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The stream of people passed through the city of Guiyang and continued eastward. King Of The East Yang Xiuqing ordered the Prince of the West, while Xiao Chaogui ordered Ceng Shuiyuan, Lin Fengxiang, and Li Kaifang to march into Chenzhou. Vézé moved from being the vanguard of the army to being the rearguard.
At this time, a large number of local people in Guiyang sought refuge with the Taiping army. King Of The East Yang Xiuqing ordered Vézé's troops to accept these new recruits. It could be said that it was "thanks to Manchu Qing's blessing" that so many people joined the army. Guiyang's Zhizhou Li Qizhao was Shandong's Inspector Li? Son of B, this Zhizhou was a ruthless official. Faced with the resistance and even uprisings of the people of Xiangnan, he used "torture" to suppress them with extreme pressure. When Wei Ze led his troops into Guiyang Prefecture, many heads were hung outside the city gate, and many local resisters who were captured by Li Qizhao were shackled with large wooden shackles at the gate of the prefecture yamen. These people were beaten until their flesh was split open and they wore wooden shackles that weighed dozens of kilograms. If Vézé had not entered the city and released these people, they would have died in a few days.
According to the people who came to join the army, when Li Qizhao fled, he brought a bag with him on the back of his horse. Inside, there were hundreds of Spanish Eagle coins. He was prepared to throw the coins at his pursuers to stop them from chasing him.
However, when he ran to Zhangshu Town with some of his bodyguards, he did not run into any pursuers. Instead, he was surrounded by hundreds of people who had gone to welcome Vézé's troops. At this time, Zhizhou Li Qizhao could no longer make up crimes against the people and kill them. When the people saw his embarrassing state, they all sang and danced and shouted, "The Taiping army is here!"
Under the strong psychological pressure created by the onlookers, Li Qizhao, who knew that he owed a blood debt to the people of Guiyang Province, was so scared that he jumped into the water and committed suicide.
Among the common people of Guiyang, quite a number rebelled against the Manchu Qing. Li Qizhao committed suicide, Vézé entered the city of Guiyang, and a large number of common people came to join the army. By the time the front, middle, and rear of the Taiping army had passed through the city of Guiyang, in addition to the many people who had been taken away, Vézé had also gained thousands of people who had come to join the army.
Yang Xiuqing said to Vézé beside him as he stood on the western city wall of Guiyang Prefecture, "If we conquer Chenzhou, there should be more people coming to join us."
"The King Of The East is right! Vézé answered seriously, "There should be a lot of people coming to join the army."
There were many mining areas in Guiyang Province, and Tian Di Hui had a lot of power there. The mines of the Manchu Qing were all "state-owned," so the Manchu Qing attached great importance to suppressing the miners. This was because the miners had to be organized and disciplined to dig holes, and they were the ones who suffered the heaviest exploitation. Once these strong miners rose up and rebelled, it was indeed very difficult to deal with.
When the Taiping army revolted in Guangxi, an uprising also broke out in southern Hunan, but the uprising was suppressed by the Manchu Qing. Li Qizhao was one of the executioners who suppressed the uprising in southern Hunan. After the Tian Di Hui uprising in southern Hunan failed, a portion of the survivors even ran to Guangxi to join the Taiping army that was besieging Guilin. Tian Di Hui had a lot of connections among the miners. Now that the Taiping army had killed their way into southern Hunan and reached Guiyang Province, the common people naturally joined the army.
What made Vézé slightly regretful was that the people assigned to him weren't particularly capable. The miners who joined the army were organized into the newly built "Earth Barracks". In this era where underground blasting of city walls was an important engineering method, these miners, who were accustomed to digging and hammering, were indeed an enormous wealth of manpower.
Even so, Vézé was still very satisfied. After entering southern Hunan, those who came to join the army didn't bring along their families, but rather young adults and youths who joined the army themselves. Without a large number of old and weak people who needed protection, it was much more convenient for the army to march and fight.
"How did the Wayne Brothers arrange these new brothers?" Yang Xiuqing asked.
"This subordinate organized most of them into the original four divisions, and selected some old brothers from each division to form another division with the remaining new brothers." Vézé replied.
"That's not good!" Yang Xiuqing immediately expressed his disapproval. "Reorganize the troops. It's best to organize the troops from each place together and let their relatives lead the troops. That way it'll be easier to command. Besides, if so many new soldiers are organized into the old brothers' troops, we'll have to worry that the troops won't be easy to command during the war. "
"This subordinate understands." Vézé replied to Yang Xiuqing. It was easy for the troops to have a sense of belonging by using their relatives as the standard. During the war, because of this blood relationship, it was easy to unite against a common enemy. This was a very traditional organizational model. Vézé only chose to separate the troops because he felt that the opponent's Qing Army was too weak. Letting the veterans lead the new soldiers would always be able to increase their combat effectiveness faster. Since Yang Xiuqing had given Vézé a suggestion out of good intentions, whether or not he could do it, Vézé couldn't not refuse.
When the matter of the new soldiers was mentioned, Yang Xiuqing was quite vexed. The Taiping army welcomed the new soldiers, but they couldn't place too much importance on them. The citizens of Guangxi and Xiangnan were considered a very good source of soldiers. On the battlefield, as long as the situation wasn't too bad, no one would run away. But there was a limit. The new soldiers had to go on the battlefield many times and gradually accumulate experience before they could be trusted as veterans. After the Taiping army entered Xiangnan, a large number of the local citizens defected to the Taiping army, and the number of troops skyrocketed. But at this time, the ones who could really be of use were the old brothers from Guangxi. In addition, the training of the new soldiers required time. After conquering Chenzhou, how much time would they have to train was a huge problem.
Yang Xiuqing said, "Wayne Brothers, I heard that your gunner is very capable. That's why I left you in the rear. Tomorrow, when we fight Qing Yao, you have to do your best. If we can beat Qing Yao until he doesn't dare to die for a month, we can train our troops well. "
"Rest assured, King Of The East, I will do my best!" Vézé had always placed great importance on military training. He had gradually organized a set of training methods, so he was very confident.
Seeing that Vézé was full of fighting spirit, Yang Xiuqing smiled and said, "Wayne Brothers, why did you defect to the Taiping army last year?"
"To kill Qing Yao!" Vézé answered without hesitation. "If we don't kill Qing Yao, we won't have a good life!"
"Haha!" Seeing Vézé's attitude, Yang Xiuqing laughed. "What happens after we kill Qing Yao?"
"After we kill Qing Yao, the King Of The East will rule the world!" Vézé answered without hesitation. In 1852, people's level of socialization was not high, so it was an art to answer questions between superiors and subordinates appropriately. But for people in the 21st century, this was just a skill that could be learned. Not to mention this kind of question and answer, which was easy to answer.
However, Vézé was only 19 years old, and Yang Xiuqing had never been in the government, nor had he worked in a state-owned enterprise. After hearing Vézé's words, he was stunned. He frowned and looked at Vézé for a while, then smiled and patted Vézé's shoulder. "Wayne Brothers, you are so childish!"
Vézé didn't want to say anything inappropriate for his age, so he simplified it and said to Yang Xiuqing seriously, "King Of The East! I feel that you are the number one figure in the Taiping Rebellion. If you don't rule the world, who else can? "
Yang Xiuqing heard this and smiled. "Wayne Brothers, if you want to rule the world, then kill Qing Yao first! If you can't defeat Qing Yao tomorrow, no one can dream of ruling the world! We have already discussed how to fight, I am waiting to see you fight! "
August 17th, west gate of Guiyang. Vézé personally led the first and second divisions to set up a battle formation outside the city. Each division sent out a brigade, with a total of 10 soldiers, to set up a horizontal formation against the city wall. On top of the city wall, Vézé's cannons were all set up.
On the left and right sides of Vézé's formation were the 2,000 elite troops of Yang Xiuqing's rear army. The Taiping army valued troops who could fight hand-to-hand. Of the 2,000 elite troops, more than 70% were armed with broadswords and spears. This ratio was almost the same as that of Vézé's troops, where three-quarters were musketeers and one-quarter were long gunners.
In the morning, He Chun's troops finally appeared in front of the 3,000-strong formation. Vézé saw that the Qing Army had reached the outskirts of the city. Should he run to the top of the city wall first? Looking around, he saw that the Qing Army stretched as far as the eye could see on the road to the west of Guiyang. The Qing Army that had besieged the Taiping army in Daozhou originally numbered about 13000. With the addition of Jiang Zhongyuan and Zhang Guoliang's troops, the total strength had risen to about 20,000. The Taiping Rebellion troops in Guiyang consisted of 5,000 Vézé's men and 3,000 Yang Xiuqing's men. Their combined strength was less than half of the Qing Army's. The Taiping army outside the city wall only numbered 3,000. In terms of numbers, the Taiping army was undoubtedly at a disadvantage.
After observing the Qing Army's numbers and their aggressive approach towards Guiyang, Vézé was about to descend the city wall. Yang Xiuqing called out to Vézé. "Wayne Brothers, can your 1,000 men hold the fort?"
Vézé smiled with a murderous look. "Rest assured, King Of The East! Your subordinate will lead our brothers to battle at the forefront. If Qing Yao wants to reach the city wall, he will have to step over my dead body! "
Yang Xiuqing looked at Vézé, who was seething with fighting spirit. He also smiled. "That's good! I will watch Wayne Brothers kill the enemy from the top of the city wall! "
The Qing Army pursued them all the way. They had no way to carry heavy artillery. Vézé had brought all the cannons with him when he advanced to the East. A quarter of his army had carried cannons before. It was because he knew that the Qing Army had no cannons that Vézé dared to line up in the middle of the army with a thousand elite soldiers.
This time, the Qing Army was not afraid. They only reorganized their troops about three to four li away from Vézé's troops. Then they lined up in formation and marched towards Guiyang.
As soon as the drums and bugles sounded, Vézé's troops finished loading their muskets. Then they slowly marched forward in a formation of ten soldiers. This time, they did not march together. Instead, the two troops in the middle moved forward first, about five meters apart. Only then did the two troops further out. The entire horizontal array formed a very large obtuse angle.
After the Taiping army advanced east from Daozhou, the Qing Army did not dare to approach the Taiping army's main force. They followed the Taiping army from a distance. But now, it seemed that the Qing Army did not intend to continue their passive pursuit. Even when Vézé's troops advanced towards the Qing Army, the Qing Army did not stop or retreat. Their troops continued to advance towards Vézé's troops. It seemed that the Qing Army was determined to fight.
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