Han’s Son is Not a Slave

Chapter 461: Expanding the Army (Part 1)

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Su Rile's rebellion brought the Taiping Army's Eastern Expedition to an end. After seeing the head of Jidu, Zhou Shixiang fulfilled his promise and allowed the remnants of the Jieshiwei Qing army to surrender. A total of 3120 Mongolian soldiers, 148 Manchu soldiers, and Han soldiers were obtained. Army 275 people. Another 2,850 horses, 1,460 pieces of armor, and several weapons were obtained.

During the Eastern Expedition, the Taiping Army destroyed a total of more than 14,000 Qing troops, including more than 1,200 Manchu soldiers, more than 1,500 Mongolian soldiers, more than 4,600 Han troops, more than 4,000 Northern Green Battalion soldiers, and more than 3,000 Chaozhou Green Battalions.

The Qing army successively killed Commander Wu Zhenchaoha, Duke Xushun Shen Yongxing, Commander Ji Dali of the Manchu Frontier Battalion, Guangdong Admiral Wu Liuqi and below 123 Manchu, Mongolian and Han generals. The commander of the Qing army, General Dingyuan, Prince Jian Jidu, Dutong Nahai, and Beldueryou were killed by Mongolian soldiers. In addition, Liu Zhong, the general soldier of Guide, and Zhang Chao, the general soldier of Nanyang, led their troops to surrender. The true commander Yang Zhenwei and Tongzhou commander Zhang Dan died of illness and infighting.

After Jidu's death, Zhou Shixiang immediately ordered to surrender the Mongolian soldiers to Puning to attack Lu Guangzu's army. He thought that Lu Guangzu would flee back to Chaozhou to defend himself. He didn't want to see that after the Mongolian soldiers had surrendered to the Taiping Army, Lu Guangzu immediately sent a letter of surrender and led his troops. Four thousand battalions and the Chaozhou city surrendered.

When he decided to surrender, Lu Guangzu was afraid that the Fujian Green Camp would not surrender together, so he tricked the Fujian generals and put down the sword and axemen behind the army tent. Later, Lu Guangzu ordered Li Tianshui, Shi Qing and other officers to lead people to control the Fujian battalion, and sent people to the Taiping Army to hand over the surrender letter. Along with Lu Guangzu, there were also officials appointed by the Qing court, including Chaozhou prefect Wu Wenxian and Haiyang magistrate Song Guozhong.

Zhou Shixiang knew that Lu Guangzu was surrendering sincerely, because Ji Du's death left the deputy commander Wuzhen Chaoha no choice. The Qing court would definitely hold the prince accountable for his death in battle. At that time, he, a Han Chinese who had escaped from defeat, would definitely be slaughtered as a scapegoat. , so his only option was to surrender.

After accepting Lu Guangzu's surrender, Zhou Shixiang ordered the surrendered Chaozhou prefect, Wu Wenxian, to lead people to the Chaozhou counties still controlled by the Qing army to persuade him to surrender. It is stated clearly that if there are those who do not surrender, the Taiping army will arrive immediately, and after the city is broken, no matter the officials, the army or the people, the old and the weak, women and children will all be slaughtered.

By the death of Jidu and the coercion of massacres. Chaozhou counties have changed their flags one after another. Except for Puning, Huilai, and Haiyang County, where the Chaozhou Fucheng, which had been occupied by the Taiping Army, was located, other counties in Chaozhou were successively restored. There are seven counties in Jieyang, Chengxiang, Raoping, Zhenping, Dapu, Pingyuan and Chenghai, with a total population of 84,000 and a population of more than 136,000. In addition, there were more than 3,000 garrison battalions in seven counties.

All the officials appointed by the Qing court in the seven counties surrendered, and no one closed the city to resist. For these demotions, Zhou Shixiang remained in office, and the Chaozhou prefect also asked Wu Wenxian to continue to be in charge, and only those battalions were transferred to Puning for reorganization.

In addition to the county seat in Chaozhou, there are more than 100 large and small stockades. Zhou Shixiang ordered Lu Guangzu's department to level these stockades, and those who wished to surrender would all be made into a whole book, and those who did not surrender would be uprooted. With the assistance of Lu Guangzu's department and the returning battalions from various counties, it took only half a month to remove all these fortresses.

The Taiping army after the war was in urgent need of replenishment. The original four towns had to be expanded to eight to ten towns in order to cope with the next campaign of the Western Expedition. Therefore, except for the surrendered and captured Qing troops who were all included in the Taiping army, those who accompanied the army and civilians were not released. back. Zhou Shixiang also asked the counties in Chaozhou to select the elites and send them to Puning according to the method of drawing one out of three pieces. In this way, they got 7,000 people, plus the Qing army and the people who had surrendered in the early stage. In Chaozhou alone, there are more than 20,000 people who can be replenished by the Taiping army.

The first town suffered the heaviest casualties during the Battle of Xuanwu Mountain. There was only one brigade left in the three brigade, and it was in urgent need of replenishment. Zhou Shixiang ordered 5,000 people to be transferred to the first town from the surrendered army, 500 people from the Guide general army Liu Zhong's army, 400 Nanyang general staff Zhang Chao, 600 Chaozhou Green Camp, 1200 Lu Guangzu's army, and Han army. 200 people. The rest are selected from the Chaozhou garrison battalion and young men, so that the first town is completed.

In view of the fact that there were more than 3,000 Mongolian soldiers who came to surrender. If it was to be made by itself, it would be difficult to control it in the future, so Zhou Shixiang built another cavalry battalion system in the first, second, and third towns. Split the Mongolian soldiers into the towns. Although this move made Su Rile dissatisfied, he had to do it under the strength of the Taiping Army. In this way, in the first, second and third towns, there are 7475 infantry brigades and 775 cavalry battalions, and the actual number of soldiers is 8250.

The remaining Mongolian soldiers were still organized into cavalry brigades, and the cavalry battalions in each town were commanded independently by each town when they were not assembled in battles.

The First Township returned to Guangzhou by land immediately after taking a three-day rest in Puning after the replenishment of the personnel. Zhou Shixiang established the sixth town, with Suna, a Manchurian, as the town general, and Lu Guangzu as the deputy general. The soldiers of the sixth town are composed of Fujian soldiers, Chaozhou soldiers and Chaozhou youths. They do not have cavalry battalions. There are actually 7475 soldiers.

Suna was very happy to learn that he had been appointed as a town general, and asked Zhou Shixiang for an order to specially send the hundreds of Manchu soldiers who had surrendered with Eduo to his town. In this regard, Zhou Shixiang readily agreed and ordered Suna to arrange the Manchu soldiers on his own.

The replenishment time of the sixth town was a little longer, and in addition to the need to adapt to the military system of the Taiping Army, officers at the brigade school level also needed to be transferred from the old town of the Taiping Army, so after half a month of rest in Puning, they moved to Huizhou Haifeng for garrison. .

The Fifth Town, which was originally stationed in Puning, was transferred to Chaozhou for garrison. The Fifth Town was originally adapted from the surrendered soldiers of the Green Battalion in Guangzhou~www.NovelMTL.com~ During the grain harvesting in Chaozhou, many Qing soldiers, prisoners and village soldiers were captured. No need to supplement, but the combat power is not high, and the military discipline is also unbearable. In order to solve this problem, Zhou Shixiang ordered the fifth town and the second town to exchange a brigade, and the Huang Sicheng brigade of the fifth town and the Yu Shizhong brigade of the second town were exchanged, which not only guaranteed the combat effectiveness of the fifth town, but also ensured the Military discipline in the five towns can be effectively supervised.

Yu Shizhong's brigade showed super strong combat effectiveness during the Lufeng defense battle. Although Yu Shizhong's training method was based on Qi's army, which was different from Zhou Shixiang's infantry code of conduct, Zhou Shixiang did not mind as long as he could show combat effectiveness. Shizhong's training method, he is very pleased that Qi's army can continue in the Taiping army.

One Yu Shizhong alone was enough to stabilize the fifth town, and Zhou Shixiang ordered Duke Xiang of Song to immediately dispatch an army envoy from Guangzhou to fill the fifth town to ensure the military discipline of the fifth town. Zhou Shixiang issued a strict order to Zhao Ziqiang, prohibiting further looting in Chaozhou. Just a verbal warning is not enough. The transfer of Yu Shizhong Brigade is a means. The sixth town stationed in Haifeng is also a sharp blade hanging over Zhao Ziqiang's head. Six towns are enough for Zhao Ziqiang to weigh in.

The second town has not returned to Guangzhou for the time being. After resolving the Chaozhou issue, Zhou Shixiang must resolve the Huizhou issue. He intends to reorganize Hu Qili's department into the seventh town. (To be continued.)

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