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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 195: Jiangbei Camp

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    There is no cool feeling in the summer morning. On the contrary, when the sun comes out, the sultry breath in the air returns to the earth.  On the dirt road south of Yangzhou leading to Guazhou, more than a dozen knights wearing Manchu military attache uniforms were riding towards the Qing army's Jiangbei camp. The dust kicked up by the horses' hooves was so hazy that it made it difficult to open one's eyes.

    The Jiangbei camp was set up by Qi Shan, the Imperial Envoy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty North Road. In early April this year, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom¡¯s West Palace army captured Wuchang, a hundred thousand troops marched eastward along the river. Emperor Xianfeng was ill and sought medical treatment in a hurry. He was sealed off in one breath.  The three imperial ministers were responsible for suppressing bandits, and the imperial minister Qishan was the actual supreme commander of the Qing army in the north.

    Qishan was a member of the Borjit clan, a noble man of the Qing Dynasty. He was born in the Zhenghuang Banner of Manchuria. He served successively as envoy, governor, etc., and reached the rank of governor of Zhili, and bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion.  During the Opium War that year, Qi Shan saw that the British warships had strong guns and powerful guns at the mouth of the Baihe River, so he ordered the fort defenders to withdraw. He also sent Bao Peng, a Cantonese man, to Chuanbiyang to sue for peace from the British army, and made a private agreement with Yilu "Chuanbi."  "Draft Treaty", ceding Hong Kong and paying an indemnity of NT$6 million.  Emperor Daoguang regarded Qishan's unauthorized cession of Hong Kong as a great shame and humiliation. He ordered Suona to be dismissed from his post and his family property was confiscated.  Governor-General and other positions.  This person has had many ups and downs in his life, and he is used to seeing everything in the officialdom.  

    After the decree of Xianfeng arrived in March, Qi Shan, who was originally the governor of Henan, already knew that more and more long-haired bandits in the south were being suppressed, and the army was defeated. He knew that the Eight Banners and Green Camp troops were in decay, and no matter how many troops he had,  He is far from a match for the long-haired bandits who are in the spotlight.  Qishan responded carefully to Xianfeng's order to reinforce Jiangning.  After gathering the troops mobilized from the five provinces in the north of the Yangtze River, Qishan led the army southward. It was very fast at the beginning, but the further south the Qishan soldiers and horses moved slower.  Emperor Xianfeng came several times to urge Qi Shan to move his army southward.  Henan and Anhui were harassed by Nian bandits.

    In fact, Nian banditry is nothing new. "Nuan" is a Huaibei dialect, which means "a group of people." Nuan originated from "Nuanzi". Initially, homeless people in Anhui and Henan pinched paper, ignited grease, and burned oil to twist it.  Paper is used to make magic and gather people to perform during festivals to ward off diseases and disasters for profit.  In the early days of twisting, people collected sesame oil money from villagers to buy oil twisting paper.  later.  There are also phenomena where people are threatened and extorted, but in reality they are just like thieves.  The more famine years there are and the harvest is poor, the more people come into the village. As the saying goes, "those who live in the village are the people, and those who leave the village are the villagers."  Whenever there is a disaster in Anhui, Henan and other places, thieves are everywhere.  But this year's twister is different from previous years.  Because of the massive Taiping uprising, these Nian thieves began to respond to the Taiping uprising.  So it's more purposeful than before.

    Qishan knew very well that Jiangning was absolutely out of the question.  The 20,000 soldiers under his command were simply destined to die, so he began to exaggerate the power of the Nian bandits in Jiangbei.  In fact, everyone knows that although there are many Nian thieves, the current Nian thieves have not yet become the Nian army. The largest group of Nian thieves only has more than a thousand people. Who dares to stroke the tiger's beard of the 20,000 Qing army brigade?  But Qishan took advantage of this.  Often when a sentry cavalry encounters a small group of thieves, he will have to stand still for a few days. He must check the surrounding area clearly before setting off.  This goes back and forth.  The opportunity to rescue Jiang Ning was wasted by Qishan's self-destructive military progress.

    After the fall of Jiangning in May, Qi Shan led a patchwork of 20,000 Qing troops to Yangzhou. They stationed on the outskirts of Yangzhou for several days and reported to the superiors to prevent thieves from raiding Yangzhou.  Unexpectedly, Changmao actually crossed the river a few days later and captured Guazhou.  Master Qishan used his long hair to attack the east and west, and could not avoid the battle, but he firmly defended Yangzhou.  But after Changmao captured Guazhou, he stopped moving. There was not even a shadow of Changmao outside Yangzhou.  In the end, Qi Shan, under the strict decree of the imperial court, had no choice but to rush to the outskirts of Guazhou with his soldiers and horses to set up camp for defense.

    Guazhou is located at the intersection of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Yangtze River. Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty wrote the poem "Boat Guazhou" here: Jingkou Guazhou is separated by water, and Zhongshan is only separated by several mountains.  The spring breeze turns green to the south bank of the river. When will the bright moon shine on me again?  The story of Du Shiniang sinking the treasure chest in anger has been widely circulated for hundreds of years.  Guazhou not only has attractive scenery, but also has a strategic location straddling the north and south, which was full of attractions for the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Rebellion.

    In order to prevent the Taiping Army from moving north, Xianfeng strictly ordered Qishan to move the Jiangbei camp to the outskirts of Guazhou.  In fact, the West Palace Taiping Army in Guazhou does not intend to go north at this moment. They just want to retain a stronghold in Jiangbei to prevent the Jiangbei Camp and the Jiangnan Camp from joining up to attack Zhenjiang or Tianjing. Xiao Yungui is obsessed with taking over the southern part of the Sun.  Home, I can¡¯t even take care of the north.

    Guarding Guazhou are three powerful generals under Luo Gang: Wu Ruxiao, Xie Jinzhang, and Qin Xizhang.  Wu Ruxiao was a native of Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong. He was literate. He first worked as an accountant in the merchant department of the Thirteenth Bank of China in Guangzhou. Later, he went into business in Wuzhou and Xunzhou, lost his capital, and ended up living in Guangxi.  During the Jintian Uprising, he participated in the regiment camp and was appointed commander of the Zuo First Division.  After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom arrived in Changsha in November of the second year of Renzi's reign, he accumulated merit and was promoted to Muyi Zongzhi, and was promoted to Muguanzhengjun. Together with Luo Gangyou and Lu Shunde, he built a water camp.  This person is from GuangxiOld brother, the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing sent him to the water camp with the intention of monitoring Luo Outline.  Xie Jinzhang and Qin Xizhang were Wu Ruxiao's subordinates, and they were both old brothers from Guangxi.

    After Xiao Yungui ordered Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Luo Ganggui and other generals to capture Zhenjiang and Guazhou, he sent troops to the south. Zhenjiang and Guazhou were both very important. Xiao Yungui left Luo Ganggui to guard Zhenjiang, so he ordered Wu Ruxiao to lead the troops to guard Zhenjiang.  Guazhou.  When assigning tasks, Xiao Yungui and Chun Chun told Luo Gangyou and Wu Ruxiao that Zhenjiang and Guazhou were the lifeblood of the Manchu and Qing Dynasty water transportation, and they were also important places for the Kingdom of Heaven to defend Nanjing. Once either of the two places was lost, the West Palace Army would be destroyed.  If the expedition fails, the two of them must guard carefully.  Wu Ruxiao is an old brother from Guangxi. After the Heavenly King and the East King, the person he admires the most is the West King. Naturally, he has no hesitation in this task. However, Xiao Yungui is worried that he is a chess piece sent by the East King to keep an eye on him, so he  He was sent to the north of the Yangtze River to guard an isolated city, so as not to get in the way during his eastern expedition to southern Jiangsu.

    Wu Ruxiao, Xie Jinzhang, and Qin Xizhang were all fierce generals who fought all the way in Guangxi, and they were all good at defense. After arriving in Guazhou, the three generals discussed and dug three long trenches outside Guazhou to introduce river water to block the Qing army's attack;  Several iron ropes were pulled up to block the Qing navy; camps and fortresses were built in the long trenches on the upper, middle and lower continents, with stones on the outside and sand on the inside to block the artillery fire, making Guazhou look like an iron barrel.

    After Qi Shan¡¯s soldiers arrived in Guazhou, he visited the front line to check it out. What made Qi Shan depressed was that although Guazhou was small and had only about 4,000 people, it was still a hard nut to crack and not easy to deal with.  Qishan decided to adopt a war of attrition, use Xiangrong's old method of dealing with the siege of Yong'an, and continue to deal with Guazhou.  So the Jiangbei Camp began to be built. During the confrontation between the two armies, they competed in building forts and digging trenches.

    Outside a Qing army checkpoint leading from the Jiangbei camp to Yangzhou, under an old locust tree, three or four Qing army green battalion soldiers were enjoying the coolness and drinking tea under the tree with their chests exposed.  He waved a oscillating fan with one hand and rubbed his sweating chest with the other hand, and said in his mouth: "Brothers, have you heard that Ma Laosan and a few soldiers made a fortune last night when they were guarding the checkpoint?  The accents of all the merchants were from Jiujiang, and Ma Laosan and the others robbed them. Several traders were beaten up by Ma Laosan and the others. Haha, when I went to see them, several of them were stripped naked.  The whole body was covered with blood like a gourd. I didn¡¯t expect that these vendors also brought their families, and I don¡¯t know whose mother-in-law was crying all over the place. She dragged Ma Lao San and the others, and was fucked by Ma Lao San"

    "Brother Quan, what did Ma Lao San do to that woman? Could it be that she was also stripped naked?"

    Brother Quan shook off the sweat from his hands and said with a chuckle: "That's not true. Although I wasn't stripped naked, a big piece of cloth was pulled off my chest, and my pants were pulled down to my thighs. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk,  That woman is quite delicious."

    Another soldier, Yong Yong, chuckled and said, "Brother Quan, you should go up and try to persuade me. Maybe you can take advantage of the chaos and get some help."

    Brother Quan said with a bright smile: "Brother Quan, who are you, do you need to remind me? At that time, I rushed up, pushed those stupid soldiers away, put the woman in my arms, tut tut,  That figure is really unspeakable. It's a pity that those vendors were convicted of having an affair with a long-haired thief. Chen Junmen ordered them to be killed on the spot. Even the woman was killed. It was a pity. If we meet again today  If you get into such a good thing, you must first feel comfortable with it and then hand it over to the military."

    All the waiters laughed when they heard this, and then they saw dust flying from a distance. Brother Quan stood up, looked at it from a distance, and exclaimed: "There are more than ten riders coming on the official road. I don't know if they are enemies or friends."  , brothers copy the guy!"

    Several Qing soldiers hurriedly hid behind the wooden fence of the checkpoint and raised their spears. A timid Qing soldier couldn't help but asked in a trembling voice: "Brother Quan, are you going back to the camp to move reinforcements?"

    Brother Quan slapped the soldier on the back of the head and cursed angrily: "Do you have a brain? You ran away when you saw the momentum was wrong, and you even brought bullshit reinforcements!"

    Fortunately, the dozen or so riders were running closer, and Brother Quan could see clearly with his sharp eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "They are one of our own, dressed in the uniform of a military attach¨¦!"

    After more than a dozen riders approached, Brother Quan also saw it clearly. He couldn't help being startled. The dozen or so people in front of him were all in the uniforms of fourth-grade military attach¨¦s. Before Brother Quan could turn around and speak, a middle-aged man appeared on the horse.  He jumped down in a hurry.

    This man has a face that looks like a Chinese character and is very fair. He has a big, thick and long braid that is neatly combed and casually draped over his shoulders. On a hot day, he is wearing a fourth-grade military attach¨¦ uniform with a mysterious belt around his waist, which makes him look very attractive.  Clean and neat, without any sloppiness.

    Brother Quan saw that this man was looking impressive, so he stepped forward and asked in an authentic Beijing voice: "What do you call this gentleman? The commander-in-chief of Zhou Quan is the commander-in-chief of Chen Junmen, the commander-in-chief of Zhili."

    The middle-aged military attache snorted contemptuously, raised his whip in his hand and shouted: "You are the third-class servant in the palace."Wei Chengen, come to pay a visit to the imperial envoy Qishan, hurry up and lead the way!  "

    This group of people were the stick guards of the Shangyu reserve department led by Ronglu. After taking a boat from Shanghai that night, Ronglu and others rushed to Taizhou after crossing the river that night.  After receiving secret orders from Sushun at a secret stronghold of the Niangan Guards in Taizhou, Sushun ordered Ronglu and others to finish their errands in Shanghai and then rush to the Jiangbei Camp to document what they saw and heard in the Jiangbei Camp.  Just give back.  In fact, Emperor Xianfeng became suspicious of Qishan's inaction and ordered people to investigate. After Ronglu received the order, he and Cheng'en rushed to the Jiangbei camp with their troops.  (To be continued.)
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