Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

After Zeng Bohan, the leader of the Xiang Army, took office as the Governor-General of Huguang, he began to vigorously organize local militias and expand the Xiang Army.

Deceived by Qing officials and local gentry, countless people in Hunan Province were misled. They believed the lies told by the officials and landlords, fearing that the Taiping Army would launch a large-scale attack on Hunan Province, plunder their wealth, humiliate their wives and daughters, and indiscriminately kill innocent people.

Furthermore, the Xiang Army received substantial financial support from landlords, gentry, and wealthy merchants, enabling them to pay generous military salaries.

This naturally led to the Xiang Army growing rapidly, like a snowball rolling downhill.

Soon, the Xiang Army not only recovered its strength and made up for its previous losses, but its total strength even approached 100,000.

However, firearms remained the biggest problem for the Hunan Army.

With the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom controlling almost the entire lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the only way for the Xiang Army to purchase firearms from foreigners was to head south to the Guangdong and Guangxi regions.

Meanwhile, the British and the Gauls were putting all their effort into teaching the Qing Dynasty a lesson, or rather, they wanted to join forces to rob the Qing Dynasty.

Under such circumstances, it was naturally impossible to sell firearms to the Xiang Army.

With no other option, the Xiang Army had to manufacture firearms themselves.

Although they were all old-fashioned matchlock guns and flintlock muskets, and some muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons, if used properly, they were still much better than broadswords and spears.

At the same time, the Hunan Army was also actively training its troops and building fortifications and defenses.

Faced with the powerful firepower of the Taiping Army, the only tactic the Xiang Army could think of was to build strongholds and fight a protracted war.

In this way, the gap in weaponry and firepower between the two sides can be offset, and the strength of both sides can be brought to the same level as much as possible.

In that case, the Hunan Army's chances of winning would undoubtedly be much greater.

In another time and space, this was also the most successful tactic of the Hunan Army in this war.

Even when the Taiping Army had a numerical advantage and superior weaponry, their heavy attacks on the Xiang Army's camps often resulted not only in failure but also in heavy losses.

So much so that in the later stages of the war, the Xiang Army was able to completely surround Nanjing with only tens of thousands of troops.

But in this time and space, the Hunan Army still uses the same tactics.

It would be very difficult to make it work again.

The firepower of the Taiping Army was far more powerful than that of the other timeline.

These seemingly fortified camps of the Xiang Army probably couldn't withstand the attack at all!

Besides the Xiang Army's vigorous military buildup, the Hubei Provincial Governor, De'an, also received orders from the Qing court to expand his army. In addition, the Jingzhou General, the Henan Provincial Governor, the Shandong Provincial Governor, and the governors of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong provinces in the southwest all received orders from the Qing court to organize local militias to counter the Taiping Rebellion and the threat from foreigners.

It can be said that in order to overcome this crisis, the Tartars completely lifted the restrictions on Han officials.

This led to a trend of establishing local militias in the southern provinces.

Not only are provinces running these programs, but prefectures and cities below them are also doing so.

In a short time, the number of local militias in the southern provinces increased dramatically.

However, most of these militia groups lacked actual combat capability and were essentially a facade. They were far more adept at plundering and pillaging than at fighting.

Hoping to fight against the Taiping Army and foreigners with such an army is pure delusion.

The ultimate result will likely be the creation of a large number of bandits and robbers.

Throughout history, at the end of every dynasty, there have always been countless bandits and robbers.

These bandits and robbers included not only impoverished people who couldn't survive, but also many ruffians and soldiers.

As a result, war has long been an unavoidable disaster for the people.

While the Qing army was frantically expanding its forces, the Taiping army was also reorganizing its troops according to a predetermined plan.

On the Imperial Guard side, in addition to the 3rd Infantry Division undergoing training, the 4th Infantry Division had also begun to be formed. On the Eastern Expeditionary Army side, the 2nd Army was reorganized into the 2nd Infantry Division. Furthermore, General Li Xiucheng, commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, requested the formation of another army to facilitate the upcoming campaign against Zhejiang Province.

On the Northern Expeditionary Army's side, the 1st Army was reorganized into the 1st Infantry Division of the Northern Expeditionary Army. On the Southern Expeditionary Army's side, the 1st Army was also reorganized into the 1st Infantry Division of the Southern Expeditionary Army. Furthermore, the Southern Expeditionary Army also formed another army.

On the Western Expeditionary Army side, the 1st and 7th Armies were reorganized into infantry divisions. The other six armies remained unchanged for the time being.

This meant that once the Taiping Army completed this phase of reorganization, it would have established a field force of 9 infantry divisions and 12 armies.

The overall strength has undergone tremendous changes compared to before.

In addition, the Taiping army captured a large number of prisoners in this battle.

These prisoners will all be used in various construction sites and mines.

In particular, the iron and copper mines around Daye are key development targets.

This will greatly enhance the military production capacity of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Perhaps, in another year, the other 12 armies of the Taiping Army will be able to complete their reorganization.

The entire Taiping army will completely phase out cold weapons and equip themselves entirely with the world's most advanced firearms.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom not only had sufficient strength to wage a final battle against the Manchus, but also enough to deal with the threat posed by the foreign devils.

It goes without saying that, compared to the corrupt and backward Qing Dynasty, the foreign devils absolutely did not want the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to replace the Manchus and dominate the Eastern world.

At that time, they will definitely try every means to stop the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from defeating the Tartars.

This means that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's war to overthrow the Manchus faced not only the Manchus themselves, but also the interference of Western powers.

If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wanted to achieve final victory, it needed to possess even greater strength.

After defeating the Manchus' encirclement and suppression, the Taiping Army began to prepare for the decisive battle to come.

Meanwhile, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also strengthened its actual control over the occupied areas and truly established a stable rule, instead of looting and running away like bandits before.

Even before the war was over, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had already begun to implement its vigorous policies in the southern Jiangsu region.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Education joined forces to begin distributing production tools to impoverished people in southern Jiangsu.

This left the vast majority of impoverished people in disbelief.

No regime in history has ever done this.

This is absolutely the first time since the beginning of time.

In addition, many people have become almost numb from living under oppression and exploitation.

As a result, they were filled with suspicion and fear when faced with this policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They were afraid that after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed, the Manchus would make a comeback.

At that time, they will not only have to return everything they have received, but they will also have to pay an even greater price.

This presents considerable challenges to the implementation of the policy.

Fortunately, Hong Tian had anticipated the problems and had prepared corresponding solutions.

Dozens of propaganda teams, large and small, established by the Ministry of Education, were successively dispatched to the southern Jiangsu region to spread propaganda. The aim was to inform the impoverished masses about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's policies, alleviating their fear of the Manchus and wealthy landlords, and relieving them of any worries.

Outside Suzhou City, in Fengqiao Town.

A grassy area outside the town was packed with people.

Almost the entire population of the town had gathered here.

In the middle of the grassy field, a row of landlords and wealthy men knelt down.

These guys are no longer as arrogant and domineering as before; they are like chess pieces that have been battered by frost.

These landlords felt especially ashamed when the poor people, their clothes patched with sores, pointed and whispered about them.

They were landowners with vast tracts of land! They were local gentry!

Even when the Tartars ruled Suzhou, we should treat them kindly and rely on them to govern the vast rural areas!

This is one of the main reasons why they are able to exploit and oppress the local people.

But now, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has arrested them all and is going to put them on trial, which inevitably makes these landlords and wealthy people extremely terrified.