The old general Chen Qice held Zhou Shixiang's hand and didn't know what to say. When he heard that the Taiping Army recovered Guangzhou, he was already crying with joy by the Tan River. When he met Zhou Shixiang, he was even more excited.

Zhu Tong, the general of the country who was born in the royal family, was also excited. Since the second year of Yongli, the situation in Guangdong has been broken. Even if the King of Jin expeditions twice in the east, it has no help to the situation in Guangdong. The essence of Guangdong Province is occupied by the Qing army, and it has always maintained an overwhelming advantage over the Ming army. To put it bluntly, most of the Ming army in Guangdong are just surviving and cannot be said to recover lost territory, and it is even difficult to defend. Now the Taiping Army recovered Guangzhou in one fell swoop, beheading the Jing army in Manzhou Hahamu, killing the King of Pingnan Shang Kexi, and forcing King Jingnan Geng Jimao to wipe out the Qing army in Sanjiangkou in one battle. Looking at Guangdong, who can be a strike by the Ming army!

The recovery of the whole province of Guangdong is just around the corner!

"Scholar is so good! Can that child Shang Zhixin be captured alive?"

Zhu Tong came up with a smile and gave Zhou Shixiang a heavy hammer on his shoulder, but it was a hammer that the elders recognized for their younger generations, and he had no malice. He liked this young man from the bottom of his heart, and for his ability to seize the opportunity, he led his troops to Xinhui to help Chen Qice with great help. If he didn't come, there would be such a good thing waiting for him.

A few days ago, Deng Yao from Qinzhou, Zhou Jintang from Lianjiang, and Li Changrong from Hailing Island all sent people to Xinhui to contact Chen Qice and Zhu Tong. They heard that the Taiping Army had won two consecutive victories in Xiangshan, killing all the leaders of Manzhou people, and sending people to Kunming to win victory. They all thought that the Taiping Army could defeat the Qing army just in the new camp. If they led their troops, wouldn’t they immediately capture Guangzhou and recover the entire province of Guangdong.

For this reason, Deng Yao and the others changed their previous negative and became very optimistic. Several letters kept coming back and forth, trying to work together to attack Guangzhou, and then divided the territory near Guangzhou according to the number of troops sent by each company. As a result, when they heard that the Qing army in Guangzhou divided into three groups to attack the Taiping Army, there was no news and they all shrank again. Now, it's great. The scholar led the Taiping Army to take Guangzhou quietly, and it was clear that they were still in the mood to discuss how to draw the territory.

In Guangzhou, Zhu Tong didn't think about it anymore. He knew very well how much he had. However, he was very careful about Zhaoqing, and made up his mind to ask Zhou Shixiang to send troops to help them recover Zhaoqing no matter what.

This is the first time Zhou Shixiang has seen Zhu Tong Zhenren. He has always thought that this person must be very vulgar or very philanthropic. Or he looks like a businessman, but he doesn't expect that this person looks very honest. If he strips the armor on him and puts it on the clothes of the people, no one will doubt it if he is an old farmer.

It’s really a person who cannot be seen as a person. Zhou Shi was moved and said to Zhu Tong: “Shang Zhixin has been executed by me.”

"Kill?"

Zhu Tongyi was stunned, shook his head with some regrets, and said, "Why did you kill him? How good is it to put this child in front of the imperial court? It can not only promote your reputation as a scholar, but also promote the power of the Ming army. The emperor will definitely be happy when he sees it."

Chen Qice also felt that it was a pity that Zhou Shixiang killed Shang Zhixin like this, but it was just a pity that he had not yet digested the miracle created by scholars these days. He really didn't care much about the life and death of a prince of Pingnan.

"I have many Han troops under my command. If I keep Shang Zhixin, the old master, I am afraid that these Han troops will be unstable."

Zhou Shi told each other frankly that he would not kill Shang's trust, and the Han army under the pacific vassal state could not return to his heart.

"That's true."

After hearing this, Zhu Tong nodded. Although the Taiping Army is now amazingly strong, the number of surrendered troops is also amazing. Although there are family members, it is impossible to argue if they are not careful. He no longer talked about this, but smiled and pointed at the Han army captives who were taken to the ground. He said, "These Han troops are all given to you. Is it a price? One person takes ten taels of silver to take 50 kilograms of rice. Do you think it's okay?"

Just after he had dealt with a greedy Qing deputy general, and now he had to deal with a greedy Ming Dynasty general who was greedy. Zhou Shixiang was amused and crying. Based on the plan of helping friendly troops and using friendly troops, he agreed readily.

"It will be done according to the wishes of the general of Zhenguo."

Zhu Tong asked for money when he met, which made Chen Qice's old face turn red. Zhou Shixiang's pleasure made him even more relieved. He stepped forward to tell Zhou Shixiang that he had placed all the refugees transferred from Xiangshan in the city and could send them back later.

Zhou Shixiang hurriedly thanked him and said that when he went back, he asked Duke Xiang of Song to start this matter and would definitely compensate these people for their food and drink in Xinhui City.

Chen Qice did not refuse. His family was not rich. If it weren't for Zhou Shi's help in the past few months, the navy would have been hungry. Because Zhaoqing was still in the hands of the Qing army, Chen Qice did not dare to recruit refugees on a large scale to cultivate land outside Xinhui City, so he basically had no investment and could only barely maintain it. This is also the reason why Zhou Shixiang gave him Zhaoqing and Zhu Tong immediately came to help the war.

The Xinhui side is too poor. The most important thing is that there are too few people, and most of them are called to the Qing army to kill them. Zhaoqing side is relatively better. After all, it is a place of a mansion. As long as you manage well, you can be self-sufficient. More importantly, Zhaoqing was the one who ascended the throne today, so the significance of regaining Zhaoqing is no less than that of regaining Guangzhou.

"The scholar is so big now. Don't be polite to him. Just turn around and ask someone to settle the accounts and double it to the scholar. If you can't finish it, I can order it evenly." Zhu Tong did not forget to take the opportunity to fight Qiufeng, and his life would not be easy.

"After this matter, I'm going to take people back to Guangzhou and Zhaoqing."

Zhou Shixiu General Zhaoqing Deputy General Tang Sanshui told them what he had agreed to. When he heard that Tang Sanshui was willing to take people to the city to deceive, Chen Qice and Zhu Tong were both overjoyed.

Without further ado, the three agreed that Zhou Shixiang would assign 500 personal soldiers to Tang Sanshui's Zhaoqing camp soldiers to board a navy ship along the Xijiang River to Zhaoqing. Chen and Zhu selected more than a thousand elite soldiers to wait outside the city. Once Tang Sanshui successfully defrauded the city, they would kill the generals together. After taking Zhaoqing, Tang Sanshui led people to Shaozhou, Zhou Shixiang's soldiers returned to Guangzhou, and the Zhaoqing city was officially taken over by Chen and Zhu. After the agreement, they seized the battlefield today and divided the account. Zhou Shixiang happily said goodbye to them and rushed to lead the army back to Guangzhou.

Chen Qice and Zhu Tong were thinking about Zhaoqing City, but they had no intention of staying in Sanjiangkou for too long. They both went back to select soldiers and dispatch generals, preparing to take Zhaoqing in one fell swoop.

Tang Sanshui has selected 600 reliable subordinates. Zhou Shixiang asked Zhu Qinglai to bring 500 soldiers to Zhaoqing with Tang Sanshui, and asked Suna to take dozens of Manzhou soldiers to follow him. It is also considered an insurance policy. If Xu Erxian had any doubts, Suna would cheat the city.

This is the benefit of backward communication. As of now, the information about the Manzhou soldiers in the Taiping Army has not been known by the Qing army in Guangdong, so don’t talk about the Qing soldiers in the north. If Zhou Shixiang was willing, he could let Suna’s Manzhou soldiers go everywhere to cheat the city, but he did not plan to do this because he does not need so much territory at the moment.

Zhou Shixiang's top priority was to consolidate the army. Guangzhou Prefecture had more than ten counties under its jurisdiction. It was well managed and would be enough to support the Taiping Army in the short term. In addition, Zhou Shixiang did not have a good civil service system, and the village office system in Xiangshan was just established. Only Guangzhou's territory could barely build up the management system. No matter how many, no one could use it, and he could only rely on those surrendered officials. In this way, it was still the previous ruling system and could not maximize the human resources and resources under the Taiping Army's rule.

If Sun Kewang had not been defeated and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and the Qing army entered Yunnan in large numbers, Zhou Shixiang naturally had time to start building a civilian government system, slow progress, and maximize Guangdong's resources. Now, he could only focus on military affairs, and train the Taiping Army first to deal with the upcoming major changes.

Instead of bringing all the captured Qing troops back to Guangzhou, Zhou Shixiang divided them into four groups, one in Shunde, one in Xiangshan, one in Panyu, and the other in Guangzhou.

Hu Qili led his governor to advance to Huizhou on the eighth day of the first lunar month. The governor’s desire for a new territory made their march very fast. Within two days, several counties captured Boluo and Changning counties, and even several counties arrived with edicts. The magistrate appointed by the Qing court had changed his flag before the arrival of Hu’s army. Anyway, the prefect of Huizhou Wang Wen fled with Yin, and almost any resistance in Huizhou was declared to return to the Ming Dynasty. Like the Taiping Army, Hu Qili’s army also grew like a snowball in Huizhou. The troops in each county were cut and turned into the Ming army.

Hu Qili regarded himself as the general of Huizhou, the Ming Dynasty, and appointed him as an official. He carved his seal with wood if he didn't carve it. In just one month, his troops expanded to more than 10,000 people, and the direct troops stationed in the Fucheng Guishan also expanded to more than 3,000 people.

Before Su Na came forward, Tang Sanshui successfully opened the city gate. After entering the city, except for the people who were left to control the city gate to welcome Chen, the Ming army of Zhu's troops entered the city, and together with Su Na, they led their troops to attack the General's Mansion. Xu Erxian, the general of Zhaoqing, was killed without time to organize people to resist. After Xu Erxian was killed, the soldiers in the city had no leader and were soon defeated by the Ming army. After dawn, the Ming army flag was raised at the top of Zhaoqing.

Tang Sanshui played a trick on his head. He looted the Zhaoqing treasury, and then took the city's wealthy families in the chaos, and took hundreds of carriages to Shaozhou. Zhu Tong was so angry that he wanted to send troops to chase him, but Chen Qice tried to persuade him.

After learning about this, Zhou Shixiang had no choice but to coordinate and asked Tang Sanshui to take out some of the money and put a part of it himself, which made the general of Zhenguo less popular.

Zhaoqing Prefecture had more than a dozen counties under its jurisdiction like Huizhou. Once the city was lost, the county changed its flags one after another. Some magistrates who were unwilling to change their flags were tied to the top of the city by the camp soldiers. Duyangchun magistrate led the camp soldiers to fight stubbornly, but in less than a day, the city was broken by the Ming army. In just over a month, all the 48 counties in Guangzhou, Zhaoqing and Huizhou were returned to the Ming Dynasty. The news came out and the world was shaken.

(To be continued.)
Chapter completed!