The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 182 You should continue to be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty!
"Mr. Sun, you are disloyal and unrighteous! Not only did you sell out your country for fame, you also sold out your friends for your life. You are a piece of shit. Even if I, Xiang Rong, become a ghost, I will not let you go."

"Sun Yingzhao, you bastard, how come I didn't see what kind of person you are? Even if I, Liu Changqing, turn into a ghost, I will haunt you and take your life!"

When Luo Yaoguo was still trying to discuss with Xiao Chaogui how to trick the Huguang Governor Cheng Yancai and seize his Wuchang City, he heard the shouting and cursing of Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing outside.

It turned out that these two guys were caught by Sun Yingzhao and Feng Zicai who led their men to wipe out the central army. They were all tied up and brought in front of Luo Yaoguo and Xiao Chaogui.

Both of them were in their fifties or sixties, and looked a little haggard. They were not wearing official uniforms, nor were they wearing the military jackets of the Qing Dynasty - that is, dark-colored jackets without any patterns. Instead, they were wearing the uniforms of ordinary soldiers with a big "Soldier" character on the chest.

Feng Zicai, who had just surrendered and was rewarded, and Zhu Ba, who had been promoted to division lecturer, and four guards from the division lecturer team brought Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing in. Behind them were Su Sanniang and a thin man in his fifties with a smoky face whom Luo Yaoguo did not recognize.

"Your Majesty!"

Zhu Ba roared, and the four guards of the lecturer team immediately forced Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing to kneel before Luo Yaoguo. The two were still unconvinced, and kept cursing, saying things like "thief", "die a miserable death", and "evil ways".

Zhu Ba was furious and raised his fist to hit him, but Luo Yaoguo, who was more magnanimous than him, waved his hand to stop him: "Don't fight yet, I have something to ask you. Why are you two wearing soldiers' clothes? Are you trying to escape from the defeated army?"

"Your Excellency is wise!" The thin man in his fifties, with a smoky face, wearing a business jacket and a red cloth wrapped around his head, knelt before Luo Yaoguo and said respectfully, "When I, Master Zhu, and Master Feng and I charged into the middle of the old thief Xiang's army, they had just changed their clothes. If we were a step later, they would have escaped in the chaos."

"You can't escape!" Su Sanniang bowed to Luo Yaoguo and said with a smile: "My lord, Jiangshe City has been surrounded by us. Not only are there our elite Taiping troops, but also militiamen from Xiangtan County and Zhuzhou Town. The total number is no less than 50,000. Not even a fly can fly out!"

The number of 50,000 is not an exaggeration by Su Sanniang, it is really that number!

Among them, the four armies of the upper army and the front army had a total of more than 30,000 people. In addition, there were militia and civilian strongmen under the jurisdiction of the Hunan-Jiangxi Border General Hall, as well as young men mobilized by the underground society on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River. In total, there were 50,000 Taiping Army, militia, and civilian strongmen participating in the battle of "Crossing the Xiangjiang River".

This was also an important reason why more than 10,000 people of Xiangrong Group were annihilated by Luo Yaoguo and Xiao Chaogui in just one or two days!
However, no matter how powerful the military force is, it is still necessary to use deception and strategy. Otherwise, it may not be difficult to defeat the enemy, but it is not easy to annihilate the enemy in large numbers.

In history, the Taiping Army was so powerful that it defeated the Qing Army and "fled only when they saw the enemy, which was the most courageous thing." However, the number of enemies killed was not too large, otherwise Xiang Rong and his ilk would not have been able to follow them all the way from Guangxi to the outskirts of Tianjing!

At present, Xiang Rong could not go to the Jiangnan Camp outside Tianjing City. At most, he could go to the inner city of Tianjing City.
Luo Yaoguo looked at Su Sanniang with a smile: "Sanniang, then, none of the Qing troops in Jiangshe City can escape?"

"No one can escape!" Su Sanniang puffed out her chest and said proudly.

Luo Yaoguo chuckled a few times: "But I think a few of them should still escape back. For example, General Sun of Yongzhou Town and General Feng of Changshengyong Camp can escape to Xiangtan and continue to be loyal ministers of the Qing Dynasty!"

"I dare not, I dare not!" Sun Yingzhao knelt down immediately after hearing what Luo Yaoguo said, "Sun was defeated by the angels, and I dare not offend the angels' majesty again!"

"Your Highness, the Angel, Feng Zicai has absolutely no second thoughts about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!" Feng Zicai quickly knelt down and swore, "If I dare to be disloyal to the Angel, let the Bull Demon King swallow me up in one gulp!"

Luo Yaoguo smiled and nodded, saying: "This angel knows that you have no second thoughts about my Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so I let you go to Cheng Yancai to be his accomplice.

Cheng Yancai was the governor of Huguang. He should not have died in Xiangtan. Wuchang was the city where he was supposed to be stationed!"

Sun Yingzhao and Feng Zicai were both stunned.

Didn’t we agree to be living loyal martyrs?
How did he end up going to Wuchang to be an insider? This is a job that requires a lot of effort!
Su Sanniang spoke to Feng Zicai in a Cantonese dialect that sounded very familiar to him: "Acai, sneaking into Wuchang is risky, but the greater the risk, the greater the credit! This time you persuaded Sun Yingzhao to surrender, which is a great achievement. You can be promoted to brigade commander. If you can help the Heavenly Kingdom take Wuchang, I, Su Sanniang, will make you a division commander!
A division commander can lead more than 2,000 people, which is equivalent to a general or a deputy general. You must seize this opportunity well!"

Feng Zicai wanted to improve himself, and now that he had been appreciated by Su Sanniang, he had to perform well and be positive. After thinking for a while, he immediately clasped his fists and said, "Your Highness, the Angel, I obey your command!"

Luo Yaoguo turned his gaze to Sun Yingzhao and said with a smile: "General Sun, don't worry. I will arrange for Feng Zicai to bring 200 people to Xiangtan with you. With this strength, and if you give Cheng Yancai some money, he will definitely make excuses for you and reuse you.

I heard that Cheng Yancai is a corrupt official who is obsessed with money! If he accepts your money, you can be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty and a loyal minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at the same time!"

Sun Yingzhao's expression was a little stiff: "Your Highness, I am an official with limited funds, really, really..."

Luo Yaoguo smiled and said, "Everything will be arranged for you without you having to pay a penny."

"Subordinate to obey!"

Sun Yingzhao had no choice but to agree. As for what to do after returning to Wuchang, that was, "The sky is high and the birds fly freely, the sea is wide and the fish leap freely!"

Just as he thought of this, Luo Yaoguo looked at Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing in a friendly manner again.

These two are already waiting for death with their eyes closed!

The reason why they squint instead of closing their eyes is because they still have a little hope in their hearts. They want to redeem it!
Luo Yaoguo spoke up: "General Xiang, General Liu, don't be afraid. My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is very reasonable and will not let you live. You can be redeemed. You can ask Emperor Xianfeng to pay to redeem you, or you can redeem yourself!" After hearing Luo Yaoguo's words, the despair on Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing's faces disappeared a little. It turned out that they could be redeemed.
Sun Yingzhao's expression changed slightly.

It can be redeemed, which means it can be released!

If Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing were to be released, wouldn't the news of Sun Yingzhao's treason be leaked out?
Luo Yaoguo added at this time, and said with a smile: "But not now, but after His Royal Highness the King of the West becomes the Lord of Wuchang!"

When he said this, his eyes were staring at Sun Yingzhao coldly, with a hint of warning - he could redeem them or release them! He could wait for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to capture Wuchang and let Emperor Xianfeng redeem Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing, or he could release them after Sun Yingzhao turned against them in Wuchang.

Once Xiang Rong and Liu Changqing are released, Emperor Xianfeng might know about his Sun Yingzhao's betrayal of the Qing Dynasty and the Emperor!
Therefore, he had to work hard for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and try to help it capture Wuchang City as soon as possible.

Fantian Town, west bank of the Xiangjiang River.

This place is about seventy or eighty miles away from Hengshan County. Senggelinqin ran here yesterday afternoon with 1,788 bannermen.

It turns out that the horsemanship of these Eight Banners soldiers was not as bad as Senggelinqin thought. They were only not good at riding when they were on the battlefield and charging the enemy, but they were still very good when they were running away. They ran for 70 to 80 miles in one breath, and almost no one fell behind, no one fell off the horse, and no one was addicted to opium and couldn't hold on.

He was truly not afraid of being tired or addicted, and his only thought was to escape!

They really escaped.

And there were more than 1,780 soldiers who escaped from the battlefield outside Hengshan County yesterday. Jiang Zhongyuan's Xianghu militia was also able to escape. Except for the Yongzhou and Hengzhou militias that Jiang Zhongyuan left behind, most of the more than 2,500 people did not escape. Jiang Zhongyuan's own 2,500 Xinning militia escaped about 1,900. Not a small number! Moreover, these 1,900 people escaped with weapons and ammunition, and were at the level of being able to be pulled out and fight at any time.

Hechun's Green Camp soldiers were in a more miserable situation. Out of a team of more than 2,000 people, only less than 500 escaped, and a small half of them were Hechun's Goshaha - this shows that Lord He is still very capable of leading Goshaha.

Senggelinqin counted his men last night and found that he still had 4,200 to 4,300 men under his command!

Not bad. After such a big defeat, the losses are less than half!

Yes, not even halfway!
It was not that Senggelinqin was bad at math, but that the Yongzhou and Hengzhou militias could be excluded from the accounts when reporting losses, as they were not regular divisions anyway. The source of soldiers and money also came from Yongzhou and Hengzhou.

Now the two prefectures are the territories of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so where do the Yongzhou and Hengzhou militia come from?
Excluding these 2,500 people, Senggelinqin had 7,500 people left. 4,200 to 3,000 people, well, rounding it off, that's 5,000 people! The loss was 2,500.

This number is not bad. After all, Hong Xiuquan was hit several times and many Taiping rebels must have been killed. So it should be okay to report it as 5,000 by “multiplying by ten”, right?

"Your Majesty, do you think this report is okay? Our army set up an ambush and set up artillery in Hengshan County, fiercely bombarded the long-haired giant boat on the river, and killed a long-haired yellow-robed leader, who was suspected to be the fake king Wei Ni. Later, we fought a bloody battle with tens of thousands of bandits on the river beach for a whole day, killing more than 5,000 bandits and injuring hundreds of bandit ships. However, the bandits were too numerous, no less than tens of thousands, ten times more than us, so we had to flee. The casualties in this battle were about 2,500, including two lieutenant generals, three guerrillas, three garrisons, and eleven thousand commanders."

Jiang Zhongyuan came to report the accounts to Senggelinqin early in the morning, just after breakfast. He was very good at accounting, and he had killed Wei Changhui and a total of 5,000 Taiping troops. If Xianfeng believed this, he would definitely give Senggelinqin, Jiang Zhongyuan, and He Chun promotions.

"Minqiao, is this appropriate?"

Senggelinqin was a little shy and felt embarrassed to report it like this.

But Jiang Zhongyuan didn't care, and said as if it was a matter of course: "It's appropriate, why not? It's always reported like this. Report half the loss, report ten times the number of thieves killed, and the emperor has never found out."

"That's because the emperor is kind!" Senggelinqin paused, "But now our Qing Dynasty might even lose Hunan!"

"It's not that bad without Hunan," Jiang Zhongyuan shook his head, "We still have Zeng Disheng, Zuo Jigao and me! With the three of us in Hunan, the Taiping Rebellion won't be able to take it all!"

Senggelinqin nodded and was about to say a few words to encourage Jiang Zhongyuan when his door was suddenly pushed open. He turned his head and saw Guan Wen's face twisted by fear appearing outside the door.

"Xiufeng, what's wrong?"

When Senggelinqin asked the questions, his heart was in his throat.

Guan Wen is a military general after all, and his face is distorted with fear. Could it be that the Taiping rebels are chasing him?

"Here they come, they are chasing us!" Guan Wen said in a trembling voice.

really!

Senggelinqin stood up immediately and said to Jiang Zhongyuan: "Minqiao, let's go and take a look!"

(End of this chapter)