Li Xiucheng is in a good mood recently. He has faced many problems when he goes south. However, for the Taiping Army, who is fighting alone in the north and does not have a complete logistics supply system, the biggest problem is supply. The grain, guns and bullets they carry when they divide their troops south. At first, Li Xiucheng was very worried about such a battle without logistics support. If the Qing army resisted and defended a solid city and the Taiping Army consumed too much along the way, the supplies they carried might be difficult to support them to meet Lin Fengxiang.

But after the army set out from Jinghai, the war went unexpectedly smoothly. After heading south along the canal, the cities occupied by the Qing army along the way were submerged. Otherwise, the county officials or generals stationed in the local area led their troops to escape. The Taiping Army captured Qingxian, Cangzhou, Dacheng and other places without a single shot, but when they were hitting Nanpi, they abandoned more than a dozen artillery shells, and the army went south like a bamboo shoot.

Afterwards, Li Xiucheng realized that the reason why these cities were taken down without any effort was somewhat related to the propaganda of Changlu salt merchant Zhang Jinwen and others. Since Zhang Jinwen watched the Battle of Baodi between the Taiping Army and the foreigners, he knew in his heart that the world was going to change its masters. More than 20,000 foreign soldiers could defeat more than 100,000 imperial troops, and finally the capital was almost out of stock. More than 40,000 Taiping Army wiped out all foreigners. Who can do such martial arts in the world? He is a Han Chinese, why don’t he take the initiative to surrender? The general may still get the merit of following the dragon?

So Zhang Jinwen then asked to meet the chief general of the Taiping Army. Originally, he only thought he would meet the leading general of the Taiping Army, but he did not expect that he would meet the number one figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Western King Xiao Chaogui. The name of the Western King was resounding throughout the country. Zhang Jinwen even admired the Western King even more, as the leader of a country, that he dared to lead the alone army to go north to take risks. This courage and courage are indeed only possessed by a founding king.

The King of Westerners politely met Zhang Jinwen and praised Zhang Jinwen as a rich man. He did not surrender to the foreigners when foreign soldiers invaded, and when the Qing court could not settle the place, it was very rare to take the initiative to take the responsibility of protecting the land and protecting the people.

After some praise, Zhang Jinwen looked red and said a few humble words. Then the King of the West talked about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's policy of treating wealthy businessmen, and also talked about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's industrial and commercial policies. Finally, the King of the West talked about the salt and iron policy of Jiangnan.

At first, Zhang Jinwen was slightly disappointed with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's salt and iron policy, but the King of the West proposed to establish the first factory in the north to produce iodized salt in Tianjin, and planned to let Zhang Jinwen contribute, and the technology would be borne by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After listening, Zhang Jinwen was overjoyed. He had long heard that Jiangnan fine salt was made in finely, and it was said that if he added some iodine, he would not get big neck disease after taking it, and the production cost would be greatly reduced. Whoever did this business would be able to occupy the northern market first.

Next, King Xi and Zhang Jinwen had a long conversation, talking about how to develop the local industrial and commercial economy in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei in the future. King Xi proposed to build a large railway connecting the north and south and develop maritime trade. These were originally something that Zhang Jinwen could not imagine. So in the face of a beautiful blueprint, Zhang Jinwen strengthened his determination to follow the dragon.

The King of Western Republic then expressed that he wanted Zhang Jinwen to be responsible for raising food and grass and other military supplies. Anyway, after the King of Western Republic captured Tianjin, the British and French robbers robbed a lot of gold, silver and jewelry. There were also many money found on many prisoners, which could be used for military supplies procurement.

Zhang Jinwen was a businessman. Seeing that it was profitable, he naturally followed his orders. The King of Western asked Zhang Jinwen to come forward to contact the wealthy businessmen in the north. He asked him to call on others not to follow the Qing Dynasty. The King of Western proposed the slogan that when the Taiping Army came, the various taxes and taxes of industry and commerce were abolished, and the development of industry and commerce was vigorously encouraged. The King of Western asked Zhang Jinwen to contact more wealthy businessmen to meet with the King of Western to discuss the future development plans of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

Zhang Jinwen was overjoyed and of course he received the order. The King of Western Rewards awarded Zhang Jinwen the position of the county magistrate of Tianjin County, which made Zhang Jinwen even more flattered. The King of Western had long planned to dismantle the wealthy and gentry in the north by winning over. After this representative of the Changlu Salt Merchants took the initiative to come forward, the King of Western planned to buy horse bones for a thousand gold coins and set an example first, so Zhang Jinwen became the first rich businessman in the north to surrender to the Taiping Army.

Then Zhang Jinwenguang sent his family to contact wealthy business friends from all over the country. He has been in business for many years and has a wide range of people in the north. In addition, after the Taiping Army recently appeared in the north, it surrounded the capital and defeated the foreigners who invaded the invading world. Everyone's minds changed drastically, so Li Xiucheng went south and conquered the city without any effort.

The Qing army's troops in Zhili and other places were very weak at this moment. Most of them were drawn out before the war, and they went to Beijing or Dagu and other places to fight with foreigners, and the place was empty. Zhang Jinwen's propaganda made wealthy businessmen from all over the country watch and no longer support the Qing government. Without the money, grain and support of the wealthy businessmen, the Qing army lost their minions. Even big cities like Cangzhou were the ones who took the initiative to open the city and surrender after killing the county magistrates.

The people of Cangzhou are very martial, and there are many religious people who believe in Allah. They were originally mortal enemies of Christianity believed in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, since the rebellion of the people in Guangxi had occurred in Guangxi, the Taiping Army paid great attention to the propaganda of policies such as equality of doctrine and freedom of belief before entering. Before attacking Cangzhou, Li Xiucheng sent dozens of soldiers who believe in Allah to go south to promote it. Therefore, the religious people of Cangzhou not only helped the Taiping Army but also took the initiative to kill the county magistrate and surrendered under the agitation of the Taiping Army soldiers.

After entering Cangzhou, the Taiping Army took the initiative to protect halal temples and respect the custom of teaching the people not to eat pork. In fact, in the Taiping Army, soldiers who believed in Allah had long received this respect. The military had halal food to solve the problem of dietary customs. Therefore, the Cangzhou people saw that the Taiping Army really respected the teachings and had free beliefs, and abolished the Qing Dynasty's harsh taxes, so they naturally supported it.

At this time, the policies that Xiao Yungui and Hong Yuner have adhered to for many years have shown benefits. One is to protect private property. Instead of completely equalizing the wealth and poverty like the Taiping Army in history, they forced wealthy businessmen to the court. Instead, they use the development of industry and commerce, vigorously develop production, convert part of the agricultural population into urban industrial population, reduce land conflicts, and at the same time buy land, confiscate the government, corrupt officials and some serious and vicious large households to distribute land to the common people, which has slowed down social conflicts. At this time, using this trick in the north with a population density not as large as the south is naturally easy to capture. What's more, the Taiping Army defeated foreigners, greatly boosted the confidence of the Chinese people, and declared the outstanding martial arts of the Taiping Army, so it has this effect.

The second is to insist on freedom of belief. As early as when the Western King Changsha won over the Heaven and Earth Association, he had already allowed the army to believe in Buddhism and Taoism and other doctrines. After the Western King took office in Tianjing, he abolished the bad rule of forcing others to believe in God's religion nationwide. Therefore, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism and other sects were not persecuted. Therefore, even after Zeng Guofan launched a military army under the name of respecting Confucianism and defending the Chinese language, this slogan was not expressed in the following years, and no one responded to it.

Therefore, Li Xiucheng's journey south was very smooth, and there was almost no loss of bullets. On the contrary, he received support from people from all over the country along the way. In addition, the Taiping Army's fair transactions, food, grass, vegetables, fruits, and specialties from all over the country were transported to the front-military transactions. The Taiping Army's logistics quarantine officer even purchased civilian gunpowder, sulfur, saltpeter, medicinal materials and other military supplies, and the grain and bullets carried were more than when he set out.

After Li Xiucheng occupied one place, he divided more than a hundred soldiers to stay, appointed a highly-known local figure as local officials, and gave money and grain to call on the local regiments to train the village soldiers of the Taiping Army to jointly defend the local area. This was to establish the Taiping Army's township and village soldiers system in the towns along the way. However, the army went south and there were few civil servants. This kind of township officials and village soldiers system was only temporarily established, not as thorough as in Jiangnan. There were still many unconventional customs in various places, but they could only be opened up and practiced on land by Lin Fengxiang's troops, and then sent a large number of civil servants to the north to guide them.

Fortunately, the soldiers who stayed were specially selected by those who were literate and more sensible. They believed that they could handle local affairs well and temporarily stabilize the local situation. They waited for the Taiping Army to move north in a large scale in the future and then make adjustments. At that time, there was a military guarantee and I believe that other local policies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would be more effective in implementing them.

The Lin Fengxiang army in the south began the battle of Xuzhou when the Western King went north. In this direction, the Taiping Army invested two field troops. Although the news was not clear, Li Xiucheng believed that Lin Fengxiang army had occupied Xuzhou, and then went north and had to conquer Yanzhou, Tai'an and other major prefectures along the way. The most likely thing was to join forces with his troops south at the Jinan Prefecture City.

So, Li Xiucheng's troops, who were advancing all the way, went south to Shandong, Dongguang, Fucheng, Jingzhou, Dezhou and other places without stopping, and then continued to invade Shandong and capture Ling County. The army came to Linyi.

When Li Xiucheng's vanguard reached the city of Linyi, it was already evening and the Qing army did not dare to go out of the city to fight. After the Taiping Army arrested several Qing troops who had fled, he learned that the army of kings organized by the Shandong Governor was still gathering here a few days ago, and then they were scattered.

When the news reached Li Xiucheng's desk, Li Xiucheng touched his chin and sighed secretly that he had lost an opportunity. If he knew about this in advance, he would have sent troops to encircle and annex the Qing army in Linyi. Unfortunately, the Qing army was let go. Otherwise, after annihilated the largest Qing army group in Shandong, the entire Shandong area could still be taken into account? It seems that he was still too careful in using troops.

But Li Xiucheng did not blame himself for too long. From this, he saw the other side, that is, the Qing army in Shandong seemed not very enthusiastic about going north to serve the king. At least, the determination to serve the king was very weak. Judging from their scattered forces to guard various towns, these Qing army generals in Shandong still hoped to protect themselves and had a very weak will to resist. Perhaps they could take other means to dismantle the Qing army in Shandong.

The next day, Li Xiucheng asked the arrested Qing army deserters to send him a handwritten letter to the Qing army generals and county magistrates in Linyi City. This letter was naturally the content of persuading surrender... (To be continued...)

...
Chapter completed!