Han’s Son is Not a Slave

On the banks of Luoma Lake in Pizhou, Jiangsu, Qianhu Brigade School, the second town of the Jiangbei Army Cavalry of the Taiping Army, looked anxiously to the north.

Although he clearly knew that the person he was waiting for would come soon, his heart was still so nervous. He dismounted several times and walked to the shore of Luoma Lake, holding a handful of lake water to wipe his sweaty forehead.

The Manchu officers in the second cavalry town not far away were no better than their skills. Although the lieutenants Wuerte and Qianhu Shaoerdai had been sitting on their horses without saying a word, they could still clearly see the two when they got closer. People's bodies trembled slightly.

Baihu Yue Deji went for a few times in succession, and every time he came back, he would laugh at Da Bai. The original white flag officer, Ar, must be the most composure, but he also ran to Zhou Peigong, the ambassador of the An army several times, to ask when their family members would arrive.

The officers were anxious, and the soldiers were even more anxious.

In Yangzhou, there were nearly 2,000 soldiers of the original old white flag who surrendered to Yangzhou with Wuerte, Gongjianse and other officers. More than 400 soldiers were killed in the battle of Yangzhou, and the rest, together with the newly descended and captured soldiers, totaled more than 3,800 people. Zhu Qinglai's second town, one part was compiled in Shang Keyuan's third town, and the rest was compiled in the second cavalry town, and the town would be Shao Chengguo. The Jiangbei Army has a total of five towns, and the other two towns are Qihao's first town and Wang Fuchen's first cavalry town.

Jiangbei Army is now the only group army with five towns under the jurisdiction of the Taiping Army. There are nearly 50,000 infantry and cavalry artillery. Although there are as many as 20,000 soldiers in the army, it is still the most capable army of the Taiping Army. .

After Ge Yi took office as the strategic envoy of Jianghuai, on the one hand, he stationed in Huai'an with the first town of Jiangbei Army, monitored the Qing army in Xuzhou nearby, and controlled Huai'an and other places; Nearby, the Jiangbei Army's first cavalry town was on standby as a mobile force, and the second cavalry town was stationed in Pizhou. In the entire strategic situation, Ge Yi completed the mission given by Zhou Shi, that is, the entire army always maintains the offensive momentum, and only suspends military operations on the front line of Xuzhou.

Jianghuai Jingluoyamen now actually control Yangzhou, Huai'an, Anqing, Fengyang, Taiping, Chizhou, Ningguo, Huizhou, Chuzhou, Hezhou and other prefectures and counties north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu. Nominally, Anhui Governor Jiang He was commanded by Ge Yi, but he actually commanded the third town that did not belong to the Jiangbei Army sequence. According to the latest plan of the military commander's office, the third town stationed in Anqing is likely to be integrated with the Jizhen army under Zhao Sihai, the governor of Hunan, into a corps similar to the Jiangbei Army, as one of the two armies in the future Northern Expedition. .

The military-administrative system implemented by Jianghuai Jingluyamen, in the words of Zhou Shixiang, the area controlled by the north of the Yangtze River is actually a war zone, so the military and government should be unified. The yamen is responsible, and the latter is responsible to the Jianghuai Jingluo yamen. In this way, the north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu and the prefectures and counties in Anhui will be integrated, so as to avoid the military and the government, and the excessive consumption of money, food and human resources.

The actual population and arable land of the prefectures and counties in the north of the Yangtze River are being counted. However, because most of the officials in these prefectures and counties are officials from the Qing Dynasty who surrendered, the efficiency of the large and small yamen is not high, so it is difficult to report the statistics in a short period of time.

Ge Yi is the chief official of Jianghuai as a military general. He has no experience in handling government affairs at all. He doesn't know how to deal with many things, so he has to rely on those who are demoted. The officials of the prefecture and county could not even figure out the era name, and they did not know which emperor Nandu was. They naively thought that the Yongli Emperor who had gone to the southwest had returned, so the words “Yongli 20 Years” appeared in the official documents. This made Zhou Shixiang wonder whether to laugh or cry, and urgently ordered Song Xianggong, a university scholar who stayed behind in Guangdong, to immediately select outstanding talents from the academic officials who had practical experience in handling government affairs in various places in Guangdong and send them to the southern capital, and distribute them to various places for emergency. At the same time, the plan to set up Jinling University was advanced, and a group of short-term students for half a year was organized to deal with the big problem of expanding the control area but not having enough talents to manage it.

In the military commander's mansion, including Ding Zhixiang and Yuan Kuoyu, the two high-ranking scholars in the court, they all tenderly proposed to Zhou Shixiang to suspend the payment of debts, and selected new officials from the Jiangnan gentry to be assigned to various places to replace those who were demoted in the Qing Dynasty. degree of control over these places. Zhou Shixiang said that long-term pain is worse than short-term pain, and he did not accept this opinion, and instead ordered Zhang Changgeng and Jiang Guozhu to speed up the settlement of debts, at least to ensure that they could find enough money to maintain the 100,000 Taiping army for a long time.

Suna, who had won Hangzhou, also received an order to loot money and food, but given that there were still three prefectures in southern Zhejiang that could not be captured, the sixth town that entered Zhejiang was not enough soldiers. If the place changed, the sixth town alone might not be able to make it in time. Peace was settled, so Zhou Shixiang did not allow Suna to clear up his debts in Zhejiang, but asked him to check those rich gentry in the name of Tonglu. At the same time, a lot of wealth that Suna obtained in Hangzhou Mancheng was also shipped to Nanjing as a military expense.

Regarding the wealth of Hangzhou Mancheng, Zhou Shixiang clearly demanded that it be used for the pensions of the Taiping soldiers who died in Jiangbei.

Almost half a year has passed since the Battle of Yangzhou, but the compensation and resettlement of the dead and wounded soldiers were only half completed. The repeated battles exhausted Zhou Shixiang's small family, and he had to use the name of clearing debts and passing prisoners. Financially unsustainable.

The public treasury system adopted by the Taiping Army in the early days ensured the development and cohesion of the Taiping Army due to the small number of soldiers in the Taiping Army. Soldiers and officers set the salary system, the public treasury has long been exhausted, and the Guangdong silver treasury, which was only opened in one place in Guangdong, cannot be implemented in other places for the time being, so the Taiping Army is now more dependent on military pay. The high pension can improve the morale of the army, but the price is that Zhou Shixiang, who had hardly considered money in the past, had to worry about how to get money.

Zhou Shixiang, who was just an ordinary soldier in his previous life, had a hard time coming up with any good ways to make money in this era, but he had the understanding of the trade port (special zone). He really wanted to set up a port in Songjiang, that is, the Shanghai area of ​​later generations, imitating the Zheng family to amass a lot of wealth through sea trade~www.readwn.com~ to support the army and let the people rest and recuperate, but there is no strong navy. In hand, this thought can only be thought about.

On the other hand, Guangdong has this condition. When you came to Guangdong, there were already Macau Xiyi doing business here. Second, when the Pearl River was under the control of the Taiping Army navy, the Zheng family did not extend their hands here, so theoretically, a port was set up in Guangzhou or Zhuhai. It is feasible to carry out sea trade. However, if Zhou Shixiang did this, he would definitely have a conflict with the Portuguese in Macau. The two sides had had a dispute before, and that time ended in the retreat of the Portuguese. But this time the Portuguese will definitely not back down easily, because once the Ming Dynasty opens the port and sea trade, it will definitely touch the interests of the Portuguese in the East. They will not tolerate the status of Macau being overtaken by other places, so war is certainly inevitable.

Zhou Shixiang had no intention of fighting the Portuguese right now. He was waiting. If he remembered correctly, the death of the surnamed Lord might be a matter of time. If the surname of the country really died as in history, then Zhou Shixiang would definitely not let Zheng Jing take over the huge navy he left behind.

Even if he started a war, Zhou Shixiang would have to grab Zheng Jun's huge navy. For this, he would do anything, even if he was infatuated with infighting, he didn't care.

Civil war, maybe really won't be avoided. Even if the national surname did not die of illness, Zhou Shixiang was also ready to launch a civil war against Jinsha, because he needed the navy.