Early the next morning, the Taiping army that rested for a day marched to Xinhui City, in order to capture Xinhui in one fell swoop, not only the five battalions of the front battalion all went to battle, but all the security guards of the rear battalion were also ordered to follow the army, in addition, Song Xianggong also organized 500 strong women to hide in the army in men's clothes, and finally brought the captured chariots and horses, in order to confuse the Xinhui defenders, creating the illusion that the Taiping soldiers were numerous and the army was coming.

Zhu Er's cavalry team continued to serve as the sentinel of the whole army after replenishing more than a dozen soldiers who could ride horses, responsible for guarding and transmitting military information along the way. The cavalry team also found several teams of Qing troops on the road, but the other party obviously had no intention of entanglement with the Taiping army.

There was no Qing army to stop all the way, the Taiping army arrived at Xinhui City when it was sunset, the Qing army in the city was guarded according to the city, the four gates were closed, there was no intention of going out of the city and the Taiping army to compete, obviously the destruction of Wu Jinzhong's department let the Qing army in the city know that this point of soldiers and horses in the city alone was not the opponent of the Taiping army, so it was the same as last year's Li Dingguo's army to attack as a shrinking turtle, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from Guangzhou.

The Qing army in the city did not come out, which was exactly what Zhou Shixiang wanted, and he didn't care about seeing his hometown again, let alone going to see the empty tomb he had piled up with his own hands, so he ordered the Hujie camp to guard the Qing army in the city, and the rest of the battalions were camped under Xinhui City.

Zhu's second cavalry team was ordered to swim under the city in order to induce the Qing army in the city to fire artillery, so as to measure the range of the Qing army's artillery, but the Qing army in the city did not release artillery, and only used bows and arrows to drive away when the cavalry team approached.

Seeing that the cavalry could not lure the defenders, Zhou Shixiang immediately ordered the Zhenyu battalion to feint and attack the city, this time successfully inducing the Qing army to open fire, and the range of the Hongyi cannon was about three miles, but the price paid for this was more than 30 lives.

When the Qing army opened fire, many soldiers in the Taiping army were shocked. Lying on the ground with his ears covered and not daring to move, only those officers and veterans who had heard the sound of explosions in Luoding had a calm face, not afraid of the loud thunder at all. Instead, he made fun of the recruits who were so scared that they were about to pee their pants. Being so ashamed of the veterans, the recruits were all red-faced. But the fear in my heart inadvertently faded.

Although he was not afraid that the Qing army in the city would dare to go out of the city and attack at night, Zhou Shixiang still led people to inspect the battalions, ordered each battalion to dig trenches, deploy light and dark sentinels, and formulated a charter for how to deal with each battalion after the night attack of the Qing army.

The women who came with the army were also busy preparing food, and in order to prevent the soldiers from becoming emboldened, Zhou Shixiang placed the women's battalion on the rear side, and he personally led the guard battalion to cut through it. and dispatched a team of guards to undertake the patrol task of the women's battalion, and at the same time issued a strict order that anyone who dares to sneak into the women's camp without permission will be beheaded!

Under this strict order, Zhou Shixiang also had no choice, who let the current Taiping Army soldiers too mixed, whether it was officers or soldiers, military quality and personal morality were not too good, and the situation in the camp was described by three religions and nine streams. It's a bit excessive, but it's not far off.

Zhou Shixiang has reason to believe that there will definitely be some unbearable people among his subordinates. The war is imminent, in order to prevent unnecessary things, it is better for him to say ugly things in front, lest there are really people who are afraid and insects will do something ugly.

There was nothing wrong that night, the Qing army did not come to attack at night, and there was no scandal in the camp.

The next day, according to the suggestion of Song Xianggong, Zhou Shixiang escorted the captured Han military banner and more than 20 green battalion soldiers who slaughtered women and children to the city. The first messenger persuaded the Qing army in the city to surrender, but the answer in the city was three cannon shots.

The refusal of the Qing army defending the city to surrender was expected by Zhou Shixiang. Not surprisingly, after the Qing army opened fire. He ordered the captives to be taken to the front of the army, and beheaded them one by one in front of the Qing troops in the city.

In the past, this kind of slaughter of prisoners in front of the enemy's fortified city must be an unwise act, because the consequences of this can only arouse the determination of the defenders to resist to the end, and it will not play any role in the siege of the city, but now Zhou Shixiang does not care about the bad consequences of killing prisoners, and the Qing army in the city is clearly holding on to the end, and there is a successful precedent for successfully resisting Li Dingguo's tens of thousands of troops last year, and they will not have any idea of surrendering at all. The purpose of killing these captured bannermen in front of them was only to inform them of the Taiping army's determination to seize Xinhui City, and at the same time to distract the defenders from this incident in order to cover up another major event.

Shao Jiugong's majestic battalion received the most troops from the green battalion, and Lin Youxian, the general manager of Qian, was also supplemented under him, which would take on a small flag officer. The reason why he only took on a small banner, instead of being appointed as the chief flag like Li Fuguo, was entirely because of Lin Youxian's pretending to be dead.

A thousand presidents who pretended to be dead, Zhou Shixiang naturally didn't pay too much attention to it, so he only gave him a small flag.

"When you can cut the knife, be quick, be ruthless, no one will be soft, if you can't cut off your head with a knife, Lao Tzu will cut off your head! In addition, give Lao Tzu a little acquaintance, if anyone dares to run, hum, don't blame Lao Tzu for having a black hand! ”

Shao Jiugong, who was in charge of the beheading, looked fiercely at the green camp prisoners who were added to his camp, they were born from the same root, he knew these green camp soldiers too well, if he didn't behave fiercely and didn't break what they might do, these people would do something like they might do, and these people would do something like running to Xinhui City. For the sake of safety, Shao Jiugong arranged two more soldiers next to each of the executed battalion soldiers, and once these battalion soldiers had the ability to run forward, they would immediately start slashing and killing.

Hearing Shao Jiugong's threat, looking at the two soldiers standing beside him, the soldiers of the green battalion were bitter, they didn't dare to look at Shao Jiugong, they only peeked at each other, but they quickly read the meaning of not looking for death from each other's eyes, and then thought about whether they could run to the city alive, and whether they had the strength to run the three-mile road in one go.

"Bring everyone up!"

With Shao Jiugong's shouting, a group of prisoners were escorted to the front of the army, and then one by one they were pressed to the ground and knelt down towards Xinhui City.

"What are the thieves going to do?"

The Qing army at the head of the city didn't understand what the Taiping army was going to do at first, but when they saw that those kneeling were actually familiar people, they immediately let out an exclamation.

"Isn't that Lin Ye of the Han Army Banner?!"

"Suzo's Goshha is there too!"

"Zhou Youshun, the personal soldier of the chief soldier!"

“”

"It's really whimsical that the thieves want to shake the hearts of our army by killing prisoners."

Zheng Guodong, the defender of the city and the current largest official of the Xinhui garrison, after observing the movement outside the city, sneered and handed the clairvoyant mirror to Huang Zhizheng, the magistrate on the side, and said to him: "That thief will look similar to the thief Xiucai who killed the general a few days ago, Lord Huang will see if it is him." ”

"Thief Xiucai?"

Huang Zhizheng was stunned, and immediately reacted, Zheng Guodong said that it was Zhou Shixiang, a talented man in the city.

Why did Zhou Xiucai become a thief soldier and a thief again?

Huang Zhizheng was puzzled, he didn't know what to think of Zhou Shixiang's sword by Yunlong, after all, Zhou Shixiang's entire family was harmed by the Qing army, as a son of man, as a husband, and as a father, revenge is a matter of course. But he killed the general of the Qing Dynasty, which made Huang Zhizheng, who was also a Qing official, a little embarrassed, and couldn't give an evaluation, but he didn't dare to agree with it. However, Zhou Shixiang's reputation as a "thief showman" came from the Pingnan Wangfu in Guangzhou, and the prince of Pingnan opened his mouth, not a thief Xiucai but also a thief Xiucai.

After Huang Zhizheng sighed silently in his heart, he picked up the clairvoyant mirror and looked at the city, and there was indeed a familiar figure in the lens, it was Zhou Shixiang, a talented scholar in that county.

Zhou Xiucai is devoting himself to being a thief to avenge the family, alas (to be continued)