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The fourth night of the ninth lunar month. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Ma Ping, the governor of Liuzhou Prefecture, Guangxi, sat in the hall in the prefect's yamen, closed his eyes and recuperated, it was Zhang Qihan, who had just been appointed as the acting prefect. There were seven or eight staff members and long-looking figures waiting on the side, as if they were persuading something.

"My lord, just now the spies came to report that the long-haired bandits had captured Yurong County at noon today, and I am afraid that they will arrive in Fucheng tomorrow. Where there is life, there is hope! Let's go to Nanning Mansion as soon as possible. ”

"That's right! My lord, I think we don't have to run to Nanning Mansion, as long as we just go to the countryside of Maping to hide, we will be safe. When the thieves are gone, come back closer. ”

"Yes, sir. You have survived for so many years, but you only got an acting prefect, and this court is too incapable of employing people. In that case, why do you have to work so hard for him? It's not worth it. Let's stay out of the way sooner, shall we? ”

"That's it! I know that you are not willing to bury me as a half-buried man, so go away. Let me be alone for a moment. Zhang Qihan opened his eyes, his eyes full of disappointment and helplessness.

"My lord! The little one has served the adults for so many years, and he can't bear to leave the adults. Why don't you let the little one change your clothes and stay in the city inn for a few days? ”

"That's it! Zhang Er, your luggage is all packed, just hurry up. As the prefect of the fourth rank of the Great Qing Dynasty, since he sat in the yamen, how could he be afraid of the thieves and lose the dignity of the court? ! Even if the thieves are menacing, they can't let the official be like a lost dog, stealing his life. Zhang Qihan spoke firmly, closed his eyes, and no longer paid attention to everyone.

"Alas! .....Take care, sir! The little ones went. ”

………….

On the morning of the next day, Li Kaifang led 7,000 holy soldiers to Liuzhou, and saw that the gate of Liuzhou Mansion was wide open, and thousands of people with red scarves had already greeted the holy army by the official road outside the city gate.

The first two people greeted him first, and the swordsman led him to Li Kaifang, and the two of them saluted and said, "Zhang Ying, He Wan to meet the general!" The two younger ones are both from Maping County, and they usually respect the Taiping Army. Knowing that the general led the Taiping army to kill Liuzhou, he led more than 1,400 brothers to defect, and it happened that the officers and soldiers of Liuzhou Mansion were scared away by the general's heavenly soldiers, so they took the opportunity to occupy the city gate and welcome the heavenly soldiers into the city! ”

Li Kaifang pulled up the two of them and said cordially: "Brother Zhang, Brother He, the two righteous men led all the brothers to join my holy army, this is a great thing for my Taiping Holy Army." From now on, it's my own family! The two brothers rest assured, Li will definitely hurry up to report to the Holy King and ask for credit for the two! ”

Li Kaifang had long found out that the Liuzhou Mansion originally had few Qing soldiers, and there were about 400 people in the Liuzhou City Defense Battalion in the city, and there was more than 500 people in the right battalion of Liuqing Association in the suburbs. The Qing army was already scattered, and the deputy general who commanded Liu Qingxie abandoned the camp and fled when he heard that the Taiping army was attacking with tens of thousands of horses, and there was no one to command, so the Qing soldiers and soldiers naturally scattered and fled for their lives. As soon as the Qing soldiers fled, the capital city of Liuzhou was in chaos, and the gentry, regimental warriors and officials also hid in the countryside.

When Li Kaifang and others rushed to the mansion, Governor Zhang had committed suicide by taking poison and had been dead for a long time. Seeing that the corpse had stiffened, Governor Zhang's mansion bound himself to a chair with a rope, and was still sitting upright in the public court, Li Kaifang couldn't smile bitterly. Foolish man, tell his subordinates to throw him into the Liujiang River outside the city, and let him go to the water to serve the Qing Demon.

After capturing the capital city of Liuzhou without much effort, Li Kaifang did not stop, and then led his troops south. Within half a month, Xiangzhou, Wuxuan, Laibin, Pennzhou, Sienfu, Qianjiang, Shanglin, and Wuyuan were all captured in one go, and each place did not encounter decent resistance from the Qing army.

Li Kaifang strictly ordered the main force of the Taiping Holy Army not to enter the counties and counties, and only sent a small number of holy soldiers to raid the official treasury and seize property. At the same time, a small amount of property was distributed to the surrounding people, buying the hearts of the people, and taking the opportunity to recruit troops. At the same time, after Li Kaifang took the property, he did not divide troops to garrison the prefectures and counties, but only recruited some heaven and earth congregations, and sent a few holy soldiers to lead them to be responsible for the security of the county. In this way, the Holy Army led by each county recruited two or three thousand people, like a snowball, rolling more and more. By the time Wu Yuan arrived, Li Kaifang's original 7,000 holy soldiers had expanded to more than 31,000.

However, Li Kaifang always formed the original 7,000 holy soldiers into a separate army to maintain elite combat power. The remaining 24,000 new congregations and people also distributed weapons seized from the counties and armed them as a help.

………….

Soon after sending troops from Guilin, Luo Qiongshu discussed with Li Kaifang whether he could divide his troops and capture all parts more quickly. Li Kaifang also felt reasonable, so he ordered Luo Qiongshu to lead 3,000 holy soldiers alone to march to Qingyuan Mansion in the west, and finally the two of them besieged Nanning Mansion again.

Less than a day after leaving Guilin, Luo Qiongshu led 3,000 holy soldiers to easily occupy Yongning County, which was defended by only 300 Qing soldiers. Under the leadership of the local hunter guide, it took two days to climb over the heavy Miao Mountains and enter --- Rong County, Miao Township, Liuzhou Prefecture.

It coincided with tens of thousands of small birds pecking at the seedlings in Rong County in March, and a locust plague occurred in July, and most of the grain was not harvested. Han tenants and Miao people of seven or eight thousand, starving, under the leadership of Han Fengqiao, a native of Liucheng, Xiao Yaji, a native of Rongxian and others, erected flags at the border of Qingliu Town, Rong County, and besieged Qingliu Town to grab grain.

Lu Jiyun, the commander of Rongxian County, led a regiment to train more than 1,000 people, and Liu Anhua, Wu Xianting, the head of the county regiment, Lai Youfan, the head of the Qingliu Town Regiment, and Xiao Qifan, the head of the Chang'an Town Regiment, followed.

Lu Jiyun was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly changed his mind, and discussed with Han Fengqiao, Xiao Yaji and others who robbed the grain, and let him send troops and train Xiangyong to deal with the long-haired thief army, and the county paid grain as a reward.

Han Fengqiao, Xiao Yaji and others were honest tenants, and when they heard that the county magistrate promised to give each of them a position as the head of the regiment, as well as a hundred taels of silver and thirty acres of fertile land, the key was that the county magistrate promised to give them food to survive the famine, so he agreed.

On the morning of this day, on the official road by the Rongjiang River, seven miles away from Rong County, Luo Qiongshu led three thousand holy soldiers to rest, and suddenly the sentinel came to report that there were three teams of nearly 10,000 men and horses, totaling nearly 10,000, attacking from the direction of the county seat.

Luo Qiongshu was shocked, before setting off from Guilin, the Holy King had analyzed for everyone that the Qing army in Guangxi was scattered, and it was difficult to deploy and concentrate the troops, and the number of Qing soldiers was small, and the training was negligent and the combat effectiveness was low. Except for Guilin and Nanning, the rest of the regular green battalion has less than 1,000 troops. Why does this small Rong County have nearly 10,000 troops?

But after all, Luo Qiongshu was born as a boat bandit in the Heaven and Earth Society, and he had just broken through Guilin City, although he was anxious in his heart, he would not flee without a fight. At the moment, the token knife hand is in front, holding the card knife in the right hand and the rattan shield in the left; The shotgunners were behind, and the 200 gunners behind surrounded the artillery, set it up, and waited for the Qing army to attack at a close point.

Han Fengqiao led more than 5,000 tenants, armed with sticks, iron forks, and firewood knives, and without waiting for Lu Jiyun to give an order, he waved the big flag in his hand and ordered everyone to attack the Taiping Holy Army.

A thousand steps, eight hundred steps, five hundred steps!

"Gunner, fire!" With an order, more than 20 small artillery pieces of the Taiping Holy Army opened fire on the tenants who rushed over.

Boom, all the way along the official road of the Rongjiang River was flat, and after a cannon hit a tenant, the bloody body and the cannon continued to impact forward, and the cannon bullet jumped and injured more than 20 people before it stopped. The tenants were horrified when they saw the power of the cannonballs. Seeing that the artillery was coming again, the already densely packed team of tenants competed to dodge, causing a stampede, and hundreds of people were not hit by the shells, but were trampled and injured by their accomplices, and dozens of people were trampled to death.

With the completion of a round of shells, nearly 1,000 tenants have been killed or wounded, most of which were caused by dodging the shells and stampeding on them.

At this time, half of the tenants did not dare to rush forward, and Han Fengqiao continued to rush forward with more than 2,000 tenants.

Three hundred steps, two hundred steps, one hundred steps!

"Bang! ....bang! Before Luo Qiongshu could give the order, the shotgunners couldn't help but start shooting. The 3,000 Holy Army led by Luo Qiongshu had nearly 2,000 spearmen, divided into three columns. In a few moments, the first column of shotgunners had finished firing, took two steps back, crouched down to charge, and prepared the second round. The second column followed and took a step forward, and there was no need to aim, just shoot forward, anyway, the black pressure was full of people.

Before the third shotgunner could fire, the tenants had stopped rushing forward, turned and fled. They were terrified, Ning Yuan starved to death, and did not want to face such a demonic murderous army. Because of the two rounds of shotgun just now, they have already killed and wounded nearly 600 people.

Han Fengqiao, who rushed to the front, was the most miserable, his whole body was full of blood holes, and it had become an irregular sieve.