The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 135: The weight of the tripod may be asked! (asking for monthly votes)

Although the battle of Chaozong Street was won, the losses were indeed not small!
Forty-eight male saint soldiers were killed, and forty-one were seriously injured! Eight female saint soldiers were killed. Among them was Luo Yaoguo's female guard Ji Chunhua. This 28-year-old girl with a rosy face was hit in the slender white neck by a lead bullet fired by a Hunan Army musketeer on Chaozongmen Street. She bled a lot and was dead when she was carried back.

Wang Xier, who had been with her for several months, was now cleaning the body and changing her bloody clothes while shedding pearly tears.

Luo Yaoguo watched as the young girl who had been silently accompanying him since the time he crossed the river turned into a cold corpse. Thinking of how the little girl had taken care of him these days and how seriously she had taken when following him to learn to read and recite the "Anti-Scripture", his eyes became moist.

Su Sanniang had seen many comrades sacrificed, so she did not seem too sad. However, when she saw Luo Yaoguo's sad face, she also showed a sad expression.

When she saw Jin Aduo being brought in, Su Sanniang pointed at him with a cold face and said, "How dare you, a dog slave of the Eight Banners, come back?"

"I dare not, I dare not, I'll leave right away." After hearing what Su Sanniang said, Jin Aduo immediately turned around and was about to leave.

"Come back!" Luo Yaoguo certainly couldn't let Jin Aduo get away, so he shouted quickly.

The two female Taiping soldiers guarding the door of the shop immediately drew their swords and blocked Jin Aduo's way.

When Jin Aduo saw that something was wrong, he quickly turned around, limped to Luo Yaoguo, then, leaning on his stick, knelt down with difficulty and bowed to Luo Yaoguo.

"How was it? Did you meet Zuo Jigao?" Luo Yaoguo asked with a serious face.

"I have seen him," Jin Aduo said, "Zuo Jigao is at Chaozong Sect. He has more than a thousand Hunan militiamen under his command. They are very fierce."

"really!"

Luo Yaoguo thought to himself: "Except for him, no one else can damage this angel's 'body'!"

"What did he say?" Luo Yaoguo asked coldly.

"He, he agreed to meet with Master Angel on the white land of Chao Zongmen Rice Market"

Jin Aduo told Luo Yaoguo everything about Zuo Zongtang's request for a meeting.

“good good”

Luo Yaoguo said "OK" several times, then his expression changed and he smiled, "I have admired Mr. Ji Gao for a long time, and I have long wanted to meet him and discuss world affairs together! Ah Duo, go back and tell Mr. Ji Gao that when the fire in Chao Zongmen's rice market is extinguished, we will meet at the ruins of the rice market!"

After saying that, he waved his hand, and two Taiping soldiers came up and helped Jin Aduo out of the shop.

"I am Zuo Zongtang, a commoner from Xiangyin. Nice to meet you, Your Excellency!"

"I am Luo Yaoguo, the Angel of Peace. Nice to meet you, Mr. Ji Gao."

Luo Yaoguo finally met Zuo Zongtang, one of the three great men of the late Qing Dynasty!
On the white ground of the Chao Zongmen Rice Market where the fire was about to go out, the two of them politely clasped their fists and saluted each other.

The soldiers of both sides retreated one hundred and fifty steps away. On the commanding heights of Chaozong Gate and Chaozong Street, people from both sides were observing with telescopes, so no one could sneak up.

Zuo Zongtang and Luo Yaoguo were the only two people in the ruins of a fire. Luo Yaoguo carefully looked at the short and fat man in front of him, who was wearing a green cloth and a melon-shaped hat, standing with his hands behind his back. He had a round face, thick eyebrows, and bright eyes. His every move seemed to be full of wildness.

This kind of madness can also be seen in Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan!

They are all born to be troubled by troubled times!
"What a good man!"

Zuo Zongtang secretly praised Luo Yaoguo in his heart. Luo Yaoguo's figure was nothing compared to the post-21s in the 00st century, but in the late Qing Dynasty when people were malnourished, he could be considered a sturdy man. In addition, he had thick eyebrows and big eyes that were naturally righteous and a kind of noble spirit that the truth was in my heart. Although his right ear was wrapped in gauze, in today's chaotic world, a good man with a few scars on his body would show his heroic qualities.

"The tall man who was shot by the Chen family's gunman just now must be him, right?" Zuo Zongtang thought to himself, "Look at how calm he is now, chatting and laughing with me. How can he look like someone who just escaped death? Those three volumes of "Anti-Scripture" were also written by him, right? I never thought that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom actually had a person like him!"

Even a figure like Zuo Zongtang felt that this boy was definitely not an ordinary person.

The fire that lasted for several hours turned 100,000 dan of rice and half of Chaozong Street into ashes. The air around him was still scorching hot, but Luo Yaoguo was unusually calm. He was not angry at all because the Hunan hero in front of him burned the food rations of two or three hundred thousand people.

Not only was I not angry, I even admired him very much!
He threw the two or three hundred thousand mouths in Changsha City as a burden to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and burned down the largest rice market in Hunan, causing Changsha under Luo Yaoguo's control to fall into a famine. In this way, Zuo Zongtang could use the famine-stricken city of Changsha to trap the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army.

If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wanted to take Changsha, it would have to solve the problem of food for a population of 200,000 to 300,000. Not only would the Heavenly Kingdom's army not be able to get supplies within the city of Changsha, they would also have to go everywhere to collect food to supply Changsha.

But where can they get food?
Chenzhou Prefecture, Guiyang Prefecture and the southern part of Yongzhou Prefecture, which were already firmly controlled by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, were mostly mountainous areas. There was not much food to begin with, and they had to feed so many mouths of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for several months. They had almost spent all the money they had copied from the gentry and powerful people.

If we have to transfer grain from there again, will we still have people’s support?
As for raising grain from the vicinity of Changsha, the Taiping Army controlled only one major town outside Changsha, Zhuzhou Town. How many stones of rice could they raise? To feed the 200,000 or 300,000 people in Changsha and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army, the Taiping Army had to attack the counties and major towns along the Xiangjiang River south of Changsha and raise grain from there. The Xiangjiang River waterway north of Changsha was not so easy to open up, and even if they succeeded in attacking cities far away from the Xiangjiang River, the grain would not be transported to Changsha in a short time.

In addition, Zuo Zongtang would not necessarily give up the entire Changsha. As long as he guarded Tianxin Pavilion, Chaozong Gate, Yingchun Gate, and Tiefu Temple, and relied on the support of the Xiangjiang River waterway and the surrounding militia forces, he could always hold on for a while.

This period of time was enough for Zuo Zongtang and others to mobilize the gentry and organize militia in the area north of Changsha and west of the Xiangjiang River.

If the Taiping Army did not want Changsha, but abandoned the city and headed north to attack Wuchang and Jingzhou, then Zuo Zongtang and others would have the opportunity to recover the lost territory - of course, by organizing gentry militia to recover the provincial capital!

With such achievements, it wouldn't be too much to replace him with a bunch of prefects, governors, county magistrates, etc., right?
Of course, the Taiping Army could also try to ignore the lives of these 200,000 or 300,000 people and let them starve to death.

But in this case, is the ideal of "sharing food, clothing, land and money" still there? The tens of thousands of words in Volume 1 of "Anti-Scripture" are not as convincing as the starving people in a city.

If Yang Xiuqing or Xiao Chaogui were the commanders, they might be able to do so. But Luo Yaoguo couldn't do that, because his "Tao" was different from those two.
In addition, even if Luo Yaoguo ignored the lives of 200,000 or 300,000 people in Changsha and sent his troops to seize the territories west of the Xiangjiang River and north of Changsha, the gentry militia there had obviously been armed, and it would not be as easy to succeed as in southern Hunan.

Instead of destroying the reputation and trying to seize those tough provincial capitals, it is better to abandon Changsha and go north to pick on the weak ones. It is really a good plan. No, it is not a plan, it is a strategy!
Thinking of this, Luo Yaoguo smiled and said to Zuo Zongtang: "Mr. Ji Gao is indeed the Zhuge Kongming of today. He made me passive everywhere with just a little trick. I admire you! It's a pity that you are on the wrong side this time. The fate of the Qing demon is over. Don't treat the Qing demon as Ji Han. Don't do something you know is impossible."

Zuo Zongtang smiled, stroked his beard and said, "What are you talking about, Luo Tianyong? Luo Tianyong used the three volumes of "Anti-Scripture" to stir up the storm, revealing the Qing Dynasty's mask of the unity of the Manchus and the Han, and the loyalty of the emperor and the ministers. He also let the Han officials and gentry know that the world today is similar to the Yuan Dynasty. This is a great strategy! Zongtang admires it very much."

These two people seem to sympathize with each other!
Luo Yaoguo said with a smile: "If I know correctly, Mr. Ji Gao is still a commoner in Xiangyin. I think Mr. Ji Gao has the ambition of Zhuge Liang, and he must be staying in the countryside and waiting for a wise leader. Now the world is in chaos, and it is the time for a good man to make achievements. The barbarian emperor Xianfeng is definitely not a wise leader for the Han people. Mr. Ji Gao, are you willing to serve in our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and work together for great cause?"

Zuo Zongtang smiled and asked, "If I know correctly, Angel is only ranked eighth in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom today, not the first one, right? I think Angel's talent and strategy are far superior to those of the kings of the Heavenly Kingdom. How important is the tripod? Maybe you can ask me about it?"

(End of this chapter)