Well, you, Yang Xiuqing, how come you want to let the Divine Angel outside now that things have come to this?
Luo Yao Guo immediately understood the thoughts of Yang Dongwang. He was still thinking of sending the other three of the Four Living Fathers away, so that he could enjoy being the sole "father" dominating Hong Xiuquan's "dumb son" in this Heavenly Father's family!
He doesn't seem to care about causing chaos!
"Huang, my eighth brother," Hong Xiuquan spoke up suddenly at this point, "Your fourth brother is right. The Qing demons are definitely marching towards Daozhou now. If we just sit and defend ourselves in Daozhou, once the demons gather in a swarm, we'll have to relive the disastrous trap of being confined to Yong'an!"
In my opinion, the strategy of advancing towards Changsha should continue to be implemented!
Only by moving all the demons encircling Daozhou to Changsha can the mountain people be allowed to make a foothold in the areas around Yongzhou Prefecture, Guiyang Circuit, and Chenzhou Prefecture.
"And my Heavenly Kingdom's main forces can follow the Xiangjiang River all the way north, enter Dingting Lake, enter the Yangtze River, capture Wuhan. And head eastward!"
"Good! Good!" Xiao ChaoGui exclaimed "good" upon hearing "capture Wuhan," of course.
"How long can this big army of the Heavenly Kingdom keep idling around Daozhou? When will it finally become the King of Wuhan?"
Hearing Xiao ChaoGui agree as well, Yang Xiuqing's eyes lit up, and he asked Luo Yao Guo with a smile: "Eighth brother, you are the Divine Angel of Battle in this incarnation, but you cannot unleash powerful magic in the mortal realm. You can only rely on earthly tactics. Is there any possibility that you can capture Changsha City, which is well fortified and heavily guarded?"
Should my younger brother send you a formidable general who is invincible in battle?
Invincible General?
Shi Dakaikai? Luo Dashang?
That's great!
Luo Yao Guo is now quite energetic.
He didn't explicitly ask for a hero like Luo Dashang before, mainly because he knew that Yu Wanqing was a coward, and at most, he could let him escape.
Additionally, at that time, his credibility was not sufficient to command a formidable general like Luo Dashang, let alone Shi Dakaikai.
And now the situation is different, we are going to attack Changsha!
Changsha has a powerhouse named Zuo Zongtang!
And now Luo Yao Guo's prestige is sufficient. He has already become one of the "Four Living Fathers" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Even without Luo Dashang, he can still command Shi Dakaikai.
"Fourth brother, you are absolutely right! Changsha is indeed a difficult place to attack. Younger brother has no magic to break the city walls. If we could have a fierce general join our forces, that would be perfect. Younger brother wants..."
"King of the West!"
Before Luo Yao Guo could finish speaking, Yang Xiuqing immediately jumped in: "Eighth brother must definitely want to march to Changsha alongside King of the West! Among all the generals of our Heavenly Kingdom, King of the West is undoubtedly the bravest!"
Xiao ChaoGui was startled upon hearing this and glared menacingly at Yang Xiuqing: "Dong King, what do you mean? Don't you know that Changsha is my death trap?"
That was calculated by my eighth brother. I'm not going!"
Yang Xiuqing smiled: "Dear sister-in-law, you're talking about the past. The situation is different now. Now, when you pair up with the eighth brother, you're unbeatable!"
"Invincible? How can you be invincible?" Xiao ChaoGui still had an angry expression on his face.
Yang Xiuqing said: "Eight brother has the purple gold bowl, which can call the Divine Brother down to earth when it is struck. The Divine Brother personally coming to the battlefield, who among the Qing demons can stand against him?"
Hong Xiuquan also smiled and nodded, saying: "Right, right, right. The Divine Brother can also refine the 'Amozilin pill,' which can bring the dead back to life. With you there, who would the people below be afraid of?"
"Dear sister-in-law, if you and the eighth brother march together, there will be no place for the Qing demons to escape. I think you should reconsider and join us."
These two have been playing to each other's tune, and their words make a lot of sense, making Luo Yao Guo unsure how to refute them.
After all, Luo Yao Guo plus Xiao ChaoGui equals the real general of true power!
If the general himself, Zhi Du, comes down from heaven and personally leads the army in battle, how can he lose? Even if you bring Napoleon here, he would have to kneel. Otherwise, he doesn't believe in God and will go to hell!
Of course, Xiao ChaoGui knows what his "true Zhi Du descending from heaven" is about; it's just a show! It's just to fool Yang Xiuqing, Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan, and Wei Changhui. If they really encounter bullets and shells, he would die the same way he would have died otherwise!
Therefore, Xiao ChaoGui's head shook like a tamarin drum: "No, no, absolutely not! The matter of the Divine Brother descending from heaven is not something we can do!"
Seeing that this guy was about to say something incriminating, Luo Yao Guo quickly jumped in and said: "Yes, I think yes! Sister-in-law's husband, the strategy of the King of Heaven and the King of the East is good! Let's join forces and advance towards Changsha. We can definitely capture Wuhan soon!"
Advance to Changsha, capture Wuhan?
Upon hearing Luo Yao Guo say that, Xiao ChaoGui immediately had a bright idea.
Marching towards Changsha is one thing, but no one said we have to capture it. We can certainly make a feint and then circumvent Changsha, heading northward instead!
Luo Yao Guo continued, "The Qing demons are closing in around Daozhou now, so Changsha must be weak. If our army can detach a strong force, bypassing Yongzhou and Hengzhou, we can head straight for Changsha."
The Qing demons, in order to prevent Changsha from falling, would have to draw troops from the vicinity of Daozhou to reinforce back there while simultaneously sending reinforcements from Yuezhou, Jingzhou, and Wuhan in the north of Changsha.
By then, not only can the third brother expand territory in the areas of Yongzhou, Guiyang, and Chenzhou, but your brother-in-law and I can also lead our troops to attack Yuezhou and even strike at Wuhan.
"Good idea!" Xiao ChaoGui slapped his hands hard and smiled, saying, "Eighth brother, you truly are a battle angel who knows how to fight!"
We can advance openly towards Changsha, attracting Qing demons from all directions around Changsha, and then make a feint and head northward towards Yuezhou, rushing towards Wuhan!
King of Heaven, King of the East, what do you think of this strategy?
"Good! This is a good idea!" Yang Xiuqing smiled and nodded, "Brother-in-law, in this battle, you will be the main commander, and the eighth brother will be the vice-commander!"
Hong Xiuquan also smiled and said: "There's no time to lose. Brother-in-law, eighth brother, when can you advance your troops?"
"In three months!"
Luo Yao Guo immediately raised three fingers.
"Three months later." Yang Xiuqing was startled and asked, "Do we need to rest for that long?"
Hong Xiuquan also said, "Eighth brother, the army values swift action. Three months is too long, isn't it?"
Xiao ChaoGui also looked at Luo Yao Guo with some doubts.
Luo Yao Guo laughed and said: "King of Heaven, King of the East, these three months are not long at all. On the contrary, they are quite tight!"
"Still tight?" Hong Xiuquan asked, "Eighth brother, what are you planning to do?"
"There are many things we need to do!" Luo Yao Guo counted with his fingers, "First of all, we need to train our army. My brother and the third brother have obtained a lot of recruits in Daozhou. We have several tens of thousands of male and female holy soldiers."
My brother and the third brother have discussed it and decided to divide these holy soldiers into six parts, giving each of the armies under King of the East, King of the West, King of the North, and King of the Wings an additional 3,000 Hunan soldiers.
The rest, my brother and I will split evenly, which means we can each get over ten thousand additional soldiers.
My brother's tens of thousands of new recruits need to be trained and prepared for battle for at least a couple of months. Otherwise, how can they fight on the battlefield?
What Luo Yao Guo is saying now is a big deal!
Originally, the five kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom — East King Yang Xiuqing, West King, South King Feng Yunshan, North King, and Ji King — were all "main commanders," each leading two armies with a force ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 soldiers. Among them, East King Yang Xiuqing had the largest army, numbering up to 7,000 soldiers. South King Feng Yunshan had the smallest army, with only 5,000 soldiers.
According to Luo Yao Guo's newly proposed plan, East King Yang Xiuqing's main army will increase to 10,000 soldiers, while Feng Yunshan's rear army will rise to 15,000 soldiers. This does not include the number of Daozhou militia after the distribution of land. With them added in, Feng Yunshan's army will reach an impressive two and a half thousand!
That's the undisputed number one strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!
Luo Yao Guo's own forces will increase from zero to 10,000 soldiers, and that doesn't even count the more than two thousand Hakka female soldiers under the command of Su Sanlang, the deputy manager of the women's camp!
With them added in, Luo Yao Guo's forces will at least be second in terms of numbers among the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Of course, this is just the "strength" in terms of numbers. In actual combat, the main army under Yang Xiuqing and the front army under Xiao ChaoGui are both composed of the most battle-hardened Guangxi old brothers!
Unfortunately, in history, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's northward campaign failed, leading to the disintegration of Xiao ChaoGui's old forces. Additionally, the Taiping Rebellion due to the Tianjing Incident destroyed Yang Xiuqing's old forces as well.
Whether Yang Xiuqing's men can be saved is unknown, but Xiao ChaoGui's elite troops should be able to survive.
Regarding the distribution of the new troops from Daozhou, Feng Yunshan has already discussed it with Hong Xiuquan. And Xiao ChaoGui, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai have also conveyed this through Hong Xuanjiao. Only Yang Xiuqing is still unaware.
However, he has now become one of the four "living fathers" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so he will have to put away his arrogance and insolence for now.
So he dared not say anything and instead turned his gaze towards Hong Xiuquan.
Hong Xiuquan seems to be enjoying this "multiple father-in-law" balance, finally able to make decisions and take charge personally. So he nodded and said: "The distribution method is not bad, but does the training of the army for two or three months take too long?"
"No problem, no problem," Luo Yao Guo said, "My brother's new recruits consist of Qing demons or Tianshihui brothers. They have no discipline and do not worship God."
In order to transform them all into Taiping Army soldiers, not only do we need to teach them the art of battle formations, but we also have to send preachers to the ranks, and we need to set up a camp school.
We need to let the soldiers listen to the preachers to spread the truth, and for officers to study military tactics and our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's laws and regulations in the camp schools. It can be done within three months, which is already quite fast.
And we have two major tasks to complete within these three months.”
"Which two?" Hong Xiuquan asked in a hurry.
"One is that we need to help the third brother expand his territory as much as possible during this time. Just having Daozhou is too isolated. We must capture Yongming, Guanyang, Jianghua, Nuyuan, and Lan mountain. It would be best to capture Lianshan, a territory belonging to Guangdong."
In this way, the third brother's territory will cross the provinces of Hunan, Guangxi, and Guangdong, allowing us to display an attitude of advancing southwards to seize Guangdong and Guangxi.
The other is to write a proclamation of Heavenly Order to Invade the Qing, and disseminate it widely. Through this proclamation, we must let everyone in the world know that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is acting under the command of the Supreme God to sweep away the Qing demons and all unfair, unjust, and irregular matters in the world!"
Luo Yao Guo clenched his fist, his eyes shining with light, turned his head to the north and seemed to be gazing at the vast plain of the Central Plains. With a confident air, he said: "We must let all Han people know that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will ultimately march directly towards the Yellow Dragon, overthrow the corrupt Qing dynasty. Then we will establish a great community where everyone has food to eat, clothes to wear, books to read, and fields to cultivate. There will be nowhere without equal distribution of wealth and plenty of warmth and comfort for all!"
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this will become a country of great equality, although the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has also produced an anti-Qing proclamation, but that proclamation does not particularly highlight the great equality thought of "everyone having food to eat, clothes to wear, books to read, fields to cultivate, and there is no place without equal distribution of wealth and plenty of warmth and comfort for all."
The proclamation that Luo Yao Guo prepared emphasizes the great equality over religious aspects and does not dwell much on the practice of worshipping the Heavenly King.
And from now on, the "God" of the Heavenly Kingdom and the "Heaven," which is part of the "Heavens, Earth, Kings, Parents, Teachers" ideology, will be one and the same.
After he finished speaking, Luo Yao Guo looked at Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao ChaoGui, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui, and Hong Xuanjiao, "What do you all think of my suggestion? Who agrees? Who disagrees? Please raise your hands if you agree!"
He was the first to raise his right hand!
Then Feng Yunshan, Hong Xuanjiao, Xiao ChaoGui, Wei Changhui, Hong Xiuquan, and Yang Xiuqing successively raised their right hands.
An unanimous agreement!
