After deciding on the Xinhui strategy with Chen Qi, Zhou Shixiang finally led the Taiping Army to cross the river on the 10th day of the 10th day of the lunar calendar.

During the months-long Battle of Xinhui, the Taiping Army killed 1,420 officers and soldiers below a hundred households and injured 570. Later, the security guard group Ding Lian and Xinhui civilians were young and strong. The Qing army captured 850 people, and more than three-quarters of the entire army were injured. When it was decided to cross the river, only 1,165 officers and soldiers were left in the five major battalions of the Taiping Army, more than 7,800 elderly and weak in the rear camp, and 320 injured soldiers were also present.

As a supplement to the Taiping Army, the 2,000 civilians followed the Taiping Army under the "request" of the Taiping Army. Zhou Shixiang selected 1,500 young and strong people to join the battalions, and the rest were included in the security group of the Houbastion and the Gongtou Army.

After several days of reorganization and screening, 1,700 Qing army prisoners were also added to the Taiping Army and the Security Corps in batches. 800 Green Camp soldiers from various prefectures and counties in Guangzhou were added to the Taiping Army by the first batch, more than 600 Qing army who were not from Liaodong were added to the second batch, and the remaining 200 Han army flag soldiers from Liaodong were transferred to the newly built artillery camp to serve as gunners.

The key to going to Xiangshan this time is to gain a foothold. Xiangshan is too unfamiliar with the Taiping Army, so more than 100 surrendered troops from the Green Camp, which were originally from Xiangshan County, were valued by Zhou Shixiang, and they were placed in each battalion as deputy flag heads, thinking that each battalion was used as a guide when occupying Xiangshan.

The supplementary force of 1,500 civilians and 1,700 Qing troops brought the Taiping Army's military strength to more than 4,000 people. Not only were the five previous battalions fully fully occupied, but the newly built artillery barracks also reached 600. In this way, not only did the six battalions of the Taiping Army reach 3,200, but the security regiment and public treasury troops belonging to the rear battalion also had nearly 2,000 people.

The battle to defend the city and decisive battles from the city for several months caused a large number of officers of the Taiping Army to be killed. Now, there are so many civilians and surrendered soldiers, and problems are inevitable in command and management. Zhou Shi's solution is to promote a large number of soldiers who have made contributions to the battle as small flags, and he also selected 20 people from the civilians and prisoners to serve as small flags. The surviving small flags raised the general flags and promoted the general flags to the test for hundreds of households. In addition, Zhou Shixiang had another means to supplement and change the surrendered soldiers. That is, the existence of the Anjun Envoy.

The role of the An Army envoy was similar to that of the later army. Zhou Shixiang was a member of the People's Army in his previous life. He had some understanding of the military history and war history. Naturally, he knew how the People's Army absorbed and transformed those Kuomintang army prisoners during the Liberation War. After telling Song Xianggong about the transformation methods in his previous life, the latter found the An Army envoy to select the An Army envoy to join the battalions one by one. From the first day of surrendering troops entering the military camp, the An Army envoy began to play a role. Judging from the current situation alone, the An Army envoy's work was very effective. At least, the Qing army captives who joined the Taiping Army were generally quiet. Most people were already accustomed to the change of their identity, and some even began to take the initiative to find the An Army envoy to make up for how they became Qing soldiers and how they did evil under the leadership of the officers. Finally, they asked the Taiping Army for forgiveness and decided to be irreconcilable with the Qing army.

Although the officers of each battalion were a little dissatisfied with the sudden appearance of the Anjun Envoy, they would be questioned by another person if they could not accept their orders, their punishments on their subordinates would be blocked, and even this person would report his faults beyond the level, making him, the chief officer, very embarrassed. But no matter what, the Anjun Envoy's role in stabilizing the morale of the military was still seen by officers at all levels, so they reluctantly accepted the existence of the Anjun Envoy.

Although the fierce battle lasted for several months caused great casualties in the Taiping Army, it was also considered to have truly transformed the Taiping Army into an elite army of hundreds of battles. The surviving people, both officers and soldiers, were much stronger than before. The Taiping Army soldiers who had experienced the pile of blood seas were already comparable to the elite. The supplementary soldiers had exceeded the total number of officers and soldiers, but under the cohesion and leadership of these Taiping Army soldiers, their combat effectiveness and loyalty did not decrease much. What Zhou Shixiang had to do next was how to completely transform this army with complex components and build it into a strong soldier that could control the situation.

The hundred households of Xiongwei camp were still held by Shao Jiugong, and the other ones were formally held by Ge Yi, the younger brother of Ge Zheng of the Zhenlu camp, and the hundred households of the trap were continued by Tie Yi. Jiang He, a bald family in the Guards, was unable to move due to injury, so Zhou Shixiang changed his order to Zhao Sihai of the Gongku Army as the hundred households of the Guards Army, and Jiang He transferred the Gongkus Army to make a decision after he recovered from his injury. Qin Zhisheng was still held by Qin Zhisheng. The hundred households of each battalion were also reported to each battalion and the hundred households of each battalion were also selected, and Zhou Shixiang was all allowed.

Zhou Shixiang, the candidate of the newly built artillery barracks, decided to Qi Hao. Although Qi Hao was the general of the Daxi Army, he is now only a member of the Taiping Army. Qi Hao, who made great contributions to buying salt and bombing camps, was also in his opinion. He did not arouse other generals' disgust. The gunners in the artillery barracks were all captured Han flag gunners. At first, after he served as the 100 households of the artillery barracks, Qi Hao was worried that these Han flag soldiers would not obey the control, but to his surprise, there was no need for his actions. The Han flag soldiers who joined the Taiping Army first could suppress the newly joined flag soldiers and control them to obey the stickers, which made Qi Hao very relaxed.

The problem of food shortage was not adapted by the seized Qing army food and grass. In order to restore the physical strength of the civilians to starve to the greatest extent, Zhou Shixiang spared no effort to take out the small amount of food, so that the civilians could recover a little, but they were still far from being strong. He was eager to leave Xinhui and go to Xiangshan because of the urgent need for food. The neighborhood of Xinhui has been ruined by the Qing army. Chen Qice has sent navy troops along the river to search everywhere in order to raise grain for several days. Zhou Shixiang had no navy to send food to raise food from afar, so he could only choose to leave here and go to Xiangshan immediately. Compared with the destruction of Xinhui, Xiangshan is a treasure land with rich resources and is closer to Macau. Whether it is food and grass or weapons, as long as it is well managed, it can be obtained.

Originally, Zhou Shixiang wanted to keep the remaining people of Xinhui City in the city without having to follow the Taiping Army, but he never thought that these people took the initiative to ask them to follow the Taiping Army to Xiangshan. He was puzzled and asked the people of Song Xianggong why this was the case. Song Xianggong told him that there were many women in Xinhui who had military marriages with Taiping Army soldiers. Although many of the men married to these women died in battle, to some extent, these Xinhui people, especially those

The women were already a member of the Taiping Army, so they could not live alone with the Taiping Army. Secondly, the Taiping Army had a good military discipline and took good care of the elderly and weak. The people were unsure whether the navy that had taken over the Xinhui could be like the Taiping Army. So they would rather follow the Taiping Army to Xiangshan than stay in Xinhui for adventure. Talking about a thousand words, these people in Xinhui were still afraid that the navy was not good, and they were afraid that they could not defend Xinhui and would be harmed by the Qing army again.

Chen Qice provided the greatest assistance to the Taiping Army's march into Xiangshan. As he had promised before, within two days, he used a ship to transport all the Taiping Army personnel and materials to the other side, and also gave some armored clothes seized from the Qing army. Anyway, his navy could not use these, so it would be better to let the Taiping Army take them away and play some role.

When the entire army crossed Tanjiang, Zhou Shixiang issued an order: If you go to Xiangshan, don’t kill people, don’t steal wealth, don’t slaughter oxen, don’t set fire. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!