in the northwest first and start a war with Vézé. But Vézé's actions were faster than Shi Dakai's. Not only had he incited the old brothers in the Taiping army, but he had also begun to incite the Shaanxi troops. If Shi Dakai were to forcefully gather now, he wouldn't have enough time and would definitely meet with great resistance.
Li Xiucheng's suggestion made up for this problem. As long as the brothers believed that Vézé had made the first move, the gathering would be more effective. Thinking of this, Shi Dakai asked, "Who does Prince Zhong think can take on the heavy responsibility of sending troops?"
"This can only be done by the Prime Minister's troops. If it's someone else's troops, I'm afraid Lin Da Ge won't agree, "Li Xiucheng answered.
Shi Dakai actually wanted Li Xiucheng to send troops, but Li Xiucheng's refusal wasn't without reason. Over the past few years, although the generals still commanded their own troops, the General Staff Department had gradually been established. If they were to send Lin Fengxiang's troops, they certainly wouldn't be able to hide it from Lin Fengxiang. Shi Dakai wasn't someone who was afraid of battle. Since he had come to a conclusion, he resolutely said, "Once this battle is over, we still need Prince Zhong to speak."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
