Be obedient and listen to your voice. Xiang Ying is a smart man. He knows that this is the price the Ninth Commander has set. If he wins the British in the future, the Ninth Commander will really abandon the Manchus and choose the Chinese.
What exactly is the Hunan Army Group in the hands of the Ninth Commander? Now it is an important group controlling the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River!
At its peak, the strength of the Hunan Army was announced to be 300,000, but these were all conservative figures, and they were calculated based on the number of heads paid by the imperial court.
In fact, there are many peripheral rural warriors, local maintenance soldiers, etc. These people are raised by the local gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, but they also have to listen to the dispatches of the Hunan Army.
Counting these people together, the number must exceed 500,000!
Can a political force rely solely on soldiers to fight? It is definitely not enough. There must be many local squires behind him to provide a mass base!
These huge local gentry, that is, the landlord class, raised food and wages for the Hunan Army and organized and trained new soldiers. Zeng Guofan was short of soldiers, so he would show off his tasks according to the administrative level!
For example, Zeng Guofan in Xiangtan wants 6,000 new soldiers. How should these 6,000 recruits be divided? How much share will local towns receive? These all need to be handled by the landlord class who are proficient in local areas.
They are familiar with the population of the surrounding villages, the number of men, and how many young people are capable of serving as soldiers!
In the end, this task will definitely be divided into natural villages. In these places, the squires will go to a certain village and ask for three young people from this village to serve as soldiers!
Don’t dare to disobey! No local village dares to mess with these squire landlords, because they control the land, he is the landlord and others are tenants!
These people have land, fame, power, and money. The local emperor is the local emperor, and he is sure to name three soldiers. Even if the villagers are unwilling, they will have to draw lots and send them away!
Just like this, there are three or four people from a village, and more than ten people from a town, all of them have people, all of them provide money and food, and together they form the fighting power of the Hunan Army!
Then these gentry and landlords were on errands for Zeng Guofan, and Zeng Guofan had the obligation to protect them, and even promoted some talented ones as an exception!
In this way, the Hunan Army is a corps on the surface, but in fact it is based on the interests of the entire Jiangnan gentry class and him!
Everyone who has money and strength contributes to win this war together, and then jointly control Jiangnan. From now on, Jiangnan's wealth will always be shared by this group!
In addition to the landlord class, there is also the primitive capitalist class, and those businessmen also have to obey the orders of the Hunan Army! This is another huge force, attached to it!
Scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, this is already a de facto separatist regime, and the Manchus and Qing Dynasties can’t do anything about it. A horse assassination case is actually a warning from this group to the Manchu and Qing government!
I warn you not to interfere, not to mess around. The golden rice bowl in Jiangnan must be in the hands of our Han warlords. It is enough to give you a few leftovers every year. You, the Emperor and Queen of the Tartars, also have to eat what is left between our fingers!
If you, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, understand the rules and principles, then we will not change the flag, and superficially let these areas fall under the rule of your Qing Dynasty, which means that you will recognize your legal system.
When the Manchu Qing Dynasty encountered such intricate local forces, there was nothing they could do! The only way is to grind it out with time, hoping that they will grow old and die little by little!
Some people say that this is a conspiracy of the Manchus. In fact, it is not a strategy at all, it is just a way to survive the time!
If you torture others, others will torture you! Do you think the descendants of the Hunan Army will get worse and worse? In fact, your own Eight Banners disciples have died long ago!
In an era of extreme competition, we are afraid that dark horses will appear, especially dark horses like Xiao Letian, who will bring out such a heaven-defying force as the Chinese!
When a real talent appears among the bad people, the bad people will definitely choose to step on this talent in the first place! But what if after a long time you can’t step on it anymore, you’ll be taught a lesson by a real talent?
Then people's hearts will change, and they will choose to pledge their allegiance and serve as pawns for the real heroes!
This is the general trend of the late Qing Dynasty. Why is Zeng Guofan better than Zeng Guoquan? Because Zeng Guofan has understood this a long time ago. When he and Xiao Letian came up with the hidden dragon theory in Tanggu, Zeng Guofan knew that the world would belong to Xiao Letian sooner or later.
So Zeng Guofan has always been supporting Xiao Letian, but Zeng Guoquan is not close to that level, or he is a little unconvinced, so he has always been at odds with Xiao Letian. In fact, he just can't lose face!
But no matter how low-level a person like Jiu Shuai is, he is still much higher than ordinary people. When he saw the majestic appearance of the Chinese Eighth-Eight Fleet, he was completely convinced. He knew that the general trend of the world was irreversible, and everything was his fault. It belongs to the Xiao family!
what to do? Then just take refuge!
Today, the power of the Hunan Army is mainly concentrated along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. There are six provinces in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei. They are all the basic base of the Hunan Army!
And the closer you get to the Yangtze River Basin, the more powerful the control becomes!
Even eastern Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other places are also radiated, while Fujian is Zuo Zongtang's territory. The Manchu and Qing Dynasties really have better control over Guangdong in the south!
The nine commanders in the southern half of the Yangtze River can make the decision. As long as the Chinese defeat the British, the nine commanders will definitely change their flags and directly defect to them. In fact, they are only semi-defective now, because all the industrial areas of the Chinese have their own military control, and the Hunan Army has nothing to do!
But there are conditions for the Ninth Commander's surrender. Xiang Ying heard it very clearly. If he changes to a constitutional monarchy and makes Fu Yin'er the emperor, his Ninth Commander's ideal in life is to be crowned king!
As long as you make the king and protect the interests of the Hunan army, then Jiangnan will be given away and merged into the territory of the Chinese!
Of course Xiang Ying understood. He was too clear about this and didn't explain it. He just smiled lightly, "Ninth Commander, you think too highly of me. Defeating Britain? This is a bit more difficult..."
"But to defeat Britain and force Britain to sign a peace treaty with us... I am still somewhat confident about this!"
"Okay! He is a hero who can draw with England. Even if it hurts them, he can buy a peaceful life. I will thank you in advance on behalf of Mr. Jiangnan!"
"Don't you dare! It's a soldier's duty to protect our family and our country!"
Hahaha... The two of them laughed at the same time, while Liu Jintang sighed silently on the sidelines, "Commander Zuo fell ill, and it looks like he won't be able to do it anymore!"
"If the Chinese can really defeat the British...hey...the Western Regions should donate their soil to China!"
"But... is this British guy really easy to win? He has been playing since the Age of Discovery and has been a maritime power for more than three hundred years!"
"Forget it, forget it... I'm a horse-riding general guarding the Western Region for my country. Why do I want to worry about the sea?"
"If Xiao Letian is here, I 100% believe that the Chinese can win, but now that Xiao Letian is not here...who knows what accident will happen?"
Liu Jintang looked at the fleet on the sea and fell into deep thought!
