Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 70 This moment is just like that moment
But now it's different.

After the Battle of Dahuangjiangkou, Li Yi led his troops to flee to Zijing Mountain. In order to stabilize the morale of the army and to solve the food shortage problem faced by the army, he performed a wave of miracles in front of everyone.

A lot of food and a number of foreign guns appeared out of thin air.

All this gave Fan Xiyuan a great shock.

From then on, Fan Xiyuan began to sincerely believe that Li Yi was destined to succeed.

He truly saw in Li Yi the hope of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and establishing a new dynasty.

Then, Fan Xiyuan's mentality changed.

Following a thief and following a dragon are two different things.

As a thief, he can do nothing with a clear conscience and just do his job as he pleases.

But it’s not possible to follow the dragon!

If he slacks off now, he will not be included in the list of those who will be awarded titles when the country is founded in the future.

Even for the sake of future generations, now is not the time for Old Fan to slack off!
That's why he took the initiative to find Li Yi and offer suggestions.

Hearing this, Li Yi stroked his chin and thought for a while, then asked.

"Did you teach me, sir?"

Upon hearing this, Fan Xiyuan spoke without changing his expression.

"I know that the General is very dissatisfied with the Taiping Army, but I think it would be a good idea for the General to keep flying the Taiping Army's flag for a while longer."

"It won't be too late to change our flags and banners until our army is fully grown!"

Fan Xiyuan could see that Li Yi had already started planning to change the flag.

The best proof of this was his testing of everyone during the meeting today.

He urgently needs everyone's attitude, then weigh the pros and cons and make a decision whether to change the flag.

The attitudes expressed by everyone during today's meeting also surprised and delighted Fan Xiyuan.

The good news is that Li's army is united from top to bottom. Apart from Chen Yucheng's slightly vague statement, the rest of the people have absolutely no sense of belonging to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom or the Taiping Army.

But this was also what frightened him.

He was somewhat worried that after hearing the statements from the other generals, Li Yi would lose his scruples and impulsively make the decision to change the flag immediately.

Then he came to give advice.

Upon hearing this, Li Yi immediately asked.

"Tell me in detail!"

"I want to know what Mr. Fan thinks."

Li Yi did have the idea of ​​changing the flag, but this idea was not so urgent.

Because the Taiping Rebellion had just started, they had not yet had time to destroy temples and burn books on a large scale, which would have pushed the entire Confucian school, or the entire Chinese gentry class, to the opposite side.

Therefore, the Taiping Army's flag can still be used for the time being.

Of course, this does not mean that Li Yi is a defender of Confucianism.

In fact, Li Yi had no good feelings towards Confucianism, especially the Cynics who were castrated by the Qing Dynasty.

But his mind has always been clear.

To conquer the world, the goal is to make your enemies as few as possible and your friends as many as possible.

Today's China is a traditional agricultural country, and the gentry class is the actual ruler of this country.

If you offend the gentry to death, it will be equivalent to raising the difficulty of conquering the world directly to the SSR level.

You have turned the forces that you could have won over into mortal enemies.

Why bother?
If you want to settle accounts, wait until you have conquered the world. There won’t be many opportunities, right?
To put it bluntly, if the Taiping Army had not destroyed temples and burned books with the intention of annihilating all Confucianists, it would have offended the gentry and Confucian scholars to death.

The militia forces such as the Hunan Army and the Huai Army might not be able to gather so many people to encircle and suppress the Taiping Army.

It is easy to imagine how badly the Taiping Army did in its united front work, as it was able to force the southern gentry, who had always been dissatisfied with the Qing rule, to stand on the Qing side.

But these are things in the future and haven’t happened yet.

So Li Yi only had an idea about changing the flag, but he was not very urgent. Seeing this, Fan Xiyuan spoke up.

"In the students' view, there are several main advantages to our army continuing to fly the banner of the Taiping Army."

"Firstly, we can keep a low profile and let the Qing demons think that our army is a detachment of the Taiping Army, so they won't pay too much attention to us."

"Secondly, the God Worshipping Society has a considerable influence in Guangdong and Guangxi, and has a large number of followers in various places."

"If our army continues to fly the banner of the God Worshipping Society, we can absorb as many of these believers as possible in order to expand the army and increase our strength as quickly as possible."

"Thirdly, our army is not yet fully developed, so taking advantage of the Taiping Army's momentum to develop is the best option."

"Build high walls, store up food, and slowly claim the throne. The strategy implemented by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty is still effective today."

Back then, Zhu Yuanzhang was struggling to develop in the back, while Han Lin'er was supporting him in the front.

Now Li Yi is also supported by the Taiping Army.

This moment is just like that moment!
After hearing this, Li Yi began to ponder.

Didn't say yes, but didn't say no either.

After a moment, Li Yi finally looked up and said.

"Don't worry sir, I understand!"

"Although Xiao Chaogui was not kind to me, Mr. Feng was very kind to me."

"I, Li Yi, will certainly not be that ungrateful and ungrateful person!"

Li Yi knew that if he wanted to be independent, now was not the right time.

Although he was not planning to join the Taiping Army again, this did not prevent him from continuing to cling to Feng Yunshan.

Upon seeing this, Fan Xiyuan clasped his fists and said.

"The General Manager is wise!"

……

Wuxuan, Dongxiang!
Inside the Taiping Army camp!

Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaogui and others gathered together to discuss the next move of the Heavenly Kingdom.

"Our army is besieged by a large number of Qing demons in Dongxiang. Although we can hold out for the time being, it is definitely not a solution in the long run."

"We should think of a way to break out!"

Hong Xiuquan, who was wearing a bright yellow robe, spoke.

There was obvious fatigue in his eyes.

Obviously, he has been suffering a lot during this period of time.

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiuqing spoke.

"Breaking through... may not be easy!"

"The Qing demons have surrounded us with heavy troops, and all the roads out of the mountain are blocked. Although the Qing army can't get in, we can't get out either!"

The only thing that made Yang Xiuqing feel fortunate now was that the terrain in Wuxuan East Township was relatively closed, and the mountains were their best barrier.

Although the Qing army attacked Dongxiang several times, they were unable to make any progress!

Otherwise, the pressure they face now will only increase.

Everyone couldn't help but sigh.

Suddenly, Feng Yunshan seemed to remember something and spoke.

"I remember Ling Shiba from Guangdong wrote to me, saying that he would lead his troops from Guangdong to Guangxi to join the main force of our Heavenly Kingdom."

"If we can get his support, our army might have a chance to break out."

Historically, the reason why the Taiping Army was able to successfully break out from Wuxuan Dongxiang was because the Qing army's attention was attracted by Ling Shiba who was attacking Yulinzhou.

In addition, Xiang Rong and Zhou Tianjue had a secret conflict, which led to a loophole in the Qing army's defense line. This allowed the Taiping Army to seize the opportunity and successfully break through to Xiangzhou.

(End of this chapter)