The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 186 Goodbye, Zuo Zongtang!

Cheng Yancai had no time to consider whether Luo Bingzhang had deceived the emperor, because his own place of duty, Wuchang Prefecture, would soon be in danger!

He was just laughing at Luo Bingzhang's joke, but he didn't expect that after a while he would become the same as Luo Bingzhang!

Thinking of this, Cheng Yancai hurriedly asked Luo Bingzhang: "Ru Zhai, is Hubei Governor Shuangfu in Changsha?"

"Shuang Jun is in Changsha City," Luo Bingzhang immediately understood what General Cheng meant and frowned slightly, "Qingchu, do you want to transfer all the Green Camp soldiers of Shuang Junmen back to guard Wuchang?"

"That's right!" Cheng Yancai nodded and said sincerely, "Ruzhai, the government troops are now defeated in Hunan, and Changsha can't be defended at all. Why don't we abandon Changsha and go to Wuchang together, and concentrate the elite troops in the two lakes to defend Wuchang! As long as Wuchang can be defended, we can contain the Taiping rebels in Xianghu."

You Cheng Yancai, you want to harm me!

How old is Luo Bingzhang? He immediately understood what General Cheng was thinking - to pull all the soldiers from Changsha to defend Wuchang, so that Wuchang might have a chance to be defended, but Luo Bingzhang would be miserable, not only losing the city he was guarding, but also losing his soldiers! Wouldn't he let Cheng take the blame later?
"General Cheng," Luo Bingzhang's tone suddenly became serious, "I am the acting governor of Hunan. I am a minister who guards the territory of a certain region. I should live and die with Changsha! General Cheng can take the Hubei soldiers in Changsha away. But my Hunan soldiers must guard the land of Hunan. There is absolutely no reason for me to ignore my hometown and go to guard Wuchang."

Cheng Yancai did not say anything more to Luo Bingzhang. The Hunan troops in Changsha now consisted of Luo Bingzhang's Fu Biao and the militia recruited by Zuo Zongtang and Luo Zenan. Cheng Yancai had no power to command them.

"Ke Zhai," Cheng Yancai bowed to Shengbao again, "Are your Demon-Subduing Battalion and Gansu-Shaanxi Green Battalion soldiers also staying in Changsha?"

Shengbao has become smart now and knows that he can't easily follow Cheng Yancai to fall into Wuchang's trap.

Changsha looked dangerous, but in fact, the two sides were already "doing business" and would not take it seriously. Moreover, the emperor must have been mentally prepared for the fall of Changsha and would not delve into it. If Zuo Zongtang could reach an agreement with Luo Yaoguo and let Luo Bingzhang hold on for another ten days or half a month, Xianfeng might think that the troops in Changsha had worked very hard.

On the contrary, Wuchang City is very dangerous!
Because Wuchang was a must-take for the Taiping Army, and a must-defend for the Qing Dynasty. If Shengbao rushed in, then Emperor Xianfeng would definitely make him live and die with Wuchang. It's not a matter of living and dying together, it can only be a matter of dying together.

Thinking of this, he said with a serious face: "General Cheng, Shengbao was ordered by the emperor to come to Hunan to suppress the bandits. Now that the bandits in Hunan have not been eliminated, how can Shengbao leave Hunan and go to Hubei without permission?"

Cheng Yancai was speechless. The bandits in Hunan had not been eliminated, but the Hunan government troops were almost eliminated. Why were they still suppressing the bandits? They were almost being suppressed by the bandits! Shengbao looked quite smart, but how could he be a fool at heart?

When Cheng Yancai was feeling sorry for Shengbao's low IQ, Hubei Governor Shuangfu and Imperial Envoy Sushun walked in together.

Shuangfu had just heard that his superior Cheng Yancai had led several hundred people from the west bank of the Xiang River to Changsha by boat, and he knew something was wrong! The governor of Huguang had two to three thousand people, but now there were only a few hundred left? And wasn't Cheng Yancai stationed in Xiangtan, under the control of the imperial commissioner Sai Shang'a (actually the assistant minister Senggelinqin)?

Why did he come to Changsha? Did Xiangtan lose?
If Xiangtan is defeated, we can't stay in Changsha anymore, we have to leave quickly!

Sushun's expression was even uglier than Shuangfu's, because the correspondence between him and Senggelinqin had been interrupted for two days!
Ever since Senggelinqin led his troops to Shaoyang, he and Senggelinqin had been exchanging letters every day. The last letter was sent by Senggelinqin four days ago after he entered Hengshan County. If Senggelinqin was defeated, then Hunan would indeed be hopeless, and the next step would be to plan a "pacification of the Three Feudatories".

But he can't go to Wuchang now, but has to go to Changde. The Qing Dynasty needs Zeng Guofan!
Zuo Zongtang stood aside, looking at the adults in the room, and thought: "The Qing Dynasty really has no Hunan now! It seems that I have to contact that Luo Tianshi again as soon as possible."

Orange Island.

Luo Yaoguo was holding Su Sanniang's hand, and the two stood side by side on a high ground, looking at the Xiangjiang River going north, with serious faces, as if thinking about something.

This place. He had come here to play with his classmates when he was in college, but that was more than a hundred years later!

Back then we were young students in the prime of our life!
I didn't expect that when I came to Orange Island again, everything had changed and the world had changed a lot!
Back in the day, this place was still beautiful and full of tourists. But now, when I come here again, it is just a desolate state, with only the vast land and the surging Xiang River, unchanged. I wonder who is in charge of this world?
As Luo Yaoguo was sighing, he suddenly heard a female voice like a silver bell behind him: "Your Highness, Mr. Zuo is here!"

He quickly turned around and saw Wang Xier, wearing a little red robe and a little red hat, leading a short and fat man in plain clothes who was already behind him. The short and fat man in plain clothes was Zuo Zongtang, with whom Luo Yaoguo had had a long talk before.

Luo Yaoguo turned around, clasped his fists towards Zuo Zongtang, and said with a smile: "Mr. Ji Gao, how are you?" Zuo Zongtang laughed and returned the greeting: "Thanks to you, Zongtang's career in Xianghu has also improved greatly!"

Then he nodded to Su Sanniang again, and Su Sanniang nodded in return without saying anything. She just stood behind Luo Yaoguo with her head lowered.

Zuo Zongtang smiled and asked Luo Yaoguo: "I heard that Tianshi and Lady Su are going to get married soon. Is this a double happiness?"

Luo Yaoguo clasped his fists and said, "I am happy, I am happy. Mr. Ji Gao, given the current situation, Hunan has been lost, right? I wonder if Mr. Ji Gao wants the title of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?"

Zuo Zongtang shook his head and said slowly: "When I was at Chaozongmen that day, I told His Highness the Angel very clearly that if the Angel fulfills Hongwu's ambition in the future, Zongtang will follow him."

"However, Hongwu's ambition was to follow the example of the Han and Tang dynasties, to respect Confucianism, and to re-establish moral principles! The Ming Dynasty founded by Emperor Hongwu was definitely not the Mingjiao Dynasty! After Hongwu gained control of the world, he practiced Confucianism, not the Mingjiao heresy."

"And the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom today is still a country that worships God, not a country of Confucianism. Zongtang believes that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom today is just like the Red Turbans of Han and Song, and is definitely not the work of Hongwu Zhu Ming."

"If His Royal Highness the Angel has the ambition of Hongwu, he should have made plans earlier, left the Ming Cult, established the Ming Dynasty, and saved the people with the righteous Confucian way. This is also Zongtang's ambition!"

"I see."

Luo Yaoguo nodded slightly, with a hint of disappointment on his face.

After listening to Zuo Zongtang's speech, Luo Yaoguo already knew that this most outstanding politician and military strategist of the late Qing Dynasty was not the same kind of person as himself after all!

Zuo Zongtang was, after all, a Confucian scholar of the Xianghu School of Statecraft. Even though he had the ambition to oppose the Qing Dynasty, he still expected a leader like Zhu Yuanzhang who could bring China back to the traditional path of Confucianism and the laws of the Han and Tang dynasties, rather than a "great god" like Hong Xiuquan who worshipped foreign gods, nor an "angel" like Luo Yaoguo who fought against the local tyrants and distributed land.

Luo Yaoguo didn't have to perform the shaman dance. His shaman dance was only used to fool the kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and to squeeze into the real decision-making circle of the Heavenly Kingdom. It was not performed for those below him.

But his line was not the so-called "Confucian orthodoxy". This was because Confucianism was a "way" controlled by intellectuals from the landlord class. If Luo Yaoguo wanted to follow the Confucian orthodoxy, he would not have been able to carry out the large-scale land distribution.

Without dividing the land, it would not only be impossible to achieve control over the rural areas, but also impossible to ease the acute contradiction between people and land. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were only tens of millions of people in the world, and the contradiction between people and land was not prominent, so there was a lot of room for maneuver.

There are now a little over 400 million people in the world, and the per capita arable land in the 18 provinces of Han is just over two mu at most. This also includes data on a large amount of low-yield dry land and sloping land!

Under the technological conditions of the 19th century, this meant that the countryside was a powder keg that could explode at any time!
Redistributing the land could at least stabilize the situation for 20 to 30 years, which would provide some room for maneuver and perhaps allow us to find a way out before this powder keg explodes.

If the land is not redistributed, Luo Yaoguo doesn't know what to do?
You can't just follow Zeng Guofan's example and become a shaver, right?

Thinking of this, he clasped his fists towards Zuo Zongtang and said, "Mr. Ji Gao, it seems that you and I have different paths after all! But Yaoguo hopes that if you succeed, you will not be a slave, but the master of the world!"

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said with a smile: "A real man should be like this!"

"Okay! Let's say goodbye now!"

"See you later!"

(End of this chapter)