Chapter 151: Gaining a Foothold

The chaos in Xinhui city spread rapidly from the east gate to the entire city, and the Zhenlu Camp's slaughter brought even greater calamity upon the city's common folk.

Amid the chaos, the surrendered soldiers who had just joined the Taiping Army, relying on their familiarity with the city's layout, began looting in the confusion.

Besides them, scattered remnants of the Qing army were also fishing in troubled waters — everywhere there were people killing, extorting, and setting fires.

The chaos in the city was brought under control after Zhou Shixiang entered.

When he discovered that the Zhenlu Camp was massacring the city's civilians, Zhou Shixiang immediately sent men to recall Ge Zheng and ordered his Zhenlu Camp to take over the defense of the four gates at once and to cease all operations within the city.

Yet even with Zhou Shixiang's swift response, he could not save the lives of the thousand-plus commoners already killed by the Zhenlu Camp, and this filled him with deep remorse afterward.

After all, the original owner of this body was a true native of Xinhui, and these commoners who had barely escaped death at the hands of the Qing army were all, in the most real sense, his fellow townsfolk — some of them perhaps even distant kin.

But he, Zhou Shixiang, as the conqueror of Xinhui, had taken their lives.

This filled him with profound self-reproach, and at the same time made him realize that while the large influx of surrendered soldiers had strengthened the Taiping Army, it had also further corrupted its discipline.

These surrendered soldiers were, after all, hardened veterans for whom killing and plundering were everyday fare; expecting them to be immediately bound by the Taiping Army's discipline was nearly impossible.

Expanding his strength through the bandit-style absorption of followers was the development model Zhou Shixiang had personally chosen for the Taiping Army, but that did not mean he truly intended to forge the Taiping Army into a bandit-style force — least of all could he accept the army he had built with his own hands becoming the butcher of a city.

If the Taiping Army slaughtered the people of every place it captured, how would it differ from the Qing army? How could it claim the mantle of a righteous host?

Still less could it speak of securing its foundations and winning the support of the people of Guangdong.

Since ancient times, those who win the people's hearts win the realm. Though Zhou Shixiang did not dare hope to win the realm, he absolutely refused to lose the people's hearts.

With the Qing court already in control of more than half of China, the people's support was, for the Taiping Army — which strictly speaking was still a mere seedling — the single most important thing of all.

The Taiping Army must never become a bandit-style force, and must never become the executioner of its own countrymen!

After berating Ge Zheng until the man was utterly humiliated, Zhou Shixiang ordered the Xiongwei Camp and Hujie Camp, which had entered the city, to take over the task of surrounding and hunting down the remaining Qing troops in the city, while the Jinwei Camp began imposing military control over the areas already held by the Taiping Army.

Although the Xiongwei Camp, Hujie Camp, and Jinwei Camp had also committed some misdeeds after entering the city, they were far better behaved than the Zhenlu Camp.

The main reason was that these three camps had few Green Standard surrendered soldiers among them; most of their men were able-bodied youths who had joined the Taiping Army from Luoding onward, and most came from poor families.

Therefore, after entering the city, they did not go on a killing spree like the Zhenlu Camp, but instead still obeyed their officers' orders effectively and did not draw their blades recklessly against the common people.

Once the Jinwei Camp was ordered to impose military control, it immediately sealed off the areas already under Taiping Army control, mainly by blocking the streets and lanes, forbidding anyone from moving about, and forbidding any Taiping troops other than the Jinwei Camp from looting or setting fires in those areas.

Baldy Jiang He, as a centurion of the Jinwei Camp, was like the fierce-faced Ge Zheng in being of genuine bandit stock, but compared to the former — who once his eyes turned red with killing cared for nothing else — the latter's political awareness was far higher and his self-restraint far stronger.

At the very least, once Zhou Shixiang's order reached him, he immediately led his men to carry it out, rather than letting his subordinates run amok in the city.

After the Xiongwei Camp and Hujie Camp took over the search for the remaining Qing troops, they quickly launched a street-by-street, lane-by-lane sweep through Xinhui.

This carpet-style search left the Qing soldiers who had hoped to hide in civilian homes with nowhere to conceal themselves.

They were either forced into desperate last stands, or surrendered their weapons, and some who had stripped off their uniforms were directly bound and dragged out by the very commoners whose homes they had hidden in.

The large-scale slaughter carried out mainly by the Taiping Army came to an end once the Zhenlu Camp was transferred to guard the four gates.

What remained was only a small number of Taiping soldiers still taking part, and the greater part of it was now the work of the Qing army's scattered remnants.

Upon learning that the Xinhui garrison commander Zheng Guodong had fled through the south gate, Zhou Shixiang did not send troops in pursuit. These Qing troops who had escaped were of no consequence in his eyes.

What mattered now was thoroughly stabilizing the situation in Xinhui, then quickly rebuilding the wall that had been blown down. He intended to hold this place against the main Qing force from Guangdong that was soon to arrive, and then defeat them.

To gain a firm foothold in Xiangshan County, the precondition was to strike at the main Qing force in Guangzhou, rendering them unable to mount a campaign against the Taiping Army. Only then could the Taiping Army establish itself in Xiangshan with peace of mind.

Otherwise, it would face continuous attacks from the Guangzhou Qing forces, and under such circumstances, gaining a foothold would likely be nothing but a vain hope.

Since a certain degree of strike against the Guangzhou Qing forces was necessary, then rather than choosing to fight the Qing army in Xiangshan in small-scale or Mobile Corps Commander engagements, it would be better to use the already-captured city of Xinhui to bleed the strength of the Guangzhou Qing forces — to turn Xinhui into a meat grinder like Verdun, draining dry the blood of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao along with the personal troops of the Governor-General of Guangdong, Li Shuaitai.

Only then would the march south to Xiangshan be free of the danger of encirclement by the Qing main force.

Moreover, Zhou Shixiang had no wish to abandon Xinhui. As the southern gateway to Guangzhou, Xinhui possessed uniquely advantageous geography.

Controlling Xinhui was like driving a nail under Guangzhou's very nose, and it could also link Xiangshan with western Guangdong, facilitating contact with the Ming forces in the three prefectures of Lei, Lian, and Gao.

Fighting alone was never what Zhou Shixiang hoped for. What he wanted more was to work together with the remaining Ming forces within Guangdong to suppress the Qing army.

Therefore, holding Xinhui and controlling it carried extremely important strategic significance. At the very least, controlling Xinhui could boost the morale of the Ming forces to the west and strike at Qing morale, while also giving the Taiping Army room to advance or retreat.

If Xiangshan truly proved untenable, the Taiping Army could withdraw from Xinhui toward western Guangdong, rather than being trapped and annihilated in Xiangshan County by a Qing army that had retaken Xinhui.

The day before yesterday, when we went to visit my father-in-law's grave for the third anniversary of his death, my wife fell off the electric scooter and miscarried. The cause was that the road had been left a complete mess by the people contracted to work the fields.

Today the matter was resolved through a petition, and they compensated me ten thousand yuan (the efficiency was actually quite fast). Tomorrow I'm taking her to the city for a uterine cleaning.

As for the house, it still hasn't been demolished, but today a cadre contacted me, wanting me to tear it down. I'll see how things go.

I've held out here for three years now; if there's really no other choice, I'll sign.

I figure one way or another I can get an extra twenty or thirty thousand, even though they only appraised my house at ninety thousand yuan (non-commercial demolition, including the homestead land together).

I can't hold out any longer — the infrastructure in this area is poor in every respect. Considering my son's future schooling, I'll take a step back.

The day after tomorrow I'll go talk to them.