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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 20: The Unknown Number

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    After the vermilion door of the yamen was opened, in the thick smoke and dust, Qing soldiers filed out one by one, coughing loudly. Everyone's face was covered with snot and tears. After coming out, they lay on the ground and gasped, greedy.  Breathing the fresh air, the weapons in his hands were thrown around casually.

    Seeing the Qing troops coming out, the Taiping Army officers immediately stepped forward, two serving each, and pushed aside the more than two hundred Qing troops who came out. Only then did everyone notice that most of the people here were not wearing Qing uniforms.  These people looked like the servants who looked after the home, the servants of the government office, the cooks, etc.

    Ji Wenyuan spat heavily and cursed loudly: "It turns out that they are the ones who look after the house and the courtyard. No wonder they protect the master so desperately."

    Only then did Xiao Yungui realize that the people in the yamen were the personal followers of officials like Luo Bingzhang who had been following him all year round. If officials like Luo Bingzhang were finished, they would also be unlucky, so they fought desperately, and many of them were Luo Bingzhang.  They are fellow villagers or relatives. As the saying goes, one person can achieve enlightenment, chickens and dogs can ascend to heaven. Every official has many such cronies who make a living by his side.

    Xiao Yungui also began to understand why Zeng Guofan later relied on this kind of relationship between clan, friends, and fellow villagers to raise a Hunan army. In many cases, special nepotism and local relationships between people can easily lead to interdependence.  Relationships, to the extent that there is absolute trust and loyalty to each other.

    Xiao Yungui watched with cold eyes as the prisoners were escorted off one by one. He was surprised not to see any of them wearing official uniforms. In confusion, he ordered Li Zuoche and Tang Erniu to lead people into the Yamen to search carefully.

    After a while, the smoke bombs in the Yamen were cleaned up, and after the bad luck dissipated, Xiao Yungui took Zeng Shuiyuan, Ji Wenyuan and others into the Governor's Yamen. They saw that there were still a few embers inside and dozens of corpses of Qing soldiers.  Falling to the ground, the air was filled with a choking smell.

    Xiao Yungui rubbed his nose and ordered: "Clean this place clean. My handsome tent will be temporarily set up here, and all the injured people will be arranged in the government office. If there is not enough room, we will occupy the residences and government offices of other officials.  Use it, be sure not to disturb the people!"

    Zeng Shuiyuan and Ji Wenyuan bowed to accept the order. As they were talking, they saw Li Zuoche rushing over to report: "His Royal Highness, the King of the West, we have searched inside and outside. There are only some female relatives in the backyard, and there are no clear demons left."  .¡±

    Xiao Yungui exclaimed in wonder: "Where are those dog officials? Could it be that they all have wings and can fly?!"

    Zeng Shuiyuan stepped forward and reminded in a low voice: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, there may be someone suspicious among the pure demons outside."

    Xiao Yungui realized at once, damn it, a bunch of soft-headed dog officers might actually be disguised as soldiers and mixed in with the crowd. They had already left the government office. He slapped his thigh and shouted: "Follow me out quickly, I want to interrogate those prisoners personally."  !" Among the Qing officials here in Changsha, many of them later became the executioners who massacred the Taiping Army, especially the current governor of Hunan, Luo Bingzhang, who was the murderer of Shi Dakai and must be caught and severely punished, although he has nothing yet  Dry.

    After leaving the government office lobby, Xiao Yungui ordered Zeng Shuiyuan to bring in more than two hundred prisoners of the Qing army. After a while, the small courtyard was already full of people. Taiping soldiers were surrounding, holding torches and steel knives.  Watching from the sidelines.

    Xiao Yungui didn't want to talk nonsense. He stood under the eaves of the lobby and looked coldly at the crowd at the stone steps. He shouted loudly: "All the officials inside, stand up for me. Who is Luo Bingzhang? Stand up for me! And Bao Qibao  What? Who is the envoy of Hunan? Where are the magistrates, magistrates, tongpan, grain road, salt road, general soldiers, deputy generals, staff generals, guerrillas, all these officials, big and small? Come forward!"

    No one among the more than two hundred people made a sound. From time to time, someone coughed. Xiao Yungui shouted angrily, loudly and loudly: "If you don't make a sound, we will all be taken out and chopped!" The loud shout frightened a few timid Qingqing in the crowd.  Jun fell to the ground, Xiao Yungui sneered, ordered Zeng Shuiyuan to pull out the timid people.

    Normally, when extorting confessions, you must choose timid people. Xiao Yungui looked at the few soldiers with earth-colored faces coldly, and said with a cruel smile: "Whoever confesses last will be killed!" Several soldiers were frightened by this and fell to their knees.  He kowtowed repeatedly and begged for mercy, but he said he did not know the whereabouts of those officials.

    Xiao Yungui pointed at the first soldier and said coldly: "Pull him down and chop him down!" Several wolf-like Taiping soldiers came up and dragged the man down, and the soldier was so frightened that he screamed loudly.

    "Wait a minute!" I saw a servant in his fifties separated from the crowd and walked out. This man's face was dark but his neck was white. The dark color on his face should be painted by soot, and there was a half-moon under his lip.  He had a shapely beard and a short beard under his chin, but he had a gentle and elegant look. He walked forward with his head held high. The servants and Qing soldiers around him tried to pull him, but they were all brushed away by him. When Xiao Yungui arrived,  Standing in front of him, he said calmly: "You don't need to embarrass him, the Luo Bingzhang you are looking for is here."

      Following Luo Bingzhang, he took out a sweat towel from his sleeve and wiped the soot on his face. He smiled at the crowd and said, "I belong to Futai, a province. If the provincial capital is destroyed, I cannot absolve myself of the blame.  I am ashamed of your kindness to the emperor and ordered the people to fall into the hands of thieves and die. You want me to disguise myself to avoid thieves. It is really ridiculous." Then he turned his head and gave Xiao Yungui a sideways glance and said, "I am right here.  Kill or behead them as you wish."

    Xiao Yungui let out a loud hey. He had the urge to kick Luo Bingzhang a few times. He was so pretentious. He, Luo Bingzhang, must have been afraid of being identified before he showed up righteously. Otherwise, when Xiao Yungui asked him for the first time just now,  , Luo Bingzhang should have come out and scolded him for being a thief chief. Why wait until Xiao Yungui arrested someone and came out for questioning?

    "Where is Bao Qibao, the admiral of Hunan? And where are the officials such as the Hunan inspector, magistrate, tongzhi, tongpan, grain road, and salt road?" Xiao Yungui asked sharply while holding back his anger.

    Luo Bingzhang twirled his beard and smiled lightly: "I have arranged for the remaining people to leave the city and be escorted by Bao Junmen's troops for the time being. Xu Tu slowly advances and continues to exterminate you group of bandits. He will surely conquer Changsha one day and avenge us.  Kill all these long-haired thieves!"

    When Ji Wenyuan and other Taiping generals heard this, they were furious and drew their swords to kill Luo Bingzhang. Xiao Yungui stopped the generals with a smile, looked at Luo Bingzhang and said: "Over there in the granary, we captured the chief envoy who set fire to the grain.  Weng Tongjue, I want to ask who had the fucking idea to set fire to the food?"

    Luo Bingzhang swept away the dust on his body and said calmly: "It is my order. How can the money and food that I have raised so hard be used to support thieves? It would be better to burn it all with a fire. One item of silver, tens of thousands of taels of silver."  , I have asked Bao Junmen to take him away, and I won¡¯t leave even a single cent to you thieves!¡±

    Sure enough, this "pancake Zhang" idea was very vicious. Although Xiao Yungui was furious, he was unable to do anything. He entered the city one by one, unable to besiege Changsha from all sides, and gave the Qing army too much time to calmly prepare to escape.  After the city was broken, Luo Bingzhang was so strong that he cut off his wrist and ordered Bao Qibao to lead the troops to escort the remaining officials and money and food. He burned the food that could not be taken away. Although he had gained a lot of firearms, red powder, and ordnance after a hard work in breaking the city, he had no money and no money.  Food is a matter of extreme distress.

    Ji Wenyuan shouted angrily: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, kill this dog officer." The rest of the Taiping Army also started shouting: "Kill the dog officer! Kill the dog officer!"

    Xiao Yungui took a deep breath, calmed down slowly, waved his hands and said: "Everyone, please be patient, this dog officer is still useful, now he will be imprisoned in the government office, I have my own arrangements." Zeng Shuiyuan followed and ordered his life.  , Ji Wenyuan and others strictly checked whether there were any generals of the Qing army among all the prisoners of the Qing army. All generals above the rank of general were sent to the prison in Daoyamen.

    Ji Wenyuan sent more than ten people to escort Luo Bingzhang down, and then began to screen the prisoners of the Qing army. Zeng Shuiyuan stepped forward and whispered to Xiao Yungui: "Your Highness, the King of the West, there is not much food and grass now, should we use up all the useless soldiers?"  Let go?"

    Xiao Yungui stared with big eyes and said: "Let them go?! After they leave the city, they have nowhere to go and have no food. They will either turn into bandits or attach themselves to Qing Yao again to attack us. We must not let them go!"

    Zeng Shuiyuan frowned and said: "But the food and grass we carry is not much. Originally we were more than 4,000 people, and the food and grass collected along the way was enough for more than a month. Now I am afraid that there are no less than 4,000 Qingyao prisoners, and there are still two or two in the city.  There are 30,000 refugees who need porridge, and they can¡¯t do it without food.¡± Then Zeng Shuiyuan said in a low voice and gloomily: ¡°Why don¡¯t we kill them all?¡±

    Xiao Yungui shook his head and said slowly: "You can't kill prisoners. Most of these Qingyao are local children. If we want to gain a foothold here, we can't do this. If you kill one person, that person's family members in this city will  , How many relatives and friends do you have? If you kill one person, you will offend a group of people. There are still many government and merchant compounds in the city that have not been raided. There will be a way to get money and food. In such a big city of Changsha, I don't believe that the rice and food in the official warehouse will be lost.  We will fucking starve to death. As a rule, you take people to check out the wealthy merchants in the city first, but don¡¯t disturb them yet. I will have my own arrangements in three days."

    Zeng Shuiyuan said in embarrassment: "We don't have much rice, why don't we reduce the rations of the demon captives starting from tomorrow."

    Xiao Yungui said with a gloomy smile: "There is no need to reduce it yet. Starting from tomorrow, we will still give you a dry meal in the morning, thick rice porridge in the evening, and thin rice porridge the next day, and so on."

    Zeng Shuiyuan was very puzzled. He didn't know what Xiao Yungui had planned. This Xi Wang seemed to have a much clearer mind after his horse fell in Chaling. He was no longer the irritable, stingy and irritable Xi Wang before, and he no longer had any negative thoughts about himself.  He obeyed the advice, and he did not dare to disobey King Xi's military order, so he had no choice but to comply.

    Half an hour later, Generals Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang sent people to report that the north gate had been captured. After questioning the Qing army guarding the gate, they learned that the Qing admiral Bao Qibao had indeed escaped from the city with three thousand soldiers and horses.

    After Xiao Yungui pondered for a moment, he went to the government office to talkAt night, the generals were summoned to discuss matters. The King of the West's order came out, and soon all the generals rushed to the government hall to gather together.

    Xiao Yungui sat in the lobby and said solemnly: "Qing Yao Bao Qibao fled with three thousand soldiers and horses. He will definitely ask for help from the other Qing Yao tribes. Now we have less than four thousand soldiers and are guarding a big city like Changsha. If Qing Yao gathers together,  Attack, the situation is definitely not in my favor. Changsha City has been captured, and the orders given by the King of Heaven and King of the East when dispatching troops have been fulfilled. I want to send an envoy in disguise and rush to Chenzhou to deliver a message to inform the King of Heaven and King of the East about the situation here.  , I hope that the troops from the Chenzhou headquarters can come to support us. After all, Changsha is the first provincial city that our Kingdom of Heaven has conquered, and we should invite the Heavenly King and the Eastern King to lead their troops to take charge."

    Zeng Shuiyuan was the first to stand up and said: "What the King of the West said is absolutely true. If we are alone outside, we will be disadvantaged for a long time. It would be better to ask the Chenzhou brigade to send reinforcements."

    Xiao Yungui coughed lightly and said: "But it will take time for the team to come here. We must quickly control the whole city, detect the movements of the demons, and guard Changsha City before Chenzhou soldiers and horses arrive!"

    The generals suddenly accepted the order. Xiao Yungui ordered Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Ji Wenyuan and Zhu Xineng to each lead 500 men and horses to guard four gates. Li Yiwen and Lin Qirong led 500 new soldiers to inspect the remnants of the Qing army in the city and maintain law and order.  Bin and Zhou Zhaoyao led a thousand new troops to guard the prisoners of the Qing army, and let the prisoners of the Qing army do coolies to strengthen the city defenses and repair the damaged houses in the city. Zeng Shuiyuan took charge of the money, food and supplies, appeased the people, and recruited young and strong recruits. Tong Qiang Sheng was still  He led dozens of local Tiandihui brothers out to inquire about the Qing army's movements.

    Finally, Xiao Yungui ordered Zeng Shuiyuan to write a memorial document and ordered people to pretend to be refugees and rush to Chenzhou to deliver the letter.  After everything was settled, Zeng Shuiyuan resigned. Xiao Yungui began to feel confused. He had captured Changsha City and temporarily saved his life. The history he knew seemed to have come to an end at this point, and there was no more to come.  After eighty-one days of fierce battle in Changsha, history has deviated from its original trajectory. Where should I go?  He couldn't predict what would happen next based on the history he knew. From now on, everything would be unknown.

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