By the end of September, the Taiping Army had actually taken control of Xiangshan, Zengcheng, Panyu, Shunde, Dongguan, Sanshui, Xinning, Qingyuan, and other counties, while other counties such as Nanhai, Foshan, Xin'an, and Lianshan Prefecture were either forced to turn things around or took the initiative to do so.
The Guangzhou Prefecture has jurisdiction over 15 counties and 1 scattered prefecture, and only two counties, Longmen and Conghua, are self-defended and unwilling to surrender to the Taiping army.
The Longmen was broken by the Han army under the Pingnan Domain led by Shang Keyuan, and Conghua was broken by Sun Yibu, the deputy general of Nanxiong, and the Taiping Army.
When the second department broke the city, there were many killings of the people in the city, and it was said that those with braids were Diao people, and they were killed when they were caught, causing more than 10,000 people in the two counties to die.
When the news reached Guangzhou, Zhou Shixiang immediately issued a strict order, saying that in the future, anyone who broke the prefecture and county, regardless of whether he had braids or no braids, would not be allowed to kill indiscriminately.
Those with braids are refugees, and those without braids are obedient people, and the city must not be slaughtered unless the defenders of the city cause heavy casualties to the Taiping army.
In order to strictly enforce military discipline, in the name of the Ming Dynasty of the Taiping Army, Zhou Shixiang ordered to break through the 100 households of the Longmen Army, and was originally a member of the Pingnan Domain; The two general flags, the former two members of the Pingnan Domain, thought they were punished.
At the same time, people were sent to take over the affairs of Conghua and Longmen County, and Song Daming, the head of Yongle Township, and Wan Changlong, the head of Longyan Township, were the magistrates of the two counties.
In addition, the Guangzhou government was ordered to immediately transfer money and grain to resettle the refugees in the two counties, to help the people, and to build townships and villages, as a long-term plan.
In any case, the counties were only nominally under the jurisdiction of the Guangzhou Prefecture, and the four prefectures of Nanhai, Foshan, Xin'an, and Lianshan Prefecture were still under the prefect of the county governors appointed by the Qing court, and the battalions in these counties were only changed into the red uniforms of the Ming army, and other than that, nothing else had changed.
Wang Zhaoxing, a thousand households in the South China Sea, Zhao Ziqiang in a thousand households in Foshan, Lin Xingguo in a thousand households in Xin'an, and Wu Anyuan in a thousand households in Lianshan Prefecture are all generals of the green battalion, Wang Zhaoxing and Zhao Ziqiang took the initiative to lead the troops anyway, and Lin Xingguo and Wu Anyuan were forced to go anyway when they saw that the situation was not good.
Although the four of them were awarded the post of a thousand households in the Taiping Army, their subordinate battalions were still their private soldiers, and the affairs of the county were also in charge of the magistrate appointed by the former Qing court.
If the Taiping army is defeated, it will be a matter of an instant for the four counties to change banners again.
In this regard, Zhou Shixiang ignored it, and told the Guangzhou government that there was no need to apportion any money to the four counties, and there was no need to send people to the four counties, so that the four counties would maintain the status quo.
The reason why this is the case is that there is more than enough heart and not enough power.
It was only a little more than a month after the recovery of Guangzhou, and Zhou Shixiang had to integrate and surrender troops, and also to carry out land consolidation in several counties under his actual control, and also to send troops to suppress bandits, resettle refugees, and resume production.
It is already the best outcome for these four counties to maintain the status quo and nominally obey Guangzhou.
Even if Zhou Shi was angry, or worried that there would be hidden dangers, he sent troops to suppress it, but he still had to let the four counties maintain the status quo in a short time, and even the county officials could not be dispatched.
Since they can't actually control these four counties, why send troops to fight.
The first town of the infantry army of the new army settled in Qingyuan, because the county is the northernmost town of Guangzhou, bordering Shaozhou, if there is something in Shaozhou, the first town can directly attack Shaozhou.
Xinhui and Zhaoqing are the south and west gates of Guangzhou, and Qingyuan is the north gate of Guangzhou.
After the formation of the four towns, bandits and stragglers were eliminated in the garrison, and those green battalion soldiers who were unwilling to accept the command of the Taiping Army under the banner of the Taiping Army were also eliminated.
The original Zengcheng garrison Hu Mingyi's department was "ordered" to let Zengcheng go to Xin'an County, and Zengcheng was taken over by Jiang He, the third town.
After more than a month of suppressing bandits, a total of more than 4,000 bandits of all sizes were annihilated, and more than 1,000 young and strong were selected to join the Taiping Army.
In order to effectively control the surrender of troops in Pingnan, Jingnan, and Luying, in addition to moving their families to various places and making separate arrangements, and cutting off the right of the middle and senior generals to lead troops, Zhou Shixiang also artificially created a rift between the Han armies, so that they could not work together.
The specific method was to set the Han army that joined the Taiping army before the breakthrough of Guangzhou as sharp soldiers, the Han army that surrendered after the breakthrough of Guangzhou City as selected soldiers, and the last group of Han troops that were captured at the mouth of the Sanjiang River were designated as reserve troops.
The families of the sharp soldiers, the families of the selected soldiers, and the families of the reserve soldiers are not scattered and resettled, but are placed in one place.
For example, if 500 families of Han soldiers are placed in Longyan Township, Xiangshan, the families of the selected soldiers, the families of the sharp soldiers, and the families of the reserve soldiers each account for one-third.
However, the families of the sharp soldiers and the families of the recruits received more land and the food and farm tools than the families of the reserve soldiers, and the personnel of the newly built village offices in the resettlement areas chose more families of the soldiers and a small number of the families of the recruits, so that the families of the Han army who defected to the Taiping Army in the early stage suppressed the families of the Han army who defected later in terms of political status, and through a series of privileges, they felt that they were superior to the families of the soldiers.
People are greedy, and after discovering that the Taiping Army treats them better than other people, the families of the sharp soldiers and the selected soldiers will naturally look towards the Taiping Army, rather than being dissatisfied with the Taiping Army like those who are not as good as their reserve families.
Even if the Han army in the army surrendered to rebellion, it was impossible for them to get the support of all the Han army.
Of course, Zhou Shixiang did not want to see his army in a long-term artificially created rift, so he made a plan that all reserve soldiers who served in the Taiping Army for three years could enjoy the treatment of sharp soldiers, and those who selected soldiers could serve two years of service.
In this way, it gives those who choose and prepare troops a way out to obtain better conditions.
Three years is enough to change everything, as long as the Taiping Army does not die, it is foreseeable that after three years, the families of these surrendered soldiers will truly integrate with the Taiping Army.
Everything they have is given by the Taiping army, and if they want to keep it all, they must defend the Taiping army with blood.
Similarly, the Han army in the army was also treated differently according to the time of joining the Taiping Army, and the Han army that joined the Taiping Army in the early stage was given priority in the appointment and dismissal of officers, and those who joined in the later period could not compete with the group of people who had joined the Taiping Army in advance under the same conditions, except for major meritorious service.
This policy has remained unchanged for a long time, and if the Taiping army captures more Han soldiers and Green Battalion troops in the future, then the current group of suppressed troops can also turn over and suppress the next group and gain a sense of superiority from them.
Power is an aphrodisiac, dealing with the surrender of troops, although this aphrodisiac is a bit overbearing and has big side effects, but at the moment, it is the best way that Zhou Shixiang can think of.
At the beginning, there were seven or eight thousand people who transported grain and grass to the Qing army on the three routes, and after seizing Guangzhou, Zhou Shixiang recruited more than 4,000 young men from the city, and now all these more than 10,000 young men have been forcibly incorporated into the Taiping army.
Most of them are reluctant to serve as cannon fodder in the army, and their origins are also very complicated, ranging from prefectures and counties near Guangzhou, to Huizhou, Zhaoqing, and even some from Chaozhou.
These young men did not want to be soldiers, they wanted to go home, and when the whole army was replenished, the young men expressed their request to Zhou Shixiang through various channels to return to their hometown, which Zhou Shixiang clearly refused, he told these young men that if they wanted to go home, they could, but they had to serve in the Taiping Army for three years, and they could go home after three years.
This condition does not allow for bargaining, and whoever does not want to be beheaded directly.
Zhou Shixiang didn't want to kill innocent people indiscriminately, but for the growth of the Taiping Army, he needed these people to be young and strong, so he could only be ruthless.
Faced with the threat of killing their heads, the young men who wanted to return to their hometowns could only reluctantly agree to stay in the Taiping Army, but fortunately, the Taiping Army gave a time limit, and they could go home after the three-year period.
Such conditions are certainly much stronger than returning to their hometowns empty-handed. oshow7 t1706231537: