In the Battle of Lutou River, the incompetent performance of the Qing army's green battalion made Zhou Shi judge the situation, change the previous conservative campaign and make a decision-made deployment, and instead ordered the whole army to march to Panyu, while making a posture of attacking Guangzhou, while dividing troops to operate in Panyu, Shunde, Zengcheng and other counties under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou.
In fact, with the current strength of the Taiping army, there is no way to attack the city of Guangzhou, although the Lutouhe won the war, but the left battalion of the infantry army is also a heavy loss, before the war 3000 full strength, now there are only more than 1400 people left, this will be even if Zhou Shixiang mobilized all the Taiping army in Xiangshan to march north, it is still impossible to surpass the Qing army in terms of strength alone.
Therefore, it would be unwise to abandon the pre-war plan and quickly retreat to Xiangshan after the successful ambush at Lutouhe, so as to seize the time to digest the fruits of this victory in order to accumulate greater strength for the next larger-scale strategy.
Song Xianggong in the rear, after knowing that Zhou Shixiang led his troops to cross the Lutou River and march to Panyu, sent people to bring his letters, in which Zhou Shixiang's decision was naturally greatly questioned, and strongly demanded that Zhou Shixiang immediately stop this unwise move and immediately lead the army back to Xiangshan.
In his reply to Song Xianggong, Zhou Shixiang explained the reason why he had ventured northward, arguing that it was no longer possible for Canton to send enough green battalions to deal with the Taipings, or that they did not have enough mobile forces to deal with the Taipings.
With the collapse of the Guangzhou Green Battalion in the Lutou River, the Qing army basically lost its offensive power against the Taiping army in Zengcheng and Panyu, and it was a miracle that the small battalion soldiers scattered everywhere could survive under the front of the Taiping army, let alone be able to inflict heavy damage on the Taiping army.
The Guangzhou Green Battalion is one of the three elites of the Guangdong Green Battalion, and the other two elites are the Zhaoqing Green Battalion and the other Chaozhou Green Battalion.
Now that the Guangzhou Green Battalion has been completely wiped out, the strength of the Green Battalion that Guangzhou can still mobilize is the battalion troops stationed in the Sanjiangkou area.
According to Zhang An's intelligence, there were about 6,000 Qing troops on the Sanjiangkou defense line, including nearly 2,000 Han soldiers under the command of the two feudal clans, and about 4,000 Green Battalion soldiers.
Most of the more than 4,000 green battalion soldiers were not local soldiers in Guangdong, but guest soldiers from Jiangxi and Fujian, and one of them was the Jiangxi soldiers led by Kong Guozhi, the general soldier of Ganzhou, Shao Jiugong's old boss.
The importance of the Sanjiangkou defense line is no less than the significance of Xinhuicheng to Guangzhou, not to mention that Chen Qice and Zhu Tong had just commanded the Ming army to attack Sanjiangkou in Layue last year, although they were unsuccessful, but they forced the Qing army at Sanjiangkou to not move a single step.
As for the garrison battalions in Shunde and Nanhai counties, Zhou Shixiang did not think that they could be transferred out to attack the Taiping army, first, these two counties had to bear the support of the Sanjiangkou defense line, and second, the number of battalions in the two counties was not large, and the scale of the Taiping army, which was nearly 10,000, was obviously not worth mentioning.
Combined with Zhang An's intelligence and the heavy damage to the Qing army due to the victory at the Lutou River, Zhou Shixiang judged that Li Shutai, the governor of Guangdong, now had no troops to adjust, and the only people who could be sent out in Guangzhou to encircle and suppress the Taiping army were the Han army banner soldiers under the Ping and Jing Domains and the Manchurian Eight Banners stationed in Guangzhou.
These two troops and horses can pose a threat to the Taiping army, and both have the ability to severely damage the Taiping army, but Zhou Shixiang still made the decision to go north after repeated consideration, and the terrain of Panyu and the performance of the right battalion of the infantry army against the Han army's banner cavalry at the Lutou River were his biggest confidence in making this decision.
Although the prefectures and counties in Guangzhou are half plain and half hilly, the plain area is an extremely developed water system, and often less than a few miles is a river, so it is not suitable for large-scale cavalry action at all, which can be seen from the battle of Lutou River The Qing army only dispatched a Niu Lu of the Manchurian Eight Banners and a Niu Lu of the Han army.
The most important thing is that the performance of the two brigades of the right battalion of the infantry army in the Lutou River completely annihilated the Han army banner cavalry made Zhou Shi unprecedentedly optimistic about the combat effectiveness of the right battalion of the infantry army.
Time does not wait for me, the opportunity will not come again, take advantage of his illness to kill him.
Since the Qing army in Guangzhou could no longer pose a big threat to the Taiping army, Zhou Shixiang naturally wanted to go to the hinterland of the other party, so that he could not only make a name for the Taiping army, but also raise grain and grass in the Qing occupied areas, and destroy the Manchu rule in these areas to the greatest extent, so that the Qing army in Guangzhou could no longer obtain food and salary in these places, and the Taiping army could train the army and obtain supplies through this way of fighting and nourishing the war, so why not.
As for what will happen to the people in the areas through which the Taiping army passes after the Taiping army "loots", Zhou Shixiang tried not to think about it, he would only comfort himself with the fact that he had ordered not to kill people indiscriminately, not to commit adultery and plunder, and to take away those people who were willing to leave, as if as long as he did this, his conscience would be greatly good.
In the Battle of Lutouhe, the Taiping Army annihilated a total of 2,600 people under Lin Jinzhong, the chief soldier of the Green Battalion in Guangzhou, captured more than 1,800 people, and annihilated more than 400 people with a blue Han military flag, more than 300 people under the supervision of Li Shutai, the governor of Guangdong, more than 120 horse teams, 37 artillery pieces, and countless other weapons and ordnance.
The victory of Lutouhe is another great victory of the Taiping army after the battle of Xinhui, the news reached Xiangshan, Liao Ruixiang, the county governor, organized the people of the whole city to celebrate, Song Xianggong also opened a day of alcohol ban, allowing the Taiping army and the people who stayed behind to celebrate.
After hearing the news of the victory, Guo Shao, the ambassador of the Liangzi Township Salt Patrol Office, quietly asked his family to move dozens of packages that had been put on the carriage and put them back in their original places.
There are not a few people who have the same behavior as Guo Shao, especially those talents who work for the Taiping Army in the county government, and it is unknown how some landlords and gentry in various townships who have been "persuaded to provide grain" by the Taiping Army behave.
What can be known is that the people in all townships are really happy from the bottom of their hearts for the victory of the Taiping Army, because only when the Taiping Army wins can they continue to share the benefits brought to them by the Taiping Army, and they do not have to worry about their own bad luck after the Qing Army kills them.
Under the persuasion of their families, many young men who were still watching took the initiative to go to the township office to sign up for the army, asking the township office to include their families in the Taiping Army.
For several days in a row, no less than two or three thousand young and strong people signed up to join the army in the township offices, but except for a small number, the rest were persuaded to return, saying that they were busy with spring ploughing, and there were few people in the fields, and it was not too late to join the army after each family had finished planting the land.
Song Xianggong couldn't stop Zhou Shixiang's northward advance, so he could only fully support and cooperate.
On the order of the army marshal's office, the 2nd Brigade of the right battalion of the infantry army left behind in Liangzi Township immediately went north, and the former cottage reserve battalion transferred 1,000 troops to urgently replenish the front line.
The security forces of various townships have also stepped up their drills and are ready to replenish the reserve barracks at any time, and the external propaganda is to prevent the Qing army from routing and coming to harm the people.
On the 19th, Zhou Shixiang led all the personal barracks, 2 brigades of the left battalion of the infantry army, 3 brigades of the right battalion of the infantry army, 2 guards of the artillery team and the remnants of the cavalry battalion, a total of 5,600 people entered Lingshan Town, which is less than 20 miles away from Zhizini Town in Panyu County, which is only more than 30 miles away from Guangzhou City.
The green battalion of the defenders of Lingshan Town fled without a fight, and when they left, the green battalion soldiers wanted to set fire to the town, but the cavalry battalion of the Taiping army was killed as soon as the fire started, and the battalion soldiers were so frightened that they threw down the torches and ran north.
Shao Chengguo, the commander of the cavalry battalion, was afraid that the fire would burn the entire town, so he gave up chasing and killing those battalion soldiers and organized the people of the town to put out the fire.
After occupying Lingshan Town, Zhou Shixiang ordered the whole army to suspend its advance and form a defensive line in Lingshan Town on the spot.
The Taiping army sent to various places successively received good news, the right battalion of the infantry army Huang Sibu captured Daliang Town, and the green battalion in the town surrendered to the Taiping army under the leadership of the defending general Hu Mingyi.
After the Taiping army entered Daliang Town, it immediately went to the big households in the town to "persuade the food and drink", in the process, there were 10,000 large families with the surname to organize families to resist the Taiping army was suppressed, and the head was hung in the fortress of Daliang Town to show the shock.
Jiang Fan, deputy commander of the left battalion of the infantry army, led the 1st brigade to occupy Dagang, Nangang, Huangni and other places one after another, annihilating more than 200 Qing troops, capturing more than 800 local militia groups, and more than 300 local anti-Qing righteous people to vote.
On the 21st, the Huang Sibu of Daliang Town reported that there was a green battalion guerrilla Yu Tianen to vote, which not only brought thousands of green battalion soldiers, but also captured Zengcheng and dedicated it to the Taiping army.
After receiving the report, Zhou Shixiang immediately ordered Shao Jiugong to go to Daliang Town to deal with Yu Tianen's friendship.
Zhou Shixiang promised to take Yu Tianen's department as a single battalion of the Taiping Army, called the "Volunteer Battalion", awarded the rank of brigade commander and general, and officially asked the Yongli Imperial Court for him after returning to the army.
As for Zengcheng, he was ordered to give up, if Yu Tianen was willing to garrison Zengcheng, he would be stationed, and the Taiping army could provide him with some money and food, and in case Zengcheng was attacked by the Qing army, the Taiping army would also give some support.
Of course, Shao Jiugong didn't say this when he saw Yu Tianen, he almost patted his chest and said that the Taiping Army would definitely protect Zengcheng without losing it.
Zhou Shixiang also issued a document to all departments, all who took the initiative to join the Qing army, bandits, all accepted, less than 1,000 soldiers to the original official award, full 1,000 plus a level of award, deputy general below the official position promised.
Those who brought the city to donate were also the same as Yu Tianen's department.
The young and strong who are brave and brave and the local regimental training are added to the various departments after screening, and the leaders are awarded the post of Taiping Army.
The good news from all over the country and the Qing army that continued to come to the Qing army made the Taiping army feel that the situation was very good, and it seemed that as long as they worked harder, they could really take the city of Guangzhou in one go, and the optimism of the officers also infected the soldiers.
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In view of this, Zhou Shixiang had to convene a military meeting of officers above the general banner to explain his intention to advance north and the future combat direction of the Taiping Army to the generals, and he described the operation by cutting down trees.
"Cutting down is like cutting down a tree, the Manchu court is like a big tree with deep roots and thick roots, the Manchurians are the roots of this big tree, the Mengbaqi and the Han Baqi are the trunk of this big tree, the green camps in various places are the branches of this tree, and those Han gentry and landlords who support the Manchu Qing are the leaves of this tree.
How do you cut down such a big tree?"
"The answer is that we have to cut it down with an axe, otherwise we won't be able to cut it down at once, and what we have to do now is to cut off the branches of this tree first, and pull off all the leaves on those branches, so that the tree will look bare and not so heavy.
In Guangdong, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao are the trunk of the Manchu tree, or the root of the tree, and those green battalion soldiers are the branches, everyone has cut down the tree and knows how to cut the tree, this axe must not be able to directly cut the roots, because it can't reach it, and it can't be cut, why can't we cut it because there are too many branches and leaves?"
"What if you can't cut the trunk directly, if you don't cut it like this, it will definitely not work, so we didn't go to Panyu this time to directly cut the main trunk of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao, we just came to see off those branches and leaves."
"Think about it, why did Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao lead thousands of Han army banner soldiers to occupy Guangzhou steadily, it's not because they have too many green battalion soldiers to help them fight, these green battalion soldiers are stationed in various places for them, fight for them and our Ming army, and suppress the resistance of our Han people for them, so that although Shang Kexi has few Han army banner people, they can still live their stable life in Guangzhou."
"How to saw the branches and leaves of the Qing army in Guangdong The first is to fight the green battalion soldiers first, the persimmons are still soft and pinched, and the Han army banner soldiers under Geng Jimao and those Manchurian soldiers are still very weak, they really have to fight with us, and transfer the eight banner soldiers to us, don't be unconvinced, we are really beating but talking about heads, and there are more people than us."
"I didn't really bring everyone to this place this time to fight Guangzhou, I just came to pretend to be a hero, and the purpose of pretending to be a hero is to scare and scare Guangzhou, and by the way, rob all the strategic materials in these places."
"What are strategic materialsStrategic materials are food, population, salt and iron, our Taiping army has no iron tools, no salt, no food, and no cloth, in short, our territory is very small, we have very few things, and we have very few people, once our things cannot support our development, we will starve, we will be beaten We can't seize a bigger territory at the moment, but we still have to have these things, what should we do, rob the Qing army, otherwise, we are always worried that the military food will not be enough, the weapons will be broken and there will be no replenishment, and the clothes will be broken and there will be no new clothes to make new ones, so how can this be done, so I brought everyone here, to the territory of the Qing army, I don't want you to go to the city of Guangzhou and get your head bled out, but I want you to come and grab things."
"You think, if we grab these things, won't the Qing army be gone, we will be strong, and the Qing army will be weak, even if they still look like behemoths, but as long as we continue to grab things from them, one day, we will become stronger than them, richer than them.
It's like our neighbor is a rich man, but we are too poor to even wear pants and ask for food, one day, we want to eat and beat the rich man, rob him of his clothes to wear, rob his meat to eat, rob his silver to spend, we beat him so that he dare not look for us, don't we become rich rich people?"
"If we want to cut down the Qing Dynasty, we must constantly weaken it, so that the wealth of the Manchu Qing can be used by our Taiping army, so that the people under the rule of the Manchu Qing will no longer be cattle and horses for them.
National strength is manpower, manpower is vitality, one less person for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Dynasty will have less vitality, less vitality, the Manchu Qing Dynasty's national strength will naturally be one point less.
One eliminates the other, and my Ming Dynasty will finally be able to rise up and completely destroy the Qing Demon."
After saying so much in one go, Zhou Shixiang was also too tired, swept away the generals, and asked them loudly: "This, I said so much, do you all understand the fuck?"
Generals, you look at me, I look at you, and finally stood up together, and said abruptly: "I understand, the commander wants us to be robbers" oshow7 t1706231537: