There is a reason why Jiangsu is the most important. Among the prefectures in Jiangnan occupied by the Hong Army, the four prefectures belonging to Jiangsu are the richest, and they are relatively less affected by the war. Compared with the war disasters in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, more vitality has been preserved. Each prefecture has provided hundreds of thousands of silver financial resources, but the foundation of these four prefectures is not stable enough.

Especially in Jiangning, in terms of military strength, there are much more old Taiping Army here than the Hong Army. Zhenjiang Prefecture also has the main force of the old Taiping Army, Wu Ruxiao's army. Due to the influence of the war, the regime management of these four prefectures has always been very restricted. The tentacles of the Hong Army have not yet penetrated deep into the local corners of the place, and are still strong people, gentlemen, and local tyrants who control local governments and deal with the Hong Army in all aspects. Sometimes they don't even take the Hong Army seriously at all.

But now, half of the mountains and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River have been taken, from Hunan, Jiangxi to Shanghai. Liu Chang is preparing to reorganize the army and establish politics in a few months, and to operate his base into Jincheng Tangchi. Even if the regular army is frustrated, local governments can organize troops to continue fighting. Some people commented on how the Kuomintang failed in the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. It is simple to say that the Kuomintang always fails to support the party first and withdraw first, and then withdraw first, and then the government cannot stand firm. In the end, the army can only be forced to withdraw. When entering a region, the army first enters, then the government enters, and finally the party organization. On the contrary, the army first retreats, then the government, and finally the party.

Liu Chang felt it was impossible to replicate such a miracle, but at least it was a reality to operate the base area into a solid rear. When encountering an enemy battle, whether it was the army, grassroots regime or strong people in the countryside would respond and go out together. It was no longer the situation of the military's combat: "I think Sun Huzi's army was being reorganized in Fujian, although there were some problems. But overall, his idea was correct!"

"We the entire Hongjun must do this too!"

It was precisely because of Liu Chang's words that in the late spring and early summer of 1857, the Hong Army focused on the main energy of the army and the establishment of politics while fighting on multiple fronts. Naturally, some accidental injuries were inevitable. However, on the other hand, the team also built the Hong Army into an "one-person army of Liu's family". The construction of grassroots organizations is more meaningful.

Originally, there were only two provinces in the territory of the Hongjun, namely Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and the rest of Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, and Fujian provinces, all occupy some areas and are still carrying out difficult struggles against the enemy. The regional situation will inevitably be repeated. There are even some underground force against the Hongjun.

Of course, compared to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this is a very good territory. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was also the Western Expedition. It fought all the way to Yichang and entered Hunan at the same time. However, there was no complete province, but it only occupied the riverside part of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei. There was no complete province. In the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they never occupied a complete province. The best Li Xiucheng and Li Shixian entered Zhejiang. After more than a year of operation, they finally occupied almost the entire Zhejiang. However, there were still two prefectures and seven counties that were not under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the rest of the areas were not well consolidated. Soon, because Zuo Zongtang entered Zhejiang, Li Shixian's 200,000 army and other Taiping armies were quickly destroyed as smoke.

Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has very limited management of the regime. In the past few months of operations, the Hongjun has completely mastered the entire Zhejiang and Jiangxi Province. There were originally several hostile force of hundreds of people in the territory. Now a girl can also carry property to move freely in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. Now the organized remnants, bandit groups, and refugees have been completely eliminated. The Hongjun has regained absolute authority in these areas. In the past, the strong people in the local area were no longer as effective as the masters in the county.

On the other hand, the situation in southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui has also stabilized. The basic regime of the Hong Army was established in these newly occupied areas. Although there were still some small bandit groups with defeated soldiers moving everywhere, the scale had been greatly reduced, and the maximum number was only sixty or seventy. Moreover, the courage was already scarce. Not only did they dare not fight against the regular troops of the Hong Army, but also the local rural soldiers. As soon as the militia was launched, these bandit groups immediately withdrew. It can be said that the basic establishment of public security and the next step was to continue to deepen their efforts.

The two bridgeheads in Jiangbei not only consolidated their original positions, but also developed forward. Yangzhou has now occupied the entire territory of the old Yangzhou Prefecture and is preparing to march towards the Huai River in a large scale, but compared with the progress of Hezhou Chaohu Lake, this is nothing at all.

Now the various armed forces in Anhui have formed a counter-Nian alliance in private. Whether it is Yuan Jiasan, Fuji, Hong Xiuquan, Chen Yucheng, Wei Jun and other troops of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or local regiment training, they all have a great hostility towards the development of the Nian Army.

In this case, the Nian Army not only could not go to Yangzhou as the original plan, but it was extremely difficult to march to the Yangtze River near Hezhou. As soon as they left the Chihe River, they gathered dozens of miles. The troops they encountered along the road, regardless of whether they said hello in advance or what their position, even allies that had already agreed in advance launched a large-scale attack on the Nian Army to attack the Nian Army.

It is really clear that the Nian Army is a real group of locusts. Their transit was simply a place where they had no grass, and even if they reached an alliance agreement with them, it would be useless. Therefore, throughout the late spring and early summer, the Nian Army not only did not touch a hair from Hezhou, but instead fought endless battles with opponents from all sides, feeling like they were missing one another.

The Hong Army not only consolidated the bridgehead near Hezhou and Chaohu, but also successfully incorporated a large number of nearby local armed groups, which had shifted from defensive posture to attack. The same situation occurred on the battlefield of the two lakes.

The regiment training armed forces that were once rampant in the occupied area were destroyed by thunderous offensives. Although some defeated soldiers were still active in the occupied area, with the largest number of even three or four hundred people, their goal has changed from entering the county town and the palace town to how to preserve themselves in the harsh situation in front of them.

You should know that the Hong Army had insufficient troops to invest in the battlefields of the Two Lakes. In fact, it invested three infantry brigades and a land battle battalion. Not only did it seize six or seven counties from Hunan, but it also successfully landed in Hubei, capturing as many as nine counties in a row.

In this situation, the military funds originally provided by Hubei were temporarily cut off. Although Hu Linyi was also from Hunan, in his position, he had to consider Hubei first. Today, he was talking to the Governor of Huguang at the top of Wuchang City about the deployment of Wuchang: "Wei Jun abandoned the city and left less than a year away. I didn't expect the situation to be extremely bad!"

Guanwen, the full staff member, cooperated with Hu Linyi's lines very well: "There is no need to worry about raising the Taiwan Strait. Although the Red Thief comes, Zeng Disheng already has the idea of ​​being the king. For the only Han king since the Three Feudatories, he should work harder!"

"He wants to work hard, but he also needs to have the strength to sell!" Hu Linyi said distressedly: "Now the Red Thief is a knife in our hinterland. Since Tongcheng lost defense, I have not had a good sleep. Zeng Disheng wrote to me, saying that because of the poor support of Hubei Province, the situation in Hunan Province was greatly damaged and five cities were lost!"

He sighed long: "But we in Hubei have lost nine cities in a row. And judging from this situation, we have to lose a few more county towns!"

"Not only the problem of losing a few county towns, but we can afford to lose a few county towns, but we can still afford to lose a few county towns!" Guanwen is a man of the country, and his loyalty is naturally unquestionable: "The key is that Wuhan is immediately surrounded by thieves. Now the Red thieves are riding on the western iron ships between Jianghan and Han, and the counties along the river are panicking and panic!"

When talking about this Western steamboat, Hu Linyi's face changed.

There has always been a saying that Hu Linyi and Zeng Guofan commanded the Hunan Army to siege Anqing, and felt that his arrangement was foolproof. The Anqing defenders were already in the jar and had no chance to escape. At this moment, a Western steamboat suddenly rushed up against the river, which made Hu Linyi suddenly realize that his arrangement was too flawed. He did not expect the possibility that the Taiping Army would use Western steamers to rush to Anqing on water to support him.

When he thought of his flaw, Hu Linyi was so scared that he effused three times. Not long after, he became ascended to heaven because of his excessive worries. This statement should be quite far from the facts. Hu Linyi was a world-renowned man. If he had not died early, his position in the four ministers of Zhongxing might be higher than Zeng Guofan. How could he be scared to death by a Western steamship?

But this story also represents what the Chinese scholar-official group had about the Western Steamers at that time. Hu Linyi could only say about this powerful existence that was ignorant of nothing. "The Red Thief Steamers attacked the Jianghan day and night, and could only make more preparations along the river!"

The red thief had only a few foreign steamers upstream, no more than ten, but only a few foreign steamers made the once invincible Hunan Navy defeated the once-in-a-world naval forces and lost more than 60 large and large warships in one battle. Some warships were even smashed by foreign steamers. Since then, the Hunan Navy did not dare to fight with the Hongjun foreign steamers at all. As soon as they met, they fled. Sometimes they simply hid in the inner lake to avoid the battle, turning the entire water surface into the inland sea of ​​the Hongjun naval forces. Even some sailboats were dispatched everywhere to show off their power.

As a full member of the staff, Guan Wen felt that he could work harder, so he immediately asked: "Runzhi, can you use more thoughts? For example, although the Red Thief Foreign Fire Wheel is powerful, it has weaknesses to find. For example, we can use fire to attack ships. In the Battle of Banbishan, more than 10,000 Hunan Army warships were burned..." (To be continued)!~!
Chapter completed!