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"Changsha is a rotten city. It can be broken in one attack!" Prince Xiao Chaogui said confidently during the military meeting.
Vézé had underestimated the leaders of the Taiping army. When Daozhou did not move, the leaders of the Taiping army had already sent spies to various places to collect intelligence. Changsha City had been in disrepair for a long time. Xiao Chaogui was very confident about taking Changsha City. As for the plan to attack Changsha, Xiao Chaogui said, "I only need three thousand brothers!"
Excluding Vézé's troops, three thousand brothers were already more than one-third of the Taiping army's elites. Yang Xiuqing dared to fight against the twenty thousand Qing Army with two thousand brothers from Guangxi. It was not unbelievable for him to attack Changsha City with three thousand brothers from Guangxi.
Vézé did not want to participate in the attack. The organization of his troops was very different from the other Taiping army. Firstly, the number of brothers in Guangxi was small. In the truest sense, there were only 300 brothers in Guangxi. Secondly, when Vézé's troops were organized and trained, they had considerable fighting power. But if they were used in a traditional way, they might not be good at fighting.
It was not important whether Vézé was willing to send troops or not. Prince Xi said, "This time, Vézé will go to Yongxing first. I will lead the troops to Changsha through Yongxing."
"When will you send troops?" Yang Xiuqing asked.
Xiao Chaogui replied, "Tomorrow, Vézé will send troops and then he will guard Yongxing. This time, we will not take him to attack Changsha."
Vézé did not know what to say. Xiao Chaogui was too considerate. At least it was a reasonable arrangement. Vézé's troops were not suitable for long-distance attacks at this stage. First of all, there were too many new soldiers and too few old soldiers. If the old soldiers were taken away, Vézé's troops would not have much fighting power. However, Wei Ze was still Xiao Chaogui's subordinate, so it would be inexcusable if he wasn't brought along by the commander.
Xiao Chaogui could not leave Vézé aside. "Vézé, you must train your troops well in Yongxing. If anything happens and you need to go to Changsha, you must leave immediately."
"Yes, sir!" Vézé replied.
"Then Vézé will lead the troops to Yongxing tomorrow," Xiao Chaogui ordered.
On the 19th of August, Wei Ze's troops advanced towards Yongxing City. More than ten years ago, Yongxing City had been hit by a huge mountain flood, and the city wall that was one mile wide by the river was completely destroyed. With such a big hole in the city wall, it was impossible to defend it. When the local magistrate learned that the Taiping army was coming, he ran away without hesitation. Vézé easily took over Yongxing City from the east gate.
As soon as he entered the city, Vézé handed over the task of occupying the county government and controlling the pawnshop to other people in the General Staff Headquarters. He took Chen Zhe, the Head of the Technical Department of the General Staff Headquarters, straight to the blacksmith shop in the city. The blacksmiths were gathered together. Vézé ordered someone to give them money first. Then, he told them that he would hire them for a while. The blacksmiths were less afraid when they got the money first. When they heard that Vézé promised not to force them to join the army, they were doubtful but did not dare to question whether Vézé would keep his word. After all, in terms of reason and etiquette, Wei Ze did not lose out.
After settling the blacksmiths, Vézé went to gather carpenters and other craftsmen. When he was done, Chen Zhe asked, "Prime Minister, why didn't you invite them to follow us? The craftsmen camp is indeed short of manpower."
"It's not going to be sweet if you force them to follow us. If they don't want to follow us, it's very easy for them to slack off or even cause trouble in private." Vézé smiled. He patted Chen Zhe's shoulder. "I have confidence in your Ministry of Science and Technology. You know very little now, so learn more from those craftsmen. But you have to remember one thing. You are the real trustworthy people. You are the real pillars of the army! "
When Chen Zhe heard Vézé's words, he was so excited that his face turned red. "I will definitely follow Prime Minister and do a good job!"
Vézé did not come up with the idea on the spur of the moment. He had long wanted to establish a military department in the army. However, he did not have the manpower, time, or equipment. There were many coal mines in Daozhou, Guiyang, and Chenzhou. Many local miners had defected to the Taiping army. At this time, the Qing Army in the mines had long disappeared. Vézé and his men easily obtained a large amount of coal. Now that the conditions were met, Vézé decided to give it a try. He wanted to see if he could put many of the things he had learned and seen into practice.
After informing Xiao Chaogui about the capture of Yongxing, Vézé received a reply very quickly. The Western Prince, Xiao Chaogui, would send his troops to Yongxing on August 21st. In order to open a path for the Western Prince, Vézé immediately led his troops to attack the Taiping army's next target, Anren. There were some Qing Army guards in Anren County. However, when they saw Vézé's thousands of troops, they lost their will to fight. When Vézé fired his cannons at the city walls, the Qing Army immediately scattered. When Vézé's troops climbed over the city walls, they encountered no resistance at all.
After capturing Anren on August 23rd, Vézé ordered his men to forcibly recruit blacksmiths in the county on the basis of paying in advance. He also issued a notice to recruit local craftsmen who were skilled in forging. The Vegetarian religion was prevalent in Anren. Many of its followers joined the army. They told Vézé that there was a blacksmith shop called Lianfeng in You County in the north. The shop owner had a nickname in Jianghu called Wang Dachui. He was quite proficient in smithing and even had the ability to melt iron.
If he could melt iron, he could cast it. Vézé had long wanted to recast his iron cannons. After receiving the news about Wang Dachui, Vézé, who originally had no intention of attacking You County, simply continued to lead his troops north. After a day's march, they arrived at You County. Before Vézé could attack You County, the county magistrate had already fled with his troops. There were no soldiers in the county. Vézé personally led his men to the blacksmith shop in the county, Lianfeng. The door of Lianfeng was tightly shut. No matter how hard he knocked, no one answered. In desperation, Vézé could only order his men to climb over the wall and open the door. There were only a few young workers hiding in the blacksmith shop. When asked where their master had gone, the young worker did not know either. Fortunately, Vézé had prepared well beforehand. Among the people he brought with him was a relative of the young worker in Anren. It was through this relative that Vézé found out about the good blacksmiths in You County.
When he met his relative, the young blacksmith told the truth. It turned out that blacksmith Wang Dachui had gone to the countryside to cast iron bells for someone a few days ago. He had originally said that he would return today, but unexpectedly, the Taiping army suddenly attacked. Vézé immediately sent his men to the countryside to "welcome" Wang Dachui under the lead of the young blacksmith.
Wang Dachui did not receive him, but Western Prince Xiao Chaogui did. On the 25th of August, Western Prince Xiao Chaogui arrived at You County with Ceng Shuiyuan, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, and other generals. They set off on the 21st of August. Along the way, Vézé's troops had prepared guides and campsites. The troops did not need to worry about miscellaneous things and only focused on marching. Along the way, Xiao Chaogui also incorporated the brothers who came to join the army into his troops. By the time they arrived at You County, the Western Prince's troops had expanded to more than six thousand people.
Vézé had specifically ordered that the new recruits must be handed over to the Western Prince's troops. This was not entirely because Vézé wanted to flatter Xiao Chaogui. If the local people who joined the army did not fight but simply stayed in the local area, they would definitely get into trouble. When Vézé was stationed in Jianghua and Yongming, there had been some fellows who came to make a living. They also came to join the army in high spirits and even brought their families with them. However, after staying in Vézé's troops for a while and receiving strict training, many of them slipped away when Vézé went to Daozhou.
Xiao Chaogui was obviously aware of this. Since Vézé had sent them to him, he did not hesitate to take them and left. After arriving at You County, Xiao Chaogui stationed himself and incorporated the new recruits into his troops without exception. Western Prince Xiao Chaogui's vanguard, Ceng Shuiyuan, did not stop. He led the vanguard directly to Liling.
Seeing Vézé, Xiao Chaogui said with a smile, "I didn't expect you to do things like this, Wayne Brothers. I've been so happy along the way that I almost forgot that I'm here to fight a war."
Vézé was not particularly happy about Xiao Chaogui's praise. Both of them had experienced the hardships of marching. How could they not know that they needed to drink water, eat food, and rest after a certain distance? Doing these things was not particularly stressful for Vézé. It was Vézé's job to ease Xiao Chaogui's difficulties during the march.
Seeing that Vézé did not respond to his praise, Xiao Chaogui put away his habitual smile and said to Vézé seriously, "Wayne Brothers, I see that you are a man of action. I have something to say to you."
"Please enlighten me, Western Prince." Vézé was eager to hear what Xiao Chaogui had to say.
Xiao Chaogui looked at Vézé carefully and said earnestly, "Wayne Brothers, if you don't feel at ease, you won't be a man. The more you suffer, the more impressive you will be!"
Vézé really did not think that Xiao Chaogui could say anything heroic, even though the Taiping Rebellion's upper-class education level was not low in this era. Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan were both Elementary Scholars and used to be teachers in private schools. Wei Changhui came from a wealthy family and was also a scholar. Shi Dakai did not get any scholarly honors, but he could still write poems. However, the cultural knowledge of these people did not enter Vézé's eyes. The only person Vézé admired now was the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing.
Hearing Xiao Chaogui's unceremonious words, Vézé felt a lot of respect for him. The more you suffer, the more impressive you will be. If these words were said to those who only knew how to resign themselves to adversity, it would be a mockery. But for someone like Xiao Chaogui, who dared to struggle, the more he suffered, the more impressive he would be! After suffering and overcoming difficulties, how could he not be impressive?
However, before Vézé could say anything to flatter Xiao Chaogui, Xiao Chaogui waved his hand and dismissed everyone. Vézé swallowed whatever he wanted to say. It seemed that Xiao Chaogui had something more important to say.
Sure enough, when Xiao Chaogui saw that there was no one around, he lowered his voice. "Wayne Brothers, the King Of The East says that you are childish, and so do I. Given your ability, you would be a young hero in the Taiping army. But Brother Wei, from what I can see, your arrangement is not only for the convenience of marching, but also for the comfort of the people. I'm not saying that what you're doing is wrong, but you're doing this because you want to be comfortable, to be at ease. "
Vézé's heart skipped a beat. He had heard of the saying that one small clue could reveal the general trend, but he had never met someone like Xiao Chaogui who could directly point to one's heart. At least this kind of person had never educated Vézé like this and touched the "depths of Vézé's soul."
"Wayne Brothers, I know you think that the King is inconsiderate, ostentatious, and prideful. You actually wanted to use those carriages for your own army, but not for you to ride, but for moving things. When you heard that the King wanted to use them for his harem, you were unhappy, "Xiao Chaogui said.
Vézé thought that he had played dumb and fooled Xiao Chaogui. He didn't expect Xiao Chaogui to see it so clearly. He was shocked. Although he wanted to laugh to ease the atmosphere, he felt that the muscles on his face were stiff and he couldn't smile.
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