Dominate the Country

[Thanks to 'I like fate' for the 500-coin reward]

"Your Highness, the Xiangdong Independent Regiment reported that Zhou Zhilin has captured Liling!"

On Shigu Mountain, when the victory news came, Chen Ming was in the Li Zhongjie Temple. He was accompanied by Shigu Mountain's head Lin Xueyi and several academy teachers and students. Although they looked at Chen Ming with absolute vigilance and hidden hatred, Chen Ming laughed out loud.

How could he feel so happy when he heard the victory news in front of Li Zhongjie Temple?

"If the spirit of Zhongjie is in heaven, just watch the younger generation sweep away the Hu dust and cleanse the world!" Chen Ming respectfully offered three incense sticks to the statue. Li Zhongjie's name was Li Fei, with the courtesy name Shuzhang, and he was from Hengzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the first year of Deyou in the Southern Song Dynasty, which was the year before the Mongolian army entered Hangzhou City, the Yuan army was about to invade. Li Fei was appointed as the governor of Tanzhou and the pacification envoy of Hunan. He led the army and civilians to fight against the Mongolian army for more than three months. The city was broken and his family died for the country. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Li Zhongjie Temple was built in Li Fei's former residence in Jinao Mountain, south of the Hengzhou Road General Administration City, and Li Fei's general Shen Zhong and Hengyang County Magistrate Mu Yanzu were enshrined. In the Qing Dynasty, it was moved to Shigu Mountain.

The Fu Han Army rushed to Hengyang along the Xiangjiang River. This prefect of the Qing Dynasty was far inferior to Li Fei. He fled as soon as the cannon sounded.

Chen Ming felt that it was really a will of heaven that allowed him to receive this victory news at the Li Zhongjie Temple. Lin Xueyi and other teachers and students of Shigu Academy looked at each other.

The solid Yuelu Mountain on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River only blocked the Fu Han Army for two days. A few days ago, when Chen Ming visited Yuelu Academy where dozens of Confucian scholars and teachers stayed, the mighty fleet of the Fu Han Army sailed past Changsha and headed straight toward Hengyang along the river. Only Chen Yongsheng led the first brigade to stay under Changsha.

The army went south, and Xiangtan and Hengshan counties came down one after another, and Hengyang Prefecture City was captured in one blow!

Chen Ming, who had just wandered around Yuelu Academy, climbed up Shigu Academy again in a blink of an eye. He came here to play rather than to commemorate the ancestors. The location of Shigu Academy is really amazing. It is located at the intersection of Xiangjiang River, Zhenghe River and Leihe River, surrounded by water on three sides, and the rapids are surging. Although it is not high and not big, it is a "natural stone drum" and a "thousand-year-old academy". Not far away is the navy of the Fu Han Army!

After standing up, Chen Ming suddenly felt dissatisfied with the couplets on the left and right of the ancestral hall, because this loyal ancestral hall was built in the Qing Dynasty, and naturally, the couplets outside the ancestral hall were also written by the Qing people.

"Smash these couplets on the left and right!" Chen Ming turned and left without even looking at Lin Xueyi, the so-called Hunan "national scholar".

Since the army entered Hunan, few Hunan scholars have come to join the army. Whether it is Yuelu Mountain or Shigu Mountain, the students, teachers and mountain chiefs do not hide their inner fear in front of Chen Ming. This is a kind of resistance from the heart. However, there was a Henan man named Chen Guangqian who came to join Chen Ming. According to this man, he was from Dengzhou and moved to Guangxi for many years, making a living by selling sugar. Because the country was in turmoil and the local area was not peaceful, he also lost the capital for doing business, so he entrusted his wife and children to others and came to join the army himself, risking his life to fight for his future.

Chen Guangqian can write and calculate, and seems to be very knowledgeable, but his origin is too difficult to verify. Although Chen Ming can't feel his malice, it is absolutely irresponsible to keep such a person around, so he transferred him to the military logistics for observation.

Except for this Chen Guangqian, Chen Ming has met so many Hunan students who have joined the army since he entered Hunan. This made him very dissatisfied. Fortunately, there are always unexpected surprises, that is Liuyang, Liuyang County east of Changsha. When Chen Ming led his army to Changsha, the local anti-Qing forces rose up at the right time. Zhou Zhilin, who claimed that his ancestor was Zhou Tianci, a general of the Ming Dynasty, led his men to capture the empty Liuyang City in one fell swoop, and then sent people to contact Chen Ming and raised troops to join the Fu Han Army. Chen Ming gave him the title of Xiangdong Independent Regiment, and supported him with a batch of armor, guns, and gunpowder, so that he did not need to go to Changsha to join the Fu Han Army, but to attack Liling in the south, and then turn to Pingxiang in Jiangxi. There is one of the few land passages connecting Jiangxi and Hunan. If it is blocked, the connection between Jiangxi and Hunan will be temporarily cut off.

"Baoqing, Yongzhou, Chenzhou, these are all places we can attack." Hengyang is located in the center of Hunan, and it can be attacked from the east, west and south.

"Don't get stuck in the city, open the county, plunder the warehouse, and kill a few officials and wealthy families who are very angry with the people."

"If there are Qing troops and civilians gathering in various places, they must be resolutely defeated. All towns along the way that resist stubbornly will be broken..."

Chen Ming killed his way to the heart of Hunan, and now he must first be a proper bandit. Break the city, kill the officials, take the money, even the money is not important, just disrupt the order of the place, and then turn around and leave. Only after Changsha is resolved in the future can Chen Han truly gain a foothold in central Hunan.

If such a battle is not fought well, all the officers above the battalion level present here can take off their hats and go back to being soldiers.

"Daozhou, south of Yongzhou, should be attacked with emphasis." If Chen Ming's memory is correct, the Taiping Army received a major reinforcement in Daozhou after leaving Guangxi and entering Hunan. He vaguely remembered that the Tiandihui in Hunan had an uprising in Daozhou at that time, but he could not remember the specific details.

Zhou Zhilin's uprising in Liuyang gave Chen Ming a shot of confidence, and he now also placed hope on Daozhou.

The Fu Han Army cannot take Changsha and Changde now. Even if they take other places, it is difficult to effectively control them. Although the Qing army emptied the entire Hunan in order to defend Changsha and Changde, so that Zhou Zhilin's mob was able to capture Liling smoothly. Chen Ming now attacks from all directions in battalions, which is also due to the fact that Hunan is empty.

Zhang Chongbei and Wang Zhiyuan led the 7th Battalion of the 15th Brigade to advance towards Leiyang. The 15th Brigade focused on Yongzhou and Chenzhou, and only one battalion was placed in Guiyang Prefecture in the middle. The Guards Brigade sent part of its troops to Baoqing Prefecture, and another part of its troops stayed in Hengyang, and then squeezed out a battalion to cooperate with the 15th Brigade to attack Yongzhou.

Zhang Chongbei and Wang Zhiyuan rushed all the way to Leiyang. From Leiyang, going south is Chenzhou, which is the most famous mining area in Hunan. If they can bring all the miners here, they will be promoted to brigade commanders, but they will definitely be regimental commanders.

The quicker you are, the better. After getting the military order, they took the team south by boat that night.

Leishui is a first-level tributary of Xiangjiang River in the 21st century. In ancient times, it was an important waterway from the Central Plains in the north to Lingnan. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, it was accessible by boat. Today, there are more than 20 commercial ports along the Leishui River, among which Huangnijiang, Dahetan, Zaotou City, Xinshi and other places are known as the four major ports of Leiyang. There are also commercial ports such as Taozhou, Shangbao Street, Qingshuipu, Feijiangkou, Simenzhou, Baishan, and Dabei City because they are adjacent to the waterway.

"No matter what, we will go straight to Leiyang, knock down Zaotou City at most, and then attack Chenzhou as quickly as possible."

The map in front of them has 20 to 30 dots of different sizes marked on both sides of the Leishui River. Zhang Chongbei and Wang Zhiyuan know that each dot means wealth and spoils, and Zaotou City is the closest market pier to Leiyang County. But if they linger in the money and grain on both sides of the Leishui River, can they still take the lead in Chenzhou?

"No matter what else. Let's go to Leiyang first, open up Leiyang, and collect the ships and then we will directly attack Chenzhou."

When will there be no money? Merit is the most important. If they can wrap up a few thousand miners to surrender, the reward of military merit points alone can allow each person in the seven battalions to have an extra 10 to 20 acres of land. And the benefits for the team officers and battalion officers are even greater.

"Kill..."

After marching all night, the torches lit on the transport ships set off the fleet like a fire dragon. After a hundred miles of waterway, the Seventh Battalion arrived outside Leiyang City at nine or ten o'clock the next day.

Zhang Zhiyuan led his men to seize the dock and immediately rushed to the city gate. As a result, he rushed to the Leiyang County Government Office.

The gate of the county government office was open, and there was no official in uniform. There was only a gray-haired old man guarding the gate.

"Brother, the county magistrate here has run away with his men..." Zhang Zhiyuan sat on the steps of the lobby and said to Zhang Chongbei who rushed over in a hurry.

"What about the county treasury?"

"It's all gone. Even the tables, chairs and papers in the county government office were robbed by the people..."

The county magistrate ran away yesterday morning, and there was no one in the entire county government office in the afternoon. However, the people in the county still did not dare to rob the county government office until a group of masked people took carriages and horses to move the remaining copper coins and grain in the county treasury at night. They were seen by the people in the city, and then they swarmed and robbed the county government office.

Zhang Chongbei looked at the hall. The three-foot-high judicial table was still placed on the wooden high platform in the warm room. The common people probably didn't dare to grab it, but the four treasures of the study and the arrow tube on the table were all gone, even the armchair, the arrow stand and the gavel were gone. Even the water and fire sticks arranged on the left and right of the hall were gone.

"How much money is there in the county treasury? You take people to raid the stove market. I will take people to raid those officials and profiteers who are full of fat intestines."

Zhang Chongbei looked at the bare hall and smiled disapprovingly, waved his hand and called the guards over, "You go to the street and shout, our army needs to find someone to ask for directions." The good people didn't dare to come, so those ruffians didn't dare to come? This is a great opportunity for them to make a fortune. Of course, before the house raid, Zhang Chongbei would let the ruffians loudly "declare" the crimes of these wealthy gentry and merchants. If they encountered "false and untrue" things, such as the fat sheep crying out for injustice, and they could also produce witnesses and material evidence, Zhang Chongbei would naturally follow suit and show mercy. But such people are definitely very few.

Many so-called good families, so-called benevolent families, are just what they say. The so-called good gentry and righteous merchants, good and righteous are more for the government to see, and they may not even do small favors for the people.

Chen Ming's view of the good gentry and righteous merchants of this era can be classified into four words-people's congress representatives. It cannot be denied that there are all black people in it, but if you say that there are all good people in it, it will make people laugh.

Under the knife of the Fu Han Army, there are still people who come out to testify for them. This family is really good people in the 18th and 19th century. Zhang Chongbei himself does not want to harm such good gentry and righteous merchants. Is his conscience not black?

The Fu Han Army's secret camps in Hunan are mostly active along the shores of Dongting Lake or in the capitals of various prefectures. They have not had time to enter the local counties and towns in southern Hunan in large numbers. Otherwise, with the secret camp leading the team, it will really be "the law will not let any loose"!

Just as the Fu Han Army was conquering cities and territories in central and southern Hunan like bandits, stirring up the world, in front of the Loyalty Temple of Shigu Academy, several Fu Han Army officers and soldiers were solemnly changing a pair of couplets for the Loyalty Temple:

The green blood stained the yellow sand, and the sacrifice for justice should be immortal;

The elites are shining like stones, and those who are afraid of death should not come here.

This was not proposed by Chen Ming. He could not come up with such a couplet. This was proposed by someone in the Fu Han Army. In a few days, 20 to 30 couplets that were considered good were sent to Chen Ming, and he chose this one.

This couplet was written by Chen Guangqian.