The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 155 Great! Zeng Guofan is captured!

"That's Zeng Guofan! Catch him alive!"

As soon as Xu Yuegui saw Zeng Linshu and Zeng Guohua, father and son, he knew he had found the right people. He shouted loudly, picked up two Taiping swords and rushed forward to chop people.

The two father and son looked very similar, both with triangular eyes, high cheekbones, and evil faces, and they were also somewhat similar to the Zeng family kid of the "Ji" generation. Moreover, the two father and son were under the protection of a large group of clan soldiers and servants holding weapons, and there were also a group of women, servants, and children around them.

I know without asking that it was the frightened Zeng Guofan who supported me and his family and tried to escape through the South Gate into the stream!

It seems that everything is as expected by the "female Zhuge" Xu Yuegui!
This female leader of the Tiandihui was already quite talented in rebellion. Later, she joined the first lecturer class and learned the "Anti-Scripture" under the guidance of Luo Yaoguo. She understood some principles of rebellion and founded the well-organized God Worshipping Society Secret Hall with Zhang San, Wang Yan, Jiao Hong, Xu Xianggui, Boyong and others. Later, she led a group of carefully selected backbones of the Kingdom of Heaven to do several big deals and sneaked into several towns such as Guiyangzhou, Chenzhou, and Zhuzhou Town as an insider. Now she has grown into an experienced "old rebel".

Look at how she sneaked into Xiangxiang this time, created chaos with the cooperation of Xiao Chaogui's army, and finally robbed and killed "Zeng Guofan" in the chaos. It was so smooth and easy!
The elite members of the Dark Hall who had sneaked into Xiangxiang County with her were the best at sneaking in, creating chaos, and fighting in the narrow streets of the city. They first threw torches with all their might, then held steel knives in one hand and flintlock pistols in the other, and shouted the slogan "Kill the Qing demons and go to heaven", and rushed out of the darkness like wild beasts, rushing towards the Zeng family soldiers and servants whose bodies were illuminated by torches but who were at a loss.

"Crackling."

In the darkness, there was a flash of fire first, and then the sound of a musket firing.

Although the effective range of the flintlock pistol was very short, those elite members of the Dark Hall were already very close to the Zeng family when they launched the fire. They took advantage of the Zeng family's lack of reaction and rushed to within ten steps or even a few steps of them before opening fire. Naturally, every bullet hit the target!
After a flash of fire, twenty or thirty Zeng family soldiers, servants and Daozhou militiamen fell inside the city gate. Screams for help were heard everywhere. The Zeng family soldiers and servants who had luckily escaped the disaster also lost their fighting spirit.

Not long ago, they were all honest farmers. Although they were recruited by the Zeng family as so-called clan soldiers, they were not actually organized into units and had not received any military training.

Zeng Guofan was different from Zuo Zongtang, Jiang Zhongyuan, Luo Zenan, Chen Qishu and other scholars who could not make it in the ordinary way. He was a "seed of famous officials" who was selected as a Jinshi, a Hanlin, and became a minister in eight years. He did not care about such an unrelated official position as the Minister of Tuanlian. Naturally, he would not put his heart into managing the one or two hundred soldiers and servants.

As a result, the soldiers now run away when they are needed!
Seeing the Taiping Army charging at them like ferocious monsters, the Zeng family soldiers who had not been killed by the muskets all scattered in a hurry, running away very quickly. Only some Daozhou militiamen were still trying to resist, but they were also dispersed by Xu Yuegui's men.

Soon there was no Zeng family soldier left around Zeng Guohua and Zeng Linshu, and Xu Yuegui swung her knife in front of the Zeng father and son, and without saying a word, she chopped off the head of Zeng Linshu, who was so scared that he turned pale.

"Don't hurt my father!"

Zeng Guohua was a filial son after all. He roared, then rushed forward, holding the knife in his hand horizontally and blocking his father.

He originally had a flintlock pistol in his hand, which was given to him by Huang Shijie, the richest man in Yongzhou, when he was the Tongzhi of Yongzhou. But just now in a panic he accidentally fired the bullet. Now he can only use a knife.

Xu Yuegui had already calculated that Zeng Guofan would have this trick, so the knife he used to chop Zeng Linshu was originally fake, he just held it up and did not bring it down. When he saw Zeng Guohua blocking with his knife, he exerted force and chopped the Taiping short knife down, hitting the back of the waist knife that Zeng Guohua was holding with one hand.

Zeng Guohua was actually quite strong. He was a strong man after all. He would practice boxing and swordplay on weekdays, but he didn't practice for fighting. He just practiced to strengthen his muscles. How could he be a match for Xu Yuegui? He stretched out his sword to block Xu Yuegui's attack, but he didn't even hold it tightly. As a result, Xu Yuegui's powerful and full-strength attack directly knocked the weapon off.

Now I have nothing in my hands, what should I do?
Before he could figure out what to do, Xu Yuegui had already placed another Taiping knife on his neck. However, the woman did not mean to erase the name "Zeng Guofan", but smiled and said, "Zeng Guofan, I finally caught you!"

"I, I, I" Zeng Guohua wanted to defend himself and said that he was not Zeng Guofan, but Zeng Guohua. But then he thought, he had to be Zeng Guofan!

Because this female Tai Mao came here for Zeng Guofan, and now she has caught the wrong person. If she finds out that she has made a mistake, she will definitely not let him go, not only will she not let him go, she may even kill him.

After the killing, it is possible to continue looking for Zeng Guofan.

Judging from her and her men's skills, if a disturbance breaks out in Xiangxiang City, with Xiao Ni Chaogui's army outside, the city might be defeated and everything would be over!

Instead of doing this, it is better to admit that you are Zeng Guofan!

His elder brother had said before that Xiao Chaogui came here to capture Zeng Guofan. Maybe if he caught the real culprit, Xiao Chaogui would retreat. After all, Xiangxiang was not an important place. The focus of the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Rebellion should be the Xiangjiang River.

Thinking of this, Zeng Guohua nodded heavily: "I am Zeng Guofan! I am in mourning and have not offended the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Why did the lady capture me?"

When Xu Yuegui heard Zeng Guohua admit that he was Zeng Guofan, he was overjoyed. He immediately called over four of his men and asked them to each hold Zeng Linshu and Zeng Guohua, father and son. Then he led his men to escort Zeng father and son out of the south gate of Xiangxiang.

There were only seven or eight open boats docked at the dock outside the south gate of Xiangxiang at this time. Where had the other boats gone?

The seven or eight open boats were all Xu Yuegui's men. When the Zeng family soldiers who had cleared the way came out of the gate, they were shot with shotguns. This time, when they saw Xu Yuegui rushing out with his men, several of the best men from the Dark Hall immediately jumped onto the dock to meet them.

One of the small leaders saw Xu Yuegui approaching with a happy face, and immediately went up to him and asked, "Deputy Hall Master, have you captured Zeng Guofan?"

"We caught him!" Xu Yuegui laughed, "We also caught his father. Come on, bring him up!"

"Yes!"

Several men responded immediately and brought Zeng Linshu and Zeng Guohua up. Zeng Linshu was so frightened that his face turned pale and he was shaking off his chaff, but Zeng Guohua was quite calm, looking at Xu Yuegui viciously with his triangular eyes.

Xu Yuegui took a lantern from one of her men who met her at the dock and ordered, "Bring up the child surnamed Zeng."

Immediately, a female soldier of the Taiping Army came up to Zeng Linshu and Zeng Guohua holding a skinny monkey-like child.

Xu Yuegui raised the lantern and illuminated the two evil faces. The child burst into tears without being asked, "Grandpa, sir, our family was robbed by bad guys, and my grandfather was killed by bad guys. Please send soldiers to kill all the bad guys as soon as possible."

Zeng Guohua really recognized the child, and sighed, "Ji Yi, stop crying, the bad guys will be killed by the soldiers soon."

That’s right!
Xu Yuegui laughed and waved his hand, saying, "Take them all to the boat!"

"Yes!"

Seeing that Zeng Guofan and his father were both taken to the open boat, one of Xu Yuegui's men came up and asked, "Deputy Hall Master, are we still going to attack Xiangxiang County?"

Just as Xu Yuegui was about to say "fight", gunshots rang out from inside the Xiangxiang South Gate, and a Cantonese voice shouted, "Following the order from Adjutant General Zhang of Daozhou, suppress all the idlers on the ground and retreat immediately. Anyone who dares to stay at the city gate will be killed without mercy!"

Xu Yuegui gritted her teeth and muttered in a low voice: "It's Zhang Guoliang, that traitor."

Xu Yuegui's men are all elite members of the Dark Hall, equivalent to special forces directly under the intelligence department. They do technical work such as infiltration, kidnapping, assassination, sabotage, and incitement, and they are not meant to be minced meat.

Moreover, they were equipped with easy-to-carry Taiping swords and short guns, not long swords and muskets and cannons for fighting in a formal battle.

It would be fine if we just fought with the newly opened militia, but inside the South Gate of Xiangxiang is Zhang Guoliang, and his troops are not weak!
Thinking of this, Xu Yuegui said to his left and right: "We have already captured Zeng Guofan and his son. There is no need to fight with Zhang Guoliang's troops! Retreat!"

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)