Xinhui guarded the southern gate of Guangzhou and was very close to Guangzhou City. The occupation of Xinhui by Taiping Army will inevitably attract the Qing army in Guangzhou to be dispatched in full force. In order to prevent the Taiping Army from being intercepted by the Qing army on its way to Xiangshan, when the Japanese military discussed the previous day, Zhou Shixiang had already explained it clearly with the generals that it was in Xinhui City to compete with the Qing army in Guangzhou. On that day, the Qing army was able to repel tens of thousands of troops of Xining King Li Dingguo with the strong city of Xinhui. Today, the Taiping Army can also use this strong city to repel the heavy troops of the Qing army in Guangzhou City.

All the generals had no objection to this. Regardless of whether they knew the troops or not, they knew that holding on to the city was definitely more confident than fighting with the Qing army in the field. The Taiping Army had no cavalry, and most of the battalions were new soldiers, which was not as good as the elite of the Qing army in Guangzhou. What's more, there were cavalry in Guangzhou's Han army flag. If the Qing army could not be repelled by Xinhui City, the Qing army would definitely attack when the Taiping Army marched into Xiangshan. At that time, I was afraid that there would be more misfortunes.

Ge Zheng, Ge Yi brothers and others thought that they had been running since Luo Ding started the army, saying that they had been turning into the entire camp to find a base, but after walking for so long, Xiangshan County still had not arrived. Since they could occupy the Xinhui City in one fell swoop today, it would be better to use the Xinhui as a base. In this way, they could also let the former "mountain kings" taste the majesty of the official master.

If there is a city, there are people, and if there are people, there will be tributes. Everyone holds their heads and fights with their heads. Isn’t it just this day? It’s rare that Zhou Xiucai will not abandon Xinhui City, so everyone will fight against the Tartars and win. From now on, Xinhui will be in the world of Taiping Army. If you lose, you will be a scar. The so-called life will be in no place in life, it depends on how big the bird will be after death.

If you fight, you will fight. The Tartars are also a head and a hang. I don’t have fewer eggs than them. Come on. It depends on whether it is your hang or your hang!

............

When the Taiping Army was busy preparing siege equipment on the top of the city, the city was also busy. Under the orders of Zhou Shixiang, the Thousand Houses of the Taiping Army and Duke Xiang of the General Officer of the Money and Grain, Shaoxing's army Liao Ruixiang was ordered to be the magistrate of Xinhui. He used the seal left by his predecessor Huang Zhizheng of the Qing magistrate, and released several list documents. With the assistance of a team of security members sent by Duke Xiang of Song, the remaining people in the city were mobilized, whether old, weak, sick, disabled, or women, all organized to participate in the defense of Xinhui City.

Since the Qing army's food city disaster last year, the population of nearly 80,000 was only less than 2,000. After the Li Dingguo army rescued the siege at the beginning of the year, the Qing Dynasty was appointed governor of Guangdong Li Rutai, in order to conceal the large-scale massacre of the Qing army, ordered a group of people to move to Xinhui City and neighboring prefectures and counties to move a group of people to Xinhui City. In addition, the poor people in the countryside near Xinhui greed for the unowned house in the city and entered the city. The population of Xinhui has recovered to 10,000. There are hundreds of wealthy families from Guangzhou City. After the Taiping Army entered the city, the Zhenlu camp was led by Ge Zheng, and most of these wealthy families were affected by military disasters, and many families were destroyed.

In order to repair the bombed city wall before the Qing army arrived in Guangzhou, Zhou Shixiang ordered the captive Qing army and the city's servants to be used as coolies, and repaired the city wall at the cost of manpower. As a result, most of the young and strong men in the city went to the city wall construction site. After Liao Ruixiang was ordered to become the magistrate of Xinhui, he suffered from the fact that there were too few young and strong men, so he had to bite the bullet and order all the elderly, weak, women and children to fill the army, and prepare food and corresponding equipment for the guarding of the city with the remaining women and children in the rear camp of the Taiping Army.

Liao Ruixiang was born as a master. He was good at ordinary things. Although he was old, all matters were arranged in a tight manner, so that the Taiping Army's front battalion did not need to draw personnel for logistics. This action made Duke Xiang of Song praise him. He specifically said a few beautiful words to Liao Ruixiang in front of Zhou Shixiang. Zhou Shixiang was happy and ordered to reward Liao Ruixiang for twenty taels of silver.

After receiving the reward of twenty taels of silver, Liao worked even harder. He knew that the public treasury system implemented by the Taiping Army. All the seized and looted income must be confiscated and distributed uniformly by the public treasury later. Although he was ordered to be the magistrate, he did not have his salary. He still ate the same food as others, so he got twenty taels of silver, which made him very happy. He was originally a prisoner who was imprisoned for "anti-poetry". If it weren't for the Taiping Army, he would have fallen into the ground. Now he can not only survive, but also become an official and get silver. Such a good thing would have made him lose his heart. The so-called scholars died as confidants.

When the entire Xinhui city was mobilized, Zhou Shixiang was not idle either. He went to the city to inspect from time to time or discussed the city defense with the generals. He knew that the escaped Qing army would definitely report the news of Xinhui's loss to Guangzhou, and Guangzhou would definitely send troops to grab Xinhui as soon as possible. Otherwise, the Xinhui city would be pressed against the throat of the Qing army in Guangzhou like a knife, making it difficult for them to swallow. If he were himself, he would have to do his best to regain Xinhui, otherwise the Taiping Army would not need to do other actions. He just needed to send personnel to contact Li Dingguo, and the situation in Guangdong would change instantly.

The city defense affairs were made by Zhenlu camp guarding the east gate, Xiongwei camp guarding the west gate, Hujie camp guarding the south gate, and the trap camp guarding the north gate, and the guard camp guarding the north gate at any time. In addition, the security team of the future battalion expanded thousands of security team members. The source of the expansion security team was mainly young and strong in the city and the green camp prisoners of the Qing army. They could only be filled with people after the city wall was repaired. The security team was controlled by Duke Xiang of Song, and as the armed force of the rear camp, on the one hand, it ensured the safety of the rear camp, and on the other hand, it worked with the county magistrate to maintain order in the city.

The Taiping Army captured the city and defeated the Qing army. The whole camp was full of morale. Although the back battalion was severely damaged, the casualties were mostly elderly, weak, women and children, which to a certain extent caused the Taiping Army to unload a lot of burdens. Therefore, although the soldiers were full of hearts and pains, it was inevitable that the leader would feel relaxed. Zhou Shixiang was not a saint. He certainly regretted the dead, but people could not be resurrected. Living people still had to look forward. In this way, without the big burden of the back battalion, the Taiping Army's mobility and combat ability could be greatly improved, which gave him a lot of confidence to stick to the Xinhui to defeat the Qing army.

When defending the city, there must be food, and if there is no food, it will be dangerous.

The Taiping Army definitely cannot kill people like the Qing army, so there must be sufficient food to supply the entire army. Otherwise, once the food is out of stock, the entire army will be in danger. Fortunately, there are many foods in Xinhui City. When Li Dingguo besieged the city last year, the Qing army in the city did not have food at all. After the war, Li led Tai to the city to check and checked that the surplus grain in the city could still be used for the Qing army to eat for half a year. With so much food, and a batch of food was shipped one after another in the past few months, even if there was no food that the Taiping Army plundered from various places, it was enough to ensure that the Taiping Army stayed in Xinhui for more than half a year.

Sticking to the bottom line for half a year is Zhou Shixiang's bottom line, but he does not think that the Qing army is capable of besieging Xinhui City for half a year. Because through prisoners' confessions and estimates of the Qing army's forces along the way, the overall strength of the Qing army in Guangdong does not seem to be very strong. Conservatively, the two feudals of Guangzhou Ping and Jing will never send more than 10,000 troops. If more than 10,000 people are necessary, the soldiers of other prefectures and counties will be transferred. If other prefectures and counties are transferred, the Ming army in Guangdong will not be unaware of it. Zhou Shixiang expected that Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao would not be able to take this method of tearing down the east and west walls, because if they did this, the final result would be even if they took down Xinhui City, then the other prefectures and counties in Guangdong would probably be in the hands of the Ming army except Guangzhou.

It is urgent to contact the Ming army forces in various places. Therefore, Zhou Shixiang sent an order to Zhang Ying, asking him to try his best to spread the situation in Xinhui to all places, and to send people to Gaozhou in any case. Regardless of whether Li Dingguo is in Guangdong or whether he is fighting openly and secretly with Sun Kewang, he must know that Xinhui City, which he has been struggling for a year and has returned without success, has been captured by the Taiping Army at this time.

At this time in history, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo were at a time of turning against each other, so Zhou Shixiang did not dare to put the hope of completely subverting the situation in Guangdong on Li Dingguo. He could only do his best. As for whether Li Dingguo could seize this opportunity to lead a large army to attack Guangdong again, that was God's business.

Li Dingguo was not hopeful, but the remaining Ming army forces in Guangdong could be fought for. They did not expect them to come to Xinhui and hold on with the Taiping Army. They could also try to launch an attack on the Qing army in person to restrain the Qing army, thereby reducing the pressure on Xinhui City. The target of the fight was Zhou Shixiang, General Linghai, and also sent people nearby to collect and recruit Ming army remnants to enrich the city defense force.
Chapter completed!