Although Zeng Guofan already had the intention to rebel, he did not act rashly.
"Mr. Zhao, what should we do next?" he asked.”
The white-robed scholar's surname was Zhao and his name was Lie Wen. He was Zeng Guofan's chief strategist. Zeng Guofan listened to his words and trusted him very much.
Zhao Liewen said," The Qing court is plagued by internal and external problems. The Nian Army and the Taiping Army are causing trouble internally, while the foreigners are devouring them externally. Even if we don't rebel, they will definitely perish within 50 years!”
Zhao Liewen concluded that the Qing court would be destroyed, which made Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan feel much more at ease.
If the Qing court's fate was not over, then wouldn't their rebellion be going against the heavens and would they fail?
However, Zhao Liewen's next words were very cautious. He was not blindly arrogant or boastful.
"However, a centipede dies but does not die. It is not so easy to overthrow the Qing court in one go!”
Zeng Guofan agreed with him." That's right. Although the imperial court is plagued with internal and external problems, they currently control more territory than us. Their population and financial resources are far beyond ours!”
"Great Marshal, you see it clearly. It is precisely for this reason that if we are to raise an army, we must go straight to the capital and take it!”
"However, in order to do this, the Xiang Army must first be united. Otherwise, if someone were to tip off the Imperial Court, it would be very difficult for us to achieve our goal!”
Zhao Liewen's words made Zeng Guofan's heart skip a beat. He immediately said to Zeng Guoquan,"Guo Quan, go and publish something!”
Then, she whispered into Zeng Guoquan's ear.
Zeng Guoquan's eyes were filled with killing intent as he nodded,""Don't worry, big brother. I'll handle this matter well!”
After he finished speaking, he left the tent. A moment later, Zeng Guoquan secretly led his men to arrest those who did not plead for him. He used various reasons to arrest them and took over their army.
Zeng Guoquan's words that day were naturally what Zeng Guofan had asked him to say. His purpose was to test the reactions of the generals in the Xiang army.
Those who were not loyal to the court would naturally stand on Zeng Guoquan's side and plead for him. This meant that they were sitting on the Xiang Army's side.
Those who were more loyal to the imperial court would be dissatisfied with Zeng Guoquan because of his rebellious words. Naturally, they would not plead for him. On the contrary, they would want him dead.
These people were loyal to the court, but they might not be loyal to the Xiang Army.
Therefore, Zeng Guofan would definitely not tolerate them!
After clearing out the dissidents in the army, there were no more people loyal to the court in the entire Xiang Army. The remaining people were all loyal to Zeng Guofan and willing to do great things with him!
"If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools. In the previous battle, our artillery suffered heavy losses!”
"The battle with the mysterious warship of unknown origin also fully demonstrated the importance of artillery. So, Marshal, I think we should have more contact with the foreigners in Song Jiang and find ways to get their support. We should also vigorously buy firearms from the foreigners, especially foreign guns and cannons!”
In addition to eliminating dissidents, Zhao Liewen also clearly recognized the importance of firearms, so he suggested Zeng Guofan to increase the firepower of the Xiang army so that they could better attack the city after the rebellion!
Zeng Guofan attached great importance to his proposal and immediately sent his confidant to Song Jiang to contact foreigners.
……
Zeng Guofan, who had occupied the Tianjing area, was plotting a rebellion, but Lin Yu in the south was not idle either.
After the recruitment of troops in Buddha City and Yue City, the size of the Han army increased by 15,000 men.
In just three days, 12,000 people had signed up to join the army.
As the foreigners dumped a large number of domestically produced products to China at low prices, China's own products were unsalable, and a large number of farmers and handicraft workshops began to go bankrupt.
Many people had lost their means of making a living and had run to Yue City and other trading ports to work as coolies on the docks.
These people were physically strong and often fought with others in order to snatch business. Their discipline and combat strength were very good.
Therefore, the Han army was willing to recruit these people!
The Han army's salary was very high. The monthly salary of an ordinary soldier was one tael of silver. It did not go through the hands of the officer. It was directly distributed to the soldiers by the person in charge of finance in the logistics department. This prevented the officer from drinking the blood of the soldiers, embezzling and embezzling the soldiers 'salary.
It sounded like one tael of silver was not a lot, but in fact, the currency used by the people in this era was copper coins.
Silver itself was a large amount of currency. One copper coin was roughly equivalent to one yuan in the future.
One tael of silver could be exchanged for 1400 wen, which was 1400 yuan.
At this moment, the market price of rice was 10 wen per liter, which was about 6.7 yuan per catty. One tael of silver could buy more than 200 catties of white rice, which was enough for a family of seven to eat!
In this era, very few people could afford to eat white rice. For many people, it was their dream to be able to eat fragrant white rice.
And this dream could be realized as long as they joined the Han Army!
Not only that, but the soldiers 'daily meals were provided by the army and were not charged.
Moreover, the Han army's food was very good. There was enough white rice and flour, fish for every meal, and meat for at least two meals a week.
Such food was quite attractive to the poor people of this era!
After all, the average salary in Guangdong and Guangxi was less than 500 wen, which was less than half a tael of silver. With this amount of money, not to mention eating meat, it was already good enough to barely fill one's stomach.
Therefore, most people might not be able to eat meat for a year or two or even their entire lives.
They could eat meat if they joined the army. Just this point alone was enough to attract them to join the army!
Because there were too many new recruits, they thought that they would need one or two months to recruit enough soldiers. In less than three days, the original quota of 10,000 soldiers had been exceeded.
In the end, the Han army selected 12000 recruits with excellent physical fitness and suitable age from the registration crowd.
This new army was organized into six regiments, each with 2500 men. Together, they formed the first infantry division of the Han army.
As soon as the 1st Infantry Division was formed, news came from the north that the Qing court had sent Zuo Zongtang's Chu army south to suppress them.
Therefore, Lin Yu decided to use battle as a substitute for training. He scattered the original 3,000 Han soldiers and placed them among the 12,000 new recruits.
With the veterans as the squad leader, platoon leader, and other basic level officers, they would lead the new army to attack cities and seize land so that the Han army could quickly accumulate combat experience and prepare for the fierce battle against the Chu army!
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]