Chapter 21: Li Yunzhong's Neutral Military System Breaks Through Yong'an

  Li Yunzhong led the right army to rush to Siwang Yu, sending Luo Dagang to lead a thousand people to ambush from behind, and also sent Li Desheng to lead the army to encircle from the right. Li Yunzhong led the guard brigade to ambush on the small road on the left. In this battle, Li Dianyuan's less than two thousand men were killed and fled in all directions, not knowing how many enemies were coming. They just ran towards the quiet left side. Seeing the opportunity was ripe, Li Yunzhong jumped up, shouted "Kill" and led more than a thousand people to charge towards the defeated army. In no time, the battle ended. Li Dianyuan led a small part of his troops to break through, capturing over 800 prisoners. These captives were difficult for Li Yunzhong, who had not thought of killing them. In the end, he could only educate them and then release them.

  After the battle, Li Yunzhong found that many people could not find their troops and were wandering around. Thinking that he would soon leave the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to develop independently, he had to have his own military system, so he immediately reorganized the troops in Siwang Village, completely imitating the military system of later generations.

  He organized his own right army into four regiments, one regiment with Luo Dagang as the regimental commander, under which there were three battalions. In order to facilitate identification, he thought of some scenes on TV and used the battalion commanders' names as codes. Each battalion had 600 people. Zeng Shuiyuan's "Shui" Battalion, Liu Cai's "Cai" Battalion, Wang Xin's "Xin" Battalion. The second regiment was commanded by Li Desheng, a brave warrior: Li Xiu Cheng's "Xiu" Battalion, Chen Chengyao's "Cheng" Battalion, and Wang Gang's "Gang" Battalion. The third regiment was commanded by Zhang Suimou, with Zhang Suimou's trusted aide Lin Qirong's "Qi" Battalion, Li Xiucheng's cousin Li Shixian's "Xian" Battalion, and Lin Shaozhang's "Zhang" Battalion. Each regiment had 1,800 people. The guard regiment directly under Li Yunzhong's command did not use codes, but instead used numbers. The first battalion was composed of some 14- or 15-year-old boys, with Bai Yinwu and Huang Jinwen as the leaders, totaling 800 people. Li Yunzhong found that these young boys were brave and fearless in battle, no less than the elite soldiers, and they admired him deeply, to the point of blind obedience. They were easily influenced by Li Yunzhong's ideas, so he gathered them together and personally taught them, intending to reuse them later. The second battalion was for field battles, consisting of the elite troops trained in the deep mountains, who were most loyal to Li Yunzhong, with 1,000 people, led by Li Yunzhong's cousin Li Chunfa. The third battalion was an explosive battalion, where Li Yunzhong gathered some hunters and miners together to specialize in explosives and blasting, and prepared a large flag for each battalion, so that the soldiers could identify themselves.

  In this reorganization, Li Yunzhong let some stubborn and timid old men step down and promoted a large number of young people who were brave in battle, such as Li Shixian, Li Xiucheng, Lin Qirong, Tan Shaoguang... They fought with wisdom and bravery, obeying Li Yunzhong's orders without hesitation, and were not easily tempted.

  Wuzhou, Imperial Commissioner's Camp

  Li Xingyu looked at Xiang Rong and Zhou Tianjie with a headache, the two of them had quarreled seven or eight times about whether to enter the mountain to suppress the bandits. Zhou Tianjie advocated for immediate entry into the mountain to surround and annihilate, in order to get promoted and rich. Xiang Rong believed that it was not suitable to enter the mountain at present, as the bandits were at their most arrogant, and they should wait until all the government troops arrived, block each entrance to the mountain, and trap the rebels in the Purple Bamboo Mountain, then the rebels would collapse without a fight. Li Xingyu didn't know who to listen to, he was a civil official and not good at military affairs, feeling that both of them made sense, but if they continued to argue like this, it would be wrong. This meeting also ended in discord.

  Zhou Tianjue returned to his residence still fuming with anger. It was a usual practice in official circles for the Provincial Governor to control the Tidu, but Xiang Rong dared to sing a different tune from him. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Without notifying Li Xingyuan, he wrote a memorial to impeach Xiang Rong for being afraid of the enemy and fearing battle, allowing the bandits to grow powerful, and disobeying the orders of his superiors, and sent someone to deliver it to Beijing.

  Li Yunzhong didn't know why the government army had attacked Pingnan and then fallen silent, so he took advantage of the darkness to cross into Pingnan County and enter the vast mountains where few people ventured, sending Luo Dagang as a vanguard to launch a surprise attack on Yong'an Prefecture.

  Yong'an is a large city, very prosperous, not comparable to Pingnan County or Teng County. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with only a few small roads leading into the city. The gates of Yong'an are closed very early every day. Luo Daguang arrived at the outskirts of Yong'an in the evening and lay in ambush, waiting for Li Yunzhong to arrive.

  At dawn, all was quiet, the sky was overcast with a faint light. Many citizens entered the city and were queuing at the gate, undergoing checks by government soldiers one by one. Luo Dagnian ordered some people to disguise themselves as travelers and blend in with the crowd. Li Yunzhong hid far away, saw a commotion at the gate, many citizens scattered and fled. Li Yunzhong waved his hand, and immediately, Li Desheng, who was hiding nearby, rushed towards the gate. Li Yunzhong ran ahead of the army, holding two knives in each hand, finally reaching the gate before it closed. He saw that there were still a few daredevils persisting, Li Yunzhong wielded his double knives at government soldiers, and soon the army charged into the city. The defending troops inside the city scattered and fled after seeing the gate was lost. Li Yunzhong led his men to kill in places with many government soldiers, all the way to the prefecture office. Seeing that the gate was closed, many Qing soldiers retreated inside. If they launched a strong attack, casualties would be heavy. At this time, the arrival of reinforcements would render their previous efforts futile. He hastily dispatched people to clear other areas of Qing soldiers and control the city gates.

  "The officers and soldiers inside, listen! We have taken down the entire Yong'an, you are already surrounded, come out and surrender to be spared." Li Yunzhong ordered someone to shout loudly outside the prefecture government office, advising those inside to surrender.

  After shouting for a whole morning, the Qing soldiers inside still didn't make a sound. Li Yunzhong, who was guarding outside, gradually became impatient and ordered someone to prepare flammable materials. He shouted personally: "You have half an hour to come out and surrender immediately. If not, we will burn you all to death."

  Yong'an Prefecture Wu Jiang and defender Yang Qing hastily turned around, discussing what to do. Wu Jiang said: "The situation is already gone, pity my whole family of thirty-seven people, no, can't let them fall into the hands of rebels."

  Yang Qing said angrily on the side: "Damn it, tens of thousands of soldiers and yet the rebels still managed to escape, these bastards, the country's affairs are ruined by this group of people. Sir, or else we..." Looking at Wu Jiang's frantic eyes, Yang Qing swallowed the two words "surrender".

  Wu Jiang said, "Eating the salary of a lord, one should naturally be loyal to that lord. Now is precisely the time to preserve one's name and integrity. General Yang, you may do as you please." After finishing speaking, Wu Jiang gathered his whole family together and put poison in their food, and they all took their own lives. Yang Qing led the remaining people in opening the gate and surrendering.

  Li Yunzhong ordered people to carry Wu Jiang's family out for burial, and sent the captives to clean up the dead bodies. Luo Dagang, Li Desheng, and Zhang Suimou found Li Yunzhong to discuss matters.

  Luo Dagang said: "Yongan is surrounded by mountains on all sides, like the government army besieging the city. We are afraid that it will be difficult to fly with wings. I and Li Tuanzhang, Zhang Tuanzhang specially came to ask General to send someone to guard the outside of the city. The key location forms a pincer movement with the defenders inside the city. Even if the government army comes to attack, as long as there is a response outside the city, it will still be easy for us to break out."

  Li Yunzhong thought so, and assigned them to guard the passes and strategic locations around the city, and had the prisoners who had been cleared from the city build fortifications, transport grain and grass, etc., leaving only Li Yunzhong's own guards to defend the city.

  After everything was ready, Li Yunzhong hastened to mobilize the people inside and outside the city to join the Taiping Army, and sent someone to inform Feng Yunshan and others, hoping they would come to join forces. Li Yunzhong was really afraid that if he attracted all the main force of the Qing army, he would lose everything because of a small mistake. It would be better to call over the main force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to be on the safe side, anyway, it's all beneficial for him to take everything first and then give some to Yang Xiuqing and others later.