Zuo Zongtang had a strange dream last night, dreaming that he went to visit the Confucian Temple in Huangjialing again. At the beginning, it was the same as what he dreamed of. He was still the top scholar. In the envious eyes of everyone, he climbed up the top scholar bridge across the huge lotus pond with a proud look, passing through the Xiongwen Mashishi archway. It was made of six vertical stone pillars and 15 horizontal stone beams, symmetrical to each other. A small stone lion squatted at the top of each upright stone pillar. The tiger and tiger were energetic Lingxing Gate, and stepped on the front floor of the Dacheng Hall, with its head held high on the "Dragon Going to the Sea" pattern carved in marble, and leisurely came to Dacheng Hall.

Here, there are tablets of "The Great Sage of the Great Sage, the Wenxuan King Confucius" and various plaques presented by emperors of all dynasties. When he was celebrating the plaque "The Memorial of the Master of the Holy Ancestor Kangxi, the plaque "The ancestors did not have any ancestors" issued by Yongzheng, the plaque "The Gum of Heaven and Earth" issued by Qianlong, the plaque "The Collection of the Holy Collection" issued by Jiaqing, the plaque "The Holy Collects and the Times" issued by Daoguang, and the plaque "Deqi Hunzai" issued by Wansheng Xianfeng today, a noise outside the hall forced him to stop.

There was such a noise in front of the saint, which was really hurtful! He sighed and came to the door in his voice.

The scene outside the door surprised him. It was already crowded with people, and everyone seemed to have their faces turned pale, cursing something in their mouths, and spitting something in the middle with their saliva.

He tried hard to separate the crowd and squeezed into the middle. It turned out that there were a series of black iron statues as big as a real person, as if they were the death row prisoners about to be killed on the execution ground. The same crime cards were inserted on their backs and the same words were written. Not many, only two, "traitors". The "traitors" all looked at the Dacheng Hall, kneeled down in shame, and accepted the scolding of thousands of people.

He even began to find it fun and distinguished it carefully one by one. Haha, this is Zeng Guofan and Zeng Disheng. Not to mention, it is really like himself, even the stubborn goatee beard is vivid. Below Zeng Disheng, the other four brothers of the Zeng family are arranged. Humph, the arrogant Zeng Liu and Zeng Jiu no longer have the arrogance they used to be.

"The ancients advocated a loyal and wise man, but there was a traitor now, which was rare! Alas, the sages were fed the dogs, and they were so gentle that they were swept the floor, so gentle that they swept the floor, so gentle that they swept the floor, so gentle that they swept the floor, so gentle that they swept the floor, so gentle that they swept the floor, so gentle that they swept the floor." Zuo Zongtang heard someone mocking him.

"Oh, this Zuo Zongtang is not from our Xiangxiang, why does he seem to have kneeled here?"

"This kind of scum kneeling here is polluting the place. I think it might be more appropriate to throw it into the septic tank aside."

"Haha, you must speak politely in front of the saint. That's called 'Mi Tian Gong'!"

Zuo Zongtang was confused. How could he have himself here? He rubbed his eyes and looked closely. The original image of Zeng Disheng turned into himself in an instant. The conscience of heaven and earth, I am not from you Xiangxiang, I am not a traitor! He woke up suddenly.

Dreams are what people think. If Zuo Zongtang really had an official position in the court, he would definitely not have such a dream. He would also be like Zeng Guofan, perhaps even more cruel than Zeng Guofan to strangle the Taiping Army to achieve the goal of dyeing his top red.

But now it is different. He is still just an aide. The duty of an aide is to ask him to pay attention to every move of the Taiping Army at all times and carefully analyze what may happen there, even if it is just a small change. One thing is that he did not tell Zeng Guofan during the conversation, that is, he had received a letter from Hu Weiyong, the former governor of Luzhou who surrendered to the Taiping Army. Combined with the spies and the compradors of Changsha foreign companies, he clearly felt that the Taiping Army had changed a lot. In the area controlled by the Taiping Army, most people lived better than before.

With his knowledge and weighing the actual strength of both sides, he believed that Zeng Guofan would definitely lose. He even had a vague feeling that Shi Dakai did not give priority to the strategy of separating the Yangtze River, as if the purpose was to eliminate Zeng Guofan and others. Without Zeng Guofan and not giving him the opportunity to establish the Hunan Army, the Qing Dynasty would be gone! Of course, Zuo Zongtang was not a mortal, and he felt that he was stronger than Zeng Guofan. Unfortunately, he was a white man, even if he had great skills, he could not perform. If he continued to do this, he would definitely fall into the trap. He really felt unjust.

After thinking about it over and over again, when Zeng Guofan was about to urge the army to rush to Xiangtan, he suddenly proposed to go to Xiangxiang with Zeng Guohuang to train troops.

Zeng Guofan didn't see Zuo Zongtang's many evil intentions, but instead thought it was a very good idea. With Ji Gao, his training ideas would be completely implemented, with faster and better results. He was actually always upset in his heart. It is estimated that this time he will be in trouble, and he needs a lot of support.

So Zuo Zongtang had the opportunity to move towards Xiangxiang all the way, giving himself the chance to realize his dreams again and again. He already had the intention to continue to trek into this mess again and again.

Xiangxiangcheng, known as Longcheng in ancient times, is located in the northern bank of Lianshui River, a tributary of the Xiangjiang River. It is adjacent to Xiangtan in the east, Loudi in the west, Shuangfeng in the south, and Shaoshan in the north. It has always been an important town in southern Chu, an ancient town in the Han and Tang dynasties, and a fortress in central Hunan.

However, it is a pity that due to the weak military strength of the Qing government, there was no energy to garrison the Green Camp soldiers here. In addition, I had never expected that the Taiping Army would come so quickly. When Yang Fuqing's front team arrived in Xiangxiang, even a whole team or a whole post in the city did not leave behind. The only thing that could be considered a defensive force was the 100 officers in the county government.

In fact, when the Taiping Army first entered Hunan last year, Zhu Sunyi, the magistrate of Xiangxiang, ordered the training of the tribes, training of the ranks and developing landlord armed forces in the county. At the beginning of the year, the Xiangxiang League Defense Bureau was officially established to coordinate the armed forces of the townships and villages under his control. At the same time, he specially set up the League Defense Bureau in Loudi, ordering Liu Rong to train hundreds of village heroes there. If the whole county really mobilized, the training of the courage could gather at least three or four thousand people. Unfortunately, together with these people, and the capable general Liu Rong, whom he liked, most of them had been under Zeng Guofan's command.

The so-called Xiangxiang General Defense Bureau is just the base for the recruits and logistics management of Zeng Guofan's training of the Hunan Army. Or the offices of the Hunan Army stationed in his hometown are more accurate. At this time, Zhu Sunyi had long forgotten his duty as a magistrate, and he thought about the matter of training for the regiment all day long. He had made up his mind to throw away the magistrate's hat and bring a battalion of troops to rely on Zeng Guofan to seek military achievements.

If it weren't for the opportunity of Zhang Jiao of the Yellow Turban Army, where did the Taoyuan Sanjie come from? Where did he get the three-part world? However, he couldn't imagine that he wanted to divide the world. It was a death sentence, and he wouldn't dare to scare him. He just wanted to climb a few more layers, and he didn't want to ask for extravagance. The second or second grade was still okay. He was about to be 50 years old. If he continued to do so, he would not be able to get rid of the sesame and mung bean official who was magistrate until he died.

Therefore, Zhu Sunyi had tried his best to develop the Hunan Army. When Zeng Guofan was training troops in Hengyang, Zhu Sunyi, together with Zeng Guobao, who was in charge of the General Administration of the Regiment Defense, plunged into the matter of raising brave men and collecting military pay. Although his "political achievements" as a magistrate had almost nothing, although there were vast grain fields around Xiangxiang, there were no fields to plant farmers everywhere and no land to farm. However, all this happened to bring the cheaper he recruited. He no longer hated these "idle-minded" stinky stools like he usually did, but spoke sweetly and tactfully. Once he discovered the "talent", he even spent several times in your home, and he would never give up until he achieved his goal.

Today, Zhu Sunyi finally breathed a sigh of relief. In Loudi, his camp had already gathered enough people and could go to Hengyang tomorrow. It was almost midnight that he rushed back from Loudi with an indescribable joy. After entering the county government, he had not sat firmly yet, he heard a noise in the front yard.
Chapter completed!