The first town has returned to Guangzhou, and the town command post is located in Foshan; the second town has returned to Yuexiu Daying; the third town has also returned to Zengcheng from Haifeng, and the town command post is also located in Zengcheng; the newly built seventh town has been moved to Qingyuan County to undertake Qingyuan and Lianhua defense. In this way, with the fourth town that has been guarding Guangzhou, the Taiping Army has five towns in Guangzhou. After Zhou Shixiang returned to Guangzhou with the Iron Man Guard and the Cavalry Brigade, the Taiping Army in Guangzhou reached more than 50,000.

Compared with more than 7,000 troops stationed in Huizhou and Chaozhou, Guangzhou has stationed more than 50,000 troops at once, and the supply of military rations is immediately tight. In the past, the Taiping army had few soldiers, but they could maintain them by seizure and self-sufficiency, and even had surplus to support Zhaoqing. Now that the troops have expanded by more than twice, the seizure alone will definitely not be able to maintain the needs of the army.

Only Xiangshan in Guangzhou was the first to promote the construction of villages and villages, promote military farming and integrate land. The other counties only started to integrate at the end of last year. Before the county had time to plow spring, the army had drawn many young and strong men as civilians in the east, which delayed the spring farming a lot. After the battle of Xuanwu Mountain, Zhou Shixiang determined that Jidu was waiting for death, so he ordered the grain transport teams recruited by Guangzhou to be repatriated and seize the time to plow spring farming, so he could barely fill the gap. However, the grain planted in the Taiping Army had not had many war horses, but now there were thousands of war horses added, and one war horse could eat more than three young and strong. As a result, the supply of grain in Guangzhou was even more tense.

Guangzhou magistrate Liao Ruixiang is busy with how to solve the military rations of the Taiping Army towns who returned to the army these days. He also searched for the foundation, but he still couldn't make up for the gap. At that time, the two vassals of Pingnan and Jingnan in Guangzhou and the military rations of Manzhou soldiers in the city were not solved by the Guangzhou government, but transferred grain from Chaozhou, Huizhou, Shaozhou, Nanxiong and other prefectures, which ensured that the food and supplies of the Qing army in Guangzhou were guaranteed. Now Guangzhou has launched an army of nearly 60,000 in more than five towns. Liao Ruixiang, the magistrate, could not produce grain even if he had great skills.

Liao Ruixiang found Duke Xiang of Song to complain, what could Duke Xiang of Song have? He could only write a letter to Zhou Shi to complain. This time, the Taiping Army had a lot of results in the battle against Jidu, no matter from the perspective of military ration consumption, it was a great loss.

Although the Taiping Army organized the harvest of grain in Chaozhou and obtained a lot of grain, half of this grain was left for military use, and the rest was used for tens of thousands of migrant people. Otherwise, there would be no food and migrate on hungry days, and these tens of thousands of people would starve to death on the road.

Zhou Shixiang tried his best to move these people to Guangzhou, and he always emphasized that population, food, salt and iron are strategic materials that the Taiping Army must rob. Therefore, driving the Chaozhou people out of the village is not to starve them to death. Instead, they want to go to Guangzhou to build new homes, reclaim new land, and become the continuous supplier of Taiping Army's money and food. Naturally, people cannot die. Not only can they starve to death, nor can they be half full, but they have to eat enough. After a few days of rest in Guangzhou, they can recover their physical strength and work.

The first town on the northern line, the second town in Lufeng, the third town in Haifeng, the cavalry brigade, Qi Hao's artillery battalion, Zheng Chengkui's navy, and the Taiping Army participated in the Eastern Expedition by 30,000 troops. There were nearly 10,000 civilians responsible for transporting grain, and there were also thousands of bricklayers, plus the recruited Chaozhou villages and camp soldiers. The young and strong Chaozhou were recruited, with 50,000 or 60,000 people on the front line, and the food consumed every day was astonishing. After a battle, the number was even more astronomical.

In order to fight east, Guangzhou counties mobilized tens of thousands of civilians to form grain transport teams. There were thousands of trolleys driving on the official road every day. It would take half a month to go from Guangzhou to Lufeng, the fastest time for a civilian. The grain that a civilian can promote is about 200 kilograms, and a cart requires two civilians to rotate because it is physical work. You can't eat less, otherwise you will have no strength at all. So these two civilians have to eat a few kilograms of grain a day and wait for the front line. Most of the remaining grain on the truck is left.

Only half. On the return journey, the civilians also need food, so they can't go back hungry. This time, dozens of kilograms have to be reduced, so the rest can be considered formal military rations. Compared with such losses, it is obviously much more cost-effective to transport food by sea by navy warships. However, because of the sudden eastern expedition, Zhou Shixiang did not have time to arrange the shipping of sea food, and the navy had to undertake the Taiping Army's troops transport tasks, so it was impossible to have enough ships and manpower to organize large-scale shipping.

The grain transported from Guangzhou, coupled with the grain harvested from Chaozhou and the grain supplied by Hu Qili, ensured that the Taiping Army could confront the Qing army for a long time, and ensured that Zhou Shi was trapped and starved to death. If there was no such huge amount of grain supply, it would be hard to say who would kill him. The best outcome was that the Qing army returned to Chaozhou because there was no food, and the Taiping Army retreated to Huizhou because there was no food. The two sides were ready to prepare for the next decisive battle, and it was impossible for such a great victory.

Originally, after Jidu led his army into Chaozhou, the grain transported from the provinces in Jiangnan was successively transported to Nanzhao, Fujian. Jidu went south to Huizhou and used Chaozhou City as a military ration for land. However, the Taiping Army was moving too fast. Before much food and grass was transported to Chaozhou, it ambushed the Qing army's Wuzhenchaoha artillery camp in Huilai. As a result, Fujian's military ration will naturally not be transported to Chaozhou again.

After Lu Guangzu changed his flags and surrendered, he suggested that Zhou Shixiang send troops to Fujian to seize the grain transported by the Qing court from Jiangnan. However, before Zhou Shixiang could fight, Dasu from Fujian heard that Chaozhou changed his flags and ordered that Nanzhao's military rations be scattered to Quanzhou and transported them to Zhangzhou.

Nanzhao, without military rations, would be a useless rib. If the southwest is not dangerous, Zhou Shixiang naturally would not mind occupying a bridgehead for the Taiping Army to march into Fujian, and to collect grain from all over Fujian to replenish the consumed military rations. But now he could not send troops to Fujian, so he could only seize the time to integrate the surrendered troops, clear the military and political affairs, and let the troops involved in the war rest, otherwise he would not be able to move westward to Guangxi in August.

With the help of Tang Sanshui, the general of Shaozhou, Zhou Shixiang could regularly receive the Qing Dynasty Tang newspaper brought by Song Ying from Tang Sanshui. In order to promote this large-scale war to destroy the country, the Qing court published the war in the southwest in detail in Tang newspaper. The great victory published on it certainly made the Ming people in the world more pessimistic about the situation in the South Ming Dynasty, but it made Zhou Shixiang, Zheng Chenggong and others clearly understand the war in the southwest.

King Li Dingguo of Jin and Wu Sangui led his troops to retreat to Yunnan after a battle at Qixingguan in Guizhou. Wu Sangui did not pursue him easily, but waited for the other two groups of troops while resting. The Doni army who was watching in Hunan had also entered Guizhou. Hong Chengchou, who had been working on a "watching on the wall" in Hunan, also set off for Guiyang. It seemed that several groups of troops and commander Duni of the Qing army were going to hold a meeting to determine the specific deployment of the advance to Yunnan.

Zhou Shixiang estimated that the Qing army would enter Yunnan in July and August at the latest. Li Dingguo, who had no way out, would definitely choose the Qing army to fight the decisive battle. The target of the decisive battle would be Wu Sangui, who ran the fastest and most vigorously.

Zhou Shixiang is not clear about the details of the battle between Li Dingguo and Wu Sangui in Yunnan in history. It is known that Li Dingguo finally fell into a desperate situation after the defeat of the Battle of Mopanshan. The Battle of Mopanshan took place in the 13th year of Yongli (the 16th year of Shunzhi), that is, next year. It is not clear whether it is the beginning or the middle of the year. But no matter when the Battle of Mopanshan will happen next year, it at least shows that Li Dingguo has not fallen into a desperate situation this year. Therefore, Zhou Shixiang plans to go westward to Guangxi in August, and the strategic intention of restraining the Qing army and assisting Li Dingguo in time can be fully achieved.

In early April, Duke Xiang of Song sent someone from Guangzhou to report something to Zhou Shixiang, that was a few days ago, a few Qing army spies disguised as vendors wanted to rescue Hong Chengchou's son Hong Shiming, but they were hastily discovered because of their actions. They were surrounded by the Taiping Army who arrived. Those spies were brave and four died on the spot. The remaining one was injured and refused to tell who was assigned by him no matter how to torture him. However, this answer was obviously not important. Who would take the risk to save Hong Shiming, and just pick someone up on the street to tell him the identity of Hong Shiming, and this person would also answer that it was sent by his father, the traitor Hong Chengchou. It is natural for me to save my son. There are not many people in this world who can be cruel and careless about his son's life or death.

Zhou Shixiang did not deal with the matter, and just asked Hong Shiming to send a letter to his father. The son was still very good. My father Moyou said, and he did not mention the fact that Hong Chengchou sent someone to save him.

Duke Xiang of Song was always confused about Zhou Shixiang's handling of Hong Shiming. Since he was Hong Chengchou's son, he would either kill him or persuade him to surrender. He would neither kill nor persuade him to surrender. He also wanted him to be an official of the Ming Dynasty. What was Zhou Shixiang's plan?

Zhou Shixiang's answer was not yet here, who was Hong Chengchou? After taking his son, he was willing to submit and come back to the Ming Dynasty again?

The answer is obviously impossible. However, this impossible is just that the time has not come. If the time comes, things that are impossible will often become possible.

Duke Xiang of Song asked when the time was coming, but Zhou Shixiang did not reply. He had never sent anyone to have any contact with Hong Chengchou, and the senders all secretly joined the Changsha Jingli Mansion. The reason for this was that Zhou Shixiang felt that the time to persuade Hong Chengchou to surrender was not coming, and Hong Chengchou would not have the idea of ​​returning to the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the three Qing troops would not have gone south so quickly.

Zhou Shixiang is really just telling Hong Chengchou something now, "Your son is in my hands, don't worry, he is very good."

Guangzhou's military rations were in urgent need, so Zhou Shixiang naturally could not ignore it. Chaozhou was broken and the food could be squeezed was limited. In addition, the Taiping Army's reputation in Chaozhou was not very good, so Zhou Shixiang did not want to ask Zhao Ziqiang to harm the people of Chaozhou again, so he could only focus on Huizhou, but not on the people of Huizhou, but on the large gentry.

Zhou Shi handed over the task of "supporting grain" by the wealthy households in Huizhou to Suna. Hu Qili also persuaded the gentry in Huizhou, but the targets he persuaded grain were selective. Most of the wealthy households had never been persuaded to grain, and these people owned the most land and the most food.

Instructing Duke Xiang of Song to postpone the Huizhou affairs was not inconsistent with the large households' persuasion of grain. Zhou Shi told Duke Xiang of Song that if the Huizhou government complained to those large households who were persuaded to grain, the blame would be put on the head of Suna, the Manzhou people. After the grain was squeezed out, Duke Xiang of Song, the governor, would appease the Huizhou government. If it really didn't work, he, Xingping Bo, would come forward. If this was not possible, it would be shameless. Huizhou would also handle it completely in the Xiangshan model. Zhou Shixiang didn't mind several major cases of "Tong Tatar" in Huizhou.

On the one hand, Huizhou encouraged grain, and on the other hand, it was to buy grain from Tang Sanshui in Shaozhou. After hearing that the Taiping Army defeated the Qing army, Tang Sanshui was very sensible and sent someone to send letters to congratulate Zhou Shixiang, but he was worried that Zhou Shixiang would not be in love with him.

No one can attack Tang Sanshui. Zhou Shixiang is definitely not a merciless person, so he replied that he had no intention of getting involved in Shaozhou and only hoped that Brother Tang could be promoted step by step in the Qing court.

Zhou Shixiang asked Song Ying to tell Tang Sanshui that he had just won Jidu, but he did not forget Tang Sanshui, his good brother. Therefore, Tang Sanshui could send troops to a certain place on one day, and Zhou Shixiang also sent troops there. Then the Tang army was brave and the Taiping army dared not fight and fled in a panic. In this way, Tang Sanshui could send good news to Beijing. With the defeat of Jidu's army, Tang Sanshui's good news would definitely make the Qing court look at him with admiration and respect him. It is impossible to say that Wu Liuqi's position as the admiral of Guangdong was Tang Sanshui.

Tang Sanshui was naturally very happy when he got Song Ying's words. He suddenly realized that he could be promoted step by step, as if it was all thanks to Zhou Xiucai. Now Zhou Xiucai is more and more capable, and Prince Jian's army has called him defeated, but he can not be afraid of his reputation and humiliation to cooperate with him, Tang Sanshui performed a good show for the Qing court and ensure that Tang Sanshui continues to be promoted. This friendship is touching enough. Zhou Xiucai is really my good brother!

Although Zhou Xiucai finally expressed his lack of food and hoped that Tang Sanshui, as his elder brother, could provide relief, and there were still a large number, Tang Sanshui didn't mind and decided on the matter, ensuring that Zhou Shixiang's subordinates would not get hungry because they had no food.

Under the arrangement of Zhou Shixiang and the coordination of Song Ying, the Seventh Town, which had just moved to Qingyuan, sent a brigade to Yingde, who was in Shaozhou, to wander around, and then returned to the garrison with hundreds of vehicles of military rations. These military rations were specially transferred from the grain transported to the southwest army in order to allow Tang Sanshui to defend Shaozhou and prevent the Taiping Army from going from north to north of Hunan. However, he did not want to change his hands and asked Tang Sanshui to give Zhou Shixiang a favor. I wonder if Shunzhi would be so angry that he would vomit three liters of blood if he knew about this.

Tang Sanshui's memorial to report to the Qing court that Dasu's memorial to the defeat of Jidu's army was issued one after another. After Jidu's death, Zhou Shixiang ordered people to blockade a piece of news until he was about to return to Guangzhou. Fang ordered the fifth town to lift the blockade of the junction area of ​​Chaozhou and Fujian, and let go of the news of Ji's defeat.
Chapter completed!