The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 153 Oh no, the long-haired army is coming!

"Shi Qiao, Zi Ying, Yun Xian, Xiao Chao Gui, the thief leader, has brought three to four thousand people to Baiyangping, Heyetang, and he must be here to arrest me, the official minister. I must leave Xiangxiang as soon as possible!"

Inside the Zeng family mansion, Zeng Guofan, with a vicious look on his face, looked like a jackal being targeted by a hunter. He seemed extremely uneasy, and walked back and forth in the dark, dilapidated, moldy old house while talking.

There were three other visitors in the room. The first one was Guo Songtao, who had come to Xiangxiang three times to persuade Zeng Guofan to come out of retirement.

The second person was a man with a rather wealthy face. He was the county magistrate of Xiangxiang County. His surname was Zhu, his given name was Sun Yi, and his courtesy name was Shi Qiao. He was from Qingjiang, Jiangxia. He was also one of the early founders of the Xiang Army. As early as the 30th year of Daoguang, before the Jintian Uprising broke out, he summoned Liu Rong, Wang Qin and others to start building local armed forces on the grounds that "to protect the neighborhood, we must train local soldiers."

After the Taiping Army invaded Hunan, he divided his militia into three camps, with Wang Qin in charge of the left camp, Luo Zenan in charge of the middle camp, and Kang Jinghui in charge of the right camp. Later, Luo Bingzhang followed Zuo Zongtang's advice and summoned militias from all over the country to defend Changsha. Luo Zenan's middle camp and Wang Qin's left camp went to Changsha, leaving only the right camp in Xiangxiang.

The third visitor was Huang Shijie. His Daozhou militia was now divided into three camps, with Zhang Dingxiang leading the left camp, Huang Shijie leading the middle camp, and Zhang Guoliang leading the right camp. This time, Zhang Dingxiang's left camp followed Zuo Zongtang to stay in Changsha, while Huang Shijie and Zhang Guoliang led two camps of 1,000 people to Xiangxiang.

In other words, there are now 1,500 Green Camp soldiers in Xiangxiang City, as well as the "general" Zhang Guoliang.

But Zeng Guofan had no confidence in holding on, because he already knew that the one who came to take Xiangxiang was Xiao Chaogui, the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

He also knew that Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, had been captured by another Taiping Army, with only a castle and Tianxin Pavilion still standing.

Changsha was almost lost. Huang Shijie was from Yizhou and Zhang Guoliang was from Guangdong. They had no responsibility to defend the territory. Why should they defend the small broken city of Xiangxiang to resist Xiao Chaogui?
So the best strategy is to retreat!
"Di Zhang, my troops are ready to leave at any time! I have a thousand elite soldiers who can protect Di Zhang's entire family." Huang Shijie patted his chest halfway, then suddenly remembered that he couldn't go to Changsha. So where should he go?

He couldn't make this decision, so he could only look at Zeng Guofan and wait for the words from this "filial son of Xianghu".

"Let's go to Wuling County, the capital of Changde Prefecture!" Zeng Guofan said, "If Changsha is lost, Yuezhou will most likely fall as well. The governor of Hunan, Zhang Shiqing, can only govern in Changde. If we want to live up to the emperor's grace and make a difference in the troubled times, we have no choice but to go to Changde."

"Oh"

Guo Songtao's eyes lit up, and he thought, "You finally stopped pretending? Now Zuo Jigao is getting more and more powerful. If you continue to pretend to be a filial son, there will be no place for you in Hunan!"

"Dizhang, Ziying, what should I do if you leave?" Xiangxiang County Master Zhu Sunyi became a little anxious when he heard what Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie said.

Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie were not the father and mother officials of Xiangxiang, and they had no responsibility to defend the territory, so they could leave at will. But Zhu Sunyi was the magistrate of Xiangxiang, and he had the responsibility to defend the territory! Moreover, he was a donated class, and he spent a lot of money to buy the position of Xiangxiang magistrate. He had not even taken it back, but he was charged with the crime of "losing teachers and territory".

If he were to be arrested and brought to the capital, wouldn't he be tortured by the lackeys of the officials in Luoyang?
"Don't be afraid!" Zeng Guofan waved his hands and said with a smile, "Shi Qiao, don't be afraid. You still have 500 militiamen under your command. You have nothing to fear as long as you have soldiers! And when I arrive in Changde, I will be the Minister of Militiamen. Am I still afraid that I can't protect you?"

Although Zhu Sunyi was a student of the donation class, he was a student who was familiar with the "Four Books and Six Classics" (Four Books and Five Classics plus the Anti-Classics). Even when the Anti-Classics did not exist, he had already learned the "anti" path without a teacher. He was not comparable to nerds like Wang Kuiyi and Sun Enbao!

So he immediately understood what Zeng Guofan was going to do!

So Zhu Sunyi didn't put on any scholarly airs, but bowed his head and cried, "Sunyi is willing to follow your lead!"

Zeng Guofan nodded and said only one word: "Okay!"

Then he turned and looked at Huang Shijie and Guo Songtao.

Guo Songtao said with a worried look on his face: "Master Di, I think after this battle, there won't be many government troops left in Xianghu. Changsha, Yuezhou, Hengzhou, Chenzhou, Guiyangzhou and Yongzhou will be in danger. This is half of Hunan!"

Huang Shijie said: "Master Di, there is still half of Hunan that we can grab for you!"

Zeng Guofan nodded, then clasped his fists towards the sky and said, "If Your Majesty wants to keep the remaining half of Hunan, he still has to rely on the Xianghu gentry and local officials like Shi Qiao who are good at organizing militias.

Shi Qiao, don't worry, the emperor will not only not hold you responsible for the loss of land, but will also give you a prefectural post!"

He glanced at Huang Shijie and Guo Songtao again and said with a smile: "Ziying, Yunxian, you are also the prefect of Hunan!"

Zhu Sunyi kowtowed heavily: "Thank you, Master Di!"

Guo Songtao clasped his fists and said: "Songtao will follow your lead!"

Huang Shijie bowed to the ground and said, "I have been wandering for half my life without any guidance from a wise teacher. If you don't mind, I would like to be your disciple!" Zeng Guofan stroked his beard and nodded gently, "Very good. I already have three disciples, Huangmei Shuai Zhongqian, Liyang Chen Zuomei, and Hefei Li Shaoquan, all of whom are talented at the time. Today, I have you, Daozhou Huang Ziying, making up the four great disciples. Why should I worry about not achieving great things?"

Big things? You have to do big things too!
Huang Shijie immediately lifted his robe and knelt on the ground, kowtowed to Zeng Guofan several times: "I am willing to be a soldier in front of my master, and I am willing to follow my master to lead the Xianghu army to quell the chaos!"

Zeng Guofan looked at his new student with approval, stroked his beard, and said gently: "Ziying, you and Sun Yi should prepare well. We will leave tomorrow. Remember, don't tell anyone!

Now that Changsha has been lost and Xiao Ni's troops have arrived, if the gentry in the city knew that we were going to flee, I'm afraid they would be in trouble."

Zeng Guofan did not say anything further, but Huang Shijie, Guo Songtao and Zhu Sunyi all nodded heavily.

People in Xiangxiang County are in panic!
The "Taiping Storm" along the Xiangjiang River is getting bigger and bigger!

Previously, Luo Yaoguo, who had been circumventing the small towns and cities defended by the Qing army and the gentry militia, had led only a few thousand vanguard troops to the north. After the governor of Huguang, Cheng Yancai, abandoned Hengyang and headed northwest to "support Changsha via a detour", the army of 20,000 to 30,000 people led by Xiao Chaogui came along the Xiangjiang River, and they were advancing both by water and land.

At the same time, the news that Changsha was captured by the Taiping Army spread wildly southward along the Xiangjiang River!
Now, not only were the landlords on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River unable to defend their towns, but even the towns on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River were lost.

Now is the autumn harvest season, which is always the time when conflicts between local tyrants and evil gentry and tenants and poor peasants in the countryside are most intense.

For those poor farmers who have been living in hunger and cold year after year, it is a good thing to pay less rent for one year and not have to pay debt to the law for one year!

Before Changsha fell and before the Western King's army arrived by land and sea, the gentry were still able to suppress the situation with the hastily organized militia.

But now, Changsha is named "Taiping", it is the capital of a province! The Western King's army will arrive soon, the sky has changed!

All the towns and villages along the Xiangjiang River were "exploded"!

There were protests against rent, taxes and debts everywhere; some were instigated by the "underground members" of the God Worshipping Society, while others were simply spontaneous.

In those towns that did not have relatively strong militia garrisons, chaos would break out as soon as dark. Either someone would sing "Welcome Taiping" late at night, or someone would set fires and firecrackers and shout something like "The Taiping Heavenly Soldiers are coming!"
Many clever landlords and gentry fled without waiting for Xiao Chaogui to arrive.

It’s no use escaping to Changsha, that would be walking into a trap!

Escape to Hengyang. That's to fight against Xiao Chaogui!
So they could only run westward along the tributaries of the Xiangjiang River, and as a result, they flocked to Xiangxiang in large numbers.

Zeng Guofan, the current vice minister, the leader of Hunan scholars, and the Minister of Militia appointed by Emperor Xianfeng himself, naturally became the life-saving straw in the eyes of these gentry from all over the country who had crowded into Xiangxiang County.

Moreover, there are still 1,500 militiamen in Xiangxiang City. As long as they and Zeng Guofan do not escape, the gentry who flee will feel more secure.

But tonight, in the small county town of Xiangxiang, someone suddenly shouted in an extremely panic-stricken voice!
"Oh no! Minister Zeng is trying to run away!"

Then, the second, third, and fourth tones followed.
"Oh no! Master Zeng ran away!"

"Oh no! Zeng Guofan ran away with the militia."

This voice seemed to have magical power. It enveloped the entire city of Xiangxiang in a very short time, and immediately took away the only remaining sense of security in the hearts of the gentry and landlords who had fled.

Those gentry, who had been like frightened birds and slept with one eye open, were awakened by their family members who were on guard. Waves of family members were sent out to gather information, running around the small county town with lanterns. Soon, flickering flames could be seen outside the county government office and inside the four city gates.

The cries of "Mr. Zeng has run away" and "The Taipings are coming" continued to rise and fall, and many Xiangxiang County residents were also alarmed and took to the streets to look around.
At the same time, an officer of the right battalion of the Xiangxiang militia who was patrolling on the top of the Xiangxiang city wall suddenly saw in the vast darkness a fire dragon composed of countless tiny points of fire, flying along the north bank of the stream towards the Xiangxiang county seat!

They seemed to have run into a fork in the road, and the long dragon of fire split into two, one heading towards the north of Xiangxiang City, and the other heading towards the east of Xiangxiang City.

These are the thousands of Taiping troops marching rapidly in the dark!
Only the Taiping Army would work so hard.
After being silent for dozens of seconds, the officer on the top of Xiangxiang City finally woke up from his fear and shouted in a shrill voice: "The Changmao are coming! The Changmao army is really coming!"

(End of this chapter)