Zhou Shixiang claimed that in the future, the Taiping Army would change its previous bandit practices and change it to build a base for the needs of the war. However, when attacking Zengcheng, Panyu, Shunde and other counties, the Taiping Army still used bandit methods.

The most typical manifestation is that the Taiping Army large-scale plunders "strategic materials" in the occupied areas, and the famous generals of Qingshang moved to Xiangshan in large numbers. Although from the beginning to the end, the main camp of the Taiping Army still adhered to the five military disciplines of "not killing people, not setting fires", but the behavior of plundering food and salt and iron like walls and cabinets still caused huge losses to the local people. During this process, there were many villagers spontaneously organized groups to fight against the Taiping Army, which led to a certain degree of casualties.

In the Second Lutouhe Battle, Zhou Shixiang started to change some extreme policies, allowing the people who were unwilling to follow the Taiping Army to move south to Xiangshan to leave certain food rations and no longer forcibly attack the villages that had strong resistance, so as to avoid unnecessary casualties. It also vigorously publicizes that if the people do not follow the Taiping Army to move south, they will inevitably be retaliated against the Qing army. However, these remedial measures came too late. By the time the Taiping Army withdrew, more than a thousand people died and injured in some areas of Zengcheng, Panyu, Shunde and Xin'an, and more than ten burned villages were also burned.

With the victory of the two Lutouhe battles and the collapse of the Qing army's rule in Zengcheng, Panyu, Shunde and other rural areas, more and more green camp soldiers and bandits, and robbers joined the Taiping Army, which led to the increase in the new camps of the Taiping Army, reaching more than a dozen, and the number of new affiliated soldiers also increased from more than a thousand at the beginning to more than 6,000.

The military discipline of these new affiliated soldiers was extremely corrupt, taking the Yu Tianen tribe of the volunteer camp of Zengcheng as an example. After capturing Zengcheng and surrendering to the Taiping Army, Yu Tianen sent his subordinates to loot everywhere, and there were no more than one or two places in the Tuzhen Village. It was called paying food and taxes to the Taiping Army General Zhou. If there was any disobedience, it would be regarded as a desire to kill the Tartars.

The destructive looting of the new affiliated soldiers in various places made the Taiping Army famous in these places. Zhou Shixiang did not want to restrain these surrendered soldiers, but the sources of these surrendered soldiers were complicated and they each had a piece of territory, which was very scattered, which made the Taiping Army, who were eager to return to Xiangshan, unable to withdraw troops and had no time to use troops to them. Later, Zhou Shixiang simply ignored them and let them die.

Qin Zhisheng strongly opposed letting these new subordinates ignore them. He said that these bandits and surrendered soldiers gained all the benefits under the banner of the Taiping Army, but what was bad was the reputation of the Taiping Army. What would happen if it lasted? When everyone in Guangdong regards the Taiping Army as an enemy enemy, it would be too late to make up for it. Now even if the Taiping Army is not able to incorporate these new subordinates into the Taiping Army system for a while, officials should be sent to take over the territory controlled by these new subordinates, try their best to maintain local public order, restrain the military discipline of the new subordinates, and prevent them from harming the people, instead of letting them go like this.

Zhou Shixiang ignored Qin Zhisheng's request to send personnel to sanction the surrendered soldiers. First, his subordinates really did not have these personnel to send them out. Second, the Taiping Army had already expanded its troops north twice and had not yet come to digest it. How could he have spared no effort to reorganize the new subordinate soldiers? Third, he privately thought that although these surrendered soldiers were not worthy, there were at least thousands of people. It was considered a force that was neither big nor small.

At present, the Qing army in Guangzhou has been wiped out by the Taiping Army. In a short period of time, the Qing army in Guangzhou has no ability to launch a large-scale military force against Xiangshan. This can be seen from the fact that after Tayinbu was annihilated, the Qing army Galai Daoga troops in front of him retracted back to Guangzhou.

The first time Zhou Shixiang wanted to obtain food from the Qing army occupied area, and the second time he was to eliminate a certain force of the Qing army while robbing grain and completely destroy the ability of the prefectures and counties around Guangzhou to supply food and grass to the Qing army, so that the Qing army in Guangzhou could only transfer food from Chaoshan area, but could not solve the source of food and grass nearby. This would inevitably increase the burden on the Qing army in Guangzhou and would also affect their ability to use troops.

It can be said that the two strategic goals of northward advances that Zhou Shixiang had envisioned had been basically completed. Now, what he had to do was to digest the results of these two northward advances and place the people who moved south with the Taiping Army in various places in Xiangshan. After the summer grain was harvested, it launched another northward advance war, and cut the flesh of the Qing army little by little and release their blood until the Taiping Army is able to attack Guangzhou City.

During this period, Xiangshan needed absolute security and stability. The focus of the Taiping Army was no longer on offense, but on defense. Thousands of new troops and horses scattered near Guangzhou were undoubtedly blocking the Taiping Army and attracting the attention of the Qing army. This was a good thing for the Taiping Army, and the price paid was nothing more than the damage to reputation.

In the chaotic times, human life is like grass. What Zhou Shixiang can do is to settle the people who moved south with the Taiping Army so that they will not be starved to death or killed. As for those people who were harmed by the newly attached soldiers, he can only feel guilty. As for the reputation, if the sword handle is strong enough, the reputation is good; if the sword handle is not strong, no matter how good the reputation is, the pen and pen officials, they are inferior to pigs and dogs.

People are without perfect people, and things must be without perfect things.

In this era, a good thing like "All-Great Beauty" can only be said to be a luxury.

After returning to Xiangshan, Zhou Shixiang convened a military convention of more than 100 households. At this military convention, Zhou Shixiang formally proposed the concept of five major regions.

The five major regions refer to core areas, marginal areas, occupied areas, friendly military areas, and neutral areas.

The so-called core area is the main territory of the Taiping Army, mainly Xiangshan; the marginal area is the area around Xiangshan; the occupied area is the area occupied by the Qing army; friendly military areas naturally refer to territories controlled by the Ming army, while the neutral area refers to those forces that have neither been surrendered to the Qing Dynasty nor the Southern Ming Dynasty.

The first task of the Taiping Army is to ensure that the core area is not threatened by the Qing army, and the people in the core area must not be violated by the Taiping Army. The forces in the marginal area must accept the command of the Taiping Army (mainly the new affiliated soldiers). The Taiping Army can default to the marginal area to collect grain and tax independently, and to counter the Taiping Army's banner, and provide protection when the Qing army invades, the premise is that the forces in the marginal area must pay a certain amount of money and grain to the Taiping Army. At the same time, the Taiping Army will also restrict the forces in the marginal area to protect the local people, rather than killing and looting them all.

The Taiping Army must immediately establish contact with friendly military regions, and at the same time reach a certain degree of intention with the forces in the neutral zone. As long as the forces in the neutral zone do not clearly turn to the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Army will not use troops to the other side. As for the occupied areas, it is the main direction of the Taiping Army's future use of troops. In principle, the Taiping Army will not kill the people in the occupied areas.

Zhou Shixiang said it vaguely about how to deal with the people in the occupied areas. After he dealt with Wang Yinghua's affairs, he would discuss with Duke Xiang of Song and others about the precautions for using troops in the occupied areas in the future.

Zhou Shixiang was eager to get the captive surrendered officials and scholars to surrender because he urgently needed these people to help him govern Xiangshan and build the civil service system of the Taiping Army.

Zhou Shixiang never believed that military men could only conquer the world, but could not rule the world. In his opinion, a perfect regime should pay equal attention to civil and military affairs. Civil officials are military officers, and military officers are also civil officials. The difference between civil and military should not only be based on whether they are civil or military officials, but should be distinguished by whether they are illiterate, whether they can understand official documents, whether they can act according to the system, and whether they can express their own opinions on matters.

In summary, the military man in Zhou Shixiang's eyes is just an illiterate sword-holder. Anyone who knows how to read a sword can be called a literati, not an official who is a person. Even if he is just a general, as long as he is a literate and can understand the official documents under his hair, he is a civil servant, not a military officer.

Civil officials are commanders, military officials are prime ministers; civil officials can ride horses and draw bows, and military officials can lift pens and write poems. This seems ridiculous, but in fact it is the core of Confucian teaching. The Six Arts are the basis of this concept, and the essence of Confucianism is to come from generals and prime ministers.

However, the reality is that most of the military men in this era are illiterate and can read. Even if they become generals or princes, they are still military officers in the eyes of the world, rather than members of civil servants. The concept of civil nobles and lowly martial arts distorting Confucianism has been popular for hundreds of years. If it is not in troubled times, the status of military men is speechless.

If Zhou Shixiang wanted to break this abnormal view of civil and military affairs and to establish a civil and military annexation regime of the Taiping Army, he had to help him build this regime and serve as officials at all levels. But the problem was that there was no such person in his bag, or that there were very few such people.

Cultivating civil and military officials of the Taiping Army is the key to the future development and growth of the Taiping Army. King Li Dingguo of Jin, King Liu Wenxiu of Shu, and Ainengqi of Sun Kewang and then were the new generation trained by Zhang Xianzhong in the Daxi Army. Now he has shouldered the burden of the Daxi Army and has become the last pillar of the Ming Dynasty. If Sun Kewang had no strange intentions, Zhou Shi believed that the communist leader of the Daxi Army Alliance would definitely have achieved no less than that of Li Dingguo in history books. After all, Sun Kewang is the true heir of Zhang Xianzhong and the true leader of the Daxi Army!

Zhou Shixiang was often aware of the lack of talents under his command, and he forced everything from Xiangshan and Taiping Army. Although Duke Xiang of Song and Liao Ruixiang spared no effort, there were still many difficulties in achieving it. The reason for this was that there was no effective assistance from grassroots officials.

The structure of power alone is not enough to support the development of the Taiping Army in Xiangshan. It is necessary to have enough officials to maintain this structure and continuously enrich and expand it. Only by obtaining a steady supply of money, grain, manpower, and a stable rear, can the Taiping Army persist to the end in the continuous battle with the Qing army.

Zhou Shixiang is already doing education and training, but just as there are only a few scholars in Xinhui County Government who are helping Liao Ruixiang maintain the operation of the county government, education is also difficult, and it is difficult to make the students taught to satisfy Zhou Shixiang. Don’t say that the teacher’s strength is short and the teaching materials are short. Moreover, the education in Xiangshan County will only start at the beginning of the year. When the children in the school can really grow up, it will take at least a few years. In these years, Zhou Shixiang must obtain ready-made literati to help.

The captured surrendered officials and scholars are treasures placed beside Zhou Shixiang's mouth. He cannot kill others because of the other party's refusal to surrender. He must let these people serve him, and even if they are reluctant, they must temporarily lower their heads and use them for their own use.

Zhou Shixiang asked Xu Yingyuan to bring Wang Yinghua over.
Chapter completed!